My Creative Dumpsite

Cosplay/Fanart/Photography/Miniature/Toys/Cats/multifandom For my photography and general blogs check the pinned post!

[anniegraves-creates]

My Blogs:

@anniegraves-creates -> Art, cosplay, diorama building

@anniegraves-photography -> cosplay, toy, animal, and nature photography

@anniegraves-general -> reblogs and IRL posts

Hello Tumblr! I have been considering starting a blog here for awhile now so I finally decided to give it a go. Before I start spamming this feed with my creative chaos, I figured I should introduce myself first. I am Annie Graves and I am a cosplayer, photographer, collector, gamer, streamer, reader, animal lover, horror junkie, and all around creative! I collect action figures, Halloween masks, and oddities as well as too many cosplay WIPs. My favorite works of fiction are Resident Evil and Aliens so you will definitely see a lot of that here. I wanted to make this blog as kind of a creative mood board showcasing finished works as well as some work in progress stuffs! Here you will see my cosplay, digital and traditional art, and occasional diorama building. Also, here is my Resident Evil 3 Remake Jill Valentine Cosplay for tax. The photo was taken by Jeff Zoet Visuals and the zombies are my super cool friends who I conned into making some spooky art with me! Anyway, welcome to my blog. Should you decide to follow, I am glad to see it! I will see you around! Long days and pleasant nights!

[anniegraves-creates]

"Hermes Kyllenios began to summon the suitors' ghosts [at dawn's first light]...and they followed him, thinly gibbering. As in a recess of some eerie cave a chain of bats may be hanging downwards from the rock, but one of them drops from the clinging cluster and then all the rest flit squeaking round, so did these ghosts travel on together squeaking, while easeful Hermes led them down through the ways of dankness. They passed the streams of Okeanos, the White Rock (leukas petre), the Gates of the Sun (pylai helion) and the Land of Dreams (demos oneiron), and soon they came to the Field of Asphodel (leimon asphodelon) where the souls (psykhai), the phantoms of the dead (eidola) have their habitation . . ." The Odyssey, Homer.

Here is, what I suppose one would call, Fanart of the Greek God, Hermes. He is, by far, my favorite of the Greek Pantheon. Not only is he the god of commerce, travel, and communication, but he is a Chthonic God as well (a God of the Underworld). He guides souls to Asphodel, he brings prophetic dreams to humanity, and is even considered a God of sleep. Hermes is the multitasking genius of the Pantheon and I love him. Here he is with some souls he is guiding to the fields of Asphodel.

Hermes' associated colors are Saffron and Gold so I put him in a Saffron Chlamys (robe) and used classic sculpture as a reference (where he is oftentimes only wearing the Chlamys). One of his associated animals is the hawk so I gave his traveler's hat red-tail hawk wings as they are native to Greece. He is oftentimes described as youthful with light brown or blonde hair and blue eyes.

So here is my take on Hermes! I may tackle a few other Greek Gods as well soon!

[anniegraves-creates]

I FINALLY finished this character turn for my character, The Power. It took me forever to get the image in my head to match what I put down, but this will now help me describe him and draw him more consistently than before. His main features are that he is albino (white hair, white lashes, light skin), deep set eyes, a very Greek profile and nose shape, and a softer and meatier jaw than Lucifer. Just like Lucifer, I based the Power of of numerous real life people and features. I imagine he is built thick, stocky, and powerfully with a thicker neck and shoulders so I used rugby players as reference. This is in contrast to Lucifer who is taller and with leaner muscle, albeit much larger in general. I took a lot of inspiration from Greek and Baroque era statues of men and from the rugby player Francois Steyn in his younger years. His eyebrow shape is based off of Shawn's eyebrow shape because I love his eyebrows haha.

As an angel from the Choir of Powers of the 2nd Triad, he is warrior by nature and acts as such. The Power is fierce, intense, and strong-willled, yet intelligent, quick to learn, and (as he comes to discover) a romantic. He can be rather pushy at times, but he has a soft heart and good intentions. His hair is usually disheveled and loose and his demeanor is often pretty quiet and curious until he feels he needs to take action. He smiles easily and oftentimes finds his heart full of awe. He asks a lot of questions and is open to the answers. I adore this character and I am so excited to write him into existence. 🪽🗡️

I chose @ulver_official's Machine Guns and Peacock Feathers for this post as it was the song who inspired me to create the Power and write my novel originally. I heard it and it instantly created imagery in my head that I couldn't ignore. This is the unofficial theme song of my book. The song very much reminds me of this character as he is both deadly and soft. Violent and beautiful. A warrior angel!

[anniegraves-creates]

"And we watched in horror as our Lightbringer, tall, fierce, and shining, was thrown from Heaven and fell like a flash of lightning to the black void below... As he plummeted, so did our hope for freedom. As his radiance dimmed, so did our fury."

A portrait of the Star of the Morning as he looks in my book. He is meant to be God's most beautiful angel so I tried my best to make him look otherworldly lovely. I based his hair and skin color off of Alexandre Cabanel's Fallen Angel, because Lucifer as a redhead was too perfect. My version of Lucifer is a tall, dangerous, and imposing yet gentle, compassionate, creative, and believes intensely in free will for his angels. He was once a revolutionary who fought to free the angels of Heaven from the tyranny of the higher echelons when they twisted the will of God for control. Unfortunately he could not muster enough forces and was struck down to the void where he would remain a prisoner.

So this piece started as a simple sketch in my sketchbook and ended up a fully painted piece that I am very proud of. I ultimately abandoned the idea of shifting to cel shading in my art and instead decided to nurture what my hand wants to do naturally: a more painterly approach. So I challenged myself with this one to approach it with a blend of linework and a controlled painterly style. I'm so glad I did, because it turned out better than anticipated. I also took a lot of inspiration from 80s Fantasy for the lighting here and plan to have this be a theme in all the fully painted pieces for my illustrated novel. Just gotta hone it.

This was painted in @photoshop using @lane.draws brushes on my @wacom Cintiq 22".

#TheFallenPower #thepower #fallenangel #lucfier #morningstar #lightbringer

[anniegraves-creates]

I finished what I believe is called a character turn sheet for my Lucifer OC since I was struggling with his face so much. This was seriously the best thing I could have done to understand his facial proportions. Thank goodness for other artists out there teaching each other things. I saw this concept on Pinterest and decided to try it. I can understand his facial structure so much more now. His hooded eyes, nose shape, and cheekbone shape were giving me issues but I may be close to having it down now. I'm going to make one of these with the Power as well. I also practiced some mouth and eye expressions on this sheet too for fun.

When creating my characters I use a mashup of real human features to base things on in order to make my characters unique from each other. Like kitbashing a face lol. This also allows for me to have some real life references to look at which helps a lot. For Luce, I used Cody Fern as a reference for his eye shape and a blogger named Mariano Di Vaio for his nose shape then kind of changed them up a bit to make them fit on his face. His lips, eyebrows, mole, and chin/jaw, hair I made up.

Lucifer was challenging me the most of all the designs so far, because I had to build him right. The other characters are going to look a bit more flawed or "normal" in a way. Luce is different. As Heaven's most beautiful angel (and being that he's essentially a psuedo-god), I wanted him to be otherworldly attractive. It was also tricky to make him pretty but also mature in his face. I don't want my characters, who are essentially immortal, to look like 19 year olds. I'd rather them look like a healthy 30-35 with good genetics.

[anniegraves-creates]

I had mentioned before that I'm working on a story regarding Heaven and Hell and Fallen Angels. It's a retelling of religious myth from the perspective of "history is written by the victors." One of the main characters in the story is Lucifer or The Morning Star. I won't say too much about his role and the plot except for he is NOT an antagonist. Here are some of his concept sketches.

[anniegraves-creates]

As far as they knew, she had always been there. There never wasn't a time where she was there watching those who ventured too deep into the mountains. Those that feared her called her Ghost of Skulls, a demon, a monster, a devil of the woods. Those that knew they had no reason to be afraid regarded her as the "Rohy" for she was crowned with antlers much like the red stag that roamed those mountains. She gave herself no name, however. She just was. She was the forest. The breeze, her breath. The stones, her hooves. Her mind, the roots beneath the dirt. Her heart, the beat of a hawk's wing. She would strike with the paw of the lynx, bite with the force of the bear, and run like the rivers through the mountains. What man called her couldn't matter less.

Time to introduce you all to one of my Original Characters, Rohy, The Ghost of Skulls. She is essentially an ancient and protective dark fae who lives deep in the old forests of the Carpathian mountains. I chose this region since my lineage is traced back to there and it's pretty important to me. Every bit of the costume is symbolic from the antlers I chose to the bead work and symbols on her skull. The skull is only one version of her. Almost like a helmet. She has a helmet less version as well that I usually wear to ren faire. I'll do a few more posts of her and add a bit more to her story.

Beautiful photos by @jeffzoetvisuals

Costume designed and made by me

Mask 3d modeled by Polygony on Etsy, printed and finished by me

Antlers found on Thingiverse, printed and finished by me

Hoof shoes by @chaoscostumes, furred and painted with latex by me

Beads added to the dress by my mom

Beads added to antlers by my sister

[anniegraves-creates]

Let's throw WAY back to my first year of cosplaying when I did my first location shoot with @jeffzoetvisuals I couldn't believe that was me in the photos! I designed and built this wastelander OC myself in a collaboration with my dad who designed the shield and rifle. 🧡 Almost all the parts were made from old trash, rusty old screws and bolts, deer antlers (from deer my dad hunted), and thrift finds. The armor was made from EVA foam and old, rusty bolts. It's all covered in real rust that I created using iron powder, white glue, and hydrogen peroxide. The belt buckle is one of my favorite parts and I still use an image of the buckle as my cover photos to this day.

[anniegraves-creates]

My S.T.A.R.S. uniform Jill Valentine cosplay shot by the amazing @jeffzoetvisuals

This shoot will always be so special to me. It all came together perfectly and I got to create art and memories with my late friend, Patrick, that I'll always hold dear.

[anniegraves-creates]

"Winter is coming, we know what’s coming with it. We can learn to live with the wildlings, or we can add them to the army of the dead.”

Here's one of my favorite cosplays I've made, my Jon Snow! I suppose you could call this one a gender bend. I view it more as "me as Jon Snow." Either way, I put so much love into this one. Jon is one of my all time favorite characters and it meant so much to embody him and take this photos.

Photography by myself @anniegraves-photography

Nights Watch Commander Jon Cosplay made by me!

Wig is @ardawigs "Lindsay"

[anniegraves-creates]

"Blessed plate mail encases the Vestal as she delivers terrible violence and healing comfort in equal measure. A mace in one hand, and holy book in the other - a study in contrast and all the more effective for it!"

A fun fact about the Vestal, she is the only lefty I've ever cosplayed! Have you ever cosplayed a left handed character?

- All foam and foam clay is SKS Props HD foam

- Cosplay made by me with help from my Partner, Shawn

- 📸 by @anniegraves-photography

- All lighting is Godox Global Strobes

- Smoke effects made with Atmosphere Aerosol

[anniegraves-creates]

"The Great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."

I've had this character idea floating around in my head for a bit now now so I figured I would sketch him. He is a fallen angel. He has no name as only certain Angels of great status held names. This Angel was one of the Powers (the Angels who actively held power over the evil forces and the power of human kings). Essentially like Holy soldiers. They weren't allowed to question or really think for themselves. The story will follow the events of what happened to one of the angels who dared to question the authority of Heaven.

He has white hair and golden, bright eyes as do all of the angels in this story. When he resided in Heaven he fought with a blazing Greatsword made of pure light, but lost his Spirit weapon in the fall along with his wings.

I'm a huge fan of Religious mythology. And especially love the idea of a war between Heaven and Hell so I figured I'd run with it. In my mind's eye, it's set in a medieval/fantasy type world, but that's yet to be determined. Let's see if I can dream up an outline. Until the I'll just draw him. Haha

These images show a bit of head practice with my Angel. I'm very inspired by the work of Gustave Doré as well as statues resembling Greek and Baroque styles. Trying to build consistency with his face from different angles. I really like how much the profile and front facing angles look alike, but the 3/4 angle needs more work. I'm really loving the eyes and drawing the light that shines from them. It can look angelic as well as demonic which is what I was going for

Drawn with pencil, alcohol markers, and @sakuraofamerica Micron pens on @cansonpaper mixed Media paper.

[anniegraves-creates]

"It's true that once the wheels of justice begin to turn, nothing can stop them. Nothing."

Cosplay made or bought and modified by me!

STARS Beret a gift from a dear friend

Samurai Edge pistol designed and printed by @traywickdesigns and finished by me!

Photography by Carlos Adama Photography

[anniegraves-creates]

"Giving Up the Ghost"

CW: description of death, zombies

Dread settled like an iron weight into the hollow of his stomach just under his slowing heart. This was it. The reaper had finally come to call. After all the years of fighting to survive one more day, Simon knew it was time to give up the ghost. The realization was slow and he almost had to laugh. He gritted his teeth and continued firing into the swarm of the undead around him regardless. One bullet after the next tore through the ranks of zombies. Gore everywhere. The screaming was intolerable. God, the screaming...

Simon finally did laugh. A wet and gravely growl of a laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. Of course it ended up some pissant undead bastard that would do him in. After everything he had lived through, torture, a living burial, his fucking father, it was some dodgy little reanimated arsehole with burning yellow eyes that finally did it. Fucking 'ell. He swallowed hard and he could hear a gurgle in his throat when he tried to breath. That thing tore his throat out, that's right. He was drowning himself with very beat of his weakening heart. His limbs weren't responding right anymore. In fact, they were beginning to convulse. His vision began to blur and a horrid cast of red settled over his vision like crimson gossamer. He tried to call out, but his low and rich voice was now restricted and choked. It felt like it tore out of his throat.

Through the red haze he could hear 141 yelling around him. Price barking orders. Gaz screaming call outs over the undead. There was so much movement. Then he heard HIM; Soap. His Soap. Johnny was yelling for him. He could hear the panic rising in his Scottish drawl "Simon! No no no, Simon!" He didn't remember when he fell to his knees, but Johnny was cradling him while he writhed and seized in his lap. He was so close to him. He could see the stubble on his throat. Too close. Before long his body would betray him and he would tear into that throat. Delicious. He had a split second vision. A memory of his lips grazing that stubble. A kiss, tender and soft to that throat. He heard the low hum of Johnny sigh into that kiss. Then bared teeth. Tearing. Blood gushing. No. NO! FUCK. THAT. In a rage, he reached up to his own face, grabbed hold of his lower jaw, and with every ounce of strength he had left, he wrenched it hard to the side. It snapped with ease. The pain was excruciating, but it hardly registered. He laughed inwardly, 8 lbs of pressure after all.

He heard Johnny scream his name another time. He always loved the way Soap said his name out of the side of his mouth like that. Fuckin Scot. He loved him. Simon's vision began to grow dark and he could feel a twitchy itch spreading across his limbs to his fingertips and toes. Before all sounds, sights, smells, and sensations faded to a blank nothingness, Simon fixated on the burning blue of Johnny's eyes wide with terror. "Sorry, lovie" he croaked wetly and then he was gone.

Art and story by me! I hope you like it!

[anniegraves-creates]

"October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins." - Rainbow Rowell

Before I stepped away from making art a long time ago, I worked with watercolors a lot. The medium always worked for me so I decided to give it another go! Here is a painting of one of my OC Halloween cosplays called the Scarecrow Automaton! I wanted to practice with my watercolors so I figured he'd be a good subject! He's much cooler as a watercolor painting methinks!

This was painted using Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolors and Daniel Smith watercolors. Scan was edited slightly in Lightroom to ensure it matched the actual painting as the scan washed out the contrast and color.

[anniegraves-creates]

"Good to see you again, Simon."

Just some more sketch book stuff. Simon without the mask. One with the face paint and the other clean. Also a bonus orange kitty! My little Jones. 🐈

[anniegraves-creates]

I really want to get better with anatomy so I decided to start doing some figure studies in a way. Decided to do it by drawing specific characters, but approach them from a anatomical study type of way. Here is a little doodle from my sketchbook of Simon Riley sans all his gear. I really wanted to replicate Samuel Roukin's face for him as well. I'm pretty pleased with the results. I also purchased some little posable figures to help with poses and anatomy and I'm excited to use them. So, I guess, expect some figure studies from me and maybe just a return to the roots with some practice. I definitely need it.