Betula is a story I've been working on for a couple years now. Here will be everything about my passion project: doodles of the characters, descriptions of the world building, and blurbs about the characters and story. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to make this a real thing :) enjoy!
General blog of other thingys @birchtheknight
This artfight lowkey knocked the wind out of me I won't even lie...I didn't even get through most of the people I wanted to attack because I received so many awesome attacks (good problem to have) but yeah yeah yeah it was epic and I made a total of 29 attacks which is crazy so now watch me proceed to lay face planted on my bed for the next month
some stats and yabbering below
major congratulations to Yrjö for being my most attacked character this year! There was actually a crazy amount of variety in who was attacked this year which was really nice to see!!! Last year Hibiki took it in a landslide with eight attacks 😭
I decided to keep track of which colors I used the most and least on my palette this year for funsies. The top three colors of this year were Permanent Rose (included in 17 pieces), Cerulean Blue (included in 17 pieces), and Quinacridone Violet (included in 15 pieces). The colors I used the least were Azirin Red (included in 6 pieces), Ultramarine (included in 6 pieces) and Prussian Blue (included in 5 pieces).
My favorite attack I did was def the one I did for my friend magical_squigg bc it was just so much fun to make and also incredibly cute. That's the only attack I gave myself polished on lol. I also tried some new things this year too! With Adagiorii's attack it's actually a gif which I'd never tried making a trad piece into a gif before! Then I also did two attacks completely in gouache (pinkcelebi and c0ded_ec1ipse) which I've never made a fully gouache piece in my life so it was def a challenge but they came out pretty cool!
One more random stat which is that most of these were made on a half sheet of paper and I'm not really used to working small so that was interesting lol. I only did six of my attacks on a full sketchbook size paper.
anyways to anybody who read all of this thank you and an extra thank you if you made me some cool art this year. I’m going to print them all out and pin them to my bulletin board so I can sit and look at them while giggling and kicking my feet :)
Actually messed around with color this time instead of overthinking it hopefully I didn’t fail miserably
lore stuffs v
In Betula, each village has its own individual system of power and leadership but they are all connected within the trade routes. One village in particular has the most influence over it, as the creators of it were some of the first to develop it and they have the most extensive agricultural in the forest. This village became the main point of the trade where village leaders would meet up to insure peace with one another and balance with the forest. The ‘leaders’ of this village not only became managers of their own, but insurers of balance throughout the whole trade routes.
I’ll go more in depth about this village and governments later, but that’s the gist
Valerian is a part of this group and is very dedicated to his work. He’s cunning, critical, and strives for ‘what’s best for the forest’. They can be very stubborn and easily annoyed, but hardly shows it. He’s quite monotone, can be passive aggressive, and really uses whatever they need to get what they want for his work. Many admire him, many view him as a jerk.
So I’ve been dealing with this problem on how to create the animals in Betula since I started making it. I knew I wanted beasts that were an active threat to add stakes and fantastical elements, but for a while they felt out of place. So now I’m rewriting every animal and mythical creature to work for my purposes (aka I love making things more complicated). Basically I’m taking inspiration from shows like ATLA where they combine animal traits, and doing that to remake fantasy creatures into scientific animals.
Cinnamon is based off of the nine-tailed fox. However, instead of actually having nine tails, they have quills with a coat of fur that can blow up to resemble a much bigger tail. They’re used for both matin and defense, and when not in use they lay down flat and become practically invisible. And they do definitely hurt when raised.
Here’s a couple other concept designs (Mega shout out to my sibling for first coming up with the gnome idea [left]) I’m trying to make them ‘scientifically accurate’, like what traits would actually be useful and work together, but tbh I know so little about animals and how to draw them lol
TW: Gore, Body horror, Infection (Seriously) Also kinda spoiler??
I’ve been seeing that one animation trend a lot, had a craving for some body horror, so I decided to cook this up
AND HOLY MOLY I’M SO PROUD WITH HOW IT TURNED OUT.
This is lore stuff just for like, really late in the story. I’ll eventually expand on it more. Also the mushroom I used is corpse finder, however I may change that in the scene later
Found this out while researching stuff and both found it very funny and insulting. Also tested out rendering again cause I kinda have to force myself to do it so I’ll improve
Rant that is not about lore ↓
Betula is officially making me go a little insane-
PLANTS ARE SO WEIRD AND HARD TO RESEARCH. ESPECIALLY MEDICINALLY
I could just be looking at the claimed uses of plants in medicine, because in the story they have the ability to turn the plant into the idealized version for medicine, but shit got be curious & now I’m trying to look at the science behind it which is QUITE CONFUSING. I thought it’d be a lil more straightforward, but no not at all. & worst of all there’s limited research (and I have even more limited access to it ngl-)
And worst of all I don’t know how I’d include it all into the story. I’m not only researching it for Betula (even tho it’s what got me first interested), but I still want to include it because it is interesting
I love plants but omfg can you make sense of ONE SECOND I know your survival relies on you being a weird chemistry concoction but still
Background; Elm lives in a village on the outskirts of the forest, and the area is filled with beasts and dangerous plants and fungi. Because of this, his village faces a lot of hardships.
Elm works as a teacher and apothecary. A main motivator for him is that when he was a kid, the way he was taught to protect himself was to live in constant fear. He doesn’t want others to have their childhoods hurt like that, and while he knows his village struggles he wants everyone to be able to live their fullest lives.
He’s also just a massive nerd. Genuinely interested in science, he’s always trying to discover something new. He commonly comes up with and performs experiments, often multiple at once so they don’t always follow through. It accidentally causes him to overwork a lot, and his friends have to pull him out of it and remind him to take breaks. He has a habit to talk about his work like he would with a student or patient, over explaining it even if he doesn’t need to or it’s just to himself. It definitely makes him favored in his work.
Elm has a talent for understanding and communicating with kids. He gets easily sentimental, viewing each of his students as his own kids which can be both a blessing and a curse.
@callme-marco @anaconda-creates @loveabledragon @shrimp-lord-of-hell @low-battery-mode-jay @sqq-q @itchyfaceillustrator @a-radish-has-apeared @nexlasart @red52z @tamasprout @duck-mann @scrapsscribbles @sillygoobr64 @ruler-of-nothing-important @mrfrost-27 @cheez-the-clown @3lm4nz4-danzv @rosedragon28 as always for the tag lift, let me know if you want to be added or taken off
It’s pride month, Thistle. You know what that means
Finally finished these doodle lol
I really wanted to also draw all the side characters who are (atm confirmed) queer, but most of them don’t have finished designs yet TvT but there is this diva ✨
hello! i saw some of your art of birch and aspen (i think?) and it was so beautiful! your handwriting is very aesthetic too, like it fits the vibes of your art perfectly.
i was wondering, could you give a basic rundown of what Betula is about? i wanted to know what the plot was about but there was a lot to sort through and i figured just asking was the fastest way
YIPPEE AN ASK!
First of all thank you so so much. I’m happy you enjoy the vibes :D also my handwriting, I always get self conscious it’s messy and illegible so I’m glad it works well lol
Next, Basic premise of Betula; When Birch was a kid, he accidentally lead a beast to his village that caused a lot of carnage and he was forced to leave. He was then found and adopted by Aspen, the king of the forest. Decades ago Aspen sacrificed himself to save the forest from an illness and was given the role as the forest’s protector to look after all within it and retain balance. Birch really wanted to also help the forest, so he became Aspen’s apprentice and predecessor. While learning about root whispering (btw people can talk to plants & fungi) and traveling for Aspen’s work as a healer, Birch also was haunted by guilt from the incident at his home and struggled with his emotions. On his journeys he also meet Thistle, who becomes his best friend and also becomes another student for Aspen.
It’s primarily a story about self love and acceptance, and a nerd dump about plants lol
This post goes into more detail of the story, however it’s evolved a bit since (also some stuff in that is weird because it was a template, so not all of it is the most accurate) I’m planning to make a master post in the future with all the plot points and world building stuffs :)
For once I had inspiration, so lemme introduce Sycamore (she/her) and Cedar (he/him)
They’re village protectors (I may make a more original name for it but probably not)
Village protectors work as both law enforcement and defend against beasts. Issues with beasts varies from each village; villages in the core of the forest or are large and have been around for a while deal with less beasts since they’ve been driven out of the area, while small villages or in the outskirts of the forest get much more encounters with them. Almost all villages have established defense against them though, like plants that deteriorate them and protectors who moderate possible beast activity and take care of them if they pose a threat.
Sycamore and Cedar are coworkers, but they also have a close relationship outside it. They kinda have a good cop/bad cop dynamic
Sycamore is the commander of their group and extremely serious. Nobody knows if she’s capable of having emotions and most would vote no. She’s the best fighter on the team and is extremely skilled with a sword, both for offense and defense.
Cedar is second in command and is relatively young for the job. He’s a lot more cheerful and laid back, sometimes being mistaken for not taking his job seriously, but he is skilled at it, mostly in tracking.
Also Sycamore can be really blunt without even realizing it. Coming out isn’t too big of a deal in Betula, but that isn’t a usual response. Cedar’s just gotten used to it by now tho
