Garden of Forking Paths

Rachel / 30 / She, They / Jeepers, this blog has no continuity

[russianblush]

#happypridemonth

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[nattousan]

and now, the birds

Birds 1 and 2/14: Red Winged Blackbird, Male and female, Agelaius phoeniceus

[nattousan]

Bird 3/14, American Robin, Turdus migratorius

[nattousan]

hoo boy, ok *out of breath*

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

this guy took me about 4 days to completely finish, all of those freakingk coverts were a bear to render

[nattousan]

speaking of obnoxious coverts:

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

the friggin stripes almost got me chat, i may not make it

[nattousan]

Madam....

[nattousan]

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

pleasantly simple to paint! next is the flickerrrrr

[nattousan]

*melts into goo*

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

nothing but pain and suffering, i'm sure hope the next bird will be much easier and with FAR less barring :)

[nattousan]

in other news, I am losing my mind hairline

[nattousan]

SHE'S DONE!!

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

[nattousan]

*does a little jig*

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹

[nattousan]

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you

[nattousan]

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

[nattousan]

thanks for the reminder, kid

[nattousan]

at long last, we've reached the end...

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

i'll see y'all soon :')

[strange-aeons]

If I don't see any code geass cosplayers at the revolution themed dashcon I'm gonna be ... well, unsurprised. Because it's a largely forgotten show from 2006. But still slightly sad ... because the revolution themed dashcon is an excellent habitat for code geass cosplayers

[strange-aeons]

Besides being My Childhood Cringe and the reason i made my first tumblr account in 2011, code geass is still one of the craziest, most genre confused pieces of media i’ve ever seen.

It's about the horrors of colonialism and war and genocide. It's a high school drama. It's a sexy mecha show. there’s titties everywhere the 2006 fan service is absolutely tasteless and egregious. But don't get distracted, this is a show about rebels fighting to overthrow an evil genocidal empire except for when it's about the world’s largest pizza, yes, the world's largest pizza. Sponsored by Pizza Hut. This Show Is Sponsored By Pizza Hut. Major characters will die in devastating ways that you will remember forever. Buy Pizza Hut. The fandom is mostly yaoi of the two male leads but they’re not canonically queer. There are some canonically queer side characters! but watch out! you’ll wish there weren’t! It takes place in the futuristic year of 2017, which is actually in the 1960s if you convert the shows alternate universe calendar into our own.

If you were to ask me whether this show is good, bad, or so bad that it’s good, i would have to tell you honesty that it’s good. The pizza hut titties out horrors of colonialism show is good.

[zooinameatmecha]

📖 I love Code Geass. It's a masterpiece. It features some of the most singularly stupid moments I have ever seen on screen.

There are levels of toxic yaoi and mecha design that mortals were not meant to experience on this side of eternity. Sometimes the cast has to wear Playboy Bunny outfits for incredibly important plot reasons. There is an extended meditation on whether the inherent corruption of wielding the systems built by your oppressors means the most moral choice for the successful revolutionary is suicide or if the curse to live with the sins of the past must be borne by someone to prevent their reoccurrence. It is a canon event that one of the experimental mecha is critical to creating the world's largest pizza.

There will never be another show like it. Experience at your peril.

[gabbyp09]

[epilepticsaints]

[chloebangbang]

I don't know how I'm ever expected to be normal again after watching this. this video is already lodging itself deep within my vocabulary as I type

[vintage-tigre]

Daft Xote by Múlú

[housegoblin]

lifes so hard

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[matomai]

This Barbie is a cannibal! ✨

Ref pic:

[angeltiddies]

reverse gaslighting where i pretend to know exactly what you are talking about

[oneheadtoanother]

[krebkrebkreb]

if your favorite oc ever broke containment and developed their own fandom, what would the most pervasive discourse about them be?

too beautiful/smart/skilled/strong/perfect/etc

blatantly evil in some way

was mean to someone once

the unforgivable crime of just being kind of annoying

“in the way” of a popular ship

age gap relationship (2-10 years)

age gap relationship (10-30 years)

age gap relationship (30+ years)

a stereotype/“bad representation”

female

op you forgot ______

character is bald / im bald / see answers

Voting ended onMay 6

(i’m not giving a “multiple apply” option on this one. pick the most applicable/what you think would be the most argued about.)

[krebkrebkreb]

incredibly pleased that everyone is following the instructions i forgot to give and reblogging to explain their choice in the tags 🙏 more of that please i want to know about your ocs and also i love you

[lesbian-stick-handling]

Interviews with hockey players are fantastic, because it is a complex game that can be spoken about at length, but during the intermission they'll find the Wettest player imaginable on the losing team and for thirty seconds they'll ask them things like "what do you need to do to get more pucks in the net?" And the player (panting, haunted behind the eyes) says something like "well, we've got to get them in there"

[crimson-chains]

People keep saying the Monet piece reminds them of ducks following their mama~ I thought that was such a cute image I had to draw it :D

[parkchanwoohoo]

[cesiousblue]

Another #MarchToCamelot for the prompt "enemy"

Lancelot and Gawain are best friends in a lot of stories. After the fracture of Camelot, Lancelot kills Gawain's brothers and Gawain vows revenge. They fight and Lancelot injures Gawain but refuses to kill his friend.

[edgebug]

happy 20 year anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes!

though every rat is special, it's a wonderful and unusual thing for their accomplishments to be remembered and cherished by so many people so many years later. we're all so fortunate to know about the rat who banged out the tunes!

thank you to all the people who sent me reference photos of their beloved rats for this piece!!! credits under the cut!

@joe-spookyy Ben and Socrates

@gooseontheinternet Chamomile and Beefy

@runawayy-rat Bartholomäus and Emo

@theunholystromboli Macrogryphosaurus, Xenoceratops, and Graciliraptor

@techlecticwtch Solas and Dorian

@merlyn-bane Roslyn and Rizzoli

@logictoinsanity Luna and Buttercup

@hagsthehag Orphie, Psyche, Calypso, Ariadne, and Eury

my sweet ladies Bonnie, Mira, An, and Tula

and of course, the irreplaceable

Neil,

who banged out the tunes

[hinamie]

starstruck !☆