Just a woman who really likes birds and birdwomen | In my twenties, English isn't my native language | Peregrine Falcon is the best bird, dinosaur and animal | This is a side blog!
Hey, you can call me Cheglok here! I'm a primarily traditional artist, who really loves birds, women and, of course, birdwomen. My fav mediums are watercolors and color pencils, but I also dabble in digital sometimes.
Most of my art centers around my characters and the story I'm writing! It's called Running with a Falcon and you can read it here. In short, one of my main characters Ashlyn rescues Reya, the other main character, from a cage in a library, and then the story follows Reya's recovery and their life and relationship. You can also find some other shorter stories I posted on ao3.
The tag #cgkashrae is for all art with my characters.
Below the cut is information on the world and characters!
Some main info on my story:
Eanians are my race of human-bird hybrids. They are about 4-5 times smaller than a human (Reya is about 40cm tall, which is a little above average for them), have wings and feathers on their back that can be of any bird, as well as bird feet. They are also capable of magic. They speak their own language called Eanian, which is more or less a global language for them with tons of different dialects. The relationship between humans and Eanians varies depending on the region, but where my story takes place it is quite negative; not outright hostile, but the different species don't communicate with one another.
The world itself is not Earth, the continents and geography are different, and the technological development of humans roughly corresponds to the beginning of the 20th century. The are many islands that have no human population but are inhabited by Eanians.
Reya Rejsend is a Peregrine Falcon Eanian, she is about 24yo at the beginning of the story and is around 40cm tall (as a human she'd be 179cm). She is very social, easy going, but can be prone to conflict. Before being captured by humans she was an athlete (which is also spiritual in their culture), but had to quit because of wing trauma caused by humans. She is also an artist and knows bookbinding from her mother.
Ashlyn Caragh is a normal human, she is around 22yo at the start and is 158cm tall. If she were an Eanian, she'd be a little owl. Ash is a typical introvert and keeps to herself, though she finds no issue in socializing when she has to. She is a philology student and a writer, though it'll take her a long time and and a serious illness before she ever considers publishing her writing.
Ash and Reya are my main characters and the story follows mostly them and their relationship.
Some other characters that I have are:
Fiona Attis, a 34yo human, she comes from a dysfunctional family and an abusive marriage, where she had a daughter named Saoirse. After escaping with her from her husband, she settled in a small village and lives there with Saoirse and..
Rowan (Gaothe) Attis, a 40yo Common Kingfisher Eanian. As the species suggests, she is a fisherwoman. Very closed off, kinda gruff. She first meets the human family when Saoirse, at 6 years old, gets lost in the woods, and then slowly gets close to them, eventually marrying Fiona, taking her last name, and moving into her house.
Saoirse Attis is 13yo, a very adventurous and curious kid. Because her mom is always working and their house is somewhat far away, she often feels lonely, which led to her to bond with Rowan.
You know the type of wedding photography when they use forced perspective to have one person appear smaller than the other? Well, Reya (the winged one) had a brilliant idea to use the same trick for the opposite effect. Naturally, the camera was positioned so that she appears taller x)
According to Inat report, I managed to get the very first observations of the year of four migratory birds in my whole region! Feeling kinda proud of that, especially since I mostly bird in just the city. The birds are the chaffinch (which I'm especially proud of! they are one of the first migratory songbirds to come back), the eurasian woodcock, the great reed warbler and the little stint, which was also a lifer.
A couple of drawings of Ash (redhead) and Reya (winged) I made recently to relax from stress and also to experiment with digital art.. It really isn't my strong suit, but traditional has been a little difficult recently.
Another attempt at tapestry crochet I did recently, this time with my beloved peregrine falcon. I love this a lot more than the previous one! This stitch (half double crochet waistcoat) works better with a smaller hook, and this yarn in general is just better than the one I used before.
In the future I really want to crochet a big tapestry to hang on the wall, and here's a little experiment I did to test it. It's an Azure tit (Cyanistes cyanus)! A very beautiful frosty bird native to my region, and a close relative of the more famous Blue tit. They are not too numerous, but not rare either, and it's always such a delight to see one!
This previous oc drawing I just posted has bits of boobs (le gasp) poking through and that's something I wanted to post abt for a while now cause I have a TON of naked art of my girls and would like to share at least some of it here, and first of all, is that still allowed on tumblr? and if so what's the best tag for it for those ppl who filter this kinda content out, and second, i hope yall would be fine with that being posted here, cause even though i post a lot of birds i don't want my blog to be a birds-only blog cause my girls mean a lot to me and i love them as much as birds
My girlfriend and I like to play scribble sometimes, and I just found this drawing I made in my 'best of scribble' folder and I just love it. Me ever time I see a bird tbh
I really like just scrolling though all my Inaturalist observations (I have a little below 700 rn, mostly of birds and some insects) and seeing all the cool animals I got to see over the last couple of years, remembering how I saw them, with whom, remembering the places, the trips... It's so nice and I'm so grateful for it.
I wanted to draw birds.. and I’ve never made a zine before, so here I am, having accomplished both!
Back when I lived in an apartment next to a park, I would see so many different types of birds coming to the trees around my apartment. I loved the view from my window.
Now I live in a more noisy and congested area of the city, and on the 10th floor, so my window view is just seeing these birds flying in the distance. But every morning, in the quiet of dawn, I can still hear their song.
Feeling so warm inside reading the tags on the kākāpō post reblogs :") I drew it yesterday because I was so upset and scared for everything yet again and then remembered that this year the kākāpō is having the best breeding seasons in ages and thought. Hey. Maybe drawing this amazing animal will cheer me up. And it did, and I'm so glad that it cheered some more people up too