Ravens with Writing Desks

Every Season is Spooky Season, he/they trans enby, grey demigay, I will ship Klance until the end of the omniverse, neurodivergent, writer, AO3, 18+ only, can occasionally be slighty nsfw, 90s kid, a little bit of ATLA/Zukka, @corvus_rex_ on the bird app

[corvus--rex]

'Tis time for a new pinned post I think. I've added a few sideblogs since and have moved things around a bit. So see where things have gone, here is a Super Useful List™:

my AO3 - not a sideblog, but it is where you can visit all of my neglected children (curse you, adhd)

feyravenchatter - writing space, fic links (although those will still show up on my main), wips, previews, and anything that was posted to my main will be updated here

fiber-raven - a little self-explanatory, here's where all of my fiber craft related things live, my projects, other people's projects, patterns...

corvusrex-presents-crystalandink - the repository for all things too nsfw for my main

corvus-rex-a-b-o - made this a *very* long time ago for omegaverse things and mostly forget it even exists at this point

[corvus--rex]

I've been posting a few threads over on twt, how do y'all feel abt me posting them here as well? some are nsfw and nsfw-adjacent

[stealingpotatoes]

rereading your own fics/wips is a very slippery slope into finding out you actually have to finish your fics if you want them finished

[erithel]

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(It happened on Page 5)

Early access to all my comics available on my Patreon.

[costumeloverz71]

Robe de Style "Veilleur de Nuit" by Jeanne Lanvin, France, 1924

[nnebuchadnezzar]

in class and we were told to pull up chatgpt on our laptops to experiment with and the guy in front of me pulled up a deli menu and started looking at sandwiches

[myfootyrthroat]

It is funny with bigotry where people unaffected by it act like that somehow disproves it. At an old job, talked to HR about a co-worker who kept calling me a faggot, and the HR person was like "Are you sure? He's never said anything like that to me."

Gee, Hetero Jessica, he's never called you a faggot? Then I must have misheard him!

[ephemeralwizard]

[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 :')

[jethroq]

[wettestwraith]

prev dont leave this in the tags

[silvergryphonart]

Literally the definition of imperialism and classism. Doesn’t matter how many peasants you sacrifice as long as the most powerful piece is left standing

[musicalhell]

Proximity of bishops to the rulers promotes theocratic oppression

[juh-was-deactivated19691231-dea]

the horse is so fuckable

[taniesart]

more klance doodles

[theconcealedweapon]

[maarvarq]

Always bear in mind that there is absolutely no legitimate evidence that Luigi was actually the one who killed the insurance company guy.

[theconcealedweapon]

Of course he wasn't. He was at a party with me that day.

[tiny-space-whale]

No but like literally, actually. All bits aside.

He didn't do it.

The cops very clearly planted evidence on him because they had to make an arrest because all eyes were on them and whoever actually did the deed was making them look stupid.

Why would the real killer hero have kept the weapon on his person and traveled two states over while carrying it and a manifesto in his bag, conveniently turning the crime into a federal matter? The same guy whose bag they found in a park, filled with monopoly money? Why did the police turn off their bodycams, take Luigi's stuff, drive a block away, turn their bodycams back on, go back into the restaurant, and then arrest him?

From the moment of his arrest, even left-of-center media has been presuming his guilt without examining anything (e.g. calling him "the killer" instead of "alleged" or "accused") and then when I say he didn't do it, the nearest person chimes in with some quip that tells me they think he did do it but should go free anyway. Don't get me wrong, I would have the same attitude if he had done it. But he didn't. It makes me feel like the only sane person in the world, even among my staunchly leftist friends.

[asthedeathoflight]

My favorite quirk of American English is that since we're constantly exaggerating, sometimes it's more intense to say something slightly less intense. Because like, it means you actually thought about it.

"you look great!" - normal. Anyone could say this. Could be true or could just be lying to be nice. Very normal expected thing to say to someone

"you look good." - gay as hell thing to say to someone.

[enki2]

[audliminal]

Having short hair really is just

I get up. I walk into the bathroom. I glance in the mirror. My hair is posed in a brand new, never-before-seen array that defies the laws of physics.

[gay-irl]

[judgejudyofficial]

yeah u freaks up north look and sound exactly like this when u pretend that us southern queers are perfectly complicit in our own eradication - for the heinous crime of not living in a liberal population center.

[hoshikostar]

[glitterygolem]

I keep this image on hand for whenever I see similar sentiments.

[horsefigureoftheday]

Hey, so, I know I have a lot of non-horsey followers who may not know about horse biomechanics. Which means I have an opportunity to teach.

If you ever see a horse wearing these padded 'shoes' (called stacks) on its feet, you are looking at an abused horse

Stacks are used in a riding discipline called padded performance, or more commonly known as big lick. In this discipline, the goal is to create as big and flashy of a walk as possible.

To get a big flashy walk, big lick trainers put weights on the horse's front feet (to make it lift the legs higher) and use action chains, which smack against the ankles every time the horse moves (making it lift the legs faster to try and escape from the painful chains). Though it's technically illegal, many trainers also use soring, where they rub mustard oil or kerosene onto the horse's ankles (to cause pain so it has a stronger reaction to the action chains). Soring is widely accepted in padded performance, and trainers will apply chemical irritants to their horses at shows, out in the open for everyone to see.

Horses naturally carry 60% of their body weight on the front legs. When the front legs are sore, they'll carry more weight on their hind legs, which causes rapid joint degeneration. It's not unheard of for retired big lick horses to have completely deformed hind legs

There is no ethical way to do padded performance. Big lick riders will talk about how stacks don't cause issues (often citing one study that looked at padded horses slowly walking on a treadmill without rider), how soring is illegal, how hard-working their farriers are, how closely they work with veterinarians, how their horses live like kings, how beloved their horses are, etc., but it's all talk.

If you see a horse with stacks, you are looking at an abused horse.

I'll add a few relevant videos under the cut (from least to most graphic)

[plantanarchy]

Adding on that stacks are used not just in big lick with Tennessee Walkers but also in a less extreme but still damaging form in other disciplines and breeds. There are stacked/padded Saddlebreds, Arabians, Morgans, Hackney, etc. You'll see people within those disciplines arguing that it's less extreme than big lick and therefore, not detrimental to the horse but still causes changes to the gait and natural structure of the legs.