The visual development blog for the Deities of Duat story and "DEITIES project," by TeniCola. Inspired by Egyptian mythology, this blog includes concept art and progress, side stories and mini comics, and Q&A featuring the characters and overall project. [ Soft-launched main website: deitiesofduat.com ] Support DEITIES on KO-FI! [ NAVIGATION (Pinned Post) ]
TUMBLR NAVIGATION: https://deitiesofduat.tumblr.com/navigation
NOTE: Some pages are still being revised / migrated to the website. Also, all characters have their own dedicated tags (EX: #Set, #Horus, #Anubis, etc.)
Artwork // Askbox RepliesĀ // Character Profiles
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Time for another DEITIES blog post! This post will recap the Bluesky thread I made following the premise of ā1 Like = 1 Songā [ā¦] featuring the projectās notoriousā¦
Hi all! Typically Iāll keep a blog update like this for the website, but I figured Iād share this one and share some other gradual site updates while Iām at it. The TL;DR is the DEITIES has a new Deezer account, as well as some small incremental adjustments to the site and character profiles.
DEITIES PROJECT ON... DEEZER?
So firstly, in addition to this blog update preserving a music thread I did on Bluesky some time ago last year featuring everyoneās notorious chaos god, this entry also formally introduces the new Deezer account for DEITIES! This is the Deezer version of Setās Masterlist that can be previewed best on desktop, but you can also access the full DEITIES Deezer Profile and other playlists when logged in.*
(*NOTE: To my best knowledge / after testing everything I could,Ā Deezer may require logging into an account to view profiles in full. In case a 404 error appears when you visit the link, please compare to this screenshot when logged in.)Ā
Meanwhile, the DEITIES Spotify Account will still be preserved; Iām not about to purge several dozen 10-year-old playlists, thatās too destructive. Still, I am making the move to migrate to Deezer to at least build and share my personal and project playlists, so this platform will get more emphasis moving forward.
For the time being / unless something changes, Iāll try my best to keep the mixes on both platforms in sync, so anyone is welcome to use either platform to listen to the playlists. And if neither are your cup of tea, I will continue to update everyoneās Tracklists in plain text on the website as a fail-safe reference.
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OTHER INCREMENTAL CHANGES
While Iāve been a bit quiet online this first month of the year, I have been trying to make some adjustments to the site to help prepare it for some personal goals.
It would, for example, be great to start adding more full character profiles than the 20 weāve started with some time agoĀ š« For clarity, with the way the website is structured, I want the layout of the current profiles to be as polished as possible (to avoid having to make multiple changes in the future). With all that said, hereās some rapid-fire recaps of the site changes:
[1] This has been the case for the past few months, but if you havenāt visited or scrolled through the siteās Homepage in while, it has newer digest panels for all recent Blog Updates and featured Askbox Responses. Iām still debating another section or two, but think this works as a decent landing page, yes?
[2] The first ~200 Askbox Responses have been recorded and preserved on the websitesās All Answers Archives. The goal of recording everything (from both tumblr and other accounts I had) is still slowly underway, which Iāll resume after other tasks and art goals in the next month.
[3] The current 20 DEITIES Profiles have all had some adjustments to their layout sections. Iām still sitting on certain changes, but the majority seem to be in a good place, and close to the standard I want for later profiles. Using Horusās profile layout as a example, the newly added or edited sections include:
Updated terminology and links in the Key Relationships section (primarily for links out to othersā characters, but subject to change pending a new platform for said characters...)
Newly added Relevant Notes & Updates sections. For example, Horusās own +Likes Recap Thread from some time ago.
Newly added Featured Askbox Responses section that are specific to the character in profile.
Additional media link out to the characterās Art Fight Profile, where applicable. Just keep in mind, Art fight does also require an account to view profiles and characters, such as Horusās AF Profile.
New custom section to display the characterās tracklist and playlist options (where applicable), replacing the previous Spotify embed.
Currently only applicable to the Royal Family of 6, but their Main Character References galleries has update to include their standalone artwork from the anniversary illustration. These refs display their flat colors with no gradients or filters, so they can be color-picked as needed.
I think that covers the main changes worth sharing; any other changes were minor tweaks in appearance and CSS. There still remains some areas that Iād like to tackle when I have ample time, which include better content hierarchy + letter casing, and adding more alt text to existing image galleries.
Aside from those changes in mind, Iāll continue to update everyone with both website and blog progress when thereās more to share, thanks for your patience and interest in the meantime!
Hahaha I just keep shadow-dropping project stuff on yaāll this week donāt I š
Firstly!! If you missed the massive illustration I shared on NYD to markĀ DEITIES Projectās 10th anniversary on tumblr, feel free to check that out!Ā
Secondly, while that was my main illustration to end 2025, I still completed other lighter content on the side -- for the websiteās growing Askbox Archive, and for revisiting artwork both old and new. Not enough for separate tumblrs posts, but just enough for aĀ belated end-of-year āodds and endsā post with DEITIES-related stuff. More details under the cut /o/
DEITIES Website:Ā deitiesofduat.com
[1-3] -- All of these were part of an OC Pairings MemeĀ that I originally shared on Bluesky, and then migrated to my OCĀ āFolio site in February 2025. I had... aha, multiple entires for the polyamorous chaos god, which certainly included SetNeph, but also required a quick doodle of SetYoko in their fox forms (my personal ship with my friend, @/littlescorpio.bsky.social)
As for the entry for polyculeĀ Set x Anat x Astarte: The 2nd artwork with Set and Astarte was refreshed from an older askbox entryĀ [archived], where I corrected her eye color to pink. Meanwhile, I wanted to doodle something quickly with just Set and Anat for that 3rd artwork.
[4] --Ā Speaking of polycules and personal ships with friends... you know what Iāll just quote myself for this IndraNakiYamm entry from the OTP Post:
āThis is what happens when crack ships w/ friends turn into a fun throuple į( į )į Indra and Nakia (and companyā) strongly oppose OG!Yamm in canon DEITIES, but in AUs? The three end up getting along quite well & form a healthy (and passionate) polycule.ā
[5] -- I donāt think Iāve shared this image of Set in my [modified] Sonic-style here, have I...? Either way, I wanted to give it a try for him as a hound, for lack of a non-mythical animal counterpart to Sha. Iām indecisive on whether his ears flop down or stand upright, though; I like both, but lean towards the latter for consistency's sake.
[6] --Ā This is the sameĀ aimless Set sketches from a few years ago, but in preparation for Artfight I went back to restore more color saturation into the pic, and did the same for several other art pieces as well to make them more suitable as references.
Something Iāve often done with DEITIES art is desaturating colors slightly against a brown background so the darker colors are easier to discern. It's intentional, but it's led to confusion when others color-pick from the same art as if it's their base color, which is... not ideal š« Their full body refs are a safer bet, but hopefully this minimizes the issue a bit...!
[7] -- AĀ quick thing that I drew of Pakhet to practice / warm-up for my Artfight 2025 run. Itās a completed version of an older sketch of her from a while back, here!Ā
[8-9] --Ā TL;DR my friends nudged me to design HK characters and I used the excuse to punt my existing characters into the world, with everyone all based on different types of insects (and one arachnid).
I ended up addingĀ a couple of deities for good measure, soĀ Serqet and SetĀ both haveĀ entries with details about their design and bug inspiration -- including the reasons why Setās a red-colored version of the 2nd most painful insect sting on the planet, and otherĀ exciting fun facts \o/!!1!Ā
[10] -- This artworkās an oldie but a goodie that Iām still quite fond of, but I needed to revisit it for both Set and Sobekās appearance -- esp. in preparation for Artfight. Like the 6th image, I retouched this to restore their actual base colors, though I also cleaned up the lines and highlights to better suit my current style.
Hey everyone, itās been quite a while! Dropping by to check in and share this massive illustration Iāve worked on all month, which Iāve dubbed the āDEITIES Royal Family Redux.ā The piece is both a āredrawā and spiritual successor of an older piece (Dysfunctional Royal Family), and something special to mark the 10-Year Anniversary of DEITIES Project's launch on Tumblr!
No, truly, the original [admittedly outdated] announcement post can be found here \o/!! Gosh itās been that long already yaāll...
Thereās a lot Iād like to say about the entire process for this illustration, and about my general reflections on the projectās development and current scope, which Iāll save for a proper blog post update afterĀ taking a breather this holidayĀ š« In the meantime, I appreciate everyone in my audience whoās been part of the journey -- whether youāve been here since the beginning, or found DEITIES project more recently. Thank you all so much for your interest, patience, and overall support, and letās make 2026 a grand year to come!
During my holiday trip (US Thanksgiving), I asked my friends Jinkz and Anie to give me OC interactions to sketch in pencil during my downtime.
These are all characters shared between me, Jinkz (@littlescorpio.bsky.social), Anie (@whotisthis.bsky.social), and our 293825 shared verses and AUs!Ā While Iād like to refine and finish some digitally, I polished what I could cuz I like how many of them turned out \o/!!
They are more details for each of these sketches in my Kofiās Pencil Sketches gallery, and in the alt text of the Bluesky thread.
Meant to share these here as well, since about half of these are DEITIES-related interactions too! Since working tags are limited to 20, Iāll just tag the cast and any of our DEITIES OCs.
Swings by with another stray tumblr update! Something I finished months ago in May -- this art of Bastet was meant to be something 'quick' (lol--) to practice the style I used for my Artfight 2024 Attacks. But I also drew it because the kitty goddess had been overdue for more up-to-date artwork to use for her profiles.
Iām currently more active on my Bluesky account, and updating the project site gradually. In fact, Iāve just finished archiving the first 100 askbox responses there, with more on the way for those feeling nostalgic. Otherwise, Iāll continue to update the project blog on tumblr when I can, thank you all for sticking around!
Hi all, it's been a long while since I've updated several of my online accounts, with the exception of Bluesky and my participation in Artfight 2024. Here's something to jumpstart the blog until I have the means to play catch up!
Some new banner art for DEITIES that I've wanted to complete for a long while -- from the projectās inception when I drew this early sketch. Featuring the divine trio from the main storyline in their animal forms:Ā Set, Horus, and Anubis. Alongside the banner art, I created makeshift references of their animal forms using the descriptions from their respective profiles.
Hello everyone! Iāve been quietly working on updates to my character and project sites, and wanted to use this update to bring some to attention. [ā¦] One important update is highlightedā¦
Yaāll remember that very old and outdated Webcomics Recommendations post I made on tumblr years ago? Itās been recreated and updated with more series since then!
The Webcomic Recommendations are the first thing linked on this post, followed by updates for:
Artist Friends & Links Pages on My Carrd
Revised Giftart Page & Artist Credits
Askbox Archive for DEITIES Project (WIP)
But if you just want to get to the main page, itās linked here! colacanvas.com/webcomics/
Also as I mention in the post, Iām actively spending more time on my new Bluesky account. Now that the platform is open access and rolling out more new features, I encourage others to join and give it a solid try!
Sharing this with my DEITIES audience as well, for those looking for new series to read or artists to follow!
As for that last point regarding the Askbox archive on the website -- some brief details are in the blog post, but you can see a preview of it live here:Ā https://deitiesofduat.com/askbox/#answers
oKAY HECKā I havenāt posted any messy doodles on the blog in a while, but considering tomorrowās fast approaching event, here we are. And while I wish Iād planned this ahead of time after doodling the concept months ago, itās been a busy few weeks and I only just remembered to draw this today;;
More extended commentary in tags but for now please accept this mediocre joke with Geb, Khonsu,Ā and Ra. HAVE A FUN U.S. SOLAR ECLIPSE DAY and please protect your eyes tooā
DEITIES Project Tumblr / Twitter / Instagram
>> Support DEITIES Project on Patreon! <<
DEITIES Update ā 2023 ā 2024 New Yearās Edition
Happy New Year Everyone!
Typically I would write a formal blog post for my end-of-year update, but I'm writing something on the fly for the sake of timeliness āØ
I wish I could say I completed most of what I wanted in the year 2023, as I had several goals I thought were feasible. However, some of those goals had to be placed aside for a very sudden but fortuitous reason, that I feel worth sharing with ya'll -- which is that Iiiiiiii bought my first house! š„¹š„¹š„¹
(As you can imagine, this took quite a bit of my energy and time this past year, thus explaining part of my absence -- more details regarding my activity under the cut!)
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From early August thru the end of December, my home-searching andĀ closing process was incredibly long, stressful, exhausting, expensive (lmao), and time-inducing. I'm thankful to have had support from my agent, and well as my friends and family while navigating this ordeal, and I'm in the process of moving my items and services into my new home during the remainder of my apartment lease.
This home search combined with my full-time work, was a major reason why took a partial break from social media, and semi-hiatus from new art. This also affected my frequency of updating the DEITIES website and blog -- at least, on the front end. I did a lot of backend work andĀ completed a major to-do with migrating the website and giving it a new primary domain -- so now, both deitiesofduat.com AND deitiesproject.com will redirect to the website. š
For the most part though, I used the 2nd half of 2023 to focus on some major life decisions, and leading into early 2024 Iām aiming to give myself a bit of a lifestyle reset. It's going to take some time to settle into this new normal, so aside from occasional media posts I'll continue to be quiet a bit longer. Once I complete some key home-owning goals and attempt to recharge, I'll aim to resume the goals I had in mind for DEITIES Project and my personal art, as well as engaging with my audience more (I miss interacting with ya'll, aha š).
In the meantime, thank you all for you continued patience and support! Despite being offline more-than-not this past year, I really appreciate the continue interest you all have in this project. DEITIES remains so important to me even with my shift in scope, so I'll do what I can to put iterate on it and give it all my effort when I have more bandwidth. Until then, wishing you all the very best in 2024!
Itās been a while tumblr! Suffice it to say Iāve been occupied with Important RL Eventsā¢ (the good kind), but I still wanted to carve up enough time for this.
A gift for my amazing friend Jinkz (Jinkzdraws @ Twitter) ā just a bit of fun between Set and Yoko e 0 e ) āØāØāØ Happy Birthday Jinkz!!
(Also yeah yeah weāre all fashionably ālateā for pocky day, shushā)
For those who don't know from my general art accounts, I got myself an eInk tablet that I use for organization, and also for doodling!
These are just a few that are DEITIES-related -- since they feature Set, Sobek, Bastet, and Yamm -- but they're mostly involving AU interactions with others' characters. Some were friend requests, while others were just cuz \ e v e )/
These are moderately cleaned up in Clip Studio, but I kept the monochrome greys from the tablet. Some more commentary details can be found in my ongoing Twitter thread for my eInk sketches, and in my Ko-fi gallery -- but I'll share them under the cut as well for posterity.
DEITIES Website: deitiesproject.com
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...Y'know, just in case anything happens to twitter in the near future ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
[1] Pirate!Set -- who's outfit was originally designed by @oiichyo -- and Pirate!Cy, who belongs to Jinkzdraws @ Twitter.
[2] Set and Rami shenanigans, the latter also belongs to Jinkz. This is the same fox kid from my earlier pencil sketches from last year.
[3] Sobek with several of his feline friends, including Bastet and other kitties belonging to Jinkz. For anyone wondering -- clockwise from the top it's Bastet, Soleil, Anahi, Lalaca, and Haiku in their cat forms.
[4] Something that would have even worked for Mermay lmao. Jinkz's Indra and AU!Yamm (emphasis on "AU") indulging in some banter.
[5] A duc-- a goose deity name Jorah, who belongs to Whotisthisart @ Twitter, interacting with some other divine friends (Shazi, Indra, and Sobek). No public art to link to yet, but his markings here are based on the Egyptian goose.
...I keep wanting to wait and gather a photoset to accompany this random off-model doodle of Set that I've been sitting on, butā¦ ah well, here he is for the dashboard. I haven't quite forgotten how to draw him yet lmao
Also for anyone who missed it, the DEITIES Site has a new Changes & Improvements page now, with more to come gradually -- details in this earlier update!
Hi all! So uhhhhh I used Mermay to explore Sobek's more hybrid features in DEITIESProject >>
This form is something that Sobek -- and most deities -- can canonly take with transformation magic, it fall under the category of hybrid features. Though I'm not sure whether this makes him look more like a "merfolk" or a "centaur" (or both? both āØ).
That said, I feel like every time I draw a crocodilian I have to relearn it all over again, esp. their body markings and scales/scutes -- it's fun, just never very consistent. But I've learned a few new tricks to get Sobek's croc form closer to that "semi-realistic but still stylized/cartoony" look I'm aiming for.
Also! I traded his usual feathered headdress for the horned variant -- originally for the sake of reducing negative space and cropping, but I actually like this look on him too!
I should have shared this sooner, but I had the pleasure of doing a mini trade with @oiichyo a while ago e 0 e )!! DEITIES!Tick for Pirate!Set ā one sharp-toothed OC design for anotherĀ āØ
(Iām still beside myself from Jennās take on Pirate!Set HEHEHE, I wanna draw it for fun sometime!! Itās featured in Setās profile, but also on JennāsĀ art blog entry!)
Happy New Year to everyone! I know Iām a week late, and most people have already written their own New Years reflections by now, but I waited until after the holiday rush to collect my thoughts. [...] I originally intended to write an update that only pertained to DEITIES Project [...] but I figured itād be better to reflect on everything within the same post, this time using the blog feature on my OCā Portfolio. With this in mind, hereās a retrospective for my past year, and an idea of what I hope to accomplish in the new yearā¦
āHappy New Year to everyone! I know Iām a week late, and most people have already written their own New Years reflections by now, but I waited until after the holiday rush to collect my thoughts. [ā¦]
I originally intended to write an update that only pertained to DEITIES Project [ā¦] but I figured itād be better to reflect on everything within the same post, this time using the blog feature on my OCā Portfolio. With this in mind, hereās a retrospective for my past year, and an idea of what I hope to accomplish in the new yearā¦ā
Hi everyone, and Happy New Year! I know I mentioned in my tag commentary that I planned to write a new update for the DEITIES blog later in November 2022 -- but clearly that came and went with the holidays š
I finally made the call to do a more general update for both DEITIES and other progress and goals outside of the project. The whole update can be read in full at my OC Portfolio + Blog in the link above. The TL;DR for DEITIES Project is the following:
Completing the DEITIES Profiles for OC_Tober was one of my biggest milestones of 2022 -- an unexpected one, but a milestone nonetheless.
There were other smaller updates made on the DEITIES Website and playlists in the past year (most of which were unannounced but mentioned briefly in the above update).
For 2023 goals, there are more site optimizations I'd like to work on and some additional world-building notes to complete, including some that will need new or updated art.
The same can be said for several new DEITIES Profiles I'd like to publish on the website and tumblr, which should also include some new art to accompany any deity designs.
Iāll also eventually migrate some of the previous Askbox responses and notes from CuriousCat to preserve them on tumblr and/or the website.
That's about the gist of things for DEITIES Project, along with some other ideas I'm still considering before I announce them as goals or upcoming content.
One thing I hadn't mentioned in the update yet, is how thankful I am for everyone's support with DEITIES Project. I'm so grateful for how patient, engaging, and receptive you all have been as my audience -- both in the recent months since the OC_Tober 2022 run, and over the past several years. While the pace with DEITIES will continue gradually, I can't wait to share more with you all as I make more progress -- thank you again, and here's to great 2023!
