Pfp by @BurgerSaucee [Comm] ROTTMNT and TMNT(esp 1987) fanartist!! I post the most on my Instagram (@doctorqueue), go there if you want to see my other art/fanart~
Hi! My names Doctorqueue, but y’all can call me Que or Queue! I’m an illustrator (not professionally LOL), and have been drawing fanart pretty much my entire life. I have ocs too but I’m not sure if I’ll post them here or not~.
My most recent special interest has been Rottmnt/TMNT! (Go to Insta for The Bad Batch stuff :3). I have few au’s I’ve come up with, can’t promise I’ll make stuff for all of them I’ve set up tags n stuff for the one I’m most confident I’ll continue :).
My stuff:
#my art
#coloured - any of my art with colour
#my wips - I have a strong track record of abandoning these so beware lol
#full render - my art that is fully lined and shaded
#queueocs - my ocs eheh
#my refs - references, guides and tutorials I’ve made
#not charas nor turtles - all art that includes/is not things that aren’t my ocs or tmnt
#my other - not art stuff or references, can be of anything
#my fan fanart - Fanart of other people’s aus/designs/fanfictions/sonas/ocs etc
#Queue fanart - Any fanart people may make of any of my stuff! Whether it be aus, designs, sonas, ocs etc. (I don’t see it happening but if it does I won’t remember what I wanted the tag to be eheheh)
Au tag:
[Babysitters Turtle Club]
Main Tag: #TmntBSTCau
Fandom specific tags and more info about my au below cut!
Info about au!!
[Babysitters Turtle Club]
Summary:
Takes place in the ‘87 Universe in 1997, 6yrs after the show is finished (may be inaccurate to canon! Haven’t finished ‘87 yet). Both the Rise boys and ‘12 Boys come from 2009 in their respective universes. The Rise and ‘12 Kids are together for about a week b4 they are found by the ‘87’ Turtles, that week actually being spent in the 2012 universe. Lil Donnie was nearly finished on a device to communicate with Rise Splinter, before he and the rest of the kids ended up in the 1987 world. ‘12 Splinter gets it to work and keeps in contact with Rise Splinter, they’re worried sick but seen as the Rise boys where sent straight to ‘12 Splinter they are hoping that something similar happened with both of their kids. I want them to not know what’s going on at first but I also don’t want this au to be too angsty, hence the Splinters being able to communicate pretty much straight away. 1 1/2 months in The Donnie’s have found a way to commincate with the other Splinters! though they can’t send the kids back until some science-y thing is stable, which will be in 2 months. The whole thing lasts about 3 1/2 months. I think the 2012 Kraang will be responsible, which is why little 12yr old Donnie could make a communication device to the rise universe so quickly but 1987 Donnie couldn’t.
Character info:
(1987 Boys)
‘Leonardo’ 26yrs old
‘Donatello’ 25yrs old (SLIGHTLY older)
‘Rapheal’ 25yrs old (SLIGHTLY younger)
‘Michelangelo’ 24yrs old
‘87 Brains&Brawn are twins in anything I draw them in btw
(2012 boys)
‘Leo’ 12yrs old (oldest)
‘Raph’ 12yrs old (second oldest)
‘Donnie’ 12yrs old (second youngest)
‘Mikey’ 12yrs old (youngest)
(Rise Boys)
‘Red’ 6yrs old
‘Blue’ 5yrs old
‘Purple’ 5yrs old
‘Orange’ 4yrs old
I thiiiink I’m leaning towards Leo being the older twin, but they wouldn’t find out until Donnie double checks their ages with ✨science✨ when they’re a little older. So it isn’t super relevant to this au.
Additional tags: #Papaphael (I have a soft spot for little Purple and Dad Rapheal, I’m p sure the ‘hc all ur fav characters as being autistic’ compulsion is def rubbing off on ‘87 Raph hsfsbjsbheb)
Fandom specific tags!!
#tmnt
#turtleverse
#turtle tots
#tmnt mm
#rottmnt
#tmnt 2019
#tmnt Bayverse
#tmnt 2k12
#tmnt 2007
#tmnt 2003
#tmnt 1987
#rottmnt Apocalypse Future - All my Apocalypse timeline stuff
Character tags
#leo
#mikey
#raph
#donnie
#Splinter
#April O’Neil
#Casey Jones
#Casey Jones Jr
#Cassandra Jones
#Irma
#Karai
#Lou Jitsu
#Hamato Yoshi
#Oroku Saki
#Big Mama
#Baron Draxum
#Senor Hueso
#Hueso Jr
#Shredder
#Krang
#Venus de milo
#Assistant - Big Mama’s assistant
#Mona Lisa
#Buffy Shellhammer
#Lotus Blossom
For me [scuffed reblog tagging system]
#03
#87
#12
#12 Future - Mutant Apocalypse timeline
#Mhem - Mutant Mayhem
#19 - Batman vs TMNT
#Bay - Bayverse
#07
#Fan Ver - A Character from a different Iteration applied to another that doesn’t canonically have them!
#Au
#Au Co - fan au crossover
#Iter Co - official iteration crossover
#Fan Iter - fan iteration
#Future - Most future aus just go under this
#Pfuture - present future (F!turts in present timeline)
#Present
#Hooman
#Tots
#MScars - post-movie centered stuffs
#Ndtorts - neurodivergent turtles, can just be psychoanalyzing stuffs it’s not actually only nd
#Save - would like to archive and see again
#Nd - neurodivergent
#MH - mental health
#ref - reference for later
#reference - art/fandom references
#Fref - possible future references
#Paint - paintings
#Ani - animations and animatics
#art - non-fandom art I like (may be fandom I’m not in)
#pro - speedpaints and art process stuff
Aesthetic n fashion stuff, based on my personal definitions/style mashups. except for decora that’s just itself completely.
It’s like he’s creating blueprints in his head first, because this is what makes sense to him in his process of creation! It’s how he was always doing it and how it works for him.
When he doesn’t have time to create something from a mental blueprint, the end result is something pretty formless, just like his shield he had to desperately use against Kraang at the end of the movie:
It reminds me of artists with aphantasia that need a concrete plan/sketch before outlining a drawing
I was checking if I could find any more examples and I think I have the last one!
He doesn’t disperse his ninpo just like you’d expect one would do with magic, but he treats it exactly like it was a part of his tech-bo, disengaging it like it would be still a mechanical/electric part
This took 13+ hours. Tech, Hunter, I love you both, but your armor is excruciating to draw and I think I might eat my own hands. (Also did I mention I love them???)
Splinter mutation speculation! This one is actually pretty old, I drew it before I did all that research on turtles :)
Fun facts about rats: When they are happy, they do a thing called bruxing and boggling, wherein they will grind their teeth together sometimes to the point where the muscles of their jaw make their eyes wiggle in their sockets. They also don’t have paw pads the way dogs or cats do, but instead have little bumps of thicker skin. Look up happy pet rats, they’re absolutely adorable!
These are mostly just my head canons for Splinter as an old jokester with a messed up past trying to do better for the future. We don’t actually see much of him in the show despite dialogue refrencing his daily lessons and his great ‘embarrassing dad’ comedy, so I wanted to speculate of how he might be when the cameras not rolling, per se. It’s tough being the single father of four teenagers without the help of a community, but the brothers are pretty well adjusted (relatively speaking) and are loving towards each other and open to others.
In terms of his anatomy though, while rats may look chubby, it’s in part because of their curved spine and rodent posture. They can get pretty slim when they stretch out. It may be because of these changes to his skeleton that Splinter seemingly shank so much from his human form, while still having the strength to beat people up despite his age. He also made a vow to stop fighting in the Battle Nexus leading to his eventual mutation, which he does break when his kids are on the line, but could be a reason as to why he avoided many of their squabbles in the show? Who knows!
There’s a lot to work with from little characterizations, and it’s fun to see all the different interpretations of his character!
Box turtles are the kinds of turtles who can fully fit into and close their shells along a single hinge in their plastron, which once closed is extremely hard to break into for any kind of predator especially if they cannot get a proper grip on the dome of the shell. Box turtles are also usually found in plains rather than ponds, and while they need water to survive and keep hydrated and can swim well, they’re not generally considered aquatic. Box turtles do have an interesting adaptation due to their more northern range of being able to survive freezing temperatures for a short period of time by slowing their metabolism outside of seasonal brumation (similar to hibernation, but more of a dormant state) if absolutely needed.
After watching TMNT ‘03 where the turtles meditate to save oxygen and prevent suffocation in a broken airlock, I thought, why not mix their ninja ability to conceal their body heat and breath and mix it with a turtles natural ability to brumate? Perhaps the brothers could enter into a completely dormant state on command with enough training in order to survive extreme situations or astral project in some form. Just a fun thought to tie their strong mystic powers with their physical abilities!
Although I use the term heterothermy to refer to them being able to vary between generating their own body heat while active and relying on environmental temperature while inactive, the intricacies of understanding thermal regulation in animals eludes me. If there’s a term that fits better, go ahead! I’m not a biologist so you probably know better lol
These are all my personal head cannons! You can use em’ as reference or not, whichever you prefer :)
The way most turtles actually fit into their shells is because their arms and legs are shaped to fit into the loose skin around the openings for their limbs, but on account of their human proportions, I just suspend my disbelief as to how mutant turtles could fit in their shells without the odd configuration to their organs that real turtles have. Real turtles have flat lungs that sit widely along their carapace, which is weird but cool. Turtles shed their scutes (the large flat scales on their shells and plastron) about once a year or if the scutes are damaged. The scutes have barely any skin between them and the bone, which is why turtle skeletons usually have the scutes on still, though they can pop off. The rest of the skin sheds regularly though, instead of in large patches.
For the brothers’, their respiration is much more human than turtle. Therefore, their lungs need to expand and contract with their diaphragm rather than just with their movement, so therefore they must have some flexibility to their chest. Some turtles, like box turtles, already have hinged plastrons, and softshell shells are mostly cartilage, so it’s not too far off to assume that there’s a bit of cartilage just to the upper plastral bones of the hard shelled brothers to give their humanoid lungs room to breathe.
Poor Leo. After the movie, one could assume he’s got a couple broken bones. It kind of made me morbidly curious as to how to describe injuries on a character whose skeletal structure is quite different from a human’s for my own writing!
Feel free to use as reference or disregard, these are just my own little speculations :)
Alright so softshell turtles right. They funky. It’s a lot more obvious that their shells are part of their ribs, as you can actually see the faint outline of their fused vertebrae and ribs on their shells. The reason their shells are so soft is because the edges and much of the lower half of their shell is actually all just cartilage and skin. Their plastron are weird, because the bone plates are largely separate and pointy, held together by harder cartilage the same way human ribs are attached around the sternum.
Donnie was weird to figure out on account of the cartilage lower half of his softshell, but I tried to compromise with his lower back vertebrae being unfused to still allow for the higher mobility required for his waist. Another fun fact about softshell is that they don’t actually have scutes or scales, but because of the look of his plastron and consistency with his brothers in the show, I’m just going to pretend that Draxum mixed in some DNA to let him grow scales for extra protection even if he has less coverage than his brothers. He can “breathe” water by absorbing oxygen through the skin of his throat, not actually by inhaling it. While most turtles can do this to a point, soft shells can stay quite active while doing so.
Personally I like to think of Donnie’s softshell as both a weakness and a strength depending on the situation! While more vulnerable, his skin can heal faster than scutes, and if he sustains blunt damage to his shell he can more easily disperse the force of it because of the give to his cartilage, rather than have the force crack his shell and cause a much more traumatic injury. Kind of like how seatbelts have some give to them to ease into a stop instead of giving someone whiplash.
Just some personal head canons! Feel free to disagree or expand upon :)
Raphael skeletal anatomy! Click for better quality
Turtle shells are really funky, and in real life turtles, their shoulders and hips are actually fused to the shell and form immobile shoulder and pelvic girdles. Their scapula (shoulder blades) therefore are pushed almost fully downwards to give turtle arms that elbow up look. Most of their muscles are attached via ligaments to their plastron and limbs, with their large neck muscles reaching back along their spine with very minimal muscles on their sides or back.
Because of how funky their bones are, I tried to find a good middle ground between the brothers’ humanoid shape and mobility vs. their original species limitations. Their shoulders are very human, with their collarbone instead connecting to the top of their plastron rather than a sternum (flat bone in the middle of the ribs) with the addition of their shoulder blades resting much lower than a humans and protecting the open space in the armpit of their shell (rather than being set on their back under their carapace). Their necks can stretch slightly longer than a humans and have some extra mobility, on account of how they usually sit curved and tucked into their shoulders. Their pelvises and lumbar vertebrae (hips and lower back) are not fused to their shell to enable them to twist their torsos some.
As for how flexible the show depicts their shells to be… suspension of disbelief! I like to keep the idea of their shells being turtle like, so even though they’re all bone, I’ll allow cartoon physics to bend them some.
Additional info on Raph: The spikes on his shell are mostly bone. Also (something I didn’t draw because it was only after I finished this that I was able to find a picture of an alligator snapper shell bone without its scutes) there are small gaps between his pleural bone plates (middle of shell) and his peripheral bone plates (edges of shell). The scar on his shell is probably from a bone deep injury, as broken scutes shed away, but because scars don’t grow with a person, the injury is small enough that it probably happened so long ago that Raph can’t even remember it.
This is all just my speculation, so feel free to disagree or expand upon these ideas!
So, there was a line in TMNT’03 when Raph complains about his ribs that got me thinking, isn’t a turtles shell their ribs?
So, I did a little looking into the skeletal structure of turtles and how it might apply to the brothers, particularly the Rise brothers as they’re all different species. Here’s the little chart of common bone and scute patterns, and some speculation on how their reptilian features affects them!
Leo is about as turtle as a turtle can get, being one of the most common species, so he can go into his shell just fine! Of the four of them, he’s one of the two that can go brotherball mode, if with a little more risk of bumps and bruises as his shell can’t fully close.
And, of course, it is a rite of passage as a younger sibling to be thrown bodily into a pool of water at some point. Splashing everyone else in radius is just a bonus lol
While snapping turtles limbs are too big to fit into their teeny plastron, they can still pull their heads back pretty far! It can look a bit spooky, with their big jaws hissing at you from the dark cavern of their shoulders. I’ve had one too many a brush with Raph’s common cousins while fishing.
He’d probably keep the ability to hide his head tho! Could make for some fun hijinks, either in pranks or fights. He’d make a pretty good Headless Horseman on Halloween I bet. Mikey could pull the opposite and be the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail lol
Related to that, my family got a gag gift in the form of a Black Knight plushie with removable limbs and little red ribbons inside as a kid. The four of us caused a lot of grey hairs with our antics back then, of that I am sure!
Yes, this was a real thing we had to help with once.
Even though he complains, Donnie feels a lot of pride being looked to as the family expert for these things, I’m sure. For all that Splinter probably doesn’t know the deep intricacies of computers, I’ll bet he knows the basics. Could there be a deeper meaning to his confusion?
I personally headcanon that Splinter is the one who introduced computers, phones, and appliances to his sons way back in the dumpster diving days, and probably showed Donnie how to fix his first toaster or something. However, the special interest kicked in hard and pretty soon Donnie could run circles around Splinter when it came to fixing and engineering stuff. Perhaps, this is a way Splinter can find time to partake in Donnie’s interests and boost his confidence despite being way out of his depth on technical know-how himself.
When you don’t have a lot, it’s important to be resourceful and handy with a quick fix. Donnie had to have started building stuff somewhere!
It makes it all the more bittersweet if they were really close only to have Splinter struggle to bond with Donnie when he’s a little older. Don’t worry though, they’ll figure it out :)
Inspired by 1) my childhood dog, who would immediately start chewing faster if anyone noticed him eating non edible things and 2) my brother, who ate a beetle that one time for no other reason than to prove he could.
We also had a moth infestation once when I was a kid, and every time I went to check if the cereal was covered in moths or not, that same brother would tease me to eat it anyways for the extra protein >:p
My childhood dog was a big ol’ Rottweiler! Lovely dog, so gentle even when my ten year old self was trying to pry paper towels out from between his teeth lol
