Art and Storytelling

I just make stuff. My art is all under #personal and my website is here. Making it weird since '84.

[featherwurm]

Getting to know my moots- Video Game Edition!

Rules- share ten gifs from your favorite video games! (either directly from the games themselves or promotional material depending on whichever works better in this context)

Tagged by @lorithescrump - thank you!

Tagging @joasakura, @xx-sharpfawngz-xx, @bottomvalerius, @sleeeepy-demon, @girlwizardgirls, @umbrum77, @misery-lake and anyone else who would like to!

Games, in order: Baldur's Gate 3, Hollow Knight: Silksong (and the original HK too), Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (you can just put the whole LoK series here), Myst (same), Portal/Portal 2, NieR: Automata, Bayonetta, Monster Hunter (World, in particular but I've not had a chance to play much else), Okami, Abzu

Honorary mentions, in no particular order: Gris, Neva, Minute of Islands, Journey, The Pathless, Abzu, Guild Wars, The Rayman Games (particularly the original and second), Animal Well, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, ANY game by Amanita Design or Mateusz Skutnik, Spyro, RiME, Mandagon, Gorogoa, The Arcana, Never Alone, Cavern of Dreams, Blasphemous, Ori and the Blind Forest, and ENA: Dream BBQ

I love twitchy platformers/side scrollers, metroidvanias, visually/story lush puzzle/point 'n click, 3rd person action/adventure, fighters, and racing games AND any narrative-driven games about loss, death, and grief

[featherwurm]

Health is taking a downturn again - not sure why yet but oncology is concerned. I have to wait for imaging though because I'm not an emergency case and there's a shortage of ct contrast solution. In a couple weeks I'll have some answers hopefully.

[featherwurm]

Trying out some ceramic beetles... I think I need to figure out form a little better, I want them to be really smooth and appealing and nice to touch. They're fun to make though!

[featherwurm]

Akaran, the aarakocra bartender/server of the Wooly Ram in Hundlestone, a charming chap, though he seems a little out of place for his noble race. Why's a being of the plane of air working in food service? Well, Tav and Karlach want to know too, but they haven't managed to eek out his backstory yet.

But it's on to chapter 7 of Tav and Karlach's Adventure at the Spine of the World, and they, Aylin, and Isobel have a blizzard to contend with...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65111356/chapters/226874466

A preview under the cut:

Tav wakes first, long before first light, bright and alert. She and Karlach have twisted themselves half-way out from under the covers in the night to cool down, and as she extracts herself Karlach rousts, sleepily following Tav out of bed by habit. Tav goes to the window, Karlach rubbing her eyes and scratching various morning itches behind her. It is not only dark from the hour, but the blizzard has continued through the night, and the wind and snow still howl and blow. “’s still snowing?” says Karlach, yawning. “Looks like. If it keeps up like this we’ll be thoroughly snowed in.” “Mmm, I don’t mind that” Karlach says, as she stands behind Tav, wrapping her arms around her waist and kissing her neck and shoulder with sleepy affection. Tav affectionately strokes her cheek, “you can go back to bed if you like.” “Nn-nn” Karlach mumbles into Tav’s shoulder “wanna be up with you.” “Alright, I’m going to stretch, then we can get a bath” Tav says, kissing Karlach on the cheek, making Karlach shake herself all over in sleepy, giddy affection.

Karlach’s thumping rousts Isobel just enough to blearily look the tieflings over, but seeing them just quietly affectionate, nestles back into Aylin and is asleep again shortly. Karlach follows Tav in her motions as she stretches meditatively by the fire, Karlach can’t really keep up with every form, but her strength allows her to push and hold as much as she can, and she finds the workout a welcome wakeup to her sleepy muscles. By the time Tav is done Karlach is alert and playful, tweaking the tip of Tav’s tail as she sashays off to the bath, Tav rolling her eyes at her with a smile and adds more bounce to her step, making Karlach – hulking, fiery Karlach, giggle with loving glee.

[featherwurm]

I'm a sucker for these little character sheet things. This one is particularly sweet I think.

From here! Give it a go!

[featherwurm]

Tagged by @prawnlegs - thank you <3

(I know it's quite the combo - but I know what I'm on about. Old friends know the lore.)

Tagging @blackjackkent @lorithescrump @joasakura @bottomvalerius @fullyfunctionalminiaturebeehive @sleeeepy-demon

[featherwurm]

So tieflings can be a lil creepy in the dark... nobody complains when ASTATION goes off and gets a late night snack. Also just because Tav sleeps in the buff doesn't make it WEIRD, Gale.

[featherwurm]

Shadowheart walked right into that one, to be fair.

[featherwurm]

Just a whole bunch of little 1"x1" experimental ceramic tiles (playing with glazes and some new techniques) - my favorites are the ones that are slip trailed, which is new to me. I'd definitely do more!

[featherwurm]

I found this weird VHS - the visual style is really more loony toons but the humor is pure 2001 high-schooler, it had this label on it:

"High schoolers Rico (short for Ricochet, magenta) and Magnit (not short at all, in fact quite tall, red) are two average California "weird kids", they hang out at the supermarket and the beach, goof off in class, and like to pretend they're a lot darker and spookier than they really are. In this 36th episode; when their classmate's kleptomaniac pet monkey gets loose the two watch with mild bemusement until Rico's favorite pen and Magnit's pants go missing - then it's a chase through the school full of wacky hyjinks all the way!"

Here's the image not on a screen:

Nah, I'm just joshin'. My buddy and I used to exchange notes all throughout high school and we often drew ourselves as two funny cats (morphing from CATS characters all the way into Magnit (for me) and Rico (for them) over four years). They're both sillier versions of ourselves and how we, as 14-17 year olds, wanted to be seen - Magnit is big, goofy, a bit dense, and prone to temper. Rico is artsy, funny, suave, and well-read.

I was thinking the other day 'what would it be like if they were more 'real' - should they be domestic cats or wild ones, what kinds...' but I realized they're best as just what they are - funny cartoon cats getting into shenanigans. SO! Remembering that I am no longer a high schooler (thank god I haven't been in over twenty years), I wanted to draw them at their best, and give a fun real-world looking set piece now that they're officially 'vintage', especially considering we're still friends!

Anywho, here's one of my drawings of them from when I was a teen. Behold! Pure and original 2002 nostalgia:

Crunchy scan lines from a pen drawing on lined paper, dodgy color fill, default fonts, all done in Adobe Photo Suite - I have nothing but love for my teenage self, who loved to come home after school and draw for hours - learning to pick away at drawing digitally through whatever means possible, but I had a lot to learn. Still do! But it's fun to make something I would have been just chuffed with as a teen.

[featherwurm]

She!

[featherwurm]

Strap harness and boots, do you need anything else, really?

[featherwurm]

Karlach and Tav are both intensely physical people, and while they do sometimes play a lil rough, they do enjoy it very much. Karlach is happy to have a match who can toss her around a bit and vice versa.

[featherwurm]

It's mango season and Karlach is a big fan - she couldn't even wait for Tav to slice them before snarfing down a half. Tav's fine with it though - it's good entertainment.

It is true that many tieflings are able to consume and digest a number of things that humans cannot - including things like hard cellulose (wood), hard minerals (carbon, limestone, etc.), and bone. This extends to things like fruit peels and pits, nut shells, charcoal, hide, leather, and other residuals of butchery, cooking, and food processing. Tav and Karlach both can do this, but are not generally inclined to do so as Tav was deterred from it as a child and Karlach spent so long surviving on foul rations in the hells that she likes to eat good food whenever possible.

In a pinch they can both survive on bark and bone and coal and the like but they don't thrive on it (it's calorie poor and lacks many essential nutrients) and try to avoid it.

All that is to say - sometimes they get caught up in the moment and eat a mango like an apple but not that often.

[featherwurm]

All the Gods of the Spindrift together. In order:

Marine Iguana

Scalloped Hammerhead Shark

Atlantic Sailfish

Bat Ray

Common Dolphin

Double-Crested Cormorant

California Sea Lion

Like the Goddesses of the Brine, I chose these animals because they are some of my large charismatic favorites (although let's be honest - I love everything in the ocean, yes, especially the weird shit), and I followed the same groups - marine reptile, shark, ray, bony fish, cetacean, sea bird, and pinniped. Same as the goddesses, I wanted them to feel strong, solid, mature, and powerful, staying away from trim, cut bodies (which have a place too, but not here).

I still want to touch on more animals and ideas in both series, but all in due time!

[featherwurm]

I really don't think walking into camp in the dead of night is the best idea...

I figure tieflings, with their darkvision (same as many other species) have a tapetum lucidum that gives a bright eyeshine in the right light. Tav's is the more natural green/blue, Karlach's is augmented by her hellfire to flash more white hot - it also gives a glow to her face that Tav's eyes do not (Karlach's heart cycle here is in it's lower part and more dim).

[featherwurm]

There was a discussion about what your character might be known for online - in the modern AU Tav keeps up an Instagram for her work as a personal trainer. It's not really of much note, most of her posts are just vaguely inspirational stuff, work advertisement, or things from her martial arts competitions. She keeps it up out of obligation to maintain enough private clients that she can work part of the year and travel the rest. HOWEVER, some of her posts seem to get a fair bit of attention for some reason (she doesn't keep up on the notifications but Karlach occasionally peeks and thinks it's hilarious.)

Plain image below the cut: