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oh ya and here’s this year’s artfight card ;)

An art gifting game

new self portrait pfp!

morgan’s new ref sheet for artfight!!! I have tentatively signed on for team tragedy, and will be praying that I’m not dooming my active characters by doing so ✨

unsure if I’ll do any other updated refs, but I do need a proper refsheet for dol… I would like this blog to be more than JUST morganposting

#taz draws things #morgan crane #dnd oc

POV: you are about to die <3

i felt the need to make yet another party portrait, since morgan and co have finally retaken the wizard of the wines! it only took us, uhhh, checks notes, 20 fucking sessions to get around to it. sorry mr. martikov but it was critically important that we spend a week and a half yelling at each other and screwing around first 😭 (in our defense we got firmly derailed by our dinner at ravenloft and things spiraled a bit out of control….)

cacophonous shield is a great spell, you guys. 10/10 no notes, there is no power trip like running through two dozen twig blights smashing them to bits like a living lawnmower, the winery was one of THE most exciting and memorable fights from my first cos playthrough and i think it qualifies for top tier this time around too!

next stop: hopefully retrieving the winery gems, because our dilly-dallying for a week and a half in game means now they’re all missing….

#taz draws things #morgan crane #curse of strahd #dnd art #morgan is on such a mental roller coaster right now in this game #she’s the most confident and competent she’s ever felt! she also fucked everything up and blames herself for ireena getting kidnapped!!#she’s starting to believe she might have inherent worth as a person! she also discovered she really relates to strahd on a personal level!#and WOW she hates that!!!#nothing that has happened has felt entirely real to her since the fireball in vallaki back in like session 15 #lowkey wondering if she really did die in the fire and everything since then is just the desperate hallucination of a washed-up never-was #one last lovely fantasy of what life could have been if she was special. one final daydream before the empty wash of oblivion.#one last effort by her dying mind to convince herself she could ever do something that matters.#she’s come a long way #can’t wait to traumatize her further lmao

working on my first ref sheet update in vague anticipation of this year’s artfight! featuring cal morgan crane, in all her many outfit variants ✨

some minor details here: cal/morgan’s horns do actually grow a bit longer over the course of the campaign, you can spot that difference if you squint between her first and second designs. the growth is a reaction to her sudden increase in power, which drew out more of her fiendish heritage and caused a minor growth spurt. she’s kind of mad that she still didn’t get a tail out of the deal. she also has more green to her eyes—she’s always had a vivid neon green eyeshine, but as she gets stronger, the effect gets more visible and obvious, enough that by level 6-7 (latter 3 outfits) the green flash of her pupils is visible even in broad daylight from the right angles!

I’ve posted versions of this purple coat before, I’ve been wrestling with it for a while - I want this new design to feel like the character is self-actualizing, coming into her own as a hero and a leader, which means the design has to feel like her and I’ve struggled to hit that mark with the last couple versions. BUT I think this take might be the one! or at least closer than the last few. the full-length cloak from her ravenloft outfit gives her a sturdy, powerful silhouette, imposing in the right conditions, but I needed to add that gold inner lining to get it to click. this is one of those times where the secret sauce was putting the ipad in greyscale mode, because as it turns out, there was like ZERO value contrast between the purple coat and the blood red cloak liner, and turning it gold solved the problem instantly. it’s a fun bonus that the gold looks significantly less villainous!

this latest look invokes the heraldic shield I designed for morgan a few months ago, which I have recently updated with a slight change to the charges in the black section—

—in this version, I’ve removed the small charges from the bend sinister to make it cleaner, and instead of a moon under the bow in the black half we have these three droplets. the idea with those is to invoke/represent the idea of “blood sweat and tears” that undergirds morgan’s character—she is someone who has gotten to where she is only because of her work ethic and dedication and diligence, and every accolade in her name is one she’s earned after fighting tooth and nail for it. in the droplets on the coat, we have red and blue alternating, but the shield version sticks with red to keep the color scheme tighter.

still waiting for an opportunity to snap half of one of her horns off for drama, I told the DM that if he feels the moment is right he can fuck me up. her left horn has been weaker ever since it got cracked in a fireball in vallaki, after all…

#taz draws things #morgan crane #dnd oc

new slash updated designs for the curse of strahd gang! this was originally an exercise in colors, and trying to make them look like a matched set—my previous designs had different palettes and they just didn’t feel connected to each other. I went off the rails when I made Morgan purple on impulse, but in my defense, she looks pretty… I also wanted to get Alden into the correct type of armor finally, I’ve been drawing the man in the default chain shirt from BG3 for months because that’s the ref image the player gave me, but he actually uses studded leather, and it’s been bothering me.

Morgan’s character arc continues to spiral, and I continue to try and show her growth as a person in her outfits. Morgan-as-Cal adopted her blue jacket after declaring herself party leader in Vallaki, because the blue jacket was a costume—she had no clue what she was doing, so she did the next best thing and played a role, mimicking the most heroic character she’d played on stage in a while to try and compensate. After dinner at Ravenloft and the ensuing party conflict, she started gaining a little more assertiveness and self esteem. She finally changed her name, and started wearing the jacket as more of a cape, turning it into something of her own and not just an imitation of someone else’s story! but she’s still been on emotionally shaky ground for a while—one step forward, two steps back, fighting tooth and nail for the party to actually treat her with the respect she’s tried to claim and butting heads with her allies’ ongoing refusal to fully take her seriously.

But now… things are turning around again, and I think they might stay better this time, and Morgan is finally reaching a point where she doesn’t have to lean on the roles she plays for confidence. She has the team behind her now, she’s on better terms with the people she butted heads with, and she’s declared herself that she’s not going to be one of the characters she plays. She’s going to be a hero of her own, as the person that she is, because she’s starting to feel like maybe that’s possible. So we get a new coat!!! This one is purple, like Morgan, and it echoes the color scheme and rising sun charge of the unofficial coat of arms I made for her in March. She’s also invoking her teammates’ colors—red from Cornelius, blue from Alden, and technically the yellow/gold is Konnie’s but I do need to find a place to give her some orange as well. In turn, they’ve all acquired a bit of purple somewhere too. I like how the complicated lapels on her coat form a star shape framing her face, it was a happy accident of design while I was trying to incorporate the popped collar silhouette from her previous jacket somehow.

#taz draws things #cal crane #morgan crane #dnd party #morgan and her main character ass fashion sense… i love her you guys. she’s like this on purpose <3 #the basic design of the coat was inspired by alucard from castlevania - but way more colorful #and i put her hair up in a bun because it’s just more practical that way… the long loose hair is cute but it’s so silly #she is literally a ballerina. high tight buns are her default most of her life #i will not draw a bun that’s high and tight because i have not mastered the art of making that looo good #but i can draw /a/ bun!!!

the current strahd party, as of session 33! i’ve been working at this painting for almost two weeks now and while i’m not 100% satisfied, i’m overall fairly happy with it <3 we have officially acquired our first tarokka objective (the holy symbol), probably halfway or more into the campaign, and i am hoping we’ll get another soon because cal-who-is-now-morgan has been gunning for the tome since day 1

I really wanted my take on Strahd in this painting to look a bit feral and menacing, a bit unhinged… our lovely DM @mapledmoose desired facial hair and so facial hair I attempted to portray even though I am still quite inexperienced at drawing it. I had a lot of fun with his claws!

#taz draws things #cal crane #morgan crane #because i should be tagging her with her new name now!#curse of strahd #dnd art

height chart for the D&D girlies, featuring cal/morgan’s rather impractical shoes and kestrel’s shiny new color scheme!

#taz draws things #kess was originally in sage greens but i like the white for her - it’s giving ice queen #and she matches her familiar <3

strahdposting from this week, i’ve finally had the spoons to draw shitposts again and i love it ✨

don’t stand in the middle… unless you wanna get hypnotized or entangle vined or crispy fried ;) i haven’t gotten a chance to use hypnotic pattern yet (enemies in the boss room were too spread out and i wound up debuffing the boss with ray of enfeeblement instead) but i am SO excited to get around to it, it’s been a good long time since i’ve really played a mage in tier 2 in a game with consistent combats

#taz draws things #cal crane #dnd oc

i can have one (1) cool sword. as a treat.

#taz draws things #cal crane #i want to tweak this because once again my default sketch style’s lack of lips annoys me #but every time i try to add lips as details it looks so wrong and weird

another cool outfit for the gal!! in which we take the blue jacket and jazz it up a little, loosen the laces, have a bit of fun 💖

the red version is because she just looks really really good in red

and the boots don’t match because she canonically reused them from her military outfit… it bothers her that they don’t match too, but alas, there are limited wardrobe options when one is trapped in a hell dimension fighting for her life

#taz draws things #cal crane #dnd oc

a new doll for a new look!!! this post belongs on the art blog, this is art, lol. I got the itch to craft a second Cal amigurumi, since the first one was made in her original outfit (which was destroyed in-session like a week after I finished making the doll……) and I’ve since gotten a little better at designing and constructing these guys. I also decided to experiment with needle felting to add some small details, and I think it looks decent enough! Cal really isn’t herself without that pinkish flush around her eyes and eartips, it’s a fairly small detail but without it her face has a very different vibe. the work on the ears could be better, but this was the best I could achieve without stabbing my own finger, my felting mat is CHUNKY.

comparison shot!! new cal is noticeably larger than old cal and the other dolls, partially because I accidentally added an extra row in her torso and partially because new cal was apparently made with looser tension than I realized—which makes a surprisingly big difference, actually, I didn’t expect that. it makes her look very weird next to the rest of the dolls, which are all mostly to scale with each other—new cal wasn’t supposed to be taller than literally everyone including the 7’ half-orc character (not pictured)—but what are you gonna do!

#cal crane #amigurumi

fiammazzurra

since I've been filling this blog with art from my current curse of strahd campaign, I figured I should repost some of my work from the OG too!!! so here's the party from my first playthrough, finished a couple years ago. the first drawing is from August 2021, and the second from January 2023... the gang went through a lot! and so did my art style! that finale portrait is still one of the best paintings I've ever done, in my own opinion, I am really proud of how it came out.

my character from this campaign was Zahde the Unbreaking, a redemption paladin of Ilmater doing her best to solve the Dread Domains through love and friendship and being nice to people for once. (...and maybe a teeeeeny bit of smiting...) she was my second-ever D&D character and I had a lot of stress while playing her, but I still love her character concept, and she had a nice arc <3

zahde's party managed to redeem strahd (partially because the wizard, ah, replaced him...), and my current CoS character would be utterly appalled by it.

fiammazzurra

on that subject, zahde and cal compare notes, from a couple weeks ago lol

#taz draws things #zahde #cal crane

zahde's party managed to redeem strahd (partially because the wizard, ah, replaced him...), and my current CoS character would be utterly appalled by it.

#taz draws things #zahde #curse of strahd #dnd art #dnd character #i have a couple really baller pictures of zahde actually... i do not give her enough respect #zahde and cal would get along but only if cal can get over the uh. 'what do you MEAN you made FRIENDS WITH HIM????!!'#zahde's strahd and cal's strahd are very different people #cal does not want to be buddies with the guy who ordered the genocide of her ancestors thanks

i just think she’s neat

#taz draws things #cal crane #dnd oc #i fussed over this for like a week because i couldn’t get the palette and framing to look right #and now i’ve officially sighed and given up #the chest and face look good and that’s the important part

some cal and friends shitposts from the past week or so <3 the need to doodle during jury trials has pushed me to get back in touch with my traditional drawing skills! which is…. hmm. challenging. it would help if the pencil would stop smudging so much :/

#taz draws things #cal crane #dnd oc #i am almost entirely self taught outside of some verrrrry rudimentary instruction in like ninth grade #and for the last 6 or 7 years i have worked almost entirely in a digital medium (mostly using procreate)#so the vast majority of my skill progression has relied in some way on the use of technology and without it i am not performing to par #especially since i’ve spent the last 2-3 years primarily working in a lineless painterly style that i couldn’t replicate irl #like i genuinely don’t know what kind of paints i’d even need for that - i have only ever worked with acrylics and watercolors #i am heavily reliant on the ability to flawlessly erase bad marks and freely scale/move/resize pieces of my drawings #and without those tools the gaps in my skill and training become pretty obvious #when shitposting i can mostly make up for it these days! i just need to take more time warming up and be wary of my shaky hands #but i don’t know how i’d go beyond that really - i just don’t know how to teach myself #anyway something about my pencil and this notebook is causing everything to smudge like crazy and i haaaaate it #wish i knew what the issue was so i could find alternatives

some silly doodles from this weekend’s curse of strahd session <3 ft. cal’s endless war with the boys’ determination to die horribly, and also cain got a silly hat

#taz draws things #cal crane #cain is the one on the horse & with the hat #alden is the Small guy in chainmail and the Big guy in chainmail is cornelius #aka the two twin sources of most of cal’s recent headaches

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