Don't Worry I Know What I'm doing @giraffesnakes - Tumblr Blog

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 :')

ainawgsd

Penciled/Partridge

Penciling is a pattern of two to four black lines following the contour of the feathers on either a gold or silver (white) base. The dark brahma variety is silver penciled. In most breeds, gold penciled is called partridge. Adding blue or lavender dilution genes dilutes the black to a shade of grey. Dilution of gold in addition to the lavender gene results in a color commonly referred to as Isabel/Isabella

certifiedchickenposts

certified chicken post

penpanoply

Come. Join me in my madness.

*caveat: this works best in small sizes—anything big will probably need a more complex stitching setup, end papers, and sturdier book covers. My tiny books have been measuring about 1.5x2.2 cm, and .4 cm thick

tatck

SONIC EXPRESSION NOTES!!

Expressions.... hard to explain... but I hope this is helpful :D

mars-da-volcanic-elemental

@a-captions-blog

a-captions-blog

[OP plain text: Sonic Expression Notes!! \End PT

[Image descriptions: 1. Some unorganised notes: The corners of the mouth usually line up with the pupils. 2. Sonic characters are far more toonish, with circular heads, larger eyes and mouths. Cheeks are incredibly malleable; when you smile, they rise, and when you are sad, they fall. The toonish proportions of sonic characters can really push the eyes, but fall short areas like the cheeks. Notice how on Amy the cheek shape change is less noticeable. [Drawings show a humanoid character and a furry character. The furry character has less of a shape change when they frown.] 3. For furrowed brows, I will scrunch the face up all into one spot. The eyes and brows point towards the spot like [an arrow]. Shoulders are tense too. [Drawings show how the eyes make arrow shapes towards the centre of the face]. 4. Creases: This face is fine but it’s plain and boring. This is the same face but with creases. Now it’s got some oomph! The lower eyelids raising will also cause creases. The eyebrows pushing together will form creases between them. Having a mirror is handy for figuring out face creases & faces in general. [Drawings show two versions of a furry face, with the second one having the described creasing under the eyes. A small hand mirror is in the corner.] Tears: I draw a bunch of blobs and then rub out the lines inside. And then smooth it a little. Curve around the cheeks. [Drawing shows the creased face from above with a close up of how the tears are formed and a greyed version showing the tears curving around the face.]

5. Practise: Draw a bunch of smiley faces. Include two dots for the pupils, and then add eyebrows and a mouth. Doing expressions this is way is usually gonna turn out as very unserious. But it can be pretty fun. Copy + paste and then lower the opacity. I am tracing almost exactly over the smiley faces, but fixing the headshape. It’ll probably look ridiculous, so don’t worry about being on model or anything. I’ts just an exercise. Okay, you might have to tone one or two down a little. [Drawings show examples with various expressions on a furry character.] You can try drawing the smiley faces with full eyes, but their placement will likely make it hard to work with. I don’t like drawing them this way but maybe it’ll work better for you. You can get some real goofy faces. [Drawings show the same process as above with fully-drawn eyes] 6. Expression sheet. I used Amy here as she is a very expressive person, but for different characters I would express them differently. There are many ways to express a single emotion, these are just examples of a few ways to do so. I’d suggest having a go at drawing emotions with growing strength too, I found it pretty interesting to do myself. While this is a facial expresison sheet, I included the torse to demonstrate how facial expressions work with them. No Amys were harmed in the making of this. [Drawings show a happy expression from mild to extreme. Mild says: ‘Upturn mouth, cheeks pushed up, larger pupils, upturn lower eyelids, upturn brows.’ Medium says, ‘Mouth corners push into cheeks, lower eyelids raise, bigger smile, push cheeks.’ Strong says, ‘Eyes shit together from laughing, open mouth.’ Extreme says, ‘Eyebrows pushing up will cause creasing, Large smile laugh, Red cheeks, Tears can form with any intense emotion.’ 7. Examples of the same character in different emotions. The first is sad. Mild says, ‘Enlarged pupils, eyelids droop, shoulders droop, lips push together.’ Medium says, ‘Eyebrows creasing, big wet eyes.’ Strong says, ‘Ears droop, holding back so shoulders tense, bottom lip pushes up.’ Extreme says, ‘A full on sob is gonna be painful looking, big eyebrow creases, that’s where the pait is at, There is usually a snotty nose when crying, big open mouth, wailing.’ The second is scared. Mild says, ‘Smaller pupils, moth opens, raised shoulders, eyebrows lower & upturn.’ Medium says, ‘Quills bristle, ears down, A lot of people sweat when they are scared.’ Strong says, ‘Big wide eyes, crease, Pupils will show eratic movement, looking for danger.’ Extreme says, ‘Lean away, creases, more sweat.’ The third is angry. Mild says, ‘Lower eyelids raise while the eyebrows lower, which squishes the eyes, Mouth downturns.’ Medium says, ‘Ears start to twist back, raised shoulders, raised top lip, shoulders stance up, eyebrows lower more, overlap eyes.’ Stong says, ‘Head tilts down for that intense glare, quills bristle, grinding teeth, eyebrows really push together which causes creases.’ Extreme says, ‘Eyes will go all veiny when angry because blood or something, Veins on your forehead can pop out too, Bug eyed, eye veins.’ \End descriptions]

deseos-de-la-via-lactea

source

utah-mountain-drifter-deactivat

ikimaru

I was gonna draw something more serious but sometimes u just gotta draw memes

thecollectibles

Cats painting studies by Paul Rabaud

moringmark

#the owl house #toh #toh spoilers

forzamentis

Fantastic hands references by the website Hong14cafe.

Hong14cafe: Facebook | Forum

badass-art-tutorials

Hand reference yessss!!

Do people know this is the husband of the prime minister of New Zealand

creekfiend

And who is the guy burying him in the sand

prokopetz

A thing that bothers me about wizard schools in popular media – outside of the magic-grade-school stuff, anyway – is that they're typically depicted as being basically magic universities, but their actual curricula and pedagogical approaches look much more like those of a technical institution. Like, buddy, that's not a wizard university, that's a wizard trade school. You can't just slap university student culture on top of trade school pedagogy. It doesn't work like that – the one emerges from the other!

prokopetz

"Well ACTUALLY wizards are" wizards are made up. They can be analogous to whatever real-world class or vocation the author wants. Wizard-school-as-university and wizard-school-as-technical-institute are both perfectly fine; what I am grumping about is wizard-school media that doesn't seem to have a clear picture of how different sorts of educational institutions actually operate.

da-boy-o-kultur

Okay but now I really want to know what a Wizard technician would look like. Would he wear magical overalls with all kinds of reagents and magic tools sticking out of his numerous pockets?

A guy like that walks into your tower with a toothpick in his mouth, takes one look at your summoning circle and goes

“I see yer problem. You used chalk B12 instead of S3. B12 is only for transmutation circles. Gimme a sec I think I have a piece somewhere here.”

He fixes your circle, test summons an imp and goes.

“There ya go. Fit as a fiddle.”

ruckuscauser

“It’s the chalk.”

“The chalk? I always use that chalk, it’s never been a problem.”

“Ah - yes. This stuff will work just fine for most circles, but, uh - here, take a look with my loupe. You see the off-color flecks? Can’t hardly see them with the naked eye, but those are impurities. Silicates, might even be some iron in here, to be honest. Usually won’t cause a problem, but - you said you hadn’t tried this particular summons before?”

“First time trying a 5th level, yeah.”

“Those silicates will make your scribing a little fuzzy when viewed from the astral plane. You see, for example, these three fine lines here? With this chalk, on the astral that looks like one thick line with fuzzy edges. They can’t tell exactly what you want, and they’re picky lil’ critters so they just won’t do anything in response.”

“Really? Oh. I always thought the expensive chalk was just fancy to be fancy.”

“Making pure chalk is difficult, you need a dedicated production line or dust gets in the finished product. To be honest, you don’t need to bother with it for most things, but 5th and up, 5th level and up, it actually is necessary. Anything with lines within about two millimeters of each other.”

“So I need to start over?”

“Unfortunately yes. You’ll have to erase all this, but with some good chalk it should work just fine. Next new moon your summons should go off without a hitch.”

“Dang. At least it’s not my sigils, I was worried it was my sigils.”

“Nah Your sigils look good. Even and balanced. You know what you’re doing, it’s just an equipment problem.”

“Thanks for the help, sorry to make you come all the way out here.”

“No problem! It’s my job.”

curly-croissant

Ok adding my own prev tags bc now I RLY want a story where the first book is university shenanigans but then at the end of the first book the applied school really does rip open the universe and in the second book the group that did it has to team up with the two theory nerds who came up with the original concept and there are bitter rivalries there that eventually turns into an enemies to lovers love triangle that eventually turns into a giant polycule that saves the universe through the power of gay love and scientific magic

pacificnorthwestdoodles

National Parks Service Crochet Patterns:

FISH

Walleye Crochet Pattern (U.S. National Park Service)

Halibut Crochet Pattern (U.S. National Park Service)

GEOLOGY

Lava Flow Crochet Pillow (U.S. National Park Service)

INVERTEBRATES

Triops Crochet Pattern (U.S. National Park Service)

veresfika

day 19(?): boredom got way worse, trying to make myself a victorian friend

veresfika

gained conciousness, not ashamed to show some tits

veresfika

no more bare tits

veresfika

oh shit a bow

veresfika

having a moment

veresfika

🎶sleeves sleeves sleeves makin puffsleeves gonna look like french meringue doesnt even rhyme at all not even a little bit🎵 shhhh shhhh go away kitty

veresfika

aight folks that’s it for today i have some booing to do at the tv about some shitty and inaccurate costumes

veresfika

good morning sluts, back to work

veresfika

fellas im straight up not having a good time im in the middle of a lil meltdown over how much time i’ve spent sewing roses on my skirt before realizing they were anuses (or ani like cacti? 🤔)

veresfika