KrisCynical

ABOUT ME ▫ Illustrator & Colorist ▫ ▫ BFA Ringling School ▫ ▫ My Art ▫ ▫ Print Orders ▫ ▫ 40s ▫ ace af ▫ ▫ she/her ▫ Mainly into The Legend of Zelda, Inuyasha, and Yuri on Ice, with a smattering of Outlander. Fanart maker person in between professional work. "The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." --Robert Hughes

[kriscynical]

Foolish, Foolish Girl

From "Calm Waters Run Deep" chapter 8 by @themarydragon on Ao3:

I reached up with my left hand and took a handful of his tunic, grounding myself with his faith. I pressed my face into his chest and took a moment to praise everything, past or present, that had existed to bring this man into my life. “What would I do without you?” “With some luck, you’ll never have to know. My life is yours, Princess.” I felt the last thin thread of resist snap, and the fight went out of me. I loved him. Damn it, damn me, damn him, damn everything to the cold oblivion from which Ganon sprang, I loved him. It was the single most foolish, ignorant, inconvenient thing I could have done, but there it was. I loved him. I loved him. Shit, shit, shit.

Zelda scolds herself as a "fool/foolish girl" several times throughout Trouble the Water when it comes to her feelings for Link, and this was the most foolish thing of all.

LinkTree: kriscynical

[kriscynical]

[kriscynical]

Witchcraft

I've been told my coloring process from flat to finished is "witchcraft" by people who are privy to my progress shots as I work, so I decided to make a gif showing all of the layers that go into how I color/shade flesh and hair. Hopefully it's kinda neat-o.

From "Foolish, Foolish Girl" (obviously).

LinkTree: kriscynical

[kriscynical]

Foolish, Foolish Girl

From "Calm Waters Run Deep" chapter 8 by @themarydragon on Ao3:

I reached up with my left hand and took a handful of his tunic, grounding myself with his faith. I pressed my face into his chest and took a moment to praise everything, past or present, that had existed to bring this man into my life. “What would I do without you?” “With some luck, you’ll never have to know. My life is yours, Princess.” I felt the last thin thread of resist snap, and the fight went out of me. I loved him. Damn it, damn me, damn him, damn everything to the cold oblivion from which Ganon sprang, I loved him. It was the single most foolish, ignorant, inconvenient thing I could have done, but there it was. I loved him. I loved him. Shit, shit, shit.

Zelda scolds herself as a "fool/foolish girl" several times throughout Trouble the Water when it comes to her feelings for Link, and this was the most foolish thing of all.

LinkTree: kriscynical

[kriscynical]

Another new Zelink piece from Calm Waters Run Deep is currently time testing to make sure it's finished. It should go up within the next couple days... I'm super excited about keeping the art ball rolling!

[kriscynical]

wait Ringling COLLEGE??? i went there! I know you said in your post the professor didnt die, but is whoever it is still doing ok?

Yes, although back in 2007 when my dinosaur ass graduated it was still Ringling SCHOOL of Art and Design. I was actually a part of the last class to graduate from Ringling School, from the illustration department.

I was talking about my Illustration prof, Mike Hodges. I'm assuming he's still alive and well since the only information I could find about an artist who had passed was a Michael Hodges who was black ("my" Mike is white and only ever went by Mike, not Michael).

Hodges has never had much of an internet presence to speak of since he worked through an agent and was established enough by the time I was studying under him to not even need an agent anymore; he just had all of the contacts himself. I found a facebook post from 2020 that was a portrait of Hodges where Dunnick mentioned he had retired in 2019 in the comments, but other than that I can't find anything current about him.

I receive Contxt every time Ringling publishes an issue for alumni, and I can't imagine they wouldn't have at least had an article or announcement on their website or SOMETHING if one of their well respected profs had passed away.

Either way, Hodges had a profound impact on my work and I always respected the hell out of him, so I was very upset when I thought he had passed so long ago and I hadn't known.

Nice to see another Ringling alum in the wild! :)

[kriscynical]

Mom of the Wild: Finale

She did it, y'all.

Right after Christmas this past year Mom of the Wild decided to start over on BotW after 5+ years away from it, DETERMINED to do everything by herself with zero controller input help from me. In her previous playthrough I was helping her with difficult things like the blights, but this time she wanted to do it all herself so she could SAY that she did it all herself.

And she just did.

Her final count was 295 hours... and she only got stepped on by Dark Beast Ganon once.

I did not know you could be stepped on by Dark Beast Ganon. lol

She has some loose ends to tie up in postgame still, ofc, like the last 25 or so koroks that are around the castle proper (yes, she's only a handful of seeds away from joining me in the 900 club!), getting the monster medals from Kilton, buying a hand full of pictures that she can no longer get for the compendium on her own because she didn't start filling it in until WAY late in the game, and finishing up a couple side quests... but otherwise? She beat the game. Dark Beast is dusted and the credits rolled with all memories and all 120 shrines completed. And the only help I gave her for any of it was verbal.

I'm so proud.

She has a Switch 2 sitting on the coffee table right now (a stupidly early Christmas gift that she wanted before prices possibly go up) that I'll set up for her as soon as she's done with her 100% file and ready to start over (which will be immediately after she finishes her 100%), at which time she'll use the second save slot function on the Switch 2 edition of BotW along with learning how to use Zelda Notes. She's very excited about the item box and what all she'll be able to import from her current playthrough into her next.

She's not going to 100% it again but she wants to play through it a couple more times before moving on to TotK. She already had me find the soft cover Piggyback guidebooks for both Breath and Tears because she wanted copies for herself instead of borrowing mine.

And she wants a custom Switch 2 pro controller from Colorware engraved with Mom of the Wild with the remainder of her Christmas money when Christmas actually gets here.

I think she is officially a gamer now. She sure as hell is officially a Zelda player!

Catch up on the saga:

Mom of the Wild: Part I & II

Mom of the Wild: Part III

A Mom of the Wild Moment

Mom of the Wild: Part IV

Mom of the Wild: Part V

Mom of the Wild: Part VI

Mom of the Wild: Part VII

Mom of the Wild: Part VIII

Mom of the Wild: Part IX

[kriscynical]

That was EVIL.

As if I didn't already despise AI enough, the AI results Google shoves in your face just made me believe one of my favorite professors from Ringling died when I tried looking him up randomly after a story involving him came up at the dinner table tonight. He was one of two teachers I had in college who meant the world to me.

He doesn't have that unusual of a name so I think the AI pulled from ANOTHER artist/illustrator by the same name who passed away in 2021 and mashed it together with the information I KNOW is true about my prof. He retired in 2019 but I'm certain that Ringling would have made some sort of announcement if one of their highly regarded professors of nearly 30 years passed away.

It is shocking how instantaneously I was DEVASTATED for a solid 20 minutes until I couldn't find outside confirmation and figured out wtf was going on with the AI result.

Fuck you, Google AI. You legitimately made me cry and now I'm exhausted.

[nikaalexandra]

OKAY SIT DOWN SHUT UP, WE’RE GONNA TALK COLORS

THIS IS SAPPHIRE

THIS IS TEAL

THIS IS PERIWINKLE

THIS IS AZURE

 AND THIS IS TURQUOISE

WONDER WHY THOSE ALL DON’T LOOK LIKE THE SAME COLOR? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT 

OTHER THAN BEING PART OF THE SAME FAMILY OF BLUES, THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! WHY WOULD THEY ALL BE THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! DO YOU THINK WE JUST NAME NEW COLORS FOR KICKS!?!?!?

WHEN DESCRIBING A CHARACTER’S GOD FORSAKEN EYE COLOR, PICK ONE YA GODDAMN HIPPIE

[sohnderleere-deactivated2018072]

As someone who is colourblind this post is fucking hilarious because they are in fact all the same fucking colour

[diogenes420]

things heating up in the fuckin uuhhhhhhhhh BLUE fandom 

[fangirltothefullest]

So uh….. fun fact about turquoise

They come in varying degrees of blue and green.

[averruncusho]

THIS IS TUMBLR

[icarus-suraki]

[whenistillgaveadamn]

@hellsite-hall-of-fame

[kriscynical]

Y'all

In the last 5 weeks I've posted four new pieces, three of them fully finished color. And I have ideas for more. I hesitantly want to say I'm back on my bullshit and I don't know how to explain how fucking huge that is for me.

I'm also exercising 5-6 times a week for 45 minutes going hard enough to get a good sweat going with my heart rate up, and I've severely cut back on caffeine to the point that I go days without having any at all. I used to have it every single day. I've been militant about taking my anxiety meds and I've been completely off of my antidepressants for almost a year.

I haven't felt this good in such a long time.

[kriscynical]

Comfortable and Drowsy

From "Calm Waters Run Deep" chapter 7 by @themarydragon on Ao3:

I stayed there for Goddess-knows-how-long, breathing in the wild scent of him and watching the horses’ ears flick as they browsed on the lush greens. The realization slowly dawned on me that Link’s hand had gone limp against my shoulder, his breathing slow and deep. He was asleep. Flat on his back, my head on his shoulder, his arm draped over me, the sunshine bright on his face, he was asleep. What was it he had said, when I had asked him where he slept? Wherever he feels comfortable and drowsy, it was. He was comfortable. Here, in this moment, with me. He was comfortable. I carefully lifted the Sheikah slate, turning it on as I moved, and held it one-handed in the air over us. I could see his eyes shifting beneath his gently closed lids; he was dreaming. His face seemed simultaneously much younger and far too old; the cares were gone, but the lines and scars were much easier to see, this close. And, oh, we were so close. I twisted the Slate a bit so we were both framed in the image and then hit the button to capture it.

LinkTree: kriscynical

[the-polyhedron]

How many people’s most beloved childhood stuffed animals are actually teddy bears, like I feel like that’s a thing someone made up. Reblog this and put what your longest owned and/or favorite stuffed animal as a child was in the tags, inquiring minds want to know

[iridescent-birds]

ok I wanna make a poll now

What was your most beloved plushie as a child?

Bear

Dog

(Domestic) cat

Big cat

Equine (horse/zebra/donkey)

Rabbit/bunny

Sheep/lamb

Sea creature

Other domesticated animal

Other wild animal

Fantasy creature

Not an animal

Voting ended onApr 15

(I know this isn't the most even way to represent animal groups but I tried to go off of what I saw mentioned most in the notes)

Reblogs for sample size appreciated!

[scorebug]

height check. how tall are you people in my phone

[kriscynical]

May the 4th Be With You

[kriscynical]

About three weeks ago a new high brow seafood steakhouse restaurant opened literally within walking distance of my house. The city I live in doesn't (or didn't) have any fine dining places since they're all either in Dallas or downtown Ft. Worth, leaving a bit of a desert in the space between. Their reviews have been glowing, so I went there for lunch yesterday with my parents as a test run to see if they want to have their anniversary dinner there in August since it will be their 60th.

Food? Phenomenal. Service? Stellar. Atmosphere? Fantastic. And unintentionally amusing.

The walls were covered in random framed pieces of art with eclectic light fixtures. After we were seated and ordered, my mom pointed to one picture in particular. "What is that of? Is it just an abstract piece?"

The one on the right, obviously. At first I wanted to agree that it was just an abstract piece, but then I really started to look at it.

Then I took a picture of it with my phone.

Then I turned my phone clockwise by 90°.

They hung the picture in the wrong damn direction. It's a pond covered in lilly pads. I guess they didn't notice the signature in the corner. I started laughing and then showed my parents my discovery.

When the server came back to check on us I told him that it might seem like kind of a weird thing to say, but I was an artist for a living and couldn't help but notice that... um... one of their pictures was hung the wrong way. He looked surprised. "Really? Which one??"

I pointed out which one. He turned his head to the side and again said, "Really...?"

"Yes. See here?" I showed him the picture on my phone. "It looks abstract, but if you just rotate it like this...."

I could see the moment it registered with him. He gasped and clapped both hands over his mouth to stifle his laughter, "OH MY GOSH!!! You're right! NO WONDER I could never figure out what that one was of!! I'm going to leave it that way until the owner comes in tonight! Oh that is SO FUNNY!! What a great catch!"

It's been hanging the wrong way for three weeks. When we go back in August for my parents' anniversary dinner, we're going to see if they turned it the right direction. I wish I could have been there when he pointed it out to the owner, though. lol

[kriscynical]

Seeing all of the AI slop on deviantART I have to resist the urge to reply to the dingbats in the comments saying things like, "You paint such pretty pictures!"

They didn't paint shit, my guy. They typed words into a machine to make it vomit out a picture for them to hold up as though they actually did something. That's why the left hand looks like an amoeba.

[kriscynical]

Coming Home

The first night home post-TotK... Link has some trauma to work through now that he's got his safe place back after thinking she was gone forever. You can't turn off grief like a light switch.

Details-wise I think he'd be left with some permanent discoloration with that new arm. It would also be the only part of him without any scars, since it would be brand new.

My boy has been through the wringer. :(

LinkTree: kriscynical detail shot: