Art blog

taking requests

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New year new messed up attempt at drawing this snuff coloured little man with his round head and tinted glasses

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I’m unwell about the fact that the next act comes out tomorrow and that the last time we saw Vi it was like this.

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Conviced that Stephen is a brooding smoker of his little paper cigars

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Convinced that she went straight to the bar after trying days of godfathering Warlock

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I got the unstoppable urge to draw this darling so I made some sketches of our dear William Bush!

[goingtoweather]

Hello!

I just came across your webcomic and it’s really great so far, and you are such a talented artist!

I myself work with sailing tall ships, mainly square-riggers, so I’m really excited about a new comic on that topic!

Now I don’t know what knowledge you have of the actual sailing part, so I apologise in advance if I’m being rude here, but since you seem to have truly researched the topic in general I couldn’t help but notice some sailing things that don’t really work out. I totally understand if this is just your artistic choice, it personally doesn’t put me off in any way but I just thought that IF you need or want some tips on that I would gladly help. Sorry again if I’m being rude here, I thought that maybe you would be interested in some feedback, if not, then I’m sorry!

Anyway, I’m really exited about reading your comic, it’s so nice of you to share it online!

Thank you!

And HAAAA I am an Absolute Landsman; every time I draw a ship I’m like ’shhhh sailors don’t look at my rigging shhh’.

I’d absolutely take some tips on parsing key structures! For simplicity’s sake / ease of visual reads I‘m not about to draw every line, but if you’d say there are particular shapes that feel most necessary to highlight/prioritize I’d love to hear it so I can better untangle the references I’m working with. Thank you for your offer!

[mreijal]

If you feel like it you should definitely try sailing some tall ships, I can greatly recommend it! Here are some things I think could be nice to have in mind without getting too much into details:

I’m not a native English speaker so I apologise in advance for my english, sailing terms, spelling and grammar alike. I’m no super-sailor either, my experience is only from working on a couple different square-riggers, so if anyone thinks anything sound a bit off, feel free to comment!

1. Normally a sail would be furled/get furled as quickly as possible if not in use, also when staying in harbour. Unfurled but clewed up sails look very nice, but normally this only occurs while drying it. Otherwise protecting it from sun, wind and rain is an important priority. With that said, unfurled ones look nice, so draw whatever you like!

2. Setting and taking in sail happens from the deck, though some clewlines may be on the lowest platform. It’s the furling and unfurling (and taking a reef) that happens on the yards. And then you would do that standing on a footrope.

3. When sails are taken in the yards are lowered. The exception to this being courses and lower topsails. Otherwise the yards of sails that are not set rest in their topping lifts just above the platforms under them. A set sail on the other hand is hoisted, and then the yard is positioned right under platform above.

4. At the time that your story takes place the concept of upper and lower topsails is introduced. So I think some of the ships could have that if you’d like. Though you might want to double check that with a historian. In that case the upper topsail yard is to be hoisted when setting the sail, while the lower is fixed like the courses. When the upper topsail yard is down, it’s very close to the lower topsail yard.

5. When setting sail a thumb rule is to do so from fore to aft, bottom to top. Topsails and jibs tend to go first though, not the forcourse, and especially the maincourse doesn’t always have a high priority when setting sails (especially on a brig where the spanker and maincourse share the same mast). When taking in sails it’s the opposite way around . Wanting to have more sail forward is for stability. It’s not the whole story, but you could compare it to dragging an object. It follows easier if you do so from the front, while it can wiggle if you do so from the middle or back, the same goes with ships.

6. When drawing a sailing ship it’s good to think about where the wind comes from since it affects how you want to angle your yards. Generally square-sails should preferably have the wind hitting them at an angle of 30 degrees from the aft, while staysails go a bit higher. As I mentioned you would want to have more sail forward, but the spanker is an important sail when sailing by the wind (close hauled/wind comes from the forward part of the ship) since it helps with tacking. Sometimes when tacking often or having light winds, you would have it set all the time, or you set it when it’s time to tack.

When sailing large (the wind comes from the aft) it’s important to make sure that the aft sails don’t just block the wind from reaching the sails forward. So if the wind is directly from the aft you would take in the spanker, so that wind reaches the maincourse. The same problem occurs between the maincourse and the forecourse, so taking in the maincourse could be a good idea, or you can clew up half of the sail, making it a triangle shape and letting some wind through. Clewing up and furling half of a sail is also something that can be done to topsails and courses in very, very rough winds, it’s the next step after taking all the reefs to minimize sail area.

7. Both tops and bowsprit are interlocked through something I know by the name ‘donkeys’ head’ (translated directly). On later steel-masted ships the masts can be solid. On wooden ships the lowest part of the mast can often rest on the keel and ends just above the first platform above the lowest yards. Then there is a new spar for each part, topsail, t’gallant, royal and flagpole. The spars interlock so that the top spar runs paralell with the lower spar on it’s forward side for a couple of meters or decimeters depending on the size.

I hope that I managed to make myself somewhat understood. I hope that this helps, and of course there is no need of thinking too much on it if you don’t feel like it. Your ships look amazing anyway!

[mreijal]

So here is some art of poor laudanum-addicted Stephen Maturin that no one asked for. But I really wanted to draw Stephen with poppies ok?

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Stephen wears dark blue tinted glasses often enough in the books, so I shamelessly drew that using a still from the movie (when Stephen joins in the boarding of the Acheron) as a reference.

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When I describe Jack Aubrey as a character to my friends I tell them to imagine an adventurous early 19th century Royal Navy captain who is generally happy but also a goddamn expert at worrying a lot. Doing stuff like not being able to sleep, wondering if he is experiencing social anxiety or if he has just eaten too much again.

I really like Jack as a character, but I haven’t really figured out how to draw him as I imagine him so I ended up with a quick try at movie-Jack for now!

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I’ve been reading the Aubrey/Maturin series and I’ve nothing short of fallen in love with the series. As a tall ship sailor it’s been a pleasure to read and the characters are absolutely amazing and I can’t help loving them all!

I also watched the movie last week and I was really impressed with the actor who plays Stephen Maturin. I think he does a really good job at capturing his different characteristics as a doctor, natural philosopher, spy and his serious proffessionalism as well as his sillyness. So even if I haven’t drawn people in literally ages I had to give it a try to draw a couple of sketches from the movie!

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I’m just aimlessly throwing more altmal out there

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I know everybody stopped caring about these two many years ago now but I won’t ever let that stop me. Also, I haven’t drawn humans in ages so this probably looks super shitty but you could see it as a kind of mating call for altmal-shippers? Anyone of you still out there??

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Altair needs earrings big enough to match his ego. Also bb is my neverending source of shitty inspiration.

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Okay so BB wrote a new chapter for They Were Giants and wow God Altair is amazig as always and probably also evil and it is making me draw stupid fanart

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Stupid almal doodle because I will always love these two. Thou I’m not used to draw anything but floor-plans and sections at this point so this probably looks stupid (⊙‿⊙)

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Headcanon that Altair, when not wearing his actual hood, likes wearing blankets in a resembling manner.

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I saw the movie and got an instictive urge to draw assassins running about doing what they do best