Chaotic Goober

[sennedjem]

My original ‘celestial’ Gale cosplay, designed for this year’s Cosplay Met Gala at Katsucon (theme ‘Starlight and Sorcery’).

I wanted to go for a classic wizard feel - swooshy robes, draping sleeves! - and so the actual structures are fairly simple, with the detail coming out via textures and embellishment. I designed it around circles and curves to invoke celestial bodies as well as the Netherese orb, with the straight lines of the constellations providing contrast. As with all my cosplays, I wanted it to feel like clothes, not a costume - each piece able to stand on its own as a full garment; while together they are a story, each layer progressively lighter-weight as distance from the body echoes a journey towards the heavens.

First is the shirt - rich, heavy, almost constricting, bearing the weight of the embroidered orb across the chest. The forearms are bound with silver threads like strands of the Weave, the same thread that I used for the outer constellations.

Next the robe, a loose-woven blend of dark blues and purples, glimmering with metallic threads for a night sky effect. The hem is adorned with silver-trimmed circles representing the ‘endless worlds’ Gale desires to visit. The hood, sleeves, and skirt are lined with a brilliant two-toned fabric that recalls the shifting colours of an aurora.

Shirt and robe are confined by a narrow yet solid belt bearing the symbol of Mystra, meant to represent, quite literally, her ‘boundaries’. Matching pauldrons of leather and aluminium are embossed with constellations (I just really wanted to do more metal embossing, mkay?).

Over it all drapes a sheer, free-flowing mantle in the colours of the Outer Planes, glittering with hundreds of star-like beads and displaying numerous constellations. On the back is a tableau of actual Faerûnic constellations, including Mystra’s Star Circle, while the front features invented constellations meaningful to Gale’s character, such as magic missile, the Crown of Karsus, and a tressym.

I am so, so proud of this project. I can’t begin to say how much Gale means to me, but I love trying to express it through this sort of passionate creation.

[braindos]

She baldur on my gate til I uh

[drmace]

Another little comic about the companions getting acquainted with Laezel's baby dragon x) Also, I finally gave him his own tag : D

[tainebot01]

This is the funniest illustration in the entirety of Undertale and hardly anyone knows it exists.

[my-dailydreams]

[bsee3v]

got a couple requests for these two!!

[sketchtoons]

[silverselunite]

I understand Mr. Gale Dekarios is most likely intended to be read as vaguely Mediterranean-coded but still white. But have you considered that the real Mediterranean region is home to more than just white people and that whiteness does not always have to be the default and that it's fun to imagine the game having more ethnic diversity and that whiteness is a weird construct anyway especially for fantasy settings that take inspiration from historical periods where people were considered less white than they are today and that I like Mr. Gale Dekarios a lot and think it'd be cool if he wasn't fully white?

[lady-sapphyre]

[nateeseart]

[nattousan]

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

[airlocksandaviariesarchive]

2 genres of fanfiction:

1) put that guy into situations

2) take that guy OUT of situations for the love of GOD let them REST 

[ckret2]

#you put the sad guy in #you take the sad guy out #you put the sad guy in and you shake him all about

[overheardinfaerun]

I am a strong, capable wizard.

—Girl who’s going to be okay

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

writing advice that actually made my writing worse

okay but can we talk about writing advice that actually made my writing worse for a second

like not in a “this is bad advice for everyone” way in a “this absolutely sabotaged me personally” way

because ??? some of this set me BACK

1. “show don’t tell” (taken too literally) this one almost ruined my prose

i got so scared of “telling” anything that every sentence turned into… over-explained action

instead of writing:

she was nervous

i’d write:

her fingers tapped against the table, her leg bouncing, her breath uneven, her gaze flickering toward the door--

and it just KEPT GOING

like yes, showing is important but at some point you’re not “immersive” you’re just exhausting

2. “cut all adverbs” this made my writing feel so stiff it hurt

i started replacing simple phrasing with weird, clunky sentences just to avoid using one single “-ly” word

like… why am i doing gymnastics to avoid “quietly”

no one is giving out medals for adverb avoidance 😭

3. “write every day no matter what” this one burned me OUT

because instead of listening to my brain when it was fried, i forced myself to produce words i knew weren’t going anywhere

and then i’d reread it later and hate everything i wrote

which made me want to avoid writing even more

consistency matters, yes but forcing it when you’re running on fumes just trains you to associate writing with dread

4. “plan everything before you start” this killed my excitement SO fast

i’d spend weeks outlining every detail and by the time i actually started writing…

the story already felt “done” in my head

no curiosity left. no momentum.

now i leave gaps on purpose so i actually want to keep going

5. “make your writing sound pretty” this is the one that made my writing feel the most fake

i was so focused on making sentences sound “good” that i stopped focusing on what was actually happening

everything turned vague. floaty. kind of… nothing

like yeah it sounded nice but nothing hit

now i care way more about clarity and impact than sounding impressive

6. “your first draft should be terrible” okay this one is half true but also messed with my head

because i took it as: “don’t even TRY”

so i’d write things i knew weren’t working and just leave them

instead of… fixing them a little? making them better?

your draft doesn’t have to be perfect but it also doesn’t have to be painful to read 😭

idk i think the biggest thing i’ve learned is:

advice isn’t universal

what helps one writer can absolutely wreck another

so if something is making your writing worse, harder, or more miserable

you are allowed to drop it. immediately.

no guilt. no “but everyone says this works”

like okay… it doesn’t work for ME.

and that’s enough.

[techinss]

part 1

[minimanticore]

Two drawings in one day, waow

[villiedoom]

A path. A purpose. An understanding.

Two Little Shadows who became Void Gods.

Participation in their unique becoming brought me some relief, and so I wanted to draw them together ~

(For my version of Ghost, I prefer Dream No More ending and take it as my canon, while the Pantheon one is too… ambitious, all-consuming and "evil". Though I imagine they still have it as part of who they are, and so I drew them as a Void God)