Stories, Art, Star Wars, and too much D&D

Renée, early 30s, she/her ~ A collection of my art, writing, and videos ~ ~ Commissions and Art Trades OPEN  ~ CARRD Reblogs will come from reneeofthestars-reblogs

[reneeofthestars]

✨️ Meet the Artist 2026✨️

Thought it was time to update my Meet the Artist, and my birthday seemed like a great opportunity do it! Not sure how I'm already 32 - the progression of time is bizarre.

Reused the drawings of my ring and dice from the previous version, but I still really like how those look. I realize this is probably pretty wordy for a meet the ARTIST post, but so am I, so it works lol

(click on the image for better quality)

[reneeofthestars]

Kenoxi of the Vetle Coven

Coming in at the last minute with my entry for @renartspr DTIYS featuring their gorgeous Nightsister oc, Kenoxi!

Congratulations on 400 (now almost 500) followers on Instagram! Your designs are so gorgeous, and I love reading your character's lore!

[reneeofthestars]

✨️May the 4th be with you!!✨️

It's still Star Wars Day here, and while I ran out of time to shade this, I think the flats and lineart turned out pretty well.

I'll still probably make some tweaks and do some light rendering later this month. I really love seeing how my art has progressed over the years, and I'm excited to see where it ends up next!

[reneeofthestars]

Demeter Solanaeci 🌾🌺🌳

My entry for @kaelacroftart art challenge on Instagram! #sovascoven

[Click on the image for better quality]

I went through a lot of different ideas before I settled on this gardener/horticulturalist Nightsister, and I'm so happy with how she turned out!

[reneeofthestars]

Sniggles, a Kobold Paladin/Sorcerer!

As a young Kobold, Sniggles lived in a forest with his family, stealing food from local farmers. One day, Sniggles brought home some food, but when his family ate it, they fell asleep and wouldn't wake up. Determined to find a way to wake them, Sniggles struck out from home, seeking the aid of dragons.

He has devoted himself to Bahamut, and is working on establishing an order of dragon worshipers. He met the dragonborn Tyldri, and they found themselves in a far wider world than they could have imagined. Sniggles records his adventures in his homemade book, but there's a certain magic to the book that seems to draw attention...

*

The next character in my group's 5e game! Sniggles' voice sounds like Stitch, and he is rather impulsive and not very bright, but there's a lot of destiny awaiting this little kobold

[reneeofthestars]

Tyldri, Dragonborn Wildfire Druid!

Having lived her life with among the druids, Tyldri struck out on her own to find her calling. She met a small kobold reading a dragon book beneath a tree, and they've been friends ever since.

But their world is dangerous, ruled by a overlord who has little care for the common folk. It's not until Tyldri and her kobold friend come across a group claiming to be time-travellers that they realize perhaps this isn't the world that was destined for them...

*

A D&D 5e player character from my group's Saturday campaign!

Since I finished the initial 8 pcs last March, we've had 2 players leave, and 6 new people join, so our current party total is 12. I want everyone to have art of their characters, so now I just have 5 more to draw!

[reneeofthestars]

Zenya Mwagna, Shepherd of Dathomir

Art trade with @jazaesis featuring her gorgeous Nightsister oc, Zenya! Thank you so much for letting me draw her 💛

[reneeofthestars]

"The Force is with you, Eldrin Ky-Sea."

My contribution to a super fun collab featuring @thetulipskyber 's Padawan OC, Eldrin! Thank you again so much for letting me draw your boy 💛

I chose to draw the day Masters Yoda and Windu came to Eldrin's homeworld to appraise his Force abilities, and accepted him into the Jedi Order.

[reneeofthestars]

My DTIYS entry for @halietto challenge!

Congrats on 200 (now 300) folowers!! Rheyka's design is so gorgeous, she's so much fun to draw✨️

[reneeofthestars]

Happy Ahsoka day!! 🤍🧡💙

Ahsoka and The Clone Wars fandom is the reason I started teaching myself to draw. I'd always doodled in notebook margins, but hadn't considered it an actual hobby.

I'd already graduated college by the time I sat down to watch The Clone Wars for the first time, and I was immediately hooked. I found on online community through the tumblr page celebrate-the-clone-wars (at the time called finish-the-clone-wars), which was open and friendly, and encouraged art and fic from fans of all skill levels. It was that support that drove me to attempt my first-ever fanart: a color pencil drawing of Ahsoka.

Ahsoka's amazing design was a huge inspiration as I began teaching myself how to draw, a comforting character that I was familiar with and would draw time and time again. And as I've grown as an artist, I have enjoyed watching the growth of this character, Ahsoka's exploration of herself, the galaxy, and the Force. She truly did serve as a catalyst for my lasting love of this fandom and a galaxy far far away.

Now, the progression of my art can be traced through my drawings of Ahsoka. I may go through periods of not drawing her, but it's always a delight to return to my roots. I'm still progressing as an artist, and I can't wait to see how Ahsoka's story continues. 🤍🧡💙

[reneeofthestars]

"Hi, Artoo. It's been a while."

My entry for @madsayo 3k DTIYS on Instagram!! Congratulations on your milestone!! 💛

First art of 2026!! I had so much fun with this piece! It's been ages since I've drawn Ahsoka, and it's always nice to come back to her. Though I once again had to face that droids and geometric shapes are very difficult for me to draw lol

[reneeofthestars]

Year in review 2025

Summary of Art, Art vs. Artist

I've made a lot of great progress with my art this year. In particular, leaps and bounds were made in learning to render fabrics, and I'm starting to play around a bit more with shading and lighting. For next year, I want to experiment with other styles; push perspective, poses, and expressions; and draw more of my own characters.

Here's to 2026!!💛

[reneeofthestars]

"Castle of Glass"

Teyla Marin has spent more time in the Room of a Thousand Fountains than any other place in the Jedi Temple. As a Padawan, she and her master would spend countless hours sparring barefoot in the grass, meditating in the alcoves behind waterfalls, picnicking beneath the trees. It was peace. Even after Master Sifo-Dyas’s death, this place has been a comfort, a place to get away from –

War. Destruction. Death. It surrounds her; the screams of troopers pierce her heart, plumes of smoke choke her, the roar of battle deafens her, but she shuts it out. She needs to focus. Battle Mediation requires all her concentration as she connects all the Republic forces under her command through the Force, allowing them to act as a single entity. Blasterbolts crackle past her head. She finds her Padawan, the clone troopers, brings them all together, each a star burning brightly in a constellation in the night sky –

Consumed by the dark. The Force is screaming, and one by one Jedi across the galaxy die. She reaches out, exhausted, despair clutching her, and tries to pull them all together in the Force. For a moment, it works, and the Jedi gain strength as they hold on to each other. But then a great darkness strikes back against her, stronger than she ever will be, and shatters her mediation, and as she tumbles into nothing, a familiar face, warped and gleeful, cackles as she realizes all is –

Lost. She doesn’t know how long she’s been hiding in the lower levels of Coruscant. She doesn't know where her Padawan is. She doesn’t remember sneaking onto the transport’s cargo hold. She doesn’t even know where the ship is going. All she knows is that she is alive, because the grief would not be so all-consuming if she weren’t.

song: "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park

[reneeofthestars]

The Void Calls

The Void Calls - ReneeoftheStars - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

Summary:

The crew of the Vessel discuss scary old spacers' tales about the depths of space, including Starweirds, Abeloth, and the void itself.

I am so happy to share the piece I wrote for @spookystarwarszine , a Halloween-themed fan magazine of all Star Wars eras! I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to write a short story for this wonderful zine. The word count had to be cut for publication in the zine; this is the uncut version.

Word Count: 1,778

* * *

Leox Gyasi shut off the takeoff cycle with a flick of his wrist. “You want to talk about things like Starweirds, you do it while we’re still planet-side, Little Bit.”

“You’re not one of those superstitious types, are you?” Affie Hollow spun around in the co-pilot chair, eyeing the other Human with exasperation, choosing to ignore the new moniker. She’d only been travelling with this small crew for a few months, and while she enjoyed her time with them, she thought it was undignified to have such a childish nickname. She was fifteen, after all.

Around them, the Vessel whined as its engines powered down, its hull creaking as it settled back onto its landing struts. Their navigator, Geode – a Vintian who forgave those who mistook him for a boulder – relaxed at his station, recognizing that his talents wouldn’t be needed right away.

Leox smiled. “All pilots are superstitious. We are but tiny insects in combustible metal cans drifting through the endless void. We employ superstitions to feel like we can keep ourselves safe, and one of those long-held beliefs is to not invoke something in its home territory. So if you want to talk about the unknown galaxy, we’re going to do it with solid ground beneath us.”

Affie rolled her eyes as she began to wind her thick dark hair back into a plait. “An old-timer at the loading dock claimed he saw a Starweird. I just wondered if either of you had ever come across one.”

“I count myself as very fortunate not to have.”

“So they do exist, then? Scover said they’re just old spacers tales.” 

“Scover’s a shrewd woman,” Leox pointed out. “She has a mind for business and profit, which serves the Byne Guild well. But that doesn’t lend itself to believe in much other than cold hard credits. And Starweirds are intangible in nearly every sense of the word.” 

Affie thought about the desperate way the old Zabrak had described that day in the middle of space. How as the navicomputer counted down, a ghostly form manifested in the blackness of space. How the creature’s emaciated body raised its gnarled claws towards the hull of the ship, stringy white hair drifting around its head, pinpricks of light serving as eyes. How its gaunt face split as it let out a horrid scream that tore through the vacuum and pierced his head like rending metal. He’d clapped his hands over his ears, to no avail, his own screams and sobs drowned out by the wail that rattled around his skull, white-hot and hateful. If it hadn’t been for his droid activating the hyperdrive, the old spacer had whispered, his skull would have split open from the pain and fear, or else he would have been torn limb from limb by the claws that closed around his ship.

“The pilot just seemed very … certain.”

“It was real to him. Personally, if – and I stress if – such creatures exist, my theory is that Starweirds are born of the discord of The Mother.” 

“What mother?” Affie asked, tossing the completed plait over her shoulder.

“The Mother.” He shivered. “Now that’s an old spacer’s tale. You haven’t heard it?”

Affie shook her head, intrigued. It didn’t escape her notice that Geode had gone very still, turning a stern glare at Leox. She asked curiously, “Do you not like scary stories, Geode?”

“Vintians have long memories,” Leox explained. “They think that all stories have some measure of truth at their core, so more unpleasant stories make them uneasy.”

Geode said nothing, but clearly seemed perturbed at whatever was to come.   

Leox leaned back in the pilot’s seat, running a hand through his tousled blond hair as he thought. “Deep in Pyke territory, nestled within the Kessel sector, lies the Maw,” he began. “A cluster of the biggest black holes the galaxy has ever seen, all caught in each other’s orbit – a whirlpool of annihilation that will tear apart anything that strays off-course. And at its heart, deep in the dark void where atoms themselves are crushed, a god is imprisoned.”

“A god?” Leox sometimes went on philosophical ramblings about the spirituality of the galaxy, but he didn’t often speak of actual higher powers. Affie didn’t have any beliefs about the intangible herself, and didn’t have much knowledge about any of the hundreds of thousands of religions across the galaxy.

“The Beloved Queen of the Stars. The Mother. Abeloth.” He tapped against four of the beads on one of his necklace strands. Another superstition, Affie guessed.  “A terrible and tragic omen. Worthy of pity, but fearsome, and to be avoided at all cost.”

Affie waited.

“In the age of old civilizations, a trio of gods created entire systems, entire species, such was their power. In most tales, these Architects were a brother and sister who were in constant competition with one another, and a father who kept peace between them.

“Among their most devoted servants was a woman. Just a mortal woman, her birth name lost to the eons, nothing special about her – except for the overwhelming love she developed for these celestial beings. She came to think of herself as their mother, the final fourth member of their little family, calming the squabbling children and comforting their father. Her love for them knew no bounds. But after decades of devotion, she grew old, as us mere mortals do. Her death loomed, and fear of losing her family gripped her, driving her to desperate ends.

“In some tales, she drank from a fountain, in others she bathed in a pool, others she stood before a great celestial body and absorbed its radiation. In others she performed a ritual of long-forgotten magic, and in others she plunged an ancient dagger into her own heart. No matter how she did it, the end result is the same: she succeeded in claiming immortality – and unfathomable power.

“This displeased the gods greatly. They could not control her, could not reason with her. No mortal was ever meant to be exposed to such power, and it came at a terrible price – it drove her mad. She became an unpredictable, thrashing tempest – lashing out one moment, tenderly caressing the next. She tried to mother not just the gods, but all life; and when she was disobeyed, she would rampage, massacring entire worlds in her fits of discordant rage.

“To restore some semblance of order to the galaxy, the Architects fashioned the Maw, and with their combined powers trapped their would-be mother inside. But even the cacophony of black holes could not destroy her. 

“Nothing escapes a black hole – no ship, no creature, no light. But Abeloth was so terrible in her power, she could not be fully contained. It’s said she still lingers there, in a realm beyond shadows, mad with love and hate; despising her children for imprisoning her, longing to protect and comfort them. She whispers from the dark crevasses of the galaxy, coiling through the dreams of her victims, crooning for her children to come free her.” 

A long silence met Leox’s story. Affie realized she was gnawing on her lip, a slightly queasy feeling in her gut. “She gave up everything to be with them,” she said quietly, strangely moved. “Did they even love her back?”

“Do stars give us warmth and light because they love us? Does a moon’s gravitational pull indicate their protection? While preoccupied by the shifting tides of the galaxy at large, I don’t know that a cosmic being is capable of managing the intensity of emotions – especially one as all-consuming as love.”

Affie wasn’t sure what to make of that idea. “So,” she said, thinking, “you think that the Starweirds are… manifestations of the Mother calling out?”

Leox nodded. “Shrieking wights that drift aimlessly through space, thrown into a murderous craze when they happen across those who they perceive to challenge them. The similarities have always struck me. It’s why I try to never take jobs in deep space, or anywhere near the Maw.”

Affie drummed her fingers against the armrest of her chair. “You… you don’t really think it’s true though. Right?”

He busied himself by checking a gauge on the control console. “I knew a fellow years ago,” he said eventually. “A hauler with an uncanny piloting ability that would put a Jedi to shame. When he was out on jobs, travelling near the Unknown Regions and deep space, he’d have terrible nightmares. Swore that his mother – who’d passed some years before – came to him in dreams, pleading for him to come find her. And one day, while running a shipment through Pyke space, he disappeared. His last transmission… well, all we could make out was that his mother was calling, and he had to get to her. We never found him or his ship.”

The hair on Affie’s arms stood up, an involuntary shiver running down her back. “What about you, Geode?” she asked, trying to be lighthearted. “You got any scary spacer stories you want to share?” Affie asked.

Geode didn’t respond right away. His silence stretched for seconds, then seconds more, longer and longer, and uncertainty crept into the edges of Affie’s mind. The silence lengthened, bore down on her, growing heavy as her thoughts drifted to the silence of space. The endless emptiness, dwarfing all that existed, ever-hungry and insatiable. It loomed, pressing in on all sides of life’s safe little bubbles, watching, waiting for beings to dare stray from the carefully mapped paths, waiting to swallow any who drifted too far and lost themselves in the vast darkness, denying any dignity of a final scream. 

There was no need to fill the void with monsters – its mere existence was horror enough. 

Leox shuddered. “You made your point, my friend.” 

The silence broke like a spell, and Affie pulled herself back to the here and now, safe in the Vessel, on solid ground. She looked out the cockpit up at the blue sky. But beyond that, she couldn’t help her imagination as it conjured some great terror with pinprick stars for eyes and wild white hair grinning down at her with a too-wide toothy smile. Her mouth went dry. “Maybe…maybe we stay on-world for another day. We passed a little cantina that I wanted to try.” 

Leox keyed in a signal to the spaceport’s control tower, letting them know of their plans to postpone takeoff. “Whatever you say, Little Bit.” Affie ignored the nickname, because she thought he sounded relieved. 

Affie did love space, and the freedom of flying, and the adventures of traveling the stars. But at the moment, she needed some distance from the waiting void.

[reneeofthestars]

Halloween may be over, but I'm now able to share the art piece I did for the OC Costume Parade for @spookystarwarszine !

I'm so grateful that they allowed me to be a part of such a fun zine concept! Not only did I have the opportunity to write a short story for the zine (which will be posted sometime this week!), but the mods also let me draw my ocs 💛

Costumes: Mark, Teyla, and Gida - the Three Musketeers Naras Tyn - pirate Lethaa Daal - vampire

[reneeofthestars]

Inktober 2025 - part 8, the finale! 🎉

Day 29: Lesson - Her face didn't turn out quite how I wanted, but I couldn't get the idea of a little curly-haired witch excitedly brewing potions. 🧙‍♀️

Day 30: Vacant - I thought of doing just an abandoned house, but somehow it turned into a castle after a seige. I had the Raines of Castamere stuck in my head, so that probably lent itself to this. Castles are surprisingly hard to draw 🏰

Day 31: Award - When I told my husband the prompt, he thought I said "A Ward" - like magic protection - and started looking up wards and sigils that looked cool. He found a pattern of circles, so I drew that and added in some made-up symbols ⚛️

Here's to a completed Inktober 2025!! ✨️

[reneeofthestars]

Inktober 2025 - part 7! We've got some whiplash in this one, folks lol

Day 25: Inferno - You can't go wrong with a fire-breathing dragon! Flames are surprisingly hard to draw, but I'm pretty happy with their movement. The dragon was designed with the idea that its scales are like flint; I didn't quite capture what was in my mind, but it still looks cool.

Day 26: Puzzling - "I'll just draw this optical illusion I found, it'll be pretty simple, it's just straight lines" I said to myself, naively. I couldn't even tell you where I went wrong because I didn't know how to start it. After two pages and many measurements, I threw my hands up, inked my wonky pencil sketches, and threw some red pen on it, reflecting my puzzlement as to how the dang thing worked lol

Day 27: Onion - "Ogres are like onions." That's all I could think of after seeing this prompt. Never thought I'd be drawing Shrek fanart for the first time in the year of our Lord 2025, yet here we are. His proportions are weirder than I thought, bc even after redoing it twice, his head is still too small

Day 28: Skeletal - I was always going to draw a skelly boy, it was just a matter of how. It was originally going to be a cloaked figure in shadow holding up a lantern, but when I decided I wanted a dramatic close up, I got too close. Then I almost drew the adventures from the "Rowdy" prompt bursting in through a door in the background, but opted for a less-is-more approach