yeah like mayuri is kubo's favourite character to draw so i don't get why he doesn't get to be in all those pinups and colour spreads where the characters wear cool clothes, like i can't believe that to this day that ^^^ is the only artwork done by kubo where mayuri doesn't wear his canon shinigami clothes. he even drew fucking pernida wearing modern clothes!!
The requirement for having one of these illustrations is that the character is dead or something like that (I hadn't realized it until I read this on another blog). So the day we see one of Mayuri is because he's died 😭💔
But it's true!! I don't understand why he doesn't appear in the opening where everyone wears cool clothes!! That was the perfect opportunity! Or when Kubo does collaborations and releases real clothes. I'd open my wallet for Mayuri!!
If his and Mayuri’s respective modifications were any indication, each and every Zanpakutō had their own unique way of being worked on. Mayuri hadn’t said much about his, other than a few mutterings about gold and insect guts, some kind of gilded vivisection, whereas his own had been a matter of thread, an infinitely complex cat’s cradle of crimson-bright strings. Neither here in reality nor there, in the Zanpakutō’s inner world, it was something of a liminal space, a connector between the two. It would be interesting to investigate someday – an entire new field of research devoted to the unique and intricate guts of a Shinigami’s most intimate bond.
Yet that subject, just like the space itself, was neither here nor there. What mattered were his own guts – or threads, rather – and exactly what he’d cut.
-Urahara reflecting on zanpakutou modification, from Imperfect (by meeee)
So yah I've been wanting to draw that scene ever since I wrote it. I'd strongly suggest opening the image up in a new tab, since the detail is fucking absurd. Like I was about to post it this morning and randomly decided I needed to paint a hyperdetailed eyeball like it was no biggie
which comparativrely speaking, it really wasn't. Oh, the weird colorful stuff above the eye and throughout is supposed to be a zoomed in Madagascan sunset moth, I wanted zoomed in Jizo wings but my attempt just kinda looked like roof shingles
more Fun Facts (and art snippets, including the upside down version) below the cut:3
So like. This artwork was doomed to be a time sink from the moment I started working on it digitally. That's because I decided my first project would be rendering these grasshopper guts (it was the only photo I could find online that showed detailed insect guts smh). It took me... however long this looks like it took x 10000 bc I'm UNBELIEVABLY slow these days. Months of spare time! I still had my old job when I started this omfg
So then I finish them. Finally. And I'm kinda... scooching them around the canvas, seeing where to put them... and I realize I'm a fucking Jackas who doesn't EVER plan his shit right, cuz they don't even REMOTELY fit in the bg where they were supposed to go! How do you even DO that??? I genuinely amaze myself sometimes!!! So I had to rethink the entire composition, changing it from just showing their heads (fun! easy!) to their whole... chest and arms and FUCKING HANDS AAAAGH
all so Mayuri can be working on my pretty insect guts, which are now sitting inside a rather awkward, nebulous Bug
Anywayyyy this was a rough project from start to finish. Still feel like there's some really big mistakes staring me right in the face, but I've stared at it so long that i'm totally blind to it.. and it doesn't help that my tablet just keeps geting worse, part of me is amazed it's still working but the rest of me is Full Of Hate And Rage bc it flickers SO FUCKING MUCH AAAAGH
P.S. It's been over two years since I first read this brilliant Mayuri comic by @snurtle - which inspired the red thread idea for Urahara. I love linking it bc that means I get to read through it again, I'm obsessed fr
Good luck to all the shinigami getting gender affirming care from the 12th and enjoy the bombs implanted in random places that may or may not be for your use; you really just have to fuck around and find out!