I make art. Sometimes silly, sometimes serious, a little sexy and always a bit messy. Follows back from m-r-levine. We have a bluesky, a discord server, a shop, a WorldAnvil, a Patreon, occasional market/con events, and sometimes we even join the 21st century to have events on Twitch
I am a hybrid artist primarily working in watercolor, acrylics, ink, and digital facsimiles thereof. I make comics, miniatures, Serious Art™️, genre illustration, fiber art, furry art, fan art, weird western art, surface pattern designs, interior design, landscape design, I refurbish furniture and dabble in hand tool woodworking whenever I get the chance of it.
I also write: my main blog is my writeblr, though most of my fanfiction is under the same StudioRat name as I have used for my art and illustration for decades (mostly restricted to logged in users these days, due to plagerism machines and trolls). I am working on posting more often on Bluesky. I also have an online shop with prints, originals, miniatures, and stash.
In general, I welcome reblogs, comments, asks (even for spoilers!), as well as transformative works, fanarts, fanbinds and so forth based on my work as long as you link back to the source.
Links to major projects under the cut!
Current projects:
Shade of My Enemy : a Zelgan gothic romance comic set in the era of Twilight Princess. Updates Thursdays.
The maldito project : a weird western setting centered around the misadventures of an outlaw vaquero witch. Currently two novel drafts and a pile of art. Carries the tag #novela maldita on both blogs
Even To The Edge : a series of ZelGan flavored fics set in the WindWaker era, wherein the old man yearns and fights for all that was lost, Tetra the Pirate Queen wrestles with the rules of her world changing, and Zelda Iseult DeLeon walks the spiritroads in her dreams.
Unspoken : a forbidden romance set in the world of Dark Tapestry. Might turn into a comic, might turn into a novel, might be a little of both.
Garden : spicy Zelgan fanfiction written in collaboration with @folodu
Spun Shadows : gothic fantasy adventure in dual pov with a most dysfunctional elf throuple at the center of the intrigue
East Wind : gothic romance + military fantasy + castle intrigue + eventual fix-it GanLink epic currently drafting in the fourth act. Has been on hiatus due to Life™️ but finally getting motion in the draft again. Updates will resume Saturday mornings when I have six weeks of backlog, so please send all the good writing vibes.
Blackthorn Witch : final typesetting and cleanup of illustrations for a short gothic fairy tale in the ATU 327 neighborhood
To Draw New Mischief On : the sixth and final story in the Branches and Fate cycle. This also has been on hiatus due to Life™️ but the manuscript is finally starting to move again. Updates irregularly.
Search & Tag* : spicy and silly og x elf comic that despite being fully scripted and pencilled still has no proper name (open to suggestions)
Fanwork Archive:
Demons : a windwaker era minific
Found you : a smash brothers GanLink oneshot
Sun & Moon : pre-slash secret pen pals meet & wrestle with identity and destiny in an alternate era of Ocarina of Time written in collaboration for Zelgan Week in 2016
Flower of Twilight : Zelda sneaks away to the west with Ganondorf’s help on a quest to figure out who they are
King of Shadows : Ganondorf broods over a grave disagreement with Zelda and lays plans to secure power over Hyrule regardless
Hearts at War : Zelda persuades Ganondorf to help them investigate the suspicious deaths of the composer brothers, written for ZelGan week 2016
Cruelty of Gods : years of effort have finally led to a treaty that will end the Hylian Civil War for good — so of course the night of the signing goes horribly wrong
Beguile the World : the same pivotal events from Zelda’s perspective. Written for ZelGan week 2025.
Stars, Hide Your Fires : The first of the six stories in the Branches and Fate cycle in which Link has gone back in time to prevent the events of Ocarina of Time from happening
Madness Most Discreet : a relatively short Wilds era ZeLink fic
An Ever Fix’d Mark : a Wilds era ZeLink
Little Deaths : a spicy and angsty Wilds era Zelink
Naught So Vile : a post-Wilds era Zelink (GanZeLink if you bring your shipping goggles and squint) written after the first E3 trailer
Wind King : a short, full color comic set in the Minish Era
Swords Our Law : tragic GanLink establishing the timeline which leads to East Wind
Kill Thee and Love Thee After : an alternate, angsty GanLink HEA branching off the fifth story in the Branches and Fate cycle
Original Work:
Darkly Woven : a Dark Tapestry adventure novel
9th Division : a Dark Tapestry murder mystery novel with intrigue and romance
Forest Fire : a Dark Tapestry short story set during the fall of the Forge Moon
Professor Mizzlewot’s New Suit : a short fantasy horror story
Shade of My Enemy, volume 3, (Not) Healing, page 29
In which the lovers’ quarrel pivots…
I truly do enjoy working on this little gothic tale, but oh the swearing I do every time I have to render the detail on this man’s armor. There’s a little easter egg in the flourishes on the side of the upper cuirass if you squint. It’s there in canon too if you can catch him at the right angle, and when I say the questions that detail visible in the HD rerelease raises launched a hundred thousand words of fic I’m severely understating it at this point…
Anyway, with this pasted up for your entertainment it’s time for me to get back to my @zelgan-week projects. How much of the stack of Ideas™️ do you think I’ll get all the way to the finish line? Are you making delights for it this year? There’s some really juicy prompts this time around. Make sure to follow the event blog and look for the Ao3 collection very soon so you don’t miss any of the forthcoming Zelganny goodness.
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Shade of My Enemy, volume 3, (not) Healing page 28
In which the princess is Not Amused and not backing down either…
They are ridiculous disasters and I adore them.
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 (and begins volume 3) so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Share your top 3 fics by either hits or kudos, followed by top 3 fics by personal favorite (and share where they do or don’t line up!)
I was tagged by several folks for this one, thank you! I know for sure @folodu and @bloobluebloo and @drsteggy tagged me, but further than that scrolling my notifications is… well. My phone does not like it, and I had trouble with embedding links for some reason? and this is a good problem to have, truly! I just feel bad if I have forgotten your tag in the chaos of this season. 🙇 I will no-pressure tag on purpose @ro-blaze and @saphoblin and @ensrensage with an open invitation to anyone who hasn’t gotten to play yet and wants to. 🖤
My top 3 fics of all time by kudos are:
East Wind , intrigue-heavy kinky GanLink story in five acts which is unfortunately still on hiatus from posting until I have enough backlog snd momentum to reasonably charge through the last two acts (to be fair it was started 11 years ago and is an epic endeavor with Fin in my sights but still just barely beyond my grasp 😭 it does not currently rate a favorite because it is in time out for not giving me consecutive words)
Madness Most Discreet , a slightly-longer-than-short-story ZeLink fic which has been turned into an *amazing* podfic by the incomparable @drsteggy I am still speechless about it, tbh. I’m so honored and it’s amazingly well done, check it out!)
Swords Our Law , a complete sword-and-sorcery-and-kink GanLink fic which sets up the cycle of timelines leading to East Wind. Originally conceived as a holiday bonus for devoted readers of EW that outgrew its original deadline as we explored the question of How Did It Start anyway. I do like the piece, but I am still mad about how long it got. (clocked in at a stunningly nice kudo number considering the tragedy of it all)
My own favorites:
That You Might See Your Shadow, a longish short story in the Branches and Fate series: which is loosely connected to OoT and MM and aims for an eventual fix to canon through the use of time shenanigans. This story contains the first scene I wrote for the series, and the whole great arc of the 6-story set (and the alternate series ending) has been living in my head ever since. It is also the least popular in the set, which surprised me to notice.
Shade of My Enemy, the prose edition. It’s taken me years to figure out how to make a tolerable screen-reader accessible version of the gothic Zelgan graphic novel I’ve been working on for a decade. (The alt-text version was a herculean effort and clunky, so it has been scrapped. The way I draw this story simply does not alt-text well because I let my maximalist love of lush setting out to play.) It’s been a deep dive into truly understanding how each medium does its thing and how to play to the strengths of each without significant changes to plot or dialogue. For example, the montage and overlay and splash page in a comic each have powerful narrative impact, and no direct equivalent in prose — on the other hand, prose allows us interiority, and room to explain *why* each object present in a visual scene was chosen and what that means for the characters. Very few have read it, but I hope that while the experience is necessarily different, that it is at least equally as rewarding as the comic.
Third Eye, a (20k) one-shot gen fic of the fix-it flavor, set in OoT, and written on a dare from @ensrensage as a gift for the Blupee Den, a close knit and kind LoZ-centered server I’ve been part of since 2019. It is not widely read either, but this rare short story from the longform storyteller is very close to my heart
Tag your mutuals (or anyone else you would like to tag) to receive an explanation about their username! (No pressure if you don’t want to tell)
Thanks for the tag @drsteggy and @folodu ! I think both of you know the story already but thanks to a few reblogs earlier this month (thank you @figmentforms-the-human and @bloobluebloo ) my phone has lit up with more banners than it has in a long time so I might as well say hi to the new folks who came here by way of those lovely folks too. No pressure if you don’t have time for games or if you’ve played this one already… i do not have as much time to keep up with the feed as i used to 😅) i offer also an open tag for anyone who wants to play and hasn’t gotten tagged yet.
Many years ago I was offered a scholarship to an Actual Good Art School for two semesters. It was far away, and they had no campus housing, and i have very few monies to secure a place (and no friends in that city.) I balked at risk and the price of tuition the following year if i couldn’t outcompete the rest of the freshman class… and I knew I wouldn’t be able to make my portfolio good enough for that if I had to hold down a warehouse job to pay rent.
So I went to the cheapest state school that would still get my out of my abusive parents’ house and cut ties. Which kept me very poor for a very long time.
Poverty and artmaking and tuition do not easily coexist. I subsisted on warehouse work, service industry, odd jobs, scavenging, flipping trashpicked furniture (college towns throw out perfectly good furniture all the time), food pantries, contract work. I spent as much time in the studio as humanly possible. I scavenged from the trash in the fine arts building and elsewhere. (Rich people have the *best* trash).
As these things go, I ran into trouble, and my parents weaseled their way back into my life — but every bit of ‘help’ came with strings. So I accepted as little as possible and stayed poor, hustling for spot illo and inking contracts and dev work — anything. If it needed drawn, if it paid, I was there.
My grades kinda sucked. But I worked so hard and my test scores were good and essays solid so all the Fine Arts profs who hated me and the work I enjoyed making (and the fact I was willing to draw literally anything for money) had to give me passing marks. And that was enough. (That lifestyle also broke my body but that’s another story. This is not glorifying the hustle.)
Every day for five years I was insulted, reminded I didn’t belong, and told I was no good at the one and only thing that makes me feel alive. The entire fine art department staff laughed when i rolled in with my work truck and this week’s scavenged pigments and substrates. “There goes the studio rat, hide the snacks” or “oh make sure you don’t leave your good brushes out, the studio rat might ruin them” or “studio rat lurking all night, bet they’re homeless again”.
Rats are survivors. Rats are persistent. They may not be flashy or noble, but they will make a life out of whatever cards are dealt.
So I made it official when I went legit and learned how to properly taxes and reclaimed it as a kind of mascot, and I fought for the piece of paper that says I survived the system (and fought again to have it reprinted with my full government name instead of the butchered thing they printed the first time.)
I have now answered to some form of StudioRat over half my life.
I may not have shows in fancy galleries and I struggle to claw back studio hours from the pain and the cost of the Boring!Job and my work may never be important or Good™️ and my name may never be Known™️, but I have finally patchworked together a life where (for now) I can buy groceries without crying in the juice aisle and I make whatever art and stories I want, without reference to what anybody else thinks I should be making.
So that’s the name I use as my primary in every web thing where it’s available. Where it’s not, I use my writing name. But that is another story. 😉
Shade of My Enemy, volume III, (not) Healing, page 27
In which the loving reunion continues…
No really, they’re both thoroughly smitten, they’re just mad about it. This page was fun right up until the detailing on the armor 🫠 He’s so pretty and his armor has so many parts. I swear in future projects I’m going to just take Frazetta’s example. Down with complicated pants!
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Shade of My Enemy, volume III, (Not) Healing, page 26
In which the princess is not where she’s supposed to be…
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
“I can’t sleep,” blurted Zelda. “That’s all. I’m not sick or concussed, I just can’t sleep. Which is how I stumbled in the first place, overtired and not watching my step. Fretting about my place in the tourney bracket, or maybe it’s the change in weather. It will pass.”
“Is it him?”
Zelda sighed, gesturing helplessly. Yes and no, maybe, I don’t know. The closest answers she could offer were not answers at all and would only anger Lyrne more.
“You have three choices,” said her oldest and best friend. “Clinic. Your gran’s. Or I drag you to Impa at Baileykeep.”
The rest of the story written for the alternate prompt “Memories” will unfold on Ao3…
(Yes it’s a little belated and that means revisions are ongoing, LoomAdventures and Boring Job threw some wrenches into my writing time… 😭)
“It’s a wretched thing to see you like this and not be able to help, to heal,” she said softly, picking at the black wool blanket. It felt real. Viscerally real, soft and fuzzy and every so slightly rough at the same time. Lambswool, either spun in the grease or maybe re-greased with clarified lanolin after it was fulled.
“Even the driest histories remember your soft heart,” he rumbled, reaching for her. His broad, scarred hand engulfed hers, his blunt fingers callused but tender. Even reduced by his injuries and the strain of healing them, every corded muscle under the thin veil of softer flesh radiated power. “Enough of worrying. I have survived worse, rajela.”
“I still don’t like it,” she countered. “It reminds me of the war. Or her memories of it. Or whatever. And the ticking clock feeling isn’t gone, either.”
He sighed, pressing her hand. “The field is very different this time…
Read the complete story on Ao3…
Finishing out Abysm of Time is my primary contribution to this season’s @finishwhatyoustarted-event since I thought it would be nice to have last year’s @zelgan-week fics done before this year’s event starts (soon soon - June will be here before you know it!). Boring!Job has been more demanding than usual this year and my health has been poor, so it was only one across this finish line this time, but one is still more than zero.
In which the shadows in the enfilade suite move through the king…
Lots of details hidden in this one, both referencing the past and which will be referenced later. Pages like this take a lot longer in the planning and penciling phase, but I enjoy the work. I hope you enjoy all the things I’ve tucked into these panels. ☺️
None of the prequel pieces are necessary to follow the story in Shade of My Enemy, but if you want more juicy context for the memories referenced here, check out Cruelty of Gods and/or Beguile the World on Ao3. (Mind the tags…)
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Thursday posting continues somehow. It’s a struggle, but the story wants out. Hopefully it brings a little joy to the twelve of you who read it. 😅 This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Transcript of letter below the cut:
Your letter displeases me, rajena — indeed your cruelty has made me deeply unhappy. Forty-six days you demand I content myself with cold memory & a box of baubles rendered even colder by their insufficient immitations of a most beloved form. Even these few yards of fine wool become my abhorrence as the scent of you fades away to nothing, yet you dare demand patience! How many more hours must I wait o tyrant-? Cannot the shadows spare your company for a day or three? Cannot your warriors mind their duty without your stern eye for one little week-? Neither time nor distance effects any alteration in my affections — though my temper I cannot vouch for. Forty-six days & still some infernal number more to wait until your cruel whim fixes on the amusement of increasing my torment in the flesh instead of these spare curls of heartless ink. Day after endless day I wait, wondering whether my foolish king lives to hear my fury. Leaving me without even a kiss to sustain me, confessing only from hundreds of leagues away you mean to charge into the caldera of Death Mountain itself & the hands of its mad guardian with a sword & some little sparks—??
In which a letter is intercepted and brought to the king
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 (and just started volume 3) so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Transcription of letter below the cut:
O hero of light-
The enemy has fallen quiet - weakened or distracted matters not, I beg you most urgently to return with Midna at once and draw the veil of twilight from the castle. Help me escape these shadowed halls! I must reach the three holy springs you’ve restored to forge the weapon you will need to retake Death Mountain from the dark.
Small worldbuilding note: our three bumbling blin here speak of the sacred spring in the confiscated letter as ‘deathwater’ because canonically, throughout the LoZverse, falling in water more than knee high is deadly to monsters. I imagine the sapient monsters would have taboos and rituals around interactions with water, that it would be both revered and feared. I think the strongest among them demonstrating their strength and courage with public, ritual bathing in contrast to the steamhouses and/or oil and scraping methods they might use for everyday cleanliness. It seems reasonable to me that they would be aware of how water is regarded by human cultures, both mundane sources and holy places.
Of course, here we have the whole side plot around water as well: drought strikes Hyrule before the Twilight, with whole rivers and lakes drying up. It persists until Link’s questing take him into Zora lands, and we are not quite there yet …
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Thursday posting continues, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post as usual around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
transcript of Secret Midnight Letter (continued) below cut:
Courageous one-
I pray this letter may reach you before you descend into the mines again. My search in the archives finds nothing in the west wing of the death mountain mine complex that is likely to lead to the fused shadow or the patriarch. I beg you waste no further energy there - pivot instead toward the 2nd level to the east of the entrance you marked in your last letter. I found report of a mineshaft there closed generations ago that has been used as a prison for Goron before.
Go with caution - ancient records speak of a curse upon the Crown of Din’s Wrath. The description of the precious stones, carved eyes & heavy spirals evokes the ornament on other pieces of Fused Shadow…
April Fool’s Day is in a few days, and I just wanted to make this clear. This blog is safe, and I can promise you no screamers, nothing emotionally abusive, no fake posts, and nothing to intentionally trigger dissociation. You are safe here.
Thursday posting resumes, thank all the bright little gods. This third of five projected volumes continues in active production and the newest page will post around 3pm CST on my patreon and Discord.
Note that the story will always be free to read online, whether a new page or collected volumes on Patreon, weekly pages here on tumblr, or the prose conversion is available on Ao3 — current prose chapters cover volumes 1 & 2 so if you’re new to SoME, this is an ideal time to curl up with the prose or collected pages to catch up with current plot.
Start from the beginning - previous page here - next page here
Thank you for reading, and as always, signalboosting is greatly appreciated.
Transcription of letter below cut:
Courageous one-
I pray this letter may reach you before you descend into the mines again. My search in the archives finds nothing in the west wing of the death mountain mine complex that is likely to lead to the fused shadow or the patriarch. I beg you waste no further energy there - pivot instead toward the 2nd level to the east of the entrance you marked in your last letter. I found report of a mineshaft there closed generations ago that has been used as a prison for Goron before. Go with caution…
