Happy Valentine's Day (I don't care that I'm late) <3
A drawing started back in I believe November of last year, still late of course but better late than never </3
Lore and process below as always ✍(◔◡◔)
The naked men in question are Nikolas (right) and Vostok (left), (the song is Nik's voice claim btw), Vostok bears a curse that insures everyone in his family will find their true love, the perfect soulmate, but the catch is the soulmate will always die before any feelings can be requited.
However, the curse didn't account for nuclear levels of bromance.
And that's how you end up with 30 years of cock parrying and an unshakable friendship that still stands even as Voss dies and becomes a vampire.
A good thing, with Nik being super into vampires, a bad thing that the curse still stands and will use Voss' vampirism against him, but those 30 years weren't for nothing.
Anyway Enough Ramblin'
So this drawing was a more complicated one, it was tough trying to get the fabric right to serve as covering for the boys, being transparent enough to reveal at the same time, to look nice and to cooperate when rendering, but we make do, and making do meant using more layers than necessary to make it work, totaling the count to 27 (including sketch layers)
I do have some gripes with this drawing, I don't like drawing Voss unfortunately because he's just hard to draw for whatever reason, and I did rush the lineart with a textured brush so the lines on the fabric are still pretty dirty and I definitely should've spent more time on it.
There are details I like though, the shadow swirls on Voss were fun and in general he is far darker than Nik due to his heritage being unholy divinity that takes the form of amorphous shadow, and Nik's many bite marks were fun too (see how many you can count) and his beautiful self is always a delight to draw.
And in case you were wondering, Vostok has pectus excavatum, dramatized of course for this drawing.
I'm sure there's other details I'm forgetting, but that should be it, thank yuo (✿◡‿◡)
I'm Damien Nightbird (20yo, he/him), this is the art blog, I post exclusively my art, of which is majorly my own OCs, though I dip into other characters here and there, I am fully self taught, I've been making art all my life and I've been making digital art since 2018 or so.
Do ask about my work if you'd like, you're fully allowed to draw my OCs, but also ask to offer critique.
A quick cheat sheet of OCs, made as brief as possible:
The Blood Order: Current project, vampire drama involving a cult, a generational curse and themes of generational trauma, the butterfly effect and how things remain the same as they change.
My Boyfriend is A Vampire God: Secondary project, a continuation of TBO in which the cult leader becomes a god and has to hide it from his new human girlfriend all while figuring out how to be a god in a deeply flawed divine system.
New World: A modded minecraft + D&D mashup project currently left on the back burner.
Anthology: Characters with no larger universe who were made just for fun.
Kachic: Characters from a long term rp project with my best friend @julesnull
Nikolas "Nik" Belov, 45, he/him, Voss' best friend, gay
Lore: cursed to be in love with Vostok and then die, grew up in a violent religion and stays normal despite the horrors, vampire freak, based on a neva masquerade cat
Vostok "Voss" Kapitsa, 44, vampire, he/him, Nik's best friend, bisexual
Lore: cursed to fall in love with Nikolas and have him die, lost an eye to cancer, has terrible luck overall and died instead to a vampire, most at risk to harm himself and others but the power of friendship says otherwise, based on a timber rattlesnake
Lore: grew up with crushing expectations, has a few anger issues, former wrestler, current nurse, bad at admitting feelings, leads a vampire support group (Donor Society) with Ghoul, based on a black bear
Lore: lived in the 1860s as a painter, died in 1880 to his vampire patron, patron died in a targeted arson attack, joined with Hisako to form the Donor Society, also bad at admitting feelings, EDS haver, 1980s enjoyer, based on a canary
Lore: member of the Donor Society, daughter to Nymphal (unknowingly), big fan of accessories and whimsical items, practicer of magic, has a cat familiar named Domino, based on a rabbit
Lore: member of the Donor Society, grew up in the same religion as Nik, held to unrealistic standards, mom died, way happier after, now devoted to a different religion, crochet enjoyer, Trixie's best friend and queerplatonic partner, mortician, based on a peacock spider
Lore: member of the Donor Society, childhood friends with Kanon and Trixie, doing her best to get a music career off the ground, joined the group to aid his partner Antoine, helps protect other vampires from harm and provides them resources, based on an aracari toucan
[insert picture]
Antoine Yong, 32, he/they, vampire, Sammie's partner (he/they lesbian style)
Lore: spent most of her life toying with mortals as her father did, considers herself above having children and settling with a partner, the only respect she has for mortals is the safety of children, made Isaiah the first vampire
Absolom, old, he/him, god (insanity), The Maiden's twin brother, aroace
Lore: the quiet and reserved counterpart to his sister, enjoys toying with mortals all the same, considers insanity an art and takes pride in careful manipulation of the mind
Ambriel, old and dead, he/him, god (misfortune), The Maiden and Absolom's father, bisexual
Lore: immensely enjoys experimenting with and making life worse for mortals, maker of curses, forgot to make a curse that didnt affect him, sired Vostok's ancestor, got stabbed in the stomach by Ouraeus for trying to come onto him, everyone in his bloodline is based on a snake of some kind, Ambriel himself is an anaconda
Ouraeus, old, he/him, god (absolute justice), killed Ambriel, aroace
Lore: the supposed holy counterpart to Ambriel, holds order among mortals to an oppressive degree, refused the sacrifice of Isaiah during a war, killed Ambriel, currently barely holding onto his dying religion as he starts to fade himself, based on an Egyptian black cobra
Nymphal, dinosaur old, he/she, god (magic and whimsy), Trixie's father, pansexual
Lore: born from a meteorite, lived as space goop that mimicked the forms of creatures, became a god after humans evolved, mentored Ouraeus and Ambriel the best he could, sired many demihumans and demigods, best friends and queerplatonic with the god Kanon worships, based on a red spotted forester butterfly
Saint Isaiah, ~510, he/him, vampire -> god (patron of vampires), first modern vampire, straight (?)
Lore: sacrificed at 10 years old to Ouraeus by his dad during a war, sacrifice was rejected, The Maiden revived him as a vampire, accidentally killed a bunch of people and made them into vampires, those vampires thought their death was divinely motivated, all the vampires banded together to make The Blood Order, Isaiah lived for another 30 years as a vampire, still in a child's body as his mind matured, eventually killed by a priest, body still in stasis in the possession of the Order, leaving Father Jeremiah as the leader and Isaiah in limbo for the next 500 years
Father Jeremiah ben Eden, ~530, he/him, vampire, Isaiah's disciple, queer
Lore: killed by Isaiah, became a vampire, very devoted to him and The Maiden, very unhealthily attached to them, Isaiah dies and leaves him as leader, desperately wants to be The Maiden's chosen, The Maiden doesn't choose him and chooses other vampires, Jeremiah kills those vampires, children are often collateral, Jeremiah still doesn't get the hint, repeat until the Order is completely dysfunctional and a shell of itself
Lore: freshly graduated from high school, works at a diner to make money for college, hooks up with an ascended Isaiah, just thinks he's a cool dude, has no clue he's a god for like several months
Zezi, they/them, vampire, lunar alien, aroace
Lore: once a powerful vampire lord, forced to flee once their kingdom started to crumble, now resides in the deep woods as a humble sorcerer and the only wielder of portal magic
Lord Irisiphel, he/him, incubus, queer
Lore: one of two sons to his late viceroy mother, forcefully exiled out of the underworld by his life rival Ophaniel, of whom snapped his horn off to inhibit his power
Maple Forrest, he/him, harengon, queer
Sir Thala, she/her, merfolk, asexual
Voxis, they/them, fae, asexual
The Tortured Warrior, he/him, human supposedly, straight but there's nobody to love him
Lore: forced to live as an insomnia ridden warrior of a kingdom long fallen in a suit of armor fused into his skin, imprints personalities of a wife and children onto his weapons, inspired by my suffering through the Infernal Origins minecraft modpack
Béollan, he/him, dullahan, aromantic, gay
Jacques, she/her, dullahan, lesbian
Lore: crashes halloween parties and after parties, vanishes without a trace after spooking attendees, has an apple orchard spirit girlfriend
Lore: hails from a planet with a race of lizard aliens with the ability to regrow limbs, born with a gene that inhibits that ability, lost both her arms, her people failed to do anything about it, ran off with her best friend and forged her own arms
Unzani, he/him, cat deity (balance), bi, married to his husband Wae
Jacale + his son Wren, he/him for both, both are deities (discord, Jacale is a jackal, Wren is part goat and domestic dog), Jacale is bi, married to his wife and Wren's mother Zhali, in a polycule with a lot of people
Both drawings by @julesnull
Ignore missing, unfinished or old art it's all I have
Do note there are far more characters than this, these are just the cream of the crop (aka the ones I give attention to) and especially with TBO there are a lot more characters included in the story but yk this is already a CVS receipt of a post.
Art dump of two (2) finished pieces and some wips that I probably won't finish, plus a little fella
Brain movements detailed below
1st piece: A character from my story I'm writing, Ghoul, he hasn't popped up just yet but essentially he's a vampire that died in the 1880s and dresses in fashion from the 1980s in the 2020-30s, the figure behind him is a self portrait of his alive self in the 1880s, I dropped that one for now because perspective on objects and rendering legs get tiring to draw.
2nd piece: A goddess from the same story, she just goes by the Maiden, she's the one who allowed vampires to happen after resurrecting a dead child who was sacrificed to another god and was rejected, the black figure is her unrestrained divine form, while the more human one is her disguise to hide amongst humans.
3rd piece: Ghoul's semi girlfriend, Hisako, she's a former wrestler and a licensed nurse, she and Ghoul aren't on the same page on how they feel about each other even though it's plain and simple they're meant for each other and by all means should be dating and having a spring wedding, but alas.
4th piece: smal nik, one of the two main characters in the story
5th piece: My chemist from Potion Permit, a game my brother bought me for my birthday that I was briefly obsessed with.
6th piece: An older drawing that I had sitting around that I went and rendered, it's supposed to be Snow White if the evil queen's hired man actually did kill her, but she then came back to life as a vampire, the implication being Snow actually was a threat and she wasn't entirely innocent.
He's one of the main characters in my silly story and if I get into his lore we'd be here for days, which is where most of my time was spent to begin with
I will draw and color his boyfriend one of these days
