THISTLEBEETLE ILLUSTRATION

Trans Masc Illustrator and Podcaster + Product Designer on @LegendLarkpod! This blog features my completed original work, for sketches and process work visit my instagram @ThistleBeetle. Check out the podcast at LegendLark.com!

[thistlebeetle]

Step right up and see the greatest show in Faerie, Madame Mab's Seelie Circus! This is a companion piece to this illustration. What I love about Faerie is the way they defy categorization. It might be tempting to sort the Seelie and Unseelie Court into 'good faeries' and 'bad faeries', but as any lover of Faerie stories know, both are dangerous, capricious and bound to rules that bear little relation to our understanding of morality. I imagine these performers inhabit a precarious role, walking a tight rope as they entertain, navigate courtly politics and try to keep their heads.

[thistlebeetle]

One more print from my monotype class…

I enjoyed experimenting to achieve different textural effects. But of course I had to make a print of my boy Friedrich Veiss being normal and doing fine. 🖤

2 layer Monotype with hand cut stencil on plexiglass.

[thistlebeetle]

I took a monotype printmaking class recently, it was really neat!

Some monotype prints and ghost prints! Ghost prints are what happen in monotype when you take your stencils or objects off the plate and run it through the press a 2nd time. Or I guess just run it through a second time period if you didn’t use any objects or stencils. It produces some very interesting results! I did all of these as a single layer except the one in the lower right, that was 2.

I thought these ones looked nice together.

[thistlebeetle]

✨🐦 🪶✨ NEW @Legendlarkpod MERCH ALERT!!! ✨🐦 🪶✨

Our annual mail-tier patreon gift this year was a saddle stitch notebook with our logo in gold foil! Art by me, printed Studio Portmanteau!

I also designed a sticker sheet featuring a variety of Larkos for your decorating pleasure! Which is your favorite?

If you don’t have them already you can find both the notebook and sticker sheet at legendlark.store! Thank you as always for supporting the show! 💖✨

[thistlebeetle]

FINALLY!!! An illustration of Friedrich continuing to be haunted by his conversation with Valerian long after NeverNowhere episode 6 concludes. This is the episode I have been waiting for us to drop. 😔🙏 Juniper had us fucking dying. <3 I drew this shortly after we recorded it and have been saving it, so I hope y'all enjoy. xD

[thistlebeetle]

AT LAST, IT'S DONE! May I present to you the cover art for our new Blades in the Dark campaign at @legendlarkpod: Nevernowhere! 🚂💨✨ There was a lot I wanted to fit into this one, the new logo, the train, the title, the circus elements, tarot, and our new characters! I hope folks will like it! 💜

We've been working very hard on launching this new story and I'm so excited to share it with everyone! At the time I'm posting it the first episode is out, go give it a listen on your podcast app of choice!

LEGENDLARK

LegendLark is a narrative comedy TTRPG podcast with detailed original settings, lots of stupid jokes, a mystery or two, and some fumbling at

[thistlebeetle]

✨ @legendlarkpod LOGO REVEAL TIME LADS!!!! ✨ SHE'S HERE, SHE'S IN THREE FORMATS, SHE'S GOT A BINDLE, SHE'S SERVING!!! I call them 'Larko', they use any and all pronouns and they are here to make you laugh and cause problems ON PURPOSE.

I hope you will find a home for him in your heart. 😔 🙏 Anyway listen to our PODCAST! LegendLark: The ONLY podcast on the INTERNET!!! 👍 ✨ 💨 Also please follow us on BLUESKY and our newly launched INSTAGRAM! WE ARE OLD BUT WE ARE TRYING!!!

[thistlebeetle]

✨ HARMLESS SHOWER OF SPARKS ✨ Another sketch from the era where I was posting more on instagram and not here, what a fool I was... This was August 2019 - I did Slake and Fran but never got around to Corbin, I gotta make a lil revamp of his design so this series is complete! Could use a little more detail but I still think this Fran is pretty cute! 🧡 Even tho I hate Mark Zuckerberg I may try to start posting on instagram again to help me get into art markets. I feel like when you apply they like to see you have an active one. SIGH. You can follow me there at Thistlebeetle... At least until Bluesky finally launches an instagram alternative. >>

[thistlebeetle]

HERE IT IS, THE @legendlarkpod 2024 ANNUAL GIFT! 💛💜✨ I’d had this art ready for awhile but struggled to find the right format for it, it was first going to be a pocket T-shirt but the quality and logistics of that were much more challenging than anticipated, but I’m quite happy with it now as an iron-on patch and as a holographic sticker! The design depicts beloved beetle companion Darius from our Dames and Dragons Campaign! If you’re not already a mail-tier Patron and want to grab one of these bad boys for yourself you can support the show by heading on over to Legendlark.store!

[thistlebeetle]

So happy to finally share this quarterly print for @legendlarkpod! This is album artwork for our bonus campaign, Damegeon Dive, the first three episodes of which you can listen to for free on our patreon! Well, technically for the third episode it’s ‘watch’ since it’s a livestream, but you get the idea! I got really deep into this one, haha. Took inspiration from film noir posters from the ‘30s and ‘40s as well as art deco graphics. I put a lot into this piece so I really hope folks will like it! Mail tier Patrons will have already received these, but for everyone else you can support the show and buy a print on ✨SHIMMER CARDSTOCK✨ at Legendlark.store!

[thistlebeetle]

Getting around to uploading some illustrations I never posted on tumblr. This is from Summer 2021. Thought it would be fun to show some process and details on this one since it was really involved. This was to commemorate a friend and former supervisor's retirement, based on her interests and love for illuminated manuscripts! Her colleagues commissioned this piece from me and provided the text and subjects to include. Did a lot of research for this piece, which I love to do for my illustrative work. I feel like it's invigorating what you learn trying to imitate another art style.

[thistlebeetle]

Was going through my blog and realized I never posted these sketches here, wild!! I guess there was a chunk of time where I was more active on instagram than anywhere, but now tumblr the only thing close to a social media site I actually want to be on. Top design is March 2019, sketches on the bottom half were posted July 2018 - Although I think the sketches in the upper third of that expression sheet were actually maybe drawn in late 2017 or early 2018? Those are some of the very first Slake doodles ever, when I was just planning, before I even recorded my first ep playing them! Can't believe this campaign is almost wrapped up! Got me all nostalgic... Gods speed, Slake. Thanks for being my PC. 🤝

[catgirlhell]

its official: tumblr is selling our data to Midjourney

Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.

we'd been hearing rumors about this for a bit but now its open and out there. some details from this article

it goes without saying, but if @staff goes through with this its going to be an utter shitshow and im all but certain the website will not survive it.

[scrungass]

This reply seems helpful

[thistlebeetle]

Happy New Year! Excited to share the River of Lights Sticker and Pin I designed for @legendlarkpod's annual gift! I am really happy with how they turned out and I hope listeners will be too!

We've sent them out to our mail-tier patrons and now they're available in our online store as well! This podcast and the fan community have been a bright spot in (another) crazy year and I'm wishing everyone a safe and lovely New Year. Looking forward to bringing you more LegendLark in 2024!

[thistlebeetle]

AT LAST, THE TRIFECTA IS COMPLETED!!! Ainsley, Antone Postminger, and The Gap from Hrose Camp Adventures! Yes, Hrose.

I updated Antone's art a bit before sending off the print of them for @legendlarkpod's Q3 Patreon mail. Had a lot of fun coordinating these two punk halflings and this fancy human, trying to make sure their styles came across strongly while also tying them together as group.

You can buy the print bundle at legendlark.store!

[thistlebeetle]

Finally sharing the design of Juniper's character, Ainsley, I did for the summer mail for $15 supporters on Patreon! Now u know why Slake simped so hard for them. 😔 Ainsley is a rude teen, full of powerful energies. Any resemblance they happen to bear to any other halfling characters I've designed for LegendLark is entirely coincidental, I assure you. >> You can experience the pleasure of listening to Juniper as Ainsley in our Hrose Camp Adventures arc on @legendlarkpod!

[thistlebeetle]

Those of you who are mail-tier patrons on http://patreon.com/legendlark have already seen this friendo, but for everyone else, may I present to you The Gap, Noel's incredible, iconic character from Hrose Camp Adventures on @legendlarkpod.

They are everything. I only hope I did them justice. 😔🙏