TA DA!!!! My (terribly late) Carry On Anniversary Exchange for @werezolft!!! I don't draw the humdrum enough and I get emotional about him a reasonable amount <33 I'm so sorry I'm so late I need to quit my job and be a full time Simon Snow fan and I mean that so seriously
I’m getting weepy on the train, you’re created such a lovely expression and composition. The cracking halo paired with the protective hand on a younger version of himself 😭😭
The color palette is lovely also, I’m a sucker for desaturated vibrancy and stained glass-esque imagery.
Actually speaking of Crystal’s clothes anyone else think her outfit when fighting Esther was deliberately supposed to evoke both Charles and Edwin with the rolled up pants/long socks combo and the jacket?
It absolutely was! I don’t have the specifics about Charles’ outfit connection, but Edwin’s was fully intentional.
“To showcase their friendship, she [Kelli Dunsmore, costumer] and [Kassius] Nelson wanted Crystal to wear a suit like Edwin’s, but it didn’t quite make sense. “Then it just came to me one day and I was like, ‘oh my God, let’s cut off her pants,’ ” she says. “Her hero iconic pants that she’s worn for the whole series, we cut a pair and made them into the same pants as Edwin’s.”
Pt. 2 of my Dead Boy Detective covers inspired by teen detective novels. More info and reference photos under the cut
I’ve continued watching this series on repeat while creating the novel covers. I really didn’t think I would get through all the episodes, I often stop projects part way through. I might do another post of the covers in chronological series order, as opposed to the order I drew them in.
Style, colors, and very often the actual poses are pulled from covers featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Three Investigators.
I don’t know if you can tell, but I struggle pulling the concentration to add details to make forests look realistic. Something about trees takes more energy than I normally have, haha.
I don’t really have a lot more to add, but thanks for all the love on the first collection, it’s been very fun.
Also, happy pride month 🌈🌈🌈
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Image 1: An orange-red spiral staircase descends down into darkness. Charles Rowland is higher up, wearing his typical hero outfit; red shirt, black trousers and coat with pins. He’s holding a yellow lantern, and looking behind him anxiously. Edwin Payne follows behind, shrouded in shadow, wearing white nightclothes. At the top in yellow italics is “Dead Boy Detectives”, and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE IF THE VERY LONG STAIRWAY”.
Image 2: A blueish green forest at night, a full moon peaking over the trees in the top left corner. In the foreground to the right stands Crystal in her purple varsity jacket and floral turtleneck, hair half up in buns. Next to her Charles is wearing his hero outfit, polo shirt is fully black. They both look on hesitantly. In the mid ground Edwin, wearing his long brown coat is looking up at the furious glowing blue ghost of Shelby. At the top in yellow italics is “Dead Boy Detectives”, and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF THE TWO DEAD DRAGONS”.
Image 3: Crystal and Charles sit inside of a sigil circle on the blue floor of a green subway car. She’s wearing a red jacket, yellow shirt, and tan pants. He’s wearing his hero outfit. Charles is facing Crystal, while she’s angled away from the viewer, both are looking at sheet-ghost David the Demon, who is covered in the same sigils as the circle they sit on, running out the open subway door. At the top in yellow italics is “Dead Boy Detectives”, and in off-white bold lettering “The Case Of Crystal Palace”.
Image 4: A green forest, and brown earth, illuminated by the light of a magically summoned golden chandelier. Under it is The Cat King, brown hair angled into cat ears, wearing a white turtleneck sweater and sparkling black overcoat with red stripes. His arms are folded behind him, and his yellow cat eyes are gazing with feigned disinterest at Monty Finch and Edwin. Edwin is wearing his long brown coat, complete with brown vest and trousers, white shirt and blue bow tie. His cat bracelet is visible on his wrist. Edwin stands in an apprehensive crouch. Behind him Monty, long black hair, red scarf, and black coat, is glaring at The Cat King over his shoulder. At the top in yellow italics is “Dead Boy Detectives”, and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF THE CREEPING FOREST”.
Image 5: A series of covers on a white background. From left to right, "The Case Of The Dandelion Shrine", "The Case Of Devlin House", "The Case Of The Dandelion Shrine" (alt cover), "The Case Of The Hungry Snake", "The Case Of The Lighthouse Leapers", “The Case Of The Two Dead Dragons”, “The Case Of The Very Long Stairway”, “The Case Of Crystal Palace”, and “The Case Of The Creeping Forest”.
Image 6: A series of book covers on a white background: “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in The Secret of Skeleton Island”, “Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall”, “Nancy Drew, The Mystery at Lilac Inn”, “The Hardy Boys, While the Clock Ticked”, “The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon”, “The Hardy Boys, The Disappearing Floor”, “Nancy Drew, The Hidden Staircase”, “The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow”, “The Hardy Boys, The Secret Panel”, and “The Hardy Boys, The Haunted Fort”.
The Dead Boy Detectives (and crew), have been occupying my thoughts the past few weeks. I’ve watched the show on repeat, rewatched Sandman, actually started reading the Sandman graphic novels (currently on Seasons of Mist, the introduction of the Dead Boys), and I’ve started drawing the episodes in the style of old teen detective novels.
I started these before getting super into behind the scenes details. I went down a bit of a rabbit-hole last night, and was delighted to learn that show-runner Steve Yockey wanted the show to be reminiscent of The Hardy Boys, one of the main influences of these covers.
The accuracy of their depictions varies, I don’t think they always really look like themselves. But I had a lot of fun.
I hope to continue designing these for a bit while the obsession holds, and maybe I can properly bring in purples, Crystal’s hero color.
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Image 1: A series of covers on a white background. From left to right, "The Case Of The Dandelion Shrine", "The Case Of Devlin House", "The Case Of The Dandelion Shrine" (alt cover), "The Case Of The Hungry Snake", and "The Case Of The Lighthouse Leapers".
Image 2: Three teenagers, Charles, Crystal and Edwin explore a blue green cave with a skull covered in dandelions on a center shrine. Charles holds a flashlight, Crystal is climbing in while her eyes have gone white during a psychic episode, and Edwin is playing lookout. At the top of the page in yellow italics is the text “Dead Boy Detectives” and below in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF THE DANDELION SHRINE”.
Image 3: Edwin, Charles and Crystal peering around the corner of a yellow-green wooden hallway, looking at the silhouette of a man swinging an axe. They have varying worried expressions. At the top, in yellow italics is “Dead Boy Detectives” and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF DEVLIN HOUSE”.
Image 4: Crystal and Niko stare at each other across a green hallway. Niko has her left hand raised and is surrounded by glowing images, stars, hearts, moons, butterflies, rainbows, and sparkles. The cast a faint pink light. At the top in yellow italics is “Dead Boy Detectives”, and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF THE DANDELION SHRINE”.
Image 5: Charles and Edwin tied to chairs in a golden yellow room. Charles has an iron collar chained to his neck, and his wrists are bound. Edwin is in a white tank top, and his mouth is gagged with a clothe. On the wall is the shadow of the witch Esther, with her cane. In the corner is a large cabinet, Niko peers out of. On top of the cabinet is perched a crow, Monty. At the top, in yellow italics “Dead Boy Detectives” and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF THE HUNGRY SNAKE”.
Image 6: Edwin, Charles and Crystal stand on stairs overlooking the gray sea and red sky. A giant angler fish, Angie, is staring at them. In the corner, on top of the hill is a classic red and white striped lighthouse. At the top, in yellow italics “Dead Boy Detectives” and in off-white bold caps “THE CASE OF THE LIGHTHOUSE LEAPERS”.
Image 7: A series of book covers on a white background: “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in The Secret of Skeleton Island”, “Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall”, “Nancy Drew, The Mystery at Lilac Inn”, “The Hardy Boys, While the Clock Ticked”, and “The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon”.
A little lighting test with Will Graham. I’ve been rewatching Hannibal recently and I just loef him.
I wanted to make sure that a) I could still insert a character into a scenario, and b) I could still draw using a reference without doing a sketched block over the photo.
Here’s my gift in Any Way the Exchange Blows for @martsonmars
They’re a very fun writer, so I wanted to make an art piece inspired by one of their works “Something Witty”, which is a Snowbaz AU with professor!Baz and vendingMachineDude!Simon where Baz is a beautiful, awkward mess and they both delight me.
There’s a scene near the beginning where Baz was offered a mint Aero bar (his usual), and ends up requesting “something different this time”, so he gets a bag of salt and vinegar crisps, but also… more. And it’s just such a fun bit where I feel like they’d both be holding the various snacks, I just had to draw it.
I could have sworn in the tags of something they mentioned Baz looking similar to Trent Crimm for Ted Lasso, but I might have made that up as an excuse to use him as a reference, so… oops? I do know that Baz has glasses tho, that’s an important detail.
I can’t resist using the same color palette for them, every time I draw them, so despite not being vampiric Baz is still greyish.
Anyways, this was a lot of fun. Marta, I hope you like it.. anyone else, check out their stuff.
Thanks :)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Here’s a Secret snowflake exchange gift for @aroace-genderfluid-sheep
Some of their prompts included puzzles and rain, so I had to draw a rainy day in with a jigsaw puzzle.
They’re working on a rainbow music magic puzzle featuring a *very accurate* (but far too detailed) viola (/j), that Baz chose. I think Simon dumped all the pieces on the floor leading Baz to start directing him how to put it together so it couldn’t go more wrong. Penelope was also annoyed with Simon’s decision so she sat down to work on assembly. Shepard has been poking around the apartment, but temporarily paused to watch (and laugh at) the scene. Idk.
Some other fun details include Penny being very sure she’s not wearing school colors despite the fact she clearly is. Shepard’s lovely two-tone shirt and pink tinted glasses. Also a novelty heart-shaped watch. Simon stealing Baz’s jersey and poking his transparent wings through it. And Simon and Baz’s matching socks (based on a design in my redbubble).
I’ve been tumblr adjacent for years, but I figured this was a decent time to join and share this? Hope you like it :)
