Winter of Discontent

Oh. Yes, Jesus, yes. I feel so confident it’s like I’m on fire. And all the Kitty Pryde and Illyana ships, they’re just fanfics to write, covers to draw.

[winterofdiscontent86]

Cover to Kitty Pryde and Illyana’s story, my X-Men fanfic on AO3. It’s a getting-together story set in 1986 where our heroes age in real time, so they’re college aged. Lots of period detail and fluff with a little angst thrown in. The fic is complete, currently posting book two, The Girls of Summer.

I’m posting here to house my artwork for discoverability, I hope it works!

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But don’t worry history peeps, I gotchu covered

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Omg team, what if I gave Kitty Pryde a cute short hair cut?

It’s either her or Illyana, and Kitty’s wavy hair will let me cut loose, also I want to. Also, Illyana without bangs is more canon divergence than even I’m willing to countenance.

Yes, this is deep artistic inspiration, when you are like “w-w-what if Kitty but short hair?” and it’s suddenly hard to breathe…

[winterofdiscontent86]

“The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if only you can see it.” —Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies

@swallowtail-ageha got me thinking about Hilary Mantel, here’s a drawing I did last year of a passage from her book Bring Up the Bodies that really inspired me. The drawing is after Holbein, a drawing that I’m pretty sure is a preparatory drawing or study of Cromwell.

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Drawing Lucile Desmoulins while listening to The Social Network soundtrack, the driving, ominous score filled with dread for the future of computing, the greed and inhumanity of the tech billionaires, but also capturing some of that excitement of creation … it’s so good. I’m drawing Lucile’s hair as lustrous and beautiful as possible. It’s what I feel she would have wanted.

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Current workspace. We have Illyana Rasputin fan art, we have Republican calendar pages! Floréal is Lucile Desmoulins, and you can see good old Danton there as Vendémiaire.

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Drawing of Cynthia Von Buhler, artist and writer, the photo reference is from back in the 90’s, the drawing is from around 2022

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I liked a few excellent drawings of girls kissing, and now Tumblr believes I love the Pitt. I am not really sure what the Pitt is, I believe it is a hospital TV show? Anyway, Tumblr, if you keep showing me well drafted drawings of girls kissing, holding hands, etc., I’m gonna keep liking them, so keep at it, I guess!

[winterofdiscontent86]

Floréal—Lucile Desmoulins looks a little like an anime princess, but in a way that I’m liking it so far. Work in progress, ink and pencil (soon to be watercolor) on paper

[emizzso]

something pretty bad happened to me.

[queertealover]

80s and early 90s Rachel how I miss you.

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Alan Davis is peak, but don’t sleep on JRJR putting her in that sweet, sweet suit and tie

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Here is a study I made of Anya Taylor Joy in The Witch … I was trying to get a sense of how I would draw Illyana, and I liked how she looked in The New Mutants movie. But this sketch looks a little too much like ATJ, and not enough like Illyana, if that makes sense. Anyway, this is how the sausage gets made.

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Question for Kitty Pryde obsessives: how did she ever find Elfquest? She is canonically a subscriber, as of at least issue 11, wears the t-shirt etc. BUT this was the original WARP Elfquest. Where did she find it? An early comic book store? I’d assume, I don’t think it would have been available in spinner racks at the convenience store. Maybe NYC’s version of Newbury Comics, which would have been Forbidden Planet maybe?

[encyclopedia-rucola]

The New Mutants enjoy some snacks while watching Magnum P.I. together!

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #167

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This is great stuff, love the Paul Smith artwork of course, but Chris Claremont, god love him, was a little off. Magnum P.I. was very popular at this time (1983) but he was not popular with teens. Tom Selleck’s aesthetic was a more 70’s style, and would have appealed to the New Mutants’ parents (as he likely did to Chris himself). Still, it’s pretty likely they would watch it. The show that these guys will love will be Miami Vice, which was also not a kids show, but really appealed to teens with the Michael Mann aesthetic, the Armani suits, and the sweet cars. It was the hotness in 1984 among the 14 year old demographic (I know, I was there).

[winterofdiscontent86]

Cover to The Girls of Summer, book 2 of my X-Men fanfic on AO3. It’s a getting-together story set in 1986 where our heroes age in real time, so they’re college aged. Lots of period detail and fluff with a little angst thrown in. The fic is complete, currently updating.

[winterofdiscontent86]

Belle and Sebastian is the ideal soundtrack to my Kitty Pryde Illyana Rasputin femslash fanfiction but I can’t use it as chapter quotations because the books are set in 1986 and B&S would be anachronistic. The struggle is real.