✸ Wyrdcat Press ✸

llew, he/they, autistic ... side blog: @cats-brains

[ranticore]

i made some bluesky posts about it but idk it bears repeating i find it really disheartening that nature/ecology/sustainability/specific animals is now just another theme for online artist to make landfill waste merch out of. because everything is a fandom and fandom is identity and stickers/badges/merch signify this identity (of loving nature). the green and brown crunchy stickers with native wildlife on them have the exact same environmental impact as any other

[hemipenal-system]

hey if you’re a frequent flyer in my notifications i probably recognize and appreciate you. btw

[wyrdcat-press]

little winter landscape from a year or two back! i think this was inspired by the style of song of the sea.

[wyrdcat-press]

my mama said we’re all born rotten…

ROTWOOD (he/they/she)

‘Rotwood is a young wolf who grew up in an isolated mountain valley with only their mother for company. A tough and jaded she-wolf, she instilled one belief in them — that we’re all born rotten. After their mother’s death this belief becomes calcified, only further enforced by the unexplained symptoms they experience; dizziness and light-headedness, bright spots in their vision, disorientation, muscle weakness, fatigue and brain fog. Rotwood becomes convinced that they are rotting away on the inside and sets out from their valley in search of a cure, in the process meeting other wolves for the first time and learning about pack life, which they discover is the usual way for a wolf to live. So why was Mama all alone?’

this guy was my character for an arpg which i have since left due to time constraints and wanting for focus on my own stories. as a result he’s sort of abandoned right now, but i would love to write more about him sometime. cough cough his mother was maybe not being as literal as he thinks.

[wyrdcat-press]

sketchbook drawings of bronze age artefacts in the british museum collection (mostly)! these were part of my process for the manifesto piece, hence why the iconography there is similar.

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rotwood. my weird little guy. sort of abandoned

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binder illustration for my CAT unit zine!

from the zine: 'Not every arcane being can be slain – some can only be neutralised through the use of runic, through long and complicated inscriptions and processes which bind them to a vessel known as an artefact, trapping them within where they can do no harm. Preparing for a binding takes time and is highly collaborative; each species of arcane creature requires its own unique spell, a string of complex runes first inscribed into the vessel which will be used to contain them, and then gouged or painted into the earth, a rune circle, a kind of trap. It can take many binders working together and communicating closely to create the rune circle, especially to capture the most powerful arcane beings, and as many to activate the circle when the time comes. The binders work closely with the hunters in the field to neutralise their target; the hunters will first weaken it, then lure it into the rune circle for the binders to ensnare and bind to the artefact. Many rune circles include runes of slowing, immobilisation or pain to buy the binders time to complete the process. Given that much of their work takes place in the field, binders are taught basic self-defence and wear light-weight leather armour when on a mission, just in case they become caught up in the fray.'

[cryptotheism]

The unsavvy talk about furries like they're some hypersexual excretion of modernity, but drawing animal-people is one of the top 10 neolithic human activities. It's up there with collecting berries and producing clay figures of fat women.

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an ancient pet portrait, dug out of the archives!

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MAKING IS SURVIVAL.

final outcome for a uni project about my creativity!

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shades ✷

assorted felines i associate with my being.

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some roughly coloured drawings from my sketchbook when i was first thinking about these sphinxes. you'll see these pop up more from now on.

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a little sketchbook drawing of skediceth from hannah kaner's "fallen gods" trilogy! love this little guy.

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a landscape study, also from my foundation course! this was from a photo i took in powys or ceredigion.

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some big kitties from when i was working on my foundation diploma!

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healer illlustration for my CAT unit zine!

from the zine:

‘It is important to note that runic, when used for healing, cannot work miracles. It cannot cure paralysis, blindness, or regrow severed limbs; it can be used to accelerate the healing process, to ward off infection and numb pain, but it can only heal the body in ways it could do on its own without magical intervention. For this reason it is important that healing mages are knowledgeable in traditional medicine as well as magic. Whilst a gifted healing mage may be able to string together runes which can make a broken bone knit back together instantaneously, rune magic cannot make the bone heal straight – it first must be set and splinted as though you were going to let time to its work. While runic is generally carved to grant its effects, healing magic is an exception; the runes are instead painted onto bandages or similar material in commercial ink, blood, a dye of the mage’s own concoction or whatever else is at a paw’s reach in the moment of an emergency. While some strings of runes can be used across many situations to grant a blanket effect – warding off infection, for instance – fully healing complex injuries requires a specially written spell. Similarly, spells specially written for an individual are more effective in easing the symptoms of long-term conditions like chronic pain. Some healers work as field doctors, remaining close at hand during missions, while others remain at the base and specialise in crafting spells applicable to other forms of medicine. Some even specialise in offering therapeutic services, creating runic wraps which ease nightmares or calm the mind; like other forms of runic healing these work best when specially written to cater to a cat’s unique psychological needs.’

[wyrdcat-press]

matching postcards designs! these were also for my uni summer project and are based on samantha shannon's "the priory of the orange tree" and "a day of fallen night," which are currently some of my favourite fantasy novels alongside garth nix's old kingdom series.