I've had a few ref sheets in the works lately, and I got another one done today. :D Even after I decided to add her to Columba's pirate crew, I'd been stumped for a LONG while on what direction to actually take with the design in general and FINALLY I have one that I really like, especially after giving her a more harpy-ish treatment to add more variety to the many bird constellations. Pretty proud of the symbol integration on this one too, some are easier than others! She's the first I've fully completed of this group so things are bound to get tweaked later on, but this is a good start.

The name Apus means "without feet", as apparently these birds were once thought to not have any, and I thought that would fit perfectly into a double peg-leg to match the pirate theme. A bird-of-paradise could be any number of species under that name though, so I've incorporated attributes from several here, particularly the sicklebills and the various species that have those distinct tail feathers, of both the long and curly varieties. Colour wise, she predominantly resembles the ribbon-tailed astrapia.

Columba's crew isn't exactly evil per se, but they have lost their way a bit after losing their former captain and their ship. Apus loves combat, not for the sake of the outcome, but for the act of combat itself. If you were to lose your weapon during a fight with her, she'd gladly give you one of hers just to continue it! She'll also use her long talons to fight with, but only if she has no other weapons left. Hope you like her. :) ------- The constellation symbol for Apus was originally designed by Denis Moskowitz and released to the public domain.

genuine question: are ppl who only speak english not annoyed that they can never rly have a private conversation when they're abroad or smthn

Young SUGIZO !!

At that time he still played bass; he switched to solo guitar after joining Luna Sea.

heyooo tell me about the chamaeleon three!

Gladly! Luckily I've updated their designs already too ^_^

The Chamaeleon Three are a group of “teenage hoodlum” types to challenge Cassie’s quest to restore order between Earth and the Astral Plane. As the story progresses, the imbalance of the spirit world gets stronger as Cassie’s powers do, so the spirits that appear on Earth become more tangible, meaning that more people other than Cassie can see and interact with them over time. The trade-off is they then pose a larger threat to regular people, and that’s where these three come in!

It occurred to me that some of the more troublesome spirits would relish the opportunity to mess with the living world, even withstanding corruption by Void magic, especially after hearing that the Starglass is Cassie, not some kind of iron-clad warrior or another type of powerful figure like they expected. They quickly start wreaking havoc on the town and frame her for it whenever they can. Circumstances aren't exactly great on the Astral Plane as it is, so many also see it as a manner of escape from it, no matter how temporary.

Though they didn't initially choose to be corrupted by Void magic (it happened accidentally for them), they quickly made the most of their situation with anarchy and mischief once they did arrive on Earth. These three learn pretty quickly not to underestimate our little star hero, but still pose a threat that Cassie can’t face on her own, at least not initially.

So in order to catch these three and return them home, Cassie and her friends/family have to get creative to outsmart them or otherwise confront them in different ways, and I think this’ll be a good way to showcase the Earth squad’s differences in personality and resourcefulness, as well as spice up the spirit encounters in general. Here are descriptions for each of them :)

Lynx The tough guy of the three, with an equally brash personality to match. Despite the group's name, he thinks of himself as the leader and is imposing like one. He is never the one actually calling the shots though, as he lacks the brains for strategy. He greatly prefers brute forcing a problem or charging head-first into anything that's in his way.

Lynx is frequently a bully to Lepus for a predator-prey sort of dynamic, though he is easily shut down by Chamaeleon whenever he goes too far or loses focus. He’s usually the one to get caught the most when plans go awry, as he lacks Lepus’s agility and Chamaeleon's camouflage when escaping, but he’s the most capable fighter of the three simply by virtue of being a massive wild cat. You don’t want to mess with those teeth and claws!

He’s a cocky spitfire, known for constantly picking fights and riling things up, often to an extreme degree and at the detriment of himself and/or his group members. He's the type who would mock you for refusing to fight, and then call you a hypocrite for getting angry at him for mocking you. But, his overconfidence speaks to an underlying insecurity, which makes him prone to emotional vulnerability. He will aggressively defend himself should he ever be questioned, which usually leads him to picking fights that he can't win, and he switches between his confident and cowardly sides quite frequently.

While he’s already got a pretty stocky build and his stature isn't just for show, his cape and jacket are meant to make him look even bigger and more important, so you know he’s compensating for something, even if he’d never admit it. Being the (almost) leader of the group gives him a sense of power over others, whether it is warranted or not.

Lepus Probably best described as the cowardly lackey of the group, though not by his own choice. He hates being viewed with a bunny’s inherent cuteness, seeing it as a sign of weakness instead. This can sometimes give him an impulsive need to prove himself, and it typically ends poorly. He has, however, adapted to use it to his advantage.

He’s the type of character who will play to your sympathy and beg you to help him when he’s cornered, only to turn on you as soon as he’s in the clear. That said, he'd be the least likely of the three to become a villain under normal circumstances, if he felt he had a choice in the matter. But alas, history has taught him that he has to be this way to survive at all. He sees this group as all he has, believing that no one would befriend him otherwise, even if they don’t really act much like friends outside of their shared love for mischief and chaos. Though it angers and upsets him, he's used to staying quiet about things that truly bother him to keep the peace or avoid getting yelled at.

As you might expect from a rabbit, he’s got big jumps and swift kicks, and makes up for his lack of physical strength with agility. He’s based on a black-tailed jackrabbit specifically for the long, spindly legs and large ear-to-head ratio. His big ears make him the recon/lookout of the group most of the time, and is the quickest to flee when a plan goes pear-shaped, making it difficult to catch all three of them at once.

If given the choice, Lepus would much rather be an explorer or spelunker, using his quick feet and keen hearing for something more productive. His love of chaos is actually more of a love for adventure and spontaneity, but he found the wrong outlet for it.

Chamaeleon The true leader of the group, hence the name. She goes by Mae for short, but only to those she allows to call her that. Despite her aloof and quiet nature overall, Chamaeleon is the sharpest of the three, and can shut down Lynx’s boisterous attitude or Lepus's shaking cowardice with only a stern look or a blunt word. She’s the brains of the operation, keeps a cool head, and is difficult to outsmart.

She’s even harder to catch with her camouflage, though you’ll know where she’s been with her tags. Being a graffiti artist, she has her spray gun and cans to quickly paint anything she desires, or spray someone else if she's really desperate. Similar to the paint itself, I'd imagine her markings could glow in the dark when she’s not hiding, though she can negate this glow to hide completely when necessary.

Though she’d never show it, Chamaeleon is actually the one who relies on the group dynamic the most. She doesn’t like being apart from them, even if she bullies them when they’re together, and usually favours plans that don’t involve splitting up. In better circumstances she’d probably be the “older sister” type to the other two, looking out for them and making sure they don’t get hurt, but her short fuse and lack of patience doesn't currently lend itself to that kind of dynamic. She is actively mean to them most of the time, though that is often eclipsed by Lynx's louder and more outward type of aggression.

------ So you may be wondering, why did I choose these three to form a group when their constellations normally have nothing to do with each other? Well, that's sort of the point! As you may have noticed, these three don't really get along with each other very well and are dysfunctional as a group, and this is what ultimately leads to their downfall. Their dynamic is meant to be an opposite to the one Cassie has with Demitri, Ellie, and Leena, who are able to work together well despite their individual differences.

After the Chamaeleon Three are returned to the Astral Plane, I plan to explore what happens to them afterwards in a side story that shows the core problems with their group and what they each do about it, but the first part of their arc will be shown in the main story at least.

WIPs from June 27th and March 12th, 2023 I'm in one of those mind states where it takes me literal hours to make myself upload my WIPs, even though that's the entire point of this side blog :') Not that I dislike these, rather I received some bad (but unrelated) news today/yesterday and that always ramps up my insomnia. I'm up WAY too late again and my mood has been awful all day, so this was inevitable

It's been a while since I uploaded a completely new design for Starglass Zodiac (as in a completely new character rather than just a redesign of an already made one) and I'm not entirely sure why. Like the last one was over a year ago??? I still have way more to do so I'm not sure why I stopped for a while, even when I was still doing art for this project rather than switching to another. I have a massive folder of WIPs still so maybe I got decision paralysis or something, idk. These are far from done but I did come up with some cool new scenes with them so that's neat!

The less specific or more basic constellations are usually the most fun but also the most challenging to tackle, because it can be hard to make the concepts interesting if there's no pre-existing mythology associated with them, which is the case for both of these and many others. A lot of the constellations, even among the official 88 modern ones, boil down to an astronomer somewhere being like "put a [thing] in the sky" without anymore specificity or reason. Custos Messium is a defunct constellation to boot, but the idea of a "harvest keeper" gives me a lot of cool visuals to work with at least. I'm particularly proud of their sickle and scythe arms that form a C and M, respectively. Plus with the defunct constellations I get to design their symbols :D Not super happy with the bodies for either of these yet, but I like their heads so that's a good start. Horologium is inspired by those awesome looking astral clock towers with multiple faces, but with that in mind I want to make its body more tower-like. In the story, it's the constellation of the clock that was given artificial life after being lost and corrupted by void magic, so I want it to look like the pieces of the tower itself got transformed into this hulking beast over time. Overall I just want to have more non-sapient creatures inhabiting this world for variety's sake and to create bigger threats for the cast as stuff ramps up in later chapters. Defeating Horologium in particular is going to be quite the feat, but I am excited to finish writing/drawing that part of the comic at least!

Had an idea so I whipped up this little thing for today :'D I wish I had more to update you with though ^^' I've been pretty busy with Art Fight this month so work on this project has been paused for a bit, but I'm looking forward to getting back into it afterwards. :) Hard to believe it's been nearly a decade since this project entered my life, but it certainly wouldn't have been the same without it! Having a project for this long really makes me reflect on a lot of things, like how different it was at the beginning, and even how different I was too (it's been... a very long 8 years). It can feel like I'm going in circles whenever I return to old designs and concepts and tweaking them, but I think they're all changes for the better. At least, I hope so! Thanks as always for the love and support over the years folks, and look forward to more stuff later on! But for now, happy birthday Starglass Zodiac <3

The casting for that live action Fat Albert movie is so funny to me. A casting director was like "We need an antagonist for this movie, Quick! somebody call Omarion!"

sgz

9. someone they would like to befriend!

send me a number for my muse to talk about... . accepting

Akiyama is greatly interested in people - particularly those who think/act outside the box and constantly challenge him to re-examine his own beliefs and convictions. Given my personal interpretation of our favorite loan shark, I imagine he would actually love to befriend not necessarily anyone famous, but people who are trying to be as loud as they can in order to bring about change of any kind.

I think that Arudou Debito would be a prime example of someone who’s controversial but making very valid points about Japan as a whole. As someone who doesn’t look Japanese and yet holds citizenship and continues to suffer discrimination, his claims and overall work as an activist would definitely draw Akiyama’s attention - particularly because I headcanon Akiyama to be close to Tanimura and other Little Asia residents following Y4, and his exposure to their struggles in face of Japan’s ancient xenophobia would be something that Akiyama would like to change, too.

On a less controversial note (and also something I personally would love to do as well) - befriending SUGIZO would be nothing short of awesome. They share some similarities in relation to their early life and then took different paths after a point in their careers once they went through very deep transformations. As a flashy musician with peculiar style and undeniable talent and charisma, the fact that SUGIZO also uses his fame to work towards a better country makes him an important ally - and someone that Akiyama would definitely have lots to discuss with.

The way I’m so absolutely convinced knkdz would have QUICKLY launched itself as one of Dazai’s main ships the same way that sgz has if Bones actually adapted Dazai’s entrance exam right or included literally any of their casual interactions,,,,

gdx rn h zbstzkkx ghc sgd ozrrvnqc hm sgzs hlzfd h cqdv ne sgd bnlotsdq :3

Oops I drew Cassie again, it’s her birthday today so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It’s been a while since I drew Flicker though, they’re always fun to draw. Enjoy!

everyone reading the new percy jackson book is much stronger than me

LUNA SEA

tell me about perseus and orion!

Sure :D I've discussed them a little bit in the posts about the zodiac companions, but I can elaborate more on their personalities and dynamic with each other specifically here. Also I'm working on Orion's updated design sheet literally right now so you get a sneak peek at some new art that I'll be posting soon haha! Percy's reference is also currently an amalgam of art from various years, but it's good enough for now.

Perseus - The Hero(’s Monster)

Cursed with a paralyzing stare and monstrous appearance from his constellation's prior lineage of monster killing, Perseus is prone to hiding himself from others. He may share a name with the famous hero, but longs for a truly heroic path of his own instead. Though he can't actually turn anyone to stone with his gaze like the legendary Medusa, his aversion to eye contact is a byproduct of others fearing that he could. If caught off guard or near someone who has never seen him before, he will specifically hide his eyes if he can't hide the rest of himself in that moment, usually using his shield to do so. He'll then warn them not to look at him, assuming they will scream and run away if they did (and many have before). His prowess in combat is largely out of necessity for his own survival, though he does refine this skill later with Aries. Despite his ability to think and speak like any other sapient being on the Astral Plane, many still consider him to be a monster like Cetus or the previous incarnation of Hydra, and thus any particularly zealous "hero" would try to hunt him down. Even his own brother, Hercules, would use this as leverage to stage fights to "defeat" him in front of others. And, inevitably, these fights would hurt a lot of those people too. Hercules would always convince his brother that it was for the greater good, but Percy was always the one between them who ended up hurt in the end too, physically and mentally.

Perseus tried to be the hero he always wanted to be, someone who kept others safe and protected during an actual monster attack, but was ultimately betrayed. He lost part of his right horn from a blade swing intended for his neck, as the wielder assumed that Perseus was the monster that was attacking instead. Hercules claimed to "save" him by moving him in time, despite putting him in that situation in the first place. After that, Perseus gave up on his heroic desire and leaned into his monsterhood as much as possible to ward everyone off for good, and started lurking around Aries's arena. Despite being in a spirit world already, many believed that the arena was "haunted" by something, as most who dared to venture in were met with Percy's sharp teeth and glowing eyes. He is also capable of a wide range of growls, screeches and roars that echo through the hallways and shake the arena's walls. It wasn't until Aries defeated him in battle and learned of his plight that the ram decided to take Percy under his wing and train him as his own.

Because of his reclusive tendencies, getting Percy to socialize is quite the task at first. Even after he gains friends, some of that awkwardness remains, but most find it charming more than anything. He doesn't understand idioms or slang very well, thus confusing him when taking the phrase literally. For example, if you described something as "cool" he might tilt his head and say "I'm not cold, are you?"

Though often nervous and quiet, Percy is actually very sweet when you get to know him. His life has been pretty insular up to this point, albeit not by his choice, but despite everything he still possesses a young curiosity about the world. He has to do much to combat his low self-esteem, but he gets help with that along the way.

Orion - The Hunter

Once a notorious name, Orion lived up to his title's legacy as a ruthless hunter of the creatures of the Astral Plane, alongside his dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor (I don't have any art for them yet, sorry ^^')

They become loyal to him through their shared love of the thrill of the hunt, but with one caveat. Rangifer (The Reindeer) warns Orion that, should his hubris continue to go unchecked, the loyalty of his dogs will waver. And should they ever turn on each other, they will be turned to stone. Of course, Orion ignores this warning and vows to kill Rangifer to prove it, as he is one of Orion's stronger and more elusive targets.

The art you see here is Orion's current appearance, but he was fully human initially. While he was successful in killing Rangifer in the end, the deer cursed him with his current appearance as one final act of revenge. Though Orion is blind and cannot see himself, he can feel the transformation as it occurs, and he starts to piece together what's about to happen as he feels the antlers on his head.

As Rangifer warned, Orion's dogs turn on him, thinking he is now the prey they must hunt. They claw and bite him like they would any other catch, but soon turn to fighting each other over the kill. True to Rangifer's warning once again, they are then turned to stone. This experience teaches Orion the fear of his prey, and also how much he relied on his dogs to hunt at all.

Given his notoriety, Orion became a target of Hercules. Though with malicious intentions of his own, Hercules wished to use Orion as yet another way to falsely position himself as the "hero" who defeated him. Orion is rescued in time by Taurus, another target of Hercules, and they escape.

Orion isn't exactly grateful for his rescue, however, now seeing himself as bereft of any purpose at all. He stays in his prison cell on his own volition. Unfortunately, he is also one of the spirits that gets corrupted by Void magic and falls to Earth, and while corrupted he reverts back to his ruthless hunting instinct, seeing no other way while stranded in a foreign place. But, with Cassie's (and later Taurus's) kindness, Orion slowly starts to see a new path forward. He is then able to find ways to use his hunting skills for tracking rather than killing, and adopts a gentler and more peaceful attitude.

Eventually, Perseus and Orion meet via being companions to Aries and Taurus respectively, and they quickly bond over their shared desire for redemption and new purpose. Since Orion is blind, a lot of Perseus's appearance-based insecurities are largely negated when around him. Orion, already much further along in his journey to self-actualization, has much confidence that Percy can do the same and helps to guide him. He is a calming presence in contrast to Percy's more anxious demeanour.

Doodle from September 15th, 2022 Really quick Cassie doodle for style experimentation purposes. Not like an “official” style change but rather some things to make mental note of when actually drawing her for the comic as opposed to her character sheet stuff. Though this is just a loose drawing that I’ve slapped line art onto, this is generally closer to how I draw Cassie for thumbnailing scenes, and I like how expressive it usually ends up being. I want to make sure I don’t lose all of that when editing things to be on model, so I want to find a happy medium between this and the more refined style I’ve done for the character sheets thus far. Character design can be so technical (and I love it for that) but sometimes I have to remind myself not to be so rigid-perfectionist about it when putting those characters into the thing I designed them for in the first place ^^’ I am like... THIS close to giving everything its own line art colour like I’ve done here with her face. I know I’m going to hate myself like 10 pages in if I do the whole comic this way but DANG IT it looks so good too... we’ll see lol This feels like forever ago now but this piece is one that I always come back to when it comes to my execution of a comic-ish style with coloured line art. It’s still one of my favourite pieces for that, it all came together really well in my opinion and I want to bring some of that back. I might even dive back into the PSD to study all the layers separately again (there were so many with the final render lmao)

Also Procreate has a noise brush now??? It’s pretty sweet and gives me that tiny bit of texture I want to make it seem a little less digital, though I might use a paper texture filter or something as well. I really like how her cheek blushies came out ;u;