Finally, some more art! This time it’s a complete redesign for Aranea; a new concept, personality, story role, colour scheme, the works! She was originally a minor character, and while that’s still somewhat true here, I’ve specifically tied her role to the main plot via her new concept, and the reason she’s nicknamed “The Star Weaver”. Using her magic needle, she’s able to “weave” remnants of dead constellations and create glass portraits of them, which are then placed in the astral mausoleum to preserve their memory. Conceptually speaking, I wanted to combine the idea of lines connecting stars in a constellation, the connecting lines in a spider’s web, and the lines between pieces of stained glass to create Aranea’s core idea here.

The constellation for Aranea is based on the yellow sac spider, labelled as the “long-legged spider” by its original mapper, though I’ve incorporated a bit of orb weavers to match the theming too. I did leave a few hints at her previous peacock spider inspiration, primarily in her glasses and head stripes. Her glasses are meant to be like large, dark voids that conceal her expression, you never quite know what she’s thinking. This matches with her overall aloof and quiet personality, usually only speaking when absolutely necessary.

The first two months of the year are always odd ones for me, usually a lot of aimless sketching and WIPs until something gets finished (outside of commission work, of course), but I really like how this came out! It took the usual amount of workshopping and I’ve had it as a WIP for a while, but luckily it didn’t fight me as much as I thought it might.

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.

Rough WIP from March 17th, 2024

whoops guess you're getting a rough design for Apus tonight too lol

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 she's got. 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. I may give her an actual sickle as a secondary weapon too, we'll see!

Even after I decided to add her to Columba's crew, I'd been stumped for a LONG while on what direction to take with the design in general and FINALLY I have one that I really like, especially after giving her the more harpy-ish treatment like Grus's current sketch. Pretty proud of the symbol integration on this one so far too, some are easier than others!

Symbol Design for Apus by Denis Moskowitz

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

im bout to fucking cry why are other zodiac creators' lore so much better than mine

-looks at date of the last post on this blog- OOF IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR this blog was always going to be a “post whenever” kind of blog but oops lol it’s a bit wild that the last thing I posted about was working on In Your Orbit, because I probably haven’t worked on it since that post jskfdhskj I switch projects a lot to avoid burnout anyway, but I’ve still been lacking focus in other areas too, unfortunately. I’ve been plugging away at Starglass Zodiac as best I can, but how monstrous that project is has worn on me a bit. Though that’s pretty normal considering where I am and the time of year. October-December is always hectic for me, and lately I’ve been using what’s left of my willpower and motivation to make holiday gifts for people, which has been draining in itself. Artists don’t sleep in December lmao I did a bit of a retrospective/update post thing back in July for Starglass’s 6th anniversary that talked about how slow the progress on that series feels right now, but... eh. That seems to be the thing I’ve been saying since forever so I guess not much has changed, but I am proud of the work I have completed thus far, at least. It is my biggest project to date too, so I guess that’s also to be expected That said, I’ve switched from that one for the time being, as a particularly long-standing depressive episode has got me in a weird mood. Luckily it’s not too bad with the intrusive thoughts this time, but I still find my mind returning to a different place this week. Or more specifically, a different story project. It’s called Demon Exchange, and you can read this post from 2019 if you wanna know more about it, but it’s basically the perfect embodiment of my current mindset, so perhaps that’s why it popped back into my head again. The two mains are basically two sides of my psyche that have to co-exist in the same brain so there’s that lmao I find it interesting that that particular story seems to come into much sharper focus when I’m depressed, but not every time for some reason. While I knew from the start that the themes present in it are related to that and the general absurdity and bad luck of my own life as well, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I thought about this series at length, outside of drawing Eva’s pet bat Kiki, I guess. I have no idea how far I’ll get with actually working on it, but I’ll do what I can while I’m thinking about it. I did a bit of tweaking to Eva’s design and did a sketch of her full demon form, so that’s something! It’s the odd duck among my WIPs for a variety of reasons, but the art style is the most noticeable one as this is currently the only thing I do that’s solely in greyscale with no plans for a colour variant. Normally I’m known for using absurd amounts of saturated colours instead, though I do really love doing B/W stuff too, the contrast hits so nicely and differently than in colour. Ah well, I get to play with pencil texture shading again so huzzah!

drew the ever so lovely Cassie from @starglasszodiac!!!

🚀💖🎨ART BOOST🎨💖🚀 If you're looking for a new artist to follow who does great character designs and a colorful cute aesthetic please check out Akysi on Tumblr! She also has an upcoming webcomic called StarGlass Zodiac at StarGlassZodiac (.com) ✨🎨She needs the support to get her art seen so if u could go check her out and commission her that would be great! ✨🎨 GO SUPPORT HER!!! 💖💖💖 Akysi @ Tumblr KTMacenzieArt on Twitter katie.mackenzie.art on Instagram *Art Uploaded with Permission*

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.

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!

Absolutely HAD to draw something inspired by the eclipse today! :D I wasn’t in a location with totality but I was still lucky enough to see it from my building. It was cloudy at first so I wasn’t sure, but then it cleared right up for the maximum! What a treat :’D

Kind of a different upload for today, but it’s something I’ve been chipping away at for a while now so I thought I’d share! Updated magic colours and types for Starglass Zodiac (though I can’t recall if I actually uploaded any of the prior iterations lol oops)

How these will be rendered will likely change a bit as I’m still deciding how I want the FX in this series to look in general (for like the 80th time lmao), so this is purely for the colour design of each of them for now. As usual, I had to make a few changes from previous versions to match new or altered lore I’ve developed, but this SHOULD be all of the magic types at play here, with the exception of a few “offshoot” elements (Aquarius’s lightning, Pisces’s ice, etc.) which will be drawn differently but share the same colours as their base element here.

The colour of the magic is very important to the narrative, so pay attention to the similarities and shared colours for the actual comic later on ;) The fact that there is a lot of overlap between them is key! I had to carefully name some of these to avoid some of the bigger spoilers, and thus I have to resist the incredible urge to spill the entire plot right here xD Still, I hope you enjoy! Feel free to ask questions about these lore wise, I’ll do my best to answer them without revealing too much. I’ll probably tag posts like these for spoilers when the comic launches just in case, but I’ll worry about that later.

My funny beetle guy :] I finished some design tweaks for him in between the last bit of Art Fight stuff, so I figured I’d post it now! Pretty minor tweaks here, mostly just strengthening the symbol integration in his shape language, as well as giving him a better pose for the lineups I have going right now.

I sketched out the poses beforehand so it should work well with the rest of them when they’re finished, though I still have to update his extended reference and make sure everything matches. I may have to adjust a few things later on when he’s compared with the others, but overall I really like how this came out! It definitely captures his personality :D

---------- The constellation symbol for Scutum was originally designed by Denis Moskowitz and released to the public domain

I needed a break from character sheets and wrestling with new colour schemes, so I return to my glowy comfort zone. Admittedly this looks like nearly all of the illustrations I’ve done with Cassie already but eh ¯_(ツ)_/¯ -throws this onto the pile anyway-

Some Scorpio design tweaks for tonight! :D I’m jumping around a lot of different WIPs in preparation for Art Fight next month haha The changes are all cosmetic this time around, with the biggest change being adding another darker shade of purple for more contrast! All of the functions of his armour and cape are the same from his last design sheet (from 2020, ah!) so I’ll have to update the extended refs to match this later. I wanted to show all of the new art here first :) Enjoy!

Yay, more design tweaks! Though the primary focus was on giving Ophiuchus an updated lineup pose this time around, like I'm doing for Cassie and the rest of the zodiac. His previous one was a more standard character reference standing pose and I had his expression be more serious/angry, and while that is definitely still an aspect of his personality, I felt this one conveyed more of an accurate summation of his overall character story wise, and thus should be more optimal for the lineup.

Despite having the idea for a while, I realized that I don’t think I ever actually showed how his staff functioned in relation to his snake companions, so I put that here with his updated staff design. There’s more blank space on this than I normally like with my sheet layouts but I already made some of the other reference on his previous sheet so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If nothing else, I wanted to nail a very specific expression here, one that’s reeeeeally close to being friendly and kind but something feels off about it to the point of being unsettling. It took a bit of finessing and testing between the line art and colour phases, but I think I got there in the end.

Though I didn’t intend for his raised hand to parallel the one in Scorpio’s pose, the fact they are linked in that way is rather appropriate, ironically! In this case it’s meant to look like he’s beckoning you or is holding out his hand to aid you. Do you trust him?