#Tips on Skeleton Design
Text
Tips for drawing the Bones
Credit: Etherington Brothers
#375#376#bone#bones#skeleton#skull#anatomy#art tips#art tutorial#art tip#art tutorials#drawing#drawing tip#drawing tips#drawing tutorial#drawing tutorials#art#design#spine#leg#arm#head#rib#ribs#body
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
You Get A Set Of Nails That Match Her
For @mimikyu-of-death
(Part one— the boys)
Lute
Lute did not know how to react when you showed her nails inspired by her.
She looked between you and the nails, complexion slowly turning more and more golden.
“They’re pretty?” was what she finally managed to choke out.
They were likely matte with a grey and white color scheme, maybe a grey french tip on a white base, some white wings with black outlines, her halo.
She liked them.
These would be the pair that you would catch her actively trying to look at whereas she normally couldn’t care less.
She thinks she sneaky about it. She is not.
Rosie
Rosie goes to get her nails done with you as often as she can. She makes it such a fun experience.
She is gossiping with the nail techs or listening to their struggles and giving advice.
She’s a real lively person.
She normally gets something rather simple, black stilettos. Occasionally she’ll get a French tip of simple swirl design. Nothing major.
When you get nails designed with her in mind? Oh, dear lord, everyone’s going to know. She’s going to find a way to slip it into conversation.
Pink with black and white detailing. Maybe a bone, definitely something resembling black lace.
No one’s going to know how the conversation gets to you or nails but if you’re around, she’ll call you over and hold up your hand.
Definitely a very happy camper when it comes to it.
Vaggie
Vaggie would have to be talked into getting her nails done, I feel like.
She wouldn’t go for anything major.
Probably square or almonds, whatever the grey equivalent of nude is. She might get some pink swirls.
Whenever she goes to grab your hand and realizes you’ve gotten a new set done, she immediately flips your hand and is stunned.
A grey base, some pink Xs, a pink bow, and some swirls which match her eye colors.
They’re beautiful.
She just sort of melts and starts finding more reasons to fiddling with your hands.
Velvette
Velvette is the person who first brought you to get your nails done.
She’s been getting her own done for decades. There is nothing this girl has not tried.
Some of the things I think she would not like are the chrome. I think she’d like the cat eyes but chrome in general is a no go.
She’s not big on sparkles unless it’s specific to a design. You will not watch her with a nail covered in just glitter.
I also don’t see her being big on textured nails or the lava lamp trend that’s going around right now.
Aside from that, free game.
It’s hard to surprise her with stuff surrounding your fashion because she likes to be so involved with it but when you pitch surprising her and trying to impress her with your nails as a video idea, she agrees.
“I hope you’re ready to get torn apart, babe.”
Then she sees your nails and is actually surprised.
Obviously the color scheme is pink, black, and white. There’s some stripes, some swirls, maybe a couple hearts, and a nod to her skeleton earrings.
She brings you in for a kiss that she covers the camera for.
“You’ve got to pay to see this.”
Of course, Valentino and Velvette both get a lot of questions about when she’s going to do a video.
She promptly shuts this down.
#hazbin hotel velvette x reader#velvette x reader#hazbin vaggie x reader#vaggie x reader#hazbin rosie x reader#rosie x reader#hazbin lute x reader#lute x reader
225 notes
·
View notes
Note
Do you have any tips on how to gwt better at drawing different faces and bodies? I really really like all of your character designs and how unique every character look :3
I like to play around with shapes! If I'm lacking inspo I also try to look up animals and base characteristics from them too! Like when I think of Agamemnon I think of a lion, so I try to make his hair big like a mane.
Also for body types I find it easier to draw outward in if that makes sense?
Like it's easier for me to draw fat designs when I draw out their silhouette first, and then just refine it to add more details, rather than drawing the skeleton and then adding on layers. The latter kind of messes me up because then the distribution of weight feels weird. You can do either though, whichever makes more sense.
It's also good to look up references! Think of characters like those sims customization settings. There's no conventional way to be. You can be tall and have a belly, short with wide shoulders, just mess around with it and try to keep balance in mind (at least. Enough balance that they don't fall over when standing)
381 notes
·
View notes
Text
Discworld Inktober day 17 - Bill Door
I’ve been very excited about this one. Terry Pratchett’s Death books are probably my favorite series. Death, while never needing to eat, sleep, and is an immortal skeleton, carries humanity in his heart (metaphorically speaking). He’s constantly trying to be a person only in ways an immortal anthropomorphic personification can. Heres Death as Bill Door, which is a totally real and not fake name at all. This design is originally created by Marc Simonetti, i loved it so much I had to do an ink version of it.
I make these drawings for the fans (including myself) but if anyone’s feeling generous, theres a tip button on my page. Would be greatly appreciated 🙏
#illustration#discworld#terry pratchett#discworld fanart#gnu terry pratchett#discworld art#inktober#discworld inktober#inktober day 17#inktober 2023#inktober demon#death#death books#bill door
576 notes
·
View notes
Text
“Oh, gods.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Oh, gods.”
Nico scowls, wrenching just eyes away from Will’s poorly-covered grin and shaking shoulders.
It’s not that bad. It isn’t.
Sure, the complete lack of lighting except Greek fire torches makes the cabin look like a little piece of the Underworld, right here on the surface. But that’s comforting. Honestly. Nico knows the Underworld. It’s — familiar.
And, yeah. It would, probably, be pertinent to have some furniture, or something. At least somewhere for him to store his clothes, because he has more than one set of those now, and maybe a shelf, or something. And, admittedly, the obsidian altar could take up a little less space than it currently does.
But it’s not that bad.
“Are those. Coffin shaped beds.”
The tone of Will’s voice is unlike he’s ever heard it. He turns back to face him, slowly, and finds him biting his fist, hard, every muscle of his body tense as live wire.
“I was twelve godsdamn years old,” Nico snaps. “Forgive me if interior design wasn’t my passion.”
Solace loses it.
In his defense, not that Nico is too worried about defending him, he does appear to try very hard to not lose it. When the first giggle slips out of his lips, he clamps his jaw shut tighter. When his whole body begins to shake with the force of repressing his laughter, he curls inward, as if making himself smaller might reduce the chance of a lapse in control.
But then he glances back inside and looks, really looks, at the dreary, stone walls, the lone skeletons standing guard, and the plush, teakwood black coffin bunk beds, and he collapses to the floor.
“I’m going to open a chasm beneath you,” Nico threatens. “You are going to fall and crack your spine into a million pieces on the bank of the Styx, rotting there with every other forgotten hope.”
“You are a Black Parade lyric personified,” Will wheezes.
Nico doesn’t know what that means, so he kicks him. Unfortunately, he only laughs harder.
“I mean it, Solace. It’s a long way down to the Underworld. You will spend the entire fall petrified with the knowledge that nothing can save you.”
For added effect, Nico makes the floor under the medic’s body shake, makes the tip of a skeleton hand peek out from the earth.
Ironically, this stops Will’s laughter, but not for the reason Nico was aiming for.
“Hey!” A bright blue flipflop-clad foot darts out and collides With Nico’s ankle, sending him sprawling. “I said no spooky magic for the next two months! Put that skeleton away!”
“Fuck off, Solace! It’s barely half a bone! You are so annoying!”
“That’s my specialty.” Will pushes himself upright. He waits until Nico sits up, too, so he can catch his eye before his face splits into a dazzling grin. Actual sparkles seem to flicker beside his face. “And you are ever so easy to annoy.”
Nico stares, unimpressed.
“Anyways.” Will coughs. “You can’t stay here, Neeks —”
“Don’t call me that.”
“— it’s straight-up too depressing.” He peers inside. “It’s also cold, and, like…borderline unliveable? So. As your doctor, I can’t allow it.”
“You’re a medic,” Nico says, raising an eyebrow, “first of all, not a doctor. Second of all, you can’t tell me what to do. Third of all — where am I supposed to sleep? The woods?”
“Hm. Good question.”
Will gets to his feet, brushing the dirt off his shorts and offering Nico a hand. After a second of hesitation, he takes it, allowing Will to haul him up.
“C’mon!”
Nico snatches his hand away, face burning. (Gods. Why does Will have to be so…touchy-feely? And why does it always do weird things to Nico’s stomach?) But it hardly takes a look over Will’s shoulder before Nico’s feet are following after him, without his permission.
“Where are we going?”
“Well, my dad’s kind of a hoe,” Will says matter-of-factly. Nico chokes. Will’s grin widens. “And our cabin was built with that in mind. I know we’ve got an extra bunk or two for ya. Hurry up!”
This…cannot be allowed. Nico doesn’t have a ton of Camp Half-Blood experience, or anything, but as far as he knows, Hermes is the only cabin that can really do that. He doesn’t want to incur the wrath of Apollo, or whatever, by staying in his cabin uninvited.
Well. Will’s inviting him, technically. And there’s a confidence to his offer, like maybe this isn’t the first time he’s done it.
“What if I don’t want to live in your stupid sunshine-y cabin,” Nico grumbles, trying to cover up his nerves. “Holding hands and singing about how much I love being alive isn’t really my cup of tea.”
Will snorts. “Oh, di Angelo,” he says dramatically, shaking his head, “you are in for a world of discovery. Welcome to the Cabin Apollo. Take your shoes off at the door and remember that Kayla bites.”
———
Living in the Apollo cabin is strange.
Four days in, and Nico is only just starting to get used to it. He’s not entirely unused to sharing space with people — he’s had two sisters — but the Apollo kids argue like they enjoy doing it. One minute, Will and Kayla will be screaming at each other at the top of their lungs about touching each other’s shit, then they’re teaming up to pull Gracie off Yan’s face for the exact same argument, only now they offer sage advice on respecting boundaries and compromising. It’s bizarre.
(Austin is pretty chill, actually. Nico has noticed him starting quite a few fights — it was he, in fact, who moved Will’s shit and then gracefully framed Kayla — but he has a very powerful eyebrow raise and a very powerful image as Unproblematic. He has quickly become Nico’s favourite.)
He’s only just barely beginning to understand how they work together, and the struggle comes in because everything is so chaotic. When Nico spent time with Hazel in New Rome, she was in the barracks. He never really had to worry about squabbling over counter space in the bathroom with her, because she had her own little toiletry caddie like everyone else, and bathrooms were public. With Bianca — well. There’s no one alive who knows this about her, but she was bossy. She was sweet and wonderful and self-sacrificing and brave and kind and the centre of Nico’s life, but by the gods, did she take her authority as a big sister seriously. She ordered Nico around all the time. He never had to worry much about when he would have the chance to use the bathroom they shared at the Lotus, or who got the T.V. remote, or who go to sit on the bus instead of standing, because he was not the one deciding. He could stick his tongue out and whine all he wanted, but she was boss. He knew that.
The Apollo kids are not like that.
As well as Nico can figure, it’s kind of a free-for-all. You want first shower? Either wake up the earliest — a strategy only Will every manages to employ with any success — or manage to jab an elbow in someone’s rib and sprint. You want whoever’s humming to shut the hell up so you can sleep? Make sure your threats are quick and believable, or just straight up start throwing shit until they finally stop. You want the coveted middle of the bench spot at breakfast? Well, tough shit on that one, actually. Nico has yet to make that one happen for himself.
He won’t admit it, but he has kind of learned to enjoy it. It’s annoying, and the Apollo siblings do indeed sing at all hours of the day (although the content usually skews more towards diss tracks and delighted insults, if not straight-up curses), and it is so godsdamn bright in there, seriously, is it a gimmick or what, but there’s something to be said about the fact that he’s so surrounded by people and chaos that he hasn’t even had the chance to feel lonely. Not even at night, panting to himself after a nasty nightmare, because all it takes is a particularly loud snore from Will one bunk down to remember where he is. To remember that he’s safe — by demigod standards, at least.
But, still.
He kind of misses his privacy.
“Will,” he whispers urgently, on his fifteenth day of rooming with the Apollo weirdos.
The medic hums noncommittally, attention very focused on the test tube in front of him. Nico has been fighting the urge to try and launch a piece of dust inside it for forty minutes, just to make him explode.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Sounds good, Nico.”
Nico narrows his eyes. “You’re ignoring me.”
“Uh-huh. Agreed.”
“I can say anything I want right now.”
“Sure. Maybe double check with Austin.”
“…I’m going to put a colony of ants in your pillowcase.”
“Good idea.”
“Then I’m going to douse your hair products in gasoline and set them aflame.”
“Baller.”
“After that I’m gonna read your super secret diary to the entirety of camp at singalong tonight.”
“You betcha.”
“And then I’m going to shadow travel to Russia.”
Will blinks, frowning. “Hey, no shadow-travelling. What’s this I hear about shadow-travelling?”
Nico rolls his eyes. “Nothing, stupid. You were just ignoring me.”
Will smiles guiltily. “Aw, I’m sorry, Neeks. Got focused on this. I’m finished in twenty, then I’m all yours?”
“…Don’t call me Neeks,” Nico grumbles, furious with himself for how quick he’s relented under wide blue puppy-dog eyes.
“Sorry, Neeks.”
Huffing at Will’s quiet laughter, Nico slides off the nurse’s station counter and wanders around the empty infirmary. Things have luckily finally cooled down in here, nearly three weeks after the end of the Giant War. Some of the exhaustion has faded from Will’s features now that he’s had time to sleep properly.
Not that Nico has noticed, or anything.
“Okay,” Will says a few minutes later, holding his hands up protectively in front of his geeky little setup. “I just gotta do this last step, so long as I calculated it right, it should be fine…” He squeezes a drop of something into the liquid bubbling over the burner, freezing immediately. One, two, three seconds pass and nothing happens, so Will relaxes, sighing in relief and turning to face Nico fully. “Okay, we’re good. What was it you wanted to —”
The text tube contents explode in his face, dousing him in slimey green goo.
Nico bursts out laughing.
“Great,” Will says darkly, swiping the stuff from his eyes. “The one day I don’t wear goggles. Great.”
Nico gasps, sides aching. “Oh my gods —”
“Feel free to help, di Angelo.”
“— you look like a cartoon! Your face!”
It takes Will twelve cloths and seven whole minutes to clean himself and the nurse’s station off of the goo. Nico cackles at him the whole time, and tastefully does not mention the many globs of goo that remain caked in his hair.
“Whenever you’re done.”
Will is very, very bad at being stern when he doesn’t really mean it. And he doesn’t really mean it now, because every time he tries to glare at Nico, his mouth twitches.
“I’m good,” Nico finally wheezes, forcing his face back to normal. “I’m good, I’m good.”
He very pointedly does not look at Will’s hair.
“Dick,” Will huffs, fondness bleeding into his tone. “What did you want?”
He must notice the change in tone at his asking, because he clears the bench fully, hoisting himself on top of it and patting the spot next to him. Nico hesitates for half a second, then crawls up, sitting criss cross applesauce, knees touching.
“I need to move back to my cabin,” he manages, finally.
Will’s face betrays no judgement or emotion. “Oh?”
“Yes.” He picks at a loose thread in his jeans. “I need — space.”
The thread loosens, allowing Nico to tug on it. A hole begins to unravel along the seam as he pulls and pulls and pulls. He stops himself before it gets too wide, tearing the thread off and winding it around his fingers.
“I can tell everyone to tone it down,” Will offers softly, eyebrows creased. “We’ll be more quiet, we’ll —”
Nico places a hand on his knee, cutting off his sentence. “It’s not about that, I promise. You guys have been great.”
A wounded look still pulls at Will’s strong features, as much as he visibly tries to pull his face back to something more supportive. “It’s not?”
“No, no. It’s just —” He frowns, trying to articulate the tangled mess of his thoughts. “I have my own cabin.”
“So?”
“And I can’t stay in yours forever.”
“I mean, you could.”
“Chiron’s been giving me looks, Will.”
“So what! I’ll — write you a doctor’s note, or something!”
Nico snorts. “A doctor’s note letting me sleep in your cabin?”
Will nods fervently, although he seems to acknowledge the ridiculousness of his suggestion, if the grin on his face is any indication. “Yes! For medical reasons, you know.” He mimes writing. “‘Patient’s cabin is dank and sad. To avoid bouts of misery, patient must sleep in the presence of the coolest and best and prettiest and most uplifting people in camp.’”
“Hm. Not sure Chiron’s gonna buy that last part. Not sure I buy that last part, actually.”
“Hey.”
Nico dodges Will’s shove, chuckling.
“Seriously, though, Will. This was never a long term solution, right?”
“I know. You’re cabin just — sucks so bad, man. No offense.”
“I take great offense to that, actually. My cabin is art.”
“Sure, Eddie Cullen.”
“I don’t know who that is, so that’s a horrible insult.”
“Travesty, honestly.”
Outside the open infirmary windows, Nico can hear distant, triumphant screaming, laughter, and the clang of metal. Today’s a good day. The weather’s balmier than usual, for late August, and some of the gloom that’s hung over everyone’s head for the bast few weeks seems to have lifted.
“You can’t go back to your cabin like it is,” Will says into the silence, startling Nico, “but —” he grins when Nico begins to protest, holding up his hand. “We can definitely change it up.”
He slides off the bench, botching his landing and almost sprawling on the floor. He holds a dramatic hand out to Nico when he rights himself. Nico ignores it, rolling his eyes and getting to his feet by himself.
“C’mon,” Will says, grabbing his hand anyway. Sparks shoot up Nico’s arm. “We need to go ask Chiron for the van keys and approximately five hundred dollars.”
———
Three hours is too fucking long to be in a vehicle. Especially when Will is driving, because all he does is play nonstop country music and let everybody cut in front of him.
“I’m driving us back,” Nico informs him as they (finally) get out of the stupid van, snatching the keys from his hands.
Will shrugs. “Sure.”
Nico had expected more of a fight, honestly. But he supposes neither of them are legally allowed to drive, age-wise, and besides, Nico technically has seventy years of driving experience on Will.
(…The Lotus had a racetrack.
Nico was very, very good at it.)
“What is this place, anyway?”
“This place,” Will says grandly, throwing an arm over his shoulders, “is essentially the mortal version of the Labyrinth, minus, you know, the soul-sucking terror.”
“Okay. All that’s telling me is that you have horrible ideas and we should leave immediately.”
Will rolls his eyes. “It’s a furniture store.”
“Well, then —” he punches Will’s shoulder, huffing when he only laughs. “Say that, then!”
“But then what would I do with all the drama in my heart?”
“Choke on it, hopefully!”
Ikea is weird.
Since Will did not tell him what the plan was, he didn’t draw up any plans. Luckily, Will has the dimensions of his cabin — although where he got them, Nico does not ask — so they spend an hour or so in the cafe drawing out a plan.
“You need more than two beds, Neeks.”
“Uh, no I don’t. Unless my father has something very important to announce to me, I need a bed for me, and a bed for Hazel.”
“What if I want to sleep over?”
“You can sleep on the porch.”
Mostly, they wander around the sets. Nico isn’t really sure what he wants his cabin to look like — he has to remind himself that yes, actually, he cares about the space he’ll be spending at least the next three years of his life in. It’s a startling reality, to have control over his own space. He must’ve had some say in his childhood bedroom, but he has no memory of it. He spent the most time in his and Bianca’s room at the Lotus, but that was already furnished when they got there, and besides, it only felt like they were there for less than a year. It always felt like a hotel room, never his room. Westminster was no different. His room in his father’s palace had already been designed, too. In fact he’d based his cabin on it.
What does Nico want his bedroom to look like, without someone else deciding for him?
“I’m not getting a fucking Lightning McQueen bed, Solace.”
“But it would be so sick! And look — it’s got little cubbies!”
“I’m going to ditch you, and shadow travel back to camp,” Nico threatens. “And I have the van keys, so you’ll be stuck here for real.”
“Hey, hey, hey.” Will looks at him sternly, hands on hips. “No shadow travelling for you, Death Breath. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t fade into nothing on my watch.”
“I’m joking,” Nico says, exasperated, but cannot deny the warmth that fills him up at Will’s concern.
In the end, he decides on a pretty normal bed. It’s bigger than Will’s bunk (“Or anyone else’s bed,” Will grumbles, “you lucky asshole.”), but not ridiculously designed. He picks a similar size for Hazel, only the frame is white, not black, and the bedspread that comes with it is a soft, coral pink that he knows she will like.
“Wanna see if they’ve got a Mythomagic bedspread for yours?” Will teases.
That would be the coolest thing ever in the entire world, Nico thinks, and is so embarrassed that he shoves Will, shrieking, into a giant basket of pillows for making him think it.
“Obviously I don’t want that.”
“You are such a turd! I’ll get you, di Angelo!”
He does not. Nico is way too sneaky for him, and after the fifth time Nico manages to give him the slip, he gives up, sulking in a display for a bedroom of a nine year old girl.
“Fitting,” Nico teases, gesturing to the princess wallpaper. “You drama queen.”
“Buzz off.”
Next, they look for furniture. It’s pretty easy — Nico doesn’t need much, and he’s not too concern with cut or style or anything. He quickly picks out two dressers, one to match Hazel’s bed frame, and one to match his, and then a couple bookshelves.
Four hours into their trip, Nico is exhausted. They have a three hour drive ahead of them, they’ve been out all day, and he wants to go home.
But Will stops him before they go get all the boxes for their furniture.
“This is still pretty bare bones,” he says quietly, then grins at his own accidental pun. Nico shoots him a venomous look, warning him against making it more obvious, and for once he actually listens. “You know, we’re still under budget. We’ve got around $200 left — we can get a motel, stay the night, then we don’t have to drive back right away. And tomorrow, maybe we can check out some other stores, look for smaller decorations and stuff. And if we don’t have to drive back tonight, we’ve maybe got another hour in here, if you wanted to get a couple more pieces.”
Nico opens his mouth to refuse — that’s way too much effort to spend on one person’s cabin, c’mon — then pauses, thinking about it.
Chiron hadn’t even thought about it before handing them the money. Will had barely gotten the words out before he’d started counting out the bills.
“I want you to make a home here,” the centaur had said, touching his hand. There was a pain in his kind eyes, stopping any protests. “I made a mistake, Nico, the first time you came here. In another life, you felt welcome enough to stay the whole time. Take what you need.”
What does he need? What does home look like, to him?
“There was a beanbag chair, in our room at the Lotus,” he says, pushing the words past the lump in his throat. “Me and Bianca used to fight over it.” His voice shakes. A tear gathers at the corner of his eye, and he blinks it back. “It wasn’t real fighting. When I called mercy she’d — scoop me up and throw me on it and squish in after me, and we’d sit together and play video games. Or read. She liked to read.”
Will squeezes his trembling hands. “We can get a beanbag chair.”
“And I — don’t like the blackout curtains. The dark makes me think of — the pit.”
“Okay. They sell lotsa lamps here, too. Might be nicer than the Greek fire.”
Nico nods. There’s — more, far more ideas, now, flooding his brain; Hazel crowding over him on a rug-covered floor, shrieking as he teases her about Frank; a desk tucked in the corner where Will sits, mouthing along to his textbooks as Nico sharpens his sword; Jason running his fingers along rows of books on a big, cluttered shelf; Reyna with her fist curled around her mouth, studying a chess board across from him, hair shining under the natural light from the window.
He can have that. He can have that.
Thankfully, all their stuff fits in the back of the van. Despite his insistence earlier, Nico hands Will the keys, and he drives around until he finds a shitty motel with a vacancy sign flashing out front. He pulls into the farthest corner of the parking lot, killing the engine, then waits.
“You okay?”
Nico shrugs. “I’m…not sure.”
“That’s okay,” Will assures, pressing a fleeting touch to his shoulder. Nico grabs his wrist before he moves away, tugging down his hand and linking their fingers together.
For once, it doesn’t make him feel all sparky. The warmth of Will’s hands is grounding, and so is the gentle squeeze, the smile he feels pointed in his direction.
“C’mon. Let’s check in and sleep, huh?”
Nico’s exhaustion compounds in the walk from the car to the lobby, so by the time Will is speaking quietly to the host, he’s half asleep, leaning on Will’s shoulder. He vaguely feels it when Will shifts his weight, sliding a hand around his waist to hold him better. He blinks and they’re standing in front of a door.
“Almost there, Death Boy,” he murmurs. “Hold on a sec.”
It takes him six separate tries to make the keycard work. He gets huffy when Nico snickers tiredly at him.
“Finally, yeesh.”
He guides Nico in, dropping the backpack he brought somewhere near the door. As soon as the bed is within Nico’s sights, he makes a beeline, barely remembering to shuck his shoes and jacket.
“Please do not sleep in your jeans.”
“Mmmfuck off,” Nico groans, already sliding under the covers. He’ll regret it in the morning, but whatever.
“Goober.” Callused hands brush through his hair, resting lightly on his forehead. “Goodnight, Nico.”
Nico’s out before he can even think to respond.
———
He wakes up, in the middle of the night, scream caught in his throat and heart pounding in his ears. The air smells like smoke and fear. The rushing of the Phlegethon is so loud it’s overpowering.
A loud snore knocks him back to reality.
Crawling desperately towards the source of the sound, he hangs over the bed, eyes adjusting rapidly to the dark to see a curled lump on the floor, head resting on his own hands. A quick glance behind him confirms the other half of the bed has been left untouched.
“Stupid,” he mumbles, tiny smile chasing away the last of his fear.
He tugs the blankets off the mattress, pulls off the two pillows, and joins his dumbass, selfless friend on the floor.
———
“Question,” Will asks, swallowing the last of their disgustingly delicious greasefest of a breakfast. “Were you alive when Walmart was invented?”
“I was alive before your great grandmother was.”
“No, I mean — were you out and kickin’. Have you strolled the endless aisles of corporate soullessness, basking in the wonder of American overconsumerism?”
“…You’re such a weird, particular person.”
Will looks delighted. “You’re a Walmart newbie!”
He pulls into the dead, cracked parking lot way too happily for this hour in the morning. Nico would even say he takes the nearest exit to get to the store gleefully. He is embarrassed for him.
Walmart is…underwhelming.
As stupid as it is, Will had hyped it up so much that Nico was almost a little excited. It just looked like any other basic superstore. Will, for whatever reason, seemed delighted by that fact.
“I do not like this store,” he explained when Nico asked, expression not matching his words, “it just means so very much to me that you are joining me in the misery of having experienced it.”
They spend more time than they mean to just dicking around. At one point they nearly get thrown out by management, because Will finds a pair of NERF guns that some child dug out of its packaging and no words need to be spoken. They gear up and scamper off, hunting each other through fluorescent-lights hell.
“Please just get your shit and leave,” says the very tired looking manager, and they have the good gall to at least appear embarrassed as they mumble, “Yes, ma’am.”
It doesn’t take long when they have their head on straight. They get some fairy lights, a couple cool posters, dorky little trinkets that Nico probably doesn’t need, per se, but what was he supposed to do, leave the little plastic crow skeleton behind?
Unlikely.
With his own money, Will buys several cans of paint and a CD. He explains neither of these purchases. The look on his face gets steadily more infuriating as they make their way through the line, and Nico really, truly considers leaving him behind.
The purchase of the CD becomes very obvious very quickly. Even though Nico is driving, and therefore Nico should get music control, Will pouts and pleads until Nico gives in and lets him play his stupid country album. He justifies his decision in his own brain by noticing the radiance of Will’s smile as he belts out the words, badly, at the top of his lungs. He then spends the rest of the drive back to camp convincing himself not to be embarrassed for having said thoughts.
They get back to camp about lunch time, and Will destroys any attempt for a subtle reentry by whistling the second they cross the property line.
“Austin! Kayla!” he hollers, making Nico jump. “Come help us unload!”
“We coulda done it ourselves,” Nico grumbles.
Will pats his head condescendingly. “It has been twenty-four long, long hours since I’ve bosses my siblings around, Neeks. I need this.”
It does go by quite a bit quicker with Austin and Kayla’s help. Lou Ellen, Cecil, Yan, and Gracie come to help, too, but Gracie’s too little to carry much more than a small desk lamp. Instead, they lay down the biggest box — Nico’s bed frame — and let her climb on top of it, carrying her like she’s a queen atop a throne back to Nico’s cabin. She has the time of her life, giggling to herself like a madwoman.
By the time everything’s unloaded, a couple hours have passed, and the Hades cabin looks like a clusterfuck.
“Maybe you stay in Apollo a couple more nights,” Will suggests.
“Might have to,” Nico agrees. Will looks inordinately pleased with himself.
All in all, it takes about two days to disassemble the old furniture, get rid of it, and start putting together the new stuff. Will helps for most of it, but he has a few shifts in the infirmary, so Nico ends up trying to do a fair bit on his own.
“May the wrath of Zeus come down upon this fucking piece of shit, no good, poorly designed garbage-looking idiotic mother fuc —”
“Maybe time for a break from furniture assembling?” suggests a voice, accompanied by a quick knock in the open door. Will leans on the doorframe, grinning, box propped up on his hip.
“Will, thank the gods,” Nico sighs, relieved. He angrily shakes a tool in his direction. “Allen wrenches are fucking useless. I’m three seconds away from throwing this through the window.”
“Definitely time for a switch, then.”
Will’s smile is wide and crinkles his eyes. He’s got dimples, too, Nico is now noticing, and then very rapidly un-noticing then because gods above that is a dangerous path.
“Did you and Rachel get into another prank war?” he asks, praying the flush on his cheeks goes away.
Will glances down at his paint-spattered clothes. “Nah, this is just my painting outfit. Why ruin more than one set of clothes, you know?” He sets down the box in the middle of the room, then heads for the half-built furniture sprawled all throughout the cabin, tugging it all towards the middle. Nico inches towards the box, curious, and finds it full of dozens of paint cans and brushes, including the ones he got at Walmart.
“I didn’t know you painted.”
He flashes another grin in Nico’s direction. This one has a little mischief to it, a little teasing. His stomach swoops.
“Gotta have at least one artistic talent or my dad would disown me. Help me tape down this tarp, will you?”
It takes them twenty minutes to prep the room, protecting the floor and the furniture. Once everything is ready, Will jogs over to the CD player he gave Nico a few days ago, flicking through the stack of CDs and choosing one at random. Soft opera music begins to float around the cabin.
“Okay,” he begins, clapping his hands, “first we need a base coat. Get the white paint and the rollers.”
It takes them the rest of the day, painting until dinner, then waiting past sunset for it to dry. Nico follows Will back to his cabin that night — he wouldn’t let him sleep around the paint fumes — and the two of them return the next morning, re-donning their paint-spattered clothes. Will braids his hair, this time, tucking the little pigtails behind a kerchief. It makes Nico smile every time he looks at him.
As much as he’s in painting clothes, Nico doesn’t really do much of the painting. He stays in the centre of the room, half assembling furniture, half watching Will bring his walls to life with more colours than he’s ever seen in one place.
Will doesn’t ask what Nico wants him to paint in his murals. Instead, Nico watches as the streets of Venice begin to unfold on one of the walls, bright and blue and exactly as he remembers, even though he knows for a fact Will has never been. The shining fruit of his stepmother’s garden is next, with a notable absence of the pomegranate tree, and then the hills of New Rome, the sunflower field in rural New York Nico used to visit, the Chinese mountainscape from the first big shadow travelling jump he ever made. Even the poplar forests of the Underworld, looking much kinder and livelier in Will’s rendition than in real life, with Mrs. O’Leary and Cerberus chasing each other through the flickering leaves. Beautiful, colourful, breathtaking scenes; Nico’s favourite places, Nico’s many homes.
“I get a lot of dreams,” Will admits, dragging a smear of rich purple near the ceiling. “You’re in a lot of them. These are the places you’re smiling, the most.”
“They’re beautiful, Will.” Nico’s throat is drier than any desert he’s ever been to. “Gods, they’re more beautiful here than they are in real life.”
“Liar,” Will teases, although his smile is shy.
Nico has never seen him smile like that. He’s seen a lot more of Will in these past few days, actually; his softness, his kindness, his love.
He has only knows Will for a little over a month, he thinks. But Will loves him. That much is obvious.
“Hey.”
“Hm?”
His eyes are still trained on his work. He is on his tiptoes on a step stool, one leg extended precariously, tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth. The curve of his brush is careful, meticulous. Only the best for his friends, for Nico. That’s Will.
“Hey,” Nico says again, more urgently. He steps forward, wrapping his fingers around his wrist.
“Just a sec, Neeks, as soon as I’m done we can —”
Nico pulls until he loses his balance, falling into Nico’s arms. He stares into wide, blue blue eyes, for one second, two, then presses their lips together. Will’s squeak of surprise is swallowed by his mouth, hands sliding up his arms to cup his face, tilting his head to the side.
“Oh,” he sighs, eyelashes ticking Nico’s cheeks as they flutter close. “Oh.”
He melts into Nico’s hold. There’s a thunk and a crinkle as his paintbrush falls from his loose fingers, splattering onto the tarp, and paint-wet hands tangle into his hair. Nico finds he doesn’t mind.
“You love me,” he murmurs in between breaths, lips brushing Will’s with every word.
“Yes,” Will breathes. He kisses Nico again, and again. “A lot.”
“Good.” He’s not sure if it’s the paint fumes making him lightheaded, or the odd, slightly uncomfortable position, or the intoxicating, delirious feel of Will’s warm skin. He’s not sure if he cares. “Good.”
It’s not quite an I-love-you-too. The words won’t form on his tongue, so instead he tightens his hold, sending them that way, and presses closer, closer, closer.
Will smiles into the kiss.
He understands just fine.
#i could write an essay about how i think they’re dynamic would be immediately post three days in the infirmary#also i fit SO MANY of my personal headcanons in here hell yeah#pjo#percy jackson and the olympians#hoo#heroes of olympus#pjo hoo toa#nico di angelo#will solace#solangelo#nico/will#will/nico#gently falling in love#love#i’m tagging it bc. will loves so clearly in this one it kills me a little#fic#my writing#longpost
321 notes
·
View notes
Text
After learning a lot more about squids I was inspired to biology-post once again. Observe my cephalopods, boy.
I wanted to incorporate more traits from the actual in-game design while still adding a healthy dose of creature. I’ll probably still go back and forth between this design and the one i’ve been been using for the past few months, just to get the best of both worlds haha.
Inklings have chitinous teeth in their suckers as well as retractible hooks in the tips of their fingers and toes, the shape and size of which will vary a lot between species. as well. Squids also have a gladius (or “pen”), which is a plastic-like, chitinous structure that basically act as the squid’s backbone and provides support.
Octolings however don’t have this structure, so instead they rely more on the ink veins to support their body weight. Mainly fluid pressure in the legs, which you’ll notice the veins there are denser than an Inkling’s.
Ancient cephalopods made the jump from being muscular hydrostats (no skeleton, all muscle) to true fluid-based hydrostats (using fluid pressure as a “skeleton”) pretty early in their evolution. Their ink sacs grew in size and became their primary form of defence against predators like sharks, which had recently gone terrestrial and were ravaging early molluscan populations at the time.
I’m still not entirely sure how inkfish would change the colour of ink inside their bodies, so for now I’m just going with the headcanon that they do it artificially by ingesting dyes/chemicals before matches, whereas otherwise it would be a deep, inky-black.
#I just really like cephalopods man they’re so cool#my art#xeno tag#xeno inkling#speculative zoology#speculative biology#inkling#splatoon#splatoon 3#Octoling#xeno octoling#Splatoon art#splatoon fanart#Spec evo#spec zoo
250 notes
·
View notes
Note
HII I love your art so much it's so expressive and it feels like theres so much movement in it! I was wondering if u had any tips or advice to help with that? I practice anatomy and expression so much but it seems like everything I draw on my own is so stiff!! Anyway I hope you have a great week :)) <3
Hi there! Firstly, thank you so much for the kind words, it means a lot that you would take the time to tell me!
Second- my advice is to take everything you've learned about anatomy and THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!!
... For now. Just into the front yard so you can keep an eye on it. But I have seen many artists concentrate chiefly on studying anatomy only to feel like their art ends up too stiff. My own experience has been to treat anatomy as a tool best used to correct an image in the later stages of construction rather than as your driving foundation.
If "correct" anatomy (however you choose to define that) is the priority of your undersketches, I find that you end up with a sort of Skeleton Song approach to drawing - y'know, the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone, etc etc. Whatever energy, emotion, or intent you wanted your drawing to convey is getting lost each time you split it into another anatomical segment. By over-focusing on individual parts, you lose sight of your image as a whole.
The key to conveying dynamic movement in motionless art is to ensure every element of your image agrees on and communicates the same action, the key to which is something called the line of action.
A line of action is simply that - an implied "line" with wich you lead the viewer's eye and communicate movement. Think of it as the core of your figure's action, simplified to its rawest form. By knowing this, you know what to emphasise and what to de-emphasise.
Well, art is a visual medium and I am better explaining with drawings than words or I'd never have picked up a pen in the first place, so:
Images can have multiple lines of action, lines of action can complement and contrast each other, and a line of action isn't always as obvious as something like running. Imagine you're tring to make your art more "aerodynamic" to the eye. Since I draw a lot of One Piece fanart, I assume you're also familiar with it, and you can probably imagine how Oda uses "lines of action" when composing panels of Luffy punching something, Zoro slicing something, Sanji kicking something- etc etc. He's really good at selling the "oomph" of action shots by reducing visual clutter so that the impact of the action is greater.
(The Monster Trio's abilities are all designed in such a way that allow for REALLY striking lines of action... you can tell Oda loves studying manga fight scenes and wanted to create a world where he could push these concepts to the limit, and it's no wonder One Piece caught the eye of animators even before it was serialised by Toei)
You're probably already noticing how line of action also feeds into composition and silhouette when it comes to conveying movement in an image. Basically put, once you've isolated whatever action it is that you want to convey, the more visual clutter you can streamline away from that action, the stronger an impact that will have on the viewer. A firm line of action, an uncomplicated silhouette for your figure, and a readable overall composition of your image/panel are all ways to minimise visual clutter.
You can also use this information to achieve the opposite effect! Sometimes the ideal action you want to convey is not fast, or powerful, or confident, and you can use the same principles.
In fact, you can apply line of action to images that don't have any "action" in them at all. You can make a drawing of someone simply standing there feel more lively by applying these same principles to their body language:
You can develop an eye for how to simplify movement down to its "lines of action" by studying real photos and other people's art. Try simplifying a figure to its silhouette, and then simplify that silhouette further to a stick figure. And honestly, a lot of this could be boiled down to "see your image as a whole and not just a collection of individual pieces". Set anatomy aside during the composition stage and bring it back in when you start building up the sketch.
Moving away from the line of action, my second piece of broad advice is simply to exaggerate more. Lots of artists subconsciously hold themselves back from pushing motion, expression, etc. out of concern that it will look "too much". Well, maybe it will- but you won't know that unless you try! You can always walk it back if you think you took it too far, but I think you'll be surprised by how far you can push your art before you hit that point.
My final piece of advice is to work on line confidence. Even if you follow the rest of this advice, if you have hesitant and scratchy lines, you're undermining the flow and punch of your art. The best way to improve line confidence is simply by practicing! Do a lot of quick, timed studies, and use a permanent medium like a ballpoint pen or marker. Focus on unbroken lines wherever possible even if it makes your studies look like garbo. I find traditional studies are best for improving line confidence, but if you'd really rather stick with digital then just don't let yourself use the eraser tool, and try using a chunky brush with limited pressure sensitivity.
And that's it! Don't stress about it too much though. Loosen up with your art and, like any other skill, you'll improve with practice, time, and analysing what you like about other people's art. Good luck!
#long post#sorry this is so long I just didn't want to hide it behind a cut because I think a lot of people would miss it#I hope this was helpful in some way! I'm always flattered whenever anyone thinks I'd know enough to ask HAHA#if I have the time then I'm always happy to answer questions like this! :)#not that I am an expert by any means but I can at least share what's worked for me
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
The Hook & The Flame
Harry Hook x Male Reader
After Dizzy styled Y/N's hair with blue and red dye in the sink, modeling the colors after his dads Hades and Chernabog, she painted his fingernails light blue with skeleton designs. At last, Dizzy spun his chair around so Y/N could see the finished product. He got out of his chair as he peered into the broken fragments of the mirror on the wall.
The top of his hair was colored blue to look like flames, matching his dad's own literal fire of blue hair. The sides were red as blood like Chernabog's eyes, but mixed in with his own natural hair color. Before he wasn't sure if he was his parents' kid anymore, but now there was no denying that he was a villain through and through.
Dizzy smiled at him. Admiring her work as she eagerly awaited his comment on whether or not she did a good job.
Y/N looks at his reflection and winks. "Hey, there I am."
"Voilà!" Dizzy cried in excitement. She threw her hands out to emphasize how excited she was.
"Voilà." Y/N reached into his pocket, pulling out a couple of dollars for her.
She looks at the money in disbelief as she looks at Y/N, astonishment on her face. "For me?"
Y/N nods. "Yeah, you earned it."
Dizzy takes the money and giggles in excitement as she walks towards the cash register. Her sense of accomplishment and peace didn't last very long. A swashbuckling young man named Harry Hook, son of Captain Hook, entered the salon. He held a glinting silver hook in his left hand. Harry wore a black hat, a long leather red coat, black pants, and a grayish wife beater underneath the red coat. He made other pirates shiver in their timber's, with a handsome face and beautiful blue eyes that were just as blue as the ocean. That made him both dangerous and beautiful at the same time.
"Fork it ower ye runt." Dizzy froze as Harry grinned down at her, hand outstretched for the money. The young girl begrudgingly handed over the money she had just earned to the Scottish sounding pirate.
Harry looks down at the old car hood that acts as a desk for the cash register as he taps it with his hook. "And the rest of it." He demands. Harry had yet to notice Y/N, too busy robbing Dizzy Tremaine of all the salon's money.
Dizzy goes and opens up the cash register as Harry puts her money that he took in between his lips and teeth, holding it tight as she gives him everything inside. "Hmm… Thank you." Harry turned to leave.
"Give that money back, Hook." Y/N said.
Harry stopped, whirled around and grinned when he saw Y/N. "Well, well, well, what a nice surprise."
"Hi, Harry." Y/N told him. "Still running errands for Uma like a good dog, or does she actually let you off your leash and let you keep what you steal?"
Harry strolled towards him, flashing a dangerous smile and waved his hook around. "Just wait until Uma hears you're back. She is never going to give you back your territory." He looks Y/N up and down, licking his lips like a hungry cat. The pervert.
"Oh, well, that's okay. Because I will be taking it back. Preferably from her cold dead fishy bitch fingers." Y/N grins.
Harry grins too as his hook brushes against Y/N's collar bone. "You know, I cuid hurt ye." He promised in a whisper as he continued to tease Y/N with his silver hook. The son of Hades and Chernabog grabbed his wrist and spit out the gum he had been chewing and stuck it on the tip of Harry's hook. "Not without her permission I'll bet." Harry chuckled as he placed the tip of the hook to his lips and opened up his mouth as he stuck the piece of gum inside.
"You know that I prefer princes now to dirty pirates, right?"
"Ahh, yes. You and Prince Beasty."
"I am going to need Dizzy's money back."
Harry gets closer to him and smiles down at him. "Why dinnae ye come ane get it?"
It was an unspoken challenge. To see if Y/N was still a child of the Isle or if Auradon had changed him in more ways than one. He got close to Harry. So close, that he could see the blues of his eyes shiny like the sun reflecting on the water in the morning. "If you insist."
He pulled Harry down by his coat and connected their lips together. It wasn't a sweet kiss like with Ben. He tasted like chocolate chip cookies and innocence. Harry was different. He was salty and just a bit of seaweed slime. It was familiar territory between them. Two Isles boys who were more about lust and fucking than love and passion.
Harry pulled back and grinned. "A knew ye still found me hot."
He held out his hand for Harry. "Pay up."
The pirate looked at his outstretched hand and smiled once again. "Now A have tae pay for yer services?" He hands him the money. "Best thin A iver spend."
"Go on. Go fetch."
Harry chuckled, walked towards the door and knocked the knick knacks off the register and bowed to Y/N. "Until next time, Duckling." Y/N handed Dizzy back her money as she sighed.
"Great, more sweeping."
#x male reader#male reader insert#male x male#descendants#harry hook#harry hook x male reader#thomas doherty#Thomas Doherty x male reader#villian kid reader
459 notes
·
View notes
Text
DEMO RELEASE!!!
THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!! IT’S BEEN QUITE A RIDE Y’ALL, BUT WE’VE CONQUERED BURNOUTS AND OVERTHINKING TOGETHER TO ACTUALLY GET BACK ON TRACK WITH WRITING! I HAVE CHAPTER TWO ON THE WAY ALREADY AND IT’S GONNA BE LONGER THAN THE PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER ONE COMBINED SO LET’S GO!!!
⚠️ CONTENT WARNINGS: insinuation of child abuse ⚠️
create your friendly neighbourhood killer surgeon.
meet a characters that plays a huge role in the MCs life.
live through a childhood filled with sinister figure(s).
meet a new friend and lose them.
get a glimpse of what has shaped the surgeon’s past.
⚠️ CONTENT WARNINGS: murder, violence, gore & body horror ⚠️
a missing report. a murder. a youngblood cop. surely nothing can go wrong, right?
settle into your quite extraordinary life in helmsford.
WHAT IS THAT MELODYYYY?
deal with a pesky voice in your head.
meet vivienne, the kind psychiatrist, who wants nothing but to help you. it’s for you to decide how you feel about that.
what are you hiding, doctor?
what will you do when someone stumbles on the skeletons you hide in your closet, or should i say, basement.
kill.
A/N: a reminder that i have quite a lot of issues to fix in this update so i appreciate all the feedback i’ll get. they will all get fixed and major changes will be implemented with the update of chapter 2, including adding trans options, tattoo options and the touch-averse option.
fair warning that the graphic contents of this story will get worse, the prologue and chapter one were just the tip of the iceberg. if you get easily disturbed by these scenes, i’ll start implementing the auto-skip option from the next update to avoid the gruesome scenes.
acknowledgements: special thanks to fish (any pronouns) for helping me immensely with the coding aspect and @nikkefort (they/them) for providing a great design to all my imaginations. i have huge respect for coders cause i can’t do it properly even if my life depended on it. without these two superstars, this game would take years to complete so a huge shoutout to them!
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, LET’S GET TO WORK!
#what lovely bones#demo release#twine#interactive fiction#twine sugarcube#choice of games#hosted games#oh also#expect to meet the other ROs in chapter two hehe#tw: child abuse#tw: blood#tw: graphic depictions of violence#tw: gore#tw: body horror#tw: body mutilation
592 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’m yelling into the void a bit more about Don’t Starve, don’t mind me. Specifically about Wilson, his medical know-how, his weird relationship with death, and the origin of his Forbidden Knowledge.
Let’s start with the easy one, Wilson being medically trained.
To start, Wilson’s quote for the Peg Leg.
Then in the Forge, Wilson’s special ability is to revive his teammates twice as fast with more health.
Wilson’s Victorian Skin is an old-timey doctor, even mentioning the four humors (even if that practice was far outdated by the Victorian Era).
I remember once seeing a quote about Wilson getting kicked out of a school for setting something on fire, but take that with a grain of salt because I am struggling to find it.
Now onto Wilson’s weirdness with death of his fellow man.
It’s clear the Constant has left him quite jaded with death as a concept, which is very fair.
But you cannot tell me that a man with a normal view of death would find a skeleton under the floorboards of his new house and just…put the boards back. Or hell, that skeleton is very likely to be the one we see strung up in Wilson’s lab in the very first short!
There’s also Wilson’s quote for Skeletons from Don’t Starve classic:
As well as his disregard for the sanctity of graves.
So yeah. He isn’t normal about human death, just like how he isn’t exactly normal about science.
Wilson is confirmed to be the creator of several items that everyone is able to craft and use.
Obviously the Meat Effigy, but it doesn’t stop there.
Maxwell isn’t particularly enthused about the Think Tank:
The Fire Pump is bemoaned to be his:
The Booster Shot is another item he’s very likely to have made, seeing as he’s the only one truly enthusiastic about it. Further connects him to his medical know-how, as well.
From the Survival Tips, Wilson is also very likely to be the one to have made the first Telltale Heart.
Revive: “We nearly lost one of our numbers today. In a mad daze I created…something…that managed to pull our friend back to the land of the living, but…whatever it was, I fear I cannot rightfully say it was within the realm of science…” -W
Gardeneer: “I’ve finally perfected my design for an ingenious (if I do say so myself) device that stores important garden-based knowledge. Certain naysayers might point out that it looks like nothing more than an overturned flowerpot worn on the head…some people simply don’t have an eye for science.” -W
The tips are (almost) all signed with a W, but it’s clear who wrote these ones, especially since Wilson wore the Gardeneer hat during the Reap What You Sow trailer.
That hat leads me to my next point. It is something that Wilson made, he invented it.
Then tell me why you are able to upgrade it at the Ancient Pseudoscience Station, when literally everything else you can do at it is craft fully ancient artifacts?
And doesn’t the storage of knowledge sound eerily familiar? Such as…
Whatever depths Maxwell snagged Wilson’s Forbidden Knowledge from, it definitively has origins with the Ancients.
Which…
…is quite concerning.
#dst#dont starve#dont starve together#dst wilson#wilson percival higgsbury#character analysis#yeen babbles#i wrote this at midnight just like the last one lol#thank you for reading my dumb rambles
91 notes
·
View notes
Note
I would like to hear your thoughts about Larian giving Kar’niss female pedipalps?
Personally I feel like it was just another f you from Lolth
Alright so, this is a complicated and detail-heavy topic. For that reason I’ll be splitting this theory into two sections: Technical Aspects & Lore. There will be a TL;DR at the bottom.
Technical Aspects
Kar’niss is a complex model and I imagine the rigging on him was wild. To my understanding his walking animation was done by hand which makes sense. His torso could be motion captured but the arachnid portions needed to be moved in engine. The best time to witness the separation is if you play music for him as a bard. His torso will bob and sway the same as the rest of the NPCs but his legs stay perfectly stationary. I do get a kick out of the idea of the Larian devs trying to put a tiny motion capture suit on a spider but alas.
I bring this up because the pedipalps add an extra layer of complication that the devs didn’t really need. In fact the concept art for driders doesn’t include them at all which suggests they weren’t part of the original design. A lot changed from concept art to the final version it seems. He used to have extra arms, his legs were longer, and his facial features were more twisted. His skin was also darker but it was either changed because he is a Szarkai or because his skin tone blended too heavily with the color of the chitin.
This would align with a lot of the concept art from D&D. There are many examples of driders without pedipalps, both male and female.
All that said, when it comes to the technical aspects, I have a theory as to why the original and final designs were so vastly different: Time. Kar’niss is one of the more detailed models in the game and even the final version didn’t turn out perfect. If you look closely at where his torso attaches to the spider body you can see some model tearing when he turns at certain angels, as well as what I refer to as “tubing”. I’ve seen this in a few games and it’s where limbs or portions of a body thin out to an impossible degree and they look like a squeezed out tube of toothpaste. This could be due to improper skeleton models, broken seams or rigging but as I don’t work in the industry those are my best guesses.
When you have a strict budget and time limit sometimes a development team has to cut some fat. They didn’t have the time to add in the extra arms, super long limbs or highly detailed face model. Perhaps they looked at the final design and weren’t satisfied with the lack of monster features. Thus, the pedipalps were introduced. But since drider are canonically sexless they designed the palps in such a way that they were made for battle; hence the sharp barb present at the tip of each. They are located face level for most races which make them perfect eye gougers or maybe they use them to subdue prey. Palps are also used to “taste” in most spider species and he could likely use them to discern if prey is edible or not.
“Pedipalps contain sensitive chemical detectors and function as taste and smell organs, supplementing those on the legs”
As for why they are female in design the simplest answer I have is that it was an oversight. If they were already scrambling to finish the model then they were likely going for the path of least resistance. Male pedipalps would’ve required a bit more work and either they didn’t think that much about it or chose the easiest design to model. I know about the Kar’niss is trans theory and I’ll be touching on that in the next section.
Lore
Anyone who has followed me for a while knows I’ve discussed drider lore a lot here so I’ll try to be a bit more brief in this section. Drider are meant to be sexless as Lolth didn’t wish for them to reproduce and rise up against Her. If Larian’s design of the palps were with intent then I believe we’re looking at Jurassic Park situation here. Maybe Lolth’s manner of birth control was to make all spider bodies female regardless of the gender of the drow who is changed. It would also align with the Matriarchal society drow come from as well as Lolth choosing to make driders in “Her image”. So yes, a “fuck you” from Lolth would be accurate in this case. The issue I run into is that Kar’niss is the only drider model in-game and so I have nothing to compare him to. I don’t know if all driders in this universe look the same or if there would’ve been a difference between females and males. It leaves it all up to pure speculation, sad to say.
There is a theory that’s been around for a while now that Kar’niss is transgender. While I think it’s a perfectly fine theory I don’t necessarily agree with it. It’s not because I’d be against him being trans, it’s more that I can’t find enough evidence to support it. For starters if he is trans, is he a trans man or a trans woman? We’ve learned that Kar’niss is a female name according to drow naming conventions and of course his palps suggest a female body. The name can be explained as an act of defiance as it is stated that if a man takes on a womans name they are considered troublemakers. If he is a trans woman, why would he ever allow himself to be misgendered?
There are several NPCs that refer to him as “he” and Kar’niss never once barks at them. It’s not as if he’s shy and in fact he’s proven to have quite the temper. He no longer follows nor worships Lolth and he’s under the protection of the Absolute, a cult that allegedly loves and accepts him. Why hide himself as a trans woman under these conditions? Especially in a game that is very progressive in terms of character creation and pronoun usage.
If he is a trans man then the spider body becomes a moot point. Did he transition before the drider transformation or did Lolth change his sex but slap on the female spider body as a way to mock him? Is that why he was changed? I imagine in a drow society where being a woman is a big deal having one that wanted to become a male, a lesser, would be the talk of the Underdark. I’m sure it’s worse for men who want to be women as that could be seen as “rising above their station”. It’s hard to say as modern day gender identity isn’t really addressed in drow lore.
There is a trans woman in Baldur's Gate 3 that the player meets during Shadowheart’s storyline. It can be easy to miss as her past isn’t revealed unless Shadowheart consumes the noblestalk Tav picks up in the Underdark. This is an excerpt from Nocturne’s journal.
“I am Nocturne. I think as her. I see her when I look in the mirror. I can't remember the last time someone called me by the wrong name - Shadowheart has been swift to gently correct slips of the tongue, and even swifter in challenging those who'd use my forsworn name in malice. I'm lucky to have her as a friend. “
While it seems she had trouble in the beginning, those under Shar came to accept her in time as far as I can tell. With this we can at least say that Larian has no issues adding in trans characters but Kar’niss doesn’t receive this treatment. Another thing to note is that Nocturne is voiced by a trans woman, Abigail Thorn. Where as Kar’niss is voiced by, what I assume to be, a cisgender male. In my mind if Larian would take that much time and care for accuracy wouldn’t they do the same for Kar’niss?
With all of that said if people have the headcanon that Kar’niss is trans that is a-okay, I have no issues with that or any other character! It’s simply a theory I don’t personally subscribe to because the elements don’t line up well enough for me. But hey if they ever expand on his story and he is trans that’d be cool. I don’t know if there is a trans man elsewhere in-game so it’d be nice to see that representation there.
Phew, that was far longer than I anticipated but I hope I covered the topic well enough as it has been debated quite a bit in the fandom. Once again I want to express that I believe folks are allowed to write and draw these characters how they see fit. It’s fantasy fun folks, go wild and enjoy your faves as you desire.
TL;DR: I think the female pedipalps are a technical oversight and were only added in to give Kar’niss a more monstrous appearance or to round out his design. I don’t believe he is trans due to the lack of evidence to support the theory. If Lolth had any bearing on the spider body it was likely to prevent reproduction or in an effort to make driders in her image. Overall, the pedipalps are more up to interpretation than hard evidence.
#baldur's gate 3#kar'niss#bg3#drider#karniss#baldurs gate 3#answered#drow#drow lore#theorycrafting#spider anatomy#pedipalps#long post
77 notes
·
View notes
Note
seeing as you just posted your character design guide i figure this is a good time
ive been meaning to ask how you name your fankids/ocs in general? i love making fankids but find myself always getting stuck on the naming process for some reason or another and since you have a lot of fankids i figured i’d ask for resources or tips if you have any
OH!! Well!! Hm.
When it comes to names for kiddos there’s a lot of different factors depending on what universe they’re from, but most of the time I try to look for names with meanings or significance behind them.
For example, Hyacinth gets a flower name because his mom is Willow Park, and the flower symbolism behind his name is related to his story and his relationship with his dad. Hyacinths symbolize joy, sincerity, a desire for forgiveness and rebirth.
Akio’s name is courtesy of Shadow- since he’s Japanese, finding a meaning in the different Kanji combinations is easy.
For my undertale fankids the process is slightly different- it’s based in headcanon. In my idea of the world of monsters, at least in the north American underground, monsters typically name their children anagrams or combinations of the parents names. Asgore was just not very creative when it came to naming Asriel. For example I named Alphys’s dad’s “Alphonse” and “Yasmin,” and Petyr is a mix of “Papyrus” and “Mettaton” meant to be read like “Peter.”
HOWEVER!! This isn’t the case with all of them- skeleton monsters are traditionally named after fonts, and Sans and Toriel chose to give Lucida a font name rather than an anagrammed name :-)
TLDR it’s a combination of vibes and name meanings!!!
54 notes
·
View notes
Text
EVERYBODY shut the fuck up. coffee shop barista au. soap is a barista and this one guy comes in at the same time on the dot every day and orders the same thing every time. (its straight black coffee with so much added caffeine that soap thinks it could kill a horse.) the man is like, 6′4″ and built like a brick house. soap is a pretty big guy himself, but god does he makes him look tiny.
his hair is blond, light enough that in some lighting it looks nearly silver. it seems to be a mess constantly- wavy locks that curl around the tips of his ears, fringe just long enough to partially cover one of his eyes. just long enough that someone could reach up and tuck it behind his ear. and soap wants to, if not just to get to feel his hair- it looks so fucking soft and smooth and soap wonders what his hair care routine is. (because surely you cant get hair that good without putting work into it, right?)
his upper face is littered with scars; over the bridge of his nose, across his cheeks, under his eye. theres probably more, but anytime he shows up he has a face mask on, one with some dumb skeleton design on it that would probably look stupid on anyone else, but somehow he makes it work.
and his eyes- god, his eyes. his left eye is a brilliant shade of blue with a shock of green at the bottom, something soap has never seen before. the two colors seem to clash and meld together all at once, an enchanting phenomenon that soap wants to study. his right eye is a deep, gorgeous chocolate brown, swirled with a lighter caramel tone that brightens his eye but makes his gaze no less intense. anytime he locks eyes with soap, he loses his breath- hes never seen someone so fucking beautiful in his entire life.
his voice is low and gravelly, a deep, accented rumble that soap swears to god he can feel in his bones. the man doesnt mince his words, but every time he does speak soap can feel himself shiver. he hopes it isnt visible.
the only name he gives for his order is ghost. that isnt enough for soap. he wants his first name- his real name, a name he can place to the beautiful face that lurks in his mind. (and in his sketchbooks.)
so he tries to pry it out of the man. he offers his own name first, john mactavish, but ghost doesnt give him his own name, instead opting nod and hum. he takes to calling soap ‘johnny’, something that soap has notably refused to let anyone call him, no matter how close they are. he allows ghost to call him it, finding the heat it spreads through his body pleasant and welcoming it. gaz, his fellow barista, is disgruntled when he finds out that soap is letting someone call him johnny when he was firmly denied the permission to do so himself.
every day soap asks for a name for the coffee, hoping that one day he’ll slip and tell him, but he never does. its always ghost, you know this, johnny. he keeps trying despite the ineffectiveness.
sometimes he throws out guesses. over time they get increasingly ridiculous, trying to get a huff or a snort out of the man when he looks at his cup. whatever name he chooses is accompanied by some shitty dad joke- one time ghost had told one that was god awful, but soap could see the glee in his eyes when he groaned and complained. he sees ghost look at the writing everytime he hands over the drink, and he adores the amusement he sees dancing in his gaze at the jokes, so he keeps it up.
their banter shifts from friendly teasing to flirting constantly- oftentimes mid-conversation. sometimes its soap who does it, (”the maaask... take it off?” “show my face?” “yes.” “no.” “are you ugly?” “quite the opposite.” “i doubt that.”) and other times its ghost. (”you like tequila?” “could use one right about now.” “id murder for a whiskey.” “you mean scotch?” “i drink bourbon.” “like a good ol’ boy...” “... i love kentucky.” “yer out o’ yer mind, ghost.” “thats for sure.”)
(gaz is this fucking close to complaining to price about the sexual tension around them. if he has to deal with soap making eyes at this customer for one more fucking minute he thinks hes going to snap.)
#myposting#mydrabbles#soaptag#john soap mactavish#simon ghost riley#ghostsoap#soapghost#ghost x soap#soap x ghost#ghost/soap#soap/ghost#ghoap#cod mw2#call of duty modern warfare 2#btw ghost doesnt even like coffee that much he just really liked the look on soaps face when he first ordered some#overly caffeinated beverage so he kept doing it and its too late to change his order now#he was just really tired that day so he got the coffee. soap made a cute face and ghost decided he wanted to see it again so he came back#the next day and ordered it again#feel free to expand on this or anything bc i ran out of ideas
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
No Art today. Instead I presented to you:
A barista is way more scary than Dream believed
Or
Dream get's a reality check and Nightmare has some fun
•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•
When Dream walked into this little cafe in a relatively unknown AU that day, he certainly didn't expect to find his brother and his entire gang inside. They sat in one of the corner booths and took their food and drinks as if they were regular customers! His brother didn't even do anything about the three cats, all looking like a Swap variant, that were climbing all over him!
What the hell was going on here?!
"Can I help you?" asked the skeleton standing behind the counter. Was this the sans of this end? Why was he so calm? Every Sans should be aware of the danger because of his brother!
"Um... A coffee with lots of milk and sugar, please." Dream hoped that his panic didn't show, at least on the outside. Because a quick look at Nightmare showed that his brother had already noticed his panic.
But after the Sans Dreams took the order, the positive guardian quickly settled into one of the cubicles that was close to that of his brother and his gang. He had to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't start a riot here.
However, no matter how long Dream watched the five, they didn't act suspiciously. In fact, everyone seemed very relaxed, which Dream hadn't expected in a place like this. Dream figured his brother would only show that special smile in an environment where he felt safe. At least that's how it was back then, before the incident. Just what made his brother so relaxed in such an environment?
Dream pondered this for a long time while continuing his observation. Although he had to reorder in between, it was a problem for future Dream to deal with the caffeine high.
But nothing really changed in all that time. Dream was fully prepared to just write it off as his brother's quirk and leave when two of the guests started a riot. It was an older pair of monsters, both bird monsters. They complained loudly about his brother's gang as they moved their dishes to their designated place. And in a coincidence that wasn't a coincidence, one of the monsters spilled the remains of his drink, which looked like cocoa, all over Dust's clothes. However, as if by coincidence, the sound was spared. Dream didn't want to imagine the magnitude that would have been had the sound been tainted.
Dream expected his brother or one of his teammates to make a fuss about it, but instead Cross and Horror Dust helped wipe up the liquid with napkins as best they could while Killer picked up the broken pieces and gave them to Nightmare, who packed them up safely . It confused Dream. Shouldn't his brother be angry that their time was so disrupted? Or one of the others? So why did they remain so calm?
The answer was one that Dream really least expected. The sans of that out walked towards the two bird monsters, smiles akin to Nightmare's when someone pissed him off. Blue would probably call it passive aggressive. But the Sans spoke to the two monsters in a low tone, too low for the Dream to understand. But no matter what was said, the two monsters paled and fled the cafe as quickly as possible, leaving Sans with a satisfied smile. Watch Dream as the Sans then took the shards from Nightmare. He would have thought that was the end of it and the sans would get back to work. Instead, the Sans exchanged a quick kiss with everyone in his brother's gang before Nightmare got one too. Only then did the sans turn around and with him all the others who had observed this spectacle.
And when Dream noticed the waves of fear emanating from some of the patrons, he finally understood why his brother was so relaxed in a cafe like this. It wasn't because it seemed to have an intimate relationship with the sans here, but because the sans of this AU is of the silent rage type and you never know when you're on the receiving end until it's too late.
Dream left the cafe with a tidy tip. He was glad his brother had someone he trusted enough to lower his own guard to. Dream will be in discussion with Ink about officially neutralizing this AU. Because he doesn't want to take away this small piece of peace in the multiverse from his brother.
#undertale#undertale au#sans au#undertale multiverse#umtv#dream sans#dream#nightmare#nightmare sans#ccino sans#ccino#fluffytale sans#bad sans gang#bad sanses#fluffymare#bad sans poly#bad sans poly + ccino#sans
42 notes
·
View notes
Note
Jealous of how gracefully you draw mecha stuff,,, do you have any... Advice or tips or?
Howdy-do ! I can certainly try to explain my process !
With mech, I always start with an idea first, and I draw it how I usually do it— Like say, Mephisto's prosthetics ! The first step is to just draw regular limbs first and figure out the individual parts. This is the "it does not need to look good it just has to exist first" stage, and you're basically just doing what you know. [Four limbed Mephisto jumpscare]
Now, you're gonna take these shapes and try to see exactly how they join together and bend. I like doing it by taking everything apart in 3 groups- The big shape (The "flesh" if you will, basically everything you see on the outside), the lil shape (Articulations for the big shape, basically what allows it to move) and the connectors (The skeleton for how your big shape is going to be structured ! it defines how lifelike or how robotlike your character will feel depending on how bendy or stiff). The simpler everything is, the better for stylizing !
Looking at ball jointed dolls and other such puppet characters has really helped me understand anatomy as a whole, but it's been especially helpful to robots since it has that certain natural stiffness to it, which I personally find crucial in robot designs. Here it is applied to the diagram !
Then, you're gonna wanna refine these shapes into something more cohesive ! Really string everything together with the same principles, but a little more stylization. These still look like limbs, but you can see exactly how they bend and stay in place through the exposed articulations. Just remember to keep it all relatively straight-edged and using of the skeleton to make sure you don't get too organic looking ! Mech is about geometric designs most of all !
And finally, once you feel it looks good, you go back in again and carve out your detail ! Add some stuff to that guy ! Make him look more interesting !
AND you still get to follow principles ! How fun is that !!!
The best way to practice this method imo is to just trace over robots you know and love. Transformers especially is a really good source of inspo for me, since they're made with toy features in mind and therefore allow for greater range of movement. You can do it to basically anything though ! Even more humanoid looking bots ! Here's two I did on Optimus prime and Fl4k from BL3!
A really good tutorial on this stuff is How to think when you draw: by TheEtheringtonBrothers on DA. Seriously, their stuff is highly informative, and they do a better job explaining than I ever could ahaha. They've got a bunch of tutorials with really good breakdowns of fundamentals and all that stuff up on their pages too, so I highly reccomend you check em out !
But yeah, most of all, practice is your friend. Observe how other people stylize machines and try to replicate it, read up on tutorials, see real life machines, get inspired by your favorite cartoon robots— It's all part of the process ! Like with anything in art, you need to crack a whole lot of eggs beforee you finally learn how to make an omelet you like, but whats most important is that you make an omelet at all. Some stuff is gonna burn or turn out not how you wanted it, and that is also normal, so you need to learn to embrace it and keep on going !
Happy drawins ! Here's a peepaw seal of approval just for trying :]
#audience participation#original art#my art#artists on tumblr#digital art#art#sketch art#tutorial#digital art tutorial#art tutorial#mech#mecha#how to draw#myart#my artwork#my art stuff#oc: mephisto
93 notes
·
View notes
Note
This is probably a weird question, but what are some tips you could give on character design? I've been trying to feel confident with my own designs, but they feel kind of bland... what kinds of things would you suggest to help make designs stand out more?
Hoo boy. Hm. I feel like I am not the right person to ask about this because objectively I do almost nothing you're "supposed" to, but if it's working I guess that means I might be onto something?
A lot of my design considerations are practical. I don't want to give anybody a design that's going to be a nightmare to draw over and over again. I've done enough commissions in my time to know when somebody is overdesigned and therefore hugely annoying to draw, and that's a no-no. So I tend to stick with simple patterns at most, not too many layers, no need for five million belts, no need for incredibly intricate hairstyles, etc. This is a practical consideration for the medium of comic art, but other mediums have different considerations - 3D-modeled art, for instance, can overdesign the characters as much as they want because they only need to model them once, and a lot of visual novel characters are limited to a very small handful of poses and some interchangeable expressions, meaning it isn't prohibitively complicated to make them a little Extra. The most time-consuming and frustrating commissions I've ever done were for characters who were frankly never designed to be drawn more than once. A quick sampling of highlights for the design features I swore to myself I would never deal with again-
So on a basic level, if you're designing a character to draw over and over again, it needs to be something you're willing and able to draw over again. Intricate patterns, a lot of interlocking plates, anything with lace - those are all things I try to avoid.
I've often seen the advice that character silhouettes should be super visually distinct, that characters should be very strongly shaped like different things. I think that's great if your style is that flexible, but if you kind of want everybody to be shaped like a human being with a skeleton, this advice is not very useful.
I think a diversity of body shapes is great, but the style I favor requires the anatomy to at least sort of makes sense, which means while there can still be a lot of variation in the distribution of muscle and fat, everyone's bones are gonna be in roughly the same place. I can't just draw a square and fill it with a dude. So instead I try and distinguish my character silhouettes in other ways.
Everyone's hair is different, and because most characters have big hair, this plays a large part in their silhouette. Falst and Erin both have short hair, but Falst's is a bristling mane while Erin's is usually more swept and soft-looking. Dainix and Kendal both have long hair, but even when Dainix's hair is loose it doesn't hang or flow the same way Kendal's does - it gets in the way, drapes in front of his face and overall doesn't move the same. Alinua's hair is bouncy curls. On top of that, everyone's outfits are fairly simple, but no two of them are exactly the same - Erin has a monopoly on poofy sleeves, Kendal has cuffed boots and the back-slung sword, Dainix has the poncho and the poofier pants, Alinua has the v-neck top with slightly pauldron-y shoulders and the slippers, Falst's clothing is ragged at the edges, etc. Even without getting into their distinct color palettes, everyone's at least a little bit distinct.
And this is another place where I purposefully try to avoid overdesigning. If everyone has too much going on it can circle around to being hard to tell the characters apart, because too much is happening. Who can pay attention to the fact that one character is sleeveless and one has asymmetrical boots and one has a mullet when everybody is wearing eight layers of embroidered fabric with four belts and half a breastplate on top?
Avoiding same-face is hard, and I'm not very good at it. But I do try to make sure everyone's face shape, nose and eyes are at least slightly different from everyone else's. It might not show from a distance and it might not be as extreme as a pixar design sheet, but it's something.
Ultimately the main consideration I keep in mind when designing characters is - perhaps a bit redundantly - their character. Who they are as people, and how that will impact the way they look. Everybody stands differently, and shifts their weight differently when a situation is changing.
Despite both being short, lightweight guys with short hair, Falst and Erin are wildly different people and are not going to dress the same, make the same facial expressions or hold themselves the same way. Despite both being tall, long-haired, generally friendly warrior badasses, Kendal and Dainix carry themselves very differently and react to things in very distinct ways. Tess and Erin have the exact same haircut and nobody noticed for ages because of everything else.
The designs aren't complicated, and compared to some, they aren't even that distinct. But I try to make sure that their personality is visible in every aspect of their design. Every "why?" in their design has an in-character answer, and since they're all quite different on the inside, keeping things simple means that starts showing through on the outside.
This is also how I can visually distinguish between Vash and Kendal, who have the exact same body and clothes.
we can never underestimate the importance of ✨body language✨
388 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
frxshflesh
slugw0rm here
cihideungudikmuliafoundation
Untitled
chrisvee19
Loving Life
socialmedia95
Untitled
willowportergreystoke
i wanna know