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saint--claire · 3 months

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When I was a little child, there was a particular library book I checked out week after week, endlessly renewing it as much as I was able. The book, How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by John Topsell was a quasi-nonfiction guide to, as you guessed, rearing different species of dragons. I loved it. Tiny-me had plans.

As an adult, I tried to buy it a few times. No dice. The book was so old that no mainstream bookseller stocked it. Even when I tried niche websites recommended by various booksellers and librarians, I still couldn't find it. It was sadly lost to time, apparently not popular enough to make it into the archives.

But.

My best friend had a copy of that book. We're going to call her G, for several reasons not relevant at the moment. I was discussing my search with G one day, for some reason I can't remember now. She got a funny look on her face, asked me a few questions about the cover, listened to me do a very poor job of explaining with my hands how the hardcover copy had included a real gemstone in the dragon's forehead, and then went off to fish it out of her bookcase.

I was Gobsmacked.

I should not have been, given that the history of shared childhood books between us both would have made a circle with ragged edges, more so than a venn diagram, but I digress. The book came home to live in my house for a few months, and I was delighted by the chance to read it again.

Do people remember those type of books? Dragonology, Egyptology, The Stone Age - a way of introducing children to non fiction. They very earnestly spoke about the responsibilities needed to raise dragons, the practicalities involved. There was a record of registration you could fill out, if you had carefully considered the information to your self and felt you were responsible enough to to go through with adopting a dragon.

I vaguely remember filling out some of the riddle and puzzle questions in the Dragonology books. I would never have written in John Topsell's book, it was a library book.

But.

When I re-read G's copy at home, smiling over the familiar artwork, I was surprised to turn the page and find the painstaking, somewhat-wonky handwriting staring back at at me. Baby G, with her name spelled out in freshly-joined but still-not-quite-got-the-hang-of-this-yet cursive lettering. Baby G had filled the registration out in her best handwriting, in glittery green gel pen to denote the importance of the document. This was compared to the earlier, less important checklists done in plain black ink.

I read the registration certificate. Smiled. Smiled some more at the names listed for G's dragon, her dam, and her sire - Eragon was also a great book. Go off, Christopher Paolini.

Breed; standard Western Dragon. The box 'miniture' was ticked, to show that G's dragon was of the minature specic variety, rather than a full size dragon. This was, as she would later explain to me, chosen on the basis that baby-G felt it was the more financially responsible choice. Also so she could keep her dragon in her house with her, but we're not there yet.

I looked at that certificate. Looked at it again. Looked at the calendar, and then looked at the sewing machine I had just been given for Christmas.

G celebrates her birthday in January.

The template came first. I studied the different images of the standard western dragon through the book, picked my favourite, and re-drew it to a significantly larger scale.

Inking the design to the fabric, four times over probably took the longest.

I very subtly asked G the next time she was over (after hurling all dragon-related materials in a panic into the depths of my wardrobe) what type of colour dragon she would have, should it come up. As G later said, that type of question from me truly did not register as anything other than a question asked from theoretical interest. I transitioned the topic as discreetly as I could after she answered, and delightfully, my sneakiness went in one ear, out the other, and she forgot I had ever asked until several weeks later.

I enjoyed painting them.

Don't ask me how many mistakes I made through this process. So many. I do already know how to sew, but it's been a long time. I'd been meaning to get back into it for a while.

Given that various aunts and grandmothers and my mother had a knack for calling when I was up to my elbows in either paint or pins, it became a family affair. Each of them peered at the project through face time and offered their advice.

Some of the advice I took, some I didn't. No regrets about sewing it in pink thread. Considerable regrets about accidentally slicing one of the feet in half and having to fix that.

In the end though, she was finished.

I carefully pinned on her name tag, with the name baby-G had chosen with a little blue ribbon. A collar was unacceptable, this is a dragon, people, come on. Dragon's don't wear collars.

I put the book in the box, open to the registration certificate, and put the dragon on top. Wrapped the whole thing up with a bow and then refused to touch it before I sent myself mad trying to fix details that didn't really need to be fixed.

A bit late for her birthday, sure, but there we are. We'd gone for a trip off to nowhere for a weekend, to go try wine made out of blueberries and hike up a waterfall. (And climb on it. And swim in it. It was a very good waterfall).

I gave her the box, informed her she wasn't allowed to keep the box, just the contents (it was the only thing I had that was big enough for me to keep all of my A3 portfolios in, it had only been temporarily-repurposed as dragon housing), and then left the next bit up to the gods.

A surprise, sitting un-awaited for some 15 years in amber, to catch up to baby G and adult G together.

Happy Birthday, baby and adult G.

#StClaire speaks #How to Raise & Keep A Dragon #John Topsell #Joe Nigg #the thing about problems hammers and nails #except in this case it was childhood wishes and sewing machines #and as someone said #you were relearning to sew and you started with THAT?#well no #I started with a scrub hat #which kept the hair out of my face while I painted this #and then also that apron my aunt gave me the pieces to years ago that I refused point blank to do by hand #but yeah #101 mistakes later #and one re-attached foot #pretty happy with her #dragons

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bigfatbreak · 2 months

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dad villain au: did emilie just. not consider at all that adrien was literally dying at the time. wow

she's in the habit of deciding when Adrien's suffering is acceptable, and if it is, she'll just fix it later.

#my art #adrien agreste #emelie agreste #gabriel agreste #dad villain au #mayura #as emelie faces zero consequences using the peacock she's more likely to utilize it in a way she didn't in the last timeline #last timeline she faced real problems. had to come to terms with her own eventual death. got to see action and reaction in process #in this timeline there was no consequences. so why shouldn't she make this as 'perfect' as possible?#before gabriel got his memories of the last timeline back he was actually pretty against her being weird abt adrien but eventually just #let her do whatever lmao. he was like. alright fine if it makes you happy dear #sure you can rearrange his genome so he cant catch chicken pox again whatver #as a result when things dont fit her delusions she gets upset moody or aggressive

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chaoparty · 6 months

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i always had a huge crush on sophie the swamp witch from neopets...

#neopets #sophie the swamp witch #neotag #our art #ive ALWAYS wanted to draw her really really pretty so last night that's what i did!#and a very slight redesign #changed her top into more of a cape/shawl #changed her skirt a lil #gave her a pendant blah blah #i'm so happy 🥺 completely self indulgent art moment #plushpon #art

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lylahammar · 6 months

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Zorella, the centaur pop queen ✨

Thank you to everyone who helped me by voting on her final design in the poll from last week! I'm so so so happy with how she turned out 🥰

#I imagine her music sounds something like a happy medium between Sza and Ashnikko :3 #but maybe more EDM #her style is very raver girl so it fits #it was pretty funny designing basically a lingerie harness for a horse body LMAO #that was actually what inspired her design #I was thinkin about how it would be cool to try to combine strappy harness-y raver girl fashion with horse tack #I'm deffo gonna draw her more bc I already have so many fashion ideas for her #also I've realized that I rly love doing graffiti designs lol I got carried away with her name #it probs distracts the eye too much in the composition but w/e it was fun 😂#my art #character design #original character #OC #centaur #OCs #eye strain

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chloesimaginationthings · 25 days

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I ADORE your design for Charlie. It’s so adorable!!!!!!

I’m so glad y’all loved her design!!

#ask reply #genuinely I was pretty proud of Charlie’s look #so the fact so many folks liked her made me so happy #I really wanted her to stand out even against other ghost kids #so she got this monochromatic look to her #like she’s been a ghost so long she’s lost her colours #along with that she resembles the puppet more #almost like they fused into one by this point #I really tried to make her both ghostly and eerie #but also cute and friendly #so I think I found that perfect balance #I’m glad one of yall took note of her oversized sleeves #I thought it was a cute design and kept that ghost vibe to her #I gotta draw her again soon!!#we all love Charlie Emily here 🖤🤍

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sullina · 10 months

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I believe the reason why Nimona turned into a Phoenix specifically in the final scene of the movie was not necessarily a (purely) artistic choice, but rather because Nimona wanted to live.

We know that Nimona can do pretty much anything, including turning into a fictional dragon and spew cereal instead of fire.

And she’s smart, we know that, too.

So I wouldn’t put it past her to be able to figure out a way, on the spot, to not die while throwing herself full force against a cannon that she knew was gonna kill her.

She knew she was gonna die, so she turned into a being that would always come back to life, because she wanted to live.

#nimona #so her coming back at the end wasn't just a 'just because' thing #which I'm pretty happy for tbh #nimona spoilers

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ineed-to-sleep · 1 month

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Blacked out in front of my tablet and woke up with sketches of my Touchstarved mc + Kuras my beloved. woops

#I found out dr. kuras is 6'6 I said hold on lemme get a stool so I can climb this man #touchstarved #touchstarved game #touchstarved kuras #kuras #sleepyscribble #oc.emma #my mc is meant to be a self insert but also like. I wanted to come up w a design and character arc and everything jkvkvk #so I ended up basing her on my personality/looks but taking her into a direction that would fit the game #she's like. me but 'characterized' and a bit exaggerated for the sake of being a character yk #the way she turned out is that she's basically a friendly happy go lucky mage who laughs at her own misery but hides #a deep layer of self loathing underneath all that bc of her curse #having been cursed all her life she believes she's a monster and the sunny personality is a way for her to 'make up for it'#but at the same time she feels like a farse. like she's only luring ppl in to an inevitable demise #and she thinks she's selfish bc despite knowing the danger she poses she still goes out there and puts herself among ppl #bc she craves human connection. even tho she feels guilty for 'indulging' in it #anyway I love the cursed mc concept in this game <3 it's been really interesting to think abt how that would affect someone #also I kept her physical features looking pretty much like mine #bc I wanted to draw myself in a cute way. teehee #but the clothing I was basically thinking like. early game simple clothing that she didn't rlly pick for herself #and maybe later I can have an updated design w something she would actually pick for herself

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flowerbloom-arts · 4 months

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Change is a two-way street.

(Is my favoritism towards the Damsel obvious enough, or?)

note: TLQ [aka my sona Bloombird] is a butch sapphic and this is yuri

#slay the princess #stp fanart #stp narrator #stp protagonist #the long quiet #the damsel #stp princess #stp damsel #swearing tw #blood tw #tw sui attempt #ask to tag #I'm pretty sure it's canon that the Princess gets to outlive Birdman atleast for a short bit before the construct resets #and that oftentimes they BOTH have to die for it to reset. So.... I imagine pre-Damsel Princess was pretty devastated #I read a really beautiful comment on an stp soundtrack video about the parallel between Damsel and Witch/Thorn #and how Damsel so felt guilty she wanted to give up her entire personhood and desires just to make Birdman happy #so this is very much inspired by that

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ladysantos · 9 months

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some exercises + rough paint ft. jan <3

#im trying to learn how to draw her consistently #and draw her like how i see her in my head #definitely pretty close with that painting!! im happy with that #jan and valerie #ocs #my art #jan

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voltaical-art · 3 months

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yaaa women!!!! trying to work out designs for them :)

#baldur's gate 3 #jaheira #shadowheart #karlach cliffgate #lae'zel #takes me so long to enjoy drawing characters i havent drawn a lot but im pretty happy with these #karlachs cannon fit is so difficult and busy so i drew her in whatever outfit i have her in in game LMAO #biker butch realness

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tategaminu · 2 months

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#By Darwinchey. Happy to see that many likes #tdp #the dragon Prince #Rayla #how dare Rayla abandon Callum?? Aaravos killing people is cool tho. I mean he is hot #Rayla is pretty loved but please... her hate in arc 2 is so stupid #Touka Kirishima #yeah my girl was hated for breathing by the same people thirsting over the mass murder antagonist #tokyo Ghoul #tg #tgre #tokyo ghoul re #shes selfish VS hes misunderstood #Gabi #Mikasa #asa mitaka #fandom misogyny

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gunstellations · 3 months

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In the world I love

_

In a different world

#vanitas no carte #vanoé #doomed yaoi save me...save me doomed yaoi #play on the opening song + visual sequence + the fact that vanitas could only ever be happy in an alternate universe also #+ the other fun little fact we learn about him from episode one #i have complex feelings about this anime #its pretty damn fucking good #but im a leeeeetle iffy about the way it developed the female characters.....they had potential and i was actually excited to #to see some good solid female characters even the respective romances with their l/i's felt good at the start #not jeanne obv. they fucked up a perfectly good woman and her whole dynamic with v could have gone sooo well without the reall #really forced flirting behaviour.... i liked the more serious relationship they had it made me actually not hate what they had at the start #but yknow. whatever. sorry about going off about another ship on this but im just....i love jeanne a lot. i wish they didnt do her so dirty #my girl deserves better than this asshole #you want white/black dynamics??? let her get married to domi and then we can talk #i enjoy this show and i enjoy vanoe a lot #very yuriyaoi if you ask me #my art

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deathlessathanasia · 4 months

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Tip: If you claim that you like a particular figure from Greek mythology, but you feel the need to change almost everything about them, rewrite their personality, ignore those aspects of them that you find uncomfortable, , and in short turn them into your original character, consider that you probably don't actually like that figure from Greek mythology.

#ramblings #greek mythology #greek myths #greek gods #of course this goes for all characters in general not just mythological ones #but I find it particularly insufferable when deities receive this treatment #imagine me saying that Hera is my favourite goddess #but then it turns out that the version of her I like is one that loves all of Zeus's kids and is happy to play mommy to them #is BFFs with his side chicks and is an excellent mother to her own children and has never done anything questionable ever #I'd sound pretty damn ridiculous and people would be right to question why on earth I pretend to like this goddess when II so clearly don't

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totaltrauma-island · 3 months

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Woah guys, totally real not fake leaks for season three?? 🤯🤯🤯