Idk 😭😭😭

Please also enjoy my horribly cursed attempt at drawing a possessed HiveWing front view (it haunts my sketchbook now)

Got bored and made an evolution tree for Wings of Fire— currently working on (re-)designing each tribe (except the “Common Ancestor” one since it’s more of a vague collective of various dragons)

Help With Acrylics?

Hello! I have some very cheap acrylics that are very thin and transparent, and I was wondering if anyone had a solution to thicken them up and make them more opaque? Thank you!

So, I saw this image on Facebook, and it was supposedly showing what Queen Nefertiti would have looked like in real life:

Now, I thought this AI generated garbage was just truly terrible on a number of levels; first off, she looks wayyyyyy too modern - her makeup is very “Hollywood glamour”, she looks airbrushed and de-aged, and as far as I’m aware, Ancient Egyptians didn’t have mascara, glitter-based eyeshadows and lip gloss. Secondly, her features are exceptionally whitewashed in every sense - this is pretty standard for AI as racial bias is prevalent in feeding AI algorithms, but I genuinely thought a depiction of such a known individual would not exhibit such euro-centric features. Thirdly, the outfit was massively desaturated and didn’t take pigment loss into consideration, and while I *do* like the look of the neck attire, it's not at all accurate (plus, again, AI confusion on the detailing is evident).

So, this inspired me to alter the image on the left to be more accurate based off the sculpture’s features. I looked into Ancient Egyptian makeup and looked at references for kohl eyeliner and clay-based facial pigment (rouge was used on cheeks, charcoal-based powder/paste was used to darken and elongate eyebrows), and I looked at pre-existing images of Nefertiti, both her mummy and other reconstructions. While doing this, I found photos of a 3D scanned sculpture made by scientists at the University of Bristol and chose to collage the neck jewellery over the painting (and edited the lighting and shadows as best as I could).

Something I see a lot of in facial recreations of mummies is maintaining the elongated and skinny facial features as seen on preserved bodies - however, fat, muscle and cartilage shrink/disappear post mortem, regardless of preservation quality; Queen Nefertiti had art created of her in life, and these pieces are invaluable to developing an accurate portrayal of her, whether stylistic or realistic in nature.

And hey, while I don't think my adjustments are perfect (especially the neck area), I *do* believe it is a huge improvement to the original image I chose to work on top of.

I really liked working on this project for the last few days, and I think I may continue to work on it further to perfect it. But, until then, I hope you enjoy!

Remember, likes don't help artists but reblogs do!

Fuck personality tests. Who comes to your mind when I say “Michael”

I bet if a mushroom could lap water out of your hand with a tongue that a gently drinking mushroom tongue on your hand would be the softest and gentlest thing.

kelp. suferbro type u should want to punch

ok so, I skimmed the books and:

yeah, Clearsight never actually CALLS them “BeetleWings”, she just compares them to beetles. But she also only remarked about two tribes, LeafWings and an unarmed tribe, leading many to believe that this was an earlier version of SilkWings that the Fandom had nicknamed “BeetleWings”. The funny thing? They don’t actually exist. In fact, the place I could have sworn I read “BeetleWings” doesn’t mention the word “beetle” even once

Specifically, I was thinking of Lady Scarab’s explanation of how HiveWings came to be, where it says:

notice that she never actually says “beetle”, she says “Maybe they weren’t called SilkWings back then. ShimmerWings or Flibbergibbets or something in the old language, I don’t know. But Clearsight married one, and then another one when the first one died, and had an alarming number of dragonets with each one, and then their dragonets and their dragonets’ dragonets kept going, marrying Ye Olde SilkWings or what have you, until there were enough of them to be considered their own tribe. HiveWings.”

So the answer? Technically, yes, they came from SilkWings and NightWings. But according to fanon interpretations, that old version of SilkWings are colloquially known as BeetleWings, so… yes and no?

(References: The Lost Continent (Prologue) and The Hive Queen (pages 182 and 183))

here’s the evolution tree for reference! Also explains why Mudwings look so much like SeaWings*

*none of these are to scale

fffffffFUCK I FORGOT HIS LINE OF ICEWING SCALES UNDER HIS WINGS ASHDJFKD

FINALLY REDID THIS PIECE THIS TOOK WAY TOO LONG (original under cut)

A piece I think I did in… 2023? Not sure, it was a WHILE ago, though, and I promised to redo it. Very happy with how it came out!!!

Here’s darkstalker without all the filters making him a shadow:

Peacemaker without shading altering his colors:

And both of them together!

I’m honestly really happy with how both of my designs came out, and had a blast working on this :) Hope to post again soon!