ochriven

[ochriven]

Psst.

Idk how this works im fucking around and finding out

PSA: don’t make four refs of characters without a design yet in a month. trust me.

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I don’t think I have enough shades of red lol

Hard at work on references for Artfight! I do not recommend redesigning your characters at the same time. Kill me now /j

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Turns out, the answer was making more interesting shapes out of what I have. Not every fabric falls the same way, so a different fabric creates a different shape. Huh.

How does one make an interesting design that is also practical?? I’m making Artfight refs rn and I’m really struggling with dull colors and clothing and all.

Like, the very serious and practical field researchers are not going to have fun tassels and embroidered designs bc tassels can get caught on stuff, and why spend time embroidering something colorful when it puts a target on your back to the beastie trying to eat you??? Ditto for colorful clothing

Also it’s going to be simple, bc the same uniform has to be given to hundreds of people who will probably die/ruin it anyway, so why spend time on it?

But now I’m stuck with the most boring, dull looking outfit that isn’t interesting to look at or draw, bc they aren’t trying to be cool or pretty or whatever. Yeah, there’ll be little personal touches, but the vast majority is going to be dark colors, grays, and browns, a cloak for warmth that isn’t too long to get caught on a branch when running, and a simple shirt and pants. I can style it a little based on the culture but. It’s so boring and dull and muted I hate it

Tldr, I’m designing practical people and can’t for the life of me make it look interesting and I hate it

[ochriven]

How does one make an interesting design that is also practical?? I’m making Artfight refs rn and I’m really struggling with dull colors and clothing and all.

Like, the very serious and practical field researchers are not going to have fun tassels and embroidered designs bc tassels can get caught on stuff, and why spend time embroidering something colorful when it puts a target on your back to the beastie trying to eat you??? Ditto for colorful clothing

Also it’s going to be simple, bc the same uniform has to be given to hundreds of people who will probably die/ruin it anyway, so why spend time on it?

But now I’m stuck with the most boring, dull looking outfit that isn’t interesting to look at or draw, bc they aren’t trying to be cool or pretty or whatever. Yeah, there’ll be little personal touches, but the vast majority is going to be dark colors, grays, and browns, a cloak for warmth that isn’t too long to get caught on a branch when running, and a simple shirt and pants. I can style it a little based on the culture but. It’s so boring and dull and muted I hate it

Tldr, I’m designing practical people and can’t for the life of me make it look interesting and I hate it

[ochriven]

(Text:

Revenants are mostly invisible in normal light, save for the insides of their mouths

Candlelight reveals their true forms

Eyes appear in the mouths)

Been trying to design these freaks for literal years now. I think this is a design I’m happy with, but who knows at this point lol.

Revenants are known as nightmares to the common folk, and are considered to be spirits of war and violence. Wherever they appear, carnage follows. The souls of those they kill linger briefly as faint echoes, before they disappear entirely.

The Torum Academy has tried to study them, but their nature makes them difficult to study for reasons that should be obvious

They cannot make intelligible speech (it hasn’t been determined if this is due to a lack of intelligence, or lack of ability), but they do make a variety of noises, ranging from gibbering nonsense, to something like howling wind, to odd whistling noises

Think of a microphone poorly picking up on the wind. That sort of thing

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The colors were a bitch on this one lol.

The idea was to keep some of the sketchy bits from my first pass to give it a little *spice*. Definitely won’t be my normal, but it was definitely fun!

[ochriven]

I don’t have anything approaching the time and/or energy for a full, thought out drawing, so here’s some fun concept sketches of my favorite chaos god

Also beheaded bird dragon thing bc why not?

I gave it hands

[ochriven]

Just spent the entire day binging the first 11 episodes of Malevolent. Absolutely love these two’s interactions, especially with the hotel and the rodent of unusual size

Also

I couldn’t stop imagining the taxi drivers at the beginning. Like, this madman who is constantly addressing something that isn’t there and seems to struggle to walk around gives you the address of a freaky abandoned house. He’s fine definitely <3

(Spoilers maybe? Just speculation, please don’t spoil me)

John is absolutely an amnesiac King of Yellow accidentally fucking up everything around Arthur and I cannot wait for that confrontation

Also Arthur strikes me as someone who was a “fuck around and find out” sort of person from before John, with his partner being the cautious one. I wonder what a sighted Arthur would be able to pull off?

Edit: I FUCKING KNEW IT

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Cursed with a deadly touch

I’ve always found it interesting how she’s so connected to death, but she still creates all the details on her dress

[ochriven]

Y’all it (was) National Unicorn Day

So handsome. So elegant.

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I made a fantasy alphabet for my story :D

Because I struggle enough with real languages, so there’s no way I’m making my own (conlags are really cool tho)

I also went a little overboard and added some extra *fun* via different forms. I’m fairly certain that extra forms equal extra fun

Anyways, here’s the first form:

The alphabet is based off of the traditional Mongolian script, with a central “stem” that has the letters branching off of it. Most letters are a 1:1 conversion, though I’ve added some stuff for sounds like th, ch, and also repeated letters

Oh, and it’s read up to down, then left to right

This is the “flat top” form, indicated by the flat top (very creative), which is for common, everyday words. At the beginning of sentences, they have an arrow looking thing instead. (Still considered flat top, though)

Next, there’s the Crescent Top form:

This is for proper nouns. Specific people, places, objects, that sort of thing. It’s what people use for strangers, unfamiliar places, and scholarly discussions. It’s very detached, and somewhat formal. Not quite sir/ma’am, but you aren’t buddies

Now, if you *are* buddies, you would use the condensed form:

This one is my favorite! It’s the word all squished together in a way that doesn’t have any set rules, apart from there being a stem, and that all letters must be present. This is used for close friends, family, yourself, and even your hometown, assuming that you have a strong connection with it. Two people can have the same name, but their condensed form can still be different.

Using it for someone you don’t know well comes off as just… weird, kind of stalker-ish. Especially since it’s so personalized.

Now, the condensed form is also used for very important things, like gods and significant places. It would be strange to address a divine being with the equivalent of “hey bro, what’s up?” So, there are added “moods” above those characters to clarify the speaker’s relationship to what their talking about.

The little arrow is the “venerated” form, used for gods, religious sites, and mythical heroes. The worshippers of that god would use it, but the average joe won’t.

The center form, with the line, is the “respected” form. You are familiar with the thing in question, but you have no personal relationship with it. Other people’s gods, some place names, and some charms / wards all use this form. Of the altered condensed forms, it is the most common.

The final one is the “dismembered” form. It indicates that the thing is inherently evil, and is used for only the worst monsters of mythology. Even bitter exes will use the common term for each other as an insult instead of using the dismembered form. (That would be the equivalent of going into extensive detail of how excruciating you want their death and afterlife to be.)

Its most common use is in certain charms / wards in order to repel something. (Death, destruction, and disease are common ones.) It is made by taking apart the condensed word, with the first letter on top, the last letter at the end, and a detached stem in the middle.

So yeah! This is all still a WIP, so stuff can change in the future.

(Melpomene’s is separated because it’s so long lol. It’s common practice for long words to be separated and placed beside each other.)

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I love writing characters unknowingly punching FAR above their weight class

This lady walks in, bargains with a demigod in order to talk to one of the most dangerous creatures to ever live, neglects to mention the other demigod trying to seal said creature, causes a fight (they’re archenemies, who knew), and then bargains with the *other* demigod so she can interrogate this nightmare creature about the necromancer it is apparently scared of

Both demigods are a little flabbergasted that this chick from absolutely nowhere is trying to drive a hard bargain. They could both kill her immediately. She does not know, nor does she care

Anyway, there’s your out-of-context yap session about one of my brain children

[ochriven]

Made the realization that I could post older art

Here’s Thalia suffering

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I’ve spent so long as a lurker in online spaces that the idea of actually interacting with stuff slips my mind occasionally, and also terrifies me

I’m pretty good at leaving a like. That’s simple. Reposting? What is that sorcery? Commenting??? Actually voicing my enjoyment of a thing??? Please let me scurry back under my rock, thank you

All that to say if I don’t comment often, or completely ignore whatever reblog etiquette there is, it is genuinely because idk what is going on

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I tried to work on drawing an interior. Very sketchy, ofc, because I don’t feel like polishing it.

also no reference. Because I didn’t feel like finding them

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The colors were a bitch on this one lol.

The idea was to keep some of the sketchy bits from my first pass to give it a little *spice*. Definitely won’t be my normal, but it was definitely fun!

[ochriven]

Willow in a willow-adjacent tree