alithographica

[alithographica]

We’re so back except that something I was using while either cleaning or printing kept scratching the damn plate so I burned half my time smoothing it back out 🫩

Initial graphite transfer left, first pass of lines into the acid bath. Think I’m probably gonna need 4-5 passes total so baby’s gonna spend a lot of time in the pain tub today

[alithographica]

to be clear: yes I would love to hear your answer, assorted tumblr users, and here is a tool where you can do so (thanks @razehider!)

icebreaker questions for extremely specific audiences: what's your iNaturalist observation with the fewest total observations

[alithographica]

icebreaker questions for extremely specific audiences: what's your iNaturalist observation with the fewest total observations

[alithographica]

it’s all fun and games until I have to carry it home open face because if a single line smudges while closed in my bag I will cry

Started off just wanting to do something kind of different (putting down a charcoal background, no prior pencil lines, just working back and forth with charcoal and smudging)

I wasn’t quite into it at first and was dismayed that I only brought a Cretacolor Charcoal Medium (fun but rather soft and internally broken) and Nero Extrahard (an oil-based pencil, utterly unused because it was too hard for the project I originally bought it for) and you know what…I owe you an apology Cretacolor Nero I wasn’t really familiar with your game. It’s playing nicely with the charcoal base and attains a decent dark while balancing soft but defined edges.

[alithographica]

yayyyy

Started off just wanting to do something kind of different (putting down a charcoal background, no prior pencil lines, just working back and forth with charcoal and smudging)

I wasn’t quite into it at first and was dismayed that I only brought a Cretacolor Charcoal Medium (fun but rather soft and internally broken) and Nero Extrahard (an oil-based pencil, utterly unused because it was too hard for the project I originally bought it for) and you know what…I owe you an apology Cretacolor Nero I wasn’t really familiar with your game. It’s playing nicely with the charcoal base and attains a decent dark while balancing soft but defined edges.

[alithographica]

Started off just wanting to do something kind of different (putting down a charcoal background, no prior pencil lines, just working back and forth with charcoal and smudging)

I wasn’t quite into it at first and was dismayed that I only brought a Cretacolor Charcoal Medium (fun but rather soft and internally broken) and Nero Extrahard (an oil-based pencil, utterly unused because it was too hard for the project I originally bought it for) and you know what…I owe you an apology Cretacolor Nero I wasn’t really familiar with your game. It’s playing nicely with the charcoal base and attains a decent dark while balancing soft but defined edges.

[alithographica]

I made a mistake on Bluesky and now my notifications won’t stop but hey i’ll post it here too!

Anti-Prime sale on bookshop.org until the 11th

[alithographica]

oops 10 months later I'm going back to finish this one. Busy few months. Don't worry, it wasn't in the acid bath the whole time

Initial graphite transfer left, first pass of lines into the acid bath. Think I’m probably gonna need 4-5 passes total so baby’s gonna spend a lot of time in the pain tub today

[alithographica]

Horse colors are easy. For example, the left horse is flaxen liver chestnut and the right horse is silver dapple

Left is mealy and right is pangaré

Left is flaxen chestnut and right is dark palomino

Left is perlino and right is amber champagne

Left is dun and right is buckskin

Like I said, easy!

[alithographica]

This Horse Bullshit (Horseshit?) Explained, Briefly and Incompletely:

Horse coat genetics rely on a handful of coat genes but lots of genes modify those coat genes. The first layer is pretty straightforward. Horses have two genes that produce one of three base coat colors: Chestnut (reddish brown), bay (brown), and black (...black). The intensity (shade) of these colors vary, but it's fundamentally just those three.

Then there are a ton of genes that dilute those colors. Some of those genes are dominant, others are recessive, and others are dosage-dependent (one copy will have an effect, but two copies produce a stronger effect). There are also other genes that produce white within hairs or produce specific distribution patterns.

The specific coat + modifier combinations have specific outcomes, so horse people have gotten very granular with their descriptive terms and it looks utterly incomprehensible to an outsider. Generally, the muzzle and eyes will tell you a lot, but sometimes it truly does come down to needing a DNA test or pictures of the parents.

Okay so...

Flaxen liver chestnut vs. silver dapple: Liver is a shade of chestnut, and flaxen horses are horses that have a particular gene that causes lighter manes/tails than coats. However there are other genes can also cause lighter manes/tails too—silver dapple is one of them. Silver dapple dilutes a normally bay or black horse so that you have a flaxen effect on the mane/tail and sometimes also a dappled (spotted) coat. These are known to be stupid hard to distinguish in some cases but genetically, a FLC has a chestnut base color and silver dapple has black or bay.

Mealy vs. pangaré: ...ngl I have no idea what the difference is here (op help??). Regardless, mealy/pangaré are patterns that produce lighter hairs around the eyes, nose, belly, and legs. It's a common gene and can show up in addition to most any other coat pattern.

Flaxen chestnut vs. dark palomino: Flaxen chestnut is same as above, but with a lighter (non-liver) shade of chestnut. Palominos are also chestnut horses but carry a single cream gene, which dilutes them to give them that lighter mane/tail. (If a chestnut horse has two cream copies, it's cremello. A bay horse with one cream copy is buckskin, and two copies is perlino.)

Perlino vs. amber champagne: Perlinos have pink skin without much freckling, so their coat looks really consistent—and they also have blue eyes, thanks to that double cream copy. Champagnes have pink skin with dark freckles—note the pink nose/lips and darker spotting on the ribs and thigh. They also usually have brown eyes by the time they're adults. (To my knowledge, the champagne and perlino effects are also notable within specific breeds—so if you were hypothetically very knowledgeable, you might know whether the genes were champagne or perlino without really needing to investigate.)

Dun vs. buckskin: Notice the stripe on the spine of the dun horse. It's a little hard to distinguish on the photo, but duns also have bars (stripes) on their legs—you can see a couple darker stripes near where the black leg blends into the main coat. If you /don't/ see the dorsal stripe or bars, it's a buckskin...probably. Other genes can sometimes also make or hide those effects. DNA tests are helpful here.

Hopefully that's mostly correct/intelligible; it's a little simplified. Horse genetics are one of those things where it initially seems super complex, then you learn a bit and it starts to seem controllable...so you read a little more and it's back to being too complex.

Horse colors are easy. For example, the left horse is flaxen liver chestnut and the right horse is silver dapple

Left is mealy and right is pangaré

Left is flaxen chestnut and right is dark palomino

Left is perlino and right is amber champagne

Left is dun and right is buckskin

Like I said, easy!

[alithographica]

(describing a new bird to my overly poetic research assistant) he's at the riverbank just being a bully. kind of ugly too

[alithographica]

After a quick vacation break I think this might finally be done?? I’ll see how I feel about it later but I also want to get moving onto new projects.

Dall Sheep, American Museum of Natural History diorama.

Preserving this nice little sketch so I can jump into the shading before I lose my nerve 🥰

[alithographica]

Lookin real sinister for a guy who sleeps on a leaf all day

[alithographica]

Had to restock on my stash of 003 pens but we’re nearly there

Preserving this nice little sketch so I can jump into the shading before I lose my nerve 🥰

[alithographica]

(But fr this is very cool op, thank you!)

Here's what I spent the last two days on!

It's a chart of what each chemical element does in the human body, or in that of other organisms

[alithographica]

Know your insect antennae!

[alithographica]

There’s no particular order here, just what I feel I can get away with next

Preserving this nice little sketch so I can jump into the shading before I lose my nerve 🥰