bartholomewillustrated

[bartholomewillustrated]

Haha! Wow!

Today's Make A Bad Comic Day, when artists ""challenge"" themselves to make a small shitty comic completely bereft of the pressure of quality!

I think the intent is to do like..little doodle comics, funny stuff you can lay out in under and hour.. but I wanted to see how far incould take this principle and sketch a whole little scene as fast as I could (I got most of it done on my lunch break!) with strict rules about not agonizing over details or making big fixes. Whatever comes out you Let It Be, even if it looks a little funny.

And honestly! It was a good excerise! If i had tried to do this under my normal demands for Quality you wouldn't be seeing it for like a Month, if Ever... i would have spent several hours more on the second panel than i did the whole thing! What a damming reminder that the No.1 reason my art Takes So Long is Anxiety. Lol. Lmao, even.

I think I'll try more pieces like this in the future... Maybe it's time to start carrying a sketchbook again.

Anyways

I think Silco's relationships with Early Morning's is squarely; 'Just because I have to doesn't mean I like it' it takes him a long time to wake up and he's Miserable through the whole experience.

Vander on the other hand, whether he's up at 6 or 2, is Awake and Alert as soon as he opens his eyes, it's infuriating. (This doesn't mean he's not Purposefully lazy though, you have to lollygag on occasion y'know?)

The image of Silco sleeping in a nightgown was the orignal impetus for this comic, it was a silly idea at first but honestly i've kinda latched onto it. Little fancy boy in his old fashioned sleep robes.......

(We'll presume this takes place in Ekko's alternate reality, or one very similar)

[bartholomewillustrated]

Fuck it! It's midnight!

I'm cross posting the half-thread-almost-fic I made on bsky earlier while the not-giving-a-fuck is Hot!!! 9>∆<)/

I made my heart hurt thinking about Silco having Nice Dad Moments with Jinx on the backdrop of the rest of his parenting being Not S'good...

-

Silco a stern and serious father the vast majority of the time, can, on rare occasions, be broken down by his daughter. A child he's known to some degree since birth, the constant reminder of a different happier time clawed out around the terrors that live in his memory, (whether he wants it to be or not) poking and prodding him into relenting and letting himself be at least a little vunerable with her.

Especially when she's younger, fresh off the loss of her family, still very clearly in distress, when even Silco can see she's in need of a Modicum of tenderness At Least. Can she manage to crack him.

So if when should happen to find her in her room, up, bouncing around, Dancing to some old records he found while taking over the last drop, when he was expecting catatonic sulking.....

and the song, achingly familiar, conjuring images of dim lights and sticky floors and a pleasant buzzing in his head while he looses himself to the music, his friends around him, the toils of their lives outside forgotten for the briefest of moments to joy and energy and the freedom of movement.. Then in front of him, this little girl, His little girl, Felicia's little girl, Vander's.......

All blue hair and big eyes and boney limbs..

Something breaks and something heals(if only marginally) and She's grabbing at his hand and laughing and dragging him the rest of the way down the stairs pleading, Begging; come play, just this once Pleasepleasepleeeeease, no serious lectures or work or lessons, just have fun with me!! C'mon!! Please!!!

She's smiling, it's the first time she's smiled in Weeks.

It's the first time he's smiled in weeks, possibly longer.

He startles realizing his own face has betrayed him, reacting behind his back, he's quick to try and push it back down.

What has been dredged up by this tableau are not memories he wants to revisit Fondly. That sort of sentimentality invites Weakness.

And Silco is not weak.

But Jinx... Oh but Jinx.

Her little hand wrapped tightly around his, twirling herself around as she continues to implore him to join in..

What other choice does he have?

With purpose he relaxes, his face softens, he follows her out onto the surface of the stuck-fast propeller blade she's claimed as her home, and he Dances.

It's not like it was, the music is tinny coming from the single conical amplifier and echoing off the walls of the fissure, the noise of it doesn't Thump in his chest like it did back during late nights at the bar, and he keeps his good eye open, not letting himself get too lost in it lest he, or Janna forbid Jinx, stumble off the Very precaious edge of the propeller blade.

But still it's exhilarating, to move like this again, a little taste of freedom after years of locking himself in tighter and tighter boxes.

Jinx is sufficiently impressed by his moves, she never would have guessed her so typically rigid father could be quite so.. elegant!

He returns the compliment, though in truth she dances with the sporadic, rythmn-less steps of a child, but he must admit her speed and coordination are laudable.

The dance goes on, the music distantly and sweetly, sickeningly, familiar. The unbridled force of life exuding from Jinx keeps Silco soaring until the last track fades and he comes back to himself, notably quite out of breath, and aching in his knees. Has it really been So long....?

He feels the weight and rot of the years falling thickly back onto his shoulders. But the twin beacons of light in Jinx's eyes as she rushes over to put a new record on the machine holds the shadows at bay just a little longer.

He joins her seated by the little cobbled-together record player jinx had made herself and huffs a small apology that her old man likely won't be up for another round, but he'd gladly help her listen and sort through the pile of records, as it appears she was doing before he arrived.

She seems.. a bit deflated, in the way children are when they can't conceptualize the aches that come with getting old, butsits back and happily leans against his shoulder all the same, accepting the offered assistance.

Silco knows this moment won't last. He suspects Jinx does as well.

At some point he'll have to return, the armour retightened, the boxes resealed, all righteous speeches and harsh direction, soft edges filed to steely points with purpose and intention.

Every part of him planned and crafted into the man he Needs to be.

He cannot show weakness, he has work he must do, power to seize, industries to drive, deals to make, a revolution to build, and a daughter to raise into a prodigy, a shining, immutable symbol that proves He was right all along...

Eventually... Anyway.

Right now vindication and revolution can wait, for right now she's just a little girl, with the man who is now her father, experiencing an unexpected moment of comfort in a world made otherwise of pain.

And Silco will try, as hard as he can, to stave off the rot inside him for this brief, damnable, moment of sentimentality as long as possible, he will try.

For Jinx's sake, for Felicia's, for Va- His own.

For how he needs this moment as much as she does. And for how little he wants to acknowledge that.

Yes, soon, he will have to get up, leave his little girl to her own devices once more, and return to his empire of criminal machinations and mad science.

But for now, they're both here, greedily drinking up the moment as much as either of them can, quiet discussion over music that bounces and echos off the hard stone walls, neither sure when they'll get to feel quite so truly like Family again.

[bartholomewillustrated]

Babygirl, darling, lovey 💛💕💛💕💛💕 v////v)/\

[bartholomewillustrated]

Well i didn't expect to get this far tonight!

Still a WIP but everyone meet Jayce Talis; Show Pony (in his custom house-talis Tack vwv)

(I'll link the uncensored bsky post when i've got the whole thing done and posted)

[bartholomewillustrated]

Hey Viktor... Hey... Hey Viktor.............

Why the long face buddy? :D Get it? Because Horse.

Also his face Is pretty long....... Anyway. Didn't think I'd get this done in one night! but here we are! and it's not even That Late! I will be doing a companion Jayce tomorrow so be Ready for that >:]

[bartholomewillustrated]

Sometimes a family is Not Good and Just Kinda Bad.....

[bartholomewillustrated]

Why's his collar so big? you may ask.

idk. Vibes? I will answer.

[bartholomewillustrated]

Tough day in the lab....

[bartholomewillustrated]

Wh-What if... Sweaty.... in Tiny Teeny Spaghetti Strap Tank Top.... ;;>//////> What i-if????

[bartholomewillustrated]

Wh-What if... Sweaty.... in Tiny Teeny Spaghetti Strap Tank Top.... ;;>//////> What i-if????

[bartholomewillustrated]

Oh shit I forgot about tiny Viktor and Tinier Jayce... Experiment on the side to see how I was progressing drawing/stylizing Viktor from memory.. and honestly! he's coming along! He's starting to Feel more Right...

[bartholomewillustrated]

After several abject failures trying to draw Sevika, Jinx, And some more Jayce and Viktor today I crawled back to the large comforting arms of Old Hairy Men, a subject in which I have become an Expert. So please enjoy this little slice of Good Universe Vanco v-v)/ I will nail down the others eventually I Swear it (9TAT)9

[bartholomewillustrated]

Any project worth working on is going to be nothing but problems problems problems... (is this about their experimental prototype or about my process drawing this? who can say........)

[bartholomewillustrated]

Now the story Is called Dragon's Daughter so i do wonder how many of you had already guessed that the oft mentioned Dreor was... A very large very purple dragon ass dragon, but in case you hadn't.... Suprise!

he's a big purple dragon ass dragon.

Lore under the cut!

The second brother born of the Heart Dreor was named keeper of wisdom and King of the underworld's beast-folk. As the middle child with a more mild and pensive demeanour he found himself often playing peacekeeper between his brothers, the older stern Auriel and the younger vicious Urlac.

He did his best to guide his brothers to balance, to quell the fires of war and battle that brewed between them as urlac grew darker and stronger, he threw himself between them again and again until he could no longer stand to watch his brothers destroy eachother, and retreated to his kingdom to live in solitude. He built his castle nestled deep into the mountains with it's high stone walls and vast libraries, full of the collective knowledge of the underworld for him to study.

For years he ruled his beastly kingdoms from his fortress, saddened to have to live apart from his brothers, to not care for the underworld together as was intended, but secure in the knowledge of his choice, in how little he could do to control his siblings.

When knews of a great war begging between the lands of the underworld and the Kingdom in Nowhere Dreor was once again forced to come between his brothers, in the hopes of stopping the destruction before it had gone too far.

By the time he arrived it was too late, the fighting had started and ending it would not be so simple as it once had been.

He was forced to join the fray, siding with the forces of Auriel for the duration of the Three Brothers War, but not compeltely, always convinced he could somehow bring an end to the fighting on both sides.

The end of the fighting brought little relief to the jaded and haggard Dreor, he held fears that Urlac had not been Truly defeated and went to seek the wisdom of the Oracle and in turn received the Prophecy that would become Princess Helena's burden.

He bore the weight of his duty and knowledge with diginty and quiet pride, as he did all things, through the rising age of fragile prosperity that followed the war through the underworld, and dedicated much of his time and effort to unlocking what he could of the prophecies secrets before its promised bearer was even born.

It was a terrible gift to have to lay in the arms of a child, and with all the power available to him he would make that weight as light as possible. He only hoped she could achieve what he for so long could not..

[bartholomewillustrated]

Mwah 💕

[bartholomewillustrated]

Like I don't even go here!!!!!??!?? But they won't leave me alone!!!!!!

[bartholomewillustrated]

Whoa? Deja vu??? Haven't we seen this before???!!

Well here's the thing.

I opened csp to work on the last Dragon' Daughter portrait..... And got really scared and had to close it.

But dammit i haven't drawn all week and i wasn't about to squander another evening... So I pulled this, which is my phone lockscreen that i've had to look at everyday for the last year-ish and Fixed it.

Which was honestly the best decision, I had a good time, I still feel good, I got to draw, and my phone lock screen doesn't make me Mad anymore (9v-v)9