#and is a wARLOCK FOR THE BB FUCKING G

[introverting-rn]

Fucked Up Sleeping Habits

Roll a d100 every time you take a long rest. Under normal conditions, rolling a 20 or below will result in such a vivid nightmare you take an exhaustion point. If you are particularly hurt, particularly calm, or there are any other factors influencing your sleep, raise or lower the DC as you see fit. This counts as a general ability check and is rolled flat. Under unnatural conditions for sleep such as sleeping spells or being knocked out, the DC is automatically passed.

Death from Fucked Up Sleeping Habits exhaustion is not instant. After receiving the 6th point you become fevered, and if you are stabilised or healed within three hours, you regain 1 hit point and are unconscious until 24 hours pass. In this time, you can’t have nightmares, and will wake up with only 2 exhaustion points. Healing spells cast in a 3rd level spell slot or higher can revive you before 24 hours pass, but you will wake up with 4 exhaustion points.

[voidspirit]

[clotpole-art]

Retrospective: Illustrated Merlin Alphabet Challenge

Finally finished the Merlin Alphabet Challenge, so here's the artist notes no one asked for! See below the cut for comments on each piece by order of creation. Be warned folks, it's a long post.

Before we begin: credit to @merlin-gifs for the challenge, which can be found here. It's awesome, go do it.

First thing you should know is I did probably 80-90% of these while on phone calls or in Zoom meetings and that's reflected in the simplicity of most pieces -- the compositions aren't complicated, the lines aren't refined, the coloring is slapdash. If you noticed variation in quality of the pieces, that's why!

Second: I tried to focus on trying something new for each drawing. Didn't always happen, but this challenge did succeed in helping me push me out of my own comfort zone.

Without further ado...

A is for Arthur Pendragon

Textures, baby! Brushed metal of his armor, scratchy linen texture of his shirt, wispy softness of hair and skin. I'd recently gotten my tablet out of storage after a year of figuring out where the hell I was going to live and this was one of the first pieces of digital art I spent time on. Glad it was Arthur kicking us off!

B is for the Beginning of the End (1x08)

Fun fact, I did not draw this with my tablet. I drew it with my work computer's touchscreen. It was awful, would not recommend.

C is for Camelot

I wanted to get used to different brushes, so landscape of the castle it was! There are brushes that help with drawing grass; I did not use said brushes and my wrist hurt afterward. That being said, I really enjoyed working on this and it was one of the few pieces I didn't do while multitasking.

D is for Daegal

Also drawn on my work computer's touchscreen, not my tablet. I didn't learn my lesson from B and the experience was even worse. This is my least favorite piece which sucks because it's Daegal so I'm slated to redo this sometime in the near future. Gotta do our boy justice.

E is for Elyan

Oh, I adored drawing this. Elyan often gets shafted in terms of fandom appreciation so I made sure to choose Elyan for this prompt and to participate in the Elyan fest. Plus, I love a good ghost story and figuring out a way to include the druid spectre was fun. Didn't multitask on this piece because Elyan deserved my full attention.

F is for Freya

Ho boy. This piece. I have such mixed feelings on this drawing. Really really didn't like it after I'd decided it was done and very nearly scrapped the whole thing. I had a vision in my head that I just couldn't render into reality and it frustrated me SO MUCH. Looking back, I like it much better than I did when I first created it.

G is for Gwaine

What can I say, he's pretty when he's cold. I didn't stretch too much with this one -- it's my normal drawing style, I was just trying to find a brush that mimicked the softness of pencil.

H is for Hunith

Another one that didn't stray too far from my comfort zone. I was stupid sick and slammed at work, so a motherly Hunith manifested herself. I blame the bad brush choice on the cold medicine.

I is for Isolde

I woke up and chose violence! Tried to vary my figure drawing style a little in this piece but my brain resisted, resulting in... this. Not mad at it, but not happy with it either. Poor Isolde.

J is for Juggling

Ah, this lovely piece was drawn during a particularly vexing meeting at work. Fun fact, there's another version of this line art that's less about Merlin's stress and more about mine.

K is for Knights of Camelot

Continuing the theme of doodling through bad news and shit meetings. Like I said above, normally meeting doodles aren't complex because I'm concentrating on something else. This one was more involved because I didn't want to concentrate on the meeting. I have a few issues with this from a technical standpoint (perspective, my nemesis) but it's still one of my favorites. Tried some funky coloring technique, didn't hate it.

V is for Vibrant Colors

And here is where we said fuck the rules and started going out of alphabetical order! This one was really fun to do and I loved kicking off Albion Party with this as my first submission. The colors were a challenge (as I hoped they would be) and this is the first time I had to do some color tweaking midway though and after finishing the coloring process. Vibrant Arthur, my beloved. This started as a multitask doodle but took dedicated time to finish.

O is for Old Religion

The concept for this one was buzzing in my head for a bit before a quote-prompt solidified it. I adore the thought of more visible, tangible representations of Merlin as the son of the elements, of "magic itself" -- not just sun-gold eyes, but sea-water hair and sandstone-skin. A complement to the vibrant Arthur portrait.

S is for Sorcerers

When I said I wanted to challenge myself, I wasn't kidding. Ho boy, this was fun but frustrating. I wanted to completely illustrate a gif. So I did. Will I do something like this again? Maybe. A while from now.

M is for Morgause

See above -- same illustrated gif style so at least I was able to reuse some drawings. Poor Morgause ended up looking a little wretched here because I was mentally done with this when I was drawing her. Love the concept of tarot cards + Merlin but others are doing it so I won't continue this series.

Z is for Zzzz

This one was specifically done to test out some custom brushes I made in Krita to make abstract background drawing easier for me. I think they turned out well! Plus who doesn't love bb iridescent Aithusa.

L is for Leon, P is for Percival

Quick, minimal doodles of the boys! Mentally, I was going for a Brady's-style retro ensemble cast TV show credits feel. Not mad at it! Some boys look closer to their actors than others (I think my brain broke drawing Percy, my apologies to Tom Hopper).

T is for Tristan

It wasn't until after I posted this that I realized there was more than one Tristan in Merlin. Could have drawn Isolde's bf but I drew Ygraine's dumb jock undead brother instead. Had some fun with dark greys and blacks here regardless.

Q is for Queen Annis

Best royal in Albion, bar none. I tried a different coloring technique here and I kinda like it! may make it my go-to but we'll see. Old habits are hard to break. Also: our queen deserved more badass clothes.

X is for Arthur X Merlin

Oh, be still my shipper heart. Doodled and colored during a meeting. I had hoped to spend more time on it outside of multitasking but alas, work is a bitch. This one is slated for a rework sometime in the future; I adore the concept too much to let it go without creating another version of this that isn't an utter mess.

U is for Uther's Ward

And here's my attempt at forgoing line art. Not fun, do not like.

Y is for Young Warlock

Channeled some pain into this one. Those are the dead eyes of someone who had been told that he'd succeeded when his friend died. That the destiny he'd been expecting to carry on his shoulders into old age was done and dusted before he turned 30. Grief plus the existential dread of the aimless immortal. Oof. One of my favs.

N is for Nimueh, R is for Rising Sun, W is for Will

And we end on this sorry offering. I was away from home for a while without my tablet and I just got tired of waiting. So, pen doodles at the airport. This was a challenge in its own right because 1. pen only and 2. I wasn't able to pull Netflix up for a reference on the fly. Which is why Will's face is obscured and Nimueh looks.... not like Nimueh lol.

In summary: this was a goddamn joy to do. I finished 26 letter prompts in approximately 21 weeks, which exceeded my own unspoken goal of filling one letter per week. I found a good, happy corner of the Merlin fandom after a years-long hiatus away from being a fandom creator. If you did make it this far with me, thanks for reading my inane comments and giving this little project even a moment of your time -- I'm so grateful.

[inkblackfingers]

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 <3 (in no particular order, as always)

Here’s the more in depth post; obligatory spoiler warning.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Groot is adorable  He totally leashed how to dance from Peter Peter and gamora are totally mom and dad- rockets that weird cousin and drax is that uncle who you’re not sure how you’re related Nebula!!! Rocket baby darling Groot bb Peter’s abs oh my  Drax darling  The video game battle lol Rocket and Peter both saying they’re the best pilot lol  Hot potato with groot awww The fucking seatbelt Milano darling no I’m sorry I took it too far. I meant trash panda lololol I’m your dad Peter, star wars vibes anyone?  Howard the duck lol Wow Yondu, I wonder where Peter got it from Awwwww Yondu   How extra can a priestess be? Very Peter’s snark is totally genetic Whay are you doing?  Smiling Can i pet your puppy? Awwww Awwww groot  Mantis darling  Sleep lol can I have a Mantis please Rocket you’re a fucking genius Nebula it’s not ripe lol Oh my holy fuck the planet is gorgeous  He's a fucking celestial  Small g  brb dying So he is the fucking Planet.  Nice canon there Groot nooooooo Rocket baby Ouch nebula More a plus parenting yay (so I don’t actually remember whether I meant for this to apply to Thanos, Yondu, or Ego, but I think it was probably Thanos…. either way, it says quite a bit that I’m not sure) Nebula and Gamora are both what Azula (atla) could have been His dad geeking out over Peter’s new powers awwwwww (hindsight, just him being delighted to be able to take over the universe) Catch awwwwwww I'm a flea with a purpose, Mantis darling you deserve so much better It’s too adorable to kill groot bb noooo You might deserve this but i don’t rocket ily Groot bb how you even manage to get that desk?? Aww yeah arrows caw caw motherfuckers Groot you’re a badass, even bb Everyone laughing at taser face,  even priestess Fuck, all the feels  I know who you are because you’re me, awwww it’s like two dumpsters realizing that they have stuff in common awwwwee Fucking fuck fuck fuck I hoped that one father in all of marvel would be a good one…….i mean, I knew that it wasn't going to happen, but i hoped I know that sounds bad - immediately shoots him Oh course I have issues,  that’s my father- one of my fave lines The hissy fit the priestess had,  yes good I’m Mary Poppins y'all brb dying- runner up for fave line Pacman!!!!!! The funeral I’m crying  Awwwwww the hug Wait fuck that ravager funeral I’m crying  Groot yawning awwwww That was a fucking emotional roller coaster  The fucking arrow, Peter you adorable son Awwww arrow practice, I’m sorry Drax The I am Groot in the credits lolol Yay, original Guardians teamup!! Wait, so does this confirm that Stan Lee is a Watcher?? Teen!Groot lol Peter you’re getting back everything you gave to Yondu Wait, ADAM WARLOCK!!!?!?! YAAAASSS is he gonna be in infinity wars?? (the answer is no. adam will be in gotg3, but not infinity, which is good because that means even marvel has a limit on how many characters they can fit into a movie)

In conclusion, I loved this movie, and especially loved that Gamora didn’t just fall head over heels for Peter and that they’re actually a family. Also everything with Nebula broke my heart. Bb!Groot healed it. And then Yondu broke it all over again.