#fiddleford

[discofama]

I was scrolling through my fic drafts when I remembered this AU I was masterfully crafting a few months ago. I'll probably never finish writing it so I drew it so I can share it here to see if anyone gets my vision.

Basically, after the Axolotl thing, Bill revives in the past Gravity Falls taking the form of a cyclops kitten, and he is NOT happy about it. Ford, who just arrived and is ecstatic about the anomalies, finds him and takes him with him, giving him a name and everything (even if he's an absolute nightmare of a pet, destroying everything he can and being agressive). Bill wants to recover his old form and power or at least quit being a dumb house cat, so he realizes he can manipulate Ford again and use his investigation to discover some way out. The problem? He´s lost his infinite knowledge and can´t even write any human language, so he'll struggle to communicate with Ford.

And that´s pretty much all I had thought for it back then. It didn't get very far lmao. I guess my intention was to kind of redeem Bill like this, as that's what Axolotl revived him for. But yeah, that was the idea. It was going to be a mostly comedic fic with some developing friendship (my fav thing to write). It's a pity I'm awful at consistency.

[lesbianfiddleford]

he's just like me i understand him. Banjo player solidarity. (inspired by this :])

[godsfavoritescientist]

An as-of-yet unnamed AU where instead of being Ford's muse, Bill appears to Fiddleford and convinces him to build the portal.

The conversation in the last 2 images continues under the cut:

Fiddleford relaxed all at once, giving Ford a too-wide smile. Then, he opened his eyes one eyelid at a time. “You’ve been a real good friend! And I have a lot of friends, so that’s saying something!” He let out a short laugh. “You wanna know what I’m working on? It’s something that’s gonna usher in an era of world peace! You might not believe it, but no one else would believe you if you told them you’ve just uncovered an ancient alien crash site, would they now? So be a pal and suspend your disbelief!”

Ford felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There was something… something he couldn’t put his finger on… something that flashed in the corner of his eye…

Ford swallowed. “Okay. It’s religious project. But what is it?”

Fiddleford threw a casual arm around Ford. “I think it’ll be easier if I show you!”

~

They walked down a corridor lined wall to wall, floor to ceiling with computers running endless calculations. They bathed the whole room in flickering green light, as words scrolled rapidly across screen after screen after screen, their glowing surfaces reflecting in Fiddleford’s glasses as he walked ahead of Ford, with a confidently uncoordinated stride that made Ford wonder if he was drunk. Ford glanced at the screens, catching bits and pieces of words as Fiddleford rushed by in the black-and-green light. “Probability of Event 4.23A, Probability of Event 23.652C, Probability of Event 1.9C…” dozens of numbers that looked like coordinates… thousands of statistical probability equations being run over and over again…

Fiddleford punched in a seven-digit code on the front of a huge metal door at the end of the corridor. When he swung it open, it revealed a room that looked like something out of a movie, or a nightmare. He stood before a sea of gigantic red raising platforms that Fiddleford effortlessly jumped around on, inputting some kind of code based on the symbols on the squares, until the moving platforms went still.

They moved on into a simple, warmly-lit room with coat racks full of red robes lining the walls, and foam mats stacked in the corner with eyes embroidered on them.

And then, at last, they entered what appeared to be their destination. This room was gigantic, and frigidly cold. The walls and floors were all made of metal. And at the center of the room, a machine towered over them. It was part metal and part unfinished scaffolding. A huge upside-down triangle with a hole in the middle of it, like a great big maw.

Fiddleford gestured at it with a grin. “My magnum opus! A portal directly to god.”

[zephrunsimperium]

Things I found on Pinterest that give me Pines Boys Vibes Part II

Ford:

Stan:

Bonus FiddAuthor:

[berrybanana-arts]

Inspired by this post I reblogged the other day! I’ve not drawn Fiddleford before but this was fun!

Sorry, there mayyyyy be a lack of art for a little while! Not sure if anyone saw but the eager eyed amongst you who checked out our Carrd mayyy have noticed that I and @mysteryhackin released an interest check for a zine we’re working on! ;)))) (@gf-seasons-zine for anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about! Please fill out our interest check and reblog if you haven’t already!)

All of my spare art time is currently going on graphics and planning the budget so we can deliver you the best zine ever! <3

Thank you VERY much to those who nominated me as an artist though! I was super touched 🥺💕

-Berry

[magicalbunbun]

Stanley showing his new home to others since he haves a rich (and powerful dream demon) parent.

[balesdoesart]

💥It's Fiddleford Friday💥

[yourfriendlyengineer]

ART BY @yqqug

"Get in the Eva, Fiddleford!"

[ikisslamps]

I love redrawing old art instead of making anything new

[liese-the-beast]

Have an example of Fiddleford putting his best buddy in his place 👏👏👏

[koralin-evilcry]

Happy Pride Month!!!🎉🏳️‍🌈✨ I swear this is the gayest thing I have ever drawn.

[ecruvianfancontent]

FIDDLEFORD PSA!!!!!!

OKAY, THIS HAS BEEN DRIVING ME ABSOLUTELY BONKERS FOR A WHILE NOW.

Dear Fiddleford McGucket fanartists:

First of all: draw how you want. The following is not intended to be judgmental, just educational. <3

On to business:

Here is how you fingerpick a banjo.

This is three-finger. There are more styles, but this is how I play. (I did not include fingerpicks because Fidds doesn't use them in the show and they're a pain to draw; you can also play just fine without them, although they are useful.)

Fingerpicking is usually done on a five-string banjo. Old Man McGucket's theme sounds like it's fingerpicked to me. Please note that your pinky and ring finger are planted on the banjo itself, next to the strings.

The first two images are to show posture, the third image is what it would look like to draw:

When I'm just holding my banjo and not playing it, my pinky and ring finger just naturally rest this way because it's comfy.

Here is how you play clawhammer style.

This is just an approximation; I almost never play clawhammer. The big thing is that your fingers curl in in a "claw" and you pick with your thumb.

Here are the tuning pegs on a five-string banjo.

In the show, Fiddleford has a four-string banjo, not five-string. (We see two banjos; they are both four-string.) Honestly, that surprised me. I'm not sure what the folk scene looked like in the 80s, but most players you see today have five-strings, so I think they were just streamlining the design.

A four-string banjo has four tuning pegs at the top, like any other instrument. The fifth tuning peg is about a third of the way down the neck.

BONUS: Nobody gets into this much detail, but clever eyes will notice that the string widths look funny. If you have played a bass or guitar, you're used to the top string being lowest and thickest, the bottom string - which is the "first" string - being highest and thinnest. A four string banjo is tuned like this, but with a five-string banjo, the fifth string is the same diameter as the first.

Anyway, there are plenty of great banjo video and image tutorials on the internet if you want to get into the weeds, but I got the impression that a lot of you have literally never seen a banjo being played often enough to even realize how different it is from a guitar. Some people absolutely do strum banjos like guitars - in fact, I think that's more common with four-strings - but the McGucket music we hear is very obviously not being strummed.

There! Now you may freely choose to draw his hand however you want to, and it won't be from a place of ignorance. <3

(Oh, one last thing: that round thing that comprises the body of the banjo is literally just a drum. Drumming it is fun. You can and should draw Fiddleford tapping his banjo with the tips of his fingers like I do.)

[siriuslyart]

The whole time I was doodling this I kept thinking “DESTROY IT!” over and over in my head. Lol

[cutebatart]

[zephrunsimperium]

I bring good tidings of memes.

[jheselbraum]

I think as much as we all like to think that Bill "here kid have some deer teeth" Cipher was actually literally a perfect gentleman to Ford and that's how he successfully conned him for so long, it's important to remember that Ford's only other friend is an actual literal scooby doo villain and cult leader. I feel like we forget about that aspect of Fiddleford's personality a lot, that he successfully founded a cult and the only reason he's not still leading that cult is because he literally forgot about it. Like the cult's still going strong here. So maybe next time we look at Ford's study and go "haha, silly Ford, purchasing a variety of artifacts with your "friend's" face on them isn't normal! Bill must be some kind of master manipulator to pull one over on you like that!" we should remind ourselves of the fact that Ford spent the 70s rooming with d-list supervillain Fiddleford McGucket and thus he maybe isn't, like, the best metric for judging whether someone's like, super conniving and a master of deceit deception and doublecrossing.