#sand on the soul

[shepscapades]

Souls in the Sand: Concept Art

As I’ve mentioned here and there, I’ve spent the last two years developing an original story inspired by a small Origins+Empires server a few friends and I started planning. The more I developed plans for my empire to be a sprawling overgrown cityscape of ruins and stone framework inspired by the nether, the more I built up this backstory for the character I wanted to play, a small deerfolk boy named Esra. From there, and over months of working and reworking the story and its characters, I’m proud to say I’m coming up on a 100 piece gallery for my Masters Exhibition to display this story in the form of a song-inspired comic, titled: Souls in the Sand.

Over the next month and beyond the date of my exhibition in April, I wanted to start sharing my work here! I thought it would be fitting to first share all of the concept work I did for the characters last semester as I took each character from their old lineup and reworked them from scratch to see if there were any designs I could make more unique or appropriate for the story. This process consisted of four stages: silhouettes, full-body mock-ups, face and head shapes/designs, and experimenting with the final characters’ designs with a set of unique expressions that best fit their personalities and narrative role.

Since each character was reworked separately, the “new” concept lineup is a little disjointed (and some of the characters’ faces actually ended up different from their full-body designs), but I thought it would be fun to line them up to compare the overall cast to their old designs. With each character(s) I post the concept process for, I may share little bits of the work I’m doing or talk a little about their narrative roles as I go, but for now, have Esra!

I know I don’t post original work here often, but I wanted to share parts of this journey with you guys because it’s been very meaningful to me! And I hope all of the work I’ve been doing may at the very least serve as a bit of inspiration or encouragement for us to keep making silly minecraft stories, to keep drawing the characters we love, and to keep being creative in whatever way is meaningful! <3

[cosmerelists]

Can You Lick the Investiture?

As requested by anon. :)

There's a post on tumblr somewhere that asks, "can you lick the science?" And it's like: geology-yes, physics-how?, chemistry-DO NOT, etc. So now we're going to ask the all-important licking question of investiture. So...can you lick the investiture?

1. Starmark (White Sand)

Do not lick a person's Starmark without consent! Got consent? Go wild, I guess!

2. AonDor (Elantris)

The Elantrian who has just drawn the glowing Aon may not want you to lick it, but it won't harm the Aon in any way--and don't you want to know if it makes your tongue tingle?

3. Surgebinding (Stormlight Archive)

What are you licking exactly?? You can lick the gems, I suppose, and you can lick some spren, but only if they want you to. If you are trying to draw in Stormlight, then I don't think licking is the right move. Seriously. Stop licking the gems. It's getting weird.

3. Forgery (The Emperor's Soul)

Ha ha! Lick that stamp all you want! Feels real, doesn't it?

4. Bloodsealing (The Emperor's Soul)

DO NOT LICK THE BLOODSEAL

5. ChaySan (Elantris)

Good luck! The practitioner is leaping all around, constantly in motion. Can your pitiful tongue really keep up?

6. Allomancy (Mistborn)

Hell, yeah! You should definitely lick those metals!

7. Hion (Yumi & The Nightmare Painter)

Honestly, I bet those hion lines and hion lights look like a delicious forbidden treat. You should lick them.

8. Feruchemy (Mistborn)

People do not want you to lick their jewelry, generally speaking. Is it YOUR jewelry, though? Then lick away.

9. Hemalurgy (Mistborn)

S-Stop it! That's a dead human! The spike is very gross as well, PLEASE do not lick it!

10. Awakening (Warbreaker)

Can you lick someone's Breath? I don't think so. Can you lick an Awakened object? Yes, but depending on what it is, could be risky. Can you lick a god? Yes, and they might be into it.

11. Dakhor (Elantris)

I think you will be killed.

12. Old Magic (Stormlight Archive)

I would not recommend licking the Nightwatcher. Or Cultivation. They may alter the deal.

13. Sandmastery (White Sand)

T-That's one way to get water, I guess. But licking sand? I don't think you'd enjoy it.

14. Aether (Tress & The Emerald Sea)

NOOOO YOU WILL KILL US ALL

[whoishotteranimepolls]

"Who's Hotter?" Anime Redheads

[theylovevenus]

Sand Sibs X Soul Eater

[moltengoldveins]

so we can all agree that the newest 2WEI song (take the crown) is the trailer song for an Antarctic Empires Emerald Duo pg14 movie where Techno is a gladiator who earned his freedom and has vowed to destroy the government that enslaved him and Philza is an old demigod banished to a solitary plane of existence for five decades after attempting to run a coup against the ruling class.

They meet on a battlefield, Techno having joined up as brute muscle and Phil having used some minor illusions to pass as a quirky avian and join the bombardment team. Combining some similar plot beats as Oceans 11 and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, they gather a specialized team of insurrectionists, anarchists, battle mages, and warriors to take down the imperium from the inside, eventually planning on restoring the nation to the democracy it was in Phil’s earliest memories. But will they manage it, or will their bloody pasts and violent present seat Technoblade on the throne as the Antarctic Emperor, with Philza as his right hand, the Angel of Death? (Spoiler, the second option. It’s the most controversial film finale decision of the decade.)

The movie is filmed in a style somewhere between Dune 1, the Prince of Egypt, and Topgun. (denis villeneuve is too busy and too expensive, but it’s clear they’re taking inspiration. Bold colors and lighting and a lot of shots of the sky, wildlife, architecture, or of characters’ hands.) It’s scored by an up and coming indie musician, working under the consultation of Ludwig Gorannson in his spare time as a pet project, though his association with the film doesn’t really come out until it Smashes the expected theatre income in the first two days of release and critics start Raving about it. Techno’s actor is nominated for an Oscar for one of the most compelling intricate portrayals of ptsd and platonic devotion in modern cinema, but doesn’t actually get the Oscar.

Tumblr is flooded with gif sets of Techno in the Obligatory No Armor After Gladiator Fight Scene and the Late Night Vibing With Phil In A Loose Poet Shirt scene (firelit, lots of closeups of his eyes, the film is obviously attempting to express his complex emotional state and his deep relationship with Phil, and is failing miserably at doing Anything but making him hot. The internet is ✨gay✨ about it, because when is the internet not?) Also most of the simps are calling Phil a dilf.

Fit MC is the fan-favorite side character, his four scenes and nine lines of dialogue are clipped and edited and giffed and memed into the dirt. (His armor and prosthetic, the makeup and costuming department say, were the hardest thing to do in the entire film, which is why he isn’t in too many shots.) Though, a close second is Niki, who is played by a woman built like a brick house who doesn’t wear sleeves, so…. Yeah. We all know what the response is there. The effects, including Phil’s wings, are almost entirely practical and the only real places it gets iffy is Steve, the giant war polar bear that’s pretty clearly clipping through a few snowbanks here and there. Nobody can agree on which characters are morally reprehensible.

Within a few years, very few people outside a dedicated fan base have seen it and a few assume it’s made up like Goncharov. It’s also, for some ungodly reason, been labeled a Christmas film. (most of the plot happens in the ice and snow, hence ‘Antarctic Empire.’) I guess nothing says ‘Christmas spirit’ quite like ‘unmitigated violence, platonic yearning, and overthrowing oppressors.’

[lostsoulsparadise]

Lost Souls Paradise | Instagram

[randomtextxx]

do you see banana man?

[cairafea]

the primordial desire to fight a krill is at the top of maslow’s hierarchy of needs

[artsy-book]

my first attack on @shepscapades ^-^

I was originally going to do a more sketchy drawing of esra but then I was hit with the fact that I can just make a poster type drawing so I had to do that ^-^

Idk why I had the idea to put him in a sand snowglobe but I love how it looks so much ^-^ and I love the more limited colour pallet so much!

and I didn't know what I was gonna do in the sky cause I originally was thinking about it in like a daylight setting but then realized that I could make it a night sky and have the stars SPELLING OUT SOULS IN THE SAND!!! ^-^ I wasn't sure how well it would look but I think it looks just how I imagined it!! ^-^

[shepscapades]

My profile is finally set up for art fight!!! Come fight me >:3

[calamitydawning]

they are the same to me

[natduskfall]

Today is the second time I read online that Rosalinda, Mr Sand's love, died by being burned at the stake.

I think they changed her cause of death in the second edition of The Legend Awakens.

Source:

Now there are two causes of death for her i guess.

[mintbees]

watching hermitcraft for the first time in months and almost brought to tears by the divinely inspired block choices in this marsh swamp goodtimeswithscar has created

[cauls-antique-pepperbox-pistol]

OH OH speaking of Nim (again)

I LOOOVE that the ymbrynes took Nim on a boating trip/to the beach. Poor guy deserves it

[bird-inacage]

Only Friends Episode 4 | "You're Ray. You are the brightness. You are a ray of sunshine."

This episode broke my heart. This was such a beautiful and devastating peek into who Ray really is and why he is. I have so much to talk about from this episode on Ray alone.