writingutensilthief

[writingutensilthief]

Water reflection.

A piece I did in one sitting to play with my art program a little, Rita seeing her monster form appear in the water.

When I started drawing this I intended it to be symbolic, but the idea of it being literal and her monster form actually appearing in reflections in water intrigues me as well.

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Gothabilly swing.

Strawna and Blanche in Gothabilly inspired fashion. My initial idea was to draw just Blanche, but then I figured that the style could work with Strawna too and decided to make it a full Canon/OC piece.

I decided to tweak Strawna's design a teensy bit and get rid of her eyelashes, since I've never liked how they came out when I've drawn her in the past. It also gave me a reason to draw her without her hat for once.

The second version of the piece included here has them in their regular outfits.

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Got into a new interest in the past few weeks, which threw off my art game. So while I'm getting back into the swing of things, take this design sketch of an OC for that new interest, DC Comics's 1973 comic Prez: First Teen President.

Her name is Sugar Paxton, and she's a senator affiliated the Flower Party. Her main goal as a senator is to make her home state look better on a national stage, and she spends most of her time either reporting what the Flower Party thinks to the president or trying to play mediator between the older senators and her fellow youths.

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The results of the third week of my personal "trying to sketch my OCs everyday for a month" challenge. Didn't get as many sketches done this week as I did in previous weeks but I did get a couple.

In order: Another design update for Eve and another Maddie doodle.

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HEY LADY! If yer a lawyer, how come ya ain't with us Rottens? I'll have you know that not all lawyers are unscrupulous. I joined this profession to help people. Must be why they gave 'er the boot.

Another comic with a Laff-a-Lympics OC, this time with Fiona, two of the Rottens, and a classic "lawyers are evil" joke.

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The results of the second week of my personal "trying to sketch my OCs everyday for a month" challenge.

In order: a doodle of Missy, a rough half-body design for new fankid Charity Chan, rough headshot designs for new fankids Lizzy and Molly Chan, a headshot of Strawna, and a rough (mostly) full-body design for new fankid Diana Blake-Decade.

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I've been saving my snacks for you, Uncle Square! Two months worth of tomatoes and peanuts and cotton candy! Well, ain't you sweet.

Minnie and her Uncle Square sharing a snack - she makes sure to save leftover circus food for him.

Since she's also a Help! ... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! OC, I figured I should draw her with one of those characters, and that drawing her with her biological uncle would be the best place to start.

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I'm attempting a personal challenge this month where I sketch something with my OCs every day, so here are the results of the first week.

In order: a design update for Minnie, a rough design for new OC Mabel Dahl, a design update for Eve, Moon and Rocket having a conversation, a sketch showing Moon's full design, a Maddie doodle, and a Fiona doodle.

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Strawna and her pet cat (that I haven't come up with a name for yet). She isn't able to bring her cat with her to Gravedale, but she does have one.

I included a second version of the picture with the cat in a little hat and sweater, since Strawna makes clothes for it to wear whenever it gets cold.

Reference image I used for the pose under the cut:

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Another piece about what it would be like if Rita appeared in "The Perilous Plunder of Pirate's Park", since that's the episode I can imagine her fitting in the best.

This episode would allow her to actually use her monster abilities given all of the water, but alas, she would still get outshone by the seal in the end. Better luck next time, Rita.

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Drew Rita into a screenshot from the Drak Pack episode "The Perilous Plunder of Pirate's Park", complete with her own pirate disguise to match the boys and trying to mimic the show's style.

Original screenshot under the cut:

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Wanted to make myself an animated icon for my Deviantart account, so I spent the afternoon making these Maddie gifs.

My favorite is probably either the first one or the last one.

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Been working on some OC design changes recently, so I traced a couple of Speed Buggy screenshots to give myself a visual reference for them.

Top image is of Duane and Missy traced from an image of Mark and Debbie. Missy's changes can't really be seen here due the piece being only chest up, but some of Duane's can be seen (the color swap of his turtleneck + vest and giving him an earring).

Bottom image is of Rocket traced from an image of Tinker. Really the only change he had was making him a strawberry blonde instead of a redhead, since that was always my intention for him. I also included a second version of the piece with the colors a bit desaturated to match the background better.

Original images I traced from under the cut:

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Gee Mr. Yogi, you sound just like my uncle Hair! We-e-ell. He should feel honored to sound like me!

Wanted to do something with one of my other Hanna-Barbera fan characters, so here's a little comic with Minnie, team captain Yogi, and a good ol' fashioned voice actor joke.

Note that she's referring to Hair Bear as her "uncle" here as a sign of affection, as biologically speaking she's actually Square Bear's niece.

[writingutensilthief]

Femslash February 2024 - Dress

Fandom: Gravedale High Ship: Blanche/OC Summary: Strawna uses a school assignment as a reason to finally talk to her crush. Word count: 1,359 Author's Note: I decided to pick up this prompt challenge again instead of starting any new October challenges, so hopefully I'll get a couple more Canon/OC pieces done for it this month.

Strawna was feeling the fear with this latest school assignment - a group project with vague instructions.

She sat at one of the back cafeteria tables re-reading the directions. Pair up with a student from another class to create something, she read to herself. You and your partner will have a month to complete your project, and after that you will present it and an explanation about the creation process to the school.

On the back of the sheet was sketches she'd made of dresses she felt she could sew together within that timeframe, so that was not what was making her nervous. It was finding someone to partner with that was getting to her.

Strawna looked over longingly at one of the other tables. Sitting on the end was the girl who had caught her attention at one of Ms. Dirge's art shows weeks before with her gorgeous homemade dress.

Blanche. Beautiful Blanche. The girl who makes the all-black look work and who rises above the reputation of the rest of her classmates.

It would be lovely to have Blanche as a partner, Strawna mused to herself. Blanche's eye for fabric would give me ideas I've never considered before. Blanche's sewing skills could come in handy if my sewing starts to slip. Blanche could be the one to model the dress as it gets presented...

But then doubts began to creep in. Someone like Blanche must be working with someone already, Strawna thought. Or if not, there must be a line of people wanting to ask her.

"I'm not concerned about the project," Blanche stated to her friends. "Ladies don't chase."

"Yeah, but ladies do get assigned to loser jocks who make them do all the work if they don't pick someone by the deadline," Duzer argued back.

"It's really not that bad, Blanche," Cleo agreed. "If it comes down to it, you can always bully someone into working with you like Duzer did."

"You say that like it's a bad thing-."

Blanche dismissed both of her friends with a wave. "If you girls wish to embarrass yourselves you can. Someone will be along any minute to ask me."

If Strawna really was going to ask Blanche to partner with her it needed to be soon; the deadline for picking someone was the end of the day. Why am I hesitating, Strawna questioned herself, trying to get back into her earlier positive mindset. Working with Blanche would be a good thing!

The internal pep talk was enough to get her to stand up and take a step away from her table and towards Blanche's.

The next steps didn't come as easily. Strawna already walked slow, but the emotions she was feeling - the excitement about talking to Blanche, the nervousness about what might happen if she did, the concern about the project itself - only exasperated her usual pace. Getting one foot in front of the other was all she could do, and she hoped she wasn't drawing attention to herself.

Blanche spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and glanced towards it. She didn't recognize the student coming towards her nor was she sure how to take the stare she was getting.

She looked back at her friends to gauge their reactions. It was what she expected them to be, unease from Cleo and suspicion from Duzer.

Once again glancing at the student coming towards her, Blanche noted that she didn't really seem like a threat. She then noticed a familiar piece of paper in her hands and decided to take a third view of the situation, curiosity.

Strawna finally reached Blanche's table. She tilted her pupils down at Blanche so she knew she was there to see her specifically, but before she could say anything-

"Can I help you?" Blanche asked with her usual Southern charm.

The way she spoke was music to Strawna's ears. It would have stopped her in her tracks if she was moving and could have made her cry if there weren't so many other things on her mind. To hear such a familiar way of talking from anyone at this school was delightful enough, but from Blanche?

That, and the way Blanche was looking at her expectantly with those soft, dark eyes, got Strawna to tear open her mouth and say something.

"Do you wanna work with me on the assignment?"

Blanche crinkled her nose in mild disappointment. It's presumptuous to just ask, she thought, certainly someone who sounds like that would know.

Strawna noticed this reaction and fortunately already knew how to correct her mistake.

"Oh! My manners!" She held out her hand. "I'm Strawna. I'm in Mr. Tutnor's class."

That's better, Blanche thought as she relaxed her face and took Strawna's hand, not to shake it but to pull herself up so she could make proper eye contact. "Blanche. Pleasure."

"Pleasure indeed." Strawna tilted her pupils back up to match Blanche's eye line and let her hand linger under Blanche's for just a moment more. A wave of relief washed over her.

"I was thinkin'," she then continued, pulling her hand away from Blanche's and flipping over the instruction sheet to show her sketches on the back, "we could sew something together for the project?"

She let Blanche pluck the paper out of her hands to look over. "I remember seein' you during the art show, and that dress you made was real pretty." Strawna subconsciously ran a finger over one of her wrist stitches. "I can sew too, so maybe you an' I can make a dress together? You wouldn't even have to use your own materials if you don't wanna, I have some of my own-."

Blanche was too focused on the sketches to respond. From the way the drawings were laid out she could tell Strawna was telling the truth about knowing how to sew, so she likely wouldn't have to do all the work if she agreed to the partnership. But the designs were so basic, just some pleat dresses with plaids and polka dots for patterns.

She peered at Strawna to judge her reaction to the silence. She was still staring at her, but with no malice behind her eyes. It seemed to give off more than just a polite patience, too, something more friendly. Whatever it was, it perked Blanche's interest.

"These dresses aren't quite my style," she at last replied, handing the sheet back to Strawna, "so we would need to use one of my designs for the project."

Strawna was surprised Blanche agreed so quickly. She couldn't think of a reply, so she just nodded in agreement and started folding up the paper to hide away in her pocket. But her nerves suddenly returned and made her hands fumble, so she crumpled it into her pocket instead.

Blanche covered her mouth to hide her chuckle. That was kind of cute, she thought.

"I guess we can let our teachers know that we're workin' on the project together," Strawna said, composing herself again. "Do you wanna meet after school to pick a design?"

"No," Blanche disagreed, titling her head thoughtfully. "I'll have to get my sketchbooks first. I'll bring them to school tomorrow, and we can meet up in the afternoon."

"Okay, I can bring some of my fabric with me tomorrow too. I'll see you then."

With that Strawna turned to start her slow walk back to her own table, her mood and pace increased. Blanche agreed, she cheered internally. She's spending time with me, for a whole month! Her face felt hot from the excitement.

Blanche watched her leave for a few seconds, then sat back down and looked towards her friends, a slight grin on her face. "I told you someone would ask me first."

She got an annoyed "humph" from Duzer and a confused look from Cleo.

"Don't you keep a sketchbook in your locker?" Cleo asked. "You don't need to wait."

"Why, do you think I'm desperate?" Blanche asked back, placing her hand on her chest. "Desperation is beneath me. Ladies leaving them wanting more."

That, and she kept all her best designs at home.

[writingutensilthief]

In a Mood

Summary: Dr. Dred decides to check in on one of his rivals in an attempt to feel superior to someone. Or, Eve L. Scientist's evening is about to get even more irritating. An OC-focused Drak Pack one-shot. Word count: 1,696

The battered Dredgible returned to Drednought Island after another failed outing. At landing its door fell off the hinges, saving Dr. Dred the hassle of kicking it down himself.

"Have the Dredgible fixed before I get back," Dr. Dred snapped to his underlings, "Or you'll-. I'll-. Forget it!". He waved them off and then stormed inside.

He went straight into the monitor room and up to the giant screen, jabbing a finger towards his reflection. "Dr. Dred is not a failure!" he declared. "My inventions are the vilest things in the field of villainy! My intellectual inferiors beg to be as successful as me! I could look at any of them right now and see their failures firsthand-!"

He paused for a second and then smirked.

Dr. Dred turned on the monitor and accessed the internal video system he had installed in it. Skipping over his usual cameras in Pack Headquarters and Count Dracula's tomb, he started flipping through the ones he had placed where rival scientists and inventors resided. Certainly, he reasoned to himself, someone was currently failing in their plans and could give him a much-needed laugh.

Eve L. Scientist was indeed having a rough evening.

She stood in her greenhouse lab, a scowl on her face and a pounding in her head. She had planned for a simple test - to see if an altered ray gun could send her controlling pollen a farther distance than her own touch could - and had planned for it well. She had picked an older ray gun model so her daughter would have prior experience with it. She had set up the machine in the middle of the lab so it could reach as many plants as possible. And as she knew would happen, the neighbor girl had shown up that afternoon and made herself a target for it.

She had not accounted for the ray gun backfiring the moment the trigger was pulled, sending her daughter and the neighbor girl stumbling backwards and scattering the pollen everywhere.

Eve held up her hand, signaling her desire to skip straight to the results section of the experiment. She tried not to let the crashing noises her hyper-pollenated helper vines were making annoy her further.

One of the helper vines was finally able to find the tape recorder and dropped it into Eve's hand.

She immediately started the tape. "This is Eve L. Scientist. It is approximately six forty-five in the evening of the fourteenth of January, nineteen-"

Loud blaring noises from her computer, followed by smacks from the helper vines trying to turn the machine off, interrupted her. She pinched the bridge of her nose and dismissed it as her plants still acting up.

"Today's test resulted in an unexpectedly quick failure," she continued, "as the altered ray gun exploded the moment the trigger was pulled. It would be both unnecessary and unwise to continue putting resources towards this ray gun design, so I have decided to declare it a failure and use a different design going forward. I will need to investigate further to see if it was pure mechanical mistakes or if user error was also involved."

Eve took a second to sigh and shake her head, trying to regain some composure. She then straightened herself back out. "In terms of positive results, the controlling pollen was successful in enhancing the plants capabilities, but perhaps to a level that would be difficult to maintain. My helper vines are working to assist me with limited prompting. Further-."

Her eyes scanned over the rest of the chaos in front of her, landing on her daughter first. "The defensive plants went to work without any input from me-"

Maddie appreciated the aloe plants that came to cushion her fall and attend to the scrapes she got from the explosion, but the ones that attached to her skeletal leg and fingers made her shake and fuss in frustration.

"And the offensive ones have done the same," Eve continued, her eyes now on the neighbor girl.

Rita dodged one of the pouncing ivies and lead the rest into the room's water feature, then patiently waited for the plants to float back to the top waterlogged.

"Unfortunately, the increased amount of pollen has not seemed to increase the intelligence the plants display."

"A lack of intelligence is be expected, Evie!" a voice rang out from behind her, followed by an obnoxious cackle. "They're your plants!"

Eve shut off her tape recorder and whirled around to see who interrupted her.

Dr. Dred's face filed the screen, laughing at her. "Nothing like watching someone completely and utterly fail to improve your mood."

He pulled back from the screen to reveal that he had pulled up a chair to watch the chaos unfold, his mood improved so much that he decided to lean back in it and prop up his feet for an extra level of disrespect. "I must say, the suffering children is a nice touch."

Rita had gone back to help the still-struggling Maddie get the excess aloe plants off her, but a new wave of ivy sent her back to the water.

Eve put the tape recorder in her pocket, thought to herself how this situation was having the opposite effect on her mood, and then finally responded to his initial comments.

"My plants have greater intelligence than the creatures you associate with. And that's Eve to you, Mister Dred."

"That's Doctor Dred to you!"

"I do not acknowledge fake doctorates."

"The fool that paid for hers wouldn't."

Eve already felt the conversation exhausting her. "For what do I owe the displeasure, Dred?" she sighed.

"Oh, is your hearing failing too?" Dr. Dred's smugness grew. "I'm here to see your frustration firsthand! To delight in your defeat! To bask the in glory of being superior to someone-!"

"A rare experience for you I am sure," Eve interrupted, "and certainly not one that is occurring right now."

"Is it not?" Dr. Dred put his feet down and lead forwarded again, hoping that his grin was getting under her skin. "I see those little leaves of yours can't even turn off this screen."

A portion of the helper vines were indeed still fruitlessly smacking the computer, but the rest had returned to their resting positions awaiting instruction.

If Eve was paying proper attention, she would have stopped the conversation to record that the hyper-pollination was starting to wear off. But Dr. Dred and his self-satisfied grin was getting to her.

"They are trying to hide your hideous face."

"Flattery won't cover up your pathetic performance here," Dr. Dred mocked. "Why, you can't even make a ray gun work!" He then placed a hand on his cheek to feign sympathy. "You should have known a model like that would be futile to use. It's almost sad that you didn't."

"What is sad is that you do not understand the importance of experimentation," Eve snapped back. "A researcher with any level dignity would follow scientific protocols. But I suppose you do not have any of that, do you?"

Dr. Dred again leaned back in his chair. "Again with the flattery, Eve. I appreciate you trying to maintain my good mood."

Eve opened her mouth to retort, but then her self-awareness - and the pounding in her head - returned with a vengeance. She decided to take a breath to steady herself instead. This kind of banter was why she rarely conversed with her fellow villainous inventors.

But Dr. Dred lived for it. "Is there something you wanted to say?" he prodded. "Did you have retort that would get me to leave you alone to suffer your defeat in silence?"

Eve held her head for a minute to think, ignoring the snickering coming from Dr. Dred. She then looked directly at the monitor. "No. I just wanted to share a theory with you."

"To explain your failures?"

"To explain yours." Eve leaned forward and pointed a finger at the screen. "I theorize that the reason you do not adhere to scientific protocol is because you are too stupid and impulsive to do so. These impulses are why your inventions consistently get destroyed by a pack of children, and I hazard a guess that exact situation happened to put you in a bad mood enough to interrupt me."

Her comment earned Eve a glower from Dr. Dred, which she chose to take as her winning the bickering match. "You can ponder that as you get off my monitor."

She looked down to find the switch to turn off the computer, only to notice that her helper vines had finally dispersed. She turned to see if they went back to their resting positions, only to instead see her daughter and the neighbor girl watching her. She quickly deduced they had been waiting on her acknowledgment but was too embarrassed by them seeing her engaging in a petty squabble with her intellectual inferior to respond right away.

Ignoring the strange man on the screen that Ms. Scientist had been arguing with, Rita turned to Maddie. "Will I see you at school tomorrow?"

"No," Eve answered for her, trying to sound unfazed. "She will be home tomorrow working on new ray gun designs. And she will be spending the rest of this evening cleaning up the lab."

"Yes ma'am," Rita nodded politely. She took that as a cue she would be allowed to leave, but before going gave a sympathetic glance to Maddie. "I'll see you after school tomorrow, Maddie."

Maddie had also decided it was time to make her exit and went back towards the lab to begin her chores.

As the girls left Dr. Dred got the literal last laugh and finally disconnected from the computer, giving Eve the promised alone time.

Eve stood in silence for another minute, parsing through everything that had happened and letting her bruised ego simmer. Her mind eventually landed back onto the experiment, the failure that had started the evening off, getting her to fish the tape recorder back out of her pocket. She needed to finish her report.

"This is Eve L. Scientist. It is approximately seven fifteen in the evening-"

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Some sketches for slight resdesigns for Rita and Strawna.

Main changes are that I gave Rita a darker skin tone in her human form and gave Strawna a Jack-o-Lantern style mouth when it's opened.