Trying To Get More Comfortable With My Natural Way Of Drawing And Not Fuss With Too Much Over Making

For once me procrastinating on something has worked out in my favor.

Decided to make multiple versions, each based to varying degrees on the official illustrations, the TV show design, and my own headcanons. Now I just have to figure out where I put the third one and decide what to do with it.

And yes, the lip oil is still in there.

My friend @arrowawsome has been playing the Sims 4 and been keeping me updated on the goings on of its virtual neighborhoods. Of course, I feel in love with its space-loving romantic bi-gender bookworm sim and just had to draw him.

The character’s name is Eevee Zelda and has the pronouns she/him.

Just playing around with brushes and color.

[Image Description: A fat, dark-skinned person wearing glasses, dressed in a loose pink shirt and pants, and with their dark curly hair tied back in a bun is standing on a balcony, their back to the viewer. They are calmly viewing the row of forested hills in front of them and the sky that is bright and partly cloud. End of image description.] Wanted to practice drawing backgrounds, so I tried my hand at doing some hills and a daytime sky. The character was originally going to Matonne, but decided to draw Alex again instead.

My first ever ArtFight drawing. This one is of @summer--starz’s feline Kibibi. I have a soft spot for maned lionesses, so I immediately jumped on drawing her.

My much more proper ArtFight intro post

link to profile: https://artfight.net/~SpaceDuckling

Had some doctor’s visits that took me away from art, but I am back at it with JayeBirde’s a colorpoint kitty. Decided to play around with some color filters given how quick I pumped this one out.

[Image Description: A drawing of a person from the chest up. This person is smiling and has tan skin; short, black, curly hair; and large, dark brown eyes. They are wearing a multicolored, striped sweater. End of Image a Description.]

Finally managed to draw a new portrait of myself. It took a lot of time and work to figure out, and I am very proud of how it turned out. I’m especially proud of how the sweater turned out; I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to replicate the pattern of one of my favorite tops.

[Image Description: A drawing of a thin, long haired cat walking with his tail upright looking at the viewer. Above the full body image is a closeup picture of his face in front view and the word “Firestar” written in an orange cursive-like font. The cat has reddish orange striped feet, tail, ears, and face that fade to gold as they approach the main pale cream body. His eyes are teal green. The background is a solid pale green. End Of Image Description]

After years of not uploading, I have finally returned. So to get back into the swing of things, I’m going to draw as many Warrior cats as I can from the original series. Let’s see how things go.

When designing Firestar I wanted to really emphasize his connection with fire and take advantage of him being born a housecat. So I made him a flame point Balinese (or rather Javanese; most standards don’t consider red a valid color for that breed). I had to cheat quite a bit as even red sepia cats look pretty pale, and then there’s the matter of Firestar having green eyes while colorpoints can only have blue eyes. But regardless, I’m pretty proud of this pic.

Suburban Wyvern Wrangling

An intro I wrote over a year ago for a story I’ll likely never get around to continuing, at least not for a long while. I’m still pretty proud of this though so, thought I might as well post it. (And yes, I know the title sucks.)

Chasing after a dragon in the edge of town was the last thing Latisha wanted to be doing at 9pm.

She could be resting at home, watching some adorable parrot videos on her phone, but no, she just had to get a call from her boss telling her how there had been sightings of a cat-sized, lizard bat soaring over Minchester Park. She could be driving to her job’s local office to drop off the creature, but no, it just had to be a skittish wild dragon, rather than a more approachable domesticated one. She could be tackling the reptile to the ground right now, but no, it just had to be a British wyvern, one of the swiftest species out there. How in the world did a British wyvern even get to central Indiana? At least it was a dwarf species. But then again, if it were any larger, then a fully-equipped cryptid-catching team would have been called in to capture the beast instead of a single woman in an old hoodie.

Well, fuck then.

But Tish didn’t have time to dwell on that any further. She had to focus on catching up to the beast while maneuvering between lamp posts and flowering trees. She swerved around a picnic table, not taking her eyes off the dragon for even a second. This creature was fast, remaining a few strides ahead of her, and it didn’t show any signs that it would be landing soon. Tish silently pleaded that it would at least descend a bit just to give her neck a break from craning upwards.

The powers that be must have heard her pleas and decided to troll her, because the dragon ended up soaring past the entry arch of the park and straight into someone’s neighboring yard. It wasn’t just any yard though. It was one of those thousand square foot yards with a mansion-esque house in the middle of it.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” Tish groaned as she skidded to a halt. There was no way she could trespass on such lavish private property and get away with it. Even though it may have been nighttime in a part of town where most residents would be in bed by now, she still imagined the homeowners wouldn’t take kindly to finding a black woman in dusty attire sneaking through their property in search of an animal that, as far as they knew, was as fictional as magic wands.

Maybe the residents were hidumans and not visumans, and she could explain the situation to them. Oh, who was she kidding, the nearest hidumans who could afford to live in an apartment-complex-sized house most likely lived in Chicago, not in the suburbs of central Indiana. Tish knew that if the dragon remained over there much longer, there was going to be some sort of a ruckus tonight, no matter what action she chose to take.

Tish darted back and forth along the edge of the park, mirroring the dragon as it zigzagged over the lawn. Pushing back a few stray curls from her face, she took a quick glance at the digital watch on her wrist. It was 9:06. If she didn’t capture this dragon soon, she may end up having to just leave it behind. British wyverns were passive enough that she didn’t mind leaving it be, where it would at worst only spook a few people. What Tish didn’t want was a stern reprimand from her boss and $300 less in her paycheck for all her trouble. Considering how low the dragon was flying now, she may end up having to do so.

Much to her luck, surprise, and relief, the dragon ended up swooping out of the property, gliding towards the adjacent sidewalk. Tish immediately sprinted onto the walkway. The wyvern began slowing down as it continued to descend, allowing Tish to close the distance between her and the beast. A few moments later, it finally landed in a field of tall grasses bordering the sidewalk.

As soon as the creature had set foot on land, Tish crouched low to the ground. Her steps were now soft and slow as she snuck up on the dragon. The wyvern folded up its wings and sat down to rest, unaware that its pursuer was still nearby. Latisha crept ever closer to it, pausing for a moment after each step. She could not afford for it to go flying off again, not when it was only a few feet in front of her now.

When she had reached the edge of the sidewalk, Tish leaped onto the creature, pinning it down by the back with her hands. The dragon frantically flapped its wings and flailed its tail, letting out a shrill, falcon-like cry. Tish kept her head raised. Though dragons may not have been able to actually breathe fire, their strong tail whips sure felt as fiery as any blaze.

She turned her left arm onto the entirety of the dragon’s back, freeing up her right hand. Fumbling through the top pocket of her cargo shorts, she retrieved a small plastic packet. Tish secured one side of the packet firmly between her teeth, keeping her grip on it with her hand. With both her head and her hand, she yanked both sides of the plastic, tearing it in two. She quickly pulled out the sticky, white pad inside, letting the plastic casing fall to the ground.

As quickly and gently as she could with it struggling, Tish turned the dragon on its side, exposing its underbelly. She placed the pad on this softer region of its body and pressed down to ensure it remained secure. After a few seconds, the dragon’s movements steadily slowed and its cry became softer. Its entire body gradually became more limp, until it fell asleep. The only sounds and movements it made were those of its breathing.

The woman took a sigh of relief. Retying the headwrap holding up her hair, she took the moment to enjoy having finally caught the elusive creature.

She then turned around the baby sling she had wrapped around her body so that the carrying part of it rested just below her breasts. Supporting the dragon by its head and back, she lifted it up and snuggly cradled it into the sling. Ideally, Tish would have brought the containment box with her, but after the first few times she’d done so, she quickly learned that trying to wrangle in cryptids with a giant box in her hands only made the chase and capture more difficult.

Tish checked over the dragon to make sure that it was tightly tucked in and that its nose wasn’t obscured before getting back on her feet. She checked her watch once again: 9:15.

Looks like I’m going to have to run back to the car as well. Wait?

Where did I park again?