Cosmos-slideout - Cosmo

I want to fly. I want to stretch my wings and glide over treetops and through mountain ranges. I want to be in the sky. I want to be able to see everything on the land. To dive and swoop, to have fun. I want to feel the wind. Yet I am cursed to stay on the ground. Limited to climbing to get up to high places. Unable to really do what I want.

Btw if you are a winged being and you REALLY want to fly, you should look into paramotoring!

Paramotoring is one of the cheapest, easiest, and most accessible forms of aviation!

It is where you take a paraglider, and attach it to a propeller you wear on your back. This allows you to take off right from the ground!

There are two ways to do it:

By foot, where you wear the motor like a backpack and run, then slide into your seat (which is attached to the motor) once you're up in the air!

And by a Trike, a 3 wheeled frame that attaches to your motor/paraglider, allowing you to sit as you take off!

This is one of the most accessible sports, as you don't need all too much strength or mobility to do it! It is pretty expensive to get into, but once you have your whole set together, and some training, its pretty easy to maintain!

•ﻌ•𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯𐂯•ﻌ•

I get a lot of behavioral shifts/urges, and very strong wing shifts as a Trico, and it makes me feel really dysphoric knowing I can't fly. I'm really hoping one day I'll be able to afford a trike set, and training. I cannot wait to be in the sky one day!

I can't wait to feel the wind on my feathers, being face to face with the sun as it sets. I can't wait to feel weightless for a while, like I have no troubles. I can't wait to feel free!

CWR Encounter 07: Bigg’s Transients 

Photos by Mark Malleson

INTEREST CHECK

Smi and I have been working on a space themed mini series! Here's a first look at the puffer jackets!

What do we think? 🌌🛸🚀

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sketches!!

shirazi pigeons

T I M E S I N K

Pod.

I often enjoy making up a family in my mind. My mother, grandmother, and my siblings. While at first it can be quite embarrassing to admit one has "imaginary friends", honestly... It's one of the only few things that help me nowadays.

I enjoy imagining them swimming around me—swimming with me—staying close to me whenever I have a hard time.

I think of them before sleep, and I think of them whenever I cry.

I do not know if my real pod is still out there, if they're alive... So, I make up substitutes. I felt guilty at first, but then remembered that my actual pod would like for me to be happy, especially my mother.

Also, among all of this, I always wished to have something akin to a brother figure—which is why I drew myself (the freckled male) close with the other adult male in the drawing, with what could be my mother on the bottom of the drawing, and my grandmother in the front, with the calf.

It's a good way to cope with my feelings, imagining a pod constantly being by my side... It helps by a lot. I don't think I'll ever stop.

Activities for nonhumans. Tested by me.

In the morning, stretch. Take time stretching every muscle and joint to the best of your ability, even if its only for 5 minutes. Take up a yoga routine if you wish. This has helped immensely with my chronic joint and muscle pain.

Sit in the sun for a few minutes. Soak it in, enjoy the slowness of the world for a second.

Meditate. Learn to be in your own mind. Learn to be bored. Sit in the woods and listen to whats around you. See and feel from a standstill. Learning boredom has helped me curb some of my ADHD symptoms

Journal. Decorate jt with stickers. Make lists and notes and write blurbs about your day or your species. Practice introspection, gratitude, positive affirmations. Look at things objectively, but also analyze your emotions. Chronicle our history as a community, write everything that you can find about nonhumans down. History will thank you. Log your shifts, your days, the weather.

Take up a workout routine. Calisthenics is the poison I picked; it focuses on moving your body instead of moving a separate weight. It builds muscle you can use for a range of activities rather than a few set scenarios.

Quadrobics leaves too much room for injury if you go any farther than bear crawls. Most people parroting tips for quadrobics are children with no background in exercise. My alternative is going for a run; it gets out energy and achieves everything quadrobics would.

Go into the woods. Use the 5-4-3-2-1 technique to test your senses in an environment you've never been in. Get curious, take pictures and note the species of flora and fauna in your area. Scout the area for unique formations and spots. Doing this has increased my confidence as a visually impaired man tenfold; I've learned how to use hearing to my advantage in most aspects of my life.

Go swimming in a creek. Even if your species doesn't swim, it can be euphoric. Dry yourself out on a rock in the sun afterwards.

Hell, just look towards going camping or backpacking for more than a few hours. Save for it, plan for it, prepare for it. Camping alone builds independence, camping with friends builds community.

Check out INaturalist. Its a website where others post pictures of flora/fauna, including the general location of where they found it. You don't need to post anything, just being on there and seeing the kinds of organisms in your area is enough.

Start a recipe book of things your species could and would eat. Even if they're just ingredients, its still a good activity.

Connect to your community. Join clubs and groups in your area. Volunteer at places that need volunteers. If you work, unionize. A real life community is essential for your mind. Lacking community is probably why you feel like shit.

Don't just stockpile gear, make your own. Don't resrict yourself to masks; ears, tails, collars, hand paws, feet paws, claws, wings, beaks, scales, fins, all things you could make with materials that lie around your house unused.

Apply makeup and body paint to mimic your species' markings. Enjoy the process as much as you enjoy the outcome. Look towards getting tattoos if wanted.

Sea salt spray can give your hair a wild look, if thats something you want. It can also cause it to change color slightly.

And, if possible, look to take supplements that cause hair and nail growth, if youre a hair/nail having being.

Drop your shaving routine if you wish. Shaving isn't really hygeine. Or implement one if your species is smooth. I like to shave in similar patterns that cats would be shaved in.

Take the time to clean yourself beyond a simple body and hair wash. Deep clean everything and emerge a new being.

Fuck it. Use horse shampoo.

Let yourself Feel. Suppressing emotions is a human construct made to weaken you, made to make you subservient. If you're angry, be angry. If you're sad, be sad. If something makes you happy, never stop doing it.

Let shifts come and go. Acknowledge them. Log them. Never supress them. They'll only emerge later.

Accept yourself as you are. Affirm yourself. You are enough as you are and you dont need to do anything to prove yourself.

Redecorate your spaces. Revamp your nest, light some candles or put on a humidifier. Introduce plants, crystals, and generally outdoor things into your indoor living space.

Clothing is everything. I find that clothing I can't freely move in makes me dysphoric, so I stick to tank tops and light sweatpants. I dress light and I show skin. Similarly, find the styles of dress you find comforting and euphoric.

Scent your area. Spray something around your house, wear a perfume you like. The stronger the smell, the better.

(Edited 20th Jan 2025 @ 9:14 PM - Fixed Grammar + Readability)

Let’s Draw Wings

I’ve gotten the question/request of how I draw wings lots and lots so I’ve decided to make a dedicated post!

Now…I’m no master, but I have found a way that I like to draw wings that’s efficient for me. There three main points: 

References

Simplification

Texture Management

First of all - References

My favorite wing reference of all time is this post by Jenn on Twitter. I have both the images saved but I use the Wing Shapes one, below, alllllll the time. Like for real all the time!

I also keep pretty extensive collections of wing photo reference. When I’m having trouble, I’ll trace a few or do studies to get back into the swing of things. Here are links to my Pinterest boards:

Broadwing Reference (passive soaring and high-speed)

Longwing Reference (active soaring)

Shortwing Reference (elliptical and hovering)

Secondly - Simplification

When I sketch wings, I simplify Jenn’s diagram even further -

For me, the key to drawing wings is simplifying the wing down - from the structure to the feathers - the goal for me is to be able to draw them quickly and have the proper information conveyed. It needs to look like a wing in the base sketch. If it doesn’t, no amount of rendering and extra feathers will help. I like to break the wing into the three main moving parts. The orange is one part, then the purple contains two main chunks feathers that you can group together and move as their own parts. 

On top of that, I like to think of wings like a sheet of paper. They can bend and fold in on themselves, with the orange meaty bits anchoring everything together. 

Lastly - Texture

I like to call wings “texture monsters”. Feathers are hard to manage and can easily make wings look over-busy and muddy. Just like before, I break the wing into chunks so I can spend less time drawing the wing and it’s feathers:

Then you can put it all together and push things further -

So yeah this is how I throw wings together! The wings I draw aren’t super technical or detailed, but I what matters for me is that they look and feel like believable wings at a glance -

~ Larn

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