I Know We Joke About Cis Artists Having The Weirdest Sense Of Anatomy, But Also Even When The Anatomy

Sheep things

to help with writing if you so choose

Sheep's wool transitions to hair on their legs. Where exactly this transition happens depends on breed and genetics. Breeds that are all white will have white/cream hair, while breeds like the Suffolk and the Hampshire will typically have white wool and dark legs (brown or black).

Sheep get playful and bounce around. It can kinda look like a pogo stick on four legs. Absolutely look up lambs playing on YouTube they're the cutest little suckers. If you've ever seen deer bound, it's kinda similar.

Some of my sheep really liked their ears rubbed and/or the tops of their heads. Although I also has one who thought shiny things were just the best and chewed on my belts and ribbons and tried to snatch someone's keys so each sheep is a little different.

Sheep have this wax called lanolin that is what helps their wool repel water and keep their skin clean. It also helps protect any wounds to the skin. It used to be in a lot of hand creams and certain brands still due but it's a pretty big allergen so it's pretty uncommon these days. Works wonderfully though.

Shearing is a good thing. It can actually be more harmful to a sheep to go without shearing for more than a year or so (this is partly due to human interference with breeding, they've been domesticated and selectively breed for too many hundreds of years). Wool breeds are more like every 6 months. Most people try to do it soon after the last frost. Early to mid spring so that wool has more time to come in for the winter months. In my area we have this weed called foxtail, that burrows through hair and wool and will bury itself into the skin of animals and can cause infections. For us, shearing is vital to our animal's health.

Terms for sheep.

Less than a year old: Lamb

Year Olds are sometimes called yearlings

Over a year: Sheep

A Ewe is a female sheep, a Ram is a male sheep, and a Wether is a castrated male sheep.

Common terms/phrases: Ewe Lamb, Ram Lamb, Wether Lamb

Sheep actually have long wooly tails (think labrador tail length but not as maneuverable. It hangs between the legs), but they are often docked when they are young to help with health. Fecal matter and urine gets on the tail and can increase health risks for things like infections.

I'm most familiar with the Hampshire-Suffolk crossbreed. They were bred for human consumption. Different breeds have different characteristics, different behaviors, different tendencies.

Feel free to hit me up if you happen to have any sheep questions. I have a decent amount of knowledge and I'm happy to share.

Anywho. Hope this helps! Happy culting!!

False click beetle, Galbites sp.?, Eucnemidae

Photographed in Singapore

Photo 1 by budak and 2-3 by flyww

caterpillar

Drawing Wrinkles

I made a tutorial-thing about drawing clothing wrinkles - something I’ve had a few requests for.  For all the banality of wrinkles, they’re an expansive topic. Anyway, these are some previews. The full tutorial is available to all $1+ Patreon supporters. You can find it here!

tips for getting people to like your ocs

*disclaimer: this is based on what’s worked for me, aka an artist that likes to make comics/storyboards. so this advice is directed at people who do that

you can do things like this:

Which is fun! Character sheets like this are great, especially for personal reference! But frankly, I don’t think most people engage with this (at least I personally don’t). You could have the coolest character in the world, but it will be harder for most people to feel invested when they’re presented so neutrally like this.

My main piece of advice is: get better at writing.

That might sound harsh when said like that, but let me explain what I mean! (Not trying to imply you’re bad at writing either!)

What I tend to do is just throw characters into situations with as little handholding as I can. Give enough context that readers can follow along, but don’t feel like they’re being explained to.

what can you learn about the characters through their designs alone? (age, personality, economic status, occupation, etc)

what can you learn about the characters’ relationship though their interactions alone? (are they close? familial? romantic? is there hostility? are they tense/relaxed?)

what are the characters currently doing? what were they doing previously (how long have they been talking)? what are they going to do next? can you convey this without dialogue?

how do they feel about what they are doing? are they content? focused? over/understimulated? would they rather be doing something else?

where are they? does it matter? would establishing a setting in at least one panel clarify the scene? is there anything in the enviroment that could tell some of the story?

what time of day is it? what time of year is it? what is the weather like?

Now, with all this in mind, I'm going to give you another example. I'm going to use completely brand new characters for the sake of the experiment, so you won't have any bias (aka I can’t use Protagonist from above, since you already know all about him).

Did this get more of an emotional response from you than the first example? Why do you think so? Who are these characters? How do they know each other? What else can you infer about them? What happened? Who is "she"?

Now, you don't have to actually answer all those questions. But think about them! You can tell people a whole lot about your characters without ever showing them a list of their likes and dislikes.

Obviously, comics aren't the only way to get people invested in your original characters! But regardless, easily digestible formats will grab people's attention faster than huge blocks of text, and comics are a lot less work than doing wholeass storyboards.

Now go and share your ocs with the world!!!

submissive in the way a livestock guardian dog is submissive to the sheep it kills wolves for

I made a Room Building tutorial! Lemme know if it helps! 🧡

Tip me here| Commission info here!

People who like mantises but aren't that into entomology are always "orchid mantises" this and "orchid mantises" that. Overrated. Can we talk about Toxodera integrifolia for a minute:

(Image links because as much as it pains me I've never seen one of these beauties irl: 1 2 3)

Like how are these things real. Girl what is that thorax shape. Why are you wearing eyeliner. And the colors? Absolutely fire. This is a 10/10 insect if you ask me.

8 of the world’s most bizarre flowers:

1.) Swaddled Babies

2.) Flying Duck Orchid

3.) Hooker’s Lips Orchid

4.) Ballerina Orchid

5.) Monkey Orchid

6.) Naked Man Orchid

7.) Laughing Bumblebee Orchid

8.) White Egret Orchid

i love seeing cardinals and bluejays together i’m always like “hehe.. evil siblings”