Rendering And Fighting With Hands

This is the kinda shit I wanna see Ungoliant do

Scrolling through my old photos I found this relic from 2020, Aramis, aka René d'Herblay aka the bishop of Vannes ecc, as described in the Three musketeers by Dumas.

I have my anatomy exam in two days and I should be studying but... it's late. And my brain is mush. I found this wip laying forgotten and I had at least to render the background until it did not look like an utter mess.

(I think it may be some unfinished ASOIAF fanart, because the tree is surely a weirwood, and the characters give me some Brynden and Shiera vibes, but mainly it was an excuse to learn to paint all the things I struggle with.)

blood oaths and portends (x)

Nadox and the Mekhanite (cw: gore)

“Derdekeas was clever. He was strong, he was durable, he was deadly with blade and flame. He was tenacious and quick and fanatical, and yet most importantly, he was human.”

Nadox and the Mekhanite Tale by UraniumEmpire & Metaphysician 

http://www.scpwiki.com/nadox-and-the-mekhanite

I stumbled upon "The Terror" on Prime a couple of weeks ago and I (predictably) fell into the rabbithole (or is it firehole?) that is the Franklin expedition. And since when I love I paint, here are a couple of sketches of (historical) Francis Crozier and James Clark Ross, best friends and polar explorers.

Fëanor Lives AU

Inspired by comment-tags on my poll about whether Fëanor or his sons were worse, I’m going to try to theorize what would have happened if Fëanor hadn’t died within a few weeks[1] of landing in Beleriand.

First, there’s the question of whether, even if he had survived Dagor-nuin-Giliath, he would have survived until Fingolfin arrived. There’s a decent case to be made for no. His sons are fairly rudderless and inactive after he dies and Maedhros is captured, and don’t do a lot between that point and Fingolfin’s arrival; that would not have been the case if Fëanor had lived. (Setting aside the possibility of “he lives but is too severely injured to do anything,” just because it’s not what I’m interested in here.)

I don’t see him just sitting in Hithlum (even if Maedhros was captured, and I don’t see that happening either if Fëanor had lived; it feels like another product ofhis sons’ disorientation in the wake of his death). And considering his mindset from his speech in Tirion and Oath through to the point where he dies in canon, I can see him throwing his army against Angband until a large part of them are dead, and potentially until he himself is dead. Given that they successfully take out pretty well the entire orc-army in Dagor-nuin-Giliath (“Ten days that battle lasted, and from it returned of all the hosts that [Morgoth] had prepared for the conquest of Beleriand no more than a handful of leaves.”), they might have even made it into Angband. This isn’t Morgoth as of the Dagor Bragollach or Nirnaeth Arnoediad, when he’s got dragons and the accumulated armies of 400 years; at this point he’s got balrogs and Sauron and some other Maiar and a fortress and some kind of reserve forces. Morgoth may be best off retreating enough to lure them into into Angband, and then capturing or killing them when they’re in the dark, disoriented, separated, in mazelike tunnels.

So that’s one possibility: that by the time Fingolfin arrives, Fëanor and much of his forces are dead or captured. The ‘captured’ possibility lends itself to interesting AUs by itself.

In any possibility where Fëanor does survive until Fingolfin arrives, but has realized he can’t defeat Angband on his own, I feel like there’s an extremely high likelihood of another Kinslaying then and there. Not primarily because the elves who crossed the Helcaraxë are angry with him, though they certainly are, but because we’ve seen Fëanor in this position before: with a determined sense of what he wants to do, without the resources to do it, and with someone else denying him those resources. That was Alqualondë. Given the mindset Fëanor has displayed all through the Return, he would see it as Fingolfin’s usurpation standing between Fëanor and the forces he needs to conquer Angband (and would not recognize that the other elves’ total unwillingness to accept him as king is associated with him stranding them at the far end of an icy wasteland, more than with Fingolfin specifically, and that killing Fingolfin is not going to get them on-side). This battle would be fairly brutal, with a lot of bad blood on both sides; it would be very amusing to Morgoth, and pretty well put an end to any chance of an equivalent to the Siege of Angband ever coming to pass.

(I know there are plenty of fanfics where Fëanor survives and Fingolfin recognizes him as king. I just can’t see this happening; not only because of the very justified resentment, but because Fëanor’s decisions have been uniformly terrible, and not abandoning his people to that kind of terrible leadership was the main thing motivating Fingolfin to join in the Return at the start. In the extremely unlikely event that Fingolfin did, I don’t see most of the Noldor who crossed the Helcaraxë following him rather than breaking off under Turgon or someone. The reason why Maedhros’ abdication is so crucial in canon is because it’s the only thing that’s ever going to enable the Noldor to form a united front.)

So yeah, I have to agree with the people on the poll who said it’s probably for the best that Fëanor didn’t survive longer. What he would have done if he had been alive during the later parts of the Silm feels like a moot point because I can’t imagine a scenario where he survived but events were otherwise similar to canon. He’s a force of nature; he makes the narrative different, it’s what he does. It’s why him setting everything off and then suddenly dying makes for such a great story.

[1]: I’m making an educated guess.The Fëanoreans travel up the Firth of Drengist and into Hithlum, start setting up camp by Lake Mithrim, and are attacked by orcs before they can finish making camp; the battle against the orcs, Dagor-nuin-Giliath, lasts 10 days, and Fëanor diesat the end of it.

"You've known queens and princesses. Did they dance with demons and practice the black arts?

Lady Shiera does. Lord Bloodraven's paramour. She bathes in blood to keep her beauty."

Lady Shiera Seastar, daughter of King Aegon IV and his last mistress, Serenei of Lys.

two more doggos i painted this week for my dad and his wife

Fingolfin’s Challenge - 14 year redraw edition

This drawing, and this moment, mean so much to me. I first drew this scene 14 years ago, and when I uncovered the old drawing a few months ago, I knew I had to redraw it. Old drawing and close ups are under the cut:

When I was 12 this was the best drawing I had ever done. The original concept was to have the map behind him because I don’t like doing landscapes and never have. For the new drawing, I decided against writing out the place names over the mountains for fear that it would be too cluttered. I also decided to change the shield design to a more Norman style incorporating his heraldry and I replaced the greaves with boots for purely aesthetic reasons. I KNOW he should be wearing a helm and it’s in the text I literally transcribed, but I do not care because seeing his hair is important to me. I *might* draw him in a helm in the future. If the universe wills it so.

More close-ups of the new drawing:

Dimensions are 18x24” and the media are watercolor, india ink, fineliner and gel pen. Writing the whole passage took over two hours and I got *so* emotional. fjggjgghkvhk *clawing at the bars of my enclosure*

I have no idea how many hours I spent on it in total but I have been tinkering on it for 3 months.

I was really afraid that I made him look too old by trying to render his facial expression. I am also concerned that I haven’t captured the full depth of his emotion. But I tried my fucking bestest and that’s all that one can do. If I am still a fingolfucker in another 14 years I will draw him again and it will be even better <3