Forgot I was supposed to be streaming update

My headache has finally cleared but my shoulder is still hurting like hell so I managed to completely forget about streaming this weekend, not that I would have been able to stream for more than an hour anyway at the rate I was going, had to take very frequent breaks!

Retopo is another thing that really isn’t my friend so even if I did know a way to reuse retopo models I would likely just keep doing retopo per character just for practice.

Thursday streaming

Yep I’m trying to stream again. I’m currently looking at Thursdays again (because that’s when the inlaws come down to hang with the grandkids and then somehow my house gets cleaned in the meantime, yes I have awesome relatives), Tuesday nights and one of the two weekend days (which one will depend on what is going on at the time), won’t be announcing them til I can make sure the schedule works reliably though. If you’re keen as mustard you can still drop in if you like though.

Neopolitan (partial nudity)

This has been the better part of a week in the making. Almost full days because I stupidly thought that I would get it done next session. I now have headache-caused-by-terrible-posture and my neck is violently out again. Pro-tip: do not spend hours a day hunched over a tablet. And while I’m not completely happy with it I’m happy enough to post it. And obviously I need a hell of a lot more practice with dark scenes.

Red WIP - wings, tail, hands...kinda...

Wings are more or less done.

I say “more or less” because I was spending a very long time obsessing about the edges of the wing membranes, and then figured I should just make sure they’re thick enough to retopo around and not obsess about that kind of thing too much. So I did that for the two inner membranes (I obsessed over the two outer ones before making this realisation) and made sure the wing fingers were more or less symmetrical on either side and easily visible to retopo over.

In the heat of summer sunshine

I miss you like nobody else.

The memorial forest was quiet. It usually was, especially at this time of day. Walking on autopilot with her head down, Zara unerringly wended her way to the tree she wanted. The markers were all identical; elegant stone slabs extending a metre and a half out of the ground in their neat little rows. The trees were a bit more individual, growing wild and free. The marker simply said “In loving memory”. Zara absently touched the screen on the top of the marker. It brought up a timeline of all the people that had been buried under that tree.

Tell me baby, what's your story?

Where you come from and where you wanna go this time?

Zara and Zul’jinn hanging out in a courtyard either at Zara’s aprtment complex or more likely Juan’s place.

There isn’t so much rhyme or reason to this, it just kind of happened while I was listening to the chorus of Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Tell Me Baby. As a young adult most of Zara’s gymnastics skills simply augment her fighting style but every now and again she likes to randomly show off. I think she’s going into a straddle press handstand on the wall.

Wish you would step back from that ledge my friend...

It was a long way down.

He didn’t have to use his wings.

There was no point. There was nothing in him. He was nothing. It didn’t matter. He didn’t matter.

Za’haran shifted closer to the edge, automatically curling his feet against the wall n preparation for a takeoff.

Dive or just pin drop?

It didn’t matter. The result would be the same. A terrible mess, just like his life. He didn’t matter.

Nereid

This MerMay thing (whatever it is XD) gave a good enough excuse to draw examples of the Selkies and Nereids as they appear in the AER-verse (examples because they vary massively in appearance depending on…a lot of things). I attempted a more “stereotypical” mermaid here which meant it’s either an early Nereid or a reef/shallow water Nereid. The ones that live in shallow water are more likely to resemble Base humans. The ones that live out in the deep sea only bear hints that they evolved from humans.

Selkie

Apparently there’s a thing called MerMay going on where people are trying to draw merfolk this month. Seemed as good an excuse as any to draw a Selkie as they are in the AER-verse.

The Selkies and Nereids are water-based Evolved. The Selkies breathe air, some of them can speak Cetacean and are usually able to flop around on land (to some value). They dehydrate really easily and need to either drink a lot or be wet down on occasion. The Nereids have gills and will drown/suffocate out of water. Like their Terran based counterparts, they vary widely in phenotype. This one in particular is a redesign of an old character who was originally a gang member/antagonist in one of the early version of the scripts. The three members of that gang got scrapped as I simplified the scene they were supposed to be involved in down by quite a lot. The only thing that really stayed constant were the head spikes, the flipper feet, webbed hands and fin ears are new, because I didn’t think things through as well (or too much) as I do now. He has a bit of difficulty manuvering on land, water is his element, oddly :)

Stag leap 3

Even through the mat, the floor hurt. Her ankles hurt. Her muscles ached. Hot tears sprang behind her eyes. Rei sat up, her face growing hotter as the tears prickled. She rubbed her arm across her eyes, trying to ease the stinging with counter-pressure and clearing out the ones that had escaped.

“You right kiddo?” Zara’s playful tone floated over from somewhere near the doorway. Rei sniffed again and looked up. Zara finished crossing the floor in her usual fashion and bobbed down on the ground. She touched her sunnies but the light was too bright for her and she left them where they were. “What’s wrong?” Zara shifted to sit cross-legged, looking quite prepared to wait forever for an answer if she needed to.