@trulycertain / trulycertain.tumblr.com
@trulycertain's beautiful Tav, Lora. Her hair was so soothing to draw, honestly. Plus, if you're not already reading Tru's Tavstarion fics, you really ought to. They are some of my absolute favs. Thanks for letting me draw her <3
She looks absolutely gorgeous! And man, you are so much better at drawing her hair than I am. I love her expression like she's pensive/on the edge of a smile. Thank you so much!
"I can fix Astarion"
"I can make Astarion worse"
I just want to sit back and admire how well written both his redemption and villain arcs are. And how he can act in two completely opposite ways depending on what you choose for him and both ways are completely believable for him. And how much agency he has been given as a character to either change himself or make himself worse. And the amount of love and care the writers put into his character arc and his backstory. And the passion that Neil Newbon put into every single scene. And and and.
for all the artists out there, here are my favorite resources i use to learn!
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
Wyll x Karlach
There's something kinda sexy about planning a heist to save your bodily autonomy.
Once again, thank you all so much for helping me reach 90 followers! My play-through ended with Wyll going back to the hells with Karlach. He is a fantastic fighter in his own right, and with Karlach guiding him I have no doubt Zariel will be sorry she ever decided to mess with Karlach in the first place!
Be on the look out for the next poll! 100 followers is just incredible for me, you all are wonderful 💕
Previous Ships
פורים שמח!! למה אתם מתחפשים?
Happy Purim!! What are you dressing up as?
A take on the mighty Blade of Avernus for @wyllweek! I've meant to draw some post-canon Wyll forever.
(Day 4: Blade of Frontiers/Blade of Avernus)
A slightly post-canon mer AU in which Astarion is still flirting desperately, trying to escape his master, and good with a blade. He just happens to have a tail. And a sea-devil sniffing around him for a deal. Tav/Astarion, pissed-off siren x baffled bard, three chapters? I think? This chapter is 10.1k.
Merfolk tend to be terribly offended if you call them “sirens” - how dare you. No, they protest, they’ve never drowned an idiot landwalker in their lives. They’re perfectly upswimming, reasonable citizens who only eat fish and perhaps the odd whelk, if it’s been a slow day.
Astarion isn’t one of those good citizens. The difference between a merman and a siren is sharp fangs, the distinct lack of a heartbeat, and a taste for blood. That and the whole singing thing. Astarion’s never been much good at it. Almost deaf to a good tune, as Cazador delighted in reminding him. Idiot boy. Tuneless, useless – no wonder you have to debase yourself for them.
Astarion wants to be numb to it, after centuries – that and the salt stinging in his wounds: the perfectly picked-off scales, blood trailing after him in the water as he swims. (Blood he can’t afford to lose. And the last thing he needs is a damn shark. Or, for that matter, a trail anyone can follow. Swimaway slaves are so very out of fashion.)
The wounds are low enough to hide beneath the surface; to pretend to be a pretty little legged thing, just a tad lost, in need of rescue. It doesn’t stop them burning as he twists to get between a couple of walls of rock, to take a shortcut to that one particular cove he likes.
Soon this won’t be a problem. Soon, land. Land, where Cazador won’t be able to touch him. He’ll crawl for miles if he must. He has enough pearls of transformation that he can run – run and run and run. Legs can’t be that hard, can they? Even the harbour drunks can just about use them.
Astarion breaks the surface, almost dizzy with the idea of it all; he inhales air sharply, even as his gills sting. He’ll have to get used to that, air. It will be all he can use, no water flowing through him, while he runs. He has some time yet: almost half a night before his master will expect him to return. All he has to do is get to his cache…
In his cove, someone is singing.
everyone warned me you were a bad idea
guardstarion and my tav ky'hal
i'm almost done with this sketchbook, can't wait to draw in a bigger one
A take on the mighty Blade of Avernus for @wyllweek! I've meant to draw some post-canon Wyll forever.
(Day 4: Blade of Frontiers/Blade of Avernus)
Happy Wyll month! We’ve made an open* discord server for the Wyll Week event - talk about Wyll, share your fanworks, get reminders as we build up to the 17th March - look forward to seeing you there!
*we reserve the right to close invites in the future but for now it’s public and everyone is welcome
in Disco Elysium I was expecting there to be some kind of “addiction mechanic” that would add a long-term downside to taking drugs, and was surprised not only by the absence of any such mechanic but also that the benefits of drugs greatly outweighed the cost. anyways fast forward to the late game and I was downing three bottles of pyrholidon and smoking an entire pack of cigarettes before attempting any check, and it was only then I realized there was in fact an addiction mechanic
honestly, i think this is why i like the way the game handles substances so much. when i was looking up playthroughs of disco elysium i stumbled across one subreddit thread where someone asked “gameplay wise, is there any point to staying sober?” and just looked at it. like, yeah. yeah, exactly. we know that harry often does drugs specifically so that he can take on a superhuman caseload - as he puts it to kim, to be a “really good detective”. it was so chilling to see a player asking the same exact question that harry would probably be asking himself. without an external punishment mechanic, without being heavy handed about it, and in a way that (as OP pointed out) is so natural as to be almost unnoticeable, it manages to put the player exactly in his shoes as a recovering (or not recovering) addict. it’s a really well-designed mechanic
“Things are harder without this substance, so there’s no reason for me to abstain” being a purely Player-Driven interaction is a phenomenal addiction mechanic. Absolutely fucking gorgeous.
A slightly post-canon mer AU in which Astarion is still flirting desperately, trying to escape his master, and good with a blade. He just happens to have a tail. And a sea-devil sniffing around him for a deal. Tav/Astarion, pissed-off siren x baffled bard, three chapters? I think? This chapter is 10.1k.
Merfolk tend to be terribly offended if you call them “sirens” - how dare you. No, they protest, they’ve never drowned an idiot landwalker in their lives. They’re perfectly upswimming, reasonable citizens who only eat fish and perhaps the odd whelk, if it’s been a slow day.
Astarion isn’t one of those good citizens. The difference between a merman and a siren is sharp fangs, the distinct lack of a heartbeat, and a taste for blood. That and the whole singing thing. Astarion’s never been much good at it. Almost deaf to a good tune, as Cazador delighted in reminding him. Idiot boy. Tuneless, useless – no wonder you have to debase yourself for them.
Astarion wants to be numb to it, after centuries – that and the salt stinging in his wounds: the perfectly picked-off scales, blood trailing after him in the water as he swims. (Blood he can’t afford to lose. And the last thing he needs is a damn shark. Or, for that matter, a trail anyone can follow. Swimaway slaves are so very out of fashion.)
The wounds are low enough to hide beneath the surface; to pretend to be a pretty little legged thing, just a tad lost, in need of rescue. It doesn’t stop them burning as he twists to get between a couple of walls of rock, to take a shortcut to that one particular cove he likes.
Soon this won’t be a problem. Soon, land. Land, where Cazador won’t be able to touch him. He’ll crawl for miles if he must. He has enough pearls of transformation that he can run – run and run and run. Legs can’t be that hard, can they? Even the harbour drunks can just about use them.
Astarion breaks the surface, almost dizzy with the idea of it all; he inhales air sharply, even as his gills sting. He’ll have to get used to that, air. It will be all he can use, no water flowing through him, while he runs. He has some time yet: almost half a night before his master will expect him to return. All he has to do is get to his cache…
In his cove, someone is singing.
Me: No, a siren AU is way too obvious for Astarion, he's already doing that "pretty monster who lures people" thing
Also me: *writes 16k of sirenstarion*
Me: *sigh* I guess we're doing this.
