I guess this is a political blog now

Is OP making a costume? Crafting an item of decor? Physically growing a keratinaceous shell out of their own body? Is a turtle's shell keratinaceous, or is it something else?*

Is OP making a costume? Crafting an item of decor? Physically growing a keratinaceous shell out of their own body? Is a turtle's shell keratinaceous, or is it something else?*

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

you're making a sandwich!! Spin THIS wheel 2-4 times for the toppings!

Here on land there are only so many ways a creature can move, and by the time you're six or so, you've seen pretty much all of them that you're ever likely to.

For years, people discussing the villainy of Grandpa Joe from 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory have pointed out that he spent the last twenty years bedridden and unemployed, but made a miraculous recovery when given the opportunity to tour Wonka's factory.

But it's actually worse than that.

The second Wonka bar that Charlie opens is given to him by Grandpa Joe, using the money that Charlie and his mother provided for Joe's tobacco. Charlie is not given this bar until everyone else in the Bucket household, including Charlie's mother, is asleep. The candy bar is a secret from all of them, which means that Charlie's mother is not the one who bought it.

If she didn't buy, who did? Grandpa Joe himself, which means he is able to get out of bed. He may have done this in secret while his daughter is slaving away at the laundry and the other, actually infirm elders are sleeping. Or he's been getting up to buy his own tobacco every week for the past twenty years, and his daughter has simply given up trying to get him to find work again.

ray k's 'fursona' (in lieu of the term spirit animal) has previously been well postulated by akamine_chan to be a honey badger

which i find both hilariously amusing and hilariously accurate, considering both the simulation of the haircut and the posture

now: the question, inspired by a gif of otters on my dash that reminded me of ray v's 'pelt' description of fraser's hair

First one Thing, Then the Otter (13232 words) by Alex51324 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: due South Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski Characters: Ray K, Fraser Summary:

I therefore propose: