art sideblog

Happy Dreamlands holiday gift exchange day! This year, I made something for @organchordsandlightning: a bound set of her three-fic series A universe that doesn't care and people who do. This was one of the first Malevolent fics I ever read and remains one of my favorites. I have terribly fond memories of reading through the whole thing in Dreamlands voice chat, hearing each other try out British and Boston accents, and being relieved when [redacted]'s flute noises didn't land on a page I had to read.

I tried a lot of things for the first time on these binds, and it's just a relief to have something presentable at the end of it 😅. The structure of the book is a split board binding (which curved and had to be fixed with draw papers). The covers are handmade book cloth, which was messy but worthwhile. The gold details were done with Cricut iron-on HTV (hooray, local maker space!). The endpapers were made using suminagashi ink, which was actually easy and delightful, I'll be doing that again.

Some additional credits: The typeset was done by @agenderdisaster and tweaked by me. The fonts used are Garamond and Against. Images were sourced from The Noun Project and from the etc.usf.edu clipart collection. @corvidconvergence , thank you for being my guinea pig while I tried to learn binding techniques just in time to teach them to you, and thank you for picking that cool title font!

[ID copied from alt text: A full-body portrait of Arthur Lester sitting slouched in a chair, with Noel resting a hand on his shoulder, the other hand holding a razor. Arthur’s hair is shoulder-length and curly, and his face is freshly shaved. In the background is a frame of filigrees and tendrils, with a pair of hair scissors nestled into the tendrils, prevented from closing by the blade of a straight razor. The portrait is rendered in a sketchy style of monochromatic purple lines and textures. End ID]

For this year’s @malevolentbigbang, I had the privilege of illustrating the joelthur haircut fic cutoff by @arcadecarpetgay! It’s a lovely one-shot that puts Arthur through the wringer by way of gender dysphoria that he maybe doesn’t quite realize he has yet. I used it as an excuse to give Arthur the Alphonse Mucha treatment.

[ID copied from alt text: A tone-shaded line art sketch of a huge, gnarled tree with a portal open in its trunk. The Trader, a stooped figure in a cloak with a hood that obscures most of his face, is visible through the portal, leaning on a staff and looking out over his shoulder. A cultist holds an egg-shaped object toward the portal while averting his eyes. Surrounding the portal in the tree bark are eyes, tentacles, and grasping human hands. End ID]

[ID: A digital painting in the style of Waterhouse’s “Boreas” of John Doe in the Dark World. He stands clutching a yellow robe around him against the wind. His long black hair blows around his face, and he has a distant, stoic expression. In the background behind him is an overgrown cobblestone road under a dark purple sky. Animal bones are scattered across it, and the rubble of buildings lines the horizon, including a half-lit neon sign that says “Theater” with a crumbling marquee. End ID]

My piece for the @malevolent-fanzine which I can finally share! This was a little bit inspired by @organchordsandlightning’s version of John Doe in her series “a universe that doesn’t care and people who do (Lighthouse)”. This isn’t a particular moment that happens in the fic, but I wanted to focus on the vibes of John in the Dark World, forlorn and apart from Arthur, fixated on finding him. There’s a lil nod to canon with the “mound of dead horses” where they were supposed to meet up, and the theater they were supposed to visit.

[ID: A redraw of the 1970 Jane Eyre movie poster. Bust portraits of John Doe, Arthur Lester, and Faroe Lester are drawn in sepia tones against a dark background with a filigree border. The title, “To Perish Twice”, spans the top of the image in yellow with an ornate drop cap. Above that are the top credits: “Arthur Lester” and “John Doe”, “in a story by theinkwell33”, “a Malevolent Big Bang 2023 Production”. Across the bottom it says, “art by Rawkingbunny, Genderfluid-Draws” and “beta read by Cosmya”, with the hashtag “MBB2023”. End ID]

I had the privilege to work with @splitting-infinities as an artist on their Jane Eyre-inspired fic, “To Perish Twice”, for the @malevolentbigbang! Check it out to get your fill of gothic heroine John Doe and brooding recluse Arthur Lester! Also check out @rawkingbunny, who did a great art piece as well as a WHOLE PODFIC! LIKE, ALL 28K WORDS, IT’S INCREDIBLE.

And here are a couple of boys meeting by the fireside:

[ID copied from alt text: A digital sketch with hints of soft color of a corner of a room furnished in a mid-century modern style. A blue couch and black chair sit kitty-corner from each other in front of a wooden filing cabinet. A tall lamp with three shaded bulbs hangs over them, casting a circle of light on the wall behind it. End ID]

[ID copied from alt text: a painting of John Doe in a hooded yellow cloak, clutching the fabric against the wind, in the style of Waterhouse’s “Boreas”. End ID]

[ID copied from alt text: A loose digital painting of a mermaid suspended in dark water, with her legs folded up to her chest and arms trailing above her. She is painted in blue, purple, red, orange, and bits of yellow against a navy blue background. End ID]

[ID copied from alt text: A sketchy, semi-shaded drawing in sepia tones of the bar of a speakeasy. The bartender, an aproned man with a black mustache, is mixing a drink. Behind him are three banks of shelves filled with variously shaped bottles and two stacks of barrels. Stools are lined up in front of the bar, three of them occupied by indistinct silhouettes. Prominent on the wall is a sign that says “All Nations Welcome Except Carrie”, with a hatchet affixed to it. End ID]

jack my good friend jack just resurrected the parker art that i suffered over for, you know. months. so i thought i would share a timelapse of my suffering!

procreate likes to tell me fun statistics about my mental health:

file was created Oct 26 (and not finished until Mar 2)

72 layers (maxed this out and had to merge a few times)

29,768 strokes

46h 59m tracked time

a few notes:

parker was shirtless for a lot of this until i decided the undershirt was actually more intimate. not 100% sure i stand by that but it’s done now

parker’s face was in frame for quite a while, but the chin up angle was weird and uncanny, and the chin down angle drew attention away from his neck, and believe me. this is a drawing about a man’s neck. so i ultimately cropped it out but you can still see it here as a treat c:

yes i did put on a dress shirt and slacks and perch around my living room trying to get reference photos. please do not look too closely oh god my hair was in shambles.

anyway hope you enjoy! here’s the unfinished face i didn’t end up using:

[ID copied from alt: A detailed rendering of an antique brass lighter. The number 13 is etched on the side. End ID]

Might as well post this too! The lighter I painted to accompany my piece for the Malevolent zine. This was such a cool touch the organizers came up with: a unique lighter to go above each part's artist statement.