#tilaari

Happy Art Monday!

Hands have always intrigued me.

Capturing hands in art is both challenging and rewarding. A simple gesture, a tender touch, can convey a myriad of emotions – that's precisely what I aim to portray when I draw them.

This piece is part of a series delving into hand studies. Rather than mere exercises, I chose to illustrate various characters from the game 'Andromeda Six', revealing their connections to the main characters across my multiple playthroughs.

'Us' captures a moment suspended in time, where the interlocking of two hands tells a story of love, connection, and a delicate balance between humanity and technology. In this evocative artwork, Rina's hand, with her ethereal blue skin, delicately clasps Bash's hand, bearing the marks of hard work and devotion, against the backdrop of a sealed steel door.

Bash, a skilled space mechanic/engineer, possesses a bionic arm—a testament to his technical expertise, strength, and resilience—while his remaining human hand bears witness to his vulnerability and connection to his humanity. Standing beside him is Rina, the tilaari, whose touch and presence anchor him in the warmth and essence of what it means to be human.

The subtle details of the clean skin on their connecting index fingers signify their profound bond, transcending technological barriers and embracing the fragility and depth of their emotional connection. 'Us' captures a moment of contemplation, where Bash questions the cost of fully adopting bionic prosthetics, while Rina, through her presence, reminds him of the intangible treasures found in the embrace of humanity.

This artwork is a visual poem, inviting viewers to meditate on the complexities of love, the intertwining of human emotions with technological advancements, and the eternal essence of connection in a vast and ever-expanding cosmos.

But above all, touch, fundamental to our humanity, is the theme of this drawing.

Shoutout to my sister @valkblue for her invaluable advice on this piece!

The title is a reference to the song of the same name, 'Us,' by Movement. (on youtube)

Stay tuned for more hands ;)

Belated Bashentina holidays piece

That’s what happens when you decide to start a Christmas piece on 23rd smh

Grinch sweater for my girl who hates Christmas. Next to the “glorified repairman” who convinced her to wear it. Val despises the festivity but as long as Bash is smiling everything is bearable 🥰 also she’s ready to fight anyone who makes her boy frown

Anyways I hope you all had happy and relaxing holidays! 💖

Cassie’s heels clicked quietly against the polished stone floors as she wandered through the winding halls of the palace, the heavy skirts of her gown swishing around her. Once bustling halls were empty, leaving her completely alone from what she could tell. And despite her knowledge of every hallway, every room, every passage of the opulent palace, she couldn’t tell where she was. Or where she was heading. For once, the young princess was lost in her home, with no idea of where to go next. But she knew somehow that it was a special occasion. Or at least assumed, from the heavy gown of sparkling gold silk with black embroidery and the sparkling tiara balanced atop her curls. Finery that she only wore when operating in her official role as Princess. Lost in thought, she continued walking through the winding halls, lifting her skirt to keep from tripping on it as she moved faster. 

In the corner of her eye, she could see black wisps that almost looked like people. But whenever she turned to look, there was nothing there. And as she kept walking, she began to hear whispers, sounding like they were far away at first, but growing louder and louder with each step. 

“Cassandra…”

“Cassandra, where were you?” 

“Did you just leave us to die?” 

“This was all your fault. If you’d never shown him those passages…”

“How could you be so selfish? Why didn’t you stay?” 

“Why didn’t you die with the rest of us?” 

“Of course you’d leave us all to die. You’re the most useless out of all of us.”

“Typical Cassandra. Shirking her duty for frivolous things.”

The insidious whispers pounding in her mind were the voices of her siblings. Nerissa. Auberon. Ecko. Elettra. Noa. Sorenn. Tavaris. Celest. Ven’dela. Arlo. Their rasping voices overlapping and growing louder, until the overwhelming cacophony of voices drowned out even the sound of her now running footsteps. And then a voice began to scream. A voice, she realized belatedly, was hers. Filled with pain, heartbreak, sorrow, and despair. A heart-wrenching sound that brought tears to her eyes, even as she reached up to clutch at her ears, bowing over as she tried to block it all out. Tried to keep out the blaming voices and the screaming. 

Suddenly, the voices and the screaming stopped, and all was silent. Slowly, Cassie dropped her hands and began to straighten up, looking around in surprise as she found herself in the middle of the throne room. Unlike the rest of the palace, the throne room was bustling with servants. But as she looked closer, none of them had faces. With black mist covering up where their faces should have been. Gripping her skirts tightly, Cassie felt herself walk towards the thrones where her father and his wives usually sat, guided by some urge that she couldn’t describe or resist. 

As she came closer to the throne, the crowd of servants suddenly parted, allowing her to see the opulent throne where her father, and generations of her grandfathers had sat ever since the Peg’asi took the throne. But the central throne was bare, with her father nowhere to be seen. In fact, the only person sitting there was the Stellar Queen, Ta’jean. Her mother. 

Smiling gently at her daughter, the stern queen held out her hand to her. A rare show of affection to her youngest child, who had always caused her so much trouble. Dropping her skirts, Cassie reached out and took her mother’s hand, clasping it tightly. “Mother…” she whispered, forming tears starting to sting her eyes. “Mama… I miss you so much,” she whispered, her voice trembling as she fought to keep from crying. Her smile unchanging, Ta’jean reached out with her other hand and began to caress Cassie’s cheek, brushing away the welling tears. However, she said not a word, just kept staring at her with a blank, glassy look in her eyes. 

And it was then that Cassie noticed the deep red spreading across the delicate pastel yellow of Ta’jean’s gown, staining the silk, something that would have usually drawn the queen’s ire. But she didn’t react to it, just kept smiling at Cassie. Dropping her hand, Cassie immediately leapt forward and pressed her hands against the open wound, bared by a tear in her dress, showing the sword wound piercing her chest. “No! Mother!” Cassie screamed, pressing her hands, already slick with blood against the wound, tears coursing down her cheeks. “No! Please, stay with me Mother! Don’t leave!” She knew that it was useless. That her mother was already gone. Gone and dead, and she was all alone. The last Peg’asi. But even if this wasn’t real, it didn’t mean that she couldn’t try to save her mother. Maybe she could at least change what happened in her dreams.

Ta’jean reached out again and touched Cassie’s cheek, her soiled hand leaving her mother’s blood smeared across her luminescent blue skin. And as she touched her, the servants melted away. All around her, she could see her family lying dead. Strewn about like puppets whose strings had been cut, with puddles of deep crimson staining the polished marble beneath them. And all Cassie could do was stare, her hands slipping away from her mother’s chest. “You should have died with us, Cassandra. You didn’t deserve to be the one to live. Not when it’s when your fault that we died.” As the Stellar Queen spoke, blood spilled from her lips, staining her sky blue skin  and polished white teeth. 

Cassie stared in horror, and she began to scream, scream as she had never before. Scream for her fallen siblings, for her mother, for her father and his poor wives. For everything that had happened. And because in her heart, she knew her mother was right. 

OC-TOBER day 12 // meet my mcs!

crystal peg'asi 💜 (she/her)

verse(s): andromeda six, swan song