Motetus

Well crap. I think my internet is, to phrase it in the most accurate and technical way possible, fucked, and according to the engineer who spent 8 hours here today, might not be fixable (it's alive, but makes dial-up look cutting edge). No-one post picspams or art or shiny imagey things until it starts behaving. THAT IS AN ORDER.

Anyway, assuming I can get the sodding thing to post, this is something small I did for tracy7307, who is (hopefully!) back home now and feeling better. Tracy, you have been so incredibly brave lately, and I am in so much awe of how upbeat and positive you've managed to remain. I hope this cheers you up a little, and that you recover quickly! ♥

Esca/Marcus - university AU illustration for her charming little drabble Fine in My Toes



( Esca shakes Marcus’s hand but doesn’t let go. He holds it and leans his head on Marcus’s shoulder. His fluffy hair tickles Marcus’s neck – a feeling Marcus thinks he could get used to. )

Um... what else? Oh yeah - I visited ainsoph15 last weekend, there was much Old Roman Shit and Boozing, and I had a lovely time because she is AWESOME. Everyone, you have to visit her at least once - she gives you cake and tea and mojitos and books and plum crumble! I rated her very highly on Tripadvisor when I got back. I should have my photos returned in a few days (film! how quaint!) and if you get really turned on by endless Roman walls, you are in for a treat.

I am currently all "WAAAH my entry for the ninth_eagle fanmedia challenge, while sort of pretty, is utterly boring and uninspired and YELLOW. WAAAH." So I decided to scrap it and instead I will now attempt to draw Placidus. In the bathtub. With a rubber Centurion ducky. Why do I have all the stupid ideas? :(

Every time I make a post that doesn't contain art I feel that I should be terribly apologetic about it, like most people aren't following me for anything other than shiny drawings. Sorry, no art in this post either. But that doesn't mean I've been slacking off lately - so far I have 3 completed things and two more that are halfway done. All are illustrations for the same fic, because I'm being terribly slutty about it and the settings are so much fun to draw. Might even try to squeeze in one more before it gets posted. So, you might have to wait a few more weeks before I make a worthwhile post, but the elephants are awesome and well worth waiting for.

Ha, I have become so smug and conceited lately. Someone needs to smack me and then compile a list of everything I can't draw for shit.

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I am a horrible entitled hypocritical cow. I make all sorts of grumbling noises about how there are so many AUs in Eagle fandom and even though a lot of them are amazing, I wish there was more canon stuff. And then I go and come up with AUs of my own that will not leave me alone.

So er, I kind of want an AU that's in the Red Dead Redemption setting. For those of you who don't spend as much time glued to video games as much as I do, it's about an ex-outlaw in the dying days of the Wild West, but it's less spaghetti western and more gritty and dark-humoured. The world is just fantastic: outlaws, lawmen, cattle ranches, horse-breaking, Mexico, anti-Semitic shopkeepers, hunting, gunfights, prostitutes (that your character is far too gentlemanly to sleep with, but hogtieing them and leaving them to be devoured by coyotes is quite all right), grizzly bears and train-robbing. And then there's the outfits. Man, do I have a boner for cowboy outfits.

( Here, have some pictures to get a better idea of what I mean )

This is ridiculous. Why do I get the feeling I am going to be drawing all this myself because no-one else will touch it? Crap. I don't even know what the hell Marcus and Esca would be in it. Rival outlaws? Outlaw and lawman? Happy gay ranchers? WHY AM I CONTEMPLATING THIS?

Wife's response to me gibbering about this idea:

Wife: Why don't you just draw plain old Red Dead Redemption fanart? Why do you have to make it all gay?
Me: BECAUSE NO-ONE WILL GIVE A TOSS ABOUT IT IF I DO THAT.

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I was really, really tempted to sign up for the Inception Big Bang but had to be sensible and give it a pass, because I've got the Journeystory one and really want to provide illustrations for both the Eagle fics that will hopefully come out of that, and then there's the Eagle Big Bang I'll probably sign up for as well. Oh yeah, and maybe I should spend more time on that thesis. But dammit, I really wanted to try drawing some Arthur/Eames. SULK.

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I had a craving for Vietnamese food this weekend so went looking for the first place I found on the internet. It was a small, shabby place in a slightly dodgy-looking location, with a tiny menu and meals costing only £6. And it was INCREDIBLE. Best Vietnamese food I've had outside of Asia. I'm going to live there from now on.

Me: You know, brain, it might be a good idea to take a short rest after finishing that massive time-consuming painting. Read a book. Take a walk. Just watch some mindless drivel on TV.
Brain: No no no no no DRAW STUFF.
Me: Okay, fine. Why don't you finish off that Morgana painting you've had sitting on the desktop for months? The deadline for that is coming up.
Brain: NO. MAMMOTH HERDING.
Me: What? No! There already is an awesome and hysterical mammoth drawing!* You don't need another one!
Brain: Yeah, but BAAAABY mammoths.
Me: But we agreed we had a list and were going to do things in order. Morgana, St. John/Marcus, W is for, HG(M)F mkII. You promised to stick to it!
Brain: This baby mammoth is going to be so adorable, it will trigger everyone's vomit reflex.


Yeah, the reason I have been churning out so much art lately is because work is going shitty (I used the word "motherfucking" a bit too much in my meeting with my post-doc today; luckily she is awesome) and flinging myself at the computer and tablet every night stops me from thinking about it. I am going to get started on the introduction for my thesis, which means I'll be sitting at my computer this weekend making noises like I'm constipated because for me, writing is extremely similar but without the feeling of satisfaction you get afterwards.


* You should all LOOK AT THIS ART that the_little_owl  drew. Stone-age famers Marcus and Esca! Angry rock-throwing dwarf mammoths! It is hilarious and adorable, and you should all bully her into drawing more Eagle stuff.

1. Screw you LJ, I was writing this huge post all sodding day and then you eat it right when I'm about to hit post.


2. If I write down some of the stupid ideas I have rattling around my head, do you think they will leave me alone for a while so I can concentrate on doing sensible adult things like going to work and remembering to cook dinner before midnight? Probably not.

(anyone caught encouraging these will receive a good spanking)

Fecking Eagle stuff first:

Hibernia face-painting illustration. carmarthen has discovered that the way to get me to draw something is to simply tell me to, for I am as biddable as Marcus in the bedroom. Getting the two very different types of lighting (fire/moonlight) correct is going to be HARD, but at least I can hide all the tricky background stuff in darkness. And I can finally put my giant costume history book to use, for it has lots of super illustrations of Celtic clothing. *dances*

Happy gay (modern) farmers part II. S is for Sith Academy convinced me that I can just about draw interior perspective and clutter, so I'm thinking of a kitchen scene full of shameless farming stereotypes with an Aga, a cat on the Aga, Kath Kidston teatowels and old battered inherited Le Cruset pots (yes there may be some fantasy-fulfilment going on here, but in my defence I didn't come up with half of that list). And Marcus making tea and trying to be affectionate while Esca's all "piss off Marcus, can't you see I'm trying to read my Classic Tractor magazine?" Um, I may be a little in love with this AU.

Centurion Marcus. I just really want an excuse to draw Marcus in that gorgeous armour, because I've had a Roman uniform kink since I was 6 years old thanks to Asterix (seriously. I even had a crush on the crocodile from Fantasia because he had a swishy red cloak and then he took it off and I was SAD) and I really want to paint a big epic landscape with Marcus gazing into the distance with his cloak billowing around him and thinking YES I AM A MAGNIFICENT MANLY ROMAN. If I can work in Esca somehow, even better, though I might have to poke sineala until she lets me illustrate her Army AU for that to make sense. I think I'll put this on the back burner for the moment while I sort out exactly what I want to do with it, and in the meantime I'll doodle Roman armour at work and claim they're preliminary sketches.

Marcus being ruled by Esca's thighs. She who is responsible for this knows who she is. Stupid Alexander/Hephaestion comment. At 3am this morning I came up with an picture in my head that would suit this, and it's also the reason why my performance in our 9am lab meeting went along the lines of "Uhh... this week I'm doing... something with proteins? I think? Btw, what's a protein again?" So, the idea was Esca all sprawled out and Marcus curled up between his glorious thighs, worshipping them as he should. Might be revised depending on whether I can find the anatomy references I'll need - while I'm getting better at not having to rely so much on references, the amount of nudity I have planned means I probably shouldn't try pulling it all out of my head unaided.

Biology PhD students!Esca/Marcus AU. I swear to Mithras I have not been looking around my lab for places/equipment they could do hot, sweaty things against. I SWEAR.

Something gen with Uncle Aquila and Stephanos, because I may be a little in love with these two. Latrunculi?

Also. I am a little smitten with with this photo and want to do something similar. Problem is, the setting is too similar to the current cuddling painting, so either I wait a few months or I use it in another fandom. Dunno what, though.

This fandom, WHAT IS IT DOING TO ME? It's a really good thing that all the prompts on the kink meme that interest me have been filled already, or this list would be even longer. Okay okay, here are some non-Eagle things:

Padme/Breha for the alphabet challenge prompt W. Those naughty girlies again, this time rolling around in bed half-naked. I kinda want to give them big fancy hairdos, or at least half-undone big fancy hairdos, but I doubt that would make for comfortable sleeping. But then again, Padme's nightdress in ROTS was that ridiculous blue thing with strings of pearls along the arms, and that couldn't have been comfy either. Maybe she's used to it.

Mark Antony/Lucius Vorenus. I have no idea where this came from, but I really want to draw lecherous!Antony (uh, is there any other kind?) eyeing up poor Vorenus (in his lovely armour that he gets after being made Evocati, because did I mention the uniform kink?) with a smirk on his face, and Vorenus is looking very worried. It's rather sad that that out of all the things I could do with these two (I mean, I love Vorenus and Pullo as much as the next person, but I have such a hard time buying them having a more-than-brotherly-love relationship because Vorenus is just so damn Roman. Vorenus/Antony however - Antony is much more depraved and has more power over Vorenus than Pullo does so yes, I could see that. Um, this parenthesis is getting awfully long) I pick something so tame and family-friendly. Hm, Antony in toga, Antony in uniform, or Antony in Egyptian clothing and eyeliner?

URGH. And the second I complete one of these, another dozen will spring up to take its place. I suppose I don't really need that masters anyway.


3. The state of the WIPs.

Qui-Gon/Tahl. Looking awesome, even if I do say so myself. If I can convert just one person to Tahl or carrots, I will be a happy girl. With the exception of two hands, most of the hard stuff is done and I just need to tidy up the bodies and paint the vegetables. Hopefully I should get this finished some time next week.

Sappy Esca/Marcus cuddling. FINALLY got Marcus's face looking how it should - he's a bit less handsome now but that is all Channing Tatum's fault, not mine. Now watch me attempt to paint all those blanket folds without having a brain haemorrhage.

Nekkid Morgana. This stalled at the initial colour blocking stage - I'll probably return to it once one of the above are finished. The deadline isn't until August so I'm going to take my time with it.


4. Barely in time, but happy MMoM!

Bet you thought I'd forgotten, swcajolings. Perhaps next year I will be a little more organised and offer you something more than a 5-minute photo study.

( Very NSFW sketch )