Art: The Eagle Big Bang - Illustrations for 'If the Darkness Lasts' [The Eagle]

[motetus]

Illustrations for seascribe's Big Bang Eagle fic If the Darkness Lasts. It's an wonderful canon-era OT3 story... with zombies! A huge thank you to seascribe for writing such a fantastic and enjoyable story for me to illustrate, and for all her encouragement and endless patience every time I emailed her wailing "this is not my best work, I am so sorry, WHY IS STUPID MARCUS HOGGING ALL THE DRAWINGS?"

Warnings: NSFW for nudity/sexual content, and underage sexuality (Cottia is 16/17 years old, though an adult within the setting of the story and I've tried not to make her look visibly underage).

Also, some spoilers for the story, so I'd suggest reading that first (the art is embedded in the fic anyway).

Comments

[poziomeczka.livejournal.com]

oh god OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD.


I WISH YOU WERE IN GLASGOW ALREADY SO I COULD RUN UP TO YOUR DOORSTEP AND SQUEAL RIGHT INTO YOUR FACE.

[ladytiferet.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's absolutely beautiful and perfect and arghhh I just don't have words :)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Okay, remind me to never, ever give you my new address, because that's quite the frightening mental image. Especially if you do it at an ungodly hour in the morning.

(NEXT WEEK! Uh, that is if the sodding estate agent ever gets around to sorting things out)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very much! I'm so glad I got such a fantastic story that gave me the opportunity to finally draw Cottia.

(um, could you do me a favour and tell me if a smutty Marcus/Cottia picture is showing up for you - it should be in between the zombies and the Uncle Aquila picture? Thanks!)

[ladytiferet.livejournal.com]

The one with her on top? Yeah :D

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you! Must have just been Seascribe's computer objecting to her viewing smut. :P

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Is this the part where I'm supposed to be coherent? BECAUSE THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. These are all BEAUTIFUL, I love your Cottia so so so so much. ♥ ♥ ♥ Seriously, I am completely overjoyed at the fact that she is in four of these. And you painted the OT3 picture of my heart.

I still can't quite believe I was so lucky--any one of these would have been more than I could ever have hoped for, they are that awesome, but to get so many, and all of them about things I love that don't tend to be mainstream in this fandom, that's AMAZING, and I'm grateful.

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

WOW!! Gorgeous work! I especially like the color choices - they're real and earthy, making the images more realistic, somehow.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEE *deep breath* EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Oh, these are beautiful. (Except maybe the lurching zombies, not so beautiful. You know what I mean.) I think my favorite is the cover art, actually -- I really like the composition of the three of them. Seriously, if I had a novel I would commission you to do the cover art.

Can I ask if your Cottia is modeled after someone in particular? She's cute!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D I'm so glad you like the colour palettes - my problem with these, as the canon setting and the plain clothing, was that everything had to be so... brown! So I'm very pleased to think it works. :)

[augustbird.livejournal.com]

OMG

ALL OF THESE

WORDS WHAT ARE THEY

OMG ALL OF THEM BUT I ESPECIALLY CANNOT STOP STARING AT THE COTTIA/MARCUS ONE OMG I THINK IT'S THE LIGHTING THAT'S ENTRANCING ME @____@

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Dude, you have no idea how happy you've made me - knowing you like it all is the best feeling ever. :D Especially seeing as it was mostly your fics that made me such an OT3 fan! Really, I am grinning like a loon here - thank you so much!

I'm going to go stick your fic on my Kindle and have a reread, so I can leave you a more intelligent comment. And go play my Wild-West-with-zombies video game, because you've kinda put me in the mood for that. :D

[motetus.livejournal.com]

YOU DO TERRIBLE THINGS TO MY EGO WITH YOUR CAPSLOCK.

Thank you, thank you so much! Argh, that Marcus/Cottia one gave me so many headaches with the skin tones, but I really like it now! I dunno how many other people do what with it being Marcus/Cottia instead of Marcus/Esca, but sod them, *I* like Marcus/Cottia. :D

[motetus.livejournal.com]

BRB, BLUSHING FOREVER. Thank you so much! :D I was so thrilled I got such an awesome story to work on, especially since I've been wanting to draw Cottia for ages.

Heh, I actually didn't have a reference for Cottia's face - I was intending to, but once I got sketching she sort of developed her own distinctive features. She's not *exactly* how I picture her in my head though - sibila_cantus's recent OT3 art was closer to how I really picture her, with wilder, curlier hair. But it was easier to draw her like this! :P

Cannot wait for your BB, btw! It's been far too long since I've read a fic by you. :D

[quinesale.livejournal.com]

That's incredibly amazing, stunning. Seriously, I don't have enough words. Great work!!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, the colours!

I love your Cub, he looks so fierce! And so does Cottia!

*must read the story now, have been looking forward to it for aaages*

[the-little-owl.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! These are awesome! (Even the zombies, uh, being awesome in their awfulness.) I think I like the picture with Uncle Aquila best, and the threesome in bed, of course. Lucky Marcus, ending up as the man in the middle!

[goblin-dae.livejournal.com]

Oh my god - these are brilliant. The cover is BEAUTIFUL and all the backgrounds are just lovely - all soft and moody and wild. Your anatomy and figure drawing has come so far too. Every pose is great and really expressive.

God, I hate you!

[citruses.livejournal.com]

EXCUSE ME WHILE I FAIL AT COHERENCY

I JUST

THESE ARE SO PERFECT

THE COVER AND CUB AND COTTIA AND UNCLE AQUILA AND ZOMBIES AND UGH, JUST, EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS PERFECT I LOVE IT HERE HAVE SOME EXCLAMATION MARKS !!!!

I THINK I LOVE ALL THE COTTIA MOST OF ALL, BUT, OH GOD, EVERYTHING IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you! I'm glad you like the colours - I spent many an hour cursing the dull colours of their outfits as I struggled to find a shade of brown I hadn't already used somewhere else in the picture. :P

Hope you enjoyed the story! I'm really looking forward to your art and seeing your Cottia. :D

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had a bit of a struggle with the zombies though - a struggle to keep them from getting ridiculously gory with gaping wounds and jaws missing... I've obviously watched far too many zombie films, haven't I?

Yes, lucky Marcus indeed! He makes a comfy pillow, he does.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

UNF. SEXY THREESOME IS SEXEH. SO GOOD. GOD I LOVE THESE. YOU DREW COTTIA PERFECTLY. AND WAIT WHAT. IS THIS A ZOMBIE STORY???

[http://users.livejournal.com/__hibiscus/]

Oh wow, your art is gorgeous!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that really is the BEST comment ever (wait, are you just buttering me up so I'll agree to be your home-made ice-cream guinea pig? GOD. FINE THEN I SUPPOSE), hearing I'm making some improvement is awesome. I'm still using references, but for specific body parts and sort of piecing everything together and filling in the gaps, rather than relying heavily on one reference (and bless Channing Tatum for all his nude/semi-nude modelling photos, reassuring me he really does have freakishly long limbs).

I have a small confession though. That last picture? I may have spent several hours trying to figure out horse backside perspective, tack, baggage, rider position, failing, working myself into a foul, miserable mood, then deciding I should just bloody well cheat for once before I determined whether the tablet or the computer would shatter first upon violent contact with the other. So uh, that foreground horse? Mostly traced. I wanted to finish it and get back to my videogame. THERE, NO NEED TO HATE ME.

My plan for the two weeks I have off in between here and the PhD is to knuckle down with that Loomis book and start working my way through. Other plans for that fortnight are packing up everything, moving up to Glasgow, reading about 20 papers for the PhD, seeing my parents, working on my Inception Big Bang art/Downton Abbey threesome art, seeing my parents, cleaning, a wedding. Too optimistic, you think?