Motetus

Thesis update: 8.5k words in - it sounds pathetic given that many of you could probably come up with that in a few hours (though I doubt you have to pause in the middle of a sex scene to trawl PubMed and find that paper that supports the rimming in it) but for me that's pretty decent! And they are good words, or will be once I take out the billion unnecessary commas. Introduction is nearly done and in a week or so I can get started on those results chapters I've been dreading. I can't shake the feeling that it's just too easy - surely writing a thesis is supposed to be far more unpleasant than this? Well, suppose there's still plenty more time for that to happen. At some point I am likely to post my "why writing a thesis is like taking a long reluctant poop" essay, but I promise I will warn you all beforehand so you can defriend me and never have to see it (I'm not kidding, I've put a lot of thought into this).

One unexpected side effect of thesis writing: I want to draw ALL the things, though this is actually a good thing because it takes my mind off everything in the evenings. My enthusiasm for anything complex and time-consuming is limited, so I've been churning out simple quick things and posting them to Tumblr as I go along. Here they are...

( Inception, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Dragon Age )

I did it, I finally slew this dinosaur-shaped thing that's been lurking in my WIP folder for over a year... wait, no, make that two years. Huh, I think that's a new record for me. Anyway. Finished! \o/

So, this is a long-overdue gift for the wonderful agenttrojie, who deserves all credit for the title and concept (that is what I love about all you people in fandom, you ensure I never have to use my own imagination). The idea, which I stole from one of her WIP descriptions, was that the team attempt to extract from someone whose militarisation manifests DINOSAURS (Arthur has neglected to research that bit of information again, and so Cobb does more angry finger-pointing), and that meant I could draw all sorts of ridiculously enjoyable things like angry dinosaurs and Eames with a rocket launcher and adorable dinosaurs making friends with Cobb. Trojie, your idea was awesome and I had a very fun time with this, and I hope it makes you happy! <3 And ahem, inspires you to finish that WIP one day...

No attempt at scientific accuracy was made at any point (am pretty sure Stegosaurus and T-Rex/raptors/angiosperms did not exist in the same era), but the wonderful thing about PASIV extraction scenarios is that you can wave your hands about and protest that it's just a dream, and then go back to being lazy. And, uh, ignore the incorrect handedness. THE THINGS YOU ONLY NOTICE AFTER 2 YEARS OF LOOKING AT IT.



( DINOSAURSSSSS )

How the part of my brain responsible for summoning up enthusiasm for drawing works:

Have 2 weeks (mostly) off work, no obligations and weather too miserable to venture outside: should we draw? NO. SLEEPING UNTIL NOON AND DRAGON AGE FOREVER.

Have crazy exhausting flustered two weeks, in the lab at weekends, dealing with a huge experiment and not sleeping terribly well because of it: YES TIME TO DRAW DRAW DRAW DRAW!!!

I am not sure this is the best way to go about things. Anyway, art! I felt a bit rusty after the endless days marathoning Dragon Age (man, this would totally be my new fandom if the fandom weren't so spectacularly wanky), so did another palette meme over on Tumblr. I probably should have had a think about whether I actually liked these colours before going for it because ew, they're not great and the lack of contrast made me rage, but I suppose that makes it a challenge.



( Penny Dreadful, The Eagle, The Dark Knight Rises, Star Wars, Inception, and Dragon Age Inquisition )

For this year's first i_reversebang prompt, I dug up an old idea for a pirate AU where Arthur is rather excited about plundering the high seas and Eames is the unfortunate overgrown cabin boy. The original plan was to spend lots of time diligently researching pirate clothing and ship rigging and making everything as accurate as possible, but I just ended up replaying The Secret of Monkey Island instead. Good enough.


( You fight like a dairy farmer )

And the story that goes along with it!

Title: A Sea Chantey of Sorts
Author: truthismusic
Summary: Eames is marooned by the Captain of the ship he's been a part of, after breaking one of the rules of the pirate code. When he's looking for a way to make it back to civilization he's found by another crew. Now he has to deal with a new captain, a new ship, crew, and a new set of rules because that's just his luck.

I'm probably overdue a lovely boring update about my RL adventures that I know you're all riveted by, but until then: more art! I had the idea of Arthur as a paramedic suggested to me by anne_jumps and it was a most pleasing idea. Turned out into quite a pleasing thing to draw too - I had a lot of fun painting this and coming up with the lighting, but the most fun was had when checking out hot paramedics for, uh... uniform research, that was it.



( EMT Arthur )

And because my superpower is using art to trick people into writing things, anne_jumps wrote a lovely story whose title has kept me amused all day to go with the art! \o/

A very happy birthday to osprey_archer! I hope you have a lovely day and that there is lots of delicious cake. I have no cake for you as it doesn't go through the internet very well, but instead here is a little drawing for you of the gorgeous Giulia Farnese:





I also have a few more birthday sketches (Inception, Star Wars and The Eagle) that I put up on Tumblr recently, so here they are for everyone smart enough to stay away from that dreadful place:
( Beards, swishy gold capes and horsies )

Also! I am working my way through that palette meme that's been doing the rounds and enjoying it a lot, so if anyone wants to request something for it, go right ahead and do that in the comments! :) It's quite simple, the picture explains it all, although it may be a while before I work my way through all of them. So far the characters and palettes requested have been Arthur, Eames, Ariadne, Fischer, Saito, Hilarion and Marcus, and #1, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13 and 14, so anything aside from those is fair game. Especially if it's a non-Inception/Sutcliff character! Make me draw Dark Knight Trilogy stuff, yes, or anything else, really.

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If there's anything more enjoyable than rummaging through my box of Ridiculous Ideas, it's doing that then watching some poor author try to turn it into a story. :D

I would make a boring and terrible travel writer, so my three weeks in the USA are going to summarised in a handful of photos, with minimal droning on. And a couple of sketchbook pages, except those are entirely unrelated to anything I saw on holiday, because I refuse to pretend to be a Proper Artist.

( San Francisco to Portland, Hawaii )

( A letter arrived in the post today... )

fruityshirts, I really don't know what to say. You're a goddamn genius, you are.

(I can start Monday)

A while ago I volunteered to create art as a prize for an inceptiversary scavenger hunt winner, and luckily I ended up with an absolutely lovely person whose request was Eames patching Arthur up after a job gone wrong, and who didn't mind when my response was "sure, shirtless Arthur, I can do that, but more importantly, how do you feel about a billion insignificant background details that will take me months and months, YEAH, BACKGROUND DETAILS"

At first I was going to go along with the obvious setting of a hotel room, but then I came across these family holiday photos from about twenty years ago which had this charming old Malay kampung house with blue painted wood panels and gorgeous shuttered windows with intricate green grilles, and suddenly I thought a shabby little safe house in south-east Asia would be a much more interesting location. So sorry I'm using your photography to help me draw slash, dad.

Many thanks to Ms Soot for being so patient and such a pleasure to create art for, and also for being so open to all my ideas. Thanks also to the ever-patient bauble, whose critical eye saved this from being an anatomical clusterfuck!



( I shall leave what Eames is smirking about/Arthur is eyeing Eames about up to your imaginations. Though it's kind of obvious, really. )