ariadnearca

[ariadnearca]

In Lilac and Silver: now online!

It's Free Comicbook Day, my birthday, and the tail end of blossom season, so what better time to make my original comic In Lilac and Silver available online?

In Lilac and Silver is a 24-page speculative fiction comic about sisterhood and artificial immortality. When Cleo's recently deceased sister, Arina, comes back to life in the form of a cyborg, Cleo struggles with the meaning of personhood, and whether this is something she - or Arina - would really want...

You can read the comic here! All shares and replies/comments appreciated!

#free comic book day #in lilac and silver #quindrie press #original comic #comics

[ariadnearca]

Played a wee bit of Scurry by @stoutstoatpress a few months back and had a blast. I ended up drawing my character, Rowan Redsquirrel, as we played. She has a cute coat, a map of her nut stashes, and a special noisemaker artefact (read: dog whistle) for emergencies.

#scurry rpg #caraart #squirrel #always v grateful for understanding gms who let me draw while RPing

[ariadnearca]

A wee Rin I drew at a recent convention!

#rin khatayin #ffxiv #ffxiv au ra #ffxiv oc #xaela #I've been trying to be a bit more constructive with my 'for fun' ink pieces like this #mostly using more pose references etc #and it's no less fun and a lot more satisfying at the end #caraart

[ariadnearca]

are you still working ok fault lines? sorry if you have said its being discontinued or anything like that but i bought the comic books on june 3rd 2023 at glasgow comic con and i really want to know if there is going to be anymore!!

Hello!!! Sorry for slow response, I planned to answer weeks ago and then I caught COVID and suddenly it's been another fortnight, oops.

Anyway, yes, I will start updating the comic again: TONIGHT!!! I've had a powerful art block for the past year or so that has made comics in particular very difficult, but I'm starting to get through it, and I have a bunch of half-finished pages I've been sitting on since early 2023, so the time has come to start easing back into regular updates. Hoping to get the comic finished in 2025!

#fault lines update #sort of

[ariadnearca]

A wee Sylvester drawn as some pose practice while playing tabletop games at my local games store the other day.

(I've already managed to finish and post more art in January than I did while specifically trying to do art challenges in October, and that doesn't even count the experimental stuff I haven't felt like sharing...... wild. Next challenge is to figure out how to put some of that energy into comics)

#sylvester #original character #ink drawing #art #traditional art #d||d

[ariadnearca]

The interminable wait; the years-long cycle of hope and disappointment, as the Exarch recovered his strength, only to reach across the void and once again retrieve the wrong soul. I consider myself lucky to have only gone through it once, when Alisaie arrived. I cannot imagine what it was like for my friends, to have their hopes dashed again and again.  And surely none suffered more under that grim yoke than Ania. First to be called across the void, with only Thancred for company, separated from the realm that she had tirelessly worked to save, at great cost to her body and mind. Sentenced to wait, and wait, and wait.  Small wonder, perhaps, that she reacted as she did. Though I fear, dear reader, that my account thus far has led you to a poor outlook on her actions, I would caution you against the assumption that you would have behaved with any more propriety.  For in the absence of duty, what was the Source’s sword to do - but to lose herself fully to the deadly purpose for which she had been honed? -- Excerpt from ‘For Those We Can Yet Save: Journeys of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Vol III’, by Alphinaud Leveilleur

More digital practice using a scene from Umbra Dei, the Shadowbringers rewrite I'm doing with @inremote!

One of the two Warriors of Light arrives in the First alongside Thancred, and does not take it at all well.

#ffxiv #shadowbringers #roegadyn #gunbreaker #final fantasy xiv #caraart #reached “barely noticeable tweaks” stage of working on this one #so I'm punting it onto the internet before I lose my mind completely

[ariadnearca]

Oh, I really love messing around on the ipad now... I was going to do a few different sketches and post them all at the end of the month, but then I got carried away with this one.

Rin (Au Ra) is my Warrior of Light, Ania (Roegadyn) is @inremote 's!

#ffxiv #roegadyn #au ra #xaela #wolship #caraart

[ariadnearca]

With the same eyes as me The same fearing frame We can try and disguise Compromise rights And I know what you're thinking... - Blood by Sons and Daughters

Azem and her twin brother, the newly-appointed Emet-Selch. It is impossible to exist in Amaurot and not be aware of these prodigies' reputation, as well as their fierce rivalry. Now that they both occupy seats on the Convocation, the city looks forward to what they might accomplish together.

I was very lucky to get an iPad at Christmas as a gift from my parents, and spent about a week struggling to manage my frustration at learning a new setup, only for things to click yesterday, resulting in an evening of drawing frenzy.

Anyway: more FFXIV! The backstory for Rin's Azem, Abeona, never really clicked for me until I realised I could make her a sibling to Emet-Selch, and started building up their antagonistic relationship. They lived in one another's pockets their entire lives, up until Venat took an interest in Abeona and began to show her the world outwith Amaurot, unknowingly setting her on a path that would set the twins against one another for good.

#ffxiv #endwalker spoilers #azem #hades ffxiv #emet selch #caraart

[ariadnearca]

Dao, Ascendency Deserter

Belatedly finishing up the terrible trio I started back in October. Another original character in a new context!

'Deserter' is as unfair a title for Dao as it is unflattering, but those who would call her by that name have historically had a very different idea of what it means to be fair.

#dao #d||d #not sure if I've eased back into drawing her yet but this was better than the last attempt #technically dao could be described as 'dao of the x run' as with hannah/sylvester #but For Reasons it doesn't work as well for her #so here we are

[ariadnearca]

It's coming up on the end of the Shortbox Comics Fair so if you haven't already, please check out Ver's standalone comic Extinction!

I was lucky enough to offer some script edits for this and it has my wholehearted recommendation, even (particularly?) for those who are not usually into comics but are a fan of horror and/or carefully-constructed fantasy worlds. It's a fantastically dense story, equally visceral and heartwrenching, executed by someone who truly understands comics storytelling and how to use the medium to its utmost.

Buy it here and/or check out the extended preview here!

EXTINCTION - THE ENDLING

EXTINCTION is a fantasy / horror story about things that end. You can get it here as part of the Shortbox Comics Fair!

The Extinction PDF is screen-reader accessible.

#others' art #sticksandsharks #reading the finished comic after reading the script was an experience #the script was already brilliant #but the images added a whole new level of depth #as I knew it would through my familiarity with ver's work but it's always such a treat to experience #cannot wait for wildercourt next year

[ariadnearca]

I got a shiny Phantump in Pokemon Go yesterday, and I was SO enamoured with its colours that I had to draw something for it.

#pokemon #phantump #kalos #gen 6 #ghost pokemon #grass pokemon #artober #drawtober #caraart #pokemon go

[ariadnearca]

Sylvester of the Winterdark Run

Still doing art for October albeit very slowly! Seeing if I can draw my old terrible trio before the end of the month.

Sylvester: good at setting things on fire, though only sometimes literally. They're leaning into it these days, which is bad for absolutely everyone including themselves.

#sylvester #artober #oc-tober #d||d #yes they now occupy the same universe as hannah on a more official basis #no this isn't working out well for them #not because of hannah to be fair but because everywhere they go they bring themselves

[ariadnearca]

Hannah of the Mothlight Run

I am tentatively juggling a few art challenges this year - repostober over on Bluesky (I'm here!) and OC-Tober on both Bluesky and Tumblr. Sort of, anyway - I'm counting this as an opportunity to finish off some long-abandoned WIPs, so not everything I post for the challenge will be drawn for the challenge, so to speak.

Anyway, Hannah is one of my oldest original characters, having undergone various permutations over the years. I discovered a couple of months back that the last (non-fangem) version of her I posted here was in like, 2016, which is horrible. So here is her in her newest incarnation - and hopefully the gap between appearances won't be quite so long in the future!

#oc-tober #d||d #caraart #artober #drawtober #the epithet is tentative #but relevant to this specific drawing so it's getting used #hannah

[ariadnearca]

Easing back into making comics with this extremely self-indulgent FFXIV story. Post-Endwalker, Y'shtola and Rin (Warrior of Light) are separately dating Ania (also Warrior of Light) - a dynamic that takes some settling-in to. There are more of their adventures here: @rin-khatayin

(It's pretty easy to guess, but Mini is Ryne! It's Rin's nickname for her from the Minfilia days.)

#ffxiv #au ra wol #y'shtola #ffxiv comic #final fantasy 14 #thancred: oh boring #y'shtola: thancred. 'twould have been less intimate had she simply invited me to their bedchamber #caraart

[ariadnearca]

I'm doing a Final Fantasy 14 writing challenge! One prompt per day, with 24 hours to write for it. Posting over on Ao3 and linking to @rinkettar so as not to block up my dash too much. It's all very self-indulgent stuff but if you're interested in FFXIV, check it out!

FFXIVWrite Day 5: Barbarous

The auditorium hall has gone quiet. When Azem looks up, all she can see is corpses. Her friends - all fallen - everyone who came when she called, who agreed to stand between the Convocation and this battle between gods. Stewards, familiars, entelechies, creations, all reduced to inert shapes on the ground, their blood mingling together, a ghastly lacquer over the pale stone. The Thirteen stand amid the carnage, all but untouched.  The only thing that her allies have achieved is time. In truth, that was all they were ever going to do.  Her former colleagues have learned slaughter since they became the Thirteen. Half of the population, then half again. What is this motley group of rebels to them, when they have spent life in such higher quantities? They don’t even consider half of them to be people. “Enough,” Hades says. “Sister. It is over.”

On the precipice of apocalypse, Azem holds the Convocation at bay.

#ffxiv spoilers #final fantasy 14 spoilers #shadowbringer spoilers #writing is so so bittersweet because on the one hand #it's far and away a more enjoyable creative passtime for me than drawing #even with the fun pieces of art there's never a point that i'm not lowkey forcing myself to finish it #ofc it's infinitely harder to convince anyone to actually READ prose much less say anything about it #this is the one (1) advantage of comics lololol #fiction

[ariadnearca]

Still not making much progress on any Projects™, but I HAVE been having fun writing/doodling the relationship woes of my Final Fantasy XIV Warrior of Light, Rin, and her fellow WoL, @inremote's Ania Straka, the winner of the 1572 "Most Emotionally Repressed Survivor of Carteneau" award. Thankfully Ania's other girlfriend Y'shtola is happy to lend an ear.

Follow @rin-khatayin for my FFXIV sideblog!

Bonus:

#ffxiv #ffxiv wol #au ra xaela #roegadyn #y'shtola #Ania: don't ask don't ask don't ask. Be glad they had a lovely evening together #dontaskdontaskdontask #Also Ania: asks #ps my toxic ffxiv fan trait is making miqote have cat ears #sorry/not sorry #rin #ania #caraart

[ariadnearca]

I'm still SO SO delighted with this one, you caught their energy perfectly. Thank you so much for the revenge attack!!!

revenge on @ariadnearca of Sylvester! they seem like such a cool character 😎 thank you so much again for the attack!!! :D

#sylvester #art by others #sorry for the belated reblog #life was super busy for a bit there but I really loved this!!!!