sovonight

[sovonight]

undercover in the underdark

#sovo art #i know everyone's supposed to be disguised as the actual drow party that went 'missing' but it's funner to draw a palette swap >_< #i'll honor the actual disguise when/if i write abt the underdark sequence though

[sovonight]

why is so much of sewing just tracing and cutting and tracing again q_q i see why people get projectors and use adobe illustrator now

#drawing up a design that i can easily pattern from my sloper: 😊 #actually having to make the pattern by tracing and cutting ad infinitum: 😰 #piecing together printer paper to get a big enough sheet of paper and doing this ten million times: 🥲😭 #not to mention the IRONING.... prewashing the fabric and having to iron 8 yards of fabric???? excuse me???? #and then distorting it as i iron bc it has a slight stretch and i got so tired i stopped being careful 2 yards in #and the way that you're supposed to press every seam... excuse me... am i just supposed to have my iron heated and on standby at all times #AND THE STEAM??? i just got stay tape the other day and thought it'd be a neat alternative to stay stitching #BUT IT NEEDS STEAM TO ACTIVATE (which okay makes sense) BUT long story short i'm too afraid to use the steam function #on my iron because none of us are sure if water should go back into a tank that's been in disuse for 30+ years #so instead i get this water spray pen and delicately spray down the length of each piece of stay tape #before i cover it with a piece of gauze and iron it. and then i have to iron it extra so all the water actually evaporates #oh and the spray pen holds as much water as half a pen so i have to walk to the kitchen every 10 sprays to refill it #and i have to do this for every curved edge on my pattern pieces #i mean the alternative is just stay stitching but then i would have to calibrate my settings for a single layer of fabric instead of double #which means i have to switch my needle out more and i'm still new enough that sometimes i install a needles wrong despite going through #all the same exact motions that i usually would. i'm LITERALLY suffering out here. anyway can't wait to sew or whatever #oh and did i mention i went to a sewing meetup recently? yeah... #everyone there bought like $30-$100/yard fabric and i was there awkwardly knowing i only buy like $12/yard fabric #honestly though i have the opposite problem people usually joke about. i find it So hard to find fabric i actually like #it needs to be the right fiber + right color + right pattern/texture + right weight + i have to know exactly what i'm going to make with it

[sovonight]

sneaky

#wanted to see them again 🥺 #self rb

[sovonight]

I have an incredibly weird question, but who do you manufacture your 2-inch standees through? I've been looking for a place to make them for my dnd characters, and yours turned out so nice.

i'm guessing you're only looking to get 1 or 2 standees per design? my manu wouldn't be useful in that case since they have a higher MOQ--even i don't order OC merch with them because i don't know what i'd do with all the extras.

the most straightforward place i can recommend is zap!creatives (which is where i printed this charm/standee!). it's not going to have a double-sided base like my dipper standee, and it's probably going to take 2 months to get to you, but the process is pretty painless and you'll probably get an extra copy thrown in from their quality check. they should also be pretty responsive if you have questions or if anything goes wrong.

the second option is ordering off vograce, but their quality can be unpredictable and their customer service can be poor. third option is to go on alibaba and find a manu who's willing to print one-offs, but that's pretty involved, and i wouldn't recommend it unless you're planning on making and selling merch.

#sovo answers

[sovonight]

will you ever restock the medley sticker in this new starburst holo pattern again? i was going for a full completionist run of owning every gravity falls item youve released since i joined the fandom in every pattern and variant and i did the timezone conversion wrong and it sold out in 20 minutes. this is the worst thing thats ever happened to me </3

the pines medley sticker will be coming back! that one is in my usual starry holo, so don't worry, it'll be the same going forward ^^

#sovo answers #completionist run?!! Q_Q thank you!

[sovonight]

they're up!

the ddamd ford charm/standee is back, along with a matching dipper! they'll be in the shop update on monday, 4/22 at 10 am pdt!

most of my gravity falls stickers will also be back in stock, a few of which are temporarily in a variant starry holo (i've changed the photos for those, so you'll know what the variant looks like). i'll have a couple ford and stan charms listed as well!

[sovonight]

.

#i really do hate bg 3... like not even the game itself just that it shows up literally everywhere #and is generally referred to as a universally loved game #there is literally no escape its littered in merch artist spaces bc its a popular property #the way that its its own little touchstone?? urgh! augh! do Not let bg 3 represent all choice-based rpgs w romances #sorry for my 1 am hater hours but if bg 3 has no haters i am dead etc etc

[sovonight]

the ddamd ford charm/standee is back, along with a matching dipper! they'll be in the shop update on monday, 4/22 at 10 am pdt!

most of my gravity falls stickers will also be back in stock, a few of which are temporarily in a variant starry holo (i've changed the photos for those, so you'll know what the variant looks like). i'll have a couple ford and stan charms listed as well!

#fanmerch #don't worry that you can't see the listings yet--they're automatically hidden until 10 am :)

[sovonight]

i was really hoping to get your original stan and ford charms will they be back in stock at somepoint?

i have a couple leftovers that i'll be able to list when the ddamd ford standee restock comes in ^^

#sovo answers #to make sure that everyone who wants one can order one im thinking about planning a preorder for the stan & ford charms #fair warning that the turnaround time is Not fast--which is why i've only offered things in-stock for the past couple years-- #but i really like the quality which is why i've been ok with the turnaround time personally #i'm still thinking about it and will have to time things out but if it does happen i'll post about it in detail 👍

[sovonight]

version 1 complete! i found that it's a little unnecessarily complex for printed minky though, so version 2 is on its way ^^

reworking their plush designs into a smaller size :>

[sovonight]

i finally sat down to try and chart out radri's bg1 journey so that i could write early xadri with some actual regard for the events of the game, and realized that since i always make a beeline for xan and then explore absolutely everything outside of baldur's gate before finally entering the city, the majority of the game happens in chapters 3 and 4 for me 😖

(meanwhile xan's journal has him only starting his silent treatment when you first enter baldurs gate--which is insane to me, like in that timeline there's a very real chance you return to candlekeep right when xan's just decided to give the relationship a chance?? but i've never liked xan's journal anyway, so--)

my reasoning for why radri doesn't start exploring and doing side quests in earnest until after recruiting xan is that it makes sense to me that radri would be too shaken by gorion's death to do anything but follow other people's suggestions for her in the first 2 chapters--first gorion's last instructions, and then jaheira and khalid's existing obligation in nashkel. (it's also supported by the game's timeline, since you arrive at nashkel "with your hurried flight from Candlekeep barely behind you," but i do ignore the intended timeline a lot so i don't want to reference it too much lol)

honestly i think jaheira pulled radri out of her fog a bit on the way to nashkel, by teaching/lecturing her about leading and adventuring; the feeling of being back in "lessons" was kind of comforting in its own way (even though jaheira is too brash for radri to have actually liked the unsolicited advice then). it's not like radri was comfortable with jaheira and khalid yet, but she at least was assured that these are the people that gorion knew and trusted.

as for xan's recruitment, it's not like it was a huge moment for either of them--for her he's just someone she was unexpectedly able to help, and for him he was just relieved to be free--but his presence in the party dynamic definitely throws radri off autopilot. he asks so many questions of her, and compared to the other party members is such a total newcomer to her, that it means she has to think about things again. like, jaheira spoke at her most of the time (not out of inconsideration but just out of, like. jaheira thinks radri will speak up when she has something to say, when radri absolutely will not); khalid tried to be considerate about her recent loss by keeping things polite and surface level with her; and imoen is replaying familiar dynamics with her, trying to keep things light and upbeat. meanwhile xan is actually having conversations with her, and it helps that she finds him kind of familiar (books, turning pages, scholarly study), interesting (he's a font of elven cultural knowledge that she was always too embarrassed to show much interest in growing up--after all, what's the point of learning about a people she will never get to join?), and oddly compelling (everything else about him).

(on a sidenote, radri did recruit montaron and xzar, but purely for safety in numbers; she was creeped out by them and barely interacted with them at all, and was relieved to ditch them for xan)

my reasoning for why radri stalls in chapters 3-4 instead of completing the main quest in a timely manner is, again, that she procrastinates because she's afraid. the assassins, the mysterious spells she's been gifted, and the foreshadowing in her dreams... it's easier to chase side quests and fix things and help people to get that tiny dose of "i'm doing something right," than to let the fear of what's coming for her escape the back of her mind. if you asked her about her delay she'd come up with an excuse, but tbh the excuse is for herself too, because she doesn't confront her fears herself until she's practically forced to at candlekeep.

i started putting an outline together just using the wiki, but ideally i would play through the game again to mark down what order xan's conversations happen in T_T i know it's possible to suss it out from the dialogue files, but i've never figured out how to read the trigger conditions lol. ofc, chapter 3 has the most bullet points atm--

(a back to back assassin encounter, because somehow that's always the way it plays out in my playthroughs. i fight nimbul, get hurt, go into the inn, forget that there's still an assassin there from earlier, trigger a fight with the other assassin, heave a big sigh--)

the way that (iirc) xan's like "the boy has more sense than i do. i don't know why i let you keep dragging me around 😔💗" when he's already proposed is so funny to me

[sovonight]

How did you figure out your chibi style it’s sooooo cute !!!

aww thank you! tbh i always struggled with chibis (from as far as 9 years ago... i had to spend so long on this guy), i think because i've always tried to jam more detail in there than chibis are really meant for. i also feel like i've gone through a million styles lol, like even just looking at my kotor fanmerch almost each one has a different style

now that i think about it, my hurdle was that i couldn't picture normal chibi styles in 3d, so i was always at a loss as to what to do if i had to draw anything besides a static 3/4 view--and getting more detailed with them solved that problem for me. retaining a level of detail that allowed me to think about what every simplified feature really meant, like being able to see the curvature of the eyes, or the tip of the nose, really helped me keep things in place. i feel like my baldur's gate chibis are the first time i've really felt like i knew what i was doing haha, and since they're 3-heads tall i was able to add in all the details that i kept trying to fit in on 1.5- to 2-head chibis before

ofc, the downside of drawing detailed chibis like this is that i still have to draw normal hands.... i don't get to draw circle hands T_T

#sovo answers #god i wish i could draw circle hands. alas it never looks right to me on my chibis #i can't even fully get rid of the nose is how much i can't simplify chibis... i need the nose there even if only as a dot #chibis are supposed to be an easy fun fast style to draw and it takes me the exact same time as a regular style OTL

[sovonight]

Hello!

I just wanted to say that I absolutely ADORE your BG3 and Gravity Falls work! I got into both fandoms recently! (Gravity Falls for the first time in 9 years) my fiancée bought one of your Stan stickers, and I wanted to know if any old designs for stickers would restock? Her favorite is Stan, and of course my favorite has always been Ford.

I apologize if you’ve received this question a lot!

i don't have a restock date set, but restocking the stickers is on my list ^^ generally i'll always restock these four: 1, 2, 3, 4

#sovo answers #thanks for asking & i'm glad you like my art!

[sovonight]

;

#still thinking abt that scene in the underdark where xan is (force) propositioned by that drow lady #and while his first response is shock/apprehension ('*me*??') #radri loses regulation over the volume of her voice going 'what?! no!!' louder than anyone's ever really heard her before #when challenged though she can't come up with a drow-valid reason why hunrae *can't* just take xan #(yes i just now remembered her name lmao) #the thoughts 'bc consent??' 'he'd hate that' '*he's mine he promised*' keep getting translated into an ineffective verbal 'you just cant' #so xan saves himself and falls into a worse mood after it and radri falls into an equally poor mood at how she couldnt do anything/she can #never really do anything can she #oh but there's a kind of equivalent/reversal moment when radri's offered a 'night with one of with phaere's males' as a reward #and xan is just silently panicking/trying to reassure himself with 'she wouldn't' 'she'd hate that' 'she loves me... right?' #radri honestly has an easier time with the excuse this time bc she's not feeling as much panic/pressure as earlier #but the excuse that comes out is along the lines of 'uh monogamy is custom in my city and i already have a male--' #'NO no not one of these guys in my party!! (don't look too closely at them!)' #'i prefer not to travel with him! to make the reunions sweeter...??' #xan's mind catches on 'i prefer not to travel with him' and he gets in a bitter mood bc that might as well be true-- #bc really what use is he when he can't even do anything to help/save/protect her despite being right by her side #the underdark has them both on an internal monologue of 'i hate this' but while xan's is mainly towards their surroundings #radri's is almost entirely inward & so isnt eased the moment they reach the surface like xan's is

[sovonight]

kiss

#sovo art #xan x radri #another pose from the pose doc i saved ages ago...

[sovonight]

reworking their plush designs into a smaller size :>

#they're going to be printed on minky and if it works out i was thinking abt offering commissions for these??? #but i won't get too far ahead of myself

[sovonight]

the xadri zine came in ^^

i have a couple things to fix for the final print but the comic pages turned out well!

#i freshly edited every bit of writing & touched up all the comics so the contents are a Bit different than what i have online #i've only covered bg1 here though. i don't have nearly enough polished bg2 stuff yet... most of it would be in writing i think