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Give this a read!

Sekka 2023 - Winterized (Reference Sheet)

It's my tiger rogue! 2023 version includes more integration with the cultural inspirations from traditional Thai and Japanese attire! You can read my thoughts under the cut!

It's been two months since the Guiding Lights have left the Underdark, and it's beginning to become Winter. This is the coldest climate Sekka has ever experienced in her life, and she decides to stop shaving her head, and let her hair grow out a bit longer. Since copper is sacred to her tribe (or "streak", or "clan"), someone must be deemed worthy before being given any copper to wear. It represents someone's trust, love, and loyalties, and removing someone else's copper (or just their jewelry in general) is seen as a major offense and grounds for self-defense; her streak views each piece of copper as a piece of themselves, inherited from someone that cares about them. The Guiding Lights' adventures in the Underdark had driven Sekka to the edge with the kinds of enemies they were facing. With new copper captured from what she deemed to be unworthy owners, she had commissioned some Dwarves to purify the metal and use it to create some new accessories for her to replace what she had given to her teammates (read as: "newfound family").

Here's what the old reference looked like:

Credits to @stephanoodle for the adorable and badass character art of Sekka <3

Looking at the new reference, there's a lot more that can be spoken about.

The ear ornaments are little filigree covers which support the back of her ears, held in by simple piercings. The filigree pattern itself is inspired by thai lineart, such as the kranok pattern.

Traditional Thai clothing also many times features a chain belt made of precious metals like gold. For Sekka, this metal would invariably be copper. I chose a rectangular pattern for the belt because I felt it could represent the silhouettes of people, bound together, like family. The belt centrepiece is a four-petal flower that follows the kranok inspiration.

The pants that she wears is actually just a chongkraben- a traditional Thai garment that when girded, becomes something akin to pants, but when ungirded and left loose, would create a skirtlike silhouette like the sarong. I added a pattern-cut hole through all layers of the chongkraben for a copper ring to be inserted, for her tail to slip through. I especially like this garment because most anyone can wear it, men, women, children, adults, and everyone in between. This indiscriminate clothing with the ability to change silhouettes at the simplest tug speaks a lot to my inner thoughts on Sekka. On the field she is efficient, deadly and brutal, exploiting anything in the vicinity to keep the enemy crippled. These last few months have given her time to reflect and realize that at the end of the day, she just wants to be a normal woman with normal needs, desires, fears, and dreams. I think the chongkraben is a subtle symbol for this duality which she has begun to confront.

Her shirt is also inspired by Thai raatpatan pattern shirts. It filled her need for something that reminded her of home, but also something that fits in both a practical and aesthetic sense.

The way she wears the shirt is inspired by Meiji-era Japanese clothing. I found it difficult to find many references for this mixing of cultures from an era that was trying to look forward to the future but also not wanting to forget where it came from. One source suggested it was called Syosei or Shosei style, where people of the gentry class who lived in the city would mix both modern western clothing and traditional clothing. I felt it created a very elegant and unique emotion in the outfit and wanted to incorporate that. This becomes especially apparent when she adds the grey yukata over the top of the shirt, tucked neatly under her chongkraben as if it were hakama.

Seeing as it was now Winter and beginning to snow, Sekka decides to take advantage of the spoils of combat that other mercenaries and adventuring groups have contributed to the market. Direwolf pelts and Remorhaz parts seemed perfect for winterizing her clothing. I chose to use the membrane and spines of a Remorhaz as the gaiters and mantle of her clothing as some light protection and waterproofing against the snow and rain. The Remorhaz spines within the membrane also offer a bit of structure similar to whale bones that the Europeans used to structure corsets.

The silhouette of the mantle (and loosely the body of the cloak) are inspired by the rice-straw cloaks worn in East Asia's history, for example, the mino.

In the group's adventures along the coast, they run into a shop selling hats. We had all decided to purchase hats to accompany a pirate themed ensemble since we were about to head to sea for the next leg of our journey. I immediately thought about the round hats we had back home that farmers would wear, and also about the Wokou pirates of Japan. I felt this was a ubiquitous enough shape to add to her, and I feel it adds quite a bit of edge and an enigmatic presence to the new design. Especially with the attitude of the angle she wears her hat.

Included in each diagram is also a notation for the amount of tail she had amputated from her backstory, and the reason her tailcap is present.

#signal boost

[besttubahorse]

Hey Guys!

I’m opening limited slots of $100 - $200 Illustrations.

 There’s 4 spots ONLY. 

 Help me cover some emergency funds. ( These will be worked on throughout February) 

PM me if interested. 

Examples bellow:

#signal boost

[besttubahorse]

🦄 Chibi Icecream Unicorn Vtuber Adoptable 🍦

$250 USD, PayPal Only

I originally made this character for fun for myself, but I realized that she really is going to not get much use from me and I'd much rather she get a great new home. I've had a pretty rough year and my kitten just recently got diagnosed with asthma, it's been one thing after another after another and I just need a little help before the holidays.

She is a very simple chibi Live2D model ready to use that has been fully tested and is ready to use in Vtube Studio! You may have to play around with the eye and mouth settings a little bit, I have a video I can link later on to assist with this.

DM me if interested, reblogs greatly appreciated!

#signal boost

[besttubahorse]

For legal purposes, we are not actually sponsored by G-Fuel.

However, we're open to the opportunity 👀

A silly thing I did for my D&D group quite a while ago.

Tungl the Goliath Twilight Cleric had informed the Guiding Lights that the Giant word "Gamer" is a term for people worthy of much respect. Things got a little goofy, we went on break, a script was written, and then this happened. Enjoy!

[besttubahorse]

Love this dude

Finally got around to making a reference sheet for my Spelljammer character, Blip the plasmoid soulknife rogue!

Blip is a strange little unassuming bundle of goo with vacant eyes that appear to look outwards in different directions and an everlasting smile that is both adorable and intimidating depending on what's going on. He does not make any attempts to hold any sort of humanoid form, both in visual appearance and in how he behaves; for example if he has to grab something off of a high shelf, instead of jumping he will extrude a stretchy psuedopod like a sticky hand to sling it back to himself, and instead of manifesting psychic blades he throws little bits of himself to gunk people up and weird them out. Blip has a bucket strapped to his backpack that he uses as a bed so he doesn't sprawl out all over the place when he is sleeping; it also doubles as his mode for hiding while sneaking around, wearing it like a snail shell as he slithers under it across the ground.

He is such a weird little dude and I've enjoyed playing him very much.

[besttubahorse]

Shop’s Open!

After a long wait, summer cons are over which means it’s time for my store to be open and for a much-needed re-vamp! I’ve got a lot of new merch in stock, so click HERE to take a look!

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[besttubahorse]

Why does this read like an insult

[besttubahorse]

pony tales is truly a lost treasure (99% SURE THIS DIDNT HAPPEN)

[besttubahorse]

Sekka chibi for @laevigataprime!

[besttubahorse]

🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

I've made a modified version of some of my previous YCH's for this year, $10.00 USD each and I can make either humanoids or ponies! Payments through PayPal.

[besttubahorse]

SIGNAL BOOST!

I'm currently open for D&D token commissions! ✨

The image is pretty self-explanatory: you'll get a simple circular token featuring a headshot of your D&D character!

I'm best at making art of humanoids (tieflings, elves, etc), but I am willing to attempt the more animalistic races depending on the character.

Each token is $15.00 USD and I will be sending PayPal invoices.

If you're interested you can contact me here via DMs, I can provide my Discord at that time to make contact easier!

[besttubahorse]

Man I don’t deserve these players

For the past few weeks I've been putting together a journal for Aurora, inspired by Ginny Di's character journal tour on YouTube, and I was finally able to finish it today~!

Picture details going from top-down, left to right:

1. The Cover. I ordered a set of dice from Etsy ages ago and the holographic d20 was included for free! I had it on my laptop for ages and decided that it was perfect for the cover. The mini-binder was purchased on Amazon, and everything inside besides my notes are in page protectors, also from Amazon, so nothing smudges or gets ruined. The stickers used for her name are sparkly and were purchased from the dollar store.

2. Cover Page. The amazing hand commission I got from @decarbry was no doubt going to be the cover page for this project. I found some cute sapphire-like ribbon at the dollar store to form a border around the edges to act as a frame.

3. Character Image and Character Sheet. On the left is one of my favorite pieces that I got from Art Fight this year, made by user SchlorpyFresh, pasted on to a star-filled piece of cardboard I found at the dollar store. On the right is the stunning character sheet commission I ordered from Bubblelazer.

4. Nugget and Notes. On the left is all of the information for Aurora's celestial horse, Nugget, featuring an adorable commission from @conflitdecanard at the bottom. On the right are my session notes! I didn't want the holes in the paper to get ruined or tear, so I bought some reinforcement labels to keep them strong.

5. Follow Your Heart. A quote from Aurora's grandma that quite literally changed her life and set her on her current path. It's on the same star-filled cardboard that was used earlier, and has a diamond-like ribbon from the dollar store to act as a border. I also found some silver confetti stars of various sizes for decoration, and the lettering are the same stickers from the cover stuck directly on a piece of yellow construction paper. The dollar store actually has a lot of cute stuff!

6. Backstory. It begins with a quote very fitting for Aurora that I found online: "Stars are born in the darkness. Darkness dies in the light." And then her story continues for five pages. At this point, all of it has pretty much all been explored in session, but I still wanted to censor it out just in case I forgot something. Can't be letting spoilers out on accident. ^^;

7. Backstory End and Tiefling Traits. On the left, the last page of her backstory; I wanted to put something moon related to represent her connection to Selûne, so I put a neat simplified moon phase at the bottom. On the right are her racial traits as a Glasya Tiefling.

8. Bard Info. Two pages covering the basic information of what she has as a Lore Bard.

9. Sorcerer Info. Two pages covering the basic information of what she has as a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

10. Spell Info and Spell Cards. On the left is the basic information in regards to Aurora's spellcasting, like her spell attack bonus and save DC, featuring the adorable commission and current token art that was created by Nova27 on YCH Commishes. On the right are all of her spells from the Bard, Cleric and Arcane spellbook cards off of Amazon, all safely tucked into card sleeves that were also purchased on Amazon. Behind the cards are blank pages for the rest of my notes!

I am so insanely happy with how this turned out, I just love my tiny tiefling so much. 🌙✨

[besttubahorse]

What if things were different?

[besttubahorse]

SIGNAL BOOST HER STUFF IS REAL GOOD

So I was toying with the idea of either doing requests or going back to commissions when I realized that during the craziness that was Art Fight back in July, I hit 1300 followers!

It's been a really long time since I've done a follower giveaway, and I believe this will be the first time doing one of these that isn't MLP and is purely focused on D&D characters!

Rules:

✦ You must reblog this post with a visual reference image of your humanoid D&D character, preferably a digital one. I will not work off of written descriptions, although feel free to add information in the post about your character so I can get to know them!

✦ Keep in mind that this is for humanoid races only, not animalistic ones. I will not be making dragonborn, kobolds, kenku, tabaxi, aarakocra, or any of the other more animalistic races since I'm not entirely comfortable making art of them, and I don't want anybody disappointed. Firbolgs are okay.

✦ You do NOT have to be following me to enter, but it would be greatly appreciated! But please do not follow me in the hopes of getting free art and then unfollow if you don't get it. I want your support to be genuine!

✦ Your Tumblr Messenger MUST be open so that I can contact you privately if you win. I prefer this method over Ask Box since Messenger keeps a log of the conversation.

Entries need to be in before 5:00 PM PST on Friday, August 20th. At that time I will go through all of the entries and select 3 winners to contact via Tumblr Messenger.

Good luck everybody, and thank you so much for getting me this far!

#stephanoodle #signal boost #d&d

[besttubahorse]

Signal boost!

Flat color commissions done today! I’m planning on riding this train until the end of the month, so if you want one now’s the time! Price starts at $12. PM if interested.

#dragonfoxgirl #signal boost

[besttubahorse]

Jester Lavorre 🍭

#dnd #critical role #jester

[besttubahorse]

👀

What if things were different?

#stephanoodle #dnd #guiding lights