catsharky

[catsharky]

QVESTION - If someone were to, oh say, use a reference to the Fuck-Me Tail in a fiction of the fandom variety and give you full credit for the concept, would that be acceptable behavior? Asking for a friend.

Absolutely!! I'm thrilled other people like it, and every new person that adopts it has me rubbing my hands together like yesss YESSSSSS

(Tbh I really thought it was a way more common idea, I would have never predicted so many people would consider it a unique concept and attribute it to me lmao)

Also if you feel comfortable doing so, feel free to send whatever you end up creating my way as well!! I'd love to see it :D

#not sharky art #anon ask #sharky speaks

[catsharky]

Still so stuck on these guys so I dug up some old art of my gang. It's neat to see how my style has changed in the last 2-3 years

And to the people who follow me for BG3 stuff and have no interest in sci-fi, I love you and thank you for your patience lmao

I've never posted anything about these 3 on here, but I recently got struck by the urge to draw some longstanding OCs of mine. Nell (human), Fallstreak (alien), and Bas (robot)

Nell is actually who Ember was based on, which is why they look so similar if anyone's curious

#ocs #oc: nell #oc: fallstreak #oc: bas #The Rive

[catsharky]

I've never posted anything about these 3 on here, but I recently got struck by the urge to draw some longstanding OCs of mine. Nell (human), Fallstreak (alien), and Bas (robot)

Nell is actually who Ember was based on, which is why they look so similar if anyone's curious

#We'll be back to your regularly scheduled BG3 content after this I swear #these three are from a comic I've been working on here and there for a few years #would like to make some real progress with it eventually but I've been sidetracked by fancomic stuff lmao #also can you tell I'm in my soft orangey-pink phase cause apparently it's my new favourite colour #ocs #oc: Nell #oc: Fallstreak #oc: Bas #The Rive #alien boyfriend

[catsharky]

Will we be getting any more Ember and Rolan art soon :D

Yes absolutely! The next part of the comic is in progress, I'm just not sure exactly how long it's going to take. If not that though, I have some fun illustrations of the two of them half finished that I intend to finally finish up, so one way or another there'll be something of them soon :3

#not sharky art #anon ask #sharky speaks

[catsharky]

i wanted to let you know that you've irrevocably changed my vocabulary so that mentally, i can only think of them as "popsackle" now 💕

Ahaha you've fallen to the same curse I have!

I can't take the credit for the spelling, unfortunately (I wish I was that brilliant). It's from this tweet from 2015 that was a popular meme for a while:

It did the same thing to me and I've been unable to pronounce it properly ever since 😞

#not sharky art #freesidexjunkie #sharky speaks

[catsharky]

Been playing The Quarry recently and drew this fast last night to send to a friend.

And I mean, I love all of them (though Emma is on thin fucking ice) but I couldn't help but be extra charmed by the tired old man who hasn't had a day off in 6 years

#Jacob is an extremely close second tho ok #they made him cry and I was just #FINE. OK. I'M SOLD #also I think I just started chapter 9 is where I'm at if anyone's curious #the quarry #sharky life #comic #sharky art

[catsharky]

Finally posting the HFW zine piece I did over a year ago. Meant to put it up a couple weeks ago and completely forgot, but it works out because today is Aloy's birthday!

While physical copies of the zine are sold out at this point, leftover merch and PDFs are still available to buy until the 6th here!

This artwork gets the award for longest I've ever spent on a single piece, clocking in at somewhere between 200-300 hours

#horizon forbidden west #hfw #aloy #hfw aloy #erend vanguardsman #hfw erend #hfw kotallo #kotallo #hfw alva #hfw beta #sylens #hfw varl #hfw zo #hfw talanah #hfw petra #hfw gaia #sharky art

[catsharky]

Something a little different! I'm not really all that interested in doing much with Ascended Astarion, but letting him ascend would definitely tie into Ember's worst possible ending.

Tried to keep this loose and not use 8 billion references for once, but I may end up doing a proper clean version of this at some point in the future.

Ramble after the break:

Their relationship would play out pretty different from canon; not in the sense that Astarion would be better though, Ember would just be worse than Tav is given the option to be as far as I'm aware.

She'd lean full tilt into her worst most toxic traits and they'd mesh beautifully and horrifically with Ascended Astarion's behaviour. She'd thrive being owned, even if it couldn't truly be enforced. The relationship would be based more on obsession than anything else. Constant jabs to get an expected reaction out of each other, and with both being brutally possessive of each other, it would be a common occurrence for one of them to flirt with strangers because they want to see the other tear someone's throat out in a fit of rage.

The worst part is that they (or at least Ember) would genuinely be some kind of happy with each other, making it very unlikely that they could be convinced to break up. All the other party members (and all other people in general, really) would be driven away, not wanting to see their friends like that on top of how unpleasant they are to be around. A relationship like piranha solution, destroying everything around them and making all but each other miserable.

#also surprise! Ember's a cambion. Gonna delve into that at some point probably #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #ascended astarion #tavstarion #female tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky's tav #sharky art

[catsharky]

Some more 'Ember is new to having a tail' shenanigans. This time both she and Astarion are learning something new.

(Cue everyone in camp looking over with raised eybrows)

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 comic #astarion #bg3 astarion #tavstarion #tav x astarion #ember x astarion #tav: ember #oc: ember #female tav #sharky's tav #my tav #sharky art

[catsharky]

Well this took ages. I wanted to get one more page done for this but the next page has uh... 14 characters across the panels and I'm going to be away for 4 days. So a smaller update, but the next one shouldn't take almost 2 months.

Part 1 • Previous Part

Full page format under the cut as always:

#There are two me's inside me #One is screaming that doing tones was an awful idea because they take forever #The other is going “yea but..... it looks cool so...” #Unfortunately the second me is right so here we are #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 comic #rolan x tav #tav x rolan #rolan x ember #bg3 astarion #bg3 gale #bg3 wyll #rolan #bg3 rolan #bg3 cal #bg3 lia #my tav #sharky's tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky art

[catsharky]

Does Ember actually love Astarion or is he just a best friend? I was just curious! Haha

Oh, the answer is a big both! They're best friends, partners, soul mates, each other's Person. If they were shelter cats they'd be pair bonded and have to be adopted together. Whether they are or aren't romantically involved doesn't matter, they're each other's ride or die regardless.

But to be more specific, Astarion is Ember's 'canon' relationship, with Rolan being something of an AU that I just happened to end up doing a comic about first.

I'm not someone who likes to make multiple OCs to pair up with different characters, cause not only do I get too attached to one, I just overall find it a lot more fun to take a single character like Ember and play around with what would happen if she were to end up with someone different. See what changes or stays the same depending on the partner she ends up with.

But no matter what, she and Astarion end up a duo to at least some degree, even if it's just as partners in crime.

#I will be doing some Ember/Astarion stuff eventually #Astarion plays a huge role in Ember's own character arc and I've yet to show anything of how she was before Act 3 #I just wanna get the big Rolan comic done so I don't get sidetracked #I have a shorter comic set in Act 1 planned for Astarion that I'll probably tackle first #and then a longer one about a certain end game moment #I will also likely do more Ember/Rolan stuff at some point so don't worry if you only care about them together #not sharky art #anon ask #sharky speaks

[catsharky]

what does ur shep look like in-game? she's so cute !!

Thank you!! Unfortunately with the Mass Effect character creator being the way it is, she is not quite as cute in-game as how I draw her. In the context of the Mass Effect games however, I was really happy with her, though I feel like she somehow looked best in the first game and got progressively weirder looking with each game. So here's how she looked in 1:

#not sharky art #anon ask #sharky shepard #sharky speaks

[catsharky]

Another kiss for Valentine's Day! ❤

Astarion got one too

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 rolan #rolan #rolan x tav #tav x rolan #rolan x ember #female tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky's tav #sharky art

[catsharky]

A little early something for Valentine's Day ❤

Rolan got one too

#There'll be a second piece up tomorrow #I had to draw Ember with /both/ her boys of course :3 #finally got around to drawing something non-platonic for these two and it only took like 6 months wowie #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #tavstarion #tav x astarion #female tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky's tav #sharky art

[catsharky]

I am in awe of how consistently your draw characters faces?????? i struggle a lot with that, may i inquire if you have any tips to share on that front???

Sure! This took a little bit because I wanted to put some visuals together.

Unfortunately, as it always is with art, the main tip is just... practice. Not in the sense that you have to sit down and do drills, but in that the more times you draw a character, the more consistent they'll naturally start to look because you won't be figuring out how you want to draw them on the fly. Even I struggle to keep a character consistent when I first start drawing them, and it usually takes me a little bit to settle on how I want them to look. If you look back at my earlier Mass Effect comics, my Shepard looked quite a bit different then to how I draw her now. And I know it can be hard to get a sense of time from something like tumblr posts, but those changes happened across a span of six months. So be patient with yourself!

As for specifics though, I'd say the main thing that can help with consistency is to think of it less as one big whole and break it down into smaller pieces. What features need to be there for a character to read as that character? If you take something away, does it still look like them? How do their features differ from another character's?

For example, I compared Ember with my Shepard and tried to point out what goes through my mind and what I think about when I'm drawing them (besides obvious things like hairstyle/horns):

Additionally, reference!! Reference makes such a big difference. Any time I'm drawing a character, I'll pull up previous drawings I've done of them so I can check how I drew them before. I also have a small standing mirror that sits on my desk. If I'm not sure how something should look? I can just look at my own face to get an idea of what should be going on.

On top of all that (though this is something that won't apply to most original characters), because Ember is based on my in-game BG3 Tav I just have a big folder of screenshots that I've taken of her that I look at whenever I'm drawing her. I've never posted what she looks like in-game, but here she is:

(I love her so much)

I do something similar for most existing characters I draw. I have folders for each of them that are just a bunch of reference images of them at different angles, so I never have to wonder how something should look.

I hope this helps at least a little, and if anyone wants more specifics about anything, feel free to ask!

#anon ask #sharky speaks #process talk #sharky art

[catsharky]

Create cool summer treats for your vampire with this one neat trick

#I had a lot of fun with those first two panels #love me some action shots #don't get to do enough of them #[shouting] violence! violence! violence! #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 comic #baldur's gate 3 comic #bg3 astarion #astarion #bg3 shadowheart #shadowheart #canon typical violence #cw: blood #cw: eye trauma #my tav #sharky's tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky art

[catsharky]

Hey Larian why can't I mention to anyone that the squid man tried to get in my (Ember's) pants? If that happened to me in real life I don't think I'd ever stop talking about it

#Ember voice: [laughing nervously] what the fuck? #also to be clear: The Emperor? smash #but Ember is in a committed relationship ok #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 comic #baldur's gate 3 comic #bg3 astarion #bg3 emperor #act 3 spoilers #my tav #sharky's tav #tav: ember #oc: ember #sharky art