June 2024

dear anon, thank you for the rainbow crab, that’s super cute!! 🦀

zmeess:

a collection of expression studies of Essek Thelyss from Critical Role, who is depicted as a young-looking drow with shoulder-length wavy hair, dressed in a heavy cloak with a large fur collar.

1. Essek casting Gravity Fissure with an intense face; his arms are in front of him and the spell is manifesting as two immaterial balls of dark light in his hands, connected with a string.

2. Essek fidgeting nervously with his hands in front of his chest, doing a sort of fanning motion. he is saying "Anxiety gets to you."

3. Essek is wearing an annoyed expression, mouth flat and eyes staring into mid distance, as if trying to compose himself; next to him, a speech bubble belonging to Chetney says "I don't need an explanation, it's cool".

4. Essek is looking up with a wide-eyed expression, his hands raised in front of his chest and loosely curled. He stammers, "Hello".

5. Essek is turned to the side, his expression extremely befuddled; his arms are bent at the elbow with the palms open and up in an emphatic gesture, as if awaiting direction. there are three question marks next to his face.

6. Essek with his hands raised, the index fingers pointing up in a 'hold on' gesture. he's looking down in concentration.

7. Essek with an exasperated face on, the corners of the mouth drawn and eyelids lowered. he is saying "The blue boy is a show-off, isn't he", to which an off-screen Ashton replies "Oh yes". Essek responds "I respect that".ALT

i know Essek had about five seconds of screen time in ep98, but i am more powerful than the fact that my favorite purple wizard is just a background npc. so i’ve done more Essek expression studies

tip jar!

zmeess:

lakrisrot:

🌂🌹👒 watch out! he is plowing the strawberry field with gravity fissure

so I wore my Essek cosplay this weekend and got these incredible shots. and then @zmeess drew the boy!! the last pic is a silly phone edit of the reference photo in question, bcs the background was a little too close to my street lol

credit: photostegi on IG x3, my friend x1

you guys, look look look! it’s the cosplay i drew in my last Essek picture 😍 this is what gardener Essek looks like in my mind now!! stylish, fully covered, and dressed from head to toe in his friends’ gifts 🥺 thank you so much tuva for letting me draw the boy!!

also friends i’d totally FORGOR to draw the sunglasses in my picture, please edit them in with your mind if you view my humble drawing because they’re important

zmeess:

digital fanart of Essek Thelyss from Critical Role. he is a young-looking slender drow with dusky lavender skin, white freckles, and short curly blond hair. he is dressed in wide pleated pants, a long-sleeved turtleneck and a wide-necked shirt with shorter wider sleeves over it, as well as platform sandals and a sunhat, all in the shades of black. over his outfit he is wearing a mint green apron with a pattern of teapots, teacups and plants on it, cinched at his waist with a leather belt. there is a leather bag and a book at his hips, a large red rose and other plants in his apron pocket, and rose-patterned gardening gloves on his hands. he is standing with one hand on his hip, and fanning himself with a small gray fan in the other hand. his posture exudes an air of exasperation, and he has a displeased expression on his face.ALT

saw @lakrisrot’s gardener Essek cosplay and it was so cute that i had to draw it 🤭

the most important question: what is Essek so huffy about?

everything

the telltale bite marks on the leaves 😼

the neighbors’ sunflowers are looking perkier than his

being chased by a bee (which he ended up Banishing)

See Results

Here are Caesar (big white boy) and Lili (the little dark one). We got Lili when she was only two months old and Caesar immediately decided he was her mother. They have been inseparable since .

that’s such a sweet story, thank you 😭 best mother of the year 🏆 to Caesar!!

Happy birthday! Here's my weird little girl, Lady, and my very geriatric girl, Stella.

thank you!! and thank you for teaching me that there is such a thing in this world as a cat stroller, that’s AMAZING. i hope both Lady and Stella have lots of nice walks with their human!

I saw something about a birthday so happy birth! This is Sami the stray my partners office feeds and a very good old lady. 11/10 soft belly

thank you!! that belly indeed looks very soft 🥺

Not technically my cat, but a local cat who keeps coming to visit me. I call them Garfield.


Happy Birthday!

thank you so much!! Garfield is a cutie 🥰 always love a cat lounging under an umbrella too

Hello! It's a little late, happy birthday!

here are my two cats, Crescent (two white front paws) and Cinder (one white front paw, one black front paw).

two torbies in one ask!! thank you so much for Crescent and Cinder! (great names btw)

Hey sorry to bother you but I just want to thank you for the way you draw Caleb Widogast. I can't explain it well but he has my nose and it makes me feel so much better about myself. Like the way you draw him is so captivating and makes me feel seen somehow (especially for someone who has reddish hair) and there's nobody doing it like you're doing it and you should be very proud of yourself. Good job 👍

not a bother at all, thank you so much for messaging me 🥺 i’m so glad you like how i draw his nose, it’s my favorite thing to draw when it comes to my Caleb design!

saw you were getting some birthday cats! happy birthday and enjoy Halo: The Master Chief Collection

i love those mittens and socks!! thank you 💜

Happy birthday!!! Have my cat, Dust Bunny doin a lil stand :3

Dust Bunny is so cute!!! and i love it when cats do a little stand, thank you so much!

happy birthday!!! these are my two sons, the white one is Icicle (aka Icy) and the flame point is Butternut Squash (aka Squash)

these boys are both so adorable!! i don’t know if they’re littermates but the look like it 🥺 flame point is one of my favorite colorations! and i love Icy’s amber eyes contrasted with his white fur. thank you!!

Happy Birthday!!! 🥳 This is Lynx; her birthday is soon too, and she'll be 19!! All she wants in this world is to snuggle constantly forever and purr really loud ❤

ahhh Lynx is a wise old kitty!! thank you, please kiss her forehead for me!!

Happy birthday!!! 🎉🎉🎉Here’s my cats. The black and white ones Buddy, grayish white one with the striped tail is Cricket. Also I love your use of color in your illustrations it’s very neat

thank you so much!! i love them both, Cricket also happens to share his name with one of my favorite characters 🥺

one of my cats, shmowder!

this is such a good name, and Shmowder also has the cutest face!! thank you 💜

his name is max and he makes silly faces. happy birth <3

thank you so much!! these faces are the silliest 💜

BIRTHDAY!!! This is my kitty dandelion, she doesnt live with me rn bc i had to move for school but i still have 1000 pictures. She is Baby pls look at her

i am looking at her and i lover her name!! thank you, she is wonderful!!

Happy birthday!

This is Catte ... she started begging for ham right after this photo

if i could i would give her all the ham in the world 😭 thank you!!

here to wish you a happy birthday is the cross eyed wonder ms toasted marshmallow (aka toasty)!!

she looks super toasted, i love her!! thank you so much 🔥

Hello! Would it be possible to get some tips and advice for writing out commission TOSs? I'm only just starting out with that and it seems really daunting.

Thank you!

it can be super daunting indeed! what i can say right away is you shouldn’t worry about writing THE perfect ToS on the first try; i still regularly update mine with almost every commission batch to reflect any issues i’ve run into, or if it becomes clear from my communication with my clients that something could use some clarification. just make sure you send your clients the latest version each time so they know under which ToS you’re currently operating! i attach my most up-to-date ToS to the first email i send to my clients so they have an opportunity to read it again and ask any questions they might have or pull out if they realize that something isn’t working for them.

my general advice is to think about what kind of questions your clients could have when they go into commissioning you, how you can make the process as worry-free for them and yourself as possible, what kind of potential issues you can imagine that could be avoided, and what kind of experience you would find easiest if it were you commissioning someone.

stuff i think is a good idea to cover in your ToS:

  1. prices (do you have flat rates, or do you have a base price list and the final price depends on the complexity of the commission/how many hours you spend on it?)
  2. what you can do and what you will definitely not do (if anything)
  3. payment (currency, what services you use, do you expect payment upfront or can your clients pay in installments, etc)
  4. do you allow full refunds? partial refunds? in what cases?
  5. how can your client use the finished artwork? can they print it out, use as an icon, use it commercially, repost it online, use it in derivative work?
  6. deadlines (do you work on urgent commissions and do you charge extra for that? when can your client expect the finished artwork?)
  7. what is your process? what kind of wips are you going to send your client? what kind of and how many changes/edits are covered by the price of the commission? do you charge extra for major edits? where is the line between ‘i did this thing wrong, the editing is on me’ and ‘my client had sent me incomplete/wrong references and is now asking me to basically redo the whole illustration’?

another thing i can advice on top of this (which is only tangentially related to writing your ToS): if you can, please don’t undercharge! i know it can be hard if you’re just starting out and not many people reach out to you, and i myself started with very low prices, but if at all possible, don’t charge pennies for your hard work. or at least slowly raise your prices! your time and work are worth being paid for. if you do backgrounds, please don’t throw them in for free! backgrounds and environments are tons of work, more often than not more so than drawing the character themself, so it’s only logical to charge extra for complicated backgrounds. if a client asks you for a lot of complicated edits, don’t forget that it’s work that also needs to be paid for! in my experience most people are more than understanding and offer to pay for the edits themselves, but it’s a good idea to have that aspect covered in your ToS. tl;dr: charge fairly! you’re helping out the entire industry by not undercharging, and you yourself will be happier if you know you’re being compensated well for your hard work.

i hope this is at least a little helpful! best of luck with commissions, and i hope you have the coolest clients that you have tons of fun working with!