May 2024

●

Wouldst thou ever consider publishing a video box record of thine artistic algorithm so that a lowly mortal may learn?

Many people ask about speedpaints and content like this. Right now we’re not making videos (yet!), but we publish such step-by-steps of some illustrations each month on our P@tre0n. Not only gif format, but also each stage separately + PSD versions of our files. Plus, sometimes small tutorials about the drawing process

Recordings will be coming soon. This is in our plans. Just our drawing process is a bit wild and a lot of things change in the process, even in the final.. especially with effects :’)

Our work usually always starts with a few sketches, with or without color (depends on how complex the piece is), and then a lineart > rendering parts > adding details > finalizing

Here you can see how Astarion’s face changes throughout the process… We didn’t like something all the time

●

About Marrow’s resistance and choices

Marrow resists Bhaal and her Dark Urge nature. Yeah, we know we draw her as if she is evil, but no, guys, she has her own way. And not like noble and good way, the resistance works really badly for her actually. In our headcanon, despite all attempts, she sometimes loses control, commits hidden and open murders, waking up in unfamiliar places far from her camp, naked and covered in blood, with the taste of meat in her mouth. Alfira was not her last victim. Yes, Marrow did not kill “plot-important characters,” but the price was just random victims. Innocent and defenseless victims. Sometimes, her Urge is so powerful that she becomes a risk to even her allies in battle, and Slayer’s form in her story is not a reward, but a curse — a form in which she loses all control and attacks everything around her. In the game, it would look like random checks during and outside of combat

On top of all this, she’s got headaches, insomnia, constant hunger, nausea, twitches, and other unpleasant effects to deal with…. This girl lives in angst :’)

And all this struggle isn’t for the sake of heroic deeds or moral righteousness. Her morals are rather gray and questionable, but what she really desires is freedom. Be yourself. Be the person she was in some distant past that she can’t remember, before she became the Dark Urge. That’s her wish for Astarion too — he doesn’t need to be anything more to be strong. And that’s why she supported him to abandon the ritual. They’re both still little monsters, but monsters don’t mean evil

Marrow was on the Druids side. It’s hard to call it a choice. Tbh, she almost refused to help them and would have preferred not to waste time on conflict, but pressure from Karlach and Wyll convinced her not to lose good allies. Her reputation in Act 1 is absolutely terrible and hardly anyone really believes her, so she didn’t want them to turn against. Besides, goblins were too nasty to her and didn’t seem to be the ones who could help. And… you know it’s too hard to resist to stop killing them lol

And we both play! More precisely, one is playing and the other is watching. But we make decisions and choose dialogues together

●

our little sphynx gremlim ✨

client approve… or not?

●

Marrow's thoughts on Myrkul or more specifically Balthazar?

It was a pleasure to kill him. It’s not that Marrow has a personal hatred for Balthazar, no, but throughout her journey, she’s been trying and trying to control her dark nature. Not always successful tho. But in the battle with Balthazar, she could really let herself be free in her cruelty. Because what could be better than killing someone who is so eager for immortality? On the other hand, she saw in him a good enemy, and this teased her desire to break in a dangerous fight. Marrow likes when rivals are potentially stronger than her. Her style is to survive with 1 HP yeah…

If we talk about Myrkul and his followers, she has always found them disgusted, before and after amnesia. At first it was disgust for Bhaal’s enemy, and after that it was just another problem on her path. She’s also not a fan of necromancy and prefers fresh meat :3 And the feelings of killing a living being feels more real to her than killing another walking dead body

(tbh she has room in her heart for only one pretty undead)

●

Specialz

watching jujutsu kaisen was a good idea 😎

●

he asked to dance
and she couldn’t say no

[original]

●

has marrow ever lost it and given in to the urge to squeeze batstarion until he bursts and turns back? in a little explosion of fur and blood with a cutesy eep? ill see myself out

Honestly, all Marrow really wants to do with Batstarion in the urge moments is to eat this little soft sweet meet cake and give him all her love… So not a single piece of fur and a drop of blood will be lost. She’s greedy 🖤

●

I've been really curious about your ocs, the ones for your universe "Utroba" specifically your lady doctor (does she have a name?) cause I adore her design but what's her personality? Does she have any supernatural abilities? Is she a hero or villain? Stuff like that.

Oh wow question about UTROBA, god yesssss thank you for asking. A lot of things in this project are still really raw and we only share concepts and some art, but we have something to tell about this lovely woman

Her name is Grigora Vocula. She is the second main character of one of our UTROBA stories after Temir and his companion-partner. She is a doctor of medicine, and also a teratologist and aberration consultant — think of her as a special pathologist who studies the original mutant monsters (aberrants), and also helps in investigating cases with them and sometimes with local cultists

She’s not the villain in our story, but she’s not a hero either. She’s just a very good doctor who knows how to do her job, but she gets involved in a very big story. Her personality is inspired by characters like Dana Scully, Dankovsky, Gregory House, Filipp Preobrazhensky, Kim Kitsuragi… Grigora is cold, emotionally closed, authoritative, cynical, but lives her work like a real nerd and can really be passionate if we talk about her as a professional. She doesn’t see personalities in people and is surprised when they see a person in her

While she lacks empathy, she is faithful to her personal principles and the law, viewing the world around her as a system of rules and logic. She is used to being alone, living alone, and working alone. Okay, not entirely alone; Grigora has a little dog — proof that someone can be really dear to her, even though she denies it. In any case, dead bodies have become much better friends for her than colleagues… However, Temir destroys everything one day when he suddenly decided to awakens on her table right before the autopsy. It’s a looooong story

She doesn’t have any supernatural abilities, but at some point she will have to face the risk of becoming what she is fighting against — an aberrant, and it will look something like this

And a few lil facts about her

● ⬈

vertexline:

She’s beauty

She’s grace

She’ll bite your face

-

A little Marrow portrait for @mlarty because I love her qAq

Keep reading

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!! Thank you again! We love everything about this portrait so much 🖤😭 Just look at her, at the light, at the blood on her face… Everything is beautiful here ;-;

●

Wait, we're allowed to ask about UTROBA? Awesome! But first, are we allowed to make fan content for the world? Like, just OC's for fun? Or do you want to keep this project strictly personal with no fan content allowed? What's the best place we can learn about the worldbuilding?

Of course you can ask about UTROBA! If you can ask… haha :’) Yeah, we really give little.. very little info about this project, but plan to change this when there are more illustrations/lore and the BG3 phase lets us go a bit. So this is the answer to other questions — for now, yes, UTROBA is a personal closed project, and we’re still working on worldbuilding, but thank you for showing interest in this and our ocs. Feel free to just ask any random questions

We used to drop more text on P@treon, but not all of it is still relevant, so we’ll be sharing some fresh stuff here too

● ⬈

mlarty:

The Investigation 🦷🩸

New UTROBA work with our main ocs, Temir and Grigora

●

Got any good dark urge name ideas? Cause I absolutely love marrow as a dark urge name but then I thought "is there more edgy dark urge names in a similar vein?" I'm thinking about playing dark urge rn (or just making a dark urge oc and not touching the game at all).


Also! How did the companies react to marrow? What was the first thing they all noticed about her and what kind of vibe does she give off?

We get a lot of comments about Marrow’s name and THANK YOU SO MUCH, but it was an absolute random thing. Originally, we were inspired by our other character, Marlow, and thought “let’s make this more fAnTaSy~” Then, someone asked us if we knew the meaning of Marrow… A lucky coincidence??? But usually we use Latin and just look for some words that are good vibing with the oc’s aesthetics so try it!

Oh, and that’s a good question.. At first, Marrow gave off “that weirdo” impression with her animal-like habits and some autistic vibe (btw she really is autistic). She’s the person who always gives you the creeps when you pass by. But no one saw this as a big problem — they had nautiloid, illithids, tadpoles and other important stuff to worry about. However, Gale began to suspect something first.. Just it’s kinda not okay when your companion is having fun with dead bodies, walking naked around the camp in blood, and turning anything they touch into a murder weapon… Right? Right??!

In the first act, she behaved especially wildly and werdly, trying to realize who she was and what was going on haha. Sometimes like cat, sometimes like monster

●

love is hard

●

if she is made only for killing why so kissable 😩

●

finally ref sheet for Diamant, the cursed bastard ⚡️

× not Dark Urge anymore, but bhaalist and Marrow’s unique companion with his personal quest line
× Neutral Evil

● ⬈

mlarty:

finally ref sheet for Diamant, the cursed bastard ⚡️

× not Dark Urge anymore, but bhaalist and Marrow’s unique companion with his personal quest line
× Neutral Evil

And some info about this sweet man

As we were saying, he’s not “second” Dark Urge anymore, but bhaalist and Marrow’s personal companion. Once a childhood friend, he became her right-hand in the cult, and after her disappearance he tried to find and bring her back. Honestly, he was never really into the whole Bhaal thing, he was just there for her, who became a real family for him

However, he is not melodramatic, his concept of “family” is a bit specific: when he was a kid, he kinda… died, but a mysterious entity took his body, giving a second chance and a new personality — cruel and lacking any empathy and humanity. The essence reminds of that Strange Ox in game, which also has a murderous nature. So his love… not for everyone. This is the love of a monster and a parasite. We’re still reading dnd lore to find the perfect reference for Diamant, but we think you have caught the main idea

So, before all the changes, his life was not easy either. Even though people might mistake him for a ordinary tiefling, he actually comes from a family of half-elves. However, his parents were something like talentless warlocks, and their “little hobby” left a cursed mark on the unborn child. Actually, yes, this is one option, how tieflings can appear, but Diamant is very far from their race and people, what is similar to the Marrow’s story (and what he also liked in her very much). They both always felt like outsiders in any society

And some facts:

●

Marrow brings you a snack

●

Love is…

speaking of their relationship

●

A couple of ppl asked us about Astarion and Marrow’s relationship, so here is some text to the last illustration with them. Or.. more precisely about the best part of it. For them

So… they’re like two cats. Two gremlins. A beautiful elf and a bedside monster. The chemistry between them is passionate, chaotic and in many ways weird, and it’s hard to call their relationship any kind of healthy thing — they’re both traumatized and not perfect people. They argue, they fight, and then BAM!, they are in love again. They are freaks with questionable morals and views on life that unexpectedly resonate with each other, although everyone else thinks they’re the normal ones here. Marrow absolutely accepts the vampire nature and pesonality of Astarion, and he calmly understands her durge side and wildness. Another murder, another body, another nightmare — it’s okay, as long as he’s not involved. And it can even be used. And Marrow uses him too

This leads to a deeper bond — they’re monsters who share a deep mutual passion and the ability to see humanity in each other, even when it seems there is nothing human left. And monsters don’t always mean something bad, it’s just their love is a bit, well, twisted: their relationship isn’t about typical romance stuff, but filled with almost animal adoration and desire. Kind of a dark magnetism that would freak out (and for good reason) the average people. But here’s the thing, they’re totally okay with that. Neither Marrow nor Astarion are about to change themselves or pretend to be these so-called “normal people” — they’re not relearning how to love the “right” way, they’re learning to love in their own style

And of course none of them planned to really love each other. And no one thought about “true love”. True love is hard stuff when one is a vampire ex-slave and the other — a Bhaal’s daughter and a murderer. It all started with manipulation: Astarion was looking for someone who would save him from Cazador, while Marrow wanted someone to save her from herself (or should we say she didn’t dare admitted it openly, but needed). Then something happened and they fell in love because they finally found someone who accepted them just as they are. Because the scars on their lives are so similar. And because baby, let’s live in darkness and sin together because that’s what we want, not because someone told us to

●

Perpetually delighted with your Marrow and Astarion art! The combination of gore and fluff in ideal proportion, and with a healthy dose of dark humor. It's just perfect!

Aw, you’re too kind! Thank you so much 🖤 Seriously, your words are everything. Not gonna lie, we’re totally obsessed with this type of dynamics — we love gore nasty blood things, but at the same time romantic stuff, so Marrow (and just Dark Urge) and Astarion are our perfect cocktail. And this is what we are inspired by every time for our other ocs :‘3

●

I promise I say this with all the love in my heart, but Enver Gortash looks like he'd also be a character in UTROBA, it's great.

OMG??? We never thought about it but wow man, you’re absolutely right. Thank you 🖤 This sweet bastard would definitely feel at home in our project… Well, we have more and more reasons to be inspired by Enver, bc we definitely have guys who can outdo him in doing bad things 😌 And all this mechanical and flesh aesthetics… Yeah yeah, it’s perfect UTROBA vibe

●

Are you scared?

durgetash let’s gooooo

●

play with her

●

Your style looks familiar. Are you these people who made book about illnesses where they were represented by monsters?

Yeah that’s us hey hey hello
Glad to see that someone has heard about this project 🖤 It’s called “Infectus Bestiary” — a guide for beginner monster hunters about 10 world-famous diseases and infections. It’s been a few years, but still hope we’ll get this baby officially published

cover and title page

Coronavirus page

Well, we should make more posts about Infectus here. Too much content for one answer… @_@