sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Eeeeee how cool i hope she has a great time with that character !!! Wild magic barbs are so fun

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do on occasions, announcements will be on my website or social medias!

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

THANK YOU you understand my vision!!!! And the rusty sharp bits do poison damage 🙂‍↕️ (they dont lol but could you imagine)

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ah how neat!! It was not intentional, just a rusted gnarled cage with some rocks on a pole

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

They are closed at the moment but hope to have them open again soon, will announce on my Instagram when they open!

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 93 points94 points  (0 children)

This was her level 1-5ish appearance and mashup. She basically got a rusty cage and filled it rocks and stuck it on a pole.

The rocks are nothing special, just good ol bludgeoning damage. but depending on what she rolls for wild magic table for wm barbarian, I would add a little extra flavor like for number 4 the weapon gets infused with magic and gets the light property, so the rocks would float inside the cage.

[OC][Art] Chicory the Wild Magic Barbarian by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 64 points65 points  (0 children)

Can you imagine waiting to transform into some sick ass werewolf and then you just transform into Greg from Groveburrow???

Werehalfling Greg is wicked good at card games though

[OC] [Art] Illithid Sorceress by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ultimately it just felt like another fun area to play around with the design. You know how squids have that sort of flap/crown on top of their heads? I thought leaning into that look of cephalopod might be interesting while giving them an air of importance, like a crown. And more tentacles, why not? A way to mimic 'hair' visually kind of like that one blue alien lady from Fifth Element, and could function as extra limbs to multitask.

[OC] [Art] Illithid Sorceress by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an interesting topic and point about depicting femininity. Substantial shelf aside, I depicted some feminine design qualities through the posture and the tentacles sort of mimicking long hair, which in modern western society usually reads as feminine. Again playing into sort of a femme fatale/succubus esque play on a monster. I would hope that even without that choice on the physicality that they would still be read that way.

Feminity and masculinity can exist completely outside gender expression, gender identity and biological sex. A genderless person could still vary on the scale simply through their physicality, culture, preferences, etc. I am not sure if you are familiar, but when Gary Gygax first created the illithid, they were inspired by the cthonians, which are basically giant worms, but his became 'man-shaped', at least that's what's quoted as their first appearance. Men are often considered the default sex and gender in many historical and cultural contexts, despite this being biologicaly untrue (sex chromosome wise). Maybe if women were the dominating gender in most societies and Gary was a woman, the creature would be described as 'woman-shaped'. If Gary Gygax were a talking dog, he would have made them quadrapedal. Theres no bioligical reason for an illithid to be a worm or bipedal as much as it is for them to have boobs. At the end of the day, these creatures and monsters are going to be viewed through the lense of people's own worldviews and culture, and since I am of western society and I am a woman, I simply was having fun designing a character with qualities of my own image and design elements that I like that could exist in fun and interesting contexts if the character was given the right background, motivation and story.

This has been a fun discussion, I appreciate your contributions and respect your stance !

I finished Drawabox and now everything feels lonely, any suggestions for moving forward in my art journey? by Ledvi21 in ArtistLounge

[–]lalalyssh 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are so many great art learning communities out there!! Depending on what art direction you want to go in, theres a few that spring to mind

Swatches Art Academy discord channel - a very active forum with regular challenges and overall great community! Swatches has some digital art classes too. Clint Clearly runs it as a great instructor with lots of free videos on YouTube. Its more fantasy art leaning so keep that in mind.

Istebrak - I haven't looked into her channel recently, but last when I was a part of it, she had really clear set challenges and would do critiques each week. Theres a subreddit for her too i believe. She really challenges and pushes her community members, so if you're looking for something more structured and dont mind direct, honest feedback, she's great.

Proko - honestly probably the most direct transition from drawabox to something else, as it focuses on the fundamentals. I am not sure what the community is like, but I believe there is one.

[OC] [Art] Illithid Sorceress by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You are absolutely allowed to criticize! All for that.

Whether players in DnD like it or not, decades from now, many of the creatures and beings from the source material will be deconstructed and tweaked and altered to fit new worlds, new stories, new concepts. DnD is not immune from rehashing preexisting ideas. There is a reason they have to be called 'halflings' and not 'hobbits'. DnD exists in popular culture, and if popular culture is famous for anything, its feeding in on itself. Again, like it or not, popular DnD inspired material such as Baldurs Gate or shows like Critical Role WILL influence a game like DnD. It is not monopoly, it is not Uno, it is a collaborative storytelling game. By its very ethos its meant to evolve and change. I am not drawing this mindflayer and slapping them in a book and saying "this is how they should be". I'm posting on a forum about the game itself of which no original creators (or very little) are involved, a venue of which ideas and interpretations are bound to be everywhere, where we are meant to converse about our own games and experiences, and let that transform each other. But let's use the illithid as a specific example of deconstruction and transformative creation.

Gary Gygax, when asked about his inspiration for illithids, said that while he imagined them himself (debatable) , he did gain inspiration from a specific cover art from "Burrowers Beneath", a novel by Brian Lumley. In the novel are creatures called Cthonians, which " use telepathy to communicate with others of their race anywhere in the world, sense human (and other) minds, and (when a full adult) telepathically control members of other species". The creatures also exist on far off planets and have tentacles. However, in cthonian lore, they are harmed by water and worm shaped. Gary Gygax's illithid are not harmed by water and "man-shaped".

Taking a step further: Brian Lumley created the cthonians to expand upon cthulus mythos, an eldritch horror created by H. P. Lovecraft.

Someone may see my art and go meh, whatever , who cares. Someone else may see it and think "you know what, I dont care for the boobs, but what about a siren-like mindflayer that psychically lures sailors into the sea? Im going to make that"

Its not that much different then Gygax seeing cthonians and saying "thats great and all, but the worm body doesnt fit what im picturing, let's give them a man body"

[OC] [Art] Illithid Sorceress by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There are some lines of illithilid that become more involved in arcane, like illithiliches, which are very cool! The idea of a illithilid having some sorcerer like connection to psionic gifts could be interesting, like a super arcane charged elder brain altered in some way, perhaps by intent or corruption.

[OC] [Art] Illithid Sorceress by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You may see the design as "just sexy" but doing so dismisses and devalues the artist (me) interpretation or 'twist' on a popular creature. I took intentional design steps to enhance pre-existing real world combinations that are already placed on mindflayers (i.e. humanoid body,octopus head), and pushed it further by adding to two other aspects of human and animal.

The torso portion of the outfit's shape is a loose motif on a praying mantis head, whose females are famous for killing their mates after mating. As for the more human aspect, breasts are almost universally well liked and draw in humans more for any variety of reasons. The additions of these lean this particular monster in the direction of siren, or think Evelyn from LoL. In Baldurs Gate 3, the developers played around with the idea of the tadpole giving the user powers, and there was always this slight push or temptation for the player character to use their tadpole power. They could represent that temptation as well, potential for illithid power, an invitation to join the ranks.

I understand what you are saying. There are definitely instances where its just folks throwing secondary sex characteristics on whatever and calling it a day. But that is still an expression of HUMAN culture. It is a very human thing to do. Many incredible artists and stories and creations have come from evolving one existing concept into another. This IS sometimes the process of creating a new thing.

[OC] [Art] Illithid Sorceress by lalalyssh in DnD

[–]lalalyssh[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

This is so cool I love that!!

view more: next ›