Wyrd Food

Digital painting, comic style: Crissy in her fantasy design in the foreground (young woman, short purple hair, big round glasses, bellyfree leather top, blue cape, braces, fingerfree gloves, girdle, bags, knife and pocket watch attached to it), holding a pastry in the right hand and some kind of mango in the left hand, long, thin natural grown sticks attached to it, one resembling a nose, dark spots giving the impression of two eyes, the tip of the "nose" is cut, a drop of yellow juice dropping from it, Crissy is looking at this "mangogo" with disbelief; two more of them in different shapes (some kind of devil and some kind of water brear) standing in front of her on a customer's board of a stall, to her left a whole basket with them, to her right one labelled "TomaToes", containing big tomatoes with tiny red toes; in the background several stalls (1. bakery, 2. "Joe's Wineyard", 3. pottery, 4. "Catch the Frog" game stall, 5. "Hex'R'us") with 1. cake, bread, 2. wine barrels, bottles 3. pottery ware 4. prices 5. magical items; Paula and Sparrow sitting in front ofr "Joe's Wineyard", Paula pointing to the salesman, hiding to bottles behind her back; in front of the game stall two young woman, one brown-red hair, one white hair, the brown haired one catching a wooden frog with a fishing-rod, splashing water; several girlands and pennants on poles and lines above the stalls.

Another busy week ended, although not that busy and the next one hopefully will be more relaxced. The reason that I managed finishing only one artpiece was to an equal part that I got carried away.

The approaching deadline for the second Arcryla City Summer Fantasy Festival main challenge prompt may have been a cause to focus on this one, too.

Wyrd’s Fruits and Vegetables

Yesterday the second of the biweekly showcases of the Arcryla City Summer Fantasy Festival took place. Since I needed such an unusual big amount of time to finish my last week’s painting, I was worried to make it in time for this one. Luckily I made it one day before the deadline. So, yeah, I could relax more on Saturday.

The prompt was „Magical Foodie“. Our OC’s got hungry and were roaming the festival for food that we should put into pictures. Since „mangoes“ have been present in Arcryla City since last Summer Festival, I gave them a magical makeover (and invented the „TomatToes“ at the same time). You can read the narrative text on the text sheet in the next column.

The reason I almost went out of time (see above) was, quite obviously, the background.

Paula should be in there plus a wine salesman and I planned to give my OCs Raven and Samandra a cameo too, right from the beginning. But after putting the characters and the stalls in places, I got carried away with the inventory. More and more ideas popped up in my mind that wanted to include, including Perry the Platypus and his hat.

Things you probably recognised from my OC’s universes or from my fanart: As prices of the Catch the Frog game a „Raven in frog form“ plushy, the water lily blossom she and Samandra exchanged this year’s Mermay and which Swampgirl and Amphimaid exchanged in Mermay 2020, Hooty (The Owl House), Perry (plushy) and his hat, the waterbear plushy in the steampunk Arcryla City realm owned by Crissy* (just without the mechanic’s overall). As sales article at „Hex’R’Us“ a deck of Hexes Hold’em cards (The Owl House) and the Amphibia Calamity Box.

*Apropos: Crissy loves water bears, for sure she took the water bear shaped mangogo with her, although not for eating/drinking – probably.

By the way, it is no coincidence that Raven and Samandra are playing „Catch the Frog“ and that Samandra indeed catches the frog.

If you look close you will see the glitter around the fishing line which is a thread and therefore, technically fabric. I don’t have to remind you that Samandra is a fabric witch, right?

„Hex’R’Us“ of course is a reference to „Toys’R’Us“ but even „Joe’s Wineyard“ is inspired by a real wine seller. I don’t know the situation outside of Germany, but here „Jacques‘ Wein-Depot“ („Jacques‘ wine depot“) is a well-known wine selling company. The name inspired me to „Joe’s Wineyard“ for the Magical Foodie prompt (this by itself being a pun since you only have to change a few characters to change the wineyard into vinegar).

Text sheet to "Wyrd's Fruits & Vegetables", the painting blurred and faded in the background, a narrative text in the foreground: Wyrd's Fruits & Vegetables; Hungrily approaching and strolling over the festival place, Crissy remembered the mangoes back in HER Arcryla City and how much she loved them. She wondered, if this place may have something similar. Discovering "Wyrd's Fruits & Vegetables Stall" she found the so-called "mangogoes". You could cut off the tips of their ... err ... whatever those sticks were ... and drink the sweet juice inside the fruit like with a naturally grown attached drinking straw. Still, looking into those little big mangogo eyes indeed gave her a weird feeling, so she simply stuck with the pastry she bought two stalls earlier.

If you look close, you will be able to spot Paula nicking some bottles (that are missing in the stall). Seems familiar? Just take another look on the Photograph prompt of the Arcryla City Valentine’s event.

And then, there are the pennants and flags, of course. The colors are Pride flags‘ colors honoring the orientations of my OCs. The colours of the Lesbian and the Pan Pride flags are interwoven since Paula and Crissy are a couple but you also will spot the colors of the polysexual Pride flag – although I won’t reveal whom’s flag this one is yet (but remember: None of my OCs is straight). Plus above them all the colors of the Progress Pride flag, the last two colours not unintentionally being the same like in the Bi Pride flag (plus the petal’s colors creating this one too).

Do I have to emphasize how tricky it was to render the background? I put this lot of details in it but I also had to blur it. It’s hard to achieve this without getting all these details beyond recognisation, you still should be able to spot them.