StudioRat
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studiorat.bsky.social
StudioRat
@studiorat.bsky.social
76 followers 230 following 100 posts
Painter, illustrator, maker of comics & shenanigans. Violently 🏳️‍🌈 elder goth. Cat pictures and crossover with my writing is inevitable. No genAI, no NFT, ever.
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studiorat.bsky.social
“Longhorn” for #yeehawgust day 4. The clouds are my favorite part though. Falling behind on getting the studies for this week, but hoping to catch up this weekend 🤞
Sepia-toned charcoal style study of three longhorn cattle in a field with sinrise behind them
August 13, 2025 at 12:12 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
“Horsin’ Around” #yeehawgust day 3
The ref I used for this prompt has been sitting in my inspiration folder for a couple years because the moment I found it I knew I had to use it for Teca and Asifad.
Digital charcoal-style sepia tone study of a dark horse wearing braids, mosquero, a charro style leverage bit with dragon design on the arm and roller for the tongue, yawning messily at the man holding his reins in bright midday light. The sharp-featured man informally dressed in only shirt, trousers, and suspenders does not look amused.
August 8, 2025 at 6:25 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
“Running With the Wolves” #yeehawgust day 2
I chose a scene of Teca and Vishan running from bounty hunters in the second arc (still a work in progress manuscript) for this prompt.
Sepia-toned digital charcoal-style study of three horses and riders moving left to right at speed in a loose southwestern landscape. The forward rider on the dark horse in charro inspired gear is pivoting hard, his rifle in his right hand. The rear rider with a spotted horse and hybrid tack is sitting back as his horse vaults an obstacle, his rifle in his left hand. The third horse is spooking in a cow-hop, carrying an early western trail saddle, bosal and mecate tethered to the rider falling to the ground at the left side of the frame with implied dirt and blood on impact. In the far distance in the horizon, pale outlines of wolves run left to right over the mountains.
August 7, 2025 at 5:29 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
“Stars of the Midnight Range” #yeehawgust day 1.
This year I’ve decided to use the prompts to add some sepia tone studies to the La Mala Suerte project, so for this prompt I chose the scene with Teca and his employer Rafael Tapia riding to Dan Seward’s for the fandango.
Digital charcoal-style sepia-tone study looking up at two riders at a slow trot under a starry sky.
August 6, 2025 at 10:19 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
La luz de las estrellas.

It’s been a busy summer but I managed to dust off an old sketch for a little procreate painting for La Mala Suerte to get myself in the headspace for yeehawgust.
Loose digital painting of elves in 18th century inspired fashion dancing in a garden at night, with stars and lanterns lighting the brick dance floor. The central couple os a black elven woman in a light blue dress with purple accents, and her partner is a red-haired white man wearing a dark blue suit with gold lining
August 6, 2025 at 10:06 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Noodled on another #lozfanfiction cover. Finishing wips is good for morale.

This one goes to a 77k pre-Twilight era story which I contributed to some years ago and for assorted reasons never finished the illo for promoting it. So I did. archiveofourown.org/works/149063...
Ornate gold frame with red faceted heart gems on either side, against a blue textured ground. The image in the frame is a standing pale elf with long gold hair pulled back in a high three-strand plait, their back to the viewer, gold-hilted tuck in their right fist and bright magic in the cup of their left hand. They wear blue-gray garments: loose pants gathered at the ankle and fitted half-sleeve side-vented tunic, with soft curl-toed shoes. They stand in a courtyard or large room, with an arched colonnade in the background and a polychrome 8 pointed star on the floor under their feet.
April 15, 2025 at 6:15 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Struggling to work on future pages for the #zelgan #lozfancomic today so here’s an older one from the scene where he finally admits at least one(1) feeling. Enjoy.
Monochrome comic page with six landscape panels stacked to the left side over a calligraphic rendering. All depict Ganondorf and Zelda unwinding each other from their coats, flirting in a sardonic fashion belied by the tenderness of their hands. The speech bubbles show her teasing him for his reticence and alluding to shared pleasure as demonstration of alliance and fearing he’s lost interest after one tryst, and him teasing her in return that even if he conquered her every night he would desire to again the next day. When she calls out an aside in Geld’o, he deflects with a teasing threat of a boring lecture (that is, a poetic offer of oral sex).
April 10, 2025 at 5:35 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Was going to work on #lozfanfic this morning. Cats insisted my lap was Unavailable for computers, so I did some thinking about the #fancomic instead #lifewithcats
Screenshot of clipstudio paint workflow with a color cover for Shade of My Enemy Volume 3 in progress. The text is calligraphic in light gold and the top half of the page has an ornate gold frame with red jeweled hearts around the central image. In that frame twilight princess link is holding the hylian shield on his right arm in guard and making a sweeping bloody cut with the master sword in his left. The graphic design portions are polished while the inset image is rough & painterly POV you have a dense half-bengal car wallowing on your lap, her head upside down to beg more pettings. In the background are cat food bowls, loz related figures, and the epic Last Judgment of Zelda scroll mounted in a billy bookcase glass door POV the bengal has been supplanted by a young black cat looking up at your hand with an expression that says he has never ever done a crime in his life
April 8, 2025 at 6:54 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Behold how elegant my workflow 😂just. Three swooshes, yes, future me will totally know what that is meant to be. #wip #fancomic #zelgan
A screenshot of a clip studio paint workspace with half of a page visible. In the top panel stretching across the page a fully rendered grayscale campaign tent and armored man in black ink stands at a map table near a support pole with a photoblue mass blocked in under him… and random swooshes of blue ink indicating future developments. The second panel is a loose pencil sketch of a goblin with a fancy curled updo and a text note reading “treason”. The third panel at bottom right shows a developed ink and hatching close portrait of the man with some of the sketchy lines still visible under, with the text note “told you not to do anything foolish”
April 4, 2025 at 2:57 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Some stuff in the want-to-paint pile I talked about on tumblr this month while forgetting to login to bluesky & trying not to think about the horrors www.tumblr.com/studiorat/77...
Sepia tone study of a greek courtyard garden with trees Half-rendered painterly study of an outpost pre-BotW, with wireframe lumps for trees and buildings Very loose Color study of a dock with tallships and a wooden boardwalk leading to a terraced island with windmills Loose color study of a birch grove within castle walls. A tall dark figure in armor and cloak half-kneels to put their face near the blobby princess in lavender, standing on a haybale under a tree
April 4, 2025 at 2:50 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Didn’t quite finish in February as I’d hoped but a rewarding challenge all the same #oc #artchallenge
Ink, hatch and wash rendering. A jade-colored oggish man with dark hair carries a busty wood elf in bridal fashion, returning her mischievous kiss. He wears his hair braided up and back in a standing spine-like rope that ends in a looped queue at the nape. He has a pair of gauged ear piercings, a brow ring, and a red tunic. She wears a long fluffy pink dress with a square neckline and bishop sleeves. Her hair is dressed in a pair of side queues, with two long pieces pulled over her pink heart-figured circlet to frame her face. She wears gold hoop earrings with pointy dangles Ink and wash style study. A light elf woman in a blue historical fantasy style layered dress sits in the lap of a dark elf woman in a red and gold military uniform, holding her face and demanding a kiss. The dark elf holds the light elf at hip and shoulder for balance. Her insignia indicate skill with fire. Romantic style portrait of two male elves in 1830s workwear. The taller elf with tan skin, red hair, and gold eyes stands with a copper mug in his right hand and his left arm draped over the shoulder of the smaller dark skinned man with pink hair who is stretching up to steal a cheek kiss under the taller man’s wide black hat. The taller elf has his white shirtsleeves partially rolled and his dark rust waistcoat buttoned, but his red neckcloth hangs loose. The smaller man wears his white shirt mostly unbuttoned, and though he has a green neckcloth draped over his shoulders and his suspenders are buttoned, he has no waistcoat. A romantic style portrait of two elves in 1830s foundational garments, laying with their bodies opposite and their faces turned toward each other to kiss. The pale-skinned, white-haired elven gentleman is at the top pf the frame. He wears a smocked shirt with turquoise cufflinks and dark pearl buttons, and his full beard is neatly trimmed, with a prominently curled mustache. He wears a turquoise silk neckcloth tied in a double bow, his long and slightly curly hair tied in a matching bow,and three rings on his left hand, which gently cradles the woman’s textured hair. The Black elven woman wears a gauzy chemise with lace trim and orange silk stays. Her natural hair is held back from her face with a turquoise silk sash, and she wears simple but bold earrings of turquoise with gold inclusions.
March 1, 2025 at 11:35 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Storyweaver.
For #throwbackthursday a little painting intended for the cover of an anthology of original gothic wondertales
A painting of a dark elf with dark curly hair, standing in knee-deep water and holding a wide bowl which seems to emit light. A translucent white garment drapes the left side of her body. Behind her are pale tree trunks and two moons - on the left the small red moon is full, on the right the larger white moon is a crescent.
February 28, 2025 at 3:10 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Spent some time noodling on one of the original romantic comic projects on the back burner, Unspoken. For morale.
Color comic panel: on the left an orcish character with a xiphos and round shield spars with a human with a spear in a sandy courtyard. They are both wearing white linen shirts and dark pants. Behind them under the suspended ogive arcade a crowd of various fantasy people in red and gold uniforms watch the spar. The lighting implies midday heat.
February 24, 2025 at 4:25 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Elfie valentines
A purple skinned curvy elf with curly black hair, kneeling and making a shushing kiddie face, wearing nothing but a white sheet
February 15, 2025 at 5:12 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Meant to work on the next #wip pages, made #lozfanart resources instead for FutureMe while having Deep Thoughts about how #twilightprincess lampshades The Goblin Problem™️ in both text & design & the rich opportunities it offers for fanwork
Screenshot of ClipStudio paint interface showing monochrome inky studies of Link in profile with a bow, a horned wooden blin mask, and a wooden blin round shield with rough radial boards, geometric decorations & feathers
January 31, 2025 at 8:17 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
#burnoutproject #wip #procreate I got a little traction between other tasks today but the battery is at 8% so I guess my lunch breach has to actually involve lunch rather than stress-painting. Whoops. #artistproblems
A letter size brown-toned page of four graphite and tone sketches. All four compositions feature a tall figure with a hat and riding boots, accompanied by an anthropomorphic rat Toned brown paper with a digital graphite sketch of the two figures, bird’s eye perspective, both looking up and to the right of the frame. The tall figure carries a weapon, while the rat carries a cane and a satchel Screenshot of annipad workspace: on the left pane an aerial reference image of pine trees and a trail. On the right, a procreate project with a lumpy color study loosely based on that forest, with the two figures from the prior sketch placed roughly center.
January 25, 2025 at 4:11 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Every time I tell myself “just stick to layout and some lines”, I get ahead of myself and sucked into rendering. 🤦 #artistproblems
Snapshot of an ipad in a red impact case open to Clip studio, resting on the side of a drowsy calico who commandeered my red ergonomic bolster pillow and rests her wee chin on her white paw. CSP is open to a comic workflow with three two-page spreads across and down inna grid. The first 4.5 spreads are rendered and inked in monochrome, the latter half are rough pencil sketches on toned digital paper. In the background are blankets and cat toys and art mounted in the panel of a billy bookcase door.
January 23, 2025 at 9:11 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
QRP with your #art that shows a blue sky, as a welcome to all the new #artists on Bluesky 🦋
A painterly and textured digital study of a mojave landscape with a blue sky and late afternoon sunlight. In the foreground in the shadow of a rocky hill, an elven scout with braided hair crouches by a small fire with a cylindrical pot suspended over it. To the right of the scout is the handwritten title and signature for the study “patrolling the mojave”, a prompt from the Yeehawgust event on tumblr in 2023. In the midground to the left side of the frame, a single rider on a horse with two pack burros moves west through the sagebrush, navigating around a smaller rock formation. On the horizon are layers of faultline and volcanic mountains.
January 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Woke up late this morning, day job promises to be hellish again, but it’s Thursday so it’s time to commit to Studio Hours regardless. Hoping to get ink on more than two pages today… #wip #lozfancomic
Screenshot of a clip studio paint workspace showing eight monochrome two-page spreads and a color cover for Shade of My Enemy Volume 3. The table of contents spread is rough with handwritten notes. The four rendered spreads juxtapose a hawk flying through sweeping landscape, landing on the hero’s fist on the right page of the third spread, and approaching the castle in the fourth. There are few speech bubbles, the text instead presented in excerpts of books and letters. At the bottom right, two spreads have faint, rough pencil sketches on otherwise blank pages.
January 23, 2025 at 5:36 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
Now if two of these were “forgetting all my settings for a project” or “pouring 3x as many hours into the background as the subject” I would have double bingos…
Bad habit artist bingo card with five near misses.
January 22, 2025 at 3:55 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Of all days to wear plaid 😅
Rough digital painting of an anthropomorphic gray rat sitting on an upturned cardboard box, facing to the left of the frame. They wear a red buffalo plaid shirt and dark, loose capri length pants with dark patterned slippers. They have rainbow hoops piercing the left ear, red hair draped over their right, and a rainbow coffee cup in their paws. The box says “studio box” on the right side.
January 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Kept my hands too busy for doomscrolling today by going all-in on a resculpt of a few plastic horses - two will become Epona but in different scales. #modelhorse #miniatures #wip #lozfanart
Five models standing on a gray worktable: a 1:9 scale Bob Ross action figure, a 1:9 Breyer youth doll, a 1:9 Breyer Roy the Belgian model, a 1:12 Ocarina of Time Link, a 1:12 Breyer Merrylegs body. Low picture across the worktable with a dismembered and reassembled frankenstein horse in the foreground. Various tools, glue, wire and foil are visible in the table, and a much nicer resin in the background that belongs to my friend. A repositioned Roy, balanced on a toilet paper tube. Wires, foil, blue tape, and apoxie are smashed onto the model, which now has a lowered head and is in a different phase of walk from the original. A loosely-painted outdoor diorama box with two trad size frankenhorses, one classic, and five stablemates. The epona project is on the left, a roy with a lowered head and his walk shifted to a later moment in the cycle. At center is an awkward mash of three horses into a sitting horse, in process of standing. The classic merrylegs has a swapped head, some muscle bulking, and tripod stance, with a loose leg laying next to her, marked for cutting.
January 21, 2025 at 4:35 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
Victory. And i only had to rip seams out twice to do it. 😂
Two patchwork pillows with a d20 motif. One is a brown d20 and the other an amber-gold, both on a small-scale mushroom print calico with black ground. Two patchwork pillows with a d20 motif. One is a green d20 and the other a dark red, both on a small-scale mushroom print calico with black ground.
January 19, 2025 at 2:25 AM
studiorat.bsky.social
That moment when a project can go no further until you gather your courage to battle the zippers.
Six patchwork pillow faces with a d20 motif on a neutral ground, laid out on the loft table. Two panels are 24” mottled gray batik with blue motifs at center. The other four have tiny mushrooms on a black background, and the d20 motifs are done variously in browns, greens, dark reds, and amber-gold.
January 18, 2025 at 8:48 PM
studiorat.bsky.social
This is how the better half of the work gets done too. #lifewithcats
Tortie-calico curled up on my left arm & red bolster pillow. I am holding an ipad in a red & black impact case, open to a split screen with a hark reference and a grayscale CSP file. In the background stands a red coffee mug, blankets, cat bowls. The cat does not look pleased but i assure you this was all her idea and she’s purring.
January 16, 2025 at 9:26 PM