Teddy's Art & Sorta Journalish Thing

[Ted_MxM]

I guess I'm sort of 'in the mix' here, now, so I'm gonna start sharing my 3D art outside of character threads. As a warning, it's gonna be almost exclusively dudes, and often dudes not wearing much.

When I first got into 3D, the first things I did were starting to visualize characters for an IVN I was writing and resurrecting old roleplaying characters. It was about 4 more years until I gave actually RPing another shot, and it just seemed natural to make my characters for supernatural RPs.

I've slowed way way down because of my current job and very long commute. I used to even do commissions, but except for one huge series for the debut of the Heart's Choice interactive fiction line that took me about 6 months, last year, I've basically stopped. These days, I mostly just do my active RP characters. Though, I've noticed that as soon as I post an image in a group game, the game dies. I'm hoping it's not my art's fault, but there's been a strong correlation. lol I've had better luck so far, on this forum.

So, anyways. Here are my latest. I'm playing both in The King's Court on here.

Eliss is a newly turned aristocratic vampire knight.



Finn is a halfling sneaky-type. This image was a rush to get the character ready, but I plan to do something better in the future.


I'd planned to play a halfling in a LGBT D&D Discord group, but it went on pause while we were getting organized, and I thought it wouldn't happen. So, I made Finn for the game here. Then, the Discord game got going. So, I'm currently playing 2 halflings and look like I have some kind of size kink. I really don't. I just hadn't played a small character before, so figured I'd give it a go. Now x2.



Cade is a cleric of Eldath, just being his hippie self.

 

[Ted_MxM]

As a more journaly sort of post (no art), I am feeling really really weird. I live in Shanghai, and it's been both Spring Festival vacation and the coronavirus outbreak.

Roleplaying is my hobby to keep me sane and not perpetually angry at my current job, which is boring 80% of the time and a frustrating over-worked waste of time for the other 20%. When I'm not at my job, I like to try and live. Even if it's just sitting with my dog, not being in front of a computer. I engage more with my surroundings and don't think much about my screen-based activities unless I'm doing some 3D art for my own pleasure.

For Chinese holidays, my Chinese boyfriend goes home to be with his family. They've always known about us and don't complain, but there's a weird Chinese Cultural Wall between us ever associating. A foundation of modern Chinese culture is not talking about problems. I understand that enough. But, that leaves me here alone with the dog for at least a week, twice a year for Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. I'm an introvert and rarely get enough alone time to recharge, so usually a couple days to myself is nice. But, a week is too much. I usually spend as much time outside with my dog as I can, do some hobbies, watch a bunch of tv that my partner hates, and cook.

This Spring Festival is just weird. Shanghai feels empty during holidays. Most people who live here aren't from here, and a lot of the migration is working city-dwellers all going home to the Tier 2 and 3 areas and 'small towns' (still millions of people). I honestly love it. There aren't scooters on the sidewalk trying to kill my dog. No one's cutting in line at the grocery stores or subway. I haven't been going out at all over the past week except to walk my dog. Usually things like nightclubs are closed and most activity groups aren't doing anything during holidays. Right now, I wouldn't indulge even if they were available.

A few days ago, Beijing extended Spring Festival vacation a few more days until Feb 2. And, a couple days ago, Shanghai ordered all schools and non-essential workplaces to remain closed until Feb 10.

I've introverted way too much. I haven't spoken face-to-face with another human in a week, other than saying 'Thank you' to masked grocery store cashiers from behind my own mask. I'm not paranoid. But I was a microbio major for 3 years before switching to design, and I'm so good at aseptic procedure that I spent a month in rural India without even getting a tummy rumble. I'm erring on the side of caution, and really no movie or bar is worth the small risk, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I don't trust Beijing's reports of the outbreak. It's objectively wise not to believe them. But I can only guess at what the reality is.

I would really love this time to to rabidly write RP and literary projects I've neglected for the past year. I just find myself in a strange state of being simultaneously bored, stir-crazy, empty, and twitchy. I stare at the screen, then get annoyed sitting in front of the screen, then pace my apartment for a while looking for something to clean or reorganize, then decide it's pointless and go sit in front of my computer again. Over and over. I feel like I should practice my Mandarin, but hearing my own voice is too strange, right now.

I had a horrible adolescence in the small town in northern NH where my mother still lives, and I usually get ancy and depressed when I visit for Christmas and NYE. Though, it's the only time I spend in the US for years. This past visit was the first time I really lived in the moment and enjoyed being home. It was great. Then, back to China for 2 weeks of being unusually busy designing an interactive pavilion for the Olympics. Then, weird and stir-crazy for a week. Now, looking at another week of quasi-working at home (with none of my work files). I need a real vacation without shoveling snow or being bored in a pandemic.

It's been a really weird 6 weeks. But, I got some satisfying art done, so yay.

 

[Ted_MxM]

The quasi-quarantine has an end in sight. Not that I don't hate my job (the reason I got back into RP), and not that I'm disgusted that so many of my coworkers don't cover their mouths when they cough.. but having a light at the end of this tunnel of being inside all day, every day is feeling like a weight will soon be lifted. There's been no extension of keeping offices closed, so looks like I'm back to work on Monday. Knowing there's an end to this is letting me feel "lighter" and like engaging with RP, which is great.

Still, I'm more worried about the human response to novel coronavirus than the actual virus. I mean, fewer people have been infected than the number of people who died from the flu in the US, last year. But when it comes to illogically over-reacting, this place is great at it.

Anyways, here's some art. I've never even posted these anywhere. I made them specifically for a Monsterboy Wrestling RP, but only one got used before my partner ghosted. I'm not really into reusing characters, but I've now got so many stacked up (especially with art that I made for them) that I kind of feel bad that they didn't get to live or live much. These are just portraits, not full scenes. If people like 'em, I can get inspired to do a real scene with them.

They're in their hokey wrestling outfits. The dinoboy is actually intelligent, but his stage persona is primitive and brutish. The cyborg is an ex-military bro who got his prosthetics after being seriously injured, then went into sexy entertainment.

 

[Ted_MxM]

So, due to Chinese magic, working at home is somehow worse than working in the office. Yay! Over IM, my younger 'manager' that doesn't know what I do or how to do it managed to get me to check flight schedules back to the US, yesterday. That kind of killed my mental momentum trying to rise up out of 3 weeks of quasi-quarantine. But, as always, the complexity of taking my dog home keeps me from clicking that 'Purchase' button.

But in other news, as of this afternoon, there's someone taking temperatures of everyone going in and out of my compound. That's gonna be fun if they mindlessly follow procedure like they tend to do here. I'm gonna not stop myself from the INTJ Deathstare if they insist on testing me taking my dog out and in for walks.

And.. here's some art, just to make it an art blog. This is my Bubasti acrobat from an ancient WoD TT game. I barely got to play him, poor guy. Never got to tear up Setites. Boo.

 

[Ted_MxM]

2020's Top Valentine's Day Present in China:



I basically forgot it was VDay. I didn't make any art this year, everything was closed, anyways, and my job increased it's efforts to make working at home worse than working in the office. So, here's a very late post of last year's image for VDay.

Yup, it's Ares/Mars and Eros/Cupid. They're not always father and son, if you think that's squidgy. That's my story. If you're into it, well... I'm nobody's boss.

 

[Ted_MxM]

Things are starting to swing back to normal in Shanghai. I live in a central/downtown district called Jing'An, and most offices are open again. There are still a number of restaurants and smaller businesses that are closed or doing delivery-only, though. My current job is in what I'll loosely call a 'suburb' of Shanghai called Minhang. The area around my office complex is pretty low, and I hate the 1.5hr commute. I haven't moved there because I just really don't want to live there. My workplace is still closed because Minhang appears to be stricter than Shanghai city proper, and the office compound seems to be incredibly strict. Since the beginning, we've had to be sending in forms with our travel info over Spring Festival (I didn't travel). This weekend, HR sent out a link to some App where you need to enter that information yet again, and I think record your temperature periodically. I literally can't as it only accepts Chinese ID numbers. #wohwoh I have no idea as of right now if we'll be going in, next week. I suspect this strictness is because more people in Minhang are 'farmers' and went home to Hubei for Spring Festival than the 'inner ring' districts. As much being in my apartment for about 40 days has sucked bigtime, I hate my job/office enough to not be in a rush to go back.

To that end, I had another interview on Monday. It was the first job I've ever applied to on Dribbble, and they hit me up pretty quickly. It was a video interview with their HQ in Germany, and my internet was unfortunately spotty, which is par for the course here. It went well enough, and my only concern is that I haven't done any of the type of project they focus on. But otherwise, it's where my career needs to go, and the SH office is in walking distance. I'm still bummed that the fantastic interview I had in December hasn't come through. They (legitimately) said they weren't going to make a decision until after Spring Festival, and it was an incentive to actually come back here after Christmas. They haven't replied to my inquiries this month, but everything is kind of crazy and disorganized, right now. Still, I've written them off like someone who hasn't replied to an RP in 2 weeks. Great if they eventually do, but I've put it out of my mind.

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As a point of interest, these tags now come along with all food deliveries in Shanghai. It shows the names and temperatures of everyone who's handled the order.


Now, for some art. I was SO proud of of this character design. Renel is a something of a 'voodoo' Eshu of mixed Creole and Arab ancestry, and I tried to mix those styles into his mien. His Orisha is the Vodou Loa Pappa Damballa, and his Treasure is the chimerical tattoo of the white snake of Damballa. That damn tattoo took me forever. In the end, I think I spent more time researching and building the character than I got to play him. But I love him soooooooooooooooooo much.

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[Ted_MxM]

So, I've completed one day back in the office after being out for 42 days. I wasn't thrilled cuz I hate my job and didn't miss it, even though I was getting really weird in semi-quarantine. I took a Chinese 'uber' because I don't want to be on the subway. I actually used the subway yesterday (Sunday), and there was only one person on each bench on each side. But I think every office in the city is back open today, so I didn't want to risk that. They also are slowing traffic in, which I don't understand the point of. I'd rather just get in and out as quickly as possible. I don't expect standing in line longer is 'better' than being crunched in the subway. Maybe. But I'd want a real study conducted.

So, weeks ago, I had to submit some spreadsheet to work because they had to submit all the employees travel history. I didn't go anywhere, so whatever. I know at least one, maybe two, coworkers had gone home to Hubei and had to do real quarantine for 2 weeks after they got back. They've all been back for at least 3 weeks, so relatively safe. On Friday, there was yet another system to register on, but it only took Chinese IDs, so expats were SOL. As I expected, there was a tizzy when I arrived at the office compound, even though I had the 'national' clearance from Alipay (below). No one knew what to do with me. There were flustered phone calls, etc. I don't know what would have happened if a coworker hadn't been going in on her scooter and talked to one of the guards. He then escorted me into my office and talked to my HR. Like... I worship hygiene, am here by choice, not by bad luck of citizenship, and have fewer ACE26 receptors than everyone else in the park. But, ok, sure. I'm the high risk person to worry about.

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So, there's the normal Alipay system that gives you a green personal QR to show that you haven't traveled anywhere in 2 weeks. Then, in Minhang, we have to do a second system where you login with your phone number (which is linked to your ID), and it spits this out (left), which you then have to print (because technological advancement) and submit with another form saying when you returned to Shanghai. Then, in the afternoon, we got back this card (right) which I hope will facilitate getting into work faster, tomorrow. But this is only in Minhang, the district outside the 'inner ring' of the city which is pretty 2nd World. I don't know anyone else who had to do this.

The restaurants and cafeteria in the compound are closed, but the one convenience store was open, to my surprise. Strangely, no hot drinks (they have refrigerators and warmers for drinks, usually) because it's HELLA cold. Every door and window is open in every office who can, and many buildings have forbidden any environmental controls because of circulating germs. Though, the 'fresh air'/pollution burns resipratory tissue and makes you more succeptable to infection. 6 vs half-dozen (and cold). Everyone wore masks all day, and it was fairly normal, if a little slow. My Italian coworker didn't come into work, and he didn't answer any texts.

I'm gonna feel like a dick if he died in his apartment from Coronavirus.


Ok. Time for boys. In a convo today, we were talking about sexy video game avatars. I modded Dragon Age to hell, and one reason was I couldn't play the dwarf story without a hot dwarf to play. These are my 3D recreations of him. Oh, and a skimp armor mod was also necessary.

Spoiler: NSFW : At the Pearl

 

[Ted_MxM]

This is probably my 4th attempt doing a Star Wars story. Ori's an obscure race called Arkanian. More with a lightsaber to come.

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[Ted_MxM]

As promised. And, I started a third.

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[Ted_MxM]

I had a good cider outside, today. Shanghai is about 80% back to normal. People are out on the street and in malls shopping. Everywhere has someone taking temps on the way in and sanitizer pumps. China really did a great job in their own country after absolutely blowing it by punishing the doctors who noticed it in December and not accepting help from the WHO in January.

I got the vibe I was gonna get ghosted right at the beginning, and I was. But I continued the art I'd started.

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[Ted_MxM]

So, my job is 'reorganizing', mostly because the owner doesn't feel like managing, anymore. The economic crash due to the virus has hastened this, and so I'm relegated to being a freelancer. With a work visa. So, it'll be like I'm at home again until the unending job searching comes to an end.

I just felt like doing this. I have no idea where the inspiration came from. I have an ifrit RP character, and I just thought of him being scifi instead of ancient Middle Eastern-style. So, here's a genie in space. Because reasons.

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[Ted_MxM]

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[Ted_MxM]

Maybe I was doing art, today. Curzio, my 'French' half-orc pirate in The King's Court group game.