Amazonian Selfie

Girls and boys who grow up in the dark, dangerous depths of the Amazon Jungle, quickly learn how best to survive. From a very young age, Amazonians know where to find water, which plants and animals to eat, and what builds the best shelter. Most importantly, they learn respect for the jungle...

Life inside its deep, perilous confines demands it, lest the jungle eats you alive.
Within, there is a persistent mortal struggle to ascend the sacred hierarchy of the almighty Food-Chain. However, this battle of desperate survival often occurs out of sight.
Everything tries to hide and camouflage itself more so than its would-be predator, in hopes of making that rival a well-earned, gurgling prey. So well hidden is this fight for dominance, that any hapless visitor to the great Amazon could ALMOST be forgiven for thinking it's merely a beautiful, peaceful place... almost.

Of course, forgiveness in such a voraciously competitive realm is not exactly forthcoming. The jungle is always hungry, and never satiated. In here, it's "eat, or be eaten", ALWAYS ♥

Since its discovery however, the Amazon has been one of many legends. Priceless treasures, precious minerals, valuable resources, or even plants with miraculous medicinal properties. Perhaps magical places like the fountain of youth? All these stories lure plenty explorers from the outside world, straight into the jungle's gaping maw~

...Hence this picture, which perfectly depicts what comes of a naive ignorance to the jungle's almighty appetite >;D

Dangers that seem painfully obvious to any Amazonian, can go completely unnoticed by a foreign adventurer. That's why it's so amusing for girls like these two, to come across a pitiful scene such as this. Some poor, hapless treasure-hunter got slurped up by a vine that's busy trying to digest him at that very moment!

Not only have these girls known to steer clear of such a tree since they were toddlers, but even if they were accidentally roped up by it, they could effortlessly wriggle their way back out. It's merely a slight, quick annoyance, like a stumble before straightening yourself again. You won't find even the clumsiest Amazonian eaten by such a lowly carnivorous plant.

No wonder these girls are so entertained. That boy must have barely even tried, before he practically let that tree eat him >//v//>;

Despite their cruel indifference to the boy's peril, Amazonians don't mind adventurers in their Jungle. Its a live-and-let-live relationship. Make it worth their while, they may even serve as your guide. But if you're about to be, or are being eaten, tough luck~! Rescuing you wouldn't be fair to the hungry pred making you its prey ♥

These girls are going to leave him to stew in there, watching his delicate body disappear into a sludgy jumble of bones, just like the last two that met the same fate. It's a fun, arousing pastime for Amazonians these days.
The boy-adventurer can give them that exhausted look of excited desperation as much as he likes, they still won't save him. Guess he'll just have to writhe, wriggle and squirm some more in a vain attempt to free himself. Both girls know it's far too late for that, but no fun in telling him that~

They may be tribal, but they're not completely oblivious to modern technology, sporting their own smartphones, and even social-media accounts! Time to snap yet another quick, uncaring selfie, before sitting back to enjoy the show... >:3

#justjunglethings

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This drawing was an experiment in semi-muscular figures, and in monotone shading =D

I've always had a fondness for fit, powerful characters, but have thus far been intimidated by the complexities of muscle structure and its proportions. For now I just focused on the abs, while trying to make the rest of their bodies look tighter than I usually draw <3 With continued study in this direction, it will not only help me draw really toned characters, but will also help immensely with little details in proportions, that help add substance, weight and realism to a character.
I've noticed in other artists' work, it helps add a lot of genuine, small details that are otherwise easily overlooked when you're not familiar with where important muscles are situated on the human body. I'm really hoping this results in more refined thighs, asses and backs.

As for monotone shading, this approach made me pay closer attention to how balanced the drawing was at a given time, in terms of light vs dark. This can only help me produce better full-color work in the future as well, and hopefully make more informed judgement-calls on how saturated a given color should be without needing to correct it too much later.

The textless version of this is available on my Patreon page here: [LINK] The reference I used from Design Doll can also be seen with the textless version on my Pixiv here: https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=63613641
You may notice that Design Doll ref has a much deeper Field of View, which I ended up flattening. Phone cameras don't usually have that kind of FOV anyway :p

Anyhoo, I sincerely hope you enjoyed the read, and I hope you like it! >3<;;;