Drewly: Pearl of the Sirens

 Pearl of the Sirens

Pearl of the Sirens: Fashioned by a sea seductress who didn’t want to immediately drown and devour their victims. This necklace allows drylanders to survive beneath the water for as long as the seductress wishes.

We have been going strong with drewly for three entire weeks!

For a random one-off item drawing for my homebrew Pathfinder game, I am very happy with how this turned out.

What is Drewly?

#Drewly is the month-long art challenge for July, where you don’t have to make any new art. Just post art you’ve already made and celebrate all you’ve accomplished.

Rules:

Share art you have already made.

Share as often as you want.

When you share, tag your art with #Drewly and #Drewly2025

I will be posting art every day of Drewly, so check back in tomorrow for something new.

Check out everything I’ve shared for past Drewly’s here: #Drewly #Drewly2022 #Drewly2023 #Drewly2024

Since you’re here, please consider supporting:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Buy a sticker: SpeakingSquid.redbubble.com

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: A Seeing Stone

 A Seeing Stone

Earth Element: To reforge the Picori blade and revive its power to seal away evil, Link must gather the four elemental essences. The Earth Element is guarded by the Big Green Chuchu in Minish Cap’s first dungeon, Deepwood Shrine. Link must wait until he has earned two of the four elements before he can begin the reforging process.

In a crazed display of foolishness, a spiderlike fae tossed this seeing stone in her fire, thinking it destroyed. A fire far greater than a witch’s hearth is needed to shatter such a potent artifact of natural power. The brave young girl escaped The Beldam’s web, but should another young victim find themself in the sinister fae’s domain, a potent artifact awaits them in the hearth’s cold ashes.

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It was deeply disheartening to hear of the sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman. It sucks that there is always this sword of Damocles hanging above important and influential male figures.

Today in drewly we are going to focus in on how great Laika’s films are. Go watch some great stop-motion films and support my favorite movie medium.

Drewly today is my normal weekly item card post, where I post drawings inspired by all the items in all the Zelda games. I am currently posting the items from The Minish Cap. I’ve got complete sets for the first 11 Zelda games and a bunch of other item sets already posted here. https://thespeakingsquid.blogspot.com/search/label/Collected

What is Drewly?

#Drewly is the month-long art challenge for July, where you don’t have to make any new art. Just post art you’ve already made and celebrate all you’ve accomplished.

Rules:

Share art you have already made.

Share as often as you want.

When you share, tag your art with #Drewly and #Drewly2025

I will be posting art every day of Drewly, so check back in tomorrow for something new.

Check out everything I’ve shared for past Drewly’s here: #Drewly #Drewly2022 #Drewly2023 #Drewly2024

Since you’re here, please consider supporting:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Buy a sticker: SpeakingSquid.redbubble.com

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Drewly: A chaotic mask

 A chaotic mask

Loki Mask: Cast out from Valhalla for causing chaos, Loki’s desire to cause mischief and make trouble was woven into a rough wooden mask. Whenever a person dons the mask, they are overcome with the pent-up eagerness to cause trouble.

Drewly today is another drawing that I am not fond of. Drewly isn’t about just sharing your highest achievements, its about sharing what you make, and sometimes you make something that isn’t great.

What is Drewly?

#Drewly is the month-long art challenge for July, where you don’t have to make any new art. Just post art you’ve already made and celebrate all you’ve accomplished.

Rules:

Share art you have already made.

Share as often as you want.

When you share, tag your art with #Drewly and #Drewly2025

I will be posting art every day of Drewly, so check back in tomorrow for something new.

Check out everything I’ve shared for past Drewly’s here: #Drewly #Drewly2022 #Drewly2023 #Drewly2024

Since you’re here, please consider supporting:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Buy a sticker: SpeakingSquid.redbubble.com

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Drewly: Keening

 Keening

Keening: A crystal knife that can be used, in conjunction with the rest of Kagrenac's Tools, to steal the power of a god.

Drewly day 1 starts with an important moment in my history. I was exploring the depths of a dwemer ruin deep in the Ashlands when I came upon a crystal knife floating in the center of a room. Knowing this was important, I instantly picked it up and equipped it. I then suffered a mortal wound and quickly died. Keening is too powerful to handle without the protection of the Wraithguard, and I had no idea. Morrowing had quite the learning curve.

What is Drewly, you ask?

Drewly is an art challenge for all the people who look at daily art challenges like Inktober or Swordtember and think, “I can’t finish a new piece of art every day for a month. I have responsibilities."

Rules:

Share art you have already made.

Share as often as you want.

When you share, tag your art with #Drewly and #Drewly2025

I will be posting art every day of Drewly, so check back in tomorrow for something new.

Check out everything I’ve shared for past Drewly’s here: #Drewly #Drewly2022 #Drewly2023 #Drewly2024

Since you’re here, please consider supporting:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Buy a sticker: SpeakingSquid.redbubble.com

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: Acidic sling pots

 Acidic sling pots

Purple Royal Jewel: The final royal jewel needed to enter the Palace of Winds is guarded by a death knight in Frozen Hyrule. Link must defeat the knight to recover the jewel.

These sling pots are filled with acidic concoctions made with water from the marshes of the dead. That foul water is still strewn with the long-dead warriors of the last true army this world has ever seen. It seems their fighting spirit empowers this acidic pot to strike true and seek out any unprotected crevice.

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Elden Ring’s Alexander has been my favorite NPC in any game in a long time and I have not even played Elden Ring yet. These pots are based on the Elden Ring sling pots and the pot people pots.

I appreciate From Software’s beautiful inventory icons, but If I linger on their inventory art too much I might have to start a new project where I draw all the items in the Soulsborne games. I won't even consider that until I am fully done with all the Zelda games, which looks difficult considering two new games have come out since I started the project.

That is a great transition to the fact that this is the last item in the set based on Four Swords Adventures. Next week we will post the collected item set.

Since you're enjoying my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: Alchemist’s Fire

 Alchemist’s Fire

Red Royal Jewel: The third royal jewel needed to open the way to the Palace of Winds is guarded by a bone knight in the Desert of Doubt. Defeating the knight is the only way to recover the jewel.

These delicate pots of alchemist's fire have revolutionized the safety of the incendiary devices industry. These pots must be primed before they will self-ignite. Gone are the days of spontaneous detonation during storage or transit. At least that is what the Guild of Arsonists claims.

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A guild dedicated to flammable devices seems ridiculous but so does an organized thieves guild that has total interoperability between all major cities of a country. Go with it because it's cool and figure out how to make it work once it is running.

Since you're enjoying my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: Lightning in a Bottle

 Lightning in a Bottle

Green Royal Jewel: The second of the royal gems needed to open a path to the Palace of Winds is guarded by a bone knight in the dark world reflection of Kakariko Village. Upon defeating the knight, the Links are rewarded with the jewel.

These glass orbs have been scavenged from the great Silver Tower that rises high above the Scarlands. Whoever made the tower had great power indeed as throwing these orbs releases lightning captured in a glass bottle. No one knows who built the great tower but it is filled with strange devices whose quality is unequaled the world over. 

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The lightning in a bottle sketch from Key and Peele is one of my favorites. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out right now.

I am also riffing on a long history of fantasy creators dropping an unexplained spaceship in their fantasy world-building. I can’t say I always love it, but when I’m in the mood for kitchen-sink fantasy, I welcome the weird it offers.

Since you're enjoying my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: A fine bottle of oil and vinegar.

 A fine bottle of oil and vinegar.

Blue Royal Jewel: The four royal jewels possess the power to open a path to the Palace of Winds when brought together. Each of the jewels was guarded by a knight of Hyrule before Ganon conquered the land and infused it with his darkness. Now the four jewels are guarded by ghastly knights in the dark realm. Link can recover the blue royal jewel by defeating the transformed knight in The Field.

Round-bottom flasks are a sign of wealth at dinner parties as propriety dictates an attendant must be always present to hold them when not in use. Double-walled vessels are another display of wealth at parties because only master glass blowers are skilled enough to make such vessels perfectly and most are used for alchemical pursuits instead of tableware. This elegant bottle of oil and vinegar casually offered to guests at dinner is a statement to be sure for this no-name merchant on the rise.

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This drawing isn’t perfect, but I remember feeling really good about how well this drawing came out working from reference. A great piece of advice I ignored for too long was to look at pictures of the thing you want to draw to draw it better. Look at the pictures the whole time too, not just the preliminary sketches.

Since you're enjoying my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: Two powerful orbs

 Two powerful orbs

Crystal Ball: Crystal balls act as gashapon pods of Four Swords Adventures. Throwing a crystal ball on the ground shatters the ball, dropping a random item or treasure.

One orb makes all your dreams come true, often in a way you couldn’t even imagine. The other is a seeing stone, one of eight that were made and left connected so as to always be able to reach any other bearer of a stone. Both have been lost, and that's probably for the best.

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The Mirrari storyline introduced me to the wonderful lore of Magic: The Gathering. I still think about Chainer, Kahmal, Jeska, Balthor, and all the other important people running around Dominaria in the Odyssey block.

The Palantir and other seeing spheres are hard to draw in a very compelling way, but I hope I did an okay job with this one.

Since you're enjoying my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Swordtember: Skeksis Dueling Blade

Skeksis Dueling Blade

Skeksis Dueling Blade: Skeksis were much too cowardly to duel each other with blades. Instead, they take turns striking a great stone until the stone or a blade shatters.

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I routinely revisit the Dark Crystal and I always find some new prop or piece of set dressing that I've never noticed before. What a delightful film.

Since you’re enjoying my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: Hauntingly beautiful earring

 Hauntingly beautiful earring

Moon Pearl: These large pearls allow Links to open the many Moon Gates that connect Hyrule to the Dark World. The dark world is a close reflection of the Light World but has key differences that can allow Link to overcome impossible challenges in the Light World alone. Each moon pearl can only open one moon gate, shattering after use. Link can earn moon pearls by completing puzzles or be given them by people they meet during their adventures.

These classic pearl earrings were intended as an anniversary gift but were sadly never delivered. Just days before the occasion the couple perished in a tragic fire. The two spirits now haunt the charred earrings, bitter about the lost opportunity at a happy life but enjoying a grim undeath. 

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Simple things are often some of the hardest things to draw in a compelling way. I do think grounded simple objects play a far more important role in making loot interesting than just throwing more wacky enchantments on a sword.

If you enjoy my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Drewly: Verdant Spheres of House Sunstrider

 Verdant Spheres of House Sunstrider

Verdant Spheres: These three moon crystal shards were once a shield to defend the lands and lives of the elves. When that shield failed, the crystals were taken up and used as a devastating weapon against the enemies of the elves and any who got in between the elves and their bloody vengeance.

Drewly 23rd brings us the orbs that belonged to Kael’Thas Sunstrider, vengeance vengeance-obsessed blood elf from World of Warcraft. This whole week is items from the Warcraft universe that struck my fancy for one reason or another.

What is Drewly?

Drewly is a month-long art challenge for July where you post art you have already made. No new art just for Drewly.

There are three rules:

-Only post art you have already made.

-Post as much or as little as you are comfortable with.

-Tag your posts with #drewly and #drewly2024

If you enjoy my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords Adventures: Pendant of balance

 Pendant of balance

Force Gems: The Link’s must gather force gems during their adventures to restore the true power of the Four Sword that has been diminished by Vaati’s dark magic. Force Gems are found throughout the Links’ exploration and are usually rewarded for impressive feats of skill and speed. Two thousand force gems must be gathered during each level to pierce the veil of darkness at the end of each level.

This heavy jade pendant is given to initiates who seek the way of balance. After communing with the amulet, the prevailing energy of a person shines from the pendant. Only through long rigorous effort can a person manifest and eventually true balance in their energy.

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That’s two weeks of Drewly 2024 down and about two more to go. I hope you are celebrating all the work you’ve already completed.

What is Drewly?

Drewly is a month-long art challenge for July where you post art you have already made. No new art just for Drewly.

There are three rules:

Only post art you have already made.

Post as much or as little as you are comfortable with.

Tag your posts with #drewly and #drewly2024

If you enjoy my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph