Hey, all. It’s time for FAF(cake), the cosmic all-kissing edition of Fan Art Friday. I think this needs no explanation, because we all love cake.

Let’s start with Alek and Deryn, shall we?

First a tiny wee gif from UniYuki:

Awwww.

And here’s an eerily similar in style, but way bigger and non-moving, image from Ridgetail95:

She looks like the surprised one here, which tells a story. (Like, he’s figured out her secret and is like, ba-BOOM, and she’s all, “Wha??”)

That’s something I’ve noticed while trawling the interweebz for Dalek lip-on-lip action: every picture tells a story. Sometimes they’ve obviously been together for a while, and are just chillin’; sometimes she’s surprising him, and sometimes it’s the other way around, like the above.

Here’s a case of them having obviously known each other’s secrets for a while, from stkidd (who seems to specialize in kissing fan art!):

Go check out all of stkidd’s art. She has a great one of Deryn snoozing with a sketch of Alek. Heh.

From DanyDiSalvo, here’s one with the ever popular title, “Engine Grease.”

Pretty intense. (And seriously, I do see the title “Engine Grease” a lot. Is THAT what the kids are calling it these days?)

Here, from Miyu999, comes a more comical approach. Clearly it’s right before a battle (“Will we ever see each other again?”), and it also proves what I learned while writing this series: all scenes that feature Bovril are fundamentally awesome.

Note that we’ve made the all-important jump to Alek being on the left side of the frame! Is it just me, or do the vast majority of Dalek kisses have Alek on the right? Is this a geographical thing, like Austria is kissing Britain?

Seriously, HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THIS?

And now an even more comical, in the sense of sequential comics, take on kissing from britata348. (Note that Alek is back where he belongs, on the right!)

And here’s a fanciful image from Art-BandGeek (who we’ve seen here before, but CAKE demanded a revisit) that actually is a bit like a scene from Goliath. (only in that Deryn’s wearing wings. But this was drawn BEFORE yesterday’s art reveal. Hmm.)

And yes, Alek on the right again. Hmm.

Are we bored of Alek and Deryn yet? Never!

But let’s have a slightly different take anyway, another lovely sketch from stkidd:

As the French say: Yowza.

All you naughty shippers, Dr. Barlow is married, you know, and had had two children by 1914!

And finally, one last Dalek kiss, a sweet one from MaiaBlackWolf:

Again, I say: Awww.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for all the kisses!

(Don’t forget: I’m going on tour soon. Check out my Appearances page to see if I’m coming anywhere near you.)

Yes, this is the last one. So I thought I would make it a really good one, even though this image is maybe just a BIT spoiler-y.

So if you hate to experience even the slightest bespoilment, I suggest you turn your computer off now and set it on fire. Then go live in the forest until September 20.

Have you done that? Good. Now I can reveal the September Goliath art sneak preview!

Would you like to see it zoomable? I think that you would. Click here to do so.

That’s it. I have no comments about this image (or its alarming caption). You may interpret it as you will.

See you tomorrow for Fan Art Friday, which will include CAKE!*
_______________________

*CAKE is an acronym. Real cake not included.

I was recently asked by some cosplayers about the clothes in the world of Leviathan. Like, what color are they? After all, the illustrations are in black and white.

Now, luckily for you detail-oriented costumers, the Manual of Aeronautics will have a ton of full-color illustrations of uniforms, both Clanker and Darwinist. But I don’t want to start releasing art from that book a year ahead. Especially not with Goliath about to come out.

But when I said so to these cosplayers, they suggested the next best thing: outtakes from the cover shoot for the series. (For the new covers, obviously.) These photos, after all, show the clothes that the models were wearing in color!

So I said, Sure, what the heck.

First we have Alek:

And here’s Deryn in the same coat:

As you can see, they put both models into the same clothing. After all, there was only so much steampunk-appropriate stuff on the rack. So here they are in black leather:

Hah! Not only are they wearing the same jackets, but also the same ties! Note that the fur collar (which made it to the final) is just stuffed in there. It’s not part of the jacket, really. And the jacket’s too small for him, and too big for her.

It’s pretty weird, how much gets changed in Photoshop.

In any case, these are not by any means canonical Leviathan-world uniforms. Use them if you want, cosplayers, but for me it doesn’t count unless Keith draws it! For the real ones, you’ll have to wait till August of next year, when the Manual of Aeronautics comes out.

(Of course, these could be like the Ravenclaw tie colors that are wrong—er,um, different—in the movies. Alternate reality cosplay!)

And now for a couple of outtakes, because models are peoples too:

And this look totally didn’t work for Alek:

On that somewhat dorky note, we end this blog post. See you in a few days for Fan Art Friday (now totally weekly)!

Update:
The September 1 art reveal is tomorrow, Thursday! And it is a doozie! Don’t miss it.

Let’s start with some non-Leviathan stuff, as this site will be ALL Leviathan for the next two months or so.

First from the world of Midnighters, is Jessica Edge’s wonderful flame-bringer tattoo:

As you can see, it’s very faithful to the book. (And perhaps a bit fresh and ouchy-looking as well. Aloe vera!) That’s the second Midnighter tattoo I know of out there in the world. I wonder if there are any more . . .

And now a rare piece of The Last Days fan art. It’s Minerva, as interpreted by Spearare:

Appropriately seductive and mysterious, IS IT NOT?

And now from the Uglies world, we have a character from Extras. Nana Love as drawn by DolceCircee:

Very manga-liscious, which is entirely apt.

And another from the Uglies series, but from the absolute other end of the character spectrum, we have Dr. Cable.

WARNING: SCARY FACE!
WARNING: SCARY FACE!
WARNING: SCARY FACE!
WARNING: SCARY FACE!
WARNING: SCARY FACE!

Yes, rather intense. But great use of shading.

And finally, to recover from the scary, here’s some Alek and Deryn hanging out from Julia D (jurodo):

Heh. I’ve always suspected there’s a trunk full of dresses waiting for Deryn back in Scotland. But maybe she burned them all!

Okay, enjoy your weekend. Twenty-five days till Goliath. And only a week till the next (and final) art reveal!

Here at last are the dates for my upcoming tour for Goliath, which comes out September 20.

As always: I’m very sorry if I’m not coming to your city/town/iceberg, but rest assured that this is NOT because I don’t love you all; it’s because you outnumber me.

Here we go.

TO PREVENT CONFUSION, TOUR INFORMATION HAS BEEN MOVED FROM HERE TO MY APPEARANCES PAGE. Go there to check on dates, times, and places.

Can’t wait to see you guys.

Welcome to FAFNLF, which of course stands for “Fan Art Friday—No Longer Fortnightly!” Given that Goliath comes out imminently, I’m going to do a FAF every Friday until I go on tour.

Now, I promised you tour dates in my next post, and you shall have them in great detail tomorrow, August 20. That’s exactly one month before the book comes out.

And now some arts. The theme of today’s FAFNLF is “Not the Usual Suspects.” That’s right, there will be no Deryn, Alek, or Tally! So let us begin with a bit of Newkirk fan art.

It’s called “Like a Boss,” from fellie220:

Heh. It’s good to see Newkirk mixing some attitude with his altitude. (Bada-boom.) And yes, after that Huxley crash at the beginning of Behemoth, he has some bragging rights.

Next is some cosplay from theonlybandgeek99 and her photogenic friend Renee:

So who is this contemplative figure, exactly? Onlybandgeek suggest that it might be Alek and Deryn’s daughter, who “steals her late father’s sword and her mother’s middie uniform.” (But when I first saw it, I figured it was Alek borrowing one of Deryn’s outfits for a little cosplay session of his own. Heh.)

From Braeden, here’s a cool Cyklops Stormwalker created in the game Spore.

Pretty slick, huh?

And waving goodbye from Not the Usual Suspects FAFNLF is Special Shay, from Serena:

Okay, that’s it until next Friday.

You: But I thought you said you were posting the Goliath tour dates tomorrow.

Me: Oh, right. I’ll definitely do that.

You: Are you sure.

Me: Um yes. Or Sunday.

You: Why can we not TRUST you to blog things when you say you’ll blog them?

Me: Because of my busy life! What with all the . . . tweeting and stuff. Look, it’ll be sometime this weekend, unless you’re in an Australian time zone, in which case it could be, like, really early Monday.

You: Pfff.