Zel Howland

Zel Howland

@deathbycoldopen.bsky.social

They/them. Posting my horror and fantasy art, fiction, and embroidery. Chronically ill and grumpy about it. Find my published short stories here: https://duckprintspress.com/about-duck-prints-press/creators-we-work-with/author-zel-howland/

707 Followers 692 Following 354 Posts Joined Nov 2024
Posts Following
18 hours ago
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3 days ago
bird watercolor painting in progress. the birb is fluffy and round.

Borb wip

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3 days ago
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A few lil oil color studies done in stream.

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3 days ago
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I've also sketched this serious guy today
#seal #animals #animal #sketch #dailysketch #digitalsketch #art #comission

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4 days ago
A sketch of a woman lit by a single red light out of frame. The shadow of plants run across her face and the same plants can be seen framing her from behind.

Old sketch that I was thinking about this morning.

Spirit Walker
"Only the birds can see you,
Only the birds know what you've done"

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4 days ago
Watercolor painting of a green deer with green cloth floating down between orange and pink roots.

In the Arrival Before Spring
8x22in, watercolor, bit of gouache
fallenlights.net <-prints
#bsnm

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2 weeks ago

if you see this post a monster

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3 months ago
Blue background with black text that reads: Black Friday Sale. Nov. 28th - Dec. 2nd. use the code: 25holidayducksfor2025 for 25% off one entire purchase in the Duck Prints Press Website.

Y'all know what weekend it is. We've got three sales! One: use code 25holidayducksfor2025 to save 25% on our webstore. Two: this Creator's Day itch bundle (itch.io/b/3410/creat...)! Three: 30% off to get Monsterotica AND our back catalogue! Deets on all 3: duckprintspress.com/2025/11/25/b...

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4 months ago

😍😍😍

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5 months ago
A digital painting of Hua Cheng from Heaven Official’s Blessing, during his time carving statues in the cave of the 10,000 gods in Mount Tonglu. He sits in the lap of one of his statues, a noble-looking Xie Lian holding a sword and looking off into the distance, at ease. Hua Cheng leans back against the statue’s arm with his face turned longingly toward Xie Lian’s. Hua Cheng’s empty right eye socket is on full display, bruised and still bleeding. The statue is slightly larger than life, making Hua Cheng look young and small in its cold embrace.

The Cave of Ten Thousand Gods

#art #tgcf #HeavenOfficial’sBlessing #HuaCheng #hualian

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5 months ago
A digital painting of Hua Cheng from Heaven Official’s Blessing, during his time carving statues in the cave of the 10,000 gods in Mount Tonglu. He sits in the lap of one of his statues, a noble-looking Xie Lian holding a sword and looking off into the distance, at ease. Hua Cheng leans back against the statue’s arm with his face turned longingly toward Xie Lian’s. Hua Cheng’s empty right eye socket is on full display, bruised and still bleeding. The statue is slightly larger than life, making Hua Cheng look young and small in its cold embrace.

The Cave of Ten Thousand Gods

#art #tgcf #HeavenOfficial’sBlessing #HuaCheng #hualian

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5 months ago
Black and white charcoal and graphite sketch of a chiseled man wearing black pants leaping and bending over backwards as he dances. Black and white pencil drawing of a topless man leaning against a wall, one leg extended outward.

Just a couple of drawings of dancing men

#Art #Ballet #Ballerino #Dance

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6 months ago
A photo of a small embroidery hoop with a thread painting depicting a close up of a person’s right eye and eyebrow with a large gold coin in place of an iris and pupil.

A coin for the ferryman.

#embroidery #threadpainting

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6 months ago
Digital painting. An old human skeleton lying on the ground, some parts of it are buried or broken, it resembles a fossil. The ground under it is a stone with a lot of ammonites in it, they are different in size and color, some are iridescent.

Some day we'll become just another layer of fossils

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6 months ago

We're currently $29/month in backing from my being able to give our authors and artists a raise on pieces they make for Patreon.

That's only 10 people backing at the $3/month level, or 6 at the $5, or 3 at the $10. That's like. hardly any people at all!

So please help by sharing this. <3

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6 months ago
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「幽谷_吽」
2025年制作
P10 (縦 530mm × 横 455mm)
アクリル、キャンバス

2025年7月に札幌のギャラリー犬養で開催した個展での一枚。そういえば背景に月食を描いたのだった。
#高橋弘子
www.hirokotakahashi.art/product-page...

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6 months ago
Artwork of two women on the ground of a cave, surrounded by glowing orange candles. One is ghostly white, her knees tucked up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, wearing a tattered dress. Her long hair tumbles over her face. The other is put-together with her hair in a high-bun, wearing a pink-purple long-sleeved dress that is spattered with blood. The second woman has an arm around the spectral woman's shoulders and is drawing the veil of hair away from her face. The first woman is looking away from the second woman; the second woman watches the first woman, her face not pointing toward the viewer in the intensity of her regard.

Meet @deathbycoldopen.bsky.social ! This artwork, CHRYSOPOEIA, ties in to Howland's story of the same name, and is January in our 2026 calendar and available as an art print! You can learn more about the project and pre-order your calendar and art here: duckprintspress.com/2025/09/04/a...

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6 months ago
Graphic with a pale blue background. It features a white duck looking with a smirk toward the viewer, his winges spread behind him; the wings have a rainbow gradient. Text on the gaphic reads "Support Duck Prints Press on Patreon, Receive a Backer Exclusive Freebie or any merch item up to $5." A graphic over a pale blue background. It says "Spread the word!" with a heart and a share symbol below that, then the words "to enter the giveaway." Below that is the art from the front cover of the book "Add Magic to Taste," showing a dragon brewing a potion, beside which is the text "of a print copy of our first anthology Add Magic to Taste."

Duck Prints Press, indie publisher founded by fancreators to help fancreators publish their original LGBTQIA+ work, needs YOU! 🫵

Seeking: new backers for our Patreon! People who boost our post about it a chance to win a book! Learn all the many details on our webpage: tinyurl.com/mus57v48

🌈📚
📚💙

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6 months ago
A woman in dark leather armor with rivets and straps looms over her victim in a dimly lit stone hall. She grips a bloodied dagger in one hand and holds her opponent’s hair with the other, forcing their head down. Her face is streaked with blood, and she smiles with a cruel, triumphant expression. Behind her, cloaked figures stand in shadow, while the blood moon glows red through an archway, casting an ominous light.

"The Dagger" is the minor deity of murder. She revels in the thrill and ecstasy of murder and loves impulsive killings as much as planned masterful murders.

This illustration allowed me to play with expressions and get back to working with darker themes, which I love.

Reposts are appreciated! ✨

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6 months ago
the "Death" card from the upcoming Vampire's Tarot from Llewellyn Publishing. Image depicts a female Death kissing a woman kneeling on a tomb in an overgrow cemetery.

The last card for the Vampire's Tarot has been turned in. 78 illustrations completed this year for my fifth and final tarot deck.

My wrist hurts ⚰️

Hopefully I'll soon have news from the publisher about release dates, so stay tuned

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6 months ago
A digital painting of Black Water/He Xuan from Heaven Official's Blessing. He stands on still waters, backlit by an eerie setting sun, with his head tilted at an unnatural angle. He holds Shi Wudu's decapitated head in one hand by the hair, and is covered in blood spatter. Much of his face is hidden by his hair, but a single, uncannily wide and round eye stares directly at the viewer.

Ship-Sinking Black Water

#tgcf #darkart #HeavenOfficial’sBlessing #mxtx

(gore cw)

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6 months ago
Digital illustration of a dragon in the stars. The body of the dragon is long and sinuous, appearing almost as if it is created from the galaxies around it as it twists through the sky. It's head rears back and behind it is a spiral galaxy, nestled between two long horns. The two front arms pull a thread of glowing magic from the galaxy.

New art? New art! Meet Dracotempus, a god-like being of the stars - commissioned by @vulpecula0714.bsky.social

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6 months ago
A stylised portrait of David Tennant as The Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna. They are clinched close, both looking alarmed towards something offscreen to the right of the image. The background is a starry sky.

I love them 🥲

Been chipping away at this one for a while! #DoctorWho #fanart #DoctorDonna

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6 months ago
A wolf running and howling. along her body rests a full moon in her chest and stars scattered on her torso. between her front legs is a sword. venous red vines wrap loosely around her, except above her head where they are seemingly broken by her howl

Queen of Swords
Digital (Procreate), 2025

Part of my solo show SWORD DANCE opening @pushpullseattle.bsky.social September 13th. RSVP for the opening reception here: www.simpletix.com/e/opening-re...

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6 months ago
Ekko from Arcane flies through the sky above Piltover, behind him you can see colorful firefly wings form out of pure arcane energy.

The Boy Savior

early version of this piece that I still like quite a lot #Arcane

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6 months ago

artists, qrp with your favorite portrait you've drawn! 👁️

It'll take me a lot of luck or time to beat this one

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6 months ago
A tab brown fabric background with two diagonal strips of white netting. In front/ on top is five hand embroidered swallow fledglings leaning out of the nest. On the left, mid way down is an artist copyright logo

Swallow Fledglings
Hand embroidery thread painting artwork.
#birds #WildlifeArt #embroidery

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6 months ago
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awooooooo wolf study

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6 months ago
Mock-up graphic showing a calendar on a blue background. The image shows two women side by side, one white with blonde hair wearing a leather jacket reaching out to cup the cheek of the other, who is white, dark-haired, blushing, and has her arms crossed over her chest. Below this is a page that says April 2026 and shows a calendar set-up for Sunday-through-Saturday weeks. Queer events are shown on the calendar. Behind this mock-up, part of a second mock-up peeks out. Next beside the mock-up reads "Duck Prints Press Presents 2026 Art Calendar

Very excited to share our next project: a 2026 calendar featuring 12 months of queer art! Features artwork originally made for our Patrons between Aug 24 and July 25 – 12 pieces by 9 artists! Art works are also available as art prints. Learn more our campaign page duckprintspress.com/2026-queer-a...

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