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Double Proficiency 🐦‍⬛🚀
@doubleproficiency.com
2.3K followers 1.3K following 810 posts
Natural history & folklore, astronomy, TTRPG.
Authors of #AphelionRPG, Herbalist's Primer, and more!
By @annaurbanek.bsky.social and @jakubwisz.bsky.social
Posts by Anna
https://linktr.ee/2xproficiency
https://www.doubleproficiency.com
🌐 Tampere, Finland
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doubleproficiency.com
If you see this, post your bird art! 🐦
#ZoologistsPrimer
A digital watercolor & ink picture showing a variety of birds-of-paradise, mostly colorful males, but also a female and an egg. The picture is a part of the Zoologist's Primer: Birds book.
November 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM
doubleproficiency.com
One of these days, I'll need to reach out to terrifyingly successful people and organizations to start setting up some publicity for The Bird Book.

I love folklore. I love birds. I love writing and drawing.

But talking to people...? 😱

If you know non-scary sci-com bird people, let me know 😅
A digital ink & watercolor illustration of blackbirds from the upcoming Zoologist's Primer: Birds book.
November 4, 2025 at 9:53 AM
doubleproficiency.com
I woke up to Blue Jays trending, so this must be fate. I literally drew them yesterday!

All best birds are corvids.
A digital ink & watercolor drawing of the bird blue jay, having nothing in common with the trending topic which is, I think, baseball thing. These blue jays are happily perched on sticks and fence posts, with their blue crests lowered or raised. There's also an egg in a corner.
October 25, 2025 at 6:03 AM
doubleproficiency.com
It's time to bring back one of my favorite things we ever made.
Suitable for any system and party, with guidelines to run it anywhere on the spectrum from child-friendly to gothic horror.

If you need an adventure for your Halloween ttrpg night, give it a try.
www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4...
On a black and gold marble lies a stack of The Phantom Manor zines. On the cover, a cartoon-style ghost does its best to scare you. A crimson reflection of a manor appears in one of the black eye holes. A cartoon spider swings on a silk thread from the subtitle: "A spooky adventure for characters of any game and level." Next to the zines, a text reads: "10 rooms, 13 ghosts, 1 mysterious door. Can you survive until dawn and lift the Rosebloom family curse?"
October 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
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Stanny's illustration style is unmistakable: dark, haunting, liminal, surreal.

And SOMEONE thought it's a good idea to have him illustrate fairy tales.

Behold, the art that broke me at the tender age of 6 when I decided to read my Mom's Andersen anthology for myself.
A gloomy, misty, and green forest seems to devour completely lost Thumbelina who looks like she's about four years old. An ethereal, giant toad observes the child from afar, deciding to kidnap her as a bride for the toad's son. An illustration from The Nightingale: A disembodied hand floats above a seashore, dwarfing a sailboat beneath it. On the index finger perches a robotic nightingale made of cold steel decorated with green gems and a string of pearls. Instead of a bird head there's a human skull, looking as dead as it possibly can. An illustration from "The Red Shoes": A beautifully dressed child in a fluffy white dress and elegant hat runs in panic across a hostile forest. On her feet, she wears red shoes that she cannot ever take off. The hill behind the girl is a monstrous head, with topography turned into facial features. The hill's face is wrinkled in pain, fear, and remorse. An illustration from "The Tinderbox": A small soldier in green uniform cowers in a corner as the picture is dominated by a demonic creature: part tree, part human, with an open, mocking smile. In the depths of the mouth hides an animal-like spirit. The face of the witch-tree is topped with figures of a resting king and queen.
October 24, 2025 at 7:35 AM
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The Polish School of Posters was not limited to movie posters, and it was lead by some of the most prominent artists of the time. Look at this amazing bird: it's a 1978 ad poster for Polish Airlines (LOT) with a business end of a sparrow.

Painted by Janusz Stanny, source of my childhood nightmare.
A painted poster with an anthropomorphized sparrow wearing a sparrow-brown business suit, no pants, white shirt, golden vest, and dark brown tie. The sparrow carries a briefcase as stares you down, so you know it means business.
October 24, 2025 at 7:13 AM
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Y'all know we're here to lobby for #stibnite. It's got antimony, known as The Wolf of Alchemy: a hungry, devouring, and transformative force making shape-changing and transformation of metals possible 🐺💎
An illustration of antimony minerals, including needle-like stibnite crystals. The pic comes from Geologist's Primer by Double Proficiency.
September 2, 2025 at 3:04 PM
doubleproficiency.com
I've just learned about #AvianAugust2025, and while I don't have the time to fully participate, I can make a sneak announcement re: future Primers 🐣
A simple illustration of a magpie sitting on a naked branch. The bird it sitting with its back and tail to you, displaying the beautiful array of iridescent colors on its feathers.
August 8, 2025 at 10:02 AM
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Ergot is fascinating. It has been plaguing humanity at least since the dawn of agriculture. The oldest sclerotium was discovered on a grass floret encased in amber from the early-mid Cretaceous period, somewhere around 100 million years ago.
A digital watercolor "botanical" illustration of ergot, showing purple-black sclerotia in various forms.
August 7, 2025 at 10:07 AM
doubleproficiency.com
Just updating our #AlchemistsToolkit system to include fungi, on top of plants and minerals we already have there as reagents. Can't wait to see what potions people make from them!
A reagent card of fly agaric, a common mushroom with red cap covered in white warts. The picture of the mushroom is included on the left side. It is found in 4 biomes (forest, grassland, urban, and waste) and represents the element of air. The card lists three magical effects: magic, chaos, and slow. A reagent card of sapphire, a rare mineral in various colors, predominantly blue and pink or purple. The picture of the mineral is included on the left side. It is found in 2 biomes (riverbank and underground) and represents the element of water. The card lists three magical effects: healing, courage, and protection. A reagent card of pomegranate, a rare plant with edible fruits and orange-red flowers. The picture of the flowering plant is included on the left side. It is found in 1 biome (garden or plantation) and represents the element of fire. The card lists three magical effects: healing, detection, and luck. An excerpt of the Alchemist's Toolkit, describing the process of creating a preparation by choosing a base, adding reagents, elemental essences, and distillates. Underneath, the page includes a sample note with a recipe for Potion of Fire Magic, requiring hawkweed and bismuth.
August 7, 2025 at 8:43 AM
doubleproficiency.com
A bunch of our quest card decks and guides to different biomes is now on sale! 30% off on @drivethrurpg.com for their Christmas in July legacy.drivethrurpg.com/xmas_in_july...
A picture of a Globetrotter's guide open on a spread about Environmental Threats & Challenges and Catleya orchids. The text next to it describes the series of biome guides - a resource for writers and TTRPG creators and game masters. A picture of the Wayfarer's Deck: The Dark Forest. 50 illustrated encounters, findings, puzzles, wonders, and writing prompts for adventurers getting lost, perhaps for the first time. A picture of the Phantom Manor adventure lying on a black and gold marble table. The cover shows a cute cartoon ghost in a spooky pose, with a "reflection" of a red manor in its nonexistent eye. The caption in the corner reads: "10 rooms, 13 s, 1 mysterious door. Can you survive until dawn and lift the Rosebloom family curse?"
July 21, 2025 at 4:43 PM
doubleproficiency.com
A drawing of a sunflower on the background of the blue & yellow Ukrainian flag. The text around the sunflower reads: "Stand with Ukraine"
March 1, 2025 at 9:29 AM
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When we went to the local gallery for a dragon art exhibition, we knew we need to take this one home. Art by the amazing @sysirauta.bsky.social!
A photograph of a framed watercolor and ink illustration of a cat-sized dragon sitting atop a red fly agaric mushroom. The dragon is of an European design, blue-gray, but it also sports butterfly-like antennae, orange horns, and blue and orange butterfly-like wings. A tail tipped with orange wraps around the mushroom's stalk.
February 13, 2025 at 10:23 AM
doubleproficiency.com
🧿
A watercolor and ink illustration of pixie's parasol, Mycena interrupta. It's a tiny mushroom on pale stalks and with cyan to royal blue caps, vaguely resembling the evil eye charm.
February 4, 2025 at 2:34 PM
doubleproficiency.com
Silly Anna, should've beaten herself up more over this. /j
Bad Habit Artist Bingo covered in translucent fly agaric caps. Managed to not get any bingos, mostly because the bottom tow depends on drawing people. Also, a bingo just avoided by not marking "too hard on self".
January 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
doubleproficiency.com
Honey mushrooms are a much loved (deserved) and much maligned (also deserved) group of fungi. If you never met them, think: Borg.

Jakub put them in one of the adventures that'll accompany the release of Mycologist's Primer. Consider yourself pre-warned :)
A watercolor + ink illustration of a variety of honey mushrooms (genus Armillaria) from the Mycologist's Primer.
January 4, 2025 at 5:20 PM
doubleproficiency.com
I've been writing a lot about luminous fungi recently, and now I need to tell you about the ghost fungus.

It glows in the dark (white-blue light, but comes out green in photos!), it looks like oysters, and it'll give you the worst stomach cramps. Sweet lil' toxic shroom.
A watercolor + ink illustration of the ghost fungus: a clump of creamy oyster-like mushrooms, caps of a darker coloration, and a ghostly-white luminescent mushroom.
January 1, 2025 at 2:24 PM
doubleproficiency.com
For context, we even use Order of the Sticks character portraits for all NPCs in our Pathfinder games with friends. We're on high-tide adventure where we sail a pirate ship full of kobold crew, and they're all adorable.
A round token with a red-scaled, yellow-eyed and toothy kobold holding a spear. The kobold is drawn in the style of "The Order of the Stick" comic book, all adorable and stickman-like. You could fall in love with this kobold.
December 19, 2024 at 6:45 PM
doubleproficiency.com
Turns out it's possible to make a book that's not 360 pages long. Also, this one is small and super cute. Really nice primer on mushroom lore.
A photo of a book "Mushroom Magick: Ritual, Celebration, and Lore" by Shawn Engel. This small hardcover tome has a gold foil title and a ring of cute mushroom illustrations surrounded by gold sparkles and a crescent moon.
December 6, 2024 at 5:01 PM
doubleproficiency.com
Known in folklore and ethnomedicine as boneset or knitbone, comfrey extracts, ointments, and compresses were used in healing bone fractures. A simple recipe advised to wrap fresh leaves around the wound as a quick poultice, then secure in place.

#FolktaleWeek2024 prompt: bone #BookWormSat
A botanical illustration of comfrey (Symphytum officinale), a herbaceous plant with black roots, narrow leaves, and bunches of purple bell-shaped flowers.
November 23, 2024 at 10:40 AM
doubleproficiency.com
Garnets are found throughout the world in many types of rocks. Some are created in the mantle and brought to the surface just like diamonds.

And yet, the most powerful, magical garnets are found not in depths of earth, but in a dragon's skull.

#FolktaleWeek2024 prompt: depth #FolkloreFriday
A detailed watercolor and ink illustration of various types of garnet, from unpolished orange to gem-cut red and purples. In addition, a very demure brown garnet pebble with electric-blue sheen on the surface.
November 22, 2024 at 11:10 AM
doubleproficiency.com
The work on #MycologistsPrimer is going great.

As usual, we find our cozy comfort zone exactly in the middle between organic chemistry and mind goblins.
Accompanied by a miniature picture of a candy cap mushroom, text reads: "#018 Candy Cap An oddity in the world of mushrooms, candy caps introduce a remarkable sweetness thanks to a compound called quabalactone III, which in reaction with water produces sotolone: a fascinating aroma compound which at low concentration smells like caramel or maple syrup; at high concentration, it resembles curry or fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum). You will find it added to artificial maple syrup, molasses, aged rum, and plenty other alcoholic beverages. Collecting candy caps is a tiresome quest due to their small size and limited habitat. Lactarius rubidus is limited to mostly western areas of North America, while L. camphoratus, more curry-like than sweet, is found in eastern North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. The latter is sometimes attacked by the ochre gillgobbler (Hypomyces lateritius, relative of the lobster mushroom), preventing gill formation and improving the flavor. We mention it only because "gillgobbler" is such a cute name for a goblin."
November 22, 2024 at 9:07 AM
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Frankincense is an aromatic resin of the Boswellia tree, used as anti-inflammatory medication and a popular incense that drives out all evil and negativity, induces visions, and provides a trail to guide you home when exploring metaplanes.

#FolktaleWeek2024 prompt: trail #FolkloreThursday
A detailed botanical illustration of frankincense (Boswellia sacra), showing a flowering top, a flower in bloom, and clumps of resin sold as incense.
November 21, 2024 at 11:58 AM
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If you see this, post some mushrooms 🍄 #FungiFriends
A detailed illustration of indigo milk cap, a white mushroom staining blue at the lightest provocation. A detailed illustration of witches' butter, a yellow and orange jelly fungus. A detailed illustration of scarlet cup, a red cup fungi accused of serving as a bath for fairies. A detailed illustration of various fungi in the Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps genera, complete with mummified insect they grew out from.
November 20, 2024 at 6:52 PM
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European shorthair siblings: a calico Talis and a gray tuxedo Theon :)
An adult male tuxedo cat sits like an Egyptian cat figurine in a decidedly pink kid's bedroom. He's staring curiously at someone out of the frame. An adult calico cat - but still very kitten-like - looks up from a cozy bread pose at the person taking the photo. She's adorable.
November 20, 2024 at 1:48 PM