#+ i actually use pen and ink a lot more in my art than pencil which i think is helping

[vamptastic]

pointillism portrait is going sooooo well my art teacher said it is probably the best in the class and hes excited for it and all my friends that have seen it said it looks exactly like me. who is going to become my patron and shower me in money and substances so i can worry about nothing but my art.

[blackboard-monitor]

how i've finished inktober every year for eight years and counting

Every time I mention around other artists that I finish inktober every year (meaning I draw and ink 31 drawings, one every day in October), I get questions like "how???", so I figured I'd make a post about it on the off chance it's helpful to someone. Please note that all my advice is based on my personal experience and you're a different person so what works for me may not work for you, and you can do whatever you want forever.

What it boils down to for me is two basic rules: 1) keep it simple and 2) manage your expectations.

Tools

Paper/sketchbook

I started my first inktober in my journal at the time, and because I'm neurotic like that, I've had to do every subsequent inktober in whatever journal I was using at that point.

The benefit of this is that each journal has had a page size of A5 or smaller, which can be tricky when trying to get in a lot of detail, but on the other hand forces you to limit the size of your drawings to a pretty managable size.

Paper type can also be important! Last year in 2023, my journal was a Moleskine sketchbook (image 1), which was actually designed to handle some degree of wet media, which was a game-changer for me as an ink wash enjoyer. Don't get me wrong, I've been using ink washes in most of my previous journals as well, but inking is a lot nicer when your paper isn't constantly buckling (image 2) or pilling and the ink isn't bleeding all over the place, inclunding through the page (image 3). Pages that stay flat instead of buckling are also a lot easier to scan or photograph, if like me you want to post your art online.

In short, my inktober paper recommendation is to use a sketchbook no larger than A5, and go for one with nice, thick paper if you intend to use wet media.

Sketching

I sketch everything with a single 6H pencil that I got from my brother in 2019. Because the lead is so hard, it allows me to scribble to my heart's content without the sketch getting too dark or hard to erase. Sometimes I'll refine the sketch with a HB mechanical pencil, which shows up really nicely on top of the 6H lines, but I may skip that step if I'm feeling lazy or the first sketch is clean enough.

Inking

I've used a variety of art supplies in my inktober drawings. For the most part I've always stuck to greyscale, with the exception of a couple of red or gold accents some years.

My main inktober tools are a set of Micron fineliners in various sizes, and liquid India ink, which I use with a dip pen and with brushes. I usually mix up a mid-tone ink wash in a small bottle, and use that throughout the month.

Fineliners pros: portable, require minimal setup, can use on the sofa or in bed or wherever Fineliners cons: creating texture and filling large areas is a lot more time-consuming. In 2021 I did inktober exclusively in fineliner because I was tired and couldn't be bothered to deal with liquid ink, but I ended up spending more time than maybe ever on the drawings because it took so long to add texture with pens.

Ink pros: you can achieve small details with a dip pen as well as quick texture and fill in large areas with a brush and ink washes Ink cons: can be messy (protip from 2022 Liekki, don't spill ink water all over your laptop), usually you have to sit at a table of some kind, you need to wash your brushes and dip pens, if your paper isn't designed for wet media, it'll buckle or bleed

Pick your inking tools and techniques based on how much time you have!

Prompts/ideas/subject matter

I've always stuck to the "official" prompt list, because it brings me joy to scroll through the tag of the day on instagram and see how others interpreted the same prompt. Or, rather, it used to bring me joy to do this, until instagram's enshittification stole our ability to look at tags. Maybe I'll have some luck with that on Cara going forward; here's hoping.

As for ideas, sometimes they come easy, sometimes it's like pulling teeth and I have to enlist all my friends to brainstorm with me (sorry, y'all). When in doubt, draw the first thing that comes to mind when you read the prompt; don't overthink it (like I often do). I like to try to come up with a less obvious interpretation of a prompt, but this is also where I often get stuck and have to harass my loved ones for ideas. Sometimes it helps to relate the prompt to a tv show/book/etc. you're into; I've done quite a bit of inktober fanart, as well as art of various DnD cahracters from games I've played/DM'd. If all else fails, just look at what everyone else is drawing that day.

Time management

Be realistic about how much time you have in a day to work on inktober, and then set your expectations accordingly. If you only have an hour, stick to a size and level of detail that you can realistically finish in an hour. I've done some very quick scribbles in my years of inktober when I've been busy that day.

My personal philosophy is that I try not to plan too much ahead; I don't do any sketching until day of, and ideally I don't try to come up with ideas for a prompt or at least decide on an idea until the day before at the earliest. Containing each drawing in one day helps me have realistic expectations of what's doable. This does mean drawing late into the night sometimes after procrastinating or struggling to find an idea all day, but it's what works for me.

If your goal is to complete inktober, it's better to do a small shitty drawing in ten minutes than to fall behing by starting something way too ambitious that you'll never be able to finish in a day.

Secret third rule!

Accept the fact that you aren't going to be happy with every drawing.

Inktober was created as an exercise to practice inking. Think of your drawings as sketches, not finished masterpieces. Some of them will be bad, at least in your own eyes. Sometimes you'll put a lot of effort into something that just doesn't work out. For example:

To quote Joe Hills, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of practice. So you fucked up today's drawing. Tomorrow is a new day – that's the beauty of inktober. "Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." (Samuel Beckett) Progress isn't linear, either; some years are consistently mediocre, other years it's all over the place with a couple bangers and a couple really shitty ones.

Every inktober I've made drawings I love,

drawings I'm indifferent to,

and drawings that straight up suck.

And I'm at peace with that.

Thanks for reading what turned into a pretty long post, and I hope some of it was helpful. Happy inktobering!

[artvaris]

Hi Riikka, I stumbled across your art recently and am just blown away. It's absolutely gorgeous! *0* I am pretty new to digital art and was wondering what procreate brushes/settings/textures you use, especially for sketching (but also for painting)? I tried searching around your blog/links to see if you've answered this before and couldn't find anything so I apologize if this is a repeat question. ^^;

Hello hello! I'm so glad you enjoy my artwork so much! Thank you so much for your kind words - I try my best to level up and draw cooler every day haha Now about my brushes: I mostly draw in Paint Tool SAI 2 actually (I currently only use Procreate for simple sketches), and I've been meaning to make my SAI 2 brushes available for purchase for some months now since you are not the first person to ask me this. I mostly use textured, bristled, and round brushes, often with a custom brush shape. Nothing super "fancy", just a few versatile and functional brushes. But this is still a work in process since collecting and organizing my rather messy brushes into a nice brush set takes time, plus I also tend to change my brush settings a lot depending on what I need. So I've been creating and saving the brushes as I work (plus I've been rather busy with freelance work as well).

I also use the same brushes for sketching and rendering, because the way I render nowadays is more like drawing than painting. At least that's how it feels to me. I just change the brush settings (opacity, size, tip tapering, texture intensity, etc).

But I will post about this when the set is finally ready! But I also sketch in Procreate, and lately, I've been mostly using:

B Rough - as my main sketching pencil - from this free set: https://ghkim0045.gumroad.com/l/FREE_PencilSet

JF Grungy dilute ink Wash - I use this to fill in light gray values - https://jasonheeley.gumroad.com/l/keasb?layout=profile

I have also been experimenting a bit with this "PSKI" set, mainly using "PSKI pencil large rough" (a nice hard/soft edge brush): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0vkcsrnf4wvtal5/AAAlVQYZGP4ZGHNMQ6kZwCTta?dl=0

I have also used the standard Procreate sketching brushes a lot, such as the 6B pencil (my favorite). I often like to amp up the texture intensity of my brushes though.

I have also used a brush called "DizzyTara's Oval Sketch 2" for sketching, but I've altered this brush a bit to fit my own taste (more texture and bigger max brush size). It's basically a pretty "basic" and textured oval brush, but often brushes like this are the best and most versatile tbh!

Other settings: In Procreate, I've also adjusted my pen pressure curve to be more sensitive so that I don't need to press so hard - this will save your hand and wrist as well!

[heartlurch]

hey what brush do you use to draw in digital and traditional (if that doesn't bother you!💦)

No worries! I don't mind. :3 The answer isn't so interesting though ww

I just use the pencil tool in MS Paint & the binary tool in SAI 2. Default settings. Most of my art is done this way. I often sketch in MS Paint, and complete in SAI.

(a few examples)

I find it's easier to work within the simplicity of MS Paint, but I do like SAI's features, and sometimes I need the flexibility of pressure sensitivity to really chip away at my thoughts... I find myself relying on it more recently, as I got into JSHK. Human characters aren't actually my forte, and it takes many passes for me to get something legible... Trying to mimic Aida-sensei's ability to render clothes is also breakin' my back lol.

(just taking you behind the scenes :p)

Oh um ... Hm, I draw in my phone notes more often recently as well, so that's the only other variable at times. If you see something like this:

It's just me using the notes app on my samsung galaxy. I use it to jot down ideas for future me. Or... sometimes I'm just passing time. Nothing special about it, I would say, aside from the fact that it's more robust than the previous phone notes app I would draw on. I was fingerpainting back then, but now I have a stylus.

Edit: Wait I feel like an idiot for saying all this and literally posting a piece I made in CSP... SORRY!! My brain is small. That's what I use to animate as well!! !!! Sorry, I just use it once in a blue moon...

On CSP, the brush I like the most has been this one.

As for traditional, I use an assortment of things! It's a split between mundane art supplies (dollar store mechanical pencils, ball point pens, etc.) and some fancier stuff I've been gifted. Currently I have a set of prismas and a couple of ohuhus I use for commission work often. I also have some faber castell brush pens. I prefer inking pens with a flat tip, basically I disprefer fine points/microns etc. (I... um, have a bit of a harsh grip, so I'm prone to crushing them...) My traditional stuff varies a lot more so I'll just paste examples directly. For fun!

Mechanical pencil!

Sharpie!

Faber castells! (The greys are as well!)

Ball point pen and highlighters!

Crayons!

Woodless color pencil! (+inking pens, pencil...)

Ohuhu markers! (+pencil)

Prismas!

Overall, I like having an assortment of things to grab and mess around with, for different moods. I'll draw on any scrap of paper also (to the burden of my wife, who scans and edits ALL!!!! of my art, lol.) If you're at all seeking for a similar experience, I recommend playing with whatever odds and ends you got in your possession. It's not really a matter of skill... imo, cuz, I don't really feel as though I use anything very 'well', I just use it. Perhaps all equally sloppy, and for fun. Just have fun. ╮(╯▽╰)╭

[thepatchycat]

Hi, I’m a real new shiny here (on Tumblr, but also at drawing), and it’s the first time I ask anything, so I hope it’s ok. I must say first that I love the way you draw TCW characters (especially the clones)! 😍 I just came across this sketch you made on canvas (if I remember correctly) https://www.tumblr.com/thepatchycat/729224397978828800 and I was wondering, if you don’t mind sharing, how do you get the perfect white background on non-digital drawings? I currently use a scanner app on my sketches and the results are always inconsistent and far from that white… thanks a lot in advance!! 😊

Welcome to the Tumblr crew, shiny! ;) And thank you kindly!

So my dirty secret for that sketch is... it actually is completely digital! I drew it in a program called Rebelle 5, which is designed to mimic traditional canvas/paper and pencils/paints. I picked it up for super cheap during a huge sale last year, and it's a lot of fun; unfortunately, it's usually pretty expensive, as many art programs are. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for sales though if you ever get into digital drawing--and if you'd like a free program, the one I use most of the time is MediBang. But those programs are really mostly helpful for digital art, not so much for scanning actual pencil sketches.

While I tend to stick to digital drawing nowadays, I definitely feel you on the scan cleanliness issue; phone pictures and even proper printer scans tend to end up either kind of dirty or faded. The short answer is that I don't actually have an easy and effective solution, but there might be some things you can try depending on what you have available. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already explored more methods than I have, and there are definitely people with better ideas and more experience than me, but I'll share what I've tried.

Long(er)-winded rambling under the cut!

So, I currently have an unfinished piece sitting in my files that began as a traditional drawing, one that I want to keep all the pencil details for. Here's the sketchbook page, scanned using a household printer:

Not terrible, but it'd be nice to have clearer contrast between the lines and the background. In MediBang, I can adjust the contrast by going to Filter>Levels (or Ctrl+L), which gives me a little box that looks like this:

I don't technically know the nitty gritty of how it works, but by my understanding, the outer triangles for the input and output indicate the range boundaries. Adjusting the input--particularly the darker boundary--so that the output boundary exceeds it basically tells the program to make the darker parts even darker, resulting in this:

Better! As you can see, though, the darker parts of the background also show up a bit more. Rather than relying only on contrast adjustments, what I actually ended up doing was carefully erasing the background around the drawing after adding a plain white layer underneath, and also going over some of the lines digitally. I did this first in MediBang (the only art program I had when I started working on it), then transferred the file over to Rebelle.

MediBang (left) has the pure white background, while the Rebelle (right) canvas settings I chose are a little off-white and more textured, which I think blends a bit better with the texture and shading of the image. It's possible to add textures and the like in MediBang, too, but Rebelle has it built into its design, so it's a little easier to figure out there; I'll likely finish this piece in Rebelle (whenever I get back to doing so, haha), since the canvas and brush settings will be easier to match to the texture of everything that came directly from the drawing.

Most of this is much easier to do with a drawing tablet/pen, unless you're a wizard with a mouse. As for traditional means... the best suggestion I can come up with is to try inking sketches, or at least darkening them further with a pencil. The more contrast you can get between your lines and the background, the more easily you can digitally tease that contrast out even further. I think most photo editors have at least some contrast, color, and brightness adjusters, and probably more useful functions I don't even know about--it never hurts to mess around with any program's filters and settings to see what happens!

Good luck, and happy drawing! :D

[chaoticvictorianspirit]

greetings! i hope you don't mind me popping into the ask box, i just wanted to ask what fineliner pens (if i have identified correctly) you used for your bildad drawing and what tip widths you use - i'm getting back into the art and just really liked how the lines looked on that piece! (i've been stuck outlining things with biro and it's a thing)

Hi!

Of course I don't mind at all, getting an ask is rather exciting actually, feel free to reach out anytime.

I use these Ecco Pigment fineliners from Faber-Castell. I got them at a local art supply store quite a while back so ,I'm not sure if they sell in your area or even whether they're still available at all, because although you can find them on the Faber-Castell website, there's no price listed. But if I remember they were around $4 a piece, mid-price range.

I'm very happy with them. I've had them for maybe 2-3 years and been using them semi-frequently and they're still going strong. The tips don't fray or bend at all. They also don't smudge when you go over them with an eraser to get rid of any remnants of the initial pencil sketch, at most the colour gets a bit dimmer at places where you have to erase more, but going over that once more with the marker fixes that right up. I've used them on all sorts of paper and so far haven't had any problems with ink bleeds or tearing. They're also pretty comfy to hold.

The only downside I could find is that sometimes the colour feels more like very dark grey than true black, but honestly I feel that way about pretty much all liners I've ever used, so maybe that's more of an eye problem than anything else.

I've got the 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8 tips, but in all honesty the two thickest ones don't get much use.

The Bildad drawing is no exception. Most of the base features, the animals, the highlights in the hair etc were done with the 0.1, same for the writing. Then the finer details (and the poor attempt at shading, heh) were done with the 0.05. Most of Bildad's hair (more denined curles) is single-line 0.3 and any bolder outlines or block of colour (the jawline, glasses...) is just 0.3 too, gone over a few times. Probably would have gotten more consistent line thickness and better control if I had gone in with the 0.5 but I literally don't know what I'm doing, so :')).

Wellp! I'm very much not an authority on any of this, I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I like messing about with my pens and talking about it so this ask was fun, thanks! Hope that helps and good luck with picking out liners that work for you. Super psyched to hear you're getting back into it, hope you have lots of fun. And if you ever want to share your art I'd love to see it.

Including a photo of the liners themselves and a little swatch sample of what they write like:

[thecoloroute]

Back To School Shopping List for A College Freshman Art Student

Hi guys I went to RISD a few years back but I do remember looking up this question. if you're not going to college just yet but are interested in art, it could be super useful to get comfortable using the tools/mediums below. even though i know most teachers give a materials list the first day, i needed to be prepared way ahead of time because of my anxiety. in my case, i was told id get a list in person, but walking in with an empty bag just felt wrong to me lol??? i ended up bringing a couple things, but missed a few vital essentials so here's a list of everything that i can think of. read to the end for my wagon epiphany that i think all art students should adopt (if they havent already)

-a notebook or planner (lined). some professors will hit you with extremely important info right away and wont always tell you to write down what they're saying but 90% of the time its important stuff you dont wanna miss

-a sketchbook. this can help if they throw a quick exercise at you and you have to write/draw something quickly. i blanked and didnt bring a sketchbook from home (because i was told id need to get certain types according to the teacher's specifications) but looking back idk why i didnt?? first days are hectic. actually the first week lol. anyways there were single sheets offered but honestly having your own right off the bat helps for organizational purposes, saves time, and IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, prevents the need to get up in front of everyone

-writing utensils. I'd recommend a nice pen and a set of drawing pencils (doesn't have to be anything crazy cause your teacher will most likely request that you buy more advanced/specific tools later on)

-headphones. every teacher is different, but usually art students will be given little tasks to work on during their first day in class at college. I was not clever enough to remember to pack my headphones, and the silence in a room full of focused art students can be especially unnerving when you're nervous. Hearing a student's questionable music taste can be equally unnerving, so make sure to pack those.

-snacks/drinks. this is kind of a branch off of the last one, cause again it can get sooooo quiet in these classrooms/studios. Pack snacks to prevent belly grumbles. I have heard it happen to many people in my classes and i am a victim as well. stay ready

-sunglasses. seems trivial but super important because you'll probably be walking around outside a lot your first day. this is the typical college commute, up down and around the streets.

-MONEY. I AM GOING TO PUT THIS IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE THIS WAS BY FAR MY BIGGEST MISTAKE LOL. UNFORTUNATELY, STAY STRAPPED WITH CASH OR CARD BCUZ! SOME OF THOSE ART SCHOOL PROFESSORS ARE A LIL BOUJEE AND WILL SEND U RIGHT TO THE CAMPUS ART STORE DAY ONE. It was very overwhelming for me, and some might think its common sense but idk my entire school career you always get some time after school to buy that stuff. they really sent us shopping ten minutes into class so be aware or look broke like i did.

Other than that, all the stuff you'll have to potentially purchase that day will be specified by the teacher. If you're worried about getting the wrong thing, don't be. The students get to go together and the teacher gives very specific details about the products to buy, which the campus store workers are well aware of. Off the top of my head, i remember being sent to get materials for a few different classes throughout the day. I'll list them here without the brand specifics (1. cause i dont know and 2. cause it may not match what your teacher will want anyway) just to give you a general idea.

-large ruler, metal, 1 yard (3 ft)

-clear plastic t-shaped ruler for drawing

-sketchbooks, drawing pads (of all sizes)

-a large portfolio (looks like a gigantic black totebag for big art papers)

-sewing kit

-string

-muslin fabric

-ink pens

-drawing pencils, different sizes

-drawing charcoal

-white paper drawing blender, a good eraser

-a toolbox for the drawing materials

-gouache paint

-brushes, pallets

-oil paint crayons

-a tool box

-ink pens like harry potter

That's pretty much it. If you'd like to grab some of these things before hand it should be fine, but for the most part id stick to waiting just to be safe.

Also a side note: I was a commuter so i could run home and grab my materials collected over my entire life but not every student is this lucky and some of their homes are thousands of miles away. if ur a traveling bird like them, it could be very VERY useful to pack some cool materials and tools like idk holographic paper or a jar of crystals because CAMPUS ART STORES ARE VERY EXPENSIVE!!!!

Also....... i know it sounds a little ridiculous but there were many many times i wished i had bought a wagon to transport things around campus. imagine me with a like 4ft portfolio bag the size of my body, a pencil toolbox, another toolbox for actual tools, my backpack, any projects i may have brought, a coffee if i am holding one??? and god forbid its a rainy day and i needed my umbrella lol.. it looks & feels difficult anyway trying to lug all the stuff art school requires.. so thats just some food for thought. Imagine a cute pink wagon?!??

anyways thats a wrap, have a lovely school year artists!

[themetalvirus]

I DO WANNA ASK!! WHAT OTHER PENS DO YOU USE BISCUIT⁉️

YAYYYYYY YIPPEEEEEEEE TEE HEE

WELL!!!

i may as well start with a more recent acquisition, the zebra sarasa clip, specifically the milk color set in 0.5 mm. jetpens shills HARD for zebra sarasa clips. anyway theyre mid as hell and are not representative of the gel pen experience - cheaper pens in novelty shapes write better than the zebra clips, but they do have a very nice almost pencil-y tactile feel because of it. in plain text, they're scratchy. the colors are wonderful though, EXCEPT for that damn white gel pen... if you wanna go really matte with your white pens or be able to write on dark paper, get a gelly roll or use a paint pen because god damn the zebra sarasa pens are TRANSPARENT AS FUUUUCK despite being advertised as being able to write on dark paper clearly. SCAM!!!!!!! but i do really like the colors and when i want a more pencily feel i go for them. they also make really fine, textured lines, which is nice for getting your crunch on (making ur art look purposefully crusty)

also. i am a believer in the tombow brush pens. my school had a sketchbox subscription they kept forgetting to cancel and so they had a few of them laying around and me and the other art girl were always passively slapfighting for them with psychic mind games. i finally bought one for myself and despite me usually not liking brush pens...... lads... its good.... its one of the first brush pens i've had that doesn't fray after using it like three times. so i can actually use it for fine AND thick lines without having to work around the shitty nib. looking at you faber-castell brush nib.

i have a couple different fineliners (felt tipped, water based ink) and theyre pretty alright. le pens are a great choice for writing, not so much for drawing. i like the staedler tripluses a lot, they're just handy for workhorse writing and consistent thin lines. stabilo point 88s are also good. i cant really tell the difference between fineliners a lot of the time because they're all very similar, le pens are the most distinct ones i've used because of their softer tips. you have to really baby fineliners so the tip doesnt get squished which kind of makes them a pain to use. oh also i used to love the faber-castell pitt artist pens for their consistent lines and firmer nibs but god damn they do NOT play nice with other art supplies. and as someone who swaps between mediums a lot it just isnt. ideal.

i used to be a rollerballhead but i've fallen in love with gel pens... they may smear easily but god damn are they goopy........... fuck yeah...... i'm SUPER biased towards gelly rolls just because i'm the most familiar with them, but they're super fun for doodling and have really vibrant colors!!! i also like them because sakura was the first company to make gel pens in the 80s - gel pens are super recent compared to other writing tools which i think is cool as fuck. theyre like. the future...... plus theyre just a smoother writing experience. shitty gel pens are 10000x better than shitty ballpoint pens. the pilot g2 is the best of any commonplace office pen fuck everybody else pilot g2 is my best friend

microns are fine i guess. i used to like them more in middle school but they're so sensitive to getting smushed that using them comes with Fear. i've never smushed one before, but i HAVE had friends ruin my microns when i lend one to them for like five seconds. i think they're copic-proof which is why people like them? i dunno. they're prone to fraying, the nibs just arent very good compared to other options

i REALLY wanna try a pilot frixion but i havent gotten any yet, i plan on buying a set early next year! they're erasable pens that use heat and friction from a rubber eraser to disappear the ink, which is super cool. but a warning: because they're heat sensitive (and their ink comes back when exposed to temperatures under 14 degrees fahrenheit!) the ink can all activate in the pen and become transparent if you leave it in a hot car. or your notes can disappear if you leave them in a hot car and you'll have to pop them in the freezer to get them back

OH OH OH OH i have generic brand paint markers (tooli-art) and they're great until they explode. i use the white one a lot because it's handy to have what is essentially a pen of white-out on hand, but i don't use the colored ones nearly as often because they're messy and...... a few of them have kind of exploded at the nib which makes them drooly and gross. the only posca i have is a brush one and the brush poscas are shittáy

i feel like i forgor something but this isnt a fountain pen rant this is about my other ones. enjoy

[md3artjournal]

12:27 PM 8/26/2023 So, I've been looking at my OC Smaugust drawings lately, and I'm beginning to appreciate my art style. The same chibi art style that I had been lamenting about, and crying about, and beating myself up over…I'm beginning to admit it has charm. I can be happy with it.

Even back when I was only using it for fanart, some part of me actually liked it and felt proud of myself whenever I finished a fanart, but that feeling always went away when I started browsing other people's fanart of the same series. (FE3H, Persona 5) But now that I'm using the art style for my OCs, I can kind of appreciate it on its own. Thanks to squeaky-potat and dimiclaudeblaigan for always encouraging me with this art style. ;u;

It's probably not an appropriate art style for any serious stories though. And my OCs are full of angsty backstories. But I had been thinking of writing my Personal Myth with a "slice of life" tone, with all the serious backstory stuff, more in the background. And if I start drawing 4koma, then I could totally get away with a cuter art style. So maybe I'll do that for my Personal Myth. I remember a long time ago wishing I could draw a comic of my Personal Myth. I've drawn some pages before, but it never went anywhere. So if I manage to pull off a couple of connected series of even 4koma, then maybe I could die happy.

One thing though. I've really enjoyed how easy coloring with markers has been. I don't have to spend forever mixing paint colors, not making a big enough batch, then having to re-mix AND color-match… I've timed it before, and when I color using any type of paints, it takes me FIVE TIMES longer than when I color with markers. But even though I'm using artist, alcohol markers, streaks are still showing. I'm so stingy. I just can't get myself to absolutely saturate paper with ink, until the streaks disappear.

I'm beginning to think I should give watercolors another chance. At least when the "streaks" stay visible, it's pretty. It can be like blotchy puddles and nicely organic looking. So I've got to go look for some waterproof ink to use for my linework now. I have Copic Multiliner pens, there's a sale at Art Supply Warehouse for Sakura Pigma Micron pens, and I might even have some Staedtler technical pens still able to write. Those are all waterproof, but they don't have the smooth fluidity that I like to draw with. And I like to draw directly with ink, often without pencil underdrawings.

I really like drawing with fountain pens, but I know me: I'm not going to take the time to regularly clean out my fountain pens, if I start using pigmented ink. I use dye based ink, because I know I can be negligent with my pen maintenance and not be punished for it (much). But a lot of the dye based fountain pen ink is not waterproof. I think my Noodler's Ink proved to be mostly water resistant, so I'm going to experiment with that today, for today's Smaugust drawing.

I'm getting fairly comfortable with dip pens (though I still don't even know what type my hand-me-down nib is), and I heard that with dip pens, I could just use Indian ink and be fine in the waterproof department. But not only am I unsure which ink to get, but I'm still a cheapskate, and I can't always use dip pens. One of the big reasons I like fountain pens is that it's so self-contained. I can bring it anywhere. I don't need flat surfaces for my ink bottles, and clean water glasses, and cleaning rags. …Now that I list that out, those are the same reasons I stopped using watercolors (aside from all the time-eating paint mixing).

I've still got some options to figure out, but at least for today, I'm going to experiment with Noodler's Ink in my broken Platinum Preppy fountain pen, then see what happens when I watercolor over it. Actually, my Monteverde fountain pen ink completely erases with even just the littlest bit of water, so maybe I could use my Pilot Petit full of Monteverde ink, to do an underdrawing, then use my Platinum Preppy full of Noodler's Ink as the final linework. That could be interesting.

[keik-keik]

PLANTOBER # 14 SWORDFERN

Swordfern is part of the large fern family of plants. These plants just went "yeah, all is good, no need to do much adaptation", so for 420 million years they did little to do any wild adaptations, mostly just being smaller plants, pretending being trees, and all of that. I'd love to actually write something smart, but this probably the wildest and most detailed family of plants, so will yet again gloss a bit…

So the swordfern is Polystichum munitum, the western swordfern. This plant is native to the western of the North America, but it does grow from up in Canada to the Mexico and even deeper south. This plant got naturalized into regions of Great Britain and Ireland, and from those regions, it did get exported even further.

Plants grow reaching up to 1.8 meters, creating lush, rich, spreading individual specimens, joined in groups.

Swordferns are exported to the global market, and are mostly used as a standalone plants, parts of gardens or cut and added to the floral compositions or bouqets.

In Poland, and all Eastern-slavic nations, there's a myth that during the Summer Solstice, if you manage to find the mythical flower of the fern, you will experience luck and riches. Ferns do not bear flowers.

A lot of people DO BELIEVE they do…

Even if the myths aren't directly related to swordferns, I wanted to enrich the narration for the ferns in general. These beautiful plants instantly remind me of the virgin and wild forests, so my hope is that they will, in a curious way, remind you as well of the calm that comes from the natural, wood terrains. That's how I feel about ferns in general… 😅

As always, thank you so much for taking a look at my art! Leaving a like, comment or sharing means a ton to me, and is more than appreciated! 🤗

Tools: pencil, ink, watercolor and watercolor crayons, white gel pen, white ink.

My socials: https://keik-keik.carrd.co

[mimithealpaca]

inking/coloring test + style exploration ft. ursula tso

a redraw, inking, coloring practice/experimentation, and style exploration all in one post! the pic i was redrawing/referencing is this.

how i would normally approach coloring with marker + something a lil newer (adding saturated highlights on the edge of shadows)

was referencing the coloring style of horikoshi's 9th anniversary spread. i like his coloring style now--a lot more contrast. not enough color vomit/surrealism for me though hehe. he tends to use the colors you'd expect for a character, which isn't necessarily bad. a "pick a good color scheme from the get-go and not blend everything like mad" artist, maybe. which is... not me, i think. as you can see in 1, i do like to blend.

the idea was shoujo coloring??? so desaturation, use of whites, blend the edges, etc... tbf, i hate the lineart here the most. i was trying to do a sketchy thing but it took me this long to realize... yo.... i actually don't know how to do that lol. not anymore. i'm more confident with my lines than i am so... scritchy-scratchy no bueno.

i was looking at one of my fave artist's art (komunhorangi) but they didn't have any marker pieces on their insta :') i think their strength is color schemes, especially with blue/pink/purple which... well, i didn't add nearly enough in this pic. i like how i colored this one the most though, as well as the lines. g-pen FTW!

no style ref for this, i was just trying to do a no-blend thing, i guess. fluently markers for hair and shirt. ONE prismacolor marker for the skin.

this one i tried to do a gretlusky workflow. color pencil sketch, erase, ink (sometimes they ink AFTER though), color everything in, saturated color on key points (i.e., face, shoulder, collarbone), then color pencil on top for texture. although the inking/general style does not evoke gretlusky at all (and i wasn't necessarily trying to), this one was a pleasant surprise.

OKAY NEXT ARE THE STYLE RECREATIONS

i didn't look up any references for these by the way. just from my head. how'd i do?

here is the first one in my own style.

tried to do horikoshi style

tite kubo what's upppp don't look at the hand DON'T LOOK AT THE HAND

takahashi rumiko's style is forever gonna be in my art dna, i've accepted this as fact now

no specific artist here but... i was thinking... shoujo?

ichikawa haruko

"generic josei style???" maybe subconsciously thinking "even though we are adults" though

[3liza]

im going to say something else Old for a minute, please pardon me. you dont actually figure this out until youre like 30 but a lot of the total bullshit we ask children to do in school or other kinds of training is karate kid stuff, i mean the fence-painting, waxing the car, and so on. cursive is not just about being able to read and write a form of the english alphabet, it's actually mostly a way to train very fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, draftsmanship, attention to detail, and pen/pencil handling.

the point of giving very young children coloring pages, blocks, tesselation shapes etc is not to teach them to color pictures of easter bunnies and to stack blocks. it's also not mostly about just making them shut up for a few minutes, although that's part of it. the material product of those activities is a bunch of garbage you put on the fridge for a few years or in a box or back into storage, we don't care about that either. the point is to develop fine motor control, which then transfers as a skill to literally everything else you will ever do, including typing on a computer or phone, driving a car, playing sports, dancing, walking in a crowd, stacking paperwork, holding multiple objects in your hands, getting on and off crowded subway cars, doing your makeup, holding a baby. idk why this concept isn't recognized later than kindergarten, no one is saying "i dont understand when we're ever going to use this" about show & tell when Hunter S and Hunter L both brought tent caterpillars on the same day, we understand the point is to teach a child about standing in front of people socially and presenting an idea, a skill that is broadly applicable to the rest of their lives. that form of learning that transfers skills to everything else you do is not a form of learning that stops in middle school or high school, it's always happening.

i fought my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Dixon, so hard on learning cursive (because i could type and was a Computer Kid and was extremely autistic about it) that she tricked me into taking an interest by giving me a calligraphy pen. she took the stubborn, artsy kids into a private, "special" group that was taught calligraphy instead of just plain cursive, correctly gambling that making a difficult skill even more difficult would bamboozle these kids into taking an interest, and producing a much better end result than cursive practice sheets, which were pointless and boring. years later I was showing my pen and ink drawings at the STROKE.02 art festival in Munich and was asked by an art collector "how much weed i smoked" to get linework that steady. but it wasnt weed! it was Mrs. Dixon! she was right! she got me

anyway if you want to learn cursive as an adult because you got cheated out of your god-given right to learn the complete English language in school, you absolutely can, it's not even hard, and as a fountain pen dork now i can tell you it never gets old being able to write things neatly and beautifully by hand and it prevented me from developing the crippling (literally) hand overflexion and weakness that usually plagues people with my type of collagen disorders, too. now i open jars for my boyfriends. idk just something to think about

I will defend teaching kids to read and write in cursive with my dying breath sorry im with the boomers on this one

[cushfuddled]

Hello Rab, I just wanted to say that your art is huge inspiration to me. There just isn't many artists out there who work with color pencils, and your artworks with them are absolutely charming. If you have any tips along the lines of "things I wish I knew", I'd definitely be interested! (no pressure, of course !)

I'm sorry I'm so late in replying to this! This ask has made me so happy; thank you <3333

Things I wish I knew:

Sometimes expensive things are worse, but Prismacolors are GLORIOUS. Other colored pencils feel like working with tree bark compared to the pillowy-softness of Prismacolor wax.

I've tried soooo many different types of paper over the years. The more tooth (texture) to a piece of paper, the more layers of color you can pile up. I prefer less tooth because it requires less time to fill in those pesky white gaps you get while working with textured paper...but "good" paper like Bristol is actually TOO smooth for me. It took me like ten years to find this paper, which is my current favorite (not so smooth that you can't build up a couple layers of color, but not so toothy that you get white patches). It's not archival AT ALL though, which sucks.

I used to struggle a lot with line art, since the pencil wax would cover the lines. Here's my process now:

- I sketch on your average sketch pad, then use a LightTracer (light box) to ink my sketch onto Xerox paper. The nice thing about this method is I never lose the sketch, so if I mess up with my brush pens (which happens VERY OFTEN) I can just restart on a new piece of Xerox paper.

-Once I'm done with my line art, I scan the page. THEN I color my line art. Once I'm done, I scan the page again. Next I overlay the two scans in Photoshop via auto-align, and set the line art to "multiply" to create clean dark line art. I'm not sure whether the auto-align tool is available on other programs...I'm pretty sure you can do it on photopea, though. If you use colored pens for your line art, you can also use the hue tool to change your line colors.

Pic without separate line art layer:

With line art layer:

Don't be afraid to use a pencil eraser to lift some color off the page. An eraser won't get rid of a color, but I regularly use erasers as damage control for areas that get too dark or muddy. Erasers can also be used to add texture.

Be aware that pure black can flatten or muddy a scene. You'll often see me "deepen" my black areas with colors like tuscan red, process red and indigo blue (or avoid black altogether).

On that note, don't be afraid to go dark! It can take courage to rip off the bandaid and put down a dark layer of color, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get some contrast. When I remember to play by the rules (heh), I color the light parts of my work first, then lay down a layer of indigo blue or dark green or tuscan red over all the dark areas to sort of force myself to stay dark.

Don't let anyone convince you traditional art is unmarketable, or that you'd be "smarter" to work digitally. Work with whichever materials or programs you want.

It's okay if you work slower than other artists. This is the lesson I'm still trying to learn! But it's true: You can't expect yourself to work "quickly" with colored pencils. As much as I love colored pencils, they're slow and can be very boring lmao. Don't burn yourself out with grand expectations.

[jean-does-not-have-a-horseface]

Would you do a Jean x Reader x Reiner one? The reader felt so betrayed by Reiner being a titan shifter and when he left she felt so confused whether she can loves him or not after finding out the truth. Jean comfort her and they eventually fall in love. Or you can do a modern au one where Reiner cheated on the reader and Jean begin to see his chance with the reader then they both had a relationship. But she still can't forget Reiner. I truly love your writing! Have a good day ! ♥

i was wondering if you could do a modern au jean x reader. where the reader is very stressed for a test of some kind, and jean and the reader end up skipping the test and spend the whole day together instead, where towards the end of the day jean confesses his feelings for the reader. a lot of fluff please if you could i am obsessed sorry by @cj-sparkss

A/N: So i decided to merge those two requests because they fit really good together in my head! I hope ou guys like this! I strongly recommend listening to any song in Halsey's album, Manic while reading.

Pairing: Jean/ Reader, some past Reiner/ reader if you squint

Tags: college!au, art school au, fluff all the way

Warnings: Jean being way too cute for his own sake, seriously

Sketches Of You

Your head was burning.

Your eyes were stinging; tiny little little blood vessels were popping here and there, throbbing profoundly as they merged together, rushing their way to your irises. You didn't know for how long you had been awake, mostly because a few days had passed and you didn't remember falling asleep or waking up on your once comfortable desk chair.

Before you laid numerous books open in different pages, most of the writting they held emphasized by your favorite pastel highlighter. What felt like your lamp buzzed, burning a canary yellow light over the mahogany material of your desk, warming up the spot where your hand used to lay. A pen in your hand was all you could bring yourself to hold with your numb, frozen fingers, the plastic edges of its tube sunk into your skin, carving bumps to mark their spot in your hand.

Wait, oh no, you thought as you looked around this wasn't your dorm, this was the university's library.

The library around you was extremely quiet as you laid face down on one book, your mouth slightly part and your lips dry save for the little ribbon of drool that moistened a line down your right cheek. Only for one more minute, you told yourself, deciding to shut your eyes together just to allow them sometime to rest, ignoring how such request was what had caused you to drift off to such extend in the first place. Stinging tears escaped the corners of your eyelids, signifying how tired and dry your irises had grown to be. Letting out a huge sigh you tried to lift your head, at least this could be an attempt to get your life together for the day.

Your scattered books came to close quietly under your palms, the numerous pieces of papers and notes being tucked messily in between pages, your own fatigue causing you to break your own rules when it came to being as neat as you could with your notes. Another sigh left you as you sank into the back the plastic chair, your books firmly standing on top of eachother and into your palms.

This test was going to end you. You knew it. Despite having tried to memorise all the information that was required for you to even try to get a five -seriously, a five would be absolutely godsent if you could at least get that grade- all you were left with was your brain feeling mushy and muddy without any actual knowledge of the subject you had been studying for. Why on earth was gothic architecture an essential class in your first year in art school was beyond you. Was this university never supposed to let you graduate on top of trying to prevent you getting in for numerous years?

Resisting the urge to scream or pull your hair off your head you decided that it was time to get up, your knees straightening slightly at the your brain's command, only to be sent back into the blue plastic of your chair, your whole body growling in fatigue. Your chest heavied as you let out a whine, bringing your hands to your eyes to scrub away the stinging ache you were feeling.

"You good?"

Your head turned to the direction of the voice maniacally, your eyes shooting wide as you practically ripped your hands off of your face. Looking up, your (e/c) orbs met with hazel ones, little specs of yellow and green stared back at you through thick eyelashes, adorned with a complex of worry plastered on dark chestnut eyebrows.

"Yeah Jean, I'm just studying."

"Oh it's Mr Ackerman's test right?"

"Hm" you hummed in response, another whine coming out of your lips.

"Yeah I remember how that class went for me. He's pretty nice if you get to know him though. I have to submit a few sketches for tomorrow, can I sit with you or were you leaving?"

"No, I'll keep you company, I need a break from whatever.." your eyes wandered at the books in your hands and the numerous note sheets peaking out from anywhere you could lay your gaze on "..this is."

Extending a hand Jean reached out for the head of the chair right next to you, pulling it back in order to let himself sink into the dark blue plastic seat, similarly to you. His lips pushed into a thin line as he looked at you, his cheek puffing up in the action. A hand came to your shoulder comfortingly as another one pulled out his sketchbook from his run down and way too littered with dry paint tote bag.

"Are those for Moblit's workshop?"

"Mhm." Jean confirmed. "You got any 0.8 tipped inks?"

"Yeah, I do."

Setting the leather covered sketchbook on the mahogany table Jean turned his head to you again, pointing his eyes onto the black pencil case in front of you. In response you shrugged your shoulders, your palms shooting up to your eyes once again. Jean's hand grabbed on your case, his long fingers digging through the numerous inking pens and markers that overlapped each other.

"I can't believe you have the Sakura Pens when you know I don't like them." Jean whined, hands roaming through your belongings still.

"Jean," you said, a deep chuckle escaping you in the process "I happen to like them, you know."

"They're yikes."

"You just can't use them correctly."

"How do you use an inking pen correctly. Enlighten me." Jean mocked, his fingers throwing signs in the air to accentuate his words.

Resting his head on his fist Jean opened his sketchbook, swiping through numerous ivory cold pressed pages, filled with inked sketches. Your eye twitched as you tried to keep up with many of the drawings you could spot; you had seen the contents of this sketchbook a thousand times, admiring Jean's skill with ink. His professor, Mister Moblit had one of the most interesting workshops for students who specialised in inks, and you aspired to take his classes in your following year in art school, supposing you could pass your classes this very semester.

"What are you supposed to be drawing?"

"Anything, mostly things that make us feel like they are important to draw." Jean said.

"Oh and library is important?"

"Sasha said you'll be here, so yup. And I want to draw my hands actually "

You clicked your tongue, shaking your head in borderline disbelief. Honestly, if you weren't that bummed about your test and your recent break up you could have laughed at Jean's sly arrogance. Your eyes traveled to Jean, examining his quiet form as he studied his palms. Inevitably your eyes studied them as well.

His fingers were long and tan and harsh to look at, scrapped in most places with tints of Indian ink. They stuggled to manage with your pencil case, his pinkies and thumbs couldn't even begin to fit in the little object and it made you wonder how he even managed to work his inking pens correctly with such enormous hands. Some veins popped from here and there, accentuating his bulky joints perfectly; they run from the back of his palms to his wrist, mingling with more of their blue kind in his calfs and biceps. The occasional blotches of dried paint were decorating them. Even some paint covered hairs spiked as the light contracted his form.

You smiled miscellaneously.

Your own finger traveled without remorse towards them, poking at a few hairs that were littered with paint. By pinching one, Jean shot back in half pain, his brows furrowing in confusion as he stared at you. "Hey, what they fuck!"

"You do that to me all the time when i have paint in my hands!" You half laughed, shooting him a mocking furrowed look as well.

“You’re so cruel!” Jean grinned.

“To pay you back with your own penny right?”

Jean cocked his eyebrow at you, a few lines begging to make an appearance on his forehead. He shook his head a couple of times, throwing a few shaggy strands of hair away from his face, his forehead immediately lighting up as his ashy blond locks overlapped just above his ears. You mimicked him, using a hand to move your feathery bangs away from your face as to not have them intertwining with your vision.

Jean brought a digit to his mouth, biting at the bulky knuckle while wrapping his lips around it to suck at the sore spot, dramatically mourning the loss of one single hair. It made you laugh harder than it should have and you told him off, quickly grabbing his hand by the wrist to pull it further away from his mouth.

"Ew you idiot are your hands even washed!? Don't put them in your mouth!"

Jean's smile faded gradually as he nodded its only reminder remaining in his eyes as they softened with each passing second they looked at you. You bobbed your head to the side, taking in the way he was looking at you and you felt your gut grunting in the anxiety you had managed to drown at one time.

You definitely knew that look.

"So how are you after... The whole Reiner thing?"

When Jean let the sentence out, he instantly regretted it. Biting back the inside of his lip, his teeth dug into his soft, fleshy gum, the tiny specks of spiky under lip hair he had poking through his chin. You could see the regret plastered on his face, yet you ignored it with a sigh, pushing your stern further back into the chair again.

Of course Jean would ask about that. Reiner and you had broken up a little less that a month ago and it was stressful enough to send your anxiety over the roof. Coming home to find him drapped in the sheets with someone else was still burning through your brain like a hot iron, marking the fleshy crevices by piercing your skull.

Jean and you hadn't had a chance to talk about your break up yet; in the midst of it being a spontaneous reaction to Reiner's anathema and your upcoming mid-terms, you had chosen to indulge yourself fully with the everlasting pleasure of delving into studying.

And now, as you tried to utter your awaited words your stomach clenched at the foreshaken memory that you had tried to bury in the depths of your soul, your hands sweating just a tiny bit as you gulped down on some saliva to dumpen your dry throat. Jean's hazel orbs were set on you with curiosity and reluctance, his skin tingling inside his crewneck sweater.

"I mean, Eren told us about it and then we fought on who would punch Reiner first you know."

You oggled at him as he spoke awkwardly, your lashes batting rapidly as a wave of confusion washed through you.

"You don't have to hit Reiner you know, we all make our choices and he made his."

"Ah," Jean sighed heavily "I suppose so. I'm here for you though, you can talk to me."

"You're actually doing an assignment at the moment" you said and pointed your finger onto his sharp nose, giving him a playful push to the side. "No need to talk about my sorry love life."

"Your love life isn't pitiful, don't talk about it like that!"

"It's not pitiful, just sad." You sighed, reaching out to your pencil case. "Just sad."

Your fingers run through the case even though your eyes weren't fixated on the action, your sense of touch working its way to let you know which object you were seeking. The tips of your fingers caught on the thick Posca marker quickly and you locked it in a grasp between your pointer and middle finger, bringing it up through the zip up opening.

"Give me your hand." You ordered at Jean as you clapped your fingers to your palm in a 'come here' motion.

"It could always get better you know." Jean spoke and threw his hand to you.

Slowly the cap was off the market with a snap and you slid it up towards it's butt to pop it on there as to not lose it in any case it feel off of the desk and onto the mosaic floor.

Jean's nose lit up in a faint scarlet and his ears followed right next, lighting up in a deeper shade of the color on his nose which made his hand snap away from you in a matter of seconds. With puckered lips he stared at the corner of the room that was in the opposite direction of yours, his gut drenching him in short tempered anxiety.

"You done painting my nails with the posca pen?" Jean remarked, lips still puckered as he turned to face you. "When's your exam?"

"Three o'clock."

"Wanna ditch?"

Your eyes goggled in his for a second. The luminous morning light that peaked through the library binds fell onto him dearly, caressing a few of his features in a lemony colored mellow way, your gaze traveled into anywhere on his face as you tried to examine his expression while your gut was beginning to churn at the sly thought of agreeing with his query.

Weighting your options wasn't a seriously hard thing to do; if you took the test you were most likely going to fail, but if you didn't take it you'd have to live with the guilt of not even putting the minimal effort in it for a few weeks. But, you had tried so hard to pass all of your other classes so why shouldn't you slack off for one that was bound to end in a fiasco?

You found yourself nodding to Jean before you could actually give more thought to it. His face immediately lit up, ashy blond locks flying over his eyes as he shook his head in excitement. With one move his sketchbook was closed again, left to mourn over the non existent scribbles Jean could have made during all this time he was sitting next to you.

The hard cover protected sketching pages were thrown into to his tote bag once again, the sound of the sketchbook colliding and clashing with a few more objects he had in the bag filling the silent air of the library.

"Put your books in here!" He offered, opening the sides of the tote bag right on front of your face, signaling you to do as he suggested.

By taking a long sigh you took a turn in throwing your books and pencil case in the bag, one object following another on the pursuit of finding their own place in Jean's crammed bag. A shy smile adorned your features as you looked at him, the mischievous little devil on your shoulder smiling proudly at your actions as if you were a high schooler skipping school.

_____

Black Cat was a notorious cafe among art university students for numerous reasons. For example, it featured a decent amount of of beautiful contemporary art that was meticulously merged with the soft, cobblestone-cottagecore-home-during-the-winter aesthetic and all of their tables, stools and booths were artist-friendly to the max. Additionally it played Nirvana and Metallica for most of the day and on top of that they actually had a chunky and extremely cuddly black cat roaming around the store that you often found on your lap during your time there.

Oh, and the batwoman made amazing custom cocktails.

Really was there anything else anyone needed in a store?

The soft tangerine light flickered open as the sun outside started to hide it's shy low lights under the peak of a mountain you couldn't recall the name of, the soft smell of apple pie filling your nostrils as you sipped lightly from your earl gray tea occasionally, stealing a few glances of Jean's focused expression. A knowingly half smile went up to your face as you looked at the scenery outside before fixing your eyes back onto the bright screen of your phone.

Jean cooed in his leathery chair for the upteenth time today, his gaze fixated on the sketchbook on his hands. You had spend last hour in absolute silence; you had decided to roam around in your phone for references for an assigned collage you had to do in Photoshop as Jean had settled on drawing the horizon from outside the window to practice on his perspective while finishing up the sketches he had to submit.

Your day had passed by pretty fast; you had visited an urban side of the town that was flooded with art supply stores and you had delved into every single one roaming around to find any kind of supplies you were short on, or just generally needed. As Jean correctly had said, you are always short on art supplies.

Thus, you had ended up with a bag filled with complementary acrylic colors in tubes of 20ml mostly because they costed a dollar each, and also because as art students you got to receive twenty percent off of all your supply bills. Jean had only bought a new set of watercolors and a few Edding inks and 0.7 tipped poscas, as he was sure he would ruin your expensive Sakura Liners in his attempts to finish his project.

Then you had decided to cram your place for some much needed lunch before heading off to Black Cat to have some tea and coffee while Jean would finish off his last few of the sketches he had been drawing throughout the day.

"So" Jean awkwardly spoke as in to break the deep silence, his thumb pressing over the edge of the page his drawing was placed as he closed the sketchbook carefully "I wanted to ask, because ahem, I'm your friend and I'm worried about you... Do you want to vent about Reiner?"

"Ah, no" you shook your head and fixed your gaze onto the auburn colored liquor in your cup as you reluctantly lift it up to bring it to your lips before speaking "I mean, I got so sad you know. And I haven't gotten over it, of course, I mean I liked Reiner. A lot."

"I came see it in your eyes. But I'm here for-"

"And he's a bitch you know? He could have told me if he was bothered by anything I did or if it wasn't going well for him. I'd gladly work anything out or even break up peacefully."

"You know," Jean sighed, he too bringing his cup of coffee to his lips to take a sip before gulping it down. "My opinion is obviously biased here, but I support you. I've took a psychology class and we were actually delving into as to why some people cheat, there are many reasons as to why it could have happened."

Your heart slightly aches as you looked at him, a few veins in your hand twitching slightly as he continued rambling about all things he had grasped from his class. Your stomach growled angrily in anxiety, warning you to put an halt to your friend's words but you couldn't bring yourself to do so.

Not knowing the reason as to why Reiner had chosen to see someone else behind your back had hurt you beyond repair. Deep inside you still felt the need to get some closure, although with your stress on your exams you had been sure you would most likely give in to anything Reiner would say and this wasn't who you were.

You could go on without having any closure, it shouldn't have mattered so much to you in any way.

And to some extent it didn't.

"I'm hurt, but I'm the other hand I don't really care about anything you know?"

"Mhm, yeah, look at you getting over it so quickly!" Jean said semi enthusiastically. "You need to be able to share your pain in order for it to become small and eventually non-existent."

"You know, for someone who takes such sophisticated classes you talk like you haven't slept in ages!"

"Give me a break, as if you don't."

The two of you burst into bubbling laughter, your chests heaving and falling as the sounds of joy left you one by one. Jean's hand had come to rest on top of yours softly, giving you a couple of squeezes as his eyes squinted in synch with yours.

And then, in a moment that seemed like it was forced out of a coffee shop au fanfiction, Jean's hand rubbed a few soothing circles over yours. Slowly his laughter was begging to set into a silent harmony, the woody brown specs of his eyes providing the slightest tint of warmth into his gaze.

"This is why I love you so much."

The choice of words was supposed to be naive whether it was intentional or not, or that's what you tried to tell yourself because you thought you knew Jean better than anyone. The look in his eyes, the soft upwards curves of his eyebrows, the way his top lip overlapped go bottom one as his eyes glimmered into yours; this wasn't a very casual look for Jean, it was the look he had on when he was looking at something that mesmerised him. And you knew he meant exactly what he had said.

But did you like Jean?

Well, was there anyone who could spend so much time with Jean and not fall for him, even without realising it?

At one time it had become obvious that he liked you, although he'd never act upon it. You knew it in his movements, in the little ways he looked at you or cared for you like no one else actually did while hiding behind the mask of being a friend. Eren had been one to tease him for it restlessly and you had been able to catch upon that too but you had never let it be known that you had been able to see through his facade.

"Forget it I shouldn't even have had-"

With curious eyes you stared back, your gaze never truly leaving him. When he suddenly shook his hand off of yours you found your other hand pressing on top of his, trapping the limb in place as you tried to open your mouth to utter any word. It was still hard to find the right choice of words, ones that wouldn't hurt to be heard.

"Jean... I-"

"No, forget it, it just slipped, shit."

"Look Jean shut up for a second please I want to speak okay?" You huffed half playfully, despairate to stop Jean's mumbling "I know."

"You know?" Jean cursed under his breath.

"Yeah, I do, it's obvious. And I've had this huge crush on you ever since fifth grade you know? I never really got over you because I spent all of my teen years thinking we'd end up together."

You watched as Jean's face lit up at your words, a new glimmer adorning his eyes just as the sky turned a sheer violet as the sun retreated deeper into a non visible horizon.

"And then we kissed in eighth grade and we fought about it and we stopped hanging out because I asked for space since I just could believe what was happening. But we're friends again and it's the best thing to happen to me in years."

You continued, your hand never leaving his while soothing circles were rubbed onto his palm.

"But I'm not going to ask you for space this time."

"You're not?"

"No. Just a little patience. I'm still getting over Reiner and I don't want to be unfair to you and rip you off of something that you might ask from me."

Jean snapped his hand away from yours and you retreated your hands back to yourself shyly, a bitter mouth leaking into your mouth as you tried to swallow it down fast to no avail. Somehow your heart felt a strong stinging, the pulling of your heartstrings at steak while your heart was sprawled before you.

Was that your last chance with Jean? You had told yourself that time and space between you would be right one day, but that day seemed to stray further away now, slipping right off your hands because you couldn't forget Reiner fast enough.

"I'm not fourteen anymore, so don't be afraid about me straying away. I just wanted to show you something."

Jean's worked through the pages of his sketchbook, taking a few seconds before they landed where they wanted to. Flipping the sketchbook to match your point of view, he revealed the sketches he had been scribbling all day. They depicted you in majority. The look on your face as you picked a tube of paint, your hands as they grabbed through numerous brushes and sketchbooks. Even the way you stared at your phone as you sat across him was perfectly sketched on the paper and hatched in indian ink, adorned by Jean's raw drawing style.

"Jean, that's me!"

"Mister Moblit told us to draw things that were personally important to us. So, I hope you don't mind."

Damn, you felt like tearing up.

In the midst of trying to get your stupid heart to calm down from the impossible rhythm in which it was beating at and stating at Jean's sketches so hard that your eyes felt like they'd pop out and any given moment your would felt like setting fire to your whole being while your tears were restlessly trying to put it out. It was even outdated to feel like that about Jean, your younger self told you but there was no way you could help it.

With rivers of tears running from the corners of your eyes you looked up at the hazel orbs that were set on you, feeling your heart want up by their luminous gaze.

"Jean I-"

"Shush, you don't have to say anything. Just let me know if I can hug you."

"I'd love that." You said shyly under your breath.

Next thing you knew Jean had gotten up from his seat and had plopped himself right next to you, pushing your head deep in his chest. The song in the background faded gradually as you felt serenity wash through you, despite your heart hammering in your chest beyond a point you could actually feel it.

And for now all that mattered was that you could listen to Jean's heart beat nearly as fast as yours while his words played inside your head.

Maybe, just maybe time and space between the two of you was right this time.

taglist: @sasageyowrites @levisbrat25 @ackermans-freedom-inc @melancholicmonologue @berrijam @callmepromise @nobody-knows-anymore 

[tenasselin]

Meant to publish this part two days ago but got sick. So better late than never, I guess.

2007: pencil and crayons on (presumably) regular print paper. These characters were my OCs Tobi (green suit) and Rin (purple hair and dress). Details about their life and settings changed a lot, but there was absolutely no angelic theme in Rin's character. The only reason I gave her angel wings is for aesthetic. Same thing for the bandages and the rose. My inspirations at the time were shoujo mangas of the early 00's, some sci-fi movies and series I watched with my family, and Chobits, a manga series that impacted me more than it should have.

During this point, I started to take art a little more seriously. Before that, I was drawing all the time at school, but I was drawing to convey into paper images in my head that didn't exist in real life, like a Magical Girl anime that hasn't been written, etc. But then, I discovered sites like Fanart-Central and DeviantArt and thought "I could be an artist too".

2012: watercolors ink and pencil on watercolor paper. Pretty similar from the 2007 drawing, but since I was somewhere else OC-wise, I didn't care about recreating the essence of Tobi and Rin; therefore, they were merely two randos in this picture. I removed Rin's gloves and rose and kept the essentials. Come to think of it, the scene really feels like a cheesy music video of an 80's ballad: I was indeed inspired by the 80's in general and especially 80's music. You can tell I was getting more serious with my art by the signature alone: I stopped signing with my real name and started signing with the weeb-ish pen name I gave myself at the time.

2011 and 2012 were probably my most productive years as an artist: although I wasn't a professionnal, I had significantly improved. I switched to watercolors and tried other techniques as well. I was also following plenty of tutorials online. My biggest weakness (other than the oubvious lack of reference, like, GIRL! That's not how pants work) was converting a traditional painting into a digital image, especially since the paper was a slight bit bigger than the scanner that is only fit for 8.5 x 11's, and I didn't want to cut the paper.

2017: Adobe Photoshop, can't remember which version, with a Wacom Intuos. In the making of this painting, I asked myself "what is essential to the story and what is meaningless?". So I got rid of the meaningless stuff, like the curtains in the background; instead I made Rin's very long hair and dress fill most of the space. I also got rid of the wings on Rin's back since I thought at that point they were corny, and made her levitate instead. Also, I took liberties on the outfits and hair; I remember having a lot of problems with Tobi's hair since I didn't want to give him back his emo fringe. The whole process was a struggle, and the hardest part was actually finishing it. See how there is a six-year gap in age instead of 5? That is because I started it in February and finished it in a hurry in December. If I had more time and energy to put on it, I would have improved on a lot of things, I might have redrawn Tobi's legs, I would have fixed Rin's expression to make her look less malicious, I would have looked for more fitting references for their faces and necks, etc. BTW, this is bandage, just wanted to make sure you don't mistake that white thing for toilet paper.

A lot had happened between 2012 and 2017, but I will make it brief. Basically, I went to college for an art course and tried in vain to make a living with my art. It was fun at times, but very hard financially. I was working with a good ol drawing tablet, more specifically the cheap kind without a screen. Basically, you looked at the screen of your laptop, not at where you draw. It's really hard when you're not used to it, and still hard even when you have used it for years. Fortunately, I bought an Ipad Pro in 2018, and it significantly improved my strokes.

2022: Procreate on Ipad Pro. Not gonna lie, I'm quite proud of this version. I was inspired by 2017's luminescent background to give in 2022's version overall sunset tones. I played a lot with shapes and colors and the abstract to give movement and direction and a bit of chaos. For instance, Rin's hair is drawn out like it's hugging Tobi. Her dress, or the fabric covering her, follows the movement and kind of forms a whirlwind. I got rid of the suspicious toilet paper and added feathers as a nod of Rin's wings in the first versions (all blurred to give some motion, except for the one on Tobi's hand). Finally, the biggest change is Tobi himself: his iconic emo hair is back (yay!); then I traded his school uniform for casual clothes mostly because I think we as a society should move on from men in suits.

Today, after two or three years of doing almost nothing art-wise, I want to go back to painting for my own sake. I started experimenting with nature landscapes and architecture, and I want to keep studying textures and fabrics. I also had a few comic book projects although not much went really far. With the arrival of AI-generated art, I decided that meaning and the scene were more important than technique. No more drawing a girl in a nice dress for the sake of drawing a girl in a nice dress; I want to do things nobody else has done, I want to break the mold.

For future versions, I'm thinking of going above the medium of painting and drawing. Maybe film? Photography? Or a mural? You will find out in 5 years.

In 2012, there was a popular challenge running around DeviantArt where artist would pick an old artwork of theirs and redraw it. I jumped on the bandwagon without thinking much about it. But somewhere around the process, I decided I wanted to redraw this piece 5 years later, then perhaps 5 years after, and so on. Just like that, a tradition was born.

My art has improved over time for sure. Since 2012, I took an art course in college, attended several figure drawing sessions, upgraded tools, experimented with some techniques and used more reference pictures than before (I used to be like "I got this! It's in my head". Here's a tip if you want to improve your art: don't be like that).

But then, I stopped.

At some point, my inspirations faded away. I have always been, and still am, very imaginative, but I reached my limits drawing-wise. It's also around the time I started questioning my art and art in general, the type of questions that hinder your creativity more than it helps. So I stopped creating, instead I did drawing studies once in a while. Later, I moved out of town and went to university for a not-art-related course, and I quickly became too busy to draw.

Today, I work full-time in an office job, not making a lot of money but making much more than I ever did as an artist. I slowly picked up on painting and have maybe a few projects in mind. But I am coming back under one condition: I want painting to remain fun. Therefore, I won't pressure myself to become the better artist, I won't be chasing views or comments, and I won't do complicated perspectives or 3D stuff or anything I hate doing. I still do drawing studies because I enjoy learning and observing, and I still attend figure drawing sessions because it makes me socialize with people. But I also watch more movies and animes, I go out more, I picked up on other hobbies like sewing.

Enjoy my art and my overly personal reflections. More thorough analysis coming soon.

[morimakesfanart]

Sindria's Prophet #13

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

[AO3]

((edited because I figured out to add some more history facts that I think are important))

~POV Sinbad~

"The Kou Empire, huh?"

"That is going to make things risky."

With all of the Generals caught up with what happened in Balbadd, they needed to start planning for King Sinbad's trip to the Kou Empire, as well as catching him up with everything that had happened in Sindria while he was gone.

"LadY YamuRAI H AA AA A" A yell came from the hallway accompanied by the sounds of running.

((Sinbad is hidden on the left. There's a hint of him poking out.))

A panting magician gave apologies for disturbing their meeting and ran to the head of Sindria's magicians. "I wish I knew you were here so I didn't search the tower first~" Then he started explaining about some magical proof. Most of his words sounded like gibberish to the rest, but it was clear that he had made some kind of break though.

Yam jumped out of her seat. "How did you finally figure it out?! Who figured it out?!" She whipped her head to her King, "Sorry your majesty," and then looked back to the other magician.

"It was the work of the Prophet!” the magician answered. "We were talking about her illness and she pulled out scrolls that- you just have to read them for yourself!”

Mori had said that she had written other scrolls before she started coping down Fate. This must have been what she was working on.

Both magicians bowed out to go test out this new information. Before they could leave, Sinbad ended the meeting; there was no way he was going to wait to learn what other information Mori had blessed them with. Ja'far followed as did a few of the other Generals.

When they got into the court yard, the doctors that had been sent to take care of Mori were already pushing their supply cart back to their main building. The magician that had stayed behind spotted them and raised two scrolls up triumphantly. "She let me take the scrolls!"

---

News of the scrolls written by a Prophet spread throughout the Black Libra Tower within an hour. Yamuraiha and the doctors explained their significance to King Sinbad.

If even a fraction of the theories in the scrolls proved true it would completely changed their understanding of how illnesses work. If Mori wasn't sick she would undoubtedly be swarmed with questions and demands for proof. According to the magicians, nothing in the scrolls went against any known information. Instead, they gave explanations to why certain things that had been attempted in the past had failed. What she wrote about 'cells' was what really caught the eyes of the white magicians and doctors. As an example, according to Mori's writing there were blood types and most couldn't mix; that would explain why most past attempts at blood transfusions had failed.

The 2nd scroll showed a break down of even smaller particles, and how the structures of different particles made up everything. This was going to bring alchemic magic to a whole new era. Sure, such things would most likely be limited to high magicians, group efforts, and the Magi, but it looked possible now. A lot of common magic of the current day took extreme amounts of magoi in the past because they hadn't found the right formula yet. Mori's writing -if true- could easily be used as a guide to finding the right order of commands for many spells.

And even more than that, Mori had said that she had even more information to share; she had just ran out of scrolls and ink.

Mori's presence in Sindria, and everything that went with it were Fate and the Rukh's guidance. King Sinbad could see it -the future he wanted.

---

~POV Mori~

In Sindria's Palace there is a Great Bell. It is rung during celebrations, and to signify the King returning home like it did earlier that day, but it's main use was to ring every 2 hours to tell everyone the time since clocks weren't invented yet. So even though I was a sick person trying to rest during the day, I was woken up by the Great Bell every 2 hours... which of course is also situated right on top of the guest tower.

For obvious reasons, I was awake again.

I wish I knew how the others responded to the scrolls. I really wanted to know Yam's opinion most. Those scrolls basically gave away the secret to Yunan's signature alchemy magic.

I still had the first scroll I had worked on -the one on the science behind blimps-, and the last science scroll I had started. That one was on DNA, and reproductive systems. It was the last one I started in Balbadd. I hadn't started working on it until sunrise on my 2nd sleepless night and it showed; there were missing words everywhere, many incomplete sentences, and I couldn't stay in topic.

These mistakes were too great to fix with an ink knife. Editing was going be super annoying and time consuming since I couldn't work digitally. I'd have to physically cut up the first draft to put everything in the right order before making the next one.

Wait- Did this world have scissors???

Back home the first evolution of shears that could be labeled as scissors was in Roman barber shops in the last hundred years or so before Rome fell. China would spontaneous also create something akin to scissors not long after. Reim and the Kou Empire seemed to line up with Rome and ancient China for the most part, so I tend to use them to place the time period, but the dress Princess Dunya wears is centuries off and throws all historical accuracy questions out the window. Rome was long gone by the time boning was added to women's undergarments, and that dress had all the signs of boned corsetry.

Fuck it. I'll ask for scissors and if they don't have them I'll just invent them myself. I had been drafting professionally for the past 4 years. That may have been for microelectronics, but it uses all the same skills; I could do this. I needed to get a ruler -or at least a straight edge- and a drafting compass which they probably have based on the look of maps in the series, and pencils, or at least colored inks if they had them. I probably needed to reinvent the French curve(stencil tool used in art & drafting)...

Since I was struggling to fall back asleep I moved to the table and pulled out my test scroll. It was full of random marks and some of my early drawing attempts that I used to practice with the dip pen -it's also where I wrote down the dreams from the Rukh. I'd write the list of things I needed, rip the section out of the scroll, and pass the list to someone who could get me what I was asking for. I added some living necessities too like sleep wear and a comb.

The maids that came to give me dinner, and next dose of medicine were not pleased that I wasn't in bed -I was an important guest who was sick after all. And I wasn't pleased to have to drink more of that bitter medicine, but we can't have nice things all the time, now can we?

My voices was strained but I managed to communicate enough. I gave them my list, and laundry (the clothes I wore on the boat) before they left. They'd get me the things the next day. I was instructed to sleep until someone brings me breakfast the next day... which is what I was going to do anyway since the sun was practically gone. I might be a bit of a workaholic but I'm not going to let myself pull an accidental all-nighter when I know I'm still sick. I'm far more self aware than that.

And besides, the Great Bell didn't ring at night.

---

Maids brought my breakfast (& meds) the next morning and let me know that my clothes would be cleaned and dry by the end of the day. I guess they didn't use magic for everything.

They also gave me all of the drafting and inking supplies I asked for except for scissors. In one of the omakes Sinbad was shown cutting his hair with a knife as a part of his normal grooming. I had hoped he was just old fashioned.

For the greater good and the future of my own hair care, I drafted up detailed designs for a few different types of basic scissors. They wouldn't look fancy, but hopefully I had put enough of a detailed explanation on everything for the smith to figure out what I was asking. Steel wasn't developed until the middle ages and some of the counties of this world matched that so I hoped

that God and anime were on my side. I really wanted scissors that would be a good quality.

And if that didn't work I'd just have to get used to using knives and bladed rollers like a regular person.

The Great Bell rung for 10 am. There were at least another 2 hours before someone would show up, to give lunch, that I could ask to take my draft for the scissors to a black Smith.

I should be resting as a sick person. I should be more exhausted and in pain as a sick person. What was making me recover this quickly?

I still didn't feel like laying back down, so I decided to start drafting up the materials and equipment for proving everything I had written in the scrolls I gave the previous day.

Globally, micro-organisms, viruses, and bacteria were not really accept or proved until the late 1800's. Since Magi seems to take place some time around our 100AD-1300, and Yunan hinting at chemical compounds was seen as shocking by Yam, I knew that my bio scrolls were probably causing an uproar in the Black Libra Tower. I refused to use actual people or wait for an outbreak to prove it like how it happened in history -like how John Snow proved it when finding the cause of cholera outbreaks in 1848 and 1854 England. No, I needed to show how to prove these things in a lab, and to do that I was going to need to explain how to keep samples and invent a way to see microorganisms.

First was for a glass petri dish and other containers for samples. I'd need at least 3 -preferably more. I know glass works have been around since BC, and that this world had glass windows in some scenes, but I worried about the quality of the glass contaminating the experiments. I was going to have to boil them beforehand to sterilize them anyway.

Gosh I wish I had access to nonporous, air tight containers, and a temperature controlled environment. The heat and humidity of Sindria could easily mess everything up.

Wait... I suddenly remembered a scene from the Magnostadt arc when they showed how a sample was being stored. They already had good enough glass. I knew there were magic bio experiments but I had no idea how they worked.

With the realization that I was getting ahead myself, I switched to writing about how to use the scientific method to test for germs. It was basically the bread in a bag test to teach young children about germs but with petri dishes. I also wrote about how to analyze samples with a microscope to see micro organisms so I was going to have to figure that out next.

Lunch came as the perfect break.

Just thinking about reinventing this thing made me nervous. I knew magnifying glasses existed in ancient Rome, but they would be nothing like what I was used to. I had to explain how light moves and made multiple diagrams showing how concave and convex lenses affect light as well as the material of the lens. I ended up also showing how to make a telescope even though I knew Yam already had one.

Magicians were the only ones shown with glasses. Maybe now the rest of the world could have them too.

4 o'clock came and so did 3 doctors and a magician. It was less than yesterday, but still more than necessary to treat or analyze one person. I only recognized one of the doctors from the previous day. All of the new faces looked nervous. None of them looked young by any measure, so I really doubted this was their first time treating someone.

They weren't happy to see me at the table and made me return to my bed -their loss.

The doctor from the previous day was the one doing most of the talking. "Your recovery is amazing. You will most likely be better in another 3 days at this rate if not sooner. It's practically a miracle."

I smiled. "It's pretty shocking for me too." As long as I spoke quietly and kept my comments short, I found I could talk again for a bit.

The doctor was silent for a moment before changing the subject. "I know you need rest, but would you be willing to answer a few questions about those scrolls from yesterday?

The 3 other men looked expectant. This was why they were here.

"I don't mind as long as you don't make me talk too much."

Then came the question I was expecting since I had first made the scrolls. "I know you are a Prophet and the information came from your visions but is there any way you can prove what you wrote?"

I pointed to the table with the scroll I had started earlier. "I can't prove it with the current equipment I have, so I've been drafting up the needed equipment and processes for proving it."

They all turned to look at where I was pointing.

I added, "It's not done, but you're welcome to read what I have so far."

I was thanked as they went to the table they had called me away from when they entered.

'He called it 'visions?' Really?' I had to ask Sinbad later what he was telling his people about me so I could keep the story straight.

The magician confirmed for the others what I wrote about light bending. There was magic to do that, but not everyone is a magician. I had just invented a way for non-magicians to bend light.

Just wait until I show them a prism that can split light into colors. Or teach them how light is perceived in the eye. Or even better, show them the double slit experiment that proves that light is a particle not just a wave... Did they know light was a wave yet?

"Lady Prophet."

I was pulled out of my thoughts.

"You said this isn't finished and there is plenty of space in this scroll for more, but would you let us take this back to the tower so we can get started?"

I wanted to say 'no.' I was still coming up with things to add to it, but I also knew that holding things back because I wanted to save paper was a fool's game. Besides, I could always add more to it later.

I nodded and they thanked me before making me promise not to leave my bed. They were grateful for this new scroll but not at the expense of my health -they were doctors after all.

And then they left.

It was probably about 5pm if my internal clock was on schedule, so I had about an hour before the next ring of the Bell.

Even if I wasn't a man of my word, I would have lost the motivation to work with my current project taken from me while I was still in the middle of making it.

So, I did the thing I grew up doing when I was bedridden from illness: I looked out the window. From the bed I could only see the tops of the buildings on the other side of the courtyard. The Tower that was just poking in from the left had to be the Black Libra Tower.

The waves in Sindria were calmer yet stronger than those in Balbadd. It was probably due to Sinbad's influence. He brought stability and security to his people. I could understand why so many chose to follow him or ally with him. But I knew where all this would lead. As he obtains more power and influence he will stop being able to see himself from the pedestal that he and everyone else put him on; his greed will make him blind to the wants and needs of others, and like a middle aged parent that isn't ready for their child to leave the nest he will take out his frustration on the world that was moving on without him. When Sinbad dies at the end of the manga, Drakon realizes that they all put too much on Sinbad's shoulders.

To change Fate, I was going to have to make sure I never put him on that pedestal nor rely on him for much. And I was going to have to convince the 8 Generals to do the same -or at least to start pulling more of the weight.

The 6 o'clock Bell came faster than I expected, as well as my dinner not long after. They brought my clean laundry, a sleeping gown, and some other common clothes and things for my convenience.

I would have preferred something much shorter for the night gown since I hate having a lot of extra fabric around my legs when I already have blankets. I was not going to risk being walked in on by doctors or whoever when sleeping naked, so I would make do for now.

There was no way King Sinbad wasn't going to reward me for those scrolls. If it was some kind of treasure I'd sell it and buy a new wardrobe for myself that actually suited me, and if the reward was a request then I would ask that he pay for everything directly.

The light coming in my windows changed, and I watched my 2nd sunset in Sindria.

When Sinbad found this island 10 years ago, he completely terraformed it. He didn't get rid of all of the vegetation that was here, but he did break down one of the sides to allow for easier access by boat. The side he carved out faced northish towards all of the other known countries, so no boat would have a reason to circle the island. It was a decision that would benefit the merchants and make it easier to defend.

It also meant that my windows faced west, so I could watch the Sun set every day. I couldn't help but see that as a blessing and a curse. Sure not getting the sunrise meant I'd need to put more effort into

waking up in the morning but that wasn't the part I was worried about.

See- The thing is... I have synesthesia (having 2 or more senses overlapping). I see sounds, letters, and numbers as colors and textures. I have it mild enough that I can normally block it out so it's not too distracting (thank God because music is a main stim), but sometimes I'll hear something and get overwhelmed by how it looks.

Each letter and number is a color. So every voice can make every color, but language, pitch, tone, and accent all affect the colors and textures I see from a person's voice like a filter. There have definitely been some people that I struggled to give my full attention to when I first met them because I was entranced by how their voice looked. The more I hear a person's voice the more I'm able to move its visuals to the background so I can focus -desensitizing myself to it.

Luckily, Sinbad's voice is normally not so distracting that I stop paying attention. Since it's like a merger of every voice actor I've heard play him (All the characters I had met so far were like this.) I'm already desensitized. The similarities across all of the VAs meant that his voice looked like a sunset -full of deep purples and magentas, and bright reds, peach, and gold, and with a smooth and flowing texture like painting in acrylic with a wet brush -like a painting of the last moments of a sunset.

His voice was as pretty as he was.

I hadn't actually gotten to see or hear him for a whole day. But I'd get to look at his voice's equivalent every day while living under his protection.

It was frustrating to admit -I barely knew him as a real person- yet I couldn't deny that I missed him. I feel asleep watching the sun set.

((I wasn't going to write about my synesthesia, but this is my fanfic and I thought it might be fun to reference the colors peoples voices make when the characters talk. I'm not going to paint every VA and head cannon, but I will describe them as I go. Ja'far's Japanese and English VAs have voices that look very different so finding the middle ground is proving tricky.

Also, anyone who noticed that the purple I see in Sinbad's voice is the same as the purple I've been using for the illustrations and comics is super smart and cool.))