#((THIS IS OLD ART BUT I KEPT FORGETTING TO POST IT HERE))

[revrads]

UNFORGIVABLE

I keep forgetting to post this oops

Bloo and no words vers or somethin

[yasu-kun]

[colleendoran]

How Do I Do Stuff

The question was phrased a little strangely, and I don't want to embarrass the person by posting exactly what was said, but I'll answer it and hope this clears everything up.

I do almost all of my drawing by hand. No, I don't trace in Photoshop. Not a judgment on those who do, but I come from a generation of artists who did not use Poser programs or other digital tools. We learned to draw using a technique called the Sight Size method. I know a lot of people assume everyone - including the old masters - traced everything using optical tools, but while it is true some people did, it is just as true that most didn't, and you can draw with great accuracy if you learned how to draw the old fashioned way.

Sight Size breaks everything down into its barest components of geometric shapes and you build from there. Once you learn it, you never forget, and it applies to everything you will ever draw.

I learned it using a set of Famous Artist Course books my mom had since she was a kid, and they are still the gold standard. They're often on ebay. If I were you, I'd buy them.

I actually find using figure reference really annoying because I like exaggerations and modifications from reality in my final work.

This page from Neil Gaiman's Chivalry was drawn and painted without figure reference of any kind.

I don't know why people assume I trace all the time. If you were to try to use photographs to replicate these figures, you would find they are slightly off. There is no tracing here.

This is not to say I never use reference. This page, for example, was referenced from a photo of my mother. Isn't she pretty.

But this page of Sir Galaad was drawn and painted without reference.

He's pretty, too.

If he were real, I'm sure a lot of people would be very happy about it. But he's not. And had I reference, the art would have gone a lot faster. I had a time trying to nail this face that is very alive in my head but doesn't really exist.

Back in the ancient days, all cartoonists had to learn to draw and paint extemporaneously because reference was limited and digital tools didn't exist. While some high end artists had photography studios and professional models with costume and sets on hand, small fry like me were limited to what was in the house or available at my small local library, which was no bigger than a few rooms of my current house.

Artists kept extensive "morgue files" or "swipe files" which were collected from magazine clippings and photographs so we would have as much of what we might need on hand for quick reference. These ephemera collections could get unwieldy. I have thousands of photographs I've simply never sorted. I finally dumped most of my files this past year.

Have I ever traced anything? Of course, especially if I have to re-use a shot or setting over and over. Making extra work for myself is just silly. It's my job to make pictures, not to perform magical feats, like copying one shot after another over and over without making a mistake.

However, for almost 15 years of my career, I refused to copy or trace anything, and did not even own a lightbox. On the one hand, that forced me to learn to carefully examine what I saw. On the other hand, it was a stupid hill on which many deadlines died.

Only after I realized many professional artists had lightboxes and overhead projectors did I finally break down and get one.

The one thing I use my lightbox for more than anything is for tracing my thumbnail sketches to the final drawing paper. Instead of trying to capture the liveliness of the original sketch by copying what I see - only bigger - I blow the thumbnail up to the size I want the final art to be, then I trace over the thumbnail using a lightbox onto the final drawing paper.

Here's a look at thumbnails from the graphic novel Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples.

I enlarged these on my computer to fit onto 11"x14" paper, and traced the thumbs before finishing the art which was drawn in pen and ink and colored in Photoshop.

While I obviously made some changes, the essence of the thumbs is there in the final work. Tracing my thumbs retains some of the looseness of the original sketches, which is often lost otherwise.

So, there is a valid purpose to tracing at times, though in my opinion, too much tracing can weaken drawing ability, substitute for developing skills, and make the work kind of stiff.

If you want to, I'm not your judge. But it's weird to me that people think I must be faking my skills in some way.

Ironically, the word cartoon comes from the Italian word cartone, which is a large heavy sheet of paper - also, the origin of the word carton.

Preparatory sketches were made on this paper which was then transferred to the final work surface via either tracing or by stamping little holes in the paper through which dust was sprinkled, recreating the contours of the drawing for the artist to follow.

So the origin of the word cartoon comes from a process often used...for tracing.

[universalitgirlsblog2]

💗🌸DOUBTS,RESISTANCE AND VICTIM MENTALITY💗🌸

💗DOUBTS

Doubts don't matter. Would you doubt yourself if you already got your manifestation? Would you doubt yourself if you are already in Barbados? Dealing with doubts can be hard sometimes , I always say how self-concept work never goes in vain. If you feel you are reacting to the 3D or being doubtful, put the focus on you,change " SELF". Focus on your self- concept .

Avoid the need to seek confirmation from the 3D reality. The 3D reality does not control you, you control it. Movement is always happening, maybe you are not able to see it but it is always happening. Learn to reassure yourself , validate yourself and don't seek validation from the 3D.

Speak to yourself when you are in the moments of doubt. It is very important to realize that you are in control of your reality. Ask yourself: " What are you doubting about ? " " What or Who made you doubt yourself ? ". As Barbie said you can be anything , you can be anyone you want to be and manifest anyone and anything you want. Remind yourself ! You are in control of your reality.

Doubts often arise from Logic too. It is important to remember that logic doesn't matter. When you are manifesting , forget about logic and rely on your imagination. Please let go of the " when " or " how ".

I think these posts can help - edward art series summary by me and this one .

Here is a paragraph from Solar's guide , it helped me in my moments of doubts - "Your current situation does not mean you cannot manifest it to change. You can manifest a completely new reality for yourself regardless of where you are physically, as long as you mentally operate as your wanted reality. Your unwanted situation is only a circumstance, an illusion that makes manifesting seem harder. An unwanted situation will only continue to be that way if you dwell upon it, keep giving it hate and attention" I have made notes of almost all Solar's guide - click me !! Solar's guides are really helpful and they will dissolve all your doubts !! Click me if you want to read solar's creator code guide 💗🌸

🌸RESISTANCE

Resistance is when you get opposing thoughts. When our subconscious mind is familiar with one thing and you tell it something which is different from what you have always told your mind.Let's say you always told your mind how you were dumb , since subconscious mind materialize your assumptions into reality , it gave you proof how you were dumb and you continued to persist in this assumption.Now , if you tell your mind that you are smart , you will get opposing thoughts because your mind is not familiar with this thought.

To get rid of resistance , REPETITION IS THE KEY AS ALWAYS !! The more you repeat the assumption , the more dominant it will become.

Remind yourself that you are worthy of your manifestation. I used to say that self- concept wasn't necessary to manifest in my previous posts but self-concept work never goes in vain and if you work on self-concept, you will feel better about yourself , you won't doubt your power and know that you are in control !

If you get the mindset that you are going to get what you want and you will focus on what you want , you can get rid of resistance.

Read this post by @awhkacey!

💗VICTIM MENTALITY

You are not a victim of your reality. You create your reality. You have full control over your reality.

If you feel that you don't have your desires because you didn't see it in the 3D reality, it means you are giving all your control and power to the 3D reality. The 3D reality has no control over you because you control it. Stop giving the 3D too much power over you when you are the creator !

" When you play the victim , you stay the victim " Most people don't apply anything and then they complain how the law doesn't work 🤔. It's obvious the law won't work since you applied nothing but kept complaining and feeding the old story.

Also thank you for 2.1K followers , it means alot . Thank you for your love and support, I am glad that my posts helped you 😊 💗🌸

[nvuy]

would u ever write jy w/ a reader who was a part of the high cloud quintet? ig u would say sextet here (insert sex joke) but just curious!!!

i would, maybe. i have this idea of a very short fic bordering on less than 10 chapters if possible surrounding the idea, though.

like something to do with lan, how they pierced the sky, and you are a piece of it that holds the skies together for the xianzhou. something like that.

it would be unbridled angst because i can. this post is so fucking long sorry. i definitely don’t have problems…

i think what would hurt the most is that jingliu would’ve accepted you into the hcq had you been able to join them.

something something, you wanted to stay, but if you remained here, the sky wouldn’t be able to hold itself together anymore, and the stars would fall, and the xianzhou would perish. so, you return to the sky, and hold it together, because that’s what you are: a fragment of the stars.

you definitely knew them all.

yingxing crafted you a weapon on the basis that maybe if he finished it, you’d return. dan feng would be so so happy to see you again, with that pleasant little smile he always wore (and sometimes if he thinks it’s appropriate he’ll let you examine his tail).

you did not return. not in his lifetime, at least.

jingliu would’ve trained you in the art of the sword. not to the extent of jing yuan, but enough to put up a decent fight. so, if none of them were there to help you, at least you could help yourself.

baiheng would’ve been like the fun aunt, to be honest. always up for a good chat, telling you stories about her travels across the galaxy. throws in a little “don’t tell jingliu, but i think you’d be better at archery, than swordsmanship.”

and jing yuan, oh boy. you two would always sneak away and talk and lie together and be idiots. he’s young, only barely creeping towards one hundred, but so are you, and he brings you to places he loves to show them to you.

there’s one particular spot he loves more than the rest.

there’s a little path in an abandoned stretch of trees towards the edge of the luofu ship. the path is barely visible amidst the tall grass, but jing yuan shows you through every step of the way until you both come into a clearing. it’s a field of flowers. private, closed off, with enough sunlight to keep the area warm. and it’s beautiful.

if you die, jing yuan buries you there. he also buries what remained of baiheng, and carves yingxing, jingliu, and dan feng’s names into headstones as a memoir of the past.

if you do return, for whatever reason it may be, it has been centuries. centuries are long enough to forget, as everything yields to time. wherever you have been, it has been long enough to forget.

returning is odd. the xianzhou luofu has changed, as have the other ships. you’re not sure how long it has been, and you’re not sure why you’re trekking this particular path. it feels familiar, and you have the faintest notion that there is supposed to be someone at the end of wherever this path leads.

who it is, you’re not sure. perhaps, if they are there, they can provide you an answer. maybe they can even tell you who you are, and what purpose you serve, other than to keep the sky together.

jing yuan never changed this area. not only was it his favourite, but he, as well as his old friends, had clung to the idea that you would return eventually.

if he changed it, jing yuan feared you’d forget even more than you already had. so, he kept it the same.

at the end of the path, for your first return is not a person. there’s nobody here, but four headstones buried in the grass. you read the names, but there is nothing. you don’t remember these people, but still your heart twists, as if you should have known them.

so, with grief heavy in your heart, you return to the sky.

the next time you return is because you realise you’re forgetting again, though it is one hundred years later. you walk down the same path because it is familiar, expecting to see someone, or something.

you see both. a man, and four headstones. you don’t recognise him, but it must have been the person you’ve sought, for you only had the faintest idea that there should’ve been somebody here. so, it must be him.

you explain to the stranger you feel as though you should recognise him, but you don’t. you also tell him his eyes are like the sunlight in the sky.

to that, he responds that you’ve told him that before. and you have. many, many times and many, many years ago.

jing yuan knows you can’t stay here, but it has been such a long time since he’s seen your face. so, he lets you examine the headstones as you did centuries ago.

he wasn’t there that day. the sky had darkened on the days you first returned, and though jing yuan had an inkling of an idea it had something to do with you, he had been bested by his own mind at the thought that you were gone, and had thus disappeared to grieve by himself.

truly, today, he came to grieve once the sky darkened again. seeing you here was not what he expected.

you ask him questions that visit. about the people beneath the soil—he responds that there aren’t any bodies buried here. baiheng’s body withered, dan feng never truly died, and neither did jingliu or yingxing.

“they all float aimlessly,” he tells you. “baiheng is gone. dan feng has a new identity, and what existed before is lost. jingliu and yingxing’s minds are scattered to the clouds. i cannot say what they will do if you cross paths, or whether they will remember you.”

you ask if you can meet them someday, as perhaps maybe one of them can jog your memory. jing yuan promises it is a possibility, but it is nearing impossible. fate will draw your paths together, he deduces. one day.

so, after a while, he tells you to return to the skies. it hurts, because he wants you to stay. he wants to tell you everything you did together. why you would trek this path, and only this path, and who the headstones were once. but he can’t, and so you return once more.

it is an endless cycle of you returning once you’ve realised you’ve forgotten the man who waits for you at the end of that path. an all too familiar path that seems new, but somewhere, you know you’ve walked along it before. sometimes it is only fifty years, sometimes it is two hundred, but jing yuan ensured that he is always there to greet you.

he tells yanqing of you one day. that’s only because he knows he won’t be around forever. he will be mara-stricken, or perhaps he will be killed in battle, but whatever it is, he tells yanqing, as his retainer and potential successor, to take over this position, and to pass it onto his successor, and then generations will pass.

but, for the moment, each time you return, jing yuan remains. and jing yuan promises you, though he knows you will forget, that when he does inevitably perish, he will find a way to join you in the skies.

dan heng asked him once after learning of you if it is difficult to love someone who you cannot be with.

jing yuan replied it’s easy. and it is easy, because every time the sky shifts from night to day, and the sun rises, and the clouds pass, he knows you’re up there, and you’re safe.

tldr: batty old general jing yuan talks to the clouds sometimes.

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Snow Day

Title: Snow Day Prompt: There's a snowstorm, and someone's been gone since before it started. They were supposed to come home hours ago, so a member of the group heads out to find what happened to them. Fandom: ROTTMNT Word Count: 3681 Author: PhoebePheebsPhibs Rating: Gen Characters: Casey Jones Jr, Raphael, Leonardo, Baxter Stockboy cameo Warning: Casey gets real freaked out and has a minor anxiety/panic attack Summary: Casey goes out just before a snowstorm happens and gets caught right in the middle of it... Notes: No Beta, We Die Like Gram-Gram! Reused old art for illustration lol, you can see it on AO3

@cheetochild989 @tmnt-write-fight

Posted on AO3 <-

"I won't be gone long," Casey promised. "It's only a few things."

"Still, it's your first time buying groceries alone," Leo mumbled, the tap tap tap of his crutch echoing against the floor. He didn't always need it, but some days were harder than others. "I could go with --"

"No," Casey interrupted him, holding a hand up and stopping Leo in his tracks. "If I'm ever going to figure out how to live in this time period, then I need to learn to do these things on my own."

"Sheesh, alright!" Leo joked. "And don't say 'time period', this isn't the Victorian era! It's only what, 20-plus years into the past? Time period. Woof! You make it sound like we're ancient wizards or something..."

Casey laughed at the idea. The only one he could truly call a 'wizard' was Mikey, but he hadn't really gotten to that stage just yet. Mage, yes. Wizard? Maaaaybe in a few months, if he kept up the training with Draxum.

Casey and Leo went over the list one more time, adding one or two last-minute items that Leo suddenly thought of as they made their way to the exit. Casey stuffed the list into his pants before shoving a large and slightly oversized jacket over himself, struggling slightly with the arms.

"Don't forget your hat and earmuffs," Raph reminded him as he walked past. "It's really cold out today."

"Gotchya," Casey nodded, handling the earmuffs like they're some new and exotic species. "We didn't really have cold weather in the future..."

"Really?" Leo asked, his head tilting to the side. "What were winters like?"

"I dunno, like 60 degrees at the lowest?" he shrugged. "What with all the planetary devastation and laser blasts and global warming... weather became sorta nonexistent."

Raphael shuddered at the thought of such a thing. No weather meant no rain, no snow, maybe even no real wind or cloudy days. 

"Well, try to be home soon okay? I think there's a call for heavy snow later."

"Sure thing," Casey replied, half-paying attention to Raph as he walked out the door. After all, this is the past, and everyone has it so cushy! There's nothing dangerous here except for idiot muggers and a few mutants. What could possibly go wrong?

"And don't forget the mittens!" Raph called after him. Casey walked back into the lair, retrieved his gloves, and then walked back out.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Casey Jones Jr was starting to really like New York City, circa 2020. It was a different kind of hectic, but Casey had lived his entire life in chaos.

Instead of dodging missiles, he was dodging taxi cabs.

Instead of wild krang dogs, there were people walking a dozen angry chihuahuas and poodles and dobermans to earn money.

Instead of corpses laid to waste on the ground, there were a few homeless people sleeping in cardboard boxes.

Differences with small similarities.

The biggest difference was the turtles. Sensei Leonardo was no longer a tall and hulking king of the apocalypse with a robot arm who took no slack from anyone or anything -- he was now an ego-stripped teenager with a knee that had been so twisted up that it counted as a physical condition and they could qualify for disabled parking with the tank. Master Michelangelo was no longer someone who looked older than time and could create lavish magic spells with a flip of his hand, but an untrained child with an unbridled adoration for drawing and reality cooking shows. Uncle Tello was not the cybernetic scientist in overalls with a hundred extra technological advancements, but a nerdy teenager with 'secret' plans for anarchy against the US government. Raphael... well... Casey couldn't remember Raph firsthand. There were some photographs and video recordings of him, a few stories passed down, but the big red giant had been killed in action a few years after Casey Jr was born.

But this time period -- er, the past was still nice. It was crazy how many people he recognized. Baron Draxum, Commander O'Neil, Master Splinter, Todd 'The Sasquatch' Capybara, Big Mama... Casey would just be walking down the street and he'd see a couple with a child, and he'd realize the kid was one of the medics that helped him when he'd broken his leg. He would be buying pizza and the cashier was one of Uncle Tello's tech apprentices. In the Hidden City, an octopus Yokai would offer to sell him some mystic potion and Casey would recall they were one of the cooks in the mess hall who always gave him extra portions to help him grow, even when rations were low.

Casey reached the end of memory lane when he found the grocery store he'd been looking for. He casually walked inside just as a few unnoticed flakes of white began to fall from the sky above him.

"Hello, and welcome to the Stock & Shop!" an older woman greeted. "Holler if you need anything!"

Casey nodded with a smile as he started to gather everything on the list.

Chicken soup: got it.

New batteries for the remote: donezo.

Flaming-hot chips: three bags procured. 

Four different brands of soda: orange blast for Mikey, sugar-free cola for Raph, flavourless juice for Donnie, and diet blueberry bubble waters for Leo. Check.

Popcorn for movie nights: not yet.

The popcorn in question was placed on a hard-to-reach shelf high above him. Of course, this one particular brand that Mikey so desperately needed was at the very top. As Casey was reached up for the requested snack, a voice chimed in behind him.

"Better hurry, there's supposed to be a wicked snowstorm tonight!"

Casey jumped back, startled by the sudden sound. He looked down and saw a short, scrawny kid with a comparatively huge head looking up at him.

"Oh, hey. You look familiar...?"

"This is my parent's store, I work here all the time. Or maybe you've seen my videos? My channel? STOCKBOii?? Cybersleuth??"

"Stockboy? As in Baxter Stockboy?" Casey wondered, his eyes widening as the corners of his mouth turned up.

"Yeah! You've heard of me?" the child asked excitedly.

"Kind of," Casey replied, not exactly sure how to explain that Baxter had worked as one of Donatello's apprentices to create warships and mechas during the golden age of the Resistance, despite Sensei's reluctance. "I heard about the whole 'Mutant Menace' fiasco."

Baxter groaned loudly.

"Uggggh, that whole thing. My parents still won't let me leave the house unsupervised. It's ridiculous! One mass panic and riot instigation, and they turn on me! At least the judge agreed to let me work off community service in the store..."

Casey smirked just a little.

"Hmm. Anyway, you said something about a snowstorm?"

"Oh, right. The weather report says it might get up to two inches."

"What might get up to two inches?"

"Um... the snow? Look, it's started snowing already!"

Baxter Stockboy pointed out towards the front entrance. A small sprinkling of white could just barely be visible beyond the glass.

"Oh," Casey shrugged. "Doesn't look too bad."

"You say that now, but it's supposed to get below 30º Farenheit!"

"Oh. That is kinda cold," Casey agreed. "...But I'm sure it'll be okay."

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Ten minutes had passed.

Raphael received a notification from the weather app, informing that the previously predicted 'heavy snowfall' was now a full-blown snowstorm.

That probably wasn't good. But it wasn't terrible, either. Just some snow.

"Boys, it looks like tomorrow is another snow day!" he announced to the rest of the Hamatos.

From various rooms in the lair, Raph heard them shout in excitement.

"Yes!"

"Alright!"

"Snow day, hooRAY, baby!"

Raph smiled. He couldn't wait to introduce Casey to his first snowfall...

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Casey had finally gotten all the items on the list and was preparing to check-out, when an announcement went over the loudspeakers.

"Attention shoppers -- we encourage all patrons to finish up their errands, as we will be closing soon due to the weather. Thank you."

Huh. They sure were getting all riled up over this 'snow' stuff. Casey had witnessed a few storms before in the months prior, but it was never too bad. Thunderstorms were freaking terrifying, but only because they were loud and Casey's first thought was always that an air attack was happening. But he loved watching lightning. It reminded him of a few magic spells Master Michelangelo had performed on occasion...

Casey finished up the last of his errand and purchased the items. He needed a little help when trying to decide on paper or plastic, and for a moment he forgot the pin number for the card Splinter had given him, but other than that all had gone well.

He stepped out of the store, the glass doors sliding past him gracefully.

And he was greeted by a harsh blast of cold. It almost knocked him over, the icy wind biting his face so much he dropped the bags of groceries in order to cover his face with his regrettably un-mittened hands.

Okay. He was starting to see what people meant now. He hurriedly pulled his mittens on and scrambled to cover as much of his head as he could with his hat and earmuffs.

It had been cold these past few months, sure, but not like THIS! This was arctic.

And what's more, the sky was raining ash. That only ever happened when Uncle Tello sent missiles to blow the Krang vessels to kingdom come. So why was no one terrified, or hiding? Besides, there were no more Krang ships to incinerate. So then, what was...?

Casey happened to glance to the side and saw a kid sticking their tongue out. Their parents did the same. They caught a few of the flakes on the tips of their tongues, laughing as they shivered. Casey watched in wonder. He held a hand out. A single fleck of white flittered down to his palm, delicately touching down onto him, and melting upon impact with the glove. Casey was gently bewildered. He looked up at the sky. The heavens above were masked over with clouds of grey, hiding the universe from him, guarding him from the wonders he couldn't understand or comprehend. And yet, the universe deemed this wonder fit for him to comprehend?

Casey's mouth hung open as he gazed at the sky, confused. Snowflakes fell against his cheeks, his eyelashes, his lips, his chin. He stuck out his tongue and closed his eyes. It took a few minutes, but finally he felt one land and melt in his mouth.

...Underwhelming, if he was honest.

It was just water. He kind of expected a flavour.

The wind suddenly whipped against him. It had calmed for the brief moments that Casey stood there, but now was circling back in full fury. Casey gasped at the fierce chill, bundling himself up more and more before gathering the supplies and shuffling back to the lair. The wind swirling around him, the snow raining down with a vengefulness.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Twenty minutes had passed.

Raph had started to feel like he was forgetting something. He wasn't sure what, though...

Donnie had re-fortified the lair and central heating system, so now it would stay extra cozy despite the freezing temperatures outside. You could hear the wind start to roar if you went to the exterior tunnels and big exit door.

Raph remembered how in the early years when they were all teeny tiny turtle tots, Splinter had them all stay in the same room to conserve heat. He'd set up tons of heat lamps and space-warmers, bundle each one in extra-fuzzy blankets... Looking back, he could clearly see the panic that Splinter would be hiding at the idea that maybe they could all freeze to death if they weren't careful, or maybe that the power would go out when they weren't expecting it and he'd only have a few minutes to come up with a plan before hypothermia could creep in like a ghost. It was probably extra terrifying considering that they had minor cases of brumation when it got way too cold. They got better at combating it, wearing warm clothes to help stay warm. And it helped that they also had some minor mammalian DNA too, meaning that they had to be utterly and agonisingly cold for brumation to actually take effect. 

Still. Raphael had mad respect for Splinter now. He'd kept his cool and kept his calm, never once displaying the fear that probably filled his mind day in and day out. Raph wished he knew how to do that...

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Was Casey even going the right way?? He couldn't tell anymore.

The downpour of snow particles was starting to get so heavy that Casey couldn't even see ten feet in front of him, even with his mask on. Constantly blinded, he relied mostly on the lights from cars or neon signs to help guide him down the sidewalk. He couldn't remember the last time something like this had happened...

Maybe... during the dust storm incident. Sensei and Casey were in a losing battle against the Krang one day and in a sheer panic, Leonardo portaled them away and into some random place far, far away. Leonardo had initially assumed it was some inhospitable desert in the middle east or something, based on how much sand and wind there was. But after a quick look at the tracking device Donatello had installed, they realized that it was actually just New Mexico. Or, what was left of it. Sensei Leonardo had sent them right smack-dab in the middle of a dust storm, where the drought-riddled land had become so dry that the wind created massive walls of dirt and dust that engulfed everything. It could suffocate you, dehydrate you, blind you, etc. The might've died if Leonardo hadn't thought quickly and found a shelter for them to hide out in. He'd dropped one of his swords during the storm, so the two were forced to wait it out. Sensei Leonardo never did find that other sword. He'd had to create a new one with his ninpo.

Anyway, this snowstorm felt like the exact opposite of the dust storm.

Rather than hot and dry, this was cold and wet. But the stabbing sensations of small things constantly flying into you was the same. The wind that threatened to carry you away was the same. The loneliness was the same.

Casey was convinced that he'd gotten turned around somehow... He wasn't sure where he was.

Forget being able to see ten feet away, he could barely see his own hands in the storm!

This was not good. Casey reached up, feeling around his mask for a specific button that would activate a distress beacon. He'd modified it so that Donnie's tech could receive the call, and hopefully it would go through. But if the storm was as severe as it felt, then it was possible that the lines would be down and the lair's internet access and phone lines wouldn't get the message.

Casey found the button. He'd have to hope that they'd get the signal.

He pressed it, and then pressed on, hoping that he could find his way home on his own...

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Thirty minutes.

The lair was starting to get terribly frigid. Raph waltzed into the kitchen, shuddering from the chill as he did, hoping that maybe Mikey would start making something hot to eat and that in turn would warm up the kitchen. He only found Leo in there, swirling a mug of hot cocoa that he'd heated up. 

"Brr-rr-rr, it's cold! I thought Donnie fixed the heat?"

"He did, but it's still pretty frigid," Leo sighed. "I'm starting to get worried..."

"You think the power might go out?" Raph asked.

"No, I'm wondering where Casey is."

Casey?

OH SHOOT, CASEY.

"Raph completely forgot that Casey was out!" Raph screamed, hands flying through the air. "I thought he came back fifteen minutes ago! You mean he's still out there?!"

"Relax, it's just snowing. Not that big of a deal," Leo said as he took a long sip of cocoa from his mug.

"Leo, you do realize that Casey's never seen snow before?!" Raph reminded him. "And this ain't no ordinary gentle snowfall, this is practically a blizzard!" 

Raph huffed angrily before rushing to the lair entrance. He grabbed a coat, some galoshes, a scarf, gloves, snowpants -- the whole shebang. Leo followed casually, sipping his cocoa gently as he walked after him.

"Where'ya goin'?" he asked with a smile.

"I'm goin' after Casey, of course!" Raph yelled.

"Do you know where he is?"

"I got him right here on the little tracker thingy."

Raph held out his phone to display to Leo the small signal coming in from Casey Jr's mask.

"Mhm," Leo hummed. "Okay. Well, when you get back, maybe bring home a pizza too."

"Leo, can you be serious about this?!"

"Okay, fine. When you find him, call me and I'll portal the two of you home. Okay?" Leo suggested. "No sense trudging through the cold back and forth."

"Great, thanks," Raph grumbled before running out the door, pulling his collar up to prepare for the wind and wet.

Raphael ducked out. Down the corridors, up a ladder to the top of the street. He pushed the manhole cover aside with ease. He was instantly met with a barrage of wind and ice, the snow and slush that had been atop the cover sliding down and splashing onto his face.

Raph sputtered softly, wiping his face off before heading into the fray...

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

Casey was huddled against something. A wall, a stone, a tree, a car -- he could hardly tell. It was so cold, his skin felt like it was peeling off. His eyes stung from the wind, his feet ached from the chill, his arms hurt from the cold and from carrying all the groceries with him this whole time. The straps on the plastic bags were digging into his arms, cutting off his circulation. It was so windy and loud, he couldn't hear the traffic of the city anymore. His jacket was coated in white.

He'd hoped that he could shield himself with whatever he was leaning against, but the wind came from all sides.

It was terrifying. Being alone. He hadn't felt alone like this in so long...

He remembered sitting alone, like this, long ago...

The wind whipping around, the sky dark, the battlefield torn and scarred, white flakes of ash raining down from above. It was cold that day, too. Casey couldn't be older than four years old at the time.

The ground was covered in grey and white from all the ash and cinder. Casey was covered in the powdery residue himself, his face white as a sheet, his messy and greasy hair holding in the flakes and embers from the explosion that had decimated the world around him.

But the worst was the silence that followed. Nothingness. Loneliness. Agony.

Casey started crying. Four years old, having watched the world end, having seen his mother die, and so many of her comrades, and only to be left alone and scared? Of course he was crying.

In the distance, a figure began to move. Casey gasped, trying to cover his mouth and keep silent as the looming creature lumbered towards him. The monster was huge, it must be a krang mecha or --

"Casey?"

He recognized that voice. It wasn't Sensei, but it was just as comforting.

"Casey, where you? Casey!"

The child meant to answer. But his voice was lost in his own throat.

"Casey! I see you! I'm coming, kid, I'm coming!"

Casey reached out for the Red Giant to take him home... The silhouette of his figure in the smoke and smog that surrounded them...

But as the figure stepped through the fog, it wasn't a red giant.

"Casey! There you are!! I was so worried, what happened?!"

Casey Jones Jr was taken back to the present moment, and stared at Raph in shock.

"R-Raph..?"

"Geez, Case, you look frozen solid! Are you okay?"

Casey nodded softly, getting back up on his feet as Raph gave him a hand.

"I'm fine," he whispered. "It... it, uh, started snowing."

"Yeah, I see that," Raph chuckled. "Sorry, we had no idea it would get so bad."

"It... it's okay," Casey responds quietly. "How did you find me?"

"Well the snow's dying down a bit, so it ain't as hard to see," Raph mentioned as he pointed up. Casey did notice that during his anxiety attack, the wind has calmed a bit more and the downpour of frozen particles was much gentler. "Besides, the tracker helped. Although, I am curious how you managed to get all the way into Central Park?"

"Wha-huh?" Casey gaped, turning around and examining the area.

He had been huddled against a tree trunk, and a few feet off in the distance was a playground. Ahead of him was the cityscape, behind him the rest of the wooded little area.

"Wow. I didn't realize that I came this far..."

Raph chuckled as he grabbed the groceries from the ground.

"So, you ready to get home? All I gotta do is call Leo and we can be back in the lair with some hot chocolate!"

Casey glimpsed at the park behind them. It was... actually quite lovely.

It was a magical world, sparkling and quiet. Undisturbed. Serene.

Raph noticed Casey's stare and looked back at the scene, smiling knowingly.

"It sure it pretty, ain't it?"

"...It's peace," Casey awed. "It's absolute peace. This... I've never seen anything like it before."

Raph took in a deep breath, inhaling the peace with gratitude for a world that could give you something so gorgeous after something so terrible.

"Yeah. It's really beautiful. Tell ya what, the guys can wait for a bit. Want me to show you around the Winter Wonderland for a bit?"

Casey nodded with a dumbfounded smile on his face.

The two walked out into the park together, enjoying the peace that they both had fought tooth and nail for.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆The End⋆⁺₊⋆ ❄ ⁺₊⋆ ❄ ₊⁺ ⋆

[anilyan]

It's not even his birthday in my timezone yet, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY, beloved! I have not finished anything specific for today, but I have many WIPs (2D, 3D and a longfic):

Writings

First, here is my long fic, Nameless. I will actually turn this into a trilogy, and while the first volume is a canon-compliant Old Mondstdt fic (almost finished, 1 more month give or take), the second volume will be from Venti's POV as he rewinds time multiple times to try to prevent the bard's death. As for volume 3, well, you'll see :>

I sadly couldn't participate in Venti's week here on tumblr, but well, I'm already juggling bigger projects xD

2D arts

Posted on tumblr and twt, my Venti in a cage art. I made a colored version (not as polished as I wanted but still), and a lineart version too:

I also have this Xiaoven wip (I'm a multishipper). It's really far from done yet. I'm kinda happy with the lighting and expressions so far.

This art uses Hamelin's Xiao design, that I created in 3D for a mod (model and textures by me, and the weights were by mimo4e)

I found this AI art and really wanted to fix it. I expected it to be a quick paintover, but kept finding more things I wanted to change, and trying to match the rendering style to the original, so I spent at least 7 hours on my version.

3D models

I stopped making my models public (although old ones can still be downloaded from my gamebanana page, or from mimo4e page since we used to collaborate a lot), BUT, if you are a civilized person who credits mods that you showcase, feel free to request access in my SFW Mods discord server. The xiao mod above and these Venti mods, save the Nameless Bard, are only shared in my server.

Here is everything you need to know about mods in 2024. PC only, free, and no one has ever been banned for using fanskins since mods are not cheats, but that post explains a lot more and teaches you how to use them (it's simple).

Archon skins (5 of them!)

» Update on Murren's Archon mod: On this mod specifically. I contributed to the original version still on GB, but I wanted to give it more shadows, a more magical hair with special highlights, and updated skirt and wings. The wings are made of the feather he uses in his canon outfit, since many fans headcanon he had wanted to give that feather taken from his wings to the bard.

My current WIP is on the left, current gb version on the right

» Moon butterfly: Inspired by that AI paintover I did and shard above, some elements are kitbashed from both honkai games.

» Corrupted Venti: I will make my own design, you can see the sketch there. It's inspired by all of the other arts, sources are: 1 2 3 4

» Boss design: I will adapt this design by gierosajie_art

» The statue design. This one doesn't need explanations.

Regional skins

» Fontaine Venti: It's a kitbash, with parts from Project Sekai and parts from Herta from HSR

» Liyue Venti: Sculpted and textured by me, adapting an old 2D design I also made, with some changes due to modding complications. It's the least developed WIP for now

Others

» Wisp-inspired Venti over Paimon: It's inspired by this lovely art, and the artist loved the model ^^

» Nameless Bard: Public here, and I updated it recently (might even update again in the future).

In my server (with restricted access), I have also created Amos and the Red-haired warrior (both kitbashes with minimal modeling from scratch on my part), and I will create Gunnhildr and Decarabian next. Full credits for everything, like the sources of parts and helpers, are/will be in the post of each of the models. You can see my Amos and Bard render here (there are 2 versions).

Okay, I think I didn't forget anything xD Hope you liked my contributions to our lovely bard and angel ^^

[aphinthestars]

Aph and Miguel Spider-Man Kiss

Hey yall :3 like I said in one of my last posts I'm gonna be uploading some old art, in this case it's my first full rendered drawing of Migs and Aph! I'm also uploading a one-shot of Aph and Miguel so enjoy! Again just take into account, writing is not my strong suit and English is not my first language so bare with me!

(Dividers by @/saradika-graphics)

King of My Heart (A StarFangs Fic)

Aph had been having the best couple months of her life, even though her relationship was a secret, it was a secret she was willing to keep for the sake of her peaceful bliss.

She and Miguel had finally told each other how they felt and talked things through to become a couple.

It was the best day of her life when he said he loved her too, though for now they were keeping things secret, knowing this would cause so many issues if anyone found out.

'How can something so good and so comforting be so nerve wracking?' She thought to herself as she was doing some research on a new anomaly that would appear on Earth-928, aka 2099.

Before those anxious thoughts could keep plaguing her mind, she saw a big blue clad hand place a small chocolate box in front of the paper she was working on.

"Miguel?" She looked up to see her now partner who had just given her a small chocolate box in the shape of a heart.

He kissed her temple and cheek softly "You looked stressed, thought I would bring you something, mi tesoro"

She chuckled opening the chocolate box and putting one of the chocolates in her mouth, they were all filled with something, be it caramel, coffee, strawberry, orange, etc. "I thought we were trying to be discreet, Migs"

"We are" he whispered softly in her ear "I know there is no one near to see me be soft with you..."

"Fair enough" She stated with a chuckle as she took another chocolate from the box and popped it into her mouth, this one was strawberry filled "We are going to have to catch an anomaly tonight, it's going to be appearing downtown from what Lyla could scan"

"I will go, I don't want you to-" He was silenced by Aph stuffing a chocolate into his mouth "H-hey!"

"We, hear me clearly, we are going together" She said as she kept working "I know you worry about me now that we are together but we both know I can handle myself just fine, besides you are going to be there"

Miguel nodded begrudgingly, chewing and swallowing the small caramel stuffed chocolate Aph had used to silence him with a pout on his lips.

"This are really good, but I thought they only sold them near valentine's day, mi cielo" She questioned, she had told Miguel she liked those dumb and corny boxes of chocolates they sold on valentine's day before, just a one off comment she thought he would forget.

"I may or may not have found an earth where they sell them year round" He said with a soft and guilty laugh as he hugged Aph from behind while she worked, nuzzling his face against her hair and neck, sighing really content.

"Ay dios mio...." She said with a laugh, pressing her pale cheek against her boyfriend's tan one "You really went to that type of trouble just to get me the chocolates I like?" She asked and he nodded, moving his head to the side to kiss her cheek.

"You are really sweet, I kinda enjoy being the only one who can see this side of you" She leaned her head onto his, rubbing their cheeks together.

"Just for you, tesoro" He mumbled still hugging her very content.

That night Aph and Miguel went to fight the anomaly Aph had been researching, it wasn't a difficult one, just a variant of the Lizard.

Aph was finishing up capturing the anomaly, using her webs to tie him up.

"Hey, Aph" Miguel tried to get her attention.

"Mhmm?" She looked up to see what he needed, a little curious on what he might say.

"I'll take care of him and send him to HQ, can you stay here a sec?"

Aph looked a little confused on why he wanted for her to stay here but she did as she was asked, 'Probably another anomaly appeared' She thought.

Miguel opened a portal, taking the anomaly with him and then coming back. He took Aph in his arms, throwing her over his shoulder as he laughed.

Aph was laughing too "Miguel! What are you doing?"

"I'm going to take you somewhere, close your eyes for me, just...trust me, ok?" She nodded while still laughing.

She did as asked and closed her eyes, letting Miguel take her to wherever it was that he wanted to go.

She felt the wind on her hair and face as he swung through the city, the rough landings as he would land on the side of a building and had to use his talons to stay on it making her body jump and jostle around but she trusted him to not let her fall.

Finally the rough ride stopped and Miguel put her down on the floor.

"You can open your eyes" He said with a nonchalant tone.

She opened her eyes, her hands covering her mouth in surprise "Ay mi solecito"

They were on top of one of the buildings in Nueva York, up high enough so that everyone on the street looked like ants.

He had layed a blanket on the roof of the building and brought food and drinks to make an improvised picnic.

Aph chuckled "When did you have the time to do this?"

"Believe me it wasn't easy, Didi almost saw me a couple of times when I was preparing it" He sits down and beckons her to also sit by giving her his hand.

She took it gladly letting him help her sit down "Well almost caught or not, this is very thoughtful, thank you" She kissed his cheek gently, barely a peck, a hand on his other cheek to support herself.

He put a hand over the one she had on his cheek, keeping it there as he caressed it softly.

Right there, in that moment, he didn't look as tired as he always did, the lines of annoyance and anger in his face softening at the sight of her, the one person he could trust, his amor, his corazón, his lunita.

The world didn't seem so dull whenever they were around each other.

They drank out of red plastic cups, eating the food that Miguel had brought.

They talked about non important things but in the eyes of the both of them it didn't seem like it.

In that moment, the world seemed full of color, it was all pure bliss as they hugged under the stars and the moon.

Taglist (Open): @sweetimpurity @sweetimpurityloves @bluemadnessstuff @stressedmacaronisalad

[taranida]

Tom the Poet or Tom the Filmmaker

I would like all my theories to have evidence that back them up. I’ve come from fandoms where things said are a cute thing, worth considering, but solid theorising comes with quotes, screenshots, counting toes and following the writer’s pattern of three hint and foreshadowings before the big reveal. Therefore, I’m going through the first game yet again to collect all this information and put it in something coherent, something I will be happy with. I hope that the waves of my research will carry me to the proper essay with all the proofs necessary on every statement I’ve made in my first pinned post.

But there are still questions that have no answers as far as I know. One of them: why Tom Zane was made into a filmmaker and by whom?

In Control’s AWE the cutscene where Tom and Alan meet is a toned-down version of their encounter in Room 665. Alan asks if Tom is the Tom, the poet and the diver and Tom replies that it was just a beloved character in his old film. They have the same conversation at the start of Room 665 in Alan Wake II.

Alan seemed always forget that he (or someone else) changed Tom’s identity to filmmaker, still convinced that Thomas Zane he encountered at the start of his journey was a poet and a diver. First, when Tom-the-filmmaker was introduced, I thought that Alan forgot who Zane was and what he learned about him (I wouldn’t put it past Alan: he forgot many things he wrote, even his birthdate somewhat slipped his mind — in 2010 or in the Dark Place; the guide for the first game states that he’s 31, when the statue near the Parliament Tower claims he was born in 1977), but in both cases he kept insisting that Tom was a poet. So, the opposite is true: Alan forgot that Tom now is a filmmaker.

But why is Tom made to be a filmmaker? Even the second game insists that the Tom was a poet: Cynthia notes this in her journal, marvelling at why everyone thinks that he was a filmmaker; even the boys of Old Gods of Asgard say “you need him [Tom] to write the ending,” “art, like Tom’s writing” and “it’s Tom’s story we are dealing with, he’s gotta be the one to rewrite it”. And they are the only three people who knew the real Tom Zane and have some credibility in what he really was: a poet or a filmmaker.

The boys, of course, are a discussion on their own; Tom and Alan are interchangeable in their heads, they might talk about Alan the writer, hence “write, writing, story, rewrite”, but Cynthia has no such issues. She never mistook Alan for Tom, she loved Tom her whole life, devoted to his wishes and for sure wouldn’t mess such a big part of his identity in her head.

Then we have This House of Dreams, where we can read poems, some of them are by Thomas Zane and the Bright Presence shows Samantha that he was indeed a poet. Let’s add Jesse Faden into the mix, who as well, remembers Thomas Zane being a poet and even recites one of his poems in Control’s recordings. She still believes he was a poet somewhere around 2019, judging by her words about her needing to be in New York soon. Only in AWE DLC when she hears Tom claiming he’s a filmmaker, she changes her mind. But at this time, she’s already in yet another Alan’s story, her beliefs shaped by his writing (or by the words of her therapist and this vision of Tom and Alan; take your pick).

So, the question remains: why was Tom made a filmmaker?

My belief here is that Alan (or Scratch — do not confuse with Mr. Scratch) had no need of a poet. In This House of Dreams we see two sets of poems: one is by Thomas Zane and another is by Alan himself, in Control’s AWE Alan also claims that he wrote poems, and what value can Tom-the-poet add to Alan’s attempts to escape? A filmmaker on the other hand, as Tom says in AWII, can make a companion piece for his manuscript. Hence the filmmaker, the auteur.

As a side note. I do believe that the real Thomas Zane never makes his appearance in any games, first we see the Bright Presence possessing the body of Tom, then we see yet another Alan’s face in the Dark Place, that takes shape of what he believes Tom Zane was, and this part of Alan becomes a filmmaker at some point in his journey. After all, as the real Tom once wrote:

When you’re lost You’re lost in your own company

[irondadfics]

Hii, I'm sorry for bothering you guys again but if it's alright, do you guys have any post nwh where everyone forget about Peter temporary?

here’s some recommendations for you, enjoy

O Brother, Where Art Thou? by theskeptileptic

8 year-old Morgan is struggling after the death of her mom. Her dad is working non-stop and her extended family of emotionally constipated superheroes are just as uncomfortable with her grief as their own. To top it off, she can't stop dreaming about a brother she's never had and all the trouble he might be in. When she convinces Tony to take her with him on a work trip to Caltech, she meets a student who looks a lot like the boy in her dreams. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem very interested in her. Good thing her dad always knows what to do. A sort of No Way Home, Everyone Lives (Except May and Pepper) Fix It story, where Morgan channels major Pepper Potts vibes, Tony channels major concerned Dad vibes, and Peter channels major college age-Tony Stark vibes. Served with a splash of angst, a heap of trauma, and a sprig of making adults take proper care of one depressed spider child.

Peter Parker's Tapeworm by Ginevra_Benci

Everyone forgets that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Everyone includes Peter Parker.

The world kept you like a secret, but I kept you like an oath by for_the_night

NWH SPOILERS At 23:37 Doctor Strange casts a spell to make the universe forget Peter Parker.  At 23:36 Tony Stark's heart stops for three minutes. When he comes to, no one remembers his kid, but you best believe he's going to do everything he can figure out why. He isn't going to lose his Spider-ling again.

Long Story Short (It Was A Bad Time) Or AIs Don't Forget by peacockgirl

Turns out magic doesn't affect AIs. Karen is Peter's only link to his old life, and helps him hold on when he gets low. Meanwhile, in Upstate New York, Tony struggles with the inexplicable certainty that he's lost a kid. Until Peter gets hurt, and Karen tells FRIDAY ... Set in that wonderful AU world where Tony survives Endgame, and our boy (eventually) gets all the hugs he needs and deserves.

Fond absences by frostysunflowers

The thing is, Morgan can’t really remember when she and Daddy started visiting the donut store.  She just remembers being there one snowy day before Christmas, a bright pink frosty donut in her hand, Daddy sipping on his coffee that Mommy says he still drinks too much of, and Michelle and Ned, before she knew their names, looking over some big glossy books that had pictures of people in dark red jumpers on the front.  Another boy had been there too. He looked sad, really sad, and very tired, like he could fall asleep at any moment.  or Magic spells are strong, but love is so much stronger.

[jebbaks]

so. Larssen! he is Certainly a guy!

(aka my wynncraft oc/repurposed oc from another universe who i've occasionally posted scribbles of here)

heres the rest of the scribbles. Mostly old art.

i have like a LOOOOOT to say abt him but basically

hes pretty much a living weapon type character. or rather he regards himself as one. being around other soldiers who fully believe in their cause and a failed attempt to recover his memories (rtp moment), he internalizes this over time and fully believes that the only thing he was born/made for was to fight, to be used as a weapon against the corruption. he can be thrown away at any moment, he can be replaced

this subsequently damages his ability to form relationships with other people; he thinks he has no business doing so. he consciously puts up walls in the beginning but he eventually almost becomes unable to strike up *anything* at all with another person. from rtp onwards everybody he meets, no matter how attached the other becomes — they all become fleeting figures in his mind. BUT he cannot deny that he very much desires connection. the root of the reason why he even internalized the role of the soldier in the first place is so he can fit in better with tasim and aledar!! he just . unfortunately loses sight of this as he progresses. to the point where he cannot even recognize his humanity

so his entire arc is him struggling internally w both sides, the one that is nothing but a soldier and the other that is very much undeniably human. pretty much. Yeah

some other things

secret library enthusiast. despite everything he'll still go out of his way to dig around and find more hidden spots to simply vibe in and forget about the world for a little bit. his personal favorites are the lusuco hidden library and the cinfras grand archive (which. he may or may not have yoinked a book or two from)

perhaps one of such books ft. rusty bartender

music guy!! he frequents mt wynn a bunch bc of the performances there. this is also smth i wanna get into at a later date. all yall gotta know 4 now is that he sings pretty nicely and he is prone to rambling/infodumping about whatever cool obscure ballad hes just heard/read about in the libraries

like dare i say atp he finds it easiest to connect w other ppl thru music and even then he still feels out of place among tasim and aledar after this.

he often frequents the rusty recruit just to talk to the rusty bartender about whatever he's been up to. it started as a one-off thing until he noticed after a while that the bartender actually *does* care about his adventures. so he just kept coming back. on and on and on until one thing led to another and now we're um. here. shoves aside barssen drawings

cat person. massive cat person. he will pet u like u are a cat. he will dump a cat in your lap out of nowhere and start spitting cat facts out of nowhere or something

id yap more but thats for another post

for now thank u for coming to my oc yapping session

[codecicle]

hi ash, could i utilise your mega autism for a moment? would it be possible for you to provide me with some good reference images for drawing Charlie's face ie front and side profiles ect? plus any tips on details you think are important? No pressure ofc! Just thought this might be something you had a lot of thoughts about anyway, if not then please don't go out of your way I am indeed capable of using google, it just takes longer and is less fun than talking to a cool guy XD

YES. YES ALWAYS AND FOREVER. GLADLY. ABSOLUTELY. Here's references + notes under the cut!

First of all, go -> here <- for a guide by razberypuck, which is perfect and explains everything better than I ever could.

Second of all, he has some pretty distinct features of both his face and his body that are important to keep in mind, which is mainly what I'll be talking about :-)

Third of all, not all these features need to be kept, especially when you consider styles and the tendency to drop certain parts of the body or face once you've learned the rules enough to break them. Im just listing them all so people know what features work well with their style and what features don't ^_^

His hair is very messy and fluffy, kinda like cowlicks for his entire head. His front hair typically comes down into bangs that curve towards the right, while the rest goes in every direction possible. (This is also true going back years ago. He just combed it a certain way, so you'd only see the fluffy cowlicks in the back of his head)

Another thing I wanna point out is his Adam's apple, which is very prominent ! I kept ted in the photo to show the difference ^_^

Also! No matter what era you're drawing from, his eyebrows shape a LOT of his face. They're really thick!

3/4ths views to show it more clearly, his jawline is relatively soft! And his old frames are clunky. He has a really pretty hooked nose which curves down towards the tip of it. Otherwise, it's pretty much a triangle! If you're drawing him from the side, keeping the little triangle dip on the side of his nose can help you find the general shape easier.

Also! The above images are really good examples of his mouth. I don't have many notes on this, but if you're going for anything 1 to 1 of him, I'd recommend keeping the curve of his cheeks downward when his mouth is closed, and the curve upward when he's smiling. He has visible cheekbones that make the area around his mouth appear very round

^ this is a great reference that shows everything I've been talking about. 1: triangle on the side of his nose to show the curve from the front 2: thick eyebrows 3: visible cheekbones and small curves around his mouth 4: cowlick hair

Also, he's very buff! Chulked out 2 the max. Some of these images came from me being a major hater over art of him, before remembering people can do whatever they want forever. But I can use it now! Charlie has wide shoulders, natural tummy, and gigantic tits.

He's visibly wider than Tommy and Ranboo, with a frame closer to Sneeg and James in build. He's strong!! He's really really strong!! I feel like people forget Just How Strong This Guy Is.

Also heres an image from and older post of mine, which I designed while trying to explain why he doesn't look That Different without the glasses (2 me). It's pretty much everything I said above, but summarized in a photo!

source: bro trust me and also source: the final 2 images i could fit on mobile which are 2 random face studies I have of him nearby. I have better one's but i can't find them right now so take these okay bye bye

+ I'm so sorry if this made 0 sense I'm very tired ^_^

[starrysharks]

could you show a little bit of your art progression over the years? your style is absolutely magnificent btwbtw!!

sure ! i've done a similar post, but that was focused on shape language and didn't go over all of my art progression. i'll link it at the end of this post!

anyway, i started digital art around 7 years ago, but all of the art from that period is essentially lost. at that time, it was just deviantart bases and various furry/warrior cats fanart made in MS paint. while i'm not a fan of vivziepop anymore, she was a big inspiration at that time, as well as a handful of popular animation meme artists at the time. around 2019, i started making art in krita using a mouse. and later that year, i started making art in ibispaint (mostly skullgirls fanart). unfortunately, practically everything from before 2020 is lost because it was on reddit accounts that i had deleted out of cringe. don't delete your old art ever!!! i do have this piece though, made in 2020 on krita with a mouse. my main inspirations were invader zim and other cartoons.

my artstyle took a lot of dips and turns around this time. i got back into anime, and it influenced my style in a way that i think made it really ugly and bad looking. i also refused to ever flip my canvas. i think this era actually held me back. here's an example.

anyway, by 2021, i had gotten into more anime that influenced my style in a different way. i forget the exact ones, but i did watch a lot of stuff from trigger (like BNA and LWA) at the time, and also got into enstars which influenced my compositions a lot. it's also around the time that nova in her current "space astronaut bunny" concept was born. i started experimenting with backgrounds, color palletes, and colored lines, which was crucial. i look back at this era pretty fondly. though i still refused to flip my canvas :D

by 2022, my artstyle looked like this -

(this is actually from dec 2021 but like. it's still what my artstyle looked like)

i had played world's end club and rewatched panty and stocking, and it changed my brain chemistry. i decided that my artstyle would be "60% anime, 40% western cartoon", and despite some shortlived phases where i'd go for a slightly different style, i still kept it up. looking at least year's art summary, though, you can see that i broke away from that style for something more anime. and also, i hardly ever experimented with colors anymore because i was focused on character design. i'm gonna be real i think everything after july looks like absolute bootycheeks. i hate this weird single tiny dot reflection style i had going on it looks like dogwater.

after 2022, my art was in a miserable transitional period where i had zero clue what direction i wanted to go in. but despite all that, this piece in particular is crucial. because i used halftones in the background. it's foreshadowing!!!

i continued like this for a while, until the time where i decided to play around with shapes with those vocaloid big 8 drawings. people really liked the shapes that i used in that one, and i found them fun to draw. so i started exaggerating more, and after i rewatched panty and stocking for the 307492020506th time, as well as invader zim for the 2nd time, my cartoony roots came back.

and then, when my art was already steadily improving, across the spiderverse dropped, and i watched it. funnily enough afterwards i had a big art block because i was just thinking, "you need to draw if you want to work on something as big as that! improve!!!!" which kind of held me back. but after all that, i decided to take a note out of ATSV (and comic books in general)'s book and start using halftones in my work. as well as that, i started focusing on lineart way more, and tried to play around with lineweight. which brings us to present day, where my latest art pieces look like this :

i still think that my artstyle needs a lot of work. even these pieces have issues when it comes to symmetry, values, and the like. but nowadays, though my art takes far longer now (as i've abandoned special pens and just do lineart with the hard dip pen in a kind of tedious way), i'm having more fun with it than i have in years. i think halftones fit my artstyle really well, and they're a unique way to "fill up" areas. now that i pay attention to lineart, i think it makes my art feel 'fuller', at least with more depth. did i mention my inspirations for this current 'phase' of my art? :0 i've been playing a lot of muse dash lately, and my pinterest boards are always full of stuff from TWEWY and megaman. there's far more than that, but in short, i want a sharp and striking style with bright colors. i know that you said a little bit of my progression and i basically dropped a whole essay 😭 ,,, but i really like talking about art in general even if i'm not very good at it. i hope this was interesting at the very least! here's the other post also:

[jadewing-realms]

disclaimer: written pre-release

i've had this sitting in my drafts for a bit since i started playing BG3, I kept seeing a particular kind of post regarding Astarion and it really started to frustrate me soooooo. here's a vaguely coherent rant nobody asked for pff

As I got into the game, following Astarion's romance subplot, doing research on the game and characters thus far, I encountered the schism between those who love Astarion and by extension, characters like him, and those that consider said characters as little more than toxic creatures, narcissists best dealt with swiftly and harshly. The latter tends, in the posts I've found at least, to view the former as poor unfortunate souls with the dreaded "i can fix him" mentality.

Now, I'm not here to say either is entirely wrong. I think to take a side here is to do the exploration a disservice and to forget the depth of nuance in art and media interpretation.

And that's just it. Because at the end of the day, interpretation is one of the key elements involved in this discourse. In the case of Astarion, especially with the game having been in early access for so long and no complete, guaranteed details of his past or arc made public yet, with so much up in the air as the full release drops, there are worlds of interpretations that can be made regarding our infamous vampire rogue.

Is one of those interpretations that he's both emotional and literal vampire who's every action is a trap for the protagonist in order to use them, and that he's irredeemable? Yes. Is another that he's simply trying to survive in a situation he's never been in after spending two centuries living like an animal? Also yes.

The error here, I think, is to treat one interpretation like it's more "right" than another. Which is what I've seen a lot of online threads do... Insisting one perspective is superior to the other. Which is bad faith even on a good day when either perspective is based in concrete, unchangeable fact. Even moreso in this case, until there's complete canon material to bank on, and even then that will have so much variety to it since most of it will depend on the actions of the player. It's a choice-based game. There is so much space for varied experiences, and none of them will be "right" or "wrong."

I feel like in modern media discussion, when considering whether a character is actively harmful or just flawed, it can be easy to forget that some of our most popular stories are ones in which someone is deemed beyond hope or redemption, a danger to all they encountered, only for their arc to raise them from their Pit of Dickishness and set them on pedestals as some of the most memorable, inspiring characters we know.

The timeless story of the Christmas Carol gives us an absolutely despicable old geezer who literally spells out the horror he'd inflict upon the poor if he could, simply for the sin of poverty. But in an effort to fixate only on how problematic he (very much intentionally) is, we might lose sight of how the whole point of the story is to watch him be forced to confront his ways, unpack all his crap, and become better for it in the end.

Characters like Prince Zuko, Edmund Pevensie, Greedling, Steve Harrington, Boromir, James Ford, friggin Darth Vader, we wouldn't have any of them if we only read them at surface level as toxic assholes and then left it at that. But through learning the nuances of these characters and watching them confront their actions and consequences and learn from them, they not only grow and change into better people, but we love them because they hold pieces of ourselves in them, despite their sharp edges. We can understand why they are the way they are, and maybe, if we're honest with ourselves, we can acknowledge that we might have done similarly awful things under their circumstances. It makes them relatable, admirable, and cautionary all at once. It makes them human.

None of that is to say that there are never characters built purely and solely to fear and loath, not at all. True scumbags can and do exist, both in fiction and reality. To try to enforce the idea of finding empathy for a true monster is often a tactic used in reality to gaslight people into excusing said monsters' behavior.

Which leads into the "i can fix him" argument. When applied to situations dealing with real dangerous and horrid people who can't or won't change? Absolutely Not Great (though that's not to say it can't be included in a story, there are valuable themes in that on its own). Condoning this dynamic as something good is what leads to abusive relationships and innocent people staying in unhealthy situations for far too long. I'm among those who can attest to that personally.

That said, when it comes to Astarion, no one can rightly say going through his romance arc or not is condoning anything. Because it once more comes down almost entirely to perspective and interpretation, because he's a video game character comprised of pixels and a well-written script and there are limitless ways he can be interpreted and interacted with.

Like, personally, yes, there are some dynamics I'd feel uncomfy pairing him with, even with the empathy I feel for his character. Platonic or romantic, doesn't matter. Does that mean I'm going to apply my interpretation and personal boundaries to the next person playing the Astarion romance? No. That would be assuming I've somehow discovered the "correct" way to interpret the game, which I have not and can never do because RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 are such personalized experiences. People are 100% free to play a fictional game however the hell they so please, because stories are not inherently 1-to-1 reflections of reality.

Especially when it comes to the narcissism accusation, it sparks an extra layer of discomfort for me when it seems like characters who act selfishly or spin lies get called "narcissistic" when that's kinda severely over-generalizing what narcissism actually is??

Narcissism is inherently selfish, but not all selfishness is narcissism. Gaslighting is built on lies, but not all lies are gaslighting. This separation was literally bugging me so much, I talked with my therapist about it last week. And she agreed.

Some folks seem to forget is actual NPD isn't just about selfishness and manipulating. It's fragile ego and delusions of grandeur and the mind games, dysregulating highs and humiliating lows that they will weave in a web around you so that you, as a victim, can never get your mental and emotional footing. Usually for the purposes of then swooping in to offer themselves as your only source of stability. The whole "rely on me because your judgment is clearly faulty and you need to be protected from yourself" shtick.

You know. Kinda like Cazador.

The way I see Astarion, by contrast, is that he has an honesty to him that lacks such delusions. As much as he desperately tries to maintain this veneer of poise and sass and devil-may-care out of self-preservation, it's paper thin and crumples under the barest pressure. Like, the equivalent of a thematic sneeze and down he goes. Then you see him as he is. Which is just... frightened. Sad. Kinda pathetic, really. And absolutely, positively lost. All things he knows, but he legit believes he will be killed if he lets any of it show.

Comparing that to, say, Wyll, who's blissfully ignorant bluster reminds me painfully of self-aggrandizing family members that I love but can't interact with honestly because of the forest of self-delusion around them... well, it's not much of a contest.

If somebody interprets Astarion as a slimy, manipulating power-monger and gets rid of him the first chance they have, that's their story to tell and power to them for it. But the same must be said for the opposite. I don't appreciate the thought that there's a whole sect of the BG3 fandom that probably genuinely considers me "less than" or "unhealthy" or "problematic" in some way for being among those who like this character or others like him and their potential thematically and narratively. But if my interpretation is that he’s a frightened man who just wants to feel safe and free, that is also its own story and it's mine to tell if I wish. And both can be good or even powerful stories!

Is all of this based on my own personal nuances, biases, and priorities? Absolutely. And that's kinda the whole point... There's not a wrong answer with this, really. I experience these games and these characters through a lens that is mine and mine only, and I give meaning to the worlds I enter based on what makes the story feel most interesting and satisfying for me. And at the end of the day, what else is art for but to help us explore ourselves and learn a little bit more about what it means to be human. In all its glory and ugliness.

And that's a wholly personal journey nobody deserves to have micromanaged or belittled. I'm certainly not gonna go around looking down on anyone for having a different reading than mine. You do you, boo. But let me do me too.

[rjshepherd]

Still in my Dishonored kick. Platinumed 1 AND 2 as of last night, now I'm working on doto, knife of dunwall and brigmore witches. Idk how I feel about the trials BC I've not even looked at them yet.

But anyways here's more art. Re uploading human!Outsider because his art was bugging me. Fixed his jawline, toned down his scars and desaturated the forget-me-not behind his ear BC it was distracting

Pose refs by Mellon-soup

Have more headcanons

More for The outsider

So @je-suis-problematique named him Rasmus and I decided to steal that BC it's a good name.

Since jindosh is losing his hearing, he's made an effort to learn sign language

I know he's cannonically 4000 years old but in my mind he's 17-19, physically at least.

Hella thin and constantly hungry. When he was murdered by the cultists it essentially preserved him in the last moment before he died, including any injuries or conditions like hunger ,thirst or exhaustion. It takes a long time for the feeling to wear off.

Billie brings him to dunwall for a few months to help him adjust to real life again. He spends most of his time sleeping, eating all of Emilys snacks and asking a miriad of questions to anyone who'll listen.

Billie Lurk

I haven't read veiled terror yet so I don't know what she's doing post dh2. In the au she's roving the isles looking for places where the void is opening up like a sinkhole and trying to prevent normal people falling in.

She did take a few months off to set up a lawn chair on a roof in Holger square so she had a front row seat to watch the abbey fall to bits.

Corvo occasionally popped in with popcorn and a spy glass for a better view.

When the void started leaking more and more into the real world billies arm and eye began to sort of stabelize. They still look odd but are definitely easier to disguise. Her eye can now be covered with a patch, although she can still see through it, and her arm resembles liquid gold as much as it does bone and stone.

Teague Martin

So don't ask how or why but this little bastard wormed his way into my top 3 DH characters. This drawing of him took me like 3 days BC I kept getting stuck on it but I'm happy with how he ended up.

Low chaos ending for him. Although I refuse to believe he didn't know his drink was poisoned, I'm fully convinced he drank it on purpose because he couldn't live with the guilt.

In this au he's been friendly with Lamb and Wolf for a fairly long time, since they normally live in Morley where teague is from.

He and Wolf have a friend's with benefits arrangement. They've been seeing each other since before jessamines murder.

During dh1 lamb and wolf relocate to dunwall, partly to deal with the influx of souls related to the rat plague, partly to be closer to teague and his terrible decisions.

He's fully aware that both lamb and wolf are void creatures, not to mention magic users but he justifies his relationship with them by adopting a lesser of 2 evils sort of mind set.

Despite being in his position for power alone, Martin really does what what's best for the empire

After his death, rather than wander the void for eternity he winds up working for them, collecting souls and ushering them to the void.

His tattoos where given to him by wolf, to allow him access to void powers. Wolf's particular gift, her equivalent of the outsiders mark is called 'fatal wound'. usually taking the form of a bite mark around the neck, allows access to extra powers.

Wolf painfully carved his scars herself to give him incredibly customised abilities.

His outfit is a modified overseer uniform, adapted for using movement abilities like blink. The scarf was a gift.

Wolf

Lamb and wolf have a sort of Kindred relationship. They are both void creatures, presumably knowing all the old gods who died before the outsider was created.

Where lamb is inspired by Inuit whaling culture, Wolf takes hers from west indies, 17th century whaling (think assassin's creed 4 style) . She has a more nautical pirate thing going on. Her original design had her eyes covered by a tritip hat rather than her fringe.

Wolf's ears are functional but she's not a werewolf or anything of the sort. Originally lamb had sheep ears but they were covered by her hair. She still has a lambs tail under her clothes though.

To cover her ears in public, she usually uses the silk ribbon on her waist as a bandana.

Although her eyes are always covered, they are the same void black as lambs.

She spends her free time creating bone charms. No one's sure what they do thought...

Originally Lamb and Wolf are from an island near pandyssia. The way they speak of it however makes it seem like the island no longer exists.

Like the kindred, where lamb goes wolf follows. She's never more than a few feet from lamb, even if you can't see her she can sure see you.

Everyone finds her relationship with teague Martin strange. Lamb often refers to him as " wolf's chew toy"

By the time of dh2 she can usually be found in the back room of Lambs apothecary, concocting potions and running the accounts.

I'm super proud of the way wolf turned out. I had no idea where I was going with her when I started, only that I wanted a visual foil to lamb. I think I'll draw them together and do more details about them and maybe their relationships with the other characters

[itsplumwriter]

Sam's Questions

Been a while since I posted last - sorry guys. But here's a quick little fluff I wrote the other day! (: love u guys and I hope you're all doing well!

Don't forget you can still join my patreon if you'd like :) link below

POV: Sam is making a video montage asking the Avengers random questions and he gets annoyed when all of Bucky's answers involve you.

A/N: This is shortly after Bucky and you got married so he's got big heart eyes during this time haha <3

I got the idea hearing Seb laugh warmly during an interview. It made me think: what if he was laughing because the interviewer got annoyed because he kept bringing you up?

Recommended song: Curtis Harding - On and On

Word Count: 310

Warnings: none ! just lots of fluff

--- --- ---

“Hey, metal man!” Sam calls out, running down the hall with a camera.

Bucky turns around. Ordinarily something like this would make him snap at Sam, both verbally and physically, but Bucky was still riding on a bliss cloud after marrying you a few weeks ago. You've guided him to a new peace and practically nothing could put him in a bad mood during this time.

"I’m asking all the Avengers random questions for the video at the end-of-the-year party! Are you up for it?”

Bucky shrugs, smiling. “Sure, go ahead."

Sam grins, aiming his camera. “So... James Buchanan Barnes. What’s your favorite thing to do to wind down at night?”

He thinks about it as Sam waits patiently.

Bucky's shoulders relax. “Well, y/n’s got me watching these old Disney classics. I didn’t like it at first, but now it’s all I wanna watch. As long as I’m watching it with her... it’s my favorite thing to do at night.”

“Okay,” Sam says, slightly annoyed. Of course, Bucky would bring you up. He's always bringing up his wife.

He tries to think of a question Bucky could answer that couldn't possibly involve you. “How about your favorite dessert?”

“I’m not sure what they are called but y/n makes these cookies... Double chocolate chip maybe? I'd say those are my favorite food currently...”

Sam huffs. “...Your favorite thing to do in the morning?”

“Kiss y/n.”

“...Your favorite smell?”

“Y/n.”

Sam lowers the camera; his face could not be more annoyed. “Bucky, are any of your answers not gonna include y/n?”

Bucky laughs. “Oh, okay sorry. The next one won't...”

Sam lifts the camera. “So... what's your favorite work of art?”

As soon as he asks it, he knows what’s coming.

Bucky shrugs, laughing. “That one’s y/n too.”

Sam nearly drops his camera, letting out an exasperated groan. "Of course it is!"

---

haha i love u guys (: thanks for reading ~

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