#(i did put this into procreate just to clean up the background a bit - i don't have a scanner)

[buckybees]

I’ve only ever posted digital art on here before, and I’m still pretty new to that, so I thought I’d share a traditional Spiderman pencil drawing from Feb 2019! ❤️🕷💙

[phoenixyfriend]

SW Suddenly-Omegaverse AU: Surrogacy, Worldbuilding, Obi-Mom

Truly the main irony of all this is that everyone considers Obi-Wan the Better Omega but Anakin is the one who's actually 👀👀👀 about pregnancy

Obi-Wan: I have the deepest respect for those who do it, but the idea of growing another person inside of me is weird and gross, no, thank you.

Meanwhile Anakin is like. Immediate baby fever. Someone actually approaches him like "hey... there are forms you can fill out to request an exception for pregnancy, and like... regulations" because he's that obvious about it.

I assume that if they've got safety nets for accidental pregnancies, then they're probably aware that there are people who want to do it on purpose? I feel like in an omegaverse where 'biological imperative to procreate' can be so much more intense, then maybe there's old precedent that stuck around even after suppressants got most of those hormones under better control.

Bit torn. Just know I want Anakin to Make Baby.

"Anakin, what are you--" "Do you think offering to be someone's surrogate would be acceptable to the council as a way to be pregnant without getting attached." "...what." "They'd probably accept that as a way to practice not getting attached, right?" "N...no, that's not... what?"

Anakin approaching Bail and Breha and being like “Do you... still want a kid? I would provide a kid. Do you want one here*?”

* in this dimension

Great way to give up the baby as a parent because he'd still be able to see them once in a while but also like... it's not HIS kid, technically. He can be a cool uncle who happened to give birth, which is distant enough to not be 'attached,' but close enough that his Tatooine-raised 'must ensure family is safe whenever possible' background doesn't flip out. It helps that 'Core World Royalty' is like... a top-tier family to be raised in.

(It would have to be post-war because he probably shouldn’t be risking his life while very pregnant. He needs to be reminded of that sometimes.)

Bail/Breha is an alpha/alpha relationship and while a pregnancy is still possible,* it’s a whole lot more difficult, and that's on top of Breha's canon medical issues that resulted in her heart and lungs getting replaced.

* AFAB alphas can get pregnant, and AMAB omegas can inseminate, but the success rate on that angle is much lower than the 'traditional' alpha/omega roles, as is any attempt at reproduction outside rut/heat. They're low-fertility overall for the non-dominant aspect of their reproductive system, which... ha, Anakin and Obi-Wan try to get explanations for why the senary system works the way it does, but it's a very longform history lesson that comes down to 'idk this got cemented so long ago that nobody really knows why anymore.'

AKA "why do you title these roles male omega and female alpha instead of intersex omega and intersex alpha since both parties have both genitals."

ANYWAY

Anakin: I want to make babies. But I don't want to get kicked out of the order. But I don't want to give up my own babies for adoption. But I can't keep my own babies if I want to stay a Jedi. So basically I want to have someone else's babies? Anakin: ...wait shit that's just surrogacy.

Anakin, calling up Obi-Wan: Hey are the Organas still struggling to have a kid? Obi-Wan: ...not really your business. Anakin: You're friends with Bail again though, right? Obi-Wan: I am, but-- Anakin: Do you think they'd want me to be a surrogate? Obi-Wan: What.

I can't decide if it's funnier for the Order to be like "I mean... technically there's no rules against this?" or if this is a precedent set by at least three omegas every generation because that's just how a/b/o manifested for omegas in a biological and cultural sense.

Bail: Wait, your former apprentice is... volunteering... to be our surrogate. Obi-Wan, exhausted: Yes. Bail: He barely knows us. Obi-Wan: He respects you and you're the closest people he knows that want a child and would be good parents. Bail: And he's just... volunteering? Obi-Wan: Yes. Also, you did say your primary worry was that a surrogate might be targeted for assassination and you couldn't ask someone to risk that, right? Anakin is very much able to avoid assassins, and would be staying primarily in the Temple anyway. Very safe, and not particularly scared of assassins in the first place. Bail: Your words say you approve, but your tone says otherwise. Obi-Wan: Anakin considers me his father. I'm not old enough to be a grandparent. Bail: Ah.

Anakin is a surrogate and enjoys it and everything is fine and then like a year later he's accidentally pregnant with his own and Rex's kid, and nobody knows how to ask if it's actually an accident.

A suggestion from @gelpenss:

OH MAN i.... have to drive home. But I just had a thought about like. I always want to poke at Betas in A/B/O like are they “normal” or different from our standard or.... but ANYWAY assuming they have a pheromonal thing I just think it would be neat if betas had the ability to be the Bucket of Cold Water. Like if caught early enough, and with the caveat it’s not permanent, a beta could arrest a rut or heat in its tracks until a more ideal time. Like. They aren’t birth control. But they are the remind me later button.

Okay done driving I am Returned to bring up why I brought up betas and it’s this: well okay 1. It plays nice with a popular but inaccurate dog breeding urban legend that female dogs will like, delay heat cycles? so that the bitches above them in pack hierarchy have first choice of mate selection. And I think in omegaverse it would be cool if that was a Bio Fact, and also historically enforced by the third designation. 2. It gives me an excuse to have betas have the Most Sensitive sense of smell because it’s their “job” to pick up on things before they go too far to be put on pause. 3. I’m just thinkin ‘bout a beta clone [...] just hovering around Obi-Wan because they found out how much stress his heat cycle causes and they’re like “okay cool I will help make sure it does Not”

I want to like a/b/o verses but betas niggle at me. I want to give them a hat and a Function that woulda helped before modern medicine.

I'm not sure how I feel about betas being able to delay heats, but I do like the idea of them having a more sensitive sense of pheromone smell than most. Most aliens assume it's omegas with the best sense of smell, and betas with the worst, but it's more complicated than that because they all specialize: Alphas are actually less attuned to pheromone smells, but more attuned to things that were useful back when humans were still a hunter-gatherer species. Omegas tend to be heightened towards danger smells like fire or aggression, and pheromones relating to children/care. Betas, as suggested above, are very sensitive to pheromone changes relating to mood and behavior of the community around them.

I like the idea that betas were historically the ones that ended up taking care children, unmated omegas, and so on during people's heats and ruts, because they kept their heads about themselves long enough to do things like cook and clean while someone was reeking of hormones. The checks and balances work out that betas may have lower fertility, but it makes them better able to support the network around them.

It works in with humanity's general collective history of thriving the most when working as a community.

Given that I decided that this is Jangobi, the clones might all subconsciously view Obi-Wan as Mom. Not intentionally, but, you know... Obi-Wan the not-evil stepmother. He doesn't know how he got into this situation, but he sure is here, and he sure as hell doesn't know how to get out.

Obi-Wan "I don't need to get pregnant, I have three million stepchildren" Kenobi

I definitely love "clones all want to make Obi-Wan's heats less stressful" but like in a different way from Whatever The Fuck Anakin's Got Going On.

Obi-Wan using the force to dull the pain in a Shiny's broken leg while the medic works on it and the Shiny just mumbles "Thanks mom" and everyone gets very embarrassed and pretends it didn't happen.

But then it happens again. And again.

Obi-Wan asks for an explanation from Cody and gets a halting response that, since Jango is technically their father, and his scent has been all over Obi-Wan recently... and Obi-Wan puts in a lot of effort to take care of them all.......

Anakin overhears the clones calling Obi-Wan "mom" and just. The most judgmental eyebrow raise.... Mostly in the sense of "You never let me call you dad" "Thought you said you weren't anyone's parent." "Hey, hey, Obi-Wan. What the fuck."

BOBA. BOBA ABSOLUTELY CALLS OBI-WAN MOM WHENEVER POSSIBLE. IT'S DEEPLY FRUSTRATING.

Obi-Wan eventually manages to admit that he's uncomfortable with it at minimum because of the gendering the word has for him, can they at least use the neutral 'buir' instead?

Word spreads like fire, takes like two days max for everyone to switch.

(Anakin demands cuddles as compensation for not getting to call Obi-Wan any true parental term for years.)

[shortnfantastic]

Hey!! I really really like your art and was wondering what kind of materials did you use for the superpower au drawing? It's really cool and I really liked the colors. Well I mean all of your drawings are amazing 🎷🐛

Hey! Thank you so much! I’m so happy you like this piece artistically cuz I had a lot of fun with it. And it was a bit of an experiment for me. For this one I didn’t use my usual watercolour brushes, instead I used another set called sweet treats, for procreate. Good news is this set of brushes is free! Just google and download if you want to experiment with these fun brushes!

This was also a one layer colouring pic, I put the colours in one layer and set the background colour first, I treated the colours more like traditional painting in that way, no separate stuff just blending tones with the background and not worrying if things are perfectly blended or inside the outline. I liked the imperfection of it. I wanted to do a bit more of bold colouring to emphasize contrast. And there is no clean outline just cleaned up sketchy look.

I don’t know if I’ll stick to the not clean outline, but I think it works for this AU given it’s theme.

I did add an overlay layer in top to adjust the tones to a more purple ish vibe, because it was looking a bit too on the yellow side and I did not want this drawing to feel too warm and cozy.

As a final touch I added noise effect to make things look more grainy, I just like that look. Here’s the progress video of the colouring. 🤗

Thank you so much for the ask 💕💕

[collectivefandomstuff]

Title: A Hindering Hand Type: Fanfic, crossposted to AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/27270097) Status: Complete. Chapter: 1/1. Fandom: DC/Batman Rating: T Warnings: Language. Beta: No beta we die like Jason Todd and also Damian Pairings: None. Word Count: 4k+ Genre: Humour/Comedy Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne. Summary: When Dick is refused the opportunity to coddle Damian, he decides to lavish his other siblings with his questionably helpful assistance. They are palpably ungrateful.

Excerpt: Damian didn’t answer the first time, so Jason made use of his annoying gene(s) and called him over and over until he picked up. “Todd,” Damian snarled, “I am at school. I realise that you were incapable of finishing your formal education but-” “Your fucking Dick of a brother broke into my apartment and re-decorated my living room.” Jason informed him. 

”You have got to be kidding me.”

Jason stared at what used to be his perfectly clean kitchen; now a hollowed out shell of its former self. Cabinet doors were thrown open, his carefully organised supplies haphazardly shuffled around. Every single counter and parts of the floor was covered in flour, cocoa, and something wet and heretofore unidentified. He didn’t even want to look closer at the stove or the sink, both filled with sticky, clearly misused, pots and pans. There was a smell hanging in the air, the same one that had set his inner alarm bells off when he entered the apartment: burnt sugar and something that smelled suspiciously like rotten fruit. Jason took a deep breath to stop himself from just whipping out his guns and shooting at the mess. It would be cathartic, but ultimately unhelpful. Instead, he fished his phone out of his front pocket and thumbed through his contacts.

He got through two rings before the line opened.

“He got you too?” Tim said on the other end. His tone reminded Jason of Bruce, which was usually a clear indication that Tim was fucking done.

“How can he be this useless?” Jason ground out.

“He was raised by Alfred.”

“So was I. And you.” “Fine. He was spoiled by Bruce.” “uh-huh,” Jason agreed, daring to move into his living room. Thankfully, the carnage hadn’t spread there, though there was an oven pan, placed strategically in the middle of his coffee table. The contains looked like what Jason imagined “dubious food” in Zelda looked like in real life. “I have to stop hanging out with you,” he told Tim. “Why?” “I just made a video game reference in my head.” “Which game?” “Not the point.” “I mean-” Tim began, but before he got any further into arguing why the specific game was “of import” to the discussion -fucking dweeb -Jason cut him off: “I’m going to kill him.” Tim was quiet for a moment. “What did he do exactly?” “Hi Little Wing,” Jason recited from the note that had been stuck underneath his brand new fucking oven pan Dick you bastard that was expensive. “I made you some brownies!” Jason stopped to look closer at the brown sludge that he was pretty sure was stuck to the bottom of his new pan. Martha herself recommended it, Dick goddammit. “I hope they turned out all right! Don’t work too much! D.” There was a pause. “Did they turn out all right?” asked Tim. “No,” Jason gritted his teeth, “No, they did not.” “He’s really on a spree this week.” “Yeah?” Jason muttered absently, poking at the sludge with his gloved finger. It jiggled. Somehow, that made everything so much worse. “Mm,” Tim said, and Jason could hear the tapping of computer keys in the background which meant that he had about 30% of Tim’s attention. “He hit Cass and Steph a few days ago. I guess since Cass is staying there when she’s in town he thought it was two for one. Tried to do their laundry.” “Why haven’t they killed him?” “They’re working on big drug bust. So, no time.” “Well I have time.” Jason groused, already trying to reorganize his plans for the evening. He would need at least three hours to repair the damage Dick had done to his kitchen. “Good,” Tim said, his voice cold, “because so do I.” Jason stopped trying to figure out how many new appliances he would need to buy to focus for a moment. “What did he do to you?” Tim was silent for a long while, then: “He tried to clean my apartment.” Jason shuddered. On one hand, he understood the compulsion. His replacement’s usual idea “clean” was “nothing hazardous is currently growing somewhere”. Still, the only thing worse than Dick trying to clean was Bruce trying to clean. Or cook. Or do laundry. Or vacuum. The Batman he may be, but Jason had never met a more incompetent homemaker in his life. Once, Bruce had tried to dust a little and they had to call the fire department. “And?” He prompted. “He moved everything,” Tim said, deceptively calm, “and threw out at least thirty-four irreplaceable things.” Oh shit. There was a reason why Jason stomped down the urge to clean Tim’s apartment. He once moved an old magazine when the younger boy wasn’t even there and the next day he got received three upset calls and a computer virus for his trouble. “He re-organised my desk. My cases. My clues.” Tim continued to rattle off. “And he didn’t even manage to clean properly. I’m pretty sure he tried to scrub my TV with vinegar.” Jason bit his lip to keep from laughing. Looks like Tim got it worse. “Shut up,” said Tim grouchily. “I didn’t say anything.” “You were laughing at me.” How- Jason’s hand clenched around the phone. “I told you to stop putting cameras in my apartment.” Tim snorted. “So find them and take them down. Think of it as practice,” he said, lilting the word “practice” in the same way Bruce usually did. “You’re such a creeper.” “Says the murderous crime lord.” “At least I’m not a stalker.” “Have you checked your bottom cabinets yet?” Jason stilled at the sudden change of subject. “Why?” “Looks like the re-organising urge lived on.” Oh, he had better fucking not. Jason stepped back into his kitchen and, with the care of someone opening a bomb case, edged open the door to his pots- and pans cabinet. He came face to face with his toaster, nestled between a pasta drainer and three boxes of cereal that he had not owned this morning. It was the sugary shit too. “Son of a-” “I think he put your spatulas in the fridge,” Tim said cheerily. Jason was going to wring his little neck. Right after he had stomped on Dick until the unbridled rage in his chest went away. “This is why I don’t want any contact with this family for-” “You know why he’s doing this right?” Tim queried lightly. Jason frowned. “I don’t keep track of the family gossip, pretender. I have better things to do with my time.” Tim made an offended noise at being called “pretender”. “Fine. Then why don’t you try to make him stop and call me when he’s tried to clean your guns?” Jason rolled his eyes. The dramatics, honestly. Bruce 2.0. “Why is he doing this, Tim?” He asked reluctantly. Tim sniffed. “Damian told Dick that he wasn’t needed at the moment, which was the little brat’s way of trying to get Dick to take some time to de-stress, but obviously Dick took this to mean that Damian has cast him aside and considers him a bad parental figure.” Jason spent a good few seconds rethinking the whole “moving back to Gotham” idea. He could just… leave and never talk to this insane family ever again. It was entirely doable. Just, one little call to Roy and hasta la vista you absolute nutjobs. He sighed. “So we have to talk to the demon child?” He asked tiredly. “Yeah pretty much.” “I still think my first plan was better.” “If you kill Dick, the family will never leave you alone.” That was a surprisingly good point. Dammit. “Can I punch him a little?” “I’d encourage it.” “Hey,” said Jason suspiciously, “just what are you planning to do him exactly?” “Honestly?” Tim replied. “I’m going to send a false tip to the department of Agriculture, fabricate evidence, and make them recall his favourite cereal.” Jesus fucking Christ this family was a pizza bagel of crazy with a sociopath topping.

-

It took them a while to track down Robin during patrol, and when they managed to find him they were met with immediate resistance. Which, taking into consideration who they were, wasn’t all that surprising. “Calm down.” Red Hood said placatingly while he jumped out of range from Robin’s swords. “We just wanted to talk to you about N-” He dodged a batarang that was clearly aimed at his throat. Add psychopath topping to that pizza bagel. “Would you knock it off,” Red Robin snarled, spinning out of the way when Robin spun to aim a kick at his stomach. Hood seized the opportunity and darted in to restrain the tiny beast that, let’s be real, was absolute proof that Bruce should not be allowed to procreate. Robin thrashed in his hold for a good three minutes before he finally settled down, glaring murderously at Red. “What do you want?” Robin spat. Even when Hood could feel him literally vibrating with supressed rage, he still kept perfect syntax. No abbreviations here. Little freak. “We need you to call N,” Red said. He looked a little ruffled and more than a little miffed. “I will do no such thing,” Robin sniffed. “Think again,” Hood said in his ear, letting his voice drop into a menacing tone. “Look,” Red Robin said. His hair was sticking up at the back after the struggle and he looked real fed up with this. Hood could relate. “N is running himself ragged trying to prove he’s a good parent or something and you need to make him quit before he injures himself.” Robin stilled. “What would Grayson be doing that would cause him such stress?” “He’s cooking,” Hood drawled. “And cleaning,” Red added. Robin’s whole body tensed. “I will take care of it.” He declared imperiously. Hood looked at Red, who shrugged. Yeah, good enough, I guess.

-

It was not good enough, he guessed, Jason realised as he took in what used to be his living room, but was now a cut out of a living room no one would ever willingly ”live” in from Garishly Tasteless Designs Magazine. He had his phone up and dialling before his eyes had even swept up the full length of the dirt-yellow curtains. It took a while to get the full effect of them, because he kept getting distracted by the frills and the suspiciously Nightwing-esque pattern. “Yeah?” Tim answered on the other end of the line. His voice said he was knee deep in something and wasn’t really paying attention. Probably his revenge plan, which Jason was seeing in a whole new light right now. “He redecorated.” Jason’s voice was so low it was almost a growl. There was a pause. “It didn’t stop?” Tim sounded much more alert and aware this time. “No it did I just went out and bought this lime green couch myself from Blind, Bath and Beyond,” Jason snapped. He heard Tim groan into the receiver. “But we even talked to Damian,” his replacement whined. Like he had anything to complain about. His living room didn’t have- was that a fucking Billy the Bass? Jason was going to shove his guns so far- “I’m calling the brat,” Jason ground out before hanging up and redialling. Damian didn’t answer the first time, so Jason made use of his annoying gene(s) and called him over and over until he picked up. “Todd,” Damian snarled, “I am at school. I realise that you were incapable of finishing your formal education but-” “Your fucking Dick of a brother broke into my apartment and re-decorated my living room.” Jason informed grimly. “He- you must be mistaken.” “Look, kid, there aren’t a lot of things I know, what with my not completing my formal education and all, but if there is one thing I will never unlearn it’s how to spot Dick Grayson’s fucking taste in fabrics.” “I see.” No, you little shit. You don’t see. Jason was the one who was cursed with seeing this absolute monstrosity of a- was that crystal?! “You said you were handling it,” Jason reminded him, firmly putting his back to the living room. Looking at it was bad for his blood pressure. “I do not understand.” Damian said seriously. “I specifically told Grayson to stop bothering you and go back to Blüdhaven where he could be of use.” Oh. Oh Damian. Jason resisted the urge to smack the phone into his face. Sometimes Damian’s age and social inexperience really shone through. Jason took a deep breath to keep from screaming. “Listen, Damian.” Jason said carefully. “Dick is feeling a little neglected right now, and what he needs, what we asked you to do, was to start hanging out with him again.” “-tt-” Damian was probably rolling his eyes. Jason could have Tim check later, he was sure the little creep had cameras in every building in the city. “That is preposterous!” “No,” Jason said dangerously, “it’s not. So now would you just call him and tell him you need help with your homework or something?” It was truly a testament to Jason’s level of desperation that he was willing to be this nice and patient. “Grayson needs to rest-” “Just FUCKING CALL HIM!!” Ok, so there was a limit to that patience. Oh well, he was only human. Damian, however, apparently thought that this was one indignity too far because the call disconnected. Jason glanced behind him and immediately regretted it. Porcelain figurines. Oh, how he missed the days when he was a big-name villain, and the only thing Dick did was fight him. In the corner, a cuckoo clock struck seven and a tiny robin popped out and chirped at him. Jason’s vision blurred with sickly green for a moment. Yeah, he was staying in a safe house tonight.

-

It took for days of no progress and Tim having his entire coffee-stash replaced with decaf (“cheap decaf, Jason. Low-level, buy in bulk decaf.”) before they threw in the towel and went to the manor. The estate looked as menacing to him now as it had when Jason first saw it as a little kid from Crime Alley. It probably always would, no matter how many times he was back. If Tim was feeling apprehensive, it didn’t show. He just looked grumpy, like a particularly displeased cat. His replacement rapped his knuckles on the door and stepped back to cross his arms, frowning. He looked very intimidating. Like a squirrel with an anger management problem. The door swung open to reveal Steph, dressed in a t-shirt that Jason was pretty sure wasn’t supposed to be a splotchy pale blue. Her jeans looked new. “He’s not here,” Steph told them in a biting tone. “Who?” Tim asked. “Dick. Though for the record we have to come up with a new name for him because ‘Dick’ is going to be real ironic soon.” And whoa, Steph did know how to look properly intimidating. “What’d he do?” Jason asked her. Stephanie stepped back to let them inside. “There was an incident with a waffle iron,” she said icily. “He tried to cook?” Tim guessed, taking off his shoes. “He tried to laminate.” Steph corrected. Tim grimaced. “Is Damian here?” Steph snorted. “Damian is useless. We need to strike back.” She lowered her voice, her eyes cold. “And strike hard.” Damn, if this continued, Dick wouldn’t even be allowed back into Gotham. Actually, yeah he would. Only Batman could bar people from entering Gotham, apparently. Because Bruce was only one with any rights around here, that fucking- He was getting off subject. Also, not paying attention. “-alking to Dick,” Tim was saying, “trying to talk to him is a good way to make this worse.” “I wasn’t suggesting we talk to him.” Steph said, cracking her knuckles. Tim looked unimpressed, which frankly impressed Jason a little. Stephanie was scary. Not Batman scary but- Hang on. “Hang on,” Jason said, holding his hand up for emphasis, “Batman is the only one who can bar someone from coming to Gotham.” “What the hell is your point, zombie boy?” Steph asked, crossing her arms. “We don’t need to redirect Dickies attention back to Damian. We just need to redirect it. To someone.” Jason grinned at them and it probably only looked about 30% insane. “Someone with the power to stop him.” Understanding dawned on Stephanie and Tim’s faces. “Someone who deserves to have his clothes ruined,” Steph whispered reverently. “Someone who has time to redecorate because he doesn’t have a job,” Tim added gleefully, “someone who flounces into board meetings too late and does nothing.” “Exactly.”

-

Tracking down Nightwing turned out to be the easiest thing they’d had to do so far. He didn’t even try to avoid them. “Hey guys!” N smiled cheerily at them as if he hadn’t spent the last two weeks putting them through some kind of Donna Reed inspired psychological torture. “Nightwing.” Red Robin greeted coldly and, yeah, in costume the replacement could totally pull off intimidating. “Whoa, what’s with the murder faces?” Nightwing said, stepping off the ledge he’d been standing on and walking closer. Hood crossed his arms. “You’ve been busy lately,” he commented and even the helmet couldn’t filter away the unvoiced insult at the end. “I guess?” N replied. “Did you like the brownies?” Hood tried to remember that they weren’t here to beat him senseless. Based on Spoiler’s clenched fists it seemed like he wasn’t the only one struggling with that. “N,” Red Robin said with the calm voice he usually reserved for interrogating suspects, “we appreciate you trying to… help us.” On “help us” Red’s voice broke through the calm and straight into “I’m going to kill you and bury you in store-brand decaf coffee” territory. “But we really are doing fine on our own.” Nightwing pursed his lips. “You are all working so hard-” he started, but Red cut him off. “Yes, and that’s why we appreciate it. But we’re actually worried about someone else, who needs your help a lot more than we do.” Nightwing paused and Hood could almost see the gears in his head whirring. “Who? Damian?” “Not Damian,” Red said, because they all knew it wouldn’t work to say it was Damian, “B.” Nightwing crossed his arms. “You think B needs help?” And here was the fragile part of their plan. Hood cleared his throat. “B,” he said, trying to keep his tone civil, “works himself to the bone and he doesn’t accept help from any of us.” “He has Alfie though,” N argued. “Alfie is busy taking care of Damian, since you’re not helping him as much anymore.” Spoiler rebutted. And damn, blondie, good answer. “We struggle too,” Red said, “but we help each other, right guys?” “Uh-huh,” Spoiler agreed. “Right.” Hood lied, thankful that the helmet veiled his eyeroll. “You guys help each other out,” Nightwing said with obvious disbelief. “You.” “Red is always helping me with cases,” Spoiler said, “and studies and stuff too. And I help him with staying alive and acting like a human.” Red nodded. “And Red and I work together on cases,” Hood said truthfully. “And sometimes Hood makes sure I eat and stuff,” Red added, “and I help him with security.” “They also hang out and play video games and watch nerdy movies,” Spoiler revealed. The little snitch. “Really?” Nightwing said, looking between the three of them. “That’s great!” He shuffled around a little. “So, you guys don’t need me either, huh?” Oh god. Oh dear god it was the voice. The patented Richard Grayson sad-and-feeling-neglected voice. The voice that could inspire shame and guilt in the most hard boiled criminal. At least he was wearing the mask so he couldn’t give them the accompanying puppy eyes. “Well,” Spoiler said and Hood could see her wavering. She didn’t have the years of experience needed to withstand Dick’s manipulation. “But B does!” Tim exclaimed, dragging Spoiler to stand behind him. Good move. “And the little brat too, even though he doesn’t admit it.” Hood added. Nightwing bit his lip. “Look,” Red’s voice was genuine now, “we all really do appreciate it, but B and Dami need your help more. And frankly, the last time I saw B he looked dead on his feet. We’re all good. But he isn’t. He sleeps less than I do.” Maybe that was even true. Huh. Were they doing B a solid here? Wait, no. No they weren’t. It was recommended by Martha, Dick you absolute menace. “Ok, I hear you.” N said solemnly. “I just wanted to help out.” Martha. Think about Martha. “We know,” Red said, patting N on the back. It was really awkward. “Did I tell you B has started eating power bars for dinner?” “Wait, seriously?” Nightwing looked disturbed. “That’s so bad for you.” “Yeah,” Hood said as if he hadn’t watched Red do that at least three dozen times, “he’s really setting a bad example for li’l D, isn’t he?” He thought Red might have done the wave if he could have. Hood certainly wanted to give himself the wave for that stroke of genius. “Okay, I know you guys are manipulating me,” Nightwing told them drily. Shit. “But you have a point.” Oh thank Jesus. N stretched. “Well,” he said, “I’m going to make sure B doesn’t kill himself. And yes, I’ll stop helping you guys.” He shook his head. “You three should really open up more, you know?” They nodded, because at this point they would do anything to make him stop “helping out”. Red cleared his throat. “So, good luck, uhm...” Nightwing grinned. “I’ll stop, but you all have to give me a hug before I leave.” Fuck. N pounced on Red like a jaguar on a gazelle, completely ignoring the scandalised (and very undignified) “meep” Red let out. Hood turned around, ready to make a run for it. “If you leave before a hug I’ll make you dinner next time!” Nightwing called cheerfully, still holding onto Red Robin like he was a life vest. Triple fuck. Hood sighed. The things you do to not have your living room secretly re-decorated.

-

As awful as it was to get cuddled by Nightwing, it was all worth it about a week later, when Tim climbed in through his living room window for their bi-weekly movie night. This week: when the great go bad- The Godfather 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. “I see you got rid of the ruffles,” Tim remarked. “You didn’t see that on your stalker cam?” “I’ve been busy watching Bruce lately.” “Oh?” Jason prompted, putting the pizza boxes on the coffee-table. “He tried to call me five times today,” Tim said. He walked over and got two beers out of the fridge. Jason sniggered. “It’s that bad?” “He’s only got one target now. B is about to break.” “Tell me more, tell me more,” Jason said, making himself comfortable on his new -fucking stylish thank you very much -couch. “Like, did he do something to his car?” “I can’t believe you just made a Grease reference, you absolute nerd,” Tim commented flatly. “Musicals are cool,” Jason told him. Because it was true and he would fight anyone who said otherwise. “Was Olivia Newton John your childhood crush or something?” “Who’s to say it wasn’t Travolta?” Tim gave him a deadpan stare. “Because,” he said drily, “unlike Dick, you actually have taste.” Jason mulled that over. “Touché." He shrugged. "Now tell me about B.” Tim looked up from where he was connecting his computer to the TV and grinned sharply. “You want to experience what the Germans call ‘Schadenfreude’?” “Hell yeah I do.” Tim hit a key on his laptop and the Cave flickered into view on Jason’s TV. At least, he thought it was the cave. “Is that?” “He re-decorated the cave.” Tim laughed. It was not a nice laugh. Jason approved. On the screen, Bruce had just entered through the door to the storage area and was making his way to the computer. Trailing after him with a plate of questionable looking sandwiches was Dick. Jason nabbed a beer from the coffee table and leaned back against the couch. “Oh we are so watching this tonight. Sofia can wait.” “I made a compilation of the past week,” Tim said smugly, picking up the other beer and folding himself into Jason’s new armchair. It was beige and, most importantly, neither pea-green nor suede. On screen Bruce collapsed into his new, avant-garde office chair and put his head in his hands while Dick chatted pleasantly in his ear. “You know,” Tim said thoughtfully while Dick re-arranged Bruce’s files, “sometimes I think he’s being purposefully bad at this.” “Why?” “Oh just,” Tim reached for the pizza and Jason handed him the box, “whenever he starts doing this, we all have to interact with each other to make him stop. Like how you and I only started hanging out to begin with because he kept breaking into our safe houses to make ‘breakfast’. Well, that and that time he gave you a haircut in you sleep.” Jason stilled with his beer halfway to his mouth. “He…” Oh god. “That’s totally what he’s doing isn’t it?” Tim looked at him over his slice of pepperoni. “Yeah, probably.” Jason slammed his bear down on the table. “THAT SNEAKY FUCKING BASTARD!” Jason glared at Tim, the proof of Dick's successful manipulation. He didn't even like the replacement. Why the hell was he hanging out with him? Stupid, meddling big brothers who ruin your life. "It's okay," Tim reached over and patted his hand, "I just confirmed that they're taking his cereal off the shelves this week." And yeah, that made it a little better, actually. "I still don't like you." He told Tim. "I know. Wanna watch Bruce find out that Dick redid his wardrobe?" "Yeah ok," Jason grumbled. Maybe, he admitted to himself only, the replacement wasn't all bad. The screen zoomed in on Bruce's expression as he came face to face with a sequined suit. Yeah, Jason thought, taking another sip of beer, not all bad.

[nicomacheannothing]

10-7-2021

This is going to sound totally weird, but I've been loving the weather lately. I say it's weird because it's actually been really gloomy and drizzly. In the summer, this kind of weather bums me out, but autumn is a different story. It's been unusually warm here, so I can just wander around the neighborhood without bundling up and just observe the grey haze as it floats over the fallen leaves. It's such a distinctive mood and I love it. It was still pretty dark out when I went for a walk this morning. I love seeing houses at dark times of day with one or two windows illuminated. There's just something so evocative about a single window emanating warm light. It's comforting and mysterious at the same time. Here's one of my favorite snaps from this morning's walk:

I also have to post this pic of my little Halloween lawn setup:

My parents never decorate for Halloween, but I really wanted to do SOMETHING this year. Like, why not? I created a little mock cemetery and put up some lights and garlands inside. This was last Friday while my parents were both at work. When my dad came home, he seemed so happy and amused at the decor. Seriously, my parents never decorate or get into the holidays, but they should! They clearly enjoy having things change every once in a while :p I swear, if I was just able to work 4 days a week instead of 5, I would get so much more done around the house. :p The fact that I was able to clean my room, do a little bit of photo editing for work AND put up Halloween decorations proves it. I might try to do that again tomorrow; 4-ish hours of work from home, then take care of other things. My boss won't be in the office cause his brother will be in town. Sometimes I like being in the office by myself too, though. We'll see what happens. Last Saturday, I shot photos at the Women's March in my city. I'm eager to edit and post them, but I've been a Good Child and focused on my actual work this week 😇 I will say that I LOVE my photo gear right now. I've got my Canon R6 and two main lenses: an EF 16-35 f/2.8 L and the EF 70-200 f/2.8 L. For the non-photographers out there, that's a very wide zoom and a rather long zoom. Both are capable of taking in a lot of light while also getting the background nice and blurry. I never expected to be using zooms primarily; I've been wedded to primes for most of my career. These are really nice zooms, though. Their versatility has saved my butt on more than one occasion. I still use one prime: my RF 50mm. That's a nice little lens too. It fills in the space between the focal lengths of my other two lenses. Even then though, I don't need to use it very often. My favorite lens on my old cropped sensor camera was about a 35mm equivalent, so the long end of my wide usually does the trick for me. Haha, I'm not sure why I feel the need to geek out about photography right now. Point is, the Women's March was the first event that I shot just for fun with my current kit and it was a blast to shoot. I'm still working on getting inspired to draw more. I did a bit of study over the weekend and yesterday. There are some things that I want to convey that I just can't via photography. At least not easily. Like my own original stories and characters, for instance. Maybe someday I can find models and/or friends who would be willing to play my characters on camera, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Until then, I have a pencil and Procreate and I'm going to learn to use them! Determination!

[discountalien-pancake]

Wow you're ACOSF cover looks amazing. How did you do it and how did you get the idea for it.

Hi anon, thank you! Also buckle up because I foresee this explanation getting a bit long. Here is the original cover for reference:

I am nothing if not stubborn and full of spite, and I hate the orange + grey, but I knew I could make it work if it was orange + silver. Literally everyone, including myself, was like, where are the silver flames? That is literally the title and you have silver foil at your disposal so why isn’t it being used? (The answer is the artwork was done by tattoo artists and handed over to some underpaid employee at blooms, that’s why.)

So. In my tags I said I specialize in negative space artwork. If you’ve seen my art on other platforms you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, it’s showing forms via silhouettes. I also put foil on everything I possibly can because it’s fucking pretty. The thing is, designing foiled elements (whatever bits will be shiny) is a lot like design negative space artwork, because foil is essentially a flat color slapped on top of the background. Sometimes that background is plain white, sometimes it’s fully illustrated. There’s a lot of room to play around with that. Some examples:

I think Kat dropped the cover on us sometime around noon, in my time zone? Maybe a bit earlier. I spent like three hours at work thinking about how I would make it work, and my first decision was that the silver would have the title cut out to reveal the orange beneath it. Typically foil is used on the lettering itself but I wanted to reverse that and play around with if a bit. Then I remembered I had that really cool marbled paper that I used on the Winner’s Curse cover (edited to look more red), which would work perfectly because it literally looks like fire. That was my background image taken care of.

For the silver, I wanted it to frame the title with architectural elements. There’s a lot of really cool paper cut-out artwork featuring architecture, but I was looking at work by Emma Van Leest in particular:

Much more intricate and lacelike than my own style. But i’m always picking and choosing things I like from other artists, and in this case it’s her beautiful columns and arches.

I went straight into Procreate without a paper sketch and started by arranging the title text approximately how I wanted it. Font choice took awhile because I don’t have many options on my tablet, but I settled on a really clean sans serif for legibility. From there I just blocked out the image in black and fiddled with it until it was almost right, then lowered the opacity on that sketch way down to trace it cleanly onto a new layer. The text got masked out (the quick and easy way of cutting something out in digital artwork), and then I found a nice metallic texture and masked the entire “foil” element out of that. Final adjustments included a slight shadow to improve contrast.

There is one thing I didn’t do, that I kind of regret, which is flipping the canvas to check for balance. There’s some spots where I think the flames could have been improved if I’d flipped the canvas a couple times. But overall I’m very happy with how the cover turned out, and I think it’s some of my best work:

[toxicsquad]

There is no better way to get to know someone than through a good question tag. In this case we have decided to make an Indie game dev question tag with the responses of our four developers. We hope that it will reveal many unknowns, but if you are left with any questions, do not hesitate to use our ask.

What part of game development are you responsible for?

Athe: I write and write, I melt in my seat, I correct, I cry and then I program. It’s an endless cycle. Occasionally I laugh like crazy while I eat Pringles.

Sam: I draw and color without leaving the lines (almost always) the sprites, the illustrations and the ravings that usually occur to us past 3 in the morning.

Illy: English translations.

Sher: I draw BGs

What tools do you use (hardware / software)?

Athe: Recently my desktop PC has passed away, so I’ve had to rescue my old PC from the garage. I also have a laptop that saves my life more times than I would like to admit. As for the software, I need, above all, drive documents, video editing programs, image etc (I have an Adobe package) and of course Renpy and Atom.

Sam: My main friend and companion is my tablet, a wacom intuos S (pistachio color, so cute). As programs I mainly use the Paint Tool Sai, because there is nothing in this life like its stabilizer. And less frequently than I would like (for details, texture brushes, effects ...) I also use Clip Studio Paint, which I only know how to use at about 2% of its capacity ... If someday I have time I would love to stop and learn seriously what can be done with it.

Illy: During the school year I live in a residence, so I use an old laptop, and when I return home I use a desktop computer that never has memory space. I translate the chapters in the same Atom where the complete script is and I keep them in google drive files where I share them with our beta reader. I also use editing programs like photoshop when I have to translate comics or procreate for when my artistic skills are required.

Sher: ipad+procreate+some final tweak in photoshop, I don't need much more

What is your favorite part of the job?

Athe: Would it be wrong if I say that is when we released the episode? During the whole production time everything is very stressful, there are times when it’s really uphill, but when we release a new chapter it feels soooo good. It's like saying to yourself, yeah, dammit, I can do it. Look at everything you've climbed by yourself. You're doing it right.

Sam: In general, my favorite parts are when the first scenes start to be programmed, and I can see the sprites with the backgrounds, the texts, and how the illustrations look. Everything always looks so much better when viewed in-game… I also really like being able to check out the script as it is written. And from the artistic part that concerns me, when I see that my hands capture the idea that I had in my head ... Especially in character designs.

Illy: Having to find a way to translate very spanish expressions into English, research vocabulary that I have never had to use and commenting on some translations with our beta reader (which we adore) to make it understandable without losing the original meaning.

Sher: I like to do the lineart when the sketch is complete, if I no longer have to think about anything else and it's just going through it, I find it very fun and relaxing

What is the most difficult part for you?

Athe: Offf, yes, I admit it, sometimes writing is the WORST. Other times I love it, especially when I can expand on the descriptions or stop at a part that is intimate or that I find interesting (for example, Hasiel's conversation from 6.3, small spoiler: P). But, I HATE having to paste scenes, often the protagonist moves between scenes and you always have to add lines to those transitions that really do not interest anyone, but that otherwise the text would be confusing. Anyway... It is a very wide world, with a lot of history, I have to deal with what I need readers to know to understand the facts, although sometimes it gets a bit boring.

Sam: What part does not... Rather who e.e Zihel and Ariel are a thorn in my side. Especially Zihel. I know it has to do with the fact that it has never been my strength to draw boys, and much less if they are more masculine in appearance... That's why I also suffer a lot from drawing muscles. Another thing that brings me a headache is the perspective of the illustrations. Every time I try to get out of the typical shot or poses a little... It doesn't work out.

Illy: Doughy’s  stuttering ¬.¬

Sher: chairs, sofas, tables... anything with four legs is my enemy

Anything to help or encourage you while you are working?

Athe: I need music, no, seriously, I NEED IT. I’m unable to focus without it. If, on top of that, I can get what I hear to act as a sounding board for what I write, the text is a thousand times better... But the muse is a pretty bad person.

Sam: Having a show/movie in the background that entertains me. The longer the better, so I don't have to stop to think what I want to put on next.

Illy: Eating sunflower seeds to trick my brain and not be tempted to do something else that distracts me.

Sher: I try to see other artists to motivate and inspire me before I start drawing, what I find most difficult is that initial push and that is where I need the motivation, then I usually have something in the background but it is not necessary

Something that’s a pet peeve or discouraging?

Athe: Some narrative climax moments. Generally, they are not important plot moments (that is almost entirely decided), they are often small decisions to go from scene A to scene B, but I can spend a LOT of time deciding which is the fastest and best way to tie those two ends. I'm the worst.

Sam: Many times when starting, I can't get the poses to fit the way I want, for example.

Illy: Finding many parts in a row that I find especially difficult to solve and that make me believe that I have forgotten how to English properly. And looking at how many lines I still have left.

Sher: When I don't know how to fill in some area, if I see something very empty but I don't know how to solve it, I can spend days looking at the screen without being able to advance, even if I have other areas that I could do in the meantime

What is required on your table or work surface?

Athe: Notebooks, sticky notes, pens… I’m a person who writes everything down, especially the tasks, but I also order the story by color schemes. The stack of sticky notes have 9 different colors, each one represents a character and I play a lot with them for a lot of nonsense. Besides, even though I have been writing on the computer for many more years than I wrote by hand, I still have a preference for the analogical.

Sam: Coffee, sweets, chocolate, cereals... And cats.

Illy: My phone, the sunflower seeds, a Capital America: Civil War 1L water cup, sticky notes that remind me of tasks.

Sher: I have nothing really lol all my things are for decoration

Your most productive hours?

Athe: Owl. Totally nocturnal. Although I have several crises a month to force myself to work at other times that always end... Wrong.

Sam: Also at night for the most part, although I can no longer stay awake as long as I endured before having a job (the good old days...) However, in the middle of the afternoon, when the zoo that I have at home is still taking a nap, I also manage to go a long way.

Illy: From when I finish eating until 7 or 8 in the afternoon, when I don't have to cook, clean, run errands...

Sher: I take over for Illy apparently, from 7 or 8 is when I start to get into the mood until bedtime

Do working hours make you forget to eat or make you eat twice as much?

Athe: It depends, in the past I ate a lot, now if I have stress I don't eat anything. If I'm in a normal productive phase and I'm not on my nerves, I'm probably eating by inertia.

Sam: They make me eat more, but especially junk food e.e And they make me forget healthy meals, especially dinner at night.

Illy: It depends on my mood, but I usually eat twice as much.

Sher: I'm generally a VERY distracted person so I don't usually get to focus on a task to get to either of those two modes but I guess when I am sooooooo much on the task, I forget. But that happens like a couple of times a year and "forgetting" is "I delay an hour."

What part of your set up would you improve / change (in aesthetics or functionality) if you had no money limit?

Athe: I'm trying to match some of my peripherals with the rest. They are all a damn different color, apparently I'm cursed... Now seriously, I wish I had a better graphic card that would allow me to make video captures, some speakers and a quality printer.

Sam: Actually, I don't think I need anything more complex than what I already have… But if I had to improve something, I'm curious about the most professional tablets, the big ones with the included screen and all that stuff.

Illy: A new laptop that lets me open 4 chrome tabs, Atom and photoshop at the same time without dying.

Sher: A pc screen that will not change the colors I use on the iPad would be nice, really

Which character are you most like? And why?

Athe: Phew I think the easy answer would be to say Akane ... But, Akane is a better person. : P

Sam: This is very difficult... They are all very different, but still I do not think I look much like any of them. If I have to say something, I could identify with Maske's tendency to avoid problems, and his more homey and calm side. And well… Since Akane has been an OC of mine for many years, surely I have something of her too.

Illy: I think I partly have Maske's instinct to stay out of trouble, and on the other hand Joe's shallowness, although tbh I wish I really did look like any of our awesome babies.

Sher: surprised because (unpopular opinion around here) is one of those who I "least care" about really but I would say that Pin because he is a little dumb, happy and probably has a Satanic room and proud of it

Favorite CG/art.

Athe: AT THE MOMENT. Maske chapter 1. It couldn't be more predictable. I know.

Sam: I quite agree with Maske in chapter 1. But I would also put Pin in chapter 5 and Akane in chapter 6.2 on the top.

Illy: Kyeran in Coco's tank ?? Is he even real? Being basic is my brand.

Sher: surprised again and disappointed but I would say that of angel Hasiel because I like pretty dresses, pretty hairs and pretty wings

Favorite BG/scene.

Athe: The Red Light District amazes me. I already liked the life of that place, its history, but the way of expressing it... Uggg Sher took it to another level. The dirt on the street, the night, the constricted buildings...

Sam: I think I’ll say Raziel’s square, I like it a lot from the first day.

Illy: I don't know if I can choose just one T__T but I would say that the Red Light District and Valefar's pub are at the top.

Sher: for not repeating the red light district that I also like very much, I really like the areas of Coco's laboratory, including the “main” area although the perspective is horrible and makes the characters look tiny, but I like how it looks :(

Your favorite chapter to date?

Athe: Ufff... The first and second one I assure you no, hahaha. I will say that the third one, but also for things that are not necessarily from the chapter, but of the production. It was a good moment. I felt that everything was flowing with ease. We all assumed a clear role, they were times that made us feel comfortable and capable of assuming what came next, I think it was a qualitative leap also, both in texts and in art.

Sam: Oh. Well let's see... Chapter 5 is amazing for me, for everything that happens but also because there are many personalized interactions and choices. I can't say I have a definitive favorite, but it could come close… Also from the last ones I really like the 6.2.

Illy: Chapter 5 has so many details, so many things happen, it's hard not to be my favorite. But the last ones with the specific routes are so great that if I stay with the 5 it’s with the  pain of my heart to have to choose one.

Sher: I would say 5 also because in the end when a lot of things happen is when you remember the most

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No hay mejor forma de conocer a alguien que a través de un buen tag de preguntas. En este caso hemos decidido hacer un Indie game dev question tag con las respuestas de las cuatro desarrolladoras. Esperamos que os aclare muchas incógnitas, pero si os quedáis con alguna no dudéis en usar nuestro ask.

¿Qué parte del desarrollo del juego llevas a cabo?

Athe: Escribo, escribo, me derrito sobre mi asiento, corrijo, lloro y después programo. Es un ciclo sin fin. Ocasionalmente me río como una demente mientras como Pringles.

Sam: Dibujo y coloreo sin salirme de las líneas (casi siempre) los sprites, las ilustraciones y los desvaríos que suelen surgir a partir de las 3 de la mañana. 

Illy: Las traducciones a inglés.

Sher: Hago fonditos

¿Qué herramientas utilizas (hardware/software)?

Athe: Recientemente mi PC de sobremesa ha fallecido, así que he tenido que rescatar mi viejo PC del trastero, también tengo un portatil que me salva la vida más veces de las que me gustaría admitir. En cuanto al software, necesito, sobre todo, documentos de drive, programas de edición de video, imagen etc (tengo un paquete de Adobe) y por supuesto Renpy y Atom.

Sam: Mi principal amiga y compa��era es mi tableta, una wacom intuos S (color pistacho, muy cuqui.) Como programas uso sobretodo el Paint Tool Sai, porque no hay nada en esta vida como su estabilizador. Y con menos frecuencia de lo que querría (para detalles, pinceles de texturas, efectos…) también utilizo el Clip Studio Paint, el cual sólo se usar como a un 2% de su capacidad… Si algún día tengo tiempo me encantaría pararme a aprender seriamente todo lo que se puede hacer con él. 

Illy: Durante el curso vivo en una residencia, así que uso un portatil del año que reinó carolo, y cuando vuelvo a mi casa un ordenador de sobremesa que nunca tiene espacio en la memoria. Los capítulos los traduzco en el mismo Atom en el que está el guión completo y los guardo en drive donde los comparto con nuestra beta reader. También uso programas de edición como photoshop cuando tengo que traducir viñetas o procreate para cuando mis habilidades artísticas son requeridas.

Sher: ipad+procreate+algún retoquito final en photoshop no necesito mucho más

¿Cuál es tu parte de favorita del trabajo?

Athe: ¿Estaría mal si digo que es cuando sacamos el episodio? Durante toda la producción todo es muy estresante, hay veces, que se hace realmente cuesta arriba, pero cuando liberamos un nuevo capítulo sienta taaaan bien. Es como decirte a ti misma, sí, joder, puedo hacerlo. Mira todo lo que has escalado tú solita. Lo estás haciendo bien.

Sam: En general, mis partes favoritas son cuando se empiezan a programar las primeras escenas, y puedo ver los sprites con los fondos, los textos, y cómo se ven las ilustraciones. Todo queda siempre mucho mejor cuando se ve dentro del juego… También me gusta mucho poder cotillear el guión conforme se va escribiendo. Y de la parte artística que me toca, cuando veo que mis manos plasman la idea que tenía en mi cabeza… Sobretodo en diseños de personajes. 

Illy: Tener que buscar la forma de traducir a inglés expresiones muy nuestras, investigar vocabulario que no he tenido que usar jamás y comentar algunas traducciones con nuestra beta reader (a la que adoramos) para conseguir que se entienda sin perder el significado original.

Sher: me gusta hacer el lineart cuando el sketch está completo, si ya no tengo que pensar nada más y es solo ir repasando me parece muy divertido y relajante

¿Cuál es la parte que más te cuesta?

Athe: Ufff, sí, lo admito, escribir a veces es lo PEOR. Otras me encanta, sobre todo, cuando puedo explayarme con las descripciones o detenerme en una parte íntima o que a mí me parece interesante (por ejemplo, la conversación de Hasiel del 6.3, pequeño spoiler :P). Pero, ODIO tener que empastar escenas, a menudo el protagonista se mueve de escenarios y hay que agregar siempre líneas a esas transiciones que realmente no interesan a nadie, pero que de lo contrario el texto quedaría mal montado. En fin… Es un mundo muy amplio, con mucha historia, tengo que lidiar con lo que necesito que los lectores sepan para entender los hechos, aunque a veces se haga un pelín peñazo.

Sam: Qué parte no… Quiénes, más bien e.e Zihel y Ariel son mi espinita. Especialmente Zihel. Sé que tiene que ver con el hecho de que nunca ha sido mi punto fuerte dibujar chicos, y menos si son de aspecto más masculino… Por eso también sufro mucho dibujando músculos. Otra cosa que me trae de cabeza es la perspectiva de las ilustraciones. Cada vez que intento salirme un poco del típico plano o poses… No sale bien. 

Illy: El tartamudeo de Doughy ¬.¬ 

Sher: sillas, sofás, mesas… cualquier cosa con cuatro patas son mis enemigos

¿Algo que te ayude o anime mientras estás trabajando?

Athe: Necesito música, no, en serio, LA NECESITO. Soy incapaz de concentrarme sin ella. Si ya consigo que lo que escucho haga de caja de resonancia de lo que escribo, el texto es mil veces mejor… Pero la musa es bastante mala gente.

Sam: Tener alguna serie/peli de fondo que me entretenga. Cuanto más larga mejor, así no me toca pararme a ver qué es lo que quiero poner después. 

Illy: Comer pipas para engañar a mi cerebro y no tener la tentación de ponerme a hacer otra cosa que me distraiga.

Sher: intento ver otros artistas para motivarme e inspirarme antes de empezar a dibujar, lo que más me cuesta es ese empujón inicial y es donde necesito la motivación, luego ya suelo tener algo de fondo pero no es necesario

¿Algo que te corte el rollo o te desmotive?

Athe: Los nudos narrativos. Generalmente, no son nudos gordos de la trama (eso está decidido casi en su totalidad), a menudo son decisiones pequeñas para pasar de la escena A a la escena B, pero puedo tirarme MUCHO tiempo decidiendo cuál es la forma más rápida y mejor planteada para atar esos dos cabos. Soy lo peor.

Sam: Muchas veces a la hora de empezar, no conseguir encajar las poses como quiero, por ejemplo. 

Illy: Encontrar muchas partes seguidas que me cueste especialmente resolver y que me hacen creer que no tengo ni idea de hablar inglés. Y mirar cuantas líneas me quedan todavía.

Sher: cuando no se como rellenar alguna zona, si veo algo muy vacío pero no se como solucionarlo puedo tirarme días mirando la pantalla sin ser capaz de avanzar, incluso aunque tenga otras zonas que pudiera ir haciendo mientras

¿Qué no puede faltar en tu mesa o superficie de trabajo?

Athe: Libretas, post-its, bolígrafos… Soy una persona que lo anota todo, sobre todo, las tareas, pero también ordeno la historia por esquemas de colores. La pila de post-its tienen 9 colores diferentes, cada uno representa un personaje y juego mucho con ellos para miles de idioteces. A parte, a pesar de que llevo muchos más años escribiendo a ordenador de los que escribí a mano, sigo teniendo querencia a lo físico.

Sam: Café, chucherías, chocolate, cereales… Y gatos. 

Illy: El móvil, las pipas, un vaso de 1L de agua de Capital America: Civil War, post-its que me recuerdan las tareas.

Sher: no tengo nada realmente lol todas mis cosas son de adorno 

¿Tus horas más productivas?

Athe: Búho. Nocturna totalmente. A pesar de que tengo varias crisis al mes para forzarme a trabajar a otras horas que acaban siempre… Mal.

Sam: También por la noche en su mayoría, aunque ya no aguanto trasnochando tanto como antes de trabajar (qué tiempos aquellos…) Aunque a media tarde cuando el zoo que tengo en casa aún está echando la siesta también consigo dar un buen empujón. 

Illy: Desde que acabo de comer hasta las 7 o las 8 de la tarde, cuando no tengo que cocinar, limpiar, hacer recados...

Sher: le tomo el testigo a Illy aparentemente, a partir de las 7 u 8 es cuando empiezo a entrar en el mood hasta que llega la hora de dormir

¿Las horas de trabajo hacen que te olvides de comer o te hacen comer el doble?

Athe: Depende, antes comía mucho, ahora, si tengo estrés no como nada. Si me encuentro en un rango productivo normal y no estoy de los nervios, probablemente, esté comiendo por inercia.

Sam: Me hacen comer más, pero sobretodo porquerías e.e Y hacen que me olvide de las comidas sanas, sobretodo de cenar por la noche. 

Illy: Depende de mi estado de ánimo, pero normalmente comer el doble.

Sher: en general soy una persona MUY distraída así que no suelo conseguir centrarme en una tarea para llegar a ninguno de esos dos modos pero supongo que cuando estoy muuuuuuy dentro de la tarea, me olvido. Pero eso pasa como un par de veces al año y “olvido” es “lo retraso una hora”.

¿Qué parte de tu set up mejorarías/cambiarías (en estética o funcionalidad) si no tuvieses límite de dinero?

Athe: Estoy tratando de que alguno de mis periféricos peguen con el resto. Todos son de un maldito color diferente, al parecer estoy maldita… Ahora en serio, desearía tener una mejor gráfica que me permitiese hacer videocapturas, unos altavoces y una impresora de calidad.

Sam: En realidad, no creo que necesitara nada más complejo de lo que ya tengo… Pero por mejorar, me llaman la atención las tabletas más profesionales, las grandes con la pantalla incluida y eso. 

Illy: Un portátil nuevo que me deje abrir 4 pestañas de chrome, el Atom y photoshop al mismo tiempo sin quedarse tieso.

Sher: Una pantalla de pc que no me cambiara los colores que uso en el ipad seria bonito la verdad 

¿A qué personaje te pareces más? ¿Y por qué?

Athe: Ufff Creo que la respuesta fácil sería decir Akane… Pero, Akane es mejor persona. :P

Sam: Esto es muy complicado… Son todos muy distintos, pero aún así no creo que me parezca mucho a ninguno. Por decir algo, me podría identificar con la tendencia a evitar problemas de Maske, y su lado más casero y tranquilo. Y bueno… Dado que Akane es OC mío de hace muchos años, seguramente tenga algo de ella también. 

Illy: Creo que en parte tengo el instinto de alejarme de las movidas de Maske, y por otro la superficialidad de Joe, aunque tbh ojalá parecerme realmente a nuestros bebés geniales.

Sher: sorprendida porque (unpopular opinión por aquí) es de los que “menos me importan” realmente pero diría que Pin porque es tontito, feliz y probablemente tenga una habitación satánica y orgulloso de ello

Tu CG/arte favorito.

Athe: DE MOMENTO. Maske capítulo 1. No podría ser más predecible. Lo sé.

Sam: Coincido bastante en la de Maske del capítulo 1. Pero también metería en el top la de Pin del capítulo 5 y la de Akane del capítulo 6.2. 

Illy: ¿¿Kyeran en el tanque de Coco?? ¿Es siquiera real? Ser básica es mi marca.

Sher: sorprendida de nuevo y decepcionada pero diría que la de Hasiel de ángel porque me gustan los vestidos bonitos, los pelos bonitos y las alas bonitas

Tu BG/escenario favorito.

Athe: Me flipa el Barrio Rojo. Me gusta la vida de ese sitio, su historia, pero la forma de plasmarlo… Uggg Sher lo llevó a otro nivel. La suciedad de la calle, la nocturnidad, los edificios constreñidos...

Sam: Creo que me quedo con el de la plaza de Raziel, me gusta mucho desde el primer día. 

Illy: No sé si puedo elegir solo uno T__T pero diría que el Barrio Rojo y el bar de Valefar están en el top.

Sher: por no repetir el barrio rojo que también me gusta mucho, me gustan mucho las zonas del laboratorio de Coco, incluida la zona “principal” aunque la perspectiva sea horrible y haga a los pj parecer diminutos, pero me gusto como quedo :( 

¿Tu capítulo favorito hasta las fecha?

Athe: Ufff… El uno y el dos os aseguro que no, jajaja. Diré que el tres, pero también por cosas que no son necesariamente del capítulo, sino de la producción. Fue un buen momento. Sentí que todo estaba fluyendo con facilidad. Todas asumimos un rol claro, unos tiempos que nos hacían sentir cómodas y capaces de asumir lo que venía después, creo que fue un salto cualitativo también, tanto en los textos, como en el arte.

Sam: Ay. Pues a ver… El capítulo 5 es una pasada para mi, por todo lo que pasa pero también porque hay muchas interacciones personalizadas y elecciones. No puedo decir que tenga un favorito definitivo, pero podría acercarse… También me gusta mucho de los últimos el 6.2. 

Illy: El capítulo 5 tiene tantos detalles, pasan tantas cosas, que es difícil que no sea mi favorito, pero los ultimos de rutas específicas son tan geniales que si me quedo con el 5 es con un poco de dolor de tener que elegir uno.

Sher: Diría el 5 también porque al final cuando pasan muchas cosas es cuando mas se te queda grabado

Twitter​ | Instagram​ | Itch

[plasticbattleaxe]

A BASIC GUIDE TO DIGITAL ART ON PROCREATE

okay so i joined the digital art scene about a year or so ago and it has been a total whirl! there’s so much stuff that’s so confusing and hard to understand at first. And that’s okay! A stupid amount of what constitutes as “good” or “complex” art is to do with layers, patience and experience. 

and because literally every tutorial on here is for Paint Tool Sai i thought it might be useful for those of us using Procreate! because i don’t have sai and i have a relatively shit laptop by comparison to my Ipad.

so without further ado - here is how to make a KICKASS piece of art on procreate 

1.  REFERENCE + SKETCH

the first thing you're gonna wanna do is collect any references you need for thing youre tryna make. you can collect references by finding stock images, using other artists work (i use these mostly for colour refs cause i SUCK at finding good colours). however when i make art nowdays i usually just snap a selfie and use that. for this work i did the last option (see below)

after grabbing my reference i decide on the style i wanna use. for beginer artists what i suggest doing is just pasting the image onto your canvas, opening layers and adjust the opacity to around 20% by clicking on the little N on your layer with the photo. then once thats done add a new layer by clicking the + and work over that

for more experienced artists experimenting with style just stick that bad bitch reference in the corner, then open a new layer and sketch in your own style.

when it comes to sketching i usually do little flicky lines. i do this with a mid grey (like 50% white 50% black) i recommend the “Narinder pencil” which you can find by clicking the little brush at the top, selecting sketching and then selecting that bad boy. you can adjust size and opacity using the sliders to the side of the screen.

when sketching you just wanna get a rough idea of where you’re gonna do your eventual lines - don’t worry about it being smooth or anything just get down where everything goes 

once you’re done you might have something like this:

this brings us too...

2. LINE ART 

for beginners - lineart is just a sexy word that means a clean drawing with hard lines so you can colour it easier and it looks prettier. you want to do this on a new layer so you can delete the sketch one later.

your goal with lineart is to make it three things:  1) its gotta be seamless so you can select the insides, don’t leave little gaps between lines 2) its gotta be smooth! jagged lineart isn’t NEARLY as sexy as smooth curvy lines 3) this one is more of a tip - but lineart generally looks better if you do thinner lines inside your shape with a slightly thicker border line. again this isn’t essential but i find it looks cuter 

the way i get my lineart all cute is by using the monoline brush (found in calligraphy). sometimes i use my own modified version of the Technical Pen (found in Inking) but mostly monoline is pretty neat. You can use whatever brush you want but mostly you just wanna ensure that its nice and smoooooth. you can do this by selecting the brush and then clicking it again. this will bring up a popup menu like this:

most of these brush settings are complicated and stupid and i’ll do a big post about it later. the only one that really matters here is streamline. if you wanna use a different brush for lineart just wack that slider up between 80-100% and you’re set.

once your lineart is finished on a seperate layer go to your layer menu and unselect the little tick on your sketch layer. you should be left with something like this. 

3. ADDITIONAL DETAIL LINEART + MONOCHROME BASES.

once your focus lineart is done you can add detailed lineart by repeating the same process with sketching and lineart i described above. i like to do details separate because if i dont like it i can just delete the whole layer without destroying my focus. 

what i find important in these now is using my favourite fuckin tool in this whole program. you can find it here:

Only start using this once youre 100% done with your lineart. once thats done - make sure youre on the lineart layer and click that weird little s at the top of the screen. go to the bottom and click automatic. then select somewhere INSIDE your lineart. it should do something like this:

don’t freak out! what that blue stuff means is that you've just selected the inside bit of your lineart. continue selecting until your subject is 100% coloured in. 

MAKE SURE THE BACKGROUND/STUFF OUTSIDE YOUR LINEART ISN’T SELECTED. ALSO MAKE SURE YOU’VE SELECTED THE LINES THEMSELVES. THEY WILL TURN WHITE ONCE THEYRE SELECTED. if u fuck up and select something by accident that’s all g, theres a little undo button on the bottom. if you click on the paint brush or another tool and you cant add stuff to your selection you can reload the mask by holding down on the weird s and the selection will reload. If there are certain bits of your work that you’re struggling to select with automatic selection that’s also not an issue. just click the “freehand” setting next to the automatic setting on the bottom and you can now use your stylus to draw around what you want to select.

once you’ve selected your foreground in its entirety - THEN click the layer button. insert a new layer underneath your lineart layer. Using literally any brush (works best if you get one from the painting section) colour EVERYTHING white. just get round brush and colour all of it. you wanna keep your line art layer separate over the top.

once all of it is coloured hold down on the weird s tool until it reloads the selection. then look along the bottom of the screen and click the little button that looks like 2 arrows pointing at each other. THIS INVERTS YOUR SELECTION. Open a new layer and make this entire thing a grey. THIS IS WHOLE STEP IS OPTIONAL BUT ITS SUPER USEFUL AND THE SELECTION TOOL IS SUPER HELPFUL FOR GOOD ART. DOING THIS WILL BE SUPER USEFUL WHEN YOU COLOUR STUFF LATER.

once you’re done it should look something like this:

4. BASE COLOURS

okay so this is where shit starts to get real. The goal of putting down base colours is to make is easier to add eventual shading to your piece and decide your colour scheme. This is where the white layer you just used is gonna become your BITCH.

you wanna start by duplicating your white layer you just made. You do that by opening your layer menu and swiping that thot to the left. this is what should happen:

click duplicate. Select the top duplicate you just made and select our favourite weird s tool. click inside your shape and the whole white shape should go blue (become selected). next, open a new layer on top of the white layer. colour in your base colours and now none of it can go outside the lines. you didn’t even have to do a billion selections. you just select inside the white blob on the layer we made the step before, opened a new layer and started colouring. fucking superb. so much time saved. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I USED TO SUFFER BEFORE I THOUGHT OF THIS. HOW LONG I SPENT SELECTING AND RESELECTING I CANNOT

A TIP FOR PEEPS NEW TO THIS PROGRAM - if you use your finger and hold down on a colour you’ve just used it acts like an eyedropper tool so you can pick up any colour you want. like this:

once you got your base colours done you can either: 1) go to your grey layer you made in the last step and select the tick next to it. once you’ve done that scroll to the bottom of your layers and select background. it will open a colour wheel. pick your background colour. 2) you can use my second favourite tool from this program! go to your grey layer you made in the previous step. click on it, then click on it again. (not the little n just click the whole layer) this menu should pop up:

oh MAN okay so. “alpha lock” pretty much means that it locks whatever is on the layer. when you get another brush and go over a layer with alpha lock turned on you can only paint over what you have previously put on the layer before turning on alpha lock. Its like automatically selecting everything on the layer. its fucking brilliant. anyway. scribble over your grey layer (once alpha lock is on) and boom you have a base for your background.

NOW YOU KNOW ABOUT ALPHA LOCK YOU GO BACK TO YOUR LINEART LAYER. SELECT ALPHA LOCK. COLOUR IN YOUR LINES ROUGHLY 2 OR SO ISH SHADES DEEPER THEN YOUR BASE COLOURS 

(minus eyes i like to keep the lines around them black.)  this will make your art like 100000000 times nicer (majority of the time)

once you’re done you should get something like this:

this brings up to...

5. SHADING!!!!!!! this is my favourite step tbh.

what you wanna do is chuck on a new layer over the top of your base colours. and go into your brushes. pick up your basic bitch “round brush.” this is (in my opinion) the best painting brush in the program. Its the thing you can do the most with. so what you wanna do it get a slightly deeper colour from your colour wheel by yeeting your colour selection slightly more saturated and slightly more dark. dont just make it blacker move your colour selector on a diagonal to get a nicer colour. (i’ll eventually do a colour theory ref but today is NOT that day.)

i like to do colouring in short, light strokes. DON’T PRESS TOO HARD. you wanna get that cute little gradient.

A THING FOR BABY ARTISTS: on every art program i have ever used, the blending tool SUCKS. it makes paintings UGLY AF. (wow another tutorial i have to do at some point. i HATE the blending tool. SO HERE IS HOW I COLOUR MY ART TO MAKE IT LOOK, YKNOW, GOOD:

Unless you’re drawing something SUPER freaking smooth like a bubble or some shit. when you wanna blend colours what you gotta do is: 1) put in your darker colour. 2) use your finger to bring up the eyedropper tool to select a mid colour of the colours your blending together - a mix between your lighter and darker colour. (remember that tool? it looks like this)

3) Paint the colour you just made in the middle of your lighter and darker shades. REPEAT THIS PROCESS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE COLOUR YOU JUST PUT DOWN TILL IT LOOKS GOOD. The result is an WAY sexier piece of art.

once you’ve put in all your shadows repeat the same process with highlights.

FUN TIP: if you decide you dislike a colour or want to change the colour you already did all the shading for you can change the colour without any major drama. You can do this by select ing the colour on your colour wheel you would like to change your already shaded work too. (make sure you’re on the right layer.) then hold down on the colour dot on the top bar (next to your layer settings) and drag it to whatever you want recoloured. let go of the dot and it should recolour your work (including all the shading you’ve done granted that its on the same layer) like this:

once you’ve got all your shading done it should look something like this:

6. background and pretty bits

so! youve got this kickass work but nothing surrounding it. lets fix that.

In procreate there is SO MUCH you can use to spice up a work. a SCARY amount even. this is when layer settings are gonna start to come in handy.

ill do a masterpost on procreate brushes for backgrounds later, but for this piece what im gonna do it head over to the Luminescence section and pick up a “nebula brush”. this makes a complex galaxy kinda design in a randomised stamping pattern that is frankly SEXY AS ALL HELL. Select a layer below your base colours but above your background colour. IMPORTANT NOTE: this brush’s blend mode is autimatically set to “add” (ILL DO ANOTHER POST ON THAT LATER)which means if you go over the same spot heaps of times it will eventually go a bright white. This can be nice, but its not really what i want cause its kinda intense. to make this thing go glowy but not ~too~ glowy im gonna lower the brush opacity (the bottom slider) to around half way. i set my colour to a light yellow and a darkish pink and put in some nebulas!!!! once that was done I wantd to add some more colour variation so i popped open a new layer - selected the lightleak tool and lowered the brush opacity using the slider to around 20% just to spice some shit up

you can kinda do whatever you want for your background. sometimes its nicer just to go into artistic, select a random brush and draw a square underneath what you were doing. backgrounds can be super detailed or super easy it doesn’t really matter to be 100% honest.

THE PART 2 OF THIS STEP WILL ADD HEAPS OF DIMENSION TO YOUR WORK AND MAKE IT SUPER PRETTY: adding light effects over the TOP of your main subject often creates a more realistic sense of depth. In simple terms it just makes the thing look more 3D and nice. to do this, get a random brush with a nice (preferably light) colour. i picked up a “bokeh brush” from the Luminescence section. make this pretty big. sprinkle your brush across the page on a NEW LAYER above all of your work so far, including line art! Then open your layer menu and click that little n in the corner again. Remember this one:

click the little n. then go down to the bottom and select a layer setting from either of the 2 groups circled (i normally like overlay for this type of thing) you can mess around with layer settings and opacity till you find something that looks super nice. My piece now looks like this:

pretty cool right. now we’re gonna make it EVEN COOLER.

7. LIGHT FILTERS

this is something i picked up from artists like softmushie and cryptidw00rm. (not gonna @ them here cause they probs dont wanna get tagged in my shitty tutorial thing but yeah i owe so much to those two especially)

for those unsure of what im talking about: light filters are layers you add over work to make the lighting on it seem more natural and pretty. you do this by colouring over your natural highlights and shadows with different colours and then messing with the layer settings to make it seem like its being hit by sunlight. these layers go BELOW your foreground stuff (the bokeh lights from step 6) but ABOVE your lineart.

start by opening a new layer. select a colour similar to where the green outlines are here:

now on this layer paint over anywhere where the sun or other light source would be normally hitting (like cheekbones hair etc.) this can be kind of like shading. dont worry if it looks shit at first we’re gonna change it.

open a new layer beneath the one you just made. Using a colour similar to one circled in purple above colour over all the shadows in a piece. it should now look like this:

now open your layer settings on the purple/darker  layer by selecting the N like we did with the foreground layer before. you can play around from here by setting the layer mode to anything from the “darken” or “contrast” menu. For this work i chose overlay. I then lowered the opacity until it looked nice.

Repeat the step above with the lighter highlight layer. when adjusting this one make sure you set the layer mode to anything from the “lighten” or “contrast” menu. For this work i did hard light.

your peice should now look kind of like this:

AND YOU’RE DONE!!!!!!!!

look at that sexy thing you just did. Congrats on creating an awesome peice of art!!!!!!

if you guys are interested in more tutorials like these or have any reqs for similar stuff send me a question or a dm to my blog @plasticbattleaxe

if you create anything by following  tutorial that you want me to see don’t hesitate to tag me or submit it to my blog!!! i love seeing y’all make art

also - i know it’s annoying - but reblogs > likes. thanks for your support

i hope someone finds this useful!!!!!

[ahainesmajortwo2021]

ANIMATION FILM - DEVELOPMENT

(LONG POST)

After my tutorial I knew that I had to find a way to incorporate all the work I had previously done with my drawings and animation so I went back and looked at the works I had done, considering them now alongside the rotoscope animation I had. I wanted to find a way to bring these animations together and also consider how this could work with sound. I decided to go back to my dads original archive of scanned documents and images that he had given me at the very beginning of the project. I looked through these all again and came across this image...

I then started to think about how a ‘cassette’ could offer a way of structuring and bringing together my drawings. As we discussed in my tutorial I wanted to make this edit more... raw... less ‘clean cut’. This idea of a visual and sonic collage really stood out to me and I felt like the idea of looking through my dad’s cassettes could really work to bring this all together. 

From here I then considered that a timelapse/colour animation of just my dad and another of just Dave would work as a way of ‘introducing’ them and their roles. i went back to procreate and re made another two time lapse drawings which I then developed further into two colour animations.

original photo

The first drawing I completed of my dad. To create the smooth time-lapse drawings I first have to do one full drawing which I can then open as a new image, lower the opacity all the way down and then redraw over the top - this is how I am able to create the smooth visual of the drawing coming together. This took around 3 hours to complete. I then went on to recreate the colour animation in the same style as my previous. I decided with both of these images to exclude some detail from the original image as I wanted these to be simpler and the focus to really be on the people. I also wanted the final image of them together with ALL the detail, to stand out from these. 

This was my first version - I actually realised after putting it into the sequence that my original animation was much lighter and more textured - and typically - less neat ! Also the hair and skin was animated too which I hadn’t done here so I went back and re animated the colour.

This was my second attempt - much better !

original photo

Here is the line drawing I completed for the picture of Dave. This image had a lot more detail originally - all the brick work from the viaduct, and also my dad was stood in the background so I decided to not include him in the drawing and to simplify the detail. Again this took around 3 hours to complete and then also create the time lapse video. From here I created the colour animation.

Again - this was my first attempt - same situation as the first one of my dad. I later went back and re did it. 

Again - much better!

As this picture was black and white i decided to use my imagination for the colour. i spoke to my dad and found out the shoes Dave was wearing were actually bowling shoes - so for these I did the colours accurately. All in all I spent the best part of a day developing these animations - it was easier in some ways this time as I already knew the style and processes that I needed to do so it was very much just a case of executing them. Though it did take a lot of time I think these really helped to bring my film together.

From here I started putting together my animations in premiere , initially experimenting with different music and speeds of the time-lapse. I went back and did A LOT of listening through again of the hundreds of songs and IDEA tracks from my dads archive. I was doing this while drawing my two animations (above) as this definitely helped when it came to putting them into premiere and thinking about the sound overall. I listened to an earlier version of ‘seventh floor’ , one of my dads more finalised songs that i am quite familiar with. And it stood out to me for the clarity of the vocals and simplicity of the production (quite contrasted to the final version that I know). I decided to try this alongside the time lapse of my dad and decided to time it only as long as the initial instrumental - prior to the vocals beginning. This is when it begun to come together. I was considering how the time-lapse of dad could transition into the one of Dave and I thought back to the cassette tapes and decided to use the sounds almost as sonic punctuation to the images. I used the sound of the cassette being re-wound alongside the time-lapse image being reversed at a faster speed - this then brought the image back to the white screen and allowed me to bring in the next image of Dave. I synced this with the start of the vocals and created the same sequence style again with the next section of the song. I felt that this logically lead into the final DETAILED drawing of the two of them in the studio which could come in alongside the final version of Seventh Floor in all its loud and full glory. 

In a way my images and drawings were reflecting the process of the song making, and the use of the cassette sounds really helped synchronise and gel these elements together. I then decided to play around with animated titles. I really loved the written titles in the film I had previously looked at ‘My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes - so I wanted to re-create something similar in my own style. I think these really added another element and visual texture to the film, and worked really well. I then went in and incorporated the full colour animations too as the ‘climax’ of each time-lapse drawing.  

As the final drawing is much more detailed and overall a much fuller image - I decided to make this time-lapse slightly longer - also being with the final version of seventh floor I wanted for this song to remain for a longer time too. I then played around with the -re-winding / fast-forwarding again as a way of bringing in my full colour animation - also it acts as a way to slightly subvert the expectation -  by this time the re-winding element has become established so it is to be expected it will repeat this again, instead the re-wind doesn't quite finish before it fast forwards back in. 

At this stage I still felt that it wasn't quite ‘together’ as I wanted it, I felt the cassette sounds worked really well as structural /punctuation to the images, but  as it stood I currently just had sections of white screen splitting up each section of the animation (bar the titles for dad and dave). I initially considered another rotoscope animation of a cassette being loaded into a player.. I spent some time scouring the internet for a suitable video clip.. eventually settling on one which I begun to animate in procreate. However as I was doing this I felt it would just be far too time consuming at this stage and actually the clip just didn't feel right in the overall film. I then re considered again that I was being too literal in this sense and actually just a visual of the cassette with the titles for each song on would work a lot better and help to tie together the sound of the cassette. I removed the titles as I had made them for the songs and created new animations for these sections. 

I also feel that these animations really help to tie in my original rotoscope piano animation, but they still retain this ‘collage’ feel to the overall film. 

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRUM MACHINE ROTOSCOPE ANIMATION:

After putting together the rest of the film around my original rotoscope I decided to re-visit the colour image I did of the drum machine and actually decided to place it over the line drawing instead within the animation. I felt that with the colour in the other three animations, adding this would help tie them all together. I had also really wanted to include this colour image as it was another one I had done that had taken some time and I was really happy with the outcome (even though you can't really see it for very long in the animation). 

I also decided to play around with the words slightly. My original intention had been for the screen to be ‘split’ as it were, between dad and Dave - the bottom half is the music (dad), and the top half are the words and vocals (Dave). After watching the animation back with a friend she questioned who it was ‘laughing’ so this is what lead me to moving the ‘*laughter*’ to the lower half and playing a bit more with that placement - which I think actually works a lot better.

(END OF POST)

[gilbirda]

Human courting is confusing. Chapter 19

Yes, Neuro is wearing a tuxedo in this. I’m too tired to edit the whole thing.

[FF.net][Ao3]

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Day 19: In formal wear

Of everything she expected him to say, this wasn't it. Really. She blinked a few times, thinking that she was delirious, but he was still there looking intensively at her straight in the eyes, waiting for her answer. No kneeling, no ring, no cheesy speech about spending eternity with her.

She wasn't waiting for it anyways, so the young woman took a deep breath and asked:

"Why?"

He lifted an eyebrow. "You don't want to marry me?" Neuro tried to attack her with his innocent puppy eyes, a gloved finger on his lips, trying to make her feel awful by denying his request. Fortunately for her, she was immune by now.

"I guess so?" She shrugged. "We are already tied together and I never really cared about marriage and stuff, so I don't see why we should."

"I thought that all human women dreamed about their 'special day'," the demon lifted a hand to caress the cheek of the woman as they looked at each other. His sideways smirk told her that he was being sarcastically sweet in that touch, but still her heart skipped a beat at their proximity. Her eyes went down to his lips on their own accord.

"Why do you, who never showed interest in human's dreams and desires, ask me that now?" her voice didn't waver, but she licked her lips unconsciously. His smirk grew wider when he noticed that.

"It seems that some unexpected changes happened on me while you were busy breaking things this morning. Foreign thoughts and feelings have grown inside of me and decided to stay," she frowned not really knowing what he meant by that.

"Are you sick, Neuro?" maybe some backslash from the loss of demon energy?

"I think I love you. And that I have loved you all this time, louse."

That startled her, making her snap out of the spell she was in. Yako backed out the distance she had before leaned in without realising, goosebumps traveling her body at the demon's weird declaration of love. Two things could be happening right now: he was tricking her again or he was really sick. She hoped it was the second.

The human put one hand on his forehead. "You are sick. C'mon, go to sleep a little bit and we'll search for some mysteries later." She took the hand that wasn't on her face and pulled him to the sofa, but the other didn't move.

"I am not sick, stupid," he pulled on the opposite direction with much more force, successfully making her fall into his open arms, literally. "I am just as human as you are demon, which is pathetically little, but enough to let my mind manage the new feelings I get around you. I love you. Deal with it."

She shivered and looked up at him, bewildered. "Then you asked to marry me because..."

"I want us to be tied in every way possible, human and demon, and never let you go again," he shifted his grip on her, putting one arm around her waist and one hand combing back some locks of golden hair that had fallen on her face, revealing her red cheeks. "Knowing this, will you marry me?"

Her throat suddenly felt very dry and couldn't speak. He was just too close to focus, his warmth seeping through their clothes and his lips too reachable. She could barely look at him in the eyes.

With her heart going at max speed, she nodded.

"Good," Neuro whispered and smiled before leaning down to kiss her.

***

Take deep breaths, Yako, she reminded herself as she looked at herself on the mirror of the bathroom she was in.

She couldn't recognize the woman on the reflection, one side of her hair pulled back with some flowers on it (Akane firmly attached to her, anxious to be present on the event), her face painted by her friend Kanae, who was trembling while doing the make up but managed to do an impressive work with her usually bare skin. Her body trapped in a tight pastel green short dress, chosen by the explosive mix of Kanae and her mother, that had weaved very complicated flower designs in bright emerald green that easily caught the eye. Her only say on the dress was the colour.

Yako winced when her 'deep breath' put more pressure on her poor lungs, and tried to distract herself from the pre-wedding nerves. She went back to their plan step by step, something she had already memorized, but that was perfect to occupy her mind until the car arrived to take them to the town hall.

As they didn't want to wait much more and neither were religious, it was decided to have a modest party in the lobby of a nice hotel after the signing of the marriage papers. Few were invited, only friends and close family, those being Godai, Higuchi, Usui, Kanae and her mother. Aya was permitted to attend but under the condition to have a guard following her everywhere. The Hayasakas were invited, but declined politely saying that they had business to attend. Yako kind of expected them to be watching from afar.

She wished that Sasazuka was there. And the old man. But sadly they would never be with her to ask what was wrong with her brain to marry a demon, to laugh with her in the party, to have a few drinks with everyone. She closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer for them.

After everything was over, they would go away in the 'honeymoon'. While the humans thought that they were cruising around the Caribbean sea, Neuro and her would go to Hell to finish their mating. They found some interesting information on the demon magic book. A portal that connected both realities could be made, and after a few testing trips Neuro confirmed that not only it worked, but that the Court had been informed about his intention to perform the weaving of souls with her. Perfect, she thought then, now a whole lot of demons know who I am and are expecting me.

And that was it. They would spend the rest of their eternities together with an unbreakable bond. There was not going back with this. Nice one trying to calm down, Yako. She sighed.

"Honey? The car is here," said the voice of her mother from the other side of the door.

"I'm coming!" she answered taking a last look at her on the mirror. Yes, she was doing this. She could do this. She had said yes a month and a half ago on her office, she was saying yes now.

They had talked about everything that could happen, every fear and doubt she had; they had fought and made up a lot in this time, each time helping them evolve their relationship to a better stage, each time a more intimate experience. This was no longer testing new grounds and new feelings, but still each day brought new adventures by his side.

And while she still blushes like crazy when she sees him naked, their physical compatibility was off the charts. Even her mother had noticed the way they are around each other, so comfortable and at ease. Maybe that's why when they told her about the marriage she was supportive and didn't mind the rush.

***

Neuro was pleased when everything went as expected. No one was late, nothing was missing, and Godai was behaving himself. Yako was radiant in her green dress (he smirked when he noticed the colour, and she blushed and looked elsewhere), her big brown eyes full of feelings and love. If she was nervous, she wasn't showing it. He was really proud.

They walked together to the desk of the woman who was to marry them by the law and stood side by side as she recited a speech about marriage and the life together. He wasn't listening to her, but was instead looking at his intended and basking on the sensation of joining her by human laws. Was this how having a mate felt like? He knew that the weaving would be a more intense and powerful process, but as everything was so new to him he didn't have anything else to compare with.

He had always considered a mate to be a burden. Why would a demon tie themselves to someone else? He could understand procreation, but some couples never mated and had children anyways, so it remained a mystery he could not solve but as it wasn't enough to satiate his hunger he never cared to solve. Now he could see it. A tiny part of him, the human bit that Yako had shared with him, was filled with happiness and love, excited to start a life with her; but the rest of him was in a peace he didn't know he needed. It was like he had always been missing a piece, an instrument out of tune in a big orchestra, and now was finally complete. He still wanted to solve the Ultimate Mystery, but he wanted her by his side when he did it, he wanted to share the meal with her.

"Do you, Nogami Neuro, take Katsuragi Yako as your wife?" said the woman. Yako glared at him knowing that he hadn't been listening. He smirked.

"I do," he answered and took out the ring they bought last week. It was pretty simple and with a clean design, and the only ring they could find that both liked. Who knew that Yako was so picky with her jewelry? Neuro swiftly put it on her ring finger under a heavy silence. He signed the document.

"Do you, Katsuragi Yako, take Nogami Neuro as your husband?" the young woman was blushing and slightly trembling, but managed to keep her voice even when she answered:

"I do," Yako said and put Neuro's ring on a chain around his neck. They had said that he couldn't take off his gloves because of a medical condition. Some were skeptical about this, but so far it seemed that they had bought it. She then signed with her name with surprisingly steady hands.

"By the Japanese laws I now declare you husband and wife."

The public began to clap for the newlyweds, but neither of them registered it (or Godai crying on the background) as they were too busy kissing for the first time as a married couple.

[socialfairytale]

Evaluation

My project has changed a lot throughout the course- my final outcome has differed greatly from what I set out to make at the beginning, mainly due to the fact that I was trying a lot of new things and they didn’t all work as expected. But i’m glad that my project evolved. 

The social issue I decided to choose for this project is the Environment and Climate Change- I wanted to make a game concept that would encourage people to fix the planet before it’s too late. There are many issues that are affecting and changing our planet currently, most of which are direct result of human activity. We are responsible (directly or at least for the majority of) for the Earth’s changing in climate- we release too many greenhouse gases through various means such as transport, factory farming and deforestation. 

One of the things that has remained consistent in this project is that the social issue being a key part of the game - I haven’t diverged much. The character design and game themes definitely incorporate some fantasy themes (such as the main character) but the underlying issue about the world being uninhabitable and ruined is still a very obvious feature. I would have created a project that more subtly related to climate change, but it’s something i’m very interested in so I thought it would be a good idea.  I was aware that a game based very obviously on a social issue may not attract a lot of attention as people tend to avoid things that are ‘politcal’ but I think it works - I tried to make the character design and magical elements very visually appealing so the game so that it would appear more interesting and attractive to play upon a first glance. 

The work I have created - Echo - is for a game concept. I created some concept art for the character and landscape, made some pixel animations to show how the game could potentially look, and made a model of the main character’s head. The model was created so I could get a better idea of how the character could look from all angles, thus making it easier to draw. I am also very interested in modelling so I thought making a model would be a lot more interesting than just two dimensional artwork.

The Character Design/Concept

I wanted to create a concept for the game’s main character. At the start of the project I envisioned them to be a cute & brightly coloured animal - to try and contrast with the bleak reality in which the game is set. I made a pinterest board to try and establish the kind of look I wanted it to have, and came up with some concepts. At the time I was also really inspired by Kitsune & their magical connotations in Japan so I wanted it to look somewhat fox like. 

I jumped straight into the character design without really considering the rest of the work I wanted to do which would involve it - which is where I started to make some questionable choices. I decided to give Echo four ears to make them look very unique and otherworldly - but didn’t really consider the practicality of having these, nor did I think ahead to when i’d actually have to make them later. I also have a tendency to design the character’s appearance first before coming up with their personality - which also meant that the second set of ears didn’t really have a purpose of being there. Alongside this I also gave them an enormous mane and extravagant tail to help them stand out - this was also annoying to animate. However, despite the impracticality of their design, I really like how the final appearance turned out - it definitely looks aesthetically appealing and different compared to something you’d expect to find on Earth.

Another problem I had when drawing the character was trying to establish their anatomy and keep it consistent when creating the concept sketches for them. I wanted to make Echo walk on two legs yet still have an animalistic appearance so I made them anthropomorphic with shorter digitigrade legs than those of a human - this made a lot of poses quite difficult to draw as his body proportions were very different than the references I used - so in some sketches his legs are far too long. 

I created several pieces of game art featuring Echo although I’m not totally happy with any of them- this is due to my experimentation with new programs and different techniques. All four of the artworks were created outside of my comfort zone - 3 of which were created using Procreate and a shading style which I am not as proficient in - and the final one was created in Paint Tool Sai with a wacom intuos (which was a vastly more complicated task than using my Cintiq). I felt that some of the work just didn’t have atmosphere I was trying to create- some of the pieces looked flat, and using the iPad to paint meant that I didn’t have access to my usual tools for painting. To improve next time, I will practice more both with procreate and the Intuos tablet, but also try and create some artwork that i’m actually happy with by spending a lot of time on it rather than giving up after 2 hours - which was very common with a lot of my work in this project as I felt like the deadline was approaching too fast. 

I really like Echo’s overall character design but I think that it could have been developed a lot better if I had spent more time on it, and used more realistic animals as reference material. My favourite parts about their design are the glowing colourful ears and tail, as well as the mask, which I think gives them a very mysterious and ethereal appearance (which I think it suitable considering they’re meant to be a space deity). If I could design them again I would have also created a wider range of concepts before creating the final design so fast, as I ended up having some really cool ideas later on. I would have also reduced the number of ears and made the tail/mane smaller to try and make this character actually easily reproducible. 

I did also design Radio and Pix, the other two main characters, but these were done very quickly near the end of the project so they are also not as developed as i’d like them to be. I think my target for next time would definitely be to not try and rush my projects as much and actually put thought and consideration into them. It would have also been nice to do more environment design as this was something I was really keen to explore at the start of the project but didn’t have enough time to explore - I would have rather put more time into this than trying to create finished artwork of Echo. 

Pixel Art/Animation

For this aspect of my project I aimed to design some animations and sprites/environments to show what the actual game would look like if it was made. This was one of my first experiences with pixel animation and sprite artwork which made it quite a challenge for me, especially in the beginning.

Animating in pixel art is a really different experience, as I found that almost every pixel had to be placed perfectly to make the movement look smooth - quite often I found that just by changing a few pixels on one frame completely changed the shape of the head in another - but this paid off as I got used to it. Overall, i’m really happy with the way my weapon summoning animation turned out - I think the movement looks really fluid and even though it’s small and pixelated, you can still make out the individual parts of the character.

Some parts I should have done differently were definitely the smoke animation and effect - I made the smoke and staff Glow using an overlay layer on Photoshop - which messed up the transparencies of the finished sprite. When I tried to export it as a gif with no background, there were white pixels surrounding the body due to the partially filled in pixels from the glow layer, which the PNG could not interpret properly. To fix this, I added a grey background to the animation when exporting it so that it would display correctly on my blog - but this was only a temporary fix, as It would have had to be transparent to import into Unity, for example. I think that the glow could have worked if it was added afterwards once imported into the games engine rather than as part of the animation, but it worked to show my ideas.

Another problem I had was with the animation cycle itself - this was another project which I rushed into a bit - as I ended up not being able to loop it due to Echo taking a step forward midway through, so ending up in a different location to where they started off. I should have also made the overall pixel sprite smaller I think and maybe tried a lineless style - as the 120ish pixel height of the character meant that it took a while to replicate for each frame.

In term of success though i’m happy with the actual artwork of the pixels - I also really like how the icon of Echo and the dialogue box turned out, as they fit together well and match the aesthetic of the game. As well as this, the text animation I created also looks really cool I think - there isn’t anything I would change about that. The pixel art backgrounds I created also turned out pretty well, but I think it would have been nice to create a more refined and clean, lined background rather than the sketchy lineless style it ended up having. 

Model/Mask Attempt

This was the project I had the most difficulty with out of all three I attempted. I started off wanting to make a super sculpey model of Echo, which soon changed into a wearable mask of his head, and then finally changed into a small model.

The first thing I tried was making the mask in Blender - which I have no experience with - which may have been the cause of some of the difficulties I had. I first sculpted the shape of the mask and decided to try and print it out as a pepakura file - which didn’t work initially due to the high number of polygons. if I was to make another pepakura mask I would instead work with a very low number of polygons instead to start with rather than trying to retopologise the model later which was also rather tedious. 

After retopologising the model, the option to 3D print it was available - unfortunately since I hadn’t planned this from the start my model also was not suitable for this. I think that all of these attempts didn’t work properly since I hadn’t researched them enough and built them with these results in mind - I had to strongly rework my model again to get it to work in a 3D printer. Despite this difficult stage though I do really love the look and anatomy of the model I made - it actually looks how I intended it to and has the perfect cartoony/realistic mix I was going for. The 3D print had to be split up into sections and then printed one at a time. This process had some flaws which I would execute differently if I had more time - I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to make the 3D model look presentable (sanding and filling etc) so I should have printed it in a higher resolution to start with, as it was too low res to make a smooth model out of. On top of this, there were some scaling issues which meant that several pieces were very slightly different sizes to each other. To fix this, I should have kept each piece on the same document and scaled them all up together rather than each one individually. That being said, the mask I did 3D print did end up fitting my face which I consider a definite win, as I measured it all beforehand in the hopes that it would not be too small or big for my head. I should have done a lot more research into 3D printing before rushing into it. 

Unfortunately due to the quality and mishaps with the 3D print (the hollow surface meant it could not be properly sanded, and one corner was missing due to the supports collapsing during the printing process - causing it to droop down and break off), I had to move to a different method. My main regret during this stage was my time management - I tried out 3 different techniques during 3 days and none of them worked to my standard so I scrapped all of them. The first was the EVA foam patterned model. I really like how all of the edges are crisp and fit together really well but unfortunately the pattern was not able to capture the exact head shape, which ended up looking a bit weird. I think this could have been remedied if i’d kept working on it and made manual adjustments. The foam I used was also far too thin (5mm) which caused the model to be very weak as it kept squashing and changing shape. It would have worked a lot better if i’d used 10mm foam I think. 

The two upholstery foam attempts were actually probably fixable, again if i’d spent more time on them. The carved block head especially, I think it would have worked a lot better if my electric knife had been sharpened. I like the way which they started to turn out but I got a little too ambitious and removed too much material too fast. These two attempts were another case of me not doing enough prior research into them beforehand, and could have turned out a lot better if I watched more than one tutorial for each.

The last thing I resorted to was a super sculpey model, which has turned into one of my final outcomes. While it is unfinished, I am really really pleased with how it looks for the most part. I used my original 3D sculpt as a reference to model the head out of super sculpey, then sealed and painted it with acrylics. I’m really happy that I used sculpey as the material as it keeps its shape well and was very smooth - although I think it could have been smoother if I had used some sculpting tools or turpentine to help even out the surface. 

[therealimpala67]

Hung Up

A/N: Hey guys it’s been for freaking ever in a day!!!  I’m so sorry about not updating in literally a god damn year as many excuses as I have I can’t using them as an excuses!!!  Anywho I’ve been working on this fic for over a year and every chance I got to write, I always had to stuff to do, I was tiree, or I got writer’s block (which is fucking annoying by the way). I dont know why I finally got my groove back tonight of all nights but I had to take advantage of it because I was on a roll and had to stay up to finish it.  I really am proud of this 1 and while I miss writing smut (I promise I’ll do a smutty fic next) I just loved the prompt and thought it writing it through Crowley’s pov would be fucking hysterical!!!  So here ya go peeps!!!  Hope you enjoy and please, please, PLEASE, feel free to give me feedback of any kind because we all know I need it!!!  I love you guys so much and am glad to be back!!!  :D

Here’s the prompt: Prompt:  Crowley calling Dean to talk to him about some business but then hears your voice in the background. 

8 hours, 8 fucking hours you’ve been attempting to get in touch with them now and by them you mean, those bloody Winchesters.  All of hell knew that you were practically besties, let’s face it.  You were constantly working together and while you have your moments: fighting and almost killing each other because of the whole Heaven, Hell, Winchester feud, you’ve definitely grown to hate them a little less, even though you didn’t want to admit it; however, this doesn’t excuse their actions; I mean, honestly, how hard was it to answer the damn phone?!  You kind of expected this type of move from Moose, considering his girly haired head was always shoved in a book but not from Squirrel, you have each other on speed dial after Demon Dean days and you were feeling a wee bit fed up by their lack of attentiveness.  You could only angrily pace around hell’s premises and take your anger out on your henchmen for so long before waiting for a response.  You felt like a bloody school girl waiting for the boy next door to ask you out.  You decided to check and see if your daughter Y/N was home in the meantime, you haven’t heard much from her lately and she always knew how to take your mind off of these things.  You walked down the corridor to her room, knocking on the door.  No answer.  Strange.  You knocked again a little more impatiently this time.  She couldn’t have snuck out, she knows better than to disobey your rules.  Finally you decided to force the door open, you’ll replace it later, and realized that your precious angel wasn’t there!  

You were steaming at this point now trying to get in touch with her and just like those damn Winchesters, no fucking answer!  Why the hell is it so damn hard to answer a bloody phone call?!  Do people not know who you are, yet alone what you’re capable of?!  Just as you were about to start a manhunt for your little girl, your phone beeped.  You immediately swiped left and discovered a text from Y/N:

“Stayed over at Grannie’s.  Will be home later tonight for dinner, love you!” You knew you raised her right and while you’re relieved knowing where she’s at, you always questioned why she loves her grandmother so much.  Even though you hated your mother for not being the mum you always needed growing up, at least she was able to be for your daughter.  When she first found out about Y/N, she was definitely stunned to say the least saying she never expected her little Fergus to successfully procreate and despite knowing your mother abandoned you and her history with the Coven, Y/N made quite the impression and just as you first fell for her, so did your mother, who had a lot of lost time to make up for.  While you both had different parenting views over your daughter, Y/N always made it very clear that you were a family and that it was high time you started acting like one so you both put aside your grudges for her, at least while she was there.  You left her room walking back to your throne room when your phone started buzzing.  

Would you look at that: Dean Winchester, it was about bloody time!  You exhaled loudly as you clicked the answer button preparing for the inevitable conversation. 

“Only 9 hours late, Squirrel.  Were you busy stocking up on nuts for the winter,” you taunted.

“Ya know some of us need this thing called sleep, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it before,” Dean groggily remarked.

“I don’t care if you’re on your bloody death bed, you answer when I damn well call,” you hissed throwing a wine glass shattering it against the brick wall.  Your guards awkwardly stared before quickly showing themselves out, smart.

“Yes dear,” Dean sarcastically rebuttled.

“Don’t sass me,” you growled, “That’s Moose’s job and you are well aware that it’s around noon.”

“And,” Dean yawned as he got up and put on his robe leaving his room. “And normal humans like yourself are up around this time doing something somewhat more counter productive than laying around,” you lectured.

“Look I had a late night last night,” Dean sighed as he walked into the kitchen and started making coffee, “So please spare me the lecture.”

“The point is I’ve been calling you and Moose the past 9 hours straight to no avail until now when you suddenly decide to be available to your own liking not mine and if it obviously wasn’t important,” you started.

“God damn it then Crowley, get to the god damn point,” Dean barked slamming his fist roughly on the counter accidentally causing a coffee mug to slide off and shatter on the floor, “Son of a bitch!”

“You know, I don’t like your attitude Winchester,” you stated very matter of factly while Dean was trying to clean up the mess from the shattered coffee cup, “All I’m trying to do is relay some important information that could potentially help you and Moose stop Amara and this is what I get?  I’m going to make this very quick and hope that your acorn sized brain can understand everything…”

“Yea yea yea,” Dean ignored before hearing footsteps approaching the kitchen, “Hey give me a sec.  Sammy just found a case,” he halted you before you could continue and quickly hit the mute button and put his phone in his robe pocket.   You have got to be bloody kidding me.  Doesn’t he know by know that nobody puts the King of Hell on hold?  You’re not their booty call and the fact that he’s treating you as such infuriates you even more.  You sigh in frustration angrily drumming your fingers against the arm of your throne hoping that he makes it quick because you’re a very busy man with a kingdom to rule.

“Hey is everything alright,” a feminine voice asked in concern.  

Didn’t he mute you and as much as you joke about Moose’s girlishness that voice sounds way to feminine to be Moose.  Very strange indeed but you proceeded to listen in since you had the opportunity.

“Just a broken coffee mug, everything’s fine.  Sorry baby I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Dean apologized before the woman wrapped her arms around his neck.

Baby?  That’s what he meant by late night, he brought home some hussy and showed her his “family business.”  Repulsed by the thought you shook your head in disgust while trying to remain as quiet as possible to continue your eavesdropping.

“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled as she started pressing light kisses along his neckline, “I’ve woken up to way worse, trust me and I’m just glad you’re okay.  Are you hurt anywhere,” she asked checking up and down to see if there were any cuts on Dean’s body. “Not at all and you know I’m tough,” he chuckled before nibbling gently on your earlobe as she sighed in pleasure, “Although I don’t mind playing doctor again,” he winked as he squeezed your breasts in his hands as she moaned and threw her head back..

You rolled your eyes, he’s like a horny teenage boy trying to get into some girl’s pants with cheesy one liners.  

“Just call me Dr. Sexy,” she grinned as she untied his robe, “And based off of that phone call, you sound pretty stressed so I’m ordering you to bed rest for the rest of the day,” you trailed your fingers all the way down his chest stopping right above his package. 

There was something familiar about this woman’s voice and you just couldn’t put your finger on it.  Maybe because it was so muffled and couldn’t hear much of what she was saying but you were kind of curious as to who this mystery woman was that has Squirrel so wrapped around her finger. 

 Dean bit back a moan and and wrapped an arm around your waist pulling you closer, “Oh sweetheart, as much as I’d like that Crowley has some news about possibly stopping Amara.”

“Psh yea right,” she scoffed while scratching her nails down his back, “He’s just telling you that in hopes that you could do his dirty work for him and he can take all the credit.  Believe me, I know how my dad works.”

“Very true the fact that he still hasn’t caught onto us yet is pretty fucking hysterical if you ask me,” Dean grinned as he squeezed your breasts in his hands as she moaned and threw her head back.

Who hasn’t caught onto what yet?  You suddenly had a very bad feeling about eavesdropping onto this conversation.

“I told him I was staying with Grannie Rowena and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker,” she giggled as Dean slid his hands down her hips resting on her clothed pussy, “Daddy’s overbearingly overprotective but he’s also very gullible.  The only way he’d ever find out about us is if he overheard us or saw us which I doubt will ever happen.”

That better not be who you bloody think it is.  You’ve never prayed a day in life up until this moment but for the love of Chuck please don’t be…

“Hey Y/N,” Dean smirked wiggling his eyebrows at you while slamming your back against the fridge as you gasped at the roughness, “Who’s your daddy?” 

Oh.  Hell.  No.  

Dean was suddenly thrown against the wall and being beat in face repeatedly.

“Y/N,” Dean yelled between each punch, “What the hell is going on?!  So my joke went a little far but is it worth trying to fucking kill me?!”

“Are you bloody serious right now,” she yelled in disgust as she kept slamming her fist into his face, “Out of all the people you decide to boink right now you choose my fucking daughter you bloody cocksucker,” her eyes flashed red.

“Oh fuck,” Dean gasped in realization, “Crowley.”

“Damn right it’s me in here,” you spoke through her vessel.

“Crowley this has gone too fucking far man,” Dean projected.

“This has gone too fucking far,” you scoffed in disbelief, “You’re seriously going to accuse me of going too far when you’ve been sleeping with my god damn daughter?!”

“Look Crowley I can explain,” Dean started before you grabbed him by the throat lifting him up so his feet were dangling.

“Explain what,” you hissed, “That you’re using my little girl for your own sick, twisted pleasure?!  I know you Dean Winchester, I know your type, I know your life.  You’re just a play boy looking for a new toy until you get tired of it and toss it aside like trash!  Your life never allows for settling down, yet alone happy endings, look at your bloody family and the rest of your loved ones you let die!”

 “Don’t you dare speak for her,” Dean coughed out his face starting to turn purple, “She’s an adult Crowley and can make her own decisions, including who she wants to be with!  Let her out to speak for herself and we’ll talk this out!”

“Like hell we will,” you spat out in rage, “She’s my little girl Dean!  If you think for one second I’m going to let you use or hurt her you’ve got another thing coming!  I’m not letting you put her in more danger than she’s already in being my daughter and if that means staying in her vessel the rest of time I damn well will!”

“Well I’m not going to let you use her and destroy her fucking life just because I’m in love with her,” Dean professed.  A tear slid down her face and her grip slowly loosened as Dean fell onto the floor gasping for breaths.  You felt her fighting back for control as you increased your restrains. 

 “I’m in love with your daughter.  I know I’m not worthy of her; hell, I don’t come fucking close but she’s the greatest woman I’ve ever met and the best thing that’s ever happened to me!   Look I get it, she’s your little girl and I have no idea what that’s like but I would do absolutely anything for her: die, go back to hell or purgatory, lose my soul, face you, you name it!  I just want what’s best for her and for her to be happy whether it’s with or without me and even though I’m scared outta my fucking mind I’ve never wanted something so much in my entire life!  So don’t think for one second I’ll ever stop loving her, because I won’t so please just let her out.”

God damn it.  He gave a fucking romantic speech and everything and you can feel your daughter coming undone.  It was only a matter of seconds before she broke free of your control.  You quickly fled her vessel and quickly transferred back to yours and poofed back into the bunker.

“Dean is what all you said true,” she asked still in complete and utter shock over his confession.

“Meant every damn word,” he confessed as she looked over towards you. “Y/N, darling,” you started.

“Don’t,” you stopped him, “I’m talking now.  I really should hate your guts your taking advantage of me like that.”

You looked down.  This was the moment you were always afraid of: the one where you pushed your one and only daughter away.

“But I won’t,” she sighed, “ Look daddy I know that you’re just looking out for me but I’m a grown woman and can take care of myself now and just because I’m growing up doesn’t mean I’m not your little girl anymore and that I won’t need you anymore.  I love him so much daddy.  Will you please give him a chance?”

“You’re not little mermaiding me right now.  I don’t want you dating a bloody Winchester and that’s final,” you order before she looks up at, “Don’t you dare give me the hell hound eyes.”

“Please daddy, for me,” she begs.

You’ve always been the one to give your little girl any and every thing she’s ever wanted and even though the thought of Squirrel being romantically with your daughter completely and utterly disgusts you…

“Fine,” you admit begrudgingly under your breath.

“What was that,” she grins, “I couldn’t hear you under your complete and utter defeat.”

 “Don’t make repeat myself Y/N,” you counter back as you walk over to Dean, “I will be doing routinely visits to see if you’re treating her to my liking.  Oh and if you hurt her in anyway shape or form Squirrel I swear Amara and Lucifer will be the least of your worries,” you quietly threatened before looking over at your daughter, “I expect you at dinner tonight.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” she smiles as she walks over to you and gives you a hug, “I love you daddy, thank you for everything.” Normally you would show more affection around your daughter but you had to keep your King of Hell persona up.

“See you at home,” you departed and poofed back to your lair.

“So that was a thing,” Dean stated uncomfortably.

“Yep,” she sighed in relief as she walked over to him and gently caressed his face with her hand, “Man he really got you good.”

“Don’t remind me,” he winced, “You have a killer left hook by the way.”

“Like father like daughter,” you grinned as you grabbed him by the hand leading him to his bedroom, 

“Come on let’s get these patched up, daddy.”

“Oh I’ll show you who’s your daddy baby girl,”Dean smirked as he shuts the door and pushes you onto the bed.

“Hey guys what did I miss OH SWEET CHUCK!” 

[connorrenwick]

Where I Work: Windy Chien

You might not think of knots as being anything other than a way to tie something up or the annoying thing that happens to your necklaces when they get tangled up, but there’s an entire other world out there and it involves fiber artist Windy Chien. After stints at Apple and owning her own indie record shop in San Francisco, Windy found her calling bringing aesthetics to the middle of function, science, and history to highlight what’s most intriguing about knots, and that’s the journey of the line. You may recall she spent 2016 learning a new knot every day of the year for The Year of Knots, which she now displays on her studio walls mixed amongst a sea of works in various stages of progress and size. Today, we pop into her San Francisco studio located on the second floor of the Heath Ceramics tile factory to see her art and space in this Where I Work.

What’s your studio/work environment like?

Serene, cozy, and clean. I’m often playing music and podcasts, and my rescue greyhound, Shelley Duvall, comes with me to the studio each day.

How is your space organized/arranged?

My studio is a private 1000-square-foot space with its own street entrance. It’s a big open space. One wall is all huge windows, and I store my spools of rope and cordage in a long row beneath the windows. Another wall, made of four sheets of plywood suspended above the floor, holds The Year of Knots, which is the project I did in 2016 where I learned one new knot every day of the year. It’s an installation of 366 knots that functions as my palette and main resource, the same way a designer or painter might have a Pantone deck.

Scattered throughout the space are seven pairs of pulleys hanging from rafters off the 20’ pitched ceiling, where I suspend each piece while I’m making it. I raise and lower the works while working, and this is how I take care of my body while enacting the repetitive, physical motions of knotting.

The entire floor is covered in bright white, wall-to-wall, faux fur carpet. I’m a child of the 1970s, so wall-to-wall carpeting is my happy place, but there’s a practical reason for it too: my standard material is white cotton rope, which picks up dirt the second it hits a hardwood floor. With the white shag, I can throw my materials on the floor and know they’ll stay clean.

I’m often working on several commissions at once, along with experimenting on one-off pieces which is my way of thinking with my hands. With that much activity, everything must have a place. I can’t be productive in chaos.

How long have you been in this space? Where did you work before that?

I’ve been upstairs at Heath Ceramics since January 2020. Before that I spent three years in a mid-century police station. My studio there was the old police captain’s office! It was a cool space, but it didn’t have the strong, high ceilings necessary for me to easily make large works, which are all I do nowadays.

Being part of the Heath Ceramics community is a dream come true. Being around like-minded, creative people is incredibly motivating and positive. They have been beyond helpful with sharing resources such as their shipping & receiving department, security, communal kitchen, etc.

If you could change something about your workspace, what would it be?

It’s truly perfect here; the only thing I might eventually consider is a bit more space. I’m going to hire a studio manager this year to handle admin, and am having to think hard about how to have more than one person in this place that feels like my sanctuary.

Is there an office pet?

Yes, my greyhound Shelley Duvall comes with me to the studio every day.

Do you require music in the background? If so, who are some favorites?

I owned/operated an independent record store (Aquarius Records) for 14 years, so my tastes run far, wide, and obscure. Some of my favorite genres are Brazilian tropicalia, Ethiopian jazz, Jamaican rocksteady, Italian prog, outlaw country, German kosmiche krautrock, and more. It’s painful to choose only one, but for years my answer was Os Mutantes, the psychedelic pop trio from late 1960s Brazil, who sounded like Sgt Peppers but stunningly weird.

How do you record ideas?

I conduct my entire business on my iPad. For ideas and sketches, I use the apps Paper and ProCreate. For lists and text, I use Evernote.

What is your typical work style?

I arrive at my studio around 10am and try to work on a current piece immediately, or I open one of my dusty old sailors knotting tomes to learn a new knot. I believe in the concept of flow, which is the state of blissful productivity, where you are working at the edges of your abilities, happily, without any external reward; the reward is inherent in the doing of the thing. Being in flow is the best way to start a day because it makes me feel so good. I avoid email until the afternoon.

What is your creative process and/or creative workflow like? Does it change every project or do you keep it the same?

I work almost exclusively by commission and there is a waiting list. Clients choose amongst my several current bodies of work, each of which sprang from a single, exquisite knot and my desire to find its ultimate expressive potential, to blow it up and give it a greater aesthetic life. We think of knots as functional, and indeed I’d say the vast majority of the almost 4,000 documented knots are functional, but along with the culture, history, and science behind each perfectly-designed knot, I see them as aesthetic objects. My goal is to bring a greater awareness to the aesthetics of knots and, by extension, to explore the journey of the line.

With that said, while I enjoy making my existing bodies of work, I believe every knot is waiting for me to find its most expressive potential, so I’m always looking for periods of free time where I can experiment with new works. I will never run out of curiosity or things to explore. I don’t get creatively blocked.

What kind of art/design/objects might you have scattered about the space?

It’s all my own work, my sailors knotting books, my materials, whatever work is in progress, and all the experiments. I have a lovely collection of artworks made by others, but I keep all of that at home.

Are there tools and/or machinery in your space?

I was recently given a non-electric, rope-making ‘machine’ (by Schacht Spindle), and am looking forward to making my own rope. I have a glue gun, but try to avoid it as much as possible. I’m a purist, and using glue feels like taking the easy way out when surely a knot will do.

What tool(s) do you most enjoy using in the design process?

Sharp scissors and bent needle-nose pliers.

Let’s talk about how you’re wired. Tell us about your tech arsenal/devices.

I worked at Apple for many years, from the early years of iTunes, to the launch of iPhone and iPad and the App Store. So I’m super savvy with the entire Apple ecosystem. It’s just designed so beautifully, with the user in mind, and with an exquisite design logic. I use my iPad exclusively, with iPhone for Instagram and photo processing.

What design software do you use, if any, and for what?

My work needs only the sketching and drawing apps listed above. Occasionally, I will open my old MacBook to use SketchUp, which annoyingly has not made it to the App Store yet, for complicated projects that benefit from a 3D model.

What’s on your desk right now?

A dozen scissors, ancient knotting books, and various Doughnut and Star Knots.

Is there a favorite project/piece you’ve worked on?

I could never choose between all my babies, but a favorite recent project is the debut of a new body of work, the Hitching Posts. This is installed in Las Vegas.

Tell us about a current project you’re working on. What was the inspiration behind it?

I recently made a Linescape for Square, the payments company based in the Bay Area. They wanted something bridge-inspired, so I used a very curly knot that is rather counterintuitively good for creating sharp angles and straight lines. We did it in a color close to International Orange, the color of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Do you have anything in your home that you’ve designed/created?

I own a classic San Francisco-style Victorian, and I put the first Helix Light Chandelier in my bay window. I also designed the paint scheme in the attic, which is 1970s-style long lines running at angles along the pitched ceiling, and done using the Pendleton Glacier Park stripes. I designed the exterior paint scheme of the house – horizontal ombré stripes running yellow-orange-red on the front and yellow-green-blue in the backyard.

Photos by Windy Chien.

via http://design-milk.com/

from WordPress https://connorrenwickblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/09/where-i-work-windy-chien/

[firstjustgoin]

Good Advice, Deaf Ears

5. Start with a good piece of advice no one in the rest of the story will ever follow.

My mother was a useless woman, always one lost hairpin or burnt dish of cornbread away from unraveling. I loved her only out of necessity because when you are eight years old you would love a piece of driftwood if someone told you that you were supposed to. Come to think of it, there was nothing much different between my mother and a piece of driftwood –– the woman could tread water for years longer than anyone thought she should, but damned if anyone could track her direction.

My grandmother, on the other hand, was a woman of substance. She loved the weight of words and she held onto them with fervor in moments that no one else in her life could withstand her grasp. Her house stood as a testament to the weight of words, layered like newspaper papier-mâché on every surface.

A wooden sign nailed to the wall next to the front door read, Do what makes you happy. Be with those who make you smile. Laugh as much as you breathe. Love as long as you live.

A crocheted throw pillow that slept next to her for sixty-five years reminded her to Live where your feet are.

A framed photo lived next to her cutting board that I saw every Thanksgiving told her to Do small things with great love.

The words did not just live plastered to her house but within her person. Every weekend I could get up to her house, I sat with grandma on her tattered patchwork couch sipping lukewarm earl grey as she doled out the advice as heartily as she doled out her homemade brownies. Neither could I keep in my system for longer than a few days, but she loved to give it anyways.

“Remember, Fran, life’s going to give you dozens of reasons to trust nobody, to think that your love is a burden. But don’t believe it. Never be too proud to love somebody, to ask for the things you need from the people you love.”

“I won’t, Grandma, I promise.” She reached her hands to cover mine –– every time the movement a little shakier, every time the grasp a little lighter.

I promised Grandma a lot of things, all the way up until the day she died. I wanted to live up to the advice she proffered, to become something more than just the useless offspring of a useless procreator. But maybe, as the embroidered magnet that stuck to Grandma’s refrigerator said, Only He can judge.

I went through a lot of bad living situations after I moved away from grandma: old, drafty houses with seven roommates and spiders that scuttled through the rooms as soon as the lights were turned off; cramped walk-ups with two people to a room and strange clumps of hair stuck to every drain and every cushion; tiny studio apartments with vindictive girlfriends and cruel boyfriends who always would stumble upon perfect excuses to leave me and take our shared goldfish or gerbil with them to their next live-in love affair; suburban split-levels with laminated posters in every common space that whined dirty a dish, clean a dish, for a happier home we wish. I snuck out of apartments and leases in the middle of the night sometimes to escape whatever toxic living environment I had found myself in at that time, only to land somewhere else disturbingly familiar.

Jean was my first roommate after Shiobhan ran out on me (and took my bunny Calvin) and I loved her for it. We lived together in a third floor apartment squeezed between two towering glass developments, with a tiny kitchen really only good for cooking quesadillas and a window seat that looked out on the intersection between the two busiest streets in town. Though the constant honking seeped through the cracks in the windows and floorboards, that space always felt sacred, ignited by something even calmer than a meditation room.

Jean worked in bakery back then, waking up before dawn to knead sourdoughs and thread pie crusts and coming home mid-afternoon, as the sun would begin to set, covered in flour and oil and blackberry jam. She was always baker-slash whatever creative whirlwind was visiting her in her dreams that month.

She was an acrylic painter –– when she would stay up late into the night sipping merlots, staining the floors with red wine and dark, muted paints, painting my portrait again and again but with light bulbs for eyes or salamanders crawling along in the background.

She was a henna artist –– when she would invite friends of friends of friends over to the apartment and decorate their arms and ankles and necks in long black snakes after I had scrubbed off the ink and been painted again one too many times.

She was a spoken word poet –– a weary period where she would drag me to whatever hip neighborhood bar or coffee shop was putting on that week’s open mic night. I never told her was I really thought of most spoken word artists –– how I hated the way the timbre of their voices rose and fell dramatically to convey mundane points, the way they paused for so many excruciating seconds to pull in an audience only to disappoint them with a string of gobbledygook. Lucky for me, she hung up her ironic scarf and poetry passions after just a couple months.

The glass blowing phase was my favorite, after she slept with a guy who owned a studio in the town over. Glass blowing made Jean feel calm and powerful, like she could dominate any element with a precision that yielded such beauty. After a few weeks, her creations grew from palm-sized glass beads with pockets of air burping on the edges to mosaic circles and kaleidoscopic pinwheels. I arranged the bowls and vases on every windowsill so when the sun peaked through the windows, the whole room would dance in blues, oranges, and pinks.

Then there were times when Jean was not visited by any colorful dreams, no spirit pushing her to make, make, make. Those were seasons when I would find the browning apple cores and half-empty bottles of gin growing on the kitchen counter and know that Jean was alone in a place that only I could reach her.

Despite the gray quiet that settled over the apartment during those times, it was then that I found my greatest sense of peace. While I loved Jean and all of her frenetic bursts of creation, I also feared I would never be taken by such a manic energy, never whispered so deep in my unconscious to be anything more than I already was.

“Shut up,” Jean would say, pushing me against the shoulder, “You’re mad brilliant. Something’s gonna come up and it’s gonna hit you like bam, you’re not even gonna know where it’s come from, it’s just be there and you’ll feel it and then you’ll know, ya know?”

I smiled and nodded and said, “I know, I know,” but I didn’t know and I still don’t whether or not anything brilliant is ever going to come from me.

But those hushed moments in our apartment were the only times when I felt like fully myself, no longer giving parts of myself away to whatever brilliance possessed her at the moment. I could float from room to room with my shoulders pushed back, a sense of urgency to my steps. At the grocery store, I looked each passerby square in the eyes and smiled slightly, the smile of a woman who knew that she was needed and she was loved and wanted everyone in the world to know it.

I conjured up my grandmother in these moments, with her unremitting well of advice. I sopped up her warm solemnity, the slight squint of her eyes, the light nod of her chin. This was thirty years of training by being her granddaughter, the one who always listened, never the daughter who couldn’t keep her feet on the same ground long enough to try.

I would knock on Jean’s door and push it open to find her curled up against the wall, her fingers fluttering along the bedspread needing to be put to work.

“Hey,” I would whisper, just loudly enough for her head to jerk in my direction. “I’m here if you need me.” Without waiting for her response, I would lie down beside her, wrapping my arms around her thinning middle and squeeze; this was a long-held maternal inheritance in my family –– the pressuring, the centering, the gut-quieting –– even my mother, in her few moments of presence, knew that this was the only way to pull me back into the world again when I felt so far away.

“It’s going to come back, Jean, I know it will. I know it doesn’t feel like it now and that’s all normal, that’s good, save some brilliance for the rest of us, okay?” I would chuckle a bit and wait for her cheeks to pink up to show that life was still kicking around in her. “The real brilliance is in the struggle anyways, right? Beauty through pain, that’s what makes real art.”

Beauty through pain, that was our mantra in those days. She would tell me that my beauty came from being from having to be my own mom so much of the time and I would remind her in these moments when I could try to be her mom too.

These riven moments always passed, they had to; Jean’s creative force was too tsunamic to be kept at bay for long, the wind always broke through whatever shutters she had built up. And when she did spring back to life, I would slink back into the shadows, sliding sluggishly through the hallway, averting eye contact as I hunted down discounted noodles and red sauce.