#Drew this thumbnail a back in 2021

[pleaseshutupaboutsatou]

Ajin Week 2024 - Day 7: Anything Goes

[authenticcadence18]

recently got an ask concerning art, instead of answering directly I wanted to talk a bit about my own journey as an artist!!!

I’ve been drawing on and off for more or less my whole life. But my artistic journey REALLY kicked off when I was 11 and caught the end of Across the Second Dimension on TV. Within like, four days of this happening, I drew Isabella over 20 times🤣. For the first time there was something I wanted to draw over and over again, I was so inspired! And Isabella is still one of my favorite characters to this day, when I want to draw she’s one of my go-tos.

From there on, I started drawing a lot more. Lots of PnF stuff of course but other things as well. Star vs the forces of evil was also a huge art inspiration for me, my style is likely a blend of those two shows.

I fell out of drawing for a bit, just bc life got busy. But!! in 2020, thanks to a certain world-stopping pandemic, I got back into phineas and ferb and started drawing again, partially as a way to cope and channel anxiety. My growth as an artist just from 2020-2021 is pretty astounding to me!!! And I grew like that primarily by drawing Phineas and Isabella over and over…and over🤣🤣. You CAN draw a ton of stuff to grow but you don’t have to to enjoy art as a hobby. Art isn’t my job, so I only need to learn as much as I need to create the pieces I want. And having that desire to draw certain characters or stories is a great inspiration to grow and expand as an artist!!

Another great catalyst for my growth as an artist was drawing thumbnails for MWCA videos in 2021-2022 (I honestly can’t remember if I drew anything for 2023, I don’t think I did tho). For the first time I didn’t have to come up with an entire idea from scratch, someone was giving me a baseline of what they wanted and I built off of that and responded to feedback. I ended up drawing things and pushing myself creatively in ways I likely never would have otherwise!!!! Like, backgrounds, I rarely draw them for myself but when it’s for a YouTube collab well I had to!! I’m really proud of all my Mwca work, heres just a few examples:

I’m 24 now, I don’t have as much time/energy to draw these days, but when I do I’m able to use those skills I gained from drawing characters I’m passionate about and collaborating with others. My advice to any aspiring artists seeing this post would be to follow your inspiration!!!! Draw the things you love. Draw them over and over. You WILL grow as an artist. You can take inspiration from artists you admire (just don’t trace their work and post it, haha!). I know I’ve done that!! It might take time. It took me, no joke, FOUR YEARS to be able to draw phineas’s head freehand in a way I liked. I just had to keep practicing and practicing till I got where I wanted to be.

I also think working with friends is a great way to grow as an artist! You of course need to be careful with who you interact with, esp if you aren’t an adult, I would not have interacted with the MWCA crew at all if I wasn’t an adult, in fact I didn’t make my tumblr and start finding online friends till I was 19😅😅. Just be mindful if you’re younger, be safe, maybe work with friends from school if you can! I used to do that when I was a teen.

[z-grist]

I forgot to share it here, but here's a storyboard piece I worked on a couple months back. Made it so I could finally add some more recent work to my portfolio. I actually started this 2 years ago back in 2021, but then got busy and never finished - I finally had some time to finish it so here it is!

Story & Characters are by me, all the backgrounds were done in Blender 3D (which was such a challenge to learn btw LOL)

Here are some other scraps underneath:

When I started this board, I already knew what characters I wanted to use - these are some ocs I've had for a while now - a bounty hunter and an outlaw (very much meant to be taking place in a sci-fi setting).

In retrospect, I don't think I needed to go and draw these very intricate character sheets lol. I did them mainly to apply to some character design positions a year back (that never happened).

Also, if you notice, I changed the bounty hunter's black glove to be on their right hand instead of their left in the actual board - when I was drawing the boards I realized that it would create some better compositions if the glove was on the other side lol. My foresight is still underdeveloped at times.

When it came to actual storyboarding - I usually started by writing down the script and listing the shots through text

Here's an example:

So you can see every shot is described by the type (a closeup, a medium shot, wide shot, etc) as well as a short description of what's happening, whether it's dialogue, an action or both.

This helps me visualize the scene without having to actually draw anything. This was a trick a professor taught me so that I didn't waste my arm (and time).

If you want to see more of the document here it is : X I had also included some references in there.

Also some sketches/thumbnails, I was trying to figure out the look of the environment.

"do more research on this part," the 2nd image says, whatever Past Me. These were just thoughts, in the end, I did go and gather a lot of industrial plant references online to properly figure out the environment. As I mentioned, I went and modeled some mockups on Blender 3D. On a side note, I don't think the mockups look that good, but they are just meant to be a stand-in for the environment - what's important is that they are clear and you can understand what's going on (Was I successful in that sense?)

Anyways, thanks for reading. I'm currently thinking of the next storyboard portfolio for me to do.

Here's a little bonus sketch that I drew 2 years ago that still makes me laugh:

[ennaku-sirri-da]

Hey man Yknow what I’m actually kinda curious about what the basic plot of Roseverse is ngl. I mean from what I’ve seen habit is a big ol Grumpus muppet kinda fellow(BASED AS HELL BTW) soo ermmm, lore. Plz? *Looks at you with big ol eyes*

Okay I was gonna reply to this with a whole comic but it's taking a wHILE and I don't wanna keep you waiting THAT long so. Here's an answer in text for now!!

Roseverse didnt start out as an AU. It was a bunch of loose ideas all the way back in late 2021 for an idea I was struck with like when that Greek dude with the bathtub and the gold cried EUREKA! Except, you know, instead of making a huge scientific discovery I just made a bunch of nerd shit instead. Which is SOOO Haiderrrr /lh /affectionate

The idea was " What if Habit and Kamal were childhood friends"? ( Plaintext: What if Habit and Kamal were childhood friends? ) And so I worked off that basic premise. I took Habits diary pages, analysed them, and drew and thought out what he'd be going through and looked like at the time, with Kamal as well to mutually play off of each other. I did this ALL with my very good friend @prrusten 's help, hell we didn't even mean to make something so big, we were just talking and having fun and hitting it off!

But yeah. Here we are...Almost 3 years later! And now it's become a whole AU called Roseverse, after its Flower Kid sona/insert, Rose T. Flower. But it's not actually about him HwjjskHAKSJSJ--and its branched out beyond just Habismal though TBH Gillis is still the MOST underdeveloped character in the whole thing LOL I'll think of ideas for you one day someday muscleman. It's changed a lot too. There was a phase with Mad Scientist Kamal and everything. I don't think I'll ever post everything aha! But I will surely share content while I can.

Infact one of the changes is Habit's design...! You've seen some ofthe newer refs as opposed to Grumpus looking Habit, he looks more like a marionette. I still dearly love the old design...but messy stuff just happened and I feel immensely wrong using it again for newer art now. So I needed a specific revamp to indicate change for me. I don't really wanna get into every detail but I'll make a appropriate post about it one day or like update my pinned when I'm ready and know.

Here's a little drawing for you in the meantime Sharko! An old one but I think it still carries the spirit of the whole thing:

[ ID: Simple styled and digital colored art of Dr Habit and Kamal Bora from Smile For Me. It is in mostly dulled purple and pink tones. Habits hair gives a burst of rose and pink against the other tones.

He is closing his eyes and has caught Kamal in a hug from behind, leaning into his head. He looks worried. Kamal looks back at him, visibly tired, but there is a spark in his eye. Here his hair is long and falling down.

Whitish-purple text reads ‘’We’re in this together.’’ Then more transparent, ‘’Not Alone’’ and finally in bold clear text, ‘’Dont forget.’’ end ID]

And a song I more newly associate with Roseverse vibes...

[Thumbnail ID: A screencap from the anime Clannad. A man kneels on the ground to tightly clutch a little girl who hugs back. The background is sheer white snow. End ID]

[ VD: The music sounds melancholic, with twinkling noises throughout, and a slowly played track with echoing ambience. End VD ]

-

Morning edit: Aw Sharko.. I'm sorry this happened right after I told you about it but I've decided Roseverse will be shutting down and I shall post no further content of it for the time being. I will still continue like, using this blog for S4M stuff and make fanart in the Canon style sometime later but yeah man... :") (teary smile emote)

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress #32-33✨

buckle up cause I actually did a lot the past two weeks lmao

Weekly Progress #32

Came up with mushroom jam rpg idea

Initial ID rest of SYVNH work

Thumbnail 10 SYVNH BGs

Designed new SYVNH sprites

Updated P-M expressions

Spooktober discussions

New list of P-M work to do

Thumbnailed 15 SYVNH CGs

Made VF jam outline

Finished VF jam script

Found music and sound effects for VF Jam

Attended Spooktober meet and greet

Thumbnailed VF art

Sketched VF sprites design

Fin 1 VF sprite

omg where do I start...

I'm not planning to join Mushroom Jam wait, it's like 3 months long?? I just might... but I had a mini-idea where I can test out Wolf RPG Engine so I might as well write down the idea and potentially make it--... I'm joining this jam in a couple months, aren't I? (derp) So far, I just have the concept idea in. I'll have to learn how to make what I want to do first. It'll just be a simple puzzle game.

All the remaining SYVNH pre-work has been done! Now to do the actual work...

I sped drew 10 BGs and 15CG thumbnails during lunch at work. Don't ask what happened with the Deli there. I had an image in mind, but the space started looking empty and then the angle got twisted to the top. I'll fix it when I start drawing digitally.

And some new sprite designs! :) ...That is all I'll say for now. Save the surprise for the full game. Or when I run out of advertising ideas at the end of the year.

P-M is short for a short game I've been working on and off (mostly off) since 2020. The full name will be Pre-Make. All the major work has been finished, but it got pushed to the side for a long time. The gameplay for P-M is actually the original test run for the gameplay I planned for SYVNH.

(The last update was 2021... I think that predates this blog...?!)

Hmm... My coloring style was pretty different back then...

And then, towards the end of the week, I found Velox Fabula jam. After a few hours of lamenting with other members of the devclub... I came up with a short idea for the game. I'll probably be writing a post mortem next week to better explain the thought process behind the game, but here are some concept art for the game :)

Weekly Progress #33

Finished VF sprites, BGs, CGs

Coded VF game

Finished VF gamepage

Found mushrooms I want to draw for mushroom jam

I squished it all together, but there were two sprites, 3 BGs, and 3 CGs finished from scratch this week.

You can play my entry, one last time. in browser here!

[monster-noises]

🙃 🐻 for the ask meme!

 Which is easier: faces facing left, right, or front view? Usually facing left, I find it a lot easier to draw things turned Away from my hand, hardest is straight on because I'm Always fucking up the jawline, so bad. 🐻 Your go-to things to draw when you need comfort? Self portraits honestly, I didn't draw Much between 2016-2021, but I drew a Lot of self portraits and it tends to be what I fall back on when I need to coddle my emotions a little bit. (or a lot a bit) Aside from that I usually fall back to whichever characters are on my mind the most at the moment.. and if we're talking just like.. self soothing by drawing on a scrap of paper it's stuff like.. random folds of fabric, cubes and various hard-edged shapes, skulls and skeletons and little thumbnails of winged figures in weird poses here's a fun little timeline of self portraits I've done! Since it's years end and a time for reminiscing anyway!

(set in ~roughly chronological order from 2016-2022)

[pioneeroverc-my-5000th-sideblog]

weekly fun stuff: HOLY SHIT IT'S OVER edition

so uh... not drawing another duo design again for a loooong time lol - at least not until I get it into my head that *you need to draw people with a horizon line in mind*. I spent ages troubleshooting the faces and I'm still not super happy with them, but I did at least learn some good things in the process that will hopefully help me in the future. Also pretty pleased at how I drew the bow in perspective (though the design is severely uninspired) - thank you Drawabox - and it's always a nice morale boost to see how much my rendering ability levels up without my ever trying to improve it, though I wish I could have this power for literally any other art skill instead xD Overall, though, this was just too much for my skill level and caused me severe frustration + totally drained my creative energy. I still haven't had a Video Game Day despite trying to schedule them this month because I literally never run out of ideas and have a severe case of FOMO when it comes to realising them (he says, with several Post-It notes on his monitor with ideas dating back to late 2021).

Anyway, I have a commission I need to check thumbnails for at the moment, and then a very quick (hopefully) FE doodle, and then I really am going to try not to draw anything for the rest of the day (even though I'm behind on my studies). Yes, I am a mess this week lol

[paigelts05]

[BLOOD] Defenceless guard [FNAF, Renegade AU]

https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/BLOOD-Defenceless-guard-FNAF-Renegade-AU-898533806

Published: Nov 21, 2021

Renegade File Server Location: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23843413

This was fun to thumbnail, but the amino master app shitting itself on me really made starting this a motivational nightmare, but I found motivation the next day and managed to do the sketch. Then I managed the linework. Something that's not in the thumbnail but is in the final is that one of mike's eyes are bloodied. I wanted to add this as 1: my paint.net thumbnails have little to no detail, and 2: I wanted to show the ghost that was in frame was possessing him. Something that I adore about the thumbnail that I made was that it conveyed everything that I wanted in the finished product: the implied struggle beforehand, the 'my fun day' drawings pinned to all heights of the wall, the worried ghost, Freddy's shadow looming over Mike. It made translating what was in my head onto physical paper a lot easier, as everything I wanted was already laid out, and I just had to copy it down. The only thing stopping me from finishing it digitally is that, well, my digital art is bad. And my trust for computers is minimal. Then when I drew the actual drawing, I somehow managed to capture what I thumbnailed in such a way that I'd call it perfect. I managed to get the looming shadow, the scared face, the ghost. I don't know how I managed it, but sometimes you've just got to wait a bit and you'll be able to draw something that you're proud of! Also I literally just wrote the fic last second as I had an idea just as I woke up to post this. =°•.🌹 Story 🌹.•°=

°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•🌹•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*° Mike clutched his arm as he sunk to the ground, his legs practically just giving in as he hit the cold tile floor. His breathing heavy yet fast as he attempted to calm himself, to no avail. Blood dripped out from his wounds, staining his skin, clothes, and hair a vicious hue of deep red to match the bloodshot state of his right eye. A striking blue spectre hovered by mike's side; a young boy - Frederico - who has never been good with real confrontation, looking between the man he posessed and the imminent threat that was heading thier way. They both were frozen in fear. Tears dripped down Mike's face as he stared at the approaching robotic bear, the shadow of its metal and fabric shell slowly shifted over him. He wanted to get up and run, but he didn't have the strength to get up. Frederico knew that his 'abilities' wouldn't work on machines, and the only 'skill' he had that could help was one that helped prevent death; not prevent damage. Frederico tried to stand between Mike and the approaching animatronic, but his attempts at diplomacy were ignored. "He's my friend!" And "leave me alone" were met by a blank advance, as if nothing had been said. Out of ideas, the kid skulked back to Mike's side, just as terrified as his host was. Mike was never one for weapons, and only used them as a last resort. He didn't have any hope that he had brought one with him today, and he was correct. He had nothing but a small knife - only good for cutting wires - on him, but that wouldn't do him much good. The animatronics shadow had now completely engulfed the duo, and all Mike could do was look up at the machine and hope that the damage it would decide to inflict wasn't too servere today. He was defenceless. °*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•🌹•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°•°*°

[bloodmooncc]

I posted 525 times in 2021

178 posts created (34%)

347 posts reblogged (66%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.9 posts.

I added 576 tags in 2021

#reblog - 220 posts

#ask - 86 posts

#tzr - 42 posts

#ts4 - 41 posts

#s4 - 38 posts

#bloodmoon rb - 34 posts

#sims4cc - 29 posts

#wip - 29 posts

#s4cc - 29 posts

#ts4cc - 28 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#i think i'll have to lie to tumblr and say that they misattributed my work or sum shit bc they dont let us report on behalf of otherse

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Dragula | Eyeliner

Here’s something small I made after returning from vacation #2. This was tricky to make; I had to use blender’s texture paint to get it to look right. Since school is starting again I won’t be posting cc as actively :<

Big gothy winged eyeliner

All ages except for baby

Feminine

Results vary depending on eye shape

4 swatches of black eyeliner (as shown above + an extra where the white waterline is at 50% opacity which I didn’t show bc I added it at the last minute lol)

Custom thumbnail

Disabled for random

DOWNLOAD (dropbox)

Don’t be fooled by the front angle previews. The inner and outer wings are longer than they look ;)

See the full post

1812 notes • Posted 2021-09-04 20:30:55 GMT

#4

❝Enoby❞ Hair

I guess this is my 1000 follower gift? I originally wanted to put this in a pack with a few other items to officially celebrate the milestone but couldn’t bring myself to do that bc im too impatient lol. Anyway thanks everyone <3

Long emo hair named after a goff icon. Oh and 2nd hair from scratch!!

Teen to elder

30 swatches; 18 EA + 12 bonus

Split dye overlay in facepaint (slider compatible) + tattoo categories

Note: for the overlays, the bonus dark brown swatch shows up in the wrong order in CAS and i couldn’t fix it :/ all of the swatches are there and working but just that one shows up in the wrong order

BGC

Hat chops

Tagged as feminine

somehow lower poly than my first shorter hair (7k)

DOWNLOAD (dropbox)

2278 notes • Posted 2021-04-02 19:30:45 GMT

#3

❝Dahlia❞ Preset Pack

Random pack of 3 presets. All are teen to elder, have custom thumbnails, and are disabled for random.

1. Body preset

Mostly changes leg shape, wider set breasts, suits medium to small sized sims.

Female only

2. Jaw preset

Wider jaw with a pointier chin

All genders

3. Lip preset

Bottom heavy with m-shaped upper lip

All genders

DOWNLOAD (dropbox)

3935 notes • Posted 2021-03-12 20:30:55 GMT

#2

Khaos | Makeup Set

Once in a blue moon, I make something that doesn’t involve a mesh.

I love that dirty grungey smudged look so I drew these a few months ago with only black swatches, forgot about it, then came back to make more swatches. This set is focused on dark colors so feel free to recolor idc.

Everything is toddler (go make creepy kids ig) to elder, unisex, disabled for random, and with custom thumbnails.

1. Khaos eyeshadow

Big and dramatic, inspired by Taylor Momsen’s early looks

28 swatches (Top row)

14 plain and 14 shimmery

2. Khaos eyeliner

Filled in corners and a slight outer wing

12 swatches (middle row)

3. Khaos lipstick

Blurred over the lip line, kinda like the lollipop lip trend

14 swatches (bottom row)

DOWNLOAD (dropbox)

Some of the color boxes look the same but they have different undertones i promise

4627 notes • Posted 2021-05-28 20:30:37 GMT

#1

❝Yujin❞ Hair

My first hair mesh completely from scratch! I thought I’d never join the dark side but my curiosity got the best of me.

Short wavy hime cut with bangs that kinda resembles a mullet

Teen to elder

BGC

Hat chops

Feminine, enabled for all genders (however there’s clipping on male sims T_T)

30 swatches; 18 EA + 12 bonus

Egirl strands overlay in facepaint (slider compatible!) and tattoo categories

Inspo

DOWNLOAD (dropbox)

4840 notes • Posted 2021-03-05 20:30:29 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[cloverinblue]

2021 Year in Review but Ajin 

--Since it's what I pretty much focused on this year.

This is probably because it ended in Feb 2021 and that made me want to revisit and wander with these characters that I first fell in love with back in 2016.

For this year, I will go into detail about the different pieces here. Extremely tldr!!

January: In this comic Naomi is on friendlier terms with Tanaka and he visits her and is happy to tell her he can finally die and she cries because she cares for him.

In the beginning of the year Naomi cameoed in a chapter so I became pretty invested in Naomi and Tanaka again. However, I guess I see their relationship as a painful one because there's a huge push and pull of power between them. Like, I don't think I can ever forget how she just braced herself for death the 2nd time she encounters Tanaka. She must have felt so much inner pain and guilt. Her falling in love with Tanaka would just mess with her mental state for real. I don't think she'd be very comfortable with those feelings and I feel like Tanaka would be utterly bewildered and feel sorry for her. Because of this, they became pretty difficult for me to write in a way that wasn't dark.

The rest of the months are below

February: In this short comic, Tanaka and Izumi see a movie together and Izumi thought it was great and Tanaka thought it was pretty meh

Created after the end of the last chapter of Ajin, I was so shocked that Izumi and Tanaka ended up living together. TBH, being real, I think Sakurai was making a suggestion of them ending up together. I could talk about why I think that but that should probably be its own post. Also, in the end, Sakurai deliberately left it ambiguous anyway, so I decided to explore that. I love both characters and I think they have a lot of potential to be pretty funny people to be around.

March: In this comic, Tanaka and Izumi walk home from a visit to the conbini and act like kids around each other

At this time, I was having a lot of fun imagining how Tanaka and Izumi would be as roommates and my imagination was demanding for this to exist because I wanted other people to see it too. I think the origin of this kind of thinking for their dynamic came from the scene after the car they were both in went flying (after Satou's explosion) and they woke up. Izumi is pounding Tanaka's chest to wake him up and he does and he gets irritated about it lol - in fact they both get irritated with each other for multiple moments. It was good to see Tanaka get a little feisty again after being so sad so long... :'( Also, it was surprising to see cool, calm, collected Izumi get snappy with someone lol.

For this comic I was trying out a new way of creating comics by starting with a script. I would write out dialogue and simple sentences describing what's happening. In this case, for this comic, it was pretty successful and it made it easier to get to thumbnailing. I would like to say I've adopted this as a part of my process but not really... Sometimes I have an idea that's really visual and I'm not great at being descriptive with writing so it can be difficult to work with sometimes.

April: One of my favorite pieces this year for sure; a family-like picture of Satou's squad.

I drew this because I seriously missed them!! For so long the manga shifted to Kei trying to defeat Satou, that anyone reading the manga didn't get to spend a lot of time with these guys since they were long broken up and newer readers weren't waiting from week to week with them together. Satou squad was probably like a blip since the manga is pretty fast-paced, but man, I seriously loved them... I love how Takagen were always joking around together and getting on Tanaka's nerves. I love how Okuyama was the most competent and valuable member of the team -- and that he gave serious hints on how self-aware he was of everything. TBH I think he was the only member of the team that could see that Tanaka's loyalty was fraying. I also love how Tanaka is really trying to hard to get better at his shooting and is in serious denial over his real feelings over everything. I also loved that Satou was shaking his head at the guys leaving a mess in the fridge lol. I love how they're literally just a bunch of guys that Satou picked off the street. I love how they're not really your typical bishonen. I love how they're misfits and don't seem to fit in society. I love Satou Squad so much but like many great things, they came to an end! Satou squad forever in my heart...

May: In this comic we go back in time when Naomi and Tanaka first knew each other.

I've always wanted to spend time on a comic from this time period and dwell on the horror of it. Like, Tanaka's a person and the people around Naomi seem to turn that off but I don't think she can but she's going through the motions to do that anyway. Thinking from Tanaka's POV, a person speaks back to him finally and then, like everyone else, they continue on like nothing happened - that's got to hurt. Tosaki's comment that he thought it was odd that a secretary like her was targeted, in retrospect, was probably more about Keiichi Kai's weird practice of having his secretary involved with human experiments then it was about her standing out as someone Tanaka particularly hated. Nevertheless, this comic was a nod to that comment.

June: This comic is a prequel to a comic I made in January where Tanaka came to stay with Naomi. They meet again at time between the defeat of Satou and the last chapter.

This comic was planned parallel to the May comic. I think I wanted to juxtapose Naomi and Tanaka then and 'now' and confront the weirdness of Naomi inviting Tanaka to stay with her a bit and Tanaka being like, you know what okay. Like how could that happen?? I think Naomi is bewildered by how everything turned out and is trying to reconcile in a rare moment of alone time. Tanaka is wandering a wanted man and is, for the first time in a long time, alone with his thoughts which is probably not very fun... I think him approaching Naomi is kinda weird and comes from him wanting to revisit the decisions he made at Forge - a landmark in shaping his identity. Naomi is surprised to see Tanaka and tries to resist that feeling and overcorrects by inviting him to stay. lol, this is what I wanted to convey. I think Tanaka is so handsome in this comic!

July: This drawing is from a set I drew for Ajin week. This is a revisit to the early 2000s Ajin high school AU I created a while back. Satou and Tanaka are in a video store renting Die Hard. Naomi is a cameo as a bored employee.

You would not believe how tough it was to find a good picture of old Blockbuster fixtures I could put in the background. I even tried googling what kind of movies would be in the action section so I could add more variety to the DVDs behind Satou and Tanaka. I love this Tanaka so much. He's cute and grumpy. Satou's young here because I wanted to see young Satou and Tanaka interact. Also I think Tanaka would have a little crush on him but not really realize it until later in his life.

August: In this comic Tanaka and Okuyama have an interaction after meeting up again. Tanaka is working at a ramen shop and Okuyama's working at an office.

This comic comes after an Ajin week comic I made where they meet up again and I fell in love with the idea and it kinda snowballed from there lol. This comic came from one of those initial script drafts I wrote about times Tanaka called Okuyama smart. It was going to get progressively more romantic but then I had to take a break because I was contributing to a zine at the time. By the time I came back, my ideas went a different direction.

I never imagined I would spend so much time with these two but idk I love the idea of a 2nd impression after a long time of not seeing each other and I can't help but think of the different ways they'd connect (shared experience, loneliness, familiarity, identity, etc). I think manga Okuyama is pretty emotionally mature and self-aware but he restrains himself a lot - maybe because it's less painful to be that way. Meanwhile Tanaka wears his heart on his sleeve and is a person going through sooooo much change after what's happened to him. Actually, that's something I love about him - that he's kinda going through a coming of age so late in life.

Anyway, I could go on but I'll save it for another time.

September: This comes from an illustration where I drew Tanaka in different clothes.

It's kind of like a study I guess since I was exploring what he might look in some nice clothes. Part of it was to prepare for a future comic and another part of it was to get used to drawing him with short hair.

Japanese day-to-day dress is different from in the US so I had to google in Japanese to the best of my ability and search for outfits that way. TBH I think in day to day outfits, he'd dress more sporty but he's definitely a guy who wants to present in a way that makes him look good. I feel like he's the kind of guy that uses clothing as an extension of his identity a lot more than most. If he's going on a date, he's gonna probably dress a little like he's in a drama lol. Also, maybe I'm self-indulging a bit lol

October: This comic is about Okuyama and Tanaka going on a group date and discovering they have a connection that's unique to them.

This could be the longest comic I've made at 10 pages.

I think Okuyama is a guy who tries hard to protect himself and I think he'd feel conflict about being friends with Tanaka since he's a connection to his shady past (a liability lol). Additionally, I think it's hard for him maintain connections in general as evidenced by him confessing that there's not really anybody he really cares about towards the end of his appearance in the manga. I think he probably would have no issue saying hi and bye to Tanaka. This comic is about making that harder for him lol. He's re-integrated into society - as they would say - in an effort to blend in and not really stand out but I don't think he really loves that very much so maybe it's kind of exciting to see Tanaka again.

I think Tanaka would be drawn to him to as a person who he shares a lot of experiences with and possibly as another person he can be open with (I think Izumi would be the other person). But, I think he would leave Okuyama alone if he seemed to want that.

So, this comic is partly about dealing with the tenuous aspect of their relationship.

I think my favorite part is where Okuyama talks about himself.

November: This comes from a panel in a comic where Okuyama and Tanaka have a conversation and settle some matters.

Eventually, I think they would need to settle matters between them and what better time then while making some late night eats. I feel Okuyama knows that the only person who could have given info about the hideout would be Tanaka but I think he'd realize that it was out of desire to stop Satou which is something he also enables for Kei's team. So, they both wanted to stop Satou, but still lol - Okuyama had to think fast about how to make his escape.

With Tanaka, on the other hand, it's more ambiguous. Rereading, I think Okuyama was possibly aware of what Satou was planning to do since he had a part to play in it; perhaps he also knew that Satou would use Tanaka as a decoy. In this comic he's acknowledging that he's not exactly innocent here either.

This comic is done in a style that's super fast for me to draw to completion. Thinking hard about arranging panels in a set dimension is more difficult then amorphous blobs I can move around. The danger is it becoming difficult to read though.

December: This an illustration from my Ajin SS Tanaka x Okuyama gift

Its so nice to indulge and draw them being close and intimate with each other without thinking too much about the context which is what I do a lot these days. One of my favorite things to show visually is contrast and it's a reason why I drew that first image of the two of them as they were in canon. I also drew it because I worry my hand is a little strong drawing them as their future selves that they might not be recognizable lol.

I had wanted to do a comic but I was running out of time so I thought I might as well illustrate since I do miss it a lot.  It became one of those story-telling sets of illustrations I like so much. I wanted to sort of echo a set of lovey-dovey drawings I did for Monster's Grimmer/Tenma. A while back someone told me that set of drawings really affected them positively and it was very touching to read - I thought to myself, it's a shame I don't draw like that anymore so I wanted to try it again.

I think I refrain from drawing like that because I worry about it not being convincing - not just to the audience but to myself too. All this comics stuff is probably a roundabout way of convincing myself into believing what I'm drawing.

Anyway, for some reason, it's easy with Okuyama & Tanaka - probably bc I think about it a lot.

And that’s it! This year, I integrated ipad use into my workflow. In fact, I almost exclusively draw with it. It’s easier on my posture and I love the flexibility it provides. I’m fully drawing with Clip Studio now after years with Paint Tool Sai. The comics features in Clip Studio really do a lot to make making comics easier to do. I’m still refining my work process but I can say I’ve grown a lot!

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

the easiness of loving you

Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: Janus, Remus, Patton Rating: Teen & up Relationships: Dukeceit, pre-Intrualiceit, mentioned Creativitwins, mentioned Analogical Warnings: Language; implied sexual content; alcohol mention; sleep deprivation mention; polyamphobia mention; Roman accidentally behaves in an asshole-ish way off-page.  Word count: 6161

Read on AO3!

My writing masterpost

Starlight Universe masterpost

Dukeceit Week 2021 start - previous - here - next - masterpost

Summary: Three firsts and one very lovely last that Janus and Remus experienced together.

Notes: Day 7 of Dukeceit Week 2021! I may be way late to tag @dukeceitweek  but I am very proud of finally getting this done—I was struggling with some IRL stuff and I’m very happy to have finally completed this last piece! Takes place in my Starlight Universe, where each piece can be read without any context. Janus uses they/them pronouns in the first three scenes and he/they in the final scene; Patton uses only he/him throughout this fic. 

-- 

The first official date Remus and Janus went on together was to the aquarium.

Sure, there had been that game of Spin the Bottle a few weeks back; and frequent texts back and forth since then; and the wonderfully eventful trip last week to the skate park with Logan and Virgil, when Remus and Janus had officially gotten together; and the extremely fun few hours after that when Janus and Remus discovered their friends had ditched them, and so they had gone back to Remus’s dorm and… gotten to know each other a little better; and then even more frequent texts and phone calls after that. But they technically had yet to go on an actual date.

And, stupidly, Janus was feeling nervous about it. Which was pointless, honestly—why should they feel so nervous about just spending time with Remus, talking and looking at fish and maybe holding hands? They had already spent probably multiple hours with his tongue practically down their throat. Not to mention… other things. It was stupid to feel so nervous about a simple, silly little date. They were well past worrying that spending time with him wouldn’t go well. Hell, Remus even already knew they were autistic, and had responded fantastically well, and apparently he and his brother both had ADHD, so there wasn’t even much to worry about in that area.

But. All the same. Janus was nervous. Jittery, anxious nervousness, manifesting itself in restless energy that they couldn’t stim away, fingers tapping on the nearest surface, thoughtlessly nibbling at the skin next to their thumbnail until it bled and they made a face and wrapped all their fingertips in bandaids to stop themself, wrapping strands of their hair around their fingers and tugging, and on and on. They were fully ready to go almost two hours before it was time to leave—dressed in a clingy black top with a v-neck that showed off their collarbones and black skinny jeans with neat rips in the knees—so they sat at their desk and jiggled their leg and pulled up the online portal for their classes.

“Dude, what is wrong with you?” Janus’s roommate, an overly friendly fellow pre-law student named Gary whose use of Janus’s correct pronouns was spotty but not nonexistent, asked after perhaps an hour of Janus completely failing to focus on homework.

“Nothing,” Janus snapped venomously. “Leave me alone.”

“Jeez. Chill out.” He held up his hands peaceably and backed off; thankfully, he gave them space afterwards without attempting to strike up more conversation.

At last, two minutes before the time Janus and Remus had agreed to meet up, their phone vibrated with a text from Remus.

Remus: Im outside the dorm 😝 Whenever ur ready, no rush

Janus drew in a long breath, responded with a single thumbs-up emoji, and grabbed their wallet and a black denim jacket in case they got cold—which was likely, even though it was sunny outside and only early October. Janus got chilly easily.

“You going somewhere?” Gary inquired from where he was sprawled on the top bunk with his phone.

“Yes,” Janus said shortly.

“Cool, want company?” He pushed himself up on one elbow.

“No. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Janus shut the door, ignoring the disappointed look on Gary’s face, and made their way downstairs and out of the building.

Sure enough, Remus awaited them, leaning against one of the trees on the lawn outside with his hands in his pockets, wearing torn jeans with fishnets underneath and an olive green crop top over a black binder, cut high enough to show off both the high waist of the fishnets and his belly button piercing. He lit up as soon as he saw them, hurrying over and linking his arm through theirs. “Hi, baby!” He leaned up to kiss their cheek.

Janus’s cheeks warmed at the nickname. “Hi,” they said softly, putting their hand on his where it rested on their other arm. “How are you?”

“I’m good! Excited to go see some fish.” Remus grinned up at Janus as the pair began walking towards the bus stop. “And to watch you watch fish, I bet you’re gonna be really cute. Not that you’re ever not hot as fuck, but you know.”

“Do you ever stop flirting?” Janus asked, not bothering to wipe the smile off their face.

“Nope!” Remus seized their hand and lifted it to his lips. “You’re too cute for that. Not unless you want me to, I mean. But, like, nah.”

“I—I don’t mind, no,” Janus said, when he looked expectantly at them. “It’s—nice.”

“Good! I agree.” Remus beamed. “Wanna go find the fish now?”

Perhaps half an hour—and several rooms full of fish—later, Remus declared, “Oh, my god, bringing you here was the best idea ever.”

Janus startled and glanced away from the tank, which they had practically been glued to, eyes wide as they took in the soothing watery light and the gentle motions of the fishes. “How so?” they asked, trying to sound nonchalant and internally wondering if they perhaps ought to be paying more attention to Remus, at their side with his hand tucked into theirs, rather than to the fish, however engrossing those might be.

“You’re fucking adorable,” Remus explained. “Can I take pictures of you? You look so fucking happy to watch critters swimming around, it’s the actual cutest shit I have ever seen. Makes me wanna kiss you. And other things.” He leaned up and whispered something in their ear that made them choke on air and glance around to make sure nobody else was within earshot.

“Pictures are fine, I suppose,” Janus agreed. “And—the other things also sound nice, later.”

Remus wiggled their eyebrows suggestively, making Janus’s cheeks flush. “Good to know,” he said sweetly. “C’mon, wanna go look at the octopodes?” They gestured towards the next room.

“The… what?”

“It’s the technically most correct plural of octopus,” Remus explained, bouncing on their toes. “It’s from Greek or something. Octopi is actually the least correct of all, and octopuses is in the middle—it’s correct, but it’s newer. My brother hates ‘octopodes,’ so I use it as much as possible.”

Janus laughed. “Very well. Show me the octopodes.”

“Oh, fuck yeah!” Remus squeezed Janus’s hand and tugged them towards the door to the room.

If Janus hadn’t been so busy holding Remus’s hand and laughing as he suggested terrible (and mostly inappropriate) names for the different creatures in the tanks, perhaps they might have thought back to their nerves from earlier in the afternoon. If they hadn’t been so distracted by Remus tugging them into the darkest corner of the jellyfish room and kissing them silly, they might have laughed to themself and wondered how they could possibly have been nervous about something as easy—and wonderful—as being around Remus.

But Janus was busy lacing their fingers through Remus’s and pulling his hand up to their lips to press a gentle kiss to it, and busy pointing at a particularly brightly colored fish and saying “that’s you,” and busy reveling in the way that Remus looked equally starry-eyed after both interactions, and Janus was altogether far too busy with important matters like these to even remember that they had been worried.

***

The first time they said “I love you” to each other was an accident.

It was almost the end of first year; finals week was nearing at an alarming rate, and summer break beckoned invitingly—but summer break also meant moving out of the dorms they’d settled into so well, and spending a summer apart, and Remus was, surprisingly, by far the more antsy of the two of them about this idea.

“I just don’t like it,” he said for the thousandth time, sprawled on Janus’s chest and tracing his finger back and forth along their collarbones. They were in Remus’s dorm, since it was Saturday and his roommate went home on weekends, and the pair of them had been cuddling in his bed for quite some time now.

“It’s not that long,” Janus repeated patiently. “And we can FaceTime. And I think I can talk my parents into letting me have people over, if you want to come visit.”

“I know,” Remus mumbled against their skin. “But I’ll miss you. ’N it scares me.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Janus said. “I promise.” They stroked their fingers through his hair. “And Roman and I are roommates next year, so it’s not like you’ll be able to get away from me then. We’ve already signed the housing contract, and everything.” They did their best to inject some levity into their tone.

There was a pause, silence too heavy.

“But what if you wanna get away from me?” Remus said desperately.

Janus frowned. “I’m not going to,” they said, wrapping their arms a little more tightly around him. “I happen to enjoy your presence in my life, thank you.”

Remus’s hand crept up to cling to their shoulder. “How much?” he said, in a small, pleading tone.

Janus’s brows furrowed. This nervousness and lack of confidence wasn’t like Remus. He’d been jittery like this all week, and even a little bit for a few weeks before, and this was frankly getting out of hand, but Janus couldn’t fathom what the root of the problem was to get at solving it.

They cupped the side of his face in their hand and gently tugged it up for a kiss, tangling their fingers firmly in his hair and reaching with their other hand to find one of his and lace their fingers tightly together.

He clung to their hand and kissed them back desperately, as if seeking for an answer to some unspoken but terribly important question.

“So much,” Janus said quietly as they broke apart. “I like you so much, Remus.”

For some reason, this made Remus look like they were about to cry. “Yeah,” they mumbled. “Yeah, I know.” They leaned in and kissed Janus again, quick and hard, then pushed themself to roll off of Janus’s chest and sit up. “I gotta tell you something.”

Janus blinked and sat up as well. “Okay.” Their mind raced, wondering what on earth this could possibly be about, pulse skyrocketing with anxiety.

Remus twisted their hands together, playing with one of the rings on his fingers. “I—um—so I—I, um—” He swallowed and looked over at Janus. “I like you so much, too, okay? You’re—you’re the absolute best partner, you are, you’re fucking perfect, I—” He broke off and swallowed again, looking absolutely terrified.

“What do you want to tell me?” Janus asked, their voice too loud even with how quietly they spoke, trying so hard to shove down an answering terror because it felt too much like this was heading for some catch, some but… that would push them off a terrible cliff, and they had no idea where Remus was heading but the expression of fright on his face filled Janus’s stomach with dread.

“Right.” Remus nodded and pressed his lips together to stop the trembling. “So—I—I’ve been, um, thinking—or, fuck, I guess… questioning? For a—a while now—and—oh, fuck it.” He drew in a sharp breath. “Um, I think I’m polyamorous.” He did not meet their eyes, desperately fidgeting with the rings on his hands.

Janus blinked. “Is… that all?” they asked after a minute, cautious and curious.

Remus’s mouth worked, and he nodded. “And I—I promise it’s not anything like you’re not enough for me, or anything,” he said quickly, sounding desperate still and practically begging, “you’re fucking amazing, I—you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I swear, I just—”

“Remus,” Janus interrupted, reaching for both of his hands and clutching them.

“We don’t—I don’t even have to do anything about it, I don’t really like anyone else right now, I don’t need to date other people if you don’t want me to, I just—I just had to tell you now that I figured it out, I—” Remus’s voice was climbing higher and speeding up, sounding more and more panicky.

“Remus,” Janus repeated insistently, and Remus cut off in an abrupt hiccup of breath.

“Yeah?” he asked. Small. Subdued. Wrong.

“That’s great,” Janus said.

There was a beat of silence.

“What?”

Well, and didn’t the startled tone to Remus’s voice just about break Janus’s heart?

“That’s great, darling,” Janus repeated, squeezing his hands. “I’m so happy for you to have found that out about yourself.”

“O—oh,” Remus said, his voice very wobbly indeed. “Okay—okay, cool, uh—that, that’s neat.”

Janus tugged at his hands, and he easily scrambled forward across the little space between them right into Janus’s lap, arms sliding about Janus’s waist and face nuzzling into the crook of their neck.

Janus pretended not to hear Remus’s sniffle or feel the hot dampness of tears against their skin. “Remus?” they said quietly.

“Hm?”

Janus took a breath, rubbing one hand against the bare skin of Remus’s back below his crop top to ground themself. “I’m polyam too. Or—I’d like to be,” they whispered, heart thumping at saying so aloud.

Remus gulped and lifted his head, wiping his eyes and nose on the back of his hand all in one gesture. “You—wait, really?”

Janus bit the inside of their lip and nodded without meeting Remus’s eyes, reaching up to tuck some of Remus’s hair behind his ear. “Yeah. I’ve known for a while now.”

Remus sniffled loudly and wiped at their nose again. “Wow.” He laughed shakily. “And here I was scared you’d be mad.”

Janus shook their head and pressed their forehead to his. “I’m not mad at all. Darling, is this what’s had you so worked up this week?”

“Yeah.” Remus closed his eyes. “I, I told Roman and he got weird about it, and he’s never done that before when I came out about any other thing. And it made me scared that you’d—I dunno—” He broke off with a grimace.

“Roman’s an ass, then,” Janus said at once. They touched Remus’s cheek gently, wiping away leftover dampness from their earlier tears. “You didn’t think I’d break up with you?”

“I dunno! I was scared you wouldn’t get it and you’d think I was breaking up with you, mostly. With the timing of it being so close to summer, and the way people talk about polyamory, and all.”

“Oh, darling,” Janus murmured, cradling Remus’s face in their hands.

He reached up to cover their hands with his. “’M gonna be okay in a minute,” he mumbled. “Guess I’m glad I got myself all worked up over nothing. Way better than being right.” They turned their head slightly to press a kiss to one of Janus’s palms. “You never told me you’re polyam.” They spoke without judgement in their voice; simply a neutral, curious tone.

Janus winced anyway. “I haven’t really told anyone.”

Remus tilted his head to the side. “Were you planning to, or?”

“I….” Janus grimaced. “To be quite honest, I think I was planning to never talk about it to anyone, and pretend I wasn’t.”

Remus frowned, concern evident on his face. “Janny, baby, repression isn’t good,” he said, kissing their hand tenderly once more.

Janus sighed. “I know.” They were silent for a moment. “I only ever told one person before. In high school. He—was my boyfriend at the time. And then he broke up with me a week later and told the entire school it was because I’d cheated on him. When I hadn’t. So then I stopped talking about it.”

Remus frowned, tugging Janus somehow even closer, his hands coming up to wrap around them and tangle firmly in their hair. “That’s shitty,” he said firmly.

“It was,” Janus agreed, closing their eyes.

Remus kissed their forehead, lips pressing softly against Janus’s skin. “You’re too cute to ever feel shitty about yourself, okay?”

Janus let out a soft huff of laughter. “Pot, kettle.” A thought occurred to them. “Do I need to harass Roman for you?”

“Huh? Oh.” Remus squirmed, looking uncomfortable. “I dunno. He was—he was trying really hard to be cool about it when I told him, but I could tell he felt really weird about it and was doing a bad job hiding it. But, like. He was trying to hide it. Making an effort to make me feel safe. Even if it didn’t work. So I dunno if I’m mad or not about it.”

Janus pursed their lips. “Let me know,” they said after thinking this over. “I’m happy to make him regret his entire life, if you want.”

Remus snickered. “Cute. Dunno if he has the braincells to feel regret, though.”

Janus raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I can be quite intimidating.”

“…I’ll keep you posted,” Remus decided at last. “I’m kind of hoping he’ll get over it and I can just forget about it, you know?”

“That’s fine,” Janus agreed, although they privately felt that it was not fine at all and that Roman deserved at least a cold shoulder until he got over himself. But it was Remus’s decision and Remus’s brother, and Remus was far more important than Roman.

Remus nodded. “Thanks, baby,” he mumbled. “Love you.”

“I love you too,” Janus responded without thinking.

There was utter silence as the moment sank in. Janus was suddenly very, very aware of every square inch where Remus was pressed against them and their heart beating loud in their chest and Remus drawing in a sharp breath as he realized what he’d said. What they’d both said.

“Oh, wow,” Remus began, sounding incredibly flustered, and Janus cut them off by dragging them into an impulsive, clinging kiss, mouths warm against each other as Remus half-tensed for the barest second before relaxing and enthusiastically kissing them back.

“Gonna be real,” Remus breathed as they parted, “I did not know it was gonna be okay for me to say that.”

Janus nuzzled their nose against Remus’s cheek. “Oh?”

“You get shy about things like that,” Remus said. “Didn’t know how you’d feel about it.”

Janus considered this. “Did you mean it?”

“What? That I love you?”

Janus’s cheeks flushed. “Yes.”

“I meant it so much, baby,” Remus breathed at once. He touched their cheek reverently and wound a strand of their hair about his finger. “I love you lots and lots.”

Janus nodded. “Then I feel good about it.” They closed the bare inch or two of space between their mouth and Remus’s once more, kissing him slowly. “I love you,” they whispered against his lips.

Remus beamed. “Oh, I’m going to tell you I love you so much now,” he said eagerly, surging forward and knocking Janus backwards onto the bed as he peppered their face with kisses. “I love you, I love you, I love you and love you and love you and—”

As Janus lay there, pinned beneath Remus and giggling helplessly as they tried to catch his lips with theirs to kiss him again, they found that they had no complaints about the new situation.

***

The first time Janus and Remus both had a crush on the same person, it was a little bit of a disaster, not that either of them could have done anything about it.

They were midway through their senior year of college, and Patton had dropped by the apartment, as he often did, to hang out with Janus and Roman. Roman had left for a class partway through Patton’s visit, and Janus and Patton had wound up impulsively baking cookies together. All of which was fairly normal. What wasn’t normal was that when Patton had helped Janus tie their hair back into a ponytail and told them their hair was lovely, Janus’s stomach had done a very unexpected flip.

And now it had been a week and a half, and they hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Patton’s soft little hands in their hair or how even though his hands felt very different from Remus’s hands they had still felt just as good and—well, this surprise crush was getting a little ridiculous at this point, was the point.

Theoretically, this wasn’t a problem. Janus and Remus had both talked about boundaries a lot over the years, and both knew exactly what they were comfortable with. Remus had actually dated a few other people after they’d established an open relationship, although they had never been people Janus was interested in and most of them had been brief relationships; and besides dating, Remus had hooked up with lots of people for a while. So none of this was new territory, really. And Janus had wanted another partner for a while now, a soft funny wistful longing feeling; there just… hadn’t ever been anybody they really felt interested in to focus that feeling on.

Until now.

“Reem?” Janus asked. They were lying on his bed with their head in his lap; he was sitting cross-legged and playing with their hair with one hand while scrolling through an online reading for a class on his laptop with the other hand.

“Hm, baby?” Remus responded absently.

“I think I have a crush on a guy.”

“Oh my god, really?” Remus looked down, giving them much more of his attention, eyes alight and curious. “Is he cute? Tell me everything.” His other hand joined the first where it was soothingly combing through Janus’s hair.

“Really cute,” Janus said, and, encouraged by Remus’s response, added, “Um, it’s Patton.”

“No fucking way.” Remus’s eyes widened. “Me too.”

Janus blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, uh,” Remus sounded sheepish, “have for a while now.”

“Really?” Janus asked, flummoxed.

“Yeah, uh—remember when you and Roman went out of town for that class, and Pat checked in on me?”

“Oh. Yes.” Janus pressed their lips together.

“Yeah, um, I, uh. I may have not mentioned this before, but I just—and you can’t be mad at me, okay?”

Janus narrowed their eyes. “What did you do?”

“Okay, so, I kind of maybe didn’t sleep for the first… mmm… twenty-eight hours after you left?” Remus grinned sheepishly.

“Oh, my god, what?” Janus half sat up, panic thrumming through their veins. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I’m fine. I promise I’m fine!” Remus said quickly. “Please don’t freak out.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Janus demanded, distressed.

“So you wouldn’t freak out. Like you’re doing right now. You felt bad enough about having to leave me alone, I didn’t wanna make it worse.” Remus wrinkled his nose. “I tried, but waking up alone was, um, really bad. So then I tried to just not sleep until you got back. It, mmm, didn’t go very well.”

Janus made a distressed noise, clutching Remus’s hand in both their own.

“Yeah, I know, I know. Bad idea.” Remus’s voice took on a slight annoyed bite. “All the options were bad, though.”

Janus winced. “I suppose.”

“Yeah.” Remus drew in a long breath and let it out. “Anyway, Pat came by on the second day, and he was like ‘oh my god are you okay,’ and he took away my monster energy, and then he stuck around while I took a nap on the couch for, like, way too many hours. And he promised not to tell you how bad it was, so you wouldn’t freak out. Which you’re not allowed to get all passive aggressive at him about now that you found out, by the way, since I made him do that.”

Janus huffed. “Fine.” They kissed his knuckles. “I wish you’d told me, though.”

“I’m telling you now, aren’t I? But anyway—yeah, uh, I think maybe I’d had some feelings for him before that I hadn’t thought about, but I kind of figured it out after that. I dunno. Something about a cute boy getting all protective and huffy and ordering me to take care of myself and promising he’d keep my nightmares away got to me, I guess.” Remus rolled their eyes, a small grin on their face. “What was it for you?”

Janus’s cheeks warmed. “I—he—” They hid their face in their hands.

“Ooh, now I’m interested,” Remus teased, gently lifting one hand away. “What happened with the pretty boy, baby?”

Janus made a muffled, wordless whining noise. “He helped me fix my hair,” they mumbled after a minute, face hot. “And it—was nice.”

“Oh, that makes so much sense,” Remus said, a grin spreading across their face. “Of course it was the hair for you.”

“Shut up!” Janus hid their face again.

Remus snickered and gently pushed Janus’s hands away from their face once more. “You’re so cute,” he cooed. “I bet you got all pretty and flushed, huh?” He wound their hair around his own fingers and tugged, making Janus stifle a noise of pleasure. “Imagine if he braided it for you,” they said idly, tugging again and guiding Janus’s head up until they could kiss Janus and swallow the nearly involuntary whimper they let out.

The conversation very swiftly turned away from Patton after that, and towards more of the interesting noises Remus could draw from Janus, and then towards further, highly enjoyable, activities of a related nature.

Quite some time later, Remus pressed a protective kiss to Janus’s forehead as they lay on his chest. “Do you think we should talk to him about it?” he asked.

Janus, who was now feeling slightly dazed, rather sleepy, and very happy, took a minute to process the sentence. “What?” they mumbled at last, blinking up at him.

“Patton. About both of us liking him. See if maybe he’d be interested.”

“Oh.” Janus struggled to form a coherent response; they were not particularly helped by the way Remus was running a hand soothingly up and down their back, or playing with their hair with his other hand, but they weren’t exactly complaining about either of these things. “I… maybe. Do you want to?”

“I think so,” Remus said, yawning. “I mean, if you’re down. I think he’d be really fun to date. I like him a lot. And it could be really nice to be in a polycule. What do you think?”

“I… feel nervous about it,” Janus admitted, wrinkling their nose. “But—I would like it, also.”

“Great,” Remus said happily, pressing a kiss to the tip of their nose. “Let’s do it! See if we can snag a cute boyfriend!”

Janus laughed softly. “Fine. Whatever you say, darling. Next time we see him?”

“Hell yeah,” Remus agreed.

But the next week, Patton asked Roman out, and Roman said yes. Remus didn’t speak to his brother for a whole five days.

***

The last day it was just Remus and Janus—not that either of them knew it at the time—was a good day.

It was a very welcome day, to be honest. It had been a stressful few months for everyone—well, everyone except Virgil and Logan and their perpetual practically-married bliss. Not that Janus was bitter or anything over how those two had avoided entangling themselves in this drama. Obviously not.

When, five months ago, Roman had come out as aromantic and he and Patton had broken up, things had been… awkward, to say the least, between the two of them and Remus. Of course, the twins had regained their equilibrium with each other quickly, as they always did; and, more recently, Janus had formed the impression that Roman and Patton seemed at last to be re-settling into the friendship they’d had before dating.

But things between Patton, Remus, and—well, and Janus, too—were another matter entirely. Two months ago, Remus and Janus, after spending several days talking it over, had approached Patton and asked him out. And he had turned them down. Politely, and sweetly, and with a gentle explanation that he was flattered, but he didn’t really feel ready yet for any new relationships. All of which made perfect sense, and none of which had made the rejection hurt any less. And none of which had made things less awkward between the three of them afterward; things had finally been settling down in their friend group after the breakup, and this had only gone and stirred the pot up again. Janus half felt it had been a mistake to ask Patton out at all.

And to make things more complicated—because that was just what they needed—at no point had Patton said he explicitly wasn’t interested in either of them, or that he wasn’t polyamorous, or any of the reasons Janus had been actually afraid he’d reject the pair of them for. (Janus and Remus had decided, after going over it several times, that they both liked Patton too much to feel comfortable with only one of them dating him, should he be interested in just one, and they had made this clear in their discussion with Patton. As Remus had put it, they were “a package deal, two boyfriends for the price of one.”) Which meant that Janus couldn’t help wondering if there was still some glimmer of a chance left. During the last week, they had definitely caught Patton sending several long, thoughtful looks in Remus’s direction when Remus wasn’t looking, and caught him looking away very quickly when they looked at him.

But Janus wasn’t quite sure what to make of any of it; wasn’t sure if they were reading too much into things and looking for what they wanted to see, or not. It gave them a headache to think about, and put them in a dreadful mood; they hated it when they couldn’t understand people’s motives.

But the last day it was just Janus and Remus was far less stressful than the average day Janus had been having that week. It was, in fact, a very good day. The loveliest kind of day.

On the way home from work, Janus’s phone went off, playing Remus’s ringtone. One of the perks of having wealthy parents who did not understand them in the slightest and felt guilty about it was that they plied Janus with extravagant gifts, clearly meant to substitute for the lack of emotional connection, and so Janus’s car was a very nice one, one which could connect to their phone; Janus hit the button on the dashboard to pick up the call without taking their eyes off the road.

“Hi baby!” Remus greeted cheerfully. “Are you done for the day?”

“I’m on my way home right now,” Janus confirmed.

“Any plans?”

“Not really, why?”

“Virgil came over and so there are three entire cis men in my apartment and I think I will explode if I don’t get out of here. Also he and Logan are being gooshy and it’s making me competitive. Wanna get ice cream?”

Janus chuckled. “I see. I’m not opposed.”

“Hang on just onnnnne second, baby.” Remus raised his voice. “Logan, you gay piece of shit, you kissed Virgil’s hand five times in the last two minutes, that absolutely is gooshy.” His tone softened into a delightfully syrupy tone that Janus knew was at least half to annoy whoever was in the room with him on the other end. “Sorry, Janny. Yeah? Ice cream date? Great! Wanna pick me up? And can I maybe make a cute TikTok about it to one-up Lo and Virge?”

Janus put a hand to their mouth to stifle a grin, even though they were alone in their car where no one could see. “I think you could talk me into it. See you soon?”

“Yes!” Remus cheered as Janus hung up the call and changed lanes, rerouting their destination from their own apartment to Remus’s.

When they pulled up outside the building, Remus was already outside, sitting on the edge of the base of the lamppost and playing something on their phone. They brightened as soon as they saw Janus’s car and hurried over, hopping into the passenger seat and kissing Janus on the cheek. “Hi, Janny!”

“Hello, darling,” Janus greeted, pulling away from the curb as Remus buckled themself in. “The gelato place?”

“Hell yeah,” Remus agreed, pulling out his phone once more. “Is it okay to put your face in the video, or not today?”

Janus considered this question. Remus had a decently large following on TikTok, and while it was sometimes fun to make a guest appearance on his profile, Janus’s comfort levels with the scrutiny of such a large audience varied. “Not my face today, but my hands are fine.”

“You got it, cutie.” Remus caught one of the hands in question and lifted it to his lips before Janus reclaimed it to its place on the steering wheel.

“Isn’t that the same thing you were just roasting Logan for?” Janus inquired, not bothering to hide their amusement.

“Yeah, but see, the difference is that I’m cooler than Logan, so it’s automatically good when I do it.”

Janus snickered. “Fair enough.”

“Mmkay, I’m going to film you driving for the TikTok now, okay?” Remus angled his phone towards the steering wheel, leaving Janus’s face out of the frame as requested.

“It is important that the youth see safe driving practices in action,” Janus said very seriously, both hands resting lightly on the steering wheel.

Remus snickered. “A rare Gay That Can Drive, observed in the wild.”

Janus’s lips quirked. “Indeed.”

The gelato place they both liked so much wasn’t very far away; before long, the pair of them were standing in line, hands clasped between them, Remus’s head resting on Janus’s shoulder as he filmed a shot panning over the flavors of the day.

“What are you getting?” Janus asked, kissing Remus’s temple.

“Mm, something spicy if they have it. Or chocolatey. I dunno, I haven’t actually read any of the signs yet.” Remus snickered. “I should probably do that.”

Janus laughed softly. “That might be a good idea, yes.”

“What about you?” Remus asked.

Janus, who had read every flavor on the list three times already even though there were only three flavors they ever actually ordered, shrugged. “Probably the rum raisin. They have that one you like with cayenne in it today.”

“Ooh, goody!” Remus did a little wiggle of excitement, and Janus laughed and leaned down to kiss him as the line moved forward.

Tomorrow, Patton would approach Remus and ask if the offer he and Janus had made still stood. Tomorrow, Janus and Remus would become Janus and Remus and Patton. Tomorrow would be full of emotions and conversations and new boundaries and new kisses and everything would be different but it would also in so many ways be delightfully the same.

But today, Janus only let go of Remus’s hand long enough to pay at the register. Today, they sat at a tiny round table just outside the door in the bright sunshine, little paper cups of gelato in hand. Today, Janus absolutely lost it, dissolving into helpless giggles, when Remus told them a cheesy pickup line just to see them smile. Today, Janus adjusted their jewelry and watched as Remus filmed the gelato on the table and their clasped hands beside it, and then filmed themself, leaning up out of the frame to kiss Janus first on the cheek and then sweetly on the mouth. Today, Janus watched Remus text a screenshot of the tiktok to Logan, five minutes after posting it.

Remus: 200 views already BITCH How does it feel to know we r a cuter couple than u and emo 😝

Logan: Social media views are not a measure of relationship quality, which I know you are fully aware of. Additionally, “cute” is a subjective term, and all parties in this conversation are biased. Ergo, this argument you insist on perpetuating can have no resolution and will only go around in circles. I would recommend you cease your futile attempts to convince me of your point of view. You will not succeed. also FUCK YOU SM how the FUCK do you always get so many views what sacrifices did u make to the algorithm gods omfg -v lmao logan is mad that i wont capitalize my texts while using his phone -v

Remus: Lmao nice

Remus turned off the phone and tucked it away in their pocket, turning their attention back to Janus. “How’s the gelato?”

“Good,” Janus said, delicately placing another spoonful in his mouth.

Remus grinned. “Can I have a taste?”

Janus stifled a smile and nodded; Remus leaned up to kiss him, licking eagerly into Janus’s mouth for a kiss that tasted of rum raisin and, very faintly, cayenne. Remus cradled the back of Janus’s neck in their hands. “You’re my favorite,” he hummed happily.

Janus closed their eyes and grinned. “You’re my favorite, too.”

Tomorrow would be new, but today? Today Janus had Remus and knew they always would, and today was good.

--

Taglist (ask to be added/removed!): @theimprobabledreamersworld @thepenandcoffee @peruviandesertfox 

[yeowninefive]

My 2021 Tumblr Top 10 / 2021 Art Retrospective

1. 64 notes - Oct 30 2021

2. 59 notes - Dec 27 2021

3. 27 notes - Oct 15 2021

4. 20 notes - Apr 17 2021

5. 15 notes - Mar 9 2021

6. 15 notes - Feb 2 2021

7. 8 notes - Oct 20 2021

8. 8 notes - Aug 27 2021

9. 7 notes - Oct 18 2021

10. 6 notes - Dec 11 2021

Created by TumblrTop10

Special note / honorable mentions: I did some King Dedede pieces to tie-in with my gaming montages, that actually did get more notes than some of the pieces in the list, but they were originally posted to my main account rather than here, so they aren’t on this list.

11 (technically 7 on this list) - The Funky Dededealer, 13 notes, Mar 23, 2021

12 (technically 8 on this list) - He’s Not De Bad Guy, 12 notes, May 30, 2021

13 - Penguin Pepsislam, 8 notes, Jun 18, 2021

14 - King D. Spicable’s Dreamland Destroyah, 7 notes, Jul 3, 2021

15 - Dededisaster Dominoes, 7 notes, Feb 25, 2021

And for anyone curious, here’s an intermediate 2021 Tumblr Top 10  I made in July, looking back at my most popular art at the midway point  of the year. (Again, Dedede pieces posted on main blog are discounted there.)

---

So for the third time running, this is where I try and put my reflections on my art progress for 2021 into words. I’d like to thank anyone who was interested in my ramblings enough to hit the breaks and read my yearly mulls. Beware in that it’s a rather long read.

When looking back on my the goals I outlined for myself in 2021 back in 2020, I do think that for the most part, I made what I would consider adequate passes for most of the major ones. One of which was making more art with complex backgrounds. I would say most of my art (which was character-focused) still relied more on simple colors or environments, but I would say there was more of a effort compared to 2020, with pieces like Waiting for the Airport Shuffle and Face November. (It also may not look like it, but the backgrounds for the panels in The Frighting Guest comic took a *long* time to sketch and draw out.)

Another goal from 2020 I’d say I moderately satisfied, though to a lesser extent, was doing more character interactions and scenarios that showcased their personalities. This one feels more like a half-point where I’d say most of the examples where that did apply were more common in the gift art I drew, where my OCs were with OCs made by friends. The Frightening Guest comic in particular I had (re-)written and pseudo-story boarded a few times before adapting it into a comic, which is more than I can say for the other concepts I’ve written so far. (Still, a few standalone OC pieces I think serve this purpose, like Rooftop Viewpoint and Explosive Colorful Packaging.)

The one area where I would definitively say I faltered was not getting back into animation as I desired. It’s more than a bit frustrating in that I do have another animation on the backburner that I’ve irregularly been on-again/off-again on for months. I’d also note that the amount of fanart I made in 2021 was roughly about the same, it was notably less diverse. Outside of a one-off Animal Crossing/Mega Man piece, It was mostly King Dedede pieces. Part of the fault for this is that all of them were made in conjunction with my Smash Bros. montages as YouTube thumbnails; which as of the moment is a concept that’s on the shelf for now.

There was a Twitter post going around back in December that inquired about what my art goals would be for this year, and I gave four answers: drawing more fanart, returning to animation, drawing more complex environments/backgrounds, and adapting more of the stories/scripts I had tried my hand at writing so far into a comic/illustration format. Outside of myself being a bit more softer on myself in regards to the backgrounds, I would still say these would be my goals for the new year. Outside of that, I would also add doing direct collaborations / art trades--which was another (albeit smaller) goal for 2020 I expressed interest in doing but never really lived up to.

Going back to the positives, I feel that productivity was my biggest strength / success for this year. In terms of overall output, 2021 marks the third consecutive year where I continued to top myself; illustrating well over fifty individual pieces (including the five-page Frightening Guest comic), and that’s not counting different/alternate versions of some artwork I did. 2021 I would also describe as a year where I got more comfortable trying certain things. My short form comic The Frightening Guest, featuring the original characters made by myself and friends; is what I would consider my most triumphant example of the past year. Speaking of which, this is also a year where I made more gift art to friends than any other year, the aforementioned comic being one of them.

And on that last note--much like how my most popular works from 2020 were of fanart, the gift art I made throughout the year easily became among my most popular artwork in general, here and elsewhere. I think the results for my top five artwork above for 2021 speaks for itself, and the results are very similar if not completely identical over on Twitter. (deviantArt in the meantime is a parallel story, where a fair amount of the fanart became some of my most-viewed art--both the original and alternate versions of You Don’t Know Jack both received over one thousand views.) Going back to what I said earlier, its definitely something I would like to expand on in the future, though with more trades/collaborations and more varied fanart in general.

To any readers and blog followers, you have my thanks for reading my latest wall of pondering text over my creative works. I hope it was, at the very least, somewhat intriguing or motivational if nothing else.I hope your New Years’ celebration was swell, and I hope the rest of 2022 --for you and for me-- is just as good if not even better!

[sciencespies]

The Surprisingly Radical History of Quilting

https://sciencespies.com/history/the-surprisingly-radical-history-of-quilting/

The Surprisingly Radical History of Quilting

Handmade quilts fulfill an array of purposes. They can be practical necessities for cold winter nights; family heirlooms that bring back memories; or, as an exhibition at Ohio’s Toledo Museum of Art reveals, a form of creative, sometimes biting, political art.

Titled “Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Change,” the show features about 30 works that range from traditional to contemporary textile art, as well as some mixed-media and virtual takes on the quilt form, per Sarah Rose Sharp of Hyperallergic.

Exhibition highlights include a panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a piece crafted out of suit fabric by liberated survivors of the Dachau concentration camp. Also of note is The Storm, the Whirlwind, and the Earthquake, a life-size quilted portrait of abolitionist Frederick Douglass by artist Bisa Butler.

As Butler told Liz Logan of Smithsonian magazine earlier this year, her vibrant depictions of black figures aim to “give … subjects back an identity that’s been lost.” Independent curator Glenn Adamson added, “Butler is elevating the status of her subjects by making portraits, and also elevating quilting—which is an African American craft tradition—by adding portraiture to it.”­­

Bisa Butler’s The Storm, the Whirlwind, and the Earthquake depicts Frederick Douglass.

(Courtesy Claire Oliver Gallery, New York)

Unknown maker, Dachau 1945, 1945

(Courtesy of Michigan State University Museum / Photographed by Pearl Yee Wong)

Aaron McIntosh, Invasive Queer Kudzu, 2015–2020

(Courtesy of the Artist, Aaron McIntosh)

Another work in the Toledo show is attributed to a member of the Freedom Quilting Bee, a black rural cooperative in Alabama that supported participants in the 1960s civil rights movement. The piece helps tell the story of how quilting became recognized as a serious art form. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, the group’s creations earned accolades from Vogue, drew the attention of such artists as Lee Krasner and sparked a nationwide quilting revival.

Many of the quilts featured in “Radical Tradition” explicitly address the ways in which products of domestic labor, which is often performed by women and people whose work is undercompensated, are rendered invisible. One 1987 piece by Jean Ray Laury satirizes a famous 1963 anti-feminist speech by Arkansas Senator Paul Van Dalsem. Other quilts showcase a variety of styles and themes embraced by 19th-century craftspeople, including the abolition of slavery and Temperance Movement. One late 19th-century “crazy quilt”—a chaotic style without repeating features—uses media including silk ribbons and portraits of political leaders cut from campaign banners.

“A lot of the more historical 19th-century quilts in the exhibition are created by networks of quiltmakers,” curator Lauren Applebaum tells the Observer’s Karen Chernick. “That’s something that has stretched through history.”

Other works go beyond the traditional quilt form. In a section of Aaron McIntosh’s Invasive Queer Kudzu installation, vines created out of fabric, wire and other materials wrap themselves around a room’s furniture. Ben by Faith Ringgold, meanwhile, is a soft mixed media sculpture of an unhoused man.

Judy Chicago, International Honor Quilt (IHQ), initiated in 1980

(© 2020 Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Abolition Quilt, ca. 1850

( Courtesy of Historic New England / Loan from Mrs. Benjamin F. Pitman)

Mrs. S.K. Daniels, Liberty Tree (Temperance Quilt), 1876- 1900

(Courtesy of Michigan State University Museum / Photographed by Pearl Yee Wong)

“In the context of the coronavirus pandemic and our country’s current reckoning with racial injustice, ‘Radical Tradition’ takes on a particular urgency and relevance,” says Applebaum in a statement. “Quilts have always engaged the pressing social and political issues of their time. They have been deployed throughout history by marginalized people to confront instances of violence, oppression and exclusion.”

Prior to the exhibition’s opening, the museum organized a “COVID-19 Virtual Quilting Bee.” Participants from across the United States submitted almost 100 quilt squares ranging from abstract to representative pieces. Organizers “stitched” the squares together digitally so they could be viewed on the museum’s website. One participant, Nettie Badgley of Yorkville, Illinois, wrote that she created her square using strips left over from a cooperative project that made masks for a local hospital.

“To me it represents the chaos of emotions many of us are experiencing,” she explained. “Up close, I see each individual fabric, different from one another like people. But then from afar I see a beautiful color collaboration that represents all of us coming together to make a difference.”

“Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Change” is on view at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio through February 14, 2021.

#History

[comicteaparty]

January 4th-January 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from January 4th, 2020 to January 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What goals do you have going forward with this new year for your story?

carcarchu

well i basically have the same goal every year which is to cover more ground, i made the mistake of making my first comic be a super long 3 part epic so it feels like it's going to take me years to make it even part way through when i try to make my chapters longer however it generally leads me to feeling burned out so i still have a way to go when it comes to finding the right length per chapter that i can put out consistently

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

In Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/), this year I finally reach the chapter where all my main characters meet and start interacting - it's where the story truly kicks off. I've spent almost 2 years in setup/exposition mode, and I finally get to exit it properly. I'm so. SO. Excited. And I really want to take my time and do it properly. It's about to get very fun for me, and I hope it will show in the work!

Cronaj

My goals mainly consist of reaching page 100. I'm over 1/4th of the way there, and I believe I can get there before 2021. I also want to reach the introduction of one of the main characters, but I don't think that'll happen this year. This character doesn't appear until the end of Ch. 5, which is somewhere around page 170-180. Am I waiting too long to introduce this character? Absolutely.

eli [a winged tale]

I am almost halfway through Arc 1 and almost at 10% of the story Looking forward to chugging away at it and hope to reach the First Plot Point by the end of the year

kayotics

I guess one of my goals is to reformat chapter 1 for printing (I drew it at the wrong size), and then update chapters 1 & 2 for colors. I’d like to compile the first four chapters into a book, but I’d like all the chapters to be visually similar in color at least.

Tuyetnhi

Gonna try to finish two chapters this year and clean up ch.1 and 2 for printing its gonna be a lot of work but I know it can be managed~

snuffysam

In terms of where the main story will go - Book 3 just started, and Chapter 1 should be finished mid-March. Chapter 2 will be finished early-mid July, maybe even late June? Chapter 3 will be finished sometime in September. And then it's Chapter 4... which won't be finished until like June 2021 lol. But anyway, by the end of the year we'll be introduced to all the important characters of this arc (though we won't have had much time with some of them). Including a character who's so important, I'd almost call them the deuteragonist of the entire comic if not for the fact that they're only showing up 700 pages in, lol.(edited)

Past the actual story aspects - the comic will be celebrating its fourth birthday at the end of February! And, given that the first page of the comic was started on a leap day, it's technically the first birthday the comic has actually had. The upcoming short stories for the year are some of my favorites so far, so that's exciting. I'm also interested to see how the shipping contest & fan-art contest turn out. We'll also be reaching page 750 at some point this year, which is a pretty big milestone.

Deo101

I have a goal for my second comic to get it off of hiatus, and for my main one I would really like to make improvements in the areas I've received critiques! Mostly, I just want to keep making them for another year <3 I don't really have any goals other than to keep on going with it

(also, a preemptive congrats on four years!)(edited)

AntiBunny

Well, having fully reuploaded my archives, I'm letting them update gradually to hopefully attract a new audience over on comic fury. When it catches back up I intend to finish up Chapter 10, and with it book 2. Then I'll finally launch book 3, Coast to Coast, which will allow me to tell more different stories by changing locations.

Kelsey (Kurio)

Hey Vinnie! How goes it?

AntiBunny

Still chugging along.

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

The big goal for Wayfinders off course is first of all to launch! In start February (we will find a date today iiih!!) Then at the end of 2020, if everything goes accordingly we should have produced 7 chapters enough for a book Ah! This is all so exciting

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Pretty much my goal is to just keep swimming. I hope to complete more chapters this year. I should be able to finish chapter one of my comic, Eryl, unless I have to take a long hiatus (which, honestly, is looking very likely). Ashes is less time intensive than Eryl and the chapters half as long (only 16 pages each; Eryl chapters are usually 30-35 pages), so I’m going to try and finish at least two, if not three chapters before 2021. But honesty, just getting what I can done and continuing to push forward is my biggest goal.

Mei

I only started My Husband is a Cultist last year in April (https://tapas.io/series/MyHusbandisaCultist) and my goal is to reach that first year anniversary and to keep the train rolling for this comic! I initially wanted to have the rest of this arc completed in 2020, but I've decided to be realistic as I will be making a grad film at the same time (yay), so I just plan to do as much as I can, and to at least have Chapter 4 completed before March, and maybe Chapter 5 after that! I have a lot of story I want to tell and it's hard to stay focussed on it, but I'm doing my best, doing a little at a time!

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

My goals are mainly to become a little quicker and finish the second book in time for the Heirs of the Veils (http://heirsoftheveil.fervorcraft.de/) fourth anniversary next October. Story-wise we want to have all the bits and pieces in place to slowly approach the actual meaty parts of the comic and prepare well enough to finish it in the coming 3 years.

FeatherNotes

Our goal is to have our book fully edited, with help from editors and friends, so we can be more confident in it's true rendition. Im not one to stick to making pages perfect, but there are definitely parts that could use some attention! Other than that, book 4 is on it's way and it's always a main goal to get to print for upcoming cons!

varethane

My goal this year is to get to the end of the first arc of Wychwood! After a year of working on it, I'm roughly halfway there. I'd also like to lern 2 colour better.

Capitania do Azar

This year I hope to get a new book out!! That would be great and also you know, just keep going. If all goes well I can get a chapter out until the end of the year and that'd be cool (but also perhaps a bit too hopeful, since my chapters have started to...get bigger with time..)

SAWHAND

This year my goal is to start posting the comic! And, if it works out, I'd love to get the whole thing thumbnailed out by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!!

DanitheCarutor

My goal is to finish chapter 5 in less than a year. Up until now it's taken a year to finish a chapter thanks to work, chores and the occasional procrastination spell. But in December I quit my depressing job that was a two hour drive away, so I'm hoping to be more productive, even if I get part time work somewhere in town.

twothirty

along with finishing chapter 6 and 7, im also hoping to have all of book 2's script written and edited~

renieplayerone

My goal is id love to get the first chapter or two of kate blast printed

[vbbbpr]

QAnon

I watched the docuseries Q: Into The Storm on HBOMax. It’s about the origin and rise of the QAnon movement, and ultimately suggests who “Q” may be. The QAnon movement is a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that ex-President Trump was fighting Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business, and media. It all began from an anonymous user who posted on a 4chan board and signed off as “Q” in 2017. Since there isn’t a consensus on the definition of QAnon itself, the nature of the documentary was more compelling. 

What drew me to watch the series is what I knew about the terrorism of the capital earlier this year and that QAnon had a relationship to it. I also was drawn to the thumbnail of the series with a dizzying Q and a rabbit going down the center of a Q, as if to say “going down the rabbit hole”. I thought that was fascinating and it drew me to it because I wanted to be drawn into something which is exactly what it did. 

Each of the six episodes helped to build suspense by focusing on the ever increasing real-world implications of the QAnon movement, leading to the storming of the United States Capital on January 6, 2021. As described in our lecture, “ The sensation element of perception is the immediate and direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli,” (Wilder, 2021). This was mental sensation in my perception and they were using logos as well to persuade me to watching more - erring on the side of showing how absurd the beliefs were. 

Additionally, the series continuously introduced new theories of who may have been behind Q, often switching back and forth as new information about the main suspects were revealed. This technique kept me guessing and unsure of who Q might be and therefore more invested in the outcome of who it is. 

Sources:

Week 12: Consumer Perception Powerpoint

https://www.hbo.com/q-into-the-storm

[galleryyuhself]

How Nigel Langley Landed An Adidas Job To Become The Industry’s Youngest Sneaker Designer

Nick DePaula:

Decades ago, top designers polished their craft through years of design school or even university architecture programs, while not knowing they’d eventually end up designing sneakers. More recently, aspiring artists have honed their skils through footwear-specific programs like D’Wayne Edwards’ Pensole Academy. Nowadays, simply posting quality work and innovative concepts on a personal social media account can catch the attention of just the right person.

For Nigel Langley Jr, that’s exactly how he landed a coveted role at the adidas Brooklyn Creator Farm last year, making him the youngest designer in the footwear industry at just 17 years-old. After making the hour-plus daily trek from his hometown of Bloomfield, New Jersey to the Brooklyn studio, he’s been working away at the brand’s esteemed innovation and design space on a flurry of top-secret projects.

The Farm is currently designing for initiatives slated to launch in 2019 and 2020.

“It all started out in the most modern of fashions,” smiles Nigel. “Actually, through Instagram.”

Thanks to a nudge from one of his classmates, Instagram became the showcase space for his raw talent.

“I was sketching in a driver’s ed class one day when a good friend of mine suggested that I post my work on Instagram,” he recalls. “Whenever I would post, I would tag the designers I admired and looked up to, like Marc Dolce, Denis Dekovic, Mark Miner and Scott Robertson. I just kept at it, reaching out to different designers and brands in an effort to start any dialog.”

In a first-person essay on the adidas blog, Langley recently described his passions, aspirations and design perspectives. As he outlines, it was through a series of initial direct message conversations with adidas design VP Marc Dolce way back in the fall of 2015, when he was just 16, that eventually led him down the path of the job offer.

After a back and forth of Instagram exchanges, Dolce invited Langley to meet with him after a class at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, where he was co-teaching a design course at his former school. While looking to simply impart some wisdom and advice for the emerging artist, Dolce came away inspired by Langley’s ambition and raw art talent.

• It was so great to meet the talented @_Nigel_Langley today at @PrattInstitute. I was so impressed with Nigel’s skills and his eagerness to learn about footwear design. He’s only 16, and his future is bright!

A post shared by Marc Dolce (@marcdolce) on Sep 28, 2015 at 7:47pm PDT

“I was so impressed with Nigel’s skills and his eagerness to learn about footwear design,” Dolce posted on Instagram right after their meeting. “He’s only 16, and his future is bright!”

“It was both an honor and a privilege to meet and converse with one of my favorite designers Marc Dolce today at Pratt Institute,” Langley captioned. “I learned so much from him today and I’ll definitely be applying that knowledge in the near future.”

The following year, the adidas Brooklyn Creator Farm opened its doors, and shortly after, Nigel was added to the team.

“He wanted me there,” beams Langley. “I’m not going to say no to Marc Dolce.”

After turning 18 just this past June 1st, Langley will continue working at the Farm, and also begin his university studies at the renowned New York-based Parsons School of Design. A member of the Class of 2021, the youngster knows he’ll have a long road ahead for his career. In the meantime, he’s looking to “soak everything up” at the Farm, learning everything from design skills, computer program techniques and construction methods from his more seasoned crew of co-workers.

“I don’t always feel like the youngest,” he says of the Farm. “There’s a lot of young, fresh and creative minds here.”

Early on in his art pursuits as he entered high school, Langley wanted to design cars and trains, and looked into transportation programs and online tutorials to refine his skills. He was endlessly sketching all the while, filling up notebooks with both messy thumbnails and detailed concepts alike.

Still, there was a certain element of freshness and innovation to sneakers that drew him in, along with the cultural impact that the industry affords by being seen on the feet of the world’s greatest athletes and entertainers. Footwear was also personal for Langley — his feet are nearly arch-less and “extremely flat,” as he described online. It’s an ongoing issue he’d learned to deal with, that also served as a point of inspiration.

“Even to this day, it is exceptionally hard for me to find shoes that look good on my feet or that I can comfortably wear,” he says. “This is the irony in me wanting to be a footwear designer. Not being able to wear the amazing silhouettes that I see now inspires me to create new equally amazing forms for the future.”

Ever since, Langley has relentlessly pursued a passion for sneaker design that’s allowed him to become one of the brightest prospects in the game.

While it might be a few years before we see Nigel’s work come to market, you can surely expect to be hearing his name for a long time to come.