#I don't really like my art style but idk why I'm talking about that

[undersunnyy]

Fr

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I’m working on an original character project that I want to include a lot of casual representation in (“casual” meaning that the characters don’t need a justification for being disabled/fat/POC/etc, they just are because people can and do exist that way in reality!)

I was wondering if you had any suggestions for finding resources for drawing facial differences(and maybe other visible disabilities), especially in a cartoony style. I’ve looked through the Facial Equality Week tag but would like to see more examples, and since my art is so… goofy, for lack of a better word, I would love any help I can get in integrating differences without being offensive or upsetting.

Sorry if this is a bother, and thank you for all that you do!

Hey!

I'm not aware of any guides for drawing facial differences specifically (or at least, good ones. There's 1 billion tutorials telling you that scars are just a Singular Line, always, but that's not... correct), but perhaps someone in the notes could help out?

For my own advice, you could check out this old post I made. Because you mentioned your art being cartoony, I would specifically urge you to not overexaggerate facial differences the way they often are. A prime example would be how a lot of cartoons portray strabismus;

It's just a funny gag to them rather than, IDK, how some of us look like. Not to mention that one of these is also a mockery of intellectually/developmentally disabled people with "Derp" in the name, but that's beside the point here.

It's the whole "the character is crazy/stupid/wild/whatever and that's why they have it" that's the problem with how it's often shown. You can also see it in how characters who don't even normally have it will be shown with it for a scene where they're saying something nonsensical, etc.

Another example that's nowhere near as rampant is the split-face thing with various facial differences being used. Mostly vitiligo but sometimes also facial palsy. I'm talking about this weirdly perfectly halved face that looks extremely different on each side, often used to imply that a character is two-faced but mostly just signals that the author doesn't know how vitiligo looks like.

[note: vitiligo also shows up on lighter skin. I wanted to make sure it's visible here for tutorial clarity purposes.]

This one is just weird because it straight up doesn't look like that. I have no idea where it came from, but it should go back there. Facial palsy doesn't make someone look like the antique comedy/tragedy theater mask.

Unless I'm forgetting some other annoying cartoon trope, these would be the big ones that you should stay away from.

Outside of that, it's really on a case by case basis on how a specific FD should be drawn because they're so different. A birthmark can just be a differently colored patch of skin, but a craniofacial difference would require some more changes to be included. Alopecia is well, lack of hair, and can be done very easily but ectrodactyly can be more complicated to show properly because of the limitations of a cartoony artstyle when it comes to hands. And while I do think it would be great to see more of those facial differences that tend to not be included in art at all, there's nothing wrong with deciding to go for the things you can represent more faithfully, especially if you're just starting.

I will say that if you're making an honest attempt at being respectful and trying to get it right, most of us will still be excited to see your work. Even if it's not perfect or has some inaccuracies. I will take a "'yeah more or less' correct with a happy, human character" over a "Very Technically correct but tagged as #tw burns and with blood splattered on them" any day.

Lastly, I wanted to share some art featuring characters with facial differences (and other visible disabilities) that are done in a cartoony, or at least somewhat simplistic artstyles (I'm using both terms very widely here) - maybe it will give you some ideas.

Man with Treacher Collins syndrome (also one of the first pieces online where I saw a character with an FD portrayed in such a lovely way. A fav of mine.) Girl with Pfeiffer syndrome Too many characters to count Woman with burns Woman with a limb difference Multiple characters again Animation featuring people with Down syndrome [youtube] Multiple characters, including a girl with neurofibromatosis, a burn survivor, a girl with a cleft lip and another with TCS [twitter]

If you have a more specific art question ("how do I draw a person with XYZ facial difference?") you can send me an ask on @saszor. I prefer to stick to the writing theme on this blog but would still like to help if you need it.

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza

Edit: apologies for the lack of alt text on one of the images, it has been fixed.

[onlyangel4]

unexpected. SMAU. LH44. part one.

lewis hamilton x tattoo artist! reader

in which reader is the last person someone you expect to find in the paddock and that is what makes him drawn to you. or lando's tattoo artist friend visits the paddock to tattoo zak brown after the miami gp win and the internet goes mad.

warnings- cursing

part 2

main faceclaim is ryan ashley malarkey

y/ntattoos posted two stories

story one written: lando keeps on trying to get me to wear papaya.

story two written: because apparently my current outfit is not "race ready"

f1wags

liked by user 4, f1fan7, landofan3 and 52,318 others

f1wags: a new face was spotted in the mclaren hospitality suite. admin snapped this picture and then watched as the woman took a picture. admin asked the other woman in the picture who the girl was she explained it was y/n y/ln and then rushed off. who is this girl?

landofan3: admin i would have expected you to know that. this is@.y/ntattoos she is best friends with lando's cousin jenna and has known lando since he was born. her being in the paddock makes me think that zak is getting that tattoo.

user4: whoever she is i hope she isn't a wag, the face tattoos are a bit much

user7: she is just a tattoo artist not a wag don't worry

f1fan7: omg y/n is in the paddock, zak brown better run

user10: who is she?

f1fan7: one of the best tattoo artists in the uk, celebrities fly to london just to get tattooed by her. she is the artist behind harry styles' fern tattoos and she did rhianna's hand tattoos.

user23: so idk really know who she is but did you guys see the video of the other drivers when she walked past with lando. i stg lewis almost broke is neck and daniel's jaw dropped.

mclaren posted two stories tagging y/ntattoos

story one written: the artist

story two written: the art

y/ntattoos

liked by landonorris, danielricciardo, lewishamilton and 923,459 others

y/ntattoos: so i have noticed that since i was pictured in the paddock and posted on mclaren socials i have gained a lot of followers so i thought i should introduce myself to all the new people on my page.

hi! i'm y/n, i have been tattooing since i was eighteen (seventeen years). i specialize in ornate jewelry pieces but i do love all aspects of tattooing. i am a dog mum to a five year old pomeranian called lilith.

i know the question on all of your minds is "why the fuck was she in the paddock", the simple answer is that i have known lando since the day he was born as i am best friends with his cousin @.jennanorris and when he won in miami he called me and asked me to do the honors of tattooing one zak brown (who didn't cry like i thought he would)

anyways it is lovely to make your acquaintance and remember to congratulate lando on his podium.

view all 52,392 comments

user12: she really said, if you are going to talk shit about me online then at least get to know me first

user32: shit she is talented

lewishamilton: roscoe would love to meet lilith sometime

y/ntattoos: i'm sure that could be arranged

user16: go on lewis get yourself a hot tattooed girlfriend. we believe in you.

user29: idk still don't like the idea of her being around the drivers. she has bad influence written all over her.

user16:she is 35 you teenagers need to leave this grown woman alone

mclaren: we expect to see you back in the paddock when oscar takes his first win

y/ntattoos: yes boss

landonorris: i was dissapointed, wanted to see zak cry like a baby

y/ntattoos: well you won't even let me tattoo you. so maybe you are the baby

user4: i love her already

[brucewaynehater101]

Idk if you're familiar with rodger from all american dad, but like. It would be SO funny if Tim had a similar situation (only ofc, other people would talk about him rather than him talking about himself) like

Jason: man I really need someone who knows *wild ancient lore*

Dick: Oh, you could talk to tim! He knows all about ancient lore

Jason: that tracks ig

_____

Damian: I desire to branch out into other styles of art

Jon: Oh, well, you know Tim right?

Damian: Yes I know my brother's into photography-

Jon: No, one of his aliases is a well known art thief, and Kon tells me he actually knows a lot about art because of it so maybe you should talk to him

Damian:...go back to drake being a well known art thief.

______

Dick: I'd actually kill whoever made this puzzle. Seriously. I can't get it

Bruce: *takes one look at it* Tim did that. Talk to him

Dick:

Dick: wdym he did this-

_____

Bruce: hey does-

Alfred: *points at tim*

Bruce:

Bruce: fair point. *turns to tim* hey bud, do you-

I am not familiar with American Dad :( But this concept is hilarious ^^

Let it extend past the batfam too ~

-----

Green Lantern: "Hey, do you think Batman would be able to look at this [specific alien species] crime cases?"

Flash: "Talk to Red Robin."

GL: "Spooky's kid?"

Flash: *shrugs* "Apparently, he solves cold cases even in other galaxies."

GL: *sighs* "Of course he does."

-----

Red Hood: "I need [specific plant] to compare to a drug sample I found."

Poison Ivy: "You didn't ask Red Robin?"

RH: "Why would I ask him?"

Poison Ivy: "... Because he grows rare plants. We trade sometimes."

RH: "Right. Sure. Okay. Fucking hell."

------

WW: "I'm sorry, Cassie. I know I said we'd spar this afternoon, but delegation work came up."

WG: "No worries. Anything I can help with?"

WW: "Unless you know [some country's laws/traditions], I don't believe so. I appreciate the offer."

WG: "I mean, I know quite a bit from when Young Justice invaded a country."

WW: "What?"

WG: "If I don't know it, I'm sure Tim does. He made several guides based on in-person research in case it happened again."

WW: "I see. Perhaps I'll contact him."

[kozachenko]

Here's a digital sketch dump of some pose/anatomy practices and some 2hu doodles, I think from now on if I don't have any big final piece to post, I'll just post sketches I liked that I did digitally (might also reblog some drawings of mine that I want more people to see, maybe idk).

Artist's Notes:

Ok so after the recent Hifuu fanart I did, I've been hoping to experiment more with how I draw faces, how I render, as well as how I stylize things. In some of the earlier sketches I did, I had an idea for a pose that I wanted to try drawing, so I took a ref pic of myself doing said pose (the leaning one btw) and then did a sketch over top of it just to get an idea for the shapes, negative space, and silhouette. After that, I wanted to do some simpler breakdowns of the shapes so I can get better at simplifying the body (these ended up being the bottom right sketches in the post). I also did some experimenting with how to push certain parts of said sketches to create a different body type (via liquify and then a more refined version based on that sketch), as well as figuring out what makes a pose feel natural and not stiff. This was also a bit of a foreshortening practice just so I can get more confident with it, and I ended up using the arms from the liquified version for the coloured Zanmu sketch I did since I liked them so much (dw I'll get to that).

The next thing I wanted to try and draw was Hisami, mainly because.... I am very bad at drawing her in my style. Last time I drew her I made her look really creepy and spindly, and it is my headcanon now that she can switch between a more human, and more creepy look whenever she wants. I'm liking where the face is going a lot, might have to refine a few things about it in the future, but it's cute (I also made the blush purple which I think is what I'm gonna do with her face from now on). I also like how her hair in the sketch turned out a lot, but the outfit..... not as much... Ever since I started changing my style to something less cartoony, I've had a hard time drawing her outfit in my style. Especially the flower veil thing she has on, which, I did try to find a way to draw, but I ended up deleting that sketch because I didn't like it. I'm also not a fan of using the colour purple, like, pure purple, magentas are fine, indigos are fine, but not strict purple. I also have a hard time with drawing all the little pattern details on her dress. I also need to find a way to draw the flower veil in a way that looks good because everytime I try it ends up just looking off (very similar to whenever I try to draw Zanmu's blue spears). I think the only solution to this problem is to do what I normally do and make my own version of the outfit, but with adjustments to suit my style while still trying to keep core elements from the original design intact (like I do with Zanmu and Keiki, and yes I am going to get to that Zanmu drawing just gimme a minute).

Ok next up is Keiki, my favourite Touhou character who I haven't drawn since the beginning of the year. Since my style has changed a lot, I wanted to just do a face sketch of her to get a hang of drawing her again, and I..... really really like how it turned out! When I drew her eyes, I realized that a good way of keeping faces too same facey can be via varying the sizes of their pupils, so that's an idea I'm gonna keep in mind from now on. I had a lot of fun with her hair, I initially was gonna do it like how it is in the official art, but I ended up not liking it, so now I'm gonna draw Keiki with wavy heir like this because it's fun and it looks nice. I also included my base sketch for Keiki's face since I was initially struggling with drawing her bandanna, and in the coloured sketch I added some more detail into her hair.

Now to finally talk about the sketches for Zanmu. Good lord was I having a tough time with her face. I also did this sketch before I figured out how I wanted to draw hair, so that's why the rendering on her hair is different (I did this soon after the Hisami sketch actually). Since I changed my art style a lot, I had to find a way to translate her face from my more cartoony style to my more detailed style, so while the face shape, nose shape and mouth was fine, I was really struggling with the eyes. I did get somewhere eventually though, and I am super happy with how it turned out. I wanted to lean more towards the androgynous side of the gender presentation spectrum, mainly because I think that makes sense for her character. Also made sure to include the silver hairs and some wrinkles just to bring some signs of her aging into her face because those are just staple features of how I draw Zanmu at this point lol. You will also notice that I gave her some scars on the right side of her face, and that's because I am a Zanmu-with-scars truther, I fucking love it whenever I see someone give Zanmu visible scars like that it just adds so much omg (I also tried to put a wolf bite mark on her arm in the full body drawing but idk if it reads well). While you can argue that her not having scars sells the idea of her being this "powerful, untouchable mastermind who is impossible to defeat," I'd say that instead of those scars representing times she got injured, they represent everyone who has failed to defeat her.

As I was drawing Zanmu's face, I referenced my sketch of to help with contrasting their features since I made Keiki's face more traditionally feminine. I also didn't mention this in my commentary on Keiki's face because I wanted to save it for here, but giving Zanmu scars also plays into the fact that she used to be human, wheras Keiki doesn't have any scars because she's a god who doesn't follow the rules of normal human biology. Plus I'm thinking about the two of them interacting again (return of Zan/Keik??? (I'm a multishipper btw) maybe???) so drawing their faces together will definitely help me in the future if I wanna draw them together (again, maybe as a ship? I've kinda been ironing out the kinks in their potential interactions (romantic and non-romantic) for a while now so idk maybe expect that in the future lol).

And now for the full body drawing, when I was doing the face sketch I did this little snippet of an outfit, had a vision, and the made it into a reality. I'll admit, part of me was worried that it would end up looking too much like Yuugi's outfits in the spinoffs and mangas, but I feel like I made enough changes to differentiate them. I tried to keep a few of the major details in Zanmu's design (i.e. the red tassles and yellow lining on her shirt) while putting a new spin on it. I also dialed up the scars to 11 since without them the whole thing kinda looked incomplete. Also, while I could say that the leaves on her kimono are "a nod to the fact that technically she should be a tengu because back then people belived that corrupt monks would turn into tengu but no Zanmu is an oni and they're maple leaves because...tengu...ahahahaha" what really ended up happening was that I looked up clothing patterns from Sengoku era Japan, liked the leaves the most because the red picked up on the red from the rest of her design and just ran with it. I also always had the idea to put Zanmu in men's clothing from Sengoku era Japan and while the accurate thing to do would be to put her in a Buddhist's clothes from that era.... from a character standpoint, I don't think Zanmu is pious enough to strictly wear the proper monk uniform, and also since she's basically the king of Hell, she would probably dress herself like royalty from that era. TBH, I probably could've been a bit more historically accurate, but again, this was mainly for conceptual purposes because I had a vision and I needed to see it through.

If I were to draw her in this sort of outfit again, I should probably try and use more references, although now that I look at it, if she were to wear it properly this would maybe, probably look a bit closer to a Kyūtai sugata (a very huge stretch, but it just kinda reminds me of that) just without the layers under and over the main piece of clothing (In the website that I searched up to try and compare the outfit in my sketch to, they name the outfit pieces but don't label them on the image, so I don't know 100% what everything is called) so I will definitely have to use that style of clothing as a reference going forward.

Also, I was kind of inspired by the ToTK design for Ganondorf since I have finished the game a while ago and I absolutely love what they did with his design (it's just so fucking cool omg) and I thought that sort of look would look good on Zanmu, so yeah got some inspo from that.

And those were all the notes for each of the sketches, I'm motivated to draw rn but kinda art blocked, so doing these little coloured sketches helps a lot.

[angrybutterball]

Finally finished this drawing even thou it's not that special but idk if I'm trying to draw a fullbody I'm gonna crazy 💀 anyway Gideon the Ninth, my beloved character from the The locked tomb series which I finished a week ago idk and started reading Harrow the Ninth which I'm at act 1, chapter 8 and I already like it. I actually planned to make a intimidating expression cuz I saw a 3D fullbody work from Lars Bundvad-Åmodt and I really like how he made Gideon's white part of the eyes dark but her pupils saturated & "shining". You can see his works on art station :P

Also I separated the chibis cuz if someone wants to use them as stickers then go for it :P

Also could I improved the previous idea or should I have continued it? I kinda got frustrated how messy the side profile looked like so that's why I sticked to the front view and rather add chibis instead well trying another side profile 💀

Edit: also the last pic is actually one of the first fanart I made and the pose is based on the sketch next to it.

Gonna ask this but are there anyone who likes this book series but is from Germany or Austria who either read it or just started? Cuz idk I feel like there aren't many German fans in there even thou it has a good review. I can't really talk that much about it so it would be good if there's someone who is like really into it. Sure, I could look up for myself but the series mostly has English speaking sites and I do understand everything but depending on how much details a story have it's kinda hard to remember. And Harrow the ninth is known for being a little complicated due to the writing style and since I'm reading it in German and I don't really have a hard time understanding (except some dialogos) I would appreciate if there's someone out there who I can talk/write to <:3

[plumadot]

Your art style has such a mochi texture to it I love it so much

Do you have any OCs you can show and maybe info dump about?

hi hi aaaa thank you and yes i'd love to talk about some of my children even though i actually suck at backstories and sometimes don't bother with them at all so i hope that's ok gkfjdkgjfd

this is my baby rune they're lovely and round and they have many friends but their favourite friend is arden mmmmmmm rune is a little wizard who works hard but is a little bit dumb,,, they try to be very responsible but they're also naive and oblivious,,, which is why they have arden to help out because arden is the most protective and frankly untrusting person gkfdjkg like who hurt you. she's a cool ranger gal with a cool tattoo who lives in the woods and teaches rune about adventuring and fighting monsters and stuff. until she realizes that rune is not just a silly cutie but also really powerful and cool and she develops a big crush

and i'm sorry to bring up my dnd character once more BUT I LOVE HER SHE'S MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER,,,,,, her name is roselle fayanna mistweaver and she's a proper little lady from a wealthy upper class family who was taught to be proper and good and skilled and quiet and happy all the time and- she's not that,,,,, her older sisters are good at everything and she's just... not. her parents weren't around much and she could feel their disappointment so much that she desperately looked for ways to prove herself,,,, and she found a dryad's magic and made a pact with her... elri gave her a way to make her drawings come to life with magic and roselle became a bard!!!!!! :D (not a warlock hehe. unless????) the magic is very weird and freaky though and sometimes weird shit happens. roselle ended up running away from home and she's now lost with an adventuring party in vampires and werewolves land. which SUCKS but!!!!! she can maybe find a way to be cool and useful for her new friends????? maybe????

and and and idk if this counts but my sona has lore??? sorta??????? i'm slowly building/revealing it on my mc server gkfjkg and i hope it's not lame but. i might show some of the stuff i put into the world here if anyone's interested? :O for now all you gotta know is that they're mostly moss. and they don't know many things. but they have a lot of robot friends... just not many... living ones... until the other ant cats arrived on the server!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i don't do a lot of oc stuff anymore but i'm very passionate about the children i do have!!!!!! i'm sorry the backstories are so next to nothing but i hope this was at least a little interesting!!!!!!! :D <3

[mogamuncher]

I just realized that the team behind Sword Art Online Abridged said that they were going to try and do the entire series, which means that eventually we'll get to the arc with Alice and Eugeo right?

So now I'm losing my mind thinking about what Abridged!Eugeo would be like, because holy shit is there so much to be done there

Would he be like Recon, an adorable universal punching bag that is still very loyal, brave and just the specialest little guy ever? Would he be like Balls, a best friend that truly believed in Kirito despite Kirito being. . . Well, himself? Or would he be like Tiffany and Liz, doing their own thing but still having Kirito as a friend that he cares about, though he's still acknowledging that Kirito is insufferable?

Because like, all of these sound great, but hear me out here:

What if Abridged Eugeo is actually more like Asuna and Suguha?

It'd make sense, like character and story wise, since he's supposed to directly parallel Kirito and match with him on a lot of things. Canonically, Eugeo and Kirito should have the energy of two friends that can spend years not seeing each other, but when they do, they immediately snap right back into how they usually acted together, like no time passed at all. They are really close friends, and we all know that Abridged Kirito cannot be that close to people unless they are either willing to put up with a lot of shit (read: Balls) or are a lot like him but in a different font (read: Asuna and Suguha, also arguably Kayaba)

Now I use Asuna and Suguha as examples, because I they, along with Kirito, use a fake persona to mask how they really are, soft and squishy (Suguha and Kirito) or a complete fucking freak (Asuna). And I think Eugeo could be similar

Picture with me, Eugeo seemingly being similar to a Recon sort of character with a touch of Silica, he's nice, soft spoken, a bit pathetic, naive and the world's punching bag. Kirito sees himself on the poor guy, much like how he did Recon, so he acts a lot how he does with Recon "Don't talk to him like that, how dare you" "No one tell him", with the added character development of having the initiative to essentially drag Eugeo into a friendship (we're friends now, we're having soft tacos later style)

Then as the episodes go along, he shows signs of not being quite right, things he says are a little mean spirited or he plays along with one of Kirito's cruel jokes, but he always does it smiling or seemingly by accident, so it slides on by unnoticed

Until one big moment happens and it all comes crashing down, and the real Eugeo is revealed, and that Eugeo is actually just a fucking asshole with no empathy, a-la Asuna. You can even foreshadow it by not telling exactly why Eugeo killed those two noble dudes (assuming they cut out the rape scenes) only to reveal later that he did it not because they were being awful to someone else, but because of something comically inconsequential or personal (hell, it could even be because they fucked with Kirito's flowers)

Idk, I just think it would be funny. And if they go ham on the religious implications of this arc, they could even throw in a backstory of Eugeo being afraid that his real self would break the rules and get him Alice'd. You could even go the "We Happy Few" route with it!

But that's all just my ideas ig, i'd be happy to hear what everyone else has in mind

[notomys-mordax-blog]

I've let my thoughts marinate for a while after finishing up Dragon Age Veilguard. In the spirit of contributing to a fandom that I love, I'm going to be shouting my general thoughts about the game into the void instead of having the decency to keep them in my head.

TLDR: it's complicated. Better than expected, but still pretty flawed.

Things I liked:

I was initially pretty meh on the toonier direction they took the character art in. It felt like ... knock-off overwatch. However the style really grew on me as I played the game and I found that the character models were really expressive in a fun way.

The environment design was really colorful and fun! One of my biggest critiques of DA:O was how ... brown and ugly the game was. While I think it was probably the right artistic choice to remove the hilariously over the top post-combat blood splatter effects, I do miss it. This game had some really interesting visual design.

Watching Solas's worst memories like episodes of Real Housewives with the crew.

The combat was also more fun than expected. I definitely prefer tactical combat in games, and don't generally enjoy action games, but I had fun with it and felt like it struck (for me) the right balance between difficulty and frustration.

There were some really interesting and subtle things in some of the writing (especially when combined with character expressions). There were little characterization details that I thought were really well done (for example: the fact that Lucanis was obviously the most rattled at weisshaupt) . The prison of regret was a high point in the series.

I really liked a lot of the big lore reveals.

It was fun seeing some of the environments that we've only heard about. in the previous games.

I actually really enjoyed how direct Taash's gender adventure was. There was no room for "well actually, they aren't non-binary, they are this unique fantasy term that isn't actually queer". I also enjoyed how it acted as a vehicle for the other gnc characters in the story to have their moments. Bonus points for also having non-binary characters doing something other than gender with their lives.

The game was functional, complete and ran well on launch! I had to put down BG3 for like two months because it was unplayably buggy when I picked it up, and the ending of DA:I really doesn't have any impact without Tresspasser, which came out much later.

Things I didn't like:

The writing was very uneven and pretty awkward at times. The number of times the phrases "Gods, Rituals and Artifacts" were uttered by different characters, often without any further explanation, really made me itchy. It was really weird to me why the characters kept calling the Evanuris Gods (especially with a non-elven Rook). I also wanted to grab Neve by the shoulders and shake her whenever she talked about the venatori doing a ritual. WHAT KIND OF RITUAL? GIVE ME SOME JUICY LORE TIDBITS BEFORE I CHEW MY ARM OFF.

The venatori and the antaam were straight out of Saturday cartoon villains. Their motivation also made absolutely no sense from a world-building point of view (maybe if they leaned more into the fact that the elven gods were also the Tevinter old gods ...?). This whole conflict really felt ... underbaked.

I can respect the game design choice to want the player to be completely heroic, and frankly -- given that most people don't pick the "evil" path, it makes sense to devote more effort in creating permutations of the good path ... but I do feel like they really could have pushed the themes of "as a leader, sometimes you won't have any good choices" a little bit harder (idk -- I think it would have been interesting if instead of the blight dragon, you would have to chose whether or not you'd ally yourself with the venatori and leave Treviso to the Antaam or vice versa).

DA:I does a good job convincing me that Inky is creating complicated alliances between different powerful factions. DA:V falls flat in this regard. I think they were aiming for the different factions to feel small and scrappy, but with the exception of the Shadow Dragons (and maybe the Lords) ... the Wardens, the Mourn Watch, and the Crows are major political forces ... which feel weirdly small.

All of the companions were pretty ... unobjectionable and straightforward heroes. As someone who personally loved the dynamic between Anders and Fenris in DA:2, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of inter-party conflict. Serious cultural conflicts between characters such as Emmrich and Tassh were resolved .... without much fuss. I didn't feel like any of the conversations about the fact that Lucanis kills people for money had any teeth.

In that vein, I felt like the worldbuilding was also pretty defanged. Topics of racism and religious oppression were very prominent in earlier games. I think it's pretty obvious why having an oppressed racial minorities gods being the main villain would be a bad look. Heck, I can also understand and respect these themes being less fun for the writers to explore in the hellhole that is 2025, but I think this could have been handled in a more elegant way. Instead it felt weird and hand-wavy.

The crows really must've hired a PR team after that whole incident with Zev. My headcanons really had to do some heavy lifting.

We finally get to see Minrathous, the biggest magical city in Thedas ... and the area we explore is just a generic fantasy fishing town? We see the cool floating canons in the intro sequence! Give us more of those.

The game was inconsistent about incorporating bits of Rook's origins into the dialog. For example, the seer in Rivain explaining their relationship with spirits felt really weird with a Lord of Fortune Rook. Another (minor) example, Mourn Watch Rook eats the fish, it would have been neat to have the option for him to be vegetarian (given that this is common in Nevarra).

Romance is my favorite part of dragon age, and I felt like all of the romances were very ... paint by numbers.

Dreadwolf would have been a much better name.

Some of the comments from people involved in the game (specifically the AMA -- but also the whole "this is the most romantic dragon age game ever") had a weird vibe.

Where are Solas's agents? What happened to them?!

We were not betrayed by any of our apostate companions, 0/10 this is an important aspect of any dragon age game.

Rook felt like the boss that nobody wanted to invite to do anything fun. The companions seemed like they had a lot of dynamic with each other, but they never really directly spoke with Rook. It was weird how you couldn't talk to them. You had to awkwardly listen in on their conversations. Pretty much all of the companions have more chemistry with each other than Rook.

I have more thoughts about specific characters and plot points that I may share later, but I needed to expunge this from my mind like an exorcism.

[roxtron]

Day 5: Rabbit, Reclaim

AGJGDFJF FINALLY IT'S DAY 5 SO I CAN POST THIS

For some reason everytime i draw him he looks so young because i'm accidentally overcorrecting since i'm used to drawing older characters. So unfortunately he looks way younger than i meant him to lol, whoops.

But wait there's more- AHAHAHA

While I did initially plan this for GGY week I eventually got the idea to use this as an excuse to draw other GGY designs, soo..

(Not sure why tumblr formatted it that way with 1 of them big but it doesn't matter lol)

I've been wanting to do this for a while, I put the tags of each person next to their design but ofc I'm still gonna tag them in the post itself so you can see their art for yourself if you haven't already. But I enjoyed each of these in their own ways so if you don't mind I think I'm gonna type a bit of text next to them..

@chipistrate This was one of the first I drew out of these, the design was pretty fun to draw but sorry if I messed up a few details, it was a bit difficult lol. The mask and goggles are really fun to draw and they make for a cool design, along with all the glowing blue. (and yes, I tried to subtly include the heelies lol)

@lunzi0 This was the first fursuit one I did lol. I adore the little stars in the design, they personalize it so well and make it really unique. I wanna try this design again since I feel like the other ones show my improvement a bit better, but I hope you can appreciate the effort I put in on my first attempt <3

@carouselrabbit This one was really fun to draw, I absolutely love the eye shape/lashes, it stands out and I always love drawing eyes with a bit of eyeliner lol, the daycare theme legwarmers is a cool nod to the balloon boy arcade machine being connected to them, and was just a fun addition in general lol, I like the style of legwarmers what can I say, fnaf changed my fashion sense a bit. also the subtle paraells to freddy's design is a nice way to connect a bit to gregory himself.

@puhpandas I can't remember if I talked about this design last time I drew it but, overall I'm really happy with how this came out, it's such an indicator of improvement since I started drawing this and I'm glad I was able to draw it better than last time lol. All the patchwork and similarities to Vanny's suit work really well, and the rabbit you chose to base it off of was a good fit, the colors make it a bit more difficult to shade for but i like detail lol, hope you like it too :)

@dykevanny I knew I wanted to do this since I started but I wasn't sure if I'd have time, and I'm glad I did! I hope you don't mind I combined aspects from the first design I saw and the second one you replied to my ask with, I liked the big purple sleeves lol. (I just realized after doing all the shading I forgot to include the oil splatter on his jacket, sorry!) It was definitely a bit difficult due to the head shape being so different but.. fluffy. i love drawing fluff. And the glowing swirl on the goggles, the shape of the ears, I love a lot about this design. :D

I have a hard time with writing compliments but I wanted to get some of those thoughts out, some of the things I like about these designs apply to multiple lol. I adore every one of these designs but I find it hard to put into words what I enjoy about them, hope the original creators are happy with these. <3

I also kept the ggys without as much lighting effects on a separate file, I felt like I should add them since they're a bit brighter lol, makes them look different.

Okay now that I've gotten all that- Sorry this post is so long! I didn't think it'd end up taking up so much space lol. Buut.. working on this drawing and thinking about it and potential context behind it gave me an au idea for it, but I'll put it under the cut since I understand most people probably won't care and just wanna see the drawings lol.

Idk if I'm confident enough to write for it but I'll give a bit of a summary.. I'll keep it under the cut for people who aren't interested and just wanna see the art though lol.

After the main events of SB and Ruin, now that the mimic's been set free, Cassie's taken control of by what's left of Vanny, using her as a new host. But with Cassie being the only human left alive down there, after being reawakened, Dr. Rabbit has nowhere left to go but back to his old host.

Vanessa, Freddy, and Gregory hadn't gone back to the Pizzaplex after ruin, but they were trying to figure out a plan to get Cassie back safely. One night after Freddy and Gregory disappear, Vanessa leaves to go find them. As dangerous as the pizzaplex is, it's her best guess for where they might've gone. She doesn't want to think about what could've happened to them, in denial for the worst case scenario. She tries to keep herself calm by telling herself they probably just left to go back for Cassie, maybe they didn't want her stopping them.. but deep down she knows it can't be that simple. She knows something's off, even if she's not ready to admit it.

When returning to the pizzaplex, she brought along her own V.A.N.N.I. mask, though unlike the one Cassie used, it was clear of the mimic's influence. After all, she was going to need some way to travel through potential blocked routes.

By the time she found Gregory, she'd still been wearing the mask, seeing him down the end of a dark hallway. He looked confused, afraid, his mind was a wreck of conflicting emotions. She started rushing towards him, happy to see him okay, until he finally spoke.

"You need to get out of here."

She stepped back, taking off the mask, only to be faced with the worst case scenario.

It was a wreck, covered in stains and tears, but it was still recognizable. He was wearing that old suit again.

As he waved, she could see Freddy's claws peeking out from the doorway, as the two stepped closer towards her.

So, she did what he told her to do, and started running. She could hear a faint voice coming from the mask, and put it back on before finding somewhere she could hide.

It was his voice again, telling her which way to go.

I guess that was the dramatic way to summarize the main idea behind it, lol. Basically Gregory and Dr. Rabbit work the way Sun and Moon work in Ruin, whichever one is in control in the real world, the other is left behind in the AR world. Or at least that's my interpretation of how they worked, considering Sun was always in mask-on scenes and moon was mask-off. I'm not too sure where the plot might go from there, and maybe I'll consider writing for it, I dunno. I've never wrote fanfic before because I get deadly afraid of writing them out of character lol, but maybe?? I have ideas for scenes and premise and stuff but I don't know if I have the confidence to write it.

But anyway! That was just more of a fun side-idea I came up with while working on this, if you read this far thanks, hope you enjoyed :)

here's some silly little lineless doodles as a reward for making it to the end hehe

now that's what I call an art dump

@ggyweek2024

[deanscutiepiesam]

⛤ Lots of yapping under the cut,, you've been warned lmao ⛤

Okay, so being a closeted Wincestie in a Destiel world is so hard, it's not even funny. Like, I'll find a Supernatural fan, and I'll get so excited to info dump with them and just talk about the show in general - no shipping involved - and then they'll go, "Soo,,, Dean and Cas, huh?? ;))"

So then I'm put in the position where I have to try to be respectful and not give myself away by saying something like, "I see the appeal, but it's not really my thing," and they'll look at me like I'm an alien and we'll just like never talk again?? And then I'm like, "I wonder how they would've reacted if I said I shipped the brothers?? 💀💀"

And like this isn't even a diss at Destiel enjoyers. I follow some artists for that pairing on Instagram because they're talented, I love good art, (and I'm desperate for spn content bc it's a wasteland over there 😭😭). And I'm totally chill with them long as they're not super aggressive about it. It's just something I've noticed about most of them.

Like they're just so sure that everyone ships them, and I'm like, "Damn, that must be so nice." Like I'm sure my family, friends, and other IRLs would burn me at the stake if I causally talked about Wincest like they do their ship (except maybe my mom, I think she might like Wincest,, idk), but they just get to assume everyone feels the same about Destiel and it's so wild.

And I know part of it is my fault. Like I could talk about Sam and Dean like they do Dean and Cas. I don't have to hide it. No one's making me. But I do like having friends and family sooo... yeah. Not happening. It's so interesting that they don't even have to worry about losing people. Like they're both silly little ships about silly little fictional guys,,, why does it matter?? Can't we all just get along?? 😭😭

Also, noooo,,, I totally didn't make this post partially because I'm salty that I can't share my Wincest edit on tiktok even though I spent so long on it because IRLs would see. And that I can't post Wincest fanart because someone could recognize my art style ☹️☹️

Anyway, yeah... I had this bottled up for a while, and this was like the only place I could share it, so if you read all that, thank you, sm <3 I'm so happy I came to this hellsite and found you guys!! <333 ♡♡♡

[redlyriumidol]

My thoughts/headcanons about the different styles of magic across Thedas. I'm skipping avvar and elvhenan because... idk i don't feel like it (we also can't really comprehend the extent of elvhen magic yet. perhaps we never will.):

SOUTHERN CIRCLES: perhaps the one we've been most familiar with until now. Solas criticises Vivienne on a few counts with regards to her magic and I think this sums it up: "Your rigorous training lays a solid foundation, true. It also creates boundaries, limits, where none need exist." I think that's indicative of the Southern approach to magic in general. The Chantry needs to keep its mages under a tight leash, but it also has a vested interest in training them to be useful, especially in a military capacity. Within the Circles there is some room for experimentation and advancement, but it's always limited by fear and the harsh regulations imposed on their use of magic.

Therefore I think Southern Circle magic tends towards the practical, the utilitarian, somewhat of an inflexible, blunt approach. They likely favour elemental magic, though spirit healing seems to be reluctantly tolerated for its sheer usefulness. There's some variety, though, such as the Kirkwall Circle favouring Force Magic.

TEVINTER: obviously Tevinter mages enjoy a great deal more freedom in terms of magic, and can freely experiment and push the limits, in fact they're incentivised to do so. Leaving aside blood magic for now, magic is an intrinsic part of Tevinter culture, and Circles are regarded as prestigious academies-- I think magic there is viewed as an art, a science. Obviously from a banter between Solas and Dorian we know that Tevinter stole techniques from the ancient elves. There are likely some similarities although obviously Tevinter magic has evolved since then.

Imo Tevinter magic is about precision, skillfulness, refinement, elegance, subtlety. There's almost a certain poetry to it, though it is also showy, ostentatious. They appreciate magic for magic's sake, not just as a tool. I talked in a different post about how I don't like Necromancy for Dorian and I wish he'd had a specialisation that showcased an aspect of Tevene magic other than blood magic- like I said I think this could have been glyph-based magic, which is showy but also might require skill and dexterity.

DALISH: The Dalish mages we've met have been very capable and well-trained, so I think it's unfair to say their magic is inferior to anyone else's. I think it's simply different. Since they live so closely with nature I tend to think they have an intuitive, instinctual approach to magic, almost a natural ease. To Dalish mages, magic is like breathing, though there is a lot of study that goes into it as well.

Obviously we have direct examples of Keeper magic in both Velanna and Merrill, so apart from the typical thornblades-type spells I'd also say they favour primal magic (lightning, stonefist/petrify etc)- based somewhat on the fact that Merrill doesn't have access to the elemental tree in da2. Not that I don't think they can summon fire, but I think they view fire magic differently. This is my headcanon/inference but, like healers, Keepers follow Sylaise's Vir Atish'an, the way of peace. Sylaise represents healing, but also fire. For someone who lives in a forest, fire is useful, but can be destructive if it gets out of control. I believe they don't view fire as an offensive tool primarily, but as something healing.

QUNARI: again, Qunari magic is severely limited, even more so than in Southern Circles. I think the Qunari view their mages as basically walking rocket launchers, but magic is their blind spot. They're terrified of it, so they'll never get the most out of its possibilities. I mean, their mages can't even talk to each other, so what chance is there of exchanging ideas and advancing? This might be the reason why they haven't totally crushed Tevinter tbh. It does seem that Qunari/Vashoth likely make naturally powerful mages, it's just that their magic is unrefined, brutal, basic but destructive. I imagine they favour the most basic elemental or primal magic, hardly venturing into any other schools at all. The Saarebas seem to have lightning abilities in-game, which fits a society which is technologically advanced but limited when it comes to magic.

NEVARRA: so obviously we've got the Mortalitasi. Tbh I'm not as interested in the Mortalitasi as I could be, I think necromancy just doesn't appeal to me in terms of vibes lol. But anyway, it's clear that magic in Nevarra has a ritualistic importance, it's dark and secretive, subtle, and even though it can be used offensively that seems to be a secondary purpose. I think, like in Tevinter, magic is likely an intellectual or a scientific pursuit, but here it also has a religious significance. Obviously they favour spirit magic and necromancy. Unlike Rivain and the Avvar, though, they seem to view spirits as tools/slaves- in Tevinter Nights we see a Mortalitasi using a wisp to stir her tea for example.

RIVAIN: ugh my faves. There's a good chance we'll get to see this in the next game and I couldn't be more excited. We know that the women are trained as Seers and commune with spirits. The Circles there are really just a front to appease the Chantry, while the unique brand of Rivaini magic is a natural facet of life. I think it's probably witchy, obviously spiritual, intuitive, likely also ritualistic. Obviously a lot of it is spirit magic, probably spirit healing, but I like to think they also use Entropy magic (my beloved) because the idea of curses just kind of fits the witchy vibes of it all. Since their culture is so entwined with the sea, storm magic also might make sense.

[py-dreamer]

Ooop- so it's almost mid september...

Y'know what that means?

Yea so we have a return of the stickers!!!

Well less stickers and kinda whatever this is Ig

Don't get me wrong I'm still super proud of it! I suppose it was meant to be like stickers from last year but it kinda escalated and sort off got a wee bit out of hand...

...just a tad bit...

Woooh! So anyone who's in the KNY hotpot might recognize this style and yes I did basically use the KNY birthday art format but COME ON!!!

IT'S SO CUTE!!!

LOOK AT MAH BOIII SITTING ON THAT CAKE!!!

I JUST WANNA NOM BIG BITE!!!

(If you can't tell I do really like this cake art)

I promise this time it is really 10 days till my actual birthday unlike the whoopsie 11 I did last year -_-'

And I know it's not Mk's birthday even though it looks like it is, I know. But it's the bloody format of the art and Idk how else to change it. Besides I think they slay in those birthday outfits.

And it was fun to do my sticker style in a bigger thing!

But Idk if it's cause I haven't touched my bloody stylus in ages or I've been swimming in the KNY hotpot for too long BUT WHY WAS MK'S FACE SO HARD TO DRAW FROM THE FRONT VIEW!!!

I HAD TO COMPROMISE, MANS LOOKING TOWARDS THE SIDE!!!! LIKE XIAOTIAN I LOVE YOU AND WANT TO SQUEEZE THEM CUTE LIL CHEEKS OF YOURS BUT WHY ARE YOU SO HARD TO DRAW FROM THE FRONT!??!?

HE LOOKED LIKE A BLOODY CAT WITH SLIT EYES Y'ALL!!!

Oml...regardless, I did have a lot of fun with this and had lots of fun with the decorations and such. If you were here last year, your keen memory and astute eye might notice that the cake is the same cake I used in the 'shenanigans in space' birthday stickers I did last year!

@leesbian42, @cats-and-confusion remember that lol?

So the tiny memory flower thing and star candies are an homage to that :)

(btw, pssttt @emerialyncodevenice I know we haven't talked in a while but you mentioned that you liked the bloomin cake and was thinking of using it. Feel free to use this if you like, Idk how just credit me m'kay?)

But anyways, if y'all wanna use this pic, again. Pls credit me.

AND NO REPOSTING PLEASE!!!

The decorations are meant to be sugar cookies and idk what the icing is. Since I'm thinking more of an east asian fruit cake (those really really soft fluffy spongy ones) I was thinking more like light yellow dyed whipping cream and less buttercream.

Maybe even some kinda custard Idk...(does custard go well with cake?)

The orange chunks are meant to be like mango balls or chunks and hopefully the red thingys in the middle read across as strawberries

I had to include the Monkey king plush, he's just so little!

I was tempted to draw in the other characters as plushies since they are as important to MK probably but it's getting late and I'd already been working on this baby for like 3 hours already.

All in all, I do really like this and ngl, pray this doesn't flop.

I know my single stickers don't always do well but pls y'all I like this very much...

It is nice to compare this year's work and last year and I am proud to say I have improved at least somewhat

And as for why I rarely post, well I've gotten back from my holiday but sadly I'm at that age where work and stuff will be my main focus for the time being.

Got a lot of assignments and tests y'know...

(hell I have one due the 17th and tests to do tomorrow and here I am faffing on about legos on tumblr)

And like I said, I have been blipping and dabbing in demon slayer, read a lot more KNY fics lately (I actually have a mini sketch of kamaboko squad as hashiras, heavily inspired off of other designs but even so-, if I'm in the mood I might post that!)

But enough yapping, I'll try my best to keep up this 10 days thing

(if you don't know up till my birthday for 10 days I try to post a sticker or thingy like this one)

no promises since I am busier this year but this was a lot of fun so you'll definitely see some stuff.

(I just realized I have to keep up this level of detail in my other stuff T^T save meeeeeee plsssss)

[melikedraw]

Something something I think gaolang and Kanohs rematch was useless and just made both characters feel... Idk

Especially gao, I feel like the fight really undermined his training like wdym kanoh wins with not much obvious damage on him? Excuse me? He's just walking off? Literally striking the same pose as he did before (sweeping his hair up out of his face)? Are you trying to make gao look like shit? Please, I get that kanoh is strong, and I'm not at all against him winning because, yea, he's really strong. But gaolang is made to seem so... Garbage. Idk how else to put this ok

Also, what does gao vs kanoh rematch bring to the table, let's be fr

-Does it show how gaolangs years of training up his fist helps him finally overcome the one obstacle he's been so focused on? Not really, no

-Does it have even a sliver of the hype that their original match did? No? Not at all?

The fight scene doesn't hit as hard, the was the fight is drawn doesn't look as dynamic, dramatic. It's not a match that gets my blood pumping, it doesn't look as good either, noticed gao and Kanoh's body proportions being off more often than in the first match, thought that's just visual, it shouldn't affect the match much. Though I can't say the match would be good if the art style was different. Because it wouldn't.

-Does it make kanoh feel like a "I had a sad flashback backstory that is shittier than gaolangs and therefore I get a power up" type bitch? Kinda, yea. Unfortunately

Y'all, it was literally like *insert flashback* and then kanoh dragon shots him. And wins. Um.

Oh don't even get me started on the unnecessary flashbacks. Kanoh? Okay, yea I guess we don't have his backstory, which means we were getting it sooner or later and I don't mind a backstory, but having kanoh just suddenly win right afterwards, damn idk man it feels forced, like a "I had a backstory, so immediately power up"

And I've already talked about why I hate gaolang's backstory, don't even make me repeat myself with that shit. What I didn't add in the linked post though, is actually lore inaccuracies. Like, that post was about visual inconsistencies, but oh, there's more. In ashura, gaolang was scouted by Rama's dad at the age of 5 after showing a lot of promise as a Muay Thai practitioner. In omega, he's at least a preteen, looking around 10-13y/o, and alright the top nak Muay before Rama's dad found him and hired him. Did Sandro forget? Probably

-Does it make gaolang feel a LOT weaker than in the original match? HELL yea.

At least in that first match, kanoh felt FEAR. He felt threatened, because gaolang is STRONG. And gaolang SHOULD be strong, he IS strong, and kanoh knows that, and is intimated by that. That's good, even if gaolang lost, kanoh gained the experience of fear, the feeling that he's lacking, which pushed him to improve, be BETTER. It led Kanoh to become stronger and less cocky, which is hella awesome. And gaolang isn't undermined because yea, he is strong, even the man who he lost to knows it

That first match LED to something, it made both of them strive to improve, something that the rematch absolutely didn't do. It felt like a punch in the gut like "Kanohs still stronger lmao" I don't even mind of kanoh was still stronger, let him win, if he deserves it. But the rushed fight made it feel like their rubbing gaos loss in your face

Rematch? Kanoh beat gaolang. Again. Yea. What else is there to it? Hmmm well gaolangs years of training up his fists, at least they didn't break again. But what else? It doesn't feel to me like he's improved per say, and kanoh doesn't seem to be having a harder time with him. Kanoh literally takes SO MANY elbows/hits to the FACE and you're telling me, he isn't even slightly phased? Their first match had gaolangs strikes making him blank OUT. Gaolangs obviously had to have gotten stronger right. So why are his hits having near to 0 effect? It's not like kanoh can just stop his brain from shaking, that's not really a thing you can train. Like, how do you train your nerves or whatever right? A concussion is a concussion. A blackout is a blackout. Even if Kanohs gotten a hell lot better at tanking hits, blows straight to the face? And all he gets is a nosebleed? No hindrence to his movements whatsoever? I'm calling bullshit. Ok so kanoh does actually "reel" a bit at the start after getting hit in the face (as he should) but after that one frame where he was like that, it's not like he was reacting any slower to gaos attacks, still able to counter and stuff like that, which makes me question how gaolangs strikes are supposed to be stronger, when obviously they aren't quite doing it. They don't "hit as hard" as they did before

There was literally one of those x-ray frames where you'd see inside of the characters head and like KANOHS FREAKING BRAIN WAS SHAKING. But that doesn't do anything much, kanoh was still able to block gaos next elbow, and kanoh wasn't even reeling from that one.

In their first match, I can't remember who but someone said something along the lines of "kanoh is taking hits from the world's best striker, his bones could break any moment" coupled with gaolang's strikes obviously having improved, making his hits (supposedly) even stronger than when he first fought kanoh, which means his strikes SHOULD be pretty fucking hard, and definitely doing DEEP damage, like I mean BONE deep, all over his body (yea, remember that one frame when they were talking about how Kanohs bones could shatter at any moment. His boneS PLURAL). Heck, I've seen other characters get multiple fractures and shit for LESS. Yes, kanoh is the strongest fang (allegedly), and obviously he's gonna be able to take one hell of a beating, but it's not like he has magical bones or something so??? How is he walking outta that arena with just a broke-ish arm that didn't even affect his performance in match because he was just spamming dragon shot?

Also I hate how gaolang isn't using kicks. BITCH. YOU'RE THE MUAY THAI TOP ONE??? FUCKING KICK YOU. YOU HAVE LEGS. USE EM.

That match made BOTH of them feel a lot less intimidating to me, and made gao seems like less of a threat. Plus I still don't get what it did for the plot, really. Did the plot move forward? If kanoh was to be crowned champ, it wouldn't need gaolang to be the fighter right? Sure it works because gao wants his rematch, but honestly, was that rematch good? The plot really didn't need those two to Duke it out and maybe it would've been better if they didn't because wow I can't take gaolang for real. That loss was embarrassing. Also the choreography and pacing of the match... Pheww...

The match was honestly such a nothing sandwich, which makes me sad because I love gaolang, and I love kanoh. Crazy how this match makes me feel ashamed for gaolang, like damn boy...

[thewanderingmask]

Hellooo sorry to barge into your inbox like this but I am going FERAL over your Joel winner art so I hope you can excuse this senseless essay of a ramble

First off, stained glass window art?? Yes please?? I love how the entire fandom has just accepted that kind of style for the winners and it's FABULOUS. I absolutely adore your art style and Joel looks SO COOL in it!!! The sword and the ender pearl is perfect (the sword because he's a fighter, the pearl because that's how he died!!)

The hands around him!!! I LOVE how distinct every single one of them are, you can immediately tell who they belonged to. (Okay, the black long-sleeve thumbs-up is giving me trouble. Gem?? But the others going clockwise I BELIEVE are Pearl (the crown ring!!), Ren, Bdubs, Cleo, Tango, Grian, and Etho.)

The backgrounds are LOVELY and immediately distinct: Gem's barn, Scott's cake, Scar's roller coaster, the Tuff Guy's bases, the Spanner's bridges, and the bamboo for the Bamboozlers!!

THE FIVE PREVIOUS WINNERS!!! Quite frankly I consider it silly that we've been canoodling around with celestial objects for so long and I LOVE the symbols you chose for everyone- the red eye for Grian, the stars for beloved Scott, the crescent moon for Pearl, the sunflower for Scar and Martyn's shirt design!!

I'm deeply fascinated by the flowers- the cherry blossom is most likely a tie to his s10 base, but cherry blossoms also symbolize the balance between life and death, beauty and violence. Very fitting for our family-oriented yet ever bloodthirsty Joel!! The blue ones are most likely forget-me-nots, which also fits very well with Joel's ideals of making alliances and having "friends, not family".

"It's Your Turn"... man, I was rooting so hard for Joel this season and I'm SO HAPPY he won. Man deserves a victory.

I'm terribly sorry for this block of text but I just really wanted to tell you that your art is APPRECIATED and your style is FABULOUS and it always makes me smile when it pops up. Keep creating, my friend, because you have gorgeous talent and I'm incredibly grateful you shared it with us. Cheers!

hi anon and thank you for this lovely message, it made my day

longer art talk under the cut

you're absolutely right about all the hands, well done figuring out gem! it was based on her red life skin, but i couldn't think of anything to make it more clear who it was.

(at least, not until after i'd already finished and posted the piece)

flower language is rad and i did wonder about the meaning of the ones in here, but didn't actually think to look anything up. i like that the blue ones are forget-me-nots! i added them to the winners' circle as a nod to cleo's avatar!

because i literally forgot there were 6 previous winners until i'd already committed to the composition.

the series i forgot about was actually limited life. idk why. i'm new actually haven't seen any series before this one. (i also had to check with a friend of mine who's been watching the series a lot longer, to see if the symbols i'd picked would work for the other victors)

anyway since Real Life was april fools and not really played the same way as the others, i figured it made sense to add martin to the symmetrical circle of 5, and put something around the circle to represent cleo. hence the blue and yellow flowers!

and yep the sakura is hugely inspired by his hermitcraft base, plus the trees at the site of the final fight. learning it has meanings that work so well for his performance just puts such a smile on my face!

(since drawing this, i've seen other people using a comet, which is also so freaking good)

anyway thank you again for this ask, and for giving me an excuse to go off about how i put Very Much Thoughts into art sometimes

i haven't really interacted with many folks in the fandom itself! i'm shy, and i'm generally pretty happy to sit quietly in my corner and sometimes throw a piece of art to the winds to go wherever it might. but a result is that i don't always know how my art is received, if it lands, or it if it feels off to folks who've been around longer.

so your message made me really happy today! thank you!

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #16

Battle of the Dimmsonian

I want to highlight them specifically. Look at that FOP-style fairy boy! Baby's all grown up!

Jasmine and Winn are so ready to party at the museum sleepover.

Oh, they are SO ready for this (Also).

slifdj, Peri looking ahead, noticing Cosmo and Wanda in disguise, and screaming "MY PARENTS?!?"

What the heck, Fairywinkle-Cosmas? You left your son for 10k years? Why? Look at him; he's got anxiety!!!

Dev: I haven't talked to Hazel since our fight :'( I need to get to her. /apparently doesn't talk to her all day and now it's night and he's trying to scare people with ghosts for no reason

Removing the staff during the sleepover night (after a spooky presentation) seems like something a museum would totally do as a prank.

Peri has been onscreen for like 2 minutes and he's already sad inside.

-> Hey, I think he outgrew his fear of the dark!

Dev, I am begging you to make it clear to the audience what you're doing right now. This is not an apology. This is not close to what you said you were going to do earlier??

-> Confirmation Dev is Peri's first assignment, so my "high school trial run" lore hasn't been disproven yet. I can work with that in 'fic. We'll see if he says he's graduated.

-> I do have a fanfic set-up where he's going to do a trial program as Foop's partner when they're still in Spellementary, but I don't think this disproves that either since that's a very supervised experiment for him (It's their extracurricular).

I don't think I've said it, but I really enjoy the way this art style has been handling the hairstyles. These angles of Peri's swirl are really interesting.

Peri... Don't take this the wrong way, but if you can't handle Dev being mildly needy and pushy, you're not ready for the big leagues.

idk, Peri strikes me as WAY too overconfident. He showed up ready to go a couple episodes ago. This is the first time he's back onscreen, and this immediate crash on his end is just proof to me that his inexperienced little tail doesn't know what he's doing.

Peri is the guy who's super hype for kids because he thinks they'll be cute and fun, but he's unprepared for work and responsibility. I'm getting "Tries to avoid changing diapers and/or feels smug about how little housework he does" vibes.

-> What decade is he designed after? Cosmo was designed with 50s aesthetic and I feel like this is actually on-brand for attitudes during Peri's aesthetic parallel time period. lol.

-> It's not like Poof was doing the hard work of godparenting when he was a baby. This is new for him and probably different than he fondly remembers.

-> I looked it up and apparently suspenders made a comeback in the 1980s. I designed my teen Poof for the late 60s-early 70s (and he's my flower child), but it makes total sense that he'd be a little farther forward in time since Cosmo and Wanda weren't allowed to have kids for the first 10k years of their marriage.

- Yeah, I would look at this man and say he's giving me "macho 1980s breadwinner husband who has a fragile ego regarding his manliness and doesn't do his own laundry" energy. - Please tell me he started dating Goldie and she broke up with him because he's not good with stress and now he's clingy and wants her back; "He lost the pretty girl because he wouldn't pull his weight" would be the funniest possible direction to take their relationship - I might need to write a 'fic about Goldie showing up while Dev is out and she and Peri have a fight where he's groveling and begging and then Dev walks in and he's like "... Oh boy, I can't wait to have a business relationship with this guy."

Peri came to this party like "I grew up with Timmy Turner. My grandma teaches godparenting classes. I even did a trial run with Mrs. Crocker... I know the ropes! :)"

-> His crown did not know the ropes.

Diagnosed "would not take full custody in the divorce."

Peri, I cannot be any clearer that you can't behave this way around a neglected child right after establishing yourself as a trustworthy figure he can rely on. If this plot goes in the direction of Peri throwing in the towel (or snapping at Dev), I'm gonna crack up.

Like, at this point I am 100% expecting Peri to yell at Dev (maybe not this episode, but someday), and that's going to break this kid. I feel like Jorgen might get involved and separate them, unless Peri is desperate to "not have a failure on his record" or something (seeing as he seems embarrassed his parents know he's a godparent.

-> idk what's up with that yet. I'm genuinely confused. Peri, this is your first chance to see your parents since they dipped for 10k years. I can't get a read on your feelings. Are you angry? Did they invite you and you said No? How old were you? Did you grow up with Mama Cosma? Big Daddy? Boarding school? Inquiring minds need to know!

Maybe it's not been 10k years for him? Was he still existing in the slower-moving present day? Maybe Peri embarked on his own 10k-year trip? I'm puzzled.

-> I feeeeeeel like the time travel is a convenient plot device for the purpose of aging him up without jumping us forward to a more destroyed planet, and we're not going to get a straight answer about what happened with him, which is a shame.

Hmm. I suspect we're not going to delve into his backstory, but I'll hold out hope. Why throw that in there if you're not going to discuss it, though?

Did I miss something? Why does Dev think he doesn't need friends when earlier he wanted to talk to Hazel? Huh. I feel like there's a missing scene there. Hazel rejecting his attempt at an apology would've been helpful for me.

For some reason it's funny to me that the Tooth Fairy offered Peri a job, which he turned down. My brain immediately went Peri -> Cosmo is his dad -> Jorgen is Cosmo's distant relative but they refer to each other as cousins -> Tooth Fairy is Jorgen's wife. I wonder if they hung out together sometimes at like, extended family reunions or something.

-> von Strangles are big on family and Cosmo and Wanda kinda dipped out on theirs, so...

-> omfg, Mama Cosma is out there somewhere like that meme of the guy in the chair leaning over way far, head in her hands, because this is the 2nd time she lost her baby for 10k years. Left to get milk (Again).

He's so cute. I'm so glad to see him back in the series; I missed him so much. He's always been a favorite for me, which was largely based on my own 'fics, so it's really cool to see a character I love showing a wider range of personality onscreen.

HAZEL! If you weren't mad at Dev anymore, you should've told him! He's been miserable about you yelling at him without giving him a chance to share his side!!

His tushie cannot read minds!!

Dev is the kid that you want to get in a fight with because he's mean but then he looks at you like this and you're like " :| "

-> I hate that this is likely how Dale looked at Vicky once upon a time. Dev looks so much like his dad and now I'm like. "Yeah, she probably kicked him down the stairs."

Aww, reunion... <3

I really do like their color scheme and vibes. I've always thought Poof was a good blend of his parents (Good blend of smart, clean, and on top of things while also getting into trouble, holding petty grudges, and making bad or dumb decisions). I'm happy to see him and it's cool to see their hair designs and colors together.

I'm glad "Certifiable Super Sitter" wasn't his swan song from the franchise. It's nice to see a deeper take on his character <3

Patty Possums Party Playground

I'm glad they're making an effort to balance Hazel's Dev interactions with Jasmine and Winn. I keep wondering if they'll get sidelined. This episode seems to be about them, though.

Is the animatronic going to be run-down?

Winn is having the TIME of their life.

Cosmo: We're gonna do this without magic! Hazel: Isn't shrinking Wanda magic?

Immediate prediction: the possum mascot has been summoned to party with them and now she isn't going to let them leave. She'll get aggressive if they try.

Oh no, Cosmo just suggested Wanda use her wand to try getting his out of the claw machine. Is she about to blindly follow and stick it in there like when they were swallowed by a bear and Cosmo suggested dipping it in stomach acid to measure how deep it was and it dissolved? And she just... did it?

YES, sdlkfj. Never change, Wanda.

Nobody tell Gary and Betty there's a Smack-a-Mole game here.

The possum's singing a song about how the party never ends. Yeah, I think I called the plot.

-> Oh, I NAILED THAT!

They're so cute:

Hazel: Friendship isn't only about the moments you're together! It's also about holding each other in your hearts when you're apart! :) Dev, abandoned and confused since their fight: Hey. what.

Wanda dunking on friendship is very funny to me.

A Date to Remember

... Is this with Hazel's parents I assume?

-> Okay, maybe! That title card looks like it is. Also, waning crescent AGAIN? Y'know, the moons were so useful for my OG series episode timeline and I think some will have to be non-canon in New Wish.

I like how Cosmo and Wanda push their backs against each other the same way they used to dance. And I really appreciate how we seem to have a consistent floorplan for Hazel's apartment.

-> Okay, I treat "Cosmonopoly" as the first time they met so if I want to canonize New Wish, I have to un-canonize Cosmo's line about the diner being their first meeting spot, but I can't be mad since I pretty much never see anyone use "Cosmonopoly" for that.

Did Hazel just erase her parents' memories. Oh no, now they've never met! ... Are Cosmo and Wanda allowed to do that? It sounds like they just altered true love.

-> Hazel's parents look the same 11+ years ago as today. I'm a bit surprised by that.

CUPID! ... Oh, wow. His design's changed. I don't think I love it, but I guess it's cool they're doing unique shapes in this show since the OG had the same bodies all the time. I'm glad he's still a grump <3

-> Is he a lot older than Cosmo and Wanda? I'm surprised he aged(?) during normal time when they didn't during 10k years of travel? Is he old or just redesigned? Unclear.

I would make another "IS HE ALLOWED TO DO THAT?" joke here [Cupid trying to set Hazel's mom up with someone else] but... I mean, he's literally the only person who's allowed to do that.

egg baby.

It's hilarious that Hazel convinced her dad to listen to her by saying she's psychic. Of course the parascience scientist would go for that.

-> Note to self, he was interested in it at least 11 years ago.

Cosma confirmed to still be Cosmo's surname!

Cupid's bragging that he won because Brewster (sp?) is going to ask out Angela, but she's totally going to turn him down. Get wrecked, fool.

I am OBSESSED with the fact that Cupid knows all the humans' names. That is a man who does his job. Also I love how he keeps nipping at his bottom lip with his silly buck teeth.

-> I don't remember Cupid knowing people's names in the OG series (I don't think he has much opportunity to say them besides on the dating show in his debut) and now I want to see if that's always been his thing.

-> I'm pretty sure I remember Timmy was given an arrow with his name magically engraved on it at the end of "Love Struck Out," so... interesting.