#I did trace this and colored it in with pencil but it’s so bad

[starryluminary]

*long, droning sigh* I gave in

[yournightmary]

you should write something where reader is a primary teacher, and ellie is a volunteer/fill in music teacher :D they meet and romance happens or something (i’m bad with words 😀) <3

Play Date | E.W.

content warning:: fem!reader, I guess dealer!Ellie but not really?, bad writing

AN:: not proofread because i’d rather shoot myself than read my own writing. I’m so sorry if it’s bad but i’ve tried my best😔 also no idea hot to tittle things

Whoever told you that being a daycare volunteer is a good idea was wrong- on many, many levels may I add.

You always thought that kids were just cute tiny humans but that changed with your first day at the daycare in Jackson. Most of the kids were boys, there were maybe three girls total. And you never even took into consideration that fall just started, so did every kind of colds and sicknesses possible.

What’s worse than a snotty, nasty seven year old boy tugging on your shirt with his grimy hands? A whole room of them. You only took this job because Maria asked you to. She said something about you ‘wasting your potential by going on patrols’. And by potential she meant the fact that you can read, write and do basic math… sometimes.

·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·

You pushed the door of the daycare building open, furrowing your brows softly at the scratchy sound they’d made. It was almost winter, thankfully. Maria said you wouldn’t have to work once the snow falls, something about patrols not going out as often in bad weather. You shrugged off your jacket, hanging it on the wooden coat rack.

Before you could do anything else you’ve heard a knock on the door, immediately rolling your eyes in annoyance. You took your sweet time getting to it, muttering profanities under your breath.

“Daycare isn’t open until 7:30, sorry.” You opened the door with a sigh, your tone as cold as the outside air.

“Uh- Maria asked me to help you? She said to come here after 6:00 but- I uh, overslept.” Your eyes widened slightly, seeing the girl before you.

Ellie Williams. What the actual fuck?

You stared at her in disbelief, finally noticing the guitar in her hands. She scratched her neck nervously, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other.

“You gonna let me in?” You slapped yourself mentally, stepping away from the door. She walked in, muttering a quiet ‘thanks’.

Ellie placed her guitar against one of the many chairs, curiously looking around the daycare. She traced all of the drawings on the walls, wondering about the stories behind each of them.

“Why did Maria want you to help me?” You asked her after a while, sorting through all of the pencils and sharpening dull ones.

“That’s a funny story… I did something she didn’t like and this is my punishment, I guess- not that I don’t like you! I’m just… bad with kids.” Ellie stumbled over her words a little, looking everywhere but at you.

“Well, what did you do?” You raised your eyebrow, even if she wasn’t facing your way. You sighed softly before adding. “And don’t worry- this feels like a punishment to me too… and I volunteered.”

Ellie snickered before circling around some tables and sitting down next to you, grouping all the pencils by color and placing them in their assigned little boxes.

“She found out I was dealing.” She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, though you could hear the nervousness in her tone. “Weed, you know? Said ‘I’m corrupting Jackson’”

“Shit, you’ve been dealing?” You unintentionally raised your voice, turning your head to look at her with furrowed brows. She raised her head slowly, nodding with an anxious expression. “Why didn’t you tell me anything? I felt bad for nagging Dina and she didn’t want to tell where she gets it from.”

Ellie’s jaw dropped as she looked at you baffled, the pencil she was holding almost falling out of her hand.

“I didn’t know you smoked, sorry.” She muttered, not expecting the way you reacted.

“I don’t look the part, huh?” You looked down at your clothes, the white collar peeking out of your beige sweater and your brown pants cuffed nicely, even if it exposed your ankles to the cold winter air.

Ellie shook her head to the sides with a chuckle, taking the opportunity and looking you up and down. After a moment in awkward silence she spoke up, fiddling with her fingers nervously.

“So why don’t you go on patrols? I mean, you’re really smart and stuff. You could be useful.” The way she said it sounded almost like an invitation, raising her brows slightly while glancing at you.

“Well, Maria said that I’m too smart for patrols. That I’ll be more useful as a teacher.” You giggled, rolling your eyes at the memory.

“That’s a shame… There’s this spot on one of the routes, you can see whole Jackson from there.” Ellie frowned softly, smacking her lips in disappointment.

You hummed in agreement, understanding what she was getting at. Maybe once winter comes Maria will let you go on a patrol with Ellie, just maybe. You placed a few sheets of paper in front of her, handing her a black pen.

“You can draw, right? Make some coloring pages, I gotta clean up before the kids come.” You said with a smile while standing up from the little table you were sitting at, not waiting for her answer.

·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·

The kids came in earlier than usual, the room filling up an hour after you opened. After some discussing Ellie decided to take care of the arts&crafts corner, playing a song on her guitar whenever she got a request while you taught the older kids how to multiply. You couldn’t help but steal glances at Ellie, looking away quickly when her eyes meet yours.

“Miss, why are looking at Ellie like that? Do you like like her?” You hushed the girl with furrowed brows, your cheeks burning slightly.

“Keep your eyes on your paper, Maya.” You muttered, tapping your finger against the worksheet you prepared for her. Why were kids so nosy?

You glanced at Ellie only to find her already looking at you, rolling her eyes annoyed. You giggled quietly, nodding your head in agreement. You quickly made sure everyone understood their assignments and walked over to Ellie, a smile appearing on her lips once she noticed you.

“How’s it going? Any troublemakers?” You asked jokingly, looking suspiciously at every kid with a smirk. Almost every one of them shook their head, letting you know they were on their best behavior.

“They’re all good, don’t worry.” Ellie said with a smile, admiring the way you quietly praised the boy who showed you the drawing he made today.

“That’s good to hear.” You nodded your head, stepping away with Ellie to a more secluded place. “They’re usually so much worse, maybe you’re a good influence.”

“Tell that to Maria.” Ellie snickered, tucking her short hair behind her ears. She scrunched her nose, glancing at the kids a little disgusted. “One of them sneezed into his hand and then grabbed mine though, have you ever thought about teaching manners?”

“Thank you so much for that idea, I’ve never thought about that!” You said sarcastically, pointing your finger at her while nodding your head. “But seriously, I’ve tried. They just don’t care.”

You sighed in defeat, dropping your hands to your sides. Ellie hummed in acknowledgment, looking at the kids coloring the drawings she made for them earlier.

“You play beautifully, by the way.” You nodded your head awkwardly, the words leaving your mouth before you could even think about them.

Ellie blushed lightly, biting back a grin that was threading to spread across her lips. “Thanks” She muttered quietly, looking away from you sheepishly.

She opened her mouth to add something but was cut off by some kid calling your name, asking you to help them with something. You shot her an apologetic smile before getting back to your space, leaving her with a bunch of prepubescent boy that already had teasing smirks on their faces, ready to poke fun at Ellie.

·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·

You waved goodbye to the last kid, their parent giving you a grateful smile. You closed the door with a sigh, turning around to face Ellie. She was ready to leave, guitar in one hand and the kids’ drawings she received in the other.

“Can I walk you home?” She asked quickly, looking at you with a hopeful expression. You nodded your head with a smile, putting on your jacket.

“So, how would you rate your first day here?” You locked up the daycare building, stuffing the keys into your pocket.

“Well… it wasn’t bad. I thought it would be much worse.” Ellie hummed, walking right beside you. You bumped your shoulder into hers, smirking softly.

“I gotta say- you being there made it a lot better than usual… and I’m not talking just about the help.” She looked away sheepishly, unable to stop her lips from curling into a smile.

You walked in comfortable silence, stealing sneaky glances at each other when the other one wasn’t looking. Your hand brushed up against Ellie’s, making her gasp softly.

“Wow, you’re freezing.” She grabbed both of your hands into hers, standing in place. She rubbed her palms against the back of your hands, trying to warm you up.

“Yeah, it’s really cold today.” You giggled nervously, your cheeks heating up at her touch. She kept her grasp on one of your hands, swinging them softly between you as you walked. Smooth.

After a few minutes you finally got to your house, a little bummed out that your little trip is over. You stood before your front door, looking at Ellie shift from one foot to the other. She sighed, fiddling with her fingers nervously.

“How about I pick you up tomorrow? We could walk together.” Ellie suggested, taking a deep breath between her words. She rocked on the balls of her feet slightly, waiting for your answer impatiently.

“Okay.” You nodded your head with a grin, your hand resting on the doorknob. Ellie’s shoulders relaxed almost immediately, her own lips curling into a smile.

“Alright, cool… does 6 sound good?” You hummed in agreement, your eyes locked onto Ellie’s.

You stood there for a moment, in awkward- but not negative- silence. Ellie tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, breaking the eye contact by looking around nervously. You took your chance, standing on your tip toes and pecking Ellie’s cheek. She froze up, her eyes widening. Fuck, did you read it wrong?

“I’m sorry- I dunno why I did that.” You started apologizing, waving your hands around. Ellie grabbed both of them, shaking her head to the sides.

“It’s okay! You surprised me, that’s all.” She tried to hold back her smile but failed miserably, her ears and cheeks turning beet red. “I’ll uh- I should head back.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.” You nodded your head, sighing in relief at Ellie’s words. You gave her one last smile before walking into your home, closing the door softly.

You really hope the snow won’t come soon.

I HATE THIS SO MUCH IM GONNA RIP MY HAIR OUT😭

[laudanine]

How to make a back-patch: Hancock edition

Hey guys! So the tutorial for the Hancock patch is here! So the standing rule on this patch is "you can use my art and make your own, but you are not permitted to make money off it." But man, make your own, go nuts!

Steps 1 to 5 are mostly about how I made the image itself. Steps 6 to 9 are about making a patch once you have your final image. Skip ahead if you need!

So here's the supplies I personally use for these patches -

Tulip fabric paint, black and white

Talc powder

Charcoal powder

Tracing paper

Paintbrush

Fine-tip squeeze bottles

Fabric

My computer

Tape

A thumbtack

A pencil

And to be clear, these are NOT the only options. I've done this with black or white acrylic paint instead of fabric paint, it works fine. If you don't want to bother with the squeeze bottles you can use a paintbrush instead. If you don't have talc powder, cornstarch would work. If you can't find powdered charcoal, you can crush some up like I did, or use graphite, or literally whatever. You get the idea.

If you're going to be using the fine-tip squeeze bottles, now is the time to put your paint (fabric or acrylic) into the bottles and thin them with water to your level of comfort. You WILL need to test the paint on some fabric first, to be sure you can apply it evenly and that it flows well. If you're going to use acrylics, I highly suggest you add a drop of retardant to the mix ALONG with water.

2. I find my images for the figure I'm drawing. Yes, we're tracing: this ain't fine art and we're not gonna be snobs. Here we have John Hancock from the game and John Hancock IRL Danny Shorago.

3. I trace my images! You may notice my two reference images are the same pose! I'm gonna trace the first one by taping my paper over my computer screen and drawing LIGHTLY.

When I had the basics for Danny's proportions down, I left the paper where it was and moved the image of Hancock underneath the paper and traced what I needed from that image. That gets me this double-layer image.

4. I decide which of these lines I want to keep. Even with the faces for John and Danny lined up proportionally the shoulders and neck length of the two figures are pretty different. I decided that I wanted to go with narrower shoulders, and free-handed in the ruffles for his shirt.

5. Now I merge the two faces. I have to get the skin texture from John onto the face I have, which is mostly Danny. I kept up a whole screen of reference images for this process so I could decide what I wanted to pull from where.

And I leaned hard into the skull for his cheekbones and nose. You can see I actually used a colored pencil to outline those skull-like elements before I chose my final lines, and used another piece of my own darn art to add a chin scar I just really like. It is NOT a bad idea to trace a SECOND COPY of this image AT THIS TIME. Your image will be getting really dirty and messed up in the future, so unless you want to start over, you should make a spare copy (spoiler: I didn't do that and had to do this whole thing a second time to make a second patch...)

6. Align your fabric and your tracing paper up and tape first the fabric down THEN the paper on top, separately.

7. Poke holes! Use your thumbtack to poke holes along the lines you're trying to transfer. The way I'm doing this patch most of the image is white lines on black fabric, with SOME black lines on white for his face, neck, and shirt. For that reason, my transfer process is gonna be in TWO parts, one to lay down the white portions and then later to put the black lines ON TOP of the white areas as needed. I don't have a photo for this step: poke holes, you know how to do that.

8. Apply talc/powder to the image and use a paintbrush to gently brush the talc over the surface. You can use the brush perpendicular to the surface to GENTLY push the powder into the holes from the thumbtack holes.

9. Peel off the paper GENTLY. As you can see, I didn't even poke holes for the lines in his face, just the outlines for what's going to be painted in white. What you have is a little connect-the-dots to apply white paint to.

10. Apply white paint and allow to DRY COMPLETELY.

11. Once the white paint it TOTALLY DRY you're going to repeat steps 7 to 9, poking holes in the locations that you want to have BLACK lines appear. For me that's the details on his face and shirt. Instead of talc, the powder I used was crushed vine charcoal. You can see I'm starting to apply the black paint along the lines of black spots of charcoal.

12. Add, like, words and stuff! Also clean up, and fine tune, etc. You did awesome, and if it didn't turn out, well you DEFINITELY made a spare copy like I suggested you do in step 5, right?!?! Right.

Some notes:

This process also works on tee shirts if you want, but definitely use the fabric paint and not acrylics or the paint will flake off when you wash the clothing. Instead of taping the shirt down, I suggest you thumbtack it to a board or to some thick cardboard to keep it still while you work.

If you don't have a computer/screen you can trace on then print the images you want to work with and tape them to a window to use as alight-box.

You don't need to use the charcoal, honestly. If the design is simple or you're feeling like a BAMF, you can skip the black paint and the black powder and just use the negative space of the black fabric instead.

Tracing, and I cannot say this clearly enough, is not cheating when you're not tracing someone else's art. Trace a face. Trace a figure. Trace a landscape. I don't care. If you're tracing any image, you're going to need to do a lot of work to make your shitty traced image (my step 3) into something that looks like art (my step 5). That act of work, that's making art. Congratulations.

If you made it this far and REALLY want to donate money to me over this, don't! Maybe donate to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund instead at pcrf.net because that'd be SUPER cool.

Hope some or all of this helped someone somewhere be a cool punk badass like everyone's favorite Mayor.

[chmieldog]

I know you have already gotten asks like this, but as someone who has loved you since 2023 I would love to know your creative process? What motivates you, are you self taught, are there any art YouTubers you take advice from, etc

don't worry i actually love when people ask about anything related to my art

so 1) my motivation is quite random and i struggle with it the most. i was used to sitting down in front of my tablet everyday until i came up with SOMETHING. sometimes staring for 4 hours at a blank screen in cases of bad burnout. it's an awful method please do NOT follow. nowadays i take breaks from drawing, sometimes 1 day or few days long. i consume other media - catch up on tv shows, documentaries, read a book, scroll through photos and art on pinterest (do not do this one too long you can go into a crisis), go for a walk or something. i even did a fucking diamond painting during my depressive episode. if you don't force anything on yourself and you add some variety into your time (even just watching something else than your current interest) the motivation should come naturally. a good art motivation booster for me is music and movies, but it really just comes down to adding some enrichment to your artistic enclosure or whatever

2) i am self taught although i did want to go to art school. that option wasn't available to me due to my location and health. i went for graphic design instead so i'm qualified in that field i guess... i grew tired of it and i don't plan to do it as a job whatsoever unless someone forces me at gunpoint

3) i don't really watch art youtubers nowadays, but ethan becker, sinix design and mckay & gray are worth checking out. learned a lot from them few years ago

some tips from me learned through my creative process:

as a digital artist, finding the right brush saves my life. it doesn't have to be paid for or the one your favorite artist uses. it just has to feel RIGHT. right now for me it's the artemus pencil from the csp store for sketch and a default calligraphy csp brush for lineart

the second rule of survival is to use references. sometimes i'm too lazy and risk it all. sometimes i get away with it and sometimes i ruin the whole drawing. pose references are the most important from all of them Btw. rawdogging that shit is Not Worth It if you aren't just doodling. i like to draw the gesture line over the actual photo for an easier start at drawing the pose. in 2021-2022 i used to trace over csp models for almost every drawing and learned so much anatomy through it it's actually insane. DON'T RAWDOG THAT SHIT!!!!

if you struggle with colors, limit your color palette. pick colors from only certain areas of the color wheel. you can use color theory for picking Which Areas or you can be creative for this one to come up with something crazy. but the whole wheel will always overwhelm you. you can also take a photo or drawing you like the colors of and color pick the bits and pieces of it to see in what areas of the color wheel the colors stay in

that's everything i can think of rn. FEEL FREE TO ASK ANYTHING ELSE!!! i've been drawing for quite a bit ok i have some shit to say

[anonymous-existences]

Chapter 18 : Granted Wishes

[𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓��� 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒔.]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[𝕬𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖑 𝕻𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖊, 𝕲𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖂𝖎𝖘𝖍𝖊𝖘]

Danny was watching the skies, The stars seemed to twinkle brighter than usual, each sparkling in different assortments of colors and sizes, adorning the complexities of the vast sky lines that reflect to the earth, the clouds non existent and the birds quiet and in peace.

The breeze felt warm and not as suffocating than Danny had thought, it's as though the scenery changes with his presence. Gorham's skies were oddly clear that even Tim was shocked and Damian felt weird about it. Damian accompanied Danny on the roof as Damian moved his pencil swiftly yet smoothly at the same time. Danny flutters his eyes close, the constellations that lightens his cheeks that also strangely reflect the lights of the open night sky.

"The Constellations Follow me today..." Danny mutters as he was taking a deep breathe. "It is .. indeed beautiful... Much More beautiful than any others I have seen." Damian admits somewhat shyly. For the first time it's as though the spirits left behind in Gotham has decided to ascend and forgive their selves to finally reach their final state of rebirth. "Freedom has never tasted sweeter...." Danny chuckled and looked at Damian who was infact drawing Danny and the Oddly Clear Night Sky.

The wind hums peacefully grazing Damian's skin which made him slightly shudder at the sudden cold that hit his skin. "Today feels more of a miracle then it already is." Damian tried to joke and successfully did so as Danny chuckled and sat beside him with a soft ethereal like smile. "Look! Shooting Stars!" Danny yelled out happily which made Damian immediately look up in fascination.

Most of Gotham was out and about that night and witnessing this some sort of Astral Miracle. "Quick! Make a wish!" Danny giggled and closed his eyes and clasped his hand as if to make a prayer. Damian hesitantly did the same. He didn't know what to wish for, rather it felt childish to believe that mere meteors could grant wishes but he wishes that his family stays together side by side and to never Seperate again... Yeah. That's a good wish... He flutters his eyes open once again to see Danny slightly tearing up before he too opens his eyes.

Danny smiles, "Are you... Okay Danny?" Damian asks the younger boy and Danny nods slightly, "I just wish that my sister would be here... I miss ... I miss her so much." Danny mutters. Damian's gaze softened and pulled Danny closer to his side.

Damian hesitantly wrapped his arms around the younger boy to somehow? Maybe? Possibly comfort this Soon to be younger brother of his.

"It's okay... Danny .. it's okay." Damian says, mimicking what He thinks Alfred would do to comfort a child that's in need of consolation. "You'll be alright... I promise." Damian says with genuine care tracing his tone. It made Danny's core buzz in the warmth of family.

It feels like family.

It is Family.

[𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎 𝙿𝙾𝚅]

"Dante should we be concerned...?" Jason asks his lover hesitantly whilst staring at the star decorated clear skies. Dante looks up and thinks for a moment before chuckling in amusement.

Jason looks at him Bemused but surely if he's laughing it's not a bad thing. "it's Danny's thing. Space and Protection and Stuff. Basically this means Gotham has become his new haunt or well place of home. And skies shift to his emotions.. if it's dark and cloudy he is depressed type of depictions." Dante smiles at Jason and kisses the Man's forehead, "It's nothing to be worried about Babe." Dante reassures hire beloved and Jason just sighed in relief.

"But this feels like a god thing type of shtick you know?" Jason muttered following his boyfriend inside their apartment and Dante looks at him with the look of understanding. "That's cuz it is hun. He's a baby god." Dante chuckled and laughed as he left Jason outside the door stunned and shocked at the sudden Lore Drop.

Baby god? Dear Fuck? Damn? Jason doesn't know how to react to this and just followed Dante inside. "and that would make you...?" Jason asks again hopefully for some more clearance, "His Alternate Version Turned Redemption Made Ghost King Proxy." Dante casually says and hums peacefully, Jason just even more baffled, "Alternative Self Like Alternate Universes?" Jason sputters and slowly sits down on the couch beside Dante, "Yep! I used to be evil actually. Then I fought Danny when he was 12? I think— which would be 2 years from now— but he... I guess it's just that when he cried for Jazz All so suddenly Infront of me I just— something in me shattered. And that's how we are here now." Dante kisses Jason's Forehead, hopefully that gave him more closure. (It did not but Jason loves Dante too much to care right now.)

"Clockwork, yk, the one my Father is Uh— dating and stuff— probably gonna marry soon I guess is the one who helped me adjust and take therapy sessions, yada yada, change for the better." Dante smirked and laughed as Jason rested his head on Dante's Chest feeling Dante's Core Purr softly as Dante explained all the details for Jason to understand. Dante was pleased that Jason atleast took it well and not like how he'd imagine would be disgust and stuff— Ancients did he feel so much anxiety before finally being able to slowly explain to Jason what happened.

"And as you know, there's Uh, Valerie, she's 14 now actually, she became a vigilante when she was like 12— which is not really good but that's super too young. I have no idea why when we were kids we wanted to save people so much. But then again it was a place that was unsafe for us so we tried to be both there for each other and save everyone we could when we had to." Dante says softly as he pulled Jason closer to him craving more of Jason's Body Warmth.

"Vlad in my timeline was like super super evil, here he was more sympathetic and just very immersed in his Obsessions at the time but now he's. He's gotten better as well especially since He and Clockwork became each other's Second Obsessions. It's an odd feeling to have your obsessions change really. Mine used to be pure violence but before the Violence it was also Protection and Family. Family stuck to me and Now it's both Violence Sort of, Maybe the Seeking of Justice or Revenge— and Family." Dante was sputtering explanations at this point, his tone occasionally trembling in fear as to how Jason might react but he trusts Jason to not betray him like that.

"Oh! Look. Gotham is trending right now because of the sudden starry skies— did you just post a poetic paragraph related to the stars of Gotham right now?" Dante laughed and Jason just smiled at him and nodded.

"For the first time the skies arranged itself a scenic spectacle,

Stars and Constellations Adorning it's Vast Astral Plane,

The Skies Free from it's Ghastly Covered Shackles,

And the Connection of Freedom and Peace Felt as tho it was no longer Strained."

Dante just smiled at the poem Jason made, soon he realized Jason has fallen asleep in his lap, Slowly he carried Jason to their bed and gently places him down and laid beside him tucking themselves both under the blanket. Dante smiles and Carreses Jason's Cheek gently... " I love you so much my Sun..." Dante muttered his gaze softer than the bed itself, he places a gentle kiss on Jason's Forehead before pulling him closer and closing his eyes to finally falling asleep with peace settling in his heart.

[𝐀丂𝐓я𝐚ᒪ Ƥᒪ𝐚𝐍𝑒, 𝕃𝐚𝐍𝓭 Øⓕ ⓡ𝑒๒Ɨя𝐓𝓱]

"Are you Happy Clockwork?" She Says, her ginger hair nearly mimicking fire and her eyes that felt as threatening as the aquatic depths. Jasmine.

"Ofcourse I am, Your doing and freeing of most of the vengeful unresting souls of Gotham has proven to be helpful in Dante's future Works and Danny's too as well. It also lessens more issues." Clockwork merely smiled and pressed his fingers on his lips as he does so. "It was quite a beautiful... Spectacle. Like the Once in a Lifetime Miracle. Your Show also Stopped Crime in the city for a day for the first time! It's a very beautiful and Bountiful achievement that you have succeeded." Clockwork subtly covers his smug and Cheeky smile from Jasmine.

"I want to be by my brother's side again, not by being Me, not by being jazz.... I want to protect him but I also want him to move on from me. Make me an animal." Jasmine glances at Clockwork, Stars Adorning her Skin and Planets circling around her. Clockwork nodded and slightly bowed to the ascended soul of the once much mortal Jasmine.

"I can make you a pet, or a familiar... Perhaps an animal that fits Danny... Hmm.. you may choose what animal ofcourse. One with wings." Clockwork suggests and Jasmine faces the stars once again to think briefly before making a final decision.

"Make me a Hawk, so that I can be both majestic yet threatening enough that Danny Will love me and that other people who dares hurt him will feel intimidated by my presence." Jasmine says slowly turning her body to face Clockwork fully, Her Red Hair Touching and Dragging on the non-existent grounds as she does so.

Clockwork nods approvingly, "Your Wish is my Command Astral Goddess. After all you ARE the first to willingly give up their first stages of godhood to protect a baby god." Clockwork was amused, Perhaps even curious as to what Goes on in Jasmine's Mind. "I will come back eventually as soon as the lifespan of my Rebirth ends and I can be with Danny as a goddess that has fully ascended enough that I can finally show myself to him...." She says her voice softening significantly at the mention of her baby brother.

Her Aquatic eyes reflected the sea of itself but in them is a hint of sorrow and yearning. Clockwork led The Once Mortal New Goddess down a path of Grass and they trodded through life's lair.

Soon as they walked down the path of flowers and feathers, Jasmine slowly earned her wings, growing out of her back painlessly and smoothly growing out and spreading neatly, Placing itself side by side with ease. Her hair slowly fading into her own feathers and her size shrinking.

She flapped her wings and slowly placed her talons on Clockwork's Shoulder. She shook her new form slowly settling in on the new mechanics of her body.

"I am ready." She chirps and Clockwork nods letting her fly away and her slowly rising from the clouds and soaring through The Sky heading to Gotham with Haste.

"This time... I will protect them." She thinks to herself as she whistles and Slowly Dive Bombing to Gotham, She truly is ready.

She is very ready to Protect her family and to meet them again and be in their warm embrace.

[𝑹𝒆𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝑨𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝑨𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈]

[sonicenvy]

She's DONE!!!!! After far too many moons I finally finished this embroidery project.

This is biggest project I've done to date and I learned a LOT! How I got here:

Found a photo of a paper kite butterfly that I liked, downloaded it and pumped up the contrast for ease of tracing.

Printed out my reference photo, taped it to my light box and traced it in pencil

Color blocked in colored pencil

Scanned drawing into computer and digitally touched up in photoshop

Printed drawing out onto sulky washable fabri solvy and adhered to stretched fabric in hoop

So. Much. Stitching.

Wash remaining fabri-solvy out with warm water

Stretch wet fabric onto hoop and wrap in towels to dry over night

Cleaned up edges by closing them behind the hoop with a long running stitch.

This was almost all just long and short stitches with single strands of thread (though there were also some stem stitches (? It's been a long, long, time since I did that stitched so I can't be 100% certain) involved in outlining some things, and a few areas that I initially started with more strands before decided it looked bad and nixing that.)

I had never done much with long and short and satin stitches before because I sucked at them, so this was a huge challenge project for me. I also had never done gradients before. Fortunately several people on this fine sub offered some helpful tips on the gradients, the long and short stitches and the satin stitches when I asked!

I learned a lot as I went through this project and you can really trace that throughout because I definitely noticed that my stitching got better from wing to wing. I started in the top right wing and went around clockwise until I was finished. A big thing that I learned along the way that made things a lot better was how important the direction of the stitches actually is and how in this kind of project having most of them facing in (vaguely) the same direction looks better.

Several things that I learned in the course of this project:

This fabric that I used for this project sucks and I should never use it for another project ever again lmao

Matching your needle size both to the number of strands you're doing and the tolerance of your fabric makes a huge difference. I started this project with an embroidery needle that was way too big for the fabric that I was using and that punched pretty big holes in it that it did not like. Since I was doing single strand I eventually ended up switching to a regular, very fine sewing needle.

Make sure that all of the threads that you pick are ones that are still in production and that you know what their number codes are. I only barely managed to avoid running out of the one thread that I picked that wasn't a standard DMC color that I could rebuy.

Write down what the colors are that you are using for the project so that future you knows that stuff. I made a little table in a numbers document with this info. The R426 and R420 were threads that I purchased at a charity shop as a part of a bulk bin of flosses. As far as I could tell the company that made these threads no longer exists and they were probably from the 1970s.

Having a hoop with a Phillips head adjustable tension screw is a game changer because you can key in a LOT more tension which is awesome for bulky piles and piles of long and short and satin stitches. I liked using that hoop (dark colored one) so much for stitching that I actually remounted this project in a less nice hoop after it was done lol!

The adhesive in fabri solvy fails after a certain amount of time + repeated re-stretchings. Tack down edges with light stitching in the future?

Having a thimble to help push thread through particularly thick locations is a godsend. Thank you to my mom for giving me her granny's pretty thimbles; they rock.

Making your edges outside the hoop longer and more even is better for tucking it in the back at the end with a running stitch. There were some very uneven and awkward bits that made that difficult.

[gazemaizeisdead]

I do love your 13 pitches for rata-two-ouille but some of the references flew over my head may i humbly ask for you to explain them. again even though i dont get it they are really fucking funny

sorry i didn't respond the first time; brad sometimes likes to message me from sockpuppet accounts to "keep me on my toes" whenever he's mad at me. the other day we had a real big setback during filming (kicked out of a dog park) so morale's pretty low at the studio.

my inspirations for my various ratatouille project concepts are, as you'd expect, quite eclectic. i am a skeptic on the project of tracing artistic influence (how can one really know from where they sourced their ideas) but it's always an interesting discussion.

all the emile movies are my take on lynch (i don't like the idea of simplifying my work to the point of someone being able to say "oh this is gazemaize x eraserhead" but let's be real, that's what i'm doing.)

as for the other less obvious stuff,

Film based on the in-universe Gusteau documentary that inspired Remy to be a chef. A young Gusteau (digitally-recreated Anthony Bourdain) works his way through the unforgiving 1960s hellscape of French cuisine to fight for his third and final Michelin star. At first this seems like a small plot hole because in Ratatouille restaurants are able to get up to five stars but at the end of the movie Gusteau’s food is so good that the Michelin company has to change their system to add extra. First M-rated Pixar film, ties the record for second most F-bombs in any movie ever

this is primarily a response to kafka's hunger artist, and more broadly, to masahiro's sakurai entire career. i don't think it's worth reading the novelization of kirby air rider just to understand my work but it is worth reading for its own sake (if you have the stomach for it, it's not for everybody.)

Romcom Toy Story crossover in the style of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" where Remy falls in love with a stuffed toy rat. Django and the toy's adoptive parents (a Pet Rock and a 2nd generation Tamagotchi, who had faced parallel discrimination themselves in their youth but don't see it as equivalent to what their son is doing) eventually do give up their bigoted ways but the relationship falls apart anyway during the same night due to Remy's obsession with his career. Heavily marketed as featuring Pixar's last LGBT character

when i was younger i had a classmate who was very interested in tamagatchi and i sat behind him in school after a desk reshuffling and he had not one not two but seven of these shiny, candy-colored beeping flat egg devices hanging from his backpack and i was perpetually filled with the irrational desire to reach in front of me, rip them off their little metal ball chains and put them in my mouth. i could not focus in class because i wanted to eat them that much but i also liked the boy in front of me, who had been very kind with me (he had gone out of his way to show me how to properly hold a pencil, where my teacher just criticized my bad handwriting without giving me any constructive advice on how to fix it other than "go slower") and i knew he'd be very hurt if i did. sadly after three months one day i could not resist and i did grab and swallow two before i was stopped (Tamagotchi Connection Version 3: Surf Wave and Keitai Kaitsuu Tamagotchi Plus: Strawberry Yogurt, strawberry yogurt my ass) and though i was okay after an endoscopy and both machines were still functional sadly one tamagotchi died of starvation and another evolved into the wrong kind of adult tamagotchi and my classmate never spoke to me again. he was very popular and i became hated after this incident, it made the rest of my senior year a living hell

Remy is dead and a ghost in this movie, it’s revealed that the Gusteau he kept talking to in the first movie was NOT a figment of his imagination, that was the real Gusteau; cooks of significant skill are able to continually defer their true deaths by making tasty enough food for the grim reaper (for reasons that are only alluded to, this form of necromancy only works for the french, in a comforting throwback to the nationally-segregated afterlife system implied by Coco).

this one is my favorite and the project i would have liked to finish the most, as it's very personal, for i was actually haunted by the ghost of a french chef for three nonconsecutive years. (try sucking off your tax accountant while an offensive stereotype is lecturing you on Escoffier! it provokes artistic output, to say the least)

Three disconnected episodic interludes about Remy (Dan Castellaneta), Linguini (Phil LaMarr), Colette (Tara Strong) and the entire rat-clan learning the true meaning of Christmas. Olaf cameos in the second short as a monster chasing Remy during a hallucinogenic nightmare he has after staying up for a week straight trying to create the perfect fruitcake (only later does he realize that the only truly perfect fruitcake is the one you share with family). Disney+ exclusive

dan castellaneta voiced the genie in aladdin 2 but disney managed to get robin williams back for aladdin 3 and you have to wonder, from dan's perspective, if he felt a little used, like a rebound who gets discarded the moment the original couple makes up.

here's my most spicy take: dan castellaneta does a better genie than robin williams. williams was a once in a generation talent but friend like me doesn't have shit on "nothing in the world" (or so i'm told, i've never seen the first aladdin movie).

Remy and Linguini reunite to battle the Underminer and his robot army and stop them from destroying the surface world and polluting the atmosphere to turn the whole planet into an artificial underground. At the end they leave the underground for the first time in the movie during the final battle and the Underminer turns good because he sees Paris and realizes that he doesn’t need to terraform the surface world because the hellish aboveground wasteland he wants already exists. 62 on metacritic

the incredibles 2 you saw in theaters is actually the incredibles 2 2 because the real first incredibles 2 was a playstation 2 game released in 2005. its wikipedia page has my favorite sentence in all of non-fiction (very bottom of screenshot)

Following the release of Incredibles 2 (2018), the events of this video game became non-canon.

i love the way this is phrased and appended to the top of the page but spaced from the rest like a magnificently important event. it makes non-canonization sound so literal, as if disney sent men in suits to sneak into basements and goodwill centers all over the country and find these dusty game cases and put a little stamp on the disc that says "this never fucking happened".

i hope that helps, send me more questions anytime, i love talking shop about "the process". brad and i are still working hard (or hardly working! haha)

[feralcatalyst]

Do you have any tips for drawing?

Never stop. Just keep drawing. No matter what your evil brainworms whisper in your ear, no matter what the public or the internet says about it, no matter what you do, do not stop. Take breaks, of course, stretch and refresh yourself with water, but never GIVE UP on drawing. The more you do it, the more you study and watch and learn and the more time you spend actually drawing, the more progress you will make. Hitting a wall? Does what you draw look bad to you? That's GREAT!!! Study what you made, and figure out WHAT and WHY it looks bad to you. Are the eyes wonky? Get to the grindstone and study different styles of eyes, from toony, to realistic, find something that looks and feels good to you, and practice practice practice. Is the hand looking off? Look at your own hand! Look at hands other people have drawn, study and watch and learn and replicate, even tracing and reference is okay so long as credit is given when and where necessary! As long as you are taking steps to learn what you are doing *wrong* then eventually you will find solutions and ways to make them look right! It may take you days, weeks, months, even years, but if you never give up, you will eventually continue improving. My personal art history below the cut for context, I hope it helps and brings some form of inspiration to everyone, even non-artists trying to learn or get into hobbies or new skills <3

I've been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, so let's say since I was about 2. No one taught me how to draw, as I aged I started to notice that things were 'wrong' with my art and I would work to fix them. I realized very early that most animals don't have 4 legs on one side, so I'd draw two legs and add the "missing" two behind them, I saw the sun did NOT in fact wear sunglasses or have a face so I stopped with that childhood trope, I drew and drew and drew the things I loved the things I wanted the things I found beautiful cool or mysterious. (Dragons and yoshi's...) I was easily the best artist in my elementary school and I won some award for a recycling calendar our whole grade submitted art to.

I started growing up into a cringe teen that loved wolves and anime and emo skater aesthetic. My focus went from free-handing art to learning to do "real" practiced and professional style art, IE sketching the drawing in pencil and then lining it in ink, and then coloring it with colored pencils. I got my first drawing tablet around 13, when i was also old enough to join deviantart. I made fanart for everyone that reached out to talk to me, I drew characters I wasn't used to drawing, I wanted to make people happy so I drew and drew and drew for my friends and artists I looked up to. I started drawing fanart of my favorite tv shows, I dabbled more and more into digital art and I was BAD but I kept at it. I didn't let my mediocrity stop me. I knew I would never get better if I didn't at least TRY. There are no failures in art, only happy accidents. The only time you 'fail' is when you refuse to stop trying. But you can pick the hobby/job/skill back up whenever you ARE ready to try again. It's never lost to you.

Then I got into a car accident at 16. I had a concussion and a traumatic brain injury. I was injured severely enough that I had to relearn how to do… Well almost everything. I had trouble walking, speaking, playing games, and worst of all for me at least, drawing. I couldn't do it anymore. The wires in my brain weren't bridging the right connections anymore, trying to draw was like trying to speak a different language and no matter how hard I tried everything I had in me was just…. gone. I had to start from scratch, a blank slate but this time I had everything going against me, a brain that struggled to remember retain information and learn, and a body that struggled to move and react as I intended. I was so depressed, it took almost a year to get back on some semblance of improvement, and just as I stubbornly refused to stop drawing, I stubbornly forged my path forward. I got into a new fandom, started seriously practicing the human form since before then I'd only focused on animals and fantasy creatures. Yeah I sucked, my anatomy was shit, my understanding of the body the facial expressions perspective it was all off. But I kept doing it.

I started drawing smut when I was 18, it helped me immensely in practicing how bodies could interact, what made poses or people feel rough or stiff, I studied porn and cgi and famous smut artists, i took time to learn what I liked about it, what was right but looked wrong, what was wrong but looked right, how light and textures were supposed to look, I had no obligation to improve I just wanted to. I had striven to keep going and make small steps in the right direction, taking time to study all my old pieces and figure out WHY they were bad, all the things that were WRONG, how how I could edit or fix the issues to a point where I would deem it acceptable. I never deleted any 'finished' works. I can still access my art from when I was a cringe tween, I can see my mistakes from every year I was active on the internet. I also did my best to not self deprecate, I would objectively critique my abilities and pieces and not take any feedback negatively no matter how harsh or scathing it may be. If someone had a strong enough opinion to voice it then I should have a strong enough backbone to listen and hear them out.

I started taking commissions once I felt comfortable in myself and my abilities. I never turned a commission idea down (Unless it was genuinely unethical) and used every opportunity to give MY BEST to my clients. Even if it was content I did not enjoy or characters with complicated designs or anatomy, I vowed to TRY and give my best and if I didn't know how to do or convey something I studied whatever it was until I felt confident enough in my understanding and embraced the challenges as they came. Study, learn, draw, reflect, redraw, rinse and repeat. Never give up. Try new styles. Try new mediums. Just keep trying! Do and do and do and see and watch and study and keep going.

[thephooka]

How we got here from there

Or, the long journey of a longform long-running webcomic about a long man with long wings.

In the spirit of @feathernotes and @phantomarine who have been talking about just starting your webcomic and not worrying about being "ready", I was inspired to do a post about White Noise's origin! I'm a little limited by the fact that I either left behind or destroyed a lot of the art I have from prior to 2009, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Cringe Truth below the cut!

The Cringe Truth of White Noise is that it has its roots in a Pokemon x Yu Yu Hakusho x self-insert(s) roleplay thread I used to do with an internet friend I made on Neopets guild forums way back in 2002-ish. We would come home from school every day and RP over AIM, and then when we had to get offline, whoever left first would email the other one, and we would continue via email until we were back on AIM at the same time.

Liya was my self insert.

This isn't even remotely the earliest art of her, it's just the earliest I have on hand. I was drawing her for almost a decade by the time I drew this one. Imagine the earlier drawings as being like I traced over Sailor Moon characters that I printed out from deviantART and gave them a brown ponytail.

The funny thing is Liya really hasn't changed much from her original form! I also had loose brown curls that I kept in a ponytail 24/7 to the point that it showed when I had it down (which is why her hair is 'dented' like that). I did it because I was trans and didn't know it; she does it because she hasn't realized she can just cut it off and be butch yet.

Other characters that date back from this time period: Yoshi (originally an InuYasha/Rurouni Kenshin pastiche), Hawk (I don't remember when he got wings but they were white at first), Numair (named after the Tamora Pierce character and filling a Koenma kind of role), Helly (sort of--I had an elf character named Kamui who had the same temperament, and he was eventually transmuted into Helly) and...Kurogane.

I've never named Kurogane but he appears in the background of the comic a few times, as my own personal inside joke.

Vlad came along somewhere between this RP period and planning the comic, but I can't remember when or why. I don't have drawings from that time (~2004?) but he was the first character I drew when I got a tablet for the first time.

Everyone else came along later when I started actually planning out the comic.

All this said: the reason I started White Noise as a weekly webcomic is because I wanted to learn to draw better.

At the time I was in college majoring in animation, but I didn't feel like I was learning very much at all (the program was badly structured; I had more art history classes than anything else. It was a mess.) I was also working nights in order to feed myself, and so had a lot of downtime. I had this story rattling around in my head from my RP days, so I figured, why not just give it a go?

For posterity here's a photo of a chapter 1 panel in progress, back in 2011 with my typical college diet in the bg:

(Chapter 1 was originally pencil on paper, scanned in and colored in PS. I later re-drew it to make it fully digital to match with the rest of the comic.)

There's been a lot of talking about not waiting until you're 'ready' to start a webcomic, and I agree with that sentiment. Try framing it like this: making a comic every week for years and years will improve your art way more than any prep work you can do before starting the comic. It's like learning to swim. You can read about swimming all you want, but you're not going to really figure it out until you do it. If your early comics are bad, well, that's normal. It used to be an expected part of doing webcomics; I blame the shift into expecting webcomics to be polished from start to finish partly on commercialization in the space, but that's an angry rant for another time.

With this background, here's the collage I posted for WN's 10 year anniversary back in 2021:

And now we're here.

So do your webcomic. Put it on ComicFury or make a janky little site for it. Be okay with imperfect pages and be prepared to shout into the void for a while. Even if it's always a hobby, if it never makes you a dime or wins you any awards--that's fine! You'll be a lot happier if you learn not to worry about that stuff, and just make something that will help you grow and make you happy. We could do with a lot more work like that in the world imo.

[forest-teacher23]

Despite an awful migraine this morning, I was able to do quite a bit in my new journal to set it up for next year!

I added some stickers to the front. The Isabelle is my fav lol

And here are the pages I did today! I forgot to take a picture, but that paper taped to the side is my dot guide. It pulls out so I can reference it while working at any page in my journal.

Then, the first page is a "self portrait" I really just wanted to mess around with my new coloring pencils, and decided to make a cover page with them

Last year my journal included an index but this one didn't, so I decided to make my own. I drew the color lines without a ruler, so there's quite a few mistakes, but it's not the end of the world (or so I tell myself)

Then finally my year at a glance and important dates pages. I don't know why these were so hard to make, but I think I used half my white out fixing mistakes. With how bad it was you'd think I didn't trace my designs before inking them, but I do!!

I'm glad I have the energy to do these spreads now, as I'll be out of state over Christmas and won't be able to do anything with it then. Let's see how far I can get before next Sunday!

[amazingmsme]

What kind of world is Briar from? (ex. futuristic, “normal”, etc.) I would be more interested in hearing about the world building aspect of her world. Especially in relation to how she can use her powers. (Side note: Did you draw her on paper or digitally? The texture and colors are really nice! :))

Anon just know I love you💗 but seriously thank you so much! I love these questions!

Her world is pretty similar to ours in terms of the modern world, but the colors in her world are really bright & vibrant with soft blurred lines for the landscapes. It’s very picturesque & beautiful. If I had to give an art style it would be like a vintage oil painting with bold use of colors. The crime in her world is pretty similar to ours, but with a few supervillains to spice things up. But she tends to focus on crimes like what affected her family & dedicates a lot of time to freeing kidnapped victims. I like to think that her world has the same kind of music that ours does cause she is a HUGE Lana Del Rey fan (she’s a depressed bitch, what do you expect?) She likes the typical sad emo music but she also likes a lot of upbeat pop music, showtunes, & a few sea shanties lol, so not what you’d expect from a hardcore goth. & because it’s my world & I make the rules they have the And That’s Why We Drink podcast & it’s like her favorite thing to listen to. Like she’ll literally be swinging through the city or in the middle of a fight & she’ll be listening to the newest episode not giving a fuck if it’s “disrespectful” to the bad guy. It’s disrespectful to interrupt her while she’s trying to listen!

Her powers are pretty similar to Miles & Miguel’s (invisibility & fangs/venom) but while Miguel’s bite just leaves you paralyzed, hers takes a harder toll on the nervous system & depending on how much she gave them, it could kill them. If she does bite someone & they’re just a normal person, she’ll leave a little vial with a note next to their webbed up body that says something along the lines of “sorry, I bit this one, he left me no choice. Might need to go to the hospital, but he should be fine if you give him this :)” smiley face & all. But sex related crimes have really dropped since she stepped on the scene & she’s a pretty big feminist icon in her world. (One time Em & Christine mentioned her on the podcast & she freaked the fuck out & ran into a building)

& thank you so much, I’m so glad you like her! I drew her on paper & colored her with my prismacolor colored pencils & outlined her with my glitter gel pens. I used the photo layers app to trace her out & make a transparent version cause I just like the look better than my kinda ratty sketch book lol

[deafeningfanlight23]

Lunar and Earth Designs for TSAMS AU + Rant :D

(Ignore the colors btw it just helps me focus more idk why IT'S JUST SO FUN ✨ AND YEAH YOU GONNA WITNESS ME LOSING MY SANITY, dEaL wItH iT 🙄✋/j :D)

LUNAR'S SECTION

(Btw, in my story, he uses he/they pronouns so don't be confused if I use "they" to address Lunar :D)

OKAY, FIRST OF ALL, I HATE LUNAR, I WILL GET OUTTA THE CLOSET WITH THIS ONE AND NOT IN THE FRUITY WAY 😭

AND NO I DO NOT INTEND TO MURDER ANY LUNAR FANS OR DISRESPECT THE VAS/STORYWRITING/IDK THE NEIGHBOUR'S DOG THEY ALL (including the neighbour's dog of course :D) DID A GREAT JOB, I JUST DON'T LIKE HIS CHARACTER :'D

However, he IS very important in the story that I'm writing because I REALLY want to make him more flawed and exhibit more, uh, Eclipse-y traits (Duolingo would be disappointed in my English right now fr 😔🙏, LET MY FAMILY LIVE PLS 😨). They should be bitter, selfish, impulsive, have a very cheeky tongue that gets them into trouble and could accidentally hit some SENSITIVE spots and triggers that should be left to heal! However, this will be displayed while also being his silly, sometimes """""ADORABLE""""" self, I try to keep their core traits faithful to the original piece :D BUT, in my story, he will have this child-like mindset and really high-pitched voice because of reasons that could be traced way back to Eclipse, and also be traced back to his current family!

THOUGH I TWEAKED HIS PERSONALITY THE TINIEST BIT FOR THE STORY BECAUSE I COULD *NOT* WRITE HIM FOR 10 SECONDS OTHERWISE 😭

AND OMG I COULD MAKE LUNAR EXPLODE AGAIN BECAUSE THEY WERE SO HARDDD TO COME UP WITH A DESIGN 😭

Okay ENOUGH OF MY RANT HERE ARE THE VERSIONS OF LUNAR AND MY THOUGHT-PROCESS BEHIND THEM! :D

The First Version Of Him:

IT SUCKS 😭 I tried to go with the hood thingy but for me it's just boring :/

I saw that many people put a hood and cape over him and those gave me some Little Red Riding Hood (aka Rotkäppchen :3) vibes that I wanted to incorporate into my own design - The Little Riding Hood, lost in the woods all alone and a small child amidst towering trees, meeting the wolf who could trick her into believing he was the Grandma, her whole world and this soothing motherly role that she wishes he could fulfill but ultimately, she was trapped in a cage.

HA JOKE I JUST TRICKED YOU INTO A LUNAR AND ECLIPSE METAPHOR! >:D But that's how I really imagine their past dynamic when they were a team, and I will reflect my perception of said dynamic in my story! :D

Though this design DID NOT WORK out sadly, A MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR THE HOOD AND CAPE 😔

...

OKAY ENOUGH SILENCE WE AIN'T HERE TO CRY, WE ARE HERE TO BE GAYLY OBSESSING OVER TSAMS >:D

SECOND VERSION:

Another one where I only tried out the hood and then some poncho I think??? 😭 BUT IT SUCKS TOO OF COURSE 😍✋ Y'all I swear Lunar is bad luck for my pencil 😔

LAST VERSION (which is officially how he is designed! :D):

I settled on this because for me, this gives them much more personality! :D And I inspired myself HEAVILY on this model of Lunar after he was blown up and I sprinkled some REALLYYYY old Lunar in there, too! :D

I tried to make him look VERY child-like because as I mentioned, he has a child-like mindset in my story! :D In addition (I SOUND LIKE A COLLEGE STUDENT 😭), he is the only one who still wear jester-pants and jester-shoes - Because he is the "sentimental" type of person, clinging close onto the past that he shared with Eclipse and the resentment he feels towards him. How else do you think could he be this bitter?

Anywayyy Lunar's overall difficulty to draw was 100/10 cuz I hate him 🤗 FUN-SIZED BIATCH I WANNA SET HIM ON FIRE 🤭 (See little scribble above him :3)

NEXT, NAMELY THE QUEEN HERSELF! >:D

EARTH'S SECTION

I intended to make Earth AS GIRLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE, like she should be a glitter, sparkle and My Little Pony BOMB because she is VERY feminine in the show, too! :D Wait... bomb... MONTY PLEA- (SRY I HAVE A BEEF WITH LUNAR OKAY 😭)

So I tried to make her appearance very feminine, too, and also kind of motherly??? 🤔 Because you know, Mother Nature (SHE IS LITERALLY INSPIRED OFF THE EARTH LIKE NO DENYING- 😭), the Creator once said that she should be like a mother to the children, and at the beginning, she had a very soft-speaking voice and naturally comforting and compassionate vibes! :D She is (or was) also first a very morally good character, refusing violence and instead USING THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, PEACE AND COMPASSION 🤭 Because violence wasn't the friends we made along the way: iT wAs peAcE ✨😌

THOUGH IN MY STORY OF COURSE SHE'S GONNA BE A BIT OF AN A$$HOLE, the family issues don't create themselves 🙄 She will have a moral compass that she RIGIDLY follows, like NO EXCEPTIONS are allowed to be made or off with their heads, and by focusing so much on following this strict set of morals, she overlooks actually the well-being of those closest to her and the REASONS why sometimes, morals have to be bent in order for people to not get hurt both emotionally or/and physically!

she will be the first one to not want to kill Eclipse

And because I have already had a clear vision for her, I didn't have many attempts of drawing of her and thus, less versions! :D I always imagined her with a big rock-like thing that reacher her ankles, a cardigan and underneath a fluffy, long-sleeved shirt because that combo gives me the most vibes of a compassionate, soft-speaking person! :D

HERE SHE IS! :D

I'm happy how it turned out! :D

Overall, HER DIFFICULTY TO DRAW WAS..................... 2/10 cuz it was easy of course >:D (Joke I had an emotional breakdown drawing her hair- 😭)

SOOO THIS TOOK ME ALMOST ONE HOUR TO WRITE, TUNG! :D Hope you enjoyed hearing me yap about fictional characters! :3

AND NOW GO TOUCH GRASS 👹

[3liza]

that's ok! this is a mostly-obsolete technology from when before everyone could print stuff easily. you might be familiar with the term "carbon copy" but also not sure what THAT means. basically, before affordable home and office printing and before we kept records in digital formats, we needed ways to make copies of documents physically without having to fill out the same form three times (something people used to have to actually do quite a bit, often with actual handwriting and not even a typewriter. talk to an 80 year old person about this sometime, they'll tell you what a nightmare it was).

so first we had carbon copies. a carbon copy is when you cover a sheet of paper in powdered carbon or graphite and put it under the paper you're writing on, on top of a third sheet of normal paper. maybe you did this in school once to transfer a drawing, sometimes teachers will show you how to do it by coloring pencil lead thickly on a piece of paper and then tracing over the drawing.

when you press down on the top page, the carbon sheet is pressed onto the bottom page and leaves a duplicate of the mark youre making. you can use them in typewriters too.

but the problem with carbon is that it is extremely messy. it gets smudges all over your fingers and desk and other papers etc. so "carbonless" copy paper was invented

this stuff only makes a mark when you smash the little coatings together. no more smudgy carbon paper in the office. this works with typewriters too because typewriters make a letter by slamming a hammer into the paper. so that's what's up with these weird papers.

the pretty pastel rainbow paper i posted seems to be a stack of FIVE different carbonless copy papers that will produce a whole rainbow of copies at once. really neat idea. no clue what i would do with it. limited production zine? idk!

here's my typewriter now, making one carbonless copy

edit: if you are looking at these coated papers thinking "hm my autistic ass would hate touching this" it's not as bad as you'd think, the coating is SO finely ground that it doesn't register as grit and doesn't make gritty noises when you're handling the paper. it's more like when you have a finely coated paper for fountain pens. so it could be slightly icky for some people but is, for me at least, completely tolerable. and of course with s typewriter you don't really have to touch it at all

edit 2: this is a really good thing to point out, thank you!!

because we used to send official correspondence to people and then send the carbon copy to a second person, physically. so we retain this language with digital correspondence!

i got dot matrix printer CARBONLESS COPY(!!!) paper for my birthday and my plan to feed it continuously into my typewriter and get an endless paper feed WITH a backing duplicate has worked perfectly. why did i do this? absolutely no good reason i just thought it would be fun. and i was right. anyway i started writing that book

[silassinclair]

“You’re my Muse”

[Billy H. x Artistic Reader] 🎨

Summary: Y/n loves Billy’s face. He’s just so handsome and gorgeous and UGH. She loves holding his face and looking into his eyes, and Billy is just like, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

FLUFFY FLUFF FLUFF

Glam metal music played softly from Billy’s stereo. The volume was turned down more than his usual listening volume because his girlfriend Y/n was doodling in her sketchbook on his bed. He absolutely adored her. She was cute seven ways to sunday. Her cute little hobby of drawing, her love for bugs, but most importantly was her weird fascination for his face.

Weird because it was only his face. Her pages were full of realistic sketches of his face at many different angles and making many different expressions. He was flattered and never questioned it, but it got to the point where she would hold his face in her hands for long minutes at a time and just stare adoringly.

Billy loves her to the moon and back but he cannot help but feel… a little weirded out by her quirky behavior, not in a bad way of course. So he finally asks, “Hey baby?”

The sound of pencil on paper stops. “Yeah Billy?” Y/n asks and crawls over to him. He was seated on the floor against the bed she was on so she leaned down and put her cheek against his, another thing she did quite often.

“Not to sound mean.” He starts, “But I gotta ask you, what is with you and always being all over my face. I know that I’m handsome and attractive and the hottest guy ever but I can’t help but feel like you have a weird fascination for my face.” He says with a light grin.

An awkward pause fills the room. Even the song on the stereo was quieting down, playing it’s last part.

“Well uh.” Y/n say straight up and scratched her neck. She knew this day would come. After all personal space is important so of course her boyfriend would question her weird actions. “I just really like your face.”

Billy turned around with a quirked up eyebrow and a smirk. “Oh I know that babe. That’s why you’re all over me after all. But I wanna know more. Give me the sweet juicy details.” His thumb brushed against her hand that he had held in his.

“To put it simply, you’re my muse Billy.” She said with a smile. Her head tilted to the side to see Billy’s facial expression change from smugness to wonder.

“Your jawline is sharp, cheekbones are prominent, and your eyes,” Y/n gently takes hold of his face. His head is turned up as her fingers trace gently against his jaw. Billy is at a loss for words, no one has EVER said anything like this to him before.

“Your eyes are absolutely stunning. I could drown in that gorgeous blue color.” She places a small peck on the space between his eyes.

“And don’t get me started on your lips.” Her thumb traces the plump bottom lip. “They’re so smooth and plump. I just wanna kiss em all day.”

At this point Billy’s face was as red and flush as the crimson paint Y/n used in her artworks. The affection was almost overwhelming. His brain simply couldn’t process how someone so sweet, cute, and humble could adore him this much. He thought men were the ones who were supposed to fluster their girlfriends, but apparently it was the other way around right now.

“I love all of you.” Y/n whispered softly and placed a light kiss on his cheek.

In the blink of an eye Billy pounced and had Y/n pinned under his body. Her arms spread limply by her sides under the soft cushion of Billy’s mattress.

“Do you really mean that?” Billy said. His tone was like a whisper. Hope in his voice wishing it were true, but he knew it was too good to be true. “All that you said, you mean it?” His golden brown locks fluttered from side to side, framing his perfect face.

The girl reached a hand up to cup the jaw of her lover above. A smile painted her face. “I meant every word, love.” That petname for him had hime weak in the knees any time she said it, which was pretty rarely. Usually she’d just call him Billy, baby, or B.

Billy leant down and trapped her lips in a heated kiss. He never wanted tor leave this moment. In between kisses Y/n giggled, her arm’s wrapped around his neck lovingly.

“Aw? Is my sweet boyfriend flustered? Or do you just really like being praised and complimented?”

A growl escaped the depths of his throat. “How could I not be a blushin’ mess when you say shit like that?” His lips traced the shell of her ear. “God I don’t deserve you baby.” His whisper sent a shiver down her spine.

She smirked and batted her lashes, “Oh and that sexy voice of yours, I could listen to it all da-”

She was cut off with a kiss. Her boyfriend’s eyes were wide and his cheeks were on fire, his bottom lip twitching too much so he bit down on it.

“Keep talking like that and I’ll show you how much I love you more.”

[cielcreations]

Tattoos - Hermit X Empires

The design of Tango is based off of @lunarcrown​‘s design, so make sure to check them out!

It wasn't a shock that Tango had tattoos. It just fit his aesthetic and the type of person he was. He was a blue blaze hybrid, he wore a lot of leather, usually crop tops paired with thigh highs to both embarrass Solidarity and to show off, it just wasn't really a surprise.

The first time people had seen it was when Tango took off his long cape like overcoat. It did get very hot and stuffy when wearing all black and leather, so he took off the cape and Fwhip (the first one to see it) gasped.

"WOAH!" The goblin ran over, "That's awesome!"

Tango smiled, showing off the warden tattoo, "Thanks! It's still healing though, which is why I have the plastic wrap!"

"It's so pretty! And so cool! The colors are awesome!"

"I know, I have the best tattoo artist!"

"I'll say! You'll have to take me sometime, been thinking of getting one myself!"

That was that. Other people would see it and compliment the design, the colors, the way it fit Tango's arm perfectly, everyone was amazed and impressed. Especially Scott and Joel.

"I have a few tattoos!" Scott removed his shirt and, sure enough, on his lower back was a flower field, full of beautiful colors and all sorts of flowers. He also had a few small ones scattered around his wrist, his ankles, just tiny ones like a rainbow, the word 'Chromia' written in beautiful cursive, a silhouette of a llama, etc.

"Those are nice too!" Joel complimented.

"The artist was the worst though!" Scott complained, "He was way to rough, my skin was swollen for weeks! He was awful! Not to mention the colors all washed out! They used to be super duper bright, but after they fully healed, which took about three months because he was way too rough, they were all gone!"

"That sucks! I hate those type of artists! They feel like they're just stabbing you rather than actually making art!" Tango huffed.

"Exactly!"

"I have one on the back of my thigh of some blue orchids?" Tango turned and lowered his thigh high boot, "This is a cover up!'

"No way!" Joel exclaimed, kneeling down. The tattoo was beautiful, it looked like a flowing pile of blue orchids, "What did you cover up?"

"Originally, it was a black heart and mine and Soli's name-" Tango explained, Joel stepping back as Tango fixed his shoe, "-but the artist was awful and the black faded!"

"How does black fade?!" Joel exclaimed.

"When you're rushing and not pressing hard enough! Honestly, it felt like she was just stabbing my skin with a dull pencil!"

"Well, that one is awesome. They're both awesome!" Joel smiled, "It looks so clean! Colors are blended beautifully, the outline, everything!"

"Thank you!" Tango giggled.

Scott playfully glared, "You have to take me to your artist! I need these ones redone!"

Tango laughed, "Sure!" The blaze then looked at his arm and smiled, tracing it with his finger, blushing slightly, "Soli was so worried it would turn out bad, but I told him it would be fine!"

"Makes sense he would be a buzzkill." Joel teased.

"Well, he does have to be strict if he's the one tattooing me!"

A beat of silence.

"WAIT WHAT?!" Both screamed, making Tango jump.

"SOLIDARITY, THE SHERIFF, DID THOSE?! NO WAY!" Joel yelled.

"He did! Why would I lie?" Tango questioned, "Has he never done one for any of the other emperors?"

Scott and Joel stared.

"....So that's a no..." Tango giggled, "I can prove it! Do either of you want a tattoo?"

"I'll pass for now, I need to do more work at Chromia."

"Joel?"

The god hummed before he nodded.

***

"Soliiiiiiii~!"

The dirty blonde turned and smiled before it was gone in an instant, seeing a familiar brunette god beside his husband, "...Tango, why is he here?" 

The blaze ran over and kissed his cheek, Solidarity instantly blushing and loosening up a bit, "Joel doesn't believe that you made my tattoos! Can you believe that!"

"I can, he's jealous he can't do what I can do!"

Joel glared, smirking, "Yeah right! I know Tango is lying to just hide your secret! Who's the real tattoo artist?! Is he a criminal, is that why the sheriff is hiding him?"

Solidarity raised an eyebrow before he sighed, "Follow me."

"Ha! I'm going to know the sheriff's dirty little secret!"

They walked into Solidarity's home, the dirty blonde taking out a bunch of materials for tattoos before handing Tango a book. The blaze gave it to Joel, who began to flip through it. Most were just pictures of finished, beautiful tattoos while some showed Solidarity working on those tattoos, him beside the tattoos, even some of him with the client who wad clearly amazed and happy with the result.

"...No way..."

"I told you!" Tango exclaimed, "My husband is the best tattoo artist ever! I would never let anyone else ink my skin when I found him!"

"C-Come on, t-they're not that gr-great!" Solidarity blushed, completely embarrassed by his husband's assertion.

"Dude, these are awesome!" Joel yelled, "Can you do me?!"

"I-I can-"

"Sweet!" 

"H-Hey, I didn't say I wo-"

"I want a large lightening tattoo!" Joel pointed at his shoulder, smiling brightly, "Right here! Maybe it could have a cloud and lightening?! And maybe some good praising and-"

"H-HOLD ON!" Solidarity yelled, startling both him and Tango.

"What's wrong, baby?" Tango gently took his hand in his.

Solidarity took a deep breath, "I-I'm not comfortable with writing sentences on people unless they're super meaningful. I'm not going to write 'I'm super hot and sexy and tall' on you." Joel nodded so Solidarity continued. He stepped forward, tracing Joel's arm, "...Do you just want a simple lightening bolt? Black and white or color?"

"Oh, um..." Joel blushed, now a bit embarrassed. He didn't think he would get this far, "...Um..."

Solidarity continued stroking his arm, "...Your skin is really nice, but I'm guessing you want yellow? Yellow or gold?"

"Yeah, um, yes."

"...I don't think that's a good idea." The sheriff hummed, "Yellow, gold, those type of bright colors? They fade really quickly on light skin and they don't turn up well on darker skin. You may be tan, but it's really not worth it."

"You can't, like, go over it?"

"I could, but it would one, hurt you a lot and two, it will look very washed out when fading." Solidarity stared before he widened his eyes, "....Unless...."

"Unless?" Joel questioned.

He could almost see Solidarity's brain processing. He ran to a chest in the corner, Tango running after him. The dirty blonde took out his tattooing materials, Tango taking them as the dirty blonde finally got to his sketchbook, effectively sitting down in his spot and beginning to sketch.

"He's in work mode." Tango explained, setting the equipment down, "Here."

The blaze took,out a long comfortable chair and had the brunette lay down on it as Tango set the equipment up. It took about thirty minutes before Solidarity came back over with a couple of designs. One was a half sleeve with a large cloud on the top of the shoulder with bolts of lightening shooting out of the clouds. He explained he would color them in a way that so it looked like the cloud was lighting up and wasn't just a simple white. The next was a full arm tattoo but it was a lot more simplistic. It was just a string of lightening bolts that went from Joel's shoulder to his hand, Solidarity explaining he would either do it in black because it was just a bunch of straight lines, or UV ink that would glow under UV light to give it that pop. Finally, the last one was a half sleeve again.

It had a silhouette of Joel lifting his hand up towards the sky with a large flash of lightening and storm clouds, mini lightening bolts behind the one giant one.

"Woah..." Joel was amazed, "I... never knew you were such a good artist..."

"He keeps it hidden." Tango hugged Solidarity from behind, the dirty blonde blushing, "He's really passionate about this stuff so if you ever want to embarrass and make him a stuttering mess? Just compliment his art~!"

"T-T-TANGO!" Solidarity yelled.

"Seeeeee~?"

Joel chuckled, "Um... I really like all of them. I want all of them. But, if I have to choose one? I'd go with this one." He pointed to the one with the silhouette.

Solidarity smiled, "I figured. I try to make two or three designs that are 'basic', in terms of what the person wants, and then one or two catered to that specific person!"

Tango sat in a chair opposite of Solidarity's equipment as the dirty blonde transferred the sketch to a stencil. Once that was finished, he got his inks and tattoo gun ready.

Solidarity hummed, "Ready?"

"Ready!" Joel smiled.

"If you need a break, just tell me."

"Okay."

The dirty blonde began to work, Tango watching him intently. Joel did too. The other's face was calm and he gave off an aura of confidence, knowing exactly what he was doing. Solidarity didn't even blink when Joel let out a small groan as he hit one spot, just wiped away some ink, looked at him to gage if he was okay, and straight back to work mode.

"He's hot like this, right?" Tango giggled, not bothering to whisper.

Joel stared, "...Honestly, yeah..."

Solidarity looked... different like this. Just super confident, super calm, completely in his element. It was... amazing to see. He was completely comfortable, unlike when he left his empire and always seemed on edge because of something.

Joel hummed, "So, how long will this take?"

Solidarity didn't answer.

"Mine took three hours, so probably that, maybe a little less or more." Tango explained, "Trust me, you're not getting anything from him. Even complimenting his work won't deter him from work mode."

Joel nodded, "Amazing..."

"He is~!" Tango exclaimed, giggling, 

Solidarity wiped another bit of ink, humming to himself.

"S-Something wrong?!" Joel exclaimed.

"No." The dirty blonde reassured, "Just admiring it. I don't make mistakes in my tattoos."

Tango and Joel chuckled before the two continued to talk among themselves. Joel did let out small groans at some point, but Solidarity would look at him, gage if the pain was too much, before getting back to work. It took about 3 hours before Solidarity hummed taking a step back. He smirked, putting his tools down before wiping Joel's arm a couple of times.

"Alright, you are all set." Solidarity smiled, "I know you hate following orders, but trust me on this. Do not take hot water, try to take cold or slightly warm showers, hot water will hurt your arm and it can wash the ink out. I would also suggest wearing plastic wrap, just in case. Wash the tattoo twice a day, all you need is a little soap and water and then gently pat dry. I'm going to give you some antibacterial/Vaseline ointment that you apply after washing it. Do not put on another bandage after the ointment, just wrap it in plastic wrap. Also, I suggest using some moisturizer to keep the tattoo moist."

Solidarity helped Joel sit up and handed him a mirror. Joel took it and gasped, amazed, "HOLY SHIT!"

"LANGUAGE!" Solidarity yelled.

"SHUT UP, NO WAY YOU DID THIS!!!" Joel stared, "IT LOOKS AWESOME!!! WAIT, OMG, IT LOOKS LIKE I'M REALLY CONTROLLING THE SKY!!! AND THE SHADING, THE COLORS, IT'S ALL BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL!!!!"

"Yellow and orange tends to fade the quickest just because they're so bright, so I built up the colors a lot and the shading with the whites and darker oranges should keep it looking bright!" Solidarity smirked, clearly proud of himself.

"Dude, oh my god..."

"I TOLD YOU HE WAS GOOD!" Tango giggled, grabbing Solidarity's cheeks and kissing him. The dirty blonde blushed and smiled, giggling.

The sheriff then grabbed some petroleum jelly and gently rubbed it on Joel's arm, wrapping it in plastic wrap and then a bandage, "Keep this on for 24 hours. You take it off early, I will find you and kill you for ruining my masterpiece."

"Got it." Joel smiled, "Well, then, I'm off-"

"Excuse me?" Solidarity glared, "My work ain't free."

"Oh, uh... what do you want? Diamonds, iron? How much?"

"A stack of diamonds." Solidarity smirked.

"WHAT?! I DON'T HAVE THAT!"

"Then, I guess you owe me-"

"Oh, I know!" Tango smiled, "You can give him a kiss!"

"WHAT?!" "T-TANGO!"

"Whaaaat~? My tattoo cost a kiss!"

"T-That's because you're my husband, th-there's a difference!"

Joel hummed before he smirked, "I can give you that~"

"H-Huh-"

The brunette grabbed Solidarity's chin and pulled him in for a kiss. The dirty blonde blushed darkly as Joel hummed, kissing him so gently. The sheriff put his hands on Joel's chest and pushed him back, face bright red.

"Y-YOU-! TH-THIS IS DISRESPECT TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE! THIS IS THE LAST TIME I EVER GIVE YOU A TATTOO!" Solidarity screamed, grabbing his things and angrily washing everything off.

Tango chuckled and helped Joel sit up, "Don't be upset. He's fine."

Joel snickered, "At least I don't have to pay!"

The blaze chuckled, "Your welcome~! I know he's my husband and we're suppose to be on the same page, but seeing him get so flustered is so adorable! How can I pass that up?!"

The brunette stood up and looked around. He went to the Ender Chest and then took out 20 diamonds, giving them to Tango, smiling, "Give them to the toy man."

The blaze smiled and nodded, "I will."

Joel then left, smiling.

***

"Wow, Joel! That tattoo is awesome! Did you go to the same artist as Tango?"

Joel smiled at Grian, "Yep!"

"Who's the artist?!" Grian hummed, "I might get one!"

The brunette looked up and pointed at the sheriff who was talking with Scar.

"....No way."

"Yes way."

[smoooothoperator]

Therapy (M.S.)

Tattoos, a permanent ink that stays with you until you die or until you decide to get rid of it. They can mean something important with an important meaning behind the ink, or simply a stupid night with friends. It can be the signature of someone important, or just a thing you liked when you saw it for the first time but now you see it and think that it was the stupidest idea you ever had.

Tattoos can mean a lot of things. Like the signature on my wrist and the little nickname on my forearm, as a reminder of my grandmother. Or the hearts in my hips as a reminder of loving my beauty marks. Or the flowers on my left thigh.

All of them mean something.

The first time he saw them was the first time we slept together, at his apartment. He saw some of them, the most visible ones. I’m not ashamed of every inch of ink on my skin, but the moment he saw them for the first time, I was panicking.

“Liebe… What do they mean?” he asked me, with so much love in his eyes that he made me sob. So I told him, I told him the meaning of evey one, their story behind and why I made them. “That is so beautiful, really. You have permanent marks of important people and moments”

He made me love my tattoos even more. Every time I was nervous he just traced his fingers on the lines. He spent his time admiring the ink on my skin, kissing them. And it made me relax.

When he started his season in Formula 1, he was at his worst. I never saw him like that: panic attacks, anxiety, angry all the time. The sweet Mick was gone every time he had a race, or training sessions, or meetings. He was grumpy, humming all the time, cursing at the bad behavior of his teammate. He did extra hours of workouts just to take off all his stress, but once he came back home he continued to be stressed.

“Mick, love. How can I help you?” I asked him, tired of watching him having anxiety all the time. “I want to help, talk to me”. “You can’t do anything” he said, groaning. I sighed and hugged his torso, making him wrap his arms around me and rest his chin on my head. “We’ll search for something that can help you relax, alright?”

So we did. We tried many things together, but none of them worked. His anxiety grew even more when he found out that Netflix wanted to do a film about his father and that he was going to be there, talking about how he feels.

“I can’t. I really can’t go there and talk about the accident again” he mumbled near a panic attack, curled on the floor of his room next to his bed. “Mick. You can. I know you can because you are so strong. And I’ll be there, I promise you”.

Sweet words worked at first. Watching me there worked, it seemed that my presence helped him to stay calm. So I started to go to the races. And I understood why he was stressed. I tried to be with him when he was free, talking with him, saying those magical sweet words that used to work, cuddling in the couch of his driver room and brushing his hair.

But it stopped working. So we went back again searching for solutions on how to deal with his anxiety and stress.

But the solution was always in front of me. More like, in me.

When I searched for opinions of people dealing with anxiety and stress, I found that some of them used to paint or draw mandalas. So we did that. We went to a store and bought some pencil colors and mandala books. And with all the hope of the word, he started with that.

But it didn’t work.

“Fuck! Really, what the hell is wrong with me?” he exclaimed, throwing the book away and leaning on the back of the couch. “Mick, really. Calm down” I said trying to grab his hands. “How can I calm down? How the hell will I calm down if I can’t even focus on a paper?”

He was without control. All the fake smiles he did at the paddock became groans and sighs once he was alone with me. And he knew that it made me nervous, so he did the only thing that could calm me: trace my tattoos.

“Wait… I have an idea” I said looking at him and then at the flowers on my thighs. I stood up from the couch and grabbed my bag, taking the little make up bag from it and handed it to him. “Paint my tattoo”. “What?”. “Yeah. Use whatever you want from my make up and paint the flowers”. So he did that. He used my eyeshadow palette, the lipstick and the highlater and painted the roses and their leaves. “How are you feeling?” I whispered to him, looking at my colorful tattoo and then at him. “Good”

The solution was my tattoos. So everytime I went with him to a race I put a little pencil case with color pens so he could paint my skin. At the start it was weird, because I had to go to his room and literally undress, or at least take off my shirt so he could paint my arms. And as the warm weather came, he painted my thigh. So I always went to the races with long dresses or skirts.

But it was worth it. Because I was his therapy and he was my therapy.