#I do really need to redraw that tho because that's still one of my favorite Dad Mario doodles

[akiiame-blog]

Hello! I have a quick little question.

So, did you or did you not have a Mario fankid named Maple? I'm just curious because a few years ago. (In 2022.) I saw you post a piece of physical art of Mario showing off pictures of his and Peach's daughter saying, "I'm-a so proud of her!" Or something like that in response to a tweet I made on my old Twitter account, @NinMarioo about what kind of dad Mario would be.

And I was just curious because I've been keeping up with your blog ever since I found you on Tumblr. That's all! ♡

Oh man that seems so long ago now haha. Yes I did! She's now named Clementine with a bit of a different design :)

So I now just consider Maple the beta version of Clementine

[mayordea]

TIME FOR THE LONG ASS 2024 REVIEW

i am once again gonna review each highlighted piece i have made in 2024 so far like last year even though it's sort of unnecessary i have a bit to commit to

yappery under the cut

JANUARY

jan's piece is my smash poster celebrating the 25TH anniversary! this after i got rlly into making giant multi-character ensemble pieces, and i've wanted to do a poster like this to celebrate smash, so i'm glad i was able to step up to plate. usually i think my art from january ages pretty bad in these reviews, but i actually still like it from the composition, colors, and the drawings of the characters. i still have the print of it hanging in my room! ^o^ other highlights from the month is the complimentary poster i did with smash ultimate's dlc cast... well i kinda mention that out of obligation because i actually do think this one aged like ass, mainly the shading on the characters looking pretty bad (especially as a print). i think i shoulda saved this idea for later in the year to time it with smash ultimate's release day of december 7 (i am extremely deadline-pilled) but i probably wouldn't have cared by then so i just did it like, immediately after the 64 poster. so it probably smacks of burnout + i can't shade with blue that well

FEBRUARY

this one sorta represents seven whole drawings i did for one series. it's my seven piece set of artworks based on mothy's evillious chronicles, and i chose rilliane's because i think at the time i was putting this together i thought she came out the best (i began assembling this starting april 2024 lol), but idk! i still think she's pretty solid but i think she's tied up with kayo and banica. one thing's for sure, i know sateriasis is my least favorite of the bunch by a wide ass margin, i really wish i executed it better! not much other interesting highlights for this month besides my other vocaloid art series, the alice of human sacrifice ace cards. i think they aged alright but again this is another idea that i wanna execute better in the future.

MARCH

oh boy another series!!! this was part of my four part series redrawing the crossed paths artwork from octopath traveler ii. i chose the one featuring partitio and osvald because it was my favorite at the time. i still think it aged pretty nicely but it has some rendering hiccups that rlly bother me but in terms of colors/the background i still like it. if i had to pick a new favorite, it might go to throné and tenemos or cassti and ochette. another notable highlight of this year was a piece of oc art i made. i need to do something unabashedly overdramatic and angsty with my ocs again cuz i still like this one too. i think i opted out of selecting this one to highlight since cropping a face was kinda awkward lol.

APRIL

an overdramatic oc art has been highlighted! another one i like (it's almost like i picked my best for this chart). it was sorta the origin of me using my favorite watercolor brush in procreate to have an extremely rough idea of the colors that naturally blend together, creating a pretty cohesive palette when i render it (which is the current basis for how i render in my current style). april otherwise is kinda boring idk i don't like a lot of the other drawings here lol. this utsu-p album redraw ft robin is still pretty cool tho imo.

MAY

i feel like i had some nice variety to pick from, but i chose my improvisational and edgy grima drawing since i think stylistically it stands out the most. i found my new favorite sketching/doodling pencil brush in procreate and made a whole drawing using it, and the texture is so niiiice. other highlights: COOL OC ART (ft kandy). part of me feels like it's kinda corny but i was born on da cob so whatever, this one was fun and i still like it!!! there was also my art based on bad end night. i'm a tiny bit mixed on the rendering/colors, idk i was experimenting with a different brush for lining and shading and the slight difference in texture makes it a little weird but that is shit that only matters to me. i think it's a hell of a lot better than the bad end night drawing i made back in 2022, so in terms of "redemption" i think it was successful.

JUNE

kind of a boring month tbh, i got miitopia-pilled again so i was probably busy playing that this month + i was home for the summer and i am extremely lazy when i am at home lol. but to compliment the dive back in my miitopia era i made a sorta sketchy drawing with kandy as my great sage. check it, it's another with my new pencil brush, and i definitely remember having fun with this one (though her robe physics kinda make no sense based on how i drew her ref, i never look at my refs for my ocs/i usually break their designs to fit certain poses silhouettes 💀💀💀). uh i guess the one other interesting piece (imo) from this month was my giant miitopia poster that i was too chicken shit to share proper until recently (if you missed the edit where you can fully see it, there ya go). it's kinda oversaturated vomit and i'm not crazy proud of the execution but it was ambitious and kandy's section still looks really good imo so it has value in that regard to me.

JULY

i participated in my first artfight this july! i drew many cool ocs. by about the halfway mark i got hella burnt out tho and started doing my own stuff to freshen things up (it was also around here when galasynth entered production and i met MANY AMAZING VOCALOID ARTISTS!!! SHOUTOUT TO THOSE MUTUALS :)))))). for this month i chose my poster based on touhou eosd since i think this might be the most gracefully aged piece the whole year (it's probably my favorite!!). the colors just came out real nice.... idk!! a notable piece from this month that couldn't be posted in july cuz of zine nda's was my actual galasynth piece. this was a pretty significant piece since it permanently altered my current rendering/coloring workflow (sorta established in the highlighted piece in april but now with lineart and with a differently textured brush). the touhou poster was created shortly after as a response to this new workflow! other one of note was my perfect cherry blossom poster

AUGUST

brave frobin's design for feh was revealed and i drew it 😼😼😼 (AND I CALLED IT earlier this month. not that i needed to use a lotta braincells but). this was a further step in practicing my new rendering style and see how detailed and meticulous i could get with the colors when i had ONE character to focus on with NO background and i think it was pretty successful. though im glad i posted the wip cuz the colors were probably better there than the rendered... what overthinking does to a mf. another banger from this month was a piece of oc art, it's nothing special but it was a rendered panel redraw of an unpublished comic i made of them and i liked it so yeah. (i also posted my decora una drawing this month which was my scrapped concept for galasynth, but according to my notes it was actually finished in july... but shoutouts to it regardless)

SEPTEMBER

aaaagh this month didn't have much goin on, probably cuz i went back to school around here and the work was getting crazy 💀💀 but i still found time to make something i'm proud of! i drew my oc based on a twitter prompt a mutual of mine shared and i reeeaaally still like it!! especially the details on the corals waow... (i don't really have much else from this month that i consider noteworthy enough to mention here so :P)

OCTOBER

spooky art!!!!! i didn't have much interesting going on this month because again i got very academically demanded of and didn't have much time to draw, BUT i vowed to make a tribute piece to "trick&treat" by oster project for halloween, so i hauled ass to get something ready for that and to have ONE traditional drawing this year (yeah i didn't draw a lot on paper this year unfortunately ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️). other highlights: a traditional drawing of gekiyaku pills for vsynthtober which i did a whole two prompts of (you just saw all of them) + a digital drawing of geki (i really started to like gekiyaku around this time). as much as i still like the latter's colors and texture it sorta started a bad trend where i sorta just drew characters from the shoulders up with not much pose to speak of + no interesting background just for the sake of coloring it. not that it's completely devoid of value but it was a pattern i was starting to get a little to comfortable with. i'll touch more on this in the closing thoughts section, but this new rendering style did sorta hinder my want to experiment with my digital rendering styles compared to previous years where i prided myself on having a bunch.

NOVEMBER

BOTH of my favorite pieces from this month fall in the same trap as the thing i mentioned above. i picked my drawing of hibiki koto for the chart since the pastels added a nice value shakeup. i STILL LIKE IT, it's nice, but did perpetuate this bad habit/shortcut. the other one was my drawing of great sage kandy (current pfp!). the colors here are pretty fuckin nice still imo, so as a coloring tech demo like this flavor of drawing i was doing i think it succeeded.

DECEMBER

AND FINALLY, the end of the year. i finished my december piece early in the year kinda just to check the box off and get this chart off my back (a totally normal thing people do when drawing art throughout the year). i have wanted to do a legacy of lunatic kingdom poster like my eosd one for a while after falling in love with its ost, but it just felt scary. the characters were very detailed and also there were moreeee 😭😭😭 but i got myself to do it cuz i found myself tempted to fall in the same trap as described in october/november (i was gonna draw koishi with the same crop/thought for the bg/emphasis on rendering. you might see her done by the end of the year), but i was like "NO, i must earn this laziness" and finally did something ambitious again. and yeah, i think i did pretty good with this one, even if the crowding of characters and details is sorta unruly.

ok so maybe i'm a little artistically constipated rn

doing this thorough review has sorta gotten me worried. i talked about this in my review last year, but i wondered if my progress has plateaued since i liked a lot of my art throughout the year and didn't see much significant improvement. but looking back no i definitely improved from 2023, and i'd say i broke some new ground with experiments i did throughout the year (the piece from december is still my banner!!). i also had a few different digital rendering styles i played around with for some variety.

this year, after the completion of my galasynth piece, i got really stuck in a specific rendering style and didn't rlly experiment that much with shaking it up. i also didn't feel compelled to try doing solid lineart or rough paintings, and i got stuck in a "halfbody with basic poses and backgrounds" pit when i know i can do better and more cool if i just TRIED.

i am writing this pretty early in december so hopefully i can bring something new to the table..... idk, maybe the differences in my digital coloring styles are only visible to me, but i certainly notice this repetition and wanna break out of my current bubble! i am working on a collab piece that should go live by spring next year that will hopefully do this :) (and i certainly won't be abandoning my current style, at least not overnight/without trying to evolve it, cuz i really like it and have received many kind compliments from people about it! so thank you thank you!!!!)

i look back at some of my pieces from last year and earlier this year and see some variety in how i go about rendering or textures or colors and wanna go back to that. so that'll be my goal for the rest of december + 2025!!!!! ^_^

anyway that's that, it was a good year despite my current crisis, i think i made some good art. also don't be like me and feel obligated to make nice art every month for an aesthetic chart, i do it cuz i draw fast and i am easily satisfied by them. take breaks touch grass drink water, play and draw. yay!

[gamerbearmira]

Hey, it's been awhile since you talked about your Mamabel AU, I know it's been on hiatus, but it's one of my favorites and I've had questions about the AU for a long time now, the powers of Mirabel and the Vergara kids are never really explained, neither is Epifanio or what happened to Bruno, I know he's in the AU and he doesn't seem to have gone into the walls so what's been up with him for the past ten years? It'd be nice if you could elaborate a bit more on those parts, and frankly I'd love to know more about what Mirabel's house looks like, both inside and out, as you haven't really described it much

INDEED IT HAS 😧 but um. Lucky for you and all the other readers, its currently under write (which is why i've been slow on Mama Isa and the werewolf au but. Imma get there I SWEAR.

Likely, the currently chapters won't change too much, but enough. The family dynamic is a little different, but its nothing too bad. I swear.

Powers, Epifanio & Casita and Bruno were literally meant to explained in flashback chapters that. You know, never came to be.

But I'll try and explain without spoiling too much??? Epifanio is essentially a sibling to Casita. Literally from the same magic. I changed it so there isn’t a separate candle, BUT Epifanio is still seperated enough to where it has its own magic. But if the candle goes out, both Casita and Epifanio will have no magic. Only difference is that Epifanio won't fall, because it was built by the villagers for Mirabel, and wasn't created by magic.

And another thing. Mirabel's house was never meant to be permanent. It was more of a hangout spot for her and kids, you know a place where they can meet up. There's only rooms because Mirabel and the Miracle kind of willed it to have rooms. And the way the rooms work is weird??? Like there aren't 30-odd doors. There's a few ways to get to a room, the main one going to one of the few glowing (blank btw) doors. Whatever kid touches it kind of just. Materializes their rooms on the spot so they can go in.

Externally, Epifanio is visually pretty similar to surrounding house. It doesn't stand out in particular, aside from a few things, hence why the Madrigals never really noticed it. Internally, it's only one floor, rather than two. Again, it was supposed to be a hangout spot, not a house, so that's how it was built. There's more than one bathroom tho, lmao. There is two separate doors, Mirabel's room which the kids. Regularly just barge into to find Mirabel.

And then Bruno's room. Because while yes, he was in the walls for a few years, he didn't stay all 10 years because eventually Casita ratted him out to one of the kids and they dragged him out if the wall 💀 he's not seen in town though, at least not in the plaza, and any villagers that DO see him, they don't say anything. He obviously isn't ready to reveal himself (but he's working up the courage to do so.)

Another thing that's changing in the rewrite is any kid under 4 won't have a gift. Easy to write and. We don't need a bunch of toddler running around with powers. That's crazy. But they WILL eventually get gifts 😭 just after the story. Obvs. Mirabel's gift is pretty simple tho, it changed ever so slightly she has sort of. The ability to read minds. Talking into the mind, no, but reading it, yes. She has a whole hive mind with her kids. But she doesn't like take control of them, she can't do that 💀

This was a list I made a while back (edited a bit but its virtually the same). Basically it's the kids names, their age, whatever symbol they are on Mirabel's skirt, and then if they have one, their Gift

Ultimately, the rewrite has some changes, none too major, at least I don't think so. It will take a while cause I gotya rewrite the current chapters ans then new ones. I wanna say it'll be between?? 10-15 chapters. Because it takes place during the events of the movie, so basically its just Canon-Divergent.

I need to redraw Mamabel's reference fr

BUT I HOPE THIS HELPS❗❗ but of course, I can always do more, just shoot an ask <33

[warriors-eyeliner]

Panel redraw (and small rant)! I tried a monochrome look for funsies. I realize I forgot to draw a whole part of his hair but better then when I forgot his ears that one time.

I wanted to draw Wild because the boy is getting WAY to much hate. Everyone's saying everyone should be mad at him, I completely disagree. His friend's possibly dying and his reaction to that is having a fight with four and leaving for a bit to cool off, which is perfectly reasonable. He has control over his emotions and he knows when he needs a break from everything.

And I think it makes sense for four and wild to just move on from their fight without really resolving it, me and my sister do that all the time lol. And they're in such a serious situation too, they're probably more focused on Twilight, not their fight.

Idk I think people are just hating on him because he's the 'favorite' and are nitpicking random things. I know it's mostly jokes, but I just think people should try to see his point of view.

Also people are still hating on Jojo for what happened a few updates ago? I get suggesting things or sharing thoughts you have, but if you're literally just gonna hate on LU, just stop reading it.

These are just my opinions tho, I'm just thinking out loud. If you disagree, I hope you just enjoy the art!

[rai-knightshade-art]

Tfw you're working on your Star Wars Fanart only to get distracted by an Ever After High AU for a movie from 2012. Anyways here's my OCS in a Pitch Perfect AU! (Plus some canon Fanart aka scene redraws for movies 1 & 2.)

Closeups and Set List playlists plus more details under the cut, image id in the alt text!

Close Ups:

Notes:

In the AU, Arion takes the role of Beca (because they're basically the same character it's seriously uncanny whoops), while Rose and Anteros take the roles of Chloe and Jesse, respectively, with some minor alterations (they occasionally swap places as needed for the narrative cause Rose is much closer to Jesse personality-wise but I needed the final serenade to go like the original otherwise what even is the point so i couldn't just swap them permanently). Arion and Rose are in a mixed-gender group called the Fairy Tones, while Anteros ends up in an all-masc group called the Charming Chords. There's also a third rival group called the Twister Misters but they don't really do much. As for the drawings themselves, they're basically just redone scenes from the movies, like the aca-initiation featuring a Tempis cameo (it's fruit punch Rose swears), the scene from the radio station where Jesse (now Rose cause all three of them work there) uses the various album covers to try to make Beca laugh (and very nearly succeeds not that she'd ever admit it) (Anteros thinks it's funny but Arion thinks they've all gone absolutely batty), and of course the iconic Fist Pump from the end, featuring a bonus Kenni in the Benji role! (Tho actually I'm toying with Andre-as-Benji cause then he and Arion could be Besties™ and i could have an easy segue into an Andre and Rose B-plot. But I digress.)

As for the canon drawings, i just did some favorite scenes, like the picnic (he has juices pouches and Rocky! How could anyone not love him?!) And the audition (still one of the funniest scenes in the movie tbh as far as individual lines from characters go, excellent introduction of personalities). Also that part of the riff off from the sequel cause a) Anna Kendrick KILLED it with Before He Cheats, and b) i was mildly offended we didn't get a Live Slug Jesse Reaction shot because I'm absolutely certain his expression would've been hysterical (mostly in how... Not scared he'd look 😂)

Also also, i think these kids should meet; Beca and Arion could silently judge people together to their hearts content, while Jesse and Rose would immediately launch into French serenades with zero hesitation. (Also Beca is wearing a Trebles Hoodie cause i know what I'm about.)

The Set Lists:

The Group Solos (both groups individual + one bonus duet between both groups): Here

The Riff-Off, Category 1: Dance the Night Away

The Riff Off, Category 2: Heavy Hair Headbanging

[mcrmadness]

11, 20 and 69 for the writing asks?

Fanfic writer ask game.

Thanks! ^^

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

The history of cars. Years ago I was going to write a Titanic AU (the cruiser, not the movie) about one of my previous fandoms, with a friend, and we both did write a few chapters of that but it didn't really take off. So a few years later (the early 2010s?) I was going to use that idea again and write it about my current fandom and OTP instead, and change the language into English. This time, either, I did not really get anywhere with the idea BUT I did some research about Germany's history in 1912 and if cars had already been invented. Still to this day I remember that cars were invented somewhere before 1910.

What comes to research in general, I don't exactly worry about it, but I do love staying loyal to reality so I do lots of research if I feel that I need that in order to continue. Mostly my research is just band facts, but sometimes I research things like what was typical for e.g. the 90s, even tho I usually remember enough to use my own memories as facts.

---

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

The combination of fluff and (emotional) hurt/comfort, I guess. The latter is usually that something from outside is hurting X or Y, and then the other one is there to support and comfort them. And THIS I have been able to track down to my own childhood/teenage traumas, when I was bullied in school and had no friends and all I ever wanted was to just experience someone simply asking me "Are you okay?" But no one of my peers ever did.

So I kinda got stuck to that mental state of a teenager's moods and emotions. And today I'm too "damaged" to ask for reassurance directly myself (because I can't trust it being genuine if I have to ask for it), so I just keep writing moody scenes with the kind of follow-up I wish I could have experiences back in the day (and sometimes wish would still happen, just the simple "are you okay?", you know...), and rinse and repeat. I'm literally just writing the same EMOTIONS over and over again, just in different kind of settings. It reminds me of when I was a kid and got fixated on some topic and kept redrawing the thing over and over again, e.g. the predecessor for my comics where I'd draw the same story of some fool dino using another dino as a horse, went to a competition without helmet or anything, fell into a very deep water obstacle and ended up watching the competition from TV at home while sitting on a wheel chair with his whole body wrapped in cast.

Writing these is literally like therapy for me but I don't think I'm actually even getting anywhere. Just using it to live through scenarios I needed as a kid or teenager but never experienced and now it's too late as 1. I'm not longer a teenager and 2. I don't let anyone too close to me anymore (not even emotionally, and physical touch especially is out of the picture).

---

69. how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

Yes. I'm hyper-empathic so I always feel what the characters feel. That's also fun because that way I can also go through emotions I have never experienced myself in person. But at the same time: I don't need to be in a certain mood in order to write about some mood, but also writing about a certain mood won't affect my own mood. It's pretty interesting, because I often hear that people even choose their music according to their mood, but I never have that connection with the music I listen to either (apart from maybe like one album that also works as my anger music).

I'm not sure what does "how do you write emotional scenes" mean... I usually find darker themes easier to write and describe. When I'm trying to write positive, I always feel that it lacks something and feels shallow and... yeah, I don't know what it is, but it always feels a bit clumsy - unlike darker moods. With those I'm at my best and I feel that I can get so much emotion in those! I don't know if they're as pleasant to read as what they are to write, but again I have to say that usually such mood in my text has nothing to do with my own mood. I might be on a really good mood or hyperactive etc. and still write some of the most depressing shit ever. It's just the mood of the text and the characters, not mine.

[frappe-art]

Hehe free realstate 🖍️ 🐻💐 🍀🙊

I was also gonna ask 🌊 but from our conversations i feel like i know every frappe weakness huh 😺

I have the feelings ill reveal too much of myself with this

🖍️ When did you start drawing? Do you remember?

I absolutely have no idea when i started. I think just the moment my hands were big enough to hold a pen, because my grandparents love to show me just HOW MANY of their books i ruined with doodles that are more abstract than a pollock painting. i remember tho that i loved to draw animals! horses were my favorite :3 i needed just a scrap of paper, a pencil, and a hard surface (sometimes even the floor lmao)

🐻 Your go-to things to draw when you need comfort

I like to go through random screenshots or manga panels of my fav characters, you know, the liiil cute dorky ones, and redraw them with zero brain activity whatsoever, heres some

it's just me, them, and our shared flat encephalogram

also boats for no reason

💐 do your drawing suits with your aesthetics?

how do I explain this uuuuh, not really. I like confident bright colored drawings, drawings that play a lot with color contrast, in a surreal/abstract way, but I usually tend to go with darker, more realistic ones because it's closer to my comfort zone.

also I like spooky aesthetics and I'm still e experimenting with it, but my art tends to go on the soft, warm n fluffy side anyway because I try to look like a creepy witch just out of her hut in the woods but my personality is just golden retriever asking for cuddles

🍀 you wish your art was more...

clean n distict in the lines and the colors! to look confident, maybe? to give the impression "hey 😎 yep it was all part of the plan to be like that"

I'm so bad at explaining

🙊 share your latest silly doodle with no context

u asked for no context, and no context shall be

🌊 what's the hardest thing for u to draw

butts. no I won't elaborate

[cmescapade]

Simblr Community Challenge by @amelettes

Rules: Tag some people, and let the community bonding commence!

Tagged by @aniraklova & @simsulate! ty for the tag 🥰

I’ll tag uhh @forgotten-pixels @fataleromeo​ @theageofsims and whoever would like to do it 🥰

gonna put it under the cut bc im chatty 😭

How long have you been playing the Sims?

On and off since uhh 2004?? My first exposure to the Sims was The Sims: Bustin’ Out for the PS2, where I had a sim named Pepto Bismol. 

...it was my favorite commercial ok 

How long have you been a Simblr, and why did you become one?

I’ve been a simblr since uhhh December 2017? I wasn’t that active then because I was too busy trying to figure out how everything worked on Tumblr since I never really had one (My really old one in like 2010 or w/e doesn’t count since all I did was reblog things when I remembered I even HAD a tumblr ahahahah)

I became a simblr only because I was told I should have one lmfao 😭 I thought simblr was scary bc ppl come and go all the time and everyone’s so good at editing n shit n all i ever do w my screenshots is redraw a hand every now and again

anyways Pre-Dec 2017 I made poses for myself, friends, and basically anyone who asked because I loved storytelling in The Sims. No one back then ever made poses for children specifically since child rigs in like 2015-2016 were so janky the only way to make them was to pose an adult rig and import it--so I decided that I could put up my random child poses for download in case anyone else was like me and needed them

even tho everything i made back then was.................................. questionable 

What type of Simblr are you?

The kind that tries to post sims-related content but fails bc they post pics of their INCREDIBLY HANDSOMe son every other time i mean c’mon u cant blame me for that just look at him

my chonky son, i love,, he smile,

i post gameplay and cc! for my gameplay stuff i’ll post as often as i could, but i’ll usually post cc on like sunday or monday, if i forgot to hit queue LOL

Which generation of Sims do you primarily play?

I prefer playing TS2 and TS4, but TS4 more often as of late. Nothing wrong with TS3, it just constantly runs like ass on my computer and I always forget where I saved my mods lmfao 

I don’t post my TS2 screenshots here because they always come out odd or I end up using a 3rd party program to take them, but here’s a gif of Colin & toddler Amy before they became vampires lmao

I also really like the Sims Medieval and ofc Bustin’ Out :))) but I forgot to backup my TSM screenshots when my old drive decided to peace out still kinda sad about that.......................

[jamiewoolleyart]

I was wondering how you make your animatics? They're very beautiful and I'm trying to make one and it's a little confusing how I should go about it

hey thanks! So, I’m not entirely sure what part of the process you’re asking about, but I can give some general tips? (BUCKLE UP)

For what programs to use/how to compile it, you’ll probably have to figure out what works for you/is available to you, etc. etc.

For actually coming up with an idea —> to actually executing it, it def depends on your creative process but I can break down mine?

1) I’m the type of person that will have a creative revelation mid car ride or like in the dead of night lol, and whenever possible I immediately begin scribbling down notes & ideas bc I don’t trust my memory not to pull a fast one on me. I posted these sketches on my twitter for my last animationatic, which I scribbled down in my car in the disneyland parking lot before meeting up with my family haha bless their patience

these can be rly rough & tumble wild and only have to make sense to you! this little sketch was my fave to rediscover later ahahahha:

2) Next is thumbnails!!!! Crucial!!! Usually!! A few times I’ve tried to dive right in without doing them and it just turns out to be a convoluted mess….. plus it’s nice to have a place to draw like absolute garbage & its just mentally mapping out your drawings. My one for my Strawberry Blond/Life in Your Shape Animatic was kinda unique in that I fit it all in one page & also that really most of it stayed basically the same!! Only a few things in the middle changed, rly

you’ll see I don’t bother with clean lines or even squares or like if only one thing is changing I’ll just draw the new thing and not redraw the whole panel (ex: snufkin during “I give you a grin”). I also scribble a lot of “what if??” notes in the corners and alternate ideas

3) actually drawing it out!! I work in photoshop and to keep things simple each panel is its own file. sometimes just Starting is really hard for me so I make myself just draw ANYTHING with the promise that I’ll come back later…… for example lol…… the first panels w/ them lying in the grass were originally sO ??? not up to my standard but I was like “UGH!! WHATEVER!!” and didn’t know how to draw them yet, and I didn’t revisit until I had drawn like everything else, and by then it was waaaay easier to draw them!!

A lot of time though I won’t really do underdrawings (the thumbnails are essentially my underdrawings, plus animatics aren’t supposed to be super clean!!) tho if something’s distractingly messy I’ll definitely come back to it and clean it up.

Oh also Quick Tip:

the best tool in the entire universe for me for animation is the WARP TOOL (in PS, right click a selection, choose free transform, right click again & pick warp) it saves soooo much redrawing time and is a super fast sneaky way to give a drawing way more life with minimal effort. Yeah baby. (Don’t over do it tho, & I usually have to do some clean up, but yeah really good for subtle movements and is basically exclusively what I use for anything wind-blown)

Anyway I’m already regretting how long this is but there’s no stopping me now.

So by now I’ve drawn out all my panels, and during the whole time I’ve had the folder open in finder (I use a mac, not sure what PC equivalent to this is, some people use bridge? I hate bridge LOL) to click through my files to see if they’re working. there’s probably a better naming convention but I do this to keep them in order:

I’m always going back and adding inbetween panels when needed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I got called out in a recent class for having wack naming conventions eriuhgehgierhg BITE ME

4) ready to COMPILE THAT MF!!!!! I import everything into After Effects and do frame by frame animation there because I haven’t figured out a less tedious way where I still feel in control. I use a lot of comps & it’s a big process but very fun cuz then you can see it come to life!

5) At this point I’ll usually find big gaps in timing that I hadn’t realize and I have to go back and redraw/add more panels. orz ….. but honestly some of my favorite moments come from that!! This scene where moomin grabs snufkin’s hat was one of those… sometimes, despite your BEST efforts at planning, things turn out way different but that can be really fun!

Anyway that’s it, then i render & upload it Ha-cHa-ChA~!!!

(oh wait!! i forgot to talk about screen direction!!! ah well another time..)

Best of luck in your ventures!

[orange-plum]

Sorry, I fell asleep before I could write up responses to most of the questions. I couldn’t do all of them, but I did a few:

1.  what are those little light spots around lucifer's eyes? i've been curious about them ever since I started reading the comic. i love your work, btw!

I’m assuming this is referring to the light color under his eyes? Actually, that’s just his skin. He was born with that. (God knew Lucifer would be created, so even before he was born and was to be His favorite, He had the angels paint their eyes with gold in various ways as an homage to Lucifer). So while everyone else paints their face, Lucifer’s is just his skin.

2.  how’s your sleep been lately? hope you have a nice weekend :)

Veeeeery poor. I have major insomnia rn because I’ve been thinking about some major life decisions. But when they’re resolved I’m sure I’ll get sleep again. I hope you have a nice weekend too!

3.  What inspired you to start HIC? I think you've said that it was your first story in the works before SaM

SaM came first. HiC was inspired after I attended art school. I realized I was a baby artist who still needed to learn so much. But SaM is the more popular series, and I never thought I could “out SaM” SaM lol So I created HiC only on the premise of life and death hands and a contract with a demon (since it’s in the SaM universe) with a different spin. HiC was the backburner comic to help me practice and experiment more with lighting, backgrounds, perspective, fight scenes, etc. It initially was a guinea pig comic to help make SaM’s art better. But now that it’s starting to grow it’s following base, it’s starting to stand on it’s own two feet UuU

4.  Which do you value more? Platonic or romantic Natan?

This is going to sound like a cop out, but I like both equal? I just want them to be those die hard I’d do anything for you and I love you more than anything people. Although, I do know in the story it will shift one of those ways. I can’t reveal which way yet so everything is written atm for viewer interpretation. Before, I said no one will know until the end of the series, but there will be a scene in the memory arc which will confirm one of the character’s intentions. So there’s that!

5.  What's something you wish you could tell someone but can't?

Probably that I miss being close, but life moves on so I roll with the punches. I’m not one to want to whine to people about that sort of thing.

6.  At the beginning of Satan and me did you have any idea how much you'd put into the story?

No, never. That’s a big thing that ticks me off tbh. I want to redraw and change so many things from early SaM.

7.  Fuck, marry or kill for SaM, HiC and BtA. Also, who are your favorite characters to draw in each comic?

If you’d asked this at a different point in my life, the answers would be different. But at THIS moment, here’s my reasoning.

Kill BtA, because it’s a complete series. I will never work on it again, the stories over, it’s got nothing left for me creativity wise, even tho I still like it. I just am not allowed to touch it?

Marry SaM. Because it’s been there the longest and gotten me through some tough times with reader support. It’s the most successful with a huge range of characters.

Fuck HiC because it’s the “comic on the rise” type of thing. It’s at an appealing stage to me now that some heavy plot is about to kick in. I love a lot of the characters, and, since it’s a mature comic, unlike SaM and BtA, I can do whatever I want in it. So that appeals to me a lot.

And for SaM it’s Laila, Zadkiel, Raphael, and Kristi. The hardest are, surprisingly, the two main characters!!!

For HiC it’s Aadrian and Jamie. The hardest is really a lot of the main bad guy’s kids, like Rong and Donghai and Sheng.

For BtA it’s Autumn, Serah, Hesediel, Azaria. The hardest were Michael, Gabriel, and Bo.

Thank you for all the questions!

[ladybugkisses]

hii ari,,, youre one of my favorite artists ever and um. i just turned 15, ive never drawn before, i just got a wacom tablet and ive been trying to practice but,,,its SO bad, and i know i just have to keep practicing but finding the patience is hard...i cant draw hair or eyes or mouths or ANYTHING do u have any tips on how to make myself keep trying and improve? ;_;

OOF Okay.. … this is probably gonna be really hard for me to help with because. i’ve been drawing my whole life, i dont even have the memory of Starting it anymore so sorry in advance if i’m no help because i can’t 100% relate

i understand your frustration for sure tho— i remember when i was trying to shift from drawing sonic OCs all the time to drawing humans and feeling Angry that they didn’t look good, and that’s when i picked up a “how to draw manga” book (in case anyone was wondering why my style looks at the very least anime-influenced THERE IT IS)

so the following is gonna be Based Around What I Did At The Time, and would advise to go about differently if possible

🌼 it’s super obvious especially considering you already mentioned it but. keep practicing . you Will get better, it’s just a process. a really frustrating process, and maybe you don’t notice at first glance but you will keep improving if you keep at it; i didn’t realize my art has changed in a year until i made a redraw, for example

🌼 not being good at something the first time, or first timeS you do it, is completely normal; you need to understand this and allow yourself to be bad at first if you want to get good later

🌼 do it for the fun of it. i get that if you’re not happy with how it looks at the moment it feels Pretty Discouraging, but you should never let it become a chore

🌼 pleeeEEASE Don’t compare yourself to already experienced artists, that’s one way to get even more discouraged. i’m not going to call myself experienced, but since you mentioned me: i didn’t get to draw the way i do at the moment without years of practice and patience !! ! trust me when i say all artists get frustrated about their art no matter how good you think it is, even if we’ve been doing it for many many years

🌼 so look up tutorials ! not “how to draw manga” books though. you can enjoy anime but those are usually… …. .. . hmmm bad advice. also— maybe go about it in bits. like, one day you practice eyes, the other you practice mouths, the next you practice hair, etc etc

🌼 this ties in with the last point kinda but: experimenttttt ! !! like if you’re not happy with how the eye you made looks, try a different method ! i tried lots of different things— and still do tbh— back when i was really trying to figure stuff out, especially with coloring

🌼 going back to the 3rd point sorta: you need. to have fun with it. so don’t force yourself to draw when you’re feeling like you dont have the patience

aaand that’s about everything i can think of?? ? AGAIN Sorry if it doesn’t help you much but i hope it’s at least a bit encouraging :’^|

[gamecubehoshi]

Tell me your thoughts on Ryoma Hoshi as the Mastermind?

Sorry about the long wait! Damn I’m upset I didn’t see this in my inbox sooner lol. I love this topic.

Old gross year old art I’m too lazy to redraw hell yeah.

When I think of Ryoma as the mastermind, I think of an actively passive kind of person. Passive as in hiding, like with Tsumugi and Junko, but let’s talk more about the active.Because Ryoma would be an active mastermind too.

As someone that really liked the ending of V3, I love keeping the “real fiction” twist in Mastermind AU’s. Because we don’t have proof that Tsumugi’s “mastermind” persona wasn’t just implanted into her just like everyone else. If anything, she could have been completely normal before the game, but then the flashback light made her into the mastermind for the season. Kinda tragic if you think about it that way, but that’s a different discussion. This is about Hoshi being an active mastermind.

And Hoshi I believe could make that work, purely because of his personality. Admittedly, we don’t get a lot of Hoshi’s pregame personality before we start the game proper, thankfully we get some lines tho so that’s great, but to be honest he can’t be completely different from his in game self. I mean, pregame Ouma has sprites like THIS and THIS, which are sassy as hell like he uses them for in the main game. So Hoshi being a cool and relaxed persona (or at least trying to put one on, a fact also supported by the artbook) isn’t far off to think about.

Hoshi as the mastermind in my mind would be an active person in the sense that he would pick fights with some of the killing game participants. Because Hoshi’s not stupid, he knows what the outside world would want to see and how to read people really well (need I remind people of the fact he read Ouma as nothing more than a troublemaker that purely wanted to rile people up as early as chapter 1), and Hoshi’s a bit of a jokester and can have fun anyways. Like with the creme puff stand in the UTDP. Picking fights with a contestant that would make the game interesting would be fun for him, and that’s what Danganronpa in his opinion should be about. Having fun with the media you’re consuming. If you can’t enjoy something, why should you watch it in the first place? So he’d make it fun for himself and the audience by making Ouma an even more aggressive player in the game. 

So he’d pick a fight with Ouma. Ouma was smart, but not smart enough to see who the mastermind actually was. So the idea of a mastermind coming to directly confront Ouma, especially someone that could respect Ouma’s intelligence, and say “good luck proving I’m the mastermind” and leaving Ouma with endless questions, is a neat concept you don’t see people pull off when writing mastermind AU’s. Because there’s still the idea that people are watching this. Those are answers that Ouma would want to find out.

Ouma’s always going to be important to the plot. He can’t not be, whether you like him or not. He is very much an active player in the game. And like, the idea of Ouma knowing who the mastermind is early game but not having an idea on how to expose him or without knowing all the answers to all the questions he has, is a fun concept. The idea of late game Ouma trying to pull an unwinnable trial while Hoshi has to hide that he knows Ouma was doing this prolly JUST to fuck with him, is an interesting dynamic that would very realistically happen if Hoshi was the mastermind. 

Hoshi is passive-active, in the sense that he’s still actively making ruckus, with picking a fight with Ouma and fucking around with everyone else like the Mastermind’s always do, but he’s passive in the sense that he’s still not openly telling everyone. He’d be pulling a Tsumugi in the sense that he would hide in plain sight. The best of both worlds, really. It’d be a concept that I think only a joke character would be able to pull off.

The idea of being useless to public eye but special without being aware of it. Right when you think a joke character was going to survive danganronpa BANG SURPRISE HE’S THE MASTERMIND. It’d be a great twist.And Junko wouldn’t even be needed. It’d still tie back to Junko, because Junko is a great character- she’s THE villain of Danganronpa, and Hoshi can like smart characters. He loves Danganronpa. “Surely having your hopes for a joke character surviving danganronpa being crushed by a reveal he’s the mastermind of the season, would be a big cause for despair right? I don’t think Enoshima would care about a bunch of average nobodies though.”

But even then, I think someone like Hoshi would make great use of the outside world for a chapter 6 twist. “You’re the mastermind! I’m the mastermind! We’re all the mastermind, just like the outside world itself!” And just really enjoying that he got to be on his favorite show. “How does it feel to be on the 53rd season of Danganronpa?“ It wouldn’t be so much about “hope” or “despair”, but rather “We’re all responsible for this together, so can you really say you’re better than me with talk about caring for your friends?” It’d be a great topic to delve into, especially with V3′s second central theme besides truth and lies, of being able to express yourself and be honest about your feelings.Even Hoshi could admit there has been seasonal rot. He can be cold and analytical of things he likes, but he also doesn’t want something he likes to end, because it’s always sad to see things you like end. He’s too attached to Danganronpa to let it end, but he could acknowledge that it’s not quite the same. Which is why he’d be so actively against the Junko swap in the 6th chapter. He wouldn’t let “junko the 53rd” come out at all. Things need to be fun and exciting. People are sick of seeing Junko at the end of every DR. And he knows it. 

Who survives to the end is debatable in this scenario, I haven’t given much thought to how a REAL rewrite of the entire game would work for the mastermind Hoshi to really kick it full gear, but that’s what Hoshi as a mastermind is to me personally:

A consumer of the show living his dream of making an impact through his favorite piece of media. 

[mcrmadness]

A Masterpost: ALL MY OLD die ärzte (aka Bela&Farin) COMICS (from 2010-2011)

I’ve lately been talking about my art, especially comics, here a lot but I have never posted my OLD old dä comics here! That’s about to change now. The old ones happened in 2010-2011 when I was 19-20 years old, so they are a bit cringy now :D The scans are my old ones so don’t mind about cat hair or something like that in some of the scans. And I know: my hand writing hasn’t really changed in the past 10-15 years at all :DD

And a slash warning (do I really need that with this fandom tho..?) because I used to draw just very fluffy Bela/Farin comics and they barely have any good plots even. There’s just 4 overall in this post and they all are quite short. But at least for me it’s fun to see how far I have come and how I’ve gotten better at drawing!

Anyway, without further ado, this is where it all started:

Bela&Farin - “Du willst mich küssen”

Simply the idea came from the fact I noticed that on the “Du willst mich küssen” single there’s only one additional song: “Die Antwort bist du”, and that one out of all the potential other songs from the studio album. (Now I’m wondering if I should try to redraw this some day to see my progress? :DD)

The rest under the cut because they get very cringy but if you want to read B/F fluff comics and facepalm at my idiotic humour, go ahead and click the read more link.

Bela&Farin - Bela will ein Baby

(eng. Bela wants to have a baby)

This one was the first I did in German and I traumatized myself. I had just started learning German and totally failed everything and an (old) online friend, native German, wrote something that indicated laughing and I felt so insecure about my German after that that even today I have a fear of saying/writing even simple German words in front of native Germans. She anyway “beta read” the plot and corrected every faulty phrase (aka every phrase) and this is what she suggested that I’d write, and that’s what I did.

The plot shortly: Bela just wants to have a baby but he wants it with Farin obviously, so Farin says they’re both men and can’t reproduce together but Bela found a solution: he found them a surrogate mother. Problem solved.

***

Bela&Farin - “Beer Belly”

Prepare yourself for a cringe overload :)) I’m so sorry that you have to suffer through this.

With this the idea came from the live videos I was watching back then - lots of live videos from 2007-2009 and I noticed that Bela just kept growing and losing his belly all the time. (OMG HELP I’m crying because “SQUEAK SQUEAK” XDDDDDD)

Also the ending is... I don’t know what is it. I guess I just wanted Rod ot make an appearance and didn’t come up anything better than this ::D My peak of humour is right there btw: anything that happens at the background. That shit just never gets old for me. So I find that still funny in this comic but I have no clue how a bass can be pregnant.

Also hey, I have started drawing shadows :DD

And yes, Bela actually did have a cow t-shirt like that in some of the videos and I just had to draw it! And btw, the reason for the fluff is probably because the concerts where those videos were from? It was extremely slashy, Bela and Farin barely could keep their hands off of each other so you really can’t blame me for all this. The ship just sails itself.

***

Bela&Farin - “Zucker”

(eng. “Sugar” - this one was again in German because it wouldn’t work in English. This time I think I did all the language stuff myself but I can’t remember for sure so maybe I got help, maybe I didn’t... This is the last one of these old comics and my personal favorite. You can see that my style somehow went through some major changes but I don’t know what even happened there. I can’t remember.)

I can’t get over Farin’s hair in the last panel, I drew it so perfectly and I still don’t know how to recreate that lol. And now I’m losing it at that tiny “XD” in the grin panel because I found it so stupid looking - the first time I had even drawn a grin for him lmao. Also ignore Farin’s arm that has suddenly lost all its color. (Aka: someone forgot to color it.)

THE IDEA for this comic is simply in the name of brown sugar. At least in Finnish that is called as “fariinisokeri”, which always amuses me still after 12 years because I am a bit simple sometimes, and I figured that it can also be called “Farinzucker” in German so of course I needed to make a Bela/Farin comic about it.

The dialog for those who don’t speak German (too well) yet - Bela just goes to Farin to ask for “Farin sugar” and Farin first is like “nope” but then “jk” and they lived happily ever after. Or something.

***

BONUS:

Something I drew with a ballpoint pen once when I was visiting my aunt and cousin and was bored and doodled this. I like drawing repeated patterns like brick walls or apparently also flowers.

And I have no idea where did I draw this - maybe it was something to do with one course through the employment agency as I tend to doodle when in any kind of class. I feel like I had been watching “Die band, die sie Pferd nannten” prior to this, based on Bela’s looks.

And it was back in 2010, I didn’t have a smart phone yet so no internet to use for reference photos :D

***

So, back to the comics - I only made these 4 back then but before this I did draw other stuff and comics too. I drew several of them as horses when I still didn’t know how to draw humans, and I also have one of them as rats too. The rat one might work as a redrawn human comic, tho... Anyway, at some point I got annoyed because I didn’t like drawing them as horses or rats and wanted to invent a “human style” so then one night, this happened:

The texts are mainly just me chanting how I’m dying from laughter etc. That is actually what I do when I am very insecure of what I do and then I just start openly laughing at everything and myself, that way things don’t feel as bad failures than what they actually are :D (And yeah I know the article is wrong at some point, let’s just say I hadn’t memorized all the article stuff from German yet :D I don’t know if I had even started learning German yet at that point.)

But yeah, then I did find the style and these are the next sketches from my sketchbook:

The bottom left says “facial experessions” - and oh my god I was so damn cringe whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy---

but anyway, those were what I ended up with eventually and the rest is history. I think I’m still gonna make one post with stuff I drew in 2018 and that I haven’t posted here yet as there’s still a few of those, too.