#I kinda missed this lineless style

[py-dreamer]

@dynamicsimp hope ya like it!

EYESHOT AU DITY

I literally did this in one day- help.

So yeah, I tried out the gosh-dang challenge and honestly?

Quite happy with how it came out! It was very interesting and actually very fun working on a piece with a monochrome pink palette!

Gosh, I haven't gotten to use my REAL lineless style (I use it for stickers but I haven't done any stickers in forever) where all the cel shading is real harsh and as it says in the title: no outline.

Lately, I've been more focused on lighting and texture in my digital works and just making everything 'softer' and more 'realistic' but dang, I forgot how much I missed just using my harsh and more cartoony style.

But because it looked good, here's the one with some light:

I am very happy especially since I do believe there is some improvement in the style.

(In that it doesn't look as amateur as when I first started out. But I think that's mostly cause I used monochrome here)

Does anyone else get that struggle? Feeling like you're not advancing then keep pushing yourself to change and improve but also really missing the original style?

Anyways some of y'all might be wondering where I've been for pride month....

I PROMISE IT'S NOT CAUSE I HATE PRIDE MONTH OR LGBTQ+ PLEASE PUT YOUR PITCHFORKS DOWN!!!!!

Mainly it has mostly been art block and just demotivation especially since I'm STILL WORKING ON THAT BIG PROJECT UGHHGHHHGGGHHGG.

(I'm not blaming y'all I'm just feral)

And just general procrastination.

BUT.

I do have another project in the works. So to any of my lovely marshiemallows who have seen my previous posts,

you'd know that I'm very...opinionated about Macaque. More specifically his attitude in canon and how the fandom treats him.

(Keep in mind the thing was planned before s5)

DISCLAIMER: Again, I do enjoy Mac's character. I just think he's a bit of a d!ck and kinda hates how a lot of the fandom (not all) brushes that over and throws the bucket of Wukong's sins down on the king's head.

(I also would not hesitate to wack him with a stop sign on the chopping block if given the chance /hj)

But without further ado I decided to do something other than complain and present you guys this:

Yay! So if you're into Macaca bullying, join the Mac bullying train! CHOO CHOO!

(also big thanks to @furornocturna for beta reading and helping with characterizations and stuff. There will be another post just detailing bout the fic later but yea go check them out, their work's great)

AND HAPPY ANIVERSARY TO DYNAMICSIMP FOR THE AU!

[alicenpai]

art summary through the years! i saw this going around and i wanted to play too, i always love doing these summaries.. template 🌹

my art became "i discovered the joy of drawing drapery and fabric in 2021 and never looked back" HAHA

looking at the early stuff, sometimes i really miss stylizing and drawing cartoons!! 2015 was the first year i started drawing cartoony stuff, pre-2015 was purely anime style. an updated art summary from 2010+ for me would be fun.

going back to the 1st sentence, stylizing just doesn't give me what i want from art anymore, it doesn't satisfy my art hunger haha (dungeon meshi joke.. iykyk). although it's still fun to experiment once in a while (e.g. merch). even if my current personal art is not very animation industry friendly or "hireable", i think i have a stronger notion of my "artistic" voice now more than before. (again, at least for personal art)

2020-2022 were rough years during the pandemic... i wanted to stop drawing so many times. i always say this, but during that time i went back and touched base with things i used to love as a teen, such as old anime (fma, pandora hearts, etc) that inspired me to pick up a pencil in the first place, and it helped to revitalize my love for art. and then i discovered drawing and studying fabric and i could never go back! i think my art is now more inspired by fine art history than cartoons hence the more realistic drapery...

one reason why i always change up my art style or technique every 2 ish years is that i kinda get bored of the same brushes easily... ive worried that using the same brushes gets boring and stale to people, but i think my art values are more or less consistent with how it was 3 years ago. i cycle through a set of like, 3 different brush sets (watercolour, pastel/lineless, and regular shading) depending on the mood of the drawing. different drawings call for different techniques you know?? and i think it's okay to use different tools for each drawing, art isn't meant to all be the same.

[kozachenko]

I've crawled out of my cave after playing Final Fantasy IX for a long ass time what have I missed?

Artist's Notes:

I'M BACK BABY! A while back I made a post with a new style experimentation thingy but I ended up deleting it because it was just kind of a boring face thing, I was planning on doing more art but then I started playing Final Fantasy IX and uhhhh yeah so that game has kind of taken of my brain for the past two weeks and I am 20 hours into the game because I love it so much. I wanted to draw Vivi because Vivi is just really fun to draw ok? I've kinda been feeling really burnt out with my lineless style, mainly because of how hard it was to do lighting. I'll show one of my initial art style tests on the bottom of this post. Again, used to have it be an individual post but it was just one face so it was kinda boring, so might as well include with this one on the subject of art styles. I wanted to kinda mix some aspects of my older style with the sketchy shading lines with a more painterly way of doing the lighting (mainly in the shadows). All in all, I think that's my favourite part about this drawing, it feels nice to finally be able to do some proper lighting again, and I want to experiment even more with my lighting and rendering in future pieces. Also, part of the pant shading got kinda lost in the sketchiness, so for next time I'll probably focus on the clarity of the more sketchy parts of the drawing, since I did go with my initial sketch for the final drawing. I also gave up on the background since I had no idea what to do for it, and I didn't put too much detail into the staff as I forgot which one I gave him in my current playthrough and I didn't want to risk spoiling myself via looking up references, but that's ok I like how the singular yellow circle on it matches Vivi's eyes. Also I was having a bit of trouble figuring out how to draw his body and how to pose him, but I like how the pose turned out a lot. It was inspired by his idle animation when in a battle in game where he does a little shimmy.

Ok I need to talk about Vivi's design because I love it so fucking much oh my god-

I absolutely love how his face is just in complete shadow and only his eyes stand out, it's so cool and unique and I love how they recontextualized the original black mage design from the classic Final Fantasy games. How they did it I won't say because I don't wanna spoil the game, but someone give this poor baby a therapist because he goes through a lot. Actually, same can be said for all of the FFIX cast, they all need therapy (again, I won't spoil anything, please go play the game for yourself).

While I do love almost all the characters in the game, even though Vivi is most fun to draw, my favourite character has to be Zidane (the main protagonist of the game). He's a really fun protagonist, and they could have easily written him as a misogynistic jerk who doesn't respect women but they didn't, and I really appreciate that. He's just an overall cool dude who's a really nice older brother figure to Vivi and also just has a cool character design (who I also want to draw eventually). Initially in the game I was planning on grinding levels for Vivi to make him the tactical nuke of the party, but then that title went to a different character (who was initially multiple levels behind the group since I grinded the party in the starting area way to much before they joined, but now they are two levels ahead of everyone and have pulled the team through a lot of tough battles, again I won't say who it is because it is kind of a spoiler and the way the gameplay actually ties into their character arc is just so good omfg). Once I eventually finish the game I'll probably write a full review on here, so no spoilers until then lol

Also, I've kinda been burning out a bit with making Touhou art, which also made me a bit burnt out with Touhou stuff in general (although I will continue keeping up with the manga) so getting into other things (i.e. Final Fantasy and even Fallout since I've watched the first season of the TV show which is a whole other post for another day) has helped me refresh and given me something new to think about. I've ended up in the exact place I feared ending up, where I would start drawing fanart for it not because I wanted to but because I felt like I had to, so I'm taking a bit of a break. When I do draw Touhou fanart again I'll try to draw for the sake of myself, and to all the other artists and fanartists on this platform (and on any social media for that matter), take care of yourself and don't forget to take breaks when you need to!

(Ok part of that last paragraph was definitley influenced by the good ol' "it's 9:00pm and I need sleeb, but the message at the end still holds up, always take care of yourself)

Oh yeah, and here is that one style experiment I did btw

Man I really fell down the "Yoshitaka Amano art enjoyer" to "Final Fantasy fan" pipe line didn't I?

[atomic-rattz]

@mammonmuffinz since you asked for it 💀

im pretty sure this was one of my first rise ocs I actually kinda like this art style 😭 i miss when i did lineless art..

[tophat-cy]

After 3 weeks (or so) of procrastination, I've finished it!

I tried for this piece a lineless PA-esque art style (since I kinda missed doing those). Those are characters from a post-apocalyptic storyline called Lost Worlds, it's a thing that I'm working on with my bf :'))

The development is currently on hold, but I might return to it at some point, who knows 🙃✨.

Assoki was gotten from V01DSTUD10S (not gonna @ him)

[maybe-drawing]

Inktober 2022: A reflection

This year I did Luna ‘s (who is an amazing artist!! Check them out on Twitter!!) Inktober. Spoiler, I did not do all the days as I got sick halfway through and then just stopped lol. However, it was remarkable good practice and I learned a lot! One might say you can see me improving 👀 It gets better, promise!

Here the full prompt list:

by https://twitter.com/LunaIsAnArtist 

1. Sprout

yes this is bdubs fanart, (I’ll do a separate post with the fandom one and tag them there) Also learned about gradient maps!

2. Ladder

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to render stone, and it really shows

3. Glory

I do not dislike this one, however Clip Studio Paint's weird artistic render line feature really stole the show here lol

4. Investigation

Played with gradient maps again. The color is sure something!

5. Rosemary

At this point, I was wondering if a completely lineless painting style was something I even like? And honestly it has its appeals, and I think ill keep playing with it, but I missed having lines.

6. Home

Them <3 @liebesamateur​

7. Boots

I love this little buddy!! Look at them!! Lovely!! Also this was when I decided to return to a more painterly lined look for my art again :D

8. Voice

This is one of my absolute favorites!!! The light hello???? also the tiny pumpkin on the hat :D

9. Fragment

Did a study of a lemon and went you know what would be fucked up

10. Ranunculus

this looks so much better than it has any right to!! Indie game vibes hello?!?

11. Moss

Bdubs fanart again, but look at him, he's just a little guy! Very much based on countless designs I’ve seen all over. (if you know the OG lemme know) Certified creature.

12. Worth

I don't like this one... The concept is there, but the execution is sloppy and kinda off-putting. The only thing I kinda like it the blood at the very top opening. 

13. Float

I love this very much not anatomically correct baby!!!

14. Poppies

I mean long arms!

15. Zodiac

I’m torn bc on one hand the background is stunning, I love the colors. On the other hand, this would have looked too much better lineless, and the lens sky reflection is just lazy and doesn't fit with the rest of the style.

16. Evolution

GHOST CRAB!! I downloaded some new brushes, and it was just sooo much fun. 

17. Meadow

I really like everything except the “flowers”. The clouds and background/foundation is solid, but the weird flower brush is too sharp and it just doesn't work. Also, the colors of the flowers are supposed to be in shade and idk man 

18. Examination

Now this one could make more sense, like perspective wise and the highlights are a bit wack. However, it's really cool and I like it a lot. The bluish tint for the glass, the goldish bronze, the background yes!!

19. Reflection

The poses for this kept just not working out. I couldn't get the angles, nothing made sense, so I made them silhouettes! And it works nicely. I like this one. I am kinda starting to overuse that background contrast thingy, but it's fiiiiiinnnne. Also, the curtain??? The red pops so well hello, its just bam, and it deserves to do that. 

20. Bullet

It's a bullet train! Get it? Anyway, I really like the burn effect for this one and I wanted to make it a spooky train. One thing I'd improve is how the likes are fading into the smoke, it doesn't look quite right.

22. Bones

This is kinda my burnout point and it shows. The line thickness is all over the place, I didn't work on this very much and just slapped some things on there and put it up. I'd love to draw a proper pile of bones someday, but this wasn't it.

23. Mutation

I do kinda like this one, and I don't have any major complaints. I just remember not really feeling doing Art™ at that time.

29. Wyvern

I sketched this the next day and was so normal about it. Idk if this is really a Wyvern, but it looks cool! I really like the frame and breaking it. It gives a nice break and depth!

[cat-astrophe-comic]

I think one minor thing I'm gonna try and use less is lines in the lineless style. kinda misses the point of being "lineless" if I add lines for definition

[panhasapen]

@tea-pizzaz Tumblr ate your ask in the process of me trying to post this but here’s the Lad Himself

[whitlingerdoodles]

old yoimiya art that i’ve grown fonder of

[wigglebox]

(o´Д`) 

[original]

[b1oombat]

:(

[zu-is-here]

Zu!!!!!!! HIIIII!!!!!!

How's it going in Russia my friend? Hows How's weather been? What kinda things have you been up to?

I hope that work has been treating you well.

I love love LOVE the new gif XD I never get tired of looking at it. I miss seeing the boys in your style, Dream is rocking it.

I've never seen that meme before, but even my mother thought it was funny when she looked over my shoulder at it. Thought that "those skeleton things you like" was quite fun XD

The underlust thing today looks awesome. Those downward angles...ahhh heaven. So good, where do you get your amazing ideas from!?

How's things going with the trip to Spain BTW? Have you managed to get the visa/ have a date in mind for the trip?

Saw your commissions, hell yeah!! Going up next Tuesday? Right on!! Wooooooo

Lastly how's work been? How's the old lady?

Hii Gayfish!! <3

It's snowy and quite slippery here but still good <3 How's it going in UK? *^* I've been fully immersed in work and drawing this week so I mostly enjoyed the view from the inside buuut the weekend's coming! ♪ What about you??

It has indeed! <3 Recently I was offered to choose any schedule for work, but I realized I don’t want to get up earlier or finish later either, so I left everything as it is xp As S!Dream said, the deal is off :'D How's it going with yours? ᕦ(òwóˇ)ᕤ

Thank youuu! (๑>◡<๑)☆ Tbh I didn't even know about this trend until one person sent me a video (≧∀≦) Pfff "those skeleton things" we're into XD

And thanks a lot again! (〃ω〃)♡ Actually this was supposed to be the same pose but recumbent heh but then I came up with the idea to draw him in the rain sooo *w*

By the way— your Sun&Moon artwork is awwwsome! (*ﾟ∀ﾟ*) Lineless with shading looks just wow *^* And their icons are really neat! <3

Yep! ☆ My vacation is in May so I decided to try again in earnest in February-March (òwó) And hech yeah! \(//∇//)\ I'm a bit nervous just like the first time heh but I've been waiting for this for a long time <3

How are you doing lately? ♡ And how's the good boy doing?? (ówò)

UPD:

OH— we're even now XD Good luck and take care! <3

[doomednarrative]

I’m doing this for fun simply because I'm rewatching them all so,

Here's my personal ranking for Every Gorillaz Music video, based both on song and the video itself:

(This is going to be a long post)

PHASE ONE:

Tomorrow Comes Today: 7/10. I love this song and the video fits its vibe, but its still pretty simplistic and not a whole lot of actual animation and no story, so it gets points off for that.

Clint Eastwood: 10/10. I love this one honestly. Its still so charming after all this time and showcases the band well for their early days. Love the more moody tone of it, and I always love seeing the band actually play instruments in their videos too. Bonus points for Murdoc's laugh opening this one because I love that.

Rock The House: 9/10. Pure fun. I don't have a lot of commentary for it, I just think its fun and I love the song itself too. One point off for Murdoc thrusting his hips too many times for my eyes tho.

19-2000: 10/10. This one was the first Gorillaz video that I saw and it really is just a nice non plot connected video. The 3D animation still manages to hold up because of its mix with 2D animation in my opinion and I enjoy it.

Rockit: 5/10. I like the song but the video is kinda meh.

PHASE ONE MV'S OVERALL: Overall I like phase one and I miss Del. Bring him back.

PHASE TWO:

Dirty Harry: 8/10. 2D is just vibing so hard in this video and I'm living for it. That’s all that matters. (Side note but I love the version of this video they did for the BRIT's as well.)

DARE: 10/10. Noodles time to shine, a perfect song, what more could you ask for?? (Also love the bit with Murdoc at the end of course.)

Feel Good Inc: 10/10. This one is obvious if you know me at all. Murdoc playing his bass is what sells this one for me cause I enjoy the animation. The songs amazing and one I find comforting to listen to, and the mood of the video fits it perfectly. Theres some really fun shots with lighting while 2D is standing at the window too in the tower in here that I've always liked.

El Mañana: 6/10. I love this song but it makes me sad and so does the video.

PHASE TWO MV'S OVERALL: Phase One is iconic for its art style and for being The Beginning, but Phase Two is my favorite of the two for its art. I love how these videos are animated, and even if Demon Dayz is my least favorite album, the songs in these videos are all very good. Pretty solid as a whole all things considered.

PHASE THREE:

Stylo: 10/10 LISTEN, I KNOW SOME PEOPLE HATE THE CGI, BUT I LOVE IT. It’s so expressive, this song is one of my absolute faves, I’m sorry to be such a Murdoc liker but hes so much fun in this video and so expressive and it starts the story off for Plastic Beach. I love it so much.

On Melancholy Hill: 7/10. It’s not a bad video, and I love the song a lot, but...not a lot actually happens in the video aside from the bits with Noodle. Bonus points however go to just how seamlessly it puts 2D and 3D animation together, and for how cute 2D looks this whole video.

Rhinestone Eyes: 9/10. WOULD BE A 10/10 IF WE’D GOTTEN OFFICIAL ANIMATION FOR IT ;-; (The fan animated video for it tho is Very very good and i applaud that whole team.) Amazing song, this video has the most story packed into it so far from all the other videos and it’s memorable from its storyboards for that alone.

Doncamatic: 10/10 Listen...Listen I know its a one off and it doesn't really have anything in it but I’m obsessed because its one of my favorite Gorillaz songs tbh and I love Daley’s outfit in it so it gets a full pass from it.

PHASE THREE MV’S OVERALL: I love every video this phase tbh, none of them are bad. All of them are fun,and even if Melancholy Hill is a little slow, it’s still enjoyable. I love this phase because they all connect and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way either.

PHASE FOUR:

Hallelujah Money: 7/10. It’s not at all bad, but I’m as not fond of this song, and the video itself is much too trippy for me. Still has its own merits tho that I won’t knock it for even if it’s not my personal taste.

Saturn Barz: 10/10. Everything about this video is amazing. Character designs and as a comeback for the bands animated counterparts, it was perfect. I loved hearing them actually speak again too it made the whole thing so fun. The song is fuckin awesome and it fits the vibe of the whole video. Bonus points for the more lineless animation style they gave everyone in this video, it was a really neat change from past phases. My one complaint is again stop making me see so much naked Murdoc, I may like him but not like that.

Sleeping Powder: 6/10. I am so split when it comes to the mo cap models. This songs good but the video is again too trippy for me.

Strobalite: 9/10. Would have been 10/10 if Russel got to dance with 2D and Noodle, but other than that its pretty damn good. The mo cap looks way less awkward in here, particularly Murdoc and Russel. Also hilarious that Murdoc made a deal with the devil, and the guy who played him is actually his voice actor irl. This songs too much fun to vibe to as well.

PHASE FOUR MV’S OVERALL: Not much for story, but makes up for it in updated art and great music again. Solid overall yet again. I like it.

PHASE FIVE:

Humility: 20/10. Literally every single person I know who’s seen this video loved it. The animation is Beautiful, the song is so fuckin catchy, Jack Black is in it! What more do you want!! (The only thing I could have asked for was to see more of Ace but that’s its only flaw.)

Tranz: 9/10. I love this song so much but this video is Again just a little too trippy for me. However, we get to see Ace just jamming out in this video and I’ll take the trippiness just for that.

PHASE FIVE MV’S OVERALL: I was surprised there wasn't at least one more video for this phase honestly? I feel like Kansas or Souk Eye would have made for great videos for this phase. That aside tho, both the videos it does have are a lot of fun. My literal only complaint is that I wanted to see more of Ace. Bring him back in the future.

PHASE SIX:

Momentary Bliss: 8/10. This songs fine, but what sells it for me is the video is more slice of life/a day in the life of the studio. I’m always a fan of those moments. Bonus points goes to Murdoc trying to fuckin poison Jamie and it backfiring on him.

Désolé: 10/10: ooooh this song is so beautiful...I love it so much. 2D Noodle and Russel got to have such a fun time in this video and they deserve it. And poor Murdoc, having his little sad times by his asshole self. I love him but I think he deserved it. The others needed a good break from the bullshit and I’m glad they got it.

Aries: 6/10. Video itself is kinda boring, but the song is nice. Murdoc deserved to be left behind in Désolé after what he tried to pull here.

Friday the 13th: 3/10. I don’t care for this video and I really don’t care for the song. Not much else to say.

PAC-MAN: 6/10. Video’s fine, I like some of the little details in it, but it’s nothing special. The song itself is nice tho, super calming, I like it.

Strange Timez: 20/20 MY GOD I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH...VISUALS ARE SO FUN, I LOVE ROBERT SMITH SO I LOVE HIM IN HERE, ITS JUST A GOOD TIME ALL AROUND!

The Pink Phantom: 5/10 I just don’t really care for this song?? I like Elton John but I couldn’t get myself to like this one no matter how many times I’ve listened. 2D got to be happy in this video tho so I’ll give it a pass.

The Valley of the Pagans: 6/10. This song fuckin slaps but the video feels like a boring redo of 19-2000 except for it’s ending. It gets points for giving everyone Plastic Beach feelings at the end and hyping up the video after it.

The Lost Chord: 20/20. Y’all knew this was coming. This was something I’d BEEN hoping for story wise and I finally got it. Was it maybe a little rushed? Yes. But GOD it was such a nice thing to see them say “hey we’ve wrapped up this part of the story for good and want everyone to move on from it, so we’ve given it a properly acknowledged final send off.” And tangibly seeing everyone's emotions laid out about the island and their times there was very nice. And  I know Jamie and Damon have stated Murdoc is irredeemable, blah blah yes I know hes an asshole still, but I WILL think about Murdoc in this video and how he seemed actually regretful and what that means to me and the fact that it was no one else but 2D himself being the one to reach out to Murdoc in the end to save him until my dying breath, thank you very much. And this song?? Fuckin beautiful, it had those Plastic Beach vibes again and felt good for it’s send off song, I love it.

PHASE SIX MV’S OVERALL: I may be a little split on some of them and on Song Machine as a whole, but tbh I love the phase six art style so much and most times the videos were pretty good. Bringing back PB in the end was something I always wanted too so it really does get bonus points from me for that. I’m 50/50 on them overall. The great ones are great, and the meh ones are just kinda boring, so it evens out in the end.

STAND ALONE VIDEOS MENTION:

Do Ya Thing: 10/10. I’ve said before I love the 3D animation and the slice of life stuff, so this one’s obviously a favorite, and you really cant go wrong with an Andre 3000 feature either. 

Superfast Jellyfish: 3/10. This song is kinda fun but I don’t give a single shit about the music video.

Garage Palace: 8/10. Very fun pixel visuals for a change along with a killer song, super enjoyable.

So what’s my final verdict on Gorillaz and their long music video history?

Honestly for a group thats been going as long as they have, I dont think they have too many misses in their catalog. The ones that aren’t as fun are just kinda there, but the videos that really stand out stand out far above the ones that don’t hit the mark as well and in the end it all feels like a good balance. No band has a perfect video every time, but the ones that Gorillaz did well they did amazing on and I enjoy it immensely when that happens.

Sidenotes after watching all of those:

For the love of god please put Russel in the videos more, please, he deserves it and I would love to see him more.

On that note, BRING DEL BACK WITH HIM TOO!!

And speaking of characters to bring back, I want Ace to come back and join Murdoc sometimes, even if its only once or twice more, I need to see them interact PLEASE.

Last note but Jamie, please, I’m begging, show less of mostly naked or fully naked of Murdoc in future videos, we’ve had our fill by now.

[astro-b-o-y-d]

I love looking at all the 2-D animated RT cartoon styles back-to-back, because they’re all so similar, yet also very different

XaV has that fun, cartoony, comic-book style going on (fitting) and it makes you feel like you’re a kid watching a Saturday morning cartoon again (also fitting, since that’s what they were going for with the show itself. Might be why I feel so nostalgic for it; it made me feel like a kid again and I miss it dearly).

CC has that beautiful line-less style (I could go on about how much I LOVE CC’s art style and character designs). I know I could make a comparison to South Park’s style, but tbh, I think CC’s style holds up as its own thing and it’s own thing is beautiful. The colors in all the character designs just pop and look really nice and you just want to give all the characters a big hug, even the ones who might kick you in the stomach when you do (MAX).

And then NoN is kinda a mix of both, where the style’s not lineless, but they do the thing where instead of giving the characters black outlines, they line them with other colors and it gives everyone a really soft look and feel to them. Makes you just want to give them all hugs and be their best friends (except for Don Paragon, fuck that guy).

I’m no animation critic or expert but I just.....I love all these styles, and the similarities and differences you can find between them if you look closely.

[crowsister-archive]

What's your favourite fandom? What do you want to make but not have time for? Do you have a go-to comfort trope?

I don’t so much have a favorite fandom as I have favorite playgrounds.

…fuck that was an incredibly Selina Kyle thing to say. (I was a Catwoman fan first, Batman came later)

This got really rambly, so put things under the cut so I don’t take up too much of people’s dashboards.

Right now, I’ve been nestled into a large cacophony of DC and Marvel comics, partially because I’m playing Meddling Metas (the tabletop that Ada’s from and that @superkamigodespurrdragonofmars is running) and partially because there are so many interpretations of characters and that’s fucking fascinating for me.

Like right now, I’ve been doing this experiment in playing Avengers Academy. Because it’s the most high key 2013 thing I’ve seen, all it’s missing is Homestuck and OFF references. The characterizations of various Marvel characters is so odd and I mean odd in the most fond way possible. I can send Nebula, galactic assassin and daughter of Thanos, to go graffiti her name on Nick Fury’s office. The main three students, the Harry Potter-esque “Founding Three” is Tony Stark, Janet van Dyne, and Loki. It has an energy that’s very similar to whenever I go and read Golden-Silver Age DC comics. Watching the Fire Emblem-like social interactions is the highlight of the game because everyone has the same animations and the dialogue is just so. So. 2013. I can’t really pin it down other than that timestamp.

On the DC end of things, I’ve been having a blast catching up on @chrisdee‘s Cat Tale’s series. I wasn’t expecting to like Doris as much as I do, but she’s an intensely fun character that stands up against Dee’s fun characterization of Catwoman. Is there a Doris fanclub? I want in. The Russia thing was, to paraphrase Dee’s Kyle, “my kink”.

Other than that, current fandoms I’ve been having fun interacting with have been ROTTMNT (though on a much more laid back basis than a couple months ago due to accidentally pushing myself too hard with socializing on that front) and GW2. With Fortuna coming out today, I might delve back into Warframe fic-writing. Maybe.

Second question, big thing I wanna do but don’t have time for. The projects I have don’t necessarily have time concerns so much as it’s energy. 

Low-Key is going to be an on-going project for the next several years, because I’ve got the next “book” in the Rogue Hero trilogy (Hackity-Hack, Cold Front, and [CENSORED]) planned, along with Interlude: Key Distribution, the next duo part of Low-Key (which I’ll name drop as An Opportunaty to Learn. It’s all set in Atlantis and it heavily features La’gann because man, does that boy need fic in his tag that actually has him as a main character), then an interlude for Theo’s origin story, then Network Takeover, and then the planned pay off to the Pen Pals subplot (the Arbitrator stuff name-dropped from time to time). Then there’s a whole other “book” and an interlude that’s gotta do with one of Theo’s bio-family coming up and that whole thing shaking the setting I’ve got going over there (long story short in a confusing manner, Theo’s gonna get some good volunteer work done and Leonard’s gonna be in hysterics).

I’m gonna finish Mean, but cute, but progress on that is slow because right now it’s mostly my vent fic for “Things Mare wants to do in Meddling Metas, but cannot because Stage Fright”. It’s also a neat playground for some magic mechanics that I’ve been working on for a bit that might feature in Low-Key because DC is a lazy bitch and doesn’t actually HAVE an established magic system that SON OF A BITCH COMPANY. It’s also a place where I get to write a Catwoman-esque character and honestly, that is so utterly my Thing that it’s not even funny. Astraia is a walking, talking example of all of the things that go into my character design process and it’s not even funny. Okay it’s a little funny considering she was an accidental creation.

Other than that, I don’t have any huge dream projects that’d require more time. If I had more money, I’d go and commission so many artists. So many. I’ve got a spreadsheet of artists and their commission posts and what I’d want to commission them for. Fuckit, lemme shill a few of them.

For Low-Key, I’d commission filibusterfrog because their lines and colors match a lot of what’s going on in my head as I go into Theo-mode for narration. It’s actually frog’s indirect fault that Theo’s theme color went from green to blue: a lot of frog’s art that feature’s blue kinda vibrates with a Theo energy? I don’t know how to describe it other than that. Like I’m a noted Blue Bitch when it comes to colors, but Theo was very strongly gonna be green until I saw some of frog’s magic scar pictures. I think it was specifically the Cold variant of Chaos Bolt?

For Meddling Metas, my go-to artist is hyperbali. Kyla has really great lines, colors, and a very wonderful sense of pulling together outfits. Their picture they did of Ada? Is amazing and I love it to BITS.

For Mean, but cute, I’d go with either frog again or Floh. Floh’s got a really nice lineless style that I super love and could see being very good for Astraia. Her tarot cards are also super legit and something I’ve been tempted to grab for a specific Meddling Metas character.

Now, go-to comfort trope. In general, I am a huge Romance fan, like I will go into Character x Reader tags because there’s such a plethora of content that’s constantly put out that fits that. More specifically, I will always, always enjoy Found Family (sighs deeply, motioning at Low-Key) and Mutual Pining (SIGHS LOUDER, MOTIONS AT UNRELEASED LOW-KEY CONTENT). In general, the easy way to tell is if I write it as a celebrated thing (like the grumpy pants dad nature of Leonard in Low-Key or the sci-fi nature of Theo’s magic as examples), I most likely deeply enjoy it. Something else I deeply enjoy reading too is reading about a character working through childhood trauma inflicted on them by their parents. When done well, it’s a really comforting experience because I can point at them and go “I can do it too”.

[euria-stratos]

Title: Looking at Something Vague in the Distance

Okay, wow. That was a mouthful. Anyway, here’s another color palette study I did with one of the more recent entries from colourpod or color-palettes.tumbr.com.

Here’s the link to the awesome palette I used, named “Lovely Predicament”: http://www.colourpod.com/post/170839574863/lovely-predicament-submitted-by-seesawsiya

Additional notes: - holy shit, changing your tools’ opacity does wonders, but it’s going to be a pain to your hands - Originally, I was going to do this lineless, but I kinda missed having a more sketch-like art style, so this is basically a homage to my older schtuff (which I will hopefully share with the web someday….

… If I could find them @w@“”)