#I never know how detailed to make the image descriptions for art

[horizon-penblade-art]

[badgertracksart]

Portfolio advice, from a lead who hires Concept Artists

(This was originally a twitter thread I wrote before the site self imolated, hense it's strange structure.) I wrote this after a weekend of portfolio reviews - 1. Like a maths exam, please please show your working. I want to see thumbs options, mid options and of course a final design.

2. Arrange your portfolio, I don't want to bounce about between subject matter and pipeline. Your portfolio's narrative should be as strong as your work... 3. Please make worlds that excite the viewer, make them want to go in and explore them, explain to them the interesting parts of the town, or the way the character's hat unfolds. How will this draw the viewer in? 4. As I've said before the majority of your project work is explanatory not mood, make sure your portfolio contains explanatory work. Explained here -

5. A lot of beautiful post apocolyptic paintings, , but 80% of realistic games and film, we just give the environment artists photo ref, they are capable artists in their own right. Different work in stylised where you do need to create rules for how things can be translated. 6. Production art contains call out sheets, material references and flat graphics. This doesn't have to be your final image, but it should support it.

7. Design characters on a swatch(es) of the environment they will be viewed in. Not on white. I make swatch backgrounds from screenshots, it avoids assumptions that damage readability. 8. Reverse of this, put people in your environments, show me the scale.

9. It's not a deal breaker for a review, but if you intend to get a job, please show me your work on a screen larger than a smartphone (print outs probably the cheapest option with the best battery life). 10. Please have your contact details clearly visible, and by that I mean email address, I will not pass your social media contact on, I cannot input your form into my tracking system. EMAIL ADDRESS emblazoned and bake it in, sometimes recruiters do funky stuff to pdfs

11. Your portfolio will never feel done, not to you anyway. You will have learnt from your latest pieces and want to apply it to older work. But we know art is a journey. Send your portfolio anyway. I've been in the industry 10+ years and my portfolio is still not 'finished'. 12. If you are applying to an environment centric Concept Art position then please vary your times of day! Golden hour is cool but show me some happy sunny days, looming overcast days, what about at night? Vary your weather too! Sunny snowy day? Rainy Spring day? Stormy night?

13. If you are applying for a character centric Concept Art role then please ensure your portfolio shows a variety of body types and ethnicities. 14. Designing characters for games? Please show back views and feet (!) Many potfolios contain only front views. This is a problem because:

You haven't shown you are considering the design from all angles.

In many games rear view is the main view.

Stop cropping feet.

15. If you are entry / graduating and looking at Portfolios to compare content and standard of yr own work too, look at hired grad/junior artists as opposed to seniors Seniors and leads often have old or personal work in their portfolio which isnt representative of the day job. 16a. Show clearly the intended use case for your Concept Art. Mention the game type in the description. Are these player character designs for a 3rd person adventure game? Then more back views please. Bonus points for diagetic ways of showing health / equipment / role etc.

16b. Are these designs for an FPS? Then really the player view of the gun needs to sell the player style/ choices, in an FPS your weapons are almost your character. Are these world designs? What's the view distance? For an RTS your shapes need to read from above & a distance. 16c. The lack of clarification means I am judging the design in isolation, which both harms the design (you might be considering the backview of a char as the main adventure character.) Or an NPC, their waist up expressions may be important for conveying exposition and mechanics.

16d. Concept art is not separate from gameplay, great concept art serves the game team before it is a good illustration.

17. Play games. A variety of games. Think about them. IMO to be a good concept artist you need to understand the common language & references used by your peers. Also understand the principles and common language your audience are used to. FPS design rules are v.diff from RTS.

18. There are many skills that are needed in concept art, please show them. For example: Graphic design - logos, liveries, typographic use etc. VFX concepts - Abilities, Ambience, motion concepts. Architectural knowledge - How buildings are built! & more but I'm out of space :O

[mcytblrsexymen]

thanks for playing!

(an image ID is under the cut, as well as in the image description. the artists credits and their social media links are also listed under the cut - go check them out!)

hey y'all. we've been quiet a bit. that being said, we have one last thing before we get this event behind us.

this was a really special thing to be a part of. what started as a silly joke we didn't think would get very far ended up being a cultural event within the fandom. thousands of votes, participation from everyone, a thing we'll never forget. we can't express enough how exciting it was to be a part of everything. we, the mods, had a fantastic time with everything. a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience, you know?

but it wasn't us that made this what it was. it was you all.

we just want to say, from the bottoms of our hearts: thank you. thank you for all the campaigning - for a while, it was practically all we could see. thank you for all the fic - we have a canonized ao3 tag, that's wild. thank you for all the art - several fandoms were practically revitalized by this and it was beautiful to watch. thank you to the ccs who went along with the bit - it was a delight to have you playing in here with us. thank you for the stories you told with this. for the narratives you created. for alliances we would have never seen coming, for betrayals, and most of all for being here, together, doing this. thank you all so much for making this what it was.

anyway, so this art is my thanks to everyone. i commissioned a number of artists from as many different fandoms involved as i could find in hopes of capturing some of the chaotic energy of what might be some of the single most insane two weeks of my life. (and click on the piece so tumblr compression doesn't ruin it - there are SO MANY FANTASTIC DETAILS to look at!)

cheers, everyone. thanks for playing. you've made something special that i don't think we could ever create again, and it was a moment to remember.

<3, second and the sexyman mod team.

ART CREDITS:

confetti @bdoubleowo: goodtimeswithscar, technoblade, ldshadowlady, scott smajor

genesis frog @aroaceacacia: joe hills, saintstarling, itssubz, rtgame, composition, lighting/shading adjustments

siren @chronophobica: zombiecleo, grian, ranboo, tubbo

fluffy @fluffy-papaya: pixlriffs, vikingpilot, zloyxp, rythian

colten @malewifeph1lza: slimecicle, captainsparklez, jschlatt, dream, illumina

kish @kishdoodles and brynn @brynnticus: docm77, aimsey, mythicalsausage, orionsound, clownpierce, eddie the rabbit, owenjuicetv, seapeekay, ashswag, lighting/shading adjustments

td @paradoxalriven: quackity, ethoslab, stage

thank you <3

image ID: a portrayal of the mcytblr sexyman competition, as done by seven different artists, each with their own artstyle. it portrays many mcyters crowded around a stage, onto which a spotlight shines on the finalists. scar and joe are posing at each other in competition. to the right, quackity is climbing onto the stage, boosted by etho. around the stage there are a number of additional mcyters; technoblade, ldshadowlady, scott smajor, saintstarling, itssubz, rtgame, zombiecleo, grian, ranboo, tubbo, pixlriffs, vikingpilot, zloyxp, rythian, slimecicle, captainsparklez, jschlatt, dream, illumina, docm77, aimsey, mythicalsausage, orionsound, clownpierce, eddie the rabbit, owenjuicetv, seapeekay, and ashswag can all be seen cheering on contestants, talking to each other, and watching the competition. there are additional nondescript shadows around the stage in the background, implying an even larger crowd. the image also has the logo for the competition on it.

[jinx-xxed]

Beautiful Thing Caged

Chapter 1; Strange sight

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆ .。.:*

A/N; My first multi-part fic!! I’ve never been able to commit to one before so I’m really hoping I’ll be able to see this one through cuz I have some good ideas for it :]. I hope you enjoy, that’ll help keep me motivated too!! Also thanks to my bestie for the idea for the chapter titles ♡

This writing is based on this fan art ! It made my jaw drop to the floor when I saw it and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Part 2 ⇨

Summary; The First Order Agencies have come across a new, strange creature and it becomes your job to study it. You get far more than you bargained for.

Content; Werewolf AU, modern AU, werewolf Kylo Ren, human reader, scientist reader, soulmates, angst, feral Kylo, like legit feral bro does not know about human society, there’s a part where he eats a bunch of raw meat (I did not enjoy it), Kylo’s being studied in a lab, he studies you too, he’s scared and sad and angry (what else is new), lots of tension, neither of you know how to feel

[Each chapter will have specific content warnings. This story will eventually have 18+ content.]

Wc; 3.5k

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆ .。.:*

“I’m sorry?”

You look down at the sheets that had just been slid to you across the mahogany desk. It’s a thick packet stapled together, the papers perfectly crisp and white. On them is paragraph upon paragraph detailing the new assignment that your superiors at First Order Agencies have decided to place on you. Your hands reach forward from where they’d been resting in your lap to tentatively flip through the packet, your brows creasing further with each page.

Studying an unknown creature. Studying something that nobody knows what it is or where it came from, something that the only thing people know about it is that it’s incredibly dangerous. You briefly scan over the pages dedicated to the description of the creature—black fur, wolf like appearance, supposedly male, huge, able to take on a humanoid state. You see that in place of a true name, it’s been given the label of OB-2637. Written at the bottom of the description is “BEWARE CREATURE, WILL ATTACK. STAY IN DESIGNATED OBSERVATION BAYS FOR SAFETY.” Lovely. There’s no pictures attached so your imagination is free to run wild, thinking up an image of a hulking beast with drool covered teeth and ragged fur covering its misshapen body. You shudder.

“Wh- why is this being given to me?” You ask, looking up at the one who’d given you the papers. He goes by Hux and he oversees your sector of the Agency, making him your boss. “I’m just a nature observationalist. I feel like I’m not-“

“You’re the most qualified one in this facility.” Hux states. He sounds uninterested, his shrewd face giving no insight as to what he thinks about the Agency housing a dangerous, unknown creature of unknown origin. “We agreed that with your knowledge about the “wild world”, it would probably give you the most insight on this… thing. You’ll be paid generously for your work based on your findings if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

You’d seen the amount they were offering you, it was certainly nothing to scoff at. You shake your head. “No, that’s not what I’m concerned about. I’m more concerned that this seems above my level. I’ve never dealt with something like this since I’ve been here.” You say. You’ve been with the First Order for almost five years now. It’s a government agency that’s kept tightly under wraps, mostly because the Agency deals with things that they think “normal civilians” shouldn’t be made aware of. It took a lot for you to get accepted into this position.

Hux leans forward against his desk, the dimness of his office making his features look even crueler than usual. “If you really doubt yourself that much, then you don’t have to take this job. But I’ll make it known that if you turn this down, it’ll go to the next best person and I don’t think they’ll be as… compassionate towards this thing as you will be.” He says. His tone is so heavy, so serious. It holds so many implications that have your palms sweating. He shrugs as he relaxes in his chair. “I’m sure they’ll probably end up killing it. Theres a lot of people in this place that want to dissect that creature piece by piece. So it’s not just about your qualifications, it’s about how you’ll decide to treat another living being—that’s why you were the first pick.“

You swallow and your spit almost gets stuck on the lump in your throat. You look again at those papers, at what will be waiting for you in those lower levels of the facility. You think over Hux’s words, you roll them around in your mind in the same way you’d roll something in your mouth to get the taste of it. You know that he’s right, that anybody else would kill this creature just to get a thorough look at it. Anything in the name of science, after all. You know the people working in the First Order are not kind-hearted, most are cruel and cold. You have few friends in this place, even after the amount of time you’ve spent here. Your answer becomes clear to you. You don’t want this creature to die.

“I’ll take the assignment.” You say at last, steeling yourself so you don’t lose your nerve. You can do this. Surely it won’t be that hard? You just need to observe some type of animal, find out what it is, where it came from. That’s your whole job. You do that every day.

“Good choice.” Hux nods. He digs something out of a drawer. “Sign this and then be on your way.” He gives you an NDA, one that’s specifically catered towards this assignment. You’ve signed countless versions of these since you started working for the Agency, so it’s nothing new as you fill out everything you need to. You think nothing of them now, it’s not like you have people in your life to tell about your job anyway.

Hux takes the paper once you’re done. “Floor twenty. Your badge has already been approved for access. You shouldn’t experience any trouble.”

That’s a stern dismissal if you’ve ever heard one. You stand from your chair, smoothing out your lab coat as you go. You grab the packet of information; it’s not much but it at least gives you something to go off of. “Thank you, sir.” You say. Hux merely grunts in acknowledgment, already buried in the paperwork for something else.

You leave his office, taking a deep breath when the door shuts behind you. Holding the packet close, you walk through the halls of the building’s upper floor. When you think about it, the above-ground section is like a mask to the public eye. It’s all of the boring offices, gaudy paintings littering the walls, carpeted floors. It’s unassuming and basic and meant to hide what lays below the surface: all of the Agency’s experiments, their studies, and their classified documents stuck behind vaults. That’s where most of the employees are, that’s where your own office is. There’s few people upstairs and the ones you do manage to pass don’t even spare you a glance on your way to the elevator.

One of the two elevators opens a second after you press the button. You step inside and hit the button for the twentieth floor. The door closes without anyone else inside, leaving you blissfully alone. There’s no classic elevator music that plays, there’s only the sounds of the machine working to keep you company. Your hands frequently change position on the papers you hold to try and keep from drenching one spot in your sweat.

It feels like an eternity before the elevator begins to slow and there’s a resounding ding as it reaches the twentieth floor. The second lowest floor in the facility; you can’t even imagine how far underground you are. The hall you enter in to is pure white, fluorescent lights bouncing off the walls and floors. There’s nobody you can see and you know based on your packet that the only other people involved in this assignment are guards and a few nutritional specialists. You’re on your own.

The halls of this floor hold few doors, instead mostly housing holding cells and laboratories. You use your badge when you come upon authorized entryways, that unsmiling face in your picture getting you the beep you need to pass through. You’re halfway to where you know you need to go when you begin to hear strange noises. Clinking chains, the faint snarl. Sounds of struggling. You really should just turn back, try to ignore all of this and pretend you don’t care about the fate of some defenseless animal. You know you can’t though, so you keep walking on unsteady legs.

There’s one final door you need to pass through, one last door keeping you from a sealed fate. You feel the sense of foreboding prickling the back of your neck, your shirt sticks to your spine from your perspiration. The door beeps in response to your badge, your hand hesitates on the handle. It opens into a massive room, snow white in color with a black rim. Theres very little inside it; there’s data pads built into the walls for recording observations and there’s a one way window stretching along the right wall. You don’t know who would be on the other side. The room is separated by a massive pane of reinforced glass, stretching from floor to ceiling, spanning the entire length.

You finally see what that glass is meant to keep in and everything seems to freeze. That’s no animal, no creature, or bizarre thing. It’s nothing like what they made it seem. That’s a human. A human male kept in a cage, thoroughly restrained. His body is just the same as yours, albeit much larger and far more muscled, but he has the same limbs, the same fingers and toes. No paws or excess fur, just sharp black nails at the ends of his fingers that have put claw marks in the floor. His attention turns to you then and you see his face. He’s what you’d describe as beautiful; his features are both sharp and soft at the same time, his nose strong, and his pale skin dotted with moles and freckles. His face is framed by waves of black hair and he’s captivating, even with blood smeared on his chin and neck.

Your eyes meet. God, his eyes. They’re human, they’re round and the pupils are blown out with his emotions. Even from your place at the other side of the room you can tell the honey brown color and you can see the fear swimming in them. If you didn’t dismiss it as you being crazy, you’d say there was some sort of spark that flared between you both for some inexplicable reason. Like there was a sort of understanding rooted deep down that you didn’t understand. Then it was gone.

And then the frozen second snaps and everything is thrown back into motion. His expression shifts into something angry and fierce and he makes an attempt to lunge at you. His movements are so powerful, even with every limb bearing thick cuffs with chains connected to the wall, even with one around his neck. He comes so close to the glass, his hands reaching in your direction, those claws scraping uselessly against the floor. You flinch back on instinct, your breathing coming fast and hard. It’s then that you see the ears and tail on the man. They are indeed akin to a wolf like the papers said, black ears sitting in his hair and a large, fluffy black tail protruding behind him. When his mouth opens in a snarl, you see the unnaturally sharp canines that he has. They’d rip you apart in no time.

He tries a few more times to get at you before realizing it’s useless. It’s probably not a new feeling for him. He retreats more against the back wall where the chains are connected, making them go slack and giving him more movement. He tries to shrink himself which is hard with such a huge body, his tail coming to wrap around his feet. He doesn’t have much within his cell—only a small cot and a singular blanket as a bed in one corner, and a toilet and sink in the other corner.

You swallow. You realize how long you’ve been standing there without moving so you take one very small step forward. Then another and another until you’re about halfway towards the glass. He watches you with such intensity the entire time it makes you nervous. You try to take another step before he growls at you, a deep and rumbling sound that has you freezing. When you retreat, he stops.

“Okay. I’ll stay here then.” You say, standing in the spot you’d been in before that last step. This is where you’d begin. Small things to make him more comfortable in this unfamiliar environment; you’d follow his rules.

Seeing no chairs around you, you lower yourself to the floor. It’s cold even through your layers but you don’t mind. You have no room to complain when you look at him with no shirt or shoes, nothing to really keep him warm besides thin pants and that blanket on the cot. You study him in silence, just like how he studies you. You feel confusion over the conflict of the report versus what you see before you. The report had first described a wolf-like appearance that could take on a humanoid form but all you see in front of you is a human man with wolf ears and a tail. Maybe they’d overexaggerated?

Now that a fragile peace has settled between the both of you and he’s sitting still, you’re able to see the scar running along the left side of his face. It travels all the way down his collarbone before finally stopping. It’s deep and jagged and you can only imagine how badly it must’ve hurt; he’s lucky he didn’t lose his eye from it. Looking over him, you see he has a multitude of scars all over the planes of his body. He’s a fighter, then. With the way he’d lunged at you as soon as you entered, it doesn’t take you by surprise.

You clear your throat from your nerves. You begin with stating your name. You don’t even know how much he can understand you or if he can at all but you continue anyway. “I’m not here to hurt you. I know you probably don’t trust that, and I understand. We just want to know more about you.” You say. You inwardly cringe because this all sounds so weird to say to another human. You clasp your hands together tightly in your lap. “If you can speak, it would be a huge help if you’d explain some things about yourself. What’s your name and age? Where’d you come from?”

You don’t get a response—you didn’t expect one. He sits there with his knees up to his chest and his face partially hidden by his hair just staring at you, his eyes so wide and telling that it’s hard not to meet that stare. This is how it’ll be then. That’s fine, you’re used to sitting in one spot for hours and watching for an animals every minuscule movement. That’s what you end up doing, merely watching him and studying his body. Every twitch of the finger, every tense of the muscle is something you keep note of. It’s a good way to get a basis of information about what you’re studying so you always have something to compare to. You log everything in your mind for now, thinking how you’ll need to remember your laptop for next time.

There’s a sudden noise that leaves both of you startled. You sit up straighter and his ears perk up as a door to the right inside his cell opens. His wolf ears flatten back against his head and he scoots farther from the door, his chains clinking with the movement. You watch curiously as a human-shaped, somewhat janky robot enters with a plate balanced in its hands. You never see much of the Agency’s robots, mostly because most of them are unfinished and unpolished, but it seems they’re useful when real people don’t want to get near a deadly thing. The robot drops the plate unceremoniously on the floor and you notice with a start that blood splatters. The robot leaves.

Both you and the beast-man look at the plate before he decides to move towards it. You make another mental note about how much he surveys his surroundings before deciding what to do, as if weighing all options and possibilities.

The plate is rather large and holds a copious amount of raw meat, seemingly from multiple different animals based on the coloring and sizes. Blood slowly drips off the edge of the plate, pooling on the white floors. You can’t help the revulsion you feel looking at it as he inches closer, sniffing the scent of meat and blood into his nostrils. His eyes widen at it, pupils expanding, and he immediately takes a massive slab into his hands. His teeth tear into it like it’s paper, those fangs ripping it apart as blood drips down his chin. Despite your disgust, you’re also fascinated. So his digestive system can handle raw foods—like a wolf. I wonder what the layout of it is. What kind of bacteria is in there? You think, pondering over the idea as you watch him eat like a beast.

He finishes most of the plate, leaving only a few tinier pieces that he pushed aside. He must not like the taste of that particular animal. He seems more at ease now that he’s been fed, the worry of whether or not he’d get another meal satiated. He’s unbothered by the blood on his clawed hands and face as he sits back down and returns to watching you. When his eyes find you again there’s a shiver that goes down your back. There’s something in them you can’t place and it creates a weird feeling in your gut that you can’t decipher.

The rest of your day goes by without a hitch. You sit on the floor and study the beast-man in silence. You don’t try talking to him anymore, you’d rather not make a fool of yourself if he won’t say anything back to you—if he even can. He doesn’t do anything, there’s nothing to do in his cell anyway. He sits and watches and at one point he laid down on his back facing you so he could still keep an eye on you. There was one last meal time where you got to see him eat a bunch of raw meat again which wasn’t… great for your own appetite.

Hours passed before the lights finally began to dim, meaning the facility was shutting down for the night. There’ll still be people working the entire time, of course, but they shut down a majority of the power in the unused areas. You sigh to yourself, unfolding your body and getting up with a grunt from the stiffness in your limbs. The beast-man who had been drifting off before is now fully alert, wide eyes watching. You go to move towards the door and he growls at you. It startles you, makes goosebumps pick up along your arms. You look back at him with furrowed brows, confused. “I’m leaving, alright? I won’t bother you anymore.” You huff. This is what he wants so why is he getting pissy? You feel annoyed about his attitude for a second before you remember he’s the one stuck in a cell and you’re not. He has a right to be mad with you.

You sigh again and go to the datapads in the wall by the door. Since you don’t have your laptop, you take a few minutes to input the things you observed today that you’ll just transfer over later. You find yourself writing down a lot more than you thought you would and it makes you feel accomplished, like you actually did something today. When you’re finished, you put your hand on the door handle, ready to leave. But you pause, you look back at him and you know it was a mistake instantly. He looks so sad, so alone and afraid in that large, white room. You struggle to tear yourself away and open that door before you do something crazy.

You shake your head as you enter the hall, the door locking firmly behind you. Your mind feels like it’s shut off while you retrace your steps; back through the winding halls, back up the elevator, back into the main building. Back to your car where you grip the steering wheel with a deadly force, staring blankly at the road on your long drive home. Then finally, back to your small house where there’s no lights on inside because there’s nobody waiting for you.

You unlock the door and step in, a wave of something like loneliness washing over you when you do. It’s strange, it’s never been like this before. You try to ignore it as you shed your lab coat and make a simple dinner and sit on your couch. You don’t move for a moment, your brain deciding that now is a good time to rerun everything from today. That was a man. It wasn’t a beast, not really. And they have him stuck in a cell like that. It’s inhumane, isn’t it?

You find yourself with your head in your hands, groaning loudly as some form of release. “God, what have I gotten myself into?”

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆ .。.:*

Part 2 ⇨

[gothgleek]

Alicent based on this post about Modest!Alicent by @dirtytransmasc

Details under the cut

-I was obsessed with the veiled pieces that OP mentioned and I loved the image of her in gold veils that looked like she was dripping in gold.

- The veils are based on Catholic veils (specifically and 4), medieval head coverings like ones worn in Ophelia 2018 and wimples (2 and 6), Star Wars (5), and the Tudor period (7). Most of them are sheer because one, I couldn’t figure out how to wrap them around her head without her looking like a blob of color and when it did look okay she looked like she was wearing a hijab and it felt too appropriative to draw on Alicent. This is also why her hair is visible in most of them but in practice she would cover them with thicker fabric.

- Alicent wears long billowing sleeves with heavy skirts. OP said that Alicent would wear dresses that conceal her figure which I tried to maintain but some have a shapelier silhouette as it looked better with my art style. I hope one day I will be able to draw modest clothing without making someone look like a blob but I’m not there yet.

- Dress 1 is inspired by the series Isabel 2011, which from what I’ve seen has some nice costumes. It also gave me a good base for something historical and modest but still luxurious.

- The second is based on Lady Macbeth and Ophelia in the Ophelia movie. I debated on adding braids but I think Alicent would’ve worn them. They’re neat, mature, and somewhat conservative hairstyle while also giving her an opportunity to wear more accessories which is expected of her as a queen. I know OP said modest but irl royalty had to wear extravagant clothes to prove their status and with the pressure of civil war and being the second wife, Alicent would certainly wear luxurious jewelry while staying simple compared to the rest of the Targaryens. The beads are Targ inspired as she would also need to embrace Valeryian styles to stay in Viserys’s favor.

- This side view of Alicent has the deepest neckline because that is what worked best for a side view. I also noticed Catholic veils tended to have patterns so I added simple gold flowers. The dress is medieval based.

- What sparked my artistic interest was OP’s descriptions of the veils so I had to do a dedicated work with a veil in the spotlight. In the original post, it was mentioned that Alicent would wear shawls with tapestry like designs. I couldn’t think of anything that would look good with fabric folds and creases but on a lace veil? I could definitely do that. Tbh it’s not my favorite design (Helaena’s was my favorite) but I think it represents Alicent’s loyalties pretty well. I’m personally pleased with how the dragons and tower came out.

- I don’t care about Star Wars but some of Padme’s outfits have screamed Alicent to me since the beginning. The golden lace veil with pearls is the centerpiece so her dress is much more toned down.

- This is again based on Ophelia’s costuming and on OP saying Alicent appears to be dripping in gold wearing golden veils. I added jewelry shaped like the Hightower sigil with green gems decorating it.

- OP mentioned shawls with tassels and patterns so I had to add them onto the last dress. Well, I had fur instead of tassels but the statement still stands. I also tried to make the veil based on Spanish mantillas but it never turned out correct so I kept it simple. The dress is a mix of Alexander McQueen Fall 2011 and the Tudors era.

[kkotda]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KKOTDA (DEAR-KOI) ˖°𓇼

for a month with so little notable (national - us) holidays, august sure is a busy month for dear-koi (both this blog and i have our birthdays in august!). to celebrate, i am planning on opening rolling slots for art requests! it'll be on a first come first served basis. i will close requests on september 1, 2024 (no more requests will be accepted when september starts)

what this means:

all of my followers, mutuals or not, are eligible to participate! please no requests sent with anonymous! they will not be honored! (i don't plan on publically posting requests unless given explicit permission! so please allow images in your ask box or dms open!)

please continue reading to learn how to participate and other important rules!

how to participate:

in an ask (or dm if we're mutuals), tell me what you'd like! character only art and selfship are the ones i'm most comfortable doing, but i'm willing to hear out other requests (oc's for example). maximum of 7 requests (characters) per person are allowed! note: you will not need to provide me with any sort of monetary compensation in order to participate! i will not accept any monetary compensation! (i don't have the means to do so). this is supposed to be all in good fun, to practice and develop a style i think suits me! so taking money for making your request a guinea pig would make me feel all types of guilty (if you really feel the need, tell me your favorite song(s)! i'm always open to new music! better yet, donate to a palestinian family!) for selfship art requests, please also include a picrew from which i can color pick (i.e. the more accurate the picrew's colors are, the more personable it can be!) and reference poses. if the picrew is not accurate, please feel free to provide preferred hex codes or color 'swatches'! vague descriptions like dark brown aren't very helpful and might make the situation uncomfortable (though i will of course honor any changes that are needed!). i will honor character requests from any media even if i am not a part of said fandom group! (i will ask for no idol/celebrity requests though because i am uncomfortable with that, sorry in advance for any inconvenience!) for oc art, please provide as many details, references, picrews as possible. i absolutely do not want to mess something as precious and valuable as an oc up. i will try my very best to fulfill your request to fit the image you had in mind! tl;dr: give me so much information i have to spend days reading (also i forgot to say this but if you'd like a background that isn't white, you're more than welcome to change the color! transparent is also an option!)

ok to draw:

people (characters, etc), small animals (like pets), sfw (suggestive is also okay with enough reference pictures!), chibi

not ok to draw:

nsfw (i'm not that good yet, i'm sorry T-T), gore/horror, overly complicated things (i'll let you know if it gets too complicated)—basically just ask, and i will tell you!

please keep in mind:

i am slowly getting back into drawing (but i was never good in the first place tbh...) so i'm still very much learning! my art style currently is still a lot of mimicking (i do not use fanart as references, please don't misunderstand!!!), and as such i will ask you all to keep your expectations very very low T-T like rock bottom low...

default art will have a white background! i can and will color if colors are provided! (but there won't be any crazy good rendering, i'm sorry ;-;)

the purpose of this event is me practicing and learning art, but it's also me giving back to my beautiful friends who make the world go round! thank you so much for trusting me with your request(s) and i will do my utmost to make it come to life! if you'd like a 'portfolio' of sorts, please search the lovekoi tag! it is my art tag that i'm using and all of my stuff will be there (there's not a whole bunch though unfortunately >.<)

if you have any questions, please ask! i feel like i've left out a lot of things...

and finally, some parting words:

dear-koi has come a really long way i think. i moved here on a whim and essentially lost all of my previous mutuals (i should've just shared the url... </3) but you all found me again! and new people found me too! i'm so honored to have been worthy of the follow to following transition, you guys will not believe the squeals every time people i've looked up to like big time became mutuals with me... it's still crazy to me actually... but that aside, thank you for spending my birthday and dear-koi's 1st anniversary with me! here's to many more!

i love you all, please remember to smile today ᰔᩚ

[bettsfic]

What are some qualities of a “good” writer in your opinion?

i can't really articulate in general terms but i did find an example recently. (i wrote these out as examples in the writing log i kept while i was at this residency.)

this is from The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a book about the Vietnam War:

If Rat told you, for example, that he’d slept with four girls one night, you could figure it was about a girl and a half. It wasn’t a question of deceit. Just the opposite: he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt. For Rat Kiley, I think, facts were formed by sensation.

what i love about this paragraph, this whole book really, is that it has a strong sense of voice. the humor of "a girl and a half." the fragment of "just the opposite" and the placement of "i think." there's a rhythm here. to me it reads as though every word was chosen because every other word was considered and dismissed.

next i attempted to read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, which is also about the Vietnam War. here's a paragraph that happens a few pages into the book that was so bad i put the book down and never picked it back up:

Bass handed him some coffee in an empty C-ration fruit cocktail can and then poured another can for Hamilton, who had dumped his radio in front of his and Mellas’s hooch and was sitting on it. Hamilton took the coffee, raised the can to Bass in toast, and wrapped his fingers around the can to warm them.

this paragraph from Matterhorn is littered with unnecessary descriptive adjectives among bodily action that's not needed and serves only to show the detail of the C-ration fruit cocktail can. that information is better placed elsewhere, where it might be more relevant and interesting to the narrator. there is no tension in this paragraph. it's only bodily direction as if in a film, and because this is prose, that's not needed unless it's relevant to the conflict. in this case, the conflict is that our narrator, Mellas, is absolutely terrified and trying to scheme however he can to get out of the combat zone. but do you get any sense of that urgency in this paragraph? no, it's just things happening.

i think good writers (and i use that term loosely, because we all determine good writing based on our personal tastes and the art/media we've encountered in our lives thus far) draft these kinds of sentences for the sake of knowing where their characters are in time and space but eventually cut them, even if they love the image of the C-ration fruit cocktail can. but if you love the C-ration fruit cocktail can, you can lend it meaning. you can honor it by making it matter to the narrator. here it's just kind of thrown in along with the other details, like a valuable antique thrown into a pile of junk. that antique deserves to sit on a shelf and be admired.

maybe the C-ration fruit cocktail can arrives in drafting totally on its own. in revision--when you're going through the pile of junk looking for valuable things--is when you find it again and go, "oh, this is good, i need this." you know so much about your story that you know how to find what's valuable, what sings. so when i say that in TTTC every word was chosen because every other word was considered and dismissed, what i'm saying is that O'Brien meticulously went through that pile, found the good stuff, and put it on the shelf in a beautiful way.

that's where creative skill comes from, i think. the endurance to consider, to make millions of little choices meaningfully.

[kirathehyrulian]

Non-Challenge Art: 🔥🏚️Cinnamon Dust🏚️🔥

(Please do not edit/alter. Feel free to reblog, but please do not repost. At the very least, please give me credit.)

Description: Female Lucifer!Sam dressed in a white wedding dress and rose flower crown with lace veil, holding a bouquet, standing on a cliff edge above a dilapidated burning city.

(For better viewing on desktop, click the image, then right click the enlarged image, and then click “open image in new tab”.)

For more stuff from me please check out my “myart” tag here on Tumblr or my AO3.

👇( wip screenshots and notes below the cut) 👇

For more detailed notes: [AO3 link]

Art Notes: For a long while I've wanted to try my hand at female Sam. So, I started this attempt last year in early November and worked on it till late December. Then I just couldn't work on it anymore. It wasn't until late June this year that I started feeling hopeful about this work again.

I'm a little worried I might have squashed instead of cultivated my art drive some more, because I struggled to finish this. But oh well. I'm done working on this. I did what I could muster and I accept the end results. I kind of want to make a Female Michael!Dean companion piece... but I don't know how likely that it for me to do.

WIP Screenshots:

Nov 1-Dec 29 then June 19-July 6th. So, 77-ish days working on and off this.

The references I looked at while drawing: Tumblr- Fem!Sam/Jared face app pics Google Images- og Jared/Sam pics Adrianne Palicki pics (mostly the ones with her wearing a red dress) women in wedding dresses holding bouquets women in high heels fire dystopian cities cliff edges

Musical inspiration: Lana Del Rey- Cinnamon Girl Lana Del Rey- Burning Desire Lana Del Rey- Body Electric I Monster- Who is She? Egzod & Maestro Chives - Royalty ft. Neoni Chris Grey - Let The World Burn Indila - Derniere Danse Seven Nation Army (Glitch Mob Remix) // slowed + reverb by Psycor Legends Never Die (Against teh Current) // slowed/reverb by Chewy ft Pixsy Lacrimosa - Slowed and kinda terrifying by Mony PG Rammstein - Sonne [SLOWED] best part by the_phonkface Farben - Orange Sector (slowed to perfection + reverb) by Suei After Dark X Sweater Weather (ultra slowed N reverbed) by OrdinaryVibes

And I think that's everything for now.💀

Enjoy, if you can♥♥♥

[thefatedmeeting]

i'm completely normal

Previous / Next

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION – MIDNIGHT TRUTH TIME.

At the top is the strip’s title: “normal feelings about rgu”.

RGU refers to Revolutionary Girl Utena, an anime.

This comic’s art style is simple, scribbled, doodle-like, without realistic details. It’s black and white, with few colors painted in watercolor style.

Hyamara (caricature of the author; they have short and black hair, piercings in their ears and are using a white shirt with a colored strawberry and blue pants), at the center of the panel, has their eyes wide open and mouth open wide, holding their face with their hands. To their left, a person with short, brown hair and round glasses smiles with their mouth wide open, forming a “3” shape (like a cat’s mouth) facing Hyamara, and asks: “So, did you like Revolutionary Girl Utena?”. To the right of Hyamara, the background is black, and Hyamara mumbles without stopping (the font is in Hyamara’s own handwriting, which looks very sketchy and scribbled; it is also in capslock): “the inherent violence of gender and the fake “masculine” notion that power is abuse and should be pointed at others and especially hierarchic towards kids and poc and how society as a whole is structured around that and an silence is complicit to violence and-”. The rant ends here.

In the panel below, unlike the comic’s usual art style, Hyamara, with realistic proportions, has their eyes closed and mouth open, levitating from the ground, with their arms and hands stretching out away from themselves, towards the ground. From their chest a great shine bursts forth. In the background, there’s the universe – and stars and shining lines that burst from Hyamara. Around Hyamara, there are various texts: “down the depths of the ocean I can be my true self”, “I am just an actor” in caps lock, “characters play their parts on a fantasy”, “do they know it’s all a dream?”, “it is empty motion” in caps lock, “born once again to rehearse it once more”, “it’s an act that never ends”, “and a clock that never moves”. The person from the previous panel, Hyamara’s friend, observes the scene with their back to the viewer, and says: “I guess you did lol”.

Hyamara’s pose and the background are references to a meme called “galactic/expanding brain”, where a person (with Hyamara’s pose), increasingly “expands” their brain through ideas that are getting better (according to who makes the meme). The texts around Hyamara reference the duel songs from Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Below, there is the introduction of another strip, with the title: “hobbies”.

Hyamara sits on the ground, with their back to the viewer, but turning back their head to the viewer anyway, to smile at them. Around Hyamara, there is a mess of nerdy items (a print with Marcille and Falin from the anime Dungeon Meshi; an Yshtola figurine from the game Final Fantasy XIV; a print with Utena and Anthy from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena; a Link plush doll, from the game The Legend of Zelda; and a print with Shulk, from the game Xenoblade Chronicles). Hyamara says to the viewer: “Whenever I like something I watch, read or play, my response is one out of three levels of enjoyment…”

On the next panel, there is a text above it, in a black square, that says: “1 – ‘this is cool haha’”. Inside the panel, Hyamara sits, laying on the back of their chair with their legs crossed in the seat, looking at a monitor in front of them. They have a bowl of popcorn in one hand, and another one with the thumbs up gesture (closed fist, all fingers closed except the thumb, which rises upwards; the gesture symbolizes approval – that everything’s good). They eat the popcorn, smiling. To their left, there is a text with an arrow pointing towards Hyamara, which says: “normal person”.

On the next panel, there is more text above it: “2 – it’s so good, but so bad.” Inside the panel, Hyamara sits in front of a table with three dolls of The Legend of Zelda (Zelda, Link and Ganondorf respectively; Zelda holds a nonbinary pride flag, and holds Link’s hand, which has a lesbian pride flag; Ganondorf has a trans pride flag). Hyamara has their eyes wide open and dark circles under their eyes, one hand holding their chin and the other pointing towards the dolls. Around Hyamara, there are the texts: “It needs more of that and less than this…”, “*steals it and makes headcanons*”; “*characters are mine now*”.

On the next panel, there is the last text above it, in caps lock: “3 - *rotates it in my head so much it’s transcended lightspeed*”. Inside the panel, the focus is very close to Hyamara’s face, who has their eyes wide open and red, their hands holding their head. In their forehead, there is a brain silhouette, and inside this is an image of space and of planet Earth, which is spinning rapidly in its own axis. There is a zoom effect in the Picture, with blurred borders and lines which point towards the center of the panel – this indicates movement.

Below, the footer of the comic starts, with the logo of Midnight Truth Time, and the list of logos with Hyamara’s social media:

Twitter/X logo: @hyacspen

Instagram logo: @hyacspen

Tumblr logo: @thefatedmeeting

Patreon logo: patreon.com/hyamara

Itch.io logo: hyamara.itch.io

Gumroad logo: hyamara.gumroad.com

Between star emojis: hyamara.com

Below, it’s written: CARRIED OUT BY, and the logos of Secretaria de Cultura de Novo Hamburgo, of Lei Paulo Gustavo, and of Federal Govermnent of Brazil’s Ministério da Cultura – União.

END OF IMAGE DESCRIPTION.]

[kinmokusei-stars]

She's finally here! I've wanted a solid design for older Kouko for a while (Oh jeez, since around September of last year??) so I could make future art with her! And here she is after so long! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

I actually love how she turned out, and I'm really proud of both her outfits! I think she turned out so gorgeous. (๑>◡<๑) The first outfit would definitely have to be my favorite, though! I got inspired by a beautiful image I saw on Pinterest and the idea just came to life!

I wanted to give her a mom bod and longer hair, just to show how much she's healed and grown over the years, since both her intense need to get stronger and her short hair both had a bit of baggage behind it. Trust and believe she's still strong as an ox and WILL body anybody she has to, that will never change, but overall she just looks softer now! By now, she's mostly settled down with Inuyasha, who's her husband! And they're living out their lives peacefully. (*ˊᗜˋ*) (Or, y'know, as peacefully as they can in their time period (￣▽￣*)ゞ Stuff still happens)

There's a lot of little details about her design that I thought through, and if you'd like to know about any, or have any questions just let me know! I'll answer any questions you have! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

If you don't already know about her, here's her main story/younger design, with a description about her! And her matching updated sheet right here!

[snek-panini]

It's been a few weeks since I had new books to share, but I finally got photos taken of the newest ones so today's the day. Here, have a book:

This is Across Tides and Currents, a Good Omens siren AU by Sodium_Azide and @doorwaytoparadise (hi. I hope I tagged you right). My favorite thing about this AU is that, at its heart, it's about learning to communicate with someone who is so different from you that you can't even physically speak each other's language, and yet you've still got so much common ground that you find a way. It's way lighter and more fun than that description makes it sound, though, so go read it if that's your thing.

The cover on this is Lineco book cloth, scrapbook paper printed to look like leather, and blue foil htv. The foil was actually a nightmare to do. The first time I applied it, it wouldn't stick no matter what I did, and the bits that did stick peeled off as soon as I touched them. I had to peel them up very carefully, cut a new image, and try again. Thankfully it worked the second time but I don't know that I'll be using the foil type again unless there's no other way to get the color I want. The non-foil metallic was so much easier to work with.

More book photos under the cut!

I went with a coptic bind for this one for a few reasons. The first was that I wanted to try one on a quarto-size book to see if I could. I also wanted to try the mitered corners thing I did when I bound Strange Moons, and see if I could have the same effect on the interior. (That bit didn't work out so well; the front is fine but I mismeasured the inside and the lines didn't match up, so I trimmed some pieces of cardstock to cover that up. I really like the layered look though, so that's fine. It's quirky.) The third reason is that not long before I decided to bind this one, the authors published a new chapter after two years of no updates. That's the best possible reason to have to change plans, and the glueless bind means that if they ever do that again I can just redo the stitching to add more pages. Win-win.

Getting whimsical with title pages here. This took way longer than I thought it would, probably because I don't like graphic design and I did it in Word where I do the rest of my typesetting. Usually what I do is grab an image and put text around it or on top of it and then just play with fonts and sizes, but this time I drew the lines and then made the text follow them. This is the first time I've used the word art feature since...probably 2009? I'd forgotten how. I have no doubt there are better ways to do this but if I'd had to learn a new program at that point I'd have quit. And I do think it was worth it--it's cute and fun and looks about how I imagined it.

Couple of photos of the inside. Sorry the first one's blurry, I had someone trying to get my attention when I took these. The section break image came from rawpixel, I just made it gray instead of black so it's more subtle. The fic has very nice illustrations that I specifically got the artist's permission to print and then I failed to get any photos of them when I did my little photo shoot. They look very nice, though. I swear.

The last image is something I've started including in my latest books. I'm calling them "A Note from the Bookbinder" and it's basically just me talking about why I chose that story, the experience of reading it for the first time, stuff that's going on in the fandom, stuff about the process like the new chapter coming out as I was preparing to print. It's kind of...like marginalia? Part of fanbinding is preservation and that's linked to archival work, and something I know archivists love is marginalia and diaries. I don't like writing in my books and I've never found any fun in journaling, but sometimes that kind of context is important so I'm trying to add it. Someday, decades from now, I may not remember all the details, so I'm trying to preserve them. IDK, this got philosophical on me. Go read about mermaids now. Promise it's a good time.

[furry-homestar]

beware of swimmingbreadshark/toona-fish

i hate that i have to make a post like this, i don't want any drama in this fandom, but this feels very important

even if you don't feel comfortable reading this, please reblog to spread awareness

please don't go and harass this user or anyone who's associated with them. just block and move on.

trigger warning (all illustrated only): gore fetishization, necrophilia, brief mentions of animal death, brief mentions of rape

i don't know how to begin a post like this. swimmingbreadshark (further referred to as "tasha" because that is its name) is certainly a user on this website. it also has a homestar runner blog by the name of toona-fish. considering i've blocked it i don't know how significant it is but i'll post this anyways because it's important.

i guess i'll just cut to the chase: tasha draws gore for sexual reasons, and on at least two occasions has drawn art depicting necrophilia. pretty much all of it can be found on its newgrounds sadostar (yeah great fucking name), though much of it is locked behind an adult rating. its description sums it up pretty aptly.

i won't be showing any of the actual drawings in this post.

since its tumblr and newgrounds don't link to each other and it never posts them on another website at the same time, i can't exactly prove that it's the same person (aside from both accounts using the same name and pronouns and having the same art style) but i will try my best

discord user named tasha posts this drawing in a discord server for another user named yuki. this same drawing is then posted on the tumblr blog toona-fish (also run by a tasha) and it is reblogged by hooray4dolphins (it doesn't say anywhere on the blog but yuki is one of my friends and i know full well that it's faer blog)

therefore, it seems rational to assume that tasha on discord and tasha on the blog toona-fish are the same person

this same tasha on discord links back to the newgrounds profile, and has also posted several drawings on the server that match up with pictures posted only on the newgrounds profile.

this image was posted on july 29th and the description pretty aptly describes the contents of it, though i won't be showing it in this post.

on the same day, the account on newgrounds posts the same image titled "take out the dog". you can double check this for yourself by visiting the profile (but please don't if you're sensitive to gore or animal death). hopefully though the tags are enough to tell you that they're the same.

so, it can be assumed that either the tasha on discord is extremely dedicated to impersonating this random person, or it's the same person behind both sadostar on newgrounds and swimmingbreadshark/toona-fish on tumblr.

here's proof of the necrophilia art, once again not showing the image. it also mentions rape so there's that. i won't be going into a lot of detail here because i've already made my point.

i heavily encourage you to block both swimmingbreadshark and toona-fish from viewing your account. i believe i've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that these are the same person. thank you for reading, hopefully this was comprehensible enough, i've never done a post like this before and i intend to not do one ever again.

[cyndrastic]

aight update on the future au:

polls not over yet but it’s leaning heavily at McCormick, so i’ll give you my pcov designs and some headcanons for the McCormick parents rn cause out of all the adults they’re my favs 💕💖

i love them so much you don’t understand (also surprise surprise Kenny married Butters [changed his name to Vic], no one could have ever guessed that considering one of my first art posts on this account was a bunny comic 🙄)

anyway they both have mullets cause i just really like mullets, and Vic shaved the side of her head cause that’s my headcanon of what butter’s hair is in the show (cause his little tomato puff makes no sense) and i feel like he would have kept those.

more details and explanations for some things under the cut (aka im ranting about my fav characters and how they work as a couple with little bits of au lore sprinkled in)

Vic-

you may notice i’m jumping back and forth between he and she for Vic, and that’s cause he uses she/he. Don’t get me wrong, I love Butters and Marjorine, but i’ve seen the argument between them so many times. “Butters is a Cis guy!” “Marj is a trans girl!” fuck it Vic is a gnc icon and picks whatever gender he wants depending on whatever the fuck he wants and he’s hot both masc and fem. and i mean very hot. Butters in the show gets a couple descriptive things, namely in the “It’s Butters!” song hes said to have dimples, and more importantly when his father thinks he’s wearing his mom’s makeup when he’s not. that means this kids got perfectly flushed cheeks, nice eyelashes and eyebrows, and unblemished porcelain skin even at 8 years old. that paired with his blonde hair and presumably blue eyes (i’ve never met a blondie without blue eyes), emphasized cheek bones we see in the pcov special (implying he’s got a more slender face and likely more slender and long figure in general, which is the what literal modeling agents tend to look for btw [i would know my grandma and mom were models because they were both pretty with thin frames and lanky limbs]), and the scar over his left eye makes him insanely attractive.

the scar especially gives him something to stand out with; make people remember him (sometimes he even takes out his glass eye just so people get a good look at his empty socket and that image can be seared into their brains). being androgynous also helps make everyone, whether they’re attracted to men or women, find him hot. no one even knows if Vic is short for Victor or Victoria, and that’s the point. also due to how he grew up in this au (spoiler alert, Vic’s life was awful for a lot of years between beginning of high school and when he reconnected with Kenny as an adult [that’s an understatement Vic is by far the most traumatized character in this au]), he doesn’t feel particularly comfortable with being on one perfect end of the gender spectrum; girl or boy. So no matter how he’s presenting, he’s always going to look somewhat androgynous.

Kenny-

Kenny is kinda the same, i just wanted him to look more cool and unhinged. I got rid of the full beard cause i can’t draw it and also hated it, but i added snake bites cause they’re cool. I also got rid of the beer on his shirt cause I feel like after being raised by two alcoholic assholes he wouldn’t drink much as an adult. oh yeah and he’s a he/they now cause you can’t tell me princess kenny didn’t awaken something in him. i feel like he would go to a fancy award ceremony for some massive science breakthrough in a gown. he’s the typa guy to accept some prestigious award for his scientific findings in a slutty silk dress. Basically everything I changed in Kenny’s design was to make him look more like the wacky uncle who gives children weapons (spoilers he is). i kept how the pcov specials made his stockier cause honestly i just like him a little bit bigger. I feel like that’s a treat to himself. he spent so long in a home where he’d probably have to starve some night cause they couldn’t afford to eat, so when he becomes an extremely successful adult, he can give himself the luxury of eating three meals a day or eating junk food that was too expensive for him. he can finally afford to be a little bit heavier; it’s just proof that he’s made it this far from where he came. He’s also more of a mad scientist in this au a la Dr. Mephesto, but far more ethical in what/how he runs experiments.

both-

Their dynamic and characterization in this au is by far the most fleshed out because of how much I like these two characters, and it’s genuinely my favorite couple in the au. I might make a whole separate post on how they operate as parents because they’re both so horrifically worried that they may accidentally follow in their own parents footsteps. Yknow, generational trauma and whatnot. They’re also both insanely unhinged. Both of them are just balls of the walls crazy, which stems from both of them being traumatized (i mentioned Vic is the most traumatized in this au, Kenny is the second most cause of dying thousands of times over his whole life).

Kenny has lost all grasp of physical or mortal fear cause by this time in his life he’s died so much he’s lost any sense of connection to injury, even to other people. It’s difficult for him to register that other people are mortal because it’s such a foreign concept to him, and that can lead to some issues in the lab given that it’s such a dangerous place to work. Meanwhile, Vic has the people she cares about, and has a hard time grasping that people she doesn’t care about aren’t just stepping stones. She was used her whole life, then used and hurt people as an adult (yes she was an NFT bro, no she’s not anymore), but now she has a hard time not snapping back into the NFT thing and scheming every cent out of whoever gave her a dirty look at Walmart. Kenny and Vic can and generally do help each other out with these things, but they can also be each others worst instigators (“oh yeah you should absolutely do that consequences be damned” “no he had it coming to him don’t worry” “yeah fuck him up! beat his ass!” typa shit. they support each other non-conditionally but sometimes that leads to them getting arrested).

[loyaldis]

Hi! So I've never commissioned anyone and anything before but I just love your art so much so I would like to ask for a commission. I was just wondering how we should do it in terms of details and stuff. Like, we give a character from a series, right? Do we give you any other details? How broad or specific should we be? I know some artists want little details like poses or characters doing certain things and stuff like that, so that they could have an idea of what to draw. But not all artists do that so I just wanted to know your preferences and how to commission properly. I hope this makes sense!

Hey hey!

Personally, I prefer to receive as much information as possible. Personality and likes/dislikes help to set a mood and idea for the commission, and if you already have some kind of idea that's even better! Reference images are always welcome, if you have one for your OC that's super appreciated. But I can work with written descriptions, too, I'm providing WIPs anyway to catch as many mishaps as early as possible.

Even if you are fine with me going wild, I still prefer to read as much as I can.

[fainthedcherry]

2024 Human Art VS 2019 Human Art !!!!!

AS PROMISED, HERE'S A POST WITH SOME NEW ART!!!

And also an art comparison, just to see, how much I improved in drawing the 2 bois <3

I'm MEGA tired despite having slept after work, but I WON'T let that deter me from writing a description!! YAPNADO AHEAD;

FINN AND MARCOOO. FINNANMARCO. BEEN A WHILE SINCE I'VE ACOUSTICALLY AND FERALLY YELLED ABOUT MY 2 FICTIONAL MEN WHOM ARE CLOSE TO MY HEART.

I'm SO glad, that in the new drawing, Marco finally looks like the twink he always was, but still enough meat on the bones to look NORMAL lmao, can't say that about the 4 other sketches of me trying to redraw this ref for years. xD (why yes, his wings took forever, why do you ask? /lh)

I'M MEGA SUPER DUPER GLAD, that Finn FINALLY looks like a chubby, wild bastard TOO, OH TOOTHPASTE MAN, HOW MANY HEARTACHES YOU GAVE ME OVER STRUGGLING TO DRAW AN ENDOMORPHIC BODY TYPE. BUT I CAN NOWWWWWWWwwww!!!!!

God this habit of loudly reading out my posts as I type them made me realise what a bad Schwarzenegger impression I do on accident bc I'm overly excited to post something after a month of silence SDKFSKLDG

ONE THING I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO. IS PUT EVERY DETAIL I NEEDED ON A BIG REF. SO I DID! I've drawn closeups of the boys's eyes, I've drawn Finn's tongue so that I don't need to constantly remind myself what his blush and flesh colours were sdfkldsgkl, I FINALLY denoted their heights, so people know that they're tall TALL dudes (and that Finn obviously will struggle w/ his lanky mfing legs, we LOVE giving a middle-aged man heart attacks once he reaches his 40's!!!)

ANNDDD ALSO SOME SIDE VIEWS OF THEM. The last side-view I had of F & M, looked REAL bad. Like, Marco's face looked WAY too stereotypically European (to my fault bc surprise surprise not many African people live in Europe so I had poor frame of reference but I've been fixing it via looking up images online instead, at least it helps but yeah, I have a hard time so far unfortunately💀), Finn's was just... B u c k e t. NOT LIKE HANDSOME BUCKET. BUT JUST BUCKET. IT NEEDED FIXING (fun fact I accidentally made Finn have the most attractive jaw shape for men according to beauty standards and I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I JUST WANTED THIS MAN TO LOOK S Q U A R E AND THAT'S IT, MINECRAFT STEVE HAS MORE RIZZ THAN MOST MEN OFFICIALLY).

OH YEAH ALSO A CLAW REF AGAIN FOR FINN!!! His old ref looks too cool for me to give up on it tbh even as dated as it is sfjklsdglk, BUT I felt like I needed to redraw them properly.

FUNNILY ENOUGH A PERSON I COMMISSIONED SAID I HAVE SOME REALLY CLEAN AND NICE LINEART. I wish I heard that 5 years ago when I was really insecure about my bad lineart skills xD, I don't use lineart anymore nowadays outside of reference-drawings like these I don't plan to redraw in the next years unless necessary soooo yeah! They're gonna appear much rarer unless I go off and about making more ref sheets of all of my Sonc OC's sfklsdgsdfksdg

This drawing took 5 days to make btw. Not the hours spent on this LOL. 5 days of my life I'll never get back tho bc I care too much about my babies and I feel they deserve proper refs sdfklsdglk

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I MENTION.....HOPEFULLY I PLAN TO DRAW MORE HUMAN REFS IN THE FUTURE INSTEAD OF STAY IN MY COMFORT ZONE OF SONIC OCS ONLY. I for years wasn't confident in my ability to draw humans, but I can do so NOW at least!!!!!!!!!! Even if I'm like...3 years too late to how I wish my art looked back then already dsklfdsg, I have some high standards I need to continue to knock down as my 2024 resolution sdfklsdg

^IT'S BEEN WORKING THOUGH AS YOU CAN TELL BC I'VE BEEN UPLOADING SOME BAD DOODLES AND SKETCHES, BEEN DRAWING MORE GARBAGE AND BECAME MORE INVOLVED IN MY BELOVED FANDOMS. I wanna continue doing so! It was the most fun I've had with art ever. I hope to properly meet more fandoms I left in the past bc I thought it'd be embarrassing to share my passion for a franchise back then. I EMBRACE THE CRINGE NOW AS AN ADULT AT LEAST EVEN IF 7 YEARS TOO LATE ON THAT FRONT TOO. We all age and mature ig but I just become more silly year by year,,, c:

Oh yeah if you also see this btw lemme know, whether the new watermark tiles are subtle enough to not be noticed!!!! I know, watermarks are annoying and nobody likes them, but ever since AI invasions, I REFUSE to put my work online without ANY form of proof that somebody took it from my page. I just want people to stop lying on the internet for cloud and pick up a pencil. It's not that hard smfh. The only time I could excuse AI art is w/ amputees man. That's the only time I could empathise with someone, who wants to be an artist but LITERALLY can't bc they got dealt a bad hand in life. I digress my AI hate can be rambled about some other day, I know I love yapping and writing essays about THAT topic for sure sfklsdklg

I chose to post this ref to my Tumblr first tho, bc I still wanna work on my drawing of Abbacchio,,,, he is quite dear to me and I'd love to put effort into a doodle of him that won't take too long. Like 4 hours or 5 hours tops. I still have yet to figure out, if his cute star shape on his head is a hat or part of his hair. Bc I CAN'T TELL TBH AND I'VE BEEN DRAWING IT AS PART OF HIS HAIR PATTERN BUT I THINK IT'S A HAT NOW EVER SINCE I LOOKED AT MORE ASBR CAPS OF HIM I TOOK FOR REFERENCES. xD

Also another side-note, but I've ofc reduced down the lankiness of the dudes I draw™, but I in result wanted to sliiightly make larger feet/hands bc my Sonic phase will continue to possess me 'til the end of time /hj, if you also wanna lemme know what you think on that, bls do! I am messing about with stylization still. I am finding my footing with stylizing humans sOOO yeah!!!! I hope to some day be satisfied with my artstyle change of '24! So far it's been really rewarding and eye-opening to me and my journey as an artist for my 7 years of existing on the 'net w/ my silly goobers I like to scream about to in the void <3

Once again, tagnado also incoming below bc I dunno how to properly tag my art so lemme throw in things I THINK are relevant to this post sdkldsgkl

See you hopefully tomorrow w/ a lil doodle dump if I get around to it!!!! : D

[your-art-is-gay]

Vampire Knight Art Book (Part 2)

The illustrations in this art book are so gorgeous, and so detailed, that I just had to highlight some of my favourite to share with y'all.

Again, apologies for the phone camera photos. It really doesn't do these drawings justice.

I think it's interesting that it's specified that this is Zero's school uniform. Especially since it's kind of funny to me, picturing Zero taking enough care to meticulously hang up his uniform.

Ruka's butterfly pin, Akatsuki's necklace, and is that Kaname walking away from them in the background? Fascinating... Especially since Seiren seems to be following him, but is looking back, as if unsure of her actions...or of his.

One of my favourite pieces, hands down. The colours, the design of her dres, the cathedral windows in the background---ugh! So pretty. I have to highlight the rose detail on the hem of her skirt and the design of her gloves.

Another thing to note: the fang necklace. One thing I noticed throughout the book is that the fang symbol is associated with Zero, and yet he's never actually depicted in blue (at least in this art book). Yuki and Kaname are shown in blue or associated with blue several times, but never Zero.

The description of the image doesn't say who the mysterious blue-clad hand is, it does say that the image is "alluding to farewell." So is Yuki saying goodbye to Zero? Or does the mysterious hand belong to Kaname, and the fang necklace tangled around her hand is symbolically representing that she's thinking about Zero?

Speak of the silver-haired devil! The detail I wanted to make note of here with this illustration is the chain hooked onto his belt loop---the chain that's usually attached to his anti-vampire gun, Bloody Rose. Notably, however, Bloody Rose is missing, the chain broken. He's vulnerable. Defenseless.

I didn't take a close-up shot of it, but this is also one of the illustrations where Zero's tattoo doesn't look like a tattoo---it looks like a scar. I don't know if that's an intentional symbolic choice or not, because the way it's rendered is somewhat inconsistant between illustrations. Interestingly, unlike the anime, where it has the stark black appearance of a tattoo, most of the illustrations depict it as silvery, like his hair.

I just...love the details on this coat, holy crap.

Two things to note: the vampire skull shape of his ear cuff (fuck, I want one) and the blade motif on his shoulder.

The blade is another symbol very often associated with Zero, obviously referencing the fact that he's a slayer, and the dagger designs on his tattoo. In this particular drawing, it's also combined with bat wings, which are obviously associated with vampires (both in general, and distinctly in this book), symbolizing his duality as someone who is both slayer and vampire.

Interestingly, the vampire skull motif is seen elsewhere in the book---almost always associated with Kaname.

Lots of details with this one.

Firstly, if Zero's motifs are daggers and a single fang, Yuki is inextricably associated with roses. They're everywhere when it comes to her. I wanted to make note of this bracelet, just because I think it looks neat, and also her earring---a rose and a dagger, symbolizing the both of them. I think that's neat.

Secondly, the Cross Academy Crest. Yuki usually wears it as a necklace, but here she has a charm clipped to the sash at the waist of her dress---because we don't see her necklace? I dunno.

But what's interesting is that Zero also has one, so dark that it almost blends into his coat, and hanging from a bat wing decoration on his coat.

Thirdly, Zero's bat wing ring, which, besides being super cool, further pushes that connection to vampires---maybe because Zero has accepted himself as one? After all, he and Yuki are clearly sneaking away for a quick bite...

And, fourthly...does Zero have a belly-button piercing?!

This is one of my favourite Yuki outfits. It's amazing how it actually looks like velvet, and all of the detailing on the white embroidery and the pleats at the cuffs and neckline is just... *chefs kiss*

I could probably talk symbolism with the key on the rosary, or with her being behind a gate, but...I don't wanna.

This one is interesting, because it shows us details of the uniform that aren't present elsewhere! Like the silver tips at the collar corners, the tie pin,and the Academy crest on the shirt pocket.