#I really wanna get back into drawing and learning and improving

[milchreste]

[deoidesign]

Time and Time Again comes back tonight!

Thank you all for being so patient with me, I know it was a long hiatus.

My health was struggling, my arm was (is) hurting, and I decided it wasn't worth it. I'd rather be slow!

So thank you for giving me that grace, and I hope you'll be there with me for the rest of the series.

[nortsauce]

HHHH i need to YAP AGAIN!!!!

I love that it’s specifically stated that phoenix took performing arts (and drawing) before he went into law bc it explains SO MUCH ABOUT HIM

My guy is a performer at heart and it’s so apparent in everything he does

Bluffing? THATS IMPROV BABY! Thats a core part of acting! Learning to think on your toes and improvise when a scene doesn’t go well to get everything back on track is what Phoenix excels at!

Playing a character for 7 years takes fortitude and a mind to remember what to not say or not do to make everyone believe you ARE that character. Beanix was a performance!

Phoenix also does certain things to perform how a murder was committed like how he literally jumps through hoops in the dreaded clown case.

Hell, there’s even the part that i don’t hear a lot of how phoenix takes insults or criticism in stride, how he just goes “oh yeah, my bad i was wrong about that haha!” THATS ALSO TAUGHT IN PERFORMING ARTS!!! (He’s also just a humble down to earth guy so i mean.)

And if you wanna look deeper into his character, everything he does is a performance. Performing huge feats just to show how much he cares for his friends and family, even if he can’t say it in words.

It’s like never touched upon but he really managed to combine two of his conflicting interests and bring a whole new genre of law into japanifornia just by combining performing arts and law, and people are ASTOUNDED by his invention and think this method is genius, when in reality he’s shaking in his shoes bc he forgot his lines and has been improving the scene for the last 45 minutes!

[slickskullshock]

a list of random art tips i’ve learned over a long time

The elbows are near the same height at the belly button

the hands go about 1/3 of the way down the thigh

add fewer folds in clothes than you think you need

The colors of shadows look different depending on what color your light source is

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HARD LINES AND HARD SHADOWS

if you don’t like doing highlights digitally in procreate, add a black layer over the whole drawing, then click the little N of the layer and scroll down to Color Dodge. pick a color for your highlights and draw. Use a soft airbrush to create glow, use a harder brush to create sharper lines

if something is out of your skill level but you really wanna draw it, get a reference! It’s ok to trace! It will help you get better!

think of objects and people as piles of shapes if you are having trouble with positioning

if you don’t like drawing the other eye: copy and paste, cover it with hair/hat/eye patch/hand/scarf/literally anything you can think of

try new styles! it doesn’t matter if it looks good or not, but now you know what you do/don’t like doing, what you’re good/not good at, and what you want to improve on!

when you’re drawing profile heads: add a little extra length to the back of the head. heads aren’t perfect circles. doing this will make the face, ear, and jawline feel much less cramped.

this is a personal preference, but i like to find old photos from like the 40s and 50s to use as references because people got really wild with how they posed and i find it helps with angles and positioning

heres an exercise i like to do to help with positioning: draw a few pairs of circles, make them at all different angles. then, so back and use those circles as placements for hips and shoulders and draw the first pose that comes to mind. keep it simple, but try to make it natural

(I’ll add more when I think of more)

[notherpuppet]

Just curious, how long would you say it took you to perfect your particular art style for the hazbin comics? Did you do other comics before?

It’s funny you say that because I DONT THINK IVE PERFECTED SHITTTT 😭😭 like, I reach points in my art where I finish the drawing and I look at it and I’m like “nice!!” But the process to get there is a trial of liking it, hating it, loving it, hating it, and liking it ENOUGH TO SHARE IT LOL

But that’s part of the fun of drawing?? Haha, it’s challenging and you have to confront problems (how do I draw this hand, how the fuck do arms connect to the body, what’s a neck!?) and solve them to the best of your current ability.

I have noticed that since the beginning of the year, I’ve improved sooooo much in my drawing! My total obsession with drawing fanart for this show has had an unforeseen side effect of training my artistic eye. It’s really nice and empowering to see how I’ve made progress when I look back.

The most important thing I think when I’m drawing is “are you having fun? Like is this a good time right now?” And that usually helps me center myself from getting too frustrated when I’m encountering difficulties.

If I’m experiencing art block bad, then I’ll somehow do one of the following; engage in another hobby, hang out with friends, consume others art (tv, cartoons, comics), actively study drawing, OR draw anyway but wayyyyyyy slower LOL

Ive done another comic before, but after everything I’ve learned from making fanart, I think I wanna redo it so I’ll hit u up whenever that happens 🥰

[pinkpigtailsprincess]

𝜗𝜚 ݁ ˖ Summer Glow up: creating new habits 🎀⭐️ *࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ!

Hi Dolls!! Welcome Back 2 Dollies 2 Months of Summer Glow Up !! 🎀⭐️ Today im gonna talk all about implementing brand new habits in my life !!

> Hobbies !! 🎀

> Academics !! 📒

> Beauty Care !! 🧖‍♀️

> Scheduling !! ☀️

> Taking Baby Steps !! 🛼

❤︎ ໋𓈒 Hobbies!! 🎀

…: This Summer I Plan on Taking up Some brand New Hobbies to keep my self busy and learn about brand new things bc everyday is useful!! and so i can use my time more wisely some hobbies i have in mind are…

- Yoga

- Painting

- Creative Writing

- Learning Japanese + Spanish

- Reading

- Puzzles!

- Blogging

- Learning To Code

- Doll Collecting

- Book Collecting

- Sewing + Crocheting

- Digital Art

- Piano

and obvii im already a blogger but i still added it anyways i will watching videos on how to get into these hobbies and videos on learning Spanish and more Japanese, also fun fact i’ve actually been studying Japanese sine 2021 but i stopped bc it got to hard but im starting back up!! anyways, after i watch the videos im gonna set up a financial list bc i have the fund all of these but its okay bc i can easily get money!! 🎀

❤︎ ໋𓈒 Academics !! 🎀

More Goals of mine are to raise my grades in an academic space bc i do have decent grades but i wanna aim higher and have PERFECT Grades so in turn that means i must study more and have more discipline and not so irresponsible with my time!! and i also wanna study subjects outside of school bc its always good to learn something new!! now for learning tips so far i have..

- Flash Cards

- Practice Methods

- Teaching Someone Else

- Trying to explain it to a 5 yr old

- Study a Week Before

- watch ted talks on topics

- SLEEP

- write out notes

Now i Also Have a list of subjects i want to learn about!!

- drawing facial expressions + bodies

- Sewing Stiches + How to Hem and Crochet

- How 2 Draw Bodies + Poses

- Full Anatomy 4 Both Genders

- Japanese + Spanish + French + ASL

- Color Theory

- Learning Cursive + Improving Handwriting

- Expanding Vocabulary

- Religious Cults

- Case and Law

- Poison and Toxicology

- Astronomy

- Medical Surgical Instruments

- Matriarchal Societies

- Socialism Societies

Now i definitely won’t be able to do all of this all at once bc it would definitely we too stressful so im gonna choose as least 2-3 to start with and study them and just learn! 🎀🧁

❤︎ ໋𓈒 Beauty Care !! 🐬

📧: Now I already have my regular beauty care regime skin,hair,eyebrows,eyelashes etc. but im also more focused on getting weekly treatments & weekly beauty care habits like…

- Nails

- Hair

- Eyelashes

- Face Mask

- Hand + Foot Mask

And i wanna try and find people in my city that can do this especially for nails bc i would go to the nail salon but i feel like they won’t be able to do it exactly how i want it to be !!!

❤︎ ໋𓈒 Scheduling !! ⭐️

Now That im gonna be so busy i need to make sure i also stay organized with my time so it doesn’t lead to stress so ill have my regular school classes on my regular schedule then making dedicated hours to studying Things i wanna learn about + Language Learning!

My Workouts are always early morning before school in the evening hours before i got to bed so i won’t have to worry about that affecting my academics. With my Hobbies i feel like only some of them really need scheduling so ill also make time dedicated to those as well !!!!

Beauty Maintenance will probably always be on weekends for the stuff that weekly/bi weekly like face masks,manipedis,hair etc!!

and last but definitely not least!!

❤︎ ໋𓈒 Taking Baby Steps !! ⭐️

This whole process is still all new too me so i’ll definitely only be doing a little at a time and working my way up and i get more familiar with the change in my daily life and i won’t pressure my self to complete everything extremely quickly and just take my time with everything! bye bye dolls tysm 4 keeping up with me while doing this kisses 4 all of u!!! 🎀⭐️

[entiqua]

I love your artstyle!! Do you have any tips for drawing?

thank you so much! i'm really happy you like it!!💗 as for tips, what i would say would change drastically depending on what kind you're looking for, but some very general ones:

draw what you love and want to see most, regardless of whether anyone else wants to see it. if you don't enjoy what you're drawing it'll never come out as good or genuine as something your whole heart and soul is in. i mean you'd think this would be a no-brainer but sometimes i've had to sit back and ask myself 'if no one was ever going to see this except me, would i actually spend time drawing this?' and i was surprised by the answer

that said, it is also completely valid if your motivation for drawing is to draw for other people! there have been plenty of times where i was too artblocked to draw my own ideas but was still able to draw commissions or gifts and enjoyed it simply because making other people happy with my art makes me happy.

don't get too caught up in having a consistent art style. in my experience this 1000% hinders you

having your sense of anatomy degrade over time without you noticing because you keep drawing the same types of characters is a very real thing! if this is a concern to you be sure to draw a variety

follow a billion artists that you like the art of and you will have endless inspiration injected directly into your brain every time you open social media

my favourite practical tip for those who draw at a desk: keep a small mirror next to you at all times. absolute game changer for quickly referencing hands

if you're drawing digitally, make the canvas huge! in my experience this lets you draw messier/faster and you can't tell at all when you zoom out. if you tend to get stuck spending unnecessary amounts of time micromanaging pixels (me💀) keep it zoomed out while drawing

related to the above point, messy drawings can have far more expressiveness in them than neat and polished drawings. nowadays i never do lineart and go straight from 'barebones stickman pose' to 'varying-levels-of-coherent sketch' and use that as my lineart. sweet freedom from the sketch-looks-better-than-the-lineart phenomenon

if your goal is to improve, then you really do have to scrutinize your art, figure out what you're not satisfied with, and commit the time to focusing on it. 'practice makes perfect' kinda rubs me the wrong way because of how much i've seen it interpreted as 'just draw everyday and you'll magically improve' but genuinely it won't get you very far if you don't actively think hard about what you're trying to improve and take the steps to do it. is this a hot take idk. also hand in hand with this, not every artist is trying to improve and you shouldn't feel bad for this! maybe you just wanna make a little headshot doodle of your fave blorbo and that's your only drawing goal ever. awesome. maybe you know your art has flaws but it's passable enough to convey what you want and you're perfectly satisfied with that. (this is the stage i'm usually at). also awesome!

don't hesitate to draw something because you think it's out of your skill level. the worst that can happen if you draw it is that it comes out terribly but you learned something and can always redraw it better in the future. the worst that WILL happen if you don't draw it is that you'll never draw it. and then it will sit in the back of your brain haunting you for years. it's not like i'm speaking from experience or anything aha

look up 'hand stretches for artists' and do them if you draw a lot unless you wish to summon the wrath of the carpal tunnel demons

of course, these may not necessarily work for you, and most importantly(!) these are coming from the perspective of someone who is primarily a hobbyist. some of this won't be practical for people who need to build an audience, maintain a consistent style for work, etc. these are just things that have personally helped me over many years of drawing :)

[tthesongofachilless]

F1 DRIVERS AS TEACHERS

Max Verstappen - Geography Teacher

— Randomly quizzes students about which country is in which continent

— However he can take jokes

— Randomly trauma dumps (one student even asked him if they should call Logan)

Sergio Perez - Spanish Teacher #1

— " You used Google translate for that... tsk tsk.. "

— Oral assessments every friday no questions asked

— He and Fernando talk in Spanish in the teachers lounge to avoid eavesdroppers

Charles Leclerc - Music Teacher

— Has a pictures of his dog as his pfp on Google

— Forces everyone to listen to his newest piece before class ends

— Rumoured to have kissed Max outside of school (he denies it)

Carlos Sainz - Spanish teacher #2

— Seen teasing Lando during lunch and blushing

— Hates basically every student who refuses to learn any Spanish

— His favourites tease him about Lando in Spanish and he curses at them to stop

Lewis Hamilton - Art Teacher

— Really passionate about his job

— " Did you hear about Logan and Oscar? " " WHAT?.. oh... what..? I can't discuss this with my students. "

— He actually gives you tips on how to improve your work and doesn't mess up your work by drawing over it!

George Russell - English teacher #1

— " Girls can we please put the eyelash curler away. And the makeup brush... and the hairbrush, gosh how do you fit this all into your pockets!? "

— Deffo dating Alex but doesn't admit to it

— Homework every single week, will report to your parents if not handed in

Lando Norris - PE teacher

— He doesn't know himself how he got the job

— Basically lets the students play dodgeball all year

— Giggles and kicks his feet whenever Carlos pops by to say hi

Oscar Piastri - English teacher #2

— Has been seen napping in the teachers lounge multiple times, Logan sometimes acts as his pillow

— " Guys can we not.. Nando is going to kill me if he finds out I'm giving out sweets. "

— Voted most gay teacher by the students

Fernando Alonso - Head of Year

— Brings the teachers snacks to their lessons

— " What the skibidi .. " " Mr. Alonso never say that again. "

— He deffo doesn't have favourite teachers (wink wink)

Lance Stroll - Woodwork teacher

— Definitely not suited for his job

— Just eats his lunch in the middle of lessons because he doesn't wanna be with the other teachers (Estaban isn't there)

— Watches on as students try and hammer in screws and does nothing about it

Daniel Ricciardo - Science Teacher

— He only applied because he wants to do cool experiments

— " Follow the instructions. " " Sir these are in french.. " " uhmm.. does anyone wanna watch the martian? "

— Everyone loves him

Yuki Tsunoda - Food Tech

— " That looks like if Mr. Norris tried cooking. "

— Randomly gives out snacks while he's doing instructions

— Disses the other teachers but when someone mentions Pierre he gets all excited asking how his lessons are going

Kevin Magnussen - History/Religion Teacher

— He just wants to go home after the first hour everyday

— He has shelves dedicated to historical Lego builds

— Has no favourites (" You always let Fred go early. " " Fred is doing the work. ")

Nico Hulkenberg - Cover Teacher

— Laughs at dad jokes that weren't even funny

— Probably wants to apply for a different job but can't

— Dressed up as the hulk for Halloween

Valtteri Bottas - Maths Teacher

— " Guys.. I know you miss Kimi but I'm basically him but, more ass, you know? "

— Bff's with Lewis and Zhou

— Let's the class play blooket every Friday instead of work

Zhou Guanyu - Textiles Teacher

— Voted most fashionable teacher of the year

— Randomly gives out sweets to his favourite students

— Actually puts work into grading

Alex Albon - Science Teacher

— " Sir, are you dating Mr. Russell? " " I have a girlfriend. " " Show her then!! " " No. "

— Never gives back tests

— Gossips with George and Lando in the hallways

Logan Sargeant - Guidance Counselor/Cover Teacher

— He needs therapy himself instead of giving students it

— Follows Oscar around like a lost puppy, it's rumoured he's absolutely whipped for Oscar but is too shy to do anything about it

— His favourites edit him and Oscar to 'Lacy' and he can't hear the song anymore without crying

Pierre Gasly - French Teacher #1

— Him and Estaban have BEEF

— stares into your soul when you awnser a question

— " But the other class didn't have to do this! " " That's because Mr. Ocon doesn't want his students to learn proper french. "

Estaban Ocon - French Teacher #2

— " I don't understand what I did to Mr. Gasly. " " You snitched on him giving out sweets, sir. " " I don't see the issue. "

— Only talks in french in the lessons

— He himself gives out sweets and such

[vanderbilt-draws]

pleaseee...draw devwinn interacting... plssss

ok sorry it took forever for me to answer i may have gone slightly overboard with the doodles but I REALLY LIKE DEVWINN AND MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE A WHOLE UNWRITTEN FIC ABOUT THEM IN HIGH SCHOOL AND LIKE 7 MILLION HCS ABOUT HOW THEY MET AND THEIR FUTURES AND UHH UHH hcs/all the stuff leading up to my unwritten fic are all below the cut if youre interested ✨✨

winn moved to dimmadelphia in the fourth grade

pretty much instantly dev "befriended" them and started being really clingy with them. he had a MASSIVE crush on them right from the start

winn wasnt actually all that big a fan of dev at first because yk he was mean to most of the other kids, but they didnt want to hurt his feelings so kind of went along with him

(side note i hc that dev has literally been wearing pretty much the same outfit since forever. hes so autism)

dev and winn only got to being real friends once hazel and dev became friends (bc yk shes got the balls to actually tell dev when hes doing something mean, so thats rlly when dev started improving as a person)

winn and dev had the same homeroom in sixth grade and ended up sitting right next to each other, which was when they really started becoming a Duo

winn broke their arm in a skating accident during the winter break of their sixth grade year, dev was the first one they got to sign the cast :] winn never stopped skating but they did do it a lot less + more carefully after that (by order of their parents)

dev started growing his hair into a mullet in the seventh grade because he "thought it looked cool" (<< started noticing his gender dysphoria and wanted longer hair in an attempt to quell it)

winn thought they were bi for all of seventh grade and most of eighth grade bc they had a crush on dev

SPOILER ALERT dev is a trans girl, she comes out in the eighth grade and her chosen name is devine. she still goes by dev but all her friends know what its short for

dev doesnt want to come out to her dad bc she doesnt know how hell react. (tbh if she did come out, her dad would be super supportive and good with prns and names and terms in public, but slip up a ton in private bc he doesnt care as much when people arent watching)

obv winn told jasmine and hazel about their crush right when it started developing, so it became kind of an inside joke between the three that winn has "transbian senses" after dev came out

just before ninth grade, winn decided to get a buzzcut, and theyve been growing it out ever since (this is mostly bc as much as i love dyed hair undercut enby/trans characters THERES TOO MANY PLEASE CHOOSE A DIFFERENT HAIRSTYLE FOR YOUR FICTIONAL TRANSES AND ENBIES SOBBING)

they bleached it blonde when it was about two inches long, and never bothered to cut off the blonde so now they just have blonde tips

winn ended up being 6'5" and joined varsity basketball in the tenth grade because they didnt wanna waste that height

dev stole their original varsity jacket because it was comfy (and because it was winns and it brings her comfort) and then paid for their replacement jacket

jasmine started learning how to sew and embroider clothes over the summer between ninth and tenth grade and so helped devine sew on her own name tag (dev just told her dad jasmine was a bad speller and tbh dale didnt care and was like ok son whatever)

dev ended up stuck at the spectacular height of a middle schooler (5'2") and winn thinks its adorable. theyre strong enough to pick her up whenever they hug her. sometimes when they get excited they spin her around

dev also started wearing her hair curly occasionally in the tenth grade bc winn told her she looked pretty with it like that. her dad doesnt like it when she doesnt slick it back and gets passive aggressive about it whenever he sees her like that

winn started getting panic attacks from all the pressure of high school after joining the basketball team, and dev usually ends up talking them through it, although jasmine and hazel are also good at helping them

they dont think their anxiety is bad enough to be a disorder so they never get a diagnosis/help (until Things Happen in my fic :]]] )

hazel and jasmine are both aroace (in this timeline at least, ive got a few other fic ideas where hazel is bi) and in a qpr. they are also fandom girlies and fic writers, so when dev finally tells them in the middle of tenth grade that she has a crush on winn (and has for a while) theyre both like OOOOOOOHHHHHH I SHIP IT and they, along with cosmo and wanda, start trying really hard to get them together

unfortunately hazmine and coswan have literally no idea how human teenage romance works irl SO. shenanigans ensue :]]]]]]]

anyways yeah thats my buildup to my fic/my personal hcs, no peri mention because hes ✨elsewhere✨ when all this is happening

[azyimnothere]

HELLO HELLO HELLO💕💕💕

Well as you might've presumed, I'm back, and I'm back with a banger! Just like these two:

If y'all get my drill :D

They are officially the most fabulous villains I've seen in a while! Love them both equally, they're so well written and special 💕

But they somehow still ended up as my second favorite, you wanna know who's my favorite? You really wanna know?

THE FREAKING INTERVIEWER, THIS 'I WEAR A RIDICULOUS HAT AND HAD ONLY 4 MINUTES OF SCREEN TIME' SON OF A B*TCH. I DON'T UNDERSTAND, I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND, HE MAKES ME SO UNREASONABLY HAPPY AND HE SAID ONLY A FEW COMPLETE SENTENCES IN TOTAL. BUT HE JUST GETS ME, I KNOW IF I SAT HIM DOWN AND GAVE HIM A COLA HE WOULD RESOLVE ALL MY EMOTIONAL TURMOIL.

(I drew him so zesty for no reason, also the hat had to go I'm so sorry) (I'm not)

Anyway, here are some sketches 💕

I didn't have time for more I'm sorry 💕💕💕💕

Andddddddddddd here's for y'all who want to see the drawing more clearly

I have to admit I improved after the break, I guess all the techniques I learned marinated enough to become a fine meal✨

Love you lovelies!!! 💕💕💕💕💕

[moonstruckme]

On Thin Ice

part 1 | part 2 | part 3

When your usual figure skating partner Regulus is injured, you're forced to prepare the most romantic routine you've ever done with Sirius Black. You've known Sirius since you were little and have always found him irritating, but as you spend more and more time together, your feelings towards him start to change

cw: injury (no details)

Figure Skater!Sirius Black x fem!reader ♡ 1.7k words

You can finally feel the music again.

Your legs push at the ice in tandem with Sirius’, taking his hand before drifting away from him again to the melody of the strings. That lightness is back, the intuitive rhythm you’d had with the routine before Regulus’ injury threw you off-balance. Every sweep of your foot underneath you, every stretch of your arms and back feels right in a way you thought you’d lost during the last two practices. Maybe more right than it ever has. 

You return Sirius’ smile as you finish, hands linked with your arms extended between you, and Coach practically whoops from the edge of the rink. 

“That’s what I like to see,” he declares. “We’ve got some stuff to clean up—you came out of that last spin too fast, Y/N, and Sirius, I wanna see you let her get lower on the death spiral—but that was great, great progress. If we keep at it, I think we’ll be ready for comp.” 

You can’t stop smiling, giddy at the prospect of getting to perform such an impressive routine when, just yesterday, you thought you might never be ready. Sirius sets a hand on your shoulder, squeezing excitedly, and you don’t shake him off like you usually might. Whatever his flaws, something had changed last night between you and Sirius. You wouldn’t call it friendship just yet, but there’s a sort of camaraderie now, an understanding of your mutual investment in this partnership, this routine. You have to work together, and it may as well not be an entirely unpleasant experience for the both of you. Plus, it means you get to enjoy moments like this. You place your hand atop his, squeezing back.

“Ready to go again?” Coach says. “Let’s take it from the spiral sequence.” 

☆ ☆ ☆

Over the few practices, you and Sirius become more and more in tune with each other, until you suspect no one would guess you haven’t been partners all along. You’re beginning to forget that too. The feeling of his hands on you has become a familiar pressure, you’ve learned to anticipate each other’s tiny movements in a split second, and you’ve grown fond of Sirius’ grander style of skating, enjoying the flow of mirroring his maneuvers. You’ve begun mirroring his expressions, too, returning his smiles automatically and engaging with the playful looks he sends you when one of you wobbles or misses a step. 

Though you’ve always had fun with Regulus, he’s all business on the ice. Sirius rarely stops joking around, seeming to find everything amusing even though you know skating really is important to him. He’s at the rink early every day and on the days when he doesn’t walk you home, stays late to correct whatever mistakes he made during practice. It’s rare for your coach to give him a direction during one session that he hasn’t implemented seamlessly by the next. 

Another difference: whereas Regulus has raw talent, Sirius works hard for it. 

Drive isn’t something you honestly would’ve associated with him before, but you suppose that’s because he never draws attention to it. He’ll give up his practice to help you fine-tune a difficult turn in an instant and he’s more given to speculating about what your costumes will look like than discussing his efforts to improve his form, but left to his own devices, Sirius will drill and drill a move until not even your coach can find flaw in it. 

Still, you would never guess that he’s even trying to concentrate as he winks at you, the both of you coming out of a synchronized turn and going into arabesque. Your fingertips brush for the barest of seconds, and you can’t say whether it’s the wink or that which takes your mind off your skates as you launch into one of your solo jumps, but your thoughts are spinning nearly as quickly as your vision as you twist through the air. 

You feel the slip, the slight shift of your back foot to where it shouldn’t be, while you’re still airborne, but there’s no time to correct it before you’re hitting the ground, skate catching oddly on the ice. Your leg twists under you, and you throw yourself to the side before you can land on the blade. You feel something pop before your shoulder hits the wall that borders the rink with a dull thud. 

Naturally, you’ve managed to turn a small error into a spectacle of injury. Your pride hurts worse than anything, but your knee is fighting hard for second place. Already the initial sharp pain has given way to a manageable throbbing, but it feels stiff, locked in place. There’s a swish of blades, and then Sirius is beside you, eyes darting over you with something close to panic. 

“Are you okay?” His hands ghost over your shoulder, your face. “What hurts?”

You push yourself up with your hands, trying to straighten your leg before hissing in pain. 

“Don’t.” Sirius sets a hand just above your knee as if to stop you from repeating the motion. “Don’t move. Is it your ankle?”

You swallow, feeling like you could burst into tears. If you have to sit out this season, after all your hard work, you’re going to be so disappointed in yourself. “My knee. I don’t think it’s bad,” you say, knowing that’s probably wishful thinking. 

“Hopefully not,” he agrees, and your coach finally makes it to you, crouching by your leg. 

“Does anything feel broken?” he asks, prodding at your shin. “Dislocated?”

“I, um,” you hesitate to admit to anything too drastic, as if that’ll change the actual severity of whatever’s wrong with you, “I felt something pop, but it doesn’t feel dislocated. And it doesn’t look like it, right?”

“Right.” Coach pokes at your knee, and you flinch a little, gasping. “I don’t love that, though.”

“You hit the wall with your shoulder too, didn’t you?” Sirius’ expression is as severe as you’ve ever seen it, and you find yourself shrinking under all the attention.

“Yeah, but that’s fine,” you reply hastily. “It’ll probably just bruise.” 

Coach eyes you, a preparatory disappointment in his gaze that worsens your own apprehension. “Can you put weight on it?”

You hesitate, and Sirius steps in before you can answer. “Let’s not chance it, yeah?”

Coach nods. “Okay, yeah, let’s end practice for today. Go get it checked out and text me what you find out, alright?”

You nod, and neither he nor Sirius seem angry with you, but that does nothing to stop the acute upset that’s forming in your chest. “Okay.” 

Sirius eases an arm carefully under your knees, slipping the other behind your back. He’s slow as he brings you to his chest, watching your face. “Does that hurt?”

You shake your head, and he stands with you in his arms, making his way to the exit. 

“I’m really sorry,” you whisper, hiding your face in his shoulder as tears arrive unbidden, distorting your vision. “I don’t want to mess this up.” 

“Hey.” Sirius’ breath is warm on your forehead as he speaks softly, head bent over yours. “Don’t be sorry. You aren’t messing anything up, it was an easy mistake.” He steps off the ice, setting you down on the bleachers and ducking his head until you’re looking at him. “It might still be nothing, yeah? Maybe you just tweaked something. So don’t cry just yet, shortcake, alright?”

You nod, wiping embarrassedly under your eyes. Sirius sits on the bench below you, unlacing your skates before you can even think to reach for them. “And even if you were out for the rest of the season,” he says lightly, “you’d just be coordinating your break with Regulus, and then the two of you could perform together next season.” He slips your first skate off, starting on the second. “Just like you wanted, yeah?”

You look at him, pieces of hair that have escaped the knot in the back of his head falling in his face as his fingers move deftly over your laces. You do want to skate with Regulus again, but you’re not so ready to forgo this season as you might’ve been when he was first taken out of the running. You like having Sirius as a partner. You enjoy practicing with him, talking with him, just being around him. And if this is your only season to do that, you’re not ready to give it up quite yet. 

“Yeah,” you say weakly, and something indecipherable flickers across Sirius’ face before he pulls your other foot free of your skate. “Thanks.” 

“Anytime, sunshine.” He grins at you, whatever you might’ve seen skillfully hidden away. “I’m known for being great at pep talks, you know.” 

You do your best to match his playful tone. “I believe it.” 

“Alright.” He pats your good knee, standing. “Do you think you could get a ride home? I’d carry you the whole way if I could, but I’m not sure you’d thank me for it if I messed up our throws tomorrow.” 

You laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure I can get a ride. Thanks, though.” 

You expect Sirius to leave, but he sits with you until your ride arrives, insisting on helping you to the car when you won’t let him carry you. After a long and somewhat teary phone call with Regulus that night, you make an appointment with a doctor for the next morning, where they tell you have something called a meniscus tear. You leave with a compression bandage around your knee and instructions to rest over the next couple of days. Coach echoes your relief over the phone, saying he’ll train with just Sirius until you can come back to practice and making you swear to do nothing but rest your knee until then. 

You almost call Sirius, too, but eventually settle for telling Regulus, sure that he’ll convey the message. You’ve never been happier to have to sit around, especially since it means you’ll still be able to compete this year. 

And you never thought you’d be this enthusiastic to finish out the season with Sirius Black, but you can’t wait until your next practice.

[alllgator-blood]

Have you ever wanted to draw something but you fought due to your skill level at the time you decide not to do it

OH ABSOLUTELY, I personally feel like the key to art improvement is trying new things and experimenting often. But the thing about trying new things is that they're typically out of your comfort zone, and often times you're left struggling because you've never had to move your hand in the configuration needed to depict the thing you want? So often times it feels easier to just not do that thing, but you might not improve if you give up when you fight against your own skill level.

I'm wrapping up on a comic and I almost gave up on it because for some reason, I decided "these two should be hunting while this conversation takes place" and I struggled on and off for two days because of my dedication to get this comic out. The payoff to them hunting doesn't even happen til the second page so I really didn't need to do this. I actually have experience with archery but for some reason, I just COULD NOT figure out where to put shamura's arms to make them hold that damn bow.....UNFINISHED COMIC PANELS INCOMING:

Is it perfect? HELL no I think it looks pretty awkward cause I've only been drawing these characters for a few weeks so I'm still getting used to them, and that in combination with drawing them doing action poses after years of drawing slice of life comics is..............not ideal. I'm more used to drawing furries hitting a bong on a garbage covered couch. But that's the thing! I wanna do more fanart for this Violent Video Game, so I need to learn how to draw people holding weapons. If I give up, like half my fanart ideas will never come to fruition, so I think making flawed art is better than making no art at all.

If you're struggling with your art, just absolutely barrel through whatever it is you're struggling with and come back another time in the future to revisit it. Attempt to draw you're struggling with (even if it's like the shittiest worst sketch ever, god knows I have tons of those), save it somewhere, and when you want to give that idea another go, compare the new art to what you did last time. Honestly I wish I tried and failed more than I didn't try at all, I'd have more to show for myself if I took my own advice.

[dice-wizard]

Hello everyone looking for a new fantasy tabletop game!

You can buy Exalted Essence now.

What's Exalted you ask?

Exalted is an epic fantasy TTRPG where players play the titular Exalted - humans elevated to superhuman/demigod status - in a wild and unique setting that draws inspiration from the ancient world rather than medieval Europe. Creation (the setting) draws key inspirations from the entire world. If you're used to having to make yourself visible on your own in other fantasy, there's probably some representation in Exalted.

It has explicit queer and trans themes about finding your people, creating your own identity, and having the power to punch back at the people who hate you. This isn't incidental. The writing staff is queer as hell. You can hear me break this down more here.

Curious to learn all you can? Well you can get a detailed overview of the entire game on the podcast Systematic Understanding of Everything hosted by myself, @presidentofbirds and @phillycuriosity

If I'm used to D&D 5e why should I pick this up?

Well, I presume if you're reading this post you're already interested in trying something new, so:

The entire game in one book. Exalted: Essence is self contained, character types, equipment, enemies and all!

An exciting style of fantasy that's different than classic D&D but like, textually gay, and very easy to have scenes like ballroom fights, epic galas, and touching homoerotic healing scenes - no house rules required.

But also, tactical depth and combat you can really sink your teeth into if fighting monsters and villains is your bag.

An excuse to use all your d10s at once

Character building and advancement mechanics designed to be familiar to a 5e audience. Characters "level up" based on story beats, and have Advantages, which are functionally similar to class and race features.

A world welcoming to most heroic archetypes, so it's easy to convert your favorite OC.

Extremely kissable dragons, demons, gods, elementals, ghosts, faeries, and unnamed ancient horrors

I'm a fan of a previous edition, what's Essence got for me?

Design focused on alleviating some of the previous versions' missteps

Virtues are back, baby

2e fans will find it an improvement from second edition's mechanical strengths - it's pretty easy to convert all your favorite 2e Charms to XS.

Streamlined versions of familiar rules to make it painless to introduce new friends to the game we love.

The Cliff's notes on Ex3's new Exalt types.

Did I mention it's all of Exalted in one book?

How does it play?

d10 dice pool looking for 7,8,9 as successes. 10s count as two successes, which can lead to explosive, heroic outcomes

Combat system designed to keep all players engaged the entire time - even characters who aren't focused on fighting at all.

Combat also narrows the gap between experienced and new players and players who want to win at RPGs and players who just wanna vibe so GMs aren't tearing their hair out trying to balance encounters.

Social system designed to resolve in a single roll so you can be immersed in role play and not interrupt it with constant rolling - without sacrificing a variety of social approaches

"Ventures" system for characters working on long term projects from traveling across the world to crafting magical wonders to building communities without forcing this to be "downtime" activity

Characters have access to Charms - exception-based special powers that make them extremely good at whatever they focus on.

It's easily my favorite game (and the project I developed that I'm the proudest of), so I'm excited for everyone to try it out.

[tsuki--sora]

helloo i was wondering if u have any tips on how to start learning how to draw?? i’m gonna try it for the nth time and force myself to not give up and since i absolutely LOVE ur art i was hoping you could help me?? thank you in advance and have a happy new year 🥰

omggg i just saw this :O!! i havent been around here so i didnt see :C but anyway!!! im not sure what advice or tips to give tbh so ill just share some things that helped me 🙇

knowing what im drawing (basically...using reference lol ) u might've seen this tip a lot but its true 😆 think of it as like... training wheels on a bike AHSAHSAHHA u use training wheels for some time until u can be good enough to ride a bike without them or something like that.... its the same with using reference. u have to know and get familiar with what an object looks like first before you're able to draw without it and with confidence. tbh i dont always do this bcos sometimes i just wanna mindlessly draw ykno 😔 and thats okay as well!!! just remember that reference is very helpful when u hit a dead end with ur artwork :D also learn from real life!! look around u! sometimes id stare at something and nod in understanding. ----------------------------------

draw what u love <33 honestly, i only got back into drawing when i went down the vtuber hole a few years ago LMAO i would draw vox akuma eveyday 🙂‍↕️ and then my love for one piece got revived so now i draw my favorite characters every chance i can get bcos its all i can think abt!!! its honestly a good motivator. ----------------------------------

accepting and learning from mistakes ive always struggled with perfectionism and that really took my enjoyment and love for creating🥹 and that also stopped me from experimenting and exploring coz id always think that it wont come out as i hoped it would. SOOOO for the past 2-3 years i think?? i make it a habit to STOP ✋ being super critical when i see or make a mistake. the perspective is wrong? noted. the anatomy looks wonky? okay!! i let them exist in my artworks bcos how would i even know where to improve in if i dont know what it is 😅 i also make sure to keep those errors in mind so i know what areas i should be working on. u can always correct them on ur next work!! and the next!! again and again!!! its never-ending! ure always improving, always learning. ---------------------------------

i also have a board of artworks and styles that i really really like and i look at them when i need inspiration hahaha sometimes u just have to scroll thru pinterest for hours and draw nothing lol

personally, i think one doesnt have to draw everyday to be good. i mean, you can if u want to! but u might burn out fast if u force urself to draw everyday. just.. pace yourself. remember to rest and be good to yourself as well :))

thats all i can think of right now. i feel like i could share more but im just not good with words or explaining things. forgive me 😔🙇 our experiences may differ and what helped me may not be of use to u,,, but i hope this can help u even juuuuust a bit :"D be proud of every piece u make. u worked hard on it after all <33

(also sharing my art throughout the years!)

[kinglets]

my art then vs now

I can't believe it's already 10 years since I started learning art because I was motivated by soriku. The left picture is from June 2014, and the one on the right I scribbled just last night. Seeing the difference is pretty wild because when I first started I never thought it could change so much.

I can't forget how hard it was at first, because nothing turned out the way I wanted it to and I gave my files some incredibly deprecating names. I was really kind of flying blind without any technique because I never had formal lessons lmao. I'm incredibly thankful to my friend Kett, who encouraged me a lot in my early years, otherwise I don't know if I could have stuck with it.

It's interesting to look through my art tag and see it stretch so far back. It took about 2 years of practice before I started to see noticeable improvement, and another year before it looked good enough that people wanted to reblog it. Whenever I got into new fandoms from time to time-- getting to see new styles and paying attention to what I liked about each-- also helped me improve some too. That being said, I think I could also have done more to study from real life or guides properly. Setting time aside to draw is tough because I was usually a full-time student or working a full-time job. When my time is limited, I just want to skip to drawing the things that give me serotonin, y'know?

This art journey changed my life for the better because it gave me the ability to contribute to what I love. I went from being a lurker to a participant and got to bond with other soriku fans, some of which who became very dear friends to me.

If you ever want to draw for your OTP but don't know how to, or feel embarrassed to, I wanna say just try it! It's a bit of a long term investment because the payoff might not come for years, but it's been rewarding for me and I only wish I started sooner.

[ssalballoon]

i wanna get better at art but dont know how to start ^^' whats a good way to get into studying anatomy and improving as an artist? tysm 💗 love your art soso much

more art converts 😼 yay!!

i think these asks were sent by different people but they're pretty related + a lot of my advice is the same! so i'll answer these together under the cut (it's so long oh gosh)

ok first of all i'm very flattered that people are asking me for art advice but i'm really not the most equipped person to ask TTOTT I've never been deliberately studious with my art so I feel bad offering advice when I've mostly gotten by with just drawing fanart and ocs a lot... my rate of improvement has therefore been slow, but I've still had an enjoyable learning experience so perhaps from that angle my input may help! i'll mainly refer you to external resources that have helped me

For anatomy + drawing humans:

1) I know I'm not diligent enough to sit down and study muscles, so instead I make it more enjoyable by drawing my favorite characters in a pose that targets the muscles I want to practice! (i default to drawing ppl naked because of this lol) This isn't the most efficient, but it serves as good motivation to get practice in. (honestly a lot of my general art advice has the undercurrent of becoming so obsessed with characters to drive your motivation to draw even when artblocked/ struggling with doubts!)

2) I want to refer you to Sinix's Anatomy playlist! Although Sinix focuses more on digital painting, he gives simplified anatomy breakdowns that include how muscles change shape under different movements/poses, which is crucial for natural human posing. the static anatomy diagrams from Google don't really help for that

3) What's just as important as anatomy is gestures! (especially important if you're used to drawing non-human objects I think!) Making figures look like they have flow to them will sell the "naturalness"(?) to your anatomy. If you have in person life drawing sessions accessible near you I'd recommend trying those out, or if you prefer trying it digitally there's this website!

This helps you not only get a sense of human proportions, but also natural posing! I'd limit the time taken to draw the poses from like 10 seconds to 1 minute(?) for quick gestures, and maybe 1 minute to 5mins(for now!! typically they go much longer) to study human proportions. I'd say don't spend a lot of time on them, repetition is more important!

4) I've also picked up on useful anatomy tidbits from artists online! Looking at how practiced/ professional artists stylize a body helps me focus on what the essential details are to convey a particular form (looking up "human muscles" and being hit with anatomy diagrams full of all the smallest details can be overwhelming! what do you even focus on?! so these educated simplifications really help me) Like Emilio Dekure's work! Look how simplified these figures are, and yet contain all the essential information to convey the sense of accurate form (even though it's highly exaggerated!)

(shamefully admits I've never studied from actual anatomy books so I can't recommend anything in that sense TTOTT)

For general improvement:

1) I highly recommend Sinix's Design Theory playlist and Paintover Pals! (+ his channel in general) You don't have to put them immediately into practice, but I think these are good fundamental lessons to just listen to and have them in the back of your mind to revisit another day. Plus these videos are just fun and very approachable! Design theory fundamentals are essential to creating appeal and directing a viewer's attention, and critiquing others' work/ seeing his suggestions are a good way to practice noticing areas of improvement+ solutions yourself!

2) If you prefer a more formal teaching resource, the Drawabox YouTube course covers all the basic fundamentals of drawing in short lessons. But honestly if I were starting out, this would be a little intimidating for me (and even now it still is! I haven't done all of them) But even if you don't watch them, the titles should give you an idea of the basic concepts that are valuable to pick up. I think it would be nice to keep in mind and revisit once in a while as you learn!

(One lesson I do encourage you to watch is the line control one! A confident continuous line conveys motion and flow much better compared to discontinuous frayed lines which I think is good to practice early by drawing from the wrist and shoulder)

3) As a universal piece of advice: Please please please use references! Use a reference for literally everything, observing is how we learn! You'll find that a lot of things you thought you knew what they looked like are inaccurate by memory alone. Also, trace! This is solely for your practice, tracing then freehanding has helped me grasp proportions when I was struggling! (of course don't post these online if you traced from art)

I've found that being able to compile references into easy to access boards has been very helpful in encouraging me to use references more. For PC, I think they use PureRef (free/pay what you want), and for iPad I use VizRef. VizRef is a one time purchase (which was definitely worth the $3.99 USD price imo)

4) On that note, try building up the habit to observe from media + real life and make purposeful comments about what you see! Like hey, when I bend my knee, the muscles/fat in my thighs and calves bulge outwards, I should draw that next time. Purposeful observation carries over to your overall visual library, and it's a little thing that adds up over time

5) For motivation, get into media you really enjoy, or make your own characters! The way I started art more seriously was by drawing fanart + OCs from anime that I liked ^^ For OCs it really encourages you to draw more because you're the primary creator of their art! Also you gotta see a lot of good art to make good art! Watching visually appealing media (like animation with appealing stylization/simplification) can passively help you learn just by observation.

ok wow I could go on but this is already a lot of information TTOTT my main aim for this reply is basically: don't let anything discourage you from learning to draw!! drawing is so fun and brings me a lot of joy ^^ practicing often will of course help you improve, and the way to incentivize that is by having fun with it! i hope this could help!💞