#I saw a nice pose on pinterest so I used it as reference for this

[dravencroft]

At the end of a long night of work, Reiker still enjoys smoking the occasional cigarette even though he doesn't really breathe anymore.

[parola-di-winx]

roxy's not in the big redesign line-up so when can we see your take of her? ☺️

i am NOT a roxy exclusionist like the actual winx writers but she wasn't included because! she will have her own little magic club. which is also why i was considering not drawing her for this ask & why it took me a few days to answer shsjfkhs. but. tbh. i have No Clue when the line-up of roxy & friends will ever be done. so i might as well just :))) do a liddol thing. merry xmas :^)

[dr4kenlvr]

𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐊𝐄𝐍 "𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍" 𝐑𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐉𝐈

draken x gn!reader - fluff (0.7k+)

request: hi nana, how are you doing today? i was going through draken x reader tag and saw your recent work and ofc i liked it. i just wanted to ask if you would like to share some of your headcanons for draken. i really miss him and i wanna talk about him.

nana's note: hi so i really said fuck it and wrote a whole draken as ur bf post because 1, i can't believe i haven't yet??? and 2, i too miss draken and want to talk about him 24/7 so i hope the long wait was worth it!!

every second i am alive i pray that i will find a man like draken because no one can tell me otherwise, that he would be the absolute perfect boyfriend of the whole tokyo rev. cast

no one can change my mind !!!!

draken puts his blood, sweat and tears into yours’ and his relationship—to make sure you’re as happy and content as you deserve

he wouldn’t dare to ever make you upset, and in the off chance you two have arguments (because healthy relationship include disagreements at times), draken is the world’s greatest listener and is so extremely empathetic for you

mornings with him start off amazing; he’s up and dressed, chuckling at your sleepy state as you groggily tell him “good mornin’” - he presses a sweet kiss to your cheek, urging you to get out of bed and get ready for the day

he’s always making sure you are taking good care of yourself—that could be in the form of him making or buying you a breakfast, helping you study your notes, reminding you to take breaks, and ensuring you sleep full hours

nothing worse than seeing his baby tired—but he’ll let you nap in the break room at his shop if you’re feeling particularly exhausted that day (aka me everyday)

draken loves to indulge in your hobbies the way you show interest in his by being next to him in the shop all week

if you like to read, he’ll dedicate nights in bed to read with you or listen to you read as you lay atop of him - his chest heaves gently and he always catches himself falling asleep to the sound of your voice

maybe you like to draw? draken will help you find reference photos on pinterest and create folders dedicated to things he’d think you’d like

if you’re lucky he might even pose for you! but don’t tell him, he’ll get shy heheh (wait till he finds out about your candid drawings of him)

if you’re into fashion, draken will always try to fit some time into his schedule to take you out to the mall

sometimes his friends tag along and it’s just a big happy hang out <3!! gahhh it would be so lively

y'all going in and out of familiar and new stores until you have a huge smile on your face at the items he’s purchased for you

oh draken just loves to spoil u

but you love to spoil him just as much—taking care of him is probably your real favourite hobby (LMAO)

“kenny! come here, lemme brush your hair!” is what he hears every single time he comes out of the shower

“coming!” and he’s greeted with your excited face, a hairbrush in your hand and a blow dryer in the other - it makes ken so so loved to see you so happy over something this mundane

you two love to spend quality time together doing absolutely anything, because to draken, anything with you is so much better and worth it

he loves it when you braid his hair and always find himself unconsciously boasting about it to his friends - nothing extra (like ran), 

“y/n did my hair this morning you know.”

“yeah i know because that’s like the 40th fucking time you’ve mentioned it, man.” -baji, he is so done with draken and his cute significant other

MAKES HIS SKIN ITCH FR

“my braid is more intact today, do you think it’s ‘cause y/n did it?”

“??? i don’t know ???” - chifuyu, also is tired of draken and your’s cute relationship

ONCE TOLD DRAKEN THAT YOU TWO REMIND HIM OF A SHOUJO COUPLE IN A MANGA HE ONCE READ LMAOOOO

has a tendency to baby you every now and then, he think it stems from his relationship with mikey - he’s just so used to taking care of others, that being taken care of by you is a nice change

he’ll buy you any snacks that you’re craving for, it literally does not matter when or where you guys are

he somehow finds a way LMAO

has you saved as his lockscreen and his gallery has a folder full of photos of you

draken also dedicates a wall in his room just for you - photographs, gifts, trinkets, and a drawer underneath full of clothes that you can wear when you stay over <3

(holy fuck im gonna cry and shit myself i love him so much guys)

anyways; draken ∞/10 boyfriend i wholeheartedly recommend everyone fall in love with him and join the crew

taglist: @dai-tsukki-desu @kazuhoya @gwynsapphire @sscarchiyo @reiners-milkbiddies @smileyswifeyy @bontensimp-blog @thisbicc @megumisemo (send me an ask or dm to be added!)

reblogs and comments are very appreciated!

[paperw0rmz]

Complete guide to Flickr and why you should use it

bc I got some things wrong but it’s still a very good website that we should all use instead of Instagram

1: Flickr isn’t tied to Meta or any of that Facebook bullshit, from my knowledge it doesn’t share your contacts so no one will get a notification that you joined, it’s safer that way and more private than Instagram.

2: It’s built for photos. Instagram kills quality of photos, if you’re an artist, especially a digital one, uploading to Flickr would be way better for people to actually see detail and the color.

Going on with this because it’s built for photos, while it can host video, it doesn’t have TikTok/Reels and lives which is soooo nice. Like I don’t hate that stuff, but I like that Flickr isn’t trying to catch on the latest trends.

3: There isn’t likes. Flickr is mainly for sharing and LOOKING at photos. The most interaction you can get one on one is commenting, following, and favoriting. Favoriting is basically the public saves, no one really faves things on there unless it’s a recipe or for a reference or something.

4: Groups. Flickr does have an option for communities to make groups in where you can share similar interests MOST OF THESE ARE DEAD BUT WE CAN BRING THEM BACK!!! (IM BEGGING)

5: The bios are unlimited ( I think ), I copy and pasted the entire Bee Movie script three times along with my own bio that was already in there. I’m always pissed when I have to trim my bio, so bitches who like to put everything in their bio this website is for YOU

6: It’s in chronological order. Everything. You can even look up when certain posts where made by year, month, even fucking day. The archives of Flickr are so fucking fun.

7: Its not a contest. The main reason as to why I fucking hate Instagram (other than they took away chronological order and being able to see the recents under a tag) is that it focuses too much on “#aesthetic” even on the casual Instagram side people are still posing and trying to make an aesthetic of it. Flickr is just for photos you like, which yes can be aesthetic, but it’s mainly for daily life. You will see older people just posting what they are working on, maybe a cat they saw at the store, nothing planned. Just a quick unprompted click.

8: Organization, Flickr let’s you have Albums which is where you can organize all your photos in much like Pinterest. Most do it by year but others do it by topic too.

9: You can upload photos in bulk. You don’t have to upload them one by one, or at a limit of ten, you can upload a FUCK ton of photos at once.

10: if you don’t like ads and want more storage space, the pro version is extremely cheap compared to Netflix. Netflix without ads is fucking $15.49 and Flickr is $8.25 a month. There are also two other payment plans if that’s still too much for you.

11: It allowed adult content. In like. Every form. Enough said

CONS

1: You can’t DM (this is not a con to me and I hate when people complain about this just fucking use a email it is so fun to email people please for the love of god)

2: You can only upload 1,000 images before you run out of space. (You can always delete images later, I personally like to delete images at new years for a fresh start and archive them somewhere else)

3: it’s dead. No one really uses it.

4: to upload your bio you have to use a desktop version of the app.

THANK YOU FOR READING PLEASE SWITCH TO FLICKR AND SHARE THIS SO WE CAN START TO REVIVE OLD PLATFORMS TO SAVE THEM TO REBEL AGAINST META AND THIS NEW AGE OF CREATING SOCIAL MEDIA APPS AND SHIT

[how-to-scug]

Hello, hope your having a great day!!

Do you have any tips regarding stylising slugcats in different ways?

HI thanks, i am indeed having a good day thanks for asking!

as for your question, im not entirely sure how to go about answering it, however i can give some tips for developing a style, just in general

do you have any artists you like? im sure a lot of you guys have heard the "take what you like about your favorite artist" speil, but i find its a little more that that.., a lot of times what i find myself doing is taking an image that i like, and well, trace it (its not just tracing work with me here lmao)

alternatively i draw against it, if that makes sense, like use a reference, which is also really helpful because im not relying on the image that much (especially because i cant focus on looking at the drawing and the picture at the same time, so usualy i just look at it and draw from memory, would suggest, sorry for the tangent tldr use reference sometimes too! dont just trace lol back to tracing though ig lmao)

for this im going to be using this image

and the program i will be using is firealpaca (its a nice free software i like using for digital art, but thats not important right now)

i start off with this generally, as you can see, the image is lower opacity, on a separate layer, and although its not rainworld, its the first thing i saw mildly interesting on pinterest lol

alright now i have the iddy biddy bits done, i traced over the general pose, and now im ready to move on.

here is where its a little more than tracing

i turn the original picture off, and lower the opacity of the traced version, and then just, draw over it i guess.

i like to try to think about how the body would, idk, fit there, like if i was there how would i look? would i be stiff? relaxed? so on and all that. the goal here is to learn from tracing it, not just trace mindlessly if you get what i mean. be mindful about what your drawing

anyway heres the next stage, as you can see i wanted to deviate from the original image, that way im not making a carbon copy of the image. i do think the image is pretty good for practice though, as its a pretty dificult pose (at least for me) and i can use the (albeit very little) knowledge i have on foreshortening on the arm, idk man its a really cool image and i like how challenging it is, i really had to struggle to make it look right.

i wont be adding any more detail to this, but its generaly how i go about learning and tracing art

side note, im sure you've heard of this before, but dont post art you traced as yours, and if you do, add the original image before your drawing, and give a disclamer

awf man i lost my point, but i put too much effort into this to delete all of it

anyway im gonna be making something else to make up for this im sorry lmao

[bollgrodan]

Hello! I’m here from your other account, But I just have a question if it’s alright! So, I’ve been drawing for a good while now. It’s always been something that interests me, but, in all the time that I’ve done it, I’ve never once found a style that is unique to me and that I’m good at. So, I was just wondering if you have any tips or advice on how to find your own style? I’ve tried so many though I can’t ever seem to like any of them or actually stick to it. One thing I really have trouble with is proportion. I want my style to be more chibi-esq, but not completely if you know what I mean lol. If you have any advice for a fellow artist I’d really like to hear it!! Please share your wisdom :D I really like your art and it’s amazing how well you can draw!

Ahh thank you so much! I don't think I have any amazing tips but I can share some thoughts.

References are a big part of getting good at art of course, so if you're drawing something you're uncertain about, looking up a picture to understand the pose or anatomy better should help a lot. You can do anatomy studies individually or just incorporate it in your normal art. If you want to mainly do chibi art, you could look at chibis you enjoy and try to analyse how they're built up, like what proportions they have, how their limbs attach to the body etc.

If you use pinterest or instagram, it can be nice to collect art you like in folders (it can be done on other sites too actually, like a reblogging system). I saw an art tip once that when you're saving an image for art style inspiration, you should think for a moment about what it is you like about the artstyle. And if it's the colours, you put it in that folder, lineart is another folder, etc. Then you can determine what you like better, maybe.

Don't get too caught up in comparing yourself, though. Your artstyle is always going to be yours because you made it, and it's ok to not have a super distinct one either. My artstyle consists mostly of bits i've picked up along the way on my art journey and habits I developed, rather than trying to change it into something that was way out of my comfort zone.

I actually really like what i've seen of your art, I think your ideas are great, expressions are super fun, and you can do pretty colouring like in your latest post. I think you'll definitely be able to get the skills and style you want over time. I hope this helped maybe a little bit, and you can always ask more questions if you'd like.

[jackassbroadcast]

GOD. that monopoly mountain fanart was so good!!! Do you have any meanings you put in there or anything that inspired it? I really love how you showed the almost violent shift in their relationship from the beginning to the end!!

Omg thank you!! I really appreciate it AAA

Yeah uh listen im not as big brain as you may think im sorry i just saw cool pinterest dance poses in marine biology class and i was extremely bored (sorry miss lena) but uh yeah so

^^ you can definitely tell i used these references i feel

You did find some details i put in that was really nice ( grian and scar not being able to look each other in the eyes, grian going from leaning back freely and trusting scar to catch him with his eyes closed to trusting scar but being ready to catch himself regardless, and in general going from very free and carefree to very stiff , the lighter cool colors vs the darker warm colors, you just put it so wonderfully in your tags and also added stuff i didnt notice i added kekw )

But one thing you mentioned about the bleeding heart you put it so beautifully but bro i just looked up '3rd life scar' to see how 2 design him and in his thumbnails he has a hardcore heart and i just added it💀💀💀

ignore me tho it now means what you said with bleeding heart and shi LMAOO

OMG I JUST REALIZED THE HEART IS ON THE WRONG FUCKING SIDEEE OH MY GOD

[eliphante123]

Ok I just wanna let myself out for this (please get used to my bad grammar 😂). Ok so I recently seen some people from most of the fandom I’ve been joining were down about their blog and I just couldn’t help seeing them like that. So I wanna say to those people who are feeling “invisible” to the fandom and just to be clear, you ALREADY got love, attention, and support. Not too many, just few well......good amount at least. Here, I’ll tell you a bed time story.

Once upon a time, picture yourself, as a young student. It was a good Sunday morning, the school is having a fun event called drawing/writing competition and whoever draws/write the best art/essay will put on a bulletin board. You volunteer yourself to join because it looks fun and interesting. The deadline is until Thursday so you have more time to finish your drawing/writing. You tell yourself, you don’t have a skills unless you try and decided to go for it. After long days with hardwork & effort on your drawing/writing, you think that people would like it because you’ve done it great in your opinion. On the next three days, you happily submitted your drawing/writing with excitement then few days till it was Thursday, you were nervous but still excited to see if your art/writing is on the bulletin board but unfortunately, your work wasn’t there and the teacher gave back your work in an average grade. With disappointment, you saw one of your classmates shower love and attention towards others talented art and you do feel a bit jealous towards your classmates then you crying in arms that you got no talent, your art is like a 5 year old and it’s a waste of time but haven’t you notice there’s someone standing right next to you saying “oh my! this looks great!!! I didn’t know you can draw that good! teach me how you do it!” You noticed they didn’t comment others drawing/writing but they instead comment about yours. The people you have are maybe small but wouldn’t that make you happy or satisfied you, enough?

So what I’m trying to say is your works/posts are truly interesting and everyone worried and sorry that you felt you aren’t cut out to be in the fandom. All of us learned this before, we don’t ALWAYS get the things we wanted like others have and that’s honestly called life. The world is full of ups & downs and we can’t expect what will happen and what we deserve. I mean look through my previous posts, most of my notes are few, not most are reblogs but likes, instead. I don’t care having more or few notes, popular or invisible as long as I’m having fun, be happy with myself and proud of my efforts. As humans, I’m like you, but not only me but other people feel the same way. We don’t get people’s attention that easily, we don’t have the power to do it and we CAN’T control everyone’s mind. For me, I DO feel like I want to give up this blog and quit drawing and posting shitpost because I know it’s worthless but deep down, my heart & mind keeps telling me to do more as in, keep trying! motivate yourself! there’s so many plans you’ve left off. You want to give up and left because you’re not good enough just please. PLEASE. stop comparing yourself with others that they’re better than you. You are not talented/gifted, I get it! you can’t draw good. you can’t write well. you can’t edit perfectly.....you can’t do any those things but one thing you’re good at is your ideal imaginations. If you can’t to do but you want to, just give yourself some practice to try things for enjoyment and to catch up other people skills.

If you want to draw, go look for some good references on google image, Pinterest, deviantart, etc. If the references isn’t what you wanted, go watch anime and screenshot a scene for a good pose

If you want to write, read a book and take notes to find good words for your writing.

If you want to edit, you can watch tutorials on how to edit videos and download an app the edit.

These things doesn’t need to be detailed, just did your best (P.S. idk my suggestions could be a good help but you can ask anyone’s recommendations for help)

No one will judge what you have in mind. No one speaks loudly saying “I’M BETTER THAN YOU SO HAH! DEAL WITH IT” but if they did, they’re freaking grownups, (if they’re younger, that’s insulting) they should know it’s an immature/bitchy thing to do so report, immediately. People has their own uniqueness and talents and they’re lucky to have that. If you’re truly nice person, just leave the talented artists alone, give respect their artistic/writing skills so people will know and appreciate your comment to them prolly they’ll eventually befriends with you. (Don’t try to go toxic at anyone just because of that. I’m warning you anon haters or you’ll deserve counter attack of countless blocks).

Ok some people didn’t try to talk you is because they are shy and I think it’s 92% (I’m lying idk I can’t tell by a percentage 😂) of people using social media are socially awkward in chatting (including me :’D) but they did respond kindly. it’s kind of hard expressing themselves because you know anxiety HAHAHAHA so just give them time to open up and they’ll want to respond you soon. Another reason why people didn’t see your content is our time zones. Yeah it kinda sucks but you understand it, right? they have reasons they overlooked your work because they didn’t know you were there and haven’t seen your content, yet or maybe because they have things to deal/busy in their life and probably they have issues with their problem so it’s best to wait that person to feel better but they’ll come back and see what was happening the fandom and catch up your posts at the end! Don’t lose hope if someone didn’t noticed you, just keep trying whatever you feel like it or not. If you feel like you want to leave, go ahead. Anybody won’t force you, it’s your top priority to keep your physical & mentality in stable. Just make yourself relax for short or even longer breaks but just to let you know, your friends will be waiting for you whenever you want to comeback and the people who adored you will welcome you back to the fandom with smiles and opened arms. If you want to vent, go tell someone with your hearts out you want to talk about. If you do have “personal” problems, we always recommend needing an appointment with a professional (cuz they’re the best and it helps a lot 👍🏻✨

All it matters is YOUR people & friends who looked up to your blog, supporting you and to have fun whatever content you throw at us, Just have patience, just a little more with others and people will eventually get to acknowledge you. If you can’t do that, it’s ok but don’t do something stupid. Just stay positive, be proud (others and yourself), be nice, and always stay awesome kapeech?

[try-again-4321]

Hello there. I'm new to tumbler and your art was the first thing that caught my eye. It looks very cool and expresses a lot. So I was wondering do you have any art tips or advise? Sorry if you already got message.

Hi! Thank you so much (>w<)

• When I draw I normally use references from pinterest, this could be for: outfits, poses, colour pallettes, or tutorials. Then I put the references in the corner of my canvas, so that I can see them whilst I'm drawing.

• I recommend finding a colour pallette for each drawing, and/or watching a video on colour theory. (I'll link one that I've found useful! https://youtu.be/AvgCkHrcj90). I've found that when I've used these they have helped the drawing look more cohesive.

• When I draw expressions I often make the facial expression myself. I'm not sure why that helps but it seems to XD .

• When you post online make sure you draw something you like! Don't feel forced to draw fanart or follow a trend for new followers, you will feel happier if you draw what you want to draw (I'm not saying not to make fanart though!).

• If I see something cool in someone's art that I want to try, I try it, then change it to suit my style over time! For example, I saw how an artist shaded eyes in a tik tok video so I tried it, and as I've used it more and more I've changed it to suit my style. (However, someone might get annoyed if you copy their style completely. So I recommend finding more than one artist's style to reference if you are making a new artstyle!)

Thank you for asking, and I hope that this was useful! I also hope that you have a nice day/night ヽ(•ㅂ•)/ *+•°☆

[tabeadoodles]

Hey, I absolutely adore your art! When I was scrolling down your blog, I saw the two year side by side comparison and I was mesmerised! How did you get so good at drawing? Do you have any tips on how to get better at praticing drawing/ how to improve your art work?

Hello! This is such a nice ask but i feel like you’ve potentially confused my art with something I’ve reblogged as I don’t remember doing a side by side comparison so maybe you mean this post? In which case i whole-heartedly agree because that’s actually my friend’s art and she’s amazing

If not then i’ve just been overthinking this and in that case thank you (and i would still recommend checking her out lmao)

Either way here’s my (potentially unsolicited) advice lol:

The first thing anyone is always gonna tell you is practice (because it’s just the one thing that really works). I also thought that I had barely improved and still viewed some of my old art from two years ago as one of my best work to date and that was actually making me really sad for a while. but actually trying to rework it and seeing what lessons i’ve learned really helped me recognize that i’ve improved and i actually really love the last piece of carry on fan art I did so much more than the old version and im really proud of myself.

Also one of the reasons I’m so happy with it is becaue I really pushed myself and spent more time trying to get things right. I used to immediately get discouraged if a sketch of mine wasn’t turning out and then i would scratch it. But as of recent I’ve been trying to like keep reworking it (and sometimes if it really doesn’t work out I take a break from it and come back to it). Obviously this doesn’t apply 100% of the time but most of the time i find that this does help. So with the last painting I really took my time because I’ve noticed that I tend to rush my drawings because I get impatient.

This isn’t a drawing tip per se but i figured out that listening to the harry potter audiobooks really helped me calm down and gave me a lot of patience lol so i can definitely recommend audiobooks. or if audiobooks aren’t your thing i’ve found that making playlists is also really helpful and fun and can really get me in the mood and inspire me

Oh yeah this probably goes without saying but use references!! sometimes they’re tough to find but when i feel like a hand in a drawing really isn’t working out and it’s frustating me then i take a mirror and pose my hand the way i need it. also i absolutely love looking for references and inspiration on pinterest. before i start most of my drawings i compile tons of pinterest boards to help me and it’s actually so much fun.

One last tip: sometimes when i try to work on the way i draw anatomy and i don’t feel like going to a café or outside in general i put on a show i like and whenever i see a pose i want to draw i try to sketch it quickly and try not to pause the show (unless the scene isn’t long enough) and i feel like that helps and it’s fun

i hope maybe some of this helped lol i got a bit carried away

[teakiii-archive]

wow ahh eek okay !?? 2k? that’s insane wowow ily all sm

tbh i think im always a bit of a flop so a huGe thank you for making me feel so loved + happy ♥

but...ofc i have to mention people that have always stuck with me + go on tangents about how much i love these simblrs !!

@surreysimmer aH OK wOW molly *sweats* you are such a great friend + i love you lots !! you always make me smile and you make my day on the daily, a few months ago, we probably had no idea we were going to get so close but im so thankful that we’re just good friends i mean wowza your blog is top notch all the time. not to mention ahem my otp poppy and august (i can fight nicola thanks) is acc the cutest thing i’ve ever seen like???? how??? ilysm ♥

@honeyiko eek you know how much i love kate diego ! you are such a funny person to be around and you make me laugh so hard i can’t breatHE,,,,and like amara + zaRA gorgeous goddesses wow i love them, you make me feel better when im sad :’) idk what i would do w/o you tbh not to mention you pushed me to broaden my cc horizon ( i have 9 gbs now diEGO)  thank you for being the diego to my dora, ilysm

@littlemissnellie eL ah where do i begin? i remember meeting you back in around maybe august? and we talked about roast dinners and how adorable you and your accent is! i know youre not too happy abt your blog currently (psa: go send el some love !!) but i loVE it lots and the daleys kill me everyday ♥ ill miss them for sure; but you + your health come first! so never forget that. you are such an adorable lil bean and it really sucks for us to start drifting apart a bit eek!! i hope we get to catch up on the weekend a bit more ♥ always remember that i love you lots!

@rosypyxels wOO rose omg ! even though sometimes we go days w/o talking we just fall back into it immediately! you are so incredibly talented and sweet (um not to mention gORGEOUS) i know you’ve been going through a hard time recently; but i love how we constantly fan over how hOt all those models on pinterest are i mean wOWZA ! you never fail to amaze me with those crazy good makeup skills + your style?? where do i even start??? its so great??? ilysm + even though you don’t post much here; im glad to have you in my life :’)

@tiredtoothache saV oH my goodness gracious !! your blog like how??!! your sims are so prettY?? and i cant handle it?? and ken?? wow?? wcif that talent???????? i remember coming across your blog around hmm maybe late july/ august and thinking wow her story? john? i cant deal!! you are also v kind + super sweet, even though we don’t chat too much im v glad that we’re friends ! (ps we really should chat more but i suck at carrying conversations rip) ilysm sav!

@okyio chrisTy im sobbing where do i even begin? im still insisting that you were sent from the gods to make us cry bc of those dazzling editing skills (not to mention how cute sage + mu are ) i know recently things have been happening but im sending never ending love n support! (let me know if im overbearing) but seriously; you never fail to wow me with how gentle and patient you are. you are so kind and nice to everyone, i hope you feel a lot better soon but until then make sure to take care ♥ ily!

@dust-bubbles albertaaaa !! you are such a fun, genuine person to be around. you are so talented and not to mention super modest ♥ you are too sweet !! your cc is always top notch (i cant deal like actually) i hope we get to know each other better bc wowza you are such a cool bean and im glad i’ve gathered the courage to talk to you a few months ago because i’ve gotten to know one of the sweetest beans on the planet ily!

@citruswhims caL omG i was there back in the day with little callia bean !! and i remember i texted you to ask if you were doing okay and then blossomed a beautiful friendship filled with a lot of dog pictures and talking in all caps! you are unbelievably vibrant and just a bright person overall ! im glad we got to know each other (even though sometimes we don’t talk too much) i love you sm + im just so haPPY that we’re friends ♥

@amessofsims LINA LINA LINA you are such a spontaneous bright ray of sUNSHINE!!! exCEPT for the fact that we all know we pour the cereal first, then the milk (take notes lina) you always make me laugh + wow i just love you ok??? never forget that !! thank you for always making me smile ♥

@vvindenburg jiLLS!!! i remember finding your blog through i think a giveaway in june? (when i only had a cc finds blog that only tumblrbot followed omg) i fell in love with gem and julia the moment i saw their adorable faces !! and now we have delos + delphi (sorry phi; but delos is just the better twin :/) you always make me laugh through funny posts that reference memes oR your editing bc thanks for making me crY jiLLS ilysm ♥

@brndletonbae hILLS! (as you can see it rhymes with jills) but yes i remember i think in july?? i jumped up and starting screaming bc yesdarlingsims had followed me. (ahem nodarlingsims now) but you-POPPY- OLLIE sO mucH lOVE im going to cRY, thank you sm for inspiring me to make this kinda mess of a blog, even though we dont talk too much; im glad we chat through asks sometimes! ily hills ♥

@idioticjenna (jenna ok i had to move you down for the gifs im sorry)

people i love lots:

@alwaysimming (can we talk about how nice and supportive you are?) // @vvatore (ok but your textposts just make my day)// @simsluname (hello you beautiful gif queeN ily) // @tea-sims (your blog?? is goals? wcif all that amazing talent??????) // @sammyshuno (where’s bella is and always will be something that is worth staying up still 6 am to read) // @cellblocksimmer (betH omg can your sims kill me please) // @simshuie (tbh lauren we aLL know that lorcan + elide are the cutest + thank you for being sweet n great) // @smubuh (abby, your tutorials are the bEST and idk what i would do w/o you or your blog; your willingness to help never fails to astound me) // @sandy-sims (amazing poses?? great sims ?? phenomenal stories?? yes please!! ) // @thisk (your sims are my weakness wOW! your townies !!? i love!?) // @ahhkaitlyn (you are so sWEET??? i love your blog??)// @domiella (domi ily!!? sm!! wow you are so beautiful inside and out!) // @whiisker (you know i love frankie bc she wOW !! i love your aesthetic skdjf)// @woohoodlums (crazy gorgeous sims + edits?? sign me up) // @meisiu (your houses !! slay me!?) // @grapfruit (your psds !! your edits!!! wow!!) // @panda-plumbobs (ahh amber !! i love your blog?? sm?? we should def talk more ♥) // @tigerellasims ( i crY i love your legacy !! so much!! ) // @cowplant-pizza (your legacy *ahem* those amazing spICY posts !! your poses! ) // @sundaessims (quinlin!! ily!! your tags give me life + your bio too) // @mooon-sims (your lookbooks!! i die!) // @faeflowr (your gameplay pics! and your cc finds ahhhh) // @kiwiikio (im crying bc your blog is just so perfect and i love it so much im going to cry wow) // @harrybuts (you know ily mack ) // @ridgeport ( i LIVE for nES and your mind-blowing cc) // @rosetrii (your dOODLES I caNNOT) // @roseyki (your cc and your sIMS ahhh) // @starryllamas (jESS your sIMS i and your edITS ily) ps gotta spam your blog soon so watch out ;)

side note: i tend to forget things a lot!!! so if you think i missed you, message me ♥ (im vv sorry)

@idioticjenna even though our friendship didnt exactly start off on the right foot, im glad i’ve gotten to know you better! jenna you are hiLARIOUS omg i just love it, you have so much talent like wth ??? thank you for being so sweet n kind ♥ have a gif:

thank you all for all of this, i couldn’t possibly ask for anything better than this ♥ please take care of yourselves, i love you all so much. please dont forget that my messages and inbox are always open if you ever need anything !!

[pugbuganime]

Ohh boi! Finally finished! 

*Also I will posting one more picture since Tumblr won’t allow me to post one more in this post set!*

(Even though my computer was being a mean and wouldn't let me upload pictures yesterday...)

Anyway, this is going to be quite a coincidental post because this was supposed to be for my celebration of +30 followers, but it seems Mark also reached 18 million subs today! What a shocker, amiright?

Also as a sidenote! Sorry for taking so long. As you can tell from the dates of the pictures it has been over a month since I first started and I apologize. Some days I would be busy while other nights I was able to stay up super late! Also looking for that perfect picture of that one fish that is too complex for its own good *cough* lionfish *cough*.

❇️ Anyway this is the part where I say my thanks and credits! ~

First thing I would like to do is give credit to the amazing artists I used to help as a reference for these hot bods! 

@kibbi was my main source for the muscle aspect of the bodies and helped me dearly! They are an amazing artist and you should definitely follow them if you haven't!  

SoraCooper was also a big help when it came to drawing Anti’s body since (as we all know) he has a smaller build compared to Mark’s huge egos. Even though this account is “inactive” they still left it ‘active’ for memory sake! If you want to check out their newest account they moved to, It’s called ItsNijiTime.

Also as a DISCLAIMER:

The picture with the Host and the Dr., is also a picture used with reference... Sadly it was connected to Pinterest, and I was unable to find the source and artist. I did some searching around Pinterest for a little longer just case but to no luck. So if you were the artist of this ↴ 

then please send me a message so we can settle out your much needed credit and respect! And a special thank you for allowing me to use this helpful pose! (also if you don’t feel comfortable with it, I can take it down if you would like :D)

❇️ Now onto the very people that gave me this amazing idea because they started talking about it out of the blue. But little did they know...(I was lurking the trash shadows)

So it started out with the amazing @lifelikefin. Anons started asking more and more about as I saw it in my dash. It showed up so much that I got intrigued and  inspired by just imagining the egos as fish. That was when I started drawing The Author as a tiger shark and Darkiplier as an octopus/siren/cecaelia.

Then I noticed one of the other blogs that I follow started to this AU as well. And this guilty person is none other than @marki-trash-blog! But they mainly focused on Dark being a cecaelia more than anything which was sooooo cool but! There was one anon who made my life complete! They made a list of what all the egos would be as fish. BLESS THAT ANAON!  (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ 

But I still needed help with deciding on some of the missing egos not on the list.

Then came my amazing boo, @thecomradekitty! Even though I was up at some ridiculous time periods, they were still awake! (maybe diff time zones???) Anyway, they let me harass them with questions and suggestions that needed another opinion on. They even got to see some of these pictures when I finally finished them like a sneak peek! Which in return they always replied with such nice and sweet compliments! I love them to death and you should too!               ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿    ~Love you, boo!

AND AS A LAST HOORAH! 

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE FOR HELPING ME WHETHER YOU KNEW IT OR NOT! HAVE A NICE DAY EVERYONE!

(I’ll finally show my self out of this long post! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ)

*Do not repost my art*

[zzpopzz]

Really long rant about how I made Vanilla Twilight, I typed it at 2am so it’s kinda crappy and boring, just skip through this post.

So I'd been thinking about it for a long time now, even before finishing Vanilla Twilight that I'd talk about it if someone asked, well that never happened so I was just thinking that I'd let it go but that post is so important to me so well fuck it I'll just talk about it anyway. I did it completely on a wimp like how cool would it be if I make a lyricstuck for Toumaki like I'd be the first (if anyone did this before me im sorry). The first song I intended to do wasn't VT, it was a much shorter and easier song. I saw the music video first time after a while and the lyrics gave me some scenes to draw right away, like the tones, the atmosphere, the lyrics all fit them very well, made me wanted to draw something happy but sad. The ending for it was a happy one instead of a sad one like other songs I did (I didn't post the ending for any of them, just let the viewers decide what it's gonna be) I was very scared like what if it won't turn out ok and people gonna hate me for it or no one even gonna look at it. Also what I visualized are mostly illustrations with backgrounds, what I never done before so high chance it won't go anywhere. I thought well let's just see how far will I get and won't talk about it at all until I post it so at least I won't be all barks no bite. I was very traumatized that someone might know about what I did so I locked all the files when I shut down my PC in case someone hack into it lmao. I started with making a storyboard(kinda) for it, this is where I first got trouble because there was some part I didn't think of when I visualized what I'd draw at first ( 'I don't feel so alone' part mostly and some in between) and it's only at this point that I realized how many I'd have to draw (over 40 images total) and it's mind blowing for someone who rarely finish a painting like me at that time, that number is more than what I'd draw in a year. VT doesn't have choruses that meant I can't do tricks like repeat some panels (I don't like this anyway). I usually painted on small canvas before that but I wanna make sure I can fix things later and some idea I had was pretty big so I used 3000x5000px canvas then trimmed them down ( I didn't know how big it was and it's huge). The idea was to make a tumblr scroll-post like a lyricstuck (my favorites are by paperseverywhere and toastyhat/emptyfeet , they made really cool tutorials about these) so I tried to drew out compositions that would look good scrolling down panel by panel and have some connections between them (this didn't turn out so good in the end because I wasn't good lol) Since I was scared that people might point out that I draw something wrong, it took me almost a week or something searching for references (check my pinterest board) like the streets, sky, houses, roads, outfits, poses,... I was going to draw. I got some knowledge about bikes by this too, like I can tell the differences between road bike, mtb, touring bikes,... I also see and captured bunches of screenshots and reread ywpd trivia countless time to make sure I won't get anything wrong. If you take notice, every outfit Toumaki wear in there are all canon, from anime or promos. The first few panels was really exciting because I had never painted so many with backgrounds before, I was really happy when I almost finished the first verse even compared to the full 3:50 of the song it was only 20 seconds and I thought maybe I can pull this after all. The last panel was intended to be Makichan standing infront of his house looking at the sky but I wanted to show the sky at the end of the panel and that wouldn't work on scroll-down post so I had to leave it for later, I repainted this panel for about 3 times and finished it just 30' before posting. The first panel of the second verse wasn't turning out alright too because that was my first time doing a 3 points perspective drawing and the colors didn't turn out as I wanted either (my intention was a green/gold dawn scene). Things kinda worked well despite that until the scene when Toudou sits in his ink, gdi I didn't know why I was so caught up in that and painted every piece of that wooden floor, it took me almost a week but turned out better than I expected so I was ok with it. I was going to make sketchy paintings for all of the panel but I did too much details on that one so it gave me the impression that I'll have to do just as much for every others. Now I still had school to go and that semester my uni got me pretty crappy schedule that made me have to wait for classes at school frequently, I was frustrated because I didn't get to paint during that time and I might finish it too late (even though I didn't set a deadline) and when I got home I just spent so much time checking twitter and just can't pick myself up to draw and ended up feeling shitty about it. *Side story*  I was so mad because I didn't get anything done and there's still more than half of the whole thing to do and the worst part is that I had no one that I can talk to because I didn't have any friend who ship Toumaki and I also don't want to publicly talk about what I was doing, I wanted to surprise people when I'm done, I didn't wanna give people the expectation then screw it up (I literally thought I'd drop a bomb not a grenade lmao) I can't remember how long was that shitty phase but I felt like it was so long, I barely finished verse 2 at that point. I was so mad at myself and my progress so I spent a few days to look at time management threads and this helped a lot, I changed my habits completely  by this and I still apply those methods now, like I used to stay up til 3am to read fics (bless you writers you fueled me with your writings bless you all) then I switch to bed before 12 and get up early for a good start or reduce working time while increasing quality* After that I kinda got things together,I just went ahead with painting tho it's still kinda tiring, I had to work on 5 essays during this time too. At this point I was like screw all, I give no shit about what everyone thinks I'm just gonna finish this and get some good nap (I practiced power nap to get more focus time for painting but dude everyone wants a good long nap) 10 days before uploading I found out that there's a Toumaki day (I'm so sorry), I was going to posted on the first sunday of June (I did researched on which was the best time to post on social medias so I randomly picked a sunday) and Toumaki day is the last sunday of May, that meant I had 10 days left and 15 panels to paint! I was going to ignore that but I already made it big I should make it right too so I shit my pants going through those last panels. I purposely hiding Toudou's face till the last verse to emphasize the feelz and got so relieved that I finally got to paint him (I read some tags that some viewers got emotional at this part so I'm so glad it worked). The whole things was put under Makichan's perspective so I was so sick of painting him at that point, he showed up in every panel and I can't paint him ugly because he's beautiful (especially his hair, I spent shitload of time painting them). I can talk lots about why I picked to do so but that's headcanon shit and it's embarrassing so let's just skip that. The last day I had only 3 panels left and I was hell confident that I've got this and somehow spent the whole evening rewatch Toumaki pingpong ep (end me). Of course that didn't end well, I managed to finish those by midnight but I still had like 3 panels that needed  repaint completely and all 43 needed retouch and edits. My plan was to post at 9am sunday (thats 9pm saturday est) so I had to get up at 5am and finish all that, I ended up cutting down 2 panels and simplified the instrumental panel (some tags said that was nice so I was at least relieved). Unlike other songs I did, the length of every line's quite different and the original sizes I did would make viewers have to scroll slower or faster at different parts. I didn't plan this beforehand and had to trim down some panels even the parts that I really liked and spent lots of time on. I also found out that people outside the homestuck fandom might not familiar with this type of post so I made a video too (I’m sorry I have zero skill in editing). After posting I was terrified of people's reactions or worse, there won't be any reaction so I turned everything off and went to sleep and woke up with an unimaginable number of notes I'd got, I set the target of 500 notes and I really didn't think that I'd get past that number like maybe 2-300 (well my other songs didnt even get 200), at the end I got 5000. I spent the next week reading and screencap tags given in reblogs, I put them on desktop and they're still my motivation til now. Vanilla Twilight is the thing I'm proud of the most even until now, when I've done other songs and projects that look somewhat better. If I have to recommend one thing on my blog I'd recommend it despite its' unskilled paneling, poor composition and muddy colors. It was the first time in my life that I'd put so much effort into something and went through such emotional roller coaster, the feelings I put into it was raw and the idea was very original compared to other songs, I improved and changed a lot during the 2 months I spent on it and never once regret doing it. ***Anyway, you sure have much free time to read it this far, here's a little game for you: I put random things in VT and HF like some characters/stuff from other series, my ocs,... (there wasn't anything purposeless in there even the logo on their cups or the bags they wear) just send me anything you find and I'll draw you something in return**

[moonmurph-gamedev]

Evaluation of Process

Throughout Unit 2 I’ve learnt lots of new skills and a brief understanding of different programs such as Maya & ZBrush. This is my first time creating a character so I was also developing my own personal work flow through this Unit.

Preproduction

I started my process with preproduction specifically creating mind maps of different ideas for both my protagonist and antagonist. I knew I wanted to create characters that would be used in my game next year so they both needed to suit the setting of the game.

I feel mind maps are a great way of organizing my ideas and I will definitely continue to use them as part of my creative process. It really helps to have a clear map of the initial idea and then branch off. Before creating a character, you want to have a solid concrete idea of exactly what you’re creating so it’s important to get your preproduction done right to not waste time.

In my mind map I looked at possible motivations, attacks and backgrounds for my character. I also related my ideas to existing characters in pop culture and games and took inspiration from them. I really liked using the mind map and it helped me narrow down an exact idea for my character. I personally like to have a clear idea in my head before I begin drawing my character to save time.

Once I had settled on an idea for my character I began searching tags I’d used in my mind map and used Pinterest to create mood boards. It was great having visual references for my ideas and seeing what other people tend to use. This was also the part of the process where I decided to base the character’s weapons around the “Player 1 & 2” Pink and blue arcade guns.

This is just one of four different mood boards that I created. I added small annotation to point out points I liked about the images and went into more detail about them on my blog post. Mood boards are seen commonly in the industry especially when creating concept art for characters.

After creating mood boards I went into Photoshop to begin the concept art. I’m quite familiar with Photoshop so I was able to get right into finding a pose and body type that I liked. I decided to settle on a smaller body type instead of the large bulky muscular male you typically see in video games. This is just because I’ve planned for his attacks to be quite mobile and feel it’ll work better for the animation.

This simple turnaround helped a lot later on the in the modelling process as I was able to open the PNGs into the image plane on Maya. I can’t imagine modelling without a reference open directly in Maya and this is something I’ll probably always use in the future. I really enjoyed using Photoshop and it’s definitely my go to program when doing anything art related. Since I created this art a few months ago and have been practicing almost daily I found my drawing and Photoshop skills have improved a lot since then. Over the summer I plan on going back over and redrawing my character to create higher quality art. I’ll also begin the process of drawing different poses to show off his personality and possible animation ideas. This will help a lot next year when we begin to animate our character in UE4 and work on creating our game prototype. My game design document already has a list of attack ideas but it’ll be nice to have concept art included.

In a VICE interview with Bill Petras (Art director for Overwatch) and Arnold Tsang (Character-concept artist) they spoke about their role as artists in the games development and the importance of concept art.

“One of the main jobs that we do as art directors is having a vision for what the game looks like, of what the heroes look like, the feeling of the animation, the color palette, and the architecture of the buildings of the world.” And often that means putting ink to paper: “A lot of times the art directors themselves will do a painting of a concept to show a vision to the team. That’s step one.” –Bill Petras

Arnold Tsang speaks about how the concept art is important for making the vision and idea of the game clear to the other developers.

“Early on, our first job is to inspire and rally the team behind our vision. The development of the style guide is a huge first step in getting our feet on the ground for Overwatch.” Setting down the core of the game’s look is an incredibly important part of the early process. “After we had the core tenets in place,” says Tsang, “we worked with the engineers and some of the animators to start to realize that content and make visual targets that start to realize what we set out to do in the style guide. And we saw how things worked in the game engine, and how these characters moved and acted.” –Arnold Tsang

When we have an idea in our head it might be obvious to us what the character looks and moves like but to others it’s not clear at all so concept art is integral for making that vision clearer to others. In the industry where you have specialised modellers, programmers and animators it’s important everyone is on the same wavelength. You wouldn’t start building a game without a games design document and you wouldn’t start creating a character without completing preproduction.

Maya

When I finished preproduction I moved into the next stage of modelling my character in Maya. I also installed the student version at home so I can continue working on my model outside of college. I opened the turnaround images and began shaping from a simple cube. There are plenty of different methods of creating a character and everyone has a different workflow but I decided to stick with this recommended method as it’s good for beginners like myself. I extruded and multi cut the shape to create a simple humanoid shape and then started adding finer details such as clothing later on. I had to go back a few times to recreate certain sections of the model. I had issues with multi-facing where Maya placed faces underneath faces and I had to slowly go through the whole model deleting these issues. It was also a challenge dealing with edge loops and topology. I’ve never dealt with it before so it was a lot of trial and error figuring out what works.

My main issue with modelling is I chose to create an organic human shaped character but my result was a lot blockier and square especially in the waist/torso area.

Even with some adjustments I wasn’t 100% happy with my result. I also struggled a lot on the fingers as they were too sharp and pointed and almost resembled claws. I used MudBox which detected errors in my model so I could go back into Maya and fix them. This however was a difficult process as I had to go back and remodel entire sections again. I was getting frustrated with my model and did quite a large rework.

This model although fixed is a lot less detailed and not what I envisioned for my character. I decided instead of beginning again I’ll just begin the UV process as that will take a while and I was beginning to run out of time. I repeated my preproduction and modelling process with my villain character. I found the second time around was considerably quicker as I wasn’t relearning all the hotkeys and jargon.

A huge mistake I made with my first UVs was doing the front, back and side as three large chunks. I didn’t fully understand how the UVs related to the texture maps and so I didn’t see how much of an issue the overlap caused until I placed the image onto the UV. You can see the grey areas where the black pants and grey accents share a UV and cause issues. I had to delete these UVs and looked into other methods.

I used planar mapping and unfolding the different pieces of my model to create clear separate sections. This thankfully allowed me to avoid the same mistake I made without any overlap.

The UV process was a long task but essential for creating a character. I now have a better understanding of how to do it and how it relates to textures and painting the character later on. In the future I’ll be a lot quicker at the process. Like most of Maya it was simply a learning curve but the best way of learning a new program is by practice.

ZBrush

The next step after finishing my UVs was exporting my model as an OBJ and opening it in ZBrush. I decided to keep the Hair and Eyes as separate subtools.

My first attempt at Polypainting was rough as I didn’t fully understand the tools and brushes I was using. I looked at different methods online and went back over my model. I found the ZBrush youtube channel as a great resource as they do really quick tutorials on the different tools in ZBrush.

The spotlight is a really powerful tool that allows you to paint directly onto the model with other images. You can scale, rotate and adjust these images and apply them directly onto the model with total control. I was using a tablet too so the amount of pressure I applied also determined how strong the brush was. I saw the potential with the insane detail you could put into the skin with ZBrush. I’m not going for a super realistic human character though so I didn’t want to add loads of blemishes so just simple colours and blush was enough for me.

My favourite tools and brushes in ZBrush was the DamStandard, Curve and Curvepinch brushes. This was useful for creating folds around the eyes and also definition on the welded sections of the face. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different brushes but next time I create a character. Surface, Noise Editor and the Deformation tools were also great ways of quickly editing large portions of the model.

Because I like Photoshop so much I decided to go back on the hair and see if I could try a different method of texturing them. I opened the UV as a png and a simple hair texture with Photoshop brushes.

I like the different layers of opacity and think it looks more interesting than just block opaque colour. I’ll probably stick to ZBrush in the future however as it’s a much more powerful tool than Photoshop.

I was able to create the texture maps from Polypaint and then create Normal maps directly in ZBrush. If I wanted to neaten up or edit my textures, I could open the JPEG directly in Photoshop and paint on that.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this Unit. I found it really interesting to go from having a character concept to a 3D model. It was my first time ever modelling something as complex as a character and I’m really proud it’s my own original idea and not an already existing character.

I didn’t have much trouble preproduction with generating ideas and creating mind maps/mood boards. The majority of my issues this Unit came in the production phase but that was mainly due to inexperience and some issues with the programs. I have however begun to enjoy using ZBrush after painting my character.

I got quite frustrated at points as I felt I wasn’t at the quality I wanted. I’m still not happy with the end product but I now have a much better understanding of the tools and programs and know I could work at a faster pace. I’m planning over the summer to do a full rework of my hero character.

As my game concept has changed my characters have changed slightly. I want to go for simpler cartoony proportions for my hero instead of realistic. I think this style would suit my game better. I also think a more cartoony player character will blend better with my very wacky cartoony robot villain. At the moment they contrast and look like they’re from different games.

I’m excited to redesign my character and think this will a much better style for my game concept. I think it’ll also be great for creating fun dynamic animations as the games attacks and mechanics I have planned are very fast paced and colourful.