#I’ll probably just use these designs for when i draw them in general

[harzeke]

the mike system 😌

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @mimimar

Hi! I’m Michelle (Mimimar), an illustrator born and raised in Venezuela, currently based in Italy. I enjoy making colorful illustrations that reflect the things I love: fairy tales, fantasy, tenderness and queer (especially sapphic) stories. Occasionally, I also make paper dolls, comics and animatics. I have a lot of interest in book illustration and I’m currently developing my own stories that I hope to share as an author-illustrator someday!

Check out our interview with Michelle below!

Did you originally have a background in art? If not, how did you start?

I always enjoyed drawing when I was a kid, but it only became a hobby that I did almost every day when I was around 11. At first I only used traditional mediums, but I decided to make a serious effort to learn how to draw digitally when I was 15, and once I got the hang of it I never stopped!

I didn’t go to art school so all of my learning was done through studying the tutorials and resources that other artists generously share on the internet and lots of practice / trial and error.

How do you want to evolve as a creator?

I want to do many things but what I want to do the most right now is work on books! I want to make art for other authors’ stories and also my own stories as an author-illustrator. I want to grow as a storyteller and create art and stories that will really resonate with people emotionally. I’m always striving to improve my skills as well.

I also really love dolls, so working on doll box art or as a doll designer is something I would love to do someday. I actually have been designing paper dolls on my Patreon for the past few months, it’s been a fun project that is still ongoing right now!

What is one habit you find yourself doing a lot as an artist?

Probably using a lot of purple! It’s my favorite color so I find myself using it a lot. If I can find a way to sneak a little bit of purple into an illustration or a character design then I will.

Congratulations on finishing your Ivy Comic! Did the outcome turn out like how you expected or were there some unexpected bumps along the way?

Thank you! It’s a project that I worked on very slowly in between other art because I wanted to really take my time with every spread and make each of them a fully detailed illustration. I thumbnailed the full comic before starting but I kept changing the sketch for the final spread until the very end! Overall I’m really proud of the end result. I sprinkled a lot of hidden details in every page that I hope some of the readers will notice. For example: the meanings of the flowers in each page represent what the characters are feeling in that moment, and the colors of their wardrobe become gradually lighter as the story progresses to represent their emotions, as well as the changing of seasons.

We’ve noticed that you have created some amazing cover art for TGCF. Is there another series you would like to do something similar with? 

That was another passion project that took some time to complete. Initially, I didn’t intend for them to be specifically covers, it was just a series of illustrations based on the 5 books/main arcs of TGCF. But since they were well-received and I had people telling me they wish they could use them as covers for their books, I decided to rework them into dust jackets for the english translation of TGCF!

I haven’t thought of any other specific series but I love doing cover art so maybe I’ll do something similar again in the future!

What’s your favorite part of your style? Why?

I’ve heard from other people that there’s a delicate quality to my art, this is something that I like a lot! I like pretty things, fairytales and vibrant colors. I think all of these things probably reflect in the art I make as well.

If there is one thing you want your audience to remember about your work, what would it be?

I hope that they remember how it made them feel. Feelings and colors are the two things I give priority to in my work. Most of the time I like depicting tenderness, softness and emotional intimacy. If that could reach the viewer and stay with them it would make me very happy. 

I make a lot of art with queer (mainly sapphic) themes because they’re the kind of stories I personally like and want to see more of, so whenever people tell me that my art has helped them in their journey to discover and accept themselves, or that they see themselves and their partner in my art, it is always extremely meaningful to me. When art that I made to give myself comfort can provide comfort for others, no matter how small, it reminds me once again that despite any hardships art is genuinely worth pursuing.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

So many artists! To name a few:  I love @sakizo’s amazing eye for fashion and detail,  @paneeps’ gorgeous style and striking colors,  the sweetness of @bevsi’s art,  @vickisigh’s pretty colors and concepts,  @idledee’s warm and heartfelt art,  @littlestpersimmon’s dreamy wonderful art,  and @loish has been an inspiration for as long as I can remember.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing, Michelle! Be sure to check out their Tumblr blog over at @mimimar.

[indieyuugure]

Your comic series is the first Rottmnt comic Iv ever read! It was an amazing first impression to the Rottmnt fandom! Could you teach me how to draw the turtle boys ( rise turtles)?

Also love the new update!

Aw! I’m so glad my comic made on good impression on you! ^v^

Of course! I’d love to help you!

So first thing’s first, here’s the boys the best I can draw them. The most important thing when learning to draw new characters is identifying what makes them look like them. We’ll start with the faces since that’s, in most cases, the point of focus.

Leo’s face is a pretty tall and vaguely pentagonal. His face is also very angular, the corners of his cheeks and top of his head are very sharp. Leo has the traditional style mask with tails that drop down to about his waist.

Donnie has that smart boi forehead and majestic eyebrows. His forehead often has a soft curve to it while, similarly to Leo, his cheeks and jaw use sharp angles. Remember too that the top of his head is flat, there’s no curve. His mask is that newer pirate style that wraps over the top of his head, with the tails looking like curvy squares.

Mikey’s face is a combination of a rounded square and a circle. The top of his head, while much rounder than Donnie’s, is somewhat square. The bottom of his face is a curve. Sometimes I draw the curve in line segments, but it’s not a requirement and won’t impact the way he looks. In general though, Mikey has a very circular face. His mask is the traditional TMNT style with the rounded bouncing tails on the back.

Raph is arguably the hardest to get right for some odd reason. Really though Raph’s face is just a shorter version of Leo’s face with slightly more exaggerated angles. His face is like a fat pentagon. Also tip: Raph’s eyes are always just a little smaller then you think they’re going to be. Trace some scenes from the ROTTMNT movie, you’ll see what I mean. Raph’s mask is the same style as Donnie’s where it covers the whole top of his head. There’s a small nick on the edge above his right cheek and the tails are tattered.

Okay, next are their markings! They play a lot in how easily identifiable they are.

I figured these diagrams should help as a little map as to what spots go where.

Alright, now we’ll look at their shells. There are many amazing diagrams and explanations for drawing their shells on Pinterest I’ve found, but I’ll sum it up here as best I can.

Leo’s shell is very sleek in design making his is profile look the thinnest of his brothers. Many people describe his general body shape as being an inverted triangle.

Donnie’s shell is very straight with hardly any curves. I didn’t include his battle shell in this since that qualifies as “gear” in my opinion, so you get to see what Donnie’s shell looks like! You’ll notice that the sides of his shell are very wide, which I’m guessing is because the curve of his carapace is so shallow.

Mikey’s shell is very similar to Leo’s but is a lot thicker and boxier(haha get it? Cause he’s like, a Box Turtle? :D I’m so lame…). He’s also much rounder and the distance between his plastron and carapace is pretty big.

Raph’s shell is probably the most complex of the boys because of all the spikes. Good things to keep in mind are that the spikes on the top of his plastron angle out, and spikes on his carapace flow up. In general think of Raph as a pentagon, he’s got big broad shoulders and arms and almost comically short legs. (And yes, I’m aware that I didn’t include the side of his shell here, it was too big to fit on the diagram. But just to give you an idea of where it should be, around the “w” in “flow” is where it should connect to his carapace.

Okay! So now that we’ve covered what the boys look like, let’s apply it to their bodies!

Here’s a quick sketch of Leo. “Oh, but Indie” I hear people say, “I can only draw basic shapes and stick figures!” Well to that I say good because that’s what I’m doing too!

For drawing action, it’s crucial to capture the energy of the character. And in a style like Rise’s energy is an iconic trait. So I’ve re-invented this “shape method” to actually be useful. The number one thing is that these shapes are loose guides as to the positioning of the body. Don’t think of these shapes as “well chests are like cubes and arms are like rectangles.” These shapes are place holders. I could replace those circles with stars and it wouldn’t change anything. I just use circles because they’re faster to scribble and stand out against the hard angles of everything else.

Here’s a picture of the shapes overlayed on the image, as you see, these shapes are guides to help comprehend a complex angle in 3D space. Sadly I don’t have much I can assist with on proportions, since I learned purely by studying total uncreepily real life people and myself (I swear I’m posing in the mirror for purely educational reasons! Okay!?).

But anyway, for this kind of thing, practice is the only remedy. Just draw action pose after action pose. Trace scenes from ROTTMNT and the movie to teach your eye to see what things should look like and to train your brain to recognize patterns of shapes and angles.

I hope you found this at all helpful. I’m not really sure how great of a teacher I am but people keep asking questions like these so I guess I’m okay. Glad you liked ROTP so much and I’m glad it made such a good impression on you! ^v^

Good question! :]

And of course if you have more questions, feel free to ask. Here are some previous asks about drawing I’ve gotten that you might also find interesting:

Tricks for Drawing Extra Expressive Faces

More Tricks for Drawing Expressions

Tips and Tricks to Drawing Non-Graphic Wounds

Basic Guide and Tips for Drawing the 2012 and Rise Turtles

How to Draw 2012 Raph’s Fire Ninpo

Nailing The 2012 TMNT Style in 2D

Important Concepts in Drawing Female Characters

[finnfrei]

Hey there, i love your art very much!! Especially the recent BG3 portraits. As someone who's switching to digital art and works with colour for the first time, could i ask: how do you figure out the right colours for your drawings? Do you premake a pallete, or pick one colour and then work from there or something else? Any tips would be welcome, keep drawing ❤️

Hey! Ah, thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

That’s a tough question to be honest. I find myself struggling with colors almost every time.

As I start an illustration I mostly have a rough idea what I want it to look like colorwise. Basically there’re two ways for me when it comes to coloring.

1. If it’s something more simple like a portrait or a character design, I tend to pick one base color and paint the whole object. From there I adjust each separate part such as hair, clothes, etc by moving slightly along the color wheel and changing the darkness and saturation depending on whether for example hair should be darker or lighter. For me personally in that case I prefer using analogous (picture below) colors and maybe add some complimentary (on the opposite side of the wheel) colors for highlights or backgrounds.

2. If I get too lost in the color choices, I scroll through illustrations of other artists I like and choose some that would suit the general mood best. Procreate and, I believe, CSP have a function where you can create a color pallet from a picture. I’m sure you could find some similar web or app, if your software doesn’t have the feature. Then I just use the colors from the pallet and build up on them, adjust according to what seems to work best for me.

Although if I had to give some basic tips based on personal preferences:

1. Never use black, avoid using white. I prefer using dark and saturated blue, purple, red instead of black. Light and less saturated base color instead of white.

2. In general I prefer working with more saturated colors, but got to be careful, not to overdo it, not to create crazy colorful mess. But again that’s my personal preference.

3. Avoid using too much different colors. I mostly try to stick to three, max four colors in one illustration and just use their adjusted versions (darker/lighter, more/less saturated) for shadows and highlights.

4. Contrast is more important than colors.

Guess, that’s what comes to mind first, hope it makes sense at least a little. In general I’m really chaotic when it comes to colors, so I’m probably not the best person to give advices. However, if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try and help as much as I can.

Good luck on your creative journey!

[ezlo-x]

Hi…so dragons in my au

Im still thinking what kind of roll I would give to the dragon girlies I’ll have to think abt it carefully. I think more than a year ago I redesigned the dragons for my au, but now that I have a solid design of the Golden Goddesses I decided to go back to my old au designs and revamp them.

So in my LF au but also my GG au the Golden Goddesses in a last ditch effort they become dragons and leave behind the triforce. Their names have been altered and changed by the course of time so that is why their dragon counterparts have different names from their original form.

So Nayru -> Naydra, Farore -> Farosh, Din -> Dinnral

Now to their designs (tee hee <3) if u already have seen my designs of the Golden Girlies u already know I’ll implement their race heavily on to their dragon designs. Along w some other stuff

Let start w Farosh

She’s a Minish! Tbh she would probably be the “closest” one to the canon designs. But I do have a few ref ideas I would like to implement to her dragon design. Red Ruffed Lemurs for head shape and also the eyes ❤️(and maybe fur also) and having a slim reptilian body. She’s the simplest out of the two but that is mostly cause I have a clear idea of her.

Ok now to Dinnral

Me kicking my feet thinking abt drawing a goron dragon tee hee ❤️ Back when I was drawing Din I used pics of tigers and boars for her general design. For her dragon form i decided to go the traditional eastern dragon route. So I’ll stick to that now adding eastern dragons into the mix :]

OK FINALLY NAYDRA

She’s going to be the unique one out of the bunch as the other two would fly constantly. Naydra will mostly stick to the water regions of Hyrule and occasionally go on the cold snowy mountains of Lanayru. I’ll go w a salamander/axolotl approach to her design, and just to be freaky w it I’ll give her human-like teeth like those types of fishes in replacement of dragon teeth

[the-amazing-digital-guardians-au]

So, some of you are probably wondering why some characters of The Amazing Digital Guardians have bad teeth. @localcanadiancryptid22 mentioned this in a reblog for one of my posts (not singling you out negatively I’ve really been looking for an excuse to talk about this—) And there was also an Anonymous ask about why Caine’s teeth are so bad. I’ll give a rundown of why I draw teeth the way I do!

Yellow Teeth - Ragatha, Jax, and (eventually) Gangle

A huge pet peeve of mine is that I hate using pure white as a color for my drawings (this is just me though, people can do whatever they want). So, usually, when coloring eyes and teeth, I go for an off-white/cream color or sometimes yellow for things like eyes and teeth, because it looks more natural to me. These characters all have yellow teeth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re all unhygienic. Ragatha is probably the cleanest member of the circus, and she brushes her teeth! They’re just yellow. The first character I colored for this AU was Jax, and he has yellow eyes and teeth—so I stuck with it for Ragatha too.

Black teeth: Pomni

Pomni has black teeth because she used to smoke when she was a human, and it’s a habit that has carried over into the digital world. I just grossly exaggerated the effect of it on her teeth (because the Circus is a very exaggerated, animated world). I kind of also just wanted to deviate from giving everyone off-white or yellow teeth because I thought it would be a bit boring.

Bad Teeth: Caine

Caine’s horrible looking teeth are just a representation of his poor habits, like smoking and drinking, since they are known to ruin teeth and gums. The reason why Pomni has black teeth and he has brown/dirty teeth is because I just wanted to make them look different!

Tooth gaps: Jax and Pomni

Both of these characters have tooth gaps, with Pomni’s being much wider than Jax’s. I honestly just like imperfections on characters and teeth gaps are my favorite, since they’re easy to draw and can vary in width, so not everyone looks the same.

Metaphor of Teeth:

I guess teeth are kind of a metaphor in this AU. Characters who have obviously bad teeth (like Pomni and Caine) are “sinful” and have done some very bad things in life. Characters with yellow teeth (like Jax and Ragatha) look a bit more natural, but even they haven’t lived completely innocent lives. I believe that Gooseworx said that everyone who’s trapped in TADC is there for a reason (I could be wrong though) and the thought of even nice characters like Ragatha having a dark side intrigues me.

Other than that, a person’s hygiene (which includes brushing teeth) can say a lot about them. Are they clean? Lazy? Forgetful? Depressed? Maybe they can’t afford things like braces? A lot can be said by how they take care of themselves. To me, teeth and the mouth in general can also mean vulnerability. Things can enter the body through the mouth, we kiss with our mouths, etc.

Also, Caine is a huge set of gums and teeth. The other characters having imperfect teeth like him may signify that they’re more similar to him than they think…but bad teeth also look gross, and that’s appealing to me, for some reason.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end, if you did. This is just some insight into how I design characters.

[duckieduccss]

NEW KAIJU OC?!?!

Well, yea technically. Basically i was interested in figuring out how id go with making my own kaiju. At first i wasnt sure where to go for designing one. So i chose to base it off another existing kaiju for inspiration. I kinda wanted to go for a dragon type kaiju (i like dragons) and the only thing i could think of was Ghidorah so i went with that (now that i think about it more, I could’ve maybe used Manda too prob but oh well, Ghidorah was still a good option). I added some different details to mine that make it unique to the og Ghidorah

My idea was that it could potentially be a relative to Ghidorah (being of the same species) but still far apart from one another to the point they arent all that aware of the other existing (theyre in for a shock when & if they do encounter each other lol). This version actually relies on cosmic energy derived from such sources like stars & generally anything that produce some form of energy within the vast universe (basing it off how Ghidorah themselves originally came from space & this variant being much more dependent on that factor). It stores that energy & relatively stays in a dormant stage for an extended period of time until when faced with the challenge to defend itself or fight off those it deems as a danger. Then it would release all that ginormous amount of space energy that manifests itself as a rapidly expanding glow of extremely bright light. Enough to cause extreme damage & bring down the opposition. It can gather energy by using special crystals it can grow (took that also as inspiration but from Space Godzilla) & become as some form of attracting & absorbing the energy. In a way, the energy is like its main source of food & energy to maintain itself (right after releasing a lot of it during its final attack of using that glow, it would be put in a highly vulnerable state if not recovered by regaining some energy back soon enough). For the most part, they mostly sleep (being lazy 24/7 just like me fr lmao) to keep all that energy but can be potentially dangerous if disturbed or provoked in some manner

(Here’s a better closer look at their faces. Realized the canvas’ too big to properly see each of them-)

The name of this kaiju you may be wondering???

It’s Ryudorah

(Yea i know im the most creative person out there. I combined another nickname i use for myself and just added the end part of Ghidorah’s name to make it clear it’s related to the other kaiju. I couldn’t think of anything else im sorry😭)

And also each head has its own individual name:

Do, Re & Mi

(Named after intervals in the musical scale (ex: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do)

Did i mention this kaiju can also technically sing too :)

I did have a lot of fun with coming up with the concept for them (tho it honestly took longer in designing them due to a busy schedule ive been put in as of late & finding the time to finish it) but im glad to finally be able to share this with you all. Hopefully I can share more about them soon (i have a whole google doc’s worth of lore lmao) & probably draw them again (tho maybe a lot more simplified by then). Didn’t wanna overwhelm ppl with the huge amount of info so I’ll prob slowly reveal more over time.

[Another thing too is that i still am new to the fandom (tho with more knowledge from getting to learn more from the source material) & most of this i gathered from already know stuff i knew. Tho im also open to feedback & maybe some ideas to add onto my own kaiju. So id very much appreciate it if there’s any suggestions from you guys ^^⭐️]

(I’ll only be taking constructive criticism btw. Anything hateful will obv be ignored)

[minteagalaxea]

tartarus | j.w.w

wonwoo and “akanen”

genre: angst, fluff, violence (it’s a john wick!au, y’all knew)

word count: 4.36k

inspiration: the fact that i watched within a week the entirety of the john wick franchise in the span of a week. “akanen” is a bit inspired by the general aesthetic and vibe of polyphia’s tim henson. “nasty” by polyphia (x)

note: omg it has been so long, but i’m excited to be writing wonwoo again!  “akanen” is an alias, but everything about them here is relatively ambiguous hehe.

one . tailoring

“how do you even make suits bulletproof?” wonwoo asked, trying not to shiver as he felt their fingers brush along his shoulders to measure them. they always had that effect on him since their days as room service when they cleaned his sheets in his time as a green assassin.

“there’s a lining of kevlar,” akanen responded softly, writing down the measurement before migrating to their seat and grabbing their and drawing out the design in their book. their pen, much like their shears and other personal effects, were a bold rose gold against the clinical chicness of the white walls and black furnishing.

“i can’t believe you chose this instead of administration,” he teased, earning an elbow towards his ribs for using their real name, “sorry, akanen.”

they glared, spinning the weighty pen between their fingers. wonwoo barely noticed how they flicked the nib of the pen to reveal a sharp blade at his chest; he smirked down at them, stealing a kiss from their lips. “not in public,” they hissed, eyes deathly as they retracted the blade back into the pen.

“darling,” he assured with a confident smirk, “it’s just us.”

“don’t get cocky,” they snapped, but as they looked around, their shoulders softened, “professionalism.”

“i can be professional.”

“apparently not. how are you going to get work done as a big shot free agent if you can’t keep your shit together around a tailor?” this time, the acridness diminished, and wonwoo knew they forgave his faux pas as they returned to their sketching.

“this is your first proper suit, akanen. for me. i want to celebrate.”

“i’ll make more, you know,” akanen indicated, eyes affixed to their book, “perhaps not often, since i’m more interested in the science aspect than the actual sewing.”

“and yet, you’re sewing my suit.” wonwoo smirked, tugging them close and firmly pressing his lips against theirs. akanen felt their skin prickle in the same way their boyfriend’s earlier.

“isn’t this better than being put to work in administration?” he inquired, thinking of the computers and monotonous voices that defined the clinical organization. they would fit in well, with their distance from blood and soothing tone. he wondered what his bounty would be.

however, wonwoo didn’t get a chance to consider that when akanen kissed him. they raised a poised brow about his faraway thoughts. a puff of a scoff escaped their throat as they silently chided him for focusing on impossible hypotheticals that would never occur. akanen definitely thought he was stupid, but that was the rule, rather than the exception.

with a roll of their eyes, akanen kissed him again, allowing their heart to beat rampantly and goosebumps to surface. secretly, they knew he was right about the administration idea.

two . wine tasting

the8 had learned all of wonwoo’s preferences for weapons, and wonwoo was certain a part of it was because akanen had a propensity for casually mentioning little details about him to fellow staff. the8, however, observed something different about his attire.

“you could always ask dokyeom to fix the sleeves,” the sommelier said plainly. always plainly, wonwoo realized. if he knew better, he would have thought most of the osaka strays would probably be better suited for administration than they would be providing services. it was also a safer alternative than being in the continental, because some people wouldn’t respect the rule of asylum. wonwoo reconsidered the idea; only vernon, the8, and akanen would be the best ones for it. they had the serenity for it, but their talents would be wasted.

“akanen made the suit; they’re just too busy to repair it,” wonwoo responded, as if that explained it. fortunately, the8 understood. no assassin went without their little superstitions.

the8 answered pensively, “concierges tend to be.”

that was true—with the transition into having woozi as a manager, he took akanen with him to be a concierge. they had too much potential slaving away behind a sketchbook and fabrics. in reality, wonwoo just didn’t want them to share their creations for others; selfishness wasn’t a luxury they could afford, and he didn’t give a flying fucking shit about that. akanen’s work was his, greedy for their expert hands and the little bits of rose gold that signified their work. nobody got to have that now that dokyeom was their tailor. wonwoo perceived that to be a good thing.

“akanen said you had a preference for italian or american varieties, though i suggest an austrian one for something lighter for your occasion.” when the8 presented him with the glock 34, wonwoo hummed appreciatively.

“i’ll take that for dinner, then.” with a prompt nod, he left and headed back to his accommodation, where he saw akanen leaving the bathroom with a smile too predatory to seem real. wonwoo’s eyes leered towards the table, where he found a bottle of champagne.

“what brought this about?” he wondered, reclining himself onto the bed. his pupils dilated as they slowly removed the silk robe they had to reveal the lace and silk adorning their frame, straddling wonwoo’s hips and engaging in a searing kiss. heat fired up in wonwoo’s body as his hands—his warm, large, heavy hands—pressed up against the small of their back.

“we never properly celebrated my promotion and how you’re the highest paid hitman in osaka.” a cocky smirk fell upon their lips as they ground their hips.

“wouldn’t that mean my bounty is higher than anyone in osaka?” he teased, “besides, that was two months ago.”

“shut up and just be happy that you’re making money, love,” they rolled their eyes (and hips), “and be happy about this surprise. i planned so much of this shit.”

wonwoo called their name, their real one, and their eyes softened. it was his turn to be cocky as he tugged the string of lace, releasing it and having it snap back against their taut figure. “relax, baby,” he growled into their ear, groaning as their needy fingers removed the black jacket. lips still entangled, the pair seemed like two reapers in the shadows.

osaka was dark, and the lovers were cocky. sue them—they were on top of the world. celebrations ran few and far between in their line of work. they deserved to love hard and reckless, they thought.

three . cartography

wonwoo pored over the layout of the catacombs with interest. “where did you find this?” he asked vernon, who smiled bashfully at the praise.

“trade secrets,” he responded blithely, in that sweet vernon-like way. it made wonwoo’s stomach roil unpleasantly.

it’s not something he noticed in the beginning, but the more he conversed with any of the strays, he realized how easily violence came to them. they weren’t out like him, obviously, but the perfunctory nature of how they discuss bloodshed is alarming. that has been something that has been scaring him more and more: the prevalence of that gnaw whenever he wasn’t working. it was starting to edge its way into work, as well.

vernon snapped the elder out of his reverie, “something troubling you?” wonwoo presumed he must have appeared panicked, because the other’s serene expression faded into a gentle concern.

a heavy sigh passed his lips, muttering to himself, “i should probably take more work.”

tilting his head in confusion, the cartographer wondered, “do you think that would make you feel better?” wonwoo immediately shook his head.

“not everyone can afford my rates anymore,” he said, “maybe that’s the worst part.”

“your services seem very lonely,” vernon’s visage contorted into contemplation, “it does make me wish to explore the outside more. sometimes, i’m a bit jealous.”

right, wonwoo considered. he forgot that the strays were bound to the continental for essentially eternity, lest they wanted to lose the asylum the hotel granted.

“is being in here a lonely way to live?” wonwoo returned the question, hoping to soothe the gnaw in his bones.

“i have the others, sure, but i think it’s hard because we’re all reminded that no matter what, we’ll always be connected to the life we wanted to leave. anyways, you might want to ask akanen about it—they’re always great at giving advice,” the younger says, taking the coins from the pile before shooing the taller one away with a flick of his hand.

wonwoo strode back to the lobby of the continental, attempting to soak in the tranquility of the osakan midday. it was a sensation he missed fondly, and he was enjoying reclaiming that feeling after being a reaper for so long. he loathed how quick it felt, how he couldn’t savor the feeling of petals on his skin and the warm browns that seemed more inviting than the clinical grays that the osaka continental displayed.

“welcome back, mr. jeon,” akanen greeted with a prim smile, “any additional services i can provide for you?” they raised an eyebrow at his troubled expression.

before he could answer, another man cleared his throat impatiently. graciously, wonwoo stood aside and let akanen be the gracious, perpetually accommodating concierge they were. “mr. choi, welcome back to the osaka continental. how can i help you?” they said. wonwoo observed the effortless way their hand with their rose gold gel pen and their nails sparkle dully with their dusty rose dip polish that served as their strongest armor in the world.

that was the reminder for wonwoo about akanen—they were still tethered to this world, no matter how much he attempted to drag them into the land of the living. he tried to think about how their nail polish color was so reminiscent of blood caked between his fingers.

four . excommunicado

for all intents and purposes, life in the continental was systematic, reminding wonwoo of how the underworld might have functioned. woozi was the deity himself, answering the prayers and demands of those that requested an audience with him. the8, dokyeom, and vernon were the judges, deciding upon the level of care and service based on the people they interact with. or, perhaps they were cerberus, protectors of the realm in their own way. akanen, rightfully so, is the ferryman, providing passage to and from the bloody underworld and the wondrous land of the living.

it’s that tether that hindered wonwoo’s ability to tell them about his decision. the marker rested heavily in his palm as they stared at him. it was better that they didn’t know what the exchange was. “stay safe,” they murmured against his lips as they kissed in akanen’s room.

“i always do.” he let them muss his hair, reveling in whatever fucked sign of ownership it was. bitterly, he tried to remember how it all felt before he knew the end was near. “i don’t trust s.coups, but do what you must.”

“i love you,” he whispered reverently, saying their full name. for once, akanen didn’t hit him in remonstration for once, and he savored the victory before duty called him away.

s.coups was a powerful ally to have, especially as they scoped out the building. “you didn’t tell them,” he commented to the taller male, adjusting his scope to find his target.

“they’re a part of this. they can’t leave,” wonwoo said plainly, “i’d rather it end this way, rather than have it go down in embers and smoke.”

“it’s the high table—everything will end in smoke and embers because we might not live long enough for it.”

“akanen will, and we all know it. they love the thrill of their job. they’re the best concierge in the world. nobody is going to squander that talent—not even me.”

“deciding this for you both will hurt them more,” s.coups foreboded; upon the signal, wonwoo fired the rifle.

celebrations undertook a more morose undertone in akanen’s room. in between feverish kisses and whispers of his name, he beseeched, “your real name tonight, please.”

strangely, as if sensing his desperation, akanen acquiesced to his request with featherlight nods and perfunctory whimpers into his too-greedy maw. the wall was as good as the bed, and wonwoo was eager to pin them against the smooth surface, wrapping their legs around his waist with the strength of hercules. he noted that they were peculiarly more accommodating than usual. he would take that into his memory later.

they’re softer this time, pliant under his touch when they’re usually the puppet master. wonwoo can discern the new pieces of ink along their sternum. akanen’s eyes grew hooded as he paid reverence to the leaves and arrows winding around their skin. he tried to let their hushed mewls ingrain themselves in his ear. he’d never hear this any longer.

by the time the sun rose, wonwoo had left no trace of his presence. he couldn’t kiss akanen’s serene expression. it would kill him if he spared them one glance. he wondered if this was how greek heroes felt when trying to leave the underworld.

he faced the sun when he exited, and he felt at peace.

akanen rose to the sun, and tried to desperately call wonwoo’s number with tears in their eyes and heavy pants.

the phone number stopped working.

five . dinner reservation 

wonwoo wasn’t sure how to feel that s.coups only gave him six years out in the sun before duty called at his door. he wasn’t rusty on his skills—there was no way his master would approve of it—though the knife felt heavier in his hand than before. his floors had never seen so much crimson in their fucking lives.

shakily, he dials the numbers, a phantom of all the other times he’s had to do this. “this is the osaka continental hotel. you’re speaking to the concierge on duty. how may i direct your call?”

wonwoo tried not to gasp at the familiar raspy timbre at the other end of the line. keeping a measured tone, he answered, “i’d like to make a dinner reservation, please.”

“for how many?” he heard a puff of smoke on the other end. did they start vaping? he didn’t ponder the question long as he scanned the many bodies along his hardwood.

“twelve. i also need accommodation.”

“for how many nights?” now, there’s typing on a keyboard. more accurately, he was sure it was a typewriter-style keyboard. woozi always liked having them maintain as many analog systems as possible.

“three. i’ll check in tomorrow.”

“will that be all?” he got a room. he would see them in the morning. that was all that mattered. he hummed an assent. “what is your address to hold the dinner reservation?” wonwoo reported it, and they bid farewell. if he could, he would pace around his small, now decrepit, apartment. yet, he couldn’t, not wanting to track blood all over the floor.

mingyu arrived not long after, and even if it is just him, he worked in the same osaka continental way of clinical efficiency. he was also the only one with any sort of mobility among the strays, unbounded by the laws of sanctuary and monikers. wonwoo surmised that it’s because of his lack of bindings that made mingyu more conversational.

“they’re pissed,” he said with an acrid brightness, “but, i think you know that.”

“how are they?”

mingyu pondered the question intently as he shoved another wrapped corpse into the trunk. “you wouldn’t recognize them.”

“good thing?”

“maybe for them. they needed to feel like they were a new being. woozi had to comfort them the first two nights. now, they’re comforting the rest of us.” wonwoo’s shoulders tensed as he paid the cleaner and stared at the spotless floor now that mingyu finished his dinner reservation.

he wasn’t sure what he would see tomorrow. all he knew that his welcome wouldn’t be as well-received with them.

six . accommodation

mingyu was right, wonwoo realized—akanen looked almost unrecognizable from the six years he’s been out in the sun. they blended a type of edginess to their ferryman-type job; their usually slicked hair was much fluffier in this textured wolf cut. the tousled texture gave way towards the masterpiece of ink on their neck. wonwoo wasn’t sure what it was, but he saw fans and lines and maybe an engine. there were a fair bit of circles.

they still had a thing for rose gold, he noticed on their nails and the various pens on their table. akanen was still a creature of consistency, even if they looked like they belonged in a rock band. obviously, the new ink wasn’t limited to just their neck; on their hands, there was a weaving of leaves and serpents. as they raked their hair back, wonwoo thought that they had only gotten more beautiful and more dangerous. after a deep inhale, he approached the desk.

“three nights, correct?” akanen said without sparing him a glance. they must have thought that he looked like a vampire, ageless and having never left.

he hummed an assent, words caught in his throat as they slid over the room key. his fox eyes lingered past their fingers to the pen charging in the outlet. “you smoke?” he asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

“sometimes, when shift’s rough.” akanen’s lashes fluttered slowly as they blinked. it left no room for conversation, even if he tried to apologize. the concierge obviously didn’t want to hear it.

“dino,” they called quietly, and the newest stray (because no way in fucking shit did wonwoo recognize him) approached the desk. “finish with mr. jeon, will you? gonna go out back for a smoke.”

“got it,” the other reported dutifully, and the other left.

for all his skill, dino tried, and wonwoo knew he shouldn’t be a fucking dick about it, but dino wasn’t akanen, and it showed. he was a bit clumsier operating the keyboard and interface, and his movements were rougher. “you’re a legend,” dino acknowledged with too much awe, “but, akanen doesn’t like you.”

“i know—we had history.”

“they told me about that,” dino pondered, “they were pretty angry when i was first here.”

“when did they pick up vaping?”

“before i came. that was a few years ago.” the conversation died there, and wonwoo moved to the elevator.

seven . medical

shit. wonwoo forgot how much gunshot wounds sucked as he clutched his shoulder while climbing up the stairs to the osaka continental. it was late; nobody was in to help tend to injuries. incheon had a medic; osaka didn’t.

the only one adept enough at medical procedures was woozi, but he was too pissed off to want to help wonwoo beyond what was strictly necessary. the others were similar, because all the osaka strays stuck together, and they were most likely asleep or busy. that happened to leave the only person on duty to potentially help, if they were in one of those moods.

when he staggered in, the only noise was akanen typing on the commodore vic 20. he couldn’t help his blush at the sight of them. even though they made a point to not speak to him, he supposed all he could do now was pray they were in an indulgent mood. “is the manager in?” he asked wearily when he reached the reception desk. akanen spared him a furtive, cursory glance.

“i’m currently the concierge on duty—woozi is handling other affairs. how can i assist you?”

“medic, please.” that was enough to prompt them to peer over their perch. their eyes widened slightly, and they immediately shrugged off their blazer, passing it off to him to have more pressure for the wound. he gulped seeing the planes of inked muscle that their tank top exposed. “come along,” they mumbled gingerly, their strides brisk towards the elevator. wonwoo winced, but tried to keep up. he didn’t know how long they would extend their charitability towards him. he could taste iron in his mouth, which was something akanen sensed. of course they could sense it—they were a concierge, after all. they built their career after sensing needs.

passing him their vape pen, akanen said, “inhale some—it tastes like lychee.” he took some, and understood why they enjoyed the taste on their tongue. he passed it back to them when the elevator dinged, and they rushed him to their quarters. “shirt off,” they demanded as they scuffled into their room, grabbing a mixture of a sewing kit and first aid kit. wonwoo collapsed against the wall once he did what was requested of him.

the position they took to help remove the bullet lodged in his shoulder felt so heavy, reminiscent of the times where they actually had affection for him. straddling his waist, they lodged their tweezers into the wound, fishing out the bullet and silencing his groans with the vape pen to his mouth. they fed some thread onto a needle, starting to suture the gaping wound. he hissed; they smirked at him being a purported wimp about it now that he was unfamiliar with the pain. “i didn’t realize you were a medic,” he exhaled, even daring to use their real name. they didn’t object to that faux pas.

“sewing skin isn’t far off from sewing fabric, wonwoo.” a pregnant pause wafted over them, even as they finished sewing up his wound. “you still use the suit i made you.” the iciness in their eyes melted only minutely at that realization.

“because i’ve always been yours,” he responded easily, “i thought about you. i saw you in everything out there.”

“did you now?” they bit back, before sighing skeptically, “you haven’t changed at all.”

“you have.” the new tattoos their camisole exposed and the haircut said as much. their harder shell did, as well. “i couldn’t take being here for so long. i had to go for me. it was selfish, i know, but it was something i needed.”

they studied his eyes, and he couldn’t run. not with how they were straddling his waist, holding the tools to both his demise and his salvation. in their own way, they asked, “do you think you could fall in love with me like this?” he knew what they meant: tethered to this world, cautious, a bit in love with causing him pain.

as if he was breathing air, he answered, “would you let me?”

the fact that they let him spend the night in their room was enough for him to know. so was his mended suit jacket.

eight . deconsecration

“so, we’re fucked,” akanen grumbled as they stalked around the saferoom and its weapons. they were the only one of the strays other than woozi to stay; they were the only ones trained to kill prior to joining the osaka staff.

“don’t say that, akanen,” woozi chided as he tried to get them to cease their pacing. wonwoo found the sight amusing, the shorter manager chasing his concierge akin to a small wildcat attempting to stop a hungry panther on the prowl. “there’s three of us, and we’ll fare fine.”

“jihoon, our odds against an army of high table fuckers isn’t good with just the three of us,” they sniped back, a dismayed scowl on their generally pretty visage at all of the gun choices. they settle on the walther, loading up several magazines with a precise hand.

“watch your manners, akanen. professionalism,” the manager warned. wonwoo raised his eyebrow at the use of woozi’s real name.

“well, it doesn’t quite matter right now, given the fucking hotel has been deconsecrated,” akanen retorted, their eyes heavy on the two other men in the room. the assassin wasn’t sure how much of that resentment was towards him. “fucking idiots.”

“since when did you start cursing every other sentence, love?” wonwoo tested the waters with them, their rose gold nails and tattoos beautiful and dangerous. they abandoned their blazer on the couch next to woozi.

“i don’t want to hear it from you, mongrel,” akanen hissed without heat. he took the tenuous victory it was, as did woozi, who dawdled elsewhere to set up the laser failsafe for when the guards came. that left them alone.

the assassin stalked towards the concierge, his calloused hands brushing their smooth cheeks. knocking their foreheads together, he observed how the tautness in their shoulders faded out into something easier. good, he concluded, shooting would be much easier. their eyes, those cold eyes that haunted his dreams and nightmares, closed as their breath fanned along his lips. he could taste the artificial lychee there, a new addition to their dark edges. he welcomed it hungrily.

“i’m sorry,” he whispered, “for putting you into this mess.”

“well, you and woozi did, wonwoo.” a twisted smirk curled around their lips, “fucking idiots, the lot of you.”

“trust me?” he implored, backing away just for a moment. akanen’s smile furrowed into something more sinister, more unimpressed as they raised an eyebrow. trust was hard to come by with them, now that they seemed to enjoy causing him misery in their vengeful little ways.

as if paying tribute for safe passage into the underworld, he presented them with a rifle safely shrouded in the corner. their eyes glowed upon closer inspection of their tribute; it wasn’t that reckless glow from six years ago, but some mutation of it in a more cautious form of excitement, even with the rose on their cheeks. wonwoo prayed that they still had a fondness for the sks from back when they first met. akanen, after he called their true name, smirked just barely as they took the rifle from him. “type 56 sks,” they acknowledged in approval, latching the sight onto it.

their inked hands snatched a belt of ammunition, and before they left the safe to climb up the beams, they offered a fleeting, genuine smile that made him blush like a schoolboy. sure, it wasn’t the reckless and feverish kiss from their youth; however, wonwoo couldn’t expect that from a concierge that loved making him suffer by questioning the malleable nature of their relationship now that they trusted him.

as he readied his aim several moments later as the guards arrived, all he thought was how things that leave the underworld still came back on the ferry. if it was with his precious ferryman, he would revel in its darkness.

[quibbs126]

Can you do a Baguette x Coffee Candy fankid if you havent already?

Sorry for the kind of terrible rough sketch, but I’ve finished with Coffee Bun Cookie

Alright, let’s see about her character

She doesn’t work in the TBD like her parents, but she does still have to deal with a lot of paperwork and office spaces

One thing I’m aware of is that the TBD is supposed to be a secret, people aren’t supposed to know it exists outside of those who work there, probably because they deal with time travel. So the idea was that Coffee Bun (and likely other TBD kids, aside from maybe String Gummy ones) wouldn’t be part of it. Though I’m not really sure what she does know of it, considering both of her parents work there

I’m gonna be honest, I’m not too sure how to approach that question, because Ovenbreak doesn’t give us an answer as to how much TBD family members, would know about their jobs, because it isn’t necessary for us to know. And it becomes even more pressing of a question when you’re making a kid for at least one of them, someone who should probably know what their parent does for a living. And it’s made even worse in this scenario because both of Coffee Bun’s parents work in the TBD. So what do they tell her? Does this fly under the radar for her, and if so, how? This isn’t an answer the game gives me because none of characters there are parents, and so it isn’t necessary, and probably won’t be

I don’t know, maybe Baguette retired after Coffee Candy made manager, and she was Coffee Bun’s stay at home mom

Also sorry, getting back to Coffee Bun now, I just had to get that out of my system

So Coffee Bun works a normal office job, though she has a bit of a passion for drawing, and has had a long standing habit of doodling on papers. She considers it more of a hobby and doesn’t really think she can make a career out of it though, so it mostly goes unnoticed. Her parents did try to encourage her to maybe pursue it further when she was younger, because she has talent, but she insisted it’s not that big enough of a deal to her

And if I’m being honest, that’s about all I have on her. I really don’t have much on her character. I made up the office job thing right now as I’m writing, because I didn’t have anything for her other than being paper related, since I drew her holding paper. I’m not really even sure an office job fits her design, she looks to me like more of an artist, nothing about her screams “office worker”. Maybe in current day it is something she wants to pursue a bit more, but she still needs money, so she sticks with her regular job

Maybe I’ll rework the character description later, I don’t know

Anyways, on to the design I suppose

So her name is based off of these coffee buns, which I got as a suggestion. She’s called that because it is bread (I think) and contains coffee

Coffee bun:

Okay, if you couldn’t tell earlier, I’m just gonna say it here, I didn’t really know what I was doing with Coffee Bun

I made her rough sketch ages ago, and I quite liked it, I just…never really knew what to do with her. I kind of just made something up here because I thought “why not finish her now?”

Also personally, I’m dissatisfied with her outfit. I didn’t know what to do with it, and she’s kind of just wearing something generic, which is a far cry from her parents’ distinctive outfit designs

She doesn’t really even have coffee buns anywhere outside of her head, which again, I already made prior and is probably the best part of her design

I mean her outfit is supposed to be browns and yellow because of the color of coffee buns, with it being brown on the outside (and they seem to range in darkness of brown, as seen in the images), and light yellow on the inside, but that’s about it

I feel like this is something I struggle with when it comes to character designs, especially with my Cookies. I can give them distinct hair, but I never really know what I’m doing with outfits, or how to relate them to their ingredients (granted, maybe that’s because I’m someone who has no sense of fashion and only wears T shirts and sweatpants/leggings every day). I also just don’t know how to make accessories, especially distinct ones

And that’s another thing, I feel like I don’t really connect the characters back with their ingredients, especially with fankids. They’re more arbitrary than anything meaningful. But then I also don’t know a lot most of the ingredients I choose, and I don’t know how to learn that information, or I can use something similar as a basis for the character

Like take for example, the new Cookie teased this morning. She looks to be made of strawberry Pocky, and she’s a drummer presumably because the shape of Pocky is similar to drum sticks. It’s such a simple connection and it gives you something for the character. But I’m not able to make those easy connections, and it frustrates me to no end and leaves us in situations like this

…Sorry I got carried away again. This post feels more like me ranting about my struggles with making characters than much about the character herself. Apologies to the person who requested this for loading your request with all this

I mean, in a vacuum, Coffee Bun isn’t half bad of a design. But it’s the fact that she looks so bland next to her parents and the fact that I had nothing for her at the end that makes me bring her down in my eyes

But I suppose you can disregard me if you want and enjoy her if you want to

[mayakern]

what kind of things do you consider for new designs?

i keep a little ongoing note open with random skirt ideas i have. sometimes this is a subject, sometimes it’s a color palette or a general vibe or some combination of the three.

then i usually try to mockup a really simple version of the idea, which i sometimes share with y’all. it’s at this point that i consider things like composition and wearability, which are SUPER important with skirts and play a huge role in whether or not i decide to create a design

here are the rough sketches of my bluebonnet and desert sunset skirts vs. the finished products

sometimes my initial concepts work great right off the bat and sometimes they need a little workshopping.

here’s a couple of the designs that have hit the concept stage but that i’m not quite ready to take to completion.

the cloud designs are tricky because skirts are drawn on a circular template so mapping out that composition in a way that is interesting and wearable is going to be a hassle. i think the top cloud skirt has a more interesting and unique color palette and composition that are compelling to ME, while the bottom one has a more wearable color palette that will probably sell better, tho i’m not sure composition will work on an actual 3D garment. also i need to do more studies of clouds because i’m not yet confident in my ability to draw them on a large scale (and the skirt templates are LARGE)

the book skirt is just taunting me personally. i don’t think any of these compositions are successful and at this point i’m not even sure i like this color palette. i’ll have to do another round of concept sketches when i feel up to is

aaand the last thing i consider is whether or not i actually want to draw something. a lot of my skirt concepts die before or after the ideation phase simply because while i think the idea is cool, i have no desire to draw it.

[eta] also, as a general rule, i try not to design things that could be found at a larger retailer, since i could never match their prices. and i also try not to follow any short lived or seasonal trends. i want my garments to be worn for years and years. just because they’re synthetic fiber doesn’t mean they have to be fast fashion. that’s entirely up to how they are used and loved and worn.

[alangdorf]

Welp, the ref lineup still isn’t done cause I haven’t drawn Shion yet, and the belated valentines I’ve been working on are gonna be like at least a month late cause I just planned three more, but what I did do these past couple weeks is start writing a fanfic and then immediately abandon it to go draw a bunch of only tangentially-related suzutsubas (except for that first pic; that’s a scene from it, albeit one I haven’t written yet), only half of which are fit for public posting (one of ‘em I could make a few edits and feel ok about posting sometime; it’s not that out there, it’s just, y’know. Hamal Cine Bad End Hyperbolic Torture Chamber. I’m usually very “whatever happens happens” about my art but if I don’t show some restraint I know I’ll end up stuck in there forever), but hey, since I’ve been teasing them for ages and finally have some finished stuff with them, take a couple Suzumii! Also gonna ramble abt headcanons under the cut (and it will be LONG)

To begin, a note abt my Len’en gender/pronoun headcanons: as a they/them preferrer myself, I’m thrilled that most people just stick with those for everyone, but I’ve developed some more detailed headcanons as I go through working on designs and I’ll generally be using those. Don’t worry though, most of them are still nonbinary and basically all of them are trans/gq. Relevant ones for this post are Tsubakura: they/them nonbinary (transmasc to some degree) and Suzumi: cis female, question mark?? (to be elaborated on); for clarity’s sake I usually use she/her for Arde and Hamal Cine individually and plural they for the system collectively (also I don’t usually use their nicknames, dunno why), but singular they for Benet (the wiki says Benny is probably short for Benetnasch so I’m assuming that’s their actual name) for reasons which will also be elaborated on (sort of).

Aaalso this clearly isn’t autobiographical or anything but I think I’m subconsciously putting a lot of myself into Suzumi because 1) we do look pretty similar (brown wavy bob + blue eyes) and 2) given their current status as both the main antagonist and the most well-known plural Len’en character (I get the impression that Hooaka also being plural isn’t super common knowledge; I mean it took me several read-throughs of their wiki page and their dialogue with BPoHC Secret Team to get what they were getting at lol) I am probably way too anxious about doing a bad stereotype. Just an observation and also probably partially why I’ve even ended up with so much headcanon for them in the first place

And before I get into the thick of it, notes on derivations from canon: I’m running with the assumption that Suzumi being a system is a relatively recent development tied to whatever incident it was that caused the falling-out, since Tsubakura is like the only person who seems at all familiar with Hamal (including Mitori/Chouki/Fumikado, but they’re more easily explained away as just having met with one of the other alters the few times they’ve interacted) even though she’s supposedly usually the one fronting. They don’t seem to know the mechanics of it though, judging by their confusion when Arde implied that she and Hamal are different people. So basically, I’ll be referring to pre-incident Suzumi as a different character from any of the other three. (Ngl I am very influenced by Dissociation Constant on that and just in general [when will my wife The One and Only Suzutsuba Fic return from the war…..]) I was also debating whether to have Suzumi have any history with the gang before starting to work at the lab/whether stuff would happen around high school or college age, cause they keep referring to everything happening “a long time ago” and I know I, a 24-year-old, feel like stuff that happened five years ago was like yesterday, but I do have the pandemic and not really doing much of anything for most of that time to reckon with so like, eh. College age makes more sense in my head and so does the dynamic of like, Suzumi was only introduced into the friend group (she was acquainted w Hoojiro and Yabu already though bc lab) because she was dating Tsubakura and since that ended, and badly (understatement of the century), they have extremely little reason to be civil with each other and also interacting at all is really awkward.

Ok now on with it! Either end of high school or beginning of college, Suzumi ends up interning at Tsubakura’s lab for college credit (Tsuba’s already practically a department head despite being like 17 or something because. Idk. Who even knows what’s up with them) and she’s like. Only wears t-shirts and jeans (bought a bunch of khakis for this job though), [reading] glasses from the men’s section, hates leaving her hair down (it’s lab safety anyways). Repressed queer in denial, you know the type. Starts interacting a lot with Mx. Tsubakura “wears short shorts that everybody thinks are actually a skirt and also uses ore and omae almost exclusively” Enraku who seems to have everything all figured out and is immediately starstruck (GIRL WHY?? they are such a mess). Lots of “do I want to date them or do I want to be them” confusion (this will be relevant later); eventually evolves into the “am I trans or just a lesbian” question (not that they would need to be attracted to women to be into Tsubakura but you get the picture), which never quite gets answered.

In any case, they do eventually start dating (Tsubakura thinks she’s cute and smart so they reciprocate), and they’re not like super great together cause Tsubakura is emotionally constipated at the best of times (Suzumi’s into that though) and neither of them are the most mentally/emotionally healthy people even back then and also Tsubakura is more or less Suzumi’s boss which is weird, but they’re kind of ok??? Tsubakura’s mom dies at some point, also they move in together (college housing is expensive), the rest of the crew at the very least tolerate Suzumi, etcetera.

And then…! [insert catastrophic event here]!! I don’t have a shot to call on this yet cause I have no idea what it could’ve been (and I’m sure it’ll get revealed at some point anyways); I’m just banking on it being something extremely not mundane and something where you could reasonably set the blame on either (or neither) party cause they sure both seem convinced the other is way worse, huh! In Tsubakura’s case at least, blaming Suzumi is partially a defense mechanism so their self-loathing doesn’t get the better of them over it (guess what the fic was supposed to be about, lol).

The worst part of all this business though is that they DON’T break up over it immediately and it just makes everything orders of magnitude worse for everyone involved. Tsubakura and Arde have hate sex MORE THAN ONCE………… they would both really rather forget about it. Hamal thinks it’s hilarious, ofc, but the less said about her, the better. And Benet… exists??? The only idea that I’m running off of for them atm is the observation that I think they’re the only character with flat black eyes other than Tsubakura/Tsurubami and the subsequent idle thought, “hey if someone malded so hard about a breakup that they ended up with an introject of their ex would that be messed up or what?” So make of that what you will. (Oh and it may have been obvious that this is what I was going for but Hamal is femme and Arde is butch and they’re constantly squabbling abt aesthetic presentation. Having Arde be straight-up male would’ve been too straightforward of an interpretation and I think it’s funnier this way)

The canonically mentioned murder attempts start taking place and I’m leaning towards Tsubakura eventually being convinced to move out even though it was originally their apartment, albeit mostly just because the wikipedia page for house sparrows mentions that they’re known to take over swallows’ nests, usually after they’ve been abandoned, but they will sometimes drive away or kill the current occupants, and that was a very fun fact to come across when specifically doing research for Len’en but idk how else to incorporate it lol. And so on and so forth up until the present time.

Uhhh is that all I have atm? I think so! Anyway, I think I finally shook out all my suzutsuba doodles (and rambling, though I do still have that fic to work on. idk whether I’ll be able to finish it though; I started strong with an extended metaphor in the middle but Iiiii’m not sure if I can successfully write my way up to it while making it make sense. Also I may draw pretty slow but I write even slower!! Eh I’m sure I’ll post some of it sometime) for the time being so I should theoretically be able to finish up my bigger projects now. Maybe I’ll have the valentines ready in time for white day? We’ll see!

[freddy-and-friends-au]

The band’s all here! (WIP)

I still haven’t finished their new endoskeletons yet, but I think I have their suits mostly down!

Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the inbox!

EXTRA INFO AND SCREENSHOTS UNDER THE CUT!!!

At first glance, these are obviously inspired by the traditional Chuck E. Cheese x Rockafire Explosion suits, designing them more like sports mascot costumes and having very little of the endoskeleton showing at all times (say for Foxy, of course). This was not only for more realistic world-building, but also to optimize animation, as we now have less moving parts that are actually showing, and therefore, less to render.

You might be wondering “if you wanted a more realistic approach to the suits, why not take a more realistic approach to the masks, like a more ShowBiz Pizza style?” And to that I say: everyone does that.

Okay, that isn’t entirely the reason. I like the idea of basing the designs more off of the canon models than something that already exists, because I like the idea of FazEnt having their own style of making animatronics. The ShowBiz style isn’t the only way to do animatronic masks, and these masks are how FazEnt would go about making them. Even when FazEnt does use the trademark ShowBiz rubber-face masks on the Junior models, they don’t do it the same way that ShowBiz does it.

Something interesting I want to do with Freddy & Friends is to set narrative moments apart from the moments meant to be passed off as real footage. The designs shown above are for the latter, meanwhile the narrative will use more artistically stylized suits textured to more so resemble a comic book, sort of like Into The Spider-Verse (except instead of going for a generalized comic book feel, the Freddy & Friends style is gonna be more reminiscent of the Batman: Year One comic). The designs will be more reminiscent of how I draw them on paper, as opposed to being faithful to the canon.

Here’s some extra info as to how I came up with the designs, as well as some extra renders and concept art!:

Original concept art from September 30, 2020.

Freddy was a little obvious to design, probably because everyone seems to design him like this when making more cartoonish versions of him. A more defined tuxedo complete with a collar and cuffs with a red stripe around his hat. It just seemed like the right direction to go in.

Bonnie was initially intended to wear a vest, though I was holding out for something else so that he could be differentiated from the evil rabbit (the evil rabbit wears a vest). I asked my friends what I could change it to, and one of them said “Try a cardigan”. Honestly, that fits Bonnie’s personality so much better, both in terms of spirit and cartoon.

You might also notice that Bonnie was supposed to have buck teeth, as well as more squared off teeth. That was originally part of his V1 model, but when I tried applying that to the new models, literally any way I tried to arrange it made Bonnie look like so much like an insufferable asshole that I wanted to punch him in the face. Ultimately, I ended up ditching the buck teeth and just gave him his classic teeth.

Chica was a little hard to do something unique with at first. I initially wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with her, but when I modeled her V1, her little chef’s hat was a last minute addition to her design. I’m also thinking about changing her bib into an apron, per the toon designs that Henry posted a while back.

Foxy was probably the most fun to design. Obviously, his final model has a lot of details inspired by the FNAF movie, but when I was designing him 4 years ago, I really just wanted to go crazy with his design. I wanted him to have a beard, I wanted him to have a peg leg (I really liked the idea of animating him with a limp). Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll keep the peg leg, because it might be a little too hard for Henry to animate with the tech that he has.

As a cheeky little reference to the roots of the FNAF fandom, I wanted Foxy’s hook to resemble the hook seen on the Splinks Foxy model. ;)

Endo01 - Version 4 WIP

I’ve done a few different versions of the endoskeleton. What I’m trying to do for this new one is to assemble him modularly, allowing me to make each component a recognizable component (they’re also actually modeled after real components).

I’m not gonna go into detail about the functionality of this guy, because I eventually plan to make a Freddy & Friends Instructional VHS series centered around being a mechanic for FazEnt. However, what I will say is that these designs are intended to have plausible functionality, especially using the technology of the 1980’s (which is not restricted to pneumatic technology, because making an animatronic walk with pneumatic actuators while maintaining the traditional complexity of animatronic endoskeletons is simply impossible).

EXTRAS:

The original Version 1 designs

My failed attempt at giving Bonnie buck teeth (I wanna punch him so bad…)

Fixed Foxy

???

[sheepfish03]

Here is my part of @shepscapades​ ‘s character design challenge! I went with drawing non-life-series hermits as red lifers.

originally I just did Welsknight, but I was on a roll so I added Xb as well, and,,, you can’t separate Xb from Keralis so he’s here too, being his,,, lovely self (wow look at that eldritch horror K propaganda)

(Below the cut I’ve added individual shots of them all without the gradient layer I used as shading here, and I talk a wee bit about the designs etc.)

Some general notes include:

originally I intended for Wels to be working for Ren during 3rd life, but then I was plagued by visions so this is actually set on an original life series season I’ve been calling wanted life (pspsps come closer,,, ask me about this I swear I’ll be normal and not abandon all my current projects to develop a fic or something)

All three of them are an allied, their base Is in a snowy mountain (which is why Wels and Xb have the fur collars) I don’t know what their alliance is called but I’ll figure it out probably

Wels went red first, due to some unfortunate luck regarding the gimmick of this made up season, and had been red for a while before eventually Keralis also joins him on the reds. Xb is the last to turn, and in fact survives on so long that by that time Wels has already lost his last remaining life.

Here’s Wels! My pride and joy! I really wanted to do him because it’d be a great excuse of designing some armor again, without having to chain myself into having to do that for every life series member when I eventually draw them

Originally, to make him seem more intimidating, I was going to put him in a massive suit of armor, but after gathering my references I realized it might be hard to make work with my,,, centaur design for him (You can’t put all that heavy shit on a horse I’m pretty sure!) So instead I just, gave him an different suit of armor than I usually do. If you’re wondering what might be up with all the eye imagery, It’s,,, mostly because I couldn’t figure out anything better to put there so I gave him all the eye imagery I couldn’t give Keralis on account of him being,,, naked.

The really fun part about his design though,,, is his big-ass anime sword! If you can’t tell I was heavily referencing a few genshin impact weapons for this. When he’s green/yellow the eye is closed and only opens when he gets to red.

Xb! He’s a shark. And he has a bow.

I don’t have much to say of him since I was mostly just winging everything here,,, He’s a shark because I like them, he has a bow because hes good with them. the bow looks like that because I wanted it to vaguely look like the same Genshin esque bullshit that Wels’s sword does.

I did give him black eyeliner,,, I,,, can’t remember why I did that but hey it’s there.

Okay so Keralis,,, all red-life-skins, exist on a spectrum, idk what the spectrum is but for reference Skizz’s limited life skin and Rendog’s 3rd life skin are on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

While I would have loved to draw Keralis all badass and stuff,,, I knew in my heart that he would be the kind of guy to,,, you know,,, follow in the footsteps of Scar and Skizz

HOWEVER to make him a little creepy I figured I could tap into those sweet sweet eldritch horror allegations

“But Sheep!” I hear you asking, “Isn’t their base in a snowy mountain, wont he get cold.” He will, and he does. You underestimate how far he’ll go for a bit. (Also it’s a fantastic opportunity for him to steal Xb’s hoodies!)

also a bonus meme I doodled as soon as I realized... the situation

transcript since it’s my handwriting: Has to draw Keralis as a “half naked red-life” instead of a “badass red-life”

Too long, didn’t read, I’m happy for you tho or I’m sorry that happened

[fahbev]

Babs, Bruce and Danny in my dpxdc merfolk au!!!

argh, plz excuse the poorly edited photo lmao- lost a lot of detail TvT

Babs has her info Here. But this is her design! I’m not actually entirely sure if any of these designs are final, i might tweak them, but here she is! I gave her necklaces.

Bruce is based on a leatherback sea turtle! The spots aren’t actually super accurate to a leatherback’s underside, but if you look at it a little harder... you may find a fun little easter egg. It’s subtle... or at least i tried to make it that way. (If people don’t get it i’ll explain in a rb lol) Did you know that leatherback sea turtles can be up to 880 pounds? Idk what that is in metric but that’s roughly 7 and a half Bahfevs. They’re also much more triangular/less round than other turtles, so I reflected that in his design. And ofc, Bruce and Damian are both sea turtles bc they’re related. But they’re different sea turtle species so it doesn’t make much sense. Who gives a flip. What’s Talia, you ask? To that I say: 🤷‍♀️

(Side note: apparently, I’ve conditioned myself so I can’t draw nuetral expressions. It’s gotta have some emotion or else it looks wrong, and it feels natural to always have something going on there. So... drawing Stoic McStoicface here was a pain in the penis. He kinda has an expression anyway lol)

Danny is based on a ghost knife fish! I’ll be honest, i didn’t even know these existed until I looked up “ghost fish” in the hopes of finding something thematic. But then... omg! They’re black with little white accents? Like Danny’s design? And they have cool, funky bodies? AND they produce electricity!?? That’s so FKING COOL! I’ll have to do more research, but so far i’m pretty sure they don’t produce enough electricity to hurt someone. They are related to electric eels though! I first learned that electric eels were knife fish and not true eels when I was researching the moray eel for Duke. Funny how that connects!

Danny’s story under the cut!

Heehoo!

Okay so basically: Danny went diving to gather pearls because he wanted to make his parents happy/proud. While he was diving, His foot got caught in a rock and he couldn’t get it out. He panicked and he begged— to who? God, maybe? The universe, or the ocean? Maybe just begging fate or any higher power that could be out there, he doesn’t know. His only prayer was “Don’t let me drown!”. Unbeknownst to him, one of the pearls he’d grabbed was a magic, wish granting pearl. They’re rare enough that humans don’t even have legends of them... but the merfolk do ;).

The pearl took his very non-specific wish and decided to give him a tail and gills. He swam back up in a panic, and saw his new tail. Of course, this is a very horrifying thing to happen. But in less than a minute... it was already starting to dry off. As it dried, it turned back into skin.

Now, Danny has to be extremely careful not to get his legs or hair wet when he’s near people, because he’ll turn back into a merboy.

i... probably should have given him a shirt? He’d be wearing it, right? But i also did need to see what I was doing with that fin thing lol. I mean, a shirt would get annoying with that fin- he’d probably take it off. Tbh he’d probably have it off when swimming in general? Idk.

So: funny thing that happened when I was drawing Danny:

A first grader came up to me while I had it open on my desk, and she was like:

“Oh my god, that’s so good! Like, how did you even draw that?”

so I was like: “Oh thank you! ❤️”

And I think she asked again “How did you even draw that?”

so I was a little confused on how to answer, so I said:

“Well, I used my pencil...” and held up my pencil—

and then she got distracted by a spinny chair.

She’s so precious omg 🥰

[demvalhaken]

Hiiiiiii!!! Here’s me yapping about Insect culture and stuff

I drew this little thing of Mrs. Creek, who’s a Dragonfly by-the-way. This is probably just a doodle cus I didn’t work that long on this drawing of her. The architecture in the back is based off on some Greek temples and stuff like that. The Library of Aldaros is basically where she lives as she’s like literatures number one fan. Also don’t judge, she’s bald on the top of her head.

(Random language thingy cus I like making weird words in fictional languages)

So the language of Aldaros is called Aldarin because you know, but Aldaros/Aldarin are exoterms (I think that’s the right word?) Aldaros and Aldarin are actually from ancient Wasps who discovered the continent and it’s inhabitants (Ex: Crickets, Dragonflies, and Flies) The name comes from the ancient Waspian root Aldar/Aldor which means “less or fewer.” Basically the name of the continent means “Land of the lesser/inferior” to people who understood the ancient Waspian language. The endoterm actually used by its people is Ultoria, where Ult means foliage or flora and Ria means land or area. The endoterm is Ultoria (Land of great flora/foliage) and the exoterm is Aldaros (Land of the lesser) There’s actually unique letters for both Wasp and Ultorian but it’s better to show them in English then the actual native letters. Hold on, let me write them for your own curiosity!

I might change these letters but remember THIS IS NOT MODERN WASP LETTERS!!! This is from around 4,000-6,000 years ago when the term was created.

I forgot to mention but in Ultorian if there is an G-like letter in-between two other letters it means there is great/many of the first letter. A lot of people just write it without the G-like letter but some like to describe it better with great/many.

You should probably know who Bevel Stingheart is by now if you’ve seen my post but for those who haven’t I’ll basically just say who she is.

Bevel Stingheart is a descendant of Henry Stingheart, who was a royal guard like her. Bevel is in a secret marriage with Queen Snow Seaclaw (Current ruler of Wasp City) and is her royal bodyguard. She’s also a General of the People and General of War, as for General of the People that means she can arrest people and do whatever to keep the people protected and/or safe. General of War means that if there’s a war, she’d probably help make plans and get everyone ready for combat/give instruction or help.

I think Bevel is really silly, I really need a break from all this nerd talk help :l

Ancient Queen Bloodlust/Bloodlust 2,000 years ago when she was actually visible to the public. I based her clothing off of Ancient Chinese wears like the Han Dynasty I believe (I REALLY HOPE IM SPELLING THAT RIGHT) I never really had a crown design for her so I just put a giant jade on her crown cus like I don’t really have any Spider culture down just yet BUT I PROMISE I WILL! There are claw marks on her neck because of a recent war that happened in the Ancient Spider Kingdom (War of Webs) THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE THOUGH!!! I believe as of right now the war is about territory, Bloodlust’s kingdom wanted more land as their population was growing but the lesser weren’t cooperating. NOW THATS A LOT OF YAP I KNOW, BUT I LOVE THESE GUYS THOUGH!!! CATECIS IS JUST A WAY FOR ME TO SHOW MY LOVE FOR STORIES

So sorry I haven’t been posting a lot, I haven’t been doing too well mentally and I feel like shit 24/7. I love all of you so much!!! Especially my children (Followers)!!!

(If you have any questions, you can ask. If you like this yapping, consider supporting because there’s a lot of Catecis art on the way)

EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION BUT BLOODLUST’S HAIR IS TIED IN LIKE A BOW SHAPE!!! No the hair on her head isn’t ears or stuff like that, it’s just a hair-tied bow. Spiders don’t even have that kind of hearing

[davyjoneslockr]

3, 7, and 12, mista and fugo :3

TONY UNSHADOWBANNED PARTY I know this was from a month ago but I'm gonna answer it anyhow lmfao

(For this ask game)

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

For Mista, the Trish cleavage scene. You know the one. I don't think I have to explain this much. Boy Why Did You Do That. The only good thing to come out of that scene was jaunty jigglesacks + overeager horndog insane psychic damage combo of lines in the dub.

I could take this a lot of ways for Fugo tbh. Because there's a lot of things that drive me insane about him as a person, but looking at him as a character, I LOVE that he's rash and hurts his friends and his defining character moment is him making a selfish, cowardly decision. I guess I'd say his misogyny in Purple Haze Feedback? I'm admittedly a believer that, yes, he would fucking say that, but it sucks that he would. At least he gets better by the end lol. Fugo voice I'm sorry women Sheila E is me

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I love that Mista has been designated Beautiful Brown-Eyed Bisexual Man by literally the entire fandom. Bi Mista brings us all together. And I do like the idea that his queerness is something he discovered much more slowly, and as a direct result of the gang. Something about that really ties in with the idea of the Bucci Gang as less of a realistic gang, more akin to a drag house or similar queer pseudo-family. Credit to that concept to Fox figcookie01 btw this is one of my favorite Vento Aureo analyses ever and it really informs how I conceptualize the Bucci Gang. Anyhow.

I also really like when people actually take care to explore his character and make him a very distinct, smarter-than-he-looks, older brother-type figure. It's really interesting when people explore his spirituality, too, whatever religion that may be, because that's a pretty important part of him. AND also OCD Mista truthers who know when to treat his superstitions and compulsions with some weight I love you forever. I think he's a character that gets watered down in fanworks a lot, but when his characterization's good, it's really good. There's plenty of artists and writers that have really blown me away with their Mista (and I say this as someone who's picky about characterization lol)

With Fugo, first of all. The PHF scars. Another thing that Mandela Effected the PHF fandom, but it's so so important to me. I love you physical, tangible, blatantly visible proof that Fugo has grown as a person since the day he abandoned the gang. Awesome. I also like that people mix and match his manga/anime colors, and every artist kinda draws him in a different way.

My favorite thing is probably the Fugo-Abbacchio stepkid and stepparent/siblings/Big Goth and Baby Emo Who Secretly Looks Up To Them dynamic. It’s awesome when it’s cartoonishly antagonistic and it’s awesome when it’s actually very sweet and heartfelt. Out of all the Bucci Gang dynamic interpretations the fandom’s produced, theirs is one of my favorites <3

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

SO MANY FOR BOTH OF THEM LOL. But I’ll try to list some I don’t talk about as much.

Besides The Carpenters, Mista’s a big fan of folk, acoustic singer-songwriter pop, and soft classic R&B/gospel. Artists with really strong voices tend to catch his attention. The Mamas and the Papas, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Simon and Garfunkel, The Seekers, and Gordon Lightfoot are some of his favorites. He’s also just a big sucker for love songs in general, and the hopeless romantic in him loves old girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shirelles. He’s also very much Schrödinger’s Guy to me. Cis? Trans? Who knows. Depends on what the situation calls for (though more often trans to me as of late). He’s just Some Dude.

Fugo’s a surprisingly good singer, but he’ll rarely do it if he knows other people are listening. A lot of times, he’ll sing in the shower, or when he’s alone in the car. As he gets older, he gets less self-conscious about it, and he’ll sing around the house when he’s with Giorno, or do duets with Mista for fun. There are also very much timelines in the Vento Aureo Multiverse in my brain where Fugo’s transfem. This also tends to coincide with transfem Abbacchio timelines, so there’s another layer added to Fugo looking up to Abbacchio, and I think Giorno (always transmasc to me) is really instrumental in helping her work through things and take pride in her transness. Maybe a little bit of a self-indulgent fluffy comfort hc that helps me work though my own genderisms lol