#I'll go in a bit more detail when i post their ref sheet

[aangelfreckles]

I'm curious about what y/n's motivations are as to why they tried out to be the royal guard for two substitute rulers. Was it fame? Money? A title? Was there a debt they needed to repay? Friends? Love at first sight?? Was it... because they were playing the long-game assassin/intel collection? Prophecy?? --

bonus question in the chances that the previous question were major spoilers. What are the boys' opinion on y/n or what do they like/dislike about them? :3

Eeek such good questions!! Ok ok so this gonna be done in multiple parts because the comic I'm making about Sun and Moon's opinion on Y/N are a bit long (⁠´⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠.̫⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠`⁠)

So let's start with Y/N motives!

TW! THIS PIECE HAS SLIGHT BLOOD AND SLIGHT IMPLICATIONS OF PAST ABUSE

Y/N was raised in a village quite far from the rest of the kingdom but still close enough to be considered a part of it, They never saw outside of that small village in their childhood. from the day they learned to walk they were constantly trained by their mother to be a royal guard, nothing else. They were put through years of ruthless training and grew up with a mindset that their only use was to be a royal guard. They have no idea why their mother wanted them to do this so badly, they learned to stop asking after a while. When it was finally time for them to tryout for the royal guard position they knew they couldn't mess it up, this is all they know.

Now, what would happen if 2 rulers showed them that they matter a lot more than just being a guard? (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

[bluegekk0]

fav art pieces of each character?

Ooooh this is a good question. I'll start with the ones I haven't drawn as much since that's going to be easy. Long post ahead.

Hornet first:

I think I like how she turned out on this birthday drawing the most. Maybe it's because it's one of the rare instance of her smiling. She does look a lot more like Vyrm when she does.

Holly next:

It's gotta be this one. It is slightly outdated since I changed the design on their legs but I really like this drawing regardless. They look really good in that casual cloak too, I was actually considering making that their main outfit for a while

Zote:

It's pretty old but I like how he looks on this ref sheet image. It captures that Rocket Raccoon & Groot dynamic I always envisioned for these two, and I like Zote's expression.

Now for the kids, this is where it becomes harder.

Lewk:

It has to be this one. I mean, just look at him. My favorite detail is the drawing he's making, I wanted to make it look like it's meant to be Dirtmouth, with the tiny houses and mountains in the background. And I love how his long back fur looks here, like a big mane of sorts.

Asta:

This one from the birthday drawing. I love her expression here and just the general pose she's in, I'm really proud of it. She really looks like a little kitten here and it melts my heart

Milo:

I really like this one. He looks so tired and grumpy, and unimpressed with his sister's antics. I think his skinny body really comes through with this one, and I love how his little "mane" turned out.

Okay, now for the hardest part. It's going to be impossible to choose just one, so is it okay if I pick my favorite three? I think it's okay. There's so much art of these two after all it only makes sense.

Vyrm:

I'm going to go with these three. The top one I'm super proud of, his expression, the arm and all the details around him. The second one isn't surprising, I've been using it as my profile picture for a long time now, I'm so happy with how squishy Vyrm looks there. And the last one may actually be a bit of a surprise, especially considering it was kind of a vent piece, but I think he generally just turned out so well there. It was a drawing that really helped me figure out how to modify how I draw his torso to make it look better. My favorite detail is the dried tear marks, they really add to that exhausted look.

And last but not least, Grimm:

It was hard to choose, but I'm really happy with these three. First one I'm just proud of he generally turned out, I like the expression I gave him, and as silly as it may sound, I think his butt and tail ended up looking really nice hahah. The second one is, well. It was a really self-indulgent one. Top one may be a bit suggestive but I think it might actually be my favorite of the two, though I'm really happy with the bottom one as well. And the last one, funnily enough, is a similar situation to the last one I picked for Vyrm. A vent-ish piece that is a lot less upbeat than most of my art, but man, I'm so happy with it to this day.

Honorable mention for both of them is this one. It is a bit outdated in some aspects so that drags it down a little bit for me, but aside from that it's one of my favorite pieces in general. Might have been the first one to start the trend of using brighter (usually yellow) backgrounds but I'm very happy that I did. I think this piece in particular just radiates with such a positive, comforting energy that I might just go back and touch it up a little bit to bring their designs more up to date, I think it would really benefit from that (I'm considering doing that with a lot of my older favorites, I really like having things be more consistent haha)

Anyway, this was a lot of fun, thank you so much for asking!

[itsyagurlchip]

Can u tell me more of ur au plz?

you're in luck! I still have a few character ref sheets left! I'll give more characterization and backstory for these lil guys!

also sorry if this comes out a bit late- im taking a break from art for a while and while im typing this (07/30/24) i'm also finishing the visualization ref page for reader.

(current chip) ANON KISSING YOU ON THE CHEEK SWINGING YOU AROUND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK!!<3333 MY IDEAS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE CATCH UP OR BE CONFUSED.

It's both an AU, and a fic so I apologize if things get messed up. So when I say "Undertake Sans/Papyrus/Person" it refers to my AU rather than the original "classic". My fic refers to the "6 skeletons, one human" trope and the AU focuses on details from the Undertake universe.

I may have over explained, but I wanted to keep that clear- And most of this post will take the time to talk about the plot and lore of the fic.

As I've said before, Undertake is just a sillier version of Undertale where shenanigans happen all the time on the surface. But I've never explained fully why. Welp! Here you go....

We all know how the trope goes. Sans tries to get his Dad back, and succeeds! Except this time, it's on the surface. And Frisk doesn't feel like...Frisk. Anyways, bringing Gaster back from the Void has caused complications within the universe, about 5 years after monsters resurfaced.

"One time things" turn into regular occurrences, stereotypical situations that would never happen in real life are happening, it's overall stupidity!

But Sans and Reader are the only ones who "know" about this change. Sans just rolls along with it, using this as a breather from past resets. Reader, on the other hand, has whiplash from the whole thing. When did everything change? and why? Something felt wrong in their SOUL. Everyone else seems to fit into this random "normal" and it pisses reader off.

But they're a kid. They don't know what they're talking about, so they ignore them as best as they can.

-

Since every monster is on the surface, and pretty much all need jobs, Sans becomes a scientist of sorts. He represents most monster scientists, and helps humans with the evolution of magic-science. He doesn't work all the time, that's a big role to fit in; something Alphy's would gladly take, and so he mostly works on projects at home.

Integrating n shit, I'll leave those details to the fic.

After getting licensed, transferring his master's degree in physics, and getting all the tools he needs, he decides to re-build gaster's machine to bring him back.

Mind you, this is a year after they get to the surface, so nothing has changed yet. When Gaster came through the machine (I'll draw it so you can get a better representation of what it looks like) he was horrified.

Why was he melting? His face was now stuck in a forever frown. Looking at his hands, you could still see the holes engraved into them from when he was first born.

He began to sign something ancient, a language horrifically nostalgic he almost forgot to catch what he was saying.

But before he could respond, the world went black. There was a wild pulsing in his SOUL before the world went black.

^^reader parallels this btw

I'm not gonna drop too much, because I don't wanna spoil any plans I have for this, but thank you so much for this ask!! I might even start writing chapters in January

here's reader's character sheet btw. (and when you guys read it do understand that you dont have to portray them in the same way i do, nor do you have too be an ass abt it)

©KAL pls don't steal, repost, trace, or whatever an art theif does. you can inspire yourself! just tag me to let me know<3

y'all better clap for me

im on a writing roll

☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔*:･(title)☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ᯓᡣ𐭩(warnings:) ᯓᡣ𐭩(note) ᯓᡣ𐭩 (summary)

૮₍˶• .•⑅₎ა tags: @kittykittyanon @bonefanatic @oleander-nin @towomatos @thealphagirl

૮₍˶• .•⑅₎ა@ziipzeepzop-eez @wheezdostuff @spongejuice @cyb3r-st4r @matteo-hamato

@clown-froggi @acesgarden

if you would like to be added, check my blog. if you would like to be added, check my blog. SEE? I SAID IT TWICE!!

[danthediamondminecart]

yO

guess who couldn't hold it in

(I WONT SPAM I PROMISE 😃😃😃😭😭😭👍👍👍👍)

I just wanted to ask a teeny tiny lil question, can you give us a semi-detailed summary of how you potray the BLSMP battlers????

Like how do u wanna show them in the series, cuz i have a feeling we r potraying them VERY differently, and i wanna know how YOU think of them before i start to theorize once again >:3 (hopefully i will soon)

And also, ships. Can you ramble abt rbb ships?? U said u were gonna ramble abt some??? Im still waitin' Xd

Cuz some of them r so weird dude like WHAT 😭😭😭😭🤚🤚🤚🤚

I’ll start with the ships question first, because I feel like the second question is a hell of a loaded one. Basically, I’m not a shipper, and don’t really get it. But ship and let ship, don’t ship and let ship, as long as you’re not being an asshole about it, I won’t get upset. Hence why I haven’t made one of ‘em ‘ranking ships’ lists, because I really don’t care.

Won’t stop me from having capital-O-Opinions, though. My friends will know that TanqrCraft became a bit of a NOTP for me because of its overabundance and some poor interactions with the forefathers of the ship (2021/2022 RBB fandom was wild, guys, be glad you weren’t there), and my theory on PinkNebula feels controversial, as I've said. I am slowly working on the PinkNebula essay, but it’s not a priority, so it might not come out for a while.

As for the second question, as much as I love rambling about characterisation, I think attempting to show how I characterise all fourteen of BLSMP’s main cast (including Jimmy and Russo) would be quite difficult, especially trying to keep it short. I do have my hypothetical 'bios' for a hypothetical ref sheet, but those are as much about their backstories and set-up than it is about their personalities.

So…who’s up for a drabble under the cut? This is something that I feel like definitely happened during BLSMP, but it doesn’t fit anywhere during the story, plus you know the cast, so you don’t need a scene like this.

Perhaps I'll post this as supplemental material (like, in a separate 'work') on AO3?

“You know, Russo.” Jimmy pipes up, snapping Russo out of his thoughts. “Remind me. How many Robloxians got trapped again?”

“Twelve.” Russo answers. “How come?”

“Well, you know. I don’t know any of them, and I kinda want to know a little bit about your friends! Well, I know, BigB, but you get the gist.”

“Jim, if I attempted to explain my friends to you, we’d be here all day.” Russo chuckles a bit.

“Okay, well, why don’t we make it a game?” Jimmy suggests. “You attempt to explain your friends to me in 3 sentences or less.”

“Oh?” Russo raises an eyebrow, so Jimmy elaborates.

“Like, uh, using BigB as an example. Kind but mischievous, enjoys mucking about, cares deeply for his friends.”

“Hmm. Okay, I can do that, though I’m probably going to go over the limit. Repeatedly.” Russo takes a second to think, before starting. “We’ll go in alphabetical order:”

“AshleyTheUnicorn, RB Battles S2 finalist. Fearless, reckless, goes headfirst into battle, always encouraging her friends to be the same, BigB, we both know and love him, but he’s a little quieter around Robloxians from what it sounds like, DenisDaily, also a finalist - can charm anyone that he meets with just his smile, generally more aloof unless it’s a matter to do with someone’s wellbeing, DylanHyper, though we usually just call him Hyper - yet another finalist, prone to nervousness but also the smartest person in a room, if he's got a plan for something he'll have considered every detail, Flamingo, aka Albert, lover of chaos and breaker of rules, the type of person to kidnap people for fun, but does love his companions in his own way-"

“Slow down, what do you mean kidnap-"

“KreekCraft! Another finalist and the former victor. Jack-of-all-trades, super confident as long as you don’t question him and his determination is unmatched (even when it gets unhealthy), LeahAshe, finds it easy to make friends and teases them all, generally likes to act as both a mediator and as the cause of strife, adaptable but cowardly at times, MeganPlays, likes to know everything she can about everything and is always curious, a bit of a pessimist, and tends to hold grudges for longer than she can even remember, PinkLeaf, quiet and dislikes social situations, but with one heck of a temper so don’t anger him (we all think he’ll be the favourite to win Season 3), prefers to run away from fights both verbal and physical, iAmSanna, or just, well, Sanna, unafraid to speak her mind even with a sword pointed at her, super perceptive and spots everything, prone to intense emotions of whatever variety, Sketch, an ‘act-first-ask-questions-later’ kind of guy, likes to mess about and has a tendency to end up as a bit of a load, will look out for his team though always himself first, Finally, there’s TanqR, current reigning champion. Normally laid back and chill but has a fiery side, likes his control, likes the fact that people are intimidated by him, would rather solve his problems through punching.”

“Okay, there’s a lot you glossed over there, but I won’t bring it up.” Jimmy’s still reeling from the ‘kidnaps people for fun’ comment. “Ooh, ooh, actually, do me! You’re good at the 3-sentences thing, do me!”

“Hmm…only if you do me. SolidarityGaming, you’re, hm…prone to yelling and making mistakes, but more courageous than you first appear, and dedicated to whatever cause you choose.”

“Aww, that’s…you know, with the way that started, I really wasn’t expecting you to be nice there.” Jimmy admits, somewhat bashful. “As for you…well, you’re optimistic at all times and clearly will do whatever it takes to protect your friends, though I have to say, you’ve got some wild ideas.”

“I’m going to take that last part as a compliment.” Russo jokes, leading Jimmy to giggle.

“Well, your friends sound like a colourful bunch.”“We’ve gotten pretty good at controlling the more chaotic personalities. Uh, not perfect, but pretty good.” Russo replies.

“I certainly hope so.”

[xivrefsheets]

Dawntrail Updates!

Figured I may as well toss a post to the void with DT rapidly approaching. Ahem. Hello! First of all...

Wow... thanks a bunch! I'm happy this little project has proven to be so helpful for so many folks out there! I figured once I stopped updating that this blog was gonna fizzle out into obscurity but I'm still getting quite a bit of interaction despite the inactivity (I really do miss Tumblr sometimes...)

Anyway, wanted to put an update out here on things going forward after DT drops and knowing how rambly and Autistic™ I tend to get, I'll just put that in a cut.

So as I've mentioned in passing in the tags of a random ask, I'm sort of considering opening comms for ref sheets again due to really Really Spicy money-related happenings in my personal life. However, there's a few steps along the way before I make this a reality and this isn't even a full guarantee it'll happen as I'll also be opening art commissions in the near future and those will take more time and priority over ref sheets PLUS there's the factors that led me to closing in the first place.

I'm trying to steer away from using Anamnesis going forward for a number of reasons (some borderline petty, I admit) but I've been introduced to some nifty new plugins that are slowly taking the program's place that make posing infinitely easier and also fix the primary issue I had with Ana which was.... not allowing unique NPC faces to show in gpose anymore. (Yes I'm aware that they still worked for carbuncles and the like but that was just enough of a hassle for my posing needs that it made the sheets Not worth making anymore since I was already dealing with other stress on the side at the time as well). I'm still learning how to effectively utilize said plugins and once I've gotten better and mastered them that'll be the end of step 1.

Step 2 is gonna be... well... waiting for DT to drop. As we all know, a massive graphics overhaul is coming, so there's very little point in opening requests for new characters now when the models are about to be more detailed and will very likely be tweaked along the way if player feedback affects NPCs down the line.

Step 3... that I dread... revamping my studio yet again. Mostly just gonna be taking out some of the extra light sources since those tend to get in the way when the model is really tall and also researching more setups. May also see about utilizing chromakey as well. Idk idk. I doubt I'll have the energy to make the sheets super pretty like some folks do, but taking transparent shots will cut out a lot of distracting factors and make the finished sheets look a bit better I think.

Then after that, I'll probably do some practice rounds and re-work sheets for popular characters as well as fixing the old, shitty sheets from when I first started that were Way Too Yellow that I've been meaning to fix for literal years now (so sorry to all my fellow color-picking artists friends out there I'm sorry that's so annoying... TTATT) and from there I'll see if it's something I still want to pursue and open comms for.

I'll shoot for maybeeeee mid-August or so for the next update. Obviously, I still have a job and I'll be enjoying DT with the rest of you guys so it'll be some time before I even think of doing ref sheets again, but I at least wanted to throw out there that this is still something I think about, but a number of factors made me stop to begin with. One factor being...

...pricing! If/when I open again, it'll likely be a proper commission post on ko-fi and I'm thinking of starting at $10 with tipping enabled. In the beginning, I was allowing requests for the barest minimum of a donation and the constant $3 for characters with a ton of details to cover was getting a bit demotivating after a while, so I'm sorry if this puts off past and future clients, but I am doing all of this in my free time, so... ;w;

ANYWAY! If anyone read all this... thank you! I know it's a Lot and I'm sorry. Been a minute since I've had to do some sort of official addressing like this... haha.

Feel free to follow my ko-fi for updates regarding ref sheet commissions, art commissions, and whatever new art I post (if you're into that) and maybe toss a dollar or two my way since, yanno, I'm Quite broke rn and have an unpaid vacation coming up... 👉👈 or if you just wanna support a fellow queer this June.

and if y'all don't hear from me in a few months just assume I lied LOL!

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress #29-30✨

Let me start this off by apologizing for my inactivity 🙇‍♂️ I try not to dive too deeply into my mental health on this blog, but those who know me well know how much I struggle with it. I think my brain shut down and retreated after finishing my recent projects. I relied on daily never-ending tasks to get me through each day with a sense of accomplishment so when that ended, I wound up in a void where I couldn't bring my creativity to amount to anything new.

I kicked my butt back into gear the last couple of days after realizing how little I did during week 29 (and week 28 looked inflated, but I did most of the work in 2-3 days leaving most of my week blank).

I don't know where I'll go from here, but I've worked out some new upcoming plans for future projects! And I'll do my best to start replying to messages and comments;; I've left everyone on read for long enough...!!

Thank you so much everyone, for continuing to support me al this time! 💕

Weekly Progress #29

Wrote O2A2 post mortem

Finished aKwtD ref sheet lines, flat colors

Weekly Progress #30

Finished aKwtD Liz refsheet

Finished aKwtD Camille refsheet

Reorganized/scheduled work

made SFB roadmap

Prepped SYVNH plan

Updated vgen services

Drafted more proposals

Sketched SFB sprite

Detective story concepting/outlining

A Kiss with the Devil

I completed the refsheets for Ley's upcoming yuri game!

It was a lot of fun designing them from scratch and then being able to render them in full body art! I've always shied away from full body pieces because they take a lot of time and energy... the refsheets took over a week from sketch to final piece. But I'm really happy with how they came out!

Camille, the player character, and her love interest, an immortal and possibly immoral eldritch creature, Liz!

A Sky of Falling Birds

I'm working on proposals for funding and marketing of this game as it will be a commercial work when finished. I created a new roadmap for how I'll plan to get more assets done (...and reduce the number of assets, hopefully). The current plan is to have a Demo 2.0 for Yuri Jam to better show off the story since the current demo focused more on the art and animation aspect.

A sketch for the final character sprite of SFB. I originally planned to give her two outfits, but I might try to cut that if I can...

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel... HELP!!

Yes...! I've still got a bit of work left for this project!! Mainly some future updates. I do want to get a steam release for SYVNH one day so I'm working towards that!

I will also be putting out some surveys soon for interest in merch based on the characters. The feasibility of it will depend on interest for what type of merch, ofc, but at the very least, I will be working on some new art for folks soon [: As a thank you for playing, and all the love you've shown for the game so far!

Other

I went into more detail than I probably should've in the intro of this post, but even in my "slump," I've been busy practicing art when I'm not getting my butt kicked by some Hollow Knight mini boss for 2 hours.

I've started a doodle blog, that some folks found in less than 24 hours 💦I'm not ready to formally connect the two together, but if it seems like I've been active there, it's just cause I draw a lot every day. It makes the monotony feel better. This blog will still contain all of my devwork, but all my art musings will be in that one.

I'm sure I'll have the courage to link the two together soon.

[boilingrain]

Area Man Loses Memory, Proceeds To Get Adopted By Fishermen

So this is directly connected to me talking about how I'm finally comfortable enough to actually post the stuff I write, but this is Minnow!

(Also this isn't a proper ref sheet, this is more of just me trying to get used to his design + writing down some more important facts before I make one)

While he's not the main character, he's a very important character from an old concept I'm rewriting, Floodwaters (originally titled After The Flood). He's also technically the only character left from the original version of the story (though with a significant amount of changes from how he used to be), as I kind of lost what I had of the original version. Though all that was really lost was the original list of characters, since I really only had that & a tiny bit of plot written down.

While I won't share all of the details about him (both because spoilers and also because the story he's in is actively being re-written), I am going to take this time to ramble a bit about Minnow and the basic plot of Floodwaters (which I'll definitely talk more in-depth about at a later time)

As you can probably tell by the name (and the notes I have written down by Minnow's art), Floodwaters is about a flood.

Specifically, it's about a group of cats from various clans (and a few from outside them, such as Minnow here) trying to survive after a particularly bad storm that lead to a flood. The clans were forced to evacuate, but a few cats from each clan wound up getting separated from the rest of their clans and are now stuck in the flooded territories with no idea where their clans currently are, or how many of their clanmates are still alive (something that isn't helped by the bodies they find of some cats who weren't able to escape in time and, eventually, the bodies of some of the remaining cats)

Basically there's a small group of from each clan (excluding Skyclan, though they were in the original concept) trying to survive after a flood but then murders start happening.

After the storm had finally calmed, a few of the Riverclan survivors were looking around, trying to assess the damage that that had occurred, when they had stumbled across an injured and unconscious cat. This cat had been a source of debate within the group, torn between the desire to help whoever this was and wanting to conserve what little herbs they had left. They didn't know this cat, and they couldn't afford to waste herbs that they'll definitely need in the future. But it wouldn't be right to just leave them to die, and if this cat survived they might be able to convince them to help them out.

But when the stranger awoke, they learned that the head injury he had suffered had been bad enough to cause him to lose his memory, to the point he couldn't even remember his own name. He was happy to help out the cats who had saved his life, but the clan cats had no idea who he was or where he came from.

Eventually, he was given the name Minnow.

Minnow's head injury happened during the storm/flood (as well as a bunch of other injuries, but the head injury was the only one that left a scar like that) and while he can still can see out of the eye that was damaged by the injury, his eyesight is significantly worse and his eyelid was damaged.

Minnow suffers from frequent nightmares. They're not very clear, and he doesn't know what exactly to make of them. Unknown to him, these strange nightmares have something to do with who he used to be and how he wound up here in the first place. Additionally, the head injury he suffered causes him frequent headaches.

Minnow never actually does regain his memory, though he eventually learns his name from someone who used to know him. He doesn't go back to using his old name though, content to leave it behind with the past he doesn't remember.

Technically Minnow does eventually regain all of his memories, but that only happens after he's died (Spoilers but he doesn't die during Floodwaters) and become a spirit.

I could probably just keep rambling about the story, but honestly I'm tired.

I'll definitely do something similar whenever I draw one of the other survivors

[mirukimary]

My Art Summary for 2022!

(Under the cut I'll go into more details for each month, for memory's sake. Warning: It's LONG.)

Come one, come all for your opportunity to see all of the drawings I should have posted but never did! The ones that make me work harder every december to remember when tf i drew what! The ones that, in missing, make it seem like i only draw once a year--! (going through my twitter media tab is depressing LMAO)

JANUARY

[Pictured: Iola in Prenda clothing. There was a Twitter Post going around asking you to draw your WoL in your country's traditional clothes. Ofc I didn't skip the opportunity to do it! And drew my BF's WoL too for good measure. Still my fav drawing of the year!]

Also worked on a VTuber model for a friend (i drew it as a bust january last year; then this year was asked to expand it to full body). It was very challenging, but also fun!

For the rest, I designed some backstory NPCs for Asera (Daimyorus childhood friend, his goddess and a mage that helped us multiple times); and drew some twitch emotes for a client. Was a fresh, fun start. I remember having a lot of fun and finding that month quite relaxing.

(Goddess Rondra, Mage Rupin & elf-friend Pedro (RIP))

FEBRUARY

[Pictured: My friend's bunny boi~]

Further work was done on the VTuber model, a lot of parts that weren't quite working before were redrawn. He was taking form!! Now that most of the work was done, also did a ref sheet to go with it. I couldn't wait to see him moving!

That's when I started preparing to open commissions for realz, trying to think of prices and set up examples. I drew some BGs and the Complexity Guide, and set most of the boring things up. I plan to open comms either Jan 2023 or February 2023, so let's hope all the work paid off~

MARCH

[Pictured: 'Smile at the Blue Skies', or "Fuq i need a bust sketch ref for my commission examples page". Sounds a bit less dreamy now, huh? LMAO]

But yeah, most of the month was dedicated to the VTuber model, working to fix it as the rigger found issues. Ref Sheet was finished this month. I'll stop mentioning the model, but the back and forth lasted till june or so?? Had to fix all of his toggles; and redraw his entire hair to allow for a better 3D effect when moving (it went from 3~6 layers to over 20). This was my first time working on vtuber models, so there was A LOT to learn. It surprising how many pitfalls there is in vtuber making. I'm very proud of how it turned out, and eternally grateful to the rigger (and to my friend) for being so patient with me. I was sent a small demo of what he looks like, and seeing your drawing move so beautifully like that feels magical!! There's still much to design and draw before he can debut, but hope you can support him then!

Oh yeah, there was this attempt too:

APRIL

[Pictured: 'With Friends' the commission I worked on through March and April. Extra special because that's my friend & his pets there!]

Also sketched some ideas for illustrations of our RP characters (hi Irene), but never really completed them:

It feels so long since I made these... Double checked like 3 times to make sure it wasn't April 2021 LMAO

I REALLY want to revisit some of these now.

MAY

[Pictured: #XIVARTBASH drawing, featuring Nero.]

Also drew the catgirl from Love2DrawManga. Didn't do much this month (...or did but forgot). I believe I worked on some BGs I can't show, but these are still very much stuck at WIP :(

JUNE

[Pictured: Nia's WoL, Mat. Just a smol gift for someone that brings a lot of joy to FFXIV Twitter.]

So... I completelly forgot I was drawing my OCs outfits [facepalm]:

(Don't mind the two in the corner, I don't want my essay to get hit with Tumblr hammer LMAO They're nowhere near done). But yeah, these are my OCs from 'Elder''. I've had them since childhood, and still love them, even if I gave up on the book idea. Will make an actual post once all is done and I can go back to their character illusts uwu

JULY

[Pictured: Cade from 'Still Shining'. Working on this was an amazing experience~ Won't go on detail bc I already did, but still glad for the experience!]

Instead I'll talk about... Art Fight month!!!

SO.MUCH.FUN

I'm 100% going back next year! This event just proved how much I love drawing people's OCs. I really want to be a commission artist so I can do that for a living. Sadly I didn't get to draw everyone I wanted, plus I wasted a lot of time trying to look through OCs while the website was dying LMAO Next year I'll come prepared!

Also I drew that Spring picture to use as a reference in her profile there. I missed drawing her!

AUGUST

[Pictured: Commission for 'Under Maintenance'.]

Mostly worked on commemorative stuff. Anniversary chibi for Brie; that Under Maintenance pic; Thank You for DL message for 'Loving You Fully' and 'Still Shining'. Also designed some outfits (and painted some sprites) for Mythic Meetup: Midnight Mystery (not released yet!).

Started a bday gift for my boyfriend, but something kept looking 'off' about it so I didn't finish in time. Turns out it was overblended... And will require a redraw. Sorry boyfriend TT But my wife (tm) needs to look perfect!!

Also made the design for our new RP characters:

(mine is the not-cat girl, obviously)

...And I belive this is when I made that cursed Yshtola feeding Zero picture? Yeah.

SEPTEMBER

[Pictured: Witch Torunn]

Made the YCH bases, as well as 3 examples. I have no memories of this month, but Windows says this sketch is from september:

OCTOBER

[Pictured: Old OC redraw, for my Commission Guide. Decided to do it after a client asked for clarification if an old drawing was halfbody or fullbody (august last year, Torunn sitting down).]

They're really old OCs of mine. Ever RP-ed in Deviantart groups? I did!!

Cecilia (<-) is pretty much a Iola prototype: salve maker and potion seller who lives with her dad (who taught her the craft). One day he collapses during work, and Cecilia ends up overworking herself to afford his medicine and other living expenses. In desperation, she joins The Guild as a novice magician for money, and gets herself involved on a war she never intended to join.

Celticca (->) is a archer and aspiring musician who wants to make the most beautiful song (tm) for her family. She's very sweet, but naïve and scatterbrained. I didn't have much planned for her, but had a lot of fun seeing her constantly get involved with Evil/Neutral alligned characters w/o noticing LOL

....Now that I think about it, she's literally a FFXIV bard, before I knew anything about XIV.

The rest of October was focused on Magni's Birthday Project and my YCH Halloween Commissions.

...And THIS:

Halloween pictures of our current RP characters \O/ To go with our halloween session~ Also drew these two for our halloween one-shot:

Ellie (<-) and Hadrianus (->). Ellie is a yandere witch I made as a joke and fell in love with. Hadrianus is my BF's wizard. Yes, he looks like Dr. Strange. Yes, that's the joke. The 3rd character was Rosemary, but I didn't ask to draw her so she's missing :( I do want to draw all of them at some point. We accidentally made "Spy x Family, but it's horror and Loid wants to run away" LOOOL I love this trio!!

Made 2 adoptables, but since they went unsold I decided to remove them and redraw for next year:

(The neutral pose doesn't help them stand out ^^;; Sorry bbys)

Also sketched Julio from Atelier Sophie~

(Hoping to finish it early next year. He's not the only idea I had while playing, but other stuff took priority"")

October was so much fun!! Sadly it let me completely drained by the end of it. I got hit with such a HUGE art block it was like my hands just... Forgot how to draw. Everything came out weird. Sadly, that resulted on me having to drop a drawing I was making for Brie :/ Hoping I can pick it back up soon... (better late than never right?)

It's around that time I decided to work on an AI redraw. Used Crayon (old Dall-e Mini) to create some monstrosity for me and tried to turn it into an actual drawing.

The monstrosity:

The Work In Porgress:

This drawing is a bit painful to look at, because of all the self doubt and bad feelings attached to it. But I want to finish it someday. My prompt was something stupid like 'cute anime girl having fun'. I want to remain true to the prompt and make her meeting with lil ladybug feel warm and fun!

...Like of the feelings I was missing back then, and am just now starting to get back.

TL;DR: Take breaks or you'll break.

NOVEMBER

[Pictured: Chibi Adra for Kyou.]

Managing burnout through most of it. Eventually just decided to stop fighting and played games instead. Even with the frame drops, Atelier Ryza is pretty fun~ Hoping to go bk to it soon.

At some point my boyfriend said I should just draw things to have fun for a bit. I followed his advice...

DECEMBER

[Pictured: Art Party (DracoLunari's WoL)]

...By drawing Iola as a sheep herder. It was much more fun than it sounds. I didn't care for polish at all, just seeing Iola in a cute outfit LMAO It's... A mess of a drawing. But it's MY mess of a drawing. I feel this thought calmed my mind a lot.

Also went for my first ever Art Party. It was fun, tho brain did get in the way after a bit, as expected ^^;;; Still want to go to these more often!! It's fun to draw & chat with others.

For random drawings, all I have is a(n embarrassing) fanart of Elf from Isekai Ojisan. I'll post eventually..... (that anime is hilarious)

For now I have a commission and a collab to take care of, and a certain Moon Goddess to draw as soon as possible~ Will be doing my best these next few days, and hope Iola can be my sheperd and guide me to the path of 'having lots of fun drawing again'.

ONWARDS TO 2023...

May my year be filled with bad drawings that I love;

And good drawings I'm proud of.

May your year give you the same

And everything else you wish for!

Thanks @/Taxkha on twitter for the Template!

[eriisaam]

This might be much more TMI than usual, but as it happens, not only do I also have an OC - and a summoner OC specifically no less - who has prominent, visible scars caused by self-harm (Erin), but also am someone who erm... let's just say there's a reason Erin having it is personally very important to me, and can also go on a sliding scale between "fine enough to scout ahead and tag wrangle so friends don't have to"-fine to "will spiral pretty badly if my mental health was already bad enough"-triggered, maybe I can add to this a bit?

Full disclosure: By no means i what I say and do a hard rule on the subject, and others may feel differently and handle it differently, and that doesn't mean they're wrong either for it. But I see this and given my preface, it just so happens, 'same hat 👋' ensued about it.

The hard rule I placed on myself regarding Erin and depictions of her is I never really tag for self-harm unless the self-harm aspect was a prominent and focused aspect of whatever she's getting into. If it's just her, even with her scars plainly visible, I don't tag it simply on those grounds, because like you said: bodies do be like that, and it opens a lot of the same uncomfortable murkiness tagging any 'does this look like a self-harm scar?' as 'self-harm' as like tagging someone with a missing limb 'amputation'.

It might also be a bit grey area, but I also don't tag for 'self-harm' if the focus was on Erin's scars in general, but the context behind said scars is neither the main focus, nor present (so for instance if I were to draw her partner examining her for her scars in general, and she's not harming herself, the context isn't brought up, and it isn't explicit or focused on).

Instead, if I go into details specifically mentioning they're caused by self-harm, I might mention clarity that it's at least mentioned (for instance I plan to draw her ref sheet at some point, and as it's going to bring that up, I'll tag it in that case).

I would also pretty much err on the side of caution if the wounds in question were depicted freshly (visibly bleeding, possibly open), and either the context wasn't overtaken by a different context that overshadows it, or the context was ambiguous if not leaning to it being self-harm induced. (So Erin having been cut up and bloodied, but it's clearly in the middle of something else (say, post-battle) wouldn't be tagged for it, even if it wound up re-opening her self-harm scars, but if those scars were freshly open, bloodied, and I didn't overpower it (like with the battle example) with a different context, I assume people will assume they're fresh cuts, especially if they knew Erin well enough to know she self-harmed in the past, and that's when I'll tag for it).

And if it's the prominent focus, heavily discussed or outright reminisced on, or depicted outright, then I actively tag for it for sure.

The tl;dr I guess to put it is:

Was it brought up at all? (Not just the scars themselves out of context)

Is it being discussed or depicted with prominent focus on the past self-harm? (Other than the scars themselves or Moe simply existing with said scars visible)

Is the depiction of FRESH scars either left ambiguous or leaning on the past knowledge Moe self-harmed that it might be taken as it self-harming right then? (And not caused by some other obvious source like Moe taking a hit from battle?)

If yes to these, then tag for it, but if it's just there, it's treated as just a scar (no context), it's not overtaken by a different immediate context (Moe got hurt by some other clearly visible thing, even if it reopens an old self-harm scar in the process), or it's a reference of, say, Moe's whole full body and the scars happen to be there, then no-bordering-on-depends.

Conflicted about something (actually has been on my mind for a long time, it's just never been brought up), but like. I do like portraying Moe with self-harm scars. I like to treat the scars the same way I treat its acne/the scarring that comes from that. Just like, a candid portrayal of Well, that's just how it looks. Because of this, I also don't like the idea that self-harm scars should always be trigger-tagged. Kind of gets into the idea of what bodies should be "censored", and like, man, sometimes people just look like that...

But I also do wanna be mindful... I wonder if the rule of thumb should be, if the self-harm is the focus of the piece? Then you should probably tag it? But then that kind of gets ambiguous fast like. Usually I color Moe's scars to be pink/faded. So even when they are visible, they don't jump out at you really. But this recent piece I wanted to emphasize the scarring. Is it emphasized enough to warrant a tag...? But the piece really isn't focused on that. It makes up part of the storytelling/theming of the piece, but also does sort of fall into the category of "Well Moe just looks like that".

Do you. See the conflict here.