#No-lineart too because what if I ruined it

[malkaviian]

this is so stupid but i actually quite like jayce's skin on this one--- it looks like its supposed to be

[arainmorn-art]

Franny-boo and her big little brother Edgey is clearly used to it. In their dynamic Miles's emotional stability just shines through, he is her rock, he has a wide warm chest for her to cry into, I love it.

When I was playing AA2, oh gee, how much I disliked Franziska because she was violent and rude towards my himbo babies Phoenix and Gumshoe. I even was pissed that the Judge is so spineless he could not stop this little girl to whip people in the courtroom! But... ungh. Of course I was touched when she cried in front of Miles. And in AA3 I got warmer feelings for her. And in AAI she was adorable. And when she met Debest in AAI2, oh, oh, it was so satysfing when she whipped him x) And when you think a bit longer about her backstory, that she's lost her dad, almost lost her brother, tried to fulfil unrealistic expectations of being a personified perfection most of her life...

So... yeah. I almost like this little dominatrix :D What I've used: • craft paper sketchbook • acrylic markers: white, blue metallic, golden • water-based markers or felt-pens • pencil, black and white pens, ballpoint pen, calligraphy liners • a tiny bit of digital touch (the one with Edgey is coloured digitally) Oh man, it was such a mess on my fingers to mix white and metallic blue acrylic markers on her hair. And altogether trying to paint the skin with waterbased feltpens over white acrylic, baaaaaaaaa, was a pain. I've drawn unnatural skin colours for Undertale and Steven Universe characters like this before, but now I'm figuring how to use the same technique with real skin tones. I love craft paper, but man, it's tricky! The last sketch with Edgey was digitally painted though, as I've almost ruined the lineart with not dry enough acrylic on the same spread sheet, aaaa. Plus there're too many little detailes to easily mess it up with white marker x)

And I've enjoyed drawing Franziska too much. I object. She is still a rude little beast. You will not grow in me, Franziska. I will resist your tsundere charms.

But it was fun.

[shiroinekosart]

DONE! 🥳💙

Surprise for my best friend, ArmeliaStrife, who had also done the cosplay for Lucca Comics, invading my house with a giant head 💀 If you're curious you can find some photos by looking through her profile! 🫶🏻

I'm never satisfied with my drawings: when I look at them afterwards I think about what I could have done better or what I would change but I really like this one! I actually had a little moment of uncertainty with this but I love how it turned out in the end. Among the right colors to choose, not coloring for a long time, I was very afraid but it was actually simple. I started with the background because it was the part that worried me the most: by coloring it first I wouldn't have been afraid of "throwing away a guy" who might have come out very cute. Too bad that after I colored the background I was afraid of ruining it by coloring him badly 🙃 That head was strangely the part that pissed me off the most: I hate coloring white on this type of paper. I was also afraid, with the similar and/or identical colors, everything would get mixed up and not be distinguishable... perhaps the background in this sense didn't come out very well 😔

I'm not sure what to do now. I have chosen and already made a lineart but looking through my old things I found several drawings that were started and never finished, perhaps I could complete those first 👀😆

[grimmbitty]

Trying to re-work my Shazam character designs. Obi first up is Billy.

I didn’t want to modify them too much because I like what I’ve done so far. However, I really wanna try and them them all model sheets, so that requires a lot more focus and intention with my lineart than I’m used to lol,,,

I was also inspired to work on this today specifically because I read the new chapter. At first I thought it was gonna be the same, “Billy’s long-lost parent ruins Vasquez family adoption” plot line that the new52 had, but I was pleasantly surprised. I can’t tell which run I like better so far because like,,, I’m really confused on why Billy & the Captain are 2 different people??? I have a hard time following that part. But, I enjoy the characterization a LOT more in this one. In the new 52 Billy is a little too much of an asshole imo. 💀

Like, I think in this new Dawn of DC version of Billy would have never yelled at Darla, and wouldn’t have picked random fights with Mary. Unlike his 2013-2019 counterpart lol. I really DO like characters who are a bit jaded & a little snarky though. I guess it’s a fine line that writers have to try and not cross.

Anyways that was my little ramble. If you would like to discuss the new run with me, or maybe let me know which version of Billy you prefer both my DMs & comments are open, as always. :)

Enjoy! ~ ⚡️❤️

[the-face-in-the-mirror]

I am currently sketching page 6 of the Rewrite prologue and the sketch of one frame is too fucking good that I genuinely don't want to do lineart or color it because I just know it's probably going to ruin it

And now I have no idea what to do

[rottenrascalart]

Maturing is realising that OC x Canon isn't as bad as the 2010s internet would have you believe.

Maturing is realising that liking a popular character isn't a bad thing.

Maturing is realising that headcanons are just headcanons and that people are allowed to have differing headcanons

Maturing is realising that your art style doesn't have to be unique so long you enjoy drawing in it

Maturing is realising that being "cringe" isn't a crime

Maturing is realising that it isn't that bad to make a mary sue/gary stu character if you're having fun with it

Maturing is realising that everyone improves their art in different ways and at a different pace, and that a younger artist being further in their art journey than you doesn't mean you should give up. Young artists have access to way more tutorials and art tips than us older artists did, and that's a good thing. I love seeing young artists improve and be proud of what they make.

Maturing is realising that same face syndrome isn't all that bad

Maturing is realising that edgy art and characters with a neon rainbow color palette are allowed to exist. Same with "generic" characters

Art is supposed to be fun, not a competitive sport. Creativity in general is supposed to be fun. Unless you're pursuing a career, rules don't matter all that much so long you're having fun. I have personally completely ditched lineart because I don't find it fun. Don't get too caught up on smaller details or small mistakes. The average person isn't going to analyze it too much. Perfectionism is what ruins art a lot of the time and kills your motivation.

This are things I've learned over my almost 11 years of doing art seriously. The 2016 art and animation community on the internet stunted my growth a lot, being scared of being labeled as cringe.

[dragoncxv360]

So I was sketching this as something to use my copics and my mom's ohuhu's on to see if I could colour them better now that I had more colours. And then I liked the sketch a lot and didn't want to ruin it with lineart so I started just lining it with pencil. Then I decided no, I would line it and colour it because I won't get better if I don't try. Then I hated it so I asked for advice on how to colour pencil sketches without it smearing and was told to colour first, then line. So I covered the lineart I had done and redrew it by shining my phone's flashlight through the paper and tracing what was underneath. Then I lightly erased everything and started colouring and I actually had so much fucking fun doing it that way. I got done with Moon and I just couldn't stop smiling. And then I coulered Sun and I had fun with her too.

[chlo-le-mouton]

New pfp!

So many new feelings and no idea what to do with them

plus the original that I have absolutely RUINED because I'm always too impatient with watercolors (the lineart even looked nice for once ಥ_ಥ )

[alena-draws]

Hello Alena! i Love your loose sketchy but colorful art style! 😍 I'm a fellow artist but for years i've struggled with trying to just sketch and be loose. I'm always taking even just a post-it-note sketch so seriously and automatically try to be a perfectionist and add in all the details! it's frustrating since i also can't get all i want to sketch done because i'm being meticulous with each sketch. even with just a simple lineart sketch. you're so great and wonderful at what i'm trying to accomplish. do you please have any advice?? 😫😩😵🥴 I love how you do the smooth lineart and expressions for the Bnha characters btw!

Hi! First of all, thanks, I'm glad you like my stuff! <3 I actually have a friend who's quite similiar in that aspect, she can draw super well, putting hours of work into one drawing until it looks perfect. That's a dedication that I admire, because I'd never have the patience to spend so much energy for one artwork! On the other hand, I see how that could get in the way of wanting to work faster and looser. I've always scribbled and sketched a lot, so when I struggled it was always the other way round, having to learn not to rush things. But I'm sure it's something that can be learnt as it is with pretty much everything :) I'll try to give you advice of what I think might be helpful, but different people like to work in different ways, so some of that might end up just not working for you, while other stuff might. (I'll be putting this under a cut, this could get longer)

One thing that might be helpful could be the medium you draw on! When drawing in a new sketchbook or having a nice white sheet of paper in front of you, I tended to get intimidated and think that I need to fill this paper with something nice and beautiful, so as not to "waste" it. Especially with new sketchbooks, I think everybody knows that feeling...Now, nearly all drawings and sketches I do are done on left over paper from me and my partner, stuff that would have been thrown away otherwise because one side is already printed on. It takes away the pressure of having to give it your all, because, if it would land in the trash either way, I can't ruin or waste it by doing only sketches and little doodles.

While we're talking about mediums, you might try changing the pencil. I'd try something that won't give you such clean lines, so that simply by using this pen, you are already limited to how detailed you can get. I enjoy using coloured pencils now and then, like a red polychromo, they allow me to make light sketches and then, when I put more pressure on it, I can simply draw with the same pencil over the sketch, but making the newer lines stand out more and thus putting focus on special parts of the drawing. This is sometimes not that easy with a normal lead pencil, black will always stand out more than a light red for example. I also like to draw with 2B or 4B for sketches, and don't sharpen the pencil too often. :) Keeps the line a bit blurry sometimes, and I can put a quick shading on if I want.

Now, getting more to some actual drawing advice, learning to be quick with a drawing, without caring so much about how it might end up looking, this might be something you'll have to properly learn doing...like, for example, setting yourself time limits for a drawing. A classic, though still good way to do this, is by using figure drawing videos like this. It will show the person being in different poses for maybe 1, 2 minutes (later on it will get longer) and that's the time you have for one pose, not longer. It's tiresome and overwhelming at first because you won't know where to start, but it will actually give you a feeling for movement of the body, learning which lines to draw, and which you can leave out and still convey the body language and make it a convincing, realistic sketch. In a way, what you want to achieve with a sketch is often quickly show a scene, or a pose that you want the character to be in. It doesn't have to look beautiful or cleaned up, but it must be (or at least it would be nice if it were) convincing, using only a few lines, but conveying what a finished drawing will or could look like in the end. That's where figure drawing lessons are really helpful, because it will help you get a feeling for how you can quickly make a character look like they are e.g. sitting, or angry, or ready to jump in the air...and so on. Phew, I could talk a lot more about this, and I would eventually end back up at me advicing everybody to learn anatomy, but it's always a question of what you want to achieve in the end, and if that is really necessarry for you and where you want to go with your drawings :)

Hm, another small thing might be no try not using your eraser for sketches? Just put it out of reach, and if there's a line you don't like, either ignore it, draw over it, or start anew. I'm wondering if this is actually helpful or just stressful, but it might be worth trying out. It might help to get past the idea, that your sketches have to look good!

For now, that's kinda all I can think about. This topic is super interesting though! I might not be the best person to give advice here, so maybe ask different people too for their approaches. If I can think of any more stuff, I'll write that in another post, for now I hope this is someway helpful, even it's not that much! Good luck with your art!

[bvannn]

Weekly Update March 10

Took it a lot easier this week than I wanted. Got a bunch of stuff reorganized, like csp and my music. I hope I can go a bit further with the music so I can use it for inspiration, hopefully I can find a way to buy Yuyuu-P’s albums, since their album exclusives go so hard, and the singles aren’t bad either.

Downloaded TRG audio so I can get going on TRG animated as soon as I have both time and motivation. Last time I did an animation I learned better storyboards, hopefully I can transfer that to the full animation. I’ll go slow, so not going to worry about deadlines or anything like that.

Also started taking a good bite out of a proof of concept comic for OC story. Chugging away at a second story too, but taking my time with that too, since it’s lower priority. Progress on writing is much faster than expected. Also bc as I’m super scrupulous when I edit it I should be okay. Good editing can save any bad story, and bad editing can ruin any good story. As long as I’m focused I should be good. Also a long ways off.

Because the main projects I’m working on are so far off I’m going to try to keep going on other drawings, hopefully to also fix up my lineart the last bit it needs to be (switching strategies for sketching seems to be helping). I’ll do what I can in the coming weeks, but life looks to be preparing to hit me hard. I’ll do everything I can to keep going, but next summer looks like it will be difficult.

[sclfmastery]

as an artist, are there any super simple art tips that you know that improve a persons art a lot when they start using it? like, my teacher once told me to always have the corner of the mouth in line with the corner of the eye when drawing faces, and that's stuck with me for years, but i really want to know if theres any other nifty little tricks like that. BUT OBVIOUSLY YOU DONT NEED TO ANSWER im only asking because i really like your art and your lineart is really sharp in a way id like to one day be able to do some much simpler version of

Let me just preface this by saying I squealed with JOY when I realized I'd been sent an ask not about my writing, but about my VISUAL ART. My BFA was in painting and what I teach at university is connected to the creation of visual art. So I just get SO happy to think someone else cares about my stuff enough to ask how I make it! Please don't ever be sorry or shy to reach out! <3

Aside doing an actual video (which I could try, one of these days, if you want, but I'm trad only so it'll be clunky lol), here are some thoughts that pop into my sleep-deprived brain:

--It's FINE to use a reference. In order to master line variation and, especially form and movement, you will want NOT to let tracing be a crutch. But unless you have plans to be a sequential artist who has to have a mental "shorthand" of how-to's with various features and body parts, it is ENTIRELY ok to use a live or photographed model. Whoever started the rumor that this is cheating was being dumb.

--Become fluent in various softnesses (and therefore values) of graphite, Conte crayon, and charcoal. Yes, even if you're a computer artist. Learn the relationship between line thickness, perspective, and depth of form. I can go into this more if need be. Your H pencil is going to be hard and pale, and your B pencil is going to be soft and dark. Both have their uses.

--True to a bigger point: Just like in Doctor Who you don't skip Nine, don't skip trad art design fundamentals. You don't have to stay there forever, but let it be your foundational training. You don't have to go to university for this if you're unable. There are free online courses called MOOCs.

--Don't start stylized. Copying things like anime or comic book styles is a valid way to warm up, but you are filtering your work through someone else's eyes. Try to start with the original subject (be it a still like or a portrait) and develop your own unique mannerisms from that point.

--Don't be afraid to stop and toss it, and start over.

--Hardest one: Don't be afraid to erase and redo the part you love best if it doesn't have a correct relationship to the other parts in the drawing, painting, etc. I guarantee you can make something as good as that passage again. It's not gone forever. Don't be afraid to rework.

--Walk away for at least 3 hours and come back. Is it all still resolved or do you need to work on something?

--When choosing a color palette, it can be helpful to already have a neutral midtone established. Also, don't be me and get too ambitious about your colors. Pick like three tops and just do variations of those.

--Do NOT draw a human subject and think of the parts by their names WHILE rendering them. Reduce them to design principles: not "this is the eye," but "this is the dark round shape surrounded by a lighter space." If you think "this is the eye," you will stop really closely looking at what makes this eye unique and just kind of "plug in" stock eye features. This is the biggest enemy of capturing a likeness.

--You can absolutely rework anything in any medium. There are just different methods for doing so, between say watercolors and oils.

--Work with white noise or music. A playlist that keeps you in the zone, undistracted but also calm, is the playlist that you want.

--Know when to quit. 'I rarely feel like my work is "done" but if I keep going, I over work and ruin it.

I hope this helped as a start! <3 I'd love to see your work!

[dashawfrostart]

This Week In "Time & Again" #11: Still Colouring, And Some Distractions

So... I have a few internet-posting goals for the close future. I know that I keep saying that all the time, but - since I'm an interwebs hermit, and I've been this way for, like, at least 10 years of my life now (and I have zero regrets 😁) - going online to post something takes an enormous mental effort from me. This is probably what happens when ageing, too. Every time I think about that, I just feel like those dogs from the funny videos who are being scolded for doing something their two-legged companions do not appreciate. So, basically and in a nutshell, this is my face when I think about going online to post stuff:

(source: https://makeagif.com/i/UyVZCW) And after all... why would I distract myself from work anyway? 😁 However, I really want more people to get acquainted with Lothar and Jeanny, and Edgar, and Winston, and Beatnik (oops, giant spoilers), and Daniel (oops, even more spoilers), and all of those other weirdos that our violent lovers meet on their strange path towards happiness (hopefully, because, truly, sometimes it's very difficult to say). So this is something that must be done eventually, so I will persevere😁💪 Rolling up my sleeves already!

Anyways, we know that Valentine's Day is coming! And I already have an artwork prepared to be uploaded very soon. Since in December last year I skipped a Christmas and New Years artwork, breaking my own good tradition and ever so slightly ruining a nice progression in the completion of my "2023 Pre-Christmas To-Do List", I figured I really should not delay with this one. And after all, everybody likes a little bit of spicy to set the mood for the upcoming Valentine's Day 😉 (and most of my Valentine's Day artworks are usually nothing short of "spicy" 😁 well, because they have to be that way).

I also made a totally random artwork, because I wanted to practice drawing certain something, a design element I would love to incorporate into my art style - so I came up with an idea to draw a parody of sorts. And it makes me really happy. It felt... rather refreshing. It gave me extra energy and happiness that I could use to continue working on the colouring for the actual chapter. Working so hard on the chapters of "Time & Again", I almost forgot how it feels to draw something random. Or something out of canon. Something simply for the fun of it. Many years ago most of my artworks used to be random and they were dedicated to random, various things and sometimes people. It was good. Now, since "Time & Again" to me is no less that a self-invented job (yeah, pretty much, for better or worse), I almost never do random funny and cute arts anymore, nevermind my greeting cards store had no updates from last year whatsoever... "Time & Again" might sound like a sort of obsession - but that is merely because I really, really, REALLY want to finish it up as soon as I can, because everyone should know what happened to Lothar and Jeanny and how they manage. Even if the confusion about the timelines still persists - but it's twice as fun this way! 😁

A fun observation: there's something in Lothar that I absolutely hate colouring! And the thing is absolutely essential to that particular dirtymouth individual! And the thing is... His glasses. Don't get me wrong! I love his glasses, the way they match his appearance, and that tiny bit of extra sexiness he magically acquires when wearing them. But dear goodness gracious, boy do I ever hate colouring them! 😤 It usually takes me at least 3 layers (lineart inclusive) to colour them, and then I have to arrange all the layers in the proper order. If the rest of the colours - including the skin and the clothing, but excluding special shiny/textured surfaces, if present - take me only one - ONE! - puny layer to make everything as it should be, then the glasses alone - that effing pathetic piece of... accessory! - take at least 2 layers of colouring. 3 with extra shine. Duuuuh. And they appear on every each panel with Lothar, because he wears them all the time. Geez, man! I hope sometime in the future that hot yet disgusting guy gets himself a pair of smart contacts with the built-in voice activated UI overlays. I'm sure he's rich enough to afford such a gimmicky thing. That will free me from a lot of extra work!.. (imagining things? entertaining my designer's hunger? foreshadowing? who knows?!?!;)))

... Which lead me to another one thought about the simplification of the colouring process. You see, with the colouring the way I do it, there's a lot of "automatic" work that is not really creative, one might say. I just need to fill the certain areas of the lineart with a certain colour and remove all the unfilled pixels afterwards... which is just a process of clicking, selecting areas and colours, and filling those areas with the right colours. And it's... kinda tedious. And monotonous. To be 100% fair, it's getting old fairly quickly. Now, shading and adding lighting effects is totally different. But filling the areas with the plain, flat colour prior to applying the shading... is incredibly "mechanical" to me. And my idea was... an AI program to do that. YES, YES, I KNOOOOW YOU'RE EITHER TURNING YOUR BACK ON ME NOW OR DOING THE ROBERT DOWNEY JR. MEME FACE after hearing (reading?) what I just said. I know the whole world just split into 2 groups of people who say either "AI yay!" or "AI nay!". Because, well, you see, human beings really enjoy disagreeing with each other, so there always has to be a reason (says I, cynically). My experience with AI is fairly limited as of now, but as a computer nerd - and a wife of yet another one computer nerd, for the full picture - the new technology mesmerizes me. I was shocked when ChatGPT named me the game I had trouble remembering the title of simply by my extremely vague (and partially wrong!) description - and it did it right off the bat, from the first try. I was utterly mind-blown. We've already heard a lot about AIs ruining the artists' works and yada yada, and we're not gonna touch this topic right now. But since AIs are capable of manipulation with the visual material, then why not teach it to automate the rather tedious processes in creating art while still keeping the essential "human" involvement intact? I would definitely use some nice program to automate the "select and fill, rinse and repeat" part of my work on Chapter 5 and potentially all the future chapters. An algorithm that would recognize the characters by their facial/bodily features and automatically colour them according to the colour scheme I created earlier (so, no random green hair if the character is blond, and no brown eyes if the eye colour must be blue, for example). Or something along the lines of that. Dammit, that would really make the work of the human artists so much faster whenever needed! I vote for this! I will hope from now on that somebody makes me a Krita extension with such a functionality now 😁

Deary me! I can't believe this actually happened! Sorta!.. I think this might be potentially the shortest blog post that I've written IN YEARS!.. Wowza! Apparently I can do that when I'm not trying, haha (but isn't it always this way?..😑 come to think of it, shopping works this way, too: when you're looking for something specific, you can never find it anywhere around!)

Sorry, no gifs today (aside from the funny dog one above). Moreover, when I looked into my screenshots folder, I have discovered that I did not take any this time while I've been working on the colouring like mad. This is sad, perhaps... So let me fix this! Here's a random screenshot that is very difficult to unsee, and it makes me super, super happy - especially considering what's actually happening in the story while Lothar is so... high? (would that be the right word in this situation? 🤔 man, sharing screenshots of random panels from the comic out of context is fairly odd)

... And now, I disappear into my little and comfy tree hollow, ruffling my feathers, so that I could work more on Chapter 5. Gotta make it stellar, after all! So I need more time in my tree hollow! Silky smooth! (ok, I start to get carried away associatively, so I better stop. Bye! See you soon in the next update!.. ah daaaaw, the next blog post! 👋)

[aerinis]

Doing my belated 2023 art review. Putting it below a read more because a lot of stuff happened this year and some of it is kind of heavy.

2023 was a pretty good year for me, both personally and artistically. I had a couple of annoying minor medical issues that I'm still dealing with, but I'd say I was able to maintain my goal of drawing at least one little doodle a day for most of the year. I will say though that the vast majority of what I drew this year - probably like 95% - was personal art. Hopefully someday I'll be satisfied enough with it to post it. I'd also like to spend 2024 focusing more on painting and practicing landscapes. I spent the first three months of the year working on a piece for a local art gallery competition, which actually ended up getting accepted and subsequently spent the rest of the year touring around the state in several different exhibitions. That introduced me to the wonderful world of trying to figure out how the hell digital prints and shipping work, but everything turned out fine in the end. It remains the largest piece I've ever made at 18"x24", and hopefully once I get it shipped back to me I'll be sending it off to my parents. I also found out that I HATE writing artist's statements, like fuck off you don't need to know my background, just interpret the piece however. I'd like to post here, but I want to make sure first that it hasn't been uploaded to the internet by any of the galleries since I'd like to keep my personal info off this blog lmao What's funny is that I feel like I've come so far as an artist ever since I submitted that piece, that every time I look at the B-grade prints I have lying around I'm like "oh my god this looks terrible, I can't believe this got accepted". I guess that's just what being an artist is like Following that, I took the next month off from art, which was a nice little break. I did a bunch of art parties in FFXIV, which are always great for improving, because as counter-intuitive as it seems the best way to get good at art is to be forced to draw a whole bunch of different things under strict time limits. I feel like I can definitely see my lineart improving as the months go on. I also started working more with color, my eternal nemesis, and I'm hoping next year I can really start to nail down a style. I did Art Fight for the first time ever in July and it ROCKED, definitely going to do it again this year and I'm still pretty proud of the drawings I did. I love an event where it's socially acceptable for me to draw people's OCs. I think I'll probably focus on doing more WoW OCs this year. Unfortunately July is the busiest month for me at work, where I'm waking up at 5AM for basically the entire month straight and working in 100+ degree weather, so we'll see if I can maintain the energy for it.

And now the heavy stuff. Some of you might know that I'm pretty involved in the secret finding community in WoW, and back during BFA when we spent 11.5 months trying to find Jenafur, I did paint-overs of a bunch of cat memes to try and keep spirits up during the hunt. Unfortunately, the Make-A-Wish kid who created the pet ended up passing away in April. You can read about her life here in this article that will make you want to guillotine a chemical executive, and this older interview from 2020 about the secret. But what really got to me was this one line from the PCGames interview:

And like, I don't want to be presumptuous but like. I think she was talking about my art. Every time I posted on she'd comment on it, and she even DMed me about them. This line fucking destroyed me. I'm not even going to exaggerate. For several days after we found out about her death I was a wreck. The thought that my silly little drawings actually had an impact on someone and made their life a little brighter just ruined me. The bill she was fighting for ended up passing, and I hope that someday the idea of 'forever chemicals' will cease to exist.

Downer ending but I'm kind of too bummed out to write more

[cawe-sama]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND INDEPENDENCE DAY TO MY BALTIC BOY

And all his fellow Lithuanias 💕

[alemonyoyo]

Reminders of the Princess <3

The petals are supposed to be reminiscent of Princess Kenny! So implied K2 I suppose, since i hardly ever draw for that ship-

Also I reverted back to an old style of lighting, it feels weird to use it again!

Finally, South Park art. I did it- I drew for South Park! You better like this, drawing in general has been really hard for me recently-

I tried some new things here. Rather than doing a full sketch of the drawing, I used brief guidelines and the last image (which normally would be my sketch) became my lineart. I think this made it look more fluid and dynamic, and less rigid and plain.

Art/General Rant- You don't have to read, I just need to get this out somehow-

Recently, I've been really, really unhappy with my art. I think if you've seen my posts often then it should be semi obvious. I don't exactly try to hid my distaste for it, though I know the whole world doesn't revolve around me, and it's not guaranteed that you've seen every self deprecating post about my art.

It's just very hard you know. I'm not all that old myself, but I'm definitely not young either, so nowadays, whenever I see people who I think have better art than I do, and they are younger than me, I can't help but just lose all motivation to ever continue. It's weird, because whenever the alternate happens, and I see gorgeous art created by people older than me, I only get more motivated to create and be like them. It's simple pettiness and feeling threatened that makes me feel the way I do about younger artists, and because of that, it's hard to feel fulfilled in my creations. Most of the time, I just block these artists. After all, it's better to stay out of conflict and jealousy, and blocking is the best way to do that. But some of these people are my friends who I have unfairly hinged a lot of my happiness on. And in turn, being around them in general, online or otherwise, makes me euphoric and both self hating all at once.

It's kinda for those reasons and more that I don't believe I have been truly happy as of recent. Like properly. If you asked me from 2 years ago how I felt, I'd say I was happy. Sure, I had *felt* sad but I wasn't *sad* overall. But now, ever since lockdown, this year at school, and everything mentioned above, this fact has flipped, and although I am capable of feeling happiness, it's in bursts shorter than what I need to keep going, and I've wanted to give up many times. Overall I'm sad my mood gets ruined, and drawing was once an outlet for whenever I felt this way, but for some reason my own expectations make me feel like it's no longer something for my frustrations, it's something I must be good at, but I'm not. I'm not good at it.

A broken record I might be, saying my art is bad. I'm sure it's annoying for the lovely people in my life who have told me otherwise, but from my perspective its all pitiable phrases said to ensure my esteem. I just can't believe it. And it feels worse hearing it weirdly enough. Which is so utterly stupid, and completely my fault for thinking that way.

A lot of this is due to my happiness hingeing on the many things which make me feel so bad, which makes my mood completely messed up and wild. Tumblr in itself is a big one for me. I am practically always on it if you've ever noticed, and the only time I'm not is when I'm asleep. It's one of the few things that gives me interaction, escapism and comfort. Yet it is also the source of a lot of my hatred, a teased negative passion, and jealousy. So I come on the sight, hoping to feel better, and only feel worse. So then I'll come back to the sight mere minutes later hoping to feel better.

And it's the same thing with many of my friends, who I talk till they're probably sick of me. I talk to them when I feel terrible, about whatever they want, but I always feel conscious that I talk about myself too much. And that and the factors above also contribute to this terrible feeling. I know in my heart they can't hate me, yet the lack of texting first and more convinces my heart otherwise. And so I have convinced myself that most people in general heat me for my overbearing nature and lack of development with my mental health, though I've tried to be better I don't know how.

I've tried to pursue things for better mental health, all things considered, I am one of the few people I know who has never reached out for proper help. Mostly because I have a brother who already does, and my family focuses on him and his problems more than me as I am the oldest, and although I communicate my struggles to them, they aren't really valued. And this lack of attention on that front makes me come on here and complain, yap my mouth like I'm doing right now to a vacant space. Make me hinge my happiness on people who have no idea I do so, and that every time their offline it makes me one inconvenience away from tears. I'm so weak now, I wish I could go back to pre-covid me.

Anyway back to art- I find no comfort in it, and its really hard to draw, especially for South Park. Recently, I've had a source of immense motivation for it (though, that will hopefully be revealed at a later date so stay tuned!) but drawing for it outside of that is quite difficult- I can't tell you what I hate about my art. I just do. I can't tell if it's the artstyle, the content, my technique and understanding, my posing etc. Which is why, if you have read this (insane- but I love you), please, just tell me what you hate about my art. It's really all I want to hear at this point, rather than people reassuring me my art is fine. Critique will help me get better after all- And it's easier to be harsh on people when online than it is to be nice (I'd know for sure heh) so go ahead. Please.

And thank you for reading,

[nanabbi]

Gift Box Art for my dearest beloved @lunarcatten​ and @konveeart​  💗

(They were extremely late birthday presents that I enriched in care package for Christmas)

Making Process ⬇

So, I got a cardboard box like these to send a package and I really loved it so I decided that i wanted to use similar ones for those two and the idea to paint them came along, cause I thought it would be neat.

I sketched both ideas very roughly

Then proceeded to doing the full sketch on a different paper.

After that I scanned them to test out some color ideas (because I am not very good at colors). Catten’s eye girl was originally going to be in shades of pink, but I liked the Halloween colors better at the end.

After that I used the light table Konvee had gotten me for my own birthday a few years ago to re-draw the sketch on a new paper so I could eventually pressure trace it on the cardboard.

Due to the texture of the paper I couldn’t see what I was drawing very well, so I thought I might as well use a colored paper in between and see if it works. 

It did! And so, since I didn’t have carbon paper, I had to re-draw the sketch on both sides in order to transfer the pencil on the cardboard.

Suffice to say- I was super stressed during that process, because I had washi-tapped the A4 onto the box and drew over it, but I have no way of being sure it was working. So once I was done and removed the washi to lift it, I breathed a serious sign of relief before I started inking.

I used typical MICRON Sakura pens for the lineart. 

I was very happy for how they were coming along at this point!

I knew I would use acrylics to color them (not any specific brand). I think I had painted some cosplay props with acrylics in the past but I haven’t drawn with them. Generally I don’t draw traditionally too much and even less so with a paintbrush, but I wanted the colors to stick (shoutout to my mom for grabbing two tubes of white acrylic for me, because I didn’t have any).

I was really excited of how well they worked and how fast they dried. Having the reference I had made for colors was such huge help.

She was going to have a quote as well, but I didn’t trust my handwriting and I didn’t want to ruin this at this point, so I added hearts in her colors instead! 💛

I was very happy with this result and so I moved on with Konvee’s drawing. let me tell you- I was DREADING that hair.

I started from lightest to darkest, since it had worked well on the first one and then I started painting the hair. I did go to sleep at some point here in order to continue the following day.

Both their hair and the sky I ended up adding inside their dress took a lot of layers, not because the first ones didn’t look good, but because I was just indecisive. In the end, I made it!

Finally, I went over it all once more with the MICRO to revive the lineart and done!

I was really excited to give it to them, because some of the things included in these boxes I had kept in my wardrobe for half a year.

They both loved them and in case you’re curious, the boxes included pins, keychains, artbooks and some art supplies. ✨