#actually i first started on a different sketch where they are a bit younger and kinda cuddled up against laurence while he’s reading

[theweirderofthetwo]

Some relaxed kiddos in australia

[door-insurance]

So I played Life is Strange 2 for the first time ever

I didn’t wanna play it for a long time not cause it didn’t have Chloe or max (tbh I got sick of their asses around BtS they’re not even my faves)

By that point I was in college and had lost interest in the whole franchise but also I was very apprehensive of white creatives writing racism with no input from the group they’re portraying, they don’t usually do a good job

Sometimes they make it cartoony, sometimes they trivialize it, sometimes they romanticize it

So years later adulthood kicked my ass and I came back crawling to this franchise for some comfort, I finished True colors annnnd I finally started 2 after hesitating annnnd

^sketched this while playing

SPOILERS

I actually liked it

I liked Sean, the drawing segment he does- he was such a likable main guy, deserved better honestly.

I also liked Daniel, he was very adorable and I never got it when people called him annoying like no shit the 9 year old is gonna act like a 9 year old- just don’t be a jerk to him, I know he can be frustrating but that’s what taking care of a kid is like

And lis had always been about realistic complex characters, y’all can’t handle a traumatized nine year?

I have two younger siblings and two nieces plus I’ve been a bratty younger sibling to two older sisters

Maybe I’m just used to it?? But honestly Daniel wasn’t that bad

The racism portrayal in the first few episodes was not all that cartoony and it actually felt real at times, like I can check for American news rn and find stories similar to what you see in episodes 1-3 (minus the telekinesis)

Although the gas station racist hick spouting trump slogans was a bit on the nose, it’s more of dialogue thing

Some people thought the gas station detainment was egregious but it can happen unfortunately, especially to vulnerable people in rural areas and by someone of a higher systematic advantage

One other thing I did not like was the love interests, I thought Finn and Cassidy were alright characters on their own but why do we need romance in this game where the protagonists are always on the run?

I don’t like to compare lis 1 to 2 but when it comes to the romance the former did a better job as it spent more time establishing it, plus max stayed in the same place for the majority of the game- but you know what? Sean doesn’t have to be in a relationship right? It can be a one off thing, that’s fine

Which brings me to my next point

How old are Cassidy and Finn?

Cause Sean is still 16 and no, being on the road didn’t mentally age him- he’s not “mature” for his age

He is still a kid

So for some reason Dontnod never really specified their ages but some articles described them as teens (they look 30 to me) and they can be around 18 right? Their lives are hard stress ages you- it happens, we can with live that, it’s just a two years difference

But teens or not

why did they animate a whole knocking the boots scene???

Of all the games in the series, the only one that gets a sex scene is the one with the much younger protagonist and his ambiguously aged older looking love interest and I think it’s only with Cassidy you get to do it in the tent

Alex Chen was robbed of a on screen booty call from a beanie wearing lesbian with a sexy radio voice or a buff ass Adonis of a man who was Smokey the bear’s regional manager or something

Anyways I’m gonna move on I’m uncomfortable lmao

*im not hating on people who ship Sean with either Finn or Cassidy, I’m not even tagging your ship names- im just stating my personal preferences on my blog

One last thing I did not like about LiS 2 and it was the one thing that kept me from playing it for years

That one scene from episode 4

So at this point Sean Diaz went through the following:

-lost his father, had to abandoned his loved ones, education and home

-was accused of killing a cop

-had to take care of his little brother on his own while on the run, the same brother with telekinesis and none of them know how to control it

-was harassed, beaten then detained by a racist white man

-had to take refuge in an abandoned cabin with little resources

-the dog that they adopted at the gas station eventually gets mauled

-the one time they found solace at their grandparents house they had to leave abruptly cause the police was hot on their trail

-on their way out they can potentially witness the neighbors kid that they befriended get hit by the police car that’s chasing them

-they find shelter at a nomad campground but oh no they get involved with drug trafficking cause they barely have any other options to make money (unfortunately this happens a lot IRL this isnt egregious)

-Sean now has to deal with the trafficking, making sure that Daniel doesn’t get into any trouble with his powers while fake ass giancarlo esposito is breathing down his neck

-and guess what happens next… Daniel gets robbed into pulling a heist on temu gus fring and it goes badly, Sean can potentially lose a love interest/friend in Finn

-Sean gets hurt, Daniel goes so mad that he blows the whole place up; a shard glass flies into Sean’s eye and he ends up losing it

- Sean wakes up from a coma and learns that his brother is missing and he’s about to be taken to jail

- the one thing that consistently brought him joy during this trip was his art and because of the missing eye he can’t even do it the same anymore cause it hurts now

- Sean has to escape the hospital with a hot wired car, little money and has to drive across two states just to get to his brother

-on the way he dreams of his father, he wants him back he wants his old life back but that’s not gonna happen so he has to move forward

Im not listing all this as examples of bad story telling, a lot of these are real life experiences of homeless people. im just painting a picture of the shit that Sean had went through so far

Cause right after the dream sequence, Dontnod didn’t think all that was enough no you had to see Sean get hate crimed by two lifetime movie, sitcom special of the week racists- be made to either sing or suffer a brutal beating

It added nothing to the plot, it didn’t need a choice system either- it’s a hate crime, you’re not asking Joyce for fucking pancakes or eggs n bacon at the whales diner or hosing down Lisa the fckin plant.

This to me went straight to trauma p*rn category, it’s wheelchair Chloe all over again

I hated it then in LiS 1 and I hated now in LiS 2, this is why I don’t dick ride Dontnod that often

They always had this tendency right before the end they single out a particular character and mentally whip them, they become the writing teams punching bag- they think we didn’t get it the first time that this character is going through it, they just hammer it in with the subtlety of a heart attack and I hate it

“Yeah but it’s there to show Sean’s resolve to find Daniel-“

HE ESCAPED FROM THE HOSPITAL AND THE FEDS, HE HOT WIRED A CAR TO DRIVE ACROSS TWO STATES

He’s starving, dehydrated, suffering from chronic pain

That’s enough

Let the character breathe

You ask why not a lot of people wanna play this game and I’m gonna tell you, as much I enjoyed it myself it’s not an easy game to play- it gets brutal, especially right around the end

I’m not against bleakness or extreme conflict, I’m into that but sometimes that doesn’t translate well to any gaming format- especially a choices matter game that’s meant to be replayed

Some people have asinine reasons not to play LiS 2 like it dealing with racism and those people suck, lis had always dealt with progressive themes like calling out objectification, cyberbullying and sl*tshaming

Racism shouldn’t be the exemption

but misuse of racial trauma and not knowing when it’s appropriate to invoke it is a huge turn off and hella triggering to a lot of non white players and I remember when LiS 2 dropped I’ve seen (mostly white) lis fans at the time proclaiming that not wanting to play it meant that you were racist

Like I said there were probably racists who didn’t wanna touch the games cause of the main characters skin but there were people like me who were apprehensive of the “Let’s go to the mosh pit Shaka brah” people handling racism

This is the same studio that had Ms Grant (one of the few black characters from LiS 1) claim that the white settlers peacefully shared the stolen land with the native Americans

I find that shit harder to believe than the time traveling powers

And they were doing alright in the first episodes they covered stuff like unconscious biases slipping through, dog whistles, polite racism from the grandparents segment, police brutality, racial profiling and being targeted/othered- some of these things I went through when I visited western countries

Then they did the bullshit I feared theyd do…

I really don’t blame myself for being hyper vigilant at the time and honestly I was going through a lot then, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t have touched LiS 2 cause it’s a very heavy tasking game to play

I know I kinda made it seem like I didn’t like this game but I did, its the best one in terms of the choice system

It had more weight to it, seeing Daniel internalizing what you say to him or how you act around him was so cool

Also what the second game has over the first one aside from the choices system is the ending selection- I never liked picking the endings for max, I wanted her to pick the ending or her coding/script to do that

Its definitely more fleshed out technically even though LiS 1 has a special place in my heart it’s always gonna be no. 1- but im also glad that I got to experience the 2nd game for the first time, I liked it

Personal lis ranking

1: Lis 1

2: Lis 2

3: True colors

Discount bin: BtS

My personal fave moments from LiS 2:

- beating up the racist bully and giving him a concussion

-mushroom (rip icon)

- victorias letter

-winning that that bear from that claw machine

-gorillaz song that was not feel good inc

-Brody pointing at a fucked up looking arcadia bay yelling “that’s the past!”- that was hilarious

-Sean paying tribute to Arcadia bay in his sketchbook (this fucking kid man, he’s so sweet he deserves the world- what did he do to make DONTNOD mad at him)

- the wolf animation and the story that plays before every chapter

-this was the worst hate crime in the whole game

[squish--squash]

shittens...

lore and bonus art under the cut

(before I really start the lore I just wanna mention these two hatched from eggs. I have my own speculative biology hcs about cotl that keeps the canonical eggs bc I'm crazy. I'd infodump about it but I'm not sure how my followers would feel about me talking about the reproduction about a fictional group of anthros LSDHGS-)

anyways. Beleth (she/her): the younger twin, second to hatch. she was actually the first shitten I designed, she's got at least two prior attempts at a design before I really settled on her current design. She has two sets of ears and no horns, and her body plan is more of a sheep, except her arms are more cat-like with paws. as a kid, Beleth's pretty energetic and loves to run around, and talking to everyone she sees. very friendly and social. also chaotic at times and causes mischief. Unlike the Lamb, who shears often due to crusading, Beleth rarely shears herself, and keeps extra wool that grows on her head out of her face by pulling it back into a poofy ponytail (it's also a couple shades darker than the lamb). She also always has two bells on her- the bells her and her sister wore when they were babies

Erinyes (she/they): the older twin, first to hatch. her design just popped into existence without me thinking that hard about it, and I'm ngl she's my fav shitten of the two LSHDLGHDS. Her face and body are catlike, but there's some sheep features, like the ears, horns, and hoofed hands. She only has wool on her head, and it's black; as a kid, she hardly sheared it, but as an adult she keeps it a bit shorter, shearing off pieces that get too long. They're not nearly as talkative as Beleth, but they're very fast and graceful. She had a habit of climbing the trees on the edge of the cult ground for some piece and quiet and Narinder would keep having to climb up after her to get her down. When her wool is longer but not longer enough to shear, she keeps the wool out of her face by tying it off to the side in two sections. They're a bit taller and slimmer than Beleth, even as adults

speaking of adults, this is a quick sketch of them when they're fully grown (they're immortal like their parents, and stopped aging once they reached adulthood - which took quite a bit longer lol)

as adults, Beleth because the head nurse of the healers, being apprenticed by the former head nurse (who had been with them both since childhood, her skull necklace prolonging her life); Erinyes becomes the head of missionaries, teaching newbies, organizing supplies to take and where to go, unloading the hauls, and sometimes even joining on missions herself. Their outfits are different as well: Beleth keeps the bells, but replaces the garment she wore as a kid with a pleated skirt, the bells attaching to the thick belt she wears; Erinyes wears a cloak like the Lamb, with an undergarment covering her body (this is mainly to protect herself from the elements when she's outside the cult)

anyways, here's a bonus: I made some wives for the sisters lol

Mabre (she/her): strong, suave, and part of the missionaries. after she was indoctrinated from Anura she was placed to be a missionary; her ass was not listening for the first day bc she was too busy staring at her new boss gayly. gets quite a few scars from her work (including a ripped ear) but she enjoys the work, and doesn't mind. It takes a while for Erinyes to realize their feelings and it's only after Mabre almost dies that she realizes, and promptly pulls a Narinder by ignoring said feelings until Mabre finally makes a move

Hetry (he/she): shy and polite worshipper taken in from Darkwood, was pined after immediately by a certain shitten. They didn't actually talk tho until a prank gone wrong via Leshy resulted in Hetry breaking her leg, and he developed an instant crush upon watching Beleth chew her own uncle out within an inch of his life. enjoys the pleasantries of life and the simplicity of her work. there's a lot of mutual pining until the two finally get together (Erinyes would tease Beleth about it, and then gets a taste of her own medicine after Mabre's indoctrinated)

(they both wear golden skull necklaces for obvious reasons, but Mabre also wears a missionary necklace, while Hetry wears a nature necklace intertwined with his golden skull necklace; they also become disciples eventually, Hetry through her worshipper status and Mabre by constant feats of effort and strength to support the cult)

[dianagj-art]

When did One first meet Oneion? How did that ever happen unless I missed something...?

ok, fun thing about that: I don't know

LISTEN

Oneion started (besides of what I've said before of me sketching some designs for him and Ell starting to do fanart before the design was even close to done) because there were a lot of F!Leo timetraveling stuff going on and you know how in most fics he immediately goes against Leo? well, I thought "haha what if the other way around" and I had One being the one (no pun intended) to attack Oneion, and just like that an AU of the AU was born where almost all is the same as the normal au but there's a future One there judging everything One does

So in that AU Oneion (who is actually around his mid 20s and just started to lead the resistance himself) accidentally time travels and arrives to the normal separated au, One goes attack mode and demands an explination on who he is, Oneion is not al all amused and just pushes him off.

But I cant talk much about that AU, because normal au spoilers

then there were these asks (along some others)

that still haunt my inbox, at first because I was still figuring out how the movie events are gonna play out (i kind of already have an idea but also is not set in stone), also because by that time One has already changed, he's been trough his character arc, so he doesnt act the way he does now

"but what if he did" my brain said one night as I was trying to fall asleep "what if he travels to Oneion's time and lives the apocalypse first hand while still on his Number One bullshit" by brain continued, driving me down the dark path of another AU of the AU situation

One and Oneion (in this au he's somewhere around 35 years old) met a diferent way here, in a bit more chill way, well, at least they dont attack each other on sight, I have a lot of thoughts about this au but I dont want to get to that since I wont be able to shut up about it if I start and I have barely started the normal sep au as it is

Oneion acts a bit diferent in each of those AUs as in one he's younger than the other, and his and One's relationship carry somewhat different but also lead to the same path of both growing into each other

now, Oneion as the crossovers guy you guys know is kind of a combination of the two, tho mostly leans towards the second au I mentioned, tho in my mind the way he and One met is closer to the first AU, with Oneion just randomly poping in

then there's also him first meeting with Poptart and Sprout, thing Ell and I have thought about and I want to draw but haven't gotten the time for

[icryink]

Hi! Do you have written explanations for the Cringetober themes? I understand you already have made a video where you explain the themes but because English is not my first language it's sometimes hard to understand everything from just speech.

I didn’t until 2 minutes ago, but here they are!

screenshot redraw - something easy we have screenshot redraw, this can be from a TV show or cartoon or movie or whatever. you can replace the characters or just redo it in your own style

tsundere - a tsundere is the trope where a character, usually a girl, pretends to find their love interest annoying out of embarrassment for their crush

oversized prop - pretty straight forward. love a good disproportional hammer

fursona / fursuit - first bit of encouragement to explore outside 2D illustration. i know full suits are expensive, so let this be your sign to make or design a partial yourself out of whatever you have lying around; cardboard, fabric and wire, even paper. of course, you can stick to drawing your fursona

gjinka - it's a humanization of anything, whether that be a pokemon or other monster character, an animal, a concept or emotion like inside out, an object or even something like an app

unnatural eye color - fairly straightforward, character with weird eyes

crossover - characters from different media interacting with one another

dead meme - perfect opportunity for people like me who see a meme or trend going around and then, by the time they get around to it, its well run its course

childhood videogame - this can be any game you played when you were younger, but i was specifically thinking of stuff like pokemon, sonic, mario, minecraft, five nights at freddy's, or undertale

ship dynamics - a relationship dynamic or overused cliche

5+1 things - fairly common trope in fanfiction, it refers to a character or characters experiencing 5 similar events that all go roughly the same way, as well as another similar event that this time ends up pretty different. it can be happy or sad, and of course you can stick to a comic or illustration, but fanfiction or creative writing in general is often looked down upon, so i think y’all should at least try to write something

hatsune miku / vocaloid - any vocaloid, doesn’t have to be part of the main vocaloid suite. people make cool interpretations of hatsune miku’s design specifically, but you can do any character you’d like

rule 63 - for every male character, there exists a female counterpart, and for every female character, there exists a male counterpart. basically, genderbends

incorrect quote - you can depict a character (original or not) saying any kind of iconic quote that you think suits them

animation meme - most classic animation memes are actually really simple with somewhat jerky movements, which is ideal for those just starting animation. if you've always wanted to animate but the concept seemed too daunting, here's the opportunity for you! of course, you can just reference popular animation memes with a still image if you’d prefer

something you've been bullied for - there are a lot of things that are considered cringe that a person can't change about themselves, even if they want or try to. i didn't want to single out any specific insecurities, so i left it broad enough for it to apply to everyone. it's kind of like a free space to celebrate anything about yourself that you've felt ashamed of

f2u base - f2u stands for 'free to use', basically an empty sketch you can use to draw whatever characters you want. this can be interpreted as either making or using a free base, so do whichever one you'd prefer. if you're using a base, just remember to credit the original artist if you post it

Fandom AU - good simple fun. draw characters you like from a piece of media you like in any alternate universe you like

alternative fashion - your opportunity to experiment with a fashion style you've always thought was cool but were too nervous to try. alternatively, (haha) draw a character in alt fashion

tumblr sexywoman - a female character that is, for whatever reason, incredibly popular and found attractive

closet cosplay - build a cosplay using only things you already have in your closet! I wanted to encourage people to get into cosplay since it’s such a fun hobby

candygore - gory drawings that involve pastel colors and sometimes literal candy iconography

adult cartoons - cartoons intended for older audiences, ex. Hazbin Hotel, Smiling Friends, Amazing Digital Circus

niche interest - another free space that lets you make something relating to a pretty unpopular or not very well known thing that you really like

gacha life (I spelled it wrong on the list) - it’s a website where you can design characters and move them around and make up stories. it was super influential for a lot of artists

Y/N or Mary Sue - could be a male Mary Sue too. A very overpowered, perfect character. Alternatively, you can interpret this as literally “your name” and insert yourself into whatever media you want

YouTuber fanart - do some fanart for a YouTube channel you enjoy, whether that be for an art channel, a commentary or video game youtuber, or sketch comedy

mascot horror - anything relating to horror that involves cute marketable characters. FNAF, poppy playtime, Amanda the adventurer are all some examples

experimental makeup - trying out a makeup style that you haven’t done before. of course, if you aren’t comfortable wearing makeup, you can totally draw a character experimenting with their own makeup style

supernatural or monster character - demon, vampire, werewolf, fairy, or any monster type character you can think of

HALLOWEEN - anything spooky to celebrate Halloween!!

While I hope this compilation was useful, please remember that all the prompts are completely up to interpretation. There are no rules to Cringetober! Just do whatever you want and have fun :)

[itsyagurlchip]

Another ROTTMNT request!!

Platonic, funny hc about the 4 brothers reacting to younger sister reader who has a gloomy/angsty personality who acts like a tragic heroin but in reality everything in her life is completely okay.

She's just a bit dramatic like leo and dee xD

☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔*:･OUr Our YEA~☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

alt title; reader loves a style but does little research on it and uses pinterest as a ref

ᯓᡣ𐭩 warnings: cussing(!) cringe(!) stereotyped emos (!) crack(!)

ᯓᡣ𐭩 ngl- i feel reader w/ this one 😭😭 Thank you so much for requesting <33 btw, this is not to make fun of actual emos, you guy's aesthetic is beautiful <3 instead, this is actually written from a 2 day experience by your's truly! There is absolutely no plot in this, so if you can't follow at all I don't blame you.

ᯓᡣ𐭩 "Oh god she's blasting SleepToken again-"

kanabo; a japanese weapon similar to a spiked bat, used for offense.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME!" You screamed as you slammed the door closed.

Raph stood there, stunned and confused.

"I don't get it...all Raph told her to do was to wash the dishes?" He sighed and walked away. Deeply, he was too tired for this shit and the headache he has was forming faster the more he thought about it. He needed a nap.

Meanwhile Leo and Donnie were snickering in the far corner, watching the whole ordeal go down.

"broooooo"

"That cannot be real-" Leo said, holding his gut trying not to shit on himself at the atrocity you just committed.

"Of- ha- of course it itz! I caught it on camera!" Donnie waved the evidence in the air.

The two burst into obnoxious laughter, echoing throughout the sewers.

So yea..you're a bit cringe. But who's stopping you?

You truly believed that this wasn't a phase.

And future you is looking down at you in tears.

YOU WERE ONLY ELEVEN- !

The group was fighting a tiger villian. Silly cat, he had guns. Tch, that was nothing for someone like you.

"I blast you into the abyss as dark as my soul" You said, raising your kanabo, swinging the weapon in a circular motion, aiming for your target.

"What the f-" And he got blasted. You hated how your weapon was pink...

It all started with the "pick me girl" trend.

You hated those people (despite them not even existing half the time).

So, you wanted to be different 😈

And thus, the color black was an immediate yes

Mikey, not really caring about the sudden change in his sibling's style, used you for his art inspiration! Even if you begged and begged for him to draw you with hair.

(he already sketched it, but won't tell you. he's not gonna let it go that far into your head💀)

"Turn- now pose, ohhhh! Lookin great Pink! Wooo, you got it girl!"

"The only thing I deserve to have is a dirt pit. To put myself in, not your praise."

"Oh- oh."

Looking through pinterest you found your first outfit inspo and fell in love.

While not actually having any problems, mentally or physically (from what you know), you felt like you fit into this category so well!

Your scales were black, check

You love eyeliner, check

Your siblings force you to do things that you didn't want to (chores) , check

You were all set.

All it took was a few hundred dollars from Donnie's bank and you were ready to show the world-

WHO YOU TRULY WERE 😈

"YOU'RE ALL AGAINST ME!"

"we are literally just asking you to go on this mission-"

"TO KILL ME OF COURSE! YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT ME"

"okay"

They just let you sort your feelings out, poor baby.

No one actually knew when it really started

But suddenly you started to ask April for her makeup and nail polish for the first time.

And April, bless her, did so each and every time.

"Of course honeybun!"

Worst part was, you never gave it back.

"Hey, have you boys seen my makeup bag? I can't find it no where."

The boys sighed, already sick of the shenanigans, and pointed towards your room where every light was off.

Walking inside, April came in to see a singular lamp shining, with you underneath it writing inside of a black notebook.

"Hey Pink! Watcha doin sweetheart?" April nervously said, "It's pretty dark in here-"

"Writing down the names of my enemies. They need to suffer the pain I go through everyday, not only the physical- but the mental."

April wasn't really sure what you were going on about, but she spotted her makeup bag and dipped.

-

Donnie walked into your room, music blasting at goddam 3 in the morning.

"ARe yoU inSane!?!?" Donnie yelled as Ely Ottto raged over his voice.

"THIS IS THE REAL ME DONNIE! DEAL WITH ME!!!" You flipped him off, head banging as you jump up and down on the mattress. The plushies that were sitting on the bed even had black marker scribbled all over them.

This was too much damn noise! And quite frankly, very much overstimulating for this time of night for anyone to experience.

"Oh hoh hoh- no I AM NOT MISSY! YOU WILL TURN THIS MUSIC DOWN THIS INSTANT!"

"YOUR NOT MY DAD BOZO!" Like a child (*cough cough*) you blew a raspberry at him and turned the music up louder.

Donnie was twitching in anger as he disabled your speaker with a tap of a few buttons.

"I HATE YOU" You yelled, stomping towards him and pushing him out. Slamming the door, you screamed into your pillow (as if that would muffle the sound.)

Dear supreme pizza in the sky-

Oddly enough your behavior would also vary between people.

For example, you wouldn't take shit from Donnie, even if he was trying to help you, you would even go as far to make fun of him for no reason.

You would talk about your woes and suffering with April and Mikey, even when they didn't understand it half the time because it was ever on subject???

You simply just ignored Raph when he told you to do something.

And Leo, pray for his soul, would play along. Or even worse, bully you *kindly*

Leo was walking you to the park, walking with a crip like those bloxburg characters when you don't take a bath. His head was facing the concrete, set in a mock scowl, mimicking your own.

You rolled your eyes and walked faster, flipping the wig you bought.

-

Good thing it lasted for another two days, or everyone (not including Leo) would've blown their tops.

Man- had to get the rest of that brainrot out. phew~

heres part 2 btw

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

૮₍˶• .•⑅₎ა @ziipzeepzop-eez @wheezdostuff @spongejuice @cyb3r-st4r @nuncscioquidsitamor-14

@voidthegod

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!!

[koalaphoenix]

I was going through my art folder on my phone and realized how far I've come with how I draw Shay (and her different forms).

Way back in 2021 I drew her for the first time. She effectively came from a dream I had, where I lived her life in one night. But the struggle was I never actually really saw what Shay/I looked like in the dream. I knew what I was, who I was, but not what I looked like, beyond my hands. One of the most spectacular dreams I've ever had, by the way.

So early on when I was streaming, I decided to take a crack at drawing the dragon woman I'd been in the dream. I couldn't even really remember my/her name, although with help from my friends it came to me.

The first sketch was... Rough, at best. I had no clue how to draw an anthro creature, which Shay effectively was. I used multiple references to even sorta rough out what I wanted, and the result was not spectacular. But it was a start.

Then I was memeing with my friends about our D&D characters. I fully intended to RP as Shay when we began a campaign. It led to the version above - the first proper drawing where I was mostly happy with her overall design.

Late 2021 and I tried to push myself a little further, although I still didn't know what I was doing.

Art block hit me like a truck for a few months. When I finally managed to get drawing again, the results were initially really, really bad. But it wasn't too long and I drew what would end up being a far more finalized version of her design, the template for many future works. She was a more agile figure than her design sketch. I adjusted her horns to make more sense anatomically, and to fit better with her hair.

And also I drew abs on her.

Then there were several more drawings. I touched on alternate versions, put her in some fun situations as self indulgence, tried to experiment with difficult poses. There was a lot of struggle, as I still couldn't quite get her head shape consistent.

Then I found some new resources, and on a whim I drew what's becoming my favorite alternate version of her: Shayaa.

(Flat color iteration shown)

Shayaa was born out of two thoughts. I wanted a version of Shay that was a little thicc, and I wanted a version where she hadn't been abandoned. This ended up with her in armor, and was a leap forward in terms of quality and some design cues. The softer snout, more defined mouth, and thicker horns ended up really helping me draw her more consistently.

I was worried that it was one of those cases where I went beyond my actual ability and wouldn't be able to replicate it, but I was mostly wrong.

I decided I wanted to adjust "prime" Shay's design a bit, to improve her visibly aging and to widen the gap between her and Shayaa to emphasize their differences. I thinned her up a bit, made her muscles more lean, and rounded her features to make her appear more youthful - she's in her early 20s at the start of Godbreaker, but I saw her design as more in her late 20s or early 30s. She was always intended to be more lean than I'd drawn her, but skill issue. I also kinda hated parts of her default outfit, they seemed off and weren't the easiest to draw.

And now? I'm pretty satisfied with her design. She looks younger and more lean, and ideally a little less "civilized." Her hair got spikier to make it easier for me to draw - I suck at floofy hair. She's still pretty big, at 6'7" tall, but she doesn't look like a brick house anymore (nothing wrong with that, I love brick houses, she was just not intended to be that).

But yeah. Going through the old art, a lot of which I can't add to this post, it really hit home to me how much in such a relatively short time she's changed since the first real sketch, how much I've changed...

...And how much has stayed the same.

Aaaand to not end on any sort of deep moment, holy shit her old feet were HUGE.

[bberetd]

Hey there! Since you also reblogged the post saying you want people to send you asks (actually I even reblogged it from you), here I am to ask you a question. A potentially very tough one. Ready?

If you had to pick only one (1!) favorite Mario character who would it be and why?

I'm just trying to get to know my mutuals a little better, y'know?

But most people seem to be using that 'send me asks' post as another opportunity to say mushy stuff to each other, so let me also do that! I'd like to remind you that I'm very glad that I'm following your blog. You're certainly a fun and kind person, and must say I like you very much 😀❤️ Thanks for always supporting my art, it really means a lot to me.

Also please teach me your ways to draw so fast, I just finally finished sketching my latest fanart today (yeah, that ambitious one) and it took embarrassingly long. And this one is supposed to have a proper lineart too💀

Oh, that reminds me: I'm really excited for your animations! Once I'm done with my current fanart, the next bigger fan project on my list is also one animation I've been thinking of, so I hope we'll be able to motivate each other a bit 😁👊

OH just oneeee? 😩

Whew, okay, well... while Daisy has a huge place in my heart (especially lately, as you can tell 😹), my all-time favorite will always be Luigi.

See, the funny thing is that I hardly cared for him before the movie, and even a little after I watched the movie. My first favorite Mario character was actually Rosalina when SMG came out, because I was SO obsessed with space when I was younger (and still kinda am), and blue was and is my favorite color (such a deep reason, right? :P)

I always tend to lean towards the underdogs of a franchise, yet I don't remember the exact moment that drew me to him. There were just a bunch of edits and videos of him flooding all of my social media pages when the movie hype was still fresh, and I guess one day I decided, "yup. that's my guy."

I think the moment that really solidified my love for him was when I replayed Luigi's Mansion (I kiiinda played it before, but I was 4 and just pressing buttons lol... it's strangely a core memory for me). His bravery throughout the game despite his evident fears and anxieties is just... so inspiring and real to me, genuinely. And a little bit of him shone through his commentary of some of the objects throughout the mansion, which was also endearing 😆 The game gets creepier the deeper I think about it, and I just can't help but give him more flowers for going through it three different times!

plus, he's just so happy and awkward and silly. how could you not love him?!

But in short, he's my favorite because he's relatable to me, and I find his little quirks adorable and endearing.

yet despite all that, he knows when to lock tf IN. that's my hero <3

anywhoooo...

Mugi!!! I couldn't be any happier that we're friends and moots! You've blessed my timeline with your gorgeously detailed art and commentary, and I'm so grateful you support my art just as much ♥️♥️ I admire and like you very much as well, you're amazing <3

as for quick art, basically-

and thank you!! the animation might take longer because classes start tomorrow for me, and year 3 of uni is definitely gonna be more challenging and, er, expensive. 🫠 Hopefully I'll learn to manage my time better so I can make decent progress every day, but I do know where I want to go with the animation. Big yes to motivating each other!! I know that ambitious art will be PHENOMENAL when it's dropped, and I can't wait to see your style in motion! :))

[ff12-ultimania]

FFXII Staff Interview: The Art Directors part I

From left to right: Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, and Akihiko Yoshida.

Was Basch originally meant to be a young character when development began? But before we delve into that, please tell us about the time when you joined the development of FFXII!

Minaba: I joined the dev team after the international version of FFIX was finished. At first, the team discussed making a game for PlayOnline (FFXI) over a period of six months or a year, but before we knew it, it had become FFXII, haha. The character's head and body and even the decision of whether the game would be online or offline went through several changes during the development process. Akihiko: I joined the FFXII team at the same time as Minaba, after Vagrant Story was finished. Kamikokuryo: I joined a little later than the two of them, which is after FFX was released. It was only then that FFXII's development actually started. Minaba: I think it was around the time when the staff who had been working on PlayOnline (FFXI) started to join the FFXII project, that it was decided our team would become FFXII. Akihiko: At that time, we didn't have a scenario yet, so I sketched numerous characters for FFXII based on my own imagination. However, none of the designs I made at pre-production made it to the final product.

What were the initial concepts like? 

Minaba: In the beginning, all characters wear light clothing. In the final cut, only some of them do.  Akihiko: We had a complete polygon model that is named "Basch" for PS2 testing-purposes. This "Basch" is of different design than what we see in-game. "Basch" walked around on the map, but he wasn't an older man as we see today; he was a younger character.  By creation date alone, Basch was the oldest. After "Basch", I designed Vaan as the first official character. I spent a lot of time working on Vaan's design before the scenario was finalized, so it took me a long time to complete it. Kamikokuryo: It was very exciting to see the process of perfecting the polygon models of the characters. Minaba: The characters were drawn so well that everytime I work on them, I thought, "Ah, I must work hard too".

Akihiko-san, FFXII is your first work in mainline Final Fantasy, did you feel any pressure?

Akihiko: Whenever I felt pressure, I could not sleep at night, so I tried not to think about it. There are only so many designs I can come up with, so I tried to craft my own interpretation of what is 'Final Fantasy' and tried various concepts I could do with that framework, and as a result, I ended up with the current character designs.

In the staff roll following the epilogue, we can see Akihiko-san's artwork as the background, correct?

Akihiko: Yes, since the epilogue depicts what happens after the main story, in the illustrations for the staff roll, I tried to imagine the story before the main story's prologue. Actually, this marks the third instance where I've applied this approach, following Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. My apologies for the repetition (laughs).

In one of the illustrations, Fran and her sisters are looking out the window. What were they looking at?

Akihiko: I drew it as if she were looking out the window into the world of Ivalice. Most Viera live in the forest and do not go outside, but Fran is interested in the world outside and chooses to interact with humes. The illustration is a bit reminiscent of that.

[p5x-theories]

Here’s a fun little question, I know we don’t know to much information about all of the wonder squad, but if you could pair off the phantom thieves(including Akechi, Sumire, Zenkichi, and Sophia) and wonder squad, who would each of them be friends with the most, based on just vibes and the general traits that we know of?

Ooo! I love an excuse to think about the potential dynamics of characters that've never met in canon (even if for most of the Wonder Squad we have... very little canon to go off of in the first place).

Also in retrospect after typing these, they may not be strictly all who they'd each be the best friends with, but I guess they're character duos that I think would bond for a particular reason, in a way that might be interesting?

This also turned out much longer than expected, so, uh. Under the cut it goes!

Wonder

Not to start with something totally out of left field, but I feel like Wonder and Yusuke would get along, in the way that I think Yusuke would enjoy drawing him, and Wonder seems to just sort of stare off into space sometimes, which'd make him a great, barely-moving sketch target, haha. If everyone else wanted to go and do something else, but Yusuke wanted to stay and draw, I feel like Wonder'd stick around with him (either intentionally or not). In general, Wonder just kind of goes along with things, which I think would lend well to him spending a lot of time with Yusuke, who tends to sweep up whoever's with him into what he's doing/passionate about. Yusuke's influence might even help Wonder be a bit more actively passionate about things, too!

As an extension of that, I think Polter probably would get along with Yusuke since they both seem to be art kids, though I have no idea if Polter's attitude towards art is the same as Yusuke's, haha.

Closer

Just to get the obvious out of the way here, I feel very strongly that Motoha and Ryuji would get along. They both have a very enthusiastically supportive sports friend vibe. I think it's sort of a given, to the point where it'd be weird not to bring it up at all.

However, if I'm supposed to come up with duos here, there's someone else I wanna go with that's a little less obvious- Motoha and Sumire. I think, first and foremost, that Motoha's enthusiasm would be really, really good for Sumire. I haven't gotten the impression that Motoha's really someone to lie just to make her friends feel better (though she wouldn't say something cruelly blunt, either), and she's definitely the type to get hyped up when her friends do well with the way she encourages Tomoko. I think Motoha's encouragement and opinion- both genuine- would really help Sumire's self-confidence, and I think Motoha would bond with her over them both having sport interests (if different sports).

I think their respective sports' skills, for that matter, would probably rub off on each other a bit, too, haha. Motoha seems like the kind of person who'd be down to try something that's really important to a friend of hers at least once, if not more. I feel like they'd do pre-exercise stretches together.

Cattle

Cattle... I have a slightly out there suggestion for, actually. You know when a younger little kid latches onto an older kid who gives off the vibe of knowing what's going on in a situation?

I feel like Sophia would kind of do that with Cattle. Cattle very much likes to give off the vibe of cool confidence, knowing what's going on the majority of the time but rarely being fazed by the stuff he didn't expect either. I feel like Sophia would kind of latch onto Cattle in a way she didn't quite with Morgana, because of this? She wants answers, and to understand, and has a billion questions, and that curiosity doesn't go away after awakening her Persona properly. And Cattle seems to enjoy being the bird with a plan, the one with the answers.

So I can kind of imagine Sophia drowning him in questions about the Metaverse and Thief stuff and humans, because he at least likes to act like he knows all that, and she always wants answers but sometimes her questions are a little too difficult for others to answer. Cattle would probably at least try?

Shun

Not to bring in Yusuke again, but Yusuke and Shun would absolutely get along and it'd be a mistake not to say it. One of the first things Shun says to Motoha is asking how the ramen at the restaurant she and Wonder just ate at was. You know he'd be asking to hear every detail of how Yusuke describes food, and Yusuke'd be just as happy to give the descriptions (and to eat the food in the first place, haha).

I do actually think that Joker and Shun would get along as well, though, because they both enjoy cooking. I'm not sure whether Shun enjoys cooking as a group activity, but considering all the dishes Joker learns how to make in P5S, I think you can pretty easily argue they have a shared interest to talk about, whether they actually cook together or not, haha. I know Wonder can cook as well, but I guess it feels more like it's an interest of Joker's (as opposed to a necessity for Wonder, who lives alone), in my mind at the very least?

They also both give off kind of a "loner delinquent at school" vibe that most of the Wonder Squad doesn't quite have, which I think would draw Joker just a bit more towards Shun over the others, even without the cooking stuff.

Yukimi

I think Yukimi and Makoto would be an interesting one. Yukimi's silver hair and apparently "cold" exterior would remind Makoto of her sister, I think, whereas I think Yukimi would see herself in Makoto with how they both lost their fathers and grew up with heavy expectations from their remaining female guardian. To that end, I think their interactions might be a little awkward at first, coming from slightly different angles of relation to each other, but I think if they started interacting (and possibly fighting Shadows together) without overthinking it, they'd easily start to bond, and probably also be terrifying in combat as a duo.

I think sparring would be equally good practice and catharsis, on some level, for them both, haha. Though if they're both used to heavy expectations, they, uh... may study for finals to death if left alone for too long, so maybe that's one thing they shouldn't do as a pair.

Seiji

For the sake of pairing each P5 and P5X thief once, and also because (as the recurring theme here) I think it would be interesting, I think Seiji and Zenkichi would be an unexpected pair. At first it's probably just a thing where, if everyone else is hanging out with someone, then they're kind of the leftovers? But there's also really something, in my brain, to the fact that Seiji's detached attitude is implied by his profile to come from his rich family (and/or cold education) but he wants connection, and Zenkichi is a literal dad on the team who didn't (and still doesn't entirely) quite know how to connect with his daughter but really wants to. They both sort of have a family thing going on, which Zenkichi is at least starting to work on (though we don't know about Seiji), you know?

Of course, given that Zenkichi is Zenkichi, I don't think he would pick up on this for a while. Like, just long enough that it starts to get a little embarrassing in retrospect, haha. And Seiji might notice the similarity, but I really doubt he would act on it. So I think where it really starts it that Zenkichi eventually picks up on the fact that Seiji, polite as he is, is the only one (besides Okyann, though honestly, she might do it too) who never calls him "Gramps", or any other nickname like that, ever. I don't know if every member of the Wonder Squad or even the original Phantom Thieves would always call him Gramps, but I think there'd be moments. Except with Seiji.

And I mean, Zenkichi is an investigator. I think once he realizes there's something to pick up, he'd quickly piece the rest of it together, with or without a literal background check. And I think his attempts to bond with Seiji would be awkward, because Zenkichi's sort of awkward around the kids most of the time when he's not fighting anyway, but I do think he'd try, the same way he tries with Akane. Probably better, even, because he's actually making progress on Akane so he's learning, and they can do stuff like fight shadows together, haha.

Not sure how fast Seiji would pick up on what he's doing (or, in particular, how intentional it is), given we don't really know him that well, but I do think he would at least subconsciously start to feel like there's at least a bit of a connection there, and maybe once it'd start it'd build faster and faster, or they'd just sort of slowburn a found family situation. Either way. I think it'd work.

Also, Haru and Seiji can bond over not knowing the price of basic goods, and having a limo escort them everywhere, because they're both rich. You know how it is.

Mont

Listen- if Mont also has an injury that makes it so she can't do her favorite sport anymore? Or at least, certainly not on the level she used to be able to, and certainly not as easily in the real world as the heightened physical abilities make it in the Metaverse? Then I've gotta think about her interactions with Ryuji. Mont's a little tricky because we don't know her as well, but I think Ryuji's enthusiasm would do good things for her, especially if she still has that ache in her heart, like her description says, that she can't skate anymore. Definitely going for morning jogs together, maybe also physical therapy either together (if... possible?) or at least being each other's accountability buddies to make sure they both keep it up. And I think it'd be fun she taught him how to ice skate (if he doesn't know already- not sure how canon we consider the original P5 opening, hehe?), because absolutely no one would expect him to know how to ice skate, let alone technically having training from a professional in the subject.

I don't think anyone would expect them to get along as well as they do, either, which might be just as entertaining as their actual potential interactions.

Rin

Hear me out: Yaoling and Haru. Admittedly, I don't have a huge basis for this one, but I was thinking about Yaoling with the peppers in her sticker, and Haru with her garden and teas, and I think Yaoling helping Haru with the garden and being a bit childishly excited about the plants as they grow would be really fun, and I'm sure Haru would always appreciate the help and enthusiasm as well.

They'd also just be fun as a duo interacting with others, because Haru is very much the combat threat and one that would obliterate a cop with a smile on her face, while I strongly feel that Yaoling would be the one cheering from the sidelines/otherwise the backup of the situation. My impression is that people would expect Yaoling, as the more energetic and (at least going by vibe) louder and outspoken of the two, to be the dangerous one, but you're really doomed if Haru joins in.

Not that Yaoling isn't a threat, too. They're very much two cute girls that bonded over gardening and could destroy you if you deserve it. It's just that people don't expect Haru to be the muscle, haha.

Leo

Now, okay. For Leo, this may be a little self-indulgent on my part and probably more than a little obvious, but I think he and Akechi would make such a funny pair.

I don't know if Akechi would strictly enjoy it, and certainly he wouldn't show it at surface level if he did. But they both have the superhero Personas, and there's no way Leo isn't a Featherman fan. Enthusiastically a Featherman fan. Leo has the vibe, thief outfit, and battle lines, EVERYTHING of someone who is very earnest about his interest in superheroes, tokusatsu, and etc. Which is to say, I don't think Akechi wants to be grouped with Leo. I don't think Akechi wants to admit that he on some level enjoys being a superhero duo. But I think that is absolutely who he'd get paired with out of the options, if I have to come up with a duo for each of them. (Futaba would also make Featherman jokes just to make Leo happy and Akechi not.)

He can't even win when he uses Loki, because he's Grey Pigeon. It's inescapable.

Okyann

This one is maybe an obvious one- Kayo and Ann.

But I think Ann actually finds Kayo a bit offputting at first. If they meet in reality before meeting as thieves, I'd say it's because Ann's parents are the kind of people to leave their daughter in an empty house for a year+, so I'd believe they're also the sort of people to have subjected her as a little kid to a lot of adult-focused events with all their friends over that all gush about Ann exactly like Kayo does to Wonder, but don't actually care about her in any capacity and are more just doing it for her parents. That's headcanon, I guess, but it tracks in my mind at least. In the modeling industry, Ann's also used to that level of friendliness being performative, too (in her social link for instance), which doesn't help.

If they first meet as thieves, on the other hand, I think Ann might instead be a bit put-off because Okyann seems like she might come off as a bit much sometimes- and there are plenty of reasons Ann doesn't get along with the other girls at Shujin, even if it's not Ann's fault- and not to mention outdated fashion-wise. On the flip side, I'm not really sure how Kayo would feel about Ann? It could be her seeing herself (for better or for worse), or it could be her seeing a teenager that's part of the trends that evolved without her. Either way, though...

Once they start to bond, I think it's all over for everyone. I can totally see them hanging out, getting crepes together, expanding each other's fashion knowledge, getting their hair done and cute makeup, all kinds of silly girly stuff that Ann doesn't quite have someone else to do that with and Kayo'd usually be considered a bit "old" for. I think Ann helps Kayo feel younger again in reality, and Kayo probably (intentionally or unintentionally) helps bolster Ann against some of that anti-aging beauty stuff. People would probably mistake Kayo for Ann's aunt or mom or something, but I think in actuality they'd actually be closer to two besties with a bit of a difference in age than anything.

Tomoko

My suggestion here might be a little weird, but... Tomoko and Futaba. Not because I think they have shared interests, or even much in common besides I guess being short teammates with glasses haha, but because I think that's... actually kind of the point?

Futaba's not good with social interaction. It's a well-known fact. Tomoko, however, is a bit on the softer/quieter side, but she's never really been shown to have any anxiety about interactions as far as we've seen, and is pretty outgoing even. And I think that would work really well for Futaba, because Tomoko wouldn't have the vibe of judging her if she doesn't quite know how to interact, but also has enough backbone to keep pushing Futaba when she needs it. Tomoko's not going to draw attention to them the way their flashier teammates might, either, but she can take charge if she needs to. Tomoko can get through a crowd to get Futaba that computer part she needs if Futaba can't do it. She's the scout-ahead teammate that tells Futaba when the coast is clear.

Also, Futaba's weird in a way that Tomoko has only lightly shown signs of, and I think that would rub off on Tomoko. Tomoko's willing to get a little silly- she and Wonder posing before serving people food, for instance- so she'd indulge Futaba's sillier, weirder moments, and I think that'd make Tomoko weirder in turn.

Kiyoshi

Okay, speaking of weirdos, it's the two left- Kiyoshi and Morgana! This is the key of the whole duo: they both like feeling kind of superior about the weird powers they have (or at least think they have... but that Kiyoshi as a full teammate would in fact actually have), and get really enthusiastic about it when someone encourages them.

I think it'd be sort of like an infinite validation loop- Morgana shows Kiyoshi something cool in the Metaverse, or really anything sneaky in reality for the fact that he's a talking cat, and Kiyoshi thinks that's cool and it feeds into his thing about being a psychic chosen one, which makes Morgana feel wanted and validated as being cool. And then Kiyoshi figures something out, or otherwise puts together something neat and probably cool they can do in the Metaverse (he strikes me as a "what can you do with psychic superpowers" ideas/trial and error kinda guy), and Morgana thinks that's cool and immediately wants to try it in battle or for a heist, which makes Kiyoshi feel recognized and validated as being cool.

And that just goes on. And on. To the benefit and possibly slight detriment of everyone else, because there are really both pros and cons to two of your most enthusiastic teammates also sort of wanting to feel better and cooler than everyone else all the time (even if they of course still respect and value their teammates).

-

Um. So there you go! Nearly 3k words about which P5 and P5X teammates I think should bond, basically. Honestly, you're just enabling me at this point. I hope you're having as much fun as I am, haha!

And also. I did not mean to write like three times as much for Seiji as anyone else got. I don't know what came over me there.

[wundrousarts]

hi I hope this doesn’t sound like a demand lol but I love how you draw jupiter and I hope you draw him more

your art is so cool by the way I really like your character lineup 🥺

Thank you so much!! I literally never draw Jupiter, on account of my inability to draw 1. adult men and 2. beards, BUT it’s something I need to / want to get better at. The only other time I’ve drawn him was that lineup which I did super quick, so it was fun to try and think of an actual design so I can try to draw him more!

[ID: Three half-colored digital sketches of Jupiter North from Nevermoor. They show him as a kid with messy hair, a young adult with a mullet and mustache, and an adult with longer hair and a fuller beard. End ID.]

Details on my Jupiter design / headcanons (?) for his life under the cut:

I started with the middle— in my layers, I dubbed him to be “teen” Jupiter, originally intending for him as a senior scholar, but as time went on I figured he was more like, early 20s young adult Jove. The Wunsoc sweater is just still there on the adults because I didn’t want to redraw <3

I feel like Wunsoc, especially with Dearborn and Murgatroyd prowling the halls, holds its student’s appearances to a certain standard. Sure, society members are representatives of the society for the rest of their lives once they graduate, but their time in school is their first introduction to that life. It's their debut as society members. We see this in a lot of stuff with Holliday, in Hollowpox and in the one Silverborn snippet, how she's manufacturing an image for Mog and co. and physical appearance plays a part in it.

Going with this: I feel like Wunsoc would expect their students to keep their appearance clean and approachable somewhat. Jupiter gives me a vibe of the kid who had a crazy growth spurt, and was able to grow a beard before graduating– BUT I don't know if Wunsoc (really just the Scholar Mistresses) would be crazy for that. So I imagine that he's relatively clean-shaven for the most part, nowhere near modern Jove, and then starts to grow out his facial hair a bit more as a senior scholar where I imagine things would lax a bit, and then just commit fully to growing a beard once he properly graduates.

So young adult Jupiter is perhaps in his early 20s, a somewhat recent Wunsoc graduate. I'm a mullet Jupiter truther, where his hair is longer in the back, and had to represent that. Younger Jove's is messier and more fun; he's not too concerned about his image as he hasn't quite reached that laundry list of titles and accolades yet.

Present-day adult Jupiter is still rocking the mullet style, just now it's longer and styled a bit more professionally. But let's be real– it doesn't stay this way. It totally gets easily messed up from his hats, and Jove loves to have fun and entertain people, Plus, he's a busy man, constantly stressed and running around. While the hair here might be great for say, a formal meeting or a magazine cover, the hair most folks end up seeing him with tends to be a bit more wild. He definitely starts to resemble his younger self's hair more after a rowdy night or a stressful endeavor.

Kid Jupiter– not much to say here, tbh. I figured I'd stick with the longer hair he has as an adult, kinda rowdy. Not a mullet yet, though! I was thinking of the part in Nevermoor where he starts talking about the rules he broke and stuff he got up to as a Wunsoc student, and how Hawthorne started taking notes, and made his hair similar to the rowdy hair of our favorite bestie. However, while Hawthorne's hair is curly, I'm of the belief that Jupiter's hair is definitely pretty straight. So no curlicues for him </3

Hopefully now that I've started to nail down a design for Jupiter, I can draw him more!! I always have soooo many Nevermoor ideas circling around in my brain. I love thinking about designs for various characters and the reasonings behind different aspects of their appearance.

[xthelastknownsurvivorx]

How about, anything you want to talk about on the SNL fic?

Hi Sara, thanks for the ask! Got busy after re-blogging the directors cut thing so here I am a bit late with the answer. Ended up yapping quite a bit, so most of it is under the cut

I'll mainly focus on the fan fiction skit for this but what I will say about the rest is that I watched a truly ungodly amount of snl for research purposes so that I could get the tone and common camera angles down in a way that felt realistic. And through this extensive research I learned that they had never tackled the topic of fan fiction which was honestly a shock to me (though I suppose it's only gained more mainstream recognition in the last few years and we haven't reached a critical mass of younger millennial/gen z writers on the team)

I knew from the start of planning this fic that I wanted to include a narrative surrounding the sketches themselves since I really like that as a story telling device and had never got the chance to try it. Additionally, I also knew that I wanted to have a skit about fan fiction because of its (minor) presence in canon and because I thought it would be kind of hilariously meta to write a fanfic about fanfic

As for the individual little scenes in the sketch, I played with a lot of different ideas before I settled on the final ones included in the story. The first one was actually going to be a love triangle between Alex, Trudeau, and Maccron as a nod to the jokes in canon, prompted by Alex having a photo-op with one or both of them in universe that the in-skit writers have a field day with. Then the second scene was going to be a Brexit joke masquerading as a Henry x Maccron break-up fic that may or may not have quoted some lyrics from high school musical 2.

In an alternative universe these two iconic sketches would have actually made it into the final story, but alas the second hand embarrassment of writing about real politicians was too great for me so I pivoted to Alex x Luna and Henry x his cousin which I think I turned out pretty well. Also, I did actually almost write the Ellen x Henry fic mentioned in the little opening but ultimately scrapped the idea because I liked the other scenes I had already come up with and it would have been too much to add that one too

One last thing I'll say is that I also tried my best to keep the self-aware, sometimes borderline offensive nature of snl humor without being too mean or condescending since I feel like that's where the show can kind of fall flat when it's making fun of the audience. Especially since I'm specifically writing for fanfic readers and am one myself. I love (most parts of) our community but also sometimes fanfic is kind of silly and ridiculous and that's part of its charm. So part of my writing was also incorporating a lot of common in jokes since Alex would be aware of them

Ask me for the director's cut about one of my fics

[its-all-a-moonage-daydream]

no i haven’t even reread it once no there is no plot yes it is just a garbled mess of vibes but here we are

(950 words)

places:

cornish castle. where miriam lives in the middle of nowhere with only a small village with a community shop, coffee shop, and pub and some houses within a 20 minute radius. on the coast nearish porthcurno and the minack?

mine engine. has ivy creeping up the walls and underneath the grate into the mine chimney pit thing is a tiny narrow steep staircase which has no light just the fire which miriam summons as she walks down and the walls are wet and grimy and it’s not very nice but it opens out into a massive staircase which leads to the next place…

dungeon. where the summoning takes place a lot of red and bare stone and lit only by fire. completely bare stone floor which is covered in crushed lavender arranged in patterns and swirls and symbols which should direct and channel the summoning.

witch = very old fashioned shuns new technology, demon excited to learn about the modern world as hasn’t visited in hundreds of years as a punishment 

witch’s bedroom is covered in quilts like so many and plants and fairylights and a massive bed with thousands of pillows and loads of books that they like reading not like spell books and a desk buried under thousands of sheets of paper of research and loads of decorations like my moon thing and the moths etc. and sketches stuck up all over the walls and random thoughts and bits of poetry and dried flowers and a gramophone which is the only way they listen to music

witch is an objectively good person who finds comfort in the repetitivity of life  but has done so for a little too long so decided to find a form of escapism so started researching everything and making diagrams of random things until she stumbled across a book to summon demons and is just like oo this will be fun why not so spends months on that etc. a longing for everything to go wrong and to be a little evil sometimes yk? like maybe mum was very strict and made sure everything was perfect everything had to be neat and helping people was a waste of time so became more and more rebellious and ran away and did the complete opposite is a mess but an organised mess and does nothing but help people with potions and remedies and that’s how she makes her income she’s kinda world renowned but in a not everyone believes it works way but it looks cute and in reality it does work. when ran away left behind a younger sister black brothers style who hates her even though mc witch’s door is always open to her. different types of magic mc witch is more potions and physical objects whereas sister is more elemental. at some point on a rainy stormy evening the sister does run away and come to the mc but refuses to actually talk just spends their time holed up drawing architectural designs and blueprints etc.

in contrast demon is a lot more morally grey (not that witch isn’t it’s just less subtle and more in your face) in that they do bad shit and love knives and daggers and stuff more of a barty almost but a little less mad just over excited idk they’re obsessed with technology and becomes a hacker geek incredibly quickly they’re very active and aloof they don’t like the idea of emotional intimacy not because they don’t want it but because they’re scared and also cover up lack of emotional maturity with pure energy like won’t stop moving to cover it up

obsessions to enemies to friends in that at first all witch wants is to summon him and gets a little extreme about it like it’s the only reason for their life and they MUST do it and goes a little insane so when it works tries to learn all about the demon but the demon hates anything that they deem vulnerability including talking about themselves so just jokes around and moves the conversation on quickly and becomes obsessed with finding out everything about the modern world because it’s so different to what he knows but obviously witch isn’t very helpful so they soon get very annoyed and slightly disappointed with each other because they aren’t what they expect and they had quite a lot riding on it emotionally, both viewing it as escapism, from their boring life or their life in general. working on getting the demon to be able to back home means they have to live together and become quite domestic and then after the sister incident demon becomes quite sympathetic and they start being able to begin to patch things up. they then get really close, slowly drawing out the demon etc. and become like an old married couple living together. demon never really wanted to go home in the first place and witch kept delaying the project until he simply doesn’t go home. in the end they become super close friends. think they are supposed to be in love but neither are really interested so drop it. 

witch fall in love with a steady string of lovers from the girl who brings the deliveries (ordered on person not online) to the guy who works at the coffeeshop to the person running the bookshop but never really finds the one and although she enjoys the dates and excitement of first dates and will they call and first kisses they never really see it going much further, like they can’t imagine a future the only person they can imagine a future with is the demon so just grows old with them but platonically.

[faehrnem]

Alright, I usually don't engage in this type of shit since I try to stay away from drama best I can, but I am the friend that sent Six messages recounting my experiences with Galactic Stars. Initially, Stars contacted me on anon regarding a character of his and mine respecting lesbians (hell yeah brother), and after mentioning in the tags on the ask I was unaware of what character was being referred to, Stars messaged me through tumblr chat and shared the character in question. Totally harmless at first, in fact I love when people tell me about their characters, so I was happy to have a chat with Stars.

More details under the cut.

Soon after our initial meeting, Stars inquired about my commissions and if I accepted GW2 gold as payment. Currently I do not, but our conversation started off friendly and I thought it'd be a nice gesture to accept. I came to regret this decision very quickly.

Make a BIG mental note of Stars clearly stating "I can pay IN FULL, UP FRONT" after I mentioned the payment options. Tack onto that note with Stars bringing up the date he gets paid on, (7/14/23).

This is where the initial doubts began, but because I'm currently in a bit of a vulnerable spot, I overlooked the red flags that Stars literally waved right in front of my face. I ignored my gut feeling due to no longer having friends who actively play GW2, and because I've been incredibly desperate to get back into playing with somebody.

In the second message of these screenshots I took, Stars refers to Six as one of his characters, Titania (which is weird to call somebody by the name of their OC when I literally never saw him go by that name but oh well lol), and how he hoped him and Six no longer being on good terms was the very first thing that made me a little suspicious.

I still stand by the statement that I don't really mind if people I know don't get along ONLY if they remain civil, but unknown to me at the time Stars' 'falling out' with Six is because they were and still are a lying scammer 🤷‍♂️

In an attempt to carry on the conversation, I recounted my own unfortunate experiences with guildies I met through tumblr, and in the last message Stars says my situation was 'surprisingly similar to what happened between me and Six," even though Stars was removed from the NA CC for the repeated offenses listed above. The friend I was recalling didn't like that I prioritized spending time with my then boyfriend over my friends, which is completely different.

Of course, to make light of the situation, I also went into my own past friendships from when I was younger where I had friends 2-3 years younger refer to me as 'dad'. Being a father figure is different from what actually happened with Stars and the younger friends he had, where one of those friends goes into details in the next screen.

Keep in mind this entire conversation happened all in the same first couple of days Stars initially sent me a tumblr message, so him bringing up being accused of something so serious almost seemed like a bizarre way of enticing pity from me, especially after I had JUSt met him.

This part of our conversation made sense after I messaged Six, where below is a message Six received from one of the younger members and their experience with Stars. Keep in mind that this screenshot is not my own, nor do I have any ways of backing up these claims, but the coincidence would make a lot of sense.

This went on for around 30 minutes until Stars' friend left, where Stars asked if I would stream the sketches for his commission, and I agreed to do so. After finishing up the artwork (which was two different poses he wanted to choose from) we left chat and things continued on in DMs.

More basic conversation is continued on tumblr before we added each other on discord, where I joined Stars' discord group and hopped into voice chat with Stars and a friend of his. They go into detail about what happened in the NA CC server where multiple people began throwing around accusations of not paying for his commissions as well as ragging on Six, stating how Six and others ignored the 'receipts' Stars and his friend possessed proving his innocence (al thought they were never shown to me) and brought back up being wrongfully accused of pedophilia.

Most of our conversations consisted of Stars spamming me with his Guild Wars characters or stuff about LoZ, which in itself was pretty harmless, but after 10+ messages every single day of the same stuff on top of me already trying to ignore my doubts in pursuit of making a friend, I felt incredibly overwhelmed by his presence and chose to remain offline to avoid him.

Here are screenshots of all the times Stars mentioned payment. If you took note of the original date and amount Stars said he could pay, it won't take you long to see the inconsistencies that piled up over the ~3 weeks I knew him. July 14th, which landed on a Friday, was different from the sudden date change of Wednesday, July 12th.

After the first payment of 100g, I sent it back to Stars and told him I was too busy to continue with the commission. This is when I messaged Six, where he confirmed all my suspicions, and I blocked Stars shortly after.

I will say I never intended for the messages I sent to Six to be used as any form of evidence otherwise I would've been more concise and went into more detail, but I was three days off my meds and rightfully pissed that I trusted Stars regardless of all the shit that set off my nerves.

For those jumping on Six's case due to me talking about Stars expressing romantic intentions, on top of everything else that had rubbed me the wrong way, the confession Stars made literally only a week after we added each other on discord seemed very sudden for someone I have only talked to in voice chat twice. The main reason it creeped me out was from a video Stars sent me a few days prior-

Link to the tiktok here- and to recap, the video is of a tiktok where a person is doing a tarot reading for someone I assume is a follower of theirs, so it and everything said in the video has absolutely nothing to do between me and Stars.

An AI voice reads as follows:

"There is a new friendship coming along that will be helping you to 'spread your wings'.

At first, you may not expect them to become a friend,

But this individual is going to balance you out extremely well in terms of interests, goals, hobbies, etc.

This friendship after giving it a chance is going to be inspiring too,

This person will remind you of what it feels like to manifest goals and dreams,

I also see them being there for you in terms of prepping details and steps to something so you're not too stressed,

This individual may have major Cancer placements and you may meet them through a hobby related event,

Give this person a chance"

Stars sent me this video only four days after talking on discord and to me, it felt a little more than slightly manipulative- almost like him passively saying WILL be my friend. You are going to do all these things for me, because I am giving YOU a chance.

So, after that tiktok and Stars' offhanded confession, I knew I no longer wanted to pursue business with him, nor continue the very strange attempted friendship.

For those who have come to Stars' defense, yes, people CAN change. The screenshots Six re-shared are old, but in combination with the current ones I'm leaving here, just look between all the similarities between the experiences all these people have had with Stars. Stars is the common denominator, no matter how much Stars nor his friends deny that fact to themselves and to others.

There are far too many coincidences with what I had went through with Stars and those within the NA CC server, which I never knew of or was even a part of. Does this prove that Stars still hasn't learned from the past and that he continues to be a risk for anybody taking commissions? Maybe or maybe not, but I encourage everyone reading to connect the dots for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

All and all, everything that happened with Stars hurt me pretty deep. As it is, I don't have many friends to begin with, and letting someone into my life and trusting them when I almost knew I shouldn't set me right back to where I began- reluctant to try making new friends in fear of shit like this happening again.

Anyways, that's it from me. Do with all this what you will.

hi i didnt think id have to do this again but apparently 3 whole years hasnt changed a thing

This is a warning for artists about discord user galacticstars, ingame name Cryptic.6738, and their url on tumblr changes too often to keep track of but their last one was something along the lines of galaticstarsposts

If this person contacts you, don’t try to start anything just don’t engage. Your time and effort ain’t worth it.

we made a post warning people about them in 2020 but it’s since been lost to time and url changes and i can’t find the other post that surfaced about them a while back but other can corroborate the claims im about to make here.

This user does not pay their commissions, and will repeatedly come up with excuse upon excuse as to why they can’t pay, will refuse to pay in real money and instead insist on paying with ingame gold (which is worthless btw), and spam whoever they’re commissioning with changes to the piece they want or changing their commission altogether.

They will make claims about how we unfairly banned them from Character Club [CC], and will claim that we said they were a “pedo”. We did no such thing and banned them for not paying their commissions, and violating the server’s harassment policies despite multiple warning from the moderation.

screenshots from the original callout below, apologies to low quality but country boys make do.

Keep reading

[lranceusw4]

School First Half

First Session

My first session was at the museum, I met with the group of Year Nine students, who were lovely and definitely reminded me of myself at that age, and reintroduced myself to the teachers. I immediately felt like this was something I would enjoy, in school I loved to follow the rules and felt more in-line with the staff than the students so actually being a member of staff felt like a long-time coming. We went into the museum and met one of the staff members there involved with the project, Alison, who is the director of the museum. We dumped bags off in the learning room and then Alison gave the group a tour of the Ethel Mairet exhibition. I did a bit of research before coming but found it so useful to be shown around by someone who has spent years gathering information for the exhibition, it was a lovely experience. We then gave the group a few minutes to go around on their own taking pictures and sketching artefacts to help with their documentation in their sketchbooks - the project is to fulfil the Bronze Art Award which is hosted by the museum, the students are researching Ethel and then having a hands-on go at her craft in workshops in the school, they will also later teach what they learn to two groups of younger students to finish the Art Award. We then returned to the learning room and all listened to a presentation over Zoom by Radhi Parekh who works in India with local weavers. She taught us all about the history of spinning wool and weaving cloth in India and the way Ethel links to Gandhi and the importance of Indian weaving in their fight for independence from British Colonialism, which is why their flag has a spinning wheel in the centre. 

It was a shorter session but this was as it was setting up for the next ones in which we will do workshops with an artist from Bristol which will have more teaching and helping needed. I had a great time anyway, I already feel hugely inspired and enthusiastic about this project and feel so lucky to be able to help out and tag along for the ride. This session also was the perfect way of easing me into the placement. I couldn’t have planned it better! The students were in non-school uniform so I didn’t stick out hugely, although I was much taller than the kids, and it was in the afternoon on a Friday which meant everyone was excited and relaxed (including the teachers).

Session Two

The second session was my first in school, I had to sign in at reception and wait for the other guests - Angie Parker the weaver from Bristol and Sarah Montague from the museum - before we were led to the classroom where the workshop would be. I was a bit nervous sitting waiting for them as I’d never met them before and I usually get a bit anxious about small-talk and introductions - however, it was completely fine! They were very smiley and kind and we chatted about the workshop and my university course happily. Me and Sarah helped Angie bring the equipment out of her car and then set up on tables around the room. We also brought the looms for tomorrow's session across to the Art Block and I wrote out name tags for the kids so Angie could learn their names quicker. After lunch the kids came in and the workshop got started. We were doing natural dyeing with four different substances; onion skins, avocado, red cabbage, and weld. First Angie explained how to prepare the wool, winding it into lengths and tying string so it wouldn’t knot together in the dye bath, then we got the water boiling and put the dye material in with the wool. She then explained the science behind dyeing and linked it with Ethel’s practice. The kids then had fun experimenting with different acids and alkalis to change the colour of the dye water, this got a little messy but it really opened their eyes to how many vibrant colours you can get from simple natural plants. Next we all looked at examples of Angie’s work and lots of samples of fabric she bought from India when she lived there, these again linked to Ethel’s time in India and the influence their culture had on her.

After the wool was finished both dyeing and then cooling slightly, we were able to get them all out and see the finished product - some went as expected and others didn’t, but Angie pointed out that’s the beauty of natural dyes. We used a lettuce spinner to get more of the water out and then at 4.30 it was time for the kids to go. We packed up all the pots, pans, fabric, and wool, making sure we left the classroom clean and not sprinkled with drops of strangely coloured water, then we carried the equipment back out to Angie’s car. I had a really great day, I loved getting involved with the process and helping Angie but also feel very motivated to do my own natural dyeing now I’m equipped with the knowledge of how it works. I was mainly helping students with the dying and being Angie’s assistant - moving things around and preparing resources for her - and it was really fun, the students are all so sweet and fun, and I felt very comfortable in the classroom. Tomorrow we will be weaving with the newly dyed wool.

Session Three

Session three was similarly lovely, we set up in a different room, setting out six large looms on tables. The workshop started with Angie giving a demo for the students, showing how the looms worked but also naming each part and explaining what they would look like on a full scale floor loom like Ethel used. While most of the kids then started working away on their weaving, Angie set two of the students up on back-strap looms - as there weren't enough frame looms to go around - this was the area I then took over. When the kids swapped around I’d explain the back-straps to the new pair of students. I enjoyed this greatly, there were only two students so it felt very casual and calm, but I was helping them handle the wool and explaining the whole weaving process so they knew how to continue. It felt good to see them understanding as I explained and answering their questions when they needed help. Doubly satisfying was knowing I too had learnt a new skill that I could go home and practise! I also brought some of my personal wool and my drop spindle in to show to the class. I asked Angie and the teachers in the morning if that would be useful and they were more than happy for me to do a little talk about it. So, I spoke to the group about spinning wool to fill in the missing step in the process that they hadn’t yet seen - what happens to get the wool from sheep to weavable yarn - I showed them my drop spindle and how to use it along with some raw wool before it had been cleaned and carded. The teacher was very glad I did this bit, it helped give them more context for the wool industry and helped with information for their sketchbooks. I was really glad it went down so well for the people listening, and it went well for me speaking! I felt a bit nervous, especially when the teacher called over the students and I was just waiting for them to line up and listen but once I was talking I felt more in-control, and I said all I had to say and did it confidently.

  The workshop continued until all cushion covers had been woven and time was up. I helped in a few other areas, like assisting students who were spinning wool on the yarn winder and some who had confused themselves with the patterns on their frame looms. It was a great day and I felt really settled into the role of ‘teacher’, it felt great as I love being helpful, and I learnt new skills that I can take with me in my own practises at home. During the clear up, Sarah from the museum spoke to me about a weekend workshop they are holding and invited me along for free, both to help out and take part. I was surprised, but very grateful and lept at the opportunity. It felt so exciting to be in the room with people who had creative and museum jobs and then to be accepted as one of them, it was the first time I’ve made connections like that and I felt really proud that she invited me as I must have come across as helpful and kind.

[suehtamsatierf]

Everything About My Process For The Comic Book Style

I want to open up this article with a funny comment I received in one of my tweets that goes briefly over my process for the last Amy Rose drawing I did.

It made me chuckle! Maybe I am a fool for sharing my secrets... unless it was my intention all along! After all, there aren't really any secrets as most things I do are done by several other artists as well.

Also, even if it WAS a secret, why the hell would I keep it all for myself? I mean, maybe by keeping it I could be the only exclusive artist capable of doing this kind of artwork... Naah! It's just a matter of time and a little bit of effort for other artists to figure out my ways, and like I just said: it's not really much of a secret as several other artists draw in similar styles already.

I actually see a lot of benefits in sharing my approach to drawings because this will help several artists to improve their skills or branch out in style. The world needs more artists, as well as the industry (animation, comics, games, etc.). It also helps to perpetuate whatever we have learned to future generations of artists. Could you imagine if the original Disney animators didn't transfer their knowledge to younger animators, or if we lost everything documented by the great art masters?

Now, of course, I am not comparing myself to any of these legendary artists. I am lightyears away from the skill level they were and I am not by any means a legendary artist myself. However, I did learn several things in my artistic journey that seems to draw attention from several folks out there, and if whatever I have to share is helpful in any way, I will gladly and proudly do it.

Now, let's get started!

The early steps

You see, as an artist, I need a few steps before getting to something I like. Not all artists are like that, some can draw awesome characters straight up without any supporting structural sketch underneath. These guys probably drew a whole lot already in their lives, I don't have that much experience yet. It could also be that I'm just way too picky with my drawings, but I digress.

Usually, I start with loose, non-committed ugly sketches. A lot of the time they come out when I am just doodling or sketching for fun, without any intention of turning it into a final image at the moment. In fact, I have a folder on my computer with lots and lots of sketches that never really went anywhere from there. I actually find a lot of them pretty ugly.

The image above is a page where I did some sketches. I did try to tell a story in some of these drawings by giving the characters a little bit of an attitude, but most of them didn't really go anywhere. There was no commitment here, it was a playground to explore and have fun without worrying too much about if it's looking great or not. After all, I never had the goal of sharing this with the world in the first place,these were for me! That's important.

When I see a sketch has potential and can be something fun to work on, I just develop on top of it. Some of these sketches have potential! Hence I took Amy over there and developed it further to a final image, and there are another couple of sketches there that could look very nice if more time is spent on improving them.

This is another sketch I did of Blaze when I was drawing her. I ended up not picking this one because some later sketches I did felt more interesting at the time. Unfortunately, I lost most of the roughs I did for this one, I did around 5-7 different poses before deciding on one, and the chosen one was heavily modified in the process as well.

Notice how loose and rough it is. It's pretty messy! At this point, I am not heavily concerned about anything other than the gesture and the pose. The lines are messy, the forms are not that well defined, the character proportions are off... that's okay! Really! These are things we can fix later.

I find it a lot easier when I pay attention to one thing at a time instead of trying to figure everything out at once. First, let's get that pose right in a way that doesn't take too long to draw and that can be easily modified. After that, we worry about structure, anatomy (if present), accurate perspective, shapes, lines, contrast, you get the idea.

This is the stage for playing! It's the stage where you get to mess up big time and do things over again because no commitment has been made yet.

Here I was getting closer to the pose I ended up committing with. I accidentally cropped the document and lost a good part of the sketches around, but you can see how I was still making changes to the pose trying to make it work. Initially, she was doing a very unrealistic and awkward twist with her body that just was not believable. If your drawing is not believable, then it falls apart.

This sketch is a little tighter than the other ones I did such as the previous to this in this article, and that's because I was mostly reiterating a very similar pose over and over again. I already had some foundation that was originally very loose, but as I made changes, it got a bit more defined.

Being tighter in this stage also helped me to better visualize what was going on with the character. Sometimes a gesture looks pretty good, but when you start developing it into something that makes more sense anatomically and spatially, you start seeing some breaking points that need to be addressed.

I made the twist less extreme and it started to look good! Once I am happy with the sketch, then I commit and start refining it bit by bit.

Here are some examples of how loose I usually like to be at this point:

Before Cleaning Up...

I usually like to have as many decisions made as possible before moving on to clean-up, because it's harder to make big changes once you're already doing clean, precise lines. The clean-up stage is where you focus your energy on making the drawing look pretty! However, before that, you gotta make sure things are working fine. It's important not to rush!

That's why I do multiple sketch passes before the final polished lines. Since the very early sketches are very messy, some smaller details are hard to see.

For Shadow, for example, I did 3 passes. The first one was exclusively for figuring out the pose because as you can see, it looks absolutely horrible. The hands are atrocious, the head barely looks like the character, the shoe is a box and there's one foot missing. I accomplished its objective though, which was getting a dynamic gesture that works as a foundation to all the other elements that go on top.

The second pass was where I started to define some elements better. I couldn't understand what was going on with his face and hands in the first pass, for example, so now is the time to get those things sorted out. That means I focused more on structure, defining the primary and secondary shapes more accurately. The primary big shapes were kind of figured out in the first pass already, except that it was too rough. The secondary only started making sense on the second pass.

The third pass was to clean up the shapes of the previous sketch a bit (lines are still rough) and to figure out the smaller details, that despite being smaller they are still too big to be dealt with in the clean up where my sole focus is to make the lines look nice.

What happens a lot is that even after going through all these passes, there are still some minor issues here and there that require adjustments when I'm already in the clean-up stage. On Shadow, it was his back leg that I had to lower a little bit to make the silhouette clear and his foot that simply wasn't there until the last minute. In other cases, I have to completely redo an arm or a foot, for example. That's when I go back to sketch just that part out and then clean it up again on top. That means there's usually some back and forth happening.

Here is another example of the multiple passes I make before cleaning up:

Cleaning Up

When I get to the clean-up stage, pretty much everything has been figured out on the sketch already. The focus here is to make the lines look pretty and to convey certain things such as overlapping, texture, Ambient Occlusion and a little bit of shading.

Having some of the shading done in pitch-black lines is a creative decision I made mostly because it's fun and feels nice to draw this way. I started drawing in this style with Rouge the Bat when I thought about rendering her in a painterly style but it would take too long and I had tons of other things to do.

However, the black shadows I make are mostly ambient occlusion and cast shadows. Unless it's a dark noir scene, making every single shadow black would not look very pleasing. In my opinion, it would be way too heavy and a lot of information would be lost.

When looking at my art, a lot of people think I do the black shading and the lines at the same time in the same layer, but that's not the case. I usually do the lines first and then on a separate layer I make the shadows using the exact same brush. That way it's easier to try things out and erase them whenever I don't like the result. It also allows me to focus on one thing at a time!

What I see people really like about my drawings is how I shade metallic objects. That is a topic for a whole article of its own, but in a nutshell, when making reflective materials, I usually don't think of light and shadows, but of what objects could possibly be surrounding this metal and how they are reflected on its surface. It doesn't have to be an accurate reflection as long as it looks believable. There are a lot of things I learned about reflective materials that I'd like to share in the future, but this is not the article for that.

I am currently writing another article all about line art and how to improve it, which goes in-depth on what I am usually thinking about when drawing. That being said, I will not go too much into the intricate details here, but I can say some things very briefly.

Line thickness matters a lot, and I usually use it to show important shapes and depth. I use thicker lines to say that an object is in front of another one with thinner lines. I also use thicker lines for the outline of big, primary shapes and also to describe volume. Making a thicker line on the side of an object that's in the shadows helps to convey a sense of tridimensionality, especially when it's a shadow made out of contact (which we call Ambient Occlusion).

Simplicity is key! Lines should be simple and not too bumpy. They should also flow and be confident! To achieve that, I usually draw with either my elbow or shoulder using fast movements. I sometimes use my wrist as a pivot point for a curved line, but avoid doing that as this can be harmful. There are 3 kinds of lines that I alternate when drawing.

Colours and Shading

Colours are tricky because their use is very abstract, which means there's no wrong way of using colours. Instead, some ways work and ways that don't work. There are, of course, guides that you can follow that helps you achieve better colour palettes, but since they're not rules, they can be broken as long as it works.

There are actually no irrefutable rules in drawing, every concept can be broken as long as it looks right. If it doesn't, it just looks like a mistake meaning that you failed. Using the excuse of "it's my style" is a very cheap way of saying "I don't know the fundamentals and I don't care but I still want to be appreciated".

The way I approach colours specifically for this style is by starting with the flat, local colours. On their own, they can look a little boring, although I usually do my best to make them interesting regardless of shading. That's why sometimes it's easy for me to be doubtful on whether the colours are looking good or not. I usually push it until the end though as I am almost always pleasantly surprised.

I think a reason I think the flat colours can look boring is that they need to be somewhat neutral, and by that I mean they are the halftone of the shading. That being said, I never go for full saturation or pure whites and blacks, because that limits the shading process and can make the image look a bit overwhelming.

Here's what I did with Amy, for example:

Now, of course, I didn't do a mathematical operation to figure out the best percentage of saturation for each of those colours in relationship to each other. I did it by feeling and by trial and error. Look at how horrible it would look if all the flats were 100% saturated:

I don't know about you, but this hurt my eyes! Vibrant colours are not necessarily associated with high levels of saturation, but mostly with the relationship of the colours used in a palette.

The colours around the 70% saturated red in the original Amy make this same red feel more vibrant. The 8% saturated white has an important role in making the reds and pinks pop up even more without hurting anybody's eyes.

In other words, never make a colour fully saturated, pure black or pure white in the flats.

For Shading, I often use the C movement in the color picker. I know, you have no idea what I'm talking about. It's basically this:

The reason I stress this out is that beginner artists usually pick shadow colours by simply lowering the brightness of that same colour, keeping the hue and the saturation the same. This doesn't happen. As light and the environment affects an object, its colours shift. Colour and light are directly related, meaning that everything surrounding an object will affect its colour in some way. I will be writing another article talking about this.

I usually draw the shape of the shadows on the character with the colour I picked for it and fill the inside with the same colour. Shape design is something that I like to pay close attention to, even in shading. I then make a layer on top of the shadows and use a slightly brighter tone that's more blue-ish to do the bounced and ambient lights. The reason I usually make it bluer is that I am usually thinking of the sky.

You see, the sky is actually a big light source that illuminates everything with a soft diffuse light. However, since the blue colour of the sky is actually the sunlight being reflected on the atmosphere gases such as Oxygen, it works as a much weaker light source than the sun. That's why you see lots of blue-ish shadows outdoors on a sunny day, and that's why I make bounced and ambient lights with a tint of blue.

Closing Thoughts

That's all I got for now. Much of what I covered here can be described a lot more in-depth in a dedicated blog post, hence I didn't do into too much detail about several of the concepts I mentioned. I am already writing some posts that cover some of this stuff more thoroughly, it's just that I take my time doing it as I want to make it as clear as possible without boring the hell out of the readers.

The goal of this post is to describe in more detail my process and some of the things I am thinking about when drawing. I hope this is helpful to anybody who is reading, and if it is feel free to let me know!

If there's anything you're interested to know from me, let me know as well and I can write about it here.

Cheers!

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