#all in all about that program ask

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

hope you feel better soon!

I am riddled with ailments, but I stay silly!

[ckret2]

Loved the comic above the chapter. It was glorious and this is now my headcanon XD. The art is great too! What's the new programs you got? Had to ask before I dive into this chapter!

-🥸

new program is Affinity Designer, for vector art. My hands are shaky as hell (it's amazing how many weird-ass symptoms ADHD has that you don't hear about until you dig deep) and that makes it a pain in the ass to get my lineart looking as smooth as it does—i'm hoping using vector art for lining will speed up my workflow.

Right now while I'm still getting the hang of it I think it's slowing me down lmao. Got to learn how to deal with entirely new problems from the ones I used to have, like, "why does this damn program keep randomly switching between clicking on the layer I want and clicking on some totally different object group, when i choose a layer in procreate it stays on that damn layer until I tell it otherwise" and "why does drawing a new line sometimes apply the line style I wanted and sometimes apply a line style I used like twenty layers ago for no reason"

But once I've worked out the bugs I'm hopeful it'll speed things up.

Like, this! Look at this. I made a Bill and saved it as an asset. Have a generic Bill.

And now I never need to draw Bill again in my life.* (*this is hyperbole.) I can just slap that asset down, bend some things, rotate some things, and turn it into...

... whatever pose I want.

His body and hat are always the right shape and it's easy to deform them however I want and then instantly un-deform them with one button; his bricks & tie & eye are already applied; his limbs are always the exact same thickness, his feet are always the same shape, it takes one click to put his joints into perfectly smooth swoopy curves at the joints, and even the glow effect is always already applied

and man, I know stuff like an automatic glow is no big deal to people with fancy-pants high-end art software like Adobe Whatever, but I don't have Adobe Whatever, I have Procreate and you have to manually make your glow layers and if you redraw the image you've gotta redo the glow from scratch. Never again!!

You wanna know what I had to actually hand-draw to change the first image into the second image?

That's it.

My two issues are—one—because I'm so new at this, it takes a lot of time twitching around individual nodes and figuring out clever little ways to layer objects to get the right effect that a pro wouldn't have to spend on it, and—two—because vector art is SO precise and smooth, it tends to drain some of the personality and "character" out of the art. Like,

the angry Scalene on the left "looks better" just in terms of having clean consistent lines and pixel-perfect gradients and no sketchy corners—but the one on the right has a better angry face, it's more visually appealing and more intense. There's a lot more rage in those scrawly uneven fists than there is in the smooth flawless fist. I spent a lot of time fussing over her expression on the left and still couldn't get it to look as good as the one I did months earlier with Procreate, because in procreate you can just draw the lines but with vector art you manipulate the curves in strange and esoteric ways.

So I've gotta work to bridge that gap.

and then by god I'll be unstoppable.

[diamond-rozie]

I actually thought of this prompt like forever ago and i rly wanted to write a whole story for it but i couldn't think of a plot that would stick to it and make sense without adding too many outside elements and in my opinion over saturating the story. BUT i do have a bunch of scenes of danny and damian in my head about this also also some danny and other batfam members.

So anyways your order has been delivered...

original prompt: Gotham Academy's Mentorship Program

scene two: tim's arch nemesis

table of contents

-------------

scene 01: damian's not-so-very-bad day

“Father, you wanted to speak with me.” Damian said, trugging into his Father’s study late into the afternoon per Pennyworth’s behest. 

Father looked up from his work at Damian’s arrival, Drake gave him a look of annoyance that Damian returned with a sneer. “Damian.” Father greeted as he reached Father’s work station. “I spoke with your principal earlier today.” Damian huffed and crossed his arms in defiance at whatever accusation he was about to be handed, “Put your frown away, you're not in trouble.” Father chuckled lightly. 

Damian frowned. He was not a child, he did not need to be treated like one. 

“There’s a mentorship program at your school.” Father started, Damian raised an intrigued brow at him. 

Perhaps Father had succeeded in seeing his potential, “Well I suppose I wouldn’t mind mentoring one of the many underlings at the so-called academy.” Damian sighed, letting his arms fall to his side, as he looked up at his Father. 

Father blinked at him, processing what he had said, then glanced at Drake who looked like a fraying rope length away from bursting into laughter. “The mentorship program… it’s for you.” Father tried hesitantly. 

“Yes.” Damian nodded in understanding. 

There was an uncomfortable silence from Father.

“He means that you're the one getting mentored.” Drake laughed at him, shoulders shaking. 

Damian turned to Father. But the denial never came. “What!” Damian couldn’t help scream in outrage. “You want me to get mentored by some hillbilly civilian who can't tell a katana from a wakizashi?” He slammed his hands on Father’s table. 

Father looked at him with disapproval, but said nothing, not caring enough to discipline Damian. 

“Hillbilly civilian.” Drake croaked from the corner of the room, draping himself dramatically over one of the side sofas. 

“You’re to meet him first thing tomorrow when you get to school. Here’s his student profile, if you're interested.” Father handed him a singular paper. 

“Father I do not need-” 

“It’s already been arranged Damian, atleast give it a try.” Father said with a sigh, picking up his files again in a silent dismissal of Damian. 

The paper crumpled slightly as Damian stormed to his room.  

Daniel James Fenton. 

“Let’s see how long you last.” Damian eyed the picture of the smiling teen. 

---

“Have a good day at school Masters Tim, Thomas, and Damian.” Pennyworth bid, as they all got out of the car. 

“Later, Alfred.” Thomas waved at the butler as he drove off. 

They all walked in the same direction to enter their classrooms, when Drake stopped him in his path. “Ohoho, and where do you think you’re going Damian?” he asked cheekily.

“Tsk.” He was hoping to be able to make it to his class before the others noticed, then continue to evade the principal and other faculty if need be required. To be foiled so early into his plan, furthermore by Drake, was humiliating. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the principal’s office?” Drake continued to smother his victory over Damian. 

“I was just on my way.” He huffed, turning around annoyed. Drake and Thomas snickered as he retreated. 

Damian knocked on the familiar oak doors. “Come in.” Mr. Carson called from the other side. Damian entered, and plopped down on the same chair he sat in every time he had been sent here. “Ah Damian. Goodmorning.” He waited for a reply, but when he realized he wouldn’t be getting one he continued on, “Mr. Fenton should be here any minute, but I’m glad you were able to come here on your own accord.” Mr. Carson talked as he hung up his jacket and took a seat at his chair. 

Damian could only watch the seconds tick by as he sat in that office. He wondered absentmindedly if Fenton didn’t show up would he be free. The knock at the door decimated all hopes Damian had for that. 

“Ah, that must be Mr. Fenton.” Mr. Carson mused out loud, “Come in.” 

Fenton entered the room hesitantly, greeting Mr. Carson with a small smile. Fenton was a scholarship student and held reasonable grades so his intellect was not to be underestimated, though often simply being able to score well on tests did not translate to having adequate life skills. Fenton was taller than Drake, but still average, dark hair, tanned skin, gray-blue eyes. When Damian’s supposed mentor looked at Damian for the first time since he had entered the room, Damian couldn’t help but feel like he was caught in a stare off with a beast. 

The way Fenton examined his surroundings reminded Damian of the League of Assassins. Careful, analytical and tactical. All things Damian had excelled in. But there was something different about Fenton than what Damian had often seen in the League. His eyes were softer than those that had trained Damian. Damian couldn’t understand why his eyes looked like that. 

Fenton smiled at him in a way that was likely meant to be kind, “Hi, you must be Damian. I’m Danny.” He stuck out his hand for Damian to shake. 

Damian did not take the hand, instead he turned to principal Carson, “When can I leave?” He asked board, subtly eying Fenton’s reaction in his peripheral vision. 

“We have to iron out the finer details and the both of you will be free to go until we see each other for our weekly check in every Friday.” Principal Carson started, “Mr. Fenton why don’t you take a seat. 

Undeterred by Damian’s lack of interest, Fenton took a seat. Mr. Carson explained to Fenton his responsibilities as a mentor and what would be expected of him, Fenton in turn nodded along attentively. After his long explanation of the whole program the both of them were free from his office, and excused from classes until lunch to “get to know each other better”.

Damian translated that to having until lunch to show Fenton that he was out of his depth and have him running with his tail between his legs. 

“So…” Fenton drawled trying to buy time to think of something adequate to say no doubt, “How about we go to the library to hang out?” Fenton offered. 

Damian simply huffed in agreement as they made their way to a pair of sofas tucked between the many rows of books. 

“So, Damian, uh, what do you like to do after school?” Fenton asked unoriginally. 

Damian turned so he could meet Fenton eye-to-eye. “Train.” He said honestly. If he plans on scaring him off then leaning into the superficial things he learned in the League would do him well. 

“Oh, you do sports?” Fenton asked inquisitively. Damian was momentarily thrown off by his show of genuine interest in his personal life, but Damian quickly collected himself. Fenton was merely putting on an act to get him to open up, Damian would be a fool to fall for it. 

“No.” He scoffed at the thought of sports, “I train for battle,” He made sure to put as much confidence as he could in his voice. Oftentimes in the past when he had told his peers of his activities they had brushed him off and laughed at him, Damian wondered if Fenton would have a similar reaction. 

“Hardcore.” Fenton nodded in awe.

Damian blinked, “You believe me?” He found himself whispering. 

“Well, yeah.” Fenton responded as if it were the most obvious thing, in fact, he seemed confused as Damian’s bafflement. 

Damian quickly collected himself, “Well of course you should believe me it’s the truth, I’m a highly skilled blade user.” He nodded to himself. 

“Blade user, huh? Do you prefer katanas or wakizashi? Or a classic long sword maybe.” Fenton asked eying Damian as if it would help him find the correct answer. 

“Katanas obviously.” Damian scoffed, “They’re incredibly balanced, strong, and give you incredible control over your attacks. Wakizashi are also a good option if you prefer close combat and if you’re fighting in an area with a lot of obstacles.” Fenton hummed and nodded at his explanation, and Damian found himself continuing, “Long swords are originally from the Bavaria and Switzerland regions during the medieval times-”

[jaredthebc2]

God just the fact N doesn’t heal from his trauma in a linear way and if anything is self destructive in the way he handles it especially in BW2 staying in the room that is basically the physical representation of his trauma (AND technically repeating his trauma just self inflicted instead of from an abusive father) makes me insane.

Like normally kids media would traumatize a character and then after like one or two events go “They’re doing much better now and making strives in recovery!” And just depict it as either a non issue now that it’s been “addressed” or at most show them going to therapy or something. But no Pokémon has the balls to go “Yeah you’re not mentally recovering from this stuff that easily, if anything you seek comfort from the things that hurt you and you very much will inflict that pain on yourself again for the sake of stability and normalization”

Like him staying in his room indefinitely in BW2 is most likely just a mechanic so you can rematch him and talk to him and obviously the story isn’t endless so at some point he has to run out of things to do (Kinda like how Cheren in BW1 is in that cave indefinitely after the story) but the fact he says he’s in the castle to wait for the protagonist, SPECIFICALLY HIS ROOM. Like damn Pokémon you really have the balls to make N basically inflict mental self harm on himself like that it really is just an emotional gut punch

[wardingshout]

Goooddd I’m still so crazy about your art !!!! YOUR STYLE IS SOOO EVERYTHING RAHHH 💥💥💥🧡🧡🧡

I’d draw your alttp duo again bc I still love them to death but I’m so busy </3 maybe soon..

!!!!!! YOU!!!!!! ZELDA ATTACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

💖💖💖

and so am I!!!!!!! I cannot describe how much seeing your stuff fills me with joy and excitement for art like looking at it feels so great it's contagious! one of the things that really kept my Zelda spirit going during my fall season from hell ngl and Im so grateful for that!!

and speaking of alttp (ish..) her too!! but I struggled too much so I tried again

and absolutely do not worry ever !! ;v;

like ⬆️ I will riding off the high of this forever !! and also no one has to whether they have time or not <3<3<3 I also have not gotten around to doing smth proper for you despite having had smth in mind since forever ago... one day >:3c

[shootingstarrfish]

DOES MY FAVORITE 33 YEAR OLD BOBBY GRILL (gender neutral) HAVE A JOB???????

yeah his job is being cute <3

[feroluce]

Thinking today of henghill on some cold planet, one like Jarilo-VI or wherever, and Dan Heng getting his tongue stuck on some metal part of Boothill's VSKJSNSJD

Like Dan Heng is stuck to his neck, so Boothill has to pick him up and carry him to try to sneak them around to somewhere warm to thaw his tongue out. Don't worry, poor Dan Heng is just tired, that's why he's carrying him like this, no no he's fine don'tlookthatcloselybye!!

(Also Boothill is carrying Dan Heng bridal style. Obviously.)

And now, I get to show you all @hydrachea 's newest blessing upon this ship, because she took that and RAN WITH IT-

Crying imagining Dan Heng still stuck and trying to throttle Boothill to keep him from talking anymore JSJIZJSKKE

[stuck-in-jelly]

A hill that I will die on is that more modern AUs should depict Corvus as having some type of cowboy or equestrian background

That man is one genre change from his weapon being a lasso and his love of horses being relevant

[the-scarlet-witch-22]

actually writing for the first time in weeks... conductor!agatha is home <3

(actually working on a standalone one shot set after chaconne but before lark, introducing Agatha's insane cello playing ex wife)

[neunhofferart]

Do you happen to know how long Yaz is supposed to have been away? Sammys ranch didn't feel like it had ever had a couple living in it aside from there being two hats 😆.

This one I don't know exactly, unfortunately ToT

The only thing I know is that they marked her flashback with Brooklynn at 14 months before the show.

[reksink]

Comms for Delightful Friends 💚

[starflungwaddledee]

I couldn't help but notice you color your line art sometimes. Do you have any tips on colored line art?

hiii there! thank you for asking!!

just a heads up that i'm notoriously bad at "teaching", and i'm assuming an amount of general knowledge of art programs + layer modes!

i actually don't often "colour" my lineart, at least not in the way a lot of other folks do! i'm used to working as streamlined as possible and developed quick-fire workarounds for most steps during my time in webcomics!

i also have multiple lineart styles! a more textured one with thin lines which i typically use for more polished pieces, and a soft-brush sketch style (inspired by my pal @moonverc3x's lovely lines) that i generally use for less detailed works, though i sometimes get carried away 😅💦

my textured lines don't lend themselves well to those nice and thoughtful coloured lines most folks do. but here's a quick breakdown of my techniques using the soft-brush style!

lines and flats 1) make lineart + flat colour it. my lines are never at 100% opacity, so already some of the colour shows through them anyway! 2) set the lines to multiply mode. because my lines are typically in a colour and not black, this usually works well enough for me, as you can see in the second image! i frequently just call it done here!

hand coloured lines a) if i do want to take the time to colour the lines individually- often things like metals, especially warm golds, require this added detail to really help them pop- i'd just lock the layer opacity and pick a colour that suited and apply where needed. this is fairly standard! b) a second version of the same technique, with higher contrast/more saturation to suit my tastes and a little extra finessing (especially around the eyes). this is very much a "to taste and time/energy" thing! sometimes at this stage i'll add high contrast slaps of colour such as bright purple or blue

my overlay-lines technique a) the second technique that i use is actually very fast and usually gives an okay-enough look. it's what i use for high-speed professional webcomic work (with my textured lines) to give the illusion of individually coloured lines for basically zero effort. so starting with the base lines set to multiply, as seen in (2), then, b) duplicate both the lines and the colours (with shading, if you have it). clip the colours to the duplicated lineart layer, ostensibly "colouring" the copied lines the exact same colour as the colours. set this duplicated layer to overlay, and adjust opacity as needed

you can kinda see that the overlay lines method is not as specific in colour as the hand-picked ones above, and it will suffer from overlap based on where your flats come to underneath the lines. but i find it helps especially when you have high contrast light colours in the work (ie starstruck's face mask) as the lighter colours brighten up the linework in those places significantly.

for highly polished works i would come back and still pick out areas to finesse individually. there's ultimately no quick substitute for spending more time on your work!

there's about a thousand and one other combinations of these effects you can do, such as using the duplicated lines on multiply instead, or further painting over the top, etc etc. but duplicating the colour layer and clipping it to the lineart is one of the techniques i developed that sped up my work process most significantly over the years!

[2hoothoots]

It sounds like the Raz in your Villains AU would be more emotionally stunted than the proper FSAU Raz. I can imagine the Performer and Lover archetypes either didn't form to balance out the Agent archetype, or we have a Cassie situation. Maybe the Agent archetype usurped them and Raz ate his feelings.

It's not that I can't. I just find it more prudent to focus my energy elsewhere.

v!au Raz doesn't have any archetypes. he never really saw the need to develop any. what's a guy like him need a little doodle friend for? he's already a walking one-dimensional paper cutout

[oxymoronicdumbass]

music taste so funky that if i get aux, there's an 87% chance that someone's gonna say something along the lines of "who THE FUCK added this to queue???"

[3point14a]

@chocottang OK. ok uh,,,,, word vomit about pupleon because they are my curse and they curse me repeatedly and im gonna be needlessly long with with it so sorry you asked somehting very simple

Ok flash summary of what the hell is up with pupleon first of all:

Leon is a guy who wants attention and hes a bit deranged about it! deranged enough to be evil (tm). He really really really wants to be the center of attention and is envious of others for being more naturally interesting, his envy is weird? cause he mostly tends to get really intense about people who he thinks are interesting. With owynn (who has VERY long hair, weird pupils, and dyed flashy hair) he just hates his ass, he just hates him. With eak cami and tony he mostly swallows it because theyre his friends and he likes them! the entire reason he has hair over his scars is to not make Eak feel shitty about them even thouh he loves them cause they make him "more interesting". With Puppet, it was weirder!!!!

It was weirder because he thought Puppet was super cool despite not really being all that loud (specially next to Mai). And then Puppet! is a curious bastard!

Puppet's emotions don't work quite right (he also can't feel pain, so) He's just constantly in the search for interesting stuff to keep his attention because he gets bored insanely easily, and he lacks a bit (a lot) of empathy, so he mostly sees people as things that can be interesting.

So they're a bit of a nosy kid, they get all up in your face and ask ten trillion things about your life and it really just makes you feel like youre under a microscope. They talk in riddles, confuse you and drag you along to see your reaction to things.

When Puppet met Leon, He got up to his usual schtick of being nosy, get all up in her face and asked him insane shit without any tact, like if hes really deaf, how deaf, if his skin is gonna change more, etc etc, mostly things that people with common sense wouldn't ask someone they just met. Unfortunately, Leon loves being treated like that, he loves showing off his scars and his vitigilio and his deafness and everything. And being given that much attention (getting interrogated LMAO) by a guy he thought was cool made him fucking exstatic.

Longs story short, Leon just follows Puppet around Puppet doesn't really care because he doesn't really care about anything. Shadow shenanigans happen Puppet gets fucking pissed because trying to fully completely understand what shadows was something he had done for really long and the only thing he had that could qualify as a heavy "interest" of his.

Sorry no one asked for the recap but i need to word vomit. Ok with that out of the way, how the hell do they even come back from that. Well uhm.

Basically Leon gets HEAVY guilt over it because yeah, you ruined his life bro i dont know. Puppets desire to be involved with all the shadow stuff and truly understand it was something much more important/heavier than Leon just, wanting attention!!!! and he feels REALLY bad

Puppet over there in hell land just kind of??? gives up? stop doing stuff unless they're prompted to, just sort of lays around and does nothing, without his infatuation for the supernatural he's just sort of on autopilot

The the like thing with them is that Leon tries really hard to get Puppet back into being more normal??? Mai doesn't really do it because she also doesn't get emotions all that well and her idea of helping people is going "TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN <3" so thats nice. And he doesn't really talk to anyone else so its that blue haired snake against the world

Tries to get him on walks or to play games or to watch this funny video or ANYTHING you know?? just keeps bugging him ten thousand times, and Puppet actually drops the ten million theatrics and riddles and just talks very straight forward about what the fuck is up with him

Both him and Mai are cagey about their issues because no one ever believes them (which is FAIR how did THAT happen) so they mostly just avoid being straight forward about some quirks on how they work (aside from emotional stuff, for example. Puppet cannot feel pain, but Mai feels pain for the both of them; Mai can't feel temperature, but Puppet feels it for the both of them; etc) But since bro already gave up on everything at this point and since Leon IS involved with the weird magic bullshit he just tells him, straight up "I'm more of a machine than a human, I can't feel and I cant hurt. Whatever infatuation you have with me will lead nowhere because I can't make it go anywhere. And whatever you're trying to do right now with dragging me places won't make me a normal "passionate" guy. " and Leon is a fucking stubborn bastard who IN SUMMARY goes "you functioning differently doesn't make you any less human" and that him trying to get him interested in something wasn't to "fix him" just to get him into the same normality he used to have when he was fixated on supernatural stuff.

BASICALLY the end point with them is that Puppet has been very fixated on fixing themselves all their lives to be a "normal human", no one is really GLAD he's like that, they just like him DESPITE it. His mom and his family don't like him FOR being broken like that they like him despite it, and so Leon waltzing in saying that she can hold out affection for him AND his flaws as a part of him. That they're not something he tries to ignore or fix For someone to fully understand that it is magic bullshit and that he cannot get medicated or change or get better, and then NOT see him as some poor bastard or some empty shell but just a guy. It's audghdhdfgggghhh he can't be a full guy and he can't have love and he can't get the happy ending because it's not fixable vs guy who can accept that.

ANYWAYS IM FINALLY ANSWERING THE QUESTION CHRIST the point is yeah. the facades and the self.

ok in those things I have red as the self and blue as the facade. The colors dont really have significance lol theyre just there

Puppet is ALWAYS smiling, but he doesn't really mean it at all. He doesn't really understand what smiling means, it doesn't come naturally in the slightest and it makes him feel more inhuman than they already do. His "real" self is the showcase of how hes broken (eyepatch of doom) and his blank as hell expression. I did a thing with these two that is fun to me where its like the opposite of "stone faced but only smiles near their loved one <3" where Puppet smiles at all times every waking second but when he's with Leon he stops really giving a fuck (she already knows everything thats "wrong" with her so like who cares) and around leon he just looks completely dissenterested and bored.

Leon tries to present himself as normal guy, even though he REALLY wants attention its mostly because he IS a caring dude and he knows that showcasing his ears or his eye scars would freak out his friends. He also tries to not come off as intense as he actually is. Just a nice chill guy

then his real self is more???? outwardly a bit crazy. He loves his scars he loves his teeth he loves showing off and have people stare at him, he gets fixated on people and how "interesting" they are a LOT and tends to just STARE at people or come off REALLY intensly

Puppet's facade is what i already sort of mentioned, he smiles around people and tries to mask his lack of feelings into casual nonchalance that makes him come off as more normal than Mai even though he gripples with his brain a lot more than she does.

and uh the point of both of them being together for that is that they both just roll with it??? Leon does not care about how differently Puppet processes stuff / if they're unexpresive because yeah thats just how he's wired. Leon, as much as he loves attention, REALLYYYY dislikes pity, he doesnt think his scars or his deafness are something to be pitied rather than something COOL he has, and puppet can't really pity him so he just sort of agrees and goes "yeah man cool idc"

AND THATS IT THATS IT I DONT KNOW. HELP. SORRY.

[moregraceful]

hope everyone who got a creator subscription notif from me today realizes something deeply unwell and bizarre happened to me in march