#and if I draw my sister that’s not fan art

[halloweeneva]

Okay so, while I was working on the leviathan comic (complete version here) I saved a version of the wip to make sure tumblr would cooperate with the comic layout I had in my head. Recently one of my friends convinced me to share it as an insight into my process so I’m going to walk you through some of it!

Warning: long post ahead

Starting with inspiration, the original poem was very evocative and really called to me. I do a lot of art of skeletons and hands and mythology and I knew those elements would play really well with the poem.

In all honesty I’m much more of a physical artist than a digital one, so all of my comics start with pencil and paper thumbnails to really help me nail down my ideas. (though as you can see, by the time I get to actually making things sometimes I lose or change elements as I go!)

Even in my original sketches I knew that I wanted the panel of the first background to be negative space and for the pillars to physically be the white of the page, basically making it so that the rest of the comic literally rests on top of them. (Note that the background of the comic begins and ends with a fade into white.)

Going into this I knew that I wanted to play with a limited warm and nonliteral color pallet, and that I wanted to play with breaking the comic boxes. I didn’t initially plan on using purple or blue at all, but it ended up being important to provide contrast (it’s hard to get some of those colors to show up when lettering) and to really emphasize the drowning/whalefall/leviathan imagery.

Red was an important color for this story, the original poem by @/narcissistcookbook used it to add a punch and I knew that I would need to use it in a similar way. it became a great contrast for my lovely skeleton hands and worked very well as flesh beneath the scratches on my big hand. My favorite though was using that initial inversion to turn the ribs red in the next panel. I really liked the fact that they weren’t white and I got to play with scale by fading the other side of the ribs so that they looked like an environment unto themselves. Then I pulled most of the red out so that the blue could really wash over the image and give the reader a minute to breathe, really emphasizing the quiet of being underwater. Then we get the crow eating flesh, the leviathan’s glowing red eye sockets, and the word Devoured. The restraint in the prior section is what really gives these elements such a punch, they’re the first things to draw your eye and the most important to understanding the image.

In the final page we also see the return of white, turning the bones of the leviathan back into pillars and bringing the comic full circle.

The whalefall section was improvised on the page and all of the elements evolved from the first very rough image shown below. I really liked the idea of showing the whole body that had previously only been seen as snapshots of certain parts. The yellow body was a bit too plain though and in noodling on the page I realized that I could use negative space and erase out parts of the body to add detail and emphasize how dead the body was. It started with the skull and then I realized I could use the same skeleton idea to emphasize the fingers/arm/rib elements right next to the text talking about it.

Once everything is 90% done, it gets very easy to spend hours on minor tweaks and I personally start to get bored. So my system is that even if it isn’t 100% polished I will declare it finished. There will always be little things that you could have changed or done better no matter how long you work on something, and critically, NO ONE is going to nitpick it except you and jerks who are just looking for an excuse to be rude. Art is not precious, it is not perfect, it is human. Imperfect art is a million times better than no art.

[madootles]

jon sims losing his mind in seasons two and three <333

the magnus archives has me in a serious chokehold right now

[ithinkdogshouldvote]

I NEED A HERO!!!

[angsty-teacup]

Here’s a drawing I did back in August !

[dotssu3]

i hc that cunoesse gets super into fashion as a way to set herself apart from cuno (they are NOT twins!!!). i feel like she would look up to cindy for fashion inspo…

[rufflywings]

Bro is literally me while listening to music

[peceraynadamas]

Augh, I hate being busy.

Odette and Clara because I love them.

[cybersodas]

I was suddenly posessed to draw my reaaallly old splatoon idol ocs Ida and Koko in seasonal fest fits. Order of images is their default looks, then their springfest and their summer nights costumes.

[chromartnomaly]

what if we were two robots falling out of space into the apocalypse, would you ask if we were dating... flushed emoji...

(screenshot under the cut :3)

[zamidotcom]

ABDACADABRBAHAI

[swedenis-h]

Fuck you *crunches Luke Skywalker with a crunchy brush*

[i-watch-the-beees]

@steddie-week day 3: first kiss

[theokusgallery]

Professor Layton themed candle !! :D

This is a tea set that I painstakingly but lovingly painted, varnished, then poured scented candle wax into and decorated.

More details under the cut :)

Here's some more pictures !

I used a random teacup and assorted plate I bought from a guy in my town. I painted it black (should've used spraypaint but I only had white), then handpainted the gold rim on the plate as well as the logos. The rim of the teacup is lined with some gold leaf I had lying around (I originally wanted to use gold leaf for the logos as well, but... it was my first time using gold leaves and I had no idea what I was doing, so I didn't want to ruin it). I used acrylics for all the paint.

I made the tophat with airdry clay; the letter and newspaper are paper (obviously), the Laytonmobile-looking thing is a scrapbooking sticker I bought from my local art store (it's actually what gave me the idea to make this in the first place). The key I just had lying around again and just had to paint it golden (I keep a lot of things around just in case I want to use them for art projects...) and for the gold chain, I sacrificed one I had from a necklace I barely wear.

As for the candle part, well, I used some white wax I had from a candle-making kit I was gifted when I was 7, as well as crayons for color, and hibiscus candle scent (flavoring?) I bought at the same time as the Laytonmobile sticker. I poured it in two layers so that the decorations wouldn't just sink to the bottom.

[katsu-punk]

This is so incredibly niche I’m sorry… but Marauders Modern Goth Dive Bar AU?? Anyone??

(fun fact: both of their outfits are based on things I’ve worn to my local goth club)

Pretty please accept my contribution to the marauders era fandom 🙏

[tomboyyyaoi]

ultimate despair

[aolyxe]

It's time for the true nature of the Scarlet Devil to be revealed.

Yyaaayyyyyyyyy touhou projecttttttt!!!! I drawed this quite long time... YES i know other games except stardew valley omg