#anyway hmmmm

[sgt-celestial]

i had to send an email recently to someone i had briefly met earlier that day and when she replied she put her pronouns next to her name and idk whether to put my pronouns or just leave it 🧍🏻‍♂️

[its-your-mind]

[gh0st-b0und]

thinking abt how i wanna draw the goat hmmm

[funkle420]

no talk me i angy cant stop thinking about my girlfriend who's been kidnapped by a crazy powerful ancient magician

[deoidesign]

How I save time on backgrounds as a full-time webcomic artist

Hi! I make webcomics for a living, and I have to be able to draw a panel extremely fast to keep up with my deadlines. I draw about 50 panels a week, which gives me about 45 minutes per panel if I want any semblance of a healthy work-life balance.

Most webtoon artists save time on backgrounds by using 3d models, which works for them and is great! but personally I hate working in 3d... I went to school for it for a year and hated it so much I completely changed career paths and vowed never to do it again! So, this is how I save time without using any 3d, for those of you out there who don't like it either!

This tactic has also saved me money (3d models are expensive) and it has helped me converting my comic from scroll format into page format for print, because I have much more art to work with than what's actually in the panels. (I'll touch on this later)

So, first, I make my backgrounds huge. my default starting size is 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. My panels are 2,500 pixels wide, so my backgrounds are 4x that, minimum. Because of this, I make them less detailed than I could or that you might expect so it doesn't look weird against my character art when I shrink portions of it down.

I personally find it much easier to add in detail than to make "removing" details look natural at smaller sizes, but you might have different preferences than I do.

I also make sure to keep all of my elements on separate layers so that I can easily remove or replace them, I can move them to simulate different camera angles more easily, and it's simple to adjust the lighting to imply different times of day.

Then I can go ahead and copy/paste them into my episodes. I move the background around until it feels like it's properly fitting how I want.

Once I've done that in every panel, I'll go back through the episode and clean up anything that looks weird, and add in solid blacks (for my art style) Here's a quick before and after of what that looks like!

This makes 90% of my backgrounds take me just a few hours. This is my tactic when I'm working in an environment that an entire scene, or multiple scenes, will take place.

But many panels will inevitably have a location that's used exactly once, and it would waste time and effort to draw a massive background for those. So in 10% of cases, I just draw the single panel background in the episode. I save all of these, just in case I can re-use it later (this happens more often with outdoor locations, but I save them all nonetheless!)

I generally have to draw about 2 big backgrounds per episode, and 3-5 single-panel backgrounds per episode! At the beginning of an arc/book the number is higher, but as the series is continuing and I'm building up an asset library of indoor and outdoor elements to re-use for the book, the number generally goes down and I save more time.

My series involves time travel and mysteries, so there's a lot of new locations in it and we're constantly moving around. If I were working on a series that was more consistent in this aspect, this process would save me even more time!

Like I said earlier, this also saves me a lot of pain and gives me a lot more options as I'm converting from scroll format to print format!

panels that look like this in scroll format...

can look like this in print!

because I drew the background like this, so I didn't need to go through the additional effort to add in the extra detail to expand it outwards at all.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone! As always if it doesn't help, just go ahead and disregard. This is what I do and what works for me, and I feel like I only ever see time-saving tips for comics that involve 3d models and workflows, which don't work for me at all! I know there's more people like me out there, so this is for you!

Enjoy!

Also obligatory "my webcomic" if you want to see this in action or check it out!

[linoyes]

[purgetrooperfox]

tired: fox has never done anything wrong in his life he was under control of the chip he didn't mean to kill fives he would never do that

wired: fox was being deliberately, continuously manipulated by palpatine into doing anything he wanted under threat of severe bodily harm, no chip necessary

inspired: fox is a product of brainwashing and genuinely believes in the senate and the republic, which is in constant conflict with the rhetoric he hears from politicians and his general dislike of senators, but that conflict is ultimately irrelevant. he believes in the institution with his entire self. he was born to die for this system and would lose his shit if he started questioning it in any meaningful way. The Institution told him to kill fives so he killed fives, it told him to hunt down ahsoka so he did it, etc etc. conviction that this is all worth it because the republic Can Only Be Right (or else his entire existence and everything the guard puts up with are meaningless) is what gets his ass out of bed in the morning. he'll do terrible things to protect it, and by extension his sense of self, and he won't apologize for it because it's categorically Right in his brain. none of this changes the fact that he's routinely abused by this system, or the fact that he's enslaved by it, or that he has no real choice in anything, only how he personally reconciles it all

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[lilybug-02]

This has happened to me way too many times for it be normal.

[theminecraftbee]

Grian pauses, turns around, walks back over to BigB, and squints at him.

"Hey, wait. Why are they red?"

"What?" BigB says, shoving his old secrets into his bag.

"They're red! I saw them!" Grian says. "That's the wrong color? Everyone's tasks are on normal parchment. Why are they red?"

"No they aren't," BigB lies.

"Yes, they are, I can see them," Grian says.

"Maybe parrots are colorblind," BigB says. "They're definitely not red. They're... normal-colored. Maybe your tasks are the ones that are the wrong color."

"What? No, I would know what color the tasks are supposed to be. They're supposed to be on normal parchment, I swear! I don't know why yours are red!"

"And I told you, there are no red tasks here. Are you feeling okay?" BigB says, knowing full well he didn't hide them perfectly in his bag, but in too deep to not keep committing now.

"What are you doing," whispers Grian. "What is wrong with you."

"I don't know, man, you're the one who keeps on showing up and yelling at me," BigB says.

"Look, they're just--why are those the wrong color?"

"I'm just saying. Maybe you're the only one who has them on a color that isn't red. If my tasks are red. Which they aren't!"

Grian throws his hands in the air. "And I told you, I'd know what color the tasks the Secret Keeper hands out are, wouldn't I?"

"I mean, I don't know. Why would you?" BigB asks.

Grian freezes in place.

"If you're so certain you know what color the tasks the weird god-statue hands out are, like, how? You're just as trapped here as the rest of us, right?"

"I just do," Grian says. "You know how I. You know. I'm supposed to help enforce the rules. So I just--"

"Nah, don't worry about it, I just wanted to see what you'd try to say for an answer," BigB says magnanimously. "I know why you know."

"...you do?" Grian says weakly.

"I mean, yeah. I was there too, Grian. I don't know why even the guys watching tend to forget I know about them. Hey, maybe that's why my task is red! Because I knew people would see it! Of course, that would only be true if it were red. It's not though. You should really work on that."

Grian stares. He looks oddly shaken. "Huh," he says.

"Is that all? Because, like, I have more doors to build," BigB says.

"You are the most deeply confusing person I know," Grian says, but it sounds more like a compliment than something meant to be upsetting. BigB decides it's fine to leave it be, especially since Grian's voice is oddly flat in the way it gets when he's considering whether or not to ruin everything. BigB figures it's best to stay out of his way when he gets like that. He also knows how impossible it actually is to stay out of the way, but hey. That's just how life goes sometimes.

Instead, he goes back to digging tunnels, waving as he goes to Grian, to the Secret Keeper, and to you.

[elany]

Yk what I want? I want a very early stages post canon labrumisu, but from Chilchuck's POV.

Imagine mister 'interparty romance is the devil' visiting court just to see these three circling each other like a pack of uniquely unhinged cats. And of course he sees it immediately, he's nothing if not perceptive and he's seen this happen so, so many times before. Kabru is hardly subtle in his fascination with Laios, who trusts him in turn more than nearly anybody else. He can see how close Mithrun and Kabru still are, even when there's little reason for the former captain to even stay in Melini. He can see where this is going. And he can see the disaster it's gonna end up in.

So he's just staring at them in horror, trying to figure out what in the world the dynamic here even is and glaring daggers at Kabru all the while for seemingly being the linchpin of this entire bullshit situation. King, his adviser and a fucking foreign noble?? Who thought THAT was a good idea! Is nobody else seeing this?? (no lol) Why is nobody objecting to this politically unsound love triangle that could literally ruin the kingdom they've only just established??

The anger! The distress! The despair when he first sees Laios getting all giddy when Mithrun so much as talks to him. Because hell, now he can't even blame the entire situation on one pretty boy insisting on having fingers in every possible pie, on political and personal level both!

And then they just. Quietly get together. All three of them. And Chil's just watching from the sidelines in complete bafflement because he's invented infinite worst case scenarios for how this will implode in all of their faces and destroy their friend group and topple the entire country and--

Instead they do. This. He'd be relieved if he wasn't so goddamn mad that he's spent months worrying about this shit just for them to resolve it in the least dramatic way possible.

Fuck this, he's taking a holiday.

[soaqrudyz]

immortal soap au but ghost is yelling and panicking because “why don’t you ever listen to me?! you could’ve been killed!” and soap just smiles sadly, holds him close, and tells him that he isn’t going anywhere, promise.

“you can’t guarantee that, soap! you can’t promise i won’t lose you!”

“oh love,” and he squeezes him that much tighter for all his troubles, “you’ve no idea.”

and really, he didn’t. he had no clue that soap had seen and loved every version of him throughout history, that they’d laughed and kissed and left their fingerprints on every continent, or that he’d still love him centuries in the future when they did this song and dance for the trillionth first time.

[onejellyfishplease]

What? A new Tmnt iteration?? . anyways *throws this at you*

So a bit of backstory for this iteration!

In this universe, Mutagen is produced naturally in the 'hidden city' (now called the OtherWorld/UnderWorld), bubbling from far beneath the earth and forming rare pools.

The Empyrean mutates any animal that comes into contact with it -and in most cases this causes a transformation into a bloodthirsty unstable monster. Though in rarer cases the mutation will actually be stable -effectively making a yokai.

And even though theyve already been mutated, both the creatures and yokai both need to continuously consume Empyrean to survive. This causes a cutthroat environment, where only the strong survive by killing and eating anything that has come into contact with Empyrean.

basically all transformed creatures in the UnderWorld can go for much longer than normal without air/water/food/shelter, but now must also search for empyrean.

Some stable Yokai can create entrances to Earth, though it takes time and focus, and most of all, Power. Its basically futile unless you yourself were mutated, or you're parents were, any generations down from that wont have enough power.

(as generations continue, they loose their reliance on Empyrean, but also loose their mystic power- at the 8-10 gen they loose all mystic abilities)

And how do the turtles play into this?

They were brought to the surface by Splinter once Donnie, Leo and Raph were mutated (Mikey being 5 at the time). Where he kept them safe in New Yorks sewers. He would have to leave for days however to go back to the OtherWorld to obtain Empyrean to keep himself and his children healthy. Instrucing Mikey to keep her brothers safe for the time he was gone.

Then one day, he didnt come back

Leaving Mikey responsible for taking care of her younger siblings. And leaving her to venture into the OtherWorld to find Empyrean herself and keep everyone alive.

Its on her first trip that her mystic powers awaken, and she is marred with her first and last set of scars.

And trauma. So so much trauma. >:D

[pjs-everyday]

if only they could read each other’s MINDS!!!! 🤯

[shixanryo]

the netpickerrrrrr

[sforzesco]

I love how much Lucullus can't stand Pompey, and also this

Pompey the Great: A Political Biography, Robin Seager

with something from this thrown in for extra flavor

Crassus and Pompey, on the other hand, ridiculed Lucullus for giving himself up to pleasure and extravagance, as if a luxurious life were not even more unsuitable to men of his years than political and military activities.

Plutarch, Lucullus

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

[sebfreak]

Sebastian Michaelis