#anyway this was ! very very speedy. fast little sketch thing

[sideblogdotjpeg]

theyg. they are cooking together.

[littlewestern]

What was your design process for Pilot? I really like the little detail of the silver leaves on his collar.

Sure thing! So Pilot's design is an ongoing, evolving thing (as all my designs inevitably are) but he's existed for over a year now and I've drawn him so many times since then it's a little hard to remember what the idea at the beginning was like, but I will do my best!

Before we get to the outfit, I do want to talk a bit about his basic character and how I worked it out because it's a little amusing. I remember thinking very strongly at first that I wanted to lean away from the sleek, silver, speedy streamliner personalities I'd seen elsewhere. Coming from ttte, the fast engines in that series tend to be haughty and overly proud of their speed as if that were the only measure of an engine's usefulness. I wanted to turn the wheel hard away from that type of characterization so I decided right away that I wanted Pilot to be humble, down-to-earth, and well-aware of his limitations. (This turned out to be a great instinct, as it fits extremely well with the engine's backstory, though I didn't know that at the time.) So right off the bat I knew I wanted something that communicated a certain level of approachability and... almost a guilelessness, I suppose. Someone who you could play for a fool, but why would you when he's so sweet?

I had also decided that Pioneer would be silvery and old-fashioned, so I wanted to go in the opposite direction for Pilot, dark hair and eyes to offset Pioneer's lighter appearance.

I had also just come off binging House MD.

I think this is a great example of why its important to become familiar with your own creative process and how your influences manifest in your work as an artist. This won't help you avoid the embarrassment, but at least you can get out ahead of the cringe accusations lol.

Anyway, once I had a firm template in mind for the type of character I was writing, then I could drill down on the specifics. I leaned into the Robert-Sean Leonard look hard and started pulling from other actors who had once been cast for their boyish good looks but were starting to age out of them.

(Left) More Robert-Sean Leonard and that breezy flyaway hair he's just a little too old to be rocking. I also definitely stole Pilot's furrowed eyebrows from him, but this was mostly because the way the E5 windows lean, they always look mildly worried!

I was also enchanted by Tom Hulce's (right) open but slightly world-weary and harrowed look, and I nicked those deep under-eye bags for my train too. Pilot's nose is based on the E5's impressive snoot, but also mine, which bows out in the middle and I think gives my face... personality! The silver streaks in his hair came from the idea that all Zephyrs, given enough time, will go completely grey. Pilot hasn't gotten there yet, and he'll probably be able to stave for a long while. Service life keeps you young, and Pioneer went grey prematurely.

Okay, with that out of the way: On to the outfit.

The E5s are a great class for their distinctive, themed names. Silver Pilot and Silver Mate are... Well, in retrospect, they're probably based on naval terminology (Why not 'Captain' & 'Mate'? I don't know). I didn't know that at the time, and honestly lacking his B unit, it doesn't super matter. He's an aviation Pilot now, although through the inevitable design drift and desire for quicker sketches, this often gets lost or forgotten, but that's on me. The idea of his uniform is still canon unless I change it, I'm just lazy and I like to draw him in casual outfits!

You can see the aviation influence right away. I didn't want to use a specific airline's uniform, so I kept most of the design elements vague. I opted not to go for the doubled-breasted coat, as it felt too formal and I had given Pioneer a double-breasted already, though he's since lost that as well (I gave it to the submarine instead lol). I also hadn't yet designed the Zephyr pin that would later show up on Pilot and Pioneer's uniforms in later drawings, so the double-wing pin was ad-libbed. It looks like this, and is based on the old Zephyrus Burlington logo.

The leaves on the collar are laurels, and are a nod to his train's Greek and Roman mythology naming, even though by the time of the E5s it had mostly been lost. Pioneer also has them, being the first of the Zephyr trains.

Also note their nose herald pins. I actually own this pin myself, because I didn't realize it existed as a real pin you could buy when I drew these. The three stripes below the tie are a visual nod to the E5's distinctive black nose stripes, red in the 60s but corrected to their original 40s black sometime in the 90s when Pilot started doing excursions off IRM property.

A few changes I've made since these drawings I made in 2022: In retrospect Pilot's sleeves should have four stripes, not three. Also, his cap is gone from most of my later drawings, but Pioneer also has a cap he just doesn't wear often. Hats are warm, easily lost, and generally not worn indoors. I envision the cap to be for special museum events.

All this old art is making me cringe. Here's a more recent sketch to show you how far we've come.

Thanks for the ask!

[cutegirlmayra]

Sonic OVA: Sonamy AU

Birthday week! So exciting! I’m posting as many prompts as I can while it’s my birthday week! :D EEEEeeeee!!!! It’s gonna be so much fun! It’s my treat for all my wonderful readers out there who have supported me so much! Here’s a little birthday gift to you from me!

Yes, prompts and commissions are open ;)b (However, if you’ve already submitted 3 prompts, please let others have a go too and hold off, okay?)

Prompt:

It wasn’t long after Sonic went off on his own to find Metal Sonic that a familiar pink hedgehog showed up again in his life. Rosy the Rascal, as he heard others call her, stepped out in his way boldly but with a sweetheart expression on her face as he skidded to a halt.

Normally, he wouldn’t bother, and just race around her. However, this time there was some serious danger afoot. “Look, it’s not wise to follow me this time, Rosy.”

As he folded his arms, keeping a neutral expression on his face, she opened her eyes and raised her intertwined hands up to her pinkening face, clearly love-struck by catching his attention enough to have him wait for her to move.

“Sonic, my love, I’ve heard the awful news of what Eggman has done to you.” She began, but Sonic just raised an eyebrow and sweated a little, not sure what she was getting at.

“He does a lot on his spare time...” he grumbled, not really understanding himself why he was pausing to explain things to her.

He didn’t really mind being rude when he needed to be... anyway... so why give her a second?

“I’ve heard that he’s made a robot in your handsome image!” Her eyes opened to reveal a starlit darling that craved her hero’s safety and happiness above all things. “So I’ve come to trash that robot and put your mind at ease. He’s clearly using it to give you a bad name, and I won’t allow it!” she swayed her body back and forth a moment and lowered her bundled together hands down, ceasing to blush as his eyes remained annoyingly on her.

He lowered his eyelids, clearly frustrated and to prove it, he started to tap his foot and put his hands on his hips. “Are you done yet with the cutesy act, already? Look, flattery gets you no where in life and besides that, you’re not as cute as you’re pretending to be. Either step aside and let me handle my own affairs or get somewhere safe. I don’t have time to play around with you.” He swished his arm out, and she opened her eyes in a flinch at his words.

“Y-you... You aren’t bothered by what Eggman’s making you look like?” She seemed shocked to hear that, and quivered as he responded, parting her hands in horror.

“I couldn’t care less what Eggman makes me out to be, everyone can tell that it’s a silly impostor and not me.” He suddenly widened his eyes a moment in realization when Amy cupped her face and looked embarrassingly away from him. “Or... rather... is it just you that didn’t see the difference?”

He knew he was right, and his eyes drooped again at the nonsense of that innocent mistake.

“Oh, how embarrassing!” she covered her face as awkward tears sprayed from the side of her face in an animated way, “Not even recognizing my betrothed! I’m so ashamed! I don’t deserve to be your girlfri-ien-iend!!!” she whined in hopelessness.

Feeling something like--perhaps wanting to comfort her--he nervously held out a hand out to her, “H-hey, no need to cry over it... If it’s a honest mistake, then you probably just didn’t see it clearly enough...”

He twitched back when she peeked through her hands, looking perfectly fine. “You say... everyone could tell?”

He sighed, looking annoyed again that he fell for her girlish act. “Everyone.” he countered, growing upset he so easily was led into that farce.

She covered her face again, “Bo-ho-ho!” she faked the distressful tears, hoping he’d stay longer to soothe her ‘troubled heart’ but he just began to back up and stretch.

“Nice touch on improving the cutesy act, Rosy. But I really don’t have time to cheer up little girls who clearly can find better things to do with their day. See ya!” he raised himself a few times on his toes for the last remaining stretches and then zoomed at light-speeds to curve around her and take off.

“Ah! That meanie! Doesn’t he know he’s leaving me in the middle of nowhere! His fiance for Pete’s sake!” she straightened herself out and threw her arms down by her sides, disappointed her ploy for his tender mercies didn’t work. She sighed, watching his dust cloud take to the wind, “Honestly, sometimes I wonder how I’ll ever keep up...”

Then, as though blurring into existence, Metal Sonic’s red eyes and the rest of his menacing form sketched in behind her like lines on a television screen glitch--due to how fast he was moving, that was the image created as he looked off at Sonic, then only turned his eyes to the side to look to her.

“Huh?” Rosy turned around, “Ahhh!!! Sonic, help me!” she crunched her body to the right to avoid his frame and fell to the ground, crawling backwards, “S-stay away, you big fat fake! Ha! Ha! HA!” She kept throwing tiny hammer toys at him, but they just ‘piko’d off his metallic hide as he walked after her.

“Whhaaa!!! You don’t give up, do you!? Why can’t Sonic be this interested in me!” she shrieked, forming light fists with her hands and putting them up by her face as she cried out again, “SOOONNICCC!!!”

In her desperate cries, flowers were placed before her.

“H-huh?” She turned back shocked, “What’s this? Is this for me?” She looked up amazed as Metal Sonic continued to remain cold and silent, presenting the gift.

“Ohh... d-do you want me to take them?” She bent her eyes a bit, not sure what this was...

Metal Sonic lowered his head, and little robotic noises seemed to answer her in return.

“W-well, that’s very kind of you, but I’m in love with Sonic. The real Sonic, okay?” She held up a hand, then pushed his flowers back towards him. “And I’ve already made him upset by mistaking him for those rumors about what you’ve done! So the best way to make up for it is to kindly reject you and be on my way, sound fair?” She got up and dusted herself off, sighing and wiping some sweat from her forehead. “Phew, glad that’s over with. Now that Sonic knows my eyes are only for his organic shape and heroic smile, he won’t think twice about marrying me!” She daydreamed and swooned as she looked up to the sky and held her hands to the side of her face, longingly.

Metal Sonic’s hand twitched, and he ripped the flowers into blades of grass. His red eyes glowed brighter than before in clear rage before taking a powerful stance, as though ready to rush her.

“Ah! H-hey, what’s with the sudden change of atmosphere, huh?” Rosy zipped back in an blur, not wanting to be so close to him as he seemed to power up. “I-I’ve rejected boys before but this seems a little extreme, don’t you think? S-S...Sonnnicccc!!!” she cried out and ran, but dirt whipped up around Metal Sonic as his engine rotated to rapid speeds and pursued her.

Picking her up, he took off into the air as she cried out, “NOT AGGGAAIINN!!!”

Hearing her getting closer in the distance, Sonic just let out an exasperated sigh and looked over his shoulder, “What does she want now? Huh?” Seeing Metal Sonic holding her above, his expression quickly changed to anger. “What’s that?! Come and get her? You punk,... alright. Have it your way. But I still don’t get why you have to get little Rosy involved in all this.” He took off towards some protruding metal spikes that were also buried under thick dirt and sand, racing up it to jump and take on Metal Sonic.

Metal Sonic dropped Rosy and battled Sonic, having her cry out as she fell through the air. “Noooo..!!!”

“Rosy!” Sonic broke out of the fight with Metal Sonic to reach for her, but he went behind Sonic, his spikes not bothering his metal body. Sonic was held in a choke hold while still struggling to jump down and free her.

“She may be small, but her hammer packs a punch, I remember that much!” A twirling duo of fox tails burst and jumped over the different protruding spikes, dashing over with a homing-attack to knock Sonic out of Metal Sonic’s grasp and then fly off to grab Amy, “Got’cha! Miss Amy Rose, right?”

“Oh, you remembered.” Rosy looked up to him, amazed by his speedy entrance.

“Remember? I still have a bump on my head!” Tails called her out as she twitched her ear from him yelling directly into it. “Why is Metal Sonic so interested in using you against Sonic, though? I don’t get it.”

Rosy batted her eyes, “If you convince Sonic to protect me, then maybe you both won’t have to worry about it.”

“Oh, that’s a good point.”

“It’s not!” Sonic countered, kicking a final striking blow to Metal Sonic’s noggin’ and sending him down into the sand. “Tails! Help me out!” he held out his hand behind him, still glaring down at Metal Sonic as Tails flew to his side, having Rosy switch to his other hand, “Errr... Are all hedgehogs this hard to carry?” he held his nose up, struggling to keep both hands on them.

“Ah! How rude! Sonic, teach your sidekick some manners!” Amy huffed.

“Manners?! Lady, I’m his best friend!” Tails protested, but helped the two down to safety.

“Best friend, huh? Well, I guess every groom still needs a best man. Okay, you can come along too.” She put her hands on her hips as though judging Tails, as he bent his ears back, not liking her forwardness in how blunt she was.

“You’re still on about that?” Sonic spat out, “And give it a rest, Tails, she’s only formidable when her opponents play by the rules, isn’t that right, Metal me?” After defending Tails a moment, he turned back to Metal Sonic, getting up from the impact his face made with the ground.

“I hope I got a new dent in that face.” he smirked, folding his arms. “What’s with you picking on little girls anyway? Didn’t Eggman every teach you not to bully those weaker than you?” he wagged his infamous finger out to him, and heard Metal Sonic’s engine blare in the distance. “Heh, guess not.”

“I’m not weak!” Rosy summoned another Piko Piko Hammer, but this one was slightly bigger than the last few she tossed. “See? Ha-ha-ha!” she swung it around, forcing Tails to duck and fling his two tails over his head protectively, but Sonic just ‘tsk’d as if not impressed.

“I’ll deal with you later, kid.”

“I’m not a kid!” Rosy stomped her foot down. “I’m gonna be your wife!”

Sonic rolled his eyes, “Anyway... back to reality, is that scrapped head of yours able to understand, Metal Me? Let’s settle this, hedgehog to machine, and leave them out of this!” He waited for a response after holding a hand out to Rosy and Tails.

He pulled Amy behind him, almost instantly as she was flung to his side and hid behind him, admiring his protectiveness of her.

“S-Sonic...” Her eyes shone before realizing what he had said before. “B-but-!”

He held her against him as he pointed back to Metal Sonic, “Quit sticking your nose into other people’s lives, Metal Me, what are you? Desperate or something?” she was amazed to be in his arms a moment before he lightly let her go and stumble over to Tails in her dreamy step. “Girls hate it when you hog them all to yourself, don’t ya know?” He kept taunting, getting Metal Sonic even more revved up now.

“B-but I can hit real hard...” Rosy muttered, her lower lip trembling as Tails got back up, lightly patting her head.

“There, there. Sonic’s just trying to distract Metal him from not targeting you again.” he explained, but quickly moved his hand behind his back, still not sure how to take the silly little fan-girl.

Though, he did admire Sonic, he felt she was a bit more of a extremist in her hero worship than his idolizing of Sonic.

Still, he felt he understood--somewhat--of how she felt towards him.

She sniffled in her budding tears, “You... You really think so?” She looked towards him and he nodded.

“Sure! He probably heard you pleading for help and couldn’t stop himself from jumping in. That’s Sonic for ya, always a helpful guy.” He praised him, as Rosy wiped her tears away.

“You’re much better than I thought you were, Tails! I’m glad Sonic has a buddy to help him out on his dangerous adventures! Let’s be friends!” She jumped into his arms, but he immediately dodged her, holding his hands out as the whites of his eyes were exposed in his fear.

“N-no-no, that’s okay! Just hearing you say that is enough!” he panicked, still afraid of the girl’s strength from the fighting tournament.

Sonic ditched the two, leaving Rosy to cry out, “H-hey! Where are you going!?”

“To fight.” He responded, keeping his eyes glued to Metal Sonic, waiting for him...

“Ah! W-without us!” She looked worried, but Tails also seemed to match her concerns, stepping forward with his arms to his sides.

“You’re gonna leave me behind again..? Oh, rats!” He snapped his fingers and looked disheartened.

“Do yourself a favor, Amy,”

She perked up at him using her real name.

“...Don’t get involved.” he stated very firmly, and went to take down Metal Sonic in another all-out duel again.

Her heart was broken by his words, but she stayed out of the battlefield since.

Later, Knuckles and Tails were watching the end play out, and the many awards Sonic was rejecting receiving that Sara and her father were trying to force him to wear and accept but failing miserably too.

Rosy didn’t like Sara’s fawning of him but listened in on Old Man Owl and the boys’ conversation...

“So you’re saying...” Tails began, looking a bit worried at his words.

“Precisely!” Old Man Owl hooted, “If what you said is true, I have a theory!”

“But saying that Metal Sonic actually liked that hedgehog girl because he was being influenced by Sonic’s data doesn’t add up.” Knuckles, incredulous as ever, leaned forward accusingly and shook his gloved hand out, turning his head to the side as he spoke a bit down to the mad owl.

“Ho? Isn’t it obvious?” the old owl could have sworn he was right. “She is a cute girl, after all.”

Rosy’s renewal and faith in Sonic beat back into her heart like a rocker’s drum. Hearts flew all around her as she thought to herself, ‘Aw, he must be too shy to confess such things upfront!’

“If that’s true, then Sonic has some odd tastes! And not just in looks alone!” Tails laughed.

Rosy blinked her eyes a moment, then turned to the boys, summoning her hammer to an exceptionally large height and width. “What did you say?”

The three flinched, having huddled up and not realizing she could hear them..!

But that’s when Sonic blazed by, grabbing Rosy and holding her bridal style without a word, just rushing her off with him.

“O-oh!” she blushed, her hammer disappearing from her clutches, and reverting to her coy manners. “Sonic... is everything alright?”

“I’m taking you home.” He stated, shaking his head then suddenly, “Ugh, anyone every tell you--you smell like flowers and machine oil. Peh!” he must have meant her run-in with Metal Sonic, but she swooned into his chest anyway.

“I knew you cared!” she chimed.

“About your smell? Keep dreaming, you rascal!”

[asimplechaos]

Haaaaaa here we go a post detailing the boss fight of my lovely boy Mercy!

First gonna thank @mayadile for the helpful title card tutorial (eventhoughimadeatypoinmydamnurlOOPSIT’SNBDTHO) that I totally made use of!

Anyway, this post is already pretty lengthy with just sketches, so I’m gonna detail what’s going on below the cut!

CONTEXT

This actually takes place in a sort of fake game me and a bunch of other friends are making up to give the group of characters we made a story. Basically, Cuphead gets on the bad side of a space mafia and they go after him. Mercy is Mercury, and since the boss order as of right now is planned to be going backwards towards the sun, he’s the last of the planets you fight. (There’s still others after him but pfftt)

So by the time you get to Mercy, you’ve pretty much taken out his whole family, so He’s Hecking Pissed. And that’s saying something, since he’s the sibling who’s usually cheerful and wanting to keep everyone together.

Mercy is very heavily based on both Hermes and Icarus from Greek mythology, which is what I’ve based a good portion of his powers on. As such, he’s speedy and can float a bit, but with these new wings, he can fly completely.

STAGE 1

You find yourself in a stage requiring you to constantly hop on the next layer of clouds, as they continuously move downwards. Mercy starts off at the top and moves back and forth a lot, sometimes dropping a flaming feather, which will damage you.

One attack of his is that he floats up a little and sends a line of feathers down with a flap of his wings, two of which can be parried so you can slip past them easily.

He’ll also dart from one side of the screen to the other on a random level, setting the clouds behind him on fire for a couple of seconds. He only does this once per attack, so as long as you get to a safe level, you’ll be fine.

Losing quote: "There’s no way you’re clipping these wings!”

STAGE 2

This is where things get a little intense. His movements get faster and more shaky, and his wings are clearly losing a lot of their feathers. Random feathers start to rain down more often.

His feather rain attack gets upgraded to two lines this time, but they can still be parried.

His darting attack now allows him to go diagonally across the stage in addition to side to side. The diagonal motion doesn’t set clouds on fire, but it’s faster.

He’ll sometimes light down on one of the lower clouds and aim his trusty revolver at Cuphead. The bullet is fast, but there’s a brief pause before he fires, so you can duck out of the way.

Losing quote: “You might’ve won if you didn’t fly too close to the sun!”

DEFEAT

Upon defeating him, he loses a bunch more feathers and begins to fall from the air, a trail of feathers and fire following him. His hat also falls off, dropping with him.

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

Annnnd that’s it! For now. It might get refined a bit as time goes on but I like how it is right now. Thanks for reading to this point if you have, have a little Mercy as thanks!!

[doodlewash]

Hello dear Doodlewashers! I am honoured to be included among other amazing guest artists here at the vibrant Doodlewash community and I hope you will enjoy my artworks and perhaps learn something useful from me as well. My name is Michaela Istok and I am from Bratislava, Slovakia though I’ve managed to live already in Kuala Lumpur, Prague, Helsinki and Tampere.

The Beginnings

How did my art journey began for me? Honestly, I don’t really remember; I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil in my chubby little fingers. My mum, having noticed my leaning towards artistic expression (including on walls, floors, important documents and receipts…) registered me at art classes led by academic painter Ms. Sona Herenyiova since I was about 7 years old and I kept on going there until I left my hometown Bratislava for university, aged 18.

Ten years later, I have my a BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree, about 7 years of experience in the design industry and a rather impressive stash of watercolour illustrations, doodles, sketches and filled up sketchbooks in various places in various countries (Slovakia and Finland, to be exact).

Paint Cheap, Have Fun

Though I see many artists, hobby painters and art course attendants striving to use the best paints, the best paper and the best brushes they can afford, I’ve always had a different approach here. See, I believe that if my skills and technique are underwhelming, even the best paper and the most expensive super premium brush will improve it only up to a point, if at all.

However, if my expression, use of line, colours and composition are good (in my eyes at least – though I always nitpick my work!), the artwork can look charming even drawn with a basic pencil on a random sketchbook paper found in a drawer.

This is just a long-winded way to say this: I didn’t care about the quality of my tools for quite some time when beginning.

Instead, I practiced often with mediocre tools because it was well, just practice where I explored myself as an artist. The results varied and once I started to get satisfied with the progress I was making in my art journey, I started using better tools and better papers as well. Now I am in a place where I am mostly using high quality paints, papers and brushes but I don’t make it a rigid rule. You will see two paintings made on the worst and tiniest sketchbook ever in this guest post. I went into it knowing it’s a bad paper but it was fun anyway.

As for my favourite tools, usually I use Koh-I-Noor pencils, Micron fineliners and St Petersburg White Nights or Van Gogh watercolours. Papers vary – I hadn’t yet found my preferred brand, but I do gravitate towards less textured, cold-pressed ones with at least 300g/m2 weight.

Illustrator in Progress

My favourite topics tend to be animals (including beloved pets), people, silly characters, mythological beings, landscapes, flowers and picturesque village houses. I value traditions (though I don’t adhere to them much – but knowing about them makes me content) and so traditional architecture and old crafts are a big inspiration for me as well.

For illustrations, I work both in vectors (digitally) and in ink and watercolour, though I have to say that so far I have had far more clients for my digital illustrated work than for the watercolour ones, probably due to more focus on marketing the digital work. We are currently discussing a range of dog behavior books for children with a dog behaviorist friend, so let’s see where this takes us – in a not so far off future I might be very busy with a lot of watercolour illustrations too!

The Process

I have always been a fast artist (as in, fast in painting) and I consider this an advantage when it comes to watercolours (and acrylics) – they just dry so fast, I must be fast too! I rarely paint wet on wet, so painting wet on dry is a speedy process for me.

The preparatory stage takes me longer than painting itself – usually I gather some research material (photos, illustrations of the subject, simplified pictograms, etc.) to get to know my theme well and draw a couple of rough sketches on some basic papers. Once I am happy that I seem to know what I am doing, I take an actual watercolour paper and either first sketch it lightly with a pencil or draw directly with the Micron fineliner.

When painting pet portraits I need to be fairly accurate, so first I sketch the pet very lightly on a paper with a B or a 2B pencil (it can’t be too soft or the sketch is too dark and difficult to remove or cover by the watercolour wash). Then I take my Micron fineliners, drawing the subject itself. A moment to dry, and I can start applying watercolours.

Firstly I apply lighter colours in bigger areas and after that I move onto more details in darker colours. This lets me control the values and hues of the painting well, not overdoing it – I strongly believe that an overdone watercolour painting is a mortal sin!

For other illustrations, I don’t always feel the need to sketch first by pencil, so I don’t always do that. In that case it’s a drawing with Micron fineliners first and then the watercolours on top of it. This is, of course, quite risky and scary as I can’t remove or alter the fineliners but I like taking this risk. Painting this way is similar to calligraphy – there are no steps back; once you dare to paint the wash, it is there to stay. Doesn’t that remind you of life with no Ctrl + Z?

Useful Tips For Other Artists

I am not, by any means, an authority on painting but I have learnt some tips and tricks over time, so maybe some of them will help you in your artist journey too!

● Don’t stress too much about your tools if you are just starting out – you can practice with anything, not spending too much money on your art at first. Instead, dedicate your heart, time and imagination to your art!

● Also, don’t fret if you hadn’t developed your style yet – it will come! And it might change over the time too as you will be evolving as an artist and as a person (in that case, don’t fret as well, this is a good thing to happen).

● Paint and draw everyday, even if for 5 minutes while drinking your morning espresso. Practice makes perfect (and creates you that elusive ‘style’ over time)!

● You will gravitate towards some themes – should you focus only on them? Should you enjoy working on them but also develop your skills in other areas? Food for thought!

● Don’t feel self-conscious about your art and if you honestly feel it sucks, take a pencil and focus on the most basic basics – still lifes, portraits, nude bodies. By getting better in these basics you will get better in everything else!

● Leaving a bit of an empty paper (not covered by any paints) in the painting will let it “breathe” and prevent the ‘overdone’ look.

● Most of all, have fun and create art. The world needs more artists like us!

Michaela Istok Illustration portfolio Design & digital illustration portfolio Women Who Draw Behance LinkedIn Society6 Shop

#WorldWatercolorGroup - GUEST ARTIST: "A Tale of Many Faces and Flowers" by Michaela Istok Hello dear Doodlewashers! I am honoured to be included among other amazing guest artists here at the vibrant Doodlewash community and I hope you will enjoy my artworks and perhaps learn something useful from me as well.

[petalsadrift-blog]

Helloooooo friends!

Hope you’ve all had an amazing week! We have some exciting updates for you - prepare yourself! For starters, we decided to move away from a traditional platformer and towards an airborne adventure, which means that our flower character will be fully dependent on the butterfly for movement (you’ll never tear them apart!). Thanks Kelsey, for helping us organize our designs and pushing me to make some final creative decisions!

Jun is incredible and was able to knock out the code for the butterfly mechanic in just a few days! In our game’s current state, the butterfly successfully flies around the screen, changing direction in response to the flower’s singing on beat (don’t worry, we’re working on names for these two bffs <3). Since we’re going for a more fast-paced adventure, it’s important for us to make it very visually clear to the player when the beat occurs (a great example of how a game does this is Crypt of the Necrodancer!). We currently have the equivalent of graph paper as the background of our game, but we’re working on ways to tastefully incorporate a grid system into the game.

Since Jun is extra speedy, she is now working on creating a diving feature for our butterfly/flower friends. In order to bounce on something, the butterfly will fold up her wings and the two will accelerate downwards. Once they bounce on, say, a mushroom, they will be propelled back upwards. She’s also working on the duo’s collision with walls - if a butterfly & a flower run into a tree when no one is around, do they make a sound? In this game, the answer is always yes! Really though, when the two collide with other objects, they’ll be knocked down a certain distance and must recover before continuing on.

Anyways, my primary focus this week has been on level design. As someone who loves exploring every little aspect of a level (I will no joke smash everything I can in a level for the chance at a rupee), I’m excited about creating levels that require the player to move through every nook and cranny and maintain some spacial memory of how each level is constructed.  To do this, we decided that we wanted our levels to be vast and vertical, as well as having some wrap-around walls (meaning that you can leave the far right side of the level and pop out on the far left side). 

I’ve also been working on creating design documents for both the development team and the art team to reference. These documents range from detailing specific mechanics, such as how the mechanics will actually work, to more general concepts, such as the flower’s evolution throughout the game. Since things change here and there through implementation and playtesting, these documents are constantly updated. This keeps everyone on the same page, which can be quite tough in pre-production! While I’m currently updating our documents to the current specs, here’s a look at how I like to structure them!

As for game visuals, our artists are continuing to produce some seriously beautiful art! We decided that we wanted all the characters in the game to have some relation to music and the artists came up with great interpretations of the concept. The character sheet below was done by Karolyn and, while we honestly adore all of these little birds, we decided that we wanted to see more characters in the style of the bird circled.

Julie has also been working on creating characters and she came up with a number of lovely critters that would  fit well into our game. We worked with her to narrow down our favorites - you can see them circled below! Aren’t they adorable?

Make sure to take a close look at that butterfly, since she’s one of the game’s main characters! We’ll be receiving some more refined characters next week, so don’t miss it!

As for our other artists, Lydia has been working on sketching backgrounds, as well as creating environmental assets for our levels. Check out some of the plants she drew this week! We can’t wait to start dropping these into the game!

Janice has been playing with color comps, determining how to make the gameplay layer pop out against the backgrounds. This is something that is easy to overlook, but it’s incredibly important! If the player doesn’t can’t differentiate between what is important and what is purely aesthetic, confusion and frustration are quick to appear. Thankfully, our artists have a great eye for color! Here’s a look at one of her concepts - we knew it was a match made in heaven when we saw her little mushrooms!

With our vision more clearly defined for our vertical slice, we should have some game-ready art assets by next week. We couldn’t be happier with our game’s look and we love how the art style plays into the game’s quirky concept.  

Our next step is incorporating music! You may be surprised to hear this, but my biggest musical inspirations for this game were all things Reggie Watts (he is a musical genius, just sayin’) and...Potter Puppet Pals - The Mysterious Ticking Noise (check it out on YouTube). While these things are so incredibly different, they’re also very closely tied by the looping structures employed. I really like the idea of starting a level off fairly quiet and allowing the player to build the song as they progress. Naturally, this means I started my week off by sitting alone in a room, recording myself making “beats” (though really, I might be the only one who would classify them as such). However, after (sadly) very little deliberation, we decided that we would move forward with a more musical route. So, as the player collects petals, they will unlock parts of the songs. Depending on how the player navigates the level, the song will be composed differently on each playthrough!

On that note, it’s time for me to get back to work! Thanks for tuning in! We hope you enjoyed this post and that you learned something new! For more frequent updates, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook! As always, feel free to contact us :)

Love,

Iman & the team