#back when I was motivated to draw backgrounds kinda

[lemmielem]

Salt & Ash

[day-mark]

this piece im doing for a collab is gonna look so epic in my head . i dotn know how to draw 9/10 of these things im including .

[sentientstump]

The big "Big Salmon Wood™" animatic thing!

finished this really rough looking blob slideshow from before LOL <- look here if you want to see from what state i had to polish it (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠).......

audio origin: docm77 hermitcraft s.10, ep.5 from 4:00 to 8:30 (heavily cut here)

here I'll describe what steps were made in order to birth this:

• watch a new VintageBeef's video at night and laugh the butt off

• decide to animate it because its really funny

• try to choose from which POV to take audio from

• decide to choose Doc's because he had silly music and he doesn't cut that much

• download audio file using a NewPipe feature

• edit and cut the audio in Flipaclip

• put FPS to 1

• draw blobs, indicate placement and expressions

• render the file and upload it to tumblr to see if its a funny concept

• forget about it (have in the back of your mind but being kinda avoidant)

• start drafting a more anatomy accurate version, still on 1 FPS

• go crazy bc they look so off

• go normal bc its just a draft

• finish the draft and be proudd

• forget to polish it (and be avoidant again)

• summer 2024 will end in 2 weeks, try to speedrun the polish before final year in uni starts

• fail to do so, lose motivation

• pick it up on boring classes

• be tired from new job

• have a free friday to finish it in 3 hours

• delete double frames, transfer all frames to Alight Motion to tweak timings

• unbox the zip file and have all frames be shown in random order in editing app's gallery (i have hate in my heart)

• solve a jigsaw puzzle of trying to find when each frame goes after another

• be proud you tweaked it all!

• find out you put the editing file into a wrong aspect ratio instead of 16:9

• cuss everyone around, including an open background video

• render the wrong ratio, open a new correct file and scale the rendered video to fit in, render THIS file

• upload it on tunblr, profit👍🏼

favourite frames:

i dont want to tweak it all anymore, faces or hair or expressions, im done, if i dont care about it then no one care 😤 you get what you get

[kozachenko]

[Click for better quality]

Ok yay I'm back from my vacation yipeeeeeee. I started this drawing of Keiki before I left and I was half considering just giving up on it.... until I did a short study of facial planes and then got motivated to work on this again! I'm glad I didn't give up on it though, as I'm actually really happy with this one!

Artist's Notes;

So as I mentioned in my last post about Touhou 17, I wanted to finish this by the game's five year anniversary but with how progress was going I didn't want to rush this so I decided to take a long break from it. Mainly because of the face. For a while now I was kind of feeling like I was stagnating with my drawings, not really in the clothing but in the bodies. There was something about the way I was rendering them that I just wasn't happy with, and after talking with someone else about this issue, I realized that the reason I felt this way was because the faces were too flat and didn't match the rest of the drawing and that I needed to find a way to make the rendering of the face feel consistent with everything else. So after doing a short study of the plains of the face (I used this 3D head model from art station as a reference for my short study, please go give this person some love as they are a lifesaver) I went back into this drawing and applied what I learned here. It was only after that that I finally became motivated to finish the piece, and while it started off as just a simple character sketch like Saki and Yachie's were, the moment I added in Keiki's little fire dragon I knew I had gotten in too deep and now here we are with a full on background. OK it's not super crazy or anything, but it gets the job done and it's better than there just being an empty void behind her. It's rare moments like this when I use brushes other than the Clip Studio Default Charcoal Brush and use the Clip Studio Default Paint Brushes as well (god bless the oil paint and dry gouache clip studio brushes, they were amazing). I don't know why but painting fire has always been really fun for me, there's something oddly satisfying about it y'know? I do think that another reason for this problem was because I was drawing faces like I would in my more sketchy style that didn't mesh well with my lineless style, so I'm glad I've started remedying that.

After adding in the fire dragon I had an idea to kinda make it feel like splash art in the way the composition works... probably because I have been playing Reverse 1999 again and it has taken over my brain. I do feel like Keiki's tools get a little lost in the composition, and I didn't fully render the metal parts of them mainly because I didn't feel like they needed it, but that's just something for me to improve on later down the line.

If you guys are wondering where I went for my vacation, I went to New York and got to go to the MET and the Museum of Natural History. In both places I found Kofun period stuff and I was so happy to see it you have no idea. I remember one of the Haniwa I saw had some neat face paint under the eyes that I tried to replicate with the makeup under Keiki's eyes in my drawing, though I think I'll gave to figure out how to draw makeup on characters because this reads more like blush to me than anything. While drawing this I also looked up some references of Kofun period jewelry and really liked the stuff I found, which also meant that now she has proper Kofun earrings instead of earrings shaped like Kofun tombs. I put some of the things I referenced with a closeup of Keiki's face as well down below. I made her outfit more reminiscent of the outfit I gave her at the beginning of the year with the buttons and all, though I do want to try and draw her in some more period accurate clothing like the Haniwa I took a picture of at the Museum of Natural History. I wish I could find a way to make her handercheif look better though as I wish I made it a little bit bigger, though I think I'm saying this because I've looked at this drawing for too long lmao. Once again something to work on for when I next draw her. Also want to get better at rendering hair, as some details (like the little strands in front of her ears) kinda got unreadable due to the similarities in colour lol.

Now you may have also noticed the little cracks I added onto Keiki's face, and that's because I have fallen in love with the idea of Keiki's body being made from ceramic and that she crafted her body herself. While they aren't very visible I also tried to add some doll joints to her body, which is an idea I played around with in the past but never went to far with. I also want to get better at rendering cracks in ceramic, porcelain, etc, as I'm not sure how those read in the drawing. I also have a headcanon where the cracks in Keiki's face show up because of heightened emotions, and while Keiki is aware of this and does her best to make sure her face doesn't break off.... she will still end up with at least a few cracks during any given day, and she can often forget to repair her own body quite frequently so Mayumi has to remind her quite a lot. Mayumi even taught herself some basic sculpting techniques to help repair parts of her body that are so badly damaged to the point where Keiki can't repair them herself, i.e. if both her arms broke off, Mayumi would put them back together for her so Keiki can at least have something to repair herself with rather than nothing. I also like to imagine that if Keiki created her own body, if you took a look at Keiki from the beginning of her life she would look completely different compared to now.

BTW If you guys are wondering what a very very angry Keiki looks like....ok in order for this to make sense have any of you read volume 11 of Land of The Lustrous? Am I bringing back some memories for those of you that have? Ok good, glad we all got that mental image brewing in our minds, I'll probably draw a version of Keiki that is somewhat inspired by that one day as it's an idea I've had for a little while now. And to those who haven't gotten to that volume yet and are confused.... don't worry about it, just keep reading :)

[ponderingmoonlight]

Can we get a yuta x fem!reader where he saves reader in Shibuya just in time after not seeing her this whole year?

sounds like a plan to me, let's do it hehe

Yuta saving your ass in Shibuya

Pairing: Yuta x fem!reader

Word Count: 1,7k

Synopsis: You have enough. After fighting for multiple hours in Shibuya, you are the brink of giving up your life, of giving up the pondering about a future with Yuta. Little do you know he's already on his way to Shibuya...

Warnings: language, TW! reader accepts the threat of death (and kinda wants to die), angst but comfort, not fully proofread

„Fuck!“, you cry on top of your lungs, bruised fingertips digging themselves into the debris underneath.

You are so damn tired. Tired of the horrible things you had to endure on this cursed evening, tired of all the senseless fighting, tired of death crawling up your spine. Maybe you just have to realize that your time has come, that you’ll be next. After all those people losing their lives today, it’s finally your turn.

“I’ve done enough”, you mutter to yourself.

The countless creatures in front of you cry out while storming towards you again. The people behind you scream in horror, so scared of dying that it wrenches your heart.

Why? Why do you have to be so damn emotional about this, so wrecked by their helplessness? You shouldn’t bother about their fate at all, should just sit here and await your very own relief in silence.

But instead, you lift yourself back up and draw your sword. Again and again, you slash into their bodies, paint the town around you in purple. Every fiber of your being begs you to stop, to just run away and never return, to sit down and let them slice your head off to end this madness once and for all.

It was definitely easier when he was still around. Yuta Okkotsu, special grade, probably the strongest after Satoru.

And the boy you hopelessly fell in love with until he decided to leave you behind. It’s been a year since you’ve last seen him, a year since you really talked to each other. Damn, how much you wished to see him one more time before you die, to at least tell him about your unwavering feelings. Why the hell are you so attached to him after all this time anyway?

But Yuta Okkotsu isn’t enough. The unsaid words between you two aren’t enough motivation to keep going after you’ve seen Nanami die, after both of Toge’s arms got sliced off, after Sukuna almost killed you.

No. You are so damn tired of it all. Fuck your pathetic life, fuck those people you don’t even know.

“I…I can’t…do…it…anymore”, you huff out.

Like in slow motion, your bloody blades glides out of your weak grip, falling onto the ground with a loud clinking.

This is it. Your final moment on this earth. Maybe that huge curse will bite your head off and let it all end quickly. Hopefully you wake up somewhere nice, maybe at a beach or something. And maybe, just maybe, your brain is able to trick you one last time into thinking that he’s here, that he thought about you as well, that Yuta Okkotsu didn’t forget about your existence.

Just a single moment and it will be over. Just one last breath in this cursed place.

You allow yourself to close your eyes, the desperate cries for help fading into the background. The pain that holds your body, all the horrible things you’ve seen…You smile to yourself gently while sitting down. It’s finally over. Now you’re finally able to rest.

And so you wait in silence for their sharp teeth, for them to finally slice your head off. But something seems off…You furrow your eyebrows. What has gotten into this thing? Is it full already? No, these monsters never get enough. It has to me something else.

“Hey, are you alright?”

You hold your breath, eyes snapping open in an instant. That familiar voice, that white uniform…You glare straight into the stranger’s face.

But no, that isn’t a stranger.

This is Yuta Okkotsu.

“(y/n), is that really you? What were you doing here? That curse could have killed you!”

His words don’t fully reach your ears, cries of the curse who gets eaten alive by Rika ringing in your ears. This can’t be true. He…He wasn’t even on the continent. How did he get here? And why on earth is he standing right in front of you?

Suddenly thick anger rises up your chest. Anger because he your left without really telling you. Anger because he didn’t write or reply to your messages frequently, anger because Yuta never seemed to fully care about you after the year you’ve spent together, after the secret kiss you’ve shared. And now he’s standing in front of you with that single droplet of sweat running down his face, asking what you are doing here.

“You have some fucking nerve”, you hiss through gritted teeth.

You lift your trembling figure off the ground, pushing him backwards with all the strength you have left only to stumble over your worn-out legs.

“You disappear for a whole damn year, never really care about me and then you ask my what I’m doing here!? Do you want to know what I did? I tried to save these people, tried to justify the countless dead jujutsu sorcerers, tried to free Gojo-sensei! What were you doing all this time, why didn’t you even ca-“

With a swift motion, he gets down and wraps his arms around you, cages you against his body. No, you don’t want to be near him, you need to get away, you…

Can’t help but cry.

“Why did you leave me here without saying anything?”, you mutter desperately, fists banging weakly against his chest.

Fuck, why does it have to feel so comforting, why do you have to realize just how much you missed him and the way he holds you? Why does it have to be so damn hard to stay mad at him when all you need right now is a big comforting hug?

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am for all those things. When I heard what happens here in Shibuya, when no one could tell me that you’re safe…On my flight back here I regretted over and over that I didn’t have the guts to tell you how I feel”, he whispers against your bloody ear.

“Please tell me you’re alright, tell me I wasn’t too late”, he begs.

Gently, he lifts up your face, forces you to get lost in his blue eyes. Oh, how badly you want to push him away, tell him to leave this place and let you die. But instead, you just stare at him, watch how he scans your body, your countless injuries.

“How long have you been fighting here alone?”, he mutters.

“4 hours. Maybe a little longer. I lost count some time ago”, you mumble, tired eyes still set on him.

He looks so different from when you last saw him. How is it even possible to turn from a boy to a man in the matter of one year? His chest seems wider, jawline even sharper, eyes clearer than ever before. But what changed the most is the way he carries himself. The man in front of you isn’t insecure and fearful. No, he seems absolutely aware of his immense powers, killing of that grade 1 curse with ease.

“You look shocked.”

“I definitely am. After all, a ghost is talking to me”, you reply dryly.

What hasn’t change is the fact that his eyes seem to be the mirror of his feelings, instantly filling with sorrow by the sound of your harsh tone.

“I didn’t want to leave you behind. But…I had no other choice, (y/n)! I owed it to myself and Riko-“

“Oh, so now it’s Rika and you, huh?”, you bark.

Enough. You stand up faster than expected, shooting back up only to lose balance and falling back into Yuta’s open arms.

“Hey, slow down. You have to be exhausted.”

“Yes. Yes I am fucking exhausted. Exhausted from that senseless fighting, exhausted from hearing your excuses! What was the real reason you just left me in the dark? Was it because of Rika, because you don’t care about me like that? You should have thought about that before you kissed me the night before you went to different continent-“

“Trust me, I thought about you all the time, I loved you all the time, (y/n)! It was just as hard for me as it was to you. The last thing I wanted was to leave after that night, but I had no other choice. It was my only chance to train properly, to get the best of me. If I could, I would have taken you with me straight away. But I couldn’t. And I’ll probably never forgive myself for leaving you alone in this mess, for almost losing you!”

He grabs your face passionately, makes you forget how to breathe. Is this really Yuta Okkotsu talking to you? Is this really Yuta Okkotsu leaning closer, his lips only inches away from yours.

“I loved you through everything, (y/n). And I hope you did as well.”

“Are you serious?”, you breathe out, staring at him in sheer disbelief.

“You were the only thing on my mind all this time. You and…that I never told you that I love you”, you blurt out.

You aren’t even able to turn away from him. In the matter of seconds, his lips are pressed against yours. Just like the last time you’ve seen each other, just like he did at his dorm a year ago. Sparks fly, your heart shivers in sheer excitement. Oh, you’ll definitely not forget that he just left you, that he didn’t message you on a regular basis.

But at the moment, you just close your eyes and let the sensation of his hands caressing your face while his lips brush over yours so tenderly sink in. Just a few minutes ago, you were kneeling on the ground, ready to let yourself get killed here in Shibuya. And now he’s here. The countless nights you pondered when he’ll come back, how he’ll act, how he’ll look.

When reality is so much better.

“I promise that I’ll never leave you again. I’ll make it up to you”, he mumbles against your parted lips.

“I sure hope so.”

Tags:  @arehzhera @ploylulla @tzubaki @beatrexworld @kenstarsworld @dazaisdick @hellkaiserinphoenix  @lauv4chuuya @shadowfoxey @starlightanyaaa @sindela @kayleegomez @sunshine7queen @magalimachete @mokoartpost @gatitam @idontknow1123 @creative1writings @sanicsmut  @mynahx3 @sad-darksoul @chilichopsticks @hellkaiserinphoenix @chuyasthighs0@ynackerman9499 @keepghostly @wxwieeee @lovelyluna1 @froufrousnowman @hidazinie @tomiokathedepresso  @gojosrealwife  @coffeeluvr96 @mahi-tamashi@weebotaku21@chaoticwinnercupcake @lees-chaotic-brain  @risuola  @sugurulefttesticle @wordskeeper @baku2345 @polarbvnny @ruixrei @bam-bam-bam-bame-blog @lavenderdrxp @localhehecat @alicerhr @kayleegomez@belovedvamp@wifenanami @chilichopsticks @dlwlrmas-world @oikawarz @darkstarlight82

[choccy-milky]

A few months back, I asked if it was okay to write using Clora and Seb. Finished the work - thought I'd lost it on my hard drive and a virus scan located it.

Not sure if it's sad or happy, but the basic premise of it is Clora getting frustrated/upset at Sebastian and Sebastian comforting her, Sebastian getting upset at a predicament Clora's in and Clora comforting him, and them both getting frustrated/upset and having to comfort each other.

If you'd rather I didn't post it, that's fine too, but just wanted to test the waters and double check that you'd be okay with it if I gifted it to you via AO3, or see if you wanted a sneak peak of it before posting it.

OMG im so happy you were able to find it and recover the work you did!!😭🙏 AND YES OF COURSE YOU CAN POST IT AAA I CANT WAIT TO READ IT!! you can DM it to me first if you want, but i also dont mind if you post it straight away on ao3!! IM LOOKING FORWARD TO IT SM AAARGHHHA💖💖💖IT SOUNDS ANGSTY WE LOVE THE HURT/COMFORT I HOPE MY HEART CAN HANDLE IT🥺💖💖TY AGAIN FOR USING CLORA AND SEB AND TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT THEM😭

@sunshine-goblin AAA THANK YOU!!! im honoured its your fav fanfic AND ALSO THE LONGEST YOUVE READ BAHAHAA fr, when you say its as long as four books in lotr it rly makes me realize how insane i am😃👍 aw IM GLAD I COULD INSPIRE YOU TO DRAW MORE AND WRITE AS WELL😭 I was curious so i creeped you and everyone go look at their HL blog @sunshines-legacy your MC is so cute and so is your art🥹💖 as for tips on writing a longfic and brainstorming and motivation and stuff, my motivation was my brainrot and unhappiness with the canon story/ending LMAOO, and looking at the story of the game and playing around with what i was unhappy with/what i WISHED could have happened instead, was a lot easier than just coming up with plotlines from scratch. but something i highly recommend is just OUTLINING and making a timeline, one of my fav parts of writing was just putting on some cafe ambience in the background and doing stream of conscious type word documents where id just barf ideas and then worry about making it pretty later....like look at how many versions of the same chapter i have BAHAHA or like different renditions bc i couldnt decide if id wanna keep a scene/what order, so id make a timeline and keep smoothing things out until i was happy with it and whatnot

brainstorming is defs my fav part of the process and the most helpful part to me. just getting a blank document and writing stuff you want to happen without worrying about how it connects to the story, and then a lot of the times as i was doing that id just keep going and it would kinda tie itself together/id come up with a solution as i was writing / once the ideas kept flowing. so basically : TIMELINES AND OUTLINES I VERY MUCH RECOMMEND, but very low pressure and barebones ones. for example, this is what my outlines/brainstorming look like

its honestly just me talking to myself LMAO, and a lot of the time ill interject and be like "OH YEAH AND THEN THIS CAN HAPPEN" as the ideas come while im writing BAHAHA. its a super fun process and honestly nothing feels better than just getting hit with that flash of inspo, and since its all very low effort theres no pressure to actually write well and its just a chill fun time AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR OWN PROCESS / WRITING💖💖💖it can be difficult but HOPE U HAVE FUN TOO💖💖

@a-little-lysdexic WAIT REALLY?? LMFAOO OMG THATS CRAZY....SAME BRAIN...🤝🤝...that would trip me up so much if i were you omg BAHHAHA but aside from having similar tastes in names, IM GLAD YOU LIKE MY ART AS WELL, TYY💖💖💖

THANK YOUUU im glad you're liking it!!! and that its taking over your life BAHAHA💖💖 the video you're thinking of was by @silverxstardust for chapter 13 of my fic, and you can watch the video here! (AND TY AGAIN TO SILVERXSTARDUST FOR DOING THIS!)

[three-realms-archive]

Beel is Paint

“No, no - not like that.” Asmo gently pulls the paintbrush away from his younger brother’s mouth. Said younger brother pouts.

“But I want ketchup…”

“Red paint isn’t ketchup, my dear little brother.” Asmo shakes his head, glancing at Beel’s easel. On it was a garish amalgamation of mud-coloured paint strokes… and a chunk bitten off the top-right corner.

Since he had drawn her before, Beel had insisted on taking another shot at bringing Ruri-chan to life - this time using acrylic paint. He had told Asmo that, after seeing Levi had hung up his picture AND used it for his Chat background, he wanted to make some art for all his brothers to use. Starting with making another Ruri-chan masterpiece for Levi. Asmo had coo’ed at him fondly, unable to resist his little brother’s cute, puppy-dog eyes.

... But actually painting with Beelzebub was proving to be incredibly challenging.

“Beel,” the fifth-born begins, “how about this - forget Ruri-chan for now. Maybe all you need is a warm-up!”

Beel puts down his paintbrush and palette, confused. “Like a jog?”

“Kinda! Art is an expression of the heart! Of your deepest, truest feelings!” Asmo exclaims matter-of-factly. Beel nods along, seriously. “Just hold the brush and let your true feelings choose the colours and flow onto the canvas. Your painting needs to stand out - no. Your paint needs to pose!”

“Pose?”

“Pose!” Asmo repeats dramatically, flinging himself onto a nearby chair and looking his brother dead in the eye. Posing. “I'm offering my services to you as a universal, well-dressed inspiration. Look at me, and let the paint pose on the canvas! Now! Pose!”

“Me?” Beel blinked. “I thought the paint was pos - you're gonna hurt yourself bending your leg back that far, Asmo.”

“Pose, Beel. You are the paint.”

“I’m the - “

“Be. The. Paint.”

Beel nods, obedient. He picks up his brush. “I am paint.”

“Yes.” Asmo whispers. “Paint is you.”

“Paint is me.” Beel whispers. He looks at the brush, then back at the easel, determined. “Beel is paint.”

...

Mammon had told Lucifer that Asmo and Beel were painting in the foyer, so the Avatar of Pride decides to check they aren’t up to any shenanigans - knocking before entering. He doesn’t hear a response. There’s loud chanting and a motivational song blasting from the room.

When Lucifer hears that the words being chanted are “Beel is paint!”, he leaves.

(i've written so many of these silly Beel stories you don't even know ahahaha - they'll all trickle onto this blog slowly. i'm pretty sure levi's already associated with being the good one at art since i think he draws manga?? but i'd like to think asmo is great at fine art purely because 1) really fancy self-portraits of himself 2) he can draw fashion designs on himself to try clothes on without getting out of the bath.)

[nkn0va]

I know this idea was kinda done to death with the persona asks. But would you be willing to write some headcanons for Kaguya, Wagner, and Yuzuriha with an s/o who's an american gunslinger? Their s/o also has a reputation for being so fast on the draw, Noone ever sees them draw the gun, they only hear the shot.

Ok now this is actually pretty fun to think about in the context of uni, much more than Persona imo. I just find EXS powers more fun. And a buddy of mine also has a gunslinger uni OC and he's done some pretty interesting stuff with that which helps.

-Fellow gunslingers unite.

-Dating Kaguya, she is 100% going to make everything a contest whenever she can. Oh there's a Void 100 yards off? First person to shoot it from here gets treated to dinner by the loser.

-Oh, there's a rogue In-Birth causing trouble that you were both aiming to deal with? First person to apprehend them gets a favor from the loser.

-No matter how good you are, she seems to almost always be able to keep up with your skill. Half out of her natural talent and half out of you motivating her to become stronger. Though she won't let you know that, obviously.

-It isn't long before the mere mention of your names together starts striking fear in the Licht Kreis' enemies, scaring them all half to death about just randomly being shot from seemingly nowhere should they start causing too much trouble for their own good. You two have mixed reactions about it.

-While you're likely just trying to do your job and don't care, Kaguya almost seems to have slight sadist tendencies in the fact that you two can scare the shit out of people with your presence alone, even if you have no intention of hurting them. You need to remind her to tone it down.

-A very polar opposites attract case. A noble knight and an underhanded gunslinger who will kill the moment they have any reason to.

-One would normally think you two would hate each other, you're probably the only ones who can tolerate each other enough to be in a long term relationship. Mutual stubbornness is going to color the relationship a lot, yes, however only you two can understand each other in that way.

-Such stubbornness leads to a kind of loyalty most people would kill to have in their own relationship, you two are an unexpected power couple.

-You two cover each others' backs very well on the battlefield, she protects you from any would be harmers that get too close and your cover fire protects her blind spots, she has full faith in your shot no matter how many snide comments she may give you.

-You two enable each other quite a bit, perhaps a tad too much. Anyone who doesn't already know you two are too intimidated to walk up to you two when together.

-A very practical yet fun relationship overall despite what someone lookin from the outside may seem. Neither of you give a shit what others think of you though, you're all that matters to each other.

-Pretty much opposite backgrounds but for different reasons. An honorable traditional swordswoman using a traditional katana and a western/western inspired gunslinger. Your first meeting with each other is quite odd to say the least.

-Not to say it was awkward though. That kind of contrast is the kind of stuff Yuzuriha lives for. It breaks up the otherwise monotonous life she typically leads with something new and exciting.

-100 percent, jokes will be made about this, especially if you're the more serious type. She'll make over-dramatic non serious speeches at every possible opportunity in an attempt to get a laugh or smile out of you. You doing so will only encourage her.

-She will one hundred percent challenge you you to contests of speed. Specifically whether you can draw your gun and shoot a target faster than she can draw her blade and slice. You two have yet to definitely decide whose faster because the difference is SO minute but that only makes her more determined to find out.

-Yuzu demands you visit frequently while she's guarding the shrine. Says she needs a break for some eye candy every now and then. Which to be fair is probably accurate, considering she has a shorter than average attention span, not good for the kind of job she has.

[magpies-gold]

I got really bogged down this weekend on my writing. This is always the thing that wrecked me about NaNoWriMo: 50k words is juuust enough so that I hit the self-doubt super hard.

It’s where I have enough of the world and the characters down so that I can see them clearly enough to recognize where they’re held together with chewing gum and hope. It’s where I can see the road ahead but also I’m on the edge of the first really big gaps that I just have to put 2x4’s over as a makeshift bridge and fill them in correctly later. The piece I need for that is stashed somewhere near the end of the book. It’s when I find spots in the story where the wiring isn’t hooked up yet and the lights are out so I kinda know three or four ways to get from point A to point B and I can’t see which one’s correct so I just have to kinda write them all (the correct answer has a chance at being a Frankenstein’s monster mishmash of all of them!)

It’s nice that my mom’s been reading the mess as I work on it because it means that I have someone to call and say “It’s trash but it’s still trash with potential, yeah?” and talk my way back to having the confidence to continue. Thanks, mom.

So.

Reminder to Self.

First drafts are The Stupidest Version. The characters get spontaneous amnesia. They know things that they shouldn’t. They try to ad lib instead of sticking to the script. The equipment you ordered for the set months ago isn’t here yet so you’re making do with an old fridge and some cardboard as a stand in but it’s really obviously just a fridge that says “warp core” on it in Sharpie. No one can keep a straight face around it. This is all going to get rewritten from scratch in a few months.

It’s the vomit draft. Sometimes (often) you get caught yammering for three hours about one of the character’s childhood and the camera was running the whole time. The characters can’t quite remember their lines or motivations so they repeat themselves five times in five different ways over five different scenes before someone yells “We got it already! Shut up!” You all explore the basement and the sub-basement before realizing that you don’t even need the -house- that you’re in, but you found a key down there that’ll help elsewhere and so it was worth the detour. Two characters don’t jive naturally yet so you either take them out for coffee or hand them nerf bats and engage with -that- for 2k words, coming out the other side all the wiser but with 2k words that will not make the cut. That’s fine. It still needs doing.

And it’s a sketch. I did a drawing earlier today where I drew, erased, and redrew a creature in the background no less than twenty times (at one point just covering the canvas in question marks out of frustration) before I finally figured out what I was doing. Same diff, but writing takes longer. It’s going to have construction lines and eraser marks all over the place, but later I can pick out the good lines and go from there.

Anyone who suggests that writing is anything but barely controlled chaos is, in my opinion, slightly bonkers. It’s herding cats that can phase through walls and travel in time, and in the meanwhile, all you have is a butterfly net with a hole in it.

And sometimes you just need a good pep talk to remind you that yes, it’s supposed to look this janky. Keep going.

[cronchyy2]

I think it's about time I posted him before I forget forever.

Dr. Otis Octavius, "Doctor Octopus"

He's fun to draw..

(Hella lore under the cut.. be warned, I type a LOT)

In the AU, he's one of the more "drawn out" villains, like Dr. Ohnn. His arc develops mostly in the background. If I were to turn the AU into a fan-comic, I'd have moments where it'd cut to him. 👀

Anyhow, the lore is that he started off as one of the many people chosen by a foe named Black Velvet (Dr. Archer Blakeley) to catch the Pseudo-Spider, so he could rid any sort of "traces" of the whole "radioactive spider" incident. Otis goes against it at first, but he eventually gets the idea of studying the Spider himself instead. After weeks of being vigilant, he's saved by Percy Parker from a car accident. Out of gratitude, the scientist takes Parker out for dessert the same afternoon.

After a somewhat sour conversation over sweet delicacies, he manages to find out that Percy was, indeed, bit by one of the two radioactive spiders that escaped Blakeley's grasp. However, he doesn't know he's the Pseudo-Spider.

This doesn't stop him from chasing him around the city the next day with his few months old mechanical arms. Since they're still in the process of being touched-up, the chase doesn't last so long. That and because the Pseudo-Spider deals with him before any sort of damage is done.*

(*Note, this is when Percy comes up with the name 'Doc Octopus' for him,,)

A month passes, and it seems like Otis has finally gotten along with Percy after clearing his own name, telling the youth that his actions were (mostly) from his own motivation, and that he should've just cut off Dr. Blakeley.

Then, one night, while Otis is dabbling in his little job with reactors, the Pseudo-Spider disrupts him while taking on an unknown villain.

To shorten things, the fight causes PS to bump into something and mess up the entire experiment. After the chaos that is Otis trying to get everyone out of the building and him staying behind in attempt to fix the situation, it all ends in a bright and seemingly powerful explosion.

Fortunately, all of Octavius' labmates escaped unscathed, but the head scientist himself vanished without a trace. This is enough info to convince Percy that he, the Pseudo-Spider, just killed a man. And that info haunts him for a good while.

It's been less-than-a-few months since the explosion now, and Percy has somewhat managed to get over Otis' death, and tried to resume his two lives. The thought still gives him shivers time-to-time.

That is, one night, the Spider finally confronts five of his greatest foes one more time, back to back. After a while, he meets their leader. The thought-to-be deceased Otis Octavius, in the flesh, standing before him like a ghost caught in the exact moment of their death.

The now not-so-good doctor reveals that he's been actively conjuring a (master) plan to get revenge on PS, thinking that he was, indeed, his murderer. Ock also reveals that he was saved from the blast by his own robo-arms, and they took him to a safe place while he was out cold. His influence for getting rid of PS mostly comes from them.

And that's all I have for his main arc. Told you it was a mouthful

There's more, but it's mostly side plot shenanigans

Edit: I lied. I forgot to talk about his personality shift during his arc. Basically he starts off as this grumpy, strange, almost-old man who has a soft spot for a select few people he cares about (biggest example being this universe's Harry Osborn, who's constantly under stress as the heir of Oscorp. Not to mention his long dead father. Otis kinda acts as a dad or cool uncle to Harr, constantly checking to see if he's alright and even taking on some of his work for him sometimes.) After the incident, the drive of getting revenge on the Pseudo-Spider REALLY starts to show. Especially on his face. Sometimes he subconciously breaks out these sinister-ass grins when he thinks about his plan (THE PIPELINE,,)

anyhow, heres this goofy drawing of him because i wanted to see how the arms would work with his coat's belt (yes, that bothered me for a bit)

[saltnpepperbunny]

Hi SPB, I was wondering where your motivation/creativity comes from and how you harness it? Thank you!

Hi! owo Uhhh a few different places. My motivation and my creativity come from different places but they work together to help me do what I do.

My motivation to make comics comes from:

Comments and feedback, I want my art to be a conversation with another person and thus feedback is kinda what I make comics for. I love how as my stories speak, people will speak back.

The fun of drawing, I just enjoy drawing comics like as an activity, it makes me happy, it's a very rhythmic and relaxing process, and thus its a regular part of my days. I just love having the finished page to stare at at the end.

The fervor of storytelling, that shit's my serotonin bro, I just need to write stories, it's an important part of how I navigate my life on like a structural level. It's how I process the world around me, so as my life goes on and stuff happens, I feel motivated to write about it. And comics are the main way I do my writing now.

To keep up w my community, I surround myself w other comic artists and a lot of us work, draw, and create together. It's a sacred bond between artists. u'w'u If I stopped comicking, I'd have like nothing to show them? There'd be no goal to work towards? Most of my friends make comics lol.

And my creativity comes from:

The need to process, as life treks on I tend to have Big Feelings about Almost Everything and writing is how I process those feelings and just, the world around me in general. You input experiences into this machine and I will output a fiction story. It's how I make sense of things and make meaning of my experiences.

The drive to keep improving, I always want my storytelling to get better and thus I have to continuously get creative to invent new ways to write and draw better. It's a never ending process, there is ALWAYS something to sharpen, so I just keep searching for new means to improve, things to tweak, ways something could be better. It's a never ending challenge and I need challenge in my life. It's like something to work on.

Internal experiences, feelings, opinions, fears, hopes, wishes, thoughts, ideas, questions, answers, et cetera.

Love, is definitely involved. Love has a huge involvement in my creative process. It's soaked into so many different, little parts of the process. Like uhhh taking a character through a journey? That's love. Writing new kinds of rep? That takes love. It's kinda just everywhere and it's something I can draw from very consistently cause those Big Feelings I mentioned includes love.

I also tend to write from anger and a strong sense of in/justice. Could you tell lol.

I like to take a lot of inspiration from nature, also. All my backgrounds are just me blowing a kiss to mother nature.

This is getting long sorry but how to harness it all, uhhhhh. Practice. Build habits. Make an effort to get creative on the regular, not necessarily every day, but try to avoid massive dry spells unless you're really not doing well or there's an understandable reason for it. Dry spells are ultimately unavoidable but don't have to define your creative cycle, it IS possible to create on the reg unless you're not taking care of yourself well. Don't only create when you're hyperfixated cause that just builds a habit to do that, if you're not feeling up to it, just do the thing for like 30 minutes and then either stop and chill or keep going cause the momentum will now carry you. I create p much every day cause it's an important part of how I navigate my life i.e. the processing motive and insatiable need for challenge, I can never stop writing now as long as I live cause writing is how I meet those needs. So yeah, just be like me and sell your soul to the gods art! Make the thing you wanna do fun, don't beat your head against a brick wall if that creative hobby you're trying to get into just really isn't sticking, it's not ALWAYS meant to be and it's okay to admit that and just move on and try something new. I tried many different kinds of art before I ever found comicking and it stuck, and now I basically just do comicking and some of my other older creative hobbies fell away. That's fine, that's life, you'll find your thing if you keep searching out new things. Oh, and also get in community, surround yourself w other creatives and consume they're work, trust me you'll get inspired p quick.

wow this got longER. sorry!

[talos1111]

Well I’m just gonna dump some DnD lore and art, finished (ish) and WIP. I’m still new (both to DnD and art but mostly art) and really should be practicing more but hey maybe posting here will give me more motivation eh? Anyway-

Background of the setting: modified Spelljammer, (I’m completely new to the lore anyway so I’m just gonna say everything because idk what’s modified so if I’m acting like I’m repeating common knowledge, that’s why) it’s the Age of Starsail. In the distant past there was a war involving a race called the Forerunners and the Mindflayers. The Forerunners were seemingly wiped out, however there are ancient high tech relics and ruins with still working machinery (this is where Warforged come from). Along with this, there are places that called the Burned Lands. These are essentially magical radiation zones that were created in the ancient war. I’ll skip the rest of it because I just want to show my art aaa

So here’s my character: Errk Gearwing. I don’t have a full body ref, and I’m actually re-designing him now, but this pic has my most complete works:

My boy!

His whole vibe is supposed to be something akin to Warhammer 40k’s Adeptus Mechanicus, with the idea of forgoing his organic self for the Strength and Certainty of Steel.

Fun fact: his arm was the first thing I drew on my iPad, so I kinda went wild trying out brushes.

His backstory is that he was hatched/born into slavery, sent into the Burned Lands to recover particularly valuable artifacts. He was mutated from his exposure, causing the horns and spikes (in reality I wanted something to sorta fill out the space on his head and couldn't draw feathers well, then noticed my attempts looked like spikes and I just rolled with it). At about 15 years old (for the record Aarakocra live a more typical 80-ish year life instead of the shortened 30 years) he was injured in an explosion, but being resourceful, crafty, and happening to be near a med station, he managed to replace them himself. He would later manage to escape, violently slaughtering his masters.

The knife and axe are just ideas for his melee weapons, they don’t have any magical qualities (and every time he gets in melee he gets thrashed so they don’t see much use). The little bars in the middle are for the absorb element spell, being a sort of battery for the stored energy/damage.

In the upper right are a bunch of rune ideas for arcane infusions, self explanatory. The idea is they’re supposed to be able to be done in a single motion.

On the lower right is still unfinished concepts for the tiny Eldritch Cannon. They borrow heavily from the Vulcan from Metal Hellsinger, with the Force Ballista (top) really just being a souped up crossbow. As you can probably tell I didn’t finish the flamethrower.

Onto his now main weapon(s)!

HE CASTS FROM HIS GUN.

INFINITE THANKS TO MY DM FOR NOT ONLY LETTING ME DO THIS, BUT ACTIVELY GAVE ME THE GUN AND TOLD ME I COULD MAKE IT INTO A VERY LITERAL "ARCANE FIREARM." AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Right so specs: the top gun is a mash of a few ideas. In gun terms it’s a lever-action falling block with extra doo-dads. In other words, there's a block that lowers (falls, hence the name) when you work the lever, allowing you to load a single bullet, and when the lever is worked back the block rises back up, sealing the bullet in. Literally stole the action and chamber design from the Martini Henry. It’s cut short because I wanted it on a thigh holster. While it can use typical bullets, the way its used as a spell focus is that Errk can "flash print" a round that would have the effects of whatever spell he's casting.

You might notice that I have a thing for opposing duos. The axe and dagger from the first pic are named ebony and ivory, and here you have this beautifully crafted rifle... and a stubby grenade launcher held together by tape and prayer, and Errk is an atheist. Hell, I have the idea that it might now "shoot" grenades, it just could have a rune of Catapult that just YEETS them. The grenade launcher is mostly just a partial handwave for how a rifle could casting larger AoE spells; it doesn't, in game the two are basically just one item, an arcane firearm to cast from. Shown here are also a few round ideas: bottom left is a Dazzle round, my DM allows me to use the Pyrotechnics spell without needing a fire to make explode, so it works basically like a flashbang, minus the bang. Bottom right is the grenade of fireball, inspired heavily by Fallout's mininukes. Top right is an unfinished idea for shocking grasp, a melee cantrip, where the grenade would be jammed into someone, the little arms pierce them and hold it in, and then it discharges.

One last finished piece:

A quick and simple explanation of gunpowder. Recently the group... "landed" (attacked from orbit by a Nautiloid and escaped in pods that crashed) on a planet in a new system, and the local humans (a species new to us, though there are Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings back home so a bird person is weirder to them than they are to Errk) weren't as advanced as our system. I basically just wanted something that Errk could show to explain the basics of firearms and gunpowder.

Onto the WIPs:

The start of his new design. Originally he was a red tailed hawk, partially because it was a simple color palette and relatively easy to draw, and also because their cry is just really cool. Now, he's gonna be part hawk, and part bearded vulture. For those of you who don't know, 90% of a bearded vulture's diet is B O N E S. Plus, they look absolutely sick (if you find images of them with red rings around the eyes, turns out those are threat displays, so he can basically do the eyes go red meme whenever he wants to).

And my last two pieces:

In the upper left is how he got his name: a set of mechanical wings. Originally, I wanted something done to prevent him from flying, since I heard it can kinda break encounters, especially with a ranged focus caster, but wanted to keep some aspect of them, and worked with my DM to basically give him permanent slowfall. Originally he was gonna have his flight feathers cut during his time as a slave, then I went for having them mangled, and then I decided to just replace them entirely. If you play Warframe, you might see the similarity to the Icarius Syandana, which heavily inspired these wings.

(fun fact: the name came before the mechanical wings. I felt he needed a last name and went to a name generator, "Gearwing" felt perfect. I was gonna explain it as he signed up for an expedition or something, and the dwarf doing the paperwork suggested it).

On the bottom right is my idea for the small sized, self propelled Eldritch Cannon. My DM is a geologist with an interest in paleontology, and she likes to base some of the animals off real world extinct beasts, so I guess that just rubbed off on me (plus bird with spikes and horns already feels like 2 steps from a dinosaur, why not go all the way?)\

Right! That's all I got at the moment. Right now dealing with IRL stuff, barely even been practicing basics, let alone actually trying to draw a full thing. Hope to come back with more soon!

[rupeenotruby]

Of Courses I Have Horses -Reflection

Ok this is mostly for me but if you have any feedback for the comic I'll leave my anons on for a few days and you can pop it over there!

Anyways proceed with caution, this'll probably be long. Also I'm probably going to be pretty critical of myself here but please don't worry or feel the need to defend me from myself. I actually love critique and if I really do hate what I've made I won't even be able to look at it.

Stats:

Expected Time: Three Weeks (Don't clown on me I have ambitions)

Actual Time Spent: Ten Weeks

Expected Length: 9 Parts (73 Panels)

Actual Length: 9 Parts (72 Panels + one big panel) and one bonus drawing.

Pros/the good:

FINISHED IT!!!!! :D I did it. I did it. I'm the best you know how it is!!! I've always been scared of bigger projects like these because of how intimidating they can get but I did it! I got to the end! And about 83.56% of the panels had an environmental background (not all unique but hey whaddyagonnado).

People liked it!! (unless everybody is lying to me *-* jk jk too many people for that to be true). Sure you shouldn't measure your success on other's opinions but it is nice to know that I'm not alone in my enjoyment of my work.

Updated it pretty regularly! Good to know if I ever want to make a real webtoon.

Horses Researched ✅ I probably have some blind spots having not actually interacted with horses all that much but eh. It is fanfic in the end.

Cons/the bad:

I don't like posting while writing/drawing. Too much pressure even if the pressure was kinda good to motivate me and it was technically imagined anyways.

Colors are ugly. I'm not sure why I chose that color of sky but hmmm.

Backgrounds are present but uninspired and bland. The colors contribute to this but also the fact that I didn't draw the backgrounds before I drew the people most of the time. I also was just referencing images from botw (if you couldn't guess) and this lead them to be flat and like they were not existing where the characters were existing sometimes.

Too wordy in some places. Despite the fact that I chose to do four panel chunks to practice brevity I ended up being too verbose in some situations. One of these was Legend's episode. I felt like people wouldn't get the joke so I over explained it in the dialogue but even then I still don't think people got it got it. This is usually fine but when you over correct and still end up failing it is bad because you end up failing both ends (so to speak). Also the words were not always that good or polished.

Characters were off model frequently. The horses were the worst part as their head shapes would change frequently. This is most likely a result of my lack of experience drawing horses (why I decided to go with a series where I would have to draw a bunch of horses no one will know).

Characters were also ooc (probably) Wild was a little too happy/silly, Four was a little too irrational, Legend was mean mean instead of more accidently mean, and I think the others were fine. They just didn't really get to showcase their personalities all that much.

Lessons for next time:

MAKE A REF SHEET!!! I had to go back and forth between old pages to get the colors and it was such a hassle. Made me not want to color which is bad because I already don't like coloring all that much.

Crank up the threshold on the bucket tool when coloring. Leads to more being colored in and less white bits to fill in later

Write it all out before!! Especially if short like this. Makes it easier.

Put the words before sketching dummy!!! Saves many headaches.

Speaking of which, maybe set the background to be grey so you get less headaches (maybe, unconfirmed if this was the cause of headaches).

Draw (sketch) the background before drawing the characters.

Add clouds to the sky.

Do wrist exercises! Real ones!

Conclusion:

Good experience all around. Many things learned about myself and my creative process. Still not a horse girl but maybe one day.

Anyways this is probably the last you will see of "Of Courses I Have Horses." On to bigger and brighter things!

[stephofromcabin12]

Any art tips for artists just starting out? I’m struggling big time to find my style 😀

Sure.

It got kinda long. Bc when have I ever been a person of few words?

There is no trick to finding your style other than drawing a lot, and setting a, more or less, loose goal. When I was young it was old school Disney and Don Bluth. That was my holy grail, ideal style. But it evolved to be something else, because that's how style works. You'll put your own twist on things, in time. But first focus on practicing and don't narrow yourself down to just one thing. You'll also probably develop multiple styles out of convenience. Sometimes I prefer the cartoony, simpified stuff. Sometimes I'm more into fully rendered pieces.

Experiment. Make bad art a lot. The more you expose yourself to the inherent let-down of sucking at something, the less it stings. The key is asking yourself why something didn't turn out right.

You can't get good at All Art at once. Start with something you're most interested in learning. Maybe it's anatomy, or gestures, or expressions, or colors. Start with that one thing and practice is with a specific goal in mind. Fx: "I want to get better at drawing faces and expressions, so I'm going to do an expression sheet of a character once a week, and do a little practice every day if I can" – That sorta thing. Everyone is different, though. My old music teacher used to say 30 minutes a day. If we couldn't do 30; 15 mins. So on. As long as you do a lil doodling every day that's still progress.

Learning art is sometimes frustratingly non-linear. Somedays I still 'forget' how to draw a certain thing I've had down since I was 14. Other days I bang out something I've always struggled with on the first try, then fail the next day. It's not a linear progression, it's a damn roller coaster. Best you can do is throw your hands up and try to enjoy the ride. The pipe line for me is usually: First attempt (sucks ass but I've learned to laugh at this stage, just throw ideas at the wall) -> getting comfortable (this is where you think to yourself you have a concept down but you really don't) -> Getting good (you start to draw with more ease, you're not having to 'remember' how you wanted something to look, it's just muscle memory by now) -> Actually having it down (and still having more growth to go. But this is where you get to look back on the comfortable phase and go: 'wow I really had a long way to go')

In fact, having fun is by far the thing that's made me progress. More than tutorials, more than fancy equipment. If I'm not having fun, I have no motivation to keep going. If it's not fun, try and make it so.

Get into the habit of stepping back (whether physically or more metaphorically) and really looking at your art often while you draw. When you add a line, or color, or background element etc. Ask yourself "Does this work?" And adjust accordingly. It seems like a lot of work at first, but eventually it becomes a natural part of the process. I don't really realise I'm doing it but most of the patreon screen recordings I have show the way I zoom in and out of the canvas constantly lol.

Make the things you want to make. Even the most self-indulgent stuff. We have a million artists already doing their thing, but we don't have you yet. Show us what you got! There's room for everything.

Get used to people expressing mild envy/annoyance when you're drawing near them. I've gotten the 'wow I wish I could draw, I can't even do a stick figure!' comment from waitresses, cabin crews, classmates I'd previously never spoken to, teachers, strangers on trainstations, etc etc etc. But! Learn to say 'Thank you' when people compliment your art.

Don't ask for critique if you don't really want it. Don't let people critique you if you didn't ask for it.

You! Don't! Need! Fancy! Equipment! Save your money and get the version of a medium that's affordable and comfortable for you. Look at Stardew Valley's creator's old setup. It's really not about how the tools are set up or the price of them. It's how you make use of them. Didn't FNAF's creator build the models in a moving car on a laptop?

Art takes time. There is no short cut to make it take less time. But the more fun you have the more it'll feel like it's faster. If you're miserable the time will drag on and on and on.

Look at a lot of art. Take in and analyse. I wish I could go back a few years and tell myself to analyse paintings I liked, rather than just going "Oh I like that! Nice!" and then moving on. Why is it good? Why does it move you? What captured your attention? Be the person at a museum leaning forwards to see the paintstrokes, you learn more that way.

Don't feel ashamed if you want to take inspiration from others. Everyone takes inspiration from somewhere. If you see something cool another artist is doing with their rendering or lighting or whatever, try and do a drawing or two emulating it! Maybe you'll discover a new favorite technique, or you'll not really jam with it. Either is good. Both teach you something.

You'll go through more eras than Taylor Swift. Sometimes you gotta do a lil Eras Tour of your own and go back through the catalogue. I'm currently working on reviving several projects I made when I was 13-14. Keep everything. Don't delete; archive.

Get good storage. Like, seriously, wish for a harddrive your next birthday or christmas or whatever. If you're working traditionally wish for some good ringbinders and the good plastic sleeves. Much nicer than running out of storage and having to delete things. Never delete!

You are already an artist. You became one the second you picked up a pen and put it to paper, and then decided to keep going with that. So don't compare yourself. When you find yourself jealous of someone, it's because they have something you want. Figure out what it is, and make it for yourself.

Deadass? Tracing helps so much with learning forms. But it's only helpful when you also practice drawing the same things freehand.

The trick to coloring is just that everything looks good shaded with purple set to multiply, and that if you're ever in doubt go in an L shape on color wheel. Down in brightness, inwards in saturation.

People who say you can never use white or black in drawings are jerks and you should not listen to them. You can do literally everything you want. Sure, experiment with other ways of using white and black. But art advice is just that: It's an option, not gospel. As a wise prophet of our time, Justin Bieber, once said: Never say never.

People will say you should be your own biggest critic. But fuck that. Be your own biggest cheerleader. Love what you make, even when you hate it, find something that works. That stepping back I mentioned in point 6? Sometimes that's zooming out and saying "Damn! That looks really good!" – People will often make art out to be something that should be suffering and painstaking. It's not though. In my honest experience, I've made just as much good art when I was happy and content, as I did when I had severe depression and anxiety and burnout. You're not an artist because you suffer. You're an artist because you can't just sit in that suffering all the time. You know there's beauty besides your pain, and so you'll remind yourself in the act of creation that there is always something more.

Once you realise you have the power to draw truly anything, you'll start having a lot more fun. "Oh but I've never done it before" or "Oh I tried and it just didn't work" Okay. So?

In case of frustration to the point of throwing your art supplies out the window: Take a breath. Go for a walk. Sometimes it's just not your day. Sometimes the rollercoaster gets stuck in the middle of a loop or right at the top of a hill. Wait it out. Try again.

You have absolutely got this. Let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

[cupcakeslushie]

advice for staying on top of work? life gets busy but i noticed you are very consistent with creating content (which i admire deeply) and i was curious to know what you do for motivation or how to push work out even when you don’t want to

Aw thank you! It’s always nice when someone notices something like that! I’m afraid the situation that allows me to produce at a decent pace, might not be super applicable to a lot of people. In my case, I work an actual job only part time, and help take care of my grandmother two or three days. So that affords me a lot of free time to draw/map out plots and roughs, since she just needs minimal watching. Then on my actual “days off”, I’m able to sit at my desk for like 12 hours and do nothing but draw 😅.

Now for art blocks, I would say one major thing that works for me, is just getting myself to open the canvas and work on studies. Or if I can’t even swing the energy for that—I’ll just scribble. Even if nothing comes of it that I can post, at least I was able to scratch my art brain, and sometimes I’m lucky and it’ll lead to something.

Producing a lot of art also comes from working quickly, and working quickly comes from knowing your basics well enough that you’re not wasting time, struggling with anatomy/posing/expressing the ideas you want. And something ppl might not like to admit, but knowing when to just heckin give up on an idea if it’s simply not clicking. You can always move on and come back around to it. Forcing an idea or piece that just doesn’t want to work, sometimes ends up really eating away precious hours you could’ve spent on something else. Taking little breaks when you need them is important when doing creative work.

Also, YouTube is a great source for inspiration. A lot of times I’ll throw up some form of art video on the Tv to watch in the background. I love watching videos like art blogs from Furry Little Peach, Misako Flodin, or even PearFleur where they’re just mixing paints. It’s really inspiring, seeing someone else being creative. It kinda makes you want to work too! There’s a million channels to find!

But lastly it’s really just making sure you’re happy with what you’re creating, and remembering that as nice as it would be to do it all, sometimes it’s harder for some than others. Everyone works at their own pace, and that’s okay!

Hope that was helpful, and not too nonsensical! 👍💖

[lean-mean-demon-genevieve]

Who’s this Anson character? I took a step back from tumblr and now I feel like I need a book to figure out what I missed lol.

With him yet again leeching off of appearing with Jared this weekend, now seems as good a time as any to circle back to this ask because I too have been perplexed by Jared’s supposed friendship with this guy for some time. And as per usual, I brought receipts.

Anson Gordon seems to first be publicly linked to the Pads in Sandy Molinare’s Instagram in 2016. This looks like he has been a part of the wealthy, and fairly conservative circle that both the Pads and the Ackles use to run with at that time.

He clout-chased a few times in 2018 in his IG story and wanted to let the world know he has famous friends, with Jared and Danneel (in the background of a video) making appearances. He then started more regularly sharing pics of himself attending UFC fights with Jared in January 2020. And since then, his presence has only grown to include other Austin goings-on, more testosterone fueled events, some weapons safety and/or stuntman gig on Walker that included some brief screen time, meeting up with the Pads on their 2021 Italy trip, Jared’s car accident last year in which he and his son were passengers, and a spot on the Pads Family Feud team earlier this year. He is seen, and confused for Jensen somehow in the comments, in this IG post of Jared’s, sliding down a slide like best buds. He is regularly seen showcasing himself on socials interacting with Pads errand boy, Charlie Capen (you won’t convince me he didn’t record that slide video), as well as Clif and various Walker actors.

I will be 100% transparent here about my political leanings that run deeper than fandom. I don’t like this guy because I feel like he is the very conservative, aging frat boy of my nightmares. I don’t care that he’s rubbed elbows with other rich people at the Out Youth Gala, he is a salesman at the end of the day. I feel like he and I would strongly disagree on a lot of important (to me) issues/values, and the transference I feel when I look at him is strong. (That means he reminds me of people I know in real life.) He appears quite motivated to flex next to Jared at any opportunity and draw attention to himself. (Jared doesn’t showcase him nearly as often. The slide post kinda surprised me. Again, who’s a good boy? Charlie is!)

To me, Anson comes off as caustic, shallow, arrogant, and chauvinistic. Here’s the story of how I got bored and nosy during the pandemic and came to these opinions:

This post from February 2021 was deleted months later as Anson posted more and more with Jared and Walker actors and gained followers/eyes on him. Now why in early 2021, would some folks from Texas even joke about secession?? The most obvious answer: the growing uproar over covid, mask mandates, vaccines, general pandemic limitations on their gentrifier (sorry/not sorry, wealthy Austinites) rich-kid fun. Look out y’all this privileged white male is “startin trouble.” Somebody ask this guy where he was on January 6th.

Exhibit B is less damning, but it irritates me so imma include it:

A smug face and pose like this with a firearm captioned “virtue signaling” sure feels like a jab at the sNoWfLaKeS, given the rest of the context. No, shooting guns isn’t a crime, and in fact it’s this guys livelihood, but why add the snark if you’re not an ass and hoping to instigate? It feels like a safe bet that gun laws were also up there on the list of reasons for Texas secession dreams.

Exhibit C, posted to his story in August ‘21 just prior to his IG account going private for a few months and right about the same time the Pads themselves got Covid:

I would love to know how Jared responded to being tagged in this mess. No I’m not suggesting he gave the Pads Covid, but I do think someone from the Pads or Walker team told ole boy to cool it with the anti-mask rhetoric so as not to reflect negatively on Jared, hence the private account. However you may feel about mask mandates at this point, remember that this was late summer/fall of 2021. Covid was obviously still rampant as the Pads and Anson himself would soon learn after returning home from Italy. How dare the Uber peasant ask that he respect his safety as he provides a service. Fuck that guy, right?!

It was after this in November 2021 that Anson first seemed to try to redeem himself by attending the Out Youth Gala with the Pads and also with his favorite accessory, his wife, in tow. What I won’t include here are the gross IG story video highlights from a different event that this tool has conveniently saved in which he documents his seemingly intoxicated wife’s side-boob for an uncomfortable amount of time. Guys can dig their wife’s bodies, and even do so on their own social media, but you gotta trust me that the ick factor is palpable. Bodily autonomy being what it is, maybe she’s ok with the multiple posts of this type, and I can respect that…and he’s shared quite a few.

But for me the final straw was when, not 24 hours after the horrific Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on 5/24/22, Anson’s IG story was plugging his firearm silencer business and hyping the launch of new products at the NRA convention that coming weekend in Houston.

If you followed the link early on when I called him a salesman, you may have already figured out that this man has made a sizable fortune off of engineering top of the line silencers for assault rifles. The IG account tells me that they sell for about $700-$750 each. None of this is a crime, but he’s not exactly reading the room in this moment. In comparison, Gen was sharing post after post to her IG story during this time about the need for reform around gun laws and sympathy for the victims. But this guy knew a big convention was approaching and he needed to capitalize. Then he went golfing.

Are you still with me?

So this is why I cringe whenever I see this Wish version of Jensen snuggling up to Jared.

He’s not deserving of the positive assumptions that some fans/Jared stans have made about him based solely on his proximity to Jared. And let’s be honest, with the great big fandom divide these days, a lot of Jared fans are just all too eager to root for anyone that isn’t Jensen. But, in my opinion, you don’t get to show up at an LGBTQ fundraiser claiming to be an ally when you have no doubt voted to protect your own interests (guns, money) and cast ballots for people who also support drag bans and an end to gender affirming care. It doesn’t work like that, especially not in Texas. He’s invested in Texas staying red, and if you recall or scroll up, there was a time when it wasn’t red enough for him. He’s certainly not voting for LGBTQ+ human rights, but he will write them a check for damage control in the aftermath. What a guy.

To clarify, this is NOT an anti-Jared post, although some may see it as such. There’s no suggested call-to-action for the fandom coming from me. Jared is not Anson’s keeper. But at the same time, to an extent, we are who we associate with and with whom we spend precious time. And Jared spends a fair amount of public time with this clown and allows Anson to attach himself to him and profit off of him. Leeching onto Jared is the best thing this guy did to get his face and his veneers seen by a larger audience. So Jared, I love ya, but it’s not a good look. This guy had no qualms showing people who he was when fewer people were looking, but deleting posts doesn’t delete screenshots. And I’ve got those, as you can see.