#but then it was so hard to find a decent pose reference that worked and this one jumped out at me

[pearl-kite]

WIP Wednesday

Tagging myself again because I can, and if I don't I might lose steam

I mentioned the other day in a ramble that I'm redoing an old piece I like, and while it's coming along, I'm personally struggling with a dislike of the style I normally use. And I am struggling. I can tell that this will be fine in a technical sense once I finish it, but I don't know if I can really do what I WANT with it, because idk WHAT I want, except that I'm a little tired of the usual. I'm tempted to see what it would look like if I brought that paper texture I use on character art, but the canvas size doesn't really play fair with these bigger paintings. Procreate only allows me 10 layers with these dimensions and I'm almost constantly at that limit even without the two paper texture layers.

Anyway, making progress. Slow progress, but progress.

[remidiy]

We Don't Gatekeep Art Resources | A Comprehensive List

Here's a list of some of the tools/sites I currently use or have used previously for works/studies. I'll separate it into Software/Utility, Reference, and 'Other' which will be just general things that could help you map out things for your experience with art. **[Free highlighted in pink, paid highlighted in green. Blue is variable/both. Prices Listed in USD]**

Software/Utility:

2D

Krita Painting app (PC) (my main digital art software on PC for 5+ yrs)

Clip Studio Paint [PC] [CSP 2.0+ allows for 3d modelling within the painting app and a lot of other cool features] [apparently allows up to 6 months free trial]

Procreate (12.99) [iPad/iPad Pro] (the GOAT)

Artstudio Pro [iPad/iPad Pro] (An alternative to Procreate if you enjoy the more traditional art app layout) -- I find this app handy when Procreate is lacking a feature I need, or vice versa. (you can easily transfer files between the two, but keep in mind Procreate's layer limit)

2D "Collaborative Painting/Drawing apps"

Magma Studio

Drawpile

Discord Whiteboard

Gartic Phone (Pretty decent for 2d animation practice, but has a hard limit on frames)

3D

Blender [3D Modelling, Sculpting + Layout] (PC)

Sculptris [PC] (it's an old unsupported version of Zbrush, but can help to get ideas out, and functions better than browser sculpting apps

Nomad Sculpt [iPad/iPad Pro] ($20) Works pretty well if you prefer a mobile setup, but it is a bit intense on the battery life and takes some getting used to

References + Study

Magic Poser [ PC and Mobile ] Has both free and paid versions, I've made do with just the lite version before

Artpose ($9.99) [Iphone + Steam]

Head Model Studio [IPhone] A 3D head, with both a basic blockout version for angles, and a paid version with more detail

Cubebrush [simply search "[keyword] pose reference pack"], they usually have good results + they frequently have sales!

Line of Action [Good for Gesture practice + daily sketching], also has other resources built in.

Quickposes Similar to Line of action, more geared toward anatomy

Drawabox | Perspective Fundamentals Improvement modules (Suggested by @taffingspy )

Sketchfab, this skull in particular is useful, but there is other models that can help you study anatomy as well.

Pinterest can be good, you just have to be careful, usually you're better off just finding reference pack if you have the money, sometimes certain creators have freebies as well

Artstation Marketplace can be decent [make sure to turn on the Aye-Eye filter so it doesn't feed you trash], a colleague of mine recommended this head model for practicing facial blocking, there is also this free version without lighting.

Local Art Museums [Unironically good for studying old "master work" if you're into that, or even just getting some inspiration]

Brushes + Other Useful software:

I personally have used both of these brush packs before making my own

(I actually don't know how to share my daily brush set because I frequently switch between Krita, Procreate, and ASP, but once I figure that out I'll be sure to do that lol)

Marc Brunet's Starter brush pack [Technically free but supporting him for this if you like it is ideal, there's some good brushes]

Dave Greco Brush Pack [$3]

Gumroad in general is a good place to find brushes and art resources. *Note; for Krita specifically, brush packs are a bit weird, so it may require you to find different packs, or import them in a particular way

PureRef [PC] - Reference Compiler/Moodboarding

VizRef ($3.99) [iPad] - Moodboarding/Reference Compiler

Artist Youtubers/Creators that helped me improve/guide me along as a self-taught artist from when I first started digital art to where I am today:

Proko

Marco Bucci

Sinix Design

Sycra

Hardy Fowler

Lighting Mentor

Winged Canvas

Moderndayjames

Swatches

Chommang_drawing

Marc Brunet (YTartschool)

+ Observing a lot of speedpaint art by people whose work I enjoy on social media/youtube, trying to dissect their processes

If you've gotten this far, first of all, congrats, you can read a lot, and second of all, thank you for reading and I hope this helps! I'll continue to come back and update this if I find any new resources in the future, or if my processes change :)

Much Love,

-Remidiy

[sotethemighty]

"Those ethereals are still here… They're like our landlord on rent day!"

After a month and a day of work, I have managed to finish this piece. It was quite the challenge. In fact, I almost gave up halfway through! This is my first piece that includes multiple characters interacting with an environment, and personally, I feel like I was too ambitious with this. Really, my eyes were bigger than my belly! I did implement an earlier suggestion to use a 3D model to help get the perspective right, and that's what I did with the car. However, I felt that this essentially "locked" the work in, and if I wanted to modify how any of the characters were posed, I would have to completely restart and find a new angle to view the car from. Perhaps I am simply not implementing this tool correctly, but I still found this restriction to be frustrating.

Another struggle I had was portraying materials. Outside of some fabrics and flesh, correctly drawing materials was really challenging! Surfaces like Billy Kid's metallic body and leather jacket were really hard to grasp conceptually, all my earlier attempts ended up looking like some kind of strange plastic. Eventually, through some strong use of reference images, I think I got something decent looking.

On an unrelated note, I really like the details that the artists had put into the Cunning Hare's car! I really like how they use a really cheap car and plaster it with stickers; I think it is not only funny but also suits Nicole's personality. To compliment this, I also like how the two stickers on the car's hood reads, "出入平安," and "財源廣進," which can be interpreted as, "Safe travels wherever you go," and "Make lots of money" respectively. I think it is really cute! It shows not only Nicole's more business orientated mind, but also her care for her team, going so far as to put these stickers on their car to ensure success.

Twitter Reddit HoYoLAB

[verytiredrn]

Hello tiredhomeboi, I'm sorry to bother you if it's night or you're busy, but I'd love to ask you something please.

First of all, I want to tell you that I love your drawings and they are great! Really well done and it makes us want to love the Leopika or the pariston/ging even more! 😊❤️ You inspire me a lot and I'd also like to draw people from Hunter x Hunter but especially the phantom troupe that I particularly appreciate.

The problem is that I can't find my style, or draw exactly what I have in my heading. So I was thinking that maybe a pro like you had some tips/advice for drawing 😅😥🙏

Did you learn how to do proportions before drawing and with what? Do you use references? (I do, but it limits me a lot on my ideas as I don't necessarily find references that reach what I have in mind 😞)

How did you learn to do sketches so easily? How did you find your own style?

I'm really sorry if I'm taking up your time. Thank you very much for your time and attention ❤️

hey there, thank you so much for the kind message :,D

I’ll be honest, im not the best at giving art advice. although I’m still in the process of improving my art, I can tell you how I’ve been developing my style.

I like looking and analyzing my interests that have unique art styles. For example, I see togashi’s style in hxh and what I’ve gathered based on his work is how he ranges from some simplicity to a more very detailed style. For me, I love his simplistic style a lot more. and that makes me want to develop my style that is more cartoon centric, if that makes sense. So see what art styles intrigues you the most, study it, copy it (which is valid for beginner artists imo, but don’t claim it as your own art‼️), then forget about the copying method and practice it, and overall, just have fun with it.

despite achieving my cartoony style that im used to having, I still try to make the proportions in my art look decent. I’ll be honest, I still need some practice on it. sorry if this sounds vague, but I use a lot of shapes and lines to figure out the proportions (ex. For the head, I start off with a circle and a horizontal line at the center of it, and change the height of the line depending on where you want the eyes to be at) I wish I could show you some examples for this part but I don’t have my ipad with me right now. :,) one of my other ways of practicing proportions are redrawing official art from my favorite interests. it’s honestly a fun way for me to improve on drawing proportions. but if I want to draw a character in any pose of my choice, I look up references on Pinterest. I know this method is pretty much common and im sorry about that :,)

for sketches tho, sometimes, i do tend to struggle on sketching as well :,) if its something im used to drawing all the time tho (example: kurapika) then it isnt as hard to sketch easily.

overall, those are my ways and methods in developing my art. sorry this took me days to reply back, i wanted to try to answer all your questions as best as i can. lemme know if i need to be more clear on certain parts :,D

[watery-melon-baller]

7, 29 and 20 for the art ask! (had a look at your art blog and it looks really cool!)

:D thanks!! ive veen trying to do some inktober stuff so HOPEFULLY ill be posting more on there ;)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

hmm. ive worked in a lot of mediums and theres a lot of mediums id like to try. something ive never tried but i think is super cool is ike. sewing and clothes and cosplay stuff! i hae a lot of friends who do cosplay stuff and sewing and i think its very cool and id love to try it. the closest ive ever done was embroidery which was cool but theres somehting about being to make your own clothes (and give them pockets!) that is so cool and id love to try it one day

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

hands!!! i have momments where i strugle but thats because im dumb and not using a reference ive always been pretty decent at drawing hands and have only gotten beter over the years i think. the difficult part is making it fir with the pose but again thats me not using references. i struggle and then im like "wait i should use a reference for this" and then it instantly becomes ten times easier. now feet, those are impossible for me to draw

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

hmmm,, currently id go with good omens and merlin. im not great at realism stuff and theyre live actions shows so i guess thats maybe why

[raisinchallah]

i think whats even more annoying than being like wow i hate my art is realizing wait my arts alright but id probably be way better and more confident if i practiced more sob but i hate practice liek i could get better i simply choose not to kjldsafjkl;adfafjk;ldk;lj cuz what makes it all so tortuous is i feel like i have gotten better at certain skills but not all the other supporting ideas so i have a hard time getting in the flow of a drawing cuz i have no confidence in most of my ideas of visualizing a final product or like freewheeling off of a reference rather than near copying it so i feel like a pathetic newborn foal trundling along barely knowing how to walk vs in the past i was kinda more the same level and just sorta did whatever rather than now i feel like i do have a higher standard and i can do some stuff decently well like i am pretty good now at copying a face from reference and doing stuff fairly detailed but i feel i have very little idea how to draw a face without a direct reference i have no mental grab bag or short cuts to feel satisfied if i dont find a perfect reference you know which makes it very hard i think...... idk society i guess and like its a million times more challenging when it comes to poses but in my heart i know i should do like anatomy studies and pose studies to have a better idea how a body works lol so i can do whatever

[janetkwallace]

Top 6 Favorite FF9 Fanart I Made

You know what? I never did a Top X stuff before. So, today, here's a list of my personally favorite artworks, and the reasons I like them. Not that I enjoy all my stuff with all my heart, they all have a special place in my heart♥

Alright, let's begin.

Number 6: Darkness Has Reached Its End

Beautiful. The negative space in this one reminds me of those Baroque paintings with their light/darkness contrast. There's something mysterious in Freya's looks while the red armor takes over her whole body, like the scales of a dragon. It does look like an oil painting, but keep in mind that it was drew and painted on bond sheet paper and digitized on a printer. Just so you know anyone can be an artist.

Number 5: 'Let Fear Propel You Forward'

Sir Fratley is my favorite Final Fantasy IX character. Yeah, he does not have much of a character, but I do like him, mainly due what he could have been. I mean, dude who wants to save the world on its own, loses all his memories, decent design... Heck, somehow Freya fell in love with him, and if she saw something in that guy, maybe we too can try. But let's talk about the art. I used a John Romita Jr. as a reference for this one. That's a striking pose for sure. I think it was a Spider-man pose. Anyway, what do I enjoy the most about this one, not just being Fratley, is the style, with all those lines that resemble a living being ready for action. Oh, and 20 years have passed and we still don't know a damn thing about Sir Fratley, it's hard to be a fan of a character that has none.

Number 4: Rainbow Knight II

I almost teared my bond sheet apart while drawing this one. It was a tough process to make all these colors appear, and I didn't expected the final result to be that gorgeous looking. Like, I painted it one, two, three, four times and then I watered it and took away all the painted and painted it again... With all the effort it took, this is one of my favorites for sure. I think those lines are supposed to be rain, but moving on...

Number 3: Hrist Chardonnay

Ah yes... My OC would soon make up in this list at one point. I love my OC's design, brown curly hair and purple coat (in contrast to Freya's white hair and red coat), and I had a hard time finding out the one drawing of Hrist I enjoyed doing the most. I found this one in which she's standing near a waterfall (or a canyon, I don't know), holding a javelin and looking forward with an eye covered by the hair. The colors really do add dimension and a kind of fantasy, maybe that's not the world but it feels fantastic somehow. And I love my OC with all my heart too, I just created her to be a mean brat but later I found myself liking Hrist a lot.

Number 2: The Last Cherry Blossom

I drew this one for a friend called JotaTe, who wrote a fic called The Last Cherry Blossom. I liked that fic and decided to do fanart of it, and this one... I looked at it and I was like 'damn, did I really drew this one!?' Besides how much black ink I have wasted, I am very fond of this one. Freya looks like a wilted flower, almost unrecognizable, gazing over her rainy homeland, Burmecia, as if she's flying away or coming back to it, most of it was made randomly so I have no idea what's going on, only that I liked a fic so much that I thought about drawing tons of artwork for it, and this is one of them.

Number One: Out Of The Blue Comes Green

That's it, folks. My favorite drawing ever conceived. The amount of details, details and even more details poured in this one... It took me two days until I could finish this one. Look at that mean spear Freya's holding at hand! Honestly, when I was finished with the linework, I thought the coloring would ruin this one, but I went for it, and decided to color this stunning piece. The background was meant to be solid blue, but I ran out of blue and decided to color it with hydropens of all kinds of blue. One thing I love about this one is the butterfly ribbon, which remained a staple in my later works.

And that's all about my rant! See you later, and happy 2023!

[arlecchno]

HEYOYOYO jellyfish on main here ! HAPPY NEW YEARS !!!! (i hope the html code doesnt fail in the ask AHAHAH) i had to change the font of the board because it was really hard to read but here it is LOL

as you can see , incredibly silly SJSIKFGH the red "string" is put about a bit haphazardly but im not going to fix that (:

on a side note , did you have a vision of what the MA duo's uniforms look like (and / or any reference images for them / other outfits theyd wear) ? there may or may not be somethin in the works from me (see below) vvvv

PLEASE ignore the shitty posing of my mc and kuni im literally too lazy to even attempt to fix that hot mess that .

oh yeah uh also , im aware MA was aimed towards fem aligning readers — and i am not one — so im really sorry and hope you dont mind but as mentioned before you did include a bunch of my favorite subgenres and ,,,, i couldnt help myself !! but if you dont want me to be here bc of the fact im totally okay with leaving !! (<_<;;)

OKAY IVE SENT ENOUGH , - jellyfish (do i still need to do this signoff if im on my main ??? idk)

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S TO YOU TOO JELLYFISH!!!!

YOOO WTF THAT BOARD IS SO SICK!!!! now that i've seen it.... would you mind sharing the fic 🥹 by your theories the series sounds SO GOOD and i do not want to miss out on a fic of my favourite kind of genre!!

your theories look so incredibly detailed, whilst still adding in a tinge of crack to make it look more interesting, in which i completely agree with!! wtf you're insane

as for the visionaries of the main characters' clothes, since most of the story is inspired by b99, i'd like to think most of their clothes look like what the characters in that show would wear.

their official uniforms look something like this;

when kuni and y/n are busting down criminals, i'd imagine they look like this!!

i've tried my best to be as open as i can with y/n's clothing style and appearance, hence why i never mentioned y/n's attire or looks in the series (except for the dress in the grad ball arc). so it's mostly up to everyone's interpretation on what they want y/n to look like!! :)

as for kuni though, i like to imagine he's this low-key fashionable guy but won't ever admit to it lmao. i mean his usual attire is pretty basic, maybe like a button down shirt, a tie and pants but when he doesn't feel like using his duty belt i'd imagine he use these kinds of holsters (i know the 2nd pic is a woman but i couldn't really find any shoulder holster pics that were decent 😭)

and it's totally okay that you're not fem-aligned but still read the series (i hope i don't sound rude here, if i do then i sincerely apologize, idk how to put it into words 😭)

as i said before, i try to not mention a lot about y/n's appearance and all, and even though this is a fem reader fic, all other genders are welcomed to read, i don't mind at all :D

ALSO YOU DRAW TOO??? THAT'S SO INSANE BRO!!!! THEY LOOK REALLY GOOD ALREADY NOW I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE OUTCOME 🥹🥹🥹 i love you omg it's so lovely interacting with you

and judging by your user and pfp... i am here to assume you are a dainsleif enthusiast? if so then we have so much more in common than i thought!!!

i love dainsleif so much hehe i talk about him!!!! a lot!!!! always to the point that my friends would get tired of me 😞

i hope those pics would spark up some ideas for you :)) and i'm really sorry if some of my words here seemed rude or uncomfortable for you, i'm not really good with words so i do apologize in advance 💔

[literallyjustscrollingthatisit]

The Process For "Proceed"

These are going to be pretty long posts but I thought I'd include a bit of commentary in between each. Starting with this one... Honestly, I was just testing out my iPad since this was the first time I'd ever attempted drawing digitally before. It was a really rough sketch with no true detail and just a little bit of color testing. (The quality on the images is pretty rough since for a while I would just take a picture of my screen rather than screenshot. I stop doing this eventually!)

Once I got my bearings and tested out my brushes (I use ProCreate by the way!), I started actually going in with more details, mainly Noelle's hair. I also tried to make her cloak more cloak-like? I think it worked anyway. I had a reference image for both Noelle and the Vessel as far as poses go because at the time, I had no experience and had taken zero actual drawing classes. (I'm in two right now!)

Now Noelle was really coming together! The base color was put in and the rest of her body (specifically ears and antlers) were added. I usually like to do base color for all the characters before ever touching shading. I'm not really sure why. But I did add a bit of shading on the back of Noelle's cloak here so I guess I just contradicted myself!

Unlike Noelle, I ended up drawing and placing the base color on the Vessel in the same day! (I forgot to mention it earlier but I mark my progress with how much I've done by the end of the day. And said progress is very inconsistent.) I remember getting stuck on the Vessel's hair for a while since there is no concrete hairstyle for them as it's the player's decision based on the options you are given. I ended up picking a really basic design as a placeholder and then never changed it... (Whoops...)

Remember when I said my progress was inconsistent? Take this one for example. Leaping from the last progress update where I completed the Vessel all in one go, here I simply added Noelle's face. Though I will admit, it took a while to nail down her expression, specifically her mouth. I remember playing around with an open or closed mouth design before landing on this one since I thought it made her look anxious and scared. At the time, I didn't know how to properly make mouths so that's why it's not matching the perspective...

Aaaaaand here's the final product! The final day primary consisted of me figuring out the blending tool in order to shade Noelle's skin and hair. I finally switched the background to the final color and added the text box with the Soul. I couldn't figure out where to find Deltarune fonts or how to import it into ProCreate so you got stuck with my attempt at decent handwriting instead! At this time, I didn't sign my art so there's no signature on this piece. Later I signed with my name and then I recently switched to my logo!

Well, this is the format I'll be using for the process posts. It's very long form so feel free to just look at the images and completely ignore the walls of text. I've never done anything like this before so explaining my work is pretty hard... Hopefully I'll get better with that too!

Next time, we'll be following the process for "Heart Behind The Strings" which is yet another long one. (Longer than this one!)

[sphericalaccountants1]

The Best Tax Accountants to Hire for Your Tax Return

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  You subsequently need to guarantee that you find somebody who has a careful eye for detail and who has experience working in a comparative estimated business to your own. A bookkeeper who will in general work for little organizations, for instance, could work effectively for little organizations, yet may not be equipped for taking care of the finance for your representatives or of keeping a precise record of your month to month deals. Anybody can call themselves a tax preparer, however what you really want is a genuine expert. There are different kinds of bookkeepers so be certain that you know which one is ideal for you.

  While meeting or looking for bookkeepers, see whether they by and large do errands, for example, getting ready tax returns, assuming that this is what you want them to do. Certain bookkeepers might practice for instance in domain arranging or monetary gauging and despite the fact that they might have extraordinary capabilities, they are bound to commit errors than a lesser qualified bookkeeper who has arranged many tax returns. There are stroll in tax planning organizations that offer extremely low rates for setting up your tax return. Anyway it is ideal to stay away from these organizations at every possible opportunity and to recruit a tax bookkeeper, as these organizations utilize occasional representatives with just fundamental preparation to finish however many tax returns in as short a period as would be prudent. Botches are thusly logical and exceptionally normal.

  A decent tax bookkeeper will cost all the more however your tax return services will get a greater amount of their concentration and consideration. Utilizing a modest tax return administration now just to get an enormous fine later on won't set aside you cash. Whenever you have settled on the kind of tax bookkeeper that you want, you actually need to track down the person in question. On the off chance that you know a companion who has involved a bookkeeper in the past request suggestions. The possibilities are, in the event that they worked really hard for your companion they will work really hard for you as well. Anyway in the event that you don't know anybody who has involved a tax bookkeeper previously, you can in any case find one web-based on destinations, for example, LinkedIn, catalogs or a site that is there explicitly to coordinate organizations with qualified bookkeepers.

  You must don't race into picking a tax bookkeeper and that you rather require some investment to address them and see whether they have the capabilities and experience that you want. Do an internet based check for their name or the name of their employer in the event that they are not independent. Quickly dismiss anybody for whom you can track down objections. Get some information about their capabilities and assuming they have a place with any expert bookkeeping associations. It would likewise be smart to actually look at references, particularly ones from organizations like your own, to see whether the individual is dependable and has delivered mistake free returns. Different inquiries to pose incorporate figuring out their charges and how they are determined, for example, hourly or an oddball cost for each tax return.

  The tax bookkeeper may likewise charge extra for things, for example, calls, so guarantee that you are completely mindful of precisely the thing you will be paying to keep away from upsetting astonishments sometime later. While picking a tax bookkeeper be particular as the need might arise to guarantee great help. Make a few inquiries and track down the best rate, however don't pick some unacceptable individual basically in light of the fact that they are modest. A property bookkeeper, for instance, isn't the ideal individual to do your tax return, similarly as a tax bookkeeper may not be the ideal decision for home preparation. You can track down many independent bookkeepers in reality or on the web so it ought not be challenging to track down the ideal individual to get everything done.

FOR MOE INFO :-

tax return services

[dragonji]

currently drawing the best qyz of my entire artistic career and its for ocxcanon. teehee<3

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

So there’s a challenge being run by Wyatt Andrews on twitter and instagram called #DinosThroughThe Decades, the aim being to compile a timeline of our scientific understanding of one prehistoric species as represented through palaeoart! I decided to do Stegoceras validum, since I feel like it’s gone through a lot of changes that aren’t appreciated as they should be! And so, here’s my breakdown of each drawing in this timeline:

1903

The year in which Stegoceras was described, as Stegoceras validus, by Lawrence Lambe. The identity of the fossil was pretty much completely up in the air at the time, since all we had of it at that point was the dome of the skull:

One of the conclusions that Lambe reached, and the one I’ve gone with here, is that the dome was the base of a large single horn on the snout of a ceratopsian dinosaur. There is sadly no actual palaeoart depicting Stegoceras like this, so I based my reconstruction heavily on Charles Knight’s beautiful ceratopsian illustrations from the 1890s and 1900s.

1918

By 1918, Lambe was now suggesting that Stegoceras was not a ceratopsian, but a member of the group stegosauria, which included ankylosaurs and stegosaurs and is now known as thyreophora. He even erected a new clade for Stegoceras, psalisauridae, which did not last long.

This was probably the toughest one for me to work out since the brief is basically “a thick-headed 1910s-style generic thyreophoran”, and I ended up working mostly from Knight’s Stegosaurus and improvising the armour. That said, it’s a wonderfully weird concept and it’s one of my favourite end products!

1924

We finally know what the rest of Stegoceras looks like! Charles Gilmore described a complete skull and partial skeleton of Stegoceras, and very helpfully for me it included a skeletal diagram!

But yes, the small birdlike elephant in the room: Gilmore’s description reassigned our beautiful bumpy-head boy to the now-considered-dubious tooth taxon “Troodon”. This ended up with the kinda confusing situation of having what is now known as pachychephalosauridae being grouped under the name “troodontidae”, which now refers to a clade of dromaeosaurs. Even after the clade name was changed, new pachycephalosaurs were still being described as species of “Troodon” all the way into the 1950s!

1980s

The way that palaeontology viewed dinosaurs was beginning to alter during the 70s and 80s, and dinosaurs were starting to run faster and lift their tails up off the ground. The last few decades had been good for pachycephalosauridae too, with new fossils showing a much greater scope of the group’s diversity in North America and Asia, and “Troodon” finally being ejected from the group as recently as 1987 by Phil Currie.

My main inspiration for this one was these awkward dinosaur book illustrations from around this era that just seem kinda off. Either it’s something about how cylindrical and formless the limbs are, or the stiffness in the pose, but I find them charmingly odd. They look very much like plastic dinosaur toys.

1990s

The Dinosaur Revolution is in full swing at this point, and dinosaurs are tending to look leaner, meaner, and kinda in need of a decent meal. The 90s and the 2000s really form a bit of a single era in dinosaur palaeoart, with dinosaurs in wiry muscle and skin and not much else, often adorned with spikes and osteoderms and the occasional single spiny dewlap. It was a weird time and of all of them this one was the hardest to draw faithfully and correctly without feeling like I was making a parody.

2020s

And finally, my comfort zone! The impact of the book All Yesterdays on the trajectory of modern palaeoart is truly hard to understate, since it basically pushed weird, experimental palaeoart into the mainstream palaeo consciousness. Moving on from the almost literally bare bones dinosaurs of the 2000s, we’ve started rounding out or dinosaurs a bit, and inferring speculative structures and behaviours from what we observe in the fossil record and in the world around us!

The details of integument including quills but also the foot scales and skin on the legs are inferred from the absolutely stunning Psitaccosaurus specimen from a few years ago, since it’s really the closest species we have to pachycephalosaurs that preserves those details.

I think a big part of the culture shift around palaeoart in the last few years is the acknowledgement that we as palaeoartists can never reconstruct a species 100% accurately, and that there is room for interpretation and speculation. If you’re guaranteed to be wrong anyway, you might as well experiment and try out new things, so long as it doesn’t contradict the things that are knowable!

And that’s brought us all the way through almost 120 years of Stegoceras validum, and also 120 years of cultural and artistic evolution in the way we look at and understand dinosaurs! Thanks for sticking with me, I hope you enjoyed the ride!

[domirine]

You probably do a lot of life drawing seeing as how perfectly fluid your art always is so this ask might be redundant lol but,, i was wondering what kind of references you usually use? Do you just google similar poses, does it come from your mind, or do you have a go-to app to look through like pinterest?👉👈 i ask bc I struggle a lot with poses and usually when i look them up i end up drawing nothing bc its not. Ever good enough for me/what im looking for lol😔 still not sure how to even draw characters smoochin, rip

thank you, nonny!! i do a lil bit of life drawing, but man i really do feel the same way you do. while i'm happy to show some art when i get it done, the process can be a real struggle.

sorry this is gonna be long and all over the place lol hope it helps tho:

life drawing good: i recommend ditching the idea of finding the 100% Perfect Ref right off the bat. studying anatomy and life drawing (this site has a range of body types and fun poses) somewhat regularly, therefore growing my mental library so that i can try and make whatever pose is in my head happen later, has been more viable to me than spending hours looking for the Perfect Ref.

drawing a bunch of generic people skating without pressure of creating proper character art is good practice, and it primes me to then come up with a skating pose of my own.

ref hunting: i save pictures i might use as refs regularly in a browser folder - good refs, bad refs, boring refs - losing a ref standard can be helpful because at the end of the day it’s what you make with it, so it doesn’t have to be particularly mind-blowing to begin with. you don’t wanna reinvent the wheel or create the most never-been-done-before pose, you just wanna get a thing right.

pinterest is very good for poses, yes, though you have to know how to look for them - i.e. i found that typing out "dynamic pose" will not yield organic results, as opposed to looking up people in motion like athletes, boxers, skaters and such. for fighting, i recommend using photos or clips from (ideally staged lol) fights, as opposed to stock images where the models are standing for a while posing - the former preserves a lot of the movement. i also recommend looking up group photos from events or shows for interesting natural poses and people interacting.

best hot tip of all tho: what helped me most is to not treat references very religiously. don't be tied down by what's in your ref, or not finding the perfect one, because then you're focusing on accuracy and not necessarily on what you wanna communicate with your drawing. if you can't find what you're looking for in full, just use a part that you find interesting, and then bullshit the rest and revise accordingly.

idea-generating can be very hard but you can practice it like any other skill, because having a decent idea of what you wanna draw is helpful - you don't have to have the whole pose visualised 100%. it's the mood, body language and expressions, that i think are more important. looking at refs can help reveal your ideas and intentions, but i will not create them for you i’m afraid.

for example, speaking on characters smooching, i've drawn these using refs in   pretty uptight way with no ideas beforehand - and i find them painfully boring because they're not rly communicating anything aside from a anatomical accuracy (more or less);

i was being too intent on staying faithful to the reference, and they're looking kinda stale to me. the only one that was done without any ref, was the bottom left - which i like! bc it's got spice and it’s portraying some emotion.

but i wouldn't have drawn it if i hadn't already started on the others, so maybe another good tip is to trust the process and not give up mid-work!! drawing stuff you’re not proud of is still drawing stuff, and not everything you create is gonna be satisfying. things are gonna click here and there, but you never know when, so don’t give up on your ugly artsy ducklings!!

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

How To Use References

Part one, making a new fantasy design. Someone suggested elves evolved from chalicotheres as a design to explore in this tutorial. So that's what I've got here. There will be two more parts for this series. One on how to utilize references for general human character design, and one touching on how to use references for characters that might fall under sensitive topics (for example, designing characters with certain health issues or who might fall a bit close to some stereotypes that make it hard to find useful references)

So here is my process for using references when I design new fantasy people or creatures.

(image description: four images of digital sketches with notes in various spots. The text reads "using references: creating new fantasy designs. Step one, brainstorm. Gather references." Near this text I have also written "chalicothere, elf, humanoid figure", and below this is a collage of images showing chalicotheres and some basic human anatomy.

The next bit of text says "Step two, study. Sketch over/recreate your references. Make notes for analysis!" The collage of images has been copied over and altered to have lower opacity. Loosely sketched simple shapes in bright colors over this show the basic structure of the chalicothere and human figure. Notes and smaller doodles nearby show and explain little details, like the unique anatomy of chalicotheres.

In the second image, the text says "Step 3, start sketching your new design. Just draw a lot. Make transition sketches. Pay attention to key details. Make notes! Analyze your work." The sketches here show transitionary drawings of the chalicothere skull being made humanoid, and a whole pile of sketches to test out the anatomy and proportions of a humanoid chalicothere elf. Notes on the sketches point out things I want to alter to improve the design, and ask questions about things like how to make the three-fingered hands work and whether I want to use horizontal or round pupils.

The third image shows low opacity images of people posing for art reference. Two photos of a man using a bow and arrow, and one photo of a woman standing with her hands on her hips. The text says "Step 4, study some poses." Over the faded photos, bright sketches show simplified traced shapes to copy the poses. The fourth image is just the same, but now very dark sketches have been created over the top to make the same poses with the very different proportions of a chalicothere elf. The text here now says "Try to redraw with your new design. Really think about the proportions. Loose Sketches! Redo this many times. Just get a feel for the design." end description.)

(image description: Labeled "Have fun!" this final image shows a few simple digital paintings of chalicothere elves with different skin tones, hair colors, clothing, and poses. There is a masculine chalicothere elf wearing a simple cloth around his waist, arm bracers, and red face and body paint, with tan skin and dark red hair clipped short like a horse mane. In the middle, a tall feminine chalicothere elf wearing a toga walks by two small children in colorful skirts, all with lighter tan skin and long dark brown hair. Finally, there is a very dark skinned chalicothere elf with pale hair, wearing a green skirt, stretching their arms over their head like someone who has recently woken up. end description.)

I hope that all makes sense and helps people visualize better how they can use references in their own designs. It is not so much about copying things carefully as it is about studying by loose tracing and then using those studies to do more freehand work. This is a skill that takes time to improve on, and can be helped by also doing more detailed observational art such as the still lifes and figure drawings you might do in a studio art class. The more time you spend finding methods of visual study that work for you, the easier it gets to freehand things, even totally new designs like this one.

And for a decent way to do studio art without having to go to a class, find a place in your home where you can set up objects for still life drawings, and find a good site to pull up images of people for figure drawing. stock images created just for art reference are pretty good. senshi stock (i forget their new title) professional places like pose space (contains nudity), etc. I know there are some tumblr blogs made for that purpose, but i stayed up way too late on a very unexpected burst of energy and focus and now i am crashing and cannot think of their urls.. boy it sure is great having executive dysfunction am i right. anyway. have fun! i need sleep.

[bonefries]

I rate Sigma Overwatch’s sprays from 0-10

alright lets go, just going in the order that these files come in this folder

1000/10: Because I get to see him sitting and even though he’s thinking hard about something he’s throwing a bouncy ball to help him focus. Also his hair is particularly white here and I think thats very sexy old man of him.

50/10: Catbox, Catboy, its all the same theory. Sigma likes catboys, not up for debate. We know why. 

3/10: Just not fond of it. I know the sprays and their rendering gets super obscured but this one just got absolutely decimated I guess. Just being real with yall. 

10/10: Like the shading colors, he’s smirking. Rock vaguely looks like a heart. Love that for him. 

6/10: I just don’t like how the hat was drawn. I don’t think it needed to be there or could’ve been shaped better. Other than that decent spray. Wish he was happier looking though. 

9/10: I have this spray as a sticker and its just very cute fsr. Its simple and the color is exquisite and nice on the eyes. 

100000000000/10: There is something mysteriously and eerily sexy about this spray and it’s one of my favorites.  

2/10: Just because he is my husband doesn’t mean I’m not going to be an honest man. I Highly Dislike this spray because I think the art style is unappealing af. It’s just a personal preference, I hate all of the sprays that come in this style.  i didnt realize how long this post was going to be so im doing the rest under the cut to spare everyone else’s life: 

9/10: Solid rating with no goofing. While I take up some issues with some of the expressions in his other sprays showing pain, there is something about the composition of this one that I absolutely love. Its very aesthetic for me, speaks to his character, and the colors are beautiful. Wish his eyes were his usual periwinkle though which is why this isn’t receiving a perfect score. 

5/10: Not really sure what it is about this one that I’m not so fond of. I can appreciate the colors and his profile. But other than that theres something visually here that I don’t find appealing. Not sure what it is.

8/10: Decent rating, its nothing crazy. Since reference and has nice colors but thats about all my critique for this one.

11/10: Lovely hand, lovely gesture. Wanna squish the bean pads. Nice colors. 

6/10: This one is actually one of my favorites despite the rating not being solid. Only because while I love the colors and the concept, the idea of it makes me sad. The idea that it reflects Sieb’s trauma makes me sad, despite it being a rational depiction of such. 

50000000/10: love little christmas charm sieb, hope he gets a skin of this outfit some day. Hes so cute. Happy smiles thats all I want. I could kiss him.

3/10: CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF I’M NOT ACTUALLY SUPER ABOUT THIS SPRAY. WHY? Because I’m being nitpicky and I want him receptors on the sides to be THE TEAL THAT THEY ARE. Not GREEN. 

5/10: I feel like halfway rating with this one is fair. I like to imagine that thats Sieb’s hand writing and that makes me happy. But this spray is hard to look at for long periods of time because this kind of text squish is hurtful on my eyes. 

9/10: I actually hate this skin but fsr the spray makes it incredibly sexy. It actually got sexier the second time (this time) that I looked at it. Good for him.

6/10: Reasons for this rating, while I love the pose and intimidation this spray is posing, I also get sad to see Sieb’s strained expressions. I think his powers do have limits and they do effect him depending. And seeing all this big ass heavy equipment on him gives me conflicted feelings. He has a lot to carry, and he’s just lucky he has gravity powers to help. (I mean this metaphorically and literally.)

7/10: I love the art and concept on this one. He’s just so grumpy looking is all. My poor boy. 

9/10: He’s 7 ft tall and it shows and I am here for it. 

9/10: Remember when I said I was conflicted about seeing all that equiptment on him? Well its true, but I’m just going full thirst on this spray to say look at how fucking massive this man is. I want him to grab me with those hands and pitch me like a baseball. 

4/10: The pained expression in this along with the concept of it (as well as connection once again to his trauma) unsettles me and makes me feel the brain hurting juice. Nothing further.

1000000000000000000/10: This is one of my favorite sprays because its just casual work setting and gives me more insight on his lab uniform. His hair here also gets me barking like a rabid chihuahua. 

10/10: This gets a solid rating for A) Lab Coat Outfit and B) Seeing him again with the help of an object to stim while he thinks. (The squeeze ball) 

10/10: I cant not give halloween Sieb a solid score. I think this is adorable, but I don’t believe it’s Sieb as a kid. I think it’s just a child dressed up like him with no attachment to lore or anything. But its still very cute. 

100/10: I love the pixel sprays so much, simple and cute. 

6/10: I’m really not too crazy about the pose for the dragon spray. I feel like they could’ve done something a little more dynamic especially given he has gravity powers. But alas. 

9/10: This spray is on the same level as the apple head spray from earlier on in the post. Congrats if you’ve made it this far btw. But I love the soft expression on the left being challenged with the frightened/frustrated one on the right. 

0/10: I am not fond of this spray because of how much pain he appears to be in along with the implications all the junk flying around him has. Upsets me. 

50/10: I don’t care about the fish onions I just care about looking at my husbands huge ass arms and seeing him enjoy a smelly fish treat. Its what he deserves. Also what that mouth do. 

10/10: Solid perfect score because I have strong emotions about Van Gogh. And I think the interest between Siebren and Van Gogh, especially as two men who were/are fighting with mental illness speaks volumes about Sieb’s character. This spray makes me feel something in my chest that I can’t whole heartedly explain, but it isn’t a bad thing. 

10/10: Another perfect score, because I think this spray is a good mixture of Sieb’s character between the musical elements and his scientific work. He’s also smiling which is rare to find in his sprays.  

544386238043723507435742634387236804307403857435748035474803548744307384385740385748037408357438570480bark bark barK BARK /10: sexiest image in the entire game of overwatch nobody @ me i dont take constructive criticism 

[wrathandgreed]

(I hope requests are still open) So ive been thinking. How about the brothers reaction to MC taking a large step away from them when ever one of them raises their hand up. It could be as simple as a high five. MC used to be in a abusive relationship and is paranoid about getting hit

Note: (For the record, I don’t know if you sent me this on purpose - I’ve never done requests; I’ve literally just put out my very first OM headcanons. But I figured I could try. I’ve never been in an abusive relationship, but a number of my friends have. I really hope I can do this one respect - if anything about this is not on the level, please let me know! Also, if I missed a trigger warning in the tags, or tagged this wrong, let me know. Also, for the record, I tend to like soft!Brothers and I really wanted them to try and be better - not put the onus on MC to “get over it” or anything.)

Second note: After writing this, I’m not sure that most of these guys would be a good choice for an abuse survivor! 

Third note: I am NOT good at keeping things short and, as usual, I went overboard with Asmodeus. Like, it should be its own fic at this point. But write what you want to read, right?

Warnings: references to domestic abuse, both physical and verbal. References to suicide baiting. Uncensored swearing.

~5K words

Lucifer

A strange choice; his perfectionism and exacting behavior sometimes make you remember how it was back in the human world; everything had to be JUST SO….or else.

And he’s threatened to kill you. Twice.

But there’s something inherently decent about him - and you live for the rare moments he laughs.

His perfectionism usually isn’t even about you, so you just kind of….ignore it.

You’re doing some of your RAD homework in Lucifer’s study.

It’s quiet there.

And, while he won’t do the work for you, he’ll definitely help when you’re stuck.

Also you can give him tea and soothing when he (inevitably)  gets upset at his paperwork - Mammon’s bills, Asmo’s bills, Satan’s bills (hey, dark magic books are expensive).

You start hearing the shifting and muttering that herald the beginning of the rant.

You gather the tea and walk towards his desk.

“Devil’s sake!” Lucifer suddenly snaps out, slamming hand on his desk as he reads yet another ridiculous piece of paper.

It’s not at you, the anger isn’t at you, you KNOW it’s not at you, but you freeze anyway.

Slammed hands on desks, punched holes in walls, hands on you, always hands - 

The cup of tea hits the floor and you’re out of the room before Lucifer can even look up.

He’s seen it all in your paperwork - the police reports, the restraining order, the lists of injuries - so he puts it all together before his study door closes behind you.

He knows better than to go after you immediately. You’ll want some solitude, some quiet on your own, to steady yourself a little.

If he goes after you now, it might frighten you more. Looks like hunting.

You need to know he’s calm, that he’s not acting or reacting out of emotion.

He takes his time cleaning up the spilled tea, straightening his papers.

When he shows up at your room, he has a mug of hot chocolate.

“I’m sorry,” you blurt out before he can say anything. You made a mess in his study, and he’s such a stickler for everything being neat. He was angry before, but he’ll be even more angry now.

“No, I’m sorry,” he returns, and offers you the chocolate.

(You blink once. Has the Avatar of Pride ever apologized before? If so, it was never in your hearing.)

The two of you talk quietly for a time. He insists that you don’t need to apologize - ever. He insists that, while he appreciates the tea-and-break routine, it’s 100% not your responsibility to control his anger. It’s his. He says that his anger isn’t good for him anyway (just look at Satan) and he needs to take a break when that hot feeling starts. 

Maybe he should start scheduling breaks; setting timers on his D.D.D. so that he no longer works long enough at once to let it all get to him.

He doesn’t want you afraid of him.

Mammon

Mammon is pretty much the only demon who HASN’T threatened your life. He often sounds irritated, but he’s never even sounded angry at you.

If anything, he’s a mush and an abuse victim himself. So he gets where you’re coming from, and tries really hard.

So you shouldn’t be afraid of him.

But….he moves too quickly. He’s constantly jumping from one idea to another, one topic to another, one emotion to another. And that’s just emotionally.

You can’t trust where his hands will be. Ever. And that’s not a sex thing.

Sometimes, his protection of you makes you feel safe. If anyone hurts you, Mammon will hurt them a thousand times worse.

He’s funny, and his hands on you are gentle, and once you tell him about your past, he tries really hard not to go back to his “stupid human” habit, because it hurts your feelings.

But sometimes, his protection feels like obsession. Why were you talking to that guy? C’mere, you’re MY human.

Then, inevitably, the tug on your hand or arm or waist, pulling you closer.

It starts simply enough.

You’re playing video games in his room. He’s not as much of a gamer as Levi, but he enjoys them.

Especially ones where you can be competitive or drive cars really fast.

He’s been getting more and more excited, coiled like a spring. And it’s from enjoyment, not anger, but that level of energy, in your experience, explodes at some point.

You get quieter, but that only makes him more boisterous. He wants you to join in the fun! C’mon MC, did you see that?! It was awesome!

After a really impressive win, he shouts in triumph and suddenly his hand is in front of your face for a high-five.

You recoil and hit the floor, crab-crawling backwards before you can stop yourself.

His look of complete confusion, in different circumstances, might be funny. He actually looks at his hand like he doesn’t recognize it.

He drops to the floor too, “Babe? What’s wrong? Y’okay?” And he reaches out a hand towards you.

When you flinch, he gets it.

He sits on the floor, stuttering out apologies, not even finishing one sentence before starting another. He makes sure he’s cross-legged, leaning back on his hands - non threatening, leaning away, hands not hidden, but not prominent, and in a position it would take him time to move from. 

When you start crying, he can’t maintain that pose and crawls towards you, pulling you into a hug.

If you resist, you know he’ll let you go. And that’s why you just curl into him instead, crying out on his shoulder while he holds you close - but not tightly.

“I jus’ need ya to talk to me….let me know if I’m gettin’ to be too much. I know I’m loud. Just….. jus’ remind me, I’ll never be mad.”

Leviathan

Boy already has anger problems.

Envy’s kind of prone to it, you know?

On the one hand, he literally attacked you over a piece of TSL memorabilia.

On the other, he’s generally harmless the rest of the time.

He’s meek and shy and terrified of touching you - so, 95% of the time, you feel super safe with him.

When you wake with a nightmare, when something jump-starts your fear response, he talks you through it, easily abandoning whatever game or anime he’s involved in.

He’ll only touch you when you ask, or when you reach for him first.

But then there’s the MMOs.

You know you should leave when he starts getting mad. Not in a victim-blame sense, but for your own mental health it’s probably not a good idea to be around him when he raids.

He ALWAYS gets mad.

You’re sitting in his room, so involved in your handheld that you forget it’s his raiding night.

(Usually you make study plans with Satan, or shopping plans with Asmo on his raiding nights. You don’t want him to give them up; he enjoys them, but it’s not good for you to be around.)

After finally completing a tough level, you pop your headphones off just in time to hear Levi swear loudly.

You go still as a string of swear-filled trash talk fills the room. Things you’d never expect shy, needy Levi to say. 

You know it really is just trash-talk - the threats of violence are just too absurd. Rip off their arms and use their own fingers to bowl their skull like a bowling ball? Really?

Also this is LEVI. Levi? The demon who needed you to taunt Mammon about his credit card because he couldn’t do it himself? He might be Admiral of Hell’s Navy and all, but he’s not exactly threatening.

You get to your feet, a little shaken but ready to just walk out of the room. It’s raid night, and this is why you don’t hang out on raid nights. You’re not comfortable around other people’s anger.

You’re halfway across the room when Levi suddenly shouts in frustration and throws his controller on the floor.

And you’re out the door.

Levi just glimpses you as he’s reaching to pick up his miraculously-unshattered controller from the floor.

“Henry?” He calls out, just a second too late.

With only one moment of hesitation, he logs out of his raid and goes to follow you.

You had less than ten seconds head start, but it takes him almost twenty minutes to find you, sitting out in the garden, gazing at nothing.

“MC?” He calls quietly. He doesn’t want to sneak up on you.

A single blink, and the tiniest flash of fear - he left his game to follow you. 

Calculation: extreme concern - or extreme anger. 

Conclusion: Undetermined.

So you wait.

“Are you ok?”

Okay, so not mad. “Aren’t you raiding?” You ask, instead of answering. You’re not ok, but you’re also not in the mood to talk about it.

“I, uh, h-had a, uh, power outage?” Even he doesn’t sound convinced, and you snort. Levi only has three modes: simple, stuttering, and verbose. Thankfully he goes with simple. “You ran out. I was worried.”

You debate brushing his concern off, but he deserves better than that.

“I’m not good with anger. Even if it’s not directed at me.”

“Oh.” Levi pauses as he considers. He knows the basics of what’s happened. “I - I mean, I could, you know, NOT - “

“No,” you say quickly and lean in to kiss his cheek. “You don’t have to change anything. Do your raids, make stupid threats to stupid players. Just….warn me to leave first?”

Levi nods, but he skips the rest of his raid to stargaze with you in the garden, arms wrapped around you from behind as he points out different Devildom stars and constellations to you. You get a lecture on how Devildom stars are used in Devildom sailing. It’s actually kind of interesting.

Satan

Okay, seriously? The Avatar of Wrath? Author speaking here, I literally can’t picture a worse combination than an MC who’s still recovering from domestic abuse to date the AVATAR OF WRATH.

Like, yeah, he has good control over himself, but he also loses his temper in a moment’s notice.

He has CANONICALLY tortured people for calling him strange.

He flips out with no warning and destroys parts of the house and his brothers just let him do it because he’s too powerful to control when he rages.

I can absolutely see MC falling for the quiet intelligence, the consideration, and so forth, but witnessing one (1) single rage should be enough to tell them that this relationship won’t be good for their mental health.

Let’s not even talk about the (again, canonical) desire for domination, power play, pet play, etc, that kind of defines our boy.

I mean, I love Satan. Out of all the bros, he’s the only one I could imagine legit dating in real life.

But I’m a little ball of rage myself, and I have no problem with anger, mine or anyone else’s.

And the fandom (including me) can totally play cute and love on their “soft little angy boi” all they want, and he definitely has soft, sensitive sides, and I may actively choose to ignore the whole domination/power play/etc when I fic or headcanon because I really love soft!Satan….. but he’s not.

I can’t even make a headcanon, because I cannot picture a situation in which this is actually GOOD for MC.

Because no matter how hard he’ll try and control it, and how much his rage probably won’t be directed at them, I just keep picturing “It won’t happen again” except it will, and it’ll just wind up being flashbacks to the number of times “It won’t happen again” ended in black eyes or an ER visit back in the human world.

And MC walking on eggshells for eternity to avoid setting him off, and how is that healthy?

Asmodeus

Another decent choice for MC, at least on the surface.

King of consent over here, at least how I picture him. Especially for someone he cares about.

Always accepts “no” about literally anything. Don’t want sex? We’ll cuddle. Cuddling a little confining? Holding hands is cool. Really don’t want to be touched at all right now? Gossip and tea! 

You were coming to really care about the Avatar of Lust, and you believed what Simeon said about him - how much he desperately needed love and affection. You got it; you needed some, too. 

I mean, even if he’d been a bit of a jerk, he’d warmed up significantly since the pact, so new that it still burned on your skin, was formed.

But even Asmodeus wasn’t without faults. However much he focuses on love, he can sometimes, really be….mean.

You’re standing on a balcony in Diavolo’s castle, having escaped for a few moments.

He’d always been catty, gossipy, filled with drama, but the genuine affection and likability of him sometimes made you ignore it.

His constant mocking of Luke you could put down to the whole angel/demon conflict. 

His occasional snapping or poking at his brothers you could put down to being stuck in the same house with the same people for literal eons.

The only thing that might make up for your awful existence is if you just ended it.

The words haunt you as you stand looking up at Devildom’s endless nighttime.

How many times did you hear similar words yourself? How useless you were, how much of a burden, no way you’d survive on your own without him, and he didn’t even want you that much. Why didn’t you just go kill yourself?

Dammit, you think to yourself as Asmo steps out on to the balcony.

“Darling! Why are you out here all alone? Or are you waiting for some company?”

When he goes to put his arms around you, you just say “no.” Simply, quietly, emotionlessly.

Asmo circles around to look at you. “Something wrong, sweetness?”

You take a breath. Another. You consider swallowing it, again, don’t want to start a fight. Back down, put on a smile, ignore it.

But realize you can’t. You spent years dealing with this crap, and you’re not going to do it again.

“You’re mean, Azzy.” Your voice is quieter than you expected. You look up into the demon’s eyes. To his credit, he looks deeply confused and, as you take a step away from him, hurt. Before he can open his mouth, you continue, “How could you say that to Mammon?”

“Are you defending MAMMON?” He asks, torn between incredulity and anger.

“Right now? Yes. But also Luke, Lucifer, and everyone else you talk shit to. Or about. He’s your brother. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to hear that out of someone you love?”

Dismissively, “Oh, if it actually bothered him, he’d - “

“What? Beat you up? That’s not like him. So he takes it. And takes it, and takes it, until, because it’s all he hears, he believes it. And then why fight back? Why defend yourself, if you’re such a piece of shit? You deserve it, after all, right?”

You don’t even realize it, but you’re crying by this point. And you’re mad. All the mad you couldn’t fling at your abuser before is filling you now. You don’t even know if you’re talking about Mammon or yourself anymore. Maybe both of you.

“And even though he’s beaten down, you keep going. When he won’t respond to the usual anymore, when that doesn’t seem to hurt him, rile him up, you go worse. You told your brother, who you claim to love, to kill himself. We’re barely even friends. So what happens when I annoy you? Should I just go die now, save you the trouble of telling me to do it later?”

You step right up to him, into his personal space, almost nose to nose, and stare directly into his red-yellow eyes. “Is this who you are, Asmodeus?”

Asmo has gone from defensive; incredulous and angry, to baffled, hurt and worried in just a few minutes. But at your last, pointed question, he jerks his head back as though you slapped him. Not knowing what to say or do, he reaches for you again, but you dodge his hand and brush past him back into the castle.

You get Solomon, the only one who won’t ask questions, to switch rooms with you. (Luke is thrilled; teaching him to play gin rummy actually cheers you up a little.)

For a few weeks, you and Asmodeus pass each other in the House without speaking.  Then, one evening, there’s a knock on your door and Asmo slides into your room.

He looks….well, not awful; he could never look awful. But the glow is gone from his skin and, unless you’re mistaken, he hasn’t bothered doing his hair. He looks like he’s missed some sleep.

You look up from your homework and watch him. Silently. It’s not your job to fill the silence anymore.

More than most of them, Asmo despises being vulnerable. But it’s fix this or not, and the pact is pushing him to be on good terms. At least, he blames the pact. It’s easier than acknowledging how much the weeks of silence have worn on him. How awful it was watching you walk to class with Mammon instead of him. 

And no matter what, he values honesty in his relationships, no matter what kind of relationship. So he would be honest.

“I don’t know,” he says quietly.

Lean back in your chair, hands folded. Waiting.

“I don’t know….if that’s who I am. Maybe it is.”

“Why are you here, Asmo? What do you want?”

“I want you to stop ignoring me!”

Steady face. “I spent too many years having someone talk to me the way you spoke to your brother. The rest of it - the gossip, the side comments, the cattiness…. it’s not your best side. In fact, it’s pretty unattractive when it’s mean, but I could handle it. But I can’t handle cruelty. I don’t want to be around it anymore.”

A pause. “What is my best side then?”

Disgusted, you chuck a pen in his direction. “Fuck’s sake, Asmo. Get out.”

“No! Not, not that. If that’s my bad side, the **unattractive** part, then what’s the other half?”

You search his face, but he doesn’t seem to be fishing for compliments. If anything, he looks….lost. Confused. And you wonder if anyone’s ever said anything to him, good or bad, about who he was; not what he looked like or how he fucked. 

It’s not your responsibility to psychoanalyze a demon, you think to yourself. But you’re not someone to walk away. You wonder how it’s possible for someone to be thousands of years old, and know less about themselves than you know about yourself in just a few decades. And you have nothing to lose by being kind.

“You can be wonderfully kind, Asmo, and generous. You want to see the beauty in everyone and everything. As nasty as you can be with it, I’ll give you points for honesty. You connect with people, and the times you’re actually genuinely interested in them is….charming.”

He’s silent for a few minutes. Then he nods, as if he’s made a decision. “Okay. Tomorrow, after RAD, do you want to go for bubble tea?” At your confusion, he just smiles and continues, “It’s like skin care, isn’t it? Attractiveness requires effort, darling, until it becomes habit. If I want to be attractive inside as well as out, I’ll have to practice the good things, so they outweigh the bad. I can’t do that alone. I need a practice partner who won’t tolerate failure, right? At least until it’s habit.”

You feel your entire brain have to reboot before you can give a coherent response. 

“Tomorrow. One hour. I have papers due.” You wait until he leaves your room before you smile.

Beelzebub

Probably the best choice for this MC.

The most emotionally intelligent of his brothers.

Also the most sincerely kind and gentle.

But also, like Satan, prone to sudden outbursts and rages. They’re all food-related (or, rather, lack-of-food-related), but they’re there.

A smart MC always carries snacks while dating Beel. Phone, wallet, keys, fried bat wings.

Strangely, though, the food-induced rages don’t really bother you. It’s not anger, really, and it’s never once been directed at you. And, unlike back in the human world, there’s a concrete way to help: feed him.

Today you have a whole backpack full of snacks.

You’re with Belphie, watching one of Beel’s games at RAD.

(You’re not sure Belphie wants to be there, but you’re not allowed out alone, and Belphie decided to take you - keep you safe and support his brother. Two birds, one Belphie.)

Belphie tends to nap against your shoulder any time the ref goes to make a call, but he’s somehow always awake to clap for his brother. 

(You stand on your chair and cheer, but that’s you.)

The game is a close one; double overtime. Even Belphie is too tense to sleep towards the end.

And at the end of double overtime, Beel manages the single extra goal that results in victory.

You cheer yourself hoarse for your demon boyfriend.

The whole stadium is crazy, so you hang back and wait. Belphie hates crowds and you’re not keen on them yourself. It’s going to take awhile for Beel to make it through the crowd to you anyway.

You’re standing in the aisle, scrolling through your phone, when suddenly there’s a loud shout and arms wrap around you from behind and lift you up.

You gasp, and your scream strangles in your throat so what comes out of you is nothing more than a squeak. Your phone goes flying.

You’re frozen for a moment as panic surges. You want to fight and you’re fighting your own brain to push the panic into your limbs so you can fight for yourself.

You vaguely feel a tugging and you hear someone - Belphie? - insisting that you be put down and then your feet are on the ground but there’s no such thing as your legs and you start to fall before the same arms help you gently sit. The ground is gross, but you’ll only care about the damage to your skirt later.

Everything is fuzzy and confusing; you’re not even sure of what you’re looking at until your vision is filled with blue and violet.

You know that swirl of color. That’s a SAFE color, and you start feeling your poor brain start to work again.

You blink into your boyfriend’s blue-violet eyes; you realize he’s cupping your face with his hands and the weird underwater noises start to sound like his voice. You realize, very belatedly, that what probably happened was Beel lifting you up in a victory hug.

“M’okay,” you say, but it sounds robotic. It takes a few more seconds - you don’t know how many - for all of your senses and brain to actually begin working in sync again. You start hearing the sounds of the crowd departing the stadium, and you hear Beel continuing to say your name and trying to get you to answer questions. You almost smile; but smiling wouldn’t make any sense.

“I’m okay,” you say, and you must sound a little more convincing this time because Beel looks relieved. He shoots a few more questions at you, and you realize they’re the kinds of questions people get asked when someone thinks they have a concussion or head trauma.

Your answers satisfy him, so Beel helps you to your feet. 

“What was that?” He asks. “Low blood sugar? Are you hungry?”

You have to smile at his very-typical diagnosis. A little sugar wouldn’t hurt, though. For some reason, eating grounds you after something like this. You dig a chocolate bar out of your Backpack of Snacks (Snackpack?) and hand the rest to him.

He impatiently takes a bag of chips out of it but doesn’t open it. He looks at you expectantly and you realize he won’t eat until you do. So you take a bite of the chocolate and he looks more relieved.

“So what the fuck WAS that?” Belphie asks as the three of you move towards the exit.

“Later.” You haven’t yet found a reason to really tell Beel (and, by extension, Belphegor) about everything. You do later that night. 

Beel swears he’ll never surprise you like that again. He’s a lot more cautious about touching you for a few days, but eventually things go back to normal between you.

Belphegor

Author note: Dude fucking murdered you, deliberately, in cold blood, and taunted you for your gentleness and desire to help as you died. But let’s say you can get past that - or try to. Probably the second-worst choice, after Satan, for this reason.

You started dating Belphie for the strangest reason: you could trash-talk the shit out of him.

He kept trying to be around you after you made the pact (which, let’s face it, you made so you could MAKE SURE he never hurt you again). Until, after politely dodging him wasn’t working, you told him to take his emo-boy routine and fuck off somewhere else.

You flinched, waiting for retaliation, but he just blinked at you and told you to stop being a brat.

And he was smiling.

But it wasn’t a mean smile - it was a smile that shared the joke.

Your lips quivered into a returning smile, and you threw another insult at him.

He topped it, and hurled one back.

Before you knew it, the two of you were screaming obscenities at each other in the middle of the common room and laughing like hyenas.

For some reason, Belphie calling you a dumb bitch wasn’t an insult. It was a mark of endearment. And it didn’t hurt your feelings or make you afraid.

It was empowering to call him a dickhead if he did something you didn’t like and have him simply laugh and amend his behavior. Nothing bothered him.

He didn’t move quickly; in fact he didn’t move at all if he could help it.

But you would remember, sometimes, the way his hands felt on your throat, or how cold his eyes had been. And you couldn’t say it was a momentary madness, because he’d planned it. He’d been imprisoned because he wanted to kill humanity.

You put it out of your mind. It was something you were good at, after all.

Until the two of you sat down to watch a movie one evening. A simple plot hole sparked a discussion that wound up being….not an argument, but definitely a difference of opinion.

As usual, insults were flying fast and furious when suddenly Belphie laughed and smacked you with his pillow.

It wasn’t an angry move, and it wasn’t hard enough to hurt. It wasn’t a hard blow at all! But the surprise had you falling back on the couch. And the fear had you curling into a ball, arms wrapped around your head protectively, legs curled up to guard your middle.

There is dead silence.

“Hey, Brat?” Belphie asks. When you don’t answer, he calls your name instead.

You slowly, very slowly, begin to uncurl yourself from your position. It takes time for the residual fear to leave, but enough is gone to leave room for embarrassment. 

“Sorry,” you mutter. 

“I get it,” is the answer.

Cue awkward silence.

“I figured you were still afraid of me.”

“I’m not!” When he just stares blandly at you, you sigh. “Okay, a little. If you wanted to hurt me - again - you’ve had a ton of opportunities. So I don’t think you want to. But…..”

“It’s a hard thing to get over.”

“Yeah. And not just you.” Hesitantly, you start to tell him. You want to just give him the basics, but once you start talking, you can’t seem to stop. He doesn’t interrupt, barely seems to blink, just watches you. A blank vessel to help you empty the poison that fills you sometimes.

You see his jaw tighten as you go on, but you know the anger isn’t at you.

When you finish, he’s silent for a few moments. Then he gathers you up to him. “I’ll never hurt you,” he says.

You look up at him with the same bland look he gave you a moment ago.

“Again,” he amends. “I’ll never hurt you again.”

You let out a watery laugh and he hugs you a bit tighter.

“You’re still a brat, though.”