#can you tell this is my first time using procreate

[sunsetsands]

The ruidísimo is found in only a handful of forests around Altamira, but it isn’t hard to find them in what few areas they live thanks to the unmistakable woodpecker-on-steroids-esque noise that they produce while hunting. These creatures, unlike the closely-ish-related elefantito, use rapid thrusts of their hydraulic thorn-tongues to drill through wood, where they hope to find small creatures to prey on. This drilling can be fairly taxing, physically and energetically, though the impact is dampened a little by their thick, sturdy neck muscles.

As of now, ruidísimos do not live anywhere near human settlements, which is good news for anyone who likes sleeping. If this were to change, however, the people of Altamira would quickly be plagued by structural damage as the encroaching ruidísimo population drills holes into any and every wooden structure they can find. That, and the noise. Dear god, the noise…

[peppertoastuniverse]

pep reads: gojo satoru – long fics (pt.1)

Part 2

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ

☆ the way you love me by @peachsayshi [AO3/tumblr] [status: ongoing ◦ 29/? chapters] [smut!] [fwb!gojo] #pep's first fic she was OBSESSED with #real good good smut WITH FEELINGS

“We can stop anytime. If either one of us feels like... this ...might be too much. We stop, no questions .” “We can stop anytime,” Gojo repeated “... and nothing changes between us .” You swallowed hard at his last statement. You may not be able to read his eyes but you could hear it in his voice that he needed reassurance. “No matter what happens, we’ll still be friends...” you replied softly, “now kiss me before I change my mind.”

☆ you and me by tomodachi [AO3: ] [status: completed ◦ 5/5 chapters] [tear jerker] [eventual smut!] #pep cried #gojo just kinda loves you real hard

“Prisoners say the most comical things when their judgment comes,” you tilt your head, lifting a finger before him, “Who are you?"

--- History is written by the winners, Satoru knew this well. It was only when he lost and got sealed inside the Prison Realm he learned how to be weak and find out a long buried truth.

☆ ito by @peekamatcha [AO3] [status: ongoing ◦ 48/? chapters] [super slow burn] [shinto elements] #pep DIES with every update #the TWIST in that one chapter omg

You, a former sorcerer now working as a university lecturer, were hoping to maintain your distance with the sorcerer world for an eternity to come. However, with the reappearance of an upperclassmen from a decade ago, you are forced to go on a journey which you would rather sit out of. But somebody must save humanity from the impending apocalypse and apparently the job falls on the shoulders of you two.

It would have been alright had he not been everything you didn’t want to be reminded of. And the sacrifices to be made may be more than what had been bargained for. ☆moonlight by @septembersummer [AO3/tumblr:] [status: completed ◦ 10/10 chapters] [smut!] #pep loves this AU #pep SCREAMED

Gojo Satoru is dying. And no, it's not his fault this time.

The curse which is withering Satoru into an early grave is actually the product of his great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, who had a couple of sons that refused to procreate. And what does a proud, powerful man do when his sons refuse to fuck, and there won't be another heir to the clan?

He curses his own bloodline, of course.

It's only natural that he forces them through some twisted form of sorcery to become uncontrollably, violently attracted to the person they're most genetically compatible with.

It's even better that the curse creates a permanent, unbreakable bond between the two unwilling lovers. That's right, it usually takes more than one fuck to make a baby-- so, why not force them to have twelve?

Satoru wished his ancestor would be resurrected from the grave, just so that he could kill him again. That is, before Satoru inevitably dies.

He's had a good run, he thinks. Now, all he has to do is make sure you don't find out that you can fuck him back to life and try to very stupidly save him from himself.

(here's a spoiler: you do).

☆ a typical family by @literalia [AO3/tumblr] [status: completed? ◦ 32/32 chapters] [non liner narrative] [dad!gojo] #pep absolutely MELTED #slice of life #pep's gojo comfort fic

"satoru. where did you get these kids?"

or

after a six month absence, satoru shows up at your door two little kids following behind. chaos ensues.

☆ and if i cant see by hollowdonut [AO3: ] [status: unknown ◦ 26/? chapters] [slowburn] [eventual smut!] [tw: ptsd] #pep loves the reader's dynamics with gojo!

They say eyes are the window to the soul, but Gojo’s eyes are almost always hidden behind a blindfold. Even when they aren’t, you can never tell what he’s thinking.

You wonder if you should’ve taken that teaching job in Kyoto instead.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ

bonus!

☆ all hail the empress! by @chuluoyi [tumblr/AO3: ] [status: unknown ◦ 1/? chapters] [smut!] #pep loves this AU #but THE END THO? OMGGG you are an empress perfect in every way... until your husband suddenly casts you aside for his expecting mistress. but you won't be dethroned just like that, because the newly coronated western emperor, gojo satoru, sets his sights on you, and thus your revenge against your ex-husband begins...

[celestialalpacaron]

Ayo, someone by the name of Curly-B-Blog is redlining art of yours from 2020 (while pretending that it's actually Sai Scribble's work), and kind of being a dick about it. just thought you should know.

You know, originally I was just gonna brush it off, but then I went back to look at my old SU art from 2020 and did so much self reflection from then till now.

I think this was around the time I was just learning how to do perspective and tried to use the perspective tool on Procreate for the first time? :0 and I remember telling Sai “Sai I have this STUPID idea, I CANT believe it this stupid joke it’s so DUMBBBB, it’s living rent free in my BRAIN I SWEAR THIS IS GONNA BE SO STUPID DCIUWHEFIUWHIRFUIW4F” and being super excited to show her the finished product. People still think Sai created the Cursed Skin Gloves comic and I think it’s hilarious wjhwnuhwijwuiw

The comic was received very well and it made LOTS of people laugh and I’m still proud of this comic to this very day! :D and tbh if it wasn’t for my obsession for Sai’s Switcheroo AU I never would have found my passion in comic work! (love you you stinky hoe @saiscribbles 🩷)

HOWEVER…. I definitely still had lots to learn! I wasn’t very good at perspective at the time I’ll admit, but I was definitely having lots of fun learning :3

And throughout the past 4 years, ALOT has happened.

I graduated from college with TWO fancy pieces of expensive papers in Visual Development in Animation and Illustration learning from Will Kim and Jeff Soto, and as a I was working with the funny voice man Cougar MacDowall as a comic/story artist and reached in total around 7 million views for my fan series FNAF Security Malware Breached (it was even #21 on the trending list around the time of my birthday 🩷 what a lovely gift), had an insane opportunity to work with Mike Geno and with the voice cast from The Amazing Digital Circus for a fan song as a background and character asset artist, Vivienne Medrano liking and sharing my silly Overlord Husk AU comics, currently on my route to getting my certificate from Aaron Blaise’s Character design program and graduating from Marc Brunet Art School, and now I am completing my first year as professional colorist and art assistant for my storyboard and comic mentor Michelle Lam, aka Mewtripled! (Also I’ll be heading out to Lightbox Expo 2024 on October 26 with Michelle and the team so if y’all ever wanna meetup hahahajaj wink wink wink wink wink)

So you can say I learned ALOT and I enjoyed every minute of what I do :D I try to be humble about my accomplishments because blah blah being humble good yes yes but this time I wanna be selfish and say HELL YEAH I DID ALL THIS!!! AND IM SO EXTREMELY PROUD OF MYSELF FIUGEIURGERGGRS

Now here’s my most recent comic page that I posted like 2 days ago without the text.

That’s pretty freakin wild to me, I can’t believe I used to draw Steven Universe art like that back in 2020 LOL LIKE GUYS I DREW THIS!! WITH!!! MY HANDS!!! IS THAT NOT INSANE!!!???

Anyways moral of the story:

Learn from everyone and everything! Yes, even then mean ones too! If you can learn to work with anyone, I promise you’ll get to where you want to be faster. People can be a little mean on the internet, but that shouldn’t stop you from being where you want to be in the future. I’m so EXTREMELY grateful for all the opportunities and to all the kind professionals who were willing to give me a chance. Seriously, I’m so graciously thankful for everything, and I hope everyone here will support me and my silly little comics I will do now and in the future!

And one more thing:

Don’t be a jerk. Be to be nice to everyone :D nothing good comes out when you’re bad to everyone.

[sanctus-ingenium]

Just wanted to ask, please forgive me if you've already answred this, what program do you use? Your art fucks HARD and like. I was looking at your art of the two moths over the city they die in and I was hit with the wave of "oh that looks really fucking fun actually." Like i know my art program can't do some of those effects and like, I'd love to try fucking about with them.

hi there, thank you! all my art is done in procreate and paint tool sai

because you mentioned that drawing in particular i thought it would be fun to break it down and show ppl what exactly went into each part of it so check this out

sketch & lineart - the brushes come from georgbrush.club and the urban sketcher is my most commonly used lineart brush, it has a nice irregular shape. the square brush is nice for big blocky sketches.

the cityscape was REALLY hard but basically I got a photo of the skyline of florence, traced some basic building shapes, then bullshitted the rest using the vertical symmetry/mirror tool to cut down on the amount of work (so i only had to sketch one half of the city). then for lineart I turned off vertical symmetry, turned on the two-point perspective tool, and got this:

the rose windows were made using the radial symmetry tool.

I didn't like it being so flat, so I used the liquify tool to make a kind of fish-eye effect (limited success tbh). I liked how it looked but the buildings in front needed something to cover them up to make the liquification less obvious...

first pass colours. I felt they were very washed out, aside from the sun which i loved. I use the spectra brush (default procreate) for skyscapes a lot, I love the texture. Although the clouds were filled in using the lasso selection tool, I softened the edges using the square pencil again and added texture using true grit sampler grainy brushes. The translucency effect comes from my setting the brush as an eraser. The sun rays come from the radial symmetry tool.

Blocking in the moths' colours was done with the urban sketcher again.

Something people may not have noticed is the labyrinth hidden in the sky! yeah I had a bunch of versions where it was more obvious but I found that it clashed a bit and was too busy, so I made it subtle. But yes. I searched for "royalty free labyrinth" and picked one.

The toner grit brush is one you've seen before if you've looked at any art on tumblr lately (this is such a popular brush) and it's from the true grit fast grit set. The pointillism brush is from the true grit free sampler pack, like my grain brushes.

I added shadows to the moths, increased saturation overall, and changed the clouds to a translucent blue (you can even see in the sun where I forgot to block in the sun itself because the clouds over it used to be opaque lol). Moon rays were drawn using the radial symmetry tool but this time with rotational symmetry off. I also moved the moon down closer to the moths because I felt that it was a bit far away, and this served to visually divide the drawing into three equal parts, so I chose to lean into that and divide the sky colours too, to show passing time, or an endless moment - morning, evening, night, etc.

And then the oroborous, I tried a few different effects on it because I wanted it to be very clearly separate from the main scene - I settled on a dot matrix newsprint texture, using procreate's onboard tool, and some heavy chromatic aberration. This is because the oroborous isn't real, it's purely symbolic and the moths' demise started when they became photographers so I liked the print media aspect there as well. The story itself is about grief without closure, cyclical violence, and sunk cost fallacy, while everyone explores an endless labyrinth, so an oroborous fits I think

what makes art fun to me is thinking up ways I can tell a story using just a single image. and sure a lot of it will be lost to an audience who isn't familiar with the characters or backstory but i want to leave enough in there that even complete strangers to my work will be able to construct a narrative about what's happening here, rather than it just being a cool image. that's my goal.

Finally I exported it to sai on my pc to give it a once-over. this is really important because the retina display on an ipad is oversaturated on purpose, to make everything look amazing and vibrant. but what this means is that on other screens, your work might look washed out. it's especially bad at displaying yellows! so i look at it in sai on my pc and i make minor adjustments, in this case I actually added another multiply layer on the moths and an overlay on their non-shadowed parts to increase the contrast there.

finally if you've read this far, I played a little trick with the caption of the drawing. yeah, THEY die... but only one of those moths is a theythem pronoun haver... the other has to survive. he isn't given a choice in the matter.

[redslug]

Coloring tutorial I guess

That's my most default shading style, a hybrid of line drawing and painted shadows, and I'll tell you exactly how to get this look. But before we start, you need a weapon This is my main brush for basically anything, including line art on days when I don't feel like switching to something actually intended for inking. It's a lightly textured square brush with color variation on every stamp. Intended for Procreate but you can always just rip the alpha texture out of the file and use it for a brush in any drawing program. That out of the way, let's go. I'll use the same line art as the one in fluff tutorial. Set the line layer to ~60 or so opacity and get to blocking in the base colors of your character. The jitter brush will introduce some color variation on it's own, but changing the color occasionally will add more visual interest.

After this I add a multiply layer on top and dab orange or red in places where we might be able to see the base of the hairs or peek at the carapace underneath.

It's places where hair parts and where it's shorter. This accent color works great on joints as well. Example of the thing I'm going for in real life:

Especially visible behind the head. It's not present on every moth to be fair, but I like to add these accents even where it wouldn't make sense, just because it looks nice. Even on insects without hair. Block in the eyes and mandibles now, best if it's on separate layer.

Now, the actual funny tricks begin. If you're one of the people who only use multiply or add blend modes, stop it, get some help Understanding the math behind blend modes is gonna get you a long way. My lineart is set to subtract more often than not. I find it produces juicier and more colorful results than multiply. I want to give this picture a warm orange feeling, so the color of my lines should be the opposite - blue.

And, subtract.

Perfect, but not quite. We can push the lines to an even softer feeling. Take the line layer, copy it, invert the color and set to multiply. I then throw gaussian blur on the resulting copy and reduce opacity until the lines bleed into the surroundings just a little bit.

On to actual shading. People who shade without getting in some background first scare me, so let me throw something together real quick.

A simple gradient will also suffice for this use. We just need some information on which colors are present in the surroundings. Copy your background, bring it on top of your character layers and gaussian blur it real hard. Set it to multiply, remove all parts of the layer that go beyond the pixels of the base color layer. Adjust opacity until the character fits in the background.

Let's identify the light sources. In this case it's only the sky, but it produces two distinct colors - soft blue lighting comes from the top, slightly stronger red comes from behind. The blue light I set to exclusion blend mode because it felt most appropriate in this case. Both add and screen looked too strong to be the light coming from such dark sky.

In this lighting context the lower part of the body will receive less light that the upper part. I use the green of the bushes set to multiply to darken the bottom.

The character is surrounded by all kinds of soft light, but it can't get everywhere. It's time to add ambient occlusion, or contact shadows, for those without a 3d background. Anywhere where there is a crevice or surfaces almost touch, a soft shadow will form.

I do it on a multiply layer with a neutral gray-green color. Gray because any color light isn't really getting in there and green because the fluff is somewhat transparent and whatever light does pass through it gains a greenish hue.

Last step, red rim light from the fading sunset behind the character.

Since it's rim light I just work with normal blending mode. Setting it to add or something of the sort would make the rim light brighter than the source of the light. And it'd be odd.

And that's it. I usually throw on some post processing in Snapseed. Pull some curves, throw on a bit of grain, etc. But it's a topic for another time.

In conclusion, try to think about the environment more when shading. What route does light go through to reach where you're coloring? Did it reflect off of any colored surface? Did it pass through something transparent to gain a different hue? What color shadow would this ambient lighting produce? Go have fun with your colors now.

[ziyuanyuan1113]

I am in love with your art style. I love all your jjk art, it’s like stitching back the pieces of my shattered heart. Your art is so soothing and has such a warm feel, I love it. Also if you don’t mind me asking what program do you use for your art, and do you have any tips? I strive to someday create art that gives the same feeling of comfort as yours. Thank you <3

Thank you so much for the kind message! I'm actually in the middle of making another jjk piece but it's been a while so I've been trying to remember and consolidate my process. This ask came at a great time hehe

I use photoshop for most of my art pieces but I think there are a lot of cheaper alternatives (procreate on Ipad, clipstudio paint, medibang etc) that would work just as well. As for tips, I have a technical and an emotional one:

My technical tip would be to use references!! Especially if you're just starting out, it's SO IMPORTANT imo for catching mistakes especially with anatomy, lighting and perspective. And by reference I mean real life photos. I think you can be inspired by other artists' work, but there is the danger of picking up their bad habits if you only use their work for reference. I would recommend sticking mainly to real life and looking to other artists only for resolving specific stylistic details once you have a solid grasp of your fundamentals.

I would start with a rough sketch first of whatever you want to draw and then look for refs that match the mood and tone you want to go for. Get the idea down first and draw from the heart. Then the refs come in to help with the specifics (ex. what a window looks like, how someone would hold a cigarette) The jump from the rough to the clean line version is an amalgamation of all the little things you learn along the way. For example, on one day, I learned that clothing folds usually start at one point and spread out. Then another day, I learned how to do 1 point perspective and so on and so forth. Then all those tidbits slowly add up to help you get better and better.

2. My second tip would be to understand what you want to convey with your artwork. If it's fanart, what about the media that you're interacting with draws you in? It doesn't always need to be a complex answer, sometimes you just want to draw a character because you think they're hot and that's totally valid imo.

I occasionally tutor very young artists and oftentimes, they will tell me that they want to draw like X artist or X painting/piece of media. I always try to encourage them to go deeper. What about that drawing resonates with them and what specifics are occurring in the picture to make them feel that way? For example, I recently realized I love environment heavy drawings not for the background itself but because they ground the characters and seeing them do mundane things makes them feel more real to me.

For the example below, the whole set was to explore friendship and mental health. Sometimes just having someone there who listens and is willing to talk with you can make a huge difference.

Once you know the purpose of your art, then I think it makes the decision making for the rest of the process much easier. What type of lighting scenario conveys support and comfort? I went with dusk. Then I started searching up references for dusk lighting. Couldn't find the ref I actually used for colour but a quick google will show you lots of similar options.

What kind of poses feel in character for Shoko vs Geto? What is the focus of the picture? As much as I love details, I think sometimes they can actually take away from the main message. For example, if I had rendered the lamp on the right a lot more, it would've distracted from the main point of the picture so I tried to keep that and the background in general simple (still something I need to improve on haha).

Then those extra technical things (value structure, cool vs warm light, reflective lighting, connotations behind colours) you pick up along the way are all there to help you better communicate what you want to convey with your art.

Okay I lied one more tip, be patient and learn to appreciate the process. Like with any skill, there are a lot of technical aspects that you have to study and practice. I think because the end result is so visual and easily accessible in comparison to other hobbies/jobs, it really cripples beginners. Even with writing, you won't realize a book is good until you learn how to read. With art, you can resonate with a painting without having drawn a single line yourself.

I think beginners and even professionals see a lot of beautiful finished artwork and get enticed by that only to be discouraged when they find their process/finished work didn't end up the way they wanted it to look. Treat it like you would learning how to write. The fundamentals can be tedious and do take time to drill into your head, but learning them will help you SO MUCH with the creative fun parts. You can't write a poem without first taking the time to learn the alphabet, spelling and grammar. You're also probably going to write a bunch of shitty poems before you write that one good one, but that's okay because each piece lets you experiment and exercise your voice. Art is the same thing, don't rush it! Enjoy the process and celebrate your improvements.

[mrsrookhunt]

Hello! I saw your request was open and I wasn’t sure what to really think of

So maybe a general or simple nsfw hc of Yandere Chuuya?

My first ask! Of course! ❤ I added more characters for the sake of making a well-rounded post, but I gave chuuya a bonus scenario :) Enjoy!

Yan!Bsd Men in Bed

NSFW!!

(Short post, feel free to request more characters)

Pairings: Chuuya Nakahara, H.P. Lovecraft, Mushitaro Oguri, Jouno Saigiku

Chuuya Nakahara

Warnings: punishment, manipulation, yandere, kinks mention, violence mentioned/implied

Chuuya is nice in bed, mostly.

He's powerful, and not afraid to be the dominant one, but he is still very respectful of your boundaries. He feels very guilty for the way he's treated you, so protectively, in his eyes. But you've grown tired of it, and he knows; so, as not to anger you further, he tries to make you as in control as possible.

Chuuya will do whatever you'd like, so long as he still gets to be the one in charge. He'll indulge your kinks or let you explore with him, permitting it doesn't cross his own boundaries (but considering the fact that you're willing to be intimate with him at all, he isn't too picky).

Definitely into degradation and BDSM, but he's fine if you're uncomfortable with that. Only occasionally will he ask you to do something that steps outside of your comfort zone, and it's usually for special occasions, like his birthday or holidays. I feel like mirror sex would be a special anniversary treat with him.

He's only rough with you if you ask or more like plead, or if you need punishment .

Chuuya doesn't take sexual punishment (or any punishment) lightly, but if you've pushed him far enough.... He may torture you in very unexpected ways.

You think, for a moment, that you're in trouble. You fucked up, you fucked up so bad. Chuuya slammed the front door behind you, with a blatant fury that made you jump.

"Please, Chuuie, I'm sorry-- don't- don't do anything rash now-"

"Don't tell me what the FUCK to do in my own home."

He cornered you into the kitchen, snatching your arm and bending you over the center counter.

"Tell me how sorry you are.' His voice was soft, quiet. Testing.

"I'm sorry--I'm- really s-sorry" You choked out from between sobs. You had never seen it coming, the violence, the anger, the sheer reaction, to your misdeed.

The cold granite countertops cut into your stomach with the chill and pressure. You squeezed your eyes shut as he reached for his back pocket, the one with his knife.

You gasped when a small, shockingly fast-paced vibrator was placed on your thigh. Out of all the things you thought he could and would do to you, this was not one.

He put his hand on your other thigh, making you involuntarily moan.

"I'm going to show you the true meaning of punishment tonight."

H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft essentially has no idea what he's doing in bed; he understands the concept in theory, but he really still feels lost. His sense of clinginess and protectiveness doesnt carry over into the bedroom, and is lost on everyone but you, so you're the only one who can guide him in this matter.

He gives you the most doe-eyed look if you ask if he ever considered sexual punishments. He doesn't really understand why sex is used for pleasure or pain; he finds procreation to be the only benefit to him.

Overall, getting him into bed with you is the biggest challenge, but once you've got him there, you can change his life; and you certainly will.

He's not a man to make much noise or fuss, but he's absolutely blissed out, and wonders how he has not understood this aspect of life before.

By the time you're done, he's more attached to you than ever, curling you into his arms and refusing to let go. You've shown him just one more reason to love you as much as he does, and keep you from showing anyone else the same kindness.

Mushitaro Oguri

Mushitaro finds sex in general an indecent act for most anything. That isn't to say he doesn't have urges like everyone else, but for the sake of his meticulous regimen, he will squish them down until he absolutely cannot control himself anymore.

You're both the source of his frustrations and the perfect release. Mushitaro is completely in control in bed, just like he is in every aspect of your life together.

Mushitaro can be kinkier than most men; casual choking, roleplay, and some hardcore BDSM can be in the cards for you depending on how far he's gone to deny himself previously.

That being said, your needs also often don't get met. You don't like to ignore yourself the way he does, but he forces you to. You're not allowed any toys, he has SafeSearch on for google, and you are routinely scolded on the indecency of self-pleasure, regardless of whether he's caught you or not.

Mushitaro's demanding and high maitenence personality makes him one of the worst in the sexual part of your relationship.

He rarely considers sexual punishment, unless the circumstances are juussst right. I.e, if you've been caught touching yourself in any way, shape or form, and Mushitaro's already been hot around the collar, he may be rougher and more cruel in bed than normal just to teach you a lesson.

Jouno Saigiku

Joun-bug's high sex drive makes him a worthwhile adversary in the bedroom. Much like Chuuya, he wants to be in control; but more than wanting to, he will be in control.

He'll push you to the brink of absolute pleasure and then throw you down and tell you how worthless you are until you beg and plead and go through whatever torture he has planned to get him to finish you off.

Jouno is always going to be... well, Jouno. He'll sadistically torture you in every way he can possibly exploit in bed for his own pleasure, and he doesn't give a damn whether you're comfortable with it or not. Remember, his composure and sweet smile is a farce he hides behind; and he'll show you his true self when he feels it's appropriate and necessary.

Maybe he'll be gentle with you, if you've been put through enough and he feels you deserve it. He does love you, but his desires take priority. If you've gone through whatever he had planned for his own pleasure, he may indulge in yours.

Sexual punishment is the worst with him; he takes absolutely no mercy on you, and punishes you often, for the smallest of things.

[sunshine-on-my-mind]

Soldat’s fairy

~ Chapter 2

pairing: winter soldier x reader / bucky barnes x reader

general warnings: 18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!! Dark Elements!! HYDRA!! (Dub Con implied but not really and NOT FROM BUCKY), Winter Solider, Mind Control, se-xual in-tercourse. forced relationship forced procreation (HYDRA!!), ANGST - (this is my first time writing something like this so please let me know if I should more warnings)

chapter warnings: mentions of crying, mentions of blood, gun shot, bullet injury, suggestive, nothing graphic but hinting at smut, mentions of virginity (+ general warnings)

words: 1.2k

a/n: hi everyone, i really hope you liked the first chapter, things accelerate in this chapter, thank you for your support, hope you like it. please please read the warnings before continuing.

<- Previous Chapter

-> Next Chapter

DO NOT COPY MY WORK!!

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Your room, no matter how nicely decorated, it was a prison, you were being held against your wishes and you were all alone.

Since Soldat left your room, you had no idea about time passing, there were no windows in the room you were kept in, no clocks, only food and water was given to you. You screamed, cried, but no use.

You were on lying on your bed, tired and scared. The door opened and your alarmed body grabbed the nearest thing you could to throw at whoever entered.

A pillow won’t be much of use against the winter soldier. The man was standing in front of you but no words were spoken, the door was closed behind.

All of sudden, you looked at him, really looked at him, that was when you noticed the bruises and cuts and marks on his body, his metal arm, his hair, his face. Some of the bruises were we very fresh, as if…

“What happened? Are you hurt?” You asked the man, with a shaky voice. But you didn’t get a response.

“Those bruises…” You bravely took a step towards Soldat. The seemed like a living paradox to you, his hard exterior but his eyes… his eyes were dying to tell a different story. You took another step closer and the man finally broke his silence.

“Don’t” He looked down at the floor and clenched his fists. Was he angry? “Don’t come near”

“You’re hurt-“

“STOP!”

You took a step back when he yelled. Soldat was fuming, his metal hand clenched so hard it screeched. The air got thicker in the room.

“I have orders to…”

“Yeah- yeah I know” you answered feeling your heart beating faster.

“I cannot refuse orders”

“Please…” Soldat looked into your eyes to notice the pain, fear and helplessness. He wasn’t supposed to feel emotions, but your eyes… it reminded him of- of himself. Or maybe some version of himself, not that he remembered.

The man wanted to fight, not you, not anyone else but himself, wanted to fight his instincts, fight his sudden want to protect you.

“Do they hurt you? Those men? My father?” He didn’t respond but his silence spoke louder.

“I didn’t follow orders.” He informed.

“So they- so they hurt you?”

“I always follow orders, I have to”

“They why didn’t you? Last time when you were here… why didn’t you follow your orders?” The question seemed to have stir something in the man. He didn’t know how to respond. That was the question he had asked himself when he left your room, when your father’s men tortured him, he kept asking himself that same question. Why didn’t he follow orders.

“I…”

“Why don’t you run away? Do you support my father? Do you want to help him?” The man gave you no reply and you continued “They are holding you here aren’t they? Run away.”

“I can’t, I can’t escape, I- I had tried”, the man told you

“Maybe I can help you, maybe we can help each other?” At that he moved closer to you. Why were you being kind to him? No one was kind to him. Soldat grabbed your arm, pulled you closer. He stared into your eyes as if trying to get a look into your soul, those usually rageful eyes had something else in them.

“Why? Why will you help me?” You didn’t know how to answer him

“These people… they hurt you, they- you should not help them” He sighed

“I have to comply”

There was a knock on your door as you gasped. Another knock and then the doors opened to an emerging figure of your father, followed by few of his men.

“Daughter, I see you’re being stubborn, do you not understand your purpose yet? You have to bear the soldier’s child”

“I won’t, you can’t do this to me”

Pierce nodded to one of his men who took out a gun and you felt your heart stop. Would your father order to kill you? Well after everything you had no trust left in your body, at least not for Pierce. Then something strange happened, the man pointed his gun to the winter soldier who tried to attack the man but Alexander Pierce stopped him.

“Do not move Soldat” Pierce ordered. He motioned at his men to hold Soldat down. The winter soldier could easily overpower them if he wanted to but he was bound by Pierce’s orders.

“Now daughter, do you want me to blow this man’s brains out?” Everything was happening too fast, it was all too much you could hardly process anything, all you knew you didn’t want this man to be harmed. You took a deep breath.

“You wouldn’t kill him father, he is too precious for you, you told me yourself he is the key to your victory” Pierce laughed at that.

“Looks like you’re smarter than I thought, still not smart enough” Your father gave his men a signal to shoot and in an instant he shot Soldat’s leg. You screamed. There was blood, actual blood in front of you.

“I won’t kill him, but I sure can break him, do you want that?” Soldat wasn’t looking at you, he was staring at the floor. He was used to torture, it hurt but he was used to it.

“Don’t, don’t hurt him” your voice was shaking. “Please father- I- I’ll do it”

“That’s better” Pierce had a satisfied grin on his face. ��Right then, hope you do what’s needed daughter, we’ll take Soldat to the med bay and then when he comes back, you better keep your word, or I have other methods, because this time the blood won’t be his”

At that Soldat looked up at you, he could understand the meaning behind Pierce’s words and he didn’t like it one bit, Soldat himself was used to torture but you… you seemed soft, untouched, he didn’t want you to get hurt.

The men took him away for now and one of them did a lousy job of cleaning the blood from your floor. Soon you were left alone in the room and you broke down into tears. You were terrified and disgusted.

After a while when soldier returned, he found you sitting on the edge of your bed looking defeated. You didn’t look at him, and he kept standing beside you.

“I guess, you were right, we can’t run from this” You looked up at him finally and then to his wounded leg. “Does it hurt?”

“It will heal soon” He replied with a gravelly voice. You nodded and gripped your bed sheet tightly, thinking what was about to happen.

“I… I don’t want to hurt you” Soldat confessed. “But…”

“But there is no way out.” You gave him a sad smile, tears welled up in your eyes.

“I have… I have not done this before, I mean, I- I haven’t been with someone” you told the man as you got up from your bed and stood in front of him. “Please um- please be gentle” your lips wobbled as you uttered those words. Soldat moved closer to you and held your face with his flesh hand.

“I don’t want to hurt you” He repeated his words “…and that is why I have to do this- or they will hurt you.“ You looked into his eyes, there was softness in them “I won’t hurt you” He promised.

Even though you felt you were being surrounded by darkness, the man in front of you gave you hope. You didn’t understand why but you didn’t feel like you were alone anymore, and neither did he.

———————

series masterlist | previous chapter | next chapter

taglist: @vicmc624 @floralwsloki @cjand10 @420-hun

[vidavalor]

Ok fine, I brought milk and chocolate chip cookies this time 🥛 🍪 and also some eggs from my lovely chickens! 🐓 🥚

I hope you accept this apology, and I’ll try my best to behave 😜

So, I wonder how you interpret 1.03 where, just before the flood, one of the unicorns makes a run for it and Crawley says ‘you still got one of them’? Some people seem to believe this means she didn’t understand the process of procreation (at the time). Do you have any thoughts on that?

Please don't behave. Why would you want to do that? Would make this all very boring lol. 😂 Thank you for the very fun ask. I love this question.💕

I think the scene you're talking about is more than a funny aside about whether or not Crowley had finished reading Demon's Guide to Reproduction of Beings on Earth yet... and that might not be the question the scene is really asking. I think it also has a ton to do with the Final Fifteen of 2.06, too, so *slices pie* let's get into the unicorns and the professional midwife/cobbler and what, imo, these two moments have to do with one another:

In S1, in the scene set just before the beginning of The Flood, we have two questions emerge from Crowley's dialogue, both of which are then picked up again in S2. One is what Crowley meant by "kids" when he said "you can't kill kids" after looking at a group containing both small goats and children. The second question is the one you're talking about, which is whether or not he understood at the time how human reproduction works. The question is born out of the fact that, on the surface, he might appear to not exactly be grasping the concept of Noah's Ark when he says that Shem's "still got one of them" after one of the pair of unicorns takes off and doesn't get on the boat. Both things show back up together again in S2 in the Job minisode and that sort of continuation of story, in a way, might suggest that there's going to be a third layer to this that emerges in S3 as well. I think, though, that we might have enough to look at some potential answers already.

While the "kids" bit is, essentially, answered and was always more of a language joke anyway-- Crowley wishes to kill no kids, be them goats or humans-- the fact that this question returned in S2 and was tied once again with a plot centered around sex and reproduction shows that the questions raised in The Flood scene in S1 are interrelated and pretty important overall. The entire Job plot ultimately comes down to who knows what about human reproduction. Saving the kids comes down to fooling Gabriel and fooling Gabriel can only be done because Gabriel, at least at the time, did not have the first clue how human reproduction normally works. He had only seen this one, initial, very atypical version of it that has basically never happened since and because he didn't spend time on Earth at that point in the story, he didn't know he had it all wrong. This whole story is built around what someone's understanding of reproduction of another species is and it isn't Crowley who doesn't know how it all works by 2500 B.C., it's Gabriel. But what does this have to do with The Flood and Crowley and the unicorns?

In the Job minisode, we are told that Gabriel was in The Garden at the start of it and witnessed Eve's birth from Adam's rib. We find this hilarious because we know that this isn't how sex works and this time, in this scene, Crowley is more than in on the joke with us. What makes the scene funny is actually Crowley's knowledge in it of how human sex and reproduction work. Unlike Gabriel, he wasn't there for Eve's super-weird birth and so he's visibly trying not to be like what the actual fuck? this is how Eve was made? at Aziraphale as Aziraphale's gestures lead Crowley to telling Sitis to pull out one of Job's ribs-- absolutely not a feature of any sex Crowley has ever had or seen. Aziraphale then is flirting with a Crowley who totally gets the joke when Sitis pulls the ox ribs "out" of Job. It's very evident between this scene and the prior night in the cellar that, circa 2500 B.C. at least, Crowley absolutely knew how human sex and reproduction worked.

The key bit here to understanding what Crowley was saying about the unicorns back during The Flood is actually in the reminder in the Job minisode about The Garden that the minisode gives us through making the plot equally about what Gabriel saw in The Garden-- Eve's weird conception and birth-- but also about what Gabriel didn't see-- Adam and Eve have more human-typical sex-- which is something that Crowley set into motion and then something that he and Aziraphale both witnessed.

By bringing up how Gabriel doesn't know what human sex and reproduction normally look like because of what he saw (and missed) in The Garden of Eden, the show is also reminding us that, after Gabriel left, Crowley was sent up into The Garden and tempted Eve into eating the apple. Eve then shared the apple with Adam. Adam and Eve figured out sex not long after that, during a period of time in which both Aziraphale and Crowley were also in The Garden and Eve's pregnancy was one of Aziraphale's motivations for giving them his flaming sword.

Mah point is that Crowley absolutely knew about sex and sexual reproduction during The Flood because Crowley and Aziraphale essentially watched the first humans have sex on Earth in The Garden of Eden.

The show also has about a half-dozen jokes about Anthony J. "Can I watchchch?" Crowley's voyeuristic tendencies and roots some of it to the fact that he's the Serpent of Eden and gets off on watching his temptation labors bear fruit. (It's been a long day. I have earned that joke😂). Ya know, such as:

This whole unicorn and sex thing is also part of the Job minisode by way of the ox ribs, further making it all kind of part of the same story. The inclusion of unicorns in ancient history in GO feels like a nod to the re'em, an animal mentioned a few times in The Bible (including in The Book of Job), which has been frequently translated as "unicorn" and is part of the origin for from where our idea of unicorns comes in the first place. The same word has been translated as meaning other animals-- among them? The wild ox.

Making things even more interesting is unicorn lore. The unicorn was said to be a wild, secretive creature who lived in the forest and who could only ever be captured and tamed by a virgin maiden. Aziraphale, in 2500 B.C., is shown to not eat or drink before the night in the cellar began so odds are also good on the food-and-alcohol = sex show that Aziraphale definitely qualified as a virgin maiden when he went to absolute town on those ox ribs. Anyway...

...what I'm saying here is that it feels extremely unlikely that, by the time of The Flood in 3,004 B.C., that Crowley didn't know how human sex and reproduction worked when he saw it play out in The Garden. Other than Eve's speedy stages of pregnancy meant to get the ball rolling on humanity, Adam and Eve's sex was typical of humans. So, Crowley knew about sex and sexual reproduction when he made the comment about the unicorns... but then how does that make sense, right?

In order to think that Crowley didn't know how reproduction works during The Flood scene we've seen, you would have to assume two things are true: 1) that unicorns reproduce via sexual reproduction and 2) that unicorns went extinct as a result of one of them making a run for it and not making it onto Noah's Ark, right?

The thing is... the show might be subtly trying to show that unicorns do still exist in GO. But before you say 'but, Vida, seriously?! We've never seen an unicorn after The Flood!', I'm going to argue that maybe we actually have one as a major supporting character and this S2 scene might be hinting in that direction:

The parallel to the "Oi, Shem!" scene is Nina-as-Crowley telling Aziraphale-as-Shem that that unicorn (The Bentley) is running of its own accord. Unicorns are magical beings. How magical beings present, as God pointed out in S1, is up to them. Human forms are just one option, right? I don't know exactly where this is going but this bit in S2 was a direct tie to The Flood's unicorn moment and it would explain a thing or two about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang if it were somehow tied to the unicorns. Can Crowley actually make them, the way Beez can make flies? Can Aziraphale? We really have no idea how the unicorn thing works in GO so we can't really use it as an example that Crowley didn't know about sex when it's more that we don't know about unicorns...

The unicorn that we saw during The Flood tracked with what we think of as the mythical being of an unicorn in our real world so we could make the assumption that some of the same aspects of them are/were true in GO. Unicorns are magical horse/donkey-like beings (which couldn't possibly be more Crowley and Aziraphale if it tried.) They are few and far between, are hard to spot and mostly keep to themselves. Human beings have no real actual proof that they ever existed in the first place and generally consider them mythical beings but Good Omens shows us that they at least did exist in GO ancient times-- and might still. In modern times, unicorns have become a LGBTQIA+ symbol and, for that reason and that reason alone, it seems unlikely that they actually went extinct in the world of *Good Omens*...

So, let's presume that Crowley said the existence of unicorns would continue even if Shem only had one of them on Noah's Ark because he knows that unicorns are not like other beings on Earth. Think about what else Crowley is then saying here with this line to Shem:

Noah's Ark, to us, is a story about continuing the existence of life for beings on Earth, right? It's about pairs, about mates, for the purpose of continuing species on earth via sexual reproduction. That's why we consider what Crowley's saying in this moment of this scene through the lens of it being entirely about sexual reproduction. When it comes to the unicorns, though, you could argue that Crowley is not actually talking about reproduction but about romance. We don't actually know how unicorns work-- but Crowley does.

What Crowley is actually telling us in this scene is that paired unicorns can survive the death of one of them because they're a part of each other. What Crowley is actually saying is that the pair of mated unicorns in the scene are two beings who share a single existence.

You couldn't permanently kill one of a pair of unicorns without killing both of them. So long as one of them still exists, they both do.

One unicorn could make a run for it for any reason and bolt away from his mate and die in the storm but Crowley knew the bolting unicorn was a part of the one that Shem got on the boat and so could be brought back.

In S2, we see something like this with other magical beings-- Ineffable Bureaucracy.

Oi, Shem, that purple-eyed unicorn's gonna make a run for it...

It's too late, too late...

Oh, well, you've still got one of them...

The Fly is Gabriel and Beez together; it's their shared existence. Without it, Gabriel would not have survived. The one of them still left-- Beez-- is the one who can put it together and bring Gabriel back into a full existence.

Ineffable Bureaucracy are unicorns who parallel our main two, though, and Oi, Shem...

...that bow-tied unicorn's gonna make a run for it...

Oh, well, you've still got one of them...

[blackberreh-art]

what art program and brushes do you use? your art always looks so mesmerizing!

Aaw thank you!

I primarily use Clip Studio Paint but sometimes dabble in Procreate. For the life of me i couldnt tell you what procreate brushes I use and where I got them from, but I can tell and link what I use a lot in CSP lol

All you can get from the asset store

First one-

My All Time Magnum Opus, I use it for eeeverything, it's a watercolour marker and it's just so damn versatile. Fully used on the Aizawa pic, and on the All Might pic I used it for lines and shading.

And for harsher, cleaner lines, I use this one

[thephooka]

Happy Webcomic Day! My webcomic White Noise is a labor of love--according to Procreate, this page took me 15.5 hours to complete.* Here's a look into that process!

Some other notes:

The thumbnails are done on graph paper and I script while I do them--there is no separate written script for White Noise. I usually spent a couple hours on weekends as needed thumbnailing, sometimes at a coffee shop or at home listening to records.

I then set up the file in Photoshop, so I can lay in the text and use the template I have with bleeds already set up. The text is rasterized and I shuttle the file over to my iPad via Airdrop.

The bulk of the actual work is done in Procreate, which records timelapses that I sometimes share to my Patreon. I usually spend a couple hours most nights after my day job or on the bus commuting doing this.

Once everything art-wise is done, I shuttle the file back over to my desktop to re-set in the text, add a stroke around the speech bubbles (Procreate doesn't have that took fsr) and do the resizing/exporting for web.

On Sunday mornings I get up, queue the page and write the page descriptions. I don't spend any time on the page descriptions outside of that.

Also, this process goes for the whole first arc of White Noise. I'm done with that arc (which means you can binge the whole thing I'm js!!) and am experimenting with some different methods these days, but my workflow is still generally the same.

*Some more talk about the labor (and burnout) involved below the cut:

This particular page (and most of the pages I did in 2023) took a lot longer than normal because I was heading into a burnout period that I'm still lowkey in/recovering from. It's obvious to me now in retrospect watching the timelapse here and seeing how much noodling I'm doing and how much I'm struggling with the process, but at the time I was just very frustrated generally. When I'm not burned tf out pages take maybe 10 hours max.

2023 was a pretty stressful year--lots of big life changes, uncertainty, pet death, health issues--so it's no wonder it propelled me into burnout, but it just goes to show that even the slowest and steadiest pace is not sustainable forever. I've been doing one page a week following this general process for over a decade! And I stuck to that pace because I knew it was one I could maintain. But even so, by the end of this arc I found myself working more and more slowly, not really looking forward to the work, feeling anxious about being behind, unhappy with the finished work, and extremely annoyed with myself for not being able to give it my all right there at the finish line.

I did stop for a while after the epilogue and took a more or less complete break from drawing for about a month--the longest I have EVER gone without drawing, much less working on White Noise--which did help, but these days my ability to work is...inconsistent. I should probably take another total break, but I'm reluctant. What if my passion never comes back? What if people forget about WN? It's already pretty obscure, and with the general social media collapse, it's harder than ever to get people to read my work. Now that I've left Hiveworks, WN doesn't even get the benefit of being linked to other comics (although objectively very, very few readers actually got referred to my comic that way.) And frankly, I'm also just too proud to go too long without comic updates. I've always told myself, I might not be the best artist or the fastest worker or make a popular comic, but I'm consistent. Difficult to let that go.

This is all to say that webcomics are hard. We do them because we love them, we have stories to tell, we are seized with the human compulsion to create. We spend hours of our time, almost always on top of the paying work that allows us to eat, to make something that we then give away for free. It has consequences on us that the reader doesn't often see, no matter how careful we are about it. If you ask me, webcomics deserve to be valued more.

Happy Webcomic Day! Read webcomics!

[tapakah0]

Girl omg I am IN ABSOLUTE LOVE with your animatics- I’dmarrythemifIcould- can I ask what program do you use for animatics? And do you have any tips on making animatics (especially abt character and camera movement) or any sneak peaks into your process? I’ve been wanting to dip my toes into trying it out but I’m not quite sure where to begin.

I have Clip Studio Paint EX, but I’m still trying to figure out the animation features etc and, again, I wanna try my hand at making animatics, that’s why I’m asking :3

Okay... For almost all animatics I use Toon Boom Harmony Premium (it has a lot of stuff and it's comfortable for me) Also sometimes I use Krita and Clip Studio Paint (I used this video to understand main features of this program (Little fact, I used Clip Studio to animate "Yellow light" for the first time). Lately started animating in Procreate too, pretty funny and comfortable one About tips... I had one about smoother shifts between frames (but for some reason I can't find it? Even with the fact that I did put a special tag on it) and I don't know what exactly you need about other tips. Almost everything I make intuitively, I kinda see where to move camera too make right effect? But I can tell one most useful tip, if you really wanna animate, try to imagine how it will move in your head, use references (just watch video and copy on paper on program moves from there), look how things in your life moves, it will slowly stuck in your head if you will be stubborn enough. Because, I will be honest, I didn't learn any animation basics but over time, as I look at video lessons, I understand tha I do know them (but I think it will be important to know them theoretically, not only intuitively, if you will work with other people, because they help to specify how it should be animated (key frames, inbetweens, timing and other things) Artists which lessons I use to watch from time to time or I just love their way of animating: Toniko Pantoja, Alex Grigg // Animation for Anyone, GOBELINS Paris, ToastyGlow, pollovy, -岂几Kai-, Neal Illustrator, SAD-ist, Casserole :D, WolfyTheWitch, Rodrigo Sousa, Amelia B (There are more, but these are the first ones I always remember, and of course a lot of cartoons)

About wips...... I have a lot... "I bet my life", "Finale" Leo's pov, "Earth" and others in queue... I almost completed key frames for "Agnes" animatic (Full song, about 4 minutes? I'm making my dream live over here he-he-he), but I am so crazy about sending wips so that I created my little rabbit hole (to hide from Cass *giggle*) to stop sending them on tumblr because I want to make full emotional experience from completed work... It's not so cool if you already experienced first emotions from this when you could experience the whole thing biting your knees

I hope something from there was helpful, don't rush, try to understand how it all works firstly, try to understand what kind of animatic you want to make and what you want to show and make it~~~~ You will love it when you'll see what you're able to create~~~

[for-those-who-wait]

How do you color in your art?? I can never make mine look right, i’m still relatively new to procreate and I just wish I could instantly know how to use it because AGEGGS

I don't use Procreate and I'm not sure what you're personally having problems with, so I'll just go through my process using some of my old drawings and try to give some general advice that might help

So I have the line work of "Hunter wants pancakes" here. I usually copy images from screenshots of the show and paste them onto the canvas so that I can eyedrop the colors, but I probably had it on a different canvas there.

Sometimes I'll change the colors a little bit for clothes to make them a bit brighter or less saturated (depends on what I think looks better), but really for fan art of characters that already have a color scheme, I just copy the colors.

But your line work is going to be your topmost layer the majority of the time. All the coloring stuff should be underneath the line work so that if you do color into the lines, the linework isn't impeded

I typically put all my colors on the same layer, but feel free to use layers in whatever way is more convenient for you. (When I'm doing lineless, I'll typically make a new layer for each color so that I can shade them individually later on. Idk if that's at all smart or convenient but it's just a thought)

As for the actual act of coloring, I pick a large, textureless brush. You could use whatever you want depending on what kind of look you're going for, but for my finished pieces I usually like the coloring job to look cartoonishly clean. Like you can see that the second brush changes opacity as it reaches the end of the stroke (or with lighter pressure, since I use a pen), which I don't want, since I prefer the colors to be uniform in shade and texture. So I use the first one instead. Also less texture helps keep the color in the lines from my experience.

I don't use the paint bucket tool very often because it typically won't fill in all the white space, especially when your work is more detailed (which would lead you to have to go back and go over all of the edges again with a brush anyway), so I color most everything manually now. But for "Hunter wants pancakes" I think I did use a paint bucket and then probably went back to fill in some of the gaps since there are clean white gaps where the line work would be.

That is to say you should color with your line work visible (I don't know who wouldn't but I'm trying to cover all the bases here). You made yourself a coloring page, now you get to enjoy it. Without the lines it can look pretty silly and very messy, but it doesn't really matter if it's going to be covered up by your line work anyway.

Sometimes when you're coloring with lighter shades on a light background, it's hard to tell if you're missing a spot. I like to use a really REALLY saturated color like neon green or red to see any gaps in the color. Put the layer of neon green under the color layer and it will become very obvious where you missed haha. Sometimes I'll look at the neon color for too long and will need to change it to refresh my eyes

This colored sketch isn't very clean but it shows that you can also make a clipping or masking layer (if you don't know what that is the Internet could honestly probably explain it better than I could), color over the whole thing with a different color, and lower the opacity to give it a cool-looking tint

I don't know what your specific issue was but hopefully I was able to clear at least something up for you

[joking-suggestions]

Albedo A-Z Fluff Alphabet

prompt list by @/imagineimagineimagine

!!! : gn reader. might be present grammar mistakes. i apologise, since english is not my first language.

I just love this man too much, I have to create my own headcanons because consuming his media online is not enough-

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about their partner? Physically and Mentally)

I think that Albedo is not a person who pays much attention to physical appearance, for him it would be something that would be secondary and would only get added value if he was already taken with someone, as we've already seen in the game (in fact, he tells us more than once that he likes intelligent people). Albedo values mentality, so he'd be particularly attracted to someone who's open-minded, smart, even better if they can play along with his mindset, and whom he can have complex and profound conversations with, someone who can offer him new points of view, inspire and stimulate him, not only in his work, but also in his daily life. Intelligence is what really attracts him, physical appearance comes after. For him beauty is all a matter of attitude.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

I don't think Albedo ever thought about starting his own family before he had a romantic partner, he's just too busy with his job that he wouldn't have the time to dedicate to it properly. and Albedo already has Klee, who's like a little sister to him, therefore a family to dedicate his attention and care to since she's a young child. however, after finding a partner, i don't deny that the thought of starting something of his own with them would cross his mind at least once, but it would just be a sterile thought, imagining a concept that is impossible. Because of his non-human nature, Albedo is unable to procreate. He is aware that it's not his fault, because he knows that it wasn't him who decided how to give birth, but sometimes he can't help but feel a little guilty, especially in the case his s/o particularly wanted to have a child. if his partner doesn't want children, so much the better (after all, he'd be the first to know that there's no traditional way to have a family... if we look closely at his family tree, lol). He just wishes to have the person he loves by his side to be happy, and Klee, of course. After all, being a family means being good together and being able to rely on each other without anyone being left behind, regardless of blood ties, right?

C = Cuddle (How do they like to cuddle?)

for him, cuddling with his s/o would be a way to regenerate and relax after a long, stressful day. it'd be a sweet moment, a little blurred by sleep and tiredness, but very deep and intimate. some evenings he might seem more sensual than others (and so getting carried even further than that). albedo likes to rest his head on his partner's shoulder or chest, as if seeking comfort or protection from them. he would give gentle kisses wherever his lips could land, play with his partner's hair, lose himself in the scent of their skin and clothes, often collapsing in their arms (he looks so adorable istg).

D = Dreams (How do they picture their future with their S/O?)

whatever his partner desires, so does him. First and foremost, Albedo wants to make the other person happy, to be able to live carefree and at peace by their side, to discover new things together, to explore the world together, to experience new adventures by each other's side.

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…))

For Albedo, his partner would be his muse, his source of inspiration, his safe haven, his home, his certainty, what makes reality more beautiful to face.

F = Feelings (When did they know they're in love?)

Albedo noticed almost immediately that he felt different in the presence of this particular person. how shall i put it? he didn't feel the same as usual. he wouldn't even know how to properly explain the strange sensations running through his body, from butterflies in his stomach to his pounding heart. there is something - some kind of force majeure - that draws him to them. he feels the need to be in their company even when they are not present, as they take up most of his time and often distract him from his work. this seemed strange to him already, but other people from the outside also started pointing out that lately, the chief alchemist seemed head over heels in love. when kaeya started teasing him about whether he had fallen in love or not... it was like an epiphany for albedo, like he had discovered something he might have known all along. not only that, but Klee herself asked him if he had feelings for (name), leaving him completely stunned and unable to deny it any longer. at this point, albedo could no longer lie to himself, having searched within himself for as many answers as possible. what seemed impossible to him was actually the irrefutable truth. Love. it had always been there, maybe he really had always known it, but he didn't know if it was right to admit it to himself first, despite his incessant curiosity to explore this new and nameless feeling that did so much good to his heart.

G = Gratitude (How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their S/O does for them?)

of course Albedo is a very grateful person. both to life for putting this person trough his path, and for all the things they do for him; from taking care of him, to listening to him when he ramble on for hours about incomprehensible subjects, to understanding and accepting him for who he is. albedo didn't even believe it was possible that such a person could exist in this world and still love him. of course, he tries his best to show that gratitude because he knows it wouldn't be fair otherwise.

H = Honesty (Do they have secrets they hide from their S/O?)

Albedo is a person full of secrets and we know that very well. however, when he starts to trust someone, he tends to open up more. of course, it is not easy to gain his trust. Albedo is a very selective and in order to open up completely to someone, he has to feel that this person is different from the others. obviously in a relationship he'd feel that it would be only right to let the other person know basic things about himself, because a relationship must be built on mutual trust and honesty, it wouldn't be fair to hide anything from his partner. then slowly (probably already in the friendship stages) albedo would start to open up and reveal more aspects of himself, probably even the darker ones, but only when he's sure that he won't be rejected and that he can trust his other half completely.

I = Injury (How would they react if you got hurt?)

outwardly, albedo would appear calm, placid and logical as usual, but actually, he would be trying to maintain a rational composure in order to react in the best possible way and help his beloved. in reality, inside albedo would be panicking, frozen with the total terror of losing the love of his life. thoughts of all kinds would be running through his mind. luckily, Albedo is good at regulating his emotions and would try to channel them into action in order to defend his beloved from danger and then to help them with love and whatever else they may need. although he would seem to be handling the situation in the best possible way, you would still notice the anxiety through his worried look and the trembling in his voice and hands, at least until he would be completely sure that the danger is gone.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous? How do they deal with it)

albedo is not a person who is prone to jealousy, but if he was, he wouldn't let it show. for example, if his partner were particularly affectionate with someone, i couldn't deny that he'd sometimes feel a gnawing feeling in his stomach. he wouldn't be able to explain it at first, but the thought of being abandoned, or of his favourite person choosing someone else over him, would embitter him. of course, Albedo would still try to maintain his typical rationality, but sometimes you can tell from some of his cold looks and answers that he is actually jealous. however, he would do his best to keep it to himself, and only if the situation became unbearable he'd talk about it. this is because he'd not want to worry his beloved, he has great faith in them and their love.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss you? How do they like to be kissed?)

Albedo's kisses can have different shades: sometimes they are sweet, full of love, the kind that seems pure and can only be found in fairy tales, the ones that express affection and last only a few moments, but still leave you with a sweet warm sensation in your heart. other times (very often, especially when you are alone) they are the slightly sensual kisses that make you feel wanted, that express hunger, love, a slight possessiveness. albedo loves to be kissed on the lips, especially when these kisses make him feel wanted, even if it's just a simple greeting. other kisses he loves to give and receive are those on the neck. if you kiss that diamond mark on his neck? he will be yours forever.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?)

i think that would depend very much on what kind of person Albedo would find as a partner. before saying something like that, Albedo would want to have some confidence. not that this phrase has no value to him, on the contrary, but he would want to be sure that this phrase is clear and unequivocal. in any case, i think Albedo could very likely be the first to confess.

M = Memory (What’s their favorite memory together?)

for albedo, there would be many beautiful moments to remember, many firsts, many new beginnings; their first meeting, the first time his partner bonded with klee, their first fight during an adventure, their first kiss. for albedo, they would all be things to treasure in his heart, all moments of shared happiness that he would never forget.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

albedo is not a stingy person, but at the same time he is not materialistic. ergo, for him, gifts would not be just material things, like expensive, worthless things bought in some fancy shop just because they are "trendy". of course, he would have no problem giving his s/o gifts, buying them something he saw them looking at so longingly. but for him, the gifts of real value are the moments they spend together, the things he can make with his own hands, because he is an alchemist and an artist. so what he is able to create can not be compared to anything that can be bought with money. if his loved one wants a new dress, Albedo would be able to design and craft it for them. he would draw them a lot and dedicate many of his inventions to them. in this respect, he would certainly shower them with gifts. gifts whose value can not even be determined, so deep is the love that goes into them.

O = On Cloud Nine (What are they like when they're in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?)

i think it is quite obvious when Albedo is in love. first of all, he seems more distracted than usual (this particular person takes up a lot more space in his mind) and for Sucrose and Timeous it would be obvious that something with their master is off, especially because in the presence of this person he'd become much more attentive, he'd talk and smile a lot more. it would be a fact that would not go unnoticed by others. a person who is normally as composed and deeply devoted to his work as albedo suddenly seems to be shaken by something new. then it is really true that love makes people blind! Lisa would like to discuss this matter with Jean and point out to her that, contrary to the grand master's expectations, the boy is not actually ill, but just in love. for Albedo, on the other hand, everything would seem normal, but in reality the people closest to him would be very aware of the novelty - hell, even Klee managed to notice that there was something unusual about her brother! especially because when that person is in the albedo zone, he will look for any excuse to be in their presence, to talk to them, to discuss alchemy with them, to show them his latest drawings or his newest experiments. these are subtle things, but to a loner like albedo, they mean a lot. it means that he feels comfortable in the presence of that person.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

i imagine albedo would use things like "love", "darling" and "honey" a lot. The more corny ones like "sweetheart", "my Cecilia", "my queen/princess or prince/king" would be saved for rarer, special, particularly emotional occasions.

Q = Questions (What are the questions they’re always asking?)

albedo is a person who asks a lot of questions. sometimes he just wants to know his s/o's opinion about something, sometimes he asks deep questions, but most of all he asks a lot of strange things. things that frighten you and make you wonder how the hell they got into his head. after all, what do you expect to find in the head of a genius?

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

usually, when albedo has to work, not even the rain can stop him. however, if he could, he would much rather to stay at home to avoid colds (at least for his partner, considering that he rarely gets sick). it would be an excuse to be together, cuddle under the blankets and watch the rain, and only when the storm has passed they can go out and explore the fruits of the earth's rebirth.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/S/O up?

albedo, contrary to what many people expect, is good at understanding human emotions, even if he is still learning how to manage them. he doesn't usually feel sad very often, unless he is reminded of his master. but he is good at chasing away his sadness by distracting himself with other things, like work and the people who love him. then again, having managed a child for so long, he knows the secrets of cheering people up all the more....although maybe it works differently for adults. in any case, he would have his own strange little ways of offering support to his beloved, offering them ways to talk and let off steam, and then doing all their favourite activities together. albedo would be close to them, affectionate, and he'd even cook them something good to cheer them up. albedo is actually a very caring and supportive boyfriend.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

Albedo loves to talk about his experiments, he'd go on for hours about them, and the fact that his partner would be willing to listen to him would only make him fall even more in love. he loves talking a lot about klee too. albedo is the kind of person who is open to everything, with him you could talk about deep, somewhat philosophical things, exploring the meaning of life, of the universe, gradually moving into strange, indefinable, absurd and sometimes even abstract things. he'd be willing to talk about scientific things, sometimes diving into detailed and nerdy explanations about the mechanics of the world. then I like to think there would also be that good dose of gossip because it never hurts. what did kaeya do today to upset albedo, for example? but let's face it, he'd love to talk to his s/o about anything.

U = Understanding (How well do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?)

i repeat, albedo is actually a very empathetic and emotionally intelligent person, otherwise he wouldn't be able to deal with children so well. i have no idea why the genshin fandom sees him as an emotionless robot. of course he would get to know his partner inside out and take note of their every trait and mannerism, he'd try to understand them deeply in order to understand and help them. he's the kind of guy who doesn't make you feel lonely, who will stand by you and help you, but who will also give you practical advice on how to deal with a problem and offer his help where it's needed.

V = Value (How important is the relationship to them? What is it worth in comparison to other things in their life?)

albedo tends to give the right amount of space to everything in his life: work, family, but also his relationship. especially after finding the love of his life he would try to learn to be more balanced with work as well, to give the right amount of space to the people he loves. each of these things has an important place in his life, but he could not deny that his family and his relationship are probably the two most important values to him.

W = Wedding (When, where, and how do they propose?)

to be honest, albedo would think about it for a while, he would not find marriage absolutely necessary at first, he would be happy just to live together without giving in to social pressure. but once he is convinced, he would certainly make a very deep and emotional proposal. It would happen during a moment of vulnerability, of loneliness between him and his beloved, while they are out walking or having a good time together. he'd have to feel that it is the right moment, that it's the time. i won't even hide the fact that he would feel a little nervous before getting down on one knee. wait, does everything have to be done in the traditional way? at the fateful moment, he would whisper those words, almost as if they were powerful magic. the moment would be intimate and magical in its simplicity. he probably wouldn't propose right away, he would rather wait a few years after starting the relationship, but when he will be sure, he wouldn't back down. the ceremony probably wouldn't even be that big and ostentatious. if anything, something nice and simple where only the closest people could attend, but still romantic and beautiful. a memorable day for everyone. even the chief alchemist got married, crazy, right?

X = XOXO (How affectionate are they? In public/in private)

albedo would find it difficult to let go at first, as everything in a relationship is new to him. How exactly is he supposed to behave? but once he is comfortable, he would certainly become very affectionate. certainly very touch starved, as he has never received enough affection and care in his life. this is especially true in private. outdoor, he'd be more reserved and his displays of affection would be more subtle unless his partner isn't bold enough to be affectionate in public. This would probably make albedo a little uncomfortable at a first (it would also depend on how and how much his s/o is affectionate), but over time he would begin to appreciate and reciprocate, albeit very slowly. you will need to be patient with him.

Y = Yearning (How well do they cope when they're separated from their S/O?)

mainly by keeping busy with work, which helps him distract himself just enough. but in the moments when even that is not enough he dedicates himself to painting his beloved, at least to remember their face and recall the memories they shared by imprinting them on canvas.

Z = Zeal (Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship?)

albedo is a very busy man, so it would depend on the reason behind this distance. but of course he would be willing to do anything for reasons of force majeure. he'd do everything in his power to ensure that this relationship will last.

[dom1re]

Hi 👋🏽 I so admire your arts too!! If it’s ok, I’d love to know more about your approach to shading and rendering. I always find your use of colour so calming and complementary. 💖💖

Whereas I tend to be over saturated and why I often draw in greyscale

When I read that you liked my arts too I died. I was down on the floor. Crying tears of joy. Then I realized I have a response to draft so I got up.

So here ya go!! I hope you find something interesting here. I organized it into 3 parts for easier reading:

Rendering Overview

Picking Colors

Shading (or winging it and hoping for the best)

Also if anyone has any tips I'm all ears!! I’m always trying to optimize my process, make it quicker + cleaner

Rendering Overview

My current rendering process on Procreate (click and swipe):

1. Rough sketches

This is where I try to get the anatomy and pose right. I can get up to 3 reps in here depending on how refined I want it to be. Yep I care a lot about my lines...

2. Clean line

... coz it's my favorite part!! I get such a dopamine rush seeing the sketches come together into a clean line lol. Here I use the Selection Tool and Liquify to resize and adjust the forms (gotta move away from doing this too much tho)

3. Color

First I create a flat base layer and color over it using Clipping Mask (pretty standard I think). Then I divvy my drawing into as many layers as possible - one each for skin, hair, shirt, waistcoat, trousers, etc - as I color them all. More on this below.

4. Shade

ewww shading... my least favorite part. I use Multiply layers and gray colors, again pretty standard. I usually have 1-3 layers here, stacked on one another, depending on the desired depth. More on this below.

5. Finishing touches

This stage involves a lot of small (but important imo) things, which vary depending on the drawing:

Tinting lines (Because shading makes the colors darker, lines need to get darker too)

Highlights on hair, face, clothes, eyes, etc. I can never make up my mind between Overlay/Hard Light/Soft Light layers for this

Little wisps of hair or lighting effects 

and voila I have something to share with the world. wooo

Picking Colors

Ok about my colors… I wish I had some fancy technique to show but tbh I just eyeball them and try them out a bunch. Now if I’m using a reference I could use the color picker, but I don't like to coz the results are way off for whatever reasons (ex. lighting in the img). Anyways it doesn’t have to be the same color as the reference; as long as the colors “make sense” to me I'm happy.

But what if the colors I chose are too saturated or too dark? I use the Adjustment Tools for this. I can just select the layer (or an area using the Selection Tool) and edit its darkness and saturation. I found this way easier than painting over or color-dropping repeatedly.

This is why I leverage as many layers as possible. It allows a modular control on my rendering - I can change the color of my character’s skin, eyes, or waistcoat patterns and keep all other components unaffected and clean. Sometimes I have like 100+ layers and it drives me batshit crazy but the pros still outweigh the cons. Or so I tell myself

( + I would love to understand grayscale and use it as freely as u do. I watched bunch of vids on it but something about it just hasn’t stuck with me yet 😔)

Shading I guess

Similar to coloring, I create several Multiply layers and stack them together for depth. For example:

This is again for that modular control but honestly I wouldn't be doing this if I was good at shading... I feel so lost every time, I just don't know how it works. But one ‘hack’ I’ve come up with is shading skins and clothes differently. I use reddish gray for skin (and brown/red hair), and just gray for everything else.

The character feels more lively and natural with a bit of red undertones in their skin. I don't think this is the best way to render skins though. Just a little shortcut til I get to study the topic more.

Something else I do to get over my fear of shading is using good references. I’m always lurking on Pinterest for them but alas, I can’t always find that perfect image with perfect lighting and poses. It’s kinda sad funny how the quality of my rendering depends so much on the reference:

(it's not a 'bad' reference per se - I chose it really for the pose, not for shading)

At the end of the day tho I’m just a learning artist so I try not to be too harsh on myself. Someday I'll render shiny shoes and shirt creases without refs. I yearn for that day 

Well on that cheerful note thanks for coming to my Ted Talk your interest in my rendering approach! I’ve been wanting to document it for my own records so this was great.

I picked up digital illustration just last year and self-learning it has been a fun but lonely process. If you have any tips or more questions talk to me ANYONE PLEASE I’m dying to talk about it if you can't tell by the sheer length of this post. For which I'm sorry but hopefully it wasn’t too dense a read ok I’m really done now bye!! 

[upsidedownsmore]

oh yeah here's my first sketch i made in procreate a few days ago :)

just got an ipad and an apple pen from some friends so i'm gonna try to use it every now and then, still lots to get used to but it's also pretty dang cool being able to draw where i'm looking lol

still gonna be focused on using krita for a bit though for hollowframe dante since i (fucking finally) started that yesterday

you know what speaking of which, here have this sketch wip as a treat :) (done in krita not procreate, as you can probably tell lol):

i really should be doing thumbnail sketching before going straight into details and shading on the first idea lmao, though tbf i've had a lot of time to think of ideas in my head and i'm pretty happy with this sketch anyways