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prophecy-is-inevitable · 4 years ago

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Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Richard x Reader Oneshot

Darklings have plagued Richard’s day- and nightmares for too long. Your companionship helps him overcome those fears and leads him home.

Warnings: Supernatural beings, supernatural violence, non-human characters, maybe a bit of angst, some fluff, not everything is what you might think (let me know if I need to add anything!)

Word Count: 2194

Here is Richard’s Halloween short! I hope you enjoy the little twist in here!

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The old behavioral health center was one of your favorite places to visit. Most people were friendly to you, especially around this time of year when the temperature dropped and the days stretched longer in darkness. It drew out the darkness in the patients, and you couldn’t deny the pull you felt to the building each autumn as the trees grew bare. The crisp kaleidoscope of leaves crunching under your feet and the wind in your silky hair added a bounce to your steps. It was all very refreshing outdoors.

You waited patiently for the door of the facility to open and then slipped inside. The woman at the front desk greeted you warmly, offering you a treat from the bag in her desk which you happily accepted. She recognized you from the previous years you had visited. There weren't many volunteers for this place, and they accepted you as an unofficial "support staff". Usually you made rounds between the rooms for the night to spend some time with each patient that didn’t chase you away. The receptionist opened the interior doors for you to reach the patient rooms and lounges, and you called back a quiet "thank you" over your shoulder before departing the foyer.

The halls still hadn’t been repainted since you noticed the crackling paint last Halloween. The distinct smell of sterile cleaners permeated every corridor and nearly overwhelmed your olfactory sense. Nurses and orderlies that spotted you greeted you with a soft smile, and the especially affectionate ones pulled you into their arms and stroked the hair down your back. You didn’t mind. Sometimes a little bit of closeness was all someone needed to hold themselves together.

Very few of the patients were ones that you remembered from earlier visits. Oftentimes, the turnaround was fairly quick for the poor souls that found themselves being treated here. This year, things felt different. An insurmountable feeling of danger had pulled you back to this place. The halls seemed a bit more empty and quiet now. They felt dark. It was a darkness that kept shadows safe from the light, safe from your eyes, even when you watched them carefully. Someone was not safe here… It agitated you and made you grumble softly as you turned the corner into the eerily quiet sunroom. The sun had set a while ago, and the white noise of the busted tv threw about garish light and static.

Why was it so much darker in front of the television? Your feet pattered quietly on the floor as you made your approach. The malicious, airy whispers and swirling clouds of shadow surrounding the oversized armchair made you stop in your tracks. A young man sat frozen in the chair, his eyes unfocused yet screaming for help at the same time, and the chocolate hair dangling in his eyes shook slightly from the tension in his body. Strangled whimpers and sickeningly shallow breath struggled to escape his closed lips. This was it--the reason you had been drawn here.

You ran forward prepared to pounce, shrieking for the darklings to leave him alone. They snarled and shrieked right back with their hideous faces shrouding you in their cold, decaying breath. Your nails scratched down one of their faces and made them draw back. There was no blood, just gray skin crumbling away like collapsing cinders of an old fire. The black eyes sparked wickedly, but you had distracted them enough to place yourself between them and their original prey.

“Leave him alone,” you hissed. “I won’t let you hurt him anymore.” Raspy laughter circled you.

“No.” Several voices echoed the word so quietly you almost thought it was in your head. “He’s been ours for far too long, little one. We’ll never let him go.” The word “go” lingered like a serpent’s kiss.

“Then I will make you.” The cackles that resounded chilled your blood, but you refused to back down. You reached out again to claw at the creature’s face. You found your mark and relished the cry of pain as your nail raked through a desiccated eyeball. You would keep your new charge safe at all costs, and that was a fact the darklings would quickly come to realize. Scuttling movements signaled their departure, and you happily perched yourself on the arm of the chair to be nearer to the young man.

His arctic eyes remained hypnotized by the snow on the tv. You were pleased to notice the now steady rising and falling of his broad chest as normal breath returned to his lungs. He didn’t seem to notice you hovering at his side quite yet. The darklings hadn’t left--they were just sulking high up in the far corner of the room--and you weren’t about to leave him either.

You were still reclining on the arm of the chair when an orderly with a cat ear headband came to return your patient to his room. They smiled at you when they reached an arm out to help the young man stand, and you reflexively stood as well.

“Come on, Richard. It’s time for lights out,” they said politely. So his name was Richard. The flash of fear that crossed his beautiful, helpless eyes nearly broke your heart. Sleep was a necessity of life, and one you couldn’t help but enjoy. To be afraid of your own wondrous dreams would truly be a curse. The orderly turned their attention back to you with another bright smile. “I see you have a new friend, Richard. If you’d like to stay with him a bit longer, it shouldn’t be a problem. What do you think, Richard?” Richard’s eyes remained fixed on the television and he gave no indication that he wanted you to follow, nor that he wanted you to remain behind. The orderly nodded their head for you to accompany them to his double room. You did so happily, relieved that you wouldn’t be left behind. Your eyes cast a glare to the corner of peeling paint that concealed the darklings. They didn’t dare come for him that night.

They didn’t come for him the next night, or the night after that, or the night after that. The first night you kept vigil from a chair in the corner of his room. Darkness loomed above the doorway, but it never descended. The second night, you took up the empty bed across from his. The creatures tugged at your limbs and at your hair to torment you in the night. You would fight them constantly if it meant that Richard would be able to rest throughout the night without these nightmares smothering him.

The purple bruising beneath Richard’s eyes began to fade by the fourth day of fitless sleep. He even welcomed you onto his bed that day and allowed you to sit beside him while he drew in his sketchbook. His artwork was very impressive. You could tell his moods from the weight of the lines and the steadiness of his shading. You reached over and shuffled the pages to see his other drawings. He tilted his head to look at you through the hair hanging in his eyes.

“What? You want to see more?” A small quizzical smile barely creased the corners of his lips.

“Yes,” you replied softly, thinking the answer to be quite obvious. His brow furrowed for a moment, and then his fingers were deftly flipping through pages. He faltered at the gruesome sketch of the night-creatures that plagued his slumber, and you quickly made an attempt to cover the image from his eyes. You would have torn it completely from the book if you’d been able.

“You’re not a fan of that one either?” You turned your back to him to emphasize quite how much you hated it, and you swore you heard him chuckle behind you. Your head turned sharply to look up at him, and you caught the remnants of a genuine smile on his ample lips. If there was any indication that you were doing your job well, that was it.

Richard flicked towards the end of the occupied pages, and he paused on the latest artwork he’d completed. It was a picture of you. Your eyes locked on the page and took in each delicate line and precise smudge. He had taken his time with this one. It wasn’t harsh scribbled lines and nearly ripped paper. The details were stunning. The way the light glistened off your hair, the shifts of color in your eyes shaded in grayscale, the perfectly proportioned curves of your body. You looked up at him with nothing but love in your eyes.

The doctor in charge of his case entered the room and stopped at the foot of his bed. The both of you looked up at the man expectantly as he glanced between the two of you.

“Richard...when did you get a cat?” The young man looked down at you and shrugged up at the doctor.

“They showed up a few days ago. Apparently they come around every year. Nurse Debbie said this is the first time she’s seen them here for more than one day.” His hand stroked down along your back, and you hummed at the affection. Richard was too afraid to say that he felt better with you around for fear that the doctor would refer to it as stupid or childish. Instead, the doctor offered a contrary point.

“Animals are often used quite successfully for therapeutic means. There is also supposition that animals, cats in particular, have a sixth sense for those in need of help fighting their demons. Perhaps we will see how this affects your treatment for the time being.” Richard’s mouth dropped open, but no words came out in his stunned silence. He settled for a nod. The ghastly chuckling under the bed made your hair stand on end all the way down your spine.

That night, the darklings staged an attack that you had not been prepared for.

Richard left you curled up against his side as he fell asleep more easily than he had in many months. His fears had begun to leave him in the darklings’ absence. They were determined to fix that and win him back. They divided their forces, one of the three closing a hand around your neck and another leaning over to begin stealing Richard’s breath. As soon as you heard the choked sobs in his throat, you began to flail. The darkling holding you extended you to a full arm’s length away.

“Richard!” you cried. It didn’t matter how far away you were from your tormentors. There was nothing that would stop you from protecting him. You curled around on yourself and sunk your teeth and nails into the wrist of your darkling captor. They dropped you with a shout, and you pounced on the back of the one hovering over Richard. Your loud cries and wails managed to stir Richard from the comatose state. Good, they hadn’t been able to pollute his mind in excess yet.

“I told you to leave. Him. Alone!” Your claws sank into the darkling’s back as you tried to force them farther away from your Richard. Their spindly arm cracked and twisted at an unnatural angle to grab you by your neck, and they flung you against the wall.

“No!” Richard’s eyes shot open and he turned his head to watch you crumple against the floor. All three darklings turned their attention to him. His movements were still sluggish from sleep. A darkling cried in anguish when you sprang back onto the bed, positioning yourself protectively on Richard’s chest, and ruthlessly batted at their face.

With surprise, Richard realized that he wasn’t afraid of these creatures. He was furious. His entire body shook with the rage tensing his muscles. One arm wrapped around you and held him close to his chest. The other shot out and grasped the closest darkling by the neck.

“I’m not afraid of you,” he sneered. The three night-creatures stilled. “I am not afraid of you.” He repeated. His eyes burned with pure hatred for every second of his life that he had lost to them. And now they had tried to take you, too. “I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU!” He shouted the words into the face of the darkling desperately trying to remove his hands from their throat.

As suddenly as they appeared, they vanished. There was nowhere for them to go, no fear to feed on from a soul made of bravery. Their bodies exploded into a thick black fog that dissipated before it hit the floor. The perpetual tension that had plagued the room gave way to relief. Richard had never breathed so easily.

“Thank you,” he whispered to you. He tucked you both back into bed, pressing a kiss to your head, and you nudged your forehead up against his chin in thanks. The contented purring in your throat lulled you both to sleep that night.

A couple weeks later, Richard was once again adding your drawing to his sketchbook, this time from the comfort of his own pillow-top mattress in his own bedroom.

#I'm so sorry if this is awful #I really wanted to get this out tonight #Richard (The Last Time I Saw Richard) fanfiction #Richard (The Last Time I Saw Richard)#richard x reader #Richard just needs someone (or something) to help him fight his demons #My Oneshots #Happy Halloween Richard

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le-poofe · 5 years ago

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Idk if this has been asked already, but how long does it take you to create a comic/art piece? And what is the order of the steps you go through? (Btw I love your art)

That’s a good question! I’m gonna use the most recent page as the example. I’ve talked a little bit about how long it takes, but I haven’t really explained my process. Heads up, this is pretty long! I could have just put in one panel’s process, but it’s more fun to show the whole page

1. The Sketch ~ 1-2 Hours

This can take a while for a number of reasons. A few factors could be business, tiredness, a lack of inspiration, creating too many options for myself, etc. But generally this part goes at a decent pace. I have a script that I follow loosely, where I’ve written dialogue and actions that seem good for what’s going on. I will spend more time on panels that I have a specific image in my head for. Those last two panels are much cleaner/more fleshed out than the previous four because I had a much better idea for how I wanted them to look.

2. The Lineart ~ 2-4 Hours

The lineart takes the longest, hands down. It’s the clean up, final changes/additions, and just making everything look all nice for the rest of the piece. This is where I spend like 5 minutes comparing facial expressions to see which one I like better, drawing another one, and then choosing the first one I drew.

3. The Background ~ 30 minutes

The coloring is so much faster than the lineart. I will usually go slower here on purpose because I enjoy it, and it’s a relaxing break from the lineart. I just color right underneath the lineart, I don’t worry about anything looking messy under the character linearts because I know they’ll just be covered up. Typically, if I start the lineart in the afternoon, I’ll get to this point and stop for the evening.

4. Flat Colors ~ 5 Minutes

This goes relatively fast as well. I take my time for the most part. It’s just tedious to select the lineart. I kind of color them differently. Sans gets his darkest colors first, and then I add light layers on top. With Grillby, I put on the lightest color for his shirt and the middle color for his flames (I use 3-4 colors for them). Doing that kinda helps me establish that Grillby is a light source and Sans is not.The color schemes are almost direct complements, and I do eventually add yellow to Grillby’s flames. It makes them contrast with each other, and is generally satisfying to look at imo. It also makes Sans’ colors somewhat analygous to his surroundings, because of the deep blues and reds. The purple does stand out, but not nearly as much as the bright orange.

5. Finishing Grillby ~ 45 Minutes - 1 Hour

I have a general routine for adding Grillby’s details, which is why it goes quick. ((There will be a separate post on that process later)) It only takes that long because I have to do it for multiple panels per page. I’m sure this page was even shorter because it mostly featured incomplete shots of him. To finish his flames, I use an airbrush to add the reds, then I do the same with the yellows. I take the brightest yellow on the palette and use that for his freckles, eyes, and mouth ((if it’s open)). The last thing I do is color his lineart a dark red. His eyes are lined with a darker red to compensate for the glow I put over them, which makes the lines look faint and hard to see. For his shirt, I shade it with the lighter pink color, and then airbrush the darker pink on the areas that are further away from his flames.

6. Finishing Sans ~ 1 hour

Sans definitely has a more drastic change than Grillby. Almost none of the original purple survives the overlay layers. I have two or three light layers on top of the flat colors. I use one of the colors that is from grillby’s color palette, it’s a slightly altered version of his flat orange. First I do hard lights, that don’t have their edges blurred. The top of his skull and those half circle shapes under his eye sockets are some of the most noticeable examples. Then I go over that layer with another overlay, but this time with an airbrush. I put it in the same areas, but it makes everything look softer. There’s one more overlay, which uses the dark purple of Sans’ shirt. It helps me to not make everything too light. On top of all three of those is a a Luminosity + Shade layer in the orange color to make the brightest spots pop.

7. Finishing Background Details ~ 15-20 Minutes

This is basically doing the same thing I did to Sans on the background. I use the same orange from Grillby’s color scheme and add light where it needs to go. I can be more lenient on details because it’s not the main focus of the page.

8. Adding the Glow ~ 5-10 Minutes

This is just me taking the orange light color and airbrushing it just above the background on a Lum + Shade layer. This goes under the layers that Sans and Grillby are lined and colored on. The next layer is the same as the last and goes over both figures. It acts as a final highlight to the lightest points of the two. Usually it’s the top of Sans’ skull, the tips of Grillby’s fingers, and the area around his mouth. Then I airbrush Sans and Grillby’s eyes in blue and orange respectively on a Lum + Shade Layer.

9. Text and Final Details ~ 20 - 30 Minutes

This is where I figure out where I want to place the dialogue, and add in anything I might have missed. In this case, I forgot to fully draw and shade Sans’ tears at the beginning. I slap my signature on and boom! All done!

I hope this was helpful! And sorry it’s super long 0v0;; If you need clarification on anything, feel free to ask!

#ask #long post #comic #art process

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animeniacss · 4 years ago

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A Palette of Emotions - Artist!Taehyung x Teacher!Reader - Chapter 28 - The Commission Payment

Synopsis: Taehyung dreams of being a professional and famous artist one day, but finds that the sea of creativity can be lurking with blood hungry sharks, as well as bland, motionless starfish. Swimming through the sea of opportunities somehow washed him up onto the shore of Bright Star Preschool, as an art teacher. This wasn’t where he expected to be 4 years into his career, but anything to get his big break though, right?

Feat. BTS, TXT, ITZY, Jisoo (BlackPink), Taeyong (NCT)

Genre: Romance, Slow Burn, Love Triangle, Drama, School Setting, Working!AU

Length: approx. 4.9k words

Chapter 28 - The Commission Payment

I can’t believe this is happening… Taehyung thought to himself. He starred at the email for hours before finally marrying himself to his desk and getting to work. The night following Taehyung’s time at the art show was spent only one way: working. Planning, sketching, scribbling, crumpling and tossing, only to sketch again on another piece of paper. The more paper he wasted, the more frustrated he became! Oh Jihoon, who had contacted Taehyung within 24 hours of the festival’s end, had sent Taehyung specific directions for his desired commission. It’s only a matter of time before I wake up from this –

“Fuck.” Taehyung’s thoughts were cut short as the sound of a snapping pencil tip refocused his eyes on his work. The outline of Mrs. Oh, based off a picture seemingly taken on vacation in Paris, had been carefully sketched. It had to be designed to only look like Mrs. Oh, similar to how he had made his picture resemble only you. Tossing his pencil over his shoulder, he was quick to grab another one from the cup that sat at the corner of his desk, and lean forward to continue his work. His eyes scanned the paper carefully, making sure each spot his pencil graced was done so with the right amount of pressure, the right amount of focus. This would be the best thing he ever made; he knew that.

However, it would have to wait. The sound of his ringing phone alerted his attention from the sketch, and over to where he rested his phone on the arm of the couch. It was vibrating so much, that it shifted slightly, ultimately falling towards the floor. Taehyung leaned forward, catching it in his hand as if he had planned for that to happen. When he lifted the phone to his face, your name flashed brightly into his eyes. Taehyung hummed, turning his head and resting against the back of his chair. “Hey.”

“Hey.” You hummed. “This is the third time I called. You must be busy.”

“…Was it?” Taehyung cocked an eyebrow, pulling his phone back to look at the section ‘Missed Calls’, where your name popped up three separate times in between several spam calls. “Oh, sorry. I’m working.”

“No worries. What are you working on?”

“A really important commission.” Taehyung said simply, spinning his pencil in his hand.

“Oh cool.” You hummed. “I wanted to talk to you about some cute art ideas I had for some of my lessons, and get your opinion on how to make them more exciting. But it can wait until I see you tomorrow, okay? I don’t want to pull you from your artistic focus.” Taehyung chuckled a bit.

“Send me pictures of what you had in mind. I’ll text you if I have any ideas.” He offered.

“I told you, it could wait if you’re busy.” You hummed.

“Well, if you called me three times to ask me for help, then it can’t. So, send me the pictures so I have an excuse to take a drawing break before my hand falls right off my wrist.” A chuckle escaped your lips, and Taehyung looked down at his picture. Some drafts of the words and phrases Jihoon sent, which he was practicing on various old scraps before adding to the sketch, had shifted onto the paper, and Taehyung gently pushed them to the side before getting out of his seat.

“Alright, if you don’t mind doing it now.” You hummed. “I’ll text them to you and talk more about it tomorrow.”

“Deal.” Taehyung said. “I want to tell you about my art show stuff too.”

“Yes!” You gasped. “I can’t wait to hear all about it, Tae!” Hearing you cheerfully hum Tae into one of his ears, even if it was over the phone, had Taehyung’s cheeks and ears feel hot, and he chuckled shyly. “I’ll let you go take a break. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Alright then…” Taehyung was second to hang up, the sound of the line going dead ringing through his ears. He sighed to himself, pursing his lips together as he headed towards the kitchen. He was starving. As he tried to decide what he was going to eat, a few vibrations off his phone caused him to scoop it up again. He saw a flood of pictures from you, of art projects that seemed to be photographed off of your desk in the classroom. He chuckled a bit as he looked at the examples, putting a hand in his pocket.

He had some work to do.

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Hoseok looked over at you from his spot by the play area. He was checking over the different centers, making sure all the toys were cleaned and ready for the students to rush in and use them up again. He watched you sitting at your desk, frantically typing away at your computer. He chuckled.

“Why don’t you just tell Mr. Kim you need a little more time to finish this week’s plans?” Hoseok asked.

“I can’t do that.”

“We’re his only class. I don’t think he’ll be upset.”

“I have never done that in all my years teaching here, and I don’t plan to start a new trend now.” Hoseok rolled his eyes, chuckling a bit. “I just need to upload pictures of these crafts and materials and I think I’m all done.” Hoseok, deciding not to push any farther, simply turned back to the various centers.

“…It’s amazing how messy these things get. I the pizza slice and cup that went missing from the kitchen last week at the bottom of the dress-up bin.” Hoseok pointed out. Now, you were the one to chuckle.

“If you give that slice of pizza back to the kitchen, we can’t argue to get a discount for only seven slices anymore. Yuna will start charging us full price again.” Hoseok laughed a bit, placing the plastic kitchen toy into the kitchen where it belonged. When he stood up, he heard the door open, and his eyes turned to see Taehyung step in. His hands were full of what seemed to be completed crafts.

“Morning, Tae~.” Hoseok hummed. “How did your art show go?” Taehyung, who Hoseok was quick to notice was staring in your direction, turned to the older man in the room and smiled.

“It was amazing, Hyung. Such a cool experience!” Hoseok nodded his head, walking past Taehyung towards the closet, and patting his coworker on the shoulder.

“That’s good.” He said happily. Taehyung nodded, before walking over to you. When you saw him place things down on your desk, you rolled your chair closer in order to see.

“I made some examples of those crafts for you.” He smiled. “They were already really cute, so I didn’t need to change much.” You took a moment to marvel at the colorful papers scattered among your desk. “I just figured making them a bit easier for preschoolers was a good idea.”

“Right. These look really good, Taehyung.” You hummed, looking up at him. Taehyung smiled. “I especially like this little barn craft to review the animals.” Taehyung nodded, smiling.

“Well, I had good material to work off. You’re getting more creative every day, and I’d like to think it’s from being around me so much in the workplace.” As Taehyung snickered a bit, you rolled your eyes at his playfulness.

“Sure, let’s say that. Anyway, I appreciate the help. I hope it didn’t take form your commission to much.”

“Nah, I managed to finish the sketch. It’s coming along nicely.” Hoseok, who was set aside the cleaners for the morning, turned in the direction of the both of you. He watched as you looked up at him, chatting about the work he had been doing over the weekend. A sense of nausea filled the core of his stomach, and the longer he stood in that room, the more he felt that nausea fill his stomach like water filling a bucket.

“Hey.” He called, alerting both your attention. “I forgot; I need to talk to Mr. Kim about something. Tae, you have to tell me about the weekend at lunch or something, okay?” Taehyung nodded as he watched his Hyung head to the door. However, before he could give a verbal response, Taehyung was already out the door.

Taehyung had to ask: “Is he okay?”

“I think so.” You assured, not truly sure yourself. “But I wanted to ask you about this commission. Is it a secret?”

“No, not really.” Taehyung’s eyes scanned the room, before he grabbed the chair at Hoseok’s desk and pulled it close, plopping down beside you. “At the art show, I met the CEO of the college that Jimin managed to talk to in order to even get me in.” you nodded your head, continuing to listen. “I made a really nice picture recently that I…kinda revealed there? Anyway, his wife and him came to say hello and she really liked that specific picture.” As you watched Taehyung reminisce about the experience, you felt a small smile creep across your face. “Anyway, long story short, he commissioned for me to create the same piece, but for his wife.”

“Tae, that’s amazing!” you gasped, clasping your hands together. Taehyung grinned, nodding in agreement. “When does it have to be done by?”

“He said by the end of the week, but the original only took me a few days. So, I have it all planned out so it can be sent to him earlier.”

“That’s crazy. Can I see it when it’s done?” Taehyung blinked, pursing his lips together. “The original or the commission, it doesn’t matter. I’m curious.” Taehyung nodded, smiling.

“I’ll show you the original sometime. I think you’d like it.” He assured. You chuckled. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to finishing whatever you were doing before the kids come in this morning.” He stood up. “I need to go set up my room for today, anyway.”

You watched him get up and push the seat back to the desk at the side of the room. “Alright. See you later…” you said, waving him off. “Thanks again for the help.” Taehyung nodded, waving you off as he exited the room. With him rounding the corner, you sat back in your chair, crossing your arms. Sitting alone in your room, you took a moment to embrace the silence around you, while taking a moment to focus on the noise repeating continuously in your mind. It was Hoseok’s high-pitched, sweet voice repeating the same quote over and over in your mind:

It seems you’ve made a decision then, hm?

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By the end of the week, Taehyung had stuck to his word. He had spent each and every night working on that picture, and a little at a time, he watched it grow from the ideas of a loving husband, into a finalized masterpiece. Taehyung finished it three days before it’s agreed upon deadline, Taehyung had managed to complete the picture, spending some time fixing any small portions and ensuring the picture looked as good to Jihoon as the original did to Taehyung.

He knew that it certainly would.

When the picture was complete, Taehyung looked at the final product, and his heart swelled with pride. His first big…big commission was complete. Now, to send it. Taehyung quickly opened his phones contacts, calling the direct number Jihoon had given Taheyung for when the picture was completed. They spoke for a time, Jihoon marveling at the young talents ability to complete it so quickly, and even longer after Taehyung sent him a photo of the finished product.

“The wife is going to love it. I’ll send someone over to pick it up immediately.” Jihoon said. “Thank you again, Mr. Kim. We’ll definitely be in touch.” Taehyung, elated, thanked the man before hanging up the phone. He stared at the final product, and immediately, he heard a voice in his head.

Can I see it when it’s done? The original or the commission, I don’t mind!

“That’s right.” Taehyung hummed to himself. “I promised her.” He quickly pulled up his phone once again, snapping a picture of the finished commission and sending it your way with the text: Finished! They’re coming to pick it up today! :D

While waiting on the reply, Taehyung looked at the original, the one inspired by you, hanging up on his wall. For a moment, he sat back, his eyes darting between the original and the commission. He wanted to show you the painting, because he knew you would enjoy it very much. He already knew your flattery at being his inspiration, he already knew the joy it would give you to see it. Humming, he quickly snapped a photo of it, sending it t you directly behind the first photo, with the text: Here’s the original 😊

Taehyung had to admit, sending that final response was something that made him just a bit anxious. He knew you’d like it, but anytime he sent you something inspired by you, his heart race picked up just slightly. Hoping to calm his nerves, he was quick to phone Jimin. Hopefully, his best friend and his cheery demeanor would help offset some of this weirdly placed anxiety he felt in the pit of his stomach.

Jimin was quick to answer. “Hey.” He hummed. “I’m on a break. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Apparently, Jihoon is sending someone to pick up the painting.”

“You finished? That’s awesome!” Jimin cheered, his grin seen perfectly in Taehyung’s head despite not seeing his friend face to face. “Send me a picture okay? I need to see.”

“Oh yeah, will do.” Taehyung assured. “I sent the final product to her. The original too. I’m waiting to see what she thinks.”

“I’m sure she’ll like them just like everything else.”

“I know. But for some reason, this one makes me nervous. It’s bigger than the sketches and little canvases I’ve used for her before.” Jimin snickered on the other line. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re so cute when you’re nervous.” Taehyung had to roll his eyes at Jimin’s playfully flirtatious comment.

“Thanks for that, my love.” Taehyung cooed playfully, revealing another amused laugh from his friend. “Anyway, I’m gonna rest before this guy comes to get the painting. I’m exhausted.”

“Go ahead. But send me the picture first.” Jimin ordered. Taehyung simply hummed, offering a goodbye before hanging up. As he lifted up his phone, he saw a message flash on the screen. From you. Quickly, he opened it up. You first sent a wave of emojis with star eyes, followed by the text:

I love this! The original is beautiful!

I see a lot of quotes on there. Are those special sayings to you?

I can see why the wife loved this so much. It’s beautiful.

…Did someone inspire that painting?

Taehyung chuckled a bit, glancing back up at the painting one more time, before looking back at his phone and simply typing:

Yes.

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

When Taehyung got his phone call from Jihoon, he was very busy. He was currently sitting at a small table, legs pulled up, as he watched Yeonjun and Beomgyu playing with clay. This was something the kids enjoyed doing so much, that Taehyung decided it was a good idea to give the students a chance to simply play with the clay in anyway they see fit. Lia and Yeji were making clay snacks to feed to Kai, Yuna was using every piece she had in order to create a princess, which was a blob of several circles just piled on top of one another. Chaeryeong and Soobin were using their clay to roll out long, snake-like figures in front of them, cheering each other on in order to make it longer. Then, there were these boys: smashing their clay, and building it back up only to smash it down again. Taehyung couldn’t help but snicker a bit as he watched the children fool around.

“Don’t you want to make something nice? Like a vase or a picture?”

“I’m making a flat picture, Mr. Kim.” Beomgyu said simply. Of course, he was. Taehyung smiled, finally lifting himself up and deciding to return to his desk. When he did, his phone flashed, the large white text on the front reading Oh Jihoon: 1 Missed Call.

“F-.” Quickly, Taehyung grabbed his phone and walked towards the front of the room, shaky hands redialing the phone number that called only a few moments ago. When he stood outside the door, he turned towards the students, all of whom were still eagerly playing with their clays and chatting with one another. The sound of ringing in his ears made him nervous. It had been a few days since Taehyung sent the finished commission away, and all he wanted to know was how Jihoon, and more specifically his wife, thought about the painting. That was the only thing he could be calling about, right?

“Taehyung!” A cheery old voice hummed on the other side. “I’m so glad you called me back!”

“I apologize, Sir. I’m working.”

“Working, hm? What do you do?”

“I uh…work in a Pre-school as an art teacher. We’re playing with clay so I’m watching them as we speak to make sure nobody eats anything.” A hardy laugh was heard on the other side, and Taehyung had to chuckle in response to the infectious laugh of the man.

“Well then, I’ll make this brief.” Jihoon said simply. “I took my wife to dinner last night and gave her the gift. She loved it. I am so happy I asked you to do this for me.” Taehyung, in that moment, felt like a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders, and he exhaled so loud that Jihoon might have heard it on the other end, but said nothing about it. “You have a real talent, there.”

“Oh, thank you.” Taehyung sighed in relief. “I’m honored I got to do it.”

“Did you go to school for art?”

“No, Sir. I’m mainly self-taught.” Jihoon sighed on the other end.

“See, I knew you would say that. It’s a damn shame. There’s something I need to talk over with my colleagues that I would really like to talk to you about. Can you call me as soon as your shift is over?” Taehyung, stunned to silence, simply nodded his head. “…Taehyung?” Jihoon voice brought him back to his body, and he began to speak:

“Yes! Of course, I’ll call you immediately.” Jihoon laughed a bit, saying his goodbyes. With that, Jihoon was the first to hang up, leaving Taehyung on a dead line looking into the classroom with his students, still happily playing. Just before he could step back in, a voice was heard behind him.

“Are you okay?” When he spun around, he saw you standing there, hands on your hips as you looked up at the fluffy-haired man. He hummed, nodding his head quickly.

“Yes.” He assured. “Listen. There’s something important I need to do after school, so I won’t be able to come outside when the kids leave.” You nodded, staying silent as you could tell he was ready to say more. “But, there’s something I need to talk to you about, so come here as soon as they all leave, okay?” Raising an eyebrow, you were curious as to what this exciting thing could be. However, you didn’t pry anymore, knowing you’d already be late to the next subject due to having to still clean up the kids.

“Okay, fine.” You agreed. Taehyung nodded. Just as he was about to turn back around, you spoke up. “I need to speak with you too.” Taehyung blinked, smiling sweetly.

“Then it’ll truly be an interesting conversation.” He said. “…I’m not in trouble, am I?” You couldn’t help but laugh, nudging him inside as the two of you gathered up the students quickly in order to get back into the classroom in time.

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

As you headed down the hall towards the art room, you thought back to the conversation you had with Hoseok while the students were in art.

“I’m going to tell him at the end of the day.” You said simply. Hoseok looked up at you, smiling gently. “I don’t want to keep waiting on it anymore. If I do, I’m scared something will happen that will ruin everything.”

“That’s fair…” Hoseok agreed. “Good for you.” A small smile fell on your lips, the thought of this day being the one that could possibly finalize everything that has been brewing in her stomach for a long time. As the moments ticked away, inching towards not only the end of the day, but to simply going to see Taehyung in order to pick up the kids, you felt like a kid in a candy store.

As you headed down the hallway, you pressed your fingers together, humming softly. Your mind was racing, unable to stop it from wandering, running a race the rest of your body couldn’t keep up with. As you approached the door, you heard voices coming from the other side. One specific voice; Taehyung’s voice. You stood silently, listening for a good time to enter.

“Yessir.” Taehyung said. “I’m honored, thank you so much. Yes, yes, I’ll be sure to contact you soon! Goodbye, and thanks again.” You waited a moment, ensuring that Taehyung was no longer on the phone before knocking on the door and stepping inside.

“Am I interrupting?” you asked curiously. Taehyung turned to you, and all you could see was a set of sparkling eyes, and a wide grin on his face that exposed a set of chubby and adorable cheeks.

“No! I was just about to come and look for you.” Taehyung said. He hurried up to you and took your hands. “I need to talk to you.”

“I know, that’s why I came. I need to talk to you, too.” You responded. Looking down at your interlocked hands, you felt your cheeks heat up, but refused to move them away. “Do you want to go first? You look like you’re about to fall out of your skin.”

Taehyung laughed, squeezing your hands tightly as he looked up at you, directly into your eyes. “Remember when I said that Oh Jihoon wanted me to commission a painting for his wife?” You nodded, and Taehyung grinned. “He just offered me a full scholarship for next semester at his school.”

You gasped, now being the one to squeeze his hands. “Taehyung! That’s amazing! Congratulations!”

“I know.” Taehyung grinned. “He said he wanted me to hone my skills, and since I never went to college for art, he thinks it would be the perfect opportunity!” Immediately, you offered Taehyung the biggest hug you could.

“Taehyung, I’m so proud of you!” you gasped. “That’s just…wow…” Taehyung, who had to admit the sudden hug pulled him momentarily from the excitement flowing through his body. He put a hand on your head, smiling happily. “You must be thrilled.”

“Actually, to be honest, I’m pretty indifferent.” When Taehyung flashed his boxy grin, the both of you couldn’t help but laugh. “Now, what were you going to say? Let’s share the excitement together.”

For a moment, time seemed to stop. You smile slowly faded from your lips and you pulled back gently from the hug, until you were completely out of the hug and stepped back. Taehyung must have sensed something off in your demeanor, because slowly, the smile faded away from his face as well. “…What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing. I just…I got so excited for you that I can’t…I can’t remember what I was going to say.” Taehyung chuckled a bit.

“You were going to finally say you love me, right?” He teased, nudging you playfully. You had to laugh a long, you had to force it out in fear he would know the truth. Anything that came out of your mouth would throw a wrench in everything he ever worked for, and that was the last thing you ever wanted to do. “I’m just kidding.” He admitted. “If you remember, let me know, okay? I need to go and tell Jimin.” You nodded, watching Taehyung scramble for his belongings. “See you tomorrow!”

“Bye, Taehyung.” You said, waving to the man as he hurried out the door of the art room, leaving you alone beside the empty art tables and facing the large rainbow still painted on the wall. You had waited too long. If you were to speak up now, it could possibly ruin everything.

Just like you had feared.

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

“Are you excited for the company party?” Namjoon asked curiously, fixing his glasses as he looked to Jimin. The younger man looked at his boss and smiled.

“Oh, yeah! I’m really excited!” He agreed. “I think it’s a great way to celebrate the successful deal with Oh Jihoon.”

“Agreed.” Namjoon said. The duo entered the elevator, ready to head home early for once, something they got to do very rarely, and enjoyed whenever it occurred. “I’m thinking of bringing a date.” Namjoon said. Jimin was silent, knowing exactly who Namjoon was referring to without even having to say a specific name. “I don’t want to be too pushy, though.”

“…Yeah.” Namjoon said. “Well, if you do, the more the merrier.” Namjoon smiled, nodding his head as he watched Jimin glance down at his phone. “Speaking of the more the merrier, Taehyung texted me saying he’s coming to my house for dinner because he has some really good news.”

Namjoon watched as Jimin quickly responded back to his friend, a small smile on his face as he texted. Namjoon had a feeling he knew exactly what Taehyung intended to speak about. Ever since the merger, he was constantly on the phone with Oh Jihoon discussing finalized terms and ideas for their future together, when Oh Jihoon brought up his offer he had given to Taehyung earlier that day. His mind flashed to the conversation quickly:

You know that kid, Kim Taehyung, I gave him an invite to our school to work on his craft. The kid is incredibly talented, I’m grateful I found him through you and your friend Mr. Park.

…Yes, of course, Sir. I agree, he is incredibly talented.

The sound of the elevator alerted Namjoon to face front again, watching as the doors to the elevator open, and people beginning to shuffle in as he and Jimin shuffled out and onto the main floor of the lobby. “Well, let me know what happens, then.”

“Yes, Sir. You too.” Jimin offered small bow as the duo headed to the door, before heading down the street and maneuvering his way through the crowd of working individuals, and out of Namjoon’s sight. Namjoon looked down at his phone, vibrating quickly within his pocket. Slipping a hand in his pocket, he pulled out the phone and saw Jungkook’s name flashing. He was the one who picked Kai up from school, and Namjoon had to say a quick prayer to make sure this was a good phone call.

“Hello?” he hummed, walking down the street towards his parked car.

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

“Wait-.” Jimin said quickly, setting down his bowl of rice. “So, Mr. Oh Jihoon asked you to come to his school full scholarship next semester?” Taehyung, who was standing behind his chair, his smile wide on his mouth as he nodded his head.

“I know isn’t it wild?” Taehyung asked. “An art degree some there basically gaurentees you access into any major art show, anything you make selling immediately, and basically shooting you to celebrity status. I could paint art for popular idols, or movies, or anything! The possibilities are endless, Jimin.”

“Oh, I know.” Jimin agreed simply.

Taehyung wasn’t finished. “He said he needs to go over more paperwork and figure somethings out, but everything seems like it’s going to fall into place.”

“Congratulations, that’s amazing.” Jimin said. “Did you call your mom?”

“…No, not yet.” He admitted. “I didn’t know if I wanted to hear what she has to say.”

“I’m sure she’ll only have positive things to say.”

“Yeah, but they’ll be laced into tons of comments about how I would do so well in medical school or in a trade like my father. Something like that.” Jimin sighed as Taehyung paced the table, hands running through his hair. “I feel like I’m dreaming.”

“Maybe you are. Want me to toss this hot rice in your face and see if that wakes you up?” Jimin asked. Taehyung laughed a bit, seeing Jimin motion towards the plate of food that was getting colder with each passing second. “Or maybe you can finish your food I worked so hard to make.”

“Fine…” Taehyung sighed, sinking down in his chair and lifting his chopsticks with some rice into his mouth. Jimin smiled as he watched Taehyung eat quietly, and leaned back in his seat.

“Have you said anything to the people at the daycare?” he asked. Taehyung glanced back up, swallowing a mouthful of rice before speaking.

“I haven’t told Hoseok-Hyung or Mr. Kim, but-.” Suddenly, Taehyung set his chopsticks down, causing Jimin to raise a confused eyebrow.

“But…but what?” he asked curiously. Taehyung was silent, looking down at his hands as he thought about Jimin’s question fully before providing an answer.

“Now that I think about it…if I take this scholarship next year, I’ll have to move out of town…” Jimin nodded, and Taehyung continued. “I won’t be able to work there anymore…”

“Well yeah, but when I originally told you to apply, didn’t you say you planned to leave once you hit your ‘big break’?”

Jimin waited a full two minutes f or a response from Taehyung. Unfortunately, Taehyung didn’t give one, simply leaning forward and taking another bite of rice into his mouth. Jimin frowned, but simply continued eating as well.

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writethehousedown · 5 years ago

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Here Comes the Sun 3/7 (Branjie) -- athena2

Day 3, Puddle: Vanessa has a run-in with a giant puddle that brings Brooke a little closer to her heart.

Thank you to Writ for betaing! I’d appreciate any feedback you have!

Lunch with Brooke. She’s going to have lunch with Brooke.

Vanessa takes a little extra care with her outfit this morning, whipping out a black dress with red and purple flowers–it is spring, after all, even if the weather doesn’t want to cooperate–and hits her hair with enough spray to hold even if the rain returns. She goes with her black flats, because she likes being small next to Brooke, so small she could just nestle against her, so small that Brooke leans down ever so slightly to make sure Vanessa hears her when she talks.

The sun hesitantly peeks out between the clouds, and Vanessa feels in each step that today is going to be a good day. She’s having lunch with Brooke. She finished her giant guinea pig craft, a sturdy foam board and fake fur recreation of Bertha, ready for the class to burst into oohs and aahs when they saw it. She forgets about the massive crater in the sidewalk that sends at least a dozen kids to the nurse with scrapes each year, that the school board has been promising to fix since the dawn of time. Pain in her knees means they broke her fall, and she’s so focused on holding onto the real Bertha in her carrying case that the craft guinea pig flies out of her grasp and slams into a puddle big enough to swim in with a loud splat.

For a minute she stays on the ground, resisting the urge to cry as dirty puddle water soaks the foam. It’s stupid, really, to be near tears over a craft project, but she spent most of the night on it, laying down fake fur with all the care she gives to real Bertha, and she just wanted it to be perfect.

“Vanessa, are you okay?”

Cool hands help her up, and Vanessa knows from the long, pale fingers–fingers skilled enough to cut out delicate snowflakes other teachers wouldn’t even attempt, including coveted Baby Yoda ones last winter–that the hands belong to Brooke.

Vanessa blinks away her daze as she stands. “I-I’m okay.”

“Your knees are a little scraped. The crater strikes again.”

Vanessa looks around Brooke’s shoulder into the puddle, heart sinking as she pulls out the craft. The entire thing is soaked with dirty gray water, fake fur clumped and tangled.

“I guess that’s the end of that,” she mutters.

“I’m sorry, Vanessa.” Brooke’s voice is so sincere it makes Vanessa shiver. “It’s Bertha, right?”

“It was. I was gonna have the kids make little ones and put them around her, like her babies. I guess I’ll have to do it another day.”

Brooke nods. “Why don’t we go inside? You can come in my room and I’ll fix up your knees. I have Batman Band-Aids,” she tempts.

Vanessa smiles despite herself. “Say no more.”

—

Vanessa perches herself on Brooke’s desk, which is much cleaner than hers. There’s neatly labelled trays for different papers, bins for markers and scissors, and a Totoro mug for pens and pencils. Vanessa hasn’t gotten a good look at Brooke’s classroom with its new spring decorations, and the bright colors keep her head spinning around while Brooke rubs cream on her knees. (Vanessa could have done it herself, really, but Brooke had offered in a nervous tone, desperate to help, and Vanessa agreed, touched by how much she wanted to help and unable to resist having Brooke’s hands touch her skin).

Bright green stems stretch up the classroom door, ending in tiny tulips and daffodils that each bear a student’s name. The walls are a construction paper animal kingdom come to life: white bunnies with cotton-ball tails hop around after carrots, yellow chicks splash water at each other, and red birds fly toward the ceiling (as high as they can go while still adhering to fire codes).

“Tell me you didn’t even need a ladder to hang those birds,” Vanessa teases.

Brooke applies the last Band-Aid, her hands soft and gentle. “I didn’t,” she admits, blush creeping into her cheeks. God, she’s adorable.

“I’m assuming you have some trouble hanging things up?” Brooke prompts with a grin.

Vanessa just sighs. “You know those warning signs saying not to stand on a stack of chairs, and you think, ‘what idiot would stand on a stack of chairs’?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m the idiot.” Vanessa cackles. “Tried to put my little alphabet signs over the chalkboard and went down like an avalanche. I was coughing up chalk dust for a month.”

Brooke bites her lip, like she’s afraid it would be rude to laugh, but when Vanessa starts, to let her know it’s okay, Brooke snorts so fiercely it makes Vanessa laugh even harder.

“I’m sorry,” Brooke gasps between snorts, “but that’s hilarious. You know, if you need anything hung up, just ask me.”

“I’ll do that.” Vanessa flexes her knees, now tricked out with the Dark Knight. “You’re a Band-Aid pro, by the way. My knees feel a lot better.”

“Good.” Brooke smiles. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“See you at lunch.”

It’s almost enough to make Vanessa forget about her ruined craft project.

—

Brooke’s kids are in art class with Miss Scarlet for the next 45 minutes, and she gets to work on her surprise for Vanessa.

There’s no template big enough, which means she’ll have to draw a giant guinea pig freehand. Vanessa’s much better at drawing than Brooke, that’s for sure. She usually goes for the trace-and-cut-out method, but Vanessa can actually draw. Sometimes Brooke watches her sketch during lunch, her tongue sticking out slightly, brown eyes narrowed in focus, and Brooke forgets all about her own sandwich, filling her body with nothing but Vanessa.

After ten guinea pig drawing tutorials and five unsuccessful attempts, Brooke spreads the successful poster board out on her long student tables.

She glues white fake fur over the whole thing, adding little brown spots and googly-eye stickers and a pink nose until it looks like Bertha. It’s not as good as Vanessa’s, looking a bit like a potato with legs, but Brooke hopes Vanessa will understand that she wanted to help, wanted to cheer her up after this morning.

When it’s lunch time, she tucks the board under her arm and knocks on Vanessa’s door.

“Brooke?” Vanessa’s eyes drift to the board and narrow in confusion.

“I made you a new guinea pig,” Brooke explains, showing Vanessa the board. “You were so upset about it, and I just…I wanted to help. I hope that’s okay.”

Vanessa’s hand goes to her mouth, and Brooke’s stomach writhes, certain she’s ruined things. She should have never done this, Vanessa hates her—

“Brooke, this is amazing!”

“You like it?”

“I really do. Thank you.” Her fingers brush against Brooke’s as she takes it, and Brooke’s body rushes with warmth.

“Lunch?” She offers.

Vanessa nods.

—-

Brooke hears some of the other teachers talking about the weather forecast, and the idea pops into her head. Something about Vanessa makes her want to be brave, want to take a chance like Nina always encourages. Brooke takes a deep breath and speaks before she loses her nerve.

“I was thinking, um, it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow. Maybe we could take our kids out for a little picnic lunch?”

Vanessa’s eyes light up, so bright Brooke almost melts at how adorable Vanessa is, especially when she claps her hands and grins.

“I love that, Brooke! Let’s do it.” Her eyes take on a mischievous gleam. “What if me and you make lunch for each other?”

Brooke doesn’t stray too much in her food choices–mostly salads and sandwiches, leftovers of what she made for dinner. She likes routine, likes packing her lunch and knowing exactly what she’ll eat. But something about the prospect of Vanessa choosing things for her, taking the time to pick out what she thinks Brooke will like and packing it all up, makes her think a break from routine might be okay.

“Okay,” Brooke agrees. “Do you have any allergies I should know about? Picky about anything?”

“Ooh, I used to be picky like you wouldn’t believe. Survived a whole year on basically mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and tortillas when I was four.” Vanessa laughs. “I’m not that picky anymore. No allergies either. PB and J, deli stuff, whatever. Just don’t feed me any broccoli.”

Brooke snorts. “I wouldn’t serve broccoli to my worst enemy. I don’t have any food allergies either.”

Vanessa reaches out her hand. “It’s a picnic date then.”

Brooke shakes it, Vanessa’s skin soft and smooth and warm, sending courage through Brooke’s heart. “It’s a date.”

Tags: rpdr fanfiction, branjie, brooke lynn hytes, vanessa vanjie mateo, athena2, here comes the sun, lesbian au, spring fling 2020, day 3: puddle

#rpdr fanfiction #branjie #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #athena2 #here comes the sun #lesbian au #spring fling week 2020 #day 3: puddle #submission

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sucrefemme · 5 years ago

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Snufkin Inspired Skirt (& Tutorial)

Tutorial for the decal under the cut! The decal can be sewn onto anything, like bags and pants, if you dont wanna have it on a skirt ^_^

What You’ll Need:

home sewing machine (Technically optional? But it would be really hard without one)

thread

sewing scissors

regular scissors

sewing pins

pencil

Marking chalk (OPTIONAL)

Pinking shears (OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED)

6x6″ thick green fabric (I used denim, but felt or flannel could work too)

scrap fabric in a variety of colors

Cardstock or thick paper

hand sewing needles

The version without pinking shears will look different. Pinking shears are zig-zag scissors that help prevent raw edges of fabric from fraying.

Instructions:

1. Make your stencil

Cut your cardstock so its the same size as your green fabric. then, sketch your hat on the cardstock. His hat is sloped down to the brim, the brim doesn’t abruptly start like a witch’s hat. Look up references! When adding the notches to the brim, make them fairly big, otherwise they’ll be hard to sew. Once you’re happy with your pattern, cut it out, including the little notches.

2. Cut out the hat

Pin the stencil onto your fabric. Using your pencil or marking chalk, outline the stencil carefully. Remove the stencil. If your shape was too detailed or if the notches were too small, they might’ve gotten lost when you traced. Don’t fret! Use your chalk or pencil to make them wider. Use your sewing scissors to cut out the hat.

3. Attach the hat with a satin stitch

place the hat on your skirt (or whatever else you’re using) and pin it down a couple centimeters away from the edge. I’ve found satin stitching to be easiest when I don’t have to take out the pins until I’m entirely done. however, if you used thin fabric you’ll have to pin close to the edge. Your machine might have a setting for satin stitching. If not, grab a piece of scrap fabric and hit the zig-zag stitch setting on your machine. On the scrap, test the zigzag stitch settings, and adjust until your stitch is a tight line, that hardly shows fabric between the stitches. If you’re new to sewing, you’ll want your stitch to be pretty wide. If you’re more experienced, feel free to make it thinner (which will make the notches look cleaner)

(If you have experience and you’d rather use a blind hem stitch or a blanket stitch, you can do that if you sew on interfacing to trap the raw edge)

Place the pinned hat in your machine. The edge of the green fabric should be in the middle of the presser foot, so the zigzag stitch goes into the hat AND the fabric you’re sewing it onto. Start in one spot and go all the way around. When you reach a corner or a sharp curve pick up the presser foot and twist your fabric around. Don’t forget to backstitch!

4. cut out your flowers

If you’re using pinking shears: using your pinking shears, cut out three circles that are about the same size from a piece of colorful scrap fabric. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just as long as its roughly circular and roughly the same size. The diameter of your circles will be equal to the diameter of your flower. Each flower needs three circles, so cut as many as you want to have on your decal.

If you don’t have pinking shears: Cut out a circle from a piece of scrap fabric. Fold it three times, then cut the flat edge to make it round. When you unfold, you should have a close-to-perfect flower. Make as many of these as you want to have on your decal. (example is the little pink flower in the upper right hand corner of the picture)

5. Build and attach your flowers

If you’re using pinking shears: take a needle and thread and knot the end of the thread. Then, take one of your circles and fold it accordion style.

Push the needle through the center of the accordion (making sure to catch all the folds) and push them down to the bottom. Repeat with the other two circles. push the needle through all the petals a few more times, wrapping the center together tightly. Attach the flower to the hat using the extra thread from the center, stitching through the hat and wrapping around the center three or four times. Finish by tying the thread off in the back.

If you’re not using pinking shears: So... clearly i didn’t do this idea entirely but it should work. Take the flowers you made in step 4 and pin them to the hat by their centers. if you’d rather use applique glue, go ahead! using the satin stitch from step 3, carefully sew around the outside of the flower.

Alternative idea, purely theoretical: in step three, cut out two of each flower instead of one. Pin them together so all their sides match up, and sew around this edge. Cut small notches in the edges. Using a seam ripper (or carefully with a pair of scissors) cut a hole in the center of ONE of the flowers. use this hole to flip the flower inside out, and push a pencil in to help it come out all the way. attach the flower like a button, with the cut side down, towards the hat, by sewing a couple stitches through the center.

Attach flowers until the decal is to your liking!

And that’s it! Finished product will probably look something like this:

If you make this you should totally tag me! I’d love to see it :D

If you have questions, feel free to DM me, send me an ask, or reply to this post.

Yip yip!

-Kay

#Moomin #The Moomins #Snufkin #snufmumrik #sewing #tutorial #My Stuff #uhhh........ Im just....... sleepy #Tags? i don't know her

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ghostpajamas · 5 years ago

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process of the demon shane painting

I’ll put it under the cut bc there’s steps and pictures which make it. Long

First off, i do a messy sketch with a big brush, like what i do with lined art.

Then, I go over that (i lower the first sketch’s opacity) with a smaller brush. I sketch in more detail and add some stuff like horns and whatever. This sketch is my guideline for the painting.

I turn off the first sketch layer. Then i lower the opacity on the second sketch to about 10%. On a layer under it, I block in the shape of the figure. I use grey bc it’s a good neutral and i use bright colors in my flats so the grey cools em down a bit.

Slap in a bg color to 1. Make you figure out the colors you’ll use and 2. make it easier to see an off mark like uh. A dot that shouldn’t be there.

Lock the grey layer’s opacity and start slapping colors on there, it doesn’t need to be clean but it’d sure make it easier when you’re painting. Have fun! Choose some silly colors like pink and bright blue! Bright blue is a fun color for highlights bc blended out on a warm color, it goes grey. Grey against red and pink looks blue.

Add some dark edges like the lines between the fingers, the shirt collar, the nose bridge. The places where it should be darkest. Clean up your messy flats a little bit too. I also fixed the nose position here bc it looked wrong.

Keep on trucking, adding dark colors where they are needed to make the form less flat, highlights next to shadows for visual interest. I used to, when i needed a darker shadow, just go dark and dark. Hell, black wasnt dark enough for what i needed to do! But now, I realized you can put a light spot next to it and make it look darker than it is by contrast.

Here, i changed up the colors to fit the bg better (and suit my own taste) using the hue and saturation sliders. They’re under the filters panel in most programs. Play with em and see what you like. (it’s a tiny bit pinker, see)

i turn off my sketch layer after this point bc i know where everything is now.

I copied (duplicated) the layer and get into rendering! This is where I begin blending my flat colors with a softer brush and my standard painting brush to make it cleaner looking. The only real change is in the face, where I spent most of my time working lol

I changed the eye’s look and the face highlighting, painted the ear and kept on smoothing my flats. I also added more detail to the smoke from the left eye, make the horns more detailed, and painted the hair. Big long step, lots of effort.

There’s. A lot of stuff going on. Go crazy! Add highlights in darker spots to show the form without using crazy dark colors. Painting the hand was an ordeal that I don’t want to get into. Here’s where I started painting the sweater and shirt collar in earnest.

The last step, i just fix little problems like the edge of the shirt collar, the button color, the highlight above the brow. Little stuff. Add your watermark and ur pretty much done. That’s all, folks!

#process #tutorial #ghostart #art help

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comucap · 4 years ago

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Mr Clean Magic Eraser Mop Review

The mr clean mop are tremendously powerful on a lot of surfaces such as walls, ceiling vents, baseboards, blinds, tubs, and many different places in the home. The Magic Eraser can be magic worker for mark and crayon colored walls. Mr. Clean's Magic Erasers should always be analyzed in a hidden spot just prior to wide spread use. Stains Filth, and soap scum that would have taken scrubbing and or repainting disappeared throughout our evaluations in just a few wipes of this eraser.

Definition

Wet the eraser together with plain water. Water triggers the fibers and also lets dust into the stations of the sponge and to become pulled off from the outside.

Test the item in a concealed area. Because the mr clean magic eraser mop is highly abrasive, then it can hurt the surface of several places at residence. Be safe and examine out it at a hidden area.

Lightly rub the eraser. The issue is the fact that it will not take a great deal of scrubbing to essentially get into the grime.

Watch the filth begin to disappear out.

Throw away after several uses or once the eraser starts to disintegrate.

Opening up the mr clean magic eraser mop, I was, clearly, doubtful. Like many moms of young children, markings on the partitions have been the bane of my presence. I needed the stains and stains on other surfaces of the home with and wasn't sure just what a boring looking sponge can do about any of this.

I started the small box to reveal two intensely white Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Observing directions on the box, then I squeezed out of the surplus , added water, and then led for the nearest crayon mural. Together with just one swipe at the crayon disappeared. I have shoe marks off of the ice box. I tackled pen sketches. Rub marks from moving furnishings were long gone once I utilized the mop on the stair rail.

After stripping most of the dwelling, '' I learned a few important matters about Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

You can find surfaces which may be stripped of these finish and gloss when, you use the Magic Eraser. Applicants for usage are timber that is and paint. That happens since there is not added cleaner to the magic eraser. It is created from a type of melamine foam. The foam sponge is manufactured from tough although small fibers which scratch the dirt out of the outside and then also trap it from the memory in the open spaces.

The time that I saved by not only using my very older techniques of indicate removal was astounding. It's eye popping how fast that the Magic Eraser can remove items out of its fibers have the ability to get right into at which dirt and dirt marks are hiding, scraping them off.

The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is supposed to start to disintegrate beginning after the very first usage. Adhere to the Instructions on the back of the box to Establish if the Magic Eraser needs to disappear into the trash.

Care needs to be used together with contact As this product isn't really abrasive. Use gloves to safeguard sensitive skin also never moisturize the Magic Eraser more than epidermis locations. It is not a excellent idea. Chunks of the foam could be a gastrointestinal or choking threat for kids and pets.

#Mop

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lovrodney · 7 years ago

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Garage Girlfriend - Optional Bias

This is for My Cute Dork ( @dart48 )! Thank you for the year that we have been together! I am so thankful to have you in my life and for all of the smiles, laughter an inspiration that you have brought me, I don’t know what I would do without you. #happyalmostoneyear #benandthebunny

Shrugging off a cotton hoodie from his shoulders, he hung it by its hood before slipping off his DC skate shoes. Unloading the contents of his pockets across the narrow shelf in the entry, turning his head over his shoulders they began to search the open concept apartment for you. Finding you hunched over in front of your computer, a pen wiggling in between your fingers, headphones covered your ears while your favorite graphic shirt allowed some color from your shorts to peek out from under the longer bottom hem of the tee.

Wandering into the kitchen, your boyfriend watched you work tirelessly on the assignments whose deadlines were quickly approaching with every tick of the clock. Pulling out some ingredients from the refrigerator, he began to make a simple dinner for the two of you. Heating up a pan, he began to grill two slices of bread with cheese melting between. Meanwhile he heated up a can of chili just to split into two bowls. Cutting the grilled cheese in half, he platted the sliced sandwich around the edges of the bowl of chili that sat in the middle of the plate. Carrying over your dinner in one hand and a glass of ice cold water in the other, he cautiously approached you in an attempt not to disturb you. Placing your dinner on the corner of your desk, he wrapped his arms slowly around your shoulders causing you to smile. Lifting one of the headphones off of your ears, he pressed his lips against your cheek moments afterwards.

“Welcome home” You whispered to him, leaning into his touch.

“Thanks sweetheart” He whispered in reply, allowing his breath to brush over the shell of your exposed ear. “Enjoy dinner, I am going to be out in the garage so I don’t disturb you. You are welcome to come and join me after you submit your assignments.”

“Thank you, thank you for making dinner as well, you really are a sweetheart” You turned in your chair slightly allowing your eyes to meet his.

Brushing his thumb against your cheek, he lifted your chin up slightly to align his lips with your forehead. Closing your eyes once you saw him lean in, his warm, soft lips ever so softly touched your forehead before lingering against your skin a moment or two while his thumb brushed against your cheek. Butterflies fluttered in your stomach as your hand wrapped around his wrist that was resting against your cheek.

Pulling away slightly, his eyes met with yours, “Study well, you go this.” Placing your headphone back over your ear, he gave you a sweet smile before standing upright and heading to the bedroom to change his clothes.

Exiting the bedroom outfitted in his oil splattered, ripped and worn jeans along with a well worn grey t shirt with multiple unknown stains to match. Making his way out the back door, he paused at the door frame to glance back at you. Happily munching on the grilled cheese and chili that he had lovingly made for you. Smiling brighter than before, he quietly closed the door behind himself and made his way out to the detached garage.

Hours ticked by as your heart pounded seeing the deadlines approach you relentlessly. With the final minutes billowing overhead, you hit the submit button sending in the assignment that would either tip your grade one way or the other. Hoping for the best, you closed your eyes before pressing submit.

Opening your eyes, you saw that it was sent in a minute before it was due. Sinking back into your seat, you stared at your illuminated computer screen before you. A weight lifted off of you with a few minutes passing, cleaning up your books and closing the multiple tabs on your computer, you zipped up your backpack before rising from your seat. Returning the dinner plate, bowl and emptied water glass to the kitchen, your eyes lifted to peer out the back windows. Yellow light spilled out through from the opened garage door, seeing a shadow move around the light present you smiled, having an idea come to mind.

Placing the dishes back in their place, you grabbed your sketchbook and a single pencil and eraser, outfitting yourself in one of his oversized hoodies that engulfed your figure as your small shorts peeked out from under the hem of the sweatshirt from time to time. With slippers hugging your feet you exited out the back door. Hugging the sketchbook tightly against you, the cool night air nipped at your exposed arms and legs as you crossed your grassy area to reach the garage.

Rounding the opened door, you stood in the open door as you watched your boyfriend rounded his back allowing his arms to stretch deeper under the hood of his car. Toned muscles stretched up his arm with every twist of his wrench allowing the dim lights in the garage to highlight each precise movement that he executed. Not wanting to disturb him, you carefully walked over to the workbench along the perimeter of the garage. Climbing onto one of the higher worn chairs, you rested your sketchbook on the polished pine top of the workbench. Folding your exposed legs under you, you flipped open to a new page in your sketchbook before you. Scanning the area you tried to gain inspiration to spark a thought to draw. With a perfect model in front of you, you began to sketch with one line at a time, the image began to unfold before you.

Your boyfriend’s hunched over shoulders stayed stationary while his hands rested on the side panel while his eyes followed the lines in the engine to find any other source of error. Standing up and moving away from the car, a dirtied rag wiped off the wrench while his feet carried him over to one of the many multi shelved crimson toolbox, surrounding his project.

Reaching up to one of the mounted lamps sitting along his workbench, your hand adjusted the angle of the light to shine on your sketchbook as the light continued to move to compensate with his movements. Resuming your work, your boyfriend turned his head to the new light that added new light to the garage. Seeing you all cuddled up and cozy in his sweatshirt, he just smiled feeling an impression on his heart reminding him of the first time he met you.

Removing a new tool from the toolbox, he headed back over to his project. Heading over to the adjacent side of the car to get a better angle to work on the problem, he began to contort himself underneath the hood just to adjust his tool in the correct spot in an attempt to fix the hidden problem.

Lifting up your eyes from the page, you tilted your head in confusion. Glancing down at the page once more, you rose your eyes to your subject that you were attempting to draw. Dropping your eyes back down to your paper, you attempted to continue with your sketch. Time passed as more lines were erased then drawn and frustration was increasing with every line you tried to replace or add to your piece.

“Can you move back to where you were?” You quietly asked, almost shyly your eyes almost pleading with your gaze.

“You weren’t done drawing me yet?” He questioned lining his words with a chuckle while lifting his eyes from the engine, yet his hands were still deep within the motor.

“How’d you know?” You questioned, your widening eyes locked with his wondering if he has some superpower or something.

“What else would you be drawing?” Your boyfriend smirked as he tightened a few bolts as you watched the muscles underneath his skin dance with every command.

“I mean I could be drawing your car...” You told him with a smirk as you dropped your eyes to your work of art knowing that you had the nose of the car in his picture too.

“You could… but you would rather draw me” He reasoned with a tilt of his head knowing you all too well

“I could be drawing another guy with a car, you never know” You shrugged your shoulders trying to play it off.

“Ah, well if you are, he must have done something right to catch your eye” Your boyfriend stood up and wiped a rag along his hand as he cleaned off the tool before exchanging the tool for another one.

Hours ticked by as he continued to work on the car, the sound of crickets accompanied the sound of his tools tightening and fixing the problem within the engine. Wiping the oiled rag along each tool, he ran the rag along his hard working hands as his eyes turned back to you. Seeing your head tucked in your folded arms, your pencil still between your fingers and your drawing notebook resting on your exposed legs. Quietly and carefully he walked over to you. Standing beside you, he turned his head so that he could see your art on how you intended people to see it. A smile couldn’t help but form on his lips as he saw the piece that you had been working on for hours. Going over every little detail with his eyes from the shine of the bumper to his muscles tensing under his shirt and not to mention the light hanging from inside the hood. The piece was perfect. His lingering gaze stayed on the masterpiece allowing every detail to get captured and all of your hard work to be appreciated. Tearing his eyes away from the masterpiece, he lifted up one of his cleaner hands brushing some hair behind your ear.

“How’d I get so lucky?” He whispered to himself as he carefully removed the pencil from your grip, the notebook from your lap and placed the notebook on the workbench and the pencil sitting on top.

Admiring you for a moment longer, he carefully wrapped his arms around you as you adjusted to being in his arms. Lifting you from the chair, your arms wrapped around his neck as he continued to hold you. Flipping off the lights in the garage, he made his way out with you cradled in his arms, as a single light basked on the artwork that you had created representing all of the time, patience, and not to mention mistakes and rough patches but that every stroke that was seen held a story and the mistakes made the artwork tailored to that piece.

That this once in a lifetime love can never be recreated the same way ever again, and no one will ever match you and our story together.

#lovrodney scenarios #optionalbias #scenarios #kpop scenarios #lovrodney #benandthebunny #personal #dart48 #car scenario

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angelreyesfx-blog · 5 years ago

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17 Signs You Work With Sealing Decorative Concrete Patio

I’m searching ahead to cool drop days spent on our patio, and I’m relieved this job is powering us. I’d wish to thank Lawhorn Concrete Design for the job nicely done. As usually, thanks so much for stopping by…

I added two much more square planters plus a list of black all weather wicker chairs. The two tall planters flank the french doors, and also the 4 sq. planters line the sting of your patio.

Change underutilized spots with your landscape into welcoming patios by utilizing handsome furnishings, lively fabrics, and beautifully planted containers.

This will save you the transportation and disposal charges ($a hundred per ton for disposal) mainly because recycling firms will select it up, and you simply’ll keep away from adding to landfills.

Epoxy concrete floor coating is mostly used in function locations including garages, utility rooms, basements, or warehouses. The utility of epoxy is rendering it considered one of now’s most favored decorative concrete ground coatings and it is its most significant marketing level.

Your contractor can create a finish around the concrete to duplicate the dearer options by incorporating coloration procedure and through a process called stamping and/or scoring.

Even when a building allow isn’t required, there remains to be a potential the patio installer might require an excavation permit.

1st, be sure that your flooring is totally clean, beginning with common sweeping and mopping. Use large responsibility ground cleaners to eliminate any ingrained grease That may protect against the paint from sticking.

The Drylok concrete flooring paint is often a decorative, protective concrete paint perfect for garage floors, outdoor patio painting, or indoor concrete basement floors.

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Costs for community substance / machines supply to and service supplier transportation to and within the job web site.

We are a cooperative Local community that values and is dependent upon your input. So, let us know - how can we strengthen This page?

Concrete blocks stack up as finish tables and sofa. Notice how purposefully positioned blocks deliver storage caches for collections, reading components, and further picnic gear.

Quite wicker pieces dressed in even prettier fabrics supply at ease seats for viewing the television set mounted on an exterior wall. Choose to stretch your patio use? Think about including electric powered lights, stereo speakers, an outdoor kitchen area, and/or a fireplace pit.

Built in authentic time by our professional designer, the 3d sketch will integrate your personal design and style and have technical specs as well as a Authentic photograph of your own home to make a higher fidelity rendering, permitting you to discover exactly what the patio will appear like on your house. This allows you to steer clear of the guesswork of undertaking it the “previous-fashioned” way.

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jane-runs-fast · 7 years ago

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Drawing Fanart- Concept to Finish

Hello! Sorry I have not posted fresh fanart in a while! I just finished my road trip and am working on some cool stuff as we speak! BUT! In the meantime, I thought a detailed view of my process would be interesting and maybe even educational to other fanartists using the same software. PS this is a LLOOOONNNGGG Post- sorry.

I use a basic laptop, a Wacom pro tablet, and Clip Studio for my fanart. The brushes I use will be capitalized.

Concept First I start with a basic idea of what I want out of the image (Pose, clothing, lighting, whatever) then I use the OIL BRUSH and a random color to roughly sketch the idea on a normal layer. Proportions and details come later, with this step I focus only on position and solidifying my ideas.

Skeleton After I throw out a concept blob (or five) I make a skeleton- a rough base of a figure that helps me draw proper proportions and angles. I do this using the ROUGH PENCIL, usually in bright red, blue, and/or green.

Rough draft In this step I flesh out my skeleton and throw on some features using the ROUGH PENCIL tool. I’m not worried about things looking perfect- I just want that bod to have curves in the right places. Rough draft 2 In this step I add a little more detail, paying careful attention to the hair and face using the ROUGH PENCIL tool. I also mark where my shadows will go and adjust the position or body wherever I feel the need.

Draft This is the final step before the line art. I go over everything, changing and altering with the ROUGH PENCIL tool until I am satisfied again- at this point I usually step away from the screen and take about an hour long break (reading fics and drinking hot tea XD) This way, when I come back to my work I can see it with a fresh perspective before making everything permanent. I then adjust the lightness of the draft(s) and turn them all light blue. On a fresh layer I use black to outline EVERYTHING with the MAPPING PEN tool. I now have my final draft and am ready to start on the line art.

Line art I know it may seem silly to go through the trouble of making a final draft AND line art- but the end result is a lot cleaner. I’m messy by nature, so sometimes I get tunnel vision and forget details that I might have added earlier, the final draft helps me keep those little things organized. For line art I use a dark brown MAPPING PEN tool to outline my final draft layer (that I turned blue and lightened as well.) This time, after everything is lined over neatly, I go back and thicken lines where they need it, and also add detail here and there (Like nail color and pupils.)

Base At this point I use the FILL TOOL and fill everything outside of the bodies with a light grey/blue color (adjusting the Close Gap setting as I need to.) I also clean up the spots that are filled, checking every edge to make sure it’s perfect. This layer stays UNDER the line art layer but ABOVE the color layers. This layer is made so that I don’t need to worry about staying in the lines/speeds up my work like nobody’s business too. I then open a new Normal layer under this and color it dark grey- this will serve as a base layer.

Base color In this part I use the FILL TOOL to place the very basic colors where they need to be- I then zoom in and make sure that the base is not peeking through any of the main base colors. Also I changed the top light grey layer to a dark pink- that is because the light grey blending in with the hair.

Shading I then use the GPEN tool on a Multiply layer to get my basic shading and detail work in. I will use the SMOOTH WATERCOLOR tool to blend the edges where needed. I usually end up making at least three layers for the shading. Normal, Multiply, and another Multiply (AT LEAST) I find it is easier for me to go back and fix/redo one layer than have to adjust the entire image.

After I am satisfied with how everything looks I will select the top pink (originally light grey/blue) layer, and using the ERASE ALL tool I will erase everything that is not my bods. Then I will make my Paper layer invisible and save a duplicate image as a PNG. File (so that the background will stay invisible.) Background I open my saved PNG file in a separate window and create or choose a background that suites the image. Once I find the perfect background I add some detail like highlights or shadow to blend it in with my image.

nope.

….maybe.

Daaawww….

There we go!

On the pics above I have just added the shading that is from their surroundings.

Highlights In this part I like to keep my highlighting soft and bright. I mainly use the SMOOTH WATERCOLOR tool and the SOFT AIRBRUSH tool, depending on the light I want I may also use the DENSE WATERCOLOR tool in places. I usually end up using at least three layers for highlights too (normal, overlay, glow dodge, and glow.)

Effects Here is where I add glitters and sparkles. Also my tag/signature to prevent theft (Something fic writers cant do to their work.)

Let me know what you all think or if you have any questions!

I wanted you all so see how much effort goes into my fanart- but more than that, keep in mind that my fanart takes half the time that it takes to write a normal length fanfic. Compared to the thought and effort that goes into writing a fic or a good headcannon, this is nothing but going through process that I have numbered in my head. all I need is a general idea before I get started. I literally only need a blob.

Where fic writers agonize over every word they are about to publish, because those words are their VOICE- something that SHOULD NEVER BE STOLEN OR F*CKED WITH.

So remember that -those who think plagiarism is not a big deal- BECAUSE IT’S A REALLY F*CKING BIG DEAL. DX

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cutsliceddiced · 5 years ago

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New top story from Time: The Fascinating Way Popeyes Comes Up With New Items Like That Chicken Sandwich Everyone Is Obsessed With

Like the discoveries of gravity and radiation, the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich phenomenon – which recently sparked huge crowds across the U.S., supply shortages, at least one case of customers demanding the sandwiches at gunpoint and up to $23 million in free publicity – happened mostly by mistake. Without a few errant tweets by Popeyes’ competitors, future American generations might not grow up hearing about the Great Chicken Wars of 2019. But despite the social-media-kindled fire and deep-fried fury, the sandwich that launched 1,000 memes was the result of years of calculated strategy and a creative process that sounds more collegiate than corporate.

… y’all good? https://t.co/lPaTFXfnyP

— Popeyes Chicken (@PopeyesChicken) August 19, 2019

The story begins in the late aughts when the company changed its official branding from Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. This shift in identity not only aimed to attract a wider audience by emphasizing a localized, more wholesome-sounding operation, but also to expand the company’s culinary depth of field beyond its signature offerings. Chicken and biscuits are obviously delicious, but by drawing on its Cajun and Creole roots, Popeyes gave itself a way to stand out from countless other chicken chains. (Both Domino’s and Dunkin’ would later follow this tack, dropping “Pizza” and “Donuts” from their names, respectively.)

“There’s so much more we can do with the food and the menu,” Amy Alarcòn, the company’s vice president of culinary innovation, explained in a phone call in 2017. “Cajun gravy, tons of seafood promotions [like] spicy garlic and hushpuppy shrimp, Zatarain’s shrimp. Those types of things do tremendously well and it’s part of being on the Gulf Coast and coming from a culture that’s heavily dominated by seafood, crawfish boils, shrimp étouffée, the list goes on.”

In the world of fast food, it’s not easy to innovate in a way that can scale to thousands of locations consistently in order to scale to thousands of locations consistently. Concepts generally cannot cost too much, require new equipment, stray too far from a core set of ingredients or be too complicated to explain to consumers in 30-second ads between spots for home insurance and Chevy Silverados.

To invent within these tricky parameters, Popeyes created a product-invention process more personalized and elaborate than one might expect from a chain with 3,000 outposts around the world. A few times a year, the company invites about two dozen delegates from different corners of the company — from marketing to operations as well as its ecosystem of franchisees, suppliers and ad agencies — and sends them to a given U.S. city with a bustling food scene. In places like Portland, Ore., Charleston, S.C., and Seattle, the team seeks out inspiration by learning about local culinary history and, of course, by eating everything on offer from roadside stands and dives to fine-dining spots and Michelin-starred haunts. “We always joke, bring your big-boy pants,” said Alarcòn. “Bring the elastic waistband.”

Following this 72-hour, high-calorie rumspringa, the team spends the next few days brainstorming hundreds of potential Popeyes concepts by talking about evolving trends as well as their personal lives. Once the list is compiled, the group then undertakes the tedious work of stress-testing all the possibilities against their logistical realities, such as figuring out how the item would be produced, whether it would successfully scale on a global level and how it might be marketed. Finally, the company spends months developing and testing the chosen product internally before it arrives in stores.

In 2016, long before the new Popeyes Chicken Sandwich was a sketch on a drawing board, I joined one of their ideation sessions in New Orleans, the spiritual roost of the company, which is now headquartered in Miami. After a flurry of ghost tours, live jazz, remoulades, spiced pig ears and muffulettas, the group assembled at Mardi Gras World — the famous carnival-float emporium — to digest everything they consumed in the city’s oldest and newest institutions. But this was more than just a field trip. Each delegate was also tasked with sharing insights about food in terms of their lives and families. “I can pretty much guarantee that whatever your obsession is, it’s going to filter out into the larger audience because that’s our responsibility,” Alarcòn told the team before describing her obsession du jour: the comfort food of her childhood like fondue and casseroles.

Over king cake and coffee, each participant made a quick presentation, touching on themes and topics that would otherwise seem out of place at a fast-food ideation summit. A marketing manager discussed his pursuit of “cleaner eating” to help accommodate his partner’s autoimmune disease. A product developer told a story about bonding with his Brazilian mother-in-law by Skyping her in Rio and cooking together. A member of the social media team talked about a weekly ritual of getting sandwiches with his daughter at Jersey Mike’s subway chain. One franchisee had adapted his diet to work within the boundaries his family’s gluten-free regimen. Another chef talked about honoring his father by recreating a family Cajun-style barbecue recipe. Next, huge sheets of white paper were tacked to the walls and the ideas started to flow.

In the aftermath of the Popeyes sandwich fervor, what this intensive, intimate process reveals is how in the age of gimmicky, brightly colored, Instagram-friendly food items, there is also a literal and spiritual hunger for something relatable and familiar. After all, the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich, which will reportedly return to stores in the fall, is just a sandwich. Sometimes, that’s more than enough.

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

#Time #top stories #IFTTT #news

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