#concept sketches!!! i love making them. i want to eventually come back to this and make it look rly good

[cottonlemonade]

Hi hi!! I saw your lemonade stand and I LOVE the concept omg. Can I request a medium watermelon lemonade with pomegranate seeds for Asahi?

Thank you so much if you write it !! I hope you have a great day 🩷

Sharing A Tent With His Crush

word count: 1926 || avg. reading time: 8 mins.

pairing: Asahi x chubby manager!Reader

genre: fluff with spice

warning: mdni, spoilers

request: fluffy-spicy, sharing a tent with pining friend Asahi

“One, two, three, four…”

As Takeda counted in the background, Coach Ukai studied his clipboard, listening with a content smile to the hollering and laughter that was carried up from the beach by an easy sea breeze. The kids were off swimming and building sandcastles and trenches, enjoying their hard earned freedom after weeks of studying and practices.

“Oh no.”

Ukai turned to the teacher.

“What is it, Sensei?”

“Oh nononono - no!”

“What? Did we forget a cooler? What?”

“We are one tent short!”

“What?!”, Ukai’s booming yell made some birds fly out of a tree top, “I double checked it! Are you sure?”

The men stood shoulder to shoulder, counting. Again. And again. But even after the fifth time, Ukai had to admit his mistake.

“What are we gonna do?”, Takeda asked, panic rising in his voice.

“We just… gotta rethink logistics.”, Ukai said, grabbing the clipboard once more and flipping to the page of the sleeping arrangements.

One of the boys was supposed to sleep alone anyway. And one of the girls, too, because both numbers were uneven.

“Maybe we can squeeze Nishinoya, Hinata and Yamaguchi into one and then have y/n take the free boys’ tent.”

“Sensei, we can’t just sort them by size. I think… hm, y/n is a third year. If we put her with one of the other third years they should have the presence of mind not to try any funny business. The first years won’t get a wink of sleep having a girl so close to them at night and the second years are as girl-crazy as they come.”

“How about Sugawara then?”

“Don’t be too trusting, Sensei. I don’t think he is as innocent as he seems.”, Ukai said with a frown, “And Sawamura might do something without even realizing he is flirting. - I hate to say it but … Azumane will be too chicken to even go near her. I think he is our best bet.”

Asahi went pale when the news broke over dinner. He looked at you and was quite relieved to see you equally as shocked.

“It‘s just for one night.“, Ukai said quickly, “Not a big deal.“

Both the ace and third manager would very much beg to differ but the coach already made his way back to Takeda and his plate of chicken.

“No big deal.“, you repeated under your breath.

“No big deal.“, Asahi agreed.

It was, in fact, a big deal to Asahi. He didn‘t know exactly when he started to be hopelessly in love with you but if he had to take a guess, it was probably somewhere around the time when he noticed all of his sketches and doodles of various outfits becoming chubbier until they eventually matched your figure. Skirts for a lovely Sunday date, pantsuits for eventually kicking butt at an office where you undoubtedly would end up as CEO sooner or later, dresses for imaginary galas you‘d attend and even an elaborate gown for a daydream of a royal ball he had during a boring physics lesson. (He also came up with his own outfit for that occasion to match you.)

Noya was the only one he confided in. The libero had sworn on his honor to never hit on you and ever since tried to push his best friend to make a move before graduating and possibly losing sight of you. And after much pushing and pestering and strategizing, Asahi, under threat of violence, had agreed to confess his feelings before graduation - as an out, Asahi didn’t tell his friend that he hadn’t actually specified whether it was graduating high school or university so he still had time either way.

After dinner the team gathered around a bonfire to roast marshmallows and make up completely ridiculous, yet confident, remarks about constellations in the clear night sky.

Asahi was torn between wanting to play for time until curfew or savor every second of the increasingly appealing mishap - to share a tent, all night, alone, side by side with his crush.

But of course, as with every good beach episode, there had to be a game of truth or dare involved.

Daichi was forced to admit that he was deadly scared of mice, Hinata had to sit still for a whole minute and, in the meantime, Tsukki was dared to not insult him once. It was fun until Noya turned to you and the glint in his eyes made you gulp.

“So, y/n-san. Truth or dare?”

Quite frankly, both of these were dangerous coming from him but maybe truth wouldn’t be so bad.

Noya gave a victorious grin.

“Who, of the people here, do you have a crush on?”

Asahi wasn’t sure if it was the light of fire that made your cheeks look so pink. His heart quickened. You stammered, kneading your fingers in your lap.

“Alright everyone.”, Daichi said when an alarm went off on his phone, “Let’s get to bed. Lights out in 15 minutes.”

Noya groaned and began to argue but one look from the captain had him crumble. So instead, he and Tanaka pushed each other out of the way, eager to be the one to accompany Kiyoko the few steps to the tent she shared with Yaachi.

Suga and Daichi gave Asahi a nondescript nod Goodnight before heading to bed themselves.

It was quite miraculous, you thought, how Asahi’s massively tall frame could fit next to you, when your plump form occupied a good part of the truly pathetically crammed tent already.

You sat cross legged on your sleeping bag, in your pyjama shorts and oversized t-shirt. Given the sleeping arrangements you decided to keep wearing a bra.

“Just for one night, right?”, you said in a (failed) attempt to make your voice sound light and airy.

You pumped some oil into the palm of your hand before running your fingers through your hair. The pleasant smell filled the tent. You caught his eyes and smiled, then both of you looked away again. The atmosphere was somewhat stiff, even though you’ve been on friendly terms with the fellow third years ever since you switched over from the Sewing Club about a year ago.

“Do you think-“

“So what would you-“

You said at the same time and broke off, laughing awkwardly.

“You first.”, he said.

“Do you think it’s okay if we keep on a light?”, you asked.

“Sure. Do you have one? Cause otherwise, I brought-” Asahi reached for his backpack and so did you.

After a moment’s rummaging you produced a small panda bear figure and turned to see a thing in his hand that looked suspiciously like a round little rabbit with a leaf umbrella.

“Is that… is that the official Totoro night light with 8 different color options and dimming function??”

Asahi nodded and you clasped your hands in delight, leaning closer to inspect it as he held it out to you. You let out a small gasp. This was one of the best night lights on the market right now after all!

“I wanted one of those for ages! But they're always sold out! How did you get it?”

“I set myself an alert for when they’re back in stock.”

He basked in your impressed “Ohhhh” and a few minutes later you both lay on your stomachs, looking at the two soft glowing figures in front of you.

Outside the tent, Ukai nodded approvingly on his last checkup before turning in himself in the room he shared with Takeda in a guesthouse on the border of the camping grounds.

“What was your question?”

“Hm?”, Asahi turned to look at you.

“Earlier when I asked you about the light. You wanted to say something as well. What was it?”

“Oh, not important.”, he said and moved the Totoro night light a little closer to your panda.

“Come on, I wanna know.”, you lightly pushed his leg with your foot to encourage him.

“I was just… I-i was wondering what you would have said if Daichi’s alarm hadn’t gone off.”, he mumbled.

“When? Oh, the game. Uhm.” The pink from earlier returned to your cheeks. Now would be as good a time as any, you thought and after a deep breath you replied, “You.”

Stupidly, Asahi rolled around to check if there was someone else behind him in the tiny tent before moving his attention back to you.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.”, you laughed.

“I- I don't know what to say.”, Asahi stammered.

You regarded him with a thoughtful smile, still somewhat hopeful that what Kiyoko and Suga told you was right.

“Well, you could tell me if you feel the same or not, maybe?”

“Oh right! Yes!”, he said, much louder than intended and ducked his head a moment later, “Yes, I do like you. A lot.”

You beamed at him.

“Nice.”

The following giggles were suppressed in your respective pillows.

When you came back up for air he brushed a few loose strands of hair out of his face and cleared his throat, “Would you like to go out with me once we’re back?”

“I’d love to.”

“Great.”

You both looked at each other, unsure of what to do next.

“So…”, you began, weighing your words carefully, “Do you wanna make out?”

If Asahi had been drinking water, he would have choked on it. His face immediately turned bright red and he needed a minute to put a coherent word together. You waited patiently.

“Yes.”, he croaked eventually.

He didn’t move.

“I’ll be right there.”, he assured you, his voice and face still not quite back to normal.

“That’s alright.”

Asahi’s eyes widened when you scooted closer and your noses almost touched.

“Hi.”

“H-hello.”

It started out with a peck. You pulled back to check if he had any objections but you didn’t get very far. His lips followed yours as if magnetic. He sighed into the kiss and your smile widened if possible even further. His large hand came to rest on your waist and you slotted your leg between his. The kiss soon became open mouthed, your tongue slipping back and forth to test the waters.

You hummed happily against him, making him squeeze your pillowy hips. He was losing his mind. How could one person feel this good? Your hand brushed down his muscular arm to lay on top of his and began to move it. He was so engrossed in your taste that he didn’t notice until he cupped your breast.

“Y/n…”, he breathed, resting his forehead against yours. He stared at his hand, how it went up and down along with your panting. You, in turn, felt him throb against your thigh that was pushed between his legs.

Your chubby fingers closed around his much larger hand, easing him into the idea that he was free to touch you.

“Y/n…”, he whispered again and was met with your lips on his once more. He had never been drunk before but he was sure this was exactly what it must feel like.

Asahi groaned into your mouth when his palm pressed against your hardened nipple, pushing through the fabrics.

____________________

Picking up a piece of omelet with his chopsticks the next morning, Asahi grinned down at his bowl of rice like an idiot. You sat right next to him, so close that your heavenly thighs touched his, just as dazed from the previous night.

Tsukki frowned and said to no one in particular, but loud enough for you to hear, “Do they realize that tents aren’t soundproof?”

a/n: this one got so away from me xD thank you for your request and your kind words! I hope you enjoy it 🌟

Also I apologize for being so inactive. It’s a mixture of writer’s block, summer heat and a twisted back 🥲

[vibatu]

"Just a sip" , a comic idea that I have filed away under the "I no longer know when or if I'll ever finish it" category (Doesn't feel right to say "discarded" lmao) (who knows, maybe one day I pick it back up!).

I really love the thumbnails I managed to sketch out (especially that last panel at the third page!!!!!!! I want and need to make more of that), its been I think almost a year since I've made them though, and it just doesn't feel right just let them keep collecting dust after so long especially when I don't even know if the inspiration to complete it strikes again, so, here it is! Read more for further rambling into the details~

This is another "what if" comic where wanted to explore mainly:

1. Ocudeus and The Seaspring. And what could happen within someone's mind once they drink (Lukas is our text subject! Yay!)

2. "Interesting" paneling, or at least visually engaging compositions in pages (I love making comics!) There's so many things I want to practice and try out to make bring the movies in my head come to life in this format.

On to the "plot".

We start out with Lukas drinking from The Spring. Hypothetical-Timeline wise this would be happening at the "ending" of the TS story in which not a single cure is found for MCs curse. Last resort type of situation. This happens on pages 1, 2, and page "3". In this post the 3 image would actually be page 4, I just never sketches the 3rd (I just drew what was clearest in my head first). Imagine 3rd page having a shot of Ais staring at the process from a safe distance with a cig while Lukas is writhing on the floor losing his marbles after drinking (lol).

Now the fun part. Ocudeus. I imagined the process of joining the groupmind not happening instantly. I thought about Ocudeus himself manifesting in their new host's mind and sometimes striking conversation (which happens in isolation with just the two of them) (brain is not part of the primordial soup. Yet)

We don't know what Ocudeus looks like either! So I went crazy. At first I was just gonna make them take Ais' shape. But that felt, not quite right for an eldritch being. So instead, Ocudeus takes the form of whoever is drinking :) thus manifesting themselves as Lukas inside Lukas' mind.

There's a huge jump in events from Image 3 and 4 of the post. After Img 3 there's a lot of talking going on. Asking if the curse can really be cured. Ocudeus being a sassy smug menace cryptic about it and reminding Lukas that there is no going back anyways and that is no longer something Lukas should be concerned about. He will no longer be himself, so why worry.

After this its just a "Descent into true madness", see Img 4 for reference, where the "world" just really starts to warp around and eventually ends with Lukas getting "consumed" by the darkness of the giant octopus, his lasts thoughts as "Lukas" being those of relief of finally getting rid of the curse, and grief over leaving his life behind. Fun stuff.

Comic was supposed to end with Lukas jolting awake (His head was resting on Ais lap now).

After sitting up abruptly and wiping his tears away, with hands that now look properly human. Lukas turns to Ais and asks, with a gaze now as red as the seaspring near them.

"Why am I crying?"

-

THATS A LONG ONE If you read this far, well, thanks! ;w; I hope you enjoyed the read, even if there is no full comic to pair. The Seaspring is so interesting to me.

Some other random things: I got inspired by the Honkai Star Rail promo video where Acheron and Black Swan dance together. The visuals and visualization of Black Swan's "being" being consumed by the endless void was SO good and when I realized this concept could work for the seaspring in a similar way I needed to get the idea out of my system.

Have an extra! Alternative version of my fav panel. Only difference is the eyes, this is the first version. Which I drew before Redspring revealed what Ais' eyes looked like when his cephalopod friend is driving the car.

Vibi out~ (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)

[kikilowatt]

I've been thinking a lot about what archetype I would pair with jason todd, and since different personalities make for such good interaction my mind kept coming back to a cute girl pink bunny influencer type.

and i couldn't help but making stories about how she is so soft and sweet, and you think she must have had this comfort around her all her life, but actually the reason she is an influencer today is because she grew up poor and she loved to journal and to read, so she started blogging about all the cute things she liked from a young age, and eventually got some sponsors and money from it.

not a lot of loss in her life, but shes seen suffering and her old neighbour taught her how to shoot a gun. and how shed contrast well with a Jason todd that sometimes makes really strong judgement about people and who they are and what they value, and who always puts his walls up, and who resents but appreciates in a way how hardened life (well, death) has made him...

and with all that having been said, im feeling embarrassed , it's very likely ill take the concepts ive been thinking about and give them to some actual OCs of mine who are monster hunters lol but i wanted to share the sketch

[crow-cello]

Happy May 1st! Art has been sporadic, so I feel I need to finally expose some of those overdue concepts now that I'm focusing on another fandom at the moment. I'm not called the fandom hopper for nothing, but I enjoy each series for the duration of months before I need to stretch my mind with the next one. I always come back to the fandoms I like, eventually! There is always a time for everything, but only when the time is right.

To my Hazbin Hotel friends, I especially owe a lot of unposted wips. Now that Hellaverse is confirmed canon, I can happily say I kept the mindset of Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel characters coexisting together in the same universe. My many roleplays I have with @dashi-inu pretty much inspired a lot of these works. Some are also own personal projects. These wips span back to December 2024, to March 2025, and while they may not be finished anytime soon, these are concepts I think about a lot.

Hazbin Character Refs

Character Spotlights

Fusions

Art Wips (Michael/Lute, Alastor/Lucifer, and Adam/Lucifer) Also Solo Abel, and a Solo Lute

With that said, enjoy my thoughts in the form of sketches! Foreword: There will be casual nudity, and smut stuff.

Hazbin Character Refs

Dashi was making character refs for the characters we used the most in our Hellaverse universe and was working on one for Baxter. And my god, if you know, he always goes so hard on the lore and style of these. I was inspired to do the same.

Lute is one of my favorite characters, and someone that I did not expect to have more development for during the time I was working on a lot of Adam projects and works. Then again, these two go hand-to-hand in the Heaven Lore. And yet, Lute became so much more, that she turned out to be the baby girl of my fixations (thanks to dashi's vers. of Michael of course. <3)

Here is her full body. Yes, it looks almost complete, but I could never get her main outfit to work the way I really envision it and was too fixated on her "Descent to Hell" version more, so it became a delayed post.

Cain was also supposed to have his own fullbody. After making the realization I will have to do for Abel and Seth, I figured that would take a while.

Character Spotlights

There is a series that I love that does special focused comics for each of its characters *coughs thank you transformers* and I wanted to replicate that idea for every character of Hazbin and Helluva Boss, as most don't have current backstories, and some I had been able to imagine just a little more differently. I was particularly piqued to do for Vox and his assistant and Baxter, Velvette and Melissa, Valentino, Angel Dust, and Travis, and of course, one for Adam who would have been Issue #1 being first man and all.

The only page sample I managed out of that ambitious project. 12 pages, back-to-back if that ever becomes printed editions. You can imagine how that would take a while as well for each character!

Fusions

While the show is still ongoing, Dashi and I felt there could have been more characters. But even more selfishly, the concept of fusions had always intrigued me: To be able to explore the bond of two individuals in order to create a celestial being. Or to forcefully bond and create a monster of a force. Fusions can be a wonderful dance, or a tango lead by just one.

This was also a less pressuring way of making "love children" with my favorite ships, without slapping a fan child to them just like that. In Dashi's Michael case: his Michael has made a vow of abstinence, and Lute was more than happy to oblige with his terms!

Lute x Michael Fusion:

Modest Michael, Strong fighter Lute. She carries herself with a cunning grace, yet elegant in a dark heavenly way. Michael's comfort in letting Lute lead this fusion graces their bond together with a strong fallen angel of justice. "She's like a cat in the dark and then she is the darkness 🐈‍⬛ 🐦‍⬛"

Adam and Lute fusion would be the byproduct of a forced bond, and one that overrides Lute's confort. This is what predicts the fusion's visual identity, and the headmaster of the dance. Unstable, but one of the stronger fusions.

A rock hottie powerhouse, he has the best fighters of Heaven under his belt. His showman ways are even louder than ever, even going as far to showcase both his bits (against Lute's wants of course, Adam finds humor in showcasing the beauty of her with his confidence.) Perhaps this way, Adam can finally get the numbers of the ladies with a lady's expertise in the host body...

Art Wips

This one is self-explanatory. Fan pieces that I did not get to finish for Michael/Lute, Alastor/Lucifer, and Adam/Lucifer. (And Lute by herself, too!)

I'm sorry the Alastor/Lucifer ones have to be heavily cropped lol!

Adam/Lucifer, for a zine I had to drop out of unfortunately due to time limitations :'> But also, an Adam and Abel for an au just for indulgence.

Thank you if you made it this far! Let me know if there is a concept or art that piqued your interest, too!

[eldritchshipping]

gulp hi guys... first s/i art on here.... me and venomous... first post in main tags too.....

anyways. below the cut is an infodump about Lone Wolf (aka Wolfy)! (literally typing out the info down here i decided on his villain name, i wanted it to be really obvious and kinda corny cuz a lot of canon ok ko villain and hero names are ive noticed tbh....) some lore info and fun facts plus another sketch :)

wolfy was an experiment made by a group of scientist heroes! he used to be a normal human

the plan was to make him a werewolf, but with this he developed severe anger issues and some primal instincts (like fighting over territory and hunting)

he also developed tougher skin (part of why he doesnt wear much when fighting, that plus he usually transforms in battle and too much clothes would just tear and get in the way), stronger muscles, sharp teeth and maybe more idk

eventually he got too power hungry with his new strengths and went against the heroes, despite them being the ones who gave him this power, he felt like he needed to and COULD be better than them. He ran away with plans of becoming a villain (which is where he came up with his name) (still kinda workshopping the details here)

he now LOVED fighting and would attack random heroes and civilians (which would ofc result in heroes showing up), but also attacked some villains

the scar down his midsection is from experimentation, the rest are from battle

hes blind in his left eye (haha this is a reference to my left eye being worse than my right) because of it being scratched and badly damaged in battle

to explain his battle gear (cuz he wears normal clothes too when he eventually gets his hands on them) the shoulder armor is connected to the harness (which is just to look cool tbh, but he uses the spikes as defense often, like if an attacker is coming towards him sometimes he'll just turn quickly and scratch them with them instead), the wolf face on the belt is to represent his own wolf form (like a logo of sorts), his boots are TOUGH and a little heavy, he uses them to kick and scratch opponents as well, and the spiked collar is just to look cool :3

he kinda just existed on his own and traveled a lot, the board of villains could NEVER find him as much as they wanted to, neither could any heroes

(everything from this point on is still being workshopped so theres not as much details plus it may change)

venomous literally just found him somewhere randomly and wolfy was going to attack him but venomous went on about how much he heard about him but wolfy just started to get too absorbed in his eyes and voice too pay attention and forgot all about fighting him ehehe

after getting too flustered wolfy just ran back into the woods 💀

he then stopped attacking random people to try to find him again and eventually found his lab and at this point bro had NO idea what to do so he just started staying in the woods around his house hoping venomous would come looking for him (and he did cuz he ALSO was interested in him)

at this point the two started meeting up more and eventually this lead to ven letting wolfy live with them and they slowly got closer and got together :3

i might just make a separate post talking about their relationship cuz this post is very wolfy centered.... sorry for the yap fest

annnd heres the sketch of my concept for his wolf form (this isnt to be finished this is just me showing my ideas ill probably draw him normally at some point) (i luterally made it within like 5 minutes help)

[jennamoran]

The Far Roofs: the Rats' Books of Names

cover art by Isip Xin

Hi!

Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about my forthcoming RPG, the Far Roofs. I’ve previously talked about

general principles,

the rats,

the campaign,

the Mysteries, and

my favorite Mystery.

Today, I want to talk about a key setting element:

The rats' "books of names."

So, the high concept here is pretty simple. The rats of this game are pretty cool, but not cool enough to deal with god-monsters on any kind of equal basis. The Mysteries aren't like Goliath to their David, at least not usually; they're more like Scylla and Charybdis to their Odysseus. Sometimes it's possible to negotiate. Sometimes it's possible to fight back. But a lot of the time, "winning" a confrontation with a Mystery is more about surviving. Making it through.

Except ...

Just like it was for human mariners, a situation where the whole environment they travel through is full of impossible horrors one just can't do anything about ... that's kind of untenable. Humans never made the sea safe, but they did learn to navigate it. They figured out how to sail, how to chart, how to not get constant scurvy, how to knot rigging, all that stuff.

In like fashion, the rats have this multi-generational project to, basically, nibble away at the "Mystery" part of the Mysteries. To not just survive their encounters, but to come away with a bit more information every time.

To learn, eventually, how to handle all of this stuff, all these monstrous divinities that haunt the Far Roofs.

The Books of Names, in short, are a sacred tradition of the rats and pretty much a defining feature of their interactions with the Mysteries. Most families of rats keep their own set. The shelves of the rats' great libraries overflow with huge and magnificently illuminated Books of Names—dozens or hundreds for any given Name. Over the generations, at a grievous cost, the rats are grinding down the impossible magic of the roofs into something comprehensible, something they can grapple with. To record truth, and insightful commentary, and eventually learn to live with even the greatest and most awful Mysteries.

What this all means to the rats is a little tangled. They worship the Mysteries, I think, and hunt them; they are hunted by the Mysteries in turn. They dream of one day defeating or destroying them, but I don’t think they’d like the world where they’d been destroyed. They are hammered into shape, both as individuals and a people, by the Mysteries, and I don’t think I can ever really fully express what these books, or the Mysteries themselves, mean to them.

They are rich, like cake, like wine, like a well-loved and annotated cookbook. They are generations of wisdom, bound in form.

To the rats, they are, I think, life itself.

Let me show you what an example is like! Like, what you might see opening up some rat family's Book on the Mystery Hoop Snake.

.

Quick Hoop Snake sketches, by Jenna

.

So your typical Book of Names is going to start with a couple of introductory pages, maybe some sketches or whatever, and then move on to what the rats call a Mystery's "heralds," the ... ways you know that the Mystery is near. The things that you see when it's interested in you, when it's considering haunting you, or just passing by. The things that it emerges from, in the world.

It'll usually start with a list, with lots of room left to go, like:

.

Heralds of Hoop Snake ...

* blurred vision * getting turned about * sudden light or sudden darkness * the sudden realization that something is, and has been, very wrong * * * * * ...

and then, like, a couple pages set aside to go into each of those more, with a mix of personal statements (often newsletter clippings, because the rats send these comments around) and summarized opinions or facts.

Like:

.

Blurred Vision

“I saw it on the road. Down the alley, past the milk crate, in front of that old cabinet someone left out on the street. I was rubbing my eyes, and they were a little blurry, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure I’d seen it, or what I’d seen. It was just this blur of colors rushing by, all these colors. And I thought, a flag? A mural? Someone’s shopping bag, caught by the wind? It wasn’t until I’d had that happen like three more times, these half-caught glimpses of color, in the rain, when I didn’t have my glasses on, from the corner of my eye, that I actually saw Hoop Snake direct.” — Alyona Waynwright, 2018

.

NOTES

Gavrilo writes that Hoop Snake lives in the confused sensorium. The world jumbles up, and Hoop Snake comes out.

Ioanna comments: “Little incongruities become bigger ones.”

Constantinope Volkov accidentally summoned Hoop Snake through an abstract in-progress painting. He could not later replicate this feat.

Elsibet Križ proposes a mechanism similar to the way that new, unknown scents temporarily seem like improbable combinations of the known—how your first encounter with a cat does not produce the sensation, “Ah, this is the smell of cat” but “oh no, my parents are being ripped apart. The world is shaking. Why is there peppermint?” You mistake the world, and Hoop Snake is there.

Meredith McCawley (human) comments that when she is very sleepy a pile of colored yarn can look like a snake to her; the passing lights of the cars, like eyes.

Kesterley Novác pushed on her eyelids to watch shapes spin. They got more and more detailed until one day she saw Hoop Snake! Trying to chase Hoop Snake into her eyes she wound up headbutting the wall.

.

Getting Turned Around

You are nodding along. You are small, they say. And meek. You are but a child. I will fix that for you, they say. You think, “Wait, what?” In that “Wait, what?” there is a snake. — Iodine Petrova, 2012

.

NOTES

Maria Augustine, Leverage Jordan, and Daisuke Ozlov attest this experience of Hoop Snake: “we are confused, and then, we are not confused. A snake takes its tail into its mouth, and rolls.”

Kaeda Vanagir was noted as having frequently become lost in the weeks before her June 1993 disappearance chasing after Hoop Snake. (May she one day return.)

Jezdimir Czerny likened the moment of seeing Hoop Snake to becoming turned around, to feeling like you know where you are and where you’re going, and then you look up, and you’re actually somewhere else.

Violeta Schulz was flung from a spinning ferris wheel and, before she landed, a snake burst from the bushes to, as the witnesses described it, “drink her down like wine.”

I found a Hoop Snake scale in a little store that I’ve never seen again.

Hoop Snake Scale

.

“I was literally just popping out to buy the news. Only, I hadn’t had my coffee yet, and somehow I wound up … I don’t even know where. It was a garden, up on the roofs, but it wasn’t a rat garden, and I don’t know where it is, and I can't find that place now. There was a colored banner, there, tied to a tree. It fluttered like a snake in the wind.” — Presley Weekes, 2014

.

Sudden light, by Jenna Moran

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Sudden Light, or Sudden Darkness “There were noises in the dark. Thumping. Crashing. I thought it was the cats. My brain was so sleepy. I couldn’t put it together, except: oh, the cats got down here. We don’t even have cats. So I stagger out there. I’m not even dressed, just a long shirt on. I didn’t have my glasses on. Everything was just a blur. And I look at the cats, the thing I thought was cats, and like, for just a moment it was. For just a moment, it was cats, moving in the dark. Then it was ‘cats,’ like, one thing, one item, one animal, with two parts, that were shaped like cats. Like a dromedary, if cats were humps. It stuck its tail in its mouth. It began to roll away. ‘Like Hell,’ I said, but I didn’t give chase. I wasn’t dressed!” — Lucy Stokes (human), 2004

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NOTES

Valery Merlin experienced frequent incidents of his electric lantern coming on unexpectedly and blinding his eyes, sometimes accompanied by a fulgurative scent. This ended when the flare of the light revealed a snake like a coiled spring; he fell over, the lantern broke, and the incident thus resolved.

Priscilla Augustine reports a summer cold that stuffed up her nose to the point of intermittent blindness, during which intervals objects would fall of their shelves, slithering or rolling noises echo through the halls, and glittering snake scales appear in unlikely places. Later, Hoop Snake appeared; when she complained that she could not chase it owing to her cold, it leapt up her sinus passages, cleared them out ... and vanished.

In 2007, Tsubasa Kysely reported such high levels of paparazzi harassment that “I can hardly see from all the flashing.” He would ultimately disappear in what is believed to be a Hoop Snake incident; may he one day return.

When our senses become unreliable, Eureka writes, the world becomes the inexplicable.

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The Sudden Realization that Something Is, or Has Been, Very Wrong

“The funny thing was, that wasn’t the first time I saw the snake. It had already been there. It was in that picture frame, hanging over my bed: this picture of a snake. Sometimes it moved. It was in the background on this show I watched. I would go outside, and sit on the edge of the roof, and there’d be a snake there, all curled up with its tail in its mouth, and I’d say to it ‘hey.’ I had to keep moving it out of the sink. One time, I think, I walked into my house, but it wasn’t my house. It was the snake. And I still didn’t realize. I still wasn’t able to really process, here is something inexplicable. It was just part of the world I thought I knew, until one day, I looked at it with fresh eyes and went ‘oh my freaking saints, that is a snake.’ It was like it was laughing at me, when it stuck its tail in its mouth. Like it was making fun of me. I took a step towards it, and it rolled away. Another step. Another. But there wasn’t roof underneath me any more, so I fell.” — Mikhael Bygones, 2015

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NOTES

Gavrilo writes that we often fail to recognize the presence of Hoop Snake in our lives until it has already been present for some time.

Meriadoc Ozoles was famous as “the Chasing Mayor” because she kept running after bits of colored string floating by in the breeze. It wasn’t until she caught one and it turned out to be Hoop Snake that people remembered that colored string doesn’t normally just float by all the time.

Maglev Brunsinick grew up in a burrow that turned out not to be real: he wandered out one day, and looked back, and there was only a snake. "I should have known," he says, "looking back, what with the way Mom and Dad were just internal organs. But, like, I was a kit?"

Torrin kept tripping over her grandmother's tail everywhere in the house. One day, she spilled hot oatmeal all over her grandmother's tail. "Oh no!" she said, and tried to clean it off, but her grandmother wasn't in the room. The tail wasn't reacting to the heat. Also, it was a snake tail. She dashed in to confront Hoop Snake; startled, it threw aside her grandmother's shawl, looked every which way in a panic, and then flung itself away down the drain.

Vasilisa writes: "What is reality but a snake we won't see?"

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“At some point I realized that I did not work at the company. I think it was the looks people were giving me. Steve. Like, there was Steve, and he had this look in his eye like, ‘why is there a rat here. Why is the rat wearing a suit. Why is the rat carrying a folder with our third quarter projections.’ I was just strolling along, on top of my game and on top of the world, but I couldn’t help shriveling a little at all the looks. At this growing disorientation, like: Why is this place? What is it for? Why was I heading to my cubicle to spin around and around and around on my swivel chair when the skies were so blue; when the roofs were so high? Who even hired me? Who decided that this was the way life would be? Why do people who don’t do any work get paid so much more than us rats down here in the trenches who do? And the more I tried to just cope and keep moving, the louder the questions got inside my heart, until I spun around and I pointed and I said, ‘because I’m damn good at this, STEVE.’ He was so gentle. I was … I wasn’t expecting that he’d be so gentle. ‘If only,’ he said. ‘If only that was why anyone found their way here.’” — Rufica du Lac, 2016

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Jenna Talking Again

It's basically that kind of thing! Plus a lot of blank room left for more.

After that section on the Heralds, it'd move on to the "weapons" of the Mystery, the way it hurts you, the way it messes around with your life; like, for Hoop Snake ...

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The Weapons of Hoop Snake ...

* ridicule * confusion * anything you don't expect them to be * * * * ...

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... but, I think I'll stop there for now.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse at the rats' Books of Names! Don't forget to check the kickstarter out!

[phishyie]

Sorry thinking about them being stalkerish. What can you tell me about Donnie, Bowen, and Darling? Do you have like any posts talking more about them?

Ooo, I would say don’t get me started but this is an absolute guilty pleasure of mine, and I’m thrilled you’re interested!

I don’t have any other posts talking about them, but I am so willing and able to chat!

(Pics and fun info below! Long post warning)

Bowen and Donnie spawned about the same time, let’s call it ten years ago. A few dear friends and I were young teenagers, just playing around with the idea of what would happen if we were royals. Each person would have their own country, their own powers, their own court, etc.. Being the person I am, I have always loved the whole knights and chivalry and courtly love thing.

I have so many more pieces of Donnie, because he was created with the specific idea of someone to juxtapose Darling, someone to really love and care for her. Someone kind, and gentle - everything a prince should be. Save, he isn’t really a prince - he’s the Duke, but no matter.

(This is literally the first time this has ever been posted - I think these sketches are from 2014? God bless, character expression sheets were so in back then!)

Donnie:

- technically the Duke, Donnie has been betrothed to Darling since they were children. They have always been on good terms and they were each other’s childhood confidantes. Getting married never seemed to be anything more than a fulfillment of their friendship - entirely platonic, but definitely full of mutual affection.

- Donnie comes from a rather controlling family. Raised by his grandmother, being the “perfect” son and marrying royalty (Darling) is paramount to them. There is pressure there to be good, to make good, to be everything to everyone at all times.

(Sketch from 2016/17 - he always seems to have a bit of a crooked smile. He’s definitely a bit of a good-humored sort of person.)

- When Donnie and Darling grew older, younger teens, Donnie’s grandmother wasn’t satisfied with how the young man was turning out - through no fault of his own. So she sent him away to a finishing school, where Donnie and Darling eventually lost touch. He didn’t return until their early adult years, expecting to pick up right where they left off.

Handsome boy! I did this one maybe summer 2023, I think, never posted.

Bowen:

Bowen’s conception came about because Darling needed someone around to protect her, as a young princess is required when she grows older. He is everything and nothing like a knight should be - he can be selfish, perhaps a little cold, and he feels far deeper than he shows. He has noble ideals, being that his main purpose in life is to protect Darling. He’s a few years older, so originally his feelings began as more of a “this kid is… helpless. She needs someone, and since there’s no one else-“

But, as they often do, things get more complicated. (Sketch dated approx. 2014/15?)

- Bowen arrived at the Palace and did not make an incredible first impression. He was argumentative with the Princess, bickering relentlessly with her - not that her parents much minded. She needed someone to keep her out of trouble, they thought. Someone to be different from Donnie, someone who could argue back.

- watching over a princess who doesn’t want to be a princess isn’t an easy job. Bowen’s patience was tested to the fullest. He’s not a patient person by most standards, but as he and Darling grew closer, he got to see more of the young woman beneath the crown. A fearful, lonely person who needed someone to see her and prove that they would stay.

- As soon as they each got over their own pride, things became easier. Darling didn’t escape the Palace as much (only when she was stressed or felt pressured), Bowen actually laughed and smiled in front of her. They came to be friends, and they grew to trust one another.

- According to original lore (our old rp’s), Bowen being in love with Darling wasn’t planned! It was a plot twist I didn’t see coming at the time, so as I’ve fleshed out the story in recent years, it feels like something that could have developed over the long years Donnie was gone. Right as Bowen begins to discover that the feelings he has for the now young woman are definitely bridging a little more into the potentially romantic variety, Donnie returns.

And the drama continues!

[kouhsuu]

EMO TREAT AU MASTERPOST

SPOILERS FOR ALTERNATE ENDING

Essentially... What if Treat was EMO?

Specifically, what if she had stayed with her pack instead of leaving?

That's pretty much what this AU is about! Me and some friends came up with it for fun and it just kept growing lol

It takes a couple of liberties to make some things work though so it can be a bit silly!! xP

How it goes

Rather than Tundra, Timber is the current pack leader and they are both much older. Treat's parents failed to seperate from their pack, Glaze, and Treat suffered the repercussions by Timber using her as an example to her parents.

Treat eventually grows up under Timber, as he teaches her his way of acquiring food for their pack, good food. She struggles, but is forced to swallow it down for the sake of the pack. She distances herself from most everyone, aside from Timber as he is her mentor, and only really bothers with others out of necessity. Lacking empathy and becoming emotionally stunted due to her childhood makes her a near 180 to regular Treat.

Here's how she looks like!!

The way I see it, she dyes her hair with charcoal from fires to represent her deep turmoil!!!! or something like that, I can't think of a reason why outside of "my heart is a deep and vast void"

How are other characters/the world affected?

Starting from the pack members...

Cotton & Candy: There's not much to say, but after getting caught trying to leave the pack they haven't had much to do with everyone. Treat only really comes over to sleep and avoids them, because she somewhat blames them for what happened to her.

Timber: Pack leader and mentor of Treat. He didn't want to have to hurt Treat, but her parents took it too far trying not only to take their daughter with her, but Powder & Fennel too. He took her under his wing so she wouldn't get influenced by her parents anymore and decided to take the opportunity to teach her to be the next generation pack leader... Though no one but his mother knows that yet.

Fennel: She still has a giant crush on Treat, and is the only one that actively goes out of her way to hang out with her! Treat thinks she's a nuisance, but slowly entertains Fennel as she grows curious as to why she keeps trying to get close to her.

Other characters such as Powder and Tundra aren't really all that developed, so feel free to think up something for them!!!

The pack members don't just end there either...

I made up some characters for the AU aswell!! woohoo!!!!

They're in a small little fic I made on Mochi meeting Treat in this AU, but I want to do more with them!! The descriptions will be short though since there's not much with them yet.

Cocoa: The oldest, and the only one in his human form. He's playful, carefree, loves poking fun whenever he can.

Mallow: The middle child. His fur is dark gray and he's the strongest out of the three. He's boisterous, a bit stubborn, and competitive.

Creme: The youngest child. Her fur is white and is sarcastic, confident, a bit self-absorbed. She's also very prissy which annoys her older brothers.

Stuff they all have in common are also sharing admiration for Treat, despite always getting caught causing trouble by her, and the three of them are very close knit.

Characters outside the pack

Moxie: Unlike in the canon, she has lost her confidence due to being forced back to be with her mother in ginseng, following the loss of the Foxy Den. She eventually ran away from her and now hopes to learn how to survive in the wilderness by stalking the wolves around, including Treat.

here's a little concept sketch of her!!

she's pretty dinged up :(

Mochi: Due to Treat never having left Glaze, she never arrived in Frosting to live in the cabin and save Mochi from Moxie. She ends up fearing predators a bit more due to this, and is usually escorted by Juju outside. However, she still wishes to slowly start being more independent again. Overall though, there isn't much changed with her! (including her design)

Trick: Treat's parents never got to form the other pack near their Master's house because they never got to leave. Due to being unable to find any wolf pack settlement nearby, their Master reluctantly brought Trick together into hiding with him. Even if it would cause problems along the way, he didn't want them out fending for themselves. Trick would slowly start the learn the truth behind their Master's identity.

Will Treat, Mochi, and Moxie still get together?

Yes!!!!!!! However, with the way it's going, Fennel will be included too!! I have it somewhat outlined how I want it to go, but you'll have to read my friend's fic on it!!!

Speaking of fics...

Here are ALL the current fics and side stories so far!!

MAIN FIC (collab between me and @blobsicle): LINK

Short Stories:

(these are by me :3)

Fennel x Treat

Treat and Mochi Meeting

HOW TO TAG THE AU

Use either '#Shifted Story' or just '#Emo Treat AU'!!!

that's all for the AU!!! I hope you guys like it so far :3>!! Feel free to add onto any of this, or add a spin!! i'd love to see any of it so feel free to tag me!!

I'll be scheduling some posts with art i've made :)

[summertaters]

Oh my gosh!! I’m gone for a week and you make a years worth of wonderful things?!? Thank you so much!!! The angst, the fluff, the humour!! It’s all so goood I don’t know which one’s my favourite!!

I love more unhinged Hinata content, she’s such a little menace 😭😭 She would totally be the kid that has lured some kind of creature into her room that eventually multiplies 😂 Kacchako has to watch her like a hawk for sure

The soft doodles with silly faces mixed in always makes me smile. The range on your art from sweet gentleness to ugly goblin expressions is always amazing and I love it so very much!!

Villian Uravity is always such a fun concept, did you have any ideas about what lead her to this point or was it just pretty inspired by Arcane? I love the implication that she’s lifting up massive amounts of the Earth, her quirk has the potential to be so dangerous on a grand scale

I love the consistent return of your costume redesigns!! It makes me so happy to see your style and ideas incorporated into the little sketches and doodles you do. So glad you explored it more, it’s still one of my favourite redesigns!!

Sorry about the little ramble and I hope you’re doing well too!! 💜💜

Have a sweet kacchako doodle, anon~ You deserve it!

I think they'd eventually have to give in to Hinata's feral-ness on some level, and get her some kind of pet. I'm thinking a pair of rats, or mice, haha. Or maybe she'd find a stray animal that just keeps coming back.

Katsuki would be the most opposed to adopting it, but would eventually accept their new family member. He'd be the dad that says he doesn't want a pet, then have that pet favour him, and vice versa, LOL.

I have ideas rattling in my head about how/why she'd be acting villainous, but, you may just have to wait to get more info... Ehe!

But, YES. She has so much potential danger if she wielded her quirk for bad. I love playing with AUs, and 'what ifs'. I'm glad you enjoy when I play around with things!

Thank you anon(s) for all of your wonderful messages, comments, and compliments. I haven't had much time, or energy lately to respond to all of them, even though I want to! (I will try to eventually respond to them all eventually as I LOVE engaging with y'all)

Your messages always brighten my day, and I love your rambles! (Hello, fellow rambler here~)

[nottoonedin]

*floats into ur inbox*

Hello. Hi. Hello. Do. Do you have any lore to share on any of your ALNST OCs (Isla, Monica, Toon) involving their backgrounds, during and before Anakt Garden? Maybe regarding their guardians or how they act around the other OCs in general? I love your children

(Sorry in advance for the iffy art, these are just first concepts/sketches and I may redesign them in the future, some of them I decided to colour, but some I just left as sketches cause I just wanted it over and done with😭😭)

👏Okay, so!

In this post, I'm going to be focusing on Isla and Monica's Guardians!

They are all currently unnamed (I'm terrible at coming up with names). I may come up with some in the future, but feel free to suggest names for them!

ISLA'S GUARDIAN

• Upper class alien. Owner of a prestigious, well-known restaurant/lounge.

• Originally bought Isla to train her as entertainment for the lounge, but many of her friends and regulars of the restaurant recommended sending Isla to perform in the famous competition: Alien Stage.

• Still has Isla sing in her lounge when not performing in Alien Stage. Isla's Owner hopes that Isla's participation in ALNST will help boost her restaurant's popularity.

MONICA'S GUARDIANS (PAST->PRESENT)

GUARDIAN 1

• Monica's first Guardian. Lives on a lush, garden planet (owns a garden themself).

• First got Monica as a gift for their daughter, but ended up growing fond of the pet human. They liked bringing Monica on walks throughout their garden and tending to the various plants.

• Monica grew attached to her Guardian, and this may be one of the reasons for her big interest in bugs.

• Her Guardian eventually put her up for adoption. Monica never knew why.

GUARDIAN 2

(Note: Unfinished sketch. Design may change.)

• Monica's second Guardian. Lives on a modern, city filled planet.

• Bought Monica because red-headed human pets were the "current fashion." They liked to show Monica off to the other aliens. Monica enjoyed the attention and being fawned over.

• This Guardian was the one Monica spent the least amount of time with. Once she had gone "out of fashion," she was put back on the market.

GUARDIAN 3

(Note: Unfinished sketch. Design may change.)

• Monica's current Guardian. Lives on the same planet as Guardian 2.

• Always looking to make large amounts of money. Bought Monica for the sole purpose of entering her into ALNST.

• Monica's least favourite owner so far, but she still wants to do well in ALNST to please him.

I have talked a little about Isla and Monica's time in Anakt Garden, but I mostly focused on their relationship with each other. You can find that here.

I should probably do a post about their thoughts on the other OCs at some point, but for now have this^^ <3

Tagging a few peeps.. @starry-skiez @paradisedisconcert @solei-eclipse @pwippy @rockwgooglyeyes (if you want to be tagged/don't want to be tagged in my alnst oc posts, please let me know!!)

[archandshri]

23rd Feb '24 - [arch] OH RISO my beloved!!!!!! ft. cyberpunk hermitcraft soup group

A cliffhanger!!!! And now I have to wait a month for you to upload the second half?? How will I cope :’’0

For real, it’s so awesome to see your process and the sheer amount of inspiration you take! In particular, I thought ‘Sit on Two Chairs’ and ‘This Was Our Pact’ were particularly yummy. 

I think book covers are really hard. You have to sum up a book’s energy in one image, make it stand out and show just enough so people want more. Exploring the narrative through those full pages is really interesting - though this is something you did for fun, it could be a really useful technique for getting to know a narrative. When I’m designing my comic covers, I always do it last - that way I’ve had practice with the visual style and I’m thoroughly familiar with the themes, so I guess spending a bit of time with the characters and narrative in this way helps for standalone book covers too. Of course, it helps if you have the time for that XD

Okay!! Onto what I've been up to!!! [warning this is a beefy post I'm sorry for your poor reading brain]

The past two weeks have been really enjoyable! I’ve been playing a lot with slow world-building, in sketchbooks, google documents, and voice notes to friends. Letting myself really sit with concepts, think about the characters, let them play in my head with no expectations. With this relaxation and lack of pressure, some beautiful narratives and interactions have been developing. I’m starting to need a name for a world/ the story. I’m not quite ready to give them a full introduction to the internet - I know it doesn’t but it feels like there’s some accountability to *produce something* and this slow development is really important for the quality and my skill building. It’s really hard to take on, but we actually don’t have to make the perfect thing now! In fact, it’s impossible. Pressure on ourselves makes it so hard to make something good if we’re always grasping at the final result.  In the meantime, while those characters develop, I have been working hard on my basic skills. I wrote about characterization last post, but this week I focused on setting and colour. I was inspired (once again) by Hermitcraft. I’ve seen some really incredible illustrations of Minecraft builds in the fandom, and it seems like a great exercise.

Bdouble0's Season 10 Base illustrated by @applestruda [source] and The Red Zone, built and illustrated by Bdouble0 [source]

One of the creators on Hermitcraft, ImpulseSV, created this build in a recent episode. It takes inspiration from the last season of Hermitcraft, where he was part of the ‘soup group’ with two other players, and his current base concept - a cyberpunk city.  I also LOVE his new character design, so I wanted to place him in the scene.

Screenshot from Impulse's video and new impulse design by @maxx-doodles

Here are some initial thumbnails I did, trying to figure out the composition. I wasn’t sure of the vibe yet, so I tried some rough thumbnailing, and drawing on an isometric grid and other perspective techniques. I’m going a bit mad for characters at the mo, so I wanted to place some in the scene. I found the angle of the isometric grid steep to place characters comfortably, so decided against that.

Looking back at it, I love the second! But I believe I was struggling with the perspective. I decided on the last one eventually.

Now, I absolutely adore all of the players in the Soup Group, and I am BIG fan of redesigning their notable characteristics to suit different settings. So yes, I decided to put all of the soup group in the image.

PearlescentMoon (left) from my comic and GeminiTay's Hermitcraft Season 10 design [from this thumbnail] (right)

Here's the sketch of the final image. I really enjoyed coming up with cyberpunk versions of them all. I used the impulse design almost exactly, with a few extra interesting details since he's mostly viewed from the back. For PearlescentMoon (middle) I kept her fringe, dark hair and gave her a glowing moon symbol on her top. For GeminiTay, I kept her long ginger hair, antlers (but glowing!) and took inspiration from her new season 10 design - a dark blue jumpsuit to match her dark blue clothes in her new design, and the braids she is often drawn with. I also gave them edgy new hairstyles. And a robot arm. I don't have lore for that.

As usual, I filled each flat colour-to-be with black and lowered the opacity to play with the values. Then I added colours one at a time, aware might be riso printing it. Originally I stuck to trying to make it printable (making the colours out of ones I could make my layering 2-3 colours at different opacities), but as I went on, I decided to drop that and focus on the quality of the image in a digital format alone. I did keep the grayscale version above with all the separate layers in case I needed that if/when I came to riso printing it. Below are the main two digital colour schemes I tried out.

I settled on the one on the left, with the blue tones - the foreground characters really pop. I put a few details in Gem's hair, colour variations etc, and cropped it for Instagram. I actually much prefer the cropped version - it sits better in a rule of thirds.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for :'')

RISO!!!!!!!!!!!

I returned to Cardiff after a couple of months away and was delighted to spend my first day back at The Printhaus, an awesome shared print studio where I have basically made my home. A few of my awesome friends happened to be there, so I spent the day playing around with this image with their help! (please check them out they're very cool - Gavin helped me a lot (we hung out at Thought Bubble, remember? and Rhi gave good crits too!!)

For those who don't know, risograph is basically a shitty photocopier that can only print one colour at a time. However, you can play with gradients and opacities, and layer colours really nicely to combine. I've done a lot of single-colour tonal work with riso but this is my first go really layering.

First, Gavin showed me how to separate the channels in Photoshop, using the flat image uploaded to the 'gram. We copied and pasted these layers in grayscale and added blending modes to each layer to replicate what they might look like when printed.

With blending modes, the digital mockup looked like this!!

This bit goes into technical details for replicating what the print might look like for those who might want it - feel free to skip :)))

I copied and pasted the Cyan, Black and Magenta layers as greyscale (as you can see above)

I made all of the greyscale layers multiply layers since risograph ink is transparent and we wanted to see how it layers. The ink usually comes out a bit lighter than you think, so it's good to bear that in mind. I used a clipping mask over each greyscale layer and a blending mode. WHEN YOU PRINT, PRINT IN GREYSCALE, NOT COLOUR.

Here's how I split the colours from CMYK to the riso colours, their hex codes and the blending mode I used to replicate the colours:

Cyan - Mint [HEX#82D8D5] Screen Magenta - Fluorescent Pink [HEX#FF48B0] Screen Black - Blue [HEX#0078BF] Overlay Yellow - scrapped for colour scheme purposes

Blue, Mint and Florencent Pink layers in greyscale in Procreate.

Riso printed Mint and Florescent Pink layers on separate paper, followed by the two layered together.

We always start with the lighter colour inks first, because sometimes the rollers can pick up the ink and cause extra marks where you don't want them. The first two colours came out great!

The first time we printed the blue, it came out very dark (left, first image). I have had this issue before - my last book, Winter Wellbeing, came out much darker than I wanted. Now I realise that the blue ink is super sensitive. All the 'white space' that is covered by a low-opacity blue on the left is only 2%, and yet it has come out pretty strong. We tried printing it on one of the misaligned images just to see, but it took all of the brightness out of the neon soup sign at the top of the image (second image). So I changed the values and pushed them way lighter, so it just pushed the values of the darker bits slightly, and brightened some of the lineart (right, first image)

And this is the final riso printed version!! I'm so so happy with how this came out. It's so different from the original digital version, and I actually love that.

I didn't create new colours in the way that I intended to - I wanted to play with overlaying purposefully to create specific colours eg. orange for the hair etc. But!!! I'm really happy with how it came out. That will have to be a project for next time.

Also, many copies are slightly misaligned, so in future I think I'd do flat layers for the colours a more blobby style with the linework on one layer only so there's less of a chance for obvious misalignment. design for the riso, rather than riso the design.

Overall though, this feels like a super cool step up and a milestone for me. Super happy with how it came out!! And I'm excited to play with colour some more. Can't wait to see the rest of the Lionheart brothers! Enjoy your weekend :)))

Archie 🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺 <3

[torao-chan]

First post won't be connected with the other, which'll be a long chain, but here's the sketches that led up to me buying a new, proper notebook for sketching in.

This series of pages took place over, like, three or four (five? time's weird) months, until the frequency increased to the point where we felt our creativity was really beginning to find it's footing again.

This first batch was all built off of inspiration given to us by fanaticsnail's sub Kid fics asdlkjkgldjsfkg We never ended up finishing them might still finish the top kid on the second page though because none of them Hit The Right Vibe we were going for alkdsjlkgjkdf We were still fighting Perfectionism off at that point

Some specific notes:

Shoes are still a weak point of ours. Like a lotta human related things. We just gotta keep practicing until we get there 😿

We wanted to try and figure out drawing Bepo cause!! He's so cute alksdjlkgfdg Still trying to hit the middle ground between Oda's style and our furry art style asdgfdshf >w>;;

We did a lot of body and expression studies and I have a spare page that has since gone missing of more of these no idea where that went

Hands my beloved-beloathed. Love drawing them, suck at it.

Along with trying to nail the Kid that stuck in our head from this fic, we also tried to nail the Killer that came from discussions around this fic. Both we're not happy with, but neither we've given up on yet (　｀д´)9 they haunt us in our waking moments. lurking the back of our mind. we'll nail it eventually

These pages are when we started going 'but... what if we made keychains'. Still may end up using some of these sketches for keychains and/or stickers or something.

Some specific notes:

We wanna turn the rook-rook on the first page into a bookmark for Lil' Red >w>;; may not get it done in time for their birthday though

Also want to make a dangle Hot Cross Bun keychain so he may make a reappearance too!

Really, really still love the LuLaw-SunMoon dangle charm concept. That IS going to become something eventually.

Tobiuo on the second page is fanaticsnail's OC >w> we wanna make a something for her still asdlkjgflkd just still trying to find something that Hits Right

Really wanna make a NYEP Luffy sticker. Haven't given up on that concept yet either laksdjklgfdg

If you've seen one of those base sketches fully developed, no you haven't 😏 I'll come back and link it after a certain date lmao.

Also some base sketches for gift ideas for residual. I will find something that clicks (　｀д´)9 I swear ittttt

A mixture of maybe sticker? Designs? And some general furry warm ups alongside my dreams of a Friendly Flower Pal reversible keychain set, which still needs to be seen accomplished. Also also; Guard Point Chopper - Marimo Zoro - Puffle!Luffy as a sticker set is still Prevalent in my mind.

The base concept sketch for this reversible keychain which just needs to be printed out now! Along with the complete brainrot for this post that slapped me across the face that One Morning. And also. Booty short concept Lil' Red and I came up with after discussing my Birthday Cake that week lmao.

Last sketch before the new sketchbook was bought, which was the attempted drafts for this art born of the fanfic brainrot Minniaa gave me asdlkjglkfdj. Sexy and happy poses, apparently, I struggle with greatly. But angst? Can nail that in a heartbeat; an old friend, if you would aldskjglkfdg

[ssiggss]

Hello again ! You don't have to respond to any of these if you don't want to btw, I just like explaining/rambling about Trollhunters because all of my friends aren't into it.

Anyways, my story for the Arcane Order is WILDLY different from both the Wizards series and the movie.

Nari's (who is based off of the Tylwyth Teg from Welsh mythology) more of a villain at the start of Wizards, being the driving force for the Arcane Order's disdain of humanity. Skrael and Bellroc aren't fully on board with the idea of letting the incredibly violent and destructive Gumm-Gumms win the war and rule over the surface world. But, Nari's the eldest, and they can't not admit that Camelot is a threat to the magical creatures within Nari's woods.

Still, allowing the man-eating trolls to win sounds like a bad idea, so Skrael and Bellroc refuse to assist in Nari's plans.

So, Nari plays with fate by herself, approaching Arthur under the guise of a fair maiden, and planting the seeds of doubt in Morgana's loyalty. Which leads to her death at his hands.

Nari is the one who resurrects Morgana, and gives her more power, along with a mission: Tamper in the battle and have the humans lose.

Fast forward, Nari realizes her mistake mid-battle when she's forcefully shown the future via that time-map thing. (I despise time traveling, but I can make it work to keep it just a *little* closer to Canon). After seeing what her world will become with Gunmar and Morgana ruling it, she backs down, and brings the forces of nature crashing down on the Gumm-Gumms. Deya still wins the overall battle, and locks Gunmar away, just like in Canon.

Now, remember how I said Skrael and Bellroc didn't want to destroy humanity? Well, Nari's actions seem to have a habit of coming back to bite her.

Fast forward to Jim's lifetime, and the world is polluted, cultures are getting smaller and smaller, and not many people are still in touch with nature. So, remembering what Nari had tried to do with Killahead, Skrael and Bellroc decide to ask her help in wiping out humanity for good, to preserve the cultures that are rapidly fading.

Nari sticks her nose up at them and basically says "Nah fam, y'all didn't help me back then, I ain't helping you now. Besides, Merlin's letting me live at Camelot for free" and peaces out. And Skrael's like "You didn't even go through with the plan back then???"

Yeah so, Nari, #1 hypocrite in my Au. I still love her, since she's also inspired off of numerous fae and also kelpie mythology.

In what would the Rise of the Titans movie for my Au, all of the battles and stuff are a lot different, including the Titans themselves. I'll draw them all eventually, but moving on for now. There's still a fight between Nari and Skrael; Nari loses an eye and forearm during the fight, and Skrael is almost strangled and crushed to death by vines and rubble.

Eventually it turns into Skrael seeing that yes, there's still good people on Earth, and yes, killing them all is not the answer. He helps how he can in the upcoming confrontation with Bellroc, which is less of a battle and more of a therapy session. Because, damn, these guys' cultures have been absolutely wrecked by time and colonization / global warming.

In the end, the Arcane Order splits up for good.

Thank you for reading! Have a digitalized version of the sketch from the other day

This is a very interesting concept!!

UIltimately you've made some cool alterations!! I like the more in depth dive in Skrael and Nari's bond, and the differential development of your storyline!!

You've put a lot of work into this, I respect that!! Its all very detailed, and you've got good visual language!!

I like this au, thank you for sharing!!

[northwest-cryptid]

Since people seem to have a want for OC and Sona stuff, I shall drop it below the cut for anyone who wants that stuff.

I think the big thing I gotta start off with is saying that for me, Sona and OC are two different things; every Sona is of course an OC, but not every OC is a Sona.

So for the sake of explanation I personally define it as such (and if you define it differently, that's perfectly fine I'm just saying this is how I personally define it for the sake of explanation). An OC is simply an Original Character/Creation, it's a work that comes from myself and not an outside influence such as a video game, tv show, or other media. While a Sona is a "Personification" or a "Persona" of a thing, typically representative of myself, but sometimes it could be of an aesthetic, a concept, or a genre. An example of this would be that I used to have various Sonas for the different styles of music I made (which was a trend back in the day god I feel old saying that).

Okay now to actually get into the stuff people actually came here for. Kicking things off with Sonas I use to represent myself in various media we have first on the list:

Velvet/VelvetSoul

Velvet has been and continues to be one of my main Sonas and a representation of myself that I use for things like VRC, while the outfits are generally in need of a lot of work (they're pretty basic with a very simple pixelation effect thrown on to give off that dreamcast vibe) the more defining features of their hair/eyes and such are based heavily on my OCs from various media and D&D games. Note that yes these are both intended to be the same character, I'm genderfluid as hell and appreciate being able to outwardly present as a more masculine or feminine design at times. The beanie that masculine Velvet wears is a sort of callback to a beanie I wear a lot IRL because it gives me a place to display my collection of pins, I will eventually update it accordingly however for the time being it works just fine.

For the spooky season I gave Velvet a silly ghost appearance where I decided to take some inspiration from the Jet Set Radio aesthetic of big ol' feet and slightly larger hands, I've always enjoyed the concept of playing around with anatomy in a stylized fashion, I however once again didn't go too hard on the outfit since I'm honestly still working on these characters and have a ways to go before I'm going to be happy with them. I however dropped the pixel look here that we see on the original Velvet design:

While some may argue that this isn't recognizably the same character, I would argue that variety is the spice of life and I am fucking SPICY.

I did do a little work on facial expressions to make sure they didn't horribly disfigure the face which was fun

Another Sona often used to represent myself, and one that I hold dear to me is Akito/Aki, probably the one I'm best known for:

I really did my best to throw more Native inspiration at this lad, and honestly I still have a long ways to go on them. They as well have a feminine design that looks wildly different I don't know why I'm like this but I enjoy it:

and as per usual I'm not 100% happy with how they came out so I'm gonna keep working on them because I love my dumb blorbos but I can never stop "improving" the designs lol.

I think my main issue with the current design for Akito is that the artist who drew the VERY FIRST ever commissioned piece of art for Akito did such a good job and no one has been able to capture the same vibe this sketch has this dude did it for like $5 and I gave him such a big tip because I was so annoyed that he was underselling his work because HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THIS and you want to know the worst part? I got blocked out of my twitter account recently and as I'm unable to access my twitter account I literally do not know what the artist changed his handle to though I remember him changing it before I got locked out, so I literally have no idea what the hell he's going by and I really want to give him a proper shoutout so I'm absolutely going to figure it out because he deserves credit for this piece to the point I'm salty he didn't like, sign it or anything.

This is art that never gets seen and it kills me because for those who don't know, the original design concept for Akito was a sort of mix of 3 things, Kallian (Xenoblade), Sandalphon (Granblue Fantasy), and general Space/Owl motifs given that the general concept design philosophy behind Akito was the idea that, Hihankaga The Owl Maker, a Lakota deity who judged Nagi on their way to the afterlife; was essentially retiring and had placed Akito in her place as the new Owl Maker. My main idea behind that was that people would come to the Owl Maker and tell her their life story the same way I was doing challenge runs in games that would typically follow a character (such as Chester from my Kenshi playthrough) and thematically it would be a sort of "retelling of their life" I was originally, and might still do this mind you; going to have a website dedicated to a sort of "Hall of Fame" where I would write a short bio for each character who's major arc has been completed on the streams and determine if they had lived a life fit for being worthy of an afterlife or whether I'd deemed them unworthy and cast them into the abyss. So basically Akito was meant to be this sort of cosmic owl spirit with wings and stars and the whole nine yards, but still be a more comfortable/easy going sort of individual. The key concept behind Akito as The Owl Maker was simply that Akito never wanted to cast spirits into the abyss so they specifically did everything they could to help people live a fulfilling life just so they could rightfully deem them worthy of their afterlife. Hence why I love the idea of them just wearing really casual clothes and like, a comfy scarf, also I like scarves. The red on the scarf is not just a gentle nod to the color of the four directions but also to the fact Native people are often referred to as "red skins" and generally when it comes to Native imagery such as the symbol for MMIW it's done in red. As a quick aside, if you don't know MMIW is for "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women" and if you ever seen Akito wearing a red hand-print over their mouth, it's because of this:

(I believe the design on the right was created by Despertar1111 but don't quote me on that seeing as the only place I could find a credit for the image was fucking redbubble but I digress)

The thing no one talks about when it comes to doing Vtuber stuff is the fact that if you're poorer and you save up like $400+ for a model and rigging you'll still get artists who ignore half your design and riggers who generally speaking can't rig full motion so do your research and don't settle on a design/rig that's sub par, I know this now and going forward I'm likely going to make sure the artists and riggers I work with are quality, I already know my next model will be rigged by none other than Neapolitanrime and as for my artist of choice I have no idea because I don't even have the money to consider that sort of thing yet but SOME DAY!

MOVING ON!

One of my OCs and an old OLD Sona for my sort of Grunge Punk music days was such an edgy lad, I'm very like; closet edgelord but you know I mostly keep it to myself; that being said this dude is named Xploit and I love him to death:

General design philosophy here was very grungey street punk vibes, I did in fact slap the same exact beanie that Velvet wears on him but like again clothing is very placeholder with these and basically meant to give a general vibe. Xploit was originally made after my old band and I went downtown and saw some graffiti that was talking about the exploitation of lower class workers where the bottom of the letters were shaped like knives all pointed at a singular entity, likely the laborer in question. I ran with that design to create the logo for Xploit that mirrors his 3 fangs (middle tooth and side fangs) with the X, the L and I, and the T in his name.

Also because I'm 3edgy5u I made his eyes X's (I just thought it looked neat)

I still have a lot of work to do on the shading since I'm working with very simplified 3D model making software instead of making models from scratch in something like Blender like I should be doing to have as much control over it as I want to. That being said it's meant to give an illusion that he has no facial features such as nose/mouth until otherwise speaking, at which point his fangs are meant to be prominent. Everything about his outline from his eyes to his hair is intended to be extremely sketchy and rough.

and because I have a soft spot for making even my edgier characters silly little guys, I made it so when he gets surprised his eyes bubble up.

Since I know there's some controversy regarding characters with bandages and the like I'd like to quickly make mention that none of the bandages worn by my characters are ever intended to suggest self harm.

Admittedly this is far from the complete roster, but we're eliminating anyone/anything that sprung up from games (I do consider them OCs to a degree but I understand they are influenced by the media they were created from/in and I don't feel like that should be necessarily included on a list of original characters that I specifically defined as "not being from media") and these are the ones I've been working on most recently so they're more in the forefront of my mind; I have plenty more for things ranging from music Sonas to just various OCs I've used for D&D and the like. That being said I'll likely throw together another one of these for the other OCs when I have more time/I'm not as busy.

You can have these drawings though:

Akito and Nazo who is @the-sum-of-ones-parts' sona. They are also the one who drew this. They also drew this of Nazo and Velvet

They also drew Akito in a dress (they are giving Melia vibes and I'm all for it.)

and they ALSO drew Akito and Nazo for the Outlast 2 stream we did.

Note that Nazo is a shapeshifter.

Big shout out to @the-sum-of-ones-parts for drawing so many of my dumb OCs/Sonas (like you guys don't understand there is more but I'm trying to not make this post 10 miles long)

THAT BEING SAID I HAVE A BUNCH OF DUMB MEMES OF AKITO YOU CAN HAVE (if you can't tell Akito is my most public OC)

If you have any questions I probably have answers (hopefully) so ask away my friend.

[byanyan]

when they decided to use his arm as a blank canvas, he let them, finishing a book he’d finally sat down to read. no stranger to letting them draw on him, this time was no different, he made no attempts to stop them. eventually, once he finishes the last page, he finally looks down to see what they’ve been doodling…. and when he sees what they’ve come up with, his eyes light up. he’s liked everything they’ve done so far, but this… this is different.

a line of stars, all different sizes, that all absolutely loves. he stares fondly down at their design, admiring every little detail. and then, he looks up at them, excitement written all over his face. “ i really like this design, i think it’s my favorite thing you’ve drawn on me… ” there’s a pause, his gaze falling back onto his arm. “ i want you to tattoo me, maybe you can squeeze me into your work schedule. ”

ㅤthey're just vibing. music playing too loud in their ears, head bobbing along to the beat as they leave trails of ink on the skin of sol's arm, they're bouncing between markers with nibs of different sizes, but they're not putting that much effort in. they're trying, yeah, but it's more for fun than it is anything serious so, when they're nearly finished and sol's book closes over, his attention turning to their work, they're surprised when they glance up at his face and he meets their gaze, excited. a smile isn't unexpected; it's actually quite common to see when he looks at what they've drawn on him, something which always makes them feel all warm inside, but there's a light in his eyes this time that's a little... different. more enthusiastic than usual.

before his mouth can even open, byan is pulling their headphones off, dropping them to rest across the back of their neck as their other hand draws to a halt mid-stroke. sol speaks, and they simply blink at him, expressionless. they're stunned. eyes fall back down to the line of stars they've been drawing, almost as if to figure out what's so special about them, to make him that happy. to make him... want a tattoo? —a tattoo of this?

ㅤㅤ" wh— ...huh? "ㅤhow do words work, again?ㅤ" ...for real? "ㅤhe's... never expressed interest in getting a tattoo before. admired theirs, sure, which is something they've always loved, but he's never seemed interested in having any of his own and, while that's something that's never bothered them, they're afraid to let their hopes get too high. afraid that he might change his mind, that this might be a spur of the moment thought brought on by a doodle they've done on his arm that he happens to like more than the usuals.

ㅤㅤ" i mean, i can— "ㅤthey'd literally bring him in tomorrow after all their appointments are done and work an extra couple hours just to do it for him if he really wanted—ㅤ" but if you're actually that interested... like, i kinda based this one on mine... "ㅤturning the hand still holding their marker over, byan reveals the line of stars drawn in white ink which dot their inner wrist, a tattoo they've had since they were fourteen that he's surely seen thousands of times by now.ㅤ" but i could sketch out somethin' nicer for you, y'know? let you make some changes where you want 'em so it's yours instead'a just some shitty doodle'a mine. "

even thinking about it is exciting, though. their own eyes light up the more they speak, the more they think about it, about really getting to share their passion for tattoos with sol in such a permanent way... it's difficult to not get caught up in the excitement of it, even if it is just a concept for the time being.

ㅤㅤ" 'cause i'd totally do that, y'know. work ya into the schedule too, or bring ya in after hours, whatever works better for you with the shop— "ㅤthough they don't realize it, byan is beaming as they pop the cap back onto their pen, practically vibrating as they resist the urge to get up and run to grab one of their sketchbooks right this second.ㅤ" —but i'd wanna make sure it's somethin' you want, y'know? somethin' that's yours, somethin' you're not gonna regret. nothin's stoppin' us from startin' tonight though, if you're serious, 'cause, like, honestly? i'd fuckin' love to design a tattoo for you, i'd love that so fuckin' much. "

[jon-mcbrine-author]

There are way too many talented artists in the world. The Internet has no shortage of fantastic illustrators, authors, and creative types in general. The sheer volume of skilled creators and designers is staggering. So, why do we still try? I’ve written about this topic before - how creatives experience the inherent feelings of being an amateur impostor playing at drawing or writing. The consistent conclusion as to why people continue to produce new paintings, novels, or poems is that it is indeed inherent. The real question is what do artists do with this inborn drive to make something out of nothing? For one thing, we fail.

Yes, artists carry on, and we persevere, but the onslaught of rejection is never not tough. The “art gene” lies within our DNA, flowing through our blood like a curse. Even those quitting for one reason or another are still likely to have their previous endeavors cloud the back of their minds. The past is indestructible, after all.

There was a period in my life where I can’t recall trying to do much of anything creative. There were lengthy stretches where I simply didn’t think to draw and even if I did, it was an errant doodle. I even pursued continuing education courses that were a far cry from anything resembling art. Business classes did not suit me, and it wasn't long until I dropped that particular kind of schooling. I had no business attempting accountating - all I was doing was delaying the inevitable, or rather, denying the inevitable. I eventually entered design school and flourished, and began seriously writing at the same time. It took a significant amount of time to land in my lane, a path that feels so natural to me. Despite my penchant for coming up with stories and drawing slightly more sophisticated doodles, I spent a decent chunk of my existence ignoring these traits. The reason? Well, chiefly among the explanations, rationalizations, and excuses, I simply didn’t think I was good enough.

I don’t set out to be some inspirational figure, but I do think it’s always worth exploring ideas. Spare time can be woefully scarce, but the creative pursuit will continually be hard to ignore. Blogging, sculpting, performing - whatever the case may be, will always be time well spent.

Easy for me to say in a carefree moment. It’s not such a flippant concept while stewing in the drudges of a rejection or negative comment. It’s wonderful to see such positive affirmation across social media, but the reality is that a fledgling project and/or being told your efforts ultimately missed the mark sucks. Spending hours working on a piece of art resulting in less than stellar feedback is enough to make anyone want to hang up their stylus. No attention at all is potentially worse. The devastating heartbreak of sharing your passion with the world and it getting dismissed is not fun. I mentioned people quitting, but I do not believe anyone truly gives up their artistic side. I think people will find different, little ways to showcase their hobbies and talents. At the end of the day, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you define success in the arts - of course, we’d all love to have our audiences shower us with praise, but let’s be honest, if you enjoy writing, you’re going to write anyway. If you like to draw, you’re going to sketch regardless. There are champions of the creative arts who have achieved every possible accolade who also still desire to produce new works.

Think of the wealthiest, most famous, and celebrated author or artist in any field - chances are, if they can, they are still making things. Maybe they’ve even gone past their prime and should enjoy the privileged life their art has earned them. Never working again. Simply living in a permanent vacation while the world reveres them as a legend. There’s a strong chance that even living legends who want for nothing still feel compelled to create. Rich or poor, the creative type will be drawn to make art no matter what. Man, it’d be nice to relax once in a while. But, that’s the curse of creativity. And it’s also an amazing and weird gift.

Stay in the loop for more details by following Jonfiction Blog on Substack and be sure to check out jonmcbrine.com for more info about this and all my books.

Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One is available now from the Amazon Kindle store.

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