#creativity central

[creativity-central]

Blog 12: Line Weight

Hello everyone! It’s nearly the end of summer, and with the weight of school drawing ever closer, I’d like to talk about the weight of… line art!

Personally, as an artist, I used to take pride in my uniform, unweighted lines that make my work look more consistent. Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with doing so, but over time, I started to experiment with using line weight in my art and found that it enhanced my work drastically! Thus, I’m passing these findings onto you!

Line weight can be unconscious depending on the pen you use for line art, both digitally and traditionally! However, there are specific ways that weight can be used to emphasize certain parts of your drawings. Areas that aren’t hit by a light source can have thicker lines to simulate shadows. Objects placed closer to the camera, and thus enlarged, can get thicker lines as well. Lastly, things pulled down on by gravity can have a transition from thin to thick lines going down (typically fabrics, like skirts!). These three examples are typically the main examples of varying pen weights being used.

Another common use, however, is shading as well! Familiar with crosshatching? Well, making thicker lines the farther down you go can also enhance its look! This kind of stuff can be found in traditional comics that depend on pure black in order to shade.

If this variance seems daunting, start off with some exercises to warm up to it! Make rows of straight lines that start off thin and end up thick. Make thick lines that end up thin. Make lines that pulsate between thin and thick (this can create a stitch or bead-like appearance!). Go crazy, and don’t be afraid to put pressure onto the paper!

Line art is more than just a more polished sketch, it can be used to make bold emphasis or smooth, flowing textures, and much of that can depend on your use of line weight! Make the most out of it! And with that, I’ll see you all next month!

[suburbanbonfire]

Another year, here we go!

(prints here)

some wip shots since I know some people like seeing them!

meant to take more screenshots, but ended up super busy and forgot once I came back after a few months, whoops. Making the iceberg itself was super fun!

[coffeenuts]

[pjharvey]

yah middling/extremely radio friendly pop artists have been doing crazy and provocative visuals for their videos, stage performances, album art, etc for ages and having outfits that are “too out there” for how their music sounds so re: chappell roan this is nothing new. lil nas x kind of does pop rap that isn’t bad but also nothing particularly special, and he has had some insane music videos. lady gaga did this, miley cyrus did this, halsey is doing this, the weeknd did this, even taylor swift in her reputation era did this

[kaynineacademy]

i couldn't possible explain it but somehow new york city makes me want to be alive.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

hey hey ! ive been lovingly staring at all ur art ever since i found you n ‘ i wanna say !! i love ur artstyle !! sm !! waaugh !! <33

have a star ⭐️

a question ive been meaning to ask though , i cant really seem to find much information about your lights out au , unfortunately ^^”

may i ask what exactly is the premises ? :O

so the Lights Out au is essentially: the Welcome Home Puppet Show was shut down prematurely, and without any warning to the puppets. the employees turn off the studio lights when they leave for the last time, completely abandoning the building and the sapient puppets inside. the building is locked and boarded up to ensure that nothing gets out.

the lights turn off halfway through the neighbors' "day", and everyone - except Wally - goes to sleep, assuming the day got away from them & its just time for bed. the lights never come back on, the neighbors don't wake up, and problems start to arise from the lack of light. Wally and Home are left to deal with all of this alone.

(and Eddie is in the water cause... well. he's just in there! fr tho it's just a running joke for the au <3)

[the-eldritch-it-gay]

Sanrymic "Flint" Tēhal Aesthetic — God consumes you, digests you, makes your decomposition a sacrament. You consume god, tearing into Him with your teeth every time you eat; He is not the god of harvest, He is the harvest.

Poem from [here]

[theknitpotato]

Entrance Hall of Antwerp Central Station, Belgium. Designed by Louis Delacenserie. 1905.

Photo by: @joethommas [IG]

[murdleandmarot]

Hi!! Gonna ask this to everyone I can think of, do you have any AUs you like/made up for cats? Or for bluebelle?

HI HELLO‼️ sorry for the delay in answering 😭

It’s hard for me personally to come up with AUs for Cats, (mostly because of the cognitive dissonance with the names. It’s so difficult to get past the names), so I personally only have a couple. Firstly, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare.

I saw the show live and I just felt that the whimsy of it really matched cats, and I have all of the roles planned out, I think it would be very interesting and fun to write out :). I don’t want to go into too much detail here, (I really don’t want to make this post a thousand years long 😭), but if you’re interesting, just shoot me an ask and I’ll be happy to rant about it, I love Shakespeare :D

I have another au that I unfortunately can’t reveal right now, as it’s something I’m currently working on, but I promise it’ll be out soon :D

(it’s completely unserious btw and entirely for silly goofy indulgent reasons-I’m not trying to be dramatic about it but it’s just. Very special to me :)

OH‼️ there was a Bluebelle au I had, based on the movie Barbe Bleue (2009)

It’s a French movie about Bluebeard and it’s one of my favorites, it’s very vaguely historical, very gloomy with some REALLY fun scenes and ideas.

I’m more than a little obsessed with it, and at some point I REALLY want to do something with it, maybe a redraw of a still with Bluebelle, but who knows :)

Of course, other people’s au’s are the coolest in the entire world.

@/cillyscribbles has been driving me CRAZY with her human au, (it’s mostly about the Deut bros, and it is insanely good. Hasn’t left my mind since she told me all about it. Cilly when I get you Cilly)

@/margo-mania’s celestial au is SO rad, the concepts are gorgeous, and honestly could be made into a really really rad non-replica, especially with the potential of cool stage lighting, or poses (I’m thinking specifically of the eclipse (also I need Celestial!Victoria to marry me immediately))

@/pinkieclown’s doll(? Toy?) au is SO CUTE OMG. The character designs are so adorable. I want the newest design, munkustrap, as a plushie SO BAD.

Honestly, ALW should just give all of us collectively a billion dollars so we can create as many non-replicas as we want.

(Honorable mention to @/diorlusional’s apartment au, it’s my darling forever and ever)

[hiraethwrote]

don’t mind me, just going to queue up some amazing fics while i sulk a little about not participating in kinktober 🥲

[creativity-central]

Blog 10: Mermaids

A common artist tradition held in May is Mermay. It’s nothing official, but the pun sounds nice and it lets people have an excuse to draw as many mermaids as they please, whether they be original characters or favorites turned into mermaids! So, this months post is going to be a bit more lighthearted in nature by giving some observations I’ve seen in mermaid designs that could help you in the future, and in the future Mermays to come!

There’s not a single right way to draw mermaids, as long as part of them is a human and part of them is a fish (although the human part is preferably the torso and up). In fact, it doesn’t even need to be a fish. Lots of mermaids have been created with other aquatic wildlife, but let’s start simple before we reach that point.

Talking about mermaids will almost always bring up Ariel in people’s minds, her red hair and contrasting green-blue tail are just too iconic. However, her kind of mermaid is the simplest out of the ones to be mentioned here. Her fish side has tail fins, scales, and nothing more, and she wears a purple seashell bra. Other than these two aspects of her, there is nothing separating her from a normal human being, making her design feel like two beings stitched together rather than a whole.

The point of a mermaid may be that contrasting feel, and if Ariel is the ideal design you want in a mermaid, feel free! However, when considering mermaids as an actual singular creature, and bypassing the friendly vibes needed for a children’s’ film, you can get really creative with what you put into a mermaid.

When I think of an interesting depiction of mermaids, what comes to mind is the popular web comic Castle Swimmer. Not only that, but a variety of animals are referenced when creating the people of this world, from octopi, to sharks, to hermit crabs. So how do they do it?

The first thing to note here is that, unlike the Little Mermaid, this rendition decides to include more features of the fish. Not only are the tail fins included, but there can also be other parts of fish anatomy. In these designs, the dorsal fin is logically placed on their backs. The variety of fins on a fish are essential for proper movement, so including them in these mermaid designs makes it feel more believable. Not all aquatic animals have fins, but it’s good to acknowledge this even when designing other mermaids. Including additional legs, spikes, or whatnot to create a more cohesive design rather than putting a torso and tail together could be what brings it together.

Not only that, but the animal a mermaid is based off of can influence the physical appearance and clothes worn by the human side. Remember how Ariel looked like any old human without her tail? That isn’t the case here, as you can see their skins share the same scales and colors as their fish sides. Not only that, but features such as gills, sharp teeth, and webbed hands can make your human side look like it belongs underwater. You may need to go out of your comfort zone and mess around with physical features in order to find what fits. Some characters in Castle Swimmer have elongated noses or funny mustaches to go with their creature, and you might have to make the same cartoonish choices too!

Clothes are highly influenced by a mermaid species and their culture, so up to this point it really depends on whether you want the mermaid design to be lighthearted or have a deeper meaning, whichever makes it fun! That being said, a big part of clothes is just getting experimental. Some mermaid designs implement trash into their designs because of rampant water pollution, and how actual aquatic life can get stuck and choke on littered plastic! When considering culture, think about what your animal may represent or, if you’re an animal nerd/willing to research, find out what the animals can actually do and what their lives are like. More feisty animals can have battle armor, while intelligent species can make use of complex tools alongside their outfits, the list goes on.

I hope this shed some light on how the designs of mermaids can work, and how diverse you can get with them. I hadn’t even gotten into the trend of turning mermaids into cryptic creatures due to how scary deep sea wildlife can be! There’s truly a lot to be done. Mermay is an opportunity to have fun and draw mermaids for the sake of mermaids, but it can also help exercise your creativity and go beyond your comfort zone! Even while the month comes to a close, there’s nothing stopping you from designing a mermaid any time of the year, so why not try it out now? Use some suggestions from this post, pick an animal you like, or maybe one that’s more uncommon in the mermaid community, and have fun drawing! That’s all for today, see ya around!

[humblemooncat]

I'm reusing this picture, it's too cute not to

Mooncat's Housing Crawl Masterlist

Housing Crawl 1

[x]

Housing Crawl 2

Aether/Dynamis | Crystal | Primal

I'll add to this as I do more so there's a central location to find all the wonderful places I've visited! <3

[coffeenuts]

[asmileforyourscrapbooks]

listening to remembering sunday and crying bc nobody cares enough to write a song about loving me 😔

[drumlincountry]

So one of the WONDERFUL ladies in my writing group took me aside last time we met and said she'd been thinking about me a lot recently. She said she felt her creative self had been in suspended animation for years and years and years while she was working and raising a family. she said that NOW she's had a new lease on life because she's just retired and even tho she's taking care of aging parents and learning piano she's written more than ever before. And that made her think of me because I always say how I wish I had more time to write & she feels bad that none of the group can give me any advice on that because the only thing that helped her was retiring. But that she empathised and wished me well.

So I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THAT.

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

Your Kisses Burn Into My Skin (Only Love Can Hurt Like This)

CHOO-CHOO! ALL ABORD THE ANGST TRAIN :DDDD!!! Hope you all brought tissues. This is the potential last chapter I have for draft 0 of The Little Pirate, starring our two favorite sapphic pirates Cassandra and Erica of course. Buckle up folks :))). Cassandra (due to past trauma) thinks that Erica betrayed them, can she learn the truth before it's too late?

Wordcount: 1360

Warnings: fantasy violence, brief gore (someone's hand gets cut off), blood descriptions, major character death :))) (and a very angsty one at that), angst galore, due to trauma there's a little bit of miscommunication but it gets resolved, many feels, also most likely inaccurate depiction of how a volcano acutally works (it's not about realism its about the visuals and drama ok), lack of editing (i only did grammar edits)

The Little Pirate, Draft 0 - Character, Dynamic, and Plot Exploration

Inside the volcano was sweltering hot, visible heat waves rising from the black rock and sand. As they made their way deeper inside, they found the center of the volcano, where a large pool of lava bubbled. The lava didn’t rise or fall, which was a good sign. Across the pool, there were some rocks peeking out of the fiery liquid, creating craggy and unstable paths.

Erica gently grabbed Cass’s arm. “What’s wrong?” She signed slowly, trying to get the motions correct.

Cass stood there for a second, staring at her. Even in the rising waves of heat and boiling temperature, she was beautiful. 

Erica blinked, knitting her brow. “Why are you looking at me like that? Cass?”

Salty tears burned in Cass’s eyes. She signed, sharply and deliberately, “Did you lead him to us?”

She stared in dumbfounded shock, mouth slightly open. “What?” Her signs became sharper and more deliberate as well. “You think I’d do that?”

“No, but how else did he follow us?”

“I don’t know how he followed us, but it was not me!” Erica signed the last part again, harder. “It wasn’t me!”

Cass took a step back, shaking her head as tears started to leak out. Her hands started to shake uncontrollably as she signed. “How can I trust you?”

Erica stood there for a moment, staring at Cass with a wounded look. Finally after a minute, she said, “I would never hurt you. I would never lead them to us. I love you, Cass!”

Those words. Those three beautiful, cursed words.

She swallowed, breath catching in her throat like a bubble that wouldn’t pop. “No one loves me. Not like that. No one can.”

Tears streaked down Erica’s face as she stared at Cassandra with a stricken look in her infinitely beautiful dark brown eyes. “I do. I love you.”

“No. I’m not worth it.” Her hands wavered now as she signed. Tears rolled down Cass’s face in burning trails, she couldn’t stop them now. She had to swallow another lump in her throat.

“You are to me.” Erica stepped closer, and this time Cass couldn’t pull away as she reached out and gently cupped her cheek.

“But everyone leaves me, I’m not worth staying around for.”

A big tear rolled down Erica’s face as she signed almost perfectly, “Not me. I won’t abandon you. You are worth staying for.” She leaned forward, gently pressing her forehead against Cassandra’s.

Cass shuddered, wrapping her arms around Erica and pulling her closer.

Then Cass felt vibrations under her feet of quickly approaching footsteps. Lots of footsteps.

She quickly signed to her crew, “They’re here! Get ready for a fight!”

She and Erica both drew their swords and the rest of the crew drew their weapons as well, as they all retreated across the unstable paths over the lava.

Gar Face’s crew exploded into the cavern, following them onto the rocky paths.

Cassandra blocked the first sword that was swung at her, pushing her opponent back and sending them into the lava. 

Two more came at her as she felt the unstable path under her about to crumble away. She quickly stepped back, and when the two pirates stepped onto the crumbling section of path, it gave way and they both fell into the lava.

Behind her, Erica took on three pirates, throwing two off the path. Cassandra felt the path under Erica starting to crumble, and grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

The third pirate fell into the lava as Erica leaned against her. They both smiled, and stood back to back as more pirates charged at them from the remaining paths.

Cass blocked swords with hers, and threw one pirate after the other back into the lava.

No more pirates were charging up the paths on her side so she turned to help Erica.

As she did, she saw Gar Face charging up the path at her, lunging with his sword. Cass raised her sword, and blocked his.

They pushed against each other, swords scraping against each other. Cass could feel the scraping vibrations all the way down in the handle of her sword.

His momentum pushed her back until her heels were at the edge of the lava, but not for long. She used her size and strength to push back, pushing him to the edge, ready to throw him off.

He whipped a knife out of his boot, slashing at her legs. 

Cass stumbled back, gripping her sword tighter as she glared. She should’ve known he’d play dirty.

He slashed again, too fast for her to counter. Pain flared in her arm as the knife slashed her forearm, almost making her drop her sword.

Cass grit her teeth, determined to keep a hold of her sword, even as the blood dripping down her arm made the handle slick.

He came at her again, and this time she swung her sword in a deadly arc, slicing through Gar Face’s wrist. The now disembodied hand holding the dagger fell into the lava as his mouth opened in a shriek she could barely even hear.

His face became red with pure rage, and he lunged at her, swinging his sword.

Cass attempted to block, but the handle started to slip out of her grasp. His sword connected with hers, and her sword went flying. The blade clattered onto an isolated rock over a river of lava that would be far too wide to try and jump across.

Gar Face grinned maliciously, his mouth moving and saying something that Cassandra couldn’t hear. Probably some prideful speech about how he won, and it was all over- or something like that. Felicity told her they were all the same.

Then with a shark toothed grin, he pulled his sword back to stab.

To her side, there was a muffled yell, and before she knew it, Erica was pulling Cass behind her.

Cass watched in horror as the sword pierced through Erica’s stomach and then back instead of hers.

Gar Face ripped his sword out and threw his head back, mouth open in a wide cackling laugh. The rock under his heels crumbled, and he fell backwards into the lava, mouth open in a terrified shriek. His body quickly disappeared into the lava, leaving only bubbles of molten rock.

Erica stumbled back, hand flying to the wound instinctively. Cass let out a silent gasp as she caught Erica and sunk to the ground with her. Blood was pouring out of both wounds quickly. Too quickly to do anything to stop it.

She desperately pressed down hard on the one in front, trying to stop the blood loss. She cradled Erica close to her, tears burning down her face.

Erica tried to push her hands away. Cassandra frantically shook her head, trying harder to slow the blood, but her hands were slipping and her trousers were already soaked with more blood where she knelt with Erica in her lap.

Hand shaking, Erica signed in broken fragments, “Can’t stop it- no use- too much-”

Cassandra shook her head harder, starting to sob. The last time she cried this hard had been five years ago, on a beach as she watched a boat sail away without her while her throat and legs painfully burned with what she’d given up to get there.

This time was almost worse.

Erica signed again, barely able to finish words, “I’m sorry- I said I wouldn’t- I wouldn’t- leave- I’m sorry- Cass-”

Cassandra gave up on the wounds, cradling Erica’s head with both hands and kissing her, desperately hoping it would keep her tethered to the earth. She leaned her forehead against Erica’s, clinging to her as she cried.

Erica reached up with a shaking hand, and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. Her lips were moving, forming words Cassandra almost recognized.

“I love you.”

Erica’s eyes closed, and Cassandra could no longer feel her breathing, she couldn’t feel her heartbeat.

She shook Erica, trying to wake her up, bring her back. Cassandra’s mouth opened in a silent scream, small noises escaping her throat as she leaned her head on Erica’s shoulder and sobbed.