#first 1 is a redraw of some old drawing i did back in like 2021 or something

[dipndotz]

some parappa and mother idk hi

[coles-scythe]

Very very rough WIP of my man 2D for a redraw of a redraw of a screenshot of a virtual live performance. Sharing on here bc I don't want this to get much attention and I wanna gush about him a lil. Old art + screenshot and f/o gushing under the cut.

AAAA the improvement from the sketch alone holy cowwww. The drawing is August of 2019, so nearly 4 years ago. Very excited to finish this one, hopefully I can tomorrow.

Anyways-- I wanna talk about my history of listening to Gorillaz and my slowburn crush on 2D. Plus a little of what I've figured out about my S/I.

2D is one of my older F/Os by technicality. I never actively self shipped with him until recently, but I've had that big crush on him since I was a freshman in high school. So around 2016/17. I was vaguely aware of Gorillaz before then, but only because my cousins had shown me two different music videos. One of Clint Eastwood, and the other of Devil Inside by Slipknot. Watching those back-to-back + having a phobia of eyes did not turn out well and for the longest time I was terrified of 2D because my cousins told me he didn't have eyes at all. I later learned from a friend I met in my freshman year that isn't entirely true, his eyes just have eight ball fractures and are drawn to look like they're gone. I had also apparently confused the Slipknot music I had heard for the Clint Eastwood video, so that friend made me watch the video again with them and I realized I actually really like the song lol. From there I fell down the whole rabbit whole for Gorillaz and 2D quickly became one of my favs. Russell is sorta still my fav because I'm biased towards drummers, but Stu is a very close second LOL. I read a bunch of fanfiction, mainly X Readers of him on Wattpad. Fun fact, this is also around the time I started seriously questioning my gender, and started reading/writing male readers to explore those feelings lol.

So then I listened to their music and doodled them occasionaly when I was first starting art in my sophomore year, but I didn't really get involved in the fandom or anything besides reading fanfiction on Wattpad. 2017 was peak for me since they dropped Saturnz Barz after years of silence from Plastic Beach. Despite all the new music I was constantly listening to, my mini-hyperfixation on the bad quickly faded. Two years passed before I realized it, it was suddenly 2019 and I was a fresh high school graduate with a massive hyperfixation on Splatoon. Phase 5 had concluded a few months prior and my brain decided it was a great time to have a little redux of my Gorillaz hyperfixation.

I started drawing them, mainly 2D, more often and got very into the fandom on Insta and Tumblr. Met some pretty chill people, a few of whom I'm still mutuals with on my main :D!! But the entire time, I was still in my "self ship is cringe" phase and kinda ignored anything I was feeling towards 2D. I was still reading and contemplating making my own X Reader fics of him on Wattpad, but that was all irrelevant to me I guess. Eventually that hyperifxation on them passed and I returned to my regularly scheduled Splatoon hyperfix.

Fast forward to another year later in 2020 and into 2021, I finally embraced my cringe and started self shipping again for the first time since I was like 9. First with Erik from Dragon Quest, then several Persona characters (most importantly Adachi lol), then Happy Chaos, and I've been jumping around from crush to crush I've had since I was a kid. Very good for the soul, 10/10 would reccomend reconnecting with childhood F/Os lol. As of a few months ago I starting thinking of 2D as a potential F/O before officially naming him a romantic F/O!!

All this time I've been tossing around different ideas for a self insert, but haven't really explored it until I named him my F/O. I'm still figuring that stuff out, but I at least know they knew each other before D-Day! Not too sure about Phase 1 stuff, but I do know they'll reappear in Stu's life during the band's break between Phases 1 and 2 and maybe they start dating each other by the time Phase 2 does roll around OwO. And then my insert also gets kidnapped by Murdoc and gets shipped off to Plastic Beach with 2D. They become the stand-in drummer for the band while Russ is MIA. Then for Phase 4 and beyond? I have no idea lol.

Sorry for just rambling about this, but I like sharing the origin stories for my F/Os and 2D is one of those that has a very long and somewhat complicated story. I've liked him a lot since I really got into the band's music, but I was so absorbed into cringe culture and avoiding being called cringe that I just ignored any potential story I could tell between us. Plus all the gender dysphoria and less than stellar reactions I got from my friends didn't exactly help matters lol. But I'm no longer an egg, those unsupportive friends are out of my life, and I am cringe and I am free babey!!!

[nikoldragonne12]

The Alliance: history of creation (part 1)

Note: I will upload the current info about the characters as soon as I'll finish new artworks of them.

Also, I have to send it separately because it would be too long to read.

Thanks for understanding.

Alright, as I promised earlier, today I'd like to share some history of creating of The Alliance, my own apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic story I'm slowly working on - more specifically, we'll talk about the Himura family, a group of very important characters from the story.

Continue if you wanna read more.

History of creation:

Before I created The Alliance, my first characters used to be OCs from a Black Bullet AU I was planning to make. 

For those who don't know, Black Bullet is a discontinuing series that was originally written by Shiden Kanzaki, yet it also has a manga (covers only the 1st book) and a short anime adaptation (that covers only the first 4 books).

2018 - 2019:

Back to the Himura family, the first character I made was actually Natsumi (sometime between 2018 and 2019) but at that time, she was just a self-insert of mine: she was a teenager (then a young adult) with ginger hair and purplish blue eyes (very similar to my old avatar).

Also between 2018 and 2019, I only knew the anime.

2021 - 2023:

I left the series for some time, mainly because I was busy with school stuff and my thoughts were elsewhere but eventually I returned to Black Bullet between 2021 and 2023. Finally I also knew the original light novels (yes, Black Bullet isn't just an anime) and sadly, my thoughts weren't the same. I had several issues with all three versions, the books, manga and anime and even if I tried to include my OCs into it, I didn't feel comfortable. 

At that time, Natsumi was remade to be one of the canon characters’ sister and some of the HGHs already existed too (specifically Mirei, Whitney, Sora, Teenie and Tanya and when they were BB OCs, they were Cursed Children and all 10 years old) - because of my different feelings, I knew I have to take them from this universe.

Last goodbye to Black Bullet:

My last goodbye to Black Bullet was supposed to be a redesign series where I wanted to take the best known characters from the series, talk about some issues I had with them and most importantly, redraw them in my style…

However, while drawing Kagetane Hiruko (the major antagonist of the 1st book and a secondary character in the 4th book), I got the idea… the idea to make my own story that will be inspired by Black Bullet yet it’ll also have my own rules and lore, meaning I’ll be less limited in creating. 

Note: Here, you can compare Kagetane's canon anime appearance with my unfinished sketch.

And due to this specific redesign, Atsushi and Ren Himura came to life. I had these two in mind before the “redrawing goodbye” but I couldn't find the way to imagine these two, how to tie them into the story, y’know. 

I took some inspiration, not only from Kagetane's appearance, but also from his personality a little, as even if he's a really bad person, he's pretty well-written as a character, especially in the books and it's a shame we didn't see more of him. 

Also a “fun” fact: Atsushi and Ren were originally meant to be siblings but I eventually changed that and made Ren Natsumi's brother. 

By the way, only recently I finally started drawing Kaito, Yuuki, Atsushi and Ren - I only have sketches of them from this year.

Speaking of Kaito and Yuuki (Atsushi & Natsumi's sons), these two were also originally meant to be different: they were both adults, Yuuki was a more gentle brother and the one who only knew what his brother was doing, while Kaito was a more rude brother and an assassin. They also weren't related to Natsumi and other characters. 

I eventually changed that completely and made them Natsumi & Atsushi's sons, although I first made Kaito a university student before making him even younger and turning him into a high school student. And I did that because I wanted these two to be closer to the HGHs (a group of eight girls with animal-themed abilities).

Chibi Kaito and chibi Yuuki (2023 - 2024)

My last change is the change of the age:

It was probably something I was changing the most, so I don't remember all the variations, therefore I only present you their current ages:

Atsushi - 43 years old 

Natsumi - 41 years old 

Kaito - 15 years old 

Yuuki - 10 years old

Ren - 38 years old

The Himura family (pics from 2023 -2024):. See how I change their appearance even throughout the months?