#i dunno when or why i decided to color theme these

[thatgoddamngingerundercut]

BTS Memories 2016: Making of Blood Sweat & Tears MV Jungkook and RM

[stitchpunk1]

YO GUESS WHOS HERE TO TALK ABOUT HAZBIN FANKID OCS BITCHES!

Yeah Ive been wanting to do this for a bit but been super fucking lazy. Got some other fandom ones too I wanna talk about but what with Hazbins first season ending wanna talk about mine with a few tweaks I've done plus one I forgot to add in the last one. I will put this one under spoilers sense the eps just came out and now I have to change shit around till season two for a few of them.

First I have Lucy(used to be Mara and cliche name I know but i like it). She is Charlie and Vaggies kid and named after her grandpa(who spoilers her fucking ROTTEN). Kinda got a design in my head for her that goes with a lamb/goat theme because she is half demon and half angel. Shes got charlies blond hair but more in Vaggies short style and its slightly curly. Shes also got the little hooves, sheep ears and eyes are that horizontal goat type. Like before she is still an absolute artist and loves doing bigger art installations around hell. She ends up dating Husks daughter Heather when they get older.

Second we have Isabella who is by blood Angel and Alastors daughter but her other dad is Husk and sister is Heather. Still got the same design for her that shes a bit more centaur deer like. Shes got the ears(and tail because I'm not giving that headcanon up) of Alastor but with Angels color scheme and fur and kinda a mix of spider claws/hooves(trying to picture her like head/hair in my mind has been a BITCH trying to not just think of it as a carbon copy of Angel). Recently she has become absolutely fucking unhinged as a child in discussions with Musekicker. She is 100% a cannibal and loves to take bites out of people out of pure curiosity of how they taste(leading to many many child leashes that she usually manages to chew her way out of). I like to think that she becomes popular on the hell version of tiktok with cottagecore vibes with a mix of her cannibalism. Dunno why but I like to think that if Alastor sheds his antlers she collects them and makes them into headbands she wears(also uses them to stab people).When older she ends up dating Moxxie and Millies daughter Mable.

Heather is just Huskys by blood and a one night stand but after becoming a couple with Angle and Alastor they become her parents too and Isabella her sister. Every time I think of her design all I can picture is something like Sawyer from Cats Dont Dance. Shes mostly white with a bit of her dads dark grey. Her face all around is just a pure resting bitch face even if she isnt mad or in a bad mood("its literally just my face" is something she has to say a lot). Her biggest secret is how much she LOVES to sing especially musicals and wants to be a stage performer but she thinks she could never make it. She does start to try out in school or any local theater productions thanks to Lucys encouragement. I like to think that after quitting Mammon that even Fizz sometimes does shows for fun and he kinda mentors her after seeing her talent.

Two more to go! Vea is Val and Voxs little accident that they just decide to keep around. She looks mostly like a moth demon but more bluish and sometimes has a little bit of electricity that goes between her antenna. Shes pretty powerful as she can sometimes match Voxs powers if he say fucks around and locks electronics or tv channels. She ends up not exactly running away from home but just kind of wandering away as her parents pay her little to no mind. She ends up at the hotel and kinda taken in by everyone after they learn her story. She ends up becoming the hotels electrician and is fucking terrified of Niffty.

Lastly is one I forgot on my last post who I am not sure what to do with her after the last episode. Her name is Pia and she is Pen and Arackniss kid. Body type she looks mostly like Niss with a little snake tail but she can go full naga like with extra arms/legs when she wants. She has a hood/hair like Pen and is insanely venomous(took me like ten tries to fucking spell that right) do to being half snake/spider. If Pen is in heaven whenever these kids are around she is raised by Niss who stays around the hotel more to take care of her/keep her from his father(who you know is a fucking prick). When he isnt around Angel takes care of his niece. Shes mostly quiet and keeps to herself but she loves weapons of all kinds, being an absolutely crack shot with most firearms.

[quibbs126]

Okay, I can’t find the ask that requests this pairing, but I know I got a request for it somewhere, so I’m just posting it normally

Anyways, so this was the first oc x canon requested, by @amythecat2001, and this is Purple Plum Cookie

The oc also belongs to @amythecat2001, and her name is Rose Tea Cookie

Okay, so with her name, full disclosure I think I forgot the “Tea” part of Rose Tea when I came up with her name (as well as the “Juice” in “Prune Juice”), because I was like “okay, what’s in between prunes and flowers?” and I learned that prunes are basically just dried plums, so I decided to base her off of those. But I really liked how the plums looked, so I just stuck with it

European plums (since I think those are the specific kind):

So I’m gonna go ahead and say that she’s the previously mentioned fankid who doesn’t really look like her parents but I liked the design of

She looked like a fantasy magic user that I really want to see in a video game

Like I didn’t intend for her hair to be entirely curly, it was just supposed to be some of her hair like Rose Tea, but I liked how it looked, so I kept it. Though some of her hair got obscured by her staff. I also gave her those pink parts at the top to reference the red spots on the plums

Speaking of the spots, I gave her a bunch of plums in her staff and brooch because that’s what she is. Though originally the plums were darker and the spots lighter, until I looked at the references again and realized that it was the other way around, so I changed that

I realized when I was doing the feet, I realized neither Prune Juice or Rose Tea have visible feet, but I decided to keep her with boots anyways. I gave her long boots because why not

If I’m being honest, I feel like her dough is too light, but both characters have light dough tones, so not much I can do. But I did give her blush because I thought it looked good

Oh also, I was considering giving her a bottom hair gradient, but I thought it made the hair design too much, so I didn’t do that

And also the colored sketch was the original draft of her I did before I did her design

I’m sorry, my brain’s not entirely working when it comes to explaining the design. Just know that I like it a lot, even if I admit she probably doesn’t look enough like her parents. Let’s get on to her character

So she’s a wizard that graduated from Parfaedia. Her magic is plant/juice based, which is what those circles you see on the staff are. But she also makes and uses potions, which she learned from her father

She’s a bit absent minded and directionally challenged, she will have points where she’s just like “wait…where am I?” or “what am I doing?” because she forgot. She usually means well, she just doesn’t always know what she’s doing

But don’t let that fool you, she’s very intelligent and has a lot of ingenuity. She uses potions alongside her magic so she could cover her bases if her magic’s depleted, or she needs something specific

I was listening to Licorice’s Cookie Trial theme, so I just imagine her wandering through a dark forest. I dunno, I just needed something to say

To be honest I feel like if I knew more about Rose Tea, it might help me get a better idea of character for Purple Plum, but ah well

So yeah I think that’s about it. Hope you enjoy

[lampmanliveblogs]

Something about Luz reflection in the portal, but at the same time glimpsing the grave on the other side… I feel like there’s some meaning I should be able to derive from that. Um… I dunno, something about a dream dying? As in, Luz’ dream of a happy life in the Demon Realm dies here in the Human Realm or something.

Death as in permanence, as in Luz deciding to stay in the Human Realm permanently.

Luz feels dead inside.

(this is the kind of quality analysis you can only get here, at Lampman Liveblogs)

”I was scared… I thought you’d all hate me for it. Which is why I’ve made a decision. I think… that it’d be in everyone’s best interest if I-”

”Took your mama to the Demon Realm!”

Heck. Yes.

I think we’ve already established I’m all for that. Now Camila will finally get to meet Luz’ mentor and bonus mom Eda, her lil bro King, Hooty, cool aunt Lilith… oh, and The Collector! If anyone can tame a childish god, it’d be the woman who raised Luz.

I also appreciate that while Camila herself is not immune to making bad decisions, she will also keep her daughter from making bad decisions… granted, this is more like postponing the issues rather than actually solving them, but we’ll get there eventually, I’m sure.

HOL UP, wiat a mintue-

When did Hunter’s eyes change color!??!???? ANd how did I miss it?????

I rewound a bit, and it’s right there, when he wakes up and I just. Missed it. I can’t believe this. I’m an utter failure as a liveblogger and a person. As punishment, I will go on another four month hiatus which is only occasionally broken by posting a few low-quality memes and fanfics that no one will read. 

(hey, Luz and Hunter ((and Camila)) have the same eye color now, that’s neat)

Pictured: Amity being the MOST awesome girlfriend that ever was an awesome girlfriend.

I mean, echoing Luz’ own words from when she asked Amity out is just next-level. so Hang on Sloopy, and let’s go get that bastard Belos.

Pictured: Me, ruffling my snake daughter’s pycnofibers.

Vee’s staying behind in the Human Realm, which… yeah, that makes sense. All her life spent in the Demon Realm was a nightmare. Things only started getting better for her when she came to the Human Realm. Hunter too had a hard upbringing (maybe putting it a bit lightly there), but he at least have some things there to fight for.

Oh, and minor detail, but confirmation that Camila does have living relatives back in the homeland.

And then they hit me with this rendition of the closing theme… it’s too beautiful

As the portal closes and Vee walks of smiling, sure that her family can handle this, we pan up to the beautiful night sky an-

”Shoot, Camila still has the car keys.”

…Vee gives the funniest line of the episode. I love the implication that if she just had the keys, Vee could totally drive the car back home. She is a basilisk/snake/legless lizard/naga of many talents.

[neocoffeecafe]

sugar n spice n everything nice! (f) | home | writing masterlist | fic rec library

includes/warnings just fluff , cursing, fem!reader

wc .7k

a/n pt1/fluff ver. of my xmas special! the second part will be published on xmas day

“white.. green.. red.. any other colors?” you hum, as you finish up mixing the red food coloring into the white icing.

“how about pink?” yangyang suggested, retrieving another can of the icing from the fridge.

“why pink?” you ask, the mixing of the food coloring making the icing a scarlet shade of red.

“i dunno, i think a pink santa hat would be cute.” he shrugs, stealing the red dye from you and dropping little amounts so the color isn’t too red.

“oh! we need yellow.” you say, squeezing behind yangyang to the fridge to get another can of icing. previously, you and him had spent nearly $200 just to get the things you needed, including several, several cans of icing. you reach your arm over his pink abomination to get the yellow dye.

“are we gonna give some to the neighbors?” he asks, tilting his head to the boxes of plain christmas themed cookies. “because we’ve got a shit ton of cookies.”

you giggle. “yeah we will. we can give them to your friends, too.” you suggest, squeezing the edible dye to make a bright shade of yellow to your icing.

“what did you want to do for christmas?” he asks, finishing the pink icing and beginning to open one of the boxes of cookies.

“maybe we could just cuddle in the couch, share blankets and drink hot cocoa!” you press a soft kiss to the side of his cheek, which he takes his free arm and wraps it around you and pulls you in for a side hug.

“absolutely. we can watch movies or play video games all day. whatever you want, princess.” he pulls away from you to retrieve some spatulas and the piping bags. you both begin emptying the contents of bowls into the bags, each bag having its own dedicated color.

he hands you a cookie when each bag was filled, coincidentally (or probably planned) a santa hat. “time to use that pink icing.” he winks at you.

“you turd.” you bite back, chuckling and set the cookie on your paper plate. he grabs a christmas tree for himself and gets the yellow. you watch as his tongue pokes out in concentration, watching as he’s delicate and careful in drawing a little star on the top of the tree. “you look so cute.” you comment, pressing another peck to his side.

“do you like my star?”

“i love it.” you begin with the white fluff on the bottom and top of the hat, and then fill in the rest with the pink.

“do you want sprinkles?” he’s still working on his tree, his decorations precise and focused.

“what kind of question is that?” you ask, rolling your eyes playfully. he hands you the little container of christmas sprinkles, sprinkles that you dump on the side and carefully pick out where the red candy cane went and where the little white stars went. you finish your creation and show it off to him, displaying it with a wide smile.

“cute.” he says, handing you a new blank cookie of a candy cane. you set it on your plate and fetch your decorated cookie, setting it in the plastic container where you decided your creations would go.

“well, one down. about seven hundred to go.” you eye the handful of boxes of cookies, the both of you your own boxes of giggles.

“that’s why it’s us doing this. out tag team is quite unmatched, if i say so myself.” he carefully sprinkles yellow and green dusty sprinkles on his creation. “thats two down.” he does the same as you but his next cookie is a heart. “oh i know what im doing with this one.” out of curiosity, you watch as he covers the cookie with red icing, covering every inch. once its covered, he grabs the white and begins writing out three words: i love you. he sprinkles some red sparkly sprinkles on and adds some white stars. “my heart for my lady.” he playfully bows down to you, holding his hand out to display his cookie.

“you’re so cringe.” you take it from him. “i love it.” he smiles and strengthens himself up, pulling you in for a kiss. the cookies and icings were forgotten for a few moments when you’re tied in his embrace of kisses and warmth.

once you pull away to breathe, you glance down at the rest of the cookies and sweet treats. “well. we’ve got tons more cookies to go. perhaps, they could wait a minute.”

@neocoffeecafe

[anxiescape]

Hello! Hope you are having a good day!

I'd like to ask how you came up with Space Macaque in your Stargaze fic?

I am having a good day, thank you! 😊

As for how I came up with Space Macaque... I have been waiting for someone to ask this question. 😈 (this is a long explanation, so buckle in.)

There are two main reasons that I came up with the idea.

1: The Shadowplay episode (obviously). He refers to himself as the moon, and I was like "OwO? I can work with this :3"

2: Specifically, this scene from the first Macaque episode.

I noticed how the little bits of debris were floating around him (even after the initial explosion he caused), and I was like, "huh, kinda like asteroids and moons around a planet, due to the planet's gravitational pull. Interesting." And then I noticed that he's just, like, really at ease and in his element just floating in the air while he mocks MK, all the while blatantly ignoring the laws of gravity.

I wondered if floating was one of his powers (since it doesn't really show up again in the show), and then I was like, "what if it is one of his powers?"

Being the big space nerd that I am (I actually have quite a few space-themed OCs), I set to work designing Moon!Macaque. I actually incorporated a lot of his canonical design into his powers and found ways to tie them into space-related things. I also gave him some extra little powers, such as the random fact that he always knows what phase the moon is in, regardless of the fact it's daytime or cloudy, and he can "see" anything that is within the moon's light (that's a hard one to explain, but if you're confused lemme know and I'll try to). Another random tidbit about him is he is stronger at night, and especially during a full moon.

His umbrakinesis (shadow manipulation) comes from the the fact that the moon is covered in shadows (y'know, the dark side of the moon). Since he hatched from a meteorite that originated on the moon (I decided since Wukong hatched from a rock, it would be neat for them to be born in similar ways—who knows how celestial monkeys are created?), it makes sense he'd have some sort of control over things pertaining to said moon. That's also why he can float, like one can on the moon due to its low gravity. He can also make small objects around him float if he focuses.

As for his super hearing, I dunno. I just think it's kind of funny that a creature from space, where there is no sound (okay there's technically sound in space but uggh that's a long explanation), has such sensitive hearing.

And then there's the physical aspects of his design. Black fur = the night sky. So I added stars to his fur because I could and they're cute. :3 His red mask is tied to the blood moon, which is when the moon falls within the darkest part of the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, thus causing it to appear with a red tint. Gold eyes = stars. They glow in the dark as well, like stars do. His ears glow white like the moon (though I do like the idea of him having multi-colored ears).

Another random fact about him is that he smells like raspberries, due to the presence of ethyl formate in deep space. Ethyl formate gives raspberries their flavor, thus making him smell like raspberries.

(Also, his blood tastes like raspberries, and has some very interesting attributes, but that will be brought up later in Stargaze. It causes... issues, to say the least. 😬)

And, last but not least... I wanted to interpret the term "celestial monkey" a little more literally. Instead of celestial as in "relating or belonging to Heaven", I chose the definition of celestial as in "positioned in or relating to the sky, or outer space as observed in astronomy." And so, Moon!Macaque was born. :)

Aaannd I hope I covered everything (that I can share at this point in time, anyway). I have been working on a character reference sheet for Moon!Macaque, but it won't be coming out for a bit because my computer keeps trying to overheat and I can only work on digital art a little bit at a time. 😩

In the meantime (and if you made it this far), enjoy this cute little sneak peek of Liu'er in his moon-themed hanfu that Wukong had specially made for him (and Ma, in her adorable pink hanfu—you get a cookie if you recognize it 🙃 (hint: it's in one of my other Stargaze-related drawings on my page)).

[blues-sues]

Before I sleep, here to drop something.

I watched the new Spiderverse movie and I'm now hyperfixating. Do not read the rest of this post if you've not seen it and care about spoilers.

Alright. Now that they're gone, I can rant to you!

IT'S SO GOOD. THE COLOR LANGUAGE? AUGH. I FUCKING LOVED IT.

I Was terrified it was gonna be rushed and, don't get me wrong, it was fast-paced, but they made it work!

I dunno if it's just me but I felt like Puss in Boots: The last Wish was rushed. It seemed to go by really fast plot-wise and I enjoyed it!!! But, still, it left more to be desired. And I'm so glad Spiderverse wasn't like that.

... but we all know why you're really here.

FINE. I'LL SHOW YOU THE OC.

Here is Spider-Blues!

Originally, yeah, they were meant to be a sona but... I decided against it. I liked the name too much to change it though.

And yes, I absolutely adore Hobie. Fight me.

Here's some lore about this fella!

So y'know how in every universe, Spiderman has to lose someone who dies saving a child? Well. I decided that Blues was that child.

The person who saved them? They didn't know. But. Y'know how close you feel to someone after they save your life?

It doesn't matter if they knew the person who saved them, they just knew that 'holy. Someone just sacrificed themselves for me so if I don't turn out great that's going to waste'

Blues is still a very cheerful person! Currently.

Though, like all, they have dark moments of getting lost in thought and remembering that moment. Years of therapy still couldn't get it out of their head. Are they worth someone's life yet? They can't seem to tell themselves so. Can anyone really be worth another's?

On a lighter note: Spider cat is their therapy animal. I don't take no for an answer. They also are often the one to start up karaoke where the entire corporation just starts screaming all the spiderman theme songs so it's a garbled mess.

Blues also does indeed enjoy Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."

They also clutch their cape and lift it to puff up like an owl to intimidate when they're startled.

Their spider sense is a bit more intense cause. They got. Social anxiety!!!! Yippee... So they're hyper-aware of tiny threats *anywhere*. That person about to bump into you? Nope, not anymore. Bout to get something in your eye? Couldn't dodge it but you fucking felt it coming!

Even though Gwen isn't too keen on friends, I think Spider-Blues would try anyway. Same hood! Same hood.

Also, yes, Spider-Blues is based on a peacock spider.

And. Since apparently Spider people need to lose TWO PEOPLE. Spider-Blues dad was also their universe's Peter Parker (obviously not spiderman, though. He's just a regular guy in that world.) And uh. Well, he's the one to die. That's all I know. I haven't figured out how he dies yet or when or all that jazz.

So. Uh.

Yeah.

[doubleddenden]

Decided to try something different with a schedule I make for my friends in a discord server I'm in.

Going forward, I'll be posting my Toonami Schedules on my blog as well, and my DD ScheDDules too. That's just a little silly schedule I make.

Oh, the "meDDia" section is something I usually do when there's a rerun. In our server, I kinda have free reign over this part, so usually I'll look up a funny video that kinda fits the theming. This go around, since I'm feeling the love for DBZ again, I thought it'd be fun to try some fresh DB content we haven't gotten on the actual Toonami block. I decided to post ep 1 and 2 here since this is my first blog post of the schedule.

The graphic is definitely new for me. I found a font matching the Toonami font online, found the old Toonami emblem/logo, and from there I googled space pictures and did renders and edits in paint.net to get the result you see above. Thinking about changing the colors and doing a little more editing, but not too bad for my first attempt at one of these, right?

Some QA and disclaimers below:

"Why do this?"

I'm not really sure tbh. This kinda became my role in the server I'm in. I try to keep on top of the schedule and changes so everyone else can be informed or make other plans if they like. I wasn't the first to do this in my server, nor am I the only one able to do this, I just... I dunno, kinda did it so the others can catch a break? Life's tough and I like being relied on. I'm the schedule guy now

"Tf is the DD Schedule?"

Well, I am DD. The DD Schedule kinda started just as a little joke a year or two ago, again, I just kinda joke and shoot the shit. Some of my friends get upset with me if I forget or don't do the silly schedule, so I reckon if it makes them happy, I do it.

Sometimes it's good for recap. Sometimes not. Depends on the mood. It's just harmless fun and I like being silly.

"Why the inaccurate Japanese?"

Since Ninja Kamui is subbed, I basically just run my original Ninja Kamui bit through Deepl since I was told it is slightly more accurate than Google translate. No harm was meant if it comes off wrong. In other words, Sub is basically the same as Dub but slight differences.

"What are the numbers and projected end dates?"

Something different I decided to do with this schedule is to keep count of episodes and a possible end date for the season or series on Toonami. The Projected End Dates- PED- is subject to change for marathons that may happen. In fact, I'm pretty sure we're due for a Ninja Kamui marathon or 2 for when the series ends its current run, as they tend to do other originals.

"Why the graphics?"

Dunno, thought it'd be fun to try something different for a change. The schedule I post in our server is usually just text, so I figure this would spice things up.

"Why no time listed?"

Because I live in Central, some if my friends don't. Just assume the schedule starts as normal unless stated otherwise. For me that's 11:00pm central.

"Tf is Nart?"

It's Naruto, that's just my pet name for it.

Couple disclaimers

1. I am not a toonami employee. Just a fan. I have limited data per month and can't watch anime as much as I'd like, so Toonami is a great way for me to watch new things I haven't seen that I can't find on youtube or something.

2. I'm not a mod or admin of this server, more like a town crier or janitor.

If you have questions, feel free to message me and I'll answer whatever

3. Our server is a psuedo fan server, not official, and it's really more of a "whatever" server depending on the mood we're in, from Toonami to streamers to games and shows, etc. None of us are affiliated with Toonami in any official capacity and it's mostly us goofing off about whatever or watching Toonami on Saturdays. It is an 18+ server, fair warning- we try to keep that stuff in the designated channels, but *some* people are gremlins, so it can scare some off.

[cru5h-cascades]

Splatoon 3 SIde Order Theory #2: It Was Lil' Judd All Along (Lil' Judd as the villian of the DLC)

Hey everyone! After seeing how well my first theory did (at least to my standards. I got a pretty small tumblr goin' on here, so any attention I get means a lot to me!), I decided to make another! In my first theory, I sort of teased what my next theory will be about, and now here we are! Anyways, let's just get into it already.

Even though there's already a bunch of damnning evidence that Lil' Judd might end up being the big bad in the DLC (getting the headpiece he wears after you beat hero mode, Lil' Judd's dialoge in Tableturf Battle, the note you get in the sunken scrolls, ect.), but I feel like the teaser for Side Order might have some sort of signs pointing to Lil' Judd being to blame for Inkopolis Square's downfall.

First, I want y'all to take a look at the mystery octoling (we dunno if she's Agent 8 or not... yet) standing in the square. Check out the color scheme going on (black, white, gray, and dark brown).

I dunno about you, but this scene in the teaser for Side Order kind of remind me of the Judds. These lil' guys are also black, white, and gray. I know I might be jumping to conclusions right now, but hear me out. So when the trailer for Splatoon 3's hero mode came out in September 2021, we were introduced to Alterna and the fuzzy ooze. The fuzzy ooze had hints of brown fur on it, just like a grizzly bear. As many of us know, people were throwing theories left and right about who the villian of the main game was gonna be, and many of us thought that it was gnna be Mr. Grizz, which ended up being true (however I felt like the reverse Grizzco laugh at the end of the trailer was a dead giveaway. I've played way too much Splatoon to not know how the Grizzco laugh sounds.). What if this is the direction the Splatoon devs are going again? Forshadowing the events of the game with some minor enviormental details?

Also, throughout the teaser, we see a bunch of freaky af imagery, one of which peaking my interest just a bit. The white brain thing that forms in the vid. I know I've already said that the brain formation pic might've hinted at zombie fungus being the reason why the Square is like this (see my first theory if you wanna know what I mean), but I feel like this could also point towards Lil' Judd being the villian of Side Order. You see, Lil' Judd's a clone of Judd. The brain that forms in the teaser is gray and white, like Lil' Judd. Maybe this is a small hint towards cloning being a major theme in the DLC. Speaking of which, we also get a pic of the mystery octoling with clones of herself following her. These clones are also gray and white.

Also, why would someone target the Square to begin with (Not counting Tartar. I don't really think they'd bring Tartar back, but if they did, I'd think it'd just be in a flashback to the Deepsea Metro, whatever that may look like or be about.)? Lil' Judd was first introduced in Splatoon 2 and we first learned about Lil' Judd's hate for Judd in 2. What if Lil' Judd finally broke and wanted to try to wipe out Judd's legacy, starting with were Lil' Judd and Judd first met? Maybe destroying the Square is just phase 1 of Lil' Judd's plan? Maybe this is all just in preperation to kill Judd (as that one note Lil' Judd wrote in the sunken scrolls implies)?

With that being said, who do you guys think will be the big bad in the DLC? Do you guys think it's Lil' Judd or someone else? I'll most likely make more theories if any come to mind or if we get another trailer for SIde Order, so look out for those and remember to staaay fresh!

[clairethecutepup]

Weekly Update: 5/1/23 - 5/6/23

Entertainment/Art Progress:

Man, I really do believe my work speed doubled, at least, when it came to my new tablet. I dunno if it's the bigger touch screen or the ability to use my computer's mouse, but something seems to be making my work on it more progressive and easier.

Speaking of, I'm nearing the outlining (and possible end) of the "Chapter 1" image for Getting Your Goat. I mean, it'd feel too disorganized to not have that matter of "divider" between comic sections/chapters, ja? Plus, it makes it feel more like a real comic, when it's finally all together. However, I'm feeling the urge to sketch traditionally, rather than outline on the tablet and digitally. I dunno what it is, but I feel easily peeved off with sketching on the tablet... Yet, coloring and outlining? I feel right and happy as rain.

I'm also doing another "writing practice" to help further ease any tedium of drawing and fully original writing, so keep your eyes peeled for more "fanfiction," per se. Hey, just a little something to tide me over, while I excitedly await Peach Creek to finally make its official debut. I've kinda fallen out of using NovelAi for assistance, during "dry spells" and all that with writing... Eh, why pay for the privilege when you can come up with an idea of what to do next, for free, if you're willing to be patient? Also, be prepared for a majority of Ed Edd n' Eddy themed ones, in that regard; but allow me to warn you right now, the canon characters they'd focus mostly on are Sarah and Jimmy, and follow a 2nd person narration of you being an alternate version of Claire that joins them in either simple antics or learning self-improvement. Sure, it involves everyone else, too; but if not something you'd read for fun, I'd say read it to critique and tell me how to do better, so my original works can benefit from that improved sense of quality.

Personal Life:

Well, I've gotten back into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it's certainly a nice experience to relive. I recall abandoning it for a couple years, but I've decided on resuming that matter of escapism. I mean, it doesn't take up too much time, you can play at your own leisure... It's a nice little matter of relaxation, when you just want a small break from things and also don't want to get sucked into playing for longer than intended, having to "complete missions" and all that.

I've also gotten my mother into Invader Zim, and it's nice when your parent can share fondness for a beloved cartoon series. She really seemed to enjoy the Gir shirt I got her for Mother's Day: it uses Gir to convey different emotions, with them listed under each picture.

I'm hoping that dedicating each weekday to a certain muscle group, instead of working them all on both days of the weekend, will not only help me better build them up and tone them, but also allow for more time on weekends to further speed up creative work progress.

Misc.:

Since my tablet functions as a replacement monitor (I can only use my traditional monitor or tablet to display things), I've also taken to using it as a new "game device" with my Steam list. I feel like I do better in the likes of Pizza Tower and all that, with the closer screen and tilted angle. So, yeah, that's a pleasant, yet admittedly "unorthodox," use for a tablet screen!

[oreynjii]

📌Sunny Sanctuary

I decided that I can choose any hair color I want, so I ended up turning Esther's hair into that (it will be permanent from now on). The whole concept here is a halloween costume. Her costume is called The Mourning Star. It's a character from a book that she, and Bok and Augie are reading. Dunno if I should fully develop the lore for that, but I'll drop infos when I drew Bok and Augie's fits. The mourning star was actually supposed to be inspired by ghostface (Scream franchise), but like the mask is gold and the robe is hot pink, so it will be "Slay" which is a double meaning, 💅 and 🔪 (I had a slasher films brainrot during summer and I can't stop thinking about my concept, and ended up having my own lore for it).

I haven't drawn SS characters for weeksss, and the features are already changing (I mean the face shape) bear with me pls ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ I also mentioned changing coloring techniques? Yeah not gonna happen hahahsgsha I suck at it (the very same reason why I gave up the Slay idea, it's not giving¯⁠\⁠_⁠ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ⁠_⁠/⁠¯). I visited my former fan art account and I was so cool so I decided to stick with it and just hope to improve over time🧎🙏

(dunno if ya'll see it, but Im really into biblical themes it's blurring the lines between my stories hahsgsgs.)

[tehuti88-art]

6/28/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Lance Corporal Red Rat and Private First Class Purple Rat. They're pretty old characters (Red was originally Corporal Gold's best friend, Purple was kind of antagonistic) who kind of fell by the wayside in more recent updates but I should perhaps reclaim them. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

Regarding their design, I'm a bit meh on both (I gave Red a scar to make him a bit more interesting, hm) but especially on Purple, I dunno, I just picture him bigger and darker, more imposing. But anyway, here they are.

TUMBLR EDIT: Red and Purple Rat date to the earliest versions of this series. Very old characters. Although they were moderately important back then, they fell out of use as I focused on other characters but also because the entire story itself, as I've mentioned repeatedly, fell out of my favor and I moved on to other things.

There's another possible explanation behind my semi-abandonment of these two, however, and it's one I'm not proud of but I feel the need to own up to: Race. Red and Purple are both meant to be Black (African American). (And yeah, this is confusing as Black is not Black, despite literally being black...you'll notice my POC Rats mostly have brown hues of fur. I won't try to explain it, the only real logic is the feeling I assign it. Just bear with me.)

The following will be modified to avoid repetition in entries.

Ugh, I hate admitting this...but I suck at writing minorities, largely due to my highly sheltered life in a super-white family in a super-white neck of the woods. (The most color I've found in my genealogical digging so far is a Native American ancestor from the early 1700s, and a French Jew who converted to Christianity back in the 11-1200s. Everything else is just...really freaking white.) The result is that many of my early characters of other races usually boiled down to stereotypes, because I didn't know how to depict them in a way that made it clear they weren't white. Red Rat literally spoke with "Black person accent." ;_; And while Purple's accent wasn't as pronounced, he had a troubled upbringing and difficulty with authorities because OF COURSE he did.

Ugh...sorry about all this. I'm fully aware now of the flaws in all this because I went through a similar experience when I started writing LGBT+ characters. (I'm old fashioned, used to writing GLBT...ah well.) I still remember hopping on Ask Jeeves and asking the fine people there, in M/M relationships, how do they decide who is the masculine/"husband" role and who is the feminine/"wife" role...? I didn't phrase it like that but you get the gist. And oh wow did I get reamed. I remember feeling surprised, hurt, and confused, why was everyone getting so mad at me? I never got an answer that satisfied me (aside from all the offense I caused, I was told...they're like straight people!--do straight people all have strict roles they follow??...but my simple brain did not get it), so I just started writing my gay couple on my own. Like with all my characters, I put myself in their heads, lived them through the story. And...THEN I understood. And I still grimace when I think of how moronic and offensive I was, asking that question and expecting a straight (heh) answer.

Well...this is that, but times ten. I can argue I have some personal experience with LGBT+. Not so with race. I've had a couple of Black friends in the past, but that was decades ago, they were both adopted by white families, I've never had any significant exposure to culture. One can argue it's like the above experience, they're just people like the rest of us, why make them different, "others"? And indeed I follow that with a newer Black character, Amaranth. Yet here one could be accused of whitewashing. Amaranth's personal circumstances fit this treatment, yet Red's and Purple's don't. They're meant to rather stand out from the rest of the Rats, largely due to their race. The Trench Rats are an integrated battalion, though barely so, and I imagine Rats of color stick out and are treated accordingly. (Copper is one such character I haven't had as much difficulty with, likely because he's mixed race, but check his entry for a bit on his interactions with his fellows and the enemy.) Amaranth blends in with the majority, Red and Purple do not. Uneasy race relations are a major theme of a work set in this time period, so I feel that, rather than downplay it, in some cases it needs to be played up.

The problem is I seem currently incapable of putting myself into the head of a person of color. I feel too ignorant (which is true) and uncomfortable about the potential for appropriation or just plain getting it wrong. I have no experience on which to draw. (I've outright been told, in the past regarding my Manitou Island fiction, to not even try to write from the POV of other cultures and to stick to my own, which according to the person saying this meant George Washington :/ ...I have no family from Virginia, my ancestors immigrated mostly from France and Germany and the Netherlands and Scotland, but anyway...still white...that's another reason I'm leery of making the effort.) Maybe someday I'll reach a point where I can achieve this, but that time is not yet, and it definitely wasn't then. I set Red and Purple aside in the hopes of developing them beyond stereotypes at a future point. I dig them out again now to add to my collection of characters, yet I can't say that I'll give them the attention they deserve. It isn't that I don't want to, just that I don't want to mess them up. I'll share what I can so far, but heavy character development may have to wait indefinitely. You can safely blame my super-white life experiences for this...sorry.

Red Rat was originally intended as Gold's Rat's best friend and comic relief, so never really had much personality of his own. As I previously mentioned, he was rather a caricature of a fast-talking "Black sidekick." I don't know the proper, non-offensive name (is there one?) for his particular accent...my dad once called it "jive," but my dad was definitely not the authority to ask about such things, trust me. (I swallowed my anxiety and Googled "Black accent" and Wikipedia tells me "African-American Vernacular English," okey-doke, let's go with that.) In any case, he spoke with that kind of accent. I always imagined he came from the inner city (of course ;_; ), likely a working-class family, but in my own defense, so does Gold. I always imagined Red as a smooth talker, perpetually clownish and joking around (like an amped-up version of Gold), and willing to go along with whatever stupid ideas Gold came up with. Damn, what really differentiated these two aside from race?? I'm not sure. Let's try out some newer details that likely did not exist before now.

You see I gave Red a neck scar to distinguish him a bit. I haven't yet come up with a story for this, but I imagine he had his rough-and-tumble moments. He still comes from the inner city, a working-class family, which I assume is how he meets Gold (Gold spends much of his childhood neglected by his drunken father, so probably wanders into neighborhoods he wouldn't otherwise--this is around the 1920s in New York I think, I'm assuming the neighborhoods are highly segregated), and they're peas in a pod. Race? Gold doesn't see it. Red does, though, and probably has to school his naive new friend on how things work. I imagine they find their own spots to explore and play in, beyond the view of judgemental adults, and have a good old time. I imagine Red's family being rightfully concerned about but cautiously accepting of the friendship, maybe even letting Gold in to visit. Meanwhile, I imagine Gold's father, if he catches word of the friendship, taking a belt to him and threatening him never to indulge again. Like that would convince Gold to give up what's probably the only friendship he has, though.

These two obviously enlist at the same time and place, likely heading in together (though Red presumably has to take a different door and talk to a different recruiter). They both end up in the Trench Rats, likely because it's integrated and they're thus allowed to serve alongside each other. I imagine they grow a bit more distant from each other simply due to their duties, and the fact that Gold ends up promoted to corporal; maybe Red gets passed over despite having equal qualifications...? That could be an intriguing plot point; I can picture Red being disappointed and a bit frustrated by it, while Gold would feel guilty. So there's the potential for some character development.

Red remains a background character for now, as I haven't had the interest or motivation, in the onslaught of other characters and their histories, to develop him more. But I wish to put out there ALL the characters, and owe it to him to give him his spot. Perhaps at a future point he'll claim more of a place in the story.

[Red Rat 2024 [‎Friday, ‎June ‎28, ‎2024, ‏‎12:00:15 AM]]

[quibbs126]

hear me out on a potential rare pair: knight cookie X raspberry mousse fankid. the raspberry family seems to be super into attempting to restore the house raspberry,and while knight cookie is a retainer (a paid servant who has been employed for a long time) and bodyguard,we dont actually know a lot about him or his family. heck we dont even know what type of berry he is despite him being a hollyberrian. apologiese for the infodump

Nah, you’re good on the infodump, here’s Raspberry Cheesecake Cookie

I know what I said earlier, and I’m considering taking a break, but I was already drawing him when I posted that, and I do still have a few others I had done some half sketches for that I want to finish first, so I finished him anyways. I was going to finish the Dark Choco/Raspberry kid first, but I couldn’t figure out a design for the sword hilt, so I did him first instead

So as for this guy’s name, so I know I was originally having some trouble with it. I don’t believe Knight is a berry, even if he grew up in the Hollyberry Kingdom, since I doubt every Cookie living in a kingdom of a particular flavor is of that flavor. If that makes sense. But I wasn’t sure what he was, so I was guessing around. I eventually came to Raspberry Tart, but it was still a bit before I’d get to this one. But recently I learned his dough contains at least some white chocolate, given White Choco’s Jelly description, so I worked with that for coming up with a better name. Also I wasn’t sure how to incorporate the distinct look of a raspberry tart. An idea was to name him after white chocolate filled raspberries, but also I feel like that’d be a better thing for a potential White Choco/Raspberry Mousse kid. But in that search, I found white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, so I ultimately decided to name him after that

White chocolate raspberry cheesecake:

With his design, I’ll be honest, I was kind of making things up as I went. I know I wanted his hair to be long-ish and to have pink and yellow, and I wanted him to have a rapier, but everything else just sort of happened. I think when I originally drew this, I had planned him to have a completely different outfit, likely one closer to Raspberry, but I got what I got. I like the asymmetrical cape, which I again did by accident. I realize it should probably be on the arm opposite of the one he uses, and I fixed that in the little sketch, but I thought it looked cool on that side instead. Also with the boots, I had originally intended them to be a normal length, but doing the lineart, I decided “screw it, make them higher” and yeah. Could I have made them higher? I feel like he doesn’t look much like Knight. I had intended more blue, but I just thought the reds/pinks with the yellows worked better. Actually maybe the yellow covers it. As for the feather, in my head it’d be like, behind the ear, but since Cookies don’t have ears, it’s just like, a hair clip or something, I dunno. Also I I don’t like the color of the mouth. I don’t like the red, it doesn’t look right. But that’s what Knight and Raspberry Mousse have. But overall, I generally like how his design turned out

So as for him, I’ll admit I don’t have much. Something I should admit first, but I always think Raspberry Mousse is Spanish, despite him almost certainly being French. I think it’s because around the time I discovered him, we recently saw the Puss in Boots sequel, as well as the first movie, and I think RM and Puss look kind of similar, as well as Raspberry Mousse’s skill theme having similar instruments to him. Actually I don’t know why I mentioned this, I think I just wanted to say it

Anyways, so I guess Raspberry Cheesecake is something like what I understand Zorro or Puss in Boots to be, basically a guy who travels around the land helping those in need, but without the massive ego. He probably also has a horse

Also, in reference to the little sketch, so while Raspberry Cheesecake may appear a suave and confident fighter, he’s internally a bit of an anxious mess, constantly worrying about if he’s doing things right. He’s internally always shouting. One thing I’m thinking of is that he got made into a knight of the Hollyberry Kingdom, or at least made a proper warrior, but he got too nervous about all the pressure and just decided to instead travel Earthbread. The dude needs to get a better grasp on his confidence

Also I mentioned a Dark Choco/Raspberry kid before; while I don’t think most of the kids exist in the same timeline as each other (Panela and Turtle Fudge especially), these two do, and while they’re second cousins, they’re pretty close. I haven’t gotten much around to Black Forest Cookie (I’ll give you a spoiler and tell you their name), but I do know this. I’ll probably elaborate more there

But yeah, that’s Raspberry Cheesecake. Hope you like him!

[thatwitchyaunt]

Makeup for Magick/Ritual p7: Samhain

LETS PRETEND THESE LAST TWO AREN'T HORRENDOUSLY PATHETICALLY LATE, OKAY??? OKAY!!!

Obviously these are the original pictures from last year, so I’ll mention any new releases that have popped up since then that I think fit (that I have). So, let’s get into it!

According to my personal notes, colors associated with Samhain are:

Black

Orange

Red

Brown

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Yellow

Indigo

White

Golden

Yellow

Purple

And I, personally, have included some greens in the palette. Both for usual spooky season reasons (which I still celebrate because I love it, and it’s a way to honor my papa since he was super festive at every holiday) and because we’ve got green pumpkins and gourds, as well as some green leaves that are holding in for dear life in the trees. So it should be included.

First up: Juvia’s Place

The Violets: The veil between the world of the living and the dead is at it’s thinnest at Samhain, so it’s the perfect time for all kinds of divination and spirit communication. Psychic abilities seem to be stronger around this time of year and people tend to have more paranormal experiences, as well. Colors like purple, indigo and silver are often associated with intuition and psychic ability, so this is a good palette to reach for if you want to lean in to the uptick of psychic energy.

The Tribe: Oranges and greens, pumpkins and changing leaves. If you want your look to reflect what nature is doing, this palette has a great color story for it.

The Festival: Early on in the creation of this makeup series, I decided this palette was going to be in the Samhain post, primarily because of the red and metallic black. But it’s also has your oranges and golds.

Afrique: I put this palette on the list for the deeper reds, green, purple and gold.

The Saharan: This palette’s on the list for the black and the oranges, basically.

Next, Give Me Glow and Shroud Cosmetics…

GMG Juicy Olive Palette: A palette for more murky olive greens.

GMG Grunge Palette: This is for the darker purple, brown and black mattes. The original reason I wanted this palette so bad was for all the nice deepening shades.

SC Spooky Cute Palette: Other than the black, the pastel shades are good for blending out the edges of more colorful looks. That’s it. That’s why it’s on the list.

SC Arcana Palette: Arcane’s dark jewel and muted color tones work really well for the sabbat in general. Some of the colors are more muted in person than they are in the picture, but in a good way. Maybe “murkier” is a better word for it? I dunno… Granted, this one is based more on the “sitting at an altar/grave, communing with the dead, burning candles and incense” vibes it gives off when I look at it. So… Plus they spell “Altar” right, which a bunch of witches online tend to fuck up regularly, so props for that.

SC x Beautbean It’s Freakin’ Bats Palette: This one’s really cute for Halloween, what with the theming and references, and the Sam shade is so unique in my collection. For Samhain, however, the focus is on the purples for a intuition and psychic ability boost.

Next is Urban Decay and Kristen Leigh Cosmetics. Because of the whole supporting Putin situation, I’ll be skipping over ABH for the foreseeable future. Instead we’ll talk about a palette from Unearthly Cosmetics (formerly Alien Cosmetics) that I bought this past year that I think fits.

UD Born to Run Palette: Like at Mabon, the fall vibes of this palette live on. The black, dark grey and murky purple, orange, brown and bronze shades lends itself to this darker tone of year.

KLC Autumn Vibes Palette: Undeniably a companion palette since it’s four metallic/ duochrome shades. If you’re going for a late-fall nature focus, any of these will would work.

UC Poison Apple Palette (new, not pictured): At Samhain, apples are used for divination and as offerings to our beloved dead. This palette, from the mattes to the duochromes, embody this sacred fruit perfectly. It also works great for Mabon.

Haven’t said this in a while. Time for our lord and savior, Colourpop!

Blowing’ Smoke: The color black is associated with death, the dark and cold night (growing longer until Yule) and protection; grey is associated with divination, intuition, spirit and ancestor communication, death and the underworld; and silver is associated with protection and intuition/psychic ability. So, a good color story to work with at Samhain. If you’re new to makeup, go in slowly with black eyeshadow. That ish can go from 0 to 60 in a blink.

Orange You Glad?: Specifically for the two darker mattes. And say it with me! Fuck pressed glitter! Uhg, that could have been such a beautiful duochrome!

Main Squeeze: Again, this one is specifically for the darker blood red shades on the bottom row.

It’s My Pleasure: A decent purple palette with a few different purple tones in the shimmers to work with.

Yes, Please!: While not super deep, the OG Colourpop palette is the “work appropriate” red-orange-yellow Samhain palette.

Whatever: Again, fuck pressed glitter. But the reds and browns are nice and deep, and with the orangey-bronze shade “Not OK”, it mimics the majority of leaves on the trees this late in autumn. Just more glam.

On to BH Cosmetics. I haven’t really bought anything from them since they were bought out by Makeup Revolution. So I don’t know if the formula’s changed at all. I do know that a good chunk of their palettes got discontinued, though.

Poison Shock Scorpion Sting: I’d bring in the dark orange matte from Orange You Glad?, since the three mattes don’t go as deep. Metallic wise, you have a lot of options for whatever leaf or pumpkin you’re trying to replicate.

Poison Shock Nightshade: Again, the mattes don’t go as deep as I’d like, but it still works nicely.

Poison Shock Venom: The Venom shades can be used similarly to Blowin’ Smoke from CP. it just has one or two more purpley shades to work with

Zodiac: All of the mattes besides the Leo and Virgo mattes are great purple/black/browns to use. The baked metallics that would work for Samhain are Cancer, Gemini, Pisces, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra.

Love in London: I chose this specifically for the matte black, a couple of the matte browns, and the purple, dark grey and gold metallics. Definitely another office appropriate palette choices.

Passion in Paris: Strictly for the reds, purples and greys. Though this is more “wintery”.

Bringing up the rear, we have the single shadows! Starting with Kristen Leigh Cosmetics, Terra Moons, and Shroud.

KLC Halloween Havoc Collection:

Haunted: an orange to gold iridescent duochrome highlighter with gold to green to silver blue color shifts.

Jack-O-Lantern: a pumpkin orange multidimensional eyeshadow with gold to green to silver blue color shifts.

Potion: a light leafy green duochrome eyeshadow with lots of iridescent green duochrome sparkles.

Sorcery: a cool toned dark brown to purple duochrome, multidimensional eyeshadow with purple to pink to blue to gold and slight orange shifts depending on the lighting and angles.

Terra Moons:

Hurricane: a warm-toned medium-dark orange metallic.

Spiked: a warm, dark red.

Bonfire: a duochrome orange-red shimmer.

Martian: a duochrome green, gold and reddish shimmer.

Shroud:

World Eater: an intense true red metallic shimmer.

Ignite: a fiery copper metallic.

Vigil: a golden yellow metallic.

Enigma: a mid tone purple with an icy blue shift.

Pillow Talk: a deep purple with an intense gold shimmering reflect.

Scrumptious: a coral red shimmer with an intense gold shimmering reflect.

Artifact: a grungy olive green metallic with a slight golden shift.

Nightsong: a deep metallic blue with a black base.

Next, Looxi Beauty.

Jelly: a blue purple duochrome.

Gator: a missy green with shifts of brown and pale yellow.

Adorbs!: a reddish bronze with shifts of gold and green.

Honey Pot: a golden orange with shifts of copper, yellow and purple.

Hocus Pocus: a purple shade with shifts of olive green.

Poppy: a deep, dark metallic burgundy.

Follow Me: a vibrant orange gold shimmer.

Tricked: a vibrant golden yellow shimmer.

Poor Unfortunate Souls: a purple shimmer.

Forbidden Fruit: a bold metallic red shimmer.

Emerald: a burgundy with shifts of green, gold and copper.

The Monarch: a bronzed brown with shifts of rose and gold.

Juice: a deep wine red with shifts of brown, gold, and green.

Omega: a green metallic with shifts of teal, purple and dark blue.

Firefly: a red with with a copper/orange/gold shift.

Lady Luck: a bronze gold with shifts of green, red and brownish purple.

Starry Night: a mid-toned blue with a violet undertone.

Lagoon: a metallic, golden olive shimmer.

Spyro: a grape metallic

Coppa’ Feel: a bold, metallic copper with a hint of pink.

That’s What She Said: a golden metallic with slight hints of green.

Bonfire Babe: a vibrant fiery orange with shifts of yellow gold and pink.

Next to You: a deep purple with an electric blue shift.

For the Graham: a cinnamon brown with shifts of red, gold, and orange

And finally, Give Me Glow!

Leggings: matte ultra black

Blackened Plum: deep smoky purple matte

Chili: deep rustic red-orange matte

TBT: deep burnt rustic orange matte

Toxic: vibrant deep true purple matte

Storm: a cool toned purple taupe metallic

Selfie: a warm toned medium-dark copper metallic

You’re Cheesy: a warm toned, light-medium orange metallic

Ultraviolence: a deep purple based violet metallic

Satellite: aluminum foil silver metallic

Halo: white with baby blue and gold shifts

Marshmallow: pure white matte

And with that, we’ve finished Samhain. Not much else to say except, if you have any ideas you’d like to add, please do!

Now on to the final sabbat: Yule!

[studiothetics]

Drawing People 2

Expecto patronum, my dude. It’s me, Evan! I am but a humble visitor in your land of tumbling, so I do not mean to presume, but perhaps the “long post” tag applied to my last missive means verbosity hath claimed my tongue, once again. Let me see if I can make the second act of this drama a little snappier.

these folks got basic, boring poses so I could use them as simple mannequins. Drawing like this out of my head is fun, but kind of time consuming. Doing a thorough job of the figure before clothing it shortens the time a good bit, and keeping the pose pretty simple removes any demand of the fabric to do difficult things.

Who this? Can’t tell you. Why this? Experimentation! These drawings were great test beds to answer questions about rendering: what kinda stuff works with characters in this idiom, what kind of linework, what level of detail, etc. But on the other side of the arbitrary distinction I’ve just decided to conjure are compositional questions. God I love that word. Composition — The sum of a picture.

Art history, and particular commercial art history has so many good answers to compositional questions, and a lot of their answers make a lot of sense for visual novels, what with commercial art often needing to wrangle decoration and flatness with representational stuff. I’m partial to the solutions of your Muchas Alphonse and kin, but that sort of density and curation of parts is only possible when you’re working with a single picture at a time. Duh, you say and I concur. We have to do more modular stuff, especially if we're going for a high level of detail, and we’re splitting up character and background duties. We needed to find ways of simplifying, modularizing and keeping things unified.

Western commerical art in the late 1800s is really a zenith of single-picture making in my books. It seems to me that there was an endless variety of exciting design exploration supported by real chops.

Luckily commercial art has some answers to this as well. Ya’ll heard of the Weiner Werkstatte? How about John Austen? Oh you’re a connoisseur are you? You’re a quite hip individual? Well then, you heard of Carl Otto Czeschka? (I dunno if that’s actually a deep cut.) Here are some common themes between them. Flatten space, use only a few distinct values and colors and use heavy blacks to unify the picture. 

Aside from these general ideas, we were specifically interested in Austen’s use of orthogonal perspective. It seemed like a really natural fit — centering the picture on the characters with the world as framing, it’s flatness generating less friction with textual and decorative elements and giving us a pretty consistent format to interface foreground and background elements. Hypothetically it gave us a tremendous amount and demanded less work… Hypothetically.

Pyrga didn’t wind up actually featuring in the prototype but I still love the big weirdo. A compositional feature you might not notice unless you a comp dweeb is that they're not fully balanced pictorially. They very much need an answer to their left, preferably above their shoulder. I tried to carry this compositional incompleteness forward with every asset so they would mesh well with one another and even if they were solo, there would be a visual relation with the background.

So bam. heavy blacks, less variety in the linework, very few colors and orthogonal perspective. There are things that work well here: being attentive to the turning edge of the shadows gives it a flavor I don’t see many places, and aiming for more naturalism gets it out of the Hades/Hellboy sorta cartoony zone that it was trending toward initially.

There are problems, too. I’m not good enough to get that level of naturalism out of my head with any kind of speed so I needed reference. With this character, that’s sort of ok. They're kindof an amorphous blob of fabric and that’s just fine for kit bashing different references and imagined bits and whatnot, but other characters have much more, let’s say definite garments. Secondly the spot blacks pose a real issue for decoration, they wind up needing to override any kind of patterning, and the linework on turning edges winds up noising up and cluttering things. The lack of line opacity and overall brush size is also making some detail work challenging, but I wasn’t quite sure how else to get the linework readable with the asset scaled at different sizes.

Now all this stuff shoulda given me pause, but there were a lot of plates to keep spinning. We were in the thick of writing, I was bouncing between finishing up other designs and trying to get the UI on track, yada yada. Petra was on the mind, as well. We were missing some key things for her — A mask and a cloak.

Designing this mask coincided with a push for more overtly greek looking stuff, so I was thinking of how to style a sort of blank face after typical greek statue face forms.

What good is a mask to a very overpowered warrior? Our answer was threat display, what with Petra often fighting enemies that wouldn’t be repelled by armor. This was something to stop hapless goons from running into the three toothed meatgrinder. So the question is what’s scary, then? What’s badass enough you don’t wanna fuck with the person wearing it?

It’s nice to do a little painting every now and then. 90% of this project h linework and flat color. Here the painting was particularly useful to communicate the form to future me who’d have to draw it from a lot of angles.

Turns out neither of us wanna fuck with the Hydratic's eponymous Hydra. It’s a pretty obvious subject in retrospect, what with Petra being a state zealot, but the thought of making that her mask didn’t come up till quite late, likely because in my head the Hydratics were a fundamentally 2d people — wouldn’t you know, turning a 2d idea 3d gave it a lot of personality.

A sasha sketch page. They had a lot of really fascinating ideas about Hydratic garments that made so much sense for their history.

The mask design was pretty straightforward all things considered. But the cloak… Sasha and I had been trading sketches of just what to do with that fuckin thing for like months. It was a complex problem because there were a lot of bases to hit. The Hydratics are modern, sporty, military, brand heavy, decorative, flat, uninterested in veneration. Petra is workmanlike, zealous, uncharmed by culture, physical, and at a pinnacle of hydratic military service. We need some indications of greek-ness no matter what, but we shouldn’t be too greek cause reasons. Getting these competing elements to all work together became a very interesting puzzle. How would you solve this?

For us the answer actually came outta watching 1917 a while back. Both Petra and Io are supposed to have a couple cues that liken them to ww1 soldiers, their experience in the apocalyptic conflict sharing some character with 1917’s hellish proceedings. This got me thinking about more dedicated military gear, and a slightly different character to Hyrdratic warriors. What of instead of hoplites, they were more like riflemen?

This almost looks like concept art!

In research, I’d found a genre of eastern european military poncho/cape thingies that really worked. They got armholes so the soldier can handle their firearms while still wearing it, it doubles as a tent, it’s rugged, it’s got kind of a rigid silhouette but it can be worn in interesting ways to break up the figure, and importantly, it’s got a whole lot of real estate what you could jam Hydratic Icons on. It’s a perfect fit for Petra who’s traveled Greece fighting monsters and champions. Her spears even work as tentpoles!

I can’t say I’m 100% happy with the final design (pictured at the front of part 1) but good golly it’s a hellofalot closer to the goal than what we were cooking up before. So I think we can call this a draw. Some problems on the style front, some solutions on the character design front. But the damoclesian sword of asset-completion hangs large above our heads, dear reader. Oh dam I think that means there gonna be a part 3! Good golly! Check back in soon for the laborious conclusion to this junk where I do a full process breakdown of an asset.

[thereaderinsertlady]

Could you please do some Valentine's Day headcanons for King K. Rool x reader? 💐

Yeah, of course! Once again, I decided to add some story elements to the headcanons. Cheers to the first Valentine ask of the day! I hope you enjoy!

King K. Rool x Reader - Valentine's Day Headcanons

Alright, let's be real— King K. Rool had no clue what Valentine's Day was before he met you. He has heard of it, sure, but he didn’t know what it was. When you brought up that it was a week from now, he... had no clue what to do. So, after swallowing some of his pride, he asked Krusha about it, figuring that he'd be useful.

"Valentine's Day?" Krusha repeated, rubbing his chin. "Yeah, I've heard of it before, but I don't usually do anything that day."

"That—" the King lightly growled, rubbing at his face in frustration. "That doesn't answer my question, Krusha. What do people typically do on that day?"

"Oh..." Krusha shrugged. "I dunno. Stuff?"

Needless to say, Krusha wasn't very useful. So, swallowing even more of his pride, he decided to ask General Klump next.

"Valentine's Day?" The General blinked. "Are you doin' something that day, sir?"

King K. Rool grunted. "It... depends."

"...Depends on what?" General Klump figured he should ask.

"It depends on if you ANSWER MY QUESTION!" He yelled.

General Klump winced. "S-Sorry sir! I was just wonderin' why ya asked! But, um... Typically, people give flowers, and... and candies on Valentine's Day."

"Flowers," the King mumbled, slowly furrowing his brow. After a pause, he walked off, leaving a very confused and worried Krump behind.

When Valentine's Day rolled around, King K. Rool had prepared an assortment of flowers and candy for you, hoping that Krump was right about what he said. He got the fanciest flowers and candy money could buy, and made sure to keep the overall theme of pink and red.

However, he wasn't expecting to receive anything from you. You ended up getting him a gift— a delightful maroon colored cape. You said something how you weren’t sure if you should get him chocolate, since you didn't know if he'd like candy, but he was too infatuated with the cape to pay attention. From that day on, he swore to keep that cape in peak condition, and has worn it every day since.