#i feel like i've improved a lot art wise this year!

[lunarharp]

figured i'd do this again..bit early i guess..

[donuts4evry1]

lets ramble abot my first jellyfish oc(s)

Since I'm not planning on making this idea into an actual game anymore, all lore is fair rambling game :)

Their full names are as follows:

Aurealis Aurita Vita (15) and Chrestos Chironex Vita (11)

they are brothers :)

I'll ramble under the cut, hehe

Aurealis Vita was born to Pleione Vita and Chryos Vita, two prominent figures in the noble society. He hails from a kingdom of human-marine animal hybrids, operating under a monarchy of crown jellyfish.

Aurealis themself was a hybrid with moon jellyfish (Aurelia labiata, to be exact) as well as his mother, while his father was a hybrid of a black sea nettle. As a sort of hybrid species, their hair acts like jellyfish tentacles. This fact will be important later.

Chryos was... not the best father, but his mother was loving and warm, so his early years were great.

Then came Chiro.

Aurealis was only 4 years old when Chiro was born and his mother died.

All the odds were against her with the birth. Coming from a long line of box jellyfish hybrids, there was a small chance that she could give birth to one.

Even then, newly born box jellyfish hybrids usually don't have venom potent enough to kill, but Chiro was different. His venom was unusually strong, and Pleione died in childbirth.

Everything changed then. Chryos upgraded from a not good father to an absolutely terrible father- often showing preferential treatment to Chiro and berating Aurealis for not meeting his standards. Sometimes verbally, other times physically. Sorry :(

Chiro himself was a precocious child, showing more interest in books than others. He quickly grew to be more smarter and competent than Aurealis, and stronger too. He often injured Aurealis on accident on account of his deadly hair, which would grow longer or shorter depending on his emotional state.

He still was not happy, however. He longed for affection and validation that didn't come from his father- which only came when he did something destructive.

The servants obviously feared him, and no matter how nice he was, he couldn't help but feel self conscious about their nervous demeanor around him.

Aurealis loathed Chiro, and she would bully him to make themselves feel better. He took the bullying- even internalizing it, because he felt as if his own existence were the cause of all the problems. Admist all that, he gained an interest in nematocytes, and spent much of his time studying them, and finding cures and uses for them.

Eventually, Aurealis had enough of life at home, and ran far, far away, to a whole other place full of different people and different... Everything, really. Leaving Chiro alone. Leaving everything they knew behind.

Honestly, their story came out of a desire for me to write something wholly dramatic and emotional, and I really liked it. I could develop it so much.

I latched onto Aurealis in particular, because her story involved heavy themes of self-hatred and the different ways to cope with it. They belittled others, they acted the opposite of the way they actually felt in a "fake it til you make it" sort of way (ie. ore-sama like). Of course, I give him a redemption arc, but they eventually have to deal with the fallout of their actions and I think that's great :).

Chiro, on the other hand, dealt a lot with gifted kid burnout and a different sort of self-hatred. He feels immense guilt for events that he had no control over, and seeks to fix them. He doesn't feel worthy if he doesn't have anything of worth to offer anyone, and his story is just. Incredibly sad.

Especially since terrible things could happen to him (I haven't decided yet tbh). Which I will ramble about in a different post. All I will say is that I named his theme is named "Lethe" for a narrative reason, hehe.

So anyways. They're the perfect comfort characters.

Recently I've been super into writing the brothers as adults (hence the florist Aurealis) and... Ugh. I've been missing them more and more lately, especially since I still need to write and design for Ite!

[adobe-outdesign]

since u reviewed the other three dragon neopets, maybe you could review the draik next? it's one of my favorite neopets!

Draiks are one of four (4) dragon Neopets, which is entirely too many. Despite coming last however, it does feel like they're one of the more memorable dragon designs on the site.

Part of the reason for this is that Draiks are restricted Neopets, which is a fancy way of saying that you can't make them through Create-A-Pet the way you can almost every other species. Instead, you have to either use a morphing potion or get a Draik egg item and bring it to the Draiks' Nest page. Thankfully TNT has made Draiks much easier to get over the years due to wide releases of morphing potions among other things, reducing them from an elite status symbol to just a somewhat less common pet with a neat gimmick.

The other reason is that Draiks have an usually slim and detailed design for Neopets. There's no hard rules for Neopets, but they generally skew towards thicker and almost chibi-ish in terms of proportions—think like the Scorchio. The Draik's slender body stands out amongst the more standard dragon designs, as does details like the subtle speckling. It also helps that they have a lot of really good colour options.

Base colour wise, the light grey accents work well as they blend with any given color and don't overpower the design. The color distribution is also very good, with the large swaths of grey used on both the underbelly and on the wings and ear fins. Meanwhile, the eyes pop due to a combo of red and yellow.

Visually, I also really like how the little whiskers by the mouth are matched by ones on the head (which are missing from some colours?) and the ear fins, and how the fins mimic the shape of the wings. It feels very well thought-out and cohesive.

Draiks were improved greatly by customization and I am prepared to die on this hill. The old art had such a weird expression, like it just accidentally dropped your iPhone into the pool and is trying to figure out how to gently break the news to you. The way everything is cluttered towards the center of the body also makes the silhouette very hard to read, and the red head hairs ruin the cohesion thing I mentioned earlier. The tail standing is sort of neat, but unlike Meercas I don't think think they've really ever done this outside of the original pet art.

Favorite Colours:

Maraquan: A particularly pretty design, the Maraquan Draik looks a bit like a lionfish crossed with an eel. The whit base with the orange and magenta accents looks really nice, and the subtle changes to the design—one back fin instead of two wings, fins around the tail, long whiskers—feel appropriately aquatic but keep the species recognizable.

The converted version is very similar to the UC/styled version, just flipped. However, it always felt subtly off to me, and after some investigation I've figured out that it's because, in addition to shorter whiskers and a slightly smaller head, the head isn't turned enough relative to the body so it doesn't quite connect right. It's a minor thing but it low-key drives me nuts.

Chocolate: The chocolate Draik, while not necessarily unusual for the color, looks really nice. I love the use of wafers for the wings and fins and the subtle cracks. The white chocolate parts add nice contrast and the chocolate topping and whipped cream add some nice finishing touches.

Mutant: The mutant Draik has much more realistic dragon-like proportions than usual, which makes it look particularly different compared to the usual delicate design. I do think it looks more zombie-like than mutant-like due to the exposed brain and ragged wings (plus the base anatomy remains unchanged), but it's still a good design regardless.

Both versions are fine, but the UC/styled one is just a superior take overall; better shading and beefier proportions in things like the tail and arms, plus the cool tongue. I honestly don't know why they changed it, seeing as mutants can't wear clothes and nothing significant changed; it's like they didn't have vector files so they redid the entire thing instead of properly redrawing over it.

BONUS: Speaking of Draik colors that got butchered in conversion, the Tyrannian Draik is a travesty. The UC/styled design has a triceratops-like head crest, which works because the head is incredibly flat. I get that there was no good way to convert it, but maybe just... don't, then? Regardless, the original design is great. I really details like the banding on the feet, hands, and nose horn, the subtle speckling, and the nice brown/greenish-grey contrast.

[luminologism]

Sky Cotl Skytober 2024: A retrospective by ME!

All of my skytober pieces in chronological order! -> here The song I set it too! -> here

This year, I participated in an Inktober adjacent drawing event. I did the Sky Cotl version of Inktober, Skytober. Now that it's November 1st, I have thoughts and feelings about the experience, what I learned, what I did right, and what I can improve on! This post is very much for me to reconcile and reflect on the art I did this month, but please feel read and enjoy my raw thoughts as well. I feel like everybody can learn from or relate to what I'm gonna chatter on about below, so take a read if you're so inclined! I'll be touching on relatability, popularity vs niche, effort vs efficiency, and passion vs honing skill.

WHY I DID SKYTOBER

So, as I said above, I participated in Skytober! It's my first Inktober adjacent event EVER! I've done similar projects in the past related to other arts (NaNoWriMo for example) but ultimately failed! Why? Well, I just didn't see that stuff through. I did not have a strong goal, and thus the past projects inevitably failed.

This year, however, I was DETERMINED to finish this project! This is because I have been meaning to make my inevitable swap from Paint Tool Sai 2 to Clip Studio Paint for AGES. I've had this program since forever (and even had the old version Manga Studio as a kid!), but it was far too robust at the time for me to want to learn it. However, it's been sitting on my computer for ages, and I have a massive commission in the works currently! I felt many of CSP's tools would be useful for that commission, so I took a bit of a detour and decided that Skytober would help me sit down and actually spend time learning this damn program.

Needless to say, I think my attempts at learning at least a bit of the program was successful. I learned a lot of the basic functions and where I liked tools and functions placed, I learned how to fiddle with some interesting brushes, and I also spent a LOT of time learning how to (roughly) paint backgrounds! These are all skills I was desperately trying to learn anyways, so having some solid and strict direction very much helped. I still have a lot to learn program wise, but drawing (nearly) every day has definitely given me a solid foothold in this program. As a diehard SAI2 user, the jump is difficult! But I think I did alright.

MY CREATIVE MINDSET AND DIRECTION

Now, the art itself. There are favorites I have, and there are absolute duds as well. In my eyes, to be specific. Drawing (nearly) every day is bound to run you dry for some mental and creative resources, but I did a few things to help mitigate that and keep the train chugging. For a long time, I had been meaning to make a Sky Cotl animatic using the song Virtual Angel by ARTMS. That's a recent release from that music group, but it's been one of my favorites recently. I think it's a beautiful song, and with lyrics like 'for the sin of swallowing up the sun' and 'fly me to your eden, this is eden' and 'i'll be there for you when your wings break', I thought the song fit Sky Cotl's vibe perfectly. However, I know absolutely nothing about animatics, so I decided to repurpose the idea into assigning a lyric to each Skytober piece instead. This massively helped with direction of ideas. It wasn't perfect, but it still significantly helped. Another thing I did to keep myself inspired was I actually wrote out a significant number of my ideas beforehand. They were not super fleshed out at times, and often they changed if I got inspired in another way. And other times, I just completely gave up on any ideas and decided the goal was just to finish SOMETHING, if just to keep the ball rolling. Either way, at least planning some things ahead of time helped eliminate a majority of the 'idk what to draaaaw!' woes down. It also helped me stay efficient, and having the song as direct inspiration sort of kept stoking the fires of my passion and helped me keep going! Raaah! Even so, I still ended up with duds, and you can absolutely see that reflected in each pieces notes.

RECEPTION OF MY WORK

I've never had this much attention on my work before. I used to run a pretty popular twitter before restarting it (and then deleting that second one just recently due to twitter being twitter), but I've never surpassed 1000 notes on anything before. Please understand, while I know that's not really all that much, for me that is! It's like imagining 1000 people standing in the same room as me giving me a thumbs up on my silly picture. It was amazing!! I would look at my notes all day at the start of the month with a smile on my face. It was surreal seeing people's thoughts coming in in real time. Seeing everybody's thoughts and feelings and interpretations of my works was amazing and so interesting to see. There would be people simply screaming at my work with glee, giving me genuine and sincere compliments, giving me their interpretations of how my works made them feel, and so much more! The most jarring thing for me was seeing a few people tag their friends in my work. I would sit there like 'huh, this person liked this piece so much that they had to show their friend directly!'. And it made me smile.

I also got to see in real time how my efforts can directly correlate with the interactions I got. And that swung both ways. There are some pieces I posted that barely had eyes on them, and it wasn't because I did poorly. It was because I think people can very much see when something is low effort or if you post something without confidence. Meanwhile, there were some pieces I posted that I sort of just threw together, and people LOVED? My picture for the prompt 'Mural' went absolutely bonkers, and I don't even really think it's all that good! On that piece I was just testing out manga stone wall brushes and fussing with glowing layer modes. It's by far my most popular Skytober piece as of posting this retrospective though, so it's interesting to see!

Another thing I saw that was interesting and I picked up very quickly on was my own OC content sees less eyes! Not because my OCs are bad or anything, but strangers can't relate to it! Even if the art is baller, my OC content had less interest than my more vague pieces. The pieces where I posted random moths (the closer to base game look, the better) were the ones people liked the best! That, or if I posted in game characters.

OVERALL

All in all, it was a very enlightening experience! If I do another event like this again, I will not pigeonhole myself to the square little paint stamp vibe I had going on. That made it hard to branch out or many images look wider. I will also put less effort in. Funny that I word it like that, but I actually think I put TOO MUCH effort in on some pieces! That made my inspiration (and other pieces) suffer. I also think that while I enjoyed posting my works with song lyrics, I won't do that again. Or if I do, I'm choosing a shorter song. I might also combine prompt days next time.

[monsterblogging]

List of Official/Official-Adjacent Pacific Rim Media

Here's a list of Pacific Rim media for y'all Pacific Rim fans who want to check out as much of it as possible!

PACIFIC RIM (2013 FILM) Usually considered the primary text of this franchise. Pacific Rim fans mostly agree it's good.

PACIFIC RIM NOVELIZATION BY ALEX IRVINE The novelization of the 2013 film. The book's writer, Alex Irvine, had texts from Legendary Pictures work with, but some of the information was outdated. Furthermore, the book has a cynical, smug tone and comes off like it's written for the type of audience who thinks CinemaSins is actual media criticism. The only thing it's really good for is for scraping out lore, but it's full of contradictions and occasionally uses outdated lore, so you have to compare/contrast it with other materials.

TALES FROM YEAR ZERO Authored by Travis Beacham, this comic explores the origins of the PPDC and the Jaeger program. It's interesting for lore, but story-wise, it might not be engaging if you aren't into Travis Beacham's particular romantic storytelling tastes. Also, if you're a puritan who gets offended when main characters are kinda fucked up people, this isn't for you.

TALES FROM THE DRIFT Authored by Travis Beacham, this comic tells the haters-to-lovers story of Duc and Kaori Jessop, pilots of Tacit Ronin. Mildly interesting for lore, and another romance-oriented story. (Beacham loves those.)

PACIFIC RIM: MAN, MACHINES, & MONSTERS The official artbook. Has some interesting information and lore, though it also contains a few typos and references outdated worldbuilding.

TRAVIS BEACHAM'S TUMBLR After Pacific Rim's release, Travis Beacham answered many fans' questions. While he was often cryptic and straight-up refused to answer certain questions for fear that he'd spoil a future story, he still provided quite a bit of insight. You can visit his old blog at travisbeacham.tumblr.com

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING Largely panned by fans of the original film. Partway through production, the sequel to Pacific Rim was handed off to another director, and many plot elements were hastily changed with little to no regard for the rich worldbuilding developed by Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro, or even story coherency. The film never gives really your brain space to breathe, so it's very difficult to follow the story. Moreover, it misses the thematic and allegorical tones of the first movie, and lacks its occult influences. Overall, it's a hollow followup to Pacific Rim.

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING NOVELIZATION BY ALEX IRVINE Fundamentally, it's the same story as Pacific Rim: Uprising. The upside is that Alex Irvine's writing is significantly improved, and the story is much easier to follow in novel format. The downside is that you don't have John Boyega's acting talent.

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING JUNIOR NOVELIZATION BY BECKY MATHESON It's more or less the same as above, but edited down for a younger audience.

THE ART AND MAKING OF PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING The PRU artbook. I've never read this one, so I couldn't tell you what's in it aside from the very obvious.

PACIFIC RIM: AFTERMATH A prequel comic to Pacific Rim: Uprising written by Cavan Scott, Aftermath tells two stories: one focuses on Jake Pentecost and his relationship with his father; the other on what happened to Hannibal Chau and Joshua Griffin (one of Vulcan Specter's pilots) after the kaiju war. The comic makes excellent use of the lore, and the stories are great.

PACIFIC RIM: AMARA A prequel comic that focuses specifically on Amara Namari. I have mixed feelings about it; the mini-Jaeger designs were great but I felt that the actual storyline was a little melodramatic. I dunno, read it for yourself and see what you think.

PACIFIC RIM: ASCENSION A prequel novel to Uprising by Greg Keyes, this story gives life and focus to many characters who didn't get a lot of attention, including the Kaidonovskys and the cadets. Mako Mori is given the narrative respect she deserves, and Hermann Gottlieb's characterization is top-notch. The author makes use of the lore provided by Legendary Pictures to weave a rich and fascinating narrative that puts the actual Uprising film to shame.

MAKING OF/BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE There's a number of videos out there on YouTube, which you can find by searching up.

PACIFIC RIM CONCEPT ART There's quite a lot of concept art out there. You can start here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or search Pinterest or whatever search engine for Pacific Rim concept art.

PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK A cash grab produced by Netflix, The Black disregards Pacific Rim's rich worldbuilding and follows bland, generic cartoon protagonists through a bland, generic cartoon plot loosely - loosely, mind you - based on the films. It tries to be dark, but it has all the skill of a sixteen year old edgelord about it. Also, the production values are nonexistent. You will miss absolutely nothing worthwhile by skipping over it. If for some reason you really want a Pacific Rim story where child soldiers are framed as a good thing, just read Pacific Rim: Ascension. If you want dark, watch Pulp Fiction or From Dusk 'Til Dawn. If you want a story where somebody makes a religion out of turning people into monsters, watch Midnight Mass or play/watch a no-commentary playthrough of Resident Evil 4 or 8. If you want an AI that looks after two stranded children, watch 3Below. Seriously, there is nothing The Black does that something else doesn't do infinitely better. "But most of these aren't Pacific Rim stories-" Wrong. Any story can be a Pacific Rim story if you're not a coward. And just about anything is a better Pacific Rim story than The Black.

PACIFIC RIM: BLACKOUT Prequel comic to Pacific Rim: The Black. Haven't read it, but it's written by the same guy who wrote Aftermath so it's probably a sight better than The Black.

[asexualbookbird]

August feels. Blurry. The Thursday of the year. Of the summer? IT feels like the year. I managed to fill out my entire Summer Bingo Board for the library. I haven't heard back about winning any prizes, but I had fun and that's what counts. Bingo made me branch out of my comfort zone which was really neat. Can't say I'll do it more often, a comfort zone is comfortable, but I do enjoy reading something Different every now and then. Did some crafty things this month, which has been a lot of fun, and I've been Smart and Wise and started on holiday gifts so I'm not scrambling in December. It's called personal growth~

The Bone Season: Tenth Anniversary Edition by Samantha Shannon ⭐⭐ - I'm salty about this. Yes, it's an improvement, but it still sucks. The world and magic is so neat, but we're stuck with a plot Like That. Made me do an actual full review on goodreads and on tumblr if you want all the details.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon ⭐⭐- I kept my original rating because honestly I felt the same as I did years ago. It's worse than the updated version, but it's the core of the novel that needs changing. Props to this one at least for making Paige asexual. I do not want to see this book on ace book lists ever again.

The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game by The McElroys and Carey Pietsch ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- One of the best installments so far. The art is AMAZING, I love the meta they're doing with Griffin and The Hunger, it was a little rushed and I'm bummed we aren't getting a full adaptation of The Stolen Century, but this is still right up there with Petals to the Metal for me!

The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - T Kingfisher has never written a bad novel to me, but this one did take me longer than her others to really click. The audio narrator had some inflections that didn't work for my brain, but once they went through the door, things got Weird and picked up. These two made so many stupid decisions, but it still felt in character! Big Stan Pines energy coming from that uncle.

Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - For book bingo! Got me a square for Read Nonfiction, Read Something About The Environment, and Read Something You Found from Book Page (a magazine advertising new and upcoming books). AND it had a local connection. I learned a lot, it was really neat and didn't feel like I was reading a textbook. It was very engaging, and has me looking at grocery stores differently. It was hard to find, though, because Frostbite is a very common name in the urban fantasy romance genre.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oof. Very heavy, very creepy, very GOOD. Did not expect the many graphic dog deaths, but that was on me. Technically I WAS warned, my brain just didn't register "SGJ dogs are not safe" as "The dog dies in this one". The audio narrator was very good, but I had to listen to the opening a couple times to really get everything to click. It might've been easier had I" read it myself, but the cadence of the narrator really added to the story.

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox ⭐ - Wow when was the last time I had a true one star read. (Actually not too long ago. It was The Novice.) This wanted so badly to be The Haunting of Hill House, but if you want another book like Hill House, just read Starling House. We missed what actually happened in the book because the main character was losing her memory. If you want that, go read Harrow the Ninth. This was a mess and I hated it.

On that note, I need to read something to recharge my faith in books, so MURDERBOT TIME! That's my only reading plan for September, but now I'm feeling Rushed because the year is almost over and I still have about half of my reading goals list left. Whoops. I'd also like to at least attempt some of the Swordtember prompts, if not do all of them. That looks like a lot of fun! So! Onward we go!

[havendance]

New Comics Time!

And it's a long one this week. Lots of comics. I might poke my head in Harley Quinn or Powergirl later for completion/curiosity purposes but I wanted to talk about a lot of these now :)

Detective Comics #1090 - The flashbacks in this issue are far more interesting in my opinion that the present day which is like 'oh no, another serial killer!' While I do think that it's hilarious that Taylor is having it so Thomas Wayne saved Joe Chill's life back in the day (A plot point that would be right at home in Batman: Year Two where Bruce is busy agonizing over the fact that he's planning to kill Joe Chill with the same that killed his parents), I still can't help but be intrigued by the themes of unseen consequences of well-intended actions that he seems to be setting up. Between Thomas saving Joe Chills life, and the fact that I can't help but get shady vibes from Scarlett Martha Scott's anti-aging stuff and offer to Bruce, I'm interested is seeing where this goes

Art-wise, previously, Mikel Janin's art has always had this too-smooth feel to it that made me think of cgi or cell-shading and it just didn't work for me. This time, with him doing his own colors, there's still some of that smoothness, but he's also some texture to it that has vastly improved my enjoyment. We really are in the middle of an age of these bright, technicolor comics and I really like it.

Action Comics #1072 - I do appreciate the flashback we got to explain Mon-El this issue as someone who is not familiar with Superman lore. Kon and Kenan continue to be fun while the adventure in the Phantom Zone continues. For the backup, I continue to really love the art--especially the environment this issue. Plot wise, my curiosity about the prisoner and the nature of Kara's mission is building. I'm a little worried that the tension is getting build up too much and when we finally do get answer's it'll be a disappointment, but we shall just have to see.

Green Arrow #17 - Most of this issue is taken up by cleaning up the last of the double-agent Green Arrow plotline that I largely did not read. I did enjoy the start of Condon's run though. I liked the atmosphere it was setting up and the sniping between Ollie and Batman was very enjoyable. I am interested in seeing more of this new costume. The mask makes him look younger.

Superman #19 - Okay, the moment where both Clark and Lois ducked into the same broom closet to go out and save the day? That was cute. I think my main take-away from this issue was that I really don't know a lot of the current Superman status quo because, like, Lois Lane as the Planet's Editor in Chief? The whole Supercorp thing? Luther's amnesia. I've got nothing on any of it. Part of being a comics fan is rolling with the punches though. I'll probably keep seeing where this story goes, but I think it's also getting prone to being dropped as I wander off.

Absolute Wonder Woman #1 - This was so good. I admit, that was I was doubtful when I first heard the announcement because, I've found in my experience that Kelly Thompson writes fun comics but ones that don't necessarily grab me. I think this best thing of her's I've read, honestly. Diana as an exile! I am also obsessed with Circe being the one to raise her. "How you fall in love with a child is by raising it." It's hitting the same beats for as one of the best parts of the Messner-Loebs run which was Circe as Donna Milton and how she found herself getting drawn into Diana's orbit. The things you do, the people you surround yourself with. That matters for your character. I just loved seeing that redemption there for her.

I love what this is setting up in terms of Diana setting out to try and find who she is and what was hidden from her. There is this mission that is tying her to an origin and people she's never gotten the chance to know. It leaves me really hoping that we get to see her reunited with the Amazons at some point.

The art was also gorgeous. Bellaire's colors were knocking it out of the park as always. Those long horizontal panels I really like, but I did leave wishing I could read this on paper. I am just a little tempted to go out and start getting this in floppy form and we shall see, but also, I am spending this money of dcu infinite and trying to not buy a ton of comics weekly on top of that so I'll probably try to just hold out for the trade instead.

The Flash #14 - This is looking like it's going to be such a fun story arc. Vacation to Skartaris!--I am not the Warlord fan, but it still brings me joy. Not sure if I'm really feeling the artist for this, but the lettering continues to be top notch for this series.

Nightwing #119 - I am a fan of this creepy puppet-master type villain it looks like we're going to get. Fun archetype. I do like the setup we're getting here and the DickBabs banter is top notch. (As a side note, while I know Barbara isn't back to all of her post-crisis glory, I really do appreciate Oracle popping up everywhere in comics again especially coming from the new52). Interested in seeing where it goes!

Green Lantern: Dark #1 - Another comic I checked out because I could, and unlike the werewolf Batman one, I think this one's going to be a keepr. The fantasy vibe that this had was very fun. I like how it played with stories. I also really liked the art. It had this very nice sketchy feel to it.

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #1 - I really liked the opening sequence--that spread of the watchtower? Beautiful. That being said, there was a lot of set-up in this issue. It felt like most of the time was spent having Renee follow Wonder Woman around and have stuff explained to her. This is a new setting and this is also a lot of the introduction to the Watchtower that we're getting prior to Justice League: Unlimited #1 afaik, but I also can't help but feel that there could've been a more efficient way of getting this information across. Say, a map, or a casefile, or even Renee explaining it to the reader rather than having everything explained to her. I think what I really wanted was Renee taking more of a lead, and I hope that we do get that next issue now that all the set-up's out of the way.

All of that being said, the supporting cast is shaping up to be very fun. I was admittedly, holding out for the Huntress, but I will not complain about the Blue Beetles + Batwoman! I am looking forward to seeing how that team unfolds. Art-wise, I don't think I really have much to say, but I did really like the text-boxes that the robot guy had. Nice touch right there.

[dorkfruit]

i put this together using my computer's trackpad so the new year is already starting out . bad .

posts: J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D

template

reflections on the year, my plans for the future, some studies i did, and wips for the next year all down below for those who are interested

tldr; we will be ianthing next year so watch out!!

oh dear lord it's been another year. 2024! can you believe it! i don't talk much on this blog because i have a tendency to talk too much, but it's my little new year's treat, so here we go.

RECAP

i started taking drawing "seriously" in December of 2020, starting to do studies and stuff, and each year since i've ramped it up more and more. this year, i did. a lot of studies. there's probably like at least 200 more in my folder now (not including the 300 days worth of gesture drawings i did), with things like painting, faces, feet, poses, etc. anything i was struggling with, i went right into studying it. my art has been mediocre for a pretty long time now, and it's only the past few months where i feel i'm starting to get the hang of it, which is exciting!

more importantly, i started posting a lot more on this blog. i really like documenting my progress, looking on where i was before and seeing how i've improved. everytime i draw some fanart, im like, oooghh i can't wait to show my (: followers (: !! lots of locked tomb art of course. i've been trying to nail the energy of the different characters, which is why i enjoy books so much, because you get a lot of creative control. drawing ianthe is my fav of course, cause she's my lil nasty, but also i enjoyed doing designs for characters i hadnt thought about before, like judith.

in addition to the locked tomb, we had some new fandoms that got brief moments in between iantheposting: Fear and Hunger, Postal, Faith The Unholy Trinity, and a couple of old ones too, like We Have Always Lived In The Castle and The Merciless.

i posted about 115 times this year, although most of those are shitposts LOL i love posting stuff on my blog and showing people my stuff <3

THE FUTURE

my plans? do more ianthe art, of course. ill be working on more studies, probably going to work on developing a style, and figuring out how to paint. i'd like to do more actually finished pieces, but let's be honest, it'll still be mostly shitpost doodles. i'd like to do more weird stuff. i've been messing around with some gore and NSFW near the end of the year, and it's fun to draw for me. i like idk art that evokes some type of emotion, especially discomfort, and so i find that type of art fun to do, so if you don't enjoy what i've done thus far in that direction, perhaps this isn't the blog for you. i really like horror media, and so i want to do some stuff like that too.

for specifics, i like western type art, a comic book-esque style i'd like to aim for. but i'd like it to be a little more. weird with it. i find comic books often draw all the characters the same, and make all the characters traditionally attractive, and that's boring to me so i'll have to work on finding a way to keep things weird, while also appealing in a graphic sense. the worst thing my art could be is bland and forgettable.

locked tomb wise... more tridentarii art. need to be really weird with it. i have lots of wips planned, like i have a whole page worth of just thumbnails, so i wanna get some of those done. also i had a few animatics i wanted to do. mostly stupid shit, once i learn how to do animatics, then we'll do actual serious ones. id also like to do more comics. i have some comics storyboarded out with my girlies, i like telling a story so, need practice on that. id also like to develop a way to consistently draw them, for convenience sakes, so i'm not fighting for my life every single time i draw these characters. oh and i wanna do some outfit stuff. i draw them in like. generic clothes everytime but i'd like to come up with a few actual outfit designs, that i can just reference back to. and, of course, more shitposts. lots of stupid shit in 2024 for sure. there was something else i wanted to say here but i can't remember.

ART

oki enough rambling, here's some IMAGES for yall to look at i know everyone loves to look at images.

began this year by warming up with gesture sketches (almost) every day. i started with 20 poses (30 seconds each), and then in november i was like. ugh my hands suck i need to get better at hands, so i switched to doing 10 hand sketches (60 seconds each). i want my art to be very energetic so it's important that i do these !!

anatomy studies of extremities because i'm flopping at those -_- ive gotten better with hands but they're still a struggle. i hate feet tho still

need to get my painting game up. i joined an art forum to get advice, and the biggest suggestion i got was working on my values, so i did various value studies. also lots of faces because my faces flop !!

random doodles to work on drawing from imagination. on my "sketchbook" pages, as i like to call them, i'm usually pretty loose and messy, since the point is just to be drawing so often these will suck, but that's fine. i don't think very much when i draw faces on here either so they end up being in my Instinctive Style i suppose you could say

ianthe wip. i was planning to do a few drawings based on the idea of her having Missing Arm nightmares, but the lineart was intimidating to me so i haven't worked on this one more yet /: also there was going to be a toontown gay homosexual toxic yuri comic that i was gonna put here with it but the page is way too long so umm guess that'll have to wait.

...

anyways. thank you for reading if you got to the bottom of this! i appreciate all the support that i've been getting lately (extra big kissies for the same like 5 people who always reblog my posts youre the best). and we will be ianthing soo hard in 2024 so watch out!!

[ivynivekgames]

Here's something Sorely Kneaded :3c (Sorely Kneaded Update Announcement)

Heads up, this is gonna be a MEATY post! (This is making up for all the time of I've been so quiet).

It has been… checks watch okay, over a year since the original [猫はかわいい (kitties are cute)] demo dropped, wowza! Well, I got a couple of things I wanna mention and talk about, and about the future of this project (ALL OF WHICH ARE IMPORTANT)! I've been pretty quiet on saying anything update-wise, but there's a good reason for that… But first, some context!

Now, when I started work on this, I wasn't sure about what direction to take this. I just kinda winged it and hoped for the best, but as I was writing up ideas and where to take the project in the background--the scope has been getting bigger... And the original ideas I had for the time being just weren't holding up. My ability as a writer has majorly improved throughout this (2024) year (I applied myself, tee-hee).

On top of becoming a better writer and getting a more concrete vision of where to take the game, a new musician has joined in helping with the game's soundtrack (an aspect I was woefully fearful of). Their music will be replacing the old (though there may be a track or two that will be kept from the previous composer, seeing as they're essentially... Perfect). The new sound is a lot more fitting in terms of atmosphere and energy.

Art wise, it is still handled by me, but some of the workload is being taken care of by some good, talented friends that are willing to help make this project come to fruition, they too, have been gaining a better understanding of the artstyle that fits the game best. On my end, I've been getting even better at utilising the hard work that has been handed to me and having it make the most impact.

All things considered, I've realised that with so much improvement on the side of production, the earlier parts of the game would have to reflect my new standard going forward (namely The Void and Emerland). The original story is ill-fitting and its concepts too derivative (and anything original is ill-explored) and tone is mixed.

Hence, I am happy to the Sorely Kneaded update. A total reimagining of the CatJam's vertical slice. With half a year of development already, Sorely Kneaded will aim to show my vision and standard quality for the project going forward.

This update is not an earth shattering or thoroughly exhausting endeavour in the sense of scope, rather, it's a showcase of something much closer to what the final game will be. In the update you'll find:

Remastered graphics of assets that were originally sub-par in quality.

New soundtrack and sound design, more fitting for the game's vibes and vision.

New content, more secrets, etc.

A much more balanced gameplay experience, with more interesting dungeons to navigate and more focus on narrative decisions (though the game will still only have one ending).

Greater focus on characters and their interactions, this is a character-driven game, after all. ;)

And finally, a much more fleshed out story and lore, completely abandoning the original "Hell" related plot. Frankly, even the original game barely attached itself to Christian canon, so I feel this was the right choice.

My goal with this project has always been to make a fun and genuine experience that comes from the heart. I have a vision and ideas I want to show to anyone that's interested, and I couldn't bear the idea that I'd somehow deliver it in a shoddy state.

I want to direct you all away from hell, and welcome all of you to the World of Mu, a place where magic flows like air and one only truly dies when their soul fades...

The update will drop when it's done, currently: The Void is in a near-complete state and Emerland will begin development shortly. I will make a follow-up announcement for when it's released, beyond that--hold tight!

Potential questions:

Q: How big will this update be? A: It will likely be bigger than the original demo, I project about 3~ish hours out of it on an average playthrough (the early parts are fairly story heavy).

Q: How will the new music fare compared to the original? A: The new music will be rad! Er... I mean, it's gonna be AWESOM- okay no. It will service the game's atmosphere and tone much better. You'll just have to like, listen, dude.

Q: How good will the new graphics be, compared to the original? A: It's nothing earth shattering, the art will merely be "spruced up" since I want the graphics to maintain a "soulful" look. I have a vision... Q: Any content being removed? A: Yes. As previously said, all the music will be getting replaced, along with the old sound effects. Story elements will be cut in favour of new ones. You may have liked some old concepts or ideas, but I promise that what's new will more than make up for that!

Q: Will the old [Kitties are Cute] save file work with Sorely Kneaded? A: 99% sure it will not (can never be too sure), disregarding that. I put so much effort into making this new stuff, you GOTTA play it, dude!

Q: What will happen to the old demo? A: It'll be left on the page, available for download. I think it's good to leave it archived as a way to show how far the project has come.

PS: The page will be update when the update is out.

Credits:

Director, Writer, Designer, Programmer: Ivy Nivek

Music and Sound Design: @witchscadence, Ivy Nivek

Art: Guck, Split, Spoop, Ivy Nivek

Want to make developing this easier? Throw me some change: https://ko-fi.com/ivynivek

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

[Note: Image description is in the alt text of the images due to its length. Let me know if writing them down on the post's description is more preferred!]

Here is Wilt!! My Flower Kid for Smile For Me with a new and improved art ref! I still love this tall goober even if I've never done much with them, lets hope that changes seeing my hyperfixation for Smile For Me STILL isn't over!!

Additional info and their backstory under the cut!

In the middle of nowhere in the US, there was a old reclusive farmer. This farmer took care of everything mostly on his own and didn't allow many people to come onto his property, the reasons varied, but part of it had to do with how he had Shadow abilities that he'd use to 'possess' straw bodies to help him in his work, also part of how he was able to care for his farm on his own as well.

The farmer however, would grow especially attached to a scarecrow he constructed to ward away any pesky birds from his crops. This attachment would prove to be so great, that the shadows from the Farmer would separate and make the scarecrow into their own person, who the Farmer would name 'Wilt' for their droopy appearance and tendency to care for even the most wilted plants.

The farmer and Wilt had a father-child bond, and he took care of them and taught them everything he knew. However even if the farmer tried his best, he was still a recluse and didnt dare step away from his farm, and so neither did Wilt, leading to them to be very unsocialised, things became worse when the Farmer eventually passed from his old age, leaving Wilt alone for many years until when in their early 20s, they finally decided the loneliness was too great for them to bear, and decided to leave it for the nearby town their father would distribute their crops to.

Wilt had a incredibly hard time adjusting to town life, they were not only incredibly clumsy and would get into a lot of accidents, but their social inability made many find them unsettling to be around. Even now surrounded by other people, Wilt was still lonely, and for a while mostly spent time exploring the streets in hopes for someone to interact with, even if briefly.

Eventually, they were found by a friendly couple that ran a flower shop and needed a helping hand. When they saw Wilt's ability to care for flowers that had even wilted greatly, they decided to take them in and help them settle in. Whilst Wilt now had a occupation and friends in the shop owners, they still felt lonely from how many customers would still find them offputting and how the shop owners had a lot of difficulty understanding them. Even now, they were still unhappy.

Eventually, some mysterious fliers would appear around town, talking about a retreat known as the Habitat where sad people go to fix their frowns. Intrigued and feeling that they could use something to fix their frown, Wilt decided to embark to the mysterious Habitat...

Wilt, personality wise, is a very empathetic and kindhearted scarecrow, always wanting to help others and nurse unhealthy plants back to health. Their empathy can be so strong that the thought of stepping on flowers makes them shriek in emotional pain.

Unfortunately Wilt has incredibly poor social skills due to only ever knowing their farmer father, who was also very socially inept. They barely talk and often can only make wheezing sounds or say short one syllabel words at a time due to anxiety. However, this anxiety is a tad eased when Wilt talks with their little crow puppet Root, which was made to initially tell jokes to make their father smile and laugh, and so ends up being more confident (and even sassy) with it.

Despite this overall anxiety, Wilt has at times a mischevious side, and has the habit of sometimes standing completely still like a regular scarecrow before jumping at someone to surprise them as a joke, though they don't always understand why someone wouldn't laugh back at them!

[randevu-01]

2023 art summary time!

some of my thoughts and comments are below the cut :)

This was... an interesting year. I got out of my DmC shell (after 3 or 4 years) and spent most of the year obsessing over other fandoms, e.g. Call of Duty of all things lol. I also got into Trigun, watched and loved both adaptations, as well as Fullmetal Alchemist and Death Note - quite an accomplishment for someone who generally doesn't like anime. Oh, and closer to the end of the year I discovered a whole new world of music band fandoms after I somehow got invested in Sleep Token and Ghost (it's the masks I'm sure)

Productivity-wise, even though I couldn't even fill in all the spots in the template, I feel like I did pretty good. Some months I didn't manage to finish anything, but October was wild, I did a lot of nice complete pieces then. A significant portion of my time and effort was put into drawing comics for the DMC ask, and I also took some commissions at the start and in the middle of the year, so there was very little time for me to make personal art, which I miss greatly and hope to make more of in 2024.

Speaking of future plans, I definitely want to give more attention to my OCs from Waffen AG and City Ghouls. When it comes to making OC content, I tend to stop at colored sketches at best, but in 2024 I hope I can make actual polished art of my characters. (Though I'm convinced that this will make my social media reach even worse than it is now, I'll try to not gaf, 'cause I learned that making and developing OCs can be super fun, and oh boy do I need that serotonin lol)

Skill-wise, I think I've definitely improved at making comics, lineart and anatomy, which were my 2023 goals a year ago. However, I feel like I could've done even better. But, again, I was pretty busy with irl stuff, so it's okay.

In general, life was pretty exciting in 2023. I visited 4 cities this summer, met my old friends and made some new ones. Despite some heath issues, I had a great time!

Thank you all for sticking around and appreciating my art! I cherish every little comment and reblog ^^

Hopefully, I'll be able to reach even more people on this platform in 2024. Happy New Year!

[helluvabossrewrite45]

Have you ever felt insecure with work (ex. feeling inferior to others and that you and your work aren't good enough for anyone to enjoy, worrying about your stuff being a failure, etc) and if so, how do you deal with them?

I ask since I've been dealing with some insecurities with my art & writing and worrying that the stuff, I have planned to share wouldn't be good enough for anyone to enjoy, especially with this problem of myself comparing my work to others (especially ones I take inspiration from), and I feel these are problems I definitely need to work on if I wish to succeed. So, I thought maybe I'd ask you for some advice on dealing with insecurities about your work. Apologizes if this ask got a little too vent-y and personal.

No, thats okay anon. Tbh, i definitely felt this some or a lot of the time whenever I'm creating a writing piece. Theirs this part of my head where it questions my writing techniques, that it wont be good, that it will come off as pretentious and how people consider my books to be cringe or bad even in an artistic standpoint (the main thing I care for because I know im not the best technical wise) and they dont ever get finished both because of the time and that writers block for that story just kept coming. For the hb series, I'm a bit more confident because its just rewriting a show with flaws that i wanted to fix in some way, though i still feel of some insecurity like if its too chronically online or too childish for my age (almost going to be a senior next year, still in hs) but it does have an audience with people who enjoy them so i keep continuing. I'd say im mostly confident with my revision of books that are gross (e.g, those dark 'romances' of psuedo incest themes) where i remove it and replace it with familial themes instead, books like colleen hoover because her romances and the way she writes about them are just not good and i think you can spin so much of her stuff into decent works without the toxic romance/smut (cuz ngl, it is more like smut than a romance book) or works like velma where its just bottom of the barrel shit that you can easily make it a more enjoyable experience in your reworks. You could compare your books to poorly written ones and that may give you a bit of confidence in your works because well, 'at least its not as bad as _'. Or, something that i'm planning to focus on more, instead of worrying too much of how its written, its to get it done as much as possible. If writers block ever comes in, take a break, look at your work, maybe google how to get out of it or try to see how you can get out of it with an extra sentence. Another thing is to go to the people you can trust with criticism of how to improve your work like friends where they can give you the proper criticism you need for improvement before posting them online or somewhere book related. It's all i have since im still experiencing these things and how im currently busy with school assessments but i hope they at least help in some way.

[isaac-clarke]

So my mentorship ended around 2 months ago at the start of September and I never quite got around to talking about it lol. Mostly because stuff kept happening. Work bullshit but also health stuff cropped up. So ironically enough, since then, I haven't actually drawn anything (besides a couple small 5 minute doodles here and there). And tbh? I'm okay with that.

One of the reasons I went for my mentorship with Chira was to not just work on my technical skills, but my own relationship with my art which I knew wasn't in a good spot and hadn't been at all for several year. I developed anxiety from certain personal stuff that happened way back in 2012 and it slowly poisoned a lot of stuff over the years. Including my attitude towards my art.

To put it shortly, I deal with avoidance quite a bit when it comes to anxiety and stuff that makes me anxious. And art is one of those. It used to be really bad in like 2017 when I didn't even know I had it, I could barely draw circles, much less doodles, and I would have to claw my way back up to something relatively comfortable. I also tended to stay in my safe zone because of this. Because of my anxiety, but also chronic allergies, and RSI, decent drawing sessions where inconsistent and scattered despite my effort. And when I would be able to draw-- I'd always stick with something safe, what I know I'm good at. I'd never go out of my comfort zone despite knowing full well I needed to in order to improve. So for anxiety wise, I would get anxious too if I went too long without drawing because I was scared I'd revert back to the hard avoidance and needing to claw my way back up again. Which HAS happened multiple times. Chira helped me realize it's a consequence of my anxiety and, yes, it WILL happen again. But to not worry, because every single time I've bounced back. And I'll bounce back again. Coming to terms with that helped a lot.

To top that off I always felt just.... like I'll never be good enough because I've KNOWN since I graduated art school that my fundamentals were very lacking in several areas. The only one it wasn't was anything to do with colors, color theory, values..etc. But everything else? Lol. I knew in 2015 when I was graduating that I wasn't anywhere near professional, that there was still so many gaps in my fundamentals I genuinely didn't understand and that made me feel awful. I thought I was a shitty artist, and I never really knew where to even focus to improve on them. Ergo: avoidance, staying in the safe spots.

So for 6 months this is what Chira helped me with: with my fundamentals but also pealing back my thoughts and attitude. Why did I think a certain way? Approach things a certain way? Avoid things? Why did I think I was a mediocre artist when graduating? Was it not my school failing to properly educate me? (Which I realized was the case, 10 classes per week for 3 years did not do me favors beyond feeling I need to rush and partially apply fundamentals without truly learning nor understanding them). Chira also helped me realize I had a fixed mindset and had a lot of unhealthy habits regarding my art. I really learned how to self reflect too, especially if my anxiety related feelings started to really creep in. (Like getting frustrated, knowing I'm weak at a certain thing and it's just not clicking withing the first few tries..etc)

My fundamentals vastly improved too-- my homework for the whole six months was basically doing gesture figures and over time applying more and more things. Proper perspective, construction, clothing/wrinkles..etc. And from month 1 to month 6 I've seen such an improvement.

Tbh I used to feel so ashamed, knowing I graduated from art school with my fundamentals lacking so hard. And my anxiety hindered me for YEARS about improving it. I'm sure if I didn't have it I'd be far beyond where I am now, but I have it. And there's no use crying over spilt milk.

I'm so grateful for Chira's help and I definitely recommend their mentorship program if you also have struggles with your art.

Here's homework from Month 1 week 1, then Month 6 week 2

Also for anyone's curiosity, some draw over's from Chira from that homework review:

[gemsbian]

Needed to draw today so you all get to see a draft of the Horizons OC I've been working on. She's existed conceptually for roughly two months but I think I've finally settled on a design, personality and story. Art and lore dump under the read more. It's a lot of text.

Summary: Zir accidentally scared her, and her first response was to react with violence. I imagine Zir is bitten by some spicy teenager and goes "what if she's hungry and that's why she's violent :'(" so takes her to get ramen. Start of a beautiful friendship.

Story wise, she's very guarded and has been on the streets for "a few years" not much is revealed to the main cast about her backstory because it's not really relevant. I have a feeling Zir and Conia of all characters would be able to recognize a messed up teenager and know not to pry.

Her character arc follows that of a former street cat adjusting to things like having three meals a day and not having to sleep so guarded + getting used to a bed (hence the closet nest). She's not exactly personal when they first meet, or ever.

She doesn't reveal any information about herself like name or age, so Zir decided "Eh, she's spicy, so how about a pepper nickname?" and gives her a bunch of them. From the RVTs perspective, they would have zero idea what her "real" name is among all the nicknames.

For relationships, she views Zir as "the nice idiot" and sees him as trustworthy. Conia is "the pretty one" and Amethio is "emo boy"

She warms up to Zir the fastest, then Conia second. She'd be able to recognize Amethio as coming from a bad household as well, so they'd have a bit of unspoken solidarity between them. She wouldn't rile him up unless he initiated it, and both are very quiet when left to their own devices. But if he starts shit, she's not afraid to finish it.

She's not overly attached to Amethio personally, but recognizes him as someone Zir and Conia care about a lot, so she'd be defensive of him. Story-wise, this would be in the form of physically assaulting Friede for what she views as a verbal attack on Amethio. (Fun!)

Trivia: She didn't have a lot of sweet foods growing up and is very intolerant to them. She thinks they are "poison", and the sugar makes her ill. She really likes sour foods, and tolerates spice really well. When given the choice, she prefer fruits and vegetables to prepackaged or fast food.

Other: By no fault of her own, she's rather underweight at the start of the story, so it's a progression of her improving her physical and mental health throughout. Zir and Conia are also excited about the idea of Amethio having a friend his age, though it's a while before either of them are particular interested in interacting with each other.

thanks for reading all this :] it's okay to reblog, she's just not in main tags because she's a work in progress, and I'm probably going to change some details later.

[ryosei-hime]

What merch do you think has improved in quality over the years? Is there any merch you think could still do better be it in terms of design, quality, production, or any other aspect?

I probably have more complaints than praises, honestly. I think the variety of types of merch and types of pins they've tried has been nice. It doesn't always work out the first time or at all, but I like that they try new things. Quality-wise, the pins have definitely improved from when they started. Earlier pins were soft enamel instead of hard because it was cheaper and sometimes the colors weren't quite right. This pin, for instance, I've heard is very orange in person lol.

Other than Striker's skin tones always being off, they've gotten a lot better about the color selections on the pins.

I do like when they do mugs that aren't just the ZLLM chibis. I think ZLLM's art is very cute but there are only so many chibi mugs I can see before it gets boring. I'm glad they've let other people take shots at non-chibi mugs. I really enjoy KStone's chibis being thrown into the mix as well. Even though they're also chibis having a different art style of chibis helps with the monotony.

I think the biggest improvement in quality is in the plushies because the early ones are SO wonky lmao.

2. I think they struggle with the spinning pins. They don't really do the level of quality control it takes to be certain that the spinning elements work properly. I'm still waiting to receive my Keep Waiting pin from the Apology Tour drop which I got primarily to see if they've improved on that!

I think in some ways they've stagnated for a while on the designs themselves. I think there's an overabundance of pinups that drowns out other more creative ideas that could be used in regards to pins and standees especially. I'm a big fan of the earlier pins which felt more interesting. Now it's become a bit more formulaic and I think character personality has been lost to generic sexiness. I don't think I'd mind the pin ups so much if more of the character's personality were injected into them. Like Loona's first pin up/summer pins which feel very in character vs the newer ones.

This is largely personal preference though. I know a lot of people like the generically sexy pinups. And sex does sell so I get why it happened. But as the person inputting these things into a spreadsheet each drop, I've come to expect very specific formulas in what's released and I'm usually not proven wrong lol. So, maybe the formulaic releases are just boring me personally as a data entry person.

I also think their shipping has become kind of atrocious recently. A lot of people received the poster portrait pins in horrible condition due to the way they were shipped. It's been a big issue. It seems after some complaints, the shipping has already improved with those pins though. I think they could still pay more attention to their shipping quality in general but that's on shark robot.

My biggest complaint at the moment isn't quality so much as the aggressiveness of their drop rates. This year the rate of merch drops has been staggering. They've moved almost everything to pre-order and are dropping merch near constantly. We have the seasonal drops, the episode specific drops, drops for shorts, plushie drops, A24 Hazbin Hotel drops. It's getting a bit overwhelming. With the seasonal drops, there were a couple of months spread throughout the year in which collectors could be assured they'd have time to recoup and save for the next merch drop. But now there's no breathing room and honestly a lot of people are getting burnt out and are actually starting to fear the drops because they might end up missing something they really want. And the merch is a business thing, I know. They want your money. But the seasonal drops used to feel a lot more considerate of the consumer/audience and that was nice. I miss that.

[hydez-artz]

Hiya Everybuddy!

Its a new year, so I'm updating my Pricing Board. I feel like I've made a lot of progress art wise in the half a year I've been doing this freelance as my full time job. as such, with the increased quality, increased time put in, and increasing cost of living in this hellscape, I'm upping my basic commission prices slightly.

Comic and Animation pricing is remaining the same, as those still tend to work out finance wise (plus i know how expensive they can get for people and I don't wanna push that even further since they are where I get my most stable income), and i feel like i should show off my Reference work now, since I've gotten commissioned a few times to make ref sheets for people.

I also wanted to include some actual animation to showcase that here, but i felt bad just having the one thing animate in the corner, so I made my Com corner tag animate and kinda blew my old pic outta the water. another somewhat accidental showing of how much I've improved.

Anyways, if you wanna commission me for some art, you can DM me here, or on twitter, discord, or FA. wherever you prefer. til then ;3