#i feel like it ruins very cool lineart :(

[angryducktimemachine]

Would love to add the quote here but I only have the German version at hand. Anyway, canon event of Holmes climbing on Watsons shoulders my beloved.

[ID: a digital drawing of Holmes and Watson. They're standing by a wall with a window and Holmes is halfway up on climbing Watsons shoulders, with one leg on Watsons hands and the other on his shoulder. /End ID]

[scratch-house]

revolutionary girl utena characters as their real ages (1/?)

commission me here! and u can find more of my art in my art tag #fartposting

heyyy!!!! so i'm working through the block, still trying to finish old wips, and consistently, the thing that keeps me working on these is just letting myself be messy. i hate hate hate having to have super polished art, especially lineart, so i was like, if i'm going to be able to work on this and finish it, i've gotta just throw that out the window. and i think it looks pretty cool! i enjoy it!

the background was kind of just a bunch of miscellaneous improvised shapes. i tend toward those bar-like rows of rods in the background when i do this + some kind of dark framing shape, but this time i was actually going for the like ruins of the duelgrounds. also, i've started drawing characters with really big ears and it is very artistically satisfying for me like i don't know why, but utena had so much hair in this drawing i decided it looked better and less confusing if her ears were just covered. also, i forgot about her boys' uniform shdjshdjshd i was so focused on just other aspects of the piece that i just looked up the regular girls' uniform as a ref, but i think it kind of suits the vibe of this painting. to me, this is like, young utena standing up for someone being bullied so it has this childlike desperate, slightly scrappy feeling about it; the boys' uniform feels more polished and princely to me. i think that was the motivation behind all the hair too. i'm not a girl, but when i was a kid i was known for having a lot of very long thick hair. i would've been younger than utena is in the series, but i think there's sort of an association with childhood there

[naughtynoodle056]

I wish I could comment but I can't so:

oh my godddd I know this is kind of counterproductive or, like, just pointless for me to say this as a white person adding noise to the conversation but please please PLEASE DO NOT LET THOSE PEOPLE GET TO YOU!

I've only found ur acc recently since I've joined tumblr instead of lurking and your art is some of the best I've seen.

I have Aphantasia and general face blindness irl, so defining features (not even ethnic features, just general appearances) in drawings are the main thing I've had to focus on my whole life because I struggle to accurately display them in my art.

I've practiced and studied countless art styles and ways people have drawn and depicted eyes, eyelids, mouths, hair, skin, lips, noses, faces, body types, etc. Of course it differs depending on the art style, but you literally managed to perfect the way you draw individual features in your characters that make them not only stand out from eachother, but as characters with unique and diverse backgrounds.

I don't wanna clog up ur inbox too much, so without repeating the whole thing again, I will say that I also saw @cheeseburgersinparadise's comment on your post and I was thinking the exact same thing.

Idk what these people want you to do short of making racial caricatures or stereotypical depictions of people.

So here's some things I really enjoy about your artwork instead:

Little differences in body type are noticeable and really cool to see

you're very consistent in your character's personalities and depictions, so even if in one drawing they have their hair tied up and in another it's just completely natural, I can still tell who it is at just a glance!

Despite what the armchair critics say, the skin tones you use are really good and I can tell they're well thought out.

Your lineart is awesome. I've never been able to use the uhhh the one effect (I forgot the name) that makes the lines all sharp and stuff without my drawing looking like a SBAHJ comic parody/shitpost, but in your drawings it looks super neat and has a cool kind of side effect where it highlights the colors and stuff, making it all really pop but at the same time feel really like.. story and held together? I'm terrible at describing visuals I'm sorry but just know it's good! You know how to actually use brushes and effects/overlays.

facial expressions. You nail them every time. 'nuff said.

Same Face Syndrome fears you.

"try exploring shape language" idk what crack these people are smoking because your art is like the pinnacle of good use of shape language in drawings. It reminds me of Canadian cartoons (IN A GOOD WAY. I GET CANADIAN RADIO/TV SIGNALS, I GREW UP WITH IT) where it's like 'less is more' in terms of line detail and instead putting the focus on the basic shapes in a way that can make even the quickest sketches/simplest versions of a drawing look lively

if nobody else got me, the tumblr crowd got me fr 🥹💖

It's hard to articulate how much this means to me (hence why it took a bit for me to answer this ask lol) because like. I don't know if y'all remember that one episode of iCarly where one of Spencer's favorite artists just blew him tf off and it lowkey ruined his life for a while, but I felt just like that fr

It can be really frustrating sometimes being a silly kink artist(TM) and feeling like because I have a particularly cartoony art style and don't often draw the most extreme WG art, I get kind of overlooked and treated like IDK what I'm doing sometimes, y'know? I never went to art college and studied drawing there, other than one cartooning class I took for funsies at a community college, my knowledge comes from what I learned throughout grade school and studied myself with online resources or books at the library. So sometimes it DOES FEEL A LITTLE like certain huge artists who did go to college for that turn a nose up at artists like me.

It's the craziest feeling when someone makes a criticism on your work that's just like, objectively unhelpful or even hypocritical, and then doubles down and like subtly paints you as one who just can't accept criticism. Because if I couldn't, then you wouldnt have such kind specific compliments on my art hahaha. My lineart is so clean because I took the advice from an art teacher when I was 16 and it was shaky. I keep facial features and whatnot simpleish and cartoony so I can depict expressions in a more fun way.

Hell, that artist's "fair criticism" about leaning into ethnic features more may have been referring to the fact that Shay doesn't have a noise here. This is seen in some other pieces of mine, too

but that was intentional... a gentle nod to certain anime facial expressions were they leave the nose out for Extra Effect

It's a little ode to the funny facial expressions in Sailor Moon that do much of the same

Speaking of the lineart effect, heh, I'm soooo touched someone noticed it omg?? ;0;

I like to duplicate my lineart and put the top layer on multiply with a lighter (usually warm) color and guassian blur it and then the bottom layer with a bright (often brighter) and then guassian blur it even more before setting it to glow dodge :^)

I feel vindicated that I wasn't just like. overreacting when I was DEEPLY offended by the "helpful criticism"

I feel like whoever made the skin color comment just. forgot about the concept of lighting in a dim room 💀💀💀 It was so crazy to me that she was talking to me like I haven't been drawing these characters for years at this point and use the same base skin color like. 98% of the time

ALSO DW I THINK THE CANADIAN CARTOON COMMENT IS A BIG COMPLIMENT CUZ I USED TO WATCH A LOT OF THEM ALL THE TIME!! 6teen is one of my dearly beloveds fr and a friend of mine said my art style reminded him of that so 🥺🥺🥺

TLDR: thank you for being a real one and the heartfelt ask I will be mentally hanging this up on my fridge 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 (also sorry Tumblr is wack and wont let you reply to posts smh)

[sohin-ace]

Jojo Drabble - Doppio

※ A story where you find out Doppio may be more than meets the eye.

-----

You were hanging out on a date together with Doppio at a small ice cream café, a pleasant little place next to the train station.

Doppio insisted to stay as close to the station as possible, feeling more comfortable knowing his boss could send him off anytime. It was all much to the boy's dismay though. He felt bad for potentially having to leave you all of a sudden because of work.

You didn't mind it at all though. After all, it meant you could finally have some sweets and drinks you've been wanting to try forever. And a short date with Doppio was still a date, in your eyes. You'd make the most out of the time you had together.

After a good while of talking, laughing and getting to know each other, his order came and you didn't miss the happy glint in Doppio's gaze.

He had ordered a classic Banana Split, but the dressing of the dessert, with sprinkles of pink sugar crystals, swirls of chocolate syrup and the candied cherry, strangely matched him and his style, which was both fun and adorable to see.

"Woah! Look at how pretty they made it look, Y/N!" Doppio exclaimed, snatching his spoon and more than ready to dig in.

You chuckled, suddenly wishing you had taken one as well instead of the pastry and iced tea you ordered for yourself.

"Hmm, strawberry for your hair, caramel for your eyes and..." You counted the different flavors he had picked for his ice cream, humoring yourself in trying to link them to him. "...Mint? I don't see anything green on you... Are you wearing mint underwear or something?"

You jested and he gasped, his freckled cheeks warming up red, "Ah no! Y/N, come on!" He interjected with offense and you tried hard not to snort.

"Haha, I'm just playing with you Doppio... it's okay to wear mint underwear." You continued, ceasing to pry into his choice of flavors but never ceasing your jokes on him.

He only shook his head and laughed with you, looking down to hide his very visible embarassment. You both had met recently, but he was in for a treat if you were the teasing type. Not like he disliked it in the slightest.

Just as he was about to devour his treat, your date clumsily moved his wrist right over the huge pile of whipping cream on his dessert, smearing it on his shirt in the process.

"Ah, oops." He blurted, looking around the table for something to clean himself off.

You graced him with your napkin, finding his clumsiness adorable and he thanked you, wiping his shirt off and pulling his sleeves up to prevent any more damage to his quite, you dared say, sexy top.

But right as he slipped his sleeves up to his elbows and started eating, your eyes fell into the beautiful swirls of black ink on the skin of his forearms.

You were not one to judge people for their appearances and surely you did not have anything against tattoos. However you were still surprised at how the sweet freckled and feminine boy all in pink you've started seeing had such strong and bold tattoos, almost reminiscent of a gang symbol.

"Huh? Doppio you have sleeve tattoos?" You asked, curious and admirative of the beautiful art.

"Hm?" He looked over his painted arms and nodded a bit absent-mindedly. "Oh! Uh... Yeah..."

"Aw shoot! I never would have thought! What a bad boy~" You teased and laughed. "Am I hanging out with one of the cool kids? You don't seem like the delinquent type."

"I-I well... Uuhh..." Doppio fretted and squirmed in his seat, a bit nervous that you would possibly be grossed out by it and want to ghost him, his paranoia kicking in. "It-it's... Don't you like them? Do they look bad?"

"Bad, no. Badass, yes! They look really cool Doppio." You leaned in and cupped your chin with your hands, staring at him with a gentle smile ."You surprise me everyday..."

He blushed and cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact, his heart racing in his chest. God you made him feel all gooey inside without even trying. Before he could even regain his composure, you reached across the table and softly started tracing the swirls and outlines of the meticulous lineart on his arm.

"Do they represent anything? Why that design? If it's not too personal to ask, of course."

Doppio flinched and shuddered at your sudden delicate and addictive touch before he relaxed a bit, enjoying the sweet affection.

"It's uh... How do I say it... It's not that they represent anything, let's say..." He scratched his head and mumbled a little bit. "They link me to someone."

"Link you to someone?"

"Someone... Important." He completed softly, his face strangely melancholic and strained, like he was fighting a headache, "It's a bit complicated, I'm not sure how to explain... I don't want to blabber on too much..."

You felt his distress and didn't want to push him further. He already looked uncomfortable with the subject so you let it go with understanding. You respected his privacy. The last thing you wanted was ruin your quality time together and stressing him out.

"Well... It looks very sexy to me." You purred and he gasped, immediately covering his arms bashfully, never expecting you to be so direct. His modesty made you chuckle.

"Wo-... You think so?" He smiled, his eyes wide and his cheeks feverish. That was the first time someone ever called anything about him 'sexy'.

"Your face is so red right now pfffft!" You stiffled a snicker behind your hands. "So cute!"

Fortunately for him, and before he could return the compliment clumsily and possibly inappropriately, the waiter came and finally brought your order, distracting you and saving the poor boy from further teasing.

[prismadog]

guys!!! guys guys guysguysuyguygusysuygusyu!!!!!

I did it! I finished the character design I was working on!!! :D it's a lil Shrub with XorXor!!!!!

I'm actually kinda proud of this :] it took a couple days but I got it finished. I was gonna leave it uncolored and just share the lineart but it was like a parasite digging away at that little hyperfixation/obsessive part of my brain so I gave in and spent all day coloring it. I'm so glad I gave in and colored it because it's so freaking cool!

more about the design plus close ups below the line!

a little bit about their design:

first and foremost - FRECKLES!!! :D Xornoth has both dark freckles and purple/pink ones, and Shrub has freckles that are barely darker than her skin [it's always been a headcanon of mine that they both have freckles and I have now made that a reality - also, I get very giddy thinking about their freckles]

HAIR SPARKLES!!! idk why but I really like the idea that they have sparkles in their hair. originally it was just a design choice for Xornoth [inspired by Origins' Scott's starboy hair] but I decided to give Shrub sparkles too so that she can match with her dad :]

Xornoth is wearing a skirt because while they are non-binary, they very much do need to cover up their bits ;)

Shrub has leather shoes with piglin toes attached to match Xornoth's clawed feet, as well as a headband with piglin tusks so that she can match with their horns :p

they both wear gold bands on their wrists - Shrub has one that was made by Xornoth and has carvings; Xornoth has two, the right one made by Shrub and the left a remnant of their past [I didn't actually draw the carvings because 1) I'm not that talented and b) I'm too lazy/tired to try]

the smaller rope bands around Xornoth's neck and ankle were woven by Shrub when she was littler [and by littler, I mean younger]

Shrub also visits quite a lot of bastions and ancient ruins so she has a pauldron on her shoulder and a golden axe on her hip. I imagine that she also has countless scars from all her battles; Xornoth might also have scars, but again, too tired to draw those [instead you get freckles :) and also nipples ;p]

closeups:

1 & 2) Xornoth & Shrub - look at those freckles!!! they have freckles on their ears! ON THEIR EARS!!! AND THEIR FACE!!! ASDFGHJKL [apologies, I just get really excited about this choice because it makes them both look so cute] - you also get a closer look at their hair sparkles which *clears throat* THEY GOTS SPARKLIES IN THEIR HAIR!!! :D 3) Xornoth's legs - I just had to do a close up of their legs because again, freckles. THEY HAVE FRECKLES ON THEIR LEGS [and most importantly, their thighs ;) I feel like such a weirdo for being happy about that fact] 4) feets! this was mostly to show off that Xornoth even has freckles on their feetsies [I am so giddy about their freckles - you have no idea how much I love the freckles] and I included Shrub's feet because why not?

and as an extra bonus, the plain boring uncolored [and freckle-less] lineart. I was originally only going to share the lineart but as I said above, my brain wouldn't let me leave this uncolored.

[creekgods]

hey, I don't want to seem like I'm attacking you, but I have a question. there's some art of yours where Percy Newton from The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is drawn as white and that's not cool. Percy is canonically Black and drawing him whitewashed is kinda racist. so could you not draw him like that anymore?

I saw this ask in the morning, but didn’t have the time to reply to it because I had to go to work, but I’ve been a little confused by it all day, because I’m not sure what you mean? I have never purposefully drawn him white.

I’m guessing you could either be referring to my pencil art, or my watercolour art, because I feel like in all my digital art Percy is very visibly black.

When it comes to my pencil art, works like this, I only draw lineart. I usually don’t shade or colour in my pencil art, so everything including skin, hair, eyes, no matter the colour or character, will be left paper white. If I were to shade or colour my pencil works, I would obviously colour everything as it’s supposed to be.

Watercolour on the other hand is a bit more tricky. Looking back at my art, I think you might be talking about especially these two works. I understand where you’re coming from. However, I would like to stress that I’ve never imagined Percy as white, and I’ve always tried my best to present him right in my art, even in these two works, even if they ended up being failures on that front. Watercolour is a difficult medium that I’m by no means a master of. When painting with watercolour you have to work from light to dark, and if you accidentally go too dark at some point, you can’t go back anymore. That’s why I often tend to be a bit “too careful” with watercolour, making multiple layers where I little by little go darker, until the result is to my liking. It seems that in these two works, I didn’t make enough layers, in the fear that I would make too many and end up ruining the whole piece.

Also, if you look at the first work, the post with the six different characters, you may notice that Percy’s skin is pretty much the same colour as Jesper Fahey’s on his right. Jesper Fahey is also a black character. Then compare this to Andrew Minyard, an actual white character, on the left. If you look at the work closely, you can also see that Percy’s palms are a little lighter than the rest of his hands. I guess I’m just trying to point out that I really was trying to go for black skin. Though I admit that it’s not a very successful presentation, and it’s always been one of my least favourite Percys I’ve ever drawn.

Looking at my newer watercolour works though, you can hopefully see some progress. This is the point where I started getting a little bit more comfortable using actually bold colours in watercolour painting. Also black comes in multiple shades, and I think in some of my works I was going for a little lighter shade of black, considering Percy’s father is white and mom is black, and his skin is described as being the “colour of sandalwood”. Those works were a long time ago though and I don’t fully remember my thought process behind each of them anymore. I’m sorry it ended up too light.

So, tl;dr: I have never intentionally drawn Percy, or any poc character for that matter, white. That would be against my values. In addition, TGGTVAV is my favourite book and Percy Newton my favourite character, perhaps in all of literature, and I’ve always tried my hardest to do him justice in all of my works. The fact that I have failed saddens me.

If you have any further questions, or if you were perhaps talking about works other than the ones I brought up in my reply, please feel free to leave me another message.

[d-structive]

may I ask,, do you have any tips for drawing ‘not stiff-looking’ full bodies? The thing that I LOVE about your art is that the poses are always very dynamic and cool looking,, and the angles are never the same. When I draw full bodies,, they always look so fricking stiff hahaha. Do you have any tips?? 👁👄👁

Oh, boy…This is an hard one…Tips, huh? I’m not sure if I’m good enough to give this kind of tips…But! I can tell to you how I usually do when I draw:

This is what I do for both chibi pics and not. Is generic stuff, really..

1. Think to a pose BEFORE to draw it. If you can imagine a pose and if you can sketch it down, you already are almost done. By doing that, you can easily see what’s wrong with it, what’s different by the pose you imagined and then, you can fix it.

2. Do not draw super-unnatural poses. Dynamic doesn’t means unreal. Unless you have a specific style who involves weird-unrealistic postures/characters, or you are trying to give some specific effect/sensation, try to avoid it. Comic books help a lot in this sense. Even if not always they are anatomically okay, superheroes are usually very dynamics in postures and poses. Even some anime/manga do the job. Try to observe them.

3. Watch your own body or some ref pic to understand proportions and anatomy. Even observing people can be useful. Nothing more natural than real people, right? Even taking a look to some anatomy book is very useful. You can then play with anatomy by using your own style.(which is basically how I draw Anti’s mouth usually…That is anatomically wrong, cuz when I draw him, the corners of his mouth almost reach the base of his eyes. It would litterally split his face in half. I draw it like that, only because by doing so, I can give to him a more sinister grin when I draw it.)

4. As silly it can sound, try to do not press too much the pencil when you draw a sketch. With darker and thick lines, you’ll have more issues to fix them and draw over them if needed. It is important to change things when you draw, if you feel things aren’t okay. A lighter sketch is useful, cuz you can have better linearts later and you can fix them if you wanna try to draw over it “alternatives“..Which is what bring us to the next point..

5. Do not be afraid to ruin a sketch by drawing “alternatives“ on it. This is hard to explain…So, let me show you this old pic of mine: https://d-structive.tumblr.com/post/175025097167/alsoi-did-this-thing-too-because-somebody-told pay attention especially to the first two panels…As you can see, in the second one, I used different colors to draw things. Those are things I did add/corrected and that I thought were wrong in the first pic. All those things were made on different layers (I draw in digital, but this thing is doable even with traditional if you use colored pencils), so I could either remove the layers I didn’t liked, or I could compare them with other alternatives and choose between those I liked most. (The shoulders and torso especially looked WAY more stiff in the first pic if you notice. Doing this kind of things, helps me a lot.)

I guess that’s all? This is basically it…Try to practice, check your anatomy and when in doubt, look for ref pics and try to draw some alternatives to your pics to fix them.

I hope this was somehow useful.

[ick25]

Rockman.EXE Episode 43 Review.

Ahhh! Where did that woman come from?!

Hi everyone, we have stumbled across the third episode that was never aired outside of Japan, why is that? I don’t know, but let’s try to find out.

Oh man, I know nothing about baseball, this episode is gonna eat me alive! T.T

We start the episode in Netto’s house one evening where he and Rockman are focused on a baseball game.

Aren’t they adorable? But now I’m curious, is Rockman watching from the same TV as Netto or he is live streaming it online? It could be a live streaming because we also see Dekao watching the same game from his computer.

Maybe Dekao doesn’t have cable?

They are watching a player name Hoshida Kyuuma who surprises everyone with a homerun. Both Netto and Rockman cheer for the player as he runs the bases making some famous gesture he has of scratching his nose, something that Netto copies before the title screen appears.

Nihon Senators? It’s not bad, but at least make up something creative, there is a real Japanese team called the Ham- Fighthers after all.

The next day, Netto greets Dekao and Tohru on his way to school taking part in the stereotypical guy exchange of “did you catched the game last night?” With Meiru and Roll stereotypically uninterested in the subject.

“Next thing your gonna say is that cars are cool”

At school, Mariko-sensei introduces a new student to everyone who just so happens to have the same last name as the baseball player they saw last night.

Geez, what a depressing looking kid. He looks sadder than Tohru’s picture in the N-1.

After introducing this new character, we then cut to them at P.E. where Netto and the rest of the class are playing, coincidentally, baseball.

Uhg, somehow Dekao in sports cloths looks fatter than usual.

Netto is at the bat, Dekao is the pitcher and Yaito is the catcher who makes hand signals to the pitcher behind the batters back. Looks like Netto sucks a this because Yaito kicks him out after calling Dekao a cheater and only getting two strikes.

I never thought I would miss their Navis commentating. It feels boring watching them on their own for so long, especially doing something unrelated to the net.

Mariko-sensei models her pink sweatsuit as she calls the new kid at the bat. Dekao is confident in his pitch, but Kyuuta shuts him off by hitting a homerun and surprising everyone.

As Kyuuta runs the bases and scratches his nose, Mariko-sensei reveals to everyone that he is the son of the baseball player Hoshida Kyuuma.

This is enough to make him “mister popular” since Netto and his friends start talking to him.

“So... Do you like Net Battles?”

He doesn’t seem happy with all this attention since he suddenly stands up after Yaito mentions his dad being transfered from another team.

Turns out Kyuuta is sad because he misses his friends since he is sitting alone after school looking at a baseball covered in signatures and starts crying. Netto walks in and asks him if he wants to walk home together (lucky bastard), but he ignores him and accidentally drops his baseball that rolls over to Netto’s feet. Netto picks it up and then notices that Kyuuta was crying.

Wish I had someone like Netto ask me to walk home together back when I was in elementary school. Sure, it’s dangerous for kids to walk home by themselves in Costa Rica and my house was pretty far, but I was a very lonely child, okay? :c

Kyuuta wipes his tears and just leaves Netto with the baseball. In the next scene we see Kyuuta arriving at his house.

You should answer when your mom asks you a question! I can never get away with that!

I wanna point out something first. This anime is not the best at portraying good mom characters, you know how I constantly call Netto’s mom a useless woman? Well this one right here I’m gonna call her... Sad face woman in the corner. It seems cruel, but believe me, you’ll see why.

We see Kyuuta sulking in his room when Netto and his friends arrive at his house to return the baseball he dropped. Kyuuta just puts on his shoes and tells him that he doesn’t want that ball anymore and runs out of the house.

See? She did it again.

Anyway, as Kyuuta is running in front of the sunset, his mom tells everyone that he is sad because he is constantly changing schools because of his dad getting transfer to other teams, but in the last school he was in he made friends with the kids in a baseball team and had to leave them behind to go to Akihara.

Kyuuta’s dad overhears this and gets all fired up for some reason while the mom does what she does best and goes hide behind a corner to cry.

THIS is when you realize this episode is not to be taken seriously. It is obvious that they are making fun of something. I would say this is a satyre of sports anime, but since the only sports anime I know is Captain Tsubasa I’m not really sure if there are others like that one.

So Netto and his friends along with Kyuuta’s parents find him and say that everything is alright since they figured out a way of solving his problem, by using the net!

They tell Kyuuta to go to a stadium where he finds his friends from the baseball team on a huge screen. They ask him to play baseball with them, Kyuuta doesn’t understand what they mean and that’s when Netto and all his friends including Tohru, Higure-san and the Net Agents, explain to him that thanks to the internet and some super special equipment installed in that stadium, they can play baseball using their Navis.

And of course Kyuuta just happens to have a Navi name Leagueman, but I have no idea why he has restrains.

Right before commercials we see Dekao planning to get his revenge against Kyuuta as we see Gutsman in a baseball uniform at the bat, only to return with Midorikawa as the commentator and Gutsman getting three strikes in a matter of seconds.

Aren’t they just balls if the batter doesn’t swing?

So yeah, in this episode we get to see some of our favorite Navis, and Glyde, playing baseball and wearing uniforms. Skullman is up next where we can see how the field switches from humans to Navis.

But I can’t tell if they are like holograms or if there is a seperate cyberworld for them with the same field.

Skullman proves to be a good player because of his speed and attempts to steal the bases as Glyde is next at the bat. Leagueman quickly get the upper hand by making Glyde strike out before Skullman can steal all the bases.

Thumbs up at Glydes pants.

Now it’s Woodman’s turn at the bat, but he quickly gets three strikes off screen and Saloma confesses that she have never played baseball before, to which Miyuki replies with annoyance as we see Skullman’s image break down and regenarating into Miyuki standing on the same base.

Again, making it very confusing how the set up is suppouse to be like.

Now we get Midorikawa naming the line up for the Akihara team.

Rockman looks so cute in that uniform! But I don’t understand why Gutsman has a plant in his mouth, is that like the Japanese version of the old gag of baseball players chewing tabacco?.

Roll-chan is the pitcher, and yes, she throws like a girl, and maybe that’s the reason why most of the balls she throws are hitted.

The batter hits the ball, but luckily the cute shortstopper catches it for her.

Their interactions are just so cute.

Now, if you are a baseball expert, unlike me, then get ready for to see how crazy Navi baseball can be.

The batter hits the ball, but it’s too high for Numberman to reach it, so Woodman creates a platform for Numberman so he can stop the ball and “pass it” to Skullman.

Kyuuta’s father, who is with Midorikawa at the commentator booth, praises their teamwork, a confused Midorikawa asks him if that is allowed, but then she gets this.

Thanks to the subs and by searching on google I figured out that this guy is actually doing a play on words. “Ari” is also used to affirm something in a sentence and he dresses up as an ant because Ari also means ant in Japanese.

We get more Navi baseball madness when Iceman freezes a ball to catch it and throw it at Woodman.

“Ant, I mean, yes.”

I haven’t seen these many fouls in a sports game since Space Jam.

Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for, it’s finally Rockman’s turn at the bat! Yaaaaaaaaay!

Save me from this nonsense, Rockman!

The humans are replaced by their Navis, and is it just me or is Netto and Rockman’s art a little diferent in the last panels? Either that or they suddenly got dirty

Leagueman does a ballet pose and throws the ball in a weird way, Rockman is ready to hit it, but the ball suddenly splits in two.

Rockman get’s his first strike. Midorikawa asks Kyuuma what just happened, he explaines that it’s a move called the “Mayor ball”. Leagueman put pressure into the ball and mixed with the sand from his kick created an illusion of a second ball. That’s quality BS right there, and WHY THE HELL IS HIS LINEART SUDDENLY DIFERENT IN THIS SHOT?

It’s like seeing an Archer crossover. o_o

What is the meaning of the dragon vs tiger scene? Because this also happend in episode 40.

Leagueman throws the ball again and Rockman gets a second strike. You would think that this time he would go for the first ball, but they reused the animation from before.

 After their second stike Rockman and Netto figured out a way of outsmarting this move, if they can’t tell which ball is real then they’ll just have to hit both with this over the top anime scene.

If Rockman wears pants, does it still count as a butt shot?

Rockman hits a homerun and Leagueman praises him after he runs the bases, but then Commander Beef ruins the moment by anouncing that it is Sharkman’s turn at the bat and then getting three strikes.

It looks like Sharkman is bitting his tongue. :P

Then Higure pushes the commander out of the way to plug in Numberman, and what a surprise, he gets three strikes as well. So in short, everyone sucks except for Rockman.

We then get various shots of the rest of the game and for some reason a close up of Gutsman’s jaw plant.

Oh great, Rush is there too, now I definitely have no idea if this shot is from the real world or the cyberworld.

The series of pictures ends with Roll-chan looking tired and Midorikawa telling us how it looks so far.

I have no idea what she just said, but I guess that is baseball talk for “Akihara team is losing, and with Leagueman at the bat they are pretty much screwed”

But worrry not since Akihara still has their secret weapon, Rockman! With Rush calling to change the pitcher because apperantly he’s the coach now.

I did some research, and it seems to me that the shortstop position is kinda important, so why the hell is Rush a better option than Roll?!

So once again Rockman, Netto and now Leagueman’s lineart changes, (along with a coloring mistake on Rockman’s neck) Rockman pitches and Leagueman gets two balls, not strikes, balls.

Rockman throws the ball a third time breaking Leagueman’s bat.

I don’t know if that counts as anything. Has this ever happen in baseball?

Now get this, since Leagueman’s bat is broken, Kyuuta’s dad leaves the commentator booth to give HIM some special red bat he had with him and says how Netto and the others are very good friends to him since they are giving him a good game.

Those last shots just made things even more confusing! Can he see Rockman standing there or was he just looking at Netto the whole time?

Kyuuta accepts the bat from his dad that somehow ends up in Leagueman’s hands and we get this last shot of sad face woman in the corner watching from afar as always.

Still, she cares more about her son than Netto’s useless mom does for him. She even came to watch him play, so this is the best mom I’ve seen in this show which is pretty sad if you think about it. 

Rockman pitches one last time with the whole dragon vs tiger background again, where Leagueman finally hits the ball and it’s a homerun!

And of course he has to break a light with that homerun, or is it a cyber light? IDK O.O

Leagueman runs the bases scratching the nose he doesn’t have, Netto congratulates kyuuta and the episode ends with Midorikawa announcing Kyuuta’s team as the winners. Oh, and a little sceane with Rush losing to a Metool virus.

Admit it, by good players you just mean Rockman.

My thought?

This episode was crazy! A little confusing, but fun to watch. It’s nice to see some of the characters play a casual game of Baseball because its something diferent to what we normaly see. The episode was obviously a satyre of sports animes (Again, I dont know any sports anime besides Captain Tsubasa), the overdramatic characters, the over the top animation, the art style, the firing up thing that happend like four times in this episode mostly from Kyuuta’s dad, and maybe other things that I didn’t catch.

This episode is indeed a filler, but that can’t be the only reason why this episode was never dubbed. So I made up these criterias to figure out the reason why it didn’t aired in America.

1. Was an important new character introduced that will appear in future episodes?

2. Does it introduce a new game, style or battle system that fits in with the theme of the show and will be mentioned again?

3. Will the dubbing for this episode be worth the effort?

Let me explain using episode 40 as an example. With the first criteria, even though Torakichi and Kingman never appear again in future episodes, they were still considered important characters in the Battle Network series, especially since the purpose for the episode was to promote the upcoming Battle Network 3 game.

Yes and no for the second criteria. It fits the theme of the show because it combines Net Battles with chess, but it is not mention again.

And for the third criteria, it was not hard to dub, there was no reason to explain Net Chess Battles because we already know how Net Battle works and Chess is already world wide knowen as a game.

Now for this episode. First, no. Kyuuta, leagueman, his parents and his baseball friends are not important in any way and are never seen again. 

Second, it was just baseball. Even though we saw the Navis used their abilities during the game, it was still baseball. It did not have Net Battle rules and it is never mentioned or seen again.

And third, it was not worth the effort to dub. Trying to explain how Navi Baseball worked, especially since Japan didn’t do a good job in explaining it, would’ve required unecessary effort. They would have skipped the ant joke, but how would they explain how the Navis seemed to be in the real world? It was terrible confusing because it is the first time we see something like this on the show. People would get curious to see this again only to find out that this was a one time thing.

So that’s strike three and this episode is out of the dubbed version!

[verdantspiritart]

i just started using watercolors, can you tell me about your process/share some tips?

Well first of all, congrats on trying watercolors! I’m by no means an expert yet but I’ll do my best to walk you through my process using some of the WIP pictures I have from previous pieces. There’s a ton to cover and I won’t get it all so feel free to ask more specific questions if you need help. 

My first tip would be to play with whatever tools you have to figure out what feels right for you. If you don’t have any tools yet, I suggest the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box (pictured below) since it’s really nice quality, comes with a water brush, and usually costs like $15-$25 depending on size/where you buy it. If that’s still outside of your price range, the first watercolors I ever did were with old crayola palettes and it worked out fine, it just took way more layers and time to get the color depth I wanted.

As for paper, I’m still looking for the perfect one but just make sure it’s watercolor paper (cold press means there’s a texture, hot press is smooth) or multimedia and not like, printer paper. As long as it’s relatively thick, it should be ok but might buckle when too much water is added.

Don’t worry too much about perfection when learning how to use your equipment. Make lines, blend colors, try making washes, etc. When I came back to watercolors, I mostly did a lot of meditative painting, where I doodled whatever felt right. Some of them even came out real cool looking?? 

When I sit down to do a more detailed piece or commission, I have a five-part process I pretty consistently use these days. It goes like this: 

1) Traditional (or digital) sketch/concept phase. The below pic is from a pop-art commission concept where I really liked the flow of her hair.

2) Digital lineart (cleaning up/refining concept sketches)

3) Print the lineart and lightbox it to watercolor paper using either a hard graphite pencil (very light lines) or colored lead. I still lightbox with this ancient hunk of junk but you can even use a window or your computer screen (VERY CAREFULLY) to lightbox if you don’t have one. 

Here’s what some of my pieces looks like after being transferred: 

I think it’s important to note that you should keep a piece of scrap paper under your hand while working on the watercolor paper, since the oils in your skin can lead to areas where the paint won’t bind to the paper properly. I’ve had cases where I finished a background wash only to find an absolutely perfect thumbprint in the center of it. 

4) Ink the lines. Make sure your pens are waterproof. If they’re not, I’ll talk about a way to get around that later so skip right to painting for now. 

I used micron technical pens for the above piece. If you don’t know if you have waterproof pens, make a test chart like the one below. Mine involved copics, watercolor, and super heavy scrubbing to see how easily the pen came off when wet. 

I’ve also “inked” after painting by using more concentrated lines of watercolor instead of actual ink. The below painting was too cute and pastel and I didn’t want to ruin it with black lines, so I used that technique here (along with some red pencil)

5) Paint! I’m not really consistent with this step but my main tip is: BE PATIENT! If you want flat blocks of color, wait until each wash is fully dry before moving on to one next to it. If you don’t, they’ll bleed into each other. This is also true when trying to create shadows with hard edges instead of soft blending. Not being patient enough is my #1 cause of “crap I have to start this over”.

(The weird coloration on the lines above is actually dried frisket I put over certain sections of the piece to protect them but it ended up being more of a hassle than anything else for this style of piece.)

So, what if you didn’t have waterproof pens? You can easily reverse steps 4&5 and paint first, wait for it to dry very well, and then ink (shown below). 

The finished piece looked like this: 

I hope this was helpful!

If you want to see any of my WIPs/ask me questions, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram. 

Also, my commission slots are open and if you like my work and want to leave me a tip, you can always buy me a coffee :)

[anti-savebendy-blog]

“Wow, your art is really bad”

I don’t really have much energy today, but I want to quickly say something: ( This is mostly about art because I look at art more than I read, but the same goes for writers or other kinds of artists)

If you dislike someones art or style, that’s fine. You don’t have to like everything. Everyone starts out at some point and people who’ve been drawing or writing (or doing other kind of arts in general) their entire life are probably better than someone who just started a week ago.

You have at least two, if not three options now:

Criticize them. Remember that criticism is not a bad thing if done well. I myself have problems expressing my thoughts, in both my native language and non-native language. So I can’t go full on out giving expert critique to someone. But I can still tell you what I like about a certain piece and what I think looks (or sounds) weird or is just plain wrong from an anatomical or perspective point of view. I’m often to shy to do so, though, but I’m less scared to do that with my friends. Simply saying “this looks bad” or “you’re a bad artist” will not help said artist. If you are actually of good will and you want to help at least try to be nice and try to tell the artists what specifically it is that you dislike. Is it the pose? Is the lineart weird? Light, shadow? Does it look like the character broke a bone because the anatomy looks confusing? You don’t need to be some “Expert Art Critique” to point out things that you think look weird. Just try to not be an a$$hole.

Ignore it and go on with your life. “This piece of art doesn’t please my eyeballs.” I can understand it, alright? I know very well that there are drawings out there that just HURT to look at. That still doesn’t mean you can be an a$$hole, though. If you don’t think you can or want to give this artist some tips on how to improve, you can just ignore it!  Keep scrolling. There is more art. Seeing one bad picture isn’t going to ruin your day, is it? Now we come to our optional bonus option:

You still like the artist and their art, despite seeing flaws. And that’s absolutely cool. Maybe you’re too shy or you feel like you don’t know enough about art to tell them how to improve. But you are still able to enjoy it? AWESOME. The artist will improve themselves over time, and when they do and you notice it, you can tell them! ”Hey, I noticed you’re drawing X differently now! Looks much better than before!” It’ll surely make their day! And they will want to improve even more.

TL;DR (a tiny bit of cursing~) Don’t be an a$$hole ffs. Either tell people how they can improve or shut the f*ck up. I’m just angry right now. Seeing the artists I adore being told “oh you’re so bad”, “just stop drawing”, “why is this in trending/the most liked”. I know they’ve got flaws, I got flaws, we all aren’t perfect, I’m not saying to not criticize others, but if you gotta say something do it right. Don’t drag others down, just because you think you need to be negative. Especially on anon. God damnit.