#i forgot to size up the canvas after sketching :///

[arinmoss]

He who holds his soul in his hands

[elvendoodles]

Bro I'm in love with your art style and I'm in love with the Cronan x Rosalyn

So

Please?

I gotcha bro dw 🤟

Art/Ask Prompt Masterlist

ON TUMBLR REBLOGS ARE BETTER THAN LIKES!!!

[dailyhatsune]

hi! not exactly a request but i do wanna ask, whats your process when you're rendering more paint like art? (if that makes sense, English isnt my first language so apologies hdskhsjdbd) i really love how you use the colors and im curious how you do it :0

i’ve been meaning to answer this one for a while so here’s how i painted miku in today’s post (put under the read more because yeah prepare for a long post

i’d also like to preface this by saying that i never follow a set way of doing things, so in terms of what my personal process is like, these are only broad strokes of what i do! sometimes i’ll combine or skip parts entirely, depending on how i feel. also, this is not a tutorial, just how i do things, so please don’t treat it like one :’D this will read like the ‘how to draw an owl’ picture if you do

first, like every artist, i sketch. more specifically, i’m getting an idea of what i want to paint later on. this could be how a scene is set up or in this case, how a character is posed. here i’m not concerned about details or getting everything perfectly, i’m only planning how the thing will be composed. maybe a lot of canvas size changing, or adjusting what miku’s doing (note how busted miku’s right hand looks from all the transforming!) however, i still have to be concerned with how clear the sketch will be to future me, because the sketch won’t be any good if i can’t read what miku’s doing

after that, i lay down a flat gray under the sketch, mainly focusing on giving miku a clear silhouette. this is also a good time to make adjustments to the composition on the fly if i suddenly feel like something can be improved upon, like shortening miku’s left arm from the sketch!

after painting a flat silhouette, i start shading in grayscale, focusing only on lighting. i usually do it in two passes, one for the lightest and darkest tones i’ll use (not black and white) and then a second for midtones to blend them better with the base gray but i forgot to screenshot the result of the first pass 🗿 nevertheless, here is where i can start adding some amount of details. i’m not including any extra accessories yet, just focusing on the base design of the outfit and the character herself (for anyone wanting to draw characters from That Gacha Game, this is how i personally make the process more bearable for myself.) i still use the dark gray to separate where certain details (like the facial features and fingers) begin and end, mainly to make colouring more bearable later.

now here’s where i get the Good Colours. it’s a cheat lol. i put a gradient map layer over the grayscale painting so that there’s a little bit of color to start. some gradient maps can be applied as is, some need the layer settings adjusted to make it look good. this one, for example, is a (free) gradient map set from the csp assets store that needs you to set the layer opacity to 20% and to set the blending mode to color to achieve this result. in general, i tend to pick which gradient map i want to use based on vibes, or basically whether i want the work to be warmer or cooler, colour-wise. but this does do quite a bit of lifting for the colors in my stuff.

and then, finally, i add the colours. i add flat base colours in an overlay layer. at this stage, i’ve made the character silhouette clear enough that i don’t need to refer to the sketch anymore for what miku looks like. also, the gradient map layer does its magic by making the shading a bit more vibrant than it would’ve been without it. after that i paint over with a new layer to add details like the lace.

and then i put some extra shading on top. basically this is where the ‘better lighting’ happens. again, this isn’t a tutorial, so i’m not here to say what each part of the lighting is, but i’ve labeled which layers do which job. in other works where the lighting within a scene is more defined (from a window, from a small crack in the walls, etc) the glow dodge layer may be more opaque and sharper, but since this isn’t a work with that, the lighting was applied using an airbrush. the linear burn layer is also there to make the whole thing darker so the glow dodge doesn’t end up oversaturating miku. i also usually match the lights to the vibe i want, and use a complementary color for the shadows. so here you can see i have warm colors on the glow dodge layer, but light purple on both the linear burn and multiply layer.

and that’s it for the character—here’s a gif showing how each layer adds to miku! (sorry it’s so toasty)

as for the background, depending on the complexity, it may go through a similar process, or if i can settle with flat image backgrounds, i just go for that. it’s ok to use external image materials. i didn’t have a background in mind for this miku in specific, so i got some default csp materials and threw together something

and that’s about a rough overview of what my process for more finished works looks like! again, art is a fluid process so i never specifically stick to certain steps all the time, and you shouldn’t either. i can probably answer why i’d pick this colour over another in one particular work, but it’s something that kinda has to be learned on a grander scale. i think everyone can already feel what colors work with what atmosphere or what setting, even if they can’t immediately explain why. colors and composition do take some level of experimentation to find what works best!

[itadickhead]

“Zankaaa.. are you hungry I cou—oh.”

Pausing at the doorway to the infirmary, you poked your head in to see if Zanka was awake. Knowing him, he probably would start moving around as soon as possible, and knowing him he probably would also put eating to the side for now. 

But instead of a Zanka sitting up in bed looking out of the window (he always liked a window view), there’s an Enjin sprawled out on the bed next to Zanka’s. The sheets were moved to the side, so maybe Zanka went to the bathroom? You huffed.

I must have missed him on his way out. 

Humming to yourself, you debated whether or not you should go through the trouble of walking through headquarters’ halls to go looking for him. 

…Nah.

Taking a step through the doorway, you made your way over to Zankas bed and plopped down on the edge. Kicking off your shoes, you moved to the center, sitting criss-crossed. Looking around for a few seconds, your eyes landed on the bag on the floor next to the bed. Curious, you plopped down on your stomach, lazily reaching down at the bag to take a peek.

Huh, so Zanka already had snacks. Well coming here was a total waste then if he already had food. Propping your head up on one of your palms with your elbow holding you up against the bed, your eyes landed on Enjin. You almost forgot he was here with how quiet he was being. 

Normally when one looks at Enjin, they’d think he snores louder than the devil but the only noises he lets out in his sleep is the occasional grunt. He had a bad case of drooling while sleeping though. 

A noise coming from him popped your bubble of thoughts, sending you back down to earth. He grunted, from the looks of it. You let your eyes roam his body from head to toe. He was drooling, and he even had his slippers still on. You clicked your tongue instinctively, he always had a bad habit of not taking his shoes off clean spaces. Humming low, you contemplated.

One sketch wouldn’t hurt, right?

Reaching down you pulled out a decent sized journal from one of the pockets on your cargo pants. Ah, cargo pants, a blessing really. You can’t see why so many people don’t like them. Along with the journal, you pulled out an old pen. Your jinki. It was an old thing, a little battered but you took care of it with love. Enjin once compared your abilities to the ones of the spellcaster from Canvas Town, the thought made you smile.

You haven’t visited Canvas Town in a while.

Opening the journal, you flipped to a fresh page. Settling in a comfortable position, albeit still on your stomach, you started drawing. It was quiet for a while, with only the scratching of the pen against paper filling in the silence along with the occasional noises from outside. It was nice, these moments of peace in between the chaos that came with being a Cleaner. 

You didn’t know how much time had passed when you heard creaking on the bed next to you. Glancing up, Enjin had moved from being asleep on his back to being awake and lying on his side with one hand under head, supporting it. And he was staring straight at you. It kinda spooked you for a second, holding eye contact with him for a couple of moments before you swallowed saliva down your throat and went back to occupying yourself with the drawing of the same person who was staring at you. It was almost finished, nice. 

“I thought you were still sleeping,” you muttered. 

“And I thought Zanka was still here.” 

Smart-ass. You could hear the smugness in his tone.

“He left.” 

Enjin, as if deep in thought, hummed. It was a deep noise that rumbled and rolled out from the back of his throat. You could hear faint rustling before you heard the familiar click of his lighter sparking to life, soon lighting a cigarette aflame after. The home-y smell of nicotine soon invaded your senses, causing your body to melt slightly. You smiled.

“Don’t smoke in here.”

“You don’t care.”

 Nope. 

The sounds of your pen against paper was now accompanied by the faint sounds of Enjin smoking, and the smell of cigarette smoke. The soft sounds of burning tobacco were left by itself a few moments later as you set your pen down on the bed. The drawing of Enjin sleeping was now complete, you always liked the feeling of finishing a piece, it put a smile on your face. Distracted by admiring your work, a wave of movement caught your attention from the corner of your eye. 

Looking up, Enjin was back to the position you found him in—on his back, a hand behind his head but this time with his hand dangling off the bed, cigarette caught between his fingers. 

You caught on, grunting softly as you stretched out your own arm, taking the cigarette from him and letting it rest between your lips. Taking a deep breath in, you sighed with contentment. The smoke billowed out of your mouth as you parted your lips slightly to exhale. Your face had settled into a smile, your eyes soon closing. 

Your moment of peace was interrupted when you felt a pillow land on your backside, close to your bottom. Grunting, you opened your eyes to see a cheeky looking Enjin staring at you, still on his back and with his arm out. This time it was stretched out with his hand open, and it soon made the movement that could only mean give it here. Blowing out air from your nose, you reach for your journal and lazily hand it over to Enjin. 

Moving, you mirrored Enjin’s previous position, lying on your side. You watched him flip through the pages, his eyes dragging across every sketch, doodle, and scribbled out note. You didn’t mind him looking through it, or anyone else from the Cleaners. Most of your drawings were of them anyway. You liked drawing them, from the most mundane moments of the day to jotting down how they looked while fighting the trash beasts from memory. 

Plucking the dying cigarette from your lips, you trapped it between your fingers, letting it continue to die as you watched him flip to the page where you drew him just a few moments later. 

“Y’think Rudo will let me draw him?” It was a genuine question. And it made Enjin chuckle.

“Probably, he’ll short circuit when you ask him—should’ve seen him when he first met Riyo.” 

“Cut the kid some slack, he’s probably never had a girl so close to him before.”

Enjin smiled, causing his dimples to come out from their hiding place. You wonder if anyone else has noticed he had dimples. 

a/n: whoops. anyway I haven’t written in awhile, take this hot garbage from my lump I call a brain.

[11queensupreme11]

Happy anniversary arsenic blues and cheers, queen!!💙im currently cooking AB + anubis fanart to celebrate :D ill be posting it here immediately after i finish, which can take a while :(( (i had to redraw the entire drawing since i forgot to adjust the canvas size during the sketch so the resolution was cooked😃) so sry if its a lil late. tysm for cooking my favorite fic and introducing me to my ror bbgs💙💙

for the meantime, here's some twitter reaction pics that iredrew as percy.

"percy's crippling mental state after rizzing up another pantheon":

THE ONE WHERE SHES GRIPPING SOMEONE, IS THAT LOKI??? I recognize that hairdo 😭😭😭😭

And you’ve captured the essence of Percy PERFECTLY. ✨uwu✨ on the outside, but completely deteriorating on the inside 😭 my poor girl is fighting for her life 25/8 and these fuckass gods are not helping!!!!!

AND DID YOU JUST SAY YOURE COOKING UP ANUBIS WORKS NEXT??? OH I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU MAKE 💖💖💖

[quibbs126]

Heck I don’t actually remember if Pure Vanilla/Dark Cacao was a request or if it was something I just planned to do on my own. I know it started out as my own idea, but sometimes that happens and then before I get to doing it, someone requests it and I just make it a request, and I don’t remember if that happened here

But regardless, this was a drawing I made of the idea for a purecacao fankid on it’s own, and I’m posting it as such

Now you’ll notice that this isn’t my usual format. This is because this isn’t her official design, it’s just that last night, I had this idea for a design of her as a young child with Dark Cacaoian clothing, and so I just wanted to make a quick doodle to show you

It was just going to be that picture in the middle, as it’s more sketchy and rough, and clearly not how I usually do these fankid requests. However when I finished, I realized that I made her too small. See, if I may explain some things, for my poorly drawn comics and other things that use that particular brush (it’s the Narinder Pencil if you want to know), and I don’t like enlarging pictures drawn with it because the lines get all blurry and it loses its texture. Prior to the Charcoal Cheese comic, for my poorly drawn comics I tended to enlarge the sketch to fit the screen, and then I’d completely redraw the lines. But here, I had already colored the whole thing, plus it was multiple layers to redraw, so I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t just crop down the canvas to fit it because my square canvases are already 500x500 pixels, they’re very small (and also I think the small size might account for why they may not show up in the best quality, but I’ve been using this size for over 2 years and I’m set with it, and I feel like changing would be too much effort). And I feel like making it even smaller would just tank the quality even more

Though to be honest, I’m glad I made a second version with my proper sketching process, as I was better able to figure out her colors and design

Speaking of her design, yeah this is sort of what I’m thinking for her look, at least in terms of hair, dough and eye color. She’s not gonna keep the braid though, that’s just a kid thing

I feel like maybe I should give her streaks, but I’m not sure where to put them or what color

Also I realize that I forgot to put KitKats on her design. I wasn’t planning to originally since this is a little kid’s outfit, but also in some of the artbook drawings, young Dark Choco had small Oreo shoulderpads, so maybe she should have something similar. I had an idea for her wearing tiny KitKat shoulderpads, but I forgot them. Ah well

Hmm, does she look like a purecacao kid? I’m looking at her and I feel like she looks more like her own character than related to them. Maybe it’s the lack of streaks

Oh yeah, and one more thing I want to add, I’ve decided she’s a post-canon kid, as in Pure Vanilla and Dark Cacao got together after the events of the Dark Flour War and canon in general. The story in my head goes that Dark Cacao developed feelings for Pure Vanilla, but was hesitant to tell him about it, maybe because he’s socially awkward and wasn’t sure how to, maybe because Pure Vanilla and White Lily had something going on and he didn’t want to stir up drama between them. But regardless, Dark Cacao felt that it wasn’t so much of a big deal since they were immortal, he could tell him when he felt it was right. But then the Dark Flour War happened and Pure Vanilla seemingly died, with Dark Cacao never telling him how he felt. But then years later, Pure Vanilla came back, and while Dark Cacao was of course overjoyed, it also caused him to realize that even being immortal, they don’t have all the time in the world, and he needed to tell Pure Vanilla how he felt, and so during the events of Odyssey, he confessed to Pure Vanilla, and then likely sometime after Dark Enchantress’s defeat, they got together, and later had this girl

Also this means she has a (probably) 30+ year older brother in Dark Choco, but it’s all good

I feel bad just keeping her unnamed, but I don’t know what to call her. *sigh*

Any suggestions?

But yeah, I just wanted to show y’all this idea. Don’t know when I’ll be finishing her, but I’ll draw her officially at some point

[seth-the-giggle-fish]

The next installment of my Walter Family Portraits is done!

We have the original inventor, creator of our beloved Singing Musical Automatons, Col. Peter A. Walter I. Based off of the original art from Sam Luke (@samhears) in the Steam Powered Giraffe comic and a photo of David Michael Bennet

Color pallet was partially chosen by popular vote here on tumblr using the poll function

Acrylic paint on a 8x10 inch stretched canvas

WIP photos under the cut as always

The canvas was originally a test of the new blues I had bought, and was going to be used for the Sky Shark painting, but I ended up going with a larger size for that so it's been sitting partially painted since then. On the far left side you can glimpse my skeleton helper Darla, and part of my work surface is the sketch for my Lily Airheart painting (still in progress)

The very initial sketch, transferred over using graphite tracing paper, the canvas wasn't completely square so I decided to try making it look like an oval frame over a photo instead of a square and trying to find a frame that looked good with it

Unfortunately the blue had to go, at least for the bits of the painting that wasn't background, so it was time to start laying down some base colors and solidifying my choice to go for half-comic half-realism

Didn't really know what I was doing and ended up using Yellow Ocher for one of my base colors, I changed my mind on this much later after sleeping on the decision for a few nights. The yellow just wasn't working right with the Burnt Sienna for this

My reference photo and some more base colors, nearly ready to move onto shadows and other tones

Lips??? How do people paint lips?

Starting to regret the yellow, but forging on hoping that it'll end up looking ok

Relising that the process isn't going to fix this and that the yellow needs to go, starting to paint over it with a combination of Unbleached Titanium and Burnt Sienna

Just before I realized that I forgot his coat buttons, and a few details left to finalize. The little gold frills weren't popping as nicely as I hoped so I painted them over in black before adding a gold wash over it to make it look like worn and old gold

[sidhedust]

I might as well share sketches/experiments I've made to see if how much of the character I want showing. I'm hashing out sprites and backgrounds together, since I can always fiddle with the script after everything is said and done.

I'm not happy with the size of the sprites, they're HUGE-I think for shorter characters like Kalama and Malie (pictured above, respectively) I just kinda forgot to shrink them down some, since taller characters take up less of the canvas and fit better (as seen below with Malie and Lono)

But yeah. That's the last devlog of the year probably. I'd like to plow through development during Winter Break, but I need time away from art and writing too.

[flockofdoves]

drew this too small bc i forgot to change the canvas size after reusing my brainstorming sketch file. it was tragic seeing any amount of detail turn into a blur the moment i uploaded this. and also hate the way i colored this (also the silver fabric turned out sooo ugly especially bc i didnt feel up to it after having more fun w the holographic one lol) but!!!

first finished art of my my masks character rishika :) also first digital art i've done in like a year!

[pioneeroverc-my-5000th-sideblog]

Summary of April:

Was away at the beginning of the month and then when I got back got really unmotivated. I joined a Discord study check-in chat two weeks ago which helped get me back on track - hoping that my extreme competitiveness will help me at least get through the DAB stuff without giving up. I was really off track for finishing stuff, but I managed to pull it together in the end, and I think I actually managed to finish more of my monthly goals than I have in a really long time!

My drawing skill is kinda all over the place atm, which I'm hoping means it's going to consolidate itself into something better soon xD

Plan from April:

3x 100 comp ✗ forgot to do two of these AGAIN

5x scared ✓ didn't technically do 5 but they were longer than 5min anyway

DAB Lesson 7 - 2 vehicles ✓ YEAHHHH

Proko - shoulder bones ✓

DrawThis - 2x 2h videos ✓

Rough sketches for all 5 FEH alt ideas ✗

1x background sketch/screencap study (1h timer) ✓ well I drew over a bunch of rooms and discovered that I can't do it in an hour

1x simple form studies (1h timer) ✗ did do some form studies though not 1h

Look at how FEH artists handle small details/trims with lineart ✓

May plan:

at least one day/week playing games (not art but important to relax with)

Draw May 4th/5th pieces

Rough (pose) sketches for all 4 FEH alt ideas and finish current one before 8th

10x scared

4x 100 comp

Proko - review notes + watch shoulder critiques

Proko - pecs and breasts I guess

4x Ges Draw Party

DAB Lesson 7 - 4 vehicles

1x master study - comic background or screencap study with perspective

notes and improvements from finished stuff:

USE PHOTO REFERENCE FOR EXPRESSIONS and try more open mouths ✗ did expressions but not referenced, do more hair studies ✗, use photo reference to figure out stylised ¾ eyes AND NOSE ✓, push unhorizontalness ✓, see how other (FEH) artists handle trims ✓

5MIN SCARED IDEAS: find good hair examples and trace ✗, find ¾ photos and trace eyes/nose ✓, trace torsos for gesture ✗, review/learn leg muscles ✗, trace thigh high boot opening contours from actual photos ✓

knoll: not detailed enough (did a drawover to add details which made a BIG difference), hand unintentionally too wide, browbone doesn't go in to lead into cheekbone

h/ux: not enough ribcage space, crop looks like his forearm is just really thin, eyes aren't in perspective (not lined up + eye area is a bit too wide and flat), hand wasn't referenced and it shows

elan: values too close, REALLY BAD HAND, antennae shouldn't be that swivelled, folds don't make any sense

t/ana: tried to do too much of a dynamic pose and made an unnatural twist between upper + lower halves, eyes aren't looking at viewer, arm holding bouquet/shoulder/underarm area is flat and too far off to the side, lighting not consistent + shading on skirt too conservative (should have pushed the back of it way further into shadow to bring out the roundness), sash thing has no texture and is placed really awkwardly because I realised during the colouring phase that the entire skirt was off-centre, value contrast too low (not engaging to look at). HOWEVER I did try to clean up my lines AND shading at the end, and also used a much smaller brush (doubled canvas size to A4 and used a 3px/1px brush) so it looks a lot neater overall

ACTIONABLES: USE PHOTO REFERENCE FOR EXPRESSIONS!!!!! JUST DO IT, do hair studies, decide whether majority of piece is going to be dark or light and base contrast around that, draw out ribcages (+ shoulder bones) for every sketch, use photo/RL reference for EVERY HAND - even doodles, do a separate detail pass the day after 'finishing' something, use photo reference for folds

5MIN SCARED IDEAS: find good hair examples and trace, trace torsos for gesture, review/learn leg muscles, draw one hand, identify fold type in clothing photos

[kyreebeauty]

Extras below cut :]

I forgot I can make drawings with different canvas sizing so I decided to make this, wasn't excited to finish it after the sketch but it turned out okay, I really like the almost brown hue (?) in the final, it was just a thing I clipped on. doing the flowers in the bg was a pain, I kept noticing ones that were clipped so I had to redraw the flowers that got messed up, I think it looks cool all muddied- I was going to make the bg either an electric violet or neon yellow color but I figured that it may look less stark with a darker bg, I figure I can just do something like that with a different drawing

[theholeyness]

Your brush strokes feel so precise while also flowy, not restricting at all! how do you do it?? :D

This is easy, let me teach you (^^ )

Having to do lines over and over again can take up a lot of time, so it's important to be able to make accurate lines! The first thing I do after opening a new canvas is to check my eye-hand-monitor coordination. I use a screen-less tablet but those exercises are applicable to traditional painting as well. Here's how to do it: Quickly* draw a line straight down across your tablet, if the line on your canvas goes perfectly down, you're good. If it is skewed left or right, rotate your tablet a little and try again until it goes straight downwards. *The lines should be quick for a few reasons: 1.) a "real" painting will be made out of thousands of brushstrokes, you don't want to think about every single line. 2.) quick lines are not as shaky and therefore more elegant. 3.) the faster you paint, the more you can paint.

It's important to check that you can accurately and repeatedly hit the same spot on your canvas regardless of the direction of your brushstrokes. Imagine or draw a point on your canvas. Draw a vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines that will meet in that point. Try it in three or four places on your canvas for good results.

Checking the length of your stokes: Quickly draw a square, with the intention of not erasing any edges outside the square. Getting this done correctly should help you get an idea of how the length of your brushstrokes drawn across the tablet corresponds to the lengths of your lines on the screen.

If you get those right, it should be easy to get your lines to look good! Please try it out! <(￣︶￣)> About flowy lines... You can enhance your linework using brushes that have settings such as brush size or opacity changing with pen pressure and/or velocity. (make sure your tablet is properly set up for these. I use an older Wacom tablet, so my advice is to make notice of the "tip feel" setting) but the most important thing.... I think we've all had this thought while working over a sketch we really liked, "the more effort I put into it, the more tired this picture feels!", gradually straying away from the original idea, losing motivation to work and throwing the file into the wip folder, never to open it again..! orz

The solution is to make meaningful lines! Paint with intention! That is, you don't want to make lines which you will have to redraw later. The exceptions would be... if your idea changes during the process or if you forgot to include something in the sketch. Then, you should, naturally, edit your picture... haha.......

Here, I made an example using my sketch, (the original sketch + final pic are above) and, below, a "bad" sketch I edited just now,

Things I would personally see as mistakes: 1.) Zig-zaggy lines that don't go in direction with the form. 2.) Filling in parts that will not be black with black. Tempting to do to see how the contrast will turn out later. Will have to be repainted. 3.) Filling in big black spaces with black. Unless it's a void, it will have to be shaded later. There is no need to do black before other colors. 4.) Adding a lot of cluttering lines that disrupt the flow make it easy to get lost later. 5.) Black shadows that obscure form. Since the picture is not going to be black and white, it's too strong and heavy. Steals attention off more important things.

Why these things that are not necessary, is because after you're overall satisfied with your sketch you can easily make a layer under it (in my case one under and one above the sketch) and do a color test with minimal shadows. This is an important step that tells you if the final picture will look good. And it takes only a minute!

(this is what mine looked like ↓)

If you have a good foundation to work on, cleaning up becomes easy and you maintain the energy of the sketch!

I'm happy you like my art. ❤ I hope this helps!

[hanajozo]

"Finding Purpose" Chapter 11

Gojo Satoru x Reader Fanfic

You groan as you wake up, the morning light hitting your face. You bury your face in what you think is your blanket, but as soon as you smell what you recognize as cologne, your eyes shoot open to see a black jacket in your arms.

“Oh my god,” You facepalm. “I somehow fell asleep when we were and latched onto him… didn’t I..?” You knew about your habit of snuggling into jackets and hoodies, so you knew what happened immediately.

“God, this is a pain… How am I going to face him now? I’m going to have to return his jacket at some point…” You groan again, quickly shoving the jacket underneath your blanket to hide it, as you hear voices in the distance. 

It sounds like.. “The first years? Wait.. what time.. Ah!” You yell as you look at the time “9:42am” it reads. You slept in, since you were too distracted by chatting away with Gojo, that you forgot to set up an alarm. 

After setting up an alarm for 7:00am Monday through Friday, you start getting ready for the day. You open the closet to find more casual clothes, you grab a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. You get changed into the new clothes, taking a mental note to thank Ieiri and Ijichi-san later.

You unwrap the soft wrap around your head as you use the mirror to make sure your ponytail is smooth as you put your hair up. Satisfied with the secure ponytail, you rewrap black fabric around your head and your right eye. You almost forgot about the bandages on your arms, and after a minute of debate in your head, you decide to take the bandages off your arms.

Long sleeve shirts and stuff on your arms always bothered you, especially when you were drawing and painting. You’d much rather have your own skin get covered in paint than bother with attempting to clean messy clothes later, plus it was just simply more comfortable that way. Though your arms were covered in scars, you’d opt for comfort rather than care about hiding the scars on your arms. 

Your face was a different story, with a gaping hole where your right eye used to be, skin severely warped, you’d prefer to keep that covered. Plus you had just gotten a new wrap from Gojo, you wanted to wear it at all times. The thought of chatting away the night last night makes you blush a little bit as you reminisce about Gojo gifting you the wrap.

You slap both hands to your cheeks, “Get ahold of yourself, (y/n)! You have work to do!”

With a determined huff, you put your shoes on and get going to your studio for the day.

You find yourself staring at the large canvas in front of you. Usually you would start your process by sketching at a smaller scale, but with the size of the challenge ahead, you knew you wouldn’t have the time for that. It would take a lot of paint and a lot of time to dry, so you had to factor that in accordingly so that you would finish in time.

Pencil tapping your chin, you try to wonder what would be a suitable subject. You really wanted to make an impression on the higher ups, it really was “go big or go home” in this scenario. You wanted to wow them, shock them to their core, make something that would prove your skills would be an invaluable asset here at the school.

It couldn’t just be like any other painting you’ve done before, it had to be unique, something they’ve never seen and wouldn’t expect from you. You close your eye and try to dig deeper into your thoughts, pencil still tapping at your chin. Maybe something dark would shock them, all your previous works were pretty standard and tame in subject matter, nothing dark or evil in sight. But you wouldn’t settle for a stereotypical “spooky” subject like a skull or lame looking ghost or zombie. No, it had to be something.. special. Wait, special.. Grade? Wait, maybe you could paint something resembling a curse, that would be fitting for Jujutsu High! But wait, would that be too predictable? Maybe, but it was the first thing that gave you a rush of inspiration. 

The first thing that flashes in your mind makes your blood run cold. The curse that attacked you. You remember the fear that paralyzed you as you stood in your shop just a couple of weeks ago. Your heartbeat quickens just thinking about it. Maybe your head is twisted, but the emotions recalling the incident made an unidentifiable feeling bubble up in your chest.

The subject of your painting now decided, you open your eye and bring your pencil to the large canvas.

After sketching for a couple of hours, your focus is interrupted by the sound of the door to your studio being slid open.

“Time for lunch!” Ieiri-san smiled as she held up bentos for the two of you.

You laugh, “I’m starving, let’s eat!” You take the bento she holds as you follow her out of the studio to her office where the two of you ate together. When you sat down, she made sure to point out right away that you were wearing a new wrap around your head.

“A-ah.. this?” You nervously chuckle, “Well, Gojo-san somehow snuck up on me after I set up the studio space last night. He kept bugging me at first but then he suddenly gave this to me? It was oddly… thoughtful?”

Ieiri-san squints and responds with a tone of suspicion in her voice, “Odd indeed, very much unlike him.. But I must admit, to his credit, it does look good on you.” Thankfully, the conversation seemed to move on from that topic fairly quickly as you two started to talk about your day so far.

This lunchtime routine becomes the normal over the next few days, you were thankful for the company Ieiri-san provided. She started to feel like the older sister you never had. Lunch becomes a time where you two would talk about your day and catch up, often providing your own tales of Gojo pestering you. Occasionally he would poke into your studio, tug at your ponytail, or scare you by sneaking up on your blind side and poke your cheek.

Though to prevent any unwanted noses poking in your business, you covered the large canvas with a fabric cover whenever you weren’t around, so no one would see the final product until the grand reveal. Pretty early on in the process, you had decided you would keep the artwork a secret from everyone until after the meeting with the higher ups.

Your days mostly consisted of working on this piece, working on it as long as the natural light would allow you, morning till evening. Night time would mean relying on the singular light that hung in the center of the room, which you wanted to avoid, since you thought the artificial light in contrast to the dark sky would warp your perception of the color palette.

Occasionally you had the treat of observing the first and second years training outside while you were working during the day, the spectacle and noise was always a welcome sight to you. Sometimes you would take a break, sit and watch the commotion that went on outside your window. Whenever any of the students or Gojo would catch you watching, you always gave them a small wave and smile. After your many years of only hearing about them, you treasured every moment you were able to witness for yourself.

[neakco]

You're Not Alone Ch. 2

Ao3 Where it began Ch.1 Ch.3 Ch.4

Some Tim, Marinette and Damien interactions. With a bit of Alfred being all-knowing in the background.

Chapter 2

 

Tikki woke them up around 6am in order to deal with a noon akuma over in Paris.

 

“I'm awake, you’re awake.” Marinette declared sleepily as she tossed something at his head.

 

Tim blinked tiredly at the fox necklace in his hand before he remembered what it was an put it on.

 

He watched Marinette merge Tikki and Kaalki and had just called on his own transformation when Alfred showed up with two small shots of espresso. Everything was moving a little like molasses through his brain and he may have proclaimed Alfred a God. Maybe it was Marinette that called him a God. Both? He would figure it out later after the caffeine took effect.

 

They arrived to a city covered in rats. So unless it was some new incompetent akuma, Hawkmoth had gotten Mr. Ramier again.

 

He watched Ladybug use her lucky charm to set up a life size mouse trap game that he hid with illusions. Then Chat and her lured Mr. Rat over. Ten minutes later they were stepping through a portal back into his bedroom.

 

There was a small plate on his dresser with treats for the kwami and he smiled to see them happily snacking. He stretched and turned to Marinette to see if she wanted a proper cup of coffee but she was asleep against the wall. He went over and shook her shoulder. “Come on Bug, Alfred will come get us for breakfast soon.”

 

“Don wanna.” She mumbled as she latched onto him instead of the wall.

 

He smiled and pried himself free. “Sleep then, but don’t blame me when the Gremlin storms in demanding to know where you are.”

 

He watched her eyes open wide, “He would.” She stumbled quickly towards the hall “I'll see you at breakfast. I am going to shower quickly.”

 

Tim followed since his quest for coffee would lead him past her room anyway. “Do you even remember where your room is?”

 

She paused briefly, “I thought I did but now I am doubting.”

 

He spotted a splash of colour where her room should be. “I have a feeling that the Gremlin decided to make it easier for you.”

 

She looked back at him, “What is that supposed to mean?”

 

Tim gestured towards her door. Last night it had been just a normal door, not the canvas it was now.

 

He watched her face as she took in the bright cherry blossoms that had bloomed in paint. Her hand reached out only to hover over them. “This is amazing. They look so real.”

 

“The Gremlin may be a brat, but I will never deny his talent.”

 

“Will Bruce be upset?” her hand traced the air above the flowers.

 

He shrugged, “If it mattered then Alfred would have stopped him from painting it.”

 

She continued to stare in awe so Tim reached around and opened the door for her.

 

“I am extremely comfortable with you but even that comfort does not extend to helping you shower when you aren’t injured.” He deadpanned.

 

She blinked, “What?” then her eyes slowly widened as she snapped out of it. “No no no. I'm good. See you at breakfast.”

 

He laughed as the door closed quickly then continued his search for coffee.

 

Everyone was just finishing their breakfast when Bruce glanced up over his paper. “What are your plans today Miss Dupen-Cheng?”

 

“Tim is going to take me out and spend too much money on me.” She answered with a bright smile.

 

Tim almost snorted his coffee as Bruce just nodded before saying, “That's nice.” As he stood up and left for work.

 

Marinette turned to look at him and Damian, “He didn’t hear a word I said did he?”

 

“Nope.” Tim laughed.

 

Damian glared at him and huffed, “It is not fair that you get out of your responsibilities in order to spend time with DC while I must continue to attend school.”

 

“I don’t mind you coming along if Tim doesn’t.” Marinette smiled, “As long as I don’t take the blame for you skipping.”

 

“You can come.” Tim took a sip of coffee as he waited for Damien to show signs of happiness. “But we are going to get manicures, pedicures, and get our nails painted.”

Damiean frowned as he thought about it. After a few long moments he reached for his bag, “I think I shall have to decline.”

 

“Too embarrassed to get your nails painted?” he teased.

 

“No. I am just not willing to deal with the ignorant comments from my supposed peers if I do.” He stood gracefully, “Perhaps I shall be allowed to join your other activities.”

 

Tim blinked a couple of times to hide his shock. Every time he thought he had the Gremlin all figured out the kid had to go and surprise him.

 

A few moments later Marinette jumped up and raced towards the main doors. “I forgot to compliment him on the painting!”

 

The spa day had been fantastic and now they were relaxing in the study together. Tim was working on some cold cases while Marinette embroidered one of his dress shirts. The quiet was nice.

 

Tim winced as the study door swung open loudly and the Gremlin sat next to Marinette. Of course his own thoughts jinxed him.

 

“I regret not accepting your offer this morning.”

 

Marinette set aside the shirt carefully so as not to ruin her work, “Long day?”

 

“Some females came up with the asinine idea that I am shy.”

 

Tim looked up at that, Damian was painfully blunt. How the hell did they come to that conclusion?

 

“These females then conspired with the rest of my imbecile classmates to break me out of my hypothetical shell.” He paused to take a calming breath. “It did not matter what barbs or words I used since they had convinced themselves that I was just being prickly as a defense mechanism.”

 

Marinette looked passed Damian to give him a pleading look. He nodded and pulled up the spa's website with only a small internal sigh.

 

She smiled wide at the Gremlin, “Let’s go now then.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“I am thinking black with gold detailing.” Tim smiled as Marinette grabbed Damian's hand and started pulling him out of the room. “Or you could go with a bold cheetah print, maybe in green to match your eyes.”

 

“I demand to know where you are taking me DC?”

 

She stopped long enough for Damian to almost free his wrist without hurting her before she was dragging him again. “To get you nails done of course.”

 

Tim chuckled as she continued to spout off different ideas.

 

“Drake.” To his amusement the Gremlin almost sounded pleading.

 

“Don’t worry Little D, I booked us an appointment for manicures. You are the only one who is getting his nails done though.” He smirked and showed off his pink and grey nails with little coffee cups painted on his thumbs.

 

Damian’s eyes trailed to the hands gripping his wrist and Tim watched surprise as he registered the pattern. Marinette had gotten hers green and pink with cherry blossoms to match the scene painted on her door. He knew the Gremlin would never admit it, but the slight blush showed that he was flattered.

 

“Were going to the zoo on Wednesday.” Tim said to stop Damian from escaping. “I already told the school that you won’t be going in.”

 

The Gremlin stopped resisting and looked back at him in surprise even as Marinette started to pull him into the vehicle Alfred somehow had waiting.

 

“Thursday is a day trip to the park for inspiration and sketching or photography and Friday is a surprise for Marinette but you are still invited. The school believes you are needed as a translator for a visiting guest.”

 

Damien glared as he climbed into the car, “Why? What are you planning?”

 

Marinette finally let go of his wrist now that they were secure in the vehicle. “Because I asked. I wanted to thank you for flying the helicopter to come and get me. Also for the beautiful painting on my door.”

 

“Oh.” Tim had never seen his younger brother’s glare disappear so quickly before. “I shall accept your invites.”

 

Tim wondered if Damian may even smile when they told him that the kwami wanted to go on patrol with them tonight.

No beta and written on mobile. I hope you enjoyed it even half as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Taglist: @novemberandmay @laurcad123

[riisinaakka-draws]

Progress gif of this:  “Would you still recognize me?”

The quality isn’t the best possible, but hopefully you get the idea how things evolved... It’s made from “the preview pics” that I saved in this painting’s draft/wip folder whenever I took a break or wanted to compare/remember something special - and also so that I’d know where I left things and wouldn’t have to open the actual psd file every time, lol. To make the gif size smaller and to have it flow better (and be less eye-hurting), I left some of the frames out.

I admit it, it’s quite fascinating to watch now after everything :D *pats myself on the back*

So that the post doesn’t become too long on the dash, I put some additional notes under the cut, mainly about the refs and wips if you want to take a look! Please, do not repost elsewhere :)

(Btw, you can just read the bolded parts if you want a quick version or get tired of the rambling.)

I want to point out that the main work always happens underneath all kinds of adjustment layers because I like to test things a lot during the process before sticking on something if I don’t quite know yet what I want. Like the colour scheme or where the light comes (or if there are multiple light sources) or if something needs more contrast etc. So I paint with simpler colours first, but already have some ideas/adjustment layers over them, but hidden and waiting until the basics are done. Then I merge things and continue to paint with the “new” colour palette.

I also often test filters to have more texture or bring out some things better - or just to find something interesting to incorporate! Accented edges, crosshatch and watercolor are things that I often test in some way over my sketches and wips at some point when the basics are done or when I need/want some kind of further effect/texture or just something to knit them together better and for balance. And also just for fun!

Then I flatten the things I like (or I am “certain about” at that point) and continue painting over that ...aaaand end up testing something else, keep different versions or parts of things on separate layer groups (to compare or to bring back some earlier things that I liked or alternative lighting solution or object/body part placement, or...) and so on...seriously it’s always a mess controlled chaos! aahahahaha *face palm*

But mainly the things keep building on top of each other instead of having neat groups for sketch, lineart, colours, lighting etc. I mean, I always try to start with that but never have been able to actually keep it very long... And on the other hand I’m too nervous and indecisive to paint with only single layer/canvas from the beginning with (like a traditional painting would be painted). Or with just a few layers for background, character(s), effects on their own and so on... So I have this chaos that swirls towards that something that I had preplanned or wanted to achieve/practise until I’m happy with it.

ANYWAY, BACK TO THE ACTUAL ART :

The original “spark” for this work was Flint at the end of the episode 1 with his bloody face and white shirt, and that nice splash of light, which made me think about the aftermath and him cleaning himself in the privacy of his cabin with some nice morning light painting his beard fiery and him lost in thoughts :) At some point that made me think of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s beautiful painting “The Laundress” which I have liked since I was a kid, so I started to steer towards it.

See the resemblance? (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵)ﾉ ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Some of the refs for the bowl and Flint. The angle/posture ended up being a bit different and I had more refs for Flint’s face and shirt and hand etc.

Some wips:

1) basically the idea and items that I wanted to include.

2) after a break (weeks? months?) and after I had searched some more references to help. The eyes were at this point (accidentally) absolutely awful so I censored them for the sake of my own peace of mind here, lol (not sorry!)

More wips along the way, although not much difference can be seen as the pics are quite small.. :

3) I mirrored/flipped the painting constantly, to see the mistakes and also because I couldn’t decide which way I wanted him to be! This stage was aaalmost ready but I got stuck and forgot let it be for several months doing other stuff again.

4) I continued it, fixed lots of things with fresh eyes and experimented more with lighting and texture but nothing too drastic stuck in the end. I have two monitors and either (or both...) are calibrated a bit off atm, so it was quite frustrating to navigate and to know which one had the right colours that I was after... and I still don’t know but it looks nice on both screens so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   At this stage things were basically nitpicking and a bit too much honing.

The finished piece:

In the end I lost some of the things I actually liked more in the earlier versions (for example some had more of a dreamy feeling or better texture or more emotions/wearyness/anger showing that didn’t quite reach the end result again) and I overworked some other things, but nevertheless! I’m very pleased how this turned out! I reached the vision I wanted and learned a lot again :D

Thanks for reading <3

[curiosity-killed]

#ShowYourProcess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

ty for the tag @sketchyscribbles ! and also ajksdh props for picking the hardest pic I could do this for lmao 

tagging (if you want to but no pressure ofc!)

@tricksterkat209​ with this piece

@lookforanewangle​ with this piece

@littlewhitetie​ with this piece

Process for this yanqing piece under the cut bc whoo boy we wordy

Planning:

In general, except for bigger pieces, there isn’t...a whole lot of planning....ever. This one was a break from working on a large, detailed painting and the result of talking with @apaladinagain about yanqing AU thoughts so it was pretty quick and mostly just a kind of visual note-taking for myself.

I don’t have any of the WIP files/layers because I clean out my WIP folder at the end of each year but based on memory and knowing myself, the initial sketch would’ve looked something like this (this is done with my trackpad and a sore wrist but honestly...probably not that far off. my sketches are uh rough):

Creating:

I work in Paint Tool SAI (but like. a slightly fucked up version. idk why but it’s been janky since I got it ANYWAY) with a Huion tablet. My usual process is a little weird but goes:

rough sketch — usually a very rough scribble of where heads are and other important features (in this case, the lotus and fire) on a canvas around ~1500 px on the short side

clean sketch — the actual base of the piece, where I fully draw out all elements of it (except fingernails lol) and also set the composition. On this one, the original sketch was flipped, which felt much more stagnant, so I flipped the canvas in order to have more visual interest/direction. I also wanted to be more intentional about placement of hands so that each of them should roughly correspond to the upper dantian (Wen Qing’s right hand), middle (Wen Qing’s left, with the flame), and lower dantian (Yanli’s hands with the lotus). I don’t totally remember the thought process behind this but I do remember looking at a lot of pixelated diagrams. as u do. this part’s usually on a slightly larger canvas (~2500 px short side)

lines — I use a custom brush I made a long time back but it’s basically set up to emulate like...a micron pen? might be the closest feel to it so smooth, slightly softer edgers, etc., and I always size up the canvas so that the shortest side is at least 6000 px so that I can downsize and have extra crisp lines

colors — block in colors roughly to get a sense of color composition (for bigger pieces, I often do a rough version of this before I go into lining it), then clean them up so they’re all within the lines. Once all the main color bodies (so like: skin, base color of each set of robes, etc.) are in, I always go in and add facial details first (blush, nail colors, eyes, lips, etc.) mostly out of habit and also as a treat to myself bc it’s one of the easiest ways to start seeing the piece come together

details — after that, it is clipping layer central! in this one, I think (based on squinting at it lol) each robe has at least 2 clipping layers for details such as the difference colored collars on Jiang Yanli’s and the pattern on Wen Qing’s sleeves. I tend to organize layers by color so like the dark red on Wen Qing’s robes would be one layer and the ombre pattern would be a separate one. This is also when I do any rendering, usually, which there isn’t much of here but would include the details on the lotus

shading — pretty basic multiple layer here. I p much always use desaturated blues and purples for shading unless it’s for effect. 

effects — glow baby glow! this is where i had to google “How to Paint Fire” bc it’s been 8 million years and then spent forever airbrushing on luminosity and overlay layers. also added a luminosity effect to the lotus for the shigs. Also added an overlay layer for the highlights from the fire here

signature — pls don’t ask me how many times i redraw my signature for each picture. it’s embarrassing. i’ve had the same signature, with slight variation, for like 10 years and yet. orz

fussing — on very rare occasions, this translates to me actually checking for errors and making sure I haven’t forgotten anything but most generally, this involves me staring unblinking at my screen as I slide the saturation and hue bars back and forth and contemplate whether I should start exclusively drawing at 100% saturation. in this piece, the background was originally a lovely deep blue but at this stage I decided to turn it green both for the contrast with all the red and for a hint of unease/eeriness coming from a highly saturated green + the donghua’s use of green ghost fires for yllz!wwx — basically hinting at Bad Shit Comin’. I have regretted that decision every time I’ve seen this piece since then :| it was such a nice blue...

Sharing:

At this point, I spend 15 minutes staring into the middle distance trying to come up with any sort of caption and then just throw down whatever I think of and post it on tumblr. titling fics? easy peesy lemon squeezy. captioning art? terrible death suffering time.

if i think abt it, i’ll post to instagram (unless i am defeated by the cropping curse) but i didn’t with this one...presumably bc I am p meh about it (the blue!! the blue ;____;)? but also possibly bc i just forgot