#i had to study my own art style to figure out how i did it

[ghostfrog81]

Pretend it's mclennon monday because I forgot to post this for two days

[gazpacho-deluxe]

you can do whatever you want tbh. it’s awesome

[vetyr]

hi, i ireally love your work and i don't know if you've answered this before but, what kinds of studies do you do or how did you learn color theory? i wanna get better at rendering and anatomy but im having trouble TT TT

Hi! Long answer alert. Once a chatterbox, always a chatterbox.

When I started actively learning how to draw about 10 1/2 years ago, I exclusively did graphite studies in sketchbooks. Here's a few examples—I mostly stuck to doing line drawings to drill basic shapes/contours and proportions into my brain. The more rendered sketches helped me practice edge control & basic values, and they were REALLY good for learning the actual 3D structure behind what I was drawing.

I'd use reference images that I grabbed from fitness forums, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and some NSFW places, but you could find adequate ref material from figure drawing sites like Line of Action. LoA has refs for people (you can filter by clothed/unclothed, age, & gender), animals, expressions, hands/feet, and a few other useful things as well. Love them.

Learning how to render digitally was a similar story; it helped a lot that I had a pretty strong foundation for value/anatomy going in. I basically didn't touch color at all for ~2 years (except for a few attempts at bad digital or acrylic paint studies), which may not have been the best idea. I learned color from a lot of trial and error, honestly, and I'm pretty sure this process involved a lot of imitation—there were a number of digital/traditional painters whose styles I really wanted to emulate (notably their edge control, color choices, value distributions, and shape design), so I kiiind of did a mixture of that + my own experimentation.

For example, I really found Benjamin Björklund's style appealing, especially his softened/lost edges & vibrant pops of saturated color, so here's a study I did from some photograph that I'm *pretty* sure was painted with him in mind.

Learning how to detail was definitely a slow process, and like all the aforementioned things (anatomy/color/edge control/values/etc.) I'm still figuring it out. Focusing on edge control first (that is, deciding on where to place hard/soft edges for emphasizing/de-emphasizing certain areas of the image) is super useful, because you can honestly fool a viewer into thinking there's more detail in a piece than there actually is if you're very economical about where you place your hard edges.

The most important part, to me, is probably just doing this stuff over and over again. You're likely not going to see improvement in a few weeks or even a few months, so don't fret about not getting the exact results you want and just keep studying + making art. I like to think about learning art as a process where you *need* to fail and make crappy art/studies—there's literally no way around it—so you might as well fail right now. See, by making bad art you're actually moving forward—isn't that a fun prospect!!

It's useful to have a folder with art you admire, especially if you can dissect the pieces and understand why you like them so much. You can study those aspects (like, you can redraw or repaint that person's work) and break down whether this is art that you just like to look at, or if it's the kind of art that you want to *make.* There's a LOT of art out there that I love looking at, probably tens of thousands of styles/mediums, but there's a very narrow range that I want to make myself.

I've mentioned it in some ask reply in the past, but I really do think looking at other artist's work is such a cheat code for improving your own skills—the other artist does the work to filter reality/ideas for you, and this sort of allows you to contact the subject matter more directly. I can think of so many examples where an artist I admired exaggerated, like, the way sunlight rested on a face and created that orange fringe around its edge, or the greys/dull blues in a wheat field, or the bright indigo in a cast shadow, or the red along the outside of a person's eye, and it just clicked for me that this was a very available & observable aspect of reality, which had up until that point gone completely unnoticed! If you're really perceptive about the art you look at, it's shocking how much it can teach you about how to see the world (in this particular case I mean this literally, in that the art I looked at fully changed the way I visually processed the world, but of course it has had a strong effect on my worldviews/relationships/beliefs).

Thanks so much for sending in a question (& for reading, if you got this far)! I read every single ask I receive, including the kind words & compliments, which I genuinely always appreciate. Best of luck with learning, my friend :)

[mercurio-shadowz]

I LOVE U.

ahem, anyways-

art tutorial when?? man i love your artstyle sm and i wanna learn how to draw these gay mfs too 😭😭

fr though how do you do it. like as a new artist, HOWWWW??

<333

OMG HIIIIIII

Aaaaaaa

Honestly, my only advice as a non expert and frankly kinda mediocre sonic artist is to practice a lot by copying references and don’t be discouraged when you don’t get things right at the first attempt

This was my very first Shadow. My son. He has every disease

At the beginning I really refused to use references for some strange reason, which truly hindered my progress, making it go at a snail’s pace compared to if I kept on studying and copying reference images (my references are post reboot archie comic panels, Sonic X screen caps and SA2 2d renders, by the way xD)

ART PROCESS RAMBLE UNDER THE CUTTTT (with funny looking art lol)

Plus I had no clue how to deal with mobian anatomy after exclusively drawing humans for years… so poor shadow would either look like a hot air balloon or like Sonic’s weirdly shaped little brother [ b A D]

Eventually I started letting moderately loose with the whole anatomy shebang, but things were nowhere near how I wanted them to look.

It all still felt rough around the edges. In fact, someone thought my shit was so ASS they traced the second drawing and posted a version in their style to their twitter without any credits xD. that’s a story for another day, but I honestly don’t blame them, shit’s kinda poopie!!

Anyway, I started to find my footing the more I used references and the more I studied the style in my own way [by tracing the references and seeing which shape goes where ] So, lesson learned basically, if you wanna learn how to draw the blorbo, you shall study the blorbo

The only other piece of advice I think I can give is . Circles. Use circles for their faces. It makes your life so so easy holy shit why did I stubbornly refuse to DO SO FOR WEEKS AAAAAA . Child me had the right idea sfbjvkf.

And that’s all for blorbo tips and tricks from my own perspective I think XD. It’s basically just a whole lotta looking at reference and figuring out how things work ;w;. I still have a lot to learn though, so don’t take my word as law🙏

I hope someone finds this helpful or mildly interesting at the very least xD

[hansoeii]

Hello! Hope you're having a great day/night! I absolutely adore your art, you are one of my favourite artists. I love the way you shade and do backrounds. Also everytime I get into a new show I immediately see your art for it??

I was wondering if you had any advice on drawing more realistically (backrounds, anatomy etc) but still keeping a style?

Hey hey!

Thank you so much!

I have a pretty good understanding of facial structures, because before I got into drawing more semi-realisticly, I heavily focused on realistic portraits. Here are some example, these are from around 2019!

(yes, I was really into danmei and kpop back then, haha)

I just always loved drawing/painting faces and it was all I did. But at some point I realized that I wanted to do more than that because just portraits felt super restricting. So it took me around 2-3 years to somewhat find my style. Thought it would be fun to show a little timeline! Advice will follow afterwards :)

2020

I began working on my OCs in 2020 and since I didn't have an exact reference to work off of, I struggled a lot. My art from this year is super wonky.

2021

Still wonky, but the Lokius obsession was the jumpstart into finding my style! My work from this year is all over the place haha, I was experimenting a lot.

2022

This first ofmd piece is pretty much the first drawing where you can see where my style is gonna go, which I think is pretty cool! This is the year I made the biggest progress cos I was drawing SO much. These two pieces are only six months apart. The one on the right was the first time I gave drawing a background a proper go, too! It was a good year.

2023

And this is where I am now! I'm still constantly learning and improving, but I'd say I have a style you can recognize now!

Now here comes some actual advice, haha:

What I highly recommend you to do is to study your favorite artists as much as you can! I have like 5 A4 sketchbooks all from 2020 that I filled with sooooo many studies, where basically all I did was look at artists I like and copy how they draw stuff, to try and figure out how to stylize certain things. Some of my favorite artists are Ami Thompson, Velinxi and TB Choi. But I also liked to just scroll through pinterest and study all the art I came across that I liked! For example, if I saw a really great drawing of a pair of pants I would copy it many times in my sketchbook and try to learn how they stylized the folds. Doing this for a prolongued period of time will naturally improve your own work! It'll be difficult at first, but you gotta push through, it's gonna be worth it!

I also highly recommend studying unique faces to try and avoid the same-face syndrome. Find some cool looking people and try to draw them as simple as you can! Maybe even draw a little timeline where you first draw them as cartoon-y as you can, and keep going until you end up with a more detailed, realistic drawing. Maybe in the middle of it you find a step that feels the most fun to you, so you can try to build on that! It's a great way to figure out what kind of style might be the best for you.

Here are some cool faces I found on pinterest!

I have a pinterest board with many more!

One REALLY important part of learning how to draw all kinds of things is to understand forms and shapes and how to manipulate them. I have so many pages in my sketchbook filled with just shapes that I drew from all kinds of angles without any references.

This is a great video on it:

6 Ways to Draw Anything by Proko

Learning how to do this is so crucial! Young artists often think they first have to learn all kinds of detailed anatomy before doing anything else, but all that's gonna do is make you tired and hate drawing. Shapes are where it's at! Once you understand how shapes work and which ones to use for certain parts of bodies or objects, drawing is gonna get so much easier! Once you understand them, you can get into details such as muscles and bones!

And honestly the most important point is to just absolutely love what you're doing! I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the fact that I get extreme hyperfixations on certain media that turn me into some kind of beast where I can suddenly draw 10 detailed illustrations a week, haha. Just be passionate about what you do, find something you REALLY love and go crazy!

I really hope this was somewhat helpful! My inbox is always open if there's any more questions :)

[mochatsin]

When MC can Draw (Dateables Version)

Drawing and the arts is one of the things you’re most passionate about. There’s a lot of things, and certain demons, that are out there to give you inspiration to draw. How will the dateables react when they find out you’re a great artist?

Wow my first dateables version of my prompts. Hope i’ve written them all well. This version is requested from my tumblr :0 thanks for reading!

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Diavolo

Diavolo took notice when you saw your eyes lingering among the paintings during your tour around his castle. There were portraits of prominent figures from Devildom, from old kings to spearheads that shaped their history. He explains how there’s one royal painter for every royal king, thus the similar styles in every portrait. Since you’re an exchange student then it’s essential you learn about these demons, and Diavolo is happy to tell their tales for you. 

He was taking a stroll around RAD before going home when he spotted you in the school’s gardens, seemingly preoccupied. He wanted to call on you but he was more curious to see what you were working on. Diavolo watches you closely from a distance, afraid that you might hide from him if you spot him like how the others do.

To his surprise, he saw you working on a portrait of him in a style that’s similar to the ones he’s shown you. The way your eyes lingered on those paintings when he toured you around before, it clicks to him now that you were trying to study the art style itself as well. It’s almost identical, but with your added personal touches to make it unique.

His towering size doesn’t hide him very well when you immediately spot him at the corner of your eye. The pillars don't do justice to how large Diavolo is as a demon. You try to conceal the art you were making, it’s embarrassing when the subject of your art is actually a few feet away from you. But he quickly smiles as he walks over to you. Now that his cover's blown, he definitely wants to see everything up close now.

“I didn’t mean to be rude and spy on you like that. But you don’t need to hide anything! Even from a glance I could tell you’re talented. Would it be alright for me to see what you were working on?” You can’t really turn down such a polite request, but you most certainly can’t turn down the volume of his voice that’s booming with excitement as he flips from one page to another.

When you finish your portrait of Diavolo, expect it to be treated like a national treasure. A beautiful artwork of the young prince made by the human exchange student? It deserves the best frame that Diavolo can get his hands on. Expect Barbatos by your door the next day with high quality art supplies. He’ll treat you like one of the finest royal artists to ever live in Devildom.

Barbatos 

He invited you for some afternoon tea at the castle as thanks for lending him a hand in his duties the other day. Though there were some other matters around the castle that Barbatos needed to attend to, he asked for you to stay put first and help yourself to some of the treats he had prepared beforehand. 

You always admired the intricate designs of the tea set Barbatos always prepared whenever you came over. Since you’re a bit bored, you took out your sketchbook and decided to draw the fancy little tea cups while you wait for Barbatos to come back. 

The tea sets that Barbatos prepares always have beautiful pattern designs that range from dainty floral prints up to sets that look more expensive than the Mammon’s weekly bills due to how much the patterns are embedded in gold. If you look closely, you could probably spot little devils on it and it’s cute in its own way.

Little did you know he’s been actually observing you for a while now. He finished his last minute duties rather quickly since it would be rude to keep a guest waiting and that’s when he spots you keeping yourself busy by drawing, your glance going from the tea set to the paper. He wanted to admire that look you have whenever you concentrate for a little bit.

He lets out a small chuckle which gets your attention, a gentle smile on his face as he approaches you. “You’re quite the talented one, aren’t you?” Barbatos says as he takes a seat next to you, glancing at your sketchpad. “Maybe you can tell me more about your work while we enjoy some tea together?” 

Barbatos wouldn’t push for you to show anything, but he’ll be happy once you do. He’s impressed at how well you can make patterns that range from something simple to ones that have intricate details. He likes how you can make a portrait of the tea sets he’s been preparing, and secretly he grabs his finest sets to see if you’ll be inspired enough to draw it as well the next time you visit. Maybe he can also pull some strings to put your own pattern designs onto an actual tea cup and serve it to you next time. 

Simeon 

Sometimes you go to Purgatory Halls to get away from all the constant nagging and chaos of the demon brothers. It’s nice to find that peace and quiet you needed to do your daily tasks or just laze around since you felt like it.

Simeon lets you stay in his room for today while he tries to focus on writing for his novel. He plans on introducing a new character soon and since he trusts you, he starts talking about the character itself. How they compose themselves, what they’re like, the possible role they’ll play in the story, you get all these details before the chapter is even written.

Once he’s done talking he lets you get back to whatever you were doing while he continues trying to figure out how to write the next few parts. Though he soon hears the sound of scribbling pens and wondered if you were doing some homework? He could’ve sworn you were done with those already.

He turns around and to his astonishment, you were sketching the character he was just discussing with you earlier. Given his detailed accounts of the character, you were able to design it well. It’s an understatement to say Simeon is happy. He is ecstatic. You brought this character to life in just a matter of minutes all for him, and that brings Simeon more ideas on how to proceed with writing. 

“You never told me you actually knew how to draw. Your talent at visualizing is exceptional.” Simeon would listen carefully while you talk about your journey to the arts and how you honed your talents while he looks through your other works. Afterwards, he starts to praise your art like a professional critique, telling you what he loves in each work.

His heart skips a beat whenever he finds your old works that’s dedicated to his novels. Learning that you’re also talented with the pen like he is, just in a different element, makes him feel a little bit closer to you. If you’re not busy, he may ask for your help when it comes to visualizing something he’s having a hard time with. He’ll treat you to something nice as thanks!

Solomon

Being Solomon’s apprentice means that there are times he’ll require you to assist him with his research. There’s a few spells and potions that he wants to work on, though they all require a lot of preparation work. You both agreed on doing a bit of divide and conquer on those tasks so that it won’t be too time consuming to finish. 

You managed to do a lot of chores for him which is quite tiring, though Solomon is grateful for your efforts and he has one last request from you which he said is essential to the potion he’s making. There’s a delicate Devildom flora that Solomon harvested recently, and you have to make sure the flower stays fresh because it can wither very quickly if not taken care of and the potion would fail if that happens. He’ll take it off your hands once he’s done preparing everything else.

Normally, one would’ve kept it in a vase full of water and called it a day. Though you decided to not only put it in a vase, but draw up a summoning circle that would keep it fresh. It’s something that you learned from Solomon’s notes, and the sorcerer is astonished you drew the circle so accurately enough to work on your first try when he came to check up on you. 

“Now how did my little apprentice actually manage that so quickly? That would’ve taken me several tries to get the patterns done.” Solomon says with an amused smirk, staring at the circle in awe. Getting one line wrong would’ve instantly killed the flower but right now, he sees that not only is it very much alive but it looks more vibrant than ever. The magic is more potent, Solomon is sure that any potion he makes with its petals would be very effective.

While he was waiting for the potion to boil over in the cauldron, he decided to learn more about this hidden talent of yours. He makes you draw some summoning circles from one of his books, already starting out on the difficult types to draw. All of it is perfect somehow since you’ve had a history of drawing, so your hand is quite steady and you act like it’s no big deal. Solomon will definitely want to see your works in the future.

“A lot of sorcerers can cast magic, but not everyone has the talent to make summoning circles as quickly and accurately as you do.” That’s big praise coming from humanity’s strongest sorcerer. Though that means he’ll want to exploit that talent and call you over every time he needs it in his experiments, it’s a win for him either way because he gets to spend more time with you. 

Luke 

There’s a new event in Devildom where the angels and you were teamed up to open a stall that’s focused on selling sweets and pastries. Luke appreciates your input when it comes to taste testing his sweets since none of the demon brothers are able to give proper critiques like you can, Simeon tends to be a little too nice to Luke, and Solomon is never allowed near the kitchen. Ever. 

Your company is always welcomed and Luke would gladly add any of the sweets you recommended onto the menu. You always come back to the House of Lamentation with a bag full of samples you both baked that day, which always brings a smile to the brother’s face. 

You come back to Purgatory Hall only to find Luke seemingly having a dilemma. He reassures you that it’s not because of the batch of sweets and pastries since you helped him perfect the menu. It’s the fact he needs to make a logo and design for the stall. If it can’t attract any customers then all the effort you both put into baking this would go to waste. 

You sat down with Luke to brainstorm with him, watching the angel stare blankly at the paper with frustration while you ask him for what ideas he’s already had so far. Luke had to go back to the kitchen to pipe some frosting on the cupcakes, though by the time he came back you were already done with the sketch.

Luke is awed at the design, seeing as how you incorporated both his and your idea for the stall in a way that still blends well together. “Y-you’re incredible! How’d you do that so fast though? You know what, let’s show Simeon first!” If Luke had a tail, it would be wagging from sheer joy. He’d be so excited to get the decorations and paint for the stall that he almost forgot about the cupcakes in the oven. 

By the time the stall is finished and running, Luke would definitely flaunt your talent not just for helping him bake but for also designing the stall. “You like the design? They did that!” He would say with an excited grin on his face before pointing at you. Luke enjoys working with you that you both barely notice the brothers getting jealous over the amount of time the angel gets to spend with their human. 

[ratiishu]

How long did it take for you to master the LMK style? I really wanna learn how to do this style for my own future art, and I’ve followed that reference body sheet you posted a hill we back, but I never seem to be able to get it the way I want (Especially the hands). How did you do it?

Like 4 years, it was mostly just taking a whole bunch of references with literally everything. The width of the lineart, how they draw the head shapes, how the body is built and etc.

But like yeah it took a while to figure out, even my first attempts on the lmk style did look like the pilot lol My 2021 LMK art

But eventually you will get a hang of it once you've understood and studied their artstyle. My 2023 LMK art

and yes I drew all these backgrounds (except the celestial realm one- I had to redraw the entire thing for the drawing 😭)

[mothiepixie]

Hi Mothie, Uh sorry to bother you. I really love your art, it's such an inspiration. I want to get better at drawing the skeletons (and even try my own self inserts) but I often find myself struggling so was wondering if you had any tips? Like how did you practice drawing them at first? Sorry if you've had this question a million times, I couldn't find anything on your blog.

Also your colour placement, shading and BG's in all your comics are incredible! Thank you for sharing your amazing art with us <3

Hey there, thanks so much!

I never really answered anything like it, because what I'm going to say is going to be annoying

but PRACTICE.

I am so serious, you have to take these characters (be it skeletons or your own creations) and become so obsessed with them that you draw them over and over.

You will not see your growth and it will be frustrating. I feel people get trapped at seeing the finished product in their mind rather than focus on the steps to get there.

My art was definitely a rough start. I didn't know how I wanted to draw them and I just kept drawing them. I eliminated elements that didn't work or appeal to me over time and then did what would be easier for my wrist.

Examples

2022 vs 2023 Red looked SUPER ROUGH.

And Swap! 2022 vs 2024!

It took me a few years to draw them even close to how I wanted and I'm still figuring things out.

If you're looking for a distinct style, then you have to play with your style. And you have to embrace inconsistency.

But if you want to get better at drawing more realistic skeletons, I highly reccomend using Sketchfab and look up skeleton anatomy. (You can look up about just anything there and get it in 3d for all sorts of angles)

I also say definitely just practice gesture drawing and figure drawing. You can apply this tools to your OCs. And if you want to get better at expression then I recommend studying Tracy J. Bulter's expression tutorial. I still stand by this tutorial today.

I hope this helped some 🙇‍♂️

[chainsawmascara]

Figuring out where every companion fits in my Suddenly A Thing art school au doodle world is. Going to be interesting.

God's favorite princess who started it all is in general fine arts. She loves charcoal, painting feels like a necessary evil but it's secretly what she's always wanted to do.

Lae'zel is clearly in metalworking/sculpture.

Astarion is in textiles, specifically embroidering and fashion design/history. He has an entire brand built in his head. He works at an upscale fashion store part time. He judges EVERYONE.

Wyll???? Wyll's studying art history and debating going into curation. He's a trust fund kid and his father is deeply disappointed THIS is what he's doing with his college fund. He spends free time in the dark room. Darkroom photography has no place in the world these days, but he loves the classics and waxes poetic about 35mm film and its versatility - he does some oil painting over certain photos for flourish. It's phenomenal. He doesn't think it's that great. Everyone disagrees.

Gale is. Gale is the english major from the sister university who decided a double major is a good idea (it isn't, he is suffering) and hurled himself into abstract/surrealism. (It works very well in his favor when tara steps in his paint and walks on the canvas. He had a three hour anxiety attack and decided he did it on PURPOSE.

(Part of me wants to slam him into dark room photography and i will not elaborate. Maybe he sneaks in to hang out with wyll. He cannot be good at everything but he NEEDS TO BE GOOD AT EVERYTHING. He's a recurring subject of wyll's work.)

Where the FUCK do i put karlach. She's on a roller derby team outside of school. But what does she DO. She's in there somewhere but WHAT DEPARTMENT.

Dammon shares classes with Lae'zel bc that's The Most Obvious Thing. He's a natural.

Isobel? Pottery. Aylin doesn't go here. She's just The Girlfriend also on the roller derby team and hangs around.

Rolan is obviously into impressionism. He's the manet of the school, trying every artist's style in a desperate attempt to find his own despite cal and lia both knowing he HAS his own style and it's GORGEOUS but he just can't see it himself.

Alfira is also in the textile department. Astarion hates everything she makes. She plays music at local clubs on the weekends. Lakrissa is her bartender girlfriend who studies sequential art.

I need to keep this going, I'm on to something here.

But where the FUCK do i put KARLACH.

Edit: 9 fingers is the drug dealer. I went to art school, i promise you there are so many gatherings based solely around that, she'd be there constantly. Jaheira and Halsin are figure study models. Jaheira probably has her hand somewhere else in the school, she'd definitely have something to do with installation pieces, I'll get there let me cook on that one. Minsc is. Fuck. I need to figure that out. We're GOING SOMEWHERE HERE, WE'RE MAKING THIS HAPPEN.

Someone is in the jewelry department it's someone it's SOMEONE maybe lae'zel dips into it bc metal casting NO IT'S MINTHARA. MINTHARA. YES. I WILL JUSTIFY THIS WHEN IT'S NOT 2AM BUT TRUST ME IT'S MINTHARA. Intricate wire wrapping with gem stones she gets from 9 fingers, she has 5000 tools for it and no one realizes how violent whitesmithing tools are but I've BEEN THERE TRUST ME and the wire wrapping gives big spiderweb vibes, it's perfect, i love it, yes, she's in cahoots with astarion on a future design house and the bickering is CONSTANT.

[universallydestinytaco]

The Little Smiling Mermaid (Chapter 12)

…in which Pim comes out of his shell, Mipnessa is actually a total megabitch and two underwater edgelords get shmeckledorfed!

TW: Fatphobia at the end of the first paragraph and brief Transphobia at the end of the fourth paragraph, yes Mipnessa really is that much of a megabitch.

EDIT: Corrected Queen Dolores’ name, accidentally typed it as “Beatrice”

On the morning after his memorable conversation with Charlie, the sun chimed in with it’s warm rose-gold beams melting into the palace windows, waking up one particular guest who was currently at his happiest. Once the light hit his face, Pim’s eyes popped open, prompting him to spring out of bed like a frog and turn to the vanity desk, where he started doodling in his new little sketchbook. Sometime later, Chef Spitz rolled breakfast into the dining room with a smorgasbord of breakfast items to fill everyone up: toast, bacon and eggs, assorted cheeses, elderberry danishes, sweetbread made with spelt and dried fruit, and speaking of which chopped melon, apples, and pears. Everyone else followed the scrumptious aroma with their noses and immediately swarmed the dining room to dig in. Pim, who had never before indulged in a breakfast like this one, was in second-heaven! Pastries in the ocean where made with dried-out “cured” sea sponges, tropical fruits and cream-style cheese from seal milk, all in a stark contrast to the rich use of butter, flour and sugar. As Charlie grabbed a slice of sweetbread, Mipnessa made yet-another underhanded remark disguised as a compliment: “Watch out on the sweets, you’ll need to look good in your groom’s suit for our special day!” Charlie rolled his eyes as he further tuned out Mipnessa suddenly starting up a conversation about the golden pig statue back at home becoming strangely familiar in hindsight, though she claimed it was the decor of the palace. Queen Beatrice shot a subtle glare of judgment at the bride-to-be, who had started to realize that she wasn’t the good-girl she propped herself up to be.

~

While on their way back from handing over “the trident" to seal the deal Damien made, Alan was once-again internally freaking out while trying to maintain his cool exterior, remembering vividly upon how he (rightfully) flipped out at Damien for once-again throwing Pim under the bus, he realized he had just used his friend’s preferred pronouns towards Damien, who had seemed to had known Pim as Princess Pimberly and referred to her with she/her all his life. In other words: He had accidentally outed Pim in a fit of rage. Alan felt sick to his stomach with guilt, years he's striven to be a supportive and understanding and protective friend to Pim, only to fail at keeping the brave-yet-still vulnerable sea critter’s true identity under wraps from his cold, uncaring family, only to fly off the handle and spill the beans. “Alan?” Damien asked, Alan knew what exact question was coming and dreaded it, shakily replying “Yes?” while sweating bullets, the question-in-question was actually a pleasant surprise. “How come you, Glep and Graham Nelly all better-understood my own little brother better than me and the rest of the household?” Feeling a sense of relief, Alan calmed his nerves with a deep breath or two before giving a proper answer. “Well, throughout the whole time I studied the art of writing symphonies in that palace, I’d figure out right off the bat that something was up with the Royal Family, and amidst all the drama, Pim would try his best to hide from all of it…. I remember when I was having “recess” in the garden when I had noticed a weeping little Pim hiding in the kelp patches. That’s when I scuttled up to him and asked what was wrong…and at the age of four, Pim was already blaming himself for his family’s discord.” Alan’s voice cracking from trying not to choke up, “I knew it wasn’t plausible, so I did my best to remind Pim that he was worthy of being loved.” Damien’s heart broke into two upon catching wind of Pim blaming himself for all the family’s troubles at such a young age, especially considering he was old enough to pin-point where it all went wrong. “None of it was Pim’s fault, really, our family always had trouble, but it took a turn for the worse after we lost our Grandfather….it was his 102nd birthday, and it was also Pim’s second birthday where he learning how to swim and talk…Grandfather loved exploring the surface since he was young and he passed that love down to Graham and Pim…one day something terrible happened…Graham, that fool, showed up with one of those thingamabobs from the surface and it malfunctioned…but it was just an accident and he didn’t mean any harm!” Alan connected the dots, not too surprised yet could only imagine how much pain and guilt the lovable goober felt upon changing his family’s lives forever. Desperate to change the subject before he was tempted to spill more of his guts, Damien proposed they’d find Pim and tell him the good news.

~

After Pim had finally shown his batch of doodles to everyone in the palace, all of which where comics of Chef Spitz and a familiar-looking lobster boxing each other, Queen Dolores and Mr. Boss on a romantic gondola ride (he assumed they where a couple and yes, you could say it was ship art), an exaggerated caricature of Duke Eustace with a grim scowl on his face and lastly, a portrait of Pim displaying his name with a note indicating he went by all pronouns as a personal stepping-stone. Pim's artwork overall became a hit amongst the residents of the palace (Eustace assumed that last one was a non-ironic portrait and was flattered), especially Charlie. “Pim, ey? I like that name, it’s pretty cute.” Pim bashfully smiled while gesturing a “heart” with his two stubby hands as a way of saying “Thank you”. Pim was especially relieved with how so far, nobody openly opposed to him kind-of coming out. He felt liberated how the Queen, Dj Spitz, Smormu and Charlie shown their support of him being authentic to himself by referring to him as a mix of she/her, they/them and especially he/him pronouns when talking about him.

…

While Pim was thinking of what else to draw, he blissfully waltzed around the palace halls for inspiration until he came across Mipnessa trying on an unfinished prototype of her wedding dress that Smormu was working on with the needle-and-thread in hand; While sewing silk flowers into the first layer of the skirt and simultaneously chit-cahhtering, Smormu accidentally poked Mipnessa’s leg with the sharp pinprick. “Ow!” Mipnessa cried, snapping: “Watch it with that damn needle, you lowly klutz!” “I’m so sorry, your majesty!” Smormu responded in panic, Mipnessa responded while regaining her composure: “No matter, you may resume your tailoring, dear servant girl.” Pim shook his head in disgust, getting sick and tired of her passive-aggressive attitude…and that’s when the candlewick in Pim’s head was lit! Later that afternoon when Queen Dolores, Mipnessa, Eustace were conversing about kingdom affairs, they came across Pim and Charlie snickering at that silly little sketchbook again. Eustace demanded to know what was so darn funny and not without some hesitation, Pim shown Eustace and Mipnessa his latest masterpiece: a topical satire of Mipnessa with a large mouth with a speech-bubble censored with wingdings and a tiny Smormu apologizing for poking her leg with the needle. The Queen couldn’t help but giggle a little until Mipnessa put on the crocodile tears, blubbering: “How could you show my future husband a drawing of me in such an unflattering light!” as she clutched to Charlie, who froze in an embarrassed state. Eustace glared at Pim and scolded: “Now look what you’ve done, foolish girl, you made Mipnessa upset. I ought to have the Queen banish you back to the shipwreck you spawned from.” Pim stood there with his face beat red, bowing his head in shame…to everyone’s surprise, Queen Dolores spoke up: “Now Son, if there’s anyone to be cross with, it’s yours truly for suggesting the prompt to begin with.”, clearly covering for Pim. Eustace and Mipnessa where absolutely floored by the statement, and a few seconds after, the former bowed to Pim like a gentleman in an apologetic gesture before as Mipnessa muttered some vague insult only Pim caught, something among the lines of “That grey swollen cow and her mixed-up, muddled she/it.” That insult backfired as Pim actually took a liking to being referred to as “it”, even figuring he could go by just “he/they/it” with the partial intention being just to spite her.

…

While sitting on a rock by the sea, Pim worked on one last drawing for the day: a portrait of Charlie. Emerging from the waves to his surprise and delight was his two old pals, Alan and Glep! And much to his dismay, Damien, whom he scowled at while folding his arms. “D-don’t look at me like that! Do you have any idea what hoops I had to jump through to extend the deal?!” Pim raised in eyebrow, once he allowed Damien to explain further, his jaw dropped at the idea of Damien of all merpeople going out of his way to become a criminal in their own kingdom just to save him from turning into foam upon the sea! “He felt awful about the way he treated you, and he’s all-for you and Charlie getting together.” Glep nodded in agreement. Damien hugged Pim one more time before swimming away, signing off with a bittersweet: “Good luck with your happy ending, Pim.” As Damien swam away to face his consequences, Alan and Glep stayed behind with the intent on supporting their friend however they could. Charlie cried out from far-away: “Hey Pim! The boys came over, y’wanna hang out with us?” Pim gave Alan and Glep each a “see you later” in the form of a kiss and ran to the dock where Charlie and the sailors could be seen casually chattering away. Alan cried: “Wait! Lemme just- hold on! Dammit.” Glep patted Alan on the back, gesturing him Pim was gonna be just fine.

~

Grim gleefully cackled as he held the (fake) triton in his hand, declaring he was already eager to take over Meeplantica now that the old sea King was frozen in a block of ice, but first he wanted to test it out like a misbehaved child who got their hands on their noble parents’ armory cabinet. “Gnarly, check this bad boy out!” “Keep it down, I’m trying to watch my stories.” responded a distracted Gnarly, who was avidly-watching the crystal ball, way more amused with watching the kingdom’s reaction to the fallout of Damien’s “betrayal” unfold. “Hey Gnarly, how about you place a coconut on your head while I aim for it?” jested Grim; Gnarly rolled his eyes while cracking wise: “While I’m at it, I might as well paint a big ol’ bullseye on my ass!” Grim took some old rusty scrap metal and aimed with the trident, manifesting the idea of transforming it into gold, only for the scrap-of-scrap to turn into a pile of sand. Grim sheepishly stood there wondering if the trident was too powerful for him to master yet, as Gnarly took an obvious swipe at his boss: “Well, whaddya know: you’re the All-Mighty Sand Witch of the Abyss!” Grim responded to his henchman cutting up at his own low-hanging fruit by aiming the trident at him, laying down the law, menacingly singing: “Oooh there once was a sandmaaaan~” Gnarly cowed, vowing not to vex him with more bad puns at his expense. “Perhaps one of my spell books could give me some pointers on how to use this thing…”

~

In a scenario one would deem as some twisted karmic irony, Damien hid himself away in a deep cavern far away from Meeplantica so nobody could ever find him. The ex-Prince hastily hid the trident under a bed of moss he himself laid upon to rest while using his cloak as a blanket. Never before had Damien felt so alone, he knew deep-down in his wounded heart that the universe was ultimately going to catch up on him for his poor choices for a long time now, going all the way back when he was just a little boy and how he felt his piano solo he performed for his grandfather felt like an inadequate bore compared to that bizarre-yet-badass-looking gadget from the surface of which Graham Nelly discovered and brought as a gift. When the previous King and his grandnephew where still trying to figure out how it worked, that was when Damien decided to prove his worth as a grandson in his own eyes by figuring it out for them! Alas, the gizmo in-question was what land-creatures called a harpoon gun, and contrary to the innocent merfolk’s belief: it certainly wasn’t used for combat like they theorized, it was for hunting whales…. and poor, naive, clumsy Damien figured out far-too-late how his plan gone horribly right when he accidentally slain the old Sea King while testing the gadget. The empathetic Graham certainly took one for the team that day when he whole-heartedly took the blame for it at the cost of being disowned by the Royal Family to the point of persona-non-grata. However, since Pim was spared from witnessing the gruesome tragedy, this extreme exile did not stop him from fondly remembering Graham Nelly and because of his family’s weak communication skills, the little mercritter could never figure out why everyone else pretended that his cousin didn’t exist since nobody wanted to bring the tragedy up. The more his mind expounded upon the unpleasant memories, Damien further reflected on how his immature jealousy amplified the already-festering problems within the Royal Family, hammering it home just how so much heartache and drama would have been prevented had he just not tried to show off. Finally accepting the path paved with his actions, Damien finally let all that repressed guilt out as his broken sobs echoed throughout the cavern like some sort of sick mockery of his downfall, ultimately resulting in an hours-long affair consisting of the disgraced Prince crying himself to sleep.

Chapter 13 will be coming later this April, in the meantime, I’ll be taking a small hiatus because of some stuff IRL I gotta work out on, I will squeeze in a sneak preview of the next chapter (which will have a musical number this time) later this week! Thank you for your support as always!✨

[signanothername]

☆i'm not into rottmnt (hopefully i got the acronym right HAH) but i've been looking through your art tag and the influence on your style is there and visible - you like something a lot and it shows up in your own work and i think that is so endearing and wonderful

(It’s correct dgxgxg <3)

And DING DING DING!!! Thanks for noticing chhcchhc

When I love new media and start drawing for it, then go to the next fandom, everything I learned while drawing for the previous fandom stays

Rottmnt especially had a very big impact on my artstyle, I love the shows style so much (ironically, so many people hated the artstyle so much they refused to watch the show zhxggxxg, their loss, they missed a masterpiece) and it helped me develop my own artsyle even more, and so much of its style can easily be seen in mine (people can easily see that the very shapy skulls i draw are a direct influence from how Rottmnt draws faces), Rottmnt also helped me understand how to shape my art better

I kid you not when I say I sometimes stared for hours at different shots from the show, this show was animated by Flying Bark Studios, my favorite animation studio to date, there is so much to learn from the absolutely stunning art direction the studio takes, from dynamic poses, to composition, to color picking to its stunning animation, character design and environmental design, there’s always a very masterfully crafted, beautiful and stunning shot every 10 seconds, like the studio did NOT need to go this hard

Here are some of my favorite shots just so you can admire the beautiful art

You can even see a lot of influence from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure if you go back and look at the jojo tag, Jojo also helped me so much in understanding anatomy, figure/ gesture art, perspective, and dynamic poses, it doesn’t shy away from weird and out of the box character designs too, it’s so well crafted

Even Transformers, it’s a bit hard to see the influence of Transformers in my art, but if you look at my Delta Sans’ art (his gauntlets) then that influence becomes a lot clearer

Regardless, there’s always something to learn from drawing something new, and I especially studied Rottmnt’s art because it blew me away, glad to hear it’s apparent <33333

[raddest-laddest]

Whenever your art shows up on my dash I have to stop for a few minutes to look at it. I love the weight and shapes and how it all fits together in a single image.

Do you think you could talk about your process, especially line weight and shading? I’m working on my own style right now, so I’m asking my favorite artists how they figured out and practiced theirs! Lots and lots of practice, but what kinds, and where did they learn from? What were the hardest things to figure out?

y’know, it’s funny you ask this, because line weight and shading isn’t something i’ve practiced until recently! my art’s always growing and changing, (and sometimes the techniques i use depend entirely on what i’m drawing), but if you’d still like those pointers, here’s what I’ve been practicing so far!

(it’s easier for me to show than tell, so i’m just gonna use a few pieces i’ve made, and talk about my process)

(also it might run a little long so i’m putting it under the cut)

so when i’m sketching, i try and steer away from circles as much as i can. the ball-and-socket strategy was good for learning anatomy, but as i got better, it just started make my art feel static. now when i make my sketches, i try to focus on shape and gesture instead

this gets easier once you have a decent handle on anatomy, but there are plenty of tutorials online for that. one thing that really helped me learn shape and gesture tho was looking at @doodledrawsthings art! this was pretty early in my hollow knight era, but it basically reframed how i approached things. my art was able to get so much more stylized thanks to them!

(you can probably see the resemblance 😭😭😭)

now line art and shading…

for a piece like this with characters in an environment, i’ve color coded the foreground, middleground, background, and subjects. objects closest to the camera will always get the thickest lines, and objects furthest away will get little to no line art at all. objects in the middle will have the same sort of medium thickness? but i’ll usually put more care into the subject’s line art, making it darker and cleaner. (it’s my way of trying to set it apart from the rest of the middleground). the subject will also have the most detail, and any inner details will have lighter, thinner line work.

in all honesty, i don’t like shading one bit… so i try to cheat it where i can. usually i’ll just black out wherever’s necessary and call it a day, but this piece NEEDED it so… yea

it was also a huge experiment, since i’m not familiar with this kind of lighting at all. i had to play around with it a lot, and studying @elwensa ‘s house fire and the eye thing comics really helped me figure out how i wanted to approach it ::]

(elwensa’s style is actually a huge inspiration for a lot of techniques you’ll see in my OW art. hehe.. hoohoo.. ::))

but basically i filled a layer with dark brown, and erased wherever i thought the light would hit. then i played with some overlays, and yea

you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to form for this technique, and the way the shadows stretch across certain surfaces

(the plants in the back were drawn on afterwards. i basically improvised those)

there are some times however where i’ll only do line art on the subject, and just paint in the foreground and background if i’m going for a quicker, more finished look

and in those cases, i just try to pay attention to my values 👍 (don’t ask me how i color tho, cus i don’t even have that figured out yet)

ok back to line art:

for this example, i wanna go further in depth with now i actually draw line weight. we’re going list mode for this one babeyyy!

(oh lordy i hope this makes sense) SO BASICALLY:

objects closer to the viewer will have thicker lines. this is true always and forever

if something is leaning closer, the lines will get heavier as it gets closer to the “camera”

lines will get heavier around the curves, corners, and edges of anything that’s not an inside detail

overlapping objects will have heavier lines, (notice the edges of the scarves, the sleeves, etc.)

anywhere the light can’t reach is blacked out (this means any nooks and crannies, any tight folds,,,)

any large, dark-colored areas are blacked out

i like to erase a thin border where lines would usually intersect, (more so on large objects, but it’s really up to my taste)

inside details will have a lower opacity, and sometimes even a different color

erasing some extra details into blacked out areas can help to add interest and dimension

and for shading (or lighting), the only “real” thing i did here is on their visors. it’s mostly to make their faces stand out as the focal points, but it’s also cus i hate shading LMAO

here’s some other line work to look at:

on another day, i’d probably be willing to mark it up for you, but for now, just look and try to take note of the choices i made ::]

the hardest parts to learn for me are honestly form and posing. figuring out how objects exist in a 3D space, and then drawing them affecting one another has always been extra difficult for me… and coming up with good, readable poses can be really tricky :’)

idk if i have any pointers for these, just study and use a lot of references 👍 (references are magic. you’ll always need them no matter how good you get)

and yea, that’s basically all i have to say for now! good luck building your style, and remember you don’t have to confine yourself to any single way of drawing. do what you like, experiment, and your style(s) will follow suit! just keep looking at art, and don’t be scared pull inspiration from the things you love ✨

huzzah huzzah

[goron-king-darunia]

I wonder if you have a favorite Eg, Egg, and Eggy Eggtoberpost

Honestly, a style study of "Ed, Edd, n Eddy" for Eggtober would be interesting. (I did get your previous ask and am hanging onto it for ideas.) That said, if we're talking Eggtober from this year (2024) exclusively, I'd say anything by user @alkaline-noodles hit it out of the park. Their dedication and extremely photogenic egg dishes were really inspiring this year. There are still several beautifully photographed egg dishes that I want to immortalize in my own style. If it can be any year, user @cubicsoup did this amazing drawing of a raw egg in Eggtober 2022, and I still admire every bit of it! If we're talking overall, then anything by @quezify. As the Egg King and host of the event, Ruben just doesn't miss! Top of all time for me would be the Heart-Shaped Egg for World Egg Day. I just really enjoy how softly it's rendered. For this year only, it would probably be these fried eggs on green. Very classic and you can see that shift in style really exaggerating some of the choices that really make Ruben's style unique: that solid ring around the yolk, the rough pencil texture, and the organic shapes along with a common yellow and lavender contrast in the shading. The collection of some of their best eggs for this year's World Egg Day post are stellar though, and I love them a lot, but I'd never be able to pick just one of the bunch. The few egg on burger ones have been great too.

Some Honorable mentions from this year are users @arithetonberry and their squiggly eggs, @fivevotesdown and this gorgeous soft-boiled egg, @doradeluna's beautifully rendered, smeared over easy fried eggs, @kaehunterart's amazing rainbow-y fried egg in a very shiny pan, @quezify's redraw section from this year, @tiredyeehaw's crocheted egg throw blanket, and all of @nekko-took-egg-photos work this year, but especially this fried egg on noodles. We had lots of amazing participants this year. I wasn't able to finish all the art I wanted to in time this year, but I plan on finishing 31 egg arts this year. I just have a lot going on in real life and the world has been an ass this year. But I am trying to slot in art time when I can! As for favorites of my own, for this year it would have to be the bloody egg. Getting the hang of Krita has been a challenge, but it's nice to know I'm not tied to Clip Studio Paint to render art the way I want to. I think the bloody egg is the first freehand study I did this year on Krita where I've liked the end result and thought the process and result were a good analogue to working with the gouache brush on CSP as I had been doing in previous years. Favorite of all time is still probably Eggtober 11th of 2022. I started Eggtober in 2022 as a low-pressure way to get back into art after years of not being able to find time for it. I figured eggs were simple enough and I liked drawing them, so I might as well give it a go since I was trying to polish up my skills again for personal projects. The ramen piece for Eggtober 11, 2022 was the first piece where I really felt like I hit my stride and was able to put my ideas on paper more or less exactly how I wanted them. All art is a process of experimentation and discovery, but the way the noodles and mushrooms and egg and pork all came together in that piece just... really made me take a step back like "I'm not 100% where I want to be, and have a long way to go, but I finally remember what making art is supposed to feel like. I like this again." And I think my favorite for 2023 has to be the Pavlova. Another time where the process and product all felt smooth, like they came out how I wanted with minimal fuss, maximum learning, maximum flow state. I hope to keep seeing improvement in years to come. Eggtober has just been really great for keeping my artistic self-esteem up. Because even when I can't quite get the result I'm looking for, the community is supportive, and even when I struggle, at the end of the day, there is always egg. And Egg is pretty dang good, I think. 10/10 would recommend the chillest Drawtober challenge. 3 years strong! may this event persist for another 330 years at least!

[voidheartkisses]

Okay hello hi hello,

First off you're amazing and a gift to the world, I wish I had even half your talent. Your last piece blew my mind and I just HAD to ask,

How long have you been drawing/painting for? I imagine forever but I'm always curious how long it takes before artists reach these sorts of levels where it evolves into full-scale projects as opposed to smaller hobbyist crafts. There are so many beautiful art pieces on this platform as a whole and I'm constantly baffled by it all

Sorry if my excitement is off-putting that piece is heavenly and my mind is blown. Hope you're doing well!

Hi and thank you! That's a good question

So I've been drawing since I was born, but I've been drawing digitally for 8 years. I think in the very beginning most artists should just focus on having fun, you'll basically improve by default

after a while you will want to improve. It will be slow, but this is the stage where you'll recognize what you need work on

I'd say the turning point is when you've finally gotten far enough into your art journey without any sort of formal training (ie, a lot of artists dont learn the basics/fundamentals first, which is fine since most of us start as hobbyists) But I think learning them really did help me a lot. You start to think more about how light and shadow lays, depth, 3D objects, and more.

I highly recommend watching this video about levels of art, it's been really helpful and motivating to me throughout the years

This part is going to be long so you don't have to read it but I just wanna give my personal journey and how I got to now if anyone thinks it'll be helpful:

(2017) With digital art, I started off on ms paint and occasionally ibis paint x. Mostly using anime deviantart bases (EMBARRASSING), but after a while I developed my own style based on the people I was inspired by at the time, I was just happy to draw and didn't care much about improving at this time

(2019) The people you look up to artistically will naturally change over time (and thats okay), after a while I decided to switch to firealpaca, where I guess I got more invested on how light and shadows work, as well as making my characters look a bit more natural and develop my own style, your preference in aesthetic may also change over time which is noticeable here

(2021) Eventually, I began to lean more into semirealism (which isn't everyones preference and thats okay! realism shouldn't be the ultimate end goal of art) but I really enjoyed making stylized characters look 3D and in natural looking environments, since I felt it spoke to my own experiences, a lot of artists draw from real life experiences. I focused more on anatomy at this time as well as textures and environments, composition also became a big deal for me at this time, as well as wanting to use different colors

(2024) The change from LINEART to DIGITAL PAINTING in 2022 was the hardest for me once I switched to clip studio paint, it was basically like starting all over and I was so lost. I had a lot to figure out on my own but I knew it was a transition I had to make to draw the kind of art I wanted. But I began to study and take more things into consideration, I didn't like my art so I simply kept going "I can do better", learning from my previous mistakes and slowly making something I would be more satisfied with. At this point art felt more like "projects" then anything, because I wanted to make pieces that were of quality and had time and care put into each of them, sure it meant there was no longer much quantity. but hey that's what my smaller Cult of the Lamb lineart drawings are for!! 💙

I'm still growing and I definitely have a long way to go, but I am very proud of my progress this year, and I'll continue to grow until I'm satisfied (haha im stubborn) I also want to develop my secondary lineart style that I do when I'm not painting, since I feel that is important too

in short; time, practice, dedication, and passion are the most important, draw what you love above all else because it will be your drive to keep going, staying motivated was the most important for me

Sorry for the long post 😭

[hahnshands]

~ trouble ~

agathario college roommate AU stories

context: Agatha Harkness is an outgoing, people person who fits into every room steps into and every group she talks to, on the other hand her roommate Rio Vidal, could not think of anything worse than being that kind of person, she would much rather focus on her artwork as she is studying art but having Agatha as a roommate is proving to me a little more challenging than she first thought when Rio notices herself drawing a very familiar face…

pairings: agatha x rio extrovert!agatha x introvert!rio popular!agatha x artist!rio

Authors note: i’ll be updating this every now and then :)

The second Agatha Harkness walked into their shared dorm room on move-in day, Rio Vidal knew she was in trouble. Trouble because Agatha exuded the kind of cool confidence that made people want to orbit her. Trouble because Rio, the self-proclaimed queen of her own quiet solitude, the tortured artist, knew she needs to pass this year to graduate and it didn’t look like she was going to have a distraction free dorm room.

It didn’t help that Agatha’s side of the room was already immaculate—her bed made with precise folds, her books alphabetized, and a lavender-scented diffuser softly puffing away on her desk. Meanwhile, Rio had a half-unpacked suitcase on her bed and an open box of paints that she’d immediately forgotten about the second she found her sketchbook.

Agatha was eyeing the chaos on Rio’s side of the room with a bemused smile, “You’re one of those people”

“And you’re one of those,” Rio had shot back, waving a paint-streaked hand at the perfectly arranged lavender diffuser.

Agatha just laughed, brushing her sleek dark hair over her shoulder. “Stick with me, Vidal. You might learn something.”

A month into the semester, Rio was beginning to suspect Agatha had some kind of secret powers. There was no other explanation for how she managed to ace every class, charm every professor, and still find time to breeze into their room at night with perfectly styled hair and some wild story about how she’d ‘influenced’ the coffee shop barista into giving her a free latte.

“All I did was ask politely,” Agatha said one evening, lounging on her bed and flipping through a novel that Rio was certain she wasn’t actually reading.

“Sure,” Rio replied, smirking as she bent over her sketchbook. “You ‘politely’ hypnotized them into thinking you deserved it.”

Agatha quirked an eyebrow. “You make it sound like I’m some kind of witch.”

“Hey, if the pointy hat fits…”

Agatha’s laugh was low and throaty, the kind that sent a weird little shiver up Rio’s spine. She ignored it, focusing instead on the sketch taking shape on the page.

“Are you ever going to show me what you’re drawing?” Agatha asked after a pause, her tone light but curious.

“Nope,” Rio replied without looking up.

“Oh, come on,” Agatha said, leaning over the edge of her bed. “I’ll bet it’s brilliant. Is it me? You’ve been staring at me an awful lot lately.”

Rio’s pencil froze mid-stroke. Her brain scrambled for a retort that wouldn’t give her away. “You’re flattering yourself, Harkness.”

Agatha slid off her bed, crossing the room with that effortless confidence she always carried. Before Rio could protest, Agatha plopped down beside her on the floor, close enough that Rio could smell the faint lavender clinging to her sweater.

“Let me see,” Agatha said, her voice soft but insistent.

“No,” Rio replied, clutching the sketchbook to her chest like a lifeline.

Agatha tilted her head, a mischievous glint in her eye. “Fine. But I’ll figure it out eventually. I always figure things out, my love.”

Later that night, long after Agatha had fallen asleep, Rio sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at the sketch. It wasn’t finished, but the likeness was unmistakable—Agatha, with her sharp features and sly smile, caught mid-laugh.

Rio sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Trouble,” she muttered to herself.

PART 2

If Rio thought living with Agatha was going to get easier, she was delusional.

Further into the semester, Agatha’s relentless teasing had become as regular as Rio’s late-night sketching sessions. Every time Rio thought she’d found a way to ignore her, Agatha would up the ante—stealing glances at her sketchbook, throwing dramatic compliments her way, or offering entirely unsolicited critiques of her work.

“You know,” Agatha said one afternoon, sprawled on Rio’s bed like it was her own, “I’m starting to think all this brooding over your art is just an excuse to stare at me.”

Rio looked up from her canvas, her charcoal smudged fingers poised mid-stroke. “I’m sorry, what?”

Agatha propped her head on her hand, her dark hair cascading over her shoulder like she’d walked out of some impossibly chic fashion shoot. “You’re always hunched over that thing when I’m in the room. I’m beginning to think I’m your muse.”

Rio rolled her eyes, but her heart betrayed her by racing just a little too fast. “Don’t flatter yourself, Harkness.”

“Why not? You seem to do enough of that for me,” Agatha replied, her grin sharp and smug.

Rio muttered something under her breath and turned back to her drawing. The charcoal on the page was starting to smudge—Agatha’s sharp jawline softening at the edges—but she couldn’t bring herself to care. The truth was, Agatha had become a fixation for her. Not that she would ever admit it. Agatha’s confidence was already insufferable enough; the last thing she needed was for her to know she was the source of half Rio’s sketchbook.

“Come on, let me see,” Agatha said, swinging her legs off the bed and landing lightly on her feet.

“No,” Rio said automatically, shifting her body to block the canvas.

Agatha moved closer, her lavender perfume wrapping around Rio like a net. “Why not? Afraid I’ll fall in love with your depiction of me?”

“I’m afraid your ego will implode and take out half the campus.” Rio shot back

Agatha laughed, her voice low and throaty, and leaned over Rio’s shoulder. Her proximity was maddening—close enough that Rio could feel the warmth radiating from her skin. “You’re blushing, my love.”

“Am not,” Rio lied, hunching lower over her drawing.

Agatha reached out and gently tugged on the end of Rio’s ponytail. “You’re adorable when you’re flustered. You know that?”

Rio dropped her charcoal with a frustrated sigh. “Do you ever stop talking?”

“Not when I’m having this much fun,” Agatha replied, grinning. She perched on the edge of Rio’s chair, her knee brushing against Rio’s thigh.

Rio glared at her, though it lacked any real heat. “You’re infuriating.”

“And you’re still blushing,” Agatha teased, tilting her head as if studying Rio’s expression. “What’s the real reason you won’t let me see your art?”

For once, Agatha’s voice wasn’t mocking. The curiosity in her tone was genuine, and it caught Rio off guard.

“I just…” Rio faltered, her gaze dropping to the half-finished sketch. “It’s not ready.”

Agatha’s expression softened, though the playful glint in her eyes remained. “You’re such a perfectionist, Vidal. I’ll bet it’s stunning already.”

Rio hesitated, her fingers twitching toward the canvas. There was a part of her—a small, reckless part—that wanted to let Agatha see. That wanted to watch her reaction, to hear what she’d say about the way Rio had captured her in charcoal. But that same part also knew how vulnerable it would make her feel. And Agatha had a way of making vulnerability feel like a game she was destined to lose.

Agatha seemed to sense her hesitation, because she stood and stepped back, hands raised in mock surrender. “Fine. I’ll wait. But don’t think I won’t find a way to sneak a look eventually.”

Rio huffed a laugh despite herself. “You’re impossible.”

“And you love it,” Agatha replied, her voice light but her gaze lingering just a second too long before she turned and flounced back to her bed.

That night, long after Agatha had fallen asleep, Rio sat cross-legged in the center of the room, her sketchbook balanced on her knees. She flipped through the pages, stopping at each drawing of Agatha.

There were so many. Too many. Agatha reading, laughing, gesturing with her hands as she recounted one of her outrageous stories. Each sketch was a fragment of Rio’s growing fascination—a fascination she wasn’t sure she’d ever fully understand. Finally, she stopped on the latest one. Agatha’s face, her smile just shy of wicked, her eyes glinting with something Rio could only describe as dangerous.

Rio picked up her pencil and leaned closer to the page, her hand moving almost of its own accord. She hated to admit it, but Agatha had been right about one thing: she was her muse.

PART 3

Rio had just finished a sketch and was debating whether to call it a night when the door to their dorm swung open. Agatha stumbled in, cheeks flushed, her hair slightly messed as she leaned heavily against the doorframe, a bottle of something amber-coloured dangling precariously from one hand.

“Riooo, my love,” she slurred, her voice thick with alcohol and mischief.

“No,” Rio said, not even looking up from her sketchbook.

Agatha blinked, taken aback by the interruption. She wobbled a little before stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her with her foot. “Rude. I haven’t even told you what we’re doing yet.”

“I don’t need to know,” Rio replied. “The answer’s no.”

Agatha narrowed her eyes, as if deeply offended. “You’re no fun.”

"Well, some of us want to graduate.” Rio muttered, flipping the page of her sketchbook while refusing to look at her.

Agatha groaned dramatically and flopped onto Rio’s bed, half spilling onto her lap. Her sweater had slipped off one shoulder, revealing smooth, freckled skin, and her dark eyes gleamed with something both reckless and knowing. “Come on, Vidal. It’s Friday. There’s a party downstairs. I’ve got alcohol. You need alcohol.”

“I need you to stop throwing yourself onto my bed,” Rio said, attempting to nudge her off. “And go to your bed.”

Agatha ignored her, propping her chin in her hand and looking up at her with a lazy grin. “What’s wrong? Scared you might have fun for once?”

Rio sighed, putting her charcoal down. “I’m scared you’ll get us kicked out of this dorm because you decide to drunkenly yell at the RA again.”

“That happened one time,” Agatha said, rolling her eyes. She tilted her head, letting her hair fall artfully over one shoulder. “Don’t you ever get tired of sitting here with your little pencils, sketching away while the rest of the world is having a good time?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I am tired of watching you do it; I can see you slowly turning into a hermit,” Agatha declared, sitting up and grabbing Rio’s hand. “Up. You’re coming with me.”

Rio started to protest, but Agatha pulled her to her feet with surprising strength for someone so tipsy.

“Agatha—”

“Nope. No excuses,” Agatha said, cutting her off. Her grin widened as she tugged Rio toward the door. “Atta girl, You’re not hiding in this room all night, my love. I won’t allow it.”

The party was in full swing by the time they arrived, the dorm basement vibrating with music and packed with bodies. Strings of cheap fairy lights flickered over the crowd, and the smell of beer and cheap perfume hung heavy in the air.

Agatha weaved through the crowd like she owned the place, still clutching Rio’s hand. She stole two red cups from a nearby table, handing one into Rio’s hand. “Drink. Loosen up.”

Rio grimaced at the cup. “I don’t even know what’s in this.”

“Exactly!” Agatha said, already halfway through her own drink.

Rio took a tentative sip and immediately winced. It was sugary and strong—the kind of mix that promised a headache in the morning.

“God, that’s terrible.” she muttered.

“Terrible but effective,” Agatha said, stepping closer. Her voice dropped to a teasing murmur. “Unless you’re afraid you can’t handle it.”

Rio narrowed her eyes. “I can handle it just fine.”

“Prove it,” Agatha said, raising her cup in a mock toast.

Rio huffed but downed the drink, the alcohol buzzing warmly in her chest as Agatha watched with an infuriatingly smug grin.

A few drinks later, Rio found herself on the edge of the dance floor, swaying awkwardly as Agatha pulled her closer.

“Relax, Vidal,” Agatha said, her hands on Rio’s shoulders, her voice thick with amusement and drink. “It’s just dancing.”

“I don’t dance,” Rio muttered.

Agatha laughed, her breath warm against Rio’s ear. “You’re doing it right now, darling.”

Rio rolled her eyes, but her heart was racing. The alcohol made everything feel fuzzier—lighter—but Agatha’s proximity made her feel like she was on fire.

“See?” Agatha said, her hands sliding down to Rio’s waist as they moved to the music. “You’re not bad at this.”

“That’s just you,” Rio managed, her voice embarrassingly breathless.

Agatha grinned, leaning in closer. Her dark eyes sparkled under the dim lights, and the scent of her lavender perfume mixed with the alcohol on her breath. “You’re adorable when you’re flustered.”

“I’m not flustered,” Rio said, her cheeks blazing.

“Liar,” Agatha whispered, her lips barely brushing Rio’s ear.

Rio swallowed hard, her mind spinning. Agatha’s teasing was relentless—the way her hands lingered on her waist, the way her voice dipped into something almost intimate.

“Do you always stare this much?” Agatha asked, her grin turning sly. “Or is it just me?”

“I’m not—”

“Well… You are.” Agatha interrupted, her voice soft but insistent.

Rio’s hands fidgeted at her sides. The alcohol was making her bolder, but she still felt out of her depth—her first time this close to another woman, to someone like Agatha, who radiated confidence even when drunk.

“I…” Rio started, but her voice trailed off.

Agatha tilted her head, studying her with a faint smirk. “What, Vidal? Cat got your tongue?”

Rio couldn’t take it anymore. Without thinking, she leaned in and kissed her.

It was clumsy and unsure, a burst of confidence fuelled by frustration and alcohol. Agatha froze for a fraction of a second, and Rio immediately panicked, starting to pull back.

But then Agatha’s hands tightened on her waist, pulling her closer as she kissed her back. This time it was deliberate, confident, with that same teasing edge Agatha brought to everything.

When they broke apart, Rio’s face was on fire. "I—uh—I didn’t mean—”

Agatha laughed softly, her forehead resting against Rio’s. “Relax, Vidal. It’s not the end of the world.”

Rio groaned, covering her face with her hands. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

“Oh, believe it,” Agatha said, smirking as she tugged Rio’s hands away from her face. Her expression softened—just slightly—and her voice dropped. “For the record, not bad.”

Rio blinked, her heart still racing. “Really?”

Agatha chuckled, stepping back and taking Rio’s hand again. “Come on, let’s get out of here before you combust.”

They left the party together, the cool night air hitting them like a splash of water. As they stumbled back to their dorm, Agatha glanced over at Rio with a smile that was almost genuine. “Not bad at all,” she murmured.

By the time they reached their dorm, the buzz was wearing off, replaced by a different kind of dizziness. Agatha let go of Rio’s hand to fumble for her key, her smirk still firmly in place.

“Stop hovering,” Agatha teased, shooting Rio a sideways glance as she finally unlocked the door.

“I’m not hovering,” Rio muttered, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets and refusing to meet Agatha’s gaze.

“Sure, darling,” Agatha said, stepping inside and flicking on the light. She turned, leaning against the doorframe, her eyes raking over Rio with a dangerous kind of amusement. “You’re very convincing.”

Rio froze in the doorway, every nerve in her body on high alert. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Agatha asked innocently, tilting her head.

“Like you’re—” Rio faltered, the words catching in her throat.

“Like I’m about to kiss you again?” Agatha finished for her, her voice low and teasing. She took a slow step forward, her eyes glinting with mischief. “Or are you planning to surprise me again?”

Rio’s cheeks burnt, and she stammered, "I wasn't—"

Agatha’s laugh was soft but rich, and this time it lacked some of its usual edge. “Relax, Vidal. You’re so wound up. It’s kind of adorable.”

Rio crossed her arms, trying desperately to regain her composure. “You- You can’t just say stuff like that and act like it doesn’t mean anything.”

Agatha’s smirk faltered—just barely, but Rio caught it. For a moment, the tension between them hung heavy in the air, charged and uncertain. Then Agatha sighed, stepping back and flopping onto her bed.

“Maybe it doesn’t,” she said, her tone quieter but still playful. She glanced at Rio, her expression unreadable. “Or maybe it does. What do you think?”

Rio hesitated, her gaze dropping to the floor. The weight of the night—the drinks, the dancing, the kiss—pressed down on her. She didn’t know what to think, let alone what to say.

Agatha seemed to sense her turmoil because she rolled onto her side, propping her head on her hand. Her smirk returned, softer this time. “Don’t overthink it, Vidal. You’re cute when you’re awkward, but you’ll give yourself a headache.”

Rio let out a shaky laugh, her shoulders relaxing just a fraction. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

“And yet, you kissed me,” Agatha countered, her grin widening.

Rio groaned, covering her face with her hands as she mumbled, “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

“Not a chance,” Agatha said, her voice warm with laughter.

For a moment, silence settled over them, broken only by the hum of the desk lamp and the faint sounds of music still drifting up from the party downstairs. Rio finally dropped her hands, glancing at Agatha, who was watching her with that same maddeningly unreadable expression.

“Goodnight, Harkness,” Rio said, retreating to her bed and pulling the blanket over herself in one swift motion.

Agatha chuckled, leaning back against her pillows. “Goodnight, Vidal.”

As Rio closed her eyes, she could still feel the ghost of Agatha’s lips on hers, the scent of lavender lingering in the air. She told herself she’d deal with it tomorrow and figure out what it all meant, or maybe pretend it hadn’t happened at all, but deep down, she knew Agatha wouldn’t let her forget.

[velnna]

You have an incredible style. I'm about a year into doing digital, but I get so stuck on realism (even though I don't want to do realism) that I just get frustrated with myself. How did you find your style? Did you have to "learn" to be okay with letting yourself style your art?

Thank you!

I say this a lot, but I'm very against the idea that you "find" an artstyle. Everyone has an artstyle even if they barely draw, and every step of the way to achieving one you're super happy with is an artstyle on its own.

My own style changed wildly through the years and only really started stabilising ~2 ish years ago. I'm super happy with it now but never saw it as something "wrong" or incomplete before, it's just been a blend of things and other styles I liked. And yeah I had a realism phase, just found it boring and moved on 🤷‍♂️ realism to me is a lot about replicating what you see, and one of the most fun parts of art to me is imagining things and piecing things together like a puzzle without refs

In terms of how I got to the level of stylisation I have, again, I just get bored of my current techniques now and then and study people whose art tickles my brain. It does require some analytical thinking, figuring out which bits I like, which ones I can borrow for my own style, etc. Sometimes I'll just take a day to fuck around tracing things (never post it obviously) and breaking things down or redrawing old work to see what gives me happy brain chemicals again.

Idk if this helps but honestly I've never been formal about art. I just do what I find fun and if it's not fun anymore I change it 😅