#i hadn't realized it then though

[tiqress]

throwback to my junior year of highschool pre covid where i never got to finish this piece because it got lost when school was shut down 💔 i think ill recreate it

to be honest my collection of tiger drawings throughout my highschool art years should’ve been a large indicator that i am a tiger lol.. i had just been fully accepting and embracing myself as an animalperson at this point though so the introspection was only beginning. i had to get past all the surface level blocks i had kept on myself for many many years.

[attleboy]

it's that time of year... love is in the air!!! and that means YURI BE UPON THEE!!!!!!

yeah okayyyy i just wanted to draw some girls kissing and this is a good excuse... :P well i hope you all enjoy!!

[pharmasrightarm]

Hello hello!! I just wanna start off by saying how GORGEOUS your art is! Truly inspiring. I was wondering what your process was? Again, your art is truly impressive

Thank you!! Oh man, it was a saga and you've opened a can of worms because my favorite thing to ramble about outside of sad gay space robots is our unholy overlord Photoshop (warning for length)

Hatching workflow: step 1: have too many Doré artbooks The refined process is thumbnail > cleaner sketch > black-and-white base OR 3D render > cut out whites > clean up edges > mask out each building/section > hatching lines with the upcoming layer setup

One:

And another:

Below is the layer setup I use for hatching! First I separated each element into its own folder, with its own mask—

Then used this structure in each folder— I just want the hatching lines to appear black when on lit areas, and white on shadowed areas (as opposed to having to draw part of a line in white and another part in black). So, after separating the lit and shadowed sides, I copied the "Light" layer, clipped it on top of a folder of hatching lines, and inverted its layer mask.

(*I draw on layer masks because it's easier to recolor lines + toggle between drawing and erasing with the "X" shortcut (I have fore- and background colors set to black and white for layer masks))

Sometimes I do a pass of grayscale values and overlay that layer on top as a reference while hatching.

I've two main brushes: one choppier and one smoother and tapered at the ends (for thin lines, 2px-3px). Really thin horiz/vert lines are just the Pencil at 1px.

Black-and-white workflow with 3D:

Tbh at first I only intended to make that one lurking Drift illustration. But I cower from 3D like it’ll kill me, so I turned it into a 3D assignment. First I used that "separate ways" piece to make myself model at low stakes (I just made items from the comic backgrounds and jammed them together), then I modeled the Dead End wide shot and got the final lurking Drift comp from that.

1. Drew enough detail to model (>see the 5th image in this post)

2. Used fSpy to generate a Blender camera that matched my perspective

3. Shoved together the barest essentials of the clinic set in Blender (setting the 5th image in this post as a background image in Viewport)

4. Rendered at hi-res twice: once with lighting, once with Freestyle outlines.

5. Changed clinic design in the close-up, so I went back to revise the wide shot.

In conclusion, my hobby is wrangling Photoshop to minutely speed up the extremely tedious and niche thing I can't stop myself from doing If anyone's got a faster way to do any of this, tell me!!

here's a gif for funsies because I get 1 more image on this post

[azidoazide-art]

random daily pokemon #6 - swanna!

[fairyroses]

— SMALLVILLE, "Fragile" (5.18)

[ducktracy]

SOMETHING ABOUT HOW PORKY LOOKS IN LTC AND TDTEBU LOOKS WEIRD TO ME

LIKE

HIS EYES

THEYRE TOO.. BIG?? DETAILED?? IT'S WEIRD CUZ I LIKE LONG EYED PORKY BUT NOT IN LTC CAN YOU TRY AND ARTICULATE IT FOR ME

AWWWW i love the tall eyes personally!! i think they fit his face volume well, nice slim contrast to his round head to create visual interest

i think it's a Jim Soper thing... and Jim's probably my favorite living artist lol. it is funny comparing the LTC model to the TDTEBU model though, he's adorable in LTC but in revisiting some eps since TDTEBU's release i can't shake some of the "his proportions are too even"-ness of it out. but it also depends on the ep. the eps that Jim does layouts on tend to look the best and most naturalistic, i know this first model was pretty early into production

as for what might be squicking you out though.. hm. it's hard to say, but Porky's design has a lot of golden age "cuteness points" baked in. for the same reason a lot of cartoon babies are drawn with huge foreheads, he has that big ol' forehead that can make him seem cuter and enunciate this sort of round... "fleshy" sounds gross when i say it HAHA but "fleshy" i guess appeal. again, very baby-esque

this Bob McKimson model sheet does a good job of showing that appeal, even if he often seems to give Porky these tiny, beady little eyes that can read as UNappealing... which is perfect for the cynicism and grounded humor of his shorts, where Porky is at some of his most violent and awful (which are some of the shorts i laugh hardest at) HAHA. but it kind of gives off this feeling of him not having properly grown into all of his features yet, and that makes him seem more cute and compact

in my near 6 years of drawing him, this is always something i've STILL been stuck on. i tend to default to the taller eyes because i really love the contrast they give against the roundness of his face--i like big eyes in general, and i admit i'm more won over by that appeal than by "big forehead" appeal... but there is something to having his eyes smaller. it gives a sort of modest and demure appeal that perfectly fits his character. i go back and forth on what i wanna go with him..

i actually just found this pig i'd doodled last year while i was looking for screenshots: this has its own appeal but it feels naked to me!! maybe i needed to angle the eyes forward more. this feels a little uncanny to me. but it has an appeal of its own

i think i'm also biased to the tall eyes because John Carey's my favorite Porky (and in the running for all-time favorite) animator, hugely influential to how i draw Porky and tall(er) eyes are his specialty... just love that contrast of slim and tall against his round, pudgy baby face. it matches his tall, slim ears which is a great balance!! aaaagh! these are so appealing to me personally

actually all my favorite Porky animators usually draw him with tall or huge eyes... Bill Melendez and Rod Scribner have entered the chat. particularly Melendez in terms of the wide eyes (top three)

my god isn't this such a good drawing. Scribner's a frequent culprit for my favorite animated scenes of all time, this being one of them

BUT YEAH! i think a more forehead-forward pig maybe connotes a bit more of a modest, reserved, baby-ish charm which is all perfect for Porky's character. a lot of the wider eyed expressions i used above are certainly for more high octane moments, i can see how it might be weird or off putting too have Too Much Eye on his face... i guess the overlap in shape language is stronger with the wide eyes and wide face. i personally prefer it, or a mix between that and the tall eyes, just because i like a more wide-eyed Porky--it's personally cuter to me and i think there's something to be had with that wide eyed innocence. i very much would love to learn how to effectively capture a more modest appeal with smaller eyes, but i haven't quite figured it out yet...

[essektheylyss]

the blocked writer urge to post a chapter the moment it's done despite having not posted a chapter fic update in like two years and having no real idea of whether the rest will get written before another two years pass

[novadragoness]

A builder who totally understands where X is coming from, collecting all those shinies for Coco, because she also likes shiny things, and has been secretly leaving pretty rocks on Unsuur's porch for weeks now.

[ghost-proofbaby]

oh like a streamer!Eddie getting a mod on his streams and be begins talking to them outside and falls in love with their sparky personality without ever having seen them. Mod sends like memes and busts his balls but also sends things that "made me think of you"

And he's ranting to Gareth about how beautiful Mod is and Gareth is like 🤨 they could be ugly as fuck and Eddie is like you take that back this instance i havent seen them but I KNOW they're beautiful

Something of that sort?

you get the vision, nonnie.

like, theoretically, if i had started writing it, it would be that eddie has a mod nicknamed "pumpkin" due to their screen name being "pumpkineater". and, again theoretically, he definitely showed favoritism towards this "pumpkin" as he's hopelessly in love with their wit, the way they give him shit, their sense of humor, their taste in general media, etc.

and, you know, stuff happens. mods having game nights with eddie in his community, movie nights that he only joins to hear pumpkin's voice, so on and so forth. and said moderator recently moved across the country, conveniently staying anonymous in their location besides timezones, never realizing they'd moved right into eddie's hometown.

until, you know, theoretically, eddie is popular enough to be invited to guest at a con. and how could he attend a gaming convention without his favorite moderators in tow? specifically pumpkin?

but. this is all theoretical of course. i definitely don't already have a google doc named "pumpkin eater" with 1.8k+ words already. totally not.

i definitely do and this is definitely my shitty little crackfic i've been living in fantasyland with frequently as of late when i want to play around in less serious settings/tones/angst

[stardestroyer81]

Rivals of Aether 2 just released last Wednesday, and I can say with 100% certainty that I have found myself back where I once was in 2021— obsessing over the franchise all over again!

To celebrate getting to see my number one blorbo Clairen back in action, I thought it would be nice to revisit my very first sheep sona's design and update her look accordingly... witness the new and improved Psycha Lumair of Lovers of Aether fanon fame, girlypop extraordinaire! 🏳️‍⚧️✨

(Psssst, Dan Fornace and @elranno— I know y'all have seen my work. Let's discuss redesigning and putting Psycha into Rivals 2; I think you'll find she's earned her spot like the workshop rivals did!)

[spacecrows]

slightly late for work, vivdly remember i put my adhd meds in A Special Place last night so i Don't Forget to take them before work (usually work from home but leaving the house today) (higher stakes) but now i can't find them (should have seen this coming) but that's okay that's cool i have a bottle of backup meds in one of my bags (i know myself) except i can't find it in any of my bags but not to worry! i have a second bottle of backup backup meds in a cabinet for dire situations like this (i know myself) but ah. by talos this can't be happening

[fictionadventurer]

Because @maltheniel has enabled me, I'm going to tell you about William Henry Seward.

If you had the American history education that I had, you might have heard of a thing called Seward's Folly--also known as Alaska. Seward was the Secretary of State who was mocked for buying America territory in what appeared to be a barren wasteland, until he was vindicated by the discovery of oil and gold and a jillion other useful natural resources. If you had the education that I had, this is the only thing you heard about him, but the more I look into the Civil War, the more baffling this is, because this guy is everywhere in the political scene of the time.

Seward was an extremely vocal anti-slavery Whig from New York. He started as a US Senator in 1849, and he became part of President Zachary Taylor's inner circle, influencing him to support measures to keep slavery out of the new territories. After Taylor died, the question of slavery in the territories dominated politics for the next decade, with the conflict getting more heated and the positions getting more polarized. The Whig Party fell apart because of disagreements over the issue; Seward held on for as long as he could, but eventually joined the newly-forming Republican Party, and became well-known for his eloquent speeches against slavery.

When it came time to choose the Republican nominee for the 1860 presidential election, Seward was by far the top candidate. All but a shoe-in. Unfortunately, some of his anti-slavery speeches were a bit too eloquent, and gave him a reputation for being much more radically anti-slavery than he was. A significant portion of the party doubted he could win a nationwide election when slavery was such a divisive issue. This gave Lincoln's team a chance to pitch him as a less-radical option, which allowed him to come from behind and win the nomination.

Seward was extremely gracious about the loss, immediately publishing letters announcing his full support of Lincoln as candidate, and putting his own campaign manager to work getting Lincoln elected. Privately, though, he was seething. He had been in politics for decades, helped to build the party, and then lost his chance at the presidency to a guy who'd been working as a backwoods lawyer for the last twelve years.

But he knew his politics, and knew it was better to support the party's candidate than to oppose him. Lincoln offered Seward the prime Cabinet position of Secretary of State--he was qualified for it and deserved it--and Seward accepted. Seward hoped that he'd be able to help select the other Cabinet members, so he could pick people from his own faction who he'd work well with. Then he, with his extensive connections and political experience, could be the real head of the administration, with Lincoln as a compliant figurehead.

Lincoln was having none of it. He listened to Seward's suggestions, but he'd basically already chosen the people he wanted for his Cabinet, across all factions of the party. While he made use of Seward's expertise and trusted him as Secretary of State, he was going to be head of his own administration and be the one making all the final decisions. After a rocky start, Seward came to recognize that Lincoln had a shrewd mind and good judgement, and he became Lincoln's loyal supporter and a good friend.

But there was a persistent idea that Seward was the real power behind the throne, sparked partly by the prominent role he took in Washington between the election and the inauguration. States started seceding almost as soon aa Lincoln was elected, and Seward was the one who had to hold things together in Washington while Lincoln was tying things up in Illinois. He was getting reports from informants, watching out for Southern spies, and keeping Lincoln abreast of what was going on. He gave a stirring speech to Congress urging the Southern states to keep the Union together, offering all sorts of concessions to mollify them, such as amendments preventing the federal government from interfering with slavery. It was a highly controversial speech, and his wife, Frances, raked him over the coals for it. She understood, earlier than almost anybody, that this crisis would turn into a long war about slavery, and that they couldn't afford to bend on that issue, even to keep the Union together. (Lincoln privately approved of several measures Seward talked about, but publicly said little, preferring to see the public's response to Seward before taking official positions.)

Seward was a little bit like a Civil War version of Evil Chancellor Traytor. Under both Lincoln and Johnson, rumors persisted that Seward was the shadowy figure who was really in charge, secretly manipulating the president into making unpopular decisions, even though most of the time, Seward had nothing to do those decisions, and often disagreed at least partially with what the president chose to do.

Best example of the effects of this misconception is the time Seward came under attack during the middle of the war. The war was going badly, and since people couldn't directly attack the president, they started going after Seward. Chase, the Treasury Secretary, told some members of Congress that Seward was the reason the Cabinet couldn't get along, and that he was always trying to take control. These senators wanted to meet with the president and force him to get rid of Seward. When Seward heard about this, he gave Lincoln his letter of resignation, not wanting to cause problems for the administration. Lincoln responded by allowing the senators to join in a Sewardless Cabinet meeting. When confronted with both the senators and the Cabinet, Chase was forced to admit that his stories had been exaggerated, and the other Cabinet members rallied to Seward's defense, resenting Congress' meddling. Lincoln refused to accept Seward's resignation, and Seward returned to the Cabinet, having been saved by Lincoln's political acumen.

I'm going to skip ahead so I can tell you the craziest part of the story. Four days before the Civil War officially ended, Seward got into a carriage accident that left him bedridden with a broken jaw and a bunch of other injuries. When told of Lee's surrender on April 9th, Seward said (through a broken jaw, after barely surviving a painful accident), "For the first time in my life, you've made me cry." (Which is both touching and an incredibly badass claim, given what he's just suffered.)

Five days later, John Wilkes Booth shot the president at Ford's Theater. Everyone knows (or should know) that part of the story. What I didn't know was that his conspiracy also called for Seward's assassination. Booth knew his Shakespeare and didn't want to leave Seward alive as a Marc Antony to eulogize the dead tyrant. (He also wanted to kill Andrew Johnson, but that assassin chickened out, and it's not really important to this story).

While Booth was at the theater, his co-conspirator went to Seward's house under the pretense of delivering medication. When Seward's son wouldn't let him go upstairs, the assassin tried to shoot him and broke his skull with the gun. The assassin then made his way to Seward's bedroom--where, I need you to remember, Seward was still bed-ridden--and stabbed him five times in the face and neck. Like, sliced away flaps of flesh. The only reason Seward didn't die was because the splint for his broken jaw deflected the blade away from his jugular vein. And because his other son and bodyguard made it into the room and forced the assassin to flee.

Chalk this one up in the "Parts of American History I'm Furious No One Told Me About" column.

While Seward was recovering, they hid the president's death from him, thinking he wouldn't survive the shock. But he figured it out three days later when he saw the flags at half-staff through his bedroom window, and realized that if Lincoln were alive, he'd have been the first to come see Seward after the attack.

Of course, Seward survived (badly scarred) and went on to buy Alaska. Which is an interesting story. But not half so interesting as all the stuff that came before it.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

I only knew four other people who had read or seen Scott Pilgrim and consequently I missed that apparently this film--featuring a thoroughly whatever dude ending up with, let's be honest with ourselves, a bog standard "scene" girl--somehow has caused unimaginable human suffering

[mymarifae]

completing the 2.2 trailblaze mission gives you new daily text messages from aventurine if you have him.. 🥹 so you're Not just left with his scheduled post-suicide-attempt farewells. and it's a really nice conversation too. he plays it off like a game buuuut he loses on purpose every time so really he's just opening up of his own volition

(i'm still alive, and i'm happy about that 🥹 his conversation with acheron really left a profound impact on him oh my godddd)

aventurine... of all people... reaching out and talking so honestly about what happened and how it affected him... and seeing a therapist of sorts (bit of an oversimplification but that's basically what the doctors of chaos do so like). sometimes all you need to start learning how to value your life again is to uhh ..literally get cut in half

[bisexualamy]

my sister got married yesterday in the chabad shul we grew up in and it was a lovely wedding and i'm excited to have a brother (never had one before) but ALSO i need everyone to know that, after attending this shul for over a decade regularly and another decade intermittently (when i'm back to see my parents) i thought i'd found every picture of the Rebbe they'd hung up but i discovered, at 9pm after a long day full of wedding, while putting the chuppah away, that he does in fact also watch over us from the supply closet

[deadrocks]

Hate when a factual inaccuracy takes me out of a fic too thoroughly to continue. It's a me problem, I recognize this, and yet I can't banish it.