#i have more of these stream based doodle comics planned :D!!

[h0nkshroom]

HOW RUDE??

BASED OFF OF MY LAST SILLY COTL STREAM WITH VIEWER FOLLOWERS <3 THEY HATE ME

[lara-cairncross]

Hi I did not expect to be hit with this much nostalgia for pixie hollow fairies lol

The way you draw them is so pretty!?!?!?!?! I love their designs so much

I'm considering drawing fanart now, especially since I saw the suggestion of drawing my personal OCs in your fairy au, and I realized.... I have an oc. That I created recently. Like so recently that I haven't even named her yet. And she's already kinda fairy-like??? She's the result of a one-night stand between Leo and a random bird yokai who decided to dump the egg on Leo (it's the accidental baby acquisition trope except its more like you-really-should-have-expected-this-leo baby acquisition XD)

Don't worry though, she's not bird-like enough to want to eat your fairy boys if she met them. She's basically just a feathered turtle who loves shiny things, and I haven't even finalized her design but now I wanna draw her as a fairy haha. I do know her feathers are blue-purple-pink-ish with red streaks, so her colour scheme matches Fairy Leo haha

Hmmmm maybe I should actually put a question here uhh....

You keep hinting at plot points but you've also said you don't plan on making this a comic, so are we ever going to find out what the heck is going on???

And I know the idea of making a whole entire comic can seem overwhelming, but have you considered viewing it as just doodling and practicing? For my own au comic I only have one part drawn so far and it is the first part, but I'm planning to just draw any part of the story at any point in time, just depending on what I feel like. Cuz no one says you have to do it the "normal" way, right? And I like to think of drawing the comic pages as practicing new skills, like learning how to do page layouts and composition better. Aka focus on the journey and not the end goal.

Whoo, that got kinda long and I only really asked one question, but based on previous asks you've answered I have a feeling you don't mind ;)

OK that was entirely just stream of thought after going through the whole au tag (there are more thoughts but most are incoherent and overlapping so this is what i managed to pick out of my brain), but to summarize: I love your fairy au and the boys are gonna be living in my head now, along with every other version of the turtles that I love <3 <3 <3

I'm glad to hear you're liking the fairy au!! I had a ton of fun coming up with their designs :D

I do actually plan on making this into a comic of sorts! I dunno if I could ever make, like, a long-form webcomic or anything like that-- but I'm definitely planning on doing at *least* a few mini-comics to elaborate on the story! And maybe build my way up to something longer and more fulfilled :D As of now, I'm trying to experiment with different comic styles on my own time so I can try and find something that's quick and easy, but still looks decent. I like the idea of treating it as essentially a glorified doodle page. Honestly, as soon as I try to take any of my stories too seriously, I burn out fast-- so I'm trying to stay pretty chill about this one and just making content whenever I feel like it lol

Yup, I'm totally cool with everyone drawing their OCs as fairies if they want to! It's not like I own the idea or anything lmao. The only caveat is that I have jurisdiction over whether or not something is canon to my particular au. Leo and the rest of the boys are still canonically kids/teenagers to me, and I've been writing/drawing them as kids this entire time, so I won't be including anything/anyone related to one of them having a "one night stand" with somebody. I can't really police what anyone else draws though, so have fun :D

Sorry about these little guys buzzing around in your brain ❤️💜🧡🩵

[akysi]

Always wanted to do one of these, and now I have. :D 8 years of improvement, wow! I’m also really bad at picking things so I don’t know if I picked the ones that best represent my progress, but eh. I did some edits, but the original base for this can still be found here. Extended thoughts about each year below, it’s a lot! Here’s to bigger and better things in 2019 (please ;_;)

2010: I started drawing digitally in 2006, though regrettably I didn’t save any of the art I did back then. 2010 was when I joined DeviantART, and thus when I started uploading art online. I had frequented DA well before that though (from about 2007 I think), and influence from the artists I followed are pretty evident. A few notable ones were ShaloneSK, Fourth-Star (now SeaSaltShrimp), and thazumi, all primarily dragon artists. Though none of my traditional art is showcased here, this was still a time when I did it often, usually via doodles in class when I was bored. The digital art you see here was made with my first tablet, a Wacom Graphire 3, and Photoshop Elements 3 that came with it. I had little knowledge of file quality, layering, colouring, and other mainstays in using Photoshop properly. Humble beginnings are these! My art education at this point was limited at best, but art was always something I did in my spare time. And like all of the art years leading up to 2010, I drew almost entirely dragons. Aside from practicing foxes for a story I had at the time, I wasn’t interested in drawing much else. I didn’t draw people at all until college, but we’ll get to that. 2011: Christmas 2010 / New Year’s 2011 marked the time I got Photoshop CS5, a version of PS I still use today. For a while I was obsessed with the idea of PS’s Pen Tool, as I saw it could give me much cleaner line art than what I could achieve on my own. I was finally able to test that when getting CS5, and while it worked well for the time, I soon learned the tenets of line weight and tapering, something I would have to practice myself. Up to this point all of my lines were either shaky or fabricated via the Pen Tool, and it shows. This was also a year of trying to mimic Fourth-Star’s dynamic perspective...without any knowledge of how it actually worked. Not a lot of improvement happened here outside of that. 2012: This was the year I bought my Bamboo Create tablet, something I still use with my laptop nowadays. I remember trying it out at my friend’s house before I bought my own, and really loving how I was able to do the line tapering without the pen tool. It still took a lot more practice, but looking back now it was easy to see I was on the way to making line art one of my art’s strongest qualities; something that stays true today. I find it ironic that line art used to be one of the weakest aspects of my digital art, but I suppose that speaks to how far I’ve come. I did more fanart this year, oddly enough. I’d always done it before but I guess I felt shy about sharing it. Notable fandoms were Danny Phantom and Sonic. I didn’t grow up with either, but ended up liking them both a lot, and would doodle them as much as my dragons. 2013: I graduated high school and started my first year of art college, specifically Art Fundamentals at Sheridan College. At this point, everyone I knew pointed to that school (and only that school) for anything related to what I wanted to do; if it wasn’t fine art, go to Sheridan. So I went into college with a bit of tunnel vision at first, but I knew from the start that I would be gunning for animation. Not to animate specifically, but to do character design / concept art for animation. I would learn later on what having this tunnel vision would mean for me, but we’ll get to that later too. This is about the point where more expansion of design and subject matter occurs, albeit slowly. The art featured here doesn’t include my schoolwork, but the much needed increase of anatomy, structure drawing and other college level art courses started me on a path to better things. I still had a long way to go though, and Fundies could only do so much. Unlike most people I actually got decent practice from it given my limited art background, but I still can’t say it was at peak efficiency. This was the first year I actually started drawing people, and it certainly didn’t come without its growing pains.

2014: Surprising no one, I didn’t get into Sheridan after my first year, though that didn’t stop me from being disappointed at the time. I took what was effectively the second year of Fundies, called Visual and Creative Arts (VCA). This was the year that sparked my interest in graphic / logo design, an interesting turn of events all things considered, and that would stick with me a lot more than I expected. This year also featured a few smatterings of character designs, or more specifically design sheets with multiple views, costumes, etc. Character design was a required segment of the animation portfolio, so this is likely what spurred my practice in it, aside from my pre-existing interest. That does not mean I knew how to rotate a character though, yikes! At this point I’d gotten pretty good at clean line art in Photoshop with my current tablet, as well as the merits of high quality imagery. There was a lot of purple in this year and 2015, though that’s nothing really new for me.

2015: This was easily the busiest (and most path altering) year. Second semester of VCA happened during this time, but also what would be new beginnings for me. If I didn’t get into Sheridan animation, I had a choice to make for a plan B: Either stay at Sheridan for VCA Year 3 and try again for animation, or try to get into animation at another school. My buddy Amelia then dropped Seneca’s name in one of my elective classes, and I had no idea how much of a fateful conversation that would be. She mentioned it was considered a second to or even better than Sheridan, and that at least provided a clearer answer for me. A lot of trepidation followed: I didn’t get into Sheridan animation for the third time, and thus applied to Seneca (and a few other places). I was pretty scared of being a first year again at a new school with new people, and while my art definitely reflected the time I spent at Sheridan, I had no confidence in it being good enough for a portfolio given my track record. But low and behold, I got in! I was on my way to a three year rollercoaster of all-nighters, amazing ride-or-die classmates, and relentless, rigorous training. The art from this year does reflect this, both in quantity and quality of uploads, though in more of a “transition period” kind of way. This was the year I really started to draw human characters, most notably with the creation of my first comic project: Starglass Zodiac. This was the first time I had a story idea with a primarily human cast, much less a comic idea, though the designs for them didn’t start appearing in my uploads until the following year. As you might expect I didn’t have a lot of confidence in drawing people. Ironically, my first year of animation taught me all the skills I initially needed for the portfolios!

2016: When I mentioned a path altering year for 2015, I was referring specifically to the path in my art education. 2016 was a path altering year for everything else, and a polarizing one at that. 2016 was a year that was kind to no one, and while the details of what happened to me are not really relevant to this post, there’s no denying what effect it had behind the scenes. This was the year that I fully realized I’d developed symptoms of depression, and with my increasing anxiety to match, this didn’t (and still doesn’t) go so well. I don’t think that’s really reflected in my art, however. Regardless of my mental state, the outside view of my art still features the colourful characters that they always had. By this point I was in my finishing first year / starting second year, and this was easily the best time for me. My time to shine, if you will, at least when it came to character design class. We had an overarching story project that was perfect for SGZ, so I used that time to develop the characters. The double-edged sword of troubled times is my escapism is cranked to 11, so this was probably the year that spurred the most story ideas out of me. This year (and part of the next) started both Id Pariah and Feather Knights. I got my iPad Pro for Christmas this year too, and that proved to be a game changer in the amount of art I could make. I was already used to the Cintiqs at my school, and I was lucky to finally have a screen tablet of my own. 2017: The end of my second year and the beginning of my third and final year of animation. Classes split, streams chosen and a world of missed opportunities began. I didn’t do a lot of art at the beginning of the year, aside from the beginning of my Feather Knights stuff. On top of that, my college had a 5-week long teacher’s strike that literally no one wanted to be a part of, effectively derailing all hope for a good semester. Attempting to do a short film project with this happening was a recipe for disaster. During this strike was the start of my first month long challenge though: Huevember. It was an uncertain time, and most of us were not compelled to get much school work done. Completing Huevember did feel like an accomplishment though, as I was actually able to keep up with it even when school started again. I’d say this art year focused a lot on colour for this reason. What art I was able to complete outside of my schoolwork saw a lot of expansion in that area. In all honesty 2016-2018 tends to blend together for me, for better or worse. 2018: My graduating year. The strike did its damage to my final semester too, but ultimately I survived. Despite completing 5 years of college, my path became the most unclear. Third year taught me a lot of things about myself and how I approach art, but most were not positive revelations. The expectations set out for me are ones that I cannot achieve. However, I have more time than ever to do art, making this year the most art I’ve made to date. I also participated in Inktober, which reminded me how far I’ve come as an artist, despite not doing traditional art for what felt like a century. My illustrative work for Inktober ended up being some of my best art this year, and the prompts made me get creative in more ways than one. The dark cloud hanging over my head has not disappeared since 2016 however, and the toll that has taken shows more everyday. As far as my art was concerned I did more of what I loved, mostly in the form of character sheets and designs. It’s all I can do, for now. 2019, I have one thing to say: Don’t you DARE.

[reddhoodie]

The Robin Cave

It’s Batfam week! Here’s today’s fic, based on the prompt ‘family’!

Tagging: @speedypan @laundrymoney

(Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list for this week!)

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    Damian sprints for the yard, the kitchen door slamming closed behind him, almost completely muffling Bruce's shouts for him to come back here this instant. Barefoot he runs through the soft green grass until he passes into the cool shade of the woods, acorns and gnarled roots jabbing at his feet.

    He isn't pursued, he knows, but he keeps running to escape the tight burning in his belly, the frustration at his father's asinine 'rules' sizzling like acid in his lungs. There's fire in his chest, like he's a dragon barely containing a flame behind his back teeth. He wants to scream and fight and kick as if he's trapped in a box, but lashing out at his family never ends well for anyone. And so, he runs.

    It's early afternoon, lunch is long past but dinner is far off. He has time for himself now, and he's going to use it. He can face his father at dinner, he tells himself.

    After what seems like forever, Damian allows himself to slow all the way down to a walk. The roaring in his ears is softer now, replaced by his heart pounding from his run. He takes his time picking his way along the vague paths through the trees and underbrush.

    It's peaceful in the woods, with birds singing, a soft breeze blowing in the treetops. It's warm, but the shade from the trees keeps it from getting unbearably hot here in the shade. Wildflowers blossom in the sunny patches between the trees. Chipmunks and squirrels dash through the tall grass and fallen leaves.

    He wanders down a path that seems a bit more worn, like it's actually been used in the past eight hundred years. Tries to take deep, calming breaths, tries to regain himself while his hands are still shaking and his muscles still tense.

    The path is mostly smooth dirt, easier on his bare feet than the rocks and twigs, but it's sheltered from the breeze, and he's sweating in a matter of moments.

    Wildflowers line this path almost as neatly as if they'd been planted there purposely. Bees buzz from side to side over the path, big fat bumblebees with loudly humming wings. He stays alert to make sure he doesn't step on any. One lands on his t-shirt anyway.

    “I'm not a flower.” He informs it gently, nudging it with one finger, feeling the soft fuzz of its body while it crawls thoughtfully along the light fabric.

    It seems to consider him for a moment, decides he's not as interesting as the forget-me-nots in the grass, and buzzes away.

    Damian watches it go, allows himself a small smile, and keeps walking.

    The path crests a hill and a clearing opens up before him. Near the center stands a massive oak tree, its branches full with leaves and spread wide to catch the sunlight. Nestled in the center of the branches, there's a small hut-like structure, secured to the tree.

    He pauses at the edge of the clearing and frowns.

    The structure is too crude for actual long-term inhabitance, but too permanent to be some kind of camp. The clearing is quiet except for birds and buzzing insects, which suggests that no one is inside. Still, he approaches it cautiously.

    Several boards are screwed sideways into the tree trunk to create a rough ladder. A rope also hangs from one side of the structure and is swinging gently. He ignores both and climbs up the tree itself, scraping his bare knees on the rough, dark tree bark on the way.

    He stands on a branch about level with the treehouse, trying to investigate from afar before he steps inside.

    It's small enough that an adult would be unable to stand straight inside, and square. There's a large, open window on two sides opposite each other, and a hatch in the bottom where one would enter from the ladder. Inside he can see a very old, very faded little rug, and some shelves.

    Convinced no one is inside, Damian steps onto the windowsill, waits to be sure the old wood will hold his weight, and then hops inside.

    He breaks a spiderweb on his way through the window, and grumbles to himself while he brushes sticky, invisible tendrils off of his skin.

    The inside of the treehouse is sparse. Besides the old rug on the floor, there's a small set of shelves with a few old toys, and a bunch of children's drawings tacked to the windowless walls. Leaves are piled and rotting in the corners, while spiders and various other insects crawl on the walls. There's a wood plank screwed to the wall over the drawings, words carefully painted onto it.

    The Robin (and Batgirl) Cave.

    Damian blinks.

    Most of the drawings on the wall are a bit faded, or water damaged, or torn from wind and age, but he can still see their original images.

    Silly pencil drawings of a boy and a girl running on rooftops. A boy throwing a batarang at an awkward and out of proportion version of the Riddler. Childish designs for impractical vehicles and gadgets and clothes.

    On the opposite windowless wall, a large sheet of poster board is cut and decorated to look like a smaller version of the batcomputer in the Cave. It's a detailed reproduction, clearly done by an older child. Far down in the right-hand corner, it's signed.

    The robin-computer, by JT

  He turns to look back at the drawings on the first wall. Some of those are signed. Drawings by 'Babs', 'D', and 'JT'. He spots a set of flourescant-colored post it notes in the corner, sporting a pen doodle comic of a stick-figure Robin winning a dance-off with Mr. Freeze. It's signed with a simple 'Tim, 2011'.

  'D + K' is drawn in a tiny heart near the floor in pen.

  A goofy doodle of batman, his eyes pointing different directions and his tongue sticking out, is drawn on the wall in a wider marker above that, boldly signed with 'JT' like a challenge. There are several similar drawings in other places on the wall, all signed.

  On the floor, in the corner, half covered by leaves, he finds an old faded photo, water damaged from rain and weather. A polaroid of all things.

  It features a little red-haired girl, hanging upside-down by her knees from a tree branch. She's holding the camera out at arm's length, while a boy about her age with dark hair and bright blue eyes hangs beside her, though only from one leg. Both are smiling like they're in the middle of laughing, sunlight streaming through the leaves and causing a bright lens flare right in the center that nearly hides them both.

  He sets the photo down on the dusty shelf, beside beat-up action figures, feeling like a black hole has just opened in his chest.

  This space, this 'robin cave', has apparently been shared by all the Robins. Why hadn't anyone told him about it?

  He's an outsider, again. An unwanted add-on to the family already established here. They hadn't told him about the treehouse because he didn't deserve it, he wasn't really one of them. He feels a little dizzy and tells himself it's the heat.

  When he turns to climb back out of the window, something decidedly more recent than the drawings catches his eye. It's an envelope, taped to the wall beside the window where it has the best chance of being hidden from the elements. Damian's name is written on the front in neat cursive.

  He frowns at it, tugs it gently off of the wall, and opens it. Inside is a letter, neatly written in Grayson's handwriting.

  Congratulations on finding THE ROBIN CAVE, Dami!

  Damian blinks, glances around, looks back at the letter.

  I'm sorry I coudn't just come out and tell you about this place, but it's kind of a tradition for the Robins to find it by themselves. I forgot about it once I grew out of it, and then Jason found it and made it his own. Then Tim found it himself and made it his, too. Now it's yours! I hope you have fun with it, I know we sure did.

  It's signed with a flourish, as if Grayson were signing some vital document. Damian rolls his eyes.

  P.S.- Welcome to the 'running away from Bruce' family, since I'm sure that's how you'll find it. It's how Jay did. :)

  Damian tucks the letter back into its envelope, looking around the treehouse again, with new eyes. It needed proper windows, he decided, and a light or two, for any possible nighttime use. Maybe he could get Jon to help him carry out the necessary equipment to make some improvements.

  The letter still gripped in his hands, he climbs out of the window and back to the tree branch, then down to the ground, and heads back towards the house with a new determination.

  He has some planning to do, after all.

[geekade]

Welcome to the D-List: Jack Flag

It’s no secret that the 1990s were incredible – especially for comics. Giant muscles, costumes with an unnecessary amount of pouches, and beach-ball shaped boobs made that decade the most glorious time to be alive. Amidst all the timeless artwork and NFL SuperPros, a unique hero assisted Captain America in the fight for our right to play with Pogs.

Jack Flag was such an enormous patriot, he dyed his hair red, white, and blue. Unfortunately, he and his star-spangled scalp appeared infrequently and the hero would disappear from comics for years at a time. However, I believe that Jack Flag was simply a character full of unused potential. This month, it’s time to welcome the grand-old and high-flying Jack Flag to the D-List.

Jack first appeared in Captain America #434 in 1994. Created by Mark Gruenwald and Dave Hoover, Jack’s first appearance on-panel was epic – he carried a boom box that could shoot lasers, and used it to stop two members of the Serpent Society from robbing a bank (no amber waves of grain for villainy). Sadly, that epic boom box would never be seen again. 

While Jack was quite an extravagant character, Gruenwald did his best to grant the hero a legitimate origin during his first appearance (by legitimate, I mean slightly less ridiculous than boom-box lasers). Jack Harrison and his brother, Drake, were volunteers for Captain America’s hotline network, and even fought local crime. Unfortunately, the Drakes were forced out of their home because of a scheme conducted by the Serpent Society. Initially, Jack didn’t have any superpowers, so he lifted weights and trained in the martial arts in order to exact vengeance on the evil group.

Jack attempted to trick the Society’s leader, King Cobra, into letting him join the villainous team. King Cobra did not believe that Jack truly wanted to join the Serpents, so he sent Flag on a suicide mission to retrieve something from Mr. Hyde. Jack and Hyde fought, but the hero was knocked into some chemicals that Hyde conveniently left on a nearby table. Hyde’s chemicals granted Jack super strength, and he swiftly defeated the villain. Although Jack returned victorious, King Cobra unleashed his Society on the hero. However, one of Captain America’s sidekicks, Free Spirit, arrived and helped Jack escape. Jack Flag frequently teamed up with Free Spirit, and the sidekicks worked quite well together (she was the dandy to his Yankee Doodle).

Sure, Jack Flag punched some bad guys, got a few bruises, and did so looking like a 4th of July fetishist, but as quickly as Jack Flag appeared, he disappeared for years (hit the road, Jack). Patriotic sidekicks may have seemed too cheesy and obvious to utilize within Captain America comics, so subsequent writers likely had no use for Jack. He reappeared a decade later, however, in a very badass capacity.

Jack was living in an apartment with his girlfriend when they overheard some local jerks harassing a young woman. Jack put an end to their intimidation, but the hooligans contacted the authorities regarding the unregistered superhuman in their building; Jack refused to register during the “Civil War” storyline. Jack put on his costume and readied himself for battle – the Thunderbolts arrived outside of his apartment, and the ensuing fight was amazing to watch.

As someone who, until this point, seemed like more of a joke than a serious combatant, it was incredible to watch Jack Flag singlehandedly fight the Thunderbolts and do as well as he did. He broke Swordsman’s helmet and sword, kicked a piece of the sword into Venom’s chest, threw a broken rim into an airborne Songbird’s throat, and walked away from Penance’s blasts (all while gallantly streaming). These killers could not overpower this one, unpopular hero, until Bullseye ambushed Jack and stabbed him in the back. The villain paralyzed Jack from the waist down, and Flag was left in a Negative Zone prison.

The battle with the Thunderbolts truly proved that Jack Flag had the potential to be a powerful hero. The man refused to get rid of his costume, even after years of inactivity, because of what it stood for, and was ready to fight for what he believed in. That kind of dedication is truly heroic, and the skill that Jack displayed when he fought a team of killers was amazing.

Jack met Star-Lord in the Negative Zone prison when Blastaar attacked, and the two heroes were rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy. Through the power of the cosmos and comic-book logic, the medical team on the Guardians’ base healed Jack’s paralysis and he was able to walk again. Unfortunately, his participation with the Guardians never amounted to anything substantial (little more than jack-shit, actually). Though I’m happy he was used throughout volume 2 of Guardians of the Galaxy, he never got the spotlight. Once this volume ended, Jack wasn’t seen again for quite a few years.

I understand that not every character in Marvel’s vast catalogue can be constantly utilized, but this guy was patriotic! Captain America couldn’t have made him an Avenger? There were no more space battles that warranted Jack’s attention? For the majority of another decade, Jack was absent from comics. Thankfully, when Captain America: Steve Rogers debuted in 2016, Jack returned…briefly. Goddammit, Marvel…

Although the circumstances weren’t explained, Jack returned to Earth, and both Flag and Free Spirit were assisting Captain America on missions once again. The trio were alerted to Baron Zemo’s location, but the villain tried to escape via plane as they arrived (the only thing deadlier than snakes on a plane is Zemos on a plane). Cap chased him, but Zemo gained the upper hand as they battled. Jack leapt onto the aircraft, knocked Zemo unconscious, and saved Steve. Although visibly upset and apologetic, Captain America pushed Jack out of the plane. Free Spirit found Jack on the ground with a weak pulse, and a medical team took him to a hospital where he remained in a coma.

Unfortunately, Jack’s survival was a liability to Captain America’s nefarious plans for world domination, so Steve prepared to end Jack’s life by poisoning his IV drip. As Cap was about to do so, Free Spirit entered the room and told Steve that she and the doctors decided to pull the plug; they didn’t believe that Jack was going to recover (so I suppose this was his twilight’s last gleaming). 

Come on, Marvel! This guy tried so hard to help the popular characters around him, he deserved a better death than this (at least some rockets’ red glare, or maybe even some bombs bursting in air). While Jack Flag had an extremely simplistic origin, there was still plenty of potential to develop his character. Now that this D-List hero is dead, it may be years before a writer decides to revive him.

To my knowledge, Jack Flag has never appeared outside of the Marvel 616 Universe. While so many people have been angry about Nick Spencer’s treatment of Captain America recently, I’ve just been pissed that Jack was killed immediately after his first appearance in years. The ridiculousness of his initial appearances, the amazing battle with the Thunderbolts, his time with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and his recent return prove that Jack Flag is a timeless character. Until a writer brings him back into the Marvel Universe, forever in peace may you wave, Jack Flag.