#i have some sketches and doodles in the works from over the last couple years i just do not have the time to finish it up because school :(

[cosmosully]

aftermath

[noob-with-a-shitty-computer]

Secret Romantic (Grell Sutcliff x gn!artist!Reader)

A/N: I’m still pretty new to black butler but this woman has been living in my head rent-free for the past few weeks, which fortunately has given me a bit of inspiration to write a fic :> hope u like it and i hope it isn’t too ooc.

Summary: You were not really known to be a hopeless romantic, unlike your flamboyant companion. However, she wasn’t expecting to see a different side of you on the night you dropped your sketchbook nearby…

In the midst of another work-filled night, you quickly flipped through the to-die list one last time. “I think that’s about everyone tonight.” You let out a sigh of relief in unison with the red reaper in front of you, “What a night. I’m so glad that Phantomhive got this case closed rather quickly.” A bit of awkward silence passed until you heard a few quiet giggles, which made you turn to your friend who’s green irises were swinging left and right to each picture she had in her hands.

“Grell, are you listening?!” You raised your voice enough for her to let out a yelp as if she was a frightened puppy. “‘Bassy’ caught your eye again?” You scoff. “Come on, can you blame me? He was ever so graceful, how could I not take a photo or fourty~? Especially when he was wearing that ridiculously handsome suit~!” She dreamily sighs and you do nothing but roll your eyes. You never liked demons, always thought they were a hassle to deal with. It didn’t make it any better that a certain demon butler just so happened to steal the doting heart of the woman who stole yours.

“Well, I’ll head off now so you can have your little fun, I suppose. See you at work, my lady.” You greeted nonchalantly as you quickly jumped out of the scene using your reaper agility. Before Grell could glue her eyes back to the photos, she heard a thud nearby, finding a familiar book on the stone ground. It was the sketchbook you always brought around during work to draw on whenever you had a bit of time on your hands. She remembered the times you refused to show her your artworks, hiding the pages against your chest as a faint but cute blush creeped onto your cheeks.

It seemed that curiosity killed the cat (much to Sebastian’s dismay) as Grell approached the sketchbook with a smirk, letting go of her precious photos for the time being…

“Let’s see what you’ve been hiding from me, darling.” She mutters to herself as she slowly flips through the sketchbook, admiring every image. There’s a sketch of the town you recently visited in the view from a tall building, doodles of a couple of dresses you saw from a store window, and other random things. You were quite talented, she thought, curious if you happened to have a doodle of dear Bassy as well~ It only took a couple minutes until she flipped through a page that caught her off guard.

Several doodles of the red reaper herself were presented to her, some smiling, some frowning, some drawings ended down to her head or bust and there were a couple of full body drawings as well. She flipped through more pages and found herself again. There was one drawing where she was wearing a beautiful dress and another where she and you dancing together, she was wearing the same dress while you wore your own outfit with a similar design. It was like an illustration from a fairytale book, the you in the sketch revealed a big smile that your colleagues don’t often see on you in real life.

The next page had sketches of her in other fancy outfits, the page after that had sketches of her doing her signature pose, the page after that was a drawing of you and her, hand in hand and looking at each other fondly while the moonlight illuminated your figures. She didn’t realize you were so observant over her. It was a bit unsettling, but it also felt endearing to her that you put in so much effort into capturing her beauty on paper. Her mind was filled with different thoughts, the memories of you and her training, laughing, smiling and spending time together all those years ago up till now. She couldn’t deny that it made her heart flutter.

Meanwhile, you were panicking in your room trying to find that lost sketchbook, worried that Grell had caught it first. You dejectedly rushed to your door only to find said reaper in front of your doorstep, causing you to stumble backwards. “Gah! G-Grell, what are y-you doing here..?” Your heart was pounding as you looked over to her hand which was holding very thing you were looking for over the past several minutes. Grell chuckled a bit as she handed it back to you. “Darling, I never thought you felt this way about me~” She stepped closer with a smile.

“I-I’m sorry, I can explain-“ “No, I’m sorry for pulling on your heartstrings like that, my dear.” Grell’s eyes softened as she apologized. “The drawings are gorgeous as well. I didn’t know you were such a romantic~!” She smirked and you huff your cheeks, “I guess you just rubbed off on me, my lady.”

“No worries, it’s cute.” Her smile grew as she watched your cheeks flush and eyes widen. “Aww, look at your cheeks! They’re covered in such an adorable shade of red~” She failed to supress a cheeky giggle. “Stop teasing me!” You quickly protest before she held out a hand to you.

“Heh, well I must admit, you were always dear to me, darling. I guess I was too occupied with my own obsessions to realize it sooner… But since you seem to be interested in a dance, may I take your hand tonight~?” She stated flirtatiously, causing your cheeks to grow hotter. You were a lot less experienced in the world of love compared to the reaper in front of you, causing you to hesitate taking her offer…

But then again, who are you to refuse a lovely lady such as Grell Sutcliff~?

A/N: i need sleep. why must motivation show up during midnight T_T anyways hope u like it :P

[lovecanbesostrange]

Please know that since yesterday I am mentally trapped in these two panels. There is actually a lot I will miss Krakoa for, but I also felt a bit of resentment throughout the era and this family is a big reason why. NOW that we are in the last stretch of burning it all down and the new X-launch is in reach, we'll get this wedding special. And we finally have all four together in a panel. NOW?! I bought X-Men Unlimited #4 in either fall of '94 or spring '95, solely because of the cover. 30 years of waiting. Let me live in this moment for a bit.

Look at what they are doing with the art! Oh sure, Mystique and Nightcrawler are the blue ones. Pair up Destiny and Rogue next to that to make them look similar enough as well. Only for my brain to scream "but the personalities are the other way around!!!!!!!!". Irene and Kurt work on faith and believe in possibilities and reaching out to be better. Raven and Anna Marie typing this out makes me feel weird are the ones who will kill a bitch and say they will darken their soul so others don't have to. Plus there is the element that they both have lived more than one life and their sense of self is distorted .

They've come a long way, okay?!

Yes this is exactly what it looks like. For plot reasons Nightcrawler was too weak to teleport and dangling off a cliff next to Mystique. And of course Rogue could only save one and before she made a decision Mystique said "I make this for you" and let go. I still like to believe she flipped them the bird when she fell. Because she is Mystique. "HaHa! Take this, you think I'm the worst mother ever, but you will have to live with a moment of nobility from me!" (Also Destiny knew this would come, and she fucking knows there is something good inside of Mystique. It just comes out... different. And needs very specific circumstances.)

Apart from X-Men Evolution (and the X-Men Forever alternate history comic with its very special vibes), we have never gotten any bigger acknowledgement of this family. And Irene has been cut out. Either conveniently on account of being dead, or because she's an old lady and clearly just a gal pal, ahem. (It's also very funny to me to go back to their first appearances, where the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has the biggest Three Stooges energy ever. I needed Mystique, Destiny, Rogue, Pyro, Blob and Avalanche to have a drinking contest on Krakoa. That is what Krakoa was supposed to be about!! You needed to give us 200% domestic nonsense, fun and games. So it would hurt everybody when it was inevitably taken away. EVERYBODY needed to find happiness in that place in unconventional ways.)

Sadly not my original thought (I don't have those), but recently I read some comment where somebody said that with Irene being his bio-mother, Kurt should have inherited a type of precog-sense, a sorta spidey-sense for teleportation. A natural ability that he won't teleport into an obstacle. And I would be so on board with that. (Also funny, because Ms Marvel had that type of sense and I could pull up panels where Nightcrawler tried to trigger that in Rogue.) Would it be weird to add that now? Sure. But also super cute and helpful.

My deepest gratitude goes out to the fanartists who have doodled and sketched and painted cute family moments for them out of time. Now canon can catch up. Imagine their dinner conversations. N: "Logan is my best friend." M: "Oh, that reminds me there is this blue furball running around with his and my powers. I don't even remember if we ever had sex or not, we're so close in age and have these memory gaps." N: "Mutter, nein!" D: "You should ask him out, you two would make a cute couple. Trust me." R: "You're setting up Nightcrawler with Wolverine and keep giving me grief over Gambit?" M: "He speaks too much French! Wolverine might be Canadian, but at least he's not a Franco-Canadian!" N: "So I couldn't date Northstar?"

Do not get me wrong though. Mystique and Destiny are horrible people and they will stab others in the back. They have worked for the government, they have plotted assassinations of government people. They have fought alongside and against the X-Men. I don't want them tamed or be reasonable. I want their mess. I want them as anti-villains. Because they don't do heinous things for nothing. They like to create less horrible murder events than what could be... some writers just liked to go overboard with the scheming and forgot the sympathic undertones, which I want to cling to. And we deserved a time of peace on Krakoa. Truly imagine a Mystique who was happy on Krakoa. And the absolut batshit villainous energy when it's burned down against her will... now THAT would have been something. Instead of baking resentment into the foundation.

[taegularities]

RIDDD 🎀🖇🩵

are you truly feeling better? ;-; a migraine is the last thing i'd wish upon anyone among list of terrible headaches, bcs i used to have cluster headaches— so i can only guess what's a whole migraine must be like ; please take care of yourself, and rest well :(

i don't know if it would be insensitive to drop the following long message here rn, but you obv have the liberty to ignore it till you feel better or as you wish. this is your domain, after all. love you.

"RUINED" : RAMBLE.

i had to drop the headcanons that's been eating up my mind bc the other day while i was taking my mock tests, my mind kept drifting off to the couple. lol. so here's a list of headcanons i had as a reader, from all the different bits of the story and the things you told us. hehe. these are mostly 'soft moments' as asked by you in that ask ( i wish i could drop the reference links, but i'm on my phone so it's hard to operate dually. however, i shall say which parts inspired what brainrot : they're from your works )

RUINED : BRAINROTS.

inspo : a!oc is the type of person who knows what she wants, her saying : two years of marriage and i still put up with the way you put the toilet paper the wrong way around. lol. her being very organized too bc she doesn't want work to pile up and focuses on her tasks in office. both of thm loving to sing

if she loves her things organized, i can see— during the beginning of their dating life, tae'd come over on a random weekend, only to find a!oc cleaning up, in her most natural state, and the mundane aspect of it would melt him. why? bcos he's the been there, done that sort of person, but not when it comes to these things. the domesticity, i mean. hehe.

also, the fact that she trusted him enough to show that side of her? :') the only reason she wouldn't stress about her look is bc she's adorably engrossed in her work and NEEDS IT DONE AND HE SAW HER IN OTHER STATES TOO 🫠

HELLO, RID. CAN YOU SEE HIM ENTERING HOME TO HER ONE DAY AND A!OC MOUTHING THE LYRICS OF A LOVE SONG TO TAE WHILE DOING MUNDANE THINGS WHILE THE MUSIC PLAYS IN THE BG?

AFTER THAT THEY COMPOSED THEIR OWN SONG OR SMTH IDK U TELL, RID!

inspo : a!oc being adorable-oc in general. her eyes having the purity even in the lewdest moments, her general love and admiration for him, original ruin you devil tango on the phone drabble 😮‍💨 a!oc loving to draw, tae in general loosing his composure around her lol

this one is loosely based on what my friend did once. so we were in a fb video call and she just randomly made a quick sketch of me on doodle. it was beautiful. 😔

since we are talking soft moments mostly, i can literally see him trying to sexually rizz her up on some video call— imagine him going like 'are you touching yourself?' or smth bc her hands are busy ��� but homegirl, who misses him sm and can be an adorable vixen, leads him on— only to send a quicksketch of him so beautifully done ( with artist-oc : a!oc touch 🥹 )....and can you imagine his reaction? always 'interpreting him anew' x 'you are an artist to me, okay?'

SORRY! I DON'T REMEMBER THE LINES VERBATIM!

inspo : basically, tae's protectiveness towards her, a!oc not liking to depend on people, her caring about his demons and wanting to fight his battles and these intially clashing, smex that melts you. tae : i cried, she crode. we s-crewed. ( no, rid. you never wrote that but its just a lil meme ref 😭 ) old tae and his demons.

this one is also from initial years. i think if she were to ever get injured in any way or had a scar—however minor, he'd still spend hours on those spot/s, kissing & hating himself for not being there when it happened. also, i think if she didn't tell him about such a thing/things bc it's not an issue to her, because he had sm going on according to her and didn't wanna pile on— he'd be upset. can see her making jokes about it since it's nothing to her, and him glaring at her with swimming red eyes ( just like the wedding drabble where he threatened her to never leave him ), and making similar threats to his favorite girl ( mid-lovemaking ) ☹️

you often write that before meeting her, tae's biggest flex in bed was composure. so i can literally see him shortcircuting (even during the roughest rounds), hearing her say the most loving things and her unadultered affection. the holds only bared by his urge to take care of her first like you always say.

also, i think when he first introduced her to his world of ruined tango, he was more concerned about her, than a!oc herself. can see him internally worrying, but she is the type to want it harder and more, anyway, to his constant surprise 😂 no, but seriously. suppose it's waxplay, and he knows what he's doing bc he's a pro, but it's still his a!oc 😭 no matter how much lust and control is swarming around them, his need to smear his affection on/inside her is REAL! ever love someone so much that even being balls deep in them isn't enough bc you wanna consume them whole??? and merge with their soul and being??? that's them, and it was novel for him. right?

and you said he kinda likes giving away control more now? why can i see a!oc, simply like a mini-him in some ways, just loving on every nook and crany of his being, when she first took over charge? 🥹 she must have had sm love to give him 🥹 i mean, in the past giving away control would be all about pleasure, but i think when he gave her that role for the first time, he wasn't expecting getting LOVED ON. CAN U HEAR HER WHISPERING PROMISES AND COMPLIMENTS IN THE PUREST WAYS? ( yk how she said, "well, it's true. i want it' about his 🐓 in such a harmless way? 🫠 ) whole lotsa crying, right? ....right?......RIGHT? 😭 bc it's never enough. not until they breathe. the other. in. AAAAA-

inspo : random ig reel, lol. this girl asked her bf, if her soul were to get switched with her bestfriend's, who would he pick. homeboy replied : i will take you to an exorcist 😂

imagine somebody asking her that question, but the other way around and in tae's presence— can see him tensing up bc hello, ry!jk wassup 🤩🚨 but a!oc will also pull up a "will take him to an exorcist" answer and set his demons free 🕊🕊🕊

inspo : papa!tae and mama-a!oc.

sometimes, i assume their first born is a son, then i settle for a daughter. or maybe an older brother to a lil sister. anyway, daughter is a mini a!oc. teenie tinie version of her 🤏🏻🥹 and he looks like such a girl dad at times, too.

to me—the babygirl has a!oc's eyes, his nose, and a pair of both of their lips combined, but also her father's fullness. why her mama's eyes?

BC DOUBLE HER, DOUBLE THE PEACE IN TAE'S LIFE.

imagine her wrapping that tiny chubby soft hand around his wedding ring instead of the pinky/thumb/index 🫠 he'd definitely be like : both of you women are gonna be the end of me :))))))))))))))))))))

little monet family. 🎐

it's so late at night. i resign 😮‍💨 please, recitfy me as you wish. also i forgot a lot of them, so pardon me 🫂 i couldn't articulate properly. had so much to write and tell but 🕸🕸🕸 love you, rid. thank you.

HI LOVE 🥺 i was feeling better last night and most of today haha but now the headache's coming back :')))) just why :'') it's a pretty horrible pain, but welp. and no worries babe, this isn't insensitive at all??? in fact, this is so fkn sweet?? 😭

yes, she def seems like someone who has her act together. as an office assistant, she's used to working neatly and diligently, so she'd be scolding tae for little things for sure hahaha :') ahhh the domesticity would shoot an arrow into his heart. he's never experienced such a love, you know? so to know somebody's here and his home… must affect him for sure :( they're both kind of an anchor to the other, and prove each other time and time again that they're able to show their true side. NAWH THEIR OWN LOVE SONG THO YES PLS.

the purity even in the filhiest moments is so fucking real. i don't remember if i actually mentioned that, but yes??? she's an angel, so there's some innocence in her eyes no matter what. NOT YOU USING MY QUOTES AGAINST ME IN A SKETCH SITUATION 😭 omg the confession.. you are an artist to me :') she would she would she would!!!

oh, he'd lose his shit if he saw an injury on her :( i remember my ex once crying and rushing to the hospital when i fell in the shower, and i had a lil scar on my chin (still do), and i think tae would feel similar? shedding tears and inspecting her wound and just everything :( he loves his baby and wants not a single scratch on her

omg ofc, he'd never be able to keep his chill with her hahaha no touch is ever enough. needs her melted with him <3

"i think when he gave her that role for the first time, he wasn't expecting getting LOVED ON" BABE YESS!!! 😭 maybe that's why he's so comfortable with her, too, even if he gives away control. he knows she knows what she's doing. also omg the exorcism one 😂 they're both witty so 100%.

hahaha honestly, i can't remember what i said about their firstborn or if i said anything at all, but yeah honestly both is possible!!! a boy whom he loves teaching life, or a girl who he adores with all his heart.. would definitely destroy him, along with oc hahaha that's a bit too much for his lil (big) heart :') little monet family 🥺

i hope you slept well!!! thank you so much for typing this all out??? i can't believe somebody's ready to do this for me or is invested enough in one of my stories to come up with such wholesome and long ass headcanons??? i love you fr 😭 i'm always here if you remember the others. thank you <3

[microraptorreactor]

I feel like dumping out my box of OCs like one would do a box of lps so very long post filled with very many doodles ahead!

Reference for my Rainworld oc, Lost! He's an idiot kid I made for one joke but now he lives in my brain. I think I made this reference for him last year? Idk I don't remember. I'm just now realizing that Lost snuck into my V2 characterization lmao.

Elysium art of various ages! Made between 2021-2023 I believe. This is the oc I made before I knew what Ultrakill was and everyone thought I was making an Ultrakill joke. Tbh if it wasn't for the fact that I MADE Elysium and have their early sketches I wouldn't believe they weren't an Ultrakill reference either. Speaking of which, here's some animations from when Elysium was both a quadruped and a model of robot instead of an individual. These were both made for a class in 2021.

VERY old art (2020 I think? I wasn't using my screen tablet yet) that I normally wouldn't include if it weren't for the fact my friends would explode me if I mentioned Elysium and Lost without mentioning Nerve. She was an anxiety-ridden warforged cleric who got tragically sent to the vampire realm. Whenever Nerve comes up in discussion one of my friends brings up how I made him cry with her final speech. I don't remember tf I said lmao.

Art of my His Dark Materials OC, Zurial! Art would have been made 2022 onwards. I made her WAY back in 2019 before Hazbin Hotel even had a pilot but unfortunately now she looks like a Hazbin angel and I feel weird drawing her. Which is really unfortunate because I love her dearly, she's one of my favorite OCs. She's also the only oc I have who I've made a plushie for. Why did my character design have to accidentally look like the works of famous youtube animator Vivian Medrano T-T

(here's her plushie btw. I'm really proud of it lol.)

Here's Niphit, one of my Warframe OCs! Some of y'all might recognize her as my AO3 pfp, but her design has changed since then. The bottom reference sheet is her most recent design. She's kind of conceptually similar to Baeri/Sleet/-31 from SftBT, in terms of hacking shit and having a snout and teeth. Biggest difference is that she is a whole ass hivemind, usually pretty harmless, and also considered pretty young.

Shameless CR:K fanchild OC. Her name is Golden Parmesan Cheese Cookie (Parm or Parmesan for short) and she's also, like, an AI copy of a dead person. Or a dead person's soul trapped inside an eternal simulation? Either way she's got SO many issues. I have a massive chatfic wip from when I decided to try writeing something with her.

Okay I know technically this is a Homestuck OC but I like to say she's a Hiveswap OC. Because I played Hiveswap and loved it but never read Homestuck. Anyways her name is Vintan she's a yellowblood.

Whoa an original character! Yeah this is Corion, they come from my brain. I have a whole story concept about post-apocalyptic robot cowboys (and human cowboys) that I've done a couple doodles from but never written down. Corion serves as a sort of living taxi, guiding or carrying people across the wasteland. They are a secondary protagonist, I don't think I have art of Pike and Amelia, the actual protagonists. One funny fact about this universe is it contains a character named V1 (pronounced Vi, still written as V1) who I can no longer use for obvious reasons.

But yeah! Ramble over! Not anywere near all of them I just wanted to talk about my brain children XD

[row-boats3]

A piece I wrote in like 20 minutes because I have Encanto brain-rot and I started thinking of how Mirabel got her “gift” in a Celebrity!Madrigals AU

……..

Mirabel returned home sluggishly, tossing her bag to the couch as soon as she crossed through the door of their home.

Unsurprisingly, the house was empty.

Mama had gone to an interview for her new cook-book, dragging Papa with her as even with her collected front she hated doing interviews alone. Tia Pepa was working hard on recording her next album with Tio Felix. Dolores was at a meeting for her cover art, Luisa at training for the athletic event, and Camilo at a table read for a new, exclusive movie he wasn’t allowed to tell her about yet.

Even Senorita perfecta Isabela would be welcome right now, but she was out too, negotiating a contract with a new, up-and-coming fashion boutique.

Once again, ordinary Mirabel was left alone as her extraordinary family won over the hearts of the public.

It wasn’t like Mirabel resents them for it.

(Well, maybe she did - just a little - but she really didn’t mean to.)

Mirabel loved her family more than anything, and they loved her. She knew her family loved her, they showed it every day. They were just so busy with interviews, and work, and fans, and fame.

(And yeah, maybe things have been tough for a couple years since Camilo had started getting serious acting work. Maybe Abuela was starting to pressure Mirabel, or asking her why she hadn’t started working on something impressive like her sisters or cousins. Maybe Mirabel felt just a tiny bit alone every time her parents, or sisters, or cousins were too busy to ask about her day or help with homework. That didn’t mean they loved her any less, right?

Right?)

She turned the TV on, just to drown out the silence of the apartment. It landed on an old rerun of a talk-show from last week, an interview of Dolores quietly teasing her new album. Mirabel left in on, the familiar voice always calming.

There she was, home alone, given full range of the top floor apartment building her family owned.

She was was wholly, completely, unequivocally bored.

With nothing better to do, she decided to actually do some homework, pulling out notebooks of her bag and flipping to the next clean page of her math one. Her eyes wandered, smiling at the paper.

Just before it was a page full of doodles from when she got bored in class, all symbols important to her family. Herbs for Mama, A thunderbolt (the name of Tia Pepa’s first solo album), a chameleon for Camilo, Flowers for Isabela who always said she wanted to be a florist before modeling took off. Beside the individual drawing had been a smaller sketch, the markings inside a pair of pants.

Mirabel paused.

She glanced down at her own, suddenly very plain skirt.

Her private school had many rules on dress code - no colored hair, uniform below the knees, black shoes.

They said nothing against modifying the turquoise uniform, did they?

In a sudden moment of weakness and ADHD hyperfixation, the teen shot up. Papa kept some extra sowing supplies in the back of his closet, didn’t he?

Somewhat quickly, with only a small fight with a jacket, she’d gotten the sowing kit and changed clothes to pull her skirt over her lap.

She sowed, carefully working the needle in and out of the fabric in a focus she’d never had before.

So often, she was “the other Madrigal”, the boring one, the child left to herself. So, if she had to be plain Mirabel, the least she could do was have a not-so-plain skirt.

Two weeks full of lonesome days passed by thanks to that needle and thread before the skirt was done, and she was no longer so plain.

She had no idea almost a year and a half after that, she sold her first fashion design, catapulting herself from ordinary Mirabel into the spotlight as one of the Magnificent Madrigals.

[transformers-bold-bright-brisk]

[INTRODUCTION]

WELCOME TO TRANSFORMERS: BOLD BRIGHT BRISK!

So, since I was super indecisive about which side-plot I wanted to focus on the most, I just made two extra. Yes, all three sideplot story stuff will be posted on this blog.

They all coincide with each other in some way, some events will happen before one sideplot’s events, and others will happen after one other sideplot’s events, so on and so forth.

[TF Media Referenced]

- Rescue Bots Academy

- Rescue Bots

- Transformers Prime

- Robots In Disguise

- Cyberverse

- Last Bot Standing

- More Than Meets The Eye

- Lost Light

- Literally any other miscellaneous information I find on TF Wiki that I insert to fill a couple plot-holes, but aren’t significant enough for me to completely take inspiration from that specific medium

[Overview]

- The war was over between Autobots and Decepticons, and afterwards it was a big celebration while the rebuilding of Cybertron took place. Years after the reconstruction of Cybertron, and it’s newly revised government, there are now many more individual situations that have arisen from the aftermath.

[Asks]

1) Can Accept ✅

- Asks about the lore and characters are very much appreciated!

- I’m also open to do some small sketch requests that pertain to the characters in my Fan Continuity, and characters that are in it but aren’t explicitly mentioned.

- I might answer a few questions with a doodle if I really feel like it, but rest assured I won’t be able to do all of them.

- Oh, don’t worry if your ask sounds a bit “spoilery” I’ll let you know.

2) Won’t Accept ❌

- Sorry, this blog isn’t for role playing with the characters.

- Also any asks that have links to anything without a description or just look sketchy in general, your ask will get deleted.

- Absolutely under no circumstances will I answer any creepy asks like NSFW or anything 18+, it’s just gross to me.

- No bigotry, racism, sexism, or any kind of LGBTQIA+phobia at all in my ask box.

[Tagging]

#sphny speaks (𖦹<𖦹)•*°⊹

- Any and all rambles, reviews, drabbles, or small updates to keep people informed of any “delays” or just small brain farts that happen throughout my day.

#sphny alternates universe (𖦹ㅁ𖦹)•*°⊹

- Whenever I just start to ramble and just start grabbing random info from other TF franchise continuities and alternate them into my universe without a second thought(or many thoughts, depending…)

#sphny arts (𖦹w𖦹)•*°⊹

- Any and all art I make and post, whether it’d be just a draft, concept art, or art dumps that I draw to support my stories.

#sphny reblogs (𖦹Q𖦹)•*°⊹

- On this blog especially, I would usually reblog something from my main, or just self-reblog from my early works, and maybe occasionally something neat I would to add to my blog later on so I don’t forget.

#sphny answers (𖦹0 𖦹)•*°⊹

- Along with asks, I’ll be tagging anything I’ve answered under this tag, just for consistency’s sake.

#sphny originates character (𖦹▿𖦹)•*°⊹

- This rarely ever happens, but on occasion if I were to make an original character I’d make sure to tag it under this so I can be able to track it down easier.

[creaturefeaster]

this post is sponsored by uppsulka

This post has nothing to do with Uppsulka I just had this doodle sitting for like a day. I just wanted to talk about my last post-- that ask about CQ’s story and the likes. I’ve gotten a handful of messages about it since I answered it (+a couple replies on the post itself) and I wanted to clarify a couple of things.

Please, if you’re worrying that I’m overworking myself, or pushing myself to put stuff out that isn’t ready yet, know that I am certainly not under any pressure to put things out before their due time. I share lots of tidbits about the story on this blog of course, but you may notice that any actual, physical writing for the story is virtually nonexistent on this blog. If I wanted to, I could have shared the drafts long ago, but I’m taking my time and making it perfect (for me). It will be out when it’s ready, and you don’t have to worry about outside pressures/lack of quality.

Another thing! Some of the messages I’ve gotten were in response to some of the tags on the post, as I am known to ramble quite a bit in the tags from time to time. I mentioned the possibility of me seeking out artistic help in the future. The amount of people wanting to help is heartwarming, it really helps me realise just how many people want to see this story come to fruition. However there’s still a long road before the real, official art for the story will come into play.

Finding the right people to help with such a personal project of mine, if I so choose to go down that fork in the road, would be an arduous process in making sure I know and trust those people and their abilities. (I’m also really picky about how my style is drawn, if people were to help. But that’s a discussion for another time) Not everyone has all the time in the world, either! This is a long term project. Keep in mind this story has been developing for over a decade, and while it’s only the last handful of years that I have really kicked everything into overdrive to try and fully piece it all together, it’s still probably got a while to go before I could ever consider it complete. So please, keep all of this in mind.

As I continue structuring and polishing the written story, I wish to release it in divided chunks. When any given chunk comes close to its finish, I’ll be having beta readers scour the texts for a little bit. Placeholder sketches would ideally be littered throughout the story as needed, but by beta reader’s judgement, more or less may be added. That right there, once the beta reading is done, is the end of the road to visuals-ville. That is to say, that’s when I’d start actually drawing out the things that I need.

So now you have some insight on how the process would work. Was it all necessary to explain? Probably not!!! But if I didn’t ramble so much, I don’t think I’d be able to write this story, either. It’s so big x_x.

All of this could be (and probably should have been) summarized to this:

For those who want to help, for those who truly enjoy the content I create for my universe and want to see more of it, I just ask for your support. Seeing likes, reblogs, reading the tags or comments people add onto the content I share, they really, really help keep me motivated. Every piece of fanart makes my day, whether I comment on it or not, I’m always behind the screen getting all giddy and excited that someone cares about the characters and world I’ve poured my heart and soul into. All the asks you guys send, while I can’t always answer all of them, it lets me know there are still people who are interested in the world and want to know more about it. That’s what keeps me wanting to write. So if you want to help, that’s how you can do it right now.

[twinvenus]

2022 SUMMARY OF ART!!!!

JAN/FEB

it was a really slow start this year... in january i didnt actually finish anything, all i have to show for that period is a single flight rising drawing -- i had another one, but it's now Lost Media (sadly) from when i got my new PC.

(more recounting under da cut! i've included a lot of unposted/unfinished sketches down here!)

MARCH

march was a lot of desperate attempts to get back into drawing by sketching out little character designs i never posted, mostly wizards. that wizard right there is my favourite of the bunch. Fantastic energy from this creature.

APRIL

april is when i started getting into working on Gnome Lore that i have on my site, gnomes.neocities.org! gnomes are my special interest so the enthusiasm of learning about gnome mythology/history, and my own ideas for gnomes, actually got me COLOURING PIECES. incredible feeling.

this was the back end of my flight rising fixation, and included a few humanised sketches of my dragons Mirth and Gerana, pictured above. i was also getting really into WoW again at this time, so there were plenty of little wow-inspired sketches. + a bonus Jurgen from sam and max in the bottom left!

MAY

the gnoments (gnome moments) carried on into the month of may as i designed other known mythological creatures. i also rehashed a beloved old DnD gnome OC called April and included her in that lore. love that lil gal.

during this month i got really into working on my neocities page, and so a lot of art i did was assets for that. you can see a majority of my May drawings over there on the lore page. :-)

JUNE

june was a month of OC swag for me. i was totally inspired in the month leading up to ArtFight and put my heart into character design! from this beautiful month i got one of my new favourite pieces, shown there, of my ocs ZAP! APPLE and STEP KID. they're inspired by the band The Avalanches, specifically the album Wildflower. during this month i also created some of my newest and favourite OCs such as RANBOLIN, Beanie Boy, and Professor PJ!

during this i also did some new art for characters like irene, nadia, and D.A. Private Eye. i think a vast majority of this can be found in my "ocs" tag...

JULY

and here it comes.... my traditional Best Month for art. i was popping off HARD this month even though i didn't do as much as last time. i am SO happy with everythign that came out of this year's artfight, deeply. here are some of my favourite pieces from that period:

i was really into one-layer drawings this year. these were all done on two layers MAX, with the binary brush on sai. it really pushed me to be creative with my colours and detailing, and it's become one of my favourite ways to draw.

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED. that the art for july features a certain Recurring Character. this is because in the month or so prior i had begun rewatching Naruto with my brothers. although the full-force naruto hyperfixation didn't settle in until months later this was the beginning of it. Rotating gaara in my mind always.

AUGUST

hmm... august got quite slow again. i might have been burnt out from going so hard in the other couple months. i have a few odd doodles from that month aside from the birthday gift to @l0gitex you see there, including THESE:

i also started developing a naruto OC when some brainrot started to settle in. their name is kodama, after the tree spirits. i wanted them to be from konoha, you know, to match -- originally i wanted them to have that wood type stuff, but recently i've been thinking that something to do with funghi and mycelium networks might be really interesting, especially due to their connection with trees, and how kodama live inside trees. these were some outfit concepts but i think i'll change their colour palette to match konoha more. more blues and browns i think.

SEPTEMBER

the dawn of my BRIEF SPLATOON ERA! i haven't played since that month LMAOOOOO! anyways, i drew a few splatoon-related pictures in that time.

birth of Blupi. as well as this September is the beautiful month in which i began to learn using Blender. here's a little ref drawing for the gaara model! (why do i keep doing stuff with gaara?????):

i was so proud of how that model came out. i had some other models of OCs like tomato cloun and one of ranbolin i never finished rigging (i hate weight painting so much oh my god-)

OCTOBER

man i wish halloween was like, anything here. during this month i started working again on my gnomes page so there were some more little designs done, visible on the lore page! specifically, the boggart and warren gnome were from October, as well as Awesome Rando.

NOVEMBER

november was kind of an epic month for my OCs, actually! alongside my interest in naruto REALLY starting to fire up again i was redrawing and bringing back older OCs as well as bringing in beloved Clary! here are Ranbolin and Dee as well. <3 let's go girls

beyond this the naruto brainrot had really settled in. so i began drawing my favourite characters: you know who. happy birthday Rock Lee!

DECEMBER

OHHHHHHHH HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!!!! DEPTHS OF HYPERFIXATION STRIKE!! i know i've posted a lot of art lately, and i'm so excited that i have -- i didn't know if i'd ever get this stoked again since earlier in the summer but i am so INTO IT RN!!!!!

check out this hinata wip:

awesome thing about being fixated is i tend to finish a lot more of my drawings, it really carries my enthusiasm. so i'm hoping to have this picture finished soon! if not, many more will be finished in its place.

man if you read all of this ur a real one, thank you so much. i'm so excited to see what comes in art for 2023!!!!! MY wicked hands will concoct such bountiful imagery. I can feel it

[nancypullen]

Sunday the 4th

Where was I?  I think when I last posted we were just about to run over to Rehoboth Beach to see/hear David Sedaris at BrowseAbout Books.  It was SO much fun!  We went to see him several times in Nashville, but it was always in a theater setting at TPAC.  Ever entertaining, he reads essays he’s working on, takes questions, talks about his book tour and all that - but meeting him in a more intimate setting and having a chat was so much better!  Let me back up a bit and talk about the nice woman I met in line.  Her name is Lynnie, she’s a few years older than me, and she lives in Lewes, Delaware (I looked at A LOT of wonderful real estate there, but we deemed it too far from the Edgewaters), and she sang the praises of her town.  She goes to Zumba and water aerobics (I could just cry), she takes tap lessons from an old Rockette (OMG, how fun!), she participates in everything from book club to Bunco. She was so much fun and just so sweet - she gave me her number and told me to call her if I visited Lewes.  It was almost like having a friend. Waaaaah!

She was a delight. Back to the bookstore.  I fan girl over authors the way some people do over film stars or singers, and Mr. Sedaris didn’t disappoint.  He was warm, witty, engaging, hilarious, and when he signed my book he doodled in it.  It was the flowers from my shirt.  He drew in everyone’s books, making conversation while did a quick sketch and for some reason it was funny.  Mickey got a bird.

I had him sign my book for Matt.  I read the book on my Kindle when it came out last year.  This book tour is to launch the paperback.  Matt is also a fan, and I thought he’d enjoy the book.  I loved it.  Anyway, it was a wonderful evening and we headed home through the cornfields as the sun set.

The following evening Mickey had a big party to photograph so I stayed home and watched the finale of Ted Lasso and bawled.  Oh, it was so satisfying.  If you’re a fan you’ve probably already watched it so I’m not spoiling anything by saying that I was so glad that Rebecca got her happy ending.  But now I’m without my favorite happy, positive people to watch.  Bummer. These two....

and these two....oh, my heart!

*SIGH*  I’ll miss it like I miss Schitt’s Creek.  Good stuff. This weekend we crossed the bridge to celebrate Tyler’s birthday.  We stayed with Little Miss so Ty and Jamie could go run free for a bit, then we all shared dinner, presents, and brownies with ice cream.  It was such fun.  In just a couple of months the grandgirl will be in kindergarten, she’s grown up so much just since we moved here.  We’ll drive over to attend her preschool graduation on Friday.  I know that in the blink of an eye it’ll be middle school and then high school graduation. Yikes!  I’d love to pump the breaks on all of that, but I’m glad we’re here to enjoy it.  On the way home I always try to snap a picture of the big ships lined up in the Chesapeake Bay.

They’re waaaay out there so I can’t get a clear shot from a moving car, but I love seeing them.  I found a website that identifies each ship and its origin country, so I’ll pull it up on my phone and see that one is traveling under the flag of Japan, another from Brazil, or whatever.  You can usually pull up information showing their last port of call and sometimes what they’re carrying.  Don’t ask me why I find it all fascinating, I just do.  I look out at those massive ships and imagine the different languages, music, and meals onboard.  

  In other news, no, they haven’t caught the python yet.  That’s why I gave a resounding NO when the mister asked if I wanted to go kayaking today.  Well, that and kayaking doesn’t interest me at all. But kayaking with a chance of a python popping up is a thousand times less appealing than normal kayaking. Hard pass.  Mickey and I have very different ideas of enjoyable activities, especially for fitness.  He wants to scramble over rocks, drift down rivers (and have to paddle against the current coming back), stomp through poison ivy, and become a host for ticks.  I prefer a nice, climate controlled activity with a group of women, a soundtrack, and maybe a cold beverage afterward.  Zumba, Jazzercise, water aerobics, that sort of thing. I never got a single tick at the Jimmy Floyd pool. Just sayin’.  I’m past the age where I want to be uncomfortable. I get plenty of exercise working in the yard, I get a dose of sunshine, and I can play tunes or a crime podcast while I do it.  Then I sit in my  shady nook on the porch and enjoy a cool drink.  Won’t be long before this patch is all zinnias and sunflowers.

While I was enjoying a beverage in my shady spot, I flipped through the local paper.  There was a section listing all of the “Best of the Chesapeake” from hair salons to BBQ to physicians.  This one made me giggle.

Speech therapists! Can you imagine having a speech issue and having to call and make an appointment with any of those names??  Impossible! I did not see a category for best snake catchers on the Eastern Shore. Oh well, the day is slipping away from me and I need to get dinner started.  Kind of wishing Mickey had something to go photograph so I could just pop some popcorn and say I had veggies for dinner.  Not gonna’ happen, guess I’d better get busy.

Sending out loads of love.  I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend.  If not, then be glad it’s over, have a gaze at what’s left of the Strawberry Moon tonight and tell the universe that you need a break from your troubles. Stay safe, stay well. XOXOXO, Nancy

[sunshinemoonrx]

Space RPG: Characters

Following on my previous post here--

Here's a post on the four main characters for this game and associated stories, some OCs that have been bouncing around in my head for a while. I'll start with the two mentioned in the previous post, who are going to be the party members for this first iteration, and then talk about the two who are going to be side characters/antagonists for this, but in theory graduate to party members in future instalments.

You can see the piece I've commissioned from an actual professional artist in the last post, so this one is just gonna be my quick little design sketches (alongside some images of their visual inspirations), and I'm not an artist, so y'know, these are just the images I supply to artists for reference, some of them doodled at work in whatever notebook I had to hand.

Lyra

An exciteable and overconfident space archaeologist who nevertheless exaggerates those aspects of herself to hide how observant she can be. Usually drives the plot as she flies around the universe to study one mysterious site or artefact after another. Mechanically, she's the primary character; you only game over if she goes down, but she can't take damage if she has another character to block for her, and she's the only one with access to the items menu, using those and her abilities to buff, back up and direct around our next character--

2. Vega

Lyra's bodyguard, rough and gruff and definitely doesn't care about you and has never felt an emotion in her life, shut up. She was originally hired as a mechanic, and Lyra quickly put her to work building a Metal Hero style power-suit she'd designed, that Vega now wears to fight (I still need to design this fucking thing). Also yeah there's a couple of those images up there where she's a catgirl, that's just an occasional side effect of her space HRT, try not to mention it, it really ruins her stoic image.

3. Cass (Cassiopeia)

As you can see, I got the basic design down instantly and then spent a million years fussing over what shape her hair and head should be. Anyway, the concept for Cass started as "I'm gay and I want a bunnygirl in my space game", but I started relating really hard to the clumsy, inept goofball who alternates between happy-go-lucky and "my job is so boring, uuugh" that emerged. She's a deliberately cartoony character, so things like her frighteningly-inhuman strength and the way her bunny-ears headband emotes with her will never be explained.

Cass is a minor crew-member helping pilot the great royal flagship Andromeda, though she's honestly pretty unclear on who the person in charge is and doesn't much care. Someone who definitely can't say the same is--

4. (Sir) Helen

Helen, by contrast, is one of the most important people on the Andromeda, a knight tasked with protecting the princess who owns the ship. I still have yet to really figure out the princess--other than she has a pretty specific personal grudge that leads to her following the two protagonists around the universe annoying and competing with them, dragging these other characters into the plot--but Helen is fervently devoted to her, willing to go to any lengths for her safety and happiness. For now she doesn't act on her feelings, preferring the ideal of chivalric courtly love, but that results in her being pretty pent-up.

(Also, I might change her name at some point, it's not quite set.)

As mentioned, these latter two will become party members at some point, but for the first game Cass will be more of a side character, and Helen an occasionally-recurring boss. So I think I'll save talking about their planned mechanics for when I get into the game systems they interact with. (And yeah, I do have characters that are other things in mind, but it is a very girl-heavy cast because uhhhhh that's what I wanna write.)

I have started to make a build of the game, so here's the placeholder sprites I'm using for them for the moment, for completeness' sake-

In most cases these are reinterpretations of the designs according to what RPGMMV's generator can do to communicate their basic essence (Vega's hair in particular is nothing like that), with the exception of Helen, whose design I was pretty vague on until I clicked the mask accessory and it all clicked into place.

That's it for this post! I don't know how often I'll do these, but it's good for making me actually make progress. Probably the next one I'll do will be on the physical 'outline' of the game in terms of its size and the maps I've made.

[lunalikestowriteanddraw]

Idk who needs to hear this today, but just a gentle reminder that you do NOT need the expensive “professional” grade art mediums just bc well known artists use them and prefer them over some of the cheaper brands

Your materials aren’t the things creating masterpieces. Sure, nicer quality pencils or paints might make it easier to make masterpieces, but they’re not a must. Take it from a stupid young artist that does both traditional (with various mediums) and digital art, I’ve personally found it EASIER to work with cheap supplies that you can literally find at Walmart. And this applies to apps for digital art, too.

I made this a couple years ago, before I decided to bite the bullet and spend like $5 for a bunch of brushes on a FREE drawing app I’ve used for years. I had access to maybe 5 brushes out of the 100+ they offer (without watching ads or paying). No, it’s not the best artwork in the world, and my style has improved over the years, but this is the best piece I have before I bought the brushes (the app is called “ibisPaint X” if you’re curious)

I know the lighting is really bad, but this is my most recent traditional drawing (I do these before converting them to digital, almost as a sketch of sorts). Do you know what brands I used for this? Fucking CRAYOLA and some cheap colored pencils that someone got me like 4 years ago for Christmas (they don’t even have a brand name on them). The most expensive medium in this picture was the inking pen I used, which was like $15 at Michaels, I think? I can’t remember, I bought them a couple years ago, but they’re a nice relatively inexpensive inking pen pack

Hell, here’s a little doodle I made in class last year using a fucking MECHANICAL PENCIL that costs like $5 for a pack of like 8 at Walmart.

Seriously, don’t bash on yourself bc you can’t afford Prismacolor or Photoshop or Copic. I promise you, you will do just fine with some of the cheaper brands that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. They might not be as nice, but they will get the job done.

[bottled-up]

Arulia...

So there is significantly less to cover and go over with Arulia than Em so we will be starting with her!

Arulia was originally designed to be a romanceable charcter for a scrapped project from around 2017. She was victorian-ish, Jane Austen vibey situation. Think Elizabeth Bennet at the end of the Pride and Prejudice (2005) in terms of hairstyle and mannerism.

This is one of two sketches I have remaining of this Arulia design. Unfortunately, lots of moving and accidental throwing away of documents has nearly caused this version and design to be lost.

After the scrapping of the project she was originally designed for, I took full possession of her character and pretty much overhauled her design (with a few exceptions).

At the time of taking back control of Arulia, I may or may not have been carzy obsessed with the romance visual novel app The Arcana. So there were, and still are, heavy style influences. Not saying I have banished The Arcana from my life lol (Asra is still and will always be my favorite).

I'll do some comparing and contrasting of the personalities after I get through the designs.

I thought, at the time of Arulia's redesign, it would be fun to use her as the MC for the story. It was fun! But much later it didnt quite feel right.

Arulia's new design was COMPLETELY different from her original concepts. Im talking wildly long hair, harem pants, puffy snow white-like sleeves, a skirt AND a sash, and some hair accessories! Because WHY NOT.

To be completely honest, at the time I was extremely proud of this. A lot of it doesn't make sense, the face shape was wrong, and she looked a lot younger than she actualy is. For some reason though, I still loved this design.

Also I had been exploring new art sytles that really didn't work well with this character.

I mean... to me this was PERFECT. Intil it wasn't. I actually don't think this design lasted the year.

There was too much and not enough happening at the same time. Because of that, I took to reworking the outfit, keeping the things I like and though suited her quite well, went back to her original face shape and picked things from her original design that just made sense to keep.

I think this is much more suited for my girl. It fits a little better with the character I created around her, and she fit pretty ok into the Arcana world.

My favorite parts of this outfit quickly grew Arulia to be my most drawn character. The shirt sleeves, the hair style, the massive earrings, and the simple patterns on her top.

This is the design that eventually got some offical color to it, but I was new to digital art and brand spaking new to procreate so a lot of mistakes were made.

I still think she cute though. Also, yes I borrowed a pose to help visualize how clothing would sit on her body.

I did spend a couple of years just skatching and drawing Arulia on paper though. My art journal from last year and the year before have almost every page with atleast one Arulia on it.

She consumed my every drawing hour. Not by force, because I begged her to.

I think a few months after I setteld on this outfit and look, I explored a couple other options too. What if she had these pants? What it her hair was different? What if she danced?

Had some really cute concepts of that! But nothing really stuck (look out for the pictures when they're found).

I settled on her more simple design because it was easy to draw repeatedly, easy for others draw, and kinda iconic. I had a few people telling me they haddn't see something like Arulia before and quite liked the concept.

That encouraged me to use her as the face of my streaming content until it didn't. More on that for a later time.

For now this is all I have to share, but Arulia, BY FAR, had the most doodles, drawings, and sketches, so look forawrd to seeing more of those.

[reidsnose]

doodles

overview: reader doodles on her hands a lot and spencer has to give into the temptation of coloring it in

genre: flufffffff

a/n: sorry ive havent posted a fic in like a week, ive been in quite a slump but i had this idea well after midnight but i just had to write it so lmk what u guys think of this one :)

masterlist

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doodling on your hands: a once nervous habit that had seeped into your everyday life and now is just a regular habit. nearly everyday you would come to work with clean hands and get home with a mini art gallery on your non dominant one.

Spencer admired this from the moment he noticed it. at first he thought you had a tattoo but when you came back the next day with it completely gone, he was a tad confused, only to catch you doodling on that very same hand a couple hours later on the jet. he thought maybe it was an occasional thing, a habit you'd quit once you got better situated into the team, but after nearly a year you still left work almost everyday with some cutesy sketches drawn on your hand.

Spencer found himself looking forward to your doodles, imagining in his head what you might draw each day, and thinking of all the colors you would add if you had the time. being the great profiler that he is, he noticed a pattern: you subconsciously correlated your doodles with your mood.

after especially hard cases or just bad days you always drew roses.

when you were very happy you drew all sorts of fruits.

anxiousness bore little swampy creatures and lily pads.

tired days filled your hands with random, intricate designs that you didn't even have to try hard to make.

and content was anything else.

he was so impressed and absolutely adored your little coping mechanism. watching you concentrate on making those teeny pieces of art simply for your own pleasure was definitely a sight to see. the way your eyebrows furrowed and tongue poked out a bit was absolutely positively adorable. and soon he had noticed that he was looking forward less to the doodles and more to watching you draw them. and after that he began looking forward to just you.

you were sat on the jet with your back to the corner of the last seat on the plane, creating a pattern of roses on the back of your hand. Spencer plopped down in the seat next to you, growing tired of watching from so far away.

"that bad, huh?" he asked, noticing the type of flower you were gracing your hand with.

"hm?" you looked up, confused.

"you only doodle roses on bad days." he explained, pointing to your hand.

"what? no i don't!" you defended, " i just think roses are neat."

to be fair, you were having a bad day but he could've profiled that without the doodle. he cant be right, can he? there was no way you had a mood system for your doodles! unless there was.

"repetitive strokes are therapeutic, so roses being rough days make sense. the spiral in the middle followed by however many layered petals you want is a perfectly repetitive while still interesting enough to doodle."

"if i didn't know any better i'd say you've been spying on me, Dr. Reid," you teased, enjoying the slight rouge that appeared on his cheeks.

"what! no! i'm- i'm a profiler i notice patterns! i just- spying sounds creepy." he stammered.

"ok. how about admiring." you jabbed, turning a little red yourself.

"fine. but you know coloring helps too." he flipped back to the old topic of conversation.

"unfortunately i only have the standard blue, black and red ink."

"roses are red." he chuckled.

"interesting point," you bent down and reached into your bag, pulling out a red pen and handing it to him, "knock yourself out."

"what?" he looked at you slightly bewildered.

"coloring is therapeutic, you said it yourself. and you and i both know that you need something to relax you after a case like that. we all do." you explained, trying to be as nonchalant as you could knowing his skin would touch yours.

he grabbed the pen and clicked it open, coloring smoothly and slowly inside the lines you had already made in black, careful not to go over them and smudge the ink. you and him both tried your best to ignore the warmth shooting through your bodies from every place your hands touched. his fingertips lightly grazing your knuckles as he worked.you worked your way up your arm, giving you both space to work and by the time you landed, you had a half sleeve garden of surprisingly well colored (and somehow shaded) red roses.

you went home that night and bought a pack of colorful (washable) pens, hoping this little rose garden with him wasn't a one time thing. and even if it was, you would want to add your own pop of color to your doodles.

thankfully it wasn't.

you and Spencer found yourselves drawing and coloring on your hand a lot. he would catch you doing it and pop in over your shoulder just to add a touch of color where he thought it fit. and you began to feel sad washing off what the two of you had created that day, feeling nostalgic for time that has hardly passed.

and sometimes on the jet you would get tired of your own skin, so you would draw little doodles on his hand, often times leaving a little heart at the base of his thumb. these little hearts he avoided washing off for as long as he possibly could because they felt like a part of you was always with him. he started doing the same thing to your hand, a sort of signature the two of you shared.

most days, the doodles on your hands were pretty much fully colored in.

but now Spencer began to worry. what if you get ink poisoning because of his coloring? sure, the risk was statistically low, improbable even; but never zero. so one night after work he went out and bought a little sketchbook and on the front he scrawled,

"y/n's super duper special sketchbook"

upon receiving it, after giving him a hug he never wanted to let go of, you took a sharpie and started editing the title he had given it. so it now read:

"y/n and Spencer's super duper special sketchbook"

the two of you used up a whole page that day, front and back filled with all types of fruits. Spencer smiled to himself, knowing this had made you very happy. you took a second to take a step back and admire him doing the very thing he admired you for. and you understood why; he just looked so precious and you suddenly realized you craved the feeling of his hand touching yours. so you leaned over and drew a little black heart at the base of his thumb. he looked up at you, smiling widely before returning a red heart to the base of your thumb.

and you guys tore through that book, using a page a day and filling it cover to cover in no time. your own personal handmade coloring book. it turned out to be both of your most prized possessions, a pang of sadness filling your chests as you finished the last page.

you felt bad taking it home with you that night, wondering if maybe Spencer wanted to keep it. maybe you should keep it at work so you can both have it. thats the fair thing to do. you looked down, smiling sadly at the little red heart on your hand.

he did want to keep it. but he had a better idea in mind. he looked down, smiling excitedly at the little black heart on his hand.

the next day when you arrived to work all your worries were solved. on your desk laid a new sketch book entitled:

"y/n and Spencer's super duper special sketchbook: volume ii"

you laughed as you read a small lilac post it note that said, "i want to keep this one please" signed with a little red heart in the corner.

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ultra mega super cool taglist:

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[shirecorn]

how about 17 and 24? what inspires you and how do you deal with art block?

Long post warning.

Art block...

I don't actually get art block, which is probably a combination of neurodivergence and drawing every day for the last 3 years

I wrote an entire tutorial about how to do that, but didn't feel like illustrating it. Would people want to read it even without visuals?

Maybe... I'll just start rambling.

There's a couple different types of art block, and it's really just a philosophy puzzle to get past them. I'm going to assume that the things I think of slow days, or art mud, is a milder form of art block and work through that.

Art block is a symptom, not a disease. You probably have something deep inside that you don't want to face, or don't know how. Sometimes you need to discover the cause, sometimes just power through.

Method 1: Rest

Let yourself just Exist. The act of consuming art is part of the process. Watching shows and playing games, taking a break and going gardening or focus on school. This is what you need for burnout-induced art block.

Method 2: Action

I always choose action, sometimes it means a tiny 2 min sketch per day. Ugly or super simplified. As long as I don't stop moving.

Toss everything. Start every piece thinking you will throw it away.

The act of drawing moves you forward; pinning it to the fridge does not. Don't work things until they are perfect. Work them until they are there.

Art block causes and solutions:

- No Inspiration

Not sure what to draw, nothing seems appealing. Art won't come out like it used to.

Do studies from life or photos. Sketch, paint, digital, traditional, doesn't matter. Rocks, fruit, figure drawing, landscapes, buildings, anything.

Study and copy professional's work. Old masters are best, like rubens, michalangelo (only his men tho) etc because they will teach you anatomy while you work. If you copy someone with a lot of flaws, you will repeat those flaws.

Trace to learn, not to earn. Trace photography and art from anyone you want. Don't post it unless you have the artist's permission or they are dead, whichever comes first. This is strictly work for yourself, on yourself. It's not about the finished drawing.

Find an artist with a fun style and try converting stuff into their style. Don't make that your new style though and especially don't start selling it. Your style is a chimera of everyone you love, not a clone of one person.

Take blurry photos. You don't need a fancy camera or good skills or beautiful subjects. Doing studies from your own photos can spark life into your workflow.

Make challenges for yourself. Randomly generate things to combine. Try fusing characters! Don't try to make it look good, just be fun.

Doodle patterns, swirls, lines, random stuff. Try looking up art warmups and doing some of those.

- Everything Sucks

You finally see how bad you are. Or somehow you got worse. Every piece is a fight and you spend hours trying to get something right only for it to be stiff and disgusting and STILL wrong.

Why are you trying to draw good? It's enough just to draw.

Accept that your art is bad. Every artist can see flaws in their work. Your problem is that those flaws outweigh anything remotely worthwhile and hurt to look at.

So what? You're in a period of growth, not a period of production. Keep that wonky second eye. Let them have hot dog fingers.

Show everyone! Show no one! No piece of art can ever be a reflection of the artist. Not their worth, not their skill. The only thing your art says about you is "Held and moved a pen for a bit."

Make bad art. It's ok. Most of the time, the pressure to perform and get things Right is what made them wrong in the first place. Relax.

- No Motivation

The #1 killer of artists everywhere. On some level you think you should draw, on every other level you think you should stay in bed.

You are not lazy. You wouldn't have read this far in a post about art block if you were lazy. You wouldn't CALL it art block if you were lazy. Laziness is wishing you didn't have to do anything. A block is wishing you were doing something. If you think you can namecall Yourself into productivity again, you're wrong and You need to unionize so that you don't treat You like that anymore.

Consider Mental Illness. Losing interest in something that brought you joy can be a symptom of depression. I know it seems obvious, but if you're waiting for a sign that it's "bad enough," it's bad enough. Seek care if you have the means. Forgive yourself if you already know this.

Selfcare. Examine yourself for neglect. Nutrition, exercise, enrichment, social need, and sleep are all part of the art process. Eat three meals and sleep 8 hours. That's your gaymer fuel. You deserve it, I promise. Depriving yourself of your needs will make your blocks worse, not kick you into making them better.

Identify potholes. Sketchbook falling apart? Tablet cord frayed? Half your pencils missing? Chair uncomfortable? Desk hard to reach? There's a lot of things that you tell yourself to work around and get over. Just because you CAN workaround something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. A difficult work environment can cause secret dread deep inside that you don't recognize and just think you're lazy. What you think of as "no motivation" might actually be "I don't want to deal with my tablet disconnecting every time I move it wrong and I have to wiggle it for a few seconds to make it work again." These little things are like potholes in the road. Sure you CAN still drive through them, but eventually you're going to look up and realize you haven't voluntarily left the house in weeks.

Repair potholes and roadblocks. You might feel bad about buying a new pencil, headphones, tablet, car, etc because technically the old one works if you hustle. But if you're running into so many potholes you've ground to a halt, it doesn't Actually work anymore, does it? Invest, save up, request, and require working equipment and suitable conditions. This stuff isn't just cushy privilege, it's an investment in yourself and your art. You are worth the effort it takes to clear the way. If you can't afford reliable (reliable! not perfect or luxurious) equipment, then say it. If cardboard is all you can afford, draw on cardboard. But know that you deserve canvas, and one day you might be able to make the jump. Acknowledge that sometimes, if you don't have it in you to smear burned twigs on wet cardboard, the problem isn't motivation, but opportunity.

- Haven't Drawn in So Long

A unique type of art block that self perpetuates. The thought of starting again is so stressful you can't do it. Or maybe you'll do it tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow for sure.

Face your fears. Are you ashamed of your lack of drawing? Are you anthropomorphizing your paper and thinking it's going to judge you, like "oh NOW you come back >:/" I internalize voices I hear and project them onto other people, concepts, locations, and inanimate objects. Your paper, computer, WIPs folder.... none of that is judging you.

Reframe your WIPs. Do you feel shame when you see "unfinished" projects? Why? Who says you MUST bring everything you start to Finish? You don't have to. A sketch is a finished art piece; it's called a sketch! If a sketch is a fully realized creation, pages that are half colored, 75% lined, or partially rendered are all fully realized creations too. Unless paid otherwise, art is done when you're done working on it.

Lower the stakes. Draw a chibi or grab some crayons. Get messy and slowly ease yourself back into the flow over the course of a couple days. It's fine.

Get a buddy! Find an art meme, do an art trade, get a study subject, or just wing it. Drawing art alongside someone can help you get past that block.

Pretend you never stopped. Don't think about the gap, how long it's been, or rustiness. As far as anyone knows, you drew the mona lisa yesterday and didn't break a sweat. Today, you drew a starfish on your hand with a gel pen. Keep up that streak, good job!

Just keep drawing. Make a goal to do one sucky drawing per day on the back of a napkin. Don't make up for missed days, just pretend they didn't happen. Who's going to judge you? The calendar? That's pieces of paper; it doesn't have an opinion. Draw a cat on it. Done. Keeping up the momentum is a great way to prevent art blocks in the future.

TLDR: Draw imperfectly and toss it. Selfcare is king. Draw often and don't judge yourself.

Art is a process, not a product.

[adapembroke]

How Design Thinking Helped Me Understand Virgo and Pisces

Over the last few years, I've had the opportunity to explore the wonderful world of design, and I was delighted to find that learning to think like a designer helped me to become a better astrologer.

During the early days of the pandemic, a couple of software developers I knew where bored, so we spent some of our weekends creating astrology apps. I had no experience designing software whatsoever, but I dove in head-first, creating icons in Canva and user flows on scraps of paper. A few months of coding later, an Android app existed that looked exactly like what I imagined in my head.

I started with the hubris of a novice, but seeing an app I had designed working on my phone made me feel like a god. I threw myself into learning everything I could about designing apps. I became fascinated with UX design, flew through Google's UX certification course in a couple of months, and got an internship at an augmented reality gaming company who was working on bringing Dungeons and Dragons to the Metaverse.

UX designers are web/app designers, who are less interested in creating a good aesthetic and more interested in the way websites and apps function. They specialize in making apps and websites that feel good to use and are accessible for everyone. There is a great deal of creativity in the UX field, but creating apps and websites for companies requires UX designers to be practical. There is a process UX designers are required to follow, benchmarks they have to meet, and usability guidelines they have to follow. (A UX designer wouldn't put green text on a red background, for example, because those two colors together are a hazard for colorblind people.) At the same time, UX designers can't just read the guidelines and put together the optimal color scheme by number. Their decisions require human discernment. They need to answer: Optimal for what? What goals are we trying to reach and why? What dream of the future are we manifesting?

As an astrologer, I recognized the UX designer's balance of dreaming and practical discernment as the balancing act of Pisces and Virgo.

I knew from my experience as a fiction writer that creative process always involves alternating between creative expression and analytical editing, but I was delighted to find in my studies of UX design that designers have codified their experience with the creative process into a 5-stage design thinking process.

Understanding the design thinking process did wonders for my ability to see Virgo and Pisces working together in action.

Step 1: Empathize

Pisces: Empathy for the Self

The creative process begins with Pisces. It begins with dreaming. This is the stage of the creative process where the sticky notes and colorful pens come out. It's when writers draw maps and create story bibles, when visual artists doodle.

The fluid, generative, piscean time is the most fun for many creatives, so we don't often spend a lot of time reflecting why this dreaming time is important. Dreaming is the pleasure reward for doing what we do, so the pleasure of creation is enough, right?

There is, however, more to this stage than just play. During this stage we are building empathy.

If we have a great deal of freedom in choosing what we will create, we often begin by empathizing with ourselves, connecting with the deep feeling sides of our own psyches and playing with different ideas.

As a student, I wasn't creating for a client, so my design process began with an app called Sharpen that randomly generates ideas for design projects. It gives you prompts like: Design a typeface for the CIA and try a playful style. The projects are specific enough to trigger your assumptions and associations, but they are vague enough to leave lots of room for creativity.

An example of a Sharpen prompt that I played around with was creating a menu for a fancy restaurant. I live in Portland, Oregon, and I immediately thought of the "Colin the Chicken" sketch from Portlandia. I imagined a menu that included links to all of the ingredients, allowing you to trace their history and see pictures of the farms they came from and get to know the farmers that raised them.

Because I lived in Portland, I naturally projected my environment and experience onto the vague idea of a "fancy restaurant." A person from Texas might have envisioned an app for a very nice barbecue place. A person from Barcelona might have thought of tapas.

The differences between these different ideas for apps reveal the importance of subjectivity in the domain of Pisces. These differences about what "restaurant" means are the unconscious assumptions and projections that we place on otherwise blank or bland things. When artists say that they see what is already there in a block of stone or on a blank canvas, and their job is just to let it out, the vision they are describing is Pisces.

During this first stage of the process, it is important to dream wildly. I never forgot that I was creating an app that needed to be professional, but I allowed myself to imagine what it might be like to create a calendar app for a cult or a planner for a touring 80s band.

Pisces and Virgo: Dreaming with the Inner Critic

When we are dreaming, we want to be in an open non-judgmental space. That state of consciousness is Pisces' happy place, but Pisces and Virgo are two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the other. When you are dreaming, Virgo's critical analysis doesn't just disappear.

If you have done creative writing, you may have heard of the inner critic. It is the part of you that can't stop evaluating and judging. During the dreaming phase of the creative process, it doesn't just make it difficult to keep an open mind. It often seems to give feedback as if it has no idea what's happening, like a friend who corrects your grammar when you show them a painting.

Virgo is that inner critic. Most creativity guides tell you to tell the inner critic to go to hell, but it has a valuable function while you're in the dreaming stage: record keeping.

As a design student, when I was looking for a problem to solve, I went through many prompts in Sharpen, and I had dozens of dreamy ideas, but I dreamed in an organized way. I kept careful records of the prompts I considered and took screenshots of each one.

The purpose of the record keeping in this stage of the process is twofold:

First, it ensures that there is a record of your process so that you and other people can see how and why you made the decisions you did. Pisces says the tendency to do things just because, and it's difficult when you're in a Pisces state to explain why you do the things you do. You're like a romantic poet following the winds of inspiration. You probably won't know why you're making the decisions you're making while you're in the dreaming stage, but you will tell stories about your process later, so that it will look like what you did makes sense to other people. At the dreaming stage of the process, Virgo's job is to follow along as a notetaker, taking pictures of all of your sticky notes and the notes you made on bits of paper, so the stories you tell people about your process have evidence.

The second thing the record keeping does is it gives Virgo something to do. You can't just shut Virgo off, but Virgo likes keeping track of details, and knowing that Virgo will have lots of details to sort through later on in the process is inspiring for Virgo. It helps Virgo have faith that it's not going to be left out of the process entirely.

Pisces: Empathizing with Others

It is a rare creation that is only concerned with the subjective experience of the creator. In my design course, I learned that many business owners make the mistake of choosing projects from the founder's objective experience alone, making the things they wish existed, assuming that everyone has the same problems and wants them to be solved in the same way.

During the empathize phase of the design process, it is important to connect with your subjective self, but it is also important to break out of your biases and assumptions. While Pisces seems to be driving the empathy train, since it is a sign that is concerned with feelings, breaking out of your subjective lens requires rigor. You have to go out and gather data, talk to people, listen to their experiences of the problem and incorporate them into your design. All of these tasks are part of the Virgo function.

Empathizing with other people is very much about Virgo and Pisces working in tandem. Virgo needs to listen. It needs to take careful notes. It needs to understand with the mind. Pisces connects with the people we're talking to. It empathizes. It understands with the heart.

Step 2: Define

After you have gathered a bunch of ideas, you will be left with an enormous amount of information to filter through. You need to decide on a project. You can't do them all, at least not right now. One has to be prioritized over the others.

During this stage of the process, it is essential to involve both Virgo and Pisces.

Virgo: Analytical Discernment

Virgo sifts through all of the ideas that you've generated, and it decides what ideas are practical to implement. When I was working on projects for my portfolio site, I knew the projects that I wanted to feature on the site needed to display my skills. They needed to be professional, and they needed to be understandable to future employers. I quickly decided that building an app for a cult probably wouldn't look especially professional. I also decided that creating a "Colin the Chicken" app that pokes fun at Portland might not be the best idea since I will be looking for jobs in Portland.

Pisces: Discernment with Heart

At this phase it would be very easy to pick a project strictly on practicality. However, when you are working on a creative project for a long time, it's important to have some kind of personal, emotional connection with what you're making, even if it's just empathizing with the people who are having the problem you're trying to solve.

Virgo cares about the bottom line, and it's easy to cut the heart out of a process when you're working exclusively in a Virgo space. Once you have eliminated the problem options, it's important to allow Pisces back into the process. There are almost always a few options in the end that are practical and could be implemented. The final decision should come from the heart. Pisces is a water sign. It's closely connected with your feelings.

In the end, I decided that I would create a website for people who are looking for rental homes. I have been doing a lot of house hunting myself, and I am frustrated with the available options, so I knew it would be easy to empathize with renters.

Step 3: Ideate

Once you've decided what you're going to create, it's time to figure out what exactly that thing might look like.

You might be tempted to go with your first thought. "First though, best thought," right? But that's not the best idea.

The human brain is lazy. It prefers to go with the obvious thing first. When you're being creative, you don't want to do the obvious thing. Everyone else is doing the obvious thing--because they also learned "first thought, best thought.

You want to create something sparkling and original, and that means trying on lots of ideas, forcing your brain to break out of its assumption ruts and dig deep for novel solutions.

The best way to get your brain out of a rut is to play. During this stage of the design process, designers once again break out their favorite pens and sticky notes and come up with as many solutions as possible. In the way of Pisces, they accept and love their creative ideas without judgement.

Only after sketching out at least 8 possible solutions do designers add Virgo back into the mental mix. They look at all their ideas with discernment, choosing a solution that is practical to implement--and, at least, a little fun.

Step 4: Prototype

Most people think that the prototype phase is the entirety of the creative process. By now, you know that there is a lot more to the process than that.

The prototype phase is the stage when you start to actually build something. If you are a writer, this is when you sit down and write a first draft. If you are a designer, this is when you break out your design apps and put together wireframes.

The mix of Virgo and Pisces during this stage is unique for each creator. Some creators lean heavily on Virgo, like the science fiction writer William Gibson, who reads over his entire book, making corrections every morning before he starts work. Other creators are more piscean, like Philip K. Dick, who flooded his brain with chemicals and creatively flailed at his stories for weeks at a time in a shed.

Some disciplines impose their own requirements. UX design is highly technical. If you don't keep Virgo close by every moment you're in a design app, you'll quickly get frustrated when your designs are too disorganized to behave properly in demos. If your art is more like throwing paint at the wall, you may enjoy telling Virgo to chill and take pictures, far away from where the action is going on.

All creative styles and disciplines, however, involve a mix of Pisces and Virgo. Even Jackson Pollack, one of the more piscean painters on the planet, needed to clean the paint off, eventually.

Step 5: Test

The last stage of the design process is the phase most creatives loathe the most. It is the phase when your creative brainchild is done, and it's time to present it to other people and see what they think.

In the UX design world, this is the time when you put your prototype on a phone (or, worse, PowerPoint slides), show people how it works, and get feedback.

If you're a musician, this is the time when you play your new song for the small group of friends and collaborators who understand your style and will tell you the truth.

This stage is called the test phase and not the performance phase because there's a good chance the process isn't over. If you want to create something that speaks to other people, Virgo's criticism should be embraced during this time as you listen, once again, to the people who need your work with piscean empathy and compassion, and the determination to return to the creative process as long as it takes to manifest your vision in the world.

Conclusion

The design thinking process outlined above is elegant and simple, but the creative process is fluid and messy. Even in the Google course we were taught that progress moves in spirals, circling round and round through different phases of the design process over and over again, refining and perfecting.

Design thinking can help us to understand where we are in the creative process, to discern the potentials and pitfalls of our current phase, but it is not an assembly line of creativity. It is a dance between the practical analyst and the wild creative. In the language of astrology, it is the dance of the archetypes Virgo and Pisces.

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