#i painted over a print of a digital drawing i did

[squiddy-god]

your ratio fics have been engraved into my mind...

may i request for dr. ratio and a cheeky professor! male reader? kind of friendly rivals to lovers...?

Hehehehehe i adore this request because i literally love this dynamic with ratio, like just his rivalry to lovers with a fellow professor is *chef kiss* i decided to make the reader an art professor because i feel like that is the dynamic i like the most with ratio. ive been getting alot of male reader request and i absolutly love it. ♥︎request open♥︎ Cw : fluffy, no tw, male!reader, art professor! Reader, “rivals” to lovers, 

The halls of the intelligentsia guild are writhe with the hustle and bustle of students, characteristic uniforms adorning each of them as they carry books and make small conversation before hurrying to a lecture. It was in one such hall that the class of veritas ratio took place, the many subjects that he resides over had landed him in the aptly nicknamed “miscellaneous” hallway as having him move to a different class for every lecture would be “idiotic” and “most tiresome a pursuit that could be avoided by simply providing a class in the miscellaneous hall-” as he put it.

What he did not count on was his new found “rivalry” with the art teacher across the hall. Your first meeting was brought on by several students complaining rather loudly in the halls as ratio walked to his class after his lunch, the subject of their ire none other than you- or rather their failing grade in what they described as “the easiest class to pass” and how they couldn't believe that they were failing your class. During that time he simply waved it off as something that doesn't concern him, after all he had never met you. The second time he heard about you before meeting you was also on a rather sour note, several students beginning to slack off in his class in favor of drawing and working on their respective projects for your class. This incident lead both to their scolding and the scathing email that he sends you, speaking of how clearly your habits as a teacher must me idiodic if your students feel the need to slack off. 

He receives back an email by the end of the day, full of sarcasm and the cheeky quip about how “perhaps someone should check over his prior research as, clearly, he is someone who makes uninformed decision on faulty circumstantial data before seeing it for yourself” and that has him fuming in his empty class. The next day however he is met after classes by the same group who Promptly apologize. 

“Uhm… Dr. Ratio? We'd like to apologize- we shouldn't have slacked off in your class” 

“Yeah Dr. (L/n) made us complete the assignment during his class so we submitted those too-”

“And he wanted us to give you this” one of them hands him a printed flier and he feels his face contort in shock at the apology. Taking the flier into his hands he dismisses the students with a warning to not make the same foolish mistakes twice, the flier says that there is going to be a student art exhibition in a few days.

“Hmmm, how quaint…” he mutters to himself but still takes mental note of the date and time. 

It is all of these things that lead him to his first official meeting with you, still in his characteristic plaster mask he makes his way down the familiar halls where he finds the art exhibition set up in one of the librarys, paintings, sculptures, digital art displayed on screens, and in the middle of the exhibition greeting the guests and pointing out remarkable students is you. You stand in a suit, clothing colorful and an artwork in itself, hands clasped in front of you and a polite smile on your features. The person you currently talk to walks off to enjoy the art and you seem to recognize the good Dr immediately. “Ah! Dr ratio I see you have decided to grace our little exhibition?” you smile as you walk up to him, taking in the plaster head that concealed any expression. “I see the rumors are true, tell me did you make this delightful mask yourself?” your eyes are analytical as you seem to scrutinize every detail of his plaster face, the curve of his roman nose, the gentle curvature of his eyes, the line of his sharp jaw, all of it falls under your watchful gaze and for once ratio feels himself grow slightly nervous. 

This is his first official meeting with you, and he realizes that you are not in fact the idiot or fool he initially assumed, but rather a man with a deep passion for art who much like him doesn't tolerate fools who willingly live in ignorance, and thus your “rivalry” with the good doctor is born. Both artistically and academically he competes with you, as much in the same way that patience breeds success, passion begets passion. 

His hand holds two bags as he walks across the empty call to your class, the afternoon sun that filters through tall windows gives his skin a warm glow as he enters your class finding you at your desk grading with nary a lunch break in sight. Ratio tsks shaking his head, he's no longer dawning his plaster mask, instead letting you see his vague annoyance as he sets one of the bags in front of you, the smell of your favorite food wafting up to your nose. “Oh my savior- to what do I owe the pleasure of being graced by the presence of the esteemed dr. ratio” he rolls his eyes as pulls up a chair. “I do not wish to see you work yourself into the ground” it was a half true statement, truly he didn't want to see you burn out, however what he's concealing is that deep in his chest is a nagging feeling to simply spend time with you, bask in your presence and soak in your company. Your voice seems to sooth the annoyance that seems constantly brewing inside him, smoothing over the creese in his brow as you poke and prod at him with your words, it was an odd feeling to be so indebted to such a fool. He ultimately surmised that while you were a fool you were also far from an idiot and even further from those moronic individuals that invoke his ire by squandering the opportunity of knowledge and basking in ignorance. 

You wipe a pretend tear from your eye as you rifle through the bag. “I didn't know you cared so much doctor” your voice is playful and it causes ratio’s eye to twitch. “Do not be foolish, i simply do not wish to lose the one person in this place that isn't a complete idiot” his voice is so matter of fact that it has your eyes widening at the rare concealed complement. “Oh ratio i didn't know you were in love~” the emphasis on love is followed shortly by a snicker. “So when is the wedding?” If you were to look up at this moment you would be rewarded by the blush that spreads across his skin to the tips of his ears and down his neck to his broad shoulders. For a man who claims to keep his words few and his thoughts deep he speaks often, and yet now he is truly rendered speechless by your cheeky remarks. “Nonesens, are you perhaps blinded to my affection for you?” he tsks again as if the very notion is the definition of ridiculous. “Perhaps my dear professor, you'd care to join me for a date one evening” the for you'd taken up to eat the lunch he had brought you is held precariously between your fingers, one move away from falling, and your mouth is agape in shock as you stare at his burgundy eyes.

 “I…I would be delighted to, veritas.”

[no-hhamani]

Title: Home

Ship: Knock Out x Autobot! Reader x Breakdown (POLY!)

(Cant believe there's a lack of Breakdown GIFs)

You are a scout, while scouting an area with your bestfriend Bumblebee in a complex system of the underground mines, you both are forcefully separated when the structure collapsed. As you walk around the only remaining pathway trying to find a way back to your bff, you came along two mechs you haven't expected to meet

Note: Pronoun of Reader is not specified and there will be OOC!

You groaned when you came up with a dead end. Again.

You and Bumblebee were assigned to scout an abandoned human mine, now filled with pestering drones and whatnot. You were entailed that the mine is about 100 years old, give or take

From the supporting beams itself, you know it's old as fuck. Not older than you but with how short a human life span could be, it is definitely way pass their average life span.

You let out a steam of pressurized air again and went back to where you came, crossing a 'X' on the path in a poorly digitally drawn map by your wrist. You really are somewhat thankful for the tracking chip that was drilled into you, who knew it could be this handy personally?

You again looked at the map, wobbly lines of your walking pattern printed itself in a red line by the screen, only a single pulsing dot indicates of yourself. With your signals and comms disrupted by the fallen debrees earlier, it would have been easy tracking your partner and other forms of sentient beings that could possibly surround you right at this moment or you could have just commed the team and sens a SOS signal but bad luck seems to follow you in dark damp places. Ugh

You turned off the screen and continued trecking on dark paths, it took for a silent while before you started humming and murmuring the song with the tongue of Old Cybertron. It's a song with the oldest language you have learned.

Your scouting program in your processor warned you of such action, which is logical but you're tired. The war is going on for too long and you just want to go back to the times of festivals and bantering with old friends.

Humming such a lively tune warmed up the constricting pressure in any mech or femm's spark. The tune where it reminds of home

You hummed and hummed. Slowly trecking the long tunnel before you stopped and heard familiar voices far ahead and chuckled.

You moved fast but silent, drawing in closer by the dim light and quickly jumping by the corner when you knew they were present

"GLITCHES!" You whooped, immediately dodging a large fist with a loud laugh

"[NAME]! WHAT IN THE DESIGNATION OF PRIMUS WAS THAT FOR?!" Knock Out huffed, holding back the larger mech by the arm to avoid him toppling over you

"Hey, I heard you guys and thought why not?" You chuckled, which earned you a falling mech on you and you squawked

"I should've let him hit you" Knock Out groaned, crossing his arms as he watches the other two grounders piled on the ground

"Miss you too guys" You huffed and hugged the mech on top of you who snorted and did a noogie on your head, that definitely would have scratched your paint off "Nah we miss you more" Breakdown sighed and contently laid down on top of you

"Up Big Boy, you dont want to pressurize [Name] into a flat sheet of metal" Knock Out smirked and watched Breakdown slowly stand up, both then holding a hand out for you as you stood up with their help

"I'd still look pretty as a flat sheet" you chuckled and rotated your door wings to get the debrees out in between cracks which earned you two different actions from them

The three of you then hugged eachother, nuzzling eachother's armor as each bonded sparks hummed a happy and content melody. A melody like home

"Scratch my paint or else."

You and Breakdown froze and took a big gulp

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

You, Breakdown and KnockOut have been conjunxes before the war, but have been separated during the Decepticon uprising.

You had joined the Autobots when the bombing and raid had started, thinking your conjunxes had also joined in but you haven't seen any of them

Only when the war had started to worsen when you caught a glimpse of them with a Decepticon symbol as they boarded a ship

Due to being in different factions, you had tried to secretly meet them in order to avoid suspiciouns from each side. Soon you and your conjunxes saw eachother with relief, they thought you were somewhere safe and hadn't joined any factions. They both had joined in the faction willingly, also thinking they could have found you earlier and kept you safe if they ever found you

From there on, you had kept secret of having conjunxes and them for having a third one. It avoided the affair of cross-faction relationships that could be used against any of you. So, you guys had secretly met up once in awhile

It hurted your spark to be so far away from them, and so were they. But, it kept you all safe.

During the war, with your small frame and a grounder alt mode. You had taken up a scouting role, soon meeting Bumblebee, a young spark, in one of your missions and you both became friends. Soon becoming partners in every mission you went out to

Bumblee actually followed you one time when you sneaked out and found out you're in a relationship with decepticons and he hadn't told anyone. Even you

When the war is finally over, everyone who you were close to were shocked when you kissed each of your conjunx infront of them, while Bumblee is just in the sidelines clapping, happy that his best friend is finally free to love

[sable-dream]

I see a lot of 'diy gear' around so I'm surprised I've hardly ever seen bleach dyed shirts! They're honestly one of the coolest, easiest, and relatively inexpensive ways to make discreet gear - especially if you're like me and you can't exactly find shirts of your theriotype being sold.

Tutorial under the cut!! :3

What you will need:

A black t-shirt, preferably 100% cotton (avoid polyester and spandex)

Bleach

Water

Sidewalk/blackboard chalk, or a chalk pen

A paintbrush to apply the bleach

A disposable cup

A bit of cardboard or plastic to put under the shirt (to prevent the design from bleeding through onto the other side)

GLOVES and other safety gear (ie, a mask and goggles)

fabric paint, not puffy paint (optional but if you're heavy handed like I am it helps so you can fix screw ups)

SAFETY:

Work in a well ventilated area.

Wear gloves, goggles, and ideally a filtration mask when handling bleach.

WASH YOUR HANDS thoroughly after handling the bleach and do not touch your eyes or face before washing your hands

Be mindful of chemical reactions that can occur when mixing bleach with other cleaning products - never, ever, EVER mix bleach with anything containing ammonia as it can react and create toxic chlorine gas.

Keep bleach out of the reach of pets and small children, and if you have small animals like birds or rodents, work AWAY from them as the fumes can damage their lungs.

Make sure you read the back of your bleach container so you know how to handle and dispose of it safely.

Process:

Slide the cardboard into the shirt, adjusting it so you'll be drawing on the side you want your design on.

Use the chalk to draw your design on the fabric - don't worry about screwing up here, it'll wash out later. (If you want to, you can digitally draw your design, print it out, then trace the back with chalk and press it onto the shirt to transfer the art)

Put on your safety gear (ESPECIALLY your gloves) and move to a ventilated area (I did this on my back porch)

Carefully pour some bleach into your cup, then cut it with water. Remember that the more water you add, the more of the solution you'll need to apply to get your design to show up.

Apply the solution over your sketch using your paintbrush. You might need to apply it multiple times if your bleach solution is less concentrated.

Once your satisfied with your design, let it sit for 20 minutes to allow the bleach to fully stain the fabric.

After 20 minutes, rinse out the fabric under cool water. Make sure you're wearing your gloves as you do this so you don't hurt your skin.

Wash your shirt in your washing machine by itself, otherwise the bleach might transfer to other laundry. Put it in the dryer after or hang it up to air dry.

Clean up your area, wash your paintbrush out thoroughly, throw the cup away, and then remove your gloves to scrub your hands with soap and water.

Once your shirt is clean and dry, you can use fabric paint to touch up any mistakes. I used black paint to remove excess lines and white to give my design eye shines. Follow the directions for fabric paint on the back of the bottle, as the instructions for washing it can be different. Don't use puffy paint, the touch ups will end up raised and it'll look funny.

And there you have it! :D DIY gear shirt for all your alterhuman needs >:)

[livielizardcos]

taking some time today to discuss xiao! specifically the upgrades i made to him for metrocon 2023. i did so much experimenting with new techniques and materials, so i wanted to share that here to document, and maybe inspire some of my fellow artists/cosplayers!

i don’t think i could ever properly explain how happy i was after remaking xiao’s shirt. the previous version (which was purchased) fit really poorly, and the fabric was not great. it constantly pulled out from the waist of the pants and it practically blocked any airflow. the solution was simple: remake it from a bodysuit. that way the shirt not only stayed in place but also already gave me a much better form-fitting base to start out with. the mesh panel in the back was the part i worried about the most but ended up being the part i’m happiest with! i used power mesh that i hand dyed to be close to my skin tone (though the color isn’t very clear due to my binder’s color).

the swirling pattern on the bodysuit is a metallic white fabric paint. i made a digital drawing of the pattern on procreate, then printed it onto freezer paper. after cutting it out with an exacto knife, you can actually iron freezer paper onto fabric (shiny side facing the fabric) and it creates a nearly seamless stencil for fabric paint! i see myself using this technique a lot in the future, it’s literally perfect!!

the black leather piece at the neck and shoulders was my biggest obstacle. not only have i never worked with leather, but it is also a non-stretch material i’d be attaching to the collar/neck portion that very much needed to be able to stretch to be pulled on. thankfully the design worked out that i could have 2 closure points, one on the back of the neck and one at the front of the neck. the entire piece is hemmed by folding over and gluing the raw edge to the inside, then i glued hem tape over those raw edges to cover them and make them softer on the skin (the entire leather piece is unlined, due to its complex shape). all the visible edges of the leather were satin stitched to give them a clean, crisp edge. the gold appliqués on the front and back are 2mm eva foam covered in a gold stretch fabric, then glued onto the bodysuit with e6000!

the two white pieces that frame the mesh panel on the back gave me more difficulty than i expected. their shape is a bit deceiving, and needing them to lie flat on my back without sacrificing the stretch of the main garment meant i couldn’t just top stitch them onto the back. and while i’m not super happy with how they ended up aligning (where they meet at the top is much further down than i was aiming for), i still think it came out really nice!

and that’s the finished top!

here’s a front and back of the finished top! the sleeve is held up with clear bra straps that hook onto the inside of the shirt at the shoulder. all in all, i absolutely love how this newer shirt came out.

besides the shirt/bodysuit, the boots also got an upgrade! i snagged some boots on sale on amazon for $20, which was an insane steal! this style is very universal for so many costumes, and it also helps that the boots are comfortable and flat too! all of the accessories on the boots are affixed temporarily or from the inside (velcro, snaps, and elastic) so that the integrity of the outer boot remains untouched and i can reuse them for several costumes and even everyday wear. i also replaced the gold piece around the neck that holds the “scarf.” just like the pieces on the shirt, it is 2mm foam covered in gold fabric. this not only helps the gold elements feel more cohesive but also lies a lot more comfortably on my neck!

[ice-jsuirya]

PLEASE TUT ON GOUACHE

omg hahaha i’m no good at tutorials but i did actually take some process/wip pictures of my most recent painting, so i can share those!!

i started off with this drawing in my sketchbook

then i took it into clip studio to redraw digitally to figure out composition and the shadows… i printed this out and then lightbox traced it onto hot press paper to paint

these are scattered throughout the painting process but. i put down a wash of orange ink so i’m not painting on white, immediately got mad that it’s bright orange, then rushed to paint over the whole thing LOL… this painting was also supposed to be blue but the wildfire smoke rly influenced my palette :’))

[septembersart]

5 and 14 for the artist ask game!

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

I post almost all of my digital art! and a lot of my digital pieces come from my sketchbook, whether i planned out a piece in there or I was looking through it to see what I could line and colour digitally.

Some of my pieces I posted earlier this year were from a project i did for school where scanned and printed a bunch of pages from my sketchbook and then printed the digital versions on clear acetate and layered it on top

That being said I went to a very traditional museum art school so I do have a lot of drawings and paintings I don’t post here. Mostly figure drawings bc i love taking classes for it.

14. Any favourite motifs

idk if this counts as a motif but i love doing hearts over the knees and elbows! I picked it up bc i was (and still am) inspired by punziella’s work and she did the same thing.

[lokifreign]

Your art is really cool! What is the process for making it?

Thank you! I'm a relentless filter-fader, digital manipulations that I apply and then mostly remove, ||: then apply again, mostly remove :||

before 2000 I did similar things with ink & silk screens, distorting images and lightly reapplying them over themselves over&over. There's still some shirts and skirts of mine out there.

I often start with a pencil or ink drawing; I used to use paintings but I don't have the studio for it at the moment - I have the space, the flesh is weak. I also will paint or draw something on stiff paper, photograph it, mess with the photo digitally, print it out on some stiff paper, mess with that, take a picture & post it (maybe after some filter-fading)

Thanks for asking! & feel free to mess around with it; seamless images (that tile) are usually tagged "seamless" or "tiling"; "texture" has some gems; "scry" means I hid something in it, a drawing or photo lurking in there.

[k00292370]

Disruption: A Conclusion

What's up Tumblr,

With the Christmas holidays starting that means that the disruption project has come to an end. I enjoyed doing this project. I'll be honest, I was lost at first. When I heard disruption I immediately thought of my Type 1 Diabetes, but I didn't want to do my project on it since it was already consuming most parts of my life I didn't want to spend weeks focusing on it through art as well.

From some talking to my friends, lecturers and even some doctors , I came to realise that it is a major disruption in my life that I don't voice often but I want people to know about. It majorly impacts my everyday life, I've missed days from college, workshops and outings with friends over it (and almost my LC as well) . I shouldn't be ashamed of it and should be talking about it more.

I'm glad I did in the end, originally I thought of doing how emotions can disrupt someone and their ways of thinking but I realised very early I didn't have much to say on the subject. Whereas, with my diabetes I had plenty to say. The carb counting for every meal, snack and sometimes drinks. The countless needles I've injected myself with. The constant checking of my blood sugar and drawing blood. The nausea. The recent decline in my control of it and sudden threat of vision impairment because of it. It's all things that have disrupted not just my day-to-day life but things that could disrupt my future if I don't find ways to deal with them now.

In the end I got a good few pieces from it. Some embroidery, prints, an animation, a painting, etc.

If I had a few more weeks I would've liked to have made more paintings and digital pieces. I love digital art but unfortunately my drawing tablet broke and I won't be getting a new one till after Christmas. I would've also liked to try out some other workshops like photography and publication.

In conclusion (I'm now just realising how long this post is 😅) my project is about how diabetes disrupts a lot of my life. How I'm struggling to live along side it rn, go to college, work a job and attend hospital appointments. I am fighting a constant battle to keep myself healthy, but also how despite my struggles it also doesn't define who I am. Yet strangely I also wouldn't be the same person without it either.

Thank you for reading this. You're awsome and have a great Christmas! :D

[mi6011leiascott]

Big painting progress

To start off, I could not have predicted how long this was going to be. I got on the right foot when I began to look at measuring planning and strategising my plan. It quickly became apparent after I did the math that I didn't quite translate to real life from digital. As the canvas on digital was 1 inch on-screen. And that simply wouldn't do. So I made the width size 6 inches just for scale. It also served to see better in physical drawing and painting. What I didn't expect was going to need. I followed almost exactly the drawing before and added small changes to the overall design. I'm still not done with the canvas as there is a little more to go. I'd taken a break from drawing. So began the process of the painting. I stuck to the original plan for the colour scheme. It would go from purple to green as the story progresses. On another note, while I was painting I wasn't happy with the lines. So I decided to get a black ballpoint pen to outline it slightly. Then when I couldn't quite cover it with paint in some areas. I had gone over it with a Sharpie or acrylic paint pen. I also stylised it with pen strokes just to make it more cartoony.

A final note that I would like to add, I was making this canvas. didn't know what to do at the beginning, as I thought about working with wrapping paper that I had stored ages ago for Christmas and this holiday. I remembered that I had this giant sketchbook in my room. I debated its use at first, though in the end, I decided it was no different from printing the pieces together. Even if I did decide to print the paper wouldn't hold up as well because it's not specifically made for sketching or holding water or pens.

[fmpy3]

FMP WEEK 8

Artist research: Matteo Bassini

Matteo Bassini is a 3D/2D environment artist and concept artist specializing in digital art for games, animation, and collectible card games. He has over a decade of experience in the industry.

He works as a 3D Environment Artist at MOON Studios and collaborates with Wizards of the Coast, contributing art to Magic: The Gathering.

Notable Projects:

Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020) as a Level Artist at MOON Studios.

Godfall (2021) as an Environment Artist at Counterplay Games.

Zima Blue episode of Love, Death & Robots (2019), where he worked as a Background Artist for Passion Pictures.

Magic: The Gathering:

Contributed to sets like Streets of New Capenna, Wilds of Eldraine, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and Zendikar Rising. His illustrations include cards such as Ruin Crab and Sunken Citadel.

Bassini's work blends technical precision with imaginative world-building, which is evident in his detailed environments and concept designs. He is based in Florence, Italy, and is active on platforms like ArtStation and Sketchfab for showcasing his work.

I personally really enjoy his background style, especially his colour palettes. I would definitely like to incorporate some of his style quirks into my own concept art. I really appreciate how much detail is put into his environments and the texture in his paintings. I especially enjoy the piece he did above, because it fits the vibe I plan to bring into my FMP very well, as well as how many colours he's stuffed into a bleak-looking street.

SeerLight (Ronald Kuang)

Digital artist, animator, and game developer

Based in Los Angeles, California​ SeerLight’s art is known for its intricate line work and vibrant color palettes, often incorporating themes from anime, vaporwave aesthetics, cyberpunk, and escapism. His works primarily depict architectural scenes, cityscapes, and landscapes, blending realism with surreal elements​.

SeerLight frequently uses digital tools like Photoshop and Manga Studio to create illustrations. Many of his pieces also include subtle animations, such as moving clouds or pouring rain, to add depth and liveliness​.

SeerLight draws heavily from Asian culture, anime, and films such as Spirited Away and Your Name. He combines nostalgic and futuristic aesthetics, often using blue and purple tones to create serene yet vibrant visuals​. I especially appreciate how much detail gets put into every inch of the piece.

SeerLight is active on Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms where he shares his art. He also offers merchandise and prints through his online store and collaborates with brands like Vapor95 and Cucu Covers​.

Daniel Taylor

Daniel Taylor developed an interest in art as a child and began working with digital tools like Photoshop at 14. He transitioned to full-time artistry in 2015, combining 2D and 3D techniques to craft surreal, emotionally evocative pieces.

Taylor has worked with several major clients, including Adobe, Marvel, Playboy, Mondo, and New Scientist. Some of his standout projects include posters for Marvel films like Thor: Ragnarok and collaborations for the Adobe MAX conference​

Taylor's art is influenced by old comic book illustrations, particularly in the science fiction genre, and modern digital illustrators. He uses tools like ZBrush, KeyShot, and Photoshop, often layering digital renders with hand-drawn details to achieve his signature surreal effects​

His works have been featured in galleries such as Galerie Sakura in Paris and events like the Stroke Art Fair in Munich. Taylor is represented globally by Début Art. This piece specifically is the exact colour palette in thinking about including on all my cityscape backgrounds, I would also like to incorporate his super black cell shading if I can find a way to make it work.

[infinitejourneysinfiniteworlds]

DR Journaling: Shady Oak Lane

Better CR Life: My Careers, and My Art

I spent many years in my twenties traveling, working seasonally at resorts around the country, both inside and close to various national parks. It was my main bread and butter for a long time, though the work itself was very mundane and boring-- I did everything from housekeeping to retail. I finally settled into a comfortable position in the laundry room of the resort in the Berkshires that became my home for several years, eventually landing the Laundry Supervisor job. I lived and worked there until 2012, when I was able to make the change to working full time as a freelance artist, moving into town and getting a little apartment.

Before I had originally left Texas, I had taken classes at the Museum of Fine Art, taking their full drawing and painting program. It didn't give me a degree, but it allowed me to refine my skills to a professional level. When I started working in resorts around the country, I supplemented my income by painting landscapes of the local areas, with a theme of magic and enchantment. I would sell them in town, in consignment shops and local fairs and such, and some of the resorts I worked at also cut a deal with me to sell in their general on-site stores. At first, I rarely had prints made, due to it being impractical because of the distance I had to travel to do things like that; however, when I started working at the resort in the Berkshires, there was a lovely little town very close, Jasper, that had a printing service shop for artists. I was able to make prints and also start building an online presence and taking commissions here and there while still working at the resort. By the time 2012 rolled around I was making as much as, and sometimes more, than my resort pay with my artwork.

It was a little scary, taking that leap of faith and quitting my resort job, but it paid off so quickly. It helped that I had a pretty good-sized stash of money from wise investments that I'd built up over the years, so even though sometimes things were a bit lean work-wise, I was able to keep going. Once I did sign up for UBI (universal basic income), but I didn't need it for very long. I got my foot in the door, making the change from traditional art to mostly digital as I began creating art for big publishing houses, gaming companies, and the like.

After a little while I was able to shift my focus from commissions to creating, licensing, and selling personal work; this is now the bulk of my art income. I only take a handful of freelance gigs every year, and then only the ones I feel passionate about.

I am working on an elaborate, lavishly illustrated urban fantasy series currently. It's been my primary focus, as I'm doing very well financially, between the abundant passive incomes of my investments and print/merchandise sales, and the occasional freelance gig. I am also working on a video version of my series, with partially animated illustrations, original music, and voiceover acting/reading.

There is an absolutely fantastic program called MatrixSphere that I use for this; MatrixSphere is powered by a type of A.I. that respects intellectual property and doesn't harm artists or creatives of any kind. It doesn't do all the work for you, but it greatly streamlines the creative process while allowing for full control over the results. For instance, in the 3D modeling process, if you want to texture and animate your model, it's necessary to re-topologize to prevent warping, a process that is tedious and time-consuming. MatrixSphere's AI engine accurately calculates the best topology for a model based on your requirements (high poly, low poly, etc), runs the engine, and gives you a perfect or near-perfect output which you can then make minor edits to if necessary. This is just one example of how MatrixSphere streamlines the creative process. MatrixSphere also has animation-enhancing capabilities that take into consideration things such as natural movement, balance, center of gravity, even personality. Again, it doesn't do all the work for you but it makes things so much easier.

That being said, I still have a soft spot for traditional art with no technological tools, and I also enjoy digital painting and drawing without all the fancy enhancements.

Jasper is small, but it has a thriving artistic community, and plenty of venues for artists to showcase their work. I've got a few pieces in a gallery still from back when I was still doing local magical landscape art. I enjoy going to art functions now and again, though I don't really fit in with that crowd. I prefer to hang around fellow comic book/fantasy/roleplay geeks, and I've found my people both locally and online.

All in all, I am happy with where I am right now both artistically and career-wise. I am excited to see where my current projects will lead me in the future.

[tonytylerdraws]

June Newsletter - Artist of Nothing 001

This is a republish of my newsletter found on Substack or on my website’s blog.

Meet the artist

Hey there! My name is Antonio Tyler. I’m a part-time webcomic artist and illustrator, and have been drawing off and on for over 20 years. I tend to draw cyberpunk art, but I’ll also draw anything from superheroes to slice-of-life comics. Currently, I’m mostly an all-digital artist, though I have taken class and self taught myself in traditional methods as well. I live in the Bay Area of California.

Art I’ve done - for this first newsletter do the whole year

First half of the year recap

I ended up closing my Threadless store for a lot of reasons. One was the durability of printing for several t-shirts, particularly on heather t-shirts. Yes, the shirts often were only $15 for customers, but they should last more than a year! The second reason is that sales were low, despite having my designs in the Threadless Marketplace and on the Hot Topic website. Nearly all of my sales came from my storefront, so the added eyes on the other storefronts amounted to nothing. I ended up switching to Printful, and getting a website started on Squarespace. However, it’s been a struggle, mentally, getting that off the ground

I had very ambitious plans this year, and ended up watching a lot of YouTube videos on yearly planning, productivity, and running an art business. But when push came to shove, I really struggled. I was in a funk for a lot of the year, busy with my day job, and finding less and less time to draw. And when I did have time to draw, I often had terrible art block. I struggled with my art process, and was frustrated by low engagement.

Not all was terrible. I did a great job networking with other artists, reworked my plans, and decided to pivot away from engagement on social media. Social media is essentially dead, so my website, newsletter, and other outreach is now my focus

June plans

Cara

Boy howdy was there an exodus from Instagram. Cara exploded in users when Meta announced that they would begin feeding users’ images into their generative AI. While some users outside the United States could opt out, users in the US found it was almost impossible to do so.

I was on Cara before this all went down. It offers Glaze, an AI disruptive technology, for free through its website. For someone who doesn’t have a desktop device that can use Nightshade, it was the next best thing (though Ibis Paint, the drawing app integrated their own AI disruptive tech into their app)

Reset and going foward

For June, I’m planning on finally launching my website, storefront and newsletter/blog. I’m planning on releasing some Ibis Paint brushes for free. I’m also going to start on my cyberpunk webcomic, Only Human. Though, with Meta doubling down on Instagram’s AI scrapping, my original square format page idea might change.

[aerinis]

Doing my belated 2023 art review. Putting it below a read more because a lot of stuff happened this year and some of it is kind of heavy.

2023 was a pretty good year for me, both personally and artistically. I had a couple of annoying minor medical issues that I'm still dealing with, but I'd say I was able to maintain my goal of drawing at least one little doodle a day for most of the year. I will say though that the vast majority of what I drew this year - probably like 95% - was personal art. Hopefully someday I'll be satisfied enough with it to post it. I'd also like to spend 2024 focusing more on painting and practicing landscapes. I spent the first three months of the year working on a piece for a local art gallery competition, which actually ended up getting accepted and subsequently spent the rest of the year touring around the state in several different exhibitions. That introduced me to the wonderful world of trying to figure out how the hell digital prints and shipping work, but everything turned out fine in the end. It remains the largest piece I've ever made at 18"x24", and hopefully once I get it shipped back to me I'll be sending it off to my parents. I also found out that I HATE writing artist's statements, like fuck off you don't need to know my background, just interpret the piece however. I'd like to post here, but I want to make sure first that it hasn't been uploaded to the internet by any of the galleries since I'd like to keep my personal info off this blog lmao What's funny is that I feel like I've come so far as an artist ever since I submitted that piece, that every time I look at the B-grade prints I have lying around I'm like "oh my god this looks terrible, I can't believe this got accepted". I guess that's just what being an artist is like Following that, I took the next month off from art, which was a nice little break. I did a bunch of art parties in FFXIV, which are always great for improving, because as counter-intuitive as it seems the best way to get good at art is to be forced to draw a whole bunch of different things under strict time limits. I feel like I can definitely see my lineart improving as the months go on. I also started working more with color, my eternal nemesis, and I'm hoping next year I can really start to nail down a style. I did Art Fight for the first time ever in July and it ROCKED, definitely going to do it again this year and I'm still pretty proud of the drawings I did. I love an event where it's socially acceptable for me to draw people's OCs. I think I'll probably focus on doing more WoW OCs this year. Unfortunately July is the busiest month for me at work, where I'm waking up at 5AM for basically the entire month straight and working in 100+ degree weather, so we'll see if I can maintain the energy for it.

And now the heavy stuff. Some of you might know that I'm pretty involved in the secret finding community in WoW, and back during BFA when we spent 11.5 months trying to find Jenafur, I did paint-overs of a bunch of cat memes to try and keep spirits up during the hunt. Unfortunately, the Make-A-Wish kid who created the pet ended up passing away in April. You can read about her life here in this article that will make you want to guillotine a chemical executive, and this older interview from 2020 about the secret. But what really got to me was this one line from the PCGames interview:

And like, I don't want to be presumptuous but like. I think she was talking about my art. Every time I posted on she'd comment on it, and she even DMed me about them. This line fucking destroyed me. I'm not even going to exaggerate. For several days after we found out about her death I was a wreck. The thought that my silly little drawings actually had an impact on someone and made their life a little brighter just ruined me. The bill she was fighting for ended up passing, and I hope that someday the idea of 'forever chemicals' will cease to exist.

Downer ending but I'm kind of too bummed out to write more

[jonfarreporter]

Etchings: Those hues of gray and lines that stretch all the way to Rembrandt 

If you ask artist Dana Zed she will flat out tell you, “print isn’t dead!” She’s excited about being among the 17 participating artists in the Printmaking Marketplace exhibit and holiday sale event this December 9 & 10 at The Sausalito Center for the Arts (SCA). 

A lifelong artist, in a career spanning 40 years, Zed creates in a variety of media ranging from painting to glass sculpture. Yet as she explains “etching is such a luscious expression to work with.”

There’s something special about it. “That line quality, texture and range of grays,” she said. “I’m doing my etching work the way Rembrandt did it, with rosin induced aquatints and acid baths and I love the way embossing looks,” she said.

“The specific etching technique that Rembrandt practiced is still used today,” said Isabella Lores-Chavez. She is Associate Curator, of European Paintings at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “It involves a layer of wax applied to a copper plate that becomes the surface into which the etcher draws his composition with an etching needle,” Lores-Chavez added.

Zed points out that much of the work is a process. And, as she describes it, “there’s a dialogue between the artist and the work.”

“It’s never going to turn out with that kind of quality detail on a computer,” said Zed. While she does use digital technology in some of her art, etching is all hands on, no buttons to push or mouse to click.

Yes, it can get messy! Even so, the etching process and the results are unique and that can include some disappointments.“There’s a lot that can go wrong, says Zed, even if you are correctly following all the steps.” "Those ‘disappointments’ lead to more working on the plate until it is finished. “It may not be what I was aiming for,” said Zed, "but often it’s better than my original intent.”

Paying close attention is key. The outcome of a work could change unexpectedly because of something small like the timing of maybe just seconds in the acid, or on the hot plate or in the rosin box, as Zed said. 

“It’s a ‘challenge’ said Zed. But that’s the beauty of it. Her favorite subject for etchings are birds, “anthropomorphic in settings, a commentary on humans sort of “tongue-in-cheek” irony type of humor. 

“I’ve done florals but birds are a favorite and I stick with the traditional black and white/grayscale,” Zed exclaimed.

Zed mentioned that even the type and thickness of paper can make a difference. “That too can either add or take away from the intended work.” Zed affirmed that even as she has tried the “new” non-toxic way of etching: such as electro-etching. But for her the way Rembrandt did it is best, although quite toxic. 

As Zed explained. “Toxicity is why people use these new medium-techniques of soy based inks over oil based inks and Baldwin ground over the traditional Charbonnel.”

Etchings for Rembrandt was a way he could make his work more accessible and affordable to a wider audience.

While there can be a debate about the merger between art and commerce for Zed “Creativity is everywhere but artists have a vocation,” she said. Dedication to art is what separates it from being a hobby to that of a profession.

Printmaking is media that she prizes very much and one that truly requires artistry and mastery of skill. Zed suggests that printmaking, etching in particular has a clearer rubric for success than other media; abstract painting for example.

Zed along with the 17 other artists participating in the exhibit & holiday market sale are looking forward to having their art reach the public directly. “This is a rare opportunity,” said Shiva Pakdel, executive director of Sausalito Center for The Arts. “And a chance for people to meet and talk with the artists,” she added.

Sausalito Print Marketplace and Exhibit is for one weekend only, Saturday December 9 & Sunday December 10, 2023. Doors open at 10:AM. Sausalito Center for The Arts is located 750 Bridgeway at Achor Street, not far from the heart of downtown Sausalito.

Admission is free. For more information visit the Sausalito Center for The Arts (SCA) website.

[amberduan-ual]

Project Agreement Tutorials (20/4/23)

By the time of this class, I'd completed a third of the paintings in my Project A PleinAirpril challenge which is what I brought in to show. I decided at the beginning that all 30 paintings would be the same size and shape, to emulate the experience of drawing in a real sketchbook and so if I ever wanted to print the paintings as part of a book, I'd be able to format them relatively easily.

I chose to bevel the corners of the paintings because I liked the softer effect it gave, rather than the sharp 90 degree turns. I set the paintings slightly inside the square of the canvas rather than directly on the edges because I wanted there to be a bit of a frame to each painting, and also because I wanted room to date each piece underneath. It also had an added benefit of creating more continuity to my Instagram feed, where I was posting the pieces.

The first two paintings I did for PleinAirpril were plein airs done from real life observation. I constructed a little window out of cardboard for my first painting, which I did at night time from my room.

I used a lot of brushes with color mixing for these two because I'd seen other digital artists create really gorgeous effects with the color variation. I focused a lot on trying to capture the colors and lighting I saw relatively accurately at this stage.

For the third painting, I followed along to the first Warrior Painter's demo with Angela Sung, one of the hosts of the Warrior Painter community! For this demo, I was trying to follow the same painting techniques as Angela. She uses the lasso tool a lot to select certain parts of the painting, and then fills that area with a solid color. I think it was a valuable experience to try and work that way, but I found that it definitely doesn't work for me very well. I didn't really feel like I had a lot of control over what I wanted to do, and it really slowed my process down a lot as well.

For the next two paintings, I tried to push my colors a bit beyond just what I saw, but in hindsight they were pretty close to the original. I experimented a bit with linework in the chicken painting, which I liked but ultimately gave up on in favor of lineless painting instead.

Also at this point, I started using reference photos instead of drawing from real life, since it cost a lot of time to scout out and visit specific locations, which I discovered for Day #2 since I did that at Holland Park near Kennington Palace. Almost all the rest of the paintings I did were of photos I took from spring break, which I wanted to do since it was like a way of documenting the places I traveled to :)

For Day 6, I painted while watching Marco Bucci's YouTube video series on tips for better painting. It was really helpful to take in his tips and I found myself actively incorporating his tips into my painting as I worked on it.

I merged my shapes into defined sections and was conscious of making sure colors from certain dominant areas were also present in less prominent areas, to a lesser degree.

For the next four paintings, I tried to keep those lessons in mind and experiment with my painting techniques to see what worked the best for me.

[acdtjessicaowen]

WC- 13th March

Today was all about organising how we were going to complete the book over the next two weeks. The first step was to go and get our paper, it was all dried out exactly how we wanted it to, the last step was to flatten all of our paper in the print. We left this the whole day to ensure it was perfect to use. Shown below...

For the rest of today, we worked as a group to complete all the content which was going to go into our book. I started to complete digital drawings using procreate using past nature photography I really enjoyed this as it was something I had never tried before however due to time I did not complete this to go in the book but I would like to do more of this in the future.

Today we also had to consider how we were going to print the book, therefore, we went down to the print room and asked about potential screen printing however due to the cost of calligraphy paper and the short about of time due to uncertainty we did not feel up to doing it. Due to this, we had to look at alternate ways of printing so we went to the Curzon printing room to ask about painting in A2 and we also decided to test print some pages on some card A3 size to see what the outcome would be. Due to the paper still flattening we had to leave this till Friday to compare the size to the front cover.

Wednesday 14th March

Today I completed my poems for the book, this was the hardest part for me as I've never really been good at writing however surprisingly I enjoyed this process as I used the poem generator which allowed me to complete multiple poems.

Friday 17th March

Today consisted of continuing to put together the content of our book, today all of our papers were flattened and ready to use. So we were now able to complete a front cover for our book, I took on the task of decorating the front cover which is something I enjoyed this process did take longer than I thought it would due to me trying to stitch the flower into the page shown below. This was very difficult due to the thickness of the paper making it very hard to stitch into I had to use string and bamboo skewers however, in the end, it worked out alright however if I was to do this again I would've spent more time on it.

While I completed the front cover the rest of the group had different things to do to bring the book together. Layla and Leila were completing the stitching of the paper together for the back this was also quite time-consuming due to the thickness of the paper.

Before stitching, we had to consider the colour of the stitch this was inspired by the natural dye workshop we had a few weeks ago. In the end, we decided on the most natural one.

While doing this Muki was printing each page of the book, we decided to go A3 card as A2 would've been to big for the front cover and the printer would not print too big. Doing it A3 also means we used less paper as we just cut up the paper which was already within the studio making the pieces more sustainable.

Today we also started to use a pen plotter this worked successfully for one member if the group's poem in Urdu script this looked really nice and it was a really interesting way to incorporate technology into the book.

We wanted this to also have a meaning which linked to our performance them of comfort and home therefore we each made our moms complete the alphabet in handwriting Meg then made us each a font from it for the pen plotter however when we started to use this the pen plotter stopped writing the poems effectively as it would just overlap as it was writing this was due to motor breaking as we where using it meaning we where unable to use this machine with our piece. This meant that the following week we had to handwrite each of our poems.