#i really like the lineart on this one tbh i had a lot of fun drawing his smugass face

[sskk-manifesto]

Finally got around to watching ep 11 (´；ω；｀)

[bornetoblood]

Shallow Grave Among the Weeds,

Where the Pale Worms Creep,

Wake Up and Worship the Great Gold Sheep.

[sanctus-ingenium]

Just wanted to ask, please forgive me if you've already answred this, what program do you use? Your art fucks HARD and like. I was looking at your art of the two moths over the city they die in and I was hit with the wave of "oh that looks really fucking fun actually." Like i know my art program can't do some of those effects and like, I'd love to try fucking about with them.

hi there, thank you! all my art is done in procreate and paint tool sai

because you mentioned that drawing in particular i thought it would be fun to break it down and show ppl what exactly went into each part of it so check this out

sketch & lineart - the brushes come from georgbrush.club and the urban sketcher is my most commonly used lineart brush, it has a nice irregular shape. the square brush is nice for big blocky sketches.

the cityscape was REALLY hard but basically I got a photo of the skyline of florence, traced some basic building shapes, then bullshitted the rest using the vertical symmetry/mirror tool to cut down on the amount of work (so i only had to sketch one half of the city). then for lineart I turned off vertical symmetry, turned on the two-point perspective tool, and got this:

the rose windows were made using the radial symmetry tool.

I didn't like it being so flat, so I used the liquify tool to make a kind of fish-eye effect (limited success tbh). I liked how it looked but the buildings in front needed something to cover them up to make the liquification less obvious...

first pass colours. I felt they were very washed out, aside from the sun which i loved. I use the spectra brush (default procreate) for skyscapes a lot, I love the texture. Although the clouds were filled in using the lasso selection tool, I softened the edges using the square pencil again and added texture using true grit sampler grainy brushes. The translucency effect comes from my setting the brush as an eraser. The sun rays come from the radial symmetry tool.

Blocking in the moths' colours was done with the urban sketcher again.

Something people may not have noticed is the labyrinth hidden in the sky! yeah I had a bunch of versions where it was more obvious but I found that it clashed a bit and was too busy, so I made it subtle. But yes. I searched for "royalty free labyrinth" and picked one.

The toner grit brush is one you've seen before if you've looked at any art on tumblr lately (this is such a popular brush) and it's from the true grit fast grit set. The pointillism brush is from the true grit free sampler pack, like my grain brushes.

I added shadows to the moths, increased saturation overall, and changed the clouds to a translucent blue (you can even see in the sun where I forgot to block in the sun itself because the clouds over it used to be opaque lol). Moon rays were drawn using the radial symmetry tool but this time with rotational symmetry off. I also moved the moon down closer to the moths because I felt that it was a bit far away, and this served to visually divide the drawing into three equal parts, so I chose to lean into that and divide the sky colours too, to show passing time, or an endless moment - morning, evening, night, etc.

And then the oroborous, I tried a few different effects on it because I wanted it to be very clearly separate from the main scene - I settled on a dot matrix newsprint texture, using procreate's onboard tool, and some heavy chromatic aberration. This is because the oroborous isn't real, it's purely symbolic and the moths' demise started when they became photographers so I liked the print media aspect there as well. The story itself is about grief without closure, cyclical violence, and sunk cost fallacy, while everyone explores an endless labyrinth, so an oroborous fits I think

what makes art fun to me is thinking up ways I can tell a story using just a single image. and sure a lot of it will be lost to an audience who isn't familiar with the characters or backstory but i want to leave enough in there that even complete strangers to my work will be able to construct a narrative about what's happening here, rather than it just being a cool image. that's my goal.

Finally I exported it to sai on my pc to give it a once-over. this is really important because the retina display on an ipad is oversaturated on purpose, to make everything look amazing and vibrant. but what this means is that on other screens, your work might look washed out. it's especially bad at displaying yellows! so i look at it in sai on my pc and i make minor adjustments, in this case I actually added another multiply layer on the moths and an overlay on their non-shadowed parts to increase the contrast there.

finally if you've read this far, I played a little trick with the caption of the drawing. yeah, THEY die... but only one of those moths is a theythem pronoun haver... the other has to survive. he isn't given a choice in the matter.

[your-local-uwu-artist]

it was suggested I post this to the tags as well >:D

fuck it ima tag @transcendence-au as well because tbh I'm very proud of my silly little animation

some me being a nerd under the cut!

okay so this all started when I read the original post this was inspired by and though 'wouldn't it be silly to add some art to this 3 year old post?' but then I decided to animate it for funsies!

and gosh I sure do love animating!

So I got the base sketch and then got into the lineart animation for each component!

i don't have the sketches/wips saved at all sense this wasn't really a project and it took less than a day to complete. but here's a peak at the timeline

I animate entirely in my ususal drawing software: clip studio paint. It's just what's easiest for me.

all of these layers outside that folder are just the sparkles! after I finished I added some sparkles for fun! there's a lot of them because it involved a lot of copy and pasting sparkle layers

the bottom folders here are the wings body and facial expression! for everything like the wings arms and flags I was able to just copy paste, reverse, and then align the timing correctly in the timeline

one thing unique about this animation is that the lineart and colors are in separate layers! I tend to do line and colors on the same layer but this time I was using a brush that doesn't have the same lack of anti-aliasing and sense it's a small animation I wasn't as worried about keeping a minimum of layers like usual.

also the movement of the body is only 4 frames! and one one of those is just the hat shifting position

initially I wasn't going to have the second facial expression but when I got stuck on animating the flags I added the second facial expression while taking a break.

the arm animation is just 8 frames! honestly the only tricky part in this is the flags, everything else was pretty simple, which made it super fun to work on because I got both a challenge and mindless therapeutic drawing out of it.

NOW THE FLAGS there was 3 throw away attempts before I got it: you see the thing that made this tricky is finding the balance between believability and visual appeal. a big part of animation is creating the illusion of physics, this is the 'believability' part, I need these to look like flags that are moving and made of flat fabric, HOWEVER if I animate these one-to-one with realistic physics: it won't look good! I can't apply wind to the whole drawing because then the hair would have to react, and wind goes one way, and I wan't the flags to be pointing opposite directions. so without wind the flags would be laying down flat, but that won't look good at all! and furthermore realistic physics would have the flag not being all nice and front facing most of the time. so the trick here was figuring out how much physics to apply to make it look believable, while still making it look good.

one trick I did to help me animate the flags is I actually made a plan rectangle flag as a guide so that the general mass/volume of the flag would stay consistent, this is something i highly recommend when animating! like having a circle guide along a characters head to keep their height and proportions consistent.

after I finally found the balance with the flag lineart coloring wasn't too hard! sense I just had to follow the lines, and THANK GOODNESS the trans and aroace flag have the same number of stripes: saving me time!

and then it all comes together to make a satisfying perfectly looping bundle of cuteness >:DDD I feel like the tau fandom doesn't have as many artists with particularly cartoony/chibi art styles so I've gotta play my part in spreading the joy-whimsy-adorable-sillys >:D

anyway! hope you get to see a cool beetle today :D

[sualne]

hi i love your frame study post with luffy and zoro I was wondering can you tell me about it more it seems like alot of fun and i want to try it, like when you trace the frame is it just the silhouette sorry im not very good at drawing and this seems like a fun way to figure out dynamic poses

it is a fun a way to figure out dynamic poses!! that's why i started doing it, it's also to study animation and an easy way to warm up

the first real step is looking at a scene frame by frame on youtube with , and ; to see what's going on exactly then taking a bunch of screenshots. here i just wanted to see what was going on, there was a lot of impact frames in ep1100, lots of cool fighting choreography so i stared a lot, hadn't originally planned on redrawing anything but i was obsessed with these few frames of luffy turning.

i try to trace as loosely as i can, i change the design/body type to fit the one i draw the character with and try to guess what the parts out of frames could look like, sometime it's also fun to make an inbetween that isn't there! i try to see how "can i make it more?", like how much can i push an expression or what if i make the hair more gooey looking (because gear 5's hair is very gooey)? or wilder looking as if there was a lot more wind/movements happening (for the clothes as well)? here luffy's missing his head in the first frame because i changed it so much there was no need to bother redrawing it again, i used it directly for the lineart. beside the body i try to trace the shadows too, sometimes the effects but i don't keep them in past the tracing stage since it's not what im trying to study.

the goal isn't to draw something good but to understand why the original worked and picked your attention.

after the tracing is done you can't look at the og frame again and work from what's been traced only, this way it inevitably ends up looking different, like the shadow changing places on top of adding details for the fun of it. there's no need to redraw the same line over and over until it looks perfect, it's meant to be quick and loose. mess around, see what works and doesn't and why.

the zoro vs kamazo fight is one of my favorite because the animation really goes wild, i didn't bother with redrawing the lineart and pretty much only messed around with stronger shadows because the main goal was to redraw the dramatic angles to see how it works. it would've a been a lot better/actual study if i had redrawn the body entirely afterwards to really understand the perspective and all.

it's what i did with that 3 seconds walk, tbh one of the reason im obsessed with the song so much, i love that animation and wanted to figure out why it worked so well (i don't think the way i've reanimated it with law works the same at all but still a ton of fun to do).

[tariah23]

Omgggg

Sksjsks I went onto my insta and saw that someone liked this… old Jolynes from like, 2015-17 or so that I never got to finish (they’re all on my old laptop… I will rescue my files one day… this was my old cartoony style. I’ve revamped it a LOT. It used to be so much more loose… I kind of wish that it still was because it made the style look more simplistic and free? I’ve always been a huge fan of simple art styles!) I remember making an attempt at drawing every canon Jolyne outfit that I could find (at least the official colored drawings, not the ones from the manga since that would’ve been too much for me. I have the Jojoveller (I bought the Jojoveller back when it first came out from Japan and paid like, almost $200 for it orz….. should’ve waited for the price drop lol. I have every JJBA artbook tbh. But that helped me track down most of the official Jolyne stuff. Not all but a lot of it!) I’d drawn up at least 20 outfits at this point. At least I think so? These were just some of them. Hopefully, I’ll be able to retrieve my drawings again… the faces that I used to draw on my old style used to be so ugly, sorry.

Here’s an example of this same style but revamped to now lol…

(Yuki wip…. The bodies have more standard anatomy but the hands are still blocky like??? The faces are prettier tho…. Has it lost a bit of personality? Maybe… I do like my new style tho… But could I still even call it a cartoony style, especially since it looks more anime than before :/…. Uh, I’m thinking too hard on this :(….)

Another example is this Rengoku… it’s a little diff from the Yuki one despite being the same cartoon like style? (Barely cartoon anymore…) I don’t usually draw the nostril slit for this style but I did so for Yuki since it just looked better… idk if I’m gonna start doing that or not, I’ve literally been driving myself insane over deciding if I want to start drawing nostrils or not… for this Rengoku, it’s definitely more accurate to the style that I was pushing for but hm….. Similar to these Makima’s…. I didn’t draw the nostril…

I like to keep the ears very simple in this style as well and again, look at Makima’s hands. They’re supposed to be blocky like this hehe. The Yuki wip is more of an improvement of this same style but I’ve been so all over the place with it… I feel so bad, omg. The most polished example that I could find immediately of the original cartoon style was of these Shinobu’s… see how round and free everything is!?

Don’t even get my started on the chibi styles…. I have a handful… because I’m indecisive. The Sukuna wips are from a new chibi style that I’ve been thinking about and I rly like it… The Kak/Oc chibi was for a commission that I had sm fun drawing for. I still like the style! I’ve always loved when artists left the pupils white for some reason? I wanted to do that, too! I forgot to color the lineart in the girls skirt lol….

This style with Sanemi and Uzui is rly cute to me as well… I will not be retiring it. I kind of hate the old chibi style with Josuyasu tho. Hideous to me. And overly complicated. I don’t really like chibi styles that have TOO much going on, especially if they’re not as cute since chibi’s are supposed to be cute. I said ugly but beauty in art is subjective sjsjs… if they’re pretty and cute than idc. So I technically have three chibi styles that I like.

Ohh actually, I have two other chibi styles….. fuck, I just don’t have any pics of them that I’ve uploaded, only saved as files. One isn’t really a serious style at all tho, they were for fun (experimental) and the chibi that you can see hanging in the corner of Yuki in the wip above is of another simpler style as well…

[taqoou]

hi, your art style is so cool!! i love it

as a beginner artist, i was wondering if you had any helpful tips for procreate or anything? the art world is kinda daunting lol😅

thank u so much!! ive been feeling down ab my art so seeing this in my inbox was like a sweet treat LMAOO 🎀

so back to the q…. im afraid i dont have any mind blowing tips. its normal to feel overwhelmed as a beginner, but everyone starts somewhere! i say familiarize urself with basic procreate shortcuts (loads of tutorials online) and always play around with their settings! it should be helpful for the learning process along the way.

for eg ermm i used to abuse the gradient maps settings to pretend i know shit ab colouring 😭💀 i still do tbh, except now i understand how it actually works and i can easily get the colours that i want.

some of the things i learned:

1. cool lineart (i always use this as a part of my render process)

2. art is subjective, pick any that you think suits your preference/is fun to use

for brush, do you prefer it round or textured? lots of pressure sensitivity or none? i like my brushes textured and with a good amount of pressure sensitivity. for blending, do you prefer the transition colour to appear smooth or textured/messy? i sometimes mix between both to give a sense of harmony, but i like it textured more. it all comes down to what feels right to you. pick a few artyles that you like and incorporate it into ur own! pretty basic tip but thats the best way that i know. just pretend ur a mad scientist trying to find cure for like cancer or sumn

3. personal opinion: brush type matters

dont listen when someone says the type of brush u use doesnt matter. yes you can draw with any brush. yes all brushes work the same way 🤯🤯🤯. but theres gotta be that ONE brush that just hits the spot for you, as if its made specially for Your Hands….. unfortunately theres no shortcut to finding Your Brush. it took me 4 years of endless experimenting to find mine.

if ur curious on what brushes i use, i have it listed in my carrd. however i still experiment a lot and dont rly bother to update it, but those should be what i use the most/my top favs !

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

i dont think this covers everything, but this is all i could think of from the top of my head. just lots of trials and errors really, and dont be afraid to make a mess!!! i hope this answers ur question :33 all the best!

[kaksparkz]

for the artist askgame, idk how many youve answered already but 3,4,10,12,21,24 and 35!

hello helloo!! sorry im just answering this now, been pretty busy^^ (also, using this chance to thank u for your support!! i always see u interacting with my stuff here hbasfcyhdb you're a sweetheart😭💕)

Your fav piece/s?

Probably this vergil one! i still love how it looks djddgnds my art peaked here im afraid,,,,,

Piece you wish got more love?

hmm, this is an interesting one!! tbh i dont mind it much but this johnny fanart got waaaaay more attention on instagram!! i mean,,, i have a lot of mk moots there so it makes sense lol (and also just got to 1k followers on IG!! crazy stuff💌)

How do you deal with artblock?

to be honest, once i realize i have artblock i stop drawing for a couple of days. if i keep insisting on drawing i just get more and more frustrated and it makes it worse imo. so i like to spend some time doing my other hobbies!!! (´▽｀)

usually i just come back to drawing once i regain motivation or i get a cool idea that i need to sketch so i wont forget. and when that happens, my artblock is usually gone!! so,, i guess i just wait for it to go away? lol not much advice i can give on that sadly :/

Describe your process while drawing!

CHAOTIC. to say the least.

i spend like. half an hour on pinterest beforehand getting inspo & searching for refs and ONLY THEN i can start drawing. i start on SAI1, do the sketch and if i like how it looks, i just clean it up. if it dont, i do 'proper' lineart. after that i start coloring and shading!! this is my fav part tbh. once im done shading i color the lineart so its not completely black. then i open up SAI2 and start doing more rendering, adding overlays & effects. that part is also SO FUN cause it makes everything come together so nicelyy. my art process is a pretty big 'trust the process' till that part lol.

there's ALWAYS music or yt videos playing in the bg, and me taking A LOT of 15 minutes breaks cause that one song is so good and i have to stop drawing and start singing while looking at the spotify lyrics like im hypnotized LMAO

What do you thin you artstyle woukd taste like?

people always say my art looks so tasty and. i kind of agree!! like. smth very sweet. it really depends on the colors i use on the piece but,,, either hard candy, gummies, marshmallows or even syrup i think!!!

What's a compliment about your art that has always stuck with you?

i get super giddy with every compliment i get so i dont think i can remember one in particular??? but istg people always say the funniest, most sweet things ever and it's so nice to hear :3 but if i had to say smth,,, i once had the chance to talk with this one incredibly talented illustrator, and he kept telling me how he thought my stuff looked amazing. and i was like!!! wow!!! you actually like my stuff?? what!!!!

Piece of advice for my younger artist self

i would sit this little girl down and talk to her for hours tbh poor thing was STRUGGLING 😭😭😭

i guess my best advice for her (and for anyone who reads this, too!) is to not be so hard on yourself. art is a skill, and it takes a lot of time to build it up!!!

i used to get SO extremely upset when my stuff didnt look the way i wanted it to and ughhh. took me literal years to find my artstyle too and that didn´t help AT ALL with how frustrated i was feeling. i felt,,, stuck??

but now i look back at my art journey and. wow have i improved!! maybe if that little girl saw the stuff i do today she wouldn´t be so sad about her art :´] not to say i don´t struggle today, i still feel stuck and frustrated often!! but i guess i learned to be kinder to myself. but i still have lots of things to improve about my art!! i wonder when i´ll take another look back and see how much i´ve progressed since today,,,

thank you for the ask!! (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

[cqtlatte]

hiii your art always make my day better, so hope u had a good day too. But can I ask what brushes you usually use in your arts? Like the way you use brushes and colors are so good TuT I can't fathom it sometimes. How do u make those kinds of textures. I'm new in this tumbler, so apologies if it's already been answered before. <33

Heyo anon, thanks for asking and no problem! I've answered this a couple of times before across all my platforms, but ig this is a good opportunity to answer and add to my carrd FAQ! <3 Let me break down what I use them for a bit too. (lots of blabbing below so I'll but a read-more tab)

Main:

 (sketching) Design pencil (default in CSP, you can probably find it on the assets store because it was from the earlier version of CSP)

(sketching/coloring/general use) G-pen

(sketching/coloring/general use) Dense watercolor (same case as the design pencil)

As for brushes that I use for texturing and painting, I use the Daub brush pack for CSP. My favorites come from the aenigma, pigmento, and basiliscus sets. You can find them on gumroad, or just google! I believe they have brushes for procreate and photoshop too but I think the brush packs aren't the same across platforms. 

For making the texture itself, it's kind of a random process that idk how to explain properly lmao. Let me link my Kokomi timelapse so you can see how much I jump around the canvas to carve out the textures:

 I like to use different blending modes and layer tons of different colors. The color jitter function is super amazing too for that purpose, but probably shouldn't be overused for the sake of balance. (personally still trying to avoid over-saturating my works with textures tbh)

To be 100000% honest though, I tend to jump around a lot, and I certainly don't use all of those brushes in every piece.

I used to lurk around a lot myself and hoard tons of brushes other artists were using, until I saw a comment of an artist I admire: "sometimes the brush you use really isn't important. Without practice the painting will be ugly."(not the most accurate translation probably because it was written in another language)

After that I had like… an epiphany moment where I really believed them, and drew a Bonanus fanart in June. I made the lineart with a g-pen (which I never used cuz I always thought I'd be somehow inhibiting my creative power using default brushes or something), and the piece ended up blowing up on twt much to my surprise.. LOL. After that, I started to care less about other's brushes and instead of looking for more, try to figure out how I could make cool textures and strokes with the ones I currently had at my disposal.

(said bonanus art)

This isn't a statement to say "stop looking for other artist's brushes, copying brushes bad, etc" because there is a LOT that you can learn from using other artist's brush inventory.

But you can also have a lot of fun drawing when you focus less about what other's use, and more about what brushes YOU are comfortable using + feels right to you. Sometimes you may even need to tweak them a bit in their brush settings instead of using their default form before they feel comfy for you! It's a matter of exploring and figuring out what works and what doesn't in your workflow, hehe.

Anyways I hope this answer helps as we all continue our art journey together. Sending positive vibes your way anon! <3

[ravenlunaticart]

14. Any favorite motifs

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

Ohooh! A triple threat!

14.) Fav motifs are def things I pull into my own stuff so Aesthetically? Moons, halos, Christian imagery, arrows, and fire to name a few. Thematic ones would be queerness and parody, monstrosity and nature being deified. I like taking things seemingly mundane and making them something more. I like taking uncommon subjects and giving them a kind of transcendence cause I think there is something so remarkable about just existing sometimes and is easily forgotten in the day to day. Overly poetic and sappy? Perhaps! Haha

16.) Ohhhh hmm this is interesting cause I will admit I'm fairly critical of most steps of my process so there isn't a lot I honestly believe I'm good at. And even less that I don't enjoy doing 🤔 maybe uh lineart? I don't hate it tbh I often do enjoy it but it's kinda a necessary evil now? I don't think about lineart too hard but I do get a lot of compliments on it as well as my sketches. I do enjoy those things but I guess they become a bit second nature or monotonous haha. Though I could say the same about shading sometimes. Idk adhd, baby I'm easily bored hahaha!!

This piece is a good example in the sense the lineart was a means to an end in the sense that I drew the lineart first then played with it to create the melted effect then redrew it to nail down the lines. This one also has a nice bit of line weight variation which is fun.

20.) Idk if everyone finds it hard but I know a few of my peers really don't like doing realism in anatomy or life studies, which is totally fair! But I adore it. Theres something very satisfying about staring at a reference for a few hrs and trying to draw it with accuracy. I find a lot of inspiration from old school scientific drawing and had thought of studying it as a discipline too for a bit. I was trained in drawing first and it has become a comfort zone for me so I often do it to relax which some of my friends find insane haha! That said I really do just love investing time into a detailed drawing and see it develop. For instance this old moth drawing from 2020 I spent like uhhh 6-8 hours on this. I used a hb mechanical pencil 0.5 and did ever teeny little scale texture abd I loved every second 😅 Good to listen to podcasts too.

[snarky-art]

2, 8, 17, 20 and 21 for the art ask game 👀

2. Favorite thing about my style

Hnnnng h a r d. I think my anatomy work, my painterly style when I do more intense pieces, my sketchiness for the rest, and the way I draw hair! I also like my line work a lot of the times

8. What’s the most fun and least fun parts about your process

Most fun: sketching and lighting, even if I don’t know how it works really🥲

Least fun: figuring out the initial composition, final lineart of Im not doing a more casual sketchy piece, and the base colors. Color palettes are hard and filling it all in (even with doing an outline that I fill in automatically and color dropping) is soooo tedious for me😭 it feels like I’m slogging through the most boring stuff just so I can get to the fun stuff again

17. What do you love getting compliments about

How I draw bodies! One of my favorite compliments I’ve ever gotten was from @teawink and it was saying I draw bodies really fleshy and like,, omg thank you so much I’m so glad you think so akdjdjsj

Also, posing. I don’t always do stuff with that as an emphasis, but on the ones I do that have that, I love seeing it appreciated🥺 my last major zelda piece for example! I had comments about the perspective in the tags and it made me feel so good fr

20. A piece from this year that you’re really proud of

OUGHHH H A R D. I have a few that I’m gonna have to include because I think I deserve it lol

The zelda piece i mentioned above, the mythix redesigns for the winx because the detail work I went through on that was INSANE, this owl house piece because I still can’t get over how much this poem works with it, and this commission for @hag-rambling-on because of the poses and way I really love how the magic is like,, consuming the individuals

21. Something you would like to improve on

Soooo much!! Anatomy, positioning and space layout, characters interacting, perspective, lighting (esp reflected light), detail work, BACKGROUNDS BIG TIME, and so on and so on and so on

There’s always stuff I can improve, and I love my style and my work, and tbh I haven’t really suffered with “oh my art looks shite compared to so and so” since I was like 14 because i view stuff more like, “oh I like this part of so and sos style, how can I integrate that into mine” and see it as more of a learning opportunity than a fault of my own in anyway, BUT that doesn’t mean I’m not always thinking of ways I can improve

[killemwithkawaii]

Goretober 2022 'The Staycation 🏡💙' Post-Event Reflection

Some thoughts about how the event went, now that it's concluded, so I can look back and reference them next year ✅

Positives:

>Introductions to the Mitchs: I was SO HAPPY to FINALLY be able to share all of my selfinsert characters with you guys!! I’ve been slowly developing them and their stories ever since ‘KEWKs Kidnapping,’ but wanted to come up with an interesting way to reveal all of them to you. I’ve wanted to, but held back on making art and fics about them because I wanted to save all of it for The Staycation event. Now that the event is concluded and they’ve all been introduced, I’ll be able to freely talk about and draw them as much as I like! I can already tell they have a few fans, (particularly Mitch(2)/ coworker!Mitch, who just so happens to be my favorite one! c:) so please feel free to ask about them/ their AUs if you’d like to. I may hold mini events where I RP as them and L.S.S. during their original timelines, but for now, I’d like to finally make character sheets for them and maybe write fics for their original AUs :D

>Trying new things: I took this event as an opportunity to try out some different artistic mediums that I don’t usually dabble in- pencil (my go-to before I started drawing digitally), pen/marker, collage, pixel art/ simple animation, digital but with simple lineart and a new brush, and I even threw a poem in there! It was a ton of fun to experiment with all of these, and I found that I really enjoyed all of them and would like to mess around with them more in the future. I particularly liked making the pixel art for videogame!Mitch and the collages for dealer!Mitch, and am very happy I finally figured out how to make simple animated gifs out of my art c:

>Story building: I had SO MUCH fun creating the story for this event, dropping hints to the ending, including throwbacks/references to past goretober events and sprinkling in easter eggs in the art and writing, especially all the references to food/eating, rabbits, and wolves/dogs! (tbh for a minute there, I was worried I was making things too obvious lol) I’ll have to make an ‘in case you missed it’ post pointing out some things that people haven’t mentioned yet…~

>Productivity: I succeeded in creating a total of 41 pieces of art and wrote at least 100 pages of story for this event, with about 90% of it created between October 1st and November 1st! Not too shabby, if I do say so myself UwU Doing this event always shows me that I’m capable of doing way more than I give myself credit for, and while that rapid pace is not at all sustainable long-term, I’m still very proud that I was able to pull off what I did in that short amount of time! It also gets me into the practice of drawing and writing much faster in general, which means my general art and writing will turn out quicker, too (good news for you guys, now that I’m back to my usual shenanigans~)

>Better self-care: While I did not succeed in avoiding all the pitfalls I fell into during the 2021 ‘The Do-Over’ goretober event, I still did a better job at caring for myself during this years event than the last. I managed to make time for a little socializing, did not lose as much weight over the course of the month as I did last year, and managed to avoid having a major breakdown due to the workload (still had a little cry toward the end, but it lasted like 5 minutes so I just consider it business as usual lol).

Negatives:

>Planning does not equal preparing: I did a lot of planning for this event- tons of spreadsheets, notes, ideas and a rough outline for each chapter- but I quickly learned that planning is not a substitute for preparing. I thought it would be much easier to write in real-time this year with so much to pull from in my back pocket, but I still ended up writing and drawing for at least 3-8+ hours every day during the event and often stayed up past 4am to finish the content for each day. Even with all that work, I was unable to fit in A LOT of what I wanted to include, simply because there was not enough time to create it from scratch. 

Out of all the ficlets posted during the event, the only ones that were prewritten were the finalized day zero fic, the rough drafts for Penpal, Coworker, and Neighbors original introductions, and the draft for Penpals original death, and out of all the art posted, only the intro pics for Mitch 1-5 were completed before the 1st . Everything else was created within a few days of being posted, usually the same day. So, it’s safe to say at least 90% of this event, written and drawn, was improv and was therefore not the quality I wanted for it to be, despite all the effort I put into it. 

>Things not going as intended: Despite having so much planned before October, having preset points for the appearances and deaths of each S/I and a definite ending in mind, the inbetween parts went VERY differently than what I’d set out to make them, simply because I had nothing concrete actually written for them and got new ideas mid-event. Still, I hope each chapter is enjoyable for what they turned out to be! (I may end up writing a fic version of this event that goes how I originally intended, or how I wish they turned out after-the-fact…)

>Human limitations: Despite telling myself not to do what I did last year, the pace I set was incredibly demanding, and after putting in so much work for the whole month, I was completely exhausted by the 31st. That day, I was feeling very sick and was having trouble thinking straight, but because it was pretty much the final day of the event and I’d come so far, I wanted to post something and get it over with. The writing posted on that day is not at all what I wanted it to be- it was, after all, supposed to be the climax of the story, but it fell completely flat and I am very, very disappointed with it. I intend to go back and edit it when I’m feeling up to it, but for now, I’m still recovering and trying not to beat myself up over it too bad…

>Lack of interaction: First off, I am incredibly grateful to those of you who sent in asks during The Staycation, with a special shout-out to @meadow-hearthfire and @stormcellarwitch! Your asks played a MAJOR part in the story and really helped to move it along and spark inspiration for me. Thank you so, so, SO much for your participation!! I really hope you enjoyed the ride, and that you’ll join me for next years goretober event as well :D

That being said, I was disheartened by the general lack of interaction during the event, especially after I was told there were a number of people that were excited to participate. I had more asks than I could handle last year and about half the number of followers that I do now, so I was anticipating a big turn-out and am wondering why that didn’t happen. (What made it more confusing was that I actually gained quite a few followers during the event, when I’d expected to lose a bunch due to the shift in content! But otherwise, there was very little activity in my feed…) I do realize I’m not owed interaction from any of you, and that my goretober events are very self-indulgent and different from my usual stuff, but I would still very much appreciate some constructive input as to why people were not interacting as I’d hoped and what I can do next year to motivate participation:

Was it boring? Too repetitive? Too confusing or involved? TL;DR? Were you disappointed because it wasn’t what you expected it to be? Were you confused as to how you could interact, what you were supposed to do, or assume you could not participate for some reason? Did you enjoy and follow the event, but just didn’t feel like participating in it? Are my goretober events just not your thing, and you were simply waiting for when the blog went back to the usual vibe? Or, were you just busy with life and didn’t have time to participate this year? 

Thank you in advance for your input! It’ll be very helpful to me so I can make next year as entertaining and fun as possible for you guys and for myself ^^

Notes to Self for 2023 (that may be useful anyone that wants to do an event like this themselves):

>PREPARE: You DO NOT want this to take over your whole life for the entire month or be unsatisfied with the results because it’s rushed!! Make a goal to have AT LEAST 50% of the writing and art done (ESPECIALLY THE FINALE) before October 1st, and have an outline written for the rest. It is WAY easier to edit things a little during the event than to make it all from scratch the same day you post it!!

>Stick with the plan: Throwing in some things on impulse is fun, but taking a hard left out of nowhere just makes it so you have to improvise even more afterwards. Make a flowchart if choices made by the audience can affect the story progress so that you can stay on track and still get to where you need to go in the end.

>Be interactive, but independent: Include audience participation when/if it's offered, but do not depend on it, because it may not be there when you need it. 

>Be clear: Set guidelines for participation, what the event is about, and make a masterlist/ guide for past events and the AUs within them so newcomers can get up-to-speed with the story so far

>Do some refreshing: Reread your own writing and take notes so you actually remember your own story. It will spark new ideas and help keep things consistent! Also, edit things that are not congruent and fix any plot holes you find.

>Remember this story is for you!: Just because people aren’t participating doesn’t mean your story isn’t worth creating and putting out there. Make it because you love it, and if people like it, that’s great! If not, you have a whole story custom tailored to your tastes, and that’s awesome, too ^^

Thanks for reading! I’m looking forward to getting back to business as usual on the blog and to thoroughly planning AND preparing for next years goretober event. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this years event and had a great Halloween~ 🤗🎃💖

[antiv3nom]

12, 14, and 24 for the ask game please 😁

hey ai, ofc!!!!

12 - Show your favorite drawing from this year

oh hmm this is a hard one, especially considering how much art ive done just this month! if i had to pick though, it would be the bachira piece i did for the first day of the prompt month, i love it to bits and am seriously considering getting a print of it for my room tbh

14 - How has your art changed over the years?

oh lord it's changed...so very much, honestly. i started in a sketchbook with very simple sketches and colored pencils lmao, my art sucked but it was so very fun!!! and i think that, especially through this year, ive gotten a lot...looser with my art? like, i used to use lineart a lot more, but now its either lineless art or just colored sketches for me, its been freeing! ive almost always made stylized art and fanart tho, those havent changed much

24 - How do you deal with art block?

tbh? i dont. if i get art block then i just stop drawing. not forever obviously, but drawing is a hobby for me in the purest form of the word, so if it becomes...not fun, then i just dont really do it? but prompts help a lot of i want to draw but dont have any ideas, and style studies help when im not satisfied with the vibes my art has!

send me number(s) and i'll answer your questions about my art!

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne Speedpaints 🖤💙

I recorded me doing the rough colour drafts on my KuroEne doodle! 🥰

These aren't refined, and just me roughly filling in the base colours on my sketches to get an idea of colours

Since Idk when I'll get to refine these drawings and clean up the sketch and lines

Tumblr's finnicky with posting videos ngl so I posted YT links this time. I put them as Unlisted. Feel free to check them out if you're interested in my drawing process.

I described my art process in the video description, but I can also put them here too

Kuroha Speedpaint 🖤💛🐍

Recorded me doing the rough base colours for this one 😌 I had a lot of fun choosing the colours for this one! 💗🫶

Original Time: 45 minutes (Sped up by 16x)

BGM: Outer Science Rearrange Cover (ft. Kagamine Len) 🎵

Kuroha and Ene Speedpaint 🖤💙🐍🐇

I did a bit of edits on Kuroha's colours, then filled in the base colours for Ene~

Working with cool colours is super fun 🙌

Original Time: 45 minutes (Sped up by 16x)

BGM: Outer Science (ft. IA & ONE) 🎵

KuroEne Doodles

Different versions I played around with!

OG

(+) Hue shift on Ene

(+) Red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) Hue shift on Ene

(+) Red/pink hue shift and increased saturation on Kuroha's skin

(+) Increased brightness and saturation on OG

(+) Hue shift on Ene

(+) Increased Brightness and red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) More red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) More red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) Multiply Layer on both

(+) Hue shift on Ene

(+) More red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) Hue shift on Ene

The more red + purple toned Kuroha has really nice visual contrast against Ene's cool colours (blues) in her design tbh

Continued from yesterday!

I put the video description rambles under the cut (describing my art process)

Kuroha Speedpaint

Decided to fill in the rough base colours for this! I love doing rough colour drafts~ Helps me get a good idea of colours.

I put Outer Science as the BGM. Fitting for the Outer Science Person~

I also love the tuning and adlibs and robotic voice effects on the Len fan-cover of Outer Science so much~ The tuning is superior to the Original so it's my favourite version of Outer Science and my favourite fan-cover.

Watching this fan-cover is what got me into KagePro. It was my first time watching the Outer Science MV.

The tuning and mixing in this fan-made rearrange cover is insanely good. It's stronger than the original. The chorus has so much oomph and power to it in this, and I love the added adlibs and robotic effects on certain lines.

I prefer the instrumentals (guitar riffs, drums, and bass) of the OG though. The fan-cover version's instrumentals sounds more like an arcade, which is also fun.

0:00

I start with colour picking from the colour edit I did as a guide for colours

The faster way to fill in the base colours would be to create a new layer and temporarily close all the lines, then select the outside of the lines, invert the selection, and then use the bucket tool. I'd do this for more refined drawings that are in the lineart stage

I manually fill in the colours when doing rough base colours though. Manually filling in the base colours is relaxing ngl

Since they're rough colour drafts, I'm not shading/blocking in shadows, I just wanna get an idea of how the colours look together

1:05 - 1:10

When I do Gradient Maps and Layer Mode effects, I either clip them to the Colours, or put them in a folder and set them to Through so they can show on the layers underneath it.

I realized I couldn't eye drop the exact colours on the colour edit ref with the Folder set to Through Layer Mode (60% opacity), so I duplicated it, then merged the layers

I also adjusted the settings of my Eyedrop tool later so that it can grab the colour from the image itself, rather than just the colour on the Layer it's on. Cuz if you're not on the exact Layer, then it won't grab any colour.

1:12

I was considering whether I wanted to airbrush the tips of the fingers with a dark gradient cuz I love the darkened gradient limbs design trope. Douman has it canonically, and my friend Raisu added it on Idate's design (which is why I always draw him with it).

Decided to go without it here tho cuz I feel like it takes away from the colours

1:42

Doing colour edits and adjustments with Posterization and Hue/Saturation effects can throw the contrast out of wack, so I adjust the colours myself on my own drawings.

I usually shift the hues of shadows and highlights (in comparison to the base colours) to keep the colours interesting. I try to use different hues for them so the colours can pop more. I was trying to come up with a good colour for the darker black inner clothes

2:17 - 2:25

After roughly colouring the black spirals around him, I use Posterization on CSP.

Window Capture on OBS only records the main window for CSP, but I went to Layer > New Correction Layer > Posterization which creates a Posterization layer. I adjust the colours with this, which increases the contrast and darkens the colours slightly.

I'll probably fix the colours of the dark sleeves manually later.

2:26

I draw my lines on vector layers so I can easily adjust and edit (move and scale down/up) my lines without losing quality.

I duplicate the lineart, so I can use a CSP Auto Action that colours the lines. I used to manually colour my lines, but this one's quick and you can get really pretty line colours with it, cuz it colours the lineart according to the colours underneath.

It doesn't show the windows that performs the Auto Action through the recording, but I downloaded an Auto Action available on the CSP Assets Store that's called "Better Line Color" that follows a series of steps (it can be mimicked manually on other programs) and adjusts the colour of the lines according to the colours underneath it.

I think when I refine the drawing more, I wouldn't have the dark spirals apart of the lineart, and would just paint it instead.

I was playing around with whether I wanted the coloured lineart to be on "Multiply" or "Colour Burn" Layer mode. Depending on the drawing, either has really nice effects.

On my other drawings, like the coloured IdaTatsu and Selena doodles I had, I preferred the coloured lines on Colour Burn Layer mode cuz it adds a subtle saturated glow to the lines. Here, it adds a slightly blue edge to the lineart.

I went with Multiply for now (just cuz this keeps the colours of the black spirals intact better, but I'll consider which one looks better after)

Ene Speedpaint

0:00 - 0:32

I clean up the colours on Kuroha a bit. I also add back the gray transition colour on the hair (between the highlights and base colour)

I brighten the eyes a bit and make it slightly more saturated

0:32

I start filling in the base colours for Ene, picking from a more vibrant colour palette (edit of Sidu's art)

0:45

I realized that her digital structures are shorter on the side closer to her mouth, so I adjusted the lines a bit

0:48

I start filling in the rest of the base colours. At the time, I wasn't whether I want to have Ene's eyes as ice blue or saturate them more…

1:44 I wanted to saturate the skin more so it'd have more contrast, but decided to keep that for later.

1:58 Added a muted gray transition colour on the hair

2:00 Started splotching colours on the sweater and skirt to get an idea of colours.

2:25 Upped the Brightness and Contrast on the skin. Played around with Posterization on the Colours.

Since Kuroha's lines were black, I decided to do the Better Line Color on Kuroha's lines again. This time I used the Bucket tool to colour the lines with a dark blue colour, clipped them, duplicated the lines and then did the Better Line Color Auto Action again.

I also did the same for Ene's lines. I set it on Multiply cuz I liked the soft look the coloured lines

2:42 - 2:51 Before I added the colours, I just had Kuroha's lines above Ene's lines folder, and then had a white layer in the middle.

I was still wondering how I'd show Ene's hand on his sleeve, but Kuroha's colours still being over hers… I was considering just putting the folder of his colours on top of hers, but HMM…

For now though, I just duplicated the lines and colours for a PNG version, then cut from that, for showing on my socials

End: Once I turned back on Kuroha's colours, I realized that I chose a really muted palette for him and a really vibrant one for Ene, so after I finished recording, I played around with the Gradient Maps and saturated the colours and eyes more.

I'll definitely coordinate their colour palettes more later. I'll do a muted version and saturated version.

[blueskittlesart]

Any advice on how to sketch faster? Feels like it takes HOURS for me to make a sketch for just one drawing...

ok this is a hard one for me because it genuinely just. kinda comes naturally to me actually. like i remember my art teachers in elementary school getting annoyed with me because i could draw so fast and i would finish before everyone else. BUT there are some things that i think have helped me get even faster over the years!

the first one is quick figure drawing. I like to do 1 or 2-minute gesture drawings because they really force you to move fast and think more about the form itself than get bogged down in the details. (in art school they make you take a ton of classes that are JUST figure drawing if you're majoring in illustration. i love it.) The absolute best way to do this is a live model session, but i understand that not everyone is in art school lmao so the website quickposes is a good resource! go to timed practice and set the interval to 60 or 90 seconds, and then just focus on getting the IDEA of the form down instead of all the details. This can be scary at first but eventually you'll become much more confident and your hand will naturally start to move faster when you sketch! figure drawing this quickly will also help you loosen up and get a better idea of the forms of the human body instinctually, which will in turn make it easier for you to sketch faster even without a reference!

The second thing that i think really helps me go fast is kinda a natural progression from the figure drawing tbh, and it's not worrying TOO too much about 100% anatomical accuracy. What my professors have told me in my drawing classes is basically that as long as it LOOKS believable, it doesn't matter if it's actually perfect. don't worry too much about realism or accuracy when you're laying down a preliminary sketch. focus on the energy you want your pose to convey, and let your sketch reflect that. if anything is HORRIBLY wrong anatomy-wise you can fix it later, but a little bit of limb-lengthening or otherwise unrealistic proportioning isn't the end of the world, especially in very stylized art. When you aren't super worried about 100% accuracy you have a lot more freedom to move quickly and ignore little mistakes!

thirdly, lose all the steps in your artmaking process that you don't like. when i first started digital art, I thought that i HAD to do a stick -figure pose sketch, block in the body on top of that, then clothes, then lineart, coloring, shading, etc. there were SO many steps in that process that took me a really long time to do and that i just... did not enjoy doing. nowadays I've almost completely cut lineart from my process because i like the sketchy look, and i often don't even draw the full body before i begin blocking in the clothes, hair, or face. Obviously you need some preliminary knowledge of how these aspects of your character are going to interact before you can do this, but once you're able to it really shaves off a lot of time. I found that when i was trying to do things what i thought was the "right" way, even steps that i hated, my art looked worse and took longer because I wasn't having as much fun.

[franeridart]

Anon said: Not an ask, but I frickin love your art style! 👌

Ah heck, thank you so much!!!! <3

Anon said: I refuse to use Emojis but You. Do. Not. Need. To. Apologize. For. Taking. Breaks! We are not entitled to you and you are not required to provide art for us! These are stressful times, and even outside of these times, taking breaks from social medias is completely acceptable.

Thank you for the kind feeling!!! But it’s fine, I’m not beating myself up over it or anything, just apologizing for my habit of going on breaks without letting anyone know beforehand haha

Anon said: your outfit ideas are amazing ! do you have a source of insperation?

Thank you!!! I do a lot of people watching, and that’s about it tbh! I do look at fashion photos and magazines and, like, clothes displays in stores? when I happen across them, but most of my inspo when it comes to outfits starts from me watching people and liking how they’re dressed - in that sense I like watching vlogs and stuff like that too, people these days are so stylish...

Anon said: I really love your lineart and coloring style!! Would you mind sharing your brush settings? Or some art tips? If you don't want too this okay too, keep up the good work !!

Since my brush settings are a reward for my $6+ patreons, I don’t really feel like it’d be fair to share them! But you can probably find some old version of them in my art tips tag :D as for art tips... for lineart the only thing I can really say is to not overthink it and just go with the flow, whatever feels comfortable for you will make for the most visually pleasing lineart too, in my experience! Coloring is something I’m constantly experimenting with as well, but there too my usual mindset is “the easier and faster the better” - generally, I just use flats and then add shadows on them with any color that goes from light blue to pink-ish purple on a layer set on multiply, anything that makes it look fancier than that is just me adding small details like sparkles or shines or anything of the like!

Anon said: GUESS. WHOS. GETTING. OLD!!! me. It’s me.

Everyone is! Constantly! It’s how the passing of times works, terribly enough

Anon said: hi!!! as someone who really admires you as an artist, has very little experience in art and would /really/ like to get better at it, i'd like to ask you: how did you get so good at it? (apart from constant practice, of course, i realize how important that is!) this is coming from someone who really has no idea where to start! what was your starting point, and are there any tips you can give a complete beginner like me?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm the thing is that drawing a lot really is all there is to it, but if I had to give one single serious tip for this it would be to find something you really really really really enjoy drawing and to just draw it - draw it badly if that’s the only way you know how to draw it, but make sure to always draw it while having fun, and slowly you’ll get better without even realizing you are. If you like a ship, draw that ship! If you like plants, draw plants! If you like animals, draw animals! It’s okay if you don’t know how to draw it, or if you feel like your skills aren’t good enough for what you mean to draw, because honestly I felt like that when I started too, and I still feel like that every time I pick up my pen, and I’m sure I’ll forever feel like that for as long as I’ll draw - my ideas will always be bigger than my skills, and maybe so will yours! So what’s it matter if you start drawing stuff beyond your skill level now or later? At least you’ll be having fun with it, and the only way to learn how to do something new is to go and do it, anyway

Anon said: hi! do you do commissions?

I don’t, sorry! Thank you for being interested, though!

Anon said: Hi there! So I'm rereading Quote Love Unquote (a classic for sure) and had the urge to go find the art you had made for it. And oops, like, two hours have gone by of me just scrolling through all of your older comics and art. I love it all SO MUCH. Your artstyle is just so damn enjoyable and all of your comics never fail to make me smile. I'm always looking forward to whatever you choose to make in the future regardless of fandom. Thank you for being awesome!!

God that’s such a nice thing to hear, thank you so much!!!!!! ( TT-TT)<3

Anon said: I made an ask before (u answered it dw) but u thought I was saying u missed my first one. U didnt! I was saying it made me so happy that u responded you’re an angel! Ily v much!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that’s good then!! that’s very very good!!!!!! ily too!!!! <3<3

Anon said: How can one's art be soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good?

Thank youuuuuuuu ;;;;;;;;;; I do!!! my best!! ( ;u;)9

Anon said: You like tododeku?

Yup!

Anon said: Zero grafity kisses are the opposite of the spiderman kiss

How so? :O

Anon said: Hi! This is seriously out of nowhere but I wanted to tell you I reread your Bokuto-Kuroo-Terushima tattoo au strip all the time because it's just so delightful and seriously cute. Polyfidelity is the kind of poly my partner and I practice and I don't see it played out too much, so to see a relationship like that with characters I love and an art style I adore fills me with such warm fuzzies. It's so so lovely. Have a great day!

I’m so damn glad to hear that!!!! In that sense that comic still means a lot to me, so I’m happy to hear it means something to you too!!

Anon said: Friendly reminder that I fucking love you.

I love you too anon!!!!!!!!!

Anon said: Ma lo sai che sei sempre più brava?

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! (TTATT) grazie mille!!!!!!!!!

Anon said: Hi um did you know that 🤰🏻🤱🏻 this lady had her kid?????? wtf i didnt know

I can’t even see the emojis from desktop lmao but good for her!!! 

Anon said: hot take: jirou, momo, kami, and shinsou in a poly relationship.

You know what anon, you’re incredibly valid and I respect you

Anon said: I just absolutely love your art! Whenever I see it, it makes my day! Your Kiribaku stuff gives me life! Keep making beautiful art, and stay safe during this time!

Gosh, thank you!! You stay safe too, anon!!!!

Anon said: HOW do you draw cloths

You keep in mind that gravity is a thing and let your hand do kind of whatever while hoping no one will notice you have no clue what you’re doing!! (...seriously tho I never studied these things I just do whatever feels like and hope for the best hahaha any experienced artist looking at my stuff is probably wondering what the heck it is that I’m trying to do...)

Anon said: Your style is so amazing and distinctive. Everytime I see it I’m like OH ITS THEMMMM and get super stoked

That’s so cool to hear!!!!!!! I genuinely have no clue what makes my art mine, but I like knowing people can recognize it anyway! It’s such a neat thing!!!

Anon said: Were you the person who did those "stopping an angry...." posts? Am I remembering this wrong? If that was you, where could I find those?

Are you talking about my bakuboys comic? If so then it’s in my bakuboys tag! :D

Anon said: Hey, you’ve seemed kind of tired and sad lately. I’m not going to ask you if you’re okay because you’re probably not, but I wanted to say I really do hope you feel better soon!

!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much ;;;; I’m doing my best!