#i spent so much time doing like… fully rendered pieces

[braisedhoney]

jazz and danny jazz and danny i’m beggin i need the sibling content

got your back and you’ve got mine

[moonstruckhaze]

boyfriend shirt...

update: if you like this art, please go check out this fic that @chessala wrote for it ╥⁠﹏⁠╥

update cont: this is the first time someone's ever written something for art that I've made, and I'm still so happy and touched beyond words that she wrote this. she was even kind enough to share the initial draft with me and asked for feedback and even worked in little suggestions i had for expanding on different parts of the writing, which was so fun and collaborative and I haven't gotten to do something like that in ages. I'm so overwhelmed (in a good way) and it feels like getting to beam the full mental vision of the scenario i had in my brain while working on this piece into the mind of anyone who reads it; ;

i know these close up crops are a bit silly but well. i did my best lol... the full version is up on my alt twitter linked in my pinned post ♡

please also observe the little 🐰 logo.... it is silly & crucial....

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for refusing to do any more art commissions for my mom's friends?

Ok so I (19nb) am a digital artist. If I had to honestly rate my skills I would put them somewhere in the "good enough to get a few commissions but not professional level" range and I wanted to do it professionally.

Keyword being wanted but I'll get to that

Now my mother has been showing off my art pieces to her friends (no problem with this) and it got one of my mom's friends to ask her if I could draw make icons for the website of her upcoming business back in late April (basically one big icon for the main page and five smaller ones, so six in total, all fully rendered) and paid 200 dollars for all of it (which thinking back was extremely low for the amount of time and effort that I put into that if I was going by living wage effort and time)

So I did that, got the money, spent it all and was happy.

And now yesterday (july 6th) my mom said that she asked one of her other friends (who is also her boss) if I could draw her a new logo for her side business.

SHE DIDNT EVEN ASK ME IF I WANTED TO DO THAT! SHE JUST TOLD HER FRIEND THAT I WOULD DO IT!

Now I got a big commission (dont know how much money Im getting paid) dropped on me with no warning. And apparently my mom and her friend are coming with even MORE ideas for me to draw. (Mind you that commission would take at least a week to two weeks at the MINIMUM and now they're coming up with more)

But the thing is I dont want to to do digital art professionally anymore. I want it to stay as a hobby, something to do for fun and my own enjoyment. The reason why? A one year digital art course I did last year that burnt me out so unbelievably bad. I couldnt make ANY art for myself for an entire YEAR because I was constantly working on that stupid useless course (and I didnt even get the final drawing done and submitted before the one year deadline was up so that didnt help. And it was the one I was the most proud of too)

I am burned out and I want to make things for ME, things that absolutely cant go on a portfolio (extreme horror art, fan art, NSFW art, etc)

The amount of times in the past months I have talked myself out of drawing something that would make me happy because everything I make should be fit to go on a professional portfolio is extremely high.

I'm obviously gonna do the new commission and whatever else those two tell me to draw (but it better be more than 200 dollars, like at least 350 minimum) but I am so tired of this and I just wished my mom had asked me first before automatically telling her friend yes.

So would I be the asshole if I told her Im not doing any future commissions from her friends and that I want to just do art as a hobby and not as a career?

What are these acronyms?

[crescencestudio]

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #39 | 3.27.24 ๋࣭⭑

Happy March!!

This devlog is going to be a bit shorter, but...... it's for Exciting Reasons that I will share later in the post. heh.....heh.....HEH.....

Let's jump in ^^

This month, writing was mostly dedicated to Etza's route! We have officially entered the Developmental Editing part of Etza's route, which is super exciting!!!

There were parts of Etza's route I wasn't completely satisfied with, so I spent a lot of this month tinkering, adding, fleshing out, editing, etc. for their route. I'm happier with it now compared to where it was when we entered this month, and especially with Wudgey's help, I'm excited for Etza to get the love they deserve!

I had a small, optional goal for myself to start Kuna'a's route, but honestly, I felt like between work with the Enhanced Demo, Etza's edits, and just generally feeling a bit tired after being Super Productive in January and February, I decided to give myself a break. That being said, I'm relatively confident I'll be getting started with Kuna'a's route next month, and I'm excited to dive into their route (and the Fae routes in general, teehee!).

Vui is on the very last of the BGs I need from him..... So I am in mourning.......

Kidding but not kidding. Vui has done an amazing job of putting the backgrounds for Alaris together! They're absolutely stunning, and by the time we get to the next devlog, he will have finished ALL of the BGs for Alaris! It's been about a year and a half in the making, which is kinda crazy to think we have been together for this long (and working on the full game for this long), but it's definitely A Moment.

In celebration of him reaching this milestone, I wanted to highlight some of the BGs he's made for the game! The theme is early morning; some of these BGs are in the demo, and some are in the full game hehe. You'll have to guess the context of the mysterious full game BGs :')

Sneak Peek: BG Showcase, morning strolls around the world of Alaris

I also thought it's been a while since I showcased a CG here. While I don't play on showcasing many of the full game CGs on public devlogs (I do show them on my Patreon!), I wanted to show a little snippet of this specific CG.

Why, you ask? Well, for the OGs, you might remember I showed a sketch of the CG during the Alaris Kickstarter---whenever the hell THAT THING happened.

I finished rendering it now that I got the BG for it, so I wanted to show a peek of that sketch that I showed oh-so-many-years ago.

Sneak Peek: Kayn Full Route CG I want to lick him

Generally for art progress, I've been working on CGs as well as some promotional materials, which I'll be getting to in the next section \o/

Now for the Exciting News!!!!

I have two bits of exciting news. The first is...

Sneak Peek: Selection Screen for Alpha/Beta Access (OUUUUGGGGGHHHHH)

I STARTED CODING KAYN'S ROUTE!!!! The first act is already "done" and ready for beta access. And I'm hoping to finish the other two acts within the next couple of weeks. It is crazy to finally be able to code some of the full game routes. Even if they're not at the "final version" or early access stage, it is Extremely Rewarding to finally experience the scripts I've been writing in the game!!! With the CGs.... Extended Screens..... Just seeing the script with visual assets and not just a Google Doc is SOOOOO FSEIKLFJSEILE

Sneak Peek: Chapter Character Cards (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)

The second piece of Exciting News is that I have a release date for the Enhanced Demo. YEEEEAAAAAA. It's finally happening!!! Please stay tuned over the next couple of days...... An Exciting Announcement is on its way...................................

I didn't do much market research this month. If I'm being honest, I actually struggled a little bit this month with like...... burnout and workaholism guilt. I wanted to take a break after getting the demo ready for public release, but I just couldn't bring myself to fully rest. It felt like there was so much to do (not just with Alaris, but also with real world/work obligations) and all these looming deadlines was starting to get to me.

I'm hoping next month because I'll actually be Releasing the demo (oops, sneak peek of general release date teehee!), I'll be able to feel like I can take a break. But it also sucks a bit that I feel like I have to Earn It. I think with Alaris being a Kickstarter project, I want to get the game in your hands as soon as possible, but of course it's not to anyone's benefit if I burn myself out in the process and end up with either a worser project or taking even longer to finish it.

I did...... start Stardew Valley again since it is the ultimate dissociation/break game for me. So far it's been working! But we'll see how it continues <3

LOOK AT MY FARM!!!

Should I marry Sebastian or Elliot.

Anyways, hope you all have a great rest of your month, and I'll talk to you Very Soon with an Exciting Announcement! <3

[meirimerens]

I’m sorry if this is a strange question, but how do you always pump out so much art in such high quality? I feel like I have to take several month long breaks after i draw even a sketch. Love how you draw by the way!

i was asked something of the sort some time ago and i just spent 30 minutes fruitlessly trying to find it again #FUNCTIONALWEBSITE first of all THANK YOU now as answer goes

my current rhythm i think might be a perceived as More Than It Is because up until basically a year ago i was 1) unemployed (the unemployed friend at 4PM on a thursday THAT WAS ME) and 2) not in college so i was Churning It Upppp and loving it the whole time but also not doing it in um Healthy ways. i am not kidding when i said i was locked tf in & could do very little else. was Swallowed Whole in the Drawing

nowadays my life is more #balanced because i actually got school to attend & i gotta study So this might not seem like much of a difference to you but I very much feel the difference between my previous creation time and nowadays'. nowadays it might take me 2 weeks to finish one fully rendered image because i work in sessions of 30 minutes to an hour between classes and studying (silly images/sketches/flat colors take way less time of course)

my actual finished rendered polish pieces are few, i do a lot of silly ^ as mentioned above... love it regardless

now an actual answer to your mention of: "I feel like I have to take several month long breaks after i draw even a sketch." That's because i'm nuts tbh. i've spent the last 3 years drawing basically every day than when i take break, even if I Have To (cf. pinched a nerve in my drawing arm last year[? time is blurry]), i get physically unwell. i get restless, irritable, i feel my body like. #shaking and #boiling. got the artiste's illness. drawing restlessly for the past 3 years made me Really Endurant, but not necessarily in a healthy way. i am aware my time of Endurance is running out and i'm just buying time before a RSI or some other sort of health failure

actually as of right now like december 23 i'm at my parents' house for the holidays and there are way less distraction than in my city apartment and my stress levels are gone so i clock tf in at the furiously scribbling factory. born to be a hermit in the mountains forced to live in the city for his studies.

tldr of this thinggg^ i lock tf in. when i get into the groove of drawing it is very hard to exit it and it is sometimes actively detrimental to me. i am nuts and when i cannot draw i get unwell. it is GOOD that your body has a built-in forced-rest system it will save you your health. do not try to get like me this shit brings me pain. i get out of a Locking Tf In session with what feels like a hangover. i adore art. she's a twisted lover nonetheless. STAY SAFE OUT THERE!!!!!!

[immortalarizona-art]

thinking about opening up commissions over the summer to give me extra flex income and also something to do besides irl job, so here’s a poll to gauge initial interest:

the response this poll gets will determine whether it’s worth spending time putting together a proper portfolio and timing myself doing pieces so I can actually have a proper ballpark price tag for my work.

more info under the cut:

what will you draw? I specialize in digital character illustration, especially portraits!! I'm down to draw characters that already have designs, and I'm also down to do character / costume designs. I can also do book covers!! nsfw is a hard no, other suggestive content is on a case-by-case basis, and moderate gore I'm okay with. I'm willing to give most things a shot, including fanart, robots, and anthro characters.

what would it cost? I plan to charge an hourly rate based on minimum wage where I live—so $20 an hour per piece, going up in half-hour increments. for instance, this commission for my Curse of Strahd DM, a fully rendered bust:

took me 4.5 hours to complete, and so cost $90.

the sketch, on the other hand:

took me just an hour to complete!! so that's a flat $20.

this illustration with lineart and very simple flats:

took me ~3 hours, and would cost around $60.

a more complicated illustration like this wallpaper I did for myself:

took me around 8 hours, I think (I didn't time myself while working, so it very well could've been more), and so would cost at least $160.

and an illustration with a background:

will take me SO much longer. (I was working on this piece on and off for about two months, so I'm not sure exactly how many hours I spent on it, but my best ballpark estimate is 12–16 in total.)

[disabilityshowdown]

i'd like to showcase a character i really like... saki tenma!!!

saki is from a game called project sekai, where 5 groups of teenagers all have worlds in their phones called SEKAIs, manifestations of their emotions and feelings, and in them is hatsune miku (and other vocaloids) to help them figure out their true feelings!

saki is in a rock band called leo/need with her 3 childhood friends. saki is chronically ill, although her exact chronic illness hasn't been mentioned, and had been in and out of the hospital since she was little. during middle school, she was practically always in the hospital, and her and her friends had drifted away, due to all of them having different problems in their lives at the time.

saki's described as having a very physically frail body, along with fainting very easily. she catches illnesses very easily and can make herself sick from overexerting herself, so most fans agree she most likely has some form of an autoimmune illness.

after being deemed healthy enough to return back to school in her first year of highschool, her and her friends eventually reconcile and decide to form a band together, she's the keyboardist! she is very cheerful and tries her hardest to get things done. because of all the time she spent alone in the hospital, she's dead-set on making the most of her life! she loves hanging out with her friends.

she also has an older brother (one year older), tsukasa. the two are very close and have an ADORABLE relationship. tsukasa is an actor/performer, and became one because of saki's support!

overall, i think saki's chronic illness is treated really well in the plot of project sekai. while it does affect her and how her life goes, she isn't reduced to only her chronic illness. she has struggles other than her illness, and has plenty of times she is happy, outgoing and enjoying herself. i think the writers did a very good job writing saki.

also, most importantly, shes adorable! what's not to like?

fun fact: the pink gradient in her hair is completely natural! her brother has a similar natural gradient, but orange rather than pink.

[also im very sorry for not including image descriptions, i am mentally disabled and cannot properly explain images and cannot write image descriptions properly]

[Image 1 ID: A fully rendered and dynamically posed art piece of Saki, a light skinned anime style character with pink eyes, and long blonde hair in two pigtails, that fades to pink at the ends. She is dressed in a white collared shirt, red tie, black skirt, and yellow jacket. The background behind her is of a classroom with some tables put up for the end of the day, and she is posing at a piano keyboard, with one hand on the keys and the other reaching out to the viewer]

[Image 2 ID: A much more chibi style comic panel set in a hospital, where Saki is in white pyjamas with a bunch of magazines in front of her, and flowers to her right. Her brother (who looks similar to her but with short hair that fades to orange) is posing with a flower while doing a dance move, wearing a similar uniform to Saki in the first picture. He says "As your brother I'm here to cheer you up with a new move!" while a person behind him says "Mr Tenma, please keep it down! This is a hospital!" There is a "Yay!" not in a speech bubble above Saki's head, and more onomatopoeia illustrating the dance]

[Image 3 ID: The same art style as the first image, in bright colours. Saki looks to have fallen down, lying amidst a pile of toys and music equipment, adjusting glasses on her face. A white coat and orange sweater have been added to her outfit, and she holds an open notebook in one hand. /end IDs]

thanks for sending this in! i can totally see why you like her, and as a disabled actor/musician i can relate so much

[alittleofsomethingarts]

So, everyone, I got a story about this picture right here. I will include some pics from the process and there's even a moral at the end.

So the client approached me about it, I sketched it out, standard affair. It was supposed to be a gif image and I imagined her moving side to side while her sword glowed.

Mistake number one I did not plan out the side to side movements. This was the only rough I did before I started rendering it.

"Wow this is going to be so cool" I thought.

"This is going to be a piece of cake"

I wanted to animate it on Clip Studio Paint EX that I got this year specifically so I could do animation there.

I ended up drawing all the assets and I was happy with them. Side note, in pixelated animation it is better to use as little colors as possible, and I ended up having a lot more than 256 colors with the colored lineart here n stuff. That was my mistake number two. I really need to work on that.

I warmed my hands as the program was opening, ready to do some animation, only to come across a very unexpected problem.

In the end I have made a reddit post describing it, but you can basically see the results of it in this test animation

I spent an entire freaking day trying to figure out what to do with the blurring. It seems that it functions as intended, but it would be really nice if CSP didn't do this. I had to go back to photoshop to do the actual animation.

... I couldn't quite do the diagonal movement I wanted. Right, so I settled on this.

I drew like 3 movement frames for the white and blue cape and ended up not using it because it looked awful. And the sleeve movement is so wrong.

This is why you test these things, guys! In sketch phase!

So I made these static gifs, thinking this is probably over now and I did a good job.

Nope. Not even close.

My big brain missed one crucial detail in the initial sketching phase...

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A BIG BEEFY GLOWING SWORD!

To be fair the initial glow was cool, the client didn't realize what I've been drawing. So we both missed it. Okay, fine. I decided to just redraw the glow, thankfully it didn't take long at all.

... Right we got another problem. How do I animate a sudden burst of energy coming from the sword?

... Oh no.

My head drew a blank.

I felt... I felt... Like a failure. I failed the client. I thought I could do this but it's not right.

I decided to slap a glowing effect and hide the burst under a white screen.

I couldn't imagine anything better.

Despair, utter despair.

In the end the version that looked the best was this one.

Feeling horrible, I decided to make a free quickie for the client to make up for my failures.

I poured my disappointment with myself and my ability to come up with cool animation into this little tiny owl that did nothing wrong. I gave her the most adorable but angry stare I could muster.

She's angry because she's short

... too short for this picture.

The client assured me that my work was fully acceptable from start to finish and that it's all great. That I shouldn't beat myself up.

But I usually get it all from the very beginning, you see. I typically don't do too much revisions. This kind of situation is not common. I wasn't able to see my clients needs and make the kind of gif that was needed from the beginning.

And I've been tipped extra for this picture too.

It's like the money I got was not quite worth the gif I ended up with.

I suppose it covered the extra useless work I did drawing the assets, but... I feel guilty, like I ripped off the client.

If I just needed to draw the static gif with some glow I could've made it cheaper.

Perhaps I undervalue myself and it costs more than I charged for it.

I don't know.

The moral of the story is DO TEST ANIMATIONS IN SKETCH PHASE. ALWAYS. FOR EVERYTHING.

I swear I got it the first time, why make this mistake so many years later? smh...

[ozwuv]

I would like to draw more but I find myself overthinking it and then losing motivation. So, I was wondering if you ever had a similar issue and if so what do you do to stay motivated and not overthink?

Really good question actually!

What nipped the overthinking for me was just completely dropping the planning stage of drawing. I don't put much thought into composition, colors, etc. I don't have any solid ideas of how I want things to look before I begin. Obligatory disclaimer that this is from my perspective as a hobbyist and therefore not practical for an aspiring professional, & this is gonna sound like BS but hear me out lol

Most of the time the only things I have in mind are 1. What character(s) I want to draw and 2. A vague idea of the atmosphere I want the finished product to convey. And "finished" can mean a lot of things -- a messy sketch can be finished, a fully rendered piece I spent an entire day could be finished. A common pitfall people fall into is having an impractically rigid idea of what a "finished" drawing is and subsequently what they want their art to look like, all the bells and whistles etc, when realistically your art is never going to look exactly how it did in your head. But is that really such a bad thing?

I guess the overarching concept is to just fall in love with the process and enjoy the journey rather than the destination. This obviously sounds easier than it is in reality, but imo people focus way too hard on what they're producing rather than how and why they're producing it. Other people loving what you draw and praising it is wonderful, but if you don't enjoy the process, what was the point? Drawing (and I would venture to say most other forms of art in general) becomes a chore with that mindset applied.

A lack of planning may very well mean you wind up drawing a lot of stuff that doesn't seem interesting, maybe haphazard, difficult to parse, etc, but this is all your perception. It's cliché, but there is always going to someone out there that adores something you think looks like a dumpster fire, and that applies to the things you draw too. Over time, just doing whatever you want and enjoying the process has this trickle effect that will improve your output. In the same vein, constantly overthinking will also inevitably trickles into your output. You can often tell when someone enjoyed the process of something they drew vs when it was just a slog for them to get through (at least relative to their other works).

I would venture to say that you could spend your entire life studying and could be the most technically knowledgeable person about illustration ever in the world, but if you don't genuinely love the process, your work will never be as good as it could be if you did.

If you finish something and think it looks like shit that's always a bummer, but if you had fun with it, I think that was time worth spending. I've said this before, but most of the time I only truly dislike something I've drawn when I spent any part of the process frustrated with how it was going. It's counterintuitive, but I really think that placing so much emphasis in how you want the finished product to look is what ultimately is going to make it look like shit to you.

All that being said, once you do get past that initial overthinking phase, you can start to get more specific with planning and whatnot. The key is to just stop holding onto the idea of what you want and allowing things to develop as you go. Your art will naturally improve this way since you're actually enjoying it. To me, that's what people mean when they say they can tell something was made with love.

Side note: Let go of the need to be consistent/have a developed style. Just let yourself be inconsistent. You don't need strict consistency unless you're like an animator who needs to keep characters on-model or something. Experimenting is not only way more fun, but leads to improvement and discovering new things to implement into your process/style at large.

Tl;dr just get a lil silly w it :3c

[tixdixl]

Overblot Emil

I was originally going to fully render this, but I decided to just keep this as a flat ref for me to use. That said though, I wanna take some time and ramble about this character design because I spent so much time on this and wanted to incorporate so many little references and things into it.

Let's start with the obvious:

The overall garment design is drawn from Mother Gothel as seen in Tangled.

The Sun on the waist corset/belt thing is absolutely a reference to the sun insigna from Tangled .

You would assume because TWST is a Disney property that I would only pull from that rendition, but TWST has shown to pull from multiple adaptations or aspects of the tales they used. So I wanted to do the same with my depiction of Dame Gothel. As such, the blot and ink specifically on the arms, face, boots and cloak? All of them are supposed to look like roots, calling back to the Grim's version most people know. The idea I had in mind is that Emil's inner turmoils have become uprooted and exposed as a result of someone stealing something of his (oc plot related stuff to be revealed eventually). So I felt that a call back to the original tale would be incredibly symbolic of this.

Some of the design elements were taken from the 1980s original cast designs of Into the Woods, with additional references in the form of the bean appliques on his boots; the lace and mesh on his face and belt that are designed to look like gates and brambles- inspired by the scene where Gothel forces Rapunzel's prince to go blind both in the OG and in Into the Woods; and the eye motif on the belt to represent how Gothel helped the MCs fight the giants. And the big reason why eyes is for both the prince and the giants, they end up going blind.

I've never been the best at character design, but I felt really proud of myself for all of those little references all coming together cohesively in this piece. I thought you all might also like it, so I thought I would share.

[alagaesia-headcanons]

I have a proper update for Clear Horizons!

(For my new followers, here's an explanation of this fic!)

I've finally finished drafting the section that was giving me the most trouble!!! I'm not entirely out of the woods yet, but it's a significant and gratifying mark of progress. The part I'm working on is after Murtagh and Orrin first meet, but before a scene I've planned where their relationship takes a turn and reaches a new understanding. So in that span they have a lot of chemistry and care for each other but they're also still hesitant and guarded. It's a very tricky dynamic to write. It still needs more depth, I haven't gotten to that emotional development scene yet, but I'm now finished with the first week Murtagh spends in Aberon with Orrin.

My main breakthrough with the frustrations I was having with that was to cut two of the scenes I already wrote and move them to a later point in the story. Then I reconsidered what I wanted the first week to cover. The writing progress went especially slow, even by my standards, and the section ended much longer than I expected it too. But I think both were worthwhile. This section is crucial for laying a lot of the foundation everything else will build upon. The prolonged time I spent with each piece gave me the room to untangle the needs of the story and the detail throughout numerous consecutive scenes gives clarity to the major cornerstones. (I pray I'll still feel that way when I go back to edit it later lol)

I optimistically think the pace will pick back up again when I carry on with the rest of act 2. This should be one of the only continuous spans of time that's fully rendered out with such intensive and thorough detail. I think just two other points in the story might get a similar treatment. I'm approaching the rest with a more selective focus that helps move the story along.

I have a plan for how I should proceed now, which has numerous parts. First and foremost with concerns to Clear Horizons, I'm going to take the opportunity to pause writing the actual fic and shift back to note taking, with the goal of hammering out Thorn's character arc. Unlike my last desperate bout of note taking, I've been prepared to tackle this from the outset. In this whole process, Thorn has been by far the hardest part for me, for a myriad reasons. It's very important to me to give him a character arc with meaningful significance to the story, and initially I had no idea how to accomplish that, but I realized that I had to start without it if I wanted to start at all. So I drafted all of act 1 aware that I still needed to figure out my intentions for Thorn and I would have to add in more writing to integrate that.

I can tell this is the right time to do that. I'm glad I didn't let it stop me from jumping in; it feels more approachable now then it did then. I still anticipate that it'll be very tricky, but now I have some ideas to guide me and I believe I can do this. I also hope it will fill out some of the other gaps in the plans I do have. My last note taking stint helped a lot with the other main character arcs. Orrin's specifically is the strongest right now, I think it's in a really good pace. Murtagh's is far improved, though it feels like it still has some pieces missing. As I wrestle with Thorn, I'm going to pay close attention to how that can contribute to Murtagh's arc because they naturally should weigh on each other quite a lot. I hope figuring out my intentions with Thorn will provide much of the connective tissue I'm missing right now.

Before continuing with the main writing, I'd also like to edit the rest of act 1 that I haven't gotten to yet. It's a pretty arduous process, but I know it wouldn't be smart to put it off much longer. It's very valuable and I should at least edit up to the last section of act 1. It might be more effective to wait on that one because I think it will be overhauled the most after Thorn is properly added to the equation.

There are some other things I want to add in act 1 too. While making those notes, I recognized key aspects of both Murtagh and Orrin that deserve more exploration. I plan to take the first two sections, one about each of them, and divide them both in half so there's four sections, then I can add those details throughout them. I think it will also improve the pacing. That's currently not my priority, so I don't know if I'll do that before returning to writing progress, but it's in the plans.

On a different track, I want to take a small break before getting back to that grind. For a significant length of time now, Clear Horizons has held my attention largely uninterrupted. It's eclipses my other creative impulses. I don't feel like that's inherently bad, I often set aside my other interests for a while to pursue inspiration for a certain thing. But given how long I think Clear Horizons will take, even from this point, I don't want to do that the whole time. It's already been a long time since I've drawn anything, and longer still since I've worked with clay. I have a stretch of time off around Christmas and I think I'm going to force myself to not work on writing during that and enjoy other things. Since I have quite limited free time in my day to day, part of me gets frustrated feeling like having a lot of time and not using it to work on this is a waste. I need to remind myself that a project like this is not a sprint, it's a marathon, and taking breaks will benefit me in the end.

(There's a very high chance I'll make some Eragon related art anyway lol. And also Hubert. Maybe I'll show you guys Hubert.)

I also hope the mental break will push me to answer the asks people have sent me too! I'm sorry it's taken so long, I promise I won't forget! Clear Horizons honestly has been the biggest distraction from that. That being said, since it occupies so much of my mind, I always adore taking about it. Of course I still welcome all kinds of asks, but especially anything about Murtagh, Orrin, them together, or my fic specifically- and I'll also probably answer any of those right away because I seriously can't resist lmao (This isn't a headcanon blog anymore but this ship is the sole exception, I have so many feelings)

I really hope you guys will love this when it's finally complete. Part of me is nervous, but I'm doing my best to trust that the act of putting so much devotion into it will shine through on the other side ❤️

[tropigar]

Hey millie! Do you have any advice or tips on someone who has no idea where to even begin getting commissions? I love seeing all your stream art on my dash n thought you might have some ideas

Hi! I have a few pointers. And thank you, that is very kind :)

You'll need a payment processor. Paypal is pretty defacto in the art community. I always send invoices and it helps the transaction go smoother and gives you some control over the details and is better for recordkeeping purposes. You'll also need a platform to advertise your commissions on. Ideally this is just the same place you post your art and you have established yourself with a decent amount of art and some time on the platform to build an audience. There are artist-for-hire forums and the like where commissioners can seek out artists but I find the ratio of artists to commissioners tends to be astronomical so getting commissions on there can be difficult (I've never used them for that reason, if anyone has and wants to chime in it'd be appreciated!)

You'll need some way to advertise your commissions and organize the information. I use trello, I love that I can have my prices, TOS, examples, queue and finished pieces all in one spot. When you advertise your commissions an image that leads potential customers to your information helps. Some people make an image sheet with their examples and prices and TOS all included but honestly I've found that's more work than it's worth. The less digging customers have to do to find your commissions, the better.

You'll need to know what sort of commissions you want to offer. I see a lot of artists newer to offering commissions offer options for sketched, lined, colored, and shaded pieces that are also split by headshot, half-body, and full-body, so that's already 12 potential commission options, and then throw on options for backgrounds and props and such... less is more. Excessive options can be overwhelming and generally people will gravitate to one end (sketches if they're low on funds) or the other (fully rendered if they really like your work and have the cash). I try to keep it simple, I had my sketch headshots at $10 and lined fullbodies at $50-$70. Finding a "niche" is great! I did psychedelic portrait commissions and that was my best selling commission option for awhile.

As far as pricing goes that is a personal decision with a lot of variables. With digital art material costs are hardly a consideration but time spent making the piece, your skill level, and demand all are. I always start with an estimation of how long it takes me to complete a piece and go from there, I start at $20 an hour because that's how much I need at a full-time job to get by. If I think something will take me about 3 hours that's a $60 commission. Sometimes that does bite me in the butt and I end up spending something like... 16 hours on what I estimated would take me 8. Personally I always just eat the difference because I care more about providing a good experience for my commissioners than getting every penny :P I also charge up-front so it would feel unprofessional to go back and ask for more. Your commission prices should really be more of a rough estimate than a guaranteed quote, subjects can vary greatly in complexity, you don't want to charge the same $50 for a fullbody if some characters can be drawn in 2 hours and others take 6. Personal advice... if you are struggling to sell your art for say at minimum $10 an hour, it is either your skill level or your marketing / visibility. If it's the former, I really recommend stepping away from taking commissions for the time and spending a couple months or so working on developing your art skills. You will thank yourself later!

It's also important to know where your strengths and weaknesses lie. If you struggle with drawing backgrounds it's better to find that out in practice rather than on a commission while you're suffering through trying to figure out how to make rocks look like rocks or incorporate lighting and that sort of thing not that I would know what that's like, haha no wayyy.

You'll need a terms of service and there's a lot of considerations that go into that:

will draw / won't draw (can you draw xyz species? backgrounds? technology? etc)

turnaround time, queues (how long will it take to finish, a week or two months at most? do you finish commissions in a certain order?)

slot limits (how many outstanding commissions will you take at a time? it's important not to bite off more than you can chew)

payment options (how will they send you the money? also, when? up front, 50 now, 50 later?)

refunds (how will you refund if you can't complete a commission? do you offer refunds if requested by the buyer and at what time? if so, are they partial refunds determined by progress completion?)

work in progress images and revisions (do you offer WIPs? at what stages? how many revisions will you make? do you charge for additional revisions?)

usage rights (what will you do with completed commissions? just use as portfolio pieces? what can the buyer do with commissions? can they draw over them, crop and color filter, use as icons, print off, use commercially? if commercial applications is a considerations you need additional terms on that)

contact methods (email, discord, the same platform as posted, etc. how often will you reach out to them?)

anything else you can think of that would be relevant.

Having a public queue is good so people can see how much work you've done on their commission and/or where in line they are.

When working with commissioners it's important to be clear on what they're looking for. Have a character reference if applicable, know a bit about their personality and maybe how they want them depicted. Also things like time frames and resolution might be important.

And social skills is an obvious one. Be corteous and all that. Not much advice I can offer in that area. Be transparent, don't be rude, and you'll probably be fine lol. Overtime, you get practice with some less obvious things like commissioner personality types and vision and are better able to tailor your approach to what works best for the client. Some people just want to see their character in your style, others have a specific vision in mind, that sort of thing.

There are a few other things I can think of like, I really recommend you give yourself a month minimum turnaround time as breathing room for commissions (and if you finish it faster, hooray!), also I generally recommend charging 100% upfront (or something like 50/50 on larger commissions), I could go off on a few different things but that's more personal advice and opinions and this is getting to be a long post already :)

Also, take a look at a few different artists that offer commissions and what their process looks like and go from there!

If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask and I'd be happy to help ^^

[tagapagsalaysay]

Well I'm sick of being burdened with knowledge. TL;DR. Why is there a minor working for a known studio that brands itself as an adult animation studio? Where is the money going?

So everyone knows that project about the mermaid and the chef. Of course you do. It's been heavily advertised, it's even got dangling keys of being set in the PH. Low bar, but the animation industry in the Philippines is so open to fresh talent and projects and what not. So you look into it. Then you get hit by the fact that it's produced mostly by Americans, but it's PROBABLY Filipino-Americans, that's a thing, they're good pioneers. That's fine. Most of them are Asian-Americans anyway. Flag #1.

I'm known to be a contrarian. I hate on everything almost by default, I have contempt over too much of the local art scene for focusing on anime styles and highly rendered stuff too much. And so I kept myself from hating too much because I may not be giving them a chance. So I stepped back and observed what the project had in store. But over time it felt odd. Why does this studio commission so much promotional art? I can understand 3 pieces, but I couldn't even count how much they had exactly. It was a sheer amount. Some from known Filipino and Filipino-American artists, to other artists. But it was almost too derivative. Almost like they had just as much context as everyone else. You have the formula of the dynamic, which by standard should have been a yellow or red flag, of the usual. The characters in a vague dynamic of predator and prey and it's sapphic. But that's about it. And the constant reminder of it being WLW and Filipino. It was mildly annoying (and I did my best to just leave it be), but the sheer amount of artwork got me questioning whether they actually devoted enough budget for the production of the animation. Didn't even know they already had a Patreon feeding into the project, and that they werent a studio attempting to pitch for some funding. Flag #2.

I spent months of circling whether I was being too much of a hater. I spent time thinking whether they actually do animate, until they posted a short scene breakdown recently a few weeks back. At least some work is going into it. I was going to wait it out until something proved it existed or didn't a la Schrodinger. Run to the latest news of a teaser for the project. Mildly excited, mostly relieved that it was probably going to be more public because I feel like I'd have sleepless nights if I thought too hard about it. Still not fully out. Sure. More breakdowns, more scenes. More info coming soon.

But then I found out that it turns out that there was a minor on the crew. Which I found odd for a studio who wanted to uphold this image of a professional studio. Then I realized that it was even worse, because the project is supposed to be for adults and the entire studio is branded as an Adult Animation Studio. At this point I don't think it matters if it's haterism. That is troubling me deeply. Why do you have a minor on the crew? It doesn't matter if they're close to becoming an adult or whatever man, it's just super weird now. Your entire marketing hinged on the project being Adult. It's just so unprofessional at best and horrifying at most. Flag #3. It's just too much.

Conclusion is I really don't want to pick a fight with more studios. I'm sick of it. I'm just really bewildered, also not even the head of the studio's graduated from university yet. For the longest time it felt like a disaster waiting to happen. Which was fine to watch and see if it would fail, but they got a minor involved.

[terrors-and-tables]

As a way to give this blog some purpose, and give myself something to do, I’ve decided to start writing out my RPG musings in my spare time. I’ve been slowly working on a campaign setting for several years now, and it’s become a little creative space for me to hammer out a hypothetical kitchen sink to throw my fantasy ideas in. I’ll probably end up using it for a Pathfinder game (where I’ll finally get to use Spheres of Power/Might, and maybe even Guile), but I’ve thought about running it with an OSR game as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll run it over several different systems. Without further ado, here’s the first installment!

Post #1: The Ottoguard

This idea was created using Ultimate Engineering, the most recent (and final) Pathfinder product for Spheres of Might from Drop Dead Studios. I contributed a bit to the playtesting and had a great time, and its author spent two years fine tuning it, so if you're interested, go support them and take a look. At the time of writing, it should also be on the SoP wiki any day now.

In the core of the setting, the city of Scalmoor treats scientific advancement like its own fom of magic. They build marvelous contraptions of steel and glass, whether powered by tightly wound clockworks or by burning coal and spewing black smoke. In this city, the law is kept by those with the most money to build the biggest toys, and one such toy is the Ottoguard.

Standing at eight feet tall, an Ottoguard is a hollow sort of mechanical construct, but bears no magic or animating consciousness like a golem. Instead, a trained fighter pilots it, wearing it as a sort of incredibly heavy armor that carries itself. Ottoguards don’t do all of the policing, usually accompanied by a few regular guards who can do things like fit into buildings, move obstacles aside, bully civilians up close and personal, and so on and so forth.

Ottoguard CR 1 XP 400 Human Warrior 3 LN Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +2; Perception +5

Defense

AC 17; Touch 12; Flat-Footed 15; (+2 Dex, +5 Chainmail) 21 HP (3d10+6) Fort +5 Ref +3; Will +3

Offense

Speed 20ft. Space 5ft; Reach 5ft Melee Sap +4 (1d6+1 nonlethal) Ranged Light Crossbow +5 (1d8/19-20) Special Attacks Snag (Swift action, render target battered as melee touch attack)

Statistics

Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8 Base Atk ; CMB ; CMD ( vs. trip) Feats Extra Combat Feat Skills Craft (Technology) +6, Intimidate +5, Perception +5, Sense Motive +5; Racial Modifiers Languages Common SQ Gear: Mwk Chainmail, Light Crossbow, Longsword, Large Crossbow, MwK Large Sap, Potion of CLW, 8 gold pieces, 13 silver pieces. Martial Tradition: Mechaguard* Martial Talents (2 talents from progression, 1 talent from feat)

Equipment Sphere: Bounty Hunter’s Tools Armor Training Tinker Sphere: Transportation Package Mechanical Arsenal Transportation Mastery Wrestling Sphere: (Constrictor Drawback) Hammerlock Clinch Strike

Those stats above are for if our unlucky Ottoguard pilot is caught… off-guard. They’re there to represent what’s inside the fantastic mech and what he’s trained to do in a fight, particularly specializing in nonlethal capture- even when fully kitted out he’s here to apprehend criminals, not brain them. The crossbows are just for emergencies. So let’s break down what he’s capable of as a third level warrior, namely his talents:

His Equipment Sphere talents are there solely for proficiencies, for the Sap and for medium/heavy armor. The Athletics Sphere lets him run pretty quick (five times his speed in medium armor, at a hundred feet per round)- he won’t be able to outrun most people, but he won’t fall too far behind either. Tinker is much more complex, opening up an entire subsystem, but the bulk of why it’s there is to build and maintain his precious Ottoguard, with Mechanical Arsenal allowing him to outfit it with custom-crafted plate-mail for free, and Transportation Mastery allowing him to make an immersive cockpit that responds to his movements with a complicated array of levers and pulleys. Wrestling is there so that he can tackle a criminal and, if needed, beat them unconscious. It’s alright though, because even if it’s scaled up to be sized for an ogre, a lead rod wrapped in leather will still deal nonlethal damage.

Mechanoid Statistics: 4th level Mechanoid N Large Construct Init +2; Perception +5

Defense AC 24; Touch ; Flat-Footed ; (+9 Full Plate, +1 Dex, -1 size, +5 NA) 27 HP (3d10+12) Fort +5; Ref +3; Will +3 Defensive Abilities ; Immune Construct Traits

Offense

Speed 20ft. Space 10ft; Reach 10ft Melee MwK Large Sap +8 (1d8+5, Nonlethal) Ranged MwK Large Light Crossbow +5 (2d6/19-2) Special Attacks Snag (Swift action, render target battered as melee touch attack)

Statistics

Str 20, Dex 14, Con --, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8 Base Atk +3; CMB +9; CMD 21 Feats -- Skills Perception +5, Sense Motive +5, Intimidate +5; Racial Modifiers SQ 6 Upgrades (Arms, Legs, Cover*, Focused Design (+2 Str), Immersive Cockpit, Armor Slot, Alternate Size) *Free upgrade Gear MwK Large Sap, MwK Light Crossbow,

The Ottoguard, while piloted, can benefit from its pilot’s skills, feats, saving throw bonuses, base attack bonuses, et cetera, while keeping its own physical ability scores, armor class, and better weaponry, while also having its own pool of hit points. The pilot isn’t totally sequestered, however, and some parts of him are still visible, even if they’re behind hatches or a visor, and he may be attacked separately from the Ottoguard- though he benefits from Cover, gaining a +4 bonus to Armor Class.

An Ottoguard isn’t cheap, of course, but by the rules of Ultimate Engineering, Project Materials (for things such as mechanoids) may be acquired freely with time and successful crafting checks (DC 15 for 50 gold worth of material, +50 for each increase of 5, gathered over the course of 4 hours per check), meaning that by carefully sourcing and repurposing parts, the Ottoguard may be constructed from scratch by its pilot for free. This process of assembly and subsequent maintenance are drilled into pilots’ heads from day one. At a cost of 500gp for the average Ottoguard (100 per level, +200 for being large size), and about 100gp of Project Materials being acquired per day, this means an Ottoguard can be fully constructed in a week’s time (not counting the weekend of course). If in a proper settlement and in a real emergency, 500 gold pieces can be paid outright to acquire exactly what is needed almost immediately, after which construction of the Ottoguard takes 1 hour. All of this means that while Ottoguards are probably extremely similar on the outside (serving as somewhere between uniforms and police vehicles, they probably should), a pilot knows their machine inside and out, and there may be differences in the internal construction.

Ottoguard Adventure Hooks

1. A pilot’s Ottoguard has been stolen, likely to be reverse engineered by some enterprising criminals.

2. A pilot has been found guilty of illegally modifying his Ottoguard with blades, flame projectors, and stronger leg actuators. After causing several fires and deaths, he’s gone on the run with his new death machine.

3. A chaotic druid has caused trees and vines to grow over all of the city’s Ottoguards overnight, and has ruined the Ottoworks. With the city’s strongest defenders disabled, and Scalmoor’s stingy oligarchy unwilling to fund that many replacements immediately, the city is in shambles!

4. A mad tinker wizard has stolen the blueprints for the Ottoguards, creating one with an integrated Artificial Intelligence. It’s been going on its own patrols, blending in perfectly and disappearing before it can be apprehended. What is its purpose?

*New Martial Tradition

Mechaguard Equipment Sphere: Bounty Hunter’s Tools Armor Training Tinker Sphere: Transportation Package Wrestling Sphere: (Constrictor Drawback) Hammerlock

Inspirations:

FantasyNameGenerators is a wonderful site, and I used it to come up with the name Scalmoor

Appleseed (the 1988 OVA) is what really inspired this idea, bringing that movie's Landmates into a technologically advanced fantasy setting

[sachiko6243]

A dangerous game

Summary: Jasira, an elemental witch and girlfriend of Jasper as well as the Cullens get invited to Aro anual ball. Things quickly rise in tension, when Aro and Jasira are caught up in a deadly dance discussing their past entanglements. Jasira still full of hate for Aro, because he killed off her brotherhood in the late 1800s is not giving in to the sweet talk the Volturi king is giving her.

This will be a part of my story "Bloody desire - A Jasper Hale love story" on Wattpad and Ao3 (account names in tumblr description). So everyone who is interessted is welcome reading it.

Word count: 2532

Warnings: generally none, slight threatening with weapons, double meanings, dark tension, but nothing crazy

Again, the monstruous pompousness of the Volterra castle rendered me speechless. Wrapped up in my floor length coat, I trailed behind Heidi. The rest of the Cullens securely walking with Bella and myself in the middle. Aro had invited us all to his annual ball, with the underlying impression of not being able to deny his offer. So, here we were. The guys tucked into neat black suits, a little handkerchief of the color of their mates dress sticking out of the front pocket.

Rosalie wore a long silvery pink dress, that fanned out around her ankles in soft layers. Esme was dressed in a dark royal blue, accentuating her golden eyes with blueish grey eyeliner. Her dress was simple, but had a high slit on her left side, showing of her leg that was glittering with the golden garter and Carlisle initials. Alice dress was a deep forest green off shoulder, that ended knee length in the front to then flow to her ankles on the back. From her ears two delicate sliver chains with pearls on the end were swaying with every turn of her head. Unlike the rest Bella was wrapped in a floor length baby blue dress. A simple cut with an embroidered top that originally had a low plunge neckline. But she forced Alice to sow it higher to not show off too much of her neck. Over her shoulders she wore a thin white woolen vest, tightly wrapped around her to give her at least some warmth in the cold castle hallways.

My ears were decorated with little diamond earrings, a silver garter glittering from my left leg, while my fingers were showing of a few silver rings of mine and Rosalies collection. Sheathed in two black leather sheaths I wore two daggers. Coated with diamond and vampire venom as my main piece of jewelry. I hadn’t fully restocked my wardrobe so, me buying this new revealing dress wasn’t something Jasper would have spent lots of time thinking about. I made sure that I would get dressed alone, not showing anyone what I was about to wear.

With my heels clacking on the stone ground, we arrived at the entrance hall of the big ballroom. Aro was waiting on the side, flanked by Felix and Demetri. As soon as he saw us, he walked over to us, his guards neatly following him. He greeted the Cullens an Bella with a short nod, before focusing all of his attention on me. “It is unusual for you to be this covered up.” His soft voice sent shivers down my spine. The cat like fixation of his eyes trained on my face. Stepping forward I opened my coat turning around to let him take it off.

As soon as my dress was revealed, the Cullens took in a sharp breath, clearly not expecting me to wear something like that. Behind me, I could hear Aro giggle slightly, while Felix hid his laughter behind a cough. Demitri just took on a sharp breath. Letting Aro turn me around, I offered a sly smile, ignoring the second wave of surprise that shuffled through the Cullens. Offering me a cold hand, Aro guided me towards the door. “I see you came armed, my lady.” Not looking at him, but keeping up the stiff interaction, I answered: “Isn’t everyone?”

My comment had Aro break out in another short giggle. “Tongue as sharp as always. Tell me, tigrotta, do you really believe your daggers are more than a piece of jewelry?” I turned my head to look him in his piercing red eyes, that didn’t dare to hide the hunger in them. “Tell me, Aro.” I put a slight stretch to his name, observing the twitch washing over his body. “What happened the last time you underestimated me?” Not hiding my threat, I tilted my head. “I believe we have something called a stalemate. Besides, we still have a truce, do we not?”

“Of course, tigrotta. There was no underlying intent on my part.” He answered dunking his voice in so much sweetness, I was about to throw up. When we reached the edge of the dance floor, I wanted to let go of his hand, but Aro kept it in a hard grasp, causing Jasper to slightly growl behind me. He was quickly shut down by Felix puffing himself up next to me, causing Aro to wave him off annoyed. Hearing the music change from a waltz to a tango, I knew what was about to come. “Offer me a dance, principessa. It has been a long time since the last one.”

Letting him guide me to the middle of the dance floor, I vaguely noticed the other vampires clearing it. Leaving Aro and me alone by ourself. That meant nothing good. It was his way of strategically removing me from any security, but I decided to play along and see what the evening would bring. If shit was about to go down, I had Jasper and Emmett at my side in an instant. Putting on a fake smile I answered his question hanging in the room: “60 years if I am not mistaken.”

A low hum rumbled through Aros chest, when he placed one hand on my lower back, while the other held my right arm rigidly straight. He was quick to guide me over the dance floor not caring to throw another glance at anyone else than me. “60 years and you still sway like a goddess.” He commented, grinning when he saw Jasper fuming behind me. Emmett had his hand casually on his shoulder, but I knew he was holding Jasper back from doing something stupid.

“There are things one does not simply forget.” I dished out another stab. Earning a slight scold from Aro. “One also does not simply walk into a ball armed with deadly weapons.” His hand slowly wandered from my lower back to the place the handles of my daggers rested neatly against my bare skin. He wrapped one hand around a dagger, pulling it out with so much speed and throwing it against a wall, that I was nearly unable to stop it from shattering against the stone. Twirling me around with his left hand, he ripped the other dagger out of his sheath holding it playfully in his hand. The other one still hovering inches away from the wall, purely held by my silent airy grasp.

“Good handywork.” He murmured, taking a deeper look at my weapon. With the twist of my left hand, I let the second dagger flow to it, twirling it loosely through my fingers. “They indeed are.” I answered. Now pulling Aros attention back to me. With the turn of his hand, he rotated me back to him. Chest touching my back. Then he pressed the metal of my dagger against my skin, not daring to put pressure on it. His eyes were now trained on Jasper, who was about to break out from Felix hold. The rest of the Volturi guard silently looming over my family.

But I didn’t react to Aro threatening my life. Rather the opposite. “You are playing a dangerous game, Aro.” I said, still letting his step guide the way of our dance. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Twisting me back to face him, bending me backward with the light pressure of the dagger against my throat while the music came to a sudden height of tension. We had stopped dancing by now, completely focused on each other. Both having a dagger against each throat, the other hands still entangled in a deadly grip.

“Would I not?” He asked coyly.

“The better question would be ‘should I not?’.” I simply answered, not moving my weapon.

He was the first to react after seconds of us staring deeply in each others eyes. Taking the dagger from my throat he pushed it back into its cover, soon followed by mine. Again, we picked up our dance where we had left off. “Still as cold blooded as ever.” He praised me, an honest smile plastering his lips.

“The times where I was easily scarred are long gone.” I hissed, this time not caring to hide my open disliking towards him. He chose to ignore my piercing eyes, still smiling like a cat who just found the fountain of milk springing from her garden. “Like the times you came unarmed to my ball.” He retorted, again, bending me over his knee to then swirl me over his arm. I landed gracefully, slowly stepping around him to the beat of the music. “Like the times where you honored our truce.”

“There are rules I need to hold up. Humans are not meant to know about us.” He snarled. I was getting under his skin. Good. “And yet you fail to end my existence. Why is that, Aro? Are you getting lousy in your executions? Or is it hard to find good participants?”

“Do not anger me, woman.” He whispered against my ear, letting my frame crush a little too hard into his chest, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I just smiled, letting my hands come to a hold around his neck, while he was now indecently grabbing my waist to roughly handle me over the stone floor to the rising beat of the music. “I do not intend to anger you, Aro.” I mewled, grinning like a Cheshire cat. He was obviously seeing through my act, but chose to ignore it, or better, play along with it. “You would make such a good representant for us. That’s why I spared you. You are always welcome to join us.”

Letting out a deep sight, I tilted my head mockingly. “Spared me? You killed my family. My brothers, while keeping up a false diplomatic truce. Then you failed to hunt me down, sending out troops after troops to kill me. And still, I am breathing. You simply cannot admit that you are no match for me. Keeping up the shiny façade of good relations while plotting the next attempt to kill off my loved ones, trying to persuade me to join you. Isn’t that right?”

To my surprise he didn’t correct me. “At least this time you would get to keep your lover. Jasper would be another great asset to the court. Maybe I will take Edward and Alice, too.” Letting his eyes wander over my family he hummed. “Ahh, maybe only Alice. I do not need another telepath. I would rather take the open place to collect Theodore as well. He might not be gifted, but keeping my greatest jewel happy, would make my life a lot easier.” Aro had now completely refrained from hiding behind his well kept, innocent façade. Showing his true colors once again. His eyes were hungrily scanning my body, then wandering over to the Cullens that were now threatened against the wall of the room. Letting my eyes wander I could see a lot of red Volturi eyes looking at the conversation happening in the middle of the room.

I took a deep breath, stopping the dance and taking a step back. “In that case, you should weight your options, Aro.” My voice was sharp. “I do not fear another war rising, as I myself are clearly able to take out a third of your guards. You know I am. I already did that. And if you really dare to attack us, be aware that I have resources and connections to witches who are far older than I am. Older than you.” Taking the step back towards him, I lowered my voice. “And if we are already threatening each other so openly, I might as well ask for your wife, Sulpicia. She I wonderful isn’t she? A sweet gem to hold onto. It would be a shame to lose her, would it?”

“You will not harm her!” Aro growled, cowering down, ready to attack me. I just shrugged. “Who talked about harming her? I was merely wondering how she would react, knowing you would start a war against an innocent witch. Especially if said witch does keep regular contact with her. Isnt that right, Sulpicia?” I called out into the room, not drifting my eyes from Aro. But I could hear the soft clacking of small heels on the ground, showing Sulpicias arrival. Aros eye darted to his wife, visibly showing his confusion. “What is she talking about, cara mia?”

“She is right.” Sulpicias angelic voice was easily shutting down the murmuring in the room. “I have had enough of you starting wars with innocent people. She and her brotherhood did nothing wrong. Quite the opposite they made sure to keep the human population safe from the wrath of mislead vampires. A thing you swore to do as well. So as long, as Jasira and the Cullens do not break any of our rules, they are not to be bothered.”

“Two of them are mated to humans. They are already breaking one of our most important laws!” Aro let out, but was shut down by his wife immediately.

“Jasira is not to be viewed as normal human. She is immortal like us, possesses a gift like us, is sworn to secrecy like us. And as far as I heard, Bella is to be turned. There is nothing unrighteous going on. Don’t ruin this ball with your anger, as I do not wish to be strained like that.” Sulpicias voice was strong yet soft, cradling Aro in her hold.

I could see he was fighting the desire to give in to his wife, but after a few seconds he sighted. “Of course, cara mia. I am sure the Cullens will honor our laws. And since Jasira chose a vampire as her mate, she will as well. Am I right?” He looked at me with sharp eyes. I just bowed my head. “As long as there is no corruption and ambush brewing, I will gladly honor your laws.”

“Well then.”  He put up his softspoken demeanor. “Let us carry on with the ball.” Clapping in his hands he hushed the guest back on the dance floor.

[secondmagic]

a fucking problem i've had recently is

a) i've been in college for the past few years and it's an art school so all my creative energy has been put entirely in school projects (and i am life a few months away from starting my last year where. i'll be working on my graduate film. which, wtf.) leaving me with little to no time or energy for personal stuff or stuff i draw for fun or that isn't for a specific poroject

b) all i want to draw recently is p*rn (and i really do not want to censor that but the tumblr algorithm has locked my blog down for content enough times at this point) or at least horny or something that at least has bare titties and the occasional bare pussy so either i have to just give up on it i guess or post a little preview piece of it here and link somewhere else and.... like twitter is in a dire state at this point, don't exactly have a following there, it has been well, well documented how the algorithm is actively like against you even if you're like some kind of da vinci level maestro. but it's basically my only option now for most the stuff i do want to post to even get stuff our there. and i did recently get a bluesky acc but you know it's a not very active website and also invite-only. so, not a lot of options.

and you know, my posting here has always been kinda sporadic and i have tried to make stuff more frequently and have a bigger output but out of all the time i spent drawing which frankly is a lot, very little of it ends up as like. a properly fully rendered piece that i can show and i would occasionally post stuff here from my sketchbook that i find at least a little bearable to look at but that also actually takes effort and is difficult to make it like. visually presentable.

a while back tumblr has informed me that this blog has turned 10 years old, which, whoof, huge crisis over the passage of time and also how many grand ambitions i had with this blog when i made it and how little of it i achieved in those 10 years and genera feelings about my own skills and growth and where i stand in life because of my very sporadic posting and my slow pace of work which has gone from like. once very two months to 2-3 times a year and now even when i feel inspired i don't know how much of what i make is even going to be here. recently i've been reevaluating if i even have what it takes or if i even should be an artist with the pace at which i work and how little of anything i complete not to mention how i feel about my own art skills in general, but you know given i've been stubborn about wanting to do this since childhood and i literally just cannot concieve with my brain of doing anything else in life. and on top of that i'm too much of a stubborn spiteful bitch not to keep pushing because i can't let the evil malicious gnome trying to take me down win, so this is something i'm figuring out over time.

anyway i did somehow manage to get 320ish followers in that time, give or take those that are either bots or inactive, and most of you probably followed me for stuff i'm either not super into right now or don't post anymore so you're probably not getting your follow's worth if you look at it practically, you might not even know or remember who i am or what you ever followed me for because of how long its been and how sporadic i am. but i guess i just want to say i know i don't have a lot to offer on this blog compared to a lot of other artists in terms of quality or quantity, which hopefully that will change one day in the future because i am trying to figure out how to do this all better, so thank you all who did follow and are still following and are sticking around despite all of [waves hands] all the things i described