#i used a lot of references for this im horrible at drawing

[beddybites]

hi friends! big rant incoming— i want to clarify this isnt targeted at anyone, im just noticing a pattern and im getting a little upset with some of the requests im being sent ):

something that really bothers me is the babyfication of giyuu tomioka. the fandom infantilizes the dude way too much. and its even worse when you throw shinobu into the mix and have her being a maternal figure to him when she herself is an eighteen year old who has worked as a hashira since she was a teenager. she does not need to be put into these situations where she’s taking care of her older peers all the time

i see this happen a lot and i feel its rooted in misogyny whether people recognize it or not. almost always the male characters are thrown into positions where the female character has to take care of them and its really frustrating

shinobu isnt a maternal character at all. to inosuke and the younger ones, it’s different, but if i keep seeing her being a mom to giyuu im actually going to lose my mind. giyuu isnt some uwu depressed baby who cant stand up for himself. he is just as mean as sanemi and obanai. he trained to survive and operate in horrible situations and fight for his life for years. hes a grown man and a hashira. he would not be babied by anyone, especially not someone who he has known since she was around fourteen years old

you may say “well ghostbite dont you do this with mitsuri and obanai”… sure. perhaps i am a hypocrite. but you must remember mitsuri is just sort of like that. she loves cute things and she loves fawning over everyone and everything. her scenes with nezuko. her introduction scene in the hashira meeting with her gushing over everyone. she hand feeds tanjiro pancakes in the recent season. she refers to people as “cutie.” etc etc etc

the difference with obanai and giyuu is obanai is often characterized as a yandere simp who is a huge bully to giyuu and tanjiro. he’s not. i like to put him in deaging situations a lot because unlike everyone else, he’s been through hell since birth. he’s never, not once, had a moment of peace. he had no siblings growing up to protect him— he had no loving parents, etc. he never felt love and he believes he is undeserving of it and should never reciprocate it. so here comes mitsuri, the epitome of love. he takes care of her. he watches after her. he is devoted to her. if something happens to him, especially if it’s a situation where he’s much smaller and weaker and in need of care, mitsuri would drop everything to help him. if it were mitsuri, obanai would do the same for her. it’s in both of their characters to do this. them being in these situations makes sense

i love shinobu. she would not. she does what a doctor does, looks for a cure, checks in here and there, and leaves it at that. she is not giyuu’s “mama.” she is an eighteen year old girl who has her own bucketload of issues. if you need her in a maternal role then use inosuke or literally any of the butterfly girls— the kids she actually takes in and takes care of. not her 21 year old coworker who is more than capable

if anything i think shinobu should be put in deaging situations. have giyuu take care of her instead. mix it up a little. but people are so attached to the idea of having every single caregiver role go to the woman that it’s unlikely we’ll see that

this is not a criticism on giyuu. i love giyuu. but i need people to stop treating him like a defenseless baby, and for people to quit seeing shinobu as responsible for him as a caregiver or a mother

tdlr: please stop asking me to draw or write deaged giyuu stuff. someone else can do that. i dont like deaged giyuu. tiny 21 trio is essentially on hold because of this ): i keep getting nonstop requests for deaged giyuu and im so tired, especially because people are framing it in a “you should replace obanai with giyuu” lens, or adding “mama shinobu doing x with baby giyuu”

it’s tiresome and frustrating. i love to make content for you guys, and i love when its something that appeals to you in a comforting way, but if you want specific content with giyuu— you’re very much in the wrong place. i hate the fandomification of him and shinobu— it makes me uncomfy and sad.

other people are deaging giyuu and putting him in situations— go ask them instead of me. i would rather highlight misunderstood and underrated characters like obanai and gyomei or my own personal faves (muichiro) then constantly loop the same exact character over and over again

all this to say im doubling down on the babybu and babynai and pintsized pillars aus. if you keep asking for baby giyuu and maternal figure shinobu my spite makes me stronger. hashtag let shinobu be taken care of for once. she’s already the doctor for an entire organization give my girl a break

[entroart]

Hi there, just a few things

Hi, I'm an artist, and I'm plural too :3. Or at least, I think I am? It's complicated. There's a lot of denial all the time.

You don't have to say anything that you don't want to of course, and answer in as much or as little detail as you'd like to.

So my questions are like.

1) How has being plural affected your art journey?

Im asking this because I have really bad executive dysfunction, and find it extremely hard to actually do what I want to do, meaning not much art practise, but I know that my other alters don't have it as badly.

2) How is your system communication? How did you make it better if its good.

Our communication is very.... poor. There's 3 definite alters, including me, and maybe a couple more, but I never hear about them so idk. Either way, even between just the three of us, I almost never hear anything from the other two. Apparently they have better communication between each other, but idk how true that is cus I can't really ask them.

3) Can you visualise things? I have aphantasia, and it makes me need a lot more references for when I am occasionally able to bring myself to draw. I'm interested to know how it works without that inhibition.

Thank you very much for reading, I love your art and wish all of you the best. <3

Question Barrage!! 1. Well to be fair is mostly everyone doing their thing. Bridget is trying to learn how to art to help me so thats nice (lemme show her progress)

Other alters also draw, for example Abyss that tends to do fruits

Or one of our littles Chain that did art yesterday

So each alter different art and stuff, I think thats how I can answer that question. 2. Our communication is alright, we can talk to each other easily and dont need to write for that, so in that regards fine 3. Yes, we can see a 3D image and rotate it (shit is frustrating cuz then not being able to properly draw makes me feel horrible)

[juni-ravenhall]

im thinking a lot about "what i want to do with my art" lately and i also have many years of figuring shit out already as an adult so i will post some general advice stuff that might help ppl

art should be fun. if you hate doing lineart then stop doing lineart. if you hate rendering and shading then stop doing it. if you hate anatomy then stop doing it and just draw funky shapes. if you love one color then use that color. if you love doing complicated detailed patterns then start doing those more. if you love drawing circles then make art with lots of circles. do what is fun to you, with the only exception being someone giving you good money to do something not fun, if you need the money.

u dont have to have 1 art style, consistent art is only relevant for commissions/jobs where u are supposed to deliver a specific style/quality/etc that u were paid for. if ur not getting paid or making a portfolio for a specific type of job, then draw however the fuck you want and dont care about anything. have 500 different styles and techniques, or just have 1 if thats how you work. it doesnt matter and everyone is different

the way to develop and evolve quickly is to draw as crazy as possible. push yourself as far as possible and dont care about anything dont worry about anything. fear holds you back. actively choose to draw crazy and push things far. no cringe no limit no rules no anatomy no perspective no color theory fuck everything and go crazy.

dont think "i dont know how to draw a ball room full of dancing people with fancy clothes" "i dont know how to draw a gallopping horse" just start drawing it and see what happens. when you get stuck you look up reference and tutorials. this is how you find out what parts you struggle with so you can then get specific help.

try to draw as bad as possible half the time. think, im going to draw this really fucking bad and ugly. im going to make the worst fucking horrible drawing. do it on purpose. fuck the concept of beauty and quality and perfectionism. draw bad on purpose. draw crazy on purpose. it will help you find freedom.

when looking at other ppls art for inspiration, separate between "i like this thing" vs "i want to draw more like this thing". all art that you like doesnt have to be relevant to how you draw stuff yourself, you can appreciate x type of art without your art being anything like that at all. this is especially important about things like clean lineart, rendering, amount of detail, """correct""" anatomy or perspective or shading, etc. just bc you like some art with beautiful shading doesnt mean you have to want to do beautiful shading. or maybe you do want that! thats why you figure out which ones are aspirational to you and which ones are just amazing and cool but not what you enjoy doing with your art.

the "2 cakes" concept - it doesnt matter whatsoever if someone else drew the same thing as you "but better" (in your eyes). your thing is still unique and has value existing because only you are you and your art is your art. ppl are happy theres now 2 cakes instead of just 1.

i already said this but Just Try. Just Go For It. some of my favourite comics are actually "badly drawn" from a generic perspective. but theyre unique and interesting bc every human is unique and interesting. you can draw stick figure drawings, comics or animations. you can draw simple or complex, good or bad, or go back and forth between styles and techniques, draw good one day and bad the other, make a comic where every page is a surprise in quality and style, nothing matters, do whatever you want forever.

the things you think are "bad" or "boring" or "cringe" or whatever other negative word might not be that to other people. someone might see your "ugly doodle" and love it so much they want it printed out on their wall. and even if some ppl dont like something, other people will like it. the ppl who like it are the ones that matter. not everyone has the same taste and thats how it should be.

draw for yourself. or draw for other people if that makes you happy, but do things that make you happy. draw your favourite things and your obsessions and express your feelings and draw your favourite characters and use your favourite colours or brushes. draw things that your friends like and send it to them. do things that make you smile. draw things that youre thirsty about for that matter. happy pride month. cringe is dead

if you have a hard time picking up the pen dont start thinking "i cant draw". youre probably suffering from some stress, mental illness or ND symptoms or something. try to find out how to solve problems in your life that are making you stressed and overwhelmed and not able to have fun making art. get help, talk to a counsellor, talk to a doc. and make sure you aren't pushing yourself to make art that isnt fun for you, bc that in itself will make you unhappy.

if you feel stuck, aside from looking up references and tutorials, try different techniques and materials. try a new software. try drawing on paper or on a tablet or paint on a canvas or try new pens and papers. make a collage. do papercrafts. sculpt. do something different than what you usually do

CLEAN YOUR ART AREA whether its a desk for your tablet or a table for your paper or stand for a canvas. make it EASY to pick up the pen / brush / whatever and start drawing. dont put objects on top of your tablet / papers / easel / whatever. make space for your art and keep it organised. it should take 1 second to start drawing without having to clean anything first.

if you feel like youre just bad at drawing, like i said, draw bad on purpose. draw crazy on purpose. fuck all the rules and perfectionisms and what you "should do". dont worry about anything just draw the worst and craziest you can. you can do this. i love your art. you exist. youre unique. you are you

[bioethicists]

hii! i saw your tags on the post about calculus and im really curious what you meant about calculus helping you better understand what it means to be a person, if you feel like elaborating!!

lmaooo ty for enabling me but please forgive me in advance this is by far my most meta theory + it's definitely a drug fueled one

basically, one of the foundational aspects of my view of the world + knowledge production (this is p standard anthropologist shit, to be clear, not something unique to me) is that our understanding of the 'real' is culturally constructed + the boundaries which separate one thing from another are illusions, not unquestionable facts. this isn't some insidious, horrible project we need to abandon- it's often necessary in order to communicate + function. for example, a hand- people designated what constitutes a hand because they had to in order to communicate effectively + accomplish important functions like healing, creating clothing, etc. (you can see how this becomes standard anthropology shit bcuz anthropologists look at how different groups of people construct these "truths" differently, entirely uninterested in the project of deciding which groups of people are "right")

but 1) "hands" as we understand them- the borders we draw around what is + is not one, for instance- are products of collective cultural understanding. the concept of the 'hand' does not exist as separate from the arm or more broad than the fingers until we designate it as such. 2) the "hand" is fundamentally inseparable from the arm, which is inseparable from the body, which is inseparable from the world etc. everything is a part of everything else + we are choosing to refer to it in isolation out of utility, not because it can truly be separated from everything else. obviously a hand is 'real' in that it impacts the world around us, but the idea of what it is has been created + now the fact that this idea was created (not obvious or innate) is forgotten, ignored, or obscured.

this might seem kind of obvious/pedantic because i picked a deliberately easy example (i think nietzsche used the example of a flower, which now that i think about it might have been a better choice on my part), but a lot of harm in science + the greater world is caused by the deliberate or unintentional ignoring that everything, even 'scientific fact', is produced via these pretend separations. this doesn't mean that the separations don't produce meaningful, useful things! it just means acknowledging that those things are a product of specific cultural understandings + relationships + not unquestionably superior or definitively settled. lefty ppl may be familiar with viewing some things through this lens, like race, gender, class, the state, but most ppl hold a belief that some things are Real + culture's influence on these things is supplementary + not defining of our understandings of what those things are.

euclid writes in "the elements", probably the most influential geometry text of all time, "a point is that which has no part". a point is meaningless until it comes into contact with other points. the paradox of geometry becomes, how does a constellation of nothingness (points) become something? how do we come to understand that something as having an identity + properties all its own, distinctive from other somethings? when euclid is writing this, he is absolutely reveling in this, as math was once a deeply philosophical pursuit intrinsically tied to metaphysics. calculus illustrates this particularly poignantly because calculus primarily deals in derivatives.

a derivative takes a series of points + turns them into one point (which can then be combined with other points + turned into another point again, ad infinitum). take a speeding car- "velocity" (you can just think of this as speed) is the first derivative of the position of an object with respect to time. it is a single point (60 mph, for example) which encapsulates a bunch of different points- the position of the car at 1sec, 2 sec, 3 sec, 4 sec etc. obviously, creating this point can be extremely useful, but all this number represents is a collection of observations or "points"- it is a 'real' thing which is comprised of a bunch of other 'real' things but it only holds meaning in the way that it captures the relationship between things. a derivative takes movement + renders it static, but its very identity as a derivative prevents us from looking away from the fact that it is a manufactured stasis + that underneath/within the derivative, a great deal of movement/change is occurring. the thousands of instances which created that derivative are not hidden by the derivative, they constitute it.

so, on a philosophical level, i see calculus as this act of moving between unstable, constructed relationships between things, treating them as still objects as far as that is necessary or useful, but never forgetting what lies beneath them. this goes hand in hand with my fondness for dialectics in knowledge production (please note that a lot of Hegelian scholars would vehemently disagree with me on this), actor-network theory, rhizomes/striation. it underlies my theological views, my academic work, my relationship to my body (rejection of cartesian dualism), my views on the spiritual/paranormal, basically everything in my life. everything is in constant relationship with everything else + only exists as far as it is defined by these relationships (which is a delightful paradox; that which has no part only becomes real through interfacing with other things which have no part) + naming these relations is identifying a temporary/narrow snapshot, not identifying or even creating a "truth". science/academic knowledge's insistence on maintaining a monopoly on the "real" (where science is a linear march towards increasing Truth + eventually we will "know" everything, towards the secular + modernity) is deeply destructive. looking at knowledge production/metaphysics as a practice of calculus allows me to move through the world understanding that everything is constructed without losing the ability to act or formulate thought + to generate academic work with this in mind.

[mrghostrat]

Okay I cant -- I need to say it out loud.

I am 100% sure, at this point, you are my favourite artist so far. And I have to honestly thank you for a lot of stuff so let me get to the point before my anxiety takes me back --

I came across you less than a month ago. I don't remember if I saw your art before reading your fictions (Mon Horrible Cherì was my first) or the other way around, but both inspired me so much I can't describe it properly. Art itself is my absolute weak spot. In my past years I always struggled working on that, I was never happy with my results, and mostly had drawn to pay bills than for my own happyness. In the end I hated it at the point that every line I drew was a cut on my hand instead of a moment of joy. And that was horrendous.

But then I came across your art, at some point - and I was amazed. Your style is something I wished to achieve years ago, or very similar to that at least, so I was totally into looking for more, and more, and more. I can't produce art of that quality, but for the first time I wasn't envious of another artist's ability and talent, I was just... Amazed. I felt very happy, can't say why, but your style totally fascinated me. It still do. Anytime you post something new it gives me a shot of serotonine, it makes me feel happy and inspires me to get back on my Huion and draw something too. I started to push it through everyday, and in less than a month I grew a lot. You don't know that, but you pushed me into art with a passion I didn't had since I was 16, and I turned 30 couple months ago. Now it gives me joy everytime I draw. It doesn't matter if the art I produce is no good, or if I change my style everytime (I'm trying a lot of styles right now), the only thing that matter is the way I feel when I sit here and just let my inspiration go. And I feel happy. Happy to draw. Happy to experiment. Happy to share. Somehow I don't feel ashamed of my art anymore, and I was for a long time. I improved so much in these weeks. I watched carefully almost all of your timelapses (I am in love with all of them btw) and followed your tutorials more than once. Your examples, the way you work, is just inspirational for me. I've seen someone was thankful to you for the way you use references and says people out there to do it too: I want to thank you for that too. References was a taboo until last month for me, and I was SO wrong! Those helps so much!

So, well. I am not sure I wrote this all correctly, english is not my native language (I'm italian) and I may have done some mistakes, well, I do not care. I just hope I was able to express you my gratitude for all you did for me - I had to let you know how much this means to me everyday.

Oh also: I love every part of your art, but I could stare at your linearts for days and never get bored by that. And the way you color! Don't make me start on that. I could speak for hours. Not sure you'll want that, believe me.

So, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for making me believe in myself again. Thank you for giving me back my passion. Thank you for reminding me everyday I can draw for myself, for my own happyness. And thank you for making me happy.

You are a great artist.

Thank you! <3

i put off replying to this because i wanted to draw you something, but i just haven't had the energy after work and dont want u to think im ignoring you 😭

but i dont have WORDS. i'm so fucking proud of you. i'm so happy for you. browsing your blog and seeing the sheer amount of art and AUs you're making is so inspiring. your happiness is contagious and i hope you only continue to grow, and continue to foster all that joy for art.

thank you <3

[luketaluketa]

i was organizing some files and found all the wip stuff from the previous secret samol for @/seamonsterart (go check out their work!), and these are two of my favorite illustrations ever, so here's some insight into how i made these!

for starters i already had a pretty much finished design for pickman that i had first drawn back in 2021

she has a completely wrong gun in this version because i did not remember how it was supposed to look like and couldn't find a description of it anywhere. she's wearing a hat because i forgot it was supposed to be a helm and so i ended up giving her the large hat just because the long horns coming through it are a fun image, though today i cannot imagine her wearing anything else. she already has the sword she takes from the lake skeletons, also. her armor is based on the armor the torumekian soldiers and kushana wear in nausicaa of the valley of the wind, with the incredible neck guard and long cape covering their entire body

i've always loved these designs and how the plates are evocative of insects, but also how mysterious they look with covered faces and bodies. matter of fact, at this point i had no fucking idea what pickman looked like below the cape.

the second inspiration is the young man from angel's egg.

OK, STAY WITH ME. i cannot explain this other that in my head pickman and him are VERY similar characters. the image of the half pulled cape while he holds his sword-cross-thing over his shoulder and the quiet demeanor are pretty fundamental to how i try to make pickman FEEL. i actually wanted her armor to have more piping, pulling from the biomechanical appearance of his sword-cross, but it didn't feel quite right

and the third inspiration is less inspiration and more reference work, the book "arms & armor, a pictorial archive" by carol grafton

it's a compilation of illustration works sourced from several books from the 19th century. VERY cool book to take a look at historical armor. it's on the internet archive for free!

there was also a fair ammount of looking at goats and sheep, but eventually i reached this after learning i suck at drawing furry designs. big shoutout to the furry community for making so many tutorials available btw. in highlight a very important study of the character.

now that i kinda knew what pickman looked like i entered the wonderful phase of "i don't know what the fuck i'm doing" which resulted in a bunch of bad doodles now sitting in a folder dubbed "dev hell". at this point i kinda had an idea for a relaxed scene based on one of the prompts, which i developed for a while on blender but eventually gave up on.

i then moved on to the second prompt, of pickman being badass. i decided on a low angle to make pickman look incredibly tall but the low angle of a goat's head legitimately kicked my ass so i eventually made a goat head on blender and used it to generate references with the help of designdoll. here i made her design a lot more muscular and fat, also, eventually coming to her final design.

the valve on her chestplate looks WRONG to me now, but at the time i was so tired i just rolled with it. the first pass of her armor was in a completely wrong color, which i corrected later on photoshop. i added the little metal forks pulling from her 2021 design, and the idea of little musical forks for atunning to the shape was cool to me. i also corrected her gun after actually learning what the fuck it was supposed to look like. i already knew i wanted her to be standing on the field of canola flowers, and the sky in the background was the last thing i added, also the time when i decided to really make the picture tall.

i liked the final result so much i went back and started working on the first prompt again. had a horrible time drawing the horns in the second image which led to this hell cage for building the perspective. im still not confident on the horns on the side of the head. i wanted to bring the atmosphere of a cold winter or fall morning in the second one, and to make pickman seem tired but relaxed. i overall like the second picture a lot more than the first and was very happy with how it came out.

AND THAT'S HOW THE SAUSAGE IS MADE I GUESS. if you read this whole thing then thank you for your time!

[sushiikando]

Ok so i have an issue. My style doesnt really work for ponies right? So what if i just.... do a more true to friendship is magic artstyle? So!! Ive set out to start learning it

Ive essentially roughly drawn over a f2u base here and resized a few things to my liking,I had the username of the person who made it but i cannot find it atm (i have the image but its in russian and i cant really see a username on it) so if i do find it i will edit this post

This was a little ponysona design for my partner! Had a lot of fun with it. Next list of things to do is probably some redraws from MLP: FIM to get a better grasp of the style without use of a base

For reference this is what ponies look like when I try to draw them in my style

Not, horrible? The heads are fine its the body i cant really grasp so! Im just gonna make myself a new style for just the ponies. Ill revisit my style for it at a later date bu i think looking at the official artstyle could help with my anatomy and proportions of them

[mizerable-drowning]

fanmade designs of michael's uno buddies! I wanted to do last month... but they're scuffed :') (esp Michael, he's the last one drawn and I really was tired for him... HE LOOKS HORRIBLE IM SORRY MIKE LOL I LOVE YOU MIKE PLEASE I PROMISE I CAN DRAW YOU PROPERLY)(I'm aware how easily I can resize certain things)

the jeremy/bonnie bro was already drawn by the ooftroop, he's there for refence

theyre moreso concepts because i am not satisfied with them, but I'll leave notes!

Chica and Fred uno buddies are surfboys! basing off what the ooftroop said about them moving out of utah, I had the random idea of them becoming pro surfers before becoming marine biologists

why? idk, fredbro gave me surfer dude vibes and I went with it.

I notice jeremike's eye colors paralell with each other, obviously

foxy = red

bonnie = blue

so i did that with fred and chicabro! chicabro's shirt is sapphire, I desaturated it and made it more purple-y for fredbro's eyes, I made chicabro's eyes fredbro's green shirt

from now on i'll just dub fredbro as iggy leopold, and chica as sioux robertson, I'll explain later (I actually don't know if I can name them, I'm just giving them names just so I don't write fred/chicabro constantly)

iggy is white so he's sunburnt.

funfact: while searching for vintage surfer dude shirts, I found the exact shirt the phone dude has! (and I know it cuz oof posted it on their twitter before, the exact image) Sioux just has the swim suit thing

...I wasn't sure what to do with Sioux's hair... I had zero idea how to translate black hairstyles into the UCFT art style. I tried to do twists, but they look horrible; I didn't wanna overtly detail them as I felt that'd be outta place of the art style, but it looks horrible as this. IIRC there's not really any black hair styles drawn in UCFT (yet) so no references sadly

I'm sorry for that man, will experiment with Sioux's hair

I wanted to make Iggy's window peak obvious, hence the 2 different hair colors, I supposed it's sunbleach idk

Okay why did i dub them with stupid sounding names?

Sioux comes from Siouxsie Sioux, why? Suzie posses Chica right? Suzie and Siouxsie are pronounced the same, but I wouldn't name him Siouxsie, so Sioux it is

Robertson comes from Robert Smith, thought of dubbing him Sioux Smith, but Fritz Smith exists

Ik unrelated characters can share the same common name, but meh :P

Iggy comes from me thinking of what stupid names I can name a surfer and a jojo reference, Leopold comes from well... Freddy originally being named Leopold... So what if Iggy adopted the Freddy mask because of the shared name? that lines up in the timeline I think

These are honestly lowkey placeholder names just for this yap session, I'm not gonna use those out of this post

maybe I'll give them serious names who knows, if I have oof's blessing ofc

Sioux and Mike's sketches, i deleted Iggy's

yes mike drastically changed... i didn't feel like doing something from the ground up +consistency so I just reused the base... terrible... learnt my lesson

Final notes:

I found some minor details in the UCFT style fascinating,

it's kinda hard to tell if something is drawn by oof or hyatiid hyatiid does most of the drawings IIRC, but I feel like I can tell when the artist switches and their minor quirks! I can't say for sure who's who but:

Michael's eye brow color changes sometimes, from a darker color from his main hair, to straight black. I also notice his eyebrows are a layer above hair, not sure if that's always the case as I haven't seen enough drawings of his eyebrows above his mullet to tell

Jeremy's piercing & scar placement is inconsistent, not that noticeable as it's generally the same area, but not the exact same everytime

Michael's hair detailing varies a lot

Eyes. they can be close, far, rounded, etc. rounded eyes are mostly for happy expressions

I think Oof keeps the whites of William's (purple form)eye contained with Hyatiid doesn't? I also think Oof is the one the draws lines under the eye without a fading effect while Hyatiid does

[ch0cocrave]

how do you draw them LEGGIES

the way you draw legs genuinely has me impressed, PLS TEACH ME UR WAYS 🙏 (just make some references or tell me how you practiced or what u used for reference.. ONLY IF U WANT)

(also im a horrible teacher so i will just draw lots of hair and let you study it and use it for reference hehhehe)

First of all, I DIDN'T KNOW ANYBODY WOULD EVEN BE INSPIRED OR IMPRESSED WITH ME/pos, AND SECOND, Of course i can give ya a quick tutorial<3

SO, first off I kinda start with the thighs, ( ignore the weird body shape this is just for the legs ) to get like a feel for the pose and stuff,

And then I kinda build the heel off the thigh, to really make it look like the leg!

Then the toe beans are added, to fully make the leg well, look like a leg!

I know i can't do tutorials but i rlly hope that this helped!

[nahalism]

i was wondering, how did you get to develop your art? im currently in a process where i am trying to experiment and go beyond the need to create art that is realistic (as in "objectively like reality as it is", like I was being told by both school and family). i feel like I struggle a lot to follow my inspiration because of this, and I am also trying to learn how to draw scenes from my own ordinary life, but unfortunately I am quite impatient and frustrated with my inability to create what I wish to create + perfectionism in general makes me scared of using colour as well 😭 I really admire your art so much, both your sketches and finished pieces, and I have always wondered your own learning process throughout the years. please feel free to not reply if you feel uncomfortable cause I know it is a very personal process as well, and above all I hope you are doing well and I am sending you endless love <333

🥺🥺 this is so lovely to receive because if im completely honest there are multiple moments where i feel exactly as you've just described and despite pushing through it, a message like this is very validating that ive progressed in some way

i dont mind sharing at all. i started drawing/painting when i was 21/22 which is relatively late and i was so fearful because despite having a vision for what i wanted to create i lacked any skill that could help me bring what was in my minds eye to fruition. i was also insanely depressed and in the middle of getting my degree at uni (so felt like i had no time to pursue art, at least not to the extent i wanted to). — my plan to get better consisted of multiple things. id draw everyday. i had/have two styles i'd practice, one realism, and the other 'freestyle'? basically draw only from my head and from the rhythms that came naturally to my hand, no references. by doing that, or drawing the human figure/portraits/cars/buildings from my imagination, not only was i reinforcing what id actually learned from my study of the fundamentals, but i was learning to incorporate my own creativity into the rigid structure that sometimes comes from only drawing from reference. by doing that and drawing studies every day i began to build a library in my head of images/poses/character archetypes i could pull from which made drawing from my imagination easier, but also had the structural knowledge of forms/perspective/anatomy to make them look credible. id do this whenever i had free time, and once i left uni began practicing anywhere from 6-9 hours daily. a bit extreme but i felt like i had time to make up for since i started drawing relatively late in life. only tip there is to balance practice with making finished pieces. finished pieces will show you which fundamentals you still need to work on & how much progress you've made. they also show the completion of a thought whereas practice only gives you the tools to bring that thought to reality

just so u know, ur practice of the fundaments is not in vain. you just need to revive your own capacity to draw from your imagination/subconscious. the main thing is knowing your going to find your work horrible for a long time before it gets better. the joy has to come from the process of creating rather than the end product. by the time it gets better, your eye will also have improved, so you still wont be satisfied. thats where growth comes in. being your biggest critic is what will make you great, as long as you remember where you came from (date and keep your work so you can look back on it) and the role criticism plays. separate your skill from your self worth.

something helpful i was once told is along the lines of 'perfectionism is a lie we tell ourselves to justify our procrastination. no one is ever perfect, so the only way to gain skill is to practice. you cant grow if you dont begin. so if your really a perfectionist, your only solution is to start'

i would love to see your work someday and hope i will. wishing you luck and sending you all the courage to begin and be great. you got this <3

[twylamprey]

teenage gabriel may (+maddy) headcanons

ik maddy would technically be emily here but its just easier for me to refer to her as maddy sorry

ok so basically im having brainrot and im sad that we only saw young gabriel and adult gabriel so here are headcanons for teenage (14-17?) baby eater (in these scenarios maddy still went through the surgery so gabriel no longer has his own "body" and just has his face, he is able to control maddy the same way he does in the movie though)

i dont think this needs any TW but theres one about periods so if that bugs u just dont read the very last one

-assuming the kids at simion were still going through education, he definitely tried to bully maddy into doing his homework for him bc he hated it

-made fun of maddy when she went through the obligatory middle school awkward makeup phase, but secretly wished he could try it too (no face skin, lol rip gabe)

-if they were allowed to listen to music, he would absolutely whine his ass off when maddy listened to girly teen pop and would try to take over the body so he could turn it off (he only likes REAL MUSIC... mcr)

-adding onto the makeup one... he would ask maddie to do makeup looks on herself that he thought would be cool (usually dark/emo makeup)

-obviously watched a lot of movies... hes literally a walking giallo stereotype so he had to learn that somewhere

-maddy offered to cut her hair short at one point if it would make him more comfortable, but he liked having long hair

-the two would both intentionally piss eachother off by taking over the body and putting all their hair back in a super tight ponytail ponytail so the other would have to undo it when they take over

-maddy started doing her nails and gabriel got mad at first... but then he made her come to an agreement where they each had a designated hand they could paint (gabriel's were always black)

-gabriel liked drawing and would draw himself if he had his own body (if he was younger, itd be like a super muscley super hero looking guy lmao)

-gabriel prooobably wouldnt shower because the hot water and soap would absolutely hurt the exposed flesh. so maddy had to do it and therefore, got to choose what soap she used. gabriel would complain and be like "UGH you used the pomegranate soap again?? i told you to use the 46 in 1" (in classic teenage boy fashion)

-REFUSED to control the body when maddy got her first few periods bc he was terrified and didnt believe her that it didnt hurt, but eventually came around lmao (honestly me too)

ok thats all i have for now i didnt proofread so sorry if theres horrible typos i have brainrot goodnight

[miss-bvnny]

Sleeping Beauty AU for my birthday? Sleeping Beauty AU for my birthday.

RIGHT off the bat, I wanna say this set's a mess and it was supposed to have more sketches in it (I REALLY wanted to draw LeFou fighting a dragon) but uhhhh .....*vague hand gestures* Emotional Issues. Will they come one day? Yeah probably. Until then...please enjoy what I managed to pull together.

1-2.)

''She's your daughter. You can't do this to her.''

''Yes I can. I'm her mother.''

First up, we got a test sketcj of Abanny as Maleficent, and a spooky-wooky headshot. Abanny was almost entirely inspired by Angelina Jolie in the live action Maleficent movie, so I could think of NO better role for her to play in this AU than the one she was made for.

Nicole was supposed to be raised by Abanny as well as her two fathers in a sort of big joint adoption found family thing. But they couldn't really get past Abanny's whole Matriarchal forest demigod who eats people thing as something they wanted their daughter around. So they kind of...booted Abanny from the group chat, let's say. Abanny's fury at being banned from having a part in her daughter's life MIGHT'VE been understandable....until Abanny decided ''Fine if I can't be a part of her life then she can't be a part of anyone else's'' and doomed her daughter to a sinister prophecy out of anger. That's the fun thing about Abanny. I can imagine her doing horrible destructive stuff to Nicole out of spite and it's not even that out of character (Any Incredibles AU fans in the audience?)

3.) ''...And a few....carrots?''

Yeah HI if this one looks funky dunky it's because it isssss *checks dates* JUST about a year old now!! This was the first Sleeping Beauty AU sketch and it has seen everything (Fnaf reference) and then I just kept thinking about this concept and that's where the rest of this stuff came from. I MEANT to rewdraw this one but uhhhh .....*vague hand gestures* Emotional Issues.

LeFou's horse is named Pompeii btw!!!! She's been a character of mine for a while, but I haven't REALLY used her for much since about 2015. Figured she deserved to be re-homed for this AU. If she looks familiar it's because yes I came up with her after watching Frozen.

4.) ''Once Upon a Time Dream''

Yes yes, you've all seen me post this one before, and Im being a hack by reposting it here and deleting it from the original photoset, but in my defense it goes with the rest of the set.

''He's wearing a totally different outfit than in the previous sketch and that doesn't make sense-'' Whoa mama mia cunt

5.) ''...When true loves kiss...''

If LeFou looks a little rough, he DID just plow through a forest of thorns to fight a dragon who also happens to be his incredibly bitter mother in law. Also battle damage is hot fight me.

6.)

Now that you're lovin me

It's so heavenly

Based on that final frame from the movie, but with like....one or two very small personal touches (Sarcasm)

...Anyway I'm tired but hey it's my birthday I made it through another year and even better I drew a lot more stuff so it's not all bad.

[mint-is-here]

i though i was like horrible at hands, it's really hard for me to get them to look right.

so my art teacher told me to practice hands(and feet but i never draw those so i had not expectations)

as it turns out, im actually kinda good. i just dont use references a lot

[quinnonimp]

two things. one, your art is absolutely wonderful. i love the warm tones and style. two. got any like. weird art tips. like just weird things you do that work really well. or just art tips in general lol. there's something bout your style that makes me go ':D' lmao

aaaaaa tysm !!!! very glad u like my style <33 means a lot

and yeah id say i have quite a few with the way im very experimental n passionate abt art !

>> i think my weirdest one is rly just the main way i render tbh ? like, as u can pretty easily see with my main art style is that its all very crunchy n pixelated, n thats all cause i have anti-aliasing off for my brush . i render in a pretty unorthodox way but it makes things so so so much easier and more fun for me, even if its more time consuming for several reasons

heres a little bit of an infographic ive whipped up that hopefully u can get smth out of lmao . its 6am ive been up all night drawing as usual so im having a lot of trouble doing things properly sorry sorry

and the funny thing is this is aaaaaaaaall just cause i hate blending and am scared of committing to things (esp colors) so i just decided "okay whatever im gonna be goofy and just make it all pixelated idc anymore" and it worked !! (thanks homestuck) art is sm more enjoyable since i started doing this as it fits perfectly with the way my brain works and its helped me sm with getting better at colors bc of the way i have to do every single color manually (for several reasons like how i have to keep track of every color ((which makes me recycle them a lot more making things look more united)), gradients r the most fun to do but i have to make sure all the colors "blend" together nicely, i get to change them super easily, etc etc)

however these days i HAVE been trying to get back into working with anti-aliased brushes just to get out of my comfort zone n such, but tbh the only thing its helped me with is remind me how much more fun drawing aliased is and how absolutely dogshit i am at blending FDJHJKDF

also it makes me better at minecraft skins since im so used to working with pixels !

>> another little weird thing i have that honestly just goes against basic art rules is experiment by having ur values be as close together as possible without losing contrast . this is horrible as a tip, but fun as an experiment, and for me its just fun since i already know pretty well how values work and have enough experience to break the "rules" - because lot of times good shading colors r actually lighter than the original when put under b&w

so if ur like me i would recommend trying it out ! if u dont even know what values are then this ISNT good for u, do values properly as they really help

>> if u struggle a lot with side profiles, just learn from the gorillaz demon days album art . like literally im not joking that is THE thing that made me learn to draw side profiles and id say im pretty good at them now (however the effectiveness of this probably depends on the style)

and by learn from it i mean u can just trace it with any other characters, or study it, or reference it, yadaydayada . just do wahtever with it, damon albarn dgaf

obviously this isnt gonna magically make u great at side profiles but if u want a fun art challenge or ur a big gorillaz fan like me, it could get u kickstarted !!!! especially if ur doing it with ocs or characters u like that are in a band or something

ok thats all the tips ill be giving out tonight im a little sickly victorian child rn

hope it helped . uhm . bye

[tiredrobin]

anyone know how a long-time artist can, like... relearn how to draw? i don't really know how to phrase the question! bigger explanation under the cut i guess

so like i love art and i've been drawing for over a decade now and it's been, for a long time, one of my most favorite activities. i used to do it in hopes of making it my job someday, but learned early on—and i keep learning, over and over again—that art doesn't come easy to me when i try to take commissions. it feels a lot more like dragging myself uphill through mud, like... like, i just can't really do it. and so i stopped perusing art with the intention of turning it into a job and just started drawing for fun and for myself, and that genuinely did hold up for like. probably at least five years

but i think in the last three years art stopped being an active pursuit at all and became just a fun leisure activity, something i did to unwind and recharge. i like doodling, i like sketching, i stopped putting effort into making clean art because i have adhd and i struggle to focus, and it was always deeply exhausting and disappointing every time i started a big project and then couldn't finish it due to my inattention

and like over time, but starting about three years ago, i stopped actively trying to improve and just started treating art as what it was to me, which was just. something fun to do. i didn't want to get better because i saw no real benefit from it when i was okay with where my art was at the time, and i really haven't made any marked improvement in the last three years beyond natural improvement

and now that i wanna... like. i wanna try to do big projects again? i wanna work on my art, work on improving my art again. and at the same time, i can't... draw anymore. for the last year or so my dissatisfaction with my art has been making it harder and harder to draw, and now it's reached a point where i can't really bring myself to do so anymore.

it's felt like i'm stuck in this weird rut, where i'm just going over the same lines over and over again, essentially. every time i decide i wanna try to do studies or creative exercises or something—every time i go, "i need to work on this aspect of my art", i find myself either (a) sitting there, confused where to start and how, never sure where to go, and making no progress at all, or (b) getting deeply bored by what i'm doing and giving up before i can actually do Anything. everything i did in the past—figure and gesture studies, copying show and artist styles, doing the "draw from memory and then draw from reference" tactic—none if it is working for me anymore because i just get so horribly bored that i have to stop after the first five minutes or my brain might implode

i don't really know what to do. it's like... when i try to go over the basics again, my brain is like "we already know this" and technically it's true but i can't keep Not Going Over The Basics because they're important!!!!! but i can't seem to find any resources that tell me how the fuck to unrut myself. its weird and uncomfortable and stressful and i miss art more than anything but every single time i sit down to draw i just end up doodling aimlessly for a few minutes before moving on to something else. idk. i feel like im goin a lil nuts

[what-the-fluxxation]

THE pinned post with info

Hello there, it is I, the Fluxxation. It’s like 1 AM and I really need to make this before I fall asleep so here goes nothing.

Me (Basics)

- He/Him

- Technically an adult (18) but no NSFW stuff please

- Exclusively an English speaker

My Interests

Above everything and always I will be a robot enjoyer. I love violent robots, funny robots, detailed robots, cute robots, anything but sexualized robots, please don’t do that.

As for current games, I’m very very big into my Nine Sols brainrot era, somewhat moderately playing Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero whenever they get content updates, and will always be a Souls and Armored Core fan. I know of Rain World, I wish I could get into it more, but I know of it. Oneshot holds an eternal grip on my heart as well. OH AND ULTRAKILL I FORGOT TO MENTION ULTRAKILL EARTHMOVER AND GUTTERTANK MY BELOVED I NEED MORE GUTTERTANK PLEASE. Also the entire risk of rain franchise im just adding games when i think of them now tbh.

As my previous games show, my interest is generally in difficult souls/souls-likes and narratively strong games, though I’ll play just about anything if it has a lot of robots in it or just outright looks appealing.

My music taste is horrible, I listen to VGM, Djent Metal, lofi, anything electronic, and everything in-between. I will always take song suggestions if you want to offer them. I would say I have a music addiction if 160k minutes on Spotify Wrapped says anything.

Creatively, I’ve always been best at writing. I’ve tried my hand at music, am beginning to finally learn art, but words have always been my forte. I’ve used this passion for writing to do quite a lot of online Roleplaying, generally in style of typical DnD, but also in more narrative-driven formats. I’ve made OCs for a good chunk of years of my life, having made short stories for my favorites and such, some of which I may share here someday. I wouldn’t even begin to say my writing is anything special, but I like to do it, and the people I’ve shared it with seem to think it’s alright.

Outside of my online degeneracy, I enjoy tennis and pickleball. I’m pretty active, loving to hike and climb/clamber. I greatly enjoy primitive camping and the outdoors regardless of weather, almost finding it more fun if I’m with the right people when the conditions are less than optimal.

Why I’m on Tumblr

I’m almost ashamed to say the reason I found Tumblr was the glorious Nine Sols Shitpost tag. I finished the game and my hyperfixation was so bad that I just started scouring the internet for any ounce of content I could get my hands on. Given my background with roleplaying stuff and shitposting, coupled with my new obsession of a game interest and a desire to start digital art, it was a perfect storm to get me to both join Tumblr and start drawing.

Now I’m here to keep up with those goals. I wanna keep providing comedic content on shitpost blogs, working on general art skills so that at the very least I can make decent-enough references for my often complicated roleplay-centric projects, and most of all, looking at content for games I enjoy, hopefully making some new pals in the process.

Oh, and reblogging cool robots / horrible shitposts

Current Projects / Goals

- Work on my Nine Sols AU (Ancient War Machine)

- Continue to practice drawing

- Befriend a few people on here (yippeee)

Asks / Contacting me

Feel free to ask for art requests or whatever else, I can’t guarantee anything close to speedy or good, as my art quality and time management skills are both as far from the word “good” as you can get, but I need the practice so..

I don’t have any other socials really aside from Discord. If you’re a mutual, or think you might as well be, then by all means hit me up and I’ll give you my user (even if it’s close enough to this account that you can probably guess it in a reasonable number of tries). FAIR WARNING, I am very socially awkward and will talk to you like we’ve just bumped into each other at random without any knowledge of who the other person is.

Thanks for reading allat, here’s a star for your efforts!

🌟