#i wanted to redraw the lines one more time but it was gonna take too long

[esteemed-excellency]

they would have a blast in a musical ✨️

[dgdraws]

Artfight Postmortem

as you may know, i am prone to reflection on my art and process and progress. herein, i'm gonna navel gaze a bit about artfight 2024.

top line: really enjoyed myself, did a bunch of new things and this was "The Year of Artist Friends" which is spectacular.

i completed 20 attacks this year, including my first ever mass attacks! altogether I drew 28 different characters (incl 4 of my own).

for the first time, I had *users* i wanted to attack, rather than just characters i'd gathered via search or discord. honestly, three years ago when i picked up the stylus i was just excited at the prospect of drawing for other people, period. artfight was a cool way to be in community without prerequisites. i didn't quite dare to dream i might make some real connections and make proper friends. and yet :) here we are! i went in with three 'art friends' and i'm leaving with at least three more

in addition to being the year of artist friends, this could be "the year of clip studio paint was on megasale a week before artfight" because i knocked out like 2 practice pieces before July 1st so i wouldn't be starting with completely unfamiliar tools, but i used/learned csp for the vast majority of my attacks. one i finished in krita (lonnie), and my final attack i only used krita.

definitely trial-by-fired myself! but it motivated me to explore csp, and most important, gave me a reason to practice practice practice. last year i drew almost exclusively humans, lots of full bodys, because i wanted to get a better grip on anatomy and drawing a variety of faces. it worked then, and, well, i think i learned more of csp in one month of artfight than i would have if i was just plodding through my personal projects for 33 days :) *looks at my wip folder with months old files* pretty sure.

ok i'm gonna look at a few faves/standouts now:

came in hot with 0tt0 here! the main brush for this one (froggy pencil) was a mainstay for the whole month. so versatile!!! and lovely texture. this isn't quiiite brat green but this was what made me go, hmm, what if i... did a few pieces inspired by this album i can't stop listening to?

and then i took a huge turn and just used a soft round brush for Desa and Iryna for my dear friend @bobomcfoe bc i really wanted to turn these out in something approaching my "usual style" of late and i feared getting too deep into the temptations of csp if i put them off. and, um, yeah i love them. i got sooo close to matching that angle but ahh i can see the tilt now! nonetheless, love these two, not least bc brookie has some of the most pleasing color palettes to work w :)

then on to Rosé and baby's first vector lines! you can RESIZE lines in csp. did you know that? i didn't know that. i did forget to use it as much as i could have in later ones though, so i still only kinda know it ig. and halftone shading! bc why not? another thing i really only did this once, but want to experiment with more

Rook here, for my new friend @gender-premium-tm, was me realizing how to use filters/filter layers in csp. now THAT is something i used a lot this month! also something i use often in krita. i must say, though the csp options are slightly more limited (afaik), they have oomph!

okay these two are my "explicitly brat pieces"! artfight keeps you moving, which i find really valuable, bc i could have dithered foreverrr over Lonnie's gif here. like, do i add his arm? maybe he should be wearing a shirt? or, what if i just draw him twice, instead of splitting the expressi--see it just never ends. and as i am always going on about, art is so precious bc it is a reflection of us when we make it. maybe for some future artfight i'll redraw this (as Lonnie's artist @wenmistry did for me with Ebon this year), but for july 2024, i'm amazed at how well i executed this for just 2.5 days of work! (i did forget his glasses, which realization gave me a different take on the composition, so this is high on my list of potential redraws)

and then Aagatha. this is in my top 3 for this year. the pink just works so well with the green and her artist added the song to her character playlist AND added the necklace to her actual dnd inventory. like. omg. the impact your art can have!!! how freaking cool is that???

two mass attacks! i was in a silly goofy mood. i feel like i really got a handle on vectors w the anthro mass attack, i adjusted every single point on that one by hand. weird what hyperfocus makes you do sometimes, but i learned a lot from that. mainly that i will probably never user vectors as my main linework tool. there are circumstances it is perfect for, and outside of that i'm good w my raster lines lol

which is exactly what i used for this other mass attack, featuring mostly my ocs. hey, sometimes you need to shake things up! i can see here the style starting to hew back to my "usual style", though i'm thinking that might have a lot to do with drawing 5 people very quickly. falling back on practiced techniques. and by this time i apparently knew csp well enough to reproduce them pretty closely! ooh, one thing this made me miss was the transform tool in krita. that floor was ROUGH to wrestle into place in csp.

purple and green turned up a lot this year!

Echo is my crowning achievement with the froggy pencil, most of the shading here is just layers w that. and one last nod to brat green :)

i've worked in the paper cut style before (both my pfp's use it) but i really exploited csp's clipping layers to make Scraps here. they did make me briefly forget how they work in krita when i switched back, so well done w that

i played with gradient maps a little earlier in the month but for Okanar i actually made my own gradient! really a useful tool for ref'ing real human skin tones to make non-human ones, without muddying them up too much.

finally, Chaos. this actually might be my favorite! ironically this is the one that i made in krita. it was like, ahh, yes my old friend. wait where is the scroll bar. ah, okay, yes my old friend... the line layer is set to burn which just makes the whole thing so warm (and the cause of the red outlines on the earrings). used my old sable brush, a pattern fill set to overlay... my old stomping grounds! but plus a rendering technique i picked up this month and some other random habits i picked up in csp (like copying a detail to a new layer, moving it where i want a copy, and drawing/tracing it back onto the original layer in the new position. nothing i couldn't have been doing in krita all along, but made easier by the tool layout in csp, and therefore now discovered by me. amazing how one integrates new knowledge. it's like magic sometimes!!!)

that was a good roundup! if you actually read this to the end, wow! and thank you! i hope it was interesting... and inspiring! bc i want to read about your process and reflections too! yes you! and plz tag me, i'm always down to gush about art XD

[frowningfox]

For the artist ask: 3, 13, 19

3. your favorite piece(s)?

THIS ONE. It's my all time favorite and a redraw of an older all time favorite. Looking at him and his small crooked toothy smile just makes me so happy I instantly smile. I'm pretty happy with the technical skills I pulled off with it too but the character and the emotion is really what makes this a happy piece for me.

And these two pieces! I am growing quite fond of my linework lately and I really feel that with both the Line version and the Color version I really brought out the different aspects and emotions I wanted to with each version. And I pushed myself and for the color version tried working with colors in the background/lighting that I don't often use.

13. talk about a wip you like!

REALLY OLD EXAMPLE. I have LONG since finished this piece but I loved the WIP more than the finished version so I kept it. I think I've even deleted the finished piece off my social medias, but I just love the in between stage so much that I am still holding onto it years later. uuuuh I could probably talk more about it but I'm gonna add a more recent WIP that is actually unfinished and talk a bit about it.

And yes. I still draw rough muscle diagrams as my first sketch layer.

Now this one I sketched out on my birthday, it's just a little stickynote sketch, so a thumbnail sketch, but I really really want to finish it I just havent had TIME. I have big plans for it, it's a companion piece to another drawing, the flip side of the monster, and I want to re-compose that one to more closely match this one, and THEN, stickers and prints of course but I want... I have two crappy side tables with square wooden plank tops. I want to figure out how to stencil the two pieces' line art onto them and woodburn them onto them... maybe paint idk. I've not painted in forever.

19. where do you find inspiration?

While first off as you can probably tell from the first WIP, muscle diagrams and greco-roman statues.

But in many places, mostly in traditional 3d forms of art or have an element of 3d in their process. My biggest inspirations are statuary and carousels, and for 2d, woodblock print art from old fairy tale books!

I also take quite a bit of inspiration from various religions' artwork. Painted/carved Reliefs, stained glass, etc.

Lots of artwork that's meant to capture a moment and freeze it under a layer of heavy iconography and symbolism. A lot of times when I draw my characters, it's on purpose not exactly how they look, but using in-lore stylizations to convey certain things and to keep their appearance somewhat the same despite some of the important things on their person constantly changing over the course of their story (for example the small braids on Asim/Yunuen typically being portrayed as pinned up in two loops with a set amount of beads and rings. it's an iconographic choice denoting their connection to the House of Fate, as well as maintaining that they cherish the tradition of the braid despite not having one anymore after having it forceably cut off/just recently starting one and only having one or two beads on it)

That big aside aside, I also find so much inspiration from so many artists I stumble across on tumblr! Usually just tiny little things, like how they draw certain hair types, or how they do certain cloth folds.

And uh. Like two years ago I binge watched HunterxHunter and it permanently changed how I approach drawing lips and hands.

[lakesbian]

Question 3, 8, 12, 18 for Worm! ty ty

fuckyes even MORE numbers. link to og post for anyone who wants it to send an ask or rb it

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

seconding what the other person i've seen answer this one said. the 'worm isn't rational enough and it's bad when story events are guided by the story's themes' guy. you know the one. second worst is taylor/alec. the difference is that taylor/alec fans will still be allowed at my worm potluck whereas anyone who bitches about worm not meeting entirely externally-imposed and irrelevant standards of 'rationality' has to stand outside in the rain

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

can't really think of anything super specific for this? i'm gonna say that i think a lot of people are just Really Bad at understanding what motivates taylor's decisionmaking because they:

- buy too much into what she says about herself

&

- aren't properly noting what the inconsistencies btwn what she thinks & what she does + what the contradictions btwn some of her various actions indicate about her.

she's an incredibly complicated character with about 1.6 million words of development, so a lot of the times i'll see a Take abt her and just be like. "mmm well that is an extreme oversimplification there are like 5 elaborations and caveats you need to add"

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

oh, You Know

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

uh, see 12. but no on a serious note, it's really weird to me that redraws of worm scenes aren't more popular. like, the vast amount of fanart i see is Not redraws, and when there are redraws, they're all for some specific particularly famous moments. but there are so many points during my read where i've been like "holy shit, that's an incredibly cool visual, how did no one think to redraw this." things like regenerated-noelle staring up at the sky with her arms as a straightjacket of flesh, alexandria with melted metal running out of her eye-socket and in the lines of her face while she's speaking to the crowd after killing noelle, regent handing skitter his scepter to taze shadow stalker, taylor hanging from her flight pack like a corpse during the cauldron base arc, etc. there are so many little moments that have incredible atmosphere and i'm surprised people don't find it more fun to Make Worm Real by just occasionally opening the book and picking a moment to draw!

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

this is beyond late but if you are willing to bite. for the character ask, maya & franziska?

my dear fellow it is NEVER too late to take me up on ask games.

Maya

Favourite Thing: i simply ADORE the burden of responsibility as a trope and maya pulls it off in SPECTACULAR fashion. you can feel the fear and uncertainty she feels about her role as the master of kurain through the screen when she finally opens up about it in bridge to the turnabout (and the little crumbs we get about it in reunion and turnabout) (and it's only augmented by the fact that it was suddenly thrust upon her by mia's departure)

Least Favourite Thing: a bit of a nitpick but there are some aspects of the mechanics of maya's channelling that give me a bit of an ick (channelling mia. go figure), but i do like the way the technique plays into the mystery during reunion and bridge

Favourite Line: either her little speech to nick before she leaves for kurain at the end of goodbyes or her so desperately trying to protect diego during the dying light of bridge, can't decide between the two

brOTP: PHOENIX!!!! they're such best friends. they mean so much to me. its like. everything that apollo and trucy did in aa4 (which i notoriously also love), only with way more time to develop and simmer, so it's like. perfect. i love maya and phoenix

OTP: i have two ships that completely consume my mind. one of them is not for this fandom. the other is franmaya. they're such unexplored narrative foils...

nOTP: i mean. phoenix. 'nough said

Random Headcanon: i think that, for all of her hyperactivity (at times), she embroiders in her free time, and got pearl into it as well during the seven-year gap. pearl quickly surpassed her.

Unpopular Opinion: STOP SHELVING HER IN YOUR FICS, PEOPLE. SHE DOESN'T GET ENOUGH LOVE. PLEASE IM BEGGING YOU IS THIS THING ON

Song: Soulgazing by Gregory and the Hawk (vibes alone, im bad at assigning songs to characters)

Favourite Picture: this redraw of her unused objection sprite by @/u3pxx, i love it so very much

Franziska

Favourite Thing: the sheer hurt and terror that sits at the corners of her character but never gets touched on outside of the airport scene because good GOD there's so much guilt and shame for her imperfection and terror about turning out like her father and CAN I TALK ABOUT THE BULLET. THAT DAMNED BULLET.

Least Favourite Thing: not enough screentime. i need more franziska content like i need air

Favourite Line: "You, you're running away from Von Karma… from me!?" "So… you're leaving me behind again!? I'll never… Never forgive you for this!" from The Forgotten Turnabout in aai2 because HELLO??? this is one of the most important pieces of franziska characterization we get EVER because a), she's still clearly still holding onto her father's memory, or at least the pedestal she had him on, b), it showcases how quickly she turns to wrath as soon as the chips are down, and c), MOST IMPORTANTLY. LISTEN TO HOW SCARED SHE IS. or dont listen i guess but like. still. she sounds TERRIFIED of losing her brother all over again.

brOTP: torn between either edgeworth because i love the vk sibs or kay because their friendship is adorably sweet and pretty underrated part of aai

OTP: once again franmaya cuz. god. theres so many emotions.

nOTP: cant think of any that i genuinely dislike besides the Nigh-Universally Hated One (her and edgeworth) so im gonna say that

Random Headcanon: she doesn't give phoenix the calling card during the hazakura temple investigation. she wants to. she has it on her and everything, but she couldn't work up the courage to do it. way down the line, deep into the 7yg, she shows up to the wright residence, has a long chat with phoenix, and finally gives it to him

Unpopular Opinion: i know its been said a lot that she probably does have some normal teenager aspects to her (the example ive seen the most is "owns a hello kitty tshirt and reads yuri fics"), but i think she's a little too repressed to have that until at least after aa3. maybe she gets a little more normal during the 7yg but im not sure yet

Song: Top of My School by Katherine Lynn-Rose because come ON. you've seen the animatic with the clip of that song over franziska stuff. if you haven't then you will soon cuz its linked here (full song first, then the animatic)

Favourite Picture: this wonderful number by the incredible and talented @/ind1c0lite because uh. i like fran angst.

[slice-of-magenta]

Thank you @scribeoffate @rhyslahey and @slumop for tagging me as well! 🧡💕🥰

RULES:

post the top 5 works you’re most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular)

your top 4 current WIPs that you’re excited to release in the new year

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing (or art) over the past year

your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year

and your number 1 favorite line you’ve written this year!

----------

Top 5 works I'm proud of: one of my top 5 is currently a wip. The rest:

fire close to the heart (platonic sciles)  I just liked that I finally made a fic where Stiles is saving Scott. (It's messy and I love it.)

Inked (Scott + Lydia, gen)  I look back at it and see i should have done some stuff differently but! Tattoos are so interesting and I wanted platonic scydia feels and I got that. I love them.

A Werewolf Heat (sciles)   this was another experiment with smut. tho I didn't go that deep into it as much as I wanted to and I keep saying I might continue it 😂 and I DO think about that. A lot. Every time I write lol. But honestly I want to do another that is so much better than that one? From my reread, it needs editing. it got way more love in kudos and in comments (in my opinion) than I expected. and I was so proud. I also love when fics talk about heats. Its werewolves! Especially with Scott! Why not take advantage of that. And I tried! 🥰

A Visit (kira pov)  I don't know why but I'm so happy about this one. It was the first time I wrote for kira. Maybe it was the first fic I did research with too (altho I kept it to teen wolf's interpretation of skin walkers mostly). This was a gift for momentofmemory 🧡

2. 4 current WIPS (many may not get posted before new year tho)

A fanart for an existing fic. I may have to redraw kira since she's very close to the frame and I want to center more attention on her too.

A fluffy Getting Together Malira fic

Fic with Rafael. I have two that I'm thinking to combine. This focused a lot on Scott too, so I'm contemplating to save it for Scott appreciation.

Sekret fic. That I hope gets finished before the year ends.

3. Three biggest improvements in writing/art

I'm getting comfortable drawing hands and bodies! (Art) I refused to draw those before.

I think my grammar is getting slightly better. Or at least, I worry about it less. Which is MAJOR for me.

the wips listed above and outside it is showing me that I am capable of indulging more. It's fanfic after all.

4. Top 2 resolutions for blog/writing?

Write more fic that goes out of my comfort zone. (Sciles is awesome and I will still write them a lot, but I want to explore different characters and other ships that I like too. Like Scisaac, Scydia, Jennifer/Kali, Malira, some POLYSHIPS, Lydia centric stuff, etc. Those are examples, and I don't promise anything.)

An art resolution would be to practice lighting and shading some more!

Im gonna skip the last question because that's hard. My favorite is in one of my WIPS.

--------

Tagging, feel free to ignore me because I don't exactly recall who did it or not 😅 (most likely everyone here lol): @scintalla @thiamsxbitch @cmnzoq @kailaris-rites @redmoonfever @momentofmemory (because everyone must tag her. It's rules. Made up by me.)

[ownerofthisaccount]

Hello! Here’s the start of a mini series!

Basically a few years ago I drew my favorite and my brother’s favorite Pokémon, but at the time I didn’t do a lot. They were all traditional drawn uncolored outlines and were a lot messier than the drawings I do know(blame the left hand)

But Pokémon means a lot to mean and drawings them helps improve my style on non human characters(I do hope to make a graphic novel and actually sell original character work, since you can’t sell fanart. Still doesn’t work to show it off for free though), so I decided to spend the month redrawing those Pokémon. I do plan to draw mine and my other brother’s work as well, so you can look forward to that sometime this year. But anywho, here they are!

This one is a tie as his original 10th favorite was Scizor due to the cool design and typing. However after playing Scarlet and Violet after not playing Pokémon since he finished gen 6, he grew to adore Corviknight and the bird took the spot instead. Purple is his favorite color, Steel is one of his favorite types, and Ravens are his favorite animal due to the important they play in his life. His spirit animal is a Raven, his favorite sports team is the Ravens, and whenever something important happens to him(good or bad), a Raven was present during or right beforehand. Along with this, he used one named Jayda for his entire Violet playthrough and ended up being the sole reason he beat Turo his first try. All in all, he adores both of these Pokémon so I decided to include both. As for the drawing itself, besides the wing I like how this came out despite its simplicity compared to future entries.

(All of the lighting for the images will be off due to taking them from my phone when they are on my laptop)

This will be a shorter entry. He simply enjoys the concept of the Garbodor line, their designs, and how they act. As for the drawing itself, I think it’s one of my weaker ones as it feel more empty than it should. I like how Trubbish came out but I feel I could’ve added more or due something bigger with Ingo’s inevitable disappearance. But I think it still turned out alright!

This was originally gonna be a completely different image of Goodra sleeping and water from a leaf spilling on him but the brother this wasn’t for suggested I do a parody of My Neighbor Totoro. I never done a rain scene before so I wanted to kill him(I actually wrote the writing on that sign, and it is my proudest achievement) but I would be lying if I said this wasn’t my favorite one I done. As for his reasoning, in both X and Violet my brother out in the effort to actually get a Goodra(which is pretty hard to do for anyone who hasn’t since not only is it in the slow experience group but it also requires it to be raining in the overworld) which took him hours in X to do but both times resulted in Goodra being used a lot on his final team.

Most have Gengar drawings as really creepy or really cool, but I wanted to take a different approach and draw Ash’s Gengar. Apparently I can also draw a really good Gengar but can’t draw a Pikachu to save my life. I also unintentionally finished this the day Ash’s final episode released. As for his reasoning, he’s been playing the games since Yellow and watched the anime since Indigo. Since Gengar was always a prominent figure and ghost is his favorite type, he’s grown quite attached to him.

Speaking of growing attached to, you can’t escape Jigglypuff in this household. This is his favorite of the drawings though you probably shouldn’t look too long it unless you want a headache. But he has always loved Jigglypuff, and not for its gimmick in the anime. He main Jigglypuff in Smash Bros and has recently bought a life size Jigglypuff plush which has ironically been helping his Insommia. He hasn’t been drawn on yet though.

This was the image I was most excited to draw. When coming up with ideas my brain went “Skitty Rescue Brigade with Admiral Delcatty” and I respond “that is the dumbest idea I ever had…I have to do it.” Needless to say, this is my second favorite I’ve done even if I forgot the shadowing on the Wailmers. As for his reasoning, he loves whales and was on a swim team for years. That’s pretty much it.

This took four whole days to draw. I despise drawing Gen 6 characters; they are too detailed in design for my liking. But like Goodra, my brother put in the effort to get one in Gen 6, and used one on later teams which made him bond heavily with Sylveon.

Dusknoir didn’t kill the kid and Dusknoir isn’t evil, I will fight you on this. It’s his second favorite drawing and bonus points to anyone who knows what episode the image is based on. My brother really loves Dusknoir, and a huge part was seeing in Pokepark. That’s a game we grew up on(I’ll talk about it on my entry list) and he loved the personality he had. He enjoyed him in Mystery Dungeon, I caught one for him in Shield, and he even cosplayed him for a convention. Dusknoir just really means a lot to him.

Probably my other drawing I feel is a little weak, though took some inspiration from Lost Silver and the Giovanni theory. But while his first game was Yellow, his true first game was Silver with his starter being Totodile. He would play the games a lot as a kid, so he spent a lot of time with this evolution line. I feel most of us have a starter in our top 10 because while they are just given to us instead of earned, you tend to spend a lot of time with them due to that. His small role in Pokepark also helped him get this spo. However, his favorite was no contest.

It was always Lugia. This love started from seeing Pokémon 2000 as a kid and adoring the “Jesus Bird” as he puts it on screen. So when he saw Lugia on the cover of Silver, he didn’t hesitate to buy the game and pour hours into it. The Gen 2 games ended up being some of his all time favorite games, with Lugia to thank for getting him truly into the franchise. He has a Lugia figurine and plans to one day buy a Lugia plush. His favorite list does change around overtime, but this will always be his favorite.

And there we go! Did you enjoy the list? What’s your favorite Pokémon? I hope you liked it and I’ll see you all again next time!

[themultiverseinmymind]

My Drawing Process

So, finally getting around to sharing my process. I feel so bad that this took so long to finally do, but better late than never? Also, please bear in mind that I am mostly self-taught, so if I'm doing things funkily, that's probably why.

This is gonna be a long post, so I'm putting it under the cut.

First step is gathering references. This takes… So. Much. Time. Because it never feels like I can find the ideal one for what I'm picturing in my head? (Also, because I end up distracted and gathering ones I don't need, but the ADHD is strong in this one.) I usually end up using multiple references for various aspects and kind of Frankenstein-ing them together (like, one might involve the initial placement of two figures hugging, but then I'll find another to place an arm differently, or to help depict a different body type than the first reference. Oftentimes this involves using the "perspective" feature of "transform a layer or selection" on Krita for positioning a reference.)

I tend to keep different linework in various bright colors to help myself differentiate between them, keeping several separate layers, and later merging (and ideally labelling) them. For example, I'll have several hair layers as I add details and whatnot, and will only combine them into one layer once I'm satisfied with how everything looks. Linework involves a bunch of redrawing for me as I play around with things to get them to look the way I want, so I make a bunch of copies as I tweak different lines in case I bork something up and need to revert to an old copy (I'll periodically go through and delete old copies as I improve said lines.)

This is the point where I'll color my lines black, though if it's difficult to differentiate between certain lines, I might leave certain lines colored until the flat colors are done.

Next is getting my flat colors done, usually taking from the original color-scheme if it's fan-art of a non-original character. I usually keep a little labelled swatch like the one in the upper right.

Then we get to the fun part that I hate and love in equal measure: shading and highlights!

I'll usually start with adding pink-ish tones to the areas that have the concentration of blood-flow- cheeks, tip of the nose, etc. (Though, I don't think I did with this one, so I don't have an example to show, oops.) Then I'll move onto shading, following a reference typically for a basic idea of where the contours need to be, but a lot of this ends up being intuitive. I like to use a combination of the wet paint brush, the soft airbrush, and the basic blender- often setting it to a lower opacity as I blend/soften edges and switching the eraser setting on and off. I try to move my brush strokes in directions that follow the shape of the contours themselves - as if it were a 3d model (does the way I'm describing that make sense? I hope so.)

I like to play with different filters on the layer setting to get the color/concentration I want for this - "Shade - IFS Illusions" gets used a lot, though typically set to less than 50% transparency and often in combination with another lower transparency layer or two, I play with layers to get the looks I want.

Post-blending:

Then adding extra details- in this case, slight creases and stubble, etc.

Then highlights- I love using the "Luminosity/Shine SAI" layer filter for this- gives it a nice glow. Same as before, I might have several layers for highlights, at various transparencies to achieve a certain look.

Then I'll add more details, usually focusing on things like clothes.

Then the background. I do not love doing background stuff, but I am very grateful for finding FizzyFlower's Essential Brushes- it has sooo many helpful brushes.

Annnd that's about it. I hope it was helpful and not too rambly.

[bbeelzemon]

frill got me excited about my comic and characters again so.... keep an eye out for potential content on the horizon

[cdmagic1408]

Onward Fan Art Shout Out - 15

Theme: The Great and Powerful Manticore! 🦁🦇🦂

Requested by: @lesliegirl123

Just what would Onward be without Corey the Manticore?

Outside Ian and Barley, she is one of my absolute favorites in this movie and in this world!

Hilarious, full of edge, danger, and a brave warrior! She is just so awesome! It's no wonder that she's a wonder in the eyes of many a QOY player! 🤩

So for this week's shout out of Onward fan art, here are 10 pieces of our favorite winged lion scorpion lady—Last Name: Manticore, First Name: The!

Artists

kaleryaforrest - always love a Manticore piece that has her and her best friend, the Curse Crusher! it looks like they're about head into a very risky situation and Corey couldn't be more excited! the expression and posing says it all and it's awesome!

elephantmarch604 - YOOOOOO THIS IS SO EPIC!! Like everything about this piece is absolutely stunning! The shine on the Curse Crusher, her wild eyes, the background, her wings, the perspective! My jaw is dropping!

spurlockml75 - I love the drawing style of this Corey! Very nice detail on the Curse Crusher too! I genuinely feel like this could be her representing manager picture for the new and improved Manticore's Tavern!

meganthecartoonist - love the crosshatching of this drawing! it's one of my absolute favorite drawing techniques for adding shadow and detail! but the line work of this piece overall is also really great! it definitely works in benefit to her fur and for making different parts of her appearance stand out!

madbaboon - love the old-timey aesthetic of this whole drawing! Especially in the eyes! I take this is an alternate interpretation of how bad she's got it serving the children of her Chuck E. Cheese like tavern. Like I see her saying "hey kids! ready to have some fun?" lol

chicka.chi_ - three personalities of the Manticore all in one piece! that's amazing! the posing of the one in the middle is awesome! very dynamic with her wings spread open, tail out, and arms raised! and OMG the expression of the one on the right has me dying in laughter 😂, and the one on the left says "oh, you're gonna get it!"

thecolork - okay the highlights of this piece? ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! like...look at that hair!! I'm blown away! and her fur? very nicely detailed! this artist has also a redraw of this piece (so click the link on their name if you want to check that out!)

piratepaz - this piece has fun written all over it! Love the Manticore's pink nails and the hearty background (yes, pun intended) that goes with it! she's looks like she's letting loose, maybe dancing, and having a great time!

just_drawings_again - "I USED TO BE DANGEROUS AND WILD!" that just has to be my favorite quote of hers cause her that's when the realization of her mid-life crisis really starts to sink in lol. anyway I really love the way this artist captured that amazing moment! if you've seen Onward, you can tell what's going on!

thepeachushka - I can't help but see a younger Corey when I look at this drawing! There's just something about it...the orange pencil and it going outside the lines (which is never a bad thing! it's actually another great technique! it shows fantastic energy!), her smile, the eagerness in her eyes! I love it!

[faerynova]

Hello! I love your art and writing ^^ I’m currently developing a story of mine and you inspired me to include illustrations in my fics! Do you have any art/writing tips?

Pls have a good day!! ^-^

i do! this got a bit long so it's under the cut. good luck with your story!!

1.) STOP CARING

This is the main advice I’ve been giving out for over a decade, and I stand by it. You will never match the perfect image you have in your head. It’s not a failing, it’s fact.

Scribble down hair instead of drawing perfect ringlets. Let the shadow be incorrect. Don’t be bothered about the lineart not perfectly connecting. Stop trying to redraw that other eye twenty times. Let it rest.

I’m most happy with my art when I stop trying to make it perfect and crisp. Nowadays I usually go directly from sketch to finished color because I hated how my lineart never measured up to my sketches. So I eliminated it! That means there are stray sketch lines among the colors, the lineart is choppy (if it exists at all), it’s not always colored perfectly inside the lines, and sometimes the proportions aren’t correct. But I don't care.

In writing, it means I write in short chunks and snappy sentences instead of long fantastical descriptions and smooth transitions from scene to scene. I love that kind of writing, but I wasn’t enjoying writing when I tried to do it like that. When I stop caring about the “image” in my head, I can speed through thousands of words in a DAY because I’m not worrying about it.

Don’t get so wound up in perfection. No one else can see the image you have in your head except you. No one else cares about the image in your head! No one is beating you up for it, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for it either. Just let art happen.

2.) USE REFERENCES / STUDY

It’s not cheating I promise!! Use that stock photo, ask your friend to check your work, google “hand pointing” and “person sitting cross-legged” and “kitchen chair” as many times as you want or need.

Find a photo or drawing you like and recreate it. See how the light bounces in the photos, learn the curves of the lineart or paint strokes to better understand why it looks how it does. Use the color picker and experiment with pens and brushes and get messy and dissect it piece by piece-- proportions, composition, colors, everything.

In writing, I’m not sure if you can do the same thing, but imitating a writing style is still going to stretch your brain in ways you probably wouldn’t have thought of before.

(If you recreate art then don’t claim it as your own obviously, but it’s one of the best ways to learn!)

3.) NEVER HIGHER THAN BEAUTIFUL

Okay, stick with me on this one because it’s a metaphor. It’s actually a sentence I’ve borrowed from my choir director.

Every voice is different, and different people sound good in places other people wouldn’t. The full saying is: Never higher than beautiful, never lower than beautiful. Never louder than beautiful, never softer than beautiful.

An alto (low ranged) singer isn’t gonna sound good trying to stretch their voice up to high notes that they don’t have the range for.

Someone who can only sing high notes softly shouldn’t try to belt them out and make their voice crack just for the sake of volume.

Pushing yourself is good! Maybe that alto can learn to sing higher notes, maybe that soprano can learn to sing louder without cracking.

But that kind of stuff takes TRAINING and TIME. You cannot force it out, the product isn’t going to be beautiful.

This applies to all kinds of art!

Challenge yourself, learn more, stretch your limits, but NEVER SACRIFICE YOURSELF FOR BEAUTY AND PERFECTION.

If you’re stressed because you can’t imitate that one style you saw, if you’re breaking your wrist to churn out art, if you’re erasing sketch after sketch because you can’t make the drawing on the paper match the image in your head, if you force yourself to write longer chapters because you think they’re too short, if you keep trying to cut your paragraphs because you think they’re too obnoxiously flowy and flowery, you’re going to hurt yourself, whether it’s physically or mentally.

You’re good at certain things, and other people are good at other things. Don’t compare yourself to other people, and take your time learning the skills you don’t have without burning yourself out.

Which, of course, circles back around because it’s a reiteration of the first and most important rule:

Stop caring so much.

Wanting to be perfect is a hard habit to break. It’ll take time to unlearn, and that’s okay. Learning and unlearning both take time. But you will do so much better for yourself if you look at art as a vessel for creativity and fun rather than an obligation.

TL;DR: Art is work, but art shouldn’t be so much work that you hate it or yourself.

[debbiechanclub]

Know You Better Now (*new* BTOOT sequel), Part 1

The title is the same, but I assure you the content is all shiny and new! The revamped BTOOT sequel is here!

Thank you to everyone for your patience on this. I just lost interest/direction for the original sequel after Ethan all but disappeared off Dynamite, but I'm honestly kind of glad I did because I like this new version so. Much. More. And we have Kenny's facial hair to thank for it.

So enough talking - enjoy! And please let me know what you think!

Know You Better Now

Synopsis: Nearly nine months have passed since Alex's freak shoulder injury, and she's still not cleared for action. But while Kenny has been a source of strength for her throughout her recovery, all her other relationships are in shambles - and she's finding it harder and harder to reconcile the Kenny she knows behind closed doors with his persona as the "Belt Collector."

Part: 1/?

Pairing: Kenny Omega x OFC x TBD 👀

Word count: 4.6k

Warnings: Language, ANGST

Find more of my fics here.

Tag squad: @galacticstat @hotyeehawman @hdbngsprnva @heelchampbucks @kingswitchblade @bec0m @betsy-bradock @linziland13 @librathepheonix13 @gabbynorth98 @exe-babymox-exe @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @brokenglassslippers @rocca09 @meteora-fc @kawaiikels @adriii-omega @thatgirlforever5 @sugar-melts-mo-fo

May 30, 2021 AEW Double or Nothing

Surgery with six to twelve months’ recovery time. That was the prognosis Alex had received when she’d dislocated her shoulder in September. Now, nearly nine months later, everything had changed.

“Well, there’s good news and there’s not-as-good news,” Doc Sampson started. He’d just completed yet another check-up exam on her shoulder, and Alex could tell he was trying to keep up morale. But she already knew what he was going say. “The good news is you’ve gotten the full range of mobility back. The bad news is the strength isn’t quite there yet.”

She scoffed lightly to herself. It was exactly as she suspected. “So it’s no news, in other words,” she quipped.

“At least it’s not bad news?” Kenny hopefully offered.

Doc smiled sympathetically. “Just keep at it. Resistance bands, weights; you know the drill.”

Alex’s eyebrows arched. “Yeah, I do,” she returned. It seemed like weight training and physical therapy was all she did anymore.

“Just a few more weeks,” Doc said; but in medical-speak, time was relative. Alex knew all too well that weeks could easily mean months. “Good luck tonight, Kenny,” he added, and he went out the door.

Alex’s head fell back and she groaned in frustration. Kenny wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him. “It won’t be much longer,” he assured with a kiss on the side of her head.

“It’s been almost nine months,” she muttered.

“I know. But you don’t want to rush your recovery, especially for something like a shoulder injury.”

She frowned. “At this rate Anna will be back from her shoulder injury before I am.”

“What?” Kenny laughed and hugged her tighter. “No, she won’t. I give it maybe another month and you’ll be back better than you were before. Which reminds me, you should probably have some new gear made. I bet your old stuff is too big on you now.”

The sound of her laugh was muffled by his shoulder. “Because you’ve been kicking my ass every week for the last six months,” she said. If there was a silver lining to her injury, it was that she’d gotten into the best shape of her life what with all the training she’d been doing—and it was all thanks to Kenny. Truth be told, Alex didn’t know what she would have done without him over the last nine months. He’d moved her into his house so she wouldn’t have to struggle through the weeks after surgery alone; he’d set her up with his doctors; he’d driven her to physical therapy appointments and trained with her every single week. He’d been there for her in ways she couldn’t even express, and she’d fallen even more in love with him for it.

It made it that much more difficult for her to admit that the Kenny she knew in private was a far cry from the one who called himself the “Belt Collector.”

“I wouldn’t push you if I didn’t think you could handle it,” he returned with a peck on her lips. “I don’t think anyone’s gonna recognize you out there tonight.”

Alex momentarily tensed in his arms, but she didn’t relax quick enough. Kenny felt it—and he knew exactly what it was about.

“You’re not having second thoughts about it, are you?”

She looked up at him. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t,” she admitted.

Kenny’s face fell. “Alex… we’ve talked about this.”

“I know,” she breathed. She stepped back from him, suddenly anxious. They had talked about it, at length. It was a big statement for her to accompany him for his match tonight, because she hadn’t been seen since her injury. In fact, she’d all but gone off-grid. She hadn’t been on television; she’d barely posted on social media; she hadn’t responded to any questions for comment about her recovery or her thoughts on Kenny’s pursuits. She’d just wanted to fly under the radar until she was back in that ring for good.

But then, two-and-a-half weeks ago, the match between PAC and Orange Cassidy for a shot at Kenny’s AEW World Championship had gone to a no contest. As a result, it was decided that Kenny would defend the title in a triple threat match against them both at Double or Nothing—tonight. And as soon as the match was booked, Alex knew—she knew—that Kenny would find a way to pull her into it.

But she didn’t know if she could—or should—go out there with him. Not with the way things currently were between her and the people she’d thought were her best friends.

Kenny reached out and took her hands in his, and she looked back up at him from the floor. His blue eyes were concerned. But she could tell he was frustrated.

“I want you out there with me, baby. And yeah… I’d be lying if I said Orange wasn’t part of the reason why.”

She frowned. “Kenny—”

“Just hear me out,” he gently cut her off, and she pursed her lips. But she let him continue. “Best Friends are actually supposed to be your best friends, right? But when was the last time any of them checked in on you? I know Chuck did for a while, but Trent? He’s been a complete asshole to you.”

Alex fidgeted, her chest tightening. His words were like salt in a wound—but he wasn’t wrong. At first, Chuck had checked in on her fairly regularly… but his texts and FaceTime calls had tapered off after the first couple months. At the time, she’d just chalked it up to circumstance. She was out of sight and out of mind, and he and Orange had been put through more than their fair share of bullshit by Miro, Kip, and Penelope after Trent had torn his pec muscle in December. She couldn’t really blame him for going quiet.

But then, two months ago, Trent had returned with Kris in tow—and Alex hadn’t been able to chalk it up to circumstance any longer. And when Kris seemingly became an official member of Best Friends, she couldn’t ignore the twinge of jealousy in her gut, either. She felt forgotten. Replaced in person just as much as she had been on the Best Friends t-shirt. And the thing of it was, none of them seemed to even miss her.

Least of all Trent.

Kenny squeezed her hands, redrawing her attention. “Look… I’m not trying to turn you against them. But I can see how hurt you are by how they’ve acted over the last couple months, and it kills me. And yeah, it pisses me off, too. So… why not come out there with me tonight, looking absolutely fucking fantastic, and show Best Friends just how good you’re doing without them?”

Alex’s brow furrowed. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, there was a petty part of her that wanted to do exactly that. But the softer side of her just wanted her friends back.

“I get what you’re saying, I just... I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

“I know you do,” he sympathetically returned. “But I’m not asking you to go out there and try to keep Orange from winning. I just want you in my corner. And maybe I want to show you off a little bit, too.”

He grinned and pulled her closer, and Alex couldn’t help the coy smile that pulled at her lips. Through all their ups and downs, Kenny had never failed to make her feel special; wanted. She didn’t take that for granted—especially not now.

“I did bring a really cute outfit to wear,” she said, sliding her hands up his arms. “It would be a shame if it went to waste.”

His smile widened. “Well then you gotta wear it.”

Alex bit her lip in thought. But she didn’t think for long. She put her hands on either side of his face and gave him a tender kiss. “You know I love you, right?”

Kenny gripped her waist. “Of course, I do. I love you, too,” he returned, and he kissed her again. “Come on, you should go get ready,” he said with a pat on her backside. And as they left the exam room, Alex knew that accompanying Kenny for his match was the right decision.

It was the potential consequences that worried her.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Holy shit, I almost didn’t recognize you!”

That was what Stella had proclaimed when Alex walked into hair and makeup. It was followed by a chorus of more of the same, a parade of hugs from everyone in the room—and dozens of questions.

“How are you? You look incredible!”

“Is your shoulder cleared?”

“So, are you officially living with Kenny now?”

“I’ve been dying to know how you feel about everything going on with him.”

And Alex had done her best to field each one of them.

“I’m doing pretty well, and thanks. It seems like I’ve been filling all my free time with working out.”

“No… not yet. But hopefully in the next few weeks.”

“I mean, not officially. I still have my house in Virginia—my cousin’s been renting it out. But I don’t know. It feels like I’ve officially moved in.”

“It is what it is. He’s just being Kenny Omega.”

Thankfully, no one pressed her on that last one.

Instead, Stella was all too happy to dish on all the latest and juiciest backstage news and gossip. Anna Jay and Jungle Boy were an item. Cody had estranged himself from nearly everyone. Callie had left AEW and pro wrestling altogether—and moved in with Cash. Alex had already known about that one, but it was still strange to hear. Looking back, it was hard to believe her friendship with Callie and relationship with Cash had ever even happened at all. It felt like another life; another time.

“You’re all done, my dear,” Stella said. She handed her a mirror—and Alex was taken aback by her own reflection. Long, sleek dark brown hair; glowing fair skin; pouty nude lips; a sexy reverse cat eye that made her hazel eyes pop. She sat up a little straighter. For perhaps the first time in months, she felt herself again.

She thanked Stella and hopped out of the chair, a pep in her step as she went out the door—

“Alex?!”

She halted in her tracks. Even though she hadn’t heard it in forever, she’d recognize that voice anywhere—Kris. She held her breath and turned around; but relaxed in relief. It was just her and Orange. At least she wouldn’t have to face them all at once.

“Holy shit!” She hurried over and wrapped her in a tight hug before she could even blink. Alex was stiff and awkward as she returned it. She hadn’t expected that reaction.

“Why didn’t you tell us you’d be here tonight?” Kris asked as she stepped back from her. Alex hesitated to answer.

“Um, I thought about it. But given why I’m here…”

She trailed off and looked awkwardly at Jim. He shrugged. “It’s business,” he returned. “So I guess this means you’ll be in Kenny’s corner tonight?”

Alex crossed an arm over herself and nervously fidgeted with the skin on her elbow. She nodded. Jim’s expression remained as indecipherable as ever.

“And you look hot as fuck,” Kris perceptively interjected. “Seriously, I think I might be questioning my sexuality.”

Alex breathed a laugh—

“You should come say hi to Chuck and Trent! Trent’s gonna shit himself.”

Just like that, her smile vanished. Her lips parted in silent question, uncertain if Kris was being serious. But she looked too genuinely excited not to be.

“I… I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Alex said. “I mean, considering the last time I talked to Trent…”

She trailed off and looked down at her shoes. There had been things said by both her and Trent in the heat of the moment that had made an already uncomfortable situation worse. They hadn’t spoken in more than five months, since right before he’d gotten injured. She didn’t think now was the time to start.

“Trent has his head up his ass,” Jim said, and Alex flicked her eyes back up at him, surprised. “You know how he is with this stuff. You’ll probably have to be the bigger person.”

Alex sighed. He was probably right. But again—tonight wasn’t the night. “Now’s just not the time,” she remorsefully returned. “But I’ll see you out there. Good luck—really.”

And before either of them could say anything else, she turned and continued down the hall, digging her nails into the palms of her hands.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Maybe you shouldn’t come out there… you’re gonna distract me walking around like this.”

Alex looked at Kenny through the mirror as he sidled up behind her. He reached up and brushed her hair back from her neck, and she tilted her head so he could press his lips against her skin.

“It's too late,” she returned. “I’ve already gone through all the trouble of getting ready.”

Kenny hummed. “Well, I can take it all off for you, if you want.”

He nipped her neck, and she smirked and squirmed. Her mood had completely turned around from earlier in the night; it was amazing what a little hair and makeup and the right outfit could do. The white bustier-style crop top she wore wasn’t her usual style, but it showed off the hard work she’d put in at the gym—and it didn’t hurt that it made her boobs look amazing. And even though she’d made the outfit more “her” with a pair of distressed boyfriend jeans and her white low-top Chucks, Kenny was right—they probably wouldn’t recognize her out there.

But truth be told, she’d never felt more confident.

“You can later,” she smirked, and she felt a low growl rumble in his bare chest.

“Get a room!”

Alex rolled her eyes. Matt’s voice was an unwelcome interruption from across the locker room. She’d almost forgotten that he and Nick were there.

Kenny shot a glare over his shoulder. “Why are you looking?”

Matt opened his mouth, but two quick knocks on the door cut him off before he could make a smart-ass retort, and then Don Callis walked in.

“We’re up, Ken.”

Kenny smirked at Alex. “Let’s go give the people what they really want.”

He picked up his AEW World Championship, and she helped him secure it around his waist, followed by the Impact World Championship, which he strapped across his chest. Then, he picked up the AAA Mega Championship and old TNA World Heavyweight Championship and held them in each of his hands. And Alex had to admit—it was an impressive sight, Kenny draped in championship gold. She’d be lying if she said it didn’t turn her on.

“How do I look?” he asked her.

She bit her lip. “Good. Really good.”

He grinned, cocky.

They started for the door; but before Alex could follow Don and Kenny out, Matt stopped her. “Alex.” He pushed himself up from his chair and cast Nick a glance. He stood too. She rolled her eyes. They weren’t subtle at all.

Matt gave her a discerning look. “You are one-hundred percent in Kenny’s corner… right?”

Her brow lowered dangerously. Was he really questioning her loyalty now? “Are you serious?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “Well… I know Orange is one of your best friends—”

“Or he was,” Nick interjected.

“—and I just want to make sure that there aren’t any conflicts of interest.”

He smirked, obnoxiously smacking his gum between his teeth. Alex bit down on her jaw. She’d thought that maybe—maybe—Callie’s departure and her relationship with Kenny would have led her and Matt to at least be friendly with each other. But she’d thought wrong.

She gave him a tight smile. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, Matt. The only conflict going on here is the one between what you think that outfit looks like and what it actually looks like.”

He abruptly stopped chewing his gum. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

But Alex was already out the door. She caught up with Kenny and fell in step beside him. “Forget something?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. Just got held up.”

They arrived at Gorilla, and Don went on and on talking Kenny up, boosting his confidence, assuring that neither Orange nor PAC stood a chance; but Alex tuned him out, nervously looking around. Waiting. And then she saw them: Orange, Chuck, Kris, and Trent.

Her heart jumped into her throat when her eyes met Chuck’s. He flashed her a smile; but it wasn’t as wide or as bright as she was used to.

“Hey. It’s good to see you,” he said, and he gave her arm a squeeze as he passed. She said nothing in response—just a tight grin of acknowledgement. Entirely impersonal compared to how they used to greet each other.

It’s the circumstances, she tried to tell herself.

Orange and Kris greeted her in much the same way, with awkward half-smiles as they walked by; Kris seemed apologetic, for some reason. And then, Trent reached her. His expression was cold, his eyes hard, and then he muttered underneath his breath, just loud enough for her to hear, “Thanks for telling us you’d be here.”

He kept walking, not waiting for her to even process what he’d said, and Alex’s heart sunk petrified into the pit of her stomach.

This was how things were now. She felt stupid for hoping for different.

* * * * * * * * * *

Alex had known it would be difficult to be ringside for this match. But, sixteen minutes into it, she hadn’t realized it would be this difficult.

PAC laid on his back, staring up at the lights courtesy of a bridging deadlift suplex into a pin attempt from Kenny. So, with him taken care of for the moment, Kenny turned his attention to Orange. He pulled his right kneepad down, and Alex had to stop herself from watching through her fingers as he kneed Orange hard in the face, once, and then again. She could feel the eyes of the fans at ringside watching her with keen interest, trying to gauge her reactions. They’d been shocked to see her come out with Kenny, and now her presence provided them with an extra layer of entertainment. At least Chuck, Trent, and Kris weren’t at ringside, too; they’d walked Orange out and promptly disappeared backstage. Alex didn’t know what she would have done if they’d stayed.

Kenny backed toward the ropes, aiming to deliver a third and final V-Trigger. But before he could, Orange held up his hands as if to tell him “stop.” And then he plunged them into his pant pockets and fell facedown onto the mat.

Kenny laughed, but he couldn’t care less. He walked over and started to pick Orange up; but then a revived PAC grabbed him and hit him with a hard forearm. They traded blows and kicks in the middle of the ring until Orange suddenly intervened and hit Kenny with a Michinoku Driver. However, Kenny rolled away and PAC hit Orange with a brainbuster. He covered him, but Orange thankfully kicked out at two.

Alex put her hand on Kenny’s shoulder as he laid underneath the ropes, halfway out of the ring. “Are you alright?”

But he didn’t answer her question. Instead, he said, “Go get one of my belts.”

She looked back at him in confusion. “What?”

“Go get one of my belts in case.”

Alex blinked and shook her head. She could not believe what he was asking her to do. “What? No, Kenny, I’m not doing that. You don’t need—”

But he rolled away, back underneath the ropes into the ring. PAC and Orange were in a precarious position on the top turnbuckle closest to them. It looked like PAC was trying to execute a superplex—but Kenny jumped up and shoved PAC off-balance, causing Orange to tumble from his grip and bounce off the ring apron to the floor. Alex started to check on him—but then she remembered she wasn’t out there for him and stopped short. She ran her hands over her hair, helpless. Inwardly hoping that he was alright.

Meanwhile, PAC had reversed Kenny’s attempt at a One-Winged Angel from the top turnbuckle and sent him sailing across the ring via a sunset flip powerbomb. They stood atop the opposite turnbuckle now, and Alex’s eyes widened in horror when PAC delivered an avalanche Falcon Arrow. But then, Orange suddenly scrambled back into the ring, tossed PAC out, and hooked Kenny’s leg. Every single person packed into Daily’s Place jumped from their seats as Bryce Remsburg slid to the mat and started to count. Kenny barely kicked out before three. Alex leaned her elbows on the ring apron, her head in her hands. That had been way too close.

All around her the fans started chanting, “That was three!” booming in her ears, and she bit down on her jaw. Kenny rolled out of the ring and stumbled over to her. For some reason, she already knew what for.

“Alex, go get one of my belts,” he said again. It was an order, not a question. But she stood her ground.

“No! I’m not helping you win like that!”

He let out a frustrated huff. “Baby, now’s not the time to argue about this. Just go get—”

She cut him off with a gasp as PAC came flying over the top rope headed straight for them. Kenny shoved her out of the way at the last second, taking all the impact himself and getting knocked to the floor. PAC, meanwhile, sprung back up and to the top turnbuckle. He slowly stood—and when Alex saw him jump into the air and perform the Black Arrow, she knew she had just seconds to act. She jumped over Kenny and rounded the turnbuckle as PAC hooked Orange’s leg. And just before Bryce could count three, she grabbed Orange’s boot and put it on the bottom rope.

Bryce stopped the count and pointed at Orange’s foot, none the wiser to what had happened. The fans, on the other hand, showered Alex with thunderous boos. Realizing what she’d done, PAC turned and shot her a glower that seemed almost inhuman. But she just pursed her lips and raised her chin in defiance.

Kenny pulled himself up by the ropes and ducked back into the ring, grinning like the cat that caught the canary, and the match went on, back and forth between him and PAC—until Orange scored another near-fall after he hit Kenny with a frantic Beach Break. PAC then tried for a Liger Bomb on Orange, but he fought out of it and landed a hard Orange Punch across his jaw, dropping him to the mat. Then he gave one to Kenny, and the crowd came unglued.

Orange fed off their energy, pumping himself up as PAC staggered to his feet. He hit another Orange Punch and went for the pin. Time seemed to stop as Alex watched, her heart in her throat and her hands on her head. She didn’t want Kenny to lose at all, let alone like this. But just as Bryce started the count, Don appeared out of nowhere and pulled him from the ring by his ankles.

Alex stood frozen to her spot as Bryce and Don yelled at each other, and she fully expected the former to expel the latter from ringside—but he didn’t. He simply got back in the ring, and the match continued. Don walked toward Alex, straightening his suit jacket. “Good work putting Orange’s foot on the ropes,” he said to her.

She didn’t say anything in return. She didn’t want a compliment from the likes of him.

Back in the ring, Kenny had been knocked to the floor once again—and PAC had the Brutalizer locked on Orange. When Kenny finally made it back through the ropes, he kicked PAC in the face once, twice. But he didn’t let go of his hold on Orange. So instead, Kenny made the desperate decision to hit Bryce with a hard double axe handle to the back.

The crowd booed, and Alex hid her face in her hands. “Come on, Ken…” she breathed. Not like this.

Meanwhile, Don took the initiative to do what Kenny had been asking Alex to do all along. He grabbed the Impact Championship from the timekeeper’s area and tossed it to Kenny in the ring. Kenny caught it, and then he turned and clocked PAC over the head. He dropped like dead weight to the mat, and Kenny tossed the belt aside, the fans still booing all the while.

But apparently, one belt wasn’t enough.

Don tossed in the Triple A Mega Championship next, and as PAC staggered to his feet, Kenny hit him again. Then he threw in the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Alex had to bite her lip to keep from shouting at Kenny to stop. She looked away just before he hit PAC a third time.

Finally, Don handed Kenny the AEW World Championship. He took it and held it high above his head, gloating, reveling in the crowd’s hatred. Somehow, PAC was still moving, trying to stay in the match. But just as he climbed to his feet for a third time, Kenny hit him again and knocked him down for good.

Kenny held the championship up again, parading around the ring. He didn’t notice Orange darting toward him until it was too late. He laid him out with another Orange Punch across the jaw.

Orange crawled toward Kenny, obviously going for the pin; but Bryce was still down from Kenny’s earlier attack. However, it didn’t matter. As soon as he draped himself across Kenny’s chest, Aubrey ran down to the ring. Alex grabbed her own throat as she counted.

One.

Two—

But unexpectedly, Kenny reversed the pin and rolled Orange’s shoulders to the mat in a crucifix. Aubrey counted again.

One.

Two.

Three.

That was it. The bell rung, and Kenny’s music started. Alex let out a breath. He’d won by the skin of his fucking teeth.

She and Don both rushed to Kenny’s side as Justin Roberts officially announced him the winner. He clutched his jaw, and somehow his left hand had been sliced open. “What happened?” she asked, looking over the blood on his fingers with concern. But he wasn’t able to answer her before they were suddenly swarmed by both the Young Bucks and the Good Brothers. Matt and Nick practically pushed her aside as they congratulated Kenny, and Nick and Karl Anderson put an arm each over their shoulders and helped him up the steps to the entrance ramp. And as they all celebrated, reveling in Kenny’s stolen victory, Alex felt a sourness curdle at the back of her throat.

She was in love with Kenny. He’d come to mean the world to her over the last nine months. But she hadn’t signed up for this world.

[iraprince]

hello! do you have any advice for switching from traditional art to digital? (i recently ran out of supplies so im relegated to my computer lol) i hope youre having a good day!

i sure do!

first off i really recommend clip studio paint, but i also recommend u wait for it to go on sale. it goes 50% off a few times a year, so imo it’s worth waiting, but it also is usually on sale for only a few days so u have to stay on top of it. they usually announce on twitter etc. the tools don’t make the artist and obviously it doesn’t Really matter what program u end up settling on, i’ve just been really pleased with CSP and i wanted to recommend it

second: nothing that u can do with digital art programs/tools is cheating and it took me way too long to really internalize + understand that. copy-pasting stuff instead of redrawing it, using symmetry rulers, using transform/ctrl+T to stretch or squash slightly off anatomy instead of starting over -- when i was first getting into digital i A. didn’t know u could do this stuff and B. felt weirdly guilty doing it once i figured it out, as if i was a worse artist for using the tools that are literally built into the software or that it was lazy or dishonest to do so. that, it turns out, is bullshit. any drawing is just a constant series of decision-making and a lot of digital tools just help u make or retract or edit those decisions faster than traditional does. it’s not better or worse, it’s just different, and it’s worth ur time to figure out which of those differences are the most convenient and useful. this stuff exists for a reason! use it! save ur wrists and ur patience and ur time!

figure out file organization early, because it’s something u don’t have to deal with irt traditional art and so it probably won’t come naturally, but it also makes ur life harder to have a desktop swarming with wip files that are all titled “kjsrhrfgdhgj.psd” or whatever. some ppl sort into folders by date; for me it works better to sort by content (i.e. i have folders for tvrn stuff, patreon stuff, different fandoms, dnd/ttrpg stuff, “misc ocs” for characters i don’t draw much and “misc fandoms” for one-off fanart that doesn’t merit its own folder, etc etc; this is what makes it easiest for me to find stuff, but ur system might end up different.) i admittedly still name my files keysmashes if it’s personal stuff rather than work/commissions, but at least it’s all sorted into a category where i can quickly find it again anyway

also, u can hybridize traditional and digital! i frequently like my traditional pencil lines better than what i can do digitally, so i often scan them in, turn them into lineart, and color digitally (here’s a tutorial on how i prep that). but even if u don’t have a scanner, a carefully taken phone photo with high contrast can still be used the same way. i tend to lay my sketchbook flat on the floor in front of a window, squat down and hold my phone as level as i can while i’m taking the pic, and then i blast it in my phone’s built in gallery editor (highlights/shadows and contrast) before sending it to myself and doing the same thing w tone curve/levels in csp. it’s not perfect, but it’s presentable, and it can be a good way to ease urself in if ur feeling frustrated w the learning curve on digital draftsmanship.

oh, and this tip is really small but it’s ended up being rly helpful for me: resist the urge to zoom in way past 100% scale view just bc u can. if there are times where u absolutely need to, sure, whatever, but there’s no point in regularly tweaking tiny things pixel by pixel at 250% zoom bc nobody who looks at ur art is gonna see that and ur just bloating ur own time spent on things and creating unnecessary stress for urself!! if 100% zoom doesn’t give u the control u want, that may just mean u need to work larger to begin with.

set up a comfortable workspace with a Good chair. look up proper posture and try to stick to it. i know we’re all gay and it sucks to sit in a chair properly but otherwise ur gonna hurt urself. take even more frequent breaks than u do when drawing traditionally! screen bad!

also, if ur tablet has a way to calibrate pressure, try that out. a lot of them are set in a way where you have to press really hard to get full line width and over time it can really seriously strain ur wrist; u can’t manually set pressure in traditional tools (besides like. using softer lead i guess lmfao) but u can with tablet pens and u should try it, bc if u can use a lighter touch overall it really goes a long way towards preventing injury in the long term.

this is all the stuff that came to mind immediately; i’m sure there are tons of basics i haven’t covered, depending on how much of a transition this is for u, but there are a lot of tutorials out there written by ppl more patient and more educationally-oriented than myself so you’d be doing a better service to urself seeking those out than if i were to try to clumsily emulate them lol. good luck + have fun!

[princeanxious]

What art are you most proud of? And please show us a pic if you can! <3

Not gonna lie, this was actually p hard to answer. I’m honestly proud of any piece I get done, especially any full body, full color, full background pieces, and I refuse to let myself out-right hate anything that I draw in general now-a-days, unfinished or no. I draw for fun, always have, so I try not to put too much worry on how good something looks so long as it gets my idea across in a way that I like, or that I tried?? (And ik being proud of a piece doesnt have to tie into what the end result looks like, im just covering that base) I looked through all of my recent digital art on my ipad(that i’ve had what, 3-4 years at this point?) and found myself about just as happy with each finished piece-

-Except one. There is one piece that I forget about constantly but I’m honestly super proud of the amount of effort it had put in to reach the end result. It probably sees a number of glances infrequently(due to my sporatic activity on said blog) but isnt posted to this blog’s art tag.

It’s the blog banner I drew for my @thelostguardianau fic, of the(at the time) whole cast in the au. You can find the post to reblog it from here but i’m also adding it below for reference. (* and honestly I’ll mention every other art piece in this au posted to it’s blog stands at having this same proudness, as each individual characters complicated design fed into this big banner, each one having a giant set of uniquely drawn wings, complex body markings, and unique clothing and features. And I would not have been able to complete this banner without having those singular character chart pieces finished first, except for Thomas’s design, who has yet to be posted for ✨reasons✨)

This fricking Banner was and still is(for now, *wink*) the most ambitious piece I’ve managed to finish. It took me so long, my wrist hated me, my ipad hated me, my ipencil hated me, medibang hated me, this piece pushed the limits of the poor app. Every time I try and open this piece up on the app it takes a solid couple seconds to open, save, and close.

From sketching to lining every single character, to having to uniquely match up Their Wing Sizes and Heights, because Guardians are fucking Tall, so Wing size and Height size was hell to calculate and portray. Why, you might ask?

Because I was limited to the proportions that would actually fit into a tumblr mobile banner. Which, funfact, is much smaller than you’d think!

I had to make sure they’d all fit, wings and all. And they didnt fcking want to. But I made it fit, because I wanted a full body + wings cast banner and goddamn it that was going to happen. And I did. And I lost a fuck-off amount of detail-space for it.

Coloring it wasn’t exactly difficult, but I will once again point back to this app hating this piece and it draining my battery because of it. I work in layers. My lineart will have 5-6 different layers in color before I combine them and set the hue to black, but I still keep my lineart seperate in that each character has their own lineart, and the background lineart is seperate.

I had their lineart, and probably still do, seperated into Seven different layers, one per character, each one w/ an extra masking layer for their wing glow. Each character got their own folder for colors, and had multiple layers for each colored section: clothing, skin, skin blush + eye whites, hair, wings, body markings, marking glow. And then there was the background layers, and the glowing affects, ect. The whole piece stands at having about 80 total layers having been used over the course of making it.

So yeah, Medibang does not like this piece when I try to open it. xD

But really, setting aside fighting and babying technology thats being pushed close to its limit, the real pride comes from the fact that this piece has Seven fully colored, near-full body characters drawn, all touching and interacting and accurate to the scale that I made. It is the most amount of characters in one piece that I’ve ever drawn, colored, and finished, and I’m pretty fricken proud of it.

Which makes it all the more daunting that said banner is going to get an upgrade, because it’s a Character Cast Banner after all, and its going to have four more fully designed and full winged characters added into it.

And by upgrade, I mean I get to redraw the whole dang thing. Because I gotta rearrange ✨everyone’s✨ positions. And at this point, the only way thats possible is by starting over.

wish me luck on that. o_o;

[the-songs-of-my-life]

Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long - Stop Signs

It's all stop signs. it's all lines that shouldn't be crossed. It's all interpretations that have been lost in translation, even when the meaning is embossed on something that redefines stop signs, something that erases and redraws lines for all the times curiosity get the better of us. But until it gets the best, we test the lines. Until it gets the best, it's all stop signs.

Now, all that you are, changes we love. While you are gone, I'll be waiting.

And then there's you, and I wanna kiss you so bad that I'd be willing to cut off my own head and just throw it towards your lips. And you'd be well within your rights to just swat it to the floor, but I'd redefine hardcore, lying there at the tips of your toes. Because god knows I'd be trying to figure out some way to roll towards them. And maybe that's crossing the line. Maybe that's a little creepy. If I knew you better than I do, I would know creepy's not the way to go. So, how's this? I wanna kiss you like a traffic jam. I wanna move slow. I wanna stop and go. Like, I know at least I'm moving towards you, and there's no use weaving through gridlock. Because every clock keeps poly ticking and tocking to tell me it's time for all the amazing in-between that's been seen and heard and each word that's passed between us like someone with somewhere to go.

And I know I hardly know you, so let's go slow like a turtle with a purpose. Let's not miss a single minute. Because every sixty seconds that contained within it are the two-hundred times I've tried to coax each smile to bloom into a laugh. And exact science of math can't begin to calculate half the time it would take to make misery turn itself into a punchline. One that was willing to mine past silver and gold just looking for something to tell you something that's never been told.

I wanna hold you like mine are the last arms in the world. I want them curled around you like the red and white stripes on a barber pole. And when I give you a lump of coal for Christmas and tell you that in a million years, it's gonna be a diamond. And will you wait for me until then?

Because that's when I'll be evolved enough to melt all the other brains of men on earth. And maybe I've got a shot it all that remains is two gazelles on a Serengeti plane and me. Of course, if you're willing to make sweet, sweet love with animals, I'll totally understand; I'm good with that. I'll ban together with whatever vegetation is left living. Me three weeds and a rubber plant will spend Thanksgiving saying "how grateful we are that you're happy."

Now, all that you do helps me get through, love. If you're unsure, I will show you.

I want you to feel like the banana peel under Charlie Chaplain's shoe. Because it's you that brings the house of this heart down. It's you that's the chamber of commerce in a town that's got nothing to offer but everything everyone can't find everywhere else under the sun. I'm done with all of the every that. Done thinking of where it is I'm going. I'm figuring about where it is I'm at. And that has got to be beside the one who's stopped me from trying to calculate the sum total of someone, as if this biological calculus has ever done anything for me. Other than the something that keep me seeking to self-providence that don't exist. Like a swat team sharp shooter with cataracts, I've missed the point more times than certain Americans have been elected to the oval office, which is always once too often. And let's face it, sometime two too many.

But this time, I'm willing to pay interest on a penny for your thoughts. Mortgage my mind, finance an expedition that will find me a better way to get to know you. Because I've read through the short story of my life and found that your name stands out on the page. Your slightest look unlocks the tumblers on my rib cage. And you can gauge my sincerity when I lift my heart towards you and tell you in a million years, it'll be less than dust. The slightest gust will blow it away. But you'll have to listen to wind chimes say that you still are worth waiting for.

Don't tell me you're not beautiful. You're the kind of beautiful that the blind would see if we could figure out some way to give them three seconds of sight. When you tell me you're not gorgeous, I want to pop out your left eye and show it to your right.

Now, all that you do helps me get through, love. If you're unsure, I will show you. All that you are changes me, love. While you are gone, I'll be waiting.

You're worth crossing whatever distance it would take. Worth building bridges to make connections because I've been secretly stealing stop signs, repainting traffic lines so I can only go one way. Because as far as I can tell, dedication is the better part of foreplay.

And I admit it, I'm committed. Everything I've done, I've done it to make you smile because it's been the largest part. Some long while since I've had someone do that for me. You feel like comedy after three years of being on the bandwagon of calamity. And I can't be bothered with a tragedy without trying to get to know you. I've been through enough wretchedness to know that some flowers can still grow through the garbage, and you make me want to take up gardening. Seeing sadness drain the spirit out of this history as if the worst is yet to come. Those that took the time to know me know I don't run. Partly because I'm not athletic, but mostly because that's life, and I've met it head-on! I've gone the distance more times than George Lucas looked at Jar Jar Binks and thought "fuck!"

And until I fit the bill, I will still fill my days trying. Because I'm yours, from bottom to the top. And I'm not just saying I'll be here for you, I'm saying I'll never stop.

[peach-the-owl]

Maybe one with Kima and Allura? The reader is an artist and one day they start to leave little notes with sketches for them in random places where they can find them and it's just them being a good friend trying to make them smile during the day.

Aww, I love Kima and Allura so much, their relationship is just so precious 🥰 I hope this turned out well

Also might’ve let myself get carried away with the idea, it’s a bit long 😅

Little Notes

Allura & Kima & Artist!Reader (Platonic)

You were making your way over to Allura's for a visit knowing she had been stressing out over Kima being missing from her mission in Kraghammer and hoping to calm some of those nerves. You walk up to the doors of her tower and give a knock, after a small wait the door opens to reveal the arcanist herself.

"(Y/n)! It’s been awhile, how are you?" She asks slightly surprised by your sudden appearance.

"Hello Allura, sorry about not informing you of my arrival." You sheepishly scratch at the back of your head in apology. "Do you mind if I come in? If not I can just-"

"No no, it’s alright." She stops you and steps out of the way for you to enter the tower. You welcome yourself in and go to sit in your usual spot whenever you’d visit. "I’m actually glad you decided to pop in, I’ve needed a distraction what with everything going on." Allura admits. At this point you pull out your sketchbook and pencil you always carry with you and start to add some fine line work to a piece you’d been working on for weeks now, never seeming to get it quite right.

"I know you’ve been stressing over this, which is exactly why I wanted to come over. So why don’t you tell me about what you’ve been up to recently." You suggest, not looking away from your drawing. You knew this wouldn’t bother Allura because for the years you've known each other, while it looked like you weren’t paying attention to the conversation you actually were, listening very carefully to every word being spoken to you. Allura went on to tell you about her work with the council and some of the worries she has for Kima, you adding in your own thoughts to the conversation every now and again. She then told you about her allies, the adventuring group known as Vox Machina that she asked to help find Kima, you knew about this group and what they did for the royal family but didn’t know them as personally as Allura did.

"I just hope nothing terrible has happened." Allura finally concludes after her long rant. You give an amused hum and sigh, taking proper notice that you’d wandered away from your project and had several random doodles covering the page. However instead of hindering you this placed a wonderful idea into your head.

"Relax Ally, if these people are as capable as you say then they’ll find Kima in no time. Just relax and breath, alright." You look up at her this time seeing her nod and take a few deep breaths. While she was distracted with that you carefully tear out some of the doodles, writing little messages of encouragement on the back of them and stand up. You sneakily slipping one of the notes between the cushion of the chair having it stick out just enough to be noticeable but not too obvious. "It’s been lovely, thank you for having me over but it’s getting late. I should really be making my way home."

"Allow me to walk you out." Allura offers which you happily accept, sneakily hiding the little drawings along the way in various places for Allura to hopefully find later. "I really appreciated the visit, helps to confide in a friend. You’re welcome back anytime." Allura gives you a quick hug that you return before the two of you part ways until next time.

It had been a while since your little visit and felt it only fair to check in and see how everything was going. When you arrive you’re relieved to see that Kima had returned in one piece, while Allura was occupied with thanking Vox Machina for their efforts you quietly shuffle over. You then watch as Kima and Allura share a small moment by staring at each other before they run into each other’s arms, you smile a little at this before deciding to quickly jump in.

"No it’s fine, just pretend I’m not here." You joke gaining everyone’s attention, you walk over to the two and without missing a beat Kima gives you a playful punch in the arm. "I swear to Bahamut Kima, you’re gonna break my arm one of these days." You slightly hiss from the pain.

"Nah if I meant to do that, it'd already be broken." Kima says slyly, you roll your eyes before properly hugging your friend, slipping a little note you’d made into her armour.

"Well now who’s this one?" The red Dragonborn asks. After some proper introductions with the group Allura invites everyone into her tower for tea, you hang back a second unsure if you should join them or just head home early.

"Don’t just stand there, the offer stands for you too." Allura gives a warm smile and ushers you inside.

"I know I just didn’t want to feel like I was overcrowding the place, plus I’m sure you’d like to catch up with Kima." You say meekly. You make your way up and automatically go to sit in your usual spot, pulling out your sketchbook as both a distraction and to continue on a commission for a client you’d received. Enjoying some tea and listening to the conversation between everyone else, Kima leans over your shoulder to look at your work.

"The hell is that supposed to be?" She asks quietly, staring at your drawing.

"Art." You reply cheekily. You catch her rolling her eyes at the corner of yours.

"I know what it is, but what is it?"

"The client asked for something abstract, so this is the result so far." You precede to erase and redraw a few of the lines you’d made until you felt satisfied.

"I don’t get it." You stifle a laugh, Kima didn’t really have an artistic eye but you appreciated that she at least tried to understand your craft whenever the two of you got to interact with each other.

"Shouldn’t you be involved in this conversation? Not to be rude or anything but it sounds important." You look up at Kima now to which she scratches at the back of her head, you can now see the blush on her cheeks.

"His questions were making me a little uncomfortable." She gestures over to the goliath, Grog. You give a reassuring pat her on the shoulder, sneaking another note into her armour before you realize something.

"Sorry to interrupt but what time is it?" After some fumbled reply’s Allura gives you her best estimation. "I have to go, I’ve got client to meet today and sooo much work to do. Thank you for the tea Allura, it was lovely to meet you all and thank you for safely bringing Kima back." You give a bit of a rushed goodbye as you gather up your things and hurry out of the tower, pausing briefly at the door to hide one more note for Allura to find later.

Time came and went, work piled up leaving you busy to no end, the only contact you had with your friends being the letters you’d write each other telling of what you’d been up to. However once the dragons came your world went crashing down, you had longed for a break away from all the work on your shoulders but not like this. Your home was in shambles, your hard work that took you months to complete destroyed in seconds, you considered yourself lucky to have made it out alive. Now you were but another refugee in Whitestone praying for a miracle while doodling in your sketchbook, the only thing that survived with you albeit slightly charred at the corners.

"Oh my gosh! You’re alive!" You hear a familiar voice call, looking over to see Kima run up to you. You give each other hug and once you let go Kima punches your arm.

"Every time I swear." You sigh with a small laugh, rubbing your arm.

"Gotta keep that arm strength up for your art stuff." Kima jokes, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "Anyways, do you know where Ally is?" You shake your head.

"I don’t, but I assume she’s alive, that woman’s a tough cookie." Kima nods in agreement.

"Would you like to help us?" Keyleth asks.

"Me? No I couldn’t, I’ve never really been the adventuring type, I much prefer swinging around a paintbrush over a sword." You politely decline the offer. "But I would like to advise one thing," you pat Kima's shoulder, once again slipping in a note you’d made into her armour in hopes of bringing encouragement. "Don’t do anything rash that could get you killed." Kima gives a quiet "yeah I know" and with that you watch the party continue on their way.

You did what you could with what little resources you had to build up and regain some normality to your life, starting a little side business of making motivational cards for anyone needing an extra pick me up. Folks seemed to really like it, each card having a personalized picture and message written on it, doing what you could to help keep hope alive in these trying times. When you met up with Kima and Allura again Allura was relived to see you were still alive and standing strong. They invited you over to the abode they were staying at together, which put a new idea into your head. Before you arrived for your visit with them you had made more of your little notes for them, this time making a few that you hoped would help spark the romance between the two you’ve seen since day one (secret wingman). When you arrived they gave you a quick tour of the place, leaving opportunities for you to slip the notes into various places around the house, making you wonder if this time they were doing it on purpose having finally caught on to your little gimmick. You all sat down and sipped away at some tea or coffee while talking about the actions going forward, as the evening came you bid your friends a goodnight and made your way back to your temporary living quarters…

More time flew by, the Chroma Conclave was since defeated and Emon was slowly rebuilding itself, a time of peace finally setting in and you had a lot of work ahead of you if you were ever going to be able to buildup your home from scratch. The only downside was you didn’t have the gold to pay for everything, your work as an artist didn’t always pay a lot but it was enough to keep you stable but having to pay to acquire materials for the house and art studio was another story entirely. Your then approached by two very familiar people.

"Allura! Kima! So good to see you both again. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to write or visit often lately, been quite busy trying to re-establish myself." You greet your friends and notice the large bag Kima's carrying.

"It’s alright we’ve been rather busy ourselves with everything going on. We actually wished to talk with you." Allura gives you a gentle smile.

"Well I’d normally like to welcome you into my home, but as you can see it’s… not much of a home yet." You half-joke gesturing to the still ruined state of your house, the broken paintings you once had all having been stripped away when the Cinder King still ruled.

"That was actually one of the things we wished to speak with you about, Kima if you would." She turns to Kima who in turn hulls the bag over her shoulder letting it clatter to the ground, and you can hear the jangling of coin inside. "I believe this should help accommodate everything you need for your home and work." You stare jaw dropped at the bag filled to the brim with gold.

"I-This is very generous of you. I simply can’t just take your money." You say out of shock at the large gold pile in front of you.

"Think of it as payment for all you’ve done for us." Allura smiles and gives you an expectant look.

"All I’ve done? I haven’t really done anything to help."

"Sure you have, back when Kima was missing finding those papers with the little drawings and messages really helped keep me calm and cheer me up through all the stress." Allura explains.

"Yeah, or the ones you managed to slip into my armour. Little distracting at first but invigorating when I was in a tough spot in battle." Kima jumps in. You just smile, all you were doing was trying to be nice and encouraging to your friends unknowing of the effects it apparently lead to.

"Still, not all is from us." Allura suddenly cuts into your thoughts, you look at her confused. "That was the second thing we wanted to talk with you about. Some of this is a sort of upfront payment for a few commissions from our friends, half now to help you and half later once you've completed their requests."

"There’s more!?" You were almost lightheaded from the information, but shake it off and refocus yourself. "I’d love to, please fill me in on all the details."

"First off Keyleth asked for a landscape piece of her home in Zephrah, Keyleth will easily help bring you to and from her home whenever you’re ready. Next Percy wanted a portrait made for castle Whitestone, he said he’d fill in the rest of the details upon your arrival. Finally," Allura gives a bit of a sigh, "there’s Taryon… he wants a, and I quote, 'self portrait made with nothing but the finest oil paints you can get your hands on for the Slayer's Cake.'"

"So basically the plan is to visit Whitestone once my home's rebuilt. That should be fine, one question though, who’s Taryon?"

"Trust me, you’ll know who he is when you meet him."

"Sounds like quite the character." You say with a hint of nervousness. "Well if that’s everything, I should get to work. Thank you again for everything." You go to collect the heavy bag of gold only to pause when you hear Kima speak up.

"Ally did you still wanna… you know ask about the thing?" She had leaned closer to Allura to ask but you still heard her.

"What thing?" You question to which Allura perks up a bit in realization.

"I almost completely forgotten. Right, there was one more, very special request." You look at the two in silence, Allura walks up to you and takes one of your hands in hers. "(Y/n), Kima and I have a very important and special request of you." You just nod and wait for her to continue. "We were wondering if you could make us something special for… for our wedding." You stare wide eyed in awe.

"You two are getting married? That’s amazing! About time too." You cheer.

"Not so loud please, we just want a simple and private wedding you know, a few eye witnesses for the event. You don’t have to make anything grand, if anything we’d like what you make to be similar to the notes you’ve always left us." You press your hands together and hold back the urge to just scream to the heavens in happiness for them. When you manage to calm yourself enough you look back that the couple and give them a large smile.

"I’d be honoured to make something for your wedding." You give them both a hug and reset your sights on your shambled home. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a house to get built."

"Hold on, I still have one more thing for you." Kima interrupts this time. Before you can ask you feel a punch impact your arm, you suck back the pain as you rub the spot she hit. "Alright now your free to start." She gives you a smug look.

"Every. Single. Time." You playfully glare back. You had a long road ahead of you and you were certain it’d only be a matter of time before the peace is disturbed again but for now you wanted to focus on the present. Like you said, you had a lot of work to do.