#i'm generally a nervous person when it comes to talking online but moon was quite warm and sociable!!

[starsh0cked]

okay so. two things!! first of all, over the course of january (and the beginning of february) i participated in the kirby oc secret santa, which was wonderfully hosted by @/moonverc3x. i was lucky enough to be the santa for @/starflungwaddledee, and ended up with two of my best pieces so far!!

these were CHALLENGING, though. which is where the second thing comes in!! under the cut, i'll be going over some of the sketches, drafts and phases of either piece! there's also a speedpaint. exciting!!

i'll be starting with my starstruck piece! the theme here was wanderlust - literally one of the most whimsical words i know - and generally anything to do with the stars. i had a few things in mind, but considering how long it sometimes takes to make artwork, i decided to roll with what inspired me the most.

this is the final sketch compared to the final artwork. certainly one of the crazier transformations i've done. i had a mental image of most parts of the artwork, from the material of starstruck's bow to the lighting cast by the stars. everything except for the grass (i hate grass!!) i ended up rendering the grass and background first, anyway.

doing the background before the rest of the artwork helps define the lighting and shadows! if i decided to draw starstruck before the background, i'd have to draw it according to the lighting.

weird explanation, but in summary: background before character helps the character look like a part of the environment! character before background means extra steps need to be taken before the character fits in the environment!

starstruck's bow was also a decent challenge! i'm a fan of bows and satin, so a satin bow sounded like a good idea. it was, but i've never drawn satin before. the workaround was an active satin study! i stared at a satin bow i found on pinterest and tried to understand how light spread over the material. it's quite interesting!!

you might notice that i flipped the direction of the shooting stars. this is for composition reasons!! i wanted to make starstruck the obvious focus, and while the contrast between her warmer palette and the background's cooler palette easily achieve that, i wanted to cement it. i also added little hand drawn sparklies everywhere. because i like it.

of course, i have to talk about the eyes!! if anything, i noticed that in all of starflung's drawings of starstruck, she had really glittery eyes. literally adorable. so i made it my mission to capture her feelings in her eyes!! i had a lot of fun making them super shiny and adding little stars in there. i also needed to pay attention to the subtle gradient, though - they fade from blue to pink if you zoom into starflung's artworks - and decided to keep it vibrant.

okay. thats all for this one!! i'd like to mention that in the original sketch for this specific pose, bandee was in the background. i really regret scrapping that now. oh, well!

time for morpho dee! i'll be starting for with the speedpaint for this one, mainly because it sort of explains some of the process by itself.

i restarted the shading... three or four times at least? so yeah. i was losing it on this piece. i'll be completely honest, i contemplated dropping it for the sake of meeting the deadline. it wasn't stressing me out, but i had studies to worry about too, and i was worried that it wouldn't be of great quality? but after some advice from my beloved older sister, i managed to turn the tide!!

this is a first for me, but everything here was a challenge. if you scroll through my account and the few artworks i've posted, you'll notice that i draw gijinkas far more than orbs. now, you may be wondering why this didn't pose so much of an issue for my starstruck piece! it's mainly because i chose a far simpler pose for her than i did for morpho over here.

for morpho, the artwork needed to be dramatic. i draw cutesy things - while i've always wanted to draw something dramatic, i've never pushed myself to do it. until this artwork! i went for a dynamic pose which would (hopefully) pull the viewer's eye towards morpho dee. that's what's up with the foreshortned spear! i also realised that the plcement of his feet would be quite significant to the artwork. you might not know this, but feet are my greatest enemy. i'm still trying to figure out how best to draw them for people or orbs, but i'm getting there.

after 'lineart' (which really ended up being a cleaned sketch - this was supposed to be linelessly rendered, but i gave up on that) the pose was no longer a problem. because the shading was! hooray!!

nothing has quite bewildered me like metal shading has. i've shaded gold. satin. cotton, fluffy scarves, shiny things, grass. yet metal shading continues to elude me! this was, hands down, the most difficult part of this artwork. i struggled to make sense of how the lighting was supposed to work, even with references. and every time i thought it made sense, i ended up with something i didn't like the look of. the solution? long breaks, more references and pinterest tutorials. i have no clue how i managed this, but we got here anyways. i finished it off by colouring the lineart according to the shading.

i have experience with drawing fire, at least! it was three or four years ago in an old artwork, but i have experience! i simply had to figure out how to work it into the atmosphere. for the glow, i duplicated the layer, gaussian blurred it and used a slight glow layer! i did something similar for the durst particles, but i used motion blur instead.

i also want to talk about the spear a little bit. you might notice that i added a bit of ambient glow around the blue gem. that was with the light intensity in mind, but also for a sense of realism! i also had to keep the pink light in mind, though. so i ended up using an airbrush to create a base for the lighting and i continued from there. i added a few scratches on the handle just to give it a bit more life, too.

and, finally, a one-to-one comparison between the sketch and the final! i have literally no idea how i pulled either of these pieces off, but i'm quite proud of them.

i recommend you drop by @/kirbyoc-secretsanta for other artworks! a total of 75 artists participated, so there are plenty of super cool ocs to adore over there and new artists to find!! this was my first secret santa experience, and @/moonverc3x made an amazing host (thank you for hosting, by the way!!) bye bye!!

[corvidexoskeleton]

For my dude @wumbowumbo

1. What’s your favorite way to dress?

Dramatically, with as much black as possible, and maybe face paint. But for everyday kinda stuff, just a t-shirt and jeans, usually

2. If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?

I wish I could articulate my thoughts better. I'd also like to not be so nervous around people as it fucks with my ability to think straight

3. What movie/game/etc. helps you calm down?

Skyrim for sure. I usually listen to music, too, but what I pick depends on what I'm trying to calm down from, like if I'm nervous I'll play Apocalyptica, or Hozier

4. What does your room smell like?

I'd imagine it smells like me, but I have no idea what I smell like. I light incense sometimes, but it's difficult to tell what they smell like cause theyve got obscure names like The Moon or Dragon's Blood

5. Do you like to organize?

I enjoy organizing quite a bit. I absolutely hate being unorganized, but it's so easy for me to just. Not do anything

6. What kind of music would you listen to if you could only choose one?

Probably Prog. Or just like. Metal in general

7. What song is your aesthetic?

Blood Eagle by Amon Amarth, Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek by Blue October, the entirety of Breathe Me In by Candlebox, Cherry Wine by Hozier, idk man I've got a Few™ lmao

8. what color do you think goes best with your personality?

Not to sound like an edgelord but black like a dark shade of purple or blue

9. do you believe in auras?

Nah

10. What do you wish you hated, but actually like?

I don't really have anything like that but if you were to ask 6 year old me it would be literally any music I listen to now lmao

11. Vague about your crush(es)

See question 28

12. Is there something you have mixed feelings towards?

Hetalia as a whole. I was really into it when I was in middle school, but that was when I didn't know anything about the online fandom or the manga. Today it makes me really uncomfortable, but I feel like if it was portrayed differently (very differently) it could've been a really cute show. Instead we had nazi fetishizers and an ungodly amount of yaoi

13. Talk about an au or story you came up with

I had a dream once about a fisherman and a dock worker in some rural fishing village. I don't know what it was about in the dream, but it was very aesthetic and beautiful. Eventually the two fell in love. At the end, they sat on top of an old ruin and watched the sunset while talking about their dreams. It was really nice, I wanna make a story about it.

14. Do you like makeup?

Only if I'm using it like face paint, though I like how I look with smudged eyeliner

15. Do you prefer space or the ocean?

Fuck the ocean, I'm a slut for space

16. If you could pick any planet besides earth, where would you live?

The ones I come up with in my dreams

17. What form of government do you like the most? (capitalism, socialism, etc.)

I don't think I'm educated enough on the different forms of government and how they function to be able to make a sound, informed decision. Also fuck capitalism and eat the rich

18. What animal would you keep as a pet, if you could?

A dragon

19. What do you think our purpose is in the universe?

I don't think there is a cosmic reason or purpose for us in the universe, only what reason we give ourselves

20. Do you believe in god(s)?

Technically, no. My views are pretty similar to those of LaVeyan Satanism, which holds an atheistic set of views, with a dash of paganism. I don't believe gods, or God, exists as a legitimate entity so much as a concept people created to represent an idea or virtue (or lack thereof). I "follow" certain gods in that I recognize and appreciate the concepts they embody and see them as a reminder of what I value and strive for (meaning I "follow" Apollo because of my love of the sun, and because of my love of music and the role it plays in healing, etc.)

21. Is there a song you can’t handle listening to, even though you like it?

I have trouble listening to Three Days Grace because I listened to them the most when my dad died as a way to help cope. I can listen to most of their early stuff without much trouble, but I cannot listen to Gone Forever without breaking down

22. What ex do you miss the most, if you have one?

I've never been in a romantic relationship

23. Do you like soft, fluffy blankets or rough/smooth blankets?

Soft (fluffy preferred, but optional)

24. What is your favorite thing to learn about?

Linguistics, language in general, people in general, different ways to make things and be creative (like woodburning, stitching, carving, etc.)

25. What country’s history do you find the most interesting?

Ancient Greece and viking-age Scandinavia are pretty interesting, but I am, unfortunately, not particularly knowledgeable about either outside of mythology. I've also had a weird interest in Germany/Germanic areas since I was a kid. Native American societies prior to colonization are also really interesting, but there aren't nearly as many resources to learn about them as other places/times

26. What do you think about genderbent ____ (insert someone here)

I'm ok with it, but it depends on how it's executed

27. What breakup was the hardest, if you had one?

Again, never had a romantic relationship

28. Do you have someone where you can’t decide if you like them romantically or just as a friend?

Theres this girl I'm friends with that I think I romantic feelings for, but I'm super unsure

29. What do you think about tumblr discourse?

Nothing is ever black and white

30. What instrument do you wish you could master?

I've wanted to play guitar since I was a kid, but alas, I am not a dexterous person

31. How easy is it for you to be honest?

For the most part it's pretty easy, but it gets difficult depending in who I'm talking to and how personal it is. I try to avoid lying as much as possible, so sometimes I'll just change the subject or give a vague answer that's technically true,

32. Do you have any strange interests?

I don't think any of my interests are strange, but there are some people who seem to think collecting bones and making things out of them is weird, even when historically it's pretty common

33. Do you have any strange fears?

I've got thalassophobia and a severe fear or being alone and unloved

34. What food do you binge on when you’re lazy?

Depends on what I've got

35. When you get angry, how do you show it?

I'm pretty good at keeping my temper in check, usually I'll just listen to something hard and heavy. If I have to interact with people I just take a couple deep breaths and try to not be a dick

36. do you have any impulsive movements? (twitches, ticks, flapping, etc.)

I rub the tips off my fingers together and pick at my nails, skin, and hair. I used to clench my jaw, but I recently got over that. I tend to chew on the inside of my mouth, which I need to stop as well

37. what do you listen to music on?

Spotify mostly. Sometimes youtube if spotify doesn't have something. I use the built in Play Music app when I listen to Tool, though

38. Are you left brained or right brained?

What

39. Earbuds or headphones?

Headphones. After my last ear infection, earbuds hurt too much

40. Do you like light blankets or heavy blankets?

Heavy

Tagging @zonerz @skeletonflows @twunkmccree and @commodorecliche 😘