#idk if I like this drawing actually but it was a fun experimentation

[clowniishh]

He gives gremlin to me

[justanotherjaydrawing]

uh oh Jay's doing experimental self-portraits again!

[normalcannibalism]

i feel weird and self conscious about my art again. sigh

the entire post ended up in thw tags ohb my god

[datcravat]

HI HELLO I love your art So much,,, do you have any tutorials on how you render your stuff? For example, the colors you use & how you pick them, how you get that pink tone around the Lineart (I think) (it's just rly cool). I would love to see stuff like that, cuz your art is Such visual candy (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

Hey! Thank you so much, I'm glad you like my art, I worked hard to make it what it is!! Means a lot you appreciate it!!!!!!

I've had no professional art training, I seriously don't know what I'm doing and struggle making tutorials. But will try here!!

For me the colour work is really situational on the drawing! I find myself experimentally attempting to weaponize colour theory and there's a lot of instinct involved that I can't figure out how to verbalise yet. Here's an example of some thought process I have:

My main advice is to play with sliders a lot and really experiment (that's what I do for every drawing)!

To get the pink glow around your lineart, copy your lineart layer, fill the copy in with a pink of your choice (sometimes I do a gradient), blur the layer (experiment with how much blur you'd like), put it directly below the lineart layer, and set the layer to multiply (or any mode you think looks pretty)!

You may want to adjust your piece's brightness/colours after applying it and sharpen the image after exporting.

A lot of colour gradients are involved and on their own they can eventually compromise the gritty/punchy style, especially the ones that are between extreme and subtle. A good way to combat this is with screentones/haftones!! You can use them to diversify colours and imply shading/texture.

I recommend going nuts and having a lot of fun with it to find what works for you!

I often add a lot of small lens flares as they satisfyingly cut through the piece, imply flash photography (which goes well with the strong black shading), add visual noise to areas you don't want to be your main point of focus, are a great way to show speculars, and idk man sparkles are just pretty haha.

Go nuts with them and have fun!! When you get them to look good, think to yourself why that is.

I made a tutorial ~1 year ago on how I shade with black. This simple trick will really help it look good, 3D and rendered - it just requires a lot of knowledge about shadows to start with. I have a lot of experience rendering "normally" which helped me learn how to use black in an experimental way.

Minor correction that the shadows labelled "ambient occlusion" in the tutorial are actually just normal shadows, ambient occlusion is total lack of light.

I hope this is useful to you!! You have a knack for art, your work is very inspired. Please keep drawing!! I am still learning too, let's keep going baby.

-Cravat x

[windvexer]

This is kind of a large question so I apologize but I guess I'm curious on how you're able to get such specific or like. unique (i mean this in a good way) answers from tarot? Like your "what magic should i learn next" stuff or how to pick up what a spirit can do through tarot. like idk how to translate these cards into what the spirit is trying to say

Hi!

There's no easy answer to this question, partially because I've now been reading tarot for almost exactly 16 years. This isn't at all to say that it's just the passage of time, but that in that amount of time I've done tons and tons of different things to expand my understanding of, and usage, of tarot.

Tarot didn't come to me very easily, and part of that journey was doing a lot of experimentation in an effort to figure it all out. My reading practice is still very much typified by a huge amount of experimentation and custom reading methods.

It hasn't been a linear process at all. I go through periods of months (or more!) where tarot just doesn't click for me, at all. So just because I picked up my first tarot deck 16 years ago doesn't mean that I've kept a consistent practice (I'm just now getting back into it after just such a fallow period ^-^)

My feelings on experimentation is that it gives me new ways to think about not only the cards, but also spreads, methodologies, and readings as a whole.

In addition, my experiments with other forms of divination (most especially casting lots, energy readings, and playing card readings) have heavily influenced my tarot readings.

Here is a post I wrote that I think expresses my feelings on experimenting within tarot.

Here are some examples of tarot experiments I've performed, and/or methodologies I've explored. It's these sorts of things that have been building blocks in my abilities in tarot. But no single one of them was a "key."

Elemental dignities: The elements of the cards dictates how they interact with each other. Air + fire can mean a supercharged firestorm, but water + fire can mean a controlled fire under a stewpot, or blocked progress of the fire. This experiment helps with understanding how cards can link together, and how energy can flow within a spread.

Elemental landscapes: Spreads are laid down in lines or grids and each card represents one aspect of the landscape. You must brainstorm and choose your own meanings. E.g., 8/wands is an exploding volcano. Queen/Cups is a lake inhabited by mermaids. Read the flow of weather patterns and energies through the spread as an answer to the question. This experiment helps with intuitive reading and working with a spread as a whole, instead of focusing on individual cards.

Elemental portents: Assign an element to your question. Draw a card. If the element on the card agrees with the element of your question, the portent is good; if it disagrees, the portent is bad. This experiment helps with learning how to phrase questions and how the question themselves can influence the balance of the deck.

Astral landscapes: This was an elaborate system I built around the Wooden Tarot. I worked with each card to assign it a mystical association that could occur in an astral landscape. The major arcana were spirits who could travel across the landscape. Each spread was like a playing board of a generated landscape and the spirits that interacted inside of it. This experiment was fun for considering the metaphysical ramifications of the energies of the cards themselves.

Numerical virtues: The number value of the card indicates its power and magnitude in the spread. 2 and 3 value cards are always of smaller power and significance. 10 and court cards are always of higher value. Aces may be high or low. This experiment gave me a new way of thinking about importance of each card, and how to blend magnitudes of significance.

Infinite directional wheel: I wrote a post on this actually, but basically you can keep placing cards forever in the cross-quarter positions. It's a meditation on the concept of elements and directions within witchcraft. Also, an extremely useful spread. This was a vital experiment for me in understanding spreadwork, flow of information, and linking cards.

Card doubling and tripling: Place two (or 3) cards together and determine the meaning as if it's one single card; there is no border, and the images combine with each other. The pictures and meanings of each combine into a single card.

Card doubling and tripling, but in spreads: For each position in the spread, place two cards (or three cards!) in place of one. Read the dyads or triads as if they are a single card. It isn't beginning/middle/end; it's a single triple-complex card! These doubling experiments helped me with the concept of card linking and blending meanings into unique interpretations.

Custom meaning sets: Basically, swap out all the default meanings with your own. Extremely useful IMO in learning how sets of meanings work together, and how to balance sets of meanings. I wrote a post on it here. These experiments have perhaps been the most vital for me in developing new interpretations. I believe that the magical skills readings you referenced were the result of custom meaning sets.

No meaning sets: Instead of using any card meanings, all spreads are resolved using a combination of elemental portents and numerical virtues. I.e., the element and number of a card in relation to other cards in the spread determines the reading. Here, the experimentation is allowing the cards to have strict, defined roles within a spread that can't be overwritten by personal intuition.

As a final note, I highly, highly recommend recording every reading you do and every card you draw. For the first couple years of my practice I recorded all readings, and it was a huge boost to my learning.

[kozachenko]

A Retrospective Analysis on Touhou 17

So it's finally here, and even though I know for a fact that I am not going to be able to get the Keiki drawing done by this time (I'm having trouble with the eyes, for some reason it's always that aspect of drawing her that's difficult for me, I can never really capture the essence of her character no matter what I do) I still wanted to post something about this game today since it's the game's 5 year anniversary. I have a lot of thoughts on it, and my views on the game have changed quite a lot throughout my time being a Touhou fan. This is going to be very long so I'll put the rest under the keep reading tag.

So for some background, Touhou 17 was the first Touhou game I ever played, I got into the series during 2021 shortly after my Hunter X Hunter phase ended (since the manga was still on hiatus at the time) and I remember playing 17 during that time as well. I'm pretty sure that the reason I played it was because of that one nitirushh animation where Keiki disses the animal spirits so hard that they die (still my favourite fan-depection of Keiki tbh, it's just really funny to me) and that set my interest in the game itself. It was also the newest Touhou game at the time and none of the other games interested me as much. Then I actually played the game and at the time I found it insanely fun. I remember feeling so excited playing the stage 1 of the game and thinking to myself "Holy shit I'm actually playing a Touhou game" and having a lot of fun with it. Even though the game itself is the easiest out of all the Touhou games, it was still a challenge for me at the time since I had never played a bullet Hell before. For this reason, the game as a whole struck a chord with me. Funny Touhou animation aside, I don't know if it was because I had only recently gotten out of my Hunter X Hunter phase after finishing the whole 2011 version of the anime and had caught up with the manga during 2020, but maybe some aspect of 17 kinda scratched a similar itch in my brain and it really stuck with me IDK.

As for what I think of the game itself now.... gameplay wise, it could be better, it's still fun but there was so much potential for the game to tell it's story through the medium it chose to present itself in. Why did we not have more similarities between Eika and Keiki's danmaku styles to show their connection? Why did we not have a moment similar to what happened in TD during the final boss fight where Mayumi comes back in to take over during the fight in a last ditch effort to protect Keiki? It's the final boss so go all out! The animal spirits could also be balanced a lot better as well, especially with Youmu becoming incredibly overpowered with the wolf spirit, and visibility is a bit of a problem in this game. Some of the tracks could use a bit more polish too, I commend ZUN for being experimental with his newer tracks but the stage 3 theme and staff roll theme are both kinda eh, and while the boss themes have a lot of good punch to them and can be really good, it still feels like some extra spice could've been added to really make them stand out (which is why I love the theme remixes Saki and Yachie got in Touhou 19). I also wish the Animal Realm got explained better within the lore of the series, mainly because it raises a lot of questions about how Hell was founded and it kinda needlessly complicates things. I would've rather it be introduced as it's own region of Hell rather than being a separate thing entirely that just so happens to be located next to it. I also wish that we got more stuff with this setting that explains how it connects to the rest of the worldbuilding a lot more, I definitely feel like actually having it explained more in the mangas would definitely help to make it feel less convuluted, but unfortunately the closest we're getting are cameos in Lotus Eaters and very brief mentions of the games themselves. I still like the game though, as I've mentioned I do love a lot of the music and I love all the characters we got introduced to in this game. I've been appreciating Eika a lot more recently, I do like Urumi but she's neat and I like her design a lot, Kutaka is a fucking shithead who kept FUCKING UP MY 1CCS IN BOTH 17 AND 17.5 THE FUCKING BITCH- who is very funny and I love seeing more insight into Hell's management. Yachie's great and I find her relationships to the other characters in this game very interesting, Mayumi is awesome and the more I think about her the more I like her, and I love how Saki contrasts Yachie in her strategies. That being she has no strategy and just goes "fuck it, we ball" with no hesitation lmao.

I'm pretty sure you all noticed the absence of one character in particular, that being Keiki. I've made it no secret on this blog that Keiki is my favourite Touhou character, and a lot of that is because of her role as an antagonist in Touhou 17. I always found it really fascinating how ZUN created her as an allegory for AI (I don't know if Apollo just randomly blessed him with the gift of prophecy because MAN does that statement hit harder now more than ever) and the fact that she's portrayed as a very morally grey character in the game itself and Reimu's reaction to her, stating that she can see an "evil aura" in Keiki. I've already talked a lot about Keiki on this blog and I don't know what there is that I haven't said, but I wanted to start off with her because it ties into a big part of why I still find this game's story interesting. That main aspect being it's parallels to Gensokyo and Touhou's overarching them of humanity's relationship with nature.

So to step back from 17 for a second, I feel like we should look at what the Youkai represent in the story. Youkai in Touhou are created from humanity's fear, and back before science was able to properly explain anything, this fear very often manifested into a fear of nature. Natural disasters would end up wiping out villages, dangerous animals would often lurk in forests and end up killing anyone who would go in them. Overall nature isn't very kind to humanity, and humanity knows this. This is why humanity would often try and find reasons as to why these things would happen. This brings us back to the Youkai in Touhou who are the embodiment of the unexplainable. In manga like Forbidden Scrollery and Lotus Eaters, we often see how the humans in the human village are at the mercy of these Youkai, the only reason that they aren't being slaughtered is entirely for their own benefit so they don't run out of resources. The only hope the humans in the village really have is to turn to the gods, another product of man's desire to explain the unexplainable, to potentially save them. The survival of the people in the human village will always be in the hands of beings beyond their comprehension. No matter what, humanity will always be at the mercy of nature.

Coming back to Touhou 17, we can see that the relationship between the human and beast spirits isn't exactly.... pleasant. The beast spirits all see the human spirits as slaves essentially and they gain strength from their torment. The only way that the human spirits are even able to stand a chance against them is to submit themselves to a god and pray for their protection. And even then there's no way in Hell that they're getting out of this situation since the god they're praying to views them the same way as the animal spirits (whether they are aware of it or not).

So if you haven't noticed by my word choice, there are quite a lot of similarities here with the dynamics of the Animal realm and Gensokyo. That's not even mentioning the fact that in both places we have at least 3 different parties fighting over control of the humans, whether it be animal spirits or Youkai. Hell, this race for power in Gensokyo is a plot point in Lotus Eaters and Forbidden Scrollery, so it's not like this is a new concept for the series to explore either.

There's also something to be said about how Keiki and the technology she brings with her are seen as a threat to the order of the animal realm. Throughout human history, humanity's creativity and ingenuity have always been major factors in our survival as a species. We created tools to use the nature around us and make it work to our advantage, we created weapons to more efficiently hunt and find food to survive, and we created art and literature to document our histories and make sense of the world. Going back to 17, Keiki is the epitome of humanity's evolution and creativity and she is the one who responded to the human's cries for salvation. Another thing to think about is that in Gensokyo, the best the villagers are going to get in terms of technology are old computers that are very limited in their use, and even then barely anyone will have any idea how to use them. The reason that Gensokyo even exists in the first place is to preserve the Youkai and Gods that would become forgotten by humanity's technological advancement. In both of these places, technological advancement is seen as a threat to the natural order and must be suppressed at all costs.

Of course in Gensokyo it isn't as extreme as the animal realm. The Kappa, the Tengu, and even gods like Kanako are all quite technologically advanced and/or are introducing new technologies to Gensokyo (those are just the ones I could list off the top of my head, but please tell me if there are more that I forgot). But here's the interesting thing, notice how none of the examples I listed there were humans. The only way for the humans of Gensokyo to have these technologies introduced to them is if the powers that be, nature, let them have those technologies. Going back to the animal realm, even after Keiki is defeated we can see that the beast spirits are still using the technologies she (most likely) introduced, i.e. that one chapter in Lotus Eaters where one of the otter spirits introduced what is essentially a GameBoy to the Kappa and Nitori saying stuff like, "oh yeah the animal realm is actually pretty technologically advanced nowadays" as well as that one story in CoLA where Ran and Yachie deal with the AI Sumireko made. Once again, the only times when the use of technology goes unprotested in this series are when it's kept out of the hands of humans and back into the hands of nature. Even when humans are able to fight back and create their own technology, nature will always win in the end, no matter how hard humanity tries to defeat it. The way Touhou 17 ends is indicative of this, with Keiki being defeated and the Animal Realm returning to it's status quo.

However, Gensokyo has never had this kind of issue before.... or so it may seem. Yes there's never been any technological uprising by the human villagers and with the way things are there most likely never will be, but when you take away the potential for technological advancement from humans then the next best thing would be magic. And when humans in Gensokyo use magic to find a way to gain power and be more than just fodder for the Youkai, they end up being punished. This is most prevalent in Forbidden Scrollery when Reimu kills the fortune teller. I don't think I need to go too in depth about this moment since I already did so in my Forbidden Scrollery review but this once again shows a parallel between Gensokyo and the Animal Realm.

So what am I trying to say with all of this? I've been bringing up a lot of the similarities that these two places have but similarities can just be chalked up to coincidences that don't mean anything. What I've been trying to say with this whole thing is that the Animal Realm represents an extreme version of Gensokyo, one where every ugly aspect of it is dialed up to 11 and the law of the strong eating the weak rules all. It's a Gensokyo without a spell card system to level the playing field. I do want to say that I don't believe Gensokyo is a grimdark setting, sure some parts about it are bleaker than others, but there are also many good aspects of Gensokyo that I feel like I should bring up. It's a safe-haven for the forgotten, and if we continue viewing the Youkai and Gods from the lens of both of them being allegories for nature, Gensokyo is a place where nature can fluorish outside of humanity's hands. Unlike the Animal Realm, Gensokyo was never established with the intentions of harming people. Nature is both beautiful and terrifying, and where Gensokyo displays the beautiful sides of nature, the Animal Realm displays all the ugly sides of it. Even then, there is some overlap between the two, Gensokyo does have a nastier side to it and the Animal Realm is a place where nature can exist unrestrained by humanity (even if the place is still a shitshow overall). Now that I think about it, this sort of duality between the two realms is kinda fitting for Touhou, and I can't stress enough that when I say that Gensokyo and the Animal Realm have some parallels I am not trying to say Gensokyo is a grimdark dystopia. Hell even going back into the Lotus Eaters manga, the otter spirit that escaped from the Animal Realm even said that Gensokyo was a better place to live.

So yeah, I don't really have any good way to end this aside from saying happy 5 year anniversary Touhou 17. You are a flawed game but god do I still love you. Oh yeah, and if there's anything I missed or any mistakes I made, please correct me/let me know.

[tiny-vermin]

I want to know more about the m9 artist au!! I remember reading a post or two about it a billion years ago (and would love to read them again) 💜

hi jess!!!! thank u for being interested hehe :")

so ever since i drew that lil thing of essek painting a frank stella inspired painting (or even before), ive been thinking of what kinds of art each of the m9 would do. essek ofc is inspired by a minimalist show that i went to here, all the big names from that movement were shown, but those really dark, sinkhole-like paintings are speaking to me. another artwork of boxes made of mirrors also seems like the thing he would do too

there's a kiln here that we visited which was huge, and surrounding it were artists' studios and some other ceramic sellers, i imagine the clay family having a place like this in the middle of nowhere amongst the trees, and caleb would do his work there

anyways because at heart im a shadowgast luver its centred around them,, they meet at an artist residency or something like that and its an incredibly slow burn that involves talking and not-talking and looking and not-looking. in the end i am but a simple wong kar wai fan so. that kinda vibes would definitely influence this, i would describe it as a quiet burning i guess?? time skipy and words that are not said

i think im gonna rant a bit more about their different mediums and styles so i'll keep it under the cut

i think caleb sculpts figures and portraits, but in a sad, kathe kollwitz charcoal vibe. maybe some funky looking animals, perhaps some pots and vases to look at the pretty glazes. he's interested in using fire to burn texture into different mediums, like ive seen it being used on shellac to make a really cool net of ink looking structure.. but yknow, just seeing the aftermath of glazed ceramic from the kiln is enough, and probably better for him to keep his distance anyways

the clay family produces most of the ceramic to sell, vases, pots, plates, cups, teapots, yknow just a whole array. and its really colourful too, depicting every family members different style. i think caduceus would do some matte glazes with a lot of different colours, theyre all a little wonky but theyre better off that way anyways. he does some really mean ink calligraphy and painting though

jester definitely does,, everything, whatever her heart desires kinda thang. she makes pastel textile installations and lighthearted cute paintings, but theyre always so contemplative and soothing. she gets m9 a lot of work cus her mom has connections, etc etc. i really love the idea of jester creating works that talk about the female body and femininity (definitely not projecting no)

beau is a printmaker and photographer who's really experimental, she loves cyanotypes and printing flowers (for yasha), idk she seems like she would put fabric and rocks into the washing machine to see what would happen. u would probably catch her in someone elses studio learning about what they do or in the library learning about what old people did

veth works in a museum as a curator, getting beau to help her sometimes with gathering artworks and artists etc. she probably organises community art projects for kids and public art installations. her house is full of m9's artworks and various other artists shes worked with.

yasha does bouquets as her post-retirement part time job, prior to that no one really knows what she did ("she probably murdered a bunch of people and is now hiding from the government"). fjord draws comics for fun but is also not a job for him, molly is a question mark for me. but these guys probably wont be in it as much anyways

im still not sure what format i wanna do this in, im actually having fun just writing it in my notebook now (digital does not facilitate the creative juices) but i do want to do some visuals like fake movie stills or storyboards. maybe they will work together well???? dunno. working on the other shadowgasty thing im doing made me realise how much easier it is to draw when there's a script already there, so im writing the script for myself

im definitely not as practiced in writing as i am in drawing, but idk im just gonna have some fun and see where that takes me, meanwhile try not to feel too bad that its fanart HAHA (very bad habit)

edit: i just saw my previous thoughts on beau being an art journalist, but i kinda like this better.. but maybe she can do both muah

[funnyscienceman]

before act 3 comes out i just wanna say — idk if act 3 is gonna expound on singed and ori, but one other thing i loved about the reveck theory was the idea that singed, of all people, raised orianna. We already see him being good at the talking to kids thing with viktor's childhood flashback, so from there you look at how ori was so good and kind and apparently a clockwork prodigy and it's like wow, this cruel, conscience-less exemplar of crimes against humanity is actually good at child-rearing?? like how much of a juxtaposition is that to him being totally merciless with whoever ends up under the scalpel in his lab? I just think it's really fun, the idea of him being an actually great dad/mentor, and having that simultaneous to him being a total stain on humanity. man can do human experimentation animal abuse but he draws the line at children.

…except, haha yknow not really. with act 2, we know now that this 'good at talking to kids' thing is consistent with him — he talks to Isha in ep4 much the same way he talked to viktor… and also he totally beheaded and pickled deckard after he died, knowing that deckard was just a child, literally just a teen in over his head. this, on top of the fact that he took part in implicitly goading deckard into taking shimmer that first time, and had no objections to it, etc etc. In that moment — and really for the rest of/all of his existence — Singed has the capacity to be good to children, he has been and will be, but if to achieve his goal he needs to hurt a child the age of Isha or flashback!Viktor, it is not impossible that he could and would do it, no matter his qualms if he even were to have any.

[commanderpigg]

Quote from 2023:

I want to see my love of art reflected in next year’s summary; whether it be through more completed long-time projects, more original art, or more experimentation. Also, improving my fundamentals like better anatomy, posing, lighting, etc. The future is uncertain, and the horrors persist…but so will I 😈

I persisted BINCH!!!!!

Okay, so I didn't draw every month. Who cares. I actually had a lot of fun with my art this year, did so many full color illustrations, and managed to start one of my long-time projects. I think that joining Art Fight really helped. Not only has it encouraged me to explore creating and developing my own characters, it was so rewarding to gift art directly to people who spent so much love and time on their OCs!

I think that because of the shock from the events of my 2023 and trying to fill the void in my heart after the pokemon anime with satoshi ended, i cycled through quite a few fandoms this year. It's been fun, and really pushing me to adapt to and try different styles. My fundamentals still need work, but I'm working on not avoiding difficult poses/compositions and instead attempting them even if they end up wonky!

Also...I'm aware I didn't post more than half of these on tumblr...maybe I should just for archival purposes ^^; I've kinda gotten over my 'if it doesn't perform numbers on sns, it's not good' mindset, but I think I'm still trying to get over the 'people know me for one thing, and idk how they'll feel if i stop making content for that one thing' mentality. NGL, I still want that external validation from having my art recognized, but making art that I'm personally proud of is still my main priority. Bah, add that to my goals for next year.

A lot of life events (mostly positive!) in 2024 also led me to do some other artistic pursuits like...

nail art

sewing (i made that!!! and it has pockets!!!)

cosplay (even managed to squeeze in a last minute casual tifa cosplay lol)

and even video editing!!! (I won't post...for now... but if you know my youtube, you know... lol)

Anyways, I hope to continue this creative energy and motivation into the next year. I realized that I'm not gonna get anywhere by just standing still, so even if I don't show that progress publicly, I want to keep practicing and improving! Rather than only moving with bursts of inspiration, it'd be nice if I could go back to consistency, because I know that ultimately, that's the only way I'd be able to tackle my larger projects. I'm also very likely to join Art Fight again in 2025, so maybe...flesh out a story or design for an OC?? Quite ambitious, but cautiously optimistic for the future!

art fight character credits (july): curlymedusa, MuscleHakase, Helimations

[conkorse]

Can I ask how you pick your colors? I'm very fascinated by it and how well it works with your style

sure i will try my best 2 explain !!! >_<

typically i start drawing my main subjects on a grey colored background. this makes it so my color range is alot larger than if i sketched and colored on a white/lighter background because the colors that surround your piece will affect how they are perceived. i will attach an example below:

as you can see the drawing on the left (which is a wip i havent posted this drawing yet lulz) heavys skintone changes to match the context of the colors in the background which when you compare that bg to the bg on the right it is much darker in comparison. i also simply wanted to play around with colors coz i try not to restrict myself in any capacity. coloring is the most fun part of drawing to me and part of that fun comes from imposing zero limitations on myself which is why alot of my art has the most stupid ass color combinations u will eva see #live #laf #lov

this is what my drawings typically look like once i finish the actual main subject of the piece as you can see scout n pyro are in a grey void gidbles them. i typically do backgrounds last (which is something i should prbably change up sometime soon) because i tend to create them around the main drawing and it makes it easier for me to make everything more cohesive in the end because i can make the background however i want to fit the main drawing. i do not recommend doing this 24/7 becoz then u will struggle with environmental backgrounds/perspective shit and other stuff which is something i want to get better at but struggle with alot hashtag supaaa mega sad hashtag noob lyfeee

as for coloring itself and choosing colors its really just a combination of experimentation (and by that i mean i go through so much of the color wheel before i decide on something) and intuition. i already have an idea of what looks good together well in mind because well ive spent quite alot of time fine tuning ermmm idk what 2 call it i guess my color sense ??? hallppp but anyways i really recommend not just using bright/neon colors exclusively! the best way to make colors pop is to couple them with more muted ones so the contrast is better evident btwn the two. OH ANDD i tend to try not to use straight up black and white/grey to portray those colors. for example if a character has ermm lets say a white shirt i wont use white or grey colors to depict it but rather maybe a light cyan orrr yellowy green :p

i also overuse textured brushes and patterns in my art alortttt (see abovee) HALP so maybe try that??? i use clip studio paint and there are so many rly awesome textured brushes that i overuse coz they r SUPAAAA epik. IDK im just rambling but your biggest take away from this should be to GO EXPERIMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! and have fun anddddd mix "ugly" colors 2gether coz u just can never know what will and wont work unless u try :33

ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT play around with this feature in csp if u have it coz its another way i create textures (my heavy mii shown as an example) and here is a link to a tumblr post where i link all of the brushes i use in csp 0 .o I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEWHAT!!!!!!!!! SOZZZ I AM NOT THE BEST AT EXPLANING >_<

[iamheretoyell]

HEEEEEEEY

Whenever someone makes fan art for me, I wanna cry cause WHAT I LOVE Y'ALL WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LIKE MY STUFF ENOUGH TO WANT TO DRAW IT I'M JUST A SILLY LITTLE RAT IN A TRENCH COAT ATP

(my third meeting for today got cancelled and my payroll is basically done so I'm likely going to be extra loud on here for the next 2-4 business hours (after I finish catching up on this fic))

I CAUGHT UP AND AM DOING HOMEWORK ON FUCKING PARALLAXES LIKE WHAT

I kinda wanna work on Revelations... Ignoring the voices fr rn

3:55 update, guys they fucked around and made my homework like, fun??? --- specifically the kind of fun that my neurodivergent lore-hungry ass dies for. WHY DID THEY DO THAT?? WHY AM I MAD THAT I HAVE TO DO SHIT THAT ISN'T MY HOMEWORK RIGHT NOW????

5:49, I just want you guys to know, since the game has been concepted, I will randomly just think about the ships in it, especially now that they're all tagged, and I just laugh about the fact that I literally own majority of the ship tags. And like, another two of them, I am like one of the only people who actively writes them. And that's genuinely so fucking funny to me like I always get a laugh out of that.

Don't ask me where I got them because they wrote themselves. (Except for Damien/Brimmy, and yes, there is a huge rant about it ready for the day someone opens up the Pandora's box of "how the fuck did you get a ship out of that??" I mean, it also wrote itself, but in a completely different way and there is a very clear cut progression from me having no idea who the fuck Brimmy was literally not even a year ago to them being one of my favorite doomed ships to write.)

But I bring this up because I'm killing time and laughing over this at the moment.

BUT AT SOME POINT I DO WANT TO POST A POLL BC I GEN WANNA KNOW WHAT Y'ALLS FAVORITE SHIP THAT I HAVE (QUESTIONABLY) CREATED IS. LIKE I'M SO FUCKING NOSY BC I HAVE ONES THAT LIKE--- I love as I live and breathe. And then there are ones that just like, fit for the story, are me playing around with dynamics bc I take nothing seriously and sometimes I just do that, or some other random fucking reason I've put a ship together (for example, the ship isn't even real, they're just being forced together for the sake of a manufactured story within a story, and this example is so not super specific and has nothing to do with anything I've ever written, am writing, or will write in the future).

I got off topic. Whatever. I'm taking my leave to go act like a village idiot because it's literally halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE.<3

I MAY OR MAY NOT COME BACK TO DRUNKENLY POST--

Holy shit it's Friday tonight????

Let's fucking go I guess???

ANYWAYS MAY OR MAY NOT COME BACK TO DRUNKENLY POST AN ANSWER LATER.

Also p.s. if anyone's actually reading An Answer,

A. do you want to beta???? pretty please????

B. did you fall into my trap??? are you completely put off by the creek in it yet??? wait idk how far I even am post wise. WHATEVER MY POINT STANDS BC IT'S NOT EVEN JUST THE CREEK. ARE YOU PUT OFF BY THE STORY AND THE WAY IT'S BEING TOLD AND THE WAY THE CHARACTERS ACT?????

I really fucking hope so cause that's like the whole point LMAOOOO LIKE An Answer was so experimental on my part which in hindsight was maybe a bad idea because like-- we rarely get Mysterion being the villain and I was like

oh let me try something I've NEVER done before!!!

hope it carries!!!

but in the same breath, I don't really care because it will never be that serious and Kenny is also the villain in the Trin series. Maybe. Questionably. Kind of. At some point.

AND WITH THAT I'VE ACTUALLY SAID TOO MUCH BYE FOR NOW<3

[chryza]

Idk tho I kinda liked AI art as an artist like I wish there was a generator from a clean dataset because it was fun to get ideas and things that I would draw or incorporate into other ideas for the fun of it. It was hardly a replacement for the actual work of art or writing but as an experimental step towards the future of technology as it relates to art I find it fascinating. Especially once you start looking into the really experimental stuff like people generating faces while telling the computer to slowly subtract faces from its input and watching the computer produce an idea of a human without the correct parameters. Highlighting why the program kept going back to the same features over and over despite being given vastly different prompts. I was truly so excited for the future of neural network artwork and it’s all been just….destroyed.

[blackbackedjackal]

I don't know anything about Dogblud beyond what you've said here but trying to start drama in the werewolf community is objectively hilarious to me, especially how she keeps running away like this isn't a pretty niche and closeknit group of artists who all talk to one another? Anyways for some positivity I thought I would share my werewolf oc: she was actually a wolf turned into a human who escaped experimentation after her initial transformation. the lore is complicated but all that matters is she ends up in a T4T relationship with a hot trans butch warlock. IDK if you care but I thought it'd be fun to tell you about her lol.

Yeah, most of the big people within the community are at least aware of her problems now and are avoiding her or avoiding the situation in general. She's lost pretty much all favor with a lot of the artists. She admitted to drawing "fanart" of popular artists just for clout so if you ever received gift art from her, know it was a selfish and calculated act for her to gain more attention.

I like her lore!! That kinda reminds me of Darcia from Wolf's Rain /pos (the whole kind of reverse wolf to human werewolf, that's a really cool and unique concept to work with!). And HELL YEAH I hope the queens are happy together! If you ever wanna share art of them feel free to c:

[tariah23]

Omgggg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chalkanthit]

For the SE HC ask: 4!!!

Going for SE Askboard @h0lly-hued-s0ul has made!

Ik it's a bit late but better late than never dkfbdokf

Also going for most of the youngsters bc they're my little precious weirdos uu

Offer a hobby-related headcannon for any character.

Soul

We should all be aware by now that soul is a huge music nerd even if he's pretending to be "just casual" About it but somehow I could even imagine that his guilty pleasure is also baking since... Have you seen the cute little tea and cakes he sometimes brings Maka when she's studying for exams like crazy??? He claims he just buys them from "that one little bakery" That Maka suspiciously never finds but in secret (not really) he really does them by himself and is proud when they're well liked!!

Maka

She's deffenly a little sport nerd kinda girl that got to like things like Basketball and soccer/football quite a lot, but she also would still enjoy a good book (or ten) at times as well next to solving crossword puzzles and other Puzzles and riddles!

Basically everything that makes her Brain go brrrr! Also idk how much it's connected to the hobby aspect, but I hat girl would have Duolingo on her phone and use it almost religiously every evening before bed!

Oh but also she would have a big knack for poetry and writing overall even if she's sometimes quite shy about it since Soul and Black star made fun of it a few times-

Tsubaki

Everything around gardening and cooking???

She also would simply enjoy long walks and nice quality time with her friends since Tsubaki really is this comfy person that likes a calm life but also the fun and more adventureous aspects of it;;;

A part of me can also imagine that she'd enjoy something like Yoga and Ice skating a lot when she gets the chance to do it in peace-

Black star

Sports nerd! Everything that resolves around movement and putting his brain on serotonin 24/7 with the bees on crack he apparently has in his butt-

But also we already saw that he also enjoys comics a LOT and would totally be into video games as well even if he would loose to patty constantly!

Kid

He'd actually like things that put his mind off ease? Like he very much enjoys cleaning much more in a healthy but for many weird manner since who likes cleaning am I right?? But also is very open and keen to things like Chess and plenty of other board games he most likely plays with Liz and Patty almost every Saturday night unless Liz manages to escape :')

Also hey! I can imagine him liking to draw a lot as well together with Patty Duke while listening to murder mystery podcasts-

Liz

Shopping and dancing Q U E E N!

Ik it's basic but hear me out! She just loves fashion a lot and can give people a lot of advice for this topic and would occasionally do makeovers if you let her!

She just blooms so much doing that and seeing how much people can show their other sides as a well! Also my bc especially is that it was initially her idea when Crona was kidnapped on a shopping spree and she would even just offer Ox so many hair stuff in hopes he'll finally STOP shaving it all off like bro.. PLEASE!

Other than that she also got those moves and surprisingly knows a lot about music as well so her, soul and Kilik can actually connect and vibe together super easily and well!

Patty

Again, patty is a huge art person!

Of course she likes other things like beating people up with a passion, but she just loves to be creative and takes almost every medium bc why not trying everything and see how it goes??? Life is too short to be boring and plain!! Patty would most likely also like to bake as well but her creations are.... Experimental to say the least-

At least Stein and Ragnarok do like her stuff weirdly enough..

Kim

Also a little doodle enthusiast but she really would have a knack for Crochet and knitting too since Jackie has taught her the latter! She would rather die than to admit her hobbies and pleasures but she's a big softie when it comes to her interests!

God forbid people would even find out that she likes "girly" Stuff like figure skating and dancing as well.. Oh the horror!

Omg she would also have a secret love for flower arrangements as well but that's just me having more lore and hcs for her past as well that I won't (and likely never will) fully elaborate on :'DD

Jackie

Similar to Kim she loves knitting but also has a big talent and interest in Tayloring as well?? That girl probably had a bit horse phase as well and would actually love to get back into it at some point but a horse in the middle of Nevada is a little too much to ask for-

A bicycle would do as well I guess???

Idk why but Jackie seems a little bit of a person that enjoys Theatre and Musicals a lot as well so take that for what it-

Also little side note I want to add bc it's sth very dear and personal to me but glass engraving and the like?? It just fits quite a bit to her qvq

Kilik

Batic and Linol printed shirts!

The shirts he wears? Self made! The necklace?? Probably as well!! Also another music and Sports enthusiast even if he's more into more combat related sports rather than just running around for a good time!

He seeks the thrill and the surprising so unless you throw something at him out of the blue, he'd just see it as plain and simple training-

The drums are also his hobby but it's less than a hc than it is actually canon in the manga;;;

Overall he's pretty much an everyman kinda guy that has a good amount of Hobbies and interests that overlap with many others he sees as friends!

Fire & Thunder

They're still young as hell so I can't say AS much about them as I like to but they give a lot of crafty energy and would probably get a collecting hobby phase as well like for crystals and all!

Less for the esoteric aspect but more for the minerals itself!

Ox

Again not as much of an HC than it is a fact, but that guy takes a lot or enjoyment into research and other things that make his brain tingle like chess for example! Like he just LOVES burying himself into old history and folklore about plenty of topics and cultures and can easily spend days in it if Harvar wouldn't remind him to eat something in between-

Again I really don't know why, but something in me also knocks at my brain doors and continuesly shoves the HC in my head that Ox actually has a talent to actually draw?? Not like Patty where it's very imaginary and expressive, but more in a sense of scenes and architecture!! Basically pretty black and white and stuff!!

Harvar

It's super ironic but like Kim he actually has some hobbies he either won't admit to or people simply wouldn't believe it since why would a guy like him he interested in something like THAT???

Like liking to go swimming is one thing people could still get behind bc he hates boredom with a passion so it's good to stay active but him actually being into exact the same comics as black star is just super funny in my and it's very much the absolute opposite of Harvar sooo..

Omg but on top of that just.. Imagine him actually do liking video games but nothing like a souls game, but f*cking animal Crossing-

Of course he also likes research and chess a lot like Ox (even tho he's by far more competitive there) but he screams like Modelling as well! (The crafty stuff like building trains or Lego etc)

He just SUCKS at art tho which actually frustrated him-

Bonus

Crona

Crona most likely would catch some interest for poetry and other writing related things as well since they can actually express themselves much better with it without having to speak about it and they don't even have to show it to others as well.. It actually already helps that it exists in the first place and that they have something they can look at like "I made that!"

Aka bullet journaling sounds like sth tame enough for them but still sth to keep their mind somewhere unrelated to u know.. The whole childhood ordeal-

Basically they would enjoy many things that won't put Crona into the spotlight or that is to be shared forcefully so even if it's just reading something, it's just.. Nice;;

Also please give Crona sth calm like Animal Crossing-

Let them share an island with Harvar or Maka dkxbfodndp

Gopher

He sees something that peeks his (or Noah's) intetest, he HAS to overanalyze it and write every crucial detail down!

Like we don't just talk about one smarty little journal! I'm talking about whole Bookshelves worth of Infos written by that puppet alone!! Even his calligraphy and poetry/writing skills and hobbies are top notch and would rub it under Makas nose a LOT!

Hell he would do it so much that even Ox would have to remind him that he was meant to be Makas super annoying rival and not him pfffff!

(You could say that annoying Maka is also a passion of Gopher)

He would actually like to just casually fly and travel around a lot as well even if it's something he just does to get a job done.. If he'd focus more on the aspect itself, there would be much more appreciation etc!!

Also God forbid but he'd be into dnd as well-

My brain tells me to so it must be true!/j

THANKS FOR COMING TO MY INCOHERENT RAMBLING!!!

[not-too-many-eyes]

ezra theodore for the character ask game!

Thank you Very Much :)

favorite thing about them

I love it every time Ezra is being an insensitive autistic boy white knighting too close to the sun, and when he shows his rigid beliefs and kinda conservative values lol. I love how he just- fucking calls Dessert Flannel Hysterical because "arcanists are more prone to hysteria and delusion"

And his stubbornness when Spathodea is understandably upset at him for making plans to "renovate" an IMPORTANT SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL place for arcanists without asking her first. Like, it's so funny. He thinks he's being so reasonable and then you look and he's being stubborn about it in his room cause "he was just helping why didn't she understand :(" he needs to be beaten with hammers.

I also just like his justice sensitivity a lot. That one post that goes "justice sensitivity isn't an immediately a good thing" guy is out here scaling a mountain for a flower that'll be a symbol of hope because he read it in a book when he was younger cause he's depressed about the state of the world. Before turning around and saying that he "fits human stereotypes" because he doesn't understand humor. No Self Awareness. I love him.

least favorite thing about them

It's when they try to play up his "He's a sweet angel who just wants to help" without any of the spice that makes him fun to watch lol. I liked his character story because it's just full of Ezra being incredibly funny but I dislike how much it leaned into the idea he's a sweet angle who can do no wrong.

favorite line

Oh that's hard hm...tie between this

Because it's really funny to me that this implies Ezra thinks he's one of the most stereotypical human human to ever exist...while he's climbing a dangerous mountain on his own. Like he's out here being like "I'm the most stereotypical normal human" and then three scenes later he's taking experimental possibly deadly drugs to get a flower. Like. Boy- His greetings line is also really funny:

Please be careful. I'm collecting the spores on the mushroom canopy. Even the slightest breath will blow them all over the place … The last thing I want to see is mushrooms growing all over the neat suitcase. I mean, I love mushrooms, but … we have to keep it moderate.

Cause we know for a Fact he's not keeping it moderate. Spathodea Bond: Night:

Hey, hey! Wake up, Vertin, wake up! I was sleeping in my room and started to sneeze like crazy, and then I saw something pop into the window… It's mushrooms! From Ezra's room! They have filled up his room already and are still multiplying! We gotta do something, or the suitcase will become a mushroom garden!

This also implies that the mushrooms in Ezra's room are growing uncontrolled and unfettered. This kid's room is a biohazard. It's really funny to me.

brOTP

This would be Contamination OCD exposure therapy. My friend has to listen to me infodump about this every 2 weeks without stop. I'm hoping for more crumbs of them because I cannot get their dynamic out of my head. I keep on wanting to Draw Mesmer Jr-Ezra Mezmerizer with Ezra as Miku and Mesmer Jr as Teto. I think this says everything about how I perceive them.

OTP

nOTP

random headcanon

Technically him having autism is a hc so that I guess that- for a more fun elaboration on that. I think he's undiagonised and he's going to remain undiagionised until he starts to realize that most humans don't actually function like he does. Otherwise he's just going to "But I'm a perfectly normal human?" It.

unpopular opinion

...Does he have enough fans that unpopular opinions can form? Idk, I don't find the Medpoc-Ezra Dynamic too fun ig but that might be because I've been too focused on him and Mesmer lol.

song i associate with them

Hm...haven't been able to think of one (I have tried though) Maybe Heat Abnormal cause he seems like a Heat Abnormal kid but that doesn't feel quite right.

favorite picture of them

Without spoiling Patch 2.1 because my actual favorite is from there cause he looks so silly it's his Insight 2:

I just really like how he looks here.