#ill get more stuff sketched when i have better ideas but you can have a few of the affection ideas i had in my last ask for now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

schmafs · 1 year ago

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howdy! back at it with some more character design process stuff :) you can read about it in depth under the read more

Lani is interesting and different in that she isn't from the same area as the other characters. The technology in her homeland is also far more modern than that of the other characters, which means I had to take a different approach when designing her as opposed to the others.

While Lani is a character I've had since high school, I've never been happy with her design, so I took this as an opportunity to double check her facial proportions and shapes. There were a few things that I knew I wanted to keep in her design: her angular, square-ish face shape, the mole beneath her left eye, and her freckles. Her face shape and freckles are important because they link her to a trait that a certain race in the story traditionally have. Freckles also represent being blessed by the gods in my story, which is very important for Lani as a character. Her square jaw also serves as a way to show that she's grounded and not that soft of a person. This is contradicted a bit by the shape of her nose, which is rounded, implying that she's got some friendliness to her beneath her cold, aloof exterior.

I played around a little bit with the general volume and length of her hair. In the past, I'd waffled between having it cut off above or below her shoulders, but it's always been kept in the same general style. I tried to edge it a little towards the unkempt side of things and tweaked her eyebrows to also be a little bit messy since she's on the run from a cult (not to mention she doesn't care much about appearances to begin with–she's practical, not fashionable). During this stage, I also realized that it was important to figure out what emotions she's comfortable expressing, something that I'll go into more detail on later in this post.

Lastly, I wanted to keep her proportions similar to how I've always envisioned them! She's got long legs and is generally spindly. Her thinness implies that she may not have solid access to food and other such things. I also made her posture a tiny bit hunched and made her pigeon-toed.

The real challenge came with her outfit. She lives in a rainy, somewhat modern city that's comparable to Chicago, and her jacket has always been a very crucial part of her design and backstory so I didn't want to get rid of it. Her initial design (which you can see on the far left) was a bit bland, however, and had no interesting tidbits. To remedy this, I experimented with clothing that went hand in hand with her job: being a small-time florist. This meant experimenting with things like an apron and pouches for her to store tools. Ultimately, I had her wear her apron over her jacket.

With regard to the jacket, I realized that a way to make it look interesting would be to add patches onto it. I came up with a few different ideas for patches, each of them having roots in some other common elements in my character designs. The patches she's wearing specifically refer to two other incredibly important characters. It was also important for me to note that it was incredibly unlikely that she would add patches onto her jacket herself since she'd be worried about ruining it, not to mention it was her missing older sibling's jacket. Therefore, it was that missing sibling who put the patches on and those patches are things that are in their taste, not necessarily Lani's. I also gave her a hood, something that most corduroy jackets don't have, which means she clipped it on herself!

The final parts of her design are her pants and boots. I attempted to make the pants look a little ill-fitting by making them baggier than I ordinarily would. Her boots are rainboots, which work far better for her environment than the hiking boots she originally had.

Next, I began sketching possible alternate outfits for her. She travels quite a bit in the story and as I said before, she comes from a very different place than the rest of the cast. This meant that I had to take into account how her fashion sense would change or stay the same when confronted with another culture and environment entirely while making sure that I kept the design feeling like her. Aitaran, the place where the story takes place for the most part, is a country that has a lot of roots in wild west culture and 1800s Spanish and French culture (which is particularly prevalent in richer areas). I wanted her design to utilize some of the fashion motifs that I already had going with other characters.

It's important to note that this particular outfit is one that was gifted to her by a rich person. Therefore, I leaned into making it look a bit closer to being on the fancy side of things and not as wild west-y. I initially wanted to include her jacket in her design but was ultimately unable to make it work with the rest of the ensemble because of how different it is from Aitaranian fashion. I decided that the best course of action would be to instead reference as much of a certain other character as I could in her design, which I believe turned out nicely. You can see the final product later in this post!

The other outfit I needed to solidify for her is the one that she wears while traveling. This was one of the more fun ones to design because it let me experiment with a very specific style of gardening attire that I found during my research. I was able to tweak this attire (it was originally an apron) into being more like a shirt, which works far better for traveling. I also wanted to give her a cloak of some kind since I think they're fun! I researched Spanish traveling cloaks for this.

Her dress ended up utilizing a far more saturated color palette which is important because of how many traits in this outfit are a callback to a particular character (Yunvei). The point being underlined by the colors is it's not quite her in some ways, but it also kind of is. This palette is almost the exact inverse Yunvei's. There are a few other patterns in this outfit that invoke him, particularly the triangles repeated on various parts of it and the ferns (which are representative of Chisa, his patron god). Her sleeves are a longer version of the shirt that Yunvei wears and the band tied around her waist is something that royalty typically wears in-universe. The band is also meant to evoke the general idea of a similar thing some gauchos (who are similar to cowboys) wear. The colors in this outfit are also strikingly similar to Priscille's in terms of shade and they wear their neckerchief the exact same way.

Her traveling outfit utilizes a very similar color palette to her "default" outfit, meaning she's feeling a bit more at home and herself. I had a lot of fun experimenting with where to put colors in this outfit and I think the final product wound up fun while maintaining her general vibes! Her boots are a type of riding boot and are commonly used as travel wear in this universe. More importantly, she still has aspects of her design that reference Yunvei. You can see it in the sheer amount of triangles built into her outfit as a whole along with some of her fashion choices (ie: this character would wear a similar cloak/poncho and also a bandanna around his neck).

And now we circle back to her "default" design. First, I'll dig into her expression sheet! As you can see, some of the expressions are a little more extreme than others. This is because she's not quite in touch with her feelings and is fairly closed off emotionally. She's comfortable with expressing anger and generalized displeasure around other people but struggles a bit more with things like smiling comfortably.

Again, her patches are things that her sibling picked out and aren't necessarily to her taste. Her harmonica is another thing she got from her sibling before they disappeared. In previous iterations, it was the kind of harmonica that has some metal on it, but I decided it made more sense for it to be wooden given who it was that made it. It's a pretty old relic, so its paint and engravings are messed up from years of wear, making it difficult to tell what it originally had on it. Her garden shears are primarily for her job but could serve as a weapon in a pinch. They're something she got from her maternal figure who unfortunately passed away. Lastly, you can see her hood in more detail! It's made from a few different pieces of a shirt of some kind stitched together.

Overall, I think her design made some big strides during this process! My hope is to keep making more character sheets and hopefully I'll have another one up within the next month/month and a half, so stay tuned for that :) and more importantly, stay tuned for when I start dropping this comic hopefully next month!

#lani #wthi #original #design notes

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rogdona · 1 year ago

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Look man- just wanna say your art is literally gorgeous bro- It's very catchy and cool- but uh- that aside- I hope ya don't mind the question- but would ya mind giving some few tips on how to draw anatomy and how you color? because your art is so pleasing to look at- like bruh it's so pretty-

first of all THANK UUUUU!!!! im sososos happy u like my art!!!!!!!!!💕🌺🌷💕🌺🌷💕🌺🌷❤️♥️💕🌺🌷💕♥️❤️🌹🌹❤️♥️🌺💕!!!!!

i dont mind the question at all!! ill give u some tips on how i draw!!

BTW! these are just some tips ab what i do to draw the way i do, this is not an universal rule let alone mandatory!!

NOW ONTO THE STUFF U CAME FOR! under a read more so i dont clog ur dash bc i got kinda tecnical w some of it..! IT GOT WAY TOO LONG IM SORRY!!!

lets start with color then!! 🎨

i always see ppl saying that color theory is rlly hard and they never understand it, and tbh u dont need to learn it in depth at all!!

to make colors look good you need to think them as a group instead of choosing them individually...

though what i do is different, theres a post going around that says tinting all the colors w one brings the drawing together, and it does!! its a p good tip if u dont want to eyeball it like i do!!

but heres my process; lets say u have a sketch and an idea of what colors you want; your character is in a forest walking through the trees! what i do is choose background color and start from there

if you chose a cool color, when you start painting the rest of the picture drag the hue a little closer to blue or purple! if you chose a warm one, closer to yellow or red! if you want your drawing to have a greenish tint drag it closer to green or yellow! you get the gist of it, bring the colors closer! if theyre on opposite sides of the wheel it might be difficult, but usually bringing them closer to gray does a good job!!

also unless youre trying to get contrast on purpose, choosing colors w similar saturation(intensity!) helps unify the drawing!

say you want a drawing that is mostly grayish tones, make sure all your colors are desaturated (less intense, pigmented)

now say you have an existing character w a set color palette (we'll take my character elias as an example) and want to draw him in green and yellow or bright magenta and blue

i saw this explanation on a tiktok long ago but i literally cannot word it better and found it real useful

to translate the colors properly u need to think them on a scale, which ones are the darkest, lightest, and where does the rest sit?? Once you have that you can make ur own scale w the colors you want to use, and as long as the difference between the colors stay mostly the same u will be able to translate them p much to whatever!!

my drawing was done quickly so its not the best example but u get me

i think thats it for color now, but if i think of something else ill add it and tell u!!

now onto anatomy 🧍🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️

and ill be honest w u here, i have no clue how i learned anatomy, let alone how to teach u but ill try my best here!!

and tbh, learning every bone, muscle, etc is smth rlly tedious to me so i cannot assist u there bc i dont know

ALSOO references are ur best buddy, use them!! even if its not the exact pose or angle ur wanting to draw it can help u visualize what u want and tell u what goes where!!

even if its not for the pose or angle, a skeleton can help u see how the body part works!! i look at animal skeleton legs all the time to help me draw my ocs!!!

but yeah!! i think anatomy is smth that u shouldnt take very seriously bc most of what gives personality to characters is exageration!! or made up parts!!

but like, if u want to know my way of drawing smth specific u can tell me!! i have no problem showing u how i do things!!

but since i wasnt very helpful when it comes to anatomy, im taking the liberty of adding an extra bullet point to the post

composition!! 🌇🌃🌆🏙️

composition is the way you show the image, how you place things in your drawing!!

in school they make us take audio-visual production classes, which truly isnt as interesting as it sounds but they taught us some p cool photography tips that also apply to drawings!!

one of them is the rule of thirds! basically, you divide the canvas in 9 equal parts, and the places where the lines join are the places where the eyes are most drawn to!! heres an example i found on the internet

so if you place something on those spots it will get the attention, bc the brain is used to the focus being on the center so taking it out of there makes u want to look why (or at least thats the explanation they gave me!)

also, to draw even more attention to those spots u can make a visual path that leads there!! here some crude examples by yours truly

the first one traces a path up to his head, the second one all start from there outwards

they also gave us tips for cropping images though these dont rlly matter that much, but like for example it looks better if u dont crop it at the joints, and if a character is looking somewhere you should leave some space in the direction they are looking to! heres some doodles to show u what i mean

i used to have a document full of things like that for photography but i cant find it rn, if i do ill tell u!!

moving onto the final thing, this is not quite a composition thing but rather something to give characters more personality: make them interact w their enviroment!

rather than standing looking at the camera make them use, touch, see whats around them, even if u draw them in a blank space the way they take it up shows u a lot ab them

for ex, if theres a wall they can lean on it, if theres a window they can be looking through it(maybe u can see them from the outside! framing inside framing was also smth that they taught us in that class!) if theyre standing they can be fixing their sleeves, holding their hands behind their back, tucking a strand of hair behind their ear, scratching their neck, etc!

AND YEAH!! thats what i keep in thought when i draw!! i hope u find it at least a little useful or interesting ahdhjska ill admit i got a little carried away but i love drawing and these are topics that interest me

ty for the ask!!! 💕 👋

#TYYY FOR THE COMPLIMENT SORRY FOR THE LONG READ #ask

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pathos-p · 2 years ago

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"Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game" but i got tagged in it so i am gonna answer all of them 'cause theyre fun

questions by @/i-like-eyes

thanks for the tag @king-chook!! ^^

1. Art programs you have but don't use

i thiiink i have a license for clip studio paint that came with my old wacom tablet but i never rly used it. also used to have krita installed for the longest time but just always felt off to me idk why. don't currently have it installed anymore tho

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

to their right is a bit easier i think. not smth i consciously notice, mostly i'm just thinking abt when im doodling on the margins of stuff they usually are looking to the left of the page

3. What ideas come from when you were little

uhhh idk tbh, i dont think much of my art draws from that

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

cityscapes !!! i love cities they r so pretty and cool looking but goddamn theyre so hard to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

80-20? i post everything that i finish. basically the only stuff that doesnt get posted is sketches i give up on

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

hmmmm not that i can think of rn...

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

watercolour !! i've tried it a few times and Struggled but i love seeing ppl's work in it

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

so many animatics ..................... also many comic ideas ..................... i get so many ideas that i just never start on or start and only do a little before losing the hyperfocus/fixation and just Cannot continue them. it sucks

9. What are your file name conventions

usually the character name, maybe a bit of description of what theyre doing... idk not much of a convention to it

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

hmm i like jackets :)

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

yes, usually music. sometimes random youtube videos like stream highlights or video essays.

12. Easiest part of body to draw

uhhh hair? maybe idk. hard question bc it varied a lot depending on what kinda style and just. sometimes smth is hard in a particular drawing then easy later idk

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

i cant think of anything i will edit it in if i think of anyone

14. Any favorite motifs

in my drawings i dont feel like i use any much. mostly i pull motifs from whatever im doing fanart of lol. in music, i like religious motifs (but not like. ones abt christ or bible stories, rather heaven, hell, god/divinity, angels)

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

at home pretty much exclusively. in bed lol

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

idk i feel like the stuff im better at is the stuff i like bc i practice it more for fun lol

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

not usually

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

surprisingly little. mostly bc i do more digital art lol

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

weapons and nature. especially ice for nature

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

i cant think of anything ill add it if i do

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

i love rougher styles, like ones with a lot of visible brushstrokes and bold lines and shit. so cool. idk how to make it look good lol i dont have the confidence in my lines for it

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

none... probably i should change that

23. Do you use different layer modes

yeah, often i use a multiple layer for shading then a variety to colour adjust at the end

24. Do your references include stock images

sometimes

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

cant think of any

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

there was this poem i wrote about capitalism and how shit it is and someone thought it was abt interpersonal relationships/smth along the lines of a breakup. i rly didnt mind it tho i thought it was cool bc the emotion was not far off, the sense of betrayal and abandonment. just a very very different subject

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

no lol

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

i ran a zine (digital only) for the dimension 20 zine jam! and also made art+writing for others in that :D also was part of a polygon yt fanzine a while back

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

spider-man (not the MCU, mostly tasm and a few of the comics)

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

IS IT BAD TO SAY A PIECE THAT GOT QUITE A BIT OF POSITIVE ATTENTION ?? maybe

i rly like the cj comic i did i am genuinely so goddamn happy with the result so . even tho it did very well by the standards for the fandom its for and my current follower base it is underrated

alternatively this one https://www.tumblr.com/pathos-p/704380503765221377/tridential-sovereignty?source=share bc it didnt get all that much attention on any social media site but i think its cool !!

(mostly only using recent ones bc i dont wanna dig back further esp onto my old twt acct, too much work lol)

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ultravioart · 2 years ago

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Self reflection with Art

Man, I keep wanting to draw Marvin in WoY style, Dominion Au stuff, Star Wars Ocs, maybe even some Ramattra art, but I get insecure about the quality of it. My whole plan to 'post art at the end of each month' backfired because: 1: Deadlines make my brain procrastinate due to past traumatic experiences with school/work deadlines when I fell extremely ill (yes I met 95% of the deadlines, but it left me with debilitating burnout that took years to recover from. Thanks dysautonomia, spoon debt is REAL). So this January with my new "post at the end of the month" plan, instead of drawing all the time like I usually do with no pressure to post, I procrastinated, and mostly drew within the last 3 days of the month because I felt pressured by my set deadline. This was not helpful lol, I'll try something different going forward. But within that procrastinating, it did allow me to take a long break from my PC set up, and explore different activities more. Like cooking, learning to crochet, self care (meal prep, research into foods, research into how to care for my hair texture), research in general on topics I find interesting, and deeper life discussions face to face with the people in my household. I think I will include more "days off" from my art set up so that I can dedicate full days to other activities going forward. Sometimes you have to take one day at a time with POTS (dysautonomia), and that's okay. Some days you can't draw, and that's okay too, no need to force it because you REALLY want to create art right then and there. 2: looking back on the art I did draw, I didn't post it at the end of the month because I felt it wasn't "quality" enough to post. It was quick sketching with shape use I didn't like enough, or line quality I didn't like. I have to remember that posting is better than not, and it doesn't matter if I think it sucks. So what? There's nothing to be ashamed of. Going through this internal discourse, it did suddenly remind me that I draw VERY fast, and what would take someone underdrawings + line art to look like a nice doodle, I genuinely just doodle something out in less than a minute that looks like a nice doodle. So, there is no need to beat myself up if my less than a minute art isn't perfect lol. Not every day I can physically draw, and that's okay. Those low days I can just create a prep of ref, or scribble stick figures so I at least remember what the comic was so I don't forget the idea.

#text #long text #working on being more mindful #working on unmasking too #unmasking has given me back SO MANY SPOONS #actually autistic #personal #POTS #dysautonomia

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swordmaid · 3 years ago

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Hi! I love your art specially Jaime with short hair and i was asking myself how you do it? I have tried drawing short curly hair but never works :(

Also slutty Jaime is better Jaime 🤣

thanks!! and honestly, researching how curly hair sits on the hair + how curly hair generally works helps out a lot lool. i think it's pretty useful if you keep like a reference board with a bunch of examples of the kind of hair that you want to draw, and just refer to that when you're stuck on something. anyway, how i approach curly is typically like this:

(under the cut bc it got pretty long!)

here is the kind of research i would've done beforehand. i took examples from people who i think will have the same hair texture as jaime, but obvs ur references depend on who or what your drawing. what you're want to look out for is to know where the scalp is, the silhouette of the hair (or the general shape of it), and how the hair is sitting on the scalp.

here we can see that the hair poofs out a bit from the scalp but the style gradiates downwards by the end. it's at its tallest at the crown of the head, and there's a space on the side where the hair ascends before curving.

and if you take a look closer to the references, you can see how the hair strands are shaped. i tend to draw hair in clumps so i observe them that way. this depends on how you like to draw obviously, but for me, it usually goes something like this:

so combining what i researched before above and that, my idea of how ill draw curly hair would be like

and bc of it's curved shape, the hair strands--since they are not curling in the same direction after all-- are pushing away from each other which gives it a lift and it gives that kind of poofy look-- as opposed to straight hair which just falls downwards

i think the key thing to keep in mind is that you're not drawing a hat or a wig. if you want to keep it organic, you have to show how the hair is growing from the scalp. there are other factors to take into consideration too since hair differs from person to person so stuff like length, hair texture, the hair quality etc. they all differ depending on the character that you're drawing but they're all really helpful things to keep in mind!

anyway, how i draw jaime's hair is usually like this:

i like making a rough draft beforehand because i don't want to redo anything when im drawing the lineart lool. anyway, in that draft you can see how i want the hair to be shaped plus where the hair parting is, the sideburns, etc. i also like styling jaime's hair a bit as in it gets shorter in the nape of the neck--which i think would be inaccurate for his setting--but i dont care it looks good lmao. you can also see how im gonna draw the hair strands + i tried to make the direction of the curls go differently from each other since it looks organic that way imo.

and this is the final product!! you can see that i kept the general curved shape for the curls but i also added extra tails to show that his hair growing a bit. i also added extra singular strands so his hair looks more unkempt. i differed from the draft though and made the back of jaime's hair a bit more shaggier than planned, but other than this is what i wanted to go for in the draft so im pretty pleased with it.

another tip i have though is to make sure to turn off the sketching layers from time to time and see how the end product is looking like. sometimes the shape might end up looking a bit goofier than how you wanted it (speaking from personal experience) so don't be afraid to erase and add on parts!!

but i hope this helps!! really, my biggest suggestion is to just do a bit of research first to get a general gist of how it works before drawing it. sometimes, tutorials show you how to draw it but not exactly why you should draw it that way and for me personally, knowing why it works like that gives me a clearer understanding of how to approach the subject.

anyway if you have any questions or if you want me to explain something in further detail, my ask or dm is always open 🥰💖💖

#tutorial #also a spoiler on what im working on 👀#also for the research watching hair videos on youtube esp w people who have the hair type u want to draw is super helpful!!!#since ur seeing how the hair is moving etc. in real time as opposed to a picture #but tldr research is key!!!

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irradiatedsnakes · 4 years ago

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[ID: 7 drawings of monster!mechanisms designs. they are as follows: 1. a colored drawing of ivy alexandria that has been partially passed through the deep dream generator neural network, giving parts of the image a swirling, surreal appearance, often resembling eyes. 2. a digtal sketch of nastya as a ghost. her eyes are obscured by her glasses shine and she is covered in blue wisps, and dripping blue from her mouth and hands. 3. a digital sketch of drumbot brian as a centaur sitting down. his horse half is also mechanical and resembles a clydesdale. he also has horse-ish ears. 4. a sketchy bust of vampire marius. he looks smug, and looks to the side with a fanged smile. 5. digital sketch of partially-transformed werewolf gunpowder tim with doglike ears, claws, and a tail. he says "ok why did getting turned into that somehow give you a pitchfork." with a quizzical expression. 6. digital sketch of jonny d'ville as a devil or demon, with horns, pointy ears, cartoony wings, and a thin tail with a heart-shaped tip. he's holding a hellish pitchfork, looking confused and says "what? i already owned this.” 7. a traditional sketch of harpy/siren raphaella. she holds here feathery winged arms out, while her mechanical bat wings are unfurled behind her. her lower half is that of a bird. end ID]

ok ill post a couuuple. self indulgence machine go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

ok so u know like back in the gravity falls fandom there was that really popular au called monster falls where everybody got turned into some sort of monster/mythological creature? i fucking love that scenario and have been making my own little “everybody gets cursed by a witch or something so now i get to draw these fun designs” aus for like everything i like (never did it w tma oddly enough? good inspo just never struck.) so here.......is..........this. not everybodys pictured here but go under the cut for a list of what everybody is plus some extra notes and stuff

lets just goooooo alphabetical order

ashes - OKAY HONESTLY STILL NOT 100% ON ASHES im THINKING half-dragon. yes i know i already went dragon for them in the furry au its just a good fit and also looks Cool, but also waiting out to see if i can think of anything better

brian - CENTAURRRR also again. yes. i know i went 4 horse for him in the furry au. its just good and has fun brian vibes. wanting to draw centaur brian was the thing that led to this au happening

ivy - ELDRITCH SOMETHIN OR OTHER...idk what youd call that exactly. but you get the gist. cosmic horror, eyes, unfathomable patterns and things. doing the deep dream stuff for her in that picture was very fun and im very happy w how it came out...definitely something to revisit in the future. not sure how i wanna draw her when...not doing a whole colored digital thing, but well cross that bridge when i can draw again

jonny - he’s. he’s a devil? a little demon guy? like. yeah. of course. this guy was fucking meant to have little wings horns and a cute little demon heart tail. he has somehow become MORE bastardly

marius - VAMPIRE MARIUS ONCE AGAIN HES JUST FUN. hes just fun and the aesthetic suits him. i cant wait to draw him in a fun little cape with one of those big dramatic collars you know the ones. vampire marius is of course @ alientoastt’s idea!!

nastya - BANSHEE...or ghost in general but there some banshee stuff i feel could be fun to integrate. apparently in some tellings banshees can turn into crows? i love that very much. but anyways hmm..some notes abt the design in thsi post shes not quite where i want her to be. this was done on that collab canvas the other day and like...was mostly noodling things out having fun, those flamey looking bits are a very nice motion very fun to do but NOT wwhat i want for ghostya. i want her to be more. drippy. very drowned person vibes. fire and upward-floating motif not what i want. but it was fun to draw. also i think theres some potential comedy in there with “person who predicts deaths” among crew who habitually murder each other

raphaella - SOMEWHERE BTWN HARPY & SIREN (the bird kind not the mermaid kind) very excited abt her. lots of fun potential poses here. doing her design was a bit tricky- sirens tend to be just like- big birds with human heads? but i didt wanna do just that that takes away too much of her design recognizbility yknow to Just have her head. so she has a people torso, bird from the waist down, plus her arms are wings. which means she has Two pairs of wings. which i for one think is incredibly fun like you remember in httyd2 valka’s dragon w the four wings? yeah. also avent figured what bird in particular shell be based on- for the ufrry au i went w african grey parrot but dont feel like that here. ill think on it

tim - WEREWOLF TIM DUH. DUH. also i think werewolves are especially funny in scenarios like thse cus like- okay everybody suddenly ahhh cursed ahh monster whatever. but then tims just there like. i mean i feel fine lol and u get to have the fun surprise of Oh Suddenly Werewolf. also the question of how exactly werewolves who change based on the moon function in a. spaceship. i like to think its entirely fucking random i think thats funny

TS - ANIMATED SUIT OF ARMOR!! I DONT HAVE MUCH MORE TO SAY ON THSI BUT I LOVE . THIS IDEA. and i will never draw it. because fuck drawing and designing armor oh my god

anyways i think thats??? all i have to say on this??? agdvjdkb. if you wanna talk about this at all (or if u wanna see more doodles...) im totally open to that. ill be real i get weirdly embarrassed about specifically this kind of au (like. monster stuff in general especially werewolf/vampire stuff i could not fucking tell you why. gotten better abt it over time though hey im actually postin this shit!) so im just happy i posted it afhcgvjdkvdg .

as for story type things like how. this happens. frankly i dont know thats not my forte. but the little bit of whatever ive got going on my head has the Terrific Trio of ivy marius & raphaella doing Research Science Whatever down on a planet somewhere get into contact with a Cursed Artifact or whatever the fuck and eventually get back to the aurora like. oh. uh. it happened to you guys too, huh. but thats like whatever honestly im not in it for the writing im here to draw fun centaur man etc.

if you made it to the bottom of this winding fucking ramble know that i love you. mwah. that was fun to write out i like thought barfing about stuff like maybe 3 people will care about

#art #mechanisms #no tags i dont think djgvdhbkdhbd #1 #2 #the mechanisms #ok im gong to hit post . ok #scopophobia

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clockworkowl · 3 years ago

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I don’t know why but I have spent way too much time developing a headcanon about how just about everyone behaves when either they are ill/injured or you/other characters are ill/injured. Will this lead to me actually writing a fic? (the odds aren’t great given how long it’s been since I’ve even written anything with my own characters let alone trying to stay true to the sketch of someone else’s) Who knows, but I guess this is the closest I’ve come to writing anything at all in far too long.

Sholmes:

*I think we can all agree that Sholmes is the absolute worst when he’s sick.

*He’s totally the type who being the slightest bit ill turns into a complete dramatic bitch and hams up the tiniest of colds like he’s about to die from the consumption. He lightly groans as though the effort of extending his arm fully to take a Kleenex out of the box himself is too much. Like my old rat D’onofrio his breathing is fine if he has no idea you are home, but the second he notes your presence every breath is a wheezy death rattle until you come and worry and fuss over him until his attention meter is full up.

*But also as soon as there’s something he actually wants to do he’s magically cured and runs off without even putting on a coat.

*In a modern AU he for some reason spends a lot of time on WebMD either convincing you that his allergy-related headache is a rare usually fatal disease. Or that you probably have a rare malady that is exacerbated by eating pheasant he should probably go ahead and eat your pheasant because he’s only thinking of your health.

* When you are sick it is unpredictable at best, but it depends on how sick you actually are. There will probably be a variety of dubious cures and tinctures which you should probably ignore unless Iris made them.

*He has literally tied Kazuma to a bed (this will make more sense shortly).

*He will also somehow claim to find Ryunosuke’s take all the meds at once approach reasonable.

Kazuma:

*Asogi is also a terrible patient who will drive you to want to drink, but in the opposite fashion to Sholmes.

*He’s the ‘it’s only a flesh wound’ type who will thoroughly ignore any and all evidence of illness or injury claiming he is perfectly fine and hale until he is half dead with it and passes out

*Even after he regains consciousness will continue to argue that he will be in tomorrow he only needs to run it under a cold tap.

*You will have to tie him to a bed to get him to take doctor’s orders, and then he will be sullen about it.

*Once you get him into a room and confiscate clothes he could go outside in where he is sulking he will change tactics and he will order you around a lot trying to make you angry enough to throw your hands up and let him take care of himself, except with Ryunosuke who he knows this won’t work on so he just tries to wheedle him into bringing his clothes back and makes double entendres and suggestive comments about being tied to the bed.

*When it is you who is sick he will become the overbearing one and you won’t be sure whether that is because he worries about you or because it’s revenge for when he was sick.

Ryunosuke:

*Ryunosuke is challenging when he’s ill because he will acknowledge the illness and neither exaggerate or ignore it, but he is too concerned about whether it inconveniences everyone else for him to be ill, so he will try to downplay or hide the fact he’s as sick as he is.

*He’ll try to get well as quick as possible hence doing dumb stuff like taking all the meds at once.

*He can be reasoned with, like you could convince him to go home and take a day off, or that if he shows up sick he’ll get you all sick, but he’ll try to work from home or come back before he’s 100% or he’ll also try to prevent anyone from helping him because he feels like he’s causing extra work or that he might get someone sick.

*Can also be intimidated into being a good patient with the threat of a Susato Takedown or Barok just glaring at him until he caves.

*When you are sick he worries over you and runs around trying to make everything easy for you. Sholmes will take advantage of that to the max, so he must be sent elsewhere to avoid that.

*Once threatened to tie Kazuma to the bed so he would follow doctor’s orders. Once he realized how suggestive that sounded and got flustered he gave up on that plan (even though everyone agreed it was actually the only plan that was likely to be successful.) Now they rib him about it every time either he or Asogi get ill.

Susato:

*Susato is level-headed and actually a fairly good patient to no one’s surprise, provided she is the only one who is ill.

*She will also be worried about being an inconvenience, but has the sense to do what’s needed to get better and then tries to make it up to everyone after even though no one thinks that’s necessary

*She won’t let anyone help her though unless she really needs it. As she doesn’t want them to get sick or to fuss.

*If others are sick she will tend to put them all before her even if she’s sicker, and gets stubborn about this. This has led to at least one occasion of Sholmes dropping the theatrics and Kazuma acting like a model patient at the same time.

* When you’re sick she is no nonsense and actually helpful. She spends a lot of time shooting down Sholmes’ webMD self diagnoses, and makes Ryunosuke give her his prescriptions so she can administer the dosage because she doesn’t have time to drag him to the hospital. She has also had to threaten the Susato takedown on Kazuma more than once if he doesn’t go see the doctor today.

Gina:

*Gina is in the Kazuma mold of patient, except when you finally force her to act like she is as sick as she is, she turns into Sholmes.

*When you are ill she is aggressive about you taking care of yourself and worries, she has a lot of past trauma with people dying from her time trying to take care of her orphan army in the rookeries.

*Is not above threats, guilt-trips, and shooting you with a smoke grenade full of vitamin c or eucalyptus vap-o-rub mist.

*has pickpocketed Ryunosuke’s prescription to give to Susato more than once to avoid him taking them all at once.

Iris-

*When ill Iris is a lot more like Susato, but she totally tries to invent her own tea-based cures, and she will also downplay or hide that she’s sick because she doesn’t want anyone to worry about her, but doesn’t go overboard with it the way Ryunosuke does.

*She is pretty much immune to Sholmes’ theatrics at this point, but sometimes will make up new imaginary web md illnesses that he might have to amuse herself.

*She will mother you with tea-based or soup-based cures which you will be safe consuming and will make you feel better emotionally if not physically, but often physically as well.

*Has also modified one of her smoke grenade guns to fire eucalytpus vap-o-rub mists, and also so they can knock Kazuma or Gina out safely and temporarily so they can be made to convalesce when they are being extra stubborn.

Barok-

* somehow Barok is the best patient of all of them. It’s probably the only time that he is truly polite and courteous with no sarcastic requests for forgiving discourtesies.

*This comes from some combination of Klimt telling him as a boy about a noble’s responsibility to the people of his estate (and his actually taking this concept to heart unlike a lot of nobles) and the sheer number of times he has had to rely on doctor’s, nurses, and staff due to the numerous attempts on his life over the years.

*He will downplay the seriousness of an injury especially out of habit and so as not to worry those who he cares about (though he finds it shocking always that anyone cares about him) but he will always get it seen to and respect orders provided they come from a professional and there are reasons given.

*He will insist that his staff gets things if he needs them and not you, but this is because he wants the staff to feel comfortable and he pays them extra compensation for it. Were he contagious he would not allow them but would pay their wages for them to be away from his home. (This is a big secret and his staff is very loyal to him even without this money. It’s just like the chalices and vintages all the theatrics of it is to fund these families of artisans. Charity without charity.)

*When you are sick, except maybe Sholmes who he just can’t even, he is kind and no nonsense. He thinks you should come to stay in his guest room and been seen by his doctor, that way you’ll get the best care and recover quicker. He’ll have his staff take care of you (but also report back to him if you aren’t being cooperative. He will tell you to think nothing of it, you’re friends and he’s rich and has no family left (except Iris and she doesn’t even live with him) so what else would he do with it, besides it provides wages.

*He is not above intimidating Ryunosuke (sometimes also Gina ) into convalescing as they should.

*This doesn’t work with Kazuma who he had also considered tying to the bed, but instead decided to let him have it his way and then when he got bad enough and passed out took him to the estate anyway and made sure the doctors told him exactly how much longer he had to convalesce than he would have if he’d listened to Barok in the first place.

*He brings this up every single time so they can just skip to the part where Kazuma sulks and is a grouchy patient.

*Is the only person that doesn’t join in with the group pastime of ribbing Ryunosuke about threatening to tie Kazuma to the bed To make him follow doctor’s orders.

#dgs #dgs spoilers #I mean not really spoilers unless you are like how would they have talked #ryunosuke naruhodo #kazuma asougi #susato mikotoba #iris wilson #gina lestrade #herlock sholmes #barok van zieks #random headcanon #stronghart would only let himself be sick for 26 minutes

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subjectnumberx · 3 years ago

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Thumbnailing: Subject's Way

Thumbnails are an important workflow tool artists use to make creating their works more efficient. They are essentially tiny, low detail versions of the idea you may have in mind, and save time by helping you catch potential compositional errors, clashing colors in palettes(if you blob some colors on), and poses that simply might not.. work in character art as well as many other things not mentioned.

I am a very visual person and sometimes putting ideas to paper really helps me focus better on the task at hand. Organizing things into steps on the page really helps me not get overwhelmed. It might prove helpful to you as well.

In this tutorial, I'll take you through my workflow process when planning paintings and simple character illustrations.

I start off the process by doing a ton of sketches of whatever thing from many angles, poses, etc. Usually if I have a certain image in mine I simply sketch that and adjust little things like angle, placement of limbs, etc. Work teeny tiny, you can enlarge it later. I,t really depends on what the goal is for that piece what the process looks like. Here the goal was to just draw a character, so I have many options.

environment sketches look a bit different for me, as I will sketch them in literal cubes. I am still working through the technique. I just haven't gotten good enough at them yet to consider a tutorial by me would be helpful to anyone though.

Like with piece D, it's good to plan compositional elements here too. I added the moon that would go in the eventual background, swords in the hands of B and E, etc. Had I had more time, F would have gotten rough roses, but I digress.

After I have base sketches, I do very rough lines so I know what I'm looking at, and it primes me for what I could possibly have issues with in doing the final. I keep it VERY loose and don't dwell too much on details. If I'm drawing a character, I'm not even going to look up references, unless their silhouette is very complex. There is not much need for accuracy here. Just to nail down your subject's silhouette.

At this point, you can start eliminating which poses you don't want. Here I was very indecisive so I went through with sketching all of them.

At this step ill also take the time to plan variants if I feel like I would be indecisive about them/need them for certain platforms (optional).

Here's where things start to actually take the form of thumbnails. I work large and draw most of the anatomy of the subject so that things are positioned correctly in the frame. Draw the whole of something, even if you know it's going to get cropped out. There is nothing worse than trying to draw in a way that is already cropped, it messes up your anatomy bad, and you'll spend more time trying to fix it, especially if you are just starting out as an artist.

Physically drawing a box around them to help with framing is really good to help plan the composition of the final piece. Again, you can eliminate stuff here as well if they don't make interesting compositions. Consider the rule of thirds and how much breathing room you want or need in your piece. The one not in a box was eliminated because I didn't like the pose nor would it make a very interesting piece.

I also use different colors on the boxes so I can overlap them and keep my eyes from getting confused where one "drawing" ends and one begins.

If I'm planning portraits/art in my painterly style, I'll take the time to block in some colors just to see what I should shoot for in the final. I will also do several pairings of colors in their own sets of thumbnails if the piece needs it/i want varients. I highly suggest blobbing so that you can see how potential colors will play with one another. Learning the teeniest bit of color theory will help, I promise, but for now, i'lI'lll refrain from the mini-lecture.

these three two (you'll see), I figured would make better cel-shaded/quicker pieces due to how zoomed out they are, any true details I would want to focus on don't exactly work for my current style faraway. Be sure to tailor compositions that suit your style. I will be keeping these sketch ideas for future reference.

It's important to remember that just because an idea doesn't get used in this piece, that doesn't mean it can't be used in a further piece down the road. I actually have a horrible habit of deleting my thumbnails after I'm done with them, but if I'm thumbnailing in a sketchbook? I find myself browsing back over them for future pieces to get some rough ideas of what could work later.

One last thing, you don't have to plan as many thumbnails as I did, but I do suggest at least 3 or 4 to really stretch your creativity.

Thumbnails also make for a good warm-up. If you're curious, I did the initial sketches in this order: A C E D B F. I think it helped me loosen up a bit, but you can be the judge of that.

I went back and tried another approach for a painting, but now I have the base for 3 paintings I could pursue, albeit rough, but it's good to learn how to paint like a sculptor, I digress.

That's all there is to it. the key is being clean enough to get the idea down, but rough enough to save time. work small, using basic shapes to create silhouettes. You can enlarge it later and use it as a base sketch.

Last two cents: I've also learned that sometimes if a piece is just not working, it's probably more than likely a compositional issue, anatomy, or perspective, Which is why thumbnailing can help you catch these issues early.

happy drawing :)

a/n: this is my first time really creating a tutorial. this might not be groundbreaking information for some of you and that's okay. this tutorial was initially created for someone in an art server I'm in on Discord, hence the slide-text-slide format. I have taken the images and text from that and compiled them here to make it easier to pick up the tips. I do not consider myself a pro on any of the things mentioned by any means, merely my take on it all. Get multiple sources, educate yourself, practice, and find what works for you. - Sub

#its not perfect #but i hope it helps #tutorial #composition #digital art #digital illustration #digital painting #reference #art tutorial #art #sketch #thumbnails #illustration #medibang paint #medibangpaint #digital drawing #drawing

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levihantrash · 3 years ago

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new chapter update!

Summary:

Levi’s pragmatism pulled the brakes. “I’m not about to dedicate my life to become a broke comic artist.”

Levi Ackerman, a gruff cleaner with an appetite for toilet humour meets the unabashedly friendly creative writing professor, Hange Zoë, who somehow ropes Levi into working on a comic with them. While the comic’s title remains undecided, Hange knows that it’s going to be set in a world where giant, human-like creatures devour other humans. Erwin Smith, the comic’s self-appointed editor, unironically thinks it’s going to be a hit. All Levi knows is that he wants to indulge in drawing this comic while hanging out with a certain writer who just won’t stop talking to him.

Where Hange, Levi, and Erwin are the creators of Attack on Titan.

Chapter 1: Free Bread

Chapter 2: New Friends

Like routine, Levi found himself waiting for a certain professor to show up. When Erwin called out to him, he couldn’t help but search behind the tall, imposing figure.

“I haven’t seen Hange this morning either,” Erwin said. Levi found himself irritated by Erwin’s discernment and by his own discrete uneasiness.

“Good morning, Erwin,” Levi greeted, nonetheless.

Hange was late, which Levi figured wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

The morning passed without a single sign of Hange.

“Sorry, are you Mr. Levi?” A nervous-looking person approached him, holding on to a well-wrapped steamed bun. A twinge of hope stirred in Levi.

“Levi will do,” he said.

“Dr. Hange said I should pass you this,” the bread-holder blurted out.

Levi’s gaze softened. “Where’s Hange?”

“Oh! She’s rushing a deadline and insisted that I pass you this bread.”

The inexplicable rush of relief made Levi dizzy as he grasped the bread limply. “Huh. Sorry that you have to be an errand boy today.”

“It’s no trouble!”

“Who are you?”

“Sorry! I didn’t introduce myself! I’m Moblit, their teaching assistant! Dr. Hange helps me out with my master’s thesis because they’re my advisor. This is just my way of saying thanks. Dr. Hange also treats me to meals, gives me detailed comments for my work… though they might go overboard when it comes to giving speeches about the importance of world-building and honing your craft, it’s inspiring how dedicated they are in what they do.”

Moblit took a deep breath, making up for lost air in between the lengthy, whole-hearted sentences.

“Is that so…” Levi said, suddenly contemplative. “Do you want some tea?”

“Are you getting it from the staff pantry?”

“No, that stuff’s stale as shit. I have better tea, wait here.”

Levi recalled Erwin asking him in front of everyone in the staffroom if he wanted the staffroom snacks. Hange followed up, speaking at a volume that was clear enough for most of the staff to overhear, orchestrating a deliberate conversation with Erwin.

“Since there are no hard rules as to who the snacks and drinks are catered for, and technically, Levi is a staff member, he should have access to the snacks!”

None of the professors objected. It was probably because open prejudice would be socially unacceptable, Levi thought.

Begrudgingly, he accepted Erwin’s offer, and in full view of everyone, took a candy bar.

Hange gasped. “Just one?” Levi glared at them.

“Aren’t the snacks for your little sister?” Hange asked. He nodded, sensing the collective spike in sympathy for him in the staffroom.

After the whole stage, the trio huddled conspicuously in a corner outside the staffroom.

Hange whispered to Levi, “You could have played along better!”

“Erwin’s tired of your skit,” Levi said, overwhelmed and annoyed at the turn of events.

“No he’s not!” Hange said sternly, before gulping down half a bottle of water.

Erwin, standing in between them, told Hange to keep it down.

“Thanks, you two.” Levi found himself staring at the floor, embarrassed that his two friends had to construe him as a pitiful character for him to get a few snacks, even though he had been informed of the plan prior.

“I’m sorry, Levi,” Hange said, their lips compressed into a hard, grim line. “It’s ridiculous that you can’t even get snacks and refreshments as part of the staff.”

“I’m used to it.”

“If anyone’s giving you a hard time, you have us,” Hange said, still put off.

They squared their shoulders impressively. “Right Erwin?”

“You can rely on us, Levi,” Erwin surmised, equally sombre.

Growing more ruffled by their declarations, Levi hissed, “I don’t need two bodyguards.”

“No, you definitely don’t,” Hange joked. “Some people have told me about the deathly aura you emit that I must have missed…”

Fixing their attention at a vague distance, Hange’s playful jibes dwindled into an idle pondering, “I wonder if you found some joy in our companionship at least.”

They’re talking about joy and friendship again… Levi thought.

He found himself back in the present, handing a cup of black tea to Moblit, guiding him towards a bench.

Moblit squeaked out, “Thank you!”

“How did you find me?” Levi asked, betraying none of his real curiosity.

“Hange gave me a description…” Moblit began, not making eye contact with Levi.

“Did they? What’s the description?” Knowing Hange’s brand of humour, Levi braced himself.

Moblit shuffled in his seat, terribly reluctant. “They said to look out for a cold, black-haired man with an undercut, wearing an apron, gloves and brandishing a mop while scolding people to not step on wet floors.” Levi made a mental note to strangle Hange.

Moblit quickly supplemented, “You’re not actually cold though!”

“How would you know that?”

“Um… you’re offering me tea?”

Levi clicked his tongue. “That’s a low bar for human decency. You should have higher standards.”

“You’re right, Mr. Levi… I mean Levi.”

Levi noted Moblit’s jittery manner when he briefly checked his phone for a message and let out a small groan.

“Hey, you look worried sick. You didn’t receive a death threat, did you?”

Moblit laughed weakly, running his hand through his hair. “Uh, you see, I’m one of the editors for the bi-annual literary magazine and we’ve been looking for illustrators…”

“I take it that you haven’t been successful?”

“Yes… I just received someone’s rejection. It’s okay, we’ll find one,” Moblit said, although his panicked lip-biting ran contradictory to his optimistic statement. Levi’s hands twitched again. He folded them promptly into his apron pockets.

Upon finishing the tea, Moblit stood up and gave a tiny, polite bow. “It was nice meeting you Levi. Thanks for listening and for the tea!”

“Good luck,” Levi said, in time before Moblit rushed off.

Bagging up the rubbish, Levi heaved the load on his shoulder easily, only to be startled by the appearance of Hange.

“Fuck! Can you stop jumping out of nowhere?” Though momentarily disconcerted, the tension built up from the day unwound instantaneously, leaving his body loose and feeble.

“Levi! Did you shit yourself?” Hange sang. They accidentally bumped into the gigantic rubbish bag, falling butt-first onto the ground, phone in hand.

“Be careful,” Levi said, in the same monotonous voice he used regardless of the situation. Unless the situation involved Hange leaping out of nowhere. He looped his free arm under their armpit to pull them back up. Hange, flushed from running, placed their phone in his hands with ill-contained excitement.

“Look at what I found!”

“Oi, what’s this—” Levi scanned the phone, his mouth running dry.

“I’m going to recruit this artist. For my comic.”

It was a sketch of a cat being patted by a person with messy, tied-up hair, their hands stroking its head.

“Don’t you think the person looks familiar? Isn’t the cat cute… remember how I told you I have one at home?” Hange released their brown hair from a voluminous ponytail, biting the rubber band in their mouth.

He swallowed. “I drew that.”

Hange’s mouth hung open. “You’re kidding!”

“Do I look like I make such shit jokes?”

“Personally, I find your shitty jokes very funny. This is exciting news! Why didn’t you tell me you’re an artist when I was trying to find one for my comic?”

Levi found her question preposterous. “You could easily find a better one. I’m inexperienced.”

“I’m also an inexperienced writer. I barely wrote one book and a few articles!”

“You’re a professor. You have the title for a reason. I just draw for fun.”

Hange spared him a baffled look. “Please. You have no idea how many great writers never become professors. And how some professors never write great books. I thought you of all people would know that a title doesn’t mean anything.”

“I thought you of all people would know that titles hold their value here, even if we think they’re stupid and don’t mean shit.”

“I know that, Levi. I’m saying, drawing for fun doesn’t make you inexperienced or unworthy of being the artist for my comic. Besides, I chose you before I even knew it was you!” Hange said triumphantly.

Locking the phone screen, Levi reiterated, “I draw for fun.”

“Then this will be our fun project!”

Levi’s pragmatism pulled the brakes. “I’m not about to dedicate my life to become a broke comic artist.”

“You won’t be broke.” Erwin slipped into their conversation as though he had always been there. It was uncanny.

“What do you mean?” Levi stared questioningly at Erwin.

“You’ll be paid for your work, Levi. Hange as well,” Erwin said simply.

“You’re paying us?” Hange and Levi asked, in unison. One, in disbelief, and the other, in delight.

“A publisher will be paying you. I’ve secured funding.”

Levi gritted his teeth. “A publisher wants to sponsor a comic that hasn’t even been written?”

“I told you, Levi,” Hange interrupted. “I’ve already submitted a draft!”

“Yes,” Erwin said.

Levi had so many questions. “How?”

“Because it’s a good story.”

“Did you bribe them? Threaten them?”

“It is a risk,” Erwin admitted.

“It’s a fucking gamble,” Levi emphasised. “Don’t know why you’re so invested in this comic.”

Hange had other worries. “Levi, did you think I wasn’t going to pay you?”

Levi hesitated. “I don’t know. Isn’t this just a fun side-project?”

Hange’s face came closer to his. With the enhanced proximity, Levi stopped breathing altogether. Their face was deadly solemn.

“Listen, Levi, creating art is hard work. Your hard work. Any artist deserves to be paid. It’s not because our relationship is transactional. It’s because it’s only right.”

Erwin added, “We’re not going to accept your art for free.”

Pushing Hange back firmly with his hands on their shoulders, Levi argued, “Plenty of people have access to my art online for free.”

“That’s your choice. We insist.” Hange grinned. “And we think we deserve to be paid too. Even I’m surprised that my project has early compensation.”

Part of Levi’s resolve ebbed away. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good enough for me!”

“First, you have to tell me what your story is.” Levi gathered up the last of his self-respect. “And if we’re going to be working together, I’ll need your number.”

Erwin raised an innocent eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you need mine too?”

“Stop teasing him, Erwin,” Hange said, grabbing the rubbish bag from Levi, struggling to balance its weight over their shoulders.

Just as Levi felt a shred of gratitude, Hange remarked, “What if he doesn’t agree to do the comic together?”

Patience running thin, Levi stomped on both their feet in a fit of unrestraint that diverged from his unaffected demeanour.

Eyes twinkling, Hange couldn’t help but feel immense glee at the prospect of working with Levi. What was probably Levi’s withheld strength made them certain that he only wanted to dirty their shoes, not bruise their toes. Like Hange would care about the cleanliness of their battered sneakers.

In front of an ordinary apartment door, Hange dug into the depths of their bag to fish out a ring of keys. The size of the ring was unprecedentedly big; the choice of keychain most definitely random, a freebie handed out to new staff that blatantly displayed the university’s name.

Without that much bribery of tea, bread, and friendship, Levi found himself standing beside Hange as they busied themselves in finding the key to their apartment. Erwin had bailed due to having another Important Meeting with Important People, even during a weekend, but encouraged Hange and Levi to take time to discuss the comic.

Hange hadn’t expected Levi to agree so readily to kickstarting the project, and with the generous reception Levi gave (a curt nod and a follow-up question), they thought it’d be best if they invited him over to their apartment. Just so he wouldn’t mistake Hange as a mere business partner. Now that would be upsetting.

Hange pushed the ludicrous speculation out of their head. Levi was first and foremost, a good friend. His bored appearance revealed glimpses of surprise, satisfaction, moodiness, and suspicion. Hange held on to these pieces with the determination to collect them all. Surely, Levi must have figured them out by now. This endless, unabashed interest Hange had taken in him.

“Why are we meeting at your place? Do you need to take a huge shit? Does the toilet at home have a better flush?”

Although Levi had no qualms about visiting Hange’s apartment, he found it unnerving to have a work discussion in someone’s living quarters. It felt too intimate, too casual. He wasn’t sure if he could handle being sucked in further into Hange’s life. They asked so many questions, yet barely answered any about themselves.

Whether intentionally or not, Hange was someone shrouded in mystery to Levi. He couldn’t ask questions either—he wouldn’t—because he was unaccustomed to expressing himself in front of people. More than that, he could envision Hange’s sharp wit poking a clean hole through his muted facade. “You’re interested in my life, Levi?” Damn that four-eyes for being so perceptive. Or was he so easy to read?

“It’s more fun,” Hange said, eventually stuffing the correct key into the keyhole, a smooth click welcoming them. “Plus, I want to introduce you to my friends! Part of the reason why I took up the position at this university.”

“Friends?” Levi asked, slipping out of his shoes to step into the apartment.

“Hange!” A voice rang, and Hange was wrapped in a hug.

“Onyankopon! I saw you yesterday—”

“Three days ago, to be exact, since you always sleep over on the lovely desk at the university.” A smooth voice entered, coming from a woman standing comfortably against the wall.

As the tallest body let go of Hange, it allowed Levi to take in the congenial features of a man whose shoulders rivalled Erwin’s towering, well-built stature. While Erwin’s smile was measuredly cordial, Onyankopon’s was candidly sincere. Watching Hange and Onyankopon, Levi felt as though he were intruding into a family reunion that had invited the entire neighbourhood. Here, he was the guest who came for the free flow of food and drinks.

“I’ve missed you too Pieck!” The woman named Pieck ruffled Hange’s hair, offering them an embrace.

Hange pulled Levi by the elbow, pointing to the new people. “Meet my roommates and college friends, Onyankopon and Pieck!”

“Hi,” Levi said, uncertain as to what else he could affix his terse greeting with. Hange resolved that predicament for him, going into further details about their friends.

“Onyankopon is a researcher and engineer! I can’t tell you the technical specifics of what he does, though, I always get them wrong. Oh, and he’s religious, but he won’t try to convert you.” Onyankopon nodded, affirming Hange’s unflattering introduction.

“Pieck… Pieck is a gardener, florist, and avid gamer! That’s why she’s always bent over, whether it’s tending to her plants or her high score in front of the monitor.”

“It’s not why I need the crutches though,” Pieck said. Hange squeezed her shoulders in response.

“Seems like my friends are all nerdy. Maybe that’s why I like them?” A sheepish smile graced Hange’s lips.

Onyankopon gestured towards Hange, imitating their dramatic flourish. “And this is Hange Zoe, the nerdiest of them all. Obsessed with words. Recently obsessed with science fiction. They’re always reading or writing, and once they start on something, their butt doesn’t leave the chair.”

Levi’s eyes flitted around the apartment—it was relatively tidy, with a couple of framed photos and artworks. A blanket on the couch made it homely enough. His inspection didn’t miss Hange’s notice.

“Like what you see?”

“It’s neat,” he replied.

“That’s a compliment!” Hange took care to disclose this to their two friends.

“All your previous partners don’t take off their shoes, Hange. I hope he isn’t one of those.” Pieck said, using their crutch to relocate Hange’s haphazard shoes to a corner, flipping them the right side up. Levi liked her already.

“That’s gross,” Levi said apathetically, wiping away the horrifying image of dirt-smeared carpets and tiles creeping into his consciousness.

“He’s very clean, don’t worry,” Hange said easily. “Some might even say it’s his obsession.”

“I’m the cleaner at the university.” Onyankopon and Pieck turned towards Hange with patented disapproval.

“Levi, you know that’s not what I meant.”

“I think we’ll make good friends,” Pieck said, bemused.

Hange beamed at Levi. “You’ll love Pieck! She’s really quiet most of the time, just like you. Not to mention she pretends that she hates me. Just like you.”

“Good to know,” Levi said, enjoying the banter a bit too much.

“Hange says she’s going to get you to draw me, as a titan,” Pieck said, evidently sceptical.

“What’s a titan?”

“The giant, naked people I told you about, Levi! They’re called titans!”

“Why are they called titans?”

Hange landed on the sofa with a plop, patting the seat beside them for Levi to sit. “In Greek mythology, titans are immortal giant gods who were banished to the underground.”

Levi, who had little knowledge of Greek mythology, made a mental note to search for references online.

“Therefore, the titans are kind of like vengeful giant gods from the underground who have come to earth to wreak havoc on what the gods have built, which is human civilisation, basically.”

“Basically, I am wonderful enough to be titan-material,” Pieck drawled, propping their crutch at the side of the couch, sliding onto the cushions.

“A special titan that walks on all fours! Um, that’s the plan for now,” Hange said brightly.

Onyankopon, who had been content with listening, clapped his hands together in sudden realisation. “Hange, now that you’re finally home, you can take a shower.”

“I should, right?” Hange scratched their head, feeling the slickness of unwashed neglect.

Levi crinkled his nose as Hange reluctantly made their way to the bathroom. “That’s disgusting.”

“And here you are, still.” Pieck’s amiable statement prickled at his skin like a light warning before impending exposure.

“Hange must really want to make a good impression if they’re showering now,” Onyankopon said, chuckling to himself.

“It’s good to finally meet you.” Onyankopon pushed a newly made cup of tea towards Levi, with the steady confidence that could only come from having known prior that it was the beverage that Levi would desire. “Make yourself at home.”

Levi said his thanks, to the hospitality of two people he scarcely knew, and to Hange, who likely told them about the tea.

Cold water blasted them in the face, as Hange became cognizant of the necessity of showering more regularly. It wasn’t like they thrived in the dirt. Hypothetically, showering wasn’t that troublesome. The shower kept forgetting itself until it was three days later and Hange stank with regret and mild self-loathing. Still, the shower felt good, giving them new clarity about the fact that they had invited Levi into their inner social circle. How would he fare? Would he be uncomfortable? Hange massaged shampoo into their hair, recalling their conversation with Pieck and Onyankopon.

After much elaboration on adapting to a new university, their visits to an amazing bakery, and the fostering of daily encounters with new friends, Pieck had caught on that every other sentence from Hange contained a sliver of Levi-sized anecdotes. The new university was so much bigger than the one Pieck, Onyankopon, and Hange had attended together; it stretched endlessly, and Hange estimated that Levi would have walked 393700.7874 steps to clean just the faculty building. The bakery near the university was fragrant, its selection marvellous, and choosing a new bread for Levi every day was a tremendously delightful task. Moreover, Hange had met so many unique characters since getting to know the people in their faculty, people like Levi whose abhorrence for social etiquette was admirable, and with whom she was eager to share their mornings and lunches. Together with Erwin, of course.

Pieck let out a tinkle of a laugh at Hange’s obliviousness. “Why are you friends with Levi?”

Thinking hard, Hange answered, “I don’t know if he thinks of us as friends.”

“Well, friendship status aside, how’s he like?”

“He’s kind. He doesn’t sound like it, but he’s kind.”

“That’s nice. How’s he kind?”

Confusion coloured Hange’s usual confidence. “Hmm. It’s gut-feeling, I guess.”

“That’s unlike you, to rely solely on instincts,” Onyankopon said, stroking his chin. Hange was a person with an abundance of rationale, a reason for everything, with justification for any ideas. Their reasoning this time fell flat.

Pieck prodded on. “You said that he doesn’t sound kind. Then what does he sound like?”

“Grumpy, sarcastic, serious. He looks like he’s annoyed with everyone. Most people find him scary, I suppose? It’s like he wants people to think he’s an asshole.”

Pieck perked up. “Oh, so you’ve become enamoured with broody, misunderstood people who’re rough around the edges?”

“Pieck, come on, I’m not writing my own romantic trope! I don’t know… he’s a good person. I can tell. He doesn’t say much though.”

“You’re a mind-reader now?”

Hange ignored her. “His art… it’s so evocative. Melancholic. Hopeful. Angry.”

“What was the artwork you last saw of his?”

“A cat,” Hange said immediately.

Onyankopon brought Hange back to reality. “What about him? What do you like about him? Not his art.”

Hange pursed their lips. “Do good people need to prove themselves to show that they’re good?”

“There could be reasons as to why you’re so adamant about his golden character,” Onyankopon said.

“He’s reliable. And his shit jokes aren’t so bad once you get used to it.” Hange surprised themselves with that comment—Levi’s relentless toilet humour was infecting their brain. The corrosive force of the word “shitty” had already moulded itself permanently into their vocabulary.

Gazing up at the ceiling, Hange bent their arms behind their head. “It’s hard to find people to truly get along with.”

Onyankopon and Pieck shared a knowing look.

With their eyes trained to the white ceiling plaster, Hange mumbled on, “it would be nice if he’d talk more openly about what he’s feeling. It’s all guesswork and I’m afraid I’m constantly reading him wrong.”

“Maybe you should take your own advice…” Onyankopon said gently.

“But I do talk about my feelings!”

“Monologuing in your room and reposting vague lines of poetry and sending us memes to cope with your avoidance is not the same as talking about your feelings,” Pieck said, spending the subsequently long moment of silence to snip off a yellowed leaf from the potted Monstera deliciosa next to the kitchen counter.

“Wow.” Hange, for once, had nothing to muster.

Onyankopon’s approach was less incisive than Pieck’s. “You know, I don’t think you need a reason to be friends with someone. If he’s making you happy, I think it’s a good sign.”

“Thanks, Onyankopon,” Hange said gratefully.

“But Pieck’s right about you being deliberately evasive with your own emotions. Introspection shouldn’t be so strenuous, right? Don’t you write about your characters’ internal turmoil often?”

“It’s different when you’re reflecting for yourself,” Hange contended.

“We’ll see how Levi’s like anyway, when we meet him,” Pieck said, grabbing the scissors, going towards another deadened leaf.

“Don’t bully him!”

Another snip. Another leaf fell. “Isn’t he supposed to be scary?”

Hange smiled wryly. “But you two are scarier.”

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abimee · 4 years ago

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how do you fill sketchbooks in two months..... what do you think is good art advice? you dont have to andwer this of course but your art is very good and unique and i would love to have the same grasp on humanity that you do

first off i fill a sketchbook im two months (typically one sketch every month 1/2 actually) by just not drawing unless i want to. like i dont go "i wanna draw" then sit myself down and force an idea i wait until i go "i wanna draw X and Y" then ill sit down and draw. i like never push myself to draw ever even if i "want to" but dont bave any ideas, and ill take days away from it at a time so it never feels like a chore or a task and usually ill stack up drawing ideas and come back busting out 4 pages of art ideas in one sitting. also dont be afraid to just draw some half assed stuff sometimes (a lot) i just draw random body parts or arms or the same head. i repeat concepts a lot too or i just draw big instead of detailed bevause i dont draw for consumption o draw bevause i want to so ill repeat the same idea 100 times if it gets me excited to draw

and honestly i think anhthing can be good art advice because theres 1000000 of people out there that throwing somerhing at the wall will certainely revolutionize and change one persons life for tbe better of it. but at the same time i dont think art advice works at all and the best advice is what you can personally take away from someones art without them telling you, because you can recognize the aspects you most care about and attempt to understand how the artist does tbst vs an artist telling off advice /they/ ythink is good but are unsure if good for you

other art tips. dont be afraid to obscure the body in art like obscure face arms stomach the amorphous blob silhoutte is really good and your art comes off more dynamic/strong if parts of the body are obscure to the viewer

dont fall into the idea of a "finished" piece. any piece of art is finished if you say it is, it dorsnt need color or lighting or even clean lineart to be finished

ugliness is the natural existence of humanity. beauty is a false creation one has to "make" themselves so if you draw a hand "ugly" or weird know that it makes it more organic. asymmetrical faces or one eye being bigger than the other? people will say you capture natural humanity in your work. human bodies are not symmetrical perfectly shaped beings and so i think this strive to make the "perfect" hand or an "anatomically correct" face sort of scrubs the life from peoples art. plus just draw a weird hand go to bed and look at it in the morning and youll realize nobody is going to care it looks off because hands loom off in reality too here watch this

weird hand and wrist right? so its fine

final thing i can think of is to worry less about the anatomy and just go head first into concept. draw someone squatting even if it looks doodoo dogshart. try perspective even if it looks wonky. thetes more charm to trying and suceeding badly than refusing to try at all

like these two are super weird in perspective but they look better now that ive tried than if i kept a flat front-facing perspective. trying looks cooler than refusing to do it even if when you try it looks bad. so try

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lieslidoo · 4 years ago

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The beauty in the mundane Howl Jenkins X Painter!OC

Part 1: an uncharacteristically early start.

this is really not book or movie accurate I just like the characters so like, MAJOR cannon divergence, love y’all. Have mercy on my soul dear reader, for I have not proofread this fic.

Far beyond the bustling coasts of Porthaven and the lush greenery of the folding valley lay the small village of North Bexley. Surrounded by two mountains of admirable size, it stood snugly as if it had always been there, and as far as Agatha Havenglow was concerned, it had.

Miss Havenglow was perhaps one of the most well known inhabitants of this charming Hamlet. Had you gone to the village folks and asked about her, many of them would have told you that she was a strange young girl who would have been unbearably lonely if it wasn’t for her sister, Emily Havenglow.

Some of them, more knowledgeable, might show you around the town and point out the many things she had painted : various hanging signs, storefronts, advertisements and the occasional mural. And If you had asked Mr. Tailor, the town’s baker ( who funnily enough married the village tailor’s eldest daughter Ann) he’d tell you she was “too good for this small town” and that “She ought to leave us for South Bexley”, by which he’d mean that she should leave North Bexley for better, bigger towns and not, as it may seem, the actual town of South Bexley, which has, as of yet, not been located (and nor do I believe it ever will be). He might then point you in the direction of the Havenglow’s home, at the edge of Silverkeep lake more commonly known as North Bexley Orphanage, where our story begins.

On the first day of the month of may, Agatha was getting an uncharacteristically early start to her busy day. She put on the pair of woolen socks Mrs. Havenglow had gifted her for their last birthday and threw her shawl around her shoulders. The dark herringbone floor creaked as she moved to her nightstand and picked up her journal and her charcoal pencil. And, as she had done every morning before, Agatha drew back the green velvet curtains, opened her blinds, sat on the windowsill and started to draw. She drew the camellias and Irises that Her mother loved so much and the arrowwood her sister had cared for, the wrought iron swing that her and Emily bickered over and the wooden one that Mrs. Havenglow had put in next to it in a futile attempt to bring peace to her garden. The small pond that emptied into Silverkeep lake where the children would once go to capture frogs and feed ducks. Everything held a story, a memory and try as she might, she always felt she failed to adequately draw them.

She was hard at work sketching the small tree stump on which she had once twisted her ankle when her door opened and the familiar scent of Emily’s cinnamon basil tea filled her room. “You’re up early today.”

“You’re painfully observant today.”

The girl joined her sister on the windowsill and, with her tea tray in her lap, waited for her twin to finish her drawing. She had learned a long time ago that this was to Agatha what gardening and baking was to her, her way to make sense of the world around her and to safely interact with it, and there was nothing in the world she loved more than watching her draw. After a few minutes, the pencil stopped moving and the handkerchief stopped smudging and there was peace, both in Agatha’s room and mind.

“Are you done?” “Yes.” “Let me see.” She handed her the journal and took one of the warm cups of tea in exchange. “I don’t know how you do it. It’s so…” “So what?” “So alive.” The artist snorted at her sister’s praise and took back her journal, setting it on her dresser a bit harsher than she normally would have. “How was the may dew?” Agatha asked Emily, her voice still rough from sleep.

She was referring to a strange custom the girls of Bexley had been doing for centuries. On the first morning of may, all young maidens would run out to the nearest prairie and dutifully wash their faces with the morning dew. It was a sight to behold, pretty women, all in their white nightgowns laying on the green grass and waiting for the sun to shine on them away from the hungry gaze of men and the pressures of marriage.

“It was intimate, and invigorating.” “Did you go with the other girls?” “Of course! Praying is best experienced in the company of your peers.” “And by praying you mean rolling around in a prairie for half a sunrise?” Agatha mocked. Her sister sneered at her and dangled her legs out the window. The air was crisp and the sun was warm.

“Oh! The bannocks!!” Emily cried out “I thought you had forgotten” “I could never! its tradition.” Agatha laughed at her sister’s earnest response to what she clearly said in jest. Try as she might she could not recall one time where her sister had forgotten a celebration ; be it holiday or name days, she never faulted. The girl handed her a small bun and took hers, raising it towards the sky. “Merry May-Day Aggie” “Merry May-Day lily.” The bread was still warm and smelled of rosemary, lavender and honey. As the bannock touched her mouth, she thought of the village fête tonight and felt a strange sense of trepidation, something that was quite rare in a village where familiarity and predictability were king. “Are you going to say yes tonight?” She asked. “To what?” “To Lawrence, are you going to say yes?” “If he proposes, yes.” Emily stated, sadness burdening her normally sweet voice “There must be something we can do, have you asked Mr. Tailor? he’ll help us, I’m sure.” “He doesn’t have the money. Lawrence is our best solution, our only solution.” There was a moment of silence and Emily braced herself for what she knew her sister would offer. This room had heard this particular argument unfold a myriad of times and for a moment, Emily was saddened that this was probably the last. “We could run.” “Aggie, no.” “You could open an orphanage where you want, Agatha argued, you don’t need it to be in boring old Bexley” “Well I like boring old Bexley, and I love Havenglow cottage, and I won’t see it go to waste on some rich stuffy old man who will only use it in the summer.” “So you’ll marry a rich stuffy old man instead?” “Lawrence is not old.” He wasn't, not particularly

“No he’s just boring.” He was, most definitely “What a wicked thing to say!” Emily chastised. “A wickedly true thing to say. He’s not worthy of you goose.” “Agatha…” the girl softened at the old nickname, “don't start, please.” “If you just moved away to a city, even for a month,” Agatha started, “I’m sure you could see that Bexley cottage is not the be all, end all of your life, and even if you don’t, I'm sure you could find a better, handsomer, RICHER man to take Lawrence’s place.”

The girl was not wrong. Emily was certainly the most coveted maiden in North Bexley. A born homemaker, she could steal any man’s heart with her baking prowess and her angelic singing voice. Although her heart had, as of yet not been moved by anyone.

“We don’t have a month aggie, and who’ll take care of this place? Who will make sure no children are turned away?”

“We haven’t had a child in 5 years Emily.”

“Then it should happen any day now.”

“Oh for the love of god!” Agatha exclaimed, snatching her sister’s hand with her own “Promise me, if there’s a possibility, even a small sliver of a chance you could escape this wretched, pathetic excuse for a…”

“Aggie…” Emily warned

“Marriage, you’ll take it. You’ll try.”

“Aggie, its…”

“Please, for me.”

The girl mulled it over and sighed. Emily could never say no to her sister, being the second born, she always felt like Agatha knew best and she had been shown to be right many times before. The eldest Havenglow seemed to have a sharp sense of intuition and often knew something would happen before it did (be it a stranger entering town, an unknown illness falling upon a villager or an unpredicted visitor at the cottage door). When the girls were children, Emily used to swear that Agatha possessed magic powers, but the girl relayed it to having spent all her life in a predictable and boring small community. After all, she reminded herself, sorcerers were few and far between and she would most probably never meet one in her lifetime, so the idea of her being such a creature was absolutely preposterous.

“Fine, I promise. But if by the time of his proposal I don’t have a better, safer option I will say yes, and I will go through with it. And that’s final.”

Agatha considered arguing further but, feeling the time wasn’t quite right, laid her head on Emily’s shoulder and chipped away at her bannocks.

A heavy silence fell over the room as both of the Havenglow girls ate their breakfast, their linen nightgowns floating in the wind and their feet snuggly kept warm by the impeccable knitwork of the late Mrs. Havenglow.

Hello there, no Howl in this chapter, but lawd he coming. Had to set stuff up :)

#howl's moving castle #howl imagine #howl pendragon #howl jenkins pendragon #howl jenkins

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thecagedsong · 3 years ago

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Forgotten Light: Chapter 6: Enchantress

A/N: Hey everyone. Going to start uploading at night so I can focus better during the day. Enjoy this short bit. Kendra isn’t going to get a lot of action at this point, so it’s training for her.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11

Chapter 6: Enchantress

The following morning, Kendra had Ronodin’s bag of gifts organized on the craft table in the library. Ronodin had added little labels, listing the general source and possible magic properties of each item. The ingredients were kind of icky. Fabric that was various blends of cotton, wool, hair of zombie, hair of Litche, milkweed, nettles, and deathknell spider silk, was in the first section. Wood blocks were in the second section, varieties of elder, damnation redwood, wood from the heart of hamadryad trees, blinding pine, and some from the Dedona forest of insanity. Paint mixtures in the third section, they came with various combinations of fairy blood, unicorn blood, phantom tears, poison, and reverent spit.

She decided that the wood blocks were the least gross and least possible to screw up. Reading more into their descriptions, she settled on balsa wood from the heart of a hamadryad tree. Hamadryads were nature spirits, connected to specific trees. It seemed a vulnerable wood that would help her craft an amulet for protection.

Without her memories, she felt vulnerable. Ronodin had given her an idea of who she was, but that wasn’t the same as being the person he knew. It wasn’t even the same as wanting to be that person, even though old Kendra sounded pretty cool.

Ronodin had assured her that while her family had disapproved, being an enchantress was her passion. The art of crafting magical items was almost entirely lost, but Kendra was one of the few that could bring it back. Her family had been worried about an influx of magical items falling into the wrong hands though, destroying their monopoly on the magical market. Luckily Ronodin had managed to secure most the replacements for the stuff she had forgotten to take with her.

She and Ronodin had read the how-to chapters together, and he specified which parts she was able to skip due to her status as fairy kind. She didn’t need pentagrams or runes, for example, but she did need to imbue the item with intent.

An amulet seemed like a good start. They were one of easiest since they were meant to be worn, and didn’t have a functionalty/magic property duality to worry about. She wanted a protective amulet, and browsing through her guidebook’s symbol glossary, Kendra settled on one that would make her enemies feel weak and distracted the closer they got to her.

Kendra carefully selected the knives she would need, and sketched out her design. A chain broken in six different places, at the points of a star, would go around the edges, and it would encircle a blob human. Circle for a head, hunched forward, the back at a diagonal, knees bent, hands on knees.

The second half of how to make the amulet was to ‘work the feelings into the material that makes the effect desirous’. Ronodin had explained that part too. She would take a hold of a little part of her magic, not all of it, but a little bit of the flame inside her, and feed it with emotion, bringing out that specific aspect of her magic, metaphysically drawing it into her hand and her tool. Then she would focus on separating that magic from herself, pushing it into an object with every touch, before cutting it off. Negative emotions worked best, because those lasted much longer than positive emotions, were easier to work, and attached themselves more readily to physical objects.

She took fear: fear of seeing people blasted into ash, fear of being stolen away in the night, fear of jump scares, fear of the dark she sometimes felt, pressing in around her. She took annoyance: annoyance with Ronodin’s stupid games, of being stuck underground, or losing her memories. And she took dismissiveness: it wouldn’t hurt them, just make them weak enough that she could escape or disarm them. They were in her way and needed to remove themselves, like Ronodin’s uncomfortable flirting, like the block on her memory, and like that loud dragon that kept yelling at everyone.

With each emotion, she physically made a pinching motion near her heart, and pulled out a thread of her magic and added it to the wood she carved through her knife. Technically she didn’t have to do the physical motion, the magic followed her will not her body, but it helped her focus. How good she was at this part was debatable, because while she should have been focusing on the emotions and pressing the magic into the wood, she kept having to refer back to her woodcarving guide for advice on what to do next.

Kendra cut herself twice, small knicks that stopped bleeding by the time she got the bandages out. She tried to wipe her blood off, but probably didn’t get everything. Hopefully her blood wouldn’t spoil the enchantment. Sanding until smooth felt very satisfying, letting her muscles get used in ways they hadn’t since trapping herself here. The finished product was pretty round (she could fit it into the top of her water glass), a little smaller than her palm, but good for her first try after forgetting everything.

She was a little surprised she wasn’t tired yet. One of the perks of living on your own while hiding out from your family was no one was around to tell you when to go to bed. Still, she didn’t want to throw her sleep schedule off too much, and so one paint job before bed. Instead of trying to paint in the details, she would make it all one color. When she got better at painting, maybe she could add in the details of the chain and the figure, and adding the effects of the paint would hopefully make up for what she couldn’t do in carving.

Looking over her selection of paints, which Ronodin promised were fairly sourced, she tried to feel out her options. When imagining the effect she wanted to have, it involved people turning pale, like the moment you stand up too fast, and you feel weak and can’t move.

Looking over the whites, she had three options: a silvery one of primer mixed with unicorn blood, a creamier one with magic goat milk and naiad tears, and a standard white that used Hemlock and Lethe water. She didn’t want the creamy color, and Lethe water was all about forgetting important things, which she had enough of to last a lifetime, so Kendra selected the paint with unicorn blood.

It was so fascinating what contained magical properties. Tears, blood, milk, poison, hair, it was said something about sacrifice and DNA and where magic comes from that was absolutely fascinating. She was starting to understand why she had been obsessed with it before.

Painting didn’t take nearly as much concentration as carving, and from the first dip of the paintbrush she focused on weakening those who wished her ill. Whatever she had done, the person occupying this body couldn’t be responsible for the past. Imagining her magic travelling from insider herself, down her arm, into the paintbrush, it smeared and soaked into the amulet. Harm her body or harm her spirit, and the enemy would start falling apart before they could touch her. Celebrant, the dwarf that took her memories, they would fall to the ground before they got close to her, too weak to do anything but watch her escape.

When she felt good about the paint coating, she went to the library and hung it over her fire to dry. Tired after that little bit of crafting, she picked up the book she had been reading before to take it with her to bed.

Kendra settled into bed and tried to find the page she was on before Ronodin made her drop it. She had been ending a page, and…the next page had been torn out. She hadn’t noticed it on her first read through. She had liked this book! And the gray areas those pages talked about were exactly what Ronodin had said she was interested in that her family wasn’t. It would have been nice to learn about it from another source.

The next page picked up on what was known about the Fair Folk, the Forgotten Crown, because while they were equal to the others in power technically their neutrality limited them so much as to keep anyone from caring about them. In modern times, people only ever referred to the Five Crowns, or the Five Thrones, but they shouldn’t discount the Fair Folk…

#Forgotten Light #Fablehaven/dragonwatch #Kendra Sorenson

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frogmutual · 4 years ago

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COMMISSIONS/DONATIONS HELP OUT A DISABLED, UNEMPLOYED, NONBINARY BUTCH

Hi there i’ve made a post similar to this a big time ago (when quarentine barely started) In that post I state that since im disabled and had been scammed by my previous job in January I couldn’t get any government money during quarentine cuz of it. My situation hasn’t changed in fact I need more help now. I finally managed to move out of my abusive household to live with my partner, but my partner is working a full time job and desperately trying to make things work. The appartment we managed to get is pretty expensive and im totally unable to find a job with Covid and well: DID, Anxiety, Autism, ADHD, and my Chronic Pain, plus the fact I can’t stand for more than 30 minutes without severe body pain. If that wasn’t enough, the fact I had to drop out of highschool due to mental health surely disqualifies me from any “high school diplomat needed” jobs.

Ive scrolled Indeed so many times and haven’t found much- if a small translator job that I may turn out not qualified to do if it asks me to translate from english to french instead of french to english. (wasn’t specified on the work application) As you can see, I really dont have many options if any. Right now my biggest hope is an appointment I have with project genesis on the 21s of september to sign up for disability welfare- but when I do I have no idea the time itll take to process or if ill even be accepted for it cuz shit sucks. Im really desperate here, my financial state didnt get any better than back when I made my first post (now deleted since i had been kind of sort of okay for a while and felt bad leaving it up). So please consider helping me out I know this is all a lot and things are hard for everyone here but I really could use some help. I take donations obviously but also Please Please look at my commissions if you’d rather buy smth than just donate

TL;DR I have absolutely 0 income because im disabled, mentally ill and covid’s a fucking bitch and I wanna be able to pay for bills and food now that im in my own appartment with my partner and out my abusive household, please consider donating or commissioning me

Click here for my commission post inside a google doc or click the keep reading for about the same information. (Better organized in the doc is all)

here’s the link to my paypal for any donations

Under the cut ill quickly rewrite info about my commissions

Writing Commissions

SFW;

1$ per 100 words. Past 2000 words, the price becomes 1.5$ per 100 words.

(Example, if you commissioned me 2k words, it would be 20$, if you commissioned me 3k words, it would be 35$)

NSFW;

1.5$ per 100 words. Past 2000 words, the price becomes 2$ per 100 words.

(Example, if you commissioned me 2k words, it would be 30$, if you commissioned me 3k words, it would be 50$)

Process:

-Payment is made by paypal

-Prices are all CAD.

-Half the money is paid upfront, you will receive 2 previews and I will be checking in with you sometimes to make sure we are still on the same page.

-Once the story is complete, you will pay me the rest and I will send you the file.

What I won’t do;

-Pedophilia

-Incest

-Yandere

-Any kinks im uncomfortable with

-Allow a minor to commission me NSFW stuff (If you’re a minor and you request it, I’ll refuse. Please dont lie about your age either.)

-Write ships I feel greatly uncomfortable with.

What I will do;

-Writings for the Kakegurui Fandom

-OCs & OC ships (If you give me a lot of info on them!!)

-Angst!! (even rlly heavy angst)

-Light gore (but no eye trauma)

-Background creating for OCs

Art Commissions

Deal 1 ~ Traditional Clean Pencil Sketch, Headshot: 5$

Deal 2 ~ Traditional Inking Lineart, Headshot: 10$

Deal 3 ~ Digital Lineart, Headshot: 15$

Deal 4 ~ Digital lineart + basic easy coloring, headshot: 25$

Note that with Deal 4 you may request 1 to 2 pride flags to be included in the background.

Deal 5 ~ A non-complex background with a given color palette of 3~5 colors: 10~20$ Process:

-Payment is made by paypal

-Prices are all CAD.

-Half the money is paid upfront for any art piece but for every deal after Deal 1 (So from deal 2 to 5) you will get a watermarked preview of the sketch to make sure we’re on the same page.

-Once the piece is completed, you will complete your payment and I will send you the file.

here’s some example of my art

(last one is a bit old and im better anatomy wise and all but since I only commission headshots rn i thought the faces we’re still pretty good even if abt a year ago)

#donations #boost #commissions #commissions open #please help out #asmodai talks

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generallyunskilled · 4 years ago

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Why I sympathize with or apologize for these Dream SMP characters

Since I’m very unwell and watch just about every perspective on the Dream SMP, I’m a sympathizer or apologist for just about every character. I figured I’d share my thoughts on that. This is probably gonna be long.

Before I get started, here’s who I’m not a sympathizer or apologist for

c!Dream: fuck this guy. You’re not supposed to sympathize with him. He’s just all around evil, man. He’s an abuser, manipulator and he preys on those weaker than him. I still enjoy his character however, he’s just so delightfully hateable and I love when villains are hateable.

c!Sam: I get Sam. I really do. I understand where he’s coming from. But good god, it’s just not working! His little system keeps fucking up and he doesn’t really seem to get that it’s the system itself and not the people fucking it up. He’s too damn lawful for his own good. The prison is eating at him and you can see how he’s becoming more and more a bastardized version of the man he used to be. I want to be able to sympathize with him, and I’m not going to excuse the shitty things he’s done, but I understand him. As he is right now he’s gone off the deep end and doesn’t even know it yet. However I do think he can change. There’s still a chance for it.

Any other character not listed I simply just do not have an opinion on them. Maybe I don’t watch them often, there’s just not much to their character, or they simply haven’t done much for them to need apologists or sympathizers.

Now onto the list

c!Tommy: this kid has been through so much and received so little support. Like yeah, he’s done some wrong things, but he’s been so disproportionately punished for them. Like almost everyone else does the things he does without any repercussions. He’s also stopped doing most of the things people had issues with, or is at least trying. I feel like people don’t realize half the reason Tommy did any of his ‘bad’ things is he’s simply never been taught better. Everyone wants him to learn his lesson but never actually teach him anything but violence and pain. Also, half the things the fandom calls him an asshole for are literally mental illness symptoms. Stop that. Kids got some things messed up in his head. I’m not one to diagnose but he gets pretty damn close to the criteria for C-PTSD. You know, from the near constant trauma in his life. Kid needs a break. And a doctor.

c!Techno: I’m really flip floppy with him. His motives are understandable but his morals are wack as hell. I get wanting something against people who’ve wronged you. I get disliking government. What I don’t get, is the absolute disproportionate retribution he delivers. I also don’t get his moral high ground. He has his reasons for distrusting government. He has his reasons for disliking L’Manburg (o7). And I think it’s perfectly valid to want to air his grievances. He’s got a very admirable combination of “do unto others” and “an eye for an eye”. Mans just bungles the execution of these ideas. He’s got a lot of problems, but however, I feel like he’s got something coming to him. cc!Techno’s a better writer than this. And now with it seeming like a lot of miscommunication is getting cleared up, some of Technos past transgressions might come back to him. I think he’s headed in an interesting direction.

c!Phil: a lot of what I said for Techno applies to him as well. In addition, we know he also blames the government for his son’s spiral and death. It makes sense based on what he knows. I had something completely different here in the drafts but now we know that Wilbur didn’t tell him the truth about what happened in Manburg-Pogtopia era of the SMP. He’s been completely misinformed and you can TELL this has shaken his world up. He’s gaining a lot of new knowledge really fast. It’s becoming clear that maybe he’s beginning to regret some of what he’s done. But beyond the misinformation, he also just never got much time to actually grieve for his son and heal before the plot moved on. I feel like Phil is one of those guys who sorta just stuffs all his emotions away, but now it’s getting to be too much. He has a lot of hidden depth and I think he’s definitely on the way to a different role than what he’s played.

c!Wilbur: before his death, Wilbur needed help. No one realized anything was wrong until it was too late to pull him out of his spiral. We now know he started falling after Eret’s betrayal. He was paranoid and growing to hate what he had created. It seems like Eret was the catalyst, but the election was the straw that broke the camels back. Everyone just kind of sat around and hoped he’d change his mind. The only one willing to try was Tommy, and Tommy was just a kid. Something could have been done for him. He wasn’t a villain. He was just someone who went down a dark path that could have been pulled away if someone who wasn’t a 16 year old boy tried to reach out to him. Post-resurrection, he seems to be happy to be alive again. I’m not saying he’s completely out of the spiral but clearly something changed in limbo. And yeah him saying Dream is his hero is hella sketch but I mean, he doesn’t have the full story yet. I need to see more of revivedbur to make an opinion on him entirely.

c!Tubbo: this kid has had so little agency for so much of the plot. Most of the bad things he’s done were under duress or because he was practically being used. He really was a pawn in other peoples games, unfortunately. Any action of his that wasn’t like this was something he did out of pure reaction. He’s a very reactionary guy. He doesn’t start shit but he’ll try to finish it if he can. Tubbo is mostly just trying to get by. He’s been a soldier, a spy, a president and whatever else he needed to be or what others needed him to be. His time as president had him being pushed around and put under pressure he should never been put under. He was backed into corner after corner and expected to make the right decision with different people telling him what that was. Now he’s just trying to have some peace for himself and his family. He made the nukes for defense and defense only. It’s extreme but he’s been taught that extremism is the only thing that works.

c!Ranboo: dude literally doesn’t know what, when, or how he did any of the bad things he did. He’s not himself for most of the wrongdoings he’s done. Hell, we don’t even know if he actually did do some of the things or if it’s Dream manipulating him. Dream is literally taking advantage of Ranboo having the Enderwalk state. This makes him one of the most dangerous people on the server as Dream puppet, but also one of the most victimized. Now this doesn’t absolve him completely because harm was still done but it’s a reasonable cause behind his actions. Like I mentioned he’s also a victim of Dream in this way. Even he’s scared of what could happen and the possibility that he could be a danger to the people he loves. Granted his moral code used to be pretty wack but he’s getting better at that. I really like his “choose people” stance bc at first it was just him making his own side but now he’s genuinely picking and choosing people and being with them because he likes them as people rather than their stance on things. He and Tubbo were already friends before they got married, he’s not an official part of Snowchester though, iirc, and the only reason he joined The Syndicate was to make sure they don’t go after Tubbo.

c!Fundy, c!Niki, and c!Jack all go in the “seek some healthy coping mechanisms for the love of god” pile. Niki has already started on this as she’s baking again. c!Fundy honestly hasn’t done much wrong afaik, but he still needs to go to therapy that poor fox boy has so much daddy issues and sadness. c!Jack literally just needs to work through his issues with Tommy bc dude only knows murder as an answer to his problems. There’s other ones and he should learn them. These three are just traumatized and don’t know what to do with themselves.

#mcyt #dream smp #mcytblr #dsmpblr #dream smp analysis #dream smp meta #dsmp analysis #dsmp meta #c!dream critical #c!sam critical #c!dream negativity

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