#into my linework… but lines are not sketches!!! so it leads to linework I don’t like either cuz it’s all scratchy and weird

[pepperpixel]

Both love and hate the absolute DELUGE of ink a fresh sharpie unleashes onto the paper the instant it makes contact…. I have complicated feelings towards the deluge lmao

[penaltyboxboxbox]

how long have you been drawing for ? your art seems so confident (that seems mean but it’s a compliment i promise) like your strokes and stuff just seem so… educated? like you don’t need to sketch you already know what you want to do ?

my whole life!!!!! ive been drawing since i was a little childdddd like the second i could hold a pencil i was drawing! i got put into art classes very young as well cause i liked to draw so much. i started formal classes at like? 6/7 years old probably? and i did some form of either art class at school, out of school, or some combination from that age until i was an adult. So i've had a decent amount of formal training as a kid and have always just genuinely loved drawing so on top of that i was always drawing for fun too.

I think things really shifted for me when I was like?? 21/22 ish and i got very very into portraiture specifically- i really honed a lot of my skills in that department and honestly just became so obsessed with form. I would draw so much realism, tons of studies, i loved to work backwards- draw the shape/form of a thing first, usually in paint or marker, and then add the lines/details on top. i generally during this time also completely stopped working in any erasable mediums. i became and still am to this day a pens only artist, i cant stand to draw with a pencil.

Doing this gave me what i think is one of the best skills to have as an illustrator- a very confident stroke. Being able to attack a piece, not be afraid of the marks you make, working with what you have rather than fussing until you think it's perfect, made my work much more striking and made me a lot more comfortable with messing up and figuring out a way to fix it. or even start over.

i think generally heavily and meticulously sketching in pencil is what leads a lot of artists to tons of frustration. the linework never looks as good as the sketch, you sketched for hours and only now you realized something is off, takes forever to go back, etc etc etc. I find it to often be very demoralizing- so i always advise just to get as comfortable as you can with as few lines as possible. focusing on FORM and PROPORTION rather than the skeleton method or going over with tiny little pencil strokes. everyone has different methods that work best for them, but that was one thing i taught myself that really changed art for me!

[mssirey]

Some agentreign, with a tattoo artist Alex! 

Alex knew the roughly sketched symbol, of course. How could she not recognize the insignia of the character her sister played on her show—the campy series with its sometimes shallow commentary or ham-fisted allegories of the world, but that left enough room for interpretation that lent to a beloved view of its main cast. 

When Alex glanced up at the woman who had booked her afternoon slot, there seemed nothing outwardly fan-ish about her—her aesthetic one of corporate power, her blazer a sharp cut from a designer Alex couldn’t be bothered to know the name of, her palette choices bold, but smart—not someone she would have read as having much time for fun. But then, Kara was much the same, and she knew better about how deeply her sister loved being a part of a show about superheroes. 

“My daughter really loves the show,” the woman offered with a little wave of her hand at the drawing, a jittery air around her, as if she anticipated the judgment she might face, “and Supergirl is her favorite character, of course!” She laughed, a short puff exhaled as her shoulders sagged and her hand returned to ring together with her other. “She said I was her Supergirl the other day, and if you knew how much she loves the character—“

Alex stopped her then, a gentle smile touching her lips. “That is a beautiful base for a tattoo,” she assured. She stepped forward, reached out without thinking, hand covering the nervous twist of fingers, warm against her palm. That close, she realized how tall the woman was—especially as her shoulders pulled back and she straightened up just a little. 

Alex almost withdrew her hand as the woman’s teeth clacked sharply together. She watched lashes flutter over warm chocolate eyes as they dropped to where their hands touched, lingering while their breath was held as one. 

“Wow— ” one hand pulled free of hers, Alex’s stomach ready to turn, only for fingers to run so gingerly over her own skin—from wrist up her forearm—drawing her gaze down to the full sleeve of ink that she had poured her own heart into, disappearing beneath the once-tidy cuff of her shirt, since stained with the efforts of the day. “Your tattoos are… so…” she had heard all manner of words to describe the art she wore—everything from ‘intense’ to ‘troubling’—rarely a favorable opinion coming from someone who wasn’t an enthusiast, “catching.”

Alex swallowed as those fingers traced a line of color, meant to accentuate the form of the figures at the center of the design—both a representation of herself, stood back to back; one stripped down to blood and bone; the other painted in an unnatural light, too ‘perfect’, meeting all the expectations placed on her, shackles on her wrists and chains weighing down her shoulders. 

“I designed it myself,” she said the first thing to come to mind, her eyes almost rolling at her own lack of wit. 

“I really like it,” the woman commented before seeming to realize how long she had been touching Alex, her hand jerking upward, a marvelous warmth reaching her cheeks. 

They parted, a full pace put between them by the time Alex found the breath to offer her thanks. 

“So, um, did you just want the insignia?” Alex held up the sketch to bring them back to business. 

The woman faltered, a plea writing itself into her expression. “Well, um, so, you might be able to tell, but I’m not much of an artist,” she exhaled, a laugh bubbling up after, plucking at the chords of Alex’s heart. “I know I want to use the symbol, but I… I don’t know what else to include.”

Alex chuckled along with her. “That’s alright,” she assured. “Come on, let me stretch a few ideas for you,” she waved for the woman to follow her, leading them to her drawing table. The sigh of relief she heard tickled up her spine, and she had to resist shivering. 

Drawing on little bits of knowledge she had picked up from Kara, Alex started with a simple base, offering the traditional symbol along with a few alternate designs—some softer, some sharper, some with broken or doubled lines to add a bit of extra dimension—before getting into a range of accenting options. 

The woman was vocal with her thoughts as she looked over Alex’s shoulder, humming approving notes when something stood out to her, or commenting on the touches she liked, allowing Alex to easily evolve the piece. There was particular interest when she mentioned the phrase ‘el mayarah’ and explained its meaning. 

“Oh! Ruby has definitely said that before,” she gushed, the happy little sigh that accompanied the words tugging at the corners of Alex’s lips, her grin so effortless. “We should definitely include that!” 

It wasn’t long before they had a final design— staying true to the show’s version of the insignia and incorporating both ‘el mayarah’ and the script of the language used by Supergirl, wreathed by a flowy, cape-like backing. 

“This will likely take two visits— one for the linework and base coat, and then another for the detailing. Is that okay?” She certainly wouldn’t be sad to see the woman again and grinned when she agreed. “You said you were hoping to have this on your back,” Alex prompted as she led the woman to her station. 

“Over my heart, yeah,” she confirmed.

“I really like it,” Alex echoed the words spoken to her, and she genuinely meant it. She loved the way the woman talked about her daughter, how every word ran deep with love, how cherished the little girl was. 

“Is there anything I should know... going in?” There was a surge of nervousness buzzing in the air as the woman shrugged out of her jacket, folding it neatly over the chair at Alex’s desk. 

There was a moment—as Alex watched buttons slipping free of their holes—that she forgot herself, staring longer than might have been polite before she busied herself with putting on her gloves and arranging her inks. “Mostly that when I’m over your ribs, you will feel it,” she sucked in a sympathetic breath. “But, I’ll be gentle, and you can always take a break, if you need.”

She waved the woman toward the chair, turning away as she divested her bra and slid into place against the padding. 

“Comfortable?” She got only a nod before she pulled up her own stool. “Relax,” she coaxed, placing a gentle hand on the woman’s back. “I’ll take good care of you and you can swear all you like.” 

“Glad to know it.”

As Alex had warned, the woman did feel it. Her breath hissed through her teeth, a sharp inhale that tugged at her, but then she relaxed beneath Alex’s hand. “Good girl.” The words slipped out before she could think to question them, and her own breath caught in her lungs, her gun lifting away from the woman’s skin. There was a soft shiver and then stillness, the barest whimper bubbling out of the woman. 

Alex could have perished. The woman was so pliant beneath her, and it took everything to concentrate on the design. But she leaned into that soft praise, continued to encourage her to stay loose, and things went very well—hardly needing to hold the woman still and working straight through without a break. And in the end, she did manage to finish the whole piece, running only slightly overtime. 

There was a little disappointment knowing that she likely wouldn’t see the woman again. “If you need any touch-ups, you can always reach out,” she offered. 

“Thank you,” the woman said as she gingerly slipped back into her jacket. She bent over Alex’s desk, scribbling something down on the sketchpad with all the trial drawings. “Maybe we could get dinner some time,” she nodded down at the page, where her number was scrawled. 

“I’d like that,” Alex grinned, excitement blooming in her chest. The woman’s name was also there on the page. “Then, I’ll see you later, Sam.”

“I look forward to it, Alex.” The sentiment echoed through her for days, accompanied with the image of Sam’s haughty little smirk. 

[elecman108]

Man, I forgot to post 90% of my art here for the past while. I’m gonna do an art dump in this post under the cut. Enjoy the bonk emoji if you don’t click the read more, and man am I dumb and forgetful lmao.

Includes: OCs getting names, a Sonic impression, a D&D map, homosexual energies, a sheep floating in the astral sea, a birthday drawing I already posted, Hex Maniac Ender, D&D Characters, D&D Characters as Miis in Miitopia, Little Hater Axel, local Demon in the consciousness of my D&D character yelling at him, illegal plants, a necromancer being cute, an actual event that happened in a D&D game two days ago, and Mermay drawing.

That’s everything in here as a TL;DR, I guess. Enjoy your day!

I’m gonna try and sort of have them in chronological order, oldest first, but I may end up putting them in the wrong order. If I do... Whoops, I guess?

[04/14/21] - This isn’t really new art, but I started to work on giving the four OCs of mine without a full name full names... I have not finished this bit, though. So Hunter and Akira have full names, and Warlock and Assassin only have temporary names. This may end up like Seven where I put in their names as a temporary name (7th OC I’d made at that time) and it just kind of... sticks. Lmao.

[04/20/21] - Alone on a Friday Night? God, you’re pathetic. I didn’t colour this one because it was a half-attempt at a meme image I still like it, though, so I might end up colouring it. It’s gonna appear again whenever I do my “unfinished drawings art dump” at some point probably in... June? I know I said I’d post them last month but forget it, lmao, it’ll happen eventually.

[04/20/21] - A D&D Map! This was to help me visualize the layout of my D&D character’s ship he used to be on. Also for my DM if they ever put us aboard the ship. The little fella in the corner is just there to vibe. This map is made of free to use assets from This Website, so while I’m gonna say DONT USE MY MAP WITHOUT PERMISSION, feel free to make your own!

[04/26/21] - Lesbian Day of Visibility drawing of yours truly, the disapointment! That’s... really all I have to say about this, honestly. It was just for that one day and that was it, lmao. I mean, I accidentally lined it in dark pink, so.. .That’s different, I guess?

[04/30/21] - Do Astral Seas dream of Ensorcled Sheep? Does the City know what Sheepleb is going to do? What crimes he may commit? Who knows! This was fan art of Critical Role ep. 134 if I remember correctly, right at the end when they jumped into the portal into the astral sea and Caleb was a sheep. Using my knowledge of the German language, I knew the word for “shit”, and had to use it.

[05/07/21] - This was already posted, but it’s going in here to dilinuate that it was drawn at this point. Also, aside from playing Miitopia, this is all I have to show for myself until the 12th.

[05/12/21] - Hex Maniac Ender challenges you to a Pokemon Battle! WIll you win against my team? My sis, who loves fairy types, pointed out to me that there’s a fairy girl and hex maniac duo, so I’d be the hex maniac. I spent... Over a week drawing this, because I basically had to redraw the Hex Maniac art from scratch in a higher quality size, and then draw myself over it. So... You can excuse the low-effort background for once. It was basically this, and then my birthday doodle from May 1st to May 12th, and then I took a break to draw up several D&D characters quickly for fullbody references.

[05/12/21] - Remember this art I made several months ago? I finally added my other two completed characters! I have three more named but without character sheet D&D characters, so for now this is just Kara, Axel, Golden Shadow, Kau, Cecillia, and Miri. Kress, Tempest, and Melia will have to wait until I make character sheets for them to be posted, and... For when I probably make more D&D characters. I have at least 9 additional, incomplete character ideas floating around, so... I’m never gonna be done this art, huh?

[05/12/21] - Speaking of D&D characters, did you know I’ve been making them as Miis in Miitopia? So here is their finished full body art next to their Miitopia self! Some of them look a little off (Golden Shadow, Cecillia) because of limitations of the editor and shading issues, some of them look a little off (Kau, Kress) because this is a human face canvas that I’m using to make a non-human face, and some of them (Melia, Axel) look REALLY GOOD. Common traits among my D&D characters include green eyes and tall. You wanna know why? Because I am tall and... despite having red eyes, I do have green eyes under the coloured contacts.

[05/15/21] - More D&D stuff! This is based around my D&D group’s current Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign where our Goliath Fighter, Nioh, ends up getting a little bit of hate for being cocky, and our little (well over 6′) hater, Axel, is just a man full of irritation. These are the tallest two characters of the group at the moment. Someone send help. Nioh belongs to one of the other D&D players, Axel (and his stupid additude) belongs to me.

[05/15/21] - This is what me playing D&D feels like. Me, the demon entity trapped inside the head of my D&D character, yelling at them to do things while the dice decide that they’re gonna get bopped a hundred times by a yeti and somehow still survive. This is also a reference to our first or second game where I just ran off like sixty feet to one side of the battle map to fight a Crag Cat and was just in Gay Baby Jail until like two turns later when I could run back to the others. I also drew him not in his winter gear even though this is a bit from when we were atop Kelvin’s Carin in an icy cave, so maybe that’s why he’s at low HP.

[05/15/21] - Melia has good gardening tips, such as Use A Mars Mii Trap To Hide A Body Because They Are Endangered And It Is Illegal To Dig Them Up. I love her a lot, because she’s the youngest of four, all four sisters based around the different seasons. She’s based around Autumn, so she’s all orange and yellow and brown and is so cute. Also she’s Chaotic Neutral, as if she didn’t need to be mildly more threatening.

[05/15/21] - Cecillia is my Tiefling gal who lived in a very northern town plagued by cold weather and snow, and Axel is my Pirate guy who spent most of his time further south on the high seas and warmer weather. So, naturally... I’ll use the guy more acclimatized to the hotter weather in the campaign where we spend 99% of it in the snow. She uses Tarot Cards as her spell focus, and I decided to sneak my other D&D characters onto her Tarot cards so naturally, Axel is The Hanged Man, given his backstory and personality. She’s a very cheerful and friendly Tiefling Necromancer of the Hexblade, so she’d for sure take care of those around her to ensure their success. Especially if they’re on her Tarot Cards, and their spirit comes to her aid when she asks for them.

[05/16/21] - Content Warning; Ryma thinks too much into local stupid moron’s lack of knowing how to answer a question and thinks too much into the reputation of Pirates. Poor Axel, man doesn’t know how to socialize with people who aren’t pirates and is used to being hostile towards everyone, so when he’s asked a question that his answer to is “uhh... no?”, he panics and ends up making a mistake that leads him to think that Ryma can read his mind. Ryma belongs to another of the D&D players. I guess me drawing all those spicy Cow Costumed OCs earlier just brought me to drawing Axel being a bottom in this, huh?

[05/16/21] - It’s Mermay, which means more OC drawings! Here’s Theo after drinking some potion that turned him into a mermaid, and Seven, tiredly, collecting his stupid boyfriend so that Lailah can fix the fact he’s turned into a mermaid. Mer!Theo is based around his sword’s colours of indigo-purple with red accents, which looks a little weird since Theo is the Blue one of the group, but... it looks cool, I guess. Seven’s just the same outfit as always, just no gloves this time.

--

And that’s it for the art dump! This was, frankly, MASSIVE. I’ll try and remember to upload both on Twitter and Tumblr at the same time, but... Ah... I have been drawing a fair bit. Just mostly sketches and linework that I haven’t finished and may not actually finish. If they’re not completed, I’ll dump them all into something at the end of the month or whatever. Maybe you’ll get the old sketch of the Axel face in panel 3 because in the sketch phase it was an Ahegao face, in the clean sketch it was a lip bite, and in the linework and final it’s just horny face. lmao.

Top ten things I have to remember for drawing: AXEL HAS A SCAR AND GREEN EYES. I remember his eye colour now, but if you look at his fullbody ref, he’s got brown eyes. And, naturally, I keep forgetting to put in his scar. He has more, but most of them are located in areas covered by his clothes. So if I ever draw him shirtless I guess I’ll have to place them somewhere.

Also maybe finish the reference sheets I have left to finish so I can post more of them, since I have two “Pets” completed (Roko and Mona’s nameless pet), but I have to do up Hunter, Warlock, Assassin, Akira, Myuut, and Stella. I’m betting when I do complete two more, it’ll be Hunter and Akira. Those two are the most fun to draw, at least.

[esther-p]

Artist Sketchbook Pages

Pat Perry

The concept of this work is very interesting as we see fantasy-like characters that are larger than life. I will use this concept in my own work as I like depictions between reality and fantasy, also the pop of colour within the grey draws attention, something i can use in my own work.

Thomas Cian

I like the attention to detail in this observational sketch and way blank space is used to create contrast and a focus on an object. I can use the technique of putting less detail and leaving blank what is less important like he has done with the surrounding area.

Thomas Sutherland

Even though not much has been drawn we can see the perspective of a path leading down the page. The source of light also can be made out from shadows on the ground. I can use this decision making in my own work when drawing quick sketches so I can convey a scene with little detail.

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

I like this simple ink linework and the way the artist used lines to convey shadows and density by drawing the lines closer together. This can be a technique I use when drawing with pen. 

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

The use of watercolour creates a pictures that feels more alive and I like the randomness of the page featuring different studies of animals and plants. I will use watercolours in my work as I haven’t experimented a lot with them.

James Boswell

I like this street scene and the detail created with lines and smudging, I want to create something like this with ink as it is a media I don’t use often as you can’t erase mistakes.

[daily-rayless]

20 Years of Art

2000

(OC / Celes from Final Fantasy 6 / OC / OC)

The influence of Final Fantasy 6, off of the Anthology collection, and Yoshitaka Amano caused a significant shift in my art, leading my human figures to be very slender, graceful, and frequently pale. Most of it was of women, some of it was of horses, and by then I was very self-consciously starting to draw men. I mostly worked in pencils and colored pencils. Faces were oval with high hairlines and long, sharp, narrow noses. Also note my evident fear of mouth-seams and lower eyelids. I was pretty terrible at coloring, often feeling that coloring one of my sketches ruined all the nice linework.

2001

(Quistis from Final Fantasy 8 / Rosa from Final Fantasy 4? / Schala from Chrono Trigger / Dark Knight OC from Final Fantasy 4)

This is where more anime influences came in, and I consciously took on a semi-anime, semi-realistic (in my own mind) style. My ideal of beauty was overbig eyes, overlong nose, and oversmall mouth, and I stuck to it pretty relentlessly. Trying to figure out shadows and face structure. Still bad at coloring. I was incredibly proud of that charcoal picture. Was also going through my mandatory Dark 'n Edgy phase, with a big helping of Phantom of the Opera, Sarah Brightman, and my attempts at designing supercool clothes, many of which I wouldn't have actually worn, even given the opportunity.

2002

(Me trying to recreate “Flaming June” / OC, who incidentally looks almost exactly like Sarah Brightman and whose diadem was bodily lifted from a Jodi Lee painting / angsty symbolic wet chain lady / OC)

Deep in the Dark 'n Edgy. Faces are still very heavily made-up, with big lashes, defined upper eyelids, and dark lips. Trying very hard to be a good artist though, have high expectations for the future. I was so proud of that final pose and worked so hard on it. Lined paper? So not a problem. Besides, how else am I supposed to draw during class? A sketchbook would've been even more obvious than the incredibly obvious I already was. I'm able to listen while drawing pretty reliably, and I did manage to take detailed notes while doodling, so at least I had that going for me.

2003

(Celes / OC / OC / Hermes-inspired wing lady)

I was focusing (at least some of the time) on backgrounds and trying to make my work detailed and polished. Coloring is still hopeless. Often when I colored, I would go super light, even when I was using dark or intense colors. It would give my pictures a sort of faint, half-assed hazy look. I remember an art teacher urging me to use more color, but I probably resisted because I knew that way lay total destruction. I'm sorry, well-meaning art teacher. You are unversed in the ways of my pencils. I have killed too many sketches to take those kinds of risks.

2004

(Rosa? / Meliara from Crown Duel / willow-dress lady / Geddoe and Queen from Suikoden 3)

See the Meliara picture? That's supposed to be a night scene in a forest. Front-lit by blazing firelight. I was too afraid to make the colors darker. This is dark enough, okay? Anyway, this year, along with being utterly obsessed with Suikoden 3 and Crown Duel, I was letting my art head in a more realistic direction...

2005

(OC / Queen / Queen / part of Zetta and Salome from Makai Kingdom; I remember deliberately copying those swoopy Ss from one of my friends’ handwriting. Wishes ended up being the first longform fanfic I posted online.)

...that really flourished this year. It's not actually realism, but I made a point to give my characters, especially the women, more realistic bodies. Faces are very round in this period, often with soft features. Noses are prominent. I'm also, finally, using more vibrant colors. I probably got my first Prismacolor pencils around this time. I also got some really cheap markers, but had no idea how to use them so mostly stuck to pencils.

2006

(All OCs)

I look back on this as a good year. I was learning better coloring techniques. (Bold colors! Press that pencil down! Okay, I still had much to learn.) I got an Elfwood gallery while the site was doing its slow mosey into oblivion. But that was an important step, not just looking at other people's art online, but putting my own up as well. There were downsides though. I began to feel more insecure – or maybe more realistic? – about my art, on this site with so many highly talented artists. Still, 2006 is a good year. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot.

2007

(vampire and hunter / Fleur from Harry Potter / OC / Avril from Wild Arms 5)

The year of Fleur Delacour. This is when I was writing Kindred. I think it was because I was trying to depict Fleur as distinctly non-human that my art shifted away from that more realistic style. Fleur, and my other figures, became very tall and slender. The anime DNA is still there though. For a long time, I felt the lying-down picture of Fleur was my best work.

2008

(Revya and Gig from Soul Nomad / my attempts at being “abstract” / OC / OC)

This was the year of Soul Nomad and, towards the end, Tales of the Abyss. Unsurprisingly, the anime influences start moving back to the fore. The eyes are becoming larger again, the features a bit more angular and stylized, mouths are shrinking. I'm still desperately trying to figure out markers and wondering why it's so darn hard (I don't try to educate myself, I just flail), but I was proud of that blue OC picture. It made me feel like I was getting somewhere. 2008 is when I started my deviantART gallery, right when everyone else was moving on to Tumblr.

2009

(teacup lady / Persona 4 noir-style comic / Revya / OC)

Then Persona 4 hit. Shigenori Soejima was a huge influence in this period, especially in eyes and faces. Pupils, chins, and jawlines shrink, eyelashes are sparse and stylized, noses are simplified. 2008 and 2009 are about as pure anime as I've ever gotten. Meanwhile, I'm really exited about my dA gallery and trying lots of different combinations of media. I'm super active on dA and FFN at this point, writing Elysion and then a slew of shorter Persona fics.

2010

(Minako from Persona 3: Portable / concept-art-version Minako / lady with dragon ferret thing / other lady with dragon ferret thing)

I'm still drawing with a lot of Soejima influences. Additionally, bodies are becoming even longer, taller, thinner, and bendier. Some of them look absurd to me now. On the other hand, a lot of pictures from this period have a nice elegance to them. I was still using colored pencils a fair bit, but more clumsy markers are showing up. Persona 3: Portable came out, and this is when I was writing Death and Ker.

2011

(mask lady / hat lady / Archaya, Duphaston, and Iryth from Eternal Poison / symbolic autumn lady and her winter baby)

Midway through this year, I hit a breakthrough when I got my first set of Copics – and skin tones, no less. Even though I was still flailing, I was so thrilled with my results. That Eternal Poison picture left me enormously proud, as did the mother and child one. My style hasn't changed all that much, but it's starting to feel less extreme. The focus on big eyes and tiny little mouths remains.

2012

(Elza from Suikoden 2 / Daryl and Setzer from Final Fantasy 6 / Killey and Lorelai from Suikoden 2 / Lyssa, Greek goddess of madness)

This is the year of Elza. Lots of delicate sketches of this lovely scarred lady, and lots of colored pictures too. I've definitely shifted away from pencils towards markers. The Daryl and Setzer one was an attempt to use both, and I was very happy with it. These pictures show their age, but there's still a lot here I like. Mouths are larger too. However, my online activity was starting to lag.

2013

(Rydia from Final Fantasy 4 / Nia from Infinite Space / the prophet and Schala / Argos and Io from Greek mythology)

The mid-2010s weren't entirely great for me, marked with a lot of frustration and discontent. And that definitely carried over to my art, making me feel very disappointed with myself. There was lots of marker work this year. Probably the standout picture is Argos and Io. This is also when I played through all three routes of Fate/Extra, and my art was suddenly full of Hakuno and Emiya.

2014

(Minako / butterfly lady / Marta and Tenebrae from Tales of Symphonia 2 / Elza)

Looking at it now, this was a good year. Lots of nice marker art. The butterfly one was a big step up for me in terms of coloring. The Marta and Tenebrae has a really cool stylized look to it. But I was becoming less enthusiastic about sharing my art with others. I started to post less and less.

2015

(evil Hakuno and Emiya from the Fate series / Mitsuru from Persona 3 / half moon cookie lady / Hakuno)

I barely posted anything this year, though I was still drawing a ton. As far as making strides, this is one of my better years. Coloring will never be my strong suit, but it's a lot more fun, and it looks a lot better. It's almost entirely marker-work at this point. Despite my, er, angst, a lot of people are smiling this year.

2016

(OC / doodle lady / Luna from Roman mythology / hair bow lady)

At this point, it's feeling too recent for me to really see what's changed. I did a fair bit of eraserless work. One problem I still have – and, yes, it involves coloring my pictures – is losing some of the image's personality after I've inked it and erased the initial pencil work. The picture's still there, but not as nuanced as it originally was. The results often feel stiff to me. Doing the first linework in ink, or not inking at all, allows me to keep that sensitive, spontaneous quality. Luna and the bow and doodle ladies were done without erasers. Another thing I did a lot this year was fill backgrounds with busy shapes and colors, which is a trend I’m still following today.

2017

(flapper and dog / Alcyone and Ceyx from Greek mythology / flower hair lady / Kida from Atlantis)

Not a good year. Not that the art is bad, there just isn't a lot of it, and what there is often isn't very finished. I was still mostly dark online, wondering if I should take down my dA gallery. Drawing and knowing I wasn't going to post something took off some of the pressure of my own expectations, but I was still unhappy.

2018

(Altera from the Fate series / Elizabeth Bathory from the Fate series / OC / Aranea from Final Fantasy 15)

This was a really important year for me. I wrote a novel I'm really proud of, and it's done a lot to give me confidence and a sense of creative direction. I also decided that after New Years, I was going to start a Tumblr gallery...just as everyone who was still on the site was jumping off of it. Much of my 2018 work is still sketchy and unfinished, but I also think it's loosening up some. It feels less stiff than the stuff from the middle of the decade.

2019

(Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn / medievaly lady / Red from Transistor / Red)

The year of Supergiant Games, which led me to focus more on bright saturated colors. It's really hard for me to analyze these objectively. Coloring is better? I worked more on details? I used my metallic gel pens a ton and did shape-cluttered backgrounds? These aren't new things, but I think they paid off okay. I'm more at peace with my level of ability, I've finished more complicated works, and I crawled out of my den and started posting regularly online again. So that's all good. Curious to see what the art looks like in twenty more years.

[celestialvoid-fanfiction]

Tattoos and Memories

@thominho-week July 1: Tattoos/Titles (A2+A7)

The memories are too painful to face, especially when they’re tattooed into their skin. Minho comes up with the idea to rewrite their tattoos to rewrite the memories. 

Scars fade, but the tattoos never seem to.

It had been nearly a year since they escaped WICKED, but the memories of everything that had happened still haunted them.

Thomas sat on the edge of the cliff that overlooked the ocean, listening to the water lap at the rocky bluffs below.

Thomas rubbed at the back of his neck. He’s never seen it, but he knows it’s there.

PROPERTY OF WICKED. Group A, Subject A2 – To be killed by Group B.

“Hey, shank,” Minho said quietly.

Thomas jumped, dropping his hand from his neck as he turned to watch Minho walk up beside him and sitting down next to him.

The older boy leant back on his hands, his eyes looking out across the rippling ocean that was lit by the rising sun.

“I woke up and you weren’t there,” Minho said quietly. He turned to look at Thomas, his eyes soft and his voice void of the usual sarcasm and teasing. “Are you okay?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Thomas said, trying to pass it off as nothing.

“Nightmares?” Minho asked.

“No. It’s nothing.”

“Nice try, shank,” Minho said firmly. “I know you better than that. What’s going, Thomas?”

Before he could stop himself, he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh,” Minho said, Thomas’ silence speaking volumes.

Thomas let a measured breath fall past his lips, his shoulders sagging as he dropped his gaze.

“I don’t want to be what they tried to make me,” Minho said after a while, his voice low enough that Thomas could barely hear it.

Thomas remembered reading the black letters that were tattooed onto Minho’s neck: PROPERTY OF WICKED. Group A, Subject A7 – The Leader.

“I don’t feel like a leader,” Minho said quietly, emotions swirling in the dark depths of his eyes. “No leader leads their friends to their deaths.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Thomas said. “None of it was your fault.”

“I know,” Minho replied, balling his hands into fists before unfurling them again. “But it still kind of feels like it is.”

Thomas looked at him, his heart sinking as he tried to find the words to ease his pain.

“You were a better leader than I ever was,” Minho added, before falling silent again. “You know, Sofia—” He cleared his throat and corrected himself, “Lizzy is a pretty good artist. You should see the mural she painted inside her cabin. Maybe she could, I don’t know, tattoo over it?”

“You think it’ll work?” Thomas asked.

Minho shrugged. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

Thomas thought about it for a moment before nodding.

Minho gently patted his shoulder, pushing himself back up onto his feet and stretching. “I’ll talk to her as soon as she’s up. Until then, I’m going to get breakfast started. You can join me if you want company, but if your sorry ass doesn’t eat, you’re going to be in big trouble.”

Thomas couldn’t help but smile. “I want to be alone for a little bit longer I’ll join you in a while.”

“Okay,” Minho said, gently tousling Thomas’ messy hair affectionately. He took a few steps before stopping and turning to call out to Thomas. “Hey.”

Thomas looked over his shoulder at him.

“You’re not alone,” Minho said quietly.

A soft smile payed across Thomas’ lips, reading the subtext of Minho’s words. “I know.”

“I mean it,” Minho added. “If you’re not down there when the breakfast bell rings, I’m coming back up here and kicking your ass off that cliff.”

Thomas let out a soft laugh as he watched Minho turn and walk back towards the Safe Haven.

  Lizzy agreed in a heartbeat, pulling out an old notebook she had in her cabin and showing them the drawings she had done.

Thomas made an attempt to describe what he had in mind, and the sketch Lizzy drew up was better than anything he could have ever imagined.

He stripped off his shirt and sat down on her bed, turning his back to her. Lizzy sat down behind him and set to work, covering up the tattoo and blending the black ink into the new design.

When she was done, she held up a hand mirror, angling it so that Thomas could see the new tattoo: a chain of forget-me-nots, the delicate blue petals and bold yellow centres that stook out against his pale skin. Fine black lines were intertwined with the flowers, swirling and curling into cursive letters that spelt out the names of the friends they had lost; Chuck, Newt, Winston, Alby.

Minho walked in a few minutes later.

“Looking good, shank,” he teased, a smirk lighting up his face as he looked from Thomas’s new tattoo to his bare chest.

Thomas pulled on his shirt as Minho stepped over to Lizzy’s side.

She held out her sketchbook for him, showing him another design she had done.

Thomas looked at him, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“What?” Minho said as he stripped off his shirt without hesitation or shame, and sat down. “You didn’t think you were the only one getting their stupid tattoo covered up, did you?”

Thomas’ eyes drifted to Minho’s bare chest, his gaze tracing the curves of his body and the seams of his muscles. He swallowed hard, shaking himself from his stupor. “Do you want me to stay?”

“I need you to hold my hand,” Minho jested, pouting.

Thomas rolled his eyes. He turned to Lizzy. “Give me a shout if he gives you trouble.”

“Will do,” Lizzy replied.

Minho flashed him a charming smile as he left.

  Minho found him on the cliffside hours later.

“I thought you’d be up here,” he said.

Thomas glanced over his shoulder as Minho sat down next to him.

“How’d it go?” he asked.

Minho turned slightly, tugging at the back of his shirt so that the collar slid down enough that Thomas could see his new tattoo.

It was a collage of brightly-coloured flowers: purple statice blooms that symbolised remembrance, sympathy and success, and yellow, white and orange gladious flowers that symbolised strength, faithfulness, honour, and remembrance.

The black lines and lettering of the old tattoo were gone, blended in perfectly with the linework of the flowering blooms.

“For those who made it, and those who we lost along the way,” Minho said quietly, letting go of his shirt and turning back to the water—not able to look Thomas in the eye.

“It’s perfect,” Thomas said softly, letting his head rest against Minho’s shoulder.

Minho reached out, sliding his hand into Thomas’ and lacing their fingers together. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, strained as he fought back tears. “From now on, we decide who we are.”

[AO3]

[acaseforpencils]

Tips and Tricks: Watercolors Edition.

It always surprises me that more current cartoonists don’t use watercolors. I know that Will McPhail and Carolita Johnson use them, but watercolors haven’t really popped up much in the dozens upon dozens of interviews I’ve conducted over the past several years. Of course they show up more in interviews I’ve done with cover illustrators (Barry Blitt, John Cuneo, etc.), but I think a lot more cartoonists would find a whole world of opportunities in watercolor, if they were to experiment with them a bit. I’ve been painting a lot of watercolor pet portraits recently, and thinking of (and using!) some tips and tricks that I have found useful over the years, but that haven’t come up in any of the interviews that I’ve conducted on this blog, so I thought I would take the time to share them!

Here is some of my more recent work: 

You can find more of my art on my Instagram, here. 

-Watercolor has a similar look to ink wash, but is less permanent. You put down a layer of ink wash and you’re stuck with it. But if you use watercolor, you can take a wet rag and practically erase it! Plus, if you don’t feel confident doing linework with a brush, you can still use ink or a pen for that. Look at this landscape that I did a few years back. The shadowy sand was done by putting down opaque watercolor, letting it dry, and then scrubbing most of it away!

-If you have discovered the joys of lifting up watercolor mistakes, but have gone about it a bit over zealously, and caused your paper to pill up (but haven’t fully dug a hole through the fibers), I have discovered that the Cliceraser, a Japanese tool that Roz Chast recommended in her Case as an ink eraser, is your savior. If your paper is still wet, blast it with a hairdryer until it’s fully dry, and then gently sand off any errant paper fiber until it’s smooth enough to paint on again. Now, this would not work on printer paper (you shouldn’t be using watercolor on there anyways—I generally work on heavy cotton watercolor block), but this has helped me on more occasions than I care to admit. It is basically a grainy eraser. I haven’t tried using sandpaper, but I think the Cliceraser is more gentle, and would allow for more precision.

Image from Roz's Case

-Frank Cotham uses water-soluble crayons, which have a very unique look to them, but I’ve discovered that they can sometimes cause an unwanted glow in photographs. Say you spent ages painting a landscape, and thought it would be a great idea to use water-soluble  crayons to paint the leaves. Everything looks uniform and tied together, but when you try to capture an image for your portfolio, you discover that your subtle fall foliage is garishly glaring. Devastation. Use water-soluble crayons with caution, especially when you're doing mixed media, and perhaps take photos of your work as you go along, to make sure that what you see through the camera matches what you see in front of you (or at least to ensure that you won’t be faced with any horrifying realizations at the last second).

-Speaking of water solubility, a very versatile tool that hasn’t been mentioned in any Case interview is one of my favorites, and one that I think would make a lot of cartoonists’ lives a lot easier: watercolor pencils. They blend really well with regular watercolor paint, and work great for detail work, for building up an area quickly, and for outlines (though I sometimes like to have graphite peeking through in a painting, using it for initial sketches can be helpful, especially when using light tones, because you can seamlessly blend your lines into your painting).

A lot of cartoonists will use gouache straight out of the tube for highlights, but that can require extreme precision, and sometimes, watercolor paper will eat up the paint! However, if you use a very sharp white watercolor pencil instead, the highlights won’t get absorbed. If you’re feeling fancy (or using grainy paper), you can trace over the watercolor pencil with white gouache. 

Watercolor pencils can also be used for building up an area quickly. I find that if I’m using a thick cotton paper, it can be hard to get colors dark enough, so sometimes I’ll just lay down some watercolor pencil in whatever color is best suited for the task at hand, and then go over that with watercolor paint, which can lead to some interesting textures. I do that often with rocks.

-My rock painting leads me to my next tip, which is if you struggle with drawing something, that’s all the more reason to draw it. I used to struggle with painting rocks, so I sat down and said, “I’m going to paint a very rock-heavy painting,” (well, the painting itself is very light). Did I regret this decision greatly while painting all of those rocks? Yes! But I am now able to paint rocks fairly easily, so it ended up being worth the agony. This applies to many things in life besides watercolors, of course!

-Another tip (which also applies to the above rock painting) is to use the paint’s texture to your advantage. There are some really interesting paints with high levels of mineral separation, that can create beautiful grainy effects. You can do a light wash of a grainy paint over a flat wash of paint, and end up with a fascinating texture with minimal effort. This is an especially great technique for painting dirt. 

-Try to use shadows effectively rather than accurately. With portraiture, as with cartooning, you are telling a story. Such as writers use various devices (metaphors, etc.) to tell their tales, we do the same thing with how we use tones. If I’m painting a dog, I want all of the information in the image to go towards showing the dog. Part of this can be using background tones. In my average pet painting, I’m not going to try to make a meticulously true to life shadow, but rather use shading to either convey space or make the dog stand out from the background. If I am painting a pet with light fur, I am generally going to paint a more expressive background in darker tones that contrast with their fur. If I’m painting a chocolate lab, I will do a light shadow to convey that they are occupying space of some sort, but that won't cause them to blend into a dark background. I always want to make sure that the darkest (or sometimes lightest, if everything else is rather dark) color on the page is on the part of the painting that I want you to see first. Cartoonists do the same thing, but in a way that leads the viewer’s eye to the joke.

-If buying a whole set of watercolors is cost-prohibitive, I recommend buying a cheap set, and then buying a nicer tube here or there as you are able. That’s what I did. A lot of high quality companies also offer smaller sized tubes, that are often significantly cheaper than the large sizes with scary prices. Coupons are also your best friend. I’ve used a coupon on almost every single tube of paint I have ever bought. Plus if you work mostly in black and white, you only need two tubes! 

I hope this was helpful! I know people of many different levels of ability and knowledge read this blog, and it’s fun to be able to have artists share what they know, because the more we help others learn, the more wonderful art we get to enjoy! If anyone else has any tips or tricks, be sure to stick them in the comments! Also, if you’d like to follow my art, I have a fairly new-ish art Instagram here. Oh, and If you’d like to support the blog there is a Patreon and a Ko-Fi (essentially a PayPal account). And if you are hankering for some more art supplies on your social medias, consider following Case on Instagram and Twitter! Have a nice week!

[thelastloop]

The Last Loop- Chapter 2: Rerun

Prologue

“Alright, Joey. I’m here. Let’s see if we can find what you wanted me to see.”

Henry felt like he’d taken those first couple steps into the studio thousands of times—and surely, he had. But it was so long ago, it amazed him he still recognized the place. A thin veneer of nostalgia did all it could to rub away the derelict exterior. He hardly noticed the disarray.

Or if he did, he tried to ignore it.  His first instinct was to make a beeline for where his old desk used to be. Whether he’d actually expected to find it there, even he didn’t know. There it sat though, untouched by time. An original sketch of his, one he hadn’t grabbed up in his hasty exit 30 years ago, still lay on its surface, waiting for linework. The wood was a bit rougher around the edges from age, but still the same… except for the fact that his chair now backed an entire animation department, rather than a wall.

|There is something rather satisfying about being proven irreplaceable. |

He didn’t step inside. A once-over told him enough. He returned to the main room to explore more, running a finger down one of the posters as he passed.

The first thing to greet Henry down the next hallway were the words DREAMS COME TRUE slathered in what he assumed to be ink on the wall. He blinked at it a moment or two. He recognized it one part of Joey’s favorite mantras, but simply disregarded it and moved on. All he planned was a quick in and out. He didn’t need to think about anything else. Joey’s office should be just around the corner.

Except… it wasn’t. His sureness faltered at the next line of signs, directing to something called an ‘ink machine’. He was about to follow the pointed direction when he spotted a familiar object off to one side—an audio log. He remembered when Joey introduced the damn things, insisted on every employee having and using one for ‘productivity reasons’. He still believed that Joey only wanted them so he could eavesdrop on the employees. ‘Work Hard, Work Happy’, after all.  Unlikely that Joey kept any of his; he disparaged the man in most of them. Curiosity got the better of him though, and he pressed play on the one in front of him.

“At this point, I don’t get what Joey’s plan is for the company. The animations sure aren’t being finished on time anymore—"

Wally. Of course. It almost felt good to hear him again, though a shiver ran down his spine when the mischievous New Yorker’s voice crackled to life.

He’d have to keep an eye out for more tapes.

For the moment though, the ‘ink machine’ awaited. He paused a moment in front of Thomas’ ink output chart, briefly wondering what in the world Joey would need so many gallons of ink for, before continuing to the room the machine itself sat in.

…Perhaps ‘room’ was the wrong word. Just the… the warehouse this monstrosity of ink and metal hung in (he realized when he noticed the floor was just a sheer drop into nothing) was bigger than the whole building that Joey Drew Studios first encompassed. He could have sworn the studio wasn’t this big from the outside.

No Joey waited there to greet him. He supposed he’d have to track down where the man’s office had disappeared to. That required starting the machine, from the looks of it. Batteries conveniently lay strewn about before the railing. While he did wonder about just how easy this task seemed to be, he simply reminded himself,

|Don’t overthink it. |

Retracing his steps brought him to another new room: pictures behind pedestals, all with thickly corded tubes leading back to what seemed to be the ink machine’s power switch. The former break room.

“—Joey had each one of us donate something from our work stations,” he recalled Wally saying. “To help ‘appease the gods’.”

|Fix the machine. Locate and place the items. |

Times like this reminded Henry of where his talents lay. A mind like a steel trap and an innate sense of direction helped immensely in this little fetch quest. A couple lucky guesses didn’t hurt either.

|Turn Left, there’s the break room. Grab Joey’s old book, ‘The Illusion of Living’. |

|Grab the ink bottle from the animation department. No, not that one, the one with the skull on the label. |

|The Bendy doll is in the recording room. |

|Record’s in Sammy’s office. |

|Gear’s back by the ink machine. |

The last thing he needed was something from Thomas (or perhaps Wally, he tried to guess): A wrench. He let his feet guide him, since he didn’t recall seeing a wrench in any of the rooms he’d entered.

He ended up partway to the ink machine in a room that he’d somehow walked right past. The sight now before him terrified him. That… whatever it was, sure looked a lot like Boris. Strapped to the table.

Split open.

“Oh my god. Joey… What were you doing?”

Then he spotted the wrench. Of course it was shoved inside him.

He moved toward it, even as his mind screamed to turn and leave. The wrench popped out with little difficulty.

|Grace under pressure. |

The ink machine turned on quickly once he’d gotten the ink flow running. Now to see how that helped him.

He slowly approached the now boarded-up doorway to the ink machine, brow furrowing slightly in confusion. When did this happen? He’d just been in that room a few minutes ago! As he raised a hesitant hand to touch the boards, a skeletal figure popped up on the other side, startling him back. An ominous tolling in his head forced him back to his feet, ink and darkness creeping towards him, threatening to swallow him and this world whole. He turned on his heel and ran. Whatever Joey wanted to show him could rot here for all he cared! He just needed to escape! Little trickles of light seeping under the door he came from encouraged him forward, as the world started to sink into an inky black abyss. He just needed to reach the door—

Then the floor gave way.

One last desperate lunge to grab the handle, the floorboards, anything to keep him there only succeeded in slamming his hand into a jagged clump of wood shards and rusted nail before he plummeted further into the darkness.

The impact hurt as much as his hand did. He laid there, face to the floor as he tried to keep consciousness. At first the blackness seeping in seemed like he was losing that fight.

Oozing black feet stepped into his line of vision. Ink. Incapacitated, all he could do was wait for death.

The creature didn’t attack, though. Instead, it silently padded over to some wooden structure, set something he couldn’t discern down, and retreated, taking the shifting darkness with him.

--

Next chapter

[keefwho]

September 24 - 2022

8:14 AM

I forgor to do my mental stuff yesterday so I might try to do it today. But I have to exercise today too and I kinda just want a chill Saturday. Ill probably do them both. 

I feel so bad for my friends, they all seem to be going though something. But I am too. I wish I could do more for them, it hurts me so much that I can’t. I’m not even good at being reassuring. But I try my best.

Last night I had a brief bit of anxiety but I shot it down so I’m kinda proud of that. Today might prove to be a challenge because I don’t know what to do with my entire day and all that free time can easily lead to overthinking until I ruin my own day. But I’ll try to keep busy and not worry about it. 

9:09 AM

It’s weird that I’m starting to be able to look at myself in the mirror, or in pictures, or in art and see myself like a friend. For a long time I had definitely had the feeling that I was special, like a main character or something. Obviously I knew otherwise but that’s how it actually felt most of my life. Now I see myself as a person just like everyone else and it feels nice. I understand how this “feeling special” belief can lead to loneliness. No one is special but thats what brings us together. 

11:00 AM

UGH I drew something that I really wish had come out better and I keep overthinking what I could have done differently or how I can fix it afterwards, but it’s fine. It feels like this happens anytime I draw for someone else. I’m sure they still love it, everything I think is “wrong” or “could be better” is irrelevant to everyone else.

11:45 AM

I feel so BAD, I wanna make something better. I feel like maybe I rushed it? Or rushed an important part like the sketch. Or maybe I just don’t got it today, that happens too. Im just tired of feeling this way when I try to make something REALLY good and it only comes out kinda good. It happens a lot. I probably should have put more time into the sketch and making sure it was good. Also I went overboard on the lines this time which I do sometimes. I got caught up in them, I like to think my linework compliments the art as opposed to the main star or a strict guideline to follow. I could have done it more organically. 

[myfandomincolor]

If you don't mind me asking, how many different media do you typically use in a finished piece? And how do you keep watercolor within the boundaries you set?

Hi Anon! I 💖love💖 talking about media and materials, so I am moooore than happy to answer.

I use anywhere from 6-??? kinds of media when I illustrate. I’ll describe the process, which will hopefully help!

• Usually I start by sketching with colored pencil. I use a Pilot Color Eno in either orange or light blue. I also use Prismacolor Col-Erase, but they’re more permanent than the Pilot leads and don’t erase as easily. I like colored pencil because it won’t wash away when I start applying wet mediums.

• Once the sketch is finished, I use multiple watercolor washes to start building up areas of color. I really love the different effects you can achieve with watercolor, it’s my favorite! I sometimes use pan watercolors (Pelikan or good ol’ Prang are good), but liquid concentrated watercolor is my main jam. I’m obsessed with Dr. P.H. Martin’s Radiant line. I like painting with soft, round brushes. TBH I hardly ever use anything besides a size 6 round (I love Plaza Art’s brushes, and the Fairfax bristles are so nice for illustrative painting, plus they last forever).

• I use marker, colored pencil, ink, etc to add details and more texture. Copics, Artwins, gel pens, metallic inks...whatever seems right!

• I finalize lines in either ink or graphite watercolor. I love love loooove the Tombow Fudenosuke and Akashiya Sai brush pens for bold lines (the Sai isn’t waterproof, so I make sure the paper is dry before inking!), and ArtGraf watercolor graphite for a softer look. The soft grey linework that usually pops up in my pieces is the graphite. I use a water brush pen instead of a regular brush since the bristles are more firm.

•The last thing I do is add white highlights with either Deleter White 2 ink or a Sakura Souffle gel pen.

Keeping the watercolor where it’s supposed to be is 1/2 materials and 1/2 accepting that I can’t tell it exactly what to do XD As far as materials, I try to use paper that suits wet mediums. I use Global Art’s Trav•e•logue sketchbooks, and both the standard and watercolor papers are fantastic IMO. For loose paper, I like Arches when I can justify the expense, but Strathmore watercolor is a great alternative.

Using colored pencil as the sketch layer also helps! Colored pencil lead is partly made of wax, so it repels water. 

You can also guide watercolor washes by wetting the paper before you add color. If you first “paint” an area with plain water, the color will stay in that wet area when applied.

Sorry if this was a ton to read through! ｡(*^▽^*)ゞ In summary, I usually do colored pencil > watercolor > detail with whatever > graphite or ink > highlights. Have fun with your mediums and find stuff you enjoy handling!

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | Q&A with Martin Ontiveros (PDX)

The art wizardry of Portland based Martin Ontiveros has appeared in various galleries, albums, posters and has even been transformed into diabolical toys and figurines. Ontiveros’s graphic ink and brush style is meticulous and bold, transforming his horned and demonic creations into fun and bad-ass pop occultism. We’re excited to chat with this ink sorcerer in our latest Art School where we talk about technique, studio days, and what is coming up for him the rest of this year. 

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself?   Hello, I’m Martin Ontiveros, also known as Martinheadrocks, illustrator and wizard. “Marty” to my closest friends and family. I live in Portland Oregon, I’m left-handed/ambidexterous and I have a large ginger cat/familiar named Zeus. Nice to meet you.

How do you describe your art to folks who have never seen it before? Pop-occultism? Creature Chic? What you might find inside an ancient tomb or temple from a previously unknown civilization.

Who were some of your early artistic influences that really inspired you to draw? It started with Star Wars in 1977, and Mad Magazine, especially the work of Jack Davis. Childrens book art by Jim Flora. Books and movies about UFOs, cryptids, phenomena, ghosts and black magic when I was a kid. Later it was Heavy Metal Magazine and the underground artists of the 60s and 70s, S. Clay Wilson, Greg Irons, Spain, etc. 80’s punk and metal pioneer artists like Mad Mark Rude and Pushead. Derek Riggs and his Iron Maiden covers. 

Lots of rock album art. Fantasy/conceptual artists like Mike Ploog, Boris Vallejo, Frazetta, Richard Corben. That was all the stuff that built up the desire, but what really got me drawing were the indie comics of the 80s with people like Marc Hansen, Matt Wagner, the Pander Bros, David Boswell, Dori Seda, Mary Fleener. I really really wanted to make comics by the time I was 17-18. I’ve since discovered it’s not for me. Art of the Ancient World, Mesopotamian and Mesoamerican in particular. There’s more to this list, I’m an old man now and have seen a lot, but we don’t have all day.

What’s a day like in the studio for you? And take us through your artist process –from start to finish on a piece. I used to start work when it was already well into the evening and would go until after the dawn, but in the last couple years I’ve reversed that schedule. Now I usually get up around 4am. I still get the benefits of nocturnal studio time that way, at least until the sun is up—no one bothers me and it’s quiet. I’ve become a Daywalker—I have all of the vamipre’s strengths and none of the weaknesses.

 A typical day is trying to stay focused while fending off my own distractions (I’m ADD) and steering around having to leave the house for anything, ha. I always start with a bit of doodling to warm up a little, then jot down a thumbnail sketch of whatever’s on the agenda that day—usually very small and rough, just to set the composition and borders. 

Sometimes I’ll spend extra time fleshing out details on certain aspects of the drawing, say a helmet or insignia. Then I’ll figure out my dimensions and either draw to size or use my trusty proportion wheel to do it smaller if need be. Next is the hard pencil stage. I like using 2H or 3H lead which is rough on the paper but much less messy than a soft lead. I don’t work with a loose outline, I need a solid and tight map to work from and when I have it on lock, I’ll transfer it to my final surface. 

That method goes for both a black and white ink piece or a painting. I’ll warm the brush up by laying our some strokes on scrap paper and when I feel like I got a grip on it, off I go. If it’s a painting, I lay all the color and shading out first, then put down the linework. And even if my pencils were tight, there’s always room for improvisation, a tweak or two, especially when I’m inking—some happy accidents come up now and then. I should mention that I sometimes have to chuck a drawing and start the process all over again, even if it’s close to completion because if it isn’t working, screw it. It seems wasteful and time consuming and I could probably avoid it by going digital, but I choose to do it old school.

What’s your tool of the trade medium-wise? And is there a new medium you’re looking to try in 2018? I swear by my brush and ink. Nothing gives me more satisfaction. The artists I’ve always admired most are handy with a brush line. Not to say I don’t like pens, it’s just that I’m not as steady using one and leave them for doodling. I love papier mache, it’s not a new medium to me, but I’ve yet to know how to make the time to do it more so let’s say that that is my goal for 2018. If there was any other medium that I’d choose to do over drawing, it would be that.

You’ve worked on many collaborations with bands and created some awesome cover art and posters. What has been your favorite collaboration and what would be a dream collaboration be? Oooh. That’s a toughy. I did a tour shirt for Mastodon this past year and I have to say that was likely the pinnacle so far. When I caught their show later, it was thrilling to see people buying it at the merch table and to know there’s maybe hundreds more out there wearing it. Dream collaboration…probably the Melvins. Or Alice Cooper? But with the Melvins I know I could just probably do me and not worry about whether or not I’m a good fit. I’m not what you would call “conventional”.

What are you listening to when you’re painting your various creatures and demons? Give us five bands you’re checking out at the moment. I listen to music when I sketch/conceptualize and switch to podcasts or play a favorite movie or show when I’m really into the process, it’s comforting to hear people talk during the heavy work for some reason. It’s another long list but some of my go-to bands are High On Fire, Sleep, Windhand, Black Cobra and Slayer. That’s if I want it crushing. If I’m doing something trippier, it’ll be Om, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Dead Meadow, that kind of thing. Podcasts are generally true crime or comedy.

What’s been the hardest challenge being an artist? What do you tell folks who want to travel down a similar path? I don’t recall the artist’s name who said it, but to paraphrase, the quote was that art can often be a dark and lonely pursuit for us. I believe he was referring more to the fact that we spend a lot of our time working in solitude which is inherent, yet it can also weigh you down emotionally. That really speaks to me, even more so because I’ve also wrestled with depression for most of my life. 

Your work can be so entwined with your sense of self-worth, so I suppose the hardest challenge for me is to not let my heart sink when something I make doesn’t receive the attention I hope to get for it. People can be fickle though. I try to remember that, and move on to the next thing. With that in mind I guess I tell folks to make sure they get out of their lairs when possible and share their frustrations with other artist friends, foster a support group of sorts because it helps to know you aren’t alone out there with all these feelings. That and maintain a regular paying job when they start out, because man…it can be tough making a living at it.

In another dimension, what would you be if you weren’t an artist? I’d be that weird old sorcerer living somewhere in the woods that the villagers speak of in whispers. Benevolent, but not to be trifled with. So, not too much different from what I am in this dimension, just with blue skin, maybe.

What are your favorite Vans?  Chukka Low? Old Skool? Era? (I had to look up the actual names). Basically low padded ankle with laces, and always dark colors with a black toe because I don’t like my vision being drawn down to my feet moving under me. I honestly don’t wear any other brand of kicks. I keep a pair of Slip-Ons for doing things around the house. Vans makes good jeans too.

What’s the art scene like in your part of the woods? What do you like the most about where you’re living these days? The scene that I know here is primarily illustration, at least that’s what I keep my eyes out for. Lots of sweet, supportive people without attitude and many that are good friends. There aren’t as many galleries as there used to be but there are other venues to get your work out there. I’m now in a part of SE that I’ve never lived in before, at the edge of being outside of Portland proper but only just so. It’s mellow and quiet here and most things I need are within walking distance. I got a couple stores, a good Mexican food place, a bar, you get my drift. I do wish some of my besties lived closer by though. And a decent art supply store.

Since this feature is called Art School, can you give us your most helpful art tip? This probably won’t make me popular by saying it, but learn the difference between homage and theft. Yes, it’s fun to pay tribute to an artist’s style or someone else’s pop culture/intellectual property now and then, I’ve done it, we’ve all done it, not shaming that…but the difference is, if ALL you’re doing is copying, it comes off as creatively lazy. I don’t care how many followers you may gain from it. Come on. If you’re skilled enough to copy someone else’s shit, you’re skilled enough to make up your own content. Raise the bar, people. Don’t lower it.

What’s on the horizon for 2018? New merch in my shop, a group show in Mexico City, more band stuff, my first trip to NY ever, toy releases, designs and customs, a collaboration or two, hopefully a couple of conventions later in the warm months. I’d like get back into painting on a larger scale and figure out how to take it slower in general, make my work really level up, you know? There’s always room for improvement!  

Follow Martin | Website | Instagram | 

[dualectic]

the alfie revamp: part II

(part I, which was a semi-successful attempt to whiten the yellowing on a nearly nine year old doll, can be found here)

So, where we left off from last time, I was concerned about the s-hooks in Alfie’s hands and feet digging and wearing away at the resin, and I wanted to reinforce those spots before they became truly structurally unsound. 

This was a pretty simple and quick fix - I just made the bars in the hands and feet thicker with epoxy carefully patted in with a toothpick (I used Milliput, as I’ve worked with it before, but I don’t think you have to). If you have dolls that are older and that are starting to see serious wear here, I’d definitely recommend trying this out! This was about a 2-hour project, not including downtime when the epoxy is curing. 

The only tricky thing about this is making sure that the reinforcement to the resin bar is still cylindrical so an s-hook will still smoothly glide over it. I initially made the bars too thick, and had to pry my s-hooks to be a little wider in order to accommodate the reinforced bars. You can also smooth and thin things out with a piece of sandpaper cut into a long, thin strip that’s the exact width of bar, looped through where the s-hook would go. A few back and forths with a coarser grit sandpaper did the trick for me! Since this is an area that’s totally hidden from view when the doll is assembled, I didn’t bother matching the epoxy to the resin, or making the thing particularly aesthetically appealing. 

Then I went ahead and blushed the hands, although this was a bit of a learning curve! I’m not really thrilled with these results, but it was my first time in almost three years working with pastel on resin and I think need to get my touch back. These feel overblushed, though I was trying to compensate for the fact that the peroxide-baking soda bath over-whitened his hands. I’m mainly upset about the wrinkles, because they’re too thick and read as lines of paint rather than realistic texture. 

So, that was sort of the easy part! At this point, Alfie’s been lightened up, is no longer pee-yellow, and has gotten the resin equivalent of some glucosamine and chondroitin in his old creaky joints. I redid his hot glue sueding and he’s holding poses much more stably. But boy, the real plunge was deciding to modify his face. 

This is Alfie, two weeks ago. In 2010, I gave Alfie a slight nose job to make his nose match the one I’ve always drawn for the character - it’s got that distinctive tip you can see in the profile shot above, and has a little bump on the bridge. That’s me - bulldozing the arguably more classically beautiful nose of the original Migidoll Ryu for my own ends. But the much bigger problem I’ve always had with this sculpt is its lack of jaw. Alfie, as I’ve drawn him since I was a wee teenager, has always had something of a Manly Jaw. 

pictured: super embarrassing drawing from circa 2010 where Alfie Has a Manly Jaw (also, Nell, a character currently housed in a modified migidoll Jina, but she’s another story)

One day, I’m going to sculpt Alfie from scratch and get his face exactly right, and I debated for a while about undertaking a more drastic additive mod to his current face. What’s the point of owning a Migidoll Ryu, a sculpt I admire immensely in its original form, if I’m going to do something that’s going to make him not look like a Ryu? Prior to this, the only other additive mod I’d ever done was a slight eye closing on my Migidoll Jina. Excuse this ancient image that’s super JPEG-lossy. 

Not only was that mod much less extensive, it was seven years ago and I haven’t touched epoxy since. In order to test the waters, I used some translucent Sculpey to quickly sketch out what the mod I had in mind would look like in the round. 

As it turns out, this test is nothing like the final epoxy result, because Sculpey behaves very different than Milliput and I think it’s a medium that leads to a different sculptural result than epoxy. Since it’s infinitely malleable until baked, I ended up tweaking and tweaking forever and ever until I felt like I had totally lost my intentions. But it did give me the guts to go forward with a large additive epoxy mod. 

The blessing of Milliput (or nightmare, depending on how you prefer to work) is that it starts to stiffen up at about the half hour mark, so it forces you to be decisive about your choices. I think I sculpted using larger, lumpier masses, with the knowledge that the stuff responds very well to sanding and that refinements could take place at that stage. Milliput can be smoothed out with water, and I did do this, but I didn’t stress about textural inconsistencies too much. 

My goal for this mod was to drastically build out the jawline, reinforce the rather thin undereye with epoxy so I could then later go back and carve out a more hollowed eyesocket without compromising the thin parts of the resin, and make the brow a little more prominent. Think of it as Doll Puberty!

The additions took place over the course of about three days, since I thought going overboard would have been really easy. I really wanted the avoid the kind of “puffy” face look I got when I did the test run in Sculpey. 

Nonetheless, the mod ended up colonizing way more of the original sculpt than I expected. I was referencing various stock images of men’s faces along the way in order to try and maintain some semblance of an understanding of the underlying structures of the face, and in doing so I realized exactly how much stuff needed to be added to his face to get that ~cut~ cheekbone and jaw situation. 

After that, it was all about sanding. So much sanding. While I was mainly sanding down the epoxy, I also inevitably sanded the base resin to get a smooth transition between the two. I wore a face mask and sanded wet, to minimize the amount of dust kickup, because resin dust is not something you want to inhale. In order to put less strain on my hands and wrists and provide a shape to carve with, I molded pieces of kneaded eraser into the desired shapes and then wrapped sandpaper over them, and used that to do most of the heavy sanding. It definitely makes a difference when you’re doing it for hours on end. 

And here’s the dude, all sanded up! I did most of the heavy subtractive sculpting with 200 grit sandpaper, and worked up in stages to a 3000 grit for the finishing and polishing. As you can see here, there’s a little pock mark on his cheek, from where an air bubble presumably got caught in the middle of my mods. I could have filled it in, but I kind of liked it and decided to keep it to later paint as a blemish or something. I also thought the end result here kind of just looked cool, like the inverse of a pattern of facial vitiligo or something. 

I initially thought (rather foolishly) that I might be able to color correct the epoxy to match the resin with pastel only. Here are two layers of pastel over MSC. As you can see, while it worked somewhat and gave the epoxy a cool texture, it just couldn’t get opaque enough. An airbrush is the ideal way to go when doing this, I think. 

Wel, I don’t own an airbrush, so I ended up hand painting, which gives...definitely a particular look, and one that I think not all people might like. I used various acrylic paints thinned out with water and matte medium. Since paint applies rather more thickly and with more visible brushstrokes when hand painting than when airbrushing, this gave his head a rather pasty, flat appearance initially, and also created a lot of texture. I decided to embrace it rather than fight it, and tried out a technique that Helene of @deleted-dollshe / @that-venitu / Rugged Realism / generally one of my favorite BJD people ever mentioned on her Instagram where she applied matte medium thickly over a doll head and then stippled it while still wet to create a pore-like texture over the resin. 

I have mixed feelings about this - I think it would look fantastic on a doll whose face wasn’t painted over with an opaque acrylic, because resin has a slight luminosity that’s lost with the acrylic “foundation”. Alas, it was unavoidable in this case. I think I am moving more towards a more “imperfect” style with my faceups where evidenced of the human hand is more apparent anyhow, so I worked with it. I added lots of very light mottling (dip a toothbrush in a very diluted mix of pastel and water or acrylic paint, and flick from a distance onto your doll, it’s ~magic~), veining, faint wrinkles, and shadows. 

And of course, the eyebrows. Who could forget? Alfie needs to be fleeky af or something. 

Hopefully you can see some of the detail and texturing in this closeup! I think this is a technically stronger faceup than the previous one I did on Alfie. I’m not mad at the linework, anyhow. 

And the other side, for good measure. After I sealed everything with MSC to make everything Very Very Matte, I actually went back in with matte medium on strategic points of the face. Contrary to its name, matte medium is in fact slightly more reflective than MSC, without looking outright glossy, so I dabbed some on the lips, waterline of the eyes, and down the nose, chin, and a bit under the eyes. I think it gives his face a more lifelike appearance in person, and you can see that it does photograph with a slight sheen. 

And here’s the guy wigged and dressed! I’m still getting used to photographing him with the new face, since this is a pretty drastic change from his previous appearance. I’m finding that while I’m generally happy with my mods, there are certain moments when I’m shooting him and I realize that the form doesn’t work 100% at every angle, but this was my really sculptural mod, so I’m trying not to beat myself up about it too much. Overall, I’m just thrilled that I had the guts to do this and finally try and make Alfie look more like how I draw him. I’m waiting on some eyelashes in the mail, and I have a backup wig that I want to try styling for him, but he’s pretty much all finished otherwise! Thanks for coming along for the ride!

I’ll leave you with this horrifying compilation of faceups and stages that Alfie’s been through with me since I got him in 2008. I have no doubt that he’s going to continue to change as I grow and get older, but here’s to 2017 Alfie anyhow!

[oosteven-universe]

Betty and Veronica Friends Forever Pets #1

Betty and Veronica Friends Forever Pets #1 Archie Comics 2019 Written by Bill Golliher Pencilled by Dan Parent Inked by Rich Koslowski Coloured by Glenn Whitmore Lettered by Jack Morelli     Betty and Veronica aren’t just each other’s BFFs, they also have some furry friends as well—and in this collection of off-the-wall and heart-warming stories put those pets in the spotlight!    This one almost escaped my notice and wholeheartedly thank the folks at Archie because without them I wouldn’t have found this. Also, I hadn’t noticed that I needed this as badly as I did until I finished reading it. I have no idea what it is about this classic version of Archie that makes me smile and feel good but time and time again that’s exactly what it does. I felt like some a weight had been lifted and I was smiling and all because of this one single off of a book.     The way each story is structured and how it’s placed in the order it is is beautifully done. Seeing classic Veronica not wanting to sully her hands by helping restock the new fridge but is willing to go overboard in the search for Caramel is genius. There is something about Veronica that we love and just find that incredibly endearing even when she is in high society mode. By that, I mean referencing her lifestyle at Lodge Manor at every possible moment. Yet seeing her best friend distraught sends her into I don’t know how to help so I’ll go way too far and the audience is going to crack up as a result. Also, it’s the perfect way to introduce the issue and to get the reader to want to continue.     That is all I'm giving you here too. I should also mention as I've been writing this I have had Animal Cribs which airs on Animal Planet on while doing this. So the symmetry in my life couldn’t get any weirder. The characterisation throughout all four stories is amazing to see. It always has these elements of their personalities and while at times they soften and others harden what we see is the absolute classic version of our Riverdale’s most famous teenage girls. Between Betty and Veronica, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats I think Riverdale and the Archie line have had the strongest female leads around I mean after all as long as they’ve been around and in every medium you can imagine, it’s not a stretch to believe in that.     So Dan is one of those artists known for his particular style which yes is geared towards this all-ages Archie work but by branching out to other characters or doing convention sketches for folks you see the range he has all while keeping that distinct style. Also yeah that we see backgrounds being utilised like we do makes me so incredibly happy. There is even that opportunity to see his creativity and imagination on display, in this issue, it’s mostly centred around pets so you’ll have to get the issue to really understand why I love it but hey.     The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off an amazing eye for storytelling. Now with Rich on Inks and Glenn on colours they help to make what we see as visually rich as possible, and by that I mean with the linework and colour saturation. To make the reader happy just by looking is something each of them has in their repertoire and together it’s near perfection. ​     All-ages books are something that needs to be more in fashion. With the success of the television show and the new line of books, introducing kids and other adults to these classic versions should be an absolute given. Want a happy feel-good book that safe to leave on the living room coffee table then try leaving a copy of this and see what kind of magic can happen, family bonding never looked better.  

[astarrymusenight]

Overworked

How long could he take this before he finally quit? This was a question that ran through Wally Frank's mind more times than he would have liked. To say he was overworked almost felt like an understatement with how much he had to do. Joey seemed to have a new job for him each time he walked through those blasted studio doors, ready to jump on him like a tiger in waiting.

Animation work? Wally didn't mind that so much. That's what he was hired for, after all! But then suddenly he was asked to do another job--he was needed to be a custodian. He was told it was temporary until Joey could get someone to take it on full-time. But that never happened. Then another came. And another, and another! The jobs kept piling on, and before he knew it Wally was balancing nearly every job imaginable in the studio.

Animator, storyboard artist, custodian, repairman, background artist, voice actor, band member... Then when that Ink Machine was installed, his life only got harder! Joey hardly seemed to care, or to even listen. Sammy was hardly any better half the time. They just wanted to get the work done, to follow their dreams and make them come true.

Just a few more hours and you can go home. Just a few more hours and Joey'll be outta here. Just a few more hours and you'll get paid. Just a few more hours, just a few more hours...! He kept telling himself this, playing in his mind's ear like the broken record in the corner of the recording studio. It was to the point where the words almost had no meaning, just a haze of white noise in the back of his head. A few more hours, yeah. Of frustration and exhaustion.

Today he was moving boxes from a fresh shipment. They were all piled nearly from the floor to the ceiling, filled to the brim with supplies, toys, and even cans of food. Wally had never been so angry in all his life at cans of soup. Cart or not, the labor of moving each box to their designated place was hardly a walk in the park, even for someone like Wally. When it came to the boxes of soup he found himself cursing each and every one, hoping that the things wouldn't sell so they wouldn't have to order anymore.

It was grueling and tiresome work, leaving his arms to feel like jelly and his spine to have a knot tied within it, but he did eventually get it done. At least he didn't have to unbox them... After stretching and finishing up his morning rounds, Wally brusquely pocketed a Bendy plush and shuffled off to his office.

After mindlessly tossing the doll on his desk, Wally plopped onto his stool, propping his elbows on the desk corners as his face to fell into his hands. With a long and loud groan he rubbed furiously at his face, eventually running his fingers through his unkempt hair and making an even bigger mess of it.  He sat still for a moment, his mind catching up with him slowly while he tried to remember what he needed to do next. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he shut his eyes tight while he let out a long sigh.

What was he supposed to work on today...? He got some paint down, was he supposed to work on backgrounds? They haven't gotten far enough for cels, have they? No, he got those out for Joey, that's right... Storyboards? That didn't sound right, either. Didn't he help get those done yesterday? He put his hands on either side of his head, his face hovering just inches above his desk. He blinked mildly as a pencil rolled down and rested beside an elbow--that's right, he was supposed to work on some pencil tests.

With a grunt, Wally slammed his right hand on the pencil and went to fetch some paper. It appeared that he already had the boards he needed to use as reference; looked as though he'd be working on one of Bendy's many dances today. Well, at least that was something he enjoyed. If nothing else, he did find himself at least tolerating his job when he was allowed to do what he was actually hired for. While challenging, Bendy's dances provided at least something for the man... Though he'd be happy to animate even the most boring scenes if it meant he didn't have to do any cleaning.

Planting one hand onto his right shoulder, he gave his arm a good stretch and rolled his neck. His arms still felt terrible, but it was hardly enough to prevent him from working.

The soft scratches of pencil against paper was music to his ears, even with the swing that was muttering through the speaker of the radio at the corner of his desk. The smooth curves of each line, the frequent flipping of pages, the erasing of mistakes... As tedious as it was to sketch out each frame, he found it so satisfying. To see the images spring to life as they were set into motion, to see the finalized product of one's blood, sweat, and tears. Though he loathed working for Drew Studios, as much frustration, pain and stress that it brought him, animation was his life. And he loved it.

Ten frames done. He flipped through the pages a few times, his eyes scouring for mistakes or needed improvements. He only had to make a few touch-ups, but he was ready to move on to the next set. He turned the volume of the radio up as the upbeat notes seemed to reach out towards his paper, sparking more inspiration with his skull. This sure was a song Bendy would dance to!

However, Wally's work flow was about to come to a screeching halt. It never failed, did it?

There was a sudden, all-too-familiar sounding crash; the sound of glass shattering and ink spilling onto wooden floor boards. Wally tensed, his hand trembling as he clenched his pencil. No no no, he thought bitterly, not another break! He remained still for a moment, his ears straining for the sound of movement. He could hear shouting a few rooms over, but he couldn't hear anyone approaching. Though he was relieved, he knew wasn't out of the woods yet.

Head lowering closer to the desk, Wally's pencil started to work over-time. He thought to himself in vain that maybe, just maybe, if he acted busy enough Joey wouldn't come to bother him. Maybe someone just dropped a few containers of ink, and it was a quick clean-up! There were mops all over the studio. How hard was it for another animator to pick one up and do a quick mopping? Though maybe that'd be asking for too much.

The redhead put all of his focus instead on the sound of pencil on paper. The loud scratches as he darkened his lines, the feathery tickles as he laid out his base sketch. His lines moved in time with the song, each stroke to the beat. Each line to a note. Although another beat was suddenly thrown into the mix, one that threw his linework off and made his once light sketches turn dark.

Joey's footsteps could be heard making their way down the hallway. There was no mistaking that man's steps--with his limp, he was likely the easiest to pick out among the people constantly walking to-and-fro within the studio. Grimacing, Wally's grip tightened as he continued to work, his determination to finish growing. With each step his lines seemed to get darker and darker, the pencil's tip grinding to become blunter and blunter. Shards of lead were left behind every which way, though the animator didn't bother to dust them away.

The door flung open without so much as a knock and the pencil's tip finally gave way, snapping and taking some of the wood along with it. Letting loose a frustrated groan Wally threw it down and turned to face Joey, who was now standing in the door with one hand on the frame and the other on the knob. He spoke up before Wally could even open his mouth.

"There's a break in the Ink Machine room." he stated.

"Okay? I'm workin'," Wally huffed, "I just got started on this!" he motioned towards his sketches. He had hoped that maybe someone had just dropped a few bottles of ink, but when was he ever that lucky?

"I know that, but right now I need you in there." Joey continued firmly, throwing a thumb over his shoulder.

"Joey," Wally grimaced as his expression darkened, "Do ya want this test done or not? I don't got time to deal with little spills. I'll get it when I make my rounds tonight!" in attempt to stand his ground, he turned back to his desk.

Joey returned the other's glare, bearing his teeth, "Wally, it's not just a spill, it's a leak. It needs to be taken care of. Now."

Wally threw back his head, his eyes rolling to the ceiling. Of course it was a leak. Of course it was, "Why don't you call a plumber? We'd hav'ta worry about leaks less," he demanded, "Or maybe ask someone with less to finish to clean up!"

"There isn't time to call someone!" came Joey's sharp reply, "You at least know how to handle a mop besides," he pointed bluntly at Wally, his eyes narrowing, "If you want to keep your job, you'd better hop to it."

Slamming both hands onto the desk Wally turned back to Joey, "Alright," he stood quickly and knocked over his stool, "I'll take care of it." he hissed.

Joey shuffled out of the way before the larger man bowled him over, "Keep up that attitude and--"

"I'm outta here," Wally spat over his shoulder, "I know."

Fetching his apron and gloves from his closet, Wally's mind quickly clouded with frustration and negative thoughts. A black storm of rage rolled and thundered within his skull, his jaw tensing as he had to restrain himself from shouting out in anger. He quickly tied his apron into place, threw his gloves on, retrieved his tools, materials, and his mop. Before he knew it he was stomping towards the Ink Machine, swearing through his teeth as he saw the broken pipe.

More bitter and angry thoughts flooded Wally's mind as he had to fight with the ink to fit the patch into place. It was just a thin sheet of metal strapped on with some tape--he knew that this wouldn't hold, even for a day. But it was good enough for now, at least until Joey finally called up a proper plumber. With all of the pipes running through this place, one would think the guy would have one on speed dial!

Once the patch was in place, the animator cleaned up the broken glass before he began the long trudge that was mopping up ink. How the entire building wasn't stained black, he'd never know--but so long as Joey didn't demand he get rid of the stains, Wally could at least... Tolerate it for the most part. While working through his first of many buckets of water, the stench of cigars accosted his nose. Scrunching it up instinctively, Wally turned away from the door and moved closer to the wall, praying that Sammy wouldn't spot him...

"Franks," Wally swore under his breath as Sammy called, "There you are." he gave a firm rasp at the door frame, which only seemed to strike the animator's nerves further, "I need you downstairs, pronto."

Wally turned sharply, holding the mop in such a way that it should have been glaringly obvious that he was preoccupied. Sammy's expression didn't change, however.

"We need you on piano," he continued to drawl, "You can finish that later."

"You tell Joey that," Wally scoffed, "Sure that'll go real well." he continued to mop furiously.

Sammy laughed coldly, "Yeah sure. If he wants these songs done before the week is out, I'll need you downstairs."

Wally couldn't help but roll his eyes, "You tell that to my pencil tests!" he threw an arm in the general direction of his office, "He won't even let me finish them!"

Heaving a sigh, Sammy bowed his head and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He muttered something under his breath as he shook his head, likely questioning what Joey was even doing anymore. He eventually rose his head and held a hand up, "Alright, I'll cut you an offer: you come play piano for me now, and I'll make sure that afterwards you can get back to your sketches." he turned his palm upwards in a pleading fashion, "Deal?"

... Well, if it could get him out of cleaning for now, it could be worth it. Wally did enjoy working with the band, at any rate--Norman was a wonderful conductor. Perhaps if he had asked instead, the animator's initial reaction would have been less angry. At least Sammy tried to be reasonable at times, unlike Joey. However before the redhead could speak, Joey limped into the room. He cast a glance between Wally and Sammy, his brow furrowing.

"What's going on?" he asked, "Don't tell me you're pulling Wally away again."

"You've been pulling him from his animation," Sammy spat as he narrowed his eyes, "Why can't I pull him away from his cleaning? This studio's already a mess with that stupid ink machine of yours, anyway! He can hardly keep up with it!"

Immediately Joey was seething, "Oh don't start THAT! You know well why we need the machine!"

"Only because I had to pry it out of you!" Sammy retorted, "You're more focused on that machine and your personal agenda than the company!" he jammed a finger into Joey's chest, "We're lucky we haven't gone under yet because of your poor business plans--we can only ride Bendy's popularity for so long, Drew!"

"If you'd get things done faster, we wouldn't be in trouble!"

"We. CAN'T! How can we when your focus has been so out of touch?!"

As the two continued to argue, their voices rising from shouts to screams, the fog in Wally's mind was so thick that he could barely focus on his work anymore. There was only one thing left on his mind. He dropped the broom, which landed unceremoniously with a loud clatter into the ink.

"Our focus has been going in the exact direction I need it to. It's clumsy fools like Wally that keep us from making progress!"

"Oooh no, you're not pinning the blame on him! His worst offence is dropping a few instruments and losing his keys!" Sammy stepped closer to Joey, puffing out his chest, "Meanwhile YOU are so focused on getting more ink, hiding away in that sanctuary of yours, selling toys and products we don't need, and pulling your workers from their jobs that we can hardly get anything done!"

While Wally was pleasantly surprised that Sammy of all people came to his defense, he ripped off his gloves and dumped them into the ink as well. He then began work on untying his apron--boy he must have been angry earlier. This knot was tighter than any he had made before.

"It'll all make sense soo--"

"It's things like THAT which made Henry LEAVE!"

Joey fell silent, his breath caught in his throat. It was perfect timing too, as Wally had finally managed to untangle his apron, ball it up, and throw it onto the floor. Rolling down his sleeves, Wally pushed past Joey, "I'm outta here, too."

Blinking out of his stupor, Joey turned from one side to the other as Wally stormed down the hall, "Wait, what?"

Stopping in his tracks, Wally turned, "You heard me," he grunted, "I'm done. I quit," he gave a final wave of his hand, "I'm outta here." he turned on his heel and continued towards his office.

"Whoa, whoa," Joey called, now limping after the animator, "You can't--"

Wally threw his office door open, "What's stoppin' me?"

"He's joking!" Sammy shouted, "He's bluffing--he always is!"

Joey's disposition changed slightly, "Hah, right... Cut out this horse play and get back to work, Wally. We know you're all talk!" despite trying to sound confident, there was still a trace of worry in his voice.

"Nope," Wally snapped in reply, "This time, I mean it!"

He could just barely hear Sammy mutter, "You've gotta be kidding me..." Wally couldn't help but grin. He was actually doing it. After months of saying it, he was finally getting outta here!

Joey seemed to struggle with his words for a moment, "You need this job, don't you? You'll be out of work!" he stammered, "What will you do without this job?"

"I'm sure I'll figure it out." Wally started to brusquely shove his personal items into a black leather bag, not caring how poorly it'd all fit.

"You won't be able to find another job!" Joey threatened.

With an incredulous look, Wally simply shrugged, "With my portfolio? Think again, Joey."

Placing a hand to his head, Joey was clearly wracking his brain for something, anything, to convince Wally to stay, "But--we need you!"

"Sure," Wally scoffed, "You just don't wanna hire two or three people to replace me!"

"What do you need in order to stay?" Joey asked desperately, "You want to just focus on animation? Do you need more pay? Fewer hours?" he was clearly ready to bargain. Wally had to admit though, he had never heard Joey's voice like this before. Was it cruel to find it oddly satisfying?

With a sarcastic smirk, Wally chuckled, "You shoulda thought of that sooner, Joey," his grin darkened, "Doubt any of those would stick, anyway." he crammed the Bendy plush into his bag and closed it up, somehow managing to get everything to fit. Grabbing the sketches he had finished earlier, he brushed past Joey and thrust the pages into his chest.

Failing to catch them, the papers fluttered to the ground and landed pathetically at Joey's feet. Starting after Wally, he cried out, "Sammy, help me!"

Knowing well that Wally's departure would have a large impact on his work as well, Sammy was more than happy to oblige, "Hold on now Franks," he started, struggling to keep up with the other's pace, "You sure you want to do this? I mean think about it, You get paid good right? With all you do?" that didn't seem to have any effect, "And what about Polk? He's your best pal, right? What'll he think?" while that seemed to change Wally's expression, his stride didn't skip a beat.

... He could always talk to Norman, later. It wasn't as if they lived far away from each other. Not to mention he had the guy's number. Sure Norman would be disappointed, but... Wally shook his head sharply and picked up the pace. No. He had to stand his ground. He had to make sure that Joey learned he couldn't just push his employees around.

By now the other animators had heard the commotion, and were sticking their heads curiously out of their offices and work stations. There was some muttering between them, "Is he actually doing it?" "Is he finally 'outta here?'" "Wait, he's not actually leaving, is he?" were but a few things that Wally could hear as he stomped past. He couldn't help but smile to himself. He really was kicking up some dust!

Reaching the exit, Wally turned on his heel to face the small crowd he had accumulated, "Well," he called as he pulled open the door, "Nice meetin' all of you." he started to slip through the door, grinning, "See ya. Good luck with whatever you do." he gave a little salute before vanishing outside, slamming the door shut behind him.

Through the door he could hear a few calls after him. Most of which were good-byes, though there were quite a few confused murmurs and exclamations. He even heard a few say "we'll miss you!" His fingers lingered on the knob for a moment, staring off into the distance. Really? They'd miss him? A warm smile graced his lips. At least he left a positive impact on those he worked with--considering his reputation around the studio, he somehow thought the impact he left behind would be quite different. But, the deed was done. There was no turning back! Making his way towards his car, Wally threw his bag into the passenger's seat before climbing in himself. Without a second thought, he drove away from Drew Studios.

Although as he made his way down the street, a sudden surge of worry washed over him. Was that really one of his better ideas? Joey did have a point: it might not be easy to find another job, especially one in the animation industry like he'd want. Well, he could get something a little simpler to tide him over until then, even if it wasn't something he honestly wanted to do. Something was better than nothing. He still shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he pondered the long task of applying to new jobs until one finally stuck.

Pulled from his thoughts, he took notice that the candy store was coming up. It was usually closed whenever he got off of work, and so no matter how much he loved the candy from there he so rarely got to go! Taking the opportunity with great gusto, he pulled in and parked, the delighted thought of the sugary sweets he could buy dancing in his mind. However he didn't get out immediately. Instead he continued to sit, staring long and hard at the steering wheel. Despite everything, it was still setting in that he actually did it. He actually quit...

Propping his elbows against the top of the wheel, Wally pressed his hands into his palms and heaved a great sigh. He supposed that time would tell if quitting actually was a good idea or not, but the stress of balancing all of those jobs was now far behind him, like dust in the wind. Eventually it'd just be a distant, bitter memory--though his entire time working in the studio wasn't a nightmare. He'd at least have some fond ones to look back on.

He ruminated it over further, only shifting now and again to rub his face or scratch at his scalp. He eventually began to ponder where he should start looking for a new job, with various different options popping up in his mind. He finally sat back as the summer sun began to heat the vehicle up further, staring up at the sign of the candy store. Well... Maybe he could start his search here.

Wally left the car and made his way inside, the shadow of the future looming above him like a foreboding giant--but he moved towards it with a spring in his step, ready to take on its challenges.

[whiskeydickclaws]

1 through 5 and 25 through 30?

1. Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital?

Actually, that’s a weird answer because I mix the two medias! I love drawing traditionally, I find that I have more life and flow in my thumbnails and sketches, so what I tend to do is thumbnail and line traditionally and then scan it and line it again digitally and color it from there! I’m excited to show how it looks now that I’ve sound a style I like!

2. How long have you been drawing?

AGES. I’ve been drawing since I was 6, I’ve been SERIOUSLY drawing, aiming to be professional, for about four years now.

3. How many classes have you taken?

Skillshare. So many. I love it. Skillshare and youtube are an artists best friends!

4. Do you have a DeviantArt, personal website, or art blog?

I do!! @teacupmosaic and @wilsbasement on instagram!

5. What’s your favorite thing to draw?

Anything dark and moody. I love heavy black areas with pops of color like blood or eyes.

25. Do you like to draw in silence, or with music?

MUSIC. I HAVE to have music.

26. For digital artists: what program(s) do you use?

Paint Tool Sai for just about everything, Adobe Photoshop for additions and special effects. I’m so bad with keyboard shortcuts.

27. For digital artists: how many layers does a typical piece require?

I do one for the under sketch, put the opacity at 10% and then I paint everything on one layer just below it. If it’s for a lined piece, I have 3-10 layers, depending on how many glowy bits I have.

28. For traditional artists: what medium do you like most? (Pencil, charcoals, etc)

Copic Multiliners and Higgins Black Magic for Inking, and then I used ink washes a lot! Winsor and Newton drawing inks, and Sumi Water Soluble for grey scales. It’s a lot like water painting, but I love the vibrancy of it.

 29. For traditional artists: How do you usually start on a big piece? (Light sketch, colored lead, sketchpaper, etc)

I start SMALL for big pieces! 2x3 inch thumbnail! Plan your comp out completely, then scan it, blow it up to the final size, and use a light box to refine the sketch, in order to keep the life and not get stiff. Then I scan that, and print out four mini ones and I plan my colors and values there to see if it will work in a large scale. If I’m happy with that, I then use my lightbox to transfer my sketch onto watercolor paper, and I refine the linework how I need. I normally use 140 lb Arches Natural White Cold Press, because I like the texture. I have an embossing heat gun to dry the layers between each one, so that I don’t have to be patient ;) Go from lightest to darkest and work SLOW. I use a LOT of layers traditionally. Each piece takes about 6 hours of just paintings.

30. What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist?

I want my work to mean something. I want to be able to support myself by sharing myself, by letting people see me in every stroke. I don’t need it to be my profession, just something I *am*. I want people to know me as an Artist first, and everything second.

I want to be a better artist, because I have so much more to say, and I need the skills to say it.