#it's been a couple of years since i've tried to illustrate comics again so if it seems like i have no idea what layouts are its cause i don

[snazum]

Take back the Fortress chapter 17 spoilers - - I didn't think I was going to be drawing smth for chapter 17 until I saw that the fic was updated, got sucked into reading and then I needed to draw. I sort of had to re-write cheavys thoughts in a first person POV, uh I'm not great at writing so idk if that came out well lmao. But please, if you haven't already you need to read this fic. I linked it above, it's by @medics-secret-shipfic-folder !!

i tried so hard to emulate the official comics style and then maybe gave up halfway through

[beatcroc]

a year!!! as of today i have now been drawing these funny little pizza freaks, to the exclusion of almost everything else, for!!! an entire year!!! i wanted to do a nice group shot/lineup of everybody to compare to when i first started trying to draw them because oh boy were they bad. i never even posted most of them anywhere because they were so bad. but im posting them here, now, to see how everything's changed/evolved.

this is probably the hardest time i've ever had trying to figure out how to work with a style, but we got there eventually; i'm pretty happy with the handle i've got on everybody now...dont let ur memes be dreams. lots of unimportant journaling and idle thoughts abt it below.

older pics

the first one is the VERY first time i drew them, before i thought i was going to actually have any interest in drawing them [lmao]; it was just the one isolated image, for my friendserver, to illustrate the funney message, so there was no attempt to make it Good or actually understand anything going on w/ the designs or style.

second is the original run of practices sketches to start trying to figure them out for real; done after i started having ideas for the comics and such and realized oh god maybe i am actually gonna draw fanart for this. [again, lol, and lmao.]

third one is the first pt art thing i posted on here. there were a couple weeks of sprite studies between this one and the previous image. the one on the top right wasn't part of that post i just threw it on as space filler; i'd intended to shift to doing Sprite Redraws But Stylized to explore tings more, but that was the only one i did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

individual characters

peppino: by far the hardest dear god. bro what ARE your shapes how DOES your face work. jesus christ. everything i have trouble with this style for, peppino has it in excess. i draw in polygons! i need consistency! and that is the last thing this kind of style is concerned with. they are made of squarshy clay and i do not understand how to mold them. i was really hoping trying to learn this game's style would GIVE me that kind of flexibility for fun exaggerated facial expression but i don't think much came of it in the end 😔. anyway on the bright side all this means once i got peppino figured out a little bit everybody else clicked way easier.

fake peppino: honestly i never did anything with him on purpose except for how his eyes work + the perma-smile thing. i figured ok hes supposed to look weird and off model so whatever happens with him happens. and it did. and it kept happening. it is still, in fact, happening.

noise/ette: somehow, for every bit that peppino was the least natural thing i've ever tried, these two worked pretty much right off the bat. i still don't understand it, seeing as pretty much all the things at play for peppino are also at work for them. i think the new sketches are actually a little worse than older ones but not enough that i care.

gustavo: really funny bc i drew him on model twice and just went 'okay, cool nice, easy, um. he doesn't have any fucking legs?' fortunately he was the only one i had a strong idea for how to stylize him [square] and it worked exactly as i was hoping so wahoo.

brick: is an animal and therefore 5000x easier and more natural for me to draw/stylize than anything else in the cast. that is Just a rat bro. i can draw a rat.

gerome: i think the funniest one here. the most drastic and least necessary change imo. i was gonna have him be really small at first, like smaller than the noises, but then i just... didn't. he's just peppino-sized now. also i gave him like. actual human facial structure, which is funny bc in most cases i'd do anything to avoid, but it works well for his being A Rock to give him some angles and definition like that+ to differentiate his vibe from the rest of the cast who are all very squishy. also since he is essentially Just A Head it's good to emphasize that too ig.

john: i only drew john a couple times but he gets to be here because i like him. and because most of the stuff i applied to gerome was readily applicable to john, though i did try to keep him a little more uncanny because he is a Huge And Lanky Freak. i hate that he is barefoot btw but idk how to make his color balance look right with shoes.

pizzahead: i did not want to put him on here honestly but i Have drawn him a handful of times and more importantly i didn't know what i was gonna do with john's pose if i didn't have him there to be glared at. the only thing that's different with him is giving him wider-bottomed pants, which i got from when i tried to draw these guys in clone high style [i never posted that one either][i will eventually]

snick: he gets to be here because 1. he's like 6 lines 2. i like him and 3. ive scribbled him a few times offhand and it went pretty well

misc

there are some guys missing because those are guys i didn't draw enough [or at all] to have gotten comfortable with them. sorry

i would have Liked to shade these but for the time being i have accepted that my grasp of light/shadow has decayed to the point im not going to be happy with anything i try there, so For Now i am working on my presentation with flats i guess. gerome has a shadow only because he's shaded like that ingame and looks naked without it

anyway if you are still reading [hi?] i get to shamelessly plug now. i'm over the hill of my pizza run now, and while i still have plenty of things i want to make here, most of the bigger more in-depth ones have passed. pizza tower was the first thing in THREE YEARS to get me out of my oc groove to doing fanart, and once i am done with my ideas here i will be going right back to it. if you like my art or how i write characters/interactions you should check out my oc/webcomic blog @jamverse . i can't promise people who like pizza stuff will be terribly into my designs, but i can guarantee i treat my guys with the exact same sort of tone i handle the pt guys with. and hell, i've mentioned it a few times before, but like 70% of my characterization for fake pep is just copied off one of my characters, so if u are going to miss him... he will still be there in spirit >;p

and if you dont care about any of that and are still reading thank you anyway. actually making these comics + seeing how shockingly well-received they've been has done a lot for my confidence, and for seeing that my kind of stuff IS something people enjoy :')

[sparks-olivarpente]

Byler reunion fics list

Here is a list of "Will and Mike haven't talked for months/years and now find their way back to each other" fics I've read and loved! If you know of other such fics or have written one, please reblog and add them :) Thanks to the writers <3

are there still beautiful things? by @aceoflanterns will attends an open mic poetry night at a local cafe, invitation courtesy of one max mayfield. this turns out the unexpected effect of seeing one mike wheeler again… and maybe also sparking a conversation long overdue.

see me (i'm waiting for the right time) by agustplz (shout_out_lou) It's been ten months since the last time Mike and Will last spoke. Mike shows up at his dorm in Chicago, determined to fix things for good.

the gaps and the silence by @parkitaco (delusionaltogether) "Oh my God, I had such a crush on you back then," Mike says, laughing a little, and sounds so easy with it that it takes Will a couple of seconds to process. or, will and mike reunite 5 years after their friendship ends

bury me in metamorphoses by @hiscleric It’s been seven years since Will Byers vanished from Hawkins for the second time; seven years since he picked up his life, moved across the globe, and finally settled. OR: Running away and the reunion of a lifetime.

anything, anything by inblue It isn’t before Will is inside Mike’s two-bedroom apartment for the first time that Mike realizes a part of him had expected the world to implode as soon as he stepped past the threshold, as if Will’s presence in Mike’s apartment would trigger some sort of ancient curse or something. Or: Five years after the Byers family leaves Hawkins, Mike and Will rediscover each other within a small apartment in New York.

things lost, buried, and found again by iwannabeyourpoetry It’s December 1993 when, in the wake of Lonnie Byers’ untimely death, Will finds himself returning to Hawkins for the first time in years—a morose husk of the person he once was.

Lost Without You by Julia_Skysong After graduating, both Mike and Will struggled to adjust to life after the Upside Down. It didn't help they had already drifted apart. But now, 8 years later, Mike finally reached out again, and the 2 struggle to rebuild their friendship while also hiding their romantic feelings for each other.

The Crossover by @futureboy-ao3 (nbfutureboy) Will Byers, a comic book author and illustrator at the very beginning of his career, initially turns down the invitation to Hawkins ‘HorrorCon’. But after hearing that a certain musician has gone missing - and despite the fact that Mike and Will haven’t spoken since their high school graduation - he can’t seem to shake the feeling something’s seriously wrong. With embeded sounds and songs! :D

More Than a Metaphor by Nikocat Will Byers returns home from college for the first time for Christmas break and he's a bundle of nerves. He's reckoned with some deep truths while away at school, finally coming to accept that he's gay. While he can be open and honest in his new city of New York, Hawkins is an entirely different story. Or Will Byers comes out to the people he loves and gets more than he bargained for.

Reunion by Nymphadoragreenleaf Will comes back after two years away and Mike can't wait to spend the summer with him! But there's someone with him… bonus: Mike being secretly good at cooking &lt;3

The Cemetery Dance by oceanfruit Will doesn't like his memory. He calls it his inflammable wood-- No matter how long it sits out and dries, a fire can never quite catch. Even with the challenges, he tries to forget, hoping one day he'd become unrecognizable. Yet there are things, people, that exist with him in a ghost-like manner. or, Will works in a restaurant, his memories wont let him alone and he can't stand the flickering light. When someone from his past walks in… AU full of mystery!

Path of the Paladin by olliecoddle "A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric… " or, a few hours after delivering his father’s eulogy, Mike Wheeler punched his former best friend squarely in the face.

Can This Be a Real Thing (Can It?) by Pseudologia They’d graduated and Will had disappeared — not just to Mike, to everyone. It’s not like it was mean-spirited. He needed to leave Hawkins in the rearview, to figure out who he was without the ghosts of monsters at his heels (…) Except, well, now Mike is sitting here, at a gay bar…

Fool Me Once by @queerxqueen It took nearly three years of growing apart, but Will Byers has finally gotten used to life without Mike Wheeler. He has El, he has Max, he has his art, and, as of two days ago, he has a full ride to art school in Chicago, so things are good. Right? So when Mike climbs through his window one night and stumbles back into his life, Will’s not prepared for the resurgence of old feelings…

I Wanna Be Anything You've Lost by @edelweiss-coffee (scout_thewise) Will left his hometown after graduation, determined to get to know himself in New York City. It's 1992, he has a great job as a florist at The Secret Garden, and life is beautiful and fulfilling. He wouldn't change a thing… -or- Someone familiar has been hired at the coffee shop below his loft, and Will's avoidance tactics are taking a rough blow.

meet me at memory lane by @smoosnoom Still, it’s fine. It’s all fine. He’s allowed a bad day or two. It’s fine. “Will?” What’s not fine, however, is when he finds Mike Wheeler on his front porch step. or, It's senior year, and, after three years of silence, Mike and Will find their way back to each other.

Shrike by StepfordSnarker It's the late '80s, and Will is coping with the loneliness of having left the Party behind (…) It's the early '90s, and Mike is coming to understand that there are some people worth losing your false sense of self for. But now that Mike and Will have parted ways, this realization may have come too late.

Stepping On the Last Train by @suzieburself After everything they've been through, it is Mike who rips off the final band-aid of their friendship. Years pass of Will pretending like he never thinks about Mike at all. Years pass of him forging his own life and finally letting go. But when a young boy shows up at Will's apartment, it becomes clear that he'll never fully be done with Mike Wheeler.

I’m a Wreck (Without You Here) by @talkingtothelights Mike has been living 2,200 miles away from his family and hometown for the past fourteen years. He rarely visits, but when he receives heartbreaking news, he’s forced to return home for a funeral. It’s in this unfortunate chapter of life that Mike must come to terms with the consequences of abruptly running away from home and perhaps reconnect with the one person he’s tried his damnedest to forget about.

[madfantasy]

hii! sorry if you've answered this before, but how did you find your own art style? it's nothing like i've seen before, very dream-like (: i feel like with so many artists out there it can be hard to find one's own style but yours is truly unique. if it's not too much to ask, do you still have any of your first drawings? thank you 💕💕

(Oh & I'm sorry if I have answered it before, I didn't find anything on my blog so woop here comes my blaber)

Hello dear!

Thank you so much, you flatter me and my bit-som of art-som, heh. Specially that you have called it dream like— cuz 1/4 of my creations does come from my dreams. I even had a dream about Severus a couple of days ago- was explaining to him the concept of gestures in smartphones, I told him it's like pulling down a scroll, to get the notifications, lol.

Before I start side-tracking too much, yes- I can't say I do know how it happens, I guess I wasn't on the base of looking for an art style for myself, or ever considered myself an artist— or a real one? Idk. The idea of having an 'art style' doesn't register with me so I'm possibly always confused what to make of it.

I mean, I didn't go into art for art's sake. I don't enjoy beauty just for beauty's sake. It has to have a meaning, purpose, hidden dilemma you need to solve just by looking deeper; is it speaking to me, or am I speaking for it?

My only concern since the beginning of time of Mani apparating this earth and what got them into drawing anyway is: telling the story as best as possible.

I was drawing before I learned speaking. It was my instinctive language. I had something to say? Illustrated it on a piece of paper to show.

Everything I see in my surroundings or mostly in mind, I had a story to tell about. So I didn't even consider that I was making art.

I remember when I developed enough cells to be aware- I started trying to copy or capture the basics of family members, making stories about them, also games or shows I played; I drew Crash bandicoot, driving into a cliff because he was hated by his family, Tiny wearing an abaya. Pink panther cuz how tall he was weirded me out in a fascinating way, Tarzan and his special muscles, a story about an abused squid lady that eventually turn into a mermaid, a guy turning into a hero coz of some near death experience.. mmm stories about my favourite stuffed rabbit CeCe Bobo— probably the only innocent adventures I drew as a child— I wanted so badly to make them into a video game, having their parents fall into a pit of flames, heh.

And because I had daily TV episodes in my brain of whatever to occupy me from unsanitary real life; I associated with many people I love to see materlized; my characters. So I had to try & draw them exactly how they look/feel, and that's what my art slowly developed based on; is this guy the way I seen and felt him look like? If not, try other ways.

At first, I drew them with literal basic shapes, like a character would have a square face, and another heart, and if I couldn't draw circle, I used my pencil sharpener that was shaped as a circle. A method still I use to differentiate my characters (without the pencil sharpener lol)

Later, since my characters have generally my favourite things, or things I enjoy, things I appreciate— basically things from me directly or from my choices, conscious they were or not—had them chopped and scattered between the lot of them. And to learn how to do some favourite factors of them is what drives my art style I suppose. I knew I didn't want it realistic, but I also didn't want it unreal. What makes art real? That's probably the always questions I face.

Ofc, I was face with so many problems to deteriorate my passion for drawing. Like, not being allowed to draw in the first place. I had wait till everyone is gone or occupied, had to always look over my shoulder and must constantly hide every inkling of any art making, and act like the project I'm making is for school, and draw in breakfast breaks at school. I used to draw under my blanket and store my art between my books or under my pillow (never related to anything so hard like when Harry was studying magic and Dursley keeps checking on him, honestly heh). Either all that or I get the whip.

Or being told what's the point of having a style like that while everybody obviously enjoys popular styles like anime or cartoon? Why don't I draw like the popular to get noticed? I don't know how to draw anime or cartoon even if I tried. It will just show as my art style, no? Exactly like speaking two different languages with the same letters.

Or like the idea of strictly sticking to gendering things while the idea never occurred to me. The base line of how men has to be ugly and women pretty. My motto is showing beauty in everything, even in scary or messed up things hehe. But I had to consent to making my guys 'ugly' as possible to continue drawing, and if u notice a line on their throats, that's one other thing I had to do, wasn’t allowed to draw girls either. And I wasn't happy with any of that at all.

But I was able to win my right to draw anytime I like in recent years, and able to draw how I like how I use digital means. So it got better heh.

And no it's not too much, if anything, it was took me on a dusty beautiful trip of nostalgia, I thank you for it. Sadly I don't have my first drawings, and I do treasure them but they all been tossed, torn and burned before me over the years, heh.

The oldest thing I got is this, a comic made, was 11 years old I think:

Medo, a guy so beautiful that he was forced to work as a femal model, concept that felt the best to me, heh. Even tho I was in no contact with the outsider world.

He is my first solid character and I made endless comics of him.

He's develop into this -dated 2014- , he's fairy sentinel.

And I found few of my old or first time drawing them pics of the main characters in my stories, I'd love to share:

Juicy and X-bi— second ones I made. But these drawings are maybe 2 or 3 years after I made them

I know I said that lots, but x-bi was a mask wearing imaginary friend I translated into X-bi. He has almost always cold hands so I used to put my skin on cold metallic surface and imagine it his hands trying to ease the pain.

And since I had no audience home, my stuff showed at school as i drew alone, always with various replies of 'its good, but'

Juicy got me in trouble with a teacher, by a careless student that was browsing my drawings In front of them, and I was classified as mentally deranged and need help for not drawing the usual princes and white knight.

Fernando and Carlos are also old characters that expressed romance in everything they do, so when I had a drawing of them Carlos tending to a fevered Ferry, and it was snatched from me, everyone considering it intimacy and I had to punch my way through them to get it back. Being called perverted and sick in the process, even tho all they talk to me about is marriage and the process of making babies. One of them literally told me on random occasion that their heart was like a ten story building for rent, there's always someone new in and out.

Carlos is Fernando's soul guardian💛

I created General Pumbkin in school! expressing fashion in strictness with my fav hooked nose!

Axel was my joy in everything, and the most common character I got beat up for, for being girly. I don't draw him too much anymore but seeing him again made me auto happy , hes all about giving loff, darling hehe

Candy, a less brain developed babyy

Brain and Pain, my sibs fav characters from my bag, heh

And Sabine was said to me that he should be a girl to be that scared in a scary story, his story is like dark and twisted fairytales vibe that I love dearly. I'm trying to continue writing his story.

Despite whatever, I love doing art, I have to. It what gives me soul juice heh.

And thank you for sticking on my prolonged answer. I hope I didn't bore too much, I'm flooded with memories happy and bad, and they are all okay. It made me feel passionate again, so thank you for the opportunity 🙏

1.5.2020