#it's not perfect but i just wanted to do a little redraw before going to bed

[zillychu]

designs for a zine piece! enjoy some background story my illustration never needed under the read more (fair warning I did NOT edit this at all):

newbie mage apprentices Sam and Tucker who became friends bc they're kinda… the ones at the bottom of their class and struggle the most, for different reasons. they become besties over time and practice together!

except one night, something goes terribly wrong. they spent the last few nights preparing for a project, a bigger spell that needs an intricate circle with precise measurements to work. but when they try to activate it, well… 

oops. they summoned a demon.

which is, for one, extremely illegal. only certified demonologists are allowed to summon demons because they're so dangerous. anything less than a perfect binding circle and thoroughly researched info on the demon, including their true name, is even remotely safe.

but, weirdly enough… the demon seems just as surprised as they are. as Sam and Tuck frantically try to figure out how to dispel the demon, they realize–oh god, did their circle actually sufficiently bind the demon? it can't leave. they watch the demon tentatively poke it's claws into the air around the boundary, and watch it fizzle, retreating back with a strained hiss.

okay. okay, they can do this. without death looming over their heads, they can figure out how to send the demon back. it's cool, it's fine. except while they leaf through their books, they notice the demon watching them. it looks kind of… curious. timid. interested in what they're doing. it catches them noticing his staring, and it. apologizes? it seems flustered?

weird, okay. they keep looking, and the demon starts talking. at first, little comments to itself. mumbles that soon get just loud enough to hear. little “ooh, is that a telescope?" and “is that what fire looks like up here?" and “that must be for making charcoal…”

Sam is the one brave enough to be like "are all demons as chatty as you??” and the demon gets flustered again, apologizing. says he's just never been topside before, he's only read about humans in tomes. oh wow is that the moon outside? it really IS blue up here! is it always blue? what are you doing up? I thought humans slept at night?

Sam and Tuck can't help getting pulled in with the demon's genuine curiosity. they're wary though, since they know demons can be clever, conniving. there's a number of ways a demon can get the upper hand on a summoner who has them bound. if he gets their full names, gets them to smudge and break the circle… there could also be ways they aren't aware of. so they consider their words carefully, but engage in some chatter while they research.

it's almost morning by the time they find a way to send the demon back–but as they prepare the spell, the demon says WAIT WAIT and they stop, uncertain. the demon starts stammering out how this is weird but like… he really had fun tonight. he doesn't get to just hang out much, especially with anyone his age.

Tuck is like “how do you know our ages??" and the demon points out "oh, you said something about Paulie’s 18th birthday party, so I thought…” and they're both like oh shit we didn't even notice we did that?

“Paulina" Sam corrects in her dumbfounded stupor. 

“Right, Paulina!" the demon snaps his fingers, but quickly loses his confidence when Sam and Tuck continue to stare at him like they're not sure what's going on. he coughs and fidgets and says “um, well, I was just wondering, I guess… if you wanted to summon me another time, I wouldn't mind. you see those circles there? yeah, that's what summoned me. the candles helped too I think. oh, it doesn't need all those runes though, probably don't want to redraw all those.”

Sam and Tuck are practically gawking, but… for some reason, this demon looks so sincere. so much like them, awkward and lonely and genuinely curious.

it's a bad idea. a terrible one, even. the demon probably noticed they're newbies and not demonologists. it could be hoping they make an error in their circle, or mess up a candle, or reveal their names on accident. 

But, well. They're stupid. they're also eager for anything to help them in school, and too empathetic for their own good. they send the demon off with a yeah, no. they then think about it for a week, and end up summoning the demon against their better judgment.

the demon is shocked and so happy, they can't help but be a little endeared. they lay down some ground rules, take care to be as safe as possible… and soon, this demon that introduces himself as “Phantom" becomes a nightly visitor. they talk about their worlds, find out they share a lot of common interests, and help each other in their studies. which, hello, demons also study? bro are you serious??

they play games, laugh till their ribs hurt, and open up to each other on a far deeper level than anyone expected. over time, Phantom becomes a true friend.

Sam and Tuck quietly begin to lament the fact Phantom is stuck in that damn circle. they want to take him places, let him see the human world he seems so interested in. they want to paint his stupid claws and noogie him between his dumb horns and hug him.

but it's an astronomical risk. it's legal for a demonologist with a proper permit, but it's still considered a grave taboo to grant access to a demon outside a circle. there's just too much at risk. demons can be dangerous enough to lay waste to entire towns, take multiple teams of military-rank mages to take down.

they wouldn't risk it… if they hadn't snuck into the library’s restricted section and copy a page from a demonologist book that gives them good framework for a contract. they make some edits to it though, giving Phantom at least a little wiggle room to protect himself if need be. and allow him use of transformation magic so he can hide somehow. but they spend weeks making sure they have airtight wording to ensure Phantom can't cause anyone or anything any substantial harm. 

when they finally bring the contract to Phantom, he's stunned. he cries. nothing needs to be said, they all know the gravity of their proposal. even if they ask for proof of Phantom's trust in turn, first. they ask for his full name, so they can bind him. just temporarily. but in that moment, they'll have full control over him. they could instead tell Phantom to serve them, force him to obey their every order. even if it's just for a moment, giving them his full name with the proper circle and incantation, is putting his life in their hands. 

Phantom, with tears still in his eyes, smiles warmly and nods. with only a breath to steel himself, he gives them his full name. Daniel James Fenton.

magic sparks in the circle, and Sam and Tuck finish the incantation. ethereal chains sprout up to wrap around Phantom's arms and legs, which makes him jump–but the unwavering trust in his eyes makes the two humans choke up.

they release the binding. all that's left is to break the containment barrier in the circle, so Phantom can walk free.

“Uh, about that…” Phantom laughs sheepishly… then proceeds to step outside of the circle, merely wincing when the barrier zaps around him.

Sam and Tucker gawk. Phantom scratches his neck. “Y-yeah, so… your barrier circle was already broken that first night. It's, uh… right over there. You missed a spot.”

abject horror overcomes them because this entire time Phantom's been visiting, he could have broken out? EASILY?? THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD.

Tucker falls to his knees, but soon starts to laugh. it's kind of hysterical at first but slowly, he and Sam are genuinely laughing. they're so STUPID, and Phantom is the most un-demonlike demon they've ever HEARD of. Phantom is still flustered, stammering out apologies because he wasn't trying to deceive them or anything! he just didn't want to scare them! without a proper containment circle they technically couldn't send him back either, so he just… went back using his own magic each time they “dispelled" him. 

once they've calmed down, Phantom morphs his body into a human form–which shock Sam and Tuck, because uh, only elite demons are capable of that. they were expecting an animal, or straight up going invisible. Phantom laughs it off, says he just, spent a lot of time practicing bc he's so interested in the human world (not a lie, but). he proceeds to adopt the nickname Danny, and they all have FUN WONDERFUL SHENANIGANS

(and sometime in the near future, when faced with something truly threatening he needs to protect them from, Danny reveals that. well. their contract also had some holes in it. and he's had access to his full demon power this whole time. whoopsie! it's a good thing he genuinely loves them and doesn't want to hurt anyone, or their asses would be SO dead lol)

they're about as normal about his full demon form as you'd expect from me btw:

[cloudysarts]

All right I take the bait. Why do you believe Manel should have accompanied Pacifica at the party

AHHH THANK YOU IM SO EXCITED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF (in reference to this post)

ok. northwest mansion mystery is a great episode obviously. but HERES why i think the episode would've been even better if mabel was in dippers spot!!!!!! its kinda a lot so i put it under a read more

so this episode is sort of the middle-ish of season 2 i think, right before the ford reveal!! its not a super long show anyway so theres not a ton of pacifica appearances, anyway. BUT in EVERY SINGLE OTHER PACIFICA EPISODE, her energy has been bouncing off of mabel!!! from their meeting in double dipper, to irrational treasure, to golf war; they have been established as the main dynamic here. golf war is especially important here, because this is the very first step in pacfica's redemption arc! mabel saves her in this episode, the pines give her a ride home, and it seems like pacifica is going to start being a little more understanding of mabel because she had misjudged her, hence why she was treating her so poorly. it looks like theyre gonna establish a friendship between them!

and then. they dont. they basically never interact again. because the next time we see pacifica, she goes straight to dipper in northwest manor mystery. the cold open implies that the northwests wanted dipper specifically because of his knowlege of how to deal with the supernatural but IN MY OPINION that DOESNT EVEN MAKE SENSE because we NEVER see dipper fighting these monsters on his own? hes ALWAYS with mabel. at the very least, i think it shouldve been BOTH of them??? we see a brief shot of a newspaper clipping where dipper is fighting a vampire bat or something and i just. when did this happen. where is mabel

that would be a fine argument for it being both of them instead of just mabel so heres one of my bigger points thats gonna come back a lot in this breakdown: dipper. does not like pacifica. he STRAIGHT UP HATES HER. every single interaction theyve had has been negative!!! its even massively negative at the beginning of this ep!!!! though mabel often dislikes pacifica, she TRIES REALLY HARD TO LIKE HER. mabel has a lot of love in her heart, and if she could, shed want to be her friend!!! its always been pacifica whos been rejecting those advances!!! golf war was the start of pacifica understanding that about mabel, and it nmm wouldve been the PERFECT time to wrap up that arc, rather than leaving it!!!

and i would argue that could STILL LEAD INTO A DIPCIFICA ARC, if thats what the showrunners/fans wanted? most of why dipper hates pacifica to begin with is because shes so terrible to mabel. he only agrees to go to the party in canon because MABEL wants to!!! imo, i think the lead in to them being a couple would be a million times better if that massive problem in their relationship was solved first

i dont PERSONALLY like dipcifica but im trying to stay unbiased about this if you cant tell

i would also argue that like. dipper just seems really out of character. the reason i picked some of the scenes i did for my redraws, was because they were scenes that i think his behavior would fit mabel a lot better. examples:

why do the northwests have a suit in dippers size anyway. he literally doesnt even like wearing it sjkfhkj in a potential re-write of this ep, i considered that mabel would come in wearing her super extravagent home made dress, and it would 'violate dress code', so she would be forced to wear one of pacificas we could still have that cute dress-up expo scene that we do AND have some fun commentary/symbolism about pacifica being nervous about having her in the dress because its NICE and TOO GOOD FOR HER and she looked FINE BEFORE ANYWAY

mabels empathy is a recurring theme in the show. shed WANT to give pacifica the benefit of the doubt, and would be VERY betrayed when finding out her and her family already knew about the ghosts and knew what he wanted. i understand that dipper was so upset because it seemed like pacifica was changing for the better just to find out that she wasnt, but i think this fits so much better with mabel, because shes always WANTED to believe that shes secretly a good person. she would be glad to see her turn a corner, and would be upset when finding out she was 'wrong', and that she really was mean deep down. whcih would obviously lead to her comforting her later/finding out the truth about her etc etc. on the other hand, dipper literally never believed she had good in her. from the first interaction we see of them, he thinks shes as terrible as her family. he ISNT as interested in giving her the benefit of the doubt and if it wasnt a life or death situation i dont think he wouldve forgiven her. IDK i just think its more in character for her

the dancing scene!!! honestly this works fine as is (i can see both dipper and mabel being excited to make a mess on a fancy carptet) but idk i just think it carries so much more weight if its these two girls. silly moments for mabel!!!! pacifica getting to really be a kid and not just a sparkly prop!!!!!!! pacifica finally indulging in her sillyness that she mocked in irrational treasure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok moving on. one of the bigger things that bother me about it being dipper here instead of mabel is one teeny tiny (honestly really irrational) scene at the party. in it, dipper is confronted by fiddleford, who tells him he has big news about the author/the laptop and the towns in danger and its vitally important and dipper just. shrugs him off???!!?!?!?! i cannot even IMAGINE. in alex hirschs words "the first season is about dipper being in love with wendy, and the second is about him being in love with the author" meaning that. those are the TWO things that dipper is completely and totally obsessed with. hes clearly not over wendy (as we see in later episodes) and this is not long after sock opera/society of the blind eye so youd THINK hed be more depserate for answers than ever!??!?! this child was willing to sell out his great uncle and raise the dead and stay up for several nights in a row for answers, and the second he is offered some (from a man who WORKED WITH THE AUTHOR btw) hes like like 'whatevr'?!?!?! it is so out of character and it drives me fucking nuts every time. i know hes starting to like pacifica now but as we see in the comics (if you chose to think those are canon) HE DOESNT EVEN SEEM TO LIKE HER THAT MUCH!??!?! hes STILL convinced shes vain, and mean, and selfish!!!! he DOES start to have a little arc with her but jksdfjksf IDK i just cant in a million years see him passing up the chance for answers to the biggest mystery in gravity falls to hang out with a girl he tolerates

but yknow who i CAN see doing that? MABEL!!!!!!!! mabel would be concerned when mcgucket comes up to her, and starts talking like this!!!! i can totally see her suggesting that he relax for a little while and enjoy the party like dipper did, and then forgetting to come back to talk/not running into him later!!!! ESPECIALLY since i can see mabel WANTING to spend time with pacifica where dipper just. really doesnt seem to want to MOST of the time

ok ill admit that this last one is sort of a personal opinion. but i just. i really dont like the B plot of this episode with mabel and the girls. IDK its just so annoying and pointless to me to have a plot where its just a bunch of girls turning against each other over a guy. im not gonna say its mysoginistic bc i know little girls can be boy crazy but i just. dont see why there was a need to make them fight/turn against grenda briefly??? even when they rekindled and it was all ok in the end its just. in comparison to the A plot its so. Nothing.

in my head i have a rewrite of this episode and how it goes is that pacifica approaches dipper and asks for help and he turns it down (like he does in canon). mabel suggests that they do it anyway, but he refuses, as he wants nothing to do with her. when dippers gone, mabel agrees to help (and pacifica begrudgingly accepts bc it seems like the only option) and so she steals the journal when dippers not looking. she goes to the party, and events go pretty much the same?? only major difference i can think of is that the B plot is replaced by one where dipper realizes mabel and the journal are missing, so he sneaks into the manor/sneaks around the house trying to find he rand get it back (and its so massive he has no luck). the reason i think THAT works is because we can even still have the scene where dipper turns to wood like shifty prophesied!!!! and i would even argue it makes more sense this way because wasnt shiftys warning that "if you keep digging so deep into the secrets of gravity falls, this will be the last form youll ever take" ?

OK IM SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG im probably forgetting points too so i might edit it later but THANKS FOR ASKING

tldr: pacifica and mabels friendship plotline was left on a total cliffhanger after golf war and if mabel replaced dipper in nmm it would've been a good resolution to it

edit: check the reblogs if youre still interested! i added another list of reasons i think this (mostly in response to people disagreeing)

[rainspicestudios]

Happy 2025! [RainSpice Studios plans & updates for the new year]

Hey everyone! Happy 2025 from RainSpice Studios. I hope this year will be kind to everyone and that many good things will be coming your way.

And speaking of good things, I'm cooking some projects that are just itching to be released and available for download. But before we get into that, let us talk a little about the games that were released in 2024.

This won't be a lengthy recap of 2024, as the games speak for themselves, but I am still proud of myself for releasing a full game, a chapter one, and a demo, during a very stressful year both in terms of world events and my personal life (I graduated college, I'm moving, all of that good stuff).

Stardust★Arcadis was my first ever release, and a game I struggled to finish. I lost all of my progress because of PC issues, I rewrote the story a few times, and I released it after working on it since 2019 (2022 if the moment when my PC broke doesn't count). However I love the characters, I love the setting, and despite the many hardships of game development, I had a fun time working on it.

I'm planning to release more games in this universe in the future, including a remastered version of St★Ar.

The Code of Crystals started as a novel collaboration with my best friend. Said collaboration never got finished, and I had a lot of inspiration for stories I could tell with these characters, most of these darker than the original project. Thus I used the characters I made for this former collaboration and started crafting this narrative, and the release of Stardust★Arcadis AND the 2024 edition of Phantasia Jam was a perfect opportunity to get started!

Chapter one will be re-release this January and Chapter two will be released in either late 2025 or early 2026. Stay tuned for more info!

Enter the Eternity, oddly enough, also started as a collaboration, but the idea of a dating simulator with magical girls was too good to let it collect dust and never get finished, especially since its inspiration board kept drawing me in.

With my best friend's blessing, I could re-use the idea, so I created a new cast of characters and got to work, and had to do even more work after I found out that the backgrounds I bought from someone on itch.io were made with an AI image generator, which disgusted me so much it powered me to redraw every single background by hand and I will keep doing so for the entire game. While it is more work to do on my part, RainSpice Studios will never endorse AI generation in any shape or form.

At first I worked on it while I worked on Stardust★Arcadis, which explains why the demo was done on such a short notice, but it has now became my primary project for 2025 and I am aiming to release it around November/December at best.

What's the plan for 2025 then?

My primary goal is to release Enter the Eternity and my secondary goal is to release The Code of Crystals chapter 2.

I aim to finish all first dates for Enter the Eternity AND re-release chapter 1 of The Code of Crystals in January. The dates are already written and coded in the script files, so my focus is to add in all the sprite expressions, draw CGs and backgrounds, and add all the necessary music. As for TCOC, I wanted to remake its menus and add a scene with Eranis that I did not have time to add before the end of the game jam. While the UI code I bought doesn't work, its images are pretty, and I am happy with the result.

2025 will be another busy year for me as I try to find a full-time job to sustain myself, launch some new projects more-or-less related to video games, move out again, among some other irl things. But here at RainSpice Studios, I love making games, and will keep making them for the foreseeable future.

If you read down to here, thank you so much!

There's a lot to do so I'm going back to work 💪 I'll update you guys when I reach a milestone or I find something interesting to share.

So stay tuned! And as said, I wish you guys a kind, good, exciting, fun, and game-filled 2025. Thank you for your continued support and here's to more projects this year 🥂

============================

[RainSpice Studios itch.io] [Stardust★Arcadis] [The Code of Crystals] [Enter The Eternity]

[adobe-outdesign]

If you are still talking about neopets designs, plz review lutari? I always wanted one of them

Lutari are probably most well-known for being one of the limited pets on the site, only being able to be made on their pet day and previously connected to the long-defunct Neopets Mobile game from back in the flip phone days. It's to the extreme where you can't even put one up for adoption, with them just running away instead of going to the pound. (Side note: TNT should re-release Lutari Island as a main site feature and make it so you can always create a Lutari while visiting. But I digress.)

Lutari are mostly just otters, but their very distinct, mottled markings, huge claws, and fluffy, curly tails are pretty distinct and make them feel unique, even though they're otherwise pretty straightforward. I like the amount of detail present; they have just the right balance of color, with white underbellies, black claws and noses, and two shades of the main color for their bodies, all of which is carefully balanced as to not be too busy. Overall, they're pretty dang nice... though they do have one drawback.

Considering that Lutari were released only shortly before conversion happened, you would think that they wouldn't have changed much other than losing their swimming pose (which is a shame, but a necessary change for customization). But in actuality, they actually changed quite a bit in various subtle ways, ending up with completely different proportions, markings, facial structure, and more. Here's a really great redraw that's more accurate to the original design, which really highlights the differences between the two:

The eyes are a completely different shape and the pupils are smaller, the mouth is smaller, the ears a completely different shape, the feet are weirdly elongated, the tail is less swirly... and they're such weird changes, because none of them actually have to do with customization.

Another good example of the changes made is Mr. Chipper, who was, weirdly enough, released prior to the Lutari species as a whole. He stands bipedally, and thus shows what a converted Lutari should've looked like. Also of note is the markings, which for some reason became weirdly angular on converted Lutari and less organic than they were originally.

And don't get me wrong, converted Lutaris are still fine, and are by no means ruined or anything like that. It's just a shame that they're less cute than they used to be, and that seemingly little care was put in to convert them properly.

Favorite Colours:

Maraquan: I went over this already in my Maraquan colour review so I won't go into too much detail here, but this design (based off a user submission) is beautiful. I love the use of an axoltle as a base, the pink and cream colors are lovely, and the gill ears are just perfect.

Pirate: While this design is pretty good as a whole, with a nice grey base with a few bright red accents and a properly cutthroat expression, it's the way they managed to seamlessly and subtly work a skull into the tail markings that really earns it a spot on this list. 10/10 no notes.

Faerie: While a little on the busy side, the faerie Lutari is quite pretty. The light green, blue and pink color palette works perfectly, and the beautiful swirled body markings work off of the Lutari's default markings perfectly. The wings also compliment it will, matching both the body colors and the intricate designs.

As an added benefit, you can also get a very pretty, less busy design out of this by using wings-be-gone, which arguably looks even better than the full color. I appreciate that kind of versatility.

BONUS: Camouflage isn't anything crazy, and it's not even all that camouflage-ish, but honestly I just really like this design. The use of a neutral palette and gradients creates a lovely and distinct color that's quite appealing for those who want a more realistic otter look or those, like me, who just like subtle and simple designs.

[timperi-fan]

Your timperi playlist is so good!!!! I wasn't expecting some of the song choices but they fit so well???? and it was fun trying to guess from wich pov they were and how they fit in the fic's story.

Its a little silly, but I got a bit excited when I played the songs that I already knew, thinking of them in the context of this ship/fic. Like, little talks??? amnesia??? HURTS LIKE HELL???? PLEASE DON'T SAY YOU LOVE ME????? I WANNA ME YOURS????? PINK!!! IN!!! THE!!! NIGHT!!!?????

I'm truly obsessed with this playlist <3

Also, Rewrite the Stars being there made me think of that one scene people used to redraw as their own ships when the movie first came out (I think it was Zack Efron and Zendaya's characters first meeting, idk I haven't actually seen the movie xD) and I couldn't help thinking about Timmy and Peri in that scene, someone should draw that *winkwink*

Also! The cover art is really cute, could you tell me where you found it?

(also!! i just saw your new post about ILITAYH and i'm. so. excited!!! -especially for the horniness and the tears ;) )

Link to the playlist.

Thank you so much, anon!! 🥺 I spent DAYS getting that playlist exactly perfect (instead of actually writing the fic, whoops) so I am so glad to see others enjoying it!!

Some songs are from Timmy's POV, some are from both, but most of them are Peri's. He's the main character, after all.

The playlist has a couple of different "sections." The first eight songs fall under Part 1: Brothers, which is all before Timmy lost his memory. Hence why these songs gradually get more melancholy, despite being tinged with hope, as the inevitable approaches.

Part 2: Alone, is... Exactly what it sounds like. These songs on the playlist get more depressing as Peri's explosive grief simmers into a constant state of depression over time. These songs do follow the five stages of grief very loosely — but I have a specific song in mind to fit "acceptance." See if you can guess which one it is :)

Part 3: Strangers, is the part of the playlist where Timmy and Peri meet again, as adults. I don't have a clearly defined point where this bleeds into Part 4: Friends, or a point where it becomes Part 5: Love. I guess that's okay, though! It suits them, because Peri and Timmy couldn't define those stages of their relationship if you asked them, either, lol!

A lot of the songs in the middle of the playlist are more for ~vibes~ than story beats. A lot of the "I don't want to be in love with you" type songs are meant to represent Peri's inner turmoil... But in the fic proper, he's repressing the hell out of those thoughts! He experiences the denial and the self-hatred and the regret all at once, after his relationship with Timmy reaches a point where Peri can no longer deny it :)

The mutual pining part of the playlist is my favorite! See this stretch of songs? ↓↓

These are actually POV switches! They go from Peri to Timmy to Peri to Timmy etc for a while, as they both grapple (or, in Timmy's case, don't grapple) with their feelings. It's so fun having Peri's sadder, longing, soulful songs about desire and struggling to accept that right next to Timmy's upbeat, bouncing songs about how they are perfect together and he wants Peri so bad, haha 💕

Part 6: Together settles towards the end, filled with love songs that become softer as they bleed into the "epilogue" of the playlist, Part 7: Forever.

Timmy and Peri's relationship in ILITAYH will not go this smoothly, ha! Nor will it necessarily end how the playlist implies that it does. But there are some hints in the last two songs as to how the fic will conclude :)

But, yeah >_< I can literally ramble about every single song on that playlist and how it relates to TimPeri. Do not feel silly, anon, I promise that not only am I more deranged about them than you, but I am beyond happy to have someone as excited about this playlist as I am!!

[blondeaxolotl]

So, what method do you use when drawing to keep going?

I personally always seem to struggle to finish an art piece and can never get myself to fully focus on learning the entirety of anatomy, etc.

I crave to finish an art piece again, I miss the feeling, but I haven't been able to do it in a long long while, I'm just hoping for a little advice, not sure who else to go to cause I don't have any friends but I look up to you a crazy amount so I figured I'd give this a shot, this isn't forced to answer by the way!

I don't want you to feel like you have to answer this.

If you do or you don't, you're still really cool, your art is awesome and inspiring and your aus are as well.

Heck, you're a pretty damn cool person too, art really does reflect artist sometimes huh?

Anyway, I'll get out of your hair, keep up the amazing work <3/p

When it comes to finishing an art piece that you know you want to finish but suddenly lose the motivation to

What I usually do (this might not work for everyone but it somewhat helps me so it helps you as well then that's awesome) is when I'm in the middle of drawing a piece and I suddenly lose interest or motivation, or something isn't going well which is making me lose patience. I just put the pencil down, and go do something else for a while until I get the urge to continue or try again. Example I go play video games for a while or maybe watch a movie or youtube for a bit, just giving yourself a small break from drawing until that motivation to draw comes back and then you go back to that piece and try again. And basically how ever often that happens (aka losing motivation, patience, etc), you just repeat the cycle until you're slowly getting closer and closer to finishing that piece (You can also doodle on the side as a refresher but I don't recommend starting a whole new piece when you want to finish your first one, usually for me I just end up forgetting the last drawing completely because I accidentally started a new project 😭 but that might be a me problem if it doesn't happen to you then it's a-okay) This is mostly what was helping me finish projects since I have a short attention span and often lose motivation and what not so I constantly do this FDSFDSDSF.

Now for anatomy, I'm not the best at anatomy myself but my first advice is don't immediately give up if your anatomy isn't perfect on the first try, it won't always look good on the first attempt which is why it's okay to go through a few trial and errors before you get it to a point you like it enough to continue. Also I'm not a professional and I suck at explaining things and honestly I know jackshit about anatomy I just wing it most of the time. But I can give you small tips that come in handy when drawing poses!!

We're gonna use a reference for this, when you have a reference for a pose you want to use. A good way to get a hang of the pose is by tracing over it with simple shapes (such as cylinders, circles, triangles, etc) and then redrawing it with those same shapes to again get the hang of the pose, you don't have to really do it but it's a good practice so I recommend it. Then, after you have your pose, you can take the lasso tool (or selection tool) and then just resize body parts to your liking so they fit your style more!!! And ofc now you can draw over it and use it as a base for the character you want to use it for.

Now that's the first method, but I have a second one which is fun, I call it "frankesteining", which is where you grab 2 or more images and then take body parts and paste them onto the main reference picture you want to use.

Like here, you like the pose of the first reference, but wish both of the models arms were on the hips? Fear not! Just grab another image of a model who's arm IS on their hip

Then carefully erase the arm/body part on your main reference that you want to replace with another. Select the arm/body part of the second reference with lasso tool, and slowly trace over it so you can copy/cut it out and then paste it onto your main ref

Like this! Now remember, the reference doesn't need to look aesthetically pleasing, after all you're just using it as a reference, so it's okay if it doesn't look perfect!! You can do this with many body parts as you want btw, just keep cutting and pasting until you get the pose you wanted!!

And finally just draw over it! Using the same methods as the first one, shapes, redraw and all! No one will ever know you were playing pretend dr frankenstein with the reference pictures before this!

Now these are the methods I use when posing characters, they might not always come out right the first time but if you keep trying you'll eventually get something you like a lil more than your last ones!! You can also just use a 3d model posing website/app and then screenshot the pose and redraw it from there. But this is if you're one of those people who for some reason just can't get the hang of those damn 3d model posers (aka me)

GUHH THIS POST IS SO LONG IM SORRY, I hope my rambles helped you out at least a lil bit and I hope you continue your journey in making art, believe in yourself and eventually everything will turn out alright in the end stay strong fellow artist 💜

[genopaint]

Back again with what should be week 31 of the Daily Dragon Challenge!

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut

Daily Dragon #210 / #211 - Blue-Eyes White Dragon / Red-Eyes Black Dragon

MORE dragons I knew I wanted to do from the start. Something Yugioh related is LONG overdue but god DAMN the dragons in this series are not easy to draw!!

Certainly not perfect, but considering I'm tired and they're tricky designs I think they could've come out a lot worse! I hope you like them!

Daily Dragon #212 - Mimring

WE GOT ANY HEROSCAPE FANS IN THE HOUSE!?!? The characters from that game are so cool and have stuck in my head nonstop ever since I was a little kid. So many good memories of this figure's wings falling off.

Daily Dragon #213 - DRAGON.EXE

[ GIF / FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING ] Uh oh... Well, I'm sure that file wasn't important... Thank you all SO much for voting! That's that on July, this fella ended up being the most popular!

Here's the results :

DRAGON.EXE - 2 Votes Megalogon - 2 Votes Black Hole Dragon - 1 Vote Drake Typhoon - 1 Vote Eggodon - 1 Vote Chocodon - 1 Vote Bombodon - 1 Vote Bog Rex - 1 Vote Cleoboros - 1 Vote Vampire Wyvern - 1 Vote

This time, the tie breaker was decided by my mom :)

I won't toot my own horn, but there were a few dragons I was pretty pleased with this month. But I think my ultimate favorite may have been the Black Hole Dragon. With Exor, Vampire Wyvern, and Gila Devil being close runner ups.

Here's the 2 frames on their own. Since I always gotta go that lol I hope you enjoyed the little gif effect thing I just randomly decided it would be cute! But yeah, that's the end of July! Very exciting! My birthday isn't too far off!

Daily Dragon #214 - Bahamut (Final Fantasy 3)

First dragon on my sort of hiatus and also somehow the first true Bahamut of the challenge! I want to draw each FF Bahamut as I play the games, but I've been LONG overdue on this one. I beat 3 back in January

Daily Dragon #215 - Godzilla

This was a drawing I started for a previous day but abandoned. However, looking at it again tonight I actually REALLY liked how the lineart looked, so I finished it! The King of the Monsters is here!!

And before people say "oh this isn't a dragon" there was a palm tree included in this challenge. a palm tree. that was a dragon.

Daily Dragon #216 - Bio Dragon

A strange dragon made in a lab by people trying to play gods. They're incredibly ferocious, made with the most powerful traits of various reptiles. Such as camouflage and toxic spit.

This is a redraw of an old dragon, I don't have an exact date but I want to say its sometime pre-2017??

and yes... yeah... its another poison one

[up-to-some-good]

I take the “micro” out of “microfic”…

Happy Valentine’s Day! Written for the @wolfstarmicrofic prompt: February 14th - Passion

“What am I gonna do, Prongs?”

James started as Sirius stormed into the dorm, the sudden movement making him splatter ink all over his Valentine’s Day card for Lily

“Ruin my first Valentine’s Day with my beautiful girlfriend, apparently,” James grumbled in response.

“Fuck your plans with Lily.” Sirius flopped dramatically onto the bed next to his friend. “If I don’t get to have a happy Valentine’s, then neither do you.”

“Does Remus even care about Valentine’s? He’s never mentioned it before.”

As he spoke, James carefully used a spell to siphon the ink off his card, unfortunately removing the flowers he’d spent hours drawing as well.

“Oh, I guarantee you he does,” Sirius responded. “He just gave me a long, passionate speech about the holiday on our way to the library. You should’ve heard him, Jamie. If I don’t do something special, he’ll break up with me and I’ll die alone.”

James hummed in response, barely concentrating on his brother’s dramatics as he tried to redo his drawing from before, managing to just barely recreate the poorly drawn roses.

“It’s too late for me now,” Sirius continued. “I’m going to have to face him and admit that I’m the worst boyfriend alive and hope he forgives me.”

“Mmhm.”

Sirius looked over at his friend, finally noticing his absorption and rolled his eyes, before snatching the card away. James made a noise of distress and made to grab for the card, only for Sirius to pull it further away.

“Focus, Prongs! I need your help!”

James sighed and stopped reaching for the card, rubbing his temples.

“Surely you can think of something by yourself?” he asked. “It’s Moony we’re talking about. He won’t want something expensive or grand. Something small and meaningful is his style.”

Sirius sighed. “Like what?”

“I don’t know!” James yelled. “You’re his boyfriend. You figure it out! And give me back my card!”

“Fine.” Sirius stood up and handed the card back over. “I was gonna offer to redraw those roses for you, but since you’re not gonna help me, I won’t waste my artistic talents on helping you.”

He turned and made to leave the door, exaggerating his slow steps. James took a moment to catalogue what sweets he had from their last Hogsmeade trip before giving in.

“Wait, Padfoot.” Sirius paused and turned back, grinning smugly. “I don’t know that I’ll be much help with Moony, but I will trade you two sugar quills for you to fix the card and brainstorm with you while you sketch.”

*

Remus Lupin loved Valentine’s Day. When he was a kid, his Mom would give him pancakes with homemade strawberry jam for breakfast every year on February 14th. Since then, he’d been a fan of the holiday, making sure his friends got a little card every year throughout their Hogwarts career. This year would be his first Valentine’s in a relationship and he was looking forward to spending the day with Sirius.

When he woke up on February 14th, however, his boyfriend was suspiciously absent from their shared bed. Instead, Remus found a small origami heart with a note tucked inside on his pillow.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!”

The note was in Sirius’s perfect cursive. Remus grinned to himself as he tucked the heart in his pocket and got ready for the day, hoping to meet Sirius at breakfast. On his way down to the Great Hall, he ran into Lily, bouquet, presumably from James, with a card that had some suspiciously well drawn flowers on it.

“Morning, Re,” she greeted as she fell into step with him. “Have you seen Sirius this morning? I want to thank him for helping James with the card.”

“Haven’t seen him yet,” Remus responded easily. “But I’ll let him know.”

Sirius remained conspicuously absent for the rest of the day, having different classes all day, but more origami hearts appeared at random moments, each with a small note in his handwriting.

“I love you” appeared at the bottom of Remus’s mug, right before he poured his morning coffee.

“You’re the best” was on his desk when he arrived at Arithmancy.

“You’re beautiful” landed on his shoe when he bent down in a hallway to tie his laces.

“You’re the smartest of us all” fell out with a library book during Remus’s study period.

Each note made Remus smile and blush, tucking the hearts in his pockets and hoping he’d get to see his boyfriend at some point during the day.

Finally at dinner, a heart appeared on his plate as he sat down in his usual spot.

The note simply read, “Astronomy tower”

Remus bolted up from his seat and ran across the castle, only slowing down at the stairs to the tower. When he reached the top, he started to tear up.

Sirius had set up a picnic for the two of them, a red blanket set on the floor of the tower, with a plate of pancakes resting next to a jar of what looked like strawberry jam. A few candles were dotted around the floor, keeping the lighting dim enough to see the stars but still light enough to see each other.

Sirius himself was standing nervously next to the picnic blanket, fidgeting with his rings as Remus didn’t stared at him and didn’t say anything.

Eventually he cleared his throat.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Moony,” he said with a small smile.

Remus immediately tackled him into a hug, pressing kisses all over his face as Sirius laughed.

“You’re wonderful, Pads, do you know that?” Remus whispered. “Thank you for today.”

“I can’t take all the credit,” Sirius responded. “James helped me set it all up.”

Remus pressed a kiss to his lips, running his fingers through Sirius’s hair.

“Thank you both,” Remus said as he broke the kiss. “I loved it all. I don’t know what I did to deserve it all.”

“You deserve everything, Moons,” Sirius whispered back. “Everything.”

[sirladystitch]

Hey guys! Thanks for stopping by, I'm excited to get started on here!

I'm gonna go into a bit more detail under the cut, but TLDR, I've made a new blog to document the process of my next big quilting project, which I hope to enter into the AQS 2025 Lancaster show.

Why I'm Doing This

A few weeks ago we went to our local state fair specifically to see the handicrafts section and got inspired by all the quilts there. I've been wanting to step back from fandom stuff and work on more original pieces, and I've always wanted to try entering more contests, so I figured a quilt show would be a perfect thing to work towards.

I want to do something that's showy and has room to embellish as much as I want without being overly complicated. I've decided to rework my phoenix pin design:

(Sorry about the pixelation/anti-theft stuff I can't get Glaze to work on my computer lol)

How It Will Be Assembled

I'm going to build the quilt in two parts:

The background is pretty simple, just a matter of squares and long strips to frame out a section filled with applique leaves and apples (I was too lazy to redraw it here just imagine it lol).

The bird itself will be sewn onto gauze and then placed onto the background as a last step. The pieces are fairly large blocks of color, the embellishments will be dealt with through painting, embroidery, and beading. This will allow me to work on detailing the bird without dealing with the bulk of the background.

The applique pieces will be fused background and then sewn together with decorative stitching/embellishments. I think the actual quilting itself will be tracing the basic shapes and trying to be as neat as possible while doing so.

Sizing

Since I'm hoping to enter this into a contest, I needed to size it to fit within the contest dimensions. I've settled on a quilt that's about 70" by 50", which is a little shorter than the 72" height limit and totally within the width limits.

Materials

Fortunately I think I have most of the materials I need on hand, at least for the quilt top. The design will be primarily batiks (my beloved), although the bird will probably require some additional iridescent textures and layering.

Math is hard but I think for the background I'm going to need:

30 x 52 Blue background

50 x 1.5 strip yellow cubes

50 x 1.5 strip blue cubes

four 5.5 x 5.5 corner squares

two 2.5 x 52 red side panel

two 2.5 x 30.5 red top/bottom panel

two 1 x 52 yellow side panel

two 1 x 30.5 yellow top/bottom panel

eight 1 x 52 black side panel

eight 1 x 30.5 black top/bottom panel

eight 1 x 6 black corner frames

203 inches of 2” black binding

assorted green, brown, gold (tree applique)

The bird will be primarily made of fat quarters and 1/4 yard strips, plus lots and lots of scraps.

To be honest I another reason I am making the background first is so that I can adjust the background as needed since I have a bad feeling the numbers don't quite add up.

Timeline

The deadline for the contest submission is May 8th but I'm hoping to be done before that. I'm roughly planning the following schedule for benchmarks:

End of Sept - Have all materials and cut background pieces

End of Nov - Have background assembled, minus binding

End of Dec - Bird pieces painted as needed and the base of the bird has been fused together and onto the gauze background

End of Feb- Bird embellishments done, bird trimmed and sewn down to the background

End of April- Quilting complete

I'm hoping to take some time off of work in October to really get a head start on all of this, so fingers crossed progress goes smoothly. Wish me luck, and thanks for joining me on this adventure!

[salivacitrus]

VIVIMILO POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have yet to finalize the outfits for the s/i design in fullbody form but here she is. here's vivian

i'll do violence and manipulation variants as well, it's just that vivian also changes appearance in those routes so i'd have to redraw her to correspond to her outfits in those routes lol EDIT: hi i did the two route variants

some bullet points about vivian under the cut

comparisons with eris

you might notice already the similarities in appearance to eris, namely the curly hair and heterochromia. this was intentional; vivian and eris are similar in a lot of ways, namely the desire for a perfect love and rotten personality, and vivian as a self insert was made to take eris's role.

of course, they also have stark differences; while eris's methods are rather calculating and require a lot of forethought, vivian is rather spontaneous and impulsive. vivian's shaping of milo isn't as carefully constructed as eris's, as vivian likes a more natural-feeling relationship. however, she still very much wants a corrosive and suffocating love, and will absolutely enable milo's obsessive tendencies and push him into it more and more until she can barely breathe... and then some.

furthermore, while eris's show of affection tends to be pretty mild, vivian is absolutely smothering in her love. she's a yandere as well, and her obsessive tendencies are much worse than preroute milo's. the reason she wants a perfect love is because she's loved in this intense and suffocating manner all her life, only to be met with rejection and disgust, and has always wanted someone to love her in the same way she loves. a give and take that's reciprocal in action.

while eris tends to be cold and relatively lucid, vivian... well, she's fucking insane. neurotic, emotionally unstable, delusional, the works. the classic "keeps up a sweet and cute persona, has overwhelming mental issues that freak out the normies." but it's okay, because she and milo can have overwhelming mental issues that freak out the normies together.

elaborating on vivimilo

vivian is absolutely the little spoon. she is very, very small. she's a big fan of the size difference between her and milo, in both height and body type.

she love love LOVES fashion, hence her appearance changes in violence and manipulation routes that i mentioned earlier. she's also always wanted to borrow her partner's clothes, especially if they're much bigger than her and especially for the sake of trying to put together cute coords with the clothes. personally, i feel like the hoodie that we see with milo P is one that he's had for a long time, so the color's kind of faded and weird-looking, and i think vivian could coordinate an outfit with it that looks very cute and fun in a more purposeful manner.

vivian LOVES pet names and likes to alternate between several different ones. sweetheart, honey, dear, the classics. her go-to is darling, that's her absolute favorite. doll and love are close seconds.

it's hard to say where she falls on the intro/extrovert scale. i think she's best described as an extrovert with extreme social anxiety. she'd LOVE to be more social, as she really likes the attention, but she tends to freeze up when actually trying to converse. it's a struggle.

words are fine, but she's much better with expressing her love through her actions. she's very touchy-feely and wants to be near her darling as often as possible. she's not very good at remembering to care for herself, but she'll try to care for milo as best she can, or at least remind him to care for himself.

definitely confesses first. it takes her a bit cus she gets really nervous and she's super afraid of rejection, but she's definitely the one to voice her feelings first. not like she's very good at hiding her affection, anyways. i think that before they start dating, she and milo have super obvious, super embarrassing crushes on each other that literally everyone can sense from a mile away for weeks on end, but they both avoid saying anything about it out of fear of making things awkward. category 5 BPD catastrophe. they both have panic attacks in the bathroom over this shit. and then vivian finally confesses and they're both sooooooo so in love.

afraid of squashing the bugs. her main concern is the bug getting anywhere *on* her cus it feels icky. considering that milo's terrified of the bug and keeps hiding behind her, she gets the nearest shoe to squash it herself. can only really squash with a shoe rather than use the cup/sheet of paper method cus she gets too panicky. she's rather imprecise as-is trying to squash the damn thing.

can't drive. is fine with being a passenger, but is otherwise afraid of cars. her spatial awareness is dogshit, and she gets so freaked out about being behind the wheel that she dissociates. it'll be a long while of practice before she can be trusted to drive to places.

knows how to cook some very basic things, but these basic things turn out pretty good. can probably cook more complex dishes if the disability doesn't tire her out too much that day, or if she gets help.

as mentioned before, she's very touchy-feely. she gets a little more nervous about getting physically affectionate in public, but not by much. definitely takes advantage of milo getting easily flustered by getting super physically affectionate at opportune times. she thinks it's so cute when he's like that.

leans more overprotective, although it's difficult to describe. she's used to being powerless in situations where her darling's being mistreated, so while it takes her a bit to step in to do anything about it, she'll still glare real nasty at anyone who treats milo even slightly too harshly.

has more relationship experience, although most of it was LDR since she's the kind of nerd who has more friends online than IRL lol

horny as hell, to the extent that she tends to hold herself back when expressing her sexuality out of fear that she'd be overstepping. when she's given the okay to express her sexuality unfiltered, she can get pretty needy. definitely the more dominant out of the two lol that man is submissive as hell

i think it would be difficult for me to elaborate on the awkwardness and jealousy levels but like. y'know the vibe. i'm getting so fucking sleepy so uhhhhhhhhhh yeah that's the post

[friesian]

ockiss 4: lost

REDRAW OF SOMETHING I DREW ALMOST A YEAR AGO!! IT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER NOW!! also now with writing from @kamiporterbridges. enjoy the outlaws first kiss. ----

As he walked, unafraid, through the Valley of Death, the lone wanderer took in his surroundings with the vague curiosity of a man who's lost, yet not in any hurry to be found. Shadows passed him by in a rush, as he scrunched the dress shirt he was wearing (dirty, green-ish red? Did he even like the color red? such information was dangling just outside his reach; tantalizing in its mystery, but a futile effort all the same).

Did it itch? Did it ache? Was there even a difference at this point?

Bright yellow and green eyes scanned the empty terrain, where other beings scurried around without a semblance of purpose. Just like him, they were lost. But unlike him, they resented such a position.

The wanderer could feel it, too. A submarine restlessness, agitating the placid lake of his emotions. But something else, more powerful (a supreme tiredness, vast like the ocean itself) weighed him down, keeping him in the utmost complacency.

He needed to be... somewhere. But that was before. Now, he was here, and he had to walk.

Suddenly, however, a bright light made him squint; the wanderer stopped, shielding his eyes as he surveyed the scene; somehow, such light seemed forbidden in a place such as this.

The light was a little wisp, dancing around like fireflies in the summer Krytan fields. But he didn't know what fireflies were anymore, or where Kryta was.

He had to...

"...Be somewhere else."

The wanderer stopped, looking up at the wisp - eyebrows shooting slightly up. How could that little ball of light echo his thoughts in such a perfect way? His voice was desperate, and it echoed in the cavernous, empty well of his emotions, making ripples like a rock on the water.

"Hey," he called, blinking. Then, he tipped his hat. "Howdy."

It felt natural to greet someone that way. The wisp seemed to think so too, stopping its aerial dance to turn, somehow, towards the wanderer.

Despite having no eyes to speak of, the wanderer knew it was looking straight at him.

"Howdy!" the wisp replied, floating closer, making the wanderer squint and step backwards. "Ah— sorry! I'm just—"

"Lost," the wanderer replied, frowning ever so slightly. "You got somewhere to be. So do I."

Briefly, the wisp lit up harder.

"Do ya?!" it exclaimed, echoing in the quiet in an unnatural way that made the wanderer's ears fold backwards. Loud. "Godsdamn, been lookin' for someone to help me outta here! I gotta be somewhere else, I lost... somethin'. And I gotta get it back!"

Once again, his urgency was contagious. The wanderer looked for fire and a cigarette, realizing he didn't have any, and that he didn't remember how to smoke, or how soothing tobacco felt down his throat.

"Motherfucker," he grumbled, looking up at the wisp once more. "You remember what you lost at all, kiddo?"

"No..." this time, the light dimmed. The wanderer scowled; why did that little wisp's grief felt like a stab through his heart? "But maybe we can help each other! Ya said you were lost too, right? You also gotta be somewhere else!"

"Eyup," the wanderer replied, nodding once.

"Then maybe we can look together!" The wanderer could feel the smile on the wisp's lips, despite it not having any. It was a strange feeling. "I help you, you help me. Sounds 'bout right?"

"Yer sure you wanna partner up with me?" the wanderer asked, arms crossed. "I know 'bout the same you do."

"Man, you're the only one I've seen so far who wants to do... well, anythin'!" the wisp danced and twirled in the air, and the wanderer felt the impulse, quickly repressed, to playfully grab at it. "So yeah, you're my partner now!"

For reasons unknown to him, the wanderer chuffed - a smile curving his lips up.

"Then let's go, partner."

—

The lights came down on two figures; one, sitting alone above a tree, perched on a branch with a turret by its side; long, tattered jacket hanging loose along with long, powerful legs and a bramble of green, vegetable hair. The wanderer observed the turret beside him with a squint, clenching and relaxing his fists. His hand ached for... something. Something he wasn't quite sure what it was.

The other figure, sitting against a wooden wall, trembled and shrunk - tarnished and dented armor clinking softly as he moved, shrugging and gasping every so often, golden hair falling over his obscured face. The wanderer tilted his head as the wisp hung in the air, expecting. An air of unmistakable sorrow draped over the scene like curtains before a show.

The figure against the wall waved a paper around - a paper that the wanderer eyed with curiosity. It was a letter; or at least, it was shaped like one. The words were garbled and the letters made no sense, like a half-remembered image of a notice looked at from afar.

The figure above, smoking up a storm, squinted as well, and the wanderer found himself touching his own face, his own brow. There was something familiar about that face. About those gestures. About that sorrow in his eyes.

The figure huffed like an angry bull, shaking his head as if scolding himself for what he was about to do, before leaning down, looming over that tiny blonde man with a scowl.

"Hey," he called - that low, bassy tone catching the wanderer's breath in his throat. "You good down there?"

Equally as shocked, the blonde figure below jumped - snapping at the man perched on the tree. And once again the wanderer found his breath caught in his throat; a deeply seated pain aching in the depths of his chest. A sorrow so deep it clawed its way back to him from the shores of oblivion.

"The hell you want?" the kid -because it was a kid, that much the wanderer knew- grumbled, hostile like a tiny feral kitten who has forgotten the taste of milk and the warmth of a lap to lay on.

Their back and forth was a strange dance; two steps ahead and one back, each time the blonde man regarded the one on the tree with hostility. But bemusement, and badly concealed worry, was all the man on the tree had to offer to the more and more disconcerted blonde.

Finally, a truce was made - the man of the turret offered a blunt, and the man with the letter accepted it, albeit begrudgingly. And finally the man in the tree was no more, as he jumped down and dropped, heavy as he was, in front of the blonde.

"Here you go," he offered, handing a rolled joint towards the blonde. "Name's—"

"There they are again!" the wisp suddenly alerted him, and the wanderer whipped around, wrench at the ready.

A shadowy figure jumped from the brambles, leaping over them to hold onto the figures, stretching out towards each other, offering and taking. And it ripped something crucial, it seemed; the image dissolved into the ether.

"Hey!" the wanderer yelled out, leaping into action as the wisp followed. "Give that back!"

He didn't quite know what that was. But the wanderer knew he needed it back - desperately so.

Scenes passed by the two of them as they pursued the shadowy figure - the blonde man and the man with the turret  slowly growing closer, eating together, fighting together, laughing together. The twang of a banjo made the wanderer's ears twitch as they ran by, as did the sound of the blonde man's tears. His sorrow felt like his own, in a way. And the impulse of reaching out, of squeezing him close, of shushing his fears and drying his tears, felt only natural.

"Here!" the wisp suddenly leapt forward, igniting in light, and making the shadowy figure recoil. And the wanderer finally brought down the wrench over it, tearing into its shape, unmaking it rather than destroying it.

The figure vanished, yet its shadow yielded an object that the wanderer contemplated, dumbfounded. An old, mistreated red bandana rested on the floor, unremarkable in its simplicity, but transcendental for reasons unknown.

The wanderer reached over, gloved fingers gingerly touching its rough embroidery, picked at it by the years. And then, as he stowed his weapon -Matilda, his wrench was called Matilda. He knew so now-, he grasped at it, picking it up, contemplating it like the treasure it was, despite having lost all meaning.

"Excuse me!" a voice called - a small, frail-looking woman observed him, the petals composing her hair puffing upon being noticed. "Yes, you! I'm sorry, but the patient cannot be visited at the time - he seems to be... unstable, and dangerous."

The wanderer blurted out the words, like an actor ready to read their lines on a well loved play.

"Name's Marwyd," he said - and the words rang true in his lips. "Priory engineer. I gotta see him."

The woman - a Pact medic, now he knew, seemed to recoil in sadness.

"Oh," she murmured, looking down. "He has been calling out for you. Even in dreams..."

Marwyd, the wanderer, felt that sorrow in his chest again. The Pact medic, however, interrupted his musings with a sigh.

"You have five minutes," she murmured, parting the tent flap as she glanced around. "Good luck, soldier."

Clumsily, still clinging to the bandana on his hand, Marwyd stepped forth. And there he was - the blonde man, laying on the bed, sleeping.

He remembered now. His name tasted sweet on his tongue.

"Johnny," he named the blonde man, who stirred at his voice, looking for him like a flowing looking for the sun.

"Mar?" he weakly, weepily called. And his stirring became frantic, covering himself from invisible monsters clawing at him from the shadows.

He remembered. Of course he remembered. The heat, the burning feeling on his hand as he reached out, holding him down, holding him close.

"S'alright, Johnny, s'alright," he swore, despite now knowing it wasn't alright. It would never be alright again. "I'm here now."

"It killed him, Mar!" Johnny  cried out, incandescent tears flowing down his cheeks. "He's dead. Nick's dead."

"M'sorry," he murmured, gently caressing the golden thread of his locks. "M'so sorry, Johnny. If there's anythin' I can do fer you..."

Johnny suddenly held his hands, clenching at the bandana as well. And Marwyd understood its purpose and its function like never before. The tether that binded them.

"Kill that damn dragon," Johnny growled through clenched teeth. "Kill it fuckin' dead!"

And as he let go of his bandana, of his name and self, Marwyd nodded. For he didn't need it anymore.

"I promise."

The image vanished - not dissolved in the ether, but gently fading as Johnny's expression softened. And the yearning grew in Marwyd's heart.

He had somewhere to be. Someone to find.

"Let's keep goin'," he said, turning backwards towards the wisp.

But its sudden stillness, its quiet contemplation, gave him pause. He tilted his head.

"You good?" he asked, squinting ever so slightly. The wisp jumped in place.

"Whah— yeah! M'good." It didn't sound convinced. And something in his voice made Marwyd's ears perk up in attention. Something in those whiny, saddened tones. "Let's go!"

Marwyd held his gaze on it for a moment, before nodding once. He figured they'd find whatever it was looking for eventually.

–

The road continued on down memories untold, through a darkened forest of bad omens. Marwyd and his incorporeal partner walked down treacherous slopes, finally leaving the Pact behind. Memories dropped gently like leaves sometimes, then suddenly like a cold winter shower. And Marwyd kept grabbing at his dress shirt, feeling the sting of loss, and something else entirely.

Under the canopy of naked branches they stopped once more. The scene lit up with the unbearable white of the sun glistening over the snow, and Marwyd inhaled sharply, scowling once again. He remembered that scene.

And he didn’t like it.

As if waiting for him to realize, the words reached his ears with painful clarity, folding backwards as if trying to escape it.

“You killed him!” Johnny was in hysterics - looking down at the man who didn’t deserve to be called his father.

“He ain't dead,” Marwyd assured him through clenched teeth. And not for lack of tryin’.

“Dad?! Dad!” he wasn't listening, hurrying to kneel beside that awful man, looking for a pulse with trembling hands.

Marwyd didn’t know if he was trembling because of the image of his father knocked out on the floor, or because of the cane he had gotten directly to the head, courtesy of the same man.

Despite knowing how it ended, Marwyd knew he was powerless to stop it. Johnny screamed, not listening, not even wanting to do so. Terrified of his own loneliness, he retreated deep within it, far away from where Marwyd could reach him.

“Get the fuck outta here!” Johnny yelled, and through the echoes of time Marwyd felt the impact of one of those delicate porcelain figurines - bruising the back of his head and shattering against the floor.

It hurt. It still hurt. And not because of the bruise.

He glared over his shoulder, seeing that known face twisted by rage and tears.

“Don't ever talk to me again,” he said - sealing the fate of their solitude.

“Wait!” Johnny called suddenly. “Please, don't– M'sorry, I didn't want to–” 

Marwyd stopped on his tracks, eyes wide. That wasn't how it went at all.

He turned on his heels, hoping to find Johnny's tenderness. But the memory was long gone, and only the wisp remained, floating in the air with confused urgency that echoed his own.

And once again, Marwyd named him. His name, despite everything, still sweet on his lips.

“Johnny?” he called.

The light became unbearable under the darkened sky. Marwyd shielded himself from it, but quickly forced himself to see. The light took shape, molding itself into a figure he knew all too well. A figure he would never be able to forget - not even in the Valley of Death.

More corporeal than the ghosts around him, Johnny's boots touched the ground, as he examined his body with shock and confusion.

“Johnny!” called Marwyd again.

“Mar!” Johnny called in turn, breaking into a sprint.

He clashed into Marwyd’s arms with the force of the ocean, or his impetuous temper. Whatever could hit the hardest - Marwyd wasn't sure he could tell the difference anymore.

He buried his hooked nose in those golden curls, enveloping Johnny in a devastating embrace, squeezing him against his chest. He who held the secret of his name, who reached through time and space, over and over again, no matter how far he was. Through the pain, through the years, through their own, miserable fears and grudges.

“M'sorry, Mar, M'so fuckin’ sorry!” Johnny cried in his chest, clinging to him as fiercely as Marwyd clung to him.

“Hey there, kid,” he murmured - lips brushing against the top of his head, desperate to touch him. To know he was real. To know that, once again, he had come looking for him. “S'alright.”

Despite their circumstances, he had to admit to himself, quietly and secretly, that he was happy they were together. Even in their final adventure.

“Kiddo, are you–” he murmured. Johnny leaned backwards, looking up at him.

“I ain’t sure,” he replied, wide eyes filled to the brim with tears he hurried to wipe away. “Guess that's a good sign. You…?”

Marwyd huffed tiredly.

“Don't think I made it, Firefly.”

Johnny drew in a shaky breath. And his panicked stare turned resolute.

“Well I don’t give no fucks,” he said, hands gripping at Marwyd's arms. “I told ya if ya got yourself killed I'd be right here to drag your ass back. Well, here I am! Now let's get draggin’!”

Biting down a smile, Marwyd chuffed. How in Torment did he always manage to make him believe in the impossible? Killing a dragon with a cannon? Hunting down an impostor mursaat? Killing a god?

The road behind him suddenly lit up in flames. Both of them looked over Marwyd’s shoulder - the fire dancing in their eyes.

“We gotta keep goin’,” he said - reluctantly letting go of Johnny. He nodded, resolute.

“Right behind ya.”

The road ascended in war and flames - up and up into the moonless sky. Quietly, Marwyd’s hand sought for Johnny's, finding eager fingers locking with his own.

–

The years of war they had waged against the rogue god of war Balthazar scarred even the Domain of the Lost, flames hurrying them up the ruins of a semblance of an ancient tower. Fighting the heralds, finding Marwyd’s father again, finding Johnny's brother, Nick, trapped inside an armor wielded shut. There was still much left to do. The people of Elona still needed to be free.

But at the top of the tower they found Balthazar, or its shadow in Marwyd’s memories. He had struck Johnny down - and only now Marwyd realized he was still alive, even if just barely. The Johnny beside him contemplated himself with saddened, yet curious eyes, rubbing his arm where a burnt bruise was still visible on his inert body.

“It is fitting, then,” Balthazar said, and Marwyd looked up at him in defiance. “You came all the way back to die in your home. Goodbye, outlaw.”

A flash of unbearable heat and light made Marwyd stumble, flinching, clutching at his chest where a sword went through him; cut and boiling from his shoulder to his hip. The incandescent pain made him hiss through clenched teeth. And then, nothing.

The fire faded, and the valley was quiet once again.

When Marwyd looked down at Johnny, he found him staring back up at him.

“Firefly–” 

“There's gotta be a way,” Johnny interrupted, fists clenched. “You promised. You promised!”

His words echoed inside his heart. A hollow pain taking over, worse than the pain of death.

“I know,” Marwyd said with a nod. “I promised I'd come back. And that's what I outta do.”

“Ah, so there you are.”

Both on alert, Marwyd and Johnny whipped around, weapons at the ready as the shadows gathered at the top of the tower. Slowly but surely a shape emerged from the shadows themselves; solid like Johnny, imposing like a mountain at night. Their face, under a black, hooded cloak, was a bone-white mask of death; a bovine creature whose semblance had long since been lost.

Marwyd had never been devoted to all of the human gods - his expertise lay in the mysteries of the cult of Balthazar. But even he could recognize the grim visage of one of the servants of the God of Death.

“Grenth?” Johnny murmured, stepping slightly in front of Marwyd. The figure scoffed, both amused and, apparently, annoyed.

“Hardly,” they said, contemplating them like an especially interesting piece of a puzzle. “But I am His will through His absence. I am the Judge, and you two have dodged me for long enough.”

Marwyd scowled. He had already been killed by a god. He could definitely take on one of their advisors.

“We ain’t dodgin’ no one, you Judge fella,” he said, arms crossed.

“We on our way out,” Johnny added, similarly scowling.

The Judge, once again, seemed amused by their defiance.

“I hope you two are aware of the place you are in,” they said - one ample gesture enveloping the whole valley. Shadows shambled on the plains, looking for their names, looking for their memories, or delivering themselves to despair.

Johnny scoffed in turn.

“Lemme tell ya somethin’ mister Judge,” he said, stepping up, out of Marwyd’s reach as he tried to stop him. “We ain’t from ‘round these parts. We got places to be, gods to kill, if ya catch my drift. Not yours, though. Other god.”

A green flame lit up the Judge’s eyes from within the depths of their mask.

“You hang at the edge of life and death,” they said, pointing an armored finger towards Johnny before regarding Marwyd in a similar manner. “And you succumbed to the rogue god’s power already. What hope do you have of beating him, as he grows more powerful and bold?”

Marwyd scowled, huffing like an angry bull.

“We don’t need no hope,” he said, weighing his trusty Matilda, on his hands. “Only thing we need’s a shot. And to kill the motherfucker before he does us.”

The Judge hummed, staring down at both, measuring their resolution.

“Your death might be long, agonizing,” they warned - their skeletal face lighting up from within once again. Marwyd could feel the burn cutting through him once more, but refused to do anything beyond glaring at the Judge, stalwart. “And your destiny might be too horrible to speak of.”

He gestured towards Johnny, who blinked once before looking up at Marwyd. Their eyes met briefly - a wordless dialogue.

“Well let the motherfucker try,” Johnny finally said, arms crossed.

“Fool me once, n’all that crap,” Marwyd added, hands gripping at Matilda with renewed vigor.

At the end of all things, they would even walk through the Valley of Death together. There was nothing that could stand in their way. Marwyd had to believe it to be so.

The Judge’s eyes lit up once more, hand still raised towards Johnny.

“Be it foolishness, or be it bravery; Balthazar must be stopped.” Their cadaveric face turned to face Johnny. “But the land of the dead is no place for the living.”

Johnny blinked once again, as Marwyd could feel a wave of relief washing over him. He was alive. He was alright.

“The hell does that mean?” Johnny questioned, stepping forward.

“You were stubborn enough to follow your friend down here,” the Judge explained, fingers weaving some sort of magic that made Marwyd’s spines stand on end. “But you must return to where you belong. Your time is not yet spent, son of Kryta.”

Eyes wide and breath hitching up, Johnny held onto Marwyd’s arm, squeezing.

“I ain’t leavin’ him here!” he protested, looking up at Marwyd, pleading.

Marwyd glanced down at him, stern as ever, but with a glint in his eye. He turned, releasing his arm from Johnny’s desperate grip to hold his shoulders, examining that face he had grown to know as well as his own. Those soft features, those big, sad eyes of golden lashes, those soft lips, pouting, with a question itching to blurt out of them like a torrent.

“He’s right, Firefly,” he finally said. Johnny’s eyes grew wide once more.

“What?!” he blurted up, stepping backwards. Marwyd sighed, hands slowly dropping to his sides.

“You helped me out a bunch here, but you gotta go back out there,” he insisted. “Whatever happens next, you gotta keep goin’. Fer Nick. And fer me.”

Shaking his head, eyes welling with tears, Johnny refused with a “nuh-uh” that grew in urgency.

“I ain’t goin’ back without you!” he insisted, tears finally rolling down his cheeks.

It was strange. To be dead. To have been murdered by the god he had been taught to worship. And to be at peace with it, if it meant Johnny could go back. If it meant he would live.

In the end, his death had meant something. There was still so much left to do. But Johnny was alive, and that was all that mattered.

So he dried Johnny’s tears one last time, gaze soft when it washed over that face.

“Be right behind you,” he said, finally taking a step backwards. “I promise.”

“No, Mar–!”

As he tried to reach him once more, Johnny’s figure dissolved in light, shrinking in on itself like the wisp it had been until it vanished. Marwyd closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath before turning towards the Judge.

“You heard it,” he said, glaring in defiance. “I’m goin’ back even if I gotta blow the damn gate wide open.”

The Judge chuckled, finally lowering their hand as their attention turned towards Marwyd once more.

“Your body lacks the vital spark to return like your companion did,” they said, solemnly glancing down at him. “Even if I feel inclined to, I can’t open the path for you.”

Marwyd huffed.

“I made a promise to blondie,” he said, reaching for Matilda. “So you better scram or I’m takin’ the key or whatever from yer corpse.”

One last time, the Judge’s eyes lit up in a green flame.

“It is not me who holds the key to your freedom,” they said. “So I’m afraid you’ll be taking it from something else’s corpse.”

Marwyd squinted, standing up straight.

“The hell you mean by that,” he grumbled, gripping at Matilda still.

“Would you do me a favor before departing?” the Judge said, undeterred.

After a brief pause, Marwyd huffed once more. He didn’t like to owe to gods nor men. But working for it… it was certainly a different beast altogether.

“I’m listenin’.”

–

With a wheeze and an unbearable cough, Johnny found himself feeling the evening cold creeping inside his bones, as well as the sharp pain of a battle he had lost. He rolled on his side, unable to hold himself up, arms trembling before dropping on his face once more. Fresh cuts bled freely in the wind, and insects began their dusk chanting up to indifferent skies.

Groaning and crying out, Johnny gave himself a moment to catch his breath, feeling the loose dirt blowing up into his nose as he fought a broken rib to breathe.

The day ending, with the soothing night crawling over a sky that, slowly, became dotted with stars, felt like a cruel joke. And Johnny shrunk into himself, grabbing fistfuls of dirt as he curled up in on himself - unwelcome tears clearing paths through the soot and dust on his cheeks.

He didn't dare to open his eyes. To realize that what he feared was no dream, but his horrifying present.

But he had to face it. He owed it to Marwyd. At the very least, he owed him that much.

Sobbing and heaving, he sat up, trembling and squeezing his eyes shut one last time before glancing up through the tangled, bloody mess of his unraveled curls. And sure enough Marwyd was still there, like waiting for him to wake him up.

Desperate, gasping breaths ravaged him as he dragged himself closer, unable to ignite the rage magic that kept his legs working. At a glance, it seemed like Marwyd was sleeping - his face relaxed, free from its permanent scowl, from the rage and the pain. As Johnny cradled him up, holding his limp head over his lap, he noticed a drying bloodstain, dripping down from his parted lips to his chin. Johnny scrunched his face, feeling another wave of tears wreck him down, before sobbing a desperate breath and wiping the blood off with his finger.

He ignored the smoking, open gash splitting Marwyd from shoulder to hip, body barely held together by scraps of burnt, dark green flesh. He merely combed Marwyd's hair off his face, his hand softly cupping his cheek, caressing it with his thumb.

"Mar, I—" he drew a shaky breath, teardrops pooling on Marwyd's face as they fell, freely, from Johnny's eyes. "M'sorry. I tried... I— I failed. I miss you. I miss you so much. And I never told you—"

He had never told him. That every second apart was agony. That missing him was a malady that only finding him once more could ease. That he was diseased, bewitched, enthralled by days spent riding together, by evenings spent jamming the night away.

Feeling the sting of broken bones and pained muscle, Johnny hugged Marwyd's remains as if they could save him from oblivion. As if the long road ahead would be less lonely because he carried dark green bloodstains with him.

Marwyd had told him he would never leave him alone. But just like Nick, there was no returning from the Mists. And some promises would be left unfulfilled, no matter how hard they tried to keep them.

"I swear I'm gonna get that son of a bitch!" Johnny muttered, clinging to Marwyd's jacket with abandon. "I fuckin' swear it! I swear it, I swear it..."

Devolving into sobs once more, Johnny weeped on Marwyd's chest, hoping those clawed hands would hold him one last time for the road.

As the sun died down, however, a glint of green caught Johnny's eyes. He shrunk in on himself, vaguely remembering somber paths between life and death, and glowing, fiery eyes behind a skeletal mask. He blinked his eyes open, softly dropping Marwyd back down and staring at him, wiping his tears away despite knowing it was an absurd task.

In the growing darkness, it was hard to distinguish much of anything.

Until a soft, pained cough shook Marwyd's body on the ground.

Johnny's eyes widened in shock, as Marwyd's cough grew to a wheeze, and he rolled to his side, holding his shoulder. After spitting blood beside him, he finally glanced over his shoulder, catching Johnny's teary stare.

"You hurt?" he murmured - voice strained, cavernous like death itself.

Johnny blinked once, then twice, as his face scrunched once again; tears pooling in his eyes. A sob wrecked him, and he weeped like a child, openly and unashamed.

"I thought—! You—!" He gasped for air, unable to get a hold on himself, squeezing his arms in a tight, desperate hug. "You were dead, Mar! You were—"

"Shh, here," dragging himself closer, Marwyd stretched Johnny into a hug. "Judge cut me a deal. Got rid of a problem fer'em. And they used that energy to shove me back. S'alright, Firefly... told ya I ain't goin' nowhere."

"I thought you were gonna leave me alone," Johnny cried, nuzzling into Marwyd's bloody chest, minding little about the pungent smell of burning aloe impregnating it all. "I can't lose you Mar. I can't. I ain't strong enough. I don't wanna be alone... I don't wanna be without you!"

Each word squeezed at Marwyd's chest, echoing the feeling with an all-encompassing roar. He wasn't good with feelings - he didn't know what it all meant. But he did know one thing and one thing only: he didn't want to be alone anymore either.

He refused to be without Johnny.

They parted merely to look into each other's eyes - Johnny's still watery and bloodshot, making that deep blue even deeper in contrast. Marwyd had always thought one could get lost in those eyes. Like a wanderer in the desert. And maybe he'd like to wander in them, after being so close to lose it all.

In a flash, he realized he had been a fool. All the answers to his questions were right within his grasp all along, swimming in those eyes of blue. His hands climbed up Johnny's anatomy to reach his face, caressing his cheeks, framing those eyes.

All he had to do was reach out to grab those answers. The answer to his yearning, to his neverending sorrow. And perhaps death had, finally, made him braver than he had ever been.

As he leaned in, eyes lidded staring down at Johnny's lips to be sure not to mess it all up, he could feel Johnny's gaze going from crushing sadness to intrigued curiosity, and finally to open surprise. Yet he didn't move, softly parting his lips in a question he didn't get to formulate, as all the answers came to him in a rush.

Marwyd had never kissed anybody before. He didn't quite know what to expect - people always seemed to make a big deal out of things he couldn't hope to understand. But as he felt Johnny's soft, pouty lips finally touching his, suddenly everything made perfect sense. His painful upbringing, his eternal solitude. His roaming in the desert and his service in the Pact. That brief moment of compassion he had for a sad child soldier, all those years back. And his untimely death, begging for it to be enough to keep Johnny safe.

Now Johnny was safe in his arms, and neither of them were going nowhere. Johnny's eyes slowly, sleepily closed as he made the kiss deeper, tilting his head to the side, showing Marwyd the ropes, the pathways of expressing love in a language they could both understand. And it took Marwyd a moment to realize he hadn't been struck by the rage of an uncaring god once more for feeling something that wasn't hate for another man.

All he felt was a jolt inside his chest, a blooming in his heart, a flutter in his head. Was that what love felt like?

They only parted to glance at each other briefly, both surprised by that apparent breach of the rules of friendship. But neither had ever been too keen on rules, anyway. And this time it was Johnny the one who jumped into his arms once more, kissing him with abandon, making Marwyd grunt in pain for death had left its mark on him, but it didn't matter.

Finally, their games of cat and mouse were at an end. And even if he couldn't name it -not yet, not now, not so soon-, Marwyd realized it was okay.

From now on, they'd be forever intertwined. And it was, indeed, okay.

[dark-overlord-of-rainbows]

Drawn Apr 30 2023 I reused a bunch of my old character designs and some adopt I and my friend had never used to throw in this universe so I was redrawing some characters I haven't touched in so, so long... Not all of them, also idk why some are cut off like that? this is an old edit If you've attacked me on artfight before there's a chance you've seen a couple of these before I remember some of the ways I was trying to vary their looks but man so many of them have soft faces and big round ears.. I guess I still default to that but I've been trying to work on it a bit more since... still not perfect but y'know To be fairer to myself from back then though, this might've been my first time trying to vary the shape of the ears of a bunch of characters that weren't splatoon characters (Splatoon was actually indirectly the reason for me starting? More specifically: Because I was drawing splatoon characters during artfight, I noticed how differently people were doing their ears, and so I practiced varying my own characters ears with my cephalopods first based on the different styles I saw) and this is also missing quite a few of the other characters that I had done here, some of whom I did branch out a little more. And to be clear! I think there is some stuff I did well and can pull from again, I'm just not as proud as I once was. Anyway I'll talk about the parts I do remember since I was playing with style here

The one at the with the grey/purple eyes at the top, I don't think I had ever really used a palette like that. Sometimes I want to give a character eyes that - depending on the lighting - looks different colours (some people have this irl, people with eyes that are ambiguously gray/blue/green for example), so I was kinda wondering if making it like a gradient (that'd change which colour is more dominant) would work as one way of representing that? with another character (different universe) I've also tried making the eye one colour and putting the shine of the eye as a different colour instead of the white that everyone else got (it was also done a little different) With the character here just an ambiguous, in-between grey/purple would work (although if I'd done that I'd totally have forgotten my intention with them because I was so bad at writing this crap down.) but the other one I mentioned it wouldn't work because it was supposed to go between blue and red, and if I just did an inbetween colour... well, that's just purple. I didn't want it to be purple. ever. Liam up there (second from top, brown hair) is drawn with my right (non-dominant) hand (Sorry yes I'm one of those left-handed weirdos...) I wanted this cast to be a little more whimsical~ As an aside it is always very funny seeing people talk about challenges drawing with the non-dominant hand and refer to it as a "left hand drawing challenge". Lefties winning The blond with the hazel eyes, well, I kinda just realized I've never given any characters hazel eyes (amber as well). I was trying something else with the eyes there since they're the only one with that.... it kinda looks like a chip out of the iris? it's not the shine but it looks like how some artists do the shine out of the eye. not sure They were also an adopt I never used. The lower orange haired one's the only one without the outer outline for the eyes as well... With Ciara (lower right, red hair) and Aaron (her brother, not pictured) I'm not sure if I was specifically going for sectoral heterochromia with them? I've drawn Eliza before with yellow, albeit human not cat-like eyes before, but this is technically a return to form for her I can't remember what I was thinking with anyone else. did not realize I'd be mostly talking about eyes here either

[kinmokusei-stars]

A fun little attempt at a fake Kouko 3D model for The Secret of the Cursed Mask LMAO It was definitely a struggle, but I overall like it!

Super long description I wrote out right before I fell asleep below the cut, so fair warning, it may be nonsensical! ( = ⩊ = )

This was such a doozy of a project, and I somehow managed to get it done in less than a day! What an absolute beast. I wasn't liking how my original daily doodle was turning out, so I figured why not try something different and come back to it with a fresh eye! (๑˘︶˘๑)

And of course I had to go do something twice as complicated and nothing near the realm of what I usually do. (x_x)⌒☆ I can't help myself.

After starting to watch TheAzureGuardian's playthrough of it, I had the thought of making Kouko a fake model for the game Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask a while back, but for obvious reasons it was a bit daunting! I don't do 3D work, so that just meant It'd have to sit and entirely render it by hand.

However, with a lot of staring at the overworld models and help from the lovely website 'The Model's Resourse' to get proper PNGs of them, this is what I came out with! It's by no means perfect, but I think I captured her in a 3D style pretty okay for a first try! I'd love to go back and redraw this in the future once my art improves more and I've done more studies, but for now, I'm pretty happy with it! (*¯︶¯*)

I'd say the clothes were the most difficult part. I'm really fond of the older style of models that are used in games like this, but it's really hard to properly capture the textures and depth you want when trying to emulate it in a 2D style! It was a super fun challenge, but I think next time I could try mimicking the textures with different pieces of clothing before working on the main drawing for it, that way I can more accurately apply it!

I'm one of those people who see a piece of media and immediately wonder what it'd be like if my OC were a canon part of it, and though I haven't at all finished the playthrough I'm watching, it's still fun to ponder along the way! I've heard of the routes and endings, and it just ended up leading to this LMAO Kouko's story isn't actually at all related to TSotCM, it's entirely based in the manga/anime, but I thought it'd be a fun little challenge to draw her like this!

[solradguy]

Hello! I’ve been archiving stuff for a fandom I’m in (RWBY for context) and posting it to a side blog for fun. Really, I’m just compiling stuff I don’t see anyone sharing. I don’t want to misidentify what I’m doing!

I was wondering if you had ever posted anything about how you upscale images? You’re quite good at it, so I was wondering if you had shared any advice. When I upscale, the quality goes way down!

I don’t want you to think I’m using you instead of google! I’ve looked up guides on this, but I’m still struggling a bit. I’ve tried working with “vectors” on the advice of a friend.

Of course, I’m not really sure if this is the polite way to go about this. Maybe it’s a super secret and this is a severe faux pax! Please disregard this if it is! You feel a bit like an upperclassman in archiving (a senpai, if you prefer) and we’ve interacted several times.

Not top secret at all!! It's just kind of... esoteric lol... Been too lazy to explain it. But since you asked... ;P

I use Real ESRGAN for the main upscaling part of the process: https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN/

It comes with instructions but basically you plop your image into the same folder as the .EXE and then run this in the terminal:

./realesrgan-ncnn-vulkan.exe -i input.jpg -o output.png

Replace input.jpg with the full filename of the file you're upscaling and then change output.png to what you want the upscaled file to be named. I usually just make it like [OG filename]BIG.png haha

Waifu2x works alright-ish too, if ESRGAN doesn't work on your machine for whatever reason: https://waifu2x.udp.jp/index.html

Once I've got the upscaled file, I do the rest in Clip Studio Paint EX 2.0. CSP's image resizer's not very good, so I don't rely on it. But the Smart Smoothing and general image adjustment tools are useful. Sometimes I'll do some light cleanup in CSP before upscaling the file too, like removing dust with the Clone Stamp or light redrawing of fuzzy parts, etc. Most art/image editing tools will have what you need. I don't get to use Smart Smoothing for archival stuff often enough to say it's absolutely worth buying CSP for.

ESRGAN is a very powerful tool, but it does lose almost all of the image's original texture when it upscales. Things like analog art or anything with rough or grainy textures will get smoothed, but already smooth digital art upscales beautifully. The best workaround I've found for restoring texture is to take the original image, resize it in CSP to the scale of the upscaled image, and then paste the OG image over it, adjust the opacity, and then use the Sharpen filter to fix it from there.

So if the original image is 400x800px and the upscaled image is 8000x16000px, you'll use the CSP resizer to enlarge the OG image to 8000x16000px and use that as the overlay to restore some of the texture. It's not perfect, but it looks better than leaving it entirely smooth. Each image is different, you'll get pretty good at figuring out what texture to use and which to erase. I've found making a greyscale static texture, setting its layer to Overlay mode, and adjusting that helps a little too. I'll put the texture I use under a readmore below.

If the image is too small, not even ESRGAN can help... It's also not too good at text if there's a lot of .JPG noise in the way. If there's text, there's a good chance you'll have to manually redraw it or font-match it and completely redo it.

Good luck!! Hope this helps. Thank you for the compliments, too!!

Sometimes Gaussian Blur-ing this very, very, slightly works with the image better but most of the time I find that leaving it crisp looks the best. Editor's discretion.

[echo-bleu]

invisible progress

there's something frustrating about progress that only I can see. if you look at my art over the last few years, it almost looks like i've regressed. not all the way, not with every piece, but mostly it's because i used to draw from exact reference (screenshot redraws, portraits from photos, etc) and i slowly moved away from that, first using pose ref and now often no reference at all. so there are mistakes and imperfections, anatomy that isn't quite right, folds that don't make sense. i also taught myself how to use colors, how to take advantage of digital tools, basically how to paint, how to draw in different cartoon styles rather than realism.

i keep posting the imperfect drawings because i don't want to fall prey to the Instagram Perfect (tm) way of existing online, but it frustrates me.

i learned so much and i feel even further away from where i want to be. i know it's a common feeling with every craft -- i don't know where i'm going with this really. occasionally people look at my art and, unprompted, will say "but what you did before, it was great" or "you should use more references" or whatever, and i just. grit my teeth and say yes, it was, yes, i should.

some days i wish somebody would be excited for me not at the quality of my art but at the neat little trick i did with the light, just there, that i didn't know how to do before.

does every artist feel like that?

[openly-journaling]

Wrath: Friday January 20th 2023

Was in the middle of working on a mini animation and our last nib broke and we move in a little over a week now provided the weather is good. Kind of late to order more so now we won't be able to draw for two weeks unless we desperately pull out our old tablet and learn to redraw on that thing.

I'm sobbing dying inside because we finally got off block and got our creativity back after nearly an entire year it feels like. Like we really got back into it.

I never really realized how much of a coping mechanism art was until we fell out of after healing from a lot of our trauma and now are dividing back into it since we're we're staying in the town that legitimately gave us all our worst traumas. And then of course the creativity came back.

Does make me wonder if we ever get comfortable enough if we'll ever even somewhat give drawing up. I say somewhat because we do want to try architecture but at the same time I have a feeling there a couple people down south that may very well resurface a lot of trauma for us. Which, while we don't exactly want and definitely try to avoid, it's good for our art.

So maybe our trauma isn't all bad.

But I've also come to this realization that a lot of artists really hate their art and their art style. Which is odd to us because we've been in that same boat but not to such severity. If we make a mistake we hate specifically that mistake but let it be to learn from it in the future. I think the early gentle parenting growing up that our dad gave us before foster care shattered us helped shape our confidence early on. So we don't struggle quite as much. We rarely compare our art to others and when we do it's more of an obsession over their art that we try to even semi copy that art style or implement it into our own.

Perhaps the worst hate we put on our art is when something just isn't working perspective wise or the lineart isn't working. I suppose we have worked to be perfect but perfect to us. Which was almost always good enough.

The way the whole class would stand over our shoulder in amazement and watch us draw gave us a confidence too. It made us feel good and adored. Considering we didn't get a ton of attention growing up.

It became less and less impressive to people as we got older but there are still some people that absolutely go wild for our art. We've finally found a comfortable community that loves it! The furry community has been very kind to our art.

I think our problem for so long was trying to draw furry art in front of people that decided dogs having head hair must mean that's a horse despite the different nose and sharp teeth. That was annoying. Completely different face shapes. We drew animals in front of people that preferred human art.

Which, while we still enjoy doing sometimes, we are still heavily learning and even come to learn more how much happier furry art brings us. So.. we'll stick with what we love most, what we're good at whether people like it or don't. And eventually we'll find our crowd.

I'm just glad we don't have a huge lack of confidence in our skill of art. We can look back at the oldest shit and wonder how people thought that was good. And it makes us realize that we have come a very very long way. We're proud of ourselves. Really.

Next we're going to attempt to work on more perspectives. Like this piece I'm so damn proud of. Our first drawing where we're really trying a different perspective.

No actually, that's the second one. Now that I think of it, this is our first. Unfortunately so many people want to call it inappropriate though and it never hit off. Like I'm sorry that people legit have asses? I'm sorry for drawing it right? She fell that's the whole point of this piece was just to get a literal difference in perspective. It's not like I'm exposing her or giving you a full on ass shot in the face. My god. And that was before a signature change as you can see

Anyway. We've come a very long way since then and I'm just happy with all of it. Satisfied that we can do so well.

I guess I do sometimes wish our art style wasn't so set as it is because there are definitely artists that have art styles we're jealous of. But to be fair, if we all had the same style... I think art would get pretty boring. So.. I'm glad I have a recognized art style of my own.

It does change depending on the headmate but not always. I'm not arguing with that. Hell most of our headmates can't draw at all! I'm glad to be one that can.