#kinda basic but i've been trying to get a hang of drawing these characters again

[thesummerrtriangle]

can you guess which fandom i've been sucked back in?

[assassin-artist]

I like your Viltrumite OC and her dynamic with Conquest. They remind me of that meme where a cute girl ordered a beer and a tough guy ordered a sweet drink but the waiter gets their drinks mixed up so they have to switch them back.

I'm pretty sure you mean Yuki, right? Cuz the only time I've drawn Mercy (my only Viltrumite OC) with Conquest was when they were beating the shit outta each other, lol. I wondered why you assumed Yuki was Viltrumite, until I looked back at that drawing of her with Conquest and realized the overlay I put on top of it made her outfit very grey-and-white. Oops! A little bit of Yuki rambling below the cut if you're interested (:

She's not a Viltrumite! She's human, born and raised on Earth. Yuki is one of those OCs where I put her into every AU and every fandom I can feasibly stick her into, lol, so if you look at my Yuki tag then you'll see a loooot of different variations of her. She's usually a good person in every world bc "sunshine and optimism" is like the core of her character in every fandom, but in Invincible I decided I wanted her to be more neutral/self serving instead (: I've got Mercy to be the good OC who wants to protect people, now Yuki gets to be mischievous and work with the bad guys because they're fun company

She's my OC where I just decided that I can do whatever tf I want, so she's an OP mary sue that wins every fight and everyone fears/respects her and all that. Probably the main reason I don't post about her a lot, I know stuff like that isn't always that well received on tumblr. But I don't care that much, it's my art blog and I get to post my super self indulgent OC doodles if I want to..

Her basic lore in the Invincible-verse is that she's immortal and has been around for a few centuries (I haven't decided exactly how long, just at least 300 years or so). She can't come back from the dead like The Immortal can, she just has a healing factor so strong that it's incredibly difficult to do enough damage to actually kill her before she's already healed from it. She can teleport, and mainly uses her dual swords to fight with. I justify her being OP as hell with the fact that she basically doesn't interact with the main plotline, like, at all. She interacts with the characters, but she doesn't really get herself involved with what's going on in the world. She's just goofin off in the background

She basically just pops up out of nowhere, messes around with people, says some cryptic shit that nobody understands at the time but will look back on later and go "ohhh", and then disappears again. Silly jester of a woman that doesn't want to work for any organization because she has no respect for the law or governments, so she's willing to break the rules to do what she wants to do. Sometimes she works with criminals, sometimes she allies with the GDA, but most of the time she's considered an eccentric but unknowable entity.

I just really like the idea of her scaring the shit out of people by popping up behind them at random. The Guardians tell her to get out of their base in Utah but she's like "wait I want one of those donuts" and they just can't catch her. They stopped trying to kick her out years ago. She's kicking her legs up on Cecil's office desk and he just sucks it up bc he wants her help on a mission or something. Silly things like that (:

I like the idea of her hanging out with Conquest, because they're both very lonely people. Yuki, like Immortal, decided a long time ago to not get too close to other people because they both know they're going to outlive them all. So she has a very friendly and approachable personality, sure, but she keeps an emotional distance from everyone. Kinda pissing people off by always cracking jokes and never being able to have a serious conversation about anything. I think her and Conquest would have met before he came to Earth, idk how, I have yet to decide on that other than the fact that Yuki proooobably has gone to other planets before (somehow). I just want him to show up on Earth in season 3 to do his job and he sees her again and goes "what the hell. how are you here" and shes like "huh? this is my planet? what are you doing here?" spider-man pointing meme style

she's really just a daydream-only OC in her Invincible AU because I don't have any intentions of making set lore for her, I just do whatever is fun in the moment. and right now what's most fun is her pestering Conquest but he thinks it's funny and they both get some companionship for a little while

[jerkeline]

passing along top 5 games of the past 5 years

I couldn't whittle it down from 10 so I'm giving you top 10. I agree with your top 1,2,3, and 5, (I didn't play monster sanctuary but it looks fun) so I won't repeat those here. Otherwise, in no particular order:

1) Astalon: Tears of the Earth: I didn't expect to like this game AT ALL, and yet it became one of my favourites of all time. It has a mechanic where every time you die it puts you all the way back to the start, which almost turned me off it, but it's actually not as big a deal as it seems at first. It's full of secrets, like EVERYWHERE, and has such great art direction, the vibes are impeccable, and the music's great. 10/10 best game I've played in a long time.

2) Tevi: Another game I didn't expect to enjoy, and honestly it's a little embarrassing how much I did enjoy it besides its uhh.. cringe? it's just a fun game ok get off my back! At least it's self aware enough to make jokes at its own expense. Unlike me

3) Death's Door: I loved deaths door! The gameplay mechanics are so smooth and fluid, and the little crow guy is so freaking cute. I'm not very good at videojames, and this one really challenged me, but it was perfectly balanced for me to get frustrated trying to fight a guy and give up, only to come back the next day and beat it! The sense of achievement I got from Death's Door is something I've never got from a game before so A+

4) Tunic: I mean if you know Tunic then you know. Figuring out the language to a point where I could read and write it almost fluently by the end of the game felt really good, and makes me want to learn another language real bad, but I just don't have the motivation I guess. Good game though, great ambiance

5) Eastward: Eastward I feel like it could be cut in half and still be one of my favourite games. I think the "action-y" parts are kinda unnecessary, they just made me want to get back to the parts where I'm just walking around chatting to people. More just hanging out, less having to whack stuff with a frying pan please. The farming dlc is great too but I broke it by doing some quest out of order or something, idk. It was apparently fixed in a patch, so I'm definitely going to go back and play through the entire game and the dlc again at some point

6) Jack Move: This is just a fun little cyberpunk rpg thing, very basic, only about 5 hours long, but is wonderful in its simplicity. Like its just rock paper scissors battle system, so it's not overly complex or anything, not much of a challenge, but the writing's great and the pixel art rocks, what else do you want?

7) Wytchwood: Another one I picked up on a hunch and really enjoyed. The art style is like wierd at first but actually works really well. It's a lot of running around gathering ingredients and doing witchy things for nursery rhyme characters, very fun, great writing, good comedic timing, just an overall good time.

8) Baldo: I was hanging out for Baldo for yeeeeeaarrrsss, and was it worth it? Maybe!? It's a little janky but like scratched a particular itch for me, all the way up to the last like, literally 30 seconds. The ending SUCKS dude, like really bad. And it's like so sudden just a 30 second cut scene that ruins all the hard work you put in. Fucking.. unfinished at the very least, super disappointing. There's been a couple of free dlc for it, and mayyybe fixed the ending?? I might to hurt to find out though.

9) Another Crabs Treasure: It's soulslike crab baybee! I've never thought that I'd like soulslikes because I'm not good at vidgam and the selling point seems to be that they're hard. Idk I don't want to just lose all the time, I play 1 draw infinite klondike solitare just because it's easy and I like to achieve something. Crab's not that hard though, it is fucking JANKY as hell on the switch though, I couldn't even see one boss I was fighting towards the end because it was running at like 1 frame a minute. Still beat him though. Also fuck that prawn.

10) Bug Fables: Bug fables is like what if Paper Mario Thousand Year Door was good, which it is, but Bug Fables is too. The bugs are cute as hell and the fighting system is really good. I mean it's cute bugs, they're cute!

That's all, can we go home now?

[navree]

I saw your post and got super worried because I assumed it was the artist I've loved since they started here on tumblr. So, I went on the dreaded 🐦 app and low & behold, stan culture ruins things once again! Kinda glad I wasn't around during the heyday of GOT because it must've been absolutely insufferable! 😖😖😖

Fandom during GOT's prime must have been insane already, but I do think it's gotten worse in recent years. There used to be the unspoken rule of "if you've got nothing nice to say don't say anything at all" that appears to have completely vanished from fandom spaces. Cuz if I see a post with an opinion I don't like/agree with, or fanart of a character I don't care for, or fic of a ship that I dislike, I'm not gonna leap down OP's throat about it. I'm just gonna scroll, maybe vague post about it on another app (I've vague posted about some dumb Twitter opinions on here on occasion), and then move on. But this idea that, if someone doesn't like the same things you like, they're not only morally reprehensible but personally committing some kind of wrong against you specifically is insane. It's more than that trend I've mentioned about trying to equate fandom with morality, it is, as I said in the tags of that post, something that reeks of insecurity. There's a bunch of people in varying fandom spaces that feel that their own opinions simply must be validated, because their opinions are correct, but it's not enough for them to think it, other people need to think it too.

And it's an issue that has dominated Team Black in HOTD specifically. Cuz I'm not seeing it from Rhaenicents, from Greens, even from show casuals. It's diehard Team Black and primarily TB book purists at that who find Rhaenicent fanart (especially ones that take Emma D'Arcy's actual appearance into account), or Team Green posts, or even regular posts expressing any sort of appreciation for Team Green actors or sympathy for some of the characters (especially Alicent or Helaena) and just lose their minds. Insult the poster or the artist, deride actor's appearances, weaponize actual political language to support their point despite no real tangible thread of connection ('killing Lucerys is basically femicide' omegas aren't a real thing and killing that boring ass boy is not, in fact, femicide, there are actual femicides happening in the real world right now, focus on those), and get hopping mad at the fact that these varied posts exist. It's greed to an almost biblical proportion tbf, it's not enough that most show casuals agree with their opinions, that most people with both book and show knowledge are on their side, that the narrative of the show supports their views (in the Jaehaera art thing specifically, that canon dictates she's gonna die and that Daenaera and Aegon are gonna be married and have a reasonably happy married life). Everyone needs to be on their side, nobody had better dare have opposing views to their's. And if those opposing views exist, well then those people have earned all the nastiness that's gonna get thrown their way for having those opposing views.

Like, you're that insecure? You need everyone to agree with you in order to hold fandom opinions? You can't just like something for your own reasons and ignore people who don't agree? Other people, people who don't even know you exist, hold that much power over you? Team Black, are you guys really so pathetically weak?

Anyway, fuck people who tag butch Rhaenicent art with snippy "Daemicent!!!" quote tweets, fuck people running TG fanartists off of social media because you can't handle drawings, fuck people going up to actors and saying vile shit to them based on their characters, fuck everyone who tries to be an asshole about Olivia's looks or TGC's looks or Phia's looks, and fuck stan culture. Everyone's who's so deranged about their fictional opinions that they act nasty to real human beings should simply find the nearest noose and hang themselves by the neck until dead, the world will be an infinitely better place and no one will miss them.

[stampsthemeow]

Tell me abt your creepypasta au

Dawg gotta pull out the broad ASF question 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I'll try not to rant about every minor detail but basically it's a Slendermanison au that I've been expanding on for 6 years ! (Like 7-8 years if you count pre- creepypasta) (it didn't used to be Crp it was og Pokemon then turned into creepypasta

How I like to explain it is that it's (almost, some differences, mostly with Masky and Hoody) exactly wtf the 2016 slendermanison aus were like but time has passed (6 years to be exact) + My OCS cause I'm silly

I have like 6 OCS who live in the slendermanison (a have a few that don't)

Twilight, The first oc to actually live there, is an actual creepypasta OC (everyone else is kinda just a technicality) Mostly hangs out with Jeff, Toby, Ben, And EJ, is dating JTK

Zach, Twilights Twin brother, basically the embodiment of depression /hj (he's getting better now !!!!), mostly just hangs out with his boyfriends and sometimes Tim and Brian

Halo & Dale, grouping them together cause they are less developed characters, Halo is disabled, Dale is autistic as fuck, I really should give them the spotlight again last time I developed them I ended up retconning everything after, mostly just hang out with Zach, Dale talks to the proxies sometimes tho, and Halo sometimes hangs out with Toby

Missing, The puppy boy from my last drawing, I ship him with Tim and Brian 💖💖💖💖 Out of the two he prefers Masky (not Tim, specifically Masky) he used to just be an embodiment of my hypersexuality/a character I could push my hypersexuality onto, but now he's silly, A pure soul, like his sister, they both not completely human

Corrupt, Missing's (younger) sister she doesn't necessarily live in the mansion just kinda visits (shes hates change and doesn't want to basically abandon her dimension) she fuckin hates Slenderman dawg, when at the mansion if Jane is there for once she's gonna be with her

Nimbler, I love nimbler, Twilights dog, silly guy

Casper and Charlotte also exist within the Au but their backstory is still being developed & they don't live in the mansion, but, basically were slenderman victims when teens, now in their 30s just tryna be normal

I wish I could do this post in proper ask blog format (aka I make an OC answer the question with a drawing) but I cant really with this question

[kazzu120]

Will you be my sensei and show me how to draw the anime body, including the hair? I want to draw anime and manga on my own, but I'll need some help. I'm using Krita to help me begin my journey. Tutorials would be much appreciated, especially to those who want to learn how to draw like me!

I don't know if I'm able to make good step by step tutorials, but I can share with you the resources I've been using to practice!

Before anything though, I need to warn you that I'm still very much a beginner myself, so my advice might not be much worth at all. I mean it, I'm not trying to be humble or self-deprecating, I've only been drawing while taking art seriously for a total time of ~6 months, and you'll probably realize as you yourself get better, my current art output is extremely amateurish.

With that out of the way, I'm going to go into a LOT of detail and add several picture examples of what has more or less worked for me under the cut. I'm really sorry for the excessive amounts of yapping xD

First of all, the methods I've used that I felt have helped me retain knowledge the most were Oriday's "Blind Method" + Naoki Saito's "Fastest Way to Improve Illustration". The methods are extremely similar, they both have videos on Youtube explaining them more in depth, please check them out if you want:

The basic TL;DR of what you'll want to do is, find a pro illustrator you like/wish you could draw like them, and do copy studies of their drawings. I specifically like Oriday's way where he iterates his copies in 3 steps.

You take an illustration you like and do a full copy. Trace some parts of it if you need to, the point here is to understand the specific stroke directions that the original artist did and try to figure out why they chose those strokes specifically. After you finish copying, overlap your copy on the original and mark up what you got wrong.

Do another copy, but now do it from memory. Do it even if you feel like you don't remember it well or it's coming out badly. When you're done, once again put it side by side with the original and take note of the parts where you feel you went wrong. Make sure to make mental notes of the differences and what the correct way is.

Do ANOTHER copy from memory, this time trying to keep in mind the parts that you got wrong in the last one. Again, after you're done compare it with the original and take note of the things you got wrong.

I started these months later in my journey and haven't been very diligent about them, but ideally you shouldn't be like me and do this exercise at least once daily. xD

Here, if you want to see an example of what types of practice I've done: Since I really wanted to draw good looking fanart of Nico, I took copies of the anime settei and started making both full and blind copies of it. See here:

The great thing about anime settei is that they usually have heads and bodies in all angles. They're meant as reference material for pro animators to draw, which makes them amazing reference material for learning to newbies like us!

I got those Nico character settei from a website called setteidreams. It has settei from a lot of different anime, so you can browse for an anime with a style you like and start doing your copy studies from those.

Here you can see an example of the types of copy studies I was doing during my first month of art drills:

I was heavily focusing on that head and shoulders game at first, as you can see xD

I wasn't doing the full 3 iteration of the copies every day. I mostly just tried to at least sit down and do one copy a day minimum, since I noticed that skipping even just a couple of days of practice made me forget some info I had learned.

At first I was taking FOREVER on each copy and struggled a lot even with simple faces, but as I kept doing it daily, I noticed that I kinda started to get the hang of general face proportions and where stuff should be placed in most basic face angles. I'm still not perfect right now, but I have a much better sense of how a "Love Live-like" anime face should go than I did before I started this.

I wasn't as diligent with copying full body illustrations... you'll probably notice that many of my earlier comics tended to cut out the rest of the body and just had a lot of head and shoulder shots. The reason is that I just wasn't practicing bodies for a long time xDD

Anyways, as I moved along I started realizing that I was still REALLY bad at drawing full bodies (I still feel like I suck at drawing full bodies even now).... so over the months I started doing stuff like gesture drawing sessions where I'd look up a batch of random poses on pinterest and did copies of them. The intent of gesture drawing isn't to get the full details, but rather to try to get the overall gesture lines of the reference in the simplest way possible. Here's an example of some of my gesture practice sessions I did (the first few ones I was going way too into the body details imo which is not supposed to be the point):

I haven't been very diligent with these, and to be honest I'm not sure if I've learned much from doing these (at least not compared to the iterative copy method from before)... They just seem to come out fine or badly randomly to me... xD I'm sorry I can't offer much advice here.

Next are these: I don't do these a lot, but here are some examples of full attempts at colored "copies" of illustrations I really like. Here are some side by side examples:

As you can see I tend to get really lazy with them and leave them unfinished, which probably explains why I still suck at coloring so much xD I do feel like these have helped me retain some knowledge though. Much more so than the figure drawing sessions.

I can't specify enough how important the iterative drawing method was for me, by the way!!! When I started out, I had been doing my drills for a couple of months now and when I drew using reference, the result would start to look more refined, but when I tried to draw 100% from imagination, I would return to using my old methods and fall back on my old bad habits, and my doodles would end up looking like my art from before I started practicing!! This did NOT change and I did NOT start getting better at drawing from imagination until I started incorporating the blind copy method into my drills!!!

Here are some examples of 120% FULL EFFORT illustrations from imagination I drew from before I started this whole iterative practice exercise:

Not good at all compared to what I felt I should be capable of, coming from my reference practices!!

Those are examples how my imagination drawings would ALWAYS look AT THEIR BEST, with a couple of outliers where I'd get lucky and the art would look decent.

Please note that the decent looking ones were alwaysthe exception and NOT the rule, and I would not be able to consistently replicate them if I tried.

Anyways.... After using the iterative drawing method, here are some random lower effort doodles 100% from imagination that I drew as warmups from the past couple of weeks:

See the following, I can now much more consistently draw stuff like this from imagination:

I still get a lot of duds, but in comparison to before the proportion of decent ones vs bad ones are much more in my favor, as long as I make sure to put proper thought and time to the drawings, unlike before where I might get something bad no matter how hard and for how long I tried hitting myself against the wall.

Again, I need to mention that even after I started doing my copy practices, my drawings from imagination would consistently look like those older bad ones, and only started really improving AFTER I started the iterative drawing practice method!!! I know it must be annoying and I'm repeating myself a lot but this was a super important revelation for me xD

Anyways I don't have much else to say... Just watch the oridays video and follow his practice steps is my advice.

On some other things:

A lot of people try and LOVE the Loomis Method. You can find his book "Fun With a Pencil" by Andrew Loomis for free online. I did try it for some time during my art journey, but I never felt I was actually getting results at drawing the pretty anime girls I wanted with it xD.... It's REALLY popular though so it might be worth a try for you!!

You might also want to check out DrawABox. I did go through all of its exercises steps before I started doing the iterative copy method. I didn't feel like it really helped me much at the time, but it might be a good thing to do in principle before immersing yourself in copies, if only to get a very basic foundation. Like the Loomis method, many people love it.

One last thing: doing your practice drills is important and good, but don't get so focused on the grind that you ignore doing full-effort original pieces from scratch. Like in my case there's my comics for example. It will be the way you'll be able to put to the test what you've learned. It's really important, please don't skip it!

That's honestly all I have. It's worth mentioning again that I'm also NOT very experienced at drawing. I'm still basically starting out, this is just what I felt has worked for me the most effectively...

If you have more questions or anything don't be afraid to ask, I don't mind sharing what resources I've used! I'm happy to see more people join me on this rocky road to try get good at drawing xD

Oh and about Krita, I've only ever used Paint Tool Sai and Clip Studio Paint, so I'm afraid I won't be able to help you much with the tool, sorry.

[yuukei-yikes]

Do you have any headcanons about Hibiya's relationships with the rest of the Dan after the series? I was always a little disappointed we didn't really get to see him interact much with anyone besides hiyori, konoha, and momo. I would have loved to see him properly integrated as a member of the group and hanging out with them 🥲

YESSSSS I'VE ACTUALLY BEEN MEANING TO DRAW HIBIYA HANGING OUT WITH EVERYONE SEPARATELY TO LIKE POINT OUT DYNAMICS but then i never did 💔 i still will at some point

hibiya is the mekakushi dan's little brother.

0. ayano's big sister radar goes off incredibly fast when meeting hibiya. she spoils the hell out of him because hibiya is largely independent and already has momo as a big sister for emotional stuff so when ayano's like WANT ME TO PATCH UP THE HOLE IN UR SHIRT hibiya's like what. i know how to do that myself. and ayano's like fine i will buy your love if i must. so she's always taking him shopping and asking if he needs anything new. he comes back every summer to the city with broken ass sandals and ayano's always sending him back with shiny new ones. he still rly enjoys having her around but he looks at her more in a motherly light than sisterly. he'd DIE before admitting it tho

1. srry to play the cooking card with kido again but. hibiya and kido cooking together :) i think kido is very impressed with hibiya's cooking and hibiya is SUPER used to being taken for granted so when they point it out to him he almost bursts into tears. i think hibiya is always looking for compliments from kido bc kido is super cool and The Leader and they kinda have a teacher's pet dynamic LMAOO hibiya is always asking kido if he can help with any chores so of course it works and he's kido's favorite student. if this was a class which is not. so he's just a rly helpful kid kido enjoys having around and hibiya loves that kido is really normal. also kidomomo. yeah. hibiya and his lesbian moms. also kido teaches hibiya how to bind. ratio

2. with seto... i remember reading this fic in ff/net back in the golden days of kagepro (so like. 10 years ago) that was like hibiya resenting seto bc he was still hurting abt hiyori and while everyone died with a loved one seto lost a DOG. i thought it was so funny bc it's so immature but seems so in character for hibiya. also in the novels when hibiya is unconscious he's taken to seto's room. i think hibiya thinks the whole dan act like fools (bc they ARE) but kind of respects and looks up to seto because hibiya is 12 and according to my intensely calculated family headcanons was raised in a toxic masculinity household so he sees this Buff Guy getting up at 5am everyday and holds more than one job for his family...he's like (nod nod nod) and he also really respects how seto refuses to use his eye power because of its. erm. unethical nature. hibiyas like UGH SETO IS SO COOL SUCH A MAN'S MAN. seto is mostly oblivious to this and always always always ruffles hibiyas hair. everyone does this but seto is the only one hibiya doesnt yell at

3. i think kano would go easy on hibiya cuz he's a kid but not entirely bc if kano isnt totally insufferable to everyone he knows at least once a day he gets sick and dies. i think kano tries to do the big sibling thing abt convincing the little brother of a total bullshit lie like basically his hobbie is gaslighting hibiya for fun. hibiya goes screaming for kido to make him stop lol. also kano's the one who's always saying shit like hibiya is 8 years old. even when hibiya's an adult kano's like how old are u again. u turned like 15 right

4. man mary tries acting SOOOO GROWN UP to hibiya she's like desperately trying to seem like a cool older sister but on purpose. with everyone else it's kind of natural but she is actively trying. momo bestie so also around a lot and sees how momo (hibiyas big sister #1) acts around him and tries doing the same and hibiya's like. this is pathetic. but still endearing and accepts it LOL he's also respectful of mary bc he's well aware of her role in their survival so he's like SIGHS okay

6. takane is everyone's demise because she introduces hibiya to smartphones and gaming. like hibiya rly wanted a smartphone right and then he makes all these friends and has to go back to the village so he takes an intensive course ran by takane abt how to use a phone. which is all good. but the thing is she is ALSO like ur so weird kid. here. play some amongus. this is how amongus hibiya can still win. everyone like vinnie hibiya cant be a fortnite kid bc he has no idea abt gaming he doesnt even have a phone WELL i got news for u buddy my fave character is takane and im also totally delusional. she is the reason hibiya is texting the gc in total typos asking if anyone wants to among us. and he's so thankful to her he expresses his gratitude thru sending her amongus and minecraft memes he finds around that she's seen a thousand times but it's rly endearing. also hibiya is shintaro coded so takane knows how to handle him sorry im so delusional abt their friendship (holds their chapter together from novel eight close to my chest)

7. eheheheheh. like i said. hibiya is shintaro coded like in canon both momo and takane say hibiya reminds them of shintaro like he's a little shin. and momo adopting hibiya means shintaro gets little brother by default too. his ass is always at HIS HOUSE!!!! i talked abt this in a post once abt how seeing hibiya and momo together makes shintaro want to try a little harder at being a big brother. i think they like each other and shintaro always lets hibiya sit in his room if momo is being too insane, and hibiya sometimes is like well shintaro's actually pretty normal!! (immediately sees him act a fool bc ofc he does) eugh. also shintaro helps hibiya with his summer hw, i think hibiya's a good student but appreciates the help and tells shintaro he thinks he'd make a rly good teacher and continues writing down on his hw all casually while shintaro has to act like he didn't get all choked up hearing that

9. i've talked abt the haruka and hibiya shitshow lol but again i love the idea of hibiya just totally refusing to acknowledge konoha's gone and keeps kicking and screaming abt it. bc if konoha is rly gone then it means he regrets everything bc he was so mean to it and its bc of it hiyori is alive (hiyori doesnt act this way bc she's well aware of it) and that SUCKS. so hibiya largely avoids haruka and isn't all that into how hiyori is really accepting of him and all. and haruka is also like. awkwardly trying to approach him because it's the least he can do in konoha's memory but hibiya's like hissing at him. eventually hibiya would accept it after a couple breakdowns. i think momo also punches some sense into him. i want hibiya to lash out at haruka and scream all sorts of things at him abt how it's not fair konoha is gone and like who even is he and just overall say all the things haruka is already super insecure about but then it ends on hibiya sobbing in his arms abt how much he misses konoha. and haruka can only hug him back and apologize :(

[proxxinlmk]

Do you have any OCs? 👀

I do !! I hope you're ready because I am so sorry this is gonne get long and probably not at all what you expected from asking me if I had ocs

I have at least three lego monkie kid OCs, though most aren't fully fleshed out or are just concepts for now. I tend to create the character but develop their story or what I'd want for them later after I've drawn them enough haha

An OC I've shown before is Charlie ! Granted he's one of the few who aren't fully fleshed out lol

But I think this time I'll talk about the OC I use as my profile picture since she's kind of the main one I use or draw offline and have been planning to post about at some point :) ( she's kinda like a hyperfixation for me LOL ) I'd like to apologize in advance because I kind of ramble and feel the need to explain like everything ( ie. what inspired the thought, trying to explain the "vibe", things that don't need explaining but for some reason I feel like clarifying, etc ) and it doesn't always make sense or I'll suddenly just start.. explaining in an almost basically writing fanfic kind of way?? Anyways I'll just get into it- :,D ( also most pictures will be basically be at the bottom if you wish to just see those instead of reading, warning it will be a LOT of scrolling- or I'll make a separate post afterwards with only the pictures also a lot of them are before i discovered how to draw them in a way I liked lol )

So uh, a little backstory to her creation is that she mainly started as a self-insert type of OC and the original idea for her creation came from my various AI chats with the LMK bots so a lot of her lore or interactions with characters is just self-indulgent and most some of it just doesn't make sense or feel like too much but I just do things because it's fun ^^" ( OCxCanon included, a lot of it actually- I am cringe but I am free even though I still feel shame when I do it lol ) and also she is my first LMK OC and what caused me to eventually come up with more so there's that

I would pick some things I liked from the different chats and things I noticed that stuck regardless of which chat it was from to try to keep her sort of consistent

So the first original rendition of her is named Cherry which basically served as a normal friend to the crew, just that one friend who isn't involved in all the fights and is just there to feel like they live a normal life whenever they hang out, y'know? :)

"did you get into another fight again?" "yeah.." "don't worry, we can watch movies and have popcorn while i patch you up" "thanks,, 🥺"

She initially met the group because MK was kinda flung in through her window by a bad guy of the week and she ended up sticking around the group because they kept conveniently bumping into each other. Cherry would be visiting a store and BOOM monkie kid shenanigans pull up right in front of her so she just sighs like "I'll come back next month when the store fixes I guess."

Before I knew how I wanted her to look, I used a picrew to get the basic idea down

This would be her design until I decided to change parts like her hair color and clothing color ( pictures will come up later )

You've probably noticed that "Hey she doesn't look like she does in the pfp?" and yeaahh that brings me to the next part, the main part namely lol

So uh I ended up making an AU where she has powers instead.. even though she has barely anything going for her enough as is ;v; But honestly if it weren't for me creating this alternate version of her she probably wouldn't have as much backstory as she does now-

See, this AU version of her is obviously named Cherry as well, but because I needed to differentiate her from her original counterpart for my friends cause they'd get confused who I was talking about I ended up calling this alternate version Yingtao, which yeah is still Cherry but just in chinese :)

So basically she's just how Cherry would have ended up if she was born with powers instead but she actually has a story going for her, this is where she becomes more of an actual OC instead of being a self-insert but also where a shit ton of OCxCanon begins happening, she gets an almost Y/n x various treatment except it's only with the Monkeys lmao Also I try my best to be linear with the explanation but sometimes I just forget to mention some things and then bring them up later once I remember lol

Before Yingtao was born, a long time ago her great ancestors made a deal with a fox demon and so the fox agrees to this deal, only they wish to be immortalized forever by living through the family, providing them great powers. However, if the body the fox demon possesses cannot handle the fox, they will die and the fox will move onto the next descendant. ( I have yet to decide why the family makes the deal in the first place, but it was probably a power or protection thing, and the fox end of the deal was also thinking I was still thinking about ) Throughout the years, the fox's powers grow exponentially with each new vessel as it carries the previous vessel's abilities that they may have developed, and at some point the fox is so incredibly strong and powerful, that the family has nearly died out because it cannot find a body that's strong enough to hold all of it anymore, especially since only one person can be a carrier at a time.

Something happens to Yingtao's family, leaving them scattered or split apart, with her parents giving her up in hopes that she'll be safe from whatever horror had befallen her family. Yingtao lives in America because one of her parents were American, so because she is now an orphan, gets put into the system. ( I think her family was getting executed because most found the fox demon to be a curse and they thought by wiping them all out the fox would die as well or they were seeking a way to harness the powers of it ) And things were great, until they weren't.

Yingtao is the new carrier of the fox demon, though she is completely unaware of that fact. Though others have noticed instances in where she suddenly feels hot to the touch, or showcases physical strength that a child should not have, though they are just fleeting moments and don't last long. This becomes an issue because Yingtao accidentally injures another child, and this event causes everyone there to be fearful of her, thinking it the work of the fox within her. They start calling her names and overall just being shitty to her because she's different than them, because she's harmful and dangerous, a threat. Yingtao is isolated from the other kids, or just outright ignored for the lack of knowledge over her heritage, assuming she "should know better" and outright favoring the other children.

Tired of being treated like this, Yingtao runs away from her "destiny" and the orphanage at a young age, refusing to accept their words as truth, not just because of their harsh words but also because she fears hurting others. Hopping from place to place and barely surviving on scraps, she somehow makes it to Megapolis in China by the time she's 18, grateful to be far from her original home in America and is just stealing to survive or sleeps in alleys for shelter. By now Yingtao has long forgotten about trying to find out her heritage, and if anything, hopes not to dive into it because it just reminds her of her times at the orphanage and the memory of unintentionally harming another child, she suppresses these memories whenever they arise. Yingtao is on the streets for a good while, focusing mainly on stealing to make enough money so she can afford a living space for herself on the quieter side of the city. She eventually ends up succeeding, but is soon overwhelmed by the new surroundings, only just now processing the full weight of her actions of running away and realizing just how little she actually knows what she's doing. Yingtao ends up having a breakdown in an alley on her way home from these thoughts and realizations.

MK had been following one of his delivery routes, passing by this alley but stopping upon hearing her cries. Honestly a little startled by seeing a random girl crying in an alley, but he doesn't hesitate to try to cheer her up, even trying to offer her some candy he had saved to prove his trustworthiness to her.

He succeeds, officially becoming her first real friend and they start to hang out, even introducing her to his family friends. After hanging out for quite a while, the spark of a crush develops in her heart but she doesn't really realize it.

Sometime between being MK's friend for a few weeks she somehow meets Macaque?? ( I don't have an explanation for why he's alive yet, but I'll come up with one eventually but I guess a start would be to say that I considered him to be alive even before A Hero is Born and only stays in Megapolis at first to make sure LBD doesn't reawaken but also to keep hanging out with Yingtao lol )

Macaque is of course cautious of her at the start, but after finding out she knows pretty much nothing about JTTW so has no knowledge of Wukong or himself because she's from the west, decides she isn't a threat and just kind of vibes with her as a sort of breath of fresh air, free from worrying about being perceived as evil or anything like that in general. Just a fresh start with no strings attached, no need to hide himself or pretend. They become pals and have their own little meetups here and there. ( Bonding over their upbringings and similarities maybe? )

At some point MK info dumps about Wukong to Yingtao after finding out she doesn't know anything about his hyperfixation idol, so it leads to her just happily listening to his rants, remembering everything she can that he's mentioned. MK doesn't know anything about Mac at this point, so our favorite six-eared monkey isn't brought up to her. Yingtao also doesn't tell any of this info to Macaque cause she doesn't see a reason to. ( funnily enough I had this info written down before finding out MK didn't even read JTTW because S4 didn't exist yet to tell us that so now it makes sense lol )

I should mention that I wrote these events with the thought that they happen before A Hero is Born, but it's undecided because a lot of the ideas I had in mind or wrote seem really cool to explore with them being set after LBD instead because some things make a little more sense

Once MK unlocks his powers, he doesn't have much time for Yingtao anymore, busy with training and all the other hijinks that happen during S1, so she just kind of hangs back, maybe meeting up with Mac more often. ( I like to think she was going to play the same role as OG Cherry was intended to up until her powers act up )

Yingtao's life is flipped upside down once her powers suddenly begin to flare up on occasion in the forms of random fevers out of nowhere, an early sign showing the awakening of the fox. ( This may have been because of being exposed to large amounts of power via MK and Macaque )

MK is understandably worried about these sudden fevers, but neither him nor Yingtao know what's up so nothing is done about it other than giving her rest and medicine in hopes she recovers.

During a meetup with Mac, Yingtao gets a fever when talking to him and woozily sits down against a wall. Mac realizes what's happening and helps her out, teaching her ways to calm her "fever" without outright telling her the source of the problem because he doesn't think she's ready yet. This advice he gives her helps, but Yingtao notes how he seems to know more than he lets on, so she occasionally asks him for advice and he begins to teach her some small tips to keep her problem at bay such as meditation, breathing techniques, and even fighting skills. She's confused why she needs to know how to fight for a fever but listens, finding this useful for future stuff anyway. ( He is aware of her fox because he can see through her, similar to Wukong's true sight. )

After a while the "fever" isn't as bad anymore and Yingtao thinks it's over, thanking Mac who awkwardly accepts said thanks knowing in his head that she wasn't quite done yet.

Meanwhile MK had been telling Wukong about Yingtao occasionally during their training, expressing his worries for his friend's fevers on some days. This obviously gets the Monkey King curious, wanting to meet this girl his successor brings up, and after much convincing, MK finally gets Yingtao to meet up with the king himself. Which is of course awkward for her but she does her best to be polite, Wukong trying to ease her up and tell her that she can just be casual with him.

Wukong had caught scent of Yingtao's fox demon as soon as she stepped foot on his home but he hadn't mentioned it at all yet, wanting to bring it up later to see if she knew and discuss about it. He had initially been wary of the girl, thinking of the situation with his Master and LBD again, but after talking to her long enough came to the conclusion she was just clueless about her hidden potential.

However the great sage had been unaware of how far along she was in her awakening, so it was a great surprise when she'd suddenly collapse onto the floor in great pain right as the two were starting to get along.

I hope I'm not too descriptive with this scene? I mean I'm not the best at describing these types of scenes anyway but I don't exactly know where the line is drawn for being too graphic or not so I hope to keep this simple enough to give an idea but descriptive enough to be better understood

Basically Yingtao felt a great spike of pain in her chest, causing her to begin coughing and crying out, feeling as though she couldn't breathe and thus rendering her immobile and on the floor. MK is actively reaching out to her, ready to jump in to comfort Yingtao but Wukong steps in front of him, holding an arm out to stop the boy, saying something about how they can't help her.

Even as she bursts into flames, screaming in pain at feeling like she's burning from the inside out, making MK feel even more guilty about not being able to help in anyway. ( Just a note, this is one of the scenes I wondered whether would be better set after LBD. I thought maybe MK would comment on this being similar to the Samadhi fire. But I also thought maybe this scene was still set before LBD and Wukong only briefly mumbles about it being like the Samadhi fire under his breath where MK doesn't notice OR where MK does notice and eventually brings it up in S2/S3 about remembering Wukong saying that before. Another smaller note, but I had this idea of her bursting into flames before I actually saw where it's revealed that Mei has the samadhi fire and it was only after I saw the episodes that I figured this scene could reference it lol )

This event of Yingtao bursting into flames is actually what each vessel had to go through, a way of testing their compatibility and ability to handle the current powers of the fox. Because the fox's power grows exponentially with each descendant, this is why it was harder for newer generations to survive or handle it because it's power at this point is becoming kaiju levels. So if Yingtao didn't die from these flames, it would show she is capable of controlling the fox and taking these powers as her own. Her body flickering between her normal appearance and her "fox form." ( Another thing I thought of before S4's release lmao )

Unsurprisingly Yingtao survives, the flames dissipated but left weakened and exhausted, laying on the floor and struggling to hold herself up. MK looks to Wukong, silently asking for permission and the Monkey King nods, a sign that it was safe to touch her now and MK does NOT hesitate, holding her up looking worried as fuck. Yingtao isn't awake for long, passing out immediately and after resting for some time at Wukong's place.

When she finally wakes up, she's questioned instantly by them, mostly Wukong, about what happened. Yingtao expresses confusion and fear, unsure of what that was and why it happened. Wukong explains it to her, or at least, explains what he thought it was, going into detail about the flames and the fox she harbored.

"why do I care about dead guys from over a hundred years ago? 🤨" "because those dead guys left you a gift" "YOU MEAN A FUCKING CURSE????" "same thing"

Both MK and Yingtao are reasonably surprised. Seeing a positive opportunity, MK tries to be optimistic about this new information, commenting on how they could both train together now, lightening up the mood. Yingtao, although appreciative of MK's idea, wants to shut the idea down. However, before she can even get a word in of her opinion, Wukong answers MK for her, saying that while Yingtao would be under his supervision and he'd be willing to train her, it'd be separate from MK because, according to him, the two need different types of training. This visibly deflates MK but he's still happy for his friend anyway because at least she's close by.

Yingtao is uncomfortable with the idea because while she trusts MK with her whole heart, she barely knows Wukong. After all, they only talked that one day and it was basically the day where she went into a short coma. Wukong reassures her that the training "won't be so bad" and that he'll help her control her newly reawakened powers.

So now we've reached the arc where Yingtao is training unwillingly to control her issues, finding out that they often come out during moments of great emotional turmoil or just when she's experiencing a lot on her mind or in general.

Wukong is trying to teach Yingtao but his ways of teaching her are more like he tells her what she needs to do but expects her to do it alone or sort of "figure it out" as if she's learning some sort of lesson, which doesn't help her all that much and makes her feel as if she's on her own. That, or he isn't even actually teaching her and is instead bothering her when she's trying to focus because he just has some really bad timing and gets bored watching her sit there meditating.

( a very simplified drawing I did a long while ago )

Wukong only does it because he can't help but be curious about her because she still hasn't fully opened up to him yet so he's trying at any opportunity to get her know her better. He finds it'd be much easier to teach her if she would just let him in and stop holding him at arms length.

Between these sessions with Wukong, Yingtao goes to Macaque to train as well, telling him about what happened and completely missing the way Mac's face scrunches up at the mention of Wukong. He's afraid she might turn on him now. Though he is pleasantly surprised when she in fact, doesn't, because she still isn't aware of his relationship with Wukong because again MK only told her about Wukong's great feats, not the entirety of JTTW. So then Mac begins teaching her as well, in a way that she actually understands much easier than Wukong. ( They both taught her the same thing, just Wukong phrases it poorly or in a way she doesn't understand lol )

I forgot to mention that sometime between meeting Macaque and meeting Wukong that Yingtao has developed a full blown crush on MK, becoming a little more aware of her new feelings for him. Yingtao occasionally talks about MK to Mac, just praise after praise about the boy and getting all flustered and shy as she gushes about her close friend. Macaque finds her to be adorable in this blushy state, sometimes teasing her about it and develops a small crush on her.

( Another note, but this is another thing where I thought that maybe it would've been better for Yingtao to have met Mac sometime after MK gained his powers because it'd add on to why Mac was cautious of her because he'd know full well who MK was and be extra wary due to her affiliated with the Wukong's successor, not wanting to be found out. This is also why I imagined that perhaps MK doesn't always tell Yingtao of his adventures and stuff, probably feeling bad about some things coughs like when he got some powers stolen by Mac coughs so he didn't think to tell her about him )

This is the part where I cackle and reveal that this entire time I had been very obviously writing Yingtao's story as an almost comedic love drama. It wasn't my intention originally but I had too much fun writing OCxCanon so all of it stuck lol

So regarding dynamics sorta:

It is uncertain whether or not MK feels the same affections for Yingtao, but there are moments where it seems like he might. It's just hard for either of them to tell because they both just write off most of their interactions to be purely platonic since they've always been really close with each other. Close enough to hug, hold hands in public, having their foreheads touch when comforting each other, things like that.

As for her thoughts on Wukong, Yingtao sees him as fatherly/brotherly, not necessarily to herself but sometimes she just straight up thinks Wukong acts like a dad/brother to MK. He's also just sort of her teacher from her perspective, and she isn't actively trying to get to know him but it isn't like she avoids him either. ( Yingtao primarily thinks Tang and Pigsy as MK's dads though. )

On the other end, Wukong also is sort of developing a crush on Yingtao too as time progresses, enamored with her personality and will and he finds it amusing and fun that she doesn't hold back on her remarks towards him just because he's a legend. ( Granted he has no idea she literally didn't even know who he was until MK told her and even then she doesn't see him as "all that" XD )

Macaque likes Yingtao for similar reasons as Wukong, finding her quick wit and strong-willed. Her determination is admirable as well. Especially loves when he teases her or makes a sarcastic comment and she retorts back with one of her own, it makes light banter easy. Plus they relate to each other and are each other's comfort a lot of the times, reminding each other that they aren't as bad as others make them out to be.

Both Wukong and Macaque like to tease her, just Wukong does it more frequently given Yingtao's at his temple/mountain more often. ( I made this a key factor of her relationships with them because my mom once told me that monkeys like teasing dogs in reference to my baby brother playing with me and like Yingtao's technically like a dog because of the whole fox thing, canines y'know? )

I've also thought maybe Mac calls Yingtao nicknames like Plum, Blossom, or fruit/flower related nicknames ( cause cherry blossoms yk )

And Yingtao calls him Mac, Mac n cheese, or like Mango, maybe even calling him Plum too sometimes

Also Wukong calling her Peaches or other sweet names meanwhile Yingtao mainly callin' him Sun or Wukong because she's not super casual with him yet. Maybe calling him Sunshine in an almost mocking way that's lighthearted ( also maybe Impulsive King because she gets kinda sassy with him sometimes lol )

I like to imagine that before Yingtao met MK she had a very obvious "American accent" and wasn't very good at speaking Chinese and by meeting him she'd gotten better at speaking the language because he started teaching her ( with the help of Tang and others of course as well, but mostly MK )

Completely unrelated to these dynamics but eventually Yingtao would accept the fox as part of her. She and the fox are a complete match, so she pretty much is the fox. I know I made the fox out to be its own person, but actually after testing the compatibility with Yingtao it merged with her soul or something like that. Because the fox immortalized itself by feeding off its vessels' souls, so all the fire abilities are soul flames or just powers fueled by souls. This kinda means that because Yingtao is the fox, she's immortal and because of the exponential powers of the fox, it basically multiplied all the souls it had harnessed, I often joke that it would make her as much, if not more immortal than Wukong. Though I haven't decided if I actually want this to be true because she's already powerful as is and while I love making absolutely overpowered OCs I didn't think it'd click well with LMK.

Her main story or thing to get over is "what if I'm not the same person? what if I hurt someone?" as she learns to accept the fox as part of herself instead of trying to reject it like she'd been doing her whole life. So sort of unlike MK, she actually is learning to try and embrace her destiny. Only she changes it to what she believes is right for her, not unlike S4 where Macaque tells MK to follow his own path.

Oh and I don't have any sort of ending for her planned or if there ever will be, I mostly just use her for scenarios so it's unsure whether or not this will for sure be her timeline of events lol

I know there is like so much more stuff written for Yingtao compared to Cherry but like I swear I have things written about her too 💀

I love the idea of "i don't need to be heavily involved to be relevant + i don't need cool superpowers to kick ass" it has it's own good slice of angst of "am i good enough? am i a burden? am i getting in the way?"

but also Yingtao is just "your life suddenly ripped apart at the seams + constant struggle and fear of hurting people + slow and steady embrace of who you've always been" and I know I described Cherry as chill, laid-back, movie nights + patching up while Yingtao seems to be.. well, not that while cussing out her ancestors💀

they have the same personality I swear- just Yingtao is more upfront with it because her struggles are physically manifested so she has more blunt and loud moments of sass whereas Cherry's is an internal struggle and so her sass comes as light jabs here and there

A fun thing to note here that I purposefully did with the designs is that I made Cherry's under shirt color black while I made Yingtao's white. It was a completely conscious decision :D

While I know Yingtao would probably look really nice with a black shirt, when making her I just thought she needed the white to show she's definitely got good in her despite her whole fox spirit thing going on, plus it was kind of a small nod to the way her hair inverts to white as well when in the fox form

Cherry meanwhile has the dark shirt because while she is a civilian and all that, she's gotta be tough if she wants to be able to protect herself and others

So yeah I was sort of doing an almost ying and yang thing when drawing them

Some other pieces I've drawn are these

this very obviously a reference to Yingtao's past I was listening to Christmas Kids and suddenly had the brilliant idea to draw this

Yingtao being the part with "You'll change your name" because I quite literally changed her name for the AU and Cherry being "or change your mind" is also a way to show that the two don't act very similar or that Yingtao's mind is "changed" due to her different upbringing compared to Cherry

In the next panel I purposefully drew her as Cherry because the idea is that they're the same person, just ending up different due to running away from their past. But also to show Yingtao changes her hair to avoid being associated with it in the next panel. The last two are sorta self explanatory lol

Some other doodles of me mainly practicing how to draw her

This one I tried to show how they're still the same person, just with slight differences :)

And this one was just a cute scenario I thought of

And with that I'm finally done talking about Yingtao/Cherry ( I mostly refer to her as Yingtao because she's the one I draw the most lol )

Again so sorry about how long this got but I didn't realize I wrote so much until like 2 hrs later and it was a little too late to back out, so I just went all in LOL

[cat-penguin-anon]

Also I forgot to say this yesterday but the Starry Night AU!! I remember that!

Honestly I'd love to hear about that one again, I thought it was really cool

I've had this au for over a year so a lot has changed, but basically:

meta elements from the arg have been banished to the shadow realm

skid n pump are 6th graders, hatz + susie r highschoolers

skid n pump are somewhat more aware of danger since they're a bit older.

roy's uncle is dead bc he sucks hes staying dead

moloch is actually friends with skid n pump, and teaching them magic (anyone can learn bc magic draws from the soul in a non-damaging way, but some people have more of a talent for it than others) - stuff like pump jumping halfway across town with boots he enchanted

anyone who got stars'd is way more powerful than they should be, and way more in tune with their soul, which can cause accidental magic sometimes

everyone has a sort of soul symbol - something that determines what your magic manifests as. skid is bone (and something else >:]), pump is plant, roy is lion, rob is dog/wolf, and ross is raven. haven't quite worked out kevin yet but prolly candy

when fighting, skid is a jack of all trades (except healing), pump is grab/distance, ross is ranged, roy is close quarters, rob is defensive/close quarters and kevin is the healer

their innate magic manifests itself as magical constructs on their body which enhance things/provide a sort of armor. for instance, roy has lion ears and a tail as well as claws, ross's arms turn into feathered wings + he gets talons and tail feathers, etc. all of their magic is blue-green except for skid, who's magic is white (he didnt get stars'd. hmmmmm I wonder why)

the hatzgang hang out with the spookeez begrudgingly at first, since all this magic stuff is happening, but eventually warm up to them. same with kevin.

the hatzgang (mostly ross and roy) are trying their best to figure out the cult stuff and, more importantly, eyes. this is what leads them to the spookeez eventually. kevin kinda gets dragged into it when they get chased down by a cult member.

eyes is benevolent, but as a terrifying eldritch being, comes off as... not. that.

I'm still figuring out how to incorporate the new characters but kevin prolly saves streber with magic healing nonsense. when the streber thing happens they call kevin (they had met streber at one point and knew that the cops wouldnt be there on time and that kevin could heal)

no ships other than candybats yet but I'm considering it :]

I'm gonna stop there cuz this is super long already lmao but yeah this one bounces around in my brain

[bleaksqueak]

When you say hair assets do you mean 3-D models? Do you do the same for backgrounds? I totally get if you dont to share like videos or anything but after reading that last post I'm actually kinda fascinated by your process. I've been really wanting to find ways to speed up my drawing and it really sounds like you have it down to a science lmao.

Oh god I wish... I hate modeling hair, and Its so tedious I don't want to bother asking paula to do it either LOL.

Basically it depends on the style of the hair.

So, this character, for example? If I use her as an example, in this exact little sketch, what i'd do to break her hair down to make assets is I'd paint the entire back-section of her hair (or just steal it from this painting) and fill in the parts where her body was. I'd save it without the large feather in front, without the bits that hang down in front of the wing ears, and without the bangs/top of her hair. Just that big puffy soft feathery blob.

That would be what I'd start with for a single asset. The large feather is something else I'd save on its own, painted without anything hanging in front of it. Save, on its own, away from the main mass.

bangs and the general top of the head is more difficult. That's better saved as a bank. So, again with this drawing as an example, I'd isolate what i've already drawn here of her bangs and the top of her head. I'd save that for anything that's at this general angle if I wanted to save that. Any time I draw it new at another main /major angle, i'd isolate it and save that as well.

Honestly though, her bangs aren't hard to draw, and since the small feathers are done using a brush I made, they don't take long to plug back in either. But if you *did* want to save assets for a very rendered style or if the bangs were complex, that's what you could do. Eventually, you have a bank saved up, and you only have to draw it new if you want to. Between liquify and free transform, you can go a long way for putting the bulk of the back of that hair into the shape/flow it needs to be in with only some minor on-top edits to make it look right. You would just slot that main mass behind your character layer and manipulate it into shape.

To take it a step further, I could do a single clean drawing of her coat cuff details, her lapels, and her coat tails. Drawn out flat and symetrical, that could be saved and then warped into shape by inserting them into or overlaying them onto the drawing.

Its not hair and clothes, but it's the one I have most handy atm lol. Example of an asset sheet for a set of gadgetry (plus some glyphs.)

The only time I drew those objects by hand /individually was if they were too small on screen to bother inserting the asset (so no detail would show). Using free transform tools I could put the fully-painted/renderd gadgetry into perspective (and sometimes just a little bit of perspective fix doodled on top for overlaps) and plug it onto the character.

The acting is what matters most, so all of these little bits and bobs and details are just set-dressing. I try to always minimize time wasted on set dressing unless (it's either something I can't use a shortcut for, or frankly, if I'm just in the mood to draw the thing outright.)

I hope that helps! I'll comb thru my non-purged videos and try to find a good example of one that's not from the end of the current chapter and post that at some point.

[cwispydev]

07/11/2022 11:34 NaNoRenMo word count: 3,153

My inconsistent annoying ass is back and I've restarted yet again.

I don't know why but I just keep? Doing this whole bullshit of not being an expert on coding languages immediately and then being frustrated by that.

I'm like a weird mix of perfectionist who has to do everything perfectly the first time but also lazy asshole who doesn't want to expend too much effort.

So, I've restarted and decided to do some stuff with Ren'py.

My biggest concern with Ren'py was definitely the fact that I'm 100% not an artist. I'm not good at drawing or graphic design but Ren'py is very visual heavy.

So, for now, I'm making a visual novel for NaNoRenMo and then seeing where I go from there. I'm working a lot on dialogue and the coding side of it and kind of just worrying about the visuals later on?

I have someone working on the character sprites right now so I'm not too worried about that. It's the GUI stuff that I'm worried about. I'm planning on doing that myself so I needed to get a lot of practice done. Which I did do in September/October so I could be prepared for NaNoRenMo.

I've been doing like test GUI things? So, thank god. It wasn't too bad, just needed a bit of work on the art department. The way to code it was a pain in the ass but easy to learn.

I mostly used Zeil Learnings' video on Image Buttons and their video on Main Menu Customization as well as qubodupDev's video on Image Buttons on YouTube.

It was a bit frustrating to learn but, because it's repetitive work, I got the hang of it eventually. Here's some gifs of how it went.

This gif kind of shows off how my buttons look when you hover over them and stuff.

Then, of course, I practiced a little on how to customize dialogue boxes. I also used another Zeil Learning's video to learn about that. Specifically, I watched a lot of their video on Dialogue Customization over and over.

Customizing the dialogue boxes and stuff was so much easier than customizing the main menu since I got a lot of practice with image buttons on the main menu and the dialogue is way more simple than the main menu.

Here's the image of the dialogue box that I customized.

Ignore the ugly Main Character Holder and the weird dialogue. I was testing out how long the names could be for the name box and ended up keeping the name that way.

I was also testing out how to unlock CG for the gallery I made so that's why there's the huge guy I made with picrew in the background. I'd post the picrew but it got taken down.

Then, the next step was doing a whole custom menu? Which sucked but, like I said before, not as much as the main menu since I got a lot of practice already. I also used another Zeil Learning's video (their video on Making Your Own Image Gallery) and they posted some of their code and assets on itch.io.

Here's the gif of my attempt at that.

The entire time I was doing this, I was kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to write about for NaNoRenMo. I was thinking of doing what I was planning on doing for Twine but do it for Ren'py instead.

Except my perfectionist stupid brain kinda dumped that idea.

So, I was wracking my brain and figured that I should just write about something I'm passionate about. Right now, it's Villainess Isekai manga.

I've been obsessed with the genre for like a couple years now. I've read a lot of light novels and mangas and I basically celebrated to death when the anime for some of them started getting churned out last year and this year.

I figured that there would be a dedicated fan base for it (since I'm a part of that fan base LOL) and decided to go that route.

So, now, I'm writing a Villainess Reincarnation visual novel/otome game where you play as a Villainess!

Another one of my obsessions has been Our Life: Beginnings and Always. It's a really great visual novel/otome game that really puts to use my absolute favorite romance trope: childhood friends to lovers.

It's a really in-depth game that gives the player a lot of choices and lets the player customize their character a lot. I've always been a huge slut for character customization in video games so I've always wanted to make a game like that.

So, of course, I'm loosely basing the visual novel/otome game I'm making on Our Life.

Think Our Life x Villainess Reincarnation.

The premise for the game is that you're a Villainess that was killed at the guillotine (like usual) and you've woken up in bed with a lot of your memories missing.

You start out as a child and then kind of grow up, trying your hardest to learn from the mistakes you've made.

I'm still trying to figure out if I should implement a moments selection like in Our Life or I should just make it very linear. I'm leaning more towards the moments selection, though.

I just don't like the fact that it would be too much work.

But yeah, my friend (not my special friend LOL) has been working on sprites for the game since pretty much November started. I've just been using placeholders so far becos they haven't finished any of the sprites yet.

(Obviously, holy shit, sprites are super fucking hard to draw.)

I've written a lot of stuff (I'd like to think) since NaNoRenMo started. I was being really lazy in the beginning but my special friend has lit a fire under my ass and now I'm like updating my blog and writing a lot for the visual novel/otome game.

I'm determined to churn something out LOL

But yeah, that's my update. Hopefully, I'll be able to update tomorrow or something with a new word count and some updates on how the game is going.

I want to keep the game as vague as possible? Just becos I don't want to give anyone spoilers. So, I'll mostly be talking about like the technical aspects of the game rather than any plot points.

Also, I forgot to mention but the tentitive title for the game is Never Ending Love.