#lazy colouring that I’ll probably tweak

[an-albino-pinetree]

[sharpbutsoft]

So I know you do digital art, but The Hanged fireMan looks like a watercolor. Do you work with watercolors as well, or is it the program you use?

(please brag about your art process, basically)

Yeah! So I do all my (fan)art in everyone’s favourite innuendo of an art program, Procreate. (Specifically on a 2019 ipad pro with a 1st gen Apple Pencil, both of which I would tentatively recommend if you can get them 2nd hand for less than 200euro like I did)

I did a lot of painting as a teenager, and still paint often to this day. Though I mostly worked in acrylics, I have been known to use watercolours (like, when I was in college I bought a little 3euro paint set and would use the inside of cardboard cereal boxes as diy watercolour paper and paint wild little Irish landscapes… and Winter Soldier fan art, sometimes. 2017 was a different world)

So in summary - I ‘paint’ digitally using some very traditional techniques I picked up over the years, and I kinda prefer digital art now, which I will elaborate on below the cut as I detail how I created The Hanged fireMan…

I’ll start with my favourite digital art ‘cheat’ which is that I use So Many Layers. Like seriously, pretty much every new colour goes on its own layer because I am a control freak and love being able to tweak them all as needed. So for this relatively simplistic piece, I’ve still got something like 20 layers all together.

I’m also usually better at grouping layers but in this one I gave up at some point and it felt dishonest to group them nicely before showing you guys lol

So yeah layers is my biggest hack, but the other is using specific texture brushes

I spent a while playing around with various brushes before finding this Tarraleah one which has just the most delicious watercolour-y texture and a really fun edge to it (and it’s got pressure sensitivity, so I can really control the amount of colour I want to put down on the page)

This background was painted entirely with the 1 brush & colour, and I think it turned out pretty cool. For this particular piece I did have a reference on screen to work off for the most part, but those clouded were just painted with my heart

Next (or maybe before, it’s a while sinceI drew this and sometimes I mix it up) is the lines, which are always done with my best friend, the Procreate Pencil!! I love her, she’s so fuzzy and textured and also if you tilt the tip on the pencil you get a broader line (like with a real pencil) which is just the coolest thing!

When it comes to lines I just sort of go for bigger shapes 1st and details later, and basically always with some kind of reference. I also use a very old & well known trick of putting the most detail into the object of most importance, and leaving the background more loose and vibey

Artists will tell you that this is to draw focus with details. Artists are lying. It’s cause we got lazy after drawing he fun part & phoned the rest of it in lol (I know this because I am an artist)

Also I love this pencil because I don’t have very steady hands and I actually cannot draw straight/smooth lines to save my life! If you’ve ever seen anything resembling a smooth line in something I’ve drawn, it is almost certainly a whole bunch of lines over each other and then erased at the edges to make it look neater

But who needs straight lines when sketchy sketch lines are so fun!

Next is flat colours (the 3layers in the middle with check marks beside them)

I used the same colours as the background, which you can tell from where they completely blend together right down the bottom, and what I genuinely do is use the Tarraleah brush to generally block out he shape, and then go back in with an eraser and smooth out the lines

Why do I do this? …good question

Next is one of my favourite parts, which is adding the lights! Procreate has some really fun -glowy- layer effects - my favourite is probably Add (A) though Colour Burn (CB) is great too for its vibrancy.

Also those 2 layer 11s are there because I duplicated one and then used the ‘Gaussian Blur’ feature to ‘fuzzify’ it (yes, that’s the technical term) It’s a pretty quick and easy way to add a more diffused light effect around something. (I did the same for the yellow reflective strips on the turnouts too!)

Last step now! So full disclosure - I absolutely traced that writing from a photo of a tarot card lol. I actually always trace writing, as, much like drawing straight lines, I’m bad at handwriting on a screen

I also stumbled upon the Exclusion (E) effect by accident - Originally it was going to be a plain cream boarder like a traditional tarot card had, but I wasn’t fully happy with it, so I just flipped through a few layer effects and as soon as I got to this one, I knew it was the right choice

I love the dreamy contrast of the pinks and purples to the dark navy and grey & how it makes everything looks kinda unreal and outer-spacey

And yeah that’s about it! Everything else comes from my 15+ years of Practical Art Knowledge but these are the specifics of how I utilise it digitally!

This was a lot of fun to write out, and I hope that if you’ve made it all the way here, it was fun to read too!

[ryosmne]

Special piece.

Tattoo artist! Sukuna x f!reader

I just had random thoughts about Sukuna, I mean the usual so here's this hope you enjoy reading. Also this is based on my Tattoo artist! Sukuna series here's the masterlist for that.

Warnings: Language, usage of the word babe that's all.

Consultations were always Sukuna's least favourite part of his job. Not only because some people took long to voice their ideas, but because some are way too indecisive, they either want too many things packed in a tattoo or they hover all over the place trying to chose from roses to skulls. Boring.

The girl that walked in five minutes ago was no different and even though she hadn't even been in his shop for that long she was already getting on his nerves not being able to choose a design for him to draw so he could get this over with, and much to Sukuna's dismay she also had a friend with her that stirred her away every time she came close to making a final decision.

Nanami had told him that she already had a very specific design in mind otherwise Sukuna wouldn't be wasting his time and maybe the fact that he woke up next to y/n again helped him enough not to give the girls his usual pissy attitude.

"How about a micro tattoo? It would look so good on you." The girls friend chirped up making Sukuna's eye twitch.

"I won't do that, pick something else, if you're having trouble I can just give you a flash book with my work and we can tweak something to make it different." Sukuna offered, his tone was very much bored and indifferent, all he wanted was for this to be over with.

"Yeah that would be nice." The girl infront of him said. She was around his age, early to mid twenties and by the looks of it she had lots of work done, her right arm was covered and she wanted to start her left too.

Sukuna momentarily left his booth to fetch the flash book from the reception and he was already planning to charge the girl, whose name he didn't really care to remember, extra just for annoying him.

Walking back to his booth, he found both girls staring at the pictures he had framed on his wall, specifically y/n's original sketch of the shrine she wanted. Sukuna still called her lines crooked all the time, especially when y/n and him eat lunch in his booth. The picture next to it was one of y/n's arm, by now not only the shrine and the fox covered it but lots more of his designs.

Y/n had always told him with a chuckle that having a picture of her arm was creepy, but Sukuna always justified it saying that it inspires him and he has a picture of them together on his desk cause he knows she's a bit on the shier side. Not to mention Gojo would give them hell had he seen that picture of them together hanging on the wall and both y/n and Sukuna didn't want to deal with him.

"That one, I want that one."

The girl confidently spoke and Sukuna's gears had already been grinding for a while.

"Not that one, here pick something else." He simply said, with a slightly more intimidating tone as he handed her the flash book.

"But I want that one, why can't I have it?"

Whining was his the worst thing to Sukuna pair it with an entitled costumer and you can see smoke coming out his ears.

"That was a piece for someone special, you can't have it, either pick something else or leave."

Y/n once again came through Domains front door, Nanami greeted her at the reception and as usual everyone was working since there was lots of buzzing in the shop.

"Hey Kento, I brought takeout for everyone, hope you guys like Thai food." She said with a smile, dropping the bags at the reception counter. "You shouldn't have y/n we could've ordered something in." Nanami was his usual self talking about paying her back and y/n only laughed.

"Oh come on, I wanted to, everyone's still working?"

"Yeah, everyone's tattooing, Sukuna's doing a consultation and it's not going that we-"

Before Nanami could finish his sentence some girls voice was heard saying

"Aren't you a tattoo artist? You're supposed to do what I ask you to."

And there was Sukuna, he had came out front having decided that even the extra charging he planned to do wouldn't help him deal with that headache of a client. His face said it all and y/n could tell he was done with whoever pressed him.

The two girls came to y/n's field of view and she was now wondering what they asked for that Sukuna was so pissed. She just gave him a smile telling him to hang in there in her own way and Sukuna's whole face lit up just by her presence.

"Just why won't you do it? That's the one I wanted." Ah, why must his moment be ruined that rudely.

"I already told you, now, out." His voice was as stern as ever, y/n didn't interfere, that was his business he can run it however he pleases.

The two girls let out an annoyed huff before one of them turned their attention to y/n

"Just go somewhere else, this guy won't do what you'd want anyway."

"Oh I'll do whatever she asks of me, now get the fuck out of here."

Finally some piece, just as the door closed, Nanami begun to laugh under his breath having heard all the commotion from before.

Sukuna took y/n under his arm giving her a quick kiss, his expression that previously looked like he would blow up any second, softened to a half smile his now lazy half lidded eyes that settled on y/n's face.

"How's your day dollface?"

"Pretty good, hopefully about to be better, how's yours?" That smile of hers never failed to make his insides melt away.

"Pretty shitty, untill you showed up."

Who knew that anyone could get Sukuna this warm and cuddly? Well if you asked his co workers they would've told you that there's no way in hell anyone can make Sukuna mellow with their presence, but y/n was probably the exception that justifies the rule.

"Babe, did you also get these red velvet cupcakes from the bakery downtown?"

Sukuna asked, eyes lit like a kid on Christmas.

"Have I ever forgotten? I got you the ones with the pink frosting you were eyeing too."

Y/n said her smile matching Sukuna's and her heart hummering like it always did when he smiled, that was the least she could do for all the perfect dates he's taken her and all the perfect food he's cooked for her not to mention the gorgeous work that he put on her body, his ink by now creeped up her shoulder.

"That's my girl!"

Sukuna said with a proud tone as his arm pulled her closer to his side.

"So, what did she ask for?"

Y/n pressed not having a clue what could've gotten him so riled up, but he just hummed and took another bite of his cupcake, like he always did after a meal.

"Was it watercolour?"

Sukuna shook his head no, making y/n more curious.

"Micro tattoo?"

Again same answer.

"Then how bad of an idea could it be?"

Y/n asked, her voice was playful as she genuinely wondered if someone asked for Jimmy neutron's head merged with a tiger again.

"She asked for your shrine, I'd never give someone your shitty lines." Sukuna answered half laughing, and y/n did too, that running joke always found its way back.

But y/n knew Sukuna considered all of the tattoos he'd given her one of a kind and an extension of herself, he wasn't about to hand what's hers to someone else no matter how much tweaking he did, these pieces were y/n's and y/n's only.

Bonus Domain shenanigans:

"Y/n brought food? I heard something about cupcakes too." Gojo spoke suspiciously looking at his co-workers. They all ate with y/n about an hour ago but he was too busy finishing up a piece of his, full colour new school takes time.

Sukuna warned them that if they told Gojo about the cupcakes, he would either fire them or tattoo them a stupid design he thought of. The second option sounded terrifying, so after exchanging a few looks Geto was the one to speak up.

"No man, she did bring Thai thought, maybe you misheared, here I left yours on Nanami's desk." The calmness in Geto's voice always helped him seem like he could never lie, making him the best to handle a very nosey Gojo.

All was good, Gojo didn't ask again and was stuffing his face with the food y/n brought, Sukuna should thank her for making his mouthy friend zip it for more than a minute.

That was untill..

"Y/N TOLD ME SHE BROUGHT RED VELVET CUPCAKES."

Yuuji bursting through the front door ruined everything.

"You liars"

Gojo said before racing to the fridge they kept sodas with Yuuji in toe.

"You lay a finger on MY cupcakes, I'll gut you both."

[fleeblesim]

first off, i just binge read through all of the barker legacy and omg they're all so cute!! secondly, im a brand new simblr and was wondering what your tips are for starting out? thanks so much <33

Thank you! I’m glad you like them!

As for advice I’m not entirely sure what to say, or if I’m the best person to ask. 

I guess what I can say is to take inporation from some of your favourite blogs. What are things you like about their posts? Their gameplay or whatever you’re looking at. (Just make sure to not copy anyone.) And eventually you will have cultivated your own style, if that makes sense. As time goes and you get more adjusted or whatever you want to say you might notice that you’ve changed significantly from your first few posts. 

When looking at my old posts (which I have to admit doesn’t give the full experience since I had to repost a lot of them) there is a pretty big difference. Everything from simstyle, to editing style, the kind of gameplay I do, and even how I tag and write posts. It’s the kind of thing you get better at as you keep doing it, I think. Everyone starts from something.

Like whrn you look at the first post (originally from like 2017) next to late 2019 / early 2020 and then to 2021 there are improvements and changes. Like the editing, which hasn’t changed that much from 2 to 3, but I do crop my pictures differently. Especially you can see how I take screenshots now compared to then. This might just be the photographer in me, but I like trying to get good looking angles and shots.

I think being able to take good looking screenshots is a good selling point. If it looks good people are going to like it. Personally I like it brigth and colourful, but at the end of the day it’s each to their own. But i have been told I’m good at profiling lol.

As much as we like saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” people do a lot of judging. And honestly, having a pretty cover for your book is really nice. Graphic design isn’t something you have to be really good at, but it might be a good idea to keep in mind. You don’t need to of course. You don’t really need anything to run a simblr except a blog and some screenshots to post at the end of the day.

With editing you really don’t need anything fancy. I just use what’s already on my pc and I just brighten it and adjust the colours a bit. and then I just tweak it slightly after that if I feel it needs it. It’s a very lazy way to do it, but I think it works for me lol.

When I lay out posts I don’t like making them too long, so often times I’ll take a lot of screenshots while playing and then just delete what I think I don’t end up using and think is unneccessary.

You kinda just have to find something that you like and that works for you.

I tend to have my queue on 3 posts a day, but how many you should do is up to you and how good you are at keeping up with it. 

Tagging posts is probably one of the most important parts of growing your simblr. Finding the best tags can be difficult, and I’m honestly not sure if I’ve found the optimal tags. Generally I think keeing the amount of tags low is a good idea.

I like having the basic tags first. Then I usually have the name of whatever I’m playing before adding legacy and gamplay. Lastly I have gen5 for navigational purposes on my blog, and i like to add simblr at the end.

I don’t know the exact science behind the tagging system, but I do believe I’ve heard too many tags is a bad idea.

I’m not sure what else to say except be nice, make friends, interract with people etc etc. It’s something I’m not super great at atm, but I am trying a little at least. Build up your “brand”, be creative, and just have fun. Don’t take it too seriously. Just enjoy yourself.

I hope any of my rambling here is helpful lol

[impractical-au]

Dreamcatcher

Hey, hey, before we get onto this just wanna tell you that this is actually an OC based from my also personal superpower universe but tweaked it to fit more into this one uwu. Yes that sounds very lazy but honestly I love this character too much so >~<

Real name: Nyx Age: ??? (suggested early 20’s) Pronouns: She/Her Orientation: Asexual Alignment: True Neutral Primary power: Dream manipulation - she can enter a trance-like state and enter into people’s dreams, and she can change all the events inside that dream. The only thing she can’t change of course is the host’s behaviour and actions. She could still change their appearance, however. Secondary powers: Sleep - she can choose to put people to sleep if she touches their forehead. She also has a lesser ability to see someone’s fears and dreams if she goes into her trance-like state again. Though she could only peek briefly. Likes: coffee, books, anime, RPGs Dislikes: crowds, anything boring, physical activities Overall personality: Highly introverted, has the tendency to be cold and distant among people, hard to befriend, but when she’s comfortable around someone she’s super nice Appearance: She’s 5'4" tall with a fair complexion and a lean body. She has black hair that reaches just above her chest that she often styles a portion of it in braids. Her eyes are a navy blue. Her common outfit is a striped turtleneck hoodie with jeans and Vans shoes. In dreams, she often changes her appearance with short purple hair and amber eyes. She’s taller at around 5'8" with a rogue-like outfit in shades of purple, blue, and black. Other infos: - She’s a selective mute - She works at a bookstore - She discovered her sleep ability when a co-worker seemed sick at work and she checked his temperature in his forehead - Although she hasn’t received proper education, she managed to educate herself from reading books - Her favourite colour is purple - The power of makeup hides her really deep eyebags !! - Her room is really messy - Secret fun fact: she can sing :0 Backstory:

“DREAMCATCHER - NIGHTMARE OR FANTASY?”

The infamous “Dreamcatcher” continues to terrorize the minds of civilians for haunting the dreams of many. Yet many have reported pleasant dreams said to have come from the Dreamcatcher as well with its signature appearance showing up on all these people’s dreams. What truly is the Dreamcatcher’s motive? If it even is real?

Nyx turned off the TV. It was the same news for the past week now. She’d already stopped doing it, sometimes she wonders if a serial killer would be ready to plot their plan and take over the news. Even if they had no physical evidence, Nyx could feel her head ache thinking how a day or two’s binge on jumping to people’s dreams managed to make her hit the headlines. They couldn’t even make a good scoop on it. It’s too absurd, why is it even hitting? Dreamcatcher doesn’t even connect to what she does. They’re so dumb, deciding to choose a catchier name than an accurate one.

Instead of opting to let her head ache even more, she decided that a nice cup of black coffee would be great. Yes, it always has been like that. Drinking coffee, breathing, watching without ever really doing much else. It’s a dull life, and it has been for years. Nothing could ever be so interesting in the real world. Because you can’t do anything. That’s what Nyx thinks ever since she was young.

At first, she thought it was just lucid dreaming. Every night, she instantly knew she was in one and that she could change practically anything inside that dream. Her black hair could be a nice purple instead, and her disgustingly dark blue eyes to amber. She could be taller, have more fat in her lean body, wear the coolest clothes, or maybe grow wings. She could be different.

Yet in the real world, she wasn’t. An illegitimate child of an actress, she didn’t even know her father, not that she cared too much. Her mother hid her away, obviously. Fame was important, and so was money to shut those who saw her in the last few months of pregnancy. And yet she still gave her a nice name. Nyx. Primordial deity of the night. That was probably the only nice thing her mother did for her. That and the effort of putting her up for adoption instead of just leaving her.

No one adopted her.

Though, the kids there were friendly and, of course, childish. Nyx liked it. Although she only listened to their bickering in the background. Some voiced out wanting to be a doctor, a teacher, all those. One mentioned wanting to be a magical warrior defeating the scariest monster and save everyone. They made fun of that kid.

Nyx felt bad for the kid. Later that night suddenly she saw herself in that kid’s dream fighting a small blob. It was as they said earlier. Though a small blob isn’t really the “scariest monster”. Nyx imagined what the scariest monster could be, and suddenly that blob turned into a gigantic amalgamation, and the kid screamed.

They never woke up.

Nyx was the opposite. She never wanted to sleep. She could only think of what she’d done. She feared herself. She paid attention less to the kids, especially when the atmosphere has obviously lowered. That was the last time she ever tried changing dreams.

When she was old enough, Nyx had almost killed herself. But she managed to restrain herself, getting a job and a small apartment. It was on the news when she’s heard of superheroes. Actual superheroes? In this world? More people had powers other than herself, and suddenly everything could become a little more colourful. That’s how she tried using her powers again for the first time in years. Give some with stupid fears nightmares and those with fun ones an even exciting fantasy. She doesn’t know how exactly her powers could fight crime, nor could she be the source of that crime. What was important is that somehow, she feels comfortable again with what she can do. ~~~

That’s all for now! If I ever still add more or revamp stuff (or maybe miraculously make art) I’ll probably just post it and mention this blog ahah. Sorry if it ended up being so lengthy >~< I couldn’t figure out how to put the narrative under the cut,,,

Celery: I love this! It reminds me of Remy from this AU as well and I can see them getting blamed for some things and they make a rivalry out of this. xD

[ushi-gushi]

So I took a big break from being present for a bit but I’m ready to get back into everything. Here are some things I’d like to share:

1. I love bees!!! They are so smol and precious but also so strong and smart and I love them so much!!!

2. My art is getting better!! I draw some fanart the other day and I didn’t despise it with every fiver of my being!! This is a big step for me as I used to love drawing but hate how I drew so much that it stopped me from doing what I love :(. Recently I’ve picked the hobby back up and practiced with different art styles until I found one I was comfortable with and tweaked it until I was happy with what I created. (I’ll share the fanart later)

3. Kind of carrying on from the last point but I’m going to try to re-design/make a new Arcana apprentice!! I’m not happy with the one I have because I rushed her design just so I could be a part of everything and it all seemed so sloppy and half-done I was really unhappy with it. I’ll probably scrap her altogether and create one or two new apprentices so be on the lookout for them ;)

4. I’m learning to love myself! During my break, I’ve come to terms that I will always be a big person. Not because I’m lazy or unwilling to excersize (because I am willing) but because it is the way I am shaped and no matter how fit and healthy I am, I will never be a skinny person. I’m wearing crop tops!! I’m letting my belly and my stretch marks show!! I’m beautiful the way I am! I’m wearing makeup, not to hide my face but because I love it and I express myself through colours and shapes!

I know it’s a bit muddled but I wanted to get that out there.

[axemetaphor]

Took a stab at designing Moebius/inverted AU versions of my OCs! Click for HD and also there’s an explanation under the cut.

All of these are super rough concepts that’ll probably change, and the designs as well might change--the only ones I’m p sure of are Rhys and Unknown. None of them have separate names yet, so I’m still just calling them “anti-[character]”

For anyone unfamiliar with my OCs and curious about them, here’s a masterpost I’ve made

Side note in case someone’s confused--Moebius is the world Scourge came from, a reality parallel to Sonic’s where the world fell into decay. The characters are defined by extreme distortions of canon character personalities (ie, Scourge is Sonic minus his kind and selfless nature, it being twisted into cruelty and selfishness). Sometimes they seem to be written as polar opposites, sometimes they seems to be written as very similar, but the Moebius counterparts just have magnified versions of the normal characters’ flaws. That’s kinda the approach I’ve taken and I’ll explain it more here. Also, usually Moebius counterparts don’t change the colour palettes of the characters, but that can be...confusing to say the least so I’ve elected to at least tweak the colours of my characters to make them more distinct. 

It’s important to note that in Moebius, Vex, Vitriol and Unknown did not stay together after escaping the facility that created them. They barely even worked together (more out of a general understanding that escaping alive would require a combination of skills) and once free promptly never spoke to each other again. They have no family ties. 

Anti-Vex: Unlike Vex, anti-Vex feels that because they have the ability to manipulate people, they shouldn’t restrain themself from doing so. They do whatever they want with no care for other people, and are being hunted by Moebius’s version of G.U.N. for a wide variety of crimes. They prefer to steal things, sort of as a way to exert their power over others without actually hurting or killing people. They don’t really like killing people. They will if they have to, but usually, they’re just too lazy--and they like outwitting people, shaming them for not being as smart and powerful.

Anti-Unknown: Anti-Unknown is absolutely ruthless. They can and will kill people if they think it’ll give them some kind of an edge. And if they find out they were wrong, and they gain nothing, they only regret wasting energy. For the most part, they’re relatively safe to be around, so long as they don’t decide you’re in their way. They were the catalyst for the escape, which was an absolute bloodbath; after escaping, they mostly kept to themself, and so unlike anti-Vex they don’t have a bounty on their head. That being said, they do have a bit of a reputation worldwide--many people believe they’re some kind of ghoul or apparition. Them coming to town is a nightmare. 

Anti-Toxic: Opposite to Toxic, anti-Toxic loves anything and everything feminine. They also love chaos, but have no aversion to hurting and killing people, whereas normal Toxic just likes making a bit of a mess. Anti-Toxic collects bones and organs in jars of formaldehyde, and refuses to tell people just where the bones and bits came from. Overall, they are much more of an outward danger and a loose cannon, one that can’t be reigned in by anyone. They love heart patterns and their shtick is often to pretend to just be an innocent girl (they are neither of those things; anti-Toxic is also nonbinary) in order to make people drop their guard. They have absolutely no motives other than adding to their ‘collection.’ 

Anti-Rhys: Anti-Rhys is actually @creative-sanic ‘s creation! He’s classy as hell, and absolutely bloodthirsty, but he doesn’t prefer to get his own hands dirty. This is where anti-Vitriol comes in. The two met at an underground wrestling ring--anti-Rhys would often visit them just to see some violence and bet on the fighters, and one day anti-Vitriol was the winning fighter. His super-strength made the fight....unfair to say the least. Fascinated by his brute strength, anti-Rhys found anti-Vitriol after the fight and offered the ferret money to fight for him. Anti-Vitriol decided to stay with anti-Rhys. Anti-Vitriol is essentially anti-Rhys’s attack dog, doing his dirty work, but not to be confused with some sort of lowly drudge. Anti-Rhys truly does love anti-Vitriol, and never puts him in any situation that he thinks anti-Vitriol wouldn’t win. He often buys or commissions weapons such as brass knuckles to be made special for anti-Vitriol, and paid for anti-Vitriol to get metal veneers applied to his teeth.

Anti-Vitriol: Anti-Vitriol takes an animalistic pleasure in using his powers to hurt people. He prefers to wear brightly coloured tank tops with absurd sayings on them like “SUN’S OUT, GUNS OUT,” often in clashing colours. He buys cheaply since most of his clothes get irreversibly bloodstained. Additionally his fur pattern is different from normal Vitriol’s; ferrets have such a wide variety of marking patterns that the scientists who created him could easily just pick and choose patterns they want. Anti-Vitriol is only dangerous if anti-Rhys tells him to be; he’s fairly docile unless provoked. The only thing that could truly keep you safe from him is if anti-Rhys previously established that you’re someone he wants safe.

That’s that! Thank you for reading if you’ve gotten this far, and feel free to send me an anon or reply here if you have something to say/ask. 

Bonus: alternate drawing of anti-Vex that I didn’t like so much

[listoriented]

Chaos on Deponia

no thanks!

I have three of the four Deponia games somewhere in my library. Due to the way they’ve been titled they’re all under different letters, and the second in the series, Chaos in Deponia, happens to be the first that I’ve hit upon. I’ve spent eighty minutes with it. Here are my thoughts, divided helpfully into two sections to avoid any confusion.

What I liked: The colourful artwork, the detailed scene backgrounds, and the notion of a setting an adventure game on a floating landfill city.

What I didn’t like: It stakes everything on being funny, but it is not funny. The dialogue chains and puzzles alike are 95% gags, often overly long gags, almost none of which land. Sometimes this is because the gag takes several sentences to play out when the punchline is obvious from the first. Sometimes it is because the gag involves a larger-than-reasonable suspension of disbelief, such as in the opening scene when Rufus commits a series of disastrous blunders (including murdering a pet bird), while two old people carry out a conversation about him in the same room, somehow not noticing that he’s set the kitchen on fire. More often (though sometimes it can be difficult to untangle this from the timing-related problems) it is because the gag has nothing funny about it in the first place, such as how the only recurring female character is predictably given a damsel role and, at the point I decided I had seen enough, was being set up for an extended unpredictable/split-personality joke, because, supposedly, WOMEN, who knows what they want, aren’t they just? YKNOW. etc. Elsewhere, some jokes try for a self-conscious/meta “this is an adventure game trope” thing, though these largely come off as insecure, cheap and lazy, probably because they never feel like they’re trying to say anything about the process of making games so much as they’re trying to fill space where the writer couldn’t think of something better. This is how it seems, anyway.

The main character – Rufus – is terrible company, clumsily stupid in the vein of, say, Fry from Futurama but with none of the endearing self-depreciation, or signs of caring for other people or, like, anything at all that makes him in anyway redeemable. Presumably Rufus’s obnoxious stupidity is meant to be something we’re in on, laughing at rather than with, but having to be with Rufus all the time, in combination with the perpetually unfunny dialogue and puzzles, begins to feel like the joke is indeed on the player, and it feels just kind of sad and mean, not to mention very tiring. Rufus is possibly even more unlikable than Samuel Gordon from Black Mirror – the last protagonist I truly hated, for those playing along at home – but I can’t bring myself to be angry at Rufus in the same way, because I don’t feel like I really even understand what his function is, here.

An aside, no matter how I tweaked the settings, I couldn’t get it to run full-screen, it just remained in its weird pseudo-full screen window. Probably this is something that could be fixed with some internet help, if I wanted to play more of this game. 

Which I don’t. Hard pass on this.

About: Chaos on Deponia came out in November 2012, the same year of release as the original Deponia game. It was developed and published by prolific German studio Daedalic Entertainment, who we last encountered in 2017 via the Blackguards games. Surely, it’s only a matter of time before I find something of theirs to like.

The first three Deponia games were in the Humble Indie Bundle 15, back in October 2015, which I’d say I mainly got for Gang Beasts, but which - I also realise now - was a purchase I made the same day I began this very silly project. Was this it? Was this the bundle that tipped me over the edge? Did I look at these games and think to myself “fuck I’ll never get round to playing all these Deponia games… unless…”. There’s probably a lesson here somewhere.

up next is Child of Light

[iffeelscouldkill]

Tagged!

Rules: Always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, then write 10 questions of your own, and tag 10 other people.

@whelvenwings tagged me (because she is simply the best) to answer some super fun questions so HERE YOU ARE, MY DEAR!

(Also, I didn’t do the 10-questions-and-tag thing because I’m really lazy and I don’t have 10 people to tag xD Maybe later I’ll come back and write some for the 2 people who would do this, but in the meantime, I just wanted to post these)

1. Which fictional character would you most like to be friends with?

Luna Lovegood! Seriously, that girl is amazing and I would love to just be part of her chill, be-your-own-damn-self orbit, and follow her around for random, weird adventures and fight alongside her in Dumbledore's Army and hang out together in Ravenclaw Tower. (Yeah, I'd be a Hufflepuff, but she'd totally sneak me in. Or she could come to the Puff Common Room because literally no-one cares). And I would hit the haters over the head with my wand.

(Also, I would like you to know that this question was *really hard* and some runners-up include: Jim Taylor (Sally Lockhart quartet), River Tam (Firefly), Lyra Silvertongue (His Dark Materials), Sally Sparrow (Doctor Who), Michelle Jones (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Cecil B. DeVil from Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema, so that I could take part in his badass online copyright revolution).

2. Which fictional universe would you most like to be a background character in?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, because ACTUAL SUPERHEROES! Sure, you might die, but ACTUAL SUPERHEROES! I like to imagine that I might be one of the people who frequents Callahan's Crosstown Diner and just casually runs into SHIELD agents and Avengers doing their thing.

3. If you were a flavour of ice cream, which one would you be?

orange and peach

Haha, not really. Having recently holidayed in Spain and eaten much ice cream while I was there, I'm going to say I'm Kinder Bueno - people think of it as kind of a kiddie flavour (at the ice cream stand we frequented, it was labelled "Junior"); on its own, it's sweet and nice and seems like a kind of boring, safe choice, but combine it with other flavours and it suddenly becomes much more fun and interesting :D

(Oooh, that was unexpectedly deep)

4. What’s a sentence you’ve never written before?

"Nitwit, blubber, ointment, tweak!"

Except now I feel sad that I've never had cause to write that glorious sentence.

5. If you could show me one of your memories, which one would it be?

Hahaha xD I would show you the "How much consume have we sugared?" memory so that we could watch it together and cackle at our dumb sugar-high selves. 

OR, I would show you my memory of the Puff Warner Bros studios tour, because I think you would enjoy it!

6. If you had an aura, what colour would it be?

I feel like auras probably aren't one static colour (but then, I don't see auras so HOW WOULD I KNOW) so I think that mine would fluctuate between shades of purple, ranging between a light purple like lilac to a deep bluish purple depending on my mental state.

Short version: purple xD

7. Space or sea?

Seeeeeeea <3

8. What are you most proud of right now?

My Fanlore edits. Even though I haven't worked on a big project on Fanlore in a while, I've been feeling particularly Fanlore-ish lately and I just love everything to do with that site. Every time I make an edit, it's like "Look, I did a thing!" and then I sit and admire it for about half an hour.

9. In the middle of the road, you find what you’ve always been hoping for. What is it?

A remote control to fast forward and rewind time. I've wanted one since I was really little (and genuinely believed that I would be able to find one if I went to Disneyland).

Or maybe a flying dolphin, but the question of what one would be doing in the middle of the road makes me a little sad. Hopefully just waiting for me ^^

10. What’s your favourite word to say out loud?

Plushie <3

pluuussshhhhieeeee

[inkmap-blog1]

this is random but how do YO go about making a psd? i've looked around and while people provide psds they don't exactly say how to make it so i was wondering if you could share how you go about it ?

thanks for the great question ! though i’m probably not the best person to ask, as i’m entirely self-taught and i’m still learning new things all the time, i’m going to try my best to explain my approach to making a new psd from scratch ! 

firstly, and probably what i’d consider to be one of the most important things to keep in mind when making a psd, is what look / aesthetic are you going for ? think about the character you’re making it for and your overall taste on what you like in a psd ( after all, it’s your psd so your opinion is the one that matters most ! ). what i tend to do at this point is pull up reference photos of the character, perhaps work on a pinterest board to really get a grip on the aesthetic i’m going for and even have a look at other peoples psds that you like for inspiration ( inspiration being the key word here — using other peoples work as inspiration is fine as long as you make it your own and don’t copy. also don’t be scared to do something completely different for a character than what others have done ! ).

once you’ve established a desired look ( keep this vague and open incase things don’t go as planned ) and you’ve got that in mind it’s time to open photoshop ( or whatever editor you’re using ) and get started ! what i do at this point is pull up a couple of icons for the character in different lighting, it’s important to consider that some lighting will be darker / lighter or may consist of cooler or warmer tones and this can drastically effect your psd, especially ones that are quite harsh on colours.

make sure to choose one that has pretty neutral lighting to focus on / leave as your example and make sure to check how your psd looks on the others every few layers. now that you have something to reference to it’s time to start building up your psd. i keep mine in groups just to keep things neat and tidy so now would be the time to make one to put all your layers in ! 

at the bottom of your layers menu there’s a bunch of symbols that include making layer masks, new groups, layers and deleting layers. for now we’re just going to worry about the half shaded circle ( the worst description ever ik ik ) which creates ‘new fill or adjustment layers. in this category there’s a lot of options as to what you want to do, and when your first learning this can be really really overwhelming.

because i’m a simpleton who likes to keep things as easy as possible for myself i tend to go from the top down and add ones that i find useful and just tweak as i go along. i recommend doing a little test run of each just so you get familiar with what they do and the effects they have on your images ( i’m not going to go into too much detail on all that now bc this is already getting rather lengthy ).

from there the possibilities are endless and i tend to end up with around 50 layers per psd ( for reference harley’s is made up of two psd’s and an adjustable group for different lighting ). feel free to layer psds, something which i’m personally rather fond of just because i’m lazy and i don’t like doing things from scratch. it’s also important to keep in mind that as you add layers and do your little adjustments here and there it may not look like much is happening and you’re not making much of a difference but don’t worry, you are. it’s super easy to go along and think you haven’t gotten far but that’s just because you’re getting used to looking at the image step by step and most of the steps are rather small ( like when the optomitrist asks you which lens you prefer and they both look pretty much identical ), at times like this i find it’s helpful to take your psd off ( far easier if you’ve grouped it ! ) and take a second to compare the original image to the psd and just appreciate the difference. another important thing is to keep an open mind ; you may think you want to achieve one thing when you first start off but once you get into it that might be really hard or it just doesn’t work with your icons and that doesn’t mean you should give up or that you’re not good enough ! that just means try something new ! and though i said it’s important to go in with an idea of your goal sometimes it’s less overwhelming to just go in and see what happens. and last little extra snippet of info, some of your icons may need a bit of adjusting so that they work with the psd ( making them darker or lighter so you get the perfect look ) and that’s fine. there may also be times when everything in your icon looks perfect but, for example, the eyes are too dark and you can’t see the whites so now your muse looks like they’re possessed or perhaps it’s washed out their nose too much and now they look like voldemort. when this happens what i tend to do is just lasso the area that needs fixing and adjust it individually until that’s no longer a problem, this also works the other way if you’re going for the possessed voldemort vibe, just make sure to blend out any harsh edges you may get afterwards ( lil note, make sure your layer is rasterised before you go changing it so it adjusts the actual image and doesn’t just mask it ! )

and that’s about it really ! this has been a pretty brief description of how i make one idk, i hope i answered your question. it went on for longer than i expected and it’s probably a bit rambley here and there, but oh well. if anyone has any more questions regarding psds or editing in general feel free to ask and i’ll try my best to help out !

[rynnwolfe]

Rules: Complete the survey & say who tagged you in the beginning. When you’re finished, tag people to do this survey. Have fun and enjoy! Thanks so much for tagging me, @couchcushings you know I adore these! 1. Are you named after someone? No, Rachel is just the name that my mother didn't have bad associations with (she's a teacher). 2. When was the last time you cried? Oh man, I can't remember! I don't really 'cry' as in with tears falling down my face; I accidentally trained myself to not cry. Maybe like two months ago? 3. Do you like your handwriting? I like my all-caps handwriting best, but it takes far too long to write notes in. I've been tweaking my handwriting recently, so it's slightly more aesthetically pleasing. 4. What is your favourite lunch meat? Definitely turkey. It has a texture I can handle even when it's cold. 5. Do you have kids? Hahahaha, no. 6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? It depends on my new self's personality! I try to be nice to everyone though, so hopefully. 7. Do you use sarcasm? I breathe sarcasm. 8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yep! 9. Would you bungee jump? I would love to, if I saw a safety guy come check it, and my doctor told me that I could. It sounds exciting and fun! 10. What is your favourite kind of cereal? CHOCOLATE RICE CHEX 11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Only with my work boots, which require it. Which makes my lazy heart sad. 12. Do you think you’re a strong person? My friends call me a tiny tank, so I'd like to think so, at least physically! Emotionally, I'm not on the inside, but I am on the outside? If that makes any sense. 13. What is your favourite ice cream? Dairy-free ice cream. 14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Oh boy, I don't know. Hair color? Attire? Height? It's kind of a series of incredibly quick analyses. 15. What is the least favourite physical thing you like about yourself? This question confuses me a bit. Ummmm, my least favorite favorite thing about myself? Well, I love my hair, but it's also frustrating, so that I suppose? 16. What colour pants and shoes are you wearing now? No shoes currently, and pink shorts with pineapples on them because I should be asleep right now. 17. What are you listening to right now? Shouting college kids. Otherwise, silence. 18. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? I would love to be a bright but deep yellow, or a light grey! Or perhaps a navy blue? Though, personality-wise, I would most likely be a reddish-pink or something else bubbly. 19. Favourite smell? Old Spice 'Timber', or lilacs, or pine needles, or my Shore-themed candle that is Oak moss, Apple, and pipe weed. 20. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? My mother! 21. Favourite sport to watch? Baseball 22. Hair colour? A brown that changes tone like nobody's business. 23. Eye colour? Brown-gold, depending on lighting. 24. Do you wear contacts? Nope, though I have glasses for when I have to sit near the back in class 25. Favourite food to eat? Rice! My eternal food-staple. 26. Scary movies or comedy? Comedy, please! 27. Last movie you watched? Finding Dory, I think? I watch more YouTube than anything. 28. What colour of shirt are you wearing? Grey 29. Summer or winter? Summer, though I don't like the heat. 30. Hugs or kisses? Hugs, but there is a special place in my heart for head/nose kisses from friends or a significant other. 31. What book are you currently reading? ...I feel so guilty saying that I am not currently reading anything for pleasure. Lord of the Rings is waiting to be retread, though! 32. Who do you miss right now? My kitty, and my friends both back at home as well as at college. 33. What is on your mouse pad? Mouse pads are for nerds. Surprisingly, I don't have one. 34. What is the last TV program you watched? I'm going to cop out of this and say YouTube instead; Markiplier playing Subnautica. 35. What is the best sound? A quiet fan, birds after winter passes, rain, someone singing softly to them self, my cat purring. 36. Rolling stones or The Beatles? Rolling Stones, man! 37. What is the furthest you have ever traveled? Disney World; I won't say Florida because I went straight from the airport to Disney World and back. 38. Do you have a special talent? Being incredibly endearing and completely obnoxious at the same time? Does that count? If not, then probably my ability to clearly visualize scenes in my head as if they were a movie. 39. Where were you born? The Great Lakes State! This was fun, and I'll tag @magnolia-16 to do this as well!

[draugsresurrection]

Testing Fun-Times 6/01/2018

With that squared away (as well as confirming that Taiga and Wuzeer are both fine), we pop into the Ruby Sanctuary to be shooed away by Natalia and Katina, demanding a missive for passage, so back to Estaria we go. I wonder what people would think of making you backtrack so early. It serves a narrative purpose of having at least SOMEONE act negatively towards Draug, and lord knows the early-game can benefit from frequent trips to town. It's probably fine.

The more interesting concern of mine is how much trouble people would have finding the commanders to sign the missive. For me, having made them, it's a snap to point them out, but while Clair gives you tips for what they look like, it's certainly possible to arrive in town at an hour none of them are around for. I guess it's a reason to make you talk to NPCs, and introduce the time routine system properly?

Now that I'm looking around town a bit more closely, I just noticed that Dominic kind of completely blends in with the Blacksmith next to him. Estaria having a blacksmith was a recent edition, and I guess I didn't think much about colour choice. Well, I've swapped the darker red tiles on the blacksmith's roof with the lighter colour, and moved Dominic further out, as well as the two NPCs who stand close enough to him to be problematic, Liam and Alisa.

Anyway, there's three commanders who'll sign it; Ivan won't because he's a jerk. I found Jade first, which involves fighting her. And that was fine enough; while I did tweak her to be a bit more of a glass-cannon in her first fight to make her both more intimidating but not feel unkillable, the main concern was she fired off a Shredder Quake immediately after killing Jess, effectively only attacking dead targets. I'll have to check to make sure Beams check for LIVING targets.

...And, yeah, it does. But it's possible she was confused about the empty tile BEHIND Jess. 'Rude' attackers will do moves if it hits at least one enemy, and 'Polite' ones will only do so if there's more foes than allies. Jade is the former. But that would still result in her not seeing a mark to attack. Hm. I'm stumped for the moment. I'll mark this and look at it later.

I've finally decided to make a dedicated glitch-testing enemy, rather than temporarily editing stats for existing monsters for short-term bug-scouring. Anyway, turns out the call for 'I didn't find crap to Beam' was going to the wrong variable. And once it was fixed, it caused an infinite loop. So I slapped the 'only check targets twice before giving up and defending or moving' in there, rather than later, and that fixed the problem nicely.

With that outta the way, bought some Bronze Mystic Plate for Draug (because magic attacks seem to be almost more common than normal ones, for some reason), and continued back to Ruby. Oh, haha, of course Natalia would remark on who signed it. I actually forgot about that. I imagine she insults every last one of them. And now that we're here, we say goodbye to Jess for, well, probably the majority of the playthrough.

FINALLY got my first level-up, about two hours into the game. The three options are based on what weapons you're equipped with; in this case, Draug has an Axe, so those are the options given. If Draug had, a Tomahawk instead, they'd be stats like Speed, Evasion, and Luck. Showing the actual numbers is a recent edition, but boy do they make this nicer. As you can also see, I've now entered the land of 'too lazy to make dead sprites, so just put crosses on the eyes'.

I have other things to say about this fight, though. The enemies just hunkered up and died, basically without ever attacking. I mean, yeah, Albytos exist to buff, and Gourdians are defenders (and with Protect not working, are kind of seriously lacking), but consistently cornered monsters just spam Defend and die without trying. It's not much fun. I think there's some sub-optimal 'polite' monster mannerisms that fall flat when the tides turn against them.  For now, I'll at least tune those two fairly prominent offenders to be more aggressive.

Okay, one short session in AI-code, they're now, perhaps paradoxically, more keen to cast buffs spells on their allies. I also doubled a monster's chances to attack or move over Defending when they're 'out of options', though I don't think that was the issue. Most importantly (though also wholly unrelated to the intial concern), monsters will try a second chance if their skill/spell was blocked, instead of giving up and settling for basic attack/move/defend. Those monsters were just waaay too defense/support oriented to survive. Still, little tweaks like this don't hurt.

I think an underlying issue for a lot of 'monster spams one action WAAY too much' is a result of them only having four options per range. It'd mean a rehaul to EVERY enemy, but I've been considering upping it to 6 or even 8 per range, to better balance move ratios. To be clear, that's 6 or 8 SLOTS, not 6 to 8 unique moves. Most moves would be doubled or tripled-up, so they'd have, like, a 12% of doing one weird action, and a 50% to do a more practical, universal option. I don't plan on it yet, but if I keep getting annoyed by dumb AI, I might have to.

Well, I'm now one step away from Taiga (and Clair gained her first level). I'll pick up from there next week.

[doujinshijo]

Free! Eternal Summer - Makoto Tachibana Chara Ani review

Today I received a hot new item that I’ve been waiting on for a while - Free! Eternal Summer Makoto Tachibana Chara-Ani (Toys Works) figure. This is the 3rd figure in the series, with Rin and Sosuke being released last year. Haru’s Chara-Ani incarnation is due to launch later in 2017. I haven’t quite decided whether or not I will buy him too, as he’s never been a favourite of mine and I wasn’t totally blown away by the prototype model...but I’m pretty weak and open to influence, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Chara-Ani have latched into a super-popular concept here - the water fight special episode aired during Free!’s second season. I mean, who wouldn’t love a bunch of figures of sopping wet, gorgeous athletes stood on their shelf, right?

In line with the school-based setting of that episode the figures are all wearing uniforms; Rin and Sosuke are wearing some kind of Samezuka casual sportswear (I don’t remember their black and pink polo shirts from the series, but they’re really nice); Mako and Haru are in Iwatobi school uniform. I kind of wish they’d mixed up the outfits a bit more and had the guys in personalised clothes, but that’s just me. On with the pictures!

First, some gratuitous box art. The boxes for these figures are unnecessarily gigantic. 

This version of Makoto came from Hobby Link Japan and doesn’t come with any replacement parts; you can choose whether or not to put the water gun in his right hand, but that’s it. There is a variant available from Chara-Ani’s website which has a replacement head (eyes closed)...I would kind of liked to have that, but the fact that you don’t have to pay for pre-orders at HLJ until the item’s ready to ship always wins me over (I almost always seem to be broke when new figures are announced).

Tadaaaa - here’s the man himself:

Let’s get a little closer...

There are a couple of really nice details I want to point out here. First let’s start at the anatomical features; Mako’s collar bone is exquisitely sculpted, and I love the indication of muscles under his shirt. Next, look at his left arm - there’s a prominent vein running along it. Same with his right hand - you can just about see the veins running back from his wrist. I adore this attention to detail; the more slender figures have much smoother arms, so this really is a really personal touch for Makoto. Check out the close-up below:

And here:

Now, in the pic above, I want to talk about the next detail I love - his shirt. Can you see the slight transparency of his shirt on his right shoulder? Beautiful. Chara-Ani have done a great job of evoking a water-soaked shirt through the paintwork. As a (possibly) interesting aside, Makoto’s shirt sleeves are made of a rubberised material; the rest of his body is hard plastic.

Finally I want to talk about this...

i.e. his zipper. What did you think I was looking at?

All kidding aside, the striations around his hips are a sight to behold, and I commend Chara-Ani on their work. It’s a tiny bit too obvious for me and I found Rin and Sosuke’s poses sexier since they gave less away (I guess I like a tease), but y’know...I’ll take it.

Anyway, back to the zipper. I really like that they’ve painted it silver as a little extra detail. It’s weird though, because Mako’s belt is the same colour as his trousers - I find that kind of odd. I don’t know if this was done as a bit of a short cut or if his belt (if it’s even visible in the series - I can’t remember) was actually exactly the same colour as his trousers. Either way, it’s really not the end of the world. BUT - and again, this may be me being picky, but I’m the consumer so I must be heard - I’m displeased by the tiny bit of orange bleed from his underpants hem onto the blue. Come on Chara-Ani - you KNOW we’re going to be checking out his boxers. They should be perfect.

Perve-rant over. Back to the review. One final shot of his front and then we’ll head round the back.

In this full front-on shot, I want to talk about Makoto’s mouth. Now, I know a lot of people have issues with the way that Mako’s mouth tends to be sculpted; he almost never has teeth visible in any of his open-mouthed figures, so he look a bit gormless. This is the case here. I mean, it’s not the worst, but could have looked a bit less like he has his tongue right behind his lips.

Final nice details to check out: the Iwatobi badge, his tie and his shirt. Love the buttons and the bunching of the fabric.

Now for the side view:

Here you can more clearly see the transparency of his shirt and the attention paid to the folds. I really like his face sculpt in profile as you can see less of that disappointing mouth.

Now, let’s turn to the side. 

You can see more of the delicious tucks in his shirt, and also the creases in his rolled trousers. Now, I have to say that the sculpt of his clothes is spot on; it really is great, and clings to his ripped frame just enough to give you the impression of muscles and movement. You can get a better look at his hair too, faithfully recreated with just a little added mussiness to show that Makoto’s not afraid to let loose and get a bit rambunctious from time to time. I should add at this point that I really like his left arm and hand - such a nice pose. You can rotate that arm to remove the head if you have a replacement one.

Here’s a close-up on that arm. There’s a sense of vulnerability that I love about this shot - I think it’s in the slightly self-conscious placement of his hand, his exposed ear and hidden eyes.

Just above Mako’s left buttock is his Orca tattoo. All of the Chara-Ani water fight figures have their spirit sea animal tattooed on them somewhere. It’s a cute detail.

View from the opposite side:

Now, you’re probably going to think I’m making a big deal over nothing...but I’m gonna say it anyway. As well as that annoying bleed on the paint on Makoto’s boxers, there’s another sloppy paint issue and that’s on the blue lines on his sleeves. Now, technically this isn’t paint since these lines are transfers, but if you look in the picture below you can just about see where the ends of the transfer meet and (don’t quite) line up. It’s a shame that the ends weren’t hidden under his arm where mistakes like this would be less obvious.

Aaand the back view. I can’t fault his shirt sculpt or paint in the slightest - the hint of skin under the wet fabric is exquisite.

About the pose as a whole; I think it feels a tiny bit over the top and unnatural, but to be honest all of the Chara-Ani figures I’ve got have this problem. It’s like they’re all posing for a catalogue. Again, this isn’t deal-breaking stuff and I feel like I’m whinging for nothing...but I prefer the laid-back Altair/HobbyStock Mako.

I know I’m probably boring you about that hand now, but you should note that even Mako’s nails have been picked out in a different finish to show that they’re not the same as his fingers. Love it.

And, while we’re already going overboard on minute details, ogle these ankles and toes for a bit:

So, in conclusion; this is a very worthy addition to the existing Free! Chara-Ani water gun series. His face isn’t quite as on-point as Alter’s ALTAiR Mako in my opinion, and there is a feeling of laziness in some of the details, but the sculpt of his body is very, very good, and the suggestion of transparency on his shirt is fantastic. As a die-hard Makoite there was never any doubt that I would buy this figure, but part of me feels like a few small tweaks could have made it even better, and that saddens me a little. If you love Makoto, face it - you’re gonna love this regardless of his small cosmetic flaws. If you’re on the fence...at the current exchange rate this figure costs around £70-£80 pre-shipping and VAT, so you may not want to take the plunge this time round. Spend your money on the ALTAiR figure instead - you will not be disappointed.