#me: leave it sketchy don't add any more lines

[merimerz]

too many times a warm up doodle turns up in a full colored illustration 🙄

[eerna]

can you explain your art techniques a little bit further? I just saw your post about arcane helping you drop line art and stuff, and I wanted to understand better (as someone trying to get into digital art)

Sureee, ty for asking! :)

For the first 7 years of my digital art journey I imitated the comicbook-style art tutorials and techniques artists I liked used. This means that I would start out with a sketch, draw the lineart on another layer on top of the sketch, hide the sketch, use solid blocks of color on separate layers for the coloring, and add lighting effects on top of it all. I was never really happy with how it turned out, and I often felt like I shouldn't have gone past the colored sketch phase because the full render would lose so much life. I used pretty much the same brushes I use now, aside from some textured ones, but not to their full potential because they were painting brushes being used for flat shading. Here's a few examples of fully rendered stuff from 2020-2021:

Then, I realized I do NOT have to do things I don't wanna do, and I can totally remove any steps from the process that I wish! I experimented for a while until I settled on a new thing that worked for me. And so my current process is: draw a sketch, color it all on one layer (base colors), add light effects if needed, add another layer on top of everything, and paint until satisfied with the level of rendering. Then I add optional effects, such as fires or patterns. This means I leave the sketch layer visible, so I have to clean it and base colors with erasers as I work, but it enables me to preserve the sketchy energy. The "all rendering on one layer" approach frees my hand and I don't feel pressure to render everything separately and perfectly, which in turn, ironically, makes my art look more detailed because the eye compensates for unfinished bits. In addition, the line between a colored sketch and a fully rendered piece is much thinner, which means I don't have to commit to completing anything, and that is a big deal for an insecure person prone to artblocks. If I lose interest halfway through the lineart-and-blocks-of-color process, I am left with an unusable piece. If I do it halfway through the painting process, I get a charming, messy piece a la my recent Chappell Roan art (I left the armor unfinished, and yet it doesn't clash with the rest of the art). Here's a recreation I did to show what a big difference the different approach makes:

So why didn't I stop doing lineart sooner? I did try, but my attempts tried to replicate what I did when painting traditionally, instead of adjusting to my digital abilities, so it usually looked whack. I remember showing my friends the Rito Village piece back in 2019, which was painted based on a screenshot from the game, and one of them telling me "Don't go back to lineart!" I was like "YEAH I am NOT going back to lineart!!! I will keep painting!!!" Only to realize that painting landscapes with already stylized references and painting portraits were completely different. Here's a painting portrait from one of those trial and error attempts. Later I realized the mistake was working on TOP of the sketch, as I would have done for traditional work, instead of both below AND on top of it - after all, my intention was to preserve the life of the sketch, which was impossible when I couldn't even see it. I also didn't understand color values (or honestly, any color aspects) very well, resulting in some low-contrast, unappealing blobs.

So yeah, my advice to any beginner digital artist is: experiment and figure out what works for you. Think about what makes you happy when creating, and build your process around it. Also, keep researching art theory and applying it to your work. Good luck to you and all other digital artists~

[st4rstudent]

tips on how to draw cogs?

truth be told, I haven't drawn many cogs (mainly just one or two), but I will try to answer this as generally as I can!

This is a long post so I'll post this under the cut.

my biggest tip, as well as for anything, is to break down the shapes. If you try to look at everything at once it becomes really easy to overwhelm yourself. Examples will be drawn sketchy, but hopefully the point gets across.

Our first test subject is mouthpiece which I've never actually drawn before [marketable plushies post doesnt count]. as you can see, I tried to break down a lot of the shapes into much more simpler ones. A lot of cogs seem to share some very obvious shapes, probably because a lot of them are object-related (normal cogs included- first that comes to mind are pencil pushers).

You can do this with really ANY character. Here's our second test subject DOPA for another example.

now these are mainly references from the pictures themselves, which are great as a starting point. my other big tip is just to practice. you don't have to do big full pieces every day, but even just little doodles will help you. i think its very rare for anyone do to super good their first time and this goes with anything, even if you're a highly skilled artist.

you've probably also noticed but I've left out details in my examples, such as the little dots on mouthpiece's eye borders. If you feel that adding all the small details would overcrowd your drawing or just not help it, then I think it's fine to leave them out (of course there are always exceptions to this but as a general rule, its ok).

along with removing details, i think adding details also cannot hurt [to an extent]. if there's something you think would look nice then add it. who cares its your drawing have fun. As an example I'll use prethinker. I always add the little line in the middle, which his model doesn't have. But this is also based off of the 1.3 promotional art as well. Another example could be that when I draw misty, I add a line that connects their eyebrows to their eye. idk just feels more robotic to me and i like it

and again as you notice, my drawings are not model accurate. your style is most likely not going to be exactly like the game and that's completely fine. adjust to your liking, interpret as you will. enjoy the process of creation.

And finally, I'll add my little tip for metal coloring. One thing about metal is that usually the lightest highlight is next to the darkest shadow

The gif goes as base -> shadow 1 -> shadow 2 -> highlight 1 -> highlight 2 -> cleanup + extra

I like to add a few light marks to indicate scratches. although if you wanted more depth, you'd take the darkest shadow and lightest highlight and put them together like this

often the metallic parts are not the focus of my works so I leave it without. As for the random black marks on the lineart, that just also gives it more depth.

And finally, look at other peoples art. Look at the way they draw and pick out bits and pieces of what you like and try to interpret that in your own style.

ok I think that's all. Hopefully this helped!

[moeatsushi]

Dear Moeatsushi could u teach us how u do ur Oso-san artstyle?? O tell us how u learned to do it? 🙏🙏

i use a lot of references! too many. i have multiple canvases with screenshots with references for poses, expressions, etc. i recommend taking screenshots of everything you find interesting and studying the show's style. copying screenshots and official art as close as possible helps a lot, since you can compare the differences of proportions or technique. truth is you can apply this to any sort of study!

something i used to struggle a lot on was proportions; i often drew the characters with "proper" body proportions to their heads and ended up looking weird, since it's a very cartoony head on a not-so cartoony looking body. so watch out for that.

i left a little analysis down below about the line weight aspect since that's what i spend the most time looking at!

the line art is a little tricky since it relies on thicker lines rather than thin ones like in most anime, but it follows specific rules you can later on bend however you like. the lines are built, on it's essentials, like this:

line starts and ends in an increased thickness compared to the rest of the line, and bending points often result in thicker corners, making them less pointy. this technique is used mostly in the outlines while the lines inside it are often composed by thin traces with no line weight. example below.

notice the variety in weight on the outline while the inside of iyami's mouth and eyes are built with thin lines! they're often used for details and to add contrast.

they also make use of a very thick outlines surrounding the character, but it varies from scene to scene. sometimes they use it a lot, and sometimes they don't use it at all. depends on the type of shot and the purpose of it.

something to note is that the furthest the character is, the more consistent the line gets, resulting in less line variation.

parallel lines also tend to get fused in order to avoid uncomfortable looking gaps between them, specially in far shots.

they kinda glue the lines together if they're close enough lol, the hairs sticking out of their bowl cuts are the most common victims of the parallel line fusion.

also lines don't have to be THAT tidy either, if you look close enough some shots have very sketchy/wobbly looking traces. this is the part where i leave examples of that, but being completely honest i'm very sleepy so i'll let you do your own research on that.

anyways, i hope this is coherent enough to comprehend, i'm no expert but i know a thing or two about lines! if anything sounds too confusing you're more than welcome to shoot me another ask and i'll elaborate.

[alena-draws]

Hello Alena! i Love your loose sketchy but colorful art style! 😍 I'm a fellow artist but for years i've struggled with trying to just sketch and be loose. I'm always taking even just a post-it-note sketch so seriously and automatically try to be a perfectionist and add in all the details! it's frustrating since i also can't get all i want to sketch done because i'm being meticulous with each sketch. even with just a simple lineart sketch. you're so great and wonderful at what i'm trying to accomplish. do you please have any advice?? 😫😩😵🥴 I love how you do the smooth lineart and expressions for the Bnha characters btw!

Hi! First of all, thanks, I'm glad you like my stuff! <3 I actually have a friend who's quite similiar in that aspect, she can draw super well, putting hours of work into one drawing until it looks perfect. That's a dedication that I admire, because I'd never have the patience to spend so much energy for one artwork! On the other hand, I see how that could get in the way of wanting to work faster and looser. I've always scribbled and sketched a lot, so when I struggled it was always the other way round, having to learn not to rush things. But I'm sure it's something that can be learnt as it is with pretty much everything :) I'll try to give you advice of what I think might be helpful, but different people like to work in different ways, so some of that might end up just not working for you, while other stuff might. (I'll be putting this under a cut, this could get longer)

One thing that might be helpful could be the medium you draw on! When drawing in a new sketchbook or having a nice white sheet of paper in front of you, I tended to get intimidated and think that I need to fill this paper with something nice and beautiful, so as not to "waste" it. Especially with new sketchbooks, I think everybody knows that feeling...Now, nearly all drawings and sketches I do are done on left over paper from me and my partner, stuff that would have been thrown away otherwise because one side is already printed on. It takes away the pressure of having to give it your all, because, if it would land in the trash either way, I can't ruin or waste it by doing only sketches and little doodles.

While we're talking about mediums, you might try changing the pencil. I'd try something that won't give you such clean lines, so that simply by using this pen, you are already limited to how detailed you can get. I enjoy using coloured pencils now and then, like a red polychromo, they allow me to make light sketches and then, when I put more pressure on it, I can simply draw with the same pencil over the sketch, but making the newer lines stand out more and thus putting focus on special parts of the drawing. This is sometimes not that easy with a normal lead pencil, black will always stand out more than a light red for example. I also like to draw with 2B or 4B for sketches, and don't sharpen the pencil too often. :) Keeps the line a bit blurry sometimes, and I can put a quick shading on if I want.

Now, getting more to some actual drawing advice, learning to be quick with a drawing, without caring so much about how it might end up looking, this might be something you'll have to properly learn doing...like, for example, setting yourself time limits for a drawing. A classic, though still good way to do this, is by using figure drawing videos like this. It will show the person being in different poses for maybe 1, 2 minutes (later on it will get longer) and that's the time you have for one pose, not longer. It's tiresome and overwhelming at first because you won't know where to start, but it will actually give you a feeling for movement of the body, learning which lines to draw, and which you can leave out and still convey the body language and make it a convincing, realistic sketch. In a way, what you want to achieve with a sketch is often quickly show a scene, or a pose that you want the character to be in. It doesn't have to look beautiful or cleaned up, but it must be (or at least it would be nice if it were) convincing, using only a few lines, but conveying what a finished drawing will or could look like in the end. That's where figure drawing lessons are really helpful, because it will help you get a feeling for how you can quickly make a character look like they are e.g. sitting, or angry, or ready to jump in the air...and so on. Phew, I could talk a lot more about this, and I would eventually end back up at me advicing everybody to learn anatomy, but it's always a question of what you want to achieve in the end, and if that is really necessarry for you and where you want to go with your drawings :)

Hm, another small thing might be no try not using your eraser for sketches? Just put it out of reach, and if there's a line you don't like, either ignore it, draw over it, or start anew. I'm wondering if this is actually helpful or just stressful, but it might be worth trying out. It might help to get past the idea, that your sketches have to look good!

For now, that's kinda all I can think about. This topic is super interesting though! I might not be the best person to give advice here, so maybe ask different people too for their approaches. If I can think of any more stuff, I'll write that in another post, for now I hope this is someway helpful, even it's not that much! Good luck with your art!

[popculturebuffet]

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome back to My issue by issue look at Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, one of my faviorite comics ever.

And with this one we finally have done it and finished covering the material I covered previously in my pride schedule. I didn't recycle any jokes or material from those for these reviews mind you, but it's nice to be able to start covering the rest of the series and the next arc is perfectly if accidently timed for winter.

That said we still have one issue left of Liars A to D before we leave the starting line, another death, and some light gunplay. So join me under the cut for all that.

So we open with a flashback to how Shock died. Turns out they got who died wrong. He does find it a tad ridculous that after surviving a whole ass war his brother died being melted into an engine, but does give him a sendoff with his innermost energon.

Innermost Ennergon is another bit of world building from James. It's one of the best things about the comic: that instead of just using what was there he also adds in bits about transformers biology, customs, terminology, the sort of stuff that most transformers properties don't dig into, but they should more often. As for what it means, I thankfully have the TFWiki to remind me: it's the energon nearest to the spark, energy that remains no matter what else changes abotu the transformer, i.e. alt mode, body that sort of thing. One of the core parts of them.

As for the ritual itself, that's something I did remember: it's a due to the dead using something that's a part of one's essence to send off someone you deeply care about. It's a great idea and one I hope the shows pick up eventually.

Not so great are the Duobots themselves. Turns out they were spies for Prowl and Shock was down there trying to attach a tracer to the engines only to die.. and Shock deletes ore's cal lhistory then dies by sparkeater himself. The sparkeater.. is a floating aobomination that sucks out the brain module to easily take out the spark. Why it does that.. we'll get ot in am oment. For now we're back where we left off and Rodimus' reaction is

He quickly urges everyone but who he needs to get a hab suite and don't ask questions and don't leave.. then plans to lock them down as disobeying a direct order.. is exactly what he'd do. Because apparently when Captain Kirk died he reinccarnated as a transformer.

Meanwhile Tailgate, whose still trapped with his legs in alt mode from the last issue because he was transforming, a gag I completely forgot to mention, sees Cyclonus and is happy he recognizes somebody. A meet cute for the ages.

At the autopsy, which is something I don't say often but will say at least a few times during this retrospective, everyone else is chittering about it being a sparkeater while Ratchet is mad their all upset about some sort of bogeyman. They just need to follow proper Boogeyman procedure ratchet

Chromedome DOES point out WHY the brain was removed though: it's rossum's trinity, or the three most vital parts of a transformer: The Transformation Cog, the Brain Module and the Spark. Essentially a transformers brain, heart and soul. Take out one the rest shut down. Hence why it was quickly cut instead: it paralized the victim without actually killing him. Ratchet concedes the sparkeater is real or at least something like it is. Needing more info then "Well the cruel horrifying beast stalking us .. exists", Rodimus engages in one of his first shady actions of the work and asks Chromedome to brainhack the corpse. I do love Roddy but one draw of the comic is that he's not a perfect hero: he sometimes fucks up or makes decisions that aren't terrible, but are sketchy as all hell without any thought as to the consequences.

It's great morally grey writing: asking Chromedome to hack the corpses brain IS a necessary act, they need to know more about this thing.. but it's still iffy to ask someone trying not to be secret brain police anymore to do this again and essentially back them into a corner to hwere they can't say no. It does what Robots In Disguise was TRYING to do at the same time btu repeatedly failed at: have the characters make sketchy questionable decisions. But here instead of making Rodimus look llike a moron it simply makes you question him as a leader, and if thi sis just a slip up.. or a sign he's willing to make more compromises that may not be the best for the crew. The results area bitch sketchy (I love tha tpun) but at least show us what the monster is.

We then get this gutbuster of a scene I can't beleiive I didn't notice that closely the first dozen or so times i've read this issue:

We also get that green guy whose design I like. While his bio says he's hoist (he's the guy who fished out Cyclonus last issue), i'm going with Steve. I dunno he just looks more like a Steve. Steve Hoist. Yeah that sounds better. Cyclonus promptly just dumps his new friend/love intrest into the hab suite.

We next get back to Skids and Swerve who instead find a bar. Yes folks this is the secret origin of Swerves, and since it has energex distilleries (i.e. fuel what also is booze), it means the dream can become a reality. Allgedlys, Swerve was friends with Blur, a similarly chatty bot and the two were going to start a bar together and since Blur is busy in "Robots Yelling at Each Other while Starscream Easily Flies Circles Around Their Dumb Asses.. in Disguise", Swerve's gotta do this alone. Drift decides to go do some exploring, admitting he sees his amensia as a fresh start to figure out who he is and be whoever he wants to be.. though he does admit Skids and Swerve DOES sound pretty cool.

Back to the lab again and things.. arne't great> Chromedome isn't doing well since as he once told tailgate "The worse the death, the worse the memory" but they have a positve id.. problem is the sparkeater is now more active now it's gotten some food in it's belly well, so our heroes are up shits creek. Rodimus plans to stay with drift, figuring he'll be the brightest spark, while the rest go to go search for him, as shooting the creature may kill them all

Naturally of course, the person who finds them.. is Whirl

Who locked Atomizer out of their shared hab suite. As for who Atomizer is.. he's a read guy with a bow. I only mention him because, as I didn't know this first readthrough, he WILL be important later, it just wont' be for several years real time. Whirl saves his life but before he can kill them all Trailbreaker shows up and throws up a force field. That's his thing. We'll see more of him later as while he's not MAIN cast he does get a spotlight issue and is prominent in the first arc of season 2.

Turns out though the Sparkeater is actually going for Rung.. and it brings up somethign I love: this comic REALLY sets shit up well: While we won't know WHY his spark is brightest till the very last arc, it begins setting up an air of mystery around rung, while obfusticating it with Drift's theory that it goes after the person with the most trauma… so you don't question WHy a therapist has a brighter spark than several trained warriors.

Swerve's venting around in the vents saves him, and we cut to Tailgate and Cyclonus who gives a TECHNICALLY true version of history that paints the Decpticons in a good light: they rose up against a corrupt system while the Autobots wanted a more oderly transition of power that still ended with them in charge. It's not ENTIRELY wrong but it misses the nuance, i.e. the deciptcons soon sinking to being as bad as the people they replaced just in a diffrent way. It is nice though as it both sets Tailgate down a path for one heck of a cliffhanger at the end of the issue.. and sets us up as how cybertron used to work.. is a HEAVY part of this comic and the centerpiece of three diffrent arcs and a good chunk of the characters backstories.

Back with Team Rodimus, Rodimus has a plan…. have Swerve bring rung there and then grab him and use him as live bait

TBF he does take most of the risk himself, quickly dropping Rung and then slamming the monster into the engines, and thent urning them on… merging it with the engines in a nice payoff to the quantum engines things.

Magnus finds the action reckless and distateful. Granted he finds not answering coms right away reckless and distasteful but he has a point: he dosen't care if Rodimus puts himself at risk, it's what a captain does and frankly he knew who he was shiping with. But putting his own man on the line was distasteful. Rodimus cuts him off as he's captain and should be respected

Yeah I like Rodders.. but like I said.. sometimes the guy makes entirely stupid selfihs deicsions and tries to act like no one has the right to cal lhim out on it. THe diffrence, once again, between him and say other characters doing this in RID.. is that Rodiums is SUPPOSED to be wrong, gets called out on it and eventually grows out of it. It's part of his character growth that he stops being THIS reckless and stupid. As we'll hopefully see.

Finally Ratchet cleans out Tailgate's T-Cog, as it turns out some scrap around it is why he got mode locked.. but Tailgate makes an announcemnt.. he wants to be a decipticon. Dun dun to be continued. And with that.. we enter a whole new world baby. But first…

The Soundtrack

Love Love Love (The Mountain Goats)

For the first time we encounter a song I know well and have heard many times ever since Morel Orel. This song is a masterpiece, sad, beautiful, and well done. It's only real flaw is I don't get where it really fits in this issue. Like at all. It's a good song but it dosen't qutie synch up with the issue. It does fit the comic as a whole really well though. Tonight We Fly (The Divine Comedy)

Another one that dosen't QUITE fit the issue as a whole, but does fit as end credits music, as it fits the comic well. It's also just.. beautiful. I can see why Roberts likes the divine comedy. This is some top shelf stuff with the melancholy vochals, nice backing sound.. thing, and bittersweet tone that just… fits Lost Light like a glove

Next Time: We begin a new arc at long last as Ratchet goes to a wintery research outpost where a mysterious virus has broken out.

(familiar)

Until then thanks for reading and consider joining my patreon, till all are one.

[teenwolfhot]

Cried enough tears isaac lahey imagine part 9

" I'm not done yet " katherine didn't like this blood wasn't supposed to be spilled this much " we leave now by chance they'll will comr after us especially....." screaming

" fine ..... so be it for now but we need to do something about the girl " katherine chuckled " she's a lost cause anyways she's a monster i can't wait for her so called firends to eventually deal with our kind " katherine getting in the car " plus the old man is dead three bullet wounds to the chest ..... we will come back i need to speak to our hostage anyways " kate was reluctant but dropped the rifle and got in the car

" his not responding..... gerard....gerard " braeden was shaking him " we have to go too much blood his losing " Derek lifting him up " get the car "

Everyone was very reluctant to move but someone life was on the line " and call melissa maybe she can help saving his life "

As everyone drove to beacon hills memorial isaac got a text from allison " guys is allison she found out about the mikaelson and its not good " looking up everyone was on edge " tell the girls meet at argent place and tell them to gear up "

------------------------

Meanwhile kol was thinking how to tell you that you're not ordinary anymore because your new and alot stronger " so what are we going to eat ?"Smiling at the young mikaelson " how about burger and fries i know a place " dropping a text to Elijah and klaus about their whereabouts

" so you going to tell me who's the brunette girl that held me hostage and why she was with my supposedly dead firend aunt " in the car kol rolled his eyes " all in due time for now you been through alot and i want you to enjoy freedom for now shall we " using the same old mikaelson charm

You know kol isn't telling you the whole truth what you want to know is why you were kidnapped since your human " soo what's this special place that you find kol " as his pulled up

" this place makes killer bugers and amazing icecream "

As kol went to seek a chair he got a text

( don't move we may have some complications her firends may have some information on us , keep an eye were heading up so stay alert even the salvatore are here )

Shoving the phone in his pocket he started to rumble " so you going to tell me who texted you " standing in front of him " it was my brother .... he wanted to meet you " a bit sketchy but by pass as headed into the cafe

----------------------------------

Elena didn't like that katherine got an innocent girl into her plans " stefan .... do we have a location?" Looking at her ex lover " we do bonnie tracked her down but we don't know how this girl is going to react especially when she's not alone " elena sits up " what do you mean not alone " damon walks in " oh brother do tell her...please tell her its driving me crazy "

" the mikaelson have her especially a raging physco kol mikaelson " damon smirked while drinking bourbon " what do they want with this girl " elena is confused about this situation " how does she fit in i don't understand... katherine wouldn't go through all this trouble for a girl .. even if she's human " the salvatore brothers were right katherine would bolt the moment she found out the mikaelson were in town

" unless its not the girl she's interested in what about her firends " which Jeremy got everyone thinking " i think its high time we visited this girl "

Matt and Jeremy fist pumped in the air " no no no .... no humans a big mistake one drop of your blood sends the mikaelson crazy "

" Elijah.... " damon looks at elena " no absolutely no elena we can't trust him like last time remember he tried to kill you..... no "

" damon im a vampire no im not a pathetic human like i use to be plus bonnie and caroline will be with me " caroline rolled her eyes " fine as if i had a choice " the blond walked out

" what is everyone problem?"

" its the mikaelson and a human elena " matt heading out to seek caroline

" gear up vampire slayer....I'll call Rick about the plan if we go we need backup i dont want a bloodbath understand " as stefan imforms everyone elena is frustrated about the while situation while damon looking at her " what is it elena do you in tend to find with this human.... by now she would what be food to katherine or dead ... even worst a vampire herself " elena wad thinking all those scenarios but katherine plans didn't add up

--------------------

Argent place

" we have a major problem " flinging the flies on the table " we have no chance against them noting " lydia sitting across from kira while malia didn't know what to say " what do you mean ?" The girls didn't know how to tell the guys what they've found so lydia fling opened the file

" everything we know about them is in this file and this " placing down stake " not any old eops stake Stiles.... white oak steak " silence came " did you guys seek (y/n) " stiles " shes missing again "

" what if she's not missing " liam piped up for the first time " what do you mean ?" Mason didn't like this " earlier this evening me and liam were with some of our firend and we surely saw (y/n) with someone " argent sighed" do you so happens to see who she was with Dunbar " derek eyeing the boy Liam looked at the file " him.... definitely him " pointing to kol mikaelson

"She looked happy " mason add " that's great one of our firends is with what a family that sucks life out of a person by draining their blood .... more so she was kidnapped and no shes what with the enemy " stiles voice was booming across the whole house

" right lets get reading in gonna call melissa check on gerard....meanwhile we needs to find something else other than white oak to kill this monsters " argent turning to the kitchen while braeden headed to call her firends on intel on mikaelson and derek headed to the computers

------------------------------

" so kol hows the little one then ?" Klaus starring out to the lawn while everyone was thinking of a plan

" sooo we have a newbie .... katherine intentions are unknown.... McCall his up to something i can feel it " klaus turning to his family " what will a bunch of school children do klaus " Rebekah don't underestimate them they've got more than humans "

The blond caught on " another supernatural in beacon hills ..... thats why katherine here to seek teenagers who's powers are unknown " kol laughed

" not unknown sister.... the McCall boy is a werewolf and we have a banshee including a family of hunters dating back to our human time " Rebekah didn't like that her family are fighting with a group of people whose powers are unknown

" sooo we found out about them ... use their weaknesses against them .... why we waiting for "

Suddenly walking out " sorry to intervene but .... i was wondering if i could get spare cloths and .... maybe food " standing there timidly " hi sorry to wake you im Elijah..." smiling at him " i belive you met my younger brother kol " you nodded

" how about we all go find food and get to know each other shall we " smiling Rebekah was a little judgey on you but she can sense you aren't going nowhere

Heading inside the house klaus got sense kol haven't told you everything klaus pulled kol aside and closed the door while freya saw and got you comfortable while kol and klaus talked

" does she know kol?" Looking at his brother " no she doesn't know .... especially she's blind to the supernatural world " sighing " i doubt her firends told her anything about this especially when i found her she barely....klaus this is more than just one girl .... its her firends especially when we've been at her house and her parents know what we look like " immediately klaus throws a vase " YOU DON'T KNOW THAT I'VE BEEN BUSY WITH PLANS .... PLANS TO NOT GET US KILLED OR WORST " freya step outside " sorry to intrude but ummmmm we all can hear you and the girl she asking why every time she looks at the sun it hurts "

Elijah sneaks in " her transition is finish she needs a daylight ring freya get her one " the girl nodded " ummmmm " freya paused " her name .... " kol rolled his eyes " (y/n) ( l/n) she likes the colour (y/f/c) and she's super intelligent " looking at you talking to finn unbeknownst to you about the shock when they tell you

----------------

Katherine and kate were fighting for two hours " THIS ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE.... WE NEED TO FIND THE GIRL .... SHE HAS MY BLOOD IN HER VAINS ... " katherine pulling out bullets while Kate was painfully healing

" fine we start at her school .... better yet maybe her house " katherine wants to find everything about you and why you matter "

[sternerstufftoys]

He Got Touchy

(inhales)

Oh man, I don't want to do this. Why am I doing this? No-one's making me do this. I'm still doing this. I said I was doing highlights from each year of G1 one week at a time, and you can't talk about 1984 without Optimus Prime. I already did Megatron, now it's time to get the big red bugger out of the way.

Because here's the thing. I don't much like Optimus Prime. No, that's not quite right, I like him well enough I suppose. I like him fine. But I don't care about him. Yes, that's more like it. I don't really care about Optimus Prime. He's not my space-dad, he's not the hero I ever admired as a toddler, he's a relic, a symbol of everything that came before.

Like I said in the Jazz review, I was born in 1984, so by the time I came to Transformers a few years later, Optimus was already dead. Rodimus Prime was in, and any sightings of Optimus felt more like flashbacks than anything else. Optimus was part of the generation that your older cousins might have owned, that the big kids that had grown out of Transformers would recognise. We didn't need them any more. We had Chromedome. And, uh, Wheelie.

Still, I remember being excited by the anticipation of watching The Return of Optimus Prime again. The second coming was a big deal, even if you don't remember the first coming. And then it came and went without leaving an impression, because the nicest thing you can say about it is that it's kind of a dull episode. But returning to it later...

Listen. Rodimus Prime earned his place as leader. It took most of a season, but he bloody well earned it. He doubted himself, he questioned the idea of leadership, he self-reflected until his arse was a highly-polished sheen. But. He. Earned. It. It's the closest that the G1 cartoon ever got to a story arc, with Rodimus finally overcoming his doubts by the penultimate story, The Burden Hardest To Bear. And then before the series could die a merciful death, along comes Optimus to undo everything because he's Optimus Prime and he made some kids cry in 1986 when he went all grey and stopped moving. In doing so Hasbro made it clear that they weren't going to ever commit to any real changes in the franchise, and that sooner or later everything will just reset back to normal. Back to boring.

And yet. When I opened up the packaging for this here KuBianBao MP10-V Convoy, a downscaled knockoff of Takara's own MP10 from a few years back, I have to admit to feeling a thrill of excitement on seeing it for the first time. Specifically, the luscious deep blue of his legs jostled a memory I didn't realise I had, of being round a friend's house as a child and jealously seeing their G1 Optimus Prime in person, with that same navy blue hue that somehow signified a certain level of quality well above anything I had at home.

Damn. I like it.

I'm not going to bang on about how good MP10 was or is. It's still to my mind the best version of the character that exists, and that's including the more recent cartoon-accurate MP44. MP10 looks like a truck, not a hastily-animated drawing of a truck. Here though it is scaled down to better exist next to main line transformers, with the loose scale guide that means that cars are deluxes, trucks voyagers, etc. Plus he doesn't tower over his mates in robot mode either.

There's only a few changes to the original MP10 tooling going on, most notably a metallic waist instead of the plastic one that the original had. You also get a bunch of extra accessories as well - some spare heads I could never get on, a jetpack in case you want him to recreate that time he had a jetpack, and a sword in case you want to... well, swords are cool I guess. God knows where the sword originally came from, but in solid die-cast metal it could double as a handy letter opener if you want to resume your correspondence from your fellow 19th century fops. Whatever its origins, KBB didn't think to give it the wrapping around the handle which it was clearly designed for, so it rattles around unconvincingly in old Optimus's hand. Still, taking the rubber grip off a cheap biro and gluing it on seems to have done the trick.

The trailer, and the rest of the accessories such as roller and a slightly sunburned Spike, were sold separately some time later, meaning that the eventual cost was not altogether far off what an actual MP10 would be. Still, you can't not have a trailer. The vestigial part of my brain that was programmed as a pre-toddler to enjoy putting things inside of other things still gets a tickle out of stashing deluxe cars inside. I'm a simple soul.

That'd all be fine, but let's stop ignoring that elephant in the room. This is a knockoff, and that troubles me. Not, I should add, that I'm especially troubled by the infringement of copyright, even the outright theft of physical moulding equipment owned by Takara. Okay, that's pretty low, but Takara and Hasbro are big enough, old enough and wealthy enough to take that hit. What bothers me more is that, being a knockoff, there's no way to tell how, where, or in what conditions it was manufactured.

It's a high-grade knockoff, using high grade materials, so skilled and trained workers had to have been used to put it together. But even so, while Hasbro and Takara would be publicly raked across the coals if they were ever to be exposed as using exploitative working practices in their factories (and risk their stock values) KBB have no such concerns. Were the workers paid adequately? Were their working hours reasonable? It's not like we'll ever be able to tell, as they'd never advertise their situation, having flagrantly broken the law to even produce something like this. And it'd be a mistake to assume that just because the product is good that the company's moral compass is equally good.

And it's not perfect either. Partly due to the downscaling process that makes certain parts small and fragile, and partly due to the use of materials which aren't quiteup to Hasbro / Takara's standards, there are flaws in MP10-V's makeup. One of the flaps that cover up the wheels on his legs broke off a while ago, and was far too fiddly to repair. The other one is hanging on there - just. Over time the parts don't seem to fit together as well as they did when it came out of the box, and some joints are getting looser with age, while others seem to seize up. So... do I regret it?

Sort of. I regret having supported sketchy knockoff merchants in China. But I don't regret the toy itself. Honestly, if Hasbro or Takara had just made this themselves they'd have had my money, but they didn't. Well, they sort of did with Earthrise Optimus Prime, and the similarities at a glance make it very likely that the existence of MP10-V was a consideration in its creation. And owning MP10-V makes it impossible to ignore the scrunched-up torso proportions that ER Prime has, as well as the disappointingly small trailer that can't fit a deluxe car inside properly. So no, I'll keep my sketchy knockoff for a good long while yet. It's only Optimus Prime after all. I was never that much of a fan.

[definealetheia]

Note to self when I feel like I'm going insane (unfinished)

STOP OVERTHINKING!

Sit back, relax, and take deep breaths.

Listen to chakra tune up meditation music. Unblock your chakras and let the energy flow through your body.

Don't intentionally block your heart chakra. Stop suppressing your feelings, whether it is good or bad. You have to deal with them and heal your wounds. The more you suppress your feelings, the longer your agony will get.

Do you still have doubts about the connection?

Remember that you have already let go of the label Twin Flame. The question whether he is your Divine Masculine or not is not important anymore. The Universe may or may not give you the answer after all. BUT you can honor what you feel is true. You love him. This is your truth. You don't need the Universe to tell you that.

It is okay to doubt the connection sometimes. It is normal to experience doubts and fears in this journey. It is scary and full of uncertainties.

I don't get why other twins refer to someone they meet as "catalyst" who will activate your awakening and you believed as your twin but ended up as otherwise. Same logic goes for false twin. I don't get it. I don't think there is a false twin or a catalyst. That person is either your twin or not. Why would you need a catalyst to activate you? Your twin can do that himself. It doesn't make sense to me. People who started their spiritual journey even before they met their twin were awakened due to several possible reasons. May be because of traumatic experiences or they come from a spiritual background. As for those who were not awakened until they met their twin, I don't understand why the person who activated them ends up only as a catalyst. What for? You will only recognize that person as a catalyst once you meet your true twin. And then it would be like you're restarting your twin flame journey with your true twin! Wth.

Remember the reasons and synchonicities that lead you to believe he is your twin.

He activated my spiritual awakening.

It was August 29, 2018. I met my twin online right after I graduated from grad school. I finished another milestone in my life. I finished a job contact and ready to start a new life. I was optimistic about the future. I've been single for years and thought it would be nice a start a new one. But I didn't want to start a relationship just for the heck of it. I wanted to find the one. I've been saying this to the Universe for a quite some time. I might have manifested it when I met your twin without knowing it.

I've been suffering from MDD and GAD for years. I was in medication and went in and out of hospitals after every suicide attempt. For a long time I was suffering from an existential crisis. I did not know who I am or why I am alive. I did not have dreams of my own and was just living to fulfill the expectations of my family and society. I did not have any goals nor did I have reasons or motivations to pursue anything except meeting others' expectations of me. I needed to finish school and establish a good career, help my parents, and then have my own family. As good as those things were, I did not have the right motivation to do that.

I have always felt I don't belong anywhere. I was bullied in school and even at work. It made my depression even worse. Everywhere I go, terrible things always end up happening. I always felt uncomfortable, unsafe, and being wronged by people. I felt unlucky and miserable all the time. Everytime I try to turn my life around and gain a little hope, terrible things happen and that little hope I had get taken away from me.

I was never religious nor spiritual. Having a master's degree in Philosophy, I have an extensive experience on critical thinking and being skeptical. I don't label myself as agnostic. In fact, when it comes to my spirituality, I refrained from associating myself from any religious group or any spiritual belief. However, during one Philosophy class where we talked about religion where some of my classmates studied in Catholic seminaries, I remember sharing that I don't believe in (Christian conception) God but I do believe that there is someone or something, maybe it be metaphysical, divine, or a force that governs everything in the Universe.

I have always had the affinity to look at the sunset and the night sky. I has been part of my routine. My childhood dream was to became an astronaut or astronomer. But life happened. Part of my routine was talking to the Universe while watching the night sky. Whenever I feel suicidal I always tell them that I don't belong down here. I want to be among the stars. That's where I feel I belong, not here. I talk to the stars as often as I can. They saw me cry and all. They let me know they are listening by showing me shooting stars. I even saw asteroid Juno and other comets during one of my nightly routine. It always feels magical when they show me how beautiful the Universe is.

Recognizing the soul connection

I have been interested in Japanese culture and martial arts. I've been practicing a japanese sword martial arts since January 2017. Since I wanted to learn the language, I installed a language exchange application on my phone and that's where I met him. To be honest, I was open to the thought of possibly meeting someone online but I did not realize that I would actually meet someone like him. I met men who were more interested in flirting with me than learning another language. That's very common online. But I was not interested in them but when I met my twin, I did not know that from then on, my life will turn bat shit crazy. I was just following ramdom people on the app but I also made sure they did not look sketchy or suspicious. He followed me back. He suddenly commented on a picture I posted of me and my cat and then he sent me a private message. My first impression of him is he was very flirty and straithforward with giving compliments, unlike most Japanese I talked to who were polite and unsure of themselves. When I looked at his picture, I immediately felt something different about him especially when I looked at his eyes. But I couldn't put my finger on it. I never felt anything like it before. I felt like I knew him. There was a sense of familiarity and comfortabilitily. We started talking on Line, sent audio messages, and even talked on video call for hours. He send messages when he wakes up, goes to work, while working, coming home, and before sleeping. It like was a honeymoon phase of a relationship. I told myself it was too good to be true.

I needed to know more about him so I asked him if he was single. He wasn't. I felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown at me. He was still flirty and acting like there's more to us than acquaintances. But because of that reality check, I kept asking myself where I stand. Sometimes he treats me like a girlfriend all then all of a sudden he acts like a stranger. When the conversation gets hot and he becomes more flirty than normal that's where I remind him that he has a gf and I don't want to be in a third party. He told me they haven't talked for a while and he felt lost. I felt worse. I felt like he was just bored and wants to use me to fill in the void. Since I knew I was falling inlove, I made it clear to him that if he wants to continue talking to me like we are in a relationship, then I want to be only one. There should be no other woman. He couldn't give me an answer. He always dodged the question to the point that I get frustrated and just drop it. Add the language barrier to the mix. During one of our arguments, I kept asking him how he really felt about me and his answer was that he wanted to meet. I did not expect that answer. Even if I agreed to that, I reminded him that he has gf and he just told me they hadn't talked.

When he came back to Japan from one of work trips, that's when things went downhill. He used to give me updates on where he was or what he doings but that time I did tell me he already came back. His messages became short. Sometimes just one word. It's obvious he didn't want to be bothered or he just didn't want to talk to me. There were even sarcastic messages. It was my cue to leave him be.

We stared with talking to each other all day everyday until it became more and more seldom. There were days when he wouldn't talk. Then a sudden message after days of silence. I did not chase him or beg him to talk to me. But I once told him how I sad was that he changed. I was crying a lot. My heart got broken so many times. October 2018 came and after over a month of the honeymoon phase, he finally ghosted me.

Kundalini awakening and rising

I became more and more depressed and desperate for answers. I kept asking the Universe: Why did this happen? What was the point? I closed myself off for years and stopped dating after experiencing traumatic relationships. Right when I finally decided to take a risk, open my heart, and love again, this happened to me? I did not understand the point of it all. Letting another person in and then he just breaks my heart? This was the last chance I gave myself to love and this shit happened. Before I met him, I told myself that if I ever meet someone and fall in love, it will be the last time. I want to me the one. I am tired of being hurt so many times.

I was so confused. I was hurt, angry, and frustrated. Wanting to find the answers, I started watching tarot readings on Youtube. I never believed in Astrology. I was too skeptical for that. But I watched hundreds of readings out of desperation to find the answers. I got mixed result on the readings. There were times that the readings resonated so much that my mind was blown so many times. But there were others that just made me more confused and paranoid. The best takeaway from those readings is that divine timing is at work. I have to trust in the Universe and give them space to work things out. I can't force things to happen. The only thing I can do is set healthy boundaries and don't let anyone treat me like a doormat.

I spent the next few weeks just watching readings, crying at night, and trying to cope with the pain. The readings said that there will be communication and it did happen. By the time happened, I literally said "this shit is real." I was surprised that he messaged me and asked how I was. But after the inital shock, I was overcome by anger and hurt. He wanted communication just when I was starting to gain balance and not think of him that much. I was torn between telling him off and just accept that he is back. I replied 2-3 days later telling him I'm doing good.

The communication started again but I was seldom. He called me on 11/11 but I couldn't answer. He just randomly sends a message after a few days of silence and or calls all of a sudden and then disappear again. So flakey! I got fed up and set my foot down. I asked him why he wants call or talk to me. He said he always wanted to call and enjoys being with me. I called out his BS. I reminded him that he stopped talking to me. He can't just come in and out of life as he pleases. He should stop playing mind games with me. He just said to me "Oh don't say that 😭." I told him I deserve an explanation and tell me why he disappeared. He said he did not disappear. I told him it hurts me that he's not being honest with me. He said he was being honest. See the pattern here? I asked him again what happened and he just answered "I don't remember." That was it. I told him I'm a very patient person (I'm a fucking Taurus okay) but he pushed me too far. I won't ask anymore. It's obvious he didn't wanna answer. I'm done.

I was livid. I'm done dealing with a player and emotionally unvailable jackass. That's the start of our separation. It was 11/12.

I spent the rest of November dealing with rollercoaster of emotions. One moment I'm angry, and them I'm in pain, and then lonely ect. It was a torture. There were times when I went into relapse. I thought I have officially gone insane. I just wanted to die.

The first time I came across the term twin flame was through watching tarot readings. I never heard of the time before even when I met my twin. I wasn't interested in learning more about it at first. All I know was that it was different from soulmates and it was rare. I have never thought of myself as special (just different) so I did not think I needed to know about it. But curiosity got the better of me and finally decided to do some research. Lo and behold, I resonated with most of the signs that were listed. The things that happened to me made more sense now. But that was not enough to convince me.

More and more meditation music started appearing on my youtube suggestions. It was December when I finally decided to try a guided meditation. It's my first entry. I felt the urge to do it more and more often until I came across a meditation to awaken my spirit. Before this entire journey I would never think of trying it but since I have been activated, might as well continue on improving myself. I played the music when looking at the sunset. When I came to opening the third eye, I started seeing particles in mid air. They look specks of light or little transparent bubbles floating around. As weeks went by I seem them clearer. I don't even have to concentrate or be in meditative state to see them. I see another invisible layer in my environment as well. I see rain or drizzle even if it's not really raining. I also see "rain" and particles even indoors now. As long as there is light. I tune up my chakra almost everyday. I don't feel right when I don't meditate in a few days.

10/13/2019 ~ 2:41 PM (this has been saved in my Drafts since Jan/Feb -- I'm not sure anymore)

[bakezart]

For my second printing workshop I first took view finders again and with graphite sketched out portions of the work, trying to implement different ways of using the graphite in order to get various textures. I accomplished this by using different grips, angles and harshnesses.

We then took perspex sheets and printing paint and made and found various materials to print with. My favourites to use ended up being a ball of yarn to make swirls, crumpled up paper of different sizes and the paint roller. The original graphite sketches I made served as inspiration.

I took a selection of black and beige paper to make my prints with to make a good variation of prints with different effects.

Once we were done making our prints, we started drawing into them. I took an illustrative approach, deciding to make the shapes I saw within my prints into objects, scenes and people.

After having drawn into my sketches, it was then that I cut up my prints, taking objects I'd drawn and also any prints left over from my negatives and undrawn on parts. I decided not to draw on my negative prints, as that left room for adjusts and more creative flow. I used a craft knife in order to cut things out so that I wouldn't ruin the image to get out small portions of images, leaving me with lots to work with.

These are three of my pieces at the end of the session. I very much liked the colour theme running through this, the black, beige, magenta and white pull a very continuous piece. I don't feel that at this point, these are all finished pieces bar my top most one. The top one presents a clear scene, with good contrasts and interesting elements like the eyes among the night sky. This was then something I wanted to add in to my other pieces for continuity.

I feel these pieces are now more successful. I added in more contrast where I felt it was needed, adding more white highlights and black lines, some sketchy and in oil pastels for some textural differents and some of my black lines in pen for a very succinct line, some white marks in chalk so it would be easily blended. I think for a first attempt at this style this is effective at both being continuous whilst also having an element of creepiness throughout. I would like to play more into such a surrealist style, the horror elements make me feel that my work evokes some emotion in my audience, and I would like that to be more evident.

[shellsweet]

Hi there Shellsweet! Can you please make a quick tutorial about that nice 4 different color effect that you using? I don't wanna forget it and would be good if I would have some picture about the method so I could save it and could try it out ^^

Absolutely! Forgive me if this might be hard to follow! I’ve never done tutorials, so if you have any questions to clear up anything, don’t be afraid to ask!I use Easy Paint Tool SAI, so if you use a different program some of these tools are probably there! And if you know which ones I’m talking about, this should work for those programs as well!Okay, so this is something I’ve seen multiple artists do to color their digital drawings, and after messing around with it myself, I tend to use it a lot as a quick way to add more depth of color into a sketch or even on my finished pieces.

Get a sketch going, and it’s entirely up to you whether you want your drawing to be loose and sketchy or clean. (You don’t even have to make it a sketch, you can use clean line art for this as well! There’s honestly no right way in doing this.)

—–After that, you’re going to want to add your basic colors, whatever your character’s normal colors are, go for that and don’t worry about the shading just yet.(Quick tip: You can fill the basic colors really fast by selecting the area outside of the drawing, and then click on the invert selection button (The little pocket purse icon). That will select the entire drawing in one click. This only works if your lines are clean for the tool to work more precisely.)

—–Then, you copy the basic colors into another layer, make sure the opacity lock is selected on this layer, (So you don’t have to worry about going outside of the desired space) and then you add your own custom gradient of colors. Use whatever you’d like! This is a great way to learn which colors work best with each other so don’t be afraid to try some weird ones out!

(To start you off, think of the sky! There are lots are lots of incredible colors to work with on that.)

Then lower the opacity!

Then all you have to do is make sure that layer is above the layer with the basic colors, and lower the opacity to let the basic colors bleed through the gradient that you created.——Sometimes I’ll add one more layer just to top top it off, and choose a very light color (in this case blue and yellow) and select the drawing once more and color over the top of the drawing and select ‘addition’ to make the colors bright and blend that in a bit so that it’s not overly too bright for the drawing. I even lower the opacity on that layer if it’s needed.

(This is after lowering the opacity on the layer with the additional high lights, or blended out to make it less bright.)—–But there ya go! You can leave it like this if you want, but to make it feel more finished, I’ll sometimes add a layer for additional shading, and use dark blues, reds and purples. (It all depends on whether the gradient you choose has warm or cool colors. Here’s an example below to show you what I mean!)

So there! Now you guys know the basics of my coloring that goes into most of my drawings! You’re more than welcome to try it out for yourself! Have fun!

[sweetsinbabyart]

I made this presentation for school but it’s not a bad tutorial, so I figured I’d post it. I don’t have ALL the info in the slides since this is an oral communications presentation, so some things might seem a little abrupt just looking at the slides. I tried to add uncovered info in the captions, so click through the slideshow to see those. The text limit didn’t let me cover everything, though.

All art used in this presentation is mine.

I have to present this in 5 minutes or less or I get points off RIP me. Also, although this was drawn digitally, the tutorial is meant for a classroom full of students using pencils, so it really works with both traditional and digital media.