#monika is so pretty. like. she is actually so beautiful and i love drawing her

[steakout-05]

new sketchbook who this

what it says in the tin, got a new sketchbook today :) it's thicker and rougher paper than what i usually use which is slightly annoying because it tends to smudge a lot more and has a rougher look, but it's still good paper and i find it nice to draw on!!

every so often i fall back into my DDLC phase and start rewatching a bunch of analysis videos on the characters. they're like my comfort background noise to listen to. Monika's one of my favourite characters and i find her fun to draw!!

(ignore the sudden lighting change idk why that happened)

Splatoon was, like, a childhood hyperfixation of mine, mainly because the character designs and the music go hard. like, they literally please the autism so much, it's like a stim just looking at the characters and listening to the soundtrack!!! the design of the Inkling girl was always my favourite as a kid because look at her! she's so cool looking!! i love all the colours and i love the texture of the characters' hair and their ears literally make me so happy and they are SO fun to draw. i would chew on an octoling's hair like a dog toy if i could it looks so chewable

[its-regretti]

Book Review - Crafted from the ashes of roses

Author: Juliet Bellerose

The premise is very enticing, especially for those on BookTok, we're drawn in by the idea of a sensual CNC romance with the god Loki, the forward even has warnings for BDSM. These draw the reader in with promises that are unfortunately never really given.

The most BDSM in this book is a single scene of hands being tied. Cool... beans...

Several times it feels like the book started off as a fanfic, especially as this Loki has the dark hair and obsessions with green that we've come to expect from the Marvel Loki.

Honestly if it were just a fanfic I would have rated it higher because then instead of trying to empathise with a wholly unlikable female main character, these sorts of things are usually written with YOU as the MC.

That being said, at NO POINT do we receive a physical description of the MC, all I can tell you about Monika Hagen is that she is from Svalbard, is physically fit enough to do extreme sports and has hair long enough to braid. Don't know her eye colour, her hair colour, or even her skin colour. Height? Dunno. Weight? Who fuckin' knows!

This would be far less egregious when you are the MC, but having a character never receive a description outside of that her pussy hairs are neat and trimmed a month into her captivity or the odd indication of a physical trait like another character braiding her hair, or Loki appreciating her physicality makes it very hard to picture anything.

The two handmaidens that serve Monika receive more description than she does. Besides Loki the only other character that receives a description is Odin. We get a vague idea of the sizes or hairstyles of other characters but they are left entirely up to your imagination otherwise.

Which is a shame considering how much effort is put into the descriptions of locations like the castle, and Asgard are all painted with a level of detail that tell you the impossibility of god built design. The scale, size and detail in it is wonderful.

It is just such a shame that same love isn't given to the characters.

The book is also RIDDLED with spelling and gramatical errors. Which is funny considering the afterword contains a thanks for someone beta reading and editing the book. And its even worse when the spelling of the word is correct, but it is just the WRONG word.

"His cloak swirled around his teeth"

Pretty sure that would have been feet not teeth. But I spent a good moment trying to picture what they meant by that phrase. But then later, another correctly spelled but wrong word phrase comes along and I start to realize that someone has just thrown the script into auto-correct and not checked if it is actually correct.

It is sad because the premise and setting are so beautiful but we get this mess of a fiction that feels like a hastily transformed fanfic. Loki has abilities and enthusiasm in the bedroom but we get sex that is samey and so often just feels like Loki transforming into other francise sexymen - at one point I SWEAR he turns into Venom.

But being this isn't a Marvel fic it's supposed to be one of the MC's book love interests from her horny novels. These also don't get any physical descriptions outside of the abilities they use. So buggered if I know what these tumblr sexymen from mysterious book land look like.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, though the whole time I had to pause to wrap my head around what was trying to be conveyed which doesn't help the reader stay emersed.

I would say give it a read if you are patient, or really need to fill your Loki in a straight relationship hole. But I'm sure there are better options for that void on AO3....

I don't write book reviews, so the fact that I HAD to write one shows how frustrated I was reading it. I will have to read the next one - and there will be a next one, the book ends on a cliffhanger - and hope that the author and their respective editor have grown more by the time it is here.

★★★☆☆

Ranking: 3/5

[mrpenguinpants]

This isn’t important at all but because of social distancing I have nowhere else to vent my feelings about this game too and my friends have all blocked me.

Man, you ever see someone so beautiful that you know they are going to overrun your life because not to be dramatic, but I will lay my fucking life down for Seox

Like fucking, move over Gilgamesh. I have not touched FGO or BSDTOL because I’ve just been playing gbf 24/7. Literally, its 5am when I’m typing this (mostly because of the new drang and strum event which I will get to later in this essay) 

Btw I have this weird auto-correct on, idk how to turn it off or why it only fixes some words, so if names get mixed up that’s why 

I started this game because I saw Belial being posted 84 times on my twitter and I’m thinking, who is this man and why is he on my dash so many times. Turns out he’s from gbf. like okay seems interesting. turns out it a mobile game. well, buddy lemme level with you I don't have any more phone storage so ripp but oh shit wait I can play this mobile game on my browser??? I've been trying to get FGO on my computer for 84 years (I haven't actually I'm too lazy) okay now I am very very intrigued because playing a mobile game on my browser is apparently a big deal to me

okay play the tutorial seems like an okay game, kinda boring I think after a while but oh wait

they got me where it hurts

the gambling addiction 

and when you first start you get free 10 draws every day for maybe a week? and its like fuckinggg??? my first ssr was melleau (I will treasure her forever) so I was pretty much sold 

I just wanted to peek into the lore then fucking tripped on my ass and fell into the rabbit hole that is lucilius and sandalphon because ummmm sandy is my bread and butter and I hate the fact I didn't get his summer version. literally, I started Feb 25 this year just I was right before the 6th anniversary and the GOD DAMN FUCKING SCRATCHER BULLSHIT but my gacha luck is fucking god tier in that game but my e rank luck sucks all the life out of it so I have a pretty stacked team (let’s ignore the fact that I could have gotten grimnir 2 times on the scratcher but nope more fucking soul berries yay...though I shouldn’t be complaining too much because it gave me cain, Lucio, monika, and someone else?? I don’t remember) but did sandy wanna come home? no of course not

though I did get percival summer and halluel and malluel and they can do 2M dmg if the boss your facing is at max health with one ability/skill. Basically, I’ve got a pretty stacked team for all elements but weapons are awful because I may be Lvl 100+ but I'm on chapter fucking 9 because I accidentally made an oops and got the 1hr Exp boost and did slime search with my nuke team over and over again. Also I was super sad I couldn’t get Heles summer event character either cause she’s a god tier okie dokie in my heart. I also love Zeta and Beatrix like fuck dude. I have both of them and their white day scenes are so cute, esp Bea. Side note, I would smash Esser/Tien so hard into the ground because holy fuck my heart cannot take this abuse?? She’s also such a sweetheart and I basically love everyone in this game 

But yeah, seox, I love him and I am so upset that when I started, it was during the unite and fight event and I could have gotten his revenant weapon and nope I fucking went for niyon and seite and I didn’t realize that when I fully upgrade the weapons I get the eternal and even then. i literally fucking switched draw boxes because I didn't understand how uncapping worked so I have a 2 star siete weapon sword thing and a 2 star harp and I wanna kms basically because I could have gone for the six ruin fist to get seox or the fucking dagger because oh my god I love quatre/feower??? I played the seeds of redemption and thought he was low-key kind of a prick but NO I UNDERSTAND NOW HE IS A PRECIOUS CHILD AND I WILL ALSO LAY MY LIFE FOR HIM. Dude is so pretty its unfair and my fugly ass. i looked like the joker from the Animated batman cartoons (you fucking know the one) But its okay, at least I went for two wind eternals and I like pretty much everyone except funf. Precious child and everything but I hate her voice. Also vryn, like best lizard but a fucking gremlin that I wish I could mute

this entire game is basically me understanding that I really like sweetheart tsunderes and self-empowered girls and that I really enjoy guys that are all gay to some fucking dumbass bastard, hate life, and angsty 24/7 and full of anger but that's okay because I am stuck in reality and self aware

but is that going to stop me? probably not

Also can i just go on an entire different subject and talk about lancelot because FGO did him wronggggggg. I love him. So much. Like holy shit dude im so happy him and Percy got into gbf versus 

Also when I was doing lucio’s fate episode I love him but god damn i wanted to skip that fate episode. homeboy comes out with a fucking spotlight on him and starts spitting bullshit like he's god damn Shakespeare 

Also, I really like Sandalphon with Lyria and Drang with Strum platonically cause its some major wholesome shit. The new event for Drang and Strum is some pure stuff and I’m speedrunning the event so I can get all the materials and etc but holy shit do people kill the event raids so fast??? i still have ptsd trying to solo nehan tho granted drang and strum aren’t that hard to beat. Also playable nehan when??? Mugen is great and all and I have him but if it was nehan instead that means I could have gotten nehan AND I WANT THAT TRADE. Mugen goes super saiyan and he’s an absolute unit so it’s alright but i love nehan and fuck dude give me seeds of redemption part 2 please

In conclusion, my love for seox has turned violent but I will be the first to say that when he get’s his mask taken from siero it is not okie dokie for my heart when he acts surprised 

[mazojo]

Let’s Play

Sooo if you saw some of my previous posts, you know I've kinda gotten into webtoons and I binge-read another one called Let’s Play and I Looveeee. I will do a spoiler-ish review as of the chapters that have come out so far and and all the images and stuff included are from Mongie, the author of this baby.

Plot

So the plot basically revolves around Sam, who works for her fathers company coding and working on programming but her true passion is creating video games, more specially indie games. She creates this game called Ruminate and its all fine and dandy until super famous youtube Marshall Law plays it and jokingly says it kinda sucks so people and trolls go leave hate on her account so her developer score in this indie publishing website is almost 0.

Sam is disappointed nay this turn of events and tries contacting the company to help her score as its flawed but unfortunately nothing happens. Then we find out super Marshall Law is moving next door to Sam and she flops. He then later realizes how he messed up and as they start becoming friends (slowly but surely!) he is fixed on making it up to her becouse he is a cinnamon roll. There are also other characters involved, from Sam’s gaming crew which is hilarious, to her super hot and sexual tension boss, Charles who is trying to help her grow as a person and as a worker and we also have Lincoln which kinda has a crush in Sam and they’ve been friends for quite a while as Sam helped him overcome his dads death. 

The story is funny and filled with great moments, treating also mental health topics and the struggles of Sam discovering she may or may not have feelings for the hotties mentioned above ^^.

Characters

As I did with my Kiznaivers and I Love Yoo reviews, ill list the characters from my favourite to my least (I love them all so it sounds so bad to say the least!) including a song that reminds me of them. I won't list them all as their are many as you can see in the picture above but definitely the main ones <33

Sam

Angels - Owl City

Sam. is. such. a. mood. Like honestly, if you ever wish to know me and who I am as a person and how I work, read this and I am the literal reincarnation of Sam loll. She is very nerdy and suffers from anxiety, sometimes leading her to have asthma attacks. She really cares about those close to her and although she is quite shy and introverted, doesn't doubt the chance to jump in when someone she cares about is in danger. I have no words to describe her but I think I’ve found my long lost drawing form character.

Marshall

Lucky - Britney Spears

Yes, I choose a Britney Spears song for him, is it amazing? Y e s, do I regret it? N o p e. Marshall is just adorableeee. Like he is the literal reincarnation of a puppy and he is much more complex than what it seems? Yeah he’s got this bubbly exterior to himself but deep down he is dealing with depression and anxiety but hides it from anyone, to the point of literally breaking down. He is trying his best at making everyone happy and likes video games and ahhhh ??? I Stan Marshall.

Lincoln

Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi

Lincoln the embodiment of the dad friend, there I said it. He has such a pure soul and heart and protective aura around those he loves and he is so soft??? He struggled with his dads death and takes care of his brother (which makes a part of the guild Sam is with). He is a little oblivious but other than that Link must be protected at all cost and hopefully finds happiness at the end of the comic becouse if he doesn't I will riot.

Charles

Rude - MAGIC!

Charles is your typical cold but sexy filled with sexual tension moments boss character. He is Sam’s boss and what I love most about Charles is how he wants others to succeed, pushing them their limits to reach their full potential, something I think its quite admirable. Honestly in comparison to the other two boys I haven't connected much with Charles but I still really like his character and hopefully we are able to see more of him in the future!

Monika

Power - Little Mix

The image pretty much describes Monika lol. I decided to include her becouse although she is kindaaaa the antagonist, I feel like she isn't really that bad and honestly, her character is quite compelling. She is Marshall’s girlfriend and a beauty guru, so half of the time she talks about makeup-is things I quite honestly dont understand lolll. However she really cares about those near her and (cues alpha female aura) does her best to protect Marshall becouse she really does likes him, but due to the fame and their worlds they both manage, it makes things complicated at times. I hope she doesn't turn evil or something like that becouse I truly think she is good (or at least up till now) and hopefully she gets a happy ending too ~.

Ships

Sam x Marshall 

This was actually so hard to choose! Because I honestly ship Sam with Lincoln just as much but there’s just something about this couple that I just gahhh! They have this chemistry working over them and they complement each other so well too! Like Sam is very perceptive and a good listener while Marshall just fakes a smile every time and I believe she will be the one to notice something is wrong first <33 

Sam x Lincoln

AHhHHH I love Link so much?? And how he protects Sam and cares about her is so freaking adorable? I think their mutual support and understanding is what makes it one of the best and Sam clearly has some mixed feelings about him that she repressed for a while in order not to tarnish their friendship but now she knows that he likes her so ??? I hope Link and Sam end happy because they both have to be p r o t e c t e d.

Sam x Charles

As I mentioned before, I don't think I can compare Marshall and Link’s relationship to the one with Charles considering they have had more time together, I believe in the next chapters we will get to see their relationship increase. He is very protective and does whats best for Sam and they have this tension around them which gets Sam all flustered and its really cute. Its not my main ship but I’ll wait and see how things progress in the future.

Monika x Marshall

Okay so this is not one of the main ships and people often don't like this couple but I thought it was important to mention! As I said before, I think Monika is quite a complex character and they are both dealing with their own worlds and problems which may make it hard for the relationship to work and not seem toxic. Still, they both care deeply about the other and I know in the end, they would want to see the other happy soooo we’ll see how it ends ^^

Final Thoughts

I absolutely adoree this Webtoon! I’ll try to review the chapters as they go out like I love yoo giving my impressions and what nots. Here are some theories that I think may happen in future chapters too;

- I don't think I mentioned it but Marshall is really good at drawing and its kinda his passion but he hides it from everyone due to fearing failure. I think Sam in one way or another will encourage him to pursue his dream eventually drawing them closer, and as she needs an artist to help her with her next game, I am guessing Marshall will be perfect for that spot :333

- Charles will definitely appear more I think, most of the “romantic” moments have been with Link followed by Marshall leaving the Charles Stans in need of their baby <33

- I think Angela (one of Sam’s guild member and friend) likes Link?? I didn't talk about her much but in one of the latest chapters she gets flustered by him and I am not really sure? I'll definitely be on the look for that.

[nofomoartworld]

Bad at Sports Sunday Comics with Tara Booth

By Krystal DiFronzo

Tara Booth’s work is an assertive clash of color that depicts the most humbling and sticky situations. Some relatable moments include trying to pee while wearing a romper, cutting bangs into near oblivion, and stoned Amazon shopping (with the resulting surprise package hangover). My first introduction to Booth’s comics were through her Tumblr back in the golden age of cartoonists using that platform. Since then she’s had her work published by kuš! and Colorama. She regularly posts comics and in progress work on her Instagram @tarabooth. 

Krystal DiFronzo: The first thing I noticed about your comics is the density of information, there’s so much color and pattern all piled on top of each other! Also you use gouache like a painter, not like a cartoonist coloring between lines. The ghost layers of paint create this constant atmospheric movement. The reader is made aware of the hand and medium, unlike traditional pen and ink comics. Do you have a background in painting prior to your comics? If so, why the transition to comics or are they all part of a single practice?

Tara Booth: I studied painting and graduated with a BFA at Tyler School of Art. I used to work on big 4×5 foot canvases that I built, stretched, gessoed, and sanded over and over. This time-consuming preparation, combined with the preciousness of the material gradually grated on me. I appreciate the importance of these processes and I’m happy to have access to this skill set, but it wasn’t something that I ever wanted to include in my everyday art practice (due to my extreme and often debilitating impulsivity). Producing work in art school wasn’t a problem for me, but I wasn’t a great student. It became increasingly difficult to connect to ideas being taught in my painting and art theory classes, which were focused more on abstraction and conceptualism than direct representation or narrative, which is where my interest had always been. The language and concepts we studied felt really inaccessible and detached from my experiences as a highly-dramatic, drunk 21-year-old. I started to focus more on folk art, Lowbrow, and self-taught artists. I began reading more comics, and decided I wanted to make paintings that were direct, accessible, and inexpensive to produce—so I transitioned to working on paper with gouache, with the ambition of eventually making my own comics.

KD: Your comics also have a lot of unusual formatting choices that affect how you read it. They don’t have any formal paneling or gutters, they flow across the page almost like an animation or a Muybridge study. You can read the comic either left to right or as a single-paged composition. They are also predominantly dialogue-less other than their titles. What made you come to these decisions? What’s your planning process like?

TB: The unusual formatting in my comics isn’t something that I had planned. For the longest time I felt really stunted by my background in traditional painting. I bought a bunch of comics, and attempted  to mirror the techniques I saw, but working in panels always felt totally awkward. I had little experience with Photoshop, storytelling, principles of design… teaching myself how to make a comic felt like an uphill battle. Five years after graduation, I still hadn’t produced anything solid. I had kind of given up, and finally decided that making a shitty comic was better than not making anything at all—that I should worry less about what I think a comic is supposed to look like, and more on painting within the realm of my own abilities. Once I threw all of my preconceived notions out the window and forced myself to get to work, I actually started to get recognition for what I was doing rather quickly. Embracing some of my naivety and focusing on the painterly qualities in my work has compensated for whatever technical obstacles stood in my way. I still struggle with using text in my work. Until I’m more comfortable with my writing, I’m relying symbols, visual cues, facial expressions, and body language to tell my stories.

I like that you mention Muybridge studies, I look at them all the time. They’re one of my main influences. I love them!

KD: It’s a common trope of comics or animation that characters wear the same outfit. Like opening up a closet to rows of one identical dress. Your stand-in wears such incredible outfits in every comic, they almost become characters themselves. Do you have an interest in design? (Please make Fantomah leggings a reality.)

TB: Ha! I would love to work in textile design. In a failed attempt to simplify my life, I’ve ended up with a pretty boring wardrobe. I like to use my little avatar as a paper doll, dressing her up in outfits that I wish I owned myself. (Does anyone want to offer me a job?) I also use the clothing as a way to explore difference ways of drawing. To find different ways to use line, play around with abstraction and incorporate more surreal subject matter. I spend so much time working on this one body of work, I haven’t been prioritizing stylistic experimentation. It’s nice to have tiny t-shirt shaped opportunities to paint in ways that might feel separate from my comics practice. 

KD: I’m emailing you while you’re at Printed Matter’s LA Book Fair, what was the show like for you? Could you talk about your new book with Colorama? 

TB: The Art Book Fair was great! Like plenty of other artists I have a lot of anxiety in social situations, so it was stressful for me, but wow—so much of that melted away as the fair went on. It felt amazing to be surrounded by so many talented people, beautiful books, and all of the supporters who make this stuff possible. I was able to spy on a lot of my instragam art crushes. I loved watching how excited people were to buy my work. I got to see them laugh as they flipped through my prints, and I had some fun conversations. A few people even brought me gifts! But the most important and exciting part of the Art Book Fair was finally meeting my publisher, Johanna! She runs Colorama, a publishing house in Berlin. We’ve been communicating through email for months now, and it felt like the best blind date ever. The book she published for me, “D.U.I.I”.  is the riso printed story of one of the most awful experiences I’ve had. It was also one of the most beneficial things that has ever happened to me. I got a DUII in February 2016. I’m an alcoholic, and this was the culmination of years of increasingly toxic behavior.  Court ordered sobriety seems to be the motivation that I needed to change. I’m incredibly thankful that I didn’t hurt anyone. It’s a humiliating story to tell, but I felt a compulsion to draw it all out. I feel so lucky that Colorama decided to work on this project with me. It’s very different from my more popular, colorful work. I’m still dealing with the stressful and expensive results of that experience. Making the book was a huge part of the process of working through it. I tried to lighten it up a bit and make it silly—but yeah, its all true. 

KD: Your work is true to life but veers into the surreal. It feels like it’s in the same vein as work by Julie Doucet, Gabrielle Bell, or Dori Seda. Artists who told confessional stories of humiliation and embarrassment but added fantastical elements for comedic or therapeutic effect. What about writing semi-autobiographical work interests you? Do you see yourself leaning more towards fiction or towards memoir?

TB: I’ve always been drawn to autobiographies, in comics and in literature. I really admire a lot of the artists you mention, and confessional work like theirs is part of what inspired me to make comics to begin with. For years I’ve kept a diary filled with drawings, but its tricky. Really putting yourself out there is scary. The paintings that I post publicly, while totally based on my daily life, are drastically different in tone and content than what you might find in my journals. My comics are embarrassing, funny, absurd, relatable… they can be sad, but I think it’s easy to see how I use humor and fantasy as a way of dodging some of the more raw and dangerous territory that can make autobiography so potent. I’m glad that my drawings make people laugh, I don’t want to take myself too seriously and I’ll always make silly drawings… I guess I just hope that as I continue to make comics, I’ll find a way to add more depth to my practice, whether it’s by working on developing more complex fictional stories, or by being brave enough to express some of the heavier, and maybe less palatable aspects of my life. 

KD: Outside of comics, what artists or media makers are inspiring you right now?

TB: Well, first I’d like to say how incredibly inspired I am by artists like Marie Jacotey and Aidan Koch, whose work transcends the world of comics. I want the space between the comics world and the art world to keep getting smaller and smaller. These two stand out in my mind as artists that are helping to bridge that gap. I’d love to be a part of that transition. I’m always discovering new painters. Some of my favorites are Misaki Kawai, Austin Lee, Mogu Takahashi, Katherine Bernhardt (I’m inspired both by her paintings, and by the gorgeous Morrocan rugs that she sells) and Danny Fox. These people remind me of how powerful one large stand alone image can be. I follow the work of so many illustrators, but my favorites are probably Aart-jan Venema and Monika Forsberg, I’m always trying to figure how they do what they do. Who else… there’s a lot of really interesting stuff happening with ceramics that makes me want to get my hands on some clay. Benjamin Phillips is making great pots, it looks like it could be really fun to work in that style. Clay reminds me of Janie Korn, who makes really fun claymation shorts. Having access to all of these creative minds through social media sheds light on the infinite avenues that I want to explore in the future.

To order D.U.I.I, head to the COLORAMA webstore.

Dark Noise : An Interview with Chris Hammes

Half the sky, all your attention.

What We’re Doing This Weekend: 3.20-3.22

Endless Opportunities (Or Something)

MAINTENANCE #3

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