#my first illustration on when i got the new tablet

[pongooopingu]

[hikaruchen]

I’ll keep the king when you are gone away. I’ll keep him safe from the dark things that wait. — King by The Amazing Devil

INPRNT | COMMISSION INFOS

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Some details for archaeology nerds (Here we go again AHAHAHA)

First of all the costume Alfred wears in this pic is BY NO MEANS historical accurate, but if we really want to be 100% accurate then to my knowledge there’s a high chance that Alfred wouldn’t be wearing dresses gowns at all (whoever decided to make Alfred wear those pretty cough dresses cough in the show I wish your family to prosper for all eternity YOU’RE A HERO), so instead I just chose to design whatever clothes I want and add some Anglo-Saxon elements in it :)

1. Alfred’s earrings

Took inspiration from the 7th century Anglo-Saxon/Frankish crystal ball, now in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Here’s the thing, I know English men (and the monarchs) don’t wear earrings until the 16th century and earrings weren’t even popular during the Anglo-Saxon period, but once I saw Charles I wearing pearl earrings in his portrait I just can’t help but put something pretty on Alfred’s ears as well lol…Sadly I can’t find the exact size of this one but the official site says that it was used as a pendant/an amulet! Probably for pagan practices though, but it’s pretty, isn’t it? :D

2. Patterns on Alfred’s gown

Taken from the patterns on the Bewcastle Cross in Cumbria (which used to belong to Northumbria, built in around the 7th to early 8th century, aka the period Bede lived in.

3. The woven band

The pattern is taken from the Laceby band found in Laceby, Lincolnshire, dated to early 7th century. It seems both Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons enjoy wearing tablet-woven bands? Saw this kind of things a lot in viking clothes reconstruction as well.

4. …Whatever this is

From fol. 34r in Book of Kells, the famous Celtic gospel book completed in Ireland circa 800 AD. As you can see I got lazy during drawing this lol but the illustrations in the original manuscripts are really impressive!

Now I don’t know if this is a good news or not but I’ve still got like…six wips for alhtred in hand…Good god of arts DELIVER ME

[the-colourful-witch]

The All the Young Dudes book covers project

I've been working on this fun project in my time off from social media. It consists of three illustrations to use as book covers for All the Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 on Ao3. This book has been the foundation of my involvement in the fandom. It's the first fic I read about the Marauders and I loved it so much! I laughed, and I cried, it was a real rollercoaster. After making the cover for A Brief History of Dragons by Eyra, I caught the bug and started thinking of more covers to illustrate. I loved working on the first cover, but I didn't love doing it on my tablet. At heart, I am a traditional illustrator and for this kind of illustration, I felt paper might work better. So I got to work. I knew I wanted to make three covers. From what I've seen online most people bind their own copies of All the Young Dudes in three parts: Year 1-4, Year 5-7 and Until the End. Therefore, I made three covers. I have not yet digitalized these illustrations, but I'll turn them into downloadable covers for binders to use for their book projects. I am working on binding my own physical copies of AtYD too :) It's fun! Right, to the covers. There's so much to say!

Book One

This is the start of Remus' life at Hogwarts and his friendship with the other Marauders. I wanted it to feel a bit like reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the first time. It's the realisation that magic is real, it's that first spark you get when picking up a book you instantly connect with. That was the feeling I wanted to incorporate in this first cover. There are a bunch of little easter eggs for the story and I hope you'll pick them all out. Let me know in the comments what you think they are. Also, for this project, I studied the language of flowers. I am not sure if all my information is correct, but in this one, I put dandelions in the top corners. Dandelions represent new beginnings :)

Book Two

The second half of the Marauders' time at Hogwarts. This part is all about love and loyalty; something I liked a lot! It's also the time when the Marauders complete their animagus transformations. The animals had to be on the cover! That, I knew for sure. I went for a forest theme for this second cover, because of all the mischief the Marauders got up to in the Forbidden Forest during full moons. I used flower language here as well. For every Marauder I picked a flower I felt represented who they are. For Peter, at the top, I chose Bleeding Heart and Belladonna. Both of them represent betrayal and death. Nice and cheery :) For Sirius, on the Right, I chose Bluebell, which represents loyalty. For Remus, on the Left, I chose Acacia, which represents secret love or forbidden love, because he's hiding his sexuality for most of the book. But it's a love flower and in his core Remus is caring and loving, despite his rough edges. For James, on the bottom, I chose violets. And violets represent love at first sight. I know we all know why <3 I like this cover a lot. The picture is a bit grainy, but like I said, I'm still working on digitalising.

Book Three

Last but certainly not least. This book is about war, love and loss. It was definitely the most challenging piece out of the three, but worth the trouble. On this cover, I put Hogwarts at the top, because that's where it all started and where it ends. On the bottom, there's a prophecy, which is about Harry and Voldemort. There are a few gravestones at the bottom. Very cheerful, I know, but if you pay attention, you see a Deathly Hallows on one of them. On the sides are my favourite parts. I like the lily flower in the arms of death, because it's obvious, but also beautiful. I like the Death Eater on the other side because it's spooky. The snakes represent rebirth and Slytherin House, which is important to the story of the Second Wizarding War, connecting good and evil. Once again I put all the flowers in this piece, scattering them around because they're all interwoven in each other's stories. Finally, I want to say something about the three central images. In the first we see Remus as a child. He's alone and scared of the big scary wolf. The three images are a timeline. It represents Remus' relationship with the wolf in him. At first, he despises it and is scared of it. And finally, he stands with it, not quite embracing it, but he's not scared anymore. In the middle, I wanted to show Remus with his friends, because they banished his fear whenever they were together. With his friends, the wolf didn't control Remus and he could control the wolf. I hope it's all clear. I loved working on these pieces and I hope you like them too!

[kald-dal-art]

I like your art a lot. How long have you been drawing and when did you find your style?

so started to draw seriously when I was 13 ish, so it originally looked like this, so this is from when I was 14, so you can see a bit of my style, I just wasn't fully aware of anatomy

so this is my art from when I was like 15, so a bit more refined this time around

at 16 i had a phase where I would shape out the nose like this and kept that for a while, I don't remember what made me drop it.

at 17 i started to draw digitally properly with my shitty little drawing tablet

I had such a hard time with like sketching and line art when it came to digital so i would like sketch stuff traditonally first and then color it digitally later, like I did here.

still most of my art from that time during Covid was still mostly markers drawings (kind of miss markers ngl)

Then at my 18th birthday I got a proper tablet from my parents

So started to draw more digitally still more digital coloring more than full digital illustrations, so still not fully confident in my line art and such but getting there.

My little nightmares phase (You're an OG if you remember that lmao) was when I truly experimenting with digital art, downloading new brushes and such. Playing more with layers and such.

At the end of the 2022 I got an iPad and apple pen from my parents so started to draw way more digitally, because it's way easier to whip that out and start to draw (Also during 2021-2022 I went to a school that focused on illustration and comic art for a year and I think I really got into my art style during that year)

So feel like 2022 is truly the year where I felt like my art style pretty much solidified itself, but you can still see it's my art in previous years as well

So can see it my art now, and hopefully evolved a lot since my art way back in middle school 👍

[thirstycrab]

It's so frustrating to be an artist nowadays. When I post drawing on social media it gets only around 2-5 likes. At first I thought "okay, my skill might be pretty low and my art lacks originality (because I used to copy reference photos and drew fan art), I need to study a little bit more and people will notice me. So I went to college and got an art degree

I thought "traditional art is outdated, it's difficult to photograph, it looks different in social media then in real life and it's harder to create versatile images with traditional instruments". So I bought a tablet and started learning digital drawing. I took a half-year course on 3D and studied digital art for games and character concept art for almost 2 years in online school to broaden the scope of my abilities

My graphic black and white illustrations received little to no likes, so I thought "maybe I need to use more colors" and started painting colorful scenes

I tried to create characters with interesting backstories, I designed every piece of clothing, every prop from scratch, drew a lot of original art. I believed that some day people would finally recognize my talent. But over time, my works became less and less popular. Somehow my skewed old copies from photos got 10 times more engagement then the current posts

I'm honestly so tired at this point. My motivation is at an all-time low. I tried countless different approaches, and nothing works, there's no hope left. During all this time of unsuccessful attempts to show myself to the world, I learned one thing: to become a sought-after artist, you first need to be a good marketer. And the one thing I'm terrible at is marketing and self-promotion

I feel isolated. I don't understand what's wrong with my art. Sometimes, when I finish drawing, I'm so pleased with the result that it feels like it's gonna become a hit. I start imagining tons of likes, reposts, new followers and admiring comments flooding my dms. But then I post it... And nothing happens. Dead silence. I might like it from my other account, my friend might like it out of politeness and that's all

It's especially debilitating, because my job and the whole life revolves around art and seeing that people don't like my drawings hurts my self esteem. I wish I never became an artist. But I also had no choice due to problems with concentration. If I immediately don't understand something, I give up and further attempts to understand the topic feel like literal torture. I wish I was good at math and physics. It seems to me that it would be way easier to be an engineer or something, because in art there's usually no clear definition between right and wrong, unlike in science. In STEM, you can either solve a problem or fail. Drawing "the right way" doesn't necessarily mean that companies would hire you. You need to have soft skills, you have to network, participate in projects, etc. That's like a lottery. You never know what will make people gravitate towards your art and it's pretty confusing

[cartoonistcoop]

ShortBox Comics Member Interview: Tan Juan Gee

Throughout the month of October, the Cartoonist Cooperative will be sharing interviews with members of the Co-op who have a new comic available at the ShortBox Comics Fair 2024! 

NOTE: The Cartoonist Cooperative is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way formally connected with ShortBox.  

Today’s spotlight is Tan Juan Gee ( @juangeedraws ) and their new comic for ShortBox, See You in Hell.

We’d love it if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background in comics.

Tan Juan Gee: Hello! I’m Tan Juan Gee, a Singaporean artist. Right now I’m in my final year of university, studying sociology and fine art history. I’ve been drawing since I was little, but really only got into digital art after getting my first drawing tablet five years ago. Most of my work involves illustrating for indie tabletop games. I got into making comics around 2021 through online comic tournaments (or ‘OCTs’) and have had some great opportunities to draw comics professionally since–including last year’s ShortBox Comics Fair (SBCF 2023). Now I’m back with another comic for the fair this year!

Tell us more about your new comic.

TJG: Two girls with a messy past fight to the death in an abandoned city. It’s a short 16-page, fully coloured comic, with about ten pages at the end for an exclusive “making of” artbook and variant covers from friends!

Tell us about your creative process; how did you develop this comic and what are the steps you took to bring it to the final stage?

TJG: I won’t spoil too much because my comic PDF this year actually has a bonus “making of” artbook at the back that answers this question. Long story short, I had to scrap my initial draft. It was a story about two legendary criminals getting back together for one last job. I shelved this original idea for several reasons: it was too long, I kept introducing more characters, and I couldn’t settle on how I wanted the ending to go. With not much done at the end of my school semester I decided it would be far more productive to hone in on the key ideas of this first iteration and make a very tight and focused comic. I drafted out a comic that met SBCF’s minimum page count of 16, then finished it in two months while travelling.

This version leaves much of their past relationship and the current social, economic, and political climate of the setting they are in up to interpretation. But fundamentally the core of the comic remains unchanged–one angsty dynamic between two girls! I even got to reuse the design of the tall elf lady, which was great news. Don’t tell the short sword girl, but the tall elf lady is my favourite.

What were some challenges you faced with this comic and how did you overcome them?

TJG: You’ve probably noticed that my characters don’t have names. I tell myself it’s because the story means so much more to me when it’s two pathetic nobodies trying to kill each other. The truth is I really struggle with naming characters a lot! I also really struggle with dialogue. I blame this on the fact that my ideal character is a dark and brooding stoic lady who doesn’t speak. But can you really fault me? That kind of character is so cool!

Read the rest of the interview HERE! And dont forget to check out the Shortbox Comics Fair to support these lovely creators!!

[likesdoodling]

It has been a while since I started digital art,

Quite a while.

So here is a 'progress over the last two years' since I gained access to a drawing tablet.

:D

This is my first ever digitally illustrated piece- compared to my latest one-

So, a little bit different.

I do think my art took quite a jump around June 2022, when I took a break from my Steve comic strip, (for obvious reasons- it was about Technoblade's polar bear so...) and decided to try practicing gesture drawing to see if it helped my general anatomy knowledge. This is before,

And this next one is after.

The most obvious change here is that I switched to using thinner lines. There is a gap of about two months between these.

This was when I realised that you could improve art by practicing it (mind-blowing I know), and then started to do just that. Some other notable jumps forward would be when I discovered the airbrush-

Well, discovered a new method of shading with it anyway.

Then after that I had a few pictures that I actually still like, despite them being pretty old at this point, the one below is actually from September of 2022-

I mean, the hands are a bit iffy, but the rest looks alright. This was when I was going through a bit of a melanie martinez phase-

This next one was from January of 2023, I'd only just gotten into bungou stray dogs via some random memes on pinterest about this weird brown haired guy who had lots of bandages and who had this running gag with wanting to die- I actually looked him up at one point, but that didn't really explain much. The main one that I remember was 'life is short, so make it shorter, shorter than chuuya~'

Which at the time was just kind of confusing,

Then I watched the show and it made perfect sense.

I'd discovered ascendance of a bookworm in like, 2021, but I hadn't really been doing fanart of it since I was mainly doing dsmp related stuff and I kind of assumed nobody would know what on earth I was referencing. Turns out tumblr has a lot more bookworm fans than I orignally anticipated. Instagram still has no clue. I think maybe one person out of my followers on instagram knows what I'm on about-

Then we've got these two which I am still proud of btw-

The first one is from a dystopian/time travel fanfic called viridian.

The second one was after I learned about rim lighting. It was inspired by a song actually, 'crash' by noevaii. (and yes I found that song from a sad-ist animatic, it was cool) The character isn't anyone in particular. They're both from February 2023.

Then there's probably my most liked picture on instagram, (not tumblr, since tumblr knows about bsd and bookworm, but y'know. This was even sadder than I originally intended since the last half of my comic strip was finished AFTER everything happened)

Then the final conclusion of my Steve comic strip in May of 2023.

I don't think my art really changed much in between those, but eh.

Then I switched to doing a bunch of ascendance of a bookworm stuff to see what would happen and turns out there are way more fellow fans out there than I anticipated-

Then I guess my next breakthrough in tumblr popularity, (even if it might not have been a breakthrough in art skills necessarily) was when things went DOWN in the bsd fandom with chapter 109 and I did probably one of my most liked tumblr posts I have ever done-

If you want to see the rest of that, feel free to scroll down on my tumblr page, the original's like eight pages long-

This was before anyone knew what was going to happen btw.

I still think it's hilarious that I put in chuuya having contacts. My reasoning being, they're on a film set,

It was a pretty interesting exercise in shading in monochrome.

Then I started a 30 day art challenge in October that I didn't get past day six of, but it was still pretty fun. This is the best one of those-

After that I spent most of my time studying for the jlpt n5, so I didn't really do that much art related stuff,

This is one of the two non-commission related pictures that I finished over the two months after I kind of gave up on the art challenge. This one's from November,

Then I finally finished an art commission I'd been working on for the three months prior, as well as studying. Here is an example of the type of pictures I was doing for that,

Then I was occupied with christmas and birthday presents for my siblings, both my little sisters are into ascendance of a bookworm- (completely my fault I am proud to say) so I was able to do stuff related to that, here's a couple of snippets, but you guys don't get the colour version hehe

And one of them has also read the entire fma manga just like I have so-

Anyway, it's been quite a progression since I resolved to master digital art in 2021.

I reckon I've come a fair way since then. I mean. My art skills in general are way better than they used to be. The last two or three years have been pretty interesting.

Also-

Just had to include this one, I'm gonna do a more detailed version but still-

I think it's funny so I'm posting it here. Even if it's not really related to art progression-

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 32 – Weavers, Scribes and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda Podany

This was my second real (published by a university press, has ~100 pages of citations and bibliography at the back) history book I’ve read this year. Which I think probably explains why it took me about as long to read as the other 7 books this month put together. Which is the opposite of a complaint, just to be absolutely clear. I’ve kind of missed chewing through a history book that would double as a decent self-defence aid in a pinch.

The title explains the book well enough – this is a broad survey history of the ancient near east. Specifically, it’s a history of civilizations that recorded their records and correspondences and stories in cuneiform on clay tablets. So the narrative begins with Uruk in Sumeria, follows it through the spread of city-states throughout Mesopotamia, expands its view to include Syria, the Levant and regions of Anatolia (and to a much lesser extent Egypt) and the western Iranian plateau in the late bronze age, and keeps that frame through the iron age until reaching the Achaemenid conquests and the decline of cuneiform in favour of writing in Aramaic on paper or parchment.

Part of that is just arbitrary because you need to pick some outer borders of what your book is about, but it’s also a fact that writing everything down on (often baked, either purposefully or because they got caught in a fire) clay tablets was a truly incredible gift to future historians. Paper and parchment and cloths decays away over the course of a historical eyeblink, whereas we still have legal contracts and bureaucratic records from literally four thousand years ago that were recorded on fired clay. Combined with some incredible archaeological luck, and we can see stretches of late bronze age history in higher definition than very nearly anything until, like, the Early Modern Period.

The necessary condition of that is obviously that these cuneiform-writing civilizations actually wrote enough down for written records to really let us understand their societies. Which did very over time, and is definitely overwhelmingly biased towards the great institutions and upper classes, but actually does seem to have been true! Podany all but dedicated the book Mesopotamia’s scribal class, and they got everywhere. And the change over time in just what’s written about - the spread of written records and letters from temples and palaces to the private homes, the spread in literacy from an arcane art only trained scribes would understand to something every halfway prominent merchant would be expected to grasp the basics of for record-keeping – is illuminating enough about how these societies evolved on its own.

Aside from all the waxing poetic about clay tablets, the book does try quite hard to be an approachable historical survey. To that end, basically every chapter is split into a few different sections, each pocket biographies of individuals (or, occasionally, pieces of architecture) that we have enough visibility of to make them a useful entry point to illustrating some broader aspect or society or important process they lived through. The vast majority of them aren’t great kings or conquerors, either – scribes, merchants, weavers, farmers, priestesses, and even the occasional slave get pride of place. On balance, the book tries to be a social history, getting across how people actually lived (or Podany’s best guess of it, though she’s quite explicit about what the actual evidence we have for every given biography is and when she’s speculating) is favoured over the exact sequence of battles and kings.

I’ve mentioned it before, but prior to reading this my only real familiarity with the ancient Near East (and specifically with the development of pristine states in Mesopotamia) was from Scott’s Against the Grain. Which adds a slight sense of whiplash to the entire first third or so of this book, honestly; as opposed to Scott, Podany actually seems sympathetic to the position that civilization was a good idea. Part of that is just that she takes the actual emergence of the first city-states as a given (instead of something approaching original sin), but the book very clearly portrays the growth of a literary culture, monumental architecture, specialized labour, grand and impressive rituals and festivals, institutionalized long-distance trade, and so on as interesting and impressive things worth studying and appreciating. It’s a book about a project of state-based urban-agrarian civilization, as told through its archaeological remnants and literary corpus, and as a whole it portrays that project as admirable and sympathetic. The book doesn’t brush over slavery or warfare, but they’re not especially focused on, either. Famine and plague actually are pretty much brushed over or at least portrayed as irregular calamities. A lot of the book’s wordcount is spent sketching out lives that seem at least slightly familiar to a modern reader, and making the Mesopotamian world seem like a place you could live a happy life in. Quite a contrast to Scott’s constellation of slave societies held together by brute force and exemplary terror, forever raiding the hinterland to abduct new workers to make up the losses from constant disease outbreaks and always on the verge of collapse.

Well, that’s all only mostly true. Podany’s sympathies for pristine states and bronze age empires does not extend to the iron-age Assyrian Empire. Her disdain for their whole imperial project is pretty clear through those chapters, and from her telling they (especially during what’s called the Neo-Assyrian Empire) were responsible for a lot of the brutal innovations that are now such core parts of imperialism. The mass deportation of conquered populations to settle and work other provinces, using exemplary terror to cow subjects, and royal legitimacy established nearly entirely through glorious victories in warfare and exulting in the same. (Along with less objectionable but still important practices like appointing regional governors from the centre.)

The book makes a real point of keeping a balance between men and women in who it focuses on. This is, I get the feeling, kind of just a matter of wanting to show off that we have a historical record that actually includes women in it as more than accessories and footnotes to men for this period (unlike, say, Classical Athens), But Podany’s clearly made a secondary goal of the book to try and push back on the whole image of a primordial and unchanging ultra-patriarchal order across all of history. So there’s a lot of attention paid to how the role of women in public life changed over time, and the sort of political and economic power elite women could wield. Which was actually quite a bit, as it turned out! Obviously nowhere in the ancient world was anything like a feminist utopia (and as a general trend, seems to have grown more patriarchal over time), but compared to a lot of periods I know more about, the available space for women in public life is quite a bit larger; on the upper extreme, queens and priestesses managed and controlled massive estates in their own right, and on the lower we’ve got plenty of bureaucratic records showing women in various prestigious or managerial roles. Always paid significantly less than men doing the same of course, but still a far sight from being totally cloistered or official ideologies saying women are soulless or incapable of rational thought!

Speaking of priestesses – Podany goes into great detail trying to describe Mesopotamian religion and the place religion had in the ancient near east. Which again changes over time – in the early dynastic period the great temples seem to have been the core organizing institutions of economic and social life, but two thousand years latter they were still rich and important, but relatively speaking much less central – but is basically always incredibly important. The endowment of high priestesses and the creation of some public work then given over as the property of an important gods were common themes of year names across the region’s kingdoms, and by all accounts pretty key legitimizing activities. The idea that the gods would sanctify oaths and punish anyone who broke them was likewise a pretty core part of Mesopotamian systems of justice. The book’s a bit vague on how the actual theology and practice of religion over time, but there’s plenty of lovely, evocative descriptions of rituals and festivals, and of the architecture of temples and design of the statue-avatars that were considered to be literal bodies of the divine.

The book’s also very interested in forms of government – both day to day systems of contracts and justice and land allocation, and the high politics of royal courts and governance. Though there’s unsurprisingly quite a bit more available on the latter than the former. Still, it’s pretty fascinating to the degree that the whole ‘absolute tyrant bronze age god-king’ was...well, not not a thing, but very much an occasional aberration. The growth of centralized royal authority was a real trend over a lot of the period, but especially in the beginning arrangements that seem pretty close to what we’d call a constitutional monarchy, with power shared with councils of notables, really do seem to have predominated. Special shouout to Ashur, which before it became a militaristic empire in the late Bronze Age was actually a prosperous trading city where the king was in large part a ritual/religious figure and the balance of executive power seems to have been held by an official who was elected by the city’s merchant class for annual terms.

I’ve done a poor job getting it across in this review, but the book does an amazing job really confronting you with the sheer depth of history – bronze age kingdoms and city-states were the dominant political institutions of the near-east for millennia. The period covered by the book is literally nearly as long as the period between the end of the book and the present. It’s enough to give you a sense of vertigo.

Anyway, absolutely incredible book, that I’m very happy to have read. Now I need to go find a decent one on Achaemenid Persia.

[stardustjie]

𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚢

oh, this one took a lot. i apologise for the wait, it was quite a busy month. i'm not even that proud of this drabble if i must be honest, but i hope you like it anyway ♡ there might be some mistakes, but thank you for being patient

buying books and reading books are two different hobbies, but very few things could give the reassurance to have every title in your "to be read" list already bought and patiently waiting on the shelf. when you would read said book was a mystery for everyone, you included, but it was there for when the time will come. there was this feeling of comfort, knowing you didn’t have to buy it and you just had to wait for the right moment in your life to actually enjoy the reading. this might seem a bit strange, but you are lucky your girlfriend understands your literary philosophy. except she had a whole library in her home.

the first time she mentioned it, you thought she was joking. you were talking about your favourite book again, illustrating all the characers and the specific things you enjoyed. at some point she said the word library, but you didnt really pay attention to it. until she finally invited you in her home and with the most natural expression she showed you the biggest collection of physical books you have ever seen with your own eyes. you realized oftentimes your girlfriend didnt need to endure the bother to buy those books, rather than to find them.

now you are in the same library, with lara explaining how she bought the book you are holding in your hands so carefully. you lightly touch the title, gently. you are scared the littlest mistake will ruin it despite the other girl reassured you its not that fragile. you haven't been together for a lot, her stories are so new and interesting. you could listen to her for hours until she got bored. lara was telling you about one of her expeditions, how she found this little market stall in iraq a few months before.

"how do you manage to remember which one you have and which one you dont?" you ask at some point. your girlfriend watched you with curiosity, doe eyes wide open, and giggles. apparently she has list of them. everytime she is interested in a new book she looks for the title in a list she has on her personal tablet to see if its already in there. every title is in alphabetical order under its group genre. lara wasn’t as organizza and one would think, but she tooks her library quite seriously.

"its easier than it seems," she explains "its just a matter of habit and willpower. also, most of those books arent really my own. they are my father's or my ancestors' i think." but you were still suprised. you were still used to her little apartment in with the paper on the wall in front of her desk and books on the ground. now she is telling you she spendt her first week in the manor taking care of the library (and her other stuff, but that's not the important part).

"of course, if you see anything you like just take it. i dont mind" lara says and in your head it definitely sounds like a marriage proposal. you could hear the bells already. she probably notices your heart-eyes and giggles a little. you spend the rest of the day with her in thr library, talking about the numerous editions and books you could find and learning about the ones she used to read when she was little and her favourite characers. you are delighted when she explains her interpretation of enjolras and grantaire and lara listened carefully to your there about that duology you are reading.

you never thought you would be like this, talking for hours with your girlfriend surrounded by the biggest collection of books you have ever seen. sometimes she moved her hands a little bit to highlight a concept, other times she quickly showed you the paragraphs she was referring to. you really could listen to her until sunset came, the passion in her voice was addicting.

and you didn’t even know next time ahe was going to show you the art room yet.

[delta-gambit-au]

I drew this like this past month. A friendly gift given to a good friend of mine I fatefully met in the Undernet fandom group, featuring them as Kris next to my MC, with a motivational message and a generous cupcake of Oreo (because we both love Oreo). Was practicing a new style of painting that I wanted to use for my visual novel, at least for the illustrations and background parts. It took me a while to figure out how to make it to look eye candy enough but guess I managed to pull it out despite being the first time not using my original style, which is more "painterly" I thinks 🤔

Anyhow, I need to keep practicing drawing more or I'll never get the hang of drawing Spwatchton nor anybody else. I also notice that this depiction of him is not accurate to his real height I brainstormed this past weekend (which should be 278 cm ~ roughly 109.44 inches). It's a bit "funny" because Swatch was taller originally, but after the forced hijacking of his data, the final amalgamation got him "compressed" and thus the height and bulk is now less. That reminds me I still need to draw the character sheet of Swatch and the rest of the characters. So much pending work OTL

I apologize if I don't have anything new to show. With my current schedule I barely have time to even stop in front of my tablet to create something new or that would advance the progress of the visual-novel. I hope things get lenient with me before the end of this month, but these RL deadlines are destroying my Darkner soul... and just this past Friday things got awful as I got hit by a sunstroke so badly that it made one of my neighbours to pick me up with her car to leave me at home or I'd just have collapsed in the middle of the street right there. That left my brain fried and in pain up until today, when I feel much better to resume work and check the socials for DMs and whatever else on my mail.

Well, enough of the unpleasantries. During my sun fever thing, I took notes to fleshen out a little more all of the Swatchlings, the 28 of them. With that I only need to draw them all to settle on stone their designs. At least that was some modicum of progress forward...

[alphab00tyyyshaker9000]

You're a nerdy lone wolf 🫵

Yes, I am a nerd Bookworm, I'm studious From my cerebral cortex to my gluteus Back in kindergarten I aced my college entrance exam Now, I'm no rocket scientist Oh wait, I am

When I pour my Alpha-bits, I get nothing but straight A's My retainer and headgear connect to a back brace I've got a pocket protector, protector, protector I broke my glasses on purpose so I could tape 'em together Run back to Reddit and type stuff no one will see You're a geek, that means you're just a hipster wannabe

That's right, I'm a geek I've got brains and a personality I wear my glasses sincerely And my T-shirts ironically There're some things you can't learn in a class Or else I'd sign you up for "Intro to how not to be a social outcast"

You're just so early 2013 I was the cool form of uncool before uncool became a thing I use an app to pair pork with the perfect Bordeaux Too bad there's no app to neutralize your B.O. While you're lost in Second Life letting your fingernails grow long I'll be syncing up my iPhone, tablet, TV and your mom

Sure grooming's not my thing But I don't care I look so good in chainmail that it's not Renaissance Fair Doesn't LARP stand for Loser And Reject Party? I'd rather cosplay with hotties than play fake army

I tried Dungeons and Dragons once And I died of boredom But I'll still kick your Assassin's Creed post-mortem Mario party's the only one you're getting invited to Your life is like Skyrim An endless quest of solitude

Ooh, you beat Angry Birds You're not a gamer 'cause you battle your friends with words You click on cute icons, I execute commands Do you really need a genius to teach you Garageband?

I landed the first Roflcopter And took in orphans when I was 12 'Cause I'm an early adopter I can wear Google Glass without looking like a dweeb OK, maybe not But I can yelp us some good pho to eat

You need 16 gigs of RAM to watch a Steve Jobs doc? I keep an actual ram in my PC, his name is Spock I'm a new console Your face is birth control I troll Brony sites, you look like an actual troll I'm fluent in C++, see, you just suck Can your iPhone autocorrect your dumb haircut?

Hold on a second, let me tweet this infographic I made That illustrates the fact you'll never get to procreate I just haven't met a woman of a high enough caliber The only dates you have are on your G-G-Google Calendar

You're losing this battle, your foam sword won't help In the future you'll randomly access this memory and crap yourself Did I mention I built a dancing robot? No one gives a Shatner about your skinny jeans Do you even know what URL means? You don't know what you're Tolkien about

You know You are a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth And the size of the brain!

[itsleyally]

Entry#1: Love at First Sketch

Like a person would fall instantly for someone in just one glance, art had already bewitched me from the moment I experienced drawing for the first time. 

It all started in the past, I remember watching my mom work on beautiful illustrations. She was so elegant at doing her drawings that it kept my childhood self guessing how she even did those with perfection. As a nosy youngster, I was also curious enough to be meddling with her things when she was out of sight. I tried to mimic how my mom would hold one of her pencils and copy her facial expressions, mocking her so innocently. I then began moving my hand through the air, as if I were making colorful strokes on an imaginary canvas. After all, I’d been told not to waste paper, so what else could I do?

I did get caught in the end. But thankfully, my mom didn't mind at all. Instead, she found it funny and charming at the same time and thought that her daughter would also want to follow what she loves to do. By then, she had already prepared a sketchpad for me, and looking at it was sure a sparkling sight. From that moment on, I was completely hooked. The feel of the pages turning, the endless possibilities of what I could create—It was like a connection meant to be. It did feel that way when I looked at its number of blank pages, having to claim the sketchpad all to myself. And that specific day marked the beginning of my love affair with drawing. Holding that pencil in my small, inexperienced hands felt like a magic wand when I scribbled on the first page. And guess what? My very first drawing made me so proud at the time! Even though looking at it now seems awful, I knew my young self was totally in love with it. 

Ballerina: My first ever sketch as a child

As the years passed, my love and dedication for drawing continuously developed and became stronger. I grew up filled with lots of sketchpads in my room, each one contained with memories and improvements from the previous one.  My mom who had always been so supportive even put up a mini art gallery in the house, displaying our favorite artworks from each past year as a beautiful reminder of our artistic accomplishments together. 

Our Art Gallery & my other most beloved artworks

The onset of the pandemic, however, led to a dramatic shift in my creative journey. With the world suddenly put on hold for a few years, those times I was trapped indoors with my sketchpads and art supplies surrounding me, I found myself with an abundance of time to explore my craft. While I still enjoyed traditional drawing, I started exploring digital art as a new creative outlet. Seeing the stunning work of digital artists on social media inspired me to try it out for myself. At first, it was intimidating—the endless number of tools was overwhelming. But before long, I also became hooked on it. The ability to undo and experiment with different tools, brushes, and colors at the touch of a button was liberating and I came to love it even more when I got to use a stylus and a drawing tablet.

Some of my digital art creations

Looking back, I never thought art would lead me to be the person I am today. From the first sketch I made as a child to the digital masterpieces I am now creating, my love for drawing has only grown stronger since the moment I picked up my first pencil. The skills and techniques I’ve developed over the years have not only been a source of personal fulfillment but have also opened up new opportunities for me to pursue a career. As a college student studying in the field of Multimedia Arts, I am grateful to have the chance to continue exploring my passion and share my art with others. Whether it be traditional or digital art, I know that drawing will always be a part of me, shaping my life and creative expression in countless ways. 

[hansoeii]

Hi ! I was wondering if you struggled a lot when you switched to digital? Bcs I planned to start this year in art school but got rejected, so I'm wondering if learning digital painting alone is manageable (and if I'll have time to learn with uni). Luv your art, you inspire me so much—especially your compositions—and your progress is remarkable <33

Trying a new medium is always gonna be hard in the beginning. I started drawing digitally when I was around 12, so I don't really remember how long it took me to get used to it, haha. I still struggle whenever I switch from drawing on my pen tablet to drawing on my screen tablet or then going back to my sketchbook. It always takes a little time to get the hang of when I've gotten too used to another medium.

Just be patient! sometiems it takes a day, sometimes weeks or even months. But that's fine! I recently got a samsung tablet to draw on and when I tried it for the first time I struggled so much that I thought I made a wrong purchase and that I'm never gonna use it. Turns out, I just needed some time. I can now draw on it quite comfortably!

And you absolutely do not need art school to learn how to use it or how to paint digitally! I'm self-taught myself (the art school I go to isn't focused on illustration). There's lots of incredible tutorials and art courses online that can help you start out! :D

Thank you so much! Hope this was somewhat helpful!

[reversemoon255]

So, on October 19th 2021, exactly two years ago as of posting this, GinjaNinjaOWO over on the YT did a very fun video discussing swapping the concepts of Pokémon's two mascots, Pikachu and Eevee. That was also when I was really getting into the swing of character/creature designing, so I wanted to try my hand at it myself. I did the original pass in about a month, but recently looked over them and went "I can do this better," so here we are.

Here's the first pass from 2 years ago (before I got my tablet). I kept the first few designs I worked on, adding new concepts and motifs while scrapping the final 3 designs I did. When I did them originally, I think I was feeling a bit of burnout by the end, and was just going with the first things that came to mind, rather than coming up with something really creative.

Pichu was the first one I went back over. Originally, I just tweaked June's Pichu concept designs as I was more interested in designing its evolutions. The one thing I did keep from that first draft was the cheek placement under the eyes. All baby Pokémon reference something babies do, and having these faux-tear marks that then further evolve into other things as it itself evolves was something I liked and wanted to keep. As for the patterns, I wanted to go with something very generic, or template since it was going to evolve into 8 different rodents. I also drew it in multiple poses (something I did with every design), as movement is very important to modern Pokémon.

Zazachu was the third design I worked on (we'll get the the second later). With aspects like the surfboard tail and life vest fluff, it very much informed aspects I would add to all the other evolutions. I also tried to keep the colors in mind. I imagined this being one of the three Gen 1 evolutions, and Gen 1's color palette was very influenced by being sprites first, so I tried to choose colors that would be distinct when grayscale.

The second new Gen 1 design is Hirachu, a Flying-Type. One of the things I was trying to keep in mind was to not limit myself to the Types Eevee uses, and instead use ones that fit either Pikachu or the gimmicks I wanted to use. Since Pikachu was well known for learning Surf and Fly in Gen 1, I thought I'd incorporate that not only into its Types, but into its evolution method, having Pichu evolve into Pikachu, Zazachu, or Hirachu based on whether you teach it Flash, Surf, or Fly (all of which are HMs and have infinite uses). In Gen 1, I imagine it would evolve immediately after learning the move, but this would change in Gen 2 for reasons we'll discuss soon.

As for design elements, its spots and fluff are meant to invoke an aviator scarf and goggles, and I think I did a good job of illustrating how it uses its tail. I imagine the balloons are created by it secreting a sticky substance from the spots on its back to mimic how Pikachu would summon balloons when it used Fly in games like Pokémon Stadium.

We now move onto the Gen 2 designs with Orachu (which is a Jojo reference). Most Pikachu-like, and all Eevee designs are used to demonstrate a gimmick introduced in its introductory game. Pichu is breeding, Plusle and Minun are double battles, Pachirisu is the physical-special split, Dedenne and Sylveon are Fairy-Type, Pawmi is movement-based evolutions, Espeon and Umbreon are the day-night cycle, and Glaceon and Leafeon are location evolutions.

I wanted to keep with the breeding theme Pichu used in Gen 2, as well as the evolution method I started using in Gen 1, so Orachu evolves by leveling up while knowing Counter, which Pichu could only learn through breeding in Gold and Silver.

But then, if Pichu evolves by leveling up while knowing one of four different moves, what would happen if it knew two or more? That's where our second Gen 2 design, Nanichu, comes in. This was a design I had a lot of fun with. It's a Ghost-Type, and I thought it'd be cool to make its eyes and cheeks match and glow in the dark (similar to Umbreon) so that it looks scary if you came across it in a dark alley (or your pantry). As I evolved the design in the second pass, I added the scruff and changed up the tail to add even more to that theme.

As we move onto Gen 4, I wanted the two designs to be based on the physical-special split. Originally I had a physical Psychic-Type and a special Steel-Type, but I wasn't happy with either of them, so I scrapped them both and started fresh. The first new Gen 4 design I made was this special Dragon-Type, Ukichu. I liked the idea of a rabbit coming out of a hat, but to tie it more into the magical elements of Dragon-Types I incorporated a lot of elements from the Jackalope and Wolpertinger. I moved the cheek spots to below the collar to mimic a bow tie, but also made the horns on its head red to keep that visual element present in the face. This one feels a little busier than all the others thanks to the fluff, but it still feels like it fits.

And as Ukichu is special, its partner in Gen 4 had to be physical, hence the Ice-Type Sharichu. I feel like there isn't a ton to say about this one. I made it very snowman-y, and had it so it could freeze over the brown parts of its fur for attacking or defending. I think I did a good job of illustrating how it works.

And as both Dedenne and Sylveon were Fairy-Type, it stands to reason my Gen 6 counterpart should be as well. My first take on Fuwachu was very just-Sylveon, so I really wanted to break away from that on this take. As Fairy-Types are heavily associated with both being tricksters and gemstones, I tried incorporating both those elements into this design, with the necklace motif, crystalline tail claw, and its tail resembling itself from the back to trick others.

And the last design we'll talk about is Pikachu. Of course. This is actually my third pass on Pikachu, as I wasn't happy with my second. It stuck too much to the original and didn't incorporate some of the elements I used in the other designs. I still didn't change a lot, adding the tail cloud on the second pass so it would have the brown element and functionality all the other evolutions I made have. And on the third pass I gave it an adventuring bandana, which felt on-brand for Pikachu in any universe.

Overall, this was a fun experiment, and I can imagine how easily you could expand upon it. If Pikachu and Eevee are swapped, then is that true of the show? Since Meowth is a cat chasing a mouse, would it be swapped out to match Eevee? What Eevee evolutions would replace the Pikachu clones? How would all these things domino to affect the series? etc. I drew 43 Pokémon for this in total (not all pictured here), so it was a lot of work, and I hope you enjoyed this little design doc, or at least the pretty pictures if you didn't bother reading. And here's the crappy shiny edit, if you're curious.

[rrinku98illusts]

May Art + Update

Sorry for lack of art posts in April, since my old drawing tablet sensors died just the time the nib replacement arrived :") but it lived a good (almost) decade which helped me a lot when I just started as a beginner illustrator back in late 2014-ish.

Since I got a new tablet, I'll be posting my art again regularly this weekend. Maybe mixed with some sketchdump to fill the void too.

Also, might be random but I find my bugged YT funny this morning (legit at first I thought someone modded Skyward Sword Link in Amnesia hahahhah)

[reizerou-arts]

I usually don't do redraws because I'm often still fond of my old art. And somehow when I try, I can't capture the charm of the original. But this. I was going through my old art and I was just like. I could do this better now. For sure. I also wasn't even so inside the characters at that point that they really lacked something inside. And to be fair this was one of my first CSP illustrations and I had been sketching digitally for just a few months in the first place. But wow! I don't think I mentioned it, but a year ago I got a new drawing tablet (XP Pen Deco LW) for Christmas and it's been a HUGE game changer. Who would have thought that a literally 15 year old drawing tablet really was holding me back all this time. And also found my fav CSP brush: I really love design pencil!

And here are the full pieces:

Drew this originally in October 2021.