#my goal would be to use it with my usual art style

[rapidhighway]

damn, i can't believe sonic x fully used dark sonic's potential by making an entire story revolving around this transformation and didn't let it fade into obscurity

[giantkillerjack]

I am trying so hard to learn how to recreate junji ito's style, and I literally think that the line work is so detailed that my poor little crippled wrists are not up to the task

But! I think I have figured out a way to work around that using pre-made cross-hatching brushes in clip studio! Which means hopefully I can focus on getting down the major shapes of his illustrations, and then i can learn how to fill in the ludicrous amount of tiny tiny little lines digitally!

and THEN I am going to draw characters from the video game Don't Starve Together in that style! And vice versa. I would love to draw a cute little chibi of Tomie 😈☠🙀

Time to crack into the file entitled "scary boi jail" that I keep on both my phone and my computer, so I can trace a bunch of panels from Uzumaki.

Happy Twisted Flesh Tuesday, everyone!!

[ballad-of-the-lamb]

hey there!

saturday and sunday @ 8PM EST-> onward join me and my friend on twitch in raising money for my bud's cat Ame whose recently had a huge vet scare!

This is not emergent, she has been treated, but her medicine does need to be paid off! Her name is Ame and she loves to yell.

What was believed to be either a neurological issue or an ear infection in severity has finally been found out; she has anemia and needs to be on medication to help! She's severely underweight and needs all the help she can get (and treats). It's suspected that she has IMHA based off of this episode being caused by stress; but tests for that are money they no one has right now. We're going to focus on what we can get her;

Which is the ability to have her meds without it being withheld from her for financial reasons!

The goal is at least 100$, but if 200$ is raised we have more rewards to raffle out!

Donations that are 20$ or more will be met with given art, just send your character ref sheets to MY BLOG alongside proof of your ko-fi donation and me or my friend will make you something. What that will be is a surprise :)

Once the goal is raised, we'll do a raffle with the donators! So make sure to add your blog name to the donation comment so we can get into contact with you!

we'll mail you a custom metal button 1.5" pin of your making or choosing! + a monochrome drawing will be made for you in my usual not-quite-comic style!

this pin can be your lamb, your oc, one of ours, or whatever else! We can make the art for it or you can have your own put into it. This is entirely customizable. ( if you want more than one pin, it will have to be discussed with us privately )

You can also WIN this prize if you just raw donate the full 100$!

Donate here!

Even if you can't attend stream or donate, simply sharing would be appreciated!

[ckret2]

How did you come up with your human Bill design?

I described my goal in the first post I made about his design:

After seeing dozens of tall dapper skinny white twinky anime boy Bills, I wanted a design that matches none of those words. My other two goals were to use the show’s art style; and to lightly pay homage to Alex Hirsch’s “canon” human Bill with the triangle body… except not deliberately hideous.

My unspoken final goal was "and I'm gonna make him damn good looking."

All the colors were sampled from Bill & Bipper, except his skin (which I sampled off a background character and tweaked until it looked good with the yellows) and his gold tooth (which I sampled off of Ergman Bratsman's).

On top of the fact that I was tired of specifically white dude Bills, brown skin tone was chosen because of the emphasis on Bill's interactions with ancient Egypt; I wasn't sure at the time how much of an influence I was gonna headcanon he had on the region, and it woulda felt weird depicting Egyptians bowing down to a white dude. (And then I decided to deemphasize his influence on Egypt almost completely lol.) It woulda been more accurate to go darker, but I was worried it would start to tilt his design into Nyarlathotep-esque Creepy Pitch-Skinned Mysterious Demonic Threat From The Orient racist territory, especially when he's already got demon eyes.

The triangular torso is the most important part of his design, I usually draw an equilateral triangle in the sketch layer and then pad it out.

If I were a better artist a year ago, I would have given him a double chin so his head+torso together would be triangular. But when I tried, I couldn't figure out a way to draw it that looked appealing instead of like a mean fat joke. So I took the coward's way out and gave him a skinny neck with a vaguely triangular chin, and now write him complaining about having a neck every few chapters.

I think the skinny neck, thinner face, noodle limbs, and typical baggy hoodie fooled people into assuming he's skinny. I figured out a way to draw a rounder face with less neck that looks more appealing to me than the original face, so I do that now. Can't do anything about the noodle limbs tho, those were chosen to match Bill's canon noodle limbs.

I went for a hoodie instead of the typical suits you see on human Bills for two reasons.

One: several years ago I had an OC I'd conceived of as a dumb kid who'd given Bill permanent standing permission to use her as a puppet, and when letting Bill take over she'd hide her human features by wearing a hooded poncho and tying a blindfold with an eye on it over the hood, and that idea stuck with me.

And two: for the story I came up with this design for, the premise is that Bill's been recently unhappily stuffed in a human body and dumped on his enemies' doorstep. So, he doesn't have the freedom or money to get fancier clothes; he's too depressed over being stuck in a human body to care much about his human appearance; and he's most comfortable in something that obscures his human anatomy and reminds him of his real form. If he was rich, free, and able to ditch the body any time he wanted, he'd be wearing suits.

[croquis-el]

Differences in localization and the original pt. 1

I am starting a series of posts with the goal of familiarizing players with some of the differences that localization creates for us in contrast to the original.

Some moments are radically different, misleading and causing controversy, while some do not change the essence of what is happening, but are still noticeably different

Disclaimer: these posts will be written solely for the purpose of familiarization; I do not force anyone to play the game in Japanese, because you are free to choose the version of the game that is comfortable for you. I just noticed some moments and want to share them with you.

The localization of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) is essentially good, but there are some moments, IMHO, that I personally would not adapt or change in any way

One of the most serious changes, which, in my opinion, should not have been touched at all, is Mitsurugi's (Edgeworth) phobias.

As if case 1-4 never happened.

In the Japanese version, when examining the files in Mitsurugi's office, Naruhodō will be perplexed about the need for such high shelves - they could collapse during an earthquake.

････おかしいな。アイツ、 地震がニガテなはずだから……

Okashī na. Aitsu, jishin ga nigatena hazudakara……

...That's strange. He's supposed to be bad with earthquakes...

でもさ。地震が起こったら、 部屋中にファイルの雨が降るね。

demo sa. Jishin ga okottara, heya-chū ni fairu no amegafuru ne.

But if an earthquake happens, files will rain down all over the room.

In the localization (for some reason) at this point Mitsurugi was given a fear of heights. For what reason... I don't understand

___________________________________________

Next, another big difference is Naruhodo's food preferences

In the Japanese version, Tomi the clown offers him miso ramen (which is cooked in chicken broth and miso), which Naruhodo refuses and says that he prefers tonkotsu ramen (cooked in pork broth and boiled pork is added to it).

ホラ。ホラ。 食う? みそラーメン。

hora. hora. Kuu? Miso rāmen.

Look. Look. Want some miso ramen?

あいにくぼくは とんこつ派なんです。

ainiku boku wa tonkotsu-hana ndesu.

Unfortunately, I prefer tonkotsu (ramen).

That is, Naruhodo literally says that he would prefer pork, not chicken.

What about the localization? It's the other way around.

The clown offers him a burger (the patties for which are usually made from beef and pork), but he says that he would rather choose a chicken sandwich.

Why?

___________________________________________

Vending machine in 1-3

I have no complaints about its contents (it is adapted), but here another preference of Naruhodo is lost

“お茶”“みそ汁”“おしるこ” “くず湯”“おでん”････

“ocha” “misoshiru” “o shiruko” “kuzu yu” “oden”

"Tea" "Miso soup" "Oshiruko" "Kudzu soup" "Oden" ...

ラインナップが 和風に統一されている。

rain'nappu ga wafū ni tōitsu sa rete iru.

The lineup is unified in Japanese style.

“ウーロン茶”すらないぞ。

“ūron cha” sura nai zo.

There's not even "oolong tea."

In the Japanese version, reading the menu of the vending machine, Naruhodo annoyedly comments that "there is not even oolong tea". He literally names the tea he likes!

In the localization, he is disappointed that the food in the vending machine is too... ordinary, and he was expecting something that is not usually sold there (popcorn).

___________________________________________

Naruhodō University

Case 3-1 is very rich in information about the young Naruhodō, including the name of the university he attended

In the Japanese version, it is Yumei University (the same university where his ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodō studied during the Meiji era - then it was called Yumei Imperial University), which creates an important reference to Dai Gyakuten Saiban (The Great Ace Attorney)

私の依頼人。勇盟大学の 芸術学部3回生で、 カゼをひいている。

watashi no iraijin. Yūmei daigaku no geijutsu gakubu 3-kaisei de, kaze o hīte iru.

My client. A third-year student in the art department at Yumei University, suffering from a cold.

In the localization, he studies at Ivy University, as if referring to the famous Ivy League (elite universities).

A very good decision that shows Naruhodō's abilities and the high quality of his education (my clever boy)

___________________________________________

Interesting addition

And the last one for today, a conversation with Mask in the detention center

When Yusaku (Ron) tells the story of the allegedly lost vase, Naruhodō makes a comment about the absurdity of his story

(････どうも、ハナシが アヤフヤだなあ･･･)(dōmo, hanashi ga ayafuya da nā)

(... I guess the story is a bit vague...)

The localization decided to make a reference to Naruhodō's education in the field of art, and he compares Mask's story to the surreal paintings of Dali.

A nice addition, but still different from the original version.

___________________________________________

In total, in my opinion, 3 unsuccessful changes out of 5.

If you also noticed any differences - feel free to tell us about them. Let's educate ourselves together.

It will be a bit more difficult with the subsequent parts, because I can't buy the Japanese version of TGAA (it is only available to a certain list of countries), and I don't have the new Apollo trilogy and the Investigations duology to check every little thing (and I don't have an extra $80), and those who record the walkthrough do not always check every clue, where the contradictions lie.

[jealousmartini]

✦ My average schedule + Get ready with me on a random college day as an art student and an LOASS babe ⊹₊ㆍ👜

   ── .✦  ┆  ᡣ𐭩  ┆  ␥ 

Long ass post ahead

FYI!! We only have 4 days of college, so we get Friday off. My longest days in college are Monday, 11:15 am to 4:45 pm (depending on if we have tutorial first thing. If not, we will come in at 1 pm), and Tuesday, 11:15 am to 4:15 pm. My shortest days are Wensdays, 11:15 am to 3:00 pm and Thursday, 9 am to 12:30 pm. The days that are shorter than the others (mainly Thursday) are the ones that I prioritise focusing on extra work after hours. It is super important to me to use my Thursday free time for extra research/analysises/art work at home so I can so I can stay ahead and not fall behind in class

╰┈➤ " She's an overachiever " click here!

«───────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────»

GRWM! The longest day of the week, Monday!

   ── .✦  ┆  𖤐  ┆  ␥ 

The goal is to get a bus around 10:25 am to 10:45 am in order to get to college at 11:15 am

[ 000 :: Getting up ]

✦ I wake up at 9:15 am and immediately make my bed because no one likes to come home to an untidy bed.

✦ And then my first favourite thing I do is wonder what I wanna smell like today, I take out my specifically scented body wash, 2 in 1 shampoo, hair gel, body cream, deodorant (preferably scentless), and perfume with the scent I chose and then I do my blanket affirming in my 15-20 minute shower. After the shower, I moisturise my body with my scented body cream, spray deodorant, and move onto my clothes.

[ 001 :: Getting dressed ] — estimated time 9:35

✦ I love dressing up. At this point, I do my best not to overthink what to wear because I know I will be there forever, making multiple outfits but never choosing one. So I focus on what style I'm going for and pick out my clothes, always being mindful of the colours of course and then put them on

✦ Next I decide wether or not I want to wear make up (more times yes than no) but before I do my usual make up look, I quickly do my skin care routine to protect my skin and then I do my cutesy girlie make up all while affirming my blanket affirmations

✦ And then I move on to do my hair. Because I have super curly hair, depending on what style I want, it takes a bit of time to manage. So I usually settle with doing something simple like brushing my curls out into a fro and then putting it into a bun or puffs, or I leave my curls defined and either leave my hair down or put it in a bun, space buns or a tail type which usually takes me 10-15 minutes, taking us up to 9:55-10 o'clock.

✦ But if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll straighten/blow out my hair and do a straight hairstyle. I usually go for bantu knots, spikey buns (my signature half up, half down), pigtails/ponytails, or leave it down. Doing this would take me around 15-20 minutes, taking us up to 10 o'clock to 10:10.

[ 002 :: Breakfast time ] — estimated time 10:00

✦ It's always important to start your day with a satisfied stomach, which is why I always make sure I know what I want to eat for breakfast and if I want to eat a lot. Once I've made my breakfast, I like to look over the work I have already done on my ipad to see what more could be added while I eat.

✦ I try not to eat too slowly or take too much time doing tiny bits of extra work because I still need to brush my teeth and get my bag (which is always already packed). When I have finished my food, brushed my teeth and got my bag, I should be at the door by 10:30 to 10:45

[ 003 :: Ready to leave ] — estimated time 10:40

✦ I don't live far from my bus stop, so it usually takes me around 5-6 minutes to walk there, and then around 25 minutes to get to college on the bus.

✦ But sometimes my man best friend drives to my house to pick me up and then we both go to college together. I don't know which one I prefer the most to be honest but going by car is definitely a lot quicker (given that there isn't any traffic) and I just love beening in the presence of my boyfie bff

[ 004 :: College hours ] — estimated time 11:15

✦ Hurray we arrived on time! Looking delicious and smelling delicious. Now it is time to get to class and get a load of work done like the overachiever I am.

✦ Lunch time comes around and I leave the classroom to the couch area where my (girl) best friend is waiting for me. We chat and eat and chat some more until it's time to part ways back to class.

✦ Another more than generous amount of work gets done be me and my two super cool art besties, I'm sure the same can be said for the rest of the class but this isn't about them rn.

There's five people per table in my class, but only two tables in the middle have the ten of us, the other 3 tables are empty because we're a small class but I sit along side my two good classmates on the left side. We are very attentive, concentrated, and skilled art students. We always check up on each others art and written work, giving each other ideas and such. We are even jokingly referred to as "competition" by two of our other classmates (im not a fan of those two but it is what it is)

[ 005 :: Home time ] — scheduled time 4:45

✦ Sometimes, college can be grueling. Especially on Mondays. So to be able to have a close friend group to reunite with after the last hour of college is so so comforting. ESPECIALLY WHEN ITS AUTUMN/WINTER SEASON because it gets really dark in the late afternoon very quickly and I always prefer to go home with company in these seasons.

✦ I take the same bus as I did to college back home with my friends, usually right after getting a snack together and because we are a group of four (six if i include boy bestfriends sister and her boyfriend), none of us have to worry about strangers sitting next to us.

The bus drive home is always relaxing and in my opinion fun too.

[ 006 :: Arriving home ] — estimated time 5:10

✦ First day of the week done. Time to unwind, clean up, eat, relax and sleep. As soon as I get back home, I love to have a quick gossip with my mum about my day and get unready with my best friends of face time

There's this very common belief that you always have to talk of face time, but that's not all ways true. Me and my friends just like to have each others presence in silence, occasionally being nosy every now and then about what's for dinner, what's on TV and that's about it. Nothing more nothing less and its perfect that way.

I inform my friends I'm off to get a shower, I like to use my scentless soaps and body creams for bed time or maybe some light essential oils like lavender, I get out and throw an oversized T on because I don't like sleeping with bottoms on, yank my pink bonnet over my curls, slip my feet into some fluffy pink sliders and whatever I choose to do with the rest of my evening is random and spontaneous depending on what I'm in the mood for in the comfort of my home that I manifested ♡

∘₊ ✧───────────────────✧₊∘

જ⁀➴. And that's my average GRWM/schedule of a random day on a random college day as an artist and an LOASS babe ⊹₊ㆍ♡⋆₊˚⊹ I dunno if you could tell but this was secretly a vault lmao

[cryptocism]

AAAHHHAHAHA DUDE (GIRL, THEY THEM) YOUR IWTV IS AMAZING!!!! Your art style is like a characterization of them but much more realistic. It's like you took a photo of them and applied a filter. This is amazing, I love your DC Tim art but this is definitely making love your work more!

thanks!!! tbh applying a filter would probably be an easier route to go if it didnt sit wrong in my like... idk creative instincts. instead i use a very time consuming method called "drawing a face over and over and over again until i kinda get how it works"

actually im gonna use this ask as an excuse to post some studies here is the process:

basically step 1 i trace a photo so i can kinda get an idea of how shit works, then i try to draw the photo using what i learned from the tracing. 1st round is always wack so step 3 is comparing my proportions to the photo again. with armand i consistently drew his face too long lmao u can see it in the corrected sketches. then i do a second round of sketches, corrections, and usually a final sketch that i use as a light/shadow study. sometimes i end up doing more sketch passes if i really cant get the hang of it.

then repeat:

the goal is proportions and consistency, so hopefully when i draw a face with different expressions and angles - even if I dont have a reference that precisely lines up - i can still end up in the ballpark of recognizability.

funnily older daniel is much easier for me to draw than younger daniel tbh. theyve got similar faces but the actor for older daniel just has more distinctive features i can center stuff around, whereas young daniel eludes me a lil bit.... i gotta do more studies of those guys if i can shake the armand fixation for like 10 minutes

[thecruellestmonth]

Juni Ba is holding a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session on May 7 at 4 PM CEST (10 AM EST).

Some of his answers in his previous interviews about The Boy Wonder, a reimagining of Damian's story—

This is a standalone graphic novel (Black Label), meant to be accessible to readers with no prior comic knowledge. It is meant for ages 13+.

Damian is Ba's favorite Robin, and he finds him very relatable.

On Damian comic influences, Ba says Son of Batman and Super Sons were two of his favorite books. *CORRECTION: In the AMA, Ba makes it clear that he's referring to Robin: Son of Batman, not the Damian: Son of Batman series or the Son of Batman movie. Which makes a lot of sense for someone writing a fairy tale about Damian, but I was confused.

Other than Damian, Talia and Jason are the characters that Ba has been most excited to work with.

Ba did the art for the "Happy Birthday Damian" story in Truth & Justice; while the art was a test run for some design ideas he's using in The Boy Wonder, the actual story isn't necessarily indicative of his own writing style or his version of the characters.

Ba is a big fan of Darwyn Cooke. Justice League: The New Frontier thematically inspired him here, possibly more than particular Batman comics.

Ba is aware of the racism discussion regarding the al Ghuls, and he intends to humanize them.

Ba started writing in 2020 or 2021, and the story is being released now after a period of waiting.

"This is very much I guess a Juni Ba book that happens to feature Batman characters."

To start us off, what can you tell us about the story of your new series, The Boy Wonder?

I usually introduce it to people by saying it's the story of a child with a lot of hang ups and preconceived ideas, both about himself and his family members. Over the course of this coming of age fairy tale he starts to learn about them, and himself, and grow into a better person. And it really leans into the fairy tale aspect to push the allegory and the magic in this story!

Why does Damian appeal to you so much as both an artist and a writer?

I find him both tragic and adorable. He and I share some things and I think that's why my brain started coming up with a story about him all by itself. Writing wise there's a fertile ground to tell a really heartfelt story. And art wise, he's such a fun character to draw. It's like a cute little gremlin who's always frowning and judging everyone, which can often backfire on him in funny ways.

How much does Damian's past with Talia and Ra's al Ghul influence Damian and this story?

A lot! They raised him after all, so that upbringing influences a lot of what he does. But that includes Batman too, even if his influence is more recent. There's a looming presence of all the parental figures and the pressure of what they'd have wanted you to do, how they would have judged you.

Since we were talking about Damian’s mother, there have been questions surrounding characterization and stuff, especially for characters like the Al’Ghuls, whose stories unfortunately do have a lot of racist elements in their origins. Are you doing anything to combat or alleviate those concerns in your book?

Stories often dehumanize them, so I try to do the opposite. I think I have a very character-driven style of storytelling, and a lot of the time I try to give the point of view of as many people as I can in the story.

There are five issues. Three of them have the Robins, and then eventually we get to my 2nd favourite team up, which is with Talia and it’s done from her perspective. The main goal was to try to give her more of a voice, because you start this story with a kid who tells you “My parents are messed up,” he was essentially raised to kill people, but we see how she was raised too, and the faults that she can see in her father’s philosophy.

Ra’s gets a bit of that as well later on, but the main goal was, I want to make it so that when you start the story with Damian, he has a lot of preconceived ideas about both sides of his family, which make his relationships to everyone very difficult. Every adventure he has, he gets to understand things in a different light by the end of every story, and one of them was, “What is his relationship to his mom like?” And you get to see it from the mom’s point of view and understand that she loves her son, but there are a lot of complications that come from being raised by someone like Ra’s.

Beyond that, this is an older Talia, more mature and less sexualized than the usual I’d say. As for Ra’s, I can’t say much, but a lot of what you see of him at first is rooted in Damian’s childlike, heightened, and scared perception. Just like the rest, it gets explored later.

It sounds like the book will see Damian coming to terms with his place in the Robin lineage. How does he feel about his brothers?

This Damian would probably say they're usurpers, ingrates, failures and profiteers! It's pretty hard being raised as the center of all the attention, as well as a successor who's never quite enough for his grandfather, and then when thrown into the Bat family, he becomes what feels like the fifth wheel. The last and least appreciated son. So his whole arc will be about processing that.

Is there a character other than Damian that you’re particularly excited to be writing and/or drawing?

Jason and Talia, by a lot. I think because the core of it is this is a world of people who seem very perfect. Damian works as this kid who feels like he’s not good enough for that. But aside from him, there’s Jason, who’s really a well-intentioned, good hearted person who really bad stuff happened to, and he’s struggling to get out of the traumatic impact of that. And I think the story works really well in showing that.

Talia is kind of the same. It’s someone who has a very idealistic view of the world and wants to essentially, be allowed to shape the world into what she thinks it could be, but she has to be under the boot of someone else who is not very reputable, and it has impacted a lot of her life in ways that she did not intend, including her relationship to her son and that’s also probably why those two characters also get like an issue told from their perspective. I really wanted to show you the inside of their mind and dispel a lot of the prejudice that Damian has about the way they are.

I really love the way you visualize Damian and the other Robins expressing themselves with their eyes. What design elements of the character were you most excited to highlight to help show readers what Damian was feeling in a given moment?

I do love using the eyes to express! It’s a very efficient and visually compelling way to do it, but more so than that I use character design. Their shapes, their colors, they all are designed to convey something relative to the story at hand. For example Jason takes cues from Taxi Driver and the general feeling of alienation and being a drifter. It’s all to give a shorthand into how he feels, to then unpack that and give it context. Everything is story basically. Damian looks like a cute angry potato! And that’s all because despite how abrasive he can be, he has to remain endearing and you must see that it’s still a kid learning.

Well, since this is your own thing, I assume that must mean that you’re giving your own spin on these characters. Is there anything without spoilers that you can tease that is going to be different? Like if you’re a long time reader going into this you’re going to be surprised by it.

I’m someone who really likes a more fairy tale and magical side to storytelling. Something that I added a bunch of, I mean, they talk about demons in the solicits of the first issue. It’s both an allegorical thing and a very, real thing that the magical aspects of certain parts of that world have been pushed more.

The other big thing for me was Damian is the heart of the story, so everything is seen from his point of view. So Batman looks a lot more like a dad. Talia looks a lot more like a mom, and with every one of the Robins, I try to take a core concept of every one of them and push it to the forefront to contrast it to Damian. So like, I would say that the more fun part of it would be observing how Damian interacts with what’s essentially kind of a mirror put to himself every time. But overall the idea is a sort of cartoon-making logic, of taking the general elements in various iterations of a character, synthesizing them for the story, into something recognizable but digestible.

The Boy Wonder has this beautiful visual style - fairy tale, as you just said - despite some strong moments of violence. Why did you choose to tell the story this way?

Fairy tales are great for allegory, larger than life concepts and leaning into the magical. There's also a story reason I can't spoil but it makes for a great framing device.

[...] There are narrative reasons in the book that I can’t spoil, but overall I’d say it’s because it’s my favorite format, as well as a great way to really lean into the larger than life aspect, the allegorical, the magical. Fables often contain a nugget of a message or meaning, and this is a coming of age story, so it fits rather well.

The Boy Wonder is as much about Damian as it is his brothers. Has that story not been told enough — how similar and different Bruce’s kids really are — and did you draw on your relationship with siblings at all?

Pretty much no one I talk to in the larger world ever even knows that there are multiple Robins, let alone read their stories. So I’m glad to be making a book that’s easy to access for new readers, with no prior knowledge needed, that appeals on its own and can tell them a cool story about family and overcoming pressure. A story that works both for the ones who know these characters and want a self contained tale, and the ones who know nothing and just want a fun comic to read. The comic is Black Label, which usually skews older, but this is a tale I wanted accessible from mid teens to as old as you want.

And I did pull from experience! I have two siblings, my best friends all do as well, and the inner workings of how you view yourself and your family members depending on where you fit is interesting to me. It’s very much a tale of reckoning with your assumptions about your family, as well as the impact your parents had on you and your siblings.

What about Damian Wayne is so interesting to you? Do you think he gets a bad rap even now in the grander DC Universe?

Damian is simultaneously the most insufferable and most touching little boy to me. There’s a mix of adorable and deadly that I find amusing to watch, and satisfying to write. Plus I sympathize with him on a few backstory elements which are the cornerstone of the whole story.

As for his reputation, I think I’m glad there’s a reminder that being coarse and ill mannered can hide a good heart.

What are some of the benefits of putting this out as a DC Black Label book?

Mostly freedom! I got to tell the story I wanted. I didn't have to worry about continuity, and thus made what I like making: a self-contained adventure that anyone can appreciate as a comic, with or without any prior exposure to that world. Plus we got to have fun with the design of the issues!

Do you have a favorite Damian-starring story that you drew on for this book? Or maybe another Bat Family story instead/as well?

I think my two favorites were Son of Batman and Super Sons. I just vibed a lot with the fun adventurous tone. But most of my inspiration comes from outside superhero comics, or even outside comics as a whole. I didn’t even reread those two books I mentioned aside from when I needed to check phrasing. In that case I read those, and the early Damian stories just to absorb how he spoke.

But outside superhero stuff, were there any influences that were working on you as you were writing this story?

So a lot of comics from the 60s and 70s, from France and Belgium.I have a thing for like 80s and 90s movies, including movies that I was not supposed to watch when I was a kid, so stuff that’s drama-oriented. The point of this book is, it’s basically a character study, mostly of Damian, but also Damian through his interactions with other people in his life. So, mostly the other Robins, but also his parents and more so his mother.

The events that happen are really just a setting for you to observe how the characters interact, and there’s a bunch of movies in the 80s that were really good at doing that and showing you a very flawed person and the way that they react to the world around them. So yeah, that’s more of a tone thing. The aesthetic aspect was really taken from 60s and 70s French and Belgian comics as well as very old sci-fi, fairy tales, and black and white photography.

What’s the process look like for you when you write and draw a comic?

Whoa. Let’s see. So the origin of every book is a little different, but usually I spend a year or two, maybe more just thinking about the story and putting ideas down and then once I have an idea of how every story step works into each other, I start storyboarding so there’s no script.

[...] I don’t write scripts because I prefer to have the storyboard of the thing already made, because that’s where I know if something is working or not. Then once the storyboard has been greenlit and all the corrections are done, the next step is drawing the final pages. I do the sketching on my tablet, and then I print that in blue lines and ink over that. It’s a recent thing, I started doing it the last few months. The Boy Wonder was made that way. [...]

[...] I mean, technically, I started writing it in 2020 or 2021. Yeah. I’ve been sitting on it for a while, and then I made a tweet about it and it got the attention of Chris Conroy, who basically runs Black Label. He just asked, like, “OK, sure. Show it to me. I want to see what that’s like.” Several months later, the book was greenlit by DC.

You talked about how Batman: The Animated Series is an inspiration for this. And also because it’s Damian, I assume that the Grant Morrison Batman stuff is also an inspiration in some ways. But what other Batman material were you inspired by, if any, when writing this book?

Well, I wasn’t so much using Batman as I was using other things. Like there’s a bunch of influences from a bunch of different places, but the superhero stuff was mostly influenced by Darwyn Cooke. So it wasn’t so much Batman as much as it was Cooke. Like the thought process I guess was, “What do I like about these characters? Like the concept of the superhero?” Because the idea came from me watching a documentary about The Dark Knight Returns and Frank Miller. They mentioned how he was given free reign to make the Batman book he wanted. I just had the thought of, “Yeah, that would be fun, having a superhero story where you can just do whatever you want. Like, it’s your personal take.”

I guess from then, my brain started imagining a story with Damian because he’s my favourite Robin and I have a lot in common with him in terms of his backstory. I think it was this sense of sympathy towards the kid and the story grew from wanting to talk about the feeling of “You’re not good enough to be a part of the group you’re in or the family you’re in.” So being a superhero was more of an allegory of, “I don’t feel good enough to be a part of those great people who seem so perfect.”

Then the Darwyn Cooke stuff came. He was probably the biggest superheroic influence, because he’s kind of the epitome of superhero storytelling to me. He makes all his stories very easy to understand, very accessible to someone who maybe has never opened or barely knows what that character is about. His storytelling is also strong on its own artistic terms and most of all, he has this great sense of making superheroes this idea of the ideal version of ourselves, like those people who, even if they have bad thoughts or flaws that they have to overcome, they always do the right thing and they represent the best in all of us, and there’s a sort of sense of joyful fun in the superhero stories that he does. He also can talk about very serious subjects through that at the same time. My favourite superhero comic is The New Frontier, and I kept reading it over and over again when I was rewriting the book just to look at how he was managing that balance of joyful, superheroic, and inspirational fun, and the more serious themes. So yeah, the biggest influence would probably be him.

When I was doing research for this, I noticed that this isn’t your first time with a Damian comic. It was the “Happy Birthday Damian” story for Truth and Justice. Even over there, there’s a lot of similarities in terms of the character design, and even to some degree, Damian’s own struggle with his family and all that. So did that story help inform or define where you wanted to go with the characters for this book?

Well, no actually because basically when they asked me to do that story, the way it happened was that I was originally approached for something else, and I said, “I don’t really want to do that, but I’ve been writing this Damian story just for myself. Would you like to take a look?” Truth and Justice was kind of a test like, “We already have this story written by Andrew Aydin, and the idea was, do you want to draw it? It’s kind of a test run.” So I just used the designs I had already made for my own book. The fact that the themes are very similar is kind of a coincidence and it was kind of funny actually. It was a good way to sort of try my hand at drawing these for the first time, get a sense of what works and what doesn’t. I would say my story is a lot more complex, and delves a lot more into the psychology of most of the characters.

This book is an anthology like you said, where it’s about Damian with all these characters. But in terms of the structure of the story, is there like a connection beyond that, like Monkey Meat is all about the corporation. So is there a connection like that in this story?

Yes. It’s a narrative cut into different, contained stories, basically. Because the idea is that Damian is on a quest to try and prove his worth by defeating an enemy, and it’s really more of a set up to allow for him to meet all the different characters that he does. But the goal is that every story progresses that main plot that he’s on and getting closer to the final showdown against the big enemy.

The whole point is this kid needs to grow up and understand the familial context that he was born into on both sides, like a lot of it is him learning how complicated his parents are, and the effect that they’ve had on the people around them and learning to move beyond the trauma and the more negative impact of being the son of a guy who dresses like a bat, or the descendant of a selfish egomaniac. The big plot of the thing is a young boy wants to prove his worth and every story is a step on that journey towards the final end.

For Damian, you said he’s your favourite Robin. You relate to him a lot, but was there anything beyond that that made you want to sit back and think, “Okay, this is the character that I want to give my own spin on?”

I love the concept of Robin. When I was a kid, that was probably the thing that I liked the most about the Batman world. The reason why Damian worked so well is that it was such a perfect way to also tackle the previous ones, so every one of them represents some aspect of what being a Robin is like, and you can use that as an allegory for being part of a group or family with a code and stuff. You can talk about being part of a group with specific ideas of how you should behave, what kind of things you should uphold as good.

Damian’s the runt of the family. He’s the kid who just showed up. He doesn’t really know these people. He has a lot of preconceived ideas and it was a good way for me to be able to also talk about the previous Robins through him. It’s not a meta commentary, it’s more like, “Why do you like these concepts? What speaks to you as a person when you watch those beacons of goodness do things?” Damian is kind of like the audience surrogate in discovering that aspect of things at the same time.

What’s Damian’s favourite sandwich?

Well, I’m going to try and focus on my version of Damian from The Boy Wonder specifically. That Damian, his favourite sandwich would probably be something made by the mystical creatures that serve his grandfather, who take care of the whole land that they live in. So it’ll probably be a sandwich made with vegetables and meat from supernatural sources, something that he would not be able to get in Gotham because no one even knows that this stuff exists.

I like the idea of how even his favourite food is inaccessible in the new place that he’s in, furthering the whole alienation that he’s experiencing.

If Damian had a favorite song, what would it be and why?

I’m now going to show my age and mention how my teen sister listens to these moody chill songs that sound like the softer version of the emo rock I listened to as a teen, so I’d say that style! (Don’t ask me to name them, I don’t know!)

A song from my angst phase? “Numb” by Linkin Park.

[genericpuff]

This is stupid, but you know those new LO hoodies the Webtoon shop has? I know the font they're using. It's Eckmannpsych which is an Adobe font.

That's not the stupid part though. The dumb part is the capital H and G in the Eckmannpsych font do not match what is on the hoodies, which would obviously be on the hoodies that have Hera or Goddess on them. So, Rachel looks to have taken the time to hand draw her own H and G to match the font style for those hoodies but did not take any time to make new, better art for the merch, but instead reused ugly panels from the comic. Talk about a strange look into her priorities. She doesn't like how the G and H look on a font? She will remake those to fit what she wants. Rachel when the assignment gives her the chance to make specialized, better designs for those same merch? She can't be bothered to even try. WTF!

for the love of god-

I'm assuming and hoping they had the commercial rights to that font LMAOO But it did kind of make me go 🤨 because while I didn't know the font EXACTLY off the top of my head it still felt... weirdly out of place for something like LO? Why are these hoodies being stylized like they're from Austin Powers LOL

On another note tho, the LO merch is just like... disappointing in how bad it is for what's supposed to be WT's #1 series, which is, btw, a series with so much unique stylization that it shouldn't even be this hard to make merch for it! it just feels very "first attempt at redbubble merch", but unlike genuine first attempts at making merch (which is obviously a learning curve that I wouldn't judge anyone for being new to) this is a company that's sunk shitloads of money into LO so I don't know why they can't get better merch made?? so much of it is just the default drawings taken and slapped onto a tote bag or t-shirt, which like, yeah cool fine you're using art that's recognizable and considering the art is already made, it stands to reason that they should use it for more than just the comic. It's just disappointing to see how lazy it often is and how little effort is put into translating it onto a t-shirt/tote bag/etc. like we can't even have ONE exclusive t-shirt with a unique design that isn't just poorly copy pasted from the comic?

Case in point, those t-shirts that Rachel was advertising a while ago that were actually straight up falsely advertised. I can't find the post about it on my Tumblr (I'm pretty sure I talked about it here) so here's the IG story rundown I did on it ages ago:

Again I'd really like to have benefit of the doubt here that Rachel isn't the one making these designs, usually that's not how the merchandising process goes in these types of deals, so I'm not gonna point the finger at her. But it's just so odd to me that it happened in the first place. And this goes for a lot of LO's merch, so much of it feels cheaply made and rushed off a conveyor belt for the point of making money without much expense. Which yeah, that's a business model for sure, the goal is to profit, but like this?

You can't even argue that it's like people criticizing LO the comic because like, as much as I'll justify what I spend my time doing here in my free time, it's true that at the end of the day I don't have to pay for LO, so really the only thing I'm doing is inflicting psychic damage to myself, it's not like my actual money is on the line LMAO That's why I stopped paying for LO ages ago and only do it when I have a specific episode I need to review (such as the midseason hiatus review series I did). At the very least, if I really want to keep reading LO but don't want to pay for it, I can just avoid FastPassing it and read it for free so I can save the coins for other series I'd rather read. The Webtoons' FP system is very fair that way.

But this is merch explicitly made to generate revenue. It is a product, front to back. You can vote with your money by not buying the thing you don't like, absolutely, but the fact that it's this poorly to begin with is just so indicative of Webtoons' business practices and so shitty for the people who genuinely enjoy this comic and are being advertised and sold shoddy merchandise that doesn't even come looking the same way it's advertised. It's really not a good look for Webtoons, Rachel, or LO that this is what they're selling to people.

Especially for what they're charging, good lord-

Like, okay, they're hoodies and they're gonna be expensive to print and ship so the higher overhead cost makes sense, but jesus christ, with the kind of merch Webtoons has already given the stamp of approval on, would it even show up in decent condition? How bright are those colors gonna be? Are they gonna strip off as soon as I throw it in the wash? I'm half-tempted to buy a hoodie for myself just to do a review on it but I can't justify dropping $75 CAD on a hoodie that only has art on the back. Maybe it's just me living in the hellish lands of Canada where we play with toy money that's the problem, but it's just not a gamble I wanna take LOL If I bought one it would probably be the Hecate or Hermes ones because they're the only ones that are at least somewhat legible and have decent character art that isn't a character looking like they need to poop LMAO

(these are literally the two worst drawings they could have chosen of these two i stg lol the only thing that would have made this worse/funnier is if it was Handsome Hades and Persephone Kidnapping a Baby LMAO)

It has me worried about what the LO figures are gonna look like when they release. Are they gonna have some creative liberty with making them chibi-fied (like a Nendoroid?) or are they gonna try and replicate the art style exactly and wind up making literal blow-up sex doll Persephone? 😭

NGL, if the figures are done well enough and don't cost an arm and a leg, I might consider buying one just for the shelf collection, but again, it depends. If Webtoons released a tarot deck with really good panels from LO (like the Tower 4 scene or Persephone sitting on the rooftop with her comb or Eros flying down into the Mortal Realm) I would buy the shit out of that. I would even just take the Major Arcana if 78 cards was too much to ask :'0 I'm not against Webtoons/Rachel trying to profit off LO merch at all, I just wish it was BETTER- (╥﹏╥)

[retellingthehobbit]

If you want to see Hobbit comic chapters early, and more concept art/deleted things/drawing tips/behind the scenes art—-soon I will launch a Patreon!

I prefer to *publicly* post my comics in massive full-chapter chunks every few months. But If you want to see pages “as I draw them,” usually around one page on a weekly basis, you will be able to subscribe to me there soon. :)

This will come with the understanding that the patreon pages are still “previews” and they may be heavily edited later on as I finish the chapter. (Sometimes I’ll see something that bugs me on page 1 after I finish page 15 and have to fix it!)

I will also post things related to my other upcoming art/comic projects, all of which have a similar aesthetic of “changing art styles to convey different narrators.”

If I ever take a hiatus from drawing or from updating the patreon, I will pause all billing for the month so that no one is charged.

My goal with this Patreon is to be extremely professional and accountable! I’m confident I’ll be able to run this very well!

Most of the things I post on the Patreon will also be posted publicly, eventually. But because I obsessively polish things (even the captions under posts of old art) they won’t be posted publicly for a longer amount of time. I don’t want people to feel left out if they can’t afford to pay a few dollars a month; this is just “early access” to slightly less polished stuff for the people who can.

On a personal level I would like for the Patreon to be able to cover the cost of Photoshop and a couple other art tools I use in my work, so that I’m no longer “paying” to draw this comic! :3

I haven’t yet launched the Patreon because I am busy filling it with a lot of concept art work/bonus art, to make sure it is worth subscribing to.

But yeee get excited! I hope some people are interested!

And I hope to have it ready by February 13th. :)

[xviruserrorx]

(Explanations of what each event is is under the cut along with some of my ramblings)

This is for the main thing. In the theoretical Discord I'm currently making I feel like a lot of things can be done as little mini events along the way if anyone would want to do that. That way, aside from whatever the main event is, we can still do other stuff throughout the year. A lot of this is just ideas I'm throwing out into the wild so to speak and to see what interests everyone.

I also kinda want there to be something laid back too because I know that fandom, the craft community, and the disabled community all intersect big time so yeah. Feel free to yell at me from the tags I want to see everyone's input/ideas!

A week long event: I feel like this is too quick because these things takes a lot of time, but in the theoretical Discord I'm currently making we can do little weekly prompts/challenges if it interests anybody.

Nanowrimo: This is a month long thing where everyone has a 50k novel to work on and you work on it everyday for a month. Similarly can be done with crafts/fiber arts/textiles where everyone picks a project and we each have a goal to meet each day

A select few months: Ex. June-August,

Gift exchange: Again another one of my theoretical ideas, might be difficult, sounds pretty fun, maybe could be used for a holiday event thing?

Draw/Write in your own style: This is when everyone creates someone off of the same prompt/image, but I'm this case it's probably be the same Base pattern.

Bang Event: Two or more people of different or the same mediums (a crocheter, a pattern maker, a knitter etc) pair up and make whatever based off of each other's work.

Round Robin/Telephone: For those who don't know, a Round Robin is when you pass along a fanfic from one person to another and you all start where the last person left off. Telephone is very similar but like in telephone only the first person who starts the project has and knows the pattern while everyone else doesn't. Again with this it may be hard and require a lot of planning but it's worth the mention.

Teams/Game type event: So teams event if when people are put into teams (team blue or team [specific fandom name]) and you just create as much as possible for whatever theme the group picks. Now Game type events (I actually haven't seen any of these in recent year) is when you do the same thing but each round everyone votes and gives points to each other and who ever has the most at the end wins.

Bingo: A bingo card filled usually with different prompts/challenges that can be customized or just picked at random

Masquerade/Guess The Maker: Everyone has a concealed Identity and everyone else has to guess who made what.

[writing-with-sophia]

I usually find myself using the same range of ages in my stories (young adults, teens), and just plotting a crime story, I realized how unrealistic it was to have almost every single character in early stages of adulthood, especially the team researching the case. Of course I have in mind a lack of experience in certain things for them and stuff but it's pretty hard for me to do older or much younger characters idk why 😭 what would u recommend? Is it somehow bad not to have a variety of ages or making it less realistic? It makes me feel like I'm doing a teen novel, sry for my english and uh ty <3

How to include a broader spectrum of ages in stories

Well, in fact, it's not necessarily bad to focus on a specific age range in your stories, as long as it serves the narrative and the themes you want to explore. If you find it difficult to write for a wide range of ages, you can certainly focus on teenagers. A story about young detectives can also be engaging and exciting, right? But if you want to incorporate a variety of ages to add depth and richness to your story, here are a few suggestions to help you:

Tip 1: Develop characters

Create well-rounded characters of different ages, each with their own distinct personalities, perspectives, and life experiences. Develop their backstories, motivations, and goals in a way that reflects the impact of their age on their thoughts and actions.

Then, explore how age can influence characters' motivations, goals, and challenges. Older characters may bring wisdom, life experiences, and a different perspective, while younger characters may have a sense of idealism, curiosity, and growth potential. By considering age-related motivations, you can create more dynamic and believable characters.

Tip 2: Build relationships for characters

At different ages, people develop various types of relationships. For example, a 16-year-old girl may have relationships with peers, teachers, and family members, while an adult man may have relationships with family, coworkers, and friends in social settings.

Relationships between older mentors and younger proteges, or clashes between generations, can add depth and conflict to your story. These interactions can also provide opportunities for growth and learning for your characters.

Tip 3: Pay attention to characters' dialogue and language

The vocabulary, tone, and communication styles of characters from different age groups are different. Younger characters may use contemporary slang or have a more informal way of speaking, while older characters may have a more formal or seasoned approach. You can observe closely how the elders around you communicate and make notes in a notebook.

Tip 4: Research

If you find it challenging to write characters of different ages, consider conducting research or seeking firsthand experiences from people of those age groups. As mentioned above, you can make a small notebook to record the words, actions and behaviors of people around you in certain situations. Reality is always a great source of information if you know how to take advantage of it.

Tip 5: Beta and feedback

You can share your work with beta readers or writing groups that include individuals from various age groups. Their feedback can offer valuable insights and help you refine the portrayal of different age groups in your story.

Remember, storytelling is an art, and there are no set rules. Ultimately, it's about finding a balance that aligns with your creative vision while ensuring your story resonates with a diverse audience. Embracing a variety of ages can add depth and realism to your stories, expanding the scope of your narratives and making them more relatable to readers of different backgrounds and experiences.

[squidpedia]

Hey! How do you do lineart & Sketches???

You’re one of my biggest inspirations for drawing and I really love your art style!

UM??? THANK YOU?? I 🥺🥺🥺

I’ll try to word this as best as I can but I am honestly terrible at text descriptions/explanations sometimes, so I’m sorry if anythings unclear or odd. My process also varies sometimes depending on the artwork

Sorry for somewhat long answer ahead!

Usually for any artwork that I know will take a longer amount of time, I start with a really quick 1 minute sketch to get the proof of concept down. It doesn’t have to look good and the proportions may be very off and really messy but thats ok, my main goal is just to get the whole idea down and interpret it again later. I write notes next to the sketches sometimes if I have a specific thing I want to include later like for the coloring or lighting.

After that, I usually make a revised sketch on top of that and keep tweaking or redoing the sketch until I get something I like. This is also where I reccomend you start checking proportions and flipping the canvas. The first and third image had to be revised before I was able to make lineart I was happier with. Some other times I just jump straight into the lineart if I think the sketch already looks ok (but this is kinda risky as I usually end up having to resize a lot of the lineart later when doing this, which can end up dropping the quality of the selected area and making it slightly blurred compared to everything else. Sometimes I just end up redoing the lineart entirely for the selected area when this happens).

When coloring the lineart I try to mostly color lines that exist inside the silhouette of the person, but I’m also kinda loose with this rule and also will color anything on the edges if I think it looks better in a certain instance.

I’ve been trying to keep my lineart much thinner and enjoy using Procreate’s ballpoint pen for lineart. For sketches I usually use whatever feels most satisfying or convenient or just try a new brush for sketching to spice up my process every now and then.

In worst case-scenarios, if I’m really struggling to get something I like when sketching, then I just keep redoing the sketch and trying to figure out what I don’t like about it. The undertale the musical gif had something around 6 redo’s before I finally liked it enough to give it lineart

Sometimes I also try making quick messy color mock-ups of my sketches to plan out colors or specific effects for later to test what colors I like and what I think would look good for later. I also might write notes if there’s any extra details I think of that I want to include later

Thats everything I can think of, I hope this helps and sorry again for this being a pretty long answer, its the best way I could think to explain my process, but I hope its a bit helpful at least!

[pja-party]

HoI ✨ I love your art and your style, keep up the good work! ^^ As for the ask: I know that key to getting better at art is practice. But practice what? What did you do as a begginer artist?

When I was a kid, before the internet was popular, I bought many drawing instruction books. I followed the instructions in the book to practice.

"Practice for what?" It is based on which theme would you like to improve? Such as characters, scenes, composition..etc

I recommend continuing to scroll to learn more about how to practice.

Oh boy, allow me to share the FB post about practice . Although it's Chinese, I will put an English translation over here

English translation

Page 1:

"About Practice"

#Problem Solving #Time Management #Habit Formation

Page 2:

1. After Setting the Question

The important thing to talk about here is what happens after setting the question. If you haven't seen the previous article, you might want to check it out first.

I believe after reading the discussion in the previous article, some people might start using official solutions to tackle the problems or even begin setting some questions for practice.

After solving the problem, you might encounter the following situations:

Uncertainty about the problem,

Uncertainty about the practice method,

Lack of efficiency, etc.

This is quite normal because the previous practice methods might have been a bit aimless.

Page 3:

When you continue to practice drawing, you might find that the drawing starts simple but eventually evolves into a larger scene. After drawing several sketches, you might end up not using them or facing a blank canvas, feeling lost.

You might realize that all these scenarios lack a clear goal, which is what we often refer to as finding a sense of direction. But this kind of practice often consumes a lot of time, and it might take a month or two before you can create a drawing that you are more satisfied with (or even longer).

Therefore, after setting a question, having a clear goal is crucial. This goal usually involves many practice methods. During this period, you need to find a method that suits you for practicing.

P.S. This doesn't mean you need to find direction immediately; if your basic skills are lacking, it's recommended to focus on building basic skills first.

Page 4:

2. Finding Small Goals

Why is having small goals so important? Because finding direction usually relates to basic skills.

For me, finding direction = creating something visually appealing = constructing a good composition (for example: character design, scene setting, modeling, creatures, etc., as long as you recognize it as visually appealing).

Creating something visually appealing is something I understand well, but based on the reverse deduction, composition, character design, modeling, etc., can all be practiced, right? Therefore, before seeking to create something visually appealing, you should first practice your basic skills because –

The sum of all basic skills = comprehensive ability.

Page 5:

So, the stronger your comprehensive ability, the more you can express the desired visual appeal in your drawings. After enhancing your comprehensive ability, you can create a work with a certain level of quality, even if you haven't found your direction yet.

Speaking of composition, character design… aren't these big-picture problems? Right? Then can't they be broken down? After breaking them down, there will be small goals. Below is my thought process:

Recently, I need to do more training in modeling (big picture), but how should I train the model? Should I focus on proportions? Structure? Shadows? Concept? Etc. (small goals). Since there are so many small goals, let's pick one, and each training session will focus on one aspect! (Trial and Error).

Page 6:

This forms the process flow as follows:

Big Picture -> Break Down -> Small Goals -> Trial and Error -> Verification

Using a simpler example:

You want to make a three-star fried rice dish (big picture), you know what ingredients are needed (break down the problem), but you might not be able to make it right away, so you turn to friends and learn (small goals).

You try making it, but when your friends taste it, it doesn't turn out well.

Possible reasons:

The seasoning was too much or too little,

The rice was too wet,

The ingredients didn’t mix well, etc.

This process = trial and error. In other words, it’s the process of refining, but the line was too thick, the proportions were off, the details were too cluttered, etc.

Page 7:

Verification can be imagined as having the correct answer, but drawing doesn't have a fixed answer, so I usually ask myself the following questions:

Was this method of practice effective? (If not, then try something else)

Am I satisfied with the results of the practice?

Can I apply this in the future as needed?

If all the above are true, then it's essentially a valid verification.

Q: How do you determine if it's effective? A: Like following a doctor's prescription (following a plan), if the results are good, then it's effective (illness cured).

My idea is that after setting a goal, if you follow the plan and the effect is good, it's fine. If the result is bad, then there might be a problem with the plan. You might still be practicing, not knowing what you are missing, and not having enough experience.

Page 8:

3. Time Management

Usually, when I practice small goals, I schedule one to two months (some might be shorter) for this training.

[ecargmura]

Wind Breaker Episode 6 Review - The Fox Leaves The False Holly

Now, THIS is a well-animated fight of pure hand-to-hand combat. No flashy magics or powers needed. It’s just two delinquents going at it. Cloverworks did an amazing job giving us a fight scene as impactful as Sakura’s brawl from the premiere. I love how it was animated! Sako uses a lot of spin-kicks and punches while Hiiragi is more powerful kicks and punches. I think my favorite aspect of the fight was when Sako was going to kick Hiiragi, but faked it by grabbing his leg. That was so cool! I also really liked Hiiragi utilizing his tall height and long legs by kicking Sako from behind. It shows that the animators know how to get creative with these fight.

Hiiragi and Sako have history with each other. They used to be friends since elementary school when the former saved the latter from bullies. This was when Sako asked Hiiragi to teach him how to fight. When they were in middle school, Sako was keen on following him for the rest of his life and believed he’d be at the top in Furin. However, Hiiragi said that he was going to work under Umemiya and not take the top spot for himself. The moment he told Sako to not follow him anymore and get a new goal in life was when the rift between them happened. It seems it could be an asinine story for some viewers, but I see it as more of Hiiragi trying to help Sako avoid a potential toxic codependent relationship. He was clearly attached to Hiiragi sort of like how Sugishita holds Umemiya in high regard. However, the only difference between Sako and Sugishita is that Umemiya is already at the top so he is someone already respected while Hiiragi is someone who doesn’t want to take that position for himself. Sako could’ve been someone who could’ve been spiteful of Umemiya or Hiiragi because of this because had Sako gone to Furin, there would be a lot of tension. This was why Sako drifted away from Hiiragi and decided to join Shishitoren after Togame and Choji scouted him. Sako believes that power comes from doing things on your own, without the need to depend on anyone. The fact that Hiiragi chooses to be a follower and not a leader was what irked him.

As someone who read the manga last weekend, I want to say that there’s a very interesting theming with Bofurin and Shishitoren. All of the Bofurin members are named after plants, hence why their team’s image color is green and why Umemiya likes gardening. For example, Sakura’s name uses the kanji for Cherry Blossom. In Hiiragi’s case, his name comes from the Japanese word for Osmanthus heterophyllus, or false holly. The “ko” in Sako’s name is the kanji for fox. By extension, all of Shishitoren are named after animals. The To in Tomiyama stands for rabbit. The Game in Togame stands for turtle. The Ma in Arima stands for horse. The Ka in Kanuma stands for deer. It also helps that Shishitoren means Lion’s Head, hence the animal themed names. I think it’s super creative from a writer’s standpoint.

Speaking of Sako, I have to say that I really like his design. Wind Breaker’s character designs are so intricate. Sako stands out a lot to me. While he’s not as pretty as Suo, I still consider him a beauty. He stands out, hence why I think he’s pretty. It also helps that he does look like a fox like his namesake. No, it’s not weird to call male anime characters pretty and I’ll keep doing it.

I also liked the little banter Sakura, Nirei and Suo usually have as an audience member. Sakura’s shit talking actually gets his allies motivated. Suo’s fighting style is supposed a hodgepodge of different martial arts as his instructor was self taught. Hmmm, this does support my Suo being a successor theory…

As a manga reader, the Hiiragi and Sako fight was animated superbly. However, I honestly cannot wait for Sakura vs Togame, which will happen next week. All I can say is that Hiiragi’s words towards Togame, “You don’t know what’s going to happen” is foreshadowing the results of the match. Who do you think will win?

[catprinx]

I know art is all about practice and trying out new things and not being afraid of using references, but do you have any advice for newer artists about areas to focus time on? Especially for learning digital art/colouring? I've always loved your art style so any advice you have would be valuable.

hi anon!!! Thank you for the kind words :)

There's no one good answer to this because art is about a lot of things. So rather than give you clear-cut actionable items to do, like a checklist, I'll just write down my own philosophies about art exploration. I've also been thinking a lot about this in terms of my own improvement.

(Also for everyone reading this I am by NO MEANS a teacher so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm simply someone that just enjoys thinking about art)

I think art is a lot about the combination of technical skill + visual language + concept.

Practicing technical skill, as you said, involves using reference and doing studies. I think an important thing to remember is you need to know what you're trying to learn. Here's a good example the former is a traditional still life of grapes, the artist probably intended to make a piece with a good composition and an impressive rendering technique. While the latter is definitely more of a value/color study. I'm certain this artist could have gone into detail rendering those grapes but being realistic isn't their intention/style. So when you're doing your studies I think simply asking "what do I want to work on?/what am I trying to communicate" can be helpful.

If your goal is working on color specifically I think it would be important to practice values, hues, and temperature control. Those things are the basis of color and after that you can play with more stylistic color. In the end my advice is to do a lot of studies, and look at a lot of art! Doing these studies digitally is just a matter or practicing and familiarizing yourself with the art programs (it takes time). If you have an artist you like you can probably look at their work and breakdown what you like about it. For example the narumitsu art I was working on here is kind of a study of @/rei_17's art (from twitter). I love her use of non-local colors and colors that are very close in value but the depth comes from the hue/temperature shifts in color. It's so masterful to me!!! So, now that I know what I'm looking at it becomes easier to break down and put it into practice for my own art.

Visual language usually refers to "style". To me, it can mean a lot of different things but for the sake of this long ass text post let's say it's just about "art style". My tip is to...copy! Copy what you like and figure out what it is you like about it. I feel like your hand will guide you towards your own art style in the end. I don't view myself as someone with a particularly interesting or unique art style but I can breakdown my influences a little. I'm someone who grew up with anime/shoujo influence but also copied a lot of popular tumblr styles back in the day lmao. I want my anatomy to "feel" correct even though it's rarely realistic and I don't really exaggerate form too much because I don't have a preference for it. I'm someone who values drawing speed and clarity of form over details. And all those things added up are the reasons I draw like I do. You can totally make a style by more intentionally riffing off others, and you can also develop a style just by doing your own thing. Your art will always have an identity of its own even if you don't know it at the time!!!

Concept is just your idea/intentions/narrative etc. I really think concept can be anything you want. Some people can go really in-depth with their concept with studying and research and etc, and other people can make something visually interesting simply by going "I want to draw a cute girl". Everyone is different! I wouldn't take concept advice from me personally because I don't make original illustrations. Fanart is easier to work with because usually you're interpreting someone's existing narrative and you can churn out something cool from that. Maybe my advice is draw more fanart???