#one day I will have the patience to render a real comic but for now

[thyeternalhunger]

wips

[dwcmarshalarts]

I adore your style and content - I’m considering doing masters studies of some of your pieces just to try it out, but I’m still fairly new to art. I was curious if there’s any part of your process or any particular advice you’d have?

Gave this answer before to someone who asked me the same question, and I think it still counts! 1) Build stamina. You can do this by drawing often- and with intention. Start your drawing with a warm up- something light, not overly serious. Focus more on the literal mechanical feeling of your hand moving to draw. Then focus on the heavier stuff after you’ve both literally and mentally warmed up, setting the stage for more involved drawing. Make this a routine and drawing overall will be less tiring over time.

2) Focus on replicability, not detail. This goes hand in hand with the previous point. A lot of people develop a kind of perfectionism early on, where they get overly attached to a specific sketch and don’t wanna budge from it, and put details until it “looks good,” even when the subject as a whole is wonky. I like to equate this to “too much icing, not enough cake,” or “building on sand foundations.” I’ve been there before, and it can hold you back. Instead of focusing on a specific piece and how you rendered it that one time, focus on how you render it such that you could do something similar, easily replicate the concept. Once you’ve built more stamina, you can open up the gates to tackling the same subject matter in different ways.

3) Mind your mark making. Some folks agonize over the tiniest detail, sometimes for hours. At the end of the day, that itself doesn’t necessarily bring improvement- that’s more of a test of patience. Unless someone specifically asks, you don’t- for example- need to draw every single ridge of every knob on a switchboard in great detail. These things can be implied through mark making. Remember, a lot of drawing isn’t about literally making something for people to see- it’s tricking the eye into believing what’s drawn is actually there. You’ll be amazed at what detail can be like even when you don’t define every part.

4) Drawing is more seeing than “making it up.” * Don’t be afraid to use references and such. It’ll help you render form than imagining it- sometimes the imagination can conjure things incorrectly. *Even seasoned artists who don’t typically use too much references need to do studies from life or books every now and then to reinforce skills.

One point I didn't add before for style things specifically is: 5) Look where the artist got their inspirations from if you want to learn from them. No art exists within a vaccuum, everyone has their influences. Trying to do a study from someone's art will only take you so far- because then it'll feel more like mimicry than actual, learned study. Research or try to see parallels with artists that you might think had a hand in influencing a given artist's style. Notice the patterns there- certain textures are invoked here, this form was defined like this, etc. A lot of folks confuse wanting "more of a thing" as opposed to "what makes that thing desirable/unique." If you'd like to know where some of my influences come from, I'd say look at the works of Squiddy, covers for Hellboy comics, and the Snowpiercer graphic novel.

Addendum: If you're looking to draw anatomy specifically- study from real anatomy, and learn how to do those before you begin to "break the rules" (exaggerate, anthropomorphize, etc). For resources on that, I'd recommend the Morpho books (all of them haha) and Dynamic Human Anatomy by Roberto Osti.

Hope this helps somewhat, feel free to ask if I missed anything.

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 4-7 author notes

My first post of this kind was more popular than I’d expected, so here’s one more! I’m not sure how frequent these would be once we move on to ShB in December or January, but the ARR arc has a lot of condensed, perhaps cryptic, messages and foreshadowing, I’ll gladly unpack it C:

Vivi nobanana :’> Where’s his heroic posture?! Raha’s disappointment’s immesurable and his day’s ruined. Well, actually, it opens a door to more teasing. Still no unreachable hero pedestal in sight.

Notice how Vivi’s completely unmoved. He’s confident in every tiniest decision he makes, he just picked the most secure route, even if it came at the (insignificant in his eyes) cost of style points.

No Deep Meaning (tm), just the cute catboy cutely begging.

This frame cracks me up because Vivi 100% bought it, despite claiming otherwise. Smug and fearless hero, my ass.

Under the cut you go~

Just an obvious parallel. YELP!

And anotha one. They’ve begun a lifelong sass contest.

The face of a man who has no idea how to be mad at Cid, no plans to actually remember this either. But he has to keep his cool somehow.

Just reminding that I wrote a smol text to fill in the gap between this episode and the next one. Raha decides to go big and teleport somewhere to escape the immediate punishment. This actually gives Vivi a ton of headache and tires him out enough to be more impressed than angry. The aethersand shenanigans pale in comparison. By the end of this unplanned trek Vivi’s curious about the lil redhead nuisance.

The miqo sit :>

How are they still alive with their bodies intact?

I’ve purposely picked brighter colors for this episode to reflect the shift of the mood.

Vivi has the red cloth effect on Raha. One of the biggest building bricks in their foundation.

No Deep Meaning again, just one of my personal fav frames. Vivi’s face spells “TROUBLE”. Also Raha’s ears pointing forward.

Cid’s patience knows no bounds.

I ran a twitter poll between these two episodes, ~80% (a whopping ~800 people?! What the hell o/////o) expected a kiss, but the doubters actually sounded so SAD, they were like “yeah probably no kiss but one can hope”. WELL.

There’s less thoughts in this pretty head than one may expect. I have a dedicated thought bubble style for the both of them, and it’s not around :9 He’s just weary and soft and wishes for entertainment.

I purposely held back the colors and light until this episode: if everything’s special, nothing is. Besides, on the purely technical side, this takes an ungodly amount of time. But I’m happy that I went for this, after all. The visual intensity of the scene reflects the catboy feels.

Impossibly oblivious. And just as adorable.

Vivi stays offscreen for a long while since these feels don’t really have anything to do with him. He just sittin’ there waiting for Raha to make up his mind.

And, yeah, if the pacing felt slightly off to you, like the kiss could’ve happened later, it’s intended. It’s just a whim of this Warrior.

Raha snaps out of his enchantment: he remembers that it's the world-renowned hero he's about to kiss. And, while Vivi doesn't know this yet (and doesn’t find out for years of the real-world time comic updates, it’s not crucial so it’s okay to talk about it now while it’s in focus), I’ll let you in on a little big secret: this's Raha's first kiss. What wins: a less than intimate atmosphere for a first kiss, or the slightly drunken thrill of a deed so crazy he'd probably still be recalling it fondly when he's 90? Of course he jumps at the opportunity.

This frame’s intended to feel haunting. He relinquishes his doubt, common sense and hope for a better setting for his first kiss.

I won’t ever shut up about this frame and how perfect it turned out, from the sketch to final render. It has absolutely no right to look so sensual. This kiss isn’t even that important in the big picture! Argh. But I went extra for the hell of it.

Where do you think you’re going? The Warrior isn’t done with you yet :>

I intentionally kept the camera on one side until the very last moment, it wouldn’t have had the same effect had you seen their surroundings full of people from the beginning. And it emphasizes how little they care. Or, well, at least one of them.

Raha mellows out at the end of the kiss. He realizes that he needn't concern himself with these people's opinions. He's close to the Warrior of Light. He's WITH the Warrior of Light, he assumes. All that matters.

Now, this’s a bit of info that should’ve probably been better telegraphed in the comic (it’s my first work of this scale, enjoy the trial and error journey with me :’D), it’s somewhat visible in episodes 8-9, however I don’t feel like it’s clear enough, so I’ll just say it. Both get wrong signals from each other. Vivi assumes Raha's experienced, Raha assumes Vivi's romantically interested.

To wrap this post up, can I just marvel at how many people got the hots for Vivi’s lipstick after this scene x’D It’s not my personal kink or anything, but I admit that it looks rather striking. He just knows he’s attractive, and acts accordingly. The lipstick does indeed smear during the kiss, and Raha wears it afterwards \o/

We have 4 (or 5 if my estimations are off) ARR episodes left. It’s meant to be a fleeting prologue and I say I managed to stay on the main track. Then, as I already mentioned in the beginning, we hop directly to ShB because it’s Their Story first and foremost. At some distant point in future we’ll have a flashback arc where Vivi shares stories of his past with Raha, filling in some gaps. But it’s genuinely far off, my evil plan’s to get everyone invested through other means before doing the Vivi loredump. Hope at least some of the current readers are still around some years later ;w; I’m here for the loooong ride. Elezen-sized. *kicked*

[elephart-hi]

The Mortal Maiden: Witch!Jude

Chapter 2: A Secret Sealed with a Kiss

set during The Cruel Prince.

(another sneek peek at my wip for this fic)

summary: Oh, he was making a show of himself for her she realized noting the way the light caught on the definition of his stomach. He wanted her to look at him. His lidded eyes seemed to say ‘aren’t I lovely’ and damn it if he wasn’t.

Rating: Mature but not explicitly till later chapters!

AN: I contemplated having this chapter be Cardan reading harry potter and Jude just spoiling the whole series and telling him everyone who dies just to spite him.... sighhhhh i had to make the hard decision and actually write the plot

also no beta for this chapter tee hee

Ao3 Chapter 1 you are at chapter 2 chapter 3

Cardan blinked at the vision before him. Once, twice. Then glanced at the goblet in his hand with a perplexed look on his face. He wasn't sure if he had accidentally poured himself the bottle he had mixed with his hallucinogenic powders. There was no way Jude Duerte would be standing in his room mid-day. She would be asleep in her chambers at the general’s stronghold.

He looked back at the vision in front of him and rubbed his eyes. Then he heard a scoff and saw her sneer at him with fathomless hate burning in her amber eyes. Now that seemed very real. He glanced at her hands and saw that the ring finger of her left hand was missing a digit. He started.

“You’re being rude.”

Cardan wiped his head in the direction of the door as he heard Darnal, the knocker laugh at her from the other side. Her nose crinkled and her brows pinched at the sound. She was cute when she was angry. And she was also definitely in his bedroom. Cardan tried to not let his mind wander to the many inappropriate fantasies he has had of this very scene but he was on his fourth bottle of wine and he was having a hard time reeling it in. He looked her up and down slowly, hoping it would make her mad enough to distract her while he grabbed his damned tail. He needed to get it under control before it made a fool of him.

“Aren’t you going to say something”

“I supposed I should, shouldn’t I?” he didn’t know what to say. He had no idea what she was doing here. He felt a smirk tug at his lips as his nerves continued to spiral out of control. His hand reached behind his back and grappled for his tail “Why are you in my room?”

“Why does your door know my name?” she gritted back, her lips curled into a snarl. She was clearly very annoyed, for what reason Cardan didn’t know. She was the one in his room after all… in the middle of the day no less. Shouldn’t he be the annoyed one? There she was barging in on him when he could have been sleeping for all she knew.

“Care for a glass of wine Jude?” he asked ignoring her question. He stood from his bed and poured more into his goblet; his tail secured within his pants. He had a feeling that he didn’t want to be sober for this conversation, although he had already become a distant stranger to sobriety since classes let out hours before, “You seem wound up, perhaps a drink will help you pull the stick out of your ass. Or, if this isn’t a friendly visit, I could call the guards for you. Though I’m afraid you will find them far less hospitable.”

He has a glass filled for her by the time he finishes talking. She looks more pissed than before, her amber eyes seemed to crackle like embers. She doesn't move to grab the glass from him so he tries a different approach.

“You’re the one who came to my room, Jude, claiming you didn’t want to interrupt me and that you could come back another time. Well let me assure you, you haven’t interrupted anything important, the book will still be there tomorrow to intrigue me, but you are only here right this moment. And I wouldn't want to inconvenience you with having to sneak back in again. So… what can I do for you?”

They seem to be having a staring contest because Jude’s gaze continues to bore into his own. She grinds her teeth refusing to reply, neither one of them willing to break first. She was impossibly cute with her face scrunched up in anger like that. His arm begins to tire from holding a glass out to her for so long. He heaves a sigh and starts lowering his arm when she speaks at last.

“Tell me why your door knows my name. That’s what I’ve come calling about.”

Cardan sighed heavily, his head falling back, annoyance prickling but altogether muddled by the wine. Muddled along with every other emotion he liked to drown in the drink. He takes another long swig from his own goblet, which escalates to him guzzling it down to the dregs. He sighs when he finishes and sets the empty cup on his tray of food. Then he finally goes to address her once more, the alcohol giving him the patience he needs,

“Oh my nightmare nemesis,” his words slurred a bit. He swayed briefly, then collected himself before continuing. “For you to have heard my door use your name, you would’ve had to already be at Hollow Hall, since he is bound to this manor. Yes? So tell me again, without any lies from your mortal tongue, what you brought you to my residence--”

He is interrupted by the ruckus made by the guards outside.

“Any sign of the thief?”

“No! She couldn’t have gotten far!”

Cardan snapped his gaze back to Jude, her face suspiciously neutral. Cardan called out to his door, tilting his head in its direction but keeping his eyes locked on her.

“Darnallll,” the knocker appeared on his door, silently waiting for a command, “find out what the appearance of the thief was from the guards, will you.”

“No need sire, I can tell you right away. The thief was a fairy of short stature, with horns, and yellow eyes. The woman had hair, not unlike your guest here, and was wearing a gown of the same color,” the knocker’s eyes glanced toward Jude, who kept her face decidedly cool. Cardan knows Jude is crafty, she may not be a fairy but she matched the description minus the horns, eyes, and ears. There was a possibility.

Jude pushed her hair behind her ears showing off the round curve of them while opening her eyes comically wide.

“All clear here, though I do envy their horns. It seems like I’m not the only one who snuck into the Manor today,” she nodded towards the door, “some guard he is.”

Darnal laughed at that, mischief glinting on his brass features, and said, “I found her lurking in a stairwell listening against the door trying to see if there was anyone on the other side. She said she was looking for trouble---”

“You asked if I was looking for trouble,” Jude interrupted, her brows pinched together, “I decided to amuse you, Darnallll, so said I was. I wanted to see where it would lead me.”

She had drawled the door’s name out and turned up her chin. That pride of her unwavering. She turned back to Cardan to finish telling him how it happened, “So he led me to your room telling me I could find trouble here… So there, now you know how I met your door and why I’m in your room.”

She came over to him and at last, grabbed the wine from his hand and raised it to him, “To trouble and friendly, although unexpected, visits,” she finished her small toast and took a deep drink.

“But it doesn't explain why you were already in the manor nor how you already knew that this was Cardan’s chamber,” the doorknocker added.

“I seem to recall you saying this would be the fun, kind of trouble, I would hardly call an interrogation fun,” Jude bit back at the door.

“And yet when you announced yourself you immediately began interrogating my prince.”

Cardan watched the two bicker as he poured himself yet another glass. He brought his free hand up and rubbed his temple feeling a headache coming on.

“Enough!” the glamour rippled in waves from his throat, amplified by the amount of fairy wine in his system. It hadn’t taken long for him to discover that fairy wine (and fruit) amplified the strength of his glamour, not with the copious amounts that he consumed each day.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jude and the door stopped bickering at the sound of his glamour. His voice was low and rumbly, it radiated with power. Jude’s heart was racing in her chest. She knew she was doomed. She didn’t see any way to get out of this. Her knees felt weak. Cardan was going to turn her in. Then, he and Balekin would have a field day torturing her together as they tried to carve secrets from her flesh that they would never get. They would keep on carving her up, waiting for her to cave but the geas would render her unable to, even when the pain would make her desperate. Jude drank deeply from the wine he gave her, finishing the glass. If she was to be tortured then she would at least have the wine to dull the pain. She hummed as she felt her head start to swim and laughed to herself; at least she would appear to be able to withstand torture. Oh, trouble indeed.

She held her glass out to him for more wine. His eyebrow quirked at her but he complied instructing her to say when. She had him fill it to the brim.

“Well Jude, how did you know that these were my chambers?” Cardan asked her as she took another drink, his own words still slurring.

Jude laughed the wine making her lightheaded. She turned to look at the annoying door that doomed her and answered truthfully.

“Alice in Wonderland,” she said with her most annoying smile. If she was going to die anyway she might as well piss Cardan off one last time. Her last joy before she went to join her parents.

“I borrowed it from you, hope you don’t mind. It was one of the books my mother read to my sisters and me before we were whisked away to a wonderland of our own. However, Elfhame brings more terror than wonder truthfully,” the alcohol gave her loose lips but her head was light and she didn’t care. Perhaps this is why Cardan drank so much, she did feel quite relaxed. She spared him a glance and laughed.

Cardan had the most peculiar look on his face his mouth hung open and he had one finger poised in the air as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know what to say. Jude decided she wouldn't give him a chance to.

“Darnal, you quite remind me of the talking door from the book. Although I find you more infuriating, perhaps it’s because you are trying to get me killed. I would like it if you were to stop that, I would very much hate to die.”

The door laughed at her words then spoke to Cardan, “looks like the wine did pull the stick out of her ass after all.”

“Oh hush you, don’t make me come over there,” to that the door magicked its face to another door in Cardan’s chambers and waggled his eyes at her as if to say come get me. Jude laughed again, it was such a nice thing to do. She turned to Cardan who still looked bewildered.

“Are you alright you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are ghosts even real?” she rambled to him, a smile on her face. She would enjoy confusing him before he killed her. Her head was spinning from the wine, she took another sip as she waited for his response.

“I was wondering where that went,” his words came out quiet.

Jude scrunched her brows wondering what he meant and then realized he was talking about the book.

“Oh yes! Oak rather likes it,” she takes another sip, “So now you know why I knew it was your room... now you must tell me why your door knows my name. Also, there was a piece of paper with my name scribbled on it over and over again stuffed in the book. I don’t like you much either but my word! I’ve never furiously written out your name till I ripped the paper. That’s a bit much don’t ya think,” she hiccuped out the last word as Cardan’s face turned pink with rage.

“I think you’ve found more than enough trouble tonight, mortal, perhaps you shoul--”

Darnel starts laughing up a storm interrupting Cardan. Cardan turns and grabs the bottle of wine, drinking from the spout.

“Oh I don’t think she found nearly enough trouble,” Darnel said as Cardan guzzled the contents down, “Lady Jude, my prince sighs out your name day after day and scribbles it on parchment in an attempt to rid you of his mind--” Cardan spits the drink out choking on it, the wine ruining his shirt even more.

“Why you!” Cardan snarls out, anger showing on his face; Darnel pays him no mind and plows on.

“It’s why I referred to you as his maiden as well!” the door is laughing as he talks, “I wonder if he fanci----”

“I command you to leave at once!” Cardan’s glamour radiates the room. Immediately Darnel the door knocker vanishes from the room leaving them in silence. All Jude can do is stare as she watches his chest heave up and down.

Then she starts to laugh. Really truly laugh. A bellyaching, body-shaking laugh. She can't help herself. The idea is absolutely ridiculous and the wine makes it that much more fun. Jude bends over holding her stomach as she lets loose a snort. A SNORT! She forgot she even did that when she laughed hard. She hasn’t laughed like this since she was in the mortal world. It was when her dad had snorted up cheese at a Mexican restaurant; a comedian told a particularly funny joke. It had all been so funny that Jude laughed herself silly, till her abs were sore---

The memory sobered her up quickly as her laughs turned to little sobs and then… nothing. Armor locking around her heart once more. She coldly patted away the tears on her face and looked to Cardan who seem miserable and mildly concerned. He was leaning against his bed shifting on his feet, looking anywhere in the room but her. Perhaps his face went pink from embarrassment earlier rather than anger. Perhaps he does fancy her after all. A scheme took form in Jude’s mind.

“I suppose it makes sense… You had your goons strip me to my underwear and ask me who I wanted to kiss the most. Then you ordered me to tell you how much I admired you while I kissed your feet,” Jude referenced the incident with the fairy fruit. His head snapped to her at once.

“I did not tell Valerian to drug you, nor did I tell Niccassia to strip you! They did that of their own volition,” he urged her, eyes flashing with anger at her accusation.

“But you did ask me to kiss your feet and tell you how much I admired you.”

He averted his eyes again, ears drooping and cheeks flushed as he refused to meet her gaze. At least he had the decency to look ashamed.

“I have a deal for you Cardan,” he looked up at her, “I’ll give you a kiss if you promise to never tell anyone that you saw me tonight.”

“Only if you swear to tell no one of the note with your name on it or of anything you heard or saw in this room,” his response had a bite to it, he was angry. Jude supposed it was easier to be angry than embarrassed.

“Then we can both swear to secrecy instead. Forego the kiss altogether,” Jude countered, she put a bite into her own words. She saw something flash across his face that was gone an instant later. Disappointment?

“Aww unless you still want a kiss poor princeling,” she mocked him, the fading alcohol making her bold. He deserved it. ‘Boys are mean to girls they like’ was a stupid saying from the mortal world, if he liked her he should have been kind to her. She would mock him for this until they struck their bargain of secrecy. She would hold this over him. She would shame him for it.

“I didn’t say anything Jude, you’re the one who sounds like you want a kiss now, offering me not once but twice,” his infuriating smirk returned to his lips. She couldn’t stand him.

“Don’t be ridiculous! You are the one who fancies me, Cardan,” she seethed.

“Did you ever consider that I want to revenge Locke?” Cardan sneered, “the door was the one who implied I fancied you. I said no such thing.”

That did make more sense to Jude. Locke had stolen Cardan’s lover and now he wants to do the same to Locke.

“Then what good would swearing to secrecy do. He will never know that you revenged him.”

“I will. I would know of the revenge and you would know of it, and that’s fine by me. He isn’t worth the effort of rubbing it in his face. He can go about thinking he has bested me. I will know that he hasn’t and that he is the one who looks a fool.”

Cardan moved from his spot as he spoke and pulled his wine ruined sleep shirt from his body. He moved to a basin in the corner of the room and dipped a rag into the water, wiping the wine that still stuck to his body. His scars were in clear view of her from where she stood. She couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her lips.

“Once we strike our bargain it won’t matter that you’ve seen them,” he said in reference to his scars, “don’t bother asking.”

Jude didn’t know what to say, the memories of her last mission haunting her. She wondered what he would do if he knew she already knows how he got them. She went to sip her wine but her glass was already empty. She moved to the bed and placed her glass on his tray. When she turned around, she found Cardan an arm’s length away from her, using a new cloth to pat dry his chest. He didn’t look at her as he sat on the bed. He wasn't muscular persay, fairies don’t put on muscles the way mortals do. Even Madoc looked small next to a mortal bodybuilder. Cardan was skinny like all fairies were, but he had muscle Jude thought, eyeing the v-shape that trailed beneath his pants.

“You’re staring.”

Jude felt her face warm and she took a few steps back from the bed, putting space between them. She leered at him.

“Balekin makes me run drills with his guard since I’m so pitiful with a sword. Says I need to at least stay in shape. I hated it at first but then I started gaining even more attention from lovers, so I tolerate it now,” there was a grin pulling at his lips. Oh, he thought she was admiring him, that wouldn’t do.

“I was actually thinking of how you would look like a twig next to a mortal man, even I have more muscle than you do,” Jude said with a smirk.

His face fell into a scowl and she huffed a laugh at it. He probably hated that she just implied a mortal could be more attractive than him. Sure a mortal could be more muscular easily, but Cardan truly was handsome beyond reason, he made her head spin when she looked at him. Maybe it was the wine--- ughh she wished she could say it was the wine.

“Why would I want help you revenge Locke?” she said returning them to their previous conversation. Cardan huffs a laugh at her. His grin lighting up his beautiful face. How he was so perfect she didn’t know. He stretched his arms above his head, Jude tried not to notice the lean muscles there either, and then he leaned his back flat on the bed, his knees bent, feet still on the floor.

“Because he still lies with Niccasia, and he is to be wed to yet another lover. Locke is stringing you along Jude. So why not revenge him? Kiss the person you hate more than any other over him. Do it just because he is so foul and because he will never know that you did it to spite him. Just like you would have never known about either of his lovers till he broke your heart.”

His words stung. Jude didn’t love Locke but it still hurt. He was to be married. And he was still with Niccasia. She felt anger bubble up within her. Easier to feel anger than it was to feel hurt. Jude stood and she walked toward Cardan until she stood between his legs. He leaned up partway on the bed, resting on his forearms. Oh, he was making a show of himself for her she realized noting the way the light caught on the definition of his stomach. He wanted her to look at him. His lidded eyes seemed to say ‘aren’t I lovely’ and damn it if he wasn’t.

“Cardan,” she starts, his midnight eyes gleamed in the fairy light, “I swear to tell no one of your note with my name on it nor of anything I heard or saw in this room tonight if you swear to tell no one you saw or spoke to me,” her voice an arctic whisper as she held her hand out to him. He leaned forward to grasp her hand in his larger one.

“I swear it, Jude,” she could smell the magic as surged bounding him to his vow. She had magic to ensure he was faithful to his promise, but he had to trust her on good faith alone. Her head was spinning but she knew it wasn't because of the wine; it was from what she was about to do. Jude took a deep breath before the magic took its final hold and spoke.

“Then seal it with a kiss”

Next Chapter

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Loki Episode 5 Ending Explained: Who is the Real Villain of the MCU Series?

https://ift.tt/36oBhxO

This article contains spoilers for Loki episode 5.

Agent Mobius did say that time ran differently in the TVA but who could have imagined that the penultimate episode of Loki would arrive so quickly? Marvel’s Loki episode 5 “Journey Into Mystery” keeps up a streak of superb installments for this increasingly superb show. 

In this hour, Mobius joins the side of the heroes, Judge Renslayer has some questions, and Loki and Sylvie’s relationship continues to blossom thanks to the conjuring of an uncomfortable green blanket. Equally as important, however, is that “Journey Into Mystery” raises some big questions about the ending of this show and the future of the MCU. Questions like…

What is The Void?

This episode does a pretty good job of succinctly describing what the Void is. The Void is the end of time, itself. Since the Time-Keepers are unable to completely destroy matter (Theory of Conservation of Mass and all that), they send unwanted Variants to the end of the timeline to languish or be swallowed by a hungry monster (more on him in a bit). 

In Marvel Comics, The Void is something of an actual character. It is a destructive amorphous entity capable of both adopting a corporeal form and destroying the universe as we know it. During the Siege storyline, the Void even killed Loki, which then facilitated his “rebirth” as Kid Loki. See how this all starts to fit together?

What is Alioth?

In the world of Loki, Alioth is a big, hungry cloud monster that prowls the Void looking to consume yummy matter. It’s the TVA’s unwitting cleaning service, wiping out all the Variants that the TVA can’t eliminate. Classic Loki helpfully offers up the analogy that the Void is a shark tank, and Alioth is the shark.

Alioth of the comics was first introduced in 1993’s Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1. That same comic also introduced Ravonna Renslayer and features Kang the Conqueror as its central villain. Oh yeah, it’s all coming together. 

Alioth is considered to be the first being that broke free from the constraints of time. It’s no wonder then that it would make an appearance in Loki.

What’s Up With That Castle?

It’s about time a Marvel villain lives in an honest-to-goodness castle! While it’s still possible that this is a misdirect and this environment is not what it seems, for now it looks like episode 6 will be headed off to a spooky castle.

Interestingly, there are no shortages of spooky castles in Marvel comics lore. Perhaps the most famous one is Castle Doom within Doomstadt. Bet you’ll never guess who lives there! Yes, it’s ol’ Victor von Doom himself, Doctor Doom to his friends…of which he has very few.

Another notable abode is Castle Limbo, which serves as the home of Immortus, who was once Nathaniel Richards a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror. Look, Kang is a confusing character, so you’ll just have to trust us on this one.

What is Mobius’s Plan?

Thank the gods that Loki and Mobius finally embraced their destiny as best bros. Mobius leaves all the Lokis behind in The Void to return to the TVA. What does he plan to do once he gets there? Why, burn the whole thing down, of course!

It’s unclear how Mobius believes he’s able to pull off such a grand task. The TVA is an enormous bureaucracy with seemingly infinite moving parts. The only real weapon that Mobius has at his disposal is the truth. The truth changed his and Hunter B-15’s perspectives but can it do the same for everyone else? The only other named TVA employee that we’re aware of is Casey (Eugene Cordero). He seems like a sweet, non-confrontational lad. But perhaps that will all change once he realizes he’s been robbed of fish dinners his whole life.

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What Becomes of the Other Lokis?

The most pleasantly strange aspect of “Journey Into Mystery” is how many new Lokis it introduces. This hour features: Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Boastful Loki (DeObia Oparei), Kid Loki (Jack Veal), President Loki (Hiddleston), and Alligator Loki (uh… a CGI alligator). Naturally, each of those Lokis has their own official hashtag sprite on Twitter. 

Fittingly for their chaotic energy, each of the Lokis introduced in this episode have quite different ultimate fates. Boastful Loki betrays his Loki comrades, because that’s just what Lokis do. The subsequent scene of President Loki and his Void army battling the other Lokis is one of the best moments of this show yet. That causes our Loki to take off with Classic, Kid, and Alligator. When Mobius invites that trio to come back to the TVA with him, they decline because the Void is their home now.

Read more

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That is the last we’ve seen of Kid Loki and Alligator Loki thus far but not the last of Classic Loki. The comic-accurate trickster returns to help Loki and Sylvie when they need it the most. He uses stunningly powerful magic to create an approximation of Asgard all around him, distracting the ravenous Alioth. Even Sylvie with her enchantress power is stunned by Classic Loki’s abilities. 

Is Richard E. Grant’s Classic Loki Really Dead?

Ultimately Classic Loki is swallowed up by the Alioth and therefore finally blinked out of existence. Or is he? It seems like he could have been utilizing the very same technique here he claims to have used to escape his death at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. “I think we’re stronger than we realize,” Loki tells Sylvie, so this would certainly be a case of that if it came down to it.

Plus, that leads us to the final and most important question that this episode raises. 

Who is the Villain?

Who indeed? There has been one name bandied about as the most likely Loki Big Bad. Before we get to him (and it’s absolutely who you think), indulge us in another theory. What if the villain of Loki is…

Classic Loki or Another Loki Variant

Richard E. Grant is kind of a big deal as an actor. It’s not every day you can find a seasoned performer who can portray a kindly exterior with some menace underneath. With that in mind, it’s possible that Classic Loki is a bigger character than he appears at first glance. This episode goes out of its way to communicate just how powerful Lokis can be. And when you combine that kind of god-like power with a trickster’s sensibility, it’s not hard to imagine that Classic Loki, or another Loki entirely, could be pulling all the strings. 

Kang the Conqueror 

While Loki confronting himself in the end would make for a dramatically interesting enterprise, the hard evidence at hand still seems to indicate that Kang the Conqueror is our real villain. The internet at large has been banging the drum for Kang the Conqueror as the ultimate Loki villain for weeks now and it’s not hard to see why.

This isn’t a case of collective delusion like with all of the Nightmare/Mephisto WandaVision theorizing, Kang really does seem to be a legitimate possibility. For starters, we know we already have an MCU actor for Kang in the fold already in the form of Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country). Kang was announced for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania but doesn’t it sound very Marvel for the character to make his unexpected debut here?

In the comics, Kang the Conqueror is wrapped up in multiverses, timelines, and all manner of heady sci-fi nonsense that Loki is already invested in. In fact, as Reddit user u/Hpotter821 points out, one iteration of Kang in Marvel comics sought to become Immortus by eliminating all of his other Variants. It would seem that creating the TVA to police other timelines would be quite useful in that mission. 

Then there’s the fact that Kang has at least some level of crossover with just about every major character and element of Loki. Kang has a relationship with Ravonna Renslayer in the comics and is also an occasional rival of Alioth. The show is not shy about injecting Kang’s aesthetic into the proceedings. While ostensibly space lizards as Loki described them, the Time-Keepers do appear to resemble the classic Kang the Conqueror look a bit. And the TVA logo? 

Oh. Hey. I just noticed that the centerpiece of the Time Variance Authority’s seal totally looks like Kang’s head. 🤷‍♂️ #Loki pic.twitter.com/93QzNDVSbi

— Ken Plume (@KenPlume) July 2, 2021

Oh yeah, that’s Kang, baby.

Perhaps by this time next week, all of this Kang conjecture will look as silly as WandaVision’s Mephisto fever dream. It’s undeniable, however, that Loki has provided us with plenty of breadcrumbs. If it’s all a Kang-sized red herring, then so be it. 

Doctor Doom

This is a considerable longshot, despite the fact that we’ve wanted it to happen for a long time. Doom was at the center of Marvel Comics’ multiverse-shattering Secret Wars event by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic, and the castle we see in this episode’s conclusion sure does look an awful lot like his humble Doomstadt home.

Every time we get excited about Doctor Doom or the potential Secret Wars threads embedded in this show, we’re brought back to reality by the fact that there’s virtually no way that Marvel would introduce arguably their greatest villain in a teasing series finale episode, especially not when they’ve got the Kang-centric Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to tee up with Kang. Yes, we’re hedging our best by including him, but can you blame us?

Anyway, patience, Doom fans. The Fantastic Four movie is finally a priority for the MCU, and we should see that by 2023.

Kevin Feige

This obviously won’t happen but in the spirit of Marvel’s next Disney+ series What If…?, what if Loki and Sylvie arrive to the throne room in the castle and Marvel Studios head Kevin Heige is hanging out there wearing one of his trademark baseball caps? As witnessed in WandaVision and now Loki, this phase of Marvel cinematic storytelling is clearly about setting up a new multiverse of possibilities. What better way to introduce that multiverse than by completely breaking the fourth wall?

OK, so there are probably a ton of better ways but Feige would at least be fun and truly unexpected.

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 5 Ending Explained: Who is the Real Villain of the MCU Series? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[acaseforpencils]

David Ostow.

Bio: I'm a cartoonist and stay-at-home dad, not necessarily in that order. I came late to cartooning, because I thought I wanted to be an architect. In grad school, my professors were always hung up on the fact that I was more interested in drawing pretty pictures than in designing interesting spaces. Anyway, they graduated me, and should really answer for the disservice they did to the design industry. 

Find this print here!

I came to cartooning by way of illustrating some books for my sister who's an author. To date, my work has also appeared in and on a combination of print publications and websites, including The New Yorker, Mcsweeney's Internet Tendency, The American Bystander, Buzzfeed, and The Weekly Humorist. My work and I were also featured in a New York Times piece about artists addressing gentrification in their work. I don't know if that counts. Does that count?   

I live in New York City with my son and my wife, whose support is the reason I'm not drawing on grocery bags in my parents' basement, and raking their yard for allowance. 

Tools of choice: Where to begin? I got an iPad Pro earlier this year, and I've been using it pretty exclusively since. But finding and experimenting with tools has been an odyssey unto itself for me, and I'd be remiss not to give a bit of history. 

I started out employing a lot of the tools that I learned about in the architecture world. I went to UVA, and when I was there my sketching professor [fun fact: he was also the mayor!*] encouraged us to draw with Micron pens using a very loose hand. Check out the sketches of Michael Graves, and you'll see what we were emulating. My hand was naturally pretty shaky. Years of drawing have rendered it less so, but at the time, my peers teased me (in good fun) for being a teacher's pet with my wobbly broken lines. That introduction to sketching was definitely formative to the style I would eventually develop for cartooning. Sometimes I find myself trying to force my hand to be as wobbly as it used to be.  

Architecture school was also where I first began using Photoshop as a diagramming tool, and I became more facile with it when I moved into the professional world, where it's a common tool for rendering presentation drawings. Since then, Photoshop has been my go-to for applying washes and colors to my drawings, although now that I have an iPad and I'm experimenting with Procreate, the Photoshop era may be coming to a close. 

After taking a class on comics creation at The New School in Manhattan, I got up the nerve to add some ink and brushes into my toolkit, and while it was an adjustment, it was also fun to have a brand new way of making varied and expressive lines. At the height of my "pre-digital" period, I was using a combination of ink and technical pens. The accompanying photo shows my spread in more detail. All the tools pictured are easy to find, and easy to use, and I recommend them for anyone looking to take a stab at drawing cartoons or comics. 

From there, I waded slowly and awkwardly into the world of digital drawing. I had a hybrid moment when I was roughing my drawings in pencil, scanning them, using a Wacom tablet to ink in a program called Clip Studio, and then adding colors / washes in Photoshop. It was an incredible time suck, but, for what it's worth, the cartoons I produced that way were some of the first I sold to The New Yorker. So there's that.

Since getting my iPad I've been drawing with Procreate, which seems to be the preferred drawing application among my iPad savvy colleagues, and which I enjoy, but I feel like I'm still getting comfortable with it. When it comes to new technology, I have a habit of doing the bare minimum to educate myself, and every time I need clarity on a finer point I'll do a tad more research. It's called the "Dave Ostow Kicking and Screaming Method" and I recommend it to no one. 

Tool I wish I could use better: I've never had any formal fine arts training, so I lack the kind of mastery of many traditional tools that some of my peers have attained as a matter of course. One time I tried to use a dip pen, and was so overwhelmed by how hard it was to draw a single line that I put it in my drawer and just kind of forgot about it. 

I also used to own a set of Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pens, which make amazing lines, but require saintlike patience to maintain. The nibs are super delicate and If you're not careful, they'll break and leak (or — worse — explode) all over your drawing. 

In an ideal world, I would have the patience and time to master some of these more traditional and delicate tools, and I think I'd be a better artist for it. Maybe some day, but right now my schedule doesn't allow for much extracurricular activity.  

Tool I wish existed: Kind of a no-brainer: an iPad / digital tablet that felt almost indistinguishable from real pen and paper. Think the Beyond Meat burger of digital drawing tools. 

The iPad is great, and of course it's wonderful to have digital editing capabilities, but there's simply no hiding the fact that you're drawing on a screen that lacks the kind of tooth you'd get from dragging a pen across paper. Also, when I zoom in to do detail work, I'm always thrown by the pixelation. 

I'm sure the more I use the iPad, the better I'll get at tweaking the settings to my liking. Like I said, when change is involved, I sometimes drag my feet. But that's okay. As a good friend who's also really my therapist said, "Maybe that's just the way you work." 

Tricks: Not a trick so much as a suggestion: If you're drawing on an iPad or some other sort of tablet, get a matte protective cover. It will reduce glare, and soften the feel of the screen against your stylus, so you get an experience more like drawing on paper, albeit only slightly so. 

Misc: Yes, that is a Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar flyer on my bulletin board. I found it on the subway and it just seemed like a fun authentic New York artifact that was calling to be preserved. I look at it every now and again, and find it oddly inspiring. That picture of Dan Smith has been circulating around the city for God knows how many decades. What does Dan Smith look like today and would he still teach me guitar?  

Website, etc.

Website

Instagram

New Yorker Link

Conde Nast Store

*Editor’s note: I went to Charlottesville High School with Mayor Cox’s son! I also went to UVA, though not at the same time as David. Small world!

Also, I happily do this blog for free, though there are a lot of hidden expenses that I take care of myself. If you enjoy this blog, and would like to help defray labor and maintenance costs, there is a Patreon! Or if you’d prefer to buy me a cup of coffee, there is a Ko-Fi account as well (which is essentially a PayPal donation)! Your support means a lot, and I'm grateful to everyone who has donated! 

You can also find more posts about art supplies on Case’s Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!

[bigskydreaming]

gingerjab replied to your post “ANYWAY. The petition/prayer circle for Michael Trevino to be cast as...”

I’m forever an asshole obsessed with fire/ice ships so Thunderbird or Sunfire, fuck the inhumans one off and St. John. Also, Rahul Kohli as Neal Shaara/Thunderbird/Agni. Also I’m sposed to be asleep so ignore if this is a shit idea.

For the record, I actually kinda like the Inhuman guy, cuz I mean, its not his fault he’s part of a trash franchise. I think it probably helps that I’ve only ever read one issue with him, so as to render it absolutely impossible for his writing to piss me off. I like to just close my eyes and pretend he’s a mutant. Y’know. Like I do with Kamala!

Who is obviously a mutant.

(And like.....let’s be real. The dude is a pyrokinetic with a demon form, the codename INFERNO, and his REAL name is DANTE Pertuz. DANTE. INFERNO. Like, that’s the on-the-nose-fuck-your-subtlety-we-came-here-to-be-pretentious-as-fuck-with-our-literary-references-look-how-dignified-it-makes-our-character balls to the wall character concept I am HERE for. I’m like OH HAI I SEE WHAT U DID THAR. And they’re like “oh yeah? You got it? Hahaha, we were worried nobody would, phew, good job tho. Totally adds to the character right? Pretty clever of us.” And then I’d be like Hahahaha no, not even a little bit, but ‘scool, I like him anyway cuz I’m easy like that. I put out for puns.” And then they’d be like awwwww, dammit, we worked so hard on that. And I’d be like....well, that doesn’t speak highly of your abilities, I mean it was a super obvious joke. And then I stopped making up conversations with hypothetical people in my head.)

Also, in defense of comic book St. John Allerdyce and absolutely NO OTHER VERSIONS EVER because agreed, they all suck....

Comic book St. John is a snarky Australian asshole who in between acts of mutant mass destruction, has a side career as a successful romance novelist under a pen name.

(I’m not even joking. Comic book St. John, in canon, writes romance novels in his spare time as a hobby. LOLOLOL c’mon, how is that not a great character beat for a supervillain slash occasional kinda-if-you-squint-superhero).

Anyway.

I too am also trash for fire/ice ships because SCREW SUBTLETY, WE SHIP THEMATICALLY. But like, its gotta be the RIGHT fire/ice ship. I weirdly have standards with my fire/ice ships? Probably just because I’m obsessed with Bobby Drake but whatever, who cares, how is that relevant.

I mean, OBVIOUSLY, you have your proto-fire/ice ship, the one, the original, the Word I came out of the womb prepared to preach and ship and like, spread to the masses....Bobby Drake/Johnny Storm. Because like. They are elemental dorks whose competitiveness is only matched by their dumbness, how can you not love them, I DEFY YOU TO SAY.

I’m kinda meh on Iceman/Pyro, because like, original comic book Pyro and Bobby never even interacted I think? And in cartoons they’re always totally different generations/age groups, and in the movies they’re like....boring and stale and not even all that attractive and also did I mention boring, omg no offense to whomever wrote them, but I tried reading Bobby/Pyro movie fanfic years ago because like, that’s the only movie Bobby fic there is, unless you want to read about him being an asshole to Rogue and/or cheating with Kitty and just generally driving Rogue into the arms of the much (much much much much, like ewww) older Logan or Gambit. Because srsly, so appealing. So obviously, I caved and tried reading Bobby/Pyro fics because like, they had the word ‘Bobby’ in them, and the bar is too low in my X-Men fic reading habits. And omg I fell asleep. I just. It was all just the standard m/m cookie cutter generic ‘good boy plus bad boy uwu yaoi-zowey’ bleh starring two not at all deeply written or well-acted meh-looking white dudes, and just. Why.

But that’s what I mean when I say I’m wary of fire/ice ships, because sometimes with powered characters like, authors think oh hey, LOOK ONE IS FIRE AND ONE IS ICE, THIS TOTALLY COUNTS AS THEM HAVING OPPOSITES ATTRACT PERSONALITIES AND THUS I DONT NEED TO GIVE THEM A PERSONALITY, RIGHT? Like. They’re just very boring and unimaginative in execution, just because they expect the basic premise of fire and ice/’obvious opposites attract, obviously’ to do all the work for them.

(Katey if you’re reading this I’m super for sure not talking about YOUR superpowered romances, because you are wonderful and GOOD at writing and imaginative, and thus none of this applies to you. Requisite disclaimer.)

So, when they did this random Bobby/’New Pyro Dude like where did he even come from I still dont know’ hook-up, I was prepared to like, yawn endlessly, because I figured it would be more boring imaginationless ‘ooh look what an obvious pair they are and yet still praise me for how clever I am for pairing them’ crap. 

And I was absolutely right!

(But I mean, it was written by Marc Guggenheim, the odds of it sucking were totally in my favor. Betting against them being well-written under his pen might feasibly be construed as cheating. Whatever).

And also, the art did them ZERO favors, like I know they’re both generic blond dudes in their twenties, but I LITERALLY COULD NOT TELL WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WHICH in any of the panels that they were like, in bed together or dressing or talking or literally anything until they started using their powers to fight bad guys. It was soooooooo bad. Like the art just manifested every ‘look at the white gay date his mirror reflection lol what is variety even’ cliche and beat you over the head with it.

(Also Bobby is supposed to have brown hair, which at least would’ve helped a LITTLE bit. Meh. Still was gonna suck because like, nobody had any intention of WRITING them together, like, developing their characters and laying the groundwork for a possible relationship. It was just ‘oh look, the fire and ice dude got drunk at a wedding and hooked up, cool deal, now on with the story.’)

Anyway, the ONLY redeeming potential for a Bobby/Simon relationship in my opinion is ENTIRELY due to a fic I read with them. Its probably the only fic written about Simon ever, lmfao, so its not like the writer’s characterization of him has any competition among either canon or other fans’ renditions of him. But it was pretty well written, I actually liked their portrayal of Bobby, which I’m SUPER picky about in fanfics, and they actually invested time in developing Simon and his POV and giving him an actual personality and shit, that wasn’t half bad. So if Simon was written like that in the comics and their relationship progressed in similar ways, I could feasibly be on board with them.

But it won’t, so I’m not. Meh. Anyway.

I actually really REALLY like both Shiro AND Neal, with the caveat that I hate Neal’s stupid offensive-ass codename, I know Claremont only named him Thunderbird because he introduced him in an anniversary issue that was supposed to be a call-back to the original Giant Size lineup, and he needed a stand-in for John Proudstar, but like....wtf Claremont, just use your brain and save Neal to introduce a whole issue later and stick Jamie in John’s place the way everyone else does. He literally went by Thunderbird in the comics already in his Hellion days, which YOU wrote, so why the fuck did you feel the need to be stupidly offensive and act like Native American people and traditions are interchangeable with those of a guy from India? Ugh he’s so....gah.

Anyway. So I actually like both Shiro and Neal, though pretty much only when people other than Claremont are writing them, lololol. Which is admittedly...rare. Because of all his pet characters, they’re both at the top of the list of ones nobody else has any interest in touching. Bizarrely, my favorite run involving Shiro was when he was randomly shoe-horned into that Alpha Flight relaunch in the late 90s, that only lasted a couple years? Dunno if you know what I’m talking about, the team with Radius, Flex, Murmur, Heather as Vindicator and Mac was a robot or some weird shit.

I have no real thoughts on either of them with Bobby though, for a fire and ice pairing. Tbh I can’t really see Bobby/Shiro like, at ALL lmfao. For one, Shiro’s always felt written as though he’s a good ten years older than Bobby at least. Like they’re not really compatible dialogue-wise lol. And he’s pretty much never had any patience for Bobby in the comics, which has a lot to do with most of their interactions being written by Claremont himself, and Claremont infamously haaaaaaates Bobby’s character and trashes him any chance he gets, aka the few times editorial makes him actually use Bobby in a script. But I also think even under other writers, like....Shiro honestly is not the type to have any patience for Bobby’s antics or brand of humor, like.....he’s like JP but without the superficial crush JP used in canon to view Bobby’s idiosyncrasies as endearing instead of migraine inducing. I don’t think any readers would buy someone of JP or Shiro’s personality-type crushing on Bobby twice, lololol.

I DO however kinda like the idea of Neal/Bobby? If someone ever actually brought Neal back and gave him a new codename and stuck him on a team with Bobby? They’ve also barely interacted in canon, and the only time I can think of, Neal was super rude and dismissive of Bobby, because like, Claremont was writing it of course, so it made total sense for him to have the dude who’s literally been an X-Man for two issues talk down to the X-Man of several decades like the latter had no clue what he was doing, lol. Oops, still slightly salty there. 

But honestly, I doubt anyone who didn’t have hyperfixation fueled grudges on a fictional fave’s behalf would ever even remember that one canon interaction, and tbh Neal’s pretty much a blank slate character wise. His only defining traits from what little he’s been used are that he’s fairly young, in his early to mid-twenties, from a wealthy family, a little full of himself but in a ‘really wants to impress people and prove himself’ kinda way instead of an overly entitled ‘i genuinely believe I am superior to all you buffoons’ kinda way. And he was always endearingly enthusiastic and eager about new stuff he encountered from being with the X-Men.

(He was also randomly obsessed with Psylocke, but I truly think Claremont was like, well I’m just gonna write him like I would Warren Worthington because why not. So yeah, obvsly he’s super obsessed with Betsy. Duh.)

Anyway - I would like someone to do something interesting with Neal, and I think his and Bobby’s chemistry has a lot of potential and they could bounce off each other well. 

Also, I like Rahul, but I was randomly fancasting some of the more obscure X-Men awhile back for Reasons (I forget what they were tbh, but I’m sure I had them. I usually do). I came across this Indian actor named Karan Tacker and was like ohhhhhhh he totally looks like he could be Neal Shaara.

I mean, I’ve literally never seen him act, so who knows what his acting is like, but since we’ve established Neal’s character is essentially whatever the person to actually use him next wants it to be, I don’t think that’s a big deal lol.

So this is totally superficially based casting, like I think this guy looks and ‘feels’ the way Neal’s typically been drawn and the kinda vibe he gives off.

Also, incidentally, having absolutely nothing to do with anything, let alone my selection process, by pure coincidence the dude just so happens to have abs for daaaaaaays.

But I mean. Like I said, that is neither here nor there. Obviously.

Of no relevance whatsoever. I didn’t even notice, tbh. Don’t even know who hijacked my body and ghost wrote these last few sentences, quick, call an exorcist.

....oh noes, is this one of the consequences of being an ‘anti’? IS THIS MY COMEUPPANCE? *flees*

[codywalzel]

It is my personal belief that no one can teach another human being a single useful thing about how to make art. My understanding of “teaching” is giving someone something directly, like a full-proof method for balancing algebraic equations, or the definitions of SAT words. I went into art school with the hopes that cryptic lesson plans would lead to a Mr. Miyagi style evolution that would unlock my hidden powers. If I knew what I do now about how to art-learn, I might have gotten something substantial out of college. But in my experience, art education begins and ends with either: 1. Another artist opening your eyes to an idea about drawing that you hadn’t noticed before, or 2. Elaborating on their go-to solutions they use in their own work. Someone can tell you that you can ground your storyboards by drawing a ground grid. But using that grid in correct perspective, to it’s intended effect, is not something someone can do for you. Art educators and mentors can help you identify solutions to problems, then you work out how to implement it yourself. At the risk of sounding like a pedant for drawing that distinction, I’ll say that since I started approaching creative learning from this perspective, I get a lot more out of it. It’s become more “guided experimentation” than recording a recipe for the perfect painting. That said, storytelling in art is definitely something you can teach yourself. You’ve identified a trait already, storytelling, so you’re already at the limit of where some teachers can take you. Plus you identified something astute, because I’ve been trying to incorporate storytelling into my art for a while, and have only recently started to get a handle on it. So in my opinion, you’ve done the bulk of the thinking work. Now comes the heavy practice work to master this new spell. This journey has a lot to do with finding your voice as a storyteller, so the tone of “YOU”, and the style of rendering that best expresses that tone in this time and place, will have a unique set of challenges for each person. But, I’ll take you through some of the realizations I had on the path to where I am now: A proud adult with two cats and a hit or miss batting average at clearly expressing thought in a sketch.

Capturing an entire scene in a single, static drawing is something my mentor Ian Abando does masterfully. I used to try to emulate the personality I saw in those drawings, but I was only copying the surface. I realize now that me and Ian’s outlooks are so different, that Ian and I would never tell the same type of stories, much less the same exact same story about those people at the adjacent cafe table. He’s personable, outgoing, jovial. Ian is like a friendly labrador with a dark streak in his sense of humor. He can sketch two strangers and capture a warmth that makes you realize they’re actually two old friends that haven’t seen each other in years. I can find something in that coffee shop too, but I’m just a way bigger weirdo, so I’m more interested in weirdo shit. For me, the first step in capturing those stories was finding the right subject. I keep a sketchbook with me at all times, and I’ve developed a patience for waiting, for hunting the right subject. When Ian and I meet up at a coffee shop to sketch, it always seems like he can draw anything. He seems to rest his gaze somewhere in the room at random, then drop pencil to page and watch that snippet explode into life. But now, I think he’s hunting too. I think he’s searching for what’s interesting, what’s worth drawing to him. It only seemed random to me because I couldn’t see what was beautiful about a subject. That he can see a particular magic in a certain 6 square feet of space, and not 6 feet next to it, has to do with who he is. In my mind, he was making that table of pleasant, unremarkable strangers more interesting on the page than it really was. But in his mind, maybe he saw that a girl was counting down the seconds until the end of a bad date, and the guy was trying to find subtle ways to flex.  Even now that I can “see” more, I might never appreciate the specific things that Ian does until he draws them.

The potential exists for that to be true of all of us. Art is a magic that lends other people your eyes. So let people see the pieces of your world that only you can. Just like he can do for me, I can see what’s interesting in scenes that Ian would overlook. And there are a million scenes where we’d see the same fascinating thing, but we’d have a different approach to it (for one, his approach would be to be way better at drawing than me). And there are a million more scenes that we’d both see something interesting in, but we’d each attach to a different feature of it.  All of that to say, don’t just pick out something and draw. If you want to tell a story, then don’t draw just to put something down on the page. Wait. Observe. Find a moment that makes you laugh. Find somebody despicable, and capture what’s despicable about them. Use a sketch to vent. Or make a sketch intentionally cold, and show everyone what your specific brand of loneliness feels like without begging for sympathy. I’d rather keep observing and draw nothing than to try to draw something dull because it’s in front of me. Find the stories you’re personally interested in, you probably have something funny or insightful to say about a given situation that is unique to you. Try to put that weird part of you on display. If it scares you, then it’s probably coming from an honest place, and you should keep going. It may be clumsy at first. The story I want to tell still doesn’t come across on the page every time. Meanwhile, Ian seems to capture his stories without a single failure. If stories are Pokemon, he’s tossing great balls while I’m stuck with a standard issue poke ball. He’d probably say that comes down to pencil mileage. So keep practicing. Keep putting pencil to page even on the shit drawing days. It’s a toll you have to pay to be good down the line, even if you’re not good today. But, please, keep your brain turned on, that means always make an effort to be interesting. (Everyone go ahead and make that same effort in life too. Being boring around the water cooler at work is super rude and depressing.)  Like I said, being interesting in your art usually just comes down to taking an extra second to consider your subject before you start drawing. What am I seeing here? Is this the thing I want to draw? Where am I going with this? Is this coming from a real place? Am I digging to find the best I have today, or am I just making the same tired observation about airline food that I’ve seen before? And if I’m drawing something a lot of people draw, I make sure to ask what can I bring to this? What story can I tell about this that no one else is telling? Example: for the most part, if everyone around me is gushing about some new Star War via fanart, another well rendered post telling the story that you also enjoyed the Star War isn’t that interesting to me. I’d rather a worse drawing driven by a more interesting idea. You can participate in the cultural conversation without just repeating what’s already been said. I’m more likely to enjoy your Star War art if it comments on that one character’s funny butt pose in the third act. Or whatever. That’s just an hypothetical it doesn’t have to be butts. The point is to put more thought in to your art. Wait a sec for the right idea, don’t just start drawing. You will know when you spot the right subject because you will already see it on the page. Plussss, when you start drawing with a clear idea where you’re going, not only is it more interesting, but it actually informs your craft- your drawings will come out better. Okay, let’s say I’m not interested in the people a table over at the coffee shop, how do I know what else to look for? As stupid as this sounds, tweeting helped. Not just reading other people’s tweets, but putting myself out there, wording an idea with limited characters, figuring out what types of things could be explained, and what things were hard to express. And then I started to notice more and more effective way to express those ideas with a specific tone. One thing I realized about myself was that I trying to say two or three things about something at once. It made good ideas muddy, and weakened all three. I challenged myself to clarify, to combine, to present a single, strong idea. I’m still working on it, but for me tweeting is a storytelling exercise that’s helped put more “me” into my art. It forced me to get thoughts, ideas, jokes, frustrations, etc. out into the ether unadulterated by technique. There was no consideration of line quality or volume, so a thought had to stand on it’s own two legs. I doubt tweeting would help many artists in the same way.  But I think in words exclusively, images come later. I write outlines and dialogue in detail before I ever touch storyboard or comic thumbnails. But I’m in the middle of transitioning into writing, so I think my brain is naturally more verbal than most artists. Even with so much internal commentary, my art was without clear storytelling for a long time, because ideas either got lost in the drawing stage, or were too complicated to fit into a single image. Tweeting taught me how to be concise, (I’m clearly not using that skill for this reply, but whatever). So find your own method for making yourself comfortable enough to open up. Which leads me to the most my recent storytelling realization: Don’t be afraid to put your opinions in your art. What you feel passionate about from the deep to the mundane can guide you in your search for a subject. I think people’s egos are funny. LA’s coffee shops are flooded with aspiring creatives mouth-shitting hot takes on art with dogmatic authority, and all from their designated unemployment-check-opening-butt-crater that they’ve worn into the cafe couch. I’m not denigrating anyone that hasn’t made it yet. But I am laughing at the unearned confidence of beardy over at the next table, and the volume at which he’s dropping that savage insight into the Black Mirror episode using stolen lines he just finished reading in a Robert McKee book. Beardy is a “writer” you see, I know because he might have mentioned it a few times to the people he’s with. So yeah, one thing I like to draw is people with their ego’s showing. It makes me laugh. Probably because I too have a big, fragile ego.

That “storytelling” thing is a muscle, like being funny at a party. You get good at party banter if you put yourself through the pain of attending multiple parties close together. (I’m convinced no human being actually enjoys parties, by the way. We all think we’re the idiot just outside the conversation circle that can’t find a big enough gap in people’s shoulders. But parties are the hardest social video game and It’s a little fun to be good at it.) The same way, you keep that storytelling muscle active in your drawings, and you’ll get momentum. If you take a month off, it’ll get weaker, and you’ll have catching up to do when you come back to it. Draw “you” day in and day out. One day you’ll starting getting these bursts where you stop thinking about the drawing process. You’ll stop actively trying to make it “good”, you’ll be swept up, and you’ll disappear into your own rhythm. It’s probably on that day that you’ll look down and realize you just communicated on the page. But let’s move on to a matter of real importance:

The older I get the more I resemble an anime. Thoughts?

[tutorial-ownmethod-blog]

100 Easy Drawing Tutorials for Beginners and Beyond!

Traditional drawing is certainly way harder than digital and it is true that people are able to progress much faster digitally, but one should learn the traditional type of drawing and painting before starting digital drawing, since it often lays out the foundation for screen design.

This article contains a mixture of traditional drawing tutorials, drawing techniques and some methods for transforming and preparing your creations for screen design. Some are intermediate level and some are advanced tutorials that include general theory, useful tips, comic inspired art, sketch a pencil drawing, coloring processing, character sketching, doodles, shapes, proportional, perspective and much more. We hope that drawing tutorials and techniques in this post will be a great help to you. [Content Care Dec/01/2016]

Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link

Things You Didn’t Know Your Doodles Could Accomplish

I Draw Pictures All Day

The Messy Art Of UX Sketching

Drawing Challenge: Illustrating Animals With 13 Circles

Traditional Drawing Tutorials Link

Marilyn Portrait Tutorial

A truly fantastic drawing tutorial to learn how to draw a portrait of Marilyn Monroe with pencil. Each step of the portrait is perfectly well explained and commented. This tutorial is very detailed, and requires a lot of patience.

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Portrait tutorial

This is a step by step tutorial on how to draw a realistic portrait. The artist assumes that you have a basic understanding of drawing and shading before attempting to draw a serious portrait. For this lesson he is drawing on 11″x14″ Fabriano Hotpressed Watercolor Paper. He is using Derwent Graphic Pencils ranging from 2H to 7B. For more information on any of the drawing tools that he mention in this tutorial, visit the drawing materials page.

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How to draw lips

In this tutorial artist will explain how to draw the structure of the human lips.

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How to Draw a Car

For this tutorial the artist will show the different steps he takes in drawing a realistic looking car. He chose to draw an american classic, the Corvette. This tutorial will apply to any car though because for the most part, they are all the same. The key to drawing a car that will pop off the page is having a good balance of lights, midtones, and darks along with clean, sharp edges. He is using Derwent Graphic Pencils and Fabriano Artistico Bright White Watercolor Paper, he is also using mechanical pencils for small details.

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How to Draw Optimus Prime From Transformers

In this tutorial you will be learning how to draw one of the most popular of the Autobots, Optimus Prime. This drawing tutorial will show you in detail how to sketch, draw, and shade in this character that is popular around the world

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Pet Portrait

A very good tutorial about how to draw pet portraits with colored pencils. Basic process and tips. Medium : Prismacolor Colored Pencils.

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How to Draw a Ninja

This tutorial will show you how to draw a ninja step by step. This tutorial has easy to follow directions and steps making it that much more possible for anybody to tackle

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Portrait tutorial

Artist is going to show several step photos along the way on this one. Artist chose this photo because of it’s RICH content, and it’s HIGH amount of TONAL VALUES, CONTRAST as well as it being a high resolution file, Finding just the right photo is half the battle to a good drawing. NEVER EVER work with a low quality photo.

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Hair drawing tutorial

Drawing hair is definitely one of the trickiest part of almost every portrait. However, you will definitely like it if you acquire technique and skill in it. Therefore Artist introduce some easy and effective ways to draw wavy or straight hair or hair blowing in the wind. No matter how much chaotic the hair is, you’ll be able to draw it.

This tutorial explains two techniques of drawing hair on four portraits.

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Eye-drawing tutorial by Sarah

A great and very detailed tutorial, to learn how to draw an eye in 30 steps

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How to Draw a Realistic Eye

Artist made this tutorial to show the different steps that he take in drawing a realistic eye.

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How to Draw a mouth and teeth

Artist made this tutorial to show the different steps that he take in drawing a realistic mouth, lips, and teeth.

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TRADITIONAL SKETCH RENDERING

At most design schools they teach you how to use a single wooden pencil to create an entire rendering, sometimes referred to as a “Prisma-rendering” due to the type of pencil usually used (Prismacolor wood pencils). These are fast and very pretty looking techniques, and they are fairly easy to master. This will be more of a walkthrough then a tutorial in the sense that artist won’t describe every pen stroke, more the basic steps and thoughts behind. Ok, let’s go!

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Drawing Hands and Feet

Some useful explainations and tips about how to draw hands and feet.

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Drawing a Rose

An excellent tutorial offered by Rachel, to learn how to draw a pink rose.

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A Pseudo-Sugar Skull: From Start to Finish.

Create a highly detailed sugar skull illustration by following this expert tutorial, with details on the process from sketch to final digital design.

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Hair Amanda Tapping

A step by step drawing showing amazing hair on a portrait of actress Amanda Tapping. The result is impressive realism. A must see!

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From Sketch to Vector Illustration

Create inspiring digital creations from hand drawn sketch using these helpful tips.

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Manga Making Tutorial

In this tutorial artist will show you the process of creating a complete Manga comic strip using traditional tools.

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How to draw a fashion figure

In this video tutorial you will learn how to use existing reference photo to trace a fashion inspired sketch.

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How to Draw Dragons: Step-by-Step Instructions from Tooth to Tail

Dragons aren’t real, but if we want them to look like something living in our reality, their design must obey certain rules. Dragon draw tutorial –  Game of Thrones, the Hobbit or Harry Potter series.

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Leather Wings

In this tutorial you can get ideas and techniques for drawing realistic wings stracture, Artist focuses at drawing wings.

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Pencil Sketching by Max MaxBert Bertuzzi

very comprehensive theoritical tutorial, this article will increase knowledge and power of your drawing skill

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Drawing Hair in Pencil

Some very useful tips for you on how to create extremely inspiring and realistic drawing hair in pencil work

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Drawing Hands

Follow these simple and easy tips to avoid the difficulty of recreation of hands in pencil drawing and to learn some great tips and techniques of drawing hands.

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Clothing Tutorial

An excellent roundup with plenty of tips and clothing tutorials. So, dress your characters in the best way by practicing these tips.

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Comic Story Step by Step

If you are looking for a comic story guideline, here is a perfect step by step guide for you that will guide you starting with sketching and moving on through the inking and digital processes.

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How to draw Marlon Brando step by step

It is now time to show you “how to draw Marlon Brando step by step” All the steps and instructions are laid out in the simplest format possible to help make this tutorial a breeze.

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Face drawing: the heroic male

In this tutorial we’ll draw a character face of a hero-like character. In the process we’ll review an optimal placement of the facial features and the best ways to emphasize the features of the face that will make our character look manly and heroic.

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Evil skull drawing

Looking for a terrifying evil skull drawing tutorial? Just follow the steps and you should be able to walk away with a scary skull to use in your scary projects (whatever they might be).

Let’s start with the evil skull drawing tutorial!

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Lone Wolf Pencil Drawing

Here is a new miniature speed pencil drawing. Artist wanted to make this one different from my other ones. He combined two drawings in one to make a single image. The sunset and the single wolf. It gives the final image a different look and feeling.

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How I making manga part 2

A step by step comprehensive and detailed tutorial about making manga.

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Graphite Portrait

This tutorial explains all steps to create a portrait of Zinedine Zidane in graphite pencil. Time to complete: 10 hours.

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Dance of Spring Tutorial

A step by step detailed tutorial that will help you with your Colored pencil.

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Today, too many websites are still inaccessible. In our new book Inclusive Design Patterns, we explore how to craft flexible front-end design patterns and make future-proof and accessible interfaces without extra effort. Hardcover, 312 pages. Get the book now!

Traditional Drawing Tips & Techniques Link

How to Draw what you See: Techniques and Tips to Improve your Drawing Skills

This article contains step-by-step images of the process Artist uses to create realistic looking drawings, as well as tips he have picked up over the years which anyone can use to improve their drawing skills.

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Shading and Blending

This brilliant tutorial is all about shading and blendng, so let start and get lot of tips and amazing techniques.

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Tips for drawing hands

In this tutorial Artist will include many tips about drawing hands he has picked up which are useful for getting better at drawing hands, including foreshortening, nails, and finger shapes.

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Circulism Technique

Circulism is a very interesting technique to create skin texture with pencil. With this great tutorial, learn how to acheive a realistic skin texture with circulism.

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3 Dimensional Drawing Techniques

To learn the basics of shape, perspective and shading in order to create depth in your work.

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9 Steps to Creating Better Compositions

Great compositions don’t just happen by accident. They take planning, patience, and a knowledge of all the visual elements at your disposal. The great thing is, no matter how much or how little talent you have, you’ll always be able to improve your art by sketching out a good composition before you begin.

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Drawing clothes techniques

A less general point that the portrait seems to pose few problems is the representation of clothing. In this tutorial, clothing can be summarized in two points: the folds and textures.

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Editing Drawings 

Editing Drawings by Cataclysm-X offers valuable tips for bringing out the best in your traditional drawings after they have lost their depth and luster due to scanning.I am sure this technique will help many traditional artists in the presentation of their work.

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Detailed Hair

This article contains high quality tutorials that will guide you how to create highly realistic and inspiring hair on your subjects.

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Portraiture lesson

To study draw a portrait using the ‘inside-out’ method.

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Proportions

Proportions in any drawing assignment hold great value; therefore we have come up with these five most helpful techniques that will help you getting grips with proportions in your drawings.

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How to Draw Caricatures: The 5 Shapes

This is a great collection of tips and techniques you can use to draw caricatures and learn the basic theory and 5 shapes of caricature design.

[stormcrow-whispers]

Three Times Kallista Drew Ronan and One Time She Didn’t

Kallista shook her head in disbelief as she watched Tami and the others inspect three of her childhood drawings hanging on Ronan’s wall. “I can’t believe you kept those.” she said wryly, a teasing grin pulling at the corners of her lips. He chuckled softly, “I kept them so I could show your friends if you ever brought any home.” He may have meant it to sound sarcastic, but she was overwhelmed by the warmth she heard in his tone, a warmth that rarely ever made an appearance, a warmth he reserved only for her. 

She whipped her head around to face him, the rings in her ears clinking softly together as she did so, and her fiery eyes went wide. He was smiling, albeit it was a small one, but it was a smile nonetheless. He had a far away look in his lilac eyes, too lost in his thoughts to acknowledge her. Kallista grinned widely. She knew full well the difference between Ronan acting and Ronan being sincere, and if that fond look on his face was any indication, he was being sincere as shit. God he’d gotten sappy with age.

Ronan liked to think of himself as a patient person. Calm, cool, and collected under pressure, he’d never truly lashed out in impatience at anyone. It’s why he was so good at his job and one of the many reasons he’d gone up the ranks so quickly. His daughter, however, was proving to be a real test of his patience.

“Kallista! Come eat your dinner!” he called out for what felt like the thousandth time, annoyance starting to color his voice. The only response he received was silence once again. At this rate, she was going to go hungry, especially given how picky she was with her food as of late. He stuck his head through the doorway to the living room to scold her, but stopped when he spotted her sitting cross legged on the floor in the corner by a small lamp, her back to him. She was hunched over something and seemed to be working very intently, her little arm moving furiously back and forth, a subdued scratching reaching his ears. He frowned. What could she possibly be doing that she was completely tuning him out?

He slinked forward silently to get a better look, stepping carefully around the room so as not to be detected by the small tiefling. Once he reached her side, he crouched down to her level to get a better look. Despite his obvious presence at her side, she still hadn’t shown any indication that she’d noticed him, too engrossed in her work. He stared down at her quizzically. It seemed like she was drawing something, if the wide array of crayons strewn around her were any indication, but he couldn’t tell exactly what yet. It could be a person, but he’d need to get a better look to know for sure. He waited a few moments to see if she’d sense him, and when she didn’t, he finally spoke.

“What exactly are you doing?”

At the sound of his voice Kallista yelped in surprise and flung herself forward onto the drawing, completely obscuring it from his view, sending her crayons flying across the room in the process. She whipped her head around to shoot him a nervous look, her tail curling around her diminutive frame in what he could only guess was discomfort. “N-nothing! It’s nothing!”

“From what I saw it wasn’t nothing.” he drawled, tilting his head to the side to try and get a look at it between her tangled limbs, which caused her to curl even further into herself and give him a petulant look. He huffed impatiently and rolled his eyes. “I already saw some of it so you might as well show me.”

For a moment, she didn't budge, eyes narrowing slightly at him. She shifted just enough so she could look down at her work, then back at him, her face drawn in a mask of deep thought, brows furrowed slightly as she analyzed her options. Eventually she sighed, her shoulders falling slightly in defeat as she slowly reached down to pull the drawing out from under herself. She examined it for a moment, her crimson eyes flicking between him and the drawing, before very quickly shoving the thing in his face, her head turned away in embarrassment. The gesture took him by surprise, but not as much as what he saw when he finally got a good look at the piece of paper before him. His eyes grew wide. Ronan could count on one hand the amount of times he’d been rendered speechless in the last several years. This was definitely one of those moments.

She’d drawn HIM.

He plucked the sheet of paper from her grasp to inspect it properly and held it at a more acceptable distance. It wasn’t a masterpiece by any means, drawn with a heavy hand, comical proportions, colors going outside the lines in many places, much like any child’s drawing. She’d neglected to add his pupils and had simplified his armor considerably, and his scar was not much else than a dark line slashing across his face, and….was that a scowl? And why had she given him fangs...?

All things considered, she’d captured his likeness fairly well, but the fact that she’d drawn him...

The longer Ronan sat in silence, the more crestfallen Kallista became. She’d worked really really hard to make the drawing for him, and she’d wanted it to be a surprise, and now he was just sitting there staring at it and not saying anything? She was starting to regret making it at all. He probably hated it.

She stood up awkwardly, dusting off her knees as she did so, eyes glued to the floor. “I’m...sorry it’s not very good...I can just throw it out if-” The weight of his hand on her tiny shoulder cut her off, and her head snapped up in surprise. Eyes still glued to to the drawing, Ronan let out a soft chuckle. “It’s great, I love it. Thank you.” He finally turns to her and gives her the smallest of smiles. It was more of a grimace than anything really, but she’d take it. Although momentarily taken aback by his response, Kallista puffs up with pride, a huge grin cracking across her face. She could barely contain her excitement at his approval. And when he stood up to hang it on the wall, she jumped up and down with glee.

It was the first of many drawings she’d make for him throughout the years. She took up drawing as a bit of a hobby during their downtime between missions and training, and he frequently ended up as her subject. Not surprising, given how much time they spent together, but somewhat annoying at times. Every time she made one he particularly liked, he’d hang it up on the wall in the living room.

For a while in her teenage years, Kallista’s drawings veered more towards the fantastical. Big eyes, crazy spiky hair, bright flashy colors, and more harsh angles in their limbs and wrinkles in their clothing than Ronan thought any person should ever have. He figured it was a phase, he’d seen other kids her age draw this way, but it didn’t make it any less strange to him. It didn’t really bother him much, that is until he stumbled upon her drawing him in this ridiculous new style.

The drawing itself wasn’t bad, just...ridiculous. He wasn’t sure why she’d made his scar 3 times larger than it really was, or his eyes and his horn for that matter, and his hair definitely wasn’t that long and spiky. And who in their right mind cut holes out of their daggers? The wrapping on the handles he understood, sure, better grip was always a plus in a fight, but cut outs? Not to mention the the strange pose she drew him in. Was he supposed to be running with his arms back like that? It didn’t seem safe at all, especially where balance and stealth were concerned. And from the looks of the wild hair and cape and what he assumed were speed lines, he was most certainly supposed to be running at ridiculous speeds.

“You...made me look like some sort of action hero.” he regarded the drawing with a look of intense confusion. “I mean, that’s kinda what you look like when you’re running around on missions and on rooftops and stuff.” she stated very matter of factly, not bothering to look up from her work to greet him as she added the finishing touches. She seemed to have switched out her usual pencils for colored inks this time around, a development that perturbed him when he noticed the dark stains on his kitchen table surrounding her work space. That was definitely never coming out. Lovely.

He continued watching her work over her shoulder, scanning the page as he did so, his frown only deepening as he began to notice various accents to his wardrobe. “Why did you give me so many belts…? Do half of those even serve a purpose? They don’t look like they’re attached to anything.” She shrugged. “Belts look cool, I dunno. I mean, you do have at least two as it is, so what’s a couple more?” He grimaced at that. He wasn’t sure he agreed, but she did seem to be developing a taste for wearing ridiculous amounts of accessories as she aged, so he supposed the logic made sense, at least in her mind anyway.

He let her work in silence again for a few moments, watching as she signed it and put the current date in the bottom corner. He smirked. “That run is not at all practical you know.” She shot him a withering look. “Well if you hate it THAT much I’ll just keep it for myself then.” Before she could put it away, he snatched it from her grasp and put it on the wall next to her first one.

As ridiculous as this new art piece looked, he had to admit it had a certain…charm.

“Well, well, well, I must say I am impressed.”

Kallista snorted, a lopsided grin breaking across her face as Ronan sunk down into the chair across from her to watch her work, the exhaustion from the the day's work drawn in the lines of his shoulders and face. “Wow, I never thought I’d hear that from you.” He rolled his eyes at that, a sarcastic edge creeping into his tired voice. “You wound me, child.” She glanced up at him with a laugh, her crimson eyes dancing with mirth. “I’m sure you’ll recover.”

She turned her attention back to her work, glancing back up at him every so often, using him as a reference, eyes narrowed in concentration as she added subtle details and shading to her drawing. Unlike the other two he had on display, this one was a simple bust, and a very lifelike one at that. His crooked nose, his high cheekbones and strong jaw, even the deep scar spider webbing across the left side of his face were rendered with startling accuracy.  One thing that hadn’t changed throughout the years though was the heavy black outline she gave everything. His lips twitched up a bit at the corners in the ghost of a smile as he remembered the first drawing she made him all those years ago. “You know I never asked you why you always insist on using me as your subject.”

Kallista sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest and arching her brow at him, an air of disbelief coloring her voice. “Are you really asking me that?” He glowered at her in response but said nothing. She immediately sprung forward in her seat and pointed a finger at him, grinning from ear to ear. “There. That’s why.” “I didn’t do anything.” “Exactly, you have that same stupid scowl on your face all day, makes you easy to draw. No need to ask to you keep still if you always keep the same expression.”

Ronan groaned in annoyance and put his head in his hands. He heard Kallista snicker in response before her chair creaked loudly as she leaned forward to begin working again. When the sound of her charcoal scraping across the paper stopped all together and was replaced by a muffled rustle, he glanced back up at her curiously.

She was digging through one of her little craft bags looking for something. She pulled out a ridiculous amount of metal knitting needles of various sizes in the process, as well as a plethora of different pencils, scraps of yarn and paper, and a small knife or two. The mountain of clutter on his kitchen table grew larger and larger by the second, making him cringe internally, until she finally found what she was looking for--two purple pencils, one lighter, one darker, the same color as his eyes. With the deft precision of a master lock pick, she filled in the color of his eyes, never once going outside the lines or accidentally blending in with the charcoal. Once she was satisfied, she sat back with a smile and a nod, and began stuffing her supplies away again.

“You know I wasn’t kidding when I said I was impressed.”

Kallista looked back over her shoulder when he spoke, and found him near her side, examining the drawing up close. He was always rather good at sneaking up on her, even now. She watched his lilac eyes slowly track around the page, watched his expression change minutely from its usual mask of disinterest to one of pride and wonder. His hand hovered close to the page as he deliberated between picking it up or leaving it be, almost as if he was afraid to ruin it.  She smiled softly, all traces of her earlier humor replaced with warmth, her voice quiet. “Yeah I know.”

Kallista sat perched atop one of the towering buildings in the Plaster District, a stolen bottle of  expensive wine in hand, staring out into the night sky and watching the stars shine high above her. She was going to miss this, miss sitting high above the city and watching the people mill by. Hell, as much of a pain as it was living in Holden as a tiefling, especially one as ridiculous looking as herself, she was going to miss this place and its people. She’d really come to love it over the years, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about leaving for an indeterminate amount of time, especially considering it was her first time venturing outside the city.

Most of all, she wasn’t sure how to feel about leaving Ronan behind. When he wasn’t away on business, they saw each other every day, and frequently ran missions together. He even joked she should have never bothered moving out considering how often she came to visit. It was going to be strange being the one leaving town for once.

She brought the bottle to her lips and took a swig of it, letting out a sigh as the warm liquid burned her throat. Baskerville momentarily attempted to have a taste himself, his tiny little hands hooking into the opening of the bottle, but she plucked him from her lap before he could get close enough and placed him back on her shoulder. He squeaked indignantly at her before nipping at her fingers and running back into the hood of her cloak. She grinned. Sneaky little bugger always wanted what he couldn't have.

After some time, she felt a familiar presence behind her. “I thought I’d find you up here.” Kallista didn’t say anything in response, merely extended her arm to offer him a drink from her bottle. She heard the soft shuffle of his cloak and the whisper of his leather boots on the roof tiles as he strode forward to take the bottle from her and sit by her side. He took a long drink before passing it back to her. He’d made quite a dent in it judging by how much lighter it felt. She turned her head slightly to look at him, watching as he adjusted and readjusted the bandana around his neck, noticing the slight twitch in his eyebrows and lips and the unsteadiness of his fingers. He didn’t seem to be taking her imminent departure too well either. She said nothing of it though, and turned back to look out upon the city once more.

They sat in silence for several minutes, passing the bottle back and forth every so often, before he finally spoke.

“I’m going to miss you, you know.” His voice was quiet, barely a whisper, and if she wasn’t so accustomed to the hushed tones of his speech, she would never have heard it over the din from below.

She leaned back on her hands slightly and turned so she could face him better. In any other situation she would have answered back with sarcasm, something about how she was the best part of this terrible city so of course he’d miss her, but now was not the time. Not when he was so clearly affected by the situation. She sighed, a sad smile crossing her face. “I’m going to miss you too. A lot.” Silence took over once more, and it was so heavy it was deafening. He was never really good with emotionally charged situations like these, although neither was she, so she didn’t press him. Like father like daughter it seemed, or however it was the saying went.

She glanced over at him every so often, biting the inside of her lip anxiously as she tried to work up the courage to say something, anything to lift the uncomfortable silence. After several agonizing minutes she cleared her throat awkwardly, her fingers twitching nervously over to the pack at her side. “Hey...I, uh, I got you something...”    

At that he finally turned to face her, a look of aloof curiosity crossing his features. Good, that was better than that depressed look he had on before at least. She dove into her pack in earnest, sifting through her tools and notes until she finally pulled out what looked like a heavy envelope. She passed it to him tentatively. He inspected the exterior for a moment before carefully undoing the seal and removing its contents. He was speechless.

Kallista fidgeted a bit in her seat as she waited for a response, and when he said nothing she continued. “I, um, I had two of these made, one for you and one for me. Sort of to remember each other by I guess, since I don’t know how long I’ll be gone or how much I’ll be able to write.”

Ronan’s shocked gaze drunk in all the details on the thin canvas in his hands. It was a color portrait of the two of them, similar to the family portraits the nobles in town hung above their mantles, but on a much smaller scale. It was still remarkable, and it captured their likenesses perfectly. They had their arms around each other’s shoulders, her with a big toothy grin, him with a scowl and the slightest smile pulling at one corner of his lips. He whipped his head around to look at her. “How…?” She shrugged. “I’ve drawn you a million and one times. The painter used one of my drawings as a reference, and I posed with a stand in.” His lavender gaze turned back to the painting once more, before setting it down behind him carefully and pulling her into a fierce hug, totally overwhelmed. “Thank you.” The raw emotion in his voice nearly brought tears to her eyes, and she hugged him back tightly. God she was really going to miss him.

After a while he let her go, thanking her once more before turning his attention back to the unexpected, thoughtful gift. He ran his fingers carefully over the small ridges created by the many layers of paint, a bittersweet sort of sadness taking over him once more as he recalled the many years they’d spent together as a tiny, terrible, and practically inseparable two person family. The quiet between them this time wasn’t quite as unbearable as before, and this time he was the one to break it.

“You know, I guess I never considered they’d send you beyond the walls. That or I was completely in denial about the possibility.” After one final glance at it, he carefully put the painting back in its envelope and into his bag, then turned to her once more. “Either way, this place is going to feel a lot lonelier without you constantly pestering me to death on a daily basis.”

For a moment Kallista sat in a sort of stunned silence, taken aback by his sudden sarcasm after such a heavy exchange. But her bark of laughter that followed broke the melancholic cloud that had been hanging over them, and he smiled, really, genuinely smiled, watching as she doubled over in a fit of giggles. When she finally caught her breath, she roughly shoved at his shoulder, still grinning widely. “Dad you’re the worst, you know that?”

Ronan smirked, and this time it touched his eyes. “So I’ve been told.”

[jamesbyerj]

Project Spotlight: Daggerfall Unity

[b]Today we are talking to Interkarma, developer of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity]Daggerfall Unity[/url] a Unity port of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall that brings the classic RPG to a new engine substantially improving upon stability and playability. Curious to try it out? Follow the steps outlined [url=https://forums.dfworkshop.net/viewtopic.php?t=2360]here[/url]. [center][youtube]RPEmRzxtJnA[/youtube][/center] First and foremost: could you give us a bit of an introduction to who you are and how you got into modding / programming?[/b]   I’m just a normal geeky guy. I was born in Australia and have lived here my entire life. Most of my early life was spent in rural/outback regions due to my father being an opal prospector. I often didn’t have any technology around, not even a television. But comics, board games, and books were usually there to fill in time.   I’ve always enjoyed pulling things apart to see how they work. Once I got into computers, I started doing that with software. Early on, I had an Action Replay cartridge for the family C64 that let me pause games at runtime, inspect their assembly code, make changes, rip out sprites, etc. I had a tremendous amount of fun working out how these games did some of the things they were doing and used this to write my own small games and tools. I built tools like a sprite editor, ADSR sound editor, a basic word processor, and games like a side-scrolling shooter, that kind of thing. I kept doing this as I grew up, trying to rebuild small parts of other games to see if I could do it. I didn’t make mods so much as hack around with code and try to understand how the original game was created.   I’ve always wanted to create my own original games, and have dozens of ideas I want to work on. It’s only lately though that I really have the time and experience to make that a reality.   [b]For those who have never heard of it, how would you describe what Daggerfall Unity is in your own words?[/b]   Daggerfall Unity is a superset of classic Daggerfall. I like to describe it as “Classic Daggerfall Plus”. It’s not a remaster in the sense we’ve come to expect when this is done commercially. Rather, it’s a ground-up recreation of the classic game plus quality of life features and modding capabilities. The foundation of the idea was to port the classic Daggerfall experience into a modern game engine and give it modding support like later Elder Scrolls games. The default experience should look and feel a lot like classic, while providing for modders to remix, upgrade, and extend the base game in ways not possible in classic Daggerfall. With some of the mods available now, such as new guilds and airships, I feel like everything is working out even better than I’d hoped.   Daggerfall Unity is very much its own game though and doesn’t always do things exactly the same way as classic. Usually, this is due to bug fixes in Daggerfall Unity, or platform differences as the result of playing on a different engine, modern hardware, or higher resolutions. But we’ve worked very hard to ensure the game can be enjoyed extremely closely to its roots. Options like Retro Rendering mode are there to deliver a true 320x200 experience, most QoL features can be toggled on and off, and many control element can be finely tuned. With a bit of patience, players can dial in either an pure retro experience, or mod things closer to Morrowind/Oblivion quality levels, or find something in between. Daggerfall Unity is very flexible in what you can do with the game and most people can find a setup they enjoy playing.   [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1572271568-1148969596.png[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1572271572-2031988629.png[/img][/center] [b]From what I have learned, the whole project has kept you busy for an unbelievable amount of time. If you had to give an estimation: how many hours/days/years would you say you have put into creating Daggerfall Unity and what kept you going during all this time?[/b]   This all began in the year 2001 when I started building tools to explore Daggerfall’s textures, 3D models, map layouts, etc. These were Daggerfall Explorer, Modelling, Imaging, Cartographer, and Jukebox. I started with information on Daggerfall’s file formats available from the UESP and gradually built on this with my own discoveries. I did this on and off for around 12 years, picking away at Daggerfall’s file formats and little mysteries just for my own amusement. I even had a shot at recreating Daggerfall in 2005, but lacked the experience and community then to make much progress. While learning Unity in 2014, I wanted something more challenging to work on. My wife suggested I try porting some of my Daggerfall code into Unity, to use something familiar while learning a new tool. Because most of my code from 2009 was written in C#, it was fairly trivial to port it to Unity. This is how Daggerfall Tools for Unity (DFTFU) was born. I had model importing working in a day, locations in under a week, and the whole world working within a few months. At this stage though, it was just a toolset to import assets. There wasn’t any real gameplay. This all re-sparked interest in recreating Daggerfall, something I was interested in again by that stage. I officially started work on Daggerfall Unity in August 2015 and it has been like a second job ever since. For the next four years, I would spend roughly 6-40 hours per week working on Daggerfall Unity, building a community, managing the codebase, and so on. I’d make the time a by creating a few hours each morning and evening, and basically sinking every weekend into it.   [b]What would you say is the main lesson you learned from your time working on this project? What would you tell your younger self about going into a massive undertaking like Daggerfall Unity?[/b]   If I was being fair, I’d probably tell my younger self to do something easier instead. Daggerfall is a huge and complex game, and my younger self made the mistake of thinking it was a simple game because it was an older game. That’s just not true, something I worked out really quickly once it came time to build some of the game systems.   But now that I’ve come out the other side, I wouldn’t want to change a thing. I’ve become a better programmer, learned how to manage a large project with several developers, and grow an online community. All of this will be invaluable as I move on to creating my own games, something I wanted to do in 2014. I just had to get Daggerfall out of my system first.   [b]Did you get a lot of support from the Daggerfall community during development?[/b]   Absolutely! The support from the community has been incredible, and it’s the main reason I was able to make it this far. For those first couple of hard years when I was mostly working alone, the love and support I received was the only thing that kept me going. And from around 2017, the number of top-notch contributors exploded and we suddenly had brilliant devs like Hazelnut, Pango, Nystul, Allofich, Lypyl, Ferital, TheLacus, Numidium just pushing things forwards every day with a seemingly endless stream of quality updates and information. Even when I thought we had all the people we needed, devs like Meteoric Dragon came along and added loads of improvements, JorisVanEijden helped expand knowledge of the quest system, Jay_H built, tested, and fixed hundreds of quests, and Pango became an overmind generalist who can help with practically anything including community management. I maintain a full list of contributors at the below forum link.   [url=https://forums.dfworkshop.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=233]https://forums.dfworkshop.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=233[/url]   [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1572271564-410713571.jpeg[/img] [b]Daggerfall (The Elder Scrolls II) was released in 1996, the same year Bill Clinton was re-elected, and Pokemon was first introduced to the world. My point is: Daggerfall came out a very, very long time ago! That being said, what makes Daggerfall as a game special to you and what made you want to revive it by developing Daggerfall Unity?[/b]   I played a lot of tabletop RPGs when I was in my teens and twenties. Games like Daggerfall gave me the feeling I was playing the videogame version of a tabletop adventure run by a great DM. There were just so many deep systems to explore and things to discover.   When I was playing Daggerfall back in 1996, the web was nowhere near as developed as it is now. Information was a lot harder to find. Daggerfall felt like this big black box to tease open and see how it worked. There were rumours about a dragon being in the game somewhere, and I’d set off into the wilderness looking for it like an idiot. There was always this feeling every time I went into one of those procedurally generated dungeons that I might really be the first person to explore it. There was just something very special about this game back then, and I couldn’t help but want to understand it more.   Everything since then has just been a gradual evolution of my love and interest in the game. It’s not something that happened all at once, but rather grew slowly over many years.   [b]What can you tell us about the Daggerfall and Daggerfall Unity community? Other than diehard fans who grew up with the game, do you get a lot of people who are only now picking it up to see what it’s all about?[/b]   I’m amazed how many younger players are still trying out Daggerfall and Daggerfall Unity in 2019. This isn’t just the domain of older gamers like myself.   I feel that Daggerfall Unity helps make the game more accessible to new players. It’s a smoother and more comfortable experience with a lot of QoL features and new stuff to explore through mods. Given the modern popularity of The Elder Scrolls in general, I feel like it’s a great way to experience the series roots in a more comfortable and stable manner. I also encourage die-hard retro gamers to try out the original so they can experience what Daggerfall Unity is building upon.   [b]Have you taken notice of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29416]Skygerfall[/url] - a mod for Skyrim that aims to bring the entire main quest of Daggerfall into Skyrim? What are your thoughts on it?[/b]   It looks amazing! I haven’t had time to play it yet, but I can tell it was made with love and attention to detail. I’m looking forward to giving it some playtime in the future.   [b]Other than Daggerfall (Unity), do you have any other favourite games? Ever done any modding for those?[/b]   A few modern favourites are Elite Dangerous, World of Warcraft, Subnautica, Void Bastards, and Outer Wilds. I’ll play almost anything, but I prefer games that give me fun systems to explore and then just take their hands off. I get really annoyed when games constantly try to guide me, or too frequently break gameplay to show me a cutscene, or take away control of my camera to force me to see something.   I’m not much of a modder and have only tinkered with creating mods for other games. I tend to fall in love with systems first and gameplay later. Maybe because I grew up with basic stuff like card games and board games before I ever saw a video game, it feels like understanding rules and systems always comes before actually being able to play them. I’m the rare kind of person who prefers a heavy spiral bound manual filled with tables and formulas over an in-game tutorial.     [b]Daggerfall Unity is currently released as an alpha. How can people get set up and help you with development going forward?[/b]   There’s not much left on the development side that isn’t already allocated out or being worked on by someone. Insofar as the core gameplay, everything is done now and it’s just bug fixes, refinement, and features unique to Daggerfall Unity. It’s hard to imagine getting more help than I already am. There’s always room for more mods though. I strongly encourage anyone interested in developing for Daggerfall Unity now to check out the mod scene and build something awesome.   Other than that, the best thing everyone can do is just keep being awesome to each other and help others create new stuff for the game. If we all continue lifting each other up, there’s no telling what people might be creating for Daggerfall Unity in a few years. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1572272157-1762324444.png[/img][/center]  [b]Is there anything else you would like to say to the Nexus Mods community?[/b] I’d like to thank Nexus Mods for supporting Daggerfall Unity and making the lives of our players easier. I also hope [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity]the mods available today[/url] inspire other creators to make something new for the game. Considering some of the mods starting to appear, I can only imagine what the scene can look like in a few more years. I’m looking forward to seeing where it all goes. [line] A big thank you to Interkarma for taking the time to respond to our questions. As always, if there are any mod authors or mod projects you'd like to hear about, don't hesitate to send a message to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url]. Published first at Project Spotlight: Daggerfall Unity

[millimallow]

pt. 13 - you were my brother

part 13 of the world of owa anthology. warning for some pretty frank and in depth exploration of trauma.

you lie buried somewhere beyond any forgiveness.

there was a time when i knew you so well.

you grew up in one of the villages in the corilid range that border murentz bres. i was a satyr, living remote in a commune somewhere in northwest pinnacle. you were a human, but it didn’t matter to me. we had lived very different lives amongst very different people, but it was okay. when i looked into your eyes, coloured the shade of bleeding-wood, i saw my brother. we had been outsiders and we were now outsiders no more. i told you of my dreams one night where my armour still gleamed by the light of a fire and you smiled at me.

how was i to know what you would do?

maybe it was my fault. you were a child- even at only a few years younger than me, squarely past 18, you thought like one. outsiders grow up differently. maybe i should have known that the burden i placed on you was too much. adventurer. partner. bard. my brother in arms, even though your arms were tattered bardic robes and mine was shining holy armour. did i not give you enough support? could you not turn to me when you needed a shoulder to cry on, or even to stand on? my mind tells me often of what i could have done to stop you. to help your ailing mind and its confusion, to wrestle the darkness away. never how i could have beaten you there; on that day at epiphany rock. but how it all could have been fine. all these years and i don’t want to have won. i want you to have won. not the one who uses you for his own deeds because he knows you, knows you have a vulnerable and confused mind that rocks from side to side.

i can’t blame you for finding faith.

you used to look me in the eyes and tell me that my faith in athena was stupid. there were no godly hands which reached from the sky and held me so as that i could be lifted away from the battles i fought. nor were there any great eyes in the sky which you could see blink for a moment, then vanish. i tried to explain these things to you; that there was no need for a physical eye when your sight was not of the body, and that my religion was not intended to save me. it was intended to help me save other people, i would die when i died, whether that was in a great battle or in my sleep with some great disease. years from our final meeting, stricken with the illness that paralyzed me, i wasn’t looking to be saved. but i knew it didn’t make much sense to you, we thought in different ways. you had your instant gratification, pleasure principle, and i had the patience that would ruin nations of people before it caught up with me once more.

that last night is always on my mind.

whenever it rains, i remember. i feel better away from the sea, and away from high places, because you were there. each time i cover myself with water it’s washing away my blood again, blood that pours from my shoulder and then my forehead as i stand in front of the friends we shared. up until that point, i believed that you were better than what you did in plain sight. you could have been joking, you and your barbed humour, until the point where i shielded inme and satafina from your magic. my body rocked and swayed with the spreading jolt and the sound became unbearable. you had held out your arm and your music and you hurt me. originally you were going to hit the two most fragile of our group, which is something i didn’t realize until a few months after the fact. it was, by all measures, a killing attempt. did you want to do it? was it just a necessity for you to get your way? you probably would never give me a straight answer, but i do wonder. maybe, when you hurt me, all your anger rendered away like wax, because i could see the peace in your eyes was that of the parched man’s first drink of water. there are no lasting injuries to my body- that would come later- but my psyche remains wounded. does that count? is it real? it’s not anymore, maybe.

now i do what you couldn’t.

only recently did i learn the full story. of you and inme, your son. i met him before i knew anything about it, and if there’s any sign that i’ve forgotten, it’s that i saw past your crimson-red hair. he was the pretty young thing of my colleague, the technological wunderkind who strayed far from home. like you did. we shared an office because my mind told me to protect them, even without saying anything. he couldn’t read, and his ta arune accent was apparent- i felt sorry for him. gave him leeway and helped him. like i did you. like i would do again. and if i feel any anger towards you now, it’s because you hurt him. you bought him into a chaotic world with your own quick-fire impulses and didn’t feel an ounce of sorrow, not even after you knew he existed, not even after i killed you and you could see what inme would have never told you otherwise. all the people who have died in this war that you kept afloat yourself, all the suffering associated with it, i carry it on my back. the beast of an unimaginable burden, carrying with them a terrible crime.

even though i did everything i could.

though my holy axe was righteous in the moment.

regardless of the comics about me,

and of the light in people’s eyes when they meet me.

i carry it with me,

because you are my brother.

[globalcozykamikaze]

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 01112017

(Star Wars issue 106.  Cover by Cynthia Martin.  Image stolen from Rebel Scum. )

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week weeks ending 01/11/2017.

"Look, I don’t have time for this." - Steve Ditko.

Hello sisters and brothers of teh intronets and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shannon and I'll be your host.  I've been away for a bit.  Well, I've been right here.  I've just been busy.  September through November is my busiest time of year at work.  Then after that holiday and family stuff took over.  Family first right?  But 2017 will be a big year for file under other.  2017 is an anniversary year so more on that down the road. 

So, here we are.  My head and my heart are in knots.  I appologize in advance that this Parade-O-Links will be short on comics.  That's not comics' fault.  It's my fault.  I'm dealing with some things.  I'll get better.  For the 2nd time in the last five Presidential elections the person that received the largest amount of votes will not be our next President.  It happens.  Some people are concerned.  And with good reason.  Imagine the riots in the streets if two out of five Superbowl Championships were handed to the team with less points.  The last time this happened we invaded the wrong countries and went to war for fifteen years. So... good luck?  Look, our democracy failible.  Our democracy is fragile.  It's scary.  But one of the main reasons these United States have been safe from tyranny is that every four to eight years we have the peaceful removal and replacement of our top leader.  So whether your candidate won or lost, remember, this is temporary.  Maybe. 

And by Maybe I mean please remember that Vladimir Putin circumvented Russia's constitution and appointed himself Prime Minister and then President after having exceeded Russia's term limits.  Again, democracy is fragile.

Kompromat. 

Don't take democracy for granted.  It can end.  Democracies end.  Some times by force and sometimes by will.  Sometimes they get pissed away.  

Friends.  This isn't a political blog but I'm reporting to you live right now from the Unites States of America and this is just the world around us right now.  I know a lot of very smart people discourage artists, creative types and well, basically anyone that would like to attain employment at some point, to keep the political opinions off social media because it could be held against you and cost you gigs.  I get it. I get it.  But if we live in a country where you have to be afraid to speak your mind then we've already lost.  And personally, I don't want to work for or with people that don't respect my opinion. My mind, my glorious freaking mind, is exactly WHY you SHOULD want to work with me.  And if you're paying  me to shut up then you're wasting your money.  

 Guys.  I just need to take a moment to say that this webpage is doing some weird things with font that and alignment that are driving me crazy but I just don't have the patience to figure out right now.  Sorry.

Enough about the future/end of the free world.  Let's talk about me. I recently drew a four page comic about "Handsome" Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie" Man Valiant and Magnet Man having a monster truck sumo battle for Brien Wayne Powell's Boogie Jam 4Ever. It's great.  You should buy seven copies.  Brien also has what has to be one of the longer running ongoing webcomics about Magnet Man and the Boogie Woogie Man's adventures over at Boogie Jam Online.  I've got some other wrasslin' comics in the works but they are top secret so you will have to wait to find out about them. (Or, ya know, just ask me.)

Speaking of the word "handsome".  Does the way Taylor Swift pronounces "handsome" weird anyone else out?

2016 was a rough one for a lot of us.  It was a rough one for the world.  A lot of people have it worse than I do and I can be pretty miserable. There's a solid chance that tomorrow I'll wake up and my county's schools and hospitals will still be standing.  That's not true everywhere. So many have lost so much.  We focus on the death's of famous people because those folks are like our shared extended family.  There is a commonality there that we can empatize with.  I may know know you but if I know you loved David Bowie then I can understand how much it hurt a year ago when he left us.  You may not know me but if you loved Prince then I can tell you about how I bought my first guitar because of him when I was 15 and that I picked out a white one because of Purple Rain. Carrie Fisher meant so much to so many of us around the world.  She was the first girl I ever wanted to marry. She never stopped inspiring.  We need a million more of her.  Especially now. Comics also lost a lot of great ones. We will press on.  Forward.  Forward.  But don't forget. How could we?

Those of you have been reading file under other for a while know that I usually end these posts with a video from our youtube pal Francis.  I hate to break internet kayfabe but Francis is just a character.  The man behind Francis is Steven Williams, also known as boogie2988.  I grew up in the same small town, watchin' cartoons and readin' comics at the same library.  He was a year behind me in school but I've know him since pre-school. He's a sweetheart and was always the funniest guy in the room. This past year he received one of the highest honors you can receive in video games without actually making them. I'm proud of ya' Boogie.  Ya done good.  Saint Paul High School represent!

And now ladies and gentlemen...

THE BEST NEW semi-recent COMIC comics I READ THIS WEEK recently.

Disney Pirates of the Caribbean issues 1 and 2 by Chris Schweizer, Joe Flood and Marissa Louise.  Published by Joe Books LTD.  $2.99.

I didn't know much about this comic going into it beyond the fact that Chris Schweizer was writing it.  I missed the whole Pirates of the Caribbean movie phenomenon at the time the films came bout because my kids were not at the PG-13 age yet.  Those movies came out during a time when I pretyt much only saw talking animal movies.  But, I'm a sucker for any movie with a boat in it so I watched the 1st movie on Netflix recently after I bought these comics at my LCS but before I read them.  I liked the movie a lot.  It had boats in it. 

I loved both issues of this comic.  I think is really lovely from cover to cover. I don't know anything about the publisher Joe Books LTD or why they publish Disney comics instead of a comic book publisher Disney paid billions of dollars for but, the books are as good from cover to cover as anything on the stands and they cost a dollar or two less.  Consider me a fan.  

Schweizer's writing is as great as I expected it to be.  Each comic is a fully realized self contained speedy adventure with a full cast of individually motivated interesting characters.  The character's speech and motivations are consistent with the one film I saw.  The wit is very sharp.  Schweizer doesn't go too many panels without a punchline. 

I was a bit dissappointed to see that Schweizer was not also drawing this book but Joe Flood does a great job.  The design is solid and pleasantly consistent with the Disney Infinity video game style that I love so much.  The real challenge with this book is capturing Captain Jack's mannerism's Flood never drops character.  

The book looks great cover to cover.  Marissa Louise is credited with the colors on the first issue and I'm assuming Flood did the colors himself on the second.  I like the style of both.  My personal preference in colors is for them to be very flat. I don't like colorists that are into rendering. I like flat colors with a bit of that enhance the light and dark of the inks.  That's pretty much the style we see here.  The pallet is a bit brown for my personal tastes but it fits the story, time and location and is consistent with the movie I watched.  Interior and night time scenes are appropriately dark but the characters still pop.  

As I said before, I really don't know anything about Joe Books or these Disney comics yet (I'll look it up eventually) but if they put out 20 more issues of this with Schweizer as the writer I'll be sure to buy them and they'll probably be the first books I read from the ol' pull list any time they come out.  I couldn't find these on Comixology so if you're interested in them I suggest you ask your LCS to snag you some copies. 

And finally... Hey guys, 2016 wasn't all bad.  Francis made a friend!

Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead. 

Your best pal ever, Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics.  Do you make comics?  Maybe you should hire me to write comics. 

p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  I guess it's a law or something.

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