#one piece she did for inktober!!

[kanerallels]

*returns from a Christmas craft fair like 25 dollars poorer* I have made Decisions

[crystalpallette]

frye inspires this sort of manic "i can do whatever i want" kinda will in people and god. I sure did do whatever I wanted here

[bluebird-ascended]

Inktober (one piece ver) day 17: Journal

for the next few days i'll be switching the promptlist to sleeptober where the challenge is that i get 8 hours of sleep because i got hit with like every assignment and test possible for every class under the sun at once

[autumnmobile12]

The Sekoto Peak Tournament

It’s kinda funny how My Hero Academia is pretty much told through the lens of Midoriya’s perspective to the point where all other professions that have a fan following:  athletes, actors, singers, etc. just go completely by the wayside.  Just once, it would have been great to have Kirishima or someone mention a household name and Midoriya’s all, “…..?”

“Y’know, [insert name here?]  Legendary boxing champion?”

My point is, other professions outside of hero still exist and are probably just as popular as they’ve always been, so here’s the ‘Young Rei used to snowboard competitively’ headcanon.  This started as a piece I did for Inktober with a, ‘Rei’s a refridgerated character.  Don’t love that,’ attitude.   Because aside from finally making an attempt to fight for her family (a little late, sure, but I’m not here to do a character analysis right now,) Rei doesn’t have much characterization beyond being the victimized mother in Shouto’s story.

So two things to consider:

1.) Snowboarding is a high-intensity activity.  High intensity activities are known to reduce stress, anxiety and depression.  So Rei having this career before marriage (and possibly a little after) would have had a very positive impact on her mental health.  But after having four children, something this intense would be difficult to restart and being in her late twenties when Natsuo and Shouto were born, her professional career would have been effectively over.  Being cut off from snowboarding and its mental health benefits would have definitely contributed to her downward spiral in a more significant way than if she had never done it.  In its own way, this is also a reflection of Touya having all his energy and ambition and nowhere to put it, contributing to his own mental break.

2.) In both my Inktober post and this piece, Rei won gold and she’s wearing a different jacket, showing these were separate competitions.  Winning gold wasn’t a one-off moment; she was relatively successful and that may have served as some unspoken tension/resentment between her and Endeavor if she was one of the top competitors in her profession while her husband never made it past second place until over two decades into his.

I like the idea of this background for her.  I want to explore it further possibly as a one-shot, but I have a lot of ongoing projects right now (plus I’d need to do a little more research on how professional snowboarding competitions work,) so it’s a little up in the air whether or not an actual fic will happen.  For now, I hope you enjoy the artwork.

…

I also referenced Touya’s freaky smile for these, albeit not quite as intense.  He got that from someone, and my money is on Mom.  Mostly because I am entertained by the idea of a much younger Rei rocketing down a mountainside and terrifying other snowboarders with the same ecstatic, unhinged smile her son has.  And that footage probably exists online somewhere, someone in Class 1A is going to find it, and be all,  “Uh, Todoroki, I think I found a video of your mom.”

…

And just in case anyone asks:  Yes, that is Korra in the back.  I like to sneak crossover cameos into both my fanart and fanfics, and when thinking of characters, I remembered a behind the scenes LOK fact that Korra’s character design was partially inspired by female snowboarders.

The third snowboarder is also a cameo from a more obscure, nostalgia cartoon:  Suzy Lu from Storm Hawks.

[aurenflare]

my 2024 art summary 🫶🫶

for me, this year was the first time that i really tried out digital art, which has definitely been a journey! i think i’ll always feel more confident with traditional art (and there are a couple months where i didn’t do digital art at all! april has a sketch bc i was SOO busy that month, and october has a fun little marker piece) but it’s so interesting to explore digital!

i think i’ve really started to get the hang of it, especially in my november and december pieces — but i also think i’m going to make an effort to get back into posting traditional art. my alcohol markers are rotting over here …

anyways because i’m actually incapable of not babbling here’s a little explanation for each month

january, february, and march: all drawings i did for a mental-health oriented small business in my area — basically each one represents a different cognitive function. these were literally my first rendered digital art pieces ever but yk … there are 6 in all but these i feel are the best ones lol

april: i had ZERO time on my hands due to aps but luckily i was still sketching! my style has evolved a bit since then but what hasn’t changed is my love for coloured pencil sketches ILY COLOURED PENCIL SKETCHES

may & june: these are a couple of oc ref sheets that i was intending to use for artfight! except i never finished the full set and so never participated in artfight. next year i swear. this was also from my phase where i used the crosshatching pattern brush for every single background ever

july: so this was actually a design for a screenprint! the stippling made me and my art teacher miserable in the end but u know it’s about the experience … this was also inspired by kiki’s delivery service my 3rd favourite ghibli movie … i love u kiki

august: this is a wip that i will never ever finish (and i actually posted it on tumblr here over a month after abandoning it 😭) but it’s also the only kotlc thing i’ve drawn in like a year and a half (at least until the unravelled release) and i think it’s cute

september: listen i Love Laufey and every september 8th she does a little fan celebration called a very laufey day! so this was inspired by that, specifically the song “dreamer” — there are a lot of little details that reference various aspects of the lyrics or official video! super fun to draw and one of the digital pieces that i’m the proudest of 🤭

october: okay this one was sooo fun because i hadn’t touched my alcohol markers in a longggg while … it was inspired loosely by the inktober prompt “nomad”

november: this was a piece for one of my school’s publications, and was loads of fun to draw! one of the digital pieces that i’m proudest of tbh simply because there’s so much going on but it still feels fairly cohesive

december: this was my kotlc secret santa gift and also the first fully polished kotlc piece i had done in a VERYY long time — so while i was deathly sick while creating it (literally i was and still am On My Deathbed) it was super nostalgic and fun :)

if u made it to the end of this I LOVE U. why did u read all this u mean more to me than i could ever possibly articulate. have an amazing day u icon 🫶🫶

[arcatsk]

My insights from Inktober 2024:

For those who plan to do Inktobers in the future and don’t know where to start - those are my tips on how to handle this artsy month: -I discovered sticking to a list really limits me, so I gave up on that right away. -I did pick a theme which is my absolute comfort zone and something I love to draw. I recommend picking a theme you’re passionate about. -Planning several sketches ahead really helped saving headaches and panic. -If possible, try to make several artworks for future days in which you may be too busy -Limited color palette does wonders. It saves a lot of time of choosing colors. -It also forces you to plan only with the colors you have, which can lead to discovering interesting color combinations. -The art supplies you’re using will eventually run out. Have an extra just for any case. -For alcohol markers users: It’s mega important to use pens/fineliners that are compatible with alcohol markers and won’t bleed. Even still, let the lineart dry for at last an hour before you erase sketch, to avoid smearing. -The Mixed-Media paper works much better for me than Marker paper. Highly recommend. It’s a cool paper overall for all mediums. -Have a separate piece of paper for color-combination and effect tests. -Mistakes are part of any process, see if it’s possible to work around and make it a part of the work, or simply edit it out on the comp later ^^; -Seriously, FORGIVE YOURSELF for mistakes. You’re a human! -When I tackled a very difficult or detailed artwork – I kept reminding myself “it’s just Inktober” -it doesn’t have to be huge or perfect since it's one of 31, there are lots of artworks to be made in short time and I’ll burn myself out if I treat everyone like a masterpiece. -It’s also ok to stop if you’re tired and just go “AAAAAAAAAAAA!” for a few seconds to release stress. ;) Also, a separate THANK YOU for all the support, tags, messages, and likes. It has given me a huge drive to continue with this quite difficult challenge. Overall, it was a very satisfying experience (let alone I always dreamt of doing this challenge!). I feel I grew as an artist and also in motivation levels and self-forgiveness to mistakes (<-who would’ve thought she’s a perfectionist). It was scary in the beginning but became much easier toward the end. I believe committing to this challenge was one of the greatest presents I’ve given myself ^w^

[artthemasquerade]

DVMNINKTOBER Day 11 Ryo x Miki

Hi, longtime no see! XD I hope you all had a lovely winter holiday and have a happy new year too! I can only say that this took me as long as it did cause I was being a little too ambitious and it took me longer than I thought it would and well, I've been busy with a lot of things including getting sick at the beginning of the month! XD I'm doing a lot better thankfully but oh boy it had really sucked and slowed me down a lot!

So I've been slowly, slowly been working my through this year's Devilman Inktober by nozoshii created for the community https://www.tumblr.com/nozoxshii/763169423585673216/i-made-a-devilman-inktober-prompt-list-for-the?source=share

For day eleven is fave pairing or duo and wellllllll, you all know that I have a lot of ships for Devilman so I decided to draw out five different pictures of each of my ships, Ryokira, Akira/Miki/Ryo, Satan/Zennon, Ryo/Miki and Akira/Miki and as I've said before I had gotten sick around the time I was working on the first of the pictures for this prompt and it really delayed things a lot and not to mention I was challenging myself a lot with these pieces, I want to really craft some good backgrounds like the old masters and while I don't think I've quite captured their ability to do those backgrounds I am pleased that I did go the extra mile for these pieces, I learned a lot making these especially since I was so limited in working in only black and white, so making sure the values were good was extremely important here!

Okay, so the first picture here is of Ryo and Miki sharing a passionate kiss together in a little rocky grotto, presumably hiding from the Slum King's men as they go on the run together so Miki isn't forced into becoming the Slum King's lover.

While Ryo and Miki's romantic relationship doesn't have a lot of screen time in the Violence Jack manga it is one of my fave parts of it, I find them very sweet and loving together despite all of the horrors they've suffered and continue to be the light both of them need. And its so heart breaking that they suffer a lot together at the hands of the Slum King and in the end they both lose their lives in standing up to their abuser, at least Miki did briefly outlive the Slum King but she spent her last moments weeping over Ryo's death. 😭😭😭

I think what I really like about this pairing is a couple of things, one, the second chance factor, Ryo having lost Akira because of his own actions finally gets to be loved romantically and understand Akira's love for Miki more, and two, the theme of everlasting love even during dark times, despite of all of the abuse the two suffered they never stop loving each other and keep each other going and that means a lot to me, especially these days.

And to be honest I like the idea of Ryo finally putting aside his jealously and resentment of Miki and just coming to love her, in a way I feel it shows how much he's changed since the end of Devilman. He tried to right his wrongs by bringing humanity back and even though he accidentally caused the Kanto Hellquake due his guilt and trauma over killing Akira and destroying humanity and he wanted to punish himself for it. Whether VJ Miki is real or not doesn't matter to me much, I think Ryo wanted to be loved and understand Akira more and likely unconsciously recreate Miki or what he had remembered of her, the important thing to me is that it showed the potential of what these two would be like as an couple.

And honestly I love the idea of Miki having an Angel bf XD and also me enjoying this ship a lot is what got me into shipping my OT3! :3

so I had referenced this Gustave Doré illustration for John Milton's Paradise Lost https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Paradise_Lost_20.jpg since I wanted to get better at composition in my art and thus I'll be referencing a few of Gustave Doré's artworks for Paradise Lost since I love giving the ships in my OT3 that Adam and Eve feel. They are in paradise when they are together but it could be stolen from them at any moment…

[yutopia-eleftheria]

Saying Goodbye to 2024...

2024 is coming to an end... What a year that was !

This was mostly carried by the start of the Eternals Series/Draw This In Your Style, which is not over yet ! But this is really something else ! Hope you will participate ! ♥

Also Inktober and Inkember were very special, especially Inktober since I didn't follow the official Prompt List (it was not my cup of tea at all this year...). Alterning between 2 styles was really challenging and fun to do !

Here are some summaries of this year, uncluding Summary of Art 2024, as well as Art VS Artist 2024 ! ♥

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Art VS Artist 2024 :

Yeah sorry if the photo of me is not high quality, the huge light that was above us is the reason for that...

Top Left : Azucena "Hisuiiruka" Rivadeneira, my One Piece OC and her Redesign ! (She changed quite a lot frankly. Also her Reference Sheet and Infos will come out soon...♥)

Top Center : Mao Mao from The Apothecary Diaries

Top Right : Baby Ana Lee Rina Quagmire (my Inazuma Eleven OC ; Right) and baby Naomi Garcia for a Collab.

Middle Left : Humanized Shiny Iron Valiant and Ogerpon. A gift for one of my friends' Birthday.

Middle Right : The Time Siblings, Tokisada (Right) and his younger sister Tokisaki (my OC) on vacation.

Bottom Left : Demon Kanao in the style of Kimetsu no Yaiba. Prompt for Inktober Day 31 : Butterfly

Bottom Center : Angela Douglas. Prompt for Criminal Case Inkember 2024.

Bottom Right : Chizuru Sengoku from Nijika/Nijiro Prism Girl.

---

Summary of Art 2024 :

A month in 2024, an Art posted during said month :

January : Emma from The Promised Neverland (whom I got a figure for Christmas ♥).

February : Chuuya Nakahara & Ranpo Edogawa from Bungo Stray Dogs. A Birthday Gift for one of my friends ♥.

March : Ushii X Tora from Juuni Taisen ; Zodiac War.

April : Eternals : Cassandra Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village.

May : One of my OTP's : Bill Edward X Ryan Gray (Mermaid Edition) from Another Code ♥.

June : My Participation in a Draw This In Your Style Contest held by my friend that I love deeply ♥.

July : Sunset (my Pokémon Shining Pearl/Legends Arceus OC) with her Sinnohian Team.

August : "Humanized" Freddy Fazbear from Five Nights At Freddy's in my Reborn AU. Special Art for the Olympics ; Weight Lifting.

September : Messmer enjoying some vacations with his snakes.

October : Rika Furude from Higurashi ; When They Cry. Fanart made for Inktober's Daily Theme : Disability.

November : Gwendolyn Harper enjoying the Autumn Season. Fanart made for Criminal Case Inkember 2024.

December : Katerina from Monster Hunter Riders. Little Fanart made for her Birthday on December 14th.

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See you in 2025 with the Top 9 Instagram and, of course, the Fanart I did for the New Year ! ♥

[itsthequeercryptid]

Cringetober Day 16 -

Objecthead 🔮

Here’s an unnamed character I made for a piece I did during last year’s Inktober, the prompt being “fortune”. I mostly just made her up on the spot for that one drawing and I don’t have a proper backstory for her other than that she’s a wealthy socialite and fortune teller with clairvoyant abilities, but honestly she’s iconic either way so I just had to draw her!!

Here’s the og inktober drawing:

[bi-animated]

The Patakis Week Day 2!

I’m honestly so proud of this one, I just finished it today so I can post it in time. (I really don’t wanna fall behind like Inktober ☠️)

Following the prompts, here is the scenario:

Arnold and Helga are volunteering at PS 118 for their summer program that is essentially just a glorified baby sitting gig, which is why they’re letting high schoolers do it in the first place. We all know why Helga took the job, and it has nothing to do with kids. So when a young student in her cluster, Daisy May*, becomes overly attached, Helga exploits Daisy’s love of pudding. Arnold has been watching Helga too, and notices that she’s up to her old tricks. “You can’t just sit the kid in a corner with a pudding cup, how is she going to learn?”

“That’s how Bob did it and I turned out fine”

“Okay Helga, just be big enough to clean the mess”

*Fun fact: Daisy May is the name of the love interest in Lil Abner, where Arnold’s pet pig gets his namesake. Daisy May pursues the main character even though he shows no interest. It’s a Helga-ception.(credit to my bf for that)

One thing that I LOVE about Helga is her tenacity to break the rules (law😝) for the sake of her personal mission. Since it’s just a blurb for a picture, I didn’t get too detailed with the plot but I’d like to think that Helga was getting up to something Football related 😏

I wanted her face to look frustrated for being caught out, but also totally elated that Arnold was paying attention to her 😍

@opthepatakis

————————

Since I’m using my Tumblr as more of an “art diary”, I’d like to include some more info behind what went into this piece:

Much like Inktober, I’m using this challenge to learn more about Procreate, experiment with brushes and figure out what’s “right” for me.

To be frank, it has been a mildly frustrating experience internally because I already know that my weakness is color. Digital painting and traditional are just not the same, they don’t work the same (to me anyway). The interface of Procreate is so different from Photoshop too, finding and remembering to use tools isn’t a simple transition, either. It makes me self conscious of my art, even though I’ve gone to art school, and it throws me off to have to stop and Google stuff. But! I think with this piece, I’m FINALLY in a good groove of how I want my art to look and how to get there.

TLDR; I cry bc the lesson I refuse to learn is that you never stop learning 🙃

PS - skipping Patakis Week Day 3 to put the amount of effort and time that I want to put into Day 4’s prompt, however, I’ll still post something fun! 💜

[vomitlover-art]

Art Summary 2023 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Last new years i got really down because every artist I knew was doing year recaps. I decided to avoid that this year, I was gonna try to draw at least one thing every month. I was able to do it thank gosh gdkjfnghjf.

I wasn't able to do an excellent piece every month- sometimes just a sketch. Maybe that should be goal 2024? I'll try to make a really good piece every month.

Here is my favorite art of every month. Thank you for enjoying my art this year aaaaaaaaa thanku thanku aaaaaaaaa

January

Didn't start off strong really. Best thing I did this month was a sketchpage of Q. The campaign she's in started in January and has been going strong since =w=

February

I couldn't design between the two aack. The first was a lil sketch I did when I first started dating Cam. She said she wanted to watch me draw and I couldn't think of anything, so I just started putting together something mechanical aack. You can tell I kinda got tired after just drawing the head .-.

Second was when I was still super into Bocchi. Still am, just haven't drawn any fanart in a while gkfdjhnjgff.

March

"Recipes for Strawberry Jam" was my absolute favorite thing to work on all year I think. This specific page took so long but it all worth it. It was my first serious foray into making a comic, using color, and trying out weird perspectives and I think it worked out so well. I'm really hoping to do more soon =w=

April

This is around the time I switched my sketch paper to a more grey-color rather than a yellow-ish tone aack. I later switch it again to stark white. Road Queen~

May

I drew one (1) thing in May. May is always the worst part of the year aaaa. It starts to get hot again and because I live in the desert that means that life is suddenly unbearable and I have to Deal with all of that.

June

Ultravex! Everyone loves Ultravex =w=

One of the best xenobiology pieces I put together aack. I love designing animals that are fucked up and horrible.

July

Thricefold Judged.

August

Another sketch month. Summer sucks aa

September

Sketch this month, all in prep for Inktober \o/

October

It's hard to pick a fave for inktober, but it's probably the Lavender piece =w=

It was really calming and nice to take my time and work out individual details. I feel weird describing my own art gkjdnhfj I just. liked this one aaa

November

I made a lot of Maleghast necros this month. Was a little sad I didn't get more comms for Deadsouls Necros. It was my favorite one to make ghkfjdhnjgf

December

I was really happy to be able to make a necromancer for the Archivists homebrew house aack. I honestly didn't draw much in Decemeber except for. A lot of vent art I'd rather not share and nsfw art I don't wanna share aack. Almost fumbled it all at the end aaa

This was the first year I made like, any significant living off of commissions. I hope to continue growing next year. Thank you sincerely for following me. It's a little... nerve wracking, but I'm glad to have people aack. I'd like to keep working like this- making art on commissions and ko-fi supporters, and everything helps. It's always been my dream to scrape a living from my art, so, thank you. aaaaaaa

[im-no-jedi]

Let’s get some fun recommendations goin around here! What’s a piece of clone content (art, fic, etc) that has stuck with you as being notably excellent? Tag it in your answer so we can all find some new fun to read! If you want, of course; feel free to ignore! 💕

🤩 oh what a fun idea!! I would LOVE to gush about some really cool artists, thank you 😁

I'll start with @shyranno, whose art I absolutely adore. her style is so clean and expressive and colorful, and she makes amazing comics. the TBB Downtime series is exactly my kinda Clone content, filled with lots of fluff and feels. the "baby" batch ones are my favorite, but I'm also fond of this one where Tech gets teased from not being able to grow a beard 😜

another artist I really love is @zaana! she also draws a lot of really sweet and funny moments with TBB, and I'm super fond of her more sketchy style of drawing. she's got a "Crosshair defects the Empire" AU about Cross rejoining TBB sometime during season 2 that I love soooooo much. honestly, all her stuff with Crosshair (especially the ones with Omega) is top tier. although I think my top favorite is this one with Hunter and Crosshair (which @questforgalas also wrote an amazing oneshot about!); it's so simple but so sweet, and I automatically love any wholesome content between these two 🥰

then there's @lightspringrain, who makes beautiful portraits of TBB. I've been wanting to buy some of her prints (and will absolutely do so once I have the money!!) because they are seriously gorgeous. her "Crown" series is the best, it's so lovely! and she does an amazing job capturing the style of the show! to no one's surprise, my favorites are the Hunter and Omega moon crowns. the Hunter one is legit one of my favorite art piece ever; it's been my lockscreen on my phone ever since I saw it 💙

someone I recently started following is @thattoothpick! after seeing her "TBB Happy on Pabu" comics, I had to see more. the best way I can describe her style is "soft". everything is just so soft; the lines, the colors, all of it. it just makes me happy 😊 I have two favorite pieces; the first is this one about Hunter and Crosshair from the Pabu series. literally made me cry. I need this to happen SO badly 🥺 and then this one that I refer to as "the Sad Batch"... oh man. also had me crying (but also simping for obvious reasons LOL) 😭

now for a big one. I can easily say my favorite SW related artist of all time is @lornaka. her art... holy crap y'all. it's so freaking good. she makes everything from simple portraits to stunning dynamic pieces, and I'm obsessed with all of it. she even was featured during SW Celebration last year!! she's that good!! \o/ I have a few favorites of hers. which obviously includes the TBB poster she made for Celebration. still sad I couldn't get my own copy of it 💔 then there's this... lovely portrait of Hunter from behind. oh Lordy 🥵 and finally, my top favorite is actually this simple portrait of Hunter. I had it as my lockscreen for a LONG time. it's just... so good. the colors, the stars, his expression... I'm still obsessed 😍

finally, I can't talk about amazing artists without mentioning my sister @jam-n-ham. her art account is @joyjababanoid. y'all. please just scroll through her TBB art, you will not regret it. I've always adored her cartoony and expressive style, and it makes for hilarious Clone content LOL. she did a bunch of drawings for Inktober last year, solely focused around TBB. she's also done some comics that I've had a part in helping her develop (specifically the Padme pin-up art and the AZI going on a mission). but my absolute favorite is by far the Valentines collection. y'aaaaaaaall. I had the Hunter one as my phone background for over a year haha. she knows how to personally get to me, let's just say that 🥵

oh, and one last thing I wanna mention is that the one thing these folks all have in common, aside from being fantastic artists, is that I love how each of them draw my bae. seriously, y'all draw Hunter so good, and I'm smooching each of your different versions of him 🥰😘

thanks for letting me gush about some cool people!! everyone show them some much deserved love please!! 💙💙💙

[hotroadkill]

saw this and wanted to make my own post real quick bc i’ve gotten some questions abt my art before & now that i feel a bit more secure in my style i thought i’d give a few tips to anyone who wanted that :)

first i have to address how the submission is phrased: i'm sorry & i know no one wants to hear this but “keep practicing” is not a platitude that is always going to be the best advice 😭 the real question is:

how do you make practice fun?

1. challenge yourself in a way you find enjoyable/fulfilling :)

i liked doing things like art prompts from inktobers, and to draw comics of the stories i wrote, but mostly the answer for me was “set random number goal, meet random number goal, inject the validation from completed goal directly into my bloodstream, repeat.”

i worked on things kind of systematically, which just made my brain happy; i spent one summer when i was 14 doing nothing but drawing 10 full bodies a day, all with references of course. did the same throughout the fall with hands, then eyes, then expressions, then clothes, etc etc. it always had to be 10 diff angles and positions.

i did a repeat of this 10-drawings-of-10-angles rule throughout quarantine in 2020. failed all my online classes cuz i was drawing 6-10 hours every day and ignoring my homework but still passed the year in the end 💀 i got the idea from yumeii-art; it's been over 7 years since, so idk if i remember right, but she had given a similar rule of thumb as a response to someone's question about drawing without a reference, i think.

is this the Best path? probably not, idk. and it definitely lead to awkward phases where i was much better at drawing bodies than faces, for example — but it worked for me. i liked breaking things down like that, it felt more manageable.

the other number goal was. in 9th grade i saw this post:

and i was like. y’know what? yeah. i keep feeling bad abt my art, how about i put that feeling on pause until after i’ve filled 14 sketch book. i hope this user knows i owe all my achievements to the phrase “fill 14 sketch book” powering me through years of depression and art block.

so i did fill 14 sketch book!

i met that goal between ages 14 and 19. obv this doesnt include the doodles on my homework, on other random surfaces, or the ~150 digital artworks i’d done in that time, so maybe it was more like 16 sketch book? but that doesnt matter, i had 14 labeled & organized sketchbooks that were full, and i did feel better about my art by then. this was my anime training montage. this was 90% of my improvement. this was the best art advice i’d ever gotten.

so i guess what made art the most fun to me was numbers? which sounds lame but i guess since i’m competitive & love competing against myself the most, it just worked for me.

comparisons, with 2016 on the left and 2020 on the right:

(the new sketches are still rough and lack some detail ofc but i have terrible ADHD and always found it hard to sit down and keep working on a sketch once it was “done enough” — for some reason i dont rlly have the same impatience with digital art & have less of a problem completing pieces on my ipad now) (the point is. 14 sketch book level complete. 1000% worth it)

then my 2021-2024 improvement, when i had bought my own ipad and again spent most days drawing instead of doing my schoolwork (i.. did end up failing that first year of uni):

2. try out different mediums aimlessly!

what i mean is just go ham with some charcoal or whatever you have on hand, without the determination to Make It Good. i can’t say if this helped my actual art get better but what it did do was keep the joy of it alive & i had fun which lead to more practice & therefore improvement. color pencils weirdly were my favorite. hell, my school had us do a project with linoleum printing (is that how u spell it idk) and it gave me months’ worth of art inspo.

i also recently got a gift card for a stationery store and got some nice markers and those also gave me a ton of motivation. markers r good

3. if u do digital art, find ur fave brush; it will be ur familiar ur trusted companion ur lover in a past life

for lineart i mostly use the IGB office pack, favorite ballpoint. you’ll have to buy & download it online tho i think it was like $7? but yea it was worth it. (i did a lot of work with the gesinski ink brush in past years but i think it’s a bit too “sharp” now)

but also go crazy try them all it’s fun!

4. in my opinion it’s fine to do redraws of ur fave artist’s work now and then — as long as u keep it to urself and dont take credit for it

i’ve had ppl ask to use my art as a ref and my answer is always Not Sure Why You’d Want To Bc It’s Not All That, But Yes Of Course. as u can see most of my 2021 work was redrawing panels of the “gangsta.” manga; it didn’t even end up influencing my style much, my style was already based on all the manga shit i drew at 13, but it was the only thing i was motivated enough to draw at the time, and it was valuable practice.

art teachers still stress that the best reference is to draw from life & yeah thats true maybe but idc sometimes ur just not feeling that! so mix it up, whatever works. obviously respect it if an artist says not to reference their work and don’t only reference ur art from one artist but generally i think it’s harmless.

especially when there’s a specific thing an artist does very well that’s hard to find other examples of; personally i was fighting for my life trying to find how to best translate references of dynamic movement into art of dynamic movement. and i think the bnha mangaka does this wonderfully so i often referenced thise action panels as practice. and i think it helped loosen up my art style. (and… i was extremely ridiculously mentally ill about hawks so that…. contributed…. my fave ask to date is still the person who clocked hawks as my old fave character based purely on how i draw eyes 😭😭)

tracing is a diff conversation and my advice there is it is not actually helpful and it's. idk it feels very Against Artist Code. sometimes, and i havent done it in a couple years, but if a piece REALLY isnt working i've done the thing where u trace the general movement of a pose then go from there but i've never posted completed works where i used that method bc it felt wrong. but yeah that's a separate thing that i don't wanna go too deep into

5. another fun thing that motivated me to practice was doing speedpaints!

if you draw on procreate, it's probably set up automatically already. i don't have the storage to record everything, but when i do have it on, the knowledge that i'll have a speedpaint of the finished piece pushes me to put the last necessary touches on it. (if you'd like to see some of my speedpaints i have a few on my instagram)

some more technical advice:

1. flip your canvas flip your canvas flip your goddamn canvas i KNOW it hurts i KNOW it’s like ripping off a bandaid that’s superglued to ur skin i know but YOU HAVE TO FLIP YOUR CANVAS

(when i didn’t have an ipad i’d do this by taking a picture of the drawing on my phone and flipping the image in the photo app)

IT IS THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD AND IM NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT I’VE RAGE QUIT SOME PIECES OVER SEEING THE CANVAS FLIPPED BUT LOOK AT THIS ART BEFORE AND AFTER I’D FLIPPED IT AND FIXED HOW WONKY IT WAS: desaturated so tht the colors dont distract so much

like it's the BEST and honestly often the ONLY way you're going to catch things that were off/out of proportion/etc. flipping your canvas gives your brain a "new eye" and it's invaluable.

2. until you have color theory figured out…. i honestly depend on adding layers and setting them to color dodge, divide, multiply, overlay, etc…. i am cheating, perhaps, but it works

3. this is how i draw front-facing noses because it's what a czech woman in an extremely bad mood taught me in a cramped overheated stuffy classroom in germany when i was 12

it was our only meeting but she changed my life. i do not know how common this method is but it's possibly the only thing i can concretely give you a tutorial for. after a few times you won't need to do step 1 anymore

anddd i think that's all the advice i have that wouldn't be a repeat of every other art advice thing you've seen. i do know it boils down to "keep practicing" but again you won't get around that, and i just hope that concretely showing what's motivated me might help motivate someone else.

as an ending note, please take this sentence that motivated me just as much as the 14 sketch book rule: (via graveweaver, author of the webtoon "i'm the grim reaper")

[iamzlaw]

INKTOBER 2024 - 2 - DISCOVER

Four people in their mid-twenties to early thirties are standing around in a dusty corridor, having a conversation which, judging by their expressions, must be serious.

"We have to tell someone," says the one woman in the group.

"Oh, come on! What good ever comes from things like this?"

The man who just spoke has his hands on his hips, and an incredulous look in his eyes.

"Don't you want to put your name on something amazing?" she pleads.

"Oh yeah? And end up like Rosalind Franklin, cheated out of it?" he argues pessimistically.

"She was acknowledged in the end," adds one of the other men, timidly.

The last member of the team is not really listening. He is busy risking furtive glances into a room further along the path. He looks a little worried, whereas his friends are completely engrossed in their discussion.

"Way too late, if you ask me," grumbles the contrarian in response to the previous remark.

"Recognition should not be the reason to come forward anyway," adds the shier man, reasonable.

"What other reason do you see?" asks the girl.

"How about… for the betterment of mankind?"

Based on his face, he is aware of how sanctimonious he sounds, but he cannot come up with a better wording at this particular moment. His more vocal friend keeps on ranting:

"Seriously? Can any of you name one human invention that hasn't been either weaponised or unreasonably monetised, when it didn't simply lead to disaster? Nuclear energy: turned into a weapon of mass destruction almost straight away. Insuline: price gouged eventually. Vaccines: as great as they can be, used for what is pretty much money laundering. Should I go on?"

"What of discoveries for the sake of discovery?" insists the other one, principled.

To that, his opposition rolls his eyes.

"You mean like untouched pieces of land or ocean, which end up being trampled soon after their existence becomes known? Or secret animal or vegetal species, who suddenly turn endangered due to exposure and the destruction of their habitat?"

"You're such a killjoy…" the one female among them admonishes him.

"Guys…"

At the intervention of their fourth teammate, the first three turn toward him, with questioning gazes.

"What?" they ask as one.

"I know none of us signed up for this. This was simply meant to be an easy trek among friends, not even off the beaten path. But the fact remains that we did come upon a – if not living – breathing mummy. And whoever they are or were or whatever, they don't seem to understand what's going on. And based on their behaviour right now, I'm not sure they're going to be particularly thrilled to have been awakened when they do make sense of things. So… none of what you said so far helps us deal with that."

"Right. That…"

Maybe they should shelve the debate on the benefits and drawbacks of discoveries for a time when they are not expressly faced with one as massive as the apparent success of a legendary ritual to raise the dead.

[ambyandony]

Monster AU - Joestar Family Lore

Spoilers for Phantom Blood I guess?? Maybe-spoilers for some of the other parts?

I actually made a piece featuring the JoJos of the Joestar family (prime universe) for Inktober (using unofficial prompts) so that will serve as my décor for this lore post.

This post is about the Joestar family in general. The only Joestar that I've confirmed to "be" anything other than human is Giorno (and his half brothers I suppose). But that doesn't mean the Joestar family is full of normal, magic-dry humans.

Let's start from the beginning:

Jonathan Joestar is a human being, and yet, he appears to be distinctly ethereal.

Not holy, per se, I could perhaps use the word 'divine', but the specific religious connotation that would probably conjure is not really meant to be part of it. The way I would tend to describe it would be 'some kind of ethereal entity borne of a miracle'. I'll just refer to this concept as 'the Entity' (with capital E) for simplicity. Within the bearers, there's a sense of righteousness that may be linked to it aswell.

Essentially, it was miraculous that anyone survived the carriage incident, and because George and Jonathan both did miraculously survive, they (but more specifically Jonathan) were hashtag blessed and the Entity became a part of Jonathan and subsequently his descendants. It's pretty simply passed down like genetics are; as generations pass on, there's some muddling or dilution, but every Joestar descendant from Jonathan onwards has this [non-Stand] Entity as a part of them to some extent. Even the normal ones (Holy); basically anyone with genetic parentage tracing back to Jonathan (so unfortunately no Joestars-in-law) will have it.

The muddling is because the Entity is more or less an entirely unique thing, so others that would have that same Entity as part of their being would be rare, if not completely nonexistent. Joestars are mostly having kids with normal humans, so over the generations it gets sort of 'watered down'. The Entity, however, is an incredibly strong thing, so much so that, even generations down the line, it's still detectable or distinct in them or their auras.

Furthermore, Hamon deeply resonates with the Entity, making it more powerful and more prominent; the two things seem to be somehow linked, and this connection may be why Joestars seem to be particularly skilled Hamon Users. Unfortunately, this also means that the Entity started to become much more subtle when the practise of Hamon was no longer passed down in the Joestar family.

So Joseph, despite being Jonathan's grandson, still has a very distinct presence of the Entity which furthermore gets even stronger throughout the events of Battle Tendency when he receives Hamon training. Though you'd never guess there's anything ethereal about him with how much of a little bitch he is

Then we get to Holy, Joseph's daughter. She's three generations (since Jonathan) along and the Entity (thanks in part to Joseph's attunement with Hamon) is still fairly strong. Her good natured spirit helps to bolster it somewhat, and though we never see her using Hamon, she definitely could. The Entity was strong enough for her that, when she was unable to control her own Stand, it helped her, through her will to survive, to withstand the full extent of her Stand's power, keeping her alive (I call bullshit on her not having enough fighting spirit and would like to see Holy throw hands).

So with Jotaro being Holy's son, Joseph's grandson (4 generations in), the Entity starts to become a bit passive. Jotaro doesn't practise Hamon and he's an asshole (albeit with overall noble intention) so the Entity has more or less ceased to be particularly distinct with him (though it might have had some influence on the sheer general capability of Star Platinum). It's still fairly plainly detectable in his aura.

And then we get to resident sleepy boy Josuke Higashikata, requiring a hop back in the generational line. Josuke is Joseph's son, consequently also being Holy's half-brother; thus, he's a third-generation Joestar descendant. This means that, similarly to Holy, the Entity is once again fairly strong (even though Joseph stopped practicing Hamon), and perhaps a little stronger due to another "miraculous" event that occurred in Josuke's childhood (when he'd been deathly ill); it's an Entity borne of a miracle, so it seems only natural that another miracle would strengthen it.

Now, I'm going to skip Giorno for a moment because he's a little... complicated.

Then comes Jolyne. Jolyne is Jotaro's daughter, Joseph's great-granddaughter; she's a 5th generation Joestar (and the only one of which we really know about) and by now, the connection with the Entity is quite faint, especially since it was already pretty subdued for Jotaro. It's detectable in her aura, but it doesn't seem to really have much impact on her.

Funnily enough, Jonathan aside, the Joestar descendant with the strongest attachment to the Entity... is Giorno.

Now before I get into detail about Giorno I need to address... the DIO. The Entity is linked intrinsically to both the spirit, and also to the physical form (hence why it's genetic), its primary attachment generally depending which is 'active', to put it simply. What this essentially means is that while a person is alive, the Entity is mainly attached to their soul. But if the person dies, the Entity typically becomes inactive. However, since DIO (who is, to simplify, still a vampire) decided to steal Jonathan's body when Jonathan died, that meant that Jonathan's body became active despite the lack of his soul, so the Entity remained attached to his body.

Giorno, technically being the son of both DIO and Jonathan (because of, you know, complete bullshit that just works), would inherit both the vampirism from DIO and the Entity directly from Jonathan. And this would also technically apply to Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel (so, yes, they are all also part-vampire), but there's more when it comes to Giorno; since Gold Experience is basically Hamon: The Stand, the Entity particularly resonates with Giorno, meaning it's pretty much just as intense as it'd been for Jonathan.

This also further bolsters just how absolutely fucked Giorno's genetics are as a presumably three-piece, maybe four-piece hybrid... his aura is a fucking terror.

[artbysmashley]

i'm doing inktober without a prompt list, and this was a piece i did for day two. i called this one "legend" - she just seems like she knows something beyond herself. i hope you enjoy!

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