#original from pencil sketch early '90s

[fortunaestalta]

[veinsfullofstars]

⭐ Welcome! ⭐

Henlo. Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for poppin’ by. I’m Veins, an art goblin on the internet with abnormal levels of anxiety and chronic video game brainrot, and this is my introduction post. Any updates or news on my end will be added here as well. I hope you’ll be patient with me and enjoy your visit!

(Last updated 10/31/24)

---

Who are you?

What an existentially upsetting question. Well, for the moment, I go by VeinsFullOfStars online, usually shortened to just Veins. I’m also toying around with Ivan or Yves, but Veins is the most preferable. Nice to meet you!

Wait, didn't you already have an account here? With the same username?

I did. I, uh, panic-deleted it in response to the data-scraping fiasco and regretted it almost immediately. As a result, you might see reblogs from the deactivated account still floating around. There is, unfortunately, nothing I can do about those unless the blogs that shared them take them down themselves (and, hey, if you happen to be one of those folks seeing this, I'd super appreciate it if you'd maybe remove the old reblog and replace it with the new one from here if you can). It's my mistake for overreacting, and now I just have to live with it. Sorry for any confusion.

What are your preferred pronouns/gender?

Thanks for asking! I’m non-binary, and I use they/them pronouns.

How old are you?

Ancient (in my 30s).

What is your avatar supposed to be?

A goblin. Very smol, very nervous, very puntable.

What are you using this blog for?

Art, mostly. I draw digitally and sometimes make stuff with yarn. I've also been writing since I could hold a pencil (though I don’t have much finished, so art will be the main focus for now). Also, expect a lot of reblogs, shitposts, and/or silence between posts - I am a simple hobbyist with a lot of brain nonsense and IRL hurdles. I’ll do my best to post with some regularity, but - again - I hope you’ll be patient with me if things go quiet from time to time.

What are your interests?

I love stories. I love characters. I love folks who can weave whole worlds with nothing but words on a page or color on a canvas. I grew up on fantasy novels, short horror stories, and late ‘90s/early ’00s animation. I learned to appreciate slice-of-life and slow-burn romance much later. Mythology and folklore also slaps, and I wonder sometimes if I should’ve majored in psychology instead of lib arts. My playlists are nothing but video game OSTs with a little heavy metal and j-rock sprinkled in for flavor. I sold my soul to Nintendo years ago, but sometimes I find indie darlings to fall in love with for a time. Dogs are adorable little menaces, and I love them all with my whole chest. Cats are okay, and I am allergic to them. (Does that answer the question? I think I lost track towards the end there…)

Any current hyperfixations?

Tons, but the biggest ones at the moment are Kirby, Hollow Knight, and Paper Mario. More nebulous interests include (in no particular order) Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Rain World, Stardew Valley, most Soulsborne titles, Hades, Darkest Dungeon, The Legend of Zelda, Undertale/Deltarune, OFF, The Binding of Isaac, Ace Attorney, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, The Magnus Archives, Sonic the Hedgehog, and countless more. When I say “multifandom,” I mean it, homie.

Do you have any other social media?

Just this and an AO3 account. So, if you see my name anywhere but these two places, it’s probably not me. For now, Tumblr will be the best place to keep up-to-date with my stuff. If anything changes, I’ll let y’all know here.

Do you have a list of tags you use on your posts?

I tag things obsessively, but I’ll try to sort out the most relevant/unique ones I use here:

#veins art - for any art I’ve made (chrono link)

#veins fanart - for art I’ve made featuring characters from other IPs

#veins ocs - for art I’ve made featuring my original characters/stories

#veins sketches - for any of my unrendered doodles/sketch dumps

#veins old art - for reposts of older art I made before moving to Tumblr (Note: these posts are here for archival purposes and may not reflect my current style/interests.)

#veins writes - for any written works I’ve made

#veins ships - for any posts (reblogs included) featuring romantic pairings; I will also try to include specific pairings as “#(blank) x (blank)” and/or any ship names

#veins rambles - for random thoughts/text posts

#veins answers - for any of my responses to asks sent in (chrono link)

#veins in dream land - for any rambles/headcanons about the Kirby series specifically

#veins reblogs - for anything I reblog, obviously

#childhood friends au - for art from my Kirby AU where Dedede and Meta Knight first met as kids (masterpost | chrono link)

#kintsugi au - for art from my Kirby AU centered around the Mirror World, the Wave 2 gang, and the Darkroach ship - warning: may contain angst and suggestive content (masterpost | chrono link)

#kirbtober 2023 - for my Kirbtober 2023 art (chrono link)

#kirbtober 2024 - for my Kirbtober 2024 art (chrono link)

#mtddweek2024 - for my MetaDede Week 2024 art (chrono link)

I’ll update this with new tags if/when they pop up. Anything else will have generic tags to fit the context of the post. I also mark trigger warnings with tags like “#(blank) tw” if necessary.

What do you use to make your art?

For digital art, I use Clip Studio Paint and a Wacom Intuos Pro S drawing tablet (that I'm pretty sure I've had since high school). I don’t draw traditionally as much anymore, but, when I do, it’s usually just quick sketches with pencil and paper. For writing, I use TextEdit or whatever generic rich text editing software I can find. For crafting, I use yarn and plastic canvas.

What brushes do you use?

For sketching and linework, I use a slightly modified version of the Wick Pencil from the 8 Particle Pencil catalog made by saturns_day. For flats and rendering, I use the default CSP hard round brush, airbrush, and G-pen. For effects and extras (clouds, textures, sparkles, etc.), I use default effects brushes or whatever I can find from the CSP Asset Shop.

Can I share your work through reblogs? And are tags okay?

Of course! Reblogs are absolutely fine and always encouraged. I’m also fine with tags as well (though I ask that you not mark anything as a ship unless I’ve marked it as such on the original post - look for the tag #veins ships if you’re ever unsure).

Can I repost/use your work for my own personal/commercial use?

Absolutely not. While I am always in support of creators inspiring each other with our works and endeavors, that does not mean anyone should engage in art theft (intentional or otherwise). Under no circumstances may you repost, reupload, reproduce, copy, trace, modify, sell, use, tokenize, scrape/integrate into A*I, and/or otherwise claim as your own any of my art/written works. Never assume a piece of art shared online in yours for the taking - that is someone else’s hard work and passion, and you need to respect that.

Can I dub one of your comics?

As flattering as that would be, I worry about lack of credit or my work being stolen for others’ content, so I sadly have to say no.

Why is there a big watermark on your art?

The state of the internet today has made me extremely paranoid about things like art theft, bad-faith reposts, nonconsensual integration, etc., so I make sure to sign and WM anything original I post. I know it’s not exactly fun to look at (maybe even distracting or bad for engagement), but I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I guess I’ll just have to take that hit.

Do you have an askbox? Can we send in questions/comments/etc.?

Yes, the ask box is currently open, and I'm more than happy to receive any questions, comments, etc. you guys might have (even if it makes me a bit nervous, haha)! I just ask that you read the rules first before you submit anything.

Do you take requests/commissions/suggestions/collabs/etc.?

Sadly, I do not take art requests or suggestions unless I put out a specific call for them. I'm also not really in a position to take commissions either. Collabs I'm on the fence about - maybe with mutuals or folks I know personally.

Is this an inclusive space?

Of course! This queer little goblin accepts everyone under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, along with folks of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, disabilities, and colors. That said, there will be absolutely no tolerance for (inhale) racism, sexism, transphobia, queerphobia, xenophobia, misogyny/misandry, bigotry of any kind, ableism, p***philia, inc*st, selfc*st, z**philia, RPF, trolling behavior, self-promotion, the promotion of N*FTs or A*I art, or any otherwise harmful, toxic, or hurtful rhetoric. Anyone seen behaving as such will be blocked, reported, and forgotten. I do not feed trolls - I let them starve. :)

Is this an all-ages space?

Hmm… I’m gonna have to say no. While I probably won’t be posting/sharing anything too lewd or graphic, I’m not opposed to things like swearing, angst, fluff bordering on suggestive, and discussions of mature subject matter (all of which I will make sure to tag with content warnings as necessary). Obviously, I can’t police everyone who wanders into this blog (especially since some people omit or lie about their ages online), so the best I can do is ask for good faith on your part. If you are under 18, interact at your own risk. The last thing I want is to make anyone - myself included - uncomfortable because there are kids in an adult-allocated space. Again, I hope you understand.

What is your stance on shipping?

The vernacular around pro- or anti-shipping confuses the hell out of me, so I’ll just try to explain my personal philosophy on it: I have ships I like, ones I’m indifferent to, and ones I won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I only reblog (and tag) ship-related content I’m in support of, even if it’s not one of my personal favorites. Most importantly, I don’t bother others about their personal preferences. Anything I don’t like or don’t support, I simply do not engage with. Or, if it makes me too uncomfortable, I block outright. The same should apply to your experience as well - if you ever see ship stuff here that you don’t like, feel free to block the tags (look for specific pairings, ship names, and/or my personal tag #veins ships) or even the blog entirely. You are not obligated to like the things I like or engage with media you don’t enjoy. Respect for each other and curation of your personal online space is always key. Additionally, I 100% will not ship minors, blood relations (including adopted family), self x self, anything relating to b*stiality, or anything relating to RPF.

Are you okay?

No, not even a little bit... but fuck it, we keep going.

Why do you put a comma before the “and” in a sequence of three or more words?

You can take my Oxford comma away from me when I’m cold, dead, and rotting in the dirt.

Is there anything else?

Nah, I think we’re good for now. Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Hope it wasn’t too rambly or weird - just trying to cover all my bases. I hope you all have a lovely timezone out there, wherever you are. Be sure to wash your hands, wear your mask, and stay hydrated. Remember to be strong, be safe, and, for the love of dog, be kind. Peace!

-Veins (originally posted 08/07/23, reposted 02/29/24, updated as of 10/31/24)

[bg2dplatformer]

Research on Artsits

Week 1:

Army Of Trolls:

Armt of trolls is the portfolio of london born, videogame obsessed artist Gary J Lucken. Working from his Studio in Poole, Dorset, UK, surrounded by Japanese toys and piles of old 2D videogames.

There is a lot going on in their work and it is very crowded they use shadows and gradient to make the photo look 3D and they don't use black outlines

They also use an isometric view point for their work.

Octavi Navarro / Pixels huh:

They develop approachable, narrative video games crafted with tons of love

Octavi Navarro is a pixel artist and developer who worked on games like Thimbleweed Park and Photographs.

Susanna Granell takes care of the studio's business side, social media, and writing. She loves coffee.

Their most distinctive feature is our unique visual style, combined with original and risky narrative stories that resonate with players.

Octavi uses layering, shadows and gradient to give a perspective of looking underneath the ground or a race track. They also use no black outlines on their work

Derek Yu-Spelunky:

Yu has designed and co-designed several award-winning games, most famously Spelunky, Aquaria, and Eternal Daughter.He is also notable as a blogger and custodian of the influential TIGSource blog/community about independent video games.

Speluncky is a 2008 2D platform game The player has to explore and dodge traps as they progress.

Most of these games are from the 90s and early 2000s. 3d graphics were still crude and before indie game developers truly picked up the mantle.

Derek uses some black outlines however not everything is outlined in black and instead is a gradient of what the colour of the object is

Batman (Famicom/NES). Sunsoft, 1990.

Johan Vinet:

They worked on game Animations for Adventure time and Flinthook.

They learned pixel art on an Atari 1040STF with 16 colors.

Castaway is a family friendly, short and charming action-adventure game.

"Embark on an action-packed adventure in Castaway, diving players into a pixelated and retro universe. Assume the role of Martin, whose spaceship crash-landed on an uncharted island where his faithful pet was taken by hostile creatures. Retrieve your weapons and venture out to rescue your kidnapped companion in this endearing and unexpectedly dynamic world. Beat the 3 bosses in the concise and delightful "Story Mode" to unlock the thrilling and addictive "Survivor Mode." Ascend a 50-floor tower, with each level presenting increasingly challenging trials!"

Johan uses black outlines on all their objects and characters, they use power ups and their game cast away is like an escape and fight game.

Week 2:

Michael Myers:

They use low resolution canvases to construct his characters and objects and shows that they are still recognizable without a black outline.

He also makes it seem easy to create something on 8 bit when he still is able to make it look great.

Don Bluth:

Don uses a sketch to begin with and then once he is happy with his design he then goes over it in thicker pencil. He also uses a lot of curves and not a lot of straight lines.

don uses lines to begin working on his character to make sure it is aligned.

Mary Blair:

Mary uses plain colours and adds to them as she creates her character. she worked on many films like peter pan and cinderella and would create the shape and colour design for them.

Mary created children's books with her art work. she used a lot of different colours and used them to make her characters and the area around them more vibrant and stand out.

Mary even created the colour scheme for the new attraction "its a small world" .

Super Meat Boy:

I like the use of the caves in the hell stage and the design of all the levels, the designers for this game used black outlines for their characters and their characters were very similar and didn't contain too much detail.

most of their characters would be solid block colours and still look very good, as the levels where built around the characters design, the levels worked well.

Castle Crashers:

The game designers designed the characters to look like knights to fit the theme of knights fighting enemies. I like the character design as its not too detailed but it used more than one main colour.

This game uses a black outline for their characters as well as using a coloured outline after the black outline.

Minit:

The game uses only two colours for the background and all the characters all the characters use a pallet of light grey and white to give them definition. I like how the character designers use just white and black as it shows a good game can be created without using loads of different colours

The game also uses in game dialogue to show the story of the game to the player.

[amdigitalcharacterillustration]

THE POSTER 24/06/24 [sketches and background]

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Moving on from the build up tasks for the poster, today I finally started my final product. I had finished off the initial sketches a few days ago when I finished Cass' full design, so saw fit to go ahead with the main assessment task. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sketches: I started with three designs that I received feedback on. They were basic, pencil drawings using the traditional medium, since I knew I needed them to be quick and easy, to get out of the way. Moving on from the build up tasks for the poster, today I finally started my final product. I had finished off the initial sketches a few days ago when I finished Cass' full design, so saw fit to go ahead with the main assessment task. The poster sketches [in order of creation]

As you can see, I wanted my poster to emulate the front of a comic-book, specifically one from around the late 90's to the early 2000's. I drew reference from all over the shop, though would like to point out the comics Tex, an Italian spin on a Western cowboy from the 1940's, and Constantine, a DC comic series released in 1988. Initial Inspiration, Tex and Constantine

There is very heavy influence from both areas, and though I usually strive for originality, to keep stress to a minimum and to not overly expend myself like I often tend too, I let myself take reference from pre-existing material.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Backgrounds: While in the sketching phase, I also took my time to gather materials I might need for the background drawing.

As much as I hate to say it, when it comes to backgrounds I'm not very experienced. My expertise lies with the actual character rather than it's environment. The extent of my history with work in backgrounds can be summed up in the design I did last year for the Digital Media and Design Certificate course. My abilities in background design [2023]

I found that if I had suitable references, my workload would be cut in half. So I did the same with this background work. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… I followed the artist Erin Hanson, who's vibrant palettes and eye-catching style called to me. Her personal style sits outside of where I want my poster to be [with hers being impressionism and mine being something more catered to my own skills], however, I was more interested in her values work than the actual final result, so this didn't matter to me.

Erin Hansons work

I will be calling briefly back to these pieces for my values once I have sketched out my final poster design. So the mention of Hanson in this blog may seem fickle to most, but I felt it was only right to give credit where credit is due, especially if I want to be able to call my final product my own. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

[sweetbillwriting]

A Thousand Leaves

Part 1 - A Beautiful Boy

Description: A local news reporter wants to know everything about the young man that has been found imprisoned in a basement. While she searches for answers, her relationship with the young man becomes more and more complicated.

Characters: The character Henry is inspired by several of Bill Skarsgård's characters but mostly The Kid from Castle Rock. The rest are my own original characters.

Setting: The story is set in the early 90s in a nameless town with several smaller villages surrounding it.

Warnings: 18+, mental health problems, violence, mentions of all sort of abuse, voyeurism (sort of?), sexual themes. This will be a dark story and this chapter can be provoking.

Notes: This story have an epilogue, you can read it here.

If you like what I write please reblog or give the chapter a like. Thank you!

His room was just as gray as the other parts of the hospital. Maybe not literally since the walls were light green, there was a light blue blanket on the bed and the plastic floor was a dirty yellow color but the whole atmosphere felt gray. The man before her was completely dressed in gray but instead made a colorful impression. His chocolate mop of hair shifted in all variants of brown, his lips were red as a Red Delicious apple and his eyes had all of a world map's colors mixed together. It was obvious he was beautiful. Beautiful in his own way. Irma sat still and watched him with a steady gaze, not just because she wanted to look at the man but also because of the pose she had chosen to be painted in. She felt a bit uncomfortable having his steady gaze on her every other second while he seemed to be totally comfortable with having her gaze on his face. 

Irma was happy he had started to be more and more comfortable. The first few times she visited him he had more or less just stared at the ground but after a while he had started to draw her hands in his drawing pad. She saw a little of his sketches and he was talented, it made her wonder even more who he was. Was he an artist? 

She took a fast look out the window, the rain was pouring so she stayed there with him for a while. But she didn't mind, in the beginning his presence made her nervous but she had gotten used to his big examining eyes and nervous ways. She had tried to ask the police to share some information about Henry or about the crime scene but they refused to even say who had found him. It was frustrating and she had a hard time knowing what to even ask Henry. For now they mostly shared blueberry muffins and played cards. He knew some games so he hadn't forgotten about everything. 

"Henry," he looked up from his drawing, busy painting her braid that lay on her shoulder like a golden retriever's tail. "Do you remember how you came here? To the hospital?" 

He furrowed his brows and started to bite on the end of his lead pencil. He did that a while before he nodded and looked down at the drawing pad. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it but Irma just wanted something to write down among her notes. 

"Do you… remember the basement?" She asked carefully, afraid to upset him. 

"No?" He finally said with his soft voice while looking confused. 

"You know, where you were a prisoner." 

Henry shrugged his shoulders and continued with his drawing. Irma made a small sigh, it was probably the best for him to not remember but she, as a journalist, just wanted her story. Both of them looked up when they heard the door open. It was a nurse, playing with her key card nervously. Irma had noticed that most of the staff was nervous around Henry even if he seemed to be just as nervous himself. 

"It's time for Henry's doctor check… Because of the last incident we're wondering if you can be there as support for Henry. Isn't it so Henry, that you wanted her there?" 

Irma looked confused at the nurse, then towards Henry who looked at her nervously and nodded a bit. Irma turned to the nurse again. 

"What incident?" 

The nurse looked with worry at Henry who had turned his eyes down at the drawing. 

"Maybe we can talk outside about that?" The nurse motioned to the door and Irma tagged along with curiosity. Outside the closed door the nurse took a deep breath. 

"I don't really know your relationship to Henry but he has said he wants you as a support person, that we can call you if there is something we need help with and… The last doctor's appointment ended in chaos." 

Irma gave the nurse a thoughtful look but also had mixed feelings about Henry's request. Suddenly she was there to take care of him instead of writing an article but she didn't have the heart to say no to it. Henry was alone in the world and needed someone by his side. 

"It seems like Henry is afraid of men and when the doctor wanted to check his heart Henry hit him in the chest several times. Our doctor has worked here for a long time so he has been through these sorts of things before but he doesn't want to check Henry again without others in the room. It seems like you have a calming effect on him." 

Irma looked through the door's plexiglass window at Henry who sat with his legs up like a kitten by the little table. She couldn't understand how he could spread such fear. 

"Okay… So I just need to be there?" 

"Yes, calm him down. You get to touch him, no one else gets to do that." 

Irma felt quite special that she had succeeded at something no one else had.

Irma and Henry walked together through fluorescent lit corridors to the doctors office. Several of the lamps had broken or stood and flickered. It made Irma think about death row or horror movies. She looked up at Henry who probably was 6'3 in height but he hunched forward a bit so it was hard to know how tall he actually was. She wondered how he had become that way, if he had it for all his life or if it was an injury. One of his shoulders was pushed forward and she had noticed he didn't use that arm if he didn't have to. He also had a bit of a limp. His walking style was quite odd but was it enough for people to actually be scared of him? 

Outside of the doctor's office, Henry stopped and looked down the corridor they had just walked through like a magnet sucked him back to his room. 

"Should we go inside?" Irma asked carefully and pulled on the hem of her burgundy sweater. Henry looked at her with pleading eyes. Irma tried to smile a little. 

"I will be here the whole time, okay?" 

Henry nodded slowly and looked down at his chunky sneakers. She opened the door for him and with small limping steps he walked into the doctor. 

The doctor's examination room was much brighter than the others and the interior was mostly in white and green. Henry looked around worried and looked back at Irma who closed the door behind her. He swallowed hard, waiting for something to happen. Just then an older man came out from another door. He had a pair of glasses on the tip of his nose and carried a folder in his hands. He had a friendly face but looked also like that man that thought he was always in the right. Irma could see on Henry’s face that he became worried in the doctor's presence. He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands and he looked between the doctor, the examination bed and the floor. Irma stepped closer to him but smiled at the doctor. 

"Aaah! Deaver. With his fiancee, right?" The doctor joked and looked towards Irma. 

Irma gave him a strained smile and decided that she didn't like the man. 

"Just a friend. Irma Kiehl." 

The doctor sat down by the desk on a spinning chair. 

"I'm doctor Dean but everyone calls me doctor D. Oh not Henry of course, he seems to save his words for a better time." 

Irma didn't answer, instead she gave Henry a friendly smile and motioned to the chairs on the opposite side of the desk. He gave her a look and she felt his finger against her hand but he then sat down on the left chair so she could take the right. 

"So… How are you today Henry?" The doctor asked. Henry just sat and looked down at his hands and picked at his cuticles. He shrugged one shoulder without looking up. 

"I don't know."

"Can we check you today without you getting violent?" 

Henry looked at Irma who sat and watched him. She already felt some sort of caring feeling towards him and felt that she wanted to make him comfortable. 

"Let's give it a try. Shall we?" Said the doctor when he didn't get an answer. "Strip." 

Irma looked up confused at the doctor. 

"Strip? How much should he strip?" She felt her heart beat faster. She wasn't prepared to see a naked man today, especially not someone as innocent looking as Henry. It felt like she would make something wrong by watching his body. 

"All of it. It makes everything much easier." The doctor rolled around on his chair and waited by the bed. 

Henry looked at Irma then looked down at his hands. 

"Can you do that? Take your clothes off?" 

He nodded a little and stood up from his chair. Slowly he began to take his clothes off. The gray sweatshirt, the white t-shirt, the white sneakers, the gray sweatpants, the white socks. He stopped and looked at Irma. 

"Oh! Maybe I should turn around?" She said with blushing cheeks. She had seen the bruises on his body that now shifted in a yellow color on his thin frame. He was skinny but still had many manly attributes; broad shoulders, slim hips and muscular legs. 

"No," he said carefully. 

Irma turned around and looked at him. He looked at her while he pulled down his underwear. It was probably to get support but it felt like an erotic moment for Irma and she felt awful that she looked at his manhood while he pulled down the white boxer shorts. 

"Can you hurry up a bit?" Said the doctor with a sigh. Henry gave him a look and when he was completely naked he walked to the doctor. Irma was ashamed that she looked at him like that, still she couldn't stop herself from watching his little peachy bum, broad back and back dimples. He was beautiful in every way. 

The doctor examined Henry while he looked straight at Irma all the time. She smiled at him so he could see her support. The doctor looked at his bruises but also several wounds they had stitched. He examined his hunchback and shoulders but when he started to look at his back, following his back bone with his fingers Henry tensed up. Irma could see the shift in his eyes and body language. 

"Stop," she said to the doctor but continued to look at Henry. The doctor sighed and watched the two staring at each other. 

"Oh well guess that's enough." Said the doctor but he dragged his hand down Henry's back and asscheek in a way that didn't feel totally okay. 

"You can dress." He looked Henry up and down then looked at Irma. 

"It would be good for him to work out, that back problem can disappear with some rehabilitation. I wanted to check to see if there is sign of abuse but I guess he will not let me examine him." 

Irma could see Henry's movement in the corner of her eye but looked straight at the doctor. 

"Abuse?" 

"Yeah, you know because of how they found him." 

Irma nodded a little. It was best to pretend she knew so they would tell her more. 

"Yes, of course. Have you heard more about that?" 

"No, they just wanted me to check him. They haven't matched the sperm with anyone in their database."

Irma felt her heart beat faster. Had someone raped Henry? Was that the reason for his fear of men? 

"It's awful… How could someone do that to him? He is so young." Irma said with a low voice. The doctor shrugged a little. 

"He isn't a child so it could have been consensual. You know, he is probably older than 30." 

Irma was shocked and looked at Henry as he put on his sneakers. But she couldn't say now that she didn't know that. 

"Oh yeah but that's still young. But there were other things that prove that it wasn't optional." She continued to speak with a low voice. 

"Yeah that fact that he sat in a cage is one thing," said the doctor with a grunt. "He had semen in his hair and on his clothes make it all so unbelievable. Noo, the boy was raped but unfortunately we can't check it." 

The doctor probably was as fascinated by Henry as she was, maybe even in a sexual way, just as she. Back in Henry's room she watched him sit on his bed and bent his body into a little ball, continuing on the drawing of her. The doctor wouldn't have told her all those things if he hadn't had such interest in him so he needed to talk about it. Irma thought about the doctor's hands on Henry but also his looks. It was probably the same looks she had given Henry. She thought about the look he had given her while taking his underwear off. How could he be sexy and be an innocent victim at the same time? Irma didn't see herself as a horny person or even a person that was that interested in men but she still couldn't stop herself from looking at his member under the examination. He was big, unshaved and uncircumsized. She looked at him again, he hadn't moved an inch, just sat and drew leaned forward like a vulture. 

Did he have sexual thoughts? Feelings? Had he thought about her that way? Did he touch himself when he couldn't sleep? Seeing him curled up in bed made her believe that he didn't even know what sex was. 

× 

Irma walked through her parents' neighborhood. The neighborhood she had grown up in. The houses were big and so were the yards. The street was framed with big maple trees whose leaves shifted in orange and red. She had always liked the neighborhood; it was so clean and calm. Her parents' house was just as big as the others, a white two level house with a big ashtree on the left side of the house. The concrete was wet from rain, apart from that was the yard in perfect condition, just like her father wanted it. 

She was invited to dinner but didn't know what to talk about. Most of her time went to either being with Henry or doing research for his case. She knew her parents wanted her to meet someone and create a family but she didn't know if that was what she wanted. And 29, wasn't that old? She had all the time in the world to find a guy that could impregnate her.

She walked right into the house and was met with the scent of Shepard's pie. Her mother's signature dish. It was rich and homey but didn't take so much time. Irma's dad Eric came out to the hallway to meet her. He was dressed in a tennis shirt and sweatpants, looking relaxed. 

"Hey honey, cold outside?" 

"Not that bad. Just some cold winds." 

She took off her boots and her coat and looked down at her socks. Her boots were expensive and even though leather water still leaked in. 

"Do you want another pair?" Said her father when he saw the stains on her beige socks. Irma just nodded with a smile. 

Her mother stood in the kitchen, dressed in a green pattern blouse that made Irma dizzy. They hugged hello and Irma volunteered to do the salad. 

"Have you heard that Felix, Dana's son, has become single?" 

Her mother, Bea started at once. Saving time, Irma thought. 

"Doesn't he have two kids?" 

"Does that matter? You are in that age now where the men you will meet have history." 

Irma sighed as she took the seeds out from a pepper. Her mother put the pie in the oven and turned to Irma. 

"It can't be fun to live on your own in that apartment. If it even is an apartment!" 

Irma's apartment was a small attic with a leaning ceiling. It was cramped but she loved the cozy feeling. Irma just shrugged at her mother's words. 

"Are you working on anything special? My blueberry muffins are gone so I guess you're working on something?" 

Irma perked up by the question. She thought about Henry every other minute and she needed an outlet. 

"I'm writing about that kid they found in the basement of the old church. I've met with him a couple of times." She didn't say the whole truth to her mother. She would have worried too much. 

"Oh? That's an awful story. Have you found out something?" 

"Well, he isn't really a kid, he's probably older than me." 

"Really? Then why do they call him "the kid" in the newspaper?" 

Irma put the chopped pepper in the sallad and turned to her mother. 

"We need wine to talk about this," said Irma and made her mother smile knowingly. When they sat down by the kitchen table with a big glass of red wine each Irma felt ready to talk. 

"He looks young, or young is the wrong word… he looks more ageless? He is glowing I guess." 

Her mother nodded a little and played with her amethyst bracelet. 

"Is he charismatic?" 

"Not really. He is really quiet and nervous. Traumatized I guess. But he has an aura. A presence no one can ignore." 

Her mother smiled a little. 

"He is a pretty boy," she said knowingly. Her mother always knew what Irma was hiding. Either she had a sixth sense or she just knew her daughter really well. Irma felt uncomfortable discussing Henry's looks but she also knew that she couldn't lie to her mother. 

"He is. In a really special way. He had these big big eyes full of different colors. They are haunting but beautiful." Irma didn't look at her mother, she looked out the window towards the colorful leaves and thought about Henry's appearance. 

"He has an upturned nose that makes him look like an elf at some angles. And big pouty lips that contrast with his sharp facial features…" 

"And you are fascinated both by his looks and that nervous boyish behavior. Irma, he sounds like a fascinating man but remember to keep your distance. He is probably a victim of a really awful crime. And we know that you need someone more reliable." 

“Ugh,” Irma grunted and shifted uncomfortably on the high chair. "I'm not interested in him that way! I'm interested in the story." 

Her mother just nodded a little and it annoyed Irma because she knew that her mother didn't believe her. That was even more annoying because Irma also knew her mother was right. 

The three of them ate in the dining room. All of them watched the empty chair a few times with pain in their eyes. When they sat like that it was painfully obvious someone was missing but neither of them could talk about the sorrow yet. It was too early even though it had been several years. Maybe that was the reason her mother so desperately wanted Irma to meet someone. So that person could fill out the empty chair. 

× 

Irma knew she definitely did not act like an adult. Not the kind of adult her parents talked about anyway. She wasn't organized, she didn't save money and she still put most of her energy on TV. 

That morning she sat in just her panties watching a rerun of 90210 and eating her breakfast sandwich. She should be at the office in thirty minutes but had decided she would skip doing her makeup so she could finish the episode. The only problem was that she would visit Henry after the office and wanted to have her mask of makeup on. She pretended it was to give a good impression to the staff but in reality she wanted to look good for Henry. Because of his drawing but also because she wanted to be that beautiful angel woman, saving him from the evil nurses and doctors. 

When the episode had ended she put clothes on and packed the make up in her backpack together with a sketch pad and new sharp pens. It was for Henry, his drawing pad was full of sketches and he needed a new one. Irma felt she was the one to give him new things now when she was his contact person, his support person. 

The office was impressed by Irma's work, especially that she had become so close to the kid in such a short time but she didn't tell them what the doctor had said. It felt off to talk about, especially when it wasn't Henry himself that had told it to her. 

Even if Irma liked her coworkers she just wanted to leave. She wanted to go to Henry and the feeling in her stomach felt a lot like missing someone. As soon as she was finished at the office she took the way through the closest café and borrowed the bathroom to put her makeup on. She didn't care if others needed to use it, she needed to look perfect even if it was a struggle to do the eyeliner wing. She saved the lipstick to paint on later, she had promised the café staff to buy something after using the toilet so the lipstick had to wait. 

She ordered a hot chocolate and drank it fast by a little table just by the big pumpkin by the door. She more or less poured the drink down her throat before she walked to the institution. The nature and the weather was idyllic, a perfect autumn day, with warm colors and fresh breezes. The ground was full of leaves and puddles but the closer she came to the institution more and more dark things showed up on the ground. They were dead birds. There were black crows lying on the ground, sprinkled like pizza toppings. Irma looked closer at one. It looked like it had died a natural death; no wounds and no broken neck. She looked at another one even closer to the institution and it looked the same. She thought it might be some sort of avian disease and stopped thinking about it even if several lay on the institution's ground. She had other things to think about. 

Henry was in the yard that day. He sat by himself, with just the wind as company which played with his brown locks. He leaned back on the bench, watching the sun that glowed bright without succeeding to spread her warmth to the institution. A nurse walked past Irma with quick steps and smiled bashfully like she was caught doing something bad. Irma gave her just a quick look before turning her eyes to the kid that showed off his perfect profile with closed eyes. Irma felt her heart beat faster, and this time not because he made her uncomfortable. 

"Hey handsome," she said and smiled brightly at him. Henry opened his eyes, looked at her and gave her a small smile. He had started to smile after the third or fourth time they had met. It was a nervous little smile that looked like it could quickly turn to tears instead. 

Irma sat down next to him and gave his arm a little hug even if she knew it would tense him up. 

"I have a gift for you," she said and took off her backpack and started to dig in it. Henry looked really curious and looked down at her bag. She took out the drawing pad and pencils and gave them to Henry. 

"To me?" He asked carefully and looked up at her. 

"Yes, to you silly. I said it was a gift." 

His smile became bigger and he hugged the gifts to his chest. 

"Thank you." He looked a bit nervous but then took her hand and gave it a squeeze. It was the first time he searched for physical contact and Irma felt like the sun really warm them up. 

She couldn't stop herself from giving his arm a hug again. 

Even if Irma was occupied hugging Henry's arm, her focus moved fast when she heard a woman clear her voice. Irma thought it must be a nurse, shocked by her close contact with the kid but when she looked up two women stood in pant suits in front of them. One of them smirked a little when she watched the two people on the bench, looking like a couple while the other female dug in the inside pocket of her jacket. 

"We're with the police and want to talk with Henry Deaver. That's you, right?" Said the one that had dug in her inner pocket. She showed them a badge. Henry watched them confused while Irma let his arm go. She swallowed dryly because she knew she would hear about it later on. 

"And you're Irma Kiehl," said the other one while still smirking. Irma sighed, it was obvious she was amused that a reporter now sat and cuddled a mental patient. 

"Yes," said Irma and tried to sound professional even if she was exposed. 

"Can we talk a bit while my colleague talks with Henry," the female police officer asked and motioned to the rest of the yard. Irma watched Henry looking back at her worried. 

"I will be right back, okay?" 

Henry nodded a little and Irma followed the cop through the colorful leaves toward the angel sculpture standing in the middle of the yard. 

"You work for the local newspaper, right?" 

"Yes." Irma gave the cop a short answer. She knew shouldn't speak too much with the police. They rarely wanted the same thing as a reporter. 

"How long have you… visited Henry?" 

"Two weeks I think." 

"A nurse said you have been here almost every day." 

Irma didn't answer that, just watched the angel and the gray sky. 

"Is that professional?" Continued the police. 

Irma sighed again and looked down at her boots and floral mid length skirt. 

"It wasn't meant to happen but he needed someone and he liked me." 

The police woman nodded and looked towards the kid. 

"We want access to the information you get from him." 

Irma looked up confused at the woman but then laughed a little. 

"Why would I give you that?" 

"Because you want to help," said the police with a hard tone. Irma nodded a little. 

"I want to have some information from you then, not everything but some information so it becomes easier for me to know what to ask him…" 

The police laughed and looked Irma up and down impressed by her. Irma looked so non threatening in her floral skirt and frilly sweater but it was obvious she was smarter then she looked. 

"Fine. Then I can say this to you. Henry isn’t missing at all, throughout the whole country and there is no Henry Deaver that matches his description. So your first assignment is to find out his real name." 

Irma looked back at Henry who sat on the bench with the other cop. He must be remembering wrong or remembering someone else's name instead of his own. 

"Has he been raped?" Irma asked carefully. 

The police hesitated but answered, 

"We don't know. He had someone else's semen on his clothes." 

Irma continued to look at the man she called Henry. He had his regular gray clothes on and the chunky white sneakers. His body language made him look like a boy but now when she knew he was older she could see it. The kid looked up from his hands and met her eyes. Irma smiled a little and suddenly he stood up and started to walk, in his limpy weird way, to her. Irma looked at the cops but didn't have time to excuse his behavior before he had embraced her in his arms, close to his body. 

× 

[80s90sdragonballart]

Been quite awhile since I’ve even logged into tumblr, much less updated this blog. I know I’m about a year belated with this, but this is nonetheless far, far too relevant to this blog’s main purpose for me not to comment on. Early last year Jun’ya Furusawa passed away. I’m sure even most of the die hard DB fans who are reading this might be wondering “Who the hell is Jun’ya Furusawa?”  You very well may not know his name, but you CERTAINLY know his artwork for the series. In fact, a VAST chunk of it makes up a huge, *huge* selection of this blog’s images!  There’s frustratingly little biographical information about him that’s out there. Hell, I couldn’t even find an actual date of birth on the guy for this post! But from what information is available: Jun’ya Furusawa’s relationship with Dragon Ball started out sometime in the early to mid 1980s, when he was simply a college student and fan of the series. A talented artist himself who was able to almost seamlessly mimic Akira Toriyama’s signature style, he had drawn numerous pieces of fan art and Doujinshi (fan manga) for Dragon Ball that he’d submitted to numerous anime magazines (under the pen name “Furujun”). Before long, his work caught the attention of Bird Studios, who hired him on to be one of Dragon Ball’s numerous official promotional artists, a position he held for the latter parts of original Dragon Ball’s run, and the entirety of Dragon Ball Z’s run. During this time, Furusawa had drawn an absolute TON of the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime’s promotional art pieces that were used on literally *countless* posters, wallscrolls, calendars, shitajiki (pencil boards, which were very popular forms of merchandise for anime and manga throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s), trading cards, video game and toy box art, magazine ads, and so on. Early last year in 2020, evidently Furusawa had left on some sort of sailing trip aboard a small ship, but went missing and his body has to date not been found. He was declared legally dead on May 1st 2020. Again I cannot overstate this: it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to have been a fan of Dragon Ball for ANY length of time and to have NOT seen much of Furusawa’s artwork, many of which have gone on to become flat out iconic images that most of us associate with the series. If you’re on this blog, you’ll see TONS of his work plastered all throughout here. Its not at all an exaggeration to say that Jun’ya Furusawa’s Dragon Ball promotional artwork is just as much the “face” of the series in its classic run as Toriyama’s own artwork was. Even well after Furusawa had finished his professional relationship with Dragon Ball as its official promotional artist (sometime around the start of Dragon Ball GT I believe), he remained a fan throughout the rest of his life, and continued drawing fan art and various pieces of Dragon Ball art on his own time for his own enjoyment. By all accounts, he was a VERY enthusiastic fan of the series, its characters, and the whole Dragon World, and his palpable love for Dragon Ball very much shined through in most of his pieces. From what I can gather, evidently Furusawa was also a massive fan of the non-Saiyan characters (Tenshinhan, Yamucha, Chaozu, Kuririn, etc) and their continued presence in much of the latter bulk of Z’s promotional art was evidently at least in some part due to his own insistence on continuing to draw them, even well after they had drifted into becoming more ancillary characters. Unfortunately, anime promotional artists are so rarely ever properly credited, so it is exceedingly hard to narrow down exactly who did which piece of promotional art: Furusawa did however release an art book containing the sketch material for much of his work for the series throughout the 80s and 90s sometime around 2015 I think (or thereabouts), so that at least helps narrow down some significant chunk of which promo works are his. It’ll be a long, painstaking process, but at some point I do intend to go back through this blog’s archives and retroactively add Furusawa’s name to each piece that’s his (as I would also like to be able to do to every other classic 80s and 90s Dragon Ball promo art piece posted here, were it at all possible to narrow them all down). For the time being though, even if its more than a year late, I just wanted to dedicate a post in this blog - which is dedicated with immense amounts of love and respect to SO MUCH of his work, as well as that of the countless other often uncredited Dragon Ball promotional artists - to the man who’s art and passion for this series had come to define Dragon Ball’s image almost as much as that of its creator, Akira Toriyama throughout the vast bulk of its original 1980s and 1990s Japanese run. Anyone reading this blog who happens to know when Furusawa’s birthday actually is, feel free to DM it to me, and I’ll add it into this post. RIP  Jun’ya “Furujun” Furusawa ??/??/???? - 5/1/2020 Even though its been quite awhile since I’ve last updated this blog, I do now have more pieces of 80s and 90s promo art to add to it, so finally after some years of inactivity on my end, expect more updates on here.

[shadowsphere21]

The many iterations of Mercury and Zoisite 😅 I was finally able to get it right last year 😆😭.

1) original pencil sketch, 2008. Modified in 2020 to add Zoisite’s Golden Kingdom uniform details.

2) original marker and colored pencil sketch, 2008 😅

3) first attempt at a redo in digital oil, 2010 😓

4) 12th anniversary redux. This was a long time coming; I added the background elements and swapped Zoisite’s Dark Kingdom uniform for his Golden Kingdom one. This one was featured last year on DeviantArt as part of a new art showcase.

Song: Somebody (2017) by Desired, from their album Nineteen. OMG - IF SOMEONE COULD TRANSLATE THESE LYRICS OR FIND A TRANSLATION FOR ME I WOULD BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL! 😭 The song is sooooo pretty and has such a early 90s vibe 🥰

[mma3youf]

FA222 ,principles of graphic design:

Instructor: mr.munwar mukhtar

@uob-funoon @mnwrzmn

Project 1 : interviews

What is your given name, and user name on ZBrush Central?

My name is Khalid Abdulla Al-Muharraqi, my ZBrush Central user name is "Khalid72".

Tell us about your company, how did you start?

I set up Muharraqi-Studios to continue my family's history in the creative world and I am trying to continue to build on what my father started. The company was set up about two years ago after I left the commercial world of advertising with my partner Rashad who decided to leave a career in banking. We wanted to get together to make a place that allows us to be more creative. Since then we have been fortunate enough to work on some of the biggest projects in the middle east, and also continue working on our ideas and concepts, like our movie project. The most important thing for me is the work I do and that's what we are all about.

What is the size of your company?

The company is me and my partner, oh and our secretary... Keesha, a German Shepard! I am a hand's on guy and I do all the creative work myself. At first, I thought it was normal to carry that load because of the speed I work in, but later found out that I am actually very fast compared with bigger teams of artists in other studios. Finally I understood what people were telling me when they said I was 'unusual'. That’s why some of the CG magazines in Europe were amazed that a lot of our work is done by a one man team that puts all the 3D components together into a visualization. I work about 13 to 18 hours a day, I love 3D work, so my hobby and my work has joined into one, so … yes, very little time for a normal life.

What type of projects do you work on?

Well, I have been working on Architectural Visualizations since we started a couple of years ago, but I try to satisfy my urge to do what I really like, art!

You're located in Bahrain, somewhere most of us don't know about. Can you tell us how you learned your trade?

I love this question, Yes Bahrain is a small Island in the Persian gulf, we speak Arabic as our main language and English for the second, I will answer the second part in two parts, If you mean The art... I would say that I come from an artistic family, my father is one of the most well known artists in this part of the world, you can say that he is a household name in these parts. If you are asking were did I learn the 3D or CG art, I would say that I learned it by practicing for 8 hours a day after my official day of work, so I guess you can say I have been my own teacher in the industry.

Tell us a bit about your client base, mostly local, or do you have clients in Europe, Asia, America?

We serve clients from the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, I would say that I have been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the top people in the architectural industry, most of our clients are attracted to the type of work that we produce.

ow long have you been an artist?

Since I was six...I think! Well, the first painting I have sold when I was eleven. I was always painting and trying to find new techniques that will help create the concept in my mind.

Tell us about your background, your education, your mentors...

I studied art in Houston Texas for over seven years between interior decoration, photography, Visual communication, and digital enhancement or photo retouching, from there I have continued my working career in the commercial world. My first mentor would have to be my father, learned everything I know from him. He gave me the push start into the art world and made me feel it. There are also the books and artwork he has exposed me too with some of the top art in the world. A lot of names come to mind but I would say Frank Farazeta, Boris, The Creepy magazine and of course all the original Mad magazines and books that were very hot in the early 80's.

When you became an artist, did you first use traditional media?

For sure, I started with Pencil then got into crosshatching with ink, then I started painting with water colors and gouaches. I finally got into air brush art before I tried CG art.

What was your first CG package? What is your first 3D Package?

Nice question... first CG software was PSD, version 2, it was like magic... It felt strange especially that I was a traditional artist at the time. My first 3D package would be Alias Sketch for the Mac since I was a Mac user for a long time and did not have much 3D developers for Mac at the time. It was a new world for me and I think I still have a dusty copy of it today even after the software was canceled back in the early 90's, it just reminds me of my past.

How long have you been using ZBrush?

It has only been about six months, but I was up and running almost a few hours after I purchased it.

What made you try ZBrush?

I was watching some of the tutorial videos on how to paint details on the Gnomon training DVD's, and that's when I was shocked to see that it is art on the computer! I did not believe it at first, but It was one of the happiest moments when I first installed my first copy of ZBrush and started painting geometry for the first time, it reminded me with the days when I was pushing and pulling real clay to make a small creature of my imagination when I was a kid.

What's your favorite ZBrush feature?

The ability to paint geometry like it is physically in my hands.

How has ZBrush enabled you to express yourself in ways other packages couldn't?

Well you cant really compare it with any other software, it's simply too different! It changes how a CG artist works, it changes how he looks at things, has changed the industry to the next future leap, and who would want to go back to the past....? I would simply say that the concept of the software is very smart and impressive, my only wish to add on it is to have a bigger view port :)

Now onto "Floating Islands"Tell us about your creative process, how did this concept emerge?

One evening when I was stuck in the studio waiting for clients approval on a project that I was preparing for the kingdom of Bahrain, I was trying to get free again and relax my mind from all boundaries, I started to sketch a concept that has bean in my mind since I was a kid, the island that was then discovered to be on the back of a whale, these were some of the old middle eastern stories about Sinbad's magical voyages.

Do ideas just come to you out of nowhere, or are there particular artists or work you are inspired by?

I am always inspired by everything that is beautiful, whether it is an artist or a design or just Gods creation, I would also say that I have always had my own style in my work and almost never try to follow a certain style that I have seen.

I love this piece, can you tell me about the process of creating it? Have you explored this style before? Or was this created for something specific?

The process was, a sketch or the map as I would call it, and that would be the basis of my creation, I almost never start without it, once I crack the direction then I would start thinking about the execution and the path to take. About the style, well I don't think of my work as style, I think it is more towards I do what I feel, it is only when I am finished with it that I say "Yes! That's what I was tying to do". I almost never tried to repeat a style that I have seen elsewhere on my work. I feel that It is like a code of respect between artists.

In your image "Floating Islands" where was ZBrush used?

ZBrush helped me sculpt the geometry and take it to the next level in a short time. Modeling, UVs, Painting and scenes setups was between Lightwave and Modo. With ZBrush I was able to put the final touches that would make it come to life. ZBrush helped me start painting the UV map textures and setting up the foundation of the look and feel. I also generated some of the whales textures by the amazing ZMapper ;)

Tell us about your pipeline.

I start with Modo, then go to ZBrush, then finally render with Lightwave. The thing with software today is that they work hand in hand to complete each other, for instance ZBrush is very specialized in what it does, it focuses on the need of the artist and helps the creator to complete his task sufficiently with a smooth flow, artists have never had it this good.

What projects are you working on now?

We have just completed the visualization for the Master Plan for the Kingdom of Bahrain with one of the leading Architectural firms in the world, we have helped restructure and rebuild old and new cities for the country. Now I will be working more onto the movie project that we have been trying to get the time to start, hopefully I will be able to focus more on creating more Characters and environments for the movie.

Any last comments for us?

I would like to say Thank you to Manuel at Pixologic and Pixologic for appreciating the work I do. I would also like to thank all the development team and staff at Pixologic for there dedication to work together to help create some of the best tools ever created for the CG industry, I always expect the ideas to be fresh and most importantly designed for the end user, the artist, allowing the artist to continue being an artist without the restrictions and boundaries of a computer.

[mysticsparklewings]

Ziggy Crossing

Still not quite sure I'm 100% back into the swing of things (posting regularly and being more present) yet, but time will tell. For now I'm testing the waters. Anyway. In the time I've been away, I ended up talking to some friends about (to the surprise of absolutely no one) Animal Crossing, and in that conversation, the idea of drawing my cat, Ziggy, as an Animal Crossing villager came up. I'd toyed with it before after seeing some other people draw their pets as villagers, and that conversation more or less sealed the deal for me to at least try it, even if my attempt didn't pan out and see the light of day. Obviously, things went pretty well because here I am posting this. The first step, as it is 90% of the time for me, was to come up with a sketch and go from there. I primarily used Olivia and Lolly [pre-existing Animal Crossing cat villagers] as my references--Olivia for the pose and eyes, Lolly for the stripes and some details regarding the ears and face--but I also checked certain things across the various cat villager models so that details could be consistent where they needed to be. I think if I missed the mark anywhere, it's probably in the proportions. Namely the size of the head and length of the body. But I think it's close enough that unless you compare it directly to Olivia's model that I referenced for the pose, the proportions aren't so off that it's distracting or off-putting. I did originally have trouble figuring out what pattern to put on her shirt though because the real Ziggy doesn't really have anything I could pull a pattern from. These days she does wear a white and silver collar, but that's not a whole lot to work with. So I left that alone while I pondered how I wanted to go about coloring the whole thing. My plan at the beginning was to use this sketch as a test piece for some acrylic paint markers I recently acquired (which you will be seeing me talk about in the future), but once the sketch was finished and I went back to check the colors I had (you know me; gotta have a swatch chart for everything), it was pretty obvious that if I want this to be my dear Ziggy and not just a random tabby cat, I needed to figure out a different coloring method. I could have just done regular acrylic paint, but that sounded like a chore and thus I was not interested. Same with gouache. Colored pencils were on the table, but the main problem I have with those is that they can be pretty slow and personally I think their texture really lends them better to replicating the 3DS/Animal Crossing: New Leaf style, as opposed to the look of New Horizons, and that's not what I was going for here. That left me with two main options: Watercolor, which was a hard pass for this kind of art (at least for Ziggy herself), and alcohol markers, which I did use quite a bit on the last Animal Crossing artwork I made, and they had worked out fairly well. Alcohol markers it was! Of course, even after that decision was made, there was the issue of how to handle the lines of the drawing. When I was planning on using the paint pens/acrylic markers/whatever, that seemed a lot simpler because, in theory, I could just use the same pen I wanted to color with to do the outlines and then fill them in. And because that would be using mostly opaque paint, if I needed to I could just cover up any overlap with relative ease. Alcohol markers don't play by the same rules though, so I had to re-think all that. In the end, I pulled out a pale warm gray Polychromos pencil close to the main color of alcohol marker that I had picked out that I figured would also be light enough to blend in everywhere else. That way I could have the defining lines that I needed without having to worry too much about them being visible in the final product. [For clarification: I picked a Polychromos because once sharpened they tend to hold a point longer and better than the other colored pencils at my disposal and I really needed to keep a sharp point as long as possible to do the lines here.] In retrospect, I do think it might have been to my benefit to pick out a pink for doing the inner ear lines, but the end result there isn't so awful that it single-handedly (paw-ed-ly?) ruins the drawing for me. It's just something to take note of for next time if there is a "next time." Once I had my lines (including doing the eyelashes and mouth with one of my usual black fineliners), the next challenge was the actual coloring. Mostly because I had to be very careful around the edges so that the marker ink didn't feather out too far (as alcohol markers do on any paper that isn't marketed as "bleed proof" because that's what bleed proof in paper actually means--not that it won't bleed through to the other side, though that is less common with that kind of paper, but that it won't "bleed" across the page), and I also had to be a little careful and choosy about how I did any blending or shading. Again, my blending and shading plan was going to be different had I used the acrylic markers. The main thing I ended up doing here was trying to find areas that needed to be layered so that the one-color shading could act as a line/barrier between sections. Best example: Where the ears meet the head, I shaded the bottom portion of the ears. You can also see this a little bit where Ziggy's tail meets her body and where the legs intersect at a few different points. By no means did this turn out perfectly, considering that I really wanted to stick to use as few colors as possible (which means pretty much all the shading is just layers of one color to darken it) which means there isn't as much distinction or variation as there could be. And I feel it necessary to note here that I was worried when I first finished the lines that the eyes looked wonky, but after coloring pretty much everything else in that concern dissolved because 1. It's harder to tell and 2. Even if they aren't exactly the same, it makes visual sense because it looks like her head is slightly turned, meaning the eyes wouldn't be identical anyway. Never underestimate the power of coloring your work in! Speaking of which, you might be wondering about her shirt by now. Well, after toying around with some ideas I got it in my head that a good way to tackle that problem might be with washi tape, as I've used it in this manner before and worked out pretty nicely. Even though it wasn't a lot to work with, I did like the idea of the base color for her top being white like the real Ziggy's collar, and that narrowed down my tape options considerably. Of the options I had that I thought would be suitable, I ended up having a choice between one with small rainbow-colored polka dots and the decidedly less vibrant small triangles that you see here. The polka dots seemed a little too peppy for Ziggy, so I went with the triangles. And this, I must say, is one of those artistic decisions that I feel even better about the longer that I see the end product.   The main issue I have with using washi tape, and thus why I don't use it in this way that often, is because cutting the washi tape to fit a specific shape is a process that doesn't get much easier even with practice.  And even if it did, that wouldn't eliminate the very real possibility of cutting or indenting the paper underneath while you're cutting the tape. Of which, I have not yet figured out how to totally avoid short of forming the washi tape on a separate piece of paper, cutting it there, and then moving it to the final piece. But that method comes with its own problems too, so... Still, I made the decision to go through with it here and just accept the rough edges/lack of precision and all that. Before I put the tape down though, I did do a little shading with some light gray markers that I was counting on showing through the tape to give it a little more dimension. Seeing it now, I do think I could've stood to go a little darker, but again this isn't something that totally ruins the end result for me. Just something worth noting. After all of the above, I was left with one lingering problem: The background. Which I've noticed seems to normally be a "problem" area for me in that I don't always have a solid idea for what to do with it. I did consider what exactly I wanted to do earlier on in the process, before I started on Ziggy on the final paper, even. Briefly, I thought I might cut her out and put her on a separate background as is sort of a go-to background method for me. Something just didn't feel right about doing that here though and it feels like I've done that a lot lately (you know, when I've not been drowning in mandalas for NaPoWriMo...). So it was at this early stage that I locked in the idea of adding in the background in later, probably doing something kind of loose to give a general idea that hopefully wouldn't take too much time or effort. We've already established that I wasn't super keen on the idea of using acrylic paints or gouache for this drawing, and that remained true for the background too. Although, I don't really like using alcohol markers for backgrounds either because it can be tricky to keep things smooth and consistent. That left me with colored pencils and watercolor. Colored pencils are usually hard pass for backgrounds for me for a number of reasons. So! Watercolor, hmm... I drew Ziggy here on my darling Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper because I love how it handles markers and it has enough weight and texture to it that it handles a lot of my other go-to options with little fuss. Watercolor is really the only thing I have trouble using on it, the main problem being that sometimes (not always) the paint doesn't like to blend out super smoothly and certain watercolor techniques don't work the same on it. This doesn't mean it's useless for watercolor (at least not for me), that just means I have to be more careful about how I choose to work with watercolor on it. In this case, the blending issues lined up with the idea I had of letting the background have more texture since Ziggy came out a lot smoother by the very nature of alcohol markers. Somewhere in all this, the idea struck me to use my Gelatos to leave behind some crayon-like texture. That idea seemed fitting to me since Animal Crossing is a fairly light-hearted and child-friendly game, themes that crayons go along with. The gelatos are water-soluble but not every color dissolves completely when activated with water. This should be pretty evident here because I didn't try to hide it. I wanted quick and easy, and without a doubt just letting the texture do whatever it wants is the quick n' easiest method to use with the gelatos. Once I'd done a bit of back and forth with two greens and two blues to give me the solid suggestions of a sky and ground, it still felt like it was missing something. Ultimately, it seemed like a good idea to me to try and mimic the triangle pattern/texture that New Horizons features. (In past games you could get squares or circles for a grass pattern at random.) And while I as per usual I had to think on how to go about this, in the end, the best solution I could come up with turned out to be drawing the triangles in with alcohol markers. Truly, I'm surprised to be reporting this because I fully expected the creamy nature of the gelatos to make using alcohol markers on top feel disguising and unproductive. But not so! At least not with the limited gelato use here. The creamier areas do soften the color of the marker, but I think that worked to my advantage. Although, I did end up using a little bit of my yellow Moonlight gel pen because I felt like I needed some yellow triangles for balance and I knew transparent yellow markers wouldn't do what I wanted. But that brings us to the final product. I'm happy with it. And I do really like how the grass ties in with Ziggy's green eyes. It's just a nice little touch of visual cohesion in my book. As I always say, I'm sure it's not perfect and there are some missteps here and there or things that could be improved. Nevertheless, it was a fun experiment and serves as good encouragement for me to continue playing with the lineless look, among other things. I do have to note though that it feels super weird to just leave the eyes like this with no indication of shine on them! I made the choice not to since it's not a common trait with the official character models (at least not for eyes in this same style) but part of me still feels like it's incomplete. As I've said before recently and I'll probably say again, I can't promise I'll be getting back to a regular upload schedule now, but it's on my mind. I want to get to that point soon. I do have the acrylic markers I mentioned to talk about and another supply in the mail, and some other art in my backlog. So if you can be patient with me a while longer, there will be more from me to look forward to. In the meantime, please be kind to yourself and others. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram 

[andytfish]

FREELANCE GUiDANCE: A 10 Part Series - #3 Setting Up Work Parameters

One of the benefits of Freelancing is the FREEDOM but sometimes too much freedom leads to disorganization and chaos.  Possibly the biggest challenger a Freelancer faces is the ability to be his own boss-- with no one constantly over your shoulder, no fear of a walk thru by the uppity mucks there's plenty of opportunity to slack off, and that will kill your career.

1. ESTABLISH YOUR WORK HOURS - This should be a "general" guide because as I've already covered sometimes creativity cannot be caged. Sometimes that great idea or inspiration comes at 2 in the morning rather than at 9. Everyone is different and this is a find your way kind of rule. During a week of working freelance take occasion to jot down notes of the time and productivity-- you'll likely see a pattern emerge. In my own case I like to get an early start but seldom do. But after years of study I've discovered my peak productivity blocks in the day- 5am-8am and 2pm to 10pm. We'll get into this a bit further below.

2. ESTABLISH A WORK AREA - This is the BIGGEST key for me. I don't allow my work to spread out all over the house. I work ONLY in my studio space. The entire third floor of my house is my office area. It houses my computers, drawing tables, easels, supplies and reference material. I DON'T spend ANY time in there NOT working. You wouldn't drive to your corporate office job so you can search eBay would you? I treat my work area with the same respect.

3. KNOW WHEN A JOB IS NOT THE RIGHT FIT - It’s hard when you're just starting out to turn down a job, but sometimes (especially early on) things come along that are not right for you. I can't draw cute. I can't. Bunnies might start KIND OF cute but eventually they're going to look depraved. It's not in my makeup. Early in my career I would have taken that gig and kept at it killing myself and doing four times the work to make it right for the client. Now I know better. You turn down the WRONG job so you're available when the RIGHT job comes along.

4. DEADLINES TRUMP EVERYTHING - My kids from an early age knew the phrase "Dad's on a deadline" -- which meant I'm a phantom that might pop up out of my studio 2-3 times a week. The Deadline is the thing. I don't miss deadlines. This should not be your every week routine— you need to have a life, but those deadline crunch times are special circumstances.

5. SET UP PRODUCTIVITY - Da Vinci used a similar schedule and I've found this works; 45-90 minute working sessions with breaks in between makes me MUCH more productive.

LET'S GET A LITTLE FURTHER IN-DEPTH to my talking points

1- Establishing Your Work Hours-- I would suggest you even buy yourself an OPEN/CLOSED sign that you can put outside your workroom door.  It doesn't have to be a fancy neon one, it can be a simple cardboard one.  In my studio I use to blowmold ghosts that sit at the edge of my desk-- when they're on I'm working.  It not only lets other people know you're "at work" it gets yourself into the right frame of mind.

Share your working hours with significant others.  Let them know you're going to be struggling to "work from home" and you'll need their help.  They wouldn't walk into your office on Park Avenue with your co-workers all around and your boss down the hall clutching the light bill and saying we need to talk about that neon beer sign you must have on 24 hours a day-- they would wait until you're home from work, and just because work is now home there should be no difference.

They need to understand that work from home does NOT mean you don't work.  It does not mean every elderly relative can expect you to shuttle them around to doctor appointments, it doesn't mean you're instantly the chaperone at juniors Zoo trip.  YOU ARE STILL WORKING just AT HOME.

You’ll need to decide if you are going to follow a standard Monday-Friday work week or will you take Mondays and Tuesdays off?  Resist the urge to not take days off because money is coming in. I strongly advocate days off for your own mental health.   It's easy to swing the opposite direction in Freelance and work 24/7.

One of the first things I wanted when I went Freelance was weekends off.  After years of working in retail I never got to enjoy them.  In retail I had every Sunday and Wednesday off.  SPLIT days-- and I was looking forward to two together.  It seemed like a dream to me.

The downside to being off weekends is so is everyone else.  So those Wednesday trips to the bank or the post office I used to make were a breeze compared to trying to go on Saturday morning.

Now, I schedule days off (and to be honest A Day Off) the week I'm working.  It allows me to better balance projects.  And being completely honest, I LOVE working freelance, sometimes taking a day off is like punishment.  But even on the weeks I don't take a day off I take a morning off, or an afternoon, or an evening-- that works for me.  Starting out-- I'd give yourself at least one day off each week as you're figuring out what works for you.

How About Holidays?   That seems like a no-brainer until you're on that big project and it's due Dec 27th and using the Organizational skills I set up for you in Session 1 you realize you're behind.   Suddenly you have a virtual scale in front of you held by Santa Claus with family and friends on one side and the client on the other.

Deciding up front that it's a hard and fast rule that you won't work CERTAIN holidays is a concession I made right away.   I don't work on Christmas-- in fact I don't work two days BEFORE Christmas and I don't work the week FOLLOWING Christmas up through to Jan 2nd.  I don't.  Nope, not gonna do it.

Why?  I like Christmas and it's a holiday I look forward to.    I work extremely hard up to Dec 22nd but truth be told Christmas is VERY Slow in Freelance because most clients aren't thinking about projects either.  So a studio shut down is perfectly acceptable.

But the OTHER 99 holidays on the calendar?  They are all up for grabs.  I don't work the night of my wife's Birthday and I keep the schedule light during the day-- but other than Xmas, New Years and my Wife's Birthday I will work any other holiday even at the drop of a hat.

Knowing this helps me keep the stress level down.  My family knowing this keeps them from asking me why I'm not coming to the Memorial Day cookout, or the Patriots Day party. 

2. Establish a Work Area - My wife has her own studio on another floor of the house.  We meet daily for Breakfast and Lunch which is a nice break.  Her studio is very zen.  Very few things, a handful of books, some sparse furniture and warm inviting lights with some inspirational artwork hanging prominently around the room.  Mine is the polar opposite of Zen.  It's loaded like a High School locker.  There is not an inch of space on my walls or shelves that is not filled with comics, posters, original art, toys, action figures, vintage japanese vinyl toys, a lifesize Frankenstein, an Adam West Batman Cowl, a Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man Mask a Tony the Tiger display head, Darth Vader mask, more toys, more art more action figures and did I mention Books?  Libraries come to me to borrow things.  There are THOUSANDS of books.

I love the kinetic cluttered energy it gives off.  At Christmas time I decorate Frankenstein with colored lights.  The rest of  the year Halloween Lights hang in my studio.  It's my own personal Batcave-- all I'm missing is a British Butler walking in with coffee and scones every forty five minutes.

But that space works for me.  It gets me juiced up and ready to work.

That's how you need to set YOUR space.  When you're just starting out you may have to incorporate a drawing or work area in another room because of space restraints.  When I was first starting out in a one bedroom studio my bed was three feet from my drawing table.  It made for some tough nights sleeping because it was hard to "turn off" working mode in the same room.

Regardless of space, make some for yourself.  I have a good friend whose first studio space was a medium sized closet.  It was actually kind of cool-- you had to climb in like a race car but once you were encased in the environment like a man piloting a lunar shuttle to the moon you were ready to work.

The point is to make this space YOUR work inspiration-- so make it a place you WANT to spend time in.

3. Know when a Job is NOT the Right Fit - Easy to say when you're established.  You're going to take pretty much any job that comes along at first, and that's okay.  Sometimes you don't even know the job isn't right for you until you're doing it. When we get to PART 5: GETTING PAID SON we'll look at how to budget for these types of jobs so at least you're getting paid well for something that isn't a fit.

Let's assume that despite your portfolio of Goth Animals someone comes to you thinking you'd be perfect for that highly detailed photo accurate oil painting of Grandma.  That's not a good fit for you, you know it, they don't.  But the light bill is due and there's not a lot else coming in right now so you're thinking hard about taking it.   It's a fork in the road decision:

A. You take it and spend HOURS upon HOURS resisting the urge to give grandma dark undereyes and floppy ears. If you went with this option the biggest advice I can give you is do a lot of research and spend a LOT of time warming up. Look at portraits, look at Presidential Portraits and study the brush strokes. Grab your favorite sketchbook and some colored pencils and get to an art museum and do some sketching of the portraits in the collection. Get your head ready for the project and then give it your best shot.

B. Pass on it and recommend a friend you know who would be a better fit, earning Karma points from the friend and freeing yourself up for that job that WILL fit. Spend the downtime Marketing yourself (also coming up in the series) which is a better expenditure of your time and resources.

4. Deadlines Trump All - All my rules of work parameters combined with the skills I imparted in the ORGANIZATION session should lead you to a point where you don't have to work overtime, but in the real world we know that occasionally that IS going to happen.  If you find yourself CONSTANTLY working overtime on projects re-evaluate your working methods and see if you are actually being productive or if you're wasting a lot of time.

5. SetUp Productivity - The eight hour workday became the norm at the turn of the last century and pretty much has been the standard ever since.  This method goes back LONG before that to the days of Leonardo Da Vinci who often used this seemingly odd method to accomplish the amazing array of achievements he did over the course of his life. 

It's simple-- you work in 45-90 minute sessions with breaks in between.  During the session you do NOTHING but work.  You don't answer the phone if it rings (that's why Voicemail was created) you don't check your email.  You don't jump on IMDB to see who was the actor inside Darth Vader's suit (it was Dave Prowse, body builder and former Frankenstein actor).  YOU WORK.  Because SO much of our day is actually filled with distraction.  That's OK if you work for SNIDELY WHIPLASH INDUSTRIES who is paying you a fat check to work 30% of the time, as a Freelancer you only get paid for the hours you actually WORK.    Novel concept isn't it?  It's the price you pay for being your own boss.

This is best accomplished either by setting up a PLAYLIST running the allotted time, or by streaming an episode of a TV series or even setting an alarm clock.  Give it a try-- WORK for the allocated time and THEN take a break of 15-30 mins (also timed) to check your mail, return phone calls, do whatever-- you will be AMAZED at how this works if you can really be disciplined about it.

NEXT WEEK: LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS -- it's the difference between eating and not.

Andy Fish is a freelance artist and writer who has been living the lifestyle longer than there has been an iPhone on this planet.  The advice given has worked for him, it might work for you, he hopes it does.  But like all advice, take it with your own situation in mind.  If you want to contact him shoot him an email andy@andytfish.com

[suicidalcatz]

DOG DAYS ARE OVER : CHAP 11

Pairing : Jake Kiszka x reader

Genre : College AU

Previous parts : Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5 ; Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8 ; Chapter 9 ; Chapter 10

Masterlist : here

AN : It is wednesday, my dudes! This part and the next ones are like 90% fluff, 10% angst... like bittersweet. You’re still heartbroken but try to keep your friendship with Jake, while doing all of your homework... A lot to handle. Actually I had to cut the chapter in half because it was too long (9-10 pages). I really hope you’ll like this chapter because I liked writing it! Feel free to tell me what you thought of it, send me dms or questions, and thanks for reading me x

Chapitre 11 : Would you cook for me ?

Ignoring Jake's texts or avoiding him was useless. But hanging out with him was a challenge I wasn't ready to handle, never asked for, and yet was pushed into. Pretending I didn't see him when we crossed paths in the hallways, or that I didn't receive any of his texts was petty, there was no point in doing so. I couldn't avoid him without giving him any reason, and I couldn't tell him why I needed some time far away from him either because it meant revealing the truth and 1) I wasn't ready, 2) he'd be the one avoiding me like the black plague if I did. It brought me to the conclusion that I would simply pretend nothing happened at all. Jake hadn't noticed the whole situation anyway, so to him it'd already be like everything was normal, just like it always had been between us. It was the best I could think of. For him, for Josh, for anyone. For me ? Not so much. Of course I was still heartbroken, of course it'd take me some time to get over him, and staying by his side would be like rubbing salt on a wound while demanding for it to heal. But I wouldn't risk to break our group's dynamic for selfish reasons. So I sucked that in, everything. The sadness, and painful pang of my chest every time I saw his face, while repeating myself it was for the best.

That aside, I had some other things coming. For the worst. My useless self got so into self-pity and deprecation that I had totally forgotten about homework... And my drawing teacher would be less than pleased as we were all supposed to hand her five new portraits on Monday. Realization hit me during breakfast with Josh who had slept here, when I saw Mandy pack her things and idly noticing out loud that I wasn't carrying a lot of stuff for once. This. This was the cue. But it was too late now, I thought as I walked down the halls by their side. On our way to the amphitheater we saw Jake, waiting in front of the door for the teacher to come. Other students were here too, chatting and yawning with their backs against the walls or sitting on the floor. Josh looked at me like he wasn't sure if he should greet him but the brunette was the one spotting us, gesturing us to come join him. My eyes were probably still a bit puffy but with the makeup it could pass for lack of sleep. Of course he knew Josh stayed at our place last time, I had made sure the boy texted him, and the jerk had taken this opportunity to ask his brother to bring him all his school supplies, backpack included. Unbelievable.

- Your stuff, said Jake handing Josh his bag.

- Who's the big brother again ?, I jokingly asked with a raised eyebrow.

- He's 5 minutes older, replied Jake.

- You'll never live it down !

We all chatted quietly, and I never felt more conflicted in my entire life. My heart didn't know if it should beat faster or hurt like hell, so it seemed to do both, making me feel weird just by being next to Jake. My body was in total contradiction with itself. I couldn't hold back the smile that crept across my face, but at the same time wouldn't meet Jake in the eye, disguising it by cracking joke after joke while my stress level kept rising the more time passed. My thoughts were running wild. In a few hours the drawing teacher was going to yell at me in front of the whole workshop and I couldn't handle it. I'd surely burst into tears and feel even more ashamed. I'd probably-

- Hey, you alright ?

A soft touch caressed my back and I involuntarily jerked forward, out of its grasp, before realizing and suddenly feeling bashful at my reaction. I could tell Jake was surprised by it but it lasted only a second before his face showed concern.

- Yeah, I just didn't finish my work on time... That witch is gonna murder me and ask the others students to draw a perspective of my corpse I'm sure.

I heard his chuckles before the tutor cut him off, passing by us with the keys in hand to unlock the door, separating the sea of students in half like an artsy Moses. Jake was at the other side when the crowd engulfed through the small door, letting us no choice but to keep our bodies to the walls.

- Do you wanna sit together today ?, asked Jake above the loud stomping noises.

Because of the students between us I couldn't really see his face, but was glad because it meant he couldn't see mine whitening. Josh and Mandy on the other hand were just next to me and clearly witnessed my expression change. To think that a week before I would've been on cloud nine being able to sit next to him for two whole hours... Oh how things could change fast.

We were now the three last people left outside and Jake held the door for us, continuing speaking.

- You guys are always exchanging notes, we should just, ya know ? Sit next to each other and... quietly chat.

As backup to his words, he murmured the last part in a very exaggerated fashion, in a failed attempt to make me smile. I couldn't just say no to him without looking weird because I had no reason to. Even if I knew he wouldn't push the matter, there was no way he wouldn't question it, right ? Josh came to the rescue, playfully elbowing him.

- But then where's the fun in that ? Right girls ?

Both agreeing, we rushed to our usual seats, letting a dumbfounded Jake close the door behind him. In their habitual fashion, Mandy and Josh threw paper balls at each other, while I was for once too focused on the lecture to participate in their shenanigans. I needed to get my mind to focus on something and right now Gilgamesh sounded like a good deal, so I took as many notes as possible. A task proven even more difficult because in the corner of my eye, I could see Jake staring at me.

Saying my drawing teacher killed me was a little bit of an understatement. She scared the shit out of me with her scolding. To be fair, even in a normal mood she was a scary woman. The already quiet   class went completely still and silent when she barked at me, admonishing me with charming names such as « useless », « disappointing » and the timeless « lamentable ». A classic. Truth to be told it hurt much less than I previously anticipated, mainly because I was already half dead inside, with the emotional range of a cactus, and my self-esteem nearly reaching zero. Nothing much to attack, really. Nevertheless, she demanded that I hand her all five portraits plus the five others we had to do this week by the next monday. Meaning I had ten to do in a week. It physically hurt just thinking about it, and I could hear a quiet « oof » escaping some of my classmates' mouths. It's with a huge relieved sigh that I found my bed this afternoon once school was over. This day had been a catastrophe so far, so there was no other thing I wanted to do more than put on my Pjs, put some music on, and slowly work at my desk, thinking Tuesay will be a better day.

Tuesday was not a better day. Wednesday either. All my homework slowly started piling up on my desk to the point where it was starting to be difficult to keep track of it. And sleeping four hours a night wasn't doing my mental health any good. I knew I had two possibilities now ; sleep less but do my work, or skip some classes to work. It was beginning to get ridiculous, skipping classes so I could do my homework. I knew art schools were difficult, awfully so, but like most people I hadn't realized until then, in this very moment, standing in front of my desk completely covered in paint, canvas, my computer, sketches, inks... some brushes had fallen on the floor, staining it in their passage. My laptop was so dirty it wasn't in its original color anymore. There were blotches of paint, ink, and charcoal here and there that I couldn't remove the harder I had tried to, forcing me to give up. At some point I got so tired I put my paintbrush into my cup of tea/coffee, mistaking it with the goblet of water.

- ...Are you alright ?, enquired Mandy on Thursday night.

One look at my face and she had her answer. Bless her soul, she didn't need any more to bring me an energy drink from the fridge.

- I still have five portraits to do. Four pencil ones, and one painting. They all have to be from different angles, and I can't find any models, I complained while throwing my hand in the air in an act of pure desperation.

Mandy knew better than to sit at the edge of my risky desk with her designer clothes, so she leaned on the doorframe, slowly nodding her head in a pensive manner while I kept explaining the situation.

- All week I couldn't find anyone because they all had homework to do, and now most of them are skipping tomorrow's lecture to go home early so nobody's available !

My rommate crossed her arms, thinking hard. I already did almost all my paintings, asking for both her and Josh's help. Both of them were glad to help and even more so to figure on a monochrome painting on a canvas.

- Can you draw the same person multiple times ?, she finally asked.

- Actually... I don't know. I don't think that would be a problem as long as the work is done ?

Hopping on her feet, Mandy lifted an eyebrow before dragging a chair to sit on.

- Let's get into it then, we only have one lecture tomorrow, you can skip it I'll take notes for you.

Having a good night of sleep never felt this good. No. Waking up at 8, slowly realizing everybody was sitting on a lecture except me, and then getting back to sleep was way better. I sketched poor Mandy two times last night but the results were good, and she looked pleased herself. I didn't have time to redo any of these anyway, I still had other work to do. Waking me from my well deserved nap, my phone vibrated under the pillow, the screen blinding me despite the sun peaking through the curtains.

« The boys asked where you were. Told them about the portraits situation. Jake wants to help. Couldn't stop him. »

If the beginning of the text made me smile, the end completely shook me awake, making me sit hurriedly on the bed, rereading the words multiple times. Scratching my face, I quickly glanced at the hour. They were out in a few minutes. My fingers tapped the next message as soon as they could, asking her how and when, while I ran to the showers with my towel, soap and toothbrush in hand. At this hour, and a Friday, they were all available. The other residents were all either drunk as hell and passed out in their room, or in their hometown with their family and friends. The buzzing of my phone vibrating reverberated against the shower walls and it almost got drowned in the sink when I caught it to look at the screen. It was Mandy.

« They kinda invited themselves over to eat. Josh's idea.»

What the hell Joshua we're not your moms ! Throwing my phone to the nearest flat surface, I jumped on some discarded overalls and put on a sweater, wet hair dripping everywhere on the floor, table, but mostly on my clothes, making me sneeze in the process. The whole week I was so overwhelmingly busy with work that not only did my fingers hurt but I didn't have any time to see the Kiszkas let alone think about them since our shared lecture on Monday. I even skipped the Lunch Club in order to get back to the dorms and work on my assignments. Which thankfully saved me a lot of time, but I still had 2 pencil drawings to do and one painting. Once I had put on some makeup, I took a moment to look around me. Our place looked like a dump, no less. Clothes and art furniture were everywhere, the trash was overflowing with empty cup noodles and fast food leftovers, it smelled like perfume and soap mixing with rotten food, paint and cold tobacco. It was terrible, and made me shocked that I even got used to that. A life achievement of some sort. Everything on the floor I put it on a trash bag, running in the stairs to throw everything outside with the others'. My phone vibrated in my pocket, a new notification popping on the screen.

« They bought some stuff at the store, they wanna cook us something. Jake's idea. »

Okay, time to clean the kitchen.

By the time they got here, I looked even more tired than before, owing my guests looks of concern. If was funny, how they put on the exact same face while seeing me. It was like I just mirrored a picture. Their similar features would never cease to amaze me.

- Mama you're very pale.

- Did you not sleep well ?

- I did, don't worry, I dismissed their concern. Had to clean up a bit.

Mandy bit his lip, knowing damn well the place had been a war field when she left. Unaware of anything, the boys put the bags of groceries on the table before apologizing for intruding. We all sat around the table to have a pleasant talk, my friends always making sure I wasn't next to Jake to avoid any brutal peak of awkwardness / sadness. But some habits died hard, I realized when Jake asked if he could have a tour of our dorm. Ignoring glances, I stood up and gestured for him to go first, into the biggest room, were Mandy and I's workshop and beds were. The boy let out a low whistle that flattered me. He looked impressed by everything around him, touching odd looking brushes and browsing illustration books. I knew better this time, and had put his painted portrait under my bed, wrapped in an old sheet. Just as his brother did, he liked to take in his hands everything that came by, caressing it with his fingertips or idly lifting the weight of it in his palms like he was discovering an unknown world. Unmoving, I let Jake do his little tour, watching the street view by the window, sitting on my disheleved bed, jumping slightly to make the mattress bounce like he was testing it before buying.

- So this is where you're gonna paint me, he said, pointing at a chair between my desk and me.

My pale face grew some colors at the thought of it before I nodded quickly, in a childlike way, caressing the wooden chair's back.

- I'll try to be fast so you won't get bored, I assured without looking him in the eye.

It was this moment Josh chose to appear at the corner of the doorframe.

- Jakey we should start cooking or the potatoes will never be ready on time. Come on, doll.

He took me by one of my overalls' straps, pulling me inside the kitchen, making me laugh and pushing my shoulders so I stayed on my seat. Mandy and I gazed at them with awe as they poured us drinks while Jake asked where the spatula was, and Josh was washing the vegetables, already familiar with his surroundings.

In silence, I looked at Jake removing every one of his rings to put it on top of the fridge where no one could kick them, before tying his hair in a tight ponytail. Maybe it was because I only ever saw him with long brown locks framing his face, but he looked even better than usual. If he caught me staring, he didn't adress it, only smiled at me, turning his back to us to help his brother.

- Do you need any help ?, I asked while showing them where the frypans were. You guys are our guests it doesn't seem fair...

Of course the kitchen wasn't a real one, there was only a microwave and some hotplates fixed to a cabinet by the sink. Putting more than one person behind the counter was impossible without bumping into each other, and I could smell the accident from afar when Josh maneuvered the hot water filled pan at the same time Jake opened up a cupboard right above his curly head. Curiously so, probably because they had way more cooking experience than I thought, the boys handled the situation neatly, and Jake was the one preventing me from bumping into his brother.

- Go sit and relax, we've got this, he said while turning me around by the shoulders.

Watching boys make lunch had got to be some sort of ASMR because just watching the muscles of their back move while they were chopping onions and peeling potatoes had some real therapeutic effects on me. We continued chatting together, all the while answering their questions on « Where are the knives ? » and « Where do you keep the salt ? ». Kind of surprised that Josh had the permission of holding a kitchen knife, by the way, this part made me feel the absolute opposite of ASMR but he did a pretty good job, from what I could see. Mandy put on some music on the speakers, argued with Jake over the sound of it as to what was acceptable or not music-wise, and Josh made a show of crying because of the onions, yelling about becoming blind until Jake gently slapped the back of his head. It was all laughs and good conversation, like we've been friends for years, and at the same time I couldn't shake these feelings I had towards Jake. There was something extremely erotic about seeing a dude wearing a dishcloth on his shoulder. Or was it just Jake wearing it really well ?

They refused to tell us what we were eating, muttering to themselves and sometimes asking if we were allergic to this or that, only announcing it while putting the plate on the table, with Josh making grand gestures as usual, using his best waiter voice.

- Crêpes au zucchini accompanied by a fresh salad decorated with feta and its apple slices, ladies.

- Bon appétit, added Jake.

The table was already set because it was the only thing we were allowed to do, so at least the boys could now rest. It looked really good. Way less fancy than what Josh had announced of course but it smelled wonderful, the sweet scent settling in all of our dorm. And the taste, oh Lord. Everything melted in my mouth, the onions they fried were just crispy enough to add something to it, and I learned this day that cheese and apple were really good and refreshing together. A new snack idea I'd keep for my sleepless work nights at the desk. And as dessert, the boys brought beers. Of course.

[fortunaestalta]

[shirokage-artworks]

Hello There!

It’s not my first time using Tumblr, but I’ve opened up many accounts before that ended up inactive that I had to close them. This time, I told myself it won’t happen and I will open up a new account and manage it well, despite my work-life.

I’ve also decided to rebrand my blog as previously it was just a random mix of drawings. Now, my artwork is currently focused on the art of coffee painting.

Before I started going on passionately about coffee-painting, I ought to introduce myself! I am Leaazpens, most commonly known as Azalea Azuar from Malaysia. I am actually a self-taught artist and I started drawing as early as four! 

Life as an artist

I remembered when I was a kid that I enjoyed drawing monsters and robots, and as a girl I was constantly told that I shouldn’t draw monsters since I’m a girl. Well, that’s totally BULLSHIT to me! I believe that your gender should not dictate whatever subject you can draw. 

I am also open and experimental when it comes to the realms of visual arts. I started of with just using pencil and pen but after I volunteered for a coffee painting booth for the NGO KL Sketch Nation, I fell in love with coffee painting.

There is just something about coffee painting that makes the piece seem very expressive.

I don’t have an art-style since I’m open to experimentation but my drawings are definitely manga or anime-inspired since that’s pretty much the only thing that I can do. I am also obsessed with details.

Of being a writer

When I am not painting or drawing, I work full-time as a journalist. In fact, I have a degree in broadcasting and journalism.

One might have wondered why I didn’t pursue an education in visual arts (or related). It’s strange, I did have intentions of becoming an artist when I was younger. But I seem to excel with my writing abilities since I won second place for a short story competition back in secondary school. 

I also scored well in my English exams, especially the essay section when I have to write a story. During the exam it felt so effortless and English is the only subject which I enjoyed.

The truth is writing and drawing has a lot of similarities. I see them both as a form of art. When you draw you are holding the pencil, the same with writing. You might have thought writing is easy but it requires a certain skill to craft a sentence using the right words. Some words compliment each other, but some doesn’t.

For someone working in the media industry, I am a shy and timid soul. Sometimes I wondered whether I am in the right job. But when I interview fellow artists I felt that I’m able to connect to them. 

For instance, the other day I interviewed Malaysian graffiti artist Perol and he was really awkward. Perol was just staring at me and he apologised if he was being weird and rude. Then, I told him it’s ok, I understand how you feel. I also have the same problem since I am very socially awkward. Perol felt appreciated that somebody understood him and I was glad.

As a feature writer, I cover an array of topics from food reviews and cosplay events. But my forte is in art. Let me tell you this, I’m not interested in covering the famous celebrities. I want to reach out for the voices that haven’t been heard. Perhaps that’s my contribution to the art community. An artist for another artist.

My love for Star Wars

I’m also a huge fan of Star Wars and I’ve got into it when I was nine. Being a 90s kid, I grew up with the prequels and only watched the original trilogy later. My first film was Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones, but it didn’t get me into Star Wars.

What got me into the fandom was when my brothers played Star Wars: Battlefront on PlayStation 2. Then I saw Darth Vader for the first time and when I watched Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of The Sith I fell in love with Darth Vader (since it's the first time I saw him).

But then my all-time favorite character switched to the one and only Emperor Palpatine! The emergence of r/prequelmemes on Reddit made me love him even more. Not only is Palpatine such a great character but Ian McDiarmid did a fantastic job in bringing the sadistic monarch to life.

Palpatine is one of the only reason why I’m hyped to watch The Rise of Skywalker. The other is John Williams music. As much as I love the themes from the OT and PT, he did a great job with scoring the sequels which is “Rey’s Theme” and  “March of The Resistance”.

I really enjoyed the music in The Rise of Skywalker and I would highlight my favourite pieces are “The Force is With You” because it has the best rendition to Rey’s and Palpatine’s themes, “Farewell” a sadder version of Kylo Ren’s theme and the simple yet beautiful “A New Home”.

It was also amazing to hear “The Imperial March” on IMAX again and it felt like I was right in front of the orchestra.

Upon the big reveal that Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, I’ve made a fan comic series called “Sheev & Rey” which is about the granddaughter-grandfather relationship between both of them. 

That being said, I hope you would watch my blog with great interest as there will be great content in the long run.

Once again, May The Force Be With You!

Azalea

[luddite]

“Fat & Skinny Comix” as seen in SWILL. In 1993 I drew an illustration for a band poster based on a childhood poem that was regularly “sung” at me as a child. If you are not familiar with the origins, it is the one where Fat falls down, breaks his face and Skinny wins the race. In most cases it was intended to be insulting because I was a fat kid. My cousin Michael and I would make up our own words which told stories about he and I, and made us laugh. Sadly, I can not remember any of those, but I produced these versions from 1993 to 1995 for SWILL, Caroline Records in house produced fanzine. The subjects I focused on were, “Punk” in the 90��s, Post-Modern “style,” performance “art,” Christmas spirit, appropriated culture and fashion, coffee and drugs. I have been guilty of these things so I was not above my own observations. At the time I was doing regular illustrations and ads for the record label and even did an early Archers of Loaf interview for Swill. Caroline was easily one of my favorite clients and I loved going to their offices. I believe these always appeared on the last page. #PatJamesLongo #brushandink #penandink #pencildrawing #pencil #stippling #graphicdesign #illustration #drawing #sketching #sketches #sketchbook #comix #lettering #typography #branding #brand #logos #logodesigns #logodesigner #FatAndSkinny #FatAndSkinnyComix #CarolineRecords @CarolineMusic https://www.instagram.com/p/Byk1aheAMHz/?igshid=1wg7ckc0gj4p

[meganlpie]

Soulmate Not Found

A Wattpad request! I do not own Steve or Bucky. They belong to Marvel.

Warnings: Soulmate AU, slight angst, a little fluff

Pairings: Steve Rogers x fem!reader, slight mention of Bucky in the beginning. 

Steve stared down at the timer on his arm. It just had to be defective. There was no way it would take him that long to meet his soulmate. He’d be dead long before then. “Don’t let it get you down, Steve,” Bucky told him with a smile. He was trying to stay positive for his friend, but Steve could see the sadness in his eyes.

           Steve didn’t get the best lot in life. He was tiny and prone to illness. His mother, the person he loved most in the world, was now dead and it looked like he’d never find his soulmate. Steve let out a sigh. “I think I’m gonna head home. See ya around, Buck.” Steve got up, dusted off his trousers, and began the trek back to his home. “Hey, Steve!” Steve glanced over his shoulder. “Soulmates are overrated anyway.” Steve smiled slightly, but didn’t reply.

           That was easy for Bucky to say. Even though he hadn’t met his soulmate either, Bucky never wanted for company. He always had some kind of companion. Not Steve. Steve never had anyone other than his mom and Bucky. Women didn’t look at him the way they looked at Bucky. They looked at him with eyes full of pity more than anything. Sighing again, Steve opened the door and stepped inside his dark home.

           Steve sank down on the couch, his blue eyes flicking to the timer once again. Such a long time to go. There was no possible way he’d ever meet his soulmate. He’d go to the grave never having met the person he was meant to be with. Determined not to dwell on it anymore, as nothing could change it, Steve decided to stick with his original plan. Join the army and fight in the war. He never could have known what would happen to him.

*70 years later*

           Steve sat outside the cafe, sketching the city he was growing accustomed to yet again. He hadn’t been out of the ice long, but he was going to try and make the most of his unique situation. No longer was he the small, ill, little boy. No. Now he was Captain America. The serum had worked better than anyone thought possible. He was strong and healthy now. He had the power to put bullies in their place when necessary. But Steve couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

           Since thawing, Steve had refused to look at his timer. He hadn’t even glanced at it once. It probably wouldn’t work now anyway. He didn’t need the reminder that he still hadn’t found his soulmate; that he probably never would.

           A sudden wind came and blew Steve’s papers from the table. Steve quickly got up and moved to catch his papers, but someone beat him to it. Steve felt himself blush when the person looked at the papers. “These are really good.” You glanced up at Steve and he felt his heart stop. Blue eyes met (e/c) ones as the chime of two timers sounded. You looked down at your wrist and blinked in surprise.

           Steve pulled up his sleeve to look at his own timer. Sure enough, the numbers had finally reached zero. “You. I finally found you,” he whispered. Your face split into a dazzling smile. “I’m Y/N.” You stuck your hand out and Steve took it shyly. “Steve. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.” You pulled your hand back and realized it was covered in black streaks from Steve’s pencils. “Oh, sorry,” he said nervously.

           Steve muttered under his breath, “Stupid,” and you giggled. “You’re not stupid. It’s just pencil.” Steve grabbed a napkin from his table and offered it to you. “Thank you, Steve.” He grinned. “Um…would you like to join me?” He asked and you shook your head. “I’d love to, but I’m already running late for work.” Steve frowned a little, but understood. “Oh. Some other time then.” After agreeing, you gave him your number and started on your way. Steve watched as you walked away, chuckling softly when you tripped over your own feet.

           Steve called you later that day and you invited him to dinner a few days later, which he eagerly accepted. And afterwards, you went on a walk around the city. Sure, he probably should have been a bit more wary. You were strangers after all, but something about being with you felt so right. You spent the time just getting to know one another. Steve was hesitant to tell you about his past, afraid you would run from him, but he wanted to be honest with you.

           When Steve finished with his explanation, you simply stared at him. Steve felt his heart sink to his feet. Finally, you spoke, “Now it makes sense.” Steve arched a brow. “I wasn’t born with a timer. Then, a few months ago, one suddenly appeared. Around the time you were brought out of the ice.”

           "Are you upset?“ You shook your head. "Of course not! Steve, even just today I’ve noticed things about you that are amazing. And you were honest with me. It doesn’t matter that you’re technically over 90 years old. You’re incredible and I’m lucky that you’re my soulmate.”

           Steve looked at you with an expression of awe. You glanced at your watch and sighed. “This has been fun, Steve, but I have to go. I have to work early tomorrow.” Steve’s expression fell, but you smiled at him. “I’d love to do this again sometime soon. I want to get to know you, Y/N,” he said softly, “Kinda want to go slowly. Like I would have done in the 40s.” You chuckled. “I like that idea. I’ll see you around, Steve.” You kissed him on the cheek and turned to leave. “Y/N,” he called, making you stop. “Let me walk you home. It wouldn’t do for a lady to walk alone at night in the city.” You laughed lightly as rain started to fall. “Thank you.”

           You let Steve walk you home, completely oblivious to the rain coming down. Steve didn’t pay much attention to it either. When you reached your apartment, you smiled up at the super soldier. “Goodnight, Steve. Give me a call and we’ll do this again sometime.” Steve nodded before leaning in to kiss your cheek. “I’m so glad I finally met you, Y/N,” he whispered in your ear as he pulled away. You watched as he walked away from you, the smile never leaving your face.

(a/n: Here you go!)

Tagging: @brewsthespirit-blog @fairytalesexistxx @jotink78 @gameofwinters @iwillbeinmynest

[doodleniella]

Part 2 - Jikoshoukai (it’s looooooooong so please bear reading it at your own risk orz)

* I’m in my late twenties, but looks like a teenager; one time a jeepney driver mistaken me for a college student and gave me fare discount.

* Am a Taurus, I think iirc an A+? (have forgotten about it since high school, during our physical examination at the school clinic), and my birth date sounds like a Star Wars phrase pun.

* Height’s more or less a 5’5” (until that realization a month ago, I always go on believing that I’m a 5’3” lol).

* You can describe me as a (kinda) my-pace type of girl, but in my case, more like a girl who does things in a whim and more or less likely to regret doing them.

* Always bullied since childhood, that’s why I hold grudges until now haha

* First impressions (when I see one) are hit or miss. When a person did something that make me, say, cringe... 👎🏻 unless I can see some progress.

* Also cringed at wrong grammar and spelling (gdi so many apostrophe S’s I kennat—), no offense.

* Is a cat person nyaa~

* Always been drawing stuff since childhood, wherever I can set my pen/pencil/coloring materials/etc on....even on borrowed books at our university library. Shh~

* Speaking of books, since the age of two I frequently read and read and read lots of reading materials—ranging from novels to newspapers to magazines etc. Had a collection of them at home btw, paperbacks and US magazine backissues, mostly. Amongst them, had a few Jan Karon books (under the Mitford Years series) and some Lorna Landvik novels.

* Speaking of library, this is like second home to me... lots of books, computer stations, wifi (lol), air conditioning system (another lol), solo study cubicles to take a nap on whenever time calls for it, and you can borrow almost all of the books (max. 5-6 at a time).

* I’m one of the lucky few who are referred to as the Batang ‘90s (‘90s Kids)—because, unlike kids nowadays, we’ve experienced watching Tagalog-dubbed anime during weekday afternoons after school in the 1990’s and 2000’s-early 2010’s, for one.

* An anime enthusiast, always watching anime and reading manga, one of the reasons why I draw until this day—the other because of my dear aunt (may God always bless her soul~ Also am the Secretary of my college alma mater’s anime club for I guess two years idk? Ahaha~

* Cosplayed twice during college: the first one is a disaster and my second one is super goooood xD (One of my club senpais joked about the colors of the cloth used on our maid costumes—during my first year, we’ve managed a Maid Cafe during our annual University Days—being bright and vivid as the colors of the jeepney routes in our province; he called mine the Marisol, after the Marisol-Pampang route—ctto pic)

* Been fascinated with Japan and the Japanese culture since childhood: during Grade 2, I’ve purchased a Highlights Top Secret Japan puzzle set; during Grade 6, my older cousin who now based in Japan with her own family gave me CDs of Hamasaki Ayumi and EXILE, among others.

* Collected anime posters, laminated cards, and stickers during Grade 6 until all my high school years. Dunno where they are now...

* Am picky with what I watch and read, whether it’s anime, manga, or a novel/book/magazine. ‘Cause I have a damn refined taste lol

* I also have multiple fandoms across some of the genres. I’m an Hello! Project fan since 2008 (first oshimen was Morning Musume’s Kusumi Koharu, now it’s the 15th gen’s Kitagawa Rio from Morning Musume ‘20; also a BEYOOOOONDS fan—but I love all of the girls like my younger sisters....even though my real younger sister’s a pain in the arse sometimes), a casual 48G fan since AKB48’s Heavy Rotation hit the Oricon charts—and kinda supported its international sister groups too, like our very own MNL48...but kinda laylowed since late last year. Aside from MNL48, I also supported its similar (but related?) local aidoru counterparts, Aidoru Sozai and CH4U, since 2018. But, ever since that goddamn COVID-19 virus and quarantine started, the need to support the members had gradually lost in my hands (don’t worry tho, I still checked out on their SNS even if not on a daily basis).

* Before, I always listened mostly to idol songs (75% of which are H!P), but when my old phone broke (and we have wifi now) I tuned in daily to Spotify and listened to some of its playlists—to which I select a few songs and gathered them in my own playlist full of J-Tracks and old stuff.

* I’m a huge fan of Takaya Natsuki’s “Fruits Basket”, ever since I have watched the Tagalog-dubbed original/Studio Deen version on TV every Saturday morning during the early 2000’s. Read the almost-150+-ish chapters during my high school and college days, read some of “Fruits Basket ~another~”, and now currently watching the 2019 version. Also have a dog-eared TokyoPop copy of the ~Cat~ fanbook skl.

* Due to the influence of some of my artist collab buddies and a certain redraw challenge (#HaikyuuRedraw), at almost three? months, I’m basically new to the Haikyuu!! Fandom. In less than a month, I’ve watched Seasons 1 until the first half of On The Top!!—including the OVAs, read the full 400+ chapters of the “Haikyuu!!” manga non-stop (because, ‘it’s fast-paced’ as I have told one colleague before), and its spin-offs “Haikyuu-Bu” and “Let’s Haikyuu”, and watched all four compilation movies. (Now rewatching Season 2 btw...) *whispers low* Not to mention countless fanfictions and doujins...... FUN FACT: If you visited my Pinterest page, you’ll be annoyingly (imo) amazed at how many Haikyuu!!-related memes, comic panels, fanarts and stuff I have saved in my two boards. Also made some chibi fanarts (first one being Inarizaki’s Capt. Kita; will post Kenma’s later tonight) and some WIP sketches (one Hinata, one Oikawa—on an UFO, duh—and a Yachi... all of them chibified) that idk when the fuck will I start to work on them again qwq (Whew... my longest paragraph so far, sorry~)

* Created my Facebook art page and began sharing my doodles and drawings to the public since 2017 (more then three years ago), then since early 2018 started doing MNL48 and other local aidoru groups’ fanarts in trad (colored ballpens and colored pencils on cheap bond paper halves). Then early 2020, I started doing anime fanarts as part of a collab for I think half a year now.

* I have been a member of two artists’ collaboration groups on Facebook—MFA48 (specializing in mostly MNL48-related group fanart collabs) and Anime Art Collaboration Group (an exclusive-for-Filipino-artists’ collab group specializing in two-week anime collabs and other art activities, to which I’m a part of its Council as the Fukaichou/Council VP). Also a staff member at a memeposting Facebook page for more than a year now (belated Happy Anniversary to me lol~).

* Did make some padorus, a few memes—including an all-in-one virtual powerbank charger, ‘patent pending’—and stuff.

* WIPs old and new kept on piling up due to many distractions (namely, this phone I’m using rn and its many installed apps) and disturbances (my fam, on the top of the list). And I really hate it qwq hence the frustration and stress...

* A lazy person actually tee hee~ (and a big eater but kinda slim like Miaka from “Fushigi Yuugi”)

...well? Ahehehe~ hope you stick on reading all of these bullshit till the end, tho. Ja~ see y’all again! （＾∇＾）

(Hope it can fit within Tumblr’s character number parameters or something...)