#quick drawing while trying to figure out rendering

[child-of-the-cosmos]

Too long.

[dawnthefluffyduck]

hey that's not supposed to be out there (uploaded wrong version at first haha whoops)

[everestgale]

slay the princess request!!

could u draw nightmare being cute/silly? shes my favorite i love her sm

Now she has her own Long Quiet plush to love and torment, and its organs can't shut down! A win-win!

------

Next request: Greys ❤️‍🔥🌊 [probably gonna be a while though]

Random thoughts and notes are under the cut!

[Find my Slay the Princess art here]

[Princess art] [TLQ art] [Voices art]

Here's what we learned today: do not ask EG to draw Nightmare, they will go absolutely insane and spend hours rendering what was supposed to be a quick sketch /lh

Jokes aside, I love how it turned out! I've been trying recently to actually practice my shading, and hopefully I'm making some progress in that department! Maybe!

I have about ~5 requests left in my inbox, and I really want to finish them all before I travel for holidays (on the 17th), but I also have about 5 different drawings/sketches I have to finish before then, so... I might have to wait to finish these last few requests till new year 😭 Or I might use these as practice to figure out how to actually make quick sketches & doodles. We'll see!

[rennybu]

Hi Andy! out of curiosity would you be able to give any tips on, and this is the best way I can think to describe this 💀, rendering the elf glow ears? Like the glow of a light source where skin is thin i guess?

It's something that I've been trying to figure out how to do for ages in procreate, and is something I've always really liked in yours as well as others work when it comes to elves! If not thank you anyway, take it easy

hi!! i'm so sorry this took a while to get to.... I drew up a little step by step including what layer modes i usually use, but it's not foolproof and will need some colour tweaks on a per-drawing basis until u find your stride with it.

the term for this is subsurface scattering!!! its how light penetrates translucent surfaces and bounces around inside/diffuses back out into a 'glow'.... that orange radiance is Blood and Cartilage.

some videos i've enjoyed on the topic (1) (2) (and there r many more to do with 3D rendering, if you're interested in going down the rabbit hole... i think i took off running with glowy ears after learning abt subsurface scattering in my 3D animation course back in 2018. ITS SO FUN)

i'm using my own shorthand for. everything i drew here. but i hope it makes sense for visualizing a quick workflow in procreate!!!!

i personally use a mix of layer modes, depending on the piece, usually overlay, screen, or colour dodge... It is honestly something i should devote some proper study time to (paint from observation without layer modes - its Good to be able to better understand colour interaction this way) - but this is how I've been doing it for the last few years!

transcript under the cut:

from left to right:

Ear and base colour :)

+ New layer Consider colour of blood and flesh beneath the skin. I start with pinks, light orange, yellow Less illumination <--> More

Set layer mode to overlay (or ur fav add mode...), adjust your colours based on skin, light source, stylization, etc. Merge down once happy!

Duplicate line art layer, lock + colour it in warm. + Light emphasis if u want (pop!) I like to use overlay mode but its not necessary. Adds a sense of depth and vibrancy.

base + soft brush + red line art Same idea of light/skin interaction, without using layer modes. Red for blood/flesh, orange for transition, yellow for thinnest part of cartilage.

When it (light) hits the surface... it scatters idk

[cheollipop]

Hello there! I wanted to pop in and say I’m so glad you’ve hit such a big milestone!! I honestly adore your works! Your writing style and characterization always has me begging for more!! And don’t get me started on your smut good lord 🫠

As for the slumber party.. *squeezes pillow* what do you think about dom!san and sub!reader and woo? I would honestly love to be brat tamed by San, have you seen the looks he gives Woo?? Especially him in Guerrilla era?? If he gave me that look I would be GONE. But it’s been making me think about him taking me from behind, with that signature neck hold of his as he ruins me into the mattress, Wooyoung needy and whining on the side waiting for his turn. 🫠🫠

Anyway I have shared my thoughts for this party, I can’t wait to see what others have to say as well!! (omg that somnophilia one had me sitting there crossing my legs. rip to those panties 🫡 😔)

Have a good day, Panda!! ❤️

2𝙠 𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩

anonnie you are so cute pls 😭 squeezing your pillow while spitting straight filth bahahha. thank you so much!! this seriously means so much to me TT with woosan, I tend to write them with a dynamic opposite to the one you'd described, so I found myself in a pickle trying to write this one;; however, I'm in an insane san mood this week, so I made it work (?) somehow (?), it is a lot shorter then I would have wanted it to be though :" I really hope you enjoy this nonetheless!! (and I'm so happy you liked the somno one, it's one of my favourites too~)- don't be a stranger, and happy reading!! (≧◡≦)

pairing: choi san x fem!reader x jung wooyoung

w.c.: 0.5k

tags: smut, dom!san, sub!woo & reader, san's kinda mean *bites lip*, unprotected sex (👎), creampie(s), multiple orgasms, overstimulation, edging, mentioned double penetration

nsfw under cut—minors dni!

Wooyoung squirmed on the mattress, back flush against the headboard while his fingers twitched by his hips. Despite the overwhelming need to relieve himself, to wrap his fingers around his throbbing cock—the tip an angry red as it stood upright, leaking translucent drops of arousal down the veiny shaft—his attention remained on the two figures moving to a steady rhythm beside him.

The hand at your nape pushed you further into the pillow, shallowly breathing as the pleasure soaring through your body took over all five senses. San’s lips brushed against your temple, sharp grunts reverberating in your ear while he pumped his cock inside your spent cunt, oozing a mixture of slick and cum until it formed a pool over the linen beneath you. His other hand held your hips up, guiding them back to meet his relentless thrusts, making sure your walls would forever be moulded to his shape.

“San-ah, I ‘wanna touch her too,” Wooyoung mewled, eyes trained on your pussy as it repeatedly swallowed San’s girth. “C’mon, ‘can’t wait anymore.”

“No,” was all he responded with, not even sparing him a glance, slowing his pace as you shook under him once again—another orgasm drawing muffled moans out of your parted lips, and spreading drool on the pillowcase under your head.

Peering over at the man resting beside him, the sight of his cock bobbing uselessly against his lower belly, precum shimmering over tan skin under the overhead light, San felt himself grow harder as he waited for you to come down from your high. Wooyoung whimpered at San’s intense gaze—his quick glance rendering him unable to look away from the younger’s pathetic state—readjusting his position to angle his hips towards San, his cock now resting hard and heavy over his upper thigh.

Feline eyes glazed over as an idea popped into his head, straightening up behind you and shifting his gaze down to where your bodies met. San’s palm landed over your ass, watching your back arch further as he added yet another handprint onto the sensitive flesh, running soothing circles over it before slipping his hand between your legs. Running his fingers over the drenched slit, he rounded his base where his cock sat within your heat, dipping a thumb into the stretched hole and pulling it open even further, until it gaped and loosened around his length.

“San, wait—hnngh—please, I can’t-”

“–Yes you can,” San interrupted, moving the hand on your nape to the back of your head, pushing your face into the pillow until your words were no longer coherent. He slipped a few inches out, angling his cockhead to press directly into your g-spot, muffled sentences morphing into desperate groans. “Look,” he shifted his attention to the neglected man, spreading you even wider with his thumb while he grinded his cock into your used cunt. “What do you say, Youngie, do you think our pretty girl can fit the both of us?”

[kozachenko]

[Click for better quality]

OK finally back with some more drawings! Since Touhou 17 is approaching it's 5 year anniversary soon, I wanted to draw at least one of the charatcers (hopefully I'll still be motivated to draw Keiki lol) and I had some ideas for Saki and I've never drawn her before, so that's how we got here!

Artist's Notes;

So after doing some drawings of my OCs (who I will reveal upon a later date since I still wanna finalize their designs) and finally getting out of my art funk that I've been in for a while, I started off this drawing with the mentality of "oh yeah I'm just gonna put together this quick outfit for Saki and I won't bother rendering it"

...and then I did but to be honest I am very happy I did because oh my god clothes are so fun to render for me now. I remembered the technique I used on my drawing of Reimu and applied that here. That technique being using triangles to imply shadows and highlights in clothing and then blending out those shadows to give the clothing some three dimensionality. My favourite things that I rendered in this piece were the gloves, hat and the belt buckle (since I applied a technique for rendering gold and metal objects that I remember seeing/hearing about a while ago). Don't get me wrong, I love how all the clothing turned out in this piece but the gloves are the real standout of this piece to me. I also had some fun with the cowboy boots (I couldn't figure out how to make those cool metal star things work on the boots though that is a sin I fully intend to fix later down the line) since when I looked at references for them I noticed how some of them had these intricate details embroidered (?) onto them.

Also, in the earliest phases of this drawing Saki had this really big black coat that I decided to get rid of later down the line because it really does not work with her fighting style and it did not stand out against her wings, and the logistics of her getting said jacket with her wings on confused me. Like, I can kind of imaging that on her shirt she has a little open spot for her wings that she can just put them in. That goes for Yachie to but now I'm even more confused because all her clothes must need some open backs because of her shell??? Which raises some more questions, like, can she just never be on her back when sleeping??? Looking at Yuuma we can see that the beast yakuza in Touhou can freely change their form from human to beast so can Yachie just double down on the human bit and get rid of her shell temporarily so she can sleep comfortably??? Because if she lays on her back is she just kinda wobbling around like most turtles are when they're on their backs? Can she hypothetically retreat into her shell, if so that has some weird implications to how her anatomy works. Like, what does her skeleton look like? Seriously, what are the logistics here WHERE DOES YACHIE GET HER FUCKING CLOTHES BECAUSE THEY PROBABLY NEED TO BE SPECIFICALLY TAILORED SO SHE CAN PUT IT ON TO FIT HER SHELL I DON'T NEED SLEEP I NEED ANSWERS YACHIE WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS-

....rant aside, you can see the remnants of this idea in the tattered back of her... idk what to call it but I know she has a variant of this in her OG design. I mainly wanted to test this out because of the cursed realization that The Ghoul in Fallout Prime is just a male Saki but if Utsuho gave Saki radiation poisoning. No seriously, they're smug ass cowboys who are so sure of their own strength that have fought at least one mechanically engineered robot in some variation of a wasteland with an affinity for dogs. I'm now morbidly curious as to what would happen if you put the two of them in a room together. Would they try to kill each other? Would they become besties? Would they try to kill each other and then become besties? Who knows. But yeah jokes aside the tattered cloth was a design choice that was inspired by The Ghoul from Fallout Prime because y'know, same vibes. And also because yes I do love Fallout Prime and I am so ready for season two IT'S SO GOOD GO WATCH IT EVEN IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH FALLOUT AS A SEIRES GO DO IT NOW, SAIL THE SEVEN SEAS FOR IT IF YOU HAVE TO JUST WATCH IT-

I knew for Saki's face I wanted to give her some thick eyebrows, it just makes sense. I also wanted to give her some scarring on her face because she's a crime boss, why wouldn't she have scars? I also had some fun with her little horse ear that's sticking out from the side of her hat since it would kinda look weird if she just had no ears period. I also went ham on stylizing her ponytail into this weird swirl, since if I were to show you some of my recent doodles from my sketchbook you would notice that that has become a common motiffe in some of my art. I don't know why but I just like it. Saki's wings were also very fun, I found a good reference for bird wings that are specifically shaped for high speeds (though I did add some stylistic touches so her one wing that's out wouldn't look like a big blob) since her whole thing is speed. From very early on in the process I knew that I wanted Saki to not look skinny, so I found some refs of female kickboxers for her legs and noticed that while parts of their upper body are maybe a bit toned, it's the legs that have a lot of power. I mainly did this because kicking is a huge part of her fighting style.

Overall, I'm really happy with this drawing, and once Touhou 17's anniversary rolls around I do want to go more in depth on my thoughts in the game, it's themes, and how the animal realm functions as a dark parallel to Gensokyo in many ways. I'll also have to get around to drawing Yachie and Keiki as well (if I still have the time and motivation to do so) since I have some ideas for their designs that I'm very excited to draw (especially Keiki).

[kimeoshi]

hello it's me again! Your biggest fan (LMAO) The one who asked for tips on coloring...

Another question has came up on me while I was coloring (finally aughhh). How do you shade hair? Without it looking unnatural?

Thank you for your help before!!! 😊

Hello and welcome back! I'm glad my previous advice helped! That is a difficult question as I do admit it is a bit challenging to me as well. It is guesswork + studying references, adjusting tid bits until it looks right, my own process relies on a trial and error approach.

Therefore, I suggest you pick some pieces you like where you find the hair gorgeous, and figuring out how the artist does it, or how might they do it, per active learning principles. Try to deduce it. While the following guide can be good for your starting concepts too, it's important to adapt it to your style and preferences. And I even encourage you to go against it, as creativity thrives on experimentation.

That said, I'll guide you through my own thought process, however. (With a quick Ratio sketch, because I really love to shade his hair; fluffy hair is very forgiving.)

Let's start off here (I'll be skipping the black and white part for simplicity's sake from the previous guide. I'll also be using a white environment with a pale overlight):

For highlights, I begin laying down a Glow Dodge layer with a hard brush that doesn't have full opacity, and draw a halo-like shape. After that, I refine the shape by erasing parts of it with a rough eraser to get the desired effect.

Alternative to the Glow Dodge layer, you can use pure white, or other layer types such as Lighten, Screen, Add and Overlay, etc.

In the following pictures, note that I adjust the layer's opacity freely.

Above, I simply blended it a bit to my own liking.

With an airbrush I softly start introducing shadows (Multiply layer, dark purple/blue color).

Then, I start introducing sharper shadows in a separate layer.

You can use a lasso tool for this to map out a jagged like shape which should remind you of mountains. You can blend this out too at certain segments.

(Sidetrack: if you feel like, I suggest reading up on the balance of hard and soft edges in painting, the topic is very interesting and I am still trying to grasp it as well, yet I find it immeasurably useful. This can come in handy upon rendering principles. A very skillful master of it is the artist Yuming Li.)

Furthermore, I add reflections. I've used a Lighten layer with a subtle blue color. As this is subtle, I want to point it out that it appears on the lower parts.

For a final touch, I pick out the skin's color and airbrush, shift the picked color to a more saturated one and apply it near his face/to the bangs, with an airbrush.

For the fundamentals of hair shading I usually wrap it up here and go off to rendering. I use a painterly brush to do this and pay attention to the jagged shape I mentioned earlier. The brush I use is already tilted, so it's easy to manipulate to make such shapes.

Additionally, I experiment with Overlay, Multiply (or any!) layers with either airbrushes or hardbrushes— as I said there isn't a specified way of doing this. Go wild; for such is the nature of hair. Add any shapes or lines you find appealing, introduce new colors from the environment nearby too to make it moredynamic and interesting as well.

EDIT: An addition! On Rendering tips and advice

(apologies on leaving this out initially! I only realized I should include this now )

Including astray curved lines to simulate how hair flows also builds to the hair-like quality. I also prefer to use it closer to the silhouette of my character as it adds further detailing and a fluffier look in the end!

Attempt to render each strand according to this diagram in mind, note the parabole-like(?) shape for the light, and note standard 3d spheric shading for shadows.

[thefaiao]

seeing your clowns made me go feral since my fixation is cringe and clown flavored

Who let you cook like that who let you cook AUTHHFFH UR ART IS SO COOL IM BEING DRAGGED AWAY

You’re hatching is so fucking inspiring since it’s soMETHING I try to do in my own work I LOVE UR ART

would it be fine to ask what brushes you use? I love ur values also, you’re so so good at shapes and form WAAAA I LOVE UR STUFF. I did dig up an old ask you made iirc, but I’m not sure if it’s changed

Hey! Thank you very much. I'll go through the brushes I use for each program: Drawpile

From what I understand most of these are MyPaint brushes... but I only know them as drawpile brushes because that's what I use. Main ones I've used lately is Irregular Ink and a default brush for coloring

I don't really change the size of irregular ink much and the pressure doesn't matter that much. It has high stabilization which I haven't changed, but I'm sure you could get away with lowering it. For the other brush I'm pretty sure it's a default one that I slightly tweaked (drawpile is a bit bad about communicating what brush exactly you are using to you.) I quite like it because it feels like playing with clay, makes it easy to map out the volume. I use it for those lineless pieces I do from time to time too. I change its size a lot while drawing. I've also used these two, one of the pencil brushes and a second one I stole from Jokioro that I have no idea what is called

I used the first one for the D'arce I did a while ago and the recent VTMB piece. It's great at emulating sketchy graphite pencils, I like layering it to do multi-colored hatching rendering. The second one I don't know how to use super well yet but it's probably my fourth most used as of late. It works very weirdly so if you wanna figure out how to make it work I recommend looking at how Jokioro draws. Clip Studio I bounce around a lot with all the brushes, but I use a loooot of stuff from the Frenden pack. Mainly Meeko Leako for lining and even coloring, it has a great texture to it, very fun

This has been my most used brush for years. It's great for super straight lines and produces a great difference in value between quick lines and thick lines. I haven't used it as much since I picked up drawpile more recently, but it's amazing! Other than that I use the default G-pen when I just want simple lines without much texture

It's a bit ugly at a glance but I think if you lock in it's great for super clean lines, just trying to get the point across without much noise. I also like coloring with it at times, when I'm going lineless. SAI Binary pen. Use the binary pen. It's the best brush ever made

It just feels super right to draw with it, it's so simple but it makes your lines look super slick, and it's just a binary pen. I guess they just got the behavior down perfect for it. But yeah, love this brush. IRL I've always used these archival ink pens in different sizes for basically everything I've done traditionally, and of course just a simple number 2 pencil for sketching and such. I've used a bit of charcoal recently, and been wanting to deep into darker pencils for detail, but this is still the default. I also will probably try out dip pens sometime

That's all I can think of immediately, but I always like to mess around to try and find another great brush, and you should do the same even if you end up using these a lot.

[wraithsoutlaws]

It's that time again! New comm sheet as well as a new option affectionately titled the Sev Special(!!) I currently have 3 open slots, but I may take on more if I'm able. Contact me through Tumblr DM or Discord (sevrens).

WILL DRAW:

Original characters

Fanart

Blood/gore

Mild nudity

WON'T DRAW:

Explicit NS/FW

Complex armor/mech

Most animals

Complex backgrounds

*Extra characters are an added 50% of base price *Simple color backgrounds are included free of charge

Additional context and payment information under cut:

A quick breakdown of each style:

LINEART: Simple lineart. I can add a single flat color upon request, but no shading is included in this style. CEL SHADED: Flat color + flat shading. Bolder lines and a blockier, less detailed style of shading. RENDERED: Minimal lines and softer light/shadows, a more painterly look. (NEW) SEV SPECIAL: Highly stylized, cartoonish style. Bold and blocky colors. Minimal shading.

I typically ask for 50% of the payment at sketch approval, and 50% once finished, but I'm happy to work with you to figure out what options are best. I prefer payment through paypal, but I will accept Ko-fi and CashApp if needed.

Please understand that turn-around times may vary and while I always try to deliver a finished product quickly, life and mental health often prolong the process (especially during the holidays). I'd rather take a little extra time to provide the best results I can than speed through each commission in a stressed out frenzy. Depending on the style of the commission, it may take up to 2 weeks to finish once I start the sketch (possibly longer but hopefully not). I will stay in touch re: progress and let you know if I think it will be longer. I will happily provide WIPs upon request. This also means if you're lower on the list it will take longer before I can start. I'll let you know where you are in the queue but I can't always accurately estimate how long it will be.

[u3pxx]

hey sun! sorry to bother you, but I'm currently doing a commission for a guy who wants a portrait made in the disco elusium style and I've never drawn in that style before ^^;

any tips, especially how to color?

not a bother at all! and while i'm not an expert on the disco elysium art style since i don't think i've done enough studies on it to say that i'm confident on saying what to do, i'll try my best to list out the things i've noticed while mimicking the art style. i'll split this into two parts, the composition of a portrait and the rendering and technical stuff behind it

i'll keep it under read more bc some of these portraits i'll be talking about are spoilers! whoops!

COMPOSITION

there's like, an unbelievable amount of variety when it comes to the portraits of disco elysium! personally, when i'm trying to mimic the art style, i try and look at the portraits in the game and see which of these characters are the most similar personality-wise to the character i'm trying to draw, and then i reference

1. PERSONALITY AND GROUNDEDNESS

let's compare the portraits of these two characters, ok? we have sylvie and idiot doom spiral. right off the bat, TOTALLY DIFFERENT VIBES, and that's good because we can instantly tell what kind of people these characters are supposed to be! and that's something disco elysium is excellent at.

sylvie's portrait is very simple; a very limited palette is used and the rendering on her is rather exact even with the rough-esque rendering that disco elysium's art uses. idiot doom spiral's portrait, on the other hand, is a lot more chaotic. there's more disorder to his portrait with how the paint strokes in the background seem to mix in with his face, there's a disheveled quality to how he's rendered.

ask yourself, how grounded is this character you're drawing? on a scale of sylvie to idiot doom spiral, how normal does their portrait look?

now, i'm not done with this klavier but i think it's pretty obvious that i heavily referenced smoker on the balcony's portrait because they have very similar vibes and role: pretty boy npc who your protagonist may or may not be a little infatuated with pftt (there's just something so different about them! i can't put my finger on it...)

2. WHAT DO THEY STAND FOR/THE ABSTRACT

ok! besides personality, they also have a knack for just doing some gorgeous portraits that truly reflect just, the history of a character and their role in the story. now i'm not the best at analysis so these are just gonna be some very simple observations about kim and dolores dei's portraits pftt.

the big white circle behind kim's face, besides doing an excellent job of framing kim, is very reminiscent of a nimbus which we typically see in religious art. it makes kim look like a very important figure, someone you should listen to. it's also kind of like a nod to how kim is like the few people who's like, civil and even nice to harry after his whole mind-breaking bender.

for dolores dei, GODDD i can rave about this portrait forever, it's such a favorite of mine. first, the rendering of her skin, she's like an opal or a golden statue; it's otherworldly, which makes sense because that's what harry thinks of her. and then, the splotchier and messier rendering below her, it's like she's fading away, she's just a distant memory of the past.

i'll use this very quick doodle of apollo in the de style to explain my point about symbols better. what is it that you want to emphasize about your character? are there any motifs you'd like to show?

i definitely wanted to portray apollo as determined and even heroic-looking in this portrait. leaning into his name, added that rim-lighting as if the sun was shining on him. emphasized his badge by giving it this exaggerated shine on it and lastly, made the background like the one he has when he perceives.

3. LOCATION

for backgrounds, i feel like you can go either three ways: abstract colors, political alignment, and location.

(i'm not happy that i have to use gary as an example here but he's the most blatant example of the second type of background AKSKSKS orz)

ok! so harry's bg, pretty funky, pretty fun. gary's bg, he's a fascist, that's the fascist flag in de. moving along trant's bg looks like a very abstract version of the wall in the building he's seen gazing at, heck, the way he's head is turned to you looks like you just called out his name and he quickly turned around to look at you but he is still very much facing the building.

more examples of those three things! garte: colors. titus: that red block is present on all union members. dicemaker: facing the window in the darkness of her workshop.

RENDERING

de has fairly very realistic looking faces, so brush up on your knowledge of the anatomy of a face or collect many faces/portraits that look the character you're trying to draw and reference the SHIT out of them!

1. BRUSHSTROKES

you're gonna be needing some brushes that have a texture to them ok. you're gonna need to slap those bad boys in that digital canvas and go wild ok. you can still do lineart kind of not everything is like rendered RENDERED bc some portraits make heavy use of smoother-looking black strokes to indicate lineart. ok i love you

2. PALETTES

think back to personality and symbolism, what colors are strongly associated with your character, and how grounded are they. the more normal they are the more minimal colors are used but if there's something going on with them you can go so so so wild

and also, you can eyedrop tool the colors from any of the de portraits, makes life easier pftt

3. HOW TO RENDER? HELP?

i'll go ahead and put my drawing of butch!kim here bc i basically just did a study of kim's portrait pftt. the art style is very painterly so i'm so sorry to say that you're gonna have to paint 😔 i know... i'm so sorry...

so block your colors! block your shadows and chip away on that thang, give it dimension! don't zoom in on your canvas in the earlier stages bc you'll end up fixating on one tiny part instead of the whole painting itself, and that's gonna make the duration of your drawing so much longer lol

ok i've been writing this for way too long and i can't think anything more to add so if there's anything else you want to know that i didn't mention here, feel free to ask me again. now good luck 🫡

[draconic-absurdism]

Hey, quick question (that I'm sending before I go to sleep) how do you draw those pool rooms /liminal spaces (poll edition) I can't figure it out and I saw that you did them and they looked really good!

Yo, you caught me at the perfect time!!! I haven't been active on Tumblr in a while due to mental health stuff, but here I am! Thank you so much for the kind words :]

I draw these as studies based on photos most of the time! Some of them are very closely referenced while others take a lot of artistic liberty

(The original poolrooms renders are by Jared Pike btw!)

I start by blocking out the background colors very simply. I don't use the straight line tool most of the time; imperfect lines are part of the charm. Just using your eye to lay out roughly where the shapes go, use edges & estimated perspective to create depth, and bucket fill in areas of color as you go

I slowly move toward the foreground and add the character at the very end- this usually makes them look out of place in the scene, which works great as an effect for a liminal space. Sometimes you don't need a character at all

The idea is to suggest detail without having to paint complex lighting! It also works for non-pool liminal spaces

I draw textured water by doing something like this:

It's deceptively simple! Sometimes I'll go back and add really thin white rings inside the bigger white circles for extra detail. I'm trying to minmax art to get impactful effects with the least amount of time spent. Some people might argue that makes it low effort or less meaningful, but some people might argue anything at all! Ultimately the value of art is what it means to you

My liminal series is based on really sporadic intense bouts of emotion which can't be refined over long hours without losing their original meaning. I work until I feel in my gut that it's done, no matter how "finished" it actually looks in the end. It might be 20 minutes or 4 hours

One instance where I recommend using the straight line tool is for making grid patterns!

For the glowing lights, I use a 'shine' or 'glow' or 'screen' effect layer (it might have a different name depending on your drawing program). Having everything be solid colorblocks except for a few glowing lights makes for some fun jarring contrast!

Pinterest has a really good selection of liminal space photography to study from, unfortunately a lot of it goes uncredited, but you can usually find the source with Google image search. I seek out liminal spaces that speak to me for some reason. The suburb ones represent the bloody paranoid failure of individualist imperialist America. Dark hotel hallways invite you into an unknown and uncertain future. The pool ones are both isolation and wholeness, comfort and discomfort, the pain on your skin when the water is a bit too cold despite the calm vibes of summer. Find what motifs speak to you, they'll mean something different to everyone

[cherry-pop-elf]

Art Comission’s Opened! Because Dear God My Health Forced Me To-! Yay!

Yeah, as stated above. My health has forced me to open art commissions, because it’s gotten very bad. It’s very taxing to go in and out of hospital all the time, and take a bunch of meds and vitamins. Along with repairs for my wheelchair and such so. Small introduction before I list

Hi. I am Belladonna. I have PTSD, Chronic Migraines, TBI, Chronic Anxiety, Fibromyalgia, Heart Palpitations, Wheelchair Bound, Bed Bound, all while going to college. Yeah. I’m kinda stressed. Heh. Money runs tight. Because I have plans for top surgery as well

Alright! Into the Art Commissions! Also Btw while you are here, I do Writing Commissions as well. If you vibe with that. In my Pinned! ((Because for some reason tumblr won’t let me link atm))

All through CashApp/Paypal/Kofi

$BellaDonnaBucks

FishyArtist/Paypal

CherryPopElf/Kofi

30min Sketches: Five/5 Dollars

Just something quick and fun. Simple and just for when you want something to waste five bucks on 😭 They can be full body, but expect that to reduce quality as I’ll need to factor that it as well

Full Body: Ten/10 Dollars

If you wish for an elaborate background/simple shading we can discuss more. But over all would be an extra 5 dollars. Same for adding people! It also just all depends! Don’t be scared to communicate with me! You are the one buying!

Fully Rendered: Twenty/20 Dollars

Fully rendering would be a even 20 bucks, and of course extra 5 for X Y Z

Scenes: Twenty Five-Thirty/25-30 Dollars

Colored line art will cost a extra five/5

It all depends on what scene you are going for of course. More complicated the higher the dolla dolla

What I Will Draw: ✅

Smut

Gore

Furry

Robots/Cyborg Esc

Drawing Refs

Just ask! Be warned. Gonna need to make sure you are a adult for the Sexy Stuff. And there WILL be a ‘tax’ for the weird shit. You want scat? Inflation? That ain’t cheap

What I Won’t Do: ❌

Under age NSFW ((duh))

NSFW of real people

I’ve been tryantzed by the internet. Idek if I have limits. But don’t be a weirdo or try and pretend you aren’t asking for kink stuff. Just be honest about it. And understand I have the right to refuse.

Important Things To Note About Me:

I am a disabled college student, so when you receive your art will varey. I WILL make sure to send in WIP’s though

I have a Pay Half Up Front Fee. I genuinely can’t exactly afford to be scammed. Don’t be that dick man.

I’m an open person. Don’t be shy. We gotta be very transparent. It’s YOUR money after all. And, not to be rude, but I can’t waste time with a shitty client. I’m in College. I got homework!

Any further questions, just hit me up! Also, I write as well!

And, well, I have a wish list. In my pinned, because tumblr being weird with links. I feel so greedy, but I figure I share anyway.

Please reblog! Thank you so much!

[leatherbookmark]

when you really want to finish a fic a good thing to do is try to start drawing instead. in such a situation there's a possibility that you will suck at it in ways that would render god speechless, whereupon it's good to spend half an hour trying to write a post, in japanese, because that which is not practiced or used will melt into nothing, about how strange it is that attempting to draw at half past 2am while super tired is difficult and often gives unsatisfactory results, after which it is advisable to draft the post and, having lost an hour, press ctrl as well as s and close the document.

having done all that, the next course of action is of course to try and figure out whether it would be better to take a quick and neat little shower or, perhaps, partake in the act of masturbation. this should ideally take you 98 years, and after that you die.

[bvannn]

Weekly Update June 7, 2024

I’m in a sour mood right now because I got differed from plasma over paperwork. I’ll try a different chain next week, since the one I’ve been going to is super crowded now anyway. We also got a cat this week, that was the correct answer to the post on Saturday. It’s my mom’s cat, but mom has been out most of this week so I’ve been left alone with her. I’ve been really tired. Like insanely tired. But I still got a good amount of stuff done.

Artfight stuff: I’m planning on revamping the thumbnails and redoing Romeo’s refsheet, plus adding Josh. Luckily at work this week I was put on a job that’s pretty relaxed as far as timing goes, and I have lots of little gaps of time to draw while I wait for the balance to stabilize. As a result I got Romeo and Josh’s refsheets sketched, as well as all the thumbnails planned + several sketched. Tomorrow I’ll try to get some of those rendered.

Comic stuff: Comic is going to be on the back burner this month and next most likely, but I did finish off page 7 and started sketching page 8, which I plan to continue slowly. Every once in a while I’ll get stunlocked with indecisiveness and what I’ve been doing to combat it is 15 sit-ups and then roll a wheel of small tasks and do whatever it says, then repeat until free time is over. So it’s still getting done in those little bursts where I don’t have enough time for something bigger.

Music: another quickie is generally done, but I’m going to hold off on it until I decide to do lyrics for it, because it would probably be perfect for an animation meme if I add some quick generic poppy lyrics. Like I can just channel my rage into a couple stanzas and call it good. I really want to release songs specifically for animation memes because I like newgrounds and respect newgrounds’ copyright policy so I want to make some nice music for animation memes that’s copyright safe for whoever to use with credit. Also still making progress on re-mixing my older tracks, OEB needed a complete redo, some VSTs needed to be swapped out entirely, plug I’m learning a bunch of fancy new tricks, so good chance I’ll post another sample of that once I get it figured out. Unsure if I need to actually redo the vocaloid track or just to redo the effects, but I can figure that out after the instrumentals are done.

Also got a good amount of lyric writing done, RR is 88% done, BATB is still a cool 71%. I’m getting into the groove of doing that at work too, so hopefully those should be done quick, plus the quickie I have on hold. Once I have energy I’ll also finish up that other quickie and the Zelda medley I’ve had in the pipe, hopefully that’ll be this weekend, but good chance it’ll be Monday night.

Other things: OEB is at 32% on storyboards, and like 17% on the Kyo rig. A whole bunch of assets are done but need to be imported/exported, plus I’m taking a couple shortcuts too to make things a bit easier, and I can flesh out the rig more as I use it more. Also, my strategy for the sketchy lines is a success! I may also be able to apply it to other areas and fix the issue of flash being shit for drawing, but that’s a bit ambitious. I’ll try chipping away at having the rest of the clip assets *drawn* by the end of the month so I can import/export them at work next month. But again that’s currently in the ‘if I have a little free time’ bracket of priority.

Miscellaneous: I’m getting a couple TTRPG things done too, little bit of writing, little bit of drawing, again not too high a priority but it’s getting done.

Tonight I’m tired and in a bad mood so I’m going to just chip away at re-mixing OEB tonight and maybe sketch a comic panel or two. Maybe. I have one more regular general drawing I want to get done before the end of the month but I don’t know when that’s coming, this weekend I’ll try to focus on Artfight stuff, with breaks in between to spin the wheel of small tasks I need to accomplish. Lots of housekeeping, hopefully next week is kind to me with plasma so I get more time.

[pine-niidles]

Looking Back on 2023

Heyyy folks! Long time no news from me huh. 

I'm struggling to think of what to even say about my silence. I've not been doing so bad I'd call myself depressed, but I'm doing a tad worse than just a slump. It's been a rough 6 months, not because of one big thing. Instead, a bunch of medium-sized reasons all piled up on top of each other to leave me extremely drained. I've mostly been working on the two commissions I still had in my queue (thank you to my commissioners for being so patient with me, I'm so sorry to make you wait so long <3). I've done a little personal art other than that but didn't have the leftover focus to keep up with sharing it on social media or writing up any updates about my situation. I've pretty much only been active sharing things in my art discord. I'd like to say I've been doing better in the last month or so, but I hesitate to make any promises at this point! We'll just have to see how things go :)

Artfight

So you were promised a more in depth artfight review but I think I missed the right timeframe for that... instead have this look at 3 years of unfinished artfight thumbnails from my new year's wip clean-out!

Year of Art Summary

All things considered I made a lot of art this year, and I'm really happy with how most of it turned out ☺ I did a bunch of experimenting with more playful techniques and color schemes and I think they suit my style a lot. I want to try and much those limits even more next year to see what kind of fun art I can create! Something with colors specifically really clicked in my brain after that witch drawing I did in April, before then I would spend a long time figuring out the perfect color scheme and doing a bunch of adjustments but ever since that drawing things have really been coming together super quick? I'm not sure what changed but no complaints from me. 

Life Drawing Summary 

I rarely post my life drawing but I've been keeping at it! Actually, I put together a few pdfs showcasing all my life drawing going back to 2022, you can download them for free in my itch or ko-fi shops! :>

I also put together a yearly art improvement comparison going back to 2015 that I was planning to put here. However, seeing how long this is already getting... I'll make a separate post for it.

Commissions

I've been gearing up to open commissions again after that unintended hiatus. I don't want to open slots until I'm sure I'm back to being able to finish them in a reasonable timeframe, so I've been using that leftover energy I do have to think about revamping some things and new styles to offer. Back in November I ran a survey on what people want to see from me (it's still open if you'd like to fill it out and help me get more stats!) 

here's a preview of what's to come based on that & my whims:

- stamp commissions were super well received so they'll be added to my main repertoire

- A combo of me reading too much dun meshi and wanting to offer some kind of comicky commissions led to this idea of comic pages of characters eating together, I have a couple examples in progress, when they're done I'll add this style to my main offerings!

- I'm still not 100% set on sketchpages but I like the idea of them so if this test goes well I'll add them as an option

Onward to 2024! 

I already completed my new year's resolution on day 1 of 2024, it was to pet a cat. I've made a second one which is to get a library card whenever my visa is approved and I move back home. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a while but never got around to, hoping this will be the excuse I need to do it.

Art-wise it's not a new goal, but I've been trying to focus on improving my rendering! Though I've also been playing around a lot with screentone... the two don't have to be at odds 🤔 

I'm dedicating this year's personal art time to making new references for as many ocs as possible with nude bases so I can easily design new outfits for them whenever I want to without fully making a new ref from scratch.

Otherwise I'm just trying to take it slow, work on things one at a time and see what happens from there.

[that-salty-ghost]

As Above, So Below | Chapter 23: Date Night Pt 1: Not So Smooth Sailing | Viktor [Arcane] // Male Reader | Rating: M Throughout

A/N | TW: It's cut off, but there's mention of the f-slur in here. Read with care please <3

Word Count: ~6.2k

That late v-day life ;_; I almost hit my deadline goal bahaha it's FINE Anyway, happy v-day, enjoy.

----------

You’re not surprised that Viktor is punctual, but you are a little taken aback when you see him sporting a backpack this time.

In a feeble attempt to make sure the man stays clear of R&R’s and the chaos within, you push your weight off of the door to meet him further down the street, your already heightened heart rate unable to steady as you draw nearer.

A rush of sheer excitement surges through you as you take in more and more of his figure. The tidy academic that you met was nowhere to be found and a grin begins to crawl steadily across your face when you see how positively Zaunite he looks.

Viktor’s jacket is patched at one elbow and completely frayed at the cuffs. The worn-in striped shirt beneath tugs nicely across his chest and is messily tucked in on one side of his trousers that parachute at the knees but tapper at his boots.

…the man is wearing boots.

“[Y/n],” Viktor’s voice is smooth as silk as he says your name, but is tipped with a new enthusiasm that mirrors your own excitement. “It’s so good to see you.”

He catches you eyeing his wardrobe and you arch your brows at him, not hiding how much you’re enjoying the new look. “I almost didn’t recognize you for a second.”

Viktor chuckles and pivots his cane into the ground, outstretching his arm while he holds one side of his jacket open with his free hand—inviting you in for a better look. His focus shifts from down his torso to your eyes as you stop in front of him. “You think I’m always in my Sunday’s best?”

That’s a fair point, you met him the day he was presenting to the board of the Academy. You really had no idea what he usually wears, but this was definitely a pleasant surprise.

“Well, this sure doesn’t look like your Sunday’s worst.”

He tips his head at your almost-compliment and shamelessly eyes you from head to toe, a grin slowly pulling at his lips the more he takes in. It feels like your heart has either gone into full on arrest or time has simply stopped while his gaze moves carefully over your frame.

“I think you look nice too...”

“I…you—”

…[Y/n].exe has stopped working.

It is infuriating how his entire…everything causes your brain to just shut down and render all words in your vocabulary completely useless. You can’t freeze up like this all night, get your shit together.

By the way he’s grinning, you’re sure he knows you’re having an all-out internal crisis, but you’re grateful when he speaks up again.

“Have you eaten yet?”

You shake your head, still trying to gather up some semblance of confidence so you can at least pretend to function tonight. “Uh no, not yet…”

“Perfect, me either.” He nods towards the road ahead and bends his arm at the elbow next to you. “You ready?”

Your heart is pounding in your ears when you realize he’s asking you to take his arm. You feel frozen in place until you meet his eyes. They’re warm, sweet as honey, and pull you into him like they often do.

With a slow nod, you weave your arm under his and feel his chest fill with a quick inhale before taking a tentative step forward with you. Then another. And another until the two of you figure out a pace that works for you both.

Viktor’s shoulder gently bumps against yours every now and then regardless of matching each other’s stride and the tap of his cane against the cobblestones soothes your nerves with how close in proximity the sound is. You weren’t expecting a simple action like walking with him to put you at ease like this and find yourself breathing more easily with each step.

“So…” You’re finally able to find your voice and Viktor glances over with a small reassuring smile. “What’re you hungry for?” Food is a safe topic—even an easy topic. Just start small and see where it takes you.

“How do you feel about seafood?” His brows lift curiously and his lips remain slightly parted after he speaks.

“…Swell.” You exaggerate a sly grin to him, quite pleased with yourself for coming up with that on the spot.

Viktor tucks his bottom lip under his teeth before furrowing his brows and holding eye contact with a silent pause. “…Was that a play on words?”

“No.” You answer quickly.

“…it was, wasn’t it?” A smirk curls up his lips, eyes alight while he pushes for a confession.

But you ignore his question, trying to shut that shit down in case he wasn’t a pun person and regretting not just saying that you like seafood. “Where are you thinking?”

A chuckle escapes him when you dodge his question, understanding that was indeed your attempt at a pun. You’re not sure if he’s entertained by the joke or you avoiding the topic, but cherish the sound of it anyway.

“There’s a food cart near the docks that I’ve heard is noteworthy.” He motions forward, giving the slightest downward nod with his brows raised again curiously. “If that sounds good to you?”

You might know the one he’s referring to, some of your usuals at The Last Drop recommended it if you’re thinking of the right place.

“Is that the one with the fried prawns?”

A small, toothy grin flashes across his face. “Yes, have you been there?”

“Not yet, but it’s been on my list to try.”

“Oh, good.” His tone tips upwards cheerfully. “Then let’s get that crossed off.”

You smirk at that and only make it a few steps until you crack. “Okay, I have to ask.” You eye the backpack Viktor is carrying.

“Hm?” He searches your eyes and follows them over his shoulder. “Oh, this is for later. Post-fried prawn activities.”

“Can’t wait. You have the whole evening planned out?”

“Mm—not completely.” He hums as he tips his head side to side. “Just dinner and what’s in the bag. I thought we could see where the night takes us from there.” He glances over at you with a coy grin. “Does that sound alright?”

The air around Viktor feels different tonight, more at ease…lighthearted even. Something about him just made sense—felt natural. It was hard to place and scary to trust, but you were getting tired of fighting the comfort he brings to you and could feel yourself giving in bit-by-bit.

“Yeah.” You look away with a small smile wondering what he means by ‘seeing where the night takes you’ and shoo away the possibility of mud wrestling before answering. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“…But since we’re on the topic of backpacks—I’m surprised to see that you’re without yours tonight.” You catch Viktor glance at you before keeping his eyes forward again.

“I was…advised to leave it behind so I don’t look like a workaholic.” You answer with Kass’ voice playing in the back of your head.

Viktor chuckles before cocking his brows curiously, eyes still forward when he asks, “Are you?”

“Am I…?”

“A workaholic?”

“Hah. I don’t wanna be.” You laugh lightly before finishing. “But the trade I’m in never really sleeps.”

“You do seem to have a pretty vast network.” Viktor admits before he guides you gently to the side as you almost step in a puddle. You follow his movement and mutter a small ‘thank you’ for steering you away from a night of sadness and soggy socks. He nods in response before continuing. “Is there a craft you specialize in?”

Your brows raise as you exhale against your pressed lips, making a “phhh” sound as you try to narrow that down. “I guess it changes with demand. I’m more of a jack-of-all-trades now, but my roots were in alchemy and apothecary work.”

“Like your mother?” He watches you carefully, unsure if that topic is off the table or not and trying to gauge if that’s something you even want to talk about.

“She was better.” You smile to yourself, momentarily caught up in a memory. “But yeah. Like her.”

“Mm—given what I’ve seen you do create so far; I doubt that you’re far behind.”

His compliment steamrolls over you entirely. Somewhat because it was him saying it, but mostly because no one’s really compared you to your mother before—always your father. It was both liberating to hear and difficult to accept all at once, but you clung onto his words like a lifeline.

You test the waters by tightening your arm just slightly around Viktor’s. It’s a minuscule movement, but he seems to take notice as you feel him lean just slightly more into you with a small hum.

“So, what about the ehh…metalwork?”

You almost forgot that was the first thing he saw you make. “That’s newer. And it’s definitely not my specialty, but…” You hesitate, unsure how much you really should be talking about with your new underground ammunition job.

He’s hanging onto your last word and waits patiently for you to finish.

“I’m…I’ll be…sort of getting into that more I guess.” You shrug and try to not make it a bigger deal than you’d like.

He nods slowly. “I see.” His expression turns thoughtful. He doesn’t pry, but instead dips his head down as his brows arch. “Well, should you need any assistance with that, metalwork is one of my specialties.” Viktor glances over at you briefly with a smirk that widens into a small wink. “One of them.”

The more you thought about it, Viktor’s help wasn’t something you were particularly interested in turning away, especially when you hadn’t made bullets in years. It was more of a matter of trust—something that was hard for you to build with most people to begin with.

But maybe he was worth a shot…literally.

“It’s kind of a ‘hush hush’ project. How good are you with keeping secrets?”

A quiet pause passes between the two of you—slowing your steps to a stop once you feel his weight start to lean further into you. You look over to see him dip his head down closer, breath hitching in your throat as his face comes within inches of yours. Viktor remains silent—responding only by moving the arm he has intertwined yours up so that he can trace his lips with his index finger and thumb, pretending to zip his lips.

You watch as a crooked grin begins to form on him and can only nod as your focus involuntarily darts back and forth from his bright and playful eyes to his slightly parted lips.

“Good.” You manage to answer, although it’s practically a whisper while you try to keep your breathing even. Viktor pulls away to stand back upright, arm still wrapped snugly with yours as he continues forward with you.

You fall into a comfortable silence for a couple blocks until the river and docks come into view. The smell of fresh fish and frying oil fills the air and you suddenly become more aware of just how much you haven’t eaten today.

It’s a little busy with people shuffling between food carts and bars and you wonder if Viktor will want to separate so it’s easier to move through the crowd.

He doesn’t.

Quite the opposite, you feel him pull you just a little bit closer while you weave through the traffic of people and vendors. The masses blur past you as you notice how warm Viktor’s side is as it presses against yours. The faintest tightening of muscles in his arm as he holds you close. The way you catch him peeking at you from the corner of his eye, checking on you periodically as you walk. You relish in all of it.

It felt good to have him on your arm…or the other way around. It didn’t matter, what mattered was amidst the commotion, he only held onto you tighter.

You’re not far from the cart with the fried prawns and tilt your head up to make out the sign above it. “Ziggy’s huh? …I had no idea that was the name.” You tilt your head up to see better and notice the line is pretty long. Must be good.

“Me either, I’ve personally only heard it called the prawn place.” Viktor notices the line as well and turns his head away from you. You follow his gaze to see what he’s looking at and notice a beer cart that has no line at all.

When he looks back to you you’ve already got a grin on your face, reading his mind about grabbing a beer to pass the time in line.

“Good idea.”

“Thought you’d like that.”

After ordering two ales, Viktor insists on buying your drinks and hands off some coins quickly so you can’t go far with your protest.

“Then let me get us the prawns, yeah?” You plead with him as you hand him his drink.

“I asked you out, let me treat you.”

“I said yes, let me treat you too.”

“That’s not how this works.”

“Oh?” You grin slyly and reluctantly clink your mug to his when he offers it. “And how does this work?”

“Allow me to walk you through it.”

The two of you fall into harmless bickering about who’s paying for prawns until you hear a shriek, followed by the crowd in front of you shouting. It takes a second for the two of you to put the pieces together until you realize what the word being shouted is.

“Cutpurse.” You look around and sure enough, spot a scrawny man scrambling and sprinting towards the gap behind the two of you.

Viktor turns to see the man rapidly approaching and glances back to you. Your breathing is already picking up—there isn’t much time to think, but you know you won’t be able to reach him with how fast he’s running. Your eyes widen slightly when you look back up, only to watch Viktor quickly extend his arm, tripping the man up with his cane and sending him tumbling.

Shock and awe consume you as you look down at the thief on the ground then back up to Viktor, your expression completely dumbstruck. He nonchalantly hooks his cane over his arm and rolls out his wrist, a few pops sounding out as he stretches the joints back out after the impact.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. Not yet at least.” He answers as the man picks his head up, searching for who knocked him down. Once he locks onto you and Viktor, the scowl that forms behind his bloodied nose and lips is downright dripping with rage as he pushes himself off of the ground to stand.

“Good.” You take one more gracious sip of your drink before walking up to Viktor. “Hold my beer?”

Your date glances at the man approaching, then back to you before taking your mug. He doesn’t say a word, but his eyes soften when he realizes why you need both of your hands. You shrug your jacket off, but don’t have time to unclip your holsters and make a mental note not to fall and break the goggles on your side.

“Ya got some fuckin’ balls on ya.” He spits at you before wiping the blood from his nose and taking a fighting stance.

“Hah. You said balls.” You stand neutral, giving none of your positioning away as you run all of Vander’s training through your mind.

‘Analyze what you’re up against.’

People were yelling cutpurse; he’s got a knife on him somewhere, watch for that.

‘He’s also pissed, use that against him.’

You try to shake away your father’s voice ringing even louder in your skull as well, even if he would’ve been right about using this guy’s rage to your advantage.

Check his feet, his right foot is forward in a southpaw stance—he’ll jab with his left, adjust your slips accordingly. Check his posture, he’s leaning forward and trying to stay low—he’s sloppy and he’s going to try and tackle you to get the upper hand. Check his eyes, he’s flicking them down towards your legs with each step.

‘Anticipate his movement, then what’s your counter?’

He’s going to lunge at your legs with his left shoulder dropped. Slip to the right, grab him and throw him back the other way so he won’t get close to Viktor. He’s already staggering, he’s likely going to fall and that’s when he’ll panic and use his knife. You’ll need to taunt him to keep his focus on you and keep him sloppy. He’ll hold it in his left and you’ll need to slip until he tires, then you can grab his arm, disarm him, and outbox him.

You lick your lips as you shift your weight to the balls of your feet, bracing yourself for any sign of movement. You’ve never fought well when you’ve struck first and instead shake out your hands as he creeps closer, waiting for the right opportunity.

Then you see it, his shoulder twitches and you anticipate his lunge before he can get close. Once you slip to the side you grab onto his arm and use his momentum against him, swinging him back the direction he came from and causing him to fall down again, hard.

Your fingers flutter out one-by-one as you continue to loosen up. You roll out your wrists and brace yourself as he gets up.

‘There it is.’

The man draws a small blade in his left hand and looks like he’s about to try and charge at you again. His shoulder twitches a second time, giving away his next move and you shuffle to the side once more, slapping him on the ass so he doesn’t keep running towards Viktor and hoping that’ll spur him back to you.

“FUCK YOU, FUCKING FA--!”

Yep, that worked.

“Was that an offer?” You wink at him with a kissy face and that’s enough for him to lose the rest of his cool. For a moment, you catch a glimpse of Viktor behind your snarling opponent—his eyes fixed on your every movement, wide and worried and it makes your heart sink.

You’d be lying if you said that you weren’t nervous about what was about to happen, but manage to give him the slightest grin and reassuring nod, silently asking him to trust you to be okay. It’s not much, but you see him inhale deeply and give you the smallest nod back.

And that’s all you need to see.

The cutpurse switches his grip and starts to slash wildly at you. You stay patient, keeping focus on his eyes and shoulders that are giving him away and shuffling your feet as you dodge accordingly.

It doesn’t take long for him to get increasingly frustrated and sloppy with each miss—shouldn’t be long until you can finish this up and eat delicious fried prawns with your date. After one particularly awful attempt to cut your throat, he finally loses his footing.

About damn time.

You grab his wrist, dig in, turn his arm, bring your other hand to his shoulder, pull down, and drive a knee into his elbow—fracturing the bones inside before blocking his rogue right hook and throwing an uppercut below his jaw.

Once he hits the ground you kick the blade away and check your hand, growling when you see a small bit of blood form on your middle and ring knuckles.

Not a clean hit.

To your irritation, the man tries to sit up for one more round and you shake your head at him.

“Ah, ah. Down boy.” You step your boot up on his chest and nudge him so he rolls back onto the ground. A relived sigh escapes you when he stays down and you look up to find Viktor amidst the sizable crowd that has formed.

“Thank you so much!” Another man runs forward and picks the unconscious man’s pocket to reclaim the coinage that must’ve been his. “Please, take this.” He hands over a good chunk of change and you shake your head.

“No, it’s really fine I can—”

“Please, I insist.” He places the money into your palm and forces your hand closed, holding eye contact and quietly pleading for you to just accept it.

“Okay, okay. Thank you.” You put the coins in your holster before walking past him over to Viktor. The way his brows nearly meet at the bridge of his nose sends your heart into another frenzy and all the nerves that faded earlier have resurfaced.

“I have so many questions.” His mouth is parted, not in shock but in relief. His eyes are soft, still coming down from being worried and your already pounding heart skips a beat with how affectionately he’s looking at you. You’re not sure when he put your jacket in his pack, but you ask him to hang onto it since you’re currently burning up.

“I know…want to talk over prawns?” You shake your holster so he can hear the bounty you just earned jingle, trying to help settle his mind a little. “Now neither of us are buying.”

His chest heaves as he forces himself to inhale before nodding ever so slightly—an even fainter laugh leaving him at the sound of your jingling. “Yes.” He hands your beer over and your grin spreads from ear-to-ear as you’re happily reunited and take a sip.

Viktor’s guard falters while you lift the mug, his eyes are heavy as they move from your hand in your holster up your chest until they hover over the leather on your shoulders. “I ehh…need to get another drink though.”

“Hm?” You cock a brow as you eye him over the brim of your mug and nearly choke on your beer from laughing when you barely hear him whisper “Fuck.” before turning to get a refill.

As bad as you felt for stressing him out to the point of binge drinking, you would do it all over again to hear that word fall from his lips another time.

The line at Ziggy’s has all but disbanded since your first try and you’re both grateful to finally get your hands on some food. You pay for a giant boat of fried deliciousness with your blood money, happy to be rid of it and grimace when you see your already bruised hand is starting to shake. Viktor notices and you immediately speak up before he can.

“Where to?”

He opens his mouth to speak, exhaling when you beat him to the punch and licks his lips before shifting his gaze towards the docks. “Somewhere we can talk privately.”

You follow him quietly, stomach snarling and breaking up the silence as you catch a whiff of the deep-fried seafood in your hands. The two of you walk onto the dock, swaying gently with the water under your weight as you get further out in the river.

“Is this alright?” He asks as he takes a sip and looks over at you, his hair moving steadily in the breeze that’s picked up.

“More than alright. I actually come here to clear my head sometimes.” You set your drink down so you can sit on the planks without spilling.

“Hold my beer?” He asks with a small grin. You return the smile along with the favor you asked for earlier so he can offload his pack and come down to sit with you. “How so? The water calms you down?”

“A little. But what I like to do…” You lean backwards until your back is against the dock, glancing up at Viktor as he watches you intently. “Is lay like this with my eyes closed—if you focus on the way the dock sways it feels like you’re on a boat.”

Viktor sets the large bowl of prawns between you, grabbing two before leaning back to lie down with you. He offers you one, which you take and playfully tap against his as a small toast before taking a bite.

The two of you stay like that for a minute—dock oscillating back and forth gently between the current and the breeze similar to how a boat would. The sounds of the city now muffled under the soft crashing of waves beneath as your knuckles lightly brush against Viktor’s while the two of you blindly reach for more of your dinner.

Which is fucking delicious by the way.

“These are even better than I was expecting.” You state before you both move to sit up as you continue to munch.

Viktor hums, only nodding before trying to politely cover his mouth with his hand while he speaks. “Whr’ll hehrve terh chrmh behrckh.” He shakes his head when your eyes narrow, trying to understand him through his full mouth and accent. After swallowing and taking a swig of his beer he tries again. “We’ll have to come back.”

The sensation of your stomach grumbling against the butterflies forming from Viktor mentioning going out again is peculiar, more so than his desire to go out with you again given the last hour.

“So, you are…having fun?” You chuckle as you look out at the river—reflections of the moon as it starts to battle the sun for its time in the sky rippling along the current.

“Well, I’m certainly not bored.” He takes another bite and smiles to himself, seemingly enjoying his time again now that no one was actively engaged in a knife fight.

Once you’ve finished your meal, you lean the back of your hand on the side of your mug, reveling in the respite the cold exterior brings to your throbbing knuckles. You try to keep from shaking, but to no avail.

“Is it broken?” Viktor shifts his eyes from the water to you, only barely turning his head when he glances down.

“No. Just a bad hit on my part, it’ll heal.”

“A bad hit? You knocked his lights out.” His confused chuckle makes you laugh under your breath, eyes closing easily while you enjoy his phrasing. “What made that a bad hit?”

“Clipped him with my ring finger.” You hold out your hand for him to see—bruises blotching around two of your knuckles that are trembling against your will. “Should’ve landed it with the index and middle knuckles.” You point to the areas that do better on impact for reference. “Here.”

Viktor tilts his head before gently sliding his hand under yours to stabilize it and get a better look. You inhale at the sudden contact while his fingers meticulously rotate your hand, taking care not to budge any fingers past your index and furrowing his brows at the discoloration that’s formed.

“Where did you learn…whatever that was?” His voice sobers up, reflecting the worry that radiated from him earlier as he rolls small circles on your index knuckle, soothing the pain in your joints below.

You look down at his hand as he traces his thumb from your knuckle up your index finger and back down. A small hum catches in the back of your throat. “My father…and Vander.”

“Why?” Viktor’s voice cracks just slightly into a breath as he tries to wrap his head around what would warrant you knowing how to…knock someone’s lights out—his words.

His feather-light touches send electricity up your arm and you’re relieved that the involuntary twitching in your fingers could reasonably be chalked up to the trauma your hand just went through.

He follows your gaze to your hands and his expression softens while he watches how your body reacts to his touch.

You feel your armor come apart at the seams when Viktor tentatively starts to guide your hand towards him. His eyes meet yours as he pauses—a silent “is this alright?” which you answer with a nervous inhale until you close the gap and feel his leg under your palm “yes.”

The strain on your fingers immediately lifts as they splay out on top of him and you gently rub your thumb along his left knee, grateful for the relief he’s providing. You hear a small sigh leave him before he moves his hand on top of yours, covering it with more gently circles as you get comfortable.

“Vander’s planning an uprising…” You finally manage to answer, both of you now keeping your eyes on the water as your hands absent-mindedly wander along one another.

“Mm. Yes, I’ve heard whispers of that.”

“He’s been training me for years, basically picking up where my father left off.”

“…And where would that be?”

“Back with the scrawny little kid that dropped off your salve almost 10 years ago.” You pause and take a deep breath, licking your lips as you watch the small waves lap up against the front of the dock.

“Is…that why you never came back?” It was hard to ignore the shift in his voice, like the boy that you met all those years ago was still in there—asking the question through him.

“Yeah.” Your own tone dips before take a drink from your mug and feel Viktor do the same next to you. “My father took me away a few days after we met.”

You catch Viktor nodding slowly out of the corner of his eye, mentally putting decade-old missing puzzles pieces together one-by-one. “Where did you go?”

“I honestly don’t know. I just remember it was covered in snow. And so fucking cold.” You take another sip, warming your chest as you continue to explain.

“He called it survival training…was out there with him for about six months until he thought I could hold my own. When he finally brought me back home that’s when he started taking me on his…hunting trips.” Viktor looks up at you and you try to gauge how much he knows about what your father had done. What you had done. “I’m not sure those are quality first date stories.” You admit.

His eyes flick from you back to the river, chewing on his cheek and continuing to mindlessly draw circles on your hand while he assessed your wording carefully. “I take it you weren’t hunting…animals.” It sounded more like a statement than a question, but you knew he still wanted confirmation.

“…No.” Your voice is low, more of a breath than an answer and you can’t take your eyes off of him while you laid out all your demons for him. “But he wanted me to believe that we were.”

You would think the silence that passes after that answer would’ve been tense, but it was far from it. Viktor only nods again, coming to terms that you’ve killed people and takes a deep breath before speaking.

“I have a hard time believing that was something you wanted to do.” You can tell his wheels are turning in his head as he tries to make sense of how you fell into such a shit line of work.

“You’d be right about that.” Your voice falters, softly giving away as you try to ease the rest of your words out. “What I wanted to do was go home and…” you laugh to yourself at how such a small dream was so impossible for you when you were young. “…play with that boat you were making when it was done.” You take another sip before finishing. “While I could even remember that, he—I know I still have gaps in my memory.”

Viktor turns to you with a small smile. He gives your hand a light squeeze before pulling away—the sudden lack of contact making you wonder if you shouldn’t have told him as much as you have. It’s a conversation you weren’t really ready for, but were hoping if he could handle it, you could finally relax around him…maybe even more than that.

You bite your lip nervously, unsure if he still wants to be alone at the docks with you now that he knows your upbringing was a level of fucked up that you could never prepare anyone for. Your heart begins to pound and you take a gracious sip to ease your nerves until Viktor’s voice catches your attention and pulls you back.

“Well, you’re home now.”

You manage a quiet nod when you peek over to find him digging into his backpack—moving your head curiously to get a better look.

“And from the sound of it, this has been overdue for both of us I think, yes?”

You squint, furrowing your brows and shaking your head as you only grow more and more confused when he lifts his hand from his bag, handing you a small key.

“…I just told you I killed enforcers for a solid year and a half of my childhood and you want me to move in with you?”

“No!—No, I mean…” He chuckles nervously as he pulls another key out and sets it by himself before digging into his bag again. “While I’m not trying to trivialize how hard that must’ve been on you, it doesn’t change how I f—” He cuts himself off, but you think you got enough to know what he was going to say and feel your stomach happily drop.

He looks flustered and you try your best to hold back the grin itching around the corners of your lips. “Yes?” You watch as he quickly lifts his head up from the bag—deadpan expression sealing your assumption that he’s not about to repeat a single word, which in reality…said plenty.

Your smug grin doesn’t last long when Viktor finally pulls the post-prawn activity from his bag—immediately forcing your expression to soften as the dream that had felt so unattainable was now being placed directly in your hands.

Viktor’s doe-eyed expression takes you back ten years in three seconds. Although his living room floor has been exchanged for a dock while you sit side-by-side, his crooked grin and breathy laugh is contagious as ever as he hands over the mechanical boat.

The toothy smile on your face only grows wider as you examine his invention, turning the metal creation over and over in your hands as you examine his craftsmanship. You laugh as you flick one of the gears to see the rest of them spin in sync.

“It’s The Nautilus, right?”

Viktor licks his lips before answering, looking out at the water when he does. “Ehm—it was. I…changed the name to Rio.”

“Rio’s great.” You’re still smiling ear-to-ear when you glance over to find Viktor reaching for his cane to pull himself up.

“Sh—uhm…” He stutters and you flick your eyes over him, curious about what he was trying to say until he finishes. “I think so too.” He inhales and shakes out his wrist before holding his hand out to you. “What do you think? Want to try it out?”

You’ve never grabbed this man’s hand more quickly in your life. “Yes please.”

The two of you walk a little farther away from town until Viktor takes you to a runoff where the water is shallower. You walk down a way with your key in hand, turning to talk at Viktor as you get some distance.

“So how does this thing work, just take the key and crank it?”

“Heh, yes that’s it.” You catch his grin as he speaks and give him a nod back while you spin the key around your finger.

You watch from a short distance as he starts to turn his key into the helm, switching his grip on his cane to lean forward so he can set the boat in the water. The gears and pistons push it down towards you and you crouch to stop it once it’s close.

After picking it up out of the water, you repeat the cranking motion Viktor just displayed. The gears turn against one another as it winds up until you feel pressure against the key. Once you pull it out, you can’t fight your breathy laugh as the boat whirls to life in your hands. Pistons move one-by-one as the gears turn on their own—powering the small machine with ease.

Once you set it down in the runoff it takes off downstream towards Viktor. He leans forward again, stopping the boat and repeating the motion to send it back towards you, laughing when you almost fall in as you catch it and continue the game with him.

There’s no way you could’ve prepared for the blend of emotions you were feeling. The pang of feeling robbed of your childhood pulls at your chest as you try to focus instead on just how happy you are right now.

You try not to dwell on the what-ifs as they attempt to tarnish this moment. Not ‘what if you never had to leave?’ or even ‘what if there could’ve been more moments like this with him?’ which only becomes easier as you watch the man standing across from you.

Viktor’s shoulders shimmy while he winds up the boat, causing you to laugh and for him to shout over at you—asking what’s so funny and only able to laugh back when you mimic his unintentional dance moves.

There’s a peace that washes over you more quickly than your regrets could consume you. Despite everything you admitted to him tonight—he’s happy to be here with you, cranking up a toy boat that you’ve been waiting to try out for almost a decade.

It was something you had wanted, even craved; this small semblance of normalcy. You clutched this dream as close as you could while you tried not to starve or freeze. Hanging onto it like a prayer until your mind finally forced you to forget—making room for your survival instincts to take over and develop as you grew.

And now?

All you could hear was the sound of Viktor’s laughter. All you could feel was cold water washing the pain and dried blood from your knuckles. All you could think about was how good this man makes you feel. And all you wanted was to give him the very same.

This was exactly what you needed tonight. What you needed with him as you felt your reservations and nerves drift away as steady as the current below.

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A/N: Next part is in the works! Will have more crimes, specifically on Viktor's part. 👀 And more touchy feely...writing that out as we speak. Hopefully this one was still wholesome even though it wasn't the best start lol

Thanks for reading!

Ghost