#so i dont have to draw all those layers of clothing

[this-should-do]

ugh

[wasyago]

unsure if you’ve been asked this before but what is your character designing process?

i have already answered in this post (you can go read it if you want), though it's more jrwi based, so i feel like i can answer again! i doubt I'll end up saying something new but hwhatever who cares dhhdhd

obviously this isn't math, so there's no specific scheme i follow every time, and each design is different and it all varies heavily.

in general, when i start working on a design i already have *some* sort of idea in mind. normally not for the entirety of it, but some bits and pieces here and there that help me characterize the design in my head! i try to get those on the canvas first. they're like key points, and i most likely wont change them.

(and if i don't have an idea, i don't start drawing. and instead scroll through my gallery or pinterest in search of inspiration)

let's take my Gem's recent design as an example! i knew i wanted her to be a squirrel, and i already had squirrel scar and cub designs to base it off. so the key points were big pointy ears, curvy tail, claws. i also knew i wanted her clothing to look regal and floral, and reflect her main base. this is an idea that i haven't fully visualized, but i kept it in mind and knew in which direction i had to move.

after that comes the point where i start making stuff up 👍👍 i enjoy thinking my designs through and making them make sense in my head and be practical. so the process consists of me asking myself questions and then answering them in a design. with occasional "oh wouldn't that be cool" thrown into it.

continuing with gem. she needed to have her clothes be suited for a tail, so her underskirt splits in three parts to make it easier. i still wanted the design to be recognizable as gem and have it resemble her skin; so i kept the white sleeves, the green skirt, the corset. i wanted to make her and scar's designs match, so i changed the corset to green with this long piece of cloth but decided to change the patterns on it. because the brown from the corset was gone, i removed it from her shoes as well and made them black instead, so brown wasn't part of the color pallett anymore. i will introduce pink into the design later, so getting rid of one of the colors wasn't that big of a deal. plus, brown makes her look more down to earth, whereas i want her to look elegant and rich, so its a win/win. i wanted to keep her antlers, but obviously she's not a deer anymore, so i turned them into a crown and made it black to match the shoes. etc etc. i can ramble for three more hours about this hdgshsh.

well, that's how the well thought designs work.

sometimes it's just "im gonna draw all the things i think are fun and cute until i can't think of any" and there's no rhyme or reason to it. that's why things like "doc as a unicorn", one-off series designs, random concepts, aus exist!

sometimes its a "i have no idea what to do with it, so im gonna merge all the layers together and just keep fiddling with it until i figure it out", and that's exactly what happens. if i feel stuck with a design, merging it together and working with both line and color helps a ton, because it helps me to see the design as a whole and i dont have to divide my process and think of which parts im gonna do in color and which in line! recent example is hypno's design. here it is when i didn't know how to make it interesting and the final version:

(funnily enough i still like the first concept, the fact that all the clothes is the same color is quite tasty. but i know that if i needed to draw this design in the future, i would struggle with keeping the clothing layers separated and shading and all that stuff.)

visually i don't think there's much difference between how i design things (?), but the process varies and in my head they're all on like, different tiers.

hopefully this was somewhat helpful! if not it at least let me ramble about my design process which is great hdhsjsh

[streamdotpng]

Wait

Addition to the blanket au

What if

The nightshades are aware that Wednesday is dating someone? The bruises that line her throat is obvious and it wasn't like Wednesday was trying to hide it.

Even when asked, Wednesday didn't blink. "yes, I do have a paramour."

It makes them think at times, what kind of person is Wednesday Addams dating?

A serial killer? One offers and the others ooo's and aaa's in agreement before hoping that wasn't the case

A mobster! Another says and yoko thinks of someone with tattoos immediately. It could be her thing

Arranged marriage? Someone conspiring whispers. It got shot down real quick because wednesday didn't have a ring and they're damn sure Wednesday would go all black widow on them

Anyways, there were rumors and gossip between the group of who Wednesday's paramour was but the moment they met her elusive blanket monster of a roommate, their thoughts got occupied

But a few weeks have passed and the shock of a growling blanket isn't so startling, the group talked about what Enid did for a living

As they tossed ideas around, they can't help but realize that wait a sec

.. These are the same assumptions they've made for wednesday secret lover

Are they perhaps one in the same!?? I mean, it'd make sense. With how easily Wednesday slips into covered arms and didn't seem so bothered at the bigger woman's touch.

They're dating!!!

But still, it didn't stop them from wondering just what did Enid do

They never did get an answer, until a black supercar waited outside of their campus gate. There were a few other students waiting sround, some even taking pictures but it isn't until Wednesday (and in turn the nightshades) was sighted does a door open and a blond with squared sunglasses step out.

Oh god, who was she? A model?

Their eyes draw to the scars on her cheek and that thought went elsewhere. Maybe a bodyguard? They know that Wednesday was rich but rich enough to need a bodyguard?

Or maybe, they hoped with anticipating eyesm, this was Enid?

Like she's sure that blond hair was similar to the mop hidden under layers of cloth. It was hard to know much about Enid but they know that she's a light tanned lady with blue eyes and blond hair.

"Wednesday!" she calls out and the lowkey broke college students reel over what she wore. Dressed to the tens in shades of black and grey, the suited woman walked around the car meet them halfway.

This..

The nightshades look at each other in panic. This wasn't Enid! Sure they were both blond but maybe Wednesday has a type.

"what're you doing here?" Wednesday asks and the nightshades were given a front row view to the way her jaw tenses and a tinge of color form on her ears.

Yeah nope, that's the lover alright.

Yoko sends her prayers to Enid. With how overprotective the wereblanket was, she's sure that there were some feelings involved. She prays that her girlie (they haven't talked at all) handles this well

A cheeky grin was Wednesday's answer as the blond twirled the car keys in her finger. "well yeah but lunch with Mr dad ended early so I thought I could pick you up!" those brows furrowed before the smile turned into something a bit more softer "unless you'd like to walk home?"

"No, I dont-" Wednesday mutters, her head ducking and is that blush growing!? "You didn't have to do this, I know that you must be tired."

Blond bodyguard(?) laughs and with the keys of a way too fancy car inbetween her fingers, she tilted Wednesday's head up.

"chin up, 'day. You know I could never be tired of you." it takes Wednesday nodding before blondie stands back. the college students immediately straighten their back as a stare was leveled onto them. "I also wanted to meet your friends! I haven't been able to get a clear look at them after all."

Bianca blinked, ignoring the way Wednesday grumbles a 'not my friends' to ask a question that popped into their heads. "excuse me? I don't think we met."

"... Did we not?" the blond wonders and she looks at wednesday before scratching her head and looking back at them. "you're swordfish lady right?"

Bianca's brows twitch. "swordfish lady?"

A smile grows as she snaps her fingers in remembrance. "yeah! Because you fence with Wednesday and you're a siren so I thought itd fit."

"you have such... A way with names," swordfish lady grits out as yoko barges in with a hand raised.

"what about me!?"

Blondie rubs her finger on her chin before she points with an aha! "yolks!"

Yoko blinks. ".. Like the egg?"

Blondie nods, her smile wide and clearly enthusiastic. Wednesday is standing right beside her, giving her usual side eye but staring with an affection she usually only held for Enid.

Rip enid, imagine losing your crush to someone who lowkey looks like you.

"Enid, we're wasting daylight," Wednesday calls out and Enid startles back.

The now named Enid panics, flustering an oh shoot! As she removed her sunglasses to reveal those familiar blue eyes before passing it over to Wednesday.

"it was nice talking to you guys!" Enid calls out and before the nightshades know it, the duo were gone. Wednesday having been ushered onto her seat with Enid closing it behind before hopping in and zooming away.

"did Wednesday just say Enid?" Eugene asks.

Ajax blinks. "did Enid mention having lunch with Wednesday's dad?"

Xavier sighs, a hand on his face. There went his chances. "maybe we should revisit the arranged marriage idea..."

[loopscereal]

Pero no lo hicisteee final 100 hrs have been entered

fred by himself cause i did his shoes with everythign and the little meat texture. Why would i do that if its not mesnt to be visible? May god know cause i dont. uhh the background. yeah ok. uh Fred doesn't have to reflect Freddy in clothes or hairstyle anymore! Boys uniform! Higher, tighter pony tail! also their little jacket. Make up around their eyes, and they have gained acess to COLOR. Hes no longer restricted to shades of purple, too bad hes emo and will only branch out to red TOT. anyway yay for them. uhh uhhh also he has a new sparkle. he has a little yellowy orange sparkle in his chest, right on their tie. they didnt have that before :) new sparkle

im glad were all miserable about how fred is on the floor but also agree that freddy looks best when hes at his worse! keep up that look, youre a natural !! bbbbuhhhh

SUELTENME SUELTENME SUELTENME SUELTENME SUELTANME ok normal, hi pia :3 glad you noticed. im so diseased about when they swap colors in canon.... wughgh misery...

not so fast! theyre both so fucking bad at this game! the game being existing. Fred feeds the body and like. the most basic of maintenance but they too mistreat it in their own special way <3. ANyways how does this scene change? uh. god. i feel like it adds a lot ofc content but i dont. know. thinking about camp makes my head scream... as i imagine it mutates and changed even after having drawn these. living organism....

in my head their body "prioritizes" freddy a lot, like. IF fred is in control while freddy is sleeping, and freddy wakes up, it sorta auto-kicks fred out if they arent prepared and get caught off guard, BUT freddy isnt exctly. too present. hes not the most anchored person to his own self so if fred, can simply push him out pretty easy so long as they arent abnormally weakened, and if they were to fight for it fred will typically win. As for body auto responses, i think it does eventually kick the current pilot out, or mess things up and force them both in or both out, ("how does that work" sh sh sh dont even worry about it... <3 please.) buuuut i think it takes a long time for the body to get to that point, to the point where it does those auto responseds. Freddys gotten it pretty used to well, itself. it doesn't send out the signals that it should, or at best, not as strongly.

Okay why is Freddy all glitchy when out side and not sparkly? beeecause well. cromatic aberation occurs when a lense fails to align and focus wavelengths of color all on the same point. What the hell does that have to do with freddy? (what the hell happens int hat goddamn highschool?) uh! hes totally unfocused. in his entire self. and in his worldview, his view of strangers, of his friends, family. exc. Hes got like at least three different "lenses" he can view himself in, and at least two "good or bad" lenses he can see any given person through. IF anything is certain about him, its his instability. In idenity, in stances, in views, in beleifs, in emotions, in everything. An so, he gets the aberation efffect, cause he is !!! pulling!! apart! no focus, no stability , no alignment, no trust, no brother, no one to rely on, no money, no goals, no self esteem, no style, no shoes, no affirmation, no bitchessssssss also i have freddy at like 18 opacity (and the cromatic aberation layers are also at 1* so lets charitibly say hes at 50 total) and Fred is at like 80/85/90 on any given drawing of these, because freddy literally has less soul. uh. magic stystem or whatever freddy was emoty enough in the cup that holds his soul that he could fit a shadow, who turned into a whole ass person instead of some litttle creature...... fucked up. empty ass. anywho. enough of that miserable prick. freds got glow and sparkles cause hes got a lot of soul, hes got a lot in him, and would shine under any circumstance. stand out in some way bc hes just. like that. he is absolutly bursting at the seams with STUFF that is just not being let out. Hes curious. they wanna learn andexplre and live so fucking badly, the want to live and exist on their own terms and its so much passion and drive and will to live all bottled in this little being unable to be expresseddddd. one of these is more positive than the otherrrrr im sure theres sone negative side i missed on fred and a positive side to freddy that i missed but uh. its. 12am as i am writing and scheduling this so.....

if i had a dollar for every time i thought abt fnafhs id have 1 dollar bc i have not fucking stopped.

[mrvenuspluto]

HEALING SOUL CHAMBER

I want take your mind, soul to a warm and calming setting. Need you to imagine, go get your favorite therapeutic candles, remove your heavy layers of clothing. Either bedroom, living room or anywhere that is peaceful for you. Oh yea! Please make sure you are alone with no disturbance. Place candle(s) around your room, bed, create you a sanctuary of healing. Lay a soft sheet down, light each candle now lay on your back. Its so much stress, baggage on your mind, shoulders need you to close your eyes, try to relax your mind and body. You may have to remove everything thats on your mind, take all those obligations, mundane task, stressful thoughts and let them dissipate. Need you to imagine you are on a peaceful island, the sky is purple with multiple colored clouds that change into any thought you have. You can smell fresh fruit as it gets dispensed into your hand just from a lick of the tongue. The air is so settled, calming and adjust to your emotions and mood. Your feet are embedded into the warm black sand made from black onyx and black kyanite. Every desire you wish for, every thought you crave for is yours from a glance and a wink of the eye or the emotions of your feelings. You dont have to walk to the beaches shore to feel the cool wavy water splash up against your legs. The water will come to you as it splashes across your feet, ankles and calves as it washes away the black crystal particles from your limbs. Now that your body is at a relax state, now you can focus on healing your whole body. I need you to focus on all 7 chakras, each chakra controls multiple organs, nerves while each chakra focuses on specific body functions within that region of the anatomy. You know where you are hurting, in pain, low deficiency, need strength or just balance. Im going need you to stay focused, dont let the outside of your body, effect your meditative state which it will try its hardest. ( your subconscious is very powerful, its something you built up for years and lifetimes also indoctrinated with false beliefs which gives denies power to one self, now you need to overcome those weak, falsified, ideologies.) Now focus on that one area of your body where it needs healing, now draw out the picture of that specific location and body part, organ, nerve etc. Be creative, you need to tap into your right brain, left brain wont be as good of use in this healing process. Now slowly slide your hand across the area while having a great intent to heal it without a doubt, any doubt or disbelief will transpire into a negative effect and be a waste of time. Now gently rub it, carress it while imaging to heal it, picture it being repaired, fixed, new, regenerated and healthy. Dont ask DEMAND IT!, you are the creator of your anatomy and have the power to heal yourself. Become a surgeon with your mind, thoughts, imagination and creativity. Now apply pressure to the area, if its your throat chakra, rub your hand across your throat while carressing and envisioning the color ( blue which represents the throat chakra) while meditating, how you WILL ( not want) communicate, express, manifest more efficiently and effectively. Your body will feel warm, your head and neck will feel heavy with tension its ok. You are now trying to let your soul take charge, your mind been in charge so so so long that its a natural reaction for these different scenarios to take place. Its your subconscious trying to bring you back into this reality realm that you projected for yourself, now you must recreate a new realm that is suitable for your new perspective of life. Now you need to tap back into that warm place you created and let your body be at ease and let your soul coast across the silky, satin clouds that taste like passion fruit.

Now if you pain or regeneration is needed in your root chakra area. You need to open your legs, place both feet together while making bottom of them touch. Your legs should be in a shape of a diamond. Now envision that area of pain or weakness being healed while placing your hand over this specific area, but not touching it just feeling the energy, vibration and anticipation of it being touch while letting the power of your mind connect to this area. You need to make your thoughts and focus connect to that area and become one. Now place your hand on this area while gently carressing this area while your thoughts are entwine with this are. Your body will feel at peace and rest. Now just lay there and listen to your body respond while it reacts your orders. When you feel a spark that goes to your brain, you will feel sensations throughout your body and travel from your brain to all the areas you been working on ( neurotransmitters) waking up and communicating with everything in your body to heal and regenerate you back to health. You will have a taste of the fruit from the meditative state while opening your eyes and lifting your head up. Now its very very very important to still have the same mindset you projected while meditating. No negative thoughts, feelings, ideas or outlooks should come from your mindset. You create your own reality, now this should be repeated as much as you need, doing this everyday will become a natural habit that will futher along your healing and regeneration to your whole being. Now im going need you to wake up! You been in my healing chamber for awhile!

[veinsfullofstars]

hey just wondering, how do you draw daroach? i wanna figure him out for myself but dont feel like i get down how he looks well enough. thanks for the help if you have any, if not then thanks for just answering

Thank you for the question! And, yeah, I totally get it - that rat can be a nightmare to draw sometimes, haha. I definitely struggled with him a lot at first (you can kinda tell if you compare my earlier works to my recent ones). I think it’s because so much of him is obscured by his outfit in official art? The way the brim of his hat dips over his face or how his cape likes to defy physics - all in service of a cooler silhouette, sure, but taking away a lot of readability and foundation to work from in the process. I’ll try to offer some tips that work for me (though I’m hardly an expert on this, and teaching's not exactly my strong suit, so please bear with me if things get muddled, haha).

The main piece of advice I can give is gather and study as much reference as you can. Official art, concept art, promotional stuff, sprite sheets - whatever you can find, just grab ‘em and put ‘em somewhere you can easily pull up when you’re drawing. I get most of mine from Wikirby, Spriter’s Resource, and official sites like the Kirby JP Twitter, as well as screenshots taken directly from the games (a great way to get in-motion poses and back views, I’ve found). Here’s what my ref sheet for Daroach looks like (I also have a separate one for color swatches):

Kind of a mess, yeah, but very worth it, I assure you. The more visuals you have to work off of, the easier it will be to detect consistencies in design. Which brings me to my next point: shapes!

Most Kirby characters are, at their core, just a buncha simple shapes. It can be hard to tell sometimes when they wear clothes (like with our rat buddy here), but they still have similar foundations of circles and other rounded features. A way I've found that helps with this is to try redlining (that is, take a piece of reference and trace over it for the purpose of study, learning where lines connect, how silhouettes look, how different parts overlap, what shapes are used, etc.). Here’s an example:

This is a great way to find those design consistencies I mentioned before. I did these a bit messy for a better sense of movement (and ‘cause I’m practiced enough to sketch a little quicker), but you can always start slower and cleaner if it helps you see the shapes and layers more clearly. You can even do them multiple times to familiarize yourself with the design and eventually try copying them without tracing, like doing gesture drawings or life studies.

In Daroach, I’ve found that his head isn’t a perfect circle shape, but more like a rounded diamond, with his ears connecting at or just above the “points” on the sides. His body is a bit smaller than his head, and his snout smaller still, each having sort of a teardrop-like shape. His eyes are bigger than I expected them to be, half circles tilted down slightly, often cut off by his snout and hat to create a shaper angle (meant to make him look more intimidating perhaps?). His ears are taller than his hat, though they can tilt back to look shorter. There are also a lot of arcs and triangles present in his design, especially in his cape when it sits across his form or flares out, and the brim of his hat pointing down from just past his ears to right over his snout. Also, unlike many Kirby characters, he does in fact have a neck - it's just hidden behind his collar and bell most of the time (don't ask me why I spent so long verifying this, no I don't have ulterior motives, don't look at me).

Of course, these observations aren’t set in stone. Kirby characters rarely stay perfectly on-model (see Dedede for proof of that), and Daroach is clearly no exception. I mean, just look at these official pieces (all collected from Wikirby):

Even the folks at HAL Labs are not immune to style inconsistency. And that’s not a bad thing! We love a little personal flair in this house. There’s nothing wrong with altering the design a bit to fit your own style - in fact, it’ll probably happen naturally the more you practice, especially once you’re comfortable enough to work without a guide. Here’s some studies I did recently, no tracing, just observation (with different colors used to help me figure out layering):

I’ve seen other folks take their own designs even further than this, adding more fur or sharper shapes or even realistic rat features to our favorite thief. Nothing like stretching those creative muscles once you’ve got the basics down! On that note, don’t be afraid to be inspired by unofficial sources as well. If an artist you like draws Daroach (or any character) in a way you find appealing, ask yourself what it is you like about it, study it as you study official works, and find ways to incorporate elements of that into your own art - “steal like an artist” as the saying goes.

Another thing I recommend for Daroach specifically is studying how real top hats and capes look, especially from various angles and poses in motion. I find it helps to see exactly how fabric sits on a figure or what sides show at different positions. It might seem weird to use human reference for a cartoon rat, and it might take some finagling to get proportions right, but it’s surprisingly effective. I do this with fighting and athletic poses all the time to help figure out weight distribution and line of action. Don’t be afraid to expand your art repertoire into other fields - you never know when it might come in handy!

And, of course, the key thing to hammer home here is practice, practice, practice! Do studies, do gestures, draw with and without references, build muscle memory, do sketches you show to no one, draw memes, draw angst, take your time, fill pages with messy doodles or just drop one in a corner and call it a day. The more you draw this smarmy rat, the better you’ll get. That’s the long and short of it with any skill, creative or otherwise. You gotta try in order to get good, you gotta make mistakes in order to improve, you gotta be kind to yourself in order to do what you love.

Anyway, I think that’s all I got for now. Forgive me if this got a bit rambly or incoherent - I have trouble putting my thought process in words sometimes, haha. I sincerely hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck with your own future rat-creating endeavors!

Sketch started and finished 06/14/24.

[watatsumiis]

Some Fatui Harbingers height and body type headcanons because I have so much brainrot for them right now it's not even funny oof

General warnings for talk of different body types and weights (all in a very neutral way - except for a brief mention of body insecurity under Scara's entry)

Ok so I'm going to put this list in order from tallest to shortest because that's the way that makes the brain happy - i dont have exact height ideas, but the first three are definitely unnaturally tall in my brain

Technically the tallest would be the big robot that carries Sandrone around but i haven't latched onto them. yet.

Capitano is built like a brick shithouse, he's huge, he's tall and broad and super muscly, but not in a bodybuilder way, think more like Maui from Moana (i do actually headcanon him as being Maori (or at least the teyvat equivalent idk) but that's an infodump for another post. He's the tallest and most physically intimidating, he's got a slope to his shoulders and his quiet demeanour gives him this very scary kind of vibe.

Pierro is close behind, he's quite tall, he'd be pretty close to Capitano's height but he has a bit of a slouch/stoop (perhaps minor scoliosis? i dunno) that makes him shorter, but his attitude and demeanour make him seem taller, so it's not that hard to mistake him for the tallest of the Harbingers. He's not as broad as Cap by a long shot, but he makes sure to layer his clothing to make him seem more physically intimidating - he puts a lot of effort into little visual things like that so he gives off the most commanding aura he possibly can.

Dottore (omega form) is next, he's freakishly lanky, with long, spidery limbs. I'm not sure why, but I keep drawing parallels between him and the ibis bird (which i think is a fun thing to play with, the sacred ibis vs bin chicken type deal), he moves in a very ... twitchy, erratic kind of way. He's very skinny and the long coats he wears definitely lend to that appearance (which he probably does on purpose, he likes being seen as something uncanny, something not quite human, just to throw others off and give him an edge in the interaction).

Childe is within the realms of like, normal human heights, not uncanny. He's lean, but not skinny - he's got a lot of strength that he hides with his clothes (not to make others underestimate him, he doesn't use those kinds of underhanded tactics), but he doesn't go out of his way to hide off the muscle that he's worked so hard to accrue.

Pantalone is slightly shorter than Childe (much to his chagrin), but I can definitely see him wearing high boots just to give him that extra bit of height over Childe because he's petty like that and enjoys lording it over him (the day that Childe figures out how to walk in platform heels it is OVER for him). He's very... elegantly shaped, I think is the word that's floating in my brain, he's got some definite curvature and shape to him that he likes to flaunt a bit with his clothing. He's got some softer bits to him that just show how he likes to enjoy the finer things in life. He's mastered the act of accessorising himself in different ways to suit the situation, he's subtly manipulative like that.

Arlecchino is tall and kind of stocky and definitely has a decent amount of muscle - I can see her having long legs with hip dips (hip dips my BELOVED btw) - she likes giving off a kind of butch vibe (i could actually see her wearing binders on occasion, she's very fluid in the way she presents)

Signora is a little above average height, I can't decide whether she's small and petite or on the broader side, but she's definitely got some curves to her!!

Damslette is sitting a little below average height, I can see her being stocky and a little on the chubbier side, but she's still like... physically small, if that makes sense!

Scaramouche is smack between Damslette and Sandrone - he's small, and definitely gets a lot of flak for it (which he hates). He's proportioned like a younger child, his limbs look a bit too long for his body, and he can sometimes be quite clumsy as a result. He's kind of lean, but definitely has some tubby bits (probably around the hips/thighs/cheeks/tummy/upper arms) that he can be a little insecure about sometimes.

Sandrone is decently below average, she's quite short and very very petite, perhaps even having some kind of chronic illness/pain that makes it difficult for her to walk a lot/do much heavy lifting, hence why she has her puppets do it for her. She's very very tiny and definitely on the skinnier side.

Pulcinella is itty bitty. He's tiny. He's a shrunken old man. If ANYONE in the harbingers complains about their height they get the spiel of "hey at least you aren't as short as Pulcinella!" (unless it's capitano who literally hits his head on doorways sometimes). He looks kind of small and frail, because he is, but he can still kick ass in a fight if it comes down to it! he has no issues with his height

Please don't steal/copy/repost my work!

Likes and reblogs are always super appreciated :D

If you'd like to rant with/at me about any headcanons/ideas you might have I'd love to hear, so feel free to send an ask/dm my way!

[anemonet]

oh my god thats so sweet of you!!!! thank you :DD also super sorry for deleting your ask btw

To get down to business well uh iterators huh, so I can tell you have read some of my ramblings before (very fun) and I will say in general I stand by those ideas - model differences and stuff - with some smaller changes here and there, for instance I made pebbles antennas stupidly long cause I think it looks funny - plus tons of tiny refinements, but generally I dont have too much to add unless theres something specific your wondering about - so I wont focus to much on that. Instead I'm gonna chat a bit about the other stuff you mentioned (NSH and wire headwear) ^-^ so heres the guys! (I'm gonna expand a bit on their design designs)

Ok so you have actully managed to point out something I really hoped no one would notice, which is that I never draw No Significant Harrasment (NSH) - who I hope you meant when you asked about sig, if not then dont look at me - and that is because I despise him with my whole heart. Or well, his design, the character is fine but I cannot draw this guy, I hate his colour scheme and his stupid little cape and why is his head symbols green on green - who allowed this - and in general we are not friends, which is a pity because I have alot of headcanons about him. But as you can see above I have semi settled on a design for him (note the semi, I am not super happy about it) and I do have some toughts and explanations.

So first of, I put NSH as being from the same model generation as suns - so predecessing moon and pebs by a bit - with older designs that have a larger focus on "religious stuff" combined with the anchients overall bonkers fashion sense - more is more - if you wanna read more about that its in this post about suns.

- I would also, this is a side note btw, like to mention I think having them being older models gives room to have some key differences between the oldies (NSH and suns) and the youngsters-ish (moon and pebs) in that one, they have older machinery and also early machinery which means both rougher quality and more wear and tear - which I like to think give them both the idea of slugcats as messangers earlier than most, as they knew their easily damaged functions (broadcast masts for example) would not last forever, which gives them a reason to want to solve it (by breeding scugs I guess) and added onto that I - and this is pure headcanon and speculation - like to imagine a lot of the "taboos" that pebbles and moon have - or well that I speculate they have, the no killing yourself or harming citizens taboo is confirmed canon, but I dont think its farfetched to asume they have other restrictions programmed - something that would most likely be added in later modles, but would be absent in the earlier ones like suns and NSH (not the earliest models but early) which theoreticly would give them a bit more leeway and "creative freedom", which ok why am I talking about this back to why NSH looks like that. -

Back to that, so suns and NSH will share design similarities: lack of face (to represent a lack of ego), lots of robes and layers, which leads us into the slightly more relevant sidenote of iterator clotheing:

So fashion comes and goes in cycles, your mom rebeled against her grandmothers clothing choises and is horrified when that fashion comes back via her daughter who think it looks cool again (20 year old rule or whatever) and that also applies to iterator design (look at that old suns ask for more info on this). So while I have talked about general trends a little, now I wanna talk about waistlines - in robes, because I have wanted an exscuse to talk about it, I be brief promise!

: so like you probably havent noticed all my iterators have different waistlines, or at least the ones from different generations - ignore moon, I'm a no robe for moon beliver, I like to draw joints and wires to much to give her robes - and I will sadly report I have not looked to closely at actual anchient fashion for the choises I made, but well cant have everything. So the most notable is probably pebbles, where I, ok Imostly fell for temptation of a modern highwaist cut, which while moslty being about my own tatse, also is an atempt to convey some form of "modernity" because while its a bright orange robe on a robot, it has a similar cut to highwaisted jeans. Which gives the silhoute from a couple years ago with a big bulky upper body and stick legs. But pebbles isnt intresting in that way, no its because every other design is a resistence against that.

And this again leads into the cycles of fashion. Because we know iterators were built under many cycles - however long those are - so we can asume it will be kinda like how fashion has changed from the 11th centrury to now. Which gives to reason that iterators have been dressed differently too. This added with that - from what I understood - different iterator cities (colonies) had different cultures (boradcast, red, in sky islands) all this then makes me kinda figure that the iterators should have different robes. Yes that was a long winded way to say that characters look different.

So back to waistlines and how their all anti pebbles robes - the most notable difference is of course suns, who has no waistline. They are not only without to create a bigger difference between them and pebbles, but to also lean a bit on - and this might not be the same for every culture - but on the general idea that older clothes were more "modest" or in this case, there are more layers and any hints of there being a body under there is desperatly covered. and that "modern clothes" have less layers and have show more skin - not that pebble is showing skin, but hes wearing one robe instead of seven. So with that the idea that suns is older is conveyed a little bit at least, and the same then applies to NSH. NSH while also having lots of layers, is different from suns by having an empire waistline, mostly because I think their cute and need them to look different, but also to give a hint that they have different city fashion cultures and also because when I see empire waists i think old paintins and old paintings=old.

-also while I'm on the subject of cultural differences between iterator facilities. Can we talk about how we only really get to see anchient society as its presented in moon and pebbles (shared?) facility. So really its very possible the whole aestetic is complelty different like five local groups away. Food for thought. -

So faceless and robe-rich is a similarity between suns and NSH, and I could mention many more, but I'm gonna restrain myself and only talk about headphones. As you can tell I - and most fanartist here - like to draw their antennas differently for all of them! which is also canon, but I also ignored canon so were gonna talk about it. Mostly the antennas give room for some fun mini details, like how moons look like wings or fins while suns are just sunbeams.

Anyhow so most people make NSH bald, me included, mostly because the super cool official art of him gives him no antennas (sad). I asume that means he works via bluetooth.

(I was about to start speculating about their headphones but that got to boring even for me so sorry if your super intrested in why iterators probably have headphones)

But I had a ulterior motive with bringing up the headphones - and not only to be able to point out moons antenna, which I delight in drawing - but also so that I can transition into the second part of this way to long response! itertors hairdos... wire-dos? basicly this \/

(im reusing my wip because these are a pain to draw so we use what we have - I coloured them in a bit for better oversight.)

(also I was gonna start talking about if iterators would actully do personalisations like this - as we can argue about if they concepulize themself as their puppets and see a meaning to decorating them - I would argue yes but also its complicated- and also explain how iterators have different prefernces, which I realised most people probably already asume so I didnt need to explain that - anyhow so that got to long so I'm not gonna get into it. Instead were gonna go into this section with the assumptions that they do fun things with their wires. and also that the wires connect to their nape and backhead instead of their back or spine.)

So to me th biggest thing to remember when we talk about potetial wire headwear is that:

- iterators live 24/7 without gravity and because of that cannot be bothered by to heavy headwear, therefore theres rooms for them and anchients (and me) to get funky with it without having to concider gravity.

-anchients wore absurdly many decorations - and while giving iterators flashy decorations does take away from my earlier statement that they were based on more humble monk stuff, we are going to asume they used the fancy headwear for cermonies and festivals (which we also know anchients did) and that it was used for showcasing and fun. If some iterators preffered to keep them afterwards is another query.

So with that in mind lets break these headwear thingies down!! :D

so as you can (hopefully) tell there three components in the headwear. The headphones that are different depending on iterator and are not removable (or as unremovable a computer part can be). Then theres the actual headpieces that keeps the wires togheter. These can be switched out and changed depending on whats preffered - also I drew them in gold but any material works, if were being closer to canon they would probably be made of some purposed organism and maybe be neon pink - theres also pearls dangling from them because its a perfect opertunity. Third theres probably the part I think is the most fun which is the actual wires. They obviously go through the headpieces and then are set free via wiretassles (that also comes in different forms) and after that is where my own speculations about wires comes in. Which is really simple in that iterators can most probably move the wires at will - they can control their arm thing, pearls and other objects in their chambers, reasonably they can move the wires - and I think its fun if different iterators move them differently. Like suns keeps them straight and neat, or pebbles moves them in syncronized formations or moon who just lets them hang, so many oppertunities ok ( you can see the general idea in the drawing). The wires then connect to their movement arms and connect to the mainframe.

And thats kinda about it? I dont have like anything super intresting to say about just the hairdos other than that I think its very fun and also that everyone is sleeping on wire customizations I am obbsessed with the idea send help.

Ok I think I'm done chatting!! Hope your still here and that this wasnt insufferable to read. Uh, thanks for the ask :D

(NSH for your enjoyment)

[thedeafprophet]

4, 5, and 8 for the artist ask meme?

4. What defines your artistic style?

well let me just look back at those handy dandy asks from the inverse artsyle meme i never finished answering, because damned if i know how to define my own stuff

Based on the consensus: clean linework, face focused, and in depth shading, all of which i would say i do, in fact, do. i would also say clothing is a big feature of mine lol

I would also define my artistic style process as 'layers upon layers of sketch clean up until its smooth enough'

5. Do you practice other styles/have you tried other styles in the past?

I would say my Smol Style is a bit of another artstyle on its own? i mean its still my art, cleary, but its of its own category

Other wise.... i would say all my art is just been an evolution of my style? There was a brief period i gave up drawing detailed noses cuz i was self concious about my style but i went back to it.

and drawing super realistically just doesnt work for me. and i love drawing with colours so.... stick to what im doin lol

8. What is your favourite piece that you have done?

oh gosh i dont know..... i love so many of my drawings for many reasons

I'm gonna go with the illustration with Jamie and their reflection, purely because I think its combination with posing + outfit design + set design put together really shows off my capabilities

Ask game from here

[okkalo]

hi!! congrats on 1k! ive been following you for a while on my main and i saw your event here on my writing acc:3 could i get a genshin matchup? heres my info!!

basics: hi my name’s aki!! im transmasc, have been since i was like, 11.im also gay.  i listen to vkei, punk and silly rock bands(ex. weezer). i love dogs and seals like sm i cant explain. my clothing style is kinda like..idk how to explain.

personality: intp-t gemini and PROUD💪💪 im very silly online but kinda introverted f2f. i take shelter in my online self a lot. i have ocd and am a BIG perfectionist and overachiever. required amount of sentences is 15? watch me do 30+. you want “just a few” artist recommendations? here have 10 with descriptions and song recs. i live off academic praise. i can switch to “straight A kid” to burnt out emo on tumblr. im def a quality time, phys touch and gifts kiddo. i crochet so like 70% of the gifts i give out are silly keychains. i tend to bottle up my feelings and sometimes just burst out like crazy. i used to do muay thai to help w that but my coach disappeared(literally)

appearance: im around 5’10, proud filipino but so many people say i look japanese☹️. i have light brown skin and eyebags. im kinda skinny but i play basketball and workout so im kinda like,, idk..i got arm muscles, just a lump though. i have black hair, like in the appearance above. i usually wear vkei makeup, not too much though sometimes it makes me look fem. i have fairly long eyelashes(i hate them). i dont have piercings, sadly, but i swear ill get some soon(its been 6 years since i first said “im gonna get piercings”) i also have those bayonetta glasses. 

music and interests: i listen to artists like the gazette, dir en grey, kamijo, mejibray nd more!! i also listen to bands like smashing pumpkins, le tigre, foo fighters, deftones, mcr, radiohead, alice in chains, misfits and weezer(so weezy) i had a BIG grunge phase. i love rainy sundays!! i am literally the biggest halloween fanatic ever. once me and my old lover pulled up in a matching viktor and corpse bride costume i loved it. as mentioned earlier i play basketball and crochet, i also play the guitar!

clothing style: very vkei vampirey stuff..kinda punk too but idk. i live in the philipines so layering is like throwing myself in a desert. some people call me a goth and i js stare at them like “nuh uh”. i wear a lot of accessories nd stuff. bat hairpins<33 

thanks!! sorry if this was a pain to read,, :<

hi aki! thanks for following me even through my hiatuses 🫶 and no worries ur matchup was fun to read!! u did have me very confused who would be a good matchup for u, however, so i hope u like who u got 🫶🫶 thank you for the request

ps. i have also been wanting more peircings on my ears (maybe a nose one too) but also haven’t gotten any so u are not alone

𝗶 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲 ₊˙♡﹗

𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 : tighnari from genshin

tighnari is an overachiever just like you! though, he knows when to draw the line so that he doesn’t get too exhausted. he would definitely try to draw a line for you, as well! that, and he knows how to give praise when it’s needed! he’ll always try to make sure you know how well you’re doing while also trying to keep you safe from a burnout!

he once considered handing out your crochet keychains to fellow forest rangers. he thought it would be an additional nifty way to scout out fellow forest rangers. though, whether he went through with it all decided on how you responded!

whenever someone misidentifies you as japanese or any other race you will always see tighnari’s ears twitching from annoyance. he’ll oftentimes be able to hold himself back from correcting the person right away, though not all the time. when it comes to your style, however, he’ll always go on a tangent about how you are not goth to provide you support as well.

tighnari is also very introverted as well and lives for his alone time, which he still considers to be with you on some occasions. he’ll love to hear your guitar during these times. i also head canon that he would be so interested in learning crochet for himself as well! so, if you would, please teach him!

[discourteouscuttlefish]

soo @drizzit i don't know if you were expecting an actual answer but I love rendering gold/silver actually so i'll answer haha

I'll tell you that my method was derived from a video I saw like one time and then just ran with the vibes. it might help you but it also would probably be most beneficial when used with actual references lol which I am very bad at using

short version, the shinier you want something to look the bigger the difference between the base and the darker colors and also the more solid the shading should be. if its textured (metal or fabric) it'll reflect less and therefore have less extreme color difference and less solid shades. I also tend to put all my gold pieces on one layer (and silver its own, essential one layer per type of metal) so I can shade in larger sweeping strokes

more with examples under the readmore bc this got kinda long oops

So here's some places where I wanted things to be shiny and chrome. To give it that look i pick a base color, then I pick a waaaay darker color to be the darkest shading, for silver that'll be dark gray or black and for gold I typically use a darker yellow/brown. Then I pick one or two lighter shades in the metal and then sometimes white

below is a typical three colors I use for gold

dont be afraid to use A LOT of the dark color, because the shinier and chromier an object is the more its going to reflect, see below and look how much of the object is NOT silver/gray in color because its reflecting so much. ALSO the different color areas are going to be more solid, like in the silver choker in the first pic where its solid lines of black and gray or below where large, smooth swaths of it is white/black/dark gray

adding a sparkle can also help lol, procreate has a premade shine brush

if an object is textured it will reflect less so you can do less extreme difference between colors and use softer, grainier brushes, below are some reference examples of how those textured metals look

here is a design I made with both gold fabric and textured gold pieces, the shading on the cloth is a lot less... rigid? solid? then the chromes and the dark color not quite as dark, same with the belt buckle. Also the brush i use is softer and with more of a grain so it's less solid and more diffused over the texture

these can be applied to more complicated designs. Typically I like to work with long sweeping strokes because i like to do things fast and a lil lazy. This isn't always going to end up with the most REALISTIC end result but hey, it works. you should still consider things like 'where is the light?' 'where are the objects and things that might reflect on the metal?' but if you want to get nitty gritty use a ref

below is an drawing i did where I started coloring the arm with large sweeping strokes down the whole arm and then I went in and did the detail work to give the decorations depth

i hope any of this made sense lol

[mukoda]

2 4 12 14 30 for dat ask game . hi btw

HELLO MY FRIEND KENT EMPTYLOTFIASCO i hope youre having a fun and exciting day

2. is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

i had to check my own files to see which one i draw more and it seems like i tend to draw people facing left so LEFT i guess. idk i never thought about this.

4. favorite character/subject thats a bitch to draw

I dont know how to draw beautiful women 😔 i also like drawing ruffley outfits and clothes with lots of folds and layers but I CANT FIGURE OUT RUFFLES. RAHHH

12. easiest part of body to draw

its the eyes. #im different #im special. hands are pretty easy for me too though i have more trouble with them than with faces and eyes which are generally pretty easy for me (probably mostly because i usually draw them simple)

14. any favorite motifs

this doesnt come across a lot in my character artwork (the stuff i post) but those of you who have seen my personal work know i like portraying different Lights. and the Sun. big fan of light. also i depict a lot of Games ie poker, chess, mahjong, etc

30. what piece of yours do you think is underrated

ANYTHING WITH TATSUYA IN IT RAHHH okay actually this is hard to pick because i feel like all the paintings i post dont get as much traction as i wish they did compared to stuff i put less effort into lol. But thats not an answer thats just me bitching A MORE DEFINITE ANSWER FOR YOU IS. the saeko painting that is currently my icon i was REALLY happy with it i think it looks really nice but it got like 30 notes. which is fiiiiiine its fiiiiine i dont care its fiiine i dont care about notes (cares)

[snobgoblin]

saw you were looking for crit on your arcana oc and thought i’d weigh in as someone who also struggled with recreating the arcana style. the first thing that stuck out to me as being different from the arcana style was the brushes you used, your lineweight and the shading.

the arcana game uses a pretty distinct brush set which was once available by a user called like savenkey or something?? you might be able to find the brush set just by looking around online but it definitely comes in handy when getting that slightly textured & tapered linework. as it currently stands, your lines are quite thin, made of a pretty smooth brush, can be a teensy bit wobbly in some places and dont have any tapering towards the ends. to make this close to the arcana style i’d recommend upping the thickness a little bit (if you’re struggling with space between pixels just bump up the canvas size a bit) and increasing the amount of stabilisation. the tapering could potentially be done by hand (ie erasing the ends of lines to make them thinner) but it’s super time consuming so i’d recommend just using the arcana lineart brush (on a side note, if you don’t manage to find the set but are still interested i could try work out how to send them over?). another thing to note when drawing lineart is that the arcana game uses a lot of sharp edges, especially around the elbows, jawlines and fabric folds, don’t be afraid to thicken those approaching edges up, just to create a spike where the two lines intersect

as for the shading, the whole brush thing also comes into play as the arcana style shading brush has a bit of roughness and is on a slight angle, that’s what creates these areas on the in-game sprites. i can also see you’ve begun to alternate between hard and soft shaded edges but i think a few harder, more definitive edges would help it look closer to in-game art. the arcana shading is also all done in a pale lavender colour on a multiply layer. it looks like you’ve done it on the face but it’s also the case for the rest of the body and clothes too & really helps make that distinctive arcana vibe. it can definitely be difficult shading curly hair and i also struggle with it, but curly haired ingame characters (especially those with shorter hair) do still have big blocks of highlights, doing one big swathe across the side of the skull would better mimic the style, with additional smaller highlights (sometimes less is more) to denote extra curls

and then a few extra details that might come in handy:

- the arcana game uses a textured overlay over their characters’ images, i don’t know if this is the exact one they use but it definitely works! slap it over your character as a clipping mask with the overlay layer filter (you might need to lighten or darken the grey to ensure it doesn’t mess with your characters colours too much) and then just drop the opacity to wherever you think looks best

- (as far as i’m aware) all arcana characters have fingernails drawn on, adding some to your character (whether they’re painted or not) might be a nice touch

- no matter how small or thin, generally all smaller details like tassels/string ties/jewellery or other metal details are all given lineart and coloured, the details are such a pain in the arse to draw but it definitely makes the final look worth it imo

- i’m not 100% sure how you’ve drawn on the blue details but in-game, they’re usually drawn using a screen layer with slightly lowered opacity over both the colour and lineart, and some of the edges are slightly shaded out

however, as far as art style mimicry goes i can’t recommend bast_art13’s tutorials enough, i’m not entirely sure if they’re still active in the community either (i was mainly active in 2020 and have only just started crawling back in💀) but their tutorials are still up on tumblr i think (somewhere). they really break down how the arcana artists draw faces/facial features and explain recurring stylistic choices, for example, how metal is shaded

anyway! that was a lot and i do want to say that you’ve made a really brilliant effort, the style is really difficult to emulate and the way you’ve drawn your oc is really nice!! you did so well, especially when seeing the improvement between this one and your previous drawing. and ofc it’s needless to say i’m a stranger on the internet, take what i say with a pinch of salt or just completely ignore the bits you think are stupid if you want ! it’s a perfectly acceptable response to unwanted pieces of criticism :]

while i’m here i also want to say that i’m obsessed with ur valdemar fanart + you’re doing the lords work with the amount of content you make for them. with that aside, good luck on your future drawings in the arcana style!! i’m sure you’ll do great & apologies if my handwriting was unreadable! also if you have any further questions feel free to ask :3

ohhhhh thank you! this is all very helpful and I'm grateful you took the time out of your day to share with me what you've learned, I'll definitely be taking this to heart for my future efforts

[fourthwingingit]

My hcs for the rwby girls body types bc it bothers me that there's not enough buff girl rep in the fights anime (all images described in alt text, pls inform if i missed one)

Disclaimer: we will be getting into both fashion muscles (looks only) and function muscle (function only) dont @ me with the "thats impractical" bull. Its a mix of course some of it will be

1) and most obviously

Yang xiao long

I think she looks like clarissa sheilds (with a slightly hourglass-y-er shape, just a liiiittle bitty bit extra)

Who is clarissa sheilds? You may ask! SHES A PRO BOXER WITH THE WORLDS BIGGEST "oh shes VERY athletic bu- OH MY GOD SLEEPER BUILD" I'VE EVER SEEN

Not flexing? Yeah shes strong no doubt. Those abs could probably crush you but is she Really a pro ath-

HOLY FUCK GUNS!

Anyways yang is a boxer and it should be her arms yall lesbians thirst over. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

2)

Ruby rose

I actually think her muscles are more hypertrophic (bigger, sort of fashion muscle vibes) than her sisters. But shes got The Ultimate sleeper build (sleeper build is "jacked but doesnt initially look it" for those wondering). Tho her sleeper build is bc she layers so many clothes on top of clothes lmao.

That being said, i think shes got a lithe build with Powerlifters arms n legs. Why? She casually yeetz herself and controls a gun that can yeet her. She picks up other people all the time. Canonically speaking ruby should be able to armwrestle nora

So in conclusion:

3)

Blake belladonna

I think blake looks like an MMA fighter! Which means lithe for cardio, mildly hypertrophic from conditioning, and Beefy Core

All im saying is yang shouldnt be the one whose abs are lusted over in this ship. She canonically wears a crop top that Looks Like The MMA Outfit!!!!

I will also accept an acrobats/gymnasts build bc of All That Jumping she does. But all that would do is give her Ultra Strong and Flexible Thighs on top of the core of steel

4) the reason i made this list

Weiss shnee

Now i understand the impulse to draw her like the ballerina she appears to be! I get it! But i dont think it suits Her. It certainly makes sense from a family standpoint, but not from a personal standpoint

This one even seems to be in her costume (almost). Clearly inspiration was taken, and ballet is a major inspiration in how she is dressed. But it is Not an inspiration in how she Moves!

She moves like a rapier user. She has Perfect form. Look up fencing and HEMA winners for her build, while you can build her grace like a dancer (clearly) you cannot say her general movements are anything but swordplay.

Look at this model. She is still graceful here, just like the ballerina was before, but she is no longer graceful for you to look at. She is graceful for a reason. Wasted movement is wasted time. Wasted time is a battle lost.

Her arms appear more toned, she appears more strong and isnt pathalogially soft (which she WOULD be if she was a ballerina lbr).

Weiss isn't build like a ballerina because she rejected the idea not because she couldnt be an excellent one. And she should have less twiggy arms!

[4-beans-in-a-bog-askblog]

Also will you be posting reference art for those who want to make fan art?

(yes!!! of cource i will! im actually still working on some design stuff and figuring out refrence stuff for some of them tho. like, ive got Mary mostly all the way finnished, but i need to rework Lianes clothes a little ittle bit, need to figure out fully and make sure all of Luciens prostetics work, plus having proper drawings of them from all angles so its easier to refrence and draw cause prostetics are hard to figure out, and really badly need to re work and get Arata some better under layers under his jacket. but for now, i can just share the refrences ive been working on recently and show some past drawings ive done up that have stayed pretty consistant with the designs[i lied i just took pictures of a bunch of my designing prosses cause its fun] :> enjoy!)

(this ones most recent and trying to figure out true refrence page stuff, all beyond this point are old in some way, even going back a few months[dont have will to get old sketch book out for first first design stuffs with liane and arata], so be warned.)

[impossiblepackage]

The manager needs an office with a chair to process work orders EXCEPT for very early on in a fort, where they don't need anything at all.

Nest box is made in a craftsdwarf workshop

Animal husbandry is simple as just letting them breed a bunch, which they'll do on their own, and butchering as needed. Just be mindful of total grazing area. If you start seeing patches of dirt appear in your pasture, it needs to be bigger.

Vermin catcher exists solely to catch animals so they can be pets. Not much use unless you have something specific in mind(or just wanna give somebody a pet rat)

Hunters exclusively use ranged weapons. They need a crossbow and bolts to do any actual hunting. Hunting animals can help them a lot, dont underestimate them.

Traps are mainly for fort defense. You could, however, catch animals in cage traps then tame them (while still in the cage). Once they're tame, you can easily have them slaughtered with no risk.

A stray animal is just an animal that doesnt have an owner. Most animals must be assigned an owner by you, or you can set an animal to be open for adoption and then a dwarf might choose them. Cats adopt dwarves though, so nothing you can do about that

You can make a general use temple that will be plenty for a while. If you get enough dwarves of a single religion, they'll petition you for a temple. I'd stick to a general one until you get a petition.

Thread is made at a farmers workshop from hair/wool/plants. Silk is automatically thread when gathered. Cloth is made at a weaver. Plaster is made from gypsum at a quern or millstone(I think?). Soap is made at a soapmakers workshop from fat gathered from butchering and lye made at an ashery. It's not ESSENTIAL but it's good to have. You DO need access to fresh water, from either a river or a pool at least 2 z levels (if it's only 1 z level, then they'll be drawing muddy water which is bad)

Making a well is a whole thing. You want it at least 2 z levels deep. You want a way a whole bunch of things. One way is to make a reservoir in an aquifer layer with a trapdoor connected to a lever, leading to a shaft that fills up your well. If it ever gets too full you can just cut off the flow via lever. It's a whole project. Or you can just dig a shaft down to the caverns and hope you find deep enough water there.

Lots of people specialize in a certain thing but yeah, you can just make whatever now. You can decorate goods before you sell them to get big money. Or you can decorate them so that your dwarves have nice things. It's up to you. Bone armor isn't very good but it is very cool so go nuts. You can also just trade the cut gems if you want.

Dwarves will not randomly make stuff of their own accord(with one exception). However, you can set up a bunch of crafstdwarf workshops and just set a work order to make X number of crafts per month and dwarves will use them to do that, if they have the time and inclination. Building Guildhalls is also a good way for them to get skills that may be more preferred to you.

Once you have a population of 20, a dwarf will occasionally get a strange mood, where they will take over a workshop related to their highest 'moodable' skill and demand certain types of materials. If they don't get those materials, they will go insane forever. If they DO get those materials, they will make an artifact, which will be extremely valuable and, if it'd a weapon or armor, way more effective than it's primary material would normally be. This also fulfills the "create a great work of art" life goal.

Welcome to the first edition of DwarfNotes, where instead of getting overwhelmed and quitting the game forever, I lay out what I'm working on and the questions I have at the moment (no one needs to answer unless they want to, I'm looking at tutorials and the wiki when I have a mind to).

Work Orders - Orders are beginning to pile up and my Manager still doesn't have a proper office. I think he just needs a chair in one of the rooms I designated as office in order to actually process the orders. Animals Nest box not appearing - This feels like a glitch. The nest box option just does not appear under carpentry or stoneworking despite everyone saying it should. What to do with penned animals - Self explanatory. Haven't done anything with the animals I've brought across all three forts except milk and shear a couple. I take it I need to work on animal husbandry before butchering/tanning them. Vermin catcher - I made one of these just because, nothing has happened with it yet. Hunting - I have assigned hunters but I don't think they've done anything of the sort. If you didn't notice, Meat has been None in pretty much all screenshots. Maybe I need to keep hunters exclusively focused on hunting? Traps - No clue about traps, but probably important for meat, yeah?

Strays - Seeing some stray animals in my fort. Cats I understand can be useful to let roam, but I also see a mule and llama roaming around.

Temples - I need to spend more time looking at dwarf profiles and gauging religious interest. Do I just make a bunch of temples for each religion I see in profiles, or stick to one temple for one religion?

Hospital materials - Splints, crutches, and buckets are just carpentry. Thread, cloth, powder for casts, and soap I don't know how to make. I also need a steady supply of water right?

Water - Want to make an indoor well for easier access to water and in case everyone needs to take shelter.

Crafting - I'm starting to make goods without a clear purpose. I also have those troglodyte bones which I assume are good for bone gauntlets and the like, that'd be dope. Similarly, I have a lot of gem work being done without knowing what to do next, I guess time to adorn the goods with them?

Lore - As mentioned with temples, I gotta start reading dwarf profiles and seeing what my people are up to in between jobs. I think dwarves will use unused workshops to make random stuff when the mood strikes? I should make more workshops then.