#the attempt to be easier on myself and post sketches

[fredwardrawn]

Yay, I actually colored it~

(Values below)

[vilebird]

BOTH TOO MUCH AND NOT ENOUGH

1) "I have been found wanting, Natalie thought; I have made myself unacceptable and am not worthy." - hangsaman, by shirley jackson

2) text: "meat must be beaten brutal into tenderness, that any body softens with violence, she grinds salt into the carcass, like a wound, a memory". image: a carcass of beef, cleaned, with the ribs on prominent display, painted in oils and rendered in thick strokes of red, orange, tan and white, on a plain dark red background. the text is cutouts on top, dark red text on light tan. - Family Portrait as Unfinished Meal, by Torrin A. Greathouse and Le Bœuf by Chaim Soutine. collage put together by @invisiblemonstrosity

3) a pale hand crushing ripe red strawberries, green leaves still attached, on a plain white background. - apparently by ouiloved on flickr, but they seem to have deleted.

4) bust photo of a tan person with a spotlight on them outside in the dark, head turned down, shoulder length messy wet black hair obscuring their face. their hand is raised to their chest and they are wearing a white tank top. fake blood is splattered and wiped around their chest and mouth. - i can't actually find this one all my attempts lead back to unsourced tumblr posts if you know where its from. help me

5: "You have no one who has any sort of consideration for you. You have had patience and endurance, and what have they done for you? Half-killed you." - carlyle’s house and other sketches, by virginia woolf

6: "try your whole life to be righteous and be good, wind up on your own floor, choking on blood" - sept 15th 1983, by the mountain goats

7: "such a waste of a girl, such rumination. i am obsessive. i contain nothing but the replay. i am blood and blood and replay. i am please don't go." - i put the coffin out to sea, by lisa marie basile

8: an image of a partially bald baby bird begging for food, drawn in the desaturated greens and black of a trailcam, on top, the text reads "i am asking you for something i need", on bottom, the text reads "why is it so hard to give it to me?" - trailcam baby, by @quezify

9: "was i raised without love? / or was i born unloveable?" - @psychwarded

10: "I, in my corner, with my monstrous needs." - As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh, susan sontag

11: "oh, i know that i'm not whole, and sometimes feel the flies swarming, like much of me is rotten." - roadkill ode, chad abushanab

12: a photo of a cut tree where much of the centre is rotted from fungus, accompanied by the text: "heart rot in pine. heart rot is the softening of a pine trees resinous heartwood, caused by an in-dwelling fungus. not all pines have it, but those that do make the excavation of a tree-hole next cavity easier for the red-cockaded woodpecker."

13: "rot made a home inside my body." - i know it's from "bloat" but cant find the authors name again. i think it starts with a c?

14: photo of an abandoned house in shades of brown and beige and orange, the walls are wet and scuffed and the drywall has been torn open in places, exposing the old lath. - abandoned, by @jaggedplains

15: photo of a mouldy strawberry, fading from bright red to grey-green fluff - Strawberry Gray Mold disease stock photo, by MediaProduction on gettyimages

16: "you ever feel like you were born with something rotten inside you and if people get close enough they're gonna find out" - tumblr post by @twoheadedfawnn

17: "we are meat, we are potential carcasses,' he once said. 'if i go into a butcher's shop i always think it is surprising that i wasn't there instead of the animal." - francis bacon

18: "you dangle on the leash of your own longing; your need grows teeth." - speeches for dr frankenstein, by margaret atwood

19: photo of a python hanging off a roof coiled around a black and white bird, poised to eat it - i heard some noise on the roof this morning, by candycane7 on reddit

20: "all that matters is that you want to hurt me. all that matters is that you want me." - when rome falls, by yves olade

21: "god told me i was forgiven and then he split me open" - god is made of hunger and i am made of dreams, by katie maria

22: "but this is not about love. once a pig is hung and cut straight, cut from rectum to neck, step inside her death like it is a room: that is how to touch her now. the lord said, you must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses. then came the end of the rib." - oh let's just be hogs, by gregory emilio

23: photo of a strawberry cut in half with its leaves attached. it is bright red, steel knife wet. the background is bright white and plain. - cut strawberry by liz west on flickr

24: photo of a handmade cloth sculpture of a dead autopsied pigeon, red zipper like an incision opening to its empty red interior, small cloth and thread organs arranged around it. - pandora: city pigeon, by jessica bartram

25: '"u need a therapist" actually i need to be euthanized' - tumblr post by deactivated user @122mg

[wachtelspinat]

do you have any advice, resources or practices you recommend for making your art more expressive? I adore how you push expressions and body language, and the way it keeps its weight is phenomenal! I wanna learn how to do that, too!

hey thank you so much <3

one of the most important things that i've learned on my way and that i've kept in my mind ever since is what makani states in [this post] sometimes i go into a drawing and just try to construct it bit by bit, only to realize that the eyes don't fit the mouth etc... then i remember to treat it all as ONE expression and (second very important lesson incoming) i erase everything and start anew (i know it feels bad to just delete a sketch of a head (you don't have to delete it right away, you can always just take another layer) but believe me it not only saves you tons of time, you also learn more when you just start over from scratch. the thing i do is as follows, i keep the bad sketch open and try to figure out what i don't like about it, and put extra focus in those areas in the new sketch. like i think the eyes were too dull in the first try? the solution is to draw them open even wider, turn up that expression a nodge, try to "bend" it). i know this sounds exhausting, you might think isn't it easier to just try to fix the first sketch? i thought so too for many years, but believe me, if you don't like it, start a new one. you will always be amazed on how good it can turn out (and, as said before, the benefit of analyzing your own art and trying to figure out what went wrong and fixing it in a new attempt is HUGE.)

third thought on this is "don't be afraid to push the boundaries". like i grew up being a huge ren & stimpy fan as a kid, i love classic cartoons, i love exagerated expressions so much, eyes popping out, sweat drops flying around, over the top visualisation of feelings. that's my shit (pizza tower i'm looking at you). then on the other hand i also love things feeling palpable and real, hence the weird mix of my style i guess... what i want to say is: don't be afraid to push your expressions a bit. not only is it fun, with the right balance it really adds to it all (in regards of body language and facial expressions likewise).

and last but not least, so important: use references. i often take photos of myself doing weird gestures just to see how the mouth or the eyes would look like for a specific expression, how the nose wrinkles, how the shoulder come up when trying to visualize that someone is tense etc etc. use ref, please, not only photos but also drawings, try to figure out how other artists translate certain gestures in their art, how can you stylize this (everything ofc without copying directly from them... like for personal practice everything is cool and chill, but respect the rules of the artist community)

it is hard to pinpoint down how everything we do in our art lives comes down to what we draw at the end of the day, like everything i post, how it looks, is the result of almost 2 decades of drawing with a purpose, but i hope this helps a bit.

[cyren-myadd]

And if it's possible for you, could you make a story of Avatar 2 by Neytiri and Spider Socorro together mother and son, please?

When I first saw the prompt, I was shocked, because I'd never thought of writing something like that before and it felt out of my comfort zone as I haven't written Neytiri much. I almost deleted it. But for some reason, it kept sitting in the back of my head and I finally decided just to give it a chance and write a little one shot. And that one shot turned into a two shot. Which turned into a three shot. So by the time I realized I had enough for three separate chapters I figured I might as well commit to making this a proper fic.

This was seriously the hardest thing I’ve ever written. When I first decided to attempt the prompt, my first thought was an AU where they adopt Spider right from the beginning, but then I thought it would be more interesting if I tried to keep things canonical but diverge from the main storyline instead. I tried so hard to write both Spider and Neytiri true to how they behave in canon while also trying to create a scenario where they would realistically bond like a mother and son. It’s really difficult since they have such a rocky relationship, I deadass think it would’ve been easier to write a Quaritch X Jake romance that sticks close to canon lmao. I'm not sure if the end result is exactly what anon had in mind, but this is what came of it, so I hope y'all enjoy!

and yes, I know I also said I would continue Special Treatment and Lucky Number Five. I am planning to continue them, my life's just gotten a lot busier, so I can't make any promises about updates unfortunately.

And as for Common Enemy... 😭😭😭 I think I intimidated myself out of finishing it, I might just go back and clean up the sketches and then post the comic as it is right now, you guys will still be able to enjoy the story, it'll just have sketchy art instead of the usual finished product, cause I bit off way more than I could chew with 15 pages.

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Cabin development progress💙

Helloo guys and welcome new followers it's been a long while, now that spooky month is over here's how the game is coming along!

A very big thank you to the recent influx of interest around 2 weeks or so ago, I wasn't expecting much since I was busy/drawing for Noahween. :,,]

**I'm going to still be busy but in good news not as much as before. Game development posts might be every 1-2 weeks now depending on how things go! :,]

After I posted the previous game development I wasn't able to work on the game until recently and I wanted to give myself another week to re-adjust before saying anything.

Now that I'm getting settled in here's what I've been doing to the game:

Dialog adjustments:

I've been going through and gradually adjusting certain scenarios. I want to keep the foreboding flow with hints of comfort in between so I'm still adding a little more depth on how the player(Y/N) feels/reacts from being back in the cabin again and Noah's attempt at hospitality during this segment. I also cut down the dialog again by combining smaller sentences into one text box unless the situation calls for it to be separated. :]

More CG work in progress:

One quality of life change I really wanted to do back then was add a few CG's of Noah when you're back in the cabin again. Originally there was going to be one or two in the [Extended Demo] but they were scrapped because my art skills weren't where they are now and I still need to practice perspective, etc but enjoy these really really rough sketches, the second one is old but I'm trying to figure out how I want it to look and how I want the pose to be. :,,]

Choices that effects Noah's closeness with the player(Y/N):

Some of Noah's reactions to the player(Y/N)'s decisions give a neutral response versus a negative one that effects closeness are still being worked on. I'm going through everything but the process will need a lot of careful planning. Just have to make sure all the variables line up. :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you to everyone for the continued support during this long game development absence! >:]

[pluralthey]

is there a good place to start if we want to learn about idletry? im very interested in the story and all the bits and pieces revealed so far but i dont know if youve like, stated the basics both about the characters-in-story and how you’re releasing the comic

hi there. unfortunately, idletry became a passion project very abruptly and many details were added very quickly without regard for how long the project would take. once i did realize how large the project was, i decided that i would not even kid myself on the idea of holding in spoilers for the next 5 years, and those two factors combined make the information available very chaotic and slapdash -- somewhat intentionally.

i don't even have the comics tagged separately for easier access among the idletry content -- although, i could go back and give them a separate tag.

i can summarize the story and say that it's about a funny little talking honey badger/tasmanian devil named jessie gaylord who has for the last 10 years of her life been on heavy psychiatric medication in an attempt to mitigate a pervasive delusion that the world is a fictional story. she also has a notorious aggressive streak. these medications work primarily by leaving her so tired that she sleeps most of the time.

the story begins when her medical team has run out of typical medications to try, and they must order an older, more aggressive type of drug which is not commonly used anymore, and has a lengthier process to manufacturing and approving the drug. during this time, she is not on any medication, and she becomes more urgently fixated on convincing people that the delusion is true.

she ends up attempting to contact the writer, who is referred to as God, and she receives a response. she immediately attempts to write the story herself, and she's granted the ability to do anything within the story so long as she can write it out. (the intricacies and limitations of this power have been elaborated upon in a bunch of fragmentary posts, so i won't try to condense it here)

at the end of the first act, she kills the first writer and becomes the new God of her world. the rest of the story is about what she does after acquiring omnipotence, and it heavily features a character named fate -- or shiloh, as jessie calls her -- with whom she enters an intimate relationship.

she has a happy loving family composed of a father named adam, a mother named evelyn, and an older sister named emily. there is a later minor subplot about a cult following who worships her after she becomes God, and this cult is initially organized by an ant called samanthuel -- or samwich, as jessie calls them. these are usually the other characters i mention and i am too lazy to link them right now

the comic itself is currently being written. the script stands at around 51,000 words at the time of writing this as i work on the second act. after it's written, i will let it simmer for a few months and then write a second draft to start to relieve the story of its bloat. depending on its length at that point, i will either need to write a third draft, or i will start drawing the comic.

chances are, during the second draft, i will start to thumbnail or sketch scenes which receive little to no editing, as i know they will likely remain relatively unchanged even through multiple drafts.

the sketch strips are to tide me and an eager audience over in the meantime, but they've sort of dried up as i focus all of my attention on finishing the first draft and taking care of a puppy that was kind of just forced onto me.

i've made a couple of full-length comics before and they have taken years. it is, unfortunately, just the nature of the process. for idletry, i plan to self-publish the comic. i've never published something in print before, so that is the most daunting part for me.

the plan at the moment is to crowdfund this, but, to be frank with you, i no longer pay rent, and i care very much about having this comic as a printed book. i have no issue with paying the cost of printing out of my own pocket by the time it's done and am even anticipating that outcome ahead of time, despite having a pretty reliable audience by now.

i'm on the fence about releasing a digital book version, as i very much want to retain digital color versions of the pages that are more vibrant, but due to the explicit adult content of the story, i don't want it to be free-access.

tl;dr: it's about a lesbian incel with anger issues who's given omnipotence.

i'm still working on the story because i want it to be good.

i'm planning on printing it as a physical comic book once it's done.

[blacklem0ns]

for all the artists out there, doesn’t matter who you are. beginner, advanced, traditional, or digital. i just wanna know what you do to, well, stay motivated. i’ve always wanted to learn how to draw since i was young, but there are so many elements that go into learning art that even attempting it seemed so daunting to me. and as the years passed and i got older and older (i’m 16 now) the window of time for when i was “young enough” to learn how to draw got smaller and smaller. a lot of talented artists i look up to now have been doing it since they were in elementary school and i’ve only really started last month. it’s easier for us to pick up hobbies when we’re younger cause our brains are more “malleable” for lack of a better term. but if i don’t start now, years will pass and i’ll still regret not starting sooner. i really want to learn, but i’m kinda struggling to find to motivate myself to keep going.

i might post my sketches on here at some point for constructive feedback since i don’t have any artists in my personal life right now to give me pointers. but ppl can be kinda mean to beginner artist so i’m little scared 🙇🏾‍♀️ but yeah i just wanted to get this off my chest cause i’ve been thinking about it all month

[radar-chaos]

Big News!

I have a big announcement to make for everyone!

So, I know that over the past few months, I have been sparse to nonexistent. To make an incredibly tedious story short, I have had the life luck of an AO3 auther of late with my second semester's college finals, a mental burnout bad enough to deter my artwork since late March / early April, and other life troubles that have been kicking my way too patient ass. (Including the added mental strain of being a closeted Trans and Gay man in a family that thinks that both of those things deserve jail time and conversion camps.)

As such I have been thinking deeply about matters and considering with my Darling Squish about some changes that will, hopefully, allow me to return to the saddle with a much better workload.

On this blog, I will continue to drop doodles, sketches, artwork, and a new surprise you'll find down below, in an attempt to bring back my passion after crawling out of this minor burnout. I may still have some dips, but I no longer intend to allow myself to just- drop off the face of the earth again. Lol.

And I will also be beginning a new blog: A dedicated blog for the CvF askblog. Under the pressure that I have been, my Squish and I have agreed to shift the ask blog into a webcomic (easier to do since I already have a relatively solid storyline for it), though I will still be allowing in asks in case there is something in particular that you'd like to know. (Will update this post when I have the link to the Blog.) This is in an attempt to update CvF more regularly whilst still saving my sanity.

As well as both of those things, back on this blog, I will soon be opening up my Tumblr (and other site accounts) to commissions! As I love my artwork dearly and while always have the passion to create, this is something I've wanted to do for a few years now. This is also partly for the benefit of me and my Darling Squish, as both of us are attempting to move out of our homes and need the supplies to manage it safely.

In the meantime, I apologize deeply for my absence, as I recognize that there *are* those who quite like it when I post, and I greatly appreciate your support. I hope that the rollout of these new changes will help to inspire you all once again as I work to improve my work and effort.

[k00319458]

Our goal for Thursday and Friday of week 1 was to complete our story boards and to create a 'master shot'. The purpose of this finalised frame is to capture all of the necessary information in a scene. I chose the middle sketch as the viewer can understand what the animation is about in one frame. It also has the most interesting composition due to the figure framing the image (decisions made using my secondary research).

Although we gathered mood boards for the designs of our characters and background, I decided to make 3 colour iterations of my character to confirm I'd be satisfied with the final result. (I realise I made the mistake of doing this after I had already attempted to colour the final piece, as seen in the time-lapse.)

A big help to me was my using primary sources of fabric and ribbon (shown in my last post) to be able to render the hair and scarf easier.

I solved the issue of the broken arm placement by referencing a photo of myself in the same pose (shown below). The many attempts of the arm can be seen in the time-lapse also.

[nekroschafis-obsessions]

Most busy sheepi! (Obsession + insomnia is heavy atm) Also sorry my current focus is almost exclusively on the two projects I am working on (the sheep decorations last 4 pieces at my workplace / desk) and the digital project which for me is a totally new topic so I can barely find time to think of something else (or sleep) which means I can barely find the time for any of my other obsessions (unless it comes to random topics infodumping in conversations with my workmates or friends) so….I want to „apologize“ for being „gone“ but I can assure you the SP fandom and my obsession with my favourite characters will NEVER end! It‘s just currently resting because my mind can‘t split its focus endlessly, especially when there is so much new to learn and troubleshoot in my project. (and focusing on THIS plus a single-topic internet forum helps me distract from my waiting time as long as my housing situation is on hold). I also happened to stumple upon clips of the South Park End of obesity which already makes me excited for when I will take the time to finally watch it and focus on one of my many favourite cartoons again. At the moment I CAN‘T but I can be sure I won‘t out of future fandom inspiration that soon. \o/ And maybe when I become less busy with single topics / activities I will probably return to my other websites including this one again. After all I did have fun here and it‘s always nice to read about fandom stuff. Also I occasionally dive into fanart again, although currently in other topics, but this means I will probably be more confident of at least putting my ideas on paper / creating scribbles again instead of forcing myself to focus on non-fandom art for practice purpose / new techniques / commissions at my workplace. Anyway I currently don‘t post my sketches and photos here as I take a break of tumblr / insta / deviantart and focus on the fandom exclusive forum only as it feels better for me when it comes to keeping my inspiration and motivation level up and my depression / anxiety level low. It just feels like my youth again where one fandom community was the dominant gathering place that made it easier for me to create even quick fanart ideas, even when they are first attempts at this fandom art. So for now I‘m still all sheepi crafts and Don‘t Starve aligned, probably as long as I am trapped in my current house to keep my sanity and focus as high as possible (at the cost of staying awake for 3+ days and backaches and eyestrain)

But I fear I have barely felt that much happiness and that little anxiety within the past years!

Looking forward to post random stuff here again. :)

Anyway my compulsive negative thoughts have almost been reduced to zero since I started to dive into my current longterm focus.

So happy Schafi Mäh! \o/ Määääääh!!!!!

[areyoudreaminof]

WIP Wednesday: Rhys and Nyx

Rhys settled on the bed next to his son. Nyx had his mother’s talent for art though he preferred to sketch buildings and plants, as well as the occasional animal portrait for his cousins at the Day Court. The short time spent in the war camps was difficult for Nyx, but the reports that made their way back to Rhys made his son’s presence known. Namely, the heir to the Night Court had a penchant for carving the insignia in every single wooden surface he could, including the posts on Devlon’s tent. Nyx had his mothers talent, and her fire, for better or worse. 

Peering at the sketches, Rhys saw the massive round table with the Night Court insignia carved in the center. Illyrians and High Fae surrounded it, posed in mid motion. “What is this? It’s really good.” he said as Nyx tilted the small book towards him. 

“Just an idea, I guess. I thought it could be some sort of emissary hall for us and the Illyrians.” Nyx said, as he flipped to another page. A sketch showed a great longhall of wood and stone. “It could be a sort of neutral meeting place to gather. It would be between the camps and the villages. Probably easier.” Nyx shrugged as he flipped back to the sketch of the round table. “I keep messing around with the table though. Round seemed more equal, kind of like what High Lord Thesan has at the Dawn Court.” 

“Incredible.” Rhys murmured as he studied his son’s face. His brow was furrowed in concentration as his pencil flew across the paper. Absently, Nyx began to suck on his top lip, the same habit he’d had since he was a toddler. Rhys supposed now was as good of a time as any to talk about his decision to withdraw Nyx from the camps. It had been less than two years, and in that time two assisination attempts had been made on his son, all before the age of ten. The situation in Illyria was growing more unsteady by the day, so Rhys and Feyre came to fetch their son home. In the weeks since returning to Velaris, Nyx had been quiet, retreating to his room or the library at the House of the Wind. Rhys didn’t quite know what to make of it. Cassian said Nyx had a harder time with the boys, but was managing to train and hold his own. 

“Nyx, I’m sorry about everything. Pulling you out of the camp, putting you in there in the first place.” Rhys rubbed his eyes, struggling to find the words to pinpoint his feelings. “You are my priority, over Illyria, over everything. I just want you safe.” 

“It’s alright Papa, I understand.” Nyx said softly as he stared ahead. 

“Is it? I know the camps are hard, but I wanted you to have that experience, despite everything. It’s your heritage, and you’ll rule these people someday.” Rhys replied quickly, “Eight was too young, I realize that now, especially with how things are going.” 

“I know, I know.” Nyx said, as he bit his upper lip in thought. “I knew it was going to be hard, and I was ready for it. I knew they’d give me a harder time. I guess…” he paused for a moment, mirroring his father’s expression as he too searched for the right words, “You got to meet Uncle Cass and Uncle Az there, and I think I wanted that too. I wanted to find my own brothers and go to Ramiel. I’m not ashamed of our family or myself, but I feel, I don’t know, frustrated because I can’t control it. I’m the little princeling that got swept away when things got too hard.” Rhys sighed as Nyx quickly added, “I understand why you did it. But I just don’t know where to go from here.” Nyx flopped his head back onto the pillow as he set his sketchbook down on his bedside table. 

[warmhealerr]

18+ - Minors Do Not Interact.

Adult content sometimes. Even if it weren't the case I just don't want minors here. My Instagram is not my Tumblr.

I am Barnabas, though you can also call me Barney. I use he/they pronouns interchangeably.

I'm a hobbyist who writes and draws. I am currently deep in a DND phase kickstarted by BG3. I am fond of all things Gith- peoples, though Githyanki especially. I also love Deep Gnomes, and undead, go figure.

I am otherwise writing The City Of Dust aka TCOD (name to be changed) which I might post about from time to time. It has been my personal passion project for years.

If that information matters to you I am a French in France.

BOUNDARIES

I feel childish adding this section, but it's apparently important. I know how to curate my online experience like any other, and I also love dark media and kink, but, assuming you've read this, please tag incest fetish content if you'd like to further interact. Give a warning in your about/bio or via PMs. Use common sense. Being mindful of common triggers is a good thing, and I can't curate otherwise. Thank you.

I do not like people who revel in being the most edgy and/or jugdemental in the room.

No gen AI.

I block whoever I please for reasons related or unrelated to former points.

TAG INFO AND MORE UNDER THE CUT

TUMBLR STUFF

ASKS

I welcome any ask no matter its content (that includes asks of an adult nature, or negative feedback).

TAGS

I am God awful at tagging things even though I have been using Tumblr for years. I am especially forgetful when it comes to character or ship tags. This is an attempt at changing that.

#rambling for when I talk about... Nothing.

Feel free to request ship or character tags (as I usually forget them) in my ask inbox. My ship tag format usually goes #x/y.

I usually do not tag suggestive content (I just don't think about it, this blog is already 18+). I will tag explicit sexual stuff with #nsft.

Content warning tags will use a single word, like #gore. This is to avoid typing gore cw instead of cw gore (for example) in case someone doesn't have that former tag iteration blocked.

I usually do not phobia tag (I might sometimes tag specific living beings like #bugs or #spiders. It is for archive navigation purposes but perhaps you could find it useful to hide them).

Feel free to request CW tags in my ask inbox.

MY TAGS

#myart for my visual art : from sketches to fully rendered, anything goes. I describe my rendered art for the visually impaired, and/or comprehensive visual clarity for an easier analysis. I usually do not describe sketches especially if posting a bunch of them.

#my writing for any kind of writing I put out. I don't write lots of polished stuff though. It's mostly summaries, script drafts and ideas I use to communicate with myself first, and then other people. It's hardly literature imo.

My individual OC tags go "#charactername tag" for easy navigation purposes.

"#Fist of the Comet" additional tag for Ta'rath post BG3 campaign

"#underdark siblings" for Joufos/Oulmat/Zilkon, their other family members and Oulmat's patron.

#TCOD for TCOD (until name changes).

I will add more tags here once relevant. Thank you.

Ta'rath spin...

[this-is-not-a-slow-burn]

"I neeed to creaaaate". But first I must gather.

One of the biggest hurdles to creating things with my hands is the process of gathering supplies. It saps me of the motivation to actually do the thing the supplies are for.

The reasons behind this are probably ADHD and dopamine related, but that's for another post.

But yesterday I had a revelation.

looong post with images under the cut!

TL;DR Make baskets or boxes that have all the supplies you will need for a single type of project, so they can just be picked up and used.

So we all know that being organized can make things easier. But when the ADHD strikes, no amount of organizing can solve the issue completely.

Case in point. All of my art supplies are organized by type. All of the alcohol markers, felt tip markers, fine liners, colored pencils, regular pencils, brush tip pens, pastels, etc are mostly on one shelf (frequently used are in a desktop carousel), all of the paper is organized by type: card stock, (further organized by plain, textured, or patterned, and all are color sorted, etc) blank printer paper, origami paper, velum. Below that are the notebook/pad style art papers, watercolor, sketch, bristol, plus canvases, and sheets of watercolor paper. All adhesives are in one drawer. There is a "idk where the fuck this belongs" drawer with those odds and ends that are important but solo in their class. There are magzine holders full of journals and sketchbooks, reference books

blahblahblah

(those totes in the left cube are not transparent. the table reflection makes them look that way though)

Great! Yay! Hooray! You can find what you need pretty quickly!

:|

Yes. But.

Art making and crafting isn't a mono medium. You see posts that say things like "all you need is a pencil and paper!" and sure yes, that's technically true. However my brain fills in with ....and an eraser, and you need a flat surface, and the paper has to be the right kind, the right size, what kind of sketch is this? what hardness of pencil do you need? Is there enough light in the room? Do you need references?

(yes I even torment myself with the "well akshully" stuff)

The art I make is rife with "parts", like painting (paints, palette, water, brushes, paper towels, surface to be painted on, apron) collage (base medium/substrate, image sources, adhesives for different types of paper, scissors, craft blade) sewing (fabric, shears, needles, thread, buttons, elastic, zippers, velcro, hook and eyes, snaps, ribbon, lace...) , etc.

(I do have most of the printmaking stuff in one container so that's a start...)

what's that saying about how a messy desk is the sign of a creative person?

The process of "shopping" my shelves for what is needed seems to derail any motivation. It feels like maybe my brain is happy with the idea of creating, and that's good enough. Like gathering the stuff is the goal, and having satisfied that, my brain dumps dopamine all over. Which is way less than ideal. (I am very guilty of the "I thought about doing it and am just as satisfied as if I had done it." thing. It's awful.)

SO. Then yesterday, while looking for something else, I came across a wire basket full of the supplies I had gathered to do a sewing project in bed, and I thought, that was so smart. how handy.

And I realized that I could do that with ALL of my supplies! Or at least, make up some project baskets with everything one would need to do that thing, all ready to go. So when an idea comes to mind I can just grab the basket and sit down for some art time, instead of chipping away at the urge one shelf at a time.

I sort of did this with a tackle box style of art tote, and a bunch of collage images, pens, and stickers, but it's not quite there.

(pictured: a halfassed unintentional attempt at this idea. plus a bunch of scraps that were pissing me off and got tossed in "rage")

It will be great for those times when the urge to make something comes up, but not a specific thing, just that "I neeed to creaaaate" blinking neon sign that can be so fleeting. Grab a basket and satisfy the need without distracting faffing about.

Obviously I'm not the first one to ever do this, and pre-school teachers are probably giggling at me for only just now thinking of this, but hey. We all learn at different speeds :p

(Oh, and I promise the fabric and desk will be at least a little bit less messy this weekend :3 )

[emilydaisymasters]

Rigging Test 1: Scene 6

I thought it time to finally bite the bullet and do some playing around with rigging, essentially teaching myself, since I haven't ever ventured into rigging a character before. However, I wanted to begin with some simpler assets for the background, so I began with the leaves on the trees.

Leaves

There were some huge tweaks that had to be made to my intended scene set up in order to get animating the leaves to work. Originally, I intended to only animate the front set of leaves for the tree, but then I considered that it might look a bit odd with the back leaves stationary, so I went into the original background files and created further PNGs for the back leaves, now having them split into 3 separate assets. To begin, I went about animating with pegs and the movement tool, creating key frames for the leaves and skewing them back and forth to create a rustling effect. This turned out fine, though looked a little bit stiff in the long run, especially with the loop.

To remedy this, I went researching about the different nodes on offer, and came across the shake and quake nodes via this video by Youtuber ZeBirdBrain. The nodes both impart a tremor in different amounts, and I believed this might be able to spice up the movement a little, so after playing around with the nodes, as can be seen below, I achieved a nice shuffling of the leaves.

Character

Not wanting to stop there and feeling a bit on top of the world at successfully impacting some movement onto the scene, I went and decided I would try to actually rig the character. This proved daunting, to say the least.

I began by looking up rigging in harmony on youtube, and after trawling several videos to find what I was looking for, this video by Youtuber Onion Skin, somebody I have referred to in the past, proved my best bet.

As per his instructions, I began with a sketch.

His advice was largely to keep body parts as separate entities, even in this basic stage, so as to make lining it easier in the future. I knew this scene would be the easiest of them all to rig, as the movement is minimal and only one perspective of the character is seen, and it's without any facial features. As such, I referenced both my character sheet and the animatic to create this sketch (bigger in size since I've learned from previous quality control mistakes).

From here, I began the lining process, then the colouring in, to get a basic model for my character, each limb and moveable part on a separate layer.

Then came making the bones for the character, and this was tricky, since my perspective was vastly different to the character he was creating, so I had some deciding to do on which assets would have a skeleton.

The bones I decided on were placed in the torso and pigtails, the central points of movement.

From here came a lot of grouping, inserting kinematic outputs and resetting of pivot points to create a solid rig for the character.

The animating itself was quite fun, getting to work with tilts and rotates and bends to achieve a realistic effect, though I had a lot of layers.

I will upload the final result of the movement I managed to achieve, minus the presence of the Dad character, and the correct character placement on another post.

Overall, for my first attempt at properly rigging I am so so impressed with how it turned out, and I really feel as if I have burned a lot of the process into my memory. I will be continuing with rigging for smaller assets and other scenes, so I'll have plenty more to show off in future posts.

[namelessmewmew]

Old Art Archive Part 6.

Original captions under the cut.

1 -2. Title: New Icon :]. New Nea icon cause its been a while since I have drawn him :]. I do like having myself as my icon but Nea is my mascot and I like how chibi this came out.

3. Title: I need a idea 44 [original filename]. Artblock? Just tired? Melting from the current heatwave here? [Yeah but still]. Point is haven't really been drawing much lately. So here is a sketch I had lying around of an attempt to slightly redesign Meta [I wanted to give her bigger paws and more face fluff like an actual lynx].

4. Title: Met-a Cute. Hi my brain has been pestering me to draw a cute Meta for a while so here's this, its a bit rough but overall like how it came out. In doing this I tried to do a pose I haven't done before without a ref so the pose probably looks at least a bit off lol. As well as that I had fun with the symmetrical tool [for the big butterfly] and even made a very quick brush! [those little butterflies in the back].

5. Title:   What the 'dog' doing? The slightest design update, he now has hands rather then paws [oh and his scythe is now cooler now :]] Need to figure out how to get his eyes to look properly creepy though. Also I tried to do something interesting with the perspective and shading.... -w-

6. Title: Horse. This is a week or so old but didn't know what to do with it so just slapped some yellow and purple light and a bunch of sparkles :], the hair shading looks kinda nice!

7 -8. Title: Metamorphosis * Glitter. Just wanted to make another of these pixel glitter gif with little pixel borders things with Meta... Like how it came out [especially the shading and the border] :]

9. Title:  Just a Lynx. Just wanted to draw a little Meta, cause its been a a bit. Shading is a bit scuffed but eh, whatever.

10. Title: Catboy Jumpscare! I finished this a few days ago but keep delaying posting it to get the energy to not just leave this with a blank desc. Like 100% of my writing anything energy for the past few days has been going into the yuri game jam submission I posted about a few days ago [which is currently at a whole 300 words! /sarcastic [I am not good at dialogue at all].

11. Title: My at least once a year pinkie. Been to long since I have drawn my favourite pink pony :] Even tried to make it look like a birthday card [ish], I also made a little confetti brush :]

12. Title:   Metamorphosis now in 3D! A little Paint 3d thing? Feels a bit weird to call it a model as most of the parts are just 3d shapes in front of eachother. Also I didn't mean for the image to be so small but that's how big I made the model I guess??? Oh and the little glitchy looking stuff in the back is a brush I made :].

13. Title:   Metamorphosis now in Motion! I have been trying to get into animating and I been starting with this very uh... square style? cause its alot easier than my usual style. That right ear is very scuffed though lol, but the rest didn't come out that bad! [for someone that can't animate well]. I think maybe I should try more tweening rather than frame by frame like this one.

14. Title:  Them. Just a little thing of my immortal giant sentient plushies... particularly when they were younger, they look alot more like plushies when they get older [they get a bunch of stitches and scratches]. Hope that its possible to tell that there eyes and mouths are shiny plastic [which is why they can't change expressions, faces are just plastic.]

15- 19. Title: Sparkly Unicorn. Uuh wanted to make a very very simple little pixel thing but ended up just adding more and more stuff.... had alot of fun! I made the pixel star brush and the lil heart border : D Oh and Petal still does have the verrrrrry long hair but couldn't figure out how to fit it all in so gave her some short ponytails : ] Looks cute

20. Some arm practice stuff, yeah not very great at arms [or legs] yet but at least I'm practicing. Sorry just verytired so idk what to say…

21. Title:   An anthro raccon idk. Hi! been a bit busy but hopefully will be able to post more! Worked on these over a few days... originally was going to be more simple but just added more and more little accessories..... Shading the little chains and studs took soooo long [though thankfully didn't decide to draw the chains individually, just made a chain brush for that :]] Also the slight texture over everything was an attempt at a 'tv static' brush, not sure how well it will work for that but its nice for texture [love when digital art has texture to it!]

[clowntownart]

Inspired by the book The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan, I decided to start my own backyard nature chronicles, starting with Fuchsia flowers.

(photos of my references included+more of my rambles under the cut)

This whole thing has kinda cemented in my mind how much I prefer drawing from live reference. I don't know what it is, but being able to see things in 3d and how they interact with the world just makes it easier, despite things like wind moving and the lighting changing.

Unfortunately the paper I have is pretty low quality and doesn't hold the pigment from my colored pencils well. Whenever I close the book as well, the original pencil sketches smudge. Hence the need for inking. If I were a braver person I'd use markers but I prefer pencils in all honesty.

I finished the book mentioned above a few days after this drawing and I'd highly recommend it. It's one of those books I get from the library and then I want to buy for myself. It's full of art she made herself and some great insight and comedy about the birds she views in her own backyard. And it's extra special to me because I live in a similar area so I recognize most of the birds she mentions, so hell yeah

A note on fuchsias- I don't know the exact strain I have but these are considered edible, though I won't say they're the tastiest thing. They taste like. Plants. Just plants. All parts of them are edible, including leaves and stem

ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK WHAT PLANT YOU ARE LOOKING AT BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO EAT

I am not a biologist. Or anyone else that would apply to plant-eating.

I already have another sketchbook page in the works, I just have to color it and then type up the post for it. Hopefully I'll have it up in a day or two so I can work on a new page. Since it's summer, it's the perfect time for drawing and I've been enjoying it a lot. Plus I live in a place known for having a shit ton of plants so I will definitely not run out of things to draw for years and years