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monochromemedic · 4 years ago

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Celebrity Run in

Everyone knows about Johnny Cage. Even people that hate him know about him. One of the biggest actors in the world, a real A-lister that disappeared from time to time only to come back long enough to release a new movie. Cocky, arrogant but presumably more mellow now a days, he was the stereotypical egotistical celebrity. I had to admit, some of his movies were ok. Fight Dirty, Cage Fight, Time Smashers. And of course I’m not immune to how he looked. He was a good looking man! Buff as hell, usually sweaty and covered in blood in movies... a questionable chest tattoo of your own name. Yeah that one was weird.... but in every other way he was Hollywood sexy. There was rumors he was back on the street after one of his ‘hiatuses’, always said he was off on ‘important heroic duties’ when he came back. Weirdly enough there was rumors he was back in my town for some role about a farmer who learns karate, undercover and observing the locals to better suit the role. Needless to say people were more out and about to get their sights on the famous actor, hands hovering over their phones to take a quick snapshot. I’d probably do the same if I had a phone that wasn’t an old brick, and if I actually thought that I’d have a chance to meet him. Although it was a rural state the town we were in was bigger, just surrounded by fields and fields of nothing. It was just another needle in a haystack case, just a slightly smaller pile of hay but one none the less. There was no need to go out and find someone who might be a dick and want nothing to do with you. No I was out here at the local coffee shop to people draw. Mask on my face, cheap coffee beside my sketchbook with only my thoughts with me. It was good practice, and even when I couldn’t draw anymore the quiet atmosphere calmed my mind. The soft bustle of people coming and going, the bubbling of the coffee machine in the background. All was calm. And then he came in. Waltzing in with a gait that screamed confidence, baggy sweats, sneakers that were probably worth more then my life despite how plain they looked and a plain black face mask and snapback cap. I had to look do a double take as I watched him approach the counter, taking his phone out to quickly text someone. His disguise was obvious, to the point that if it wasn’t for the hat and mask, it’d probably just be his lounge wear. My fingers nervously grazed the pencil, quickly jotting down lines of the actor’s body as his voice rang out clear. “Large Mocha, ooh and uh one of whatever that is.” He said, poking the display case for pastries. The woman behind the counter seemed just as surprised that Johnny was here at her café, eyes wide as she started to babble while making his drink. “Y-yes sir. Y-you know I was always a big fan of Ninja Mime despite what the critics say.” “Really? We’ll it’s good to see a true fan among all the bull shitters. Some people just don’t know quality entertainment when they see it!” You didn’t speak the entire time and wore grease paint that made you break out for months, you told tabloids that... And you did 4 of them. I doubt that the critics were lying about how bad it was. She was just kissing up. “Can I get a picture Mr. Cage?” “Of course, just maybe keep it from the feeds until I leave. Wouldn’t want the paparazzi to hound the place while I’m trying method act. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want those leeches to bother this place would you?” “ Of course not!” Cage flexed in his sleeveless shirt, turning and leaning backwards on the counter for the selfie. Now that I could see his front, I noticed how ripped he was. I mean it made sense, the man was an action star. One that focused on martial arts in every film that he was in. He was probably on some tight work schedule and food restrictions. Bet that little cake he bought wasn’t approved of by his personal trainer. I began to sketch his new pose, trying to take down every little detail before he moved. As my eyes darted back up to get a last look I noticed his eyes do the same, locking with mine from behind his sunglasses. He gave a loud click of his tongue as he flexed harder and winked at me before returning to the barista, acting if nothing had ever happened. I, however, nearly jolted from my seat, knee banging on the underside of the table and jostling the drink that I quickly grabbed from falling. Did he just do that to me? Johnny Cage?! Well I knew he was cocky but god. Was I just so easy to impress or was his confidence so overwhelming that a quick gesture made me nearly bust my kneecap? From my silent anguish of my table I could tell he was finishing up with the woman, paying for his drink and beginning to make his way to the door. I tried to play off my pain like it was nothing as he passed, only to have my heart stop as he backed up a few steps to turn towards me. “How’s it going? Don’t think I caught on to you either. I know when someone’s staring at me. Paparazzi senses are going ballistic.” He huffed, his smile somehow coming through even the in the tone of his voice. At least he wasn’t pissed. If he was he could easily beat the shit out of me, that much was true. I tried to open my mouth to speak when he cut me off, pulling his mask down to take a sip of his coffee. “You want a picture too? On the house.” Oh god my phone. My brick of a phone that couldn’t take pictures... I somehow had the best luck and the worst luck all rolled into one day. I nervously held up my phone, showing him the black chunk of plastic. “Oh wow! The 2000′s called, they want their doorstop back!” He laughed, leaning in a bit more. “I haven’t seen one of these in years. Uh no offense.” “No it’s... I know how it is.” I assured him, placing the phone back in my pocket. “Ok then all the offense.” He shifted his weight from foot to foot, taking a bite of the flaky pastry with delight. “Diego’s gonna kill me for this... Mm- hey is that me?” His finger pointed to the sketches I made of him since he walked in. Quick, light, and probably inaccurate in about a hundred ways. Although I guess I should be proud that he even registered is himself... then again I did draw those sunglasses on every pose. “Uh... yeah. Sorry if that’s weird I-I people draw, art... practice-” “No, that’s rad. Look at that I must have stood like that for a few seconds! And the muscles, well... you’re very accurate with those. Say how bout this. We do an old fashion trade. I get the sketches and I’ll give you my John Hancock?” I had to pause before I realized what he said. Hancock not... Jesus get your head out of the gutter, Jenna. He wanted my drawing? To keep? Well he could have it, I didn’t care much for it. I began to gently tear the page from the book, handing the page outwards him. “Ah, this is gonna be sweet. Here you... sign your name on this and I’ll sign the book. We’ll do a real trade.” I nodded my head, printing and signing my name on the page with my mechanical pencil as he took a sharpie from his pocket, signing large letters onto the blank page left behind, a small doodle of a person beside it. “Never one for the artsy fartsy stuff, more of the on screen stuff but, hopefully that’ll suffice uh...” He paused, looking at the page before smiling. “Jenna.” I felt a shiver run down my spine as my name left his lips, his fingers pulling the mask back over his nose as he left the store, my page of drawings still in his hand, held gently inside of his scarred up hands. I stared at the signature in my book, cheap marker fumes and overly glittery gold ink staining the sheet. Flashy, but then again, it fit. Johnny Cage’s signature... I gave Johnny Cage my art of him, and he said MY name. He complimented me, talked to me! Maybe I should... watch more of his movies... give Ninja Mime another shot. Leave a good review.

#self ship: J. Cage #self shipping #i don't wanna try to fix this anymore your gonna take this #mistakes and all #still trying to get comfortable with my likes

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ajuimaginary · 6 years ago

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Soulmate Mingyu

Part of the Seventeen Soulmate Series

Your pen tapped out an absent minded pattern on the paper in front of you, note-taking long forgotten. You were sitting in the middle of your classroom in high school, ignoring your teacher in favour of your own drifting imaginings.

It wasn’t your fault you were distracted, At least not this time. You were watching artwork sketch itself across your arms.

Your soulmate connection was causing the marks, of course: that familiar link every person shared with a destined future true love. Your skins became canvases tied together by fate, and when one was marked in any way, the other would share an identical imprint.

Right now, your soulmate was drawing neat patterns of flowers, a basic blue ballpoint pen sketching them line by line so they pooled over his bare skin, and in turn, appeared on your own hands, coming from no where.

You wanted to express for affection for the artwork, so you followed a pattern that had become familiar to the two of you, and you drew the outline of a little heart just under his drawings.

You waited, and like always, you had a quick response. A second, slightly larger heart was etched alongside it from your soulmate’s end. Perfectly, artistically, formed. It was his reply. An assurance that he felt the same way.

You felt a flutter in your real heart. You hoped you would never stop being this moved by even the smallest of moment between you. When the bell rang to end the lesson, you barely noticed.

No one would blame you though. There was nothing quite so exciting as signs of a link with a soulmate. Especially when you hadn’t met one another yet, and your joined skins were your only communication.

Although, you and your soulmate knew a few things about each other already.

In most nations, when babies were born, it was common for parents to seek the basic soulmate info their child might want when they were older. A pen with ink safe for newborn skin was owned by most hospitals. It was used to write soulmate? across the baby’s forehead. If the soulmate was already born, their parents would see the mark appear, and they would send a reply saying yes, then possibly exchange more info. If the soulmate was not born yet, it was a matter of waiting until the word soulmate? appeared, sent from the other end.

Because of this tradition, in your early years, your parents and your soulmates’ parents had already been in contact. You knew he was Korean. You knew his name was Kim Mingyu. You knew he was a boy. You knew his birthday.

Those were the only details that hospitals and parents traditionally bothered to exchange. They left the rest to the kids. You knew in some cultures the parents would be taking the info they got to consult astrologists or religious leaders for more insight. But that was the extent of it.

In the largely globalized world of the modern age, it was taboo in most countries for parents to interfere by continuing communications across their infants’ skin. It was considered more organic to let the children establish ties as they grew up. They could decide for themselves if they wanted to know more before meeting one another. You and your soulmate had long ago come to an agreement that you wanted to do most of your discovering in person, whenever the universe turned its destined pages and bound your paths together.

You were happy knowing one another’s names, and had spent all your lives working to know each other’s languages too. You could tell he’d become quite good with yours because of the ease he wrote down the occasional thing he wanted to remember- like a song title or a movie. And you knew he’d seen your abilities with Korean as well.

The other things you’d discovered about him intrigued you beyond belief. He seemed crazily talented. Almost unfairly talented.

His talents came through in bits and pieces throughout your childhood, when he was bored during what must have been the Korean school day. It was pretty common in your world for people to draw on their own skin. Who didn’t like the idea of a little extra communication with their soulmate? So you would watch doodles paint patterns on your arms, and see how good Mingyu was at art - from little geometric designs to quirky cartoon figures, some of which you recognised, and some which (after a little Googling) introduced you to comic books he must have enjoyed.

There were also the recipes. They were less common, and he only seemed to make those notes if he had no other means to record his food ideas. They made your heart flutter more than anything else, because your soulmate could apparently cook, and cook well at that.

He would scrawl notes to himself on the bare skin of his forearm: ideas about ingredients, or spice combos. One time, when you were only about twelve years old, he wrote out a whole recipe in a quick scrawl, like he was trying to get it noted down quickly to try at home later. Interest raised, you also decided to try it as well. Only problem was, his handwriting was hard to read from his rush to get it all written. After squinting at it for a while, you circled a couple of things on your own arm, and wrote little question marks beside it, hoping he would see, and clarify for you.

Sure enough, the recipe began to rewrite itself out on your other arm. It was in someone elses hand-writing this time, because using his non-dominant right hand would have been even messier. You wondered who was writing it, thinking fondly of your soulmate asking for their help.

Thanks, you wrote under it, adding a little heart.

He drew a returning heart, and, most likely, returned to cooking.

Ever since then, that had been your routine. A small heart when you wanted to express affection, and an answering heart from the other person.

You started to thank each other when you accidentally provided a good recommendation for a song, or a movie, and as time passed, you started to deliberately write things you wanted to share.

When you stumbled across a cartoon with a character you’d seen him doodle before, you always let him know what you thought. When his friends all watched a movie he knew you’d seen before, he would tell you if he’d enjoyed it.

It was such a simple way to be connected, but it warmed your heart each time.

When your soulmate reached his late teenage years, he must have started getting into performing, because occasionally some truly dramatic stage make up looks would appear on your face that you were pretty sure he couldn’t be for day to day events. Sometimes, they were embarrassing - appearing at times you did not want to have that intense of a smoky eye. Sometimes, they were really perfectly timed - you were delighted at the seemingly professional level of quality you were given for free through your soulmate.

As well as the make up, the occasional scrawls your soulmate added to the back of his hand sometimes looked like song lyrics. Usually just a few short bars, in messier than normal handwriting that indicated to you he must have had to jot them down quickly. It added to your theory that he was interested in performing.

You wondered if he was passionate enough about performing to put song covers online or something. Perhaps you might have even glimpsed his face before around Youtube. The thought made you grin, but you would have no way of knowing for sure until you met him.

One of the nicest surprises came to you one day when you were listening to music on Spotify- a decent mix of English songs and K-pop (which you’d been listening to for a long time since you knew the language anyway.) You were playing random playlists you found, seeking new music, and then suddenly one of the songs played some rap bars you definitely recognized. You checked the song title - 기대 - and the group name - Seventeen. And you added it instantly to your library.

You were sure your soulmate must have sung the song before, and as always when you discovered a little connection like that, the moment of recognition was thrilling.

You picked up a pen, and then wrote along your arm.

Hi Mingyu, I just listened to 기대 by Seventeen!

There was a pause much longer than usual before you got any response. You went about your day with the letters on your arm, wondering when he would write something back. Usually his replies were quick. But it was when you were getting ready for bed that he finally wrote back.

Sorry it took me so long to reply.

You frowned in confusion, but more letters began to appear.

Did you like the song? Did you watch a performance? Do you know anything about Seventeen? Did you look them up?

It was an odd series of questions.

I didn’t watch anything, you responded, and I haven’t looked them up. Should I have?

You waited, feeling very anxious suddenly, like you had done something wrong. Mingyu seemed sharper and more upset than usual. You watched his questions wash off your arm as he removed them to make room to write more, and you quickly went to your bathroom sink to wash your side of the conversation away as well.

On the blank slate, Mingyu wrote:

No! Don’t look them up! Promise me you won’t.

How strange...

You stared at the request for a long time.

Okay. You wrote. I promise.

You waited for more explanation, but he wrote nothing else for a long time. You picked up your pen again, hesitated, and added:

I liked the song though. Can I still listen to it?

Mingyu drew two adorable hearts first, and wrote: Of course you can. I don’t want to order you around, I’m sorry, it’s just important to me that you don’t look up that group. Feel free to listen to the song though.

Another pause.

What did you like about it?

You laughed a little.

It’s really nice! There’s kind of a soothing but cool style to it. Even the way it starts off it amazing. I think the voices have a kind of story telling vibe to them.

You waited for his response.

I like that too. He wrote. And then he put a few more hearts, and said goodnight. You both washed off your arms and you went to bed.

You had no idea what was going on, but you wanted to respect his wishes and his boundaries, so you didn’t press the issue. You simply let it go. But you listened to 기대 almost every day for a while after, and you especially loved the lines that you remembered Mingyu had written on his arm.

One year after the 기대 incident, your world changes for ever.

You knock on your best friend’s front door, smiling at the pink balloons tied on the letter box and around the doorway. Her little sister yanks the door open, a huge grin on her face.

“Welcome, Y/N!” she yells happily. “It’s my birthday!”

“I know, sweetie,” you smile back at her, handing her the gift in your hands, and watching her squeal with excitement, shaking it violently in her hands. “I can’t believe you’re six years old already! I’m here to help set up the party.”

She guides you through to the back garden, chattering happily about how all her class is coming to join the fun. You respond with the expected enthusiasm, and gasp in amazement when you walk out onto the decorated back lawn. Your best friend waves you over as soon as she sees you.

“Thanks again for offering to help with the party!” she says. “Can you run the face painting? You only need to do really basic looks. We even have some examples the kids can pick from, so you won’t have to think of any complicated designs yourself.”

You look at the sheet of card she’s holding, with a tiger, butterfly wings, a pirate, and other classic kids’ designs she must have printed off from the internet, and you agree you can do the job.

There’s a bit of time to kill before the actual event begins, so you decide to practice some face painting on yourself. It will get you used to this set of paints and it will probably get the kids more excited when they arrive to see an example of the work on the person painting them.

You pick the tiger, and start by covering your face with orange, then adding stripes where you can see them on the guide, a pink nose, and long black whiskers, turning your face from side to side in the tiny mirror so you can see what you’re doing. When the look is complete, you’re actually pretty pleased with yourself.

“Looking good, Y/N!” your friend yells out from across the lawn.

“I’ll paint you next?” you offer.

She comes over, pulls out the second chair at the face painting station, and sits down in front of you.

“Can you give me the butterfly?” she requests.

But as you lift your hand to begin painting her face, you let out a gasp, and freeze, staring at the frantic letters forming across your skin.

Y/N please don’t keep that on! please wash your face now!

It’s about a hundred times messier than Mingyu’s usual handwriting. He must be freaking out.

“What’s going on?” your friend asks.

In answer, you flip your hand over. Her eyes scan the letters, and her brows raise.

“Well, go on then! He’s still writing more ‘please’s! Go wash your face!” she says, all but pushing you out of your seat.

Still confused by Mingyu’s urgency, you turn and race toward the house, stopping at the first sink you see, in the kitchen, and slamming on the tap so fast you spray water down your front.

You dab haphazardly at your face, the water running orange and black and swirling away down the sink.

Your skin feels pink from scrubbing when you stop. You stare at the back of your hand again. It’s blank now. He must have washed off his pleading. A single phrase forms, still a little rushed, but you can almost feels his thankfulness in each letter.

Thank you so much. I’ll explain later.

And that’s all.

Mingyu doesn’t try to communicate again until the party ends. You’re helping to clean up, chucking paper cups empty of coca cola into a rubbish bag. Your best friend’s little sister, the birthday girl, is napping on a couch inside, totally tired after the day’s events.

As you reach down to pick up the next cup, you see new writing appear on your arm. You sit down right there on the grass, watching it appear.

So I know you listen to KPop, which means you’ll probably hear about this soon enough. So I’ll tell you first... something happened today. And it made me decide I want to meet you. Is that okay?

You stare at the words in confusion. But all the times you’ve talked, Mingyu has been a little long winded when explaining things, so you’re sure you’ll understand eventually.

You find a pen, and write back... That’s okay.

Good. Says Mingyu. Did you know KCon LA was this week?

Yeah

Well I’m at KCon LA right now. And this thing happened. And I know I need to see you now. Send me your address, please. I have enough to pay for all my transport, no matter how far away you are. I’m taking a break from work anyway. I have to find you. Please?

You’re shaking by the time you finish reading his excited words. Something really dramatic must have happened for him to change his mind like this... to want to meet you right away no matter what.

You could never refuse him. You write out your home address in careful letters on your arm.

Thank you. Mingyu writes. And while I’m on my way... you can look my name up online. And then

He pauses for a minute or so.

watch the video from this link www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PrXNl05CWM. He takes his time getting every number of the link right, and then continues. It’s embarrassing, but when you watch it, you’ll understand. I’ll see you as soon as possible.

Okay, Mingyu. I’ll see you soon. You write back.

You’re almost afraid to do everything he’s asked. It seems so dramatic. But before panic can take over, you see one more tiny shape form. A single inky heart.

And you smile.

You explain to your friend, head home, open your laptop, and type Kim Mingyu into Google. The first result is a KPop profile; facts and Profile for MinGyu, member of thirteen member Korean boygroup Seventeen.

One hand over your mouth in shock, you click through and quickly skip past the picture (you’re not ready for that) to read what the profile says, trying to make the information sink in. You read facts you already knew about your soulmate - name: Kim Mingyu, born: 06 April 1997, hometown: Anyang, South Korea - along with brand new information - position: lead rapper, height: 187cm - and you try to piece it all together with your reality.

Your mind flashes back to that day when you listened to your first Seventeen song and he asked you not to look up anything more about that group. When you were so charmed by the rapping. The smooth storytelling style to the flow of those lyrics...

And you scroll back up to the photo. You let out a little gasp. He’s beautiful.

It takes a moment for that to feel real as well. But something about the photo they’ve chosen for the profile helps you. He’s impossibly handsome, of course, but he somehow manages to fit in with the picture of Mingyu you had in your mind, because he has a dorky pose, pointing a finger at the screen. It makes him feel more real. More human. More yours...

And then that comforting feeling fades in and out rapidly when you switch straight to Google images and spend about an hour scrolling through photos of your stunning, gorgeous, sexy soulmate. Your head is spinning by the end of it. In some photos, you can see that personality you’ve been getting to know. The sweetness, the slight foolish charm of him, the talents in art that seems to translate to his fashion sense as well, the shots of him cooking... but at the same time, he looks more beautiful than you dared let yourself imagine.

Your favourite thing is spotting bits of writing on his arms. Your writing. And a whole ton of little hearts.

Then you type out his Youtube link, that he spent so long writing out properly to make sure you would watch the right video. It’s only hours old. A performance MNet uploaded of Seventeen at KCon earlier that same day.

You watch as the boys, all thirteen of them, come out on stage and begin their song. But about halfway through, their expressions start to change when they glance at Mingyu, and when the camera comes in closer, you see your soulmate’s face has turned orange. Then the black stripes begin to form. The boys are faltering in their dance steps now, not sure if they should continue.

Mingyu looks annoyed, like he can’t understand why their performance is falling apart.

Then he catches sight of himself on the monitors. And his jaw drops. And he freezes.

You must have been just finishing off your face paint at that time, because the tiger is nearly completely there. The pink nose adds a hilarious softness to Mingyu’s horrified expression. The crowd is laughing, obviously quite charmed by the display, and amused by its poor timing so much that they don’t mind it messing up the planned show. But Mingyu seems upset by it... as do some of his friends, who must have worked so hard getting ready for this day.

On go the tiger whiskers, long and slightly curved, forming one by one around that lovely nose. None of the boys are moving now. The close up camera is fixed on Mingyu.

The member with the round cheeks steps forward suddenly, saying something funny about Soulmates into the microphone. It makes the rest of the members swirl into action. Some of them crowd around Mingyu, and two with concerned expressions usher him from the stage. The round cheeked one keeps speaking, clearly taking charge of the damage control.

“Thank you, Jeonghan and The8, please take care of Mingyu and return quickly!”

Two more of the boys seem to shake themselves from their surprise as the round-cheeked one beckons them forward, and they start speaking in fluent English to the crowd. They say they’ll move on to their unit performances now, and leave Hip Hop team for last so Mingyu can come back with his face paint gone... and that’s it.

That’s the end of the video.

You can see the recommended next clip is for Seventeen’s other performances, so you know they must have finished as they planned. And since you washed off the face paint fast, you know Mingyu must have returned in time for his performance. But you feel bad for him anyway. He must have been upset to have that happened in front of a whole audience...

You scroll the Youtube comments for a bit. People are amused, or feeling sorry for him, or intrigued by any sign of a soulmate, or surprised that MNet even uploaded the interrupted performance (though you’re sure they’re delighted by its entertainment factor... the clip already has a ridiculously high number of views.)

And after that, it all feels too much for you. The truth is too intense. You close your laptop and go to find your family, so you can tell them what’s happened and get ready for your visitor.

The thought makes you smile again. A little happy tremble goes through you. You get to meet your soulmate soon... You get to meet Mingyu.

He knocks timidly on the door when he arrives, and you fly to answer it, barely noticing each step as your feet swallow up all the space between you until all that remains is your front door.

You take a deep breath, hand on the handle, and fling it open.

“Mingyu,” you gasp.

There he stands, looking shy and awkward, face graced by a slightly giddy smile he can’t seem to keep down. You find that despite running to meet him, you’re now frozen where you stand. His warm honey eyes scan over you though, skating across the features on your face, shifting down your body, and he looks so happy you might just melt where you stand.

“Hi, Y/N,” he whispers. “Did you look it up?”

You nod. And then words begin to pour out of him, in the same rushed way he writes, a long-winded explanation that makes your heart squeeze with pure affection.

“I realised after that performance that we were being stupid to wait to meet each other- to hope that the world would throw us together some, even though we were bound to be desperately thinking about one another every second until it happened. Or at least, I thought about you...”

He steps forward, lifts his hands and cradles your face.

“I was always worried about making you a part of my life too soon. I though I had all the time in the world to meet you, and what if I did meet you too soon, and I just messed it all up right away? As if it were possible to ever spend too much time together...”

He laughs, and when you join in, his smile becomes blinding.

“After today I know this is what I want. I want to be with you. I want us to know every detail of each others lives. I want a public, open, happy relationship with you before the eyes of the entire world. I don’t want anyone to see that video and think it was embarrassing. I want it to be the story of how we came together. I want it to be the beginning. Is that what you want?”

He’s so gorgeous, and the two of you are destined, so it’s a surprise to see how nervous he looks. As if you would ever turn him down.

“This is want I want,” you assure him.

And, hands still warm on your face, he kisses you for the first time.

#mingyu #kim mingyu #seventeen scenarios #mingyu x reader #mingyu scenarios #mingyu imagines #drabble #soulmate au #admin lizzie

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maiji · 6 years ago

Photo

@logicheartsoul Thank you so much for the kind words ^^ And certainly - thank you for your interest and for asking! I love working with ink so I’m happy to talk about it :D

How I got into it

It's only been in the last maybe five or so years that I've actually started to pay more attention to art supplies. In the case of ink, it really started with fountain pens. Long story short, one of my professors was really into them and let me try one of his vintage pens, and I was vaguely interested. Then my best friend really got into them, and I tagged along to a fountain pen show (shoutout to Scriptus Toronto!!). From there it was a slow burn over a period of months from “this is neat” to “WOWWW OKAY I GUESS I’M REALLY INTO THIS NOW”. It was a (relatively, for me) quick entry once I discovered the online fountain pen community. These people are incredibly passionate, highly articulate, and best of all, document EVERYTHING. I found the ink reviews especially spectacular and that’s probably what hooked me the most.

A few other things that helped in the appeal factor:

I have a tendency to grip writing implements excessively hard and exert a lot of unnecessary pressure when writing or drawing with more conventional pens (ballpoints etc.) A number of people mentioned that fountain pens helped them to alleviate this because generally you don’t need/want to apply pressure when using them. I’ve found it has helped.

I've always been interested in forms that combine words and images, and this merges literary and artistic worlds in a very clear way.

I’ve been on a long personal journey of wanting to incorporate much more Chinese/Taiwanese/East Asian heritage and cultural traditions into my work. Thus, I've been gravitating towards things emphasizing brush, ink, water, elements of calligraphy and... not sure if spontaneity is the word I want, but things that help me overthink less when I draw, and get better at letting go.

How I work with ink

My (main) tools

Fude de mannen: This is basically a fountain pen that mimics a brush for Asian calligraphy. It has a bent nib that enables you to change stroke thickness by varying your hand angle. I love this pen so much I got a second one so I could have a different colour; the washi tape helps me tell which one it is. You can see more of it in the video interview I did with PindotPress.

Brush pen: A pen that is a brush. lol. A number of companies make them; I use the Pentel Pocket Brush because it's the first one I tried and I liked it a lot. It's smooth, has great line variation, and the tip has yet to fail me. (Although the cap started falling apart, hence all the tape on my first one lol.) I currently have three: one for permanent black, one for permanent red, and one because I couldn’t resist buying a coloured version of the pen (I have Diamine Earl Grey in it right now).

Glass dip pen: These dip pens are pretty but what is super awesome is that they are super easy and fast to clean. I can quickly switch between multiple colours of bottled inks. The grooves in the nib hold ink, so you need to slightly turn the pen as you go to access all the ink. You can also get a wider stroke by slanting the pen and using the side of the glass nib. It's not that easy to control your lines, but I actually like this because it creates a lot of happy accidents. And “oops well damn" accidents, but like I said I’m trying to cultivate the whole “learn to let go" mindset.

Waterbrush: Basically a brush that carries its own water reservoir. I’ve used a few different brands but I find I like the Pentel Aquash small the best. Some people fill them with ink like a brush pen, but I’ve not really done that. (I did it once with a different brand that was harder to open/refill and I got mad.) I use it to paint with the inks.

Pencil I got for free: Unless I really am just doodling, I usually draw base pencils of some sort, even if it’s just a very rough, light sketch or a quick thumbnail on another sheet of paper. Every so often I get an inquiry asking what special kind of pencil I use, but I’m afraid they’re just normal pencils rolled with recycled newsprint. I got free samples like a million years ago and I have been using them forever. (I think I’m finally down to my last three.)

Eraser: I’ve been trying a few different ones but it takes me forever to work through an eraser. You want it to be able to pick up the lines without requiring you to scrub and take the ink too or destroying the fibres of your paper. This one actually works pretty well. If you’re really curious you can see the non-destroyed packaging here! lol

Toilet or tissue paper: Something to pick up the water. This is my "undo button” in real life when I’m painting/using the waterbrush. Also I drown everything with water so it’s very important.

Ink swatches: Every time I get a new ink I make a sample and add it here. It’s great for colour palettes and when I’m looking at other inks and trying to decide whether to get it or not (e.g., is it different from everything I already have? My definition of “different” is very generous...). I don’t actually have all these inks; some were samples from friends. I’ve found I tend to gravitate towards very complex, nuanced neutrals. (This sounds so sophisticated but when you see them all it once it's like. Oh. Apparently I like shades of grey, brown, and other hard to classify "muddy" or in-between colours lmao. But more on that in a bit.) Lately I've been getting glittery inks because they're fun and they add a magical dimension to the physical piece.

Here is my current selection of inks - on the shelf to the immediate left of my laptop and my head as I am typing this right now. The box at the bottom left is all the samples.

My approach

In my mind, I broadly classify my approach into two categories: “dry” and “wet”.

"Dry" - ink only, no water. I have pretty unsteady hands and hate "inking" - if we think of inking as an exercise in achieving a "clean", controlled line drawing with consistent line width/stroke thickness, neatness, etc. So I love pens that support me in what I think of as controlled loss of control - wide variations in brush width and stroke character. Brush pens and fude de mannen pens are perfect for this. They have lines that offer a wide range of dynamic, organic, and textural opportunity. My Inktober illustrations fall into this category. A few examples below, followed by links to the full set.

Inktober 2017 - fude de mannen

Inktober 2018 - brush pen

"Wet" - Basically I blob water around. Depending on when I do it (before, with/during, after the application of the ink), you can get different results. The water causes the ink to bleed, semi-watercolour-like, and can be used for shading, environmental effects etc. For obvious reasons, this works best with non-waterproof inks (which the vast majority of fountain pen inks are), but you can do this even with waterproof inks. Just let the ink hit water before it has a chance to soak into the paper and you can get cool effects :D. And you can also do it with other pens too, not just fountain pen inks. Examples:

Tiles of Toronto urban sketch series

Raizen and Hokushin doodles

Arikoto from Ooku

As you might imagine, this is really great for on-the-go drawings, because you just need a pen (or a couple of pens) and a waterbrush.

The “wet” approach is also where the very complex inks that look "boring" (greys, taupes etc.) are just complete magic. When the dye elements separate, other colours emerge, and you get really wonderful textural effects and rings of colour where the ink pools and dries. Diamine Earl Grey is a colour I've mentioned several times that I LOOOVE because it separates into blues, browns, purples, even pinkish tones. It's a gorgeous ink. You can see some examples and closeups here.

Another colour that does this really powerfully is Sailor Rikyucha. It’s a dark tea brown-green that separates very easily into pale blue-greens and more and has amazing tonal and textural qualities. The Tendril Wreath illustration here really shows this.

For the most part I look at things I like and then experiment to figure out what happens. After working with the same tools for a while, you get a sense of how the different elements might react and respond naturally. The Genjimonogatari series employs both dry and wet extensively and is an example of the experimenting and playing I’m doing - I keep finding new aspects to the inks I thought I knew, and making “interesting” mistakes. And trying to fix them as I go with varying levels of success, haha. But I’m always learning!

One more thing about this hobby

I feel compelled to finish with some talk about the pure aesthetic appeal, or the MULTIPLE LEVELS OF FUN I get out of these inks. Not just the colour, not just how the ink behaves, but... the name of the ink as well! Some inks do this more effectively than others. Similar to how the presentation of a dish is part of the experience, the name of an ink adds so much to my enjoyment of it. My least favourite ink names are [standard adjective]+[standard colour name]. My favourite ones are really convoluted with literary and poetic references, I just love them hahaha. Asian fountain pen inks I find tend to do this especially well - partly because of how much you can pack into how few syllables, I suppose. It makes me sad that a lot of sites don’t include the original names, often referencing them with just a number, though I understand it is difficult to translate. But I learn a lot with these names as a starting point! For example, Zhenjing, which I mentioned recently in the Kurama “Light” illustration, took a bit of back and forth with my parents to look up the source and then to interpret the complex line of poetry. It was a fun and fascinating exercise.

A great name can’t save an ink I don’t like, but a good name elevates an ink I do like even more, and it can be really inspiring for making stuff. For example, take Pen BBS Mirrorflower Watermoon. I adore the colour of this ink - it's a very subtle grey-pale green with silver flakes. I used it heavily in the Hokushin fanart “Northern Deity” (you can see it here with photos of the sparkly).

The name is actually highly recognizable if you're familiar with classic East Asian literature/poetry. I read it out loud to my parents with no context other than "this is the name of one of my favourite ink colours" while they were eating dinner and they both said at the same time, "I know this! DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER!" lmao. It's a very Buddhist idiom or phrase referring to the illusory nature of things, likening it to the reflection of a flower in a mirror or the reflection of the moon in water.

I hope this was interesting and helpful! ^^

#art supplies #logicheartsoul #replies #reply #fountain pen ink #ink #waterbrush #brush pen #fude de mannen #art by Maiji/Mary Huang #how I work #process

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magma-paint · 6 years ago

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Tutorial Tuesdays--Getting Started

Tutorial Tuesdays is a new block on my blog in which I give art advice and tutorials for anyone looking to improve their art. But before we get into the good stuff, a quick obligatory background.

I know it’s tempting to look at my art and the art of people you look up to and come to the conclusion you’ll never get to that level no matter how hard you try, but it is possible to get to that level. You just gotta practice regularly and before you know it you’ll have it down-pat.

These posts will be pretty long, so to save Dashboard space, I’ll put the meat of things under a Keep Reading link so you can visit them in full. Alright, with that out of the way, are ya ready kids? Let’s go get some art tools!

I only say this because I’ve seen people make fantastic things with very limited materials and people with some of the finest tools but don’t use them to their full capacity. Again, it’s not what you use, but how you use it. When I talk about art tools, I’m mostly going off of what I use since those are the tools I’ve worked with a lot.

Pencils. Your most basic writing and drawing tool. For sketching and drawing, I use a 0.7 mm mechanical pencil with a good eraser. It’s quick, it’s convenient, and I often stick it in my ponytail when I’m not using it so I have easy access to it. They’re also pretty cheap. For commissions and grayscale shading, I use drawing pencils that come in various hardnesses. The hardness of your pencil will be noted by a number and a letter. A pencil with an H stamped on it will be harder, won’t smudge very easily, and has a very light load when the graphite is on the paper. A pencil stamped with a B will be softer, smudges very easily, and has a darker streak on the paper. The number on the pencil following the letter lets you know how hard or soft it is (4H is a very hard pencil, 8B is a very soft pencil). Your typical No. 2 pencils from school are in the HB category, which is middle of the road. You can find them individually at art stores or in packs. Walmart in my town offers a package of 6 drawing pencils bundled with two animation colored pencils, two markers, and an eraser for about $9. Pretty good deal. Speaking of...

Erasers. A pink rubber eraser will do you just fine, though make sure your pencil has a nice one on it for finer details and while you’re drawing. You can use a kneadable eraser if you have one, they’re squishy, you can mold them to how you see fit and they don’t leave any crumbs to clean up, but I’m not quite fond of them.

Markers and ink pens. Let me tell you, once you use a pen like one of these, you’ll never go back to ballpoint, which often has far too many broken lines to be practical to use and make your lineart look like trash. I use a Fine Tip Sharpie Pen, preferably in the no-bleed variety so the lineart doesn’t sink into the opposite side of the page. Recently I’ve been using Brush and Bullet tip Prismacolor Scholar markers for comics and good drawings. They’re a bit erratic to use at first, but it takes practice.

Colored pencils. Now these are my go-to for coloring since they give a wide range of color, combinations, and effects. For best results, I stick with Crayola or Cra-Z Art since the color tend to remain consistent from box to box and you can get a big box of them for a pretty good price. Prismacolors would be nice, but they’re pretty expensive and I don’t quite like the feel.

Sharpeners. Electric ones you can just keep at home, but for on the go I recommend a small manual one you can throw in your bag. Bonus if you get one that has a shavings catch so you don’t have shavings making a mess of your space.

Ruler/straight edge. You’ll want one of these for comic panels, perspective guidelines, and, well, straight lines, though in some cases you might want to practice making straight lines without the use of it. I use a metal one, but a plastic will do you good as well.

And now, the most important thing of all, your drawing canvas!

For starters, I recommend you get yourself a good sketchbook. Nothing too fancy, just one of those spiral-bound ones ideal for sketching. For your really good art, copy paper will work just fine. Really any kind of paper (or even cardboard!) will work but I implore you to avoid using loose-leaf notebook paper. I cannot tell you how much it hurts to see something so beautifully drawn wasted on lined paper. Not saying you can’t doodle in your notebook and show off something silly you sketched, but if you’d count a drawing as your magnum opus, your drawing probably deserved being on blank paper where it can shine.

I was considering making this an entry for Digital Art tutorials, but I’ll put these here just in case.

I do a lot of digital art using my HP laptop built with a touch screen. It can’t stream for sh1t but it runs single player Steam games alright and I use it for homework a lot. Before this, I had a desktop computer and used a mouse. I would like to own a Wacom tablet in the future, but until then this setup is nice enough. Remember, it’s about how you use your tools, not the quality of tools at your disposal.

Now this is a scanner that’s used only for pictures/documents. You can’t print or fax anything with it, but it’s good for just pictures. I own an HP printer/scanner combo, but it is pretty finicky and no longer prints. Alternately, you can just use your cell-phone camera to take pictures of your finished piece, but I do not recommend doing so for comics unless you’re giving previews of one panel.

For my programs, these are the three that I use:

Good for doodles, already on your computer (probably), and I use this program to make authentic looking Homestuck drawings (like, you could mistake it for being an actual panel in Homestuck).

My primary art program. Operates much like Paint Tool SAI and photoshop. Very good for general art and comics.

Still learning this one, but it’s just like Medibang and is equipped with tools for animation.

And yes, these three programs are downloadable for free. I do want to try out Clip Studio Paint EX, but the cheapest I can get it is $80 when it goes on sale during the holidays. Normally, it costs $250.

Next time, we go over some drawing basics and some tips that will save your sanity while sketching. Stay tuned!

#tutorial tuesdays #art tutorials and refs #sh1t magma-paint does #getting started #art supplies #art software

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verdantspiritart · 8 years ago

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i just started using watercolors, can you tell me about your process/share some tips?

Well first of all, congrats on trying watercolors! I’m by no means an expert yet but I’ll do my best to walk you through my process using some of the WIP pictures I have from previous pieces. There’s a ton to cover and I won’t get it all so feel free to ask more specific questions if you need help.

My first tip would be to play with whatever tools you have to figure out what feels right for you. If you don’t have any tools yet, I suggest the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box (pictured below) since it’s really nice quality, comes with a water brush, and usually costs like $15-$25 depending on size/where you buy it. If that’s still outside of your price range, the first watercolors I ever did were with old crayola palettes and it worked out fine, it just took way more layers and time to get the color depth I wanted.

As for paper, I’m still looking for the perfect one but just make sure it’s watercolor paper (cold press means there’s a texture, hot press is smooth) or multimedia and not like, printer paper. As long as it’s relatively thick, it should be ok but might buckle when too much water is added.

Don’t worry too much about perfection when learning how to use your equipment. Make lines, blend colors, try making washes, etc. When I came back to watercolors, I mostly did a lot of meditative painting, where I doodled whatever felt right. Some of them even came out real cool looking??

When I sit down to do a more detailed piece or commission, I have a five-part process I pretty consistently use these days. It goes like this:

1) Traditional (or digital) sketch/concept phase. The below pic is from a pop-art commission concept where I really liked the flow of her hair.

2) Digital lineart (cleaning up/refining concept sketches)

3) Print the lineart and lightbox it to watercolor paper using either a hard graphite pencil (very light lines) or colored lead. I still lightbox with this ancient hunk of junk but you can even use a window or your computer screen (VERY CAREFULLY) to lightbox if you don’t have one.

Here’s what some of my pieces looks like after being transferred:

I think it’s important to note that you should keep a piece of scrap paper under your hand while working on the watercolor paper, since the oils in your skin can lead to areas where the paint won’t bind to the paper properly. I’ve had cases where I finished a background wash only to find an absolutely perfect thumbprint in the center of it.

4) Ink the lines. Make sure your pens are waterproof. If they’re not, I’ll talk about a way to get around that later so skip right to painting for now.

I used micron technical pens for the above piece. If you don’t know if you have waterproof pens, make a test chart like the one below. Mine involved copics, watercolor, and super heavy scrubbing to see how easily the pen came off when wet.

I’ve also “inked” after painting by using more concentrated lines of watercolor instead of actual ink. The below painting was too cute and pastel and I didn’t want to ruin it with black lines, so I used that technique here (along with some red pencil)

5) Paint! I’m not really consistent with this step but my main tip is: BE PATIENT! If you want flat blocks of color, wait until each wash is fully dry before moving on to one next to it. If you don’t, they’ll bleed into each other. This is also true when trying to create shadows with hard edges instead of soft blending. Not being patient enough is my #1 cause of “crap I have to start this over”.

(The weird coloration on the lines above is actually dried frisket I put over certain sections of the piece to protect them but it ended up being more of a hassle than anything else for this style of piece.)

So, what if you didn’t have waterproof pens? You can easily reverse steps 4&5 and paint first, wait for it to dry very well, and then ink (shown below).

The finished piece looked like this:

I hope this was helpful!

If you want to see any of my WIPs/ask me questions, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram.

Also, my commission slots are open and if you like my work and want to leave me a tip, you can always buy me a coffee :)

#watercolor tutorial #asks #watercolors #wips

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batwynn · 8 years ago

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Tips for transitioning from 'realism' to 'cartoons'

( this is mostly for @stiles-and-the-sourwolf but you're welcome to read it either way.) Okay so the thing about drawing in a 'looser' style (or a more cartoonish style) is you must must must MUST learn to trust yourself, and be forgiving. It's really about loosening up the 'rules' of anatomy and letting things become more exaggerated and fluid. It's a huge problem that I've found amongst many of my artist friends who tend to draw in a more realistic and 'refined' style. They've gotten into the habit of working into a piece for long periods of time, and striving for a certain level of anatomical perfection that is often—if not always—on par with photo realism. This means that their process usually involves working into small, key parts of the art until it fits together like a lovely puzzle. This is typically called the 'grid technique', whether you use actual grids or not, and it's perfect for creating a well rendered, full-feeling piece. The problem is is that it tends to set you up for a few different problems when it comes to a more cartoonish style. For one thing, cartoon anatomy is never as it should be, and things are generally never WHERE they should be, either. Buuut, that's kind of the point, because the style leans heavily on the motion, the shape of the character, and the fluidity of their form. What matters most in these types of styles is showing the character through their forms as much as possible, and often as SIMPLY as possible. Think about all the hundreds of Disney characters out there, and think about how each one has a very specific body shape to match their personality. For example: Bell's father. He's the typical Disney short, round-bodied, mustaches father figure that you see throughout many Disney films. He has a sputtering voice, a general doofy personality, typically kind of useless, and tends to bounce around like a bouncy ball. His round form encompasses his character much better than, say, a long, tall, skinny body would. Another (not Disney) example: Miyazaki's strong female lead-characters. They all tend to be sort of squat, strong bodied, slightly rounder (more trustworthy) faces, with a stubborn pout. You automatically know that this girl/woman means business, and is going to kick butt and take names and, like, save someone/everyone/herself. Now, a lot of this all comes down to animation, and the fact that simplicity is necessary for something you're drawing a million times. The simpler the design, the easier it is to draw frame, by frame, by frame. But, even without animating, a key part of drawing in a cartoonish style is always going to be expressing as much information about the character/environment/story as possible with the smallest amount of effort. A prime example of that would be the Tintin comics, or Charlie Brown. Each comic has it's own level of simplicity that is, seriously, basically down to single lines and blobs of color. And if you look closely at a comic panel, you'll probably feel like you're falling into some abstract piece of art. But, the thing is... they work. Tintin's head is about 14 lines total, and yet somehow Hergé manages to bring forth a vast range of emotions and expressions with very little effort at all. This, again, is also due to repetition. Comic books have always had a tendency to lean towards the more simplistic styles do to the whole, you know, drawing the character over and over again thing. Not that there aren't comic book artists who totally ignore that and go into some insane levels of detail for each frame, but as a general rule, you're going to see the 'cartoon' style in comics. It's easier to draw, less time consuming, and is often contributed to easier/smoother reading. Now, trust and forgiveness. The thing about shooting out a quick sketch is that there's a certain level of 'I don't give a fuck' that goes along with it. You've drawn it, it's done, it's out there, who cares? And to many artists, that's a screech-worthy sentence right there. But, it's sort of an integral part of loosening up your style. Sketching or drawing out a cartoonish character takes a lot of confidence, trust, and again, that forgiveness thing. You need to teach yourself to let those lines flow freely, to trust that you can complete this figure with or without mistakes, and to forgive yourself when it doesn't come out looking 'perfect'. This can be hard, or even next to impossible for certain realism artists to accomplish. It can be infuriating for them, especially when they can render so masterfully, and yet this simple... doodle seems to be the bane of their existence. The trick, for me, is to set yourself up with limitations. Try drawing with only an ink pen. No erasing, no fixing mistakes, no sketch layer. It might smudge, it might leak, and the second eye might end up too high up. Take the risk, and draw. Try doing very light blocking with the pen, try going completely free hand and see where some of your anatomy strengths and weakness are. Try drawing the same face over and over again, until you can get the same amount of details/information down without a second thought. Try simplifying the first drawing. Try limiting the amount of lines or shading used. Challenge yourself to be quick, to finish a complete character in ten minutes or less. Try using a medium you've never used before. Learn to love it or hate it. Try drawing with your opposite hand. (Does it look terrible? Maybe, but I bet you automatically tried to simplify and expedite the drawing process.) Try using only blocks of color or shadow to make a face. Do not add details. See how recognizable it looks just from shading. Try focusing on character qualities and the shapes, poses/posture, and colors that they brings to mind. Draw a loud, boisterous person. (What shape would they be? Are they muscular, tall, threatening? Do they stand with their chest out? Do they wear reds and warm colors?) Draw a quiet, timid person. ( are they small, hunched, slim? Do they wrap their arms around themselves a lot? Do they wear blues and browns and colors that blend in with the background?) Draw a hunter. Draw a mother. Draw types of people/animals/environments you've never drawn before. Push yourself to do create people with more exaggerated features or postures. People with bigger, longer, skinnier, wider, smaller elements of anatomy. And, like I said, it will be a challenge. It will feel silly and frustrating and even demeaning. But trust me, learning to loosen up and trust yourself enough make mistakes and accept them can be extremely freeing no matter what style you use.

#drawing #drawing tips #cartoons #realism #how to draw #not sure if this is helpful or not #I don't know

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death-trap-exodus · 6 years ago

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any art tips?

Oh. Well, I can try to give tips? I’ve never really done that before honestly. My level of arting is nowhere near professional and I haven’t tried a ton of stuff to have opinions on them, but I can try.

This kinda turned into a supply list, but for my own drawing process look at the bottom of the post!

Paper

Since I am a traditional artist over a digital artist, paper is kinda a big deal. My current personal favorite is the Strathmore 400 Series Sketch 9 x 12″ fine tooth surface sketchbook. The thickness of the pages keeps it from getting ripply as you work with it, hard coloring in with pencil does not cause bubbles, and pens/markers do not bleed onto the next page. However, it will leave an indent on the next page if you press too hard.

I highly advise against standard 70 page spiral notebooks for anything more than little doodles. The pages are much thinner than they used to be, and will ripple, bubble, fall apart under heavy marker use, and indent many pages. Heavier paper is honestly just the way to go, plus no annoying blue lines.

Price-wise, I know the standard spirals are usually extremely cheap and easy to buy in bulk, but I can’t remember the price of my Strathmore. It’s not too terribly expensive though.

Pencils

Honestly? Pencils aren’t a big deal to me. I use a variety ofcheap, basic mechanical pencil brands. My current preference however, seems to be Bic. Any brand should work fine, but if the lead constantly breaks, I’d suggest moving up to a larger lead size, or buying a different, stronger brand of pencil.

Personally, I never use 0.5mm lead. It is far too delicate, and I have never found myself needing such a small point to draw with. I find 0.7mm to be the best, as you can achieve both thick and thin lines easily, and press fairly hard with it. I mainly use 0.9mm, as I can press veryhard for dark lines, sketch large and clearly visible soft lines, and it compliments the exaggerated features of my casual art style.

Pens/Markers

So this one is a doozy. I use a very large range of pen products with varying standards of quality. For black pens, the Pilot Precise V5 was my trusty pen for many years before the ink ran out. Now, I currently use a 3 pack of Sakura Pigma Micron pens (specifically 01 (0.25mm), 03 (0.35mm), and 05 (0.45mm)) and previously also had a 005 (0.20mm) Micron as well. The clarity and ease of lines with Microns in my experience is excellent, but the ink quality itself, not so much. It is quite pale compared to other inks, and can be worn away by an eraser even after fully drying. Overall though, it’s quite nice.

My general rule of thumb with pens is that the point shouldn’t indent the page, and if the ink is black,it should shine black under a light and not purple. (Lower quality inks will shine purple when tilted to face a light).

With colored pens my use isn’t as narrow. My favorite is my Uni-ball Vision red pen (I also have a green one), but I also use Bic intensity pens, Inc R-2 Blast pens (careful with these, they release a ton of ink), and even Sharpie pens.

For markers, I can’t really suggest what to stay away fromand what’s good, but I can tell you what I use. On the higher quality end, I have a trio of Prismacolor Premier markers which I’ve found have excellent color, and cover space quickly, but can spread and bleed easily. But what do I mostly use? Sharpies. You have to be careful with these. Sharpies bleed very easily, and will darken very clearly when you overlap it, so coloring has to be very neat and a one-time thing unless a darker color is desired. The color range of Sharpies from what I’ve seen, also isn’t very diverse if you don’t go hunting for the stranger colors, so if you use them, have something to color over them to adjust to the color you desire. In my case, I often use a mixture of Sharpies as a base color, and colored pencils over it to adjust.

I won’t make it’s own section about it, but the brand I use of colored pencils is also Prismacolor, as they work really well with the Sharpies, and can even solidly color over the marker. The larger the set the better, as it gives you more colors to adjust with. However, they’re not cheap.

Technique?

So this is less tips I guess and more my own personal routine with drawing. Feel free to draw your own way, or if you think the way I do it may help you improve your own art, go ahead and try some of the stuff I do! This by no means is any standard of a good art practice, it’s just personally how I draw.

I always start with a sketch, as many artists do. I make sure it’s very light that I can erase it, but clear and visible even after erasing it. Which is the odd thing I do? I erase a sketch immediately after I finish it. My sketches are less posing and positioning than they are quick, sloppy, simplistic versions of my final product. I do not usually draw basic shapes and lines for anatomy and poses, but I do sometimes. If you struggle with anatomy, I suggest still using basic shapes, as they help a lot.

Here this can go one of two ways. If I decide to ink the piece, I do not erase the sketch, and simply clean it up while doing the new lineart. This can be risky, and can result is messy lines or concave shapes that weren’t intended, so redrawing in pencil first can always be helpful. If I decide to not ink the piece, I erase the sketch, leave it visible, and draw a much darker and more visible clean version.

When it comes to colored pens, I usually only use them to supplement the drawing, blood being the most often example. Coloring large areaswith pens is messy, and a waste of ink, and I advise against it. Coloring in a pencil piece with colored pencils is also a big no-no to me personally, as it will cause the colors to blend with the gray lead, can smudge said lead, and they will pop much less against the lead as opposed to ink.

I hope this means something/helps I guess? I’m not very good at the whole tip thing, sorry!

#art tips #anonymous #I tried

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doodlewash · 7 years ago

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Hello dear Doodlewashers! I am honoured to be included among other amazing guest artists here at the vibrant Doodlewash community and I hope you will enjoy my artworks and perhaps learn something useful from me as well. My name is Michaela Istok and I am from Bratislava, Slovakia though I’ve managed to live already in Kuala Lumpur, Prague, Helsinki and Tampere.

The Beginnings

How did my art journey began for me? Honestly, I don’t really remember; I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil in my chubby little fingers. My mum, having noticed my leaning towards artistic expression (including on walls, floors, important documents and receipts…) registered me at art classes led by academic painter Ms. Sona Herenyiova since I was about 7 years old and I kept on going there until I left my hometown Bratislava for university, aged 18.

Ten years later, I have my a BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree, about 7 years of experience in the design industry and a rather impressive stash of watercolour illustrations, doodles, sketches and filled up sketchbooks in various places in various countries (Slovakia and Finland, to be exact).

Paint Cheap, Have Fun

Though I see many artists, hobby painters and art course attendants striving to use the best paints, the best paper and the best brushes they can afford, I’ve always had a different approach here. See, I believe that if my skills and technique are underwhelming, even the best paper and the most expensive super premium brush will improve it only up to a point, if at all.

However, if my expression, use of line, colours and composition are good (in my eyes at least – though I always nitpick my work!), the artwork can look charming even drawn with a basic pencil on a random sketchbook paper found in a drawer.

This is just a long-winded way to say this: I didn’t care about the quality of my tools for quite some time when beginning.

Instead, I practiced often with mediocre tools because it was well, just practice where I explored myself as an artist. The results varied and once I started to get satisfied with the progress I was making in my art journey, I started using better tools and better papers as well. Now I am in a place where I am mostly using high quality paints, papers and brushes but I don’t make it a rigid rule. You will see two paintings made on the worst and tiniest sketchbook ever in this guest post. I went into it knowing it’s a bad paper but it was fun anyway.

As for my favourite tools, usually I use Koh-I-Noor pencils, Micron fineliners and St Petersburg White Nights or Van Gogh watercolours. Papers vary – I hadn’t yet found my preferred brand, but I do gravitate towards less textured, cold-pressed ones with at least 300g/m2 weight.

Illustrator in Progress

My favourite topics tend to be animals (including beloved pets), people, silly characters, mythological beings, landscapes, flowers and picturesque village houses. I value traditions (though I don’t adhere to them much – but knowing about them makes me content) and so traditional architecture and old crafts are a big inspiration for me as well.

For illustrations, I work both in vectors (digitally) and in ink and watercolour, though I have to say that so far I have had far more clients for my digital illustrated work than for the watercolour ones, probably due to more focus on marketing the digital work. We are currently discussing a range of dog behavior books for children with a dog behaviorist friend, so let’s see where this takes us – in a not so far off future I might be very busy with a lot of watercolour illustrations too!

The Process

I have always been a fast artist (as in, fast in painting) and I consider this an advantage when it comes to watercolours (and acrylics) – they just dry so fast, I must be fast too! I rarely paint wet on wet, so painting wet on dry is a speedy process for me.

The preparatory stage takes me longer than painting itself – usually I gather some research material (photos, illustrations of the subject, simplified pictograms, etc.) to get to know my theme well and draw a couple of rough sketches on some basic papers. Once I am happy that I seem to know what I am doing, I take an actual watercolour paper and either first sketch it lightly with a pencil or draw directly with the Micron fineliner.

When painting pet portraits I need to be fairly accurate, so first I sketch the pet very lightly on a paper with a B or a 2B pencil (it can’t be too soft or the sketch is too dark and difficult to remove or cover by the watercolour wash). Then I take my Micron fineliners, drawing the subject itself. A moment to dry, and I can start applying watercolours.

Firstly I apply lighter colours in bigger areas and after that I move onto more details in darker colours. This lets me control the values and hues of the painting well, not overdoing it – I strongly believe that an overdone watercolour painting is a mortal sin!

For other illustrations, I don’t always feel the need to sketch first by pencil, so I don’t always do that. In that case it’s a drawing with Micron fineliners first and then the watercolours on top of it. This is, of course, quite risky and scary as I can’t remove or alter the fineliners but I like taking this risk. Painting this way is similar to calligraphy – there are no steps back; once you dare to paint the wash, it is there to stay. Doesn’t that remind you of life with no Ctrl + Z?

Useful Tips For Other Artists

I am not, by any means, an authority on painting but I have learnt some tips and tricks over time, so maybe some of them will help you in your artist journey too!

● Don’t stress too much about your tools if you are just starting out – you can practice with anything, not spending too much money on your art at first. Instead, dedicate your heart, time and imagination to your art!

● Also, don’t fret if you hadn’t developed your style yet – it will come! And it might change over the time too as you will be evolving as an artist and as a person (in that case, don’t fret as well, this is a good thing to happen).

● Paint and draw everyday, even if for 5 minutes while drinking your morning espresso. Practice makes perfect (and creates you that elusive ‘style’ over time)!

● You will gravitate towards some themes – should you focus only on them? Should you enjoy working on them but also develop your skills in other areas? Food for thought!

● Don’t feel self-conscious about your art and if you honestly feel it sucks, take a pencil and focus on the most basic basics – still lifes, portraits, nude bodies. By getting better in these basics you will get better in everything else!

● Leaving a bit of an empty paper (not covered by any paints) in the painting will let it “breathe” and prevent the ‘overdone’ look.

● Most of all, have fun and create art. The world needs more artists like us!

Michaela Istok Illustration portfolio Design & digital illustration portfolio Women Who Draw Behance LinkedIn Society6 Shop

#WorldWatercolorGroup - GUEST ARTIST: "A Tale of Many Faces and Flowers" by Michaela Istok Hello dear Doodlewashers! I am honoured to be included among other amazing guest artists here at the vibrant Doodlewash community and I hope you will enjoy my artworks and perhaps learn something useful from me as well.

#WorldWatercolorGroup #artist #doodlewash #EU #featured #illustration #painting #Slovakia #watercolor #watercolor illustration #watercolour #watercolour illustration

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