#there's only like 2 sketches so far lol

[soosoosoup]

snowzone

[whomstsnek]

behold, the dimwits of Dimwood

[complete-clownery]

Hahaha okay rant about this amazing fanfic (you probably heard of this one already but still)

So whenever it comes to explaining and writing under my posts I just get lazy but I need to push through this cuz I need to talk

So the fanarts were made for the lmk fanfiction sunbreak, that a lot of you (probably mostly shadowpeach shippers) had read, and it is amazing, I read trough it as fast as my brain let me and as you can see it has pleasantly scratched my brain so much so that I even (attempted) to make fanart for it

Ngl if I wasn't a major pussy I would try to illustrate the whole thing or make covers for each chapter but Im unable to work on something more than 2 hours and I would want those to look good, but good looking art (if I don't mess up) takes 6 hours ughh--- annoying much---

Anyways I'm not good with literature but man is this fix a masterpiece *chefs kiss* its everything its amazing, I was unable to put it down once I started it

Okay i dont think I have the brain capacity to explain how much I worship the writer of this masterpiece @ladygreenfrisbee , so i'm just going to talk about the drawings a tad

So first picture with Red Son and MK its sort of like an au in the fic where the whole lbd plot is somehow nonexistent and after Macaque gets to his sisters domain they settle down and raise the kids together without much of an issue aside from assassinations keep happening and trying not to get in trouble with the heavens

Id like to think that Gongzhu still wouldn't let the court tailors to put any form of red or gold on MKs outfits and only allowed the yellow after when MK was old enough to declare that yellow was his favorite color, but even now she would insist on some form of purple and shadow motives to let others know who the mother is

We also got baby MK and toddler Red Son and sassy LIF and Mac

Third pic with the lion: I don't know what it was or why but I just love general Song so much--- he's a major dickhead but sgvshshsevkdididhr (actually I kinda love all the original characters in this one, from the generals to the old lady in the beginning of the book, (gosh I also wanna draw some scenes from those chapters I loved how Mac and she interacted hshsjsj))

so chapter 34 was probably my favorite so far I re read it about two more times cuz it was amazing to see Macaque being the schemer he is and try to piss of Song lol

Last picture: its a sketch/a wip or whatever (probably not going to finish it but im still putting it there cuz its somewhat decent looking)

Its the part where Wukong remembered of Macaque finally finding him and asking for him to come back to flower fruit mountain.

I tried to make Macaque look more unhinged on this one but since I didn't finish it I dont think its that noticable so fuck that but I also gave him a halo like the saints to symbolise his suffering and what not (thought it looked cool and fitting think whatever you want about it lol)

And that all ((((hollly mother))))

If you read this trough, thank you and congrats👏👏

[blueathn]

Obligatory coffee shop au art

Close-ups and ramblings under the cut because I spent waaay too long on this

Welcome to my brain soup.

Disclaimer, I didn’t really plan this piece and just kept adding concepts as I went, so it’s kind of all over the place. It’s more a big patchwork of dumb ideas I got excited over, rather than a well thought-out drawing, but I like it as it is! It feels like my brain did when I was reading htn :]

1. The whole concept behind this is just "Vintage coffee ad but make it the griddlehark coffee shop au". I was aiming for cheerful but also not quite right, in a very stock photo kind of way if that makes sense. Gideon is smiling but she is not a willing participant in this. Also that coffee is cold.

I - very predictably - took inspiration from Leyendecker’s work, since his ads and posters are the first that come to my mind when I think "vintage ad", and also because I do feel like his painting technique is close to how I naturally paint. This is not meant to be a study of his style tho, I didn’t try to break it down on more than a very superficial level.

2. 3. Nothing special to say, just Gideon’s arms (her perfect biceps are hidden from view lest they cause a riot in the cafeteria). Also arm hair. I feel like it’s becoming a recurring feature in my art lol

4. I debated whether or not to add a foam skull on the coffee then ultimately decided against it. That’s one skull too many, and honestly Gideon neither has the skill nor the patience to attempt one. Let’s be real, if they let her have access to the pitcher she’d make tits. So here is your tits-free coffee, courtesy of the Cohort photoshop editors.

5. Isaac, sporting the Fourth’s blue not only in dress but also in his questionnable choice of eye makeup. They have matching haircut only so Jeanne can showcase how much better it looks on her.

6. This is where I finally have something clever-ish to say. Thoughts ! I have them ! Sometimes. So. Harrow. You can’t see it but she has a nose piercing as well - this is relevant to spreading my agenda that Harrow is full of bone (piercings, that is). Sue me, I forgot that they let her keep her face paint in this scene. Onto the actual thought process.

This is where Abigail interrupts the scene, before Harrow can catch a glimpse of barista!Gideon. Her interruption is shown by the unfinished look of this panel : the sketch lines peeking through (in a reddish hue, to mimic sanguine, the red chalk that artists used to draw sketches and studies - and also because the contrast of the colors makes it pop better against her skin) + the rendering is messier from the neck and down.

Abigail is blocking half of Harrow from view - I wanted to have her hide Harrow’s eyes and thus line of sight entirely, but I feared Harrow wouldn’t be as recognizable with more than half her face hidden, frowny eyebrows and all.

Abigail herself is meant to look out of place here, without taking too much attention away from Gideon. I drew her in a much simpler style, using a more monochromatic palette and cell shading, to contrast against the rest of the gang, where I used a lot more color variation and a more detailed & textured painting style.

That’s about all I have on this, if you got this far thank you! Your support is much appreciated. If you liked this drawing I’d be overjoyed if you reblogged it and left your thoughts in the tags/notes! I’m always happy when I read them, even just a "#nice" makes my day.

[mewtwoandme]

Well, it's now March. I think it's safe to say I've officially come back from my art hiatus, considering I've been working on Part 3 of the baby arc for the last few days now lol. I've been making decent progress, still far from being completely sketched out, but I'm getting closer to the end. I've been debating on outlining and finishing up Part 2 and some Siv shenanigan wips I've left sitting around before the hiatus, just to move the arc along quicker. I might still do that, but as of now, my main focus is to see how much progress I can make with Part 3.

...I do feel the need to apologize. I know that due to IRL life stuff and other things, my plans to have this arc done have been heavily interfered with. But it's refreshing to know that yall are still hype for it and still ask about it now and then ^^ Though some of it is my fault too, Part 3 is turning out to be very LENGTHY, with currently 13 pages and 75+ panels in total....I did this to myself ^^; It's a bit too late to reconsider my life choices though. I'm already too deep into the thick of it to turn back now XD Due to how long this comic is, I may need to find a place to split it. So instead of the Baby Arc being only 4 chapters like I originally intended, it may end up being 5 but we'll see.

Also, going forward, as far as posting other art like shitposts or ask related works, that stuff still might be far and few in between while I'm working on the arc. Buuuuut, if there are certain days I get tired of sketching for the arc, I may shift my attention to short shitposts/ask art here and there to mix it up a little XD

She's not having a good time :(

[junvibing]

Artfully Yours

pairing: art major renjun! x fem!reader; youtuber!renjun

warnings: lots of art and ramen, renjun is very much in love, college

summary: Renjun wants to get you something special for your birthday. He has two problems though: 1. there's not much time left, 2. he's a perfectionist. But hey, at least Chenle gave him the perfect idea. Now, he only has to finish in time and hope you'll love it.

wc: 12.5k

a/n: I've been working on this on and off for around a year lol. Anyways I really like it and I hope you do too! Leave me feedback haha this is my first long fanfic and honestly it's special to me :') <3

song recommendation: Like we just met - nct dream

credit for art inspo: matlagesilke3 on pinterest

The second Renjun got home, he prepared to spend the rest of the day working on a drawing. Since it's due for tomorrow's Drawing II class, he really needs to put his energy into finishing it today. His art projects are often accompanied with him staying up into the nights to perfect them. Sometimes while painting his thoughts drift away and he starts thinking about other things. This tendency surely adds to him staying up late but for today he hopes he’ll be able to finish before midnight. That’s why Renjun starts gathering his materials quickly before sitting down at his desk. His room is a little messy but college is stressful and an art major is no exception. Especially since he is somewhat of a perfectionist but he couldn’t imagine studying anything else other than art. For as long as Renjun can remember, he was always interested in it. The way colors dance on the paper, the way they blend into each other or how he can create anything he wants and get lost in the process - he just loves it. One of his favorite things is to try out different art mediums and see how they work, how comfortable he could get with them and if he’ll resort back to them in the future. Over the years, he discovered that he loves painting with oil paints and watercolors the most as they bring him great joy and the best results. Both mediums can be tricky at the beginning and it wasn’t much different for him when he started out but proper practice helped a lot. However, Renjun also enjoys drawing on his tablet, which is especially useful if he wants to post his work online. 

In his opinion, art is meant to be shared and what better way is there to reach lots of people than sharing it online? That's why he had started to post his art on Twitter when he was still in middle school. Whenever someone retweeted his art, he felt so elated, it pushed him to continue sharing his work. In high school he even started exploring with posting videos on YouTube, all related to art of course. Jisung, his classmate and one of his best friends, had encouraged him to just go for it and soon enough his other friends had joined in. Thinking back to his very first YouTube video, Renjun lets out a chuckle. Dang, I was so nervous. Shaking his head, he continues sketching. The thing is he never used to show his face on Twitter, it was all about his art and creativity but with the encouraging words of Jisung and his other friends, he dared to show his face on YouTube, alongside his art of course. The first video Renjun ever posted was of him drawing Moomin fan art. Over the years, his channel actually gained quite a bit of attraction and while in high school, he would often daydream about making money with his artwork even though he knew his parents wouldn’t really support him in pursuing such a career. As far as Renjun knew, his parents wanted him to get a “real” career. But he spent most of his free time either with his friends or sketching, drawing and painting. 

I still do that. Renjun sits at his desk, room dimly lit and pencil in his right hand. But y/n’s in the picture as well now. He grew up with art and it accompanied him throughout his ups and downs. He loves being creative, that’s why he had decided to go through with applying for a fine arts major when the time came around. However, his parent’s opinion and support was important to him. So at the time, he had a serious talk with them. Renjun knew they only had his best interest at heart. Naturally, they want him to be successful in life and it’s important to his parents that their only child has a good and comfortable life. They imagined for him to pursue a high paying, high status job like being a lawyer. His parents couldn’t picture how studying art would provide him with something like that. To them, pursuing an art career was too unstable, too risky. But Renjun managed to show them different ways in how he actually could be successful with it. He would do internships, could go into graphic design, could become an illustrator or go as far as to become an art instructor. There are different paths he would be able to take that would pay him well and hearing that eventually convinced his parents. Of course, Renjun had been overjoyed about that. He still is actually. All his life, art was one of the things that brought him the most happiness and his parents supported him in pursuing it as a career. What else could he wish for?

Turns out, there really was something else he could have wished for. He only knew it after you entered his life though. Renjun occasionally thinks back to how you two met. Out of nowhere, his mind sometimes drifts to the first time he saw you. Just like right now. The window in his room lets little light shine through, the sun is almost fully set at this point and the only other light source is the lamp on his desk, illuminating a bottle of milk and a few pieces of fruit. Renjun’s project for tomorrow is a still life, an art depiction of inanimate objects. It is pretty normal for him to drift off when he was monotonously sketching away, which is exactly what he is doing right now. His pen glides easily on the paper in front of him while he thinks back to his second semester. Renjun never really used to be a person who obsessed over relationships. His mind was filled with other things like ideas for art videos. In fact, he actually used to be the type who didn’t believe in love at first sight, which Jaemin thought was crazy by the way. But you kinda proved Renjun wrong. 

He still remembers the day clearly. It was fall and Mark invited you to come hang out with the boys. The dreamies, as Haechan likes to call their friend group, were still great friends even if they didn’t see each other everyday like they did back in high school. Mark actually mentioned your name before, it wasn’t your first time hanging out with the boys either but the few times you were with them, Renjun couldn’t make it, so he only officially met you in his second semester. Crazy, almost two and a half years ago. He can still remember exactly how he reacted to seeing you for the first time. The second Renjun’s eyes landed on you, the things and people around him somehow were moving in slow motion. To say he was intrigued by you would’ve been an understatement. You looked so mesmerizing, smiling at whatever Jisung was saying while the evening sun hit your face in the most beautiful way. Renjun felt like he was looking at the prettiest painting he ever laid his eyes on. All the beautiful, intricate art he saw over the years didn't compare to you and he immediately wanted to introduce himself. From that day onwards you joined his dear collection of things he loves to draw the most. 

It actually didn’t take long for Renjun to ask you out as there was no way he would be able to let you slip through his fingers. Over the years, your relationship has been going strong. Just like art you've become a constant in Renjun’s life that he wishes to never lose. With time, he even introduced you on his YouTube channel. It took a little convincing but after a while you were able to put your shyness away and join him in a vlog. Renjun smiles, thinking back to your first video together. Back then, he had decided to participate in the challenge of drawing under a blue light and you tagged along in his vlog at the beginning. It was fun for both of you and Renjun’s subscribers enjoyed seeing you guys together. The comments were flooded with how cute the two of you were and requests for you to join him more on his channel. But for today, Renjun's plans don’t include any art challenge. It’s time to finish this still life. He needs the day tomorrow for something else, something more important. 

The next day, with a fresh mind and his still life finished, Renjun prepares for a different project. There is still a bit of time left before he needs to get to class, so he wants to use it to start before it's time to turn in his still life. Renjun has something special planned for you. Your birthday is just around the corner and he had been unsure on what to get you. Last year he got you a beautiful necklace with a butterfly charm. “To show you my appreciation” is what he had said when putting it on you. Renjun never wanted to stop feeling warm and fuzzy inside when he was with you. For this year’s gift, he was thinking about decor for your dorm room since you moved recently. Yet for some reason, whenever he was strolling through stores, keeping an eye out for a suitable gift, he felt like nothing fit perfectly. You don’t really need a new rug or pillows. Your room is already decorated with various plants. Just getting you a few scented candles like Mark suggested was too plain. Getting a mug was out of the question as it’s not special enough for you. Not to mention a mug technically isn’t decor. Although it could be. However, Renjun wanted to get you something special, something that shows he put thought into it and when speaking to Chenle about it the other day, he suggested the perfect idea: painting you a picture. 

Naturally, Renjun drew small pictures for you over the course of your relationship and you cherished every single one of it but he never created a proper painting for you. Almost outrageous, how come he never did that for his girlfriend? Even Jeno did it at some point for his girlfriend. Or tried at least. Nevertheless, she loved it and Renjun still remembers your reaction actually. You and her go way back, having met during middle school. Naturally, you only ever wished the best for your best friend. So of course, seeing her that happy about Jeno’s gift, had put a smile on your face. You even laughed a little, seeing her show it off to the others. Thinking back, that should’ve been Renjun’s first clue to paint you something for your birthday. But at least he came around now, even if it is a little overdue. As soon as he had decided to paint you something to put on your wall, he had brainstormed for ideas. His still life project got in the way so he couldn’t start earlier but today is finally the day he can turn his draft for your gift into the beginnings of a painting. Last week, Renjun sat down and thought about what he wanted to paint for you and since the painting is supposed to fit your room well, he had decided to go with an enchanted forest. He feels like it would complement the various plants in your room nicely. A dark forest with colorful sparks throughout would be the perfect eye catcher for your plain white dorm wall. He had decided to draw two particular trees to accentuate the centerpiece of his painting: a magical path that’s curving to the right. Renjun feels very confident about the idea, so much so that he had decided to film a YouTube video around it: “Painting for my gf’s birthday”, where he documents the process of his painting and captures your reaction to the present. 

That’s why he sits in his chair right now, camera on his desk and films himself. His subscribers will surely enjoy seeing this. “Hi painters, so my girlfriend’s bday is just around the corner and I’ve been struggling quite a bit with finding a gift. I can’t just get her an ordinary gift, you know me. So I was thinking and searching and man almost gave up but my friend literally saved the day.“ Renjun salutes to the camera. “谢了, 哥们.“ ”So anyway, I decided to go with his idea of painting for her, hence this video. I was brainstorming in advance and already did a vague sketch of my idea.“ Renjun holds his sketchbook into the camera so his viewers can see the enchanted forest. “You can see it’s supposed to be a forest. I wanna add different colored sparks to it and make the path here a blueish white to give it a fairy, enchanted type of feel.” Renjun traced the path with his finger and then mentioned two particular trees. “The big trees in the front that bend over and form a heart accentuate the magical path nicely. I also added a little pond. I really like it and I think y/n will like it as well.” Renjun adjusts the camera to show his canvas and him. For the next thirty minutes, he hunches over his desk, sketching his draft carefully onto the canvas. Since this is supposed to be the centerpiece of your wall, Renjun bought a big canvas last week. It is supposed to be an eye-catcher after all. As the time passes and he finishes sketching, he stands up to look at his work. “Okay that’s good enough.” Renjun looks into the camera. “I’ll stop for now cause I have class in about forty minutes. But I’ll see you later tonight when I continue. Y/n’s bday is literally in 9 days and you know how it goes with oil paints, long drying times. So I need it to be done one day before her bday, meaning there’s no time to slack off.” Renjun takes the camera into his hand and smiles before moving his hand in front of the lens. “Only the best for my babe.” 

Hours later, Renjun is setting up his camera again. After his last class for today, art history, he got some lunch with the boys in the dining hall. Mark and Haechan had class though, so the group wasn’t complete. The boys catched up a little but Renjun didn’t want to spend too much time eating. There was still a project awaiting him at home after all. That’s why he only had a small chicken salad. Jaemin talked about how his professor has been kicking his butt with reading assignments for class and to be fair, Renjun could understand. There was just something unpleasant about having to read two 15 page papers about the causes and consequences of the French revolution. But Jaemin chose to major in history education. Although Renjun knows it’s not Jaemin's fault for having an unpleasant professor. Chenle, however, hadn’t been that interested in his friend’s distress. “Glad I don’t have to deal with that”, is what he had said. “Yeah, you need to deal with statistical models dude, gross” Jaemin really doesn’t like math. But, the boys were all able to agree that college workload is a lot, whether one studies education or economics. “Chill guys”, Jeno had taken a bite of his pizza slice, “Jun, how’s it going with y/n’s gift?” Well, Renjun still has lots to do, which is why he had used that opportunity to briefly explain his progress and bid his friends goodbye to go straight to his dorm.

“I’m back, people. I turned in a project and I had art history today which wasn’t so great. It has the touch of being boring sometimes but it’s okay, let‘s continue.” Renjun turns his camera to show the sketch he made earlier today. “This is what we’re working with. It’s time to bring some color into this. I don’t wanna waste much time, so let’s begin.” He pulls his easel out and places the canvas on it. The camera is pointing at him and the canvas again but this time he is standing in the middle of his room. After opening a window, he starts with mixing light gray and dark brown. Oil paints don’t have the nicest smell, so it’s good to have a window or two open while painting. This way, Renjun can maximize the time he is able to paint before getting a headache. “Since I don’t have much time for this painting, I’ll use a fast drying medium. Hopefully this way the painting will be dry on time for y/n’s bday.” Renjun starts with a medium sized brush to paint a thin layer of light gray on the middle of his canvas, where fog would later shine through the trees. The next step is to use brown to block in the general shape of the trees. The two bend trees forming a heart take up quite a bit of space on the left and right side of his canvas. Later on, he wants to spend time on the details to tie everything in. Renjun, like most artists, finds it better to start with the general shape of things and work himself up to the smaller, more detailed parts of a painting. 

After almost two hours of painting, he takes a small break to get a snack. I should still have a pack of ramen left somewhere. Of course, only if his roommate Jay didn’t eat it. After locating the ramen and preparing it quickly, Renjun places his camera in front of him. “As you can see, I took a break guys. I’m sitting in the kitchen right now since I don’t want to expose myself to the smell of the paint unnecessarily. I only have a little bit of the background left. So, I think I should be able to finish in about twenty minutes or so.” Renjun turns his camera off to continue eating. Conveniently enough for him, you video call him while he's still eating. So, he wasn’t rushed to get out of his room to hide his painting from you. Renjun answers your call while positioning his phone against the fruit bowl on the table. “Hi babe, hold up.” After his phone is stable, he smiles at you. “How was your day?” Seeing Renjun after a long day makes you sigh and smile at him. You just wanted to see him and hear his voice for a while to feel better. “Exhausting, I had so much class today and work was a mess.” You pout. You work at a coffee shop downtown a few days a week to save up some money. Sadly, more often than not, you have to deal with difficult customers. “I’m sorry to hear that, love. Did you just get home?” You nod. It is way past nine in the evening and you were ready to go to sleep in a bit, ideally with Renjun cuddling you but that won’t happen today. “Jun, how come you’re eating at this hour?” You know he doesn’t usually eat this late as he doesn’t like to go to bed with a full stomach. Renjun quickly tries to come up with a plausible answer. He doesn’t want to tell you that he spent a good portion of the day painting your gift. “I had a bit of a light lunch today, went out with the boys but didn’t eat too much.” That technically wasn’t a lie either. During lunch he was eager to go back home to paint your gift but the boys insisted he ate at least something before spending hours on it. Renjun and you spend the next ten minutes talking, before he sents you a kiss through the camera and you hang up for the night. 

After washing his bowl, he goes back to his room. He could feel a headache approaching but was determined to finish the background today. Soon enough, around thirty minutes later, Renjun picks up his camera again. “I’m finished with the background guys. This is how it looks so far.” He turns the camera to show the canvas in detail and zooms in a little. At this point, it looks like a simple foggy forest with tall, leafless trees. Renjun will worry about the details later, for now this is good enough. “Quite simple but that’s fine for today. Hopefully it’ll be dry by tomorrow so I can continue after classes. See you then.” Renjun quickly changes into his pajamas and brushes his teeth to go to bed but not before making sure to keep his window open. 

Wednesday morning comes around and Renjun wakes up in his chilly room. He doesn’t mind it that much since he needs to get to class soon anyway. His Wednesdays are usually packed with classes. But thankfully, they are ones he mostly enjoys, Ceramics, Contemporary Art, Digital Media and lastly Painting II. After quickly eating breakfast and getting dressed, he was ready to start the day. Today, Renjun and you are actually planning to get lunch together. Wednesdays and Fridays were set dates where you would either hang out in between classes and snack on a few things or eat lunch together. Renjun loves doing small, simple things with you like snacking on sandwiches together. Since you’ve been busy lately with your part time job at the coffee shop, he hasn’t been able to spend lots of time with you. He made an effort to show up at your workplace every other day or so but seeing you for fifteen minutes just wasn’t enough, which is why he looked forward to today. As soon as his fourth class finishes, he makes a beeline to the door. 

You were supposed to meet next to the library and just as agreed he sees you standing there, smiling down at your phone. You’re wearing one of his hoodies and jeans, quite simple but you still manage to look great. As if you had a feeling he was coming your way, you look up. Renjun kisses your cheek, “Hi love, missed you.” He holds out his hand for you. Putting your hand in his, you start walking towards a convenience store nearby campus. “Junnie, how was class? Did you manage to finish your charcoal drawing from last week?” A few weeks ago in Painting II, Renjun's professor introduced the topic of shading with paint. His professor gave a deadline of one week to turn in a small charcoal drawing and today they had the first hour of class to finish it. The assignment was only intented to be a supplementary technique though. It would help to understand contrast and value as a basis for shading with paint. Charcoal isn’t a medium Renjun uses often, so he chose a somewhat simple object to draw, a vase full of your favorite flowers, tulips. “Yeah, I managed to finish it within the last ten minutes. The shading was a little tricky though. I’m not too satisfied with it but you know my perfectionist self.” Renjun smiles sheepishly. You know he takes his art seriously and has a tendency to focus a little too much on the details. Sometimes he would ask you to have a look at this work since your input helped him and over time he learned that looking at his art with a fresh set of eyes always worked. Nevertheless, in your opinion, he always manages to create something that was beautifully executed.

On the way to the supermarket you tell him about your day, how boring class was and how your professor gave you tons of reading material for the next class. Renjun knows you have a thing for reading, hence your English literature major but he never understood how you were able to survive reading so much for your degree. He enjoys reading from time to time but having to read pages upon pages of who knows how old literature and analyzing it all in class never had much appeal to him. Nevertheless, he listens attentively to you and after you both get some snacks that Renjun kindly carries, you walk back to campus to your favorite spot near the economics department. Just a few minutes away from the main building were a few benches looking out at the gardening club’s flower field. You and Renjun love to sit on one of them and enjoy the beauty of different flowers together. Thankfully, one of the benches isn’t occupied so you both can sit down and enjoy your break together. Every year, the gardening club arranges their flowers in different themes. A few months ago in summer the theme was “beach sun set”. For this, their flower field basically consisted of flowers in three colors: blue, orange and yellow. Since the season has already changed, a new theme is in place at the moment. This winter, the gardening club focussed on winter themed food by using white and red roses arranged in a way that looked like a candy cane and so on. Renjun likes the idea of different themes, it was nice to see the club have fun with being creative. In a way they're creating their own art. 

An hour later, Renjun walks you to your next class and squeezes your hand lovingly before making his way home. He is happy that he got to spend some quality time with you, even if it wasn’t very long. While walking back, he is mentally preparing a list of what he needs to paint next for your gift. Since the background was finished and hopefully dry, the next step would be to go into more detail by giving the trees more depth, properly outlining their roots and branches. Renjun also wants to add more color accents to the trees by painting green and slightly bluish leaves. He wants to mimic moon light shining through the forest. It would cast onto the leaves of the trees and give them a light blue tint. As soon as Renjun arrives home, he continues filming his painting process. “Hi painters, I’m back for the next round. Right now it's Wednesday afternoon, meaning I have exactly 6 days left for this painting to finish, so it can still dry in time. Let's go!” The next hours of Renjun’s day consisted of his open window, the smell of oil paints and color on his fingers. At one point, he did actually take a small break to eat, even his roommate Jay made an appearance. Renjun gets along just fine with him but both prefer to stay in their respective rooms, meaning they don't see each other often. He literally is just his roommate, still a cool guy though. One time Jay even asked him for some art advice. Renjun didn't really imagine him to be the type of guy to be interested in art, but turns out he wanted to try out something new. Of course, Renjun was happy to help and advise. Maybe this time for his painting he would ask Jay for his opinion. 

Thursday flew by him it seemed. Renjun got in and out of class, worked on another assignment and met up with the dreamies. He didn’t continue to paint on the canvas because it was still too wet. Time is worrying him a little bit since the paint takes longer to dry than he likes and he still needs to do quite a bit. But he'll push through. Renjun is determined to finish your gift one day before your birthday and there's no way he'll give you an unfinished painting.

The next day, your Friday lunch break falls short because of an essay you have to finish. However, this gives Renjun more time to perfect his painting for you, which he feels like he really needs. He spent so much time working on it, yet he still isn’t satisfied with the outcome. In fact, he feels like the painting was nowhere near being finished in time. There is something about the way he placed the sparks that he doesn't like. The thing is, he can’t really pinpoint why exactly he doesn't like it. They just aren't really “flying” in the air well enough. Some are too close together, others too far apart. In a way it doesn't look natural enough, but that in itself doesn't make any sense, cause no normal forest has such sparks flying through it. Renjun was expecting them to deepen the magical feeling of the forest, but for some reason he couldn’t portray that feeling onto the canvas in a satisfactory way. Regardless, a few spots shouldn't be enough to give him the feeling of not liking the placement of the sparks overall, right?

To be frank, he is very frustrated. So, at one point he decides to vent to his camera. “I know I’m too nitpicky. But I just want it to look perfect for y/n. I also know she will like my painting regardless. Heck, she probably wouldn’t mind if I doodled her something as a present. But I want it to be deserving of being in her room. I want her to love my painting and me to like it as well.” Renjun wipes a hand down his face. “Maybe I’ve been on this for too long. It’s already past 7 pm and I’ve been working on this painting since I ate lunch. Or maybe time is just stressing me. There are only a few days left and I still need to work on the details.” Renjun decides he needs a break, a fresh breath of air. Maybe the oil paint smell is messing too much with his ability to create. Whatever the case is, he decides to go by your workplace and see you. Your smile would definitely help him feel better. 

As soon as you see Renjun walking through the door of the coffee shop, you have a smile on your face. Your work day is slowly coming to an end and even though most customers today weren’t that difficult to handle, working a long shift naturally tires your body out, which is why it's a pleasant surprise to see your boyfriend. “Junnie, what are you doing here?” Seeing you standing behind the counter smiling at him, gives Renjun a warm and comfy feeling. It was like all of his worries evaporated into thin air as soon as your beautiful face smiled up at him. “Hi love, came to see you. I needed a fresh breath of air.” You walk around the counter to give him a quick kiss on the cheek, the rag still in your left hand. As expected, his insides are feeling fuzzy again.

You’ve always had that effect on him. Renjun didn’t really mind holding your hand in public or you leaning on him, but kisses, even if only on the cheek, are something intimate to him, so he only really initiates them in public if he really misses you. Otherwise they are kept for when you two are in private. “Trouble with painting again?” Renjun smiles sheepishly. Of course, you would figure him out. But he doesn’t mind and fortunately, you don’t know what exactly he was painting. “Yeah, I think I’ve been on it for a bit too long. You and a nice cup of tea will surely help.” Renjun isn’t a big fan of coffee, he preferred drinking tea over coffee any day. Whenever he comes around the coffee shop you work at, he either orders tea or just some pastry to snack on, sometimes both if he feels like looking at you a little longer. Often Renjun thinks about how pretty you look and about how he could watch you for hours. He realizes that thought might be creepy but you didn’t mind when he told you about it one day. It’s him after all, not some stranger. 

You quickly wipe down the table before going behind the counter again to prepare his drink. Today, Renjun chose to drink lemon tea. Being the nice girlfriend that you are, you gave him a small cookie on the side as well. Sadly, he can’t spend much time talking to you as new customers come in. That‘s why he sits down at a table and enjoys his tea and the cookie. How nice it would be if we could just sit on my bed and talk. Or rather on her bed, can’t have her seeing the painting. Occasionally, he looks over to see you wiping down tables and you wink at him. He was right, a tea and you definitely help to calm his mind. Renjun spends about twenty minutes in the coffee shop before he gets up and gives you a sweet goodbye. It is time to return to the dorm and continue his painting.

For now, he plans to continue with a few details of trees. Maybe having a fresh look at the sparks tomorrow is a better idea. Not counting today, 5 days were left till your birthday, which meant he effectively has 2 to 3 days left to paint since oil paint, even with a quick drying medium, still needs comparatively long to dry. After working for about half an hour on the details of the trees in the back, Renjun feels a little better about his painting. He takes this as an incentive to end the day with a positive feeling and grabs his camera again. “Okay guys, I’m calling it quits for today. It’s about 8 pm already. I think it’s better to tackle the sparks tomorrow. ” Renjun quickly shows the current state of his painting before he turns off the camera. 

The next day is a Saturday, meaning Renjun has all day to paint and he wakes up with a good feeling. He quickly eats breakfast and immediately wants to get to painting, so he sets up his camera to further film his painting process. It’s time to focus on the sparks. The ones he already painted were in different colors, namely pink, yellow, blue and red. But looking at his canvas with a fresh set of eyes, he realizes they were not bright enough for his liking. They aren’t really sparkling. Maybe the feeling he got last evening of them not “flying” in the forest nicely was caused by that. He needs to paint in such a way that they look like they were actually sparkling. Renjun has the revelation that he needs to add highlights to the sparks. Adding highlights to them would ensure that the sparks stand out more against the forest, making them more interesting and giving the painting a more refined look. He likes that approach. Maybe he can even place the highlights in such a way that it would have the effect of letting single sparks look more apart from others. This way his problem of the placement of some sparks would be solved, at least to some extent. 

For the next hour Renjun works on adding enough highlights and blending around the sparks. He also adds a few more sparks to the forest. Taking a few steps back from his canvas, he regards the result. This time, Renjun definitely likes it a lot more. The sparks look nice against the dark forest and shine in different colors. It felt realistic and he was happy with the outcome so far. He grabs his camera, “Finally guys, I managed to paint the sparks in a way I’m satisfied with. I had the realization this morning that I needed to add highlights to them and I'm happy to report that it was a good idea.” Renjun shows his viewers the current state of his painting. “I’m thinking of continuing with the details of the two bent trees in the front. I only have a few days left to paint and I still need to work on the details of the pond.” Renjun puts his camera back on his desk again, before facing the canvas. These two trees still need leaves and defined roots. He wants to make them look like they are quite old.

Basically, Renjun spent the rest of his day painting, except for the occasional toilet and food break. After hours in front of his canvas, his head hurts. His bedroom is cold because of the opened window, yet he still feels the effects of the oil paint. Whatever. I need to continue at least a little bit more. At this point, the two trees forming a heart are finished. Renjun added a few bushes to the forest as well and moss around the pond. Since he had decided to make the path leading to the pond a blueish white, he worked on that as well. This way, it seems like the moon lights it up. Of course, he also needs to add highlights to the crown of the trees. He thinks about whether to make them a different color, but ultimately decides to go with the same blueish white since it ties in better with his concept of the moon shining down on the forest. Renjun wants to finish that part today, before calling it quits for tonight. It should take him under half an hour to finish this detail and then he can enjoy a bowl of ramen before going to bed.

The following day, Renjun can’t really continue working on his painting since it needs to dry, so he mainly spends the day working on his art history essay that is due for Tuesday’s class. He already had planned it ahead, which is why he had mainly focused on his painting for you yesterday. Since it needed to dry for him to continue, Renjun can use today for his assignment. He needs to write an essay about the way leadership and power gets depicted in art. For that he had to choose a picture to analyze and write about. Renjun knows he is pushing it a bit late but since he doesn’t plan to work on anything else today, he figures it’s fine. He’s sure that he can finish the assignment today and if not, he still has a bit of tomorrow left. It is only supposed to be four pages long anyway. How hard can that be, right? Well turns out a little harder than he had thought. Renjun spends around three hours in front of his laptop before he decides to take a break. I really should eat something. After all this writing his brain needs energy and a break. Standing up from his desk, he turns around and his gaze falls on the canvas in his room. Renjun inspects it carefully from a distance and actually likes the result. Of course, it still isn’t finished. He definitely needs to add a few more details. The bend trees need to look more interesting and realistic. A few more details on the trees in the back would be good. Maybe I also should add a few more sparks-– his finger twitches. There is nothing more that Renjun wants in this moment than to grab his brush and continue painting, perfecting your present. But right now is not the time. He shakes his head lightly. Still needs to dry. 

Trying to get his thoughts away from the painting, Renjun decides on what show to watch while he eats something. Surprisingly, he has been enjoying a Chinese drama you recommended lately, but maybe watching the next 40-minutes episode isn’t such a great idea with an unfinished essay sitting on his desk. So he decides to just watch a YouTube video. Twenty minutes later, Renjun sits at his desk again and continues with his essay. That’s basically how he spends his whole afternoon. Around 6 pm he is actually almost finished with the essay. That’s why he decides to get up and go into the kitchen to make some ramen. He knows that he ate a little too much ramen throughout the week but they are really just so convenient when he doesn't have much time to cook. 

However, on the way to the kitchen, his doorbell suddenly rings. Renjun isn’t expecting anyone, his roommate might have but Jay doesn’t come out of his room to open the door. So when the bell rings a second time, Renjun opens the door. To his surprise, it’s you. You stand there, smiling at him, dressed in an oversized jacket and plaid pajama pants, a small handbag on top of your right shoulder and a plastic bag in your left hand. As usual, you look cute and cozy but Renjun can’t really concentrate on that. He only stares at you. Why is she here? Did I miss something? And then it hits him. He curses in his head, you’re here for the movie night you both agreed on last week. Seems like amidst all the painting and college he forgot about it. Good going Renjun. You tilt your head a little to the side, “Baby, are you going to let me in?” Renjun’s mind immediately goes to your gift. Damn it, the painting’s still in my room! He can’t possibly let you see it. In panic, Renjun turns his head back, looking into the flat. He needs to come up with some kind of excuse right now, on the spot, “Love, babe, give me like 2 minutes okay, my room’s kinda messy”, he looks at you, his hand already resting on the door to close it. “Jun, you know I don’t care about that”, you step forward, laughing a little but he holds his ground. “No really, just give me like 5 minutes”, Renjun doesn’t give you any time to properly react and closes the door. 

Quickly jogging into his room, he looks around. He only needs to hide the canvas, his paints and brushes aren’t a problem. But where should he hide it? Behind the closet? No way, too risky. The kitchen, no it’s right next to the front door. And then it hits him. Jay! Carefully grabbing the canvas, Renjun quickly goes across the hall and knocks on his roommate’s door. “Listen dude, my girl’s just outside the door but I can’t have her see this painting. Can I please hide it in your room for a few hours?” Fortunately, Renjun and Jay get along well. “Oh yeah sure” Jay points to the corner next to his dresser, “you can put it there dude” Renjun quickly puts the painting down and thanks Jay like three times before he goes to get you. “Okay love, you can come in.” “Thank you for being so gracious, your highness” You jokingly bow down before entering, Renjun shakes his head, closes the door and grabs your hand. You do sometimes have this amusingly bizarre streak. “How come you suddenly felt the need to tidy up your room for me? Hiding something?”, you tease him. Renjun almost scratches his head. Surely, if he would’ve done that you would be more suspicious of him. “It’s just messy babe. I want you to be comfortable.” Humming, you decide to give him the benefit of the doubt. It sure seems like he didn’t expect you to come over today though. “Did you forget our movie night, Junnie?” Renjun smiles apologetically and nods, “Sorry love, promise, next time I won’t forget.” He squeezes your hand. Renjun normally isn’t the person to forget your dates. Spending time with you is one of his favorite things to do but even he can sometimes forget. You don’t mind, he’s also just human. Besides, you know Renjun had a couple of deadlines lately. 

Entering his room, the familiar sight of art materials, a few soda cans and an easel greets you. Renjun keeps his room mostly tidy except for whenever exam season hits and he has to deal with many art projects at the same time. Renjun’s habit of spending too much on details leads him to making full use of the deadlines, which in return stresses him out so much that he doesn’t bother a lot with cleaning. To you that’s fine, you aren’t much different in that aspect. Besides, why add more stress to exams by worrying about whether your room is clean or not. You make your way to his bed and put your handbag down, your gaze finding the empty easel in the middle of his room. That usually means he's working on something. “Jun, what have you been working on?” Renjun’s gaze quickly follows yours. Dang, should've put that away! Okay, just say something. Quick! “Ahh love, you know I have a few projects due soon. I’ve been spending a lot of time painting.” Renjun sits down next to you, nodding as if he was trying to reassure himself that he wasn’t caught by you. But technically he didn’t lie. Quickly trying to change the subject, he grabs your plastic bag. Before coming over to Renjun’s place, you quickly got a few snacks at a convenience store. “No movie without snacks right? Oh and I got you some ramen as well, Jun.” He looks inside the plastic bag, it contains chips in two different flavors, some gummy bears, his favorite ramen and pretzel snacks. “Thank you love, I should still have some soda in the fridge for us.” Renjun stands up and takes a step in the direction of the door but halts as you grab his wrist. “Jun, can we prepare the ramen now? I’m actually quite hungry, I haven't had dinner yet.” You’re hoping he agrees as the last thing you ate today was just a piece of toast a couple of hours ago. After your eight hour shift at work today you worked a little on an assignment before buying the snacks for tonight. Renjun immediately agrees, laughing a little. “Sure, I’ve literally wanted to make myself some ramen before you rang the bell.”

After cooking the ramen and grabbing two soda cans, you’re sitting on Renjun’s bed while turns off the lights before he grabs his laptop. Since he knows how much you like to have a few scented candles lit up while watching a movie, Renjun also does that before sitting cross-legged next to you and putting his blanket over you both. Turning on the third Harry Potter movie, you cuddle up to him and enjoy the evening together. Three weeks ago, Renjun and you had decided to rewatch all HP movies and so far you both enjoyed it very much. It’s been years since the last time you watched them, so you figured doing it together would be fun. That’s why you’ve met up with Renjun once a week for movie night, snacking away your worries and college stress for at least the few hours that you spend together with him. Sitting together under the blanket and just spending time together with him is one of your favorite things to do. It doesn't matter if you watch a movie or drink tea together, you just enjoy spending time in Renjun’s arms. How can you not? Renjun is just so good to cuddle. That’s why you always end up putting your head on his shoulder, hugging him and it’s no different today. Your head is resting on his shoulder and his arm around you. 

From time to time Renjun gives your body a little squeeze and feeds you snacks. He also sneaks a few glances at you. Seeing you so comfortable around him, makes his insides feel warm. So cute. He might love you a little more every time he sees you like this. You aren’t wearing any makeup and aren’t dressed up, yet you manage to make him attracted to you nonetheless. There is just something so attractive about you being your true self around him, not caring about how you look in your pajamas or how much you snack. Suddenly, Renjun feels the urge to kiss you. If only you weren’t so focused on the movie, “My love”. You hum as an answer, eyes still glued on the laptop screen. “Look at me please.” You lift your head off his shoulder and Renjun just looks at you lovingly. While you slowly sit up, he can only think about how you really are the most beautiful woman he set his eyes on. Tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, he slowly leans in. Renjun believes there is nothing better in the world than moments like these. Moments where everything fades into the background and only you two seem to exist. Moments where he can be very close to you and his lips can meet yours in a loving and intimate way. Your lips are soft and smooth in such a way it feels like kissing the clouds. Your hand naturally finds its way into Renjun’s hair. His right hand cups your cheek while his lips move slowly against yours. His other hand rests on your waist and after a loving moment, Renjun tilts his head a little more to the side, deepening the kiss. His lips still taste a little of the ramen you two had earlier but you don’t mind. Kissing him is always great. In a sense, kissing him is like drinking a cup of hot cocoa on cold winter days. Renjun’s kisses give you comfort, warmth and a sense of belonging like you’ve never felt before. Even in very passionate moments, where kissing him stole your breath away, Renjun is caring and gentle. Just like now as he holds you a little closer, loving you a little more. His hand, previously on your cheek, moves down, stroking your waist. Slowly he pulls away, hands still on your waist. “I love you.” Truly, you’re one of the people that make him the happiest. Smiling, you lean into him to place your lips on his one more time, portraying your love for him. “I love you too.” Putting your head on his shoulder again, you notice the movie is still playing. Both of you return to watching and enjoying it further. 

Around halfway through the movie, the cozy atmosphere and dim lit room actually make you sleepy. You did have a long day today and after a while, Renjun notices your lack of comments and snacking. Turning his head to look at you, he sees you fast asleep on his shoulder. Not wanting you to be cold, he places the blanket further up your body and tightens his arm around you. Renjun is unsure about waking you. Since you don’t need to work tomorrow morning, you could sleep over today. It’s been quite a while anyway since the last time you slept over at his place. To be honest, he kind of misses falling asleep with you next to him. However, if you are to sleep over, the painting will need to stay in Jay’s room for the night. I guess I could ask him. He probably wouldn’t mind. Renjun decides he would ask. So he slowly begins to move your head from his shoulder, hoping you won't wake up. He really tries to be careful but apparently isn’t careful enough since you slowly start to wake up while he tries to lay your head down onto a pillow. Slowly sitting up, you quietly mumble his name. Your hooded eyes find the laptop screen still playing the movie. “I’m sorry love, didn’t wanna wake you” “It’s okay. When did I fall asleep?” Renjun smiles, “I’m not sure, some time ago.” “Oh”  “Yeah, oh” He laughs a little. “Do you wanna sleep over, love?” You nod, you can just leave in the morning since you don’t need to work until the afternoon shift begins. Renjun and you decide to just wash up and relax in his bed. He doesn’t need to finish the movie and you’re so tired, you probably would’ve fallen asleep again anyways. Closing his laptop, you make your way to the bathroom he shares with his roommate. Renjun always has a toothbrush prepared for you even if you didn’t sleep over most nights. It’s pretty cute and someway along you also started to pick up that habit of his for whenever he would sleep over at your dorm. That didn’t happen so often though since you share your dorm room with another girl. It’s definitely more comfortable to sleep at his place since he has a room to himself. 

While you’re in the bathroom, Renjun quickly makes his way to Jay’s room and knocks quietly. In hindsight, he could’ve also just sent him a text but whatever, Jay already opened the door. “Hey man, y/n’s gonna sleep over. Is it okay if the painting stays with you tonight?” Jay doesn’t have a problem with it. It’s just in a corner anyway, so the painting doesn’t really bother him. Having solved that problem, Renjun makes his way back into his room and starts to put the snacks away before getting you a shirt and sweatpants to wear for the night. Just in case she wants to get out of her pajama pants. Shortly after, you enter. “Here love, you can get changed if you want while I brush my teeth”, Renjun points to the clothes on the bed that he neatly laid out for you. You’ve always liked sleeping in his clothes, somehow it’s another kind of comfy. Maybe it’s because they always smell like him and how is a girl able to resist that? “Thank you Jun”, you quickly kiss his cheek before he leaves the room. Looking around you notice that Renjun already blew out the candles and sorted out his bed. After quickly changing your clothes, you grab a corner of his blanket and slip under it. 

Not even three minutes pass before he opens the door to his room. A soft smile makes its way onto Renjun’s lips as he sees you already comfy and ready in bed, waiting for him. Seems like the tiredness is slowly creeping up on you again. My poor baby. It's not even 9:30 and she’s ready to call it a day. Renjun quickly turns off his light and gets in bed next to you. You turn around to face him and his arm automatically wraps itself around your waist, pulling you a little closer. You place your hand on his chest while your head rests on his arm. Renjun slowly strokes your hair, soft eyes looking at you in the dark. After a few minutes, you snuggle a little closer to him. Cuddling him like this makes you even more sleepy. You nuzzle your face into his chest, giving him the perfect opportunity to lay a sweet kiss on top of your head. Renjun rests his cheek against the top of your head. Little words are exchanged as you welcome the comfortable and sleepy atmosphere. Except for your breathing, your heartbeats and the occasional sound of the blanket shuffling, the room is silent. You love moments like these. You love when Renjun cuddles with you, when you can feel his arms holding your body closely and his soft breath against your hair. You’ve always had a soft spot for his hugs anyway and being so close to him that you can listen to his heartbeat while feeling the warmth radiating from his body gives another level of bliss. You actually want to stay awake a little longer, want to consciously feel his body for some time more but it’s getting progressively harder for you to stay awake and Renjun sees how you struggle to. He murmurs against your hair, “Close your eyes, love. I know you had a long day” You feel another kiss on your hair and mumble an “I love you” to him before closing your eyes and letting sleep take over you. You barely manage to hear him say it back before you fully fall asleep.  

Opening your eyes the next morning, Renjun’s sleeping face greets you. His hair is kind of messy and his shirt got pulled down a bit, exposing part of his collarbones. Renjun’s arm rests on top of your hip and your feet are touching. Watching him for a few minutes, you get lost in your thoughts. There’s just something different about him in this relaxed state. It's like all the world’s stress and pressure can't get to him, like he can truly be undisturbed and there’s nothing in the world less than peace and happiness that you wish for Renjun. You know he has tendencies that make his life, especially his college life, a little more difficult than it needs to be. But honestly who knew an art major could be so demanding? You used to have this picture in your head of an art major being easy. After all, the students only need to paint stuff, right? Yeah, not exactly. Because of Renjun, you were able to glance beyond surface level and it turns out, studying art is harder than it seems. Renjun has written exams, almost weekly mini art projects for his classes, he needs to hold presentations and when exam season comes around his room is piled up with different art materials for his creative projects. It truly seems like you have to love art to study it or else you will drown. Renjun gives his all for college and you love that for him but him being a perfectionist adds another layer of difficulty to his degree. Sometimes he really needs to relax. That’s why you like seeing him resting so much. He can shut the world out and doesn’t fry his brain with details of his unfinished projects. You get to see him recovering from all the work he puts into his passion. 

You regard Renjun‘s sleeping state for a little while longer. The sun falls beautifully on him, partly on his face and hair. It highlights his slightly puffy face that he tends to get in the mornings. Your hand unconsciously reaches out and begins to stroke his hair slowly. Feeling your hand caressing his hair, Renjun stirs a little and sighs. It’s a very cute sight. Slowly opening his eyes after a few minutes, he smiles at you. Tightening his arm around your waist, you exchange a small kiss. Spending the morning with Renjun is usually a calm and loving experience. He likes to take his time in the mornings whenever he can, especially when he’s still a little sleepy. So you both spend a while wrapped in each other's arms with quiet murmurs to not disturb the morning quietness, taking in the warmth of one another before slowly getting out of bed to get ready. After eating breakfast together you need to leave to go home. Since you didn’t plan on spending the night, you plan on making a stop at your dorm, changing into a different outfit and maybe reading a little before going to work today.

As soon as you left, Renjun got his painting from Jay’s room. Today is the last day he can work on it since the painting needs to be dry for your birthday. After spending the last evening with you, Renjun feels quite good this morning. He feels like he can finish the painting in time and that he’ll like the outcome. The painting still needs details to the pond. It hopefully won’t take more than two hours. After that, Renjun still needs to add finishing touches to your gift. He starts with the pond by adding light blue highlights and a few branches that touch the water before letting the paint rest a little. In the meantime, he moves on to the finishing touches of other parts of the painting. Renjun had planned on spending the majority of today to finish your gift. Unfortunately, he can’t varnish it yet because it needs a few months to properly dry before he can put the varnish on top to fully seal it. However, for your birthday it will be enough for the painting to be dry to touch. After adding a little more detail to the trees in the background and defining a few of them a bit more, Renjun continues with the two main trees forming the heart. He decides to add some moss to the tree barks. 

However, after regarding the thin layer of moss he painted, he isn’t really satisfied. It seems a bit too flat for his liking, so he decides to try a different approach and goes to the kitchen to get some coffee. Maybe adding a few sprinkles of ground coffee into the paint will create a more natural finish. After trying it out on a paper and liking it, he uses his mixture of paint and coffee for the moss on the canvas. Looks pretty good. Being satisfied with the moss, Renjun takes a few steps away from his canvas to have a look at the pond. It doesn’t necessarily look bad but there’s still something he doesn’t like. He feels like it's kind of looking boring, which probably is because of a lack of details. That’s why for the next hour or so he spends his time perfecting the pond. In a spur of inspiration, Renjun also decides to add shadows of little fish inside the water.

Just in time for a small food break, Renjun finishes with the painting for now. He decides to come back to it after eating a bowl of ramen to regard it one last time before deciding if it’s really finished or not. Twenty minutes later, after he finished eating, Renjun stands in his room with crossed arms in front of the canvas. The window is open again, still his room very much smells like oil paints. His shirt and hands have paint on them, he truly looks like an artist in this moment. To him, there’s something strangely satisfying whenever he gets lost in painting so much that his hands and clothes show the proof. Renjun is satisfied with the outcome. It looks great. Exactly how I envisioned it. Finally. The forest looks enchanted, mysterious and doesn't have too much or too little detail. It looks like a forest one could stumble upon in a fantasy world and that’s what he was going for. She will surely like it. Smiling, Renjun starts to collect his art materials to clean them.

But suddenly, he gets a thought. I totally forgot to film! He quickly gets his camera and presses record. “Hi painters, it’s the last day of painting. Tomorrow is just for drying and then it’s y/n’s birthday. I actually already finished the painting but forgot to film it. Sorry about that. It's around 5 pm right now. Last night, y/n stayed over so I couldn’t wake up extra early to finish it. But it’s okay, I finished anyway. Have a look at the result.” Renjun turns his camera to show the canvas. “This is the finished product. I added details to the pond and some finishing touches today and I made some spontaneous decisions that turned out really well actually. ” He zooms in on the moss. “For the moss I added ground coffee into my paint. It gives it a more realistic finish, maybe give it a try some time.” Renjun laughs a little, “I think I might use this hack more often.” He turns the camera to show himself again, “I’m super satisfied with the result and actually very happy that I got finished in time. Although I wouldn’t recommend that you guys start a project this size in such a short time frame. Honestly, it was quite stressful. But I’m glad I was able to pull it off and I know for a fact that y/n’s gonna like it. Thank you guys so much for watching!” Turning his camera off, Renjun let out a happy sigh.

He didn’t immediately start editing the video though. It’s really time to take a break. Renjun just finished a big project and wants to celebrate. That’s why he quickly cleans up his room and video calls the dreamies’ group chat. Haechan is the first one to pick up “Look who came back from the dead.” Renjun laughs dryly and right after Mark joins the video chat, “Yo whats up?” Soon enough all the dreamies join and Renjun tells them about how he’s finally finished with the painting. Of course they want to see it, which is why Renjun switches to his phone’s back camera. “Dude, that looks so cool!” “I think she’s definitely gonna like it” “How come you never paint me a pic like that?” “Are you my girlfriend?”, Renjun deadpans. Haechan sulks a bit, “No.” “See. Now anyways, do you guys wanna hang out tonight?” It’s been a while since all of them hung out together anyway. “Yeah, we could try out that new Mexican restaurant near my place.” Renjun likes Jeno’s idea and everyone agrees, except for Jisung. “Guys, I have to finish an assignment by Wednesday. Can I join a bit later?” Mark reassures Jisung that his assignment was more important. “For sure dude, work on your assignment. We’ll save you a spot.” An hour later, the dreamies are sitting in the restaurant, going over the menu. Renjun thinks it’s nice to spend time together again, catching up and joking around. 

After Jisung joins, the whole group is complete and they spend the evening eating delicious food and talking. Renjun knows that he shouldn’t spend too much money there but stressful days of assignments and the painting is coming to an end and he wants to enjoy himself. That’s why he goes for dessert even when he was kinda full already. It’s okay, I deserve it. Soon, the relaxing evening comes to an end and the boys part ways. The day after tomorrow they’ll meet up at Jeno’s place to celebrate your birthday. You know it's a bit strange to celebrate your birthday at Jeno's place and you were a little hesitant at first. Of course you and Jeno are friends because of Junnie and your bestie, but not that close. Originally, you had planned to just hang out somewhere in the park but the weather has been kind of on the colder side lately. But, Jeno assured you that it’s fine. He's living alone, meaning he has enough space to host your small birthday get-together. Having some people over is nice anyway and he knows most of the people you invited. Besides the dreamies and your best friend, only two other friends of yours were expected to come. So it’s really fine for Jeno. Not to mention, his girlfriend, your bestie, would probably be somewhat upset if he said no to you. You were the person to introduce them after all. 

The next day Renjun slept in. His to do list doesn’t include much for today, mainly getting some nice wrapping for your gift. He also plans on visiting you at work again. It’s going to be a pretty simple day but he likes that his day doesn’t include any stress. Tomorrow, the day of your birthday, he’ll buy you some flowers and your favorite chocolate before meeting up with Mark. He was so nice to offer Renjun to put the painting in his car and drive to Jeno’s place together. This way he won’t need to take the painting on the subway. Renjun is pretty excited for you to see his gift. Of course he knows that you would like it but he still looks forward to your reaction. Since Jeno’s place allows for more room, Renjun plans to show up a bit earlier to decorate the place tomorrow. He excluded you from decorating on purpose and had said he was gonna handle it and so you let him. That boy can be stubborn. Renjun wants to keep his painting out of your sight for as long as he can. 

So when he and Mark arrive at Jeno’s place with your gift on the day of your birthday, Renjun puts it in Jeno’s bedroom. He knows you aren't gonna go in there, so it’s a safe spot to hide it. After making sure the painting isn’t gonna slip while he’s away, Renjun starts to prepare snack bowls and places your cake into the fridge, before helping Jeno and Mark with some balloons and a happy birthday sign. There wasn't much to prepare since you just want to spend your birthday relaxing with your friends. So soon enough, the three of them finish and around 6 pm everyone you invited is gathered on the floor around Jeno’s couch table, playing some board games and catching up. Throughout the day, Renjun films a few moments of your get-together. He wants to include your birthday party but especially your reaction to his present in his video. As the evening passes you turn to karaoke, singing songs from ABBA to Little Mix. At one point Renjun even starts to serenade you. He puts on quite a performance, singing Hot by Avril Lavigne and you totally enjoy it. It’s pretty funny actually, he’s pointing in your direction and dancing around. It’s nice seeing him so carefree. You’re kinda tempted to join and serenade him but he won't let you outperform him anyway. Besides, Renjun really has a lot of energy to spend. It’s already 8 pm, gifts still haven't been exchanged and he’s excited but also somewhat nervous for your reaction. He hopes you’ll love the painting as much as he does. However, there’s a part of him that fears he chose the wrong thing to paint but he tries to ignore that voice. You’re gonna love it, he just needs to keep on reminding himself of that.  

To say your reaction didn’t disappoint would’ve been an understatement. Renjun actually managed to hold himself in check till he was the last one left to give his gift. You really like the gifts you got this year. From a new book to new skin care you’ve been eyeing for a while, your friends put thought into them and that’s what counts and makes you happy. Two of your friends left half an hour ago, cause it’s kinda late already. The boys spontaneously had decided to sleep over at Jeno’s place, so it’s only you, your bestie and the dreamies left. “Okay, time for the finale”, for some reason, Haechan is very excited for your reaction to Renjun’s gift as well. He secretly plans to take pictures of you two. Earlier today, he also appointed Jisung to take a video. “Give me a minute, love. I’ll get your gift” Renjun squeezes your hand, giving you a smile. You look over at the boys and they just have smiles on their faces. It’s obvious that you’re gonna like the painting. Really, Renjun doesn’t have anything to worry about. A minute later, he comes back with the painting in wrapping paper. He chose one with a leaf print on it. It looks nice and maybe it could give you a bit of foreshadowing on what the gift entailed. “Happy birthday, love” Renjun sets the painting down, holding it in place and signals for you to open it. “I hope you like it” 

It’s clear that his gift was some kind of painting. Knowing Renjun, you guess that he actually painted it. “You painted for me?”, you place your hand on the gift. There was a certain smoothness to the wrapping paper. Renjun murmurs a small yes and the thought alone that he had painted you something this big was enough to make you tear up. He must’ve spent hours on this, hours just to make you happy. Sometimes you question how you were so blessed to have someone like him love you. Renjun really is giving his all to make you happy. Slowly, you unwrap the painting. Piece by piece different colors shine towards you, greens, some darker and some lighter, brown and little colorful spots. As soon as you unwrap the gift completely, you have a proper look at the painting and almost can’t believe your eyes. It’s so beautiful and perfect. You would’ve never expected such an amazing gift from him. You can’t believe Renjun would spend so much effort just for you. He put so much detail and love into the painting and it feels like you could see that from a mile away. This was the most thoughtful gift anyone ever gave you. You couldn’t possibly describe the meaning this holds for you. It’s so mesmerizing, the way the colors dance on the canvas, how he managed to portray feelings into his painting and really make it come alive. In a way it feels like the gift expresses how much Renjun loves you. 

You’re so overwhelmed and touched by the painting, the hard work and love he must’ve put into it that the only thing you can do is let out a sob. Renjun definitely didn't expect that reaction. His eyes widen and he starts to panic inside. No no no, she hates it? I should’ve chosen something else, damn it! Your hand naturally finds its way onto your mouth, more tears rolling down your cheeks while you admire the painting for a few moments more. You know Renjun has always put thought into the gifts he got you, but this really is on another level. The amount of devotion he put into making this is unbelievable. You've never seen more beautiful art than this painting and he did it with his own two hands.

Renjun’s wide-eyed gaze finds Mark’s but he also doesn’t know what to do. It’s like Renjun’s worst nightmare comes true right in front of his eyes. How could I be so stupid! Damn it! I was so sure she’s gonna like it. “Baby-”, Renjun’s ready to apologize and go buy you a better gift immediately but you don’t even give him time to finish his sentence. Throwing your arms around him, you hug him tight. “Thank you, thank you.” Four simple words and Renjun’s world stopped crumbling. He is beyond relieved. It’s like all his panicky thoughts leave his body instantly. He lets out a small laugh, hugging you back and smiling into your shoulder. You actually like it, like really like it. “It’s so beautiful. Thank you so much” Your heart almost can’t handle the thought of Renjun giving you something so precious, so beautiful. “Baby you almost gave me a heart attack.” You lean back a bit, mumbling a small sorry before placing your lips onto his. Renjun’s lips were soft and smooth like always. His kiss makes your stomach flip. He’s truly yours, not going anywhere and loving you like no other guy ever has. Renjun’s arms tighten around yours before you tilt your head a little, deepening the kiss and soon enough you hear a mixture of complaints from the boys. “Okay, what the heck” “Ew, leave that for later guys” Renjun blushes a bit, pulling away slowly. He really isn’t used to doing that in front of the boys. Pecking his lips one last time, you loosen your grip and just smile at him. “Dang,” Haechan looks at the pictures he took of you two kissing, “I really need to learn how to paint”.

a/n: excuse any painting process parts or art major parts that might be inaccurate haha, oh and if you wanna request something, I'm open to hear your idea :)

[palenutbasement]

(all scenes are depicted as platonic)

So every Inktober I try to do something more challenging, and this year I thought I would make a short comic/fanfic. I think I got the idea for this one a year ago but I was already wrapped up with another Inktober. Eventually I solidified the idea by making my own prompt list some time ago.

This comic is split into three parts with 10 days focusing on each of them, 30 in total, everything is compiled here. I wanted to post them after October in case I wanted to change anything.

This first part takes place in the summit.

The comic is basically all improvised, that means no planning for the composition, plot, or sketching any drawings. The most planning I did was write a few scripts ahead of time within the month to save me some time but most of them would be changed last minute anyways.

As for the plot, I won't go too deep into it because I don't want to talk too much, so you'll just find commentary on the making of the comic and stuff.

This first part is a little gimmick-y compared to the next two, with new elements appearing almost every day. It’s because I relied a lot on the prompts (dog, milk, etc.) to keep things happening, eventually I move further away from them.

What is surprising to me is how much the art changes as the days go by especially within the span of one month. I did refine a few things to keep it more consistent but this is nearly indistinguishable from the original drawings.

I should also mention that my favourite aspect of this project was adding references to the game and subtle details (if you can find it all, awesome!!) This may have been done quickly but I like to have those things and put at least a bit of effort into the dialogue.

Part 2

Eventually I figured that drawing the same setting for 30 days straight would drive me insane, hence why this comic is split like it is. I’m glad I did because it makes the story a little more interesting, seeing the characters have different attitudes in different places and whatnot.

This one takes place in the cave directly after pt 1. Admittedly I do better drawing outdoor settings, it's what I'm used to, but the cave wasn't so bad to figure out.

I remember these two days I was streaming drawing the comic to my friends, so I kinda zoned out while we were talking lol

One of the prompts was about napping, so I made Dwarf sleep. I believe I was tired that day too and it was therapeutic to draw and include that. Also they look cute, I think.

18 & 19 have some of my favourite drawings in the comic. The campfire lighting is what we'd get if I had a bit more energy each day, and I like the perspective in the first panel of 19.

I find this last section interesting, because of all the 30 days, it’s the only one in Dwarf’s POV. I felt like it was fitting to do something like that at the time.

Part 3

Since we were approaching Halloween, I wanted to have a special part for it. It’s related to the other two parts but it takes place some time after. I’m really sorry it’s out of season, if it were up to me I would have had this post out earlier (thank my midterms for the delay)

Out of all the other parts this one is my favourite. Maybe because it’s more recent I’m inclined to think that way but it has some of my fave moments that I've written here.

Other than that I don't have much commentary for this part. More thoughts at the end!

I was caught up everyday atp, but I didn’t have much spare time to prepare for the ending (I wrote it the morning of that day). I think this is a decent conclusion though.

I intend on coming back to this story, maybe next year to make a continuation but we'll see what happens. There are definitely things that I want to come back to someday.

Thank you for making it this far btw. It's been an eventful month for me beyond this (Untitled) comic, but there wasn't a single aspect of this that I didn't enjoy doing. It's a silly project and I care about it.

Also, I'm not going to neglect the 31st of October! That day will get an illustration, where I will pick my favourite panel and redraw it. I want to take my time with this one so it's not out yet, but hopefully I can finish by Christmas.

[bokettochild]

Okay, so, working on a fic here, but does anyone remember when JoJo posted Shady Escape Part 4? The arc where the shadow first smushed Wind and opened a portal in front of them?

Well JoJo posted this with the comic

This would mean that prior to this point the Links have been in the same world the whole time (and the portals are apparently not portals, but "gates"!) and since Shady Escape, they've only traveled to one other era, the one we're still in in the Dawn arc.

Jojo originally never meant this story to be an actual story, just quick AU comics and sketches

So I understand that things are still a bit unclear as she shifts from having random ideas to having to create a cohesive plot, and honestly she's been doing a fantastic job of setting the stage for us and slowly introducing concepts, characters and other important pieces of the story, but it does leave us with one major question: do the original doodles count as cannon?

The Malon Arc, the Chain meeting Ravio, these things would have required the boys to shift worlds previously, or be in either Time or Legend's eras in order for them to have happened. They haven't been to both though. Thus far, they've been to two different eras, the second being one where none of them knew where they are, and it's only the conversation between Twilight and Four in Divine Dark Reflections that tells us they are even aware of the fact that they're traveling through time!

So, this would mean that anything that has to do with them being in any hero specific era until now has not yet happened! Other than perhaps Time's era, which is only supported by this panel from Deep Shadows part 2

Time knows the woods they're in, so his recognition would indicate that this is most likely his era. So, maybe they've met Malon at this point in the story, but that means anything else (Linkle, Ravio, anything fro the others' eras) hasn't yet happened, and considering the fact that the Malon arc isn't included with the rest of the official story, but instead with the early doodles, we can't even be certain that it has happened yet.

All this to say, fic writers technically have free reign with what they want to boys to know about the other eras, and who they want the to know about (other than the Ordonian people, who Twilight apparently can't shut up about lol). That, and, we have no clue whether JoJo is going to rehash old comics or cut them entirely from the story cannon.

[transmascaraa]

bf!lyney headcannons!

you've been in class for a while now and your boyfriend texts you saying that he's "bored" ... what shall you do to help him?

bf!lyney x m!reader

author's note: i knew this would win the poll. anyway, have fun reading this cuz it was fun to make<3 (btw this might be a start to some spiciness which might make me less embarrassed to make smut in the future)

"now that class is over, let me have my fun... "

-it's like the middle of the lecture and both of you are clearly bored

-he's spent the last 10mins trying to get you to look at him using some type of telekinesis (which of course didn't work cuz you were too focused on biting your pencil)

-and you've been scribbling in your notebook(you've been sketching lyney<3)

-suddenly, he decides to text you

-"hey, mon amour, what's up??? :))"

-and you can just feel his gaze on you as you see the notification

-"nothing really, i'm just bored and yeahhh just drawing smthn"

-"what are you drawing??? is it meee?????"

-you practically just know that he's seen your sketch by now. it's not like you two sit that far away

-"maybe" you reply to his text, turning off your phone, thinking he he'll stop texting you

-but then, you get more notifications. a lot. you turn off your sound for notifications and open your messages with lyney.

-oh boy, he surely was clingy.

-not that you had a problem with it

-the messages went like this:

-"yeah well i'm boreddd"

-"should we do something??"

-"mon cœur???"

-"hello???"

-"bonjour?"

-"did i do something?????"

-"[name] i'm boredd"

-"oh dear boyfrienddd"

-"i wanna kiss you so bad rn"

-you finally calm down your blushing face and reply to him

-"bro we're in class"

-"idc let's talk over text<33"

-he's so persistent but you can't help but put a little smile on your face

-"fine" you replied to him

-"yayyy" you looked at him and he was smiling like an idiot at you

-you roll your eyes and text him again

-"anything specific you wanna talk abt?"

-"hmm yeah but how long until it rings"

-"idk like 10mins. possibly 5."

-"great then!"

-"why"

-"i have my plans ;)"

-that was the line. you blushed and hid your face, but you made it look like you were "focusing on the lecture"

-he smiled at your reaction and texted you again

-"c'mon the teacher said 2 more mins"

-you just look at him and nod, as a sign of a "yes" and also a sign for him to stop texting you so he nods in return

-after those 2 mins, and the bell rings, you two meet in the bathroom, well, he was waiting for you there first

-"what did you want, lyney?" you ask him as you walk into the school bathroom

-"just... you~" he pulled you into one of the bathroom stalls and held you by the waist, his hot breath against your neck

-"dear archons... i've missed you for these 45 minutes..." he chuckled breathly into your ear, sending shivers down your spine while he smirked against your neck

-he kissed it softly and gently, making you squirm a bit

-soon enough, he was very touchy and very needy, all thanks to you.

-"this is what you get for biting that pencil so attractively~..."

-you had only been hoping that nobody caught you there.

~~~~~

oh how i love this oneee it's so cute lmao

thanks for reading and imma be on my way now lol

thanks to everyone who reads my work at all<3

[cyren-myadd]

Update on Common Enemy: Avatar fancomic part 2

I'm almost done sketching out the whole thing! I've completed 12/15 so only 3 pages left before I can finally start working on line-art and coloring. I am planning to take a break from drawing once I finish sketching all 15 pages, but I believe I'm on track to finish part 2 and have it posted sometime in mid-July. I'll keep you guys posted as I make progress.

Sometimes when I sketch I get carried away and add unnecessary details that don't fit with the mood of the story. Here are two little "bloopers" that I already know I'm gonna have to cut from the final draft of the comic:

I should draw Lo'ak more. I love drawing his goofy wide-set eyes lol.

As I've been working on this, I've also discovered there's potential for an interesting dynamic between Lo'ak and Quaritch that I haven't thought about before. As far as Quaritch is concerned, Lo'ak is just Jake Sully 2.0, while Lo'ak himself doesn't believe he's anything like the "legendary Toruk Makto." Lo'ak would be weirded out by Quaritch making some irritated comment of him being "just like your daddy 🙄" because he doesn't think he can live up to Jake. He doesn't realize the reason Jake is so hard on him is 'cause Jake is scared Lo'ak will make similar mistakes that he did because he IS so much like him. And Quaritch on the other hand can see how much Spider cares about Lo'ak and can relate it back to how he and Jake used to have an amicable relationship. Quaritch would be scared of Lo'ak "turning" on Spider the way Jake "turned" on him... especially knowing that the Sullies won't be thrilled when they find out why he's still alive.

I don't have the time to explore that in this comic, but maybe I could write something about it one day 🤔

[yaut-jaknowit]

How bout something with a yautja and their partner (either human or yautja) gets hurt, like broken back level of hurt and the two just go through the ups and downs of recovery/healing together till the partner who has got hurt learns how to walk again and what not. How they get hurt up to you lol

When the Stars Align

Pairings: Gawtin (Female Yautja) x Reader

Word Count: 5942 (Whoops. A whopping ten pages)

Summary: For the year, you were closing up your cabin deep in the forest. It's done well and served its purpose during the warmth months but winter was coming. On the last night up there, you were walking the property only to come across a wounded animal.

Author Note: I hope it was okay to turn this a little different than you wanted it. If you want something else, let me know! I felt like this could be used as an excuse to finally reveal where reader met Gawtin originally. Little warning of blood, birth (not descriptive).

Part 2

Masterlist

Ao3

Around the cabin deep in the forest was miles and miles of forest barely occupied by any other people. A life you wished to enjoy longer before reality crashes back down on you. The cool crisp air attempted to bite through your jacket, almost nipping at your skin. Winter was coming soon. The poor little cabin situated far from civilization was unreachable during this time. Which meant, at this time, it was time to close it down.

Food and some drinks had to be retrieved. All the pipes had to be blown out so they didn’t freeze and burst open. Any clothing you wanted back home was to be packed into the extra bags you’ve brought. Windows had to be boarded up. Lastly, the power shut off.

Alone, you sat out by the large fire pit, observing the flickering flames. The warm it produced was enough for you to sit outside comfortably with just a simple jacket.

Up here, this far in, there was no cell service, not to even call for an emergency. If you were in trouble, you had to either solve the problem yourself or somehow get yourself into range. Both options were difficult to obtain in the middle of an emergency. When it came to survival, that’s what you had to do unfortunately.

A sketch book and pencil sat in your hands, used but forgotten about currently. Thoughts crowded your mind too much to think clearly. Coming up here was always a great stress reliever when life became too hectic. Wintertime sucked. Unable to escape reality for just a weekend and be stuck at a job that drains you or able to just come up to enjoy nature at its finest.

Softly, your eyes closed. The forest grew louder, ears picking up every little sound possible from your spot. The fire before you continuing to crackle and pop at times. A constant source of heat to fight off the chill of the beginning night. This was your last night up for the year. You’ll be back up in late April and early May to reopen it for the year and enjoy it all over again.

Warm air turned the cool air surrounding you into a steam for just a moment. You stood up and stretched out. The sketch book in your hand was placed to the side, pencil on top of it. If you couldn’t get out of your thoughts, you needed to clear them. There were only so few things possible to do so.

You walked up the short three steps on the deck and into the cabin. It was small, reliable though. For years, since the seventies or so, it has withstood a freak tornado, too many wildfires to begin to count, and many thunderstorms. The lightning was always a danger and caused you to panic at every strike heard or seen. It’s seen many people as your family has shared throughout lots of members.

The flashlight you were searching for was swiped off the counter. Out the door you went. With the light in hand, you started to make a path you’ve taken so many times before. A path you could probably walk blind on. Content as can be, you were alert and mindful but still enjoyed nature.

Water running would be heard at the edge of your hearing, barely there. The creek. A tiny river that ran through the acres of land you now owned. Just on the other side was a thick marsh you didn’t dare step into again. Last time, you lost a flip flop to its depths. You stayed on the safe side and on the path that buddies up with the creek until a certain point.

But you stop. Despite the quiet creek, the forest… it was dead silent. No bugs. No birds. Not a single sound to disrupt the unease in the air. Your entire body tenses, fear pumping into your veins. The flash in hand slowly swiveled around to survey the area only to come up empty handed. Your ears strained to heard something but it was like the forest suddenly died.

Throughout your years, you knew there was something out there. Something dangerous. All you had on you was a switch blade. No bigger than five inches. If a creature came after you, the thing would offer little to no help against a true predator. Your hand patted the spot it sat in your jacket pocket for double measure. Same place it was earlier.

From there, your steps were light, soft on the way back to the safety of the cabin. Not a predator hunting but prey surviving. Your heart was racing in your ears, almost drowning out the sound of the creek. This was a feeling you’ve never felt before up here. Never. Yes, there’s bears, wolves, and cougars but this was different. Your throat bobbed, eyes being vigilant.

Something you didn’t notice before was a liquid glowing bright in the dark atmosphere. Like a moth to a light, you stepped up to it. It truly glowed. A liquid, neon green. As if someone had broken a glow stick and drippled it along the forest floor… and left a handprint on the next to you. A massive handprint. It was smeared partial but could easily engulf your head.

Of course, the first thing to come to mind was Bigfoot. As stupid as it sounds, what else could’ve made a print that large?! Who else was out here this far? Nothing or no one you knew.

You swallowed your apprehension and diverted from the well-worn path. Away from the creek and further into the forest you grew up in. You stalked the trail of this glowing liquid. It stood out like a sore thumb in the growing night.

Labored, painful wheezing rasped in the silent forest, breaking the pause of sound. For just a heartbeat, you felt relief there was something creating noise out here only to realize the meaning. A creature, probably wounded, was causing this entire situation. Your shoulders sagged before you pushed forward.

Through the dense foliage, you saw a lump covered in the green goo and furrowed your brows. The light from your torch was pointed at it. Said lump shuttered.

Stunned into terror, you choked on a gasp at the sight of this… this humanoid monster on its side. Dark eyes were pinned on your trembling frame. With one of its arms, it weakly sits up as if it was going to crawl up to you. Its other arm lashed out. A guttural snarl releasing from its strange mouth. A wounded animal cornered is the first thing that came to mind at the sight of it.

The deep, bloody wounds that covered its body prevented it from moving much more. That didn’t stop it from creating noises of warning and unspoken threats. More green fluids gushed out. Blood. The glowing stuff was its blood. You shuffled through your knowledge to figure if anything had glowing blood like this. At least anything native to this area.

But nothing.

Tears were welled in its strange, inhuman colored eyes. Instantly, your heart ached at the sight of the poor thing in pain and writhing on the ground, coated in blood. You, yourself, made a saddened noise, brows furrowed in sorrow.

As your eyes scanned along its dark skin, they stopped on something that stunned you once more. Its belly was extended, rounded. You took notice at sharp bulge for a moment. A baby. A baby had just kicked. Shit.

If you were terrified or concern for not only your life but for its before, you were definitely now. A mother was someone to be afraid of. Mama bears were no joke. But the fact this thing looked like it could kill you like any other predator in this forest, you lost all color on your face. The only thing stopping you from turning tail and running was the wounds that downed it.

Consider it stupid, you lowered yourself down to your knees, hands clasped in front of you. At your movement, the thing hissed a deadly call. The flashlight pointed at the ground before the creature. This thing watched with intent, not letting you out of its sight for a moment, not even blinking.

Its breathing was ragged and wet sounding. Horrible to be in such a position as an upcoming mother and terribly wounded. You blink slowly, like you would do to a cat and slightly lowered you head, like a dog. “He-hey,” you tried, voice cracking involuntarily. You huffed at the sound. It stayed silent besides its breathing. “You’re injured.” At that point, you could’ve slapped yourself silly. As if it didn’t know it was wounded. It grunted, hand fisting the pine needle blanketed grounds.

“Sorry, that was stupid of me.” You sighed before introducing yourself to it. All the while you did this, you continued to keep your voice low and soft. Truly though, in its eyes, you couldn’t tell if it could understand you or was gathering the will to pounce on you.

“I would like to help you, if you let-“ The creature snarl, head bowed, chin tucked as its arm wrapped around its abdomen. You notice the way its extended belly contracted slightly on itself.

Not only was this an expecting mother, but a mother in labor. You gnawed at your lip to the point copper could be tasted on your buds. How were you going to salvage this? What could be done? Did this thing even understand what you’re saying?!

Its head whipped up, eyes back on you. You hadn’t moved. “You’re in labor. Fuck, you’re in labor. I-I can help, maybe,”  you rambled and ran a hand through your hair. The action had it hissing at you. Instantly, you stopped and returned to your former position. “Sorry, just nervous.” You took a short pause to gather your thoughts again. “I don’t know why you’re hurt but those wounds need to be cleaned and bandaged. The fact you’re in labor doesn’t help.” It released a clicking, wet hiss.

Sometimes, you needed to learn to get to the point. Even in troubling times. “Okay, okay. I can help you to my cabin. It’s not too far from here. I can tend to your wounds. I don’t know much about birth but I can adapt quickly.” Hopefully. This was never a situation you thought was possible.

With a pause, you had a chance to fully look at it. To be honest, its face looked like if someone turned a crab into a human. You weren’t disgusted or concerned by the way it looked. Just something you’ve never even seen before.

The top of its head was a shaped like a dome. At the edges of said dome was strange parts that jutted out like a crest or crown. Similar to dreads, thick, long strands that looked like rubber fell from its head. The rest of its body was human enough looking. Just the face was nothing from here you’ve every seen or heard about before.

Her arm around its belly tightened as it seemed study, judge you from the safe distance between the two of you. You stayed exactly where you were, despite the way your legs protested. You had to gain her trust, even if it’s just the tiniest sliver for her to come to the cabin with you. Deep inside of your heart, you felt awful for what’s happened to her. If you were in a situation like this, you hoped someone had a kind enough heart to help you.

Slowly and deliberately, you raised both of your hands in the air, flashlight pointing up into the air. A sign to show her you are no threat. “Please, I just want to help you,” you pleaded, brows furrowed, and put all of your sincerity into your words. Deep, bone chilling bellowed shook the ground under your feet.

Like a stone wall crumbling, she sagged in her spot with a hefty groan. Her massive head bowed, eyes on the ground now.

Hope grew inside of you at the sight. Was she going to accept your offer? You’d feel awful leaving her out here like this. Even though you didn’t create the situation she was in. You continued to gnaw at you bottom lip as you let her take all the time in the word. You timidly rested your arms back on your legs, showing no signs of moving or aggression.

Barely noticeable, she dipped her head in confirmation. You had to stop yourself from cheering before the realization hit you. This unidentifiable creature understood you. She knew what you were saying. At least this made things possibly simpler for you.

First thing first: getting her on her feet and to the cabin. “I’m going to stand up now and walk over to you. Is that okay?” you stated and stayed where you were crouched until seeing her head bob. Relief bubbled in your system. You did exactly what you said. All of your movements were slow, timid, calculated in each step over to her. She hissed at first before quieting down.

Once close enough to her, you officially noticed the size of this creature. Massive. Entirely powerful and huge. This was just from looking down at her.

From here, you knelt down again to get to her level and access the damage up close now. You cringed at the sight of so many wounds but saw stitching a few healing marks. You tilted your head but didn’t bring it up. It was unknown if she could respond to you.

“Like I said, I have a cabin close by. Are you able to walk, or at least get to your feet so I can help you?” you questioned quietly, afraid to go any louder. The last thing you wanted was to enrage her somehow. Her eyes watched your every move carefully.

The moment her muscles twitched into movement, you leaped back, ready to bolt. She stopped immediately. Nervously, you laughed quietly and rubbed at the back of your neck. “Sorry,” you apologized and approached her again. One of your hands was outstretched for her to take. All she did was brush it off with a bellow and used a tree to struggle to her feet.

Your jaw dropped. She towered completely over you. If you thought of her as massive on the ground, this was totally different on her own two feet. Your eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Fear consumed your emotions due to the fact you were frozen on your spot.

A guttural, pained groan snapped you from your thoughts. She still had an arm swaddling her abandoned, head temporarily bowed. You cleared your thought. “A-alright, we better get you to the cabin,” you broke the awkward silence and stared up at her. There was no chance to even try and carry her. Her weight alone could crush you like the bug you are compared to the creature.

Yet, at the sight of her, you knew she wouldn’t be able to walk on her own. Timidly, you inched towards her, observing her body language just in case. “You can use me as a crutch?” you offered and stopped once a foot away from her. She hissed out but made no move of aggression. You flinched at the noise, antsy. She did not like your suggestion.

The way she leaned against the tree gave you any idea though… Her making it back to the cabin on her own would either take far too long or she just wouldn’t make it anyhow. “Please. Take in all the issues against you, please,” you begged and shown within your eyes that all you meant was to help her.

She made a noise akin to an alligator. A tree was her support for the moment. She leaned forward to get closer to her face, careful of her wounds and belly. “I just want to help, okay?” you repeated, voice barely above a whisper. She released a snort that blew hot air into your face. A small part of your mind believed she was probably thinking on how you were going to withstand her weight. It was worth a try in your eyes.

When you didn’t back down, she reached out to place hand on your shoulder that engulfed it. The hand surely matched the print you saw earlier. You could see the fact her palm along would take up your entire face or simply snap your neck if she saw fit. A shaky breath released from your tense lungs.

More weight was shifted onto your fragile form as she left the tree. Neon blood smeared on the dark bark in her wake. She did her best to conceal her heavy, rasping breathing but this close to her, you heard the rattle in each inhale and exhale. Your heart ached at the sound, brows furrowed. What in the world could’ve done something like this?

Once the creature moved away from the tree, she nudged you forward. Like a cane, you let her use you to stable herself from tree to tree. Thankfully, this far into the forest, it was more wild, less groomed by your family. This meant more foliage and trees crowding each other. The creature swayed, stumbling behind you.

At one point, her legs nearly buckled. That caused what felt to be three hundred pounds to be shoved onto all at once. Thankfully, a tree had saved you from being crushed into a pancake. A tinge started in your back though. Great.

The pace both of you traveled at could’ve rivaled a snail. From the many breaks she had to take – not that you blamed her, to the fact she had to drag her feet. Making progress through the night was incredibly hard. The strain she put on you and lack of sleep were starting to catch up to you.

Your first yawn of the night began as you stepped into an all to familiar area around the cabin. It was part of the area that’s easily maintained. The trees here were sparser as you struggled to keep her up on her legs between the trunks. Your legs ached horribly after the unknown amount of time it has taken to get her this far.

Biting through the pain and yawns, you finally see the dark cabin through the foliage and felt the last bit of adrenaline enter your system. With this newfound energy, you marched on and got her to the steps of the front door. Once there, the creature switched her weight to lean on the porch’s support beam. You, yourself, rested against the cabin’s wall, breathing heavily. At least that’s over.

Sluggishly, you dragged yourself up the steps and opened the old door. For a moment, your eyes glanced around to find the best place for her to be. The bedroom is what came first. Sheets can either be washed and replaced. You glanced back at her with a sorrowful look. The poor thing was struggling to stay on her legs, still holding onto her stomach.

Her eyes narrowed. A low growl sounded in the back of her throat. You threw up your hands to show you’re still no threat to her. You gnawed again at your bottom lip while just standing there. All you could do was pray she understood you meant not ill intent towards her or her baby.

You stepped back from the door and made a grand sweeping motion. “This is my cabin.” The creature took a lungful of air, scenting the place. Slowly, she trudged up the three steps and onto the porch. It groaned and creaked underneath her massive size. Due to her size alone, she was unable to stand up completely, partially hunched over.

Green blood stained the wood, leaving behind a deadly trail in her wake. Instead of fretting over a small mess, you guided her into the place and over to the only bedroom. You opened the door and helped her inside. “I hope this is okay for you. The tub definitely wouldn’t have fit you and the living room probably wouldn't have been comfortable for you.” In all honesty, the cabin didn’t have much to offer besides the forest it was surrounded in. Not that you minded. But, in the moment…

Once she was sat down on the bed, you stepped away careful, hands partially raise. “Is-is this okay?” you asked and stood back to lean against the dresser behind you. Her eyes had yet to leave your exhausted form. But for the first time, they darted around the room before resting on you again. Her massive head dipped once, thick dreads shifting with the movement. You had to stop yourself from smiling brightly.

This wasn’t over. You pushed off of the dresser and walked over to the bathroom that was connected. There was a first aid kit somewhere in here.

It didn’t take long for you to return back to her side with the supplies. Carefully, you opened the box to show her the contents. “This is a first aid kit. It medical supplies so I-“ the box was swiped from your hands and into hers. You jerked your arms back and checked for any injuries. Nothing. You relaxed and watched as she dug through to find what she wanted.

With a sigh, you left again to get a bowl and some towels. Those wounds of her weren’t bleeding heavily anymore but they still needed to be cleaned up. You stepped back towards her timidly and showed off what you had. With a jerk of her head, she motioned for them to be set off to the side. You raised a brow but placed the bowl on the nightstand. The towels were tossed next to her.

The creature had its eyes on you again. Now, in the light of the cabin, you realized they were purple! A beautiful shade that easily caught your attention. But, you shook yourself free from your thoughts. She had lowered head, body tense, ready to lunge. Curses were forming in your brain as you stepped away from her, arms raised.

She followed your every move but never made one of herself. When you got to the door, she released a deadly snarl. Your first reaction was to slam the door closed. The cabin went quiet, besides the low crackling of the dying fire outside.

Okay then. You popped your lips and tried to piece the whole the situation together. What had you just done? All you could do was stare blankly at the closed door for a few long, unspeakable minutes. Then, you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps and trudged outside. The fire couldn’t be left out to burn all night.

By the fire again, you plopped down on a wooden bench and stared into the flickering flames. Next to you was the discarded sketch book and pencil. They felt heavier in your hands after picking them back up.

What had you done? Why was your heart so naïve to these things?! A wounded creature – or whatever that thing is – isn’t something you bring inside of your house? Cabin? Whatever. You groaned and cradled your head into your hands. “What am I going to do?” The things had kicked you out of your own cabin after you offered it shelter and medical supplies.

It’s a mother though, in labor. That thought pulled at your heart strings, making you feel horribly guilty. A hand ran through your locks of hair. Tomorrow is a new day. Could you even sleep while knowing that thing was in there with you? Was it hungry? You brought it water, though not drink.

Your mind was all over the place, trying to decipher the next course of action for the upcoming day. As you sat, alone, you felt eyes on you. Immediately, your head whipped up to find the window to the bedroom. There, in the dim light of the room, was the creature, watching you. Did it need something?

Both of your legs strained under your body but carried you to the bedroom door. Softly, your knuckles racked against the wood. “Are you okay? Do you need help?” Your voice was barely above a whisper, ear listening for movement.

Then, the door was ripped open. In a bout of terror, you reeled away, back slamming into the wall behind you and gasped harshly.

From many moments ago, the mother’s body was fairly cleaned up now. This allowed you to notice the fact she wore no shirt to cover her enlarged breasts. A squeak passed your lips. You shied your eyes away to look at the floor, stupid as it might be.

The creature huffed before making a clicking noise of sorts. Your eyes darted up to her face for only a second. She sighed once more. A warm, massive hand wrapped around your bicep and tugged you into the room. You released a yelp and squirmed in her hold. “Hey, wait! Please don’t hurt me,” you pleaded and did everything in your power to get free.

It took a fraction of her strength to push you back into a wall and effectively pinning you there. Instinctively, you bowed your head, body shaking like a left on a tree.

Nothing was done to you. Untensing a little, you glanced up at the towering figure as she peered down at you. Despite no words, her actions spoke loudly. She wasn’t going to hurt you. Your body relaxed, for the most part. “So, uh, what do you need?” you questioned and clutched your sketch book to your chest.

She stepped away from you and partially turned her back towards you. It was still a mess of wounds and glowing blood. “You want me to help you?” Stupid to ask as she was wanting you to already. Your nerves were getting the best of you.

Despite looking like nothing from this world, she expressed a deadpanned look. “Okay, okay, sorry. Just wanted to make sure. Alright?” You held up your hands, one holding the book. She snorted airily before grunting, claws flexing.

You cleared your throat. “If you don’t mind me asking… how far along are you?” A coppery taste touched your buds the longer you worried at your lips. She took a momentary pause before pointing at the ground. For a second, it was hard to figure out what she was doing. “Oh! Now, now. Got it…” So, you were right.

Before you had a chance to move away from the wall, a deadly hand encased your throat and pinned you hard against. A threatening, bone chilling snarl ripped from her throat next to your ear. The warning loud and clear. Then, she backed away and sat down on the bed. Like nothing had happened.

After shoving your heart back into your chest from your throat, you shakily walked up to her. Her back was facing you, allowing you to see all the past scars and new wound decorating it. A part of you wanted to reach out and touch them but reframed from doing that.

Fairly enough, the sheets were barely contaminated by her blood. A part of you appreciated that. Less of a job to clean up later. The towels you’ve given her earlier were half used, soaked in neon green blood. You grabbed a clean one, dipped it in the semi dirty water, before reaching out towards her back. “I’m going to touch your back now, okay?” you stated and only moved when given permission to wipe off her back.

Stroke after delicate stroke, dried and wet blood was washed away. The hours of the night went on as you worked on stitching close any large cut. Glancing at one of the round wounds in her back, you noticed something lodged in it. Carefully, you plucked a pair of tweezers and let her know your intentions.

It was delicate work to pull the unknown object from her flesh. Finally, you were able to get a good grasp and tugged it free. More blood gushed out. You placed a clean towel with even pressure on the newly opened wound.

In the grasp of the tweezers… was a bullet. You dropped it by accident but froze up. Something had shot her. Fear battled anger. Who in the hell shot her?! That meant someone trespassed onto your property to injure her. Your hands shook from boiling rage as new light shined on the situation. Someone had shot a mother. A clearly pregnant mother!

Instead of letting yourself get distracted, you focused back on the task on hand. It wasn’t long before the wounds were cleaned and covered. You stepped away from the lumbering giant, hands and clothing soaked with her blood. A shower was desperately needed after this has passed. “How do you feel?”

She turned around to face you, legs hanging over the edge of the bed now. A deep breath filled her lungs. The creature carefully stretched out her muscles to test her ability. Once she seem satisfied, she nodded her head. Either in gratitude or acknowledgment, you didn’t know. “Are you hungry?” This made her stop to think for a moment then nodded again.

Okay, communication was achievable, thankfully. You pressed your lips together in thought. “So… what do you eat?” Downright, she looked to be a predator with the size of those teeth. No herbivore on this planet had teeth like that. “I’m guessing meat?” Another nod.

Meat was something you could do. Right as you were about to leave, a thought came to mind. “Raw or cooked?” You realized your mistake. “Raw?” A nod. Makes sense.

You dug through the fridge and pulled out meat you were thinking of cooking up tonight. Someone else was in dire need of it. So, you go back to the bedroom and offered it to you. “Does this work? It’s all I have.” She took it.

Like the meat eater she is, the mother tore into the packaging and consumed the meat quickly. In such a quick manner, you didn’t have time to even get a word out. Hopefully, that could tie her over for a while. But she was eating for two, soon to be one. That reminded you of the other dire situation occurring in her belly.

Nervously, you scratched at the back of your neck. “So, the baby? You said you were having it now… is there anything I could do to help?” She stared at you. If this was the answer you were getting, then that means nothing to you. You sighed and picked up the sketch book from the dresser. “Okay, I’ll just be in the living room if you need me.”

Just like you said, you returned to the living, book in hand. Despite the weariness in your bones trying to drag you to sleep, you sat on the couch, sketching. Your pencil danced across the paper with an easer to sometimes chance it.

A piercing roar rattled your cabin. You awoke with a jolt, head whipping up to figure what was happening. A pencil stuck to your face fell down into the open sketch.

Pained, wheezing gasps and growls sounded from the only bedroom. You flinched at the sound of torture in the room. No wonder why the birth rate was on a decline.

Against your better judgement, you stalked over to the opened door and peered around the corner. Next to the bed was the creature, standing two wobbling legs. One of her hands was gripping the headrest so hard it had left a handprint in the metal. Her other hand was tearing into the drywall. You swallowed, throat bobbing as you observed the laboring mother, unsure on how to help. Your first mistake was to take a breath in to speak.

Her head snapped over to you. Shit. A deafening roar shook the house to its foundation. The mother pushed off of the wall and marched over to you. Like the prey you are, you were frozen to your spot. This thing stop right in front of your trembling form and roar right in your face. Spit flying to land on your skin as she huffed and puffed with caged anger.

Deep in your chest, you find your voice timidly. “Wha-what can I-I do to, to help?” is all you can say for the life of you.  The creature snarled threatening and took another step forward. Was this your demise? A lesson you weren’t going to learn from.

Her threatening display was done. She went over to the bed, knelt down, and rested her upper half on top of it.  With a sigh, you left but only to return with your sketch book. You didn’t know if she wanted someone to be in the room with her as this went only. If you were in a situation like this, you would like to have some comfort, even if it was a stranger.

Due to the way she didn’t react, you guessed it was okay with her. More hours of the night went along until the morning sun rose in the dawn. It took all of your effort to stay away during the process.

Once the night became day, you heard a shrill, squeaky, loud cry. Your head shot up, knocking against the wall behind you. The pain was brushed off as you watched the new mother cradle a sticky, gross green blob in her arms and flop against the bed. She purred a low noise to the baby and clicked to it, mandibles twitching playfully.

A wide smile broke across your face at the endearing sight. The sketch book in hand was closed and set off to the side but you stayed where you were. This was a mother and baby moment, you weren’t going to disrupt that by moving. The poor mother had gone through enough within the last twenty-four hours. She didn’t need the stress of you moving around.

The mother turned her head over to you and locked eyes. You tensed, unsure of her intentions. To break the ice, you spoke up softly. “Quite a cutie?” you tried but a loud knocking scared you.

Immediately, the creature snarl and cradled her baby closer all the while attempting to stand. You need to sooth her rose. You put your hands out as if calming a wild animal. “Wait, wait! Don’t! Let me go check it out, okay? Stay here and quiet,” you said and walked out of the room after she didn’t make any more moves to get up.

All the living room curtains were closed still from the night. The curtain next to the front door was white and let you see the outline of someone. Shit. Fuck! Mentally, you cursed up a storm as you tried to think of a good reason on why any one would be out here. Then, the creature popped into your mind. The bullet holes. She was being hunted. And these people were the hunters.

Determination flooded your system. You marched back into the bedroom, bypassing the confused but protective look on the mother’s face, and went up to the nightstand. In there was a gun your father kept up here all the time. In case of an emergency. This was one. You pulled the weapon out and checked it out. It had bullets in it. You turned to the mother. “Stay in here, please. I’ll deal with them, alright?”

The window caught your attention. You rushed over and closed the curtain. Luck had to be on your side.

Please.

[read-write-thrive]

part 1 (both girls in their full outfits) ; part 2 (Edwina in several other outfits/sketches) ; part 3 (the companion to this piece aka Edwina getting ready :)

part 4 of my fem!payneland fanart series!!!! as I talked about with the poll, I have quite a few variations of this piece as I couldn’t make up my mind on a few of the elements, but I listened to your feedback and have included them all here !! the winner of the poll is above the cut with the rest of the variations below to hopefully make this not take up too much of your dash lol

lmk what you think - especially people who voted on the poll!! I’ve also included my thought process below the cut since I know y’all are interested :)

- first and foremost: I have absolutely no idea what order someone would get ready in with all these outfit components, so if you’re sitting here like “why is her makeup done when she has to pull a shirt over her head?” or something like that: you’re probably correct but my getting ready process is always chaos and there aren’t exactly articles on this sort of thing

- along with that: her straightening her hair is probably not accurate to how hair works but again I’ve got v little experience to pull from and trying to find a proper reference was a pain in the ass

yes her bra is fully rendered and then got covered up by her arm. I'm still mad that I did that to myself but I like the pose too much to change it so oh well

- (onto actual historical stuff!!)

- her hair is being straightened here despite straight not being in style during this era for several reasons:

1. I based her hair (and a lot of her style, as per part 1) on Rhoda Dakar of the band The Bodysnatchers, which was an all-female band that was part of the ska revival in the late 70s/early 80s. Rhoda Dakar in particular is a British artist (who’s still making music!) with an English mother and Jamaican father—so not only was she one of the only women of color I could find as part of this subgenre/in ths era/with plenty of photo references, but considering Jayden Revri is Jamaican and English (alongside Indian) himself I thought it was fitting! Her Bodysnatchers look is also much more femme leaning than the rest of the band, as well as her hair styled in a way that suggests straightening, so I carried that over to Charlotte here as well.

2. On a related note, there is a clear historical and modern difference in hairstyles worn/made popular/deemed fashionable by non-white versus white individuals and I thought it only appropriate to acknowledge that in my design of her. I even went so far as to research how her mom’s hair may have been styled since I assume that’s who would’ve been teaching her how to care for her hair in the first place. With that, I looked at popular Indian hair trends from the 60s (figuring that’s when Charlotte’s mom could’ve still been in India and following those trends) which also involved a preference for straight/wavy hair, with soft fringe made popular by Sadhana and the styles ranging from long and luscious to styled up into a very 60s beehive. Charlotte could easily also rock a beehive, especially since the 60s revival was a part of the ska revival movement and Dakar herself styled her hair as such, but I figured Charlotte is a little too much of a rebellious teenager to go for a look she’s seen her mom wear!

- her makeup is based off of the different members of The Bodysnatchers as well as other punk/ska fans at the time. The look usually required more blush that what I gave her here, but I wanted to make sure the eyes were the feature (since Charles wears eyeliner himself) and then the lips being any less just looked weird to me. Also, Dakar doesn't seem to wear the same heavy blush that the other members do, which could be a stylistic choice but could also be the potential lack of blush shades that would work well on her skin tone, so I went that route for Charlotte here

- her underwear is all based off of meticulous searching of historical advertisements, though I will admit the sources are (presumably) American since I couldn't find British equivalents (I'm hoping the styles were similar enough...) in particular:

1. Her bra is based off of: Playtex’s New Made for Me, Playtex’s Right For Me, and Playtex’s Thank Goodness It Fits (which are seriously the names of these as per the ads—how creative /s)

2. Her panties (or pants or underwear or whatever term you want to use) are based off of: Sears Best’s Nylon tricot panties, Sears Very Impressive Panties Nylon panties, and JCPenny’s eiderlon fashion panties

3. (In the below variations) Her pantyhose are theoretically based on L’eggs and Spirit by Stevens’s Slim & Slender pantyhose. But, honestly, they’re mostly based on my own experience wearing hose bc almost none of the ads showed how the gusset of the pantyhose actually looked so I needed to fill in the gaps (one of the many reasons I’m still unhappy with them—plus the wrinkles would not look right no matter what I did !!)

4. Her socks are called slouch socks! I don’t have a specific brand for them but the style was all the rage in the 80s-90s (and I want to own some so bad ngl)

- the hair straightener is just a blob based on the reference photo since trying to research historical hair tools was beyond me at the time apparently, but the style of outlet/plug is accurate to Britain in 1989 so there’s that at least (I have no idea why my brain works like this)

- since I talked about it in the poll I feel like I should address it here: technically having a bush was well out of fashion by 1989 due to the grooming boom and new types of hair removal popular throughout the 80s and 90s. However, she’s wearing multiple layers over it and is technically a teenager (in an abusive household and a catholic all-girls school, at that) so I kept going back and forth on it. It won the poll so it’s in the main post, but you’ll see in the below variations that I really went back and forth on it. that being said I do think it’s interesting given her nylon pants being semi-sheer besides at the gusset, so I’m not mad at it. plus I figured she was definitely shaving her legs/underarms, so maybe that balances it out ?

and finally here’s the other seven variations of this piece :) lmk what you think!!

[virto-the-weirdo]

ANIMALS OF THE LAND OF KINGS - concept #1 ♤

Call it an AU because it's not a confirmed theory, I'm here to bring you a worldbuilding concept for the Land of kings universe. I feel like it has whay more storytelling potential than it initially seems.

SO, let's talk about animals in the card world!

... there aren't any.

Except for that one brown turtle that somehow got it's way into Zontopia.

Anyways, this fact doesn't sit right with me. Like, shure, the argument for why there aren't any animals is probably:

"Oh, it's because the clones didn't need them for their societies to function, so they didn't create them."

But imagine how much richer the world would be with them!

Now, maybe we are wrong and some clones made animals, which we just haven't seen because we haven't even seen much of their countries yet. My guess is that Kuromaku, Dante and Spade made some. (Taking into account that Gabriel already made at least one turtle, I don't have to guess because we know he did do that.)

And I'll start the theory by suggesting an example of what kind of an animal would Spade create for his country.

BEHOLD!

Spade's warhog!

Why would Spade create such creatures? What purpose would they serve him? Why would it be worth wasting generator energy on them?

I'm glad you didn't ask! I'll explain and give arguments for it anyways!

Arguments:

1. Meat

So far, in the land of kings, we only saw people eating plant-based food (mostly in Felicia and Zontopia). Now, this might as well be the only type of food people eat here because there aren't any animals that would provide meat.

Meaning people in the land of kings are vegan.

Seeing as how Spade's favourite stuff to eat is meat, I have a feeling the prideful King Emperor would rather starve than be forced to be a vegan for the rest of his life.

And we do still want to be reasonable and somewhat teenager friendly in the comics, so I don't think cannibalism is an option. Besides, Spade probably has too much pride to resort to such undignified and inhumane practices.

So, how do we solve this problem? Easy! Create a big animal that you can farm and exploit for meat. For a traditional example, a big boar!

And why stop at meat? Perhaps make few breeds of this animal that give milk, and boom - we got milk based products as well!

Now Spade's country is the least vegan place in the card world, and can finally make a proper sandwich with ham and cheese!

2. Various uses for various breeds

If I remember correctly, in comic it was established that citizens live shorter, or at least age quicker, than the clones.

Now, irl animals usually have shorter lifespans than humans, meaning that in the Land of kings, their lives are even shorter, meaning that the process of making new breeds is much faster than irl.

Making breeds is useful because it diversifies the uses of the animal without needing to waste generator energy on a new one.

Here are sketches of some breeds that I think citizens of Spade's country could make, as well as few notes about their characteristics for each:

I'll tackle some uses more in depth in the following arguments.

3. Materials

The animal and plant based materials are a really useful resource. Not only can it be reused to produce more of itself (example, dead plant and animal matter enriches the soil so more plants can grow to feed the people and animals), but once the species is created with the generator energy, Spade doesn't need to use any more generator energy to create more of them.

Depending on the breed, the warhogs not only give meat, but also leather, wool, bones etc.

Animal materials can be used to make good quality clothes, as well as many household items, like leather covered furniture and wool blankets.

Also, I feel like Spade would find a use for bones in clothes accesories as well because I feel like he'd love to look even more edgy and intimidating lol.

4. Trade

An interesting possibility we haven't seen much in the Land of kings.

Why don't clones trade resources with eachother? Do they think they do not need each other's stuff?

Lack of this activity might make sence if we consider that all raw materials are produced by the generator energy, so they all have basic resources and there is no need to aquire them from others (water, stone, iron, etc.).

What they can trade are products specific to their country, but that also depends on how interested the people of other countries are in those.

However, something a lot of people might be interested in trying that comes from other countries is cuisine aka. food (probably misspelled cuisine but whatever).

Think about it, at one point Felicians might get curious what else is there to eat besides raddish-based products.

Same goes for other countries.

(A possible interaction between a Spade spy and a tratiorous Felician.)

And seeing as how, hypothetically, no other country produces meat-based products, Spade has got himself a humble monopoly in the card world.

5. Sign of power and taming practices

Now, this is a bit more related to the abstract implications of creating this animal, as well as it's nature.

Taking care of an animal is not an easy task. Doing that implies that not only do you have enough resources and power to take care of yourself, but also for a whole other creature! Apply that on a larger scale that is Spade's country and you get the impression that his country is, indeed, incredibly capable and powerful to sustain both a population of people and animals.

However, there is a difference between taking care for a goldfish and a dog.

I imagine, to show off how powerful his country is, Spade would deliberatley make his boars dangerous. He'd give them an inherintly wild nature, big horns and tusks, and make them giant in size.

Why? So he can look like an even more badass ruler!

Anybody can take care of a population of animals, but only Spade's country can counquer these wild beasts and subjugate them to their will!

I imagine Spade's taming practices would be incredibly cruel. In order to get the boars to do his bidding, he'd firsth break their will to fight him, and then manipulate them with fear. Redirecting the animal's agresion could also be a metod he'd encourage.

If the boar doesn't give up easily and continues to be disobedient, it would either end up in an arena (more on that later) or as somebody's lunch.

6. Intimidation and war strategy

Spade's empire seems to be among the more technologically advanced countries of the card world, judging by the glimpse of his country in the Tome of clubs where we see all the construction machinery.

So why WARhogs?

Well, once Spade creates the boars and starts trading meat, a word would probably get around the card world about the scary beasts that boars are and create the already mentioned and calculated image of a powerful country that tamed those creatures.

This can also invoke a subtle fear among other subjects, a glance of what kind of terrifying force other countries might expect shall they ever go at odds with Spade's Empire. For if they can tame the boars, shurley they can use them against other countries.

But would he ever really use them against other countries in warfare, while he has powerful machinery at disposal?

I think he would, but it depends on who he is fighting!

You see, not all countries in the Land of kings are as equally as advanced as Kuromaku and Spade's are.

For example, Zontopia doesn't seem to use much technology ever since the original communication system "broke".

So if Spade goes to war against Brolly's country, not only is Brolly severly outmatched, but Spade wastes so much fuel and resources to get his tanks and machines to achieve the same goal he could reach if he simply sent in an army of Warhog-riders with superior weapons just strapped onto the warhogs.

7. Entertainment and punishment

Allright, let's say Spade has a few disobedient warhogs at disposal that are whay too violent and impressive to be turned into steak.

Like, Spade can see these boars have so much potential but do not listen to him. Shurley there must be a way not to waste it?

Well, boars aren't the only thing that is occasionally disobedient in his country. So are his people!

Traitors, criminals, revolutionarys, scoundrels that refuse to follow the strict order and law in the empire... Death sencence awaits some of them, and knowing Spade, he'd probably make public executions a thing to set an example to others of what happends when you go against the Empire.

Adding into the equasion that his country seems to draw some inspiration from the ancient Rome, it makes sence that he'd take after their entertainment practices...

That's right, Spade would build arenas, very similar to roman ones - but purple, where he'd force his criminals to fight for their lives against the wildest and most dangerous warhogs in his country!

(Imagine the following example, but high-tech and better shade of purple:)

It's a fight to the death kind of execution where the criminal has a slim chance to live if they manage to kill the beast before it ends them.

If the criminal somehow manages to slay all the boars they are pit against, they can become a gladiator whose life is now chained to the arena, where they will fight against other animals and criminals for the entertainment of other subjects untill they are eventually slain in one of the battles.

This not only solves the problem of rouge people and animals, but also creates a spectacle out of public executions, reinforcing the fear of regime in other citizens as well as providing entertainment for them.

Arena fights in Spade's country would probably be regarded as a type of theatre, similarly to how they were in ancient Rome.

This concludes the list of reasons why I believe Spade would create animals for his country.

Also, as if all of this wasn't enough, here is a Land of kings OC sketch based on these concepts:

(Also, some of her expression sketches:)

Her name is general Atalanta, and she supervises any and all activities relating to boars/animals within Spade's Empire, which includes running the gladiator arena. She is a great fighter and and hunter, and is experienced when it comes to animal control. She has an electric whip as her weapon which she uses when the warhogs act out of line.

So yea, thank you for coming to my Land of kings concept talk.

I do have more ideas for more possible Land of kings animal concepts but don't expect me to write a post about it because this already took a few days to write and draw and idk if I'll feel like doing that again. In short, I make no promises.

[elviraaxen]

ive really been loving the pacing of your story and i enjoy the concept and the bits that have been released about the plot! youre doing really well, and i admire it greatly!!

ive been having trouble figuring out an overall plot in my own work, i just have character ideas and the vaguest idea for a storyline. i try to just write but then i usually end up taking a break (re: dumping it) because i don't have anymore ideas for how to complete the plot. i've laso been curious about how you go about writing for a comic (do you write then do thumbnails? do thumbnails then go back to figure out dialogue? a third thing?) so i was wondering if you had any advice or resource tips for writing? both for comics and for overarching plots, if that's okay

if you don't have any ideas tho, no worries. i was just curious. good luck with Felt World! i love everything that's coming out so far, thank you for gifting us it!!

Oh thank you so much!! I can't say I'm a comic book artist at heart because I really don't have much experience, I was only an illustrator for a short while and never wrote anything myself, but learning from past mistakes (i.e. I don't stick to plans), I've so far done this and it seems to work:

I'm one of those that don't like to plan strict layouts for the entire thing, because chances are I will not stick to it, so what I've done for felt world is just write a sketch for the overarching plot, the b-plot and c-plot, with rough estimates in what order I want the major plot points and settings to be. My current sketch looks like this;

(which is done in Miro) and as you can see there aren't that many plot points, because I want to have the wiggle room to come up with something on the spot. And also, my comic focuses a lot on interpersonal relationships, character development, and themes rather than the plot, which means it needs to be concise or else the comic is gonna take 6 million years to finish.

And now,, I think this might just be how I work, but I think it's easier to be creative when you have strict restrictions rather than all the choices in the world.

for me, personally, I restrict an update of 10 pages tops, because instagram only allows max 10 images per post! This means I have to 1) fit all I want to say in 10 pages, 2) it has to be concise or else I infodump on readers, and 3) I have to answer some sort of question within the update, or else I said nothing and I start over.

As for scripts, I tend to write one or two sentences of what's going to happen for the update, and then I get to thumb-nailing and sketching right away! I come up with most of the dialogue on the spot too.

And also, I think what's most important, is that you take your damn time! If you aren't immersing yourself in your own world, how do you expect your readers to do the same?

I'm very much a believer that the stories you are telling are something that comes to you naturally if you just sit with it and listen rather than demand that it makes itself known to you. When I brainstorm for felt world I quite literally sit in my bed and go "omg!! And then what? :0" TO MYSELF LMAO as if I'm not making everything up myself! I think that's extremely important that your story is engaging to you first and foremost!

And as for more practical tips

carry a notebook with you or use your notes app AS SOON as you get ideas to write them down! No you will not remember, lol.

set rules of what you're not allowed to do with your story so that you don't fall into lazy trope territory! You can do that when you brain storm, but finesse the story post brainstorm to just make it.. smarter.. if that makes sens For example, don't kill your gay characters, don't make sensitive men the butt of the joke, don't make your women fight over men (unless it's the point), etc.

set physical restrictions! For example, max amount of pages per upload, max amount of pages for the whole story, max amount of characters, etc.! That literally forces you to problem solve, which by definition is creativity! Like, oh you can't do this the obvious way? Do it the creative way! That's way more fun!

I could probably go on, but this is too long already! But I hope it at least helped somewhat!

[xaniyuu]

Thought I'd share my Golden Kamuy OC here!

Private Fukuoka Yuuzou, a new recruit that joined post Russo-Japanese War, 1907, when Golden Kamuy starts. His role does not matter much to the main plot point, in fact he was made for me to ship with Koito (more to explain below).

Yuuzou's hometown is left unknown, but he used to travel on foot since he was 12y.o for 2 years until him and his parents ended up in Kagoshima. He struggled to blend in and make friends because of their differences and his tendency to steal from people for the fun of it.

Yuuzou's first interaction with Koito would be somewhere when Koito first met with Tsurumi, except Yuuzou (16) never had the courage to walk up or even speak to Koito (14) until now. Ever since then Yuuzou would bother Koito with every chances he got, Yuuzou began viewing what they had as friendship. On the other hand Koito never liked Yuuzou from the start, the rumors of him stealing things from people turned out to be true; because he would often steal Koito's belongings and hide them for Koito to find, like a hide and seek.

Years has passed and Koito (18) went for the Military Academy without Yuuzou's knowledge, he waited for one full year until he heard the neighbors talk about Koito following his father's steps. From that moment on, Yuuzou's entire life goal is to follow Koito's path and to find him wherever he is.

Yuuzou (21) spent about a full year traveling by himself from Kagoshima to Tokyo, where Koito (19) is currently trained for the military (Only God knows how he managed to get there). Unfortunately though by the time he arrives, Koito would probably still be trained in there with very low chances of Yuuzou seeing him. And so, Yuuzou took an alternative.

He'll join the military! That way, he can see Koito for sure this time right?

Shaved: Yuuzou (23) freshly joined the military in 1907.

Undercut, man bun, and hair down: Yuuzou (25) waiting for Koito to come back from his missions.

Yuuzou spent 2 years at the training camp, why? Because he failed the first test which caused him to go over from the very beginning. (For this part I'm still unsure how long it takes for one to go through the training camp, but the main point I want to highlight is the fact that Yuuzou failed his test either once or multiple times but insisted to try again).

*(UPDATE: I just found out that apparently once you fail you get expelled? I'm not sure if this is accurate but it's definitely not gonna stop Yuuzou from trying again LOL. I'll think of a way!)

(How Yuuzou got his scar is still a huge draft of mine, but my initial idea was that it's related to Usami. In this unfinished comic especially, shows their dynamic and how Yuuzou talks back to Usami far more often compared to the other superiors.)

Yuuzou doesn't get along very well with Usami from the very beginning because he tends to talk back to his superiors. Nothing crazy, he's just a kid full of questions. Most of the time the superiors would answer him with a stern look on their faces, and Yuuzou wouldn't mind a little harsh treatment. When it comes to Usami, however, something about him makes Yuuzou uneasy.

From here on out, everything between Yuuzou (23) and Koito (21) is gonna be 8 years worth of slow burn, with Yuuzou watching over Koito from afar most of the time and trying to get Koito's attention in the most inconvenient way as possible like bumping into him or spilling his drink.

Their ship name goes by KoiFuku/FukuKoi! This is the first ever sketch I've drawn of them.

If you've read this far all the way down, thank you very much 💜 They're just another silly little hyperfixation of mine, hopefully I get to draw enough of them before my interest runs out lol

[kay-then-i-guess]

So, I had this idea as I'm getting close to finishing the Election arc of my Roleshuffle AU to go through my previous comic pages and point out everything I did wrong :) This is all for funsies, and I feel like my art has gotten a lot better with the Election arc. Plus, I think it's very important to go back and critique yourself to 1: see how far you've come and 2: to better understand where you tend to make mistakes. So, let's get critiquing!

Soooo starting off, I really didn't know how to make a comic. I had only done very brief, minor comic making before, so this was a completely new field of art that I wasn't used to. You can immediately see that problem in the first and second panel, since they. They aren't a panel. Nothing about them (minus the speech bubbles) indicates that this is a comic. I think the first would have benefited from each item being properly separated, and the other would have benefited from an actual image behind it; not a gradient. Speaking of the items, that's supposed to be Sam's hand at the top, and it is freckle-less (no clue why I forgot to add those lol). Some other consistency things that are weird is that L'manberg has no tower entrance, and there aren't any trees surrounding it in any other drawing. On notes of consistency, the sword there is supposed to be Techno's, but the design changed later to have a gold hilt. I guess that change never reached this panel, so now that just looks like a random sword stuck in the ground. Nobody's sword in the comic looks like that haha. Similar deal with Techno's crown: the spacing of jewels is not consistent with how I draw it in the rest of the comic.

Moving on! The next two panels of Connor aren't bad, per se, they just aren't good. (I'm mainly bothered by the fact that he doesn't have teeth in the first one.) Also, because I didn't want to draw hands and cut his arms off, it just looks like the framing of the panel is all wrong. Plus, I don't think I've seen anyone pose like that in real life. He looks like he's about to hug you, which is not the vibe I was going for. In both of these panels, we have what will become a reoccurring problem throughout: loooooong neck because I didn't draw a base figure before drawing the clothes. Connor's face should either be longer in these panels, or his shoulders should be higher. Either way, the neck does not look right. Another reoccurring problem you'll see is dull coloring/shading. I'm still working on this, to be frank, but these images all look rather dull. There's nothing unique about the lighting/colors, so it doesn't really pop like it should. Either I needed to add more dynamic lighting or be better at highlights.

Yet another case of long neck. Oh, and weird positioning on the facial features. The eyes feel stretched across his face instead of, well, where they should be. I also think in these opening panels I really fail to encapsulate Connor's personality. I was really banking on the fact that he's a silly little comic relief character in the canon dsmp, but his delivery is very dry/flat whenever I watch old clips of him. Therefore, in the early bits, he just seems a bit off because of the high energy I gave him. Next up we have a bad case of something that looked good in the sketch but did not come across after coloring. What I wanted to happen was his face to gain some anime-type shading that screams "oh no", but it just wasn't strong enough, so the end result just seems like I copied and pasted the same panel for no reason. Also, in the lower image, Connor's face does not look right. I can't really put my finger on why, but it's either because his eyes are uneven or that the facial features, once again, kind of stretch across the face.

aaaaand I originally wanted to go through the whole first part of my comic, but this is turning out to be very long. So that's a tomorrow project. Hope you enjoyed my critique!