#theres so much to work with in terms of art inspiration

[cognicent]

sleep in the starving darkness

[thedeafprophet]

Finished drawing my character designs/ line up of the Light Fingers Crew to formalize my drawing of them

Overview/ Design talk under the cut if anyone is interested in that sort of thing

For all the designs I used the art given for them in the game as a starting point and then went from there. For all but Hephaesta of course that means using a non character specific art. I also wanted all the colors to sort of fit together so where i would have done more vibrant stuff and i strayed away from that.

Clara and Her Sister

Putting the discussion for these two together, as their designs recieved similar thoughts because they are identical twins. ('She is wearing the Fading Music-Hall Singer's face, which seems rude.')

The basic art of the bohemian faction is used to depict the sisters.

So this was my basic starting point for the visual design. I ended up diving further into research into bohemian fashion, which of course lead to me reading up on the history of the term and the connection to the Romani people. According to wikipedia, the word comes from the french term 'bohémien', which was the word for the Romani people.

This of course put a complex spin when i looked into the clothing used in the time, as theres a question between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and one I don't have the full understanding for.

Nevertheless i did take some inspirtation for the clothing here, Clara with having her hair loose and down and looser clothing, the singer with the hair scarf and the necklace among some inspirations.

Inbetween the two I imagine the singers appearance to be more reserved then Clarabelle's. For one, my interpretation of the singer is as someone who uses her singing as a backdrop for sneaking and gathering information (per her role as a 'contact' of the player). The other being that we are told Clara's title is the 'eccentric opera singer' to me implies a grander sense of creatativity and wilder clothing. In less stressful times I imagine her wearing brighter clashing colours and skirts with patterns on them and jewlery (which i intend to draw at a later time when i get better at adding patterns to clothes lol).

We also know the two of them are 'not young' so i attempted to not make them appear so.

Hephaesta

Heph is of course the one character of the group with a personalized art, which i used as the base for my design.

Hephaesta is supposed to be a large figure, as she is a strongwoman, and is described as towering over even jasper and frank. So of course I had to make her tall compared to the others of the group.

And of course i can't go without bringing up Katie Sandwina (again), a real strongwomen of the time who serves as a great inspiration both in body type and height.

What a woman huh.

Dr Vaughan

The Campaigner template art was the one used to depict her when you first speak to her and was a starting point here.

To me i always pictured her as a fairly older women given her experience and amount of time she's been researching. Clearly someone with a lot of exprience. And also i just vibe with it.

I kept her outfit simple, as i dont figure her as someone to put too much into the latest fashion given her focus on her work. I took the green from the art to use as her skirt to tie in that colour. I also looked up some photos of female doctors of the time and that partially influenced my art direction here.

Obliging Silverer

I debated including him or not given that you only have him as part of the team if you use the light fingers exclusive option to access the parabolan basecamp. But given the fact that he literaly dies defending the camp, I think its only fair that he gets included.

i just had a bit of fun with the design as there wasnt too much to restrict off. I dont draw a lot of characters with mustaches depsite them being a thing of the time, so I figured this was a good excuse as any. I kept with some orange colours within his colour scheme for further callbacks to parabola and his work.

Also hey did you know that people of an ashkenazi background can also have red hair? Fun fact heh.

[ninjapaste]

dude your art is so GOOD!!! Do you take any classes or have any tips to share? that resource post you reblogged the other day was helpful but i've felt so stuck in my art. I don't know if you have anything u learned that just made something click for u or anything like that?

Tysm anon!!!👍

In terms of your questions, I apologise i advance for the long answer im about to give and possibly things you already know haha:

I guess in terms of what classes i take, Ive gone from GCSE to A level Art and design (Fine art), and both courses have helped me to learn the importance of observation studies.

However, its moreso all the art i practice in my own time that has played the biggest part in my art improvement journey. I adopted art as a big hobby around 2018, and really ever since then I tend to draw/create for myself every day, however big or small it may be.

I guess my first tip would be to indulge in a 'sketchbook' or space to work in freely, it could be any form but the importance is that its personal and can be picked up whenever. I find that having a sketchbook to draw in has really helped with productivity and creating new ideas. I think you can go into a sketchbook space with any mindset and it can work wonders, like for example if you wanted to focus purely on challenging yourself, you can do that! If you just, want to doodle without thinking, go ahead! After all, its a sketchbook for you and nobody else, so go wild!

My next tip would definitely be, when you are feeling stuck in art, to take inspiration from a wide range of different things be it in real life or on the internet, a building or a really cool tree, since I find it defintiely fuels the creation of new ideas/concepts that can provide a path out of that creative rut. I guess to an extent there may always be periods where you have that 'I have no idea what to draw!' Feeling, and thats okay! Sometimes its refreshing that helps the most. But I often see that the solution to being in a rut is usually REFERENCING, wether it be trying to accurately draw the anatomy of an arm or if I just saw a cool design/pose/style on Pinterest and i drew a bunch of wacky characters from it. In fact, I find that places like Pinterest or Resplash are such good resources to hone imagination and generally most art skills by looking at and drawinf from all the cool images (and get some of that inspo!). And if im not using Pinterest, im usually using an art book as reference! (The itsv and splatoon art book helped me so so much lol)

On the topic of REFERENCING, its mega important! Depending on imagination/memory feels pretty good at times but its always beneficial to have image references in your process when you find its good to have them. I woudl always recommend having a reference when drawing poses/expressions/anatomy because the more you use them, the more you learn about how an object like a face muscle, a torso or even light behaves and looks and the easier it is to draw/depict them.

The next tip is uh YOUTUBE, or any account/person who's art inspires you in particular. I found that certain channels like Ethan Becker, Marc Brunet, Marco Bucci and more have helped me the most to gain confidence in drawing and learning how to practice it better. Of course, theres a lot to learn from a plethora of other channels too, even ones that dont specifically promote themselves as teachers! Also, if theres a certain style/art approach or an artist that appeals to you, study it in any way you like! Analyse an artist's work or ask/find out about their personal process (or even watch a speedpaint/art stream)! Sometimes it can be a big inspiration booster and skill boost to do just that (plus the 'artist' could be any piece of media/thing too!! Like a game or something).

Ok ok last paragraph haha, on the topic of your last question. Thinking back, its hard for me to define any specific moment or thing that gave me a 'click' moment. Its more like a process of growth that starts with learning and understanding a new thing, then familiarizing myself with using it successfully/'correctly' by studying and practicing, so that eventually its like muscle memory or easier to use in my work.

Hope this helps!!! If theres anything else you want to ask, dont be afraid to dm or send another ask!!

[byrdtrollsunoreversearchive]

💭💭💭

@astrumocs Is a long time friend and very dear to me. I'm so excited that we're writing more together and obsesseddddd with tavi and hikaru for sure <3. They're one of my friends who I feel has a very distinct voice in all their writing, like you can read one paragraph and sort of tell it's them through the style he uses. If that makes sense. I really admire that about him. They're also such a capable artist and you can tell how much time and effort they put into every individual piece. The spritesets he's been putting out lately just sort of blow my mind with the rendering. His style feels just as distinct and recognizable as his writing is, it just oozes with personality in every way. And outside of art they are just a very loving and wonderful friend. Who has been there for me throughout a lot of hard times. Making me laugh and saying things that are so kind. I love them a whole lot.

@quiescent-trolls is another long time friend. Their passion for my characters constantly drives me to create. They're such an important part of this community and such a talented artist and writer. I'm obsessed with what they did with fucked up but also their arc with nesmos <3 I really love how they write relationships. I think we have very similar tastes in terms of charactor angst and conflict. Every so often you just meet someone who clicks with you. When/if we write together, it is so over for all of you. Their art is also amazing and I've been blown away by it every single time I see it and I feel so lucky to be able to collab with them! Besides that they are a great friend and just a very considerate, mature and intelligent person. We've had a lot of conversations on kink and sexuality and all manner of things that are so important to me. I think its so nice to have people to talk too about this kind of thing.

@dirgelwch I don't even know where to start with lin, I could be here for hours. They constantly inspire me with their art and how they play around with the medium of storytelling. I remember being blown away by all the stuff they did with their narrator storyline and I still am. They're a very talented writer and I love Melina with my whole heart and am so excited anytime theres a drabble for her. Their physical art is also so impressive. Their work feels almost so, era specific, with the rendering and effects and noise they add to it, everything feels so nostalgic and familiar and emotional. I'm constantly impressed by their lineart, they have a really professional and characteristic way of using line that I just really admire. They're also such a capable character designer, and have so many trolls with such distinct sillouttes and color palettes. Other than that, outside of rp they are just a very wonderful, kind person who has always been willing to lend an ear to me. Theyre so funny and I love terrorizing our friends with silly nsfw breaking bad and lorax nonsense with them.

[danidoesathing]

Ask meme, Lord Huron, let's see.... 8, 9, 15, and 4 because I gotta know!!

8. Is there anything I wish people would write more about in fics? (A dynamic, an exploration of an arc, just a character that doesn’t get much screentime, etc)

i mean. theres not a whole lot of fics out there and honestly i cant complain too much about what we got! There's a lot of characters i would love to see written/written more (Leigh, Tubbs, Moonbeam, Alex and Dale, Frankie, Danielle etc) and we are in desperate need of some Lonesome Dreams fics but i of all people know that writers are at the whims of inspiration and bursts of writing passion. and again everything everyone has made has been really good!!

9. Is there anything in general I wish more people in the fandom talked about?

Just lonesome dreams. in general. i know its vague and weird and disconnected from the rest of the lore but man. i love it dearly and wish we had more to work with and/or talk about it more. Huron my dear friend huron

15. Is there something I wish someone would draw as a fanart?

oh i have. MANY images in brain i wish i could draw or could transmit into my brain directly. i have ideas for ones that were the characters in the outfits/styles the band performed their songs in (either in the MVs, on stage, or in promo stuff). also got a few for like different character drawings based on non-LH songs that i think fit them. i would make it if i had the patience to draw but alas

4. My favorite fanart from the fandom

theres SO many good ones man dont make me chose. we dont have much in terms of content but we are BLESSED with some of the insane artist talent in the fandom. I wont pick a single one and instead will list a couple really good ones: Zani's art of Frankie and the DMH scene, Rook's POTU furry art, lizormianillustration's frozen pines art (any time they post LH art you can hear the fandom scrambling over to it lmao), and i cannot find the fucking art/blog for the life of me but this dead man's hand one that i know is on tumblr SOMEWHERE. and of course both the halloween Frankie Lou and the Let the Devil Come art you did are SO good. there's defintely more i cannot remember if its not mentioned know i love it

[bunitivity]

Hey! First of all let me start by saying that I LOVE your writing (one shots? Im not familiar with fanfic terms lol), everytime I see you answering an ask and is under read more? Fuck yeah! Im eating well tonight!!! (That being said dont feel obligated to answer this like that lol)

I was just thinking about Water 7 (because us Usopp girlies/gender neutral/ are never leaving that arc down) and the fact that after getting beat up Usopp is shown to have bandages all over his body, but later when he heals he doesnt seem to have any scars, and in the sense of the show it makes sense, but 👀 i feel theres lots of angst potential for him to have some scarring from his time against the Franky Family, after all Chopper only treated him at first, the rest of the wounds care was done by Usopp. I feel theres great Usopp angst potential in seeing these scars as shameful because they keep reminding him of his actions in water 7, Franky angst because every time he sees those scars he remembers a beat up Usopp, hell angst for the whole crew remembering their darkest time as a crew

And if we want to make it ZoLuSanUso (because of course were going to!!) angst of their little breakup arc and how they couldnt protect usopp at that moment 😭

Aaah I’m so happy you enjoy my writing! I honestly hadn’t planned on writing anything for this fandom because whenever I enter a new fandom I prefer posting art and even though I enjoy writing a little here and there much like my art/fandom art in general they are just snippets of a larger story lol. Which is something you can get away with drawing but not writing. I wish I could write a full fledged slowburn for the ot4 god that would be the dream but executing something like that well is a lot of work and I’m weak of spirit I’m afraid😩 that being said I did write a little something inspired by my latest ot4 drawing(and isn’t that a beautiful circle being inspired to draw and being inspired to write by your own drawing as you draw lol) I just need to edit it and I’ll post it tomorrow(and yeah they’re called oneshots😊) just seeing your nice message inspired me to work on it some more so that’s why it took me a bit to answer(also it takes me longer to see asks because I have notifications turned off lol)

And ah water 7 best arc and anyone who says otherwise is just weak. The first and only time we saw interpersonal conflict that mattered where everyone was so wrong and also right. Sorta wishing we get the same level intercrew conflict in elbaf but with the way the story is going it’s not likely but I can dream. anyways water 7. God the thought of them already dating during that arc is so angsty even for Me. While lu/sopp and san/uso sides are already heartbreaking on their own (and lu/san! he literally kicked him in the face and told him to watch his mouth😭 honestly I don’t think Sanji would forgiven Luffy or Zoro if Usopp really left the crew there’s no way for things to be normal after all that or even Usopp for going through with it tbh) but ugh just zo/sopp is so much worse. Just having to hear him say that they should leave him if he doesn’t apologize even though Usopp wasn’t the only one at fault no you know what even if he was entirely at fault hearing that would not be okay. To hear someone you love say that would be heartbreaking😭. From then on you even after you patch things up you would be constantly watching yourself trying not to be too much trouble or make any mistakes. I have fallen down a ravenous hole I need to get UP. So yeah I don’t like to think about them dating before w7 because it all becomes a little too terrible and I would just die but I shall indulge you just a bit.

But yeah Luffy waking up sweats in the middle to make sure Usopp’s still there. Zoro would be just be touching Usopp and finding all these scars that never used to be there and get a bad taste in his mouth. I think if Sanji hears any of the other two raise their voice he’ll just have flashbacks and go into protective mode even though they are his boyfriends too and he’s supposed to also love them and he can’t have favorites but there’s no way to erase the past and what happened. So Sanji will just feel that much more terrible and unworthy (he never used to feel deserving before but now it’s just compounded three fold). Water 7 has left a lot of scars.

They may not all be physical but they’re so much worse. They’re going to be forever hunted by past mistakes of how they almost lost him because they were stupid and not there when he needed them most and as a result they’re going to overcompensate and become overprotective which just leads to Usopp feeling even more useless. It’s a vicious cycle until something finally gives and they have another fight where all their stupid insecurities come to light and they mend things. They try to be better moving forward but they’re just humans and there’s no way they can just fix things overnight. But they try and that’s all that matters.

I don’t think Franky will ever forget what happened and what he had to someone that has become so precious to him. And the fact that Usopp forgave him so easily just makes it so much worse. It’s easier to deal with anger because then you can at least apologize and work to earn their forgiveness. But no he does not get that. Instead he has to see the person he hurt look up to him and admire him and love him which just makes all the shitty things he did so much worse. And to have left permanent scarring because of what he has done oh boy. To have a constant reminder of just how terrible you can be. Yeah he won’t ever forget it. And no amount of good he does will ever erase those scars so how could he possibly forgive himself.

[intertexts]

GMORNING !!!!! u know what time it is

EPISODE 8 TRIVIA:

- the big monster they fought in the beginning was called a Crawling Apocalypse which looks like this. terrifying !!!

- bizly really liked that william banished it. he was originally not gonna let him do that but then "i realized your character can do so little and that was cool so i said fuck it" we love william pity points he is such a loser and he rolls so terribly <3

- they start talking about one piece because grizzlys saying things abt how certain parts of dakota are inspired by luffy and bizly goes "ive never watched anime" which is the biggest lie in the world

- grizzly: "yknow we were about an hour into the episode before i realized wow i havent done anything productive yet"

condi: "you just hit on vyncents mom for like 20 minutes!!!!"

- and then they start talking about how dakota and chip (bizlys pc from riptide) would either be best friends or hate each other which is really funny bc there are now MULTIPLE what if crossover episodes where they meet and interact and thats exactly the dynamic . i love them

- condi wasnt expecting his dad to be dead, he thought theyd have to fight him

- he kind of hesitated taking the sword !! vyncent doesnt really know how to feel about using something that belonged to his father

- he wasnt entirely Present for the part where his dad betrayed the party, he was sort of fading in and out of consciousness so theres a chance he didnt actually get the full picture. condi knows this out of character and vyncent knows it in the back of his mind somewhere that his dad might not actually be fully evil but hes too angry to come to terms with that yet

- hes struggling a lot with the fact that his mom.doesnt know about the betrayal. he doesnt want to tell her because "its not his fathers pride at stake, its his mother's memory of him" and that makes me so . :(

- THE GREATS!!!!!!!! THE GREATS ARE HERE i love the greats. surely nothing bad is happening to them

- they have a couple theories as to whats going on with the greats:

-- condi: theyre in this state because vyncent took too long getting them back here out of his head

-- condi: they were killed when they got transported to the other world and there was no way to get them back completely

-- charlie: something happened in the time where vyncent was transported to prime and the greats had died, so someone did something to keep them alive by putting them in his head. maybe they could only be kept alive by being in vyncents head

- grizzly tries to insight check bizly irl to see if any of their theories are close so far. this does not work . he rolled a 17 btw

- none of them trust minerva they think she might be secretly working with the lich. bizly defends her by saying "shes also in the middle of basically an apocalypse i think shes allowed to be a little mean to you"

- le frog is the only french person ever. this is brought up with NO context no explanation

- bizly is sharing some of the thumbnail art from youtube because this was right around the time the first few episodes were being put up publically !! most of them are just the same as the official refs but the most important one is le frog bc im not actually sure if youve seen his offical design yet . also tide used to be white. we dont have to talk about white tide

- bizly says pd feels more like a DC comic than a Marvel comic. hes right about this

- charlie starts talking about marissa meyer books and this is important 2 me because the lunar chronicles was an extremely formative piece of media for me . she apparently has a book called renegades thats superhero themed and i have not read it yet but i put it on my list specifically because of this. wahoo!

tgis is SUCH good trivia for this ep thank u dude... ouagh. really solid meal here. i love these last couple episodes so much.. there's so much fun stuff happening here i'm enjoying all of the greats stuff & getting like a solid Vyncent Moment for a while.

i LOVE the william pity points its great! it WAS cool as fuck!! also i gain +5 hp every time a gm goes "who give a shit if this isn't technically how the game mechanics should work, it's fun for everyone at the table & makes for something cool and makes sense narratively."

that being said. i DID take SO MUCH PSYCHIC DAMAGE from how long dakota spent hitting on his fucking mom. Please. Please king !!! sob.

I ALSO WAS EXPECTING THEM TO FIGHT VYN'S DAD???? still not unconvinced that some lich undead bullshit isn't going to happen with that. god i'm so invested in figuring out what HAPPENED there... i love this type of murder mystery situation. & i also was genuinely unsure if he would take the sword or not!! really kind of an ohhh shit! moment when he did. imo. vyncent virion sol i love u.... also it's still INCREDIBLY funny 2 me that he's still in his normal clothes. i have not forgotten that he is just doin his fantasy bullshit thing in the just some guy drip. (<- i might have forgotten something but i've been assuming they no longer have/wear Official Hero Drip since they're no longer really sanctioned or on great terms w/ them? also i've been assuming that the episode-specific clothes & shit isn't really permanent... now that im thinking about it though please tell me wiwi hardcore blue flame black leather kickass spiky biker jacket remains. it's too cool for him. but. still.)

I LOVE THE GREATS SO MUCH... i hope nothing permanently bad happens to them :( i like them so dearly..... you know they r really solid folks because they spent a YEAR and change living in a teenager's brain & came out of the experience still bein so nice 2 him.... augh. also in general big fan of the system-adjacent bullshit :] i love it when theres. guy with guys in his head. etc. will b sad ab their departure but i hope they r OKAY and return 2 Being Alive & shit!! nervous laughter. also god i can't wait to find out what Actually Happened with them. hhrhrghghgghh.

THIS IS SO TRUE ALSO???? free my girl minerva she did nothing but have Literally Normal Reactions to TERRIBLE things happening!!!

I DON'T LIKE THAT LEFROG FACT. it raises the question of is he actually even french or like, is there even a point of reference for his behavior. like. What is going on there. Horrifying thank you!!!! also man this entire degree im working on would be useless! well. maybe prime quebec exists. somehow. independently of a hypothetical europe. HIS DESIGN IS SO FUN BTW. its so cute.. i WAS kind of imagining a mutant Big Real Fucking Frog situation but i think this is a lot more reasonable. also literally ignoring white tide I Do Not See it. It Does Not Exist.

ALSO. NOT GOING TO START TALKING AB COMICS FOR EVEN MORE PARAGRAPHS. BUT. he is so so so right. (<- dc comics guy with Opinions. well. technically im not even much of a dc guy im just a vertigo guy. but. still.) hghghghbhgh.

[c-orgiis]

was already interested vaguely in umineko but presence of a stageplay sort of makes me want to get into it more.. ehem. stageplay guy. i know theres like diff versions of the game w old or new sprites n i def want to play w the old ones from what i’ve seen but i was wondering where/how you played/read it? ik its on steam but like split up or something ? also all the yuri posting makes me v interested thanks for your hard work o7

HII ok so technically the different sprite styles arent different games per se its just that the steam release gives you the option to switch between two different sprite art styles (original ryukishi art vs art inspired by the. pachinko). theres also the console port of the game which is the third art style but in my humble opinion they lose a lot of the charm that the original sprites have so LOL

theres two games in the 'series' (the question arcs and the answer arcs) but they both count as a single linear thing its just that theyre split up into two games. so what youd want to do is play the question arcs first before getting to the answer arcs 🫡 i would also highly recommend playing with the voice mod which adds in the voice acting from the ps3 port of the game! even if youre a fast reader (like me lol) and are worried about reading too fast for them to finish speaking i still found that the voices really enhanced a lot of the scenes

in terms of how youd play the actual game its pretty much 99.99% reading with 0 gameplay but youd want to basically read the episodes and then the subsequent bonus chapters that unlock after you finish each episode (for some reason this isnt really something they tell you to do but the story does continue through the bonus chapters later on so itd be kind of bad if you skipped them or went out of order LOL)

i will also say this game does deal with a lot of heavy subjects so if you need a tw list id be happy to make one for you o7

[elkkiel]

Same anon again, glad to see we agree! I get easily annoyed/tend to be very wary of people because of Discourse TM ive been in/seen go down and honestly i see a lot of it the st fandom that concerns me and annoys me to no end. So im glad to see we seem to be on roughly the same page here especially with how nasty (in the being an asshole to people who disagree way) people have gotten in discourse ive observed. Let people be horny as long as theres no real life sexual harassment/abuse and let people have fun with interpretations of art (as long as theyre not being weird about real life events that inspired the Perceived As Horny art) yknow? I brought in some other discourse here with this ask in particular but i have been very bitter about people lately lol

With how generally sex-positive the fandom is (like in terms of acceptance of sexuality, esp kink and paraphilia), it's a little surprising that people would actually get that up in arms over something like this.

Personally, from my own observations, I'd mostly attribute it to how booktok's kind of adopted ST + Vess as some shallow, sexy spooky anthem/daddy dom character. If booktok is already perceived as 1) low-quality lit, 2) romanticizing heteronormative abuse fantasies, and 3) kinda "cringe", I could see people being extra negative when their fave's starting to be associated with the community.

Which, I understand both sides. I would like to lick the body paint off of Vessel as much as anyone else here. But, the appreciation goes far beyond sexuality, and it's not a factor in my overall love for the band. It can be annoying to see people fawn over "baby-making metal" and our beloved, shirt-avoidant Best Boy at a horny surface-level appreciation. Especially since a lot of the tiktok fandom that might overlap with booktok are sometimes the ones that take thirsting into actual objectifying territory. The music is far deeper than its sex appeal and the community is more than just folks who scream daddy at the barricade during Atlantic lol (idk if that's happened but like you know what I mean hopefully)

So yeah, I get why people would be upset over it. If it were up to me, I wouldn't want Sleep Token to be associated with people's generalized (and sometimes legitimate) negative opinions about booktok. I love them and I wish people got to form their own views unclouded by horny digital shrieking lol. However, this is real life, and I am a mature(?) adult person who can move the fuck on with my life and let the booktok horndogs straight up jork it to whatever they want. It doesn't affect me. And again, if they're not translating their potentially misinformed, hard dom daddy Vess fantasies into harmful irl practice, then who gives a fuck.

People need to chill and realize that there's always going to be aspects of a fandom that you can't control (I'm a veteran Dream stan, miss me with that fandom policing bullshit lol trust me it doesn't work). Just like there's going to be interaction/overlap with other communities that you personally don't agree with. Have your own opinions, share concerns for legitimate worries that don't demonize the individuals themselves, and curate your own online experience to avoid things you don't vibe with.

[tay-bee]

*Blows dust off blog*

So uuh, ive been drawing again- like, a LOT. Thinking of maybe posting it here? Is there still active users here? Does anyone still care about my work?

Right now its mostly Monkie Kid fanart, of all things, and some older Trigun in there too- but im hesitant cause who knows how long i’ll be riding this high.

Not sure if ill ever post original works again though.

A few years back I just hit a wall when it came to my art, I felt like I had spent my entire life developing my skills for nothing. For a long time I just gave up with art, much less posting it. I saw no point, and it took several long years to break away from the mindset of creating to impress others and instead create for MYSELF.

I could barely get a sketch out, much less a finished piece! Plus im now making fursuits full time which takes up 90% of my day. With that schedule no way in hell could I think of comics again, sadly. As much as I miss it dearly…

But now im getting the hang of drawing again- I think ive finally come to terms with posting and being ok with the reach being small. Theres no obligation now to try to get views for potential financial gain.

Im still struggling with getting to the level of polished work I would do before, but experimenting and developing my art style in a different direction is helping! Ive also been revisiting the things that used to inspire me- lots of healing to do but im hopeful!

Idk, its 2am and just trying to think things out! If anyone sees this please reply or something- I dont check here very often, but putting the feelers out there to see if theres reason to clean up my account and be active again!

[lilac-set]

o/ Hi! For the system ask game:

(feel free to pick just a couple to answer, i know we sent a lot!)

🧡 (How does your system handle memories? Does everyone share, or is it split across members?)

⭐ (Do you have a headspace / inner world? What does it look like?)

🍀 (Do any system members practice a religion or belief system? What about spirituality?)

🧵 (How does your system handle the body's / vessel's appearance? Does everyone dress the same, or is there a broad range of styles?)

🤎 (Do system members typically agree on things or is there a broad range of opinions?)

🌼 (Do any members have accents or typing quirks? Are accents/quirks common in your system, or more rare?)

🤍 (Say something positive about another system member (or all of them, if you'd like!))

:o this makes me so happy!! Thank for you the ask!! We’re all cofronting rn which is perfect, although the little has the largest minority i think (dont be surprised if little mannerisms come through significantly) edit: as soon as we starting answering 🔥 came forward instead

🧡 we dont share memory storage, but if we’re cocon we can actively go dig through each others memories, and we’re basically always cocon, so that isnt much of an issue. That being said, some things fall through the cracks if it didnt seem important enough (or we forgot) to actively communicate it and the other one didnt know there was anything to go actively looking for. That doesnt interfere with anything as long as anyone who might have expectations for us is respectful of our plurality

⭐️ kinda? Do you know rose’s room in steven universe? It works kinda like that, we can will things into existence, but unless we’ve done that we dont really have a headspace. For example if we all want to sit at a couch together we can do that, and its always the same couch, its consistent, but we dont constantly keep it loaded in our “RAM” so to speak (computer metaphor)

🍀 religion no, spirituality yes, we’re (all four of us) nontheistic animists who place a significant importance on nature, for now the best term we have is druidry, but there are some aspects of druidry we dont resonate with, for example we dont like rituals (for ourselves), and we aren’t sure about the awen (again, for ourselves), but maybe its just because we’ve mostly seen it described from a more pantheistic perspective, but plenty of druids are nontheists, we’ve just never heard their perspective on it. Learning about the concept of the awen has certainly been inspiring to us to learn about and engage with bardic arts more, not that we’ve actually done it, but we’ve felt inspired to, and i know thats just what theism is for a lot of druids, choosing to believe in something not because you necessarily believe it as objective fact but because entertaining the belief has a positive impact on your life, which i respect. That brings me to my next qualm with it as well, ive heard multiple druids say that one cant call themselves a druid because they simply feel like one, but that active engagement with druidry is essential. Of course we make decisions in accordance with our values at every opportunity, but theres a limited amount we can do in terms or actual activism and engagement with nature according to our/druidic values given our living situation, lack of income, disabilities, etc. So, given that, im not sure we can technically call ourselves druids, but also druidry is a nondogmatic religion/spirituality, there are no hard and fast rules, these are just the opinions of a handful of individuals who happened to express them online, i dont know. Also it obviously feels ableist to us, but like i get it, it doesnt make much sense to call oneself an activist if one isnt engaging in activism, even if you believe in their beliefs. But druidry and activism aren’t synonymous. Yes both are lifestyles but one leans spiritual and the other leans… ya know, active. The last thing stopping me from identifying as a druid wholeheartedly is that druidry has strong connections with celtic culture, which is fine, i dont mind borrowing from and appreciating other cultures (this isnt a closed thing) (cultural anthropology is also a special interest of ours, these are related special interests), but to an extent it feels like an act of patriotism for a country i have no connection to. It would feel more connected to me if i could find a similar set of beliefs associated with a region that either i or my ancestors have ever lived in, but im not sure if that exists. Sorry this was longwinded, and i know i left a lot terms undefined that anyone unfamiliar with druidry is likely unfamiliar with, i just didnt wanna make this even longer and didnt wanna overexplain if no one is really interested (and i also dont wanna make any horrible mistakes when maybe you should be asking a “real” druid about this instead), but this is kinda a special interest of ours, feel free to ask more questions about it! We love to talk about it. Edit: ah shit, i just realized i basically just contrasted our spirituality to druidry but i didnt really tell you much about our actual spirituality itself, feel free to ask about that as well

🧵 so, we all identify with the body itself, but we dont necessarily agree on how we would present it. In headspace everyone dresses distinctly differently, we have different hairstyles and bodymods etc, but in the body everyone would look pretty much the same, not because we want to but because we still live with our parents, and they have weird arbitrary rules about how we’re allowed to dress. Not about modesty or anything but just whatever their preconceived idea of what our style would be before we were born, that now they enforce on us. We’ve actually grappled a lot though with the fact that once we move out and we would have more freedom, rather than everyone just looking like ourselves internally and the body looking like the body, the body will probably look like a particular one of us at any given moment, depending on who dressed it, and then if we switch, that person has to deal with the dysphoria of looking like their brother, and the first one has to deal with the dysphoria of their brother looking like them, and i know both of those would be really hard for us. Within our parents constraints right now obviously we like to wear our preferred colors or whatever, and we’re good at, like, “oh, he would like to wear this, and i know he’ll switch in later, so i’ll go ahead and put it on, because i know it’ll make him happy” (it does), or like cofronting/cocon compromising “ok ill put this on because i know you like it but ill get to choose the pants” or whatever, so maybe the style on the body in an ideal situation would end up being more of an amalgamation of all of ours, because i know we wouldnt struggle with that, but god do we each long for the euphoria of making the body actually look like ourselves individually. Aaaaas long as we dont switch

🤎 ah nice another shorter one (we like the long ones but god this post’ll be huge) yeah we pretty much agree on everything. 🪨 and i (🔥) experience attraction differently, he’s quioplatonic and hyperromantic and im alloplatonic (presumably?) and bellus-lithromantic, so thats been somewhat of a point of conflict that we cant agree on what type of relationship we want and are comfortable with with collective significant others, but other than that we’re pretty much on the same page about everything in general. I mean, (not to put down systems that cant relate, just talking about it for ourselves), imagine you had a conversation partner who you knew the exact line of reasoning of, you could feel their emotions directly, miscommunication was literally impossible, you share any relevant past experiences, etc. Sometimes it takes some talking but theres really no reason we wouldnt eventually come to a consensus. (Taking an excuse to talk about another special interest) The four of us are different myers briggs types, which means we value different types of information regarding what we pay the most attention to and what we prefer to make decisions based on, so thats something you would notice but isnt any sort of source of conflict. We have one of every xNFx type. Feel free to ask us more myers briggs questions, we could infodump about this forever. This question didnt actually end up being all that short lol. Edit: i realized there multiple uses of the word “opinion”, i took it here more like “belief”, “stance”, etc, but if youre talking about more like “preferences”, yeah we have plenty of different preferences, but im not gonna make this longer

🌼 the little uses babytalk, idk if that counts. No typing quirks or variation is regional accents, but our voices are distinctly recognizable, apparently.

🤍 ah fuck hmm let me think. Theyre so complex and wonderful and i dont want to reduce them to a single compliment, or create pda for them to continue being whatever i would say. I think ill pass on this one, they all know i love them <3

[coquettedragoon]

do you have any favourite design work, just in general? your mecha work has always struck me (as someone obsessed with that kind of thing), but the dreamlike feeling of the semi-abstracted backgrounds is incredible

im gonna make this a bit long and also gonna introduce the 'good asks' tag for asks i spend a long time writing an answer for so its not lost to time

a huge inspo for my sense of design, wildly enough, was space patrol lulucos backgrounds. i cant find a better shot in google images of the way it renders space, but the screentone clouds really stuck with me and influenced how i use it heavily. i was really obsessed w the collage like bgs in particular and v singular color grading

gunbuster and diebuster are hugely influential, in different ways. im obsessed with the palettes in diebuster.. everything about the lilac stems from the exelion in gunbuster, the zephyrantes took its root entirely from the idea of a warship so large it has a train network and painted skies inside of it etc... the oppressive mech cockpits are heavily drawn from gunbusters. the nerv stuff in eva is also a big source of inspo.

a huge impact on how i approached backgrounds for coquette was tsukihimes, the singular blue color is why i only use a v limited palette for coquettes backgrounds... where i got started with planning coquettes bgs was the thought of using the same filtered approach but to simple 3d instead of photos. i ended up good at 3d so it never was simple though

hidamari sketch is maybe my fav work on the planet, and its a huge part of why im obsessed with screentone... my attention to detail with the living spaces of characters comes from it and the detail it gives to every characters room in the apartments, and how they each use the same floorplan differently. its visually stunning top to bottom in a way that only comes through when you watch it imo.. the use of photos etc has stuck with me forever, it rly is a show using 20000 art styles at once and rly gave me a lot of thought on treating direction as collage of styles you like

heartcatch precure is one of my favs ever, especially visually... i love how far it leans into like being very digital looking and uses color so strongly to convey a mood.. i remember being immediately struck by how it uses this sickly green color for the world/sky during the fights etc to build unease. i love how high contrast it is, i definitely drew a lot from its stark orange and black backgrounds for doing the duchy stuff

a lot of movies definitely stick with me visually, but its easier for me to think in terms of 2d/3d... the mishima movie (lmao) has directly influenced my bg art heavily, especially when i use these kind of overhead diorama esque shots

in terms of how i do 3d and shade it etc... a lot of is heavily inspired by the use of 3d in the code geass ovas (lmao), noone watched this ever so none of its documented but this AMV has quite a lot of it. the harsh shading in the scene around 00:20 is what influenced me using that style in the ch3 opening animation... the snappy fast violent animation is kind of my ideal for how i wanna animate mechs

i think a lot of how i design things is through trial and error, but theres a lot consciously floating thru my head around what kind of look id like to achieve... i dont actually plan much, ever. i animate with no storyboards, write without an outline, only do one sketch before settling on any designs, and mess around w colors for a scene until its done

[satuwn]

I love your character designs so much! You have a very creative mind and are very talented. I'm really interested in your creative process, do you have any sources of inspiration you look onto often or do things come to you randomly?

thank you so much wow!!! and oh gosh ive gotten this question before so many times and its always hard to answer for me! (ive even been told i was lying/making it up once and i was like girl...) but! i think most of my inspiration comes from very Random stuff... like a picture, or when i look at something from afar and think its one thing but turns out to be something else. and yes sometimes, actually very often, a lot of my ideas come to me randomly!

making designs out of a sort of starting point? are my favorite thing to think abt day to day as a special interest and as someone with adhd/autism i LOVE creatures, and i love making creatures! so i would look at an item like a shopping cart, juice box, etc. and go 'how can i make that alive?' i do have art inspirations in a way but as with adhd i have a bad short term memory and usually art i love to look at and go OOO i wanna do that! i usually forget about when im not looking at it lol. i also really love to design pokemon and similar stuff like that- like starting from an eevee and going like 'what if i combine it with X' and boom a new thing is born! as i mentioned i just love Building Up on a base thing, if that makes sense.

sorry for the ramble, i hope this was understandable! despite being asked so many times its never any easier to explain it bc my mind works in such a particular way xD and also basically out of all the designs ive made so far theres x100 more ideas in my head that ive never put on paper x w x rip me

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

okay so after i saw the announcement of a stranger things animated show, i looked into it just for more context and found out that this year, a stranger things stage show opens in london, and as a british theatre nerd, i may have fell down a rabbit hole.

to preface, i have not studied drama since i was 16. i did not pursue further it as much as i wish i had. i have, however, seen many many plays and musicals, both amateur and professional. i know at least a little more than the average person.

so if youre remotely interested in hearing amateur analysis of what we know of stranger things: the last shadow, welcome:

"take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension"

so in one article, i found this quote. i couldnt find who said it exactly, just someone associated with the play.

i'm hoping, this is just marketing; i really hope its just marketing. because this feels a bit insulting to uh, a lot of people who came before. such as augusto boal who founded theatre of the oppressed or konstantin stanislavski or bertolt brecht or antonin artaud who founded theatre of cruelty.

i mention artaud because im expecting some elements from theatre of cruelty. if you look up any artaud plays or theatre of cruelty plays on youtube, youll probably get why.

but anyway, as you might have gathered, this hasnt inspired confidence in me. and i already wasnt confident because it is very difficult to translate film or tv to theatre, and vice versa. look at phantom 2004. i dont believe the duffers would be able to do this; this isnt even a knock on their writing, i dont think most writers could do this without practice.

and so i went to their website to see who else was involved

now is probably a great time to mention how inaccessible their website is. in the background of their website, there are small flashing lights all over the screen. theres no warning for this.

it literally triggered a migraine in me and i had to take my strongest medication for it. fuck you website designer.

(also, just gonna mention it here, i do like the poster and some of the website design, ignoring the stupid lights, but i cannot find the artist ANYWHERE on the website, which as an artist, fuck you)

anyway, first thing i did was look at who is writing it, and im in two minds about it. there are four writers credited: kate trefry, duffer brother 1, duffer brother 2, and jack thorne.

if you recognise jack thornes name, its probably because he wrote the awful harry potter play.

HOWEVER, hes actually quite a competent writer like 90% of the time. his plays tend to get at least 3 out of 5 stars. looking through the reviews, his best regarded plays are bunny, hope, solid life of sugar water, and his adaptation of let the right one in

that last one is very promising because he drew both on the book and film in adaptation. jack thorne does know how to adapt media into different mediums. he has also won an adaption award for his adaption of a christmas carol. his adaptation of the film after life has also be commended for being a good adaption.

this is not to say his work isnt without criticism. i mean, he wrote cursed child. he also has been criticised for slow pacing, shallow writing and one of his more recent plays, sunday, apparently had a "hello fellow kids" vibe. he is now in his 40s afterall.

so a bit of a mixed bag, but a good sign in terms of it not being simply terrible due to lack of understanding of medium.

i also have to mention that jack thorne is disabled and is an advocate for disabled folks in the dramatic arts. when he wrote the solid life of sugar water, he dictated that one character should always be played by a deaf actor. he does also write many disabled stories. his impact is a net positive.

(hes also frank skinners brother-in-law which is fun)

now, the other three writers have never written for stage, which uh, yeah, no, that does the opposite of inspiring courage in me. it is a very different process than writing for films or tv, and none of them have any writing credits for stage work.

on the poster, kate trefry is credited as the main writer which could go either way. shes not written much for screen. she has at least written stranger things episodes so shes not going into it blind.

honestly, i just hope they use jack thorne and his expertise more than they need to. hes the wise old man in their group and i really hope they listen to him and dont just try and do it all themselves.

now onto the director: stephen daldry. ive never seen his work live, but when i was studying drama, i really wanted to.

to give you an idea as to why, when david hare was working on via dolorosa, he had daldry as a co-director and when daldry responded no to hare asking if something was over the top, hare said "your top is situated some hundred yards above everyone else. ive seen your productions."

do you get why i want to see one of his productions asdfdesd his work tends to be very expressionistic and vivid. his directing style has been described as consistent stylised helming. hes won a lot of awards and he tends to get 4/5 stars at the very least on his works.

hes also helped to adapt the billy elliot movie (which is both fantastic and directed by him) to stage and it was fantastic.

hes also gay <3

the set designer is miriam buether. ive never seen any of her work live so i cant speak for the atmosphere it creates, but her setwork looks fine. shes versatile and doesnt need to go over the top with spectacle for her sets to look good.

in particular, i really enjoy her sets for earthquakes in london. the colour work there is *chef's kiss*

unfortunately, theyve kept it all very under wraps as to the tone the stageshow is going to take so i dont know how either buethers set design of daldrys directing is going to translate.

by combining them, i would expect a very expressionistic, very brightly coloured show, which, theres some cognitive dissonance round the corner.

also the premise is about young!hopper, young!joyce, young!bob and henry creel, with some kind of mystery. id expect a more naturalistic approach with this premise, but daldry isnt exactly known for that. so im in two minds.

however, one of his best regarded shows is his adaption of an inspector calls. ive only seen a naturalistic version of that and it very much reads naturalistic. daldrys was the opposite, even going as far as swapping out the fancy dinner hall for the blitz. so if anyone is gonna make it work, it would be daldry.

in terms of light design, thats jon clark. once again, ive never seen any of his work in person so im going off of photos but oh my fucking god i love his work with shadows. hes won many awards and he fucking deserves them.

sound design is the same. ive never heard a paul arditti sound design show in person and bootlegs dont have the best audio. hes award-winning, however, so it seems like thats in good hands.

one thing i was very interested about was how they were going to translate the upside down and the monsters. the show relies on cgi which obviously, you cant really do cgi on a stage; it would just look kinda shit.

their solution seems to be hiring two illusion designers.

i couldnt find much on the first, chris fisher. hes a member of the magic circle and hes done a lot of work so he seems accomplished.

the second one, im honestly kind of excited about. the second is jamie harrison who is the co-artistic director for a company called vox motus WHO ARE SO FUCKING COOL.

there is no mention of his partner in vox motus, candice edmunds, but that could mean nothing.

instead of trying to explain what vox motus do, im just gonna copy two quotes from their website:

"ours is a theatre of story-telling visuals, transformational design, magic, comedy, music, physical performance, puppetry, multi-media and most importantly thrills."

"we are drawn to stories that explore extremes of behaviour and taboos in the contemporary world: often unbelievable true tales that delve into the bizarre, glorious, exhilarating and macabre."

look up their stuff, its so fucking cool. there is also definitely some elements of artaud in their work. it gives me a lot of confidence for the show being enjoyable even if the writing is bad, because spectacle can go a long way.

i genuinely kinda want to go see this show now because i really want to see their work, and id get a chance to see a daldry play.

so like a tl/dr for this part: im not confident in the writing but i dont necessarily think itll be bad. i think the worst itll be is sufficient and mediocre, if they listen to jack thorne. i do have a lot of confident in the visual aspects and spectacle; even if the writing is shit, it will look good.

now im going to be an annoying disabled person and point out some accessibility stuff:

as i mentioned before, the website has small flashing lights all over the background. theres no warning for this. it triggered a migraine for me which was the best three options considering they could have also triggered visual disturbances in my eyes (aka seeing things that arent there due to my iih) or epileptic symptoms due to brain damage.

the theatre itself does have wheelchair access at the side of the building it also has accessible toilets. there is no onsite parking which does make it more difficult for wheelchair users.

they have said they will present captioned, audio-described and british sign language performances, but the dates are not yet set. they instruct you to keep checking . im a little intrigued about this and a little concerned considering its currently may 9th and it opens 17th november.

if you need accessible tickets, you need to have atg access membership. this is a third party company. to have this, you have to show paperwork or documents to prove that you're disabled which is often not possible for many disabled folks. i dont have a written diagnosis for anything besides my adhd diagnosis because i was diagnosed in person or over the phone. luckily, i receive pip so i qualify but its a ridiculous standard.

in the faq, theres a question about being aware of any potential trigger warnings; the answer to this is copy and pasted from the question above which asked about age rating and parental guidance, apart from them adding that there will be flashing lights in the show.

and finally some extra details:

there is a £3.80 transaction charge on top of ticket purchases

you cannot book over the phone

they are all e-tickets

currently, you cannot buy group tickets or student tickets, and you can only purchase a max of 6 tickets.

they are planning a weekly-lottery for late-release tickets, and this will be announced closer to the first show

there is not a confirmed runtime

they have no current plans to move the show outside of london

the age rating is 12+. this means under 16s must be accompanied by adults and under 5s are just not allowed in. not entirely sure how it works if youre age 6 to 11.

the most common ticket price i saw was starting at £45 (about $57). the second most common was starting at £75 (about $95).

there were some tickets starting at £20 (about $25).

i might actually buy a ticket and see it. i would have to save for it but i could do it and then tell you if its shit or not lmao

[hopper-miller-lvl5]

Orbit Reflection

CVL has been an experience for me, this is the first time a project hasn't gone according to plan and there's been a lot to learn from that. 

Beginning with LO1 the goal was to demonstrate my understanding of relevant theoretical / conceptual frameworks through independent led research and critical reflection. There was a lot of research and reflection done in this project, I dug into a lot of topics all to do with motivation, organization and productivity. I read into the psychology of planning and why its so helpful. I continued by gaining a scientific understanding of how best to approach the planning process. I also dove into human motivation, and how to leverage that motivation by taking notes from things like video games. In terms of reflection there were many instances I had to take a look at my project and understand I was steering it in the wrong direction. The biggest of these reflections was when I realized I was designing a system I personally wanted, not a system which fit my own brief and user persona. Through it all I've begun to understand how necessary it is to take meaningful looks into where my project is heading and if that aligns with my goals.

Moving on to LO2 the goal was to demonstrate my ability to problem solve using different approaches and defining your ideas in relation to audience / user / viewer. This went hand in hand with my reflections, It took me multiple attempts to get things right, some really setting back my progress, but ultimately resulting in a much more considered and purposeful design. I did a lot of experiments that are nowhere to be seen in my final product, from glassmorhpsim to gradients. I tried to make things work but ultimately I chose to exclude those ideas in the name of accessibility. I really had to consider my user first and their relation to the practicality and nuance of designing a tool, not an art piece. While I did create a lot of things that didn’t make the final cut, I think large amounts of experimentation lead to a better end result.

Finally LO3, the goal  was to generate effective communication that demonstrates: solutions that show an awareness of contemporary practice within professional contexts, and work that shows a high degree of creativity and aesthetic judgment. I really think I nailed it here, this time around I paid a lot more attention to the minute detail and best practices in industry. All the spacings are a multiple of 8 that goes for the text as well, I did this because I know it has some implications when a website goes to be coded. I also picked up the habit of auto layouts which really helped me change things up quickly and is getting me more industry ready. I also gave some big attention to accessibility. It's something I can't ignore in industry so it's another skill I need to continue to implement into my process. Outside of this my solution really takes my theory and runs with it. For motivation I really took inspiration from video games who've already put in the work to create motivating skill tree systems, there was no need to reinvent the wheel I just applied the idea to a new context. For planning, we all know it's important, but I wanted to make it as easy and painless as possible. I apply conversational AI to a new context, planning. By doing so I applied something that already works to solve a problem that needs a solution. Overall I think my solution feels modern, considered, and brings justice to a conceptual good idea.

Overall theres been a lot of trial and error through this brief, this isn't where I thought I would end up, but I'm happy it is. However the big takeaway from this whole process is with projects this long there is a constant need to re-examine your idea regularly. I got so caught up in creating for myself, instead of my user person, it lead to having a lost of time lost and work to catch up on.

[1800duckhotline]

13 and 25!!

weirdly specific artist ask game!

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn’t your thing

hard question actually... im not sure Right Now if there is an artist im big into like that... i used to like ilya kuvshinov but the painful amount of sameface girls and like putting to no use the skill to draw diverse characters turned me off from liking his stuff but i guess good for him since he gets thatt grind i guess. (this was years ago idk what he's up to now)

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

Actually this is hard because my art doesn't get compared often to things? the one time i got compared to an artist it was actually like, good because i did in fact draw a lot of inspo from that artist. so there's that... i dont mind comparisons for that matter, it just seems like theres not much to compare it to in terms of artists/type of art which is like. im neutral about it