#these are my redraws of shots i freaked out over the most!!

[vinestaff]

i genuinely could not do anything until i finished drawing him after watching his trailer,

[judithan-xing]

oc phone bg + detail shots ^w^

This is a redraw of an old phone background I made a couple years back, except I wanted to make it themed around my unofficial Year of Yaoi I've been doing. It's a celebration of all of my gay protagonists, with more detailed notes about them under the read more, please consider taking a look through at it, I really poured my heart into this piece ;w;

[In order of top to bottom, left to right]

Fester and Riot (Lordless) are what I would consider the ship that is the most "I would kill for you", in a mutual way. Riot is given his Blessing by Abaddon and prays and worships him at every hardship, completely unaware that the creepy, rot-smelling freak that he's been helping unwillingly is the object of his worship. Fester would do anything for Riot, having fallen in love with him the moment he laid eyes on him, and suffers torture and having his wings ripped from him and still goes to Riot's side.

Valcher and Dirk (Red Snow) are obsessed with each other. Codependent, but in a way that's mutually beneficial. Valcher hates humans and finds them disgusting (his vampyric diet consisting of wild game) but trusts Dirk with his life and finds him to be Different than the rest. Dirk is obsessed with Valcher and realizes that his repressed lack of want for love or sex has actually been due to needing a Freak Like Him. His love for Valcher comes easily.

(Center panel) Tamara and Judas (Magus Society) are the It Couple of All Time. Judas originally courts Tamara on the idea that he's both extremely powerful, frail, and naive, but eventually can't help but truly fall in love. His dubious morals are no match for Tamara's virtue, and he changes, not just to save the world, but to earn back his love's trust. And Tamara, despite the heart ache he's put through, lets Judas back in. Forgives him, loves him flaws and all. A Demon Prince and his Deity of Hope.

Saber and Lux (Elemon) are rivals. While Saber is nonbinary so this wouldn't count as MLM, Lux is also nonbinary so it still counts a T4T. Lux is exceptional at everything he does, between training Elemon to besting others in combat, to the point it enrages Saber. How could this idiot Nobody beat them? Over the course of their story, however, Saber learns to realize they never stood a chance. Lux is in a league of his own. The respect becomes mutual, and the crush is incidental. If you ever asked what their relationship is, they'd both say "we're just rivals" even after making out.

Sinclaire and Kail (Demon In The Machine) are... coworkers, if you could call them that. Kail, in a desperate attempt to find a better life for himself and his sister, and get them off the frozen hellscape of Titania, makes a deal with a devil - an Arma demon named Sinclaire. He sells his soul in exchange for a new hand and a mech. What he doesn't know is included is his heart, clutched in the black claws of his boss, his owner, his downfall. Toxic lovers to the end.

Avelar and Gentri (Legend of Arcadia) are bodymates. Gentri is the God of Nature, Avelar a man of science, and in an effort to turn himself into a God he fused the soul core of one into him and became permanently bound to the deity. Gentri detests him at first, trying to do anything and everything he can to remove himself from the semi-mortal prison, but eventually grows to understand and even like Avelar as a person. He learns of human fear, mortality, abandonment, and while he wishes to be a separate person he grows to enjoy the man's company... especially after several decades of Avelar furiously trying to find a way to undo his mistake. Their trope is enemies to reluctant friends to lovers.

Sterling and Rez/Rezykai (Benevola) are acquaintances by necessity at first. Sterling is a merc who takes jobs others don't want, and when he's asked to transport Rez across the border he nearly refuses. But he does it anyway, and goes from being barely involved with his political drama to integral and attached. They're both idiots and bicker constantly, but they both care deeply about the other and would kick anyone's ass for touching them. Sterling is cold and Rez is a tsundere and together they're hilarious and insufferable.

All of these ocs have spanned the course of my entire artistic life. Tamara and Judas for example I drafted up in 2007, while Saber and Lux are my most recent mainstay duo having been created in 2023. I love my ocs a lot and I could go on and on about them forever if prompted. (pls send me asks about my ocs lol)

if you got this far tysm i cherish you <3

[yunaatay]

I've literally been drawing for two weeks straight and it's totally worn me out. My nerves are shot! Why? Because this final piece is the sixth time I've tried to draw that guy!

Due to the lack of reference material, I was totally improvising! Not only did I draw Renato five different ways with that reference, but then on the sixth try, I got a malbonte… and on the seventh try, I totally freaked out and found a picture of some random Italian guy in 3/4 pose and drew him.

It actually seems to have turned out okay!

A lot of people told me to just keep drawing Malbonte – you know, she has wings, her hair's similar, her jaw's kinda like that too… But the problem was, I didn't want to draw Malbonte from that specific reference. I just saw Renato in there, and nobody else. That's why it bugged me so much.

I think it's pretty obvious that I didn't add a ton of frills to the shirt. Maybe they would've given it more of a flowy look, but that design was already driving me crazy.

Plus, there was just a really weird light in the shot. I mean, the contours are clear, but most of the main light is just these crazy reflections that don't let you see where the shadows should be or where the highlights are. Trying to break down the face into basic shapes didn't work either, so I just kind of sculpted it all randomly.

Surprisingly, there were no problems with the wings at all. I drew them very quickly! And here are the folds…

The Asian painting style isn't that it doesn't work. It totally messed up everything. The same weird light gave so many different shades of yellow, blue, and purple that I had no idea what the heck was going on with all those colors. So I had to start over and redraw the folds with a pencil and then rip them out again… It took like 6 hours just on the folds.

I like the result for the most part, but there is something that confuses me a lot. But I can't figure out what it is.

[faline-cat444]

Momdark

From what I have recently discovered this is another piece of Dexter's Laboratory that must have initially started out as the comic but then managed to get animated but not without some changes to the plot direction.Our first major difference is how the two start out.In the animated version we have the matriarch driving home from the store to be greeted by her kids...

...While Mandark is spying on them from his own lab and wondering how he can get close enough to Dexter in order to destroy him.Which of course leads him to get the idea of disguising as Mama.

The comic however initially leaves us in the dark of how he managed to capture her.The tank she's also being kept in also has a few fishy details.

The disguise montage also had a bit of extra bits as well as a correction of sorts.The comic excludes the bra-wearing and sock stuffing.

But both do show off applying the pillow butt which kind of goes out of order in the comic since in the preview panel Mandark put the gloves on.

Line delivery stays the same between both interpretations of this shot

The comic gives us no clear idea of what exactly was happening that Mandark was able to get the upper hand on the mother but the cartoon shows he timed it to sneak up on her when she went to get a grocery bag left behind in the car.So in the cartoon he's just acting like she just returned in the house with that final bag.Dexter and Dee Dee are already in the kitchen doing homework so Mandark uses this chance to try sneaking into Dexter's room...But before he can open the door the father enters the picture and brings up the issue of food.

The comic differs by having him pick the lock,thinking things are going easy and he could have pulled this scheme off ages ago,and walking upstairs to the door that leads to Dexter's bedroom only to be greeted by the siblings who are now heading downstairs because they want some dinner.

At this point Mandark is freaking out over the fact he needs to make something to eat in order to keep up the act.In both versions he ends up making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but the cartoon adds the details he was originally supposed to make a chicken pot pie.

We soon enough reach the montage where husband/father,son,and daughter are asking for the help of a mother's touch for different tasks.Some of which are nearly identical copies but happening in a completely different order.

The cartoon adds that this is basically how the rest of Mandark's day went until night finally falls.Dexter demands a goodnight kiss from his "mother" which internally Mandark refuses to do but has to go through to not cause suspicion on identity.This segment is also where some of the more drastic changes begin to unroll.

Already disgusted from the fact he kissed Dexter he then comes quick to realize if that's a bedtime ritual then perhaps he can use this as an opportunity to land a smooch on Dee Dee.But she has other plans in mind involving bunnies.

But the most drastic change that had to go between the two mediums would in my opinion be THIS

After sleeping it off we get what's more-or-less a few more near shot-for-shot redraws but the comic brings a dog named Dreyfus into the mix who is a different design compared to the dog who we see the family owns when the plot finds its existence convenient.The cartoon also implies Mandark might know how to bake cookies while the comic has him just making sandwiches for everyone again.Every step Mandark gets closer to infiltrating the lab someone's calling on him to do something but in both he eventually has enough minutes to make it behind the bookshelf.Not sure how he was planning to destroy it in the cartoon but the comic shows he brought a mallet in order to smash things up...If it wasn't for the fact he was exhausted so he goes back downstairs and slinks onto the couch where the rest of the family is.

Somehow the statement of "You missed a spot" referring to the wet spot on the coffee table resonates with the real deal so she regains consciousness,breaks free from the tank,and crashes through the house window with mop in hand.Minor identity confusion on who is the "real" mother,Mandark caving in because he's realized he can't hold the act any longer(With the cartoon we also learn Mandark apparently knows how to give a good back massage).

As one final detail differentiating the scripts Mandark mentions he doesn't want to destroy the lab anymore before storming off back to his house.Taking back her official role Dexter's mother asks what the heck that statement about the laboratory was supposed to mean.All he says about it is "I don't know".

Our final scene in both takes is the trio demanding the actual woman to do some more tasks while she stares towards the reader/viewer.A minor error is in play for the cartoon since her ear has been miscolored as a part of her hair.

[softpine]

how in depth do you edit your story posts? would you say reshade does a lot of it or do you go in and add details a lot? how long does it take? i’m doing a story myself and i want to keep telling it but the long editing process sets me back and can be de motivating sometimes and i’m just wondering if you have any tips on cutting it down or speeding the process up?

oh i totally know what you mean – editing is by far my LEAST favorite part of the process, so i do anything i can do to speed it up. i would say reshade does about 60% of the work, and then i run my own personal action in photoshop which does another 20% of the work (basically just resize, smart sharpen, denoise, and a very basic color grade to help boost skintones). the rest is just small details that vary from picture to picture. landscape pictures can take me less than 2 minutes to edit, whereas shots with multiple sims can take me upwards of 30 minutes because i'm a freak about using the liquify tool to smooth out sharp edges, redrawing stuff to get rid of clipping, fixing skin banding by hand, etc. the rest is just using various blurs (usually iris blur), and applying a final color grade / hue adjustments. LITERALLY the devil is in the details 😭

so now that i've complained for ages, here are my tips on speeding things up fjksjd

1. put all your reshade effects on a toggle, and take multiple screenshots with the effects on/off. ESPECIALLY if you have a wide variety of skintones. for example, finn is pale as fuck and bloom makes him look like.... well, a ghost:

so i take one pic WITH bloom:

one without:

and then i layer them in photoshop and use a soft eraser at a lower opacity (depends on the pic) to erase some of the bloom on his face. this means i never have to mess with my bloom settings in-game for every single picture i take. i do the same thing for dof or mxao if they’re giving me trouble. one pic on, one pic off, layer them, and erase.

2. create your own action and/or psd! there are tons of tutorials out there. whichever effects you find yourself using on a regular basis, combine them all in one to save you from doing boring shit over and over :’) i don’t find it super helpful to use other people’s actions, because everyone has a different style, but if you’re new to photoshop, it might be nice to download some actions just to try new things out!

3. this tip kinda sucks because i know most people on simblr don’t have a l*gal copy of photoshop (no shade, i p*rated for literally 10 years lmao and i only got the real copy bc it was free through my mom’s work) but the newest version of photoshop has sooo many cool effects. sky replacement (my beloved), neural filters (depth blur is SO good now, the edges are crisp as hell. you could probably get rid of dof in reshade altogether now), and camera raw filter (basically a one-stop-shop for every adjustment you may need, and has the ability to save presets in the same way you would use a psd). all of these save me so much time. i would be happy to do a more in-depth tutorial on this stuff if you’re interested, but like i said, i know most people don’t have access to these :(

EDIT: check the replies for a link that may help you out :)

4. simply edit less. sometimes i have to remind myself that no one will be zooming up into my sim’s hand to see if their ring has some clipping issues. you are your own worst enemy and of course you’ll notice every single flaw, but most other people won’t. if the only way you can realistically and feasibly tell your story is to edit less (or not edit at all) then so be it!! that’s okay!! do whatever you can do to lessen your stress 💖

[mcwriting]

The Marriage Project (1)

Omg I can’t believe it’s taken me THIS long to post this. I wrote this chapter probably in like April or May and it freaks me out to finally post but here it is!

My slow burn (American) High School AU with Tom Holland!

All the general info for this series is on the story masterlist, but I’ll list warnings and word counts on every chapter. Chapters will be much longer than my typical 2000 or less babies

Warnings: This will become a mature story in the future (no smut; more info on masterlist). Some profanity in this chapter

Word Count: 4140 (I told you!)

% approximately the 2nd week of August %

Ah, senior year. One last year of high school, one last year of seeing the people you’ve grown up with every day.

You’ve been told it’s easy. The best year ever. And yeah, maybe it will be. It’s not like you’re taking too many hard classes or overloading yourself with extracurriculars, aside from volleyball, soccer, the National Honors Society, and quiz bowl.

(Okay maybe it was a little much, but you loved it anyways)

The only real problem was the certified thorn in your side, Tom Holland. 

He’d essentially been your mortal enemy since the sixth grade when he beat your mile time by only a few seconds. 

Now, it’s not that he was a bully or anything, he was just so insufferable to be around. And yes, everyone always says boys pick on girls when they like them, but rest assured that wasn’t the case. You’d both always hated each other, nothing more. 

You were always competing, and because of that ended up in the same place a lot.

He was in all your honors classes, in NHS, played boys soccer, and did quiz bowl. The only thing you had to yourself was volleyball except, oh wait, his younger brother’s girlfriend was on the team and Tom was his ride home every day.

All these thoughts raced through your head as you walked in on the first day, sitting down in AP calculus as soon as you finished up at your locker. 

Everyone did the “how was your summer?” and “long time no see!” as students filed in. Eventually walked in Tom, and you shot each other a glare as he sat down right next to you.

“Holland.”

“Y/l/n.”

Everyone around you groaned. They all knew you two were forces to be reckoned with and probably dreaded spending another year listening to the two of you bicker everyday.

Though you were often in close proximity, you never really talked much, except to argue. Rarely did you agree unless it was on basic facts, and even then was it hard to admit sometimes.

Because of this, you typically resigned yourselves to only speaking when it came to grades so you could keep a mental tally of who was in the lead. You were both in the running for valedictorian at the end of the year, and you were not about to let Tom win.

%

The week was almost over and things had gone smoothly for the most part. 

Sure, you and Tom had had a couple of spats, but nothing that wasn’t handled quickly. 

He’d been to all of your volleyball games so far, even the summer ones, which meant he was forced to watch you dominate the court as both a setter and right side hitter.

It was a nice little satisfaction. 

Especially because you’d watched him throw some horrendous passes in the preseason football game last week that led to a loss by one touchdown. (Okay, he’d had some good passes too, but they were lucky shots).

You settled into your seat in senior home economics Friday before lunch. The class was your school’s attempt at teaching some life skills for rising adults. For the most part however, it was a glorified cooking and sewing class. You didn’t mind per say, since you could cook up a pre-snack lunch sometimes.

Most of your friends were in there, including your best friend Alexis, whom you hadn’t seen all morning.

You, Alexis, and two other girls stood around a mixing bowl with the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies since it was a Friday, which Mrs. Flynn called “dessert day.”

“Oh! Before I forget,” your teacher, Mrs. Flynn, started getting everyone’s attention. “This year we’re doing something new for this class! Next week I’ll have you all split into pairs for a semester long marriage project! I will be drawing names out of a hat, so don’t get too comfortable yet. Anyways, be thinking on what kinds of careers you might want and things of that nature! Okay, now get back to your desserts!”

The whole room broke out into chatter the last part of the hour-and-a-half class, people speculating who might end up with who and what jobs they’ll get.

“Oh my God, wouldn’t it be funny if y/n got Tom?” Alexis stated as you stirred chocolate chips into the dough. The other girls laughed as you just snorted.

“Yeah, I’d rather lick the inside of the microwave than be paired up with him for a semester,” you replied, earning more laughter from your friends.

You assumed Tom’s friends were saying the same however, because when you looked over to see how bad their dough looked, he was rolling his eyes as his group pointed in your direction.

%

The next week came and went, and it was once again Friday. Or, as Mrs. Flynn was calling it, Wedding Day.

Every time she’d pull a couple’s name, she was going to make you both come to the front of the class and exchange plastic wedding rings and sign a fake marriage license.

Yay.

Everyone chattered excitedly as she tore up the strips with your names and mixed them around. Finally the time came for her to start the drawing.

“Okay, friends. First up we have...” she drew the first name. “Katherine and... drumroll please?” 

The class drummed their hands over their thighs.

“Chris! Come on down folks, let’s get this marriage on!”

She “married” the first couple, and then continued to draw. You had to admit that you were a little nervous, but still eager to see who you’d get.

Two couples later, she pulled Tom’s name.

You shot him an eyebrow raise to which he returned a discreet middle finger. You rolled your eyes as you prepared a drumroll for Mrs. Flynn.

“And his lucky partner is... y/n!”

“What!” you both exclaimed simultaneously.

Almost the entire class burst into laughter.

“Mrs. Flynn, this has to be a mistake,” you said.

“Yeah, can’t we have a redraw?” Tom asked. 

You hated that he was agreeing with you.

“Nope! You get who you get and you don’t throw a fit! And if it doesn’t work out in a few weeks we can discuss divorce plans.”

“How about annulments,” you stated dryly, earning a chuckle from her.

“That… kinda depends on if you have kids,” she trailed awkwardly before perking back up. “Now come on down! They always say your first marriage is the most memorable!”

“Who has ever said that?” Tom asked.

“You know. They. Now just get up here and do the ring thing!” she commanded.

You both sulked up to the front of the room.

“Okay, now stand here facing each other and hold hands.”

“Do we have to?” Tom whined.

“Yes, now do it and it’ll be over with faster.”

He groaned, rolled his eyes, and grabbed your hands, holding them loosely.

“May I have the rings please!” Mrs. Flynn asked Caroline, the girl whose desk was closest that she’d asked to be designated ring bearer. She handed over the basket to let you both choose from the mix.

You took a silver colored ring with a faux white diamond in the shape of a star. Tom chose one with an oval “ruby.” You couldn’t help but notice how every single person was on edge watching the two of you.

“Okay now Tom, repeat after me. I, Tom Holland, take thee, y/n y/l/n, to be my wedded wife to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”

He mumbled through the vow, avoiding eye contact, and slipped your star ring onto your finger. You were surprised at how gentle he was, carefully caressing your hand and making sure the ring faced straight up once it was on your finger.

You, too, said the lines and placed the ring onto his left hand.

“Alright. It is with the power vested in me by this very school that I am proud to now pronounce you husband and wife! You may now air kiss!”

You took a deep sigh and pretended to kiss each other's cheeks. 

“Class, I’d like to introduce you all to Mr. and Mrs. Holland!”

They began to cheer and clap and laugh when you interjected.

“Uh, no. It’s Mr. and Mrs. y/l/n.”

Tom began to argue with you when Mrs. Flynn stopped you both.

“Alright fine, we’ll do a combined name. How’s the y/l/n-Holland family sound?” she asked, writing your names on the fake marriage certificate.

With reluctance, Tom agreed to having your name first and you both signed the paper.

Finally you were able to sit back down where your friends were waiting.

“So what was that about licking the microwave?” Alexis asked.

“Oh shut up.”

%

After your volleyball game (another win!), you and Alexis conversed over cheese fries at your favorite diner.

“Still not ready to talk about today?” she asked. You shook your head.

Alexis had been paired up with Caroline. They were both straight, but you had both been friends with her since freshman year and they got along well.

Today had just been the marriages, and next week you’d be learning more about your family dynamics.

“I’m just so pissed at him. This afternoon in senior art he told all the guys in there that he was going to make it as hard as possible for me. I mean jokes on him, he’s going to want to get an A too, but he was just so smug about it. He also strung his stupid ring on that necklace he’s always wearing. What’s that all about?”

“I mean you’re still wearing your ring. But yeah, that is a little weird.”

“I’m wearing mine because compared to some of the others, the star is actually cute.”

“True. I got unlucky with the selection,” Alexis admitted, digging hers out of her purse to show you a big square blue gem.

“I just wish there was a way to get back at him after all these years. I mean, we’ve been at each other’s throats for almost six years but nothing has ever seemed to really hit hard. This is the last year I’ve got to really make it count.”

Alexis gave you a look, one you knew to be quite mischievous. 

“You know what’s the best way to get revenge on a guy?” Alexis asked.

“Uh, no, but by the look you’re giving me it seems to fall under Carrie Underwood ’before he cheats’ directive.”

“No, dumbass. You make his family fall in love with you.”

It took a second to process what she said before you could give a decent reply.

“You’re kidding right? His family already knows who I am because of all the stuff we’re in together. They probably also know about our rivalry. I mean, he’s told his brothers to never become friends with me.”

“And you know that, how?”

“The libero is Sam’s girlfriend. She’s been spilling tea for me for the past year.”

There was a break in the conversation as the waiter brought your meals out. Once he was gone, you spoke up again.

“Look, do you really think that would work? I mean sure I’d get under his skin, but it doesn’t really constitute revenge, does it?”

“Look at it this way,” Alexis put down her burger so she could splay her hands out in front of her. “If you can get on everyone else's good side, they’ll all talk about how much they love you and he’ll be forced to listen. If he really hates you, it’ll drive him crazy.”

You thought on it for a minute as you chomped on a chicken tender. 

“Alright, I’m in. If it doesn’t end up working, I still have all of next semester to mess with him anyways. Now if I can just figure out how to really get to know his family…”

%

By the time Monday rolled around, you and Alexis had done some more scheming, but your plan wouldn’t even begin to be put in action until your volleyball games Wednesday and Friday, when you’d try to talk to Sam.

You sat down in home ec, where today you’d be picking careers. The catch, however, was that your family unit would have a set income, so each couple had to decide how it would be split up.

“Y/l/n-Holland family, you’ll be making $200k a year,” Mrs. Flynn announced, handing you the slip of paper. “Get together and decide who’s getting what jobs.”

“At least we’ll be rich,” you thought as Tom plopped into the seat next to you unhappily.

“So I’ll be the doctor and you’ll be the trophy wife, right?” he asked immediately.

“Hah, good one. I think we all know that I’m the smarter one here and wayyyy more likely to get into med school than you. And don’t call me trophy wife. I mean, what, you think I’m hot now? Can’t wait to tell everyone that little number.”

His ears turned beet red and he balled a fist.

“I don’t think you’re hot, except maybe hot shit. It’s a figure of speech.” he spat.

“Oh get over yourself. I know I’m hot anyways. Let’s just both pick jobs that earn $100k so we can be equal. How’s that sound?” 

“Fine.”

He played with the plastic ring on his necklace as you looked up jobs on the computer. After a half hour of searching, Tom and you decided that to be fully equal, you’d both take the same job as physician’s assistants.

“Just so you know, I’ll never actually be anyone’s assistant,” he said.

“Oh yeah? Ten years time if you’re lucky I’ll hire you as mine.”

He rolled his eyes. 

“Hey everyone, since class is almost over, we’re gonna wait to draw how many kids you’ll have and other financial things Wednesday. See you then!” Mrs. Flynn called out as students packed their things.

“We have to have kids, too?” Tom asked incredulously.

“Good thing it’s fake. I’d hate to see you as a parent,” you shot smugly, earning another middle finger from him that left you laughing.

%

Wednesday came kids, and thankfully all you got were twin girls, age 9. The project didn’t make you carry around flour babies or anything like that, you just had to account for them in your weekly budgets. 

There goes the annulment plan, though.

Each week, Mrs. Flynn would be drawing something new for you all that would either be good or bad for your budgets, and it was up to you to figure out what to with the funding, or lack thereof. You also had to come up with a story each week that explained why money was put somewhere or what your “family” did that week. 

 She would also be doing progress checks, so you couldn’t wait until the end of the semester to do all the work. By the end, each couple would have to give a presentation over what they did and learned.

“Okay, so we each get to name one. That’s pretty equal,” you stated, thinking up baby names.

“Well I like Elizabeth,” he almost immediately replied, writing it down on one of the “birth certificates” you’d been handed by Mrs. Flynn.

“That’s… surprisingly good. I’ll go with Francesca. What about middle names? I like Rose.”

“Hm. How about Opal? Then they’ll have the same number of letters in their names.”

You were surprised at how much though he put into this, but let it go as you wrote your child’s name down.

“By the way, we need to plan time to get together and write a budget and find a house this weekend. I have a volleyball game Friday so how about Saturday?”

“I have football practice Saturday.”

“Well yeah but only until like 10 right? We could just meet at like 1. We’re doing construction at my house right now so could we do it at yours?” 

You spoke sweetly in an attempt to receive a yes and put your plan into motion. Tom sighed and thought about it.

“I mean I guess. But you’re only going to be there to work on the project and then leave right?”

“Uh, duh. The less time with you the better.”

“Likewise.”

%

Tom and Sam weren’t at the volleyball game Wednesday, so you had to wait until Friday’s.

Friday was muffin day in home ec, so you thankfully didn’t have to talk to Tom. Instead, you and Alexis discussed the plan of getting Tom’s family on your side as you mixed up batter.

Later that afternoon, you watched from afar as Sam and his girlfriend, Julia, sat on the bleachers speaking. It was still an hour until game time and coach had asked you to round up the girls for stretching.

“Hey, Jules!” you called, jogging over to where she was. “Oh, hey Sam!” He looked at you like you were crazy before responding.

“Uh, hey y/n.” He gave a slight head nod.

“Anyways, coach wants us to start warming up. Wanna be my partner today?” 

“Um yeah. Sure. See ya later babe,” she said, giving Sam a quick peck on the cheek before standing up to follow you.

After another win, you were helping take down the net and noticed Julia once again talking to Sam while Tom stood a few feet away looking bored. 

“Hey, could you wrap up the net? I need to do something real quick,” you said to another teammate as you headed over.

“Hey, Jules! Solid digs today! You were making my job way too easy,” you joked.

You could see from the corner of your eye Tom look up at you in annoyance.

“Ahaha thanks girl. But I can’t take all the credit. You were on fire tonight. What was that like 15 aces? And your hits? Incredible,” she replied.

“Yeah, you were amazing tonight,” Sam added. 

“Ohhhkay we can stop the compliment parade on y/n now. We need to go anyways, Sam, mom wants us home,” Tom interjected, putting an arm out in front of his brother, who was rolling his eyes.

“Alright fine. We still on for dinner tomorrow?” Sam asked his girlfriend. She nodded and they exchanged a quick hug and kiss.

“I’ll see you tomorrow too, Tom,” you said. “I’ll bring my laptop.” 

Sam looked at him in confusion.

“Yeah whatever,” was all Tom could say to you as you strutted off to the locker room.

%

You stood nervously on the front porch of Tom’s suburban home. You had texted him when you parked but now dreaded actually going inside. 

After shifting back and forth for a minute, you finally rang the doorbell. 

It was only a few seconds later that the door opened, revealing Sam’s twin Harry. He looked confused.

“Y/n? What are you doing here?” 

“Hey Harry. Tom and I are supposed to be working on a school project today and he said to come over at this time so...” You awkwardly shifted your backpack straps and looked down.

“Tom! Someone’s here to see you!” he yelled out, making you snort.

He appeared shirtless in the doorway and looked at you blankly.

“Oh. It’s just you.”

“Just me? What did you just forget that we have to work on our project today,” you replied, holding up your left hand to point to the plastic ring on it.

“You’re still wearing that? Why?”

“Firstly, the little star is cute. And secondly, you don’t have a lot of room to speak, Tom. Yours is still on your necklace,” you pointed to the chain around his neck, to which he instinctively reached up and grabbed the ring, twisting it between his fingers. 

“Touche. Now come on, let’s just get this over with.” He opened the door wider and let you in, locking it behind you. 

As he led you down a hall covered in photos towards the stairs, his mom stepped out, almost running into her son.

“Oh, sorry.” she looked at you, “Y/n? What are you doing here? It’s nice to see you.”

“Nice to see you too, Mrs. Holland. Tom and I have to work on our home ec project and we couldn’t do it at my house.”

“Oh dear just call me Nikki. And I do remember him mentioning something about a project. Are you the one he’s married to? I never thought I’d see the day.”

Tom tensed up and clenched his jaw while you gave a light chuckle, holding up your left hand again.

“I hate to say it, but yeah. You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of me throughout the semester.”

“Well you kids have fun. And Tom, honey, would it kill you to put on a shirt?”

He went red again and you had to stifle your laughter.

“I was just on my way to do that, mom. Come on y/n,” he mumbled, grabbing your wrist and dragging you up the stairs.

You turned and waved at Nikki one last time as she called up behind him,

“And make sure to keep the door open!”

He was totally embarrassed by that, and made it a point to shut the door behind him once you made it to his room. Finally you could let out a hearty laugh at his expense as he dug through his drawers and pulled out a simple black t-shirt.

“Finally. I was getting tired of looking at your man boobs,” you quipped, looking around the room.

“Ha ha. Good one,” he shot back dryly. 

You were surprised at what his room looked like, though you didn’t know what you’d expected. It was very neat with sleek grey walls. His blue and grey bedding was made up with decorative pillows laid out. On his desk were a few random school papers and a computer, and one shelf held some Spider-Man paraphernalia while another contained medals and ribbons and trophies. 

You dropped your backpack to the ground and pointed up at one figurine.

“Hey, that’s pretty cool,” you said sincerely.

“Yeah, I’m sure you think so,” he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“Uh, no. I’m serious. It’s actually really dope.” 

He looked taken aback at your compliment, and even to you it felt weird to be saying that out loud about Tom of all people.

“Oh. Well uh. Thanks. Spider-Man was my favorite growing up. But let’s just get to work.”

After an hour of sitting on his carpet searching for a house and arguing over general money allocations,

“Yes Tom, tampons actually cost like $7 for 30 of them and most girls need at least one box a month. And that’s just one factor of personal hygiene. Do you even condition your hair?”

“I’ll have you know my hair is well moisturized. I just don’t ever have to pay for it.”

You finally came to an agreement on the week’s budget. 

Packing up your things, you looked up at Tom who was now sitting on the side of his bed scrolling through social media.

“So next week. Your first game of the season, yeah?” you said, remembering that September was already almost here. 

“Oh yeah. You coming? I’d hate for you to see just how incredible I am.”

“Psh whatever. I saw your throws at preseason. But yeah, I’ll probably just rinse off after my volleyball game and head to the field. Gotta see what cuties they’ve got on the other team.”

“Ugh gross. You know you’ll regret saying that when half the school is swooning over me in the stands.”

“The only thing you’d ever see me swoon from is dehydration. And that’s a pretty weak excuse already.”

You stood and Tom got up to lead you back out.

“Oh, I think I know the way. You don’t have to take me.”

“Yeah I do. Gotta keep my eyes on those grubby little fingers of yours. Who knows what you’d do unsupervised.”

Before you reached the door, Nikki spotted you from the living room.

“Done so soon? Wow, good job guys. Come back any time y/n!”

“Thanks, Nikki,” you called back to her, then turned to Tom. “So same time next week? We can do it at my place if you want.”

“Nah let’s just do it here. I’m always exhausted the day after a game and I don’t really want to get up.”

Okay then

“Well, see ya Monday then. Bye.”

You were halfway down the sidewalk when Tom called out, “Be safe,” before shutting the door. You stopped in your tracks in shock, but eventually got into your car.

What really mattered, though, was that you were already on Nikki’s good side.

1 down, 4 to go.

%

Yay! It’s finished! I really hope you guys enjoy this new series because I’m so excited to share it with you all! Once again, future chapters will have some mature content (s*xual harassment and mentions of assault; underaged alcohol consumption) but those chapters will be explicitly labeled with warnings.

Anyways, thanks for reading and please send an ask or message if you’d like to join my story or permanent tag list!

Tag List: @jackiehollanderr, @one-big-fangirl,

[justalittlelitnerd]

By A Thread by Lucy Score

We weren’t touching. But it felt like the space between us was charged with something. It was acting like a defibrillator on my heart.

This book had everything I want in a romance: a sassy, non-damsel heroine and a hero with soft boi vibes (I am a complete sucker for assholes covering up soft, warm centers). 

Don’t let the office romance aspect dissuade you (it’s obviously a common, but controversial trope in romance b/c power dynamics and whatnot), this is not ~in my experience~ a conventional office romance. 

First, Ally only ends up working at Dominic’s company after he gets her fired and his mom (who’s also his boss at the magazine she also owns) makes the job offer in reparation.  

Second, in addition to the two characters being completely at odds from the first meeting (he got her fired after all), Dominic is staunchly against an office romance not only because of his own values and awareness of power dynamics but because of his father’s history of sexual harrassment and assault. When they eventually fall into bed together (because duh this is a romance) he immediately offers to quit his job so the power dynamics of the office wouldn’t be an issue. 

That being said Dominic is an overbearing, and at times straight up controlling, son of a bitch (sorry as Ally would say his mother is lovely) and it made me want to throat punch him sometimes, but at the same time so did Ally’s stubbornness and pride. 

Score has a talent though for balance because any time Dominic started to get out of control, Ally wouldn’t hesitate to go head to head with him and speak her mind and the honesty and directness was refreshing. 

The ending felt a little bit rushed because clearly Dominic was trying (although in ways that were grossly overbearing and were exactly what Ally didn’t want him to do) and she made it clear that she couldn’t forgive him and I wanted more of a conversation or thought process to why she finally did aside from “that’s what love is.” 

This book was fun and funny and sarcastic and their banter made the story flow and is definitely the main reason I would consider rereading this romance.

Keep reading for some top notch quotes!

It wasn’t out of the kindness of my heart. I had neither kindness nor a heart. I considered it atonement for being an asshole.

Clearly, she wasn’t intimidated by an asshole in Hugo Boss with a haircut that cost more than her entire outfit. I basked in her disdain. It was miles more comfortable for me than the terrified glances and “Right away, Mr. Russo”s I got in the hallways at work.

It had been too long since I’d squashed a disrespectful underling. I itched to do it now. She looked not only like she could take it but that she might even enjoy it.

“Fine. But if she poisons me, I’ll sue her and her entire family. Her great-grandchildren will feel my wrath.” My mother sighed theatrically. “Who hurt you, darling?” It was a joke. But we both knew the answer wasn’t funny.

I knew he felt it, too. That unexpected jolt. Like taking a shot of whiskey or sticking a finger in a light socket. Maybe both at the same time. For one moment of pure insanity, I wondered if he intended to take me over his knee and if I’d let him.

I’d assumed they’d all get used to me. Apparently I’d assumed incorrectly. I was the beast to my mother’s beauty. The monster to the heroine. When they looked at me, they saw my father.

Her tone was steely and anger all but crackled off her. I hoped she got the guy’s balls in the divorce.

“You know, you’d be a lot prettier if you smiled once in a while,” she mused, fluttering her lashes. No wonder women hated it when men said that.

It was fucking cold. February was right around the corner, and if there was anything colder and damper than January in New York, it was fucking February. Of course, fashion didn’t heed below-freezing temperatures. No. Fashion made its own rules outside of time and space and temperature.

I, on the other hand, didn’t trust myself to survive even basic contact. Ally was only safe, my soul was only safe, as long as I didn’t touch her.

He was looming over me, but rather than threatening, it felt intimate, careful, almost safe. Like I wanted to be exactly here with exactly him.

Tell me the top five things you hate STAT. (This is the secret to finding out just how bad a person is in case you need it for interviewing future wives or human sacrifices.)

Somewhere along the line, she’d started talking to me like we were friends. As if that moment of honesty in the bar, those emails exchanged, had somehow made us friendly. And while I craved her next confession, I also couldn’t handle the intimacy. I was ripped down the middle. Torn between wanting to know everything there was to know about this woman and wanting to forget she existed.

I hated it when she walked away from me. It always felt like she took the light and heat with her. I added that to my Hate List.

Those blue eyes weren’t cold now. There was a victorious fire burning in them. And I was acutely aware that I was in immediate danger.

My heart was trying to blast its way out of my chest. I didn’t know where the organ had gotten actual sticks of dynamite, but that’s what was happening. My insides had turned to lava… or magma, whichever metaphor was most appropriate.

“Lots of people dance for money. Prima ballerinas, Jane Fonda, Laker Girls, back-up dancers, Rockettes. All women who make money by moving their bodies. There’s nothing remotely shameful about it,” Faith insisted. “You aren’t doing anything wrong. And anyone who tells you that you are is—” “Part of the patriarchy.”

I hoped to God security was up to the challenge tonight. Because if anyone laid a hand on her, one single finger on her, I was going to lose my shit.

I wondered if I was leaving a trail of body glitter behind me like I was a Questionable Life Choices Tinkerbell.

If mystery bothered him so much, this son of a bitch—wait, no. His mother was a lovely human being. This alphahole was going to suffer. I’d make sure of it.

I wanted to believe in my bones that he was doing this as some stupid mind game, that he got off on playing puppet master with my life. But deep down, I was worried that it was something much, much worse. Dominic Russo was trying to take care of me.

I was so pathetically happy that she was speaking to me in multisyllabic words I would have let her slap me across the face with the folder.

I walked back into the room feeling like Cinder-freaking-rella. If Cinderella’s fairy godmother had given her a sexy, skin-hugging gown the color of crimson or, as I liked to think of it, Dominic Russo’s crushed heart.

Everyone was hitting the open bar like it was last call, and those little appetizers were doing nothing to soak up the liquor. It was entertaining, but I had a feeling this is how bad things happened at office Christmas parties. Inhibitions lowered, tongues loosened, and shit went down.

Oh, boy. I’d heard rumors of Drunk Dominic. But they hadn’t prepared me for the reality of him. He was adorable… and in no way capable of functioning as creative director right now. I needed to get him home.

Damn it. My shattered broken heart was trying to knit itself back together just so it could fall for him all over again.

I hooked my pinky around his and tried not to fall in love with the idiot when he pressed his lips to our joined fingers.

Nights like these changed lives and were retold as stories for years to come. But I didn’t know what my story would be. Would it be the time the up-and-coming designer made me temporarily semi-famous? Or would it be the night I finally realized my heart belonged to a man I was never going to be with?

Tacos and home renovation supplies with an entrepreneur, a male exotic dancer, and a drag queen on her day off. Just another glamorous day in the life.

I spent the rest of the day on the couch, which delighted Brownie. We watched the entire first season of The Great British Baking Show and then three episodes of Queer Eye. I was inspired to order and to eat an entire sponge cake from the bakery three blocks over and pondered growing a beard. Then I pondered what Ally thought about beards. And the shame spiral began again.

“I’m not hiding this,” Dom said quietly. “I don’t think I could even if you asked me.” Okay, coming from Dominic Russo, maybe that was kind of a swoony thing to say. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but it was real. These feelings felt real.

“I don’t need to be saved.” Dalessandra and I blinked at each other as the words came out of both our mouths in unison.

I wanted to take care of her. I wanted to take her worries and concerns and problems and solve every last one of them so she could focus all of her attention on me. And Brownie of course. I wasn’t a completely selfish monster.

I didn’t want her drawing lines when I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to redraw them properly. She would live here. She would have anything and everything she needed. No one would ever take advantage of her or lay a hand on her ever again. End of fucking story. I was her Prince Fucking Charming.

“Dom, of course people are going to talk. Trying to avoid being a topic of conversation is a pretty lame way to live life. Sometimes, accepting the discomfort is how good things are earned.”

It was disconcerting to wake up one day and find myself… well. Here. Making plans for two instead of one. Looking forward to sharing things like beds and weekends and closet space. I’d dated before. But I’d never gotten this deep, this fast. I’d never made space in my home for a woman before. Change was happening, and I didn’t know how I felt about it.

Ally didn’t bitch-slap, but Faith did it like it was an Olympic sport and she was a gold medalist.

“Everyone has baggage, Russo. Most of us are just smart enough not to hurl full-sized suitcases at the people we love.”

But sometimes an inch might as well be a mile. And I didn’t know how to cross it. I didn’t know how to ask him for what I needed. Because I didn’t know what I needed.

[standfortheangels]

the way you draw hands is amazing! do you have any tips for how to?

Ohhhhh my goodness thank you so much! I’m freaking out a little (a lot), I think this is the first time I’ve had a message about my art from someone I don’t know x) So thanks for dropping in!

The first part of my answer is going to be to look at references, but don’t worry, it’s not just a throwaway line x)

If you know roughly what position you want a hand to be in in what you’re drawing, seriously, don’t be afraid to find photographs similar to that to guide you~ (and if anyone tries to tell you references are cheating, print it out and make them eat it or something)

I’d also recommend that whenever you find a photo with a good shot of hands, save it into a folder somewhere (just for your own private use of course). Sometimes searching for something specific can be awkward when you’re just looking for hands, so having a collection saved can be useful~

Something else I do as well pretty often is ‘life drawing’, using line-of-action.com. You can select the option for ‘hands and feet’, choose one or both, set time limits, and off you go~ These are some of mine:

They won’t always turn out the way you want, that’s the nature of art after all, and I tend to find that I draw in a more realistic style here than the way I usually do hands, but it is really useful for getting more comfortable with how hands work in general. Plus, you can reuse your sketches as pose references later!

Okay, that’s the ‘boring stuff’ over~ Now for the more... hands-on approach? x‘D_______

For my own art style, I don’t tend to think about it too much, but there are a few key things I tend to do or pay attention to. I sketched up a couple of quick examples too that should illustrate all these points~ (plus a cupcake. Just because.)

Try to avoid straight lines where you can.Obviously this doesn’t mean never use a straight line. Sometimes, you can’t avoid it. But you can exaggerate curves, or invent them where it looks natural, which just helps your hands not to look too stiff. When I draw the ends of fingers for example, I curve them inwards a bit where the nail would be.

Fingernails are optional for me, you have to use your best judgement in each thing you draw. Maybe the angle makes the nail look weirdly thin, or adding a nail might make the position of the finger or thumb clearer. Try it and see! The only clear-cut rule I use is that I don’t outline the nail the whole way around. It makes them more subtle, and when combined with soft curves for the fingertip, it gives the hands a more gentle feel to them~

Anatomy-wise, a good rule of thumb (no pun intended), is that while fingers do technically have 3 sections, you don’t always need to draw all three. If a finger is bent in the middle, but not at the tip, it can work to just show that one bent joint, and ignore the one nearest the tip. And a straight finger might not need any joints at all if you can get away with curving it backwards. Just simplify wherever you can~

Draw through! If one finger or an item passes in front of another, I’ll faintly draw some lines to guide me, and then erase them afterwards. In the example hand on the left (under the cupcake), I left these lines behind to show you. One is just the finger as it bends behind, and the lower line follows the general curve of where all the fingers should be starting from.

Always remember to start the thumb further down (Closer to the wrist), or it’ll just look like another finger!

The wrist and the hand sit kind of off from one another. If you look at the two block shapes on the top right (which is based on the sketch on the left), you should see what I mean. There is no perfect corner between the wrist and hand either, which is why they meet with two lines that curve inwards towards each other.

Fingers typically take up around half of the hand’s length. It can vary depending on your art style- I tend to make my fingers slightly longer than the palm.

Lastly, if it isn’t working, don’t stress out~ Hands are one of the most infamous challenges for artists of all skill levels- it isn’t a sign of your worth as an artist. They’re just plain hard to draw! So if it just doesn’t seem to be going right no matter how many lines you redraw, set it aside, take a break, and come back later with fresh eyes.

(I actually recommend doing this with any art thing. Sometimes our brain gets so used to the image we’re seeing, that it just stops telling us if there are problems with it, or what they are. You might come back to it later and see something that needs fixing, or another way to make it look better, and it can often feel so obvious in these moments that you wonder how you missed it the first time.)_____

Well, this turned out to be a bit long, so thank you if you read this far~ I hope it all made sense. But if it didn’t, I’m always open to more questions about this- or any other topic- so feel free to stop by again if there’s anything you’d like cleared up or anything else you’re curious about! And again, thanks for your support and for sending this message in~ It really made my evening~ ^u^

[dio-roga]

‘AskMarshandBroflovski’

Author/Artist:              jovishark Additional Credit:        puppetamateur Status:                         Complete Links:                           Tumblr Rec No:                        #2 (Part Two)

Fan Art and Spoiler-Talk

God just end me now. Every time I look at this art, I cringe with the intensity of a thousand imploding suns. But alas, here we are, and I don’t have the power to turn time back and redraw this from scratch so yeah− we’ll fight on and try to ignore the fact there’s like, a thousand things done wrong with this god damn picture. I’ll just scream into a cushion, it’ll be fine.

Right then, so.

I drew this one as a take on some of the stuff happening behind the scenes during Craig’s disappearance, after the confrontation with Clyde and getting shot down by Stan at Kyle’s birthday. When I first read this part, I guess it kinda resonated with me in a way. I’ve never had friends go missing like Craig does, but I certainly have had them up and shoot out of my life in the space of a few days, with like, very little on the explanation front. It’s jarring, to say the least, and it makes it easy to sympathize with Clyde who seems pretty gutted over the whole thing. (Bless) It really does leave you confused and wondering if, maybe, some part of it was your fault, second guessing that if you’d have done something differently, maybe they would still be around.

I took a bit of liberty in assuming it was Clyde that hung up a lot of the missing person posters (and making himself sad all over again in the process), but I don’t think it would have been much of a stretch considering. The whole ‘Craig’s Missing’ story-line was something I remembered quite vividly− perhaps due to the fact it happens straight after the big Stan/Kyle kiss moment the story had been leading up to? It was like a sudden crash back down to earth and it wound up catching me very much off guard.

It’s also one of the bittersweet moments in their relationship throughout the story that struck me as the most genuine. When it came down to brass tax, Clyde freaked out and became single-mindedly fixated on trying to get Craig back− driving through Denver as a one-man search party and being regarded by everyone who brings it up as taking Craig’s disappearance as hard as his family members were. Despite everything that’d happened, the boy has a good heart.

Which brings me to the Craig/Clyde relationship in general− which winds up being a bust. Clyde ends the story back in his comfort zone, back together with Bebe, and Craig ends the story getting… well, kinda shafted. However, I’m still going to defend this as one of their stronger outings together for a number of reasons:

They are involved romantically, and for a good year and a half no less− and initially, at the start of the run, they come across as quite a cute couple. Sharing dorky snap chats and fucking around at parties. I completely adore the panel where Clyde’s grinning and doing his finger-guns at all the compliments he’s getting from the asks, but straight up says that he’s ‘flattered but taken’− with Craig putting a hand protectively onto his shoulder.

Clyde’s insensitivity kinda works with me, bizarrely. Again, I remember being his age, and I remember how I felt back then− along with a lot of other boys my age. And as much as it feels like I was being stupid now, I can’t deny that being a guy back then sort of came part and parcel with being a bit of a dick, trying to act macho and all that shit. So I can believe how that would have strained his relationships since it’s something that my peers and I all went through as well.

Yet even despite the last point, I love how honestly concerned Clyde gets over Craig, and how fucking loyal he stays for so long. Despite Craig having a rough time of it, Clyde isn’t wrong to call him on lashing out at the people around him. It’s fairly admirable of Clyde to have tried so hard to make things work the way he did, and still care about Craig even when things start to go sour.

My number one reason for including this in my list of essential Cryde viewing though, despite it essentially being a Style askblog where Craig and Clyde don’t even end up together, is that they’re still so utterly intertwined throughout, even if neither of them want to admit it. Even though Craig takes the center stage between the two, Clyde’s always the one pushing him forward (and so often positively, not just negatively like Craig likes to fixate on.) Maybe they weren’t right for each other at that time in their lives, but there’s never a bridge burnt between them. Even though the feelings get complicated and messy, it lets you draw a lot of your own conclusions about the pair in an open-ended sort of way.

Honestly, I could write a fucking essay on the subject of Craig and Clyde in this askblog and all the ways they mesh together better than even they seem to realize, but I’ll leave it for now (For now…) Sufficed to say, I think I could easily see more in the future for the two of them.

I’ve also got to give props for the blog pretty much winning me over to Style as a ship, what can I say− the part with Stan’s diary was a genius move (as well as proof that even without the amazing art, the story could easily stand on its own) and the song Stan writes for Kyle with the fairy-lights and the stuffed whales and everything else? God. I could literally not stop smiling, people must have wondered what the hell was wrong with me that day.

I’m so, so incredibly glad that the blog managed to get its ending, much deserved. I can only imagine how tiring it got doing that for two years, but god damn− what an incredible ride, like, what a fucking testament to perseverance, passion and hard work, tying in the production of the story to the theme of the story so perfectly, I think it gives the whole thing such massive authenticity that just shines through the entire run. Every time I get to Wendy’s speech at the graduation, it’s always such a moment− it feels earned, y’know? Like it really is the end of some big journey, and what an awesome feeling to have accomplished.

I just realized how long I’ve been going on, so I’ll call it here, and try and contain myself from spilling out another thousand words of praise− and instead I’ll thank the amazing jovishark for making something truly wonderful (and to the no doubt equally amazing puppetamateur for all her work in the first half of the story and for helping make this blog a reality)

Hope everyone’s reading the pseudo-sequel staring Craig at college, and I hope you all enjoyed this long ramble of a recommendation. Can’t cay this’ll be the last time I talk about this one, I just love it too damn much.

Catch you for the next one!

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 3)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 

Read the pages for part 3 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

In Parts 1 and 2 I went through the transitions between idea, script, thumbnails and final art in quite a bit of detail. This time I’ll share script and thumbnails and point out some of the biggest changes, and then talk about how I scan and clean the final artwork.

Script and thumbnails

Biggest changes:

Dialogue changes every-freaking-where. Changes in word choice, moving things around to make the dialogue flow better, rewriting to make things flow better up to the umpteenth hour (i.e., right when I’m inking). 

Page 24 “It is enough to know the letter has been delivered” - this thought has been transplanted onto the next page. I was also running out of space on each page for so many wordy words. Looking back now I’d probably like to move Hokushin’s “I can read it, not that she needs to know that” earlier in the sequence of panels, but it’s too late and whatever.

Page 25 split into two pages because 1) the dialogue started growing on the first of the 2 pages and I wanted to give more emphasis to the woman dropping her “tee hee I’m matchmaking” bomb and Hokushin’s “lol get me out of here” expression.

The last page with Raizen did not exist in the script or the thumbnails. I tacked it on at the last second because the previous change increased the page count to 9. I’m drawing 2 pages up on an 11x8.5 sheet of paper (so each page is about 5.5 x 8.5), so this meant I was left facing an empty page. I impulsively threw in a “meanwhile, Raizen’s shenanigans” for fun.

As an aside, this level of dialogue is what I was anticipating the hypothetical “let’s separate Hokushin and Raizen with some random NPC offering a job” scenario to involve (see Part 1 process and wip discussion). You can see why I was so eager to ditch that idea and find something simpler and more efficient.

I feel like "I was (too) careless!" is such a stock (shounen) manga phrase. Therefore I must work in "Seems like I underestimated [...whatever thing they underestimated]" and "Impossible!!" into upcoming parts of the story lol.

Inking

Part way through inking I actually ran out of ink in my new cartridge. I had started the comic with 0.3mm Muji black pen, and it ran out a while back. I switched to 0.4mm (because that’s all they had in stock at the time)... and then actually ran out of the ink part way through on these pages. @atorier lent me a 0.3mm refill so these pages mix both thicknesses in the art. I can’t really tell the difference though... can you?

Part 3 was super fun to illustrate because it’s 90% subtle facial expressions, one of my favourite things to draw. The downside is WAY TOO MANY WORDS BEING SQUEEZED IN EVERYWHERE. I’ve never been very good at managing my speech bubbles - drawing them, positioning them, and fitting words in them. I never give them the time needed for proper planning and I often write rather impatiently, as if I am jotting down a note, instead of carefully lettering each word. They’re simply very sloppy, which results in a lot of mistakes...

It used to be that when I made a mistake in the later stages of the art (mainly, inking) I’d cry and throw everything out because I’m a complete failure, this is all worthless, etc. Nowadays I’m like uhhh... #@^&^#$!!! Oh well. Depending on the mistake I still have moments of I’M A COMPLETE FAILURE, but then I just redo it on the side or add a note to myself to fix it on the computer for the final version. Here you can see a whole bunch of mistakes around lettering and placement of things.

And this is just to make it more legible. It’s still ugly lol. (That’s why I use a font for my webcomic...)

Scanning / editing

Long Limbs is drawn in black and white which makes it a hell of a lot easier to scan/clean/prep final art. I use an old Canoscan LIDE110. I’ve upgraded once or twice but always to another Canoscan (basically whatever the latest version of this series is). It’s a cheap workhorse and lots of other scanners use Canon’s scanning technology so it’s always suited my purposes very well.

For black and white lineart, I scan at 600 dpi black and white. These are my settings as they show up in the default scanner software:

For clarification, the only parts I really pay attention to/change is Color Mode (black and white) and output resoluton to 600 dpi. Most of the other stuff was already calculated or set.

Industry practice is generally 1200 dpi for black and white line art, with 600 being a “if your computer can’t handle it and is gonna blow up... this is sufficient”. I rarely bother going up to 1200 mainly because I don’t usually have applications where I need it for output (this comic is not intended for print, for instance. And even if I ever do someday print it for whatever reason, it’s not likely to be bigger than a small comic). Scanning in black and white mode also conveniently kills most of the pencil lines I still have left so that post-scan cleanup work is minimized to a degree.

Here’s a shot of the page that was scanned.

Oh god look at all the mistakes that need to be fixed hahaha.

On the computer, I crop the individual pages and save them separately. Then I blow up to 100% and start selecting/deleting unwanted dust/artifacts/dots etc. Sometimes I also just use the eraser for cleaning fine details, but select+delete is faster for large patches.

This is also the opportunity to make corrections. To be honest, there’s not much retouching on these pages because I am lazy and trying to get them out as quickly as possible, so it’s mostly getting rid of artifacts, a few stray lines from ink smearing if I smudged or erased before it was fully dry, cleaning the shapes of a few letters to make them more legible, deleting errors and pasting the fixes over where the errors used to be, and any really stupid mistakes I’ve made - like drawing the fixes to Hokushin’s hitatare in Part 2. For redrawing/adding new parts on the computer, since the art is in black and white mode at such a high dpi, almost any brush will work great and look indistinguishable from the scanned lines when scaled down.

I save a high res TIFF for my archives. Then I convert to greyscale (better for maintaining details when I resize, since black and white can drop things that aren’t 100% black or white), and resize to 72 dpi at 700 pixels wide. 72 dpi has long been the standard for on-screen viewing - nowadays screens can display higher resolutions (e.g., retina) but this looks fine to me so I’ve long stuck with good ol’ 72. I arbitrarily picked the 700 dpi width - it seemed a good balance of “not too small” and “looks big enough to let you see the art nicely” on Tumblr. Below are my settings to resize:

Again, the above I mostly only pay attention to width and resolution. All the other stuff is mostly default or autocalculated. All my pages are different heights, which I don’t really care about since I’m just posting them on tumblr and pixiv. Finally I save as JPG for posting. 

 Ta da!

[binart]

BPJ Info Post

BPJ, A.K.A “Bullshit Plot Justification to get Lance Alone in a Dangerous Situation” is a series of VLD style ‘screenshot’ images, illustrating a fake fan episode that I wrote where basically Lance Gets Freaking Wrecked. B^) Why? He’s my favourite that’s why.

!NEW! Is BPJ a Patreon exclusive comic now? 

Nope, BPJ is still free to read. Those supporting me on patreon get one day early access to the newest updates. B^) 

What’s going to happen?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuckin.. langst. The title explains most of the plot. There’s going to be a water-based planet under galra occupation. There’s a thing in their base team voltron needs. OF COURSE only Blue can effectively navigate the planet’s Hella Watery Surface to get it, so Lance has to go in alone. & OF COURSE everything inevitably goes terribly wrong.

Will there be shipping?

lowkey klance my dudes. Near the end of the ‘episode’ is mostly where it's written, because the primary focus is Destroying Lance. It’s like, 85% suffering, 10% klance, 5% additional suffering.

There’s also plenty of platonic love with like, Hunk and Coran and Pidge and especially Shiro *-* Lance is getting hugs and support from his friends and his hero because he got NOTHING in the show ok? ok. don’t @ me

Will the other characters show up?

Not overly often, but as much as they’re needed to. I dunno how to draw anyone who’s not Lance tho so.. just a warning they may look weird or just be exact redraws from the show.

Do you draw everything yourself?

A lot, but definitely not everything! BPJ is an excuse to practice perspective, coloring, and general consistency with my drawings, because those are my weakest areas. Like here’s my process basically:

I’ll roughly figure out the shot, map out the perspective, usually use lots of reference to get the details of the characters/bg correct, then line & color. 

Overly complicated crap like ship exteriors and lions though? HECK NO. I draw straight over screenshots in that case because who even has the time for that sort of nonsense. I’ve got better things to draw, LIKE LANCE DYING. 

Will Lance die?

nEVER. Not in my shitty fan episode anyway. I love my son too much to kill him. I like psychologically broken characters, not dead ones. THERE’S A DIFFERENCE. 

How often do you update?

About once per week if I’m able to! Background heavy pages tend to take me a while too, since they’re hard for me to draw!

Professor Nyahs?

Yeah he’s in it :D Not for a while but eventually... Honestly maybe even Senator Thigh Gap and/or Leg will make appearances, I haven’t decided.  

This is the color scheme that won, btw! 

& That’s everything I can think of so far I think? I’ll add to it if anything else comes up ty for reading aaaand I hope you enjoy BPJ B^)