#they're the first thing i draw when drawing facial features tho

[snaxle-archive]

do you draw the eyes first when you draw? asking for a friend

no i hate drawing eyes those are usually one of the last things i draw

[bmpmp3]

the drawrings from the mesmerizer cover i just finished <3

but more importantly, i must now explain to you the hashtag situation i created for myself because of my foolish yet absolute refusal to colour it digitally:

SO doing animation on paper is fine. its normal, hell for me its easier than digital, i just use this shitty lil 15 dollar light panel and go to town you know? historically animation was done on paper and/or clear celluloid/acetate plastic sheets (thats why they're called cels after all) for decades and its still being done that way today.

but usually. nowadays. when animation is done on paper it is still coloured and shaded digitally. we are in the age of digipaint. and thats good. before digipaint we used stuff like poster paints or other flat, consistantly coloured paint and applied that on the under side of the clear acetate cels with the ink lines drawn or xerox'd over top.

but acetate sheets for animation are expensive and hard to source where i live. so. instead of something sensible like drawing all my lines and then digitally painting the final pieces. what i did was um. i still painted it with watercolour. so this was the situation:

faceless...........

i drew the main piece, and then on the same type of paper i used my lightbox to draw on new faces (to save paper i put them all over the paper, using things like quickly traced hair, etc to help line it all up later. for the paint i had to carefully try to match the skin tones around the facial features so when i digitally re-attached them they would match up........ hell of my own creation

i was chatting with my father about it, he doesnt know much about animation at all (his preferred art is b&w sketches and linework) so he didn't understand why i was complaining about the hell of my own creation so much as first. he was like "isnt watercolour what most animation was made with?" and i was like NOOO no no absolutely not <3 backgrounds, the final layer under all the sheets of clear acetate, sometimes may be done in something other than poster paint, gouache, acrylics, whatever paint they used to colour the cels: maybe something like oil or watercolour for stylistic purposes

but no one in their right mind would make even a simple barely moving PV with just watercolours <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

the bg was easy tho LOL took longer to dry than to paint :)

[olasketches]

Hey, I am asking you because I think as an artist you can answer this better.. So I have seen people saying yuuji , wasuke, jin and sukuna look the same. But isn't it just artsyle of gege except for their hair.. Because I have seen most manga characters look the same face wise except minor differences. For example, these people were calling hazenoki the guy who fought kenjaku before takaba and kashimo similar to gojo... By their logic they should be related too.

hey anon! Thanks for stopping by, I’ll try my best to answer your ask.

yuuji, jin and wasuke don’t look the same but they definitely look similar in some ways due to them being related. sukuna also share some similarities with them and yes, the hair seems the most obvious and common charectaristic that ppl tend to notice first but then inumaki had the same hairstyle in volume 0 and he looks nothing like yuuji, sukuna, jin and wasuke. in case of hazenoki, kashimo and gojo, there are some similiraties in their design but to be honest hazenoki’s face reminds me of that one guy from demon slayer who I don’t even know the name of lol and kashimo KINDAAAA reminds me of pre unsealed gojo (he has such a baby face imo), which is probably why gege modified gojo’s design later on and gave him more sharper features. the thing is that when you want to have characters who are closely related to each other to share some similarities you would focus on their facial features the most. I would say that what makes yuuji, jin and wasuke look so similar to one another other are their eyes.

yuuji could change the colour and length of his hair and he would still probably look similar to his grandpa and father. In sukuna’s case I would say that he shares the most characteristics with wasuke.. but the thing is that the facial features don’t have to look exactly the same. the trick is to get their likeness right to have the viewer associate these characters with each other. hazenoki, kashimo and gojo don’t really have that cause they all have at least one distinctive facial feature that separates them from the other two. like hazenoki and his thick eyebrows, kashimo and his sharper eyes (similar to yuuji actually and YET they look nothing alike cause the don’t have a likeness to each other the way yuuji, jin and wasuke do) and gojo’s white eyelashes. 

so when you want family members to look related BUT NOT THE SAME (unless their indentical twins) you would focus on their facial features the most (hair colour and hairstyle can help but that’s not what determines their likenesses), but then again it's really not about drawing the exact same features in the exact same way but drawing them in a way that makes them look very alike. I think you can think about it like when you draw a pair of eyes on a small piece of paper and then you stick it to different surfaces that have similar shapes like a balloon and a ball

and then there characters who have similar designs but don't look like they're related to one another cause of this one or two very distinctive facial feature that separates them from the other.

the thing is that, gege is not only a writer but he's also an artist and I feel like the majority of the fandom mostly associates that with his art style alone. art is so much more than just art style tho. it's also what the artist wants to convey through their work. as an artist myself, I believe that he's very much INTENTIONAL about the way he draws and portray his characters. he wants his readers to make certain connections just by the way he designs them (or makes them act or draws their facial expressions). for example the majority of the fandom knew that there must be some relation between sukuna and yuuji's family, not only because of kenjaku but also because they look like they could be related. and this was deliberate on gege’s part.

[hometownrockstar]

some of the responses to that "stop drawing ugly people" video are like ACTUALLY insane, big fan of the 3rd comment in particular which has very big "if you change this word to something else then suddenly the statement is hateful, huh progressives?" energy by saying "why are you getting outraged over her saying to not draw ugly people, instead of simply ignoring it for a different message i just assumed from her words?"

then theres like this consensus that facial traits are neatly divided into "hot" and thus the inverse are "ugly", and the implications of THAT... and the 2nd comment being like, simplified to dragon ball z training methods, where if you only draw the "hot" facial traits which are apparently harder to draw (even tho the video and first comment disagree with and say theyre easier??) it'll make you a master and be able to draw "ugly" features (that you did not practice at all) easier? what IS this logic??? and i did NOT miss the "dynamical body shapes = ugly" part in the first comment either...

the fact that anyone is trying to rationalize that artist's dumb advice is so laughable, its literally just from one of those youtube "artists" videos who only draw the same thing and say "NEVER DRAW LIKE THIS! THE CORRECT WAY TO DRAW HAIR/EYES/MEN/WOMEN IS LIKE THIS!" over and over like they're some kind of expert when theyre just one of those "art critics" that i thought we left behind years ago

[zilodak]

I'm relatively new to your blog so I apologize if this has already been answered (I couldn't find a recent ask on it and couldn't find a FAQ page to make sure I wasn't asking something that'd already been asked) but may I ask how you get character face shapes down so accurately? Even your sketches seem like they have highly accurate character facial proportions down to a science, and I was wondering if you use any specific methods for that (such as Reilly or Loomis method for head-drawing) - 1/2

No need to apologize, I've never been asked this before!

So to answer your ask, I think it's important that I tell you that the characters I draw on my blog are characters that I have been drawing non-stop for more than a year, so I'm kind of used to their facial structures as far as like ease goes.

So it's just natural progression at that point.

On top of that I keep a bunch of references of them, including their 3D models and multiple Pinterest boards. For example, the reference I used for the middle one was this:

Nowadays I don't really use 3D references and when I do, it's only loosely based on them. But when I started out, it was a great tool for me to learn face structures and difficult angles. I have files of me tracing the models' faces and then drawing them from scratch, that I haven't shared online because they were for me to practice, but those really helped me with studying faces and how they look from different angles. For the third one, the only thing I really referenced was myself and my expression (as well as some face features i.e. my nose and eyes). As my style and understanding of facial structures progressed, I became more comfortable giving Daud some of my Southwest Asian features while also trying to keep him recognizable (e.g. his hair, his ears, his narrow chin).

The greatest thing to come out of these exercises and fanart is that now I have a good grasp on faces just generally. My OCs now don't look flat and all of those 3D studies really helped me understand proportions and feature placements better. So my advice to you would be to just practice with 3D models if you can, the trick is to really think about what you're doing tho, and pay attention to proportions and structures.

For expressions, I really just use myself as a model, or go to Pinterest and search up what I want. Usually, I don't need Pinterest for this though, my parents will just walk into my room and look at me doing all kinds of facial expressions in front of my mirror. Sometimes, TV shows are REALLY good expression references too! Some good references might just come at you from the places you least expect them to.

As for my sketches... they might look clean but they're not my initial sketches. Often I will have multiple layers, and I usually tend to just clean up my sketches instead of doing lineart, it just ends up giving me a more natural look at the end.

No matter who you talk to, they'll say that my initial sketches are incomprehensible, but as long as the sketches makes sense to you then there is no problem! I usually find that loosely sketching the idea before it disappears from my fleeting memory helps me capture the mood, no matter how bad it looks lol. I then try to rationalize it but drawing the face by creating the circle first and then the cheeks and jaw, as well as the ears. I then go onto sketching the features which I will then clean up for the final version.

I think that coloring the face is just as important as sculpting the sketch. Light sources and shadows can help really articulate certain features and show the face's depth better. For that I usually use this tool right here as reference!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/GX3Ax1

It's free and it's super useful!

I hope that this answers your question a bit!

[fragileizywriting]

Izy... IZY.

I saw that art u showed for flp.

I just wanted to tell u. I. HAVE. BEEN DYING to draw someone- ANYONE! From your AU, EVERYTIME I READ IT. I GO FERAL OVER THE LITTLE DETAILS U ADD, WHETHER IT BEING THE CLOTHES THEY WEAR, their FACIAL FEATURES- EVEN THEIR BODIES. I can't I'm so weaaaaaakkkkkk I RLLY WANNA DRAW THEM SO BADDDDDDD.

BUT whenever I try tho, it's always the character's clothes that always get me. Like I KNOW this is set in a certain period, I just didn't know what!

From the way they lived I thought it was the year 15-1600s. BUT THEN, I remembered how you described Marinette getting dressed, and well IT DOESN'T ADD UP! I've done enough research and even watched TON of videos(def not for this AU no.) of how women got dressed in that time period. The exact detail I remembered that threw me off the loop was her putting stays as an undergarment! And I know that's not in that period, no that's not how they get dressed, unless maybe if she was a noble then maybe I haven't done enough research.

But she's only a commoner!!!(despite marrying a demon prince in the future!) And well... I DON'T KNOW ANYMOREヽ(`д´；)/!!!

I've always just drawn other characters from other shows, in another site so I've always wanted to make my first ml piece by making a small gift for u! I just wanted to know how they really look like(their clothes ofc, im talking abt their clothes)! And... the... time period ur writing in.........

hello anon!!!!! i hope you're doing okay!!!! oh god, i never imagined someone would want to draw this au, eep!!! i'm so glad you want to draw for this au...

you definitely have very important questions, and i hope i can explain!!!

this au isn't exactly set in any exact time period, which is even worse, isn't it? here's how it works out: there are two very distinct places of inspiration i got in order to flesh out this au.

black butler and howl's moving castle.

at the very least, these are two very different time periods, i know.

for black butler, it's where we got the whole "tattoo glowy part and the demon has the same tattoo on them in order to show that they're contracted to one another" type of thing. it's also where we get a lot of the dark elements of the story from.

howl's moving castle is everything else. the magic, the scenary, the sweetness and the calmness even though there's war and destruction in the movie, it's one of my all-time favorites.

i've tried to make the time period as "fantasy" as possible, but there are a couple of things i've made sure to do. for one, marinette wears a chemise under everything. she wears stays, too, and they either lace up the front of the back (the back is her more formal one, since that probably requires a second pair of hands to help her out. familiar chat to the rescue!)

i personally personally personally have taken a huuuge amount of inspiration from these two videos on how they dress for the time period: video one | video two yes, these two are definitely two very different time periods, too! but the delicateness, and the floweryness of the late 1700s combined with the ruggedness and the comfort of late 1800s... i've tried my best to combine them as much as i can, even though it might not have come off as professional... marinette wears nearly identical clothing to video two, but in dark colors instead of denim.

honestly, i should've picked a time period and stuck to it instead of trying to fit different time periods together in order to pretend that this is a completely different world ToT

the tl;dr, anon, is whatever you'd like to draw in whatever clothes, go for it!! the drawing i drew was original from when before i started writing the au, about two or three years ago, so it's definitely wrong now. i didn't fix it when i redid chat, because i totally forgot to!!

i hope this helped...

have a good day!!!

[queenofwordsandnerds]

My thoughts on AnS Manga Ch. 119 and 120

Okay I may be late to the party but I have so many feels about these two chapters I have to get them out there or I may explode...

I CAN'T be the only one freaking out about these chapters, can I? They both contained such BEAUTIFUL and OBVIOUS Obiyuki moments that if I was in any doubt as to Sorata Akizuki's intentions before, I'm not now. Obiyuki HAS to be endgame. All the moments in these recent chapters are so subtle yet well-crafted...it can't be an accident.

Let me start by drawing your attention to the beginning of Chapter 119, specifically the title panel and the panel before that:

LOOK. AT. THIS. I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming in the car with my mom when I read this. This and the next panel, more than anything else, confirms my belief that Sorata intends for Obiyuki to be endgame.

So in the first panel, Shirayuki and Tsuruba are waiting outside the party for Obi's signal. He steps outside to the balcony and waves the glowing crystal that SHIRAYUKI GAVE HIM (the fact that THAT was their prearranged signal gives me life because that crystal has so much meaning at this point). But he was supposed to flash it, not wave it. Tsuruba is concerned and asks Shirayuki if everything was all right. Shirayuki immediately gets this intense concern on her face, and she says this:

"No...Obi would do exactly as he said. Without a doubt."

Shirayuki knows Obi so well, probably better than he knows himself. She KNOWS INSTANTLY that something's wrong. It speaks volumes to their level of connection. They've always been able to tell when something is wrong with the other, even when other people don't see it. It makes me endlessly frustrated how well they know each other yet they're so blind (at least on Shirayuki's end).

And THEN. THEN.

THE TITLE PANEL.

LOOK AT IT!!! This panel comes right after the first one, by no accident. Sorata WANTS you to have Obiyuki's connection and Shirayuki's concern for Obi in your mind while you read this title panel.

This is the second title panel that has featured Obiyuki dead center of attention with significant wording beneath the phrase "A romance that cuts through fate." If the first title panel wasn't obvious enough...this one is. If I was a new reader and I only saw this panel...I would think that Obiyuki was the "romance that cuts through fate." Other wonderful tumblr users have explained how Obiyuki could be this romance, so I won't go into it...but this is just further confirmation from Sorata to me.

The first title panel read "please, take my hand." This one reads "unwavering trust." The CONTINUITY. DO YOU SEE IT THE WAY I DO?? This title panel is a response to the first one. Shirayuki trusts Obi enough--unwaveringly--to take his hand. There's nobody else that phrase could refer to. Obiyuki's trust in each other is legendary, even within the story. Other characters see them as a unit. (And their hands aren't visible in this panel but close enough that I like to believe they're holding hands beneath the frame here. It's possible!)

Am I reading too much into this? Maybe. But I can't be the only one who sees the massive significance?? I just can't!

Also, I will say the one issue I had with the story was the lack of Shirayuki in a gorgeous mask and ball gown infiltrating the party on Obi's arm (and Obi's utter swamp mess of feelings upon seeing his Miss dressed up). I feel ROBBED on that score. But at least we got to see our cat boi in his fancy clothes and mask...can we just take a moment to appreciate how FINE our boi looks? Like LOOK AT HIM

STUNNING SO SEXY SHIRAYUKI YOU BLIND WOMAN-

Ok moving on

So these next two panels were my FAVORITE part of the whole two chapters. Shirayuki and Tsuruba are outside and Shirayuki asks Tsuruba to help her up onto the balcony. But Obi APPEARS out of nowhere like he was summoned by a call (lbh his Miss asking for help probably was a call) and he jumps down besides Shirayuki and lifts her up himself before Tsuruba can even move...all without saying a word.

OUR BOI IS THE ONLY MAN ALLOWED TO HELP HIS MISS AND ONLY HIM. ZEN WHO??

Seriously, this part is so short yet so significant. It takes up a notable number of panels, and we didn't need to have Obi help Shirayuki. Tsuruba could have done it. But Sorata devotes these pages to this scene so we can SEE that Obi is still his Miss's loyal knight. He still takes care of her and is probably a bit jealous of another guy helping her when that's HIS JOB. It's a sharp reminder that not only is Obi very much Shirayuki's knight, but also he's still in love with her. It's just a sweet scene with a very easily discernible romantic element.

Also...that panel of Obi kneeling at Shirayuki's feet with his cape fluttering, ready to aid her...*chefs kiss* I could stare at that panel for hours. The facial expressions and detail during this scene is also priceless. I would rate it in the top 10 Obiyuki manga scenes, honestly.

SHIRAYUKI YOU SWEET GIRL HOW CAN YOU BE SO BLIND I SWEAR-

The rest of the Obiyuki moments that I noticed were more minor, but still really significant to their story and development as a whole. There's several panels of Obi and Shirayuki considering things together, being concerned together, working out solutions together...

Like this one (the way he hovers protectively over her shoulder tho...it's almost like his right hand is on her back):

Or this one:

THIS ONE MURDERED ME:

LOOK AT THE SYMMETRY. THE PARALLELS. THE BACK TO BACK. THE WAY THEY THINK THROUGH THINGS TOGETHER.

Obiyuki's legendary similarity in thinking will always impress me. They share such similar thought processes, they LITERALLY finish each other's sentences. And the way they come to the same conclusion in this panel and they share the same determined look like "yeah, we know what we're thinking and we know what we've got to do and we're on the same team" JUST KILL ME NOW. Could you get any more couple-y without being an officially canon couple?

And the last panel of them together: Shirayuki can ride on her own now but she sits behind Obi JUST LIKE OLD TIMES and how the two close-up panels of their faces are just too perfect and they're ready to take on the danger together like the absolute unit they are-

So yeah

Chapter 119 and 120 had some of the best Obiyuki moments I've seen in a while, honestly. The plot didn't go in the way I expected, but it was SO GOOD! The drama and pacing were absolutely on point, I can't wait until December I need to find out what happens NOW!

[abybweisse]

hi :) Anon asked you "does anyone know that the remains of the burned bones and etc belong to Vincent Phantomhive? Couldn't it have been the remains of another corpse or body, that may have been substituted for Vincent, as a part to fake his death? I think he's still alive and gone into hiding, in a distant and far away foreign country." I also think that this is a nice idea and also UT doesn't need to know everything. Then here's Sebastian/Vincent theory; maybe they're not the same person part1

“but we still know nothing about Sebastian’s past. Maybe they knew each other? There was a scene when Sebastian remained Ciel’s the situation when little Ciel (the real one?) was cooking with Vincent and Deidrich for sick Rachel, OK Dee was cooking ;) he shouldn’t know about it and also, why he was in this place three years ago and decided tho show himself to little boy? And many others. So maybe Vincent had some another plan about which UT didn’t know, maybe he’s alive or maybe even he is part2

hiding himself somewhere or she became a demon known as Sebastian. Everything is quitly possible if we still know a little. And I don’t catch the idea that Sebastian looks like Vincent to make Ciel trusted him. Just don’t. It’s too weak for Yana, there must be something else. All of them UT/Vinnie/Sebastian looks almost the same (without hair+scars) so there must be a greater reason. What do you think? Have a nice day/night! part3″

Thanks for the asks! There’s a lot to address here, though, so bare with me.

1. We actually do know a few things about Sebastian’s more recent past. First of all, Chapter 2 gives us an idea of what he was up to sometime between ~1750 and when the earl summoned him. Lyrics to one of the Phantom Five songs (”Phantom? Knight!”) strongly suggest that the earl woke him from a deep slumber, but before that… he had been dancing the Viennese Waltz at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Chances are, he had some involvement with the Habsburgs, who controlled the palace for a few centuries, until their reign officially ended in 1816, when Franz Joseph died. Two years later, the palace became national property and was turned into a museum. So, sometime between the development of the Viennese Waltz and when our demon got bored enough to sleep… he was causing intrigue among the aristocracy and royalty of Austria. And not just Austria. The Habsburgs, at some time or other, ruled Austria, Germany, Hungary, and other lands. Ferdinand I was on the throne/in office from 1835 to 1848, but he was unable to rule his lands due to mental deficiency (severe epilepsy, among other issues), so two individuals were assigned to “assist him” (Archduke Louis and Prince Metternich). Somehow, I have a feeling our demon influenced international politics during that era, too, not just this new business between England, Germany, and, to a lesser extent, France and Italy.

2. Sebastian explains that he found the recipes in the family cookbook, a collection of recipes passed down from the previous generation. How that cookbook survived the fire when not much else did(?), but anyway ;) The earl had to explain to Sebastian the full significance of those recipes afterwards. Sebastian just thought they seemed appropriate for someone who needs to eat but can’t handle much. (Come to think of it, too bad he didn’t find those recipes when he and the earl first returned to the manor. I think Tanaka’s return to the manor has something to do with this, actually… like perhaps Tanaka had managed to save a few things from burning down before he was stabbed, perhaps even before the attack? That’s what I think, and I think there are other interesting things he’s saved, too. Perhaps Vincent’s private journal? Anyway….)

3. As I mentioned in #1, Sebastian was called out of a deep sleep when the earl summoned him. The licensed version even says “coma”, but that might be just to rhyme with “aroma”. And that’s the answer – he was woken from his slumber by the possibility of a delicious meal. (This is part of the Mother3 parallel, since Lucas wakes the Dark Dragon from a deep slumber. Here, the earl wakes the Black Butler from a deep slumber, too.)

4. So, no, I have no reason to believe that Sebastian is Vincent in any way. I don’t think he was personally familiar with the Phantomhives until the earl came along. If Sebastian knows anything and wants his meal in a timely fashion, don’t you think he would have spoken up before now? If it helps his own, personal goal of devouring this soul? No. He is not Vincent. He looks like Vincent because of the contract, most-likely, some emotional element to it as the contract was being drawn-up/forged. A fatherly figure, an authority figure. As far as Vincent is concerned, I think think he’s as dead as Undertaker claims him to be, unless Undertaker is a very good liar (and and actor way better than even Grell). However, I will concede that Vincent probably knew something was about to happen, and he prepared for it somehow, most-likely involving Tanaka (like I mentioned in #2).

5. Similarities, in general, between characters’ physical traits are probably due to two major things: 1) Yana-san’s drawing style has evolved a lot over the years, but even well-experienced mangakas can use the same templates for multiple characters. 2) It’s been mentioned that the aristocracy are extremely interwoven, genetically, so it’s no surprise that many of these characters have similar facial features, etc. It was common for first cousins to marry, particulalry if they are aristocrats or royalty. “Ciel” was betrothed to his first cousin, Lizzie. Queen Victoria really did marry her first cousin, Prince Albert. That Ferdinand I of Austria… it’s said his health and mental problems were due to inbreeding – his parents were double first cousins.

I hope this answers at least some of your questions to some degree of satisfaction. I know there’re still a lot more questions out there than any of us have answers for. Try as I might, I know I just have theories, even if some of them are well-supported….

Thanks again! :)