#this drawing is based on (but not traced):

[ckret2]

So y'all know the Gravity Falls production bible that leaked three weeks ago. Someone in one of my discord servers pointed this out:

And, naturally, that spawned an entire AU.

AU Concept: Ford was kicked out instead of Stan and takes a job as a trucker to makes ends meet since he couldn't go to college, while still studying the weird and anomalous however he can.

Ford driving around from quirky small town to quirky small town, drifting through the liminal spaces of truck stops, meeting odd people in isolated diners, seeing strange things out on the road—a deer with too many eyes bounding across a two-lane highway, a flirty woman at a rest stop who doesn't blink or breathe, mysterious lights in the sky at night, inhuman growls on the CB or 50-year-old broadcasts on the radio—and taking notes when he stops for gas or food.

Aside from having gotten kicked out before graduating high school, Ford's the same person he is in canon.

He's still an ambitious guy, and here "ambitious" means working hard and saving as much money as he can—so, a long haul owner-operator who spends weeks at a time on the road. (He goes through a LOT of educational audiobooks.) Plus, this is the easiest way for him to get to travel the country; and since it looks like his "travel the world" dreams with Stan are dead, he'll take what he can get.

Since he's never in the same spot long and carries his life in a truck, almost all of Ford's research is in his journal. His bag of investigation supplies has an instant camera, a portable tape recorder, a thermometer, a flashlight, rubber gloves, and a few zip lock bags—and that's about it. It has to share space with all his clothes, toiletries, and nonperishable food when he's on the road. He doesn't have much opportunity to closely examine anything odd he finds, unless he's lucky enough to run into something when he can stop for the night. He has to cram his paranormal research around the side of his full-time job.

He doesn't live in Gravity Falls, but he knows it exists. Every time he moves—to Chicago, to Nebraska, to California—he seems to inch closer. He currently lives in Portland and usually hauls loads between the Pacific Northwest and Chicago or New York. He stops at the truck stop outside Gravity Falls when he can and has gone fishing in town a few times. He doesn't have the benefit of extensive research to know that this is the weirdest town in the world; but it seems pretty weird to him, there are local rumors about the town, and he's had some weird experiences in the area.

Plus, he can't explain it, but it's like the town's calling to him. He wants to move there, but it'd put him over an hour outside of Portland where the nearest jobs are. Maybe if somebody chucked him like $100k to build a cabin in the woods; but what are the odds of that?

He does know Fiddleford. Truck broke down somewhere and Fiddleford kindly pulled over to fix it on the fly. They looked at each other, had mutual knee-jerk "dumb trucker/hillbilly" reactions, and within ten minutes both went "oh wait you're the most brilliant genius i've ever met." Fiddleford's living the same life he was in canon before Ford called him to Gravity Falls—with his family in California, trying to start a computer company out of his garage—but they make friends and keep in contact.

One time Ford stops at a kitschy roadside knickknack store that also sells new agey magic things—crystals, tarot cards, incense, etc. He bought a "lucky" rearview mirror ornament that looks like an Eye of Providence in a top hat and hung it from his cab fan, and ever since then he's had weird dreams whenever he sleeps in his truck.

Things I don't know yet: what Stan's up to; or why Ford's the one who got kicked out. I tend to believe that in canon Stan wasn't just kicked out because he ruined Ford's college prospects, but rather because the family thought he deliberately sabotaged Ford; so in this AU, Ford would've been kicked out over a proportionate crime.

[almondcroissantsandink]

i've wanted to practice drawing cowboys for some time now and so the daggers have turned in their helmets and fighter jets for stetsons and horses! yeehawwww

[wowa-bublord]

did a little repaint over a zack screenshot 2 look like how i draw him hehe

[ghostlylulla-by]

Haha, remember when we first met, Pearl? I had just come to the surface, and I didn't understand Inkopolis at all. You taught me everything I needed to know. I went to Mount Nantai every day for a week, just hoping you would show up again.

Bahaha yeah, I thought you were a stalker. I remember you singing when I showed up and then out of nowhere you were all like "LET'S START A BAND!"

I just had a feeling about you.

[maddnessmadds]

ITS SPOOKY MONTH!!!!

Theyre going to scare kids together ❤️

HAPPY OCTOBER 1ST!!!!

[ekmsoldier]

[survive-object-poll-island]

Hi Guys!!!!!

Here is a picture to tide you over until the hiatus is complete! I hope to resume regular updates very soon. Stay tuned and Happy Coolflame Friday!

[thathorriblebitch]

Grians starter base!! Imma be 100% honest with yall, I love Joel's starter base over anyoneelse's, but grians is easiest to draw lol (maybe the mothball is easier but anywayyy.)

[dollya-robinprotector]

Wobin and Lya in Clamp CCS manga style

Pose and heavy ref from this Clamp Syaoran Sakura art

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hi!! I love this series so much, and as someone who hasn’t really drawn since they were a kid but wants to start as a hobby, do you have any advice for sort of learning to doodle on paper and get better at it? I want to start but I don’t really know how/where

The most important step in getting better at any skill is Persistence and Consistency. Practice and keep practicing! The best way to do that is to keep it fun! Picking a project helps generate ideas (e.g. drawing Pokémon, or characters from a series you like). There are also a ton of monthly prompt lists out there!

I also highly recommend scheduling in a 'drawing/practice' time in your day. For me, I started with 30-60 min before bed (bonus: its a good 'no screentime' activity), and the habit took root there.

There are a lot of 'technical' things to study but find the fun first. At a certain point you will discover you've hit a wall, and have a specific aspect/goal you want to target (colour theory, anatomy, lighting, comic layout). Then it's time to go looking for resources.

Once you have the habit and some goals, go collect some inspiration! Find people who inspire you and study their work!

Another little 'art skill builder' I recommend is the Shrimp Method! Only if you find technical challenges like this fun though (Example of one of my studies below)

[heyitslapis]

✨ Pearls ✨

[ancientpersacom]

When will internet artist remember that tracing is a key part of learning art?? Like obviously don’t trace someone’s work and like sell it for a profit or something like that. But tracing as a whole? Girl I was tracing things under my teachers instruction all through my after school art classes to learn where to shade. They’d have us trace outlines of things and fill them in with all the correct shading and details. They’d have us trace the same thing over and over until we got a feel for where things would go. That’s why light boxes exist, to trace with. Tracing isn’t some big evil art sin, it’s part of learning. Obviously don’t be selling art traced from someone else, THAT would be stealing since you’re making a profit from someone else’s art. But tracing for practice, using a base etc? Literally not an issue at all. I’m begging y’all to take an actual art class and hear it from a teacher yourselves.

[tinypaperstar]

@rosedeleca's Rose!!

Saw the concepts for their stage outfits and ended up putting them into a full rose dress!! Since their representative colour is red, I chose a red rose :3

[vanweezer]

coreys in my sketchbook 2/∞

commissions

[kkatastrophic]

My art about a month ago:

Vs

My art today

(THE IMPROVEMENT IS SO GOOD AJFJJEJFJ I LOVE TSUMUGI SMMM :] )

[bi-ocelot]

Hey is anyone else constantly getting those mlp infection AUs on instagram or am I stuck in a really weird niche rn? Anyways, this has nothing to do with the previous statement