#this is actually what pushed me back to coloring and rendering my sketches again

[schpeenor]

when i FIRST fell in love w/ spinnerdabi i fell so hard and especially got a fever with the season 7 angst (also when i finished the manga and wanted to put a gun to my head). THIS IS LIKE SOOO LONG AGO AND IM NOT SHOWING THE FULL PHOTO BC THE ANATOMY IS TRASH AND THE WAY I USED TO DRAW SPINNER IS JUST AS ASS. i wanted them fucking like freaks in the caves cause what better than to confide in each other!!! sexually!!! (PLUS THEIR BOYFRIEND WAS FUCKING SUFFERRIING��)

[realityhelixcreates]

Beta, Theta, and Me Chapter 10: Territorial

Chapters: 10/?

Fandom: Thor (Movies), Avengers (Movies) Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Relationships: Loki x Reader (But not right now),Drug Use

Characters:  Loki(Marvel) Additional Tags:  A/B/O, Sorta, More Of An Exploration Of  Life And Self Expression Within An A/B/O Framework, Loki Does What He Wants, But Loki Does Not Actually Do What He Wants, Antagonistic Bosses,  Loki Has A Throne Now, But It’s Not What He Wanted

Summary: You learn the reality of not being alone in the universe

You hunkered down in your soft, fold-out futon couch, shaken by what you now knew.

They were invaders. Loki, Thor, all  the Asgardians, an invading force.

But they weren't invading this planet.

You didn't think you'd ever forget the blazing triumph in Loki's eyes, as he explained the plan. He might as well explain it to you. There was nothing you could do about it. There was nothing you would do about it. And Loki knew it.

Rain slammed into the glass like stones, flung by screaming wind. It had been pouring all day, even before you'd served Loki his breakfast.

“Did someone piss off your brother or what?” you joked. Loki swiftly grasped your hand before you could crush his pill for the morning.

“Yes, and I would have my mind clear when he comes to visit. I will bear the pain until afterwards.”

Thunder cracked the personable atmosphere of breakfast.

“You should retire to your rooms for a while.” Loki said. So you gathered up what was left of your meal and returned to your apartment. You had a nice little table in front of a window, where you sat with your orange juice and pancakes, watching the sheeting rain.

The sound of the Bifrost roared down louder than the rain. Thor had come by to discuss things with Loki several times now, you hiding out in your room each time. You weren't sure why you were never allowed to be seen-perhaps servants in Asgard were supposed to be invisible or something. Or perhaps Loki wasn't actually supposed to have you. Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time you were living somewhere illegally.

The two of them talked very loudly, almost shouting, but it didn't sound like a fight. It sounded more like enthusiasm, rising and falling, the foreign words and unfamiliar cadence. Thor stayed for several hours, keeping up their lively discussion, but you didn't once hear either of them laugh. Whatever their enthusiasm was about, it probably wasn't a cheerful thing.

You relaxed in your apartment, reading a battered old book while they hashed out whatever they were working on, making yourself a light lunch while the rain weakened and petered out. The Bifrost roared again, just as the sun struggled out of the clouds.

Not long after, you heard Loki calling for you, always as if he were right beside you. He was waiting at the table when you exited back out into his miniature kingdom, eyes bright with the exercise of thought. He waited patiently while you prepared fresh tea for him, and mixed it with his medicine, drinking it without complaint. Thor's Alpha scent hung around the place, somehow harsher than Loki's. You were tempted to dampen it with a scented spray, but you knew Loki didn't like them. 'Stinking, chemical concoctions' he called them.

You did chores around the penthouse, as he went over the contents of a notebook. You knew his medicine was taking effect when he suddenly started talking.

“How do you feel about this building?” he asked abruptly, shoving the notebook at you.

“How do I feel about it? Uh, well, let me see.” You took the notebook, full of runes and sketches. The sketch of the house Loki indicated appeared to you like a man-made hill, a cluster of little domes around a large dome, with no windows but several doors. It had a vintage science fiction kind of look, as if someone had designed a Hobbit hole for the far future.

“It's cute.” you said. “Looks like some kind of earth house?”

“Not quite.” he said, smug amusement coloring his voice. “Would you live in such a house?”

“Sure, I'd live in any kind of house. A house is a house, and I'm never gonna be picky about that. I do wonder about the inside lighting, since there's no windows.” “Oh, it would be lit by magic. Magic light it so easy to make that many forms of magic create light as a by-product! It would be bright as day on the inside. There could be no windows, because the structure would be partially underground, and the outside walls would be about nine feet thick.”

“Wow. I knew earthworks need thick walls, but that seems like kind of a lot.”

“But would you still live in such a home?”

“Well yeah. Still a house, after all. Look, I know you're high as a kite right now, but this is about something, isn't it? Is it what Thor was here to talk about?” “Insolent thing. I'm not that high. Am I? No, of course not. But yes, this is about our meeting this morning. Twice has my brother come bearing distressing news about the future of Asgard, and this time, we began planning. These houses are a part of it.”

“Is something wrong with Asgard? Are you guys gonna be okay?”

“Oh yes, we will be fine. I foresaw something like this happening, and my brother's pride is sorely bruised, but our people are in no danger. You see, the government of Canada set aside some land for Asgard to settle upon-a handful of islands off the coast of the larger island of Nova Scotia. This seemed quite generous at first, and quite in line with the kindliness that country is famed for. I could have told Thor that it would prove somehow false. If not humanity itself, then the governing bodies of humanity certainly are the least trustworthy things in this whole great galaxy.”

“What did they do?” you asked. “Are they trying to bilk you? Make you pay for it all? Force you into debt?”

“No, no. They gave us the land so that the native peoples they stole it from could never get it back. Settler's laws, or some such.”

“That's awful!” The disillusionment led straight to disgust, and no small amount of disappointment. Because Canada did seem so nice, and maybe it was just a form of American wish fulfillment to believe that Canada was somehow 'better' than the States. But realistically, both countries had been formed in the same way: European settlers sweeping from one coast to the other. And the only way it seemed that they knew how to do that was to smash their way through whoever was between the Here, and the There.

“Indeed.” Loki sneered. “Thor is enraged at the sheer ingratitude. Many times he has been involved in the protection of your backwater globe, and these fools seek to use him as a pawn. I may occasionally want to stab his face off, but he is still a god, and we are all of us above the petty greed and power games that humans play against one another.”

“What are you going to do?”

“It's very simple. We are going to secure the land, build a legal cage so tight that it cannot be taken away, make it ours completely, and without question. Then, when we have gathered the necessary supplies, we will turn the land over to the people it was stolen from, and Asgard will leave. We will invite them to live among us in the interim, and likely leave a small garrison behind to guard against Canadian invasion.”

“Ha!” you burst out. “Good! Fuck those guys! But where is Asgard going to go then? I can't think of anyplace that isn't already full of people. Except maybe Antarctica? It'd be pretty hard to live there though.”

“Asgard has the technology to make practically any rock a paradise.” Loki bragged. “But we will not be moving to Antarctica, no. We will not remain on Earth. No, Earth had it's chance, and chose betrayal. We will be moving to the planet you call Mars.”

“What? Mars? Like Mars, Mars?” you sat, shocked, the notebook in your lap. “You can't just...”

Loki silenced you with a thin, smug smile.

“Whyever not?” he asked. “Who lives there? What lives there? Nothing, and no one. We would not be pushing anybody out of their homelands, nor posing a danger to any ecosystem. There is nothing there but remote controlled toys. No one has claim over it. I know there is at least one fool who fancies himself a genius, and has convinced many that he owns the place, but how is he going to get there? In one of his constantly exploding vehicles? No, Earth has no power over Mars, and soon it will be ours. We are the ones who can make it a livable land. Humans simply don't have the technology or experience. Can you harness Bifrost energy to get the core and mantle moving again, to create a magnetic field? You do not. Can you live safely on the surface for long enough to get anything done? You cannot. In fact, for humans to be safe on Mars, you would have to hide behind around nine feet of Martian soil.”

“Nine-like the house? That design is for a Mars house?”

“Clever thing. Yes, it is for a Mars house. Part of a community partially above and partially below ground, connected by buried roadways. A city adapted to the planets unique characteristics. We will alter the landscape, reignite the magnetic field, cleanse the soil of radiation, perhaps use that as a secondary energy source for a while. The planet is rich in water: this whole system is so rich in resources that it would absolutely be under attack at all times if more people knew about it.

But you have us now. We know how to render empty planets useful. Once we have made Mars into our new Asgard, we will turn our eyes to the great potential of the one you call Venus.”

“You're gonna take Venus too?” you exclaimed.

“Take? Again, who owns it? No one. There is no one to take it from. Imagine thinking that just because you see something, just because you name it, that somehow means you own it. No one lives there, and there are no habitats to destroy, so why does this offend you so?”

You couldn't really answer. Everything he had said was true. And yet, you still somehow felt a sort of proprietary nebulous collective ownership over the planetary system that was your species only home.

“Do you feel entitled to the asteroids as well? The comets? The moons and atmospheres of the giant planets? The very dust of the stellar cloud? Your species once shared this backwater world with multiple other human species, but now that you are the only ones left, you've forgotten how to share with anyone.”

“Is it sharing? You can travel around better than we can. Will there be anything left by the time we're able to travel like you?”

He chuckled, the condescension like a thick layer of butter over bread.

“Oh, I understand now. You're so used to the overarching greed and cruelty of your own people, that you can't imagine that we could be any different. We aren't going to lock you little humans away from Mars, or Venus, or any other place. Indeed, why do you think we've been studying how thick a wall is needed for human safety on Mars? It is all but certain that humans and Asgardians will live side by side throughout this star system. You will join us sooner or later. It is inevitable. The instant the perceived challenge is issued, your desiccated space programs will flare back to life. You humans are incredibly competitive, though in a different way than Asgardians. We are more individual, but you drift towards teams. It will be interesting to see how the competition plays out.”

“You're looking forward to this?” you asked.

“I am counting on it.” he said. “Now, do you think that house would be big enough for you? It will be roughly three times the size of your current apartment, and partially underground. Would that bother you? Would you need more space?”

The notebook slipped to the floor. “You can't mean...” you whispered.

“Give it some thought. It won't be for a while yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be within your lifetime. Would you like to be the first human on Mars? Beat that so-called genius to the red planet? See us kickstart the world?”

It was a fantastic dream. Impossible. Completely impossible. But could you? “I-I don't know...”

“Think on it. But for now, I think this medicine is making me weary. I am losing track of time and thought. Take me to the window, and sit with me there.”

You did, making yourself comfortable on your special cushion, as he rambled about Asgardian building techniques, methods of energy storage, and how to contain oxygen in their hypothetical underground cities while working on building a sustainable atmosphere. He talked about Mars as if it were no more than a challenge, explaining all the resources that made the planet such a likely candidate for the transformation process. How they could alter the thin atmosphere with Thor's power to create ozone, split molecules to create oxygen, how to decontaminate irradiated soil, and even enrich it with naturally occurring resources. You didn't understand much of it, but the gist was that they had done this before, and only lacked the resources to build the tools they needed. As soon as they had that, there were no limits. According to Loki, it could all be done very fast.

And he was very fixated on the idea of you coming with him, seemed to have a very romanticized view of the human drive to explore. In some ways, he wasn't wrong. The thought of being the first human to travel to the red planet, to walk on its surface, to live there-it was thrilling. It was a dream humankind had harbored for a long time.

On the other hand, as far as you understood, Mars was kind of a shithole.

Yes, Loki claimed that his people could change that, prattling on about groves, and grasslands, and even tropics. He was also high. He could just as easily be talking nonsense.

Atmosphere notwithstanding, Mars was farther from the sun than Earth was. Wouldn't it always be colder? You could envision, after a lot of work and change, the planet hosting the kinds of things that grew in Siberia maybe. Lichens and short, scrubby grasses, possibly even conifers. Maybe seaweed, in the great seas and lakes he described the icecaps filling up.

But delicate tropical flowers, and big, soft fruits, and plants that needed three hundred days of strong sun and sweltering temperatures to thrive? No way. Better to leave the jungles to Venus.

Which was apparently part of the plan. The thinning of the atmosphere of Venus, would contribute to the thickening of the atmosphere of Mars. It involved even more technobabble that you couldn't grasp, but Loki was very sure about the viability of transferring resources throughout the solar system. From atmosphere, to water, to metals, to trace elements, Asgardians apparently knew how to do it all. It almost made you believe it.

Loki babbled like a bird all through dinner and the evening, and you were almost glad to be sent off the warm his bed. Your brain was exhausted, but he was as energetic as ever.

Stripped of your uniform, you snuggled into his luxurious bed, still trying to resolve the image of Loki-lover of opulent baths, rich clothing, and indulgent bedding-with that of an excited, daring, and rough living pioneer. You drifted off to a daydream of him, in a pith helmet and beige jodhpurs, standing majestically in a jeep that kicked up the Martian dust behind it...

                                                                               ******

...And awoke to Loki sniffing your hair.

He was pressed all alongside you, snuggled up with an arm thrown over your waist. And he was sniffing your hair.

He must have noticed a change in your breathing or physical pliancy, because he withdrew his arm immediately.

“Ah.” he whispered. “The jig is up, as they say.”

You scooted quickly away from him.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” you demanded.

“Forgive me.” he said, yawning. “You just seemed so peaceful. I thought it a shame to wake you.”

“Did you turn off my alarm?”

He had the grace to look mildly ashamed.

“That...might have happened.”

“And there was nothing you could do but try to cop a feel?”

“I prefer to think of it as a friendly cuddle.”

“Well don't! Don't think you can just do whatever you want with me!”

“I shan't, I promise. As your master, I promise, I will not again overstep the bounds of our agreement. As my servant, I ask your trust.”

“...Maybe tomorrow.”

Face burning fiercely, you exited the bed, and hurried for the door. Your clothing was on the other side of the bed-the other side of Loki. In the dark, he might or might not getting a good look at your underwear clad rear, depending on how well Asgardians could see in the dark, so you booked it out of his room, across the hall, and into yours before he could say anything.

You threw yourself onto your futon, huddled down in your nice new blankets, and shivered. Your trust? He asked for your trust? He asked you to leave everything you knew, your whole world, to walk the distant sands of Mars? Something you couldn't even safely do until the planet had been transformed? He dared to lure you into a false sense of security in his sweet-smelling bed, and then ask for your trust? How much of your life were you willing to give?

[thoughtfullyyoungduck]

Misjudgment

Summary: can you do a losers club x reader where the losers save the reader from the bowers gang so they invite her to the losers club, except stan doesn’t trust her bc he’s stan. so then the reader confronts him abt it and then they become friends?

Being the new kid in any new school is difficult a label designed and slapped on your forehead to follow you around and attrack attention because of it. Derry middle school was no exception, and in fact, to you knowledge, was even worse than any other school you had ever been too. Your parents switched jobs a lot, and with that came moving around heaps of times too, so being the new kid wasn’t a state-of-the art experience for you. 

It still sucked, walking into a school, your peers huddled together in group while you, the loner, picked at your fingernails to appear busy and to not get caught staring longingly as two friends giggled and talked about their crushes to one another.

The first time you spotted Bill, leader of the infamous loser club you would soon become a part of, was the same day you first witnessed Henry’s psychotic behavior, plundering Bill’s book bag and lighting it on fire mere inches away from the poor kids face. You had stomped over, snatching the bag out of Henry’s hands, the books were mostly destroyed and missing, and handed it back to the boy who scrambled up.

‘You better stay the fuck away from me you fucking hoer. You must either have a Deathwish or want to date B-b-billy,’ he mocked,’ enough that you don’t care who you piss of, and that mistake, can be deadly here in my town.’

Bill thanked you, asked for your name and invited you to join in on a birdwatching retreat him and his friend were going on, but you declined. The altercation left you rattled and spooked, and you didn’t know Bill or any of his friends, all strangers in a town of even more strangers, and went back home.

That decision had both negative and positive outcomes attached to it. Bowers awaited you along with his goons, emptying a slushie on your head and spitting in your face and hair, humiliating you to the best of their abilities. At one point, they tried to glue a freshly bought pad to your skirt, their tyranny halted as Bill and his followers threatened to call the police on them.

‘That’s what being brave will get you in this town’, Mike said, staring the bowers gang off as they .

‘Yeah, but luckily there’s strength in numbers.’

‘Yup, welcome to the losers club new kid. Ben, you’ve been kicked off the nickname ‘new kid’, I need to find you a new one.’ Richie pondered, tapping his fingers to his chin as he came up with a new nickname for Ben.

Persuading Richie into giving him a different derogatory name was enough for Ben to accept you with open arms in the group, as did almost everyone else, and you gained six new friends, a huge upgrade from the zero friends you had prior to them. The hospitality showed, and you were never forced to eat lunch or walk to class by yourself any longer.

The losers club consisted of seven people, but to your parents you vowed that there we’re only six friends you engaged with, because the seventh member, Stanley, was not your friend. At most, the two of you were acquaintances, people that hung out because of mutual friends.

He never liked you or made an effort to befriend you, his cold demeaner deterring and dynamite to your time dedicated to the losers. Not once did he address you personally, and if someone inquired a question and you would go to respond, Stanley would talk over you, like you were never there in the first place. The whole situation, that you had no inkling on how you ended up in the first place, put a damper on the blossoming friendship, and you often found yourself nail-biting tense, on the lookout for the day the other losers would be tired of the tense underlying issues themselves and kick you to the curb.  

This unease pushed you to confront Stanley about his behavior towards you, as you did not want to end up alone again, and you adored the friends you had made in the losers club too much to let go without a fight.

The opportunity to do this arose one day after school, when only Eddie and Richie, both lounging in the hammock, and Stanley and you are around in the clubhouse. You’re sketching in the a notebook, the one you and Bill share, to compare  various techniques and color schemes, and also because it’s fun and interesting to observe what someone else is crafting.

No one besides Bill and you know of its existence, but it’s not strictly a secret, it’s more of a - none of the others care so why tell them-? You’re seated in the stack of cushions, plumped up by Eddie, in order to protect ones ass against blisters, since that’s thing apparently, and Stanley is fully emerged in a book, as far away from you as the small, incepted space allows.

The drawing is coming along pretty well, the sketch portraying the clubhouse itself and it’s inhabitants, and you’re focusing on measuring the length between the hatchet and the far wall, when Stanley spots the book in your lap.

‘That’s Bill’s,’ he snidest, crossing the room in no time to protectively grab it and cage it in his arms.

‘I know that’, you secure, reaching for the book but too short to actually clasp it. ‘I borrow it from him.’

Stanley stares you down with a level headed look, ‘Oh, really?’ He says so sarcastically you urge to rip out his tongue and render him silent.

‘Yes really. What’s the problem with that Stanley?’

‘Stan the man, chill out’, Richie laughs on edge, squirming in his place as he and Eddie watch the situation unfold.

‘No fuck that. What the fuck did I do to get you to hate me so much?’

‘You know what you did.’

‘Enlighten me, fucking please Stanley.’  The hostility swarming around the two of you is palpable, and it’s containing to build to a crescendo neither are prepared for. His admission could potentially dissolve the undercover threat, a way for you to explain or fix the thing you display that Stanley contempt. But that can only be done if the thing gets pointed out, which so far, it hasn’t.  

‘You are conspiring with Bowers and Patrick, I am onto you.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Just admit it.’

‘Okay, I fucking admit I’m colluding with the same douchebags that tried to defoule me. You got me there Stanley’, you’re seething, rage vibrating in every pore. Richie and Eddie attempt to deflate the situations, but glares from Stanley and you dispirited their focus.

‘Stan, come on,’ Eddie pacifies, ‘why would she do that?’

‘Is it not it convenient that she just so happened to be at the same time and place as Bill is getting beat up? And that she gets attacked right after but somehow escaped any physical damage? Who knows what secrets she’s been tattling?’

‘Well I’m sorry, let me go to them and ask if they would be so kind to punch me in the face’, your voice got more and more hysterical with every word, and you bend down your knees making eye contact with Stanley as you mock him.

‘Stan Urine, This isn’t ‘The Soldier’, they’re no such thing as spies, although Miss K in a spy suit is the fantasy to have for all my wet dreams.’ Richie vulgar joke goes by unnoticed, you and Stan involved in a staring match. You’re the one that breaks eye contact, huffing as you slide on your heels and move to leave.

‘Fine, whatever, I pick up on when I’m not wanted.’

‘No wait. Y/N, don’t go.’  

‘Stan the man gets prickly around the time his period is due, chalk it up to that.’

‘Shut the fuck up Richie no I don’t.’

You force the handle up, resting it a bit above your head and pause, sighing. ‘I’m not conspiring with Bowers, I just wanted to make friends.’ The latch gravitates to the floor after you’ve climbed out, and with it a chapter of your life, now it’s back to being friendless.

Four steps away from the clubhouse, the latch opens again and out tumbles Stan, meticulously lifting himself up by the piece of hardwood that is unscathed with dirt from the ground, and sprints to catch up with you.

‘I am sorry’, he says, flabbergasting you. ‘I should have been more open and accepting, and not my judgmental, evil self. I am not myself if I haven’t eaten a snicker and I apologize,’ Stan rolls his eyes.

‘Those lines were fed to you by Richie’, you state matter of fact, a smile tugging up your lips in spite of your earlier mood set.

‘No they weren’t’, elevates from below ground, conforming your suspicions.

‘Okay, yeah partly. But I do need to apologize. Being so antagonistic was wrong and unnecessary. Can we start over?’

‘I mean, give me back my notes and we’ll make a deal out of it?’

‘Of course.’

[mma3youf]

FA222 ,principles of graphic design:

Instructor: mr.munwar mukhtar

@uob-funoon @mnwrzmn

Project 1 : interviews

What is your given name, and user name on ZBrush Central?

My name is Khalid Abdulla Al-Muharraqi, my ZBrush Central user name is "Khalid72".

Tell us about your company, how did you start?

I set up Muharraqi-Studios to continue my family's history in the creative world and I am trying to continue to build on what my father started. The company was set up about two years ago after I left the commercial world of advertising with my partner Rashad who decided to leave a career in banking. We wanted to get together to make a place that allows us to be more creative. Since then we have been fortunate enough to work on some of the biggest projects in the middle east, and also continue working on our ideas and concepts, like our movie project. The most important thing for me is the work I do and that's what we are all about.

What is the size of your company?

The company is me and my partner, oh and our secretary... Keesha, a German Shepard! I am a hand's on guy and I do all the creative work myself. At first, I thought it was normal to carry that load because of the speed I work in, but later found out that I am actually very fast compared with bigger teams of artists in other studios. Finally I understood what people were telling me when they said I was 'unusual'. That’s why some of the CG magazines in Europe were amazed that a lot of our work is done by a one man team that puts all the 3D components together into a visualization. I work about 13 to 18 hours a day, I love 3D work, so my hobby and my work has joined into one, so … yes, very little time for a normal life.

What type of projects do you work on?

Well, I have been working on Architectural Visualizations since we started a couple of years ago, but I try to satisfy my urge to do what I really like, art!

You're located in Bahrain, somewhere most of us don't know about. Can you tell us how you learned your trade?

I love this question, Yes Bahrain is a small Island in the Persian gulf, we speak Arabic as our main language and English for the second, I will answer the second part in two parts, If you mean The art... I would say that I come from an artistic family, my father is one of the most well known artists in this part of the world, you can say that he is a household name in these parts. If you are asking were did I learn the 3D or CG art, I would say that I learned it by practicing for 8 hours a day after my official day of work, so I guess you can say I have been my own teacher in the industry.

Tell us a bit about your client base, mostly local, or do you have clients in Europe, Asia, America?

We serve clients from the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, I would say that I have been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the top people in the architectural industry, most of our clients are attracted to the type of work that we produce.

ow long have you been an artist?

Since I was six...I think! Well, the first painting I have sold when I was eleven. I was always painting and trying to find new techniques that will help create the concept in my mind.

Tell us about your background, your education, your mentors...

I studied art in Houston Texas for over seven years between interior decoration, photography, Visual communication, and digital enhancement or photo retouching, from there I have continued my working career in the commercial world. My first mentor would have to be my father, learned everything I know from him. He gave me the push start into the art world and made me feel it. There are also the books and artwork he has exposed me too with some of the top art in the world. A lot of names come to mind but I would say Frank Farazeta, Boris, The Creepy magazine and of course all the original Mad magazines and books that were very hot in the early 80's.

When you became an artist, did you first use traditional media?

For sure, I started with Pencil then got into crosshatching with ink, then I started painting with water colors and gouaches. I finally got into air brush art before I tried CG art.

What was your first CG package? What is your first 3D Package?

Nice question... first CG software was PSD, version 2, it was like magic... It felt strange especially that I was a traditional artist at the time. My first 3D package would be Alias Sketch for the Mac since I was a Mac user for a long time and did not have much 3D developers for Mac at the time. It was a new world for me and I think I still have a dusty copy of it today even after the software was canceled back in the early 90's, it just reminds me of my past.

How long have you been using ZBrush?

It has only been about six months, but I was up and running almost a few hours after I purchased it.

What made you try ZBrush?

I was watching some of the tutorial videos on how to paint details on the Gnomon training DVD's, and that's when I was shocked to see that it is art on the computer! I did not believe it at first, but It was one of the happiest moments when I first installed my first copy of ZBrush and started painting geometry for the first time, it reminded me with the days when I was pushing and pulling real clay to make a small creature of my imagination when I was a kid.

What's your favorite ZBrush feature?

The ability to paint geometry like it is physically in my hands.

How has ZBrush enabled you to express yourself in ways other packages couldn't?

Well you cant really compare it with any other software, it's simply too different! It changes how a CG artist works, it changes how he looks at things, has changed the industry to the next future leap, and who would want to go back to the past....? I would simply say that the concept of the software is very smart and impressive, my only wish to add on it is to have a bigger view port :)

Now onto "Floating Islands"Tell us about your creative process, how did this concept emerge?

One evening when I was stuck in the studio waiting for clients approval on a project that I was preparing for the kingdom of Bahrain, I was trying to get free again and relax my mind from all boundaries, I started to sketch a concept that has bean in my mind since I was a kid, the island that was then discovered to be on the back of a whale, these were some of the old middle eastern stories about Sinbad's magical voyages.

Do ideas just come to you out of nowhere, or are there particular artists or work you are inspired by?

I am always inspired by everything that is beautiful, whether it is an artist or a design or just Gods creation, I would also say that I have always had my own style in my work and almost never try to follow a certain style that I have seen.

I love this piece, can you tell me about the process of creating it? Have you explored this style before? Or was this created for something specific?

The process was, a sketch or the map as I would call it, and that would be the basis of my creation, I almost never start without it, once I crack the direction then I would start thinking about the execution and the path to take. About the style, well I don't think of my work as style, I think it is more towards I do what I feel, it is only when I am finished with it that I say "Yes! That's what I was tying to do". I almost never tried to repeat a style that I have seen elsewhere on my work. I feel that It is like a code of respect between artists.

In your image "Floating Islands" where was ZBrush used?

ZBrush helped me sculpt the geometry and take it to the next level in a short time. Modeling, UVs, Painting and scenes setups was between Lightwave and Modo. With ZBrush I was able to put the final touches that would make it come to life. ZBrush helped me start painting the UV map textures and setting up the foundation of the look and feel. I also generated some of the whales textures by the amazing ZMapper ;)

Tell us about your pipeline.

I start with Modo, then go to ZBrush, then finally render with Lightwave. The thing with software today is that they work hand in hand to complete each other, for instance ZBrush is very specialized in what it does, it focuses on the need of the artist and helps the creator to complete his task sufficiently with a smooth flow, artists have never had it this good.

What projects are you working on now?

We have just completed the visualization for the Master Plan for the Kingdom of Bahrain with one of the leading Architectural firms in the world, we have helped restructure and rebuild old and new cities for the country. Now I will be working more onto the movie project that we have been trying to get the time to start, hopefully I will be able to focus more on creating more Characters and environments for the movie.

Any last comments for us?

I would like to say Thank you to Manuel at Pixologic and Pixologic for appreciating the work I do. I would also like to thank all the development team and staff at Pixologic for there dedication to work together to help create some of the best tools ever created for the CG industry, I always expect the ideas to be fresh and most importantly designed for the end user, the artist, allowing the artist to continue being an artist without the restrictions and boundaries of a computer.

[nokomiss]

For the prompt, how about Jason and Damian with Letter J? Thank you.

I didn’t forget this, @dn-ky! just got a little busy. Hope you enjoy! 

*

There was a loud thumping noise and even louder cursing coming from the library.

Jason would normally keep walking, heading instead to the kitchen for that home cooked meal that Alfred had promised, but he recognized the voice.  Damian sounded frustrated to the point of tears,which simply was not normal, and he had the feeling that if Tim or Bruce wandered by and chose to investigate, that Damian would buck up and become even more recalcitrant than usual.

He stood outside the door for a long moment, listening -- the cursing continued, though quieter, and with a single-minded determination that Jason almost admired. He sighed and pushed open the door. Damian was in the center of the room, surrounded by a small fortune’s worth of art supplies.  This wouldn’t be unusual, except instead of Damian’s preferred sketchpads, pencils and paints, he was surrounded by hot glue guns, googly eyes, and various colorful bits of fluff.

“What the hell is all this?” Jason asked, nudging  a pile of what looked like feathers dyed in primary colors with the toe of his boot.

“A nightmare,” Damian said darkly. There was a smear of blue paint on his nose; Jason was absolutely not going to tell him about it.

“So I see,” Jason said. There was a poster board in front of Damian that he was attempting to glue pipe cleaners along the edges of. It wasn’t going well, judging by the glops of glue and the sad state of the pipe cleaners.  My Family, it proclaimed in colorful balloon letters. He was going to regret this, but… “Can I help?”

“No.” Damian abandoned the pipe cleaners and dug through the pile of craft supplies, coming up with some sparkly fuzzballs. He picked up the glue gun and began to affix them around a picture of Bruce. It looked as though Bruce was being attacked by muppets.

Jason gave one more thought to the home cooked meal; Alfred had promised him soup. He supposed that it would wait. Sit there simmering away while he granted mercy to the boy.

It would still be waiting on him.  He sat down and grabbed some glue.

“You know who you should call?” Jason said a few minutes later after making the mistake of opening the glitter. 

“Absolutely not.”  Damian didn’t even look up from where he was adding sparkly letters under Jason’s picture. Jason leaned over to see what he was spelling out: RIP.

“You know how happy Steph gets when there’s glitter and you ask her for help,” Jason tried again. He could leave, he knew, but they were actually making progress and Damian was no longer cursing.

“No one else can know,” Damian said, probably trying for stern but it was undercut by the fact that glitter now cling to the paint on his nose. It was adorable. Jason was going to take a pic the second the kid’s attention was turned and use it as blackmail for years. 

Then he noticed what Damian was doing. “Hey, those flames better be because of how fire I am, not because of anything theological.”

Damian lowered the flame sticker and put it to the side, leaving the picture of fifteen year old Jason unmarred. 

“So why are you going this overboard?” Jason asked. Damian had a tendency to overdo things, sure, but this was hardly his style.

Damian focused on adding a poop emoji sticker over Tim’s picture. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. Embarrassed. “This is a redo.”

“A redo— Damian, did you fail an assignment?”  Jason forgot what he was doing and accidentally let a puddle of glitter glue form. “Shit,” he muttered, attempting to mop it up.  

Damian’s silence spoke volumes. Jason looked again at the mountain of colorful, sparkly supplies and did the math. “Did your teacher suggest more color?”

“She said my first attempt was austere and depressing,” Damian admitted. 

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Show me.”

Damian shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”  He carefully drew an elaborate border around Cass’s picture in purple marker. 

Jason thought it did matter. He stood up, brushing stray bits of glitter off his pants -- these were his work pants, too, he was going to be leaving a glitter trail on the rooftops of Gotham tonight -- and headed for Damian’s backpack, which was laying near the door. Like the kid had dropped it on his way in, which, again, not like him.

Damian was so focused on his art that he didn’t realize Jason’s plan at first. 

The poster board was folded up and crammed into the back pocket of the backpack, and Jason almost looked it over at first. It was dark enough to blend in.Then -- just as Damian launched himself at Jason and attempted to stop him from opening it, Jason easily dodged him and opened it anyway.

It was austere, the teacher had been right on that count. But the effort Damian had put in to capture the family’s aesthetic was incredible-- dark grey poster board, black and white pictures of each family member, with a careful description beneath each. No further decoration, but it was clean and classic, and reminded Jason of the lines of the Wayne building downtown.

Then he realized that the black and white pictures were actually sketches of each family member. Bruce looking on with approval, arms crossed over his chest. Dick laughing, a spoonful of cereal halfway to his mouth. Tim grinning with a gaming controller gripped in both hands, clearly gleeful from a victory. Cass caught mid-pirouette, lines of her body clean and graceful. Duke with a soft smile, like he wasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up there, but was glad for it. Alfred, mouth quirked up in that smirk he got so often when watching them. Even Talia, the pencil marks soft enough to make her seem almost gentle. 

And there was even Jason. Damian had left his face unfinished enough that he looked like the child he’d been before his death, though the smile was the same.  

Damian had even included pictures of the pets, carefully and lovingly rendered.

“What the fuck,” Jason said. “Why are we creating this monstrosity when you did this?”

“My teacher doesn’t believe that I did it,” Damian said stiffly.”She said I was to do another one unassisted.”

“Your teacher’s an asshole,” Jason said. “This is incredible.”

He looked back at the mess of glitter, glue, and various craft supplies that was drying on the floor. “You know what we should do?”

“We are not hanging that up,” Damian said stiffly. Jason shook his head. “I think we should go egg your teacher’s house.”

Damian scrunched up his nose. “I don’t think--”

“If you think that Robin and Red Hood can’t manage to egg one house without getting caught…”

“I didn’t say that,” Damian said stiffly.

“Then come on,” Jason said, folding the poster back up. “You can turn in the new one tomorrow. But tonight? Sweet revenge.”

Damian hesitated a moment more before succumbing to his desire for vengeance.

He even got caught up enough in gathering egging supplies that he didn’t notice that Jason took the poster.

[patchwork-panda]

If A Moment is All We Are (5.2/?)

This chapter is REALLY long so I split the text ver into 2 parts for Tumblr.

AO3 link: here

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Story type: Romance/Drama/comedy

Pairing: Dazai x OC/reader (Dazai is endgame, fic is long-running and will also feature Kunikida x OC)

OC (Kusunoki Kyou) and Ability are based off of "The Story of Your Life," written by Ted Chiang, aka the basis of the Amy Adams movie "Arrival."

Rating: M for Blood/violence/themes of depression, anxiety, suicide TW: The second half of this story will deal more heavily with themes of suicide, depression/anxiety. *No major character death will occur*

Story follows OC as she joins the ADA, partners up with the detectives to solve various cases around Yokohama and develops feelings for Kunikida and Dazai (Dazai endgame).

Written for those who want an immersive ADA experience :)

Updates every Sunday evening around 6pm PST

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“...Dazai-san, could you hang on a second?”

“Hm?”

He paused just a short distance ahead of me, waiting patiently as I pulled my light jacket a little closer around me and buttoned it up as high as it could go. I had no idea how long I’d been in the infirmary but it had to have been hours—in the time between nearly dying at the art gallery and stepping out of the Armed Detective Agency building, the temperature had dropped significantly. The sun had long since set (which made sense, given the sunset was the last thing I saw before I broke my neck in front of Yosano), a full, pale moon shone high in the sky and the night was as cold as it was dark. So much for spending a balmy, spring evening sketching with the windows open...

As I suddenly sneezed into my elbow, Dazai stepped forward.

“Here,” he said gently, taking off his trench coat and draping it around my shoulders. “The place we’re going isn’t too far away. Think you can handle the cold for just a little longer?”

As the residual warmth from Dazai’s large coat slowly seeped into my body, I felt a soft heat bloom in my cheeks. The coat was too large on me and it smelled faintly of coffee and cologne.

Here, walking along the river with him at night, in a part of the city I’d never been to, the whole day felt so far away. It was as if the static inside my head, the darkness inside me—they weren’t just gone, they didn’t even exist. Though I’d had nothing but strange encounters with Dazai, my heart suddenly felt light. I pulled the coat a little closer around me and smiled.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to...”

“Of course I did,” Dazai replied smoothly as we continued walking forward. “When you’re walking a beautiful lady back to her apartment at night and she gets cold—”

“It’s more than just that!” I insisted, hoping my face didn’t look too red.

The street was fairly deserted but to any passing onlookers, it might seem like we were coming back from a date, given I was wearing his coat and he was walking just a little too close to me. I took a small step away from him to try to slow the pounding of my heart.

“I wanted to say thanks for vouching for me back there. I’m actually surprised you did, given everything that’s happened... and how I reacted to it all...”

Without meaning to, I glanced at the bandages covering his arms, at the gauze that was slowly peeling away from his cheek—the tape must have come loose after I’d thrown the pillow at him and I abruptly looked away when I felt his eyes searching for mine. For a while, we walked in silence. I stared down at my shoes, Dazai’s coat suddenly feeling oppressively heavy on my shoulders. The words I really wanted to say kept sticking in my throat when I tried to get them out so I cleared my throat and tried to talk about something else.

“Dazai-san, do you really think I’m Agency material? I mean, I am an Ability User just like many of you but... I remember now. There were always so many rumors told around campus about you all. They say you’re strong, strong enough to take down monsters, and that when the Military Police or even the government has its hands full, they call upon you.”

My fingers fidgeted with the material of Dazai’s coat.

“If that’s true, then... why would you ask me to join you? I said it earlier, back at the infirmary. I can’t fight. I barely made it out of the gallery alive, thanks to the two of you. What makes you think—”

“Kusunoki-san.”

Dazai stopped walking. Standing under the glow of a nearby streetlamp, he studied me, his soft brown eyes compassionate, the top of his head framed in a warm, coppery halo.

“Some of the most dangerous and useful Abilities out there have nothing to do with fighting,” he said quietly. “Think about the fact that the Port Mafia came to collect you. Sometimes it’s not the Ability but the potential. And not everyone has potential.”

Taking a moment to let his words sink in, he smiled and inclined his head up, indicating I should look behind me.

“By the way... we’re here.”

I turned around and looked up to see a small, three-story apartment complex with soft sand-colored walls, tucked just inside a six-foot high barrier which hid the first floor of the complex from the streets. A set of stairs descended from the side of the building towards ground level and I trailed behind Dazai as he approached the main entrance, a modest opening in the barrier wall where a set of cheap, black wrought-iron gates separated us from the tiny courtyard within.

As he pulled out a set of keys from his pocket, I found my eyes drawn to the patch of dried blood on the palm of his bandaged hands—my blood, I forcefully reminded myself—and in an instant, the words I’d been struggling to get out all evening finally left my mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Dazai asked, turning to look at me.

The tape holding down the square of gauze on his cheek had peeled off even more and I felt a fresh stab of guilt when I saw the deep scratch underneath that was just starting to heal.

“For throwing that pillow at you.”

I looked away.

“And for everything else I’ve troubled you with... I’m really sorry.”

Dazai chuckled, a low, humorless sound and sauntered up to me as I took off his coat and gave it back. He placed the keys in the palm of my hand and closed my fingers over them.

“There’s no need to apologize,” he murmured, throwing his coat back on and guiding me towards the main gate. “You were just trying to survive.”

“Yeah, but...”

I sighed and leaned back against the barrier just inches from the break in the gate.

“Dazai-san... I couldn’t help noticing you were covered in bandages when we met. Now you have even more. Was there a reason you didn’t ask Yosano-sensei to heal you?”

I twisted the keys around in my hand.

“Was she unable to heal you because she spent so much time on me?”

Dazai shook his head.

“That’s not it.”

“Then, why—?”

“She can’t heal me, Kusunoki-san. Not in the same way she can heal you.”

I stared at him.

“What...?”

The corners of his lips turned upward and he slipped his bloodied hand out of his pocket and placed it on the wall, just beside my face.

“Would you like to take a guess?” he asked, looking somewhat amused at the prospect of a game, “At what my Ability is? I’ll give you a reward if you get it right.”

He moved a little closer and the scent of his cologne wafted through the air.

“In fact, I’ll even give you a hint, because I like you so much...”

Shadows danced within his eyes.

“It’s called ‘No Longer Human.’”

No Longer...?

Unable to guess, I shook my head and his smile grew even bigger.

“Like yours, my Ability is activated through touch. And like yours, it’s always active. What my Ability allows me to do... is cancel out all other special Abilities I come into contact with.”

I sucked in a breath. So that’s why I couldn’t see his future when he held my hand at the police station and earlier at the infirmary. It wasn’t that time stopped; my Ability had been rendered inactive. But that means...

“Yosano-sensei can’t heal you?”

I looked once again at the layers of bandages wrapped around his neck and forearms, the patch of gauze stuck to his cheek. I felt something thick and oppressive bubbling up in my throat and I swallowed thickly to push down the rising sense of fear.

“But then, what happens if you get seriously hurt working a case? What if you...?”

“What’s this?” Dazai laughed, sounding pleasantly surprised. “Kusunoki-san, you’re...?”

His laughter slowly fading, he leaned in close, so close I could count his eyelashes, taste the coffee on his breath. His gingerbread-brown eyes sparkled as they held my gaze.

“Are you worried about me, my sweet Camellia blossom?”

“I-I guess? I don’t know,” I admitted, looking over his shoulder as my face burned anew.

The moon was high in the sky and the building’s front wall felt cool against my back.

“I just wish that there was something I could do for you...” I mumbled at last.

Dazai grew quiet. He tilted his head to the side, his eyes never leaving my face.

“You wish to do something for me?” Dazai repeated, his gaze unwavering. “Don’t tell me, you’re feeling sorry for me?”

“That’s not it,” I lied, shaking my head. “It’s just, for a second... back at the infirmary...”

I swallowed.

“You just looked so lonely back there.”

His smile faltered. I heard the soft scratch of his fingernails next to my ear as his hand slipped a fraction against the wall.

“Lonely, huh?”

Slowly, the look in his eyes changed, subtle longing transforming into hardened purpose.

“I have been searching for a companion as of late,” he admitted, surprising me. “If you’d like to do something for me, there is this one thing...”

“What is it?” I asked a little too quickly—my guilt and my budding feelings were getting the better of me and judging by the contemplative look on Dazai’s face, he knew it too.

Still smiling, the shadows lengthening under his wine-dark eyes, he traced the corner of my jaw with one slender finger and whispered:

“Come away with me. We’ll go to a museum, have drinks at the bar, maybe take a nice long walk in the park by the sea... And then, if you’d like, we can end the night at the bridge. Have you ever been there? The view is to die for...”

“Dazai-san...”

I grasped his hand.

“Are you asking me on a date or are you asking me if I’ll join you in that double suicide you talked about?”

My fingers curled around his.

After rescuing me and stopping me from doing something stupid... after taking the darkness away... He asks me this...?

“The answer is no.”

I pushed him away and moved away from the wall, towards the gate, only to see that when I looked back at him, rather than appearing hurt, he seemed calmer than ever. Something about that serene smile unnerved me and I took another step back as he stuffed his hands back into his pockets.

“Why can’t it be both?” he asked. “Double suicide—no, a lovers’ suicide. It sounds romantic, don’t you think?”

“Not really.”

Dazai sighed. Heavily.

“Alright,” he said, shrugging. “It was worth a shot.”

He turned away from me and made to go.

“Dazai-san...”

Bitter disappointment welled up in my chest.

“Did you offer to walk me home just so you could try this out on me?”

“Not at all,” Dazai declared. “I was actually hoping you would say yes. Then all my hopes and dreams would finally come true.”

I sucked in a breath.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I was,” Dazai affirmed, turning back around to face me. “And I am. You don’t have to say yes right away, Kusunoki-san. Take your time, think about it. Just know that if you ever change your mind, you’ll know where to find me.”

A cold wind began to blow. As we stood opposite each other before the wrought-metal gates, our figures bathed in the harsh light of an enormous, full moon, an odd chill settled into my bones, one that had nothing to do with the unusually wintry night.

Dazai rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Actually, maybe you don’t. I should probably give you my number.”

“No, thanks.”

“Just to let you know,” he said, taking his own cell out of his pocket and shooting a text. “My apartment’s not very far from here. If you ever need anything—anything at all...”

The burner cell he’d given me buzzed in my pocket and I realized he’d just sent me the text.

“Just give me a call. I promise I’ll be right over.”

He winked.

“I look forward to hearing from you.”

And with that, he walked away into the night, his sand-colored trench coat billowing in the wind and the sound of his footsteps slowly fading away. I was left standing in front of the gates of my new home, alone.

***

The lock on the front door finally gave way and I fumbled for the light switch as I pushed my way inside the apartment. Fluorescent lights buzzed and flickered to life, illuminating a modest one-bed, one-bath studio apartment, not unlike the one I had just vacated. I was relieved to find my old laptop and charger sitting on a table in the kitchen area and a small bag of familiar-looking clothes underneath. My excitement at finding my favorite pair of bunny-print pajamas quickly turned to embarrassment as I pictured the strict Kunikida, the elegant Yosano or even coolly casual Tanizaki stepping into my old place and finding the walls covered in anime posters and the once-pristine tatami-mat floor fully concealed under all the layers of dirty laundry and plastic snack wrappers...

Pushing aside my embarrassment, I changed into my pajamas and went to the bathroom to wash up before bed, making a mental note to thank whoever was kind enough to not only retrieve some of my most important belongings, but also leave me a new toothbrush and cup. I’d probably slept most of the evening away already but after that last conversation with Dazai, I felt confused and drained enough to sleep for another week. As I rummaged through the closet in search of a futon, a jarring, piercing set of chimes rang loudly throughout the apartment and I dropped the futon in surprise.

It was my burner cell—I’d forgotten to take it out of my jacket pocket and it was bumping up against the door as it buzzed, the shrill tones barely muffled by the thick denim encasing it.

Praying it wasn’t Dazai, I picked it up and held it to my ear.

“H-hello?”

“Ah, Kusunoki-san?” Kunikida’s now-familiar voice came through the speaker. “Sorry to call you so late. Is this a good time?”

“Kunikida-san!” I exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief as I flopped down, laying with my back against the tatami-mat floor. “Yes, yes it is. What’s going on?”

“Well, it’s about your request to join the Agency.”

Kunikida paused.

“I’ve spoken to the President. He’s agreed to let you take the Entrance Exam.”

“He did?!”

I sat up at once, pressing the speaker as tightly as possible against my ear.

“What else did he say? Is there something I should be studying off of? When’s the—”

“I’m very sorry, Kusunoki-san,” Kunikida mumbled (and he definitely sounded like it), “But I’m not able to give you any more information right now. I can call you again tomorrow morning if there’s anything more I can tell you—if that sounds alright?”

I slumped.

“Okay...”

There was a pause, followed by a quiet sigh on the other end of the line.

“Get some rest, Kusunoki-san.”

Kunikida’s voice was as soft as it was kind.

“It sounds like you could use it.”

[windsorgirllove]

The Prince and The King: Dirk Strider and Kazuaki Nanaki

It may be 4 whole months after the Epilogues came out, but guess what - I’m still thinking about Dirk Strider. And who can blame me, considering… well, everything. Dirk caused a lot of different reactions from everyone, but the way that his character finally clicked for me was watching him take over Jake’s mind and realizing “oh, he’s trying to ‘all will be one with the King’ them”. And then I realized that that would make sense to literally one other person in the whole world, so I decided to write an essay about it. As you do.

Spoilers for Homestuck, including the epilogue, and Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star.

      I. Who are these nerds?

For those of you who don’t know, I’ll give a quick summary of these two characters before I start comparing them.

      A. Dirk Strider

Dirk Strider is one of the human characters in Homestuck. He is the biological father of Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde, and is an alternate Universe version of Bro Strider. He grew up alone in a post apocalyptic world after an alien queen took over Earth. He is the Prince of Heart and a Derse Dreamer. He is a big gay nerd. In the Homestuck Epilogues, his worst traits come out: his self obsession and his splinter selves that come about due to Heart shenanigans, which led to him making some… morally dubious decisions. By which I mean obtained ultimate power and started rewriting the wills of his friends because “he knows best”. Also he’s aware of the fact he’s in a story now, so he became the narrator. And in one of the timelines present in the Epilogues, he killed himself.

      B. Kazuaki Nanaki/The King

Kazuaki Nanaki is a bird featured in Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star. He is a depressed college student studying literature. He fell in love with a boy who ended up pushing him further and further into depression, until the two of them decided to kill themselves. Kazuaki went through with it, his boyfriend did not. He woke up in the afterlife alone and scared. He ends up creating a star from a candle and a chair, which attracts other souls to it’s light. He lured people in because he was lonely, but didn’t want to get hurt again, so he absorbed all the souls into his will, and became the King of the star. And then all the characters end up in the afterlife too, most of whom are still alive, and it’s a whole thing.

So how are they similar? Well, they both are clearly mentally ill, both gay, both killed themselves, both took over the wills of their close friends. Let’s look at their big three narrative similarities: their ascension, their revenge on boyfriends, and their takeovers of will.

      II. The Ultimate Self v Kinghood

The Ultimate Self is a concept that was brought up at the end of Homestuck and was explored properly in the Homestuck Epilogues. It seems to be the endpoint for all of the godtiers, wherein they fully realize their Aspect. For example, Rose is ascending as well, and since her aspect is Light (ie knowledge), she gains knowledge of all timelines all at once. Dirk’s aspect, meanwhile, is Heart, which here means soul, so his Ultimate Self is all his splinters combining into one person. (As I sidenote, I wonder how much their classes play into this - Rose is a Seer and is seeing timelines, and Dirk is a Prince and is destroying everyone’s sense of self). It also appears to come along with an awareness of the narrative structure and the fact that they are in the story, which certainly does wonders for the mind. Dirk takes control of it - the narrative, that is - because he believes that he knows best for all his friends.

One thing we know for certain is the ascending fucking hurts. To quote Rose Lalonde: “I am ascending, and it’s terrible.” This process was enough to fully push Dirk over from “has poor judgement and a god complex” to full blown “evil and knows it.” He gains the power to take away the free will of all the other characters, and wants to make them all ascend and then stick their consciousness into robots that he made, because it’s “better” for them. He already carries this plan out with Rose, who he selected to be first because she’s the most like him. Essentially, he wants to make everyone just like him.

Meanwhile, Kinghood seems to have a lot of similarities. Kazuaki seems to gain some reality warping powers once he dies - he is able to transform a room with a candle and a chair into a star with a lighthouse and a throne. He basically makes his world run on fairy tale logic. This extends even to his form. Throughout the game, the characters are represented by photos of birds. However, when Kazuaki is the King, he is rendered in watercolors like the rest of the Holiday Star. Later, when he gets angry, he distorts into a darker colored being with multiple heads, and in his true form he is a monochrome pencil sketch. He also can appear anywhere on the star at any time, because all the residents of the star are under his hivemind. He can control the layout of his home, which is also visible from the outside (in the real world). He can create zones in the star specific to the people within in order to convince them to become one with him. And perhaps scariest of all, he can know the secrets of the people in the star, and toture them with their deepest darkest fear.

So ascending and Kinghood are very similar, except that Kinghood seems to be more in the line of eldritch horror.

      III. “I’ll Never Let You Break My Heart Again”

Dirk and Kazuaki also have meaningful romantic relationships with other boys that go super duper bad and end up being their start of darkness. Their whole evil plan can basically be boiled down to getting revenge on the boy who wronged them.

      A. Jake

Jake English is the boy that Dirk was in love with. He is from the same universe as Dirk, but from several centuries in the past (which is the present for us). He is the biological father of Jade Harley and John Egbert. He grew up alone on an island in the Pacific, and styles himself as a manly adventurer. Jake and Dirk end up dating when they enter the game, and break up after a few months because they’re dumb teens who can’t communicate and so are all of their friends. In the Epilogues, Jake is unwillingly wed to Jane Crocker, another of their friends, in the Candy Timeline. In the Meat Timeline, Dirk has taken control of the narration and forces Jake to confess his love for Dirk in front of a huge crowd.

      B. Uzune

Hitori Uzune was the guy that Kazuaki was in love with. He was a fellow college student at the university Kazuaki was attending, and was similarly fucked up and depressed. He convinces Kazuaki that they should kill themselves, and the two of them overdose on pills. But just as Kazuaki is drifting away Hitori gets up and steals Kazuaki’s identity in order to get revenge for his dead brother. That whole thing is actually the main plot of the game, kinda. Hitori refuses to call an ambulance for Kazuaki even as he changes his mind, and let’s him die.

      C. Angry Gay Selfrightousness

So first of all I think we can agree that Kazuaki is a little more valid for going off the deep end here. But they both did have a similar experience in love. Both of them felt deeply betrayed by the boy they loved. Both of them were super pissed about this, and it shows in their supervillain plans. Neither of the are directly setting out to get revenge, but their desire is written all over their actions.

With Dirk, he spends an inordanent amount of time calling Jake stupid while he is posing as the narrator, as well as inserting thoughts about himself into Jake’s mind when he’s about to have sex with Jane. (He’s also just weirdly horny the whole epilogue, in general.) After driving Jake to do his public confession in the Meat timeline, Dirk responds with “And to love Dirk is to obey him” in the narration. And finally, right before he’s about to fuck of to space Dirk plans this epic confrontation that ends with the quote that heads this section.

As for Kazuaki, the whole way he was able to become the King was because of the trauma that Hitori put him through, namely the killing him part. He absorbed people because of not wanting to be left alone again. And once Hitori enters the dream he turns all his focus onto him, blinding him and forcing him into a small pocket of the dream so he can’t hurt anyone again. And even after he is defeated he still reaches out and tries to grab Hitori.

Even when the two of them try to move on, they can’t.

      IV. “All Will Become One With the King” - Narrative Takeovers and the Hivemind

In order for there to be a narrative takeover, there has to be a narrative in the first place. And both Homestuck and Hatoful Boyfriend certainly have one, and I don’t mean in the sense that they are a story that we consume. I mean that there is a narrative thread that the characters themselves are aware of.

      A. Homestuck “Canon”

Let’s start with Homestuck, which in the Epilogues actually brought the term “canon” into the vocabulary of the characters via one Rose Lalonde. As a Seer and fanfiction writer, it makes sense she would be familiar with it. In the epilogues she discovered that there was something wrong with the timeline they were in - it was “non-canon”. This is different from the timeline being doomed, although it is similar. In both cases it means the timeline in question is fading away.

As defined by Rose, in order for a timeline to be canon, it has to be three things: 1. It has to be true, 2. It has to be essential, and 3. It has to be relevant. True as in true, essential as in essential to the characters or the story, and relevant as in relevant to the audience. Knowledge of the idea of canon seems to come along with ascending to the Ultimate Self, since the only people who know about it are Rose, Dirk, and Alt!Calliope.

Once Dirk ascends and realizes that the timeline they’re in is “non-canon”, he seizes control of the narrative in order to steer it back to canon and stop it from fading away. And once he takes control, he gains the same knowledge that the author would have of all the characters (except for Roxy because of his voidy-ness). He also wants to make everyone else ascend to their Ultimate Selves as well, and then take away their agency. How this worked is that he believes that their bodies wouldn’t be able to handle ascending (even though his did) and he makes them robot bodies because he’s just so nice. And the first people he assimilates are Rose and Dave, his children. And also as I said above, he inserted thoughts into people's heads and made them do things they wouldn’t normally do.

And Dirk taking control of the narrative isn’t an isolated incident, either. The narration has been passed around like a basketball, or more accurately stolen like loose change by a clumsy pickpocket. For the most part it is regulated to the cherubs - Caliborn and Calliope, as well as Doc Scratch - and Andrew Hussie. And that’s not even to mention all the people that give commands to the characters. The fabric of the text is very present in Homestuck.

      B. The All Knowing Eyes of the King

The King also tries to take control of the narrative as well, although not in the same way as Dirk. He isn’t aware of the fact that he is in a story in the same way. However, by trying to bring the whole cast into his hive mind he is essentially taking control of the narrative, since whoever controls the characters controls the story. He can’t full on insert thoughts into people’s heads like Dirk, but he can know the secrets of the people in the Holiday Star, similar to Dirk gaining the knowledge of the author. Then he uses a person’s deepest fear to convince them that the world outside is too scary, too dangerous, and it is safer to stay with him. Plus he uses creepy picture books to do it, which is certainly an aesthetic choice.

Two of the best examples of this is how he deals with Shuu and Yuuya. In Shuu’s case, it’s his most effective argument for staying on the Holiday Star - possibly because it is so similar to his own. Shuu was in love with a (married) colleague of his, but never told him, even as he passed away. Being as this was the only person Shuu cared about, he fell into a depression and also started murdering people. The King convinced him that there was nothing more in the real world that he could find a use for - that it would be better if he stayed here, where he could experiment and research forever. It worked so well that it took the ghost of his love to shake him out of it.

On the opposite side of this we have Yuuya. Yuuya was not actually supposed to be on the Holiday Star, but he dove in (basically) in order to save his little brother. And The King probably had the best chance of blackmailing him, because Yuuya has done some shit - including the murder of his infant half-brother. He did this in order to help his little brother, but still, jeez. The King uses this to convince him that he’s a bad person, that he would be better off in the Star, where his guilt couldn’t hurt him anymore. This doesn’t work, mainly because Yuuya is a more emotionally mature person that the King. He refused to be converted, because all the bad things he’s done has made him the person he is today, and to get rid of that would be irresponsible. His whole speech ends with this truly phenomenal quote: “It’s my grief. And you can’t have it.”

      V. Conclusion

So, what have I learned from this? Um, don’t trust gay men I guess. And also that mental illness and suicide is a very serious thing. I feel that with this essay I have run into the problem that my professors have told me numerous times - I can identify an interesting point, but I have trouble drawing meaning from this. So if any of you can figure out what this connection means, please let me know! Mostly to me it seems like there are definite links between my favorite stories, and it’s that giving in to despair is not the answer.

      VI. Miscellaneous: The Meta of HB - Hiyoko as the Narrator

Hatoful Boyfriend is not quite as meta as Homestuck - nothing really is. But it isn’t the benchmark of weirdness for dating games for nothing. And most of this weirdness revolves around Hiyoko, which makes sense. She is the narrator after all - and I don’t just mean that in the normal story sense. I mean that in the Homestuck sense as well.

Hiyoko is aware of the fact that she is in a game. She makes references to her stats, and is aware of the interface of the screen. She also doesn’t know the name of the town she’s lived in all her life until someone else says it in Holiday Star, because it was never established in the first game. She is also aware of alternate universes of each romance route. Because Hiyoko dies. A lot. She dies in Shuu’s route, in the neutral route, and in the true route. And in Holiday Star (which in it of itself is an alternate universe to the main game) she meets Death and is able to recognize him from all the other times she’s died.

The important thing to get from all this is that unlike Some People, Hiyoko never goes crazy from this fact. She’s in a game, and she knows it, and she’s cool with it. It should probably be pointed out that Hiyoko is dumb as a box of rocks, and with ignorance comes bliss, they say. But still, it is interesting to see an example of a character with meta knowledge who manages to deal with it, instead of going full supervillain.

[metazensae]

Hi there! you know? A long time ago, I used to draw a lot. but for some situations, I stopped doing it. Now I do not even know if I still know how to draw, but I think it could help me improve my mental health a little and I want to thank you because you are one of the main people that motivated me to start over. Could you give me some advice, now that I want to draw again? 🌻

Hello!!!

I’m so glad to hear you’re interested in picking up the pencil/pen/marker/pen tool/what-have-you again! THAT’S SO EXCITING!!!!!! It is never too late, and just thinking about all the wonderful things you’re going to bring into the world next is making me giddy!!!

But also - you know what? Same Hat! 

 I drew LITERALLY every waking second of my life until I hit 17 and - WHOMP WHOMP-  got Real Depressed(tm). I had a near decade of depression where I couldn’t draw much, or well, or even at all, so I feel you very hard on this. I started drawing again about 3 years ago, and started over from scratch, and now you see what I can do - WELL! That’s you! You’re where I was standing just a short time ago. You GOT this and I believe in you.

But it’s not going to be easy, that’s for absolute sure. 

BUT DON’T GIVE UP!!!

I can’t really tell you what to do bc it really depends on you, your interests, and your end goals. But what I can tell you is to make sure you’re having fun with it no matter what. 

The goal is just to add happiness back into your life, right? 

But I’ll still give you some advice from my own personal experience:

Don’t care. About ANYTHING. Just do what you love and do it apologetically and with it with abandon. You need to start drawing something at all before you can fix it, and just focus on the specific content that you like to create. That should be your priority.

I hear a lot of people (and myself included) are just afraid to make mistakes. Like what if i mess this up or what if I can’t do it well or what if people don’t like it;;;;; And I have to just say - fuck that noise. MESS IT UP. MAKE THOSE MISTAKES. That’s how we learn, and we get better thru trying over and over and over again.

Also, I hear people obsessing over whether or not they have a style, and tbh, sometimes? They don’t? Bc they haven’t drawn enough. Style comes with time and style is just the culmination of how-you-do-things and it will change and grow and develop the more you draw and learn about how to draw. Don’t. Worry. About. It.

As for how to stay motivated? Think about what motivates you? For me, it’s sharing my work with people and seeing their reactions, and joining a fandom has been?? A great experience with that, but initially, I had a small group of artists/writers/creators here on Tumblr whom I shared my stories and characters with. I invested myself into the success of their works and they so graciously returned the favor, and it did SO MUCH to push me to make more and share more and toss love around. I personally wanted to make comics, so I found drawing fun Q&As way more interesting to do than flat character studies and gesture drawings. Fundamentals are so important, but remember - having fun with it? and finding some sort of reward in it? WAY BETTER. Find a way to work on fundamentals while doing things that are entertaining for you and you’ll have a much better time of it.

Thirst also motivates me. I just draw hot demons all day believe me.

Also, very Very VERY important. Finding media and other artists whose style gives you that fucking spark and drive to create. I call these Masters, and I have 3 - Dana Rune of the Arcana Game, Tess Stone of (so many works, but most recently) Not Drunk Enough, and Erika Petra Nordlund of Prague Race and Tiger Tiger are my style heroes. Their art speaks to my very soul and I feel a strange sort of resonance with their works - like THAT’S who and where I want to be and I hope to achieve that one day. You need Masters because they guide you gently into the worlds they’ve created and show you how they render the different things you want to bring into your craft. You borrow from them and reanalyze it into your own thing and then you’ve made something new and beautiful and you learn that other people have started looking at YOU as a master and then you get all weepy and write posts like this and oh my god;;;;;;;;;;;

When I’m having a shit art day, I put on some atmosphere music and just let the music take me to a far away place and it helps me focus. 

Usually my shit art day is bc I’m putting too much pressure on myself to be good at whatever that is, so I just? do something else? Go change it up. Go draw something you’ve been neglecting or do some gesture drawings, or like draw some fun art for someone else? I do that. A lot? 

Also, warming up is important too. 3 years ago, I didn’t know about this? I would sorta get all worked up trying to force myself to draw, but sometimes you need something silly to just get the anxiety out of the way, so do some shit silly loose sketches before you GET SERIOUS (tm).

Finally, sometimes shit art days just come to you that you can’t do anything about, and the reason is bc there’s a gap of knowledge between what you want to be able to do and what you’re currently capable of doing. When that happens, you actually need to go out into the world and do some observation. Your brain hasn’t analyzed the thing ENOUGH for you to be able to draw it and that’s fine. Just do the work. Look long and hard at something - look at negative space and contours. Lighting. Coloring. Idk. But go observe. And it will make you that much better. 

Use references? That’s so important. Like. You can’t draw the thing if you don’t know what it exactly looks like. But also, exactly replicating something is shitty, so only do it for self practice!

Anyway, I gotta go to bed now, so I hope some of these can resonate with you. And I’m always happy to share my experiences? So if you have further questions or need more explanation on this, feel free to ask!!Again I’m super excited for you and looking forward to seeing your work in the future!!!

Good luck!! <3

[themurphyzone]

Secret Santa Ch 1

Welcome to my first Christmas story in MML! I kind of wanted to do something different and give perspective to Milo’s classmates that have at least had a major supporting role. Well, two of them are fairly minor but I really love writing them anyway. You’ll see what I mean!

I was originally planning to release this story on December 1, but my impatient ass can’t wait any longer. 

Ch 1: Amanda

Amanda was about ready to throw her pen against the wall in frustration. She’d already used up half of the allotted thirty minutes in her schedule for brainstorming ideas for the Secret Santa exchange.

The paper remained devoid of any ideas, apart from a few words that had been neatly scratched out.

It was Lydia’s fault anyway for signing her up without permission. Or Melissa’s. Or both. As far as Amanda was concerned, they were equally suspicious.

What was she even supposed to give Chad? She didn’t know him that well. He was nice enough, but his attempts to prove Mr. Drako was a vampire weirded her out. And he tended to be the first to go down when Murphy’s Law struck.

In other words, he would be the hypothetical first victim in a zombie apocalypse.

Wait….

Vampires. Zombies. The paranormal.

Amanda’s brain whirred to life as she hastily sketched a bubble map. Chad liked to formulate theories and gather evidence to support them. Conspiracy theories, weird happenings, spooky stuff.

Maybe she could take a page out of his book and collect her own evidence on what he liked.

Her timer went off, and she stored the bubble map in her school folder for later. At least the history worksheet she needed to finish didn’t cause any stress.

“You are not going up to Chad and asking him for a gift idea,” Lydia said, shaking her head in disapproval. “Kinda kills the point of being a Secret Santa.”

“I’m not going to ask him what he wants outright!” Amanda complained. “All I did was dedicate four to six minutes to having a conversation where I subtly lead him into stating his interests! I made a bubble map, Lydia! I am not letting those fifteen minutes go to waste!”

Lydia blinked. “You made a bubble map. For a gift exchange.”

“Yes,” Amanda said. “I wrote down a main idea and added supporting details. I would’ve added color, but I ran out of time.”

“I know what a bubble map is,” Lydia sighed. “It’s just not gonna help me. I think I got the worst recipient of all. Are you sure you don’t want to switch with me? Nobody needs to know!”

She leaned over Amanda’s desk, grinning excitedly. Amanda edged back in her seat, keeping Lydia at arm’s length. “I don’t like doing things spontaneously. Sorry.”

Lydia groaned, backing off so Amanda could have her personal space again. “Okay. FYI, I’m probably procrastinating on this like everything else that doesn’t involve theater club.”

“Procrastinating on important things is just going to-“

“-increase anxiety and throw you down a well of endless despair,” Lydia finished. “I heard the spiel before. Like, fifty-three times now.”

Amanda allowed herself a small smile. “I didn’t know you were keeping track.”

Lydia shrugged. “I have a tally chart.”

“And you were getting on my case about the bubble map?” Amanda giggled.

Before Lydia could reply, Chad entered the classroom behind Milo and his friends. “We’ll finish this conversation some other time,” she whispered, scrambling out of the way before she could be a target within the splatter zone.

“I’m telling you, Mr. Drako doesn’t have a reflection in the mirror!” Chad exclaimed loudly. “How else do you explain the Hall of Mirrors incident at the school fair?”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “He didn’t have a reflection because the school couldn’t afford to supply the mirrors and substituted plastic wrapping instead?”

“I remember that!” Milo said. “Remember when Zack and I were wrapped in the plastic like a double burrito?”

Zack groaned. “Do you have to remind me?”

“Yes,” Melissa replied.

Amanda caught Milo’s eye, and he quickly looked away, his face slightly red. That was…odd. Usually he didn’t pass up a chance to greet her.

She mentally filed ‘wonder what’s up with Milo’ under lunchtime. She had a goal, and she needed to seize this perfect opportunity.

“Chad, how exactly do you know so much about vampires that you’d accuse one of the nicest teachers in the school of being one?” Amanda asked. Everyone stared at her.

Amanda wanted to curl up in the back of the school closet and waste away in the darkness among all the cobwebs and dust bunnies. Did that sound accusatory? That totally sounded less accusatory in her head.

“Easy. My vampire blog requires a lot of research into vampire lore.” Chad replied. “You know, traditional ones like Dracula to more modern portrayals. That sort of thing.”

“Now that sounds like something I have to follow!” Milo exclaimed, pulling out his phone. “What’s the name?”

“Transylvaniaterrors.com,” Chad said. “It’s a forum dedicated to everything paranormal. My blog is-“

Milo held up a hand. “Could you write that on a piece of paper? Sorry, my wi-fi cut out.”

“I’m not getting a signal either,” Melissa said, checking her phone.

Screams erupted from the hallway, followed by the sound of stampeding feet. Melissa shoved Zack in the direction of the door. Zack glared at her, carefully opening the door by a hair.

He shut it again after a few seconds.

“They’re panicking over the wi-fi,” Zack said as he pushed his back against the door as several loud thuds echoed from it. “Gonna need a blockade over here!”

Milo, Chad, and Lydia quickly pushed the teacher’s desk in front of the door. Amanda opened the window, preparing the escape route in case the desk plan didn’t work.

Thankfully, the desk held the door in place just fine.

Unfortunately, third period would probably be delayed for a while. Hopefully the situation didn’t extend into fourth period.

Amanda collapsed on her bed, exhausted. The wi-fi hadn’t come back until the last twenty minutes of the school day, which rendered her Wednesday schedule obsolete. She grabbed a nearby planner and a blue pen, too wiped to properly color-code the box.

She scribbled in ‘Expect Principal Milder to go on a five to seven minute lecture about rampaging in the school hallway during announcements’ under Thursday.

She would think about Chad’s present on Friday once she gave herself enough time to recover from a messed up schedule.

Her inspiration came the next day, when a cabinet in Mr. Drako’s classroom almost fell on top of Chad, revealing dozens of vampire teeth.

Everyone in the class looked at Mr. Drako for an explanation. He shrugged. “My ex-wife worked at an arcade and had a lot of these fake vampire teeth lying around. They’re actually pretty good things to toss into children’s Halloween baskets. Glow in the dark too!”

“I think I’m turning! I’m sorry guys! Tell my turtles I love them! The sun is slowly sucking away at my being!” Chad hissed.

Melissa leaned over and plucked one off his shoulder. “Chad, you’re not a vampire,” she said, shaking her head.

Chad slowly opened his eyes. “I’m not?”

Zack held his phone. “Chad, do you see yourself in the camera?”

His eyes widened. “Stop making me feel better! The undead is my realm now!”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Tilt the camera down. It’s pointed to the ceiling. There. I see you. You are not a vampire. Can we get back to the lesson now?”

Chad sighed in relief.

While Mr. Drako flipped through his slides to figure out where they’d left off, Amanda took the opportunity to write ‘go to discount bookstore’ in the Saturday afternoon slot.

Unfortunately, Lydia’s idea of helping Amanda decide on a book turned out to be making her read the summaries of YA vampire novels and choose one. While they were all within her price range, she doubted Chad would be interested in poorly written romance.

Besides, she figured he was more into the lore.

“Early Evening?” Lydia suggested, holding up a thick book with a black cover. “Maybe not. The prose really isn’t for everyone.”

Amanda wrinkled her nose. “Definitely not pile.”

“That’s the only pile we have so far,” Lydia sighed, setting Early Evening on top of a stack of five books.

Amanda groaned, regretting not doing any research into vampire books beforehand. “We’re doing it my way now,” she said. “We’ll just put everything on the cart and see if there’s a mythology or paranormal section.”

It took two minutes for Amanda to organize the books in an order that satisfied her. Lydia leaned against the table with her elbow, checking her phone.

“Need help with your gift?” Amanda asked, setting the books into the cart.

“No!” Lydia exclaimed. “I don’t need help! I totally have ideas and I have every intention on following through on at least one of them!”

Amanda raised an eyebrow. “Whose name did you draw anyway?”

“Bradley! I drew Bradley of all people!” Lydia hissed. “He’s going to hate what I get him.”

“I don’t think he will,” Amanda said.

“He hates everything that isn’t a bolted self-serve ice cream machine or people who aren’t named Melissa,” Lydia complained.

Amanda shrugged. “Okay, we’ll figure yours out after this. Just help me find a book for now.”

The paranormal section was two aisles over from the YA novels, and appeared a lot more promising to Amanda.

After five minutes, she selected a rather compact book that held information about vampires and similar creatures from different cultures around the world. “Good choice,” Lydia grinned. “Chad’s definitely gonna love it. Unlike Bradley anyway.”

Amanda nodded. “I hope so. And if he doesn’t like the book, at least he’ll be nice about it.”

“And now you’re just rubbing it in.”

[tiergan-vashir]

Art Process

Someone asked me for my process and how I do things. I thought I’d used the latest painting I made as an example, since I was compulsively saving each step of the way and thus have neat snapshots on how things go.

I use Photoshop CC. I used to use Corel Painter, but there are tools in Photoshop that I use all the time for correcting mistakes, which don't exist in Painter (at least the 2012 version.)  My brushset can be found here.  I spend 90% of my time using the square brush.  To have it display properly, you’ll need to grab the little bottom right corner triangle and expand the little brush-window until things look like this:

I typically start off by blocking in big blobby, noodly shapes in greyscale and start sketching/rendering that up with more and more detail.  This is all done with the plan that I will add color later via blending modes.  By working in greyscale first, I can roughly figure out my values/shading without also having to worry about color at the same time.  The old masters used to do something similar with oil painting by creating a grisaille first and adding washes of color later.

Rest of process is under the cut as it is a long post!

To add color my usual choices for blending modes are Multiply layer first right over the greyscale with an Overlay layer on top of that to stop things from getting too dark.  I also use Overlay to do a bit of lighting adjustment too if I feel things would look better a bit brighter or darker. I try to also keep warm vs cool colors in mind at this point as well.  You’ll notice that Tiergan’s pectorals, face, and the shoulder closest to the light are a bit brighter and warmer - while things get subtly darker and cooler as you get lower down his torso.  Things look really funky and weird in this stage, but you just have to trust in the process and know it will gradually get less fugly.

Speaking of blending modes - I love the fuck out of them and I feel like they are an extremely powerful tool in your toolkit. Other blending modes I tend to use sometimes are Saturation (to knock things back if I made the colors too over-saturated using Overlay), Color (for color adjustment like the name suggests), Lighten (to affect only lighter values while leaving darker ones alone), Darken (tweak only darker values while leaving the lighter ones alone, Screen (great for glows), Linear Dodge (extremely situational, but can be neat for rim-lights, magic effects, and LIGHT SABERS if you put the blending mode on your brush).

Once I am satisfied with the color, I flatten everything and resume painting from there in full color, continuing to render and polish everything up, adding in all the details.  I tend to do this by making new layers and painting on top instead of directly on my flattened layer.  Sometimes I’ll have two or more extra layers set to Normal to paint different things.   The reason I do this is so if I don’t like how I’ve rendered things, I can erase parts of it or just nuke it all back to a clean slate - without destroying the base foundation I’ve created.  I use a mix of Normal layers and layers with blending modes to render depending on what I need.  Sometimes further along in the painting, I’ll realise I want to make things even brighter/darker and push the values more - so I’ll do something like add n Overlay or Multiply layer to do that, then add a Normal layer on top of all of that to keep painting in color.  (And then flatten everything again when I start getting antsy about there being too many layers.)

You’ll notice above I realised that I forgot Tiergan’s hair and that he was looking super bald the more I rendered, so I just added it in on its own separate ‘hair’ layer.  At the same time, I probably had another layer right beneath it that was just for rendering out all the skin details.  

I always try to work as non-destructively as possible. This is also why I have so many versions of the same file and can show you past snapshots of what I was doing - every time I’m about to make a major decision, I save the file as a whole new copy of itself before continuing.  Other ways I try to work non-destructively is to use Layer Masks instead of actually erasing things unless I am POSITIVE I want something gone and never want to bring it back. 

If my character is on a separate layer from my background (which usually is the case, but not what I did this time around) - I abuse the shit out of Clipping Mask layers to paint only on my character.  In fact, I used clipping masks on the ‘Hair’ layer I mentioned earlier to paint only on the hair when I wanted to add lights and shadows to it without risking fucking up the surrounding areas.  The shadow cast by the hair onto the skin I did on a different layer just beneath the Hair layer.

Note: If you’re reading this and your first question is “What the heck is a Layer Mask/Clipping mask?” - then HOLY SHIT NUGGETS MY FREN, READ THIS AND FEEL YOUR MIND BEING BLOWN.  

When I feel like I'm finished, I more often than not do a final pass of lighting/color adjustments and some finishing touches that would be tougher to do earlier in the process (like scars!) either with blending modes (to push or dial back lights/shadows, adjust colors/saturation) or slap a gradient map on top of everything as an adjustment layer set to low opacity to kinda help harmonize all the colors.  It’s a little easier for me to try and bring everything together once all the information is there on the canvas and I just need to tie stuff together.

As for how I blend - almost all my brushes are set to change opacity depending on pen-pressure. Thus when blending values/colors, I just use the eyedropper tool to choose a color/value I want and use light brush-strokes to blend.  When I REALLY want something to be soft, I use a big ole fuzzy airbrush-type brush and very, very lightly put down a stroke or two - but I do this very sparingly and try to avoid relying on fuzzy-brushes to blend as it can very quickly lead to your paintings looking like mashed potatoes. Making sure you have a nice mix of hard crisp edges and soft ones will make your work feel nicer.

And that’s it! I hope it was helpful!

[osreviews]

REVIEW: Chuwi Hi9 Plus - Affordable Android Tablet w. 2K Display & Stylus Support!

The Chuwi Hi9 Plus offers a beautiful display (2K IPS) and solid build quality at a price significantly more affordable than tier-one competitors. Furthermore, it delivers an uniquely well-rounded set of features including 4G LTE capabilities (even allowing phone calls!), near stock Android experience (with a promised update to Android 9 arriving soon), and support for a pressure sensitive stylus pen called the HiPen H3. In short, although raw performance might not beat the latest iPad Pro, for only $200, it’s a good enough alternative at a fraction of the cost. And that in itself is already a pretty amazing feat; the Hi9 Plus is one of the best value tablets on the market.

Find it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IZynnq

Positives

  •       Brilliant display (one of the sharpest resolutions on ANY tablet at ANY price)

  •       Solid construction, aluminum body feels solid

  •       4GB RAM (highest specs from all of Chuwi’s current tablets)

  •       Pure Android 8.0 Oreo without any bloatware installed

  •       Good enough performance in real-world, similar to Snapdragon 600-series (Deca Core Helio X27)

  •       Support for optional keyboard cover and official stylus pen

Negatives

  •       Speakers could pack more bass (but it’s a stereo pair, which is good)

  •       Stylus and keyboard are not bundled with the standard box (although a deluxe version includes them for $50 more)

Design & Build Quality

As aforementioned, the Hi9 Plus offers an impressive construction for an affordable tablet. Similar to Xiaomi’s Redmi phones, the back is made 90% out of metal, leaving only a small plastic strip on the top edge to serve as the antennas to improve reception.

The overall feeling in the hand is solid - significantly better than most competitors using all-plastic at this price point - and surprisingly thin at only 8.1mm. The power button is accentuated in red, and the edges of the tablet are chamfered, giving it an extra shine when reflected by light. Nice!

For those with experience using Chuwi’s tablets, the aesthetics match the Hi9 series. That is, the Hi9 Plus bares strong resemblance to the 8” Hi9 Pro, expect that the “pro” is shrunken down in dimensions (ironically despite the “pro” moniker...the “plus” is actually the flagship for Chuwi at the moment).  Bezel sizes are respectable for a tablet, while not invisible, it makes for comfortable gripping using 2 hands without obstructing parts of the screen. Overall, the dimensions are similar to Chuwi’s 10” HiPad, although the Hi9 Plus has a larger display (10.8”), showing improved design considerations.

Both cameras have a resolution of 8 megapixels. There’s no assisted LED flash, but the sensors are made by Samsung, and the quality is good enough for the purposes of document scanning and video calls.

On the back, the Chuwi Hi9 Plus offers stereo speaker for added immersiveness when watching videos.

Although the speakers lack some depth in my opinion, they do get plenty loud, and the tablet retains a standard 3.5mm headphone jack! A rare thing to see these days, especially since the tablet also offers USB-C, in addition to Bluetooth support for wireless headphones and speakers. For a 2019 Android tablet, the I/O selection is honestly pretty good, considering tablets these days no longer include full-sized USB ports or HDMI ports due to their thin dimensions.

Display & Stylus

The 10.8-inch display offers an 6:10 aspect ratio, with a pin-sharp 2K resolution. Text, images, and fine details are clearly legible (even without zooming in), making this an excellent tablet to use for the purposes of entertainment or media consumption. The full lamination means that there’s no gap between the multi-touch enabled glass and the LCD underneath it, reducing glare in outdoor scenarios. The only slight quirk is that the screen isn’t the brightest I’ve seen, although I found it to be perfectly acceptable in terms of visibility under moderate sunlight. Overall, this is one of the best displays you’ll find on any Android tablet at any price, when it comes to sharpness and detail. Competing tablets with this resolution typically sell for hundreds of dollars more.

Aside from the display, another strong selling point for the Hi9 Plus is the stylus support; a feature that is rarely found on tablets under $500.  I picked up the HiPen for $20 extra, and my experience with it has been satisfactory thus far. The pen itself is constructed out of a hefty aluminum, and allows it to be magnetized to the edge of the tablet when not in use. Unlike Wacom stylus pens, however, this one does require a battery to be switched every year or so (AAAA size, similar to the Surface Pen). This pen supports 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity.

The pen can be used to navigate the UI (in place of using a finger), and the sensitivity has been great, although not 100% as elegant as the much more expensive-Wacom devices. For example, there’s no “hovering” cursor that I could see when using the pen close to the display (like on a S-Pen or Apple Pencil), although recognition (when pressing down) is still very good.

Now, I’ve come across several reviewers claiming that the pressure sensitivity doesn’t work...which is wrong. Either these reviewers were not diligent enough in trying out compatible apps in the Play Store (i.e. “ArtFlow” is one such free option, among other apps, which I downloaded and recognized pressure sensitivity perfectly), or that Chuwi somehow updated these tablets. For example, some of the older reviewers didn’t seem to have the red colored power button (they were black before), so perhaps this is a “updated” edition of the Hi9 Plus. In any case, the pen support is nothing to complain about anymore.

Digging a little deeper into my experiences using ArtFlow, the experience was like using a real pen and paper. Pressing harder on the screen resulted in a thicker/darker line, versus gentle sketches resulted in very light lines. This felt very natural, and combined with good enough palm rejection (not much accidental touches with resting a hand on the screen when drawing), makes this a great digital sketchbook for artists, creatives, and notetakers. Although professional artists will technically find more levels of pressure sensitivity on some Wacom enabled models, for the price, this has already exceeded my expectations on it’s sensitivity and fluidity for casual use.  

Performance & Software

Although everything up to this point has read like a premium, flagship tablet, the processing power is more in-line with other middle-of-the-road devices. That’s certainly not a bad thing, especially now that in 2019, middle-tier phones and tablets are honestly good enough for the vast majority of consumers (and with significant cost savings), compared to the old days where performance differences were much more noticeable.

The MediaTek Helio X27 deca-core processor (ten cores, up to 2.6GHz) delivers generally smooth performance in real-world usage, similar to Snapdragon 600-series devices I’ve tried. General navigation is responsive - especially after giving the tablet a few extra seconds to warm up after booting up - and intensive apps (i.e. Asphalt 9 or PUBG) render without issues as well, save for the occasional delay in loading.

In heavier apps, the tablet gets slightly warm near the antenna strip, but never too hot or uncomfortable to hold. Overall, the X27 is a tried and tested by now; although it’s not a replacement for a Snapdragon 800-series chip, it nevertheless performs reliably without thermal throttling.

Also good: 4GB of RAM and a 64GB internal storage are among the higher configurations you’ll find for any Android tablet. RAM in particular is plenty, and allows for comfortable multi-tasking in Chrome (web browsing). I will say that because of the super high display resolution, the processor has to do significantly more work to push around those pixels. As a result, when running the device to it’s limit(i.e. 6 tabs + 5 games and apps in the background), you’ll start to notice some more choppier animations when rapidly scrolling a web page. Not too big of a deal, but it’s a trade-off of having the 2K display (whereas a FHD panel might be a touch less taxing on the CPU and GPU).

General use including watching back YouTube videos, reading the news, checking emails, etc. are all handled effortlessly without any issues. Gmail in particular takes advantage of the larger display, giving me 3 panels of information at a glance - allowing for faster productivity than on a smartphone. Of course, Android Oreo also has native support for split screen multitasking, which works well, and allowed me to run 2 apps side-by-side. Pretty cool!

As touched upon, Chuwi has promised an over-the-air software update to Android 9 for its X27 devices. Although this update is yet to arrive, I have already received one minor security update while using the tablet over the last few days, which is an optimistic sign of things to come (fingers crossed). Software updates have historically been scarce on budget tablets, so if what Chuwi says holds true, it’s yet another differentiating factor to consider.

Battery Life

The 5000mAh battery lasted me around 9 hours of video playback and light web browsing before it reached empty. Although this isn’t as long as what the iPad can achieve, it’s more than sufficient for a full day of heavy use, or a couple days of light use. Again considering the larger display of this model, and the 2K resolution, I find this to be an acceptable metric overall. The USB-C port charges up the tablet in respectable speed, getting me from 0 to 100 in under 3 hours.

Conclusion

As I typed this review, the phrase that I kept repeating was “good enough”. Although this tablet isn’t revolutionary, it can be considered ‘disruptive’, bringing surprisingly good features at a price that’s hard to beat. So is it an iPad killer? Not in the typical sense of outperforming the more established competitor across traditional metrics. Yet, it comes so close to offering the same essential capabilities, that for the vast majority of consumers it can be seen as an affordable replacement possibly worth the switching cost, now more than ever.

In 2019, budget Android tablets are finally getting good. Dangerously good.

4.7/5 Stars, Excellent

YouTube video review: 

[smashdraws]

The things I’ve learned from art school: part 1/?

I’m a second year illustration student, and I’m here to share with you pearls of wisdom from what I’ve experienced and learned in college (so far), from the actual drawing process to attitudes about art/drawing. Most of these things I’ve learned the hard way, and some are from things I’ve seen others struggle with. 

The most work you should be doing in your drawing process is thumbnails/sketching stage.

“There’s no point in finishing a drawing if it’s flawed from the beginning”. That’s what my Composition & Transparent Media professor constantly told us. During our first piece of the semester, he had us stay on the sketching and redrawing stage for a little over a month in order to perfect them. He wanted to make sure the perspective was right, composition was pushed to its fullest, details were added to make every space interesting, the whole shebang. Obviously you’re probably not going to spend a whole month redrawing a piece over and over every time you draw, especially if it’s a time-sensitive project or just a personal piece you’re doing for funsies. However, the sketching stage is where most of the creativity happens. You have to decide on composition, scale, design elements, characters and how they’re positioned in the space, environment, and so much more. And I’d be willing to bet that you won’t get it right the first time.

Give yourself projects when you aren’t in school.

It helps with artist block. The summer between freshman and sophomore year of school I could probably count the number of drawings I did on one hand. To be fair, I was working two jobs 6 days a week so i didn’t exactly have a lot of time, but I found that once I got out of school I had zero drive or ideas. Without assignments from class to draw for, I had nothing to draw, and when I got back to school for sophomore year I had a lot of trouble getting inspired again. It made the beginning of the year really hard for me. Find something, ANYTHING, to draw while you’re out of school, even if you draw fanart for one thing all summer, at least you’re still drawing. 

If a character in your drawing is reminiscent of another character/too generic, think about altering it- especially if it’s a work that focuses on said character.

This really only applies for artists who’s focus/career is character design, but it’s still relevant to others. As painful as it is to hear, it means you might not be pushing your concepts enough. I took a class on Concept Art, and the first assignment was character design. A few of mine were deemed too generic looking, and one was too reminiscent of an existing character. It really hurt to hear, especially since I pride myself on character design and they were for a story I’ve had in development for over 6 years. It really made me feel like shit and made me not want to develop the characters further. But I needed to hear it, and I had to continue developing them for the class, so I ended up overhauling and redesigning the characters until they didn’t seem like the same ones anymore in order to make them more interesting. I hated it, but it’s what I had to do. 

That being said, things like this really make you think about distinguishing your characters and art from others out there. It’s essentially impossible to be 100% original, but that doesn’t mean you cant try your damnedest to make your ideas as close to original as they can get without getting overcomplicated.

When designing characters, mix up the body shape and facial features.

This one is kind of specific, but still important since character design is an important element of illustration. If you don’t vary things up you’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ from your professors and peers. And frankly, its boring as hell when someone’s characters all look the same. This is something I see a lot, and I can never get attached to an individual character cause they all looked the same! I found that it happens a lot with male characters, they all have defined abs to some degree and perfectly toned arms and honestly, it gets boring when all of someone’s male characters have the same body type. As for face, there is literally no excuse. There are SO MANY KINDS OF FACES MAN. Round, rectangular, circular, heart-shaped, squared. People can have hooked noses, upturned noses, tiny cute noses. Even eyebrows- arched, flat, thick, waxed, faint, or bold. You’re allowed to have preferences for what kind of bodies you like to draw, but don’t be afraid to branch out!

Develop your own style.

As an artist, you need your own style. Imitating other artist’s styles isn’t going to get you far in school or the real world, and chances are, your peers will call you out if your style looks too much like another established artist’s. In order to make a living and gain clients you need a style that you make unique, taking inspirations and aspects from other styles and squishing them together to make one amazing art style baby. Your art style will probably be the deciding factor in whether or not your client hires you! 

Tracing references is OK when appropriate.

As long as it isn’t for a published or commissioned piece, there is absolutely no harm in tracing references. In your down time take some pictures of yourself or find some online and go ahead and trace ‘em. Really pay attention to how the body actually is, how the perspective on legs work, how that hand is foreshortened. Do this enough and you’ll find yourself thinking about all that when you’re drawing normally!

There will always be students better than you, you just gotta accept it.

It’s just a fact of life, unfortunately. When you’re a freshman, you’re in classes with only freshman for your foundation year. You and your peers are all on the relatively same level. What had affected me starting my second year (and I didn’t realize it until much later) was that now that I was in classes with upperclassmen, who had a year or two’s worth of experience on me, I felt as id my art was not up to par. It’s easy to forget your classmates are not just from your grade anymore, especially in electives. All of the electives I took had mostly Juniors and a few Sophomores, and my work always didn’t quite have that polish and finesse to it yet that the upperclassmen’s did have. It’s just a fact of life that you’ll always be up against artists who are more skilled than you , but thats because they have more or different experiences. You have to keep in mind that you can’t compare yourself to them, since it isn’t fair to you that you’re comparing yourself to someone who may have 3+ years on you. 

Learn realism to some extent- figures, animals, everything.

You don’t have to like it, but you can always tell when an artist never learned it because their figures are always off. There is a difference between stylizing and not knowing, and it’s almost always evident. You can see it in the way hands are drawn, noses are rendered, and how they shape and place breasts. Do pages of body studies focusing on hands, feet, leg muscles, back arches, faces, all kinds of stuff. You’ll thank yourself later. 

Your professors and peers will know when you don’t put in your best effort.

They’ll know when you aren’t pushing yourself because you’ll make fundamental mistakes. Slightly imperfect coloring, wiggly linework that wasn’t done quite carefully enough, not bothering to fix those damn feet in the finish. They always know, somehow...even if you’re careful with your laziness.

Buying expensive materials is usually worth it.

It may cost more but your work will benefit from it, and they last so, so much longer. I had to buy 3 brushes when my techniques class was doing watercolor, and in total they costed over $100. I found as I used them that since they were hair brushes and not synthetic, they held so much more pigment and water, and I could get a much finer tip. I was incredibly lucky that my professor provided the paint, which could go up to $20 a tube for some colors with the brand he had. Paper is also something worth splurging on, because let me tell you I have had disastrous effects when using shitty (coughCANSONcough) watercolor paper. The 9x12 paper block I bought for class was $30, and it was the best paper i’ve ever worked on. Absolutely worth the money and I will be buying that brand for projects from now on. And the best thing about all these is that they’ll last forever! 

You NEED to find ways to get excited about a project you hate, because you’re gonna have to do a lot of them.

If you don’t find ways to get excited about projects you’re not too thrilled to do, you’ll never succeed. I learned this in my freshman year very fast, because man oh man were there some projects I couldn’t have cared less about. If you can, gear the project towards one of your interests without compromising the purpose or assigned subject. 

I hope this advice can help some folks! Art school is a lot of tough love, and a lot of stepping 300 yards out of your comfort zone (sometimes by force). But they key is to not be afraid of trying new things! You’ll find things you absolutely hate doing, and will never want to do ever again if you can help it, and you’ll find things that you’ll love to do. It’s all about keeping an open mind!

Keep drawing, keep learning, keep creating.

[davidpires578]

Dark Chocolate and Sponge Cake (11)

Amazingly, to me at least, the last post in this series occurred on March 29th of this year. Where did all the time go? Well, that’s easy enough to answer – most of it went into the project work at Colgate University, and then a few other things came up. I had thought I might be away from this piece for a 2~3 month stretch but somehow more water has passed under the bridge than that. That’s how it goes.

So glad to be back on this project, and ready to dig into some more of that delicious Cuban mahogany. The parts previously cut have been sitting in my shop, strewed around somewhat as I juggled other parts from various projects, and now that I dust these pieces off I am pleased to find that the mahogany, of both varieties (Cuban and Honduran) has remained perfectly stable. The joined frame joints remain tight and clean, and the panels free of warp, bow, cup, or twist. That’s a benefit of having the parts ‘season’ in the shop mid-construction. The Cuban mahogany has oxidized a degree back to a chocolate color, so I feel like there’s no need to worry about applying dye to freshly cut sections to blend parts together for color/tone -it will all look uniform after a few months so I’ll make the piece intending to celebrate the variegation, knowing it is but fleeting.

One of the lessons that has come to be clear to me in recent years, when faced with a situation where a project is interrupted for a lengthy period, is that it sure pays to be doubly cautious when re-entering the fray. One can’t always step back into full flow and take up as if there has been no interruption, for as much as there has been a time break there has also been a mental one. Caution is merited on account of the precious nature of the wood I am working with, the supply of which really does not allow for those sort of mistakes which would necessitate that a stick or panel be replaced. But the other caution flag which comes up for me now relates to that getting one’s head back into the project and not making assumptions about next steps until one is thoroughly back into the very head space which shaped where things had been taken to in the previous design and build phase.

On top of all this are the factors which come up when you look at something with fresh eyes again and may well choose to do some details differently than previously envisioned.

Assumptions can be a real drag sometimes if they do not prove to be correct. Every woodworker knows this, and I would venture to say that making erroneous assumptions is one of the most common sources of error in projects, along with plain old inattention and/or obliviousness.

When I start in on a drawing for a project, I tend to work first in big (digital) brush strokes, coming up with appropriate massing and configuration for the piece to suit the intended purpose. Once I have shared these initial ideas with a client, the direction forward hopefully becomes more established, and eventually I am rendering the piece in fairly close detail.

I say ‘fairly close’ detail rather than ‘exact’ detail because, with more complex pieces especially, certain areas of a drawing such as joinery details (if they are not a visual feature), or uncertainties about the final form of a molding profile, or any spacing/number errors which may crop up in SketchUp drawing that indicate there is a problem somewhere (a problem however which would require significant backtracking and analysis to parse out), tend to be left for later. In such cases I tend to continue forward with the sketching of the piece, the goal being to produce a drawing which conveys all of the visual detail the client needs in order to make the decision to proceed.

Others might only take their drawings as far as the concept sketch phase in their interactions with their clients, but I find that with joinery-based solid wood pieces a lot of the constructional detailing is going to be apparent in the final product, so it makes sense to define it fairly thoroughly so that the rendered drawing is very close to what will be made. The look of the piece comes partially from how it is made, not from what is applied to something otherwise to make it look like something it really isn’t.

Once I have reached the ‘go-ahead’ phase with the client, wood and other materials are sourced and I go about producing any necessary templates I might need. Once the wood is in hand and ready to be worked, I start breaking down the material as per a cut list, prioritizing the critical pieces first. When it comes time to cut joinery, I go back to my drawing and go over the component in question with a fine-toothed comb looking to correct errors, flesh out details, make minor changes as required.

So, at this phase, I grab rendered components in my drawing and duplicate them, and then in the same sketch make the duplicate white in color so that I know it is a revised and ‘final’ part.

After a while the overall sketch becomes cluttered with various components which have been dragged out, made white and revised to a detailed level. My main drawing looks like this right now, for example:

Sometimes I put things on different layers, toggling layers on and off, but I don’t always bother with that for single pieces of furniture.

I also start new sub-drawings dedicated to particular aspects like doors, back panel framing, drawers, etc., copying parts over and then going through them in detail, again rendering to white. Once the part is finalized in the drawing I print take-offs of various parts and their details, with dimensions, which I then take with me to the shop. It’s like a road map. Until recently we have not had a family laptop, so taking the drawings to the shop has become what I am used to, as opposed to keeping a computer at the shop. My shop lacks an office or dust-free space, so I tend to be averse to bringing a laptop into that – and my wife certainly is not keen on that either.

And, where I last left off in the build I had just started the fabrication process with this futon storage cabinet, having prepped most of the stock, and having constructed the frame for the top and the 4 sets of latticework which comprise the sides of the cabinet:

I could have re-started pretty much anywhere, but I chose to continue on with the fabrication of the top frame and panel. So far I have prepped the stock, cut the corner joints, cut the interior edge dado for the panel, and molded the outside. See post 6, post 7 and post 8 if your memory needs refreshing. I know mine did!

The frame of the top has the thickest section height of any stick in the cabinet, and I was only able to squeeze out the four frame members I have from the 8/4 stock I obtained. There were only two boards out of the pile which yielded material of the required thickness, so if something goes south with joinery cut out on the frame, which is a bit on the complicated side so it is rife with opportunity for errors, then I have nothing with which to replace it. It’s not like I can go and get some more Cuban mahogany at the hardwood lumber outlet. So, I’m super careful. Well, a bit paranoid too! It seems that you can’t so freely use the term ‘it’s only wood’ when what you have to work is in actuality virtually irreplaceable.

One of the tricky areas with frame and panel work is that of joining the frame outer corners together with their supporting post. The three way connection in other words. There are various solutions of course, and I’ve wrote about them extensively in the past, and I have written two joinery Monographs which deal with this topic exclusively. Yet, with a new project comes new particulars, and I sometimes need to come up with new configurations of three-way connections to satisfy the requirements. I find this a lot of fun actually and relish the challenge.

Just in case it might not be clear, here’s the connection I am using in this cabinet to join the top’s corners and posts together:

It’s a form of half lap, but one which needs to incorporate the size and position of the post tenon amid the lap’s dual locking pin mechanism, shachi-sen, plus accommodate the molded front profile, and the interior dado for the panel. Pushing the design configuration is the intended assembly sequence involving the latticed side frames and bottom frame. Also pushing on the design is the fact that the post tenon’s visual exposure means that the position of the rear post tenons need to be the same if at all possible to the front tenons, and yet the form of post used at each location is different. The rear posts accommodate the clip-in back panel assembly, while the front posts are shaped to partner with the door stiles in such a way so as to allow the doors to swing 180˚ open. Finally, there was the design decision to use a joint which showed a bit of it’s mechanism, instead, say, of a joint with a fully mitered appearance. This decision was made in light of the piece overall and wanting to walk that fine line between showcasing the material and showing the virtues of joined work too. The corner joint with shachi sen is becoming a frequent feature of my work, part of the design language.

So, there’s a lot going on in a tight space and a lot to consider. Of course I fully recognize that I do bring this on myself though the desire I have to build, insofar as possible/reasonable, without any recourse to glue or metal fasteners and using joinery which is, to whatever extent it seems sensible to push it, demountable. It would all be vastly simpler and quicker, to be sure, to join everything together with glued butt joint and miter joint connections with dowels, biscuits, dominoes, etc., and maybe even tack on a little joinery simulacra. I’ve seen in some pieces of furniture the look of through tenons simulated by simply burning rectangles on the surface for instance. How these pieces are not outright laughed at and withdrawn from consideration for sale at the furniture outlet is beyond me, but of course there are price points to consider. Anyway, I’m not tempted by those easier routes though it certainly offers what it from many sides a more pragmatic way to proceed, that is, from a manufacturing and profit/loss perspective.

Anyway, back to the top frame detailing. The relative simplicity of the core of the joint, that of half-lap pierced by single tenon, appealed to me, but wringing out the details took a while. I think that’s one of the key things to realizing a design successfully: sitting with the design until it is truly done to the last detail and not giving into the strong temptation to just get on with the cuttin’. Sometimes those little tiny details that seemed better to gloss over, the ones your choose to mentally abbreviate, can come back to bite you – this certainly has happened to me enough times.

When I got my head back into the drawing after the long break, I discovered that I had left off working on the drawing in the middle of finalizing certain details. Some things were not pencilled in fully, and some parts were annoyingly off their marks for reasons which were unclear. About three days were absorbed in straightening everything out and getting to a point of being ready to fabricate.

Back then to the cutting, I decided to mortise the lap joints for the tenons, and thought it made good sense to mill these mortises with the joints tightened and in an aligned position. In the past I have tackled such joints with chisel alone, by hollow chisel mortiser, and by router with edge guide. Now my weapon of choice, more often than not, is the Zimmermann pattern mill. I’ve gravitated, therefore, to the tool that tends to produce the most precise results, with the safest way to produce the cuts, with the cut area clearly exposed to view, the cleanest way to produce the cuts, and with the most reliable fixturing. That, in a nutshell, is the pattern mill.

I used a pair of Bessey clamps to dial each corner joint in tight and dead square, before clamping the assembly down onto the work table of the mill:

The mortises had been marked out months ago, but a last double check revealed one of the mortises was in the wrong position (!), so I’m super glad I took the time to re-check that and make the correction.

The mortise is roughed out initially with a under-size cutter and the location of the mortise defined by that cut’s position checked with a caliper in situ:

[mredwinsmith]

How to Draw Birds: Draw Realistic Animals

Nuthatch I by David Kitler

Wherever you live, you likely don’t live alone. Not when you consider the birds in your backyard or the pigeons on the sidewalk or seagulls cawing at you if you live along the coast. Birds are a constant companion for many of us and yet we can forget to explore them in our art. Take birds as your subject matter and you discover the fun of color and texture … and attitude!

Here David Kitler shows us how to draw a bird with a ton of attitude in just ten steps. And when you are done with that, you’ll be ready to add luscious paint, which is where the Essentials of Painting Birds comes in. You’ll learn how to create beautiful paintings of realistic birds in impressionist natural settings that are full of color and void of complications. It’ll be easy and it’ll be fun. Enjoy!

Draw Realistic Animals

Nature artist David N. Kitler shares easy techniques and expert tips on how to draw birds.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch (graphite and acrylic, 12×9)

  I’ve always been intrigued by nature’s intricate details. It’s this complexity — combined with the subtleties of mood and environment — that I attempt to capture in my drawings and paintings.

I tend to travel to where my subjects live so I can observe their behaviors and interactions within their natural habitats. While on location, I also gather as much reference as possible, from photographs to actual specimens — fallen feathers, fur, grasses and the like. Back in the studio, I’ll look through all the reference I’ve gathered to decide which of my experiences I want to depict at that particular moment.

I then prepare my initial idea on a separate piece of paper and transfer it to a board so I can preserve my original experience and enjoy developing it once again. These drawings that I make for my paintings I call preliminary sketches, and they have by definition an unfinished look — no background, parts of the subject that fade off and undefined edges.

I’ll show you the techniques I used to create one of my preliminary sketches enhanced with acrylic washes in the following demonstration. My choice of subject — a red-breasted nuthatch — wasn’t dictated by the bird’s pose or an interesting light source.

I simply chose it because it reminds me of the experience of being in the woods on a cold winter’s day (the shortest day of the year), when the birds and I were the only creatures around. I should also mention that the nuthatch is a tiny bird (4 inches from beak to tail), but I decided to draw it larger than life to better showcase the species and its beautiful markings.

1. Draw the basic shapes

I view my world as a series of shapes and forms — mainly circles, squares, triangles and cylinders. As an initial exercise (on the lower right of the sheet), I drew the bird in its most basic shapes to show you how I see it.

Tip: If you start to look at things in terms of basic shapes, whether your reference is three-dimensional (an object) or two-dimensional (a photo) or simply in your imagination, you’ll notice that replicating those simple shapes in either a larger or smaller size is an efficient way to begin a drawing.

I develop those basic shapes a little further, as I’ve done with the drawing in the center of this photo. For a painting, this is as far as I’d take the drawing before transferring it to a board, where I’d continue “drawing” with a paintbrush. For this exercise, I’ve finished my piece as a drawing.

2. Focus on the eye

In this instance, I’ve decided to start the drawing with the nuthatch’s eye. This area is usually the most important element in my pieces. It’s the place I aim to have the most detail, contrast and crispness, in an effort to help the viewer connect to the animal in the drawing or painting. After drawing the eye’s basic shape, I blocked in the surrounding areas to ensure proper placement and proportions, using an HB lead in a mechanical pencil.

Keeping in mind that viewers will be drawn to the area with the most contrast, I used a 9B pencil to fill the pupil’s bottom half, which will be the darkest part of the bird. Next, in order to incorporate the reflection of the surrounding trees, I used HB lead in a technical pencil to push some of the graphite from the pupil area in order to suggest tree shapes. Finally, using 4H and HB leads, I pulled out radiating lines to fill in the iris.

3. Complete the eye

Working with a mask — in this case, the holes at the edge of an old computer printout — I used a white eraser to remove the top half of the guideline I’d used for the pupil. I then used a wood dowel, sharpened to a point, to burnish the different grades of graphite.

Next I proceeded to fill in the rest of the iris and reflections by using very sharp pencils in a mixture of pencil grades, applied in tiny circular motions and burnished again with the pointed dowel.

Remember that, in order to get a better feel for what the finished eye might look like, you’ll need to have an approximate value established around the eye. Therefore I started to add the fine lines surrounding the eye to represent the bird’s eye ring and adjacent feathers.

4. Lightly render the body

I started working on the areas around the eye by drawing short lines made with mechanical, technical and wood-cased pencils and using pencil grades in the middle range (3H–3B). I then added an overall coat to the bird’s body using 4H marks — without applying a lot of pressure — to indicate things like feather barbs, markings, toe scales and beak texture.

Tip: At this stage, you should focus on the direction and length of each mark, and you should use curved strokes for the beak, toes and other features to suggest their form. For feathers — and fur and scales — always work from the tail toward the head so these elements appear to overlap as they do in nature.

5. Add a darker layer

Next I switched to a medium-grade pencil (HB) and added a second, darker layer of graphite.

Tip: Drawing over some areas, such as a branch, is less difficult than trying to avoid them or preserve them intact. By doing this, you’ll maintain continuity from one side of an obstacle to the other. As I don’t apply a lot of pressure when drawing, these unnecessary marks can easily be erased later.

6. Complete the finishing touches

Finally I used an eraser to re-establish the branch’s edges and then added more tone to finish the branch, as well as the bird’s toes and claws. Tip: It’s easier to draw the feet first and then to draw a branch that fits your drawing.

As this is a preliminary sketch, I concentrated only on the most important areas and deliberately faded off parts of the image in my design. I left the tail, which is pointing away from the viewer, lighter and unfinished.

Usually the final thing I do to my preliminary sketch is to add a few washes of acrylic paint to places I feel are important focal areas. These sketches with acrylic washes are a popular way for beginner collectors to upgrade from reproductions to originals. Here’s what you can do.

7. Lighten the eye

One thing I needed to do in preparation for adding color is to lighten the eye. I took a piece of tracing paper, cut out an eye-shaped hole and used a white eraser (you can also use a kneadable one) to remove some of the graphite by dabbing, not rubbing.

8. Apply washes to the pupil

The eye is where I want the main focus, so I started with the pupil. First I mixed a small amount of color — in this case, black. I took some paint with the brush and then touched the brush to a piece of paper towel to wick off most of the paint. This left me with a dryer brush and a small amount of pigment.

Tip: The key here is not to wet the paper excessively, which might warp it. I used this technique throughout, applying thin washes of transparent colors, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next. As the paint in the jars isn’t diluted enough, I thinned it with water to increase its transparency.

I completed the iris by adding thin brown washes, mixed from my primary colors, to the bottom half of the iris, and a bluish purple color to represent the reflected sky. I left the white of the paper showing through to evoke clouds.

9. Apply washes to the body

After adding some color around the eye to frame it, I turned my attention to the rest of the body. I added an overall “coat” using browns, oranges and blues to indicate feathers and markings.

Tip: At this stage, you should focus on the direction and length of each mark and use transparent/diluted layers, allowing a lot of the paper to show through.

10. Decide how far to develop the piece

Part of the fun at this point is deciding how “unfinished” you want the final piece to be. I chose to block in some areas further, while leaving others—the tail, branch and lower foot—without any paint. In a few areas, I also applied more pencil over the paint.

Sign the “finished” work

Many artists have trouble recognizing when a piece is completed and hesitate to carry out the final step: signing the piece. The signature is the only thing that marks the completion of this type of work, so this exercise is a good one for experimenting with different stopping points. When I had accomplished my desired end — what I thought was an interesting look with this sketch — I went ahead and signed it.

In conclusion

I hope that this article prompts you to look at your experiences and sketches in a new light. These tips and techniques are useful whenever you’re drawing any type of wildlife. Maybe you’ll share my two primary objectives: to bring the wild within reach of those who haven’t had the opportunity to experience it for themselves, and to provide a permanent reminder to those who have.

Naturalist and artist David N. Kitler’s work has received many awards, including first place in the Animal Art category for The Artist’s Magazine 2007 Annual Competition. He has taught classes and workshops throughout North America for more than 15 years. To view his online gallery, read more art tips and learn about his DVDs, visit www.davidkitler.com.

This article appeared in Artists Magazine. Click here to subscribe to The Artist’s Magazine today!

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