#this was supposed to be a sketch i dont need it to look good

[odetoscavengers]

im nothing if not predictable

Daniil here

everyone here

[arolesbianism]

I wanna take a crack at making some fake screenshot graphics for my Sif Odile duo loopers au but I do not feel confident enough in my ability to mimic isat's art style and I also have a crippling fear of drawing backgrounds

[locusustus]

der verbotene adventskalender or however that post goes

[w-d-g]

Do you know. Is there anyone out there who is missing you? Who would notice your absence? Assuming they even remember you. Is there anyone to care? With how ornery you seem I'm not sure if there would be. I can't see anyone caring beyond what you could do for them. I'm not sure if any of 'us' care beyond the amusement you provide :)

((this fool spilled espresso on the universe in a nutshell . wtf

((obviously he is unaffected by this, you can tell by his sure and proud body language

((asks open now until . idk how long. a while

((under the cut is my process yap session. this was agood one to do it on bc i had to redraw the whole pose and scene, and the head angle allowed me to show off the Noggin Prism. i would have done like, a speedpaint type thing, but my insecure ass cant handle ppl seeing the 900 mistakes i make every time 😭😭😭

((so first i usually draw out the hipbone, ribcage, leg forms, and approximate head shape/position. for this guys figure im going for a combination of the machinist and goth anime legs uncle. hes got no arms but i usually put in shoulders for an expressive silhouette. i dont do the legs every time, as sometimes for more simple poses it isn’t necessary.

((second i figure out what i wanna do with the hands, drawn on a separate layer. good time to remember sketch is just a general loose layout, and you can change things whenever you decide.

((third i do whatever props are supposed to be around. i do this after the pose bc i usually base the “camera” angle around what makes sense for the pose, then i know what perspective they should be.

((fourth i do the goop. i do it after the pose and hands because its similar to the way i would draw clothes - kinda held up by and draped over the body forms.

((step five i dont often need to do, but for when i have to draw the head at an unusual angle, i make this boxy mapping shape. this step is a little complicated so i wont explain it in full, but its super helpful and easy once you understand the shapes that make up a face. if enough people wanna know i might make a separate post for it.

((step six is lineart. i did the full face lineart before i covered it with the hands, because once its all lined, you can make sure that it looks correct. usually its easier to tell during lineart because the forms are more clearly defined, and you can tell where things might not line up, or they look unnatural. you can do the hands first if you turned off the head layer, but its harder to tell where the hands should be resting. you can see in this step i changed the shape of the hands and the position of the head a bit, which happens often in this step for me usually due to the definition of the forms i mentioned. remember its good to zoom out and look at the whole form often so things arent drawn too big or small!

((next was doing the neck, white goop outline, filling in the face and hands, and doing some minor shading on the white bits. since i use a black background, i dont actually need to fill in the body with black. when i color lineart, i duplicate it and put the color on the layer on the bottom. this is so i dont accidentally change or erase the lineart, but also because if i decide to color the lineart, i can mask layer the lines instead of the lines And the color. this is also the step where i lined and colored the props.

((after the

((after i finish doing the black prop outlines and coloring them, i turn the black back up to full opacity. i turn it down so that im not trying to see black lines on a black background.

((then i finish up with resizing, text, and whatever extra effects i decide to add.

((i dont do all of these steps every single ask, but i should because shortcuts fuck it all up fr. thats all hope this was cool and helpful.

[burn-before-reading]

blue is the colour of your eyes

joost klein x artist! reader

The overwhelming need to paint him. just fluff and rambling and being a nervous mess.

now has a prequel! read here

word count: 2.3k

a/n: supposed to be short blurb but it got away from me soooo anyway i haven’t tried to write anything in a hot second but Joost is inspiringggg so enjoy. Definitely wanna come back to this idea later possibly who knows. i don’t proofread anything btw so good luck

warnings: none except awkwardness, google translate Dutch, and a titanic reference.

RPF BELOW. PLEASE SKIP IF UNCOMFORTABLE. DONT REPOST TO OTHER SOCIAL MEDIAS OKAY PLS AND THANK YOU

You can’t seem to stop staring at him today. Two hours of putting pencil to paper trying to come up with literally ANY other idea and now your left with a pages full of Joost doodles.

He, of course, has no clue. drawing on his ipad on the other side of the couch. a movie playing in the background as the two of your got engrossed in your own work. who knows what he was doodling.

You were supposed to be brainstorming ideas for a painting for a group show coming up. The theme was vague and open ended. Love, in every sense of the word. Platonic, romantic, the secret third kind you didn’t even wanna think about right now.

You shouldn’t be thinking about Love and staring at Joost. You two were friends. He just sees you as a friend. Purely platonic.

Turning the next page over you give yourself a fresh start and start working on a couple thumbnails for possible paintings. You start scribbling a figure in the center. moving quickly to the background you add scribbles of flowers and leaves. making a short list to the side of plants to study later: Daisies, Sage, tulips.

Satisfied enough with the first thumbnail you scribble a few more in different poses. hands folded in their lap, resting on a table, holding a cigarette….wait.

you go back to the last sketch and notice you added a bit more details than intended. chunky glasses and a sharp haircut. you look back up at your accidental muse. He is still engrossed in his own art, but you manage to catch his eye after a minute when he looks up from his work.

his eyes pierced into your soul in that moment and the painting flew together in your head. Splashes of yellow and orange contrasting with the green of the plants. And his eyes. bright blue.

Why are his eyes so blue…

“you good?” he asks.

you dont know how long you were staring at him before you submitted to your own subconscious desires. Pencil tapping repeatedly on your sketchbook you muster up the courage to ask,

“can I paint you?”

his mouth gaped open slightly as that wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. He straightens his posture and shifts slightly in his seat.

“like… now?”

“No not now.. I just keep getting stuck on this idea and,, can i?” you gesture to the space next to him and he shimmies over slightly to give you permission to move closer. Now sitting next to him, you lean your book over for him to see.

“I just keep thinking about this idea of someone in a boquet of flowers, or just surrounded by flowers, and I want it to feel warm. I would be looking off to the side, or maybe smoking, i don’t know yet, but around you I imagined some Tulips and maybe sage to contrast your hair and..” you stopped as you felt yourself rambling and you look up. Bright blue staring back at you, full attention, hanging on your every word.

Comforting, yet still intimidating. You feel yourself want to shrink back into your half of the couch. explaining your ideas and baring your soul to this creature next to you that stole your attention and won’t give it back. This Fae that you gave your name to and now your theirs. At his beck and call at 9am when he texts you to hang out all of a sudden, so you cancel your own plans. Fae with bright blue eyes. stupid blue eyes.

what shade of blue are they?

his face looked interested, but still confused and hesitant, so you start to backtrack.

“You don’t have to agree, it was just an idea I had..” your pencil nervously taps the edge of your paper again and you look down and away from his face.

tap tap tap tap tap tap

Joost grabs your hand to stop your nervous tick and you glance back at him.

“No i want to, but… do i have to be naked?” his question breaks the tension and you burst out laughing.

“No. what? No! why would you think that?” you ask. he laughs as well.

“Ive seen your other studies of people, I didn’t know if this was gonna be like that one scene in titanic or,”

“Titanic? no no, I just want it to be you. We can agree on an outfit later if you are down for it but I just want you to feel like yourself.” he smiled and from this close you could see and the beautiful little details of his face. crows feet, dimples, each individual eyelash. His perfect blue eyes.

———

the next week you met up again, but this time you had arranged your studio up so you could sketch and photograph your model as needed. You had gathered your other needed models, a bouquet or two of flowers you had spent the last few days over analysing and studying. pages and pages of flower studies to make sure you had all the right angles needed when it came to the final painting. This next step you were slightly dreading.

It much easier to draw something when its not starting straight back at you.

Joost showed up later that day wearing a white button up short sleeve shirt, a black tie, and his usual chunky frames. his hair not as neat as it usually was but styled to suit the overgrown mullet look he had been sporting lately. Yellow roots growing in. He had badgered you all week about what he needed to wear and even though you said you trusted his fashion choices to pick a suitable outfit he insisted on a guideline. So you gave him one.

“Well people usually get flowers on a date, right? so i dunno, what would you wear on a date?”

“ Have you gotten flowers on a date before?”

“well… no, but typically thats a thing sometimes. it seems nice.”

“… Is this a date?”

“…its a collaboration.”

You guided him over to the corner you had set up as the make shift backdrop for him to model in. An old love chair you thrifted years ago sitting on rolled out black paper for the backdrop. some flowers in a pile of the floor for you to mess with later.

He sits down on the chair as you gather your needed materials to sketch. larger pieces of paper, charcoal and an assortment of graphite, watercolour paints, and your camera for when he can’t sit still any longer.

“okay i think im all set. lemme know whenever you’re comfortable and we can start okay?”

“okay.. do I just stare at you or..” he fidgets with a ring on his finger.

“find something to focus on right behind me. and just try to sit naturally. I just want you to pose in a way that feels naturally.” you state and pick up a piece of charcoal and bring it up to the easel.

Posing came a little naturally to Joost. He had done plenty of photoshoots before but he felt 100% more nervous about this one. It was more personal, more intimate. He had never really watched you work before, fully in your element, and it was so fascinating to him. yet… boring. He wondered how rich people in the past could stand for so long to get their portrait done, it had been two minutes and he was dying of boredom. His only entertainment was stealing glances at you and the faint music in the background.

“Can I talk?” he asked, careful not to move he head as he glanced at you. he saw you nod in his peripheral vision.

“Yea that should be okay, Ill let you know if i need you to stop for a second.”

“So… do you have people model for you usually?”

“No not really. most times I paint from life outside or just have to look for references online. Ive drawn friends before, but never for a bug painting. This one needed to be more personal tho.”

“more personal? How-“

“Wait can you turn back?” He had moved his head towards you fully with that last question. throwing off the perfect angle you had for his hair. “Sorry I’ll answer in a second just tilt your head a little..” you gesture with your hands and he tries to go back into position, but its not the same. He is still looking at you, that perfect shade of blue haunting you, staring you down. you look at the first sketch you had and now it just feels boring. “Maybe lets try a different pose.” the pencil tapping starts again as you think.

“Sorry, did I mess it up?” he looks away from you and runs in hand through his hair, giving it a new look. It urks you how much can change in a person with just one moment. With one turn it feels like an entirely new image.

“You’re fine, I just want something more interesting. Maybe if your hands were… can I?” He nods and you walk over to analyse his pose at a closer distance. Wiping your hands on your pants to eliminate any charcoal and sweat, you carefully pose his arms to rest on the armrests. You step back, to view your work.

“You were saying, what is this for again?” he asks. You are too engrossed in your project at this point to feel embarrassed talking about it.

“A group show between me and some old college friends. Ive been struggling on something to pick for the theme and it finally came to me the other day.” You fidgit with his left arm, deciding if it should be resting under his chin or falling from the armrest into his lap. “I just want this to be perfect..”

“Whats the theme?” You look at his and feel your face grow a little hot with what the answer is.

“uhh,, flowers! thats what we’re missing!” you avoid the question by running to grab one the fresh boquetes you bought this morning.

“I think maybe if you just hold these then you can-“ you foots catches on a pencil that had fallen, sending you crashing down and into Joosts lap in the chair, where he catches your arms to help you regain balance.

“are you okay?” You are growing more frustrated by the second and you don’t want to look up at him.

“yea, fine. Just gimmie a second.” Your eyes stay down at his lap where the bouquet now laid in a shaken mess of petals and leaves. still usuable, but not your perfect vision like you wanted.

“Maybe you should take a break for a second?” he insists and stands up the switch places so now you sit in the chair, and he is hovering above you. “You are getting really worked up over this, are you okay?”

“yea yea, im fine.” you take a deep breath to try and regain yourself. Looking up, the blue is now inches from your face as he stares are you with worry. For some reason, in this moment, you just feel like bursting. “Its your eyes. I can’t focus with em.”

“what?”

“You’re always so distracting, you know that?”

“If im so distracting then why ask me to model?”

“Its just for the theme. Like i said it came to me the other day and i can’t let it go now.”

“ what can’t you let go?”

“I think I might be falling in love-“ you stop yourself as the words fall out, but the confession is already spoken. Your eyes fall to your lap as you can’t bare to look at him in the moment.

“Lieverd…” he bring a hand up to delicately grab your cheek and tilt your head up so you look at him again. With the two of you staring again you glance between his eyes and his mouth, and he seems to understand. “can I?” he asks and you rise out of the seat to meet him halfway.

Lips meeting and moving together as you bring one hand to his hair and the other grabbing at his shirt collar to bring him closer. His free hand pulls your waist in as your lips move in sync, each of you waiting for the other to break the moment.

You pull away first and are immediately met with your foe, blue staring you down but now feel softer. You pull your hands away slightly and wince at the damage you had done.

“Shit! Your shirt!” His looks to see smudges of charcoal staining the collar from where you grabbed it. He laughs and just shrugs.

“I kinda like it.” he replies and leans back in to kiss you again. You kiss back and lean into it before breaking again.

“As fun as this is, ai do really want to finish the sketch.” Joost laughs and nods, giving you space to get up and he sits down once again.

“Can I take you on a date after this?” he asks.

“mmm maybe,” you tease,” Ive never dated one of my models before.” you pick up the charcoal one more time and put a new piece of paper on your easel.

“Im more than just a model, right? Im your muse.” he smirks and gets into a dramatic pose that he is surely going to complain about holding for more than a minute. “Now, Lieverd, Teken mij als een van jouw Franse meisjes.”

You two did not get much more work done that day.

[beatcroc]

a year!!! as of today i have now been drawing these funny little pizza freaks, to the exclusion of almost everything else, for!!! an entire year!!! i wanted to do a nice group shot/lineup of everybody to compare to when i first started trying to draw them because oh boy were they bad. i never even posted most of them anywhere because they were so bad. but im posting them here, now, to see how everything's changed/evolved.

this is probably the hardest time i've ever had trying to figure out how to work with a style, but we got there eventually; i'm pretty happy with the handle i've got on everybody now...dont let ur memes be dreams. lots of unimportant journaling and idle thoughts abt it below.

older pics

the first one is the VERY first time i drew them, before i thought i was going to actually have any interest in drawing them [lmao]; it was just the one isolated image, for my friendserver, to illustrate the funney message, so there was no attempt to make it Good or actually understand anything going on w/ the designs or style.

second is the original run of practices sketches to start trying to figure them out for real; done after i started having ideas for the comics and such and realized oh god maybe i am actually gonna draw fanart for this. [again, lol, and lmao.]

third one is the first pt art thing i posted on here. there were a couple weeks of sprite studies between this one and the previous image. the one on the top right wasn't part of that post i just threw it on as space filler; i'd intended to shift to doing Sprite Redraws But Stylized to explore tings more, but that was the only one i did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

individual characters

peppino: by far the hardest dear god. bro what ARE your shapes how DOES your face work. jesus christ. everything i have trouble with this style for, peppino has it in excess. i draw in polygons! i need consistency! and that is the last thing this kind of style is concerned with. they are made of squarshy clay and i do not understand how to mold them. i was really hoping trying to learn this game's style would GIVE me that kind of flexibility for fun exaggerated facial expression but i don't think much came of it in the end 😔. anyway on the bright side all this means once i got peppino figured out a little bit everybody else clicked way easier.

fake peppino: honestly i never did anything with him on purpose except for how his eyes work + the perma-smile thing. i figured ok hes supposed to look weird and off model so whatever happens with him happens. and it did. and it kept happening. it is still, in fact, happening.

noise/ette: somehow, for every bit that peppino was the least natural thing i've ever tried, these two worked pretty much right off the bat. i still don't understand it, seeing as pretty much all the things at play for peppino are also at work for them. i think the new sketches are actually a little worse than older ones but not enough that i care.

gustavo: really funny bc i drew him on model twice and just went 'okay, cool nice, easy, um. he doesn't have any fucking legs?' fortunately he was the only one i had a strong idea for how to stylize him [square] and it worked exactly as i was hoping so wahoo.

brick: is an animal and therefore 5000x easier and more natural for me to draw/stylize than anything else in the cast. that is Just a rat bro. i can draw a rat.

gerome: i think the funniest one here. the most drastic and least necessary change imo. i was gonna have him be really small at first, like smaller than the noises, but then i just... didn't. he's just peppino-sized now. also i gave him like. actual human facial structure, which is funny bc in most cases i'd do anything to avoid, but it works well for his being A Rock to give him some angles and definition like that+ to differentiate his vibe from the rest of the cast who are all very squishy. also since he is essentially Just A Head it's good to emphasize that too ig.

john: i only drew john a couple times but he gets to be here because i like him. and because most of the stuff i applied to gerome was readily applicable to john, though i did try to keep him a little more uncanny because he is a Huge And Lanky Freak. i hate that he is barefoot btw but idk how to make his color balance look right with shoes.

pizzahead: i did not want to put him on here honestly but i Have drawn him a handful of times and more importantly i didn't know what i was gonna do with john's pose if i didn't have him there to be glared at. the only thing that's different with him is giving him wider-bottomed pants, which i got from when i tried to draw these guys in clone high style [i never posted that one either][i will eventually]

snick: he gets to be here because 1. he's like 6 lines 2. i like him and 3. ive scribbled him a few times offhand and it went pretty well

misc

there are some guys missing because those are guys i didn't draw enough [or at all] to have gotten comfortable with them. sorry

i would have Liked to shade these but for the time being i have accepted that my grasp of light/shadow has decayed to the point im not going to be happy with anything i try there, so For Now i am working on my presentation with flats i guess. gerome has a shadow only because he's shaded like that ingame and looks naked without it

anyway if you are still reading [hi?] i get to shamelessly plug now. i'm over the hill of my pizza run now, and while i still have plenty of things i want to make here, most of the bigger more in-depth ones have passed. pizza tower was the first thing in THREE YEARS to get me out of my oc groove to doing fanart, and once i am done with my ideas here i will be going right back to it. if you like my art or how i write characters/interactions you should check out my oc/webcomic blog @jamverse . i can't promise people who like pizza stuff will be terribly into my designs, but i can guarantee i treat my guys with the exact same sort of tone i handle the pt guys with. and hell, i've mentioned it a few times before, but like 70% of my characterization for fake pep is just copied off one of my characters, so if u are going to miss him... he will still be there in spirit >;p

and if you dont care about any of that and are still reading thank you anyway. actually making these comics + seeing how shockingly well-received they've been has done a lot for my confidence, and for seeing that my kind of stuff IS something people enjoy :')

[bunnydracula]

your portraits are really amazing and i find your ability to capture likeness + control of value super inspiring…do you think you can talk about your thought process and beginning stages behind your drawings?

yes yippee!!!!!!! these asks helped me remember to actually photograph some process steps which i usually.... Dont do bc im using my phone for reference images lol (my work setup is in a "transitional phase" rn....... im working in the kitchen. its fine) i downloaded one of these lestat gifs made by @fearwakes ! then first thing i've been doing recently with portraits is lifting something that works from my comics process and applying it to these pencil drawings. i love having borders. i almost invariably will draw outside them but it gives me something to build on top of/inside/around rather than floating to the edges of the page. i used to be really envious of people who could spontaneously produce "sketch pages" from blank sheets but my spatial eye just does not generate those pleasing distances automatically. i need boxes lol GOOD THING I DO COMICS!!!!!

i did not actually measure this box or even make sure it's straight bc i'm just turning my brain off and doing a portrait. ok step one of capturing a likeness is just eyeballing distances for facial features. like i mentioned before with spatial reasoning it's a weak point for me as an artist so i do not give myself a hard time if i cannot immediately correctly guess the distance between a subject's chin and hairline. i start with shorter distances -- chin to mouth, mouth to under-nose-shadow, then often fill in either cheek before i take a shot at laying the eyes in relation to the nose. i'm always thinking of my pencil portraits as a kind of heatmap for dark/light values, so i'm laying down the scaffolding that's going to allow me to emphasize where all those shapes ultimately bleed together as a 3D object.

there is always a stage (left drawing) where i'm kind of peripherally going oh my god. oh my god i lost it. i can't draw faces anymore. this looks like fucking garbage. oh my god. i need to kill myself. and i think it's partly just being a human person like the demons never completely shut up for anyone as far as i know LOL. but it's also sometimes coming from thinking i'm supposed to be simplifying the shapes. like if i took those guesstimates on lestat's proportions on the left and just went right to representing his features with solid black ink on top of these guidelines, it's true, he wouldn't really look like lestat even if the proportions are alright. it's important for me to remember that my sketches look very different depending on my medium and priority; if i was ONLY representing lestat in exaggerated shapes, lol, i might actually..... exaggerate those shapes. this is a sketch that is gonna work best as the preliminary stage for a fully rendered pencil drawing, not a line drawing. i just don't think drawing a subject precisely how he actually looks is gonna get you the best results for cartooning and striking that balance is a whole other thought. but for straight portraiture with an eye for value like this, it's perfectly fucking fine, cuz the thing that's gonna make him Look Like Lestat is actually how light connects over this 3D object.

like ok i no longer want to kill myself. i have successfully guessed the distances between his features "well enough" and tricked the eye into seeing something Lestat Shaped because enough of those shadows connect in ways they 1) do in this particular reference image and 2) just Do on his face in general from my broader observations of this face. this particular portrait is building on all my previous understandings of how sam reid's face is put together. so i'm able to correct a lot of the assumptions i made before i drew him enough times to start figuring him out. like Ok, his forehead is always taller than i think it is and his nose is broader (esp his nostrils). the lack of buccal fat is essential but he can also start looking too gaunt if his jaw is not wide enough. his mouth is made up of so many complex and delicate shapes and is imo his most prominent feature lol i never quite feel like i've fully captured it and idk if i ever will bc the thing that makes it so lestat is the way it actually moves. and just from Character Knowledge i'm always inclined to emphasize how heavy lestat's under-eyes are, i feel like that's an essential emotional component of his expression. sooooo i am satisfied enough with this sketch lol. this took around 45 minutes which is longer than some of my portraits of similar detail-level bc i was distracted by on-and-off sexting. many such cases. more thoughts re: pencil on paper. the next bump up from this has gotta be going BACK IN with white oil paints which i just do not care enough about this drawing to do. but when i'm working with pencil i really know the only highlights im gonna be able to bring out are the ones with much darker areas surrounding them, and the bits i miraculously do not smudge by total accident (i'm a serial smudger. fat hand. someone's gotta be endeared to this). anyway i fucking love white oils. they are everything i previously wanted out of, like, white-out and white jelly roll pens lol. it can do so much and when you're working with paint you simply have so much of it. paint rocks. like in this portrait there are a bunch of blond flyaway hairs that i simply cannot capture at this distance by carving out "blank space" either bc i do not have the skill or space to make the strands not look wildly overblown. but if i wanted to go in with paint, i'd darken up the background and just delicately go over strands until they glowed. portraiture like this is a very meditative process to me lol. i'm just falling into an image i feel is representative of something abt a face i like looking at. simple as. i do not have a concrete strategy for where my pencil goes next most of the time when i'm just feeling out shadows and translating them into pencil pressure. i know i don't wanna do the VERY darkest areas first just bc that makes the portrait pretty inflexible if i lay something down wrong (happens often) or the aforementioned smudging problem.

anyway i should probably scan this lestat but like i said i'm working in my kitchen and im disabled and do not want to walk upstairs LOL. imagine this example portrait looks good and not bad. very good

[itz-pandora]

Urrgh

I was just kinda moody today and yesterday and I think I'm just. Stressed.

I keep feeling like I have a mountain of work that I can't get done because I can't focus on anything but art at home, so I'd have to stay after school to get anything done, but I stayed after for like 3 days and I hardly got anything done and I'm so upset about it. I feel like I can't get anything done in the timeframe I have and I can't even focus in class and get things done. I just feel like I'm falling more and more behind and it's all my fault that I can't catch up. I'm trying so hard.

I have 4 different comics/storybooks I need to make for class and they ALL demand some kind of quality and I am a perfectionist. And I hate it. I think it won't take long but it does! I feel like if I don't turn in something that looks good then I'm not really an artist. Not to mention finding inspiration and time! I am dedicating so much to my Unbreakable Bond comic for my class, and I'm already 8 hours into 3 pages of SKETCHES! Just. Sketches. And I feel like I need them to be perfect. I need to make 2 short books based off stories (3 little pigs and Juan Bobo) and dude I can't think of inspo... Ughhhhhhh I'm sad. I'm halfway done with a storyboard for my Spanish class tho... Urrgh perfectionism is a bitch

And I'm falling behind with normal assignments too! I have a month old PowerPoint that every time I think about I feel drained and I DONT KNOW WHY? why cant i make a stupid powerpoint on one of the 5 senses development in utero?? It was due over a month ago! And we're in the story unit in Spanish and my dumbass can't keep up with our pace and it's driving me CRAZY. I'm supposed to be fast with this, I've always been fast with this, how am I falling so far behind?? It takes so long for me to get through it and we keep moving on before I'm ready. And my graphic noveling class? I spend so much time on the actual projects that I neglect the busywork. Not to mention how my brain doesn't think the same way as the curriculum does, I like to plot out as I go! It keeps telling me to plot out with words, but I know the gist of what I want, it's just hard to translate into words and I don't know how to properly describe stuff. Also I straight up didn't start one of our first assignments because I can't flip images on our school computers and it made me mad

Thank you Earth Science for being NORMAL. It's my most rigid and lecture-based class and has the most traditional style of teaching. It's the easiest in the execution and I don't feel like I'm behind in it. It's the only one I feel normal in.

My child development class is very lax, I goof off tbh, it's so easy to waste time. With Spanish, I need a translator and my friend in that class is chatty so I procrastinate, and in my Graphic noveling class, I make too much for myself and end up drowning in it.

i havent worked on my animatic since yesterday so that's another thing my brain put in the loser bin. Smh

I'm kinda sad

I'm not saying this in any negative way towards you guys, I'm glad when you interact with me. Doing things on here is actually such a mental boost

[spaciebabie]

any advice 4 when u want to keep drawing 2 improve but u cant get over perfectionism ? like when u just dont care how its gonna turn out, if its bad its bad yknow?

ahh yes lowkey ive struggled with this a lot. not as much now as in the past tho, and honestly its beecuz ive developed a more neutral view on myself/my art in general. its going to take time to get to this state of mind, so dont be too hard on yourself when you find yourself falling into bad habits.

advice under the cut (kind of long winded) ⬇️⬇️⬇️

the first thing ive done to overcome perfectionism is focus less on details and more about overall shape and form. when i sketch im trying to get roughly what i want, and i limit the strokes i do in certain parts of my sketch to like 1-3 depending on what im drawing (im ngl i also am very impatient and have created a workflow that makes it so i am able to start and finish pieces as fast as possible LOLOLOL. shrugs. i just like drawing fast).

a good example would be this thing i just drew:

in all of my sketches i tend to use as few strokes as possible and just get the basic idea down. good for not overly focusing on teeny tiny details and worrying about them later (i also use the same technique for lineart, but just end up connecting the lines. thats another tip i have, if you like your sketches more than your fully lined pieces, just line the same way you sketch! or you could also use your sketch as your lineart :P)

another tip i have is to draw from references, and once again, focus mostly on shape/form/the big picture of your subject before going into details (do you know how many planes there are on the human face....i still dont know howta draw faces properly but im not mad at myself anymore about it, i just open up a reference and try to learn). i also recommend having a drawing session where the goal is to draw awfully. draw something you want to draw, but that you're not sure if you'll draw it right, and draw it. dont try to correct it, acknowledge that what you made isnt perfect, and then draw something else. you're learning! of course its not gonna be perfect. but inevitably, you're going to get frustrated. just remember if its something you really want to go back to, you will be able to revisit it in the future. feel your anger and frustration, but do your best to not direct it inward.

small side tangent about shading- I AM SO SHIT AT SHADING SKFHSAFDJHS. people dont tend to notice (surprising), since ig my shading style is considered "beautiful" or something, but if you looked at it on a technical level, there are mistakes everywhere. i havent really tried to improve it. i dont really care most of the time b/c i just like shading for fun. and especially when im shading my sketches, i already have it in my mind that its not supposed to be perfect. its a sketch. this is where im supposed to make all of my mistakes. once i start making my way to the final product is when i start worrying more about if i did the lighting correctly (even then ik im not good at it im not trying to be a god im just trying to draw things that make me happy).

additionally, i really rec u dont try and fudge a sketch until its better if you're deep in a Perfectionist moment. keep the old sketch and start over on a new sketch taking bits and pieces you liked from the original, and improving on those that you dont (shitty thumbnails are also good if you have a vague idea in mind but need ta figure out howta place subjects in your scene). honestly drawing the same thing/idea over and over gets me a better understanding of my subject each time, so naturally each iteration looks better. it doesnt take me that long to sketch tho, so if sketching takes you forever (sometimes if sketching takes you forever its b/c you're a perfectionist skjfskdjf) just think about how much time you're willing to spend on something. remember☝️ its okay to give up/take a break on something and try again later. sometimes you just needta stop looking at your art and like. look at a tree or something lmfao.

i will also say that im not looking to go into a career in art, im more of a hobbyist. ik school environments dont exactly.....help with perfectionism lol. there are certain expectations put on people who go into the art field that are inescapable. if this is the case for you, i still think what ive discussed before can help you, but i also think that you may need to lean more on the mental tips i have also provided below.

alright! mental health tips in regard to art:

so, i have c-ptsd, and with that comes a lot of self image issues that ive had to work on. my feelings about myself extended to the way i felt about my art. it was shit, it was awful, i cant draw like this other person can so why bother, if its not perfect i shouldnt draw at all, etc. and honestly, something thats helped is affirmations. my affirmations are c-ptsd related, but ive noticed a shift in the way i view myself, and by extent, my art since ive started repeating them to myself daily. and honestly, i think a requirement of overcoming perfectionism is telling yourself that your art doesnt hafta be perfect, A LOT. LOL. LIKE YOU ACTUALLY HAFTA ACTIVELY TELL YOURSELF YOU'RE NOT AWFUL LMAOOOO. its funny, we dont think much about how we naturally are self critical about ourselves, and we dont realize that we are basically repeating negative affirmations about ourselves over and over and thats why we're not improving (mentally).

even when you're not drawing, i think it would benefit some people to have some kind of notification on their phone to remind them to tell themselves that their art doesnt hafta be perfect daily/however often you feel you might need it. and then with that affirmation, practice Shitty Drawing. one of the best tips ive ever gotten for this was from one of my friends monnie. get out your sketchbook or some printer paper, take out a shitty pen, and DRAW. and then any mistakes you make are permanent and you cant just endlessly try and fix them. it forces you ta sit with this uncomfortable feeling that something you made isnt perfect. eventually your brain will realize that when your art isnt perfect, you can still draw and you're ALLOWED to continue to draw even if what you make isnt spectacular. if you dont want to repeat an affirmation daily, try to remember to at least repeat it before you sit down to draw. something along the lines of "my art doesnt hafta be perfect in order for me to want to draw. im allowed to draw even if its not perfect" or something else. it depends on what you most struggle with in regards to your perfectionism. im ngl its probably going to feel cringe at first, but i promise you, it really works if you put it into practice longterm.

shoot for neutrality instead of positivity first. let me tell you thats where i am now and its so much less exhausting drawing lmfaooo. i make something that looks like shit and im just like. i dont fucking careee i dont give a fuccckkkkk

those are my tips :] i hope this was helpful!

[qwertyprophecy]

hi !! i recently played storyseeker and really loved it !! i was curious about how you went about designing the story for it ?? was it hard to keep track of all the moving narrative parts ?? how did you decide where to reveal what info ?? hope you dont mind me asking -- i really love your art !! have a great day !!

I'm glad you enjoyed Storyseeker! Old as it may be, out of everything I've made it's still the game I'd most like to make a spiritual successor to.

Answers to narrative design questions after the cut:

It's funny, Storyseeker's design process was so organic that realistically it should've turned into a right mess. But just as organically it lead into design principles that made organising the story a breeze, honestly.

What I mean by organic: As touched upon in this reply regarding worldbuilding, the story kept writing itself as long as I kept asking it questions, so I just let it do its thing. The player is meant to experience the narrative in much the same way, with me imposing as little control over them as possible while they travel as they please and narrate to themselves the story of what they see.

It sounds freeform and terribly unstructured, but I established a principle of design that aims to help the player connect the dots instead of feeling lost in a cacophony of random details. While making the game I called them "paths": routes the player is likely to take or subtly guided to take, that connect together related parts of the narrative. Visually some are literal paths or roads, but they could be anything that the player might follow. Footprints, streams of bubbles, the line of sight of an NPC, the sight of something irregular peeking at the edge of the screen...

A path presents both a question and a direction to go look for the answer. Oftentimes, the exact questions I was asking myself when building the world piece by piece. Where does this road lead? Where are these weasels swimming to (or, approaching from the opposite direction, where did they come from)? What dislodged itself from this hole in the ice and where did it go? What kind of a body are these giant toes connected to? Ie., to answer your question of when to reveal information: when the player asks for the information by moving towards where it's revealed, whether on purpose or unknowingly.

If the player follows the direction they must end up on another path because good answers beget more questions. The single most important design document I had was a piece of scrap paper with a rough sketch of the map and a whole lot of coloured lines flowing across it to mark the paths I was prepping for the player. (Lines, not arrows, since I couldn't predict which direction they'd be traveled in.) By visualising them I tried to make sure none of them stopped abruptly or looped in a circle, and that all the places of interest were covered.

(The biggest exception to this design is of course the dead end of a room that is the game's final area: the temple interior that can only be found by completionists. That's why it "completes" the game by being a narrative dead end, too.)

I genuinely didn't even plan it this way on purpose, but it turns out that it really helps keep track of a narrative when you make a game where webs of cause and consequence are all visually illustrated on a literal map. :D If you're the type of person who benefits from visually organising things, I don't see why you couldn't draw abstracted maps of your narrative even if it's not so visual in nature.

I know I definitely need to do more of that! Just last week I rescued my current project's dialogue rewrite with visualisation and arrow doodles. It had grown into an overwhelming mess of unplanned splitting and rejoining branches and microreactivity, so to have any chance of looking at it without inviting a migraine, I closed the document and instead mapped the whole script into a single page outline of what each conversation is supposed to convey to the player. It's so much easier for me to think about the shape of the story when I can see it in one glance!

[ariicandy]

╭・Being Miles’ Younger Sibling !!

inspired by tiktoks on my fyp ++ been on my mind

Grammar mistakes, I’ll edit when I wake up

✦﹒Miles is 1000% very and sometimes overprotective of you before being bit by the spider and after. New York is a city of cause and he just wants to keep you safe as your brother and as well as spiderman.

✦﹒He always helps you with subjects you struggle with that he is good at, he’s also very patient so don’t worry stressing over the work while he’s there!! He’s been there and doesnt want you to get overwhelmed by it like how he did.

✦﹒Either, you found out he was spiderman when he was eating at that burger place with Peter B. walking by and/or getting a drink. Or he either told you because of the calls and messages you sent to him when your parents were trying to contact him. (This happened in itsv incase u forgot)

✦﹒you probably have heard him talking about Gwen to you a few times or by his sketch book when u are in his room telling him something cause Mama morales told you to tell miles. But when YOU have a crush he becomes all detective on who this person is and if they’re good for you.

✦﹒You probably will have to cover for him a lot due to him being spiderman and randomly disappearing, this will come in handy when you’re the little angel so they will believe you either way. He buys you stuff or takes you somewhere wherever you wanna go to make up for all the coverings you are doing for him just to not get him in trouble.

✦﹒along side with covering up for him, he will also tell you stuff not to do that will make you get in trouble cause he doesn’t want to influence you from all the things he has to do as spiderman. A little conversation goes like this, “don’t break into builds that’s breaking the law.” “But you always break into buildings as spid-“ “HEY we dont talk about that. >:((”

✦﹒if Miguel talks about u being a possible canon for him like how his dad is. He WILL get defensive AND RIOT. He will not take it very well you having to die just for him to have similar spiderman stories like everyone else’s.

Miguel - “Your sibling is possible a canon event”

Miles - “WHAT NUH UH [your name] is not!!”

✦﹒when he is getting chase by the whole spider society, all he could think about is your tragic death if he doesn’t stop the spot from destroying everything. He was relieved and happy when he made it back home only to find out he was in the wrong universe and has to deal with his other self that was supposed to be bitten by the spider instead of him..

Now if you were also a spider-person along side him…

✦﹒miles would be over protective on strategies of how to defeat a villain even if their a villain of the week. He doesn’t want you hurt like you guys were with fighting king pin :(( so you sometimes have to rebel and fight them so miles can see you can okay do it just fine! He does get mad but as long as you’re okay he’s okay too

✦﹒u both have to work together on covering each other whenever one of you disappear or have to fight together. He is grateful that you both aren’t in trouble, he’ll take the blame if you get caught so you don’t have to blame yourself for patrolling extra instead of arriving sooner than usual.

✦﹒you both sometimes just go out for a swing or go sit somewhere in ny and sit in comforting silence since nobody can understand this spiderman thing, you have each other against the world. That’s a whole lot to take in but miles is glad he atleast had someone to rely on whenever he’s in trouble or just something been bothering him, he also sends his shoulder to you whenever you need something off your chest or just talk abt being a spider person.

✦﹒when you and Miles were being chased he was always looking to his lefts and rights to see you were okay. He would send a web to you to go up ahead of him just so you can make it, it’s also the reason why he got body slammed by Miguel. He was quick to grab you and pushed you away so you didn’t get hurt. His top priority is not getting you hurt even if it means if he gets hurt :((

✦﹒Miles is like that big older sibling that pulls you aside when someone is being rude and/or threatening. He was like that when inside the go home machine. Holding your hand not letting you go infront of Miguel while he was trying to open?? The cage of your designated dimension. Miles didn’t let go when you guys arrived after being sent by the machine, he took of his mask to breathe and check if you were also okay from that whole thing.

✦﹒During that scene where he was telling his mom about the spot his arch nemesis, he quickly told you to hide by going invisible and to be behind the door so it shows it was only him. You both were really confused when your mom/Mama Morales said “who’s spiderman??”. Following him slowly out if his room still being invisible till it hit you both. Glitching.. miles looked at you leading to connect the dots when uncle Aaron arrived.

✦﹒at the rooftop with uncle Aaron looking everywhere to see New York in a whole another state than yours. Your spider sense go off dodge a attack that was gonna hit both of you, you were then injected with something that made you fall asleep, hitting the floor.

✦﹒ Waking up you were tight to a punching bag with miles, you start to look for your surroundings when miles also started to wake up. You were being lifted up a bit til uncle Aaron moved you guys around to start playing music. Miles tried talking Aaron but he got near being punched in the face by it.

✦﹒”I’m not.” Uncle Aaron walks away from both you and miles only to see someone watching you from above. They drop down from the rails on the ceiling to walk towards you both only to find out he’s Miles Mórales, The prowler.

[beesmygod]

yesterday was webcomics day. i am bea and i make "A Ghost Story" - part 4: the art

this part i feel like gets done semi-easy once the rest of the shit is dealt with. yesterday, my knuckles continued to swell and feel like rotten wood so i had to cut it short. this shit happens more frequently than i would prefer. today i need to run to the store and also pick myself up a lil treat (an eighth). for right now tho i have some cbd rich stuff that should help. maybe. while the index finger still hurts, only the middle knuckle is swollen anymore. let's see.

i started with panels 2 and 3 bc they seemed the least immediately labor intensive. ill be copy/pasting the line/flats for panel 3 to edit from there. t...there's going to be a lot of copy/paste this page. its not usually like that. but i usually only copy/paste the lines and flats. i will re-shade things so that they look different

unlike the sketch, the lineart has more "weight" to it. wait thats not how the pillow would deform. hold on.

ok that's better. did people even notice that before i changed it. probably not. but it matters to me!!!!! these little things add up and add weight to your world!!!! ive been trying new things with line as as of [looks at watch] last week. so it looks bad right now. like someones vague idea of what good lineart is supposed to look like. practice makes perfect tho....or breeds familiarity or something.

some parts of this look weird. dont worry. we will cover up that shit with speech bubbles. thank you comics for your ways of obfuscating bad art.

flats are easy. select everything that isnt your line art, invert the selection, and dump a base layer. then color that base layer with a mask

this page will, blessedly, not have any complex backgrounds. i already established the scene previously and can skate on doing my textured backgrounds. the background gradients in the direction the light in the room is being cast, usually.

first, a multiply layer at 50%. since she's facing away from the light source, she'll be mostly in shadow. then a white overlay layer at 50%; this is to make the first shadow layer pop and keep from getting too muddy. then a second multiply layer at 50% for the next layer of shadows.

added some sweat beads to make her look more haggard and some shine to her hair, since she's so close to the light. i've started bothering doing this bc it unfortunately looks good. finally i add one more multiply layer at 40% over her eyes to make her look more over this entire thing. and then added the red glow in another overlay layer (100%) where it would land if being cast from above.

completely servicable and theres room for like. a speech bubble later. usually i do text first, but in this case its so secondary to the actions being performed, i want to prioritize one over the other.

looking at it, im not going to be able to copy/paste this after all. she's going to settle in more and her body will rotate too much in the process. i can use this as a base to trace over, though, which will get me started.

but pain is occurring so im going to eat breakfast. what a bitch!

[bisquuet]

hi! still alive! AN UPDATE: LONG READ :D no new devlin content since im focusing on my oc comic :( ( speaking of comics. remember that other comic i posted here like once and never talked about it again?? yeah.. ) - lets talk about that. will i ever go back to that comic? -yes, when? i don't know.. i realized i went into the comic very.. unprepared.. or less prepared than i thought i was. so it got me second guessing things and getting confused..!! i have a VAGUE idea of how I want it to go, or atleast i DID, now im not so sure.. I think i need to sit down, splurge out my thoughts and ideas and go from there,, now i technically have a WHOLE post that is done that was supposed to be dropped shortly after the first one. but i thought to myself, oh ill just work on the next update and once im halfway THEN ill drop the second one! i never got halfway. i ended up just sketching more up ahead and adjusting and ''fixing'' things in the second update. making me loose track of time and getting behind, not only i had school to deal with too! so i just have a LOT of storyboarding of pages...that im slighlty afraid of looking at cuz i know that ill want to fix it but ill be unmotivated to actually fix it.. (bad rawr!!) eventually i have to get to it..!! >< ANOTHER major factor of the delay was my confidence, i wasn't satisifed and even frustrated at times when something didnt come out as good as it did in my head. i REALLY like the first update pages! especially devlins scene! but i think i got too ahead of myself and put WAY too much onto my plate, raising expections, of others and myself, mostly myself.... and I was trying to copy to a manga style, rather than convert my style normally into a manga setting, if that makes any sense. so i wasnt.... 'comfortable' drawing.. i dont know how else to describe it! but ever since then and even before, ive been getting less confident with my art and my style, feeling like its ugly or its getting worse. forcing myself to keep drawing, straining myself trying to make something that looks good to me. i have lots of fun and joy drawing for others, the reason i draw is BECUZ i just want to share what i make! as shallow as it sounds i like creating content for others to enjoy! it makes me happy and proud of what i draw! so. when i make something i dont like, i cant bring myself to show it cuz I dont like it.. others may, but that wouldnt change how i would feel about it. i felt that way deeply with the second update, which is why i kept tweaking it,,, and so I just let myself get caught up with other things.. feeling upset and guilty that I kinda just.. abandonded the comic..! saying that ill pracitce and oh ill do that , i Need to do this and this and this when i havent even done ANYTHING! i think, and i genuinely mean this, i think ive only recently started to ACTUALLY do things.! like development for my OC comic, writing for it, making content and sharing about them to whoever would lend an ear! so in a way the seewar comic walked so that my OC comic could run, hopefully.. so, unfortunately ill be focsuing more of my attention on my OC comic, and i honestly can't promise anything. the only thing i CAN say is that i will share the second update that i finished long ago.., no matter how much internal rawr doesnt want to, i feel like thats the first step to overcoming this fear and dread ive associate with the comic, which is something i DONT want. ill be scheudling to drop this weekend since ill be away.. i dont know when ill actively start working on the seewar comic again becuz i genuinely want to finish it and share it, i just have to not be too ambitious and plan out whats necessary. anyways.. now that school is out im finally paying all of my debts and owed art.. its rough but it has to be done. thanks if you have read all of this,, i greatly appreacite the support, from friends and followers, fossils, (thats what my fans are called wink wink) love yall fr <3

[slightlyhopefulromantic]

Sorry, it's kind of a long ask...

hi hello!! I really enjoy your au, and the small tidbits I find here and there paint such a vivid picture in my mind. I was wondering if you could indulge me just a little. What where the moms' reactions to meeting the Omega daddies? Specifically Samantha?

Canonically, I don't think Ron ever talked about his father besides the fact that his dad died on a fishing trip and was never proud of him. I imagine he probably opened up a little to his wife, but that was it.

Followup on that tidbit, how would Ron's anchor work? Is it like traveling through Willy's mind and seeing things from his perspective, or is it an owl house "jump through these paintings of his memories and see for yourself" situation? And since we know about the doodler's influence on that course of events, do the moms see it? (Let's be honest, the dad's are not perceptive enough to see anything besides Ron struggling).

I really enjoy your au and artwork, keep up the good work :D

(sorry that only willy and barry get neat sketches here, i realized i had no real design for either of them and so took a second pass with references LMAO)

no need to apologize for a long ask! im really glad you like the au and my art, thank you so much!! sorry this reply took so long ":]

i actually think about this a LOT, because a massive staple of my specific take on this au is that the moms... arent supposed to be here! the dads were supposed to be taken instead, just like in canon, and so everyone is quite confused throughout their interactions XD like you point out - samantha doesnt know who willy is, and in fact, no one knows who anybody else is besides morgan and bill :]

their first interactions, pre-reveal, are mostly confusion on both ends. the moms have no fuckin clue whats going on. the omega daddies are scrambling to figure out what went wrong and come up with reasons why the moms suck (not hard to do). by the time the reveal comes around, the o-dads are on steadier footing, but the moms are still utterly flabbergasted. only morgan and carol ever met their fathers-in-law, and well. obviously frank is not a villain here, so only morgan recognizes anyone LMAO

as for what samantha knows of willy and how she reacted... she doesnt (didnt) know what he looks like, and she doesnt know the full of ron's experiences in childhood. she just knows, like you said, he was an abusive father who died on a fishing trip when ron was young. she definitely knows more than most, ron has opened up to her about it, but she doesnt know the details. upon meeting him, shes. well. less than impressed! samantha is notably a very forgiving and kind character, even to those they are enemies with, but willy (and the o-dads as a whole) is someone she never gives any benefit of the doubt. as soon as she learns who he is, shes over it and very on board with "well lets just kill the guy." she hates his ass!!

as for rons anchor, im still uh. not entirely sure! but it would be more an owl house jumping-into-memories thing, not traveling through willys mind instead. though that would definitely be an interesting take... not what im going for, but something to explore in the future :3c and i dont know if the moms are all that observant either LMAO so while theyd probably have a better chance of noticing the doodler, i think they would still be mostly focused on little ron :') i do really wanna do a bigger post talking about the anchors at some point, since i have them all more figured out now than i did initially. however, logically, i should just get over myself and write the fanfiction LMAO i just am not a long form writer so that seems daunting ":]

[onejellyfishplease]

I am all about constructive criticism. I mean, how am I supposed to get better at writing/drawing if people won't be honest with me and give me tips to get better. I personally think that people who can't take constructive criticism aren't very bright. How are they supposed to get better at things if they don't listen to others who are just trying to guide them?

Also, I would love some more tips on how to make the shell better. If you are willing, of course. :)

I am horrible at drawing. I usually have to trace things to get a decent drawing. (For instance, I traced like five different things to make Mikey a pony.)

I'm so much better at coloring than I am at drawing. My writing needs work, too, but I'm getting better.

First of all, can I just say that you shouldnt worry about tracing art to improve your own (as long as u aren't posting it as soley your own but thats a whole other rabbit hole) I did too! It helps build ground work for a good understanding of anatomy and poses.

However there are a few holes in tracing. Forst of all it is quite limiting in the outcome of your work, as your art is stuck static in one pose. this can alkost hinder your ability to see things in '3D' and visualise objects for multiple angles. it can also lead to 'skin wrapping' , which i think is the hole you fell into here (and also a term i just made up now)

with the shell, you only coloured it within Mikey's trace lines - this caused the shell to loose a lot of its mass - making it look, quite frankly, not like a shell.

a way to improve on this is to look at more references of Mikey's shell in the show and its shape from different angles. this can help you get a good idea of how it should look, and it is a good idea to practice drawing it from these angles. this will improve your ability to think in a 3D space, (which is so darn hard, but seriously useful)

however, and you may have noticed this yourself, when you add new additions to the figure, the line art just doesnt line up! the line quality is different!

This is because the line you have done for the addition is Your Line. And we love your line.

so lets make the rest of the traced lineart fit into your style, instead of you fitting yours into theirs okay?

You may notice that when you trace art, the line work is just not the same, the lines are shakier than the original and it just doesn't look as good. this is not a reflection of your skill.

It is because, usually, (at least when I did it) you follow the original line so closely that it turns out shaky, probably taking your pen off the page a few times to take a break from the oen stroke. while the original artist did that line in one sweeping stroke.

a way to fix this, and make the line arr cleaner and more you, is to instead use the drawing as a very close reference. for example:

instead of tracing the exact lines of the art, merely trace the general shapes of the art. not only then do you add your own flair and gesture to the drawing, you are then more free to add more shapes to this sketch.

You can still use the reference drawing as closly as you want, but try to focus less on getting the exact lines copied, and more on the general shape. you linework wont be perfect the first time, it might be really messy compared to your usual tracing, and thats fine! you should see some of my sketches before i refine them!

But these will be your lines, theyll be smoother and more gestural, and overtime you will get better control over your penstrokes doing this.

Okay I cant really think of anymore to add here, I hope this helps! i think this was just one big word vomit lol. Keep drawing!! cause no matter what you do, as long as you are actively drawing you are always improving! dont be afraid to push yourself out of you comfort zone! who cares if it doesnt turn out the way you wanted it to? Its your art, You Created That with your Own Hands, and I think that is amazing.

<3

[zaltynn]

What is one lore tidbit about your characters that you've always wanted to share, but nobody asked about it?

this is suuuch a good question i dont even know how to BEGIN to answer it omg

ill start easy with aki! here's his first ever reference sheet next to his current one!

he started out as a simple white hare but is now an arctic hare; i chose arctic over snowshoe because i wanted him white all year round and it was between those two species because im canadian and so i prefer to pick animals that are in or close to my country :D (snow is important to the canadian experience asdadfasf)

he's actually a kinsona. my first ever, and lemme say, it has been a very positive experience. at the time, one of my friends had made another kinsona (they had a lot already), and it was from a fandom i knew and i guess it finally clicked what the merit was to having kinsonas (i didn't understand for a loooong time. embarassing really) i made akitoshi in the image of all might from my hero academia (my at the time obsession) and ukitake jushiro from bleach (one of my favourite characters) since then, he's aquired hints of baizhu from genshin impact, fierce deity from majora's mask and others.

also ive had a few people ask what are the tubes he's wearing, but ive never had anyone ask why; aki wears oxygen support because of his inspirations who some have either; crippling injury to lungs, chronic illness affecting the lungs, terminal illness of the lungs- so it kinda was the idea from sketch #1 that aki needed o2 support as a way to represent that. (nowadays i just kinda ascribe him to severe scarring in the lungs paired with reduced capacity and leave it at that. i aint a medical expert lmao)

his inspos mean so much to me still

-

next lets do... cassius! he's my main bloodborne oc, who i like to throw into aus a lot.

he was actually my first ever file in a souls game, so he's really special to me. He was already visually planned out in my head before i got the game and made him. i knew i wanted to do white hair and red eyes, classic vampiric look for a spooky blood-related game :D

something i dont talk about much with him is how his in game experiences has effected his character a lot (though that feels pretty standard). The whole reason he deals with chronic pain and a bad knee is because of his in game-attire that had the knee-brace like decoration, and his scars are so numerous because it was my first souls game and i was WOEFULLY AWFUL at it XD

-

next lets do kyrey!

hes also an oldie who's been around a long while. here's his first ever ref and his current:

thats wild to see side-by-side omg

a lore with him i dont talk about much is the situation with his wings. He grew them due to a side effect of a magical transformation that's ruining his health (irreversible malady type thing). what happened is that he was in captivity once as a p.o.w. and in order to escape he had to cut his wings that were tied down (he wasn't thinking too straight at the time) and since they were so damaged upon getting help, it was the safer bet to completely amputate them. He deals with phantom sensations a lot from it that i dont really write or draw about.

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lets do one more for funsies!

dereck, my boi!

fun fact about him, is he wasn't even supposed to be the main character lmao i designed him to be the older brother figure of rylan, who was back then my only and main piglin oc.

here's a pic of old-design dereck (left) and old-design rylan (right) together

crazy how the time passes- like, dereck BARELY looks anything like he used to XD

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anyway, thanks so much for the ask!! thank you so much for all the likes and comments, it means so much ^-^