#took me 2 days to render that background

[turquoisespace35]

Afternoon dance

[lil--nuggett]

Stalker's Tango - Autoheart

Hey guys I love the Pokémon Manga dearly!! These mfs were out here DYING!!

But no fr stalkers tango makes me think of them but pokespe, so I threw this together in 2 days. It took like 13-14 hours overall but it was so worth it. Even if I have never drawn a single tango pose in my life.

Here's some extras as a little treat: my original thumbnail, the finished rendering without the background, AND the lineart by itself <3

[dreemurr-skelememer]

Hello :D

I have been following you for the last year or so (a few days after I got my Tumblr lmao) and I absolutely love your art!

I have been wanting to study your art style for a while but don't really know where to start,,,

Could you please show me a small portion of your art process, if it isn't too much trouble of course. Thank you and have a nice day!

hello. oh my god. this took forever to find.

im sorry it took 2 WHOLE FUCKING MONTHS for me to respond to this but i wanted to put it off until i felt happy with my art process again, so here it is

my fall 2024 rendering tutorial!

(this will be very very long)

FLATS AND WHATEVER YOU WANNA DO WITH LINES GIRL. then make sure to recolor the lineart to better match your base. trust me it helps, bold dark lines are Not your best friend when rendering. wait for that post-rendering

i start off with a doodle or a sketch, and then filling it in with flats and other details such as blush

FIGURE OUT YOUR LIGHT SOURCE. FIGURE IT OUT GIRL YOU CAN DO IT you can make it as simple as possible, make it as big as possible, dont even THINK about the details.........just make it really fucking big so you at least know where the shadows and the light goes THEN add smaller shading details LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN TO ME OKAY!!!!!!!!

my key point with this is for you to learn lighting fundamentals.

it's SOOO ANNOYING but alas......they are all correct. it helps a lot.

one thing i also really want to point out is that i like creating a big shadow shape first before fixing up the little details (such as folds and whatever) because it helps me focus on the way the lighting actually works instead of tunnel vision-ing into making the shading make sense on the clothing.

contact shadows (i dont remember if thats what theyre called okay) theyre fucking ugly because im not actually thinking sorry 💔

okay so basically:

contact shadows (if that's what they're called) are the spots in shading and lighting where light will NEVER hit.

shadows are still influenced by the colors and lights around it (it's why a blue shadow and a yellow shadow feel completely different, despite both being shadows) so it's not always COMPLETELY dark.

BUT! there are small points in shadows where light never hits, and they're almost always super dark or pitch black.

it's hard to explain shadow and light so briefly for a tutorial, but you'll notice it when watching fundamental studies and when trying it out for yourself

YES i unclipped the multiply layer YES its ugly and terrifying but it makes coloring the multiply layer easier okay the colors merged w multiply so now it looks cool and has depth overlaying colors that actually make sense

so basically what i did was color the multiply layer that i used to shade the overall drawing

adding a band of red/orange/yellow around where the light hits, and blue where the shadows get big and wide, gives it a fake ambient occlusion effect in the way that a person would get if they stood under the sun with a clear blue sky

the colors don't have to make sense, especially because i never draw backgrounds, but coloring the shadows really help it give a sense of depth and extra subtle detail and effect that just helps make the painting look nicer

around the end, i also put in colors (in an overlay layer with a low opacity brush) that actually make sense in context of the drawing, which is the lit cigarette and the yellow eyelights

mostly because none of the colors were making sense and i needed to actually make use of the lighting that DOES exist in the drawing lol

adding a muddy golden yellow pin light layer (opacity turned down to like 40-50%) to make the light colors less ugly lol

i SWEAR by the fucking pin light layer style. it's so useful and so so underrated.

i used an almost brown-ish gold color on stop of all the layers, and with the pin light layer, it helped make the bright (almost blue-ish) white colors more warm and more yellow. it just helps make things more warm (something i prefer)

i could probably show what it looks like without adjusting the layer opacity to truly show off what i mean (like in the coming section) but i sadly forgot to do that lol

make a layer on top of your drawing with this color in these ranges YES the drawing is fully merged NO don't be afraid, the base was fucking ugly anyway 💔 make this layer into an exclude/exclusion layer style TRUST turn down your exclusion layer opacity from a range of 10% to 40% literally until you're happy with the contrast and the way the color over the drawing. use your eyeballs. i know you can do it im so proud of you

this is pretty self-explanatory instruction-wise, so i'll go into why i do this instead

i really like art that seems like it has low contrast, with almost mid-gray shading and lines. i don't personally use dark and bold lines and shading, unless i find it necessary for the tone of the piece, so using this method helps lower the contrast of the art and make it look "pleasantly muddy" in the way that it's easier and softer on the eyes.

the inverted blue color also helps makes things warmer!

the exclusion layer style is still a bit of a mystery to me but i really like the effect it gives, even if i don't completely get how it works lol

if you want an alternative method to this, and if you have access to it (because i primarily use sai and sai only),

i absolutely encourage you to play around and experiment with gradient maps.

there are so many out there you can make yourself or even get from others that just give the painting an extra amount of depth and color variation. they're SO fun.

personally, if sai2 gets a gradient map update, it's over for y'all it will literally be so over no one will be able to stop me

then i merged everything and actually adjusted the contrast back up because it was looking too muddy for me 💔 but the color adjustments are still there so all hope is not lost here's a comparison of the adjusted contrast in black and white (adjusted on the left) (newly merged layer without adjusting the contrast on the right)

as you can see, i actually turned the contrast back up (despite talking all about how i liked things with less contrast lol)

i wanted to demonstrate that doing adjustments should be done in moderation, and is why i adjust layer opacity often when making color effects

you are free to play around with colors to help your style, but don't lose your initial idea and colors along the way.

you still need to trust your own colors and intuition!

along with that, i just want to say that it's completely okay to change your mind mid-painting, and it's okay to make somewhat drastic changes.

don't be afraid to change things you don't like or change your mind about certain aspects way later on

that's basically the whole thing of this!!! don't be scared!!!

now im gonna hold your hand when i say this..........but you need to learn how to render by yourself. it seems like i can teach you but i literally can't, because rendering is different on every piece and depending on how clean your base is. i have to render A LOT because of how fucking ugly my sketches are LMAO to simplify it, think of it as obsessively cleaning up every detail you can see, but with a color picker and a clean, hard edged brush. if you have shit lineart, you don't have to redraw it cleanly over and over, just paint over it. that's basically what rendering is

THIS especially is where you need to be brave and stop being scared.

like i said, i can't teach you how to render, and it's something you have to discover yourself because rendering is something that will always be personal to every single piece you make. the way you render on every piece is different.

on one piece, you will barely need to render, and on another, rendering is more than half of your ENTIRE process.

don't be afraid to paint over your old art.

rendering is a process that's both very perfectionist yet also very careless.

find your balance and just go for it.

and then that's it……..u did it………..now yuo know how to paint and render. it's literally just layering shading and lighting knowledge until you think it makes sense and looks okay lol additional note: since i render in only one layer (you don't HAVE to do this, but it'll be harder for you…), i also made slight adjustments with the transform (and liquify, if you have it) tool to make things more proportionate. (i drew the head too big lol)

if you compare the finished piece to the final unrendered base, you can see that a LOT changed, including a bit of subtle proportion adjustment.

particularly, the sleeves changed A LOT (because i really didn't like them)

but it's also over all cleaner and more coherent, instead of having haphazard colors and shading just thrown about.

rendering is when you finally use all 100% of your brain to finalize and figure out where the shading should go, where to clean up your lines, where to ERASE or ADD BACK in lines, and make sure all your colors look coherent.

it's not as intimidating as it seems, i only use a hard edged brush with a little bit of color mixing and my color picker.

it's like dragging and dropping colors to cover up mistakes, it's really quite fun when you get used to it

i wish i could explain it clearer but it's hard to describe without visuals!

i hope this helped, and i hope all my yapping isn't annoying (art as a special interest beloved)

have fun studying and trying to render in my art style!

[charbies]

linktober 31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I thought for the last day I'd write a little retrospective on what this whole thing was like and what I learned. I'm too tired to draw literally anything else I'm due for a break lol

So this was my second time ever attempting a linktober/october drawing challenge, but my first time managing to complete all the days and prompts. I feel super proud of myself and accomplished for pulling it off.

There were a number of things that were surprising and that were challenging for me that I wasn't expecting this month. If anything, I think this challenge really highlighted my flaws and mental blindspots with how I approach making art.

For one thing, I came away from this not liking everything I made. I think I only like about 9 or 10 of the 30 pieces I put out there. When I don't like my art, I tend to get stuck in this mental stalemate of refusing to finish a piece until I like it, but also refusing to retrace my steps and erase/rework what I have so far for fear of losing progress or not being able to replicate the line/angle/color/etc that I liked.

It was surprisingly hard to accept when I didn't like a piece but had to move on for the sake of time and post it anyway. But once I did it a few times, it got easier. I realized prioritizing my standards over my available energy is not gonna promote progress. If I kept sinking myself into one piece and not moving on until it was optimal, I never would have finished anything-- that was the pitfall that ultimately made me bail out 10 days in last year.

I also realized my sunk cost fallacy/"what if I erase this and can never redraw it good again" stems from some real lack of confidence in my knowledge and techniques with art. I'm self-taught, and I think I tend to believe that everything I make is a dumb happy accident, even though I have mental rules when I draw, use tons of references, and have a process lol. There are a few pieces I started over 2-3 times before I got them right, and that's starting to feel liberating instead of like failing to me now, which I never expected to come out of this experience so that's cool.

Another place I had to learn to let go of control in this was with allowing for style variation. I really wanted each and every piece to be coherent and painterly, like they all came from the same book or something. But then I couldn't decide whether I wanted to do all/no lineart, all/no detailed background, all/no heavy rendering, etc. At the end I settled on just keeping the same canvas dimensions and just prioritizing filling up the space. Glad I ended up doing this, because I really would benefit from continuing to chill out and scale back how much I default to making dramatic, high-render pieces. I gotta break out of my comfort zone and make more sketchy little guys!

Sometimes my attachment to the prompts fluctuated; some prompts I thought I would love and then just wanted to get them over with. Some prompts I thought I would hate and subsequently half-ass, then I ended up redoing them and putting more effort & time into and loved the end result!

It was funny to also see how some pieces that I loved straight up did not get a whole lot of notes or attention. Some pieces I was "meh" about did crazy numbers lol. I'm used to posting maybe 5-6 times a year on here, so I'm usually indifferent to getting notes (by which I mean, I'm super grateful for likes & reblogs and the super sweet & funny messages in y'alls tags, but I'm not butthurt when I don't get notes because whatever happens, happens). Churning out 30 pieces in 30 days made me sometimes get bewildered by what did and didn't get notes, but frankly in the end I think it helps reaffirm that I should continue putting whatever I want out there because it! is! not! graded!!!

So would I do Linktober again? Probably not, sorry! it was a lot of time & effort and took me away from fall festivities more than I would have liked. I kinda only managed to pull this off because I was transitioning between jobs this month and had a week off to just draw. But I also completely see the value in taking on a challenge like this and finishing what I started, I'm super glad I did this, I think my art improved from it. I would definitely do future drawing challenges/prompt things that are quicker or have less prompts!

My advice to prospective future linktoberers: pace yourself and be gentle; this is a great chance to do something exciting and new with your art, but above all it's about you having fun. There are no prizes at the end except for what you've learned and how you feel about it, and that's for the best!!

One thing's for sure, I am zelda'd out lmao so I'll be branching out towards some little projects I have lined up for personal art and other fandoms I'm into right now

So anyway thanks to all of you who read this or who gassed me up this whole month, I appreciate you!!!!!!!! ヾ(＾∇＾)

[bitchinbarzal]

Call Me | M Barzal

summary: after your fight with mat, you guys were taking space apart. so when your apartment gets broken into he’s not the one you call.

-

The fight lasted days, all stemming from you finding a dm conversation with mat and his ex fling on his phone.

He insisted you were insane, that this was just friendly and that you were being dramatic.

You cried, so angry and frustrated that he was belittling your feelings when you were, in your opinion, expressing yourself pretty clearly.

On the third day, you ended up screaming at one another.

“You’re being fucking dramatic y/n!”

Tears rolled down your cheeks and you ripped at your hair roughly “Mat you aren’t listening!”

“I can hear you, you’re just not saying anything worth listening to!”

You gulped loudly “I… Mat do you want to be with her?”

You watch his eyebrows furrow and his eyes narrow at you “Have you been listening to me? God, y/n I’ve told you she’s just a friend-“

“Who you used to fuck!”

“And i fuck you now!”

You just sighed and shook your head “I need you to leave”

“What?”

“Mathew, you need to go I don’t want you here anymore”

His staggered breath could be heard between his words “Y/N…”

“Mat” you grumbled sternly as you could through your emotions “I’m asking you to leave my apartment right now, please”

He wants to fight you, you know that but he doesn’t. Instead he picks up his jacket and heads for the door.

“You need to get over yourself sometime y/n” is all he says before he leaves. As soon as the door is closed you let out a guy wrenching sob, which Mathew can hear in the hallway.

He then wants to turn around and go back in, hold you and apologize but his ego is too big. So instead he walks away.

Usually your fights lasted a couple of days, Mat would go on a roadie and when he returned you’d be in his apartment waiting.

So the 2 weeks between now and him walking out of your apartment was somewhat alarming. Your missing presence from the UBS arena didn’t go unnoticed by people, rendering a lot of questions for Mat to answer on what happened.

The more he talked about it the worse he felt, the more he realised he was in the wrong.

At the two week mark he was moping around, laying in Tito’s apartment groaning on about how you still hadn’t called or even acknowledged his existence.

Anthony had stopped replying to him days ago, just letting him talk at this point.

“I mean we’ve been together for what? three almost four year and she hasn’t come to a single game? Text?”

“I mean you could call her” Tito suggested to which mat’s head raised and he peered over the couch

“She asked me to leave”

“I think you should talk to her”

“Yeah well-“

Mat’s excuses are interrupted by Anthony’s phone ringing, he picks it up looking at the caller ID before saying

“Hey y/n” which perks Mat’s interest.

“Woah, woah calm down. Breathe”

Mat’s worried, standing from his spot on the couch and asking Anthony what’s happening to which Tito shushes him.

“Okay, and the police are on the way? Good, ok im coming I’ll be there in ten minutes I promise”

As soon as he hangs up Mat rushes out “What? What’s going on? Is y/n ok? Why are the police there?”

Anthony rolls his eyes and jumps out of his seat “Someone broke into her apartment and robbed her, she’s shaken up but the police are going to her apartment so im going to head over”

“I’m coming too” Mat adds.

“Mat I don’t care just get in the car”

By the time they’d arrived at your apartment the police were already there. They walked in to find you talking to someone, giving your statement.

The house had been ransacked, your belongings were strewn all over the floor.

When you spotted Tito, you immediately ran to him “Thank You for coming”

He could hear the tears in your voice, kissing the top of your head he replied “Don’t stress it, are you ok? You’re not hurt?”

You shook your head “I was just shaken up, he didn’t hurt me just took some stuff”

At this point you had noticed Mat lingering around in the background and asked Tito “Why is he here?”

“He was at my place, was worried about you”

After the police had taken all the pictures and statements they needed you began fixing your things back to their original position. Anthony and Mathew had joined in, straightening everything out.

Tito left to fix the dining room up, leaving you and Mat alone in the living room.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Mat asks in the silence and you stop fluffing the pillow in your hand.

“What?”

“When it happened, why did you call Anthony and not me? When you’re in trouble you call me!”

You looked at him, sad and sunken eyes showing all of your emotional turmoil from the past 2 weeks.

“Because, Mat when I was in this situation I wanted to feel safe and you… you don’t make me feel safe right now”

Mat watched you walk into the next room, leaving him heartbroken and thinking about your words on repeat in his head.

[bo-reo]

Before the "Meet the author" in Zuzu city

Imagine if you as the farmer got to go to Zuzu city with Elliott before he did his new book public reading.. If that happened, I imagine it would look like this:

Again, I'm sorry for the low quality, the original png file was 127 MB because I did the background by hand (it took me 2 days to finish) and the whole drawing took me 2 weeks because I couldn't render Elliott nicely at all... It was a struggle. Anyways, enjoy!

[helmarok]

post season 2 jesse and petra from my "season 3" called hit the road! this is technically a wip i abandoned, but since i found it fully colored i decided to post it cuz i usually post unshaded pics anyways. it was supposed to be fully rendered with a background, but i took a break from it and since then i had changed their designs, have plans to change the designs of their weapons, and even altered petra's hair color a bit (you might notice in this pic her hair is brighter orange than in my most recent ones). there was just too many changes so i thought it'd be easier to just give it up and draw a new picture one day. but here it is as a treat cuz who knows when y'all will get another drawing from me 💀

[sakasakiii]

hi!!! how long does an average panel of one of your comics take??

i love your work so much!! it got me into silmblr hehe

HI NONNIE!!! thank u sooooso much for checking in and for ur lovely ask! it means a lot to hear that my silly ol scribbles were what introduced u to the glorious landscape that is the tolkien fandom! on tumblr no less!! i hope you stay a real long time, and have a blast while you're at it 💖💖

now onto your question! that's some good food for thought uhhhh i can try to estimate?? its been a while but i shld have some rough ideas abt each that i can share! the time frame each comic/panel takes is highly dependent on WHAT kind of comic it is. i hv two kinds of comics I usually do: 1) full-length, and 2) goofy/4koma.

i have a few full-length comics laying about in my archive, but my most recent one/best example is Ghosts which was around uh.... 7 pages excluding the bonus panels! in terms of the process, i usually divide it into 5 stages:

Drafting: this is either the fastest stage OR the slowest depending entirely whether i know what im doing LMAO,, if i have a set idea for what i want to happen, i might get drafts done in a few hours, but if i flounder, it can take a few days 🤔

Lineart: relatively simple enough once i hv the draft down, so id say anything ranging from an hour to half a day if theres nothing else going on irl

Block colouring (main actors): there are DEFINITELY easier and more professional ways to do this with mass-selection and the lasso fill/bucket tool, but idk how to do that on SAI (my art program) so i colour everything by hand HAHA which makes the process longer.... half a day to a day?

Shading: THE WORST!!! definintely my least favourite bc i find it tedious due to all the details/prettification of elves that i am legally obliged to pour into this stage 😭😭 as a result, it can take days!!!

Background + Lighting + Final Rendering: similar to the previous stage haha it just depends on how much effort i wanna put into the final product looking nice. roughly a few days? it kind of meshes with stage 4 anyways haha

just for fun, i hope this process gif for page 6 can illustrate that 👇

these are just rough estimates, bc all in all, the time it takes so finish a page is really dependent on how free I am hahaha. Also, I usually work on full-length comics like Ghost which have more than one page all at once, which means I drafted all 7 pages at once, then did the lineart for all 7 pages at once, coloured at once, shaded rendered bla bla bla 😚 iirc, i think it took me 11 days in total to finish Ghosts before the end of June last year!

For goofy/4-koma, its usually just one page with less detailed/more cartoonish/chibi character styles so it takes a day or two days at most! again, it all boils down to how free i am hehe

YEAH SORRY THIS ENDED UP BEING AN INFO DUMP but thank you so much again for asking and letting me ramble! <3 i ended up having a lot of fun looking back on my drafts n thinking back on my processes.... theres defininitely room for improvement, but thats another worry for another day heheh 😎

[sewingkitsshit]

didn’t finish this, lost motivation for the background and the rendering really stinks but it’s okay

it was kind of a vent at the time but it took me like 2 days to get to this point :(

hope yall enjoy idk

[pawseds]

My writing project @sparrow-flight has finally taken off!!! I was meant to finish/post this and launch the project 2 days ago to celebrate Hrodwyn's birthday (they've existed for a year now!), but even if I didn't make that, it's still exactly a year since I first painted them. Expecting myself to finish a painting with 4 characters with a technique I've only used once in my life a year ago in 4 days was kinda uhhhhhhhh.......... clown. (It took 5 and a half days)

Some symbolism stuff beneth the cut:

I intentionally wanted a very blue and desaturated colour scheme because, despite the happy/wholesome family scene, I didn't want it to feel happy -- i wanted a layer of sadness to it. Cuz that's the birdfam in a nutshell, little everyday happiness strung together with an unspoken grief that runs deep

The sparrow Gavrill's looking at is/represents Leyna, his wife :) and the other 4 are the children the two have lost (Leyna has the adult white crowned sparrow plumage, but the rest have juvenille plumage since they all died as kids) (the gambelii subspecies btw!!)

Gavrill looks directly at a ghost sparrow/notices it because, unlike his kids who ignore it/can't see it, he's the only one left in the family who witnessed all 5 deaths and has intense trauma + grief directly from it

The kids (left to right Hrodwyn, Hygd, Merethel) keep looking forward and up because, unlike Gavrill, theyre capable and willing to grow from grief/trauma

Process shots are the rough sketch (drawn while zoomed out so it's tiny), the normal sketch (I didn't mean for it to be that neat lol) + underpainting, and everything else I painted on top of the underpainting on one layer. I did keep a duplicate of a sketch for reference + just in case, like when I did the clown thing of not painting the background first before merging the sketch layer.

You can see me strugging with Hrodwyn since they're the first guy I painted and, again, I'm very new to this painting style so I didn't even know how to execute it LOL they're rendered kinda differently from the rest but if you squint, it's close enough...

[marukyubi]

Octobie Week 2: Anarchy Just a little drabble for this week '3 Pairing- Hobie x OC this week 'D (Couldn't squeeze out more. Was planning a drawing for this week but a sudden burst of desire to write has consumed me full and quick.) Brief Background - So, my oc, and her universe is in a type of dystopian world where only the people who are born rich keep getting more and more rich and powerful while the people below will never stand a chance truly, being kept in such chaos so they will never remember, get stronger, to trouble any of the "ELITES BORNS". The elites are tight-knit too, but also have tight rules that they made even their own kinds follow strictly, and very rarely that one survive from the pack if they defined the rules. My oc, Angelina, is born an Elite descendent whose family is kinda a feared outcast. Their family defies rules and even advocates the people who are not elites to defy them as well. Also support and try to make the people's lives and the society better even if it's a little bit (The irony of them being able to resist the elites this strongly is because their family has a long line of private military and the control of weapon trading businesses, which made them an essential among them. But in Angel's father's hand, to simply put how the family business stopped, "You know what. I tried the peaceful path first but you guys killed my *adopted* brother. FUCK YOU AND YOUR MOTHERS. I'm burning you all if given a chance.)

If you see Wayne family refs I took, no you don't-

Also, Angel is a Spidersona who now uses the mantle of prowler more often. She still has her organic webs, and she still uses them to have swinging dates with Hobie- but she doesn't like being associated with spiders (especially Peters) after being killed and resurrected. (Her universe Peter is not really that great. He's one of many main factors that caused her death.) She mainly uses magic weapons like her pa :D

Warning - Vulger words, mentions of violence, mentions of cannibalism, mentions of blood, brief old men yaoi, Hobie might be a bit ooc 'cause I wrote in a rush of creativity(sorry '3), it's (almost) an indulgence oc content

EAT THE RICH It's an old saying that originated from the French Revolution and is used by many people who have taken the mentality of anarchism to this day. EAT. the "RICH". When Hobie said it in front of his lover, and her dad who is a great inventor with such generational wealth but even joined him in the chant, and their family who... support him fully despite their power hold and background? (It's a weird family, he knows it when he gets in head first, but they were kind enough...?) He didn't expect her to take it as literally... "You're telling me..." asks Hobie to Angelina slowly, to take in fully of what he's about to say. "That you killed a bunch of big politicians... and fed the meats to... who!?" "My babies!" Angelina answers with a beaming smile, looking all too prideful to drench her limbs in the blood of said people. "Crowley did not mean literal babies," her brother, Felix, chimes in while working on a project near the conversation, and so does her pa(other dad :D). "We don't accept cannibalism in this household," says her pa as he tries out a new magic spell he had just found from an old grimoire. "At least not with those degraded meats." "Then what babies?" Hobie can't help but ask. "My... babies!" She replies with an emphasized voice as if he will just suddenly get the enlightenment of what she truly means. But she did catch her own mistake quick and pointed at the big aquarium behind him that has a wide variety of colorful fishes. "And hey, I'm not a meanie." She proclaims herself with a huff and a proud grin that is a bit terrifying, considering the situation. "I ground the meat to the softest pulp form I can get and mixed it with their normal diet so they won't get sick from the "treat". I also fed to the strayed animals too, no worries." It rendered Hobie a bit speechless, to hear her say all of this like it's nothing special and/or horrifying process. He's almost used to his partner's uncanny and abnormal thought processes but to see her commit one? She can always surprise him in ways he has never thought possible... "... And the reasoning?" asks Hobie quietly with a sigh. He just can't... help it, like how he fell for this bumbling idiot. And one thing he knows for sure about his love is... she would never do things out of irrational or unjustifiable excuses, no matter how the execution is. She sort of means well, almost always. It's just the acts that weird out the people who weren't around this strange family enough. And she does give him the answer immediately, with a brightening, childish smile. "Those pigs tried to legalize underage marriage in their state for the child trafficking shit they're covering for." "...Blimey, tell me you gave all in to torture those bastards." "Hell yeah! Started with making my men slice their dicks and balls off into thin strands with a bloody dull knife while keeping 'em fully awake."

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: As You Move Forward

So I went a few months thinking about how I'd forgotten to include Makini to my past depictions of Kion's Guard as adults (1, 2), so I decided to celebrate the 4th anniversary (albeit 2 days late :p) of the Journey of Memories episode by finally showing off the adult design I have for her!

Because I'm still salty about TLG's last-minute decision in making Makini the Mjuzi of the Night Pride instead of Kiara's bestie like Season 2 hyped her up to be, I made a compromise by headcanoning that she frequently journeys back-and-forth between the Pridelands and the Tree of Life, especially when she's called over by each land for a ceremony of some kind.

Design Process:

To avoid making her look too much like a clone of her mother Fikiri, I figured that Makini would develop her dad Kitendo's features as she grew older (I think she's about 20-something in this image). It's kind of a thing for TLG to erroneously depict animals without their distinct sexual dimorphism (see: Mbuni the ostrich), but this time, I felt like embracing Makini's unusual bright colors for a female mandrill and make her look a little androgynous. I feel like it would fit her role as a Mjuzi for some reason lol

I figured the Bakora Staff she received at the Tree of Life would be her last new one as she's since learned to keep better track of it. I like to think that it symbolizes not only growth and learning, but it coming from the Tree of Life symbolizing that her true place is there.

In all that time she's owned it, being the crafty artist she is, she's put years of customization and souvenirs from her back-and-forth Pridelands/Tree of Life adventures into her decorating her staff, selecting just about every pretty flower and naturally-occurring bead she saw. I mainly sought out the idea of people bedazzling their canes for reference, she seems like the type to do that, making just about anything she owns pretty lol

Drawing Process:

ngl I got to work on this very much like that episode where Makini procrastinated on getting started on her portrait of Simba's family. I just, like... really struggled with the composition until I was hit with sudden inspiration to just go wherever my hand took me.

I grabbed a thumbnail sketch of my adult Makini design that I was the most happy with and rendered it digitally and was happy that it got me somewhere... then I ran into the background that I didn't put any thought into.

Because of the cropping and composition I already had going on with Makini's standalone model, it was very hard to come up with something she could be surrounded by, until I decided to insert some headcanons about a certain new TLG-related short Disney released. Basically: I headcanon Makini made those Circle of Life paintings that Kion shows to those younger cubs as I think the style they used in those paintings looks WAY different from Rafiki's (I mean the whole video looks different from the whole TLK art style). You can't tell me those purple pigments and cutesy flowers aren't something Makini would draw everywhere lol

Sources of Inspiration:

Sadly not pictured due to the angle and cropping is the headcanon that she paints her nails all the time, and she's always trying different color combos basically every week lol. I adopted that headcanon from iceflowerglow, who depicts Makini with painted nails in their comic "Shining Above Your Head". Other artists I drew inspiration from were Vtoony's "TLG: Kion's Guard" and tango_fizz.le's "Where'd all the time go?" when it came to designing her fully-developed mane.

[niftysenpai]

Oh my, haha! Would they cost less without cats littered about? So just the camp itself?

definitally! And to lower the price I can change my rendering style, for example rendering something like this:

Is going to be cheaper than a render I did on the Riverclan camp, This background render took me maybe 2 or three days to finish? The Riverclan Camp render I was working on for about a week, 6 or 7 days. Even something like this, which is the final sketch and color splash of the Thunderclan Forest camp I do before really starting to render it out only took me about a day or two to do:

Also, a background with just base/flat colors would be cheaper as well. Something like my thumbnails (I don't have a good recent example of a flat colored background, I've started drifting from them after I do not draw backgrounds in flash/animate anymore. )

It's hard for me to universally price something like a camp or larger landscape or even background work, and I am capable of working with someone if they have a set price range they are looking for.

[skarloeyspa]

she peter my sam until my sir gets handeled unsolicited design decisions as usual below

Both Sir Handel and Peter Sam have 2 designs, one for MSR (left) and one for SR (right)

No canon height once again, but Stuart is intended to be taller than Falcon and both are intended to have grown taller

MSR:

The numbers are sewn onto Falcon and Stuart's lapels. I hc their MSR numbers as: Duke no.1, Smudger/Stanley no.2 (both were withdrawn at different times, so they share the same number), then Falcon and Stuart with the same numbers as SR

Falcon's nameplate is supposed to have the same bronze/gold colour as his number, but I realized it would just be impossible to read on the red, so I chose a more yellow colour lol

Falcon's clothes are a bit fancier than Stuart...or maybe it's better to say that Stuart's uniform is less formal than Falcon's. Coming out of the first world war aside, Falcon's builders were much more established than Stuart's, and Stuart's builders were better known for "off-the-shelf" standard designs

Background aside, Falcon is also just more pretentious than Stuart, so I think this suits them

Their hair designs are supposed to be a similar length...this becomes relevant when I explain their SR designs

Also the doodle of them in the middle are supposed to be them being sold off to the Sodor Aluminum Company! One of them has to appear brave after all<3

SR:

Both outfits were sourced from this particular article, this website also had a lot of info on historical fashion (i'm gonna be so upset if they turn out to be inaccurate)

First things first, yes Sir Handel is wearing his old nameplate as a dog tag. The colours have faded, and the paint is chipping...but some things you can't ever let go.

Sir Handel is supposed to be wearing a leather jacket but I can't render for shit. His look is heavily inspired by 50's greasers. At first I just thought huh Sir Handel would absolutely wear a leather jacket he's such an asshole.

But then I read this and...the original greaser subculture was started by working-class social outcasts, often WWII veterans, who felt estranged and unable to fit in with post-war culture in the 40s. Youth in the 50s who felt frustration at various types of social ostracism also adopted a similar culture as a form of rebellion.

In comes Sir Handel...freshly traumatized from almost being scraped at Peel Godred, still trying to process his grief over losing Duke and the MSR, and now being bought for cheap to work on what seemed like an even cheaper railway with cattle cars as coaches...combined with his personality, there isn't a world where he would sit quietly and just take what was being handed to him.

Peter Sam, on the other hand, took the change much better than Sir Handel. His outfit is a combination of casual and preppy: casual because of his personality, and preppy because I think he just would.

So hair length! Both grew out their bangs, but Peter Sam kept the rest of his hair short, and Sir Handel grew his hair out (not too much though). In a sense, they'd grown apart since being bought by the SR, and dwelling on the past is often a bad thing. For Peter Sam, having shorter hair means easier maintenance, which means better for work. For Sir Handel, he doesn't want to lose what he has remaining from the MSR, and it's a part of his rebellion.

I also HC the time of their purchase to be the height of the SR's loosening of regulations, thus the lack of formal clothing. Maybe one day I'll design official suits/uniforms for the SR engines who knows.

hoo that was a long one. if you made it this far thanks for the interest in my designs! now we wait another 2 months (maybe 4...) for me to finish the rest of the SR

[corgate-epistolary]

May 12th, 624

(Transcript under the cut) (Read on Ao3 HERE)

[Delivered to Corgate May 14th, 624 – Received by Elowen Vance on May 14th, 624)

[Front of Envelope: Letter was mailed in a brown craft paper envelope tied with natural twine, addressed to:

Elowen Vance Corgate Post Office May 12th, 624

With the return address of:

Eris Mirrows 87 Lancedragon Strt. Avalon

In the top right, there is a sticker depicting a black engraving-style steaming cup on a white background, below which is the word “BONJOUR”.

Back of Envelope: The letter was sealed in mottled grey-pink & green sealing wax, with a wax seal depicting a crescent moon surrounded by orbital shapes & stars.  Letter was tied with craft twine, with a small treble clef & key tied to the cord.

Interior pages: Written on light brown paper.  It is lightly, almost invisibly, lined with slightly darker brown lines.  The writing is tidy, slightly rounded print in black ink.]

May 12th

Dear Miss Vance,

I trust this letter finds you in good health and spirits.  Once again, I find myself most agreeably surprised to receive your correspondence so promptly.  I assume your next letters will be farther apart but know that I am delighted that you are enjoying the countryside and the ruins.  Your descriptions render it all rather enchanting.

I have no doubt Khali would have loved to accompany you and run around the forest and shores.  It seems he is missing you dearly, as he stares and whines at the door everyday around the hour you would come get me for lunch.  I cannot help but wonder if it truly is you he longs for more, or the delightful bits of your meals you so discreetly offered him from the table.  It may delight you to know that I finally had him groomed and he now cuts a most dashing figure - all gleaming with a newfound elegance.

The groomer’s attendant, a rather chatty individual, took [scratch out - him] it upon himself to analyze my character based on my familiar, going on and on about supposed traits I must share with his idea of a scary canine. Do I strike you as fierce 

[end of page 1]

May 12th

and protective, dear Elowen? Because certainly I must be, according to him. To a rational mind, these words are no more than quaint superstitions akin to the tales of women branded as witches for keeping a crow as their familiar; or the ill fortune said to befall those bonded to a black cat. How do you think he would’ve read me if I had presented him with Astrea, or better yet with Malice?

Though I would not want to bore you with the tales of my many companions, know that they most dearly miss your presence in their lives. I can feel their discontent at your displacement quite vividly. I have brought Astrea to your apartment in my assiduity to take care of your home garden and she even spared your lowest-hanging plants. That is to say how tragically sad this whole ordeal makes her. She and Cephei do share a penchant for dramatics.

As per your express request, I ventured to the university library to delve deeper into the lore of the region you are assigned to and to uncover what is currently known about long-lasting magic. For the latter, I had to enlist the assistance of Mg. Equlee, as most of these documents are beyond my clearance as an agent. 

[end of page 2]

It seems you are venturing into rather perilous waters if the necessary documents require such attunement to the Weave. Fortunately, Mg. Equlee, always eager to assist, drafted a summary of the knowledge contained within those parchments for me to peruse safely. He also expressed, at length, his displeasure at how such works remain inaccessible to those outside the field of magical studies. I fear he may one day wage war against the Council in pursuit of a more egalitarian field… Luckily, I managed to divert his attention with your tales and by reading your letter, prompting him to return to his own projects.

I hope this has not raised your hopes too high, but alas, Mg. Equlee’s extensive summaries have not revealed anything that would be of use to you. Numerous experiments have been conducted in recent decades to create a type of magic that would outlast its caster; however, none have succeeded, no matter how gruesome the process. The most that has ever been achieved was to channel a spell through the caster’s own blood, with the effects lasting mere minutes beyond the caster’s death—until their blood had dried. You would be

[end of page 3]

May 12th

correct in assuming this experiment was conducted well before the establishment of the Ethics Committee. Since then, no further breakthroughs have been made.

Regarding the folklore of Corgate village and its surroundings, I have come across a few tales that seem pertinent to your case study. I will draft a summary of my findings and have it sent to you at the earliest opportunity. With any luck, it will reach the post office before your return to Corgate, and you will have the pleasure of discovering everything simultaneously.

Before I leave you to immerse myself in these documents, I would like to inquire about your thoughts on training Valberry to make the journey to the ruins. The postal system, while convenient, often results in delays between our letters, and I fear that an urgent matter might go unaddressed for too long. I would feel much more at ease if one of my own were by your side, ready to fly to Avalon should you find yourself in need. It would take a few weeks to train him properly, and I would require your assistance—mostly in providing him with treats when he arrives—but it could prove invaluable in the future.

Let me know your thoughts.

Awaiting your reply,

Eris Mirrows

[ave661]

Hi I have a question, how long does it take to do renders???

HI!

oooofffffffff it's a very difficult question! It depends on many things, for example: - Do I already have an imported model? if not, I need to prepare it first (1-4 hours depending on the number of objects I need to texture. One model can have 15 objects, the other 70) - How many models do I want to use? - Do I need to build a background?

If I have all 3d models ready to use and I have an idea in my head for a specific render, it will take me maybe 2-6 hours.

But if I need to texture many 3d models, it will take me several days..?For example, in case of Tundra 141 it took me almost a week, because each of these models took me one day of texturing ;-; (I'm not saying that I texture all day long 12h, but I only make these renders when I have free time).

So yeah! It depends, but a lot of hours. Plus, I'm a person who pays attention to small details, so I often waste a lot of time on them😩