#trying my hand at developing an actual art style how we feeling

[gloriasato]

hello tumblr take this doodle dump and do what you will✌️

[genericpuff]

I'm honestly amazed by how well you can imitate the LO S3 art style! Have you always been good at this sort of thing or is it a skill you developed due to your work as a tattoo artist?

ahhh thank you, but ima let you in on a little trade secret -

it's literally just referencing LMAO which is a valuable skillset to have! but one that I think a lot of folks tend to overlook because they think "learning to draw" means "I need to be able to draw everything perfectly from imagination!" Which sure, learning how to draw things without needing references might be cool, but it's ultimately not the sole defining feature of a "good artist" and I think there's frankly way too much emphasis put on "drawing without references" these days because it creates this unrealistic expectation of what an artist is. Referencing is part of the process! It's important! And it's a valuable skill to have so that you can actually grow your skills beyond your own limits! Referencing is as important to the process of creating art as research is to the process of writing, you can only produce so much new stuff if you're not taking in new stuff alongside it.

Though I use this skill a lot in tattooing as well, it's mostly rooted in my animation schooling which broke me out of the habit of drawing purely from imagination and taught me how to properly reference other material for educational purposes.

And I'm sure there are people in audience right now gasping at the fact that I simply cropped a bunch of different shots of Minthe from S3 and rearranged them like some surgical madman playing with body parts-

-but this is like, the actual majority of the process when it comes to learning other art styles and this process is taught as a skill in a lot of art schools because it forces you to draw what's there rather than what you think is there. This is the basis of master studies, to learn the techniques of other artists by trying to mimic them as closely as possible. Don't know what tools that artist used specifically? Try to recreate the work anyways with your best guess. Even if you only get close but not perfect, you'll still likely learn a lot along the way and may even develop some brand NEW techniques that weren't present in the original work you're studying from.

Imagination is necessary to the creative process, but it's only part of that process, you can't suddenly learn how to draw the way other artists draw through imagination alone because your imagination is limited purely by your own lived experiences. Our brains don't come pre-installed with these skills, they can't just magically unlock the capability to "do the thing". Just like how we have to learn to follow recipes as a means to becoming a baker or learn to read the alphabet to learn how to read and write, we have to learn how to draw what we see and reference the material around us if we truly want to expand our own innermost knowledge which will allow us to draw from imagination.

Here are some other examples of studies I've done, such as my attempts to learn the art style of The Doctor Foxglove Show:

As well as a background study from S1 of LO:

And of course here are a handful of the shitloads of studies I've done to try and "figure out" how to draw Hades and Persephone from S1 of LO:

Aaaand just for the fun of it, here are some completely non-LO studies, like the ones I did of Kazuma Koda's background work and Akihiko Yoshida's character designs for Nier: Automata:

And this sorta rotoscoped ??? animatic of Mitsuhiro doing the opening jig for Still Feel by Half Alive which is 100% not done and probably never will be LOL

I'm always progressively doing studies of both LO and other media in this way so that I can update my knowledge and continue to improve my skillset.

Though, despite my best efforts to mimic the original creator's style, works like Rekindled will always have my own stylizations present, as that's just an inevitable consequence of it being made by myself and Banshriek (and the fact that we just refuse to draw worse to look more like LO because jfc so much of LO's original art, even the stuff we love, is rooted in Rachel's trial and errors lmao), but that's a feature, not a bug :') <3

So the answer is yes, the Minthe S3 redraw was done through skills I developed over time, though not necessarily through tattooing, simply through learning how to actually practice properly beyond "drawing a lot". And you can too! Draw lots, but also remember that your brain isn't naturally just going to "get better" at whatever you're trying to achieve just because you really want to achieve it. I try to avoid the mantra of "just practice" because it oversimplifies what's truly necessary to learning - having something to learn from outside of your own imagination. If you don't learn how to practice properly, then you'll just wind up repeating the same mistakes and reinforcing the same bad habits over and over again.

All that's to say, if you want to learn how to draw like a certain artist, try and recreate their art for yourself ;0 (but like also please for the love of god remember that it's for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES, I shouldn't have to tell y'all not to copy directly off other artists' work for your own because that's just deadass stealing lmao) I know this enters the ethical dilemma of tracing, and whether or not it's a "valid" way to learn, but there's a lot of virtue in learning through referencing other artists and building new skills through them. I'm sure folks will argue that it's a 'crutch' or 'training wheels', but that's all often being touted from the perspective that crutches and training wheels... are automatically bad things and aren't meant to help people ?

Like obviously if you want to create your own thing that isn't purely "living in the shadow" of the works that inspired you, you WILL have to make that leap into the unknown. But that leap's a lot less scary to make when you have a parachute.

[cooketimm]

Hardboiled #10-25 (1990-98) cover artwork by Bruce Timm

Interview from Cool Stuff Magazine #1 (1995):

Gary Lovisi: Much of your work is characterized by raw, intense energy and action, or beautiful women in stylish, dangerous settings. Some is obviously influenced by the pulps.

Bruce Timm: I’m big pulp fan, have been since the early 70s, when I started reading Doc Savage and Avenger reprints. I can’t really say how they’ve influenced my artwork much, except when doing pulp-homage stuff like the Bob Price books. But I do sometimes wish I was born decades earlier so I could have worked for some of the old pulps, which was why it was so much fun doing the Price stuff, and the «mock 50s» paperback covers for your Gryphon Books.

The hero pulps — Doc Savage, The Spider, The Shadow, etc — did have a big impact on my approach to the Batman cartoons. It’s something I tried to inject into the show from early on, the atmosphere, danger and illicit excitement, and especially that Norvell Page-type feeling of impending doom — the «doomed city» mood. It’s also why I set the sense in a timeless, 40s-styled world of big cars, padded shoulders, gangsters, shadowy streets, etc. I only wish we’d gone farther with it.  

For instance, my original version of Batman himself was actually close to the Shadow: rarely seen close-up, speaking in short, clipped phrases, more mysterious, literally. I wanted to play him cold and remote, almost unhuman. But the network and our various story editors would have none of that!  «We need to humanize him», «He needs to have a sense of humor», «We need to more about Bruce Wayne, the person», etc! Whereas I could care less about Bruce Wayne! He’s much more fascinating if you don’t know what he’s thinking, or what drives him.

A few «Shadowy» touches did survive. Batman is rarely seen be the public, almost never on TV. Even when dealing with the police, he’s usually off in shadows conferring with Commissioner Gordon only. And when he’s in the Batcave, he’s almost always in costume. My way of saying he’s Batman, not the other guy, not Bruce Wayne. Like Lamon Cranston, his true, «legal» identity is a facade.

I’ d love to do straight-ahead pulp hero adaptation someday. Doc or The Shadow or The Spider, either in comics or animation, without the senseless updating and over-explaining «character development» like in the Alec Baldwin-Shadow-fiasco-film.  

Gary Lovisi: Your stunning covers for my Hardboiled mag are very popular with everyone who sees them. What are your feelings on hardboiled crime-related art?

Bruce Timm: It’s hard, actually, to define «crime-fiction» art. There’s pulp crime-fiction art, and digest crime-fiction art, both of which cross over with paperback crime-fiction art. Basically, I’m a fan of good illustration. Period. Regardless of subject matter. Composition, emotionally intensity, color and lighting effects are what I look for. And pretty girls, of course!   

My favorite pulp crime artist is H. J. Ward, hands down. Gorgeous gals in twisty curvy poses, painted in luscious, creamy, wet-on-wet oil technique. My favorite paperback artists include Robert McGinnis, Robert Maguire, and Mitchell Hooks, the usual suspects.

My approach to the Hardboiled covers is different from my earlier «homage» work. When the covers were black and white, I used to experiment with different b&w textures, coquille board, zip-a-tone, xeroxed newsprint, whatever worked. Now that I’m doing them in color, I’m trying to make them as exciting and eye-catching as possible, with loud color, sexy gals, exaggerated action, and simple, graphic, almost cartoony styling.

[trungles]

Processing Process, and More Processing

I made this post free and publicly readable on Patreon, but I'm reposting the whole thing right here too because, well, it's a free post, and I don't want to make you click away from your dashboard if you don't need to. But also if you want to support my work, here's the link to the post.

It's a little bit about cartooning, a little bit about drawing, and then it turns into a eulogy for a chicken.

I wrote “process” more than once, and now the word looks funny and is beginning to lose its meaning to me.

This post is about a few things, and it’s a little bit on the sad end of things. Nothing dire! No worries. There’s just a little mention of death, just as a heads up.

Before we get to that, though, I’ve been doing some work and had some thoughts.

I’m often asked about how I draw the noodle hair on my characters, and the answer is typically that I draw each and every line with my hand. But there are considerations of movement and volume that go into it beyond its texturally decorative purposes. I love being able to convey shape and motion with it. It’s less evident, I think, in my illustration work, but I think it’s much more obvious when I do sequential work. In the above image, you can see me working out a sequence of Angelica having a series of thoughts. Her head sort of moves, and her eyes follow. You can see I’d planned out the general shape of the hair and how I’d like it to move.

I wound up moving the drawings a little bit so that the readers eyes will actually follow the character’s eyes as it moves gently rightward on the page. The hair is there to accentuate the movement, like so:

It’s a consideration I employ in all my drawings, but especially when I’m drawing hair and fabric. I don’t use a lot of action lines, so this becomes an important way to give the reader the information that someone is moving through a space. Resistance, gravity, and motion are all things I have to keep in the back of my head when I’m doing these little drawings. I think the planning actually takes more time than the inking, which can happen pretty quickly once I map it all out.

In other news, I’m starting to take my extracurricular artistic development a little more seriously in the silliest way possible.

You wouldn’t know it, but I studied painting college—a medium I switched to after the printmaking professor and head of the Art Department at the time told me I probably shouldn’t be an artist (he gave me a hard candy for my trouble). I recently bought a bunch of little dolls, dressed them up, and am returning to my painting roots. It feels really nice to work in big blobs of color instead of lines. It’s an exercise I came up with in response to a common lament from art students.

One of the more aggravating generational tensions described to me by art school students is when professors describe a student’s portfolio as “too anime” without much explanation. I know what the professor means. They’re trying to get at how referencing your favorite anime or cartoons means that your style becomes a simulacrum, an imperfect copy of a copy, and you never learn to develop your own sense of judgment about where a line or a shape needs to go. And we can tell. It’s a way of working that is perfectly fine for cartooning because cartooning is closer to hand-writing than it is to drawing. I always turn to Charles Schulz’s work for an example. Those figures aren’t literally depicting children—with their little chessboard-pawn proportions and bread-loaf feet—but we read them as endearing children because we’ve come to a consensus between us, the readers, and Charles Schulz, the author, that those shapes mean those things. There are no whiskers or paws in the shape of the word “CAT” but you look at those three letters together, and you know the thing to which it refers. That’s an aspect of cartooning, too. Of course, what elevates it from mere writing is, in part, due to the fact that those little figures do not lose their meaning the more you depict them.

To really draw well, though, you have to do those fundamentals. You have to draw from life. There’s no way around it. It helps you develop a stronger sense of where you like to lay down your lines and shapes, no matter how stylized you like to work. It grows your judgment, and every artist’s best tool is their own well-honed sense of artistic discernment about their own work.

But that doesn’t mean you have to surrender the stuff you like or the things that inspire you to make art! I tell students that if they want to hold fast to their anime style AND hone their fundamentals to develop their eye as an artist, they should buy little figurines and toys of their favorite characters, prop those up against a light source, and draw them as still life objects. Like, yes, do the vases and the figure drawings and all those, I still think those are important. But if this is what you need to keep you interested in drawing from life, having some toys around is a great way to do it! Also, bless those sculptors and toy designers. They’re the best.

I think there’s something to be said about remembering to imagine the physicality of the things we draw, in all its dimensions and in the way it catches the light or casts a shadow. It helps sentimentalize things, too. Makes them feel more real, even emotionally.

Edwina died on Tuesday night, after a few final snuggles, surrounded by her favorite treats. She was about five years old, which is old for a chicken, and she had a very comfortable life. We buried her this morning. She was a good hen, J’s personal favorite.

It really feels like the end of an era. She was the last surviving member of our very first flock. After the other hens died, she really seemed to prefer the company of people over other hens. She is survived by Snooki and Nelly, our two other young birds who get along quite well together, actually.

A baby chick costs between three and five American dollars, typically. An egg-laying hen could be between twenty and fifty bucks, depending on the breed. There are roughly 26 billion chickens living in the world today, about 518 million of them here in the United States. They come pretty cheap. And a part of me was moved to cynicism, entertaining the thought that it might be strange to feel sadly over a little animal that, at most, might be roughly equivalent to the price of a fancy lunch and a coffee.

I watched the 1974 musical version of The Little Prince recently, and I remember it mostly because Bob Fosse was in it and scared the crap out of me as a kid—he played the snake that would take the Little Prince back into the sky when his body gets too heavy to take with him. Gene Wilder plays the Fox whom the Little Prince befriends and tames among a garden of roses. The Fox explains that he is like any other fox in the world, but he is changed—made special and particular to the Little Prince—with time, effort, and patience. So, too, is the Prince’s little flower special to him. Out of all the flowers in the universe, she was the one he watered and protected under a little glass jar. And that’s enough.

I knew my little hen would not live that long. It could be very easy to take a broad view of the life expectancy of a hen and distance myself from it by virtue of its mortality and its commonness. People who raise livestock do it all the time. But I also think it’s wonderful that we should all be capable of loving very small, very brief little things. Edwina is not, to my mind, the rough equivalent of a fancy lunch and a coffee. She was our little hen. For her whole life, she was ours. And I’m so happy she was here.

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Venus enters Virgo

Monday, August 5 - Thursday, August 29, 2024

Full disclosure: this may not be a fun transit. There are plenty of challenges. Also, Venus is said to be in her “fall” in Virgo, occupying the sign opposite where she is exalted (Pisces). Astrologers March and McEvers likened this to “you’re staying in a strange house, and you don’t know the rules.”

My belief is that the planets all can stand to learn something when they’re in signs they don’t like - and in Virgo, Venus is working on her skills. Throughout her areas:

Art - working on technique is favored. That would be scales for a musician, for example. We could also work on developing healthy responses to criticism.

Beauty - looking like you’re in good health is usually sufficient - think Ingrid Bergman. Not a lot of makeup or “styling.” We could explore more of a thrifty approach to our clothes (like learning to sew a button back on, for example).

Love - keep aiming for being truly helpful. Sometimes we think we’re helping by pointing out everything wrong with someone, or by nagging. We evaluate relationships based on how willing we are to work on them.

Money - penny wise and pound foolish. The only placement that will blow its entire paycheck on vitamins.

If we’ve made any questionable choices over the past weeks (raises hand), we may just be in for a comeuppance while Venus is in Virgo. Where we’re lacking, will be made clear. Are we going to be humble about it and work harder, or are we going to skulk off in bitterness?

Monday, August 5 - Venus/Virgo inconjunct Pluto Rx/Aquarius, 0°33’. Adjustments. Cold indifference (regardless of its source, ourselves or others) makes us realize we need to recalibrate.

Wednesday, August 7 - Venus/Virgo conjunct Mercury Rx/Virgo, 3°43’. We may actually feel this one late on August 5, when the Virgo Moon will conjunct both Venus and Mercury. It’s charming and helpful and humble, but it’s also about a lightweight as astrology gets.

Sunday, August 11 - Monday, August 12:

Venus/Virgo trine Ceres Rx/Capricorn, 8°07’

Venus/Virgo (8°25’) sesquiquad Chiron Rx/Aries (23°25’)

Venus/Virgo inconjunct North Node/Aries, semi-sextile South Node/Libra, 8°59’

Traditional values. We are looking for practical, womanly solutions. Have a strategy for when this irritates people, and don’t be too perfectionist to ignore helping hands. Be patient.

Tuesday, August 13 - Venus/Virgo (10°26’) sesquiquad Eris Rx/Aries (25°26’). Angry women! Eris wants to throw Molotov cocktails but Venus wants to nitpick. Some of us will nag people so hard it will feel like a Molotov cocktail. Adjust your approach to addressing problems.

Saturday, August 17 - Monday, August 19

Venus/Virgo (15°17’) sesquiquad Pluto Rx/Aquarius (0°17’)

Venus/Virgo square Jupiter/Gemini, 17°21’

Venus/Virgo opposite Saturn Rx/Pisces, 17°29’

This is the biggest event of Venus/Virgo - having the honor (?) to help trigger the first (of three) of the Jupiter-Saturn squares. Mars will have set this off a few days earlier, making us feel like we want to get going on something right now but feeling held back and hampered - and we now find ourselves in a new situation (mutable signs) - remembering the “assist” from Pluto, which happens to be on the same degree as the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of December 20, 2020. Something is going to take more hard work than we anticipated, and it’s going to take longer. It’s important to blend optimism with being realistic - don’t feel you have to take on all the job yourself, but accept help - and don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good.” Build up relationships by looking for common ground.

Thursday, August 22 - Friday, August 23:

Venus/Virgo square Mars/Gemini, 22°08’

Venus/Virgo semi-sextile Mercury Rx/Leo, 22°59’

Venus/Virgo inconjunct Chiron Rx/Aries, 23°11’

Venus square Mars can be sexy, but in mutable signs it feels more jittery and anxious. We could be trying too hard; we could be mistaken in how we interpret others. Watch your mouth.

Sunday, August 25 - Venus/Virgo inconjunct Eris Rx/Aries, 25°23’. Angry women time again. We want to be more effective about how we address our grievances, so we’ll need to adjust a bit.

Monday, August 26 - Tuesday, August 27:

Venus/Virgo sextile Pallas/Scorpio, 26°32’

Venus/Virgo trine Uranus/Taurus, 27°14’

Finally, some flowing energy. This will enable us to come up with very clever and unique solutions and possibilities. We may do a little mediating while we’re at it.

Wednesday, August 28 - Venus/Virgo opposite Neptune Rx/Pisces, 29°08’. Stones fan that I am, I’m pretty sure that as long as Neptune makes the final aspect, regardless of the circumstances, we’ll all be singing along with Mick, “You can’t always get what you want - but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.” If we haven’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good,” some precious illumination is in store.

———————————

Venmo @ Mary_Brack

PayPal @ MaryVBrack

Thank you!

[longbobmckenzie]

THTH2 Episodes 1-3 Thoughts!

Eeeek it's THTH2 (Too Hot to Handle the game) time!! Last season fizzled out halfway through but based on the first few episodes of season 2, I've got hopes that this one will be better!

First of all, it's 15 episodes as opposed to 10 - there's room for development (and more bombshells/dumpings!)

There's more customization! I feel like it's improved, although others have said they had a harder time with it. I'm not a huge fan of the hairstyles and outfits we've been given so far, but we'll get more

In the initial episodes, there are 5 friends and only 4 LIs - that might be a little disappointing at first (especially since the friends are all hot - URGH I want Santiago!!), but this actually fixes some of the problems with the first season

More non-romanceable characters is a good thing because it means there will be more storylines besides MC/LI and Jada/Justin/Carter

A lot of us started to hate Jada after a while because she kept popping up and we were forced to be friends with her. Having more friends is a good thing because we'll be able to talk to more people instead of just one person. I'm hoping there will be some branching involved where some scenes are dependent on who your highest relationship is with, but we'll see!

Less LIs is fine for the reasons above - sure there's less choice up front, but with next to no branching in S1, every route was the same, and there were only 3 couples at the end. It didn't make sense. Plus...

We're already getting at least one bombshell next week! It's highly likely they'll be LI(s), and no doubt there will be more people incoming

In Season 1, all the LIs had hard-ons for MC even when MC didn't show them any interest - so far that doesn't seem to be the case, and I love that. It was weird that 9 people were obsessed with us, honestly. This time, our choices matter more

They're already setting up a love triangle! It makes so much more sense to have a LT early on when everyone's new rather than force it with a bombshell we don't even like midway through the season

The characters so far seem to have more personality traits than just whatever their jobs/interests are. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, and there is definitely still some of that, but I feel like I've already had deeper chats with them. And they ask about us too, and we can define a bit more of a personality for ourselves

More under the cut...

I picked Antoine so far (love a Canadian hockey player!!). He's basically an upgraded (yes, I said it) version of Theo (the art style is slightly improved - the smiles aren't as creepy this time!). I wasn't a Theo girlie but so far I'm vibing with Antoine

I was a Liam girlie, but Liam 2.0 (Wesley) doesn't have quite the same appeal. He's still hot, but Idk, he's not my Liam

There's a fun Antoine glitch (not sure if any of the other characters have it) where he's fully naked. It's pretty funny

I've already broken a bunch of rules, mwahaha!

The list of achievements this season is interesting 👀 There's an achievement for getting eliminated, which I will definitely be trying to do. And stuff about the others trusting us (probably a way to earn back money)

They still have the "beach hut" confessionals, but I feel like those episodes are shorter, which is great because they could be a drag on replays before, or when you just want to get to the next episode

Santiago is my boy, I'm loving the representation with him. I'm curious if we'll ever get a chance to get our hands on him even without romance, because we do have a flirty vibe and I would absolutely jump at that chance!

Overall, I'm excited to see how this goes! It does seem like they've taken our feedback so far, the initial episodes felt a lot like last season but that's not at all a bad thing - last season started off great, and this one has too. I do think this season has better potential overall and my fingers are crossed that it delivers

[vampstel]

Out of your favorite designs you’ve redrawn or has drawn who do you enjoyed working on the most?

As a character designer myself, I can’t help but love all my ocs equally, and learning from you actually helps me expand upon my stories. You’ve helped me so much writing a story for Victoria (She’s a princess vampire who is generations after Dracula (Temporary name because some details are being worked on) in my universe I don’t think this made sense but hopefully it does?) and I actually took some inspiration from your video in order to fully develop her.

I also love it when you diversity your work. It makes me really happy seeing all sorts of characters with real life details? If that made any sense. I like learning from you and I wanna try to understand more about details. Mainly because I suck at drawing details and idk how you do most of your stuff by hand. (I usually try to find brushes on IbisPaint on Pinterest for my work)

What kind of advice do you have for any upcoming artists who’s struggling with character designing?

Do you start with the character and then work on the story or is it the other way around?

This is going to be a VERY long response so it’s all gonna be under the cut…

I don’t really have a favorite design honestly... It’s hard to pick favorites when your characters have different aesthetics to them. It feels unfair to me to compare them because of that LOL so I try my best to avoid that.

That being said though, I can definitely say I had so much fun redesigning Elliot and making her her own person rather than a character who’s meant to represent me. She doesn’t have a full body render yet but… I think she’s neat :3

She’s just got all the things I love in one design and since she’s so personal to me, I guess you could technically say she’s my current favorite design out of all my OCs so far. Minus Rei, of course…

But yeah I can definitely relate to loving all your characters equally!! Victoria sounds cool and I’m glad my content helps you out ^_^

As for the last few questions… Details are really hard to draw especially if your art style is more on the cartoony side. There’s nothing wrong with using brushes or patterns online to help out the process but if you want to practice without them, it’s good to try out how to simplify details!!

Not everything has to be crazy complicated. So long as you get the general idea or silhouette of something in your art, it translates pretty well in the end results. Lots of artists simplify things to make it easier for the eye and it’s a hard skill to master but as you get used to it, you’ll become way better at it. Try and be fluid with your line work. That’ll help a ton!!

For advice on character design: I’d say the most important part to designing a character is making them feel alive by having meaning to their physical appearance and attire. A lot of beginner artists tend to forget that which results in a boring or un-relatable character.

We all have some sort of history with our appearances and it’s good to try and figure that out with your OCs. I usually do that during the design process but it’s fine if you do it after or before it. Before it is more ideal in a professional setting though!!

Go insane with designs. Mix and match aesthetics if you want and use LOTS of references and inspiration. That’s the second most important part. It’s why I have tons of pins saved on Pinterest and tons of reels saved on Instagram. But remember to always ask yourself questions like:

Would this character dress like this? What do they think about their clothes? Do they dress traditional, medieval, or modern?

Would they like this sort of thing? What sorts of fabrics and textures do they prefer to feel on their skin? Are they comfortable with revealing attire or do they prefer something more formal?

What sort of history does their clothes have? Was it a gift from someone, did they buy it from a thrift store or did they make it themself?

Do their accessories have sentimentality or are they completely irrelevant and something they use just for aesthetics?

Is there a way to incorporate things from their backstory or their current story to their appearance? Like scars/marks on their body? Maybe even accessories from a loved one or no?

Can you explain why they have specific physical features? Why are they skinny? Or muscular? Do they work out and eat healthy or do they barely take care of themselves?

It’s a lot to consider but when you can answer these questions, your character becomes much more lively and unique.

I personally tend to start the design of the character first but as I go through the drawing process, that’s when I flesh things out like their story and such. I don’t recommend this process to beginners since it’s SUPER messy but do what makes you feel comfortable! Hope this was helpful and thank you once again for the sweet compliments <33

[colossus-of-clout]

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, Sloppy Seconds Ain't My Style - S1E06

This was one of my favorite episodes! There was so much character development that I didn't mind the lack of musical numbers.

CYNTHIA: Loved watching the Cynthia/Lydia story develop. The realization of their feelings for each other... Watching Cynthia try to pull away from Lydia to suppress what she was feeling was a story that was all too familiar.. You could feel the tension. The scene right before the play in the music room, when they default to their original acting exercise, was the best part of the entire show. When they're saying "your hair is brown" / "my hair is brown" you can see the desire in their eyes... They're saying "Hey, I understand because I feel it too. You're not alone." Transitioning from the hair discussion to the "I'm scared" admission was immaculate. You could see how confused and terrified and vulnerable they felt in that moment and I LOVED how Lydia leaned into it by admitting how scared she was by her feelings... In that moment, we saw a peak of her character that we've never seen before. This wasn't about another theatre production, because she's so confident in her abilities as an actress... This was about her saying "I'll hold your hand and jump off of the cliff with you, even though I'm fearful of the fallout."

JANE: In this ep, there’s so much to Jane’s character. We got to take a deeper dive into Susan and see why she operates the way that she does. I love that Jane didn't exploit that moment of weakness and allowed Susan to see the good in people. I also enjoyed that this moment showed Jane that she doesn't need to he president in order to make a difference at Rydell. Big fan of her realization that she doesn't want to help Buddy out, but she wants to impact change from where she is and only with her girls. In that moment, we see a parallel to her relationship with Richie in the last episode when she refused his jacket because she has her own.

NANCY: Though Nance had a smaller part in this episode, she really used that opportunity to shine. We got to see the amount of care she puts into each of her pieces (just imagine how long it took to make each of the girls their own jacket from scratch.....eeek!) we saw her switch from a more commanding and bossy attitude to that of relying on someone else (Hazel) and submitting herself enough to ask for help on something she's so passionate about...and then crediting Hazel for the vision, despite Nancy creating the designs. We also see how committed she is to the girls when Cynthia runs away. Her first priority was to find her and supporther through whatever was bothering her. This really struck me because Nancy is so proud of her designs, but rather than sticking around to watch her art come to life, she sprinted away to find her girls to go support Cynthia.

OLIVIA: My favorite character for last ofc. I loved seeing how passionate she was about making sure that the election results weren't rigged. She believes in Jane and the Pink Ladies so much and I love watching her fight to keep the group unified... You can tell that she felt so alone before the four of them became friends. She feels like she belongs now and she's so happy when she's around the girls. I hate how Mr. Daniels continues to have such a hold on her... All of the guys at Rydell would die for a chance with her, especially Gil....but I'm still holding out hope for Jane and Olivia. I love Richie but the sparkle in Olivia’s eyes and the smile plastered on her face when Jane is nearby....come on.

GIRL GANG: I also loved the shift in the group dynamic from "We're coming together because we want to change things" to “Hey, we actually really care about each other regardless of whether or not we have a single unifying factor!" The last few shots of the girls at Cynthia's was incredible. It reminded me of the Winnie the Pooh quote about not trying to cheer someone up, but just existing with them as they process everything. Also, I loved the ode to Jan when all of the girls sang along to the ipana song. I'm definitely excited/interested to see how Cynthia and Lydia's relationship will impact the group dynamic. I feel like the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies already have an idea that she isn't attracted to men, well except for Shy Guy lmao, so it won’t be a big deal to the gangs but I hope no one outs her or gives them trouble.

[amazing-spiderling]

Ask art🎨! 1. 3. 5. 13. 15. 25. 34

What got you into art? When did you start?

I feel like I was one of those kids who was always drawing. One of the earliest hobbies I remember having was drawing, and since my mom was a teacher, it seemed like we were never at a loss for pencils, crayons and markers in the house. I think I also developed a desire to imitate things I saw on television pretty early on. I remember being TRANSFIXED by the Saban "Grimm's Fairy Tales" that would play on occasional Saturdays as part of Nickelodeon's "Special Delivery" programming. This was old timey anime, but even as a kid I could tell there was something different about it that I liked, and I tried to imitate the style as best I could in the margins of my notebooks.

Later, I got into comic books, and I remember wanting to draw my favorite characters from those (Batman was an early one, eventually giving way to Nightcrawler and the X-Men.) Again, I'd copy pictures out of comics I snuck in my bag to school. By the time high school came around, I was holding pieces of paper up to a paused video on television to get anime characters exactly right (please understand the internet was still in its infancy, and google wasn't even a thing yet). So I guess the thing that "got me into" art was seeing things I liked, and wanting to make them too.

3. What digital programs, if any, do you prefer?

I pretty much only use CSP for drawing, and then I'll hop onto Photo Pea if i need to do any grunt work (resizing/reformatting etc)

5. Who is your biggest inspiration?

Mostly, other people in my fandom circles. When I see people creating art of the things I love, it makes ME want to make art of the things I love. Sometimes this is people posting art that makes me think "I want to try that" and other times it's just conversations that spark something in my mind, but I know I'd be waaaaaaaaay less productive if I didn't have a community of awesome creatives to keep me fueled up!

13. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Hmm. Stories, I think? Sometimes I have an idea with a story connected to it, but I don't know if it could sustain an entire fic, and would rather see it as one powerful image. Other times, I'll hear a song and it will spark a visual in my mind I want to get out. And of course, I love a good redraw. I'm quick to draw associations between things I like, and a lot of time that has to get expressed as art.

15. Any tips and advice?

So, I actually originally went to school for painting hahahaha. I was convinced I wanted to be a fine artist. But I spent a lot of my time in art school convinced that I had to reach certain (totally undefined) thresholds before I would be capable (or allowed?) to do certain things. Use certain materials, attempt certain projects. And to be fair, I was limited by some things, like money, my ability to go places and *get* said materials, my available time etc. But that wasn't the roadblock in my head. Many years later, I was sitting in on a panel of female creators who had made a place for themselves in the digital space, and one of them asked the audience how many of them had an idea for a website, a podcast, a webseries etc- anything creative they wanted to do. A lot of people raised their hands. Then she asked how many of them had a cellphone. Everyone raised their hand again.

"Then you already have everything you need to get started. This isn't the best camera or microphone or computer in the world, but it's enough for you to get going. You don't need anyone's permission to get started."

I think that she did a really good job of articulating an issue I'd given myself- I was waiting for permission to do things, and I didn't need it! I try to keep that in mind now whenever I want to try my hand at something new.

25. Most frustrating thing about art?

Having an idea you're really excited about. Wanting to draw it. And being unable to make yourself get up and do it. I probably spend just as much time figuring out ways to have better habits and rituals around making art as I do actually making it.

34. Piece you didn’t think would get noticed as much as it does?

I cranked out that Scott Pilgrim deleted scene redraw (the comic with Murderdock at a Mary Janes concert) in the course of a single evening because the idea came to me all of a sudden and I knew that if I didn't do it RIGHT THEN i never would. Since that movie kinda only has a cult following, and the scene was only available on the DVD version, (and Murderdock was more niche than he is now) it was really something I did for myself. The fact that a bunch of people have found the idea s funny as I did still surprises me.

[howtofightwrite]

So, I know you can't learn martial arts from merely videos or watching others but in a couple of stuff I've seen before, learning in this way is specifically said to be a superpower (and not limited to martial arts). Is that all right to portray?

You don't need my permission. You don't need anyone's permission to create, and you should never feel that need. If you're wanting to write something, do it.

The advice we provide is about trying to help you have the best reaction from your audience. Most of the time, when one of us says, “it doesn't work,” (or something to that effect), it's because it doesn't work in reality, or because it's unlikely have desired result on the page.

Ultimately, it is up to you, what you choose to do with that.

Now, I do have a problem here, and I want to make this very clear, this is my problem, not yours. I see the people who think you can learn martial arts from watching a video, and in most cases, it's not a problem. But, then I run across the people who think they can learn self-defense from watching a video of a technique being demoed, and that breaks my heart. It's a horrible situation, because the belief that they know what they're doing could genuinely protect them, but if anyone calls that bluff, the results will be tragic.

The reality is a lot more complex. If you have a martial arts background, you can learn quite a bit from watching video of other martial artists. It's not like these videos are a bad thing. In fact, I'd argue that the dissemination of martial arts demo videos is (on the whole) a good thing. Especially when it comes to preservation of rare schools.

More than that, if you know what you're doing, you can learn from them. Not, “replicate the technique,” but identify pieces that might be useful, pick up on weaknesses that you might have missed. You can learn a great deal of theory of what allows combat to work and function, and excellent theory for both weapons and hand to hand combat. You will learn rapidly if you have the context to put the theory together with what you already know. Hell, you can learn a lot from watching videos of yourself, if  you know what you're looking for.

But, watching videos alone can't get you to that threshold.

So, when this is a superpower, it's kinda tricky. Sometimes, it's a “superpower” that is entirely within the range of what a sufficiently skilled martial artist could actually do, and sometimes it's a “Batman style superpower,” where it may appear credible, but is beyond human capability.

A character who can sit down and analyze someone's fighting style from watching video of them in combat is entirely plausible. (With a lot of specific caveats, like the quality of the video, how much they can see, and so on.) People who can do that exist, and it's not as impressive as it sounds. A sufficiently committed MMA fan will probably learn to do this to some extent, and any fight announcer will need to be able to do this on the fly. Any competitive fighter or their coach will watch tapes of both their fighter's previous bouts and the bouts of upcoming opponents to address weaknesses and generate strategies to focus their training regimen around. This really another skill in its own right, and it can exist independent of martial arts training (though, you need to both to operationalize what you're seeing into a counter strategy. Also, importantly, that MMA fan, and possibly the announcer, will be limited to examining things they're familiar with. Now, that can result in a kind of, “adjacency,” situation, where they recognize something as a variant of a technique they're already familiar with, but much like linguistic, “false friends,” this can also be misleading.)

A character who can sit down, watch a video of someone in combat, and completely copy their fighting style would be a superpower. Especially if this is how they developed their martial arts skills in the first place. The biggest problem here is that watching someone perform an act does not teach you the  less visible components, like where to put your weight; when, and how to move it. If you don't know what to look for, watching someone else won't teach you what to look for.

Now, I'm talking about martial arts here, but, there are skills you can learn from watching video tutorials. In fact, if you find the right tutorials, you may be able to learn quite a bit about various martial arts, including their philosophies, their history, and how they perform their techniques, however, in the last case, that is not a substitute for formal training.

A good example of this is the HEMA community, which does have a lot of video tutorials discussing the specific details of their techniques. It's not a substitute for training, it's certainly not a substitute for supervised practice, (and a novice engaging in unsupervised “practice” is a recipe for completely botching their muscle memory; which could seriously impair their ability to ever learn martial arts correctly.)

Learning martial arts is a lot more than just, “watching someone do a thing,” it requires a lot of training and practice to get it right. Repetition to the point that you no longer have to consciously think about what you're doing and can simply act. Watching a video can't do that for you. But, that's why this is a superpower, when it shows up.

There's another very important component to this from a writing standpoint, which is a character who cheats their way to power never respects their power. They made none of the sacrifices and have none of the experiences to teach them why doing the thing might be a bad idea. They've never had the training experience of hitting someone a little harder than intended or being hit too hard, and that lack of context hurts them. More importantly, writers who cheat their characters into power don't respect the power their character wields either. This is where a lot of hyper aggressive characters come from, especially the ones who treat the hyper aggressive violence in their heroes as okay or even laudable, because the author themselves never learned to moderate violence to situationally appropriate levels. How much is too much? If you don't know, you don't know. You'll just go for it and because none of this is real, there's going to stop the writer or the character from going too far. Then, there's no narrative consequences either because they don't realize they did and create a world where abuse is normalized, even expected. It happens entirely by accident.

There's a real reason why mimicry (of basically any variety) is frequently restricted to villains and villainous characters. Your character has the ability to replicate, and in the processes, devalue, the sacrifices and even the very identity of the character they're copying. In this case, if you have someone that can flawlessly replicate someone else's techniques, they're saying, to the original, “your training meant nothing.” This is even worse in cases where a character can fully copy that individual, as it elevates this tone to, “your very existence is meaningless, everything you've experienced is irrelevant. I can do all of this without giving up anything.” The superpower to copy another is existentially brutal. It may not seem that harsh at first glance, but the full implications are subtle, and vicious.

It's a great power for a supervillain to utterly obliterate someone's self-worth.

-Starke

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[nahalism]

i was wondering, how did you get to develop your art? im currently in a process where i am trying to experiment and go beyond the need to create art that is realistic (as in "objectively like reality as it is", like I was being told by both school and family). i feel like I struggle a lot to follow my inspiration because of this, and I am also trying to learn how to draw scenes from my own ordinary life, but unfortunately I am quite impatient and frustrated with my inability to create what I wish to create + perfectionism in general makes me scared of using colour as well 😭 I really admire your art so much, both your sketches and finished pieces, and I have always wondered your own learning process throughout the years. please feel free to not reply if you feel uncomfortable cause I know it is a very personal process as well, and above all I hope you are doing well and I am sending you endless love <333

🥺🥺 this is so lovely to receive because if im completely honest there are multiple moments where i feel exactly as you've just described and despite pushing through it, a message like this is very validating that ive progressed in some way

i dont mind sharing at all. i started drawing/painting when i was 21/22 which is relatively late and i was so fearful because despite having a vision for what i wanted to create i lacked any skill that could help me bring what was in my minds eye to fruition. i was also insanely depressed and in the middle of getting my degree at uni (so felt like i had no time to pursue art, at least not to the extent i wanted to). — my plan to get better consisted of multiple things. id draw everyday. i had/have two styles i'd practice, one realism, and the other 'freestyle'? basically draw only from my head and from the rhythms that came naturally to my hand, no references. by doing that, or drawing the human figure/portraits/cars/buildings from my imagination, not only was i reinforcing what id actually learned from my study of the fundamentals, but i was learning to incorporate my own creativity into the rigid structure that sometimes comes from only drawing from reference. by doing that and drawing studies every day i began to build a library in my head of images/poses/character archetypes i could pull from which made drawing from my imagination easier, but also had the structural knowledge of forms/perspective/anatomy to make them look credible. id do this whenever i had free time, and once i left uni began practicing anywhere from 6-9 hours daily. a bit extreme but i felt like i had time to make up for since i started drawing relatively late in life. only tip there is to balance practice with making finished pieces. finished pieces will show you which fundamentals you still need to work on & how much progress you've made. they also show the completion of a thought whereas practice only gives you the tools to bring that thought to reality

just so u know, ur practice of the fundaments is not in vain. you just need to revive your own capacity to draw from your imagination/subconscious. the main thing is knowing your going to find your work horrible for a long time before it gets better. the joy has to come from the process of creating rather than the end product. by the time it gets better, your eye will also have improved, so you still wont be satisfied. thats where growth comes in. being your biggest critic is what will make you great, as long as you remember where you came from (date and keep your work so you can look back on it) and the role criticism plays. separate your skill from your self worth.

something helpful i was once told is along the lines of 'perfectionism is a lie we tell ourselves to justify our procrastination. no one is ever perfect, so the only way to gain skill is to practice. you cant grow if you dont begin. so if your really a perfectionist, your only solution is to start'

i would love to see your work someday and hope i will. wishing you luck and sending you all the courage to begin and be great. you got this <3

[alexbaxterart]

I'm going to be asking a lot of artists I follow this question, but how did you develop your style? It SEEMS like most people find their style and stick with it forever, just making improvements and iterations. I tend to work in a lot of different styles because I enjoy doing that, though I know there are things I gravitate towards as well. But I wonder what your journey was and how you got feedback and improved while staying true to what you enjoyed?

What a good question, thanks for asking!

I guess the simplest way of putting it is that, ever since I started drawing I've just emulated whatever art I really liked the looks of, and over time it coalesced into style/s. When I was a kid my main art interests were Pokemon, Lisa Frank, and Disney cartoons, and later, "sparkledog" furry art. So I spent a lot of time emulating that kind of art in a sort of, just-drawing-what-you-see kind of way.

In recent years I've gravitated back to those early influences/styles, in a more "conscious effort" way than before. A few years ago, I actually made a sort of journal in which I dissected artists' work that I loved as a kid, and broke down which parts I wanted to incorporate into my own style. I also did a lot of studies and practicing to try and train my hand and brain into the style I wanted.

It's kind of a mixed bag way of doing things, to be honest. Depending on who you are, you might enjoy it more or less. I enjoyed finally producing stuff that looked like the art I admired as a kid. But at the same time, too much emphasis of getting a certain look kinda broke my natural flow and could be paralyzing at times.

Compare that process to the kind of style I use on pieces like this:

That style evolved over years in a much more natural feeling way. It almost feels like using a different part of my brain, to be honest. There wasn't a lot of direct influences there, so I think it's a case of me tapping into a certain vibe that I want and the resulting style is firm yet flexible for each piece.

I've worked in more styles than just those, of course. And as far as feedback from others goes, I think the best thing I absorbed from art school was to -not- box yourself into one style. I experimented all the time in college, we were discouraged from leaning too hard on style, and SO much growth comes from that. Sometimes you gotta let the piece dictate the style that you use! So I don't think it's a bad thing that you work in a lot of different styles!

I think so long as you keep absorbing influences, analyzing them, and incorporating the parts you like into your work, your style/s will come through naturally.

[nkukubean]

Old characters brought into a new light <3

Zak & Neverland; Monk Warforged & Paladin Half-Orc, Half-Sun Elf (Zak belongs to a friend).

Ship Name: Goldforge

The campaign died a long time ago, but we started thinking about them again when we realized Zak & Neverland had prime shipping potential (might have actually been canon if we played longer). The campaign didn’t make it past 2 sessions, oops.

Old Art & Neverland's Backstory Below the Cut:

dividers

Neverland's first concept art (from around... September 2022... wow... he's older than I thought he was...):

For some basics:

Neverland

Race/Species: Warforged (Warforged Enoy) - his integrated tool was the internet, and I'm not even joking about that... - modeled after a human, but I changed that to half-elf sometime after the campaign was scheduled to be rebooted in 2023, but never came to be Class: Monk (Way of the Open Hand) Alignment: NG Gender: Nonbinary/Demi-Boy (he/they/it) -> (Peter Hawkins was trans-masc nonbinary before his "death") Sexuality: Aceflux & Herculean Age: Robot, so adult the moment he was created... around 4 years since creation was what we went with?

Backstory:

He's technically an android, but I played with modified warforged stats. The campaign was supposed to be a goofy "picked up by the FBI/CIA for reasons, and now our identities have been wiped from the public; a Men In Black situation".

Neverland here was an android built by "Fantasy Apple" & "Fantasy Disney"—an attempt at creating the perfect park security.

The catch is that Neverland was once alive. Peter Hawkins was a dude who grew up in foster care, and he went to work for the parks so that he could ensure that the visiting kids there could have some happy childhood memories. His cheery attitude and willingness to comply to the park rules and standards caused him to be approached by the park's development teams. Peter gladly agreed to have his likeness/personality the model for the robot.

Aaaand that's how he got his soul zapped out of his body Portal 2 brain-mapping style. The development team now had Peter's brain successfully mapped, but they also had his lifeless, electrocuted body... and a robot with a soul—buuuut, they didn't know the robot had Peter's soul.

Peter's memories were locked away by the admins, but no matter what they did, they couldn't code away Neverland's quirks. Basically, they had an extremely ADHD android on their hands. Eventually, the CIA found out the parks had a sentient robot. Turns out, trying to code out the sentience of a sentient being is a violation of being rights!

The CIA scooped Neverland up, and he's been working with them ever since. Neverland is aware that his personality and looks were modeled after Peter, but he is unaware that he is Peter... soul and all. He's unable to unlock the memories without risking damaging his functions.

He was supposed to be played as a soul fighting its own code. Any time he would fight against the code, his system would reboot, and the code would take over until the soul was deemed as compliant again. RIP, Neverland, you could have been so fun to play with. Now, he's just a silly little OC that takes up space in my brain rent free.

Zak Feldspar

This was Zak's most recent character art (March 2023)

Race/Species: Half-Orc (Half-Sun Elf) Class: Paladin (Redemption) Gender: Cis Man Sexuality: Pansexual Age: late 20s? I don't remember

Backstory:

I won't share much about him, since he's not my character, but all the art is mine. He was a transfer from the England to the US (fled the country after he found out the royal family were liches, because... Queen Elizabeth... yeah, you get the point, it was funny).

He's been in several different campaigns, as you can see from this old art (July 2020). Out of all the campaigns he was in, he was the most well-suited for this one (according to my friend).

I really peaked with his 2020 design, I feel. I put a sticky note over the sword I drew him, as Zak changed it to a hammer... devastated...

Well, that's it. Here's a goof

[38sr]

If you’re still doing the animation q, what makes a portfolio stand out/what should someone do for a portfolio to best interest people? I always get mixed reviews, some people say having a personal art style is key, others say I should’ve have one, etc.

No worries at all! I’ve actually already did an IndustryQ about what I believe makes a solid portfolio and you can find that here! But you do bring up a very good question about personal art style. Even when I was a student the debate about whether or not it’s good to have a specific style was always an on-going topic. So before we begin, everything I will write below from my personal experience and opinion. Nothing I say is the absolute and something you have to follow, it’s always important to do what’s best for you and your voice as an artist.

And with that, let’s answer your question! Should I strive to have a distinct personal art style?

If I may be honest and candid, I don’t believe young artists should be stressed and worried about having a personal art style.

This is coming from someone who has been publicly ridiculed multiple times for drawing in an anime style all throughout my schooling. And even when I changed my style to something more cartoony or more realistic, I was still told the same thing. That was very much from my personal experience and I hope that has never happened to you ‘cause it’s very damaging to an artist’s growth. But if you’re wondering why I don’t think style should be stressed about, it’s because of an experience I had in college.

In college, I had a life drawing class with a very old man (he was like 70 when I was student). This man is the epitome of “fine art is the only true art that exists and I hate commercial arts.” You can imagine how I felt about him every class when he disregards anything that’s not “high art”. One day, when having a homework critique, a student raised his hand and asked the age-old question, “How do I develop a style?”

And he just scoffed at the student and replied, “You’re too young to even think about style. Learn how to execute first.”

That was seriously his answer. And it made me so mad. Not only was it dismissive and plain rude, but in the moment it felt like he didn’t even give the slightest solution to the student’s problem.

The semester continued and one day during break I was looking through some the art books in the classroom (it was the teacher’s personal collection). I always picked the Impressionist art books (Manet, Degas, Lautrec) and I think at some point the teacher noticed me doing that. So, he walked over to me, peered at the book in my hand and suggested I should look at a different artist (I believe it was a Baroque artist). And I just said, “Mm, I don’t really like that.”

“Why not?” He asked.

“I don’t know…I think I like how these guys depict the human body better.” I said with a shrug. We sat in a silence for a moment and when I looked at my teacher, he was smiling. And that shocked me ‘cause he doesn’t smile very often. After that he just walks off saying, “Then you should learn how and why they draw the human body the way they do.”

In the moment, I didn’t realize that he’d given me a hint about what he meant to the other student days prior. It didn’t take me until after college to realize what he was trying to say (and I still think was rude in delivery) was that style is a result of analyzing, deconstructing, reconstructing, experimenting and executing many different foundation techniques.

There are so many different types of styles in the world and it can be easy to feel like, “I have to draw like this if I wanna get job or be popular! If I don’t no one will notice me! How do I stand out?” I’ve had my fair share of those thoughts during my school days. But after college, I realized I was so focused on the end result (the style) that I wasn’t taking the time to understand the how and why they were able to execute art in that particular way (the analyzing, deconstruction, reconstruction). And since learning that lesson way back in college, how I view art styles is drastically now. From realistic, to graphic, to anime, to cartoony, I can look at a style and break down how that artist executed it in that way.

And the coolest thing about it, is that you can acquire multiple styles if you have exceptional foundational skills! It’s kind of like switching out a weapon for a specific type of enemy in a game. You don’t have to lose the style, you can just add it to your inventory and use it again when it’s needed again.

That’s why I don’t think younger artists should be so stressed and worried about developing a style. An artist’s style is a result of them spending years of learning, breaking down, experimenting, executing so many different methods of the core fundamentals and it’s ever changing. I know I say it in almost every IndustryQ but I cannot stress enough how vital it is to learn those foundation skills. It makes you a versatile artist. The reason why I can go from Rugrats to Spiderman to Bleach and adapt super quickly is because of my foundation skills. I learned how to analyze, break down, and reconstruct the art. Once I understand how the foundation rules work in the realm of a specific production, I can execute it in that style (also called on-model) of that show.

Now can you not be hired because you draw in a particular style? Yes, but you can also get hired for drawing in a particular style. How do you think design leads, directors and such get picked? Often times it’s because they have a personal style that aligns with a production’s particular sensibilities. There isn’t like…a real right or wrong when it comes to style because it always different and depends on the production. As long as you present solid drawing skills, you can be taught to draw in style of the production. So instead of worrying about having a personal style, I would implore you to hone your foundation skills while also studying/breaking down your favorite artists’ styles and try to understand what methods are they using to executing art in that specific way. You don’t have to have only one style, you can allow yourself to have an arsenal of them.

Of course, I can’t force you to listen to what I say nor do I expect you to take everything I write here wholeheartedly. All of this is from my personal experience and growth as an artist from school to now working in TV animation and even then I’m still developing my own “style”. I don’t know what that style is or what the outcome will be (just like how you, Anon, might not know what that will be for you). But if anything, don’t worry too much about having a style ‘cause as long as you have solid drawing skills you can adapt to any style.

I hope that answered your question!

[obbystars]

ok here’s an actual post of my obey me oc, The Legion

buckle up its a long post

I’ve only ever drawn them like 3 times- You’ll likely see this blonde guy majority of the time

Also we’re not gonna talk about how my art style changes 3 god damn times anyway

Voice claim

This is The Legion’s voice as a whole. It’s rarely ever heard as they use the voices of their vessels.

SO! Here’s some facts on their history, though it also contains “theories”:

psst, all pronouns for The Legion, though they much prefer they/it

The Legion has been around for quite some time, though it’s not really known if they were around ever since Devildom was established or even before. Their origins are completely unknown, and it’s a common debate whether The Legion is one demon acting as many or a group of demons acting as one. Some think The Legion was originally from the Celestial Realm, though the reason for their fall is still open. Others think it is similar to the “hivemind.” There is one who stands at the very top, the one who makes more to support the “hive.” “The Legion” is more of a title rather than a name, but they seemed to embrace it as their name.

All of The Legion’s vessels are humans, majority being sorcerers and witches. One thing the vessels all have in common is that they were about to be unrightfully killed such as being accused of something they didn’t commit and was sentenced to death for it. This fact alone seems to support a theory saying that The Legion loved humans.

On the topic of “love,” The Legion is incapable of feeling romantic love. Friendships and family bonds are there, but romantic love? They can’t feel it. Humans confessing their love to one of The Legion’s vessels had always caught them off guard, even after many centuries later. Every time a human expressed their romantic feelings for them, The Legion just froze. They never know how to react and what to say, so they either just respond with “What?” or “Why?” Even after the human gives their reasons as to why they developed those feelings for them, they still can’t understand.

At some point, The Legion would say yes to a few hoping that perhaps they could understand it if they experienced it first hand. It did not, even when one of them had kissed them. They felt nothing. When The Legion told the humans they were with, they told them the truth of their own feelings and they learned very quickly how this can affect them in the long run. This would eventually lead to The Legion observing other couples in both the human realm and Devildom.

The Legion didn’t originally work for the demon kings, it was only until their activity really began to catch their attention. Now, they’re basically their eyes all around Devildom. Once one vessel knows something, the others now know it too as well as the demon king.

Considering this is way back when, humans in Devildom were really uncommon. This resulted in some mistreatment to the vessels as The Legion’s collection of vessels continued to grow over the centuries, so new faces were either a vessel or a human had truly somehow found their way in. To catch a Vessel of The Legion, you’ll only have to listen to how they talk. The Legion will always say “us,” “we,” and “our” whenever they refer to themself.

Okay, that’s enough of the distant past, let’s move further up:

The Legion had first met Diavolo when he was still very young. He found one of their vessels roaming the halls of the castle. Humans in the Devildom was still fairly uncommon, so he was curious. This encounter eventually resulted in the two being pretty close, pretty much to the point The Legion would babysit Diavolo time to time.

The Legion cherishes all of their vessels, and losing one would seriously hurt them. They wanted to experiment in trying to find a way into the Celestial Realm, though this was mainly done by accident. One of their vessels had ended up stuck in the Celestial Realm before that vessel was obliterated from existence.

At first, the angels were confused. A human had somehow found their way into the Celestial Realm. That is what went through their heads, until they realize what this “human” really was. A demon had found a way to enter the Celestial Realm through a human vessel. The last thing The Legion saw through that vessel’s eyes was The Morningstar.

One Master to Rule Them All!

(though i only played until lesson 20 after disappearing from the game after lesson 17 💀… ended up just playing Nightbringer so pardon- EITHER WAY, SPOILERS!!!)

The vessel that attends R.A.D is the one shown at the very top of the post (if the student id wasn’t enough), and as stated, they’re part of the newspaper club. The Legion wouldn’t make themself known to MC as a way to see what kind of trouble they’d get themself into. Either way, they wouldn’t show themselves until much later.

It’s also known that Asmodeus and The Legion are rather close friends. He mostly mentions them saying that he has plans with them, though that usually means he’s going out shopping with them or The Legion is sending a vessel down to HoL because Asmo wanting to do their makeup.

At some point, Asmo would tell MC a little bit about The Legion, and mention that the first time they met, his charm didn’t seem to work them. He was in shock and disbelief that for a little while, but The Legion does admit to him that they do find him good looking. And in my friend’s words from Discord, “Asmo knows that Legion doesn’t want him for his body or anything like his followers does and that means Legion actually finds him pretty and doesn’t feel compelled by his charm to hang around him. Like yes, Asmo loves the attention but people underestimate the power of platonic love and friendship, so Asmo cherishes Legion’s companionship A LOT.”

(if you see this bestie hiiiiii lol)

Moving on, they had always known about the situation with Lilith. After her reincarnation, The Legion had made an effort to try and find her just to make sure everything went smoothly. After some time, they had stopped watching, so they didn’t exactly know about the fact MC was in fact her descendant.

The first meeting would be accidental and unexpected. By that, I mean MC basically walked in on Diavolo and The Legion talking. Another human, apart from Solomon? Of course, Diavolo had to explain and properly introduce The Legion to MC and The Legion would admit that they’ve been keeping an eye on them since day one.

When MC returns to the human world after the exchange program, they’d likely run into another one of The Legion’s vessels. Expected, but surprising it was so quick. In general, The Legion would be curious about MC’s life in the human world and would ask if they could hang out for a little while. The Legion would stay in touch until MC returns to Devildom. They still come by every now and then but they don’t exactly play a major role anyway.

Nightbringer

WARNING!! MAJOR SPOILERS TO NIGHTBRINGER!!

MC meeting with The Legion is basically at the very beginning of the game when they suddenly fall into Devildom (again). Like Diavolo, they knew from the start that MC was human and not a demon, but due to the fact they quite literally have eyes everywhere, they knew where MC really came from. They just knew to stay quiet about it. They don’t ever mention this fact to MC and Solomon.

Speaking of the very beginning, remember the vessel that was obliterated from existence by The Morningstar? The Legion certainly recognizes Lucifer now, but the same can’t be said for him since it wasn’t clear that they had multiple when the vessel was destroyed. Not at first, at least. The Legion would mention that day to him.

The Legion doesn’t exactly hate him, they understood the reasons behind it, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy about it. Again, they cherish all of their vessels and dread the thought of losing one. They don’t let their grudge get in the way of things, but they do throw some comments here and there.

The vessels the MC meets with varies time to time. The blonde vessel makes a reoccurring appearance the most. Like the first game, the Legion would keep an eye on MC, but also on the brothers.

Yes, in Nightbringer, MC would see how Asmo and The Legion’s first interaction played out.

They wouldn’t exactly play a major role as of what’s happening in Nightbringer right now when this is posted (Lesson 16). Maybe they will later? Maybe not. We’ll see ;)

I think that’s all I can say about them :0

honestly I love them to bits, I do wanna ramble on about them more but I might end up just showing interactions between them and some other characters from a server I’m in idk

[littleblondesoprano]

Sun. Moon. 2H. 5H. 🩷

💛💛💛!!!! <3 thank you, doll!!! :D!!

Sun - name 5 things you like about yourself?

I have an amazing imagination! I love how vast it is, and how easy it is to come up with ideas and whole new worlds, for that matter.

My intuition is strong, and has not led me wrong - and I am so thankful for that.

My strength. Not just physical, lmao, but I do like that! It's mostly the ability to laugh when shit hits the fan and keep going. To put my head down and work through stuff, or be the rock other people need, to help them through their emotions.

Kinda the same with imagination - I love my creativity. Whether it's working with my hands to make cosplay and prop stuff, or writing and just letting the ideas flow through me, I am immensely creative, and I love every minute of it. (I am also counting my openness and commitment to try new things in this bullet, too)

Kinda a new development, but I love my ability (which I have learned) to not care what other people think of me, and just do my own thing to make me happy, and be joyful about it!

I just have so much love for the person I've become, man.

Moon - do you suppress your feelings?

Depends if the situation initially calls for it! If I do, I put them to the side until I'm in a place that I can process and let them out. But, we don't bottle up emotions here, that just leads to an explosion later on.

2H - do you have any object that you like a little too much? What is it and why?

YES, my tarot cards! Lmao, I have a set that's very art nouveau (which is one of my favorite styles) with gilding on the faces and the edges that I love! It's the Ethereal Visions Tarot by Matt Hughes (the illuminated deck). It was my first tarot deck that I bought for myself, and I've used them for years; it's seen me through a lot.

There's also this one piece of jewelry, I think it's a broach? It belonged to my paternal great-grandmother, who was also into dream interpretation, astrology, and was a tarot reader - but it's just a simple black enamel heart, framed in gold, and I think it's beautiful. I don't wear broaches, but I might figure out how to put it on a chain so I can wear it.

(There it is!! ^^^)

There's also a necklace - so, I had a dream about a month ago that my mom had a gold necklace and it had an ankh on it, and in the dream she gave it to me. I told her about it the next morning, and she went: 'Oh, I actually have a necklace like that, one sec' and it turns out she had a gold necklace with a cartouche on it - that I had never seen before - that she was given almost 30 years ago. So, needless to say, now it's mine, lol!

5H - do you have a hobby? Which one(s)?

I love sewing, cosplaying - I feel like making the props for cosplay should be its own hobby ngl - playing ttrpgs and board games, playin viddy games, swimming, reading, baking, cooking, rping, gardening, language learning, and book binding.

And there's more I want to get into!! I want to learn how to knit or crochet, play the harp, larp, sculpt my own pottery, try making some of my own clothes, weight training, and home brewing my own mead! If nothing else I want to learn more about different culture's mythologies, too. I also want to try fossil hunting, but specifically for megalodon teeth.