#ugly sketch example but the idea is there

[mayordea]

Happy birthday to the number one princess in the world!! 💖

~from her biggest fans :)

ramble of my scattered thoughts on the piece under cut as usual cuz i love talking 😋

This has been an idea I've been cookin for a while, and it was so cluttered and unlike any other ensemble piece I've made... and I decided I oughta do it anyway. I love Miku, I love Vocaloid, and I wanted to do something really ambitious and crazy for her anniversary. Crazy that she's turning her "canon" age this year TwT

I had the idea floating around since like, May...? And then finally started acting on it around June 18. I'm terrible with deadlines, obvious with how I can never make a silly birthday post in time, so I started wayyyy ahead to make sure I have some room to be lazy lol, especially with an idea as ambitious as this.

This was finished on July 12! So I had to sit on this for an annoying amount of time. Very difficult for someone like me who just wants to talk about everything I'm working on to the masses. But at the very least, that gave me the time to work on the draft for this post.

~~~

Here's some ~behind the scenes~ scribbles leading up to the finished piece!

Left is the chicken scratch plan i made in my handy dandy notebook (whenever things are getting real and ambitious, i always made a rough ROUGH plan in there. Usually I'd do a rough pass of the full thing, but this was too complicated for me to do traditionally. I majorly benefited from digital tools to make this possible). CyberDiva and CyberSongman were considered, but I ended up cutting them cuz I just didn't feel like drawing them sorry-- (just pretend they're off to the side. They gave Ruby and Clara the pizza lol). Right is the "final" completed sketch (before I decided to include Chika mid-way through coloring and VY1 and VY2 near the finish line). I started by drawing the main "groups" separated on a different canvas so I can plop them into the main canvas for easy rearranging and transforming. However I got lazy and ended up drawing everyone in the bottom right corner directly on the canvas since I liked seeing the big picture of everyone's positions. Y'know.

Almost excluded Chika! But I like her design so much that I just felt like including her last-minute. You win this time, Chika fans. VY1 and VY2 were very close to being cut! I added them when I began doing the banner and thought "eh why not". I figured their non-human designs would be pretty easy to include pushed back in the bg. Ik VY1 is more commonly associated with the fan design, but I referenced the hairpin cuz it was simpler and the fan looked very annoying to draw 😭

Sorry to the fans of many Vocaloids I had to cut because this composition was insane enough as is. I promise I wanted to include fellas like CUL, LUMi and Sachiko 😭 I will admit I was a little biased on who I wanted to include over others. Like, I don't normally care for Bruno and Clara, but I wanted to get some more international 'loids in the mix. Also wanted to stick in the realm of official designs and not fan-designs since, as much as I can appreciate those, are just a whole "wait who is that guy supposed to be" situation I didn't wanna deal with. I also did wanna include even more character references through the balloons, but they ended up being kind of ugly and overcomplicated the BG :,) (Oh, and while this was originally planned to be a Vocaloid-only piece, I did end up including Teto, Neru, and Haku 'cuz those are Miku's besties dude!!! They may not be Officially in the club but they're her girls and it would be criminal to not invite them to her birthday).

Anyway, this project marks the first time I've drawn a lot of Vocaloids. Lily, Piko, Rana, Yuki, Yukari, Miki, Maika, and many more lol. All of 'em I've heard or seen in passing, but now I actually drew them, and some have really cool and fun designs!! I got into a habit of drawing Merli after this since I just love her design for example. And I'll probably be drawing more lol!!

Oh and the last thing I'll add for now!! The cake is indeed made up of various song references!! I wanted to reference the "big four" producers, just absolute icons in Vocaloid history. The pink/black checkerboard is "World is Mine" (Ryo), the crescents on the side is "Rolling Girl" (Wowaka), the smiley faces is "Matryoshka" (Hachi), and the three hearts on the side is "The Vampire" (DECO*27, which is sort of a symbol of his whole Mannequin album tbh). I know "The Vampire" is a bit modern but I couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head. I'm a fake DECO fan I know 😔 "Matryoshka" was originally going to be referenced in the colors of the candles but believe me it looked like shit so I just went for something else last minute 😭

That's all I have to say!!! Hope you didn't mind the text wall if you made it here. I hope you like it as much as I do!!!! Happy freakin' birthday Miku!!!!

I have to deal with tagging all these characters now for my page,,, in the drafts my tags got cut off after a certain point so I think I'm massively breaching the tag limit 😭 um... I'll figure that out later...

not losing sleep that i can't tag everyone, even for page organization purposes because some characters have pretty generic names and some are a little hard to see in full yknow. If you're one of those people who tag every character in the art piece you reblog... I am very sorry.

[msbunnat]

Do you think Ganymede would be mad at Zeus during the Trojan war? Like how Zeus refuses to intervene with or stop the destruction of Troy? Would Zeus be torn between making his favourite daughter Athena happy and making Ganymede happy? Or would he not care?? (Sorry if you've already answered this question)

So! This is deep, because Zeus actually intervened.... in some reaaally little ways.

On QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS - the fall of troy book 8 - Ganymede cry for Zeus to help the trojans. But Zeus cant pick a side, so he just... delay the war as much as he can without upsenting all Olimpus (he makes a tornado/fog, like a barrier on Troy). When the gods cant take it anymore (some blood sacrifices that have been made, people getting upset because the war was taking more time... a lot of things), Zeus is oblige to stop... He buys time, but as the king and the pilar of justice and fairness, he cant just stop the war.

I have a lil tiktok idea about Ganimedes madly crying and Zeus cant acctually help... one day I finish it u.u

Zeus may have favorites, I belive that, but dosent matter who, Ganymede or Athena, if it breaks the balance he will do everything to keep it. He takes his role as the king very seriously when there is any crises like that, so dosent matter if someone is upset to him, he will do the 'hard' choices as a model king on ancient times... We dont see as that now, but back them, he was a example of king/father. He actually care a lot about all gods and even mortals at some extent (not as much as I belive Demeter ans Hestia) but he acts as a father broken figure.

Look my ugly sketches!

[spicyraeman]

Hello! I'm trying to shorten my sketch to good drawing time and I think your lae'zels are good (great) drawings. What does your initial process look like? (If you don't mind sharing your process) Do you have a sketch step or are you going straight in with the outline somehow? I'm trying to find a process that's more comfortable than I what I do now, which is sketchy and messy. And then I hate the inks I do because the sketch always looks better.

Thanks :)

Lucky for both of us I actually still have the sketch layer for my last Lae’zel drawing so I don’t have to make anything new to show the process!

I have no idea how to organize this so I'm just gonna go with my own weird thing and do levels and hope that it makes sense!

Level 1: This level is entirely for working out poses and forms. The sketch is really ugly and has no detail, just the basic building blocks for the pose and anatomy. Most of the time it looks even messier than this example, but I had to mock one up for this because if the pose is simple and I'm familiar with the character I'll just skip right into level 2

Level 2: This is when I start adding in details, not anything clean, still very messy and basic. I try to keep it loose and mostly from memory so I don’t overwork the sketch more than it needs. I usually start with a simple anatomy sketch, add hair and clothing overtop on another layer, erase the underlying anatomy, and then merge it all into one layer

Level 2.5: Sometimes on more complicated areas like the hair, hands, face, and clothes I’ll do another cleaner sketch with reference just in those areas to make the jump to level 3 easier. If I intend to leave it as a sketch ill usually do this with the whole piece and leave it as a "cleaned sketch" something a bit cleaner and more detailed than the level 2 example but not quite at level 3

Level 3: Here is where I really start busting out the references and getting down into the details. Since I don’t do inks and prefer a sketchier style this is basically my line art. I work through it in parts so things like the face, hair, clothing, hands, and skin details are all usually split up into different layers so it’s easier to manipulate and erase bits. Then at the end I merge it all together into one layer and either start on colors or call it done.

In really simplified terms, my drawing process is - draw a sketch, lower the opacity, make a new layer, draw a cleaner sketch, and then keep repeating that process till I get the results I'm looking for. Its definitely probably not the best way to do things but it works for me!

Hope all this makes sense and that the insight on how I do things helps you out!

[spooky-pop]

Hi!!! I absolutely love your art style so much, it’s what I aspire to be able to do someday. I want to eat it.

On a side note, I find it fascinating how neat and cleaned up all your characters are. The character designs stay very proportional even with all the angles. I wanted to ask how you manage that? What methods do you use?

I’m not sure if you’ve already been asked this, as I’m fairly new to your blog. But I’m just so curious! I’d love to be able to use different methods

Thank you so much, that means a lot to me!! I'm happy to hear you enjoy my drawings! <3

So my background is in character design, and that plays a huge part into how I tackle drawing characters or even designing new ones. I was thinking about making image examples for this ask, but since I get asked about trolls and my drawing style quite a bit, I'm working on making a post eventually tackling all these questions! But, I can gladly explain my thought process/journey to getting to this point.

When I start sketching, it usually starts as a very rough page of various poses and figures until I can get to the sketch I want to work with. I think a common issue I notice is some artists will get caught up in the details too early, and the most important thing is to get that structure down! I will loosely scribble and sketch until I get to something I can work with. Then I start refining, fixing anatomy, scale. Be messy with it! Who cares if it's ugly and imperfect, it feels good to just let yourself sketch. It's in this process where I can determine if an idea is working, or just not working at all. Also when refining, I use guidelines/a grid to help make proportions and height more accurate.

I will always say this but when I started drawing trolls, I had no idea what I was doing. Drawing consistently has absolutely helped me improve, and it took a lot of bad and good drawings to get there. Personally, I went back to the movies and shows to gather so much ref material, I would screenshot these characters from every and any angle to study and practice. I even screencapped directly from the video game too by rotating the camera around to see the angles I wanted to try lol! Don't be afraid to trace screencaps too. Because tracing will help your brain really retain the angles and shapes you're trying to accomplish! I did that a LOT with Branch because I struggled with drawing him so so much.

I'm at a point where after relying so heavily on refs and practicing so much, I can confidently draw trolls from memory. But I always use references to polish and correct, to really tie it together. That's what really helps keep the consistency from drawing to drawing!

This is not the best explanation but, I DO have a post with images coming eventually to fully explain and demo how I draw characters. :) So I will absolutely be breaking this down better with a visual guide.

[diabolus1exmachina]

Ferrari GG50 by Giorgetto Giugiaro 

Concept cars are usually made before those who go straight into production. That is the reason why they are called so. Concepts do not limit the imagination of designers, but when the car comes into production, engineers take a more important role. As a result, a lovely concept of a car can sometimes become an ugly duck.However, that is the case about Hyundai, Nissan, Opel and other manufacturers that are producing millions of cars per year. It does not include the exclusive ones – Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, etc.This is a story about a car which life has been turned upside down. The production model came at first and the concept was shown off just a year after. This is a story about Ferrari GG50 – the concept car that Giorgetto Giugiaro made himself in 2005 while celebrating the 50th anniversary of creating stunning car designs.

The GG50 is based on Ferrari 612 Scaglietti series production car  – a four-seater with a front engine and rear wheel drive - a true Italian prancing horse. It has a twelve-cylinder, 5,7-liter engine under the hood, which generates 540 bhp and 588 Nm. At the time, turbochargers became extremely popular, but Ferrari tried to remain as traditional as possible. However, most engines manufactured in Modena were still highly revolutionary.

Like the original 612 Scaglietti, the following concept has the same 6-speed sequential rear-mounted gearbox, Brembo brakes, and other equipment. The main difference hides is design – the place where Giorgetto feels best.

Giugiaro took the idea a year before official presentation of GG50 and received all the support from Ferrari President at that time, Luca di Montezemolo. He gave the designer just one condition: no restrictions on creativity, but the concept must keep up with Ferrari tradition. Giugiaro started working on the concept half a year after. He did everything just like 50 years ago: sketched every detail entirely by hand, with a pencil. Finally, he created a 1:10 scale concept from four views: side, nose, tail and bird’s view. Later, the concepts were rendered in a 3D project. In April, a full-scale plaster model has been made. In June, a running prototype has been completed already! The concept has made its way from a scratch to running car in less than just five months. That’s the spirit when you’re in a hurry for your own birthday present.

Almost all technical details mentioned above remained the same except for some minor exceptions. The prototype’s wheelbase is the same, but overall length is shorter by 9 centimetres than the original 612 Scaglietti (4.81 meters vs. 4.9). The concept car is also lower – Giugiaro cut 2 centimetres of front overhang and nipped the rear by 7. There are more differences that we cannot see from outside. For example, a modified position of the 95-litre fuel tank that created a larger boot (270 vs. 240 litres). Also, a flat platform when rear seats are lowered (and a total capacity of 500 litres). The concept is more practical, no matter how funny the word “practical” sounds when we are talking about Ferrari.

Nevertheless, there are many stories about the concept’s appeal and originality. Ferrari GG50 is a true masterpiece because of the story of its creation. A very few production cars in history can boast that they have been a base for a concept car, but 612 Scaglietti is one of them.

[conkorse]

Can I ask how you pick your colors? I'm very fascinated by it and how well it works with your style

sure i will try my best 2 explain !!! >_<

typically i start drawing my main subjects on a grey colored background. this makes it so my color range is alot larger than if i sketched and colored on a white/lighter background because the colors that surround your piece will affect how they are perceived. i will attach an example below:

as you can see the drawing on the left (which is a wip i havent posted this drawing yet lulz) heavys skintone changes to match the context of the colors in the background which when you compare that bg to the bg on the right it is much darker in comparison. i also simply wanted to play around with colors coz i try not to restrict myself in any capacity. coloring is the most fun part of drawing to me and part of that fun comes from imposing zero limitations on myself which is why alot of my art has the most stupid ass color combinations u will eva see #live #laf #lov

this is what my drawings typically look like once i finish the actual main subject of the piece as you can see scout n pyro are in a grey void gidbles them. i typically do backgrounds last (which is something i should prbably change up sometime soon) because i tend to create them around the main drawing and it makes it easier for me to make everything more cohesive in the end because i can make the background however i want to fit the main drawing. i do not recommend doing this 24/7 becoz then u will struggle with environmental backgrounds/perspective shit and other stuff which is something i want to get better at but struggle with alot hashtag supaaa mega sad hashtag noob lyfeee

as for coloring itself and choosing colors its really just a combination of experimentation (and by that i mean i go through so much of the color wheel before i decide on something) and intuition. i already have an idea of what looks good together well in mind because well ive spent quite alot of time fine tuning ermmm idk what 2 call it i guess my color sense ??? hallppp but anyways i really recommend not just using bright/neon colors exclusively! the best way to make colors pop is to couple them with more muted ones so the contrast is better evident btwn the two. OH ANDD i tend to try not to use straight up black and white/grey to portray those colors. for example if a character has ermm lets say a white shirt i wont use white or grey colors to depict it but rather maybe a light cyan orrr yellowy green :p

i also overuse textured brushes and patterns in my art alortttt (see abovee) HALP so maybe try that??? i use clip studio paint and there are so many rly awesome textured brushes that i overuse coz they r SUPAAAA epik. IDK im just rambling but your biggest take away from this should be to GO EXPERIMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! and have fun anddddd mix "ugly" colors 2gether coz u just can never know what will and wont work unless u try :33

ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT play around with this feature in csp if u have it coz its another way i create textures (my heavy mii shown as an example) and here is a link to a tumblr post where i link all of the brushes i use in csp 0 .o I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEWHAT!!!!!!!!! SOZZZ I AM NOT THE BEST AT EXPLANING >_<

[nemirutami]

I discovered you recently and was scrolling through your stuff when I fell in love with your Joker redesign. It’s just so Good! Not only is your art style perfect (for all your art, really) but the thought you put into it was just wonderful. My favorite part were the horns, they just fit so well! I’d love to see any other ideas you have, but really I just wanted to gush about how much I loved it. Thank you!

Aw, that makes me so incredibly happy!!!! As much as I rag on P5's story execution, I do adore all the potential there is to the characters and the potential in redesigns that better fit the character's personalities. I'll repost all the ones I've finished for funsies, but I think now is actually a good time to mention that I'm going to be compiling all my p5 redesigns into a little zine (a re-de-zine haha) with more detailed thought process behind what I was thinking when redesigning them (there wasnt enough blank space for all my notes, or my sketches)! I'll add some blurbs from the document I have in [these] brackets! I actually focused heavily on his mask, so I'm super relieved and excited that it's what you liked most about it!

JOKER

[[Aside from Akechi’s prince outfit (which I think was flawlessly executed), I knew that I couldn’t allow myself to butcher Joker’s design- especially since I intended to remake his mask, despite his mask being perfect as it is (and was also my base for the Black Mask design before I decided to remake everyone else). // My main concern was to make the outfit represent all of PT’s, not just Joker, but I also wanted to highlight Akechi’s part in playing as his foil. As such, where Akira has a heart shape connecting all phantom thieves together by a silver string of fate, Akechi has a distorted red glow that extends chains to weigh him down as well as wings to show his ability to choose his own path.]]

AKECHI [[I wanted to keep his face obscured, but add an option to show himself if he wished. So, a hood helped cover him up for me. It helped me make it feel as though it’s a “lost” part of Robin Hood that still clings on to his Black Mask design- a desire (though weak and decaying) to be a good person underneath it all for someone he once cared about. //

Akechi's chains (from his heart) symbolize his outlook on bonds, and how they tie you down, whereas Jokers symbolize the strength he has with his teammates. I felt like this was a little too sad to write on the concept page. Reading “Goro Akechi has no friends and it manifests in his Black Mask outfit” isn’t the most uplifting sentence you want to stumble across.]] ANN [[Ann was often forced to hold her tongue around Kamoshida in order to protect Shiho, and Shiho in turn tried to do the same to protect Ann. The whip I created for her is a play on the phrase “hold your tongue” showing a lion with it’s mouth open and its tongue hanging out- filled with thorns and ready to be used as a weapon to protect those that she values. One of her biggest weaknesses now becomes her force for change and success, and she ultimately uses her power as a thief to open the maw of the man that told her to be quiet- revealing all his ugly secrets with his own words.]]

FUTABA [[This one doesn't have any notes I can share yet, but she took ages to design, so that's why, lmfao!]]

MORGANA

[[ I wanted to make him blend in more with a classic SMT demon such as Jack Frost, but still distinct enough to stand out as “more than a demon”.

//

Since Morgana is the collective human hope, I think he can take any shape or form. I only retained his cat persona because I wanted to stay true to the original design concept of it being an animal. If I was allowed complete creative form over a “guiding light” however, I think I would base Morgana’s design on Anubis or psychopomps- guides of souls (souls of human hope). The interesting thing about psychopomps is that while Anubis is also an example of one, commonly, so are crows. Meaning, I would have to design Morgana to fit a canine in order to imply Akechi himself could have perhaps had a guide similar to Mona if he was not used to bring about ruin. However, Morgana’s cat aesthetic is tied into Joker’s own traits (sometimes down to mannerisms), so getting rid of the cat persona was not something I really wanted. That, and the fact the last protagonist was based on a loyal dog made it hard for me to choose canine. I would have liked to pull something out of zoroastrianism if possible, but I was not sure how far I could take it before his design became entirely unrecognisable. And the point of a redesign was not to entirely change them to become different characters, but just to play around with different themes to better fit the character and their backstory/feelings/traits.

]]

I really hope this content was fun to read!!!! The next design I have in my WIPS is Yusuke. Honestly, I find Ryuji and Yusuke are going to be super challenging, since I ADORE their designs and I genuinely do not want to just touch them up randomly without purpose and happen to downgrade them. Morgana and Ann were my easiest targets haha.

[silvermaplealder]

Could you show your workflow for these animations? What Programs you use, etc. :)

Of course! I'll show you my workflow for this scene with David since it's probably one of the more complicated ones I'm doing.

First, I use Moho Animation. I love it. I learned how to use it in about 10 days. It's FUCKING expensive ($400 💀💀💀) but you can get the demo version for 30 days, or the debut version for like $60. I'm working on the demo version, so you'll see the ugly watermarks all over my screen lol. But no matter, it still works! The nice thing about Moho is it uses vectors to let you move shapes so you don't have to actually draw frame by frame. I like to sketch key frames in my sketch app and then I import the images and use the vectors to recreate the characters. Here's David's eye for example:

It's made of points and I can move the points.

This is the sketch I made for the scene:

Then I put it in Moho and traced my sketch to create the characters in vector format:

Idk how much you know about vectors and such, but coloring, shading, making designs is a bitch. I like to get the characters done first, and then add in the background, and then after the animation is done I'll go back and add shading and lighting.

Moho also has an amazing bone rigging system and "smart bones" which are super useful. Head turns are AMAZING to use smart bones for.

Now, I'm very new to animating. I can tell you what I know, but I barely even scratched the surface. I've also used Synfig before which has an amazing tutorial available on YouTube and Synfig is FREE. I found it was a tad glitchy when I was using it but that was back before I really knew what I was doing so it was probably user error.

When I say I learned Moho in 10 days, I mean I literally spent 8-10 hours a day for almost two weeks straight just watching tutorials and following along 💀 you could ask my roommate, I barely moved from the computer 😂 some days I remember getting up around 7am to animate and going to bed around midnight. I'd take breaks for farm work but I don't think I really ate much or did anything else lol.

Here's a short clip of what I've been working on from around 4pm yesterday to right now. Stayed up until 1am and woke up around 5:30am. Pretty much just doing this:

Getting to this point has taken me about 15 hours. It's barely 4 seconds long. I had to make my sketch, then convert the characters into vectors. Make sure all the layers were set before moving onto the background. Then I had to make switch layers for the eyes so they can change color. Not pictured is I made more switch layers for a glowing affect, but I cant add that until after I add the shading and lighting. I still want to make him "talk" (I want to have text appear since I'm not using voices), but I have no idea how to do that, so to YouTube tutorials I go!

[dapper-lil-arts]

Any tips for an amateur writer? I've been writing a pmd:eos fic series on ao3 that's been getting praise, but I still feel inexperienced

Yooo pokemon mistery dungeon explorers of sky? Hell yeah best pokemon game to make fanfic of, easily. its an absolute BANGER Ok i got a few pieces of advice for ya, i don't mind sharing! 1 - One of the most important ones for me personaly, is to know and understand yourself and your own style of writing. By what i mean its like; you get an idea for a story, or a concept. But knowing your writing style, your capability to write scenes, and even the characters in question, do you KNOW that you can write this story? Its actually pretty important; Because writing takes up a LOT of time and effort, and if you just start blanking halfway into it, you'll have wasted so much time with a story that you don't exactly know how to do. I personaly have so many ideas, but i only execute on the ones that i am aware i can work on, and would know where to take, even if the idea is small. (For example, i had an idea for writing a fic of rarijack but only when theyre older, after the events of FIM. I started writing immediately because i knew exactly that i could do it; and am already 25 pages in and might finish today, heh) 2 - Write horizontaly, not verticaly. by that i mean; don't start at the beginning and work from there, consider all of your story's structure before you even start, act 1, 2, and 3, and its most pivotal moments. Much like you would sketch a drawing before lining and coloring, its important as hell that you are planning all your setups and payofss in advance, all of the arcs and character progression in tandum and stuff. This applies well to the first advice too! Don't be afraid to make an ugly ass sketch of a story, as long as youre aware that this is indeed a story you can make. Make the skeleton before adding the meat, and only after do you add the makeup. And as you write, more ideas will come to you! 3 - This one is more for my own, personal taste, but never be afraid of writing multigenre! By that like. If you're writing romance, dont be afraid to put action, if you're writing drama, dont be afraid to put a moment of comedy here and there; stories are infinitely more interesting when they're not just one note, not just a single tone! And the readers would absolutely be delighted on having moments of respite or shock, it keeps them on their toes. 4 - This one is hard to execute, and i cant give examples that arent long, but like. None of your scenes and sequences should be just what they are in the surface. Like; A character knows something that the other doesnt, or the audience knows something that neither character knows, or the underlying conflict is constantly clashing silently. A short example i can give is a scene in on of my fics in which a character was being asked about her past, and she spoke ernestly, but every once in a while i'd add a "She lied" after the information she provided; And i didn't need to add anything else, that in itself is enough for the audience to understand and consider why this character is doing what shes doing, and just that simple little thing added an really interesting layer to the simple conversation. Essentialy, there's no reason why a conversation should *just* be a conversation in your stories, and there is no reason why you should have filler for the sake of it. Pacing is important, and you can make every single scene and chapter on your story interesting, nothing stops you but you! The "She lied" thing is specialy important, because you don't have to treat your audience like babies. I didn't explain why she lied, because if any reader was paying attention, they'd understand completely, everything would simply click. A character can sometimes say something, and all you need to do is write the tone of their voice, and the reader can already connect the dots, or even something as simple as describing a facial expression or body language without explaining why it is what it is; It makes your story more engaging! I have a million other advice, but i felt like these were the most important ones i specificaly could provide. Good luck!

[kinzig81]

COMMISSION INFO / PRICES

Please Help

Hello,

Sorry for my lack of posts and slowness to getting back to peeps on AF.

There is currently a fatal health scare in my family, and I am scrambling to do what I can to help. Medical bills are stacking up and getting ugly and I have to assume the worst. I want to do anything I can to make money to help, my family means the world to me and has helped me through so much. My heart is breaking.

I am scared and lost, the world is at a stand still.

Although nothing is confirmed yet, we are preparing for the worst because sadly, the disease is genetic in my family. So there is a more likely chance of it being passed down. We won’t know until the end of the week. These hours of not knowing and uneasiness are killing me and I know this week will be rough and long.

I don’t want to get too much into detail, sharing info like this is not my usual and is way out of my comfort zone. I just don’t know what else to do other than desperately applying for jobs and doing one-off/temporary contracting work/assistance.

So please, if you can commission me, it would help my family in trying to avoid a huge, painful loss. It would mean the world to me.

If an art commission doesn’t interest you, I’m currently working on a canine head base. I’d be willing to make another for $75 (Price is negotiable). It would take about 4-5 days to make.

I can only ship within US, if someone is interested I will list it on Mercari (it’s just easier for me to list it there and makes sure everything goes smoothly and quickly). Shipping would be $4.99 I believe.

Check out the base on my TikTok, same handle @Kinzig81 to see my base example. Ofc, small changes I can do, like bigger ears or somethin.

This month, and this month ONLY I’m willing to negotiate prices if your a bit short on one of my listed items.

Going along with that.. all money I earn during this month-July 2024-will be put towards my family’s medical situation.

If you can’t commission me, reblogging, sharing, and liking would help me greatly.

If you have any questions about commissioning me, please don’t be scared to DM me. I’d be happy to answer and questions you have.

Commision Info:

Headshot/Bust: $3-$29

Sketch: $3

Flat: $6

Flat shade: $14

Fully Shaded: $19

Rendering: $25

Additional Character: $3

Complicated character fee: $1

HEADSHOT/BUST EXAMPLES

Half body: $5-$41

Sketch: $5

Flat Color: $8

Flat Shade: $18

Fully Shaded: $22

Rendering: $33

Additional Character: $5

Complicated character fee: $3

HALF BODY EXAMPLE

Full Body: $6-$66

Sketch: $6

Flat: $16

Flat Shade: $21

Fully Shaded: $29

Rendering: $36

Additional Character: $6

Complicated character fee: $4

Solid Color BG: Free Simple: Free

Scenery: $20 (I am new to drawing detailed backgrounds but I will do my best)

FULL BODY EXAMPLES

Simplistic Animated Pixel Icon: $30-$58

Simple Blink/Idle: $30

Additional Animation (Props, expression change, ect.): $12+

(Please let me know what you have in mind to give you a solid price) ^^

Complicated designs have an additional $6 dollar fee

(If you're not sure about your oc being complicated please feel free to ask!)

Additional character: $10

SIMPLISTIC ANIMATION ICON EXAMPLE

Sona Speech bubble/Yapper: $6

All sona speech bubbles must be a half body or headshot, if it were any bigger you wouldn’t be able to make out any details. This will be done in a more simplistic, chibi style compared to the rest of my work to make it look even better from far away or when shrunken down.

Please keep in mind it may look cruddy close up because it’s a small file, when it’s actually posted it will look fine.

(If you have an idea for something else other than a speech bubble lmk!)

SONA SPEECH BUBBLE EXAMPLE

PAGE BANNER: $45-$100

Basic banner with one to three characters and simple/solid color background: $45-$55

Four or more characters with a simple/solid color background: $55-$75

One to three characters in a scenery: $75-$85

Four or more characters in a scenery: $85-$100

This is all just an estimate so please DM me for a proper quote <3

WANT SOMETHING ELSE FROM ME?

Want something else from me but don’t see it on this price sheet? No worries, DM me for a Quote!

( Ref sheets, Fursuit badge, etc )

WHAT I CAN AND CAN NOT DO

I have the right to refuse a commission if I am not comfortable or feel like I won’t be able to complete what you are asking.

I CAN DO:

☆ Suggestive

☆ Ponies

☆ Furries / Anthro or Feral / Digi or Planigrade

☆ Monsters

I CANT DO:

☆ NSFW

☆ Mecha

☆ Humans

Payment Info:

I take Venmo or Cash App, You will have to pay me in full before I start to work on your piece. I will send progress shots and will not move further with the work until I get a confirmation to keep going.

DM me here on tumblr or over on Instagram to get your quote <3

No refunds.

( I’m so sorry for any sort of typos or errors, this is just a placeholder commissions sheet and will be replaced with a nicer one at some point )

[erazonpo3]

I'm a little late to the #webcomicday party but I still thought it'd be fun to break down my process a little bit using the latest Way Out chapter as an example!

So I have a rough outline for the whole comic but I don't go into too much detail planning each story arc until I'm about to get stuck into it. The rough outline is for jotting down ideas as they come along, acting as a skeleton for what will eventually happen, while the more detailed arc outlines are for plotting and pacing the story beats.

Planning each chapter out like this means that each one feels like its own mini-story, and more importantly, stays on track and achieves something to further the story or character progression. You'll notice that the chapter notes are still pretty barebones, which leaves me room to fine tune the smaller beats within the script.

Then, it's scripting time! I'll only have a script for the chapter I'm working on and a script for the next chapter, so as I'm currently working on Chapter 66 I have a script for chapter 66 & 67 but not 68. This is ideal for me in keeping the story flexible, allowing me to take a chapter in a bit of a different direction without feeling tied to a whole arc's worth of scripts that I'll need to rework otherwise.

Around 20 panels is the sweet spot for a chapter of Way Out; there are some with fewer and some with more, but shooting for that number makes me think about whether a scene ought to be extended or cut down in order to meet that goal. If I only plan out 18 panels then I can probably squeeze something extra in, while if I plan out 23 panels, I have a look and see if there isn't anything that can't be condensed.

The scripts themselves are pretty sparse, mostly just dialogue with basic action notes that I highlight as I finish. I'm usually pretty good with visualising things in my mind so the notes are more of a reminder to self about angles & expressions more than anything- if this were a collaborative project I'd probably put more effort into making it descriptive, but it's not.

I've never been one for thumbnailing, which is bad comic practice, I know. But once I have my script I just want to get stuck straight into drawing and don't like slowing down to jot down what is already pretty vivid in my head when I can just. draw the thing.

(a large part of why I started my first webcomic in the vertical format is because you don't need to consider variety in panelling and page flow, which is something thumbnails are very important for).

And so the sketching begins! My sketches are rarely pretty with little focus on anatomy and shape and more focus on blocking and size. I use Procreate to draw the panels and its resizing tool has a tendency to obliterate the quality, which I can sharpen in small amounts but it saves a lot of pain if I plan it all out in the ugly stage.

In some ways I often prefer the sketches to the clean lineart, but that's mostly the stylistic scratchy-ness of it that I have to do away with in favour of clean lines. I'm not always super proud of the art in the end but not every panel needs to be a masterpiece and it's all practice. I think a quantity over quality approach is kind of necessary if you want to make a comic and not lose your mind.

I sharpen up and clean any spots up as I go, but once they're all done I glue all the panels together on my desktop so that I can adjust the spacing between them, then I cut them back up again into smaller slices for posting! And that's the whole chapter process!

I also have a quick (and by quick I mean 4 minute) rough timelapse of chapter 65's coloured panel I can post, if anyone would be interested in seeing that, but it'll probably need to be its own post bc it'll crash this one.

[witch-hattery]

My Thoughts on Warupeach/Wapeach

Been thinking about this scrapped character all day. She's a CUTE and I love it. I think it's a lot more interesting for her to be a little gremlin than a fem fatale, or gonk, or Rule 63 Wario.

I think her character concept needed more time in the oven though. As funny as the idea of Wario and Waluigi being bossed around by an eight year old girl is, aside from being hard to justify, the group dynamic ends up being too similar to the Doronbo Gang, which Waluigi's design already borrowed from.

Turning them into a "Wa trio" could also interfere with the base concept of them being counterparts to Mario, Luigi, and Peach, because those characters don't often get a trio dynamic themselves.

Maybe it would be fine if there was more emphasis on Warupeach's rivalry with Peach. My headcannon is that her main motivation is Envy towards Peach. She wants to be adored like Peach, and makes schemes to steal the spotlight from her, throwing frightening tantrums when her plans don't work out.

I've seen some fanarts of Peach doting on Warupeach like a little sister and Warupeach being angry about it. I kind of like that one-sided rivalry dynamic. It's all in Warupeach's head, so when Peach is nice to her, she assumes Peach is being condescending to provoke her.

"Why is she cute instead of ugly?"

Why should she have to be ugly? Making the villains ugly is a worse habit than making girls cute.

"Captain Syrup is already a Warupeach"

Yes, and no. Depends on where you're putting the mirror. Captain Syrup is more "Wario's Peach" than she is "Peach's Wario." Where Mario has Peach as a recurring damsel to save, Syrup is a recurring rival for Wario to steal treasure from. (or back from)

Peach Vs. Syrup could work, but I don't consider them to be direct counterparts. For example, if Warupeach was an established character anything like my favored headcannon, She'd fit right into Grape's role in Princess Peach Showtime. Captain Syrup, not so much.

Finally on the topic of names, a lot of people are using Wapeach, But the sketch page has it written Warupeach. "Puriichi" is also written, this could be an attempt to blend "waru" with "peach" a little more tightly, but it can also be read as "preach' or "preachy."

Some people have suggested calling her Plum/Princess Plum, other's have pointed out there's already a girl named Plum in Mario Golf. People have suggested Prune instead,

Which I am 100% on board with.

[konetainkarr]

You come up with such incredible designs for Dragon Age Tarot cards. Any tips? Do you have a process or is it mostly spontaneous

Thank you! 😳

I don't think I've made that many actual tarot cards (maybe 6 if I count really old ones), but my art process for them is pretty much the same: I have some spontaneous idea in my head and I really want to draw it; search for references and inspirations (often I make my own pose/composition refs); simple messy sketch; base colors (and lots of layers with Multiply/Soft Light/Color modes in ps for fun); then render. And after that it's usually time for last minute details if the art feels "too boring" (for example Arlathan in Solas' cloak was added like 5 minutes after I thought I've already finished that piece)

I'm not sure that my process is helpful, I just have a lot of time to hyperfixate on some ideas 🫠

But I do have sorta-of-a-tip: look for refs more often, save some for later inspo; make more "ugly" sketches for brainstorming stuff, nothing has to be perfect, but quick sketches usually help with grasping the idea for the art (I do at least 2-4 different comp sketches at the beginning just for fun); experiment with stylization from time to time 🫶

[destinygoldenstar]

Just A Couple Of Fun Headcanons Of TD Characters (Gwen)

- Gwen was born in Connecticut in an isolated home with her two loving parents and later a little brother Charlie.

- Gwen’s actual name is Pasty. (Why does Duncan call her that again?) Her mom picked it because from complications of the birth, she answered the name question with ‘Toothpaste’. So the doctors called her Toothpaste. She changed her name because of personal discomfort with said name.

- Gwen wasn’t born pale. She was actually decently flesh colored. And her hair was a dark red. From her father’s side. (This is a nod to her Camp TV design, or ‘Heather’ in that)

- Gwen was an accidental pregnancy. A fact she likes to joke about when she claims she wasn’t meant to exist.

- Gwen’s goth nature stems from her grandmother, who is dead inside.

- Gwen actually likes flowers. She doesn’t show it now, but as a little kid, she’d love to collect them. 

- When she met Charlie for the first time, she was shy about the idea of a little brother at first. Her father assured her that they would get along very well. Though she was shy about touching Charlie as a baby, she’d often ask how he was doing.

- Overall, Gwen loves her family. She feels the safest around them to this day. Sure, her mom is kind of a klutz and airheaded, but she’s a very well meaning woman. 

- Her dad was a nightguard. He worked at a memorial part of the museum of historical figures that were beheaded. Gwen loved that place.

- Gwen didn’t have a lot of friends in school. They were turned off by her ‘strange’ behavior. For example...

- Gwen willingly holds frogs. She’s into the slimy stuff.

- Gwen is a huge drawer, and likes to reimagine her sketches. Her drawings of flowers would have faces on them. She also designed monsters of several kinds. 

- She had a toy wand she clung to, as she loved to play witches and fairies. Unfortunately it got stolen by some punk in school and snapped it right in front of her.

- Gwen’s favorite Halloween costume was when she was seven. She dressed up as Jigsaw. (Don’t ask how her parents allowed this)

- Gwen had a sack doll she slept with. It looked a lot like something out of Coraline, needless to say.

- When she was eight, her father developed a fatal heart disease.

- Gwen’s last memory of her father was her clinging onto him in the hospital, confused and upset. Her loving parent comforted her as much as she needed. He assured her that there was nowhere he would go where he wouldn’t be with her.

- "You're a special girl, Gwen. You will be loved as such. And if you love someone... you'll tell them. Even if you're scared that it's wrong, even if your love will cause problems, even if you're scared that your love will burn the entire world down... you say you love them. You never regret that you love them. You show your love to everyone. And life will take you from there." -Her father’s words to her

- A few days later, Gwen’s dad passed away, leaving the whole family devastated.

- Even to this day, every year of the day of her father’s death, Gwen would spend the whole day sulking in the shadows, a graveyard, or somewhere that looked dead. 

- From the grief, they moved to Ontario, hoping to forget and start a new chapter of their lives.

- They lived in a small townhouse. A really small townhouse. The neighbors were LOUD.

- Gwen was a massive indoor person. Especially after the move. It definitely showed on her skin. Didn’t help that she also has a huge amount of allergies.

- Gwen didn’t sleep well. She was practically a night owl. An ant crawling on the floor would wake her up in the middle of the night.

- Believe it or not, growing up, Gwen was deemed somewhat ugly. Puberty wasn’t really kind to her, especially with braces... you do not want to see that.

- Gwen has a hard time comprehending her feelings. She doesn’t like to show them, because when she does, it’s not very fun. (I think we can all agree with that)

- Gwen hates school. She has a thirty two page letter in her diary about how bad the system is and how she’d change it. She also has a fanfic about her school being a victim of a zombie apocalypse.

- Gwen is a huge fan of The Walking Dead. She also unironically reads the Twilight franchise. (Now you know why her relationships suck)

- Angus and Vampriya, Gwen’s lizards, were a ‘gift’ to her from the school. There was a science experiment to kill the lizards. Gwen freed all of them, and two of them clung onto her. She was suspended for doing this. (Because gosh forbid we teach kids that animal cruelty is wrong)

- Gwen draws what she feels. Whatever happens around her, she draws it in her edgy gothic mindset. Someone dies? She’ll draw the dead body as though it’s from a movie. 

- Gwen sits alone at lunch by choice. She wouldn’t have the social skills to communicate anyway, so she doesn’t really try.

- It was gradual and not instant, but Gwen did start to wear a lot more black. She kept her funeral outfit on for an entire month before taking it off. It just became second nature to her as brightness became more uncomfortable to her.

- Gwen’s ‘friends’ are really only her friends because they remind her of slashers in movies. Why is she into that? Because they kill off annoying teen archetypes.

- Charlie was Gwen’s one real friend, even if he was far more extroverted than her. She gets some of her cynicism from him. She always made time to hang out with him, even if she hated the idea of what they’d be doing. These two love each other.

- Gwen’s mom was... a little on the cooky side, especially after her husband died. She never married again, but she did date one dude. In fear of getting a stepfather, Gwen dug it into her mom’s mind that stepparents were the cause of the original member’s death, and her and Charlie would become servants for the rest of their days to him. It actually worked, and her mom broke up with that guy for little good reason besides that. They were only dating for like, four weeks.

- Gwen’s mom’s sanity was also kinda unstable, so she was unable to get any better promotions for her waiting job. Gwen had to be the one to get work to pay their bills. She was barely turning fourteen when she got her first job.

- Gwen much preferred her multiple jobs than school. She certainly had a lot of them. From a cleaner at a petting zoo, to a waiter at a cafe, to a lawn mower for the neighbors lawns, to chaperoning a nature trail. She spent the majority of her early teenage years working.

- Charlie made her audition for Total Drama. He wanted to help her get some fresh air and socialize more, as he couldn’t stand her constantly working and wasting her life. Because it’s Charlie, Gwen did it, but only for a dare.

- Gwen fully expressed in her audition tape that she did this as a dare and that she has no interest in their show whatsoever.

- The producers loved her and casted her.

- Gwen and Trent didn’t really interact outside of what the show showed you. Gwen’s not very good with talking things out, even if she thinks Trent’s a really nice guy. She has quite a few communication issues. Even she doesn’t know half the time if she’s mad at him for burying her alive or if she’s madly in love with him.

- Although, Trent played music about her all the time. Gwen loved to eavesdrop when he wasn’t looking. 

- Almost no one besides her family had ever expressed love and care for her. So you can imagine that Gwen would be allured by anyone who would do that for her. And I mean ANYONE. 

- It’s because of this that Gwen has a hard time telling the difference between a crush and a friend. If people tell her it’s a crush, then it’s a crush. Simple as that.

- Gwen and Leshawna do each other’s hair and nails in their spare time. Leshawna was a very supportive and endearing friend. Losing her in Island was a nightmare come true as her guardian angel against Heather was gone.

- Bridgette and Geoff never really held anything against Gwen. Not even in Action. They were scripted to be against her by their bosses. However, they both did make that clear to her and apologized later on.

- Gwen put poison ivy in Cody’s bed when she found out he stole her bra. She was very close to seeing him as a friend since he helped her with Trent, but Cody blew it.

- Technically canon: Gwen told Duncan, Heather, and Owen about her birth name. She threatened Heather and Owen to not tell anyone about it and not talk about it. But with Duncan, she’s cool with it from time to time.

- Gwen is on the asexual spectrum. She doesn’t want to have sex. She’ll kiss and cuddle, but not further than that. Believe it or not, both her boyfriends respected this.

- Gwen and Trent’s first date was at a donut shop, since Gwen made a deal with Owen. The two stayed after for some coffee and cuddled up by a bench. Trent played guitar for her as they did so.

- And then Trent became an insane obsessed lunatic. And yeah, everything Gwen loved about him was thrown out the window (Though I blame the writers for this one). So rather than take responsibility in the relationship and try to figure things out, she bailed on the relationship entirely.

- And then the IN UNIVERSE fandom grew to HATE her. And this hatred would only grow as the show went on. 

- To them, Trent wasn’t the problem. It was Gwen. Gwen was the one who lost everything they loved about her. Plus they were massive Gwent shippers, so... yeah. It was ugly...

- "Why did Gwen turn down Trent?!" "Trent did nothing wrong!" "Why would Gwen do that?!" "NOOOO, my Gwent ship! T-T" "What the hell is this breakup bull****?!" "Welp, hopefully they'll get back together next season..." "Season 1 Gwen was the best." "Gwent forever!" "Can someone smack Duncan? He caused this!"'

- Leshawna was ticked when she found out Gwen threw the challenge AND assaulted Harold. They weren’t friends anymore after that.

- Really, Gwen’s only friend after the humiliation that was Action was Duncan. He never played anything for the camera’s sake and respected all of her choices. Even her bad choices.

- The internet wars mostly stem around Gwen and still exist to this day. You’ll have people who hate her guts. And you’ll have people who’ll defend her. Doesn’t help that Gwen’s new career surrounds being online with her videos. (Does this make her a YouTuber?)

- The latter side did suggest another ship: Gwuncan.

- “It's a perfect match!" "Duncan and Gwen are perfect for each other!" "The emo and the punk making out? How cliché..." "Courtney sucks! Gwen is so much better for him!" "Go for it, Duncan!" "Why are you hesitating, Gwen?!"

- From my points before, you probably know what got into her head when she heard all of this. The Internet pretty much told her what ship to board. 

- Sure he was a criminal, but he treated her well. She had fun with him, and he was hot. So it was love, right?

- Plus, (As I said in the Duncan headcanon post) Duncan and Gwen hung out quite a bit in a hiatus between seasons. They happily shared all their interests with each other, and respected each other with no complaints. More than Duncan, admittedly, Gwen felt safe with him. Like she could share anything with him.

- The reason for this and not with Trent is because this is LATER in her life. After Island and Action, she’s grown to be more open about socialization and feelings. So she’ll be more capable of being open with a later crush than an earlier one. (So trust me, I am NOT against Trent in this case. I am indifferent to both of these ships, as unpopular of an opinion that is.)

- Course, Gwen didn’t engage with starting anything with Duncan because she knew he was dating Courtney. Sure, Duncan went to Gwen sometimes to vent about the fights he and Courtney got in, but they were technically still in a relationship. Even if Gwen felt bad for him. So you can tell how excited she was when she heard Duncan and Courtney publicly broke up and humiliated each other.

- Duncan told Gwen over and over again, even before World Tour, that he and Courtney were no longer a thing. Believe it, don’t believe it, the point is that Gwen did. She only bounced back because Courtney constantly referred to Duncan as ‘her boyfriend’, which brought a ton of confusion.

- Gwen and Courtney bondd over Twilight. Haha insert whatever jokes you want when reblogging

- Though Gwen wasn’t really ‘friends’ with Cody, she did express sorrow for him and his abusive relationship with Sierra (sorry not sorry). She knows what it’s like to be obsessed over.

- Gwen and Courtney also loved pranking Heather with her hair. They got Sierra for help with that.

- That’s the only thing she cooperated with Sierra for. Other than that, Gwen hated Sierra. That fangirl makes this goth SO uncomfortable...

- Duncan was rocking with Gwen’s favorite rock band. Dream come true.

- Gwen and Duncan’s kiss was... exactly as it was in the show. Yep. With the points I made before, it all applies. You expected me to change it, remove it, or dump on it? Ain’t gonna change the fact that it’s a VITAL plot point in the show that needed to happen. (If they didn’t kiss, Alejandro would have no basis to use Courtney, he’d have no solid ground to make Heather jealous, Courtney and Gwen would have nothing to break up from, Gwen would have no reason to try to mend their friendship, and Gwen being a Villainous Vulture would have made even less sense. I could go on.)

- Again, when Duncan came back, Courtney went on and on about how he’s ‘her boyfriend’. It was guilt tripping Gwen HARD, and she quickly regretted the kiss.

- Gwen confronted to Duncan first about the situation. Duncan told her again that he and Courtney weren’t a thing. “People change girlfriends all the time. What’s she gonna do? Kill us?” -Duncan’s words.

- They both agreed that they were gonna tell Courtney the truth. They didn’t have any intention to keep secrets from her any longer than the Greece challenge. 

- And then Alejandro had to enter the chat and ruin it.

- Everyone, I mean EVERYONE (Except Duncan and Cody I guess) were RUTHLESS in making sure Gwen KNEW her actions were irredeemable and unforgiveable, and that they hoped she SUFFERED. There was no break. Everyone hated her. She got hate mail, she was called ‘New Heather’ as a nickname (that stayed for the rest of her life), Courtney and Sierra constantly threatened to murder her, etc. All that sympathy she had in the first season was GONE.

- Duncan was Gwen’s only sense of comfort in the whole beratement. She cried on his shoulder after the false elimination ceremony in Greece. He was there for her.

- For clarification on ‘New Heather’: Heather was a bully. She was cunning, ruthless, didn’t care about anyone’s feelings, and only wanted her own selfish gain. She’d willingly use dudes to spite others. WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE? (This is in universe interpretation)

- In that sense, this was considered ‘the real Gwen’, who was nothing more than a villainess. Everyone sided with Courtney. They sympathized with Courtney, felt bad for her, and routed for her. Courtney was the hero. Gwen was the villain. Gwen was just as bad as Heather. If not worse.

-  "What bitter irony. Heather kisses Trent to spite Gwen. And Gwen kisses Duncan to spite Courtney. Not once does she consider that." "Actually, Gwen is pretty boring." "Poor Courtney! She didn't deserve this!"  "I hate Gwen now." "Dang, Gwen was derailed so badly..." "Where's my Season 1 Gwen?! I don't even know this girl!" "Oh, look at me! I'm just gonna steal my friend's boyfriend with NO care in the world!" "These two should have never hooked up!" "Done nothing wrong?" "Only a villain would do this!" "Gwen would be better if she admitted she was full on evil." "This isn't my Gwen!" "Does she realize how wrong that is?!" "I'm gonna be pissed if Courtney doesn't get her revenge." "I don't like ships like this!" "Gwent was way better!" "This is way too evil!" "Lovey dovey characters are so annoying!" "Man, and to think we used to like her..." "Does Gwen even care?!" "What kind of monster are you if you don't care?!" "She could have gotten with Cody, and it would make more sense than with Duncan!" "Gwen is a terrible girlfriend!" "It's all Gwen's fault!" "Boyfriend kisser!" "New Heather!" "Ironic that the one bullied by Heather becomes Heather!" "At least Heather was unapologetic about it." "Gwen sucks!" "I want Duncney back!" "I want Gwen out of this show!" "Gwen is irredeemable for me. There's no saving her now."'

- Gwen felt all that guilt and was emotionally exhausted with the backlash. So she went to the only person she could find comfort to in this situation. So when they kissed in the Ex-Files, THAT’S the moment where Gwen stopped feeling bad about what she did and decided to ‘let things happen.’ She wanted Duncan. Courtney didn’t have a basis to be angry (according to Duncan). She did nothing wrong (again, according to Duncan). The hate would die down eventually.

- It did not die down. It still exists to this day.

- Duncan did apologize to Gwen about his scheme in the Australian challenge, and explained that he didn’t mean any of that. Gwen told him it wasn’t gonna be a big deal, because soon, Courtney would be gone, and she’d come back to him in a victorious ending to their plotline.

- And of course, she didn’t come back.

- Gwen’s elimination in World Tour made the audience CHEER. They were so happy with Courtney getting revenge on her. It exploded into... quite a bit of harmful memes and posts. (Which I will not elaborate any further than that)

- Gwen, in Aftermath, went to Geoff for help on her situation, thinking he’d help her. He didn’t. Geoff knew what it was like to be cheated on, so he felt ZERO sympathy for Gwen, and only told her that he hoped the kiss was worth it.

- Trent was kinder to her about it, but he told her that he expected that of her. That broke her heart, and they hardly talked for years.

- From the rejection, Gwen and Duncan became quite possessive after World Tour. (Read my Duncan headcanon post for insight on Duncan’s POV with this) 

- Duncan exploited the hate that Gwen, well, hated, to keep their fame in tact. Admittedly, it kinda helped with getting money for both of them. Duncan also shoved Gwuncan in everyone’s faces just to amplify their hatred of them. Didn’t take long for Duncan to forget to take Gwen’s word for things. 

- So yeah, Duncan’s kinda the reason why Gwen’s a Villainous Vulture. Great boyfriend, huh?

- All of that was pretty... draining for Gwen. You know what the internet does to people’s heads? Her family noticed this and tried to find ways to help her.

- Even Gwen’s mom hated her relationship with Duncan, and advised her to shut him out of her life. It would be doing her a favor. Like, the five people who cared about her told her over and over again to stay away from Duncan. The only words that got to her about it was the phrase, “It’s not love.”

- With that in mind, Gwen decided she needed to make amends with Courtney. She needed to redeem herself and prove she wasn’t who everyone thought she was. She was NOT a villain.

- Of course, that included blanking Duncan. 

- When Gwen finally called off the relationship, Duncan confronted her that same night to ask what gave. It was a very ugly fight. Duncan ended up making it all about him and his feelings, and Gwen claimed that she THOUGHT Duncan was the only good thing that ever happened to her on the show... so they were both heartbroken in the end, and never understood each other’s ‘why’ in the matter. 

- Gwen told Duncan directly, “Get the f**k out of my life.”

- He did. After he was arrested, she never saw him again. He respected her wish in the end. If you were to ask Gwen about Duncan, she’ll either pretend she doesn’t know what you’re talking about, or say that she wishes she never met him.

- When Gwen was betrayed by Courtney, it was hard for her. She literally went through another season of torture just to get their friendship back, and then Courtney betrays her? It was all for nothing...

- After the show, Gwen became diagnosed with depression. She had to see multiple therapists about it, and was sulked away for nearly two years. 

- If Gwen could go back in time, she would have never auditioned for the show in the first place. She would’ve told everyone NO, she was getting on no one’s ship. She’d make her own ship and hoped it floated. They couldn’t have her name, or her image, or put her against anyone for the sake of ratings. She didn’t need fame to function. She didn’t need love to function. She didn’t need ANYONE. She could do plenty of things on her own, and she would approach her life loving herself first and others second. Gwen X Gwen was an OTP. A match made in heaven...

- But back then, she didn’t say that. Not if she wanted to break more hearts. 

- Gwen got into the art college she wanted. Her mom willingly went into debt for her to get her out of the house and fix her life. Gwen was heartbroken about that. But it showed how much this family was willing to sacrifice for each other.

- Cameron went to that college as well. They remained pretty good friends. Cameron’s even there to help Gwen with her art career. Mike and Zoey do help from time to time too.

- Tbh Cameron has kinda been the one guy from the show who didn’t give up on Gwen after the show. He was like a neighbor to her. 

- A few years after leaving it, Gwen made a return to her internet blogs as a business woman. She painted several murals, wrote several poems, and made environment advertisements, which mostly ended up selling well. 

- Her most famous poem was titled “What is Love?” She intended it for teenage girls who were having problems figuring out what love is.

- Gwen even got to make the rock band she wanted, with a few collegemates Ennui and Crimson. How did they get on air? Some jerk sent Gwen a love letter. So she pulled a Taylor Swift and made a song out of it about rejection. That song got really popular. (She’s kind of Taylor Swift but rock)

- Gwen won a Gemmy award for one of her songs. 

- Gwen dyed her hair constantly. Dark blue, purple, crimson red, blonde, etc.

- Gwen did manage to make things up with Geoff Bridgette and Leshawna, and they’d be there for each other as friends.

- Gwen even got to be friend-ish with Cody after he grew out of his simp phase.

- Gwen and Heather became friends. Of all things.

- Even Trent eventually came around and they helped each other with their work. They didn’t get back together (as Trent was pinned to Sadie) but they were good friends.

- Ironically, it took exactly 9 years after their breakup.

- It was kind of hard to get Trent back at first, as they both made names for themselves and they didn’t exactly leave on good terms. It took a big apology from Gwen for Trent to forgive her. (Did Trent apologize? No. He kinda grew into an egotist)

- Gwen and Courtney met again when Gwen got sued for a ‘copyrighted’ cover she did of ‘How To Be A Heartbreaker’. (Gwen had a contracted deal, so those people were just having a ‘sue a rando’ day) Courtney became her lawyer for the case.

- Courtney was the one who gave a big apology this time. And after the case, Gwen forgave her. She finally made amends with Courtney.

- Gwen pretended to be annoyed with being an aunt to Charlie’s kids. But she secretly thought of them as if her own. She saw her own eyes in her niece. 

- Gwen never married. She never dated anyone again.

- Gwen’s well aware that the hate for her Total Drama years never went away, and never would. When she was well enough from her depression, she made an effort to interview every contestant of that show to exploit what it did to people. She even tried to make sense of everyone’s POV’s of all her terrible mistakes that she’d never forget. There certainly were a lot.

- The unfortunate thing is that her Total Drama story was going to the one that would be told first. Before any of the other stuff. If you were gonna ask a majority of people which Gwen story they’d tell, it’d be the Total Drama one. Why can’t the rest of Gwen’s fame be remembered as much? Or her platonic relationships? People mostly remember celebrities for their drama.

- It took a long time for Gwen to accept that. Whenever she was faced of that past, she’d have several mental breakdowns about it. She never got over them. But she’d pull herself out and remind herself that accepting her wrongdoings were a part of loving herself.

- Technically, in the first gen cast, Gwen is ‘the last one standing’. She’s the ‘survivor’. (RR doesn’t count. That’s a separate show.) She saw her generation to the end of its time. She was the longest relevant of her generation with Total Drama as a whole. She was forced into loopholed contracts to interview for the show for nearly forty years. She also lived the longest out of these characters. 

- She’s the one who ‘survived’.

[the-lone-wolf-artist]

A Big Changes to this Blog that was Long Overdue...

Hello Everyone…

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything on this blog, well beside repeats of Desolate Paradise content.

You see, a lot of stuff has changed over the years since I first started this blog in 2016 to now 2024, man a long time huh? Anyway, I never expected the good, the bad, and the ugly things and how it would affect my life. I won't get into the details, but basically I'm just like anyone else in the world that deals with hardships and loss. I found it hard to stay passionate and creative with my art and my mindset, that it got to a point where I had enough…

I stopped doing everything that I loved the most and took a huge break from it.

While I was stewing, reflecting, and just recharging my batteries, I was doing other hobbies during this time that I enjoyed. I was writing for a while through the many fandom Au's I've created and I slowly started getting my spark back and my creative juices flowing again.

I started doodling, sketching and doing art again, even though they may not be the best of what I've done before. I'm still happy with them and it's getting me back to what I love doing most.

I then reached a decision on what I want to do with this blog to not only solve the inactivity but also better myself in the process.

The Big Changes to this Blog

These are the "Big Changes" that will be happening to the The Lone Wolf Artist Blog…

As I mentioned before I do have other hobbies that I have developed over the years that I love doing behind the scenes, such as:

Writing

Animating

Sewing

Beading jewelry

Resin Art

Diamond Art

These are the few prime examples of things I like doing that has expanded my creative space and mindset besides drawing all the time. The reason I haven't posted these types of content was because I was too focused on making masterpieces and trying to keep up with drawing inactivity on this blog.

I started to learn that it was making me unhappy and too stressed out, but that's all about to change for this blog with these hobbies and the other fandom's I'm interested in too! You see the The Lone Wolf Artist Blog is gonna be my personal space for my other hobbies and the other fandom's that I enjoy beside Motorcity, like:

One Piece

Red Dead Series

Studio Ghibi Content

Monster Hunter Series

Evil West

Okami

And Many More Fandom Content I enjoy!

These are the few examples of the other kinds of fandom that I enjoy and love. My interest goes beyond just Motorcity. I have written many fandom Au's stories during my huge break and I'm dying to bring them to life!

Basically this blog is gonna be a place where I get to do what I want to do and you guys get to see the kinda stuff I created through my written fandom Au's stories instead of focusing on one fandom!

Now the Future Changes of this Blog

Now with these big changes happening with this new direction to the Lone Wolf Blog, it doesn't stop there.

You see I do have other changes that will be coming in the future too! Such as:

1: Question Box Opening [Reason for the Idea: It is where you guy's can ask me questions. (FYI: Their will be Rules to prevent Chaos.)]

2: Request Box Opening [Reason for the Idea: Where you can request drawing ideas for me to draw with rules too. (FYI: I'm a bit undecided about the idea right now. If this idea becomes official, it will be a Limited Box Opening of how many I would take; basically an on and off box.)]

3: Previews of W.I.P.S. Artwork's [Reason for the Idea: I know my art takes a lot of time and patience that causes these long pauses in my blog activity, so maybe I'll post some W.I.P'S of my art content process time to keep up the activity.]

4: Previews of W.I.P.S. Animation's [Reason for the Idea: I sometimes dapple in animation every now and then, maybe I'll post some rough animations that I'm really proud of through my simple animation journey.]

5: Short AU Stories [Reason for the Idea: When I'm not drawing or my hand is slightly sore, I like writing small stories in between from my AU's, maybe I'll post these little stories, but no promises I'm not the best writer but not awful.]

6: Small Comic AU's & Scene's [Reason for the Idea: I write a lot and sometimes I like to take the time to bring these scene's to life.]

7: Gaming Clips [Reason for the Idea: Sometimes during the weekend breaks, I play games to give my creative brain a break. Every now and then I capture awesome, funny and goofy moments during my playthrough's that I'm wiling to share.]

These are a few of my suggestions… I will makes post's when I make the final decisions.

Now The Desolate Paradise Blog Issue

The Desolate Paradise Blog (AKA: Motorcity X Wolf Rain's AU Crossover Story) is going be on hiatus in indefinitely…

I made this decision because I want to focus on my other fandom AU's without focusing on this one all the time and causing me to be stressed out and trying to force myself to keep working on it. It wasn't fun anymore and that's not what I wanted for this AU…

So I'm going to put it on hiatus effective immediately, will it return?…

I don't know right now. For now its on pause and needs to stay like that, until I'm ready to come back to it or.. maybe give up on it entirely…only time will tell.

Thank You for Reading and Listening

Thank you all for listening and reading this. It means a lot to me, I hope it clears up a lot of the stuff that's been going on with the inactivity to not only the The Lone Wolf Artist Blog but also the Desolate Paradise Blog too.

It was kinda bothering me for a while and I felt I needed to express it and want to make a change for the better.

I hope you are excited about the new changes that will be happening for the better and hope you all enjoy the new content that will be posted on the The Lone Wolf Artist Blog soon!

With that I bid you farewell and I shall return to the darkness again.

[puffywiz]

Hi! I am absolutely obsessed with your art; it's vibrant and expressive and just all around stunning. I have always wanted to be able to draw and make fanart, but every time I try it ends up a hot mess express. Do you have any tips/resources for learning? Do you think it's something that you can get good at, even if you don't have any real natural ability?

Aaaa thank you for your kind words! I'll do my best to offer some tips that have helped me over the years:

Create some mood boards

This is one of my fav things to do. It's different from gathering reference images, which you use to draw from specifically like when you want to get a certain pose right. Mood boards are more about finding images that invoke a certain feeling you're trying to express. Here's an example from a project I did a while back:

These are essentially ways to gather inspiration. You can look at the similarities between each of the images you chose and see if there are any connections you can draw. This gives your work a good starting line to come back to if you start to feel lost.

This can also be a great way to determine what types of art styles speak to you, and how you might like to emulate certain features in your own work. I grew up watching anime and would try to emulate the styles of Rumiko Takahashi and Hiromu Arakawa for example. Don't worry about being derivative at first. You'll eventually find your own voice through a variety of influences.

Start by working on understanding shapes

Drawing gets much less overwhelming as you learn to break things down into basic shapes. My one friend suggests drawing Pokemon as an exercise in determining how simple shapes build form. When you try to go right into drawing lineart first you start focusing on the details way too early and you can get into a stop-and-start that seems to go nowhere. People will also talk about the importance of silhouette. This essentially means you want your character to be recognizable by their shape alone. Cartoon styles particularly excel at this (Steven Universe is a really good example) but different art styles will adapt to this with varying success. This is still something I've been working on even after all these years and it's tricky, but it helps you think about diversity when you're drawing.

(These are some old examples from art school I did. They aren't great but they give you the idea lmao)

Keep a sketchbook and draw big

Keeping a sketchbook is the best. Put everything in your sketchbook and absolutely don't be precious about it. Blank pages are intimidating I know, so if that's stopping you one thing I do sometimes is start by drawing on sticky notes and pasting them in. Add anything you think is interesting - quotes, cutouts from magazines or fliers, cute snack packaging, etc. Anything that you like!

My friend also suggests taking up space in your sketchbook by drawing big. A lot of artists start small little sketches and get caught up in details. They start pages they don't like and move on without adding anything else in because they feel insecure. Don't worry about that, details can come later. And you can always draw over stuff you really don't like. You can paste stuff over it and draw on it again. You can use tracing paper to draw over something 5 times. There's lots of options to try before discarding a page all together. I find this helps combat feelings of discouragement when you're paging through your book. If all you see are abandoned sketches it can get you down. So don't give up!

Don't allow yourself to get precious about your sketchbook, no matter how many aesthetic sketchbook tiktoks you're forced to endure lmao. Sketchbooks are places for failure and experimentation. Let it be ugly. There's value in that too.

Draw both eyes at the same time

I still forget to do this but it really helps cut down on fucked-up-other-eye syndrome. Try not to fully draw one eye before you start the other one. Determine in your sketch phase where the character is looking and try to build on that, going back and forth between each eye until you're satisfied with them both.

Here is a comprehensive list of tips and tutorials my friend found here on tumblr too. I took a look through them and I think there's a ton of great stuff here.

Anyone can start to draw at any age for any reason. I think some people develop a knack for things not out of some inherent skill, but by taking an interest in the subject. I started drawing very young but I just stuck with it over the years because I liked it. There's no reason why starting later in life has to mean you can't get good at it. In fact, since your brain is more developed you might pick it up much quicker than you'd expect. Lord knows I've had to un-learn a ton of garbage over the years lmao. Habits die hard right?

I believe in you! Keep drawing! Have fun!