#was a little too lazy to redraw the whole background

[saintlesbian]

scene redraw of BLQ and tracy for the GH animal print AU! 🦌

[ghostofyaz]

kiss, kiss, kiss.

Kissy babies! I love them so much! This one has been in the works forever and I feel like it came out very nicely.

Full transparency, I stole the Zaun background on the first pic from Arcane and enhanced it a little. Because I was too lazy to redraw the whole thing.

Anyhow, check out my links below!

All My Links

[bl4z33467]

(Cracks knuckles) Alright folks I remember how to draw

Fat fuck Vulpes by yours truly, Blaze Lander. Inspired by the lovely drawing by @yourmateyoya ,egged on by @legions-top-dog , and because i force you to deal with all my shitty drawings, @noomycatz

Yes, once again, i have put too much effort into a shitpost. Roughly 2 hours as I reused a canvas on ibis paint for a 5th drawing lmao

Yall can burn me at the stake later lol

Process below hehe i like to ramble

And just because i like to talk about my drawing process for characters with complex outfits, this is how my lobotomy brain does it:

First i do silly fun colored sketch. I use different colors to differentiate the "skeleton" from the, euh, fleshy bits, and the clothing. You can see lots of lines that would not be shown in the final product so it makes it confusing to look at.

Next i do a clean sketch.

This is where i clean up everything before doing the final lines. I use one color and a thin brush to make it easier to line over. Here i add any extra bits (like the top football armour) and "render the physics" as i call it, so properly drape cloth and the uhhh squish of stupid fat fuck vulpes' boobs and stomach. I also will balance the drawing here by flipping it and redrawing or using the drag tool.

Next is lining.

For this drawing, i used a 9.0 digital pen with a taper. Its my standard :þ. I kept my pen at the same size for this piece. Sometimes i line the outside darker to make the drawing stand out more. I decided not to as i wanted to give the drawing a more "serious" tone. (How serious can this be though lol-)You may notice on the arms little bits of the lines are missing, thats because i gave him some arm hair. I like make little details like that show over the lines. But since the one shading technique i used works with clipping masks, i had to but the arm hairs on a layer lower than the line art. Next is colour:

I colour in the drawing with midtones. Simple as. I tried to stick with warm colours besides his eyes, which are grey blue. Idc if they arent, im too lazy to google it. I mostly use flat colors but i did make his shirt a gradient. Next is do simple cell shading:

Depending on how i feel i shade with or without the colours in the back. I went with a sorta "non decrepit" light source here. Didnt want too much intensity. I used a deep marronish orange on a multiply layer on 45% opacity. Soft shading/lighting next:

I get intense with the soft shading. I use the airbrush with a deep maroon to add dark gradient and airbrush with a light pink to add a bit more depth. I usually use less light and more dark because im evil i like the intensity. I keep the layer the same amount of opacity and multiply it with the darks and soft light for the lights. Next are the shine highlights:

I use the dip pen hard with a taper to add light highlights of white on shiny bits like metal and eyes. I uses pure white, set the layer to 25% opacity, and use normal blending.

I also shade the lines because it makes the lines softer. I use a clipping layer on the line art, set the whole thing to a dark grey, and airbrush in darker and lighter parts. (I felt like a picture wasnt needed cuz its hard to notice.

For the background, i used a dark red i stole from the cell shaded layer, drew a vine pattern with the kaleidoscope ruler, and added a vignette. Vignettes are my cheat code for background hehe~ it makes the subject stand out while keeping suave, seriousness and formality. To make a subject pop out more, put the vignette behind the character but in front of the background. For more intensity but it on top of both.

Also- I usually draw with a level 10 stabilizer (i got shaky hands) but i drew with a 2 stabilizer so im surprised it came out so smoothly-

Also i gave him goggle tan lines because if i have to have them from playing tennis with sunnies, so does he.

[foxssonicdoodles]

my art summary for this year! first time I’ve ever done one of these, and holy shit the improvement is a crazy looking at it like this

(more yapping (fucking. ESSAY) under the cut)

man. it’s been over a year since the sonic brainworms got me (started October of last year with the snapcube fandubs -> snapcube frontiers playthrough -> listening to the frontiers ost and falling in love with it) and. Man has it been fun!! I’ve found so much good new music, art, artists, writers, stories, etc., and becoming a fan right when all kinds of stuff was lined up for the year probably helped too.

I do think taking the plunge and trying to draw sonic characters has aided my love for the series too, since in previous fandoms I’ve been in I would be excited about them, but being able to create for it brings a whole new level to my enjoyment I think. and, of course, this brought me to making my OCs, my most beloved little guys who I’ve grown very attached to over the course of the year.

now, not to yap too much, but, about the art I chose for the summary!

January and February were actually kind of hard to pick for, since my program (sketchbook) doesn’t include dates for when you create a new drawing, so I mostly relied on dates in discord servers and on tumblr for when I posted things. Technically the January drawing was made in December of last year (bc I genuinely don’t remember what I drew in January), and the February one I can’t be sure when it was made, since it was never posted anywhere. I mostly just estimated, and ohhh god looking through my old art was an experience. seeing how I used to draw shadow was interesting (I used to give him what I referred to as ‘prime eyes’, or, the eyes on his sonic prime model, rather than his game model). I guess I had seen more sonic prime clips/screenshots then game ones, and that worked its way into how I drew shadow. I do still kinda like the drawing though, I still think it kinda holds up. Maybe I redraw it sometime. I don’t have much to say about the blaze doodle though, I think I’m just proud of myself for trying with the hands (as flat as they look).

march! That one was drawn for a friend, who I had gotten into the snapcube fandubs, of one of my favorite moments in the shadow ‘05 dub. I added more to it here, but this was the original, and again, it’s certainly not bad! For most of this year, when I drew, I hardly used references, but this was one of the times I did, and I certainly worked in my favor (you can tell I was too lazy to do the emeralds though).

April’s piece comes from a doodle page I did where I doodled while referencing screenshots from the unleashed opening cutscene (UNLEASHED OPENING MY BELOVED <3 <3) and that was my favorite of the poses I guess, so I added to it and made that little drawing! I vaguely tried at a background, but it doesn’t look like much.

while I still see lots of problems with May’s piece, it’s not bad. Perhaps even a step in the right direction /j. I found I showcase of a blender model and instantly downloaded blender and the model to play with it, and I took some screenshots of some of the poses I made and used one as a reference for this drawing. Proportions could definitely be better, as well as some small perspective things I notice now, but hey! I lined, colored, and shaded something, which isn’t something I do often, even now, despite what the last half of the year might make you believe.

Speaking of which, June’s piece is the only one of the refs I made for artfight this year of my OCs and fankids that I think still holds up! It’s not great, at least by my standards now, but the best of the bunch for sure. I rushed to make these late in June before artfight started, and while I had more OCs lined up (early concepts of characters like hooke, joule, and peten) I only had time for four (team Starfall + axel). Borealis has since gotten a cleaner redesign, but I don’t mind his old design either.

Then comes July, the month of artfight itself! out of the attacks I made, I figure the piece I made of emthimofnight’s stellar was the best of the bunch. I looked for refs of ice skaters to find a base to create this specific pose, and while the perspectives are okay, I like how I did the shoes the most. Normally shoes are tough for me, especially perspective-wise, so I’m glad with how I did here. Actually looking back at this piece is reminding me of my thick lineart era, in which I much preferred using thick lineart and couldn’t possibly see myself doing thin lineart (though my comparison in my head was mostly like. Anime-thin lineart so uh. Yeah). I’ve slowly gotten to do thinner lineart over time, but not crazy thin, and you can even see later in the year, with the art trades that I went back to thick lineart, just a little bit differently than before.

I drew a lot in august, perhaps some of the most I’ve drawn this year aside from in November (most of it hasn’t been posted online tho, only in discord servers). and I made much nicer stuff in November too, but I specifically chose this doodle because of what it means for my journey. This doodle was a pivotal point, in which I tried something new and fucking loved it. I loved the sketchy style, the rectangular eyes, the minimal outline on the muzzle. Idk why, it just stood out to me and I’ve been drawing sonic characters like that since.

Going into September, school started, so I had a lot less time to draw, but it’s been more towards the last couple of months where I’ve gotten really invested in my OCs and their stories, so I drew them a lot around this time. at one point, I drew this doodle of axel (which I actually can’t remember if I drew it that month or not, I think I might have though??), and looked at him for a moment. and around this same time I had been looking at the idw art book, and been reminded of surge’s concept designs, one of which had a similar quill style to axel, and a stripe running down the face. which got me thinking, “how would axel look with a stripe?” So i quickly made a couple of versions, and consulted one of the discord servers im in about it. Eventually it got down to a version with yellow stripes (my personal favorite) and one with blue stripes. Both looked good, but one person suggested using both, and either the same person or someone else suggested a fade, and so I made a couple versions of the fade using this same drawing as my base, and eventually found the one I liked, which is his current design. To date, I think this is one of my favorite drawings I’ve done of axel, idk why. It’s not the most polished, but I love it, that’s literally my guy right there. yknow?

October! octobers piece is an art trade I did with st4rrzyy (just never posted it) of their character Hannah the bat! it’s not the only art trade I did that month, but I think it’s my favorite of the two. I chose to make the cloak all flowy, and give the character a dynamic pose, which isn’t something I do often. I actually referenced some sonic channel art for this specific pose, one of cream! It’s nothing too crazy overall, but there were definitely some new things for me, especially in that I got the courage to show interest in an art trade, and did something fully finished.

November piece, November piece I love you (I have not posted it). This was from an art trade i did with m3tr0n0m333, of their character Charr the hedgehog! This time around, I opened art trades in one of the discord servers I’m in, since I was on break for thanksgiving, and want even sure I’d get any interest tbh, since I’m not a big artist whose stuff is amazing or smth. But! Talking about the art itself, I referenced another sonic channel art piece, the January calendar illustration of shadow and infinite as singers, and yoinked shadow’s pose to give to charr, I felt like it fit well with them. Once my sketch was done, I stopped for a moment, and wasn’t sure how I would do my lineart, before deciding fuck it we ball and trying out something new. And I ended up loving it. It feels like I’ve gone full circle, coming back to do thick lineart, just this time it was with a different brush instead of my usual pencil, and I loooove how it looks. I also went ahead and colored in some of the lineart too, not with the most rhyme or reason at first, but eventually following my lighting/shading, putting harsh white highlights in places I lit up, and using the same color of a given area on a hard light clipping layer in some shadowed parts. Definitely my best artwork of the year, for sure.

and then for December (which also hasn’t been posted), I don’t actually have much to say about, it’s very similar to November’s piece. I opened up art trades and traded with someone in one of the discord servers I’m in (I don’t know if they’re one tumblr so I don’t know their user/the character’s name, sorry). I referenced a screenshot I had saved of blaze from one of the Winter Olympics games, and decided I wanted to go the same route as the November piece for the lineart. There is one new thing, though, that I implemented. I tried something new with the inhibitors, as I haven’t really been the best with making things look shiny up until I did some doodles of shade and tried with with just a pencil, and really liked the results and decided to give it a go here. It’s a step in the right direction, I think, but there’s absolutely more work that could be done to improve this skill.

Oh god that was more rambling than I thought I’d do. shit. uhhhhh if somehow you’ve spent time reading all of this thank you! thank you for listening to my wild ramblings, I uh. I like yapping about how I make things. Happy new year, and here’s to hoping next year goes well!

[unholyeverything]

I finally made one of those again, and I wanted to share and actually tell you the whole story of my art since this is actually my 10th year of drawing, believe me or not :3 This is also actually the biggest audience I ever had and I’m so grateful for all of you, and for Obey Me! to stumble into my life because, you will see, I completely lost motivation and any ideas to actually draw in the years prior. I am so grateful for all that’s happened, and thank you for being here with me! I found friends here again that I wouldn’t give up for anything, they make me feel better about myself and what I do and I’m gonna cry on you. I love you ;A; Feel free to read through the rest I put them under the cut. But I’m really proud of what I achieved that year. I finally found my love for drawing again. DiaLuci gives me serotonin, I made some OCs that I love and that are the most detailed I ever made. And I also drew the most detailed pics I ever made, you can see under the cut how little backgrounds I drew, and now looking at this, I made one extremely detailed one each month. I had to figure out a style I enjoy again, which I luckily did, but I also still like to experiment and not stick to one thing, but I enjoyed trying out new stuff! I put more effort and detail in again, and I really hope I will keep this up even when I start work, I really hope I will! I’d be sad. I finally enjoy this again, I finally have ideas again. I’m feeling so much better, so thank you all for that!

I fist started drawing in 2011, when I was 12. I started since I joined the warriors fandom as my aunt gifted me one of the books and they had a like to an online forum that was handled by the publisher. So I signed up there with my parents permission obviousely. Don’t let any 12 year olds on other sites, thank you. I joined DeviantART when I was 13 and allowed to. I’m a good kid. But anyways, I drew a lot of animals, mostly cats and dogs thanks to that. I also drew a lot in the beginning, so many ideas and I had a few friends that supported me too, it was nice and made me want to keep going.

2012 was the same, and I still think the first few years when you start are the ones you have the highest spike in improvement. Still drew a lot each month, started to draw lots of chibis as well. I never really studied anatomy, only watching a few colouring tutorials. I just wanted to have fun.

I started to get better at colouring this year and started to add lots more datails and spend longer on the drawings, still drew lots and lots.

I’m still fully set on 2014 being the best year in my past, especially for colouring. I put so much effort into everything. But this was also the year where it went down. Some things happened online and I just started to lose interest as I left the fandom. I drew less and less, mostly only one-two things each month. Also since I barely had an audience I started to let that get to me which was stupid, I started to think why should I spend hours and hours drawing something none will look at anyways, so I looked for ways to make my colouring more simpler and put in less details again.

This started to be very noticeable in the year after that. I only had one picture to chose from each month, if at all. I just really started to loose motivation, especially with no ideas as to what to draw. Mostly OCs and occasionally some fanart for an anime that I like. Don’t ask me what October is supposed to be it was the only thing I made that month idk. 

2016 was a really bad year. I just didn’t know what to do with myself and my art anymore. I also started uni so that took some of my time, but not that much, during my holidays between end of school and beginning of Uni from July til October I also didn’t draw much. I only tried a lot of new things, simplifying and not being happy with anything that I made. Aside from November I don’t like any of those pictures. But as I sad, I was just lost and had no ideas anymore, I didn’t feel good about the things I made but I kept going, forcing myself to draw at least once in a while so I don’t completely forget how it works.

2017 I felt inspired again, making up that extremely colourful style that I adapted now again, it gave me serotonin and at least I liked what I was making again. I drew a lot more in the beginning of the year two, just enjoying slapping colour on everything. But I lost motivation pretty soon, I also felt kind of lonely now that I think about it, I wasn’t super sad but I didn’t really had anyone to talk to, breaking up with my toxic ass friends about half a year before school ended and I didn’t really find anyone in uni that I was close with. I just sat around after classes and watched anime until I dropped to bed pretty early everyday. I’m still proud of my very strict sleeping schedule, that happened mostly because I had no reason to stay up :D But anyways, there are a lot of month, strangely enough my big break months where I didn’t draw at all, I probably was too lazy and exhausted.

Best. Year. Of. Drawing. Peridot. Outdid myself. Very much art. So good. Had so many ideas, tried three new styles just to go back to the old one for the redraw because I wasn’t happy with them. So much improvement. It’s amazing how much I did that year. Idk. I probably was mentally dead and watched even more anime. Though I also did that in years I drew a lot. Idk. 

2019 was a lot better then the year before. I missed drawing but still didn’t have a lot of ideas. But I joined instagram for a short time and there were a lot of these “Draw this in your style” that provided me with ideas, and I really enjoyed doing those. I tried digital painting for the first time then and I’m still super proud of what I did in January. I also tried to work more with watercolour in this year. I spend more time and attention with colouring again, working and changing my style a bit. I still really like what I drew last year! I also have a weird obsession with eyeballs and I can fit three pairs on a face and it still looks okay, can you tell? I didn’t drew much this year but I like the quality I made I guess? Motivation ran out pretty quickly though, and that might be because I also did creative work for university so that could’ve played into it. And now off to 2021 :3

[adrianisnotokay]

So... I loved this idea for a drawing so much to the point of redrawing it several times! I’m really proud of my progress and practice, I honestly can’t believe how different my art looks from when I started. (More details under the cut)

The second drawing was in January of 2020, surprisingly. I honestly didn’t remember when I made it and thought it was last year but no, it was this year (quarantine really is hitting my internal clock huh-). The biggest change in my art style was me deciding to use black lines instead of colored ones. To be honest I didn’t really practice wings at all so there wasn’t too much improvement from the first one but there’s better posing in my opinion.

Finally, the last drawing, made in October of 2020. I really really love how the one with bat wings turned out! The movement, the hands, and the smile makes me really happy. I tried out something different with how I draw faces as well as using references to really make everything turn out better, like both wing sets and the background. Talking of which, I made a change of it throughout the drawings, from afternoon to that time the sun just set and the sky’s just a little light to nighttime. Now, I will admit that I didn’t do as great of a job on the one with feathered wings (with the exception of the wings because holy CRAP THEY’RE AWESOME) on the neck craning up and to be honest, I got lazy on the hair style and outfit for that one. But overall I feel really proud of the piece as a whole, which is all I really try to get at with art.

Finally, the last drawing, made in October of 2020. I really really love how the one with bat wings turned out! The movement, the hands, and the smile makes me really happy. I tried out something different with how I draw faces as well as using references to really make everything turn out better, like both wing sets and the background. Talking of which, I made a change of it throughout the drawings, from afternoon to that time the sun just set and the sky’s just a little light to nighttime. Now, I will admit that I didn’t do as great of a job on the one with feathered wings (with the exception of the wings because holy CRAP THEY’RE AWESOME) on the neck craning up and to be honest, I got lazy on the hair style and outfit for that one. But overall I feel really proud of the piece as a whole, which is all I really try to get at with art.

As a self taught artist, I’m really glad that I can even just make poses - never mind an actual character! - and it’s so satisfying to know that I can make changes I’m happy with in what brings me joy and entertainment to better fit me as I grow older. I’m just so excited for what I can achieve if I keep trying different things ��

[elesianne]

A Silmarillion fanfic, chapter twenty-three

Chapter summary: A long summer is spent with Tuilindien’s family.

Rating: Teen and up audiences; Chapter length: ~4,400 words

Chapter notes: After a ten-month break I am finally able to post a new chapter full of love and fluff, and to announce that I have all of this fic written now! So no more long breaks. There will be two chapters after this one, and I intend to post them both about a week apart.

Tuilindien uses modern phonological terminology from our world in this chapter. No doubt Tolkien’s language-loving elves had their own words for things such as phonemes, but as I don’t know those, I ‘borrowed’ from our world. The differences in the speech of Fëanáro, other Noldor, and the Vanyar are discussed in the Shibboleth of Fëanor.

As you may remember, vanimelda, 'beautiful beloved’ or 'beloved Vanya’, is Carnistir’s favoured endearment for Tuilindien. Fëa = spirit, hröa = body.

(Read on AO3)

*

Chapter XXIII // A summer on the plains

Next summer on Taniquetil  

'Carnistir! You’re finally here.’ Tuilindien runs into his arms as soon as he dismounts. Varnerocco snorts and stomps beside them, startled, and that is the only reason Carnistir doesn’t swing Tuilindien in his arms right now and keep her there.

Instead he embraces her quickly and kisses her quicker before telling her, 'I need to stable this impatient creature, Tuilë, and then I will show you how much I missed you too.’

Tuilindien giggles as she shows him to the stall reserved for Varnë. 'It was a long winter’, she agrees. 'I am glad that you could come here for the summer. If you didn’t come, I would probably just have hopped on my horse one day and ridden to Tirion without even packing anything.’

They smile at each other over Varnë’s broad back.

'Snowdrop was around just a moment ago but he slipped off somewhere’, Tuilindien chatters as she helps Carnistir brush down Varnë’s sweat-damp coat and shows him where the tack room and feed are. 'Lirulinë and Alcarno are gone too, have been for a week – they went to my grandparents’ estate early as Lirulinë was beginning to feel tired and wanted to have the travelling done with before the last weeks of her pregnancy. Cirincë has been expecting you, though.’

'She has?’ Carnistir is a little alarmed by that.

'She has made a drawing she wants to gift to you. She has turned out to be much more lastingly interested in art than we thought she would be. It might be her vocation.’

Carnistir has to keep pushing Varnë’s head away when she tries to come eat her oats before Carnistir is done measuring them into the manger.

'And why has she done a drawing for me?’ he asks once that struggle is over.

Tuilindien smiles at the question. 'Cirincë has been gifting her drawings to everyone in the family. You are the only one who has not received one yet.’

'Oh.’ It must be a good thing, then. To be included among family by Tuilindien’s little sister. 'What is the drawing of?’

Tuilindien blushes. 'Me.’

'That might also be the reason for her wanting to give to me.’ Carnistir pats Varnë on the rump as a goodbye, dodges the half-hearted kick she gives him in return, and gets out of the stall to finally embrace Tuilindien like he wants to. She melts in his arms.

'You grow ever more sweet every time I see you’, he mumbles into her hair. He likes that she has it down, unstyled, and he likes the simple dress she wears, with its wide sash and light teal colour.

'You have cut your hair’, Tuilindien says as she runs her fingers through the shoulder-length windswept mess of it. The ribbon holding back had flown off somewhere on the mountain path.

'It was getting too long.’ He doesn’t like it when it grows long enough to cover his shoulder blades. There is something unpleasant about that sensation.

Tuilindien sighs happily. 'I am so glad that you are here for the whole summer, Carnistir. It would be very difficult to give you up soon.’

'As long as I don’t receive word that Curufinwë and Findaráto have collapsed our house, I am not giving you up before the harvest festival.’

Tuilindien pulls back from his arms. 'Findaráto? What does he have to do with the house?’

Carnistir wants to smack himself. 'I didn’t tell you about that in my letters, did I.’

'No.’ Tuilindien takes his arm and leads him out of the stables. 'You can tell me all about it over food and wine. You must be hungry and thirsty after the long journey.’

'There is not so much to tell.’ Carnistir is tired of everyone making such a fuss about him doing something together with Findaráto. He tries not to speak too testily to Tuilindien, though. 'He heard that I was building a house and he came to the worksite and asked me if he could participate in the work’, he summarises for her.

'That may be what happened, but there must be more in the background of it all.’ Tuilindien opens the door of her family’s house and leads him inside. Spotting a maidservant, she orders for wine and a hearty snack to be brought into a sitting room.

'Dinner will be soon’, she tells him as they make their way to the sitting room. As in most rooms of Tuilindien’s home, the stained glass windows throw colourful shadows on the floor, but they are situated so that people sitting around the low table at the end of the room are spared from being thus colourised.

Carnistir studies the window while he tells Tuilindien, 'Findaráto had heard that I’d designed a house with both Noldorin and Vanyarin influences and that intrigued him, he told me, because of his own mixed heritage. He is working towards mastery in stonemasonry and needs to gather more experience but Tirion, you know, is already very built up and there are not many completely new buildings being built. That added to his interest in our house, I believe.’

Carnistir huffs. 'Or perhaps not. He did not tell me that. Perhaps he approached me more because of our kinship. He is strange enough that he might think it a desirable thing to work with his cousin even if that cousin has never liked and has never masked it very well.’

'Yet the cousin agreed to work with him?’

'Well, he works for me. I have more experience with building design and construction and stonemasonry – he has spent much time with his mother’s kin, learning their trades.’

'I see’, Tuilindien says, though it seems like she doesn’t, not quite.

Carnistir is thankful that Tuilindien doesn’t pry more about why he took Findaráto on. Everyone else has, and he is tired of giving explanations.

It doesn’t seem to be enough to try to get along with people; it seems he must tolerate fussing and teasing about it as well.

'He works hard and learns fast’, Carnistir says. It is not an explanation for his actions, just an observation he hasn’t shared with anyone before.

'And how does Curufinwë get along with him?’

Carnistir cannot help but snicker. 'Very badly. Curufinwë has only stayed on because he is too stubborn to give up because of 'that blond pest’, as he calls Findaráto.’

A smile tugs at the corner of Tuilindien’s mouth. 'I hope they won’t collapse the house by some disagreement.’

Carnistir laughs. 'They both are too proud and ambitious for that, luckily. And the foundations are ready already, and they are strong.’

*

They spend a week in Tuilindien’s home on Taniquetil. Carnistir is given a bedroom on the other side of the house. He isn’t certain whether he should be insulted by that. On one hand, it might be Tuilindien’s parents’ way of telling him that there is to be no sneaking from bedroom to bedroom at night. On the other, it is a very nice, large guest room, possibly the best in the house.

When they ride for Tuilindien’s grandparents’ estate on the plains, the whole household goes with them, servants included.

Cirincë rides the whole way on her own small horse for the first time ever. She wants to ride between Tuilindien and Carnistir and to point out to Carnistir all the 'sights’ that they pass.

Once they settle in the house that is too large to be called a farmhouse but has the warm ambience and unpretentiousness of one, Carnistir finds himself, for the first time in his adult life, completely at leisure.

Tuilindien’s family has no expectations for him, no work to do. He doesn’t have anything that he needs to study, or to plan, apart from correspondence. He worked hard, all his waking hours, all winter, either supervising work at the house or taking part in the physical work himself. If he wasn’t at the worksite, he was negotiating with tradesmen and suppliers or redrawing plans as issues in the original plans became apparent.

It had been the idea that by spending the summer with Tuilindien at her family’s farm, Curufinwë and Findaráto overseeing the continuing building work of his house, Carnistir would be able to rest.

But Carnistir finds that he rested enough already on Taniquetil, and after a few lazy, golden days on the estate, he is dreading the idea of many more weeks of them.

He has gone on walks with Tuilindien. He has gone riding with her. He has been shown very thoroughly around the vineyard, including the facilities and equipment used for making wine which he found very interesting. He has dined formally with the whole family, and on a blanket in the garden with Tuilindien and her little sisters. He has even written home to his mother, Maitimo, Makalaurë and Ambarussar, as well as Curufinwë and Findaráto for work reasons.

He has laid wholly awake at night because there is so much energy left in his body that he cannot slip to Lórien’s realm.

'I need to do something’, he tells Tuilindien in the morning after that night. They are having a private breakfast in the garden.

Tuilindien looks confused. 'What do you need to do?’ she asks.

'Anything. I am… It was very generous of your family to offer to host me for the whole summer just to have me lazing around and eating your food –’

'You are family too’, Tuilindien insists.

He takes her right hand and kisses the finger that holds his ring. 'In spite of that, it doesn’t feel right not to do anything. You’re helping your grandparents with the vineyard’s bookkeeping, and you work on your new treatise every night. And I need to do something for my own sake, too. I am getting restless in all senses of the word.’

Tuilindien’s smile over the rim of her teacup is gentle and understanding as she sips. 'What sorts of things would you like to do, Carnistir?’

'I noticed that the side door of the winery sticks a little. If no one has done anything about it yet, I can fix it, if I get tools somewhere, and do other similar things too. I can give Cirincë riding lessons to improve her seat. I want to learn more about winemaking – if I could follow your foreman around for a day or two…’

'There is not much being done this early in the summer besides trimming the vines. You will find harvest-time more interesting’, Tuilindien says. 'We can ask the foreman about it, though, and whether he can think of more work for you to do, if you truly want to work even though you don’t have to.’

Carnistir grins. 'I would much rather roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty with physical work than laze around here, or go back to my grandfather’s court and stand or sit around all day just talking and listening and at best writing things down.’

'Very well then’, Tuilindien smiles. 'My family might be bewildered, but there is certainly work here that you and your strong hands can do.’

She blushes when she mentions his hands, and it is delightful to Carnistir.

*

Carnistir finds the vineyard’s foreman a very sensible person who, after looking Carnistir up and down and apparently coming to some favourable conclusion, gives him work to do every time he asks for it. He does some basic tasks such as fixing the door that require little thinking, and he learns some new skills specific to a vineyard.

He writes a letter about it to his father.

Together with Tuilindien he instructs Cirincë in improving her riding and finds her an eager pupil, if not as exuberant as his little twin brothers.

He still spends time with Tuilindien, too, many hours every day when just the two of them do not much of anything together. He enjoys those quiet hours all the more when they are balanced by mornings spent at work.

Tuilindien takes him often, by foot or on horse, to those places where the rolling plains offer a beautiful, unobstructed view of the Two Trees.

Often they sit under a tree for hours, dreaming with or without words of the future or simply enjoying the closeness of the moment, one of them petting the other’s hair.

'You are going to miss them, aren’t you?’ He asks her one day. 'The Trees. Having them so close and so bright.’

'I am.’ Tuilindien, resting against his chest with her gaze on the Trees, sighs. 'I cannot help it. I love their light this close and though Tirion is beautiful and its brilliant whiteness makes it glow with a light of its own, almost, it is not…’

'It is not the same.’

'It is not the light of my childhood.’ She turns around in his lap and puts her hands in his hair. 'I have left childhood behind, though, and leaving my people who live close to the Trees is another new phase in my life. Do not feel sad for me, Carnistir.’

'But –’

She silences him with a kiss. She knows by now just how to kiss so that he can do nothing but put his arms around her and hold her tight, kiss back, nibble on her lower lip to make her make one of her delightful little noises.

At a certain point they stop kissing, as they must always do until they marry one another. Tuilindien says, 'Your kisses have melted me’, and stays in his lap, head tucked against his shoulder. Her breath tickles in his hair.

She mumbles something into his tunic some time later. It is amusing but incomprehensible.

’Vanimelda, you must lift your head if you wish to speak.’

'Must I?’ Tuilindien gets off him just to lay down with her head in his lap instead. She looks up at him.

'I have been thinking’, she says.

To him, that seems an ominous beginning, especially coupled with the faint sense of anxiety he feels from her. 'Of what?’ he asks.

'I think I shall speak like your family, when we are wedded. Noldorin – the kind of Noldorin that your parents and your brothers speak.’

'My mother speaks otherwise when she is in the company of her own family only’, Carnistir points out.

'Otherwise regarding the merging of the voiceless dental fricative with the voiceless alveolar sibilant?

'Or as my father calls it, sá-siing. Yes.’

'Like your wise mother, I intend continue to speak with my family the way I have always spoken, too. But when I am in Tirion, I will speak the way that your father's… convictions have made your family to speak. Not because of your father’, Tuilindien stresses. 'Because of you. Because it is the way you speak.’

He cups the side of her face. 'If you have made the decision, why do you feel anxiety? Do you doubt it?’

'I do not doubt my decision.’ She turns her hand towards his hand, and closes her eyes. When she continues, it is in perfect Noldorin – and so similar, both in the speech sounds and in rhythm and intonation to the way Carnistir knows himself to speak that it is eerie.

'I am aware, though, that it will place me on the side of the minority among the Noldor, and across the divide from the kind and queen, who have recently adopted the change. It seems to me… awkward to make a choice which sets me apart from most of the people I am joining by marriage, particularly Finwë and Indis who have been so kind to me. But since the marriage is to you, I shall speak as you do.’

How can he reply to that but by bending down to kiss her?

It turns out that sideways, upside-down kissing is awkward too. It makes Tuilindien laugh and get up and straddle his lap again. It is their favourite position to kiss; their whole bodies close together, her face just a bit above his, making it easy to close the distance. Her long hair, when it is free, forms a soft golden curtain around them both.

He kisses her until he can feel the last of her apprehensiveness swept away in a sweet current of better emotions.

*

One hot, hazy day late in the summer Lirulinë has her baby, a little daughter. Carnistir gets to see her together with Tuilindien when the baby is only a few hours old. He has never seen a child so young, not even the Curufinwë or Ambarussar, for his mother was very exhausted after those births and Fëanáro stayed in their room alone with her and the babies for a whole day.

Lirulinë’s daughter has the same green-blue eyes as her mother and her aunt Tuilindien. Carnistir stands behind Tuilindien’s shoulder as she holds her, marvelling at the new life grasping onto Tuilindien’s finger.

It is far too easy to imagine that one day there might a child that looks much like this child with her eyes like Tuilindien’s and curly hair close in colour to hers, and that she or he might be theirs, theirs to love and to hold. Though, Carnistir thinks when a dash of sense returns to him, their child will most likely have hair much darker than this.

Though he hopes they will have golden-haired children too, against the odds.

'She is very beautiful and strong, Lirulinë’, Tuilindien says when she carefully hands the newborn back to its mother. 'I am very glad that I was able to be here to welcome her.’

Lirulinë just smiles in reply, settling the baby’s blanket better around her.

'We are calling her Aiwië for now’, Alcarno says from his place beside Lirulinë, beaming proudly.

'You named her 'little bird’ in honour of our family’s tradition?’ Tuilindien asks, clearly delighted.

'She is sweet like a fluffy little bird’, Alcarno says. 'It seemed a good way to name her after her mother.’

Lirulinë leans against the headboard and her husband for support, but seems to be in good spirits. 'It will be my role to give her a name that she will not be embarrassed by when she is a grown woman’, she says wryly, but her shrewd eyes are softer than Carnistir has ever seen them.

'It is a lovely father-name, and a lovely tribute to our family.’ Tuilindien goes to kiss Lirulinë’s cheek and the baby’s forehead and Alcarno’s cheek as well.

Carnistir is not jealous as he once would have been. This is a very special moment, even he can feel that, and he has come to know Alcarno and the relationship he has with Tuilindien. They have been friends their whole lives, and brother and sister by marriage for many years.

'Thank you for letting me see the baby’, he says to Lirulinë and Alcarno before he and Tuilindien leave to let them rest and become acquainted with each other. 'She is beautiful.’

Which is what Tuilindien said already, but how else could he describe something so wonderful as a brand new fëa and hröa, a dearly-wished-for child born to a loving family.

In the corridor outside Lirulinë’s bedroom Carnistir can only say 'I hope –’

And Tuilindien says, 'I know, my love, so do I. We will – in time, if we are blessed.’

They go for a long walk in the orchard at the back of the garden, hand in hand, in silence, among the scent of the ripening fruit and the sounds of busy insects and birds.

 *

When the summer draws to its end and the time for harvest arrives, Carnistir seems eager to take part in the work and learn more about winemaking.

'Do you want to learn more about everything that happens, or is there something about winemaking that has especially caught your interest?’ Tuilindien asks him early one morning when she kisses his cheek before he goes to join the pickers for the day.

Carnistir takes a moment to think. 'My father taught me to be interested in how things work, or how they are made’, he says. 'I never had much cause before to think about how grapes are turned into wine, but being here in a vineyard for weeks has made me think about it, and now I want to learn.’

'Well, my grandparents told me that they are very happy that you find their vineyard interesting.’ Tuilindien smiles. 'I will see you at lunch.’

'I like you in work clothes like this’, he says, sweeping his hand down the side of her old cotton dress. 'Even though you have to keep your hair hidden away.’

Tuilindien touches the kerchief she has tied around her head, her long hair carefully tucked inside it. 'It wouldn’t do to have my hairs mixed in with the grapes when I’m sorting them.’

They sneak in another kiss before going their separate ways to the morning’s work. Every adult on the estate takes part in the work during the rush of harvest-time, and older children help, too. They are busy days, but happy too, with jesting and singing making the work hours go faster.

Once most of the work is done for the harvest of the early varieties of grape, Tuilindien’s family as well as most of the estate’s workers leave as a great procession for the Holy Mountain, Taniquetil, for it is time for the harvest festival.

This time, Tuilindien and Carnistir celebrate the festival in the usual manner, if less exuberantly than some. Carnistir refuses to sing where there are strangers to hear it, and he only dances with Tuilindien – and with Cirincë, for she asks him to, and he seems unable to deny her anything.

Tuilindien loves him all the more for it.

They spend the festival with their families. Fëanáro has not come, as usual, but everyone else has. Tyelkormo asks Tuilindien to dance, for which Carnistir glares at him, but Tuilindien agrees because she wants to get to know all of Carnistir’s brothers better.

She doesn’t make much progress with that, though, because the dance Tyelkormo chooses is fast and lively and offers little chance for talking.

Maitimo approaches her next, asking her to join him, Makalaurë and Tinweriel in a dance requiring four dance partners. Tuilindien accepts gracefully though she is nervous that her dancing will fall short of the others’ grace.

All three are pleasant, genial company though, and Tuilindien is all smiles when she returns to Carnistir.

'Do you think Curufinwë will appear to dance with me next?’ she asks him, laughing. Her head spins from dancing and from the wine that is so readily available at this feast. She tries to fix the placement of her veil on her hair, but only makes it worse.

'Almost certainly not.’ Carnistir’s more steady fingers straighten the circlet and veil both, caressing the back of her neck as he tucks her hair under the silvery fabric.

'That may be for the best. I am becoming rather silly. Dance with me again, darling, please.’ She twines her hands around his neck and pulls him close.

'Right here by the food?’ he asks dryly. 'Let us go somewhere more private and I’ll dance with you in a way that my brothers certainly didn't…’

Tuilindien laughs in his ear.

*

The next day is the long-dreaded day of farewell. Tuilindien tries to make it a little less difficult for Carnistir by giving him something that will keep him preoccupied.

'I think this might be the best gift I have ever given you, though it is not a difficult comparison to win’, she says as she gives him the wicker basket that a serving maid just brought into the room.

He takes the basket. Small, pitiable mews can be heard from the inside and understandably Carnistir does not look very surprised when upon opening the lid he finds a kitten inside.

He looks delighted, though.

The kitten is jet black and has yellow, almost orange eyes, and she also has very many opinions about having been shut in a basket, for however short a time, which she expresses by continued mewing.

She quietens when Carnistir carefully lifts it out of the basket and into his lap. She sniffs the air instead and inspects his tunic by mouthing at it.

'She is old enough for you to take to Tirion with you. If you wish to, that is. You wrote to me in one of your letters that you wanted to have a cat once you settle down in your own home. That home is not yet fully built but I thought that you could use this little creature’s company while you finish it. Her mother is a stable cat and a famous mouser –’

Carnistir interrupts her by taking her hand though he has to let go of it again when the kitten tries to make an escape since she is no longer encircled by his hands. He pulls her back to the safety of his lap.

'Tuilë, she is a great gift. Where did she come from?’

'Our neighbour. I talked with her before we left for the plains for the summer and asked for one of the kittens her family’s stable cat was going to have. I fetched the kitten from her just this morning.’

'She is a gift long in planning, then.’ Carnistir smiles.

'She is, though I did not plan her to be black. I want you to know that. It just happened that every kitten in the litter is black, though only one of the parents is.’

Carnistir shrugs. 'Black is as good a colour as any other.’

'It is not because your hair is black’, Tuilindien stresses.

Carnistir bursts out in laughter. 'I didn’t think about that for a second.’

'My mother saw the kitten when I brought her over from our neighbour, and she asked me whether I intended on colour-matching all my gifts to your hair’, Tuilindien confesses.

The kitten startles at how hard Carnistir shakes with laughter at that. 'Feel free to do so if you wish, Tuilë, for I might not even notice.’

'I don’t wish to do it’, Tuilindien grumbles, but she moves to sit right next to Carnistir and lays her head on his shoulder, looking on while he gets acquainted with his new pet.

*

A/N: In the next chapter, preparations for the future continue.

I love everyone who is still reading this

[chrissyslittleartwork]

You guys remember that old picture I made awhile back? The one with Danny, Elsa, and Vanellope? Yeah…considering I don’t…ship Delsa anymore and I would like it if no one brings that up ever again, (like seriously, shipping a freaking 21 year old mature woman with a 14 year old immature teenage boy…wtf me?) I do plan on redrawing that picture. For now, I wanted to draw a scene of Vanellope stealing the map from Danny. This takes place in Here Be Pirates 3, where Danny and Shantae are getting close to finding Danny’s long lost father. At this point, Danny and Shantae are both 18 and moving off on their own because their friends have moved on or settled. Though a few have stayed with them, like I think Hiro and Carrie will be staying with them. In this, Danny is given a map that will take him to a strange mythical place that will possibly answer where his father has been this whole time. However, before he can look further into it, a small girl around 8 grabs it and run off. Danny sees her in time and with Shantae behind him, he runs to catch the little girl. The two meet Vanellope Von Schweets, an orphan girl who has streets smarts and a mouth to match. Feeling sorry for her, Danny strikes a deal with her and the three set off. Along the way, all three get even closer as they all become a strange make-shift family. I am trying to expand on my art and honestly, I do like how this came out, though I do feel it looks a little odd. Shantae looks great, Danny is fine for the most part, and Vanellope too despite it’s been awhile since I drew her. And even though I wasn’t too happy how she was in the sequeal of Wreck It Ralph, I still like her all the same. I don’t have much else to say and the background looks lazy but I am trying. ^^; Till then…here’s hoping for more of this.

[moonanagames]

I love your game and hope that you don't mind me asking about how your sprites were animated so fluidly. Is it easier to animate lineless sprites or lined sprites?

Thank you so much!!! Glad you loved my lil’ game T_T!!!

General thoughts on how to do animations will guide my thoughts better, I think, I hope you can bear with me a little bit.

I started doing animations on my own with anglerman giving me tips here and there (for the rpgmaker demo)! The “tips” can be translated as him coming at me and saying it was very ugly/looked like poop and why. Getting a honest friend that will say your stuff sucks and why will help you improve faster and get rid of the ego as well! That’s my first tip!

Now anglerman joined our animation forces, and that person is a god, he learned animation extremely quickly (in comparison to me, this slow ass taurus person), and he says the only way for him was that he already knew a shitton of anatomy. By knowing anatomy you kinda know how bodies work, essentialy, which makes you to skip around like 10 steps to make good animations. A lot of new artists overlook anatomy, but anglerman and I as well, took a long time only doing anatomy sketches before trying to do final products (in school I would fill up whole notebooks with anatomy poses, drawings of arms, hands etc). Anatomy is key to understanding movement, and further, making animations. Another key point too, is as someone who is new to anatomy, doing overly exhagerated animations will be better than subtle ones. This means redrawing each frame taking attention at each detail and the details being VERY different from one frame to the other, but not making a illustration at each frame. It can be all over the place, tbh, animation artists vs illustration artists are very different minded people xD usually animators have more of a rough sketch, more fluid from the get go, more interest in cool poses than beautiful final touches and 8 hours of lighting retouches.

Lined sprites are easier as they can go in any BGs, but more difficult as you have to draw all of them and that’s a fricking huge hassle omg, I would never do that unless I’m in look for pain! But I’m lazy and like to do things quickly/swiftly! Non lined sprites will mingle with BGs at some point, you either are a carefree person who accepts that and goes forward, or you suffer forever and try to match every bg of your game to your character. A nice idea is making some stylistic decisions before producing, like a set palette for backgrounds! I didn’t do that, now I suffer :D

some other tips that i used for learning!

these vids here about the 12 principles of animations

this talk here by skullgirls animator

checking old fighting games to check their keyframe animations!

and this is a vid of a animation being done for vvtz!

Hope this all helps! It’s not much, but was exactly what I used when I started! xD