#you have no idea how much i struggled with drawing their skull here

[givenscribbles]

Y'know I've wanted to work more on my imp-sona and finally had the time to come up with something myself. This guy's name is Jack and some may have seen him in some of my picrews in chains.

We'll see if I post more of them in the future lol

[wild-rise]

Sunshine

Daryl Dixon x F!Reader Smut MDNI 18+

Summary: After a stressful day and years of animosity between you and Daryl the dynamics of your power struggle finally gets resolved. Safe to say you're finally put in your place.

Warnings: MDNI, 18+, Reader is a brat, Soft!Dom Daryl, Kinda mean Daryl, Teasing, Oral (M!receiving) Face F!cking, Binding (Readers wrists), Dirty Talk, Pervy Daryl, Thigh Riding, Just the t!p, P in V penetration, unprotected (Wrap it before you tap it folks), creampie. I think that's it...

“How ‘bout runnin’ that by me one more time sunshine?” Daryl gruffs out cocking his head to you making sure he wasn’t going crazy because there’s no way in hell you just said what he thinks you did.

“Your hearing going out now Dixon?” Just before you reach the door of his room you turn to face him again, invading his space, craning your head up to make sure the message gets through his thick skull this time.

 “Fuck. You. You redneck piece of shit.” The words cutting like knives as they roll off your tongue. Daryl holds his composure as he looks down at you and lets out an exasperated sigh.

“If you want to so bad all ya have to do is ask nicely.” That same smirk dancing on his lips. He made every nerve in your body boil till you only saw red. Daryl knew how to push every single button to set you off and get under your skin.

Without warning Daryl’s face is hit with your saliva “Fucking pig.” You’re seething at this point and now any hint of playfulness in Daryl’s features is gone. You turn on your heels to leave when suddenly his large hand wraps around your arm pulling you back to his hard chest.

“You’re a goddamn bitch ya know that?” Daryl practically growls the words at you as he wipes the spit off his face with the back of his hand.

“No. You’re just an inconsiderate asshat that’s just looking out for himself like always.” The venom of your tone doesn’t go unnoticed by Daryl as he holds you close noticing the heat radiating off your skin and your scent invading his senses.

“I’m the only reason you’re alive right now so if you know what’s good for you, I suggest you drop it, Sunshine.” That stupid nickname he gave you back on the farm had its way of making a shit situation even shittier and Daryl knew, that’s why he made sure to draw out each syllable.

There can never be a civil interaction between the two of you. You’ve been together for so long, but the animosity never faded. Rick even tried locking you both in a cell together at the prison but after three hours of arguing he let both of you out and go separate ways. No one bothered to intervene and after that your relationship simply stayed stagnant.  

Right now, as much as it pained you he was right. The only reason you’re standing here is because he followed you on your hunt which turned sour when your kill was taken by walkers. The loss made you unhinged, being the final straw to break your back after all the tragedy your community suffered after the whispers. You went on dropping body after body till you were starting to get outnumbered, but your stubbornness never let up. Daryl noticing your struggle and intervened before you could get hurt but to his surprise you turned your rage towards him before storming off back to Alexandira.

Bringing you back here telling off Daryl for being… helpful? Honestly the stress of everything you’ve endured and the loss the community has suffered is getting to you and you need a release, and Daryl is the only one who can take it.

Taking a deep breath as you hold eye contact with him you’re finally registering just how close the two of you are. His breath fanning over your face, hand still holding tightly to your arm and that’s when the intrusive ideas locked away in the deepest parts of your mind finally come to light. “And what exactly is best for me Daryl? Hm? Please do tell.” Your voice is barely above a whisper now.

 “Is that you askin nicely?” he says watching the shift in your demeanor and matching your tone.

“Don’t push it Dixon.” The sternness in your voice lacking conviction and Daryl decided then what he was going to do with you.

He brings his other hand up to your face cupping your check and leaning down just about to kiss you when “Ask nicely. Sunshine.” He says right on your lips. How could he be even more frustrating, especially at a time like this. “Tell me what’s best for me. Please.” Sarcasm dripping on your every word. The fire in you is impossible to extinguish and honestly, it’s what Daryl loves about you so much and he’d die before he ever saw it put out but right now it needs to desperately be controlled.

“How bout ya let me show you.” And as quickly as the words fall from his mouth, he’s pressing his lips to yours. His actions are filled with hunger and desire as a mixture of saliva form between you. Your hands come up to find purchase on his broad shoulders as he deepens the kiss exploring every inch of your mouth. “Get on your knees. Now” the words going straight to your cunt but the brat in you can’t help but be defiant. “Ask nicely.” You mock him and the hand cupping your cheek travels to the back of your head grasping your hair tightly and dragging you down to your knees. “You just don’t know when to fuckin quit do ya? That shit stops now you understand?” The tenderness on your scalp stings from his grip but you welcome the sensation as a soft whimper leaves you confirming Daryl’s suspicion.

You wanted someone to put you in your place and take control. You didn’t want to have to think just do what you’re told and feel something other than the suffering you’ve endured.

“That so hard? Now, can you get my belt off or do ya need help with that too?” Realizing your predicament, you reach your hands up to undo his belt and pull down his zipper. Daryl releases his hand from your hair before pulling his belt off through the loops of his pants. “Hands behind your back.” Doing exactly what he says Daryl comes behind you tying your hands behind your back with his belt. Anticipation floods your body as Daryl stands back in front of you pulling his cock out of the confines of his jeans. The angry red tip directly in your face leaking precum and begging for a release. He was bigger than you imagined and the thought of him ramming your throat made your panties even more wet than before.

“Open up sunshine.” Lolling your tongue out Daryl slowly pushes his cock past your lips a little at a time allowing you to get comfortable with the position. Once you get a steady rhythm of sucking and licking his length Daryl’s hands return to your hair pulling you off him.

“Should’ve known cock would shut you up.” Daryl groans as he slides back into the warmness of your mouth. The sounds he made were almost heavenly enough to distract you from the pain in the back of your throat... almost. Your pace is quickly abandoned as Daryl starts bucking his hips in your face stuffing your throat full of his cock. Tears stream down your cheeks and the pressure from his belt straining on your wrists start to make your head dizzy and you can hardly breathe. “Fucking hell sunshine your takin me so well.” Daryl stops holding your head at the base of his dick till you start squirming from the lack of oxygen and he pulls you off completely. Taking a gasp of air trying to regain composure, you whine when he hoists you back up onto your feet.

“You gonna stop being a bitch or should I just let you finish sucking my dick and leave you here to take care of yourself?” He asks in such a kind way, but his actions moments ago were anything but. “I’ll stop. Promise, please Daryl.” You cry at him just needing something more as the desire grew within you. “Good girl. See I knew you had it in you.” He takes his belt off your wrists and has the rest of your garments following suit. Daryl guides you to lie on his bed and the vulnerable feeling of being completely exposed while he’s still fully dressed has your cheeks burning red. Daryl bends down to pick up your soaked panties, bring them to his face and takes a deep breath before shoving them in his back pocket. “Constellation prize.” He winks at you as you moan desperate for him to do anything to you.

“Are you going to actually touch me or just keep being a perv?” You groan at him as he pulls off his clothes joining you on his bed. “Just takin my time, don’t be so impatient.” You want to cry from the pressure building up at your cunt. Daryl could tell how needy you were from how much you’ve been pressing your thighs together chasing any type of satisfaction. Caging you between his forearms he slots a leg between yours adding pressure to your long awaiting cunt. Your arousal is prominent enough to leave remanence behind on his leg, but he doesn’t move. “Go on, hump my leg like the bitch you are.” His words hushed into your ear make the tears come back to your eyes. He was being so mean, and it was turning you on so much. With a strangled moan you started dragging your hips up and down, rubbing against his leg as he marked up and down your neck and chest leaving a path of hickeys and bruises. Your hips started bucking faster as you felt that familiar sensation of your approaching orgasm but just as you were about to let go Daryl pulls his thigh away from you.

“Daryl please I’m s-so ssorry I’ll be nice I’ll do whatever you want just plea-please make me cum.” You were a sight to behold, so worked up and desperate just for him and oh how he loved it. “Since you asked so nicely.” He leans down to give you a kiss but this time it was different. This time it lacked primal urgency from before, it was tender and attentive.

Now Daryl had your legs on either side of him as he lined his cock up with your dripping, aching pussy. He slowly pushed just the tip and watched your greedy cunt try to suck him in some more and your sobbing persisted. He leaned down peppering kisses along your jaw, shushing you trying to calm you down. “Next time I won’t be so harsh on ya if you use your manners, Sunshine.” Is all he whispers in your ear before sitting back up and ramming his entire length in you bottoming out.

Your cries and moans are so loud he’s pretty sure someone’s going to come down thinking you’re in danger, but he could care less because the sounds you’re making right now are music to his ears. The way he’s pressing your legs apart sends a burn through your thighs and your breasts are bouncing at the rhythm of his thrusts. “Doing so fuckin good for me f-fuck this pussy’s just suckin me in S-Sunshine.” His tough guy act falters as he speeds up his pace. Daryl quickly puts your legs onto his shoulders allowing him to hit that one spot deep in your body that has you seeing stars.

“Oh, fuck Daryl yes, yes right there oh my god please d-don’t stop.”  You cry out begging him for your release. "Wasn't plannin' on it. Fuck it's like this pussy was made for me." Daryl keeps up the same pace and brings a hand down rubbing tight circles on your clit. The added stimulation is enough to send you over the edge moaning Daryl’s name over and over again. The spasming of your cunt has him losing the fight of holding off his orgasm as he finishes deep inside you. “Fucking take it. F-fuck take it all.” He says while he delivers the final thrusts riding out both of your highs.

    Daryl rolls over, bringing you into his chest and caresses your hair while you both try to catch your breath. “What do you say? Hm?”

You look up at him through your lashes and taking in his disheveled appearance you realize this is a sight you could easily get used too.  “Thank you. Daryl.” Your voice is hoarse from the amount of screaming and moaning he pulled from you which sparked pride to flood through his chest.

“You are very welcome, Sunshine.” He feels content finally taming your fire as he traces patterns on your back while you slowly drift off to sleep.

[kozachenko]

Here, have a fairly light sketch dump with two relatively complete sketches and some of the process for the main Zanmu one. Also, Gensokyo's specalist girl makes an appearance here too

Artist's Notes;

Zanmu is such a fun character to draw, like, there's so many little aspects in her design that you can emphasize, and her colour palette is so satysfying too. The reason I ended up drawing this was because when I was scrolling on Pinterest I found a specific pose that just screamed Zanmu to me (it was the skull that did it for me) and I just had to draw her in that pose. I did end up taking my liberties with my reference though, and also I am not drawing feet, I just straight up don't like it, and this is mainly something more on the sketchy side so it didn't really matter lol. Also, IDK too much about the hands, I'm usually pretty good with them but I struggled with them a bit this time. Also Zanmu is sitting on nothing because I just didn't feel like drawing what she was sitting on (plus I already drew in the clothes and including what she was sitting on would mean having to change the sleeves and I just didn't wanna do that lol). Also realized that I should probably start trying to improve on drawing frills in clothing, and I tried a new technique for drawing them. I do like how they look, but at the same time it can still be better.

I do love how Zanmu's pose turned out the most in this batch of sketches. In my process, I put the reference image on the canvas and then roughly blocked in the silhouette. One change I knew I wanted to make since the beginning of the sketching process was opening up the space between the bent arm and body more, mainly to make the silhouette of the pose clearer (even though with the addition of the clothes it does get closed up a lot). I also wanted to turn the torso towards the viewer and change the position of the legs to something more cross legged/casual. In another sketching pass, I just kinda quicjly scribbled what I wanted the pose to look like just so I could get my idea out and I'm glad I did that because that helped me focus more on the pose itself rather than the small details. Afterward, I did a sketch of the body, clothes, and hair all together and then coloured it to get the coloured Zanmu sketch!

Again, I could've done a better job with the feet and the legs themselves for that matter, but the nice thing about sketches is that they don't need to be perfect, and I was more so focused on the gesture/feel of the pose rather than the minute details. With her facial expression, I knew that I wanted something very specific with her eyes, so I just simplified it into this "almost closed" eye and I do like how it turned out a lot. Also, a problem that I often have drawing Zanmu is that in the poses I put her in, I don't really know how best to draw in those triangle cut outs she has, so instead, I added these little triangle details onto her sleeves and pants to add some visual interest and allude to them instead, also because they can kinda allude to a crown and Zanmu is the king of Hell so it fits lol (also, love it when people add details like that onto sleeves sm lol). The hair and tassles did a lot of heavy lifting when it came to making the drawing have a nice flow to it, and I have the headcanon that Zanmu is just able to make those float on there own by.... honestly I don't know, I just like the idea of her tassles defying gravity and floating all the time. Also IDK if you can see them, but I did make sure to include her scars as I'm basically adding that as a part of my way of drawing Zanmu. It just adds a certain something, y'know? Also found a specific reference for the skull and made it the red that it is in Touhou 19, and also because drawing skeletons and skulls is just fun lol.

Now onto Reimu, so that face drawing was mainly there just so I could get a better idea of how I wanted to draw her face in the future. My main concern was trying to make it different to Keiki and Zanmu's faces, so as I was sketching hers I had the drawings of Keiki and Zanmu's faces turned on to make sure I wasn't drawing the same thing again. Down here I included this little test I did where I hyper simplified the eyes of the three faces and just traced over their face shapes, noses, eyebrows, and mouths. While the nose is the most consistent trait shared among the three of them (tbf that can just be chalked down to an aspect of my style), I feel like the three are different enough from each other to where they don't have same face syndrome, even if you simplify the eyes into dots and also didn't include the detail of Zanmu's scars on her face.

I'm obsessed with giving Reimu these tiny little eyebrows for some reason, IDK it just works for her. I also really like using a red as a highlight for whenever I draw her hair black, mainly because it helps to give the illusion that her hair is just a really dark brown and incorperates her main colour of red into another aspect of the design. I also wanted to try and draw Reimu's eyelids differently to try and imply monolids but tbh IDK how well that reads. I also like how her pupils turned out, as I'm experimenting with different characters in my style having different kinds of pupils. I didn't even bother properly rendering her clothes, so I just did them linelessly (I think I wanna try drawing in my lineless style again for a future piece sometime as I kinda miss the feel it had). I of course had to give Reimu her big bow, and also use that specific shade of red. IDK what it is about that shade of red specifically, but I just love it, it looks so nice to me you have no idea- Now that I think about, I kinda wanna draw Reimu more now, as I feel like I can still do some more experimenting with how I draw her eyes specifically. Also because I've got some ideas when it comes to how I wanna draw her body type.

[ari-cuno]

A little drabble I wrote after some inspiration and a little break between drawing some art <3

I just wanted to experiment and see how an interaction like this would go between them. It was supposed to be angst but I couldn't help changing it a bit. >3<

Please let me know if I did the couch potato justice @zu-is-here and if there's anything else I could've done better!

“Aim…” Axel mumbled, looking as if he were ready to crumble or disappear from the anxiety in his soul. It formed a painful lump, making his words struggle to come out properly. But under all that was the undying love and trust of the man before him. In all his unconditional love there was still part of him that needed to know, it needed to know that Aim was truly there, and that he was his, no matter how murky the waters they swam in were. Of course it was a silly question though. He knew that answer well enough. Aim was his, but…was Axel himself Aim's? 

“...I need you, Aim.” His voice finally managed to say. “...But I don't know if you need me.” He admitted quietly, his voice suddenly breaking.

Aim, sitting on the other side of the bed, turned to look at the distressed skeleton, offering him a look of comfort with some sort of humor attached to it. “What do ya mean? Of course I need you.” He said, sounding slightly surprised by how the shorter skeleton only seemed to look sadder at his reply. 

“...No- just- ugh! You don't understand!” Axel cried out as he sat on the opposite side of the bed. “You seemed so fine before I came back to find you. Part of me wonders if I'm being selfish by asking so much of you. You don't owe me your companionship. But…but I want it, I crave it, and I crave you.” He said, looking frustrated. 

“...Heh, you have no idea how nice it is having you around.” Aim said, laying back on the mattress, his arms resting above his head. That response made Axel look at him with surprise. 

“If anything I probably need you more. I mean, I must've been really stuck in your head to make you come back after so long. Like a rattle in your skull?” He said in a lighthearted tone, watching Axel's face flush as he looked away. 

“Hm…something like that.” Axel said quietly. 

“This whole thing between us isn't bad. You've already done so much for me and-” Aim paused, noticing the little glitter from a tear that streamed down Axel's cheek. Oh no, had he said something wrong? 

“You're right. You have been stuck in my head forever, and you have no idea how great it was to see you again, but…I don't want to push my feelings on you like this.” Axel said quietly, letting out a little laugh through a few sobs. 

“Stars…oh stars…how are we going to make this work?” He said meekly, voice full of raw vulnerability and sorrow. His soul fluttered intensely in his chest any time he laid eyes on the man before him, couch-potato and lazy-bones aside. 

“Axel, you're crying-” Aim tried, sitting up. 

“Of course I am…this is never going to work!” Axel cried out, trying to wipe his tears away. “I can't even kiss you-”

“You can.” Aim replied. 

“...what?” Axel said, lifting his head up to look at him, surprised by his answer. Aim looked at him with a more genuine smile. “Is that why you are so upset? Are you afraid to ask me for a hug or a kiss?” The larger skeleton asked with a little grin. 

“I might not get it, but we're a team. One member just can't pull all the weight, I'm too heavy for you to be carrying all the weight of us. I can try my best for you if it will make you happy, just ask. There's nothing wrong giving back to my ‘partner’, eh?” Aim grinned, winking under his goggles. 

Axel stared, the glitchy skeletons gaze was  less upset, and more just shocked and moved by his words. “...you'd…you'd do that for me? Aim please…your boundaries, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.” He said gently, trying to be careful with his wording. 

“Oi! I don't mind as long as you're happy by the end of it, I gotta keep the hand who feeds me happy, don't i?~” 

Axel rolled his eyes, sighing. He wiped the tears from his eyes, taking in a steady breath to calm himself. “Well…” he said, moving closer to Aim, their bodies close in contact. 

“...I've always wanted to see you without your goggles. The real you. I miss your beautiful eye lights. Please…let me see you.” Axel whispered, shifting his potion, sitting right in front of Aim as he reached out to the ever important goggles that hid Aim's orange eyelights. 

Aim seemed to hesitate, looking unsure as Axel grabbed the edges of his goggles with care. “Heh…they really haven't changed much.” He said, struggling to keep the smile on his face. “Are you sure it's worth your time?” The larger skeleton asked. 

Axel frowned, lifting his goggles above his head gently. “...I'm sure.” He said firmly, cupping Aim's face with his hands, lifting himself up and settling amongst his partner's lap. He moved his face closer to Aim's, a small smile of appreciation and adoration flashing across his face. He was warm, very warm, and the way his eyelights stared back at him caused Axel's soul to flutter intensely with delight. 

He leaned it, pressing his nose against Aim's, an affection nuzzle. “...Is this okay?” He asked after a few tense moments of silence, staring into Aim's face. The other skeleton seemed quite relaxed, his eye lights faintly illuminating the space between them like a dim light, a small light compared to the blue hue spread across Axel's face.

“Of course.” Aim said calmly, “...you know, you're actually pretty light, heh.” He teased. 

“Feeling better?” Aim asked for a few moments, the warmth between them being pleasant, like a warm blanket on a cold day. Axel hesitated, his hands resting on Aim's chest as he let them go from his face. 

“...May I kiss you?” Axel asked, before stopping to think for a second. “-and more?” He asked with an added huskiness to his voice, his soul beating heavily against his ribcage in a flurry of emotions. 

“Sure.” Aim said simply, leaning back. His simple response caught Axel off guard. Stars, did he really trust him that much? Axel looked starstruck, staring at Aim with sparkling eyes full of a swirl of positive emotions, the tears on his face long dry. 

Aim noticed, looking a little concerned, “You alright-?” He questioned, before he was cut off, his words swallowed up as Axel leaned in, pressing their mouths together in a soft, delicate motion. Axel held himself there for several moments, his breath held as he made contact with Aim, a warmth spreading over him, and a warmth he missed once he pulled away. 

His voice came out in a soft tone, full of emotion. 

“....Everything is fine.”

[quibbs126]

So we have part 2 of stylized Cookies, pretty much all from today other than bird girls

I feel like I did better yesterday, but also I haven’t seen yesterday’s drawing since yesterday, so I don’t really remember if it was

I was planning on drawing the Hollyberry family, but because I got stuck on Jungleberry (I deleted her so you can’t see), that didn’t end up happening. Funny enough, I was also like “I have no clue what to do for White Lily and Pure Vanilla so they’re probably not gonna be drawn for a while”, but what got me to draw more today was ideas for White Lily, and Pure Vanilla came along later

To be honest, White Lily and Pure Vanilla probably still need some tweaking before I color them. I’m still not really sure what I’m doing with White Lily’s hair, and for Pure Vanilla I feel like I haven’t done enough outside of the eyes and the hat. Maybe it’s because I gave him an oval head? I wasn’t really sure what head shape to give him other than it not being one I already used

Speaking of their eyes, White Lily’s are supposed to be pink with white irises, and Pure Vanilla is supposed to have no irises, but solid yellow and blue. Which when I was drawing looked somewhat unsettling, which is funny because since I draw so many Cookies, that’s usually normal now

Also also, I now want to make a purelily kid that combines their features, aka White Lily’s half shadow face and Pure Vanilla’s small non iris eyes. They’d look like the comedy mask. And probably also somewhat like Shadow Milk

As for the Hollyberry family, I think Holly herself looks good, and the other two look alright. Princess probably needs more tweaking. I wanted to give them a running trait of not just dot eyes, but leaves in their hair. I’m thinking that every Hollyberrian has leaves in their hair, since they’re berries. I am struggling with Royal Berry and Princess’, since the best place to it their leaves is where they have something else, aka their crown and heart pins

To be honest I want to make it so that Princess is half berry half candy, so that maybe she could not have to have the leaves, but I like Jungleberry and don’t want to get rid of her or turn her into a candy, so oh well

I drew Red Velvet because I was struggling with White Lily and Pure Vanilla. I gave him a triangle head because someone somewhere on my first page said something about Golden Cheese having a triangle face because the Cakes, so why not give the half cake Cookie a triangle head as well?

Also with Red Velvet I definitely took liberties in redesigning him, like with the hair and horns, but I don’t think he looks necessarily bad? As least not by the end

I also drew him with Dark Choco because darkvelvet is a thing I know. Though to be honest, while I draw it, I’m not sure how much I like it. Like in theory I like it, it’s not bad, it’s just that I don’t think I get it. Like as far as I can tell they can only be doomed by the narrative because Dark Choco leaves, but maybe I’m interpreting Red Velvet’s character wrong. It’s been over a year since I watched his story. And also I’m not sure what draws people to the ship? Like darklico for example I can get for various reasons, but I don’t know about darkvelvet

Oh yeah, Licorice is here too. Forgot about that. Well I tried to make his head oval shaped because it’s sort supposed to look like a skull? Or a cartoony skull. Same with his eyes and mouth, they’re supposed to be somewhat skull-y. I didn’t draw his actual skulls though because I’m lazy and it’s a small drawing. I think he turned out pretty good though

I think maybe next page I should focus on more random characters outside of the Ancients. Maybe that’ll help the creative freedom

Anyways yeah, I think that’s it for now

[mesmir-ized]

also apparently forgot to post p2ponies 😞… sorry !! orz

(cutie mark rambles below~)

i always think crazy hard about cutie marks they are like my #1 stressor when it comes to ponies……. so here’s why i chose certain cutie mark designs !!

also i tried really hard to make sure they all shared some colours , especially making sure to include each others’ colours !! i wanted to have the original masked circle all have a star somewhere (BC.astrology or something…) LOL , maya sort of stands out both in colours and cutie mark , but that was on purpose !!

tatsuya: his was 100% the easiest to come up with . it’s gotta be his lighter !!! not only is it like His Thing but also very much representative of the bonds with his friends , as well as everything that got them into the events of IS … both in the game and here , the lighter is a symbol of both destruction/power and connection/creation !! which really fits tatsuya :] you can also think of it being like he “lights the way” !! the little teal star is in lieu of the little prince quote , and it’s kinda clear who this star is meant to represent ;U

jun: THIS ONE TOOK FOREVER TO DRAW . my issue was i had an idea , but couldn’t figure out how to make it work !! i wanted to include both flowers and a shooting star and fought 1 million battles trying to figure it out….

i wanted to include a shooting star for many reasons !! stars obviously for jun’s love of stars , but also because the shooting star is a symbol of something to follow (like Jun making himself a leader/savior as joker) as well as being representative of wishes and dreams (which is joker’s whole thing !!) !!! i wanted to add 4 forget-me-nots for both the obvious meaning of memory and his love of flowers , but also to mimic other stars and represent both masked circles he was involved in ! i love jun if you can’t tell

lisa: though this one looks simple it actually was pretty thought-out !! i wanted to figure out a way to both have her love of kung fu and role as an idol represented , which led me to these sort of boom-flash symbols ! these symbols are meant to be representative of her personality (feisty and explosive, but also fascinating and even lovely !) as well as what i said earlier , both of her paths~ they can be read as punch SFX , as well as the flash of cameras/lights on stage !! they’re pretty simple , but i feel like they pack a lot of punch (LOL)~!!

maya: the standout girlie of the whole bunch !! i immediately had the sort of idea for an intersection of heart/moon , and came up with this ! the heart is for ahh.. reasons most people know , but also she’s just associated with hearts in general (think mr bunbun) !! they obviously are related to her compassion and big heart , and if we want to have a sort of more darker and serious inspection of it.. how she’s the heart of her friend group and the loss of that heart (literal and figurative , in many instances) makes everything fall apart .. i also wanted to include the moon for her association with the moon (and Artemis !) , which also serve to show her duality and antithesis to the heat and light of the tatsuyas ! i like to think the EP cast’s colours would be more based around her cutie mark colours , like how IS were all based around each others’ !!

eikichi: i struggled with this one the most & i think it’s obvious.. U~U; .. i wanted to , again , make a symbol that’s not too complex , but is able to encapsulate so many different elements of a character ?! i ended up coming up with this skull (for his association with death/self proclaimed title as the “death boss”) and rocker/vkei/darker alternative aesthetics in general~ the starry eyes are BC welll…! star ! and also because it’s like he’s “starry-eyed” and looking towards the future :] the little glowy shine thing is meant tp be a spotlight , like he’s in the spotlight ! maybe one day I’ll come up with soemthing better , sorry eikichi , i love you ! 😞💦

Okies that’s all !! hope you like my cutie mark rambles , i love explaining my thoughts !!! ^7^

[taybatwo2]

Lenore Loomington Doll Review Part 2 of 2

Let’s finally take a look at her dress (the post before this one looked at her accessories and in box photos)! Ugh, that belt thing just keeps getting in the way of everything and will NOT sit well on her torso.

Lets remove the offending piece to actually look at her dress…

Much better (I was so afraid of breaking her clip, I had her hanging from her neck for many of my photos). I love that the cut of the dress is WAY different to any other Monster High dolls I’ve seen, and I like the idea (I assume) behind it: looking at silhouettes of plants and animals on a night sky.

Buuuuut I feel like it could have been elevated a bit more for such an expensive doll. Give us some glow in the dark/sparkly dots acting as stars going up her skirt, finish her sleeves and dress train with some lace, oh, or maybe sew some “vine like” ribbon/fabric hanging off of the train or sleeves. Oh! And I feel like her short black lacy piece is kinda a second thought, I’d have made it longer in the back or give it a more ragged cut (so it’s not so reminiscent of a tutu or petticoat). I say this all, because both the color and the cut was honestly better executed by:

The one you got vs the one you ordered. Yeahhh, it very closely resembles Moonlight B.B’s dress (shirt/skirt), but feels like a poor rip off due too MGA’s looking a lot more tailored (and use of multiple fabrics) and a more expensive clothing piece. more review and doll comparisons under the cut:

Aaaand here it is off the doll:

The dress is not hemmed around the bottom of the dress or sleeves, but I don’t see them fraying any time soon. I like how thin and flow-y the fabric is it makes it look a bit ethereal. And oh? But what’s this?? A secret secondary dress/slip??

What a cute little surprise. It’s fully hemmed, has a little lace on the bottom, and has a bit of a stretch to it. Also, Lenora’s arms are wrapped in plastic to prevent staining.

Here it is off the doll. Be forewarned, I low key struggled redressing her. That larger dress didn’t want to nicely slide back over her smaller dress.

Let’s finally take a look at Lenore’s face.

My Lenore’s eyes are printed up a bit too high and her lipstick is both smudged and incorrectly filled in in the top left side. 😬 At least a little bit of acrylic paint can fix her lips….

Her glitter tears are really pretty and seem pretty well attached and her “ghost mask” is a lovely addition to her face (it’s a nice gradient).

It took me awhile to notice she has cute little pink eyelashes mixed in with her black ones.

Her side profile and lightly pointed ears (by the way, the back of her head is marked as 2023). I do wish her eyebrows were a bit darker and looked like Rochelle’s worried ones (@mistyxxart’s, on instagram, drawing of Lenore is what I WISH her eyebrows looked like).

This artwork is fangtastic and has given me so many fun ideas on how I want to upgrade my Lenore.

Lenore is pretty well covered now; let’s look at how she compares to come other ghouls (I apologize for many of these photos being a bit blown out - the lighting in my kitchen is kinda sucky).

The OG Spectra!!! Two very different ghostie ghouls. Monster High’s oldest vs MH’s newest. Spectra has clear body parts, no ghost mask, and colored sclera. She also has kanekalon hair vs Lenore’s saran. I think they stand on their own as pretty different characters honestly.

Let’s let a few more come across the veil.

So many ghosts!!! Ari, Ari, what are you looking at?!? Sweetie. Stop longingly staring at Spectra.

Okay, so they actually don’t seem to have very much in common with Lenore either. Ari has a milky/shimmery body (much more akin to the Haunted releases of ghosts) and Lenore has a shimmery body without looking like she has milky skin. Her shimmer has more of a blue tinge than the yellow tinge that Ari’s has.

The Create a Monster Ghost (I always forget how hard they went on her outfit: skulls amassed behind a fence with a blood-dripping belt; I love it when MH sneaks in stuff like that), has the ghost eye mask (I don’t like hers as much as Lenore’s) and uncolored sclera like Lenore, but her pupils are black - like Ari’s. Both CAM ghost and Spectra have clear limbs.

There is something these ghouls all share in common:

Mother of PINK! The Monster World must have very limited shoe material that ghosts can wear and it’s all in similar shades of pink and magenta.

I wonder how she compares to the Haunted dolls…? POOF!

Ask and you shall receive! Technically River is a grim reaper and Kiyomi is the daughter of a noppera-bō, so not just comparing “ghost ghosts,”but why not throw them in here too?? Porter, Vandala and Kiyomi all have very milky skin, Lenore’s plastic is very opaque in comparison with that pearl/shimmer finish.

~shimmer shimmer~ Porter has colored sclera like Spectra and Vandala doesn’t have black pupils, like Lenore. I wonder if there is a reason for some ghosts to have colored/regular sclera and pupils. Maybe it’s a ghost genetic trait like attached ear lobes….

River was wondering what all the hubbub was about in comparing them to this new ghost. Well, until I told River how much Lenore cost compared to them. River couldn’t say much, but just proudly showed off her clear limbs: “I cost less than a third of that and I have clear limbs!” ….I wonder how she’ll react when I tell her the ghoul that received her original head sculpt idea cost double Lenore’s price.

And POOF!

What a lovely menagerie of MH ghosts (pretend like my Symphanee got here quick enough to also be in the photos).

Perfect! Can’t even tell….

Oh! And Vandala brought her girlfriend Sirena along so I could compare Sirena’s skin tone to Lenore’s. Her skin glitter is not as fine as Lenore’s and she has a yellow tint to her skin….I wonder if Ari’s and Sirena’s is due to age.

Hand splat in face.

Before I wrap up, let’s compare Lenore to some MH dolls that look like the main ingredients they blended up to create Lenore.

Your progenitors!!! (my G1 Twyla has been de-glued with LA’s Totally Awesome, but her bangs are discolored and are waiting to be retrobrighted this summer). Hmmm, a dash Twyla’s skin color, a major helping of Vandala’s face mold and monster type, and an inspirational sprinkle of Amanita’s outfit and pieces.

I can see the comparisons with G1 Twyla (more in person than in a photo). Lenore’s skin has a purple hue from the pearly finish. Also, Lenore’s hair streaks are more baby blue than the minty green of Twyla’s hair color. They both have pink eyes, and wear dark colored clothing.

Now, Lenors and Amanita, look like they could have been in the same line (when I actually have Lenore fully dressed). Amanita believes that she would have still been the only deluxe, store exclusive of the line. “Maybe you could have been like the Big Lots or CVS exclusive to Gloom and Bloom.” Amanita! That is uncalled for! “You’re right, how about a K-Mart exclusive because they’re as dead as she is.” Lenore thinks this is one plant she doesn’t want in her garden.

They both have long wavy hair, flower shoe clips (but Amanita’s is sculpted to be a lot more three dimensional and it’s painted).

Both have extra make-up around the eyes, a hair decoration/accessory, and a thin, slightly see through dress covering a surprise mini dress (I still feel like Amanita’s has more detail, but that pleather portion will rot off someday).

Yeah, she is more than welcome to pose. I think that Amanita might have pulled off the look a bit better…. :/

And a face comparison!

Similar, but Amanita’s/CAM Vampire Girl’s head sculpt is not the same.

Avast ye!! We might have a match! Vandala’s face does look closely the same (I should have taken out Vandala’s earring for all of these photos)…

Hmmm…..

Hmmmmmmm…..

HMMMM, Lenore’s ear looks a little bit more defined (when I don’t have the light GLARING right ONTO it).

Man, Vandala, I need to de-glue your head whenever I get more LA’s Totally Awesome in. You are a grease ball!

Well, Lenore might have used Vandala’s head sculpt base, but they went in and refined some parts…like her chin being a bit blunter, her nose and ears being a bit more defined, her lips might be a bit bigger (or they were just over painted).

Whelp anyways….Lenore…Lenore….I am glad I bought her, as she has some cute surprises, a lovely face, soft hair, but she’s very overpriced from the get-go and would have (in my opinion) not gotten such backlash had she been released to stores and Mattel creations as a 40-55 dollar G1 release and if she had not been SO HYPED UP!!

What are your thoughts? Would you buy her? What would you change?? Do you think Mattel has a huge wheel in their board room to spin and assign value to their dolls? Should I double check pictures to make sure they turned out alright before I put all my dolls away?? (Yes, yes I should).

[bleghbleghladydeath]

AU Idea I had. Pretty much Jeff never got burnt or anything. He just snapped one day and killed his mother. He left his dad alone. Please enjoy. TW: Attempted murder, pretty fucked up shit said and done in this, mentions of eating fetuses and attempted forceful removal.

A woman gasped as she was dragged down into a basement by a man with long brown hair in a mullet, pale skin and steel blue eyes. He giggled as he tied her to a chair, next to a man who looks to be of Asian descent, his hair is brown, and his eyes are forest green. He looked at her sadly. He's on the floor, his arms tied in front of him.

"See you later Lilly, I got a dinner with a pretty lady!" Jeff said, fixing his suit before cackling as he kicked the chair over and stomped out the basement, laughing and muttering to himself.

Lilly growled as she struggled, her long brown hair in her eyes. The man who is on the floor next to her crawled over and smiled. "Hi! My names Liu, you should relax, Jeff doesn't like it when you struggle." the man said sweetly, he has some round, black, glasses on.

Lilly gasped and panted, staring at him, there is some dirt on his face, he's in a leather jacket, a gray tee shirt and some blue jeans. He reached out, pulling Lilly's chair back into place, struggling a bit against the rope on his wrists. "H-How long have you been here?" Lilly asked.

Liu laughed softly.

"A year, but it's okay, I've been looking around and I think I found a way out!" Liu said, smiling nervously.

Lilly gasped and nodded. Liu rushed over to something and came back over with a shard of glass. He started to undo the rope on Lilly's arms, she then undone his and the two nodded to each other. Liu went over to a bookshelf. Lilly stared, confused, she glanced back to the basement door before nodding. Liu pushed the bookshelf out the way to show a door. "It leads directly outside; the only thing is it's padlocked." Liu said.

Lilly looked around nervously, sniffling as she fought back dread. What if they never get out? She wants to have her child. She placed her hand on her stomach, there's the lightest lump but one could easily mistake it for some chub. She then noticed a bolt cutter and she ran over. She handed it to Liu, and he nodded. "Yes!" Liu cheered under his breath.

He looked at Lilly and nodded before cutting the padlock, wrenching open the door and running out. He pulled Lilly along with him, smiling widely. "Freedom!" Liu said, obviously trying to be quiet.

They were about a yard into the forest when Jeff came out from behind a tree, knife in hand. Liu stumbled back behind Lilly, stunned. Jeff laughed, a soft smile on his face. "Hey Lilly...hey big bro..." Jeff said, twirling his knife.

Lilly looked back at Liu. He looks terrified. Jeff purred, laughing softly, he licked his lips, a hungry, crazy look in his eyes. Lilly went to run but came face to face with the barrel of a gun. Liu smiled widely at her, giggling softly. "L-Liu? I-I thought.." Lilly whimpered.

Liu shook his head. "And you were wrong." Liu whispered, smiling widely, he pulled a handkerchief out his jacket pocket, wiping the dirt from his face.

Lilly gasped as she suddenly felt the handle of Jeff's knife crack into her skull. She swayed a little before collapsing.

When Lilly woke, she was chained to a chair. Liu was drinking wine on an armchair in the corner. There is a gramophone playing some old waltz while Jeff messed with some knives happily, obviously waiting for Lilly to wake up.

"..I-I-...how?" Lilly whimpered.

Jeff looked back and laughed. Liu finished off his wine and set the glass to the side before sitting up straight, crossing his legs politely.

"Oh! Yeah! Liu is so useful for drawing in victims for games! Just like me! My beautiful, mysterious charm!" Jeff grinned widely while Liu laughed softly.

Liu nodded, mumbling something in Japanese. "Mhm! I'm very kawaii! People always underestimate me, see me as safe, they are wrong!" Liu said, smirking softly. "And Jeff! Jeff is so wonderful for luring in men!"

Jeff burst into laughter and Liu joined him, the two grinning widely. Lilly's eyes got big. "Y-Your the N-New Orleans Brothers.." Lilly whimpered.

Jeff gasped and Liu smirked. "Wow! Really!? We didn't fucking notice!" Jeff growled.

He then suddenly hit Lilly across the face with the back of his hand. "Of fucking course we are!" Liu giggled.

Lilly shook violently, whimpering. Jeff laughed obnoxiously and Liu tilted his head. Jeff then poked Lilly in the stomach, she jerked away. "Don't do that.." Lilly whimpered.

Jeff growled. "Don't do that!" Jeff mocked before slapping Lilly again. "Shut up bitch!"

Lilly bowed her head and Liu laughed softly, pouring himself another glass of wine, sipping it peacefully. "Be soft Jeff.." Liu then followed with a mocking tone. "She's pregnant!" Jeff looked over, and excited expression on his face. "Really!? Oh this makes everything ten fucking time better!" Jeff cackled.

Liu smirked, watching silently.

"How would you feel if I tore that little guy out your fucking stomach an ate it?" Jeff growled into Lilly's ear, laughing when she whimpered.

Liu set his wine glass down and stood up, walking over. He leaned on Jeff. "Oh brother! Look at little Miss Lilly! So sad and in so much pain!" Liu said dramatically, sliding down his brother softly, his hand against his head.

Jeff laughed as Liu shot back up straight. He suddenly tipped the chair back insanely far, leaning over Lilly, a charming smile on his face. "かわいいリリーさんは怖いですか？" Liu giggled. (Is pretty little Miss Lillly scared?)

Lilly stared, confused as to what Liu said. Jeff and Liu then started to converse. Jeff in Spanish and Liu in Japanese, though it's clear they both understand what the other is saying. Liu giggled softly and Jeff grinned and they start talking faster. This is cruel, they know damn well no one can translate two languages that fast. Then they switch, Liu speaking Mandurian and Jeff speaking in German. Jeff cackled at something Liu said before they both switch back to English. "So! We've decided we won't kill you! If!" Jeff paused for a very long time, making Lilly whimper, Liu then picked up after his younger brother. "You give us your kid when they are born!"

Lilly's eyes got large and she started shaking her head frantically. "N-No! I don't want to do that!" Lilly said, tears streaming down her face.

Liu grinned and Jeff laughed.

"Then you would both die! Choose mi amour! You both die or you both live and the kid goes with us!" Jeff said, laughing softly as tears stream down Lilly's face.

Lilly shook her head before closing her eyes tightly. "I-I can't! I can't leave a child with you fucking psychos!" Lilly screeched, jerking violently against the chains.

Jeff stepped back, chuckling while Liu shrugged, going to get a knife.

"Okay...we'll take them then." Jeff said, grinning darkly.

Liu twirled a very large hunting knife, laughing excitedly. Lilly started to struggle and Jeff got behind her, grabbing her shoulders while Liu approached. Jeff cackled and Liu's pupils dilated from excitement. "Don't worry Miss Lilly, everything with be perfectly fine!" Liu said, grinning widely.

Lilly suddenly kicked Liu in the balls and he stumbled back, growling in pain as the knife clatters to the ground. Jeff growled, throwing Lilly's chair to the ground and stomping in her face before going to check on his brother. Lilly groaned, the taste of copper in her mouth. She then realized the rusty chains broke. She carefully pulled away while Liu groaned on the floor and Jeff made sure he didn't hurt himself when he dropped the knife. Lilly grabbed the hunting knife and suddenly stabbed Jeff in the shoulder. Jeff screamed out in pain and Liu stumbled to his feet, growling. He seemed to be cussing in Japanese. He then started running after Lilly while Jeff stood up, the knife still in his shoulder. He grabbed a huge ass machete off a workbench and went after Lilly with Liu, his combat boots slamming against the stairs of the basement then the hardwood floors upstairs. Lilly burst out the house and ran down a driveway. She could hear Jeff getting closer and she speed up, legs burning. She panted and burst out the forest onto a secluded road. She didn't wait a second and darted to the right, running full speed beside the road. After a while she seemed to lose Jeff and Liu and she saw a truck with a woman in it. The woman stared, stunned. "Your head is bleeding!" she said.

Lilly touched her head and nodded, must have been when Jeff hit her with the handle of his knife who knows how long ago. "Just take me to the cops..." Lilly said, her vision slowly blacking out as sleep takes her.

[nooling]

Hey, I'm sorry if this may be out of nowhere / weird - I found a very old Tweet of yours that mentions you having dyspraxia. I don't know if I have it, but I'm struggling with a visualization problem that people seem to think is either that or is related, and was wondering if you had any insights into your process and how you deal with it (especially in terms of anatomy)? Your work is fantastic!!

Thanks so much anon! Really sorry this took forever to get back to, irl stuff got kinda mad. Also I’ll admit I’ve never really thought about it before, so this question got me examining how I’ve learnt. Here's what I've found helpful:

I don't know the specifics of what you're struggling to visualise but with me, I have aphantasia (which means I don't really think in clear images- if at all) which combined with ADHD means that making thins as simple as possible is the only way I can draw without getting frustrated and giving up.

Practice: Not a glamourous answer, I know, but repetition helps build muscle memory. Draw the same thing over and over again, especially if you avoiding something (I avoid hands lol) because it usually means it’s what you need to work on most. Start with a specific thing, eyes, skulls, legs etc. and fill pages with them. Go nuts. Draw noses until you can’t bare to look at peoples faces anymore- then draw more. After a while you’ll get an eye for what looks right and what doesn’t while drawing. Don’t need to visualise when you’ve filled 5 pages of feet and will probably draw them in your sleep.

Simplify Shapes: Complex objects can be broken down into simple shapes. Instead of visualizing an entire body, think of it as cubes, lines, and circles. Planar sculptures of bodies and heads are great references because they simplify everything.

Use 3D Models: If you struggle with visualizing a pose, use a 3D model. There are websites and apps that are free, some may let you pose the model, others will just have pre-made poses. I use Clip Studio Paints 3d stuff when I’m stuck on things (usually hands).

References: Another boring answer but: use references. You might need to pose and take photos of yourself, having a mirror on your desk is super useful for referencing yourself. Watching other people draw can give you new ideas, youtube, streams and tiktok are all good to just watch how artists you admire approach drawing.

Learn the Rules: Knowing the basic guidelines about body proportions helps, how many heads high a generic person should be to look correct, the arms should fall to mid thigh etc. Remove the need to try and imagine what something looks like and replace it with knowledge. Once you’re comfortable, you can start to break and play around with them

Consider Getting a Teacher or joining an art group: Not the most accessible option but a teacher can provide valuable critique and explain difficult concepts that are individual to you. Otherwise find an online or in-person group where you can ask questions and get feedback. I’m self taught so it’s not essential but having had teachers for animation, I improved 100x quicker from having people explain specifically the mistakes I was making rather than trying to power through it myself.

Most importantly, find a way to make it fun and there’s no correct way to approach art. If something works for you, then keep doing it.

[brown-little-robin]

Artist asks: 7, 8, 9, 10, 16

Hiii Rebekah <333

7. Who are some artists that have inspired you?

answered here and I will also add: Clay Coyote artists from Hutchinson, Minnesota; artists of The Octagon of Ames, Iowa, including Steve Aitchinson (who makes these incredible tiny vases)!

8. How would you describe your art style?

umm... for ceramics... I guess... smooth? medium-smooth? Cute...? I mean, not all of it is cute exactly, some of it is more serious, but overall it's definitely kawaii inspired. My professor once called my sculpture work charming, and then clarified, not in a cheap, cliche way, but just genuinely charming, which seems to fit :')

9. What's the longest you've ever suffered from artblock?

In ceramics? Oh, only like three weeks maximum ever, which is kind of astounding. My ceramics hasn't ever been very limited by lack of passion or ideas or... or willingness. I've been blocked by life circumstances in college or while we were moving from house to house, which was painful, but not by just... not having inspiration. not yet, anyway! the recent three-week-ish art block was, I think, due more to anxiety about committing to working in porcelain (which is expensive) than to Art Block Proper. after I overcame my reluctance to use the porcelain, I made like thirty sculptures in four days.

10. How do you deal with art block?

Again, in sculpture, that's not really something I face too much. The biggest problem I come across is when I am just not feeling drawn to any particular animal or idea, and that's when I might get out my handy dandy TINY ZINE and just PICK SOMETHING and make five or six of it. I like doing sets of lots of the same thing to break through that kind of aimlessness; it allows me to make multiple sculptures with small variations without devoting too much brainpower to coming up with a new goal every time.

16. What was something you used to struggle to draw sculpt with confidence/ease, but have now mastered?

Big cats' faces! It took me a while to really understand the three-dimensionality of the face of a leopard. I had to spend a while studying their skulls before it clicked that the nose bridge and the muzzle and the cheeks and the eyes and the lips and the eyebrow ridges can be thought of as separate components that come together to create one face, rather than thinking of the face as One Whole Thing.

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

I need motivation and tips for continuing art. I used it do it so much as a kid but stopped doing it as much for a stupid reason. Someone who I became friends with was a better artist. I was never popular but I had used to kind of be a smidge known in my classes for decent art until she came along and everyone admired her more. Now obvs that wasn't her fault and we actually became friends for a while (until she changed and pushed me away down the line in middle school and high school, but that's neither here nor there). Either way, I didn't do it as much and only did it here and there.

I never really had my own consistent style either. It was all just kind doodles and some full sized drawings. I never did well with humans but did decently with like animals and objects. This was all in a traditional sketchbook too. I eventually started some digital art too as my friend did and she had a natural affinity for it. Once again, seeing myself get outdone. I have a bad habit of feeling like a failure when I am not immediately good at something I try, especially when it is something I really really want to do. Over the years I would have random surges of doing art again but would often get distracted by other things and feel too overwhelmed to pursue the hobbies I like, especially in high school and me now at 21 in college.

I am pursing a degree in animation but haven't even started the actual animation class itself, mostly just the general education requirements and then some other art classes. I finished 2D design, 3D design, drawing, and life art. I feel like my art has gotten decent for objects and animals still, but I struggle with humans. And unfortunately my life art class was pretty awful with the teacher mostly focusing on a few things regarding the body (which don't get me wrong, was helpful at first) and just assigned busy work like 20 skeleton sketches or 10 skulls and 5 full skeletons or whatever and every single class was gesture drawing of the nude models we had and progressing to shading. Again, don't get me wrong, those are definitely important and helped me with improving my skills, but what bugged me was not only how repetitive it was (it felt like my progress plateaued very early into the class as it just became the same thing every time with the teacher not being super engaging), but the fact we never got into the main thing I struggled with when drawing people; the human face.

I am trying to reteach myself how to draw now, having done that life art class like 2 years ago now. I am watching tutorials which have helped a bit, but I think my main issue is not practicing as consistently. A huge factor being motivation. I often get busy so when I have down time, I'd rather do something mindless instead of intentional work like practicing art that I am not gonna like. And when I do draw, even the things I used to think I was decent at like animals and objects and sceneries, I hate them. They look so flat and lifeless and they look super inconsistent style wise when you compare the different aspects of the drawing. It makes me feel unmotivated and scared about my future.

How can I be an animator when I can't even be happy with a still drawing I have made? I adore 2D animation. I adore art. I have so many ideas I can fully visualize in my brain but as soon as pencil touches paper or stylus to tablet, it's like I am a toddler learning how to write. Especially on digital art because I always feel like I am doing something wrong or in the most inefficient way possible. Don't even get me started on the fill bucket tool on drawing programs never actually filling in the full space I want them too and lines never being fully solid and having weird fuzzy edges that make coloring in weird. Even when I try to look up fixes for this it never seems to work (I swap back and forth between drawing in the free program Krita and Adobe Photoshop I have temporarily while in college).

There is the part of me that wants to give up, but then the strong part of me that refuses to because I know this isn't just some random ADHD hyper-fixation I have gotten. It has been a consistent interest of mine since I was in elementary school, fluctuating based on motivation and other external factors, but never something I stopped being interested in. I dunno. I guess I just needed to rant. I need to keep practicing, I know, but I wish I had someone directly next to me at all times giving me the perfect advice and helping me immediately see where I am messing something up or whatever so my improvement can be faster lol. Idk who will even read this. But oh well.

[huckleberryblossom]

hey can i ask for a tutorial or guide on how to draw a cat body? i've been struggling for days

just to get it out of the way since anyone you ask is going to say this, references are your best friend and will make this a lot easier

a friend of mine shared this site which has lots of good references, not just for cats but lots of things. if im looking for something specific, i usually google something like "cat curled up" and just scroll for a while or use multiple references to get what i want.

but as for how I draw a cat body, i use references but honestly a lot of what i do is a result of just having spent so long studying references (and how other artists drew them! sometimes studying what artists are doing can help you translate realism into whatever style you're going for) that i kind of just know where certain bones go/how the muscles would stretch or contract

this is how i tend to visualize the body at its most basic. the parts i highlighted are the pieces i use to ground the anatomy: the shoulder, the haunch, the elbow, the ankle, the paws, and the skull. their shape tends to change very little from pose to pose, which is why i exaggerate/define them so strongly. they're usually what i sketch first and use to get the pose the way i want it. everything else is stretchy and fluid to "connect" these pieces of the body.

here's an example of the parts using a photo from that site i linked

and the way it looks without the ref, vers what i drew by looking at the ref!

these are pretty standard walking/standing poses, but the idea works for more complex poses.

i havent really said much about it, because most of what i draw are refs, and they dont really have dramatic poses or difficult perspective, but its up to you to decide how much anatomy you're willing to sacrifice to get a more fluid motion, or a dramatic shot. i think this is where those guiding "pieces" of the body is helpful for me, because i can lay down those pieces and then do what i need to to connect them, so i may lose a little bit of exaggeration but the body doesn't look broken.

you can see that in action here, with this anniversary piece i did. my first sketch was only meant to get down expression, pose, and movement (i changed raven's completely, lmfao) and unfortunately i dont have anything for the steps inbetween because i think i refined on one layer. but i kept the vibe the same even after cleaning up the sketch and fixing the anatomy issues.

fur is one of the last things i draw when i draw cats. i like to get the body shape and movement down first, and then cover it with fur if i have to. i think this ref is a pretty good example of that

on the left is how i start most of my drawings, getting the pose down and everything where i want it. i make edits to this until i like the body shape (notice how the belly is much larger, and all of the limbs are thicker + the paws are big) then i use that sketch as guiding lines for all of the fur placement. the fur here ends up covering nearly all of the body, but it still looks fine because the anatomy was there to start with

i hope this helps anon skjfdhfkgjh ive never made a tutorial like this before. there's definitely better ones out there by other wc artists, but i dont have links to those posts on hand, maybe some of my followers can link them? good luck to you!! ill leave you with one last piece of advice you'll also hear a lot: just keep drawing! we all improve with time and practice, and are always learning and trying new things.

[dzpenumbra]

5/26/23

Oh geez, spaced out and lost track of time. It's 4:30 again.

Today I had therapy. I brought up all the shit I've been mulling over, and the panic moment I dealt with in last night's journal. He was happy to hear of my improvement in my ability to deal with those panic moments. They're definitely a lot harder to deal with when you're stoned... much more immersive and convincing... so at least I have that going for me in dealing with stupid trauma shit being set off by ghosts of my past popping back into my life.

I worked on the skull a bit today. A bit of a shift. I started to ink it, using tattoo ink. I'm hoping that was a good idea, that shit stains like a bastard. I was a little worried about it... not soaking into the bone. I have no idea if it will properly dye the bone or not. But I did it and I'm going to leave it overnight and see how it comes out. I just did some thick outlines around the eye sockets and lines connecting the eye sockets to the nasal cavity. Then I started doing pencil. I did a circle spot in the center top of the skull to leave blank, with about an 1/4" outline to it. Then... I was planning to do this organic bubble style abstract work, like what I've been doing in my sketchbook. So I decided to go with the design that drew attention to a specific spot the best - the one with small bubbles in the center that grow in size as they radiate out. That should create a pattern on the top of the skull that draws focus to the center, which I'll figure out when I get to it.

I was worried about the ink because I found some on the edge of my finger. And... if I smudge it? That's permanent. There's no "undoing" ink smudges. So yeah... I'm hoping I picked the right medium for this. Again... I guess we'll see tomorrow. But I'm definitely pretty committed here, because mixing different kinds of black ink rarely gives a good look, especially over time. There are lots of ways to make black ink, usually they're super dark blue, green or purple. You'll notice this when they fade, if you've ever gotten a tattoo, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So... mixing inks can give an unintended look over time.

However... it just occurred to me that... if this ink doesn't thoroughly stain... I might have a trick up my sleeve for removal. In the tattoo shop, we used to use isopropyl alcohol to remove tattoo ink from surfaces and to deal with spills and shit, and it actually worked pretty well. And I do have some sitting around. Good to have backup plans.

Since it's already late, I'm gonna take a pee break and then do tarot.

Same as last time, blind reading, 3-card spread, Past/Present/Future.

First Position - Past - Seven of Swords (Hidden dishonor, guilt, deception, manipulation.) Second Position - Present - Nine of Wands (Defense, guarding yourself. Suspicion, self-protection.  Need rest and recovery.) Third Position - Future - Ace of Cups (A new relationship and the accompanying surge of emotions.  Getting in touch with your feelings.  Matters of the heart.  A deepening bond.)

Alright, this one is interesting. Two cards I've never gotten before. Seven of Swords is a spooky one. But I think I get it. It's actually something that, despite how much I share on here, I'm not going to share. We all have our limits, I guess. And maybe I'll get to sharing it someday... So... the Past thread is... something from my past that I regret, that I'm ashamed of. And that thread has led to my Present state... being the Wounded Soldier... tired and beaten, guarded, defensive, suspicious, needing to heal. Super accurate. And where that thread is likely to lead? A likely future? A new connection, a new relationship, social and emotional growth. Which, I have to say... has already happened in a lot of ways.

I see the linear connection between all three, but what I am struggling with is... how? How do I go from the Nine of Wands to the Ace of Cups? What catalyzes it? What is my role in that? Maybe it's as simple as... resolving the Nine of Wands? Healing? Recovering? Growing past that state?

That's an interesting thought. Like... can I heal and stop being the wounded lonely suspicious hermit... without others?

That's what's catching me here... the Ace of Cups is a social card, right? I mean... not entirely, but like... it seems mostly symbolic of the massive burst of emotions you get from a new relationship, most of the cups are about emotions and relationship stuff. And relationships require other people... (duh) So it feels like I'm waiting on another person to break me free of this. But... is it possible that the Ace of Cups is sorta... my burst of emotions when I free myself from the prison I'm in? When I heal enough to be vulnerable with the world, and submit myself to its judgement?

And... Ace of Cups does not guarantee a happy ending, rather... it's crucially a beginning card. Ten of Cups is more of the happy ending card. So... it doesn't really indicate that the big emotion surge is going to go well, in a lot of ways it indicates that it's happening in the context of inexperience. But hey, that's not all doom and gloom. What's more memorable than a first date? The first time you have your significant other for dinner at your house for your first official date, and you kiss on the futon for the first time. 2009 and I remember it like it was yesterday. Inexperience means new and exciting. I really need to allow myself to be open to that.

So... the part I'm skipping over here, that's related through the common thread... is the Seven of Swords. The regret and guilt and shame. And that's really the key. The Seven of Swords is the reason I'm stuck in Nine of Wands... and being able to move forward from that can likely bring me to Ace of Cups. That's what I'm getting from this. And that would imply that the way to evolve forward is by finding peace with the Seven of Swords stuff. Being able to live with it, without it being a Dr. House limp, attitude and pill bottle.

Alright, that all makes sense. And... the sun's up. So... I'm off to bed.

[ravio-rants]

2 for any, uhh I cannot remember what it is but..7 for any, cause it’s my lucky number :smiles:

Why does your oc look the way they do? What are your reasons for their appearance?

gonna answer this for most of them bc its fun lol

Raide is actually way different than they originally were designed. she used to be a sona, or, my sona (ravio)'s opposite twin thing. i didnt like that idea anymore so i revamped him completely, and ended up mashing together "skull pattern bc its cool" "keep her hair similar" and "colors i like" and ending up with what we have now. oh, her hair actually originally was designed after a spatoon oc i had, and then i Hated drawing the hair so much that i never drew him, so, with my siblings advice, i made them wear a crown that looks similar to his old hair, and her new hair still has similar vibes but is much easier to draw.

Calen actually hasnt changed too much, to be honest. he used to be just an offbrand version of a character i liked from a fandom im no longer in, and because i had already made him kinda my own, i kept him around and changed him into a twili to match Raide. his colors are blue and gold because thats what his colors originally were, and his skin is tinted green because i didnt want All my twili to just be black and white. thats boring.

Vang was the first of the twins to be made, and was also my first twili oc, so she kinda became the outline for them. Her and her brother, Kalt, are supposed to look like siblings, but also look closer to Midna from canon, because they are part of the royal lineage, and i wanted them to match more with the canon looks we are given for twili.

Kalt is vang but to the left, design wise, honestly. they probably looked Very similar, if not identical before she transitioned, but neither of them minds. he has the same hair as The Hero (link from twilight princess) because he looks up to him and wants to be cool. (aka he started as just a twili Link design but i made him my own.)

(all of the twili are actually undergoing mild design changes currently. undecided if some of the new design choices will be part of an au or not, so i wont be explaining them here, since they arent complete yet anyways.)

Hobic the wizard design choices? uh. slutty gay wizard with his tits out. that was the whole design idea. also green. i dont think too deeply about these things, he's entirely a joke character.

The M Crew, Moss, Marble, and Media are actually mostly three colors. green, purple, and orange. Moss is Purple with green clothes, Marble is Green with orange clothes, and Media is Orange with purple clothes. the intent is to make them look fine on their own, but also like a fun group when put together. Media is supposed to look simplistic but kinda punk. (the end result is them looking like a bouncer at a concert but thats okay lol.) Moss is supposed to have a similar outfit to what i usually wear. letterman jacket, combat boots, ripped jeans. Marble.. marble was a struggle and a half and i dont like her outfit at all. she looks like she got a witch costume from spirit halloween and called it good, so i have to fix that.

Does your oc have any notable skills or good personality traits? Why did you give them those traits? Why do they exist in-universe?

hm. Raide is good at most forms of art. i gave them that skill because im a jack of all trades, and my oc's are almost always an extension of myself. Raide is a good artist in universe because she loves art a lot, and doesnt want to be a royal guard anyway, so why not try Every type of art while he finds out what they want to do? right?

Calen is good at mixing potions, and is pretty charismatic. honestly hes had these since being created so i dont know why he has them. as for in universe explaination: potions are his job, so hes been trained on how to make them(and he Has to know how to make potions.. because they keep him alive..) . charisma is also job related. hes a merchant of many wares (potions are just the ones he makes himself.), so he's gotten pretty good at being charming but honest. it helps people buy his shit.

this got long lmao- and those two are the only ones i could think of answers for quickly(they may or may not be my fav oc's of mine...) so if you wanna ask about other beans feel free!!

[awesomesaurous]

I decided to colour this. But... I remembered how hard it was to draw him, so... If i may ask... Do you have any, uh, tutorials on how to draw Maxwell? I am still struggling.

First off, this isn't a bad maxwell by any means! Yes, he is a pain to draw, especially when you're first starting with him. Second, I love how fun this is, and the colors, all of it! The rings around his head are such a neat idea - I didn't notice that in the first sketch!

If anything should make you feel better, it's that no one seems to have agreed on how to "properly" draw Maxwell. Look how much he varies in the official art:

And I personally prefer some of these more than others. My favorite would have to be the "Final Act" version of him:

this more than anything else is what made me love this character. The way I draw him usually differs from this, but the personality shown here is the basis for everything that came afterward.

As long as you have the identifying features that tell you it's Maxwell, then it's okay to modify the design one way or another. For me, everything starts with the head shape. His head is very polygonal - unlike Wilson, Maxwell's hair is mostly flat against his skull, so the shape of his head is the key to his silhouette. When in doubt, flatten the edges. I'll usually do the nose next, followed by the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth. Whether you choose to slick back his hair, leave the bangs/combover thing, or choose some other style, it's up to you.

As you can see in the timelapse, I'll usually go through a lot of false starts before I find a drawing that I like. I have many many pages of sketches where I'm just trying to understand his design.

I would suggest looking at an image you like, and make a drawing study of it, taking your time to play with it and understand why it works for you. You could even trace over the art in a paint program, or print it out and use tracing paper. Tracing gets a bad rap but it's very useful for learning. Focus on finding the volumes that help build him, as if you were drawing him from scratch.

But again, you're already doing quite well! If you keep drawing, you'll eventually feel more comfortable with it. Best of luck!

[moonlit-reveriee]

Baby Blue

technoblade x fem!reader

concept: techno is scared of ‘corrupting’ the reader, but the reader’s kinda into it...

content warning // NSFW, virgin!reader, very minor angst?, small argument that gets resolved

listen to this while you read: BBBlue (Single) by Olivver the Kid

(this fic was heavily inspired by the lyrics of this song, so i highly recommended giving it a listen!)

───※ ·❆· ※───

When Techno found out you were a virgin, he was terrified. Not necessarily of the thought itself, but of the implications.

He’d never forget the look on your face when you told him. You tried to be casual about it, but he knew you well enough to spot the dusting of pink across your cheeks. You nuzzled yourself closer into his side. Whether out of embarrassment or something else entirely, he couldn’t tell. All he could feel was his heart dropping as the voices chanted at him to “ruin her”

Of course you, his pure sweet angel, would be a virgin. He once again crumbled under the idea that you had chosen him. How on earth could a person like you even think of being with a beast like him. Yet alone, giving up your virginity to him.

He hated how horribly turned on he was by the thought of taking it.

The voices had been relentless about it ever since. They were hyper focused on your every move, twisting every thought of his into something promiscuous. When you rolled out of bed in the morning and stretched, a small sigh escaping your lips, it was endless cries of “make her do that again” “you should fuck those moans out of her” “make her scream”

While making breakfast together in the morning, they wouldn’t stop telling him to “bend her over the counter” “take it right here”

Even at times where he was alone, the voices preoccupied him with endless thoughts of you. He was fairly certain they had forced him to imagine every possible way in which he could have you. “imagine fucking her against the wall” “you can be gentle for the first time y’know” “she’d feel so good writhing underneath us” “press her face into the mattress instead” “make her get on her knees and suck you off” “she’ll be such a pretty little slut for us”

He tried to take care of himself as often as he could, but it was becoming impossible to keep up with. There were only so many times a day he could jerk himself off alone behind locked doors. He was desperate, and sexually frustrated to say the least.

He felt disgusting for it.

After a week of this torment, he could barely even look at you yet alone touch you without the voices and his own guilt pounding against his skull. You couldn’t even think about broaching the subject again, because he was avoiding physical contact like the plague. He wouldn’t come to bed until he knew you were asleep, and would leave long before you woke.

As much as he tried to hide it, you could tell he was tired. Something was wrong, but you knew that he’d never just tell you about his problems unprompted. Techno was insufferably stubborn in that way. After several days of avoiding your gaze and leaning away from your touch, you chose to confront him.

“Techno”, you called for his attention quietly, trying to sound stern while remaining gentle with him. He didn’t turn to fully face you, but he glanced at the spot on the wall just above your head.

You struggled to find the words you wanted to say, so you settled on telling him, “Techno, you look tired.”

He turned his attention away from you. “Just a lot of work around the house this week. I’ll be fine after I rest.”

“Then come to bed with me.” You saw the way his body tensed and tilted away from you at that simple suggestion.

“I just need to write a couple letters first. You can go ahead of me.”

“Techno...”, you whined, daring to take a step closer to him. He gave you an almost panicked look, “why does it feel like you’ve been avoiding me?”

“I haven’t been avoiding you”, he responded quickly, trying to look through you instead of at you.

“Yes you have”, you responded firmly. A flash of guilt washed over his face at your tone. “You haven’t kissed or touched me for nearly a week now. I don’t even know for sure if you sleep in the same bed as me anymore. Fuck, you barely even talk to me.”

Angry tears threatened to spill down your cheeks, but you wanted to hold them in. Techno felt his chest tighten at the sight of it. He instinctively turned and reached out to comfort you, but forced himself to freeze.

“There”, you said, gesturing towards him, “just like that. You’re stopping yourself. Why are you doing that?”

He repeatedly opened and closed his fists at his side, wanting to have any conversation other than this one.

“[y/n], there’s just a lot going on in my mind right now”, he said. It wasn’t a complete lie. “I just need to work though it.”

“Then let me help you.”

“No”, he responded a little too quickly, “I- I mean, I just don’t want to talk about it with you yet...”

“Why not?”, you retorted, trying to squeeze any information you could out of him.

“I just don’t, okay? It’s uncomfortable, I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

“... is this about me being a virgin?”

“I never said that”, he replied, but the tension in his shoulders was enough to tip you off.

“Ah geez Technoblade, if it was that much of a problem for ya, you should have just told me”, you said sarcastically, “instead of avoiding all physical contact for a like week straight!”

“It’s not a problem, [y/n].”

“Certainly doesn’t feel that way.”

Techno huffed in frustration, grabbing a fistful of his hair at the root. He wasn’t sure if he was more upset with himself, or the fact that a few of the voices were still begging him to “please fuck her already”

“Love, I wasn’t avoiding you because I didn’t want it. They”, he tapped a finger against the side of his skull, “they want it so badly. It’s driving me insane.”

He breathed in and out shakily, trying to gauge your expression in the brief moments before he continued.

“I’m a monster. I’ve spilt more blood than anyone every should in a single lifetime. My appearance is more beast than man.”

He looked up briefly to find you staring right at him, a tight-lipped frown upon your face.

“What does that have to do with any of this?”

“I- ... I don’t want to corrupt your innocence”, he admitted.

“What on earth do you mean by that?”

“[y/n], you’re so perfect”, he answered almost breathlessly, “you’re so kind and so pure. Just living with me does enough to taint your reputation, I don’t wanna-“

He cut himself off to swallow thickly. He almost seemed scared of the words he was going to say next.

“I don’t want to ruin this part of you either...”

A heavy silence filled the tiny sitting room of techno’s cottage. In those few seconds, your eyes widened ever so slightly as his words suddenly clicked in your mind. This hulking boar of a man, an undisputed war criminal, was scared. He was scared of damaging you, your reputation, or your recently revealed ‘innocence’. Compared to himself, he saw you as a pure being who could be tainted by unwholesome thoughts.

If what he said about the voices was true, then his actions of the past few days would’ve made sense for him.

“Oh techno...”, you muttered softly, tentatively placing a hand on his jaw. His posture was curled inward, making him look small despite his size. He was stiff at first, but allowed you to lift his gaze to meet yours. He searched your eyes desperately for an indication of your reaction. You gave him a reassuring smile.

“Do you remember when we first met?”

A small wave of confusion washed over his face, but he nodded anyways. “It was at the festival...”

“That’s right”, you said, moving the hand on his face down to rest over his shoulder, “and do you remember what I did that day?”

“You threw an axe into Schlatt’s shoulder”, he answered, watching as the scene played out in his memory.

You lived with Niki in her bakery at the time, and witnessed firsthand the injustice she faced during Schlatt’s presidency. As the chaos after Tubbo’s execution occurred, you took the opportunity to hurl your axe where Schlatt stood upon his podium. The blow wasn’t fatal, but that wasn’t necessarily your goal. You just wanted to see the man in pain.

“It was a lucky shot really”, you admitted, “I wasn’t even aiming properly.” That managed to draw a small smile onto Techno’s lips.

“And do you remember”, you continued, “when I tried to confront the Butcher Army by myself?”

He grimaced at the thought. You had told him you just needed to make a quick trip to L’manburg for some supplies, leaving him at home alone to recover from the previous day’s events. You returned that evening with a sprained wrist and a couple large bruises forming on your body. None of them were trying to kill you, but you took a pretty good beating from Quackity just for trying to confront them.

“Why are you bringing all of this up now?”, he asked.

“Because”, you said, “this is the evidence that will support my next point.”

He looked bewildered by that statement, but continued to listen.

“I’m not a perfect person”, you resumed, “I have blood on my hands just like you do. I know it’s hard to compare to you, but I’m not devoid of my own sins. I can be mean, I’ve hurt people. I’m not a pure, angelic being who would quiver at a single inappropriate thought. I think you forget that sometimes.”

He let your words swirl around in his head; he couldn’t deny the logic in them. The evidence prevented him from denying the truth of your statement. He could almost be mad that you’d talked him into a corner, but he was more overjoyed at the fact that you knew him well enough to do so.

“And you know...”, you spoke quietly, letting your hand fall down to rest on his chest, “if you did somehow ‘corrupt my innocence’ as you say... I really wouldn’t mind that.”

Techno’s breath hitched in his throat. There were a brief few moments, maybe minutes, where he just stared at you. Then his lips were on yours; sudden and clumsy, but passionate. You gripped the fabric of his shirt as he grabbed at your waist, desperate to have you in his arms again.

“I’m sorry, I had to”, he muttered, his lips left hovering a hair’s breadth away from yours.

“You’re so silly sometimes”, you sighed affectionately, rubbing small circles into his collarbone. He gave you a gentle smirk before pressing another kiss into your lips.

“I’m sorry darling, I really am”, he said as he drew you into a tight hug. He took in your scent and the feel of your skin for the first time in days. It felt like he could survive off the feeling of your arms wrapped around his body alone. He wondered why he ever let himself be depraved of this.

“You know I trust you, right?”, you spoke with your face pressed into his chest.

“I’m not sure why, but yes.”

You decided not to reprimand him for saying that. You could help him unpack all that later. Instead, you brought your head up to whisper in his ear.

“You have my full and unconditional consent to take my virginity whenever you’re ready.”

Techno inhaled and held his breath, though for what, he wasn’t sure. It took a while for the full weight of those words to sink in. He leaned back to stare at your face, bringing one of his large and shaky hands up to cup your cheek.

“Are you sure?”, his eyes were wide with trepidation, practically pleading with you to tell him the truth. You leaned into his palm, indulging in the feeling of his skin on yours.

“I want you, techno. I’ll wait as long as you need me to.”

Techno was lost in your words. The sudden absence of guilt left his heart light and airy in his chest. For the first time in days, the voices were only a gentle murmur.

“she’s so beautiful” “she wants you” “make her feel good” “show her how special she is” “make her smile” “she’ll be so pretty” “she’s always pretty” “be gentle, no need to rush”

“make love to her”

“... I think I’m ready now.”

───※ ·❆· ※───

ayyyy guess who finally finished writing something!!!

parts of this feel a little rushed but ehhhhhh i was just excited to finally post it. i looove writing techno as an extremely self-conscious character who’s too caught up in their own head to see how ridiculous they’re being. so, this was a treat for me to write

i hope you enjoyed :D

-moonlight