artofthedestroyer

[artofthedestroyer]

My Romance Experience in Cyberpunk 2077 with a Female V.

Hooking up with Judy:

Hooking up with Meredith:

Trying and failing to hook up with Panam:

Why couldn’t we romance all the ladies...

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Some wave studies, trying to capture the shape and movement. It’s been super warm here so it felt like a good time to post some soothing watery stuff. 

Step-by-step with instructions and tips on how I painted these is available through my patreon! https://patreon.com/loish

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A small glow tutorial I put together for my Patrons! 

This is just how I do it, and it can be edited easily. 

[[ Patreon.com/Helixel ]]

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Here’s the first half of slides from my comic class on Lettering! 

Rest of the slides: https://gingersnappish.tumblr.com/post/616487287636803584/the-rest-of-the-comic-lettering-slides-first

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What to do when your characters stop acting how they should

We’ve all been there. You’re breezing through a draft and all of a sudden a character does something or says something that they really shouldn’t, or maybe they’ve taken on an entirely new personality from when you were writing them yesterday.

Whatever the case, it’s frustrating as hell. So, how are we, the writers, supposed to handle this?

The first thing you need to do is stop writing and take a hard look at what happened. I know that this is often difficult for us to hear and come to terms with, but our characters really don’t just do whatever they feel like - we’ve crafted them and built a story around them (or built them for a story), which means that we are 100% fully in control of them. When your character does something unexpected that’s still in character, then that means that you’ve built them up to a place where writing them is subconscious (yay!). However, when your character does something unexpected that’s entirely ooc, that means that you took a misstep somewhere. But that’s okay! These things are perfectly fixable.

Scenario 1: A side character has a sudden and complete personality switch in a scene (ex. your MC’s love interest suddenly went from being indifferent and full of snark to being incredibly tender and sympathetic to your weeping MC). 

What happened: Probably one of two things (though maybe both). You either gave the scene to the wrong character, or you haven’t built up the Love Interest enough to allow for this sudden soft side. 

How to fix it, part 1: Rewrite - just a little. If you gave the scene to the wrong character, it’s easy to switch out. Maybe that fits in the same spot, or maybe it doesn’t. If MC is alone with character A when they start crying, but they really need to be alone with character B (who will comfort them and still be in character), then the crying scene should move places in the draft and be replaced with some different form of dialogue between MC and character A. Or, maybe (no one wants to hear this, sorry), you need to cut the scene entirely. MC is allowed to cry by themself, or maybe MC doesn’t need to cry on-page at all. Cutting the scene is always an option, though no one likes to kill their darlings. 

How to fix it, part 2: Rewrite - a bit more. If this is going to be a groundbreaking moment™ between MC and Love Interest, but Love Interest showing this kind of softness seems uncharacteristic and out of place, then you’ve missed some character building within the draft itself. Maybe this scene makes sense in your head - you know that Love Interest has a soft side, but clearly the draft is looking at you like “no???? Love Interest is rude™” or you wouldn’t be having an issue. So to solve this problem, you’re going to have to add in instances of foreshadowing prior to the scene. Maybe Love Interest has a younger sibling and MC sees them being nice to them. Whatever you decide on, just make it so that an average reader will be able to see this coming (also imo for this exact situation, don’t let Love Interest immediately be tender to MC. it’ll feel more natural to the reader if Love Interest doesn’t want to be vulnerable right away but slowly softens as MC keeps crying).

Scenario 2: You change an aspect of the plot (at any point in the drafting process) and your character (or multiple characters) change dramatically (ex. you decide that instead of MC meeting character A at the beginning of act 1, MC should meet character A at the end of act 1 and now MC’s personality has taken a downswing).

What happened: You were relying too much on character A to guide your MC’s personality (a.k.a. MC isn’t developed enough to stand alone). 

How to fix it: Back to the drawing board (sort of). If your MC’s personality changes dramatically every time you move something around in the plot or their backstory, then you need to stop writing and aim your diligence at your MC. Basically, they just need to be fleshed out more. No more “their favorite color is green and they like rock music and they had their first kiss when they were 16.” That’s too surface, especially for an MC. If their personality isn’t pinned down for you yet, it’s time to start thinking about their backstory - and I mean all of it. When they were 4 and fell off their bike and scraped their knee, did they get back up or did they get scared and refuse to try again? Go through their life, bit by bit, thinking of anything that could shape their personality. If it helps to create a timeline, do so. If it helps to write it all out, do so. Anything to get you more centered on them. Once you have a good grasp of their backstory, their personality should be evident through how they responded to circumstances throughout their life. The takeaway here is: if moving things in your story affect your characters more than your plot, you have a character problem, not a plot problem.

Scenario 3: You’ve finished a couple drafts and you’re ready to go for a full rewrite, but your characters (who have spent an entire novel developing and persevering through the trials you’ve thrown at them), now want to start the book as developed as they ended (ex. MC who learned how to perfectly control their magic by the end of the book can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that they can’t use their magic very well at the beginning). 

What happened: You didn’t wait long enough before you started the rewrite.

How to fix it: Stop writing! Go read a book, or a whole series. Start writing a different wip. Take up a different hobby to fill the space this wip has created. Just don’t write!!! At this point, you should not be going back through for a rewrite until you’ve pretty much forgotten about your wip. Wait until the characters are a little further back in your mind - until you don’t remember every twist and turn you put in your story. Just don’t start your rewrite until you’ve forgotten how your characters behaved when it ended.

What does this boil down to, then? Ultimately, you are in charge of your characters. You need to have a grasp on their personality and progression to be able to mitigate any changes you need to make to your wip. Your characters really, honestly don’t have a mind of their own, so when they start acting up, it’s time for you to put down the pen (metaphorically or not) and start problem solving. It’s always fixable.

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-FINALLY- tis done. 

This image will be available for my patrons for November! And the Photoshop file is rearing to go with this too.  A few of you have been asking for prints. If I get a higher population of folks who would -want- a print of this, I’ll likely be selling physical prints on a nice 11 by 17 size paper. But I’ll need more info on that before we go forward. 

Oh my dear Vlad and Lisa. I wanted better for them so dearly. Regardless of whatever the eventual third season entails, I would love to see them in the domestic vein. 

[artofthedestroyer]

Fairy Queen costume, Iolanthe, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, 1977. Designed by Bruno Santini

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nobody:

wlws, completely unprompted:

[artofthedestroyer]

I sure love being sick and having to take cough syrup in such fantastic flavors as

limes at their own funeral

the festering corpse of a cherry

the broken hopes and dreams of various berries

sunshine twinkling on the apocalyptic wasteland of a post-nuclear war hellscape

death

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How I add light :D

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I’m sure a ton of people already know how to do this, but I only learned recently, so I wanted to share one of my favorite thumbnailing tricks! Color matching is SUPER helpful to quickly map out potential color schemes :D

[EDIT] this is in Adobe Photoshop, sorry for forgetting to mention that!

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More drawing from references

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Headshot sketch for @inakuchan !

She's forever tired, and so is her sona.

Hope ya like it bby ♡

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Last sketch for tonight! Decided to try drawing Yang from RWBY ovo

I've only once tried drawing any of the RWBY girls (specifically Blake) so I'm sorry if this looks bad 😅

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What if... You lost your blue hair ribbon... So I gave you mine ? Haha, just kinding... Unless...?

I wanted to draw Yasha with Beau’s ribbon for sooo long (I have so many headcanons related to Yasha’s hair you have no idea) they’re so soft together.

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jealous