#Art ask

[thenmichael]

Can you draw ALttP? Maybe various poses with his pegasus boots?

This has been in my inbox for longer than I’d like to admit, but

I finally did it

So

Yay

[nn-ee-zz]

Hiii, I was just wandering if you wouldn’t mind blabbing about the symbolism and stuff behind some of your design choices with the horse men that you might not have mentioned. Like with pestilence and death specifically I feel like there’s a lot of symbolism I’m picking up on without fully understanding. Like with Death’s sickle, both a homage to the classic scythe and a nod to the “reaping/harvesting” of souls. And with pestilence I feel like there’s something that I’m skirting around without grasping. The multiple legs strike me as a deliberate similarity to insects, and if I’m right I think that the rider is bound in a body bag type deal, similar to how disease and pestilence is so often both spread through the improper disposal of body’s, and how wide spread pestilence leads to mass graves filled with disease and the horrible anonymity that comes with being just one face in a pit of hundreds etc? All of this is, ofc, to say that I’ve adored your series of the horsemen so far and would go absolutely rabid for some insight on some of your design choices<3

My horsemen of the apocalypse! I will add the original commentary and some extras, less about the symbolism and more about what brought me to design them the way I did.

The symbolism is for you to chose, there is no wrong answer.

WAR

I can't bring myself to represent war with a cool knight. It's horror. War is a bound child crowned with shrapnel, tied to a wounded horse that is being pulled forward by unseen people.

I've read a handful of books regarding war. A lost quote said that it should be shown as horror, it should make generals vomit, it should make you sick. I haven't seen war but my family has.

It was the first horseman I've designed, and it was in my sketchbook for months (maybe over a year, maybe even more) before I had the courage to draw it. I was really scared about how people would react to a mutilated child.

Recommended reading: The Red Crown - Mikhail Bulgakov, a short story about a man coping with the loss of his brother in the war

FAMINE

Someone who lived thro a famine shared that their head was only occupied with thoughts of food. Famine consumes your mind. All animals were eaten. Neighbors gave their pets away cuz they couldn't do it themselves. People walked around town as if in a dazed dream, slowly

Recommended reading: The Last Witnesses - Svetlana Alexievitch, a collection of testimonials of people who were children when WW2 began. Some quotes below;

'''A cat! A cat!' Other children saw it and started chasing it. The educators were local habitants, looked at us as if we were insane. In Leningrad there were no living cats left...A living cat was a dream. Food for one month...We talked about it, but they didn't believe us.''

''During the first year of evacuation, we didn't notice nature, everything that was nature provoked in us only one desire - taste to see if it's edible. Only a year later I noticed the beauty of the Urals''

''I dreamt of catching a sparrow and eating it...''

''A candle burns and the shopgirl cuts the bread pieces. People follow her with their gaze. Her every movement...with burning eyes...crazed...and all that in silence.''

''People walked slowly through the city like shadows. Like in a dream...a deep dream...As in, you see it, but you think you're seeing a dream. Those sluggish movements...floating...As if a person walked on water and not on land.''

''In Leningrad there are a lot of monuments, but one is missing that should exist. They forgot about it. The monument to the dogs of the seige. Dear doggy, forgive me...''

I don't like talking about it. It made no sense to draw Famine with a horse.

PESTILENCE

Based on the notes of a doctor who said the most frightening thing about viral disease was how it didn’t frighten. People didn’t know or didn't care. They lived and spread until it was too late and they became another name on the record

The clothing being made out of shredding plastic is no coincidence; pollution is a form of pestilence too

Recommended reading: Notes from a Countryside Doctor - Mikhail Bulgakov. Roughly translated quote below;

''Ah, I verified that here syphilis was frightening precisely because it did not frighten. That was why I evoked that woman.* I remembered her with a kind of affectionate respect: because she had been afraid. But she was the only one!''

*Early in the chapter, doctor mentions a woman that appeared in the clinic with a letter from her soldier husband, where he wrote that he had syphilis and told her she should go to the doctor too.

DEATH

Recommended reading: Voices of Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievitch. The Death of Ivan Ilitch - Lev Tolstoi

“Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one's ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone - the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there's no fairness on earth.”

Death is the only horseman that doesn’t need to mount their horse; they will reach everyone eventually. Who is the saddle for then? Open ended question because this one you have to figure out personally

Many people pointed out how the horse is a Clydesdale. Good eyes! I purposefully asked a friend to guide me towards what type of horses are the sturdiest and most-friendly looking. I drew the horse grazing. It's not injured, it doesn't gallop. It's grazing peacefully because life moves on.

This is the only design that had a painting serve as a base - The Reaper, by Alexey Venetsianov. Not much or nothing at all is written about, I saw it in a book. It is a literal reaper but it haunted me, as if it's portraying more than a person.

The choice to make it a woman was due to a book about a crematory (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty) that connected women to death because everyone born is bound to die.

Ahhh, I don't want to give it all away. It's fun to figure things out. About them all. From the enviroment, to the movement, to the horses themselves. Many people even mentioned details that I did not notice and didn't add purposefully that were so inspired and amazing. I truly mean that the interpretations of the public enrich the works even more than my own words. And it's an honor to share that work with everyone.

Thank you anon!

[phoenixisobsessed]

HAIIII sorry im sending you difficult videos again but this would be so funny as rodimus gjskdj https://www.tumblr.com/bitegore/767832010766106624?source=share

even if you dont want to draw it like i feel like i want to send this to you just so you can imagine it HAHA

I’m finally mf done…after NINE DAYS OF WORK… But y’all seem to love the videos + they’re funny so HEHE. Pretty sure this ask was literally sent in the day after I saw it for the first time xD so YAAAAY YAAAY FINALLY DONE YIPPEEEE!!!! And thanks to those who tuned into the 5 HOUR STREAM today. It was VERY awsom.

[startheskelaton]

Megatron:"Sparkplug...... My sweetest star in the whole universe. I'm asking this with the bottom of my spark.....................

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THESE TWO?!?!(points at Soundblaster and Nightflyer) ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME AND YOUR POOR MOTHER CRY?!?!?!"

Sparkplug:"Um..... welllllllllll...... I find them both equally............aesthetically pleasing to me....."

Megatron:"....... Aesthetically...... pleasing....... AESTHETICALLY PLEASING?!?!

I promise I’m not having favoritism towards this user, I just wanted to do the asks they sent in

[cable-salamdr]

No. Draw more furries. Ras.

>:/

I cheated and drew Arin as well. Fuck you I was thinking of someone sending exactly something like that.

[chiliger]

@starlightandtea Thank you 💖

What if the medics had a tradition of welcoming newly decanted clones, and they passed it on to the cadets learning under them?

[hodinodi]

i cant resist drawing more of THEE maya amano!

[peanutheaddd]

I know artist hate this question, but you are so chill so I was like ,,Let's give it a shot": Do you have any tips about learning art?

Things like shading and wrinkles would be especially nice, I overthink about this thinks too much and it keeps blocking me from the progress and I stuck in the same place for like 5 years with it plz I begging you the way you draw wrinkles is very yummy

i actually dont know why artists hate this question 😭😭 same w getting asked about brushes . i mean they probs have a reason but idk what it is LOL . im gen flattered u think my art is good enough to ask for advice LOLLLLL but heres a guide ! ill js do shading and wrinkles .. i have another post in drafts abt how i study art in general LOL

if theres one thing to take away from this its copy lots and lots and lots of pictures and everntually itll start making sense. almost everything i do in my life is by way of brute force including art LOL.

again . this is just how i do things PERSONALLY. so take it w a grain of salt . it might not work for you . and thats fine . youll figure out smth that works eventually . BUT i hope it helps regardless.

i totally understand the struggle with being stuck and overthinking LOL ultimately you really js have to embrace the fuck it we ball mindset i fear . if you keep staying scared of making bad art youre doomed to forever make bad art . youll never improve.

"theres no such thing as bad art" has never helped me personally bc i dont actually give a shit if theres no such thing as bad art . if i think my art is bad then i think its bad . saying that bad art doesnt exist doesnt change anything at all . the way i think about it is "ok. my art is bad yes. and thats too bad. but i can improve even just by 0.01% if i do a study . so im gonna do that" . so every time i feel bad about my art i do a study . and ultimately all of those individual studies add up and thats probably why my art level is at the level it is today . 😭😭

u got this man . art isnt easy at all but its rewarding and most importantly it is Fun . if u improve enough to the point that u dont constantly hate ur art then art becomes the most fun thing in the world . thats why i draw so much . it feels like doing a line of coke . instant dopamine hit

[ebi-noodle-doodles]

Miku deserves a box of chocolates bc she's so sweet!

🍫

[h0use-fly]

What’s your process for coming up with OCs? I struggle with it so much even though I really want little guys and characters to play around with!!

okay to start off i am not a professional and have noooo clue what i’m doing

i skip the lines and sketches i KNOW that sound dumbness but trust

i block out shapes i find attractive and throw in bits of everything i like at the moment (changes from day to day) these are probs o some of my best examples of that, especially the 2nd ^^

[nn-ee-zz]

Does your art style have a name/is it heavily inspired by a named art style? I've encountered other art with similar vibes in various places (Slay the Princess gives me the same feeling) but I don't know what to search to find more of it. Something about it just scratches my brain and I want to mimic it but I can't figure out what the style is called or where to go to figure out how to draw in the same way

Good question!

I don't follow any specific style guidelines. I draw according go what feels right to me, prioritizing shapes/silhouettes and values over rendering and realism. I was very inspired by the works of Yoji Shinkawa (the bold strokes) and Ayami Kojima (the inked works) but maybe that is more reflected in my thought process than in my art. How I approach things.

I'd love to hear everyone's else's opinion on how one would categorize my art and if there's anyone who draws similarly

(I am aware that the "what type of art is this" is often used for AI people to train their toys but I feel like anon is genuine)

Thanks!

[phoenixisobsessed]

Can I ask for a wholesome bonding moment of Rubble and Bumblebee but in Cyberverse? They deserve it

Went a lil crazy on this one…wheops.

[startheskelaton]

STARRRRR,GIVE ME MORE FUCKED UP PARENT DYNAMIC TFA MEGATRON AND MY LIFEEEE IS YOURSSSSSS

I hope this satisfies

[cable-salamdr]

Yuriful morning to you all. Have some Wolfcat requests from the discord from yesterday. In order:

@chebyshevptera @hellzballz @jalluzas-ferney @rainofthetwilight @sunnyelios

[chiliger]

If it sparks joy, requesting vader, 2224, and a tooka shenanigans?

This is the only way things would go with a tooka with these two. Other than 2224 insisting on calling it a cat because “it sounds better”. totally not to annoy vader