#One pen is very smooth and I think I used it in styles a and d

[h3lian]

I’m torn between what quick chibi style I should offer for my commissions. The plan so far is to try reopen on Saturday or Sunday, I’m just picking through what art to pick for the example displays now ehehehe. Let me know which style is better suited for quick 15$ chibis!

To clarify as well, they will be quickly flat coloured with some minimal shading as shown in the last picture ( Style D ). These are examples of chibi styles I’ve done over the years is all.

[ink-and-dagger]

What if Astrid find a pic of young Silco by accident hehhehehehhehehehehhe

Snapshot

A Drink With Me ficlet

870 words || Established relationship || Silco x Astrid (but can be read as gen f!reader) || SFW but suggestive || MDNI

“Oh my Gods.”

“What?”

“Oh. My Gods.”

Time has stripped the photograph between your fingers of its glossy sheen and has left the edges blunt and frayed, but you would recognise those features anywhere; no less sharp nor striking through the faded sepia.

“This is you.”

It had slipped from between two ledgers as you’d perused Silco’s bookshelves – an activity more to entertain your idle hands than a genuine search for reading material. The image itself is simple and candid: A young man, seemingly oblivious to the fact his portrait is being taken, sat at a familiar bar, with eyes downcast toward a spread of papers.

That same man looks up at you now from a very similar spread of papers. “What is?”

“This.” You drift over to his desk and perch on its edge, all the while unable to tear your gaze from the photo in your hands. The pitch dark hair swept back into a low bun. The familiar strays – the same ones that even now will always be the first to escape any styling under the combing of agitated fingers – falling forward into his face, only far longer and thicker than you’re used to. His skin, unblemished and smooth, save for the chronic furrow between his brows – etched there long before time and tragedy ravaged the rest.

Silco hums absently; an indication that he acknowledges your discovery but finds little interest in it. You can imagine the man in the photograph making the exact same noise, were someone to distract him from his paperwork for a reason he deemed benign. You flip the photo over. No date.

“How old are you here?”

Silco exhales through his nose, places his pen down with a pointed clack, and extends his hand wordlessly toward you.

“Hah! Do you think I’m wet behind the ears?” you hold the photograph out of his reach, “You can tell just fine from over there thank you very much.”

He cuts you a scathing glance, before leaning forward in his chair with a foreboding creak to peer more closely at the image. His scarred lips purse slightly in thought.

“Mid–late twenties. I can’t say for certain.”

“You were hot.”

“Were?”

“Were and are,” you coo, reclining backwards over the desk into his space, one elbow pitched on his paperwork to hold your weight whilst you flap the photograph in front of his face, “Can I keep this?”

“For what reason?”

“Dirty ones.”

“Hardly necessary,” Silco says, the very corner of his mouth creasing upwards as he catches your wrist to halt your photo-flapping, “You have access to the real thing.”

“True, true, and you can be sure I’ll continue taking advantage of that.” You grin, shoving your captured, photo-wielding arm a little closer to him in emphasis, “But right now I’m talking about some alone time with this guy.”

Silco scoffs under his breath and releases your wrist. You twist onto your front, weight propped on both elbows as you admire the photograph in your grip. You trace a finger down the slender throat of the man in the photo, over the generous wedge of chest exposed by his open crimson collar.

“D’you think he’d notice me? If I came into that bar?”

“Oh I’m certain he would.”

“Yeah?” You lift your gaze from the man in the photo to the one before you – as equally breathtaking. More so. You catch your lower lip between your teeth. “What line would he use?”

Silco hums, low and thoughtful, leaning forward in his chair, closing in on your space. He picks up his abandoned pen, briefly twirling the implement until it’s poised between his elegant fingers like a cigarette. Nib safely facing his own palm.

“After downing the dregs of his drink for courage... he would have approached you.”

With sensual tenderness, he brushes the barrel of his pen along your cheek, warmed metal against warmer skin. Catching at the curve of your jawline, and tracing over your pulse in a way that makes it fumble a beat.

“Cast his gaze over each of your pretty, pretty features. One by one,” he murmurs, slowly drawing the end of the pen down your jugular, down the slope of your collar bone, to leisurely trail through the cut of your cleavage. The corner of your mouth hooks up. The warmth low in your belly coils a little tighter.

“He would have leaned in close,” Silco whispers, demonstrating just so, “Close enough that you’d almost taste the whiskey on his breath.”

Blunt metal drags a purposeful line up your throat, and your lips part softly as he tilts your face toward his with the barrel of his pen flat and firm beneath your chin.

“And asked you – very nicely – to stop leaning on his paperwork.”

You press your tongue against the inside of your cheek while Silco’s dual eyes sizzle with smug mirth. It’d be unthinkable, really – to forfeit either one for the sake of a matching pair.

You straighten and push off his desk, hips swaying as you saunter over to the bedroom with the photograph in hand.

“Well,” you say, pausing in the threshold and turning to him with a smirk, “If you need us, you know where we’ll be.”

[maxlarens]

Driver!reader and oscar starting the race from p1&p2 and before they put their helmets and stuff they kiss one last time on the grid and people go like "awwwww" because it was somehow filmed

i feel like u sent this in to be like a concept or something but I HAD to write it. i’ve been writing for lando so much lately i’ve very much been missing oscar + driver!reader. plus i’ve not ever written them in an established relationship before!

It’s not like you and Oscar are a secret.

It might have been easier that way, to keep your relationship from the public’s prying eyes, but it’s not really your style. It’s not Oscar’s either.

Being public comes with its problems— questions from the media, awkward interviews, your respective PR teams going a little buck wild, extra contracts and NDAs to sign— but it also has its benefits.

You like be able to talk about him, like being able to call him your boyfriend. ‘Oscar Piastri, the driver for McLaren? Yeah, that’s my boyfriend’. You like hearing him say things about you, praise your driving skills, talk about you as a rival and as his girlfriend. It’s all you can do to stop grinning like a madwoman whenever you’re in his vicinity. You equally like that the press can’t comment meaningfully on it, can’t speculate wildly about the nature of your relationship when you’ve made it clear.

Some people hate it. They think you’re a silly little girl with her head full of romantic notions. No room for skill, for ruthlessness. Which is funny, given that Oscar receives only praise for “bagging you”. You think they’re just jealous; if not of the fact that Oscar’s dating you and not them, then of your duality. The way you can love Oscar wholeheartedly and also race Oscar wholeheartedly.

They’re not mutually exclusive in your experience.

Naturally, there’s a massive buzz about you and Oscar being P1-P2 on the starting grid.

You’re not particularly surprised. The MCL’s had been performing well all through practice, just as you and Lewis had. You pull out pole in quail, fastest Q1 and Q2, with Oscar hot on your tail. There’s a barrage of bizarre questions in the media pen,

Do you think Oscar’s grid position will impact your performance during the race? Why would it?

Will this affect your relationship with Oscar? No.

What happens if one of you wins and the other doesn’t? The same thing that happens every time anyone wins ever?

You’re confused by it. Bordering on snarky and sarcastic the fifth time someone asks if you and Oscar might break up over this. Rolling your eyes, thinking your true feelings are obvious, you tell some Italian journalist that yeah no we might break up if he doesn’t let me win.

It’s funny, objectively it’s hilarious. You and Oscar laugh over it later that afternoon. Send the clip to a group chat you’re in with a few drivers closer to your age. And so what if it’s still funny when clickbait articles and gossip sites start saying that the two of you have broken up.

There’s even more buzz about it by the morning of the race. Journalists you’ve already talked to have suddenly become convinced that you and Oscar are on the rocks. You can’t help but play into it a bit— partially for the benefit of your PR team— arriving separately, forgoing the couple snap that you usually grace Kym Illman with, giving vague no-comment answers when the media accost you.

Maybe it’s a little childish, a little dramatic. But it serves them right for jumping to conclusions.

You avoid any presenters on the grid walk, sinking into the protective circle made by your engineers. Staying behind the roped off areas until about 10 minutes to race start when you finally hop over the MCL in P2.

Oscar’s drinking water, looking smug when you push through McLaren engineers, so used to your continued presence that they let you in with ease.

“Hey,” you greet, reaching out to smooth the collar of his fireproofs, “How’s it goin’?”

“Mm,” he hums, cutting a glance behind you, which you take to mean that there are cameras trained on the two of you, a reporter trying to get your attention maybe, “I’d be better if I was on pole.”

You hiss mockingly, “Yeah, too bad. You gonna break up with me about it?”

He raises an eyebrow, lashes brushing his cheekbones as he looks down at you, “I didn’t know you read F1 gossip sites?”

You shrug in response, “Don’t need to. The media make enough noise about it.”

He hums again, smile pulling at his mouth while someone from Mercedes shouts at you to get back. Rachel probably. You should go, you really should. But Oscar’s so close and so cute in those black fireproofs.

“Good luck,” you say,

leaning forward to kiss him, hand on the back of his head. A slip of tongue, not so much to be publicly obscene, but enough to leave him wanting,

“You’ll need it.”

You hear the sweet sound of him laughing as you slip away, back to where your car is sitting on pole. Ignoring the reporter dogging at your heels for a comment you don’t really need to give.

like maybe unrealistic. who cares!

[dresshistorynerd]

Sewing 1890s Day Dress in Doll Scale

I went slightly overboard with this second historical doll project. Here's my first one. The style is from around 1897 and more of a middle class style. As with my first doll outfit, I tried to stick to historical methods as much as possible, but the scale forced me to do some deviations. I hand-sew everything though sewing machine was already widely used, because in this scale it's easier to control the stitch, there's not that much to sew anyway and also I just really like hand-sewing. Here's all the items I made. As said, I went a little overboard. One thing that's missing is the corset cover, but the layers of fabric were creating enough bulk on the waist as is so I decided to not make one.

This time I decided to try repainting the face. I don't have any doll customization materials, so I used acrylics. After couple of attempts I got decent results. Acrylics can't make as smooth and delicate finish as pastels, pencils and gouache, which can be used on vinyl with basing sprays, and I'm not experienced with painting small details on 3D objects, so it's a bit smudged at points, especially with the other eye. I aimed for 1890s very neutral make up and the type of expression that was popular in fashion plates and other illustrations.

Undergarments

Combinations and stockings

The combinations are split crotch as they were in the period. They are from thin cotton voile I have a lot of and is very appropriate. I didn't have really tiny enough lace for this, so it's kinda bulky, but I think it's okay enough. The stockings are cotton knit, which fits well. The garters are not actually necessary for this doll since her legs are rubbery.

Corset

I made the corset from a firm-ish linen and satin rayon pretending to be silk as the fashion fabric. The stitching of the boning channels is not super neat, this fabric is very unforgiving, I didn't have exactly matching thread and the scale made it very difficult. I of course didn't have tiny busk, so I used small hooks, sewed thread loops for them and used narrow metal wire for the edges. I think it looks surprisingly right on the outside. I used the same wire as the boning to reinforce the lacing on the back. I didn't actually use boning elsewhere but the tightly packed linen edges in the boning channels kinda work like lighter boning. I think it keeps the shape pretty ways even with just that. I stitched cotton tape inside to shape the corset further. I also didn't have tiny metal eyelets so I hand-sewed the lacing holes.

Bustle pad

The bustle pad is from linen and stuffed with tiny cabbage.

Petticoat

The petticoat is from the same cotton as the combinations.

Outer wear

Skirt

The fabric is cotton half-panama. It's pretty thin, but firm. I would have liked to use a woven wool, but I didn't have any that's thin enough to work in this scale. I think this cotton looks close enough in this scale to a wool with a tight weave, so I'm imagining it's that. My problem was that the cotton was white, but I wanted light brown. I wasn't going to buy any fabric for this, so I did the reasonable thing and dyed it with red onion peals (I've been doing natural dye experiments so this worked well for me).

Shirtwaist

The shirtwaist is from the same cotton as the undergarments. Yes, I dyed it too. I didn't have thin enough cotton in a color that would fit with the skirt and the purple bow, so I dyed it light blue with fabric color. Since I already went the trouble of dyeing I decided I might as well make a small flower print to it since that was popular in the era. I didn't want it to jump out too much but the lighting makes it even less visible. I made it with a white fabric pen. The collar and cuffs are reinforced with linen. I also sewed small stick-like beads to the cuffs on both sides, so one acts as a button (I sewed a buttonhole too) and the other makes it look like they are cufflinks. The bow is from the same fabric as the corset and the belt is sewn from the same cotton as the shirtwaist. The buckle is from a barbie belt.

Waistcoat

The waistcoat is from the same fabric as the skirt, thought the lapels and the back are from another satin rayon. I tailored the front panels and the lapels by stitching the linen interlining with tailor's stitches (I don't remember if that's the correct word in English) into shape. There is some wonkiness on one side of the hemline for some reason.

Boots

I made the slightly insane decision to make the shoes fully from leather, like they would have been in the period. I had an old broken leather wallet I had saved in case I needed some leather scarps. It has fairly thin leather, so it was workable here. It's light brown though, so I used black shoe polish to darken it. I wanted black or very dark brown shoes. I stacked the heels from glue and leather pieces and carved them into the right shape and sewed the shoe itself to leather shaped as the sole and glued it to the heeled and shaped sole. After I had shaped the shoes and the heels as much as I could I painted the heels black.

[siilent-wanderer]

Your Argument is Invalid (Be Mine?)

Summary: It started with teasing. It shifted with tension. The thesis got messy, the lines blurred — and somehow, she became the only argument worth losing.

Genre: rivals-to-lovers, fluff :)

Word Count: 1.2k words

debater!Jang Wonyoung x reader

Part 2 of Your Argument, My Weakness

Practice had ended fifteen minutes ago, but Wonyoung still hadn’t moved from her seat. Instead, she was twirling her pen between two fingers, one leg crossed over the other, watching Y/N from across the empty seminar room like she had nothing better to do than burn holes into her with her gaze.

Which, to be fair, she didn’t.

Y/N was gathering her notes in deliberate silence, pretending not to notice the way Wonyoung was leaning on her elbow, lips curled in that infuriating smirk that said she was very much enjoying herself.

“You’re quiet today,” Wonyoung finally said, voice lazy and smooth. “No witty comebacks? No blushing when I wink at you mid-rebuttal?”

Y/N kept her head down. “Just trying to focus.”

Wonyoung hummed. “Hmm. I thought maybe you were thinking about how good I looked during that last crossfire.”

Y/N looked up, deadpan. “You flinched when Professor Kim dropped his clipboard.”

Wonyoung gasped, mock-offended. “That was a dramatic pause!”

“That was a jump scare.”

Y/N didn’t miss the way Wonyoung's eyes widened slightly — caught off guard, for once — before she laughed, low and genuine.

“Okay, that was kind of hot,” Wonyoung said, standing up and circling the table to lean just a little too close. “Careful, Y/N. You’re starting to sound like someone who could keep up with me.”

Y/N raised a brow and smiled, saccharine-sweet. “Keep talking and I just might start winning.”

Wonyoung blinked, visibly thrown for half a second.

Then she stepped back, hand over her heart. “You should really watch your mouth.”

“Or what?” Y/N replied, tone light, but something in her eyes daring.

Wonyoung didn’t answer.

She just stared.

And for the first time in weeks of flirting and teasing and back-and-forth tension, she looked genuinely speechless.

It wasn’t just that one moment. It became a pattern.

Suddenly, Wonyoung wasn’t the only one holding the power in the room. Y/N started pushing back — not mean, not dramatic, but enough to tilt the balance.

A flirty comment would be met with a well-timed wink. A teasing remark countered with a playful smirk. The other debaters began picking up on it.

Especially Liz.

During their next team meeting, Wonyoung made a typical Wonyoung-style jab — something about Y/N’s “endearing stubbornness” — and Y/N, without missing a beat, said:

“You say that like you don’t love it.”

Wonyoung actually choked on her coffee.

The room went silent.

Leeseo whispered to Rei, “Did Y/N unnie just win?”

And Liz, from across the room, narrowed her eyes.

Later that day, she cornered Y/N in the hallway.

“Hey,” she said, casually leaning against the wall. “You and Wonyoung.”

Y/N blinked. “What about us?”

“Are you… together?”

Y/N’s heart skipped as she stuttered. “No. I mean—n-no. We haven’t really talked about it.”

Liz raised a brow. “But you like her.”

Y/N hesitated. “I didn’t say that. Says who?”

“It wasn’t a question,” Liz rolled her eyes. “You should tell her.”

“Tell her what exactly? She flirts with everyone,” Y/N muttered.

“Correction. She used to flirt with everyone. Now she just flirts with you.”

That shut Y/N up.

“And if you won’t tell her,” Liz said, standing up straight, “then I will.”

“Wait—what? Ya, Kim Jiwon!” But Liz was already walking away.

Wonyoung was checking her reflection in her phone camera when Liz slid into the seat beside her in the campus café.

Without looking up, Wonyoung said, “If you’re here to talk about how amazing I was during the last round, I’m already aware.”

Liz deadpanned. “I’m here to talk about Y/N.”

Wonyoung’s hand froze mid-scroll. “…What about her?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

Wonyoung stayed quiet.

Liz crossed her arms. “I asked her if you two were together. She said no.”

Something flickered in Wonyoung’s eyes.

“Why not?” Liz continued. “What are you waiting for? You’re clearly into her.”

“She hasn’t said anything,” Wonyoung replied carefully.

“She’s not you,” Liz snapped. “She’s not going to make the first move. That’s your job.”

Wonyoung let out a slow breath.

“She’s sweet,” Liz added, voice softer now. “But she’s not going to wait forever. So, either say something or let someone else take the chance. Gaeul unnie told me she overheard Karina sunbaenim ask about her.”

Wonyoung clenched her jaw, “What about Y/N?”

“Oh, you know…” Liz trails off.

“What?”

Liz sighs as she shakes her head, “A lot of people are noticing Y/N after she joined the debate team. Just make the move, Jang.”

Like hell was she letting someone else get that chance.

Now, the team had just won regionals.

Papers were flying, everyone was shouting, and Liz was crying happy tears into Leeseo’s shoulder. Someone had already started ordering celebratory takeout, and Rei was halfway into popping open a bottle of sparkling cider when Y/N noticed Wonyoung wasn’t in the room.

She scanned the chaos.

No sign of her.

Then a tap on her shoulder.

Y/N turned — and there she was. Wonyoung. In full smug, radiant, I-just-won-and-I-know-it glory.

Except her expression wasn’t teasing this time. It was nervous.

“I need you for a second,” she said.

Y/N followed her out without question.

They ended up in the quiet stairwell beside the debate hall — just the two of them, still in their black blazers and team pins, the fluorescent light buzzing faintly above.

Wonyoung didn’t speak right away. She just handed Y/N something.

A bouquet. Deep red tulips and white peonies, tied together with navy blue ribbon — their university colors.

Y/N blinked. “Wonyoung, what—”

“There’s a card,” Wonyoung said quickly, suddenly avoiding eye contact.

Y/N looked down. Slipped into the bouquet was a thin, cream-colored envelope. Her name was written on the front in Wonyoung’s unmistakably elegant handwriting.

She opened it slowly.

Inside, in neat, slanted script, were the words:

I’ve run the numbers. I’ve weighed the pros and cons. I’ve reviewed the evidence — your smile, your wit, the way you challenge me and make me nervous and feel safe all at once. Conclusion: I like you. More than a little. More than I should’ve let myself. So… would you consider being mine? (Purely on a long-term, mutually exclusive basis, of course.)

Y/N stared.

Her heart was pounding.

When she looked up, Wonyoung was fidgeting with her sleeve, pretending to be composed but failing miserably. She’s never seen the taller girl be this nervous. Hell, debate competitions didn’t even scare her like this.

“You wrote a… proposal?” Y/N asked, voice light but breathless.

Wonyoung huffed, embarrassed. “It’s not a proposal. It’s an emotionally structured argument.”

“Right.”

“You’re not saying anything,” Wonyoung muttered, cheeks flushed.

Y/N stepped forward, tucking the card back into the flowers with shaking hands.

“Wonyoungie,” she said softly.

Wonyoung finally looked at her.

Y/N smiled. “Your argument is… completely valid.”

Wonyoung blinked.

Then she laughed — that rare, real kind of laugh that only came out when her guard was down. “So is that a yes?”

Y/N nodded. “On a long-term, mutually exclusive basis, yeah.”

Wonyoung reached out slowly, brushing her fingers against Y/N’s.

Then, bold as ever, she leaned in and kissed her — soft, certain, and laced with everything left unsaid until now.

When they pulled back, Wonyoung whispered, “You’ve been driving me crazy for months.”

“You deserve it,” Y/N replied, grinning. “You started it.”

A/N: lowkey a sucker for pretty nerd + simp wonyoung :(

debater!wonyoung headcanons | spinoff drabble

[multiheadcanons]

THE GOOFIEST SONGS I ASSOCIATE WITH THE MERCS: ROMANCE EDITION

scout: it’s been stuck in my head for the last month, and when i finally listened to it, it clicked for me. scout is like an ai generation of justin bieber’s (how the fuck do you spell his name) boyfriend. if you went to chatgpt (DO NOT) right now and told it to generate a man based off of justin bieber’s boyfriend, it would just send you a jpeg of scout. listen, i am not a bieleber. that was never me, never something i was into. but that song has wedged its way into my mind like a parasite. i can’t stop thinking about it…

soldier: im gonna say this and then im gonna stand ten toes down on it. soldier gets america has a problem. and theres a WHOLE ASS post on THIS SITE breaking down the title america has a problem and what that means about the song, and im gonna sum it up and then bastardize it for this because i can’t get the mental music video for this song and me and soldier. but america has a problem and the problem is beyonce using the metaphor of her being a drug because witnessing her is a drug to the media, and shes the creator and the supplier and the media is her dealer and we’re all little cokeheads who fiend to witness her. are we all on at least the same chapter? great, now replace america with soldier and make me that problem. is it a romance song? yes, when i listen to it and think of soldier.

pyro: i will stand so hard on the fact that pyro is a swiftie. i will fight to the death on that hill. all taylor is is a pretty woman who sings songs, pyro would be all over that. pyro would love all of the pop girlies. but they are a swiftie. so i’m gonna give a deep cut. pyro gets paper rings by taylor swift. paper rings is… an acquired taste. it is fast, and boppy, and very glitter gel pen. and i love this song. i think it’s perfect for pyro. they dance in their room to this. i would yell the bridge with pyro.

demo: oh i am absolutely giving demo super freak by rick james. there’s something about that “that girls alright with me! yeah… hey hey, hey, hey!!” leading into that tasty ass bass line that i am almost legally obligated to give it to tavish. and tavish, baby, wherever you are, know i can go toe to toe. this is the song he uses when he’s trying to convince the team to not kill me where i stand. also the frighteningly dead stare rick james gives the camera at the start of the music video and the coy wink at the beginning… just a very demo-centric song. put the rest of the team as the chorus, as they also realize… i am a freak. and i fit right in.

heavy: im giving misha sledgehammer, but very specifically ninja sex party’s cover of it. i, personally, am obsessed with danny’s vocal style. he is just soooooo i hate him so much i love a beautiful tenor, truly. and i would be anything that he needs me to be, he just has to tell me. there’s something about the slow, smooth, steady beat and baseline i just love this song and it’s perfect for misha. it’s loud, and frank, and unmistakable. this is what i would do for him. as an additional treat, i will give heavy the way i are by timbaland and co. very specifically because, and it’s not on the album version, which makes no sense because it’s objectively the funniest line in what is already such an unserious song, “before i let you lose a pound, i’ll buy a bigger car”. me and the doctor are goon-nected on that.

engineer: i almost still can’t believe i got to witness these songs live. is anyone here a TWRP fan? if not, i will direct you to what are their best songs to date. a human’s touch is literally everything you may want out of a song, frankly. some of the most desperate lyrics set to tasty ass synth heavy instrumentals. song number two, also one of not only their, but ninja sex party’s best songs to date, is the hit. the hit also has a music video that goes with it, and all i can say is go watch it. i do think that TWRP is engineer’s band, if i had to pick a genre outside of country, but i also think engineer would love vocaloid. he would think it’s neat! look at what technology can accomplish! so with that said, engineer also gets every single vocaloid song. every single one. and i’ll even add one more, for our dell conagher lovers! im gonna give him ohio by bowling for soup. im not gonna include the subtitle, just go listen to it.

medic: i hate these blurred lines!! ive also had this one stuck in my head for a fat minute, but it was an animation meme on tiktok for like 24 hours, so i’m giving it to the doctor. that whole sentence makes sense if you don’t read it. thats my man, and the devil on my shoulder, and he is indeed the hottest bitch in this place. i hear him everyday hiss in my ear. he knows. he knows that i know that we both know what i want. ooooh, but if he were here i would resist! the fantasies are always better, i would tell myself. but he would just look at me, a knowing, vicious smile on his face. and we would stare at each other, held back by our own egos. until we both get violently crossfaded. and i’m taking that whole final verse while i’m getting that man to ascension in every way i can. i always want it!

sniper: i keep wanting to give sniper the black eyed peas. i don’t know why i associate the band with him. so i’m gonna give him meet me halfway. i just really like the narrative they are able to accomplish with multiple talented vocalists. its easier to build a story, and i like that juxtaposition against sniper as a class a with a very solitary play style. i also, because these are goofy song associations, okay, i’m also gonna give him animal city by shakira. i genuinely do not know who shakira’s demographic is. me. it’s me, and lordminion777, and probably sniper, and our combined millions of alternate accounts. i love shakira. and i love the bridge for him. “i may be a coward but you are brave; and nothing seems so dangerous…” mmmm BARKBARK love that funky aussie he can come save me i howl for him sometimes.

spy: i hate this guy so much. he gets call me maybe by carly rae jepsen. the actual fanfiction i write about this guy literally not liking me. i am fighting actual ghosts when i think about spy. haunted by literal poltergeists. that man would not be able to stand me. and it literally makes me think of the lyric “you gave me nothing at all, but still you’re in my way” because he literally gives me nothing. serving an entire empty plate. but i really enjoy writing him… ew. ew!! i wish he would go away. i want to bully him and steal his lunch money and stuff him in a locker. i hate him. someone tell him i’m free this saturday at 8. and in that same breath, he also gets lovegame by lady gaga. he would just eat this song up in a tiktok edit.

[for-those-who-wait]

Your blorbo art is SENDING ME it’s all my mind thinks about now I love them in all forms, I love imagining all my favorite characters in your blorbo style, and I would love to share with you the mental image of how incredibly, adorably disgruntled a little blorbo Darius would be thank you for sharing your teeny tiny beebees with us

I'm very happy that the blorbos have trapped people's brains. I went ahead and made a couple transparent bases (they should be transparent) in case someone wants to use them for something. I realize now that I probably should have used a smooth pen instead of my textured one but oh well

Anywho I'm sure Darius would be a very grumpy little blorbo haha

[reallyhardydraws]

2023.

i hope any of you reading this will forgive the essay. i started posting to this art blog ten years ago in 2013 when i was just at the very end of high school, uploading short animations i'd made for one of my final projects, preparing myself for art school where i was gearing up to become an illustration/animation student.

i went into my art foundation course in 2014, still thinking i was going to be going into storybook illustration or with faint hopes of becoming like a concept artist for game/animation, although even then i'd started thinking about patterns...

and then in 2015 i did go into my BA, going in for that illustration with animation degree that... usually when i talk about it in real life, i say didn't really feel like the best place for me. if i think back, the best things i got out of it were two of my best friends, one of whom is now my partner. looking back on my BA era, there's some bits of sketchbook stuff...

and while i was at university my main fandoms were thunderbirds are go and x-men for a bit... these are from the end of 2015 into the beginning of 2016...

then for a little while i was doing this still sort of pastel-ish lineless situation:

and i alternated between that and this thin fineliner type work (pretty sure all of the linearted pieces were done on paper and scanned, and all the lineless were graphics-tablet-only) - it was in this style that i started to offer commissions for the first time too.

and i also had fineliner-lined work in sketchbooks that i coloured with marker and posca pens, the colours of which were generally a bit more intense just based on not being able to slide the hue/saturation around on paper:

also 2016 was when i discovered the spongebob musical just after it's trial run in chicago (which ended in july of 2016) and i started making fanart at that point... which would have the biggest effect on the way i drew (and i did end up handing in a piece of spongebob musical fanart as one of my art school homeworks lmao)

from summer 2016 until early 2017 things were still quite soft and pastelly in my digital art, colour-wise:

and then suddenly everything got whacked up to 100% on saturation. also i was using the binary tool to give everything really thin pixel lineart for some reason.

then i went on vacation in summer 2017 and didn't draw for maybe a month? just short of? and when i came back i decided to change everything up again... giving characters blobbier, more ugly-cute faces with large squinting eyes and big nostrils and i was worrying a lot less about making anything look smooth, lineart-wise. i turned off the pen stabiliser in SAI and let it wiggle.

then... the spongebob musical opened on broadway in late 2017, i went to see it live in person for the first time... and my whole brain was ENTIRELY consumed by my love of it. i was putting that david zinn inspired pattern explosion into everything, even if it wasn't sbm fanart.

as we go into 2018, i started colouring my lineart. my biggest interest was still broadway musicals (with spongebob at the top of the list)

i think summer 2017 - early 2018 is probably my favourite art era, i was at my most bright and colourful and exciting... although i know in my actual real life i was struggling a lot with my home situation and i had been for some time. art was definitely my escapism back then, and i think a lot of the time i drew really bright, joyful stuff to try and inject that feeling into myself.

as for my university work, i was putting my focus into 3D paper-mache puppets:

and i was also starting to do more repeat patterns, mostly inspired by things around me. i'd learned how to make patterns actually tile and repeat in 2017, so made a few during my time at uni just to accompany some of my projects, but never as the focus of them. one of my university tutors told me that maybe i should put more focus on doing surface pattern, and maybe applying it to textiles, but i said i wasn't interested.

i graduated from my BA in the summer of 2018, and immediately began volunteering at the whitworth art gallery doing anything i could - stewarding, helping with arts and crafts, dancing with families...

in 2019 i was still very colourful... i was trying out more chunky colouring on characters skintones that i think was def inspired by tumblr artist jadenvargen:

but the blobbyness and ugly-cute style of drawing faces was gone by here, and i think... the way i drew characters probably had better *anatomy*, proportions were maybe a bit more realistic...

in 2020 i started adding the black shading to under the chins and some other places on characters' bodies because i started watching the anime my hero academia with my brother, lmao (and i was starting to pastelise colours a bit again, these are the most pastel-ish examples) my lineart has really smoothed back out too, though i never turned my pen stabiliser back on in SAI. i think my hand just adjusted. probably seems a bit insane to miss that, but i do.

by the end of 2020, the almost-year of lockdown over cobid had... made me a bit insane, i think, and i moved out of my mother's house and into a flat with a friend from university.

in 2021 i think things were much the same... i think from this point on is where things have sort of settled. i don't want to say stagnated, but i do think things have been very... like this for a while.

2022 - got the most exciting examples out...

also i was very into these little frames in 2022.

and then on to 2023! in 2022, i did begin trying to shift gears a bit -- hoping to put more energy into sewing and making products (like my tutor has suggested back in uni, even though i'd really resisted the idea.) i sold at a few in-person markets during winter of 2022, but got disheartened by the amount of money i had to sink in up front to sign up for a spot...

which has made me VERY grateful for the people who have supported me via online sales. it has really helped me stay afloat in 2023 - AND it has felt more wonderful than i can describe that there have been people interested in my work... especially when a lot of it has been my original designs, rather than the fanart that i expect a lot of people initially followed me for.

i've also... in the past 2 years... branched out a bit more when it comes to 'being an artist' - and have had the opportunity to deliver arts & crafts workshops with local refugee & asylum seeker support charity, afrocats. it's taken me to their home base in a church to hotels across the city where asylum seekers were temporarily placed while waiting on their new homes, and of course to my beloved whitworth art gallery, where we welcomed visitors from all backgrounds: from the typical white middle class visitors the gallery usually expects, to all the refugee visitors coming into the space for the first time.

and through my volunteering at the whitworth, i showed up so often they decided they might as well pay me. so i've also become a facilitator of... creative play sessions, my favourites of which have been outdoors. monthly, year-round, we have 'outdoor art club', where i get to paint with mud and make potions from leaves with kids & families - here you can see me tell you a little bit about it in this video below with 'crempog' a puppet character that makes videos about activities for kids and families around manchester (my bit starts at 01:10 although i am in the intro and thumbnail haha)

and then of course the summer 'PLAYTIME' activities we've had the past two years: scrap studio in 2022, and play market in 2023. it's the best freelance gig ever -- just to hang out and encourage families to be creative and have fun.

in working more in these new avenues... outside of being - as i've called myself for a long time - "an internet artist"... i've found myself more interested in this sort of thing. in being a "real world artist" too. in doing surface pattern design, and being a workshop facilitator, i find myself wanting to put more energy into these sorts of projects.

in 2023 i've also dabbled a little bit more in youtube videos! i have had a channel for a while and have made videos in previous years, but 2023 has been the year i've done the most in. admittedly most of them haven't been about my art, and more just like... random things that interest me (the spongebob musical in particular) but i've really been enjoying video editing. that's kind of an art form too, so i'm including it here!

moving forward, want to keep putting even more of my energy into other things. my shop, with a bigger range of products to offer. workshops in real life, where i can make a difference.

as for my art blog... i feel like i've done the least drawing in many years in 2023, and... well, things have been weird and complicated for a bit in my real life. i hope to draw for fun a bit more again very soon, and to return to doing things in more of a wild and crazy way, to be more creative and exciting with the way i draw things. still, here's some of my favourites from 2023:

thank you so much to everyone who has borne witness to my art journey this past decade!!! i hope you will stick with me, who knows, maybe for another 10 years if tumblr holds out. especially a big thank you to everyone who has ever commissioned me, or bought anything from my store, you literally keep me able to make art at all and i cannot, cannot, cannot overstate how much it means to me.

i'm moving homes soon, possibly into very cramped temporary conditions for a little while before HOPEFULLY starting my real life with my partner. if i can take one more moment to plug my work, then [here is a link to my online shop] and [here is my ko-fi page too.]

cheers, cheers, cheers!

- LOREN 🌈🍍🎉

[buboplague]

hello. i'm an art nerd and as such do art nerd things like study art. you are one of my favorite artists for your smooth and organic lines. is your style of line work something you've developed unintentionally over time or is it a matter of intention and technique? ive noticed you're able to do a lot with very little, which is something i strive for in my own art. happy late easter if you celebrated btw

oh this is an interesting question! I've never really stopped to think about this before.

I think it's a bit of both, but mostly unintentional and developed over time as a characteristic of the way I prefer to draw.

I draw quickly, erase minimally, like continuous lines, and enjoy the actual physical feeling of drawing messy, and I think that's helped me be more confident in my lines in general and contributes to how it looks. Being precise and accurate is usually not my goal, so it's ok if something is off (please never flip my sketches haha). I like the way drawing like this feels.

But there are also a lot of styles I love that use fluid lines, like ukiyoe art and artists inspired by those same styles, or others' quick gestural drawings. Seeing those inspire me to stay loose, or not care about accuracy, simplify things, etc, and folding these concepts it into my work is intentional, because it loops back into enjoying the way it's done. I don't really have much advice or technique for how to achieve this deliberately because I guess I'm not really sure myself LOL but based on how I approach things myself, these are tips to try (which it looks like you're doing some already!):

draw with pen on paper. If you mess up just go with it, or try again from the beginning. Don't get hung up on erasing and fixing things, just keep drawing

practice speed, with timed gesture drawing or other methods of practice you're comfortable with; try it without picking up the pen

turning stabilization off while drawing digitally for a more natural line (entirely subjective, but stabilization trips me up so bad and feels weird)

draw from life. It can be random objects around the house, or random photos, but draw things you normally wouldn't - train your hand to follow your eye, as this will help you see the way you use line, and is an easy way to practice what kinds of lines you want without getting hung up on idea generation, or if the character looks right, expectations, etc.

It's okay to be impatient and lazy sometimes LOL. Sometimes doing the bare minimum helps you to learn where you want to simplify or stylize things. "Good enough" is also a pretty useful catchphrase sometimes

I hope something in this post helps! And sorry if it doesn't, I'm not very good at articulating my own art or thought processes.

Thank you for your kind words and for enjoying my work. happy late easter!

[worokapi]

after god art style study --part 2

damn only 30 images per post

part one here!!

---

line art -------

the line texture of eno's art in after god looks like an analog g-pen. it's is clean but retains a pretty textured feel and in some points, line art hatching or sketchy lines are used form the lines. particularly, larger drawings that would have thicker lines have the appearance of being hatched which gives it a very cool depth too.

if you try looking carefully, especially for the thicker dot tips left at the ends of g-pens, you can see lines aren't always drawn in one clean stroke.

I think the feathering/chicken scratch art technique can be utilized to create these fluffy-looking thick lines. though you would need a good idea how to control your lineweight while doing it to be able to maintain a smooth looking output.

custom csp tools

I do think a couple reoccurring art assets seen are custom csp brushes/tools not on the csp asset store. browsing the csp asset store brings up nothing or I haven't searched far enough. the immediate most obvious one to me is the eldritch stringy things, it looks like a looping ribbon brush. there's no way she's redrawing that shit 23892093 times, neither would I want to do that LOL. there is enough warping in each stroke for me to believe it's not a flat image being copypasted.

sometimes I like to download assets to be able to breakdown how an artist created them to make my own so aw I can't really break down how it works. but I think it's impressive the tool is super seamless, I can't really tell where the eldritchy horrors begins or ends as it's so fluid.

I'm sort of guessing tokinaga's facial/finger/leg scar is also a custom asset.

haven't found anything for orokapi's scales either so there's chance it's a custom brush too.

hair -------

hair is very detailed. you can see where the hair grows from on the head. I don't really have much to comment there.

waka's hair is usually the most detailed, given the amount of freedom pure black ink gives- you can detail as much as you want without worrying about how it interacts with the line art.

the extra thin strands is pretty consistent across all black-haired characters, like minami and yoriko. I don't think the extra thin strands are exclusive to waka just because she has long hair, since ushio and obikawa also have long hair but both have a lighter color.

hair typically overlaid over the eyes does fully obscure the eyes underneath. so if not careful, large patches of hair or certain hairstyles can entirely hide the eyes and may not be great if you need to show the eyebrows and to emphasize a character's expression.

a workaround to keep the lines for the eyes visible is to erase small bits here and there to give the illusion of strands of hair that you're able to see past at what's behind it.

for darker-haired characters- usually waka- some lighter gray is also added to her hair to show her eyes/face.

side profiles -------

the shape of the face is simple, but is much more defined than the typical cutesy moe animes with the tip of the nose to the chin usually being a flat single line. I appreciate the way the bottom lip is drawn and defined at certain angles.

I do really like the way the edge of the nose connects into the face. these side profiles give a super three-dimensional feel to the face, accentuated by the eyes

eyes -------

eno draws very pretty eyes hiiiiiiii

honestly I don't have a lot to say about the eyes. they stick on the end of semi-realism with the upper and lower eyelid being consistently drawn with circle irises. (that sounds obvious but some anime don't stick with circle irises or draw the lower eyelid)

a lot of feathering can typically be found around the eyes or makes up how the eyes are drawn. sometimes the eyelids are detailed in closer shots to really emphasize the 3d feel of the eyeball.

sometimes, the tearducts in the eyes are drawn.

these eyes typically follow a consistent 5-line shape.

simpler eyes usually use 2-lines to make the shape.

most characters are not monolid and have an eyelid crease to help show the 3 dimensionality of the eye. very rarely the outer corner of the eye is not drawn with a connected line.

[fig below shows my study of the line strokes making up the shape of the eyes]

eyebrows -------

eyebrow detailing depends on the shot- if it's upclose to the face it will usually be more detailed with some hatched lines. otherwises they're typically a couple of lines. sometimes one or two "guidelines" can be seen for the top and bottom of the brow and the inside is hatched in.

teeth -------

eno draws teeth

to be able to draw each individual tooth without it looking weird is skill. and depends on the art style, sometimes detailed teeth do not work for certain art styles (but that's not to say it's not impossible. if your goal is to make people feel uncanny with detailed ass teeth on a cute anime character, sure lol)

orokapi/obikawa's teeth do have prominent canines (snake) (lol) but other characters also have their molars slightly lined in. often, the teeth are not fully lined, where the main line art only shows defining the gums and the ends of each tooth.

coloring -------

after a while I did notice after god consistently uses gray to color tones. it isn't exclusively black and white with toning.

an 80 value or #CECECE is a good color to take from the study to use for manga shading.

I'm sort of guessing this may make the books cost more to print because gray ink is adds another expense.

application -------

and finally applying some of these details to my own art ✨

thanks for reading! hope this gave some cool insights into the art of after god :]

[lemon-wedges]

Hello!!! I love your art and your style. I'd love to hear your inspirations behind how you draw and, in addition, hear a bit about your painting process (I love the impressionistic look your paintings have)

ahh!!! thank you so much ;u;

Ill tried my best to break down my thought process behind my drawing, so i hope this all makes sense aahaha

undercut cause it came out real long

SO Karl Gnass is an instructor that i took an anatomy class with. and who broke down anatomy in a way that really helped me grasp space. like space a figure occupies. and from that i think my characters feel a bit more...grounded? im not sure what the right word would be but tangible is something people sometimes say about my art.

And i do think when youre able to make a figure look like its really wrapping its hands around something it makes character interactions a lot more intimate.

heres a few under sketches i do when i start a drawing (i am trying REALLY hard not to use my nsfw ones tho those are pretty perfect when it comes to showing u anatomy RIP)

after i got the poses done ill turn down the opacity and rough sketch out details on top of these. and once THATS done i move onto lineart. and the most important aspect of this step is NOT TO TRACE YOUR UNDER DRAWING!!!! thats what sucks the life out of your work!!!!

instead you use your undersketch as a guide. ilI actually redraw the simple anatomy underneath very lightly, erase where they over lap and then add line weight variety + darken up the details.

examples of this are gonna look a little messy but. Left is the original pose i drew out with rough details. right is the drawing i do on top of it. you'll see theyre not one to one and theres some lines i didnt fully erase out when redoing the anatomy. i find my clean up has a lot more energy when i do this.

the thing about my style is that you'll notice i never actually do actual clean smooth lineart. and thats because i HATE DOING THAT SHIT. like i did learn how to do it and consistently forced myself to do it for over a year. and while i do think i learned a lot about line weight and drawing clearer. i realized? its just not for me. I like a textured brush and i like being able to see those small lines i didnt get to fully erase out because i think they look cool lol and thats ok!! do what you want forever man!!! its your art!!!

Also before i move onto painting ill show you this neat little trick. you know those more "loose" drawings of mine that feel more gestural? the begining process is exactly the same. the difference is i use a chunkier pen and try to see how much i can simplify details + just feel out the energy of lines

NOW PAINTING.

man. where to even start.

the thing about painting is that its an entire different set of skills that need to each be honed on their own and will slowly build up together. ill break it down like this.

VALUE, COLOR, and TECHNIQUE

I've said this on another ask before but you'll notice ill do a lot of black and white sketches. and i do that to practice choosing how to group values.

like this example. how light is laios' wolf coat compared to his skin? or kabrus skin color compard to laios coat. when do you want to really push the contrast of light and dark and when do you let values be closer to each other when you DONT want attention

the next step from this is adding a light source.

and when you're working in black and white its a lot easier to pay more attention where you want your light/how its gonna look like hitting youre characters and how far youre gonna push your shadows.

and you know if you get good at this you can play with limited color palletes

this is literally just be picking out blues and hitting the bottom with the gradient tool to light it up

NOW COLOR

is a lot harder and also very subjective. I do a ton of impressionist studies where i just color pick the fuck out of a piece to see what colors masters used + knowing the history of paint and what colors were available during that time period. +knowing what colors = what mood + knowing what colors to use when you want to be more realistic vs when you want to lean into more stylized+ what colors YOU specially incline towards + AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

its a lot and im actually still learning myself

But when i do a painting i collect a LOT of refrences of the kind of mood i want my own painting to feeling like. I've show the first example in another ask before but heres one from my latest labru too

WHen i actually start a painting tho they look like this. The top drawings are just flat colors with a simple outline of where i want the light to be hitting. like in my value studies im just trying to get the idea down, seeing what values need to be darker vs what is lighter. and how the light source covers the character.

figuring this out in the begining makes the rest of the painting so much easier because youve essentially made all the big compostion decisions NOW. from here you can start playing with colors.

my second stage, youll see with drawings at the bottom, is when i start using my texture brush to lay in extra shadows and just play with variety.

and then? i start rendering

that would be TECHNIQUE

And well....thats also something thats gonna be very subjective.

With my own style im not interested in rendering everything to perfection. Im trying to figure out how to texture hair/skin/clothes in ways that make them feel like the materials they are while also showing the energy of my brushstrokes.

I dont zoom in while i paint btw. everything i do is zoomed out so i can see the entire drawing. it helps me not tight up my strokes while also letting me build up all areas of the painting equally. the only time i zoom in is when im lining out the eyes/mouth of a character. and yeah. it drives me insane doing this because ITS SOOOOO Tempting to obsess over paint 1 area forever then zoom out and see that nothing matches lol

The other thing about my style of painting. Is that im not gonna use the exact same formula for every piece. like this isnt cell shading. you can have an idea of how to texture skin/clothes/hair and sometimes it looks great and beautiful in one painting and then it looks like shit in another. ive overhauled a lot of paintings multiple times because what i thought would work doesnt and ive had to force myself to explore and play with my brushstrokes. and you know? i wouldnt have it any other way. it means none of my paintings are gonna look alike! and i think thats pretty cool :D

ill leave you with this in the end. a painting im in the middle of doing and debating to overhaul cause im just not feeling the strokes. who knows what ill look like in the end

anyways i hope this helped a little? even if you look at all this and go. IM NEVER GONNA DRAW LIKE THIS BOZO ahahah

BUT I WISH YOU LUCK ON YOUR OWN ARTS :DDDD

[eybefioro]

Yesterday @isiaiowin and I shared our contribution for GOetry pillow fight week 4 (you can read it here !). Together with the poem, both of us also painted something, and this is mine :D

[Timelapse and rambling under the cut, as usual]

AAAAAAAAAA I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING WITH MOON. She's incredible at this, and jumping ideas with her was sooooo good! And then the back and forth of sharing the poems was so nice 😭 I wrote Michael’s POV in this one... she was supposed to be more snarky and bossy at first but then I got too sappy 😂 I'm not mad about it though, all the love talk in the poem fits very well with the pillow fight, and honestly, I was in need to writing something very soft. This ship is also soooo good. I love Angelfish (or Institutional problem, as I like to call it 😂) so much. I should write more about them in the future. Maybe a human/office AU...

Anywaaaays. This is a different style than all my other drawings. I always tried to go for clean and smooth lines, and never messy/sketchy ones. The thing is, as I worked on the sketch I really start to like how it was looking, and when I tried to make the linear using it only as a base (as I usually do) it lost all charm. The line art wasn't looking good this time. So I just... abandoned it and embrace chaos lol

I cleaned up a bit the sketch,and defined better the shapes with a thicker pen, adding more details with finer lines here and there. I reeeeally love the result; I mean, I know it can be better, and that I can take this further, but for a first try with this kind of style I think it looks surprisingly nice.

I like how it gives a bit of a pencil drawing quality to it, something that I'd probably doodle in the back of my notebook, but it was lacking texture. The pen I was using for the lines didn't have any, just a clean straight one I use for sketches and the final line art, so I tried to compensate in the colouring.

I discovered some really good pens for texture that are native from ibis paint, and I used them here. I think it worked well enough. I didn't want to paint everything in solid colours, but rather give the idea of colour like I'd do with colour pencils. So I just filled in near the borders, making it soft and not completely opaque, showing the white of the "paper" behind.

Speaking of colours... aaaaaagh the combination of Dagons blue/green skin with her guger hair is soooo nice. I never stopped to appreciated it before and I was so wrong for it. I love her outfit, and the makeup they used for her in the show, and her scales... and the same goes for Michael. Her hair in the show is just perfection, and the subtle gold in her makeup drives me crazy, so I tried to put it in the spotlight for a but here. In my head Michael’s skin is golden and no one will convince me otherwise now <3

I'm thinking of playing with this style of drawing more now. It made me very happy to not aim for a perfect line art, and the soft colour are so pleasing to me.

Go read our poem!! I loved writing it, and I hope you will enjoy it too. I do feel like this art fits with the feeling of the poem, and so does Moon's art. It's incredible the way she paints skin!! I am still looking at those ears aaaaaaaaaaa

[pigswithwings]

Hello!!!

A friend of mine really, really loves your art style and wants to know if you have any tips for getting the smooth geometric designs you get on your lifeless art?

Thank you so so much (and your art is gorgeous!! We both love your objectum pieces and ultraviolet pieces!!!)

i think smooth geometric designs take up like. two parts of an art process, one of which is "designing something in a geometric fashion" and the other of which is "making the design look smooth in some way".

so below are some examples of how i work out designs and geometric shapes when drawing things. usually it is the general process as many other artists advise, start with drawing out the overall shape. a keyboard is a rectangle with some more sides. a water bottle is a rectangle with curves. a pen can be just a rectangle. the sun is a circle. and then after i break stuff down into basic shapes i look for how i can make the details clearer.

like with the ibm pc (left) you can see that theres a little gap in between the part of the computer with the screen and the rest of it. if i want to make that depth more noticeable, what i can do is either make that little segment a different color from the top and bottom parts of the computer, or i can simply put space around it to make it clear that its a separate segment. so you can see when i color in the computer in black, the middle rectangle sement is surrounded by white and it has a bit more distinction than it would without that.

same thing for the pen in the given example on the right, i visualize the overall shape as a rectangle with a few extra details. then i add the details in shape, color it in, and erase out a few lines where the pen would be cut into segments. so really for my geometic shapes my approach is just to divide things up into a few simpler parts.

now to make the stuff look clean or smooth usually i erase things out instead of drawing all the lineart. you can see in my earlier example of the pen that i erase parts of the pen rather than draw new lines in, i think that this keeps the form and shape of the pen better than drawing a line over the pen itself.

for specific tools, i use the digital pen in ibispaint x, which lets me get very finicky with details down to individual pixels. but also even if you don't have that specific brush, using tools like a circle tool or ruler tool to draw/erase straight lines is a big thing i do. because nobody can draw perfect straight lines, and its near-impossible to erase in a perfect circle. in the above examples you can see the horizontal brushstroke ive made, i then use a ruler tool at 90 degrees to erase some of the right and left ends of the stroke, creating a nice neat little rectangle. i do this a lot for all of my pieces, especially in more recent ones like the building piece and such.

but yea all in all my art style was made to be easier and make shapes more clear for myself, usually i just find myself focusing on whether i can illustrate something nice with simple lines and shapes

[hinamie]

Can you give me some tips for drawing digitally 🌞 i recently got a drawing tablet and reallyyyt like your style💯💯

ooh congrats on the new tablet i hope you love it!!! if you're making the transition from traditional to digital art it will definitely take some getting used to fsdhjgs i remember my first tablet felt so slippery and weird without the resistance of paper :'o you'll adapt pretty quickly tho so rly take your time playing around and finding settings that work for u! organize your canvas workspace and get a feel for your program before u dive straight into trying to make full pieces.

if u Are coming from a background of traditional art and already have experience drawing then honestly a lot of the same advice still applies (using references, doing studies, practicing honing your fundamentals in anatomy/perspective/forms/colour, etc) but in terms of digital art specifically, i rly think the best advice i can offer is finding brushes u like. you have a lot more variety available when u work digitally so it's easy to get overwhelmed by your options, so i would try and narrow down your roster to a few go-to's, especially if you're just starting out. start simple while u adjust and practice and slowly u can start to incorporate more fun stuff as u start to build up your skills, style and workflow

other misc stuff:

layer modes are very fun and nifty, i rly recommend u familiarize yourself with them! multiply is everyone's favourite if someone tells me multiply isn't their favourite i'll call them a liar idc

make use of layers and folders to keep everything organized and avoid tampering with one element of a drawing when u don't mean to. obv everyone works differently so this is another example of Finding What Works For You but in general it's helpful if the sketch, lines, base colour, shadows/highlights all have their own separate layers

if you struggle with smooth lineart, adjust the stabilization on your brushes. also don't b afraid to play around with line weight by adjusting your pen pressure settings

idk your specific program or equipment but look into setting up hotkeys/shortcuts so you can easily switch between brushes

FLIP AND ROTATE YOUR CANVAS!!! also zooming in is helpful, but i find that zooming in Too much makes it more likely that i get lost in several small areas of the drawing that make the finished product look disjointed, so i personally try to stay relatively zoomed out when I can

don't stress too much and have fun! draw what u like!

[pleucas]

hello! may i ask what device are you using to draw? You mentioned using Procreate, so i think it's an iPad, but i was wondering what model it is and if you'd recommend it for painting

hey there!

thanks for sending in an ask. i’m pretty sure i have the iPad Pro 2020, 12.9in. i use a gen 2 apple pencil with it :)

and abt digital painting etc…

i’d def recommend it for digital painting! since it’s an old model you’d prob be able to get a discount for it, or find a used one in good condition 👍👍 the screen size is sometimes excessive for me, i think the 11in model or anything smaller would work fine. only concern there would be functionality and memory, bc digital painting is very storage taxing

i’ve been using this guy for four years and she’s holding up very well. i’ve noticed that the battery is less effective (draining quicker, charging slower, etc) but it hasn’t severely inebriated my painting practice

i used to have a paper feel screen protector for it, but for the past year i’ve taken it off. i think there was just an adjustment period from traditional to digital and i hated the slippery screen, but i noticed it wore down my pen nib really quickly lol. now i use a nib with a metal tip (kinda looks like a mechanical pencil tip) and the smoothness doesn’t bother me as much. just took some time getting used to

smth abt digital painting on procreate/ipad that i both hate and love is the color display. apple color display is super good, almost too good… laptop/phone screens don’t match up and i find myself editing things for posts or printing lol. important to note, apple specifically functions in their own RGB scale, so exporting files from procreate preserves that color profile. it’s not compatible with printing, sharing, or anything LOL so be careful to convert things to sRGB (learned this the very hard way…)

i do hate procreate sometimes because their DPI is just. SOOOO low. if you transform or rotate anything then it pixelates 😭 i enabled all the hacks and nothing helped. nowadays i set up my canvas to be 3k+ pixels on at least one axis and 600dpi, it’s marginally better but i def do adjust my process to avoid any transformations 😞 maybe its just particularly bad for my style bc i like my details n Things all over the place but yeaaa prolly the biggest pitfall for ipad/procreate

another note (not rlly digital art related), i pretty much just use my ipad for digital painting, gaming sometimes (i had a crazy genshin/hsr phase), note taking on pdfs whtv. it prolly averages to ~2.5 hours per day, which isn’t a lot. so idk if you plan to use an ipad more intensively (ik some pals who deck out their ipad and basically use it as a laptop), then aforementioned problems might be a much larger issue

this got suuuuper long i apologize but all in all, ipad is def good for digital painting! it’s accessible, customizable, transportable (even with my massive 13in screen LOOOOL), and worth :) but at the end of the day, it’s a tool and its utility is what you make of it. hope i could help!

[theamazingmuse]

How to be eloquent

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Ready to be a smooth talker ?

Y'all know how being eloquent is important. My teacher once told me that I'm very great when I speak in front of everyone. My friend are so afraid to speak in those situations.

Let's go (it's deep stay focus)

KEY POINT

If you're the kind of person who is afraid of talking, you need to go deeper about it. Why are you afraid ? In your family, it was allowed to talk, to express yourself ? And I said that because I grew up with one of my parent who think that they're right EVERY TIME. So check in your childhood how it was.

You're not "shy", you might have a fear of judgment. Does their opinions really matter ? They can have an opinion about what you're say but about you ??? It's useless (I mean if they want to judge they're free) but the choice is yours to take their opinions, or not.

-> Even if they start laughing who cares pls ? You say your thing period. Most of the time those people are loosers that are not able to do things TRUST ME ON THIS ONE

I KNOW this is hard to let go this fear of judgement but you're going to die anyway. You're going to be old and say to your grandchildren "I couldn't express myself I was so afraid to speak or to do this and that" and they're gonna be like ☹️

Note expert - Do this step by step, start to participate in class, even when you're wrong (you'll lose aura but you regain it in your eloquence project) and after that when you can give your opinion give it every time.

It's seems to be a lot about school but this is the same everywhere. Even with your friends, especially with your them because you shouldn't have this fear of judgement.

Now, let's say that you can speak and you're not afraid anymore. How to enhance and be captivating ? (I really wanted to make the first part for my "shy people")

Have a nice outfit - This is confortable to be good in your own body. On this one, this is your style and how you present yourself. I recommend you to see my post how to always look neat to be ready every time

Read a lot- you're gonna learn many words. Try to read actually with your voice and have a feedback (family/VoiceOver) to hear yourself. You're gonna know what to improve

Speak calmly, do not be in a rush. You're safe in your own body. Relax. Articulate.

-> when you speak, imagine that you're are a boss and they are your employees lol every time I do that

Know your body language - are you always with your hand in your pockets ? are you straight ? Do you play with you hand ? hair ? Pen ? it can be nothing to you but those are the signals of a person who is inconfortable. Be careful about that. We can't feel someone who is not secure in themselves. The key is to be secure. Have a nice posture and do not be afraid to use your hands to explain something.

-> Look at your favorite eloquent figures, even in series anime, manga. There is plenty of characters that have this thing that is so magical when they speak. Your favorite YouTubers too. I really like Chishiya, Aizen and Dazai. Nico Robin is very good too. Catwoman is pretty good. (I like when they're mischievous)

Presentations - use this to improve yourself. Listen what your teacher says about your presentation. It's them who gonna give you real, blunt, advice. You can even ask at the end of the class how it was. Try to watch Ted Talk

Look at the people you're talking to in their eyes. Do not be afraid they're not going to eat you.

Know who you are talking to. If you feel that this person try to intimidate you play with them, they're going to be shocked that you answer. Even when someone is flirting with you, do not be shy. You're secure, you're safe. Rizz, rhetoric come with training !!! To retort, you have to analyse the person and what they're saying. Analyse what someone insinuating. Note expert - Listen what people have to say to not make any mistakes

The key is in yourself (always), by being secure. The more you train the more you're gonna improve. Always improve your vocabulary, find synonyms, expressions. If you say bad words say it not often. People said that is not classy but sometimes it is (imo).

Being eloquent makes you charismatic naturally. I highly recommend you to read my post How to have an aura. (My favorite post)

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The end. This is a topic that I can speak about for HOURS because I like to talk. There is so much benefits in knowing how to talk. Building connections, negotiations, seductions, opportunities...

If you want an example on how important eloquence is , watch Alice in Borderland. In the season 2, Usagi gives a speech to her crew and everybody agrees with her. I was amazed.

Hope this helps. I really wanted to make this post because I feel so sad when people are afraid to speak.

I love you wherever you are

theamazingmuse 🍫