#but just a quick color background and posing study

[z-1-wolfe]

Early days

[blueskittlesart]

What advice would you give beginner artists?

it's fine to want to do more stylized art, but nothing will help you improve quickly like studying from life. even if you want to draw very stylized figures, life drawing is still going to help you understand how the human body works and then you can build your stylization off of that understanding. I also recommend studying specifically things you're looking to improve--if you feel like your poses aren't dynamic, ask your model to do some quick (1-2 min) dynamic poses and work on getting the gesture down. if you're looking for anatomy, ask for longer, more static poses and really study the contours of the body. this also applies for portraiture and character art--my expressions and facial structure improved like CRAZY when i started doing portrait studies from life! (note: i know live model sessions aren't accessible for everyone. i'm a huge advocate for nude models, if you can find a studio nearby that's affordable to you that offers sessions, that's the best you're gonna get. however, there are sites that will give you photos of nude models to draw from, too, or you can even just ask friends or family to pose for you when they aren't busy, that's what i did before i started getting model sessions from my school!)

materials are not everything but sometimes a good material can make a difference. it's important to know what's worth it and what isn't for your skill level. invest in some decent-quality supplies or a good art program, but understand that you're still going to need to work to understand your materials and use them to their fullest potential. (if you're a digital artist buy csp. trust me on this. get it on sale. it will change your life. also do not fucking use photoshop)

tracing is ok. listen to me. TRACING. IS. OK. tracing is how you learn. don't trace other people's art and pass it off as your own, obviously, but there is literally no problem with tracing real-life reference photos. I routinely trace references for backgrounds and the like. there is no reason for you to kill yourself trying to make complex perspective and shit up from your head when you can very easily just overlay a photo and get what you need.

in that same vein, USE REFERENCE PHOTOS. find pics online or take pics of yourself and USE THEM to see how your poses work. it makes it SO SO SO much easier. the understanding that you need to create a pose out of nowhere will come with time but you're not going to get that skill unless you have a foundation of understanding how the real human body works, and the easiest way to get that understanding is by copying photos of real people.

last but not least, there's generally a sort of 'rulebook' that new artists are expected to go by, especially online, when it comes to digital art. when i was first learning, it was all about lineart and cell shading, two things that I didn't really like. Nowadays it seems to be all about rendering. the single most important thing i can tell you is if it sucks you don't have to do it. if you hate lineart just color your sketches. if you hate shading don't shade, or find a different way to shade that you enjoy more. if rendering is annoying or difficult for you DON'T BOTHER!! art is supposed to be fun. if part of your process is annoying or upsetting to you, cut it the fuck out. don't torture yourself just to do art the "right" way. i guarantee your art will look better when you're having fun making it anyway!

[flyingdidii]

i love your art so much!! how do you do your art so quickly and so rendered? i love your understanding of color, anatomy, texture, and fabric and would love to know how you got so Skilled™️ cause man ive taken a lot of art classes and hoo golly your art is incredible!!

i literally have notifs on for when you post bc im genuinely just that excited to see what you're doing :) thank you for existing!!

Ty Ty Ty 💓

(English isn’t my first language, there will be mistakes)

Sooo I got better due to drawing what I really like (ships, right now Dickie). This helps me drawing everyday (the better I get, the better I can create my own content - for example - there is no apocalypse au with this ship? I can do that:)

Doing it for myself first is what let me fell in love with art.

Plus drawing nsfw helps me a lot with anatomy (I can recommend to think about the pose first and try to make it dynamic or less stiff, then search for a lot of references or do them yourself📷).

I also watch comics artist’ reels and YouTube videos to see their processes or I look for quick tutorials (literally yesterday: how to draw a bulg3??).

My process I think is pretty common:

Idea > super messy sketch

Then I start working on the lines (this can take hours sometimes, it depends on the day).

I lower the opacity and use many layers to make adjustments.

I always make adjustments (during the sketch, the color, the render ecc)

Then flat colors (not exactly flat in the pic, but I usually make shadows on different layers and then I merged them when I’m satisfied, so rn I don’t have the original layer).

Then I start drawing shadows and lights (references) and playing with colors (I need to study proper color theory because right now my method is “uh I like these colors together” + a lot of overlays (I use procreate)

/// I’m a big fan of dark backgrounds

Then I render :) I add effects like sweat, blur, use halftones a lot ecc

I really started getting better after a lot, soo take your time💓

Idk if this can be useful or not, but if you like it I can add more in the future🤝

[guppydogcity]

What are some of your best tips for beginner artists? Any book recommendations? youtube channels? blogs? etc i love your art you've improved so much

thank you so much!!! :-)

disclaimer before i start: im not a professional or anything at all this is just stuff that helped me. im just some guy so i might be wrong..! OTL

hmmm i don't think i have any specific blogs or youtube channels.. i've heard that the books 'color and light' by james gurney and 'light for visual artists' are both really good for learning how to think about objects in a 3d environment and how light affects them.. OH! also i love the book morpho, it's so useful for thinking about the human body and stuff. try to avoid youtube channels that are like "fixing your ugly art" or try to give a Quick Hack for drawing something complex like a human body, where it only applies to 1 body type stiffly facing forward

a big part of 'getting better' at art is to learning to think about art in a more in depth way. so if you see a movie or an artist you love, try and study their art and think about why specifically it compels you so much. is it how they colour their linework? is it the looseness of the poses? the symbolism? i have a big 'inspiration' channel on my 1 person discord server that everything i really like is put there for me to really look at and dissect later. i'd also really recommend speedpaints so you can get the process down.. same with watching artists on twitch so you can see thought processes and stuff live. even if you don't draw along or anything you're still improving your technical knowledge.

don't worry about posting it or how 'good' it is, even if it's something you're not personally satisfied with you're still building good muscle memory. if you're in an art server with friends that's a great time for you to ask "hey i dont feel satisfied with this, is there anything that sticks out to you". also try lots of different things.. backgrounds suck but they're really good for helping you learn perspective and stuff. something something perfect is the enemy of good something something. also the fundamentals are boring but they're really useful

i hope this was even a little helpful and sorry if it came off a little generic sounding o7 this is just stuff that helped me. youve got this

[brehaaorgana]

Showin off my noodz. Painting and drawings that is.

Below are from my art class on figure painting the long pose.

Quick thumbnails done around the room at different angles before setting up. I did a series of small pencil thumbs, one notan sketch (4 values), and one monochrome watercolor pencil sketch.

Page two is a bigger color thumbnail study in cheap oil pastel, and some of my countless attempts to work out the arm foreshortening on the model.

Underpainting in uh raw umber I think. Whole first painting session was just composition of the figure and biggest shapes roughed in.

Picture of the studio after the model was dressed and left. I made some quick notes in markup about things I wanted to change or modify and the differences when actively painting. (When I'm painting there is an easel visible in the mirror, but after clean up, there isn't anymore.)

More adjustments and corrections I was considering making.

This is where I left off last Saturday! I'm a little bummed I couldn't take a photo of the in-between stage here. I missed a week of class so I couldn't do a full values underlayer, but I did verdaccio glazing. Basically I glazed certain parts of the body cobalt blue, pthalo emerald (hint of aliz red), or diox. Purple before I started layering skin tone paint over it. You can see a green glaze up on the left corner where the umbrella I'm rendering as a lamp is. That's what the green looked like over a lot of the skin! And I put the blue where that curtain is.

I think I need to push up the hairline again so the head doesn't look too small, sculpt the upper leg more, perhaps narrow some of the top of the left side arm, and bring back in that flesh fold by the bottom hip that I liked. Obviously her nipples and belly button will be painted back in, lol. As will her facial features and bigger definition in skin creases and overlap. I also need to fix the breast that's closer to the sheet, I moved it too far up for gravity.

But I will probably do mostly big background painting next week because we only have 2 sessions left and those are more fiddly detailing work.

Anyways this is really fun to do I've been getting into game planning for everything ahead of time and trying to do as much as I can.

[makabunni]

Spent a long time on this art resource/reference masterpost! If you have a request for resources for me to find OR have a resource you want me to add, just send me an ask :D 

General Anatomy/Human stuff:

body quick tips

painting/drawing straight hair

how to draw eyes

arm squish/bend tip

chest/pecks with raised arms tip

long hair how to

male torso anatomy (back)

learn manga male anatomy (torso & arm)

male torso anatomy (front)

head and hair tips (scroll  a bit, it's in one of the images!)

how to draw noses

ears tilty tip

arm tips

two tips for drawing women's hair

drawing teeth

anatomy tips

random hair and mouth ref anime

leg muscle anatomy ref

arm muscles anatomy ref

knees reference

arm ref study

quick arm tut tip

how to draw arm

shoulders n sleeves

Poses:

umbrella poses

random female poses

random anatomy pose thing

chibi sleeping in hands pose

laying poses

elf (?) with staff poses

holding phone half bod

peeny wolf pose set

perspective pose sheet

anatomy poses 

crossed arms ref sheet

holding baby poses

Hands:

how to draw hands 1

hand refs & tutorial 2

hand tutorial 3

hand tutorial 4

36 hands

how to draw hands in 10 minutes

hands ref 2

hand gestures and simplifying the hand

arm & hand ref

500 hands

Diversity:

stop drawing natives red

wheelchair tutorial

drawing fat people

vitiligo notes for artists

darkskin palms

epicanthic folds

biracial characters

do’s and don’ts of thick lips

Animals/Creatures:

how to draw falcon beaks

canine studies (broken down into parts)

feline tiger ref

Insect wing venation

Musculature of a T-Rex

Pony bodies tutorial

Hyena Nose tutorial

horse reference

drawing horns

Flesh tutorial

bird tips

wing basics

making mythical creatures look realistic

pony heads tutorial 

dragon designing tutorial pt 3/3

pony wings tutorial

hedgie bodies

Furry/Anthro:

dogquest's pixel tutorial

furry portrait tutorial

furry pants tutorial

how to draw paws/pawhands

fur direction reference

anthro tips

muzzle shapes

furry styles

anthro expressions

f2u chibi-ish furry base

furry / cartoon head tutorial

f2u furry base/pose w three different ears

drawing humans! for animal artists

Backgrounds:

how to draw debris

fire tutorial

night sky tutorial

materials study with notes

tree tutorial

water tutorial

tangents??

ocean painting

clouds tutorial

bubbles

painty background studies tips

peony tutorial

lakeside tutorial

quick flowers for the lazy

mistletoe vs holly

Perspective:

foreshortening coil technique

foreshortening tutorial

Webcomic:

medibang comic panel tutorial

how i make webcomics/webtoons

how to color comics

the art of lettering comics

comic/doujinshi paneling

in depth webcomic tutorial

Coloring:

72 Color Combinations

How ViPOP uses color

Hair coloring tutorial by rosuuri

Gurochii moe quick eye tutorial

Anime eye tutorial

Mermaid tail tutorial

Grayscale to Color painting tutorial

chibi eye walkthrough

skin tone tutorial 1

curly hair tutorial

color palette

coloring tutorial

light, it gets everywhere

comfort color

skin coloring tutorial

holographic tutorial

dappled lighting effect

cute/bright coloring tutorial 

pattern trick

arcana character coloring tut

Expressions/ Meme / style:

small body language study

expressions reference

how to cute

Platonic cuddles meme

expression reference : nervous

flustered expression meme

drawing expressions tutorial/key

Pixel Art:

Pixel icon tutorial

Ice cream

Moving clouds tutorial

50x50 pixel doll tutorial

pixelin's pixel process

pixel expression ref

pixel eye blinking tutorial

how to pixel liquids

Clothing / Accessories:

Shoes

Fancy color tip / ref

Chainmail

short reference

learn manga basic pleated skirt tutorial

learn manga basic frills

random clothing refs

chainmail brush

clothing ref masterpost

pinstripes tips

cloth texture tips

how to clothing folds

Misc:

Sketchfab 3d Models

Mikeymegamega on YT for anime/ecchi/etc

Gentei_sozai on twitter for chibi poses

S0zalsan on twitter for random poses

mecha basics

75 tutorials

Obvious art tips you might have forgotten

Mosaic effect

how to draw a cute chibi

fighting artblock

cute pikachu base

painting a face tutorial

volume commissions mini tutorial

arcana characters tutorial reference

notes from the “animators survival kit”

concept art tutorial

another art resource masterpost

MS paint tips and tricks

Reference table for drawing CONSISTENT faces

@hanari0716 on twitter for HELLA references

animation guide for beginners

Brushes:

Foliage brushes

cityscape brushes

ghibli brushes

clip studio paint assets

PS brush pack

[obsidiancreates]

Power Crystal vs Power Turtle

"So this is your lab!" Donald looks around the small dimly-lit room. "Not many... power outlets?"

Donnie walks over to a pile of scraps and various parts in a box. "What? Yours is just as dim."

"Ha! It is not."

"Yes, it is, you just have neon lights everywhere."

"Yes, that light up the space."

"No, that make it look cool. But the light they provide is barely more than a phone screen, anything more than a foot away from them is completely unlit!"

"You sound like Raphie. 'Oh, Don, your eyes, you'll ruin them!' As though my Donnie-Tech contacts don't account for that."

"Well, we're a lot more used to dimness, I guess."

"... Deep inhale... I'm going to be a good person and not capitalize on that setup. What are you looking for?"

"The reason I asked you to come over to our dimension- AHA!" Donnie stands upright and turns around dramatically, holding out a pink-tinted and metal-capped cylinder. He's suddenly surrounded by rotating white-and-purple lines like fan blades as he proudly presents the item.

"... I have no idea what that is."

There's a disappointed "whap" sound, and the background behind Donnie disappears as he sags and scowls. "You could at least pretend, to be interested."

"Sorry, sorry. Ahem. OHMIGOSSSSHHHH! A PINK TUBE!!!" Donald clasps his hand together and stands on one foot, practically leaning over backwards in his exaggerated pose.

"Alright, alright!" Donnie walks over to a small metal table with a truly old computer monitor on it. "Just come over here. This, is an alien power crystal."

Now Donald's eyes do truly sparkle, and he dashes right up to the table. "What kind of alien?!"

"Our uh, squishy guys."

Donald loses his excitement. He slowly inches away from the crystal.

"It's harmless now," Donnie promises. "The Kraang haven't been seen- well, ours haven't-"

"Yours? But I thought-"

"There's one in a dimension perpetually stuck in the late Eighties we met recently, but he's an idiot and busy having marital issues with their version of Shredder."

"... Marital issues?"

"I wish that was the weirdest thing about that dimension... anyway, the point is there's no Kraang to track this, and no tech in this room that I haven't personally verified is safe. You know, relatively speaking."

"Ah, relative safety, my favorite kind. But why did you need me to come here for this?"

"I want to compare the energy this crystal outputs to the energy of your ninpo."

"... Is it because it's a similar color?"

"Wh- NO! ... Alright, maybe. BUT, that's not the only reason! I use a lot of Kraang tech in my inventions here in this dimension, and I've gotten prett-y familiar with most forms of terrestrial, foreign, or otherworldly energy through uh... various means."

Donald tries not to look at the electrical burn scars all over his counterpart's body. "So you're looking for some kind of commonality between them all?"

"Mmm, not exactly. I just want to note how they work in comparison with each other. Combining these various technologies can lead to incredible advancements, and that can lead to a lot less butt-kicking when new enemies show up."

"Well, this all sounds reasonable enough to me, let me just make a quick construct and-"

"Actually." Donnie pulls up a schematic on his monitor. "I was thinking more along the lines of this."

Donald leans in and squints. "You want me to... power things. Like a living battery."

"Well, I wouldn't have used those exact words."

"You realize using people as living batteries is usually a villain move!"

"It's not like I'm kidnapping you or want you to push your limits! I just want to see how the Shellraizer runs on this crystal versus your ninpo, and them maybe try out one or two other things a few, uh, dozen times-"

"I don't even think my ninpo works this way."

"What? Of course it does, I've seen you use it on practically all your tech! And I've seen videos of when you used your techbo!"

"Ha-ha! Ah, that wasn't ninpo. That was pure genius!"

"No it wasn't! I studied the properties of average electricity and other fuels and energies in your dimension, and there is clearly a mystical element to your tech!"

"I don't think there is."

"Donald, it's all purple. Even the fire. OBVIOUSLY IT'S MYSTIC!"

"Of course it's purple, all of my creations are! It's called branding!"

"It is purple... BECAUSE YOUR NINPO IS!"

"WHY DID THIS TURN INTO A SHOUTING MATCH!"

"OF COURSE IT DID, HAVE YOU MET ME?!?! YOUR NINPO IS PARTIALLY POWERING OVER HALF YOUR TECH!!!"

"PROVE IT!"

"FINE!" Donnie grabs the artifact off of his belt and reopens the portal. "Wait right here and don't touch anything!" He steps through.

Donald huffs, and begins snooping.

Lots of junk, lots of rusted items mixed in with unreasonably shiny chrome parts, lots of old schematics lying around. He picks up one that shows a stout android design, clearly modeled after the mutant turtles it would be surrounded by. It's a carefully preserved blueprint, and it makes Donald's heart ache.

Metalhead. Donnie has mentioned the incident, only briefly. A robotic son, lost in a fight. Just like his sweet Shelldon.

"Someday you'll both be rebuilt and can meet," he informs the blueprints. He carefully puts the blueprint away and looks around some more.

Some backpack-type devices with cable functions, clearly made for a mission of some sort based on the various implements to keep sound to a minimum, and one for each brother. There's some blueprints for various vehicles as well, a few various sensors, a box of incredibly small helmets labeled 'Spy Roach Gear' that Donald quickly puts away-

"AHHHHHH!" Donald jumps back as he looks up from the box and into a pair of disembodied eyes!

The eyes don't blink, flinch, or move at all. Donald takes in the whole... scene.

It's a large tube not unlike the one the crystal is in, but this one is filled with organs. Suspended in a frozen goo of some kind is an entire nervous system, alongside digestive and cardiovascular and... everything. A pair of lips hang suspended like the rest of the parts, attached by some kind of thin organic tube.

Donald makes a break for the portal.

Donnie steps out at the same time.

SLAM!

"OW! What the shell-!" Donnie gets up, a 2-D red vein popping up by his forehead. "What was that for?!"

"You have a pile of organs staring at you in your lab!" Donald holds his bo in a defensive position, ready to fight his way out.

"What?! You- ... oh." Donnie's eyes trail over to the tube. "No, that's not what he is."

"He?"

"He's a friend. or... I think of him as one. I don't know if he'd agree anymore." Donnie picks up the small device he'd brought over from Donald's lab.

"I've been told I struggle to grasp some societal nuances but-"

"He mutated, he lost his mind, he got frozen, and it's my fault, okay? And I'm working on figuring out how to unthaw him without hurting him or letting him loose so I can give him the retromutagen. But we're not working on that today, so drop it." Donnie holds up the device. "I'm proving to you right now that this is powered by your ninpo."

"Go ahead and try, but-"

"There." Donnie smirks as he hooks up the device to his ancient computer and types quickly on the equally ancient keyboard. "Right here, the readings match up."

"What? No. I made this when I was fourteen, it's impossible." Donald leans in to look, and his jaw drops.

"You were using your ninpo without even realizing it then. Which means... we can mix it with other technology! Think of everything we can create by combining all of this!"

Donald continues gaping. "I used my ninpo first?"

"Well, I don't really have a way to determi-"

"I WAS USING IT FIRST!" Donald cackles, picking Donnie up and jumping happily as Donnie screams. "HA! I NEED TO GO RUB THIS IN NARDO'S FACE IMMEDIATELY!"

"PUT ME DOWN FIRST- WHAAAAA!" Donnie screams as Donald uses his battleshell to absolutely blast off through the portal!

[sugarplanet]

Why You Should Do Master Studies To Help You Paint (and feel) Better and Have at Least 3 Pinterest Boards

Recently, for a past ArtBlock event over on my discord, we did some very quick master studies, talking about what we can learn from copying art we admire or how we can exercise our skill trying to achieve the same things that appeal to use we see in others work.

I know it's not very original or insightful to say that "I really like the romantic blues and the brush strokes in this Van Gogh" (who doesn't like a Van Gogh) but I do find it really helpful to my creativity and my self-esteem as an artist to pick from any source of inspiration, cliche or not, and relax myself into doing even a glance at some classic work when I'm feeling most overwhelmed with where my peers are at now or what's trending at the moment.

If you find yourself stagnating or rusty around the wrist joints, it might do you good to start a pinterest board and have some landscapes, modeled poses, or inspo artwork at the ready to do some studies from. Having about 3 designated to each type will also give you different areas to concentrate in.

Have the first board be for real life scenery and photos if you want to look at lighting, perspective, how color interacts in an outdoor environment, etc. The second board can be for photos of people of all shapes, sizes, and colors for pose or head studies or just to stare at until you have no choice but to recognize all the ways in which humans can be different in bone structure, phenotype, and the way skin wrinkles around a face when they laugh or cry. The third board should be reserved for all those cool illustrations and character sheets you've saved on your computer or used as a phone background. This time when you scroll through them, however, you're not just looking at them because you like them but asking yourself why; the colors? the style? the line quality? how the artist's signature is fit into the design? Inspiration and mindful study can go a long way holding hands down that path to artistic mastery. Here's some examples offered:

Zuleeky

Jackdaw @dragonofsteel

So now you go head; try out some master copy exercises like the ones we did for our last discord ArtBlock event. Bonus: doing so with friends to get you socially committed to studying and to feel more comfortable (it's also just more fun.)

Unfortunately, the watercolor brushes couldn't compete with nineteenth century oils.

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[evelmiina]

My resources for animation art and illustration learning

I’m trying to be more available and present for questions and advice about portfolio/career things. In the past one of the issues in my availability has been that questions I get are very broad or general. The other issue is that I don’t always have time, and things get lost in my email box. So I thought for starters to share what has been useful to me in recent years. Mind you, this is not general masterpost of anything, it is just interesting tidbits from my point of view that might be useful to others.

Perspective and layout:

https://imgur.com/gallery/V5Prm 

Thomas Romain’s tips for perspective. Perspective is hard in the beginning, but I promise it gets easier the more you do it. This is a good reference for whenever I feel confused or struggling.

Books:

Marcos Mateau-Mestre: Framed Ink highly recommended! Informative, for beginners and professionals alike.

Tod Polson: The Noble Approach a look into animation history particularly from layout and design point of view. For anyone who’s interested in very graphic and shape oriented approach to animation layouts and philosophy behind it.

Hans Bacher: Dream Worlds a book that takes a quick look on all aspects of animation, I think it’s a good resource for sparking interest in variety of departments in animation and understanding how feature films are made. Often referenced when explaining basics of visual development and concepting for animation.

Character anatomy:

100 Tuesday Tips With Griz and Norm

 http://grizandnorm.squarespace.com/tuesday-tips a great collection of variety of helpful tips for drawing from two Disney feature artists.

https://line-of-action.com/ 

Where to start with online figure drawing. It’s free! The goal for figure drawing should be to draw meaningfully. I’ve spent years of my life doodling and only absorbing a little bit of information, but I think there are more effective ways to learn. These exercises I do are to make me better at drawing dimensionally and so that the characters are acting and interacting in a space.

Exercise 1: Drawing long sessions - taking the time to observe. We should always aim to draw the characters as 3dimensional, even if desired result is heavily stylized and simplified. In the beginning, it might be more helpful to start with thinking anatomy as boxes and balls and pyramids (I draw boxes, but different artists have different methods), I’ve found it helps me to improve my perspective and dimensions. Starting to draw muscles and skeleton straight away, it can be difficult to place them correctly, until there’s enough knowledge to break them down into more basic shapes. I find it takes time to start understanding and really visualizing things in three dimensions, but these exercises help. 

A great demonstration: https://fyeaharttips.tumblr.com/post/23113717282/eyecager-tutorials-done-by-stanislav-prokopenko 

Exercise 2: Drawing over photographs. I saw storyboard artist Ethan Becker on Youtube teach this and found it useful. I do this sometimes, because this too, helps to see how exactly all building blocks of human/creature are acting in different poses and action. The point is not to just idly doodle-trace over outlines, it’s to learn to see the underlying geometry.

Exercise 3: Croquis - the short poses. These exercises are to particularly push the line of action, the direction and force of the pose. It’s also good for seeing how well the basic shapes are working and how they stretch and bend in motion.

Color and light (painting):

Studying how light works immensely helps to figure out how color works. It’s also a necessary skill in BG painting or visual development for animation and very helpful for illustration. Other than that, I’m including a few videos of painting that I think are interesting and have been relevant to what I’m doing.

Schoolism course: Fundamentals of Lighting with Sam Nielsen https://www.schoolism.com/school.php?id=3

Schoolism course: Painting with Light and Color with Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo https://www.schoolism.com/school.php?id=30

Books: 

James Gurney: Color and Light - A Guide for the Realist Painter

Hans Bacher: Vision - Color and Composition for Film

Scott Wills painting demos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvqCOo47Ag_GdWk_HXc1l_hD20yGca8TH 

Four Disney artists paint a tree: https://youtu.be/9Dg8w6gk4cE

----

With these, a little disclaimer! My area of knowledge is mainly color and paint for backgrounds, illustration and a bit of character design. When it comes to storyboards and animating, I have next to no experience and there are many others who would be better to ask about these things. 

[tendermiasma]

i’m not even into overwatch anymore but i just wanted to say I ADORE your art style and hope to develop my own into a similar semi-realism leaning...have you made a post about your art journey? I’m assuming I just need to buckle down and do anatomy studies but any tips are very welcome!! Ty for your time <3

Oh man thank you! I’ve never made a comprehensive post about how I got to *gestures* whatever this point in my art this is, and I definitely sat here wondering what “art journey” means for me since I always feel like I’m stumbling around so I’ll answer as completely as I can. But a great way to develop a realism-minded eye is to draw from photos and life. Everyone in the world has said it over and over but it really gets it done, it’s not any more complicated than that. It’s how I started when I was little and it’s not something I planned, but the Legolas posters were right there so how could I not? Your own non-realism “stylistic” touch will bubble up whether you want it to or not and that’s a beautiful thing. It’s not something you need to look for because it happens on its own, whether it’s you seeing something another artist is doing that you like and assimilating it into your work, or it’s your own unique way that you absorb information from the world and use it to solve problems in the drawing in front of you. Some new artists also still have the idea that using references is cheating-- I’m not blaming them, sometimes this weird thing is circulated by more established people as well-- but this is a very small minority. Please use references. I’d be lost without them. The Castlevania team has a giant collection of references for faces of every character from every angle, props, etc. and I always have a second screen up with 10 different sheets of whoever I’m drawing. Feeding yourself info is essential to getting better. Look at how other artists handle something you’re having a problem with too. If they’re doing a similar pose or something, study their drawing and ask yourself what specifically, extremely technically about that drawing is convincing-- what marks are where, and what is the quality or direction of the strokes? Try it out on your own drawing. If you’re stuck, become aware of if you’re holding on too tightly to what you think something should look like. I have to remind myself this as well. Really try to let go of the idea you have in your head about how something works and simply try instead to draw what you see, even if it feels weird. The results are often pleasantly surprising. 

I have a funny relationship with studies. You seem to be looking at them like a chore and I feel the same way. It’s impossible for me to sit down and just draw something over and over, disconnected from emotion or a larger narrative. I think a wonderful way to “study” is to incorporate those studies into a project that you wanted to do anyway. I’ve used my minicomics to get better at background painting or specific figure poses that I needed for the story but wasn’t sure how to do. I’m a very “oops I need it now better learn TODAY” kind of artist, if that suits you better than buckling down and doing anatomy studies for hours. Both are great ways to improve, but you have options for how to get there. 

In terms of how much time I spend drawing.. well lol it’s a lot. I almost typed “but I don’t do it every day” but yes, my jobs have made sure that I do (I tend to separate personal drawing and job drawing). But the truth is, to get better, a lot of very focused drawing time is important; how much of it is up to you and your schedule. You can sit down for 6 hours and doodle or you can sit down for 3 with an extremely critical eye. It’s about the volume of time as well as focus and I don’t have a clear answer for it, but I can point to one specific year in my life where I made artistic progress like I’ve never seen from myself since. I drew a comic with regular updates during that time and, looking back, the art was not good. But the point was, I was drawing for 7 hours a day after work, at least 5 days a week, and actively looking to draw things that I hadn’t done before or knew that I wasn’t good at, and the result was that every single update was almost like it was drawn by a different person-- readers noticed and commented on the progress as well. It was very much an art bootcamp and I wouldn’t have the skills I do at this point if I hadn’t done it. It’s important that you’re loving what you do if you do it for yourself! That’s how you get through big projects and continue to be excited with where you are. Love is one of the most important motivators and discipline-keepers in art, in my experience. Draw what sets your brain on fire and attack it wholeheartedly even if it’s really weird or niche, not what you think you should be drawing, and you’ll improve a million times faster.

Art journey in terms of what I’ve done with my life (if this is what you meant from the beginning I’M SORRY I’m just trying everything you might have meant) uhhh I haven’t been to art school. I have no idea what my relationship with art would be like now if I’d had any formal training and I don’t really dwell on it. I could either be a testament to being able to get by without it or an example of someone who has no idea what she’s doing at all and lacks many basic foundational art skills. I have an architecture degree. I love architecture, I love the language of space we build for ourselves, and I’m truly, deeply glad for that eye-opening and often grueling experience, but I think my current field is a much better fit. Before animation I worked as a graphic designer mainly drawing storyboards for commercials and internal-industry stuff-- lots and lots of quick colored sketches (one of our main clients was a big glass company and my god I never thought I’d draw so much glass in my life). I was able to do that job due to the skills I developed through personal work. Maybe I’d be a hundred times more powerful if I went to art school! Maybe I’d be completely burned out and bitter and not drawing anymore at all! I just don’t know. I have friends who have had both experiences. Whether you choose art school or not it’s best to keep tabs on if the art you’re currently making brings you joy. Joy and struggle aren’t mutually exclusive. Oftentimes I’m drawing something I care deeply about but it’s VERY FUCKING HARD and I’m frustrated but it’s worth it.

I also do everything while being very scared of the thing. I have a lot of deep-seated anxiety that I’m constantly trying to root out and my brain compulsively twists things around into why I can’t do something, why people secretly know I’m below-par and are just too nice to tell me, how I’m “tricking” people into thinking I’m better than I am, etc. It’s so bad that my first thought when I was initially offered the art test for my current job was to say no; not because I didn’t want it so badly it hurt, but because I thought I’d be too much of a disappointment.  After completing the test I spent an hour figuring out the most gracious way to apologize for not being enough. It’s common, but not something to accept and we’re all working on it. I just thought it was important to mention because art is also a mental journey and forces you to do all this navel-gazey shit in order to advance, and feeling like you are Not Enough is rife in the creative community. The work feels entangled with my value as a person because art is a massive part of my life. Something I’m learning is that I don’t have to be confident or sure of myself all the time. This ensures that the process is usually painful and frightening. Often there’s no way to make it less painful or frightening, and I just have to hold my breath and do it. An oddly comforting thing to me the past couple years is to remind myself that the scary thing I’m about to do won’t be the scariest thing I’ll ever do. I implies both that this isn’t the pinnacle of my progress and also that I will inevitably get over it. If you continue with art you’re going to run into things like this and I guess if it was me it would’ve been helpful to know I’m not alone in it.

I hope that maybe answered some of your questions, maybe? If you have some specific questions feel free and I’ll try my best. Hope you have a good day/night!

[alexiadraws]

So, how exactly are you good with shades, shadows, light sources in drawing? I've always had trouble with those sort of things so I was wondering if you could give me some advice other than "practice." Also, are you an animator or what exactly is your art profession? I'm an art student soon to be taking her Masters, but I still want to know.

i think some good advice is to grab some objects you have, and maybe a flashlight, and move the light around these things and see what parts cast shadows and which parts attract light. shadows and light sources all come from understanding that what you’re drawing is a 3 dimensional object. the more you start to understand the shapes that make up forms (like the human face, what cloth folding means, etc) the more you will start to see your art as an object that casts shadows instead of just a flat drawing. practice will only get you so far, a lot of art is thinking hard about what you’re drawing.

Here are some images that visually explain what I mean. I wouldn’t even draw these myself bc time is short and there is always so much I want to draw, BUT looking at them and studying them is a valid form of practice just as much as drawing is.

^^^^ this is the same head, shown at three different angles, but the head is made of the same basic shapes each time. In each photo can you identify the light source? if you can, great! now think, Why do you know where the light is coming from? Its because even though these are 2D photos, the object in the photo has a very clear 3D form. Apply that knowledge to your art! If you can’t tell where the light source is coming from, start to analyze which parts of the face are highlighted and which parts are in shadow. Reality tells us things that are brighter are closer to the light, things that are darker are obscured by some other form which is why shadows are cast. Shadows happen when the light is unable to reach part of the form because something opaque is obscuring the light from passing through! 

Here is another great image from RobynRose on deviantart that shows how light from different angles casts shadows on different parts of the face and body. This happens because we are 3 dimensional forms! 

When it comes to finding visual refs to study from, another awesome resource is senshistock on deviantart. Its literally a god send for art refs. They do great poses, have amazing diversity with their models and are an overall great resource!). I also recommend pinterest boards that people have already made. its a really quick and easy way to find a large amount of tutorials and visual explanations on like any art topic you need help with! The only downside with pinterest is if you’re going to use any specific image as a direct reference for a piece, make sure you can hunt down the source creator for that tutorial if you plan on sharing it anywhere! Pinterest is often a helpful but creditless place lol.

So, you say you’re tired of being told to just practice. Well, thats super fair! But realize part of bettering your art is paying attention to the way things look all! the! time! Pay attention, detailed attention to everything around you when you’re not drawing. And by paying attention I mean like, walking into a room and identifying the light source, is there more than one light source, is there any kind of secondary light source, etc. Now, its not that I’m consciously doing these things 24/7 but it’s more of like, a mode of vision.

Art is just as much about understanding, thinking, and problem solving as it is making things look pretty and knowing which colors to pick. ESPECIALLY when it comes to shading and light sources, that stuff requires serious thought. So, when you are ready to practice some more I recommend using a reference photo to practice (being told using references is cheating or shameful is the biggest lie young artists are told. its so damaging) and when you have your reference photo, don’t just copy what you see, think about WHY it looks the way it does. Why is there a shadow there? whats blocking it? why does the clothes fold the way it does? what is it being pushed or pulled against? All these questions become clearer the more you start to visualize what youre seeing as something that is 3 dimensional instead of 2 dimensional. 

Sorry that was so long, I really hope it helps not just you but others.

ALSO my degree is in animation but I rarely animate for fun / for work / in my own time. I consider myself to be a visual development artist for animation (character design, color scripting, and background art are some of my favorite things to do!) as well as a freelance illustrator. 

[hiscyarika]

The Kings Who Are Gone

Word Count: 2.1k

Pairing: Oberyn Martell x Reader

Summary: Reader visits the ruins of Sunspear after Dorne is conquered. Based on the song “Jenny of Oldstones” from Game of Thrones.

Warning(s): Heavy Angst, Hopelessness, Death

A/N: So this idea hit me at like one this morning and now it’s almost six. I can see the sun coming up but it’s worth it because I haven't been able to get my brain to write anything for at least two weeks, probably closer to three. Hopefully this is a worthwhile read while you guys wait for Landslide. There are a few different versions of this song. I listened to the score version and the episode version (Podrick singing it in 8x02) while I wrote. I definitely recommend the score version to play while you read, but I’d also listen to Pod singing it just so you have the lyrics. They’re pretty important to the plot.

Masterlist

Tag Lists

Gif by @bestintheparsec​ 

The sun has gone from Sunspear.

The crystal blue waters of the Summer Sea have turned black. Raging waves crash against the shore. There’s a violent wind whipping through the air, no longer the gentle, salty breeze that you had once known. Dark, ominous clouds swirl above you, split only by the lightning that threatens to tear apart the very sky. Thunder follows soon after, a deep cacophony that forms a wrathful symphony with the ocean.

The stories will tell of a light that was destroyed with Dorne, but you haven’t seen the sun since the day he died.

A shiver runs up your spine as your bare feet hit the cobblestone of the walkway up to the palace. What once stood as your home, full of love and warmth, now lies in ruins–devoid of all life. The only warmth you feel is from the tears that fall silently from your eyes, a stark contrast to the cold rain against your skin.

As you step inside, a deep ache swells within your chest. It’s an agony that has refused to leave you since the moment you watched the Mountain slaughter the man you loved. Though you suppose, in some sick, twisted way, you’re grateful for this anguish that has taken up permanent residence in your soul. It reminds you that he was real, that he lived a life just as vibrant as the sun and loved you with the same heated passion. And now, in the wake of his death, it serves as the only indication that you still live, that you still have the capacity to feel something.

You roam the halls with no particular destination, taking in the destruction that has befallen your home. Columns have been knocked down, allowing the rain to reach inside where the roof has caved in. Bodies of both Dornishmen and enemies alike lie on the floor, the stone painted red with blood. And banners, which once flew proudly with the sigil of House Martell, have been ripped apart and burned, the only relic that remains of a fallen bloodline.

You bring your hand to your mouth to stifle a sob. You’d never been given a chance to further the Martell line. After your marriage, he’d often told you about his wish to have a son. He assured you that he loved his daughters, and that they would be loved no less than any child you might bear, but you understood the significance of having a legitimate heir just as well as he did. You’d wanted so badly to give him a son, but he’d been taken from you before the gods could bless you with a child.

You continue on, finding yourself standing on a balcony overlooking the Water Gardens. The lush greenery has withered and died, losing all of its vibrant color. Your fingers wrap tightly around the railing, so tightly that your knuckles turn white. You close your eyes as memories of afternoon walks come flooding back to you: your arm linked with his as you moved amongst the fountains and the tall flowering plants. The sounds of children’s laughter floating in the background as you listened to his rich baritone, words of passion and poetry seeping from his lips like the sweetest honey.

You collapse to your knees as your desiderium reaches its peak. An ardent longing for that which you’ve lost. Your form shakes with violent sobs that tear from your very soul. As the storm continues to rage, you wish that it would split the palace in two, swallowing you into an abyss you could never escape. At least then you would be free of such profound torment.

But something breaks you from your cathartic release. A soft call so foreign to the tempest. A gentle whisper of your name carried in the screaming wind.

You pull yourself to your feet, turning back to the desecrated halls. Your heart beats wildly in your chest as you search the darkness for whoever had dared to disturb you. And in the shadows you find your answer, the dark silhouette of a man looming in the doorway like some omen of death.

“Who are you? Why have you come here?,” you call to him, somehow finding a tone firm and strong enough to carry over the storm. It occurs to you that he could very well pose a threat, but somehow you find peace in knowing that your life will end here if that is what he’s come to ensure.

He gives no answer and instead steps forward, though not close enough for you to truly see him. Lightning cracks across the sky, illuminating the room for just a fraction of a second. A sharp gasp escapes your lips as you catch a glimpse of him in the momentary light.

“Oberyn?,” you call, tears forming in your eyes again as he comes closer. He steps out of the shadows, revealing himself fully to you. Your hand comes up to cover your mouth again and you shake your head in disbelief.

“Come to me, my love,” he beckons, opening his arms. The sound of his voice nearly has you falling to your knees once more.

You step tentatively towards him, reaching out hesitantly to touch him. Once you’re close enough, he takes your hand in both of his, pressing his warm, soft lips to your knuckles.

You collapse into his embrace, your fists locking around the fabric of the golden robe he wears. His arms wrap around you, securing you to his chest. And you bury your face in his shoulder, crying with the same force of the storm.

But you don’t allow yourself to remain hidden from him for long. You lift your head after a few moments, cradling his face in your hands. Your thumbs rub gently over the stubble there, and through the blur of your tears you try to commit every detail of him to memory. His soft, dark eyes. The curve of his nose. The dimple in his right cheek. The bow of his lips. Everything you thought that you would never see again.

You take in a sharp breath, still trying to make sense of it all in your head. He’s gone. You watched him die. It was a sight that you’ll never forget, one that still haunts you every time you close your eyes to sleep. “Either I am dreaming or I am dead. No matter which, I wish to never wake again,” you murmur.

“I have missed you, my love,” Oberyn replies softly. He leans down closer to you, pressing his forehead lightly to yours. You inhale deeply, breathing in his scent and letting it fill you with a sense of peace that you have not felt since the last time you held him this close.

He inches closer, his lips finally capturing yours in a deep, passionate kiss. The salt of your longing tears mixes with saccharine berry wine, the taste of him that had become such a distant memory, you had almost forgotten. His kiss brings back the warmth that you have lived so long without, and by the beating of your heart and the renewed vitality of your soul, you know that you are alive. You can feel the sun again.

Though you wish to never part from him again, Oberyn pulls away after a few long moments, gazing softly down into your eyes again. He brushes a few damp strands of hair from your face, then presses a softer kiss to your forehead. “What magic has brought you back to me?,” you ask him, but his brows furrow and he shakes his head.

“Shhh, little dove. You mustn’t worry about such things. Just allow me to keep you this close for as long as I am able,” he asks of you. Fear strikes your heart at his words, quick and sharp and painful.

“Please don’t leave me again, Oberyn. I couldn’t bear it. Living without you has been a fate worse than death,” you tell him, your words rushed and panicked. Your hands fall to his chest as you plead with him.

He shifts, moving to cup your cheek and wipe away a stray tear with the pad of his thumb. “I will not leave you any sooner than I must, but the time will come eventually, my love,” he laments.

You release a shaking sigh, pressing yourself impossibly closer to him. You rest your head on his shoulder, closing your eyes for just a few moments. Oberyn slowly wraps an arm around your waist, his other hand coming to cradle the back of your head. He begins to sway then, a soothing, rhythmic movement, and leans down to let his temple rest against the crown of your head.

As you stand there with Oberyn, dancing with the thunder and waves as your only music, you find your sorrows melting away until they feel like nothing but a distant memory. You can breathe easier. There’s no deep ache settled in your chest. You feel whole and alive in the arms of your prince, and you try your hardest not to dwell on how long this feeling will last. All you know is that if you could, you would never leave this place. You would stay here with Oberyn forever even if it meant your death.

“I love you, Oberyn,” you whisper, unable to keep the words to yourself after so many years. You wrap your arms tightly around him then. Somehow, you know that your time is running out. It’s slipping away from you like sand in an hourglass. But this one cannot be turned on its head to start over.

Oberyn lifts his head, and you do the same, meeting his soft gaze once more. “As I love you. Always,” he tells you.

Something in the wind changes. It’s tangible, and Oberyn looks up, studying the air around the two of you. Your heart begins to pound in your chest as you realize what it means. “Stay with me, Oberyn,” you beg, your voice quivering in panic.

“I cannot, my love. I’m so sorry,” he says, hanging his head in defeat.

“Then take me with you!,” you cry, though you know what that would mean for you.

He shakes his head, looking back up at you with a hardened expression. “I will not take you before it is your time,” he states firmly, “You have a life to live, little dove.”

“There is no life left for me, Oberyn. You’re gone. Dorne is in ruins. Our people are dead. What life do I have to live in this place?,” you plead with him. Your words are punctuated by a sharp gasp, and tears stain your cheeks once more.

He slowly begins to release you, and despite your efforts to hold onto him, he removes himself from your grasp. “I’m sorry, my love,” he murmurs, a deep sadness in his eyes as he takes your hand, pressing a final kiss to the underside of your wrist.

“Oberyn, please,” you beg, but you can feel the warmth of his lips leaving you. You close your eyes for just a moment, and when you open them again, you’re forced to watch as he fades from your sight. You step forward, trying to hold onto him, but your hands never find purchase. Like a mirage in the heat of the desert, everything your survival depends on disappears like it was never there in the first place.

Just like that, your sun is gone again.

You crumble to the floor, sobs wracking your body. You don’t try to silence them. You cry. You scream. You curse the gods for taunting you this way. To see your love again, only to have him taken from you once more is the worst torment you’ve ever had to endure, even worse than his death at the hands of the Lannisters. You imagine that this is what hell is like, and you wonder if maybe that’s where you’ve ended up.

You lie there on the floor, too weak to force yourself to move. There’s nothing in the world worth the effort. Instead, you watch as the storm continues to rage, tearing at the weakened structure of the palace. You close your eyes as the roof above you begins to give away, making peace with the fact that you will never leave these ruins. You hope that this will bring you home to Oberyn.

And soon enough, those ruins become your tomb.

-

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[lumilasi]

Finished her pretty quick, I just got an idea surprisingly fast. Also this confirms Ryuu has a type: Redhead, intelligent, wears lot of black and red lmao. Also her pose is a bit wonky, but eh. it shows her outfit well enough.

....This reminds me, I should rewrite Reidou’s bio somewhat, I don’t quite like her BG story yet. 

Anyway, further info below:

Age: 27 (she was 20 when she met Ryuu)

Sexuality: Bi

Ezuko’s QUIRK EXPLAINED

BASICS (Pros in normal, cons in bold)

Quirk name: Living ink

Ezuko is able to create ink-like substance into any surface she touches, basically allowing her to create tattoos and art pieces without needing tools. She just needs to imagine what she wants the picture look like, or have a reference to look at. She can also turn liquids into this inky substance.

Ezuko tends to need more time and proper focus if she wants to create larger and more intricate designs. For her to create these images or change a liquid into ink, she does need to be touching the object/liquid.

TATTOOING/ILLUSTRATING

She can easily create tattoos for people with her ability that is pretty much pain free, or graffiti or even basically change the color and design of an entire building, piece of clothing, etc.

The image she’s made, she can shift and change and make move however she wants, even after a long time. She can use these moving images to even temporarily blind people by making the image shift around their eyes.

The process in some cases take even longer than doing the same tattoo traditionally would take, at least if the image is complex and large, and she doesn’t have proper references for it.

For her to be able to make the pictures move, she usually requires having been touching the object/person minimum of five seconds.

Her quirk ultimately is not meant for combat, and she can’t really use her drawings in a fight, only disorient them to either flee or find a chance to use her liquid shifting ability.

LIQUID SHIFT

Ezuko’s ability to change liquids into ink can allow her (accidentally or on purpose) to turn a person’s blood into ink and basically poison them to death near instantly. 

She can neutralize liquid based attacks as well by turning them to her ink, which will automatically start to listen to her commands.

She is immune to most acids and poisons (non-digested ones) because she automatically turns these things into ink when they touch her. It’s not her quirk being passive however, but rather a survival reaction she has developed. 

In order to do this, she needs to be able to touch the liquid she wants to change, which means in a case of a fight, she needs to either make the person bleed (or get them to spit or whatever, she prefers the blood as its “easier.”)

PERSONALITY SUMMARY

Ezuko tends to be fairly blunt, no nonsense type of person. She’s mostly pretty calm and level headed even in tight situations, but when her temper flares it can be pretty bad. She’s gonna let you hear where you screwed up exactly, in other words. 

Ezuko tends to not like people with “strong” quirks by default, because the whole obsession over quirks let to her family disowning her for not having a “good enough” power and wanting to do something else than be a hero or have some other profilic career. She can change her mind about you (like she did with Ryuu) once she gets to know you better, and sees you’re not putting all your value as a person on your power. 

She’s quite intelligent and enjoys reading and learning about a lot of different things, partly because it helps her imagination run wilder and thus makes it faster to create her images. 

BACKGROUND STORY (A quick summary, details may develop)

Ezuko was born to parents who were all about status, and quite disappointed to find out her quirk wasn’t suitable for heroism. They then tried to push her for something else that could rise their wealth and standing in society. Ezuko herself didn’t want to do this, dealing with a lot of arguments and abusive language from them, up until she moved out at age 18, heading to study arts. After that her family basically disowned her, refusing to even answer her calls. Ezuko quit trying to reach them, figuring she’d be better off without.

Then, when she was doing an apprenticeship in a tattoo parlor, she ended up having to deal with an abusive customer one evening, where he started harassing her. In a panic, she ended up discovering another, unfortunate side-effect of her quirk, where during the struggle she managed to make the guy bleed, and then swiftly turned his blood into ink, killing him near instantly. Some local residents came to see the commotion, and instead of asking her side of the story just automatically began to call her a murderer as the customer was a regular, forcing her to flee the scene. 

The local press and everybody around there started to exaggerate her temper and further paint her in a bad light, forcing Ezuko to flee the place altogether. She tried to reach for her parents for help, but they refused to help her, believing the media that she’d done it on purpose.

Sometime during her runaway spree she ran into Ryuu, who’d only recently gained lot of notoriety, though the girl was unaware of this. He helped her in a fight against some thugs, and she brings the injured Ryuu into her hideout to fix his injuries. They stick together for a bit, and Ryuu even brings her to a person he knows that generally tends to help out with people like her - a broker named Giran. Giran let’s her work in his bar, also making sure that everybody knew not to bother her as that’d be a bad idea. He even helps her to get a place to stay in eventually. Sometime during these years, she hears rumors about “Frostbite” having potentially died, which makes her a little sad initially, though Giran cheers her up be stating that there was probably more to the story than that.

Some years after that, she finds out about Ryuu being alive through Giran, as he sends her to bring something to “an old acquaintance” as the man put it. This said acquaintance turned out to be Ryuu.

Few more extra details;

- She’s the only person out of the people around Kain who actually understands his more scientific talk. They can end up having long conversations about a subject that none of the others have a clue of.

- Her name translates to “Paint” (Pandoru that she pronounces as pandora) and “illustration lake.” (Ezuko)

- The world she lives in is based on my fic Reanimate, which basically means there’s no league of villains, as Tenko never became “Shigaraki.” Giran is the only important member (outside of afo) that is still a criminal in this AU. Because of Kain’s dimension hopping ability, this doesn’t mean she doesn’t get to interact with the more villainous versions of the gang, though. 

- Ezuko made Ryuu’s dragon tattoo as a thank you for helping her.

- Her surname is bit of a pun, as it’s written as “Pandoru” aka paint, but after leaving home and her parents behind, she began saying it as “Pandora” referring to Pandora’s box as a bit of a darker joke about her choosing to go against her parents and thus unleashing a lot of bad things into her life. This proved to be even more accurate after the parlor incident. 

- Her parents wanted her to either find a way to become a hero with her quirk, or go into some other highly respected profession for status and money, when Ezuko just wanted to do something artistic.

- Ryuu actually didn’t start crushing on her until after they met again years later after their first meeting, when he and Kain returned from another eventful dimension hopping trip to visit their little sanctuary corner and friends, Wasabi and his mums. Up until then he’d seen her just as a friend/acquaintance

- Wasabi digs her a lot because they have similar hairstyles.

- The vine tattoo represents her quirk and spreads around her arms and shoulders more when using her quirk. When using it in extreme amounts (Like turning a large body of liquid into ink for example) her skin around those parts gets so covered it looks like she just has one large pitch black tattoo covering those areas, and you can no longer see the vine details. 

Also, the ref sheet base was made by yourultraarchive as usual

[midnight-inthe-kitchen]

“Hotel Potter” (Part 2)

Paring: Remus x Reader (Marauders Era)

Warnings: Fluff, kind of slow compared to the next part😎

Word Count: 2057

The Potter “Manor” was almost exactly what you were expecting... It appeared a little more humble from the outside, clearly trying to blend in with the other houses on the street, but was no doubt ‘the house to see’ on the block. The interior, which was filled and decorated with a million+ fancy, expensive, and delicately old items, was even more extravagant.

“Wow, James... I didn’t know your father was so wealthy,” Marlene joked as she brushed her feet off on the ornate outdoor mat. (Both Marlene and Mary, who was staying with the McKinnons for the rest of winter break, ran out to meet everyone when they saw them apperate outside. The Mckinnons and the Potter’s were next door neighbors... I checked ;)

James fixed his glasses as he opened the door for the rest of his friends. “Oh, I um- He just works for the Ministry, that’s all.” He knew Marlene knew full well of his family’s background, but decided to clear it up for everyone else.

“I think it’s lovely,” you mentioned, looking all around the front room. Your gaze was fixed on a stain glass window in the ceiling. Looking back down to the patterned tile, you watched the colors dance all over the floor as a swaying tree blocked certain beams of light from shining through.

Remus had started to wander to a large bookshelf in the entryway, skimming over the book covers, waiting for everyone else to enter.

“Okay James... Why don’t you show us where we’ll be sleeping before these two start drooling over your expensive things,” Lily guest wired to you and Remus as she defiantly strutted through the doorway.

James gave a low bow and pretended to tip an imaginary hat before practically dropping the door on Peter. (Mary somehow caught it before it could slammed into his face...)

“Of coarse, milady- But first...” He pulled out his wand and pressed it to his neck. After warning everyone to cover they’re ears in which everyone did except Sirius and Marlene, he muttering sonorus and followed it with “Alfred!”

Sirius cackled under his breath while everyone else flinched. “You’re still making him respond to that?” Sirius laughed, wheeling around to see James.

James just shrugged, “He can’t really hear when I call him anyways, so it just kind of sticked,”

“... stuck,” You corrected under your breath.

From around a corner, a very old, probably very deaf, house elf responded to his call. “Yes, master Wayne?”

You scoffed under your breath. Joining Sirius and James in the laughter, you realized you three were the only ones who got the reference. “Nice, James,” you smiled, giving him credit for such a golden muggle reference in such a pure-blooded house hold.

James shot you a quick grin before pocketing his wand again. “Alfred, my dear butler, have my parents left for Rome yet?” he asked respectfully.

Alfred-the-house-elf squinted his eyes before holding up a shaky hand to his ear. “Well, Sir, I saved Mr Black’s bone from his last visits, is that wha-”

Sirius’ eyes widened as James cut him off with a wave of his hand, completely confused as to what the house elf had thought he said. “No, no sorry...” He rested his hand on his wand, debating weather he should take it out again. He cupped his hands around his mouth instead. “...ARE EUPHEMIA AND FLEAMONT STILL HERE?”

The elf scrunched his face and waved his finger in the air. “Don’t try to fool me, Mr James, you and your friends are still to you to drink beer.”

James huffed, as he decided he’d look for them himself. “Stay here just in case they’re still packing...” he addressed the group of friends. “... They’ll want to see everyone before they head off.” He started down a hallway you had been eyeing with large portraits of what you could only assume were the many generations of Potters.

You walked over to “Alfie” wanting to be nice and ask such an old creature how his day was going. “Excuse me,” you started from behind the ancient potato sac. “Excuse me?” You raided your voice a little while taping on his shoulder.

He jumped a little, but smiled sweetly when he saw you. “What can I do for you, ma’am” he asked, completely opblivious to your previous attempts.

“Oh-” you stuttered at being called ‘ma’am’. “You can just call me Y/n,” you smiled. “O-or not if you don’t want to... Whatever you like,”

Suddenly realizing you were rambling and that Alfie probably couldn’t hear half of what you were saying anyways, you recollected yourself. “Sorry, but I was wondering how long you’ve been working for the Potters?” You tired to start up a friendly conversation but this time you bent down so that he could hear you better.

The house elf scrunched his face again trying to recollect the distant past. “Well,” he started, but before he could finish, Lily was bent beside you.

“Hi, I’m sorry,” she looked to you and then back to Alfred, clearly a little bit on edge. “... But do you happen to know what the sleeping arrangements are?” she asked ‘Alfie’.

He looked to her, smiled, and then went back to you. “... Masters Mr and Mrs Potter were so kind to have accepted me from the previous Mr and Mrs Potter, even after knowing of my poor hearing...” he whispered like it was a secret. “I always had a new master before Mrs Euphemia and Mr Fleamont... The whole Potter family would take turns passing me around for some reason, but I loved meeting all of them.”

He continued his life story for a few more seconds before you turned to Lily and smiled. “I don’t think he could hear you...”

“Oh,” she giggled before turning back to the house elf. “Excuse me?” she tried again, this time a little louder.

Alfred slowly tuned his head once he had finished his sentence. “Did James set up the beds so that I was with him by any chance?”

“On the conterary, Master Bruce Wayne made me wait to assign your bed so that you would be most comfortable...”

Lily heaved a heavy sigh before thanking him and walking around. You joined her because what could possibly be bothering her now?

“Okay, hey... What’s going on?”

Lily crossed her arms as she shifted her weight nervously. “This is nice,” she started.

You laughed because what a dumb thing to be so outwardly anxious about. “Yeah, I know, his parents must have loads of money to-”

“No,” she cut you off, squinting her eyes suspiciously. “This is too nice... I think he’s planning something— I mean why else would would he wait to pick the beds for-”

“BECUSE HE LIKES YOU AND WANTS YOU TO BE HAPPY!...” You whisper-yell in her face while throwing your arms up exasperatedly. “I can’t believe you can’t just accept you like him and make things easier for everyone...” Lily’s face betrayed her as it turned crimson.

Apparently you weren’t nearly quiet enough because before she could utter any kind of self justification, Sirius slid over from nowhere and leaned his elbow and her shoulder. “Talking about James and Lily’s love life?” he questioned nonchalantly.

Lily shrugged his arm off her. “EW, no.” she lied. “Just the... sleeping arrangements, you nosey pig.”

Sirius grinned as he looked slyly over to you. “Well... In that case, Y/n, I hope you like cheese or books because I just so happen to know the sleeping arrangements and James thought he’d give you the option...” Lily rolled her eyes as you blushed while trying to mentally run thought all the people in correspondence with cheese and books. Books had to be Remus, right?... So Peter must be cheese??? YiKeS... Um, I’ll take the books please.................That’s not what came out though.

“Whatever works is fine with me, I really don’t care,” you smile sweetly. Lily hits you in the arm but you ignore it along the stare you can feel boring into the side of your face. Sirius just watched you skeptically trying to decide wether or not he should step into your nonexistent romance and take matters out of your embarrassed, slow-moving hands. Apparently he has decided because a couple seconds later he shouted across the room, “Hey Moony?” You turn on instinct to see Remus look up from the book he was studying. “You wanna bunk with Y/n this weekend?”

Remus’ eyes darted from Sirius, to you, and back to Sirius.

Sirius gestured to you like a toned-down Will Smith “behold” meme and shot Remus an subtle “mate, this is the flipping chance you were taking about before your bag ripped on the train” face.

You just sat there awkwardly. Feeling the heat rush to your face every other second the three of you stood there in an undecided pose, you were about to mutter another, “it’s fine, really...” but was cut off by James sprinting back into the room.

He was pretty out of breath from running around the large property. “They’ve just left... I guess they were running late, but they wish everyone a good weekend,” he shot Sirius a very non-innocent grin. Marlene and Mary, stood up, not missing a second of they’re conversation while everyone picked up their bags.

You were a little upset that you never got an answer to the most important question of the weekend, but figured it was going to have to be answered one way or another.

You all followed James up the grand staircase and stopped in a long hallway racked with doors.

“Merlin, James, tell me again why you live in an actual hotel?” Mary laughed. James squeezed in front of her to get to the first door.

“Ha-ha...” he mocked half-heartedly, testing to make sure the door wasn’t locked. “Look, my parents are only letting us use the first five doors for some reason so I had to pair everyone up, sorry.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Oh yeah, and that means two people can have a room to themselves, so whoever wants it can have it.”

From the way he was taking, you assumed whatever his “sleeping arrangements” were, they were very loosely planned.

Alright, alright I think it’s safe to say, no parents; no sexist restrictions...” Sirius stretched his arm out, landing over Mary’s shoulder. Marlene’s arm came around to hit him in the abdomen.

James laughed as he finally got the old knob to open. “Um, I don’t think Mar— Sirius... Why don’t you just sleep with me, and then Lily and Mary and then-”

“I am NOT sleeping with the rat,” Marlene started. Peter started to protest but was cut off by James again.

“Fine! How about Mary and Marlene, Y/n and Remus, and then... wait no-”

“Oh for the love of Merlin...” you sighed, “Sirius and I, Remus and James, Mary and Marlene, and then either Lily or Peter can take the spare room. That way, no one has to share with someone they aren’t comfortable around and I can make sure Sirius don’t accidentally burn anything down.”

Sirius looked mildly offended, but still didn’t mind being able to share a room with a girl for once. You had to mentally tell yourself you were “taking one for the team” because in all honesty, the reason you weren’t with Lily was because Sirius was way more of a safety hazard, and wether she planned on it or not, her and James would need a bit more privacy if they were ever going to work out their blatant and blind emotions.

[taetaespeaches]

“We’re becoming more of a spectacle than the art.”

namjoon x reader (or oc) genre: fluff word count: 1.7K

a/n: ok so here is a museum date with Joonie which was requested ages ago. This is part of the long term Joon/Daisy couple in which they are trying to shift their relationship from a supposed to be one night stand to an actual romantic relationship. It kind of follows after “Please don’t cry”, in which they have a argument/discussion about wanting to get to know each other better outside of Namjoon’s apartment- that fic is not necessary to read for this one, It just shows that these two have been making the effort to date properly, despite having already been intimate. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy and thanks for reading! :)) 

AFTER a taking an excessive amount of public transport, your anxiety bubbling over the fear of getting lost, you finally arrived at the museum. Looking down at your phone, you saw the text from your date saying he was waiting for you at the entrance of the Lotte Museum of Art, which was at the base of the Lotte World Tower.

Approaching the building, maneuvering your way through the bustling crowds, you spotted your tall handsome man, his eyes scanning the sea of people. When his eyes found yours, his stunning smile overtook his face as he waved cutely at you, standing a little taller.

Though the relationship wasn’t labeled yet, you had been on a few dates at this point, most of them taking place in cafes or perusing small shops. However, it was still a little strange seeing him out in public. A good strange, just different. You returned the smile as you walked toward him, your heart racing at the sight of him because he was there, waiting for you. Only you.

“Babe,” he called out happily when you neared him.

“Next time we’re coming together, I was so fucking scared of getting lost,” you complained with a chuckle, Namjoon’s eyes shooting around the crowd at your loud and public vulgarity, though he chuckled at the outburst.

“I’m sorry,” he smiled as you appeared in front of him, his hand finding your lower back as he leaned forward, leaving a quick but sweet kiss to your lips. “Next time we come together,” he grinned.

“Hi,” you greeted him with a smile, Joon moving his hand from your lower back to swing around your shoulders, pulling you against his side as he walked you toward the doors of the museum.

“I already paid for our entry,” he told you before pressing another kiss to your temple as he held out a brochure of the exhibit you were about to see.

“Ooh, Dan Flavin, right?” You asked as you took the brochure.

“Yeah, he basically abandoned painting for creating these amazing pieces using fluorescent lights, and space,” Namjoon told you as you entered the museum.

“Did you learn all that from this or did you do prior research,” you asked with a smirk, Namjoon letting out an embarrassed breathy chuckle.

“I may have done a bit of research when planning this date,” he told you, dimples on display as you giggled at him.

“You’re adorable,” you cooed as you turned your attention to the pamphlet. You silently read over the information until you found a section you particularly liked, reading it out loud. “Flavin summed up his practice as ‘decisions to combine traditions of painting and sculpture in architecture with acts of electric light defining space.’ The result is a phenomenological experience where the work of art must be experienced in person by a viewer,” you read. “Flavin was taking color out of the confines of the canvas and into our corporeal space.”

Namjoon hummed thoughtfully as he navigated through the museum, leading you both toward the exhibit hall.

“You know, that’s kind of like you,” you told him as you continued to peruse the information in your hands.

Your date thoughtfully looked down at you as he studied your expression while you read. Stopping his movements, you glanced up at him, meeting his gaze. Raising your eyebrows in question, Namjoon gave you a small smile. “What do you mean kind of like me?”

You opened your mouth to speak but stalled a moment as you gathered your thoughts. “With your music,” you told him, Namjoon’s eyes widening in surprise. “You take these traditional styles of hip hop and rap and pop, and even the traditional idol image, and you make them new. You don’t let genre confine you,” you shrugged, unaware of how much your words meant to the man standing beside you.

As you stared up at him, his gaze intense and unwavering, you felt your cheeks flush. “What?”

Namjoon let out a small chuckle as he shook his head. “You’re just amazing,” he told you, resting his forehead against your own. “I don’t think you even know how amazing you are and that’s just fucking shocking to me,” he whispered before his hand found the back of your head as he brought his lips to yours.

You eagerly kissed him back, not unaware that you were in a public space but just not caring in that moment as you allowed him to deepen the kiss for just a moment. Smiling against his lips, you reluctantly pulled away.

“Ok, that’s enough pda for now,” you smirked, Namjoon blushing. “As much as I like you being obsessed with me,” you teased him, Namjoon throwing his head back laughing, “we’re becoming more of a spectacle than the art.”

Your date slowly took a look around at the eyeing pupils surrounding you, a bashful smile overtaking his face as he squeezed his eyes shut. In that moment, he looked so young and excited, and you found yourself admiring the dual presence of youth and maturity he carried around with him.

“You know,” he started, grabbing your hand as he led you into the exhibit. “I’m only a little bit obsessed with you.”  

“Oh, just a little bit, huh?” You asked him with an amused smile.

“Little bit,” he told you, holding his fingers up to show you the miniscule amount of obsession he had for you.

“Well,” you shot him a cocky smirk. “Just give me more time to impress you with my wildly interesting mind,” you playfully bragged as you both entered the Dan Flavin: Lights exhibit, the darkened rooms illuminated with different colors of fluorescent lights. “Then you’ll be the proper amount of obsessed,” you informed him as your eyes fell on the displays. While you were figuring out what to make of the installations, Namjoon’s eyes were on you, admiring the way the colorful lights shined on your face.

Stepping behind you, he wrapped his arms around you, kissing the top of your head. “You’ve left several impressions, don’t worry about that, Babe,” he whispered to you before he started walking, both of you stepping closer to one of the displays. “What do you think of this one?”

The display featured a simple structure of a few fluorescent lights sitting perpendicular to each other against the corner of the walls, casting a green and blue glow.

“Can I be honest?” You asked, Namjoon humming a confirmation against your temple. “I don’t really get it,” you giggled. “Like it’s interesting to look at, but what does it mean?”

Namjoon looked at the piece thoughtfully before speaking. “I don’t know, I don’t think the meaning is necessarily as important as the feelings it evokes.”

You smiled at that but dipped your head to look down at your feet bashfully, your shoes glowing in green and blue light. “I love art, and I love the almost lack of clarity that comes with abstract media, but to be completely blatant, I don’t understand what the fuck Mr. Flavin was doing with these fluorescent lights,” you bit your lip, turning your face toward Namjoon’s just in time to see his mouth spread into a wide smile as a laugh fell from his lips.

You both turned toward the piece again as Namjoon told you, “it makes me feel calm.”

Your lips curved upward at the comment as you nodded. “I get that. I feel a bit melancholy looking at it.” Namjoon looked toward you again as his arms slid off your body, his eyes following you as you made your way to another display.

Slowly following behind you, he watched as you turned toward the lights, your side profile illuminated with pink and orange hues. He found himself pulling his phone out of his pocket and he shot a few photos of you in the glow of the art. Turning to find him, you caught him taking photos and smiled bashfully before pulling a few silly faces as he walked  toward you, snapping photos as he neared you.

“I like this one more,” you told him. “It’s warm. Makes me feel comforted.”

Namjoon smiled at you as he nodded. “I agree. Kind of gives off the feeling of compassion.” With his dimples on display, his eyes kind and attentive as he looked back at you, his face glowing in pink with orange highlights, your heart raced as feelings of intense tenderness and fondness rushed through your being.

“Maybe even the feeling of love. Giving love, receiving love,” you whispered as the realization hit you that you may be falling in love with him.

The smile on his face only widened as he let out a single breathy laugh before nodding. “Yeah, love. I feel that too.”

It wasn’t a confession- not yet, at least, but more an admission to yourselves of where your feelings were headed. “Hang on,” you told him suddenly as you pulled out your own phone. “We better get a few shots of you, you know, for your twitter,” you grinned. You were using the excuse of twitter updates to cover up the fact that you just wanted to capture Namjoon in this moment, and he knew that, nodding exaggeratedly.

“Of course, for twitter,” he smiled as he prepared to pose, though you had already started snapping photos. “This definitely won’t be your phone background later I’m sure,” he teased, you chuckling as you shook your head.

“Shut up and pose,” you defended weakly with a smile, Namjoon laughing as you captured the moment to look back on.  

Namjoon wouldn’t find out for another week that your phone background just happened to be a photo of him mid-laugh, his skin cast in a warm glow of pink and orange lights. But he would reveal at the same time that his background was you pulling a ridiculous face, slightly blurred, cast in the same light.

After taking a few photos of Namjoon for him to actually post on twitter for his fans, he walked toward you, you holding out the phone to show him the shots. “These suitable for you, Mr. Kim?” You asked, however he ignored your question and the photos, grabbing your face between his hands and crashing his lips to yours.

Your hands hung to your sides in surprise as you pulled back a bit, smiling at the way he chased your lips. “More pda? Control yourself,” you teased, Namjoon scoffing as he chuckled.

“Shut up and kiss me,” he told you as he pressed his mouth to yours again. This time your hands gripped the sides of his abdomen, allowing him to deepen the kiss, because, well, if he insisted.