#i suck at drawing anything without a reference but anyways

[eternalflashh]

nothing like redrawing your favorite panels to pass the time

[frostblightsunbite]

Sketch page of the Young Justice core four!

I numbered them in the order I did them in, which gives a very clear indication for when I switched my style.

Rant under cut :)

This would have been done like four or five days ago but I cannot for the life of me draw a fucking running pose holy shit. like the mean for time taken for each drawing would have been maybe 30 minutes, but no 6 was a BITCH and took me maybe five hours alone, but tbf, half of that was spent lamenting.

Btw these aren't, like, the full sketches, after 6 I started to draw the silhouettes of the poses first and then went over it in red. Also, references used for 1,3, and 9. Why didn't I use a reference for number 6 if it was so hard? I gave up. I still think it should have been pushed more but eh.

Posting will probably be slow until maybe October, because I just got into university, for an art course, which is pretty neat ngl. so yippee or whatever.

The sketches of Bart are my favourite and that upsets me. not because I don't like him but because the poses took me so long. He does, however, get the privelige of colour, mostly because he looked super empty without it. I tried giving the others their red as well, but it was too much and Tim looked like Dick, so....

I'm not really a fan of these in general, but I'm posting them anyway, because eventually I get to see progress. much happier with the style I used for the last 4 (sorry Kon), but they don't exactly look young, more like late-ish teenagers.

I'm pretty happy with the one character interaction that I forced myself to do, though, so that's nice, even if they're not really doing anything.

I think I messed up Cassie's outfit by accidentally combining two of them, so oops.

Shoes still suck. I hate them.

Theres a lot to tag now holy shit-

[deviousdrtruffles]

This fanart is based on that one scene from Ponyo. I got the idea to draw this from @kitkat-the-muffin ‘s post!

ramble, additional versions and reference undercut!

Hey uh if you are seeing this kit-kat, I just want to let you know that I have been working on this ever since you made that post about it.

AND IVE FINALLY FINISHED IT. This art piece has stayed as a WIP for SO. DAMN. LONG. OMGSKDJJSK. That feather cape was PAINFUL omg it was HORRENDUS to draw that cape. And that background. I realise I suck at backgrounds.

And if you are wondering. “Why the hell did you even bothered to draw that outfit when you know you could barely draw it in the first place”

Good point, actually. I literally could’ve drawn anything else but I feel like Buddy would really really like Chase’s Dreams by Night outfit. I think it’s because he looks a lot like an angel and THEN that reminded me of Buddy’s vampire outfit.

Anyways, Kit-kat. Wait are you cool with me calling you kit-kat? Uhm anyways- Here you go. Just for you! Well everyone else can see it. But it’s for you mainly! I really hope I did your idea justice!

VERSION WITHOUT THE BACKGROUND

ALSO REFERENCE PHOTO‼️‼️💥‼️💥‼️

Chase hollow Like and Follow

[itwdoris]

dada ! sukuna.

author notes; dada is just a title and does not refer to the literal, all characters are adults.

tw; cum, piss drinking, tip sucking.

★

sukuna pulled you closer on his lap, feeling your restless hands squeeze the hem of his blouse as he straightened his legs, spreading them a little, the fat bulge pressing against your panties.

you moved slightly, touching his strong arms to let him know you wanted to get out, then being immediately squeezed. "what do you want?" he asked with an usual grumpy face. "paci?"

you nodded, bringing your hands to the middle of his legs and pouting slightly. sukuna finally released you from the tightness of his embrace, letting you fall sideways on the bed while he pulled down the hem of his shorts, taking out his cock, adjusting to a better position so that you can lie down and suckle comfortably.

"come." he called out, rubbing his cock lightly as you approached, replacing his hand, wrapping your pretty lips around his head. holding back a pleasurable moan when finally started sucking but hearing him sigh, caressing your hair.

you caressed his length with your fingertips, drawing out its thick veins with it, you could feel his nails lightly scratching your scalp as you relaxed more and more with your head lying on him. you spent a long time there, without even moving.

not even when you felt something drip onto your tongue, then dripping more and more until finally become a flow, because he was pissing in your mouth.

you held back a low moan, swallowing everything quickly so that nothing leaked out of your mouth, tightening lips around his head and holding him with your hands, the warm liquid flowing incessantly, going down your throat.

"drink it all. " he said low, pleasurable. and you felt him move against your mouth a few times, slightly. his hand still stroking your hair as if nothing was happening.

you could feel the flow subside a little, sucking to try and keep going and sukuna sighed as he came in your tongue, strong shoots of cum now mixed with piss, filling your mouth again. your eyes shining, you licked his wet messy slit, wanting everything, almost whimpering.

but it didn't take long to finish, a stream soon giving way to a few drops that you sucked up without wasting anything, and would have continued sucking if you hadn't felt his hands pulling you and your mouth away from his cock.

"don't look at me like that." sukuna grumbled, sitting you on his lap again, he kinda wanted to kiss, and maybe more. you whimpered softly. "i'll stick my cock in your mouth to shut you up if you keep grumbling."

looking at the slight pout on your wet, swollen lips, he mumbled to himself, leaving a kiss on them, pulling you close in a tight hug again. because as grumpy he was, he was a very very affectionate dada.

tbh didn't know how to write it actually, i was just a bit upset and i love thinking about grumpy dada kuna and piss, so its short, but i liked, even if its not too good. i need dada kuna and his two big pretty cocks showering me with his piss...

lord, anyway, hope you like it too <3

[narfin-frood]

Silly question but how do you art?

Or more like, how is your process to draw? Your lines and posing are so loose and show the feeling of a character so well, like, how do you make your art so real with only a few lines is what most amaze me. Anyway I hope I'm not bothering you and that makes sense, thanks for reading!<3

you're not a bother, don't worry! i'm not sure if there's an appropriately concise answer to a question like this, but i'll try to explain my process for poses a bit, and if there's anything else specific you'd like to know about my process, feel free to ask, and i'll try to answer!

for posing, i find it's very helpful to start by thinking about what situation the character is in. you don't need a location or a background or anything (unless you're being #serious about it). for this, i chose "picking up something way too heavy" (cont. under cut, wall of text ahead)

keeping it very simple is key!!! do not worry about details!!! i am very bad at this. i love to add a little detail or two, like his eyes or his little expression, but i have to catch myself before i get too into it, otherwise i'll forget the point of what i was doing and/or get bored. use just enough strokes to get the point across, and stop there (for now).

i draw fast and loose, with long strokes, which also happens to help with the problem that happens if you start with any specific part of the body. it's important to start with... everything at once, or else you won't be able to see what needs to be changed or fixed until it's too late and you've already decided on where you want the head and the left arm to be!

to display effort & strain without just contorting the character's face, you gotta think about just how heavy the object is, how one would go about grabbing it comfortably, and whether your character is smart enough to lift with their legs.

wander is great (read: BEST CHARACTER DESIGN EVAR. i love him kisskisskiss) because he's not grounded in any sort of reality until necessary, and his limbs have no bones, but he still has specific proportions and volumes to refer back to if you get carried away with the wackiness. posing a character made up of several noodles of varying widths is very simple, because you can do basically whatever you want to push and pull and make it as clear (and/or as funny) as possible.

start with your line of action, in this case the long line connecting his neck and his left foot. think about where the floor is, so you can make the feet of your character and whatever else is touching it coexist in the same reality. think about clarity: big, simple shapes are your friends, and if you're not getting the gist of the pose through the silhouette alone, try again! there's NO shame in hiding the first layer and doing a couple more sketches until you land on something you really like. Don't polish a turd, especially if you yourself think it's a turd. it'll make you feel like you're wasting time, and drawing is about having fun and experimenting, so if it's getting boring or frustrating, it's time to try something else.

wander and other characters with no bones and no rules are great for posing because you can do things like make their arms bend the wrong way just to play with the clarity of the pose. this:

un-breaks the arms and makes a little more sense for somebody with elbows, but some clarity in the action is lost when the arms don't curve upward and away from the very heavy object he's straining to pick up.

grounding your characters is both more complex and easier than it sounds, and it unfortunately requires you to think about perspective (i know. i know. i know it sucks and it's confusing. i hated it for a very long time but once it clicks, you'll have it in your brain forever)

fudging a perspective grid is fairly easy, just draw several parallel lines and have them get closer to each other as they recede into the distance, and then do it again in the opposite direction. you can use the transform tool in whatever program you use most to fudge this for even less effort, by just getting a png of a grid and fucking with it

now that you've got your floor, think about those feet. the grid makes it fairly easy to envision how a shoe would look sitting on that floor:

this is also where having an understanding of volumes comes in handy, because things farther in the distance will in fact look smaller, but it's up to you to figure out just how much smaller it would be in comparison to the other identical thing with the same volume that's closer to the camera. usually it's almost negligible, but it becomes easy to spot if it's a little off.

and here's the pose i settled on! i made his noodle arms more extreme for extra XD factor and i put him on his tippy toes for that extra bit of height!

a lot of the principles i'm talking about in this post i mainly pick up from consciously watching my favorite cartoons (and live action shows) and if i really, really like the way something is done, or if i see something that i've never really registered before, i'll screencap it or i'll pause or i'll just keep thinking about it until i draw again.

this is called "building a visual library" and it's the #1 easiest and most important way to practice. it requires no drawing, unless you want it to. look at lots of art by artists you love, and if you see something and you think to yourself, hey, this looks really good, by all means, absorb it.

art is great and it's really fun and there's literally nothing wrong with taking inspiration where you can find it!! seriously!!! absorb your favorite parts of every art style you find cool and fun and put it into your own! you're the only person who can draw the way you draw, and while replicating an art style is fairly easy (or it can be, depending), matching it perfectly is Literally impossible, so don't worry about being derivative. Nobody will notice, and if they do, it's okay to say you're inspired by them! encouraged, even!

my own art style, like everybody else's, is a frankenstein's monster containing all of the things i've loved before!!! and i think thats beautiful and if anybody tries to tell you you've gotta be 100% original and have "your very own style", they're a filthy liar and they're definitely (consciously or not) already taking inspiration and reference from the things they themselves find cool and awesome.

ANYWAY. wall of text over.

TLDR: draw quickly, use long strokes (try not to pet your lines), have a specific situation to put your character in, get familiar with volumes and proportions, and have fun!!!

[schrijverr]

Go Ask Daddy, Bud, I’m Napping for a Bit

Divergence from chapter 23, where when Buck is tired in the lead up towards Christmas, he accidentally refers to Eddie as daddy to Chimney. It’s just automatic due to Chris, but it gets some weird looks and attempting to explain doesn’t make it sound better. In trying to defend himself more comes to light.

On AO3.

Ships: Buddie (pre-slash)

Warnings: discussions of sex

~~~

Christmas is drawing near and Eddie and Buck have been alternating on taking extra shifts, as to not throw off their schedule too much while still saving up.

You never realize how expensive holidays are until you’re an adult. And those expenses increase exponentially when you have a kid. They still don’t know Chris’s Christmas wish, so they’re making sure they have enough for whatever it will be. The kid deserves not to be disappointed.

Right now, however, Buck is exhausted and slightly grouchy about it. His extra shift is a 48 hours that is a 24 hours for both A and B shift. So, his first 24 hours with B shift have rolled into the next with the A shift and he is so, so tired.

He thinks someone on B shift must have said the q-word, because they’ve been running all over town all day. He’s hoping that the curse won’t last into this new one, because that will suck ass. Of course, he’d do anything for Chris, but by god does he want this shift to be over.

The others ribbed him a little about it when they came in, but five calls later, they’ve slowly eased off of him.

They’ve just come back from their latest call and Buck has collapsed onto the couch, fully prepared to take a nap and too lazy to walk all the way back down after climbing the stairs to get a snack. He likes napping on the couch and listening to the hum of the station anyway.

Buck is already halfway asleep, vaguely listening to Eddie and Hen chatting at the kitchen table, when he is interrupted by Chimney asking: “Have you seen my sweater anywhere?”

And later, Buck will totally blame the curse for the way he gestures in Eddie’s general direction as he grumbles: “Go ask daddy, bud, I’m napping for a bit.”

He would have dropped off in the immediate shocked silence that came after that, were it not for Chimney loudly exclaiming: “Daddy?”

It startles him and he blearily tries to open his eyes as he sits up, going: “Wha?”

“You just referred to Eddie as daddy,” Chimney informs him, a mix of gleeful, confused and a little weirded out. “Unless you have opinions about Hen that you didn’t share with the class.”

The words break through the exhausted fog and embarrassment floods through him at the realization of what just happened. The sweater thing was just such a Chris question and he’d been on his mind, due to the Christmas present conundrum, so it had just slipped out as natural in the sleepiness.

A bright blush paints his features and he’s sure everyone can see. Still, he tries to deflect: “Are you sure, man? Pretty certain I said Eddie, you must’ve misheard or something.”

“No, you said daddy,” Hen speaks up and Buck looks over to her. She is raising her brow at him, then at Eddie, who is across from her, also blushing. She continues: “And Eddie here looked over at it without missing a beat.”

“So, it’s normal for you to call Eddie daddy, is it? Hm, curious,” Chimney accuses.

“You’re making it weird,” Buck protests.

“And it’s not?” Hen counters unconvinced.

“No, it’s not. It’s not a thing,” Buck says as confidently as he can anyway.

“What do you have to say for yourself, Edmundo. You’ve been awfully quiet,” Chimney directs himself towards Eddie, who’s been quietly trying to disappear into the background. Buck feels guilty about that, Eddie didn’t ask to be caught up in Buck’s stupid brain fart.

“Uh, I thought he said Eddie,” Eddie defends himself after a beat that last too long to be believed.

“Hm, you thought he said Eddie, did you?” Chimney hums in a knowing tone, which irks Buck to no end. It’s not like he’s wrong, but he doesn’t have to be smug about it, or make it a sex thing – ironic coming from him, he’s aware.

“Oh shut up, it was just a slip of the tongue. I’m tired,” Buck says.

“Freudian slip,” Hen coughs and Buck glares at her.

“I’ve been hanging out with Chris and Eddie a lot,” Buck tells them stubbornly. “He calls Eddie daddy, so you start doing it when talking to him and my brain got it mixed up. You two are making it something it’s not.”

Chimney squints at him, clearly trying to discern whether he’s lying or not. In a way, he isn’t. He has been hanging out with Chris and Eddie a lot and he does refer to Eddie as daddy when talking to Chris because of it and his tired brain did get mixed up.

However, Hen doesn’t buy it, asking: “Really? You say to Chris things like ‘go ask daddy’ and not ‘go ask your dad?’ You don’t do that with Denny. Or Harry.”

Fuck, busted.

“Uh…” Buck starts dumbly, unsure where to go from there.

Before he can say something more incriminating, Eddie comes to save him. He says: “It’s not that big a deal, you guys are really taking this and running with it for no reason.”

“Yeah,” Buck agrees immediately. “Like, what do you even want me to say? Want me to confess me and Eddie are having steamy, kinky sex? We’re not. And despite my daddy issues, I don’t actually have a daddy kink. That’s not necessarily how that works.”

His need to please has translated more into being a service switch and having a massive praise kink, but he decides to keep that to himself for now. He doesn’t want to turn the him and Eddie conversation into a sex conversation more than it already is. Buck is pretty sure he will explode if it does.

Chimney and Hen pause at that, likely trying to think of why they’re pushing this the way they are. A part of Buck doesn’t want them to think about it and doesn’t want to think about it himself either. What if they picked up on the way he’s in love with Eddie and that’s why they thought they were onto something?

“You’re sure?” is what Chimney finally says, suspicious eyes going between Buck and Eddie.

Scandalized and annoyed, Buck exclaims: “Chimney!”

“What?” Chimney says defensively.

At that point, Bobby comes up the stairs from where he’d been filling out his reports. He has heard some of the ruckus and when he comes upstairs to find Buck glaring at a defensive Chimney, while Hen and Eddie are spectating – though Eddie with less amusement and more embarrassment than Hen – he asks: “What’s going on here?”

Before anyone else can speak, Chimney answers: “We’re trying to figure out if Buck and Eddie are fucking after Buck accidentally called Eddie daddy.”

“I told you, it’s because I’ve been hanging out with Chris and it’s not like that,” Buck exclaims. “You’re making it something it’s not. We’re not fucking!”

“And we said that it’s a little weird that you went ‘go ask daddy’ and not ‘go ask your dad,’” Hen reminds him.

“Yeah, and you two are being very defensive about it,” Chimney adds.

“Of course we’re defensive, you’re making a brain slip surrounding my kid weird,” Eddie grouches. “And throwing around accusations.”

Bobby hums thoughtfully as he tries to decide how to proceed. All of them hold their breath while they wait to see whose side Bobby will pick, and if he’ll even pick a side or will just walk away and distance himself from it.

Finally, he says: “No one in this house would judge you two, you know that right? If you want to keep things private, that is fine, but you will need to fill in the proper paperwork.”

Outraged as a result of the embarrassment and feeling exposed, Buck cries out: “You too? Why do all of you think we’re fucking?”

“Maybe because you two are making heart eyes at each other every day?” Hen snorts.

“What?” Buck squeaks, because, yeah, he is making heart eyes at Eddie and he kind of gathered he probably wasn’t hiding all that well, but what does she mean ‘you two’?

“Huh, what are you talking about? I’m straight,” Eddie frowns in confusion.

Hen looks taken aback by that. “You’re straight?” she asks disbelievingly, clapping her hand over her mouth the second it slips out.

“Yes!” Eddie says defensively, before his voice gets a slightly vulnerable edge as he adds: “Did you- did you not… think that?”

“Uh, no, I thought you were just low key about being gay,” Hen admits a little sheepishly, looking like she feels bad about bringing it up.

“Wait, but if Eddie’s straight, then why are him and Buck always eye fucking? What have we been witnessing these past few months?” Chimney interrupts loudly.

“Us being friends?” Buck suggests tentatively, unsure if he wants to risk it, but not wanting to make anyone think it’s something other than that.

“And there’s nothing else going on between you two?” Chimney asks suspiciously.

“No, no. No, definitely not,” Buck quickly assures him.

“You’re lying,” Chimney accuses, finger jabbing in Buck’s direction. “We all know you can’t lie for shit, Buckaroo, and that, was a lie! You two are fucking.”

“We’re not fucking!” Buck yells, face as red as a tomato. He’s still embarrassed by the daddy comment, then embarrassed by everyone seeing through him and pointing out how much he wants to fuck Eddie, and on top of that uncomfortably reminded that Eddie will never want him like Buck wants him.

“Then what is going on?” Bobby asks in that kind concerned fatherly manner that Buck usually loves, but right now makes him feel like he’s being cornered.

“Why do none of you believe that there’s nothing going on?”

“Because you’re a shit liar,” Chimney says.

“I can lie,” Buck says defensively, crossing his arms.

“Sure, you can,” Hen agrees patronizingly.

“I can!” Buck protests, before he lets it go, it’s not the point right now anyway. “And even if I can’t, I’m not lying now. There is nothing between me and Eddie.”

“Nothing, huh?” Chimney still doesn’t believe him, but lets him be for now, instead turning to Eddie again and asking: “And what do you have to say for yourself?”

“That you guys are being ridiculous,” Eddie offers. “Me and Buck are friends. Good friends. He’s been a huge help with Chris and he was just tired. It happens. You’re all just seeing things.”

“Hmm,” Hen hums as she studies Eddie closely with squinted eyes. “I can’t tell if he’s lying.”

Eddie sends her deadpan look. “I’m not lying.”

“You see, I want to believe you, but something makes me feel like there is something you’re hiding from us,” Hen tells him as she leans over to look intently at his face, scrutinizing him.

Unimpressed, Eddie also leans over the table so he can look right back at her. “Okay, do tell. What do you think I could be lying about? What are we hiding? Because we’re not fucking, I can tell you that much.”

Buck doesn’t know what Eddie is doing, challenging Hen like this. Eddie is the better liar between them, but inviting them to dig deeper when they’re already uncomfortably close, doesn’t seem like a smart idea. However, Buck isn’t going to get the attention on himself. If anyone is giving it away, it’ll be him. Best to keep to the background.

“You’re either really good at lying, or incredibly codependent with Buck to the point of you two acting married,” Hen finally says. Buck doesn’t see what Eddie’s face does at that, but everyone can hear Hen exclaim: “Oh my god, why did your face go pink when I suggested you two were married?”

Chimney whips his head towards Buck and immediately asks: “You two are married?”

“Noooo?” Buck says, cringing the second he does, because that sounds like a lie even to himself.

“You totally are!” Chimney has wide eyes and his mouth gapes slightly at it.

“That is something that you should have definitely disclosed way before it got to that point,” Bobby frowns.

“Come on, when would we have the time to get married?” Buck deflects, hoping for the best. “Don’t you think you would have noticed us getting married?”

“Right now, I don’t trust anything anymore,” Chimney says.

“Yeah, it could have happened at any time. Bar for that first shift you two have always acted like this,” Hen agrees, then her eyes grow wide and she points between the two of them. “Wait a minute, you’ve always acted like this.”

“What are you saying, Hen?” Bobby asks.

“That they’ve been married this whole time?” Hen suggests, sounding as if she can barely believe what she is saying herself.

“Are you sure? We saw them meet,” Chimney says skeptically.

“Yeah, Hen, that’s ridiculous,” Buck says.

“Then why was Eddie blushing?” Hen counters.

“Because you called our friendship incredibly codependent?” Buck offers.

“Which I only did, because he asked me what you two were hiding after you guys started being weird about us pointing out you two were close,” Hen says. “And the only reason I’m even entertaining this absurdity right now, is because you don’t sound convincing at all when you deny it.”

“Hey, come on now,” Buck protests weakly.

Bobby’s hand appears on his shoulder and he looks up at him. There is a mix of hurt and confusion in Bobby’s eyes as he genuinely asks: “Just be honest with me here, Buck, are you and Eddie married?”

And Buck hates this, because it’s Bobby, who is asking and Buck is already bad at lying, but he’s even worse at lying to Bobby. This whole scheme depended on them not being suspicious enough for anyone to ask directly and now he’s being asked directly. All because he accidentally called Eddie daddy. He’s never going to live this down.

“Okay, fine. Yes, we’re married,” he admits after a beat.

“Buck!” Eddie calls out, as if to ask ‘what are you doing?’

“You know I can’t lie!” Buck defends himself. “He’s just looking at me and I- I just couldn’t.”

“Wait you guys are actually married?” Chimney asks.

“Yes,” Eddie sighs, “we are.”

“But you’re straight?” Hen asks in a tone that implies isn’t sure she’s buying it.

“I am,” Eddie glares at her, heckles raised. “It’s a marriage of convenience.”

“So the Buck calling you daddy is…”

“Just like you calling Karen mommy when talking to Denny?” Eddie fills in. “Yeah.”

“That makes you a father,” Bobby suddenly realizes as he looks to Buck.

“Uh, yeah, I am,” Buck says, unable to help the prideful smile on his face. “Chris is a great kid. Love him to death. I mean, you met him, you know how amazing he is.”

Bobby’s face does a weird thing at that and Buck can’t place it. It makes something twist inside him, what if Bobby disapproves of him as a father? What if he thinks Buck can’t do it?

However, before he can ask Bobby what he’s thinking, Chimney butts in: “Okay, but how long have you been Chris’s dad – which, kind of weird, not going to lie – because I’m still confused about when you guys met.”

“Yeah, and when did you get married?” Hen also asks.

Buck looks over at Eddie, trying to communicate if they’re going to come clean about the whole thing now that the cat’s out of the bag. Eddie seems resigned and embarrassed by the whole situation. Buck can relate, but he feels bad about Eddie also feeling like that. However, Eddie sends him a reassuring smile, which makes him feel slightly better about the whole thing.

“Well, we got married in 2016,” Buck answers Hen’s question, since it kind of automatically answers Chimney’s question too as being not during their first shift together.

The room explodes into noise at that, which is fair enough considering what they just shared. However, Buck still kind of leans away from the yelling. It’s mostly variations of “2016?!?!?” and “What the fuck!” and “Why would you lie about that?”

When the yelling dies down, because it’s not getting results, since there is no space for them to speak, Buck clears his throat and says: “Yeah, uh, 2016. We did lie about that.”

“Why?”

“What part exactly?” Buck asks, just to be sure.

“Why you lied,” Bobby says at the same time Hen says: “Why you got married.”

“So we can work together,” Buck answers, while Eddie says: “For Chris.”

“Okay, we need order,” Chimney says. “I ask the questions, if anyone has another question, they raise their hand and I will give you your turn.”

“Are you a school teacher?” Hen smirks in amusement.

“No, I’m showing leadership,” Chimney corrects her. “Now, Buckley, tell us why you two lied about being married. Hell, about even knowing each other?”

“Uh, well, we wanted to work together,” Buck explains. “Eddie had gotten the offer from Bobby and we figured that offer would be retracted, if he knew we were married, even though it’s not like that, so we decided not to say, but then we thought it would be weird for me to just randomly know him and not have mentioned him before and then you all would ask questions and I can’t lie, so we thought it would be best to just start from scratch.”

Everyone blinks at him for a second, so he adds: “We realized it was a dumb idea, but by then it was kind of already too late and we’d gotten in too deep.”

“That… is actually very in character for you,” Chimney finally says.

“But not for you,” Hen says, directing herself at Eddie. “Why did you agree with that?”

“Hey, I was doing the questions!”

“Oh shut up, Chim,” Hen rolls her eyes. “So, Eddie. Why go along with it?”

“Uh,” Eddie looks away, cheeks getting redder, as he admits with a mumble: “I came up with it.”

“What?!” both Hen and Chimney choke and even Bobby makes a weird noise. They’re so shocked at the idea that Eddie can be dumb too, which Buck gets, but it’s also so funny and he can’t help but burst out into laughter.

“Don’t laugh!” Eddie exclaims, but Buck can hear he’s starting to crack up too. That makes him happy, he didn’t like embarrassed, walls up Eddie from before.

“It’s funny,” he manages to get out between peels of laughter.

“It’s not,” Eddie says, but he lets out a huff of laughter of his own.

“You came up with it?” Chimney finally finds his words.

“Uh, yeah,” Eddie nods, biting away his grin. “It was a strategic sharing of information where relevant.”

“God, you’re just both stupid,” Hen mutters under her breath. Both Eddie and Buck choose to ignore her, because she’s not wrong, but they don’t have to acknowledge that.

Bobby clears his throat and says: “Well, informing me of this, would have been relevant. And I will be informing HR about it and figuring out the paperwork, any disciplinary action, and if you two can continue working together at this house.”

That settles a stone in Buck’s stomach. After the embarrassment of calling Eddie daddy in front of everyone and then the lighter atmosphere of the questions, the real reasons they never told and tried to lie had moved to the background. Until now.

He sees Eddie tensing up and he is off the couch before he knows it. He implores: “Bobby… I- I know, you have to do that. I do. But can you- can you wait until after Christmas? We’re trying to save up for gifts and the holidays are expensive.”

Immediately Bobby’s eyes soften, a melancholic note playing in them, as Buck waits with bated breath to see what Bobby will say. After a moment, Bobby says: “Of course. I can wait.”

“Thank you so much,” Buck says gratefully.

“Yes, Cap, thank you,” Eddie also says.

The atmosphere has changed now and they’re all just awkwardly standing there, until Chimney says in a hushed tone: “I think we just witnessed dad Buck for the first time.”

“I think we did,” Hen agrees, a smile breaking out on her face.

Buck blushes a little, unable to help the flush of warmth that goes through him at being acknowledged as Chris’s father. He distracts from it by playing at offense and swagger as he says: “Hey, I’ve pulled out the dad Buck before.”

“Really? When? You’ve never been mature a day in your life before this, Buck-o,” Chimney grins. It’s playful but gentle, as if he knows he’s handling something fragile here and just acting his role as the comedic relief that he likes to cast himself in.

“I once told you to eat your greens,” Buck reminds him – a mortification from his probie days that, at the time, he thought he would never recover from.

“Oh yeah, you did do that.”

“And have none of you guys ever paid attention to Buck when on calls with kids?” Eddie asks. He’s gotten up and is now near Buck, bumping his shoulder lightly as he grins: “Definitely the papi I know from home.”

“Papi?” Bobby asks, only slightly butchering the word.

“Yeah, Chris calls me that,” Buck says, the blush returning slightly. “Eddie was already daddy, so growing up in a Mexican household meant that labeling me as papi was only logical to his five year old brain.” He shrugs. “It’s become so normal, I don’t even register it as odd anymore.”

“Five years old?” Hen does the math, “That must be right after you gotten married, right?”

“It was. He told a teacher about it and that’s what prompted it,” Eddie says. “Before that it was Evan, though I’m half convinced he’s forgotten that was ever your name.”

Buck nods in agreement.

“So how long were you Evan?” Hen asks curiously.

“Two years,” Buck says. “I met Chris when he was three. I worked on a chicken farm in El Paso and they bought eggs there. I babysat first, then met Eddie a year later when he was back from tour. We started co-parenting because Shannon was out of the picture and I offered to help.”

“And you two got married for Chris, you said. Why? I mean, it might provide a more stable home, but if you’d been co-parenting without it for a year already, why do it? It’s quite a big step,” Hen asks.

They all look at them curiously and Buck looks over at Eddie again, silently asking how much to share about the whole situation. Wordlessly, Eddie tells him to go ahead and just tell everyone. Eddie himself has never been the talker between them, so Buck happily takes the lead in explaining.

“Chris had to have surgery and that’s expensive, so the bills got too high. Eddie re-enlisting was the only way to keep our heads above water, but I didn’t have any legal basis to keep Chris. We were scared he’d get taken and placed with his grandparents,” Buck explains, not trying to go into too much detail about why they would not want that. “So, we looked into me adopting Chris and stepparent adoption was the quickest. We planned to get divorced, but just didn’t get around to it. We have a mortgage, you know. And private school is expensive.”

Everyone is sharing looks that Buck can’t full decipher, he looks over to Eddie, but he seems equally confused.

However, none of them say what those looks are about. Hen just nods as she gets it, saying: “Hence the marriage of convenience.”

“Uh-huh.” “Yup.”

“Daddy and papi,” Chinney shakes his head after he looks between them. “That’s gonna take a bit to get used to.”

“Thank you for sharing that with us,” Bobby says, putting a hand on both their shoulders. “You are two fine young men and I am proud of you both, even if I’m disappointed in you for lying. I know you can be professional, so just continue the way you’re doing and we’ll sort everything out come January. That sound good?”

“Yes, Cap.” “Thank you, Cap.”

“Alright,” Bobby gives them a satisfied nod.

Then the bell starts ringing and Buck groans. He’s still exhausted and he never did end up getting his nap. However, as he rushes to the rig with everyone, he does feel a little lighter than he did before. It feels good to not be lying and continuously live with the feeling of getting found out at any moment.

Still, he could have done without it being revealed the way it did. If he thought he wouldn’t live down the ‘eat your greens’ comment, he’s definitely never going to be able to live down the ‘go ask daddy’ moment.

At least inviting Maddie over for Christmas will be easier now…

~~

A/N:

This is so fucking stupid, but it came to me and I just couldn’t help myself. It’s so funny to me and I just had to. Like, I love them <3

[gilbirda]

Ghost Princess!Jazz design

So, since I'm posting chapter 24 of Friendly Neighborhood Vigilante, finally these will see the light of day!!!

Designs and drawing by the amazing @herbatahleb!!! I commissioned him these drawings so I could visualize the suit in my head better; and also so peeps could see what I'm talking about!

Thank you so much Hleb!

Alt version that was scrapped during the design process and me rambling about design ideas under the cut

So the Idea was that in this AU Jazz was trained by Pandora and the dead Amazon warriors in the greek afterlife.

Jazz doesn't use guns, not because of morality or anything, but because she sucks ass at shooting and is like the moment she hits the trigger it doesn't matter where she was aiming, she will cause an accident/hurt someone. (Weapons she doesn't have to actually aim are kinda okay, but you have to be ready for her blowing up something)

So she compensates and uses a lot of long range weapons, with her mom's staff being the one she uses the most. The staff has 2 settings: spear, which she uses for a more aggressive approach (think Okoye and the Dora Milaje from Black Panther)

and War Mode, with the War Mode is the one that is in the final design. I sent Hleb a bunch of reference pictures and the lance is based on Ares' lance in Destripando la Historia (a spanish youtube series)

My general idea is that Jazz is inspired by the war god because she herself had to become one for Danny. She's one of their best strategist but she is also vicious in battle and the best at hand to hand combat and most versatile weapons-wise.

Her suit is also red because it stands out in the Infinite Realms. She makes herself a target so she can attract her enemies to her, since she can't fly or doesn't have a means of quick transportation during battle.

Armor is made for speed and agility, and it's charmed so it enhances her natural ghostly abilities and physique. Her arm pieces can project an ecto shield for defense.

For the crown I had a few references, but mainly Wanda's headpiece in MCU

But also I wanted to include some kind of high fantasy crowns for her, because that's her crown as a princess. While Danny has the black metal one that's constantly on fire, Jazz would have this armor headpiece and only the "tips" would be on fire and then the actual crown appears out of thin air as a fire circle over her head.

For me this detail was important because it showed: first, how for Jazz her crown IS part of her armor and how deeply entwined being a princess is with being a warrior while Danny can be the king without the warrior; and second, to represent how "fake" as a ghost princess she is, since she's not actually dead-dead, because only 2 singular points are actually metal but the rest comes and goes and doesn't anchor to anything.

We also used a bunch of references of Kassandra from Assasins Creed Odyssey

For the boots and other details I really just sent Hleb a bunch of pictures from the Wonder Woman movie Amazonian armor design

Anyway that's all my rant. I'm very happy with the final design and Hleb was very kind to sit with me and let me be specific about what I wanted. Love you, darling!

[sam-is-my-safe-word]

Second Base With Sammy

Guys. Guuuuuyyyyyssss. I wrote some Sam/Reader!!

Holy fuck right. ANDDDDD. There is NO smut. None. There is 1 reference to tits & that's it.

I know. I'm stunned. I didn't think I was capable.

But the world's bestest co-host (suck it every other podcast :P) @talltalesandbedtimestories joined me on another word count challenge and laid down a kick ass idea.

Sooooo ready for some soft Sam? Course you are.

Also a podfic cos again, Sandra is just The Best, Y'all

*Click*

“What was that?”

“The door closed behind me.”

“What do you mean? I thought you had your foot there.”

“You said ‘look at this,’ so I stepped forwards!”

“Okay, just back up and open it.”

*Thud*

“It’s locked.”

“What.”

“Yep. Locked or stuck. Or… Oh god, Sam. There’s a latch on the outside, remember.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Okay, let me try something.” 

There’s shuffling as Sam tries to squeeze past you without knocking anything over. You press yourself backwards into the wire shelves behind you, trying to take up as little space as possible, but Sam’s body can’t pass between you and the other wall without someone getting hurt. 

As it is, you can feel every fiber of his shirt, every line of his muscles. 

“Fuck. Um. Do you think you can kick the door open?” 

You laugh, only a tiny hint of hysteria in it. 

“Yeah, Sam. My 150 pounds of pure iron muscle will just kick straight through a steel latch. No worries. Don’t even need a run up.” 

You don’t have to shine your flashlight on him to see his bitchface. 

“Okay, duck down, then.” 

“What?” 

“Crouch down. I’ll step over you and get to the door that way.” 

You try to crouch but your chest is literally wedged against Sam’s. 

“Uhh. Fuck. Um. You’re gonna have to go back that way for me to kneel down. Who designed this fucking place, anyway?” 

Sam blows out all his breath and you feel him tense his stomach, sucking it in as much as possible. Unfortunately that expands his chest and you end up with a faceful of Sam tiddies. 

“Whoa, Sam. Take me to dinner before you shove the girls in my face like that. Or would it be guys?” 

Sam stutters and almost wrenches the two of you apart, stepping backwards to his previous space and letting you draw a full breath again. You know it’s a trick of your brain, but it’s starting to feel like there isn’t enough air with the door closed. 

“Okay, crouching down. Try not to kick me in the head, yeah? I’ve had enough of you in my face today.” 

You snort to yourself as you crouch and tuck, making sure to drop your head as far as you can. Sam mutters something to himself and you see his flashlight track over you, the floor and to the door. He shuffles his feet close to you, checks the distance again and then steps over you. It leaves him standing almost flush against the door; you had only taken a single step forwards when the door closed. 

“Hey, can you, like… shuffle backwards? I guess you can stand up now. I just need a little room to move if I’m gonna get us out of here.” 

You don’t move, skin crawling at the thought of moving further into the dark space, away from the door and the air. 

“Hey, y’okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going. I’m gonna stay down here, less of a target for your size thirteens here.” 

Your voice is tight to your ears and you hear Sam turn, see his light sweep over you. You shine your own flashlight into the dark and start to shuffle into it. 

“Just get us out of here, Sam. Please.” 

“Sure thing, sit tight.” 

You make yourself as small as you can in the back corner of the room, keeping your light on the door for Sam, and watch him try everything apart from unscrewing the hinges to free you both, to no avail. No matter how hard he shoves, punches or even kicks the door, the latch outside holds strong. 

“Damnit.” Sam is breathing hard now and your lizard brain is screaming that he’s using up the oxygen. 

“Okay, I’ll text Dean and he’ll come and get us.” 

Sam pulls his phone out and starts typing. 

“How long will that take?” 

You feel dizzy. 

“I don’t know. Probably not more than an hour, though.”

Despite your efforts, a sob breaks through your clenched teeth. 

“Hey, whoa. It’s okay. It’s not that long.” 

You shake your head, closing your eyes against Sam’s flashlight. 

“Are you claustrophobic?”

Sam sounds worried now. You can hear him shuffling around, turning to face you properly, maybe. 

“I wasn’t…” 

You let the thought trail off. You truly weren’t claustrophobic until you were trapped in this tiny space with someone who took up all the room. Not that it was Sam’s fault. You just wanted to be out of here. 

Sam’s hand on your knee shocks you. When you look at him, he’s on his knees next to you, trying to make himself as small as possible. 

“It’s okay. Just breathe.”

“I– I can’t.” 

“Yes, you can. Here.” 

Sam takes one of the hands you have wrapped around your legs and presses it into his chest, keeping it in place with his. He’s warm under your hand, muscle expanding and relaxing as he breathes.

“Feel my heartbeat?” 

You nod, hoping Sam can see you in the glow of his flashlight on the floor next to you both. 

“Focus on that; breathe with me. In–” 

Sam’s chest moves under your hand as he inhales deeply. You close your eyes, focus on the thump-thump of his heart and breathe in shakily. 

“That’s in. Now out.” 

Again his chest moves and a soft whoosh of air crosses your face as Sam exhales. 

“That’s it. Doing so good. Keep following my breaths.”  

His voice is low and tender and it’s easy to follow his instructions. He feels good under your hand, solid but soft. Someone you can rely on. 

Footsteps outside signal Dean’s arrival and Sam helps you to your feet. 

“Since I let you get to second base, I think you owe me dinner now.” 

You can see the genuine smile on his face. 

The door opens with a rush of air. 

“If you idiots wanted a room together, you could have said. Didn’t have to lock yourselves in a closet.” 

[heavenlyvision]

Ok so I was just eating a Candy Cane and my mind went real nasty real quick so I gotta scream into the void :

Imagine if you an Bi-Han were fucking right? Doggy style right in front of a mirror, already perfect. BUT imagine he put a candy cane in your mouth and stops fucking you every time the candy falls out your mouth but you’re so fucked out that you don’t even realize it’s out so Bi-Han puts it back in your mouth and you mindlessly start sucking on it as he fucks your brains out

Anyways-

No this is so valid, I think he would also be mean about it !!! You’ve made me open my third eye, I’m apparently feeling unhinged today because I wrote a short little thing for you over this <33

Smut below the cut | MDNI

Bi-Han has you on all fours waiting for him, you hear him unwrapping something from behind you.

His eyes meet yours in the mirror. “Keep this in your mouth” he growls at you.

Wordlessly you open your mouth, waiting for him to present you with what he was referring to, when you see it you realise it’s a candy cane.

You take it in your mouth, sucking on it mindlessly. He’s pleased by your unquestioning compliance.

He’s positioning himself behind you, dick swiping through your wet folds, the feeling making you both moan lightly. The candy cane threatens to fall from your lips but you suck harder on it. Bi-Han hums appreciatively from behind you.

“That’s it, so well behaved,” he mumbles.

Looking into the mirror in front of you, you meet eyes with him. His gaze firm as he watches you suck at the sweet treat.

He watches your face carefully as he slips the tip of himself inside your tight pussy. A moan falls from you at the fullness and he grunts at you disapprovingly, the candy cane has fallen from your mouth without you realising. He leans over you, slipping inside you completely as he does. He grabs the candy cane and puts it back in your mouth, your lips automatically sucking onto it again, much to Bi-Han’s delight.

“Keep. It. There.” He grunts at you.

Your reply is a thoughtless hum.

Slowly, he draws his hips back, watching the way your face pinches in the mirror. He groans at the cute expression you make but your mouth drops open in a moan again, the candy falling from your mouth.

Slamming back into you, he leans forward again and places it back in your mouth. Almost every time he draws out of you, your mouth drops open in a moan and he has to put the treat back in your mouth.

He slaps your ass, bringing your cock drunk gaze back to attention. You’re looking at him, waiting for him to speak.

“Pay attention and suck on your treat like I’ve told you to,” he says, tone stern, reprimanding.

You look sheepish as you mumble, “Mm sorry, you feel too good…”

He sticks the candy cane back between your lips and you suck again.

“All you have to do is suck,” his eyes are dark as he looks at you.

You nod your head complacently at him.

He starts fucking into you again, rougher this time. You do your best to remember the candy cane but with the way he feels dragging against you, your mind floats away, eyes glazing over at the feeling. Bi-Han enjoys that look on your face immensely but he’s still disappointed at your inability to do one thing.

He stops fucking you suddenly and you whine at him in response, he again, puts it back in your mouth. He doesn’t say anything but his gaze is threatening.

The pace he set picks up again, fucking you dumb on his fat cock. And you must really be dumb right now because it drops from your mouth again. Causing Bi-Han to stop fucking you again. Which makes you whine pitifully at him, again.

He simply picks it back up and shoves it in your mouth again before continuing his brutal fucking. The sounds of your wet pussy squelching around him fill the room and you’re trying really hard to remember to suck but he keeps hitting something devastating inside you and you drop it again.

You scrabble to pick it up this time, placing the candy cane back in your own mouth, desperate for him to keep going.

He has a proud look on his face at your desperation for him to continue. His hands grip your hips tightly, his thrusts harsh. Your arms are barely able to keep yourself up, threatening to give out under your own weight. You drop to your forearms. The angle deeper now, his cock reaching further inside you. A large moan slips from you and the candy cane falls out again.

You don’t even notice this time, too lost in the feeling of his cock deep inside you. He quickly shoves it back in your mouth, too close to his own high to bother punishing you. Not when his own orgasm is so close.

You’re twitching around him, cunt pulsing with how close you are to cumming on him. His groans are loud as he fucks himself into you. His eyes are careful to watch you through the mirror.

Your own eyes fucked out and glazed over, unseeing while you mindlessly suck on the candy cane. You’re drooling around it now and the sight has Bi-Han cumming very suddenly, pumping you full of all his cum.

The way he twitches inside you pushes you over the edge, the force of your orgasm has you biting down on the candy cane, snapping it in half.

You’re both huffing, coming down from your highs together. Bi-Han’s eyes are still on your face, smiling smugly at you and how stupid you look right now. Completely cock drunk from him.

He leans down to your ear and whispers, “Merry fucken Christmas.”

His words send a shudder down your spine. Merry fucken Christmas indeed.

[tellsfromninjago]

How I make comics

Plan Out The Comic

The first thing you want is an idea. Start with something simple. Write it down or sketch it out really fast. As long as you got your idea down somewhere to guide you. I recommend writing yourself a script. It you have dialogue (talking) in your comic, typing it up on a device will be a big help. This will help with spelling checks.

Script

Here is an example of how my scripts look. You can write yours in anyway you want as long as you understand it. This is just how I do mine.

_______________________________________________

Panel 1#

Nya tells Jay that Lloyd isn’t playing. We see a little mud monster figure jammed into a pipe.

Dialogue:

Nya: Um Jay Lloyd's out of the game. His character got sucked down the drain pipe of eternal woe, remember?

Jay: Oh yeah. Well it's his fault for picking to play a mud monster.

_______________________________________________

Paneling

Panels are the boxes that make up the comic. There are a lot of ways to do them. You’ll have to play around with them and see what you like. Starting out don’t worry about this too much. I encourage you to just make your comic and not worry about all the technical stuff yet. Just have fun with it. Be goofy and just let your imagination guide you.

A few things to keep in mind when planning paneling.

The average comic page has 5 to 6 panels. You can do less or more, it’s up to you. How many panels there are on a page effects how the comic reads.

1. More panels on a single page can make it feel Fast or Chaotic. Like a lot is happening very fast.

2. Fewer panels can make things feel slower. It also makes the things happening in the panels feel more important. These are things you want your readers to notice more.

3. A Splash page is when you fill a page with just one image. These are for really important maybe shocking things. These can also be used when there is a new location. This is called an establishing shot. You could use this for when a new character comes in too. Anything you really want to stand out, use a splash page.

Splash Page Examples

First one is Location aka the establishing shot. The next one is for a shocking moment.

Gather References

Now that you know what your going to be making you’ll need references. Images of the characters, backgrounds and or props you’ll be drawing. If you’ve made sketches or character sheets use them too. You can always jump right in without references if you know your subject really well but its a good idea to have them on hand if you need them.

Canvas size

You’ll want to decide your canvas size. Pick what ever works for you. The shape is more important. I normally use rectangle for mine. You can take a screen shot of your phone screen and use it for your canvas size. It should fit your screen nicely.

Boarders

You can add boarders to your canvas. You could have the boarders at the very edge of the canvas or in the middle. Like a big rectangle. This leaves you with some space outside your panels. If your drawing it out on real paper, this can give you some space for your hands to work. It can also give a place for your word balloons to spill out if you forgot to make space for them in your panels.

Examples

Border on the edge. Border in the middle.

Sketch it out

It’s time to draw your comic. I do this in a few difrant ways. One of the ways is what I call the brainstorm page. I’ll draw out the whole comic on one or two pieces of paper. This can be really rough and sketchy or pretty clean. It’s just the characters mostly. The backgrounds I leave out unless it’s important. I’ll then take a picture of them with my tablet. I’ll put it into my drawing program. I use ibispaint. I then use the select tool to drag the images where I want them. Remember when arranging them to make room for the wordballoons.

If I’m drawing the comic right on the paper, start to finish then I do things differently. I put the panel gutters down first. (The gutters are the lines that separate the panels.) I sketch it as cleanly and as close to the finish as possible. Basically with this I want to be looking at a pencil version of the comic.

Brainstorm pages examples

Messy: needs lots of clean up. Clean: ready to be inked.

Example of how it looks when I've arranged the sketches how I want them

Rendering

After you make sure you got things looking how you like them you can finally do your art. Color and do the line work just the same way you’d do any other drawing. However if your comic has more then one or two pages or has a lot of panels you’ll want to simplifie things. You may want to keep your shading very simple or leave it out altogether. The same with lighting. The point is so you don’t overburden yourselves with details and never finish your comic. If you just have one page or very few panels you can go a little crazy on the details.

Wordballoons

Make room for these at the very start. If possible add these balloons in your sketch. I’m still not too good at these but I’m getting better. You don’t want too much text in one balloon. You can brake up a longer text into two balloons or more. You can change how the balloon looks to show how the thing is being said. If the speaking is scary and threatening try making the balloon black. I do this with Garmadon sometimes when he’s using his evil voice. You can give the balloon spikes if someone is yelling. Just play around with it.

Fonts

You need to pick a font (text face) that is easy to read. You’ll also want to have it be big enough to read without zooming in. If you can get a font that looks a bit like handwriting do it. I use Walter Turncoat now. If you don’t have a font like that and can’t download one just use what you have already. Not the end of the world. If you have good handwriting you could just hand write it.

You can use different types of fonts for a different mood or voice. A drippy spooky looking font for something evil. You’ll want to make sure all your spelling is right before you add your text. If you got internet you can use quill bot for this. I also like to have something read it out loud for me so I know I got it right. I use google translate for this.

(Update)

I just found out that some fouts that say they are free to use on some sites are actually not free to use and have been stolen from their creators. I have since checked if Walter Turncoat is truly free to use and after checking several sites I think it is. So just check around to make sure whatever font you download is actually okay to use.

Word balloons and font examples

Black balloons with drippy white hand written front.

Walter Turncoat font with normal balloons. Spikey balloons with hand drawn lettering.

I hope this helped any of you looking to make your own comics. If you have questions ask me. I'll do my best to answer. I'm still learning myself though. Here are some links to good videos about comic makeing.

[charbies]

I love your coloring style! I struggle so much with painting color, do you have any advice for cohesive color schemes, or how you go about picking what colors and values to use? Do you always use references?

Yes!!! Ok so for a long time I struggled with color too, I would get stuck and give up on whatever I was working on because color just didn't make any sense

truth is, I don't think you can get very far with figuring out color without first figuring out VALUES

So when we color first and then desaturate the left pic, we get a very boring, flat pic, limited values. Middle pic and right pic are 2 examples of grouping values by foreground, midground, and background to create more contast & dynamic layouts.

Case in point; contrast shows our eyes where to go. Our eyeballs like having clear focal points, it makes a good drawing that much more satisfying to look at within its borders.

2 layouts for values that I personally like are dark foreground on light background, and light/dark foreground on midtone background.

once I have a value study I like, I start laying color in by applying a gradient map. Drawing programs will have presets, but I highly recommend learning to build your own gradient maps. From there I'll tweak the hue around until I find undertones I like (more on that later)

NOW LETS TALK LOCAL COLOR. I define local color, aka "flats" as the color your character is "made out of." Basically ask yourself what colors are your character, if your character was sucked into a vacuum where there was no organic source of light/shadow/sun/etc that would influence the local colors.

Once I have local colors, I use a new layer set to overlay and "lay" the local colors over the gradient. Local colors we want + gradient undertones + dynamic values = cohesive colorssssss

Now one thing I want to mention about color in general is, when I started doing digital art, my brain would "icon-ify" colors and pick colors based on an object's "information" (e.g. frogs are green). As a result, I'd pick a lot of saturated colors in the upper right quad of my color picker, and this would limit my color pallets quite a bit.

Now that I'm more well-versed with values, I've intuitively gotten better at picking local colors in other quads and on parts of the color wheel that go against object "info." In general, I like picking local colors that are warm & earthy.

Additionally, you can always use overlay to create cohesion if you're trying to go for a certain look/feel that's tricky to manually pick out on the color wheel!

Last 2 things I'll mention are I avoid using a large amount of default digital "white" in artwork. This white literally does not exist in nature, it's like a vacuum to the point where these "clouds" just look like holes in the pictures here. I highly recommend looking at examples of traditional underpainting & using undertones, this was a gamechanger for me since I learned how to carry a traditional technique into digital art and it greatly improved my digital art

References I always use references, for 2 reasons: 1) I have a tough time conceptualizing whole ideas in my head and can't draw most things from memory (womp womp). 2) I legit do not practice anything ever, oops, I am usually learning at least 1 new thing every time I draw, so basically it'll be like "ok time to learn how wolves work" and this requires references lol. I'll use photos or hostages (ie my partner lol) for anatomy & poses, pinterest & posemaniacs are fantastic for this.

Anyway that's every silly little thing I could think of to say lol. I've done digital art for 10ish years, I'm fully self-taught, take that as you will lol. Thanks for asking this, hope it was helpful! :+)

[magewolf-the-artist]

Misc Domestic K-9 Thoughts Susan kinda acts as a shoulder to vent to whenever anyone needs to talk. She can’t really offer much in response or comfort since A, she’s the type to push things away and compartmentalize, and B… well, she can’t exactly promise everything’s gonna be okay, now can she? Still, sometimes it’s nice to just talk

Some days though she just kinda… shuts down emotionally. Just kinda lays on the floor and can’t find any motivation to get up or do anything. Thinking about everything and nothing at the same time, staring blankly into space

Charles usually stays with her during these episodes and depending on the day, he either just sits with her or rambles about random things like he would when they were both alive

Charles constantly does stupid shit and distracts himself because he doesn’t, he’ll start thinking about his daughter how he left them behind all his friends and family and how his daughter Lily is now without a father and that he never got to reconcile with his ex wife Emily and the fact he’s stuck in some stupid rusty metal cage and how his murder was never solved and-

Yeah, it’s best not to dwell on that. Ski ball is much more fun, anyways

Rocket only goes out at night to avoid unwanted attention. They exit and enter through the one window in the break room

On their late night excursions, Molly drags Edd to go stargazing and constantly gushes over how pretty the stars are here and points out the constellations. Edd doesn’t really understand most of it, especially her rambling about space, but he tries

Charles keeps track of the days via tally marks on one of the walls in the facility. Currently he is on day 2,553, which is off by a little over a year but it’s still pretty close considering they’ve all been stuck in a rinky dink bunker for the past 8 years

On that note, nobody else likes the calendar because it just reminds them of how long they’ve all been dead and trapped here. Charles kinda gets it but it gives him something to do, soooo…

Rosemary is kinda… frozen emotionally. She’s just as fragile and unstable as when they first got there and doesn’t do much beyond draw, think, and cry. Charles tries to get her to do stuff with him but she staunchly ignores him

Rosemary has complicated feelings regarding Rocket. On one hand she’s glad they at least had each other before she died, but she also feels like she failed them for not realizing Felix was spitting absolute bullshit and guilty that she can’t be fully there for them

She also feels like a failure of a wife and mother in general for not being able to find Jack and leaving behind Sophie

Charles kinda acts like the fun uncle to Rocket and often ropes them into his shenanigans

Everyone feels guilt about something in some way. Susan and Rosemary regret building and designing the animatronics respectively. Charles feels guilty about not finding Susan sooner. Rocket feels guilty because they feel like they’re deaths led to all this bloodshed

Now granted, Susan and Rosemary both know that neither of them could have possibly predicted any of this and Susan has assured Charles multiple times over that he wouldn’t have been able to do much for her anyways. Rocket though…

Susan is the most casual about her death and is very gallows humor about it. Rocket just kinda shrug and say, “haha yeah that sucked, anyways-“. (RETCONNED) Charles desperately tries to change the topic. Rosemary breaks down.

BSI employees who get assigned to stay at the K-9 facility complain a lot because not only is it dark, cold, and kinda creepy, but it’s boring. This and the fact it’s used to store everything from the original Bon’s Burgers, it’s jokingly referred to as The Graveyard Shift

I imagine Rocket overhears this one day and tells the others. Everyone kinda laughs at how unintentionally accurate that title is

Edd and Molly like to make fun of Bon a lot for a variety of things, but especially him not instantly killing his victims so they don’t scream (Geez, you’d think for someone who’s killed a bunch of people, you’d be better at it by now!)

This REALLY gets under Bon’s skin because he doesn’t understand why these children don’t fear him. The only reason he doesn’t retaliate though is because he knows he’ll get his ass kicked

Everyone else has differing reactions to Bon. Susan thinks he’s annoying as hell and isn’t afraid to let him know it, Charles is extremely unnerved by him, and Rosemary has a panic attack at the merest glimpse of him

Ashley is still a mess and everyone feels very sorry for her. They welcomed her into the fold right away and she usually hangs out with Rosemary, since they’re both extremely depressed

Ashley, Kevin, and Hilary completely covered one of the walls in drawings of penises while they were there. It’s one of the few things that can cheer Ashley up and she goes there if she’s feeling particularly nostalgic

Rosemary has banned Rocket from going near said wall and I imagine that conversation went something like this:

Rosemary: Edd, Molly, I don’t want to you to go near that wall anymore!

Edd: But moooom-

Rosemary: Don’t ‘but mom’ me! I don’t want you looking at such obscenities-

Molly: But mom, we would’ve already had the birds and the bees talk if we were still alive!

Rosemary: … *pauses for a moment, before slumping over and violently sobbing*

Edd: … Oh good going, Molly, you made mom cry!

Molly: Well it’s not my fault! I didn’t know she was gonna cry about that-

Edd: She cries about EVERYTHING, Molls. What did you THINK was going to happen?!

*They dissolve into unintelligible bickering as Rosemary continues to have a breakdown*

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

I'm a hater so I go simplest route for all of swifts song analysis but to be fair, she does too. "You drew scars..." felt, to me, like she was saying "you romanticized my flaws then they got worse after you left." so like, accepting your lovers flaws because you love them for them like a real life regular adult relationship. Then she kind of blames the problems she already had, the scars opening up, on the guy leaving as per usual. She gives me the vibe of someone who thinks a relationship will fix her life then gets mad that it doesn't. Idk she clearly has issues with cheating and men in general but always drops sympathy bait. It's crazy how she's still playing the victim at every opportunity when the people suffering the most are those forced to listen to her goddawful lyrics.

Yep- equally valid and good interpretation. "Drawing stars" could very well mean "romanticizing her flaws" but she never does anything with that theme either. She doesn't mention what the flaws were- or that she has flaws at all. It's more clearly implied that her "scars" are from someone who hurt her without cause- and then this new person reopened her scars also without justification. So how can it be "romanticizing" her past hurts- if she never tells us the rest of the story! (she's just not a good writer- so, ya it's hard to tell what she actually means by it all). Though, it's very much sympathy bait- for how she wants to be viewed as a victim of every circumstance and every interpersonal conflict she's ever had. But also, where is the textual evidence? All of this is extrapolation and conjecture based on what I know about T. Swift as a person- it's just not in the song itself. Ya know?

Edit: addition: It is a fictional song- I'm just saying that Taylor Swifts general attitude about life and relationships impacts the way she writes the song- therefore it shows in the underlying implications of her self-victimizing lyrics and the way she consistently praises cheaters/ says they should be forgiven. Also, when I refer to "her" in the rest of the post- I mean from the narrator's perspective, Betty, as the "her." It's not exactly from Swifts perspective- but I do think Swifts attitude towards life is reflected in the lyrics.

I discussed my perspective on the song is that she is saying the person to which she wants to feel a connection is leaving just because the next line is "I knew you" ("Cardigan" 2020) putting the relationship into past tense. So, as far as textual evidence can stretch, all she manages to say in the song is that the person has left her behind.

She is clearly leaning into the victimization aspect of "I opened up to you and you left anyway, how dare you" type of narration. However, this, and your, interpretation requires innate understanding of Taylor Swift's history and personality. (It's why the song sucks so bad). It can't stand alone- because on its own, when I only rely on textual evidence to tell me about the theme and purpose of the narrative arc in the song- the actual evidence of that "I opened up to you and you left, how dare you" theme is nowhere to be found.

Maybe, if we stretch, and say her line "you put me on and said I was your favorite" could lean into the "indignation" interpretation, because she's mad that someone would leave after saying she was their favorite. However, again she drops the theme- because she never explains why they left, or how anything could have been different.

She does give the line "choose two girls lose the one" yet- it's not fully connected to the previous thematic idea of "I opened up to you and you left anyway" because why is she mad that a cheater left her? Isn't that a cause for relief? Like they are someone else's problem now? I feel like that would be more relatable, anyway, but no she says later in the song that "you'd come back to me." And, why? why is the point of this song that girl feels like she won something because a cheater, and someone who hurt her emotionally, returned to her in the end? What- we're supposed to feel all happy because she "won" the boy over the other girl? It's just ant-feminist propaganda at this point- talking about how the boy picked her so that means she's the "better" girl.

But, also, for the possible thematic point on "love as redemption" which is what I mentioned in my previous post, the theme doesn't connect here either. Why would the love of a cheater be redemptive? Why would we believe that, Taylor Swift, please explain.

It's just not self-refelctive at all. It's really just an incomplete narrative- basically incoherent. It's so frustrating- as someone who has studied and poured over text searching for meaning in context- finding nothing to support any real thematic purpose of any of these metaphors just makes the whole song ring so hollow.

All she says over and over is "I knew you" and also that she feels like an old cardigan. Again, she approaches the conceptual points that she wants to convey- but does them is a clumsy, awkward way that really only lands within her already-bulit audience. Only her own audience is going to understand what she means- because she's built up this mythos-of-self into her greater rhetorical situation.

One of the most important tenets in the study of English Literature is textual evidence. In that previous post, I was doing what is called a "close reading" rather than any kind of application of theory- it all relies heavily on textual evidence and interpretation. I am not necessarily disagreeing with your point, but I am saying I don't personally see the textual evidence to suggest the theme. My teachers all really stressed the importance of making no assumptions- therefore no undue leaps in logic, and simply relying on the text itself to speak. It's how proper argumentation can function- because it's all rooted into meaning extracted only from the literal words on the page- otherwise it all falls to simple conjecture.

Wouldn't want to be caught dead setting up an argument based on conjecture alone. :)

[room-surprise]

Delicious in Dungeon Anime Season 1, Episode 2 Review

Spoilers for season 1, episode 2 below the cut! There may also be mild manga spoilers so proceed with caution.

This episode was great! I think it was a big improvement on the first. Honestly no real complaints... I do kind of wish both Marcille and Chilchuck could have had stand-alone episodes dedicated to their character development, to allow for a deeper focus, but I understand why they didn't do it, and the pacing was still excellent. I do still sometimes feel like the show is in fast-forward at times, because with 3 meals in one episode, it feels like the characters finish eating, and we jump cut to them saying that they're hungry again, without anything to help really impress upon viewers that time has passed. Makes it feel a bit like we're reading a collection of short 4-panel gag comics instead of a continuing story… which, early Dungeon Meshi DOES have that as part of it's format, but it changes with time, as we get into longer individual stories.

During the Basilisk/Doni and FIonil section, I really do miss some of the dry humor from the manga. ("Hurry, he's getting cold!" "Move him closer to the fire!") The hilarity of slowly preparing a meal while someone is dying of poison has unfortunately been lost, which makes Doni and Fionil much less memorable characters…. But it benefits the other 2 stories in the ep to have more time so I think it was the right choice to make. It also gives people something to go back and read the manga for, since it's a little different! If you're reading this and you're an anime only, consider reading the manga while you watch the anime! I promise it's worth it. I'm excited about next week because I think they'll devote the entire episode to Laios and the living armors, which is me and my spouse's favorite early DM storyline, and the part where we both said "Oh, I LOVE this manga..." and got really invested. It's 2 chapters in the manga so it could be an entire episode…. which also would make sense, if that's why they needed to crunch 3 chapters into episode 2. Just like the first episode, animation was fantastic, and as usual the weakest points are when characters are just walking or talking and not doing much. Everything more dynamic is just bouncy and adorable and full of life. Very rarely is anything animated in a dull or flat way. They're doing their best to use "move a drawing around" or "zoom on a drawing" for comic effect and I think it's working well so far. There's some great animal animation in this episode, the bat flying around and the basilisk chasing Marcille in particular. Translation was better this time around, no dumb modern or game references in the dub ("newbs" "as if" etc.) … But there are differences between the subtitles and the dub script that change how easy it is to understand what's happening. When Senshi tells Chilchuck to cut up the giant bat, the subtitles make it hard to understand what he's telling him to do, and the dub makes it a lot clearer. In the subs when Senshi calls Chilchuck a half-foot child, the subtitles say "I'm not a child" and the dub says "I hate it when people call me 'kid'"… The latter is more interesting for keeping the mystery going for things that happen later in the story. If the show continues like this, I think the English dub may be the more satisfying way to watch it (even though the Japanese performances are great), mostly because the subs are very literal and sometimes miss things that the English dub somehow manages to include. And for some reason Netflix isn't including translation of Japanese signs on-screen during the subtitles, but they DO provide them when you watch the English dub. A lot of Dungeon Meshi's humor is sometimes in those background signs so completely missing out on them sucks. Anyway those are my thoughts for this episode! See you next week Meshiheads.

[anaalgf]

ALRIGHT, LET'S DO THIS ONE LAST TIME...

Annalie Brickton, aka Spider Rainbow!!

Yes, the name was already pretty obvious. But it has a cool meaning as to why it was chosen. Anyway, I'll start this by saying that I have an emotional attachment to this OC, I think it was one of the best I've ever created in all fandoms. Her story was one of the most satisfying to do, and when it comes out, I'd love to see your reactions.

By the way, the name of the story is the same as her superhero name, since basically everything is from her point of view.

It's incredible to think that today's Annalie is very different from the one she was originally created to be, since she was designed to be something very different: me as a spider. But in the end, I think it took on a life of its own and decided to make different decisions, so I decided to just change it. And honestly, it was one of the best things I've ever did to my story.

Here some things you should know about her (without many clarifications to keep the surprises 😶):

She's 15 (will be 16 in September, since in theory the second film probably takes place in April-May)

She lives on Earth 1610 and is a close friend of Miles (but that doesn't mean it's her own Earth too...)

My girls is bi - scene out of context: her first kiss was with her roommate)

Her appearance was based on Sophia from KATSEYE - you can research or just take my pfp as reference

Girl LOVES, LIVES, BREATHS Olivia Rodrigo

She can't help but speak her intrusive thoughts. Quietly, but enough for someone to hear if she's nearby.

She sings, like, sings so well that you could probably mistake her for a pop star (we'll get into that part a little more in depth soon, it's related to your past)

Speaking of the past... She apparently buried her own. But what would have caused her to never want to talk about it again...?

Anyway, that's it. I will still have more posts focused on her costume and other things related to the story. As I said, my art kinda sucks so I probaly won't post much of my drawings later, but I'll try. You can ask anything you want about her or the story in general. In the meantime, I'm going there to finish writing the story which is not even in the middle yet 😭

[salt-n-salt]

I just, I LOVE your art, your grasp on anatomy is just so?????¿¿¿¿¿¿ AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS??? Your art is mystical and wonderful and silly and soft like gummy worms idk how to describe it . . .

And seeing you draw other people’s farmers has been so fun! Sorry I’m done gushing, anyways, sorry to be so typical and lame, but do you have any tips on learning anatomy and whatnot?? in the midst of trying to learn myself and I’m certainly having a time.

hiiiiiiiii tyy!! ur so sweet I love a gummy worm vibe 🥺 on my knees for u tysm 😫😫

personally I feel like my anatomy is still very much lacking🧍‍♂️I think im a bad person to ask for advice bc I HATEEEE doing studies and stuff like that. im just soooooo . lazy. and don’t want to do it at all 😋 here r a handful of v general art things that I found most helpful:

1. I abandoned lineart completely bc I feel like it sucked the life out of my sketches ! if I want a more polished look (which I rarely do) ill just clean up the sketch a bit but I never ever do line art 🙅‍♀️ never feel like ur obligated to do a set in stone art process (ig sketch lineart color shading blah blah) ,, maybe that’s bad advice but letting all that go rlly helped me. similarly I don’t like using body guidelines/face guidelines when I draw bc I feel like it makes poses stiff!!! i kind of just dive right in (which is y i think my anatomy suffers a bit whoopsie)

2. I love references 😋 I basically doom scroll Pinterest to get inspo, and don’t feel limited by “art specific” guides and whatnot. other people’s art/regular pics of people just like standing around r so helpful too . like im suchhhhh a proponent of just straight up redrawing someone’s art that u love in private for ur own benefit and learning (without posting it obvi/posting with credit)!!

3. related to references, i usually start every drawing session (?) w very little and quick croquis of fashion pics on Pinterest! I try to make them mini so that it forces me to not go into detail and just focus on overall body shapes and curves .. that can help take a little pressure off each individual part, and it’ll help make ur stuff look more natural 🧑‍🍳

that’s kind of it .. once again omg please don’t take this as professional/good advice bc I know my process can be improved a lot 😭😭😭 this is just coming from a lazy girl that has absolutely no patience for doing muscle studies/light studies or anything else so I still have work to do!!!! but def if u want to know more abt a part of the process (or specifically abt anatomy/muscles bc i feel like I didn’t have much to offer….) more specifically feel free to reach out again !! privately or thru my inbox, either works!