#mainly was just practicing rendering and all that

[nameification]

half hour doodle

[hellothisisangle]

Hi! I just wanted to say that I am in AWE of how you use black in your art 👀✨️💖 The contrasts, the values, the harsh edges vs super soft shading gives me life! 💖💖💖

So inspiring ✨️💖

I hope you have a lovely day when this reaches you! ✨️💃

That means a lot, thanks!

I used to be terrified of coloring/rendering and would stick to cell shading or just completely scrap it. Recently I’ve spent a lot of time studying, trying to find a good practice that works with the lineart I do

The secret ingredient I’ve been missing out on is subsurface scattering ✨

There’s still things that I don’t care to see color all the way through, but it’s mainly either time constraint or understanding that the lineart is more impactful uncolored

[kozachenko]

Here's a digital sketch dump of some pose/anatomy practices and some 2hu doodles, I think from now on if I don't have any big final piece to post, I'll just post sketches I liked that I did digitally (might also reblog some drawings of mine that I want more people to see, maybe idk).

Artist's Notes:

Ok so after the recent Hifuu fanart I did, I've been hoping to experiment more with how I draw faces, how I render, as well as how I stylize things. In some of the earlier sketches I did, I had an idea for a pose that I wanted to try drawing, so I took a ref pic of myself doing said pose (the leaning one btw) and then did a sketch over top of it just to get an idea for the shapes, negative space, and silhouette. After that, I wanted to do some simpler breakdowns of the shapes so I can get better at simplifying the body (these ended up being the bottom right sketches in the post). I also did some experimenting with how to push certain parts of said sketches to create a different body type (via liquify and then a more refined version based on that sketch), as well as figuring out what makes a pose feel natural and not stiff. This was also a bit of a foreshortening practice just so I can get more confident with it, and I ended up using the arms from the liquified version for the coloured Zanmu sketch I did since I liked them so much (dw I'll get to that).

The next thing I wanted to try and draw was Hisami, mainly because.... I am very bad at drawing her in my style. Last time I drew her I made her look really creepy and spindly, and it is my headcanon now that she can switch between a more human, and more creepy look whenever she wants. I'm liking where the face is going a lot, might have to refine a few things about it in the future, but it's cute (I also made the blush purple which I think is what I'm gonna do with her face from now on). I also like how her hair in the sketch turned out a lot, but the outfit..... not as much... Ever since I started changing my style to something less cartoony, I've had a hard time drawing her outfit in my style. Especially the flower veil thing she has on, which, I did try to find a way to draw, but I ended up deleting that sketch because I didn't like it. I'm also not a fan of using the colour purple, like, pure purple, magentas are fine, indigos are fine, but not strict purple. I also have a hard time with drawing all the little pattern details on her dress. I also need to find a way to draw the flower veil in a way that looks good because everytime I try it ends up just looking off (very similar to whenever I try to draw Zanmu's blue spears). I think the only solution to this problem is to do what I normally do and make my own version of the outfit, but with adjustments to suit my style while still trying to keep core elements from the original design intact (like I do with Zanmu and Keiki, and yes I am going to get to that Zanmu drawing just gimme a minute).

Ok next up is Keiki, my favourite Touhou character who I haven't drawn since the beginning of the year. Since my style has changed a lot, I wanted to just do a face sketch of her to get a hang of drawing her again, and I..... really really like how it turned out! When I drew her eyes, I realized that a good way of keeping faces too same facey can be via varying the sizes of their pupils, so that's an idea I'm gonna keep in mind from now on. I had a lot of fun with her hair, I initially was gonna do it like how it is in the official art, but I ended up not liking it, so now I'm gonna draw Keiki with wavy heir like this because it's fun and it looks nice. I also included my base sketch for Keiki's face since I was initially struggling with drawing her bandanna, and in the coloured sketch I added some more detail into her hair.

Now to finally talk about the sketches for Zanmu. Good lord was I having a tough time with her face. I also did this sketch before I figured out how I wanted to draw hair, so that's why the rendering on her hair is different (I did this soon after the Hisami sketch actually). Since I changed my art style a lot, I had to find a way to translate her face from my more cartoony style to my more detailed style, so while the face shape, nose shape and mouth was fine, I was really struggling with the eyes. I did get somewhere eventually though, and I am super happy with how it turned out. I wanted to lean more towards the androgynous side of the gender presentation spectrum, mainly because I think that makes sense for her character. Also made sure to include the silver hairs and some wrinkles just to bring some signs of her aging into her face because those are just staple features of how I draw Zanmu at this point lol. You will also notice that I gave her some scars on the right side of her face, and that's because I am a Zanmu-with-scars truther, I fucking love it whenever I see someone give Zanmu visible scars like that it just adds so much omg (I also tried to put a wolf bite mark on her arm in the full body drawing but idk if it reads well). While you can argue that her not having scars sells the idea of her being this "powerful, untouchable mastermind who is impossible to defeat," I'd say that instead of those scars representing times she got injured, they represent everyone who has failed to defeat her.

As I was drawing Zanmu's face, I referenced my sketch of to help with contrasting their features since I made Keiki's face more traditionally feminine. I also didn't mention this in my commentary on Keiki's face because I wanted to save it for here, but giving Zanmu scars also plays into the fact that she used to be human, wheras Keiki doesn't have any scars because she's a god who doesn't follow the rules of normal human biology. Plus I'm thinking about the two of them interacting again (return of Zan/Keik??? (I'm a multishipper btw) maybe???) so drawing their faces together will definitely help me in the future if I wanna draw them together (again, maybe as a ship? I've kinda been ironing out the kinks in their potential interactions (romantic and non-romantic) for a while now so idk maybe expect that in the future lol).

And now for the full body drawing, when I was doing the face sketch I did this little snippet of an outfit, had a vision, and the made it into a reality. I'll admit, part of me was worried that it would end up looking too much like Yuugi's outfits in the spinoffs and mangas, but I feel like I made enough changes to differentiate them. I tried to keep a few of the major details in Zanmu's design (i.e. the red tassles and yellow lining on her shirt) while putting a new spin on it. I also dialed up the scars to 11 since without them the whole thing kinda looked incomplete. Also, while I could say that the leaves on her kimono are "a nod to the fact that technically she should be a tengu because back then people belived that corrupt monks would turn into tengu but no Zanmu is an oni and they're maple leaves because...tengu...ahahahaha" what really ended up happening was that I looked up clothing patterns from Sengoku era Japan, liked the leaves the most because the red picked up on the red from the rest of her design and just ran with it. I also always had the idea to put Zanmu in men's clothing from Sengoku era Japan and while the accurate thing to do would be to put her in a Buddhist's clothes from that era.... from a character standpoint, I don't think Zanmu is pious enough to strictly wear the proper monk uniform, and also since she's basically the king of Hell, she would probably dress herself like royalty from that era. TBH, I probably could've been a bit more historically accurate, but again, this was mainly for conceptual purposes because I had a vision and I needed to see it through.

If I were to draw her in this sort of outfit again, I should probably try and use more references, although now that I look at it, if she were to wear it properly this would maybe, probably look a bit closer to a Kyūtai sugata (a very huge stretch, but it just kinda reminds me of that) just without the layers under and over the main piece of clothing (In the website that I searched up to try and compare the outfit in my sketch to, they name the outfit pieces but don't label them on the image, so I don't know 100% what everything is called) so I will definitely have to use that style of clothing as a reference going forward.

Also, I was kind of inspired by the ToTK design for Ganondorf since I have finished the game a while ago and I absolutely love what they did with his design (it's just so fucking cool omg) and I thought that sort of look would look good on Zanmu, so yeah got some inspo from that.

And those were all the notes for each of the sketches, I'm motivated to draw rn but kinda art blocked, so doing these little coloured sketches helps a lot.

[akutasoda]

hii i love ur blog and the way u write !!

i want to request bsd boys meeting your family and what would be their reaction whit whoever u want pls just add Jouno he needs more hcs !!

feel free to ignore <33

new families

synopsis - they meet your family

includes - ranpo, chuuya, jouno

warnings - gn!reader, fluff, slight angst - mentions of insecurity, wc - 557

a/n: uee thank you so much!

ranpo edogawa ★↷

↪ranpo knew that you'd want him to meet your family eventually, he practically jumped at introducing fukuzawa to you if you didn't work at the agemcy. and as the worlds greatest detective he was confident they would love him!

↪so why was he so nervous? now that he was meeting your family he would start crumbling under the confident facade your family saw. he realised it was because he wanted tomake a good impression as a small part of him was convinced they wouldn't like him.

↪and if they didn't like him it didn't really matter but he really wanted them to like him. one simple dejection from your parents would completely knock him. however you noticed how nervous he secretly was and kept reassuring him they would love him.

↪and once he did have that confirmation that they did indeed love him, he gained all his confidence back and returned to his self-confident state.

chuuya nakahara ★↷

↪he is an absolute traditional romantic and i take no arguments. he's a gentleman and probably would be the one to first bring up meeting with your parents - mainly so he can prepare himself.

↪again, wants to make a very good first impression. your family may disapprove of his line of work if they ever found out so he wants to be in their good books from the first meeting - especially if you family means alot to you.

↪he would have some jitters but very quickly would get over them and soon enough he would be getting on extremely well with your family. eventually anyone could be convinced he was always apart of your family.

↪your family would probably never guess that the absolute gentleman that was your lover would be apart of the mafia - it would probably be best if they never found out.

saigiku jouno ★↷

↪a rather fearless and sadistic hunting dog who is rendered absolutely terrified at the prospect of meeting your family. he probably isn't really a sentimental type and so family doesn't matter that much to him, he doesn't really understand why you want him to meet them.

↪originally he thought he wouldn't care but the more he thought about, the more he worried they wouldn't like him. he didn't know why but the idea of your family disapproving of him really got to him and so he became determined to make a good impression.

↪you didn't comment on his new motivation to make a good impression, nor the fact that he was slightly awkward at first when he finally met your family. he didn't speak much at first and looked really disinterested but inside he was shaking.

↪your family would express how interesting it was that you found a hunting dog to be your lover and that subject would be his start to building back up his confidence. eventually he would go back to his normal persona but your family couldn't really tell the difference.

↪ he'd still be a bit shaky afterwards and would insist that you didn't see him likd that. if you ever wanted him to meet them again you'd have to tell him over and over how they loved him and that there would be no way that their opinion would get in the way of yours.

[miumura]

( 🎬 ) — KNOW ME ; HEESEUNG SHORT FIC

“ this liquors got me faded, talking crazy ”

ᶻ 𝘇 𐰁 spending a night with your drunk best friend makes you realize you don’t know them as well as you think you do. because, if you knew him, you would’ve known about his feelings for you.

— PAIRING best-friend!hee x best-friend!fem!reader

— GENRE angst, one sided love (or is it), friends 2 ???

— WARNINGS INSPIRED BY “KNOW ME” BY DPR LIVE, drinking n hee gets drunk (reader doesnt)

— WORD COUNT 0.8K+ ( 863 )

ᶻ 𝘇 𐰁 hi guys 😊🤍 back on that angst writing grind (i may or may not have lied) bc i love angst !!! anyways i love love love know me by dpr live 😜

Heeseung had a particularly stressful day, prompting him to drown his worries in alcohol during your planned hangout. You've observed his increasing tension over the past few days, leading to the drinking session. Hesitant to pry, you intervened as he reached for another shot, expressing concern about his consumption. "Isn't this your fourth bottle? That seems like quite a lot, don't you think?"

"No, it isn't," he hiccupped, attempting to retrieve the bottle as you evaded his grasp.

"You don't have a high alcohol tolerance, Hee," you chuckled, observing him rest his head on the table. Concerned, you asked, "What's been bothering you lately? Is it work?"

“Do you really think it’s because of work?” Heeseung raised his head, glasses slipping down, purple hair almost covering his eyes. With a flushed face, he maintained intense eye contact. Confused, you responded, "Huh?"

"Do you trust what I say?" he slurred, the effects of alcohol evident in his words.

"Of course I do—why wouldn't I?" you reassured.

"Maybe you shouldn't," he mumbled. Perplexed, you asked, "Hee, what are you saying?"

"How much do you think you know about me?" he posed a sudden question, causing you to pause. “Do you even know me?”

"I think I know a lot. I know of your favorite drink, our favorite show, your ice cream order—everything I should know. What don't I know?" you responded.

"How much I think and stress about you. How I look at you, how I take care of you, how I pay so much attention to you…If you knew me—you’d know that too." he admitted, slumping back against the wall and closing his eyes. Stunned by the unexpected confession, you froze. "I don't... I don't understand what you mean by that."

"I worry about us, mainly I worry about myself. Why? Because you're all I think about," he continued, his honesty cutting through the room. You listened, sensing the urgency of what he needed to let out of his chest.

Heeseung took a deep breath, grappling with the unspoken. Feeling his eyelids droop, he still continues on. "There are things I've never shared, thoughts that consume me. I know we promised to be there for each other when we needed anything, and I'm sorry for breaking it. But, I really couldn't find a way to tell you this. I need you to understand that I've tried my best to ignore these feelings, but I can't."

Opening his eyes, he held your gaze. "I think I like you, YN." The revelation hung in the air, leaving the room charged with unspoken emotions.

“You like me?”

“Yeah. I fell deep. I fell for everything about you–your smile, your jokes, your calmness, everything. You’re practically perfect. Just…just give me a chance you love you right.”

Heeseung's revelation weighed heavily on you, rendering you momentarily speechless. His intense gaze held yours, making it challenging to find the right words. After a gulp, you broke eye contact and finally uttered, "Wow, Hee... I'm at a loss for words. I don’t even know what to say." The room resonated with the gravity of unspoken emotions, and uncertainty hung thick in the air.

"What do you mean?" Heeseung wore a confused expression, not expecting this response. This was not like those sweet drunken confessions—had he perhaps drunk too much? You intervened, cutting through his thoughts.

"I really appreciate that you are being honest with me—and I wish you would’ve told me sooner," you expressed, your eyes slightly glimmering, your stomach tying itself into knots. Was he going to get the answer he yearned for?

"Because?" Heeseung slurred, staring at you, hopeful for those sweet words. A heavy silence descended upon the room, carrying the weight of unspoken feelings and the acknowledgment of a friendship forever altered.

"But Hee, you know I can't love you back," you whispered, the truth hanging heavily in the air.

Heeseung froze. "Oh." The disappointment in his voice echoed through the room, marking the poignant end of a hope that had lingered in the unspoken spaces between you. He was just confused. What did you both know?

Heeseung never wanted to be pushy, but the words eventually spilled out. "Did you…find someone better? Or don’t feel the same way…?" He just wanted closure.

"Heeseung, you're drunk," you frowned slightly, a sad glint in your eyes that couldn't go unnoticed.

"So?" he hiccuped.

"I’ll...I’ll tell you later, yeah? Let’s just get you home." As you were about to get up, Heeseung's shoulders slumped as he sighed, a sense of disappointment and vulnerability washing over him. "I just needed to be honest with you, YN...so why can’t you be honest with me?”

"I'm glad you're honest with me…" you said as you put his coat onto him, watching him look up at you as you did so. “And I can’t tell you right now. You just—you just deserve way better.”

"So you’re telling me that I'll just have to find someone who will love me like I do for you, right?" Heeseung managed a faint smile, though sadness lingered in his eyes. “If that’s what you want.”

"I'm sorry, Heeseung," you apologized, the weight of the moment palpable. Your vision was slightly getting blurrier by the second. "I really am."

ENHA PERM TAGLIST (1) — @flwoie @ixomiyu @haruavrse @shinsou-rii @bearseulgs @ilovewonyo @yenqa @dimplewonie @bubblytaetae @wtfhyuck @ineedaherosavemeenow @ml8dy @starikizs @wonioml @chirokookie @xiaoderrrr @neozon3nha @en-chantedtomeetyou @millksea @enhaz1 @eundiarys @hyeosi @ja4hyvn @judeduartewannabe @j-wyoung @thia-aep @vampcharxter @softpia @officiallyjaehyuns @itsactuallylina @hsheart @sweetjaemss @ahnneyong @hanienie @jwnghyuns @kpoplover718 @jiawji @rikizm @haknom @yeokii @wvnkoi @whoschr @teddywonss @shinunoga-iie-wa @isoobie @skzenhalove @misokei @s00buwu @ox1-lovesick @miercerise @litttlestars @enhapocketz

[plurralthiing]

Greetings! To start of: I ABSOLUTELY ADORE YOUR ARTSTYLE!!! the way the characters look both round/softer yet very adorable, the color scheme, the way you render and so much more!!!

Sorry if this is a bit intrusive but... may you kindly with cherries on top give a lil' tutorial on how you do anatomy? If you want to do it of course...

HI GWAAHHH THANK YOU WHAT !

sacondly..... not intrusive at all!!! i'd be happy to explain (im praying you can follow along though cause im horrid at explaining stuff ashdfkahsdf)

im predicting this post will be EXTREMELY long so it will be under a cut :]

play this in the bg for the Full Experience if you want /silly /not forced

OK SOOOO the way i've learned to draw anatomy is by viewing the body as a bunch of "building blocks". this is honestly the way i've learned to draw like. everything (everything is just made of shapes if you look hard enough!!!!!), but anatomy and organic things in general are a big more complicated in the sense that these shapes connect in really weird ways and sometimes (often, depending on the style) can't just be summarized as "circle" and "square"

the way i view bodies is like this! the numbers are mainly there to show the order in which *i* place these blocks, but by no means is this the order anyone has to follow! fuck up the numbers if you want!!!! start from 6 and head to 1 if you want!! whatever makes you happy :]

but after this base sketch is done, you can basically continue drawing details like clothes, facial expressions, hair, etcetc, and soon you can have your very own gay man like the one here (or. whatever youre drawing)! (you'll also notice i tweaked the arm on the left a bit cause it was messing with me)

obviously though theres other body types out there! and luckily this "building block" thing also applies there too!

(drawing armor is also a series of building blocks as well except its less organic and more rigid/shape-y and requires a prayer to the god you hold dear)

(not very well drawn to scale cause i forgor)

you can draw all kinds of bodies if you view the body as just a series of shapes! obviously, your own personal style may impact how many shapes you see/draw, especially for more realistic styles, but generally i view em like this!

for especially complex poses, especially ones that involve perspective, its good to try to view the shapes in a more "3d" way. you can always grab a throwaway canvas/paper and practice some perspective on the side with some super simple shapes! (like how you mightve drawn 3d cubes n stuff on a 1-point or 2-point perspective plane when you were in like 6th grade or smthn i havent been to high school in years i dont remember what the grade is) drawing on the side, especially when you dont take it super serious and just kinda dick around, helps you learn a surprising amount :] if you dont get it down the first time, thats all good! there's always the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, 500th, 1 billionth, fucktillionth time you can do it :]

as for digitigrade/furry stuff, as well as more specific parts of the body (looking at you HANDS.), they also follow the building block stuff, just kinda in a really weird way!!

as much as i love to draw him, beenilla is literally just a mess of limbs and stuff and it takes a long ass time to draw him sometimes (especially with unique poses), but he also follows the general "building block" stuff too! his is more pronounced since his arms have visible joints, and are more divided into basically a bunch of ovals and circles, but the shapes thing still applies!

for hands and paws, they also do as well (again, just about everything out there is made up of simple shapes!). they definitely take! practice to learn! drawing them can be a pain in the ass but learning them is very worth it :] i personally only draw characters with 4 fingers since its easier for me to do (who needs the pinkie anyways)!

a good thing to check out as well are references from real life *and* studying from other artists and analyzing their works and how they use certain techniques! a majority of what ive learned is from analyzing other artists actually, it's incredibly fun to see how different artists do different things and how they execute them! speedpaints can be wonderful sources of learning for this reason :]

lastly, FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SO SERIOUS sticking with the same old stuff may reinforce the skills you're practicing, but NEVER be afraid of doing new things or diving into new styles and trying a new pose! sure it may look like jank the first couple of times around, but that is the learning process!!!!!!!!!!! to learn new things requires you to *do* new things, and i think theres always time to learn! thats why i think art is such a fun wonderful subject, cause you learn so much from it!!!!!!!!! and you can just do fuckin ! whatever!! just start doin stuff!!!!

i have to leave for work rn so im ending this really abruptly im so sorry but YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my weird tutorial i hope it made sense ajshdfkahsd

[yomigaere]

Nanami and the dissolving dress incident from episode 3

When I was rewatching this episode recently, it struck me that the dissolving dress incident was actually quite a nasty thing for Nanami to do to Anthy -- and I don't think Nanami understood how nasty it really was.

Rest of the post is under a readmore due to mentioned spoilers for the wider series, mainly with regards to Anthy and the deeply unpleasant things she's been through.

To start, I just want to make it clear that I love Nanami. She's one of my favourite characters, and in actual fact, I'm the kind of fan who's believed for more than a decade (as long as I've been an Utena fan in general) that people shouldn't give her too much shit for things like the kitten incident in her childhood. I'm also happy to see that she gets a lot more love in the fandom nowadays than she used to.

That said, I can't agree with unironic claims (keyword: unironic claims, not jokes) that she never does anything wrong at all. I think it's dismissive of the feelings of the characters she hurts in her more genuinely nasty moments -- and Anthy in this episode is a major case in point here. She clearly was very hurt by this incident, and it honestly tore at my heart a bit to see her shivering and upset while she was on the floor trying to keep herself covered. I also think, all things considered, that her reaction to what she goes through here is 100% genuine.

Let's reiterate what she goes through here: Anthy, who is clearly shown to be uncomfortable in crowds, is humiliated in front of a huge crowd, which very likely reminded her of when she was originally stabbed with the million swords of hate by the angry mob who branded her a "witch". Also, Anthy, a long-term victim of sexual abuse, is rendered semi-naked in front of a crowd. It's little wonder that she ends up shivering and in tears from all of this.

Needless to say, Nanami has absolutely no knowledge of and no way of knowing about Anthy's trauma and how deep it runs -- certainly not at this early stage. That's not the only reason I don't think she realised the severity of what she pulled on her here, though.

To my knowledge, exposing a rival's body in public is not entirely outside of the sorts of bullying tactics that come up in melodramatic old shoujo -- which Utena draws from, and which this episode draws from in particular. With that in mind, I think Nanami (who is herself practically a 70s shoujo character in some ways, which explains things like her character design not having whites in her eyes) likely just thought of this whole thing as a way of embarrassing a girl she didn't like.

However, Nanami is just thirteen years old, and she's had an upbringing that's a mix of sheltered and neglectful at that. Because she's a child, and because she doesn't see anything in sexual terms, certain implications of humiliating Anthy the way she did simply didn't occur to her, and likely couldn't have occured to her.

In short, there's a certain... I'm not sure if innocence is the right word to use for her cruelty in doing what she did in this episode, but definitely a kind of obliviousness. Again, what she did here was unpleasant, but for the reasons I've detailed above, I don't think she understood the full extent of how unpleasant it was.

[tankymama]

Hi! I’m a big fan of your art and i’ve been trying to get used to digital but I can’t really get the hang of it. I was wondering if you have any tips for things like sketching, coloring, or just getting any form of art out of it! This is coming from a place of mainly sketching with pencil+paper. Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this, and have a great day!

Halo, sweetheart! I'm so happy you decided to reach out to me! <3 I am very happy to hear that you really like my art, I'm truly honoured and happy to receive that news! ^^

Digital eh? I do understand your struggle, since it is a tad bit tricky to get used to at first from my own experience back in the day (Omg I sound like a grandma- I am not avoiding the grandma Izu allegations-).

Honestly, for anything related to sketching just about anything, I tend to practice the things that I usually wish to learn first. Back then, I started sketching animals since I think they're easier to learn and get used to! But! If you're talking about sketching in general, I would say that sketching doesn't typically have a rule! I'm sure there is one somewhere, but when it comes to sketching, I really do not like to follow the rules lol If you are the type that does follow the rules though, there are a bunch of guides on the internet that could help you! But if it was me, I'd say just let your mind and hand guide you instead <3 This works both ways for traditional and digital!

Try sketching small/easier things first so you can get used to the technique! Not everyone does everything the same way, so maybe you'll find the way that is more comfortable and understandable for you! But no matter what, just keep on practicing! No one masters art in one night! Just take your time and have fun <33

As for colouring, I suggest getting started with flat colours first before you move on to the more complex(?) stuff! But if you're already past that stage, you can always practice colouring/rendering(?) with smaller things first like for example, try colouring a flower how you wanted it to be coloured at first, and just keep practicing from there! Start small and start easy! Once you think you've got the hang of it then you can move on to the more complex ones <33

But overall, I would say just try and have fun with what you make! Try not to put too high of an expectation on yourself since that is mainly one of the reasons why most people just stopped doing art. As one of my friends said, art is a form of expression and impressionism, it is an extension of you and who you are as a person! Nobody creates things the same way! So my final tip(?) for you is to just keep on experimenting with different styles or techniques no matter if it's in the form of sketching, colouring or something else! And these all go both ways for digital art and traditional!

I hope these answers your question, sweetheart! If it doesn't or if you want to know more, do not be afraid to reach out to me! <33 Sorry for the very long reply by the way, I am a certified yapper 😭 Have a good day now, sweetheart! May your day be how you wanted it to go <33

[sskybooks]

Day 5 I'm tired

....

I ready to sleep...... I'm a living zombie. Please let me rest.

But despite that I'm still talking to all of you. Feel about that as you will. As far as writing goes.....

Not so good....

BUT I did get some stuff done. Guys don't despair on me quite yet. I"M STILL GOING!

Oh another wave of Melatonin just kicked. I do not do good staying up past midnight. How do you all do it? I sound old. Am I old? How many years before I'm going to have to use a wheelchair? Do I need dentures? I need to revaluate my life choices.

I"M TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A MIDLIFE CRISSES! That's what you get when i'm working on my 5th wind.

Anyways.... I'm dead inside.

You already knew that.

Lets move on....

I did not get a whole lot done on the OC I was working on MAINLY because I need to practice rendering.

(The last one sucked!)

So ya its coming, I'm still drawing. Your OC WILL BE DRAWN! If I don't fall asleep fir-zzzzzzz

[flashkirby99]

Accept trade request?

praxie about to dump your trade window with vendor trash. i still find it very cool that the merchant class in RO exists and is tied very heavily with server economy - the realest support class

Process breakdown for my own benefit + anyone interested:

Line Art

This piece was mainly meant to be rendering practice, and as part of that, stop spending so much time fussing over line art (which i am still very guilty of doing)

Initial sketch (left) to get the general composition down, and then some additional guidelines to help with hair and clothes (right).

Line art (left), normally I spend a lot more time polishing and refining this, or straight up doing yet another line layer on top, but I've recently just started leaving it in its sketch-y state, and doing some erasing to clean up over extended or messy lines.

Then using a fill tool to block out the character (right), and fill in any gaps with a brush. The main purpose of this is so I can use Alpha Lock to avoid going over the lines during painting.

Some really interesting resources (and interesting art channels) that I've been using as a reference point:

(that last one has english subtitles btw, bless you based naoki saito dragalia artist)

(left) Changing the base colour to brown helps with gaps while painting skin, and changing the background colour to a neutral tone helps with balancing contrast. (right) Afterwards, I start blocking out the individual pieces with various colours so its easy to tell what I have or haven't missed.

Once colours are down, slap some shading in with hue shifting to spice up the colour variety. I don't know what the non-pixel art term for this is, but basically it's when you make the colour change hue and saturation as it darkens. Here's an example of the scarf, without hue shifting on the left, and with on the right:

Since each section of the image is its own layer, the colours can be adjusted until everything looks good. This is usually where I do that technique where you put a grey layer over the image and setting the Blend Mode to Color. This makes the image greyscale, so luminosity/contrast can be adjusted for readability (combined with eye squinting to see how easy it is to distinguish important image elements).

After that's done, the real change that makes the piece less harsh is to alpha lock the line layer, then start painting over it with colours that match the surroundings.

Here's also where I make small touch ups, like remembering to colour the rest of the hair and shorts, and doing that thing where the face has a soft skin glow that affects the surrounding hair.

Here's the fun part where I put a bacground in, otherwise known as throwing random colours around and seeing what sticks. I wanted try my hand at the cool brush stroke outline effect, which basically involved painting outlines between layers that sit on top of each other, such as between the palm of the hand and arm, or the back shoulder and the hair. Also random cat paws and sparkles for good measure.

Some cheeky Ben Day (aka comic book / manga) dots over areas where light might shine and create bloom. Into the spider-verse does this and it looks awesome.

Finally, air brushing some colours over the top on a layer with Soft Light blend mode. It's not readily apparent when isolated, but if I greyscale the image and then apply the layer it gives a dream-like effect

This video by OyunOrka quite succinctly goes over a bunch of things that can be done here, but obv don't have to do all of them.

Anyway, happy catgirl wednesday

[qwesty-030]

“Dear Lord and Father of Mankind Forgive Our Foolish Ways”

(crt. 03.04.2024)

hello hello!

this was just a old rendering practice. i don’t think i ever planned to post this but @literatureluver ‘s art (“And, if all else fails, remain kind”) reminded me of it

i experimented and made 3 different versions but the one above is by favorite. It’s inspired by “I’m Your Man” by mitski (CRYINGG FALLING ON MY KNEES) and this artpiece. like i said these are just practice drawings done on the whim. none of are really “finished” or cleaned up so to speak. My style is ever changing and for that— i embrace as a sigh of growth.

I use Ibis Paint X and a mobile device (mainly my phone) for most of my digital drawings btw!

[vers.2 done with gouache and various paint brushes, lots of blending technique, no lineart, minimal layers]

[vers. 1: my former original style! line art done with calligraphy pen, cell shading with subtle gradients, messing with lots of layer settings, very fnf inspired art-style, also this was basically slapped on top of vers2 lol 😭 i was too lazy to make a bg ]

——

anyways, Gene was such a tragic character. He is the logical obedient rule-follower, he knows what’s right or wrong, and yet he still breaks them (and i suppose others in the process..). he knows what he did wrong and obviously feels guilty for it. Sometimes guilt itself is a punishment. Even before the first fall, there’s just lots of insecurity in his internal dialogue. I can never hate him bc i see how much insecurity and emotional turmoil caused him to make poor decisions.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

One more from (mostly) climate journalist David Roberts:

"I haven't written much about politics since the debate, mainly because I'm so overwhelmed by disgust & contempt toward this country's media & commentariat that it has rendered me inarticulate with rage. Twitter probably doesn't need more rage. I do just wanna make one point tho.

To be clear up front: I don't give one tiny hot fuck who the Dem nominee is. I truly don't. Biden's fine. Harris is fine. A warm puddle of vomit is fine. *There is no conceivable resolution to the nomination fight that could change the basic calculus of this race.*

Preventing a fascist takeover of the US is my top priority--as a journalist, as a voter, as a human. If it isn't yours too, you should feel bad about yourself. If you haven't made the stakes of this election clear to everyone within the sound of your voice, you should feel bad.

But I'm not gonna rant. [breathes deeply] Just gonna make my one point, which is this: the idea that that the process of jettisoning Biden & choosing someone else will go well -- will be *allowed* to go well -- is a deeply deranged fantasy.

The idea that Dems will do this & will end up feeling unified, that Harris will come out popular, that "the dynamics of the race will shift," all of that ... fucking deranged. Deranged in such a perfectly characteristic Dem way.

"This person/policy/slogan/approach has been irredeemably slimed by Republicans & a hostile media -- let's throw it overboard!" That's the Dem way. Always with this starry-eyed hope that they can reset, start over, get it right this time.

Just as one example -- other people have aggregated these -- there have been "calls" for every Dem nominee of the last 30 years to step aside. Dems practically delight in abandoning their own people, policies, & principles in response to bad-faith pressure. They f'ing love it.

But, as I've been saying for, oh, 20 years now, the situation is structural. The current situation is an outcome of a particular incentive structure & that structure will remain exactly the same if Harris takes over the ticket.

For centrists, journalists, pundits, *even Dem electeds*, the way you prove you are a Reasonable, Serious Person in DC is by shitting on Dems. For the left, the way you prove you are a true radical is by shitting on Dems. For the right ... well, obviously.

Everyone's professional incentives are to shit on Dems. Dwelling on Trump & his fascist movement -- however justified by the objective facts -- just doesn't bring that juice, doesn't get the clicks & the high-fives, doesn't feel brave & iconoclastic. It's just ... no fun.

So, say Biden stepped aside in favor of Harris tomorrow. How long until the vapid gossips we call political reporters find something wrong with her, some alleged flaw they just have to write 192 stories about? How long until the hopped-up mediocrities we call pundits ...

...find some "counter-intuitive" reason that the new Dem ticket is flawed after all? How long until the irredentist left gets over the temporary thrill of its new Harris memes & remembers that she's a cop & turns on her? How long before the ambient racism & misogyny in the US...

... lead center-leftists to conclude that, sure, they'd support a black woman, just not *this* black woman? In other words: how long before everyone reverts to their comfortable, familiar identity & narratives?

About 30 f'ing seconds, is my guess.

Dems uniting, feeling good, telling a clear story, receiving credit for their accomplishments--all of that is *impossible* in the current environment. It won't be allowed. Dems can punch themselves in the face all they want, abandon whoever they want, apologize all they want...

... they simply will not be allowed to turn the page & start fresh, because everyone's incentives remain the same. If they did that, elites, including media elites, would have no choice but to openly & frankly grapple with Trump & what he represents & they *don't want to*.

Everyone feels comfortable shitting on Dems -- it's just a cozy professional space. You get to feel brave & independent (just like all the replacement-level pundits around you) with zero risk.

Yes, it's abysmal, contemptible cowardice on a genuinely embarrassing scale ...

... but it is what it is & we should have no illusions that it will change with a change in the top of the ticket.

As @whstancil has been trying to tell you people (good god how he tries), the information environment is thoroughly corrupted.

@whstancil For some reason, left pundits are pathologically averse to acknowledging that fact. And so they grasp at these straws -- if we could just get rid of Biden, we could have a reasonable conversation! Yeah, sure. You absurd summer children.

@whstancil This election is not a choice between two individuals, it's a choice between worldviews, between futures. Do we want to continue down the path to multiethnic democracy or do we want to impose a white patriarchal Christian autocracy?

@whstancil At stake is the entire federal civil service. The machinery of state built since WWII. Freedom & dignity for millions. Yes, democracy itself. That's not an exaggeration. Yet this country's elites have utterly failed to convey those stakes to the populace. A *grotesque* failure.

You can not look at this extraordinary media freakout this last week and not psychologize, not see all kinds of displacement. They can't or won't be serious about Trump & so they are fucking *giddy* at having permission to scold Dems again. Their safe place.

Anyway, my point is just: none of this will change if Harris replaces Biden at the top of the ticket. The idea that the media -- with these soulless careerist court gossips in charge -- will allow it is just fantasy. They *need* Dems in disarray & so they will engineer it.

The US is right on the precipice of falling into bona fide fascism & *the vast majority of the voting public doesn't even know it*. That speaks to a deeply diseased information environment. Until Dems do something about that, all their self-flagellation will buy them nothing.

Not knowing what else to do, Dems shit on their own

(Rebecca Solnit)

[aipurjopa]

HOW IN THE WORLD DO U DRAW SO OFTEN. SO CONSISTENT

ok so here’s my secret… i stopped caring about school after like November because all of my college applications were submitted so all my time went to drawing…

nah, but in all seriousness, i just always try to sit down and draw for a bit everyday. generally ive got like 2 hours allotted to art (usually more) where i just. hang out. and draw. a lot of the art i’m posting is a cleaned up sketch with color and basic rendering. It’s not really “practice” per se and more just like… having fun. If i’m in the mood to learn new stuff, i do studies (that i never post lol)

It also does help that being an artist is like my sole defining trait. My rad weekend dream. Music to my Akito. If that makes sense. So without art I highkey lose myself. So i’m always drawing. The thing I hate more than drawing is not drawing. I just genuinely enjoy it. Idk.

Sorry this isn’t really any good advice. It’s mainly my surplus of time and just being like fixated on the craft lol.

[akutasoda]

i can stay, if you want? part 2

synopsis - after particular warm nights, you decide to shed some clothing - how do they react?

includes - dazai, nikolai

warnings - gn!reader, fluff, slight crack, reader is mentioned to be shirtless, wc - 761

a/n: this was requested by @lazarokimaar

osamu dazai ★↷

the agency accomodations were pretty basic but they still did their job and, if the owner bothered, were rather clean. but unfortunately dazai wasn't really in a rush to take care of himself properly let alone his residence. so it was no surprise that the already bad ventilation was made worse.

but that did little to bother dazai. he rarely slept a whole night anyway. but ever since you proposed living together, he actually bothered to tidy up - to some extent. to the extent of hiding bottles of sake and tins of crab and bothering to clean.

but no amount of cleaning could change how much more humid and warm it would become during warmer weather. and it wasn't really helped that dazai became rather clingy when you were directly next to him.

you had woken up due to being too warm and even though you were desperate too cool down but dazai had finally managed to fall asleep and was practically glued to you back. you didn't really have a solution at that point to cooling down seeing as dazai had already hogged the blankets.

however when you came up with the solution of shedding some clothes and shuffled around to be able to take your top off, dazai woke up. and now seeing as he was awake you saw no problem in tearing him off you. he looked at you with some confusion.

he was going to ask what you were doing but his question was quickly answered as you shrugged your top off and over your head. and you'd spent long enough with dazai to know what he was going to day affter you took your top off but you quickly silenced him by explaining it was too warm.

and as you laid back down you were confused as to why a pair of bandaged arms didn't immediately wrap themselves around your mid section. so you turned you head to face him and ask if there was an issue.

normally you would expect dazai to care little of your state of undress and act as normal but he faced a lottle bit of inner conflict. he didn't want to cross any boundaries with you, fearing that if he did so he'd push you away and lose you.

but from your question he nodded and just said he was 'admiring the view' before he placed his arms around ypur mid section and placed his head in the crook of your neck. and now if anything he was a little dumbfounded. how could someone as great as you trust him this much. but he didn't want to dally on that as for the moment he wanted just to hold you in his embrace.

nikolai gogol ★↷

seeing as nikolai hadn't been in yokohama that long, he didn't really have much of a place to actually stay. normally just cramping in on his colleagues. and when he met you after a while he started thinking - what would be even better than moving in with the person he loved most.

he adored your space no matter how big or small it was. but unfortunately it also became the victim to an unfortunate increase in warm weather. warm enough that any ventilation or fans because rendered rather useless.

even if you stripped away all your bedding, sheets and whatever else you would normally have it didn't seem to work.

mainly because nikolai was rather clingy sometimes, that or he had absolutely no personal space awareness. either way he only added to the rather intense heat. and if you were going to fix this you would have to start by prying yourself out of his grip.

and once you did, you took of the layers necessary to cool down before slipping back into bed. and almost immediately nikolai gripped back on to you proving your efforts to cool down to be rather useless but atleast it was a start.

after a while, nikolai had woken up while you were just trying to get back to sleep. he noticed your wardrobe change rather immediately and began teasing you. and in your half asleep state you still managed to elbow him. to which he stopped.

but then he became very acutely aware of the situation and hesitated for a moment until you gave him a rather sleepy nod of reassurance that you were still fine with him cuddling you. to which he took and happily retook his place beside you. and yet he still teased you in the morning about it.

[hinamie]

sorry if youve talked about this before, but do you have any tips relating to your coloring process? i ADOREE the way you render things and it looks soso cool and once i saw a post where you said your art typically only took a couple hours and i was in SHOCK. cuz ive been working on a yuji piece that has a similarish (not really but idk how to describe it…) coloring style and ive been working at it for. about a month now…sorry this is rambly i hope u have a good day!!!

hi!!! first of all thank you so much I'm happy you like the way I render! honestly it Is still the aspect of drawing that takes the longest for me, I've only recently started to come up with ways to streamline my process (mainly through keeping my layers/brushes limited and overall being less anal about details) . these days my average drawing does take about 2.5-4 hours I'd say, with Big Illustrations obviously being the exception

i wouldn't beat yourself up too much about taking longer to finish a drawing tho ! it took me. a While to learn how to speed up and honestly my biggest piece of advice is loosen up and let certain things look imperfect or unfinished ! and if you're like i was and want to work at getting faster then i would recommend practicing churning out sketchy/rough pieces and see what tricks and habits you can implement or adjust to save time

all that being said I realize haven't done an updated overview of my colouring/rendering process so I guess this can be that ! I'll put it under the cut because i too like to ramble and this Will get long

lineart and base colour/underpainting

my lineart is nearly Always on multiply. it helps the lines stand out less starkly against the colours and makes it so that I don't have to change the colour of as many sections of lines later on

the base colour layer is honestly completely optional, tbh i sometimes skip it so you don't Have to have one but i like it for a few reasons: - I like to keep all my colours on the same layer so if i'm going for a painterly style this serves as an underpaint layer of sorts . having this means that when i paint, whatever colour i have here will blend with all the other colours i use and help them look cohesive - even if I'm not painting, i still like to work with all my colours on the same layer and it helps me make sure I'm not missing any spots, which helps when it comes time to section individual areas off in the next steps

2. flats

lock transparency button my beloved . this makes it so that you're only able to paint on areas where there is Already colour (which is where having an underpaint layer comes in handy)

not much else to say about this step, just choosing colours rly !

3. shading

here's where the fun starts ! since i'm working all on one layer, i use the wand or lasso tool to section off whatever area I want to work on, then go in with (usually) one of the three brushes below: from left to right 1. my favourite dry brush that i use to cover large areas, it has an amazing dry paint stroke-y texture and i use it in everything. great for skin/clothes/hair/fur/organic material...she does it all 2. smaller, blendier/smoother brush that I use to soften out the rougher edges left by the first brush. I find it's really good for hair and small clothing creases 3. rough pen brush that I use to add little bits of flavour in the form of crosshatches or stray lines, usually to hint at individual hair strands! I also use it to line sometimes but I'm using it less for that recently

also, since the lineart layer is set to multiply, it's super easy to colour directly under the lines on my colour layer and use that as a way to make certain lines Darker . it's most obvious at the eyelashes and under the jaw but I do it everywhere

4. finishing touches and texture overlay

here I add another layer above the multiply/lineart layer and use it to add highlights and other details! this is also the layer i use to paint directly on top of any areas that got messy or need extra definition

my texture overlay of choice is just a rough monochrome static file that I got on the csp assets page but use whatever you'd like tbh ! set the layer mode to overlay and adjust the opacity to your liking (I also like to rasterize the layer to make it easier to work with but it's not too consequential if you skip that step since you're basically done by this point anyway)

And done ! slap a signature on that bad boy and send it <3

[kozachenko]

I RETURN BEARING DOODLES OF ZE KEIK!

Hello again! :D I felt like drawing Keiki because I had nothing else to do and I also wanted to draw Keiki again because C R E A T E !

{Artists Note}:

So I had some ideas bouncing around for how I wanted to draw Keiki, and the first time I went with a more robotic look that was inspired by BoTW. I also wanted an excuse to try out some stuff with collages, and so I used an 1800s drawing of a skeleton to put this together. I added a face and a head just for fun, but tbh I wasn't 100% happy with it even though I did like how it looked. I might wanna save the BoTW inspired parts for a future Okina design as I think the constellation motiffe some BoTW Sheikah stuff has fits her more (and I have adopted the headcanon that she has prosthetics, I love it so much).

Like ok, context for this is headcanons. So as I mentioned in my post about Eirin, I wanted to play around with the visual idea of gods in Touhou being very much related to what they're gods of.

So at first with Keiki I tried just making her look like a haniwa herself, but I ended up not going with that as I like the idea of her being distinguishable from the Haniwa she creates. So instead, I ended up going with a more cyberpunk aesthetic for her, inspired in part by Cyberpunk Edgerunners (no spoilers plz, I haven't finished it yet). It's also the reason why I did an alternative cyberpunk outfit for her (inspired by a dress I found on Pinterest).

I feel like the hardest things about drawing Keiki are her dress and hair bandanna. In the image above with her normal outfit, I had a lot of struggle with the sleeves, and I couldn't really get her hair bandanna right. In the faces I drew of her I had a slightly easier time, but still, it's hard to get it to look right. However in the alt design I gave her I somehow managed to make it look right??? Don't know what I did there but I actually like how it looks, so I'll keep what I did there in mind for the next time I draw her.

Speaking of her alt design, it was actually a lot of fun for me to do. I imagine that's her more "official" outfit, don't know what she'd where it for but I mainly drew it on her because i had a cool idea ok?

Also, on the day I drew her initial face render, I had watched Serial Experiments Lain and I think those vibes bled into the sketch version. Upon further inspection of the rendered and coloured version it kinda lost that but it's more to try out a different brush for my style.

Also also, I experimented with giving her earrings! Which didn't make it to the final cut, but still wanted to try it out! This also came as a learning experience on what makes Keiki look like Keiki... it's the hair bandanna, every time she doesn't have it, she doesn't look like herself.

To end it off, I think the unhinged Keiki face I drew for her expressions (since everyone I've been drawing recently has kinda all been lookin like varitations of this face -> (o _ o) gonna need to draw more expressions period actually, need practice on that) is now my favourite unhinged Keiki face I've ever drawn LOL. Expect more Keiki sketches in the future because I do love drawing my beloved blue haired blorbo.