bazeartstuff

[bazeartstuff]

Aidil Comic

it has been a while.. I finished this comic around 2 months ago but have been delaying posting it because I don't really like the last page so much.. I made it when I was extremely sick and something about it will always bother me. I could redraw it, but that would just take more time. I fear Aidil will be another character who I will always struggle to capture as I imagine him. This was my first foray into the current shading style that I committed to (maybe imprudently) for ANOTHER comic I'm working on. Yeah.... uh..... yeah... I've already done 5 pages and it's taking me embarrassingly long. For that reason I'll probably only do OC portraits when I feel like it. I really just want to finish archiving everything atp

Planning page, done on a small paper lol:

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OC* Stuff (Ouium Side 2)

Vanja (Dion)

Dion......... he is definitely the side character I drew the most... homoeroticism wins again... sorry... OTL................... that is why he was very apt for the needing to take a gay quiz. tho in reality he is aroace... OTL....... uhmmm..... let's move on <3 Also his arc had two namesakes. It used to be Man with an Open Heart by King Crimson but it became Only You Know by Dion. Ivette

Ivette.. she would be Sasha's friend and an avid hater of Dion (necessary). Again I realize I explain nothing about these characters or what they do or what the story is.. but it's kinda so much to explain... oughh.... Anyway, that's all for the Ouium side characters. The next portrait I have to do is Jude, which I mentioned before. But before that.. I wrote something of Jude and Nicolai and I figure that my writing also counts as art... but archiving the writing to the extent that I'm archiving the art would be a seriously huge undertaking. So I'll probably just post it .... (me talking to a brick wall explaining my plans)

Full Image:

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OC* Stuff (Ouium Side 1)

Hello... this post took a while because college started and demotivation and I've been writing and blahblahblahblah HERE'S THE POST. also it's in the style of "every friend group has..." and I'll add the finished one at the bottom of both posts. Lybov

Lybov was probably the first side character I developed, but you can see that her name used to be Uriel and she used to be an undertaker. Her story has since changed but her relationship to Ivor is fairly similar, if not a bit more subtle. Because I haven't drawn her in many years I never really portrayed her as I came to imagine her, which is a more middle aged woman than the young one I've drawn mostly here. Also, she's probably the only character I have that has green eyes. If this was ever fully done (it won't be) her arc's namesake would be Green-Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf.

Olympia

Yeaaa, Olympia doesn't have many drawings lol. She's a side character in the Lybov arc. I also unfortunately drew her fairly similarly to how I draw Ayako (post coming in a while) so that's a bit... ouh..... I don't really have a strong vision for her face.

Rykiel

The name Rykiel was taken from Jojos Part 6 Rykiel. If you scroll down far, my first long-form comic I ever made was about Rykiel, and his story before Ouium. Not much else to say about him really. His arc's namesake would be Riders on the Storm by The Doors.

2 more characters to follow in the second part.

Full image:

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OC* Stuff (Sasha)

The portraits are really a struggle for me, if I'll be honest. They don't take me a long time, which weirds me out. And they always look uncanny. Maybe with time I'll fix them and reedit these posts.

That aside, the first 6 are the only really recent drawings here (i.e. within the last.. 2 years?) I really don't draw Sasha much. I think the problem with Ouium characters is that their stories are pretty complete to me so I don't mentally entertain them much. I wish I had infinite time and skill to really make that story real. They're always there for me if I need something to draw, I suppose.

Hopefully I get better with the portraits considering the next character I have to do... he's already been posted about.. Jude... ough.. anyway..

Anyway, for now, another major character has been catalogued and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

[bazeartstuff]

OC* Stuff (Sasha)

At this point was when I was more solidly developing surrounding characters in the Ouium story as well as just a story in general. There will be a post dedicated to Ouium side characters (there's 5).

Also here was where I shifted to Sasha being the MC, so I drew him alone more and developed more of his character traits.

I didn't think I sought to draw Sasha as a visually pleasing character like Ivor or Fuu (post coming eventually) but these drawings say otherwise. There were small elements of Sasha I enjoyed drawing, such as his lips. Last post with new weird looking portait next...

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OC* Stuff (Sasha)

Okayyyy, Sasha. He will have 3 posts. He won't have iteration notation like Ivor did, because, honestly, I feel like Sasha's development was more internal than it was external. As mentioned before, he was originally made as a character with my friend until I adapted him to my own. He quickly shifted and was heavily inspired visually by Diego Brando from Jojo's part 7. I wouldn't blame anyone if they mistook some of these for Diego fanart.

Anyway, one notable shift I'll say is that Sasha would eventually go from being a supporting character to Ivor to being the main character of their given story, Ouium. I notice that with any story I have I prefer to have characters that are a bit more blunt and open as the mains with more mysterious characters being supporting, but they are ultimately the greatest allure (Ivor). Anyway, that's not anything crazy and in fact is quite boring of a structure, but I've done it unintentionally.

Not much said here about Sasha. I don't know if I'll say anything about him really in the other posts as well...?

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OC Stuff (Ernesta&Aurelio)

continuing with Jojo OCs, these were created when I read part 5. Probably obvious from their Italian names, lol

Really don't remember anything about these two, probably had some part 5 adjacent story idea for it. Anyway, some of the art is good and I think the design isn't so bad.

Anyway, now comes the point I've dreaded.. atp there aren't any OCs I consider totally dead.. so now... I have to... paint portraits for posts

(˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥) (˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥) (˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥)

I've been wanting to get to the point of posting newer OCs because I have been drawing a lot and want to get to the point where I don't post in bundles on here. But that will take a while considering how deeply terrifying the portait idea is since same face syndrome will come and attack me in my sleep.

I'll slowly work on it...

(๑·̀ᗝ·́)૭

[bazeartstuff]

OC Stuff (Seb&Eszter)

alright so I consider these two to be Jojo OCs, but I need to clarify what I mean by that. I don't mean OCs that I imagine to exist in the JJBA universe but more OCs whose explicit inspiration by Jojos is kinda inextricable from their character.

I mentioned it before, but at a certain point in time, Ivor and Sasha (next post) would've fallen into this category but they became something else as time went on. Unlike them, these characters and the following post's characters still remain in that era of Jojo inspiration.

Anyway, Sebastian is the character here that is mostly inspired by Jojo, namely Jotaro in part 3. His appearance and initial characterization were very much just like Jotaro's. I think it eventually morphed and changed when I added the character Eszter, who is apparently his love interest, but then the character just kinda faded from my mind as I lost interest.

I think some of these drawings are cute for what they are, lol

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OC Stuff (Ji&Hyuk)

Honestly.. this is another hands up moment a la druski.. I really don't remember what the story of these characters was. I know that eventually there was some inspiration from Akira (as you can see by the bikes, jackets, and drug use), but the core story is pretty unclear to me.

Well, anyway, onto the next post(s) which will be a bit confusing since they're JoJo based OCS... lol...

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OC Stuff (Kareem)

hmmm.. I kinda contemplated not posting anything about Kareem since he's an embarrassing character to me... for reasons. But those reasons are not self-evident, so I'll continue.

Not much to say about him really, he originated just as an expression of his visuals but then kinda morphed into a character when I started to entertain the single dad thing. Obviously, it didn't really go anywhere, but as I look at these images, there is a part of me that wants to revive him properly. Maybe one day.

Anyway, two more random OC posts and then I will have to start portraits again... oughhh.h... unsure how I'll fare.... (°~°)

[bazeartstuff]

OC Stuff (Luftikus Characters)

Immanuel

I'm not sure if Immanuel predates Alejandro, but he definitely predates Lucio. He actually has a pretty funny creation story... basically, my family and I went to France in 2018 and I was just really enthralled by the people and places I saw that I made a character somewhat based off of that. Immanuel kinda existed as his own character for a while before I merged his story with Lucio. But it wasn't the version that it would eventually become (lacking the following characters) and was a lot more homoerotic between the two, to be frank. Luckily for Immanuel, he would be saved from the homoeroticism by the next character, Marco.

As for Immanuel, since my art mostly began as graphite pencil work, I always really enjoyed drawing him. Beyond that, his character only really developed in the iterations of Luftikus.

Marco

Marco originally just began as a character in Luftikus that would bond with Lucio and help him through his struggles. But, me being me, it was just extremely romantic without my intention, so much so that in the newer iterations I just act like that's what intended. There would be some explanation to it, but all the same this circles back to why I find it difficult to reconcile the story and don't really want to work on it.

Marco is meant to be really beautiful but I doubt I ever captured it as I'd like. He also becomes a luftmensch, a lofty character stuck in his own mind, and that's where his conflict with Lucio stems from, as written in the second part. I wouldn't mind sharing it, but it's kinda inconvenient since it just exists as a Google Doc, lol.

Irie (only one bad drawing lmao)

Irie is purely a textual character, as implied by this one bad drawing existing of her. She is an important character and has an important relationship with Lucio, but I never felt to draw it. That's the thing about these OCs, they only really exist in text to me, so I struggle to draw them as much as my other ones. Their visual appearances are pretty unsettled to me.

Anyway, that's all for Luftikus world. The only other world I think that will get a multi-character post will be Ouium and JOJO-inspired OCs, which will be a while. More random OCS need to be posted before then.

[bazeartstuff]

OC Stuff (Lucio)

hmmm okay, so I was originally going to make a portrait for Lucio, but I can't really consider him an OC I think about much. I did consider him a little a couple of months ago but it really went nowhere.

So, Lucio is a pretty old OC and originally was called Alejandro with a twin called Alessandro (super cheesy). I don't really know if they had a particular story or anything, I used to just draw them together. There were a lot more random drawings of them than I posted here but they had a tinge to them that I just didn't care for. And, anyway, Lucio has evolved past that character so there wouldn't be much value in explaining them.

At this point, Lucio mainly exists in writing in a 40k work I called Luftikus. There's a small cast of characters (which will get the post following this one) and it's a work I wrote in two periods. In my mind there are 4 parts to it. I wrote the 1st part in the summer of 2019 and then the 2nd in the following 2020 summer. There's a big difference in the quality, in my opinion. I don't even know how big the gap would become if I were to continue to the 3rd and 4th parts, so I haven't really tried continuing it. It's not a work I'm embarrassed about but one that just feels a bit archaic to my current sensibilities, if that makes sense. There would be a lot I'd have to shift to make it more current to me.

Anyway, I realize I didn't say much about Lucio himself. I guess he's just a miserable person who doesn't really see much value in himself, but much in others. But he eventually evolves into a character only concerned with worldly affairs and physical sensations, the opposite of a luftmensch (which would have story significance, I suppose).

Maybe more explanation in the following post.

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Judolai Comic

This comic took me 10 more hours than it did to 100% RERemake

(╥﹏╥)

Anyway, I started this just as a means to do the joke with Nicolai's beardless self (if you've seen other posts, you may understand that it's just Nicolai's old design) but I ended up having some exposition in the beginning since it felt right (tho, it may still be confusing as I just don't explain my characters).

Uhh, not much commentary to add, really. I don't think I've figured out how to do comics. Part of me wishes I understood screentones still.

As I was making this comic, many ideas for other comics were tormenting my mind for other characters (and a continuation to the longer form stuff I posted as well), but ultimately, now that I've finished this one, I definitely need a break from making them. I'm so slow at them anyway (T_T). These 10 pages took me about a month, which horrifies me considering how plain they really are (ㅠ﹏ㅠ)

Hopefully I continue just drawing as normal after this and doing OC posts. I'll try my best ....

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A Cruel God Reigns Stuff

Hello.. this functions as a repaint of sorts. I read Hagio Moto's A Cruel God Reigns more than 4 years ago and it always stuck with me as some of the most harrowing and depressing manga I had ever read... I recently reread it and discovered even more to appreciate about its torturously evil narrative. So much so that I frantically wrote about arguably the most grueling thing to read about... Ian and Jeremy's relationship.. I find that there is unfortunately not much discourse about this manga online, so if you'd like to hear some random person's opinion, then it's attached under the cut.

About the painting itself.. I'm not really too happy with it (what artist is satisfied with their own painting, really..) but I think Jeremy came out very well, which was all I really wanted tbh. I added in Ian and that as a means to try painting him, but I only intended the painting to be a more literal repaint of the older one. I'm happy to say that I've finally figured out how to paint pale people, lmao. And I'm happy that Jeremy looks so corpse-like. I'm happy with his face.

I also used a Gouache brush set I didn't really understand how to use here and I found myself to be very happy with my experiments with it. I will use it more whenever I paint.

Anyway, if you can believe it, more rambles under the cut (the manga discussion).

TW//discussions of SA

Ian and Jeremy's relationship is definitely weird, and not just because of the incestuous undertones but also because of the dynamics at play by the end; I think it's relevant that Jeremy a) seems to love (in the romantic sense, considering how Ian's lips are described as warm to him, as opposed to the cold lips of most) and be affected by Ian and b) also seems to consider sex as punishment. From the beginning of their sexual relationship, Jeremys only rationale for continuing is the belief that he needs to be punished for being a murderer, and Ian is the only one who can do this. And the punishment is sex. Moreover, Jeremy's perspective of love is obviously influenced by the "love" he experienced by Greg; a love that is violence. Because of this, Jeremy is afraid to love others because of his natural aversion to violence. From Jeremy's perspective, he seems to continue the relationship with Ian initially because of this desire for punishment and his underlying desire for Ian. However, upon the closure he seems to receive from visiting Sandra's grave and the discussion on the nature of love he has with Ian, he becomes more open to the idea of being in love with Ian. However, I can't shake off that by nature of their relationship being occasional rather than consistent, there still remains that element of habitual punishment to Jeremy.

This is Jeremy's perspective on the relationship, which I feel is more complex and what makes the relationship itself so difficult to understand. This is obviously in part because Jeremy himself is difficult to understand as a consequence of everything he went through. However, his beliefs about love being vindictive and that sex is punishment are I believe quintessential.

Going to Ian, I think it's a lot easier of a story. Between the two of them, Ian is absolutely reprehensible. As peaceful as the ending seems to depict the two, it's undeniable that Ian is sinister in the way he abuses Jeremy. I can't say that the ending is happy. However, I dont disbelieve that that might be intended; I think the greatness of this manga comes from its portrayals of broken people as imperfect. Healing is not linear, and it is not sensical. Jeremy has assuredly healed, he has gotten better, but this doesn't erase the deep scar that will remain on his perspective on life and his prospective relationships with others. Once again I digress to Jeremy, who genuinely is a very fascinating character. I was supposed to talk about Ian, so I'll say it; he's controlling and takes after Greg in that regard. As rational and reasonable as Ian is, as seemingly open to criticism as he pretends to be, as understanding as he posits to be, ultimately Ian wants things to go his way and he's very much subject to his own impulses. His way is having control over Jeremy and his impulses are his desires for Jeremy (whether it stems from guilt or responsibility, it ultimately becomes irrelevant once Ian's heart is set on Jeremy). This is most emblematic in the final trip he goes on with Jeremy, where he makes an advance despite promising he wouldn't. As a means to justify himself, he believes Jeremy being aroused was essentially a go ahead for him. All he wants is Jeremy to be his own, and he doesn't truly care what Jeremy says in a moment of passion. In this regard, it's undeniable that Ian is an abuser. The countless times that he betrays and hurts Jeremy are stomach churning to read. But what's worse is, despite all this reprehensibility, Ian is not as plainly evil as Greg. It's not power that motivates him or a desire to control. I believe he genuinely loves Jeremy, but his love does not entail respecting Jeremy's agency.  I also think that Ians initial obligation to Jeremy was the idea that he wanted to fix him, which likely stemmed from his denial that anything had happened at all (if he fixes him, then all can be well, and he won't have to come to terms with the broken Jeremy). The entire time where they're "stranded" and basically having sex like rabbits was likely Ian's attempt to force Jeremy to have a regular perspective on sex and love again. But of course, Ian, being the controlling person he is, does it only to satisfy the belief that he's helping rather than truly trying to help Jeremy (because seriously, how is forcing yourself onto a victim of SA helping them?) I really hate Ian, but it's more because he's unfortunately not wholly evil. I realize that I initially implied that Ian was more simple than Jeremy, but upon further consideration, he's probably even more hard to understand than Jeremy because his seemingly good intentions lead to abhorrently abusive outcomes.

This manga has so much going for it in terms of subject matter and discussions, and the two key characters are evidently extremely complex to the extent that having read the manga two times I still find myself pondering. The postulating on love from the perspective of someone whose only known a perverted version of it is fantastic and harrowing. Ian also acts as the perfect example to Jeremy of how violent love seems, considering how often Ian's thoughts and actions turn to violence around Jeremy (and I consider Ian forcing himself onto Jeremy violence too, of course). There's also a whole can of worms with Ian and Jeremy's relationships with their respective mothers, which seems to just be a consistent throughline with Moto's work.

Also, a small consistent detail I enjoyed was how quickly Jeremy is able to lie and cover up the abuse he faced with benign situations. And how this eventually clashes with Ian, who finds it weird that Jeremy lies and takes responsibility when it's his fault (I recall the one time Ian hit Jeremy and Jeremy quickly explained it as an injury from PE, to which Ian immediately denies and says it was him who did It). However, by the end, I think Ian somewhat participates In that instinctual lying (but maybe I misremember). There's a lot to appreciate about the writing. 

If you read this far, and also have opinions, do share! I really liked hearing my friend's first impression upon reading this pretty out-there manga, so...

[bazeartstuff]

Resident Evil Stuff

Once again, a small detour from OC posting. I played RE5 with a friend and thought it was funny and stupid. Looked through a lot of Chris Redfield fanart on here. Now we're onto RE6 (just finished Leon's campaign, it was awful lmao). I've also played RE4 a couple years back and have tried finishing REremake (very slowly). I don't know if I'll make any more fanart for this series, but .. yeah...

Oh yeah, I've been trying to get Leon's RE4 jacket forever. I will one day.

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OC* Stuff (Ivor 1.00)

The final part.. with the new portrait I did... (it looks eerie to me..)

Lol.. it's just a lot of faces.. and they all look different.. ehrmmmm.. I've always envisioned Ivor with the same features (I even made a little guide for my friend, which, ironically, has Ivor still looking different) but the principle of the features are there. It's just dependent on my ability that day and my adherence to proportions.

Anyway, Ivor visually didn't really change much after a certain point. it was just adjustments to his and Sasha's story that determined how I split up the iterations. I realize I haven't said much about their story or anything, and I don't believe it would be evident from the drawings alone. I hesitate to summarize it all here for my own integrity. Maybe in Sasha's post I'll try and say more. I'm not being evasive to be mysterious, I just don't know if I should explain the story like it matters.

Also, I feel like there is a femininity to Ivor that I've only come to realize now as I look at some of these drawings. He is pretty motherly in my head, so I guess that makes sense. Him and Sasha pretty often tread lines of femininity in their own ways.

Anyway, that's Ivor's posts done. This felt the most daunting to organize. I feel like I'm forgetting some drawings (I know there is one of Ivor having a really stiff smile, but I can't for the life of me remember if I scanned it and it isn't in my organized folders... aghhh).

Next characters unfortunately also require portraits (me when I have to abide by the rules I set for myself) so I'll see how long that takes me and if I get too conscious of potential same face syndrome. Until then...

[bazeartstuff]

OC* Stuff (Ivor 0.75~1.00)

We continue..

Ok, so, later on I will be making a post for OCs that were created just because of JoJo. In another world, Ivor (and the other guy, Sasha) would've ended up in that pile, because this iteration of him is so extremely inspired by JJBA, specifically part 7. Having a dynamic between him and Sasha (will be posted about in a couple posts) was directly because of Johnny and Gyro. I also developed a sort of surrealist element which was initially an excuse to give them Stand-like creatures. That actually still carries over to the new version. They even look more Jojoesque with posing and designs, which would be significantly more toned down once I figured out what the story was and what I was doing with it.

But yeah, going through this step was important for developing them into their final iterations, which will be the next post. For now, some previews of it (and the stand like thing I mentioned):

Last post for Ivor next.. yayy...