caramel-poptart - Tumblr blog

[caramel-poptart]

More stories from hell (retail) today I was ringing up this lady and she goes oh I want to do part of this on a gift card and the rest on normal card and I go ok and then she hands me a folded piece of paper. I think oh OK it must be folded around the gift card, right? Wrong. It is a folded sheet of 8×11 printer paper with "$40" written on the inside in ballpoint pen. I go what is this. She says a gift card. I say this is not a gift card. She says yes it is. I say this is a piece of paper with "$40" written on it. She says "well it's a gift card." I say it absolutely is not. I am grinding my teeth. She says well I want to use it. I say you physically cannot do that bc it is a piece of paper. I cannot scan or swipe it. I apologize, as if this is my fault, and not because she is completely insane. I hate it here

[caramel-poptart]

[caramel-poptart]

the best trope in media is: “characters turn on the lights, see the monster, and immediately turn the lights back off”

[caramel-poptart]

Thinking really hard about Nahida hiding/repressing alot of her more childish mannerisms because the Sages openly resented her for having them and being an inadequate god as a result in her early life, but these traits are things Wanderer actively likes about her because he gets along well with kids :(

Like say She gets a little embarrassed when he notices her splashing in puddles when it rains, or tinkering with human toys because as it’s mentioned in her character stories the Sages refused to give her some (if any at all), but he always just goes along with it and doesn’t mind her being silly (him giving him the Hat Guy nickname would fall under this). Wanderer strikes me as someone who finds childlike joy & innocence kind of comforting/cathartic to be around especially as something he can trust so I like to imagine this is an extra thing that makes him just genuinely enjoy Nahida’s presence. And it’s great for Nahida because I think she really benefits from having someone on more equal footing as her who doesn’t hate her for being a child

[caramel-poptart]

Hi everyone! I am back with new commission work. Also ready to have new ones. Sorry for being inactive lately. Had some personal stuff to figure out. But now ready to work again. Missed you, guys!

[caramel-poptart]

timelapse of my last piece

[caramel-poptart]

fatima aamer bilal, from we were put on this earth desperate, hungry and willing.

[text id: you get nervous when someone holds your hand, you wonder if they can feel the rot.]

[caramel-poptart]

happy xiao day 🥹

[ID: digital drawing of chibi ciao flying through yellow-leaved trees and holding the primordial jade winged spear. He has golden wings attached to him.]

[caramel-poptart]

Meet me at the hollow log

[caramel-poptart]

"if you ship this thing it's because you're too naïve to understand that it's toxic and that you wouldn't like a relationship like this" actually it's because I see one of them as a mentos drop and the other as a bottle of coke zero and I want to watch the mess they'll be together

[caramel-poptart]

[caramel-poptart]

Hello!

Your art is so gorgeous and inspirational!

Do you have any tips on drawing body horror and character design? When I've tried to design some characters with body horror they all end up looking rather friendly 😅

Hope you have a lovely day and thanks in advance!

Thank you! I'm happy to hear that! Here goes!

NEZ GUIDE TO BODY HORROR

(Disclaimer; this is my advice, not rules. Break them as you wish)

Despite not doing it on purpose, a lot of my art is tagged as body-horror. I've embraced it. Here are my 3 pillars for frightening art. I don't have to follow them all at once, at least one is enough.

Nature

Get inspired by nature. Not necessarily by gore and wounds, but by things that look normal in one context but might appear unsettling in another. A great example is my pumpkin creature; everyone has seen the insides of a pumpkin but adding that texture to a living body made everyone react more strongly to it. I highly recommend natural things with strange textures and patterns (especially seeds)

Book Recommendation; The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel

I recently bought this for all the gorgeous pattern and creature drawings. It's a beautiful book for those who want to draw horror based on nature. Careful if you have tyrophobia, this has some INTENSE patterns.

Subtlety

In either execution or concept.

In execution; give the drawing other recognizable characteristics. The gore is NOT them, it's just part of them. An example would be my cowboy creature. They have the coat, the hat, the boots, the smile...and then you notice the heads. Give your character more than their frightening parts.

In concept; If you want the bright reds and obvious gore, follow one simple concept. In the example below, the concept was a wound surrounded by mushrooms. That is all. If I were to add 'but also mushrooms leave their eyes, and bloody tears fall from them, and they have gashes in their skin, and'' it would have made the impact of all of those concepts collapse. Like a bed of nails. The more nails you add, the less a single individual nail will hurt.

Feeling

It follows the theme above. I noticed horror works better when it's not an abudance but also when it's relatable. I've seen people react more intensely to an animated character brushing a line of yarn against their eyeball than an animated character having their head explode in blood, brains, and bone. You can draw from emotional feelings as well, turning your mental pain into a physical manifestation of it.

This is not a must follow because I do plenty horror art without being vulnerable nor making myself uncomfortable, I just notice people react when they can relate and feel it too.

I hope it helps anon!

[caramel-poptart]

Hey there, art advice anon again! Your tips have been very helpful, especially the idea that you just have to keep trying until you find the right combination of lines. Thank you!

Do you have any advice on drawing facial expressions?? I’m autistic and I have a really hard time with them.

Howdy again, and sorry for the delay! Not sure how well some of this advice would translate into different styles, this is just what works for me.

Expressions are hard! There's a lot of nuisance and subtle differences between them, and a lot of different expressions share similar features. Ya just have to play around with them.

There are a lot more things that can all help convey emotion, that aren't just limited to the face, like posing and angling, but I focused solely on expressions, here.

Anyway, I hope this helps at least a little :0!

[caramel-poptart]

[caramel-poptart]