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[melodybottles]

march art update!

spoilers: i'm still art blocked bad ^-^

okay no hi everyone i didn't expect to still be struggling so now that i am i wanted to talk about it a bit more because i really miss drawing and posting art. i love to draw! it's my favourite pasttime and it sucks not being able to put anything out that i'm satisfied with.

as i talked about previously one of my biggest issues is that i don't really.... know what i want from my art style? and a lot of what i like the most in various styles conflicts with other ones i admire so it's really difficult to pin things down. so i HAVE been drawing a lot, trying to experiment with this and that, but i can't help but get frustrated with all of it.

all i can draw without that frustration rn is just my oc celice because i've figured her out. love her. i also got out one (1) really nice pic of a different oc today but i haven't been able to replicate that. anyways

today i wanted to share a bunch of art i've posted in the past that i'd say are my favourite pieces from this blog so far (+ 1 i never uploaded here). so here's all that:

Q: all but one of these pieces have one particular thing in common. know what that is?

A: they're mouse pieces. 😭 the only one i did with my tablet was that odette.

there's a reason for that, of course -- it turns out i really like the sharp, often more angular looks a lot of my mouse-based pieces have. they feel like. crisper to me. if that's a word that makes sense. i don't really rely on blocky lines at all anymore now that i have a tablet, and my art is genuinely a lot rounder because of it. so on top of the overall style changes my more recent pieces have, the mouse pieces all have a different vibe to my tablet pieces that it seems i really prefer lol. (even that sakuya + amber, when you factor in the style changes due to them being very recent, still have that sharper look to them due to being mouse pieces. also bc i did them wit hte binary tool LOL.)

what does this mean? i don't know! but it's something to think about when i get back to things.

anyways thanks for reading this if any of you actually did! that's This Month With Melodybottles. tune in next time

[melodybottles]

celice again

[melodybottles]

breaking my own personal dislike of posting sketchpage caps to share some celices (one from like 2019 or 2020 and two from yesterday for the sake of comparison). style practice is going well so far

[melodybottles]

i got distracted while working on this one by my coworkie but i still want to talk about this so now i'm going to tack on an extra about some of the kind of things i want to implement based on some art styles i really like:

as mentioned, at least somewhat realistic proportions even if i'm not doing a more realistic style. however i do also like things like exaggerated limb shapes & particularly what i personally call bratz dolling which is when the proportions are relatively normal but the feets are drawn large. (could also be known as kingdom heartsing or whatevr else you want to call it. i think it's fun)

i really like simpler, more cute ways to draw faces! but as mentioned i want to be able to draw older characters and i fear that i won't be able to achieve that by doing this kind of thing. but also simpler or cutesier face styles are just soooo cute and i really like how they contrast the more realistic proportions or really detailed Neck Down styles

i Really Want To Get The Hang Of Head Shapes i have such a hard time getting head shapes right and neck proportions and positions right. i always end up drawing necks in a way where they look really awkwardly balanced with the head. there's one style i LOVE that just does round shape heads and i really like that but i'm not sure i want to try that myself. but i do quite like it

hello and happy holidays everypony!

i have nothing to do at work at the moment. let's talk about art bc i've been thinking about it a lot lately and particularly have been struggling! which is a shame bc i've had the drive to draw lately, but haven't been able to put things down on paper the way i've wanted to.

first and foremost i have still not finished sorting all my CSP assets. lol. lmao even. (i've even returned to downloading MORE, thus making the problem continuously worse for myself). when i finally do that the palette tests WILL get done.... someday.................... but unfortunately that day is not today. certainly i could already start using it, but unfortunately i'm a very organised person to the point of perhaps neurotic overorganisation so i NEED things very meticulously sorted into folders. relatedly on the topic of brushes i've also been really dissatisfied with any of my SAI ones so that's been A Struggle

SECOND OF ALL. actually this is primarily wanted to make this post about bc i wanted to lay this out and discuss it so that my friends don't have to hear me whining in dms anymore -- i've mentioned over the past several months my style has been kind of experimental, right? well. i'm at the point where i'm deeply unsatisfied with my style as a whole atm </3 and it's not even like my art style is bad by any means! i enjoy a lot of what i've put out over the past several months. but i'm really dissatisfied with my work because there are a lot of elements i want to include that i can't quite get a grasp on!

it's like.... i want something stylised. but i don't want something too stylised. but i don't want something realistic. but i want something with more realistic proportions. but also i do like doing the stylised limbs. but also. i want variety to my work but still enough consistency where you can tell it's mine. i want to figure something out that's able to integrate drawing fat people easily into it. i want to learn how to draw older characters and make sure i settle on a style that grants me the ability to do that too. i want to do art like this and like that and i have soooo many things i want to do with it that i see from other artists it just makes me kind of shut down and struggle LMAO

basically i want a lot of things! and some of them contradict each other </3 art is hard folks

[melodybottles]

hello and happy holidays everypony!

i have nothing to do at work at the moment. let's talk about art bc i've been thinking about it a lot lately and particularly have been struggling! which is a shame bc i've had the drive to draw lately, but haven't been able to put things down on paper the way i've wanted to.

first and foremost i have still not finished sorting all my CSP assets. lol. lmao even. (i've even returned to downloading MORE, thus making the problem continuously worse for myself). when i finally do that the palette tests WILL get done.... someday.................... but unfortunately that day is not today. certainly i could already start using it, but unfortunately i'm a very organised person to the point of perhaps neurotic overorganisation so i NEED things very meticulously sorted into folders. relatedly on the topic of brushes i've also been really dissatisfied with any of my SAI ones so that's been A Struggle

SECOND OF ALL. actually this is primarily wanted to make this post about bc i wanted to lay this out and discuss it so that my friends don't have to hear me whining in dms anymore -- i've mentioned over the past several months my style has been kind of experimental, right? well. i'm at the point where i'm deeply unsatisfied with my style as a whole atm </3 and it's not even like my art style is bad by any means! i enjoy a lot of what i've put out over the past several months. but i'm really dissatisfied with my work because there are a lot of elements i want to include that i can't quite get a grasp on!

it's like.... i want something stylised. but i don't want something too stylised. but i don't want something realistic. but i want something with more realistic proportions. but also i do like doing the stylised limbs. but also. i want variety to my work but still enough consistency where you can tell it's mine. i want to figure something out that's able to integrate drawing fat people easily into it. i want to learn how to draw older characters and make sure i settle on a style that grants me the ability to do that too. i want to do art like this and like that and i have soooo many things i want to do with it that i see from other artists it just makes me kind of shut down and struggle LMAO

basically i want a lot of things! and some of them contradict each other </3 art is hard folks

[melodybottles]

i opened a3 to look at the birthday lines and ummmmm

​so i’m bringing this piece back bc of itaru’s. my god

i'll protect true love until the end

[melodybottles]

i did not do any drawing when i was out of state. oopsies ❤️

hiiiiiiiiiiii i'm going on vacation friday can somebody remind me to put sai2 on my laptop before then so i can draw on a computer while out of state. thank you <3

[melodybottles]

happy wip wednesday! today i give you all several things i started, never finished, and don't plan to finish. i feel like it would be a waste for these to rot away in my art folder.

[melodybottles]

the results of today's drawing poll: amber (3 variants)

[melodybottles]

okay you can stop voting now

[melodybottles]

"melodybottles," you may be wondering upon seeing my tags mentioning this is about clip studio paint sorting. "haven't you been saying for literal months you've been sorting your csp assets? why aren't you finally done yet?"

well, you see

there are like 1500 of them

it's kind of really annoying when you put a file in a folder and the dropdown menu decides to open that folder, huh.

[melodybottles]

sparkle off, sparkle on

[melodybottles]

yurika

[melodybottles]

helpful art tip: do not open 86 files at once. your computer will not like it

your art program you're currently in the middle of trying to phase out will also not like it

[melodybottles]

okay hiii i've been chipping away at these for a while: in honour of rune factory 3 special and because i wanted to use these for something, i remastered the first batch of rune factory 3 pixels from the 2009 rf3 website, gave batch 2 a transparent background because it didn't have one, and gave each batch a bunch of edited, more varied expressions based on characters' ingame sprites! just for funsies

(as seen below, the first set was. really small, so i resized & repixeled them entirely to match the other 2 sets! ^-^)

[melodybottles]

happy rune factory 3 special release day to all who celebrate

[melodybottles]

personal dynamic headcanon for lest & frey... not siblings, not strangers, but a secret third thing (coworkers at the royal magic academy in palermo)

this is kind of inspired both by candy's cameo in the rf4 nintendo dream comic + lest and frey being childhood friends and classmates in the double ace comic they made for the 3/4 platinum collection (both things i read only very recently)!

detailed Thoughts as follows:

they're both Earthmates aware of their status as them who studied and worked at the royal magic academy

their topic of study and why they attended there was specifically rune magic & they worked under Candy, a known expert in the ways of rune magic at this point in the timeline

because of their status as earthmates and. gestures. Sechs Worries. they both trained with knights in the capital while there so they knew their ways around various weapons in case of emergencies

ended up developing the rune spheres together along with their mentor as a project that was supposed to be a secret because of its High Importance

had to decide between which one of them would be the one going to Selphia for the sphere delivery. so both of them Exist together at the same time, it's just a 50/50 (player-dependent) on who leaves and gets the amnesia.

whoever leaves, AKA the protagonist of choice, dresses differently for the trip, because the outfits drawn here are kind of a dead giveaway for their being From The Royal Magic Academy. (and that outfit change ends up being their game outfit!) ((Lest keeps the capelet))