scatterhearts

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drawing of this character

[scatterhearts]

Here We Go Again…

Written by: Strix Illustrated by: Scatterheart and CiellaJess

Rating: Mature Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Fandom(s): Dragon Age 2 Major Pairing(s)/Character(s): Female Hawke/Varric Tethras

In a strange twist of fate, Hawke and Varric find themselves stuck in a time loop, reliving the same chaotic day in Kirkwall over, and over, and over again. Between templar paranoia, blood mage escapades, assassination attempts, and their companions' personal dramas, it's like the city itself is conspiring against them.

It's Kirkwall, it's chaos, and it's a love story—on repeat.

More from Strix: @fade-and-loathing-in-thedas | ao3 More from Scatterheart: @scatterhearts | ‪bsky

Full art by Scatterheart:

Full art by CiellaJess:

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Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @scatterhearts

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Interview with Scatterheart

Scatter and Dema talk pokemon, dark fantasy, and advice for artists just starting out.

Dema: You are participating in this bang as an artist, and have just handed in your first progress check, which is a brainstorm or thumbnails or a rough sketch. How did that go? Is this more or less in line with how you usually plan your pieces?

Scatterheart: Yes, it is more or less how I plan "big" pieces, by which I mean the composition matters haha. I usually first look for references of all stuff that would be relevant, then edit pictures for a collage sort of sketch or also just regular sketch. Most of the time outside of "big" pieces I just go straight to drawing a thing and changing it as I go, not very efficient but fun mostly.

Dema: What media do you work in? And is that the medium you started with?

Scatterheart: I'm pretty much digital art only since I started it four years ago, and when I decided I wanted to "really learn" art stuff it was good old pencil and paper!

Dema: What made you decide you wanted to "really learn?" And what did that look like? Did you follow tutorials, specific teachers, books? Something else?

Scatterheart: I was really into anime at the time and wanted to be able to draw the characters I liked like the fanart I saw, or the source material. At first I simply copied stuff, and then also looked at a few youtube tutorials. I did have an art class in school at the time and because other classmates also liked anime and the teacher was cool we worked on that for some time, haha.

Dema: Oh that's lovely! Any anime in particular? We have a lot of DA artists who also love anime, for sure.

Scatterheart: The one I liked most to draw in/mimic the style of was pokemon in the unova seasons and also cutesy styles like K-on or nichijou. My favorite genre was comedy, clearly. I got more ambitious after I also got really into visual novels, which have really pretty art, and it coincided with trying other mediums in my aforementioned art class. But I was not good at painting or watercolor LOL, it was so hard and time consuming I went back to pencil only.

Dema: So your favorite anime genre was/is comedy, but I saw you mentioned in your artist interview that Dragon Age introduced you to dark fantasy.  I'm curious what hooked you?

Scatterheart: I guess dark fantasy has a different kind of seriousness, in comparison to like, non-dark fantasy even when it's also serious, and dragon age has such well presented/executed stories of that sort that it was like "Oh! This is what I'm looking for and now I have a word!". Like vampire stories! I think darker topics but in a fantasy way have so much potential to really get them across.

Dema: Are there other dark fantasy media that you're enjoying lately?

Scatterheart: Does Elden Ring count? If so then that one, the game is so beautiful I end up just running around looking which is great for wanting to draw.

Dema: Oh yes, Elden Ring for sure counts! Do you have other reliable sources for inspiration? What do you do if you're in an art rut?

Scatterheart: For inspiration in the sense of making me want to draw, like, at all, music videos probably. There's been other inspiration stuff for that purpose that has come and gone but that's the most consistent one I can think of. With art rut stuff, if it's in the way of "wah everything I draw looks off" or "wah i can’t think of what to draw," I do studies, outside of those cases I just completely stop doing art stuff and go enjoy doing other stuff – watch more movies/shows, play other games, do more music stuff. Last year I had my first full on art block and I just barely drew anything for a bit over six months, then organically felt again like drawing.

Dema: What do you most enjoy drawing from the DA universe?

Scatterheart: I really like drawing Sera! LOL I haven't drawn that much dragon age stuff yet. Similar to the anime fanart, when I was just starting digital art I wanted to draw Dragon Age characters but I felt like I was not doing them justice, fast forward I now mainly draw in a painting and realism-adjacent way and would like to think I'm better at conveying facial/body features so it's like, now I have the power! That aside, yeah Sera is really fun, next is my beloved Cassandra.

Dema: Any advice for other artists just starting to make fanwork who might be having those same fears?

Scatterheart: Hmm I think that if you draw in a style that isn't quite realism and want to translate the characters to it then studying simplification of features/shapes would be useful. Fortunately game renders make that easier than looking at real people and DA characters are real shapely! Another way, going to realism-ish: painting exercises like simplifying shapes of light/shadow (ie black and white only) work really well for starting and for facial features.

Dema: Those are great tips! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today, Scatter!

Scatterheart: I hope they can be helpful tips, thank you as well for doing the interviews!

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i liked @castrike 's illustration of the mcr wwwyf ig streams so much i wanted to add my pov too, even though its not technically pov angle...

watching mcr live in las vegas, but from mexico on a pc

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wtf me when i realize i didnt post all these

all are from mid february to mid march

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only managed to finish one more drawing for artfight :d

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yay artfight attack for my friend

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drawing of this character

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i thought i posted it but i did another dnd character drawing for my friend and finished it in may :-)

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drawing of this character !!!

version without the filter below

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sorry the art block was Real

i feel better now but i still havent gone back to like, being able to sit down and draw when i tell myself to so nothing is regular

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i like the dress in this one

art request from september!!!

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my dnd group party!!

the gang discussing what to do in their adventures, some more relaxed than others :-)

my character is the one dozing off, a fairy rogue :-) i just didnt feel like drawing wings that time :p

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yay a background!!!!

a "shy sea creature", its a friend's character!

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another art dump

first one, from july, was trying to draw the "opposite" or my regular art style hence the chunky lines and simple colors

second was an art request in september

and third also from july was my only contribution for artfight this year haha not a good drawing month, this character for a friend

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art dump, none are my characters

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yeahhh

different color version below