#(ink and charcoal and other such stuff)

[sincerely-sofie]

Some memes + art from a project I’ve been calling “Nim”:

Context isn’t totally necessary, but the cliff notes are that story is set in an urban fantasy world, Nim and Lune are adopted siblings / father and daughter. They are part of a rarely-seen species who live isolated from the rest of the world and have immense magical power, but left their home in search of a better life shortly before being captured by local mad scientist Sammy. Nim was taken in by Delilah and her shapeshifting dragon son Dante after she was rescued separately from Lune.

[almightygremlinblob]

Sukuna Ryomen HCs - Canon & Fanon!

CONTENT WARNINGS: Unbeta'd. None, for the first part - which may as well be a part character analysis of sorts along with hcs. Under the cut is when stuff gets weird. So minors and those uncomfy with anything remotely sexual don't click the "Keep Reading" and just scroll past! Will put another warning, tho, just in case.

Personally I LOVE Sukuna's true form, but these can be read as any of his forms (except for the tummy mouth stuff, haha).

Word Count: 1694

Sukuna HCs - Canon Sukuna

1.) Aromantic, Asexual and sex repulsed or; Demiromantic, Asexual and sex repulsed. Listen. Has never done anything to Uraume (MY LOVE) - well, that we know of, anyway. Yorozu, beautiful, beautiful Yorozu, hugs him completely nakey; no reaction AT ALL. Kenny sleeps with his brother and it's "Kenjaku does the grosest things." Come on. 2.) Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually think he's super arrogant. He just STRONGLY believes that the weak should eat their suffering at the hands of the strong - and he's at the top of the food chain. All that smirking during the fights, talking down his opponents and just generally toying with them, completely lines up with his worldview. Even when he converses with Yorozu about her conditions for winning, he says that she can do whatever she wants with him because if he loses, that's "akin to death" and she proves herself stronger than him - again with the previous point. His worldview doesn't exclude himself just because he's been given the title of the strongest, unlike a lot of arrogant characters who think they're exempt from the rules they "follow". Sukuna seems to be…like a whole lot of neutral, as long as it lines up with his worldview. When it DOESN'T (ahem-his soul nephew-ahem), then he begin to lose it. 3.) Speaking of, he's obsessed with Jujutsu and honing his craft, having good food and a good fight - it's all he wants. Sukuna doesn't care where he stands at the food chain, he'll accept if there's an opponent stronger than him and die happy, and if it's weaker but puts up a good fight then he'll kill it and still be happy. He's living moment to moment, doing what makes him happy, poking at whatever interests him and living his life according to his values. (Sounds good on paper but ALSO just sounds like he's chasing the next "high" as long as it comes from an opponent that lines up with his beliefs). 4.) Is a wonderful artist and poet and, much like traditional Japanese painting (which is surprisingly close to Chinese painting), he prefers ink for his works and calligraphy, charcoal, too. He would have plenty of it back in the Heian era. 🙃 5.) UNWANTED. As a child he was unwanted, as a sorcerer nobody liked him or working with him (also because he was tricky to work with - essentially using the other sorcerers to get the upper hand in battle), curses tried to stay clear of him, and even when he was worshipped nobody wanted to do it - they only did it to get on his good graces or get something from him. Sukuna may have been a king, but he was an unwanted one, all the same - an unwanted king who sat in his empty temple. 6.) Views Jin as simply part of himself, because by Jujutsu standards that's the case - twins are considered one - and the Jujutsu world is heavily tied to his worldview. However, Jin himself is a completely different person; personality, physique and all. 7.) Hates modern food. Just…hates it. From the meat, to the veggies, to the spices, to the PEOPLE. It tastes SOOO BAD to him. Everything's become more abundant but at WHAT COST??? Quality of the food is out the window completely. Only Uraume can make something decent out of everything (leave it to our favorite chef). Because most animal meat was prohibited from consumption in the Heian era due to the influence of Buddhism (as far as I know), he had a lot of those to choose from back then. One of the dishes he did eat frequently, though, was Hishio with rice and some kind of meat (any he had access to at the time). 8.) Loves fighting because that's when his worldview IS a reality. It's only win or lose, the strong or the weak…AND THEN THERE'S YUUJI- 9.) Given the themes surrounding his character, and Yuuji's, actually, the quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson comes to mind; "Tis better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all." 10.) Generally doesn't like to be stared or looked at unless it's in a fight - he's had plenty of staring and hushed whispers back in the Heian era.

Sukuna HCs - Fanon Sukuna x Reader

These are not specified to be romantic or platonic, and can be read however you'd like. Reader's gender or sex is not specified.

1.) Expect stern, gentle and very QUIET comfort from this guy. Sukuna isn't one to coddle, and he might even be annoyed if you're crying. If he isn't wordlessly wiping your tears away, he'll be softly chastising you for crying over "someone so insignificant" or "a situation you can easily handle". He's not trying to belittle your problems, not at all - he recognizes your strong points, where they are, and he just truly KNOWS you can handle whatever it is you're facing. It's less "Stop being so dramatic, it's annoying." and more "What are you upset about? You can handle this easy…" 2.) Doesn't like grandeur displays of affection, it reminds him of all the (frankly fake) worship he recieved in the Heian era. He appreciates small and meaningful gestures SO MUCH more. Likewise, he also gives small and meaningful gestures to his favorite person; a poem, a painting, good food, letting your touch linger, letting you stare at him. Don't talk down on him or about him, though, and keep the teasing to a minimum; he does demand some level of respect. 💜 3.) As stated before, he's obsessed with Jujutsu and honing his craft, having good food and a good fight - it's all he wants. But then you come along and make days without that…somehow bearable? And then somehow he begins to seek out your company. And then somehow, he feels anxious and as if something's missing without it. 4.) The tummy mouth WILL purr, but it's more of a low and content growling than a cat or cheetah's purr. 5.) Sukuna doesn't like to be looked at, although your gaze doesn't bother him as much. However, he does NOT like it when your attention is on someone else when you're with him - even if you can't look - he needs to know your mind is ON HIM, still.

Alright you know the drill. Minors and anyone uncomfy with anything remotely sexual DNI further, and just scroll past this. Don't click the "Keep Reading" if you don't wanna see all the romantic or sex-y stuff, and just go on with your day furendo!

Fanon Sukuna - Romantic & Explicit

⚠️Further Content Warnings:⚠️ Soft Sukuna, Sukuna fluff, Virgin!Sukuna, Whiny Sukuna, as usual Sukuna writings = food metaphors.

1.) Falls first, face first, and falls HARD. Was in complete denial because "love is trash" but this feeling is…actually NICE??? Actually makes his days better??? For once he's not bored out of his mind (and nearly to insanity) when he's not fighting or eating??? 2.) Virgin. Guy is inexperienced with all genders and sexes. Listen, as much as I love King!Sukuna and his favorite concubine trope, I'll have to do the 180 here. The guy probably never touched anyone in his life - cuz he also didn't want to. Why would he, when all the women and men offered to him were sacrifices from families with ulterior motives, and who were, themselves, harboring alterior motives, too? Nobody actually wants to be with him - he was an unwanted king, with followers who only bowed to get on his good graces and GET SOMETHING from him. Why would he want what they were offering? 3.) This guy has never been this close and intimate with anyone in a way that's not TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER, and it takes him quite a bit of time to get used to this. It's all so overwhelming the first few times; the emotions, and the pleasure of it, and the fact that he's being so vulnerable with YOU. However, once he starts to get more comfortable, then he gets more eager and if we've seen anything about him - it's that he's a fast learner. Starts to pick up on what feels good for the both of you. Starts to look forward to it, too. 4.) He'll tease you - of course, but all the same he'll growl and whimper and plead for you, too. Yes, the tummy mouth will also growl and whine. The sweet noises he makes are reserved for you and only you. 5.) He WILL lick and taste your skin, let his teeth dig softly into your flesh but never biting too deep to break it - it's his favorite thing to do. Remember how he can manifest multiple mouths? Yeah, he's absolutely doing that to taste you more. 6.) His kisses, once hesitant and dare you say - shy, become passionate. Way too passionate. It's overwhelming. His tongue tastes every part of your mouth he can, gently biting and suckling and licking your lips (your neck, your shoulders, your wrists, your SKIN in general...) as if to drain the blood from them, hands roaming your body and kneading the soft flesh. Every part of you like a feast he can almost eat. 7.) Slow and intense lovemaking; almost violent in a way that feels like he's trying to literally devour you. 8.) Does NOT like your attention elsewhere and WILL NOT share you during lovemaking. Think about him, not someone or something else. Be with him, not elsewhere. Look at him, and only him.

.

GOD is it difficult to be a Sukuna fan sometimes - especially if you like other characters, too. Especially Gojo and Yuji...coughs awkwardly. Well that'd be just terrible now wouldn't it?

[thefaiao]

seeing your clowns made me go feral since my fixation is cringe and clown flavored

Who let you cook like that who let you cook AUTHHFFH UR ART IS SO COOL IM BEING DRAGGED AWAY

You’re hatching is so fucking inspiring since it’s soMETHING I try to do in my own work I LOVE UR ART

would it be fine to ask what brushes you use? I love ur values also, you’re so so good at shapes and form WAAAA I LOVE UR STUFF. I did dig up an old ask you made iirc, but I’m not sure if it’s changed

Hey! Thank you very much. I'll go through the brushes I use for each program: Drawpile

From what I understand most of these are MyPaint brushes... but I only know them as drawpile brushes because that's what I use. Main ones I've used lately is Irregular Ink and a default brush for coloring

I don't really change the size of irregular ink much and the pressure doesn't matter that much. It has high stabilization which I haven't changed, but I'm sure you could get away with lowering it. For the other brush I'm pretty sure it's a default one that I slightly tweaked (drawpile is a bit bad about communicating what brush exactly you are using to you.) I quite like it because it feels like playing with clay, makes it easy to map out the volume. I use it for those lineless pieces I do from time to time too. I change its size a lot while drawing. I've also used these two, one of the pencil brushes and a second one I stole from Jokioro that I have no idea what is called

I used the first one for the D'arce I did a while ago and the recent VTMB piece. It's great at emulating sketchy graphite pencils, I like layering it to do multi-colored hatching rendering. The second one I don't know how to use super well yet but it's probably my fourth most used as of late. It works very weirdly so if you wanna figure out how to make it work I recommend looking at how Jokioro draws. Clip Studio I bounce around a lot with all the brushes, but I use a loooot of stuff from the Frenden pack. Mainly Meeko Leako for lining and even coloring, it has a great texture to it, very fun

This has been my most used brush for years. It's great for super straight lines and produces a great difference in value between quick lines and thick lines. I haven't used it as much since I picked up drawpile more recently, but it's amazing! Other than that I use the default G-pen when I just want simple lines without much texture

It's a bit ugly at a glance but I think if you lock in it's great for super clean lines, just trying to get the point across without much noise. I also like coloring with it at times, when I'm going lineless. SAI Binary pen. Use the binary pen. It's the best brush ever made

It just feels super right to draw with it, it's so simple but it makes your lines look super slick, and it's just a binary pen. I guess they just got the behavior down perfect for it. But yeah, love this brush. IRL I've always used these archival ink pens in different sizes for basically everything I've done traditionally, and of course just a simple number 2 pencil for sketching and such. I've used a bit of charcoal recently, and been wanting to deep into darker pencils for detail, but this is still the default. I also will probably try out dip pens sometime

That's all I can think of immediately, but I always like to mess around to try and find another great brush, and you should do the same even if you end up using these a lot.

[bonezlyy]

I DIED 🫶🏼

I said I would be insansley active on this account but I wasn’t and forgot about it immediately

Im trying I promise you I just didn’t know what to post

WE’RE GONNA TALK ABOUT THE FRIEND GROUPS

WELL THEYRE ALL ONE BIG FRIEND GROUP AND LOVE EACHOTHER EQUALLY BUT THEY HAVE SPECIFIC THINGIES

OKAY SO

THIS IS GONNA BE A WEIRD BIG INFODUMP INSTEAD OF A NORMAL LIST

Starting with Error, Geno, Sci and Night. These fucking nerds 💕 Smart guys that talk about smart guy stuff (Idk what kind of smart things because Im not smart myself but still). They’re all calm and collected people that like to sit together and read books because they’re cute and silly guys. Geno and Night talk about Space stuff while Error and Sci talk about science and tech stuff.

NUMBER 2 IS THE STARS💕

I am so obsessed with Drinkberry you can not stop me. They’re all really silly and positive people and they all kiss like muah muah muah. And btw drinkberry, afterdeath and Scifell are the only canon ships you get. Idk what the other ones are I might just make them all kiss tbh. Well actually you might get Cherrberry too who knows. BUT ANYWAY BACK TO THE STARS. They just sit in on of their dorm’s and watch movies and kiss and cuddle I love them sm

NUMBER 3

I CANT TELL YOU HOW ODDLY OBSESSED I AM WITH REAPER, FELL AND PLUM BEING FRIENDS (cutely changes Lust from Hearts to Plum) THEY MET IN YEAR 7 WHEN NONE OF THEM WERE DOING SWIMMING AND IT BASICALLY WENT LIKE THIS

Teacher: Okay then so what’s your excuse today

All 3 of them at the same time by the power of gay friendship: I have tits

AND THEY JUST LOOKED AT EACHOTHER LIKE ???

And then they talked about being trans for the whole lesson, and then found out they were all bi and decided to be friends until one of them inevitably dies from alcohol poisoning 🫶🏼

I love them sm, they kiss in the best friend way that i long for

I need to get a grip girl they’re just skeletons pls

Obviously Cross, Dust, Horror, and Killer

These little heathens omg

They just create havoc wherever they go, accidental or not

This one is self explanatory tbh

AND THEN THE ART KIDS

Ink, Error, Plum, Reaper, Geno

Error and Plum are in textiles

Ink, Reaper and Geno do like regular art, idk what the word is for it but painting, drawing, charcoals and all that

Ink, Reaper and geno design and draw cool designs for Plum and Error to make as practice

ANYWAY THOSE ARE ALL I CAN THINK OF RN

I should probably start actually writing this soon

Ill post a link to the chapter when I do 💀

Help me I cant tell if my brother has a friend round or if he just randomly has a really good sound system and it sounds like theres someone in his room

Either way I cant leave my room because my social anxiety his horrendous and I will kms if I am seen 🙏🏼

[levenxa]

Blue (Hail)

Gender: Cis-Man

Pronouns: He/They

Sexuality: Demiromantic Pansexual

Height: 5’9

Age: 26

Likes: Swearing is his love language—makes him feel cool. Good at combat (yes he will beat the shit out of you for reasonable purposes). He’s a professional ice skater, he makes a lot of money; which explains why he owns a mansion :) He’s great at understanding people emotionally, and following their respectable boundaries. One of his guilty pleasures is charcoal painting.

Dislikes: Super lovey dovey things, when people come to his mansion for no reason, dressing up in stupid outfits. Shitty people I guess. He is terrible at mind games, manipulative behavior, and telling left from right.

Phobias: Acrophobia (Fear of Heights)

Weapons/Powers: Ice Scythe, Blue Beams, Glitch Abilities

Backstory: Was abused by his brother still, both emotionally and physically. But he still loves him, he knows he shouldn’t but he does anyways. He was forced to keep up this shitty persona by Stretch which in turn gave him several unstable relationships, being unable to be himself whilst also being horrific at lying. One day they came across a poor woman who wished for even the slightest amount of change. Stretch made fun of them and encouraged Blue to do so as well so he did. But after Stretch left, Blue secretly gave some money to the woman, who thanked him endlessly with a warm smile. Blue for once felt loved and appreciated—even when his whole life he was told to hate love, why did he want more so badly? A few years after the whole world begins to fall apart due to several rips in the timeline, (both Cross’s Timeline & the DT Timeline) Stretch trips and is hanging off a cliff, Blue tries to save him but fails. He’s very upset but keeps on running because he wants to survive; this new found motivation made him discover his ability to teleport. He ended up teleporting to a random city. He found a magazine and found out about ice skating, he then went into many competitions and was really good at it. He earned enough money for a huge mansion and is now rich as hell. He often donates to a bunch of charity centers, he adores the thanks and appreciation he usually gets back whenever he does stuff like that. He also loves helping others despite his brother telling him that it was wrong and that Blue didn’t deserve it. Part of him agrees with that, he still has some buried trauma that is unsolved and instead hidden by a pessimistic and easily angered persona. He is that one aggressively nice person, who will be calm and comforting if needed.

Relationships: He meets Error first, and then Cross. Cross and Error are pretty much companions who just decided to stick with him, and he doesn’t care enough to shoo them away. He prefers his own group the ‘Amicable Brigade’, (Blue, Cross, & Error) over the ‘Unrighteous Surrenders’, (Dream, Nightmare, & Ink). He has probably cussed everyone out at least once.

[enbycrip]

Please, please consider putting the time you are spending playing about using AI image generators into learning how to make art yourself.

If you want to work digitally, there are free programmes; if you don’t want to spend money on Procreate, start on Medibang and try their anime tutorials. Buy a cheap stylus to get started.

Or try watercolour. There’s *so* many tutorials out there for free to give you tips and basic paints and brushes available very cheaply. Or pastels; again, very cheap to get started with and so many tutorials out there. Pencil or charcoal sketching. Pen and ink. Clay sculpting. Pyrography. Embroidery.

You can learn *so* much with such remarkably little work. I am disabled. I have a fatigue disorder and my hands do not work incredibly well, and even though it is *beyond* exhausting to do, my dexterity has improved so much with the work I have managed to do, even when it is basically simply messing about trying things. You start learning a whole new way of seeing the world around you when you start learning how to depict it.

Start by tracing, if you like; it absolutely teaches you about perspective and shapes. Do a paint-by-numbers; you are learning about brushwork and colouration and how to handle and use pigments. Copy a photo you really like. Make a little pot out of cheap clay and keep stuff in it. Mess around making leaf prints with watercolour and see the cool effects when you sprinkle salt on it. Mend a hole in your jumper with contrasting thread and see how it has suddenly become a whole new garment. Create a little dude and feel his soul enter the universe through your fingertips when you poke eyeholes in him and suddenly he has an expression.

With the time you spent using a prompt machine to mash stolen pieces of other people’s work into an image, you could have been learning to create your own. Please don’t waste that time again.

What you create and communicate will have thousands of times the value, even if you think it is “terrible” because it will be genuine, unique creation and communication of *your* unique perspective on the world.

And if you keep doing it, it will not continue being terrible. It will start being good, because people get good at things by doing them.

Art isn’t a gift. It’s a skill; or rather, thousands of skills. Learning any of them gives you transferable skills that will make other ones easier to gain too.

[bearchuckles]

WIP Sneakpeak

So I've had this idea for a while and just haven't had the time to finish. I have SO many personal projects in the wings that keep getting shoved deeper into my internal queue due to other things (like my comic and already posted in-progress fics) that this hasn't had time to shine. Then the other day during my environment sketching practice (as I try to practice every day and barring that at least twice a week) I kind of fell in love with the image that crossed my dash (x) and of course landed in my environment practice folder (its so pretty) and knew (finally) how I wanted to do this picture. Course... as usual I'm struggling with wanting to just lean heavy into hyper-realistic details. *siiiiiiiigh*

Click the Read More if you want rambles on the process and stuff!

The image, of course, is for a fic I've been working on (in semi secret? I don't think I've mentioned it to anyone besides my spouse before anyhow) so uuuuuh one of the characters might look... familiar? (I mean... maybe? I'm so curious if anyone can tell who it is at this stage.) And the other character is an OC. I was playing with some original ideas for my own books and she kind of fell into this (but who cares I'm just here to be self indulgent anyhow) And uuuuuh yes they're both gals. I know I don't write very many F/F things but I DO have a few.

Uhm.... so the art style (and brush I'm using) is not my usual but I'm kinda vibing with it so I'm gonna keep going. The brush (Krita's Pencil-4 Soft brush) reminds me of working with charcoal or pastels and I'm just really enjoying the texture and feel of it and I sort of familiarize myself with it. (I usually keep to a more 'comic' like style so my preferred brushes are the Ink-3 Gpen and Ink 7 Brush Rough when doing lines. ...and if anyone is curious I like Ink-4 Pen Rough with the stroke pressure turned off for doing lettering.) Anyhow if folks are interested in the process I can try to post regular updates and I have done a few streams while working on the line art. (folks don't seem interested in those though-- and I can't blame them. Watching me angrily redraw the same line twenty times cannot be entertaining.) But I may stream more (particularly once I enter the coloring phase since that's not as tedious to watch --usually-- as linework)

[somethingclevermahogony]

🥀 How would your OC decorate a notebook or journal? What kind of things are written in there? Could you give an example of a nice entry?

Thank you for the ask!

There is a "journal" of sorts in the series actually! The Testaments from the title of the WIP is a literal thing. They were originally a set of several papers and journals written by Penetinos, mostly concerned with his journeys with Narul and Ninma, his studies, and his musings about life. These were later combined into a single book, along with pieces from Otilia, Sihunu, Jani, and Fasti, and included everything from poetry, to stories, to recipes, to advice on how to weave. This new book, was then given to Ninma as a gift, and she too would go on to add her own contributions. This book tells the story of Ninma, and her journey with Narul, it is the first Testament, "The Ninma Cycle".

In appearance its fairly unexciting, save for its size. The cover is old and worn leather, the pages are a mixture of papyrus and of parchment, some pages are written with ink others with charcoal. There are illustrations, as with the handwriting, the actual quality of these illustrations vary wildly.

Shela without being prompted scurried back into the granary. She returned with something, bundled in cloth. She handed it over to Ninma, it felt thick and heavy, like a block of wood. She unwrapped the bundle to reveal a familiar leather tome, though it was considerably larger than the last time she had seen it. “These are Penetinos’s writings!” Otilia smiled. “Its more than that, open it.”  Ninma did as she was told, the first third of the book was entirely composed of Penetinos’ handwriting, but then it promptly changed. “What is all this?” Ninma whispered. Otilia smiled. “Fasti has some stuff in here, I wrote a few things, I even convinced Kameros to give me a few things. There are poems, journals, stories, advice on weaving and cooking, Shela included a guide on being a plantbrew, the important plants and such. Just about everything we could think of”

[leona-florianova]

what other mediums of art do you enjoy?

Besides digital?

For me personally when making art and feeling experimental its all of them. When I get the chance and energy that is.

I enjoy ALOT working with ink and watercolors.

I loved doing linocut, but I no longer have access to the right type of press to make more relatively fast.

I very much enjoyed working with charcoals and chalks because of the look the art has..but also the dust is very haptically uncomfortable to me.

Lithography is also one of my favorites and im sad I havent done more stuff with that. Because the whole process and concept of printing from rocks is delightgfully wild.

[ultimateinferno]

Something I learned recently as an artist that took me 10 years to settle in is how to balance the different parts of art. I don't mean like composition, value, form, etc. I mean different exercises that are in complete opposition with one another are equally important. Honest to God just learned this right now.

Like, there's taking things slow, really chewing on artistic principles. Doing studies, breaking down reference images and going through the meticulous push and pull of refining your drawing. That's what I personally have basically been doing for a while now.

However, there's also a virtue of throwing all of that to the wind and seeing just how fast you can get stuff done. One of my art professors for a life drawing class told a story about a pottery class. He said that in that class that professor would tell the students at the beginning of the semester they could choose to be graded between two options. The first was quality. They had to make a single pot for the entire semester, and would be graded on how well made that one pot was. The second was quantity. When the semester was over, the professor would take out a scale, put all the pots on it, and if it reached a certain weight they'd pass.

Our professor told us that the students who picked the quantity option ended up producing better pots by the end of the semester than the quality students. Because the cycle of making and completing pieces was invaluable. They were able to bounce back from their mistakes much more quickly because all they cared about was getting stuff done.

This life drawing class ended up being my boon and bane. At this point, I was a "quality" student. I'd take my time with pieces pushing and pulling at the lines to get things just right. When I signed up for the class, my most common subject was people, so I thought it would be easy. However, the thing about life drawings is that there's an actual model before you, and they're not always very good at staying still, especially depending on the pose. So when the 20 or so minutes were up, I would have like a single arm done and nothing else. I had to push myself to achieve something in those 20 minutes. I was the slowest artist in the class. I knew much more theory and fundamentals, but none of that mattered cause I had nothing to show for it. Then poses started getting shorter. 15. 10. 8. 5. 2 minute poses. There was no time to analyze I simply had to draw.

Over the course of that semester I got better of reaching those time limits. By the time it was over, I put down my charcoal and returned to my drawing tablet. Art took me so long that I can only focus so much on an outlet at a time. I could either take classes or draw in my free time. Never both. When I started drawing over the summer, I noticed something: I was faster. My poses were better. I was able to sketch, ink, color and shade a piece in three days. That never happens, it would take me a month to get things just right beforehand. Yet now, even with art pieces where I was allowed to be slow, my speed improved greatly.

And this is because I was put in a class that looked at me and said "I don't want quality. I just need finished pieces. You need to turn in a piece every day." Yet this isn't the "lesson" I'm talking about. I think it's actually very much both. Quality and quantity.

You need to spend long hours breaking down anatomy or values or other fundamentals, to really digest them. You also need to put your feet to the fire and just get shit done. They're both very important skills to learn. Focusing on quality builds up your repertoire and artistic encyclopedia so you can produce artwork from a place of understanding. Focusing on quantity, meanwhile, is all about going through the motions. Learning when to accept "good enough" and apply the knowledge gained from your long-form studies and turn them into instincts. This lets you go back to the studies and build upon your knowledge using the shortcuts gained, continue building up more details to your skills.

Without ever focusing on quality, you will be repeating the same artistic mistakes over and over again with minimal improvement, never actually learning anything.

Without focusing on quantity you'll be so caught up in the details and the studies that you'll be stuck at step 1 indefinitely, breaking down each new part and be cursed to never finish a piece.

Focusing on one is already hard enough, so two would be difficult. However, as a part of the greater process, you don't need to focus on both at once. So long as you keep cycling through taking your time to get things right, and forcing yourself to get things done on dietary occasions, each practice will feed into themselves and each other far more than anything in isolation.

[antimonyandthyme]

1k, Pierre/Esteban

Explicit Content

They use the coin from that PR video, the one where they played childish games and somehow didn’t turn it into a competition, the one where they slipped into French, so easy and intuitive around one another, almost enough for Esteban to believe that they could make the season work. Pierre won the last time they did the coin toss, so he gets to flip it again this time.

When it lands on heads, every muscle in Pierre’s thick neck pulls taut. Esteban almost winces in sympathy, but the realization that he’s called it is like a needle into a vein. The high turns him into something unrecognizable, charcoal black ink in water.  

They fly out tomorrow, and it’s an afternoon flight, no less. Esteban’s got all the time in the world to make this hurt.

“My room tonight,” he says. He hopes it doesn’t come out as smug as it sounds in his head. The last thing he wants to do is act like Pierre whenever he wins. “I’ll text you the time.”

 --

 The system’s been in play since 2018. After that crash on home ground, they’d decided frostiness wasn’t enough. Payback was necessary. But since neither of them were very good at admitting fault, the coin toss was put in place. Even in that stupid video, rolling a coin into the tines of a metal fork, Esteban’s mouth had been dry, like a Pavlov response. It’s dangerous associating so many things with Pierre. The most mundane of things. A coin. A shared language. Race cars and debris on a track. Esteban’s never been very good at stopping himself.

The last time Pierre had won he’d edged Esteban nearly to the point of tears. Two whole weeks of denial. Esteban had thought he had self-control; he hadn’t known better. Pierre sent over shirtless workout boomerangs, half-dark videos of himself jacking off. At 3am, he’d called Esteban, moaned shamelessly into the phone as he fucked himself with his fingers. By the end of it all, Esteban had been ready to beg.

And he had, and still Pierre’s fingers had been deliberately loose around Esteban’s cock when it was decided he’d finally get to come. Pierre’s voice dispassionate, almost bored. “If you want it, work for it,” he said, and Esteban had been angry, seething almost, because that’s all he’d ever done, fucking work for it, and the entire universe always seemed to get in the way anyway. But then Pierre had whispered, “Come on, Este, you can do it,” like they were somehow on the same page, the same team, and Esteban came so violently he clunked his forehead into Pierre’s ridiculously shapely collarbone.

Flip it the other way: If Esteban were the one to do that to Pierre, Pierre’s disproportionate sense of retribution would mean that this time around, he’d make Esteban weep. Esteban pauses with his fingers poised above his phone. Does he want to make Pierre cry?

Pierre knows his room number. Esteban makes sure anyway.

9152, he texts. Right now.

 --

 Stuff them into an elevator that breaks down for twelve hours and they’d both still find some way to talk themselves in circles around the problem. The whole point of this game is to strip down any layer of pretense. No apologies, no posturing needed. They can crawl inside each other’s heads and taste the unfiltered cud there, and maybe, with an ounce of luck, find some understanding.

They don’t need to waste any time. Esteban opens the door, and turns back to seat himself on the bed without bothering to hold it open. Pierre catches the edge of the door with his forearm, where a bruise would most likely form. He doesn’t complain. Esteban’s thighs are already spread open, and Pierre takes what seems like two steps and drops right to his knees. There’s a very Pierre-like flourish in the thud resounding on the carpet.

Esteban smiles.

 --

 They talk about Pierre sometimes like he’s this hot-headed, young gun, when he’s the one who had the patience to wring Esteban out for two weeks (or twenty years). Esteban reaches into the dredges of himself tonight and finds he has none of that, no will clad in iron, no softness for something already so broken. He wants something quick, and brutal, and maybe a little unforgiving.

Esteban pushes readily into Pierre’s warm, pliant mouth. Pierre gags around him, hands balled into tight fists by his sides. He isn’t allowed to touch himself, obviously. It makes Esteban swell further, how diligently Pierre’s trying.

Esteban pets his hair as a reward. Pierre pushes desperately into his touch, a wet breath rattling out of his lungs. Sucking cock always gets Pierre hard. Esteban’s foot is close enough to brush against Pierre’s dick. The negative space between them is set somewhere between an atomic bond and infinity. Esteban nudges his toes up, and Pierre jolts and moans as if in pain.

“Is it enough?” Esteban asks. He keeps his voice soft, even though all he wants to do is bleat Pierre’s name. “Do you need more?”

The noise Pierre makes shoots straight to his cock. Angry, frustrated, pleading. Saliva’s slipped down Pierre’s chin. Esteban thumbs it away gently.

The thrust he gives Pierre is anything but gentle. “But do you deserve it? Do you think you deserve to have your cock touched?”

They’re not questions meant to be answered; Pierre knows better than to pull off Esteban’s dick. But his hips jerk helplessly forward, played by marionette strings. His eyes are dark and wet. He sucks Esteban all the harder. It’s very convincing. If Esteban closes his eyes, he can imagine Pierre’s lips forming around the word Please.

Try-hard, the mean part of Esteban sings. The soft, fleshy part he was never able to get rid off, goes Alright, alright, you can have it.

“Come on,” he says. He strokes his foot against Pierre’s dick, intent with it now. Pierre whines. “Come on, Pierrot, you can do it.”

Like they’re on the same team.

Pierre comes.

 --

 Later is when the remorse always sets in. It’d do him wonders if he wasn’t trying to sleep with the object of his afflictions a neat foot of space next to him, but Esteban’s too tired, and he isn’t cruel enough to kick Pierre out at god knows when in the morning.

The words slip out. “Did I go too far?”

“You don’t do things like this and feel guilty about it after.” Pierre’s voice is hoarse. The way it sounds is something Esteban wants to hoard. “I didn’t, the last time.”

Esteban weighs the absolution in his head. If he gets away without dreaming about a freckled face and tan shoulders tonight, he’d be lucky. Lord knows he never is.  

He’s drifting off when he hears, “Am I forgiven?”

The answer is as easy as a heads on a coin toss.

[seariii]

Brown, Red, Mauve!

HIIIII MG!!!! HUUUUG!!!!! <33333333

Brown: Favorite book? (Or 3)

*sweats in barely reads anything* uh.... i liked the pokemon black and white manga.... and i read that other book that i dont remember its name... and.... uh.....

Red: Love or hate fire?

I LOVE FIRE!!!! i used to play with fire a lot back in the day, but i've moved on to more safe stuff. but whenever i burn something i remember why i loved it so much.... i once set an (already broken) piñata on fire :D it was gorgeous!!! i love the smell, how PRETTY IT LOOKS, i just sit by it and watch whatever is burning slowly be consumed by the fire, how it starts changing color, the little worm like reds that move and turn everything to ash.... and after its gone, the little pieces of ash, or charcoal-like.... i actually used to carry a box of matches with me... and i have an old sweatshirt with drawings of matches.... yeah....

Mauve: Most random fact you know?

hmm... maybe that color isnt real? color doesnt exist, its just the waves of the light being reflected on surfaces, and the surfaces reflect different waves of light.

and on the same talk about color, people seem to only think the primary colors are red green and blue and get angry when they mix them and they cant get white, well, thats because there are TWO types of primary colors!!

light primary colors: RGB (red, green, blue), in which you can mix and match with lights, like on a tv or a screen, an when you mix the 3 you get white. this is why pixels have this 3 colors! in old computers it was easier to see, i think the pixels were bigger? and if you were to get really close to the screen you could actually see each individual one and its 3 colored lights!! but i dont think thats viable anymore.....

pigmentary (from pigment) primary colors: CMY(k) (cyan, magenta, yellow + black) this are the ones that would be the primary colors which you can use to paint, and you can get any color from them! theoretically. if you've noticed, these are the colors from the printer!! and even tho when put together they theoretically get black, its really difficult to replicate so thats why it just has the black ink on its own (if i remember correctly)

and..... yeah!! oh! i also went to a cpr course!! i dont think as random, but certainly useful.... hope i never have to use that info tho

[pruning-the-minds-garden]

Activated Charcoal

My brain isn't letting me focus long enough to do a longer explanation on it, but since I have seen a few posts about activated charcoal I will make a few notes here:

Most preparations of food with activated charcoal in it are probably safe for you, especially if it is not something you make yourself but something you buy premade

If your medications are already in your bloodstream or working their way through your colon (i.e. you inject your HRT, or you took those pills several hours ago) then the activated charcoal you swallow and that winds up in your stomach isn't going to do anything to them. It can only adsorb what it is physically in contact with. It will not, it cannot, pull things out of your bloodstream.

There is also rarely a reason to ever use it (edit: as an additive in food. For other uses it is absolutely stellar at its job.). The only reason it is safe in the above circumstances is that it has already adsorbed stuff from your food that you would have otherwise tasted and/or enjoyed. That is, adding it to food will EITHER make it blander/taste nasty or make it dangerous to consume, or both.

Don't use activated charcoal. There are better black food dyes if you really want that effect. Hell, even Carbon Black is a better one and it is almost the same thing just processed in a different way. Or, there's squid ink. Although it probably won't kill you or even hurt you, there are cases where it might and in other cases it will just make your food less good.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph! Totally unrelated so no need to reply. I was testing natural black food color. Of course squid ink is always good. Activated charcoal has a burnt taste that may actually great in hamburger buns.

Then I heard black cacao powder, which is basically ultra Dutch processed, and gave it a try. It wasn't black enough. It's extremely dark brown. But, the flavor!!! I never even tried the regular Dutch processed cacao powder before and didn't know what I've missed. It's soooo chocolate-y with no acidity! No sugar needed to combat the acidity in regular cacao powder (I feel that sometimes sugar dilutes the chocolate taste). I've had this black cacao whipped cream for breakfast (with coffee) 2 days in a row. I know, I know, it sounds gross, but so good, hahahahah!

HUGS!

Hey Lovely!

Ah, I know nothing about "black food colour" other than adding charcoal to something sounded so... weird and gross?? Like I dunno, I like baking and stuff, but I feel like Charcoal shouldn't be ingested, I dunno, LOL.

But Cacao powder I have used! Sounds really fun and interesting way to create the illusion of black-coloured food for sure!!

I love learning new things to add to my repertoire of baking knowledge!! :D Thank you for sharing!

[angelsdean]

viiiic, what brushes do u use? 👀

hiii vin!

so i pretty much just use brushes that come with procreate. i have yet to really go looking for custom brushes. i only have two custom brush packs, one for freckles and a plaid checkered texture pack.

anyway, here are my most recently used brushes:

6B Pencil (located in Sketching) and Spectra (in Painting) are my go-to's for sure. I usually use the pencil for my lines and then Spectra for coloring. Sometimes I use Syrup (located in Inking), or another just basic fill brush to lay down flat colors. And then use Spectra for all the shading. Other times I just color with Spectra by itself.

the other 3 brushes shown above are all located in Textures and I've been using them recently for....textures! lol. mostly to clothing.

i also often use Grunge (Textures) and Heavy Metal (Industrial) when i'm doing textures on stuff like Dean's jacket or other things that are very worn.

i like these two (Plimsoll and Quoll, both located in Artistic) also for textures on stuff like jeans sometimes.

also all the charcoals in general for some textures from time to time. but these two, Vine and Willow, i use for when i'm doing more realistic pieces like this jensen portrait and this dean art because they blend really well.

lastly, freckles !!! so very important. i love my freckly boyyyy dean. i linked the freckles pack up above, and it comes with a ton of brushes, but my go to is Freckles 2.

it gives a perfect mix of freckles and i just love it so much. sometimes i also use Spaced Freckles and Mix Freckles.

The freckles come out quite randomly though, especially with Freckles 2, like not always where you put your pen. So what I usually do is make a few different layers for my freckles and clipping masks to contain them to the skin layer. they i just lay down a bunch of freckles, different shades. and then go through and lightly erase some for a more faded look. or erase others completely if there are too many in one place.

before i had this pack tho i used to use the Speckles (Spraypaint) brush.

anyway this got super long lol, but yeah these are my go-to brushes, though i love to play around with random brushes and stumble upon something new that makes a cool effect.

[stargazeraldroth]

I like to imagine that the Stars specialize in cooking the cuisines of the cultures or ethnicities they’re associated with, either via general aesthetics or because of their creator’s ethnicity or native culture- If, uh, that makes sense, haha. Hope you don’t mind me ramblinggg- Also Ink gets more because he’s got two cultures I associate him with whoops-

Like! I think Ink would be good with French and Japanese cuisine, since Comyet has stated he’s french and his aesthetic is largely based on Japan, I believe? Or maybe just eastern Asian culture, but I’ve largely seen most people specifics Japan. From French cuisine, I really enjoy the idea of him making, like, macarons and crêpes (both French and Japanese styles!), as well as more savory stuff, like aligot and gougère (both involve cheese because for some reason Ink strikes me as the type to enjoy cheese???). He also strikes me as the sort to like drinks with fun names, like rinquinquin (a peach flavored alcoholic beverage!). From Japanese cuisine, I could see him loving mizu manjū (very pretty clear buns with a bunch of different fillings, they’re gorgeous and very artsy looking!) and shirokuma (shaved ice mixed with condensed milk and decorated to look like a bear!), and I could see him really enjoying age-onigiri (rice ball that’s been fried!) and takoyaki. Drink wise, since Comyet says he likes burnt food, I could see him enjoying akumochizake (sweet rice wine made with charcoal or ash), or maybe matatabicha (tea made from silver vine, because Ink has big cat vibes haha).

Dream would be good with Spanish cuisine (though I imagine he specializes in sweet no matter where they come from, but that! Isn’t! What I’m focusing on!). If we’re talking Spanish sweets, I see him being good at most of them, but I think he’d like smaller stuff or handheld foods the most, like pionono (small cylindrical pastry soaked with syrups and topped with toasted cream) or churros (which are actually commonly a breakfast item in Spain, he’d love it!), and for savory food, I could see him enjoying stuff easy to eat on the go, like pinchos morunos (skewers of diced pork or chicken marinated with olive oil and other spices) or pa amb tomàquet (toasted bread rubbed with tomato and seasoned with olive oil and sea salt!). For drinks, I could see him liking agua de cebada (malted barley mixed with sugar and lemon!) or calimocho (red wine mixed with cola).

Blue is difficult for me because I can’t find anything solid about associated cultures or where his creator might be from, so I usually imagine he specializes in Mexican foods (with a bit of American), mainly because he’s so associated with tacos and also I like doing research on different cuisines. Obviously there’s his aforementioned tacos, but I could also see him being very good with stuff like enchiladas or machacado con huevo (eggs scrambled with shredded dry beef!), and for sweets, I could see him making stuff like hot milk cake (butter sponge cake made with scalded milk) and marquesitas (a crêpe that’s been rolled like a taco and filled with a variety of sweet things). For drinks, I could see him making café de olla (coffee made with cinnamon and unrefined whole cane sugar which is specifically prepared in an earthen clay pot- Blue seems like a coffee drinker to me, haha).

This got too long but I wanted to ramble so I hope! You don’t! Mind!!!

My brain's only processing half of this but yes, I agree! I don't really imagine Ink as someone who drinks alcohol very often, but I also imagine he has a higher tolerance for it than most people. Dream also has a higher alcohol tolerance, but through self-conditioning rather than naturally high tolerance. I headcanon Blue and Stretch as Canadian, but it's interesting to see your headcanon too!

I imagine Dream as the main baker of the group, so I can see Ink going to him like "I wanna try this!" and showing (well, more like describing) the food or drink to Dream. And you can bet your entire bank account that Dream has snatched recipes from the two, particularly dessert recipes. I don't make the rules (yes I do).