#AND i need to practice drawing character interactions

[kradeelav]

Hello! I want to learn how to draw content on the more spicy side, but I'm unsure where to start. Do you have any tips/resources for it? I would love to make Corrin/Gunter art and some of my other favorite pairings. Thank you in advance!

on the practical/technical side:

having a solid understanding of anatomy helps, of course - the basic bone structure of course, but how skin, fat, muscle hangs as well. you don't actually need to watch live-action porn to get references (i never have believe it or not), but i do follow a few historical kink/bear magazine archivists online. personally i find that there's more of a variety of beautiful shapes and humans in those old photos, and you generally know it's consensual since they've personally submitted them.

you also can't go wrong with reading other erotic comics ... i say comics vs illustrations since you start to see the pacing of these scenes like any other human interaction and the tools the artists use. when does intimacy turn into foreplay? when does the artist/mangaka zoom in to capture the sensation of the moment? what clever tricks do the artists to capture the climax when the bodies are all pressed together and when finding a good camera angle is tricky? how do they show the heightened feeling with symbols and textures? how is kink power dynamics shown with characters in different positions? do you show faces and the expressions to show the pleasure or not? what comics feel cold and manufactured to you versus ones that capture real eros? why? etc.

on the mental side:

if you're anything like me, you might have a lot of shame to untangle when it comes to harder varieties of erotic art. (i hope not! not everyone does. but it's unfortunately common given the societies we live in.)

it's going to take a while, and it's going to feel really weird at times when you draw something that's uncomfortably intimate or taboo, but that's when you know it's working and you gotta keep pushing through.

you gotta keep drawing.

privately, i have a personal rule that i'll draw anything at least once; if i feel afterwards that it turned out to be a personal squick, i won't go there again, but that guideline has been marvelous to start breaking through the manufactured idea of disgust and also just to experiment with putting myself in other people's shoes about what they find hot. sometimes it's surprising! i've learned a lot.

lastly, on that note - draw what you find deeply intimate. forget about other people. selfshipping? the most niche kinks possible? the kink that feels like the internet can't stand? who gives a shit about them (no taste, the lot of them).

draw the human. the tenderness, the visceral, that overpowering desire for you that almost scares you with how intense it is and that sends your brain alight.

that's going to be timeless.

[physalian]

Full Scene

I know this is a movie and the visual medium makes it far easier to "show not tell" but this whole scene is 5:30 minutes long and contains absolutely zero dialogue, only music and visuals, and it is PERFECTION.

Especially this money shot, right here. The one on the poster, the one they knew would be the one frame audiences would take away from this film.

The movie does a lot of showing vs telling, in how they don't state "oh wow Hiccup, you and Toothless match now you're both missing parts of yourself necessary for full ambulatory movement and cant fit so symbolically together" they just. Show you Hiccup's new prosthetic and let you steep in the symbolism in silence.

But Forbidden Friendship, even if you watched it without the gorgeous score (that combines both their leitmotifs throughout like Test Drive!), the visuals alone would tell you everything you need to know.

Toothless can't talk, and had this been a Disney movie he absolutely would have, so while they still could have had Hiccup joking or whining or sassing the entire scene about "oh why won't you just trust me??" as he does during Astrid's flight, they trusted that everything could be conveyed in their body language and their interactions with their environment.

The way Toothless mimics Hiccup's expressions (the smile) and the drawing, how he growls or purs to make sure Hiccup understands not to step on his lines, the way he slowly lets Hiccup come closer and closer to touching him, that little hesitation right before booping his nose against Hiccup's palm--all of it conveys the perfect amount of a lifetime of mistrust of humans but an innate curiosity, and a willingness to toss precedent aside once Hiccup passes his little "test" by respecting the linework of Toothless's drawing.

Try practicing describing this scene on paper to get an idea of why this is a pinnacle of showing vs telling--without relying on any crutches of assumptions by either character, no "Toothless trusted him now" just the description of that nose touch.

[swordoffrivolousthings]

Rick Riordan has no scale for what it means to give characters positions of power or influence

I have seen a trend recently while thinking about the positions of power in PJO and HOO and who occupy them. A post that I can't find again also has breached this topic on a much smaller scale, so credit to them. (I'll try to find them and tag them.)

What I mean by positions of power and/or influence is this: positions from where a demigod has the ability to control organisations (i.e. the Hunters of Artemis and Camp Jupiter) or influence how and why things are done in a certain way (i.e. Annabeth's redesigning of Olympus and Jason's designing some of the other gods' cabins).

The first example is THALIA and how, upon becoming a hunter for Artemis, she is instantly catapulted to the top of the chain. Artemis bestows upon her the role of Lieutenant of Artemis. She is Artemis's second in command if the goddess herself isn't present.

But what does Thalia know of the inner workings of the Hunt? Next to nothing, because until a few days before, she hated them and what they stood for. She gets over her hate, which is part of her development, but it doesn't make her any less informed. One can't speculate that at some point she and Zoë have talked about the Hunt, because we have no hint of that happening in the books. One can headcanon that they'd had such a conversation, but we are speaking about canon. So she is blind. That would be fine, because she is a newbie, and has time to learn.

But no. Riordan gives her the most important place a hunter can occupy in the hierarchy. Why? The way I see it is Riordan decided that now that Thalia's completed her arc, she needs a physical reward. But going by book logic, I would also assume that Artemis was displaying some major nepotism. Because look, that is her sister, and she is in a meeting with daddy and she'd already crossed a line when interacting with her father. (I mean that she wants to reward the heroes while Zeus, most probably, just sees what they did as their duty and not something to be rewarded.) So Artemis boosts her sister up in the hierarchy so she wouldn't slight Zeus again.

Also, we've been ignoring the fact that there are far more experienced and reliable huntresses in the Hunt. Some of them have been with Artemis for many, many years bordering on millennia.

Next up is ANNABETH, about who I've already vented my frustrations, but let me say it again: Annabeth, while inspired by architecture and wanting to be an architect, is not trained and has no experience with it besides a few books and what I can assume is trying her hand at drawing potential projects. She isn't fit to redesign Olympus and certainly not able to think about all the facets of what it would entail, because she doesn't have the practical knowledge and the studies.

Yet Riordan writes it so that the gods offer her the opportunity to redesign their city state (is Olympus considered a city state??? Because it's what I've been thinking of it as). Why so? Because she has survived the war? (not like he was going to kill her, and I didn't think he would do it at any point in TLO.) And therefore she should get what she wanted besides all the PTSD and other disorders that most survivors get?

Because this is what I see.

We already know that the structure within Camp Jupiter is hinging on the child soldiers they train. The Senate is made out of centurions and ghosts and older citizens of New Rome, and we weren't shown that there had ever been adult Praetors. This is what Riordan intended, because this is what he wrote.

But it begs the question, why have REYNA and JASON specifically done to be awarded the position of Praetor that early in their lives? We are told that they went on at least a quest together, so they must have been pretty close before being made partners, and they seem to have worked well together.

We know that Reyna is a highly capable leader and managed to lead Camp Jupiter on her own for roughly 6 months. Jason was raised as a leader, so it is natural to assume that he knew how things worked. But that doesn't show why they were specifically chosen, especially after such a big conflict.

Just because Jason defeated a Titan single-handedly, it doesn't mean that there weren't any more capable hands for the duty to fall on. Also, has Reyna's POV ever revealed why she was chosen? Because I can't remember.

What I mean to say is that there were other, adult, people for the reasonability to fall back on. Because there had been said to be adults in the Senate. But Riordan, like before, has decided that the duty should fall on hormonal teenagers that have dumb ideas (not referring to Jason and Reyna, but more like stereotyping) instead of the adults. The excuse that demigods older than late teens and early twenties doesn't exist in New Rome. And don't tell me that not one of those people would take the duty, because there is shown to be influence and political power associated with being Praetor.

Alongside this, lets go to PERCY. Riordan decided that the Romans would raise Percy as Praetor because they'd seen him fight and the fact that he kind of saved their asses. Cool, I could understand this reasoning if the Romans had more time to get to know him. Because Percy's great! but he still is a child of Neptune, who they don't trust, and they don't trust him, because he was there for only a few hours a few days ago.

There is no basis on which to raise him straight from probation to praetorian-ship.

But Percy saved them! So Riordan decided, against all common sense, that he should get a position of power somewhere he knows next to nothing about, because of plot reasons and drama. Why couldn't Percy have just been seen as a great help and on that the Romans would build their trust upon him? To start to value his opinion?

But the plot of HOO moves so fast is was no room to take a breath and let things unfold naturally. So Riordan gives political and military powers to characters willy-nilly because it will help the story along.

Again to JASON, the cabin design things is the same as Annabeth's, so there is nothing to really say again. Other then the fact that they parallel each other in this way, and not in the good way when talking about writing.

Riordan has no scale of what it means when he gives his characters power and authority where they hadn't achieved it. He gives them upgrades in authority as a way to pay them for their good behaviour and character development, or simply because he hadn't thought all the way through what their positions would entail, and their ramifications.

I hope that I made a great job at explaining what I wanted. If you didn't understand what I said at some point, please do reach out. I can talk about this for a while.

[loaficus]

My favorite boissssss<33333

GIMME YOUR TOH DOODLE PROMPTS. HAND THEM OVER. NOW.

[tarot-the-silly-one]

tma au cool lighting things :D

alina and kyro belong to @mayyak

[eebie]

i need to draw more yaoi yuri girlyaoi boyyuri etc......

[headfullof-ideas]

I’m redesigning a few more characters that will look different in this story in comparison to canon, and all I will say right now is I totally forgot Savage had a mustache in Riders and Defenders of Berk.

I’m so used to him looking like this in RTTE

That I forgot he used to look like this

Help

[toxiccaves]

also did a smooch meme on twitter recently. i got a lot of requests!! i wanna get around to some more of them soon tbh

[moe-broey]

@felikatze OH nothing LMFAOO (not that I know of anyway haven't caught up) I'm just rotating them both in my mind and desperately attempting to illustrate the parallels 😅😅

[kimaamaya]

On Instagram I said I’d fix the tree but haha I lied it was 3:00AM and I didn’t wanna deal with the tree so I just left it as is I think it’s funny this way

So I! Actually tried! Something! New!!! And by that I mean I actually did a full on scene not just a silly little portrait or pose and you know I learned a lot of valuable lessons doing this. A lot of valuable lessons. Many. Don’t color the background after the characters kids please don’t do it. Also plan what you’re actually gonna do because I’d finish one thing and get absolutely stuck because I didn’t know where to go from there

I drew this for AkiRui week on Twitter and I thought I was gonna do all 7 days and I only managed 2 BUT was it fun?? Yes very! It was nice doing something bigger and it was probably good for me to step out of my comfort zone too. I’m gonna do Anhane week too and hopefully that goes A LITTLE easier now that I’ve kinda figured out how to do some stuff

So anyway I like these 2 together I think they’re very silly and they probably pick at each other a lot but like affectionately. I feel like the Shinonomes would have to give each other 2 weeks notice before inviting Rui/Mizuki over because the one time they were there at the same time they just tag teamed Ena and Akito

Oh yeah also yes this was originally gonna be based on that one Club Penguin image but my brain started coming up with more and I just went with it

[lightbulb-warning]

16 classmates means 256 potential dynamics to explore if we only consider 1 on 1 interactions (which i will! ...until this sentence ends) and that means 256 drawings. considering that group interactions exist and it can be any combo that is... a way larger number.

i have 2 hands, 0 time and too much ambition!!

haha! oh no.

[astyrra]

luffy and zoro for anatomy and character interaction practice

[biohazard-inevitable]

A little late but its still June therefore still Pride month so I drew myself and my Boyfriend @emile-hides holding our flag even though its just the two of us right now!!!

[kiss-dumbbunnies]

may 26 2024

[thenerdcommander]

I. Really need to get over the feeling of defeat over yet another commission's post absolutely flopping and draw all the things I want to draw.

Alas

[dicenete]

Floyd and Jade being memeable as a warm up :) I really need to practice drawing characters interacting with one another. It is so hard ;-;