#I actually cleaned up some of these sketches a little bc they were a little too uhh

[cuteniaarts]

@katkastrofa: *writes a single throwaway line in one chapter of Lost and Found that is never referenced again*

Me, completely randomly and with no prompting: Alright, bet–

[stuffeddeer]

DEEEER happy (late) new year 🎊

i been so busy with work 😭 hope you're resting well!

been thinking about dazai lately as i usually do, he would be such a fucking pain in the ass if you gave him a drawing (if you gave a mouse a cookie style LMFAO)

it doesn't even have to be anything good, just some stupid doodle of a cat, and then he pesters you every day for a new drawing just for him

oh GOD and if you actually draw as a hobby? INSUFFERABLE, he'd probably dig through the trash for your discarded drawings or smth (smfh this man) and then complain cause why didnt you show HIM first instead of wasting perfectly good paper!

lol this is so stupid 💀

anyway byee -🩵

I’M SO GLAD YOU MENTIONED IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE BC THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT.

Your face scrunches up as you stare down at the corner of your paper. Would it be weird to give this to him? The last thing you want is to be perceived as some weird stalker, and you know he'd find a way to tease you for this. But... is throwing it out worse?

"Hey, Yosano," you tapped her on the shoulder before taking a seat on one of the medical cots she was working near. "I have a question for you."

"Shoot," she speaks listlessly, continuing to clean up the many medical papers littering her desk. It's not that she's uninterested, just a little out of focus.

There's a clear hesitation, causing the doctor to spin and look at you. Fiddling with the torn paper in your hand, you sigh. "This is probably weird, but, I drew Dazai."

"Don't see how that's weird," she replies, an amused smile on her face at your awkwardness.

"Well, I doodled him, I should say. Just in the margins of my r-report— " that you tore up. Oops. " —because he was across from me. And I could just throw it away, but I could give it to him. Would he think I'm a total creep if I offered it up..?"

And after a pep talk from Yosano, you found yourself standing beside Dazai's desk. His eyes lit up, having already noticed long before you had even registered it that you were drawing him. Everyone at the Agency was aware of your hobby, a few members having taken small doodles in the past, and Dazai was excited it was finally his time.

— that, along with your continued glances between him and your page earlier made it obvious it was him.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asks slyly, his tone higher pitched than normal and mischievous. "Are you visiting little ol' me just to say hi?"

"Not quite. I drew this, if you want it." Trying to swallow your awkwardness, you hold out the paper scrap to Dazai. For a small sketch, it was surprisingly detailed. So this is how you viewed him, hm? He'd always known he was pretty, but...

"Is it possible to fall in love with myself?"

You choke back a laugh. "Alright, Narcissus. I'll take that to mean you like it?"

Dazai nods happily, jumping from his chair to rest his body weight onto you. "More more more! Please? Next do us together! Or even us kissing," he wiggles his eyebrows playfully.

The laugh finally bubbles over as your hands rest on Dazai's sides. "Get back to work! Or Kunikida will stop letting me draw at work, and then you'll have nothing."

"So that means if I stop, I'll have more?" He grins, his face close enough to yours to make you stumble back.

"Do you have to be so close? You're so clingy," you mutter, still holding his sides to keep him from coming closer. "If you get off, I'll consider supplying you with more doodles. Maybe."

And Dazai immediately jumps off of you and back to work.

[shadebloopnik]

Some really messy sketches on a small little AU with Carmilla as a Fallen Angel Warrior.

Different from the Exorcists who slaughter Sinners, and more dedicated to the actual protection of Heaven against the darker forces. The designs haven't been thought out much, but I like drawing the horns, so I thought it'd be a cool warrior hairdo, like how Exorcists wore demonic masks (I was really bored in class okay-)

Her daughters, Odette and Clara are there too. They looked pretty different even as twins, which were a bit of an oddity at the time. They were often made to dress alike, and act alike. Most viewed them as a package deal rather than taking time to understand their individuality.

Its why they're dressed so freely in hell, relishing in how different they can be whilst still having a great bond.

Her daughters are ultimately what causes her to fall. Drawing the half horn half hair down style looked a lot cooler in my head, but it was fun regardless.

Some secret regarding her daughters get found out, Heaven making her choose to either cast her daughters down or join them. Carmilla didn't hesitate.

More info on the AU/fic in the cut belowww:

I dunno if im ever gonna expand on it, but I loved the idea of making it Zestmilla. Maybe Carmilla met the old Overlord in one of her trips in hell, maybe fighting in a battle there? Or helping establish order? Anyway, she was alone when she met Zestial, and the two were quiet the enemies when they met. They fought, though didn't aim to kill, resulting in a close fight with Carmilla as victor. She wasn't an Exorcist warrior, and saw no need to immediately end this Overlord. She wasn't sent there to do mindless murder, and would like to avoid useless battles if she could. Besides, he was polite enough, and though she didn't trust him, he didn't grate on her nerves either. Zestial was quite taken with her, suspicious and quite murderous towards an angel, but liked her well enough for her wit and level headedness. Her grace and skill in battle was also admirable.

They bump into each other many more times, over the course of Carmilla's visits to hell, and with each meeting, they turn a bit more cordial, even striking an unlikely friendship, that blossoms into much more. It takes them about a hundred or so years(bc i LOVE relationships that REAAAALLLY take the time to develop and build on that trust and love) before they become romantically involved. They seem like the couple who would take it slow, being cautious and not rushing anything less it would harm the other.

And though Carmilla's trips to hell were halted, their love was not for naught as she gave birth to Clara and Odette. Her one regret was not being able to give Zestial the great news, he would've been an amazing father.

She manages to hide their identities for a good while. The two had rather angelic features, wings and all, and humanoid forms unlike their father's. The only thing that pointed to their demonic heritage were their eyes, whose sclera was the same shade of red as her iris. It was easily hidden with simple spells though. The two girls bore quite the resemblance towards her, even with some oddities, and were left fairly alone, being able to remain undetected for decades.

(I just left this post to sketch this out real quick lol, just to get the coloring in mind, not set on the design but I dont mind it.)

The peace couldn't last. After a while with Odette and Clara still being considered young as angels, their secret gets out. Maybe the spells wore off, or by a slip of the tongue, but for some reason or another it gets found out that they're half demons. They were attacked, and the daughters were stripped of their wings and sentenced to be cast down to Hell, left at the mercy of the next Extermination. Carmilla was given a chance to redeem herself and stand back, and let her "mistakes" be washed clean.

Carmilla fought back, her wingless daughters clutching to her own feathers for protection. She scooped them up, flying away to hell, less they get any more damaged. Try as she might, however, they didn't manage to escape unscathed. She plummeted into Hell; feeling the curses and painful burn of magic at her back, nipping at her form.

It was as if Heaven and Hell itself tore her apart with her descent, both pulling with reckless abandon, shaping her into what they wanted.

She couldn't even afford to lose consciousness; she had her daughters to protect after all. Both girls were weak and bleeding, their backs aching from where their wings used to be. Carmilla glanced at her own feathers, and felt her heart break. It looked just as painful as it felt. Her once sleek and razor sharp looking feathers were nearly singed beyond repair. She retracted them, less she attract more enemies with them in display.

She struggled to get up, carrying her daughters with her despite the weakness in her legs. She didn't even have her spear with her, weaponless except for the ballet slippers she'd forged herself with angelic steel. Her hair was down and unruly, all three of them covered in burns and cuts and bruises and bleeding wounds. The attack came out of nowhere. Her daughters weren't even given a chance to defend themselves.

Weaponless. It can't happen again.

She manages to drag her daughters with her, only one place she could think of approaching. Its been decades since she's been to Hell, she hopes the territories didn't change too much. She was hesitant in going to Zestial for help. After all, its been years, and she'd left without being able to say goodbye. He'd be justified in hating her, and she wouldn't hold it against him. At the least, they could hide somewhere in his territory. His lands were one of the best choices, the demons residing under his rule were fairly disciplined. In a place as dangerous as Hell, an environment that was fairly familiar to her gave some bit of comfort. Even if he didn't accept them, even if he was unaware of their existence, Carmilla was satisfied with simply a place to rest.

She needed not worry though. As soon as Zestial heard the slightest news about strangers in his territory, he rushed to meet them himself. He noticed the large crash just some hours before night fell, and couldn't help the spark of hope. He was greeted by the sight of a few dead bodies, 1 or 2 who thought they could get lucky taking advantage of a weakened opponent. He arrived just in time to see a third fall, bloodied heels clicking on the ground below. The figure stood tall, though was clearly tired and heaving deep breaths. He barely noticed the two smaller figures in the distance, his gaze focused solely upon the lone woman, whose silver hair was still so beautiful even with all the dirt and blood matting it. He stepped closer, the sound of it causing the woman to turn and-

It didn't matter how dark it was. It didn't matter how her sclera was now the same shade of red as her iris were, as if it were inverted. He'd recognize her anywhere.

Without caring that he'd get stabbed himself, he rushed to pull her in a tight embrace, feeling her freeze beneath his arms. He buried his face in her hair, nuzzling it even with the blood and dirt, afraid as though she'd disappear if he ever let go.

He felt her large hands wrap around him and for the first time since his existence in Hell, he felt as if he could cry. This was real. This wasn't a figment of his imagination, nor a result of insanity. She was here. After all these years she came back to him. He couldn't be happier.

He immediately takes her and the two girls back to his residence, letting them clean up and helping patch their wounds. When he found out the two were his daughters, he felt as if- yea no, he was crying, this wasn't just a feeling, he couldn't stop the tears from streaming down as he hugged the two as firmly as he could without aggravating their wounds. He felt so angry for them, enraged that heaven could deal out such punishments for something the girls couldn't control.

He took them all in, preparing rooms for everyone. He prepared one for Carmilla too, not wanting to push his luck. It has been years after all, and he didn't want to force himself onto her should she decide she didn't reciprocate anymore. In the end, they all slept in the same room. Carmilla wanted to be with Zestial, feeling safer with someone else in the room to stand guard, and her daughters crawled back to her, far too afraid to sleep in such a new place alone after everything that happened.

So they all snuggled in the same large bed, Zestial keeping a respectful distance from the young girls as to not frighten them, all the while letting his webbed cloak wrap around Carmilla in comfort.

Carmilla fell asleep last, her thoughts running wild. It was all so much, but right now, here with her daughters in her arms and under Zestial's embrace, she felt at peace for the first time in a long while.

Glancing at the mirror across the room, she hummed at the changes in her eyes. The only thing she could think of was how was that she finally matched her daughters. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all, she'd think, drifting off into sleep.

[slooshee]

I finally have some Human Disguise AU stuff for you guys! I’m planning to do more in depth individual post on each character in the au but here’s some info+art for now!

(A lot of writing ahead haha,,)

Drawing 1 - Sarah, Jonah and Adam are about 10 years old in this au. Sarah lives with her older brother Mark (who survives in this au thanks to a certain silly angel appearing at the right place and time :>). Adam and Jonah live on the church grounds, being fostered by Sister Maria (who is actually Preacher). The boys help out at the Church (helping clean up, helping around the church in general, and they also serve as alter boys) Sarah met them both at school. This is them sneaking out and hanging out at the willow tree they like to meet up at.

Drawing 2 - A little bit of a silly drawing of Sarah and Gabie (Gabriel/Toonbriel, that’s the name he uses while staying on earth) watching older my little pony movies from G3. Not canon (since TVs aren’t really.. like y’know safe) although I do think Sarah would have some MLP toys.

Drawing 3 - rough concept art for HDAU!Adam and Jonah. Nothing really more to add tbh.

Drawing 4 - Sister Maria (aka Preacher) sketch/concept sketch. Sister Maria in this au is Adam’s caretaker after Adam was left with no family. She’s raised him since he was very little. She’s an elderly religious woman. If you were to take off her veil her being an alternate would become much more apparent. Her design was heavily based on the ‘messenger’ image.

Drawing 5 - Adam and preacher. Adam is the only one who has seen the assimilated version of Maria. Although he is not aware Maria and the creature are on in the same. He only sees her at night where it usually stands in the corner of his room, in the dark, keeping watch over him. He usually closes his eyes and tries to drown out the whispering.

Drawing 6 - Thatcher comforting Adam after something startled him. Oh yeah! You better believe I’m shoving dadtcher content into this bad boy!!! Thatcher is probably the closest thing Adam has to any kind of Father figure in his life. Since Adam is the only thing that ‘survived’ the night that Ruth and Adam’s parents died. He ended up taking care of Adam for a short amount of time while he was still a baby. Thatcher was too scared to take care of a baby and especially with his newfound paranoia of the alternates he decided he needed to find a better place for Adam. That’s when Sister Maria visited and offered to be his caretaker till they found him a home. However, since Maria doesn’t/cannot drive Thatcher usually picks him up from school.

Drawing 7 - Adam and Maria, presumably after being returned by Thatcher after Adam tried to run away.

Drawing 8 - SOME CESAR CONTENT?? I definitely will go more in depth on these guys later. I’m still working out actual Cesar’s character and role in this au, if I’m honest. But Cesar fans rejoice! bc he’s alive!! Yippie! Alternate Cesar is the stupid little cat creature you see him holding. Alternate Cesar is first encountered when Vol.1 usually would take place. The difference being once Gabriel/Toonbriel shows up completely by accident the sudden appearance of a heavenly presence scares it away. For the rest of his role he takes the form of a cat-like creature. In order to to be a spy for Lucifer/Alt Gabriel on the real Gabriel.

[chubs-deuce]

@drawmanda ik I already dmed you about this but my inbox ate your ask up so I'm responding to it this way now! <3

first of all thank you so much!! sdkjhsdkfh

And well, technically I also draw almost everything by hand too :o

I understand the frustration of being slow, but "fast" digital drawing actually has very little to do with not drawing things by hand (a trap most people infatuated with this terrible AI ""art"" trend unfortunately keep falling into) so much as optimizing your workflow!

admittedly a lot of this is also a matter of both personal preference and practice - but you can hardly practice and have preferences on what you can't know should be a focus right?

Under the cut is a list of the things I do that speed up my own digital art workflow (this one got hella long, sorry):

1) I sketch very loosely and often often skip the lineart entirely.

Something that's imo really important for actually almost all artists to practice is reducing sketches to their essentials!

A good working sketch should be rough and block in the shapes and placement of the features you have in your mind - the details don't come in until later, so they actually have very little business being put in at this stage!

It's meant to be a guideline and foundation for the upcoming detail work after all, not a finished, tidy drawing in and of itself.

Use quick, airy brush strokes to roughly pencil in some vague shapes and don't be afraid of indecipherable scribbles or flyaway lines! All that isn't needed won't be visible later anyways (either bc you turned off the sketch layer or erase the offending bit of sketch away)

Naturally, cleaned sketches are a thing people post plenty of online too (me included), but I promise you most artists that do proper lineart and/or render out insanely polished pieces have a very rough and probably barely legible sketch underneath those pieces lmao

And guess what! Most of my own "lineart" is nothing but cleaned sketches! :'D

I erase the construction lines like the circles for the heads and redraw a few bits and bops, re-trace some lines for legibility and/or to make them more visible and voila! Sometimes this is faster than lineart and keeps the original flow and energy that's in the sketches, other times this takes me just as long as lineart would lmao (highly depends on the amount of details and how lost you get in those).

Note how I didn't even "finish" a lot of the lines in the rough versions and many pieces of the og sketch were kept unaltered? I also tend to focus more on detailing out the faces than the rest - this is one part pure laziness and one part knowing that the faces will draw the eye's focus the most lmao

But see, sometimes I don't even bother with all of that noise! I just color the sketch as is:

This is a bit of a "trust the process" thing sometimes because a sketch can look utterly incomprehensible until you block out some colors and/or silhouettes to give your eyes context!

All in all most sketches take me between 10 minutes and half an hour, if it's a more complex pose or set of poses of interacting characters it can take closer to 2 hours, but in that case I also tend to use multiple layers for various iterations of rough sketching and to separate the characters on their own layers so it's a bit easier to keep track of the limb placements etc - it's best to keep a flexible mind when it comes to your approach to sketches.

Not every drawing will need the same level of care put into its sketches, don't be afraid of being rough with it and trying out different things if your usual way of doing things doesn't feel right!

2) Understanding the tools at my disposal!

Imo something every learning digital artist needs to get in the habit of is experimenting around with the tools at their disposal :D

It can seem incredibly daunting, especially when a program is absolutely packed with functions, but the more you work with different things and figure out what you like using and find ways to use them in your workflow, the easier it gets and the quicker you become! You'll be surprised what knowing your way around well can do to your work speed :D

Dick around with different presets, settings, colors, layer blend modes, filters etc

One of the first things I did when I first downloaded CSP was to just pick up every tool in the list one by one and doodle a few strokes across the empty canvas - no real goal or direction in mind, just getting a feel for it and then did a few drawings using different sets.

Imo even if you end up never using certain tools, it's still handy to know how they work!

3) HOTKEYS!!!!

I use my pc's keyboard hotkeys for. Every. Fucking. Thing. Mind you I'll be mostly talking in the terms and list hotkeys specifically for Clip Studio Paint since that's the program I use for my art, so if you use something else please do your own research on what the corresponding hotkeys are for your program if the ones I tell don't work!!! I promise you most of them have very similar functions just on different key combinations and will also usually let you edit them in the settings :D (this comes from someone who's at least tried out most of the available ones - Such as Medibang, FireAlpaca, Gimp, Krita, Rebelle 5, Paint Tool SAI (this one used to be my main before CSP) and I even tried photoshop and procreate on someone else's devices in the past)

The reason I use hotkeys is so I don't have to drag my curser around and click things by hand unnecessarily, the hotkeys save me a ton of time in the drawing process!

some examples of hotkeys I use for basically every drawing:

the classic undo (ctrl+Z) and redo (ctrl+alt+Z, other programs often use ctrl+Y for this tho); on touch-input compatible screen tablets you can often tap with two fingers to undo and 3 fingers to redo

zooming (this has multiple methods, you can use the ctrl+"+" and ctrl+"-" combo to zoom in and out, you can use the scrollwheel on a mouse or you use what my personal preference is: hold ctrl+space and drag the stylus to zoom in and out; if you have a touch-input compatible screen tablet you can also use two fingers to zoom in and out like you would on phone!)

rotating the canvas (technically has more than one way as well but I'm ngl I can't remember the way that isn't what I use anymore lmao, hold shift+space and drag the stylus - pro tip, you can reset the rotation with the Pos1 button, in the navigation window if you have it docked or in CSP's case also at the bottom of the screen!)

mirror canvas (in the viewport only! permanent rotation requires a transform!) using the M button (this is handy for checking proportions and when you just can't get your hand to do a curved line that goes against the natural range of rotation of your dominant hand's wrist)

drag viewport (i.e. move along the canvas by holding space button, then clicking and dragging)

merging layers (ctrl+E)

selecting multiple layers (click on layer, then hold ctrl and click on any other layers you want selected individually; if you want to quickly select a long and uninterrupted list you can also click on the first layer, then hold shift when you click on the last, this will select all layers in between too)

grouping selected layers (ctrl+G)

deselect all (ctrl+D)

transform selection (ctrl+T)

bring up hue/saturation/luminosity sliders for currently selected layer for quick color adjustments (ctrl+U)

switching between tools (I memorized which keys correspond to which tool categories in CSP and then use the "," and "." keys to move between presets within the category; I also have my CSP set up to have multiple presets in my tool bar that I can cycle between using the same tool button)

changing brush size (hold AltGr and drag cursor to increase or decrease brush size)

switching between drawing colors This is an especially big one for me!!! Did you know that using the little transparent color underneath or near your front and back colors turns your currently selected tool into an eraser? It keeps all of the texturing and blending settings too! I often use larger round brushes to block out an area and using this I can just use the same brush as an eraser to taper the strokes or refine corners without losing the texture using the C-key :D When I'm coloring switching between front and back colors helps a ton too, and for that I use the X-key! Here an example of how that looks executed in practice:

Notice how I never have to stop moving my cursor away from the drawing unless I'm picking new colors? :D I also use this a lot for my shading process! I will often use two tones on a layer with its blending mode set to add or multiply in order to shade and quickly switch between them for easy blocking and blending! Tumblr doesn't allow more than one vid per post so here's a youtube link to a little demo to show what I mean!

4) I aim for vibes > visual accuracy, especially in backgrounds!

(though this applies to how I approach character illustrations too)

A background doesn't have to be mega detailed or coherent to get across what you need it to!

I often use blurred photographs and video game screenshots as backdrops for my art, other times I roughly block in some squares and silhouettes to give the viewer some implied context of where they're at

Detailed backgrounds, unfortunately, will almost always cost you tons of time to do, so the speed with those unfortunately really does come from extended practice more than any shortcuts I can offer :')

for at least big room layouts like this tho I can recommend building the scene in sims 4 or something similar first and roughly tracing the screenshot for proportional guidance, something I've done in this one^ for example!

5) STENCIL BRUSHES <3

BOY THESE THINGS CAN BE DAMN USEFUL!

None of the things in this image below were hand-drawn by me!

These are just some of the ones CSP comes with by default! I downloaded quite a few handy custom ones over time too lol

I really implore you to not get too overly reliant on them however, they can be a huge help for when it doesn't need to be super accurate, but unless you're really good at making them match your style they can stick out a little sorely, so use them sparingly and only where you can easily make them blend in with the rest of your piece!

Also I've seen your lovely art in the tags I frequent a few times now and while the insane amount of detail you lovingly pour into it makes it a really cool and recognizable style that genuinely wows me anytime I see it, I can also see how time consuming it'd be to create it!

I do however think it's a gorgeous style that is worth every minute you put into it, so please don't be discouraged by any slowness! :3

I do of course still hope that any of my tips helped even just a little bit!!!

Keep up the amazing work and take care <3<3<3

[airborneice]

gonna just d r o p some extremely rough sketches here bc my sketchbook I’ve had on the go since 2020 is almost filled up and once it is I probably won’t go revisiting any of the sketches in it, so I may as well share some of them here

I’m incapable of shutting up abt my art so ramblings under the cut

1-3 - mattie sketches :) the last ones are recent and the 1st is one of the first drawings I did of her, back in 2021. idk I just think it’s important y’all know she’s been on her tide mouse shenanigans since the beginning

4 - I think I drew this back in last march and meant to move it to digital and clean it up there but things got busy and I never did :( they’re based on @randomwords247’s wonderful mermaid designs bc I love them

5 - unrelated to the last one, but while I was working on one of my little mermaid au drawings I tried to think how I’d approach the sequel if I got that far & ended up w. this. something something mermaids having human familiars being frowned upon

6 - I think. this is a drawing of @blaithnne’s pony!lauren that I never finished oops

7 - forgot I had this!! year before last me and @bubblekidaesthetics were planning to cosplay these two at comic con, and I got super hyped and doodled this. we did do this cosplay and it was awesome <3

8 - slightly more recent design stuff for freyja, still based on hilda-fanblog/rhombus’ design ofc but figuring out if I wanted my take on her to change anything like how many legs she has lol. also some pony!mountain king doodles on the next page

9-10- something something centaur au. somewhere in my notes app is a whole list of hilda chars and horse types/colours bc I started researching them and got so carried away. johanna’s supposed to be a bay and hilda was gonna be a shetland I think…? (the hilda one is a lot more recent and I think it shows lol). rip to dee who had to watch me talk abt this au so much and barely actually draw it

anyway tumblr won’t let me add any more pics which is probably a good thing 🤷‍♀️ I hope literally everyone feels better as an artist for seeing what an absolute mess my drawings start out as 😌 now I gotta buy a new sketchbook

[scribz-ag24]

i know this is super late but if you're still open to asks for the fandom ask meme, 13 and 23?

Hmmm it's hard to say since I'm always focusing on grovyle/dusknoir/celebi stuff and I've already drawn Guildshipping as well. Actually, it's probably Darkrai/Cresselia. I always like the couple as a kid bc of their dynamic in the games and anime, about them not being evil/good, but counterparts that protect and need each other.

Inside the pmd universe, Darkrai is barely a character at all, I think he's the weakest narrative point in the entire game, and a good contender for most boring antagonist of the franchise (if only for how much of a downgrade he is compared to the rest of the Explorers games' plot), but there is a scene in Explorers of Spirit that shows a deeper bond between Darkrai and Cresselia, and a sort of betrayal between them, that catches my attention. Since there's nothing on the main game that contradicts that headcanon, I just run with it and adopt it for myself, we do love some friends to enemies dynamic here.

Basically, they could be so toxic yuri to me and i really hope i get to clean some sketches i did about them some time lol.

Also maybe revisit those Grovyle/Dusknoir/Darkrai toxic yaoi ideas bc they were really fun to work with lmao. Maybe even simply inserting darkrai into the future polycule and having them all want to kill him rfqegvqerq

And in case youre curious about the Fionna and Cake fandom, i have an entire comic about Astrid and Scarab I wish i had the energy to clean lmao. So it'd be Astrid, she's a cute little annoying fangirl

My favourite character changes every day because I can never decide on whether I prefer Grovyle or Dusknoir lmao. They're both too good. But on the shipping side of things...

Funnily enough, I guess I went from being strictly a Dusknoir/Grovyle fan after se5 to becoming a fan of the polycule after some reflection. I didn't want to get frustrated by how much attention Grovyle/Celebi had despite Celebi's short time on-screen (and at first frustrating "tee hee im a girl,, im pink and have a crush on boy pokemon uwu" characterization) and become one of good ol' toxic 13 yo fujoshis who hated female characters for "being an obstacle" to the yaoi ship. So I tried to focus more on Celebi and I ended up liking her quite a lot once I tried to read more between lines and drew her more times! Especially since you can basically make her have any dynamic you want with Dusknoir. She can be very fun to write and draw! I just wish the writing in the game had given her more... well, writing.

And in the Adventure Time fandom ig i stopped liking Prismo/Scarab a lot after a while and just preferred Kheirosiphon/Scarab but i basically shipped Scarab wwith anyone so there''s not much difference xd

[hinata-boke]

Hii!!

What advice, blogs, yt channel, tips, tutorials or whateva you can recommend/give to achieve the similar art style you have??? i really like your art!! idk what it's called but I wanna learn how to draw like that!!! also can I get permission use it as reference/copy some of your art??! i won't post or let anyone see, it would just be in my sketch book!

thank you sm in advance!! 🥰❣️❣️❤

yes, feel free to use my art as practice!!

for the 1hqaday style this is what i personally tend to do:

i use a brush with a large range of pressure values, and then use very quick and light strokes, to emulate the look of an actual ink/brush pen! a lot of the strokes have this "blobby" kind of look from pressing down slightly more at the ends of strokes:

for this style i also like using mostly straight/angular lines, and usually dont clean them up if they look a little messy c: i guess one piece of advice id give is to not stress about the individual lines, but moreso how everything looks together, especially because it’s kind of loose and sketchy.

i also usually don't close gaps between lines for a looser feel, (also bc im lazy lol) which is fine for black and white but it would probably be a bit more of a pain if you were to try and colour it

when i draw lines i usually start with very very fine lines to get the details, then add more weight to certain lines as needed, like for borders/outlines.

in terms of general style/shading i usually just reference furudate's illustrations and sketches! it helps a lot because im still learning and figuring things out. (especially helps me with how to colour in hair) for shading i try and define the shaded areas with outlines and then use very light lines to hatch:

(though figuring out where the shading looks right takes me quite a bit of trial and error still!)

[birdstooth]

Drawing MASTERCLASS

lol jk thought I’d show some of the process here in case your other favs aren’t online and u have a couple of min to waste while waiting for the bus

🎵Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair🎶

On the left, u have janky first draft, and on the right, u have less janky second draft😅. Depending on how much time I spent on draft 2, I might do a final cleaner version, and then then add colours :)

My hard limit for a doodle/comic is 3 drafts for reasons that I will go into below, but basically I find that if I try too hard, it triggers the perfectionist demon and then it’s not fun anymore lmaoo

For me, 2-3 drafts is the balance between making something I can look at without cringing, and still have fun drawing lines and shapes.

Also it’s ok to have a very very, objectively bad first draft. My brain is like Swiss cheese so if I spend too long trying to get something down on (virtual) paper by making it look nice, half the idea floats away before I can make a record of it.

So first of all, since this is the unofficial website for ppl with crippling anxiety (roll call! 🙋‍♀️), just thought I’d say: if u are on the fence about posting your [content] online, go for it!!

I used to look at all this really cool [content] (art, writing, photography w/e) and be like “wow, that’s some good content! I’ve got a long ways to go before my content can reach that standard!”.

Or sometimes, I would see amazing content with very few notes and think “whoa, if this extremely accurate recreation of the Mona Lisa made with used gum found under park benches has only 12 notes, it’s not really worth posting what I have, right?”

But then at some point I decided that it was easier (for me) to make stuff that was vaguely funny instead of “good”, so I stopped trying to draw the perfect shapes with the perfect shading, etc. and just went with like, the minimum accuracy required for an object to be recognizable lol.

I’m not saying don’t chase your dreams or whatever, but try not to force yourself into a style or content type that doesn’t suit you. I have a short attention span and a zillion ideas, so for me, it’s actually much more satisfying to make these goofy little doodles bc I can do quick sketches between procrastinating at work, or while I’m watching my dinner rotate in the microwave 🥲.

When I was in my “every drawing must be perfect” phase, I would spend hours on making sure the proportions were realistic, and the lines were clean, and spend days or weeks in a single piece. Some people are suited to this kind of work and have the patience to see it through, but for me it was very unsatisfying and sapped my motivation so I decided to be realistic about my abilities + the time I have available to improve my skills (I think this is very important bc u might have the patience and the work ethic to practice, practice, practice until you are at the top of your game, but if you have a job or school or other obligations, it might not fit into your schedule) and do a kind of compromise.

Yeah, I’m still envious of other people’s content and no, I don’t think my content is the BEST I can do, but it’s a balance between doing what I like and getting satisfaction out of it. Sometimes, if you push yourself too hard, you end up hating what was supposed to be a hobby, u know?

[morganzephyr]

Hey so with Fanfest coming up in a couple weeks I figured I should post the ideas that I've been tossing around inside my head for a while before it gets shot down. The image is mostly quick sketches/proof of concepts that I've coloured a lil but they're not polished or super clean. But I'll also just talk a lil about the basics of their lore and mechanics, both flavour and how they'd actually play. All the weapons are the Padjali weapons bc this was meant to be quick and dirty, all info under the Readmore!

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Time Battlemage (TBM) - Represented here by a female Duskwight Role: Tank Weapons: Hammers, Clubs, and Maces Limit Break: Temporal Equilibrium Culture of Origin: Sharlyan

Lore: A recent Sharlyan discovery, Time Battlemages came about with the rediscovery of Time Magic, works by magi such as the famous Quan that were formerly lost to history. However, as raw time magic is so dangerous, the Sharlyan scholars and sages figured its best application in combat would be as a supplement rather than a primary focus, so they started training regiments of magic knights, using their time magic to boost their speed despite their heavier gear. To take full advantage of this, TBMs use the large, blunt, and heavy hammers and clubs, partially due to how similar they feel to some of the staves of conjurers and thaumaturges, but also because of how time magic can be used on them, speeding them up to keep their raw bludgeoning power without leaving many major openings during combat. Some TBM weapons even have timekeeping devices such as clocks, sundials, and hourglasses incorporated into their design, which helps a TBM focus and channel their magic through their weapon.

Mechanics: The weakest tank in terms of raw damage output, similar to a Warrior's level, however, it empowers itself with many buffs and can spread them throughout the party, and focuses on using debuffs on the enemy for damage mitigation. It builds up Haste stacks through attacking, which help lower the TBM's GCD and everyone in an area around the TBM autoattacks faster. The TBM can also consume these Haste stacks in order to fuel both OGCD offensive and defensive abilities. The TBN's Invincibility ability involves them taking all damage until they hit 0, but then all attacks after that point restoring health as they "reverse" all the incoming damage.

Extra fluff: The teeth on the metal armour is based on both the teeth of gears, incorporating a timekeeping theme into it, but also on the tops of castle turrets to bring in a bit of an Alexander reference. Their armour is lighter than other tanks, but the colour scheme and pointed hat is supposed to invoke the classic Time Mage aesthetic.

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Apothecary (APH) - Represented here by a male Dunesfolk Role: Healer Weapons: Censers and Lanterns Limit Break: Requiem Culture of Origin: Ishgard

Lore: Both during and after the end of the many wars that dot Eorzea's history, the most efficient healers on the battlefield tended to use aether, which left their numbers somewhat limited and many medics frustrated that they were left in the dust. Understanding, but still frustrated. A small group of chirurgeons with minimal ability for aetheric manipulation banded together, their combined knowledge of alchemy and medicine intertwining with each other created a new job, perfect for those with little requirement of personal aether, yet still requiring the skills and trained hands of a medical professional. Apothecaries use herbs and incense that are placed in a charged censer, which they swing around to spread the smoke and vapors to reinvigorate allies, and smoke bombs to launch their medicines even further. Their skills in alchemy have also allowed them to create toxic fumes and gasses to debilitate and disrupt foes, as well as hide allies within their thick fogs. Soon after its creation, some conjurers and other magical healers picked up the art, finding it just as efficient as their own prior job, and even helping create some new vapors such as one that can rapidly restore aether to an individual. However, the difference between an APH with shallow or deep aetheric reserves is inconsequential, both will last a battle with minimal difference in resources, and the job ended up being a great equaliser for field medics across Eorzea.

Mechanics: A pure healer with a greater focus on DoTs and HoTs than direct damage and healing. Most of their abilities affect a wide area, and for some of them, the distance to the centre of the ability zone determines the effectiveness of their damage or healing. They also have an ability that can provide damage reduction for allies "hiding" in the smoke, and another ability that rapidly restores personal MP. As they do constant ticks of damage or healing, they build up a resource, which they can spend on greater direct damage, big heals, small shields, or, for their big two minute ability, a combination of all three.

Extra fluff: Obviously based on Chemists from previous entries. I initially had the idea of them using a crossbow as a slingshot to launch their potions, but hearing articles about how MCH used to be a potion slinging healer and that not working out, plus how SGE apparently used to be closer to a chemist conceptually but they spent months iterating on it, I figured to steer away from a more offensive looking weapon for my take on the job.

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Tyrant (TYR) - Represented here by a female Xaela Role: Melee DPS (Scouting) Weapons: Whips, Chains, and Flails Limit Break: Nine Tales Culture of Origin: Unknown

Lore: Tyrants take on their names with pride, even if it was thrown at them in scorn. Primarily consisting of nomads and wanderers, the precursors to the Tyrants found themselves constantly under attack by bandits and poachers who wished to harm the lands they lived on. They discovered that through giving the land their blood, the land would often give back, granting great strength and power to channel the land's fury through them. As such, they self flagellate, sacrificing their own physical self to defend both themselves and the place they call home. This terrifying form of magic has given them the title of Tyrant, as they appear to dominate and subjugate all that cross their path, even if it comes from a desire to protect the planet. They use their whips and chains to continuously strike down their foes nomatter how fast they try to run, and they often have barbs and thorns to increase pain to themselves and their opponents. TYRs are masters of using their strange art and terrifying presence to try and make the world a better place, even if it is as pariahs.

Mechanics: Tyrants are a dexterous job, using their weapon to keep a greater distance away from their target than most other melees. This is helpful as their main mechanic is using 10% of their current HP to get strong buffs to their attacks, such as a raw damage increase, a GCD cooldown reduction, or even the ability to apply a DoT. Each boosted ability has an HP drain effect attached to it, meaning a Tyrant doesn't lose their HP for long, especially when combined with a Bloodbath. The more HP that is drained by activating their various power up, the longer the buff lasts. Tyrants also gain a resource by attacking while powered up, effectively draining an opponent's blood in order to build up to powerful team wide buffs and defensive abilities, such as increasing movement and autoattack speed or applying shields and a small heal. They also have great mobility, using their weapon to bring themselves closer to a target or to spin out of the way like a beyblade.

Extra fluff: One of the weaker job ideas I have. Originally they were meant to be far more leather dominatrix vibes in appearance, but I figured making them into a forest warden/ranger could be a more creative take on the idea, especially given to the evolution of the Hunter job mentioned below. They were originally supposed to purely rely on blood magic but I figured a darker path to a Conjurer might also be fascinating, focusing more on a Druidic nature aspect as opposed to the natural elements, which will mostly be filled by the Geomancer below.

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Geomancer (GEO) - Represented here by a male Rava Role: Magic DPS Weapons: Bells Limit Break: Nature's Wrath Culture of Origin: Othard

Lore: As Astrologians focus on the star above, Geomancers focus on the star below. An old Othardian art that focuses on divining the health of the land by using the terrestrial elements of earth, wind, and water. Unlike Astrologians, they have a much more aggressive approach to dealing with impurities and evil forces, by using the elements of nature to purge them from this plane. They used to be a celebrated part of Othardian culture, but as time went on, the art was forgotten and the name was perverted by charlatans trying to make a quick buck off of the name. Many true Geomancer lines have laid dormant since, but as greater knowledge of the art has been made more available, it seems the school may be making a comeback across the Far East.

Mechanics: It focuses on supporting the whole team, kind of like a DNC with its buffs. They summon "cleansing circles", kind of like a BLM's Leylines except they affect any party member standing in it with various buffs, the type of buff depending on the currently attuned element; Earth, Wind, or Water. GEOs can also bring the Cleansing Circle to them as they move around an area, as opposed to a BLM's Between The Lines ability, but if they wander too far away, the Circle disappears and the buffs dissipate, causing the GEO to have to start their cycle again. They also place a DoT on a target, one that does matching elemental damage and every few ticks, it pulses, causing allies near to the target to gain a shorter lasting buff of the relevant element. Once all three elements are shifted through, the GEO can purify their circle, causing all party members to gain enhanced versions of all three elemental buffs all at once, and dealing hefty damage to all nearby enemies upon the initial purification, as all the negative energy from the fight is purged into them. If a DoT is active on a foe when the circle is purified, it deals all the rest of its damage all at once, before mutating into a more powerful DoT, that lasts as long as the Purification does.

Extra fluff: Probably the idea I've had the longest. The design was mostly inspired by FF11's take on the Geomancer. However, I wanted to make a callback to some of the Geomancer designs of the past, which is why it takes the general blue colour scheme from FF3, the stripey pyjama legs from FF5, and the cropped top from Tactics. Since the Swallows Compass dungeon was also heavily based on Geomancy and the final boss of that was effectively Sun Wukong, I gave Geomancer the floating silk ribbon that you tend to associate with him but also Chinese gods of all sorts.

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Hunter (HNT) - Represented here by a female Hellsguard Role: Ranged DPS Weapons: Crossbows Limit Break: Shatterheart Culture of Origin: Gyr Abania

Lore: In the ancient deserts of Gyr Abania's past, it is tough to survive, let alone survive while opposing groups try to take your resources for your own. Sometimes, it takes subterfuge to get an advantage, but when you are always on the move and lacking the time to raise a generation of fighters while also just trying to cling to life, what alternatives are there? Archery requires incredible arm strength, and many other groups had decades of training under their belts. Thaumaturgy can be slow and loud with its chants and casts. For those that are weak of arm yet desire to stay stealthy, there is an option. The art of the Hunter. They quietly stalk their marks, using every trick in the book to hide their presence, and being able to sense everything that happens around them. Their use of the crossbow ensures a near soundless weapon that can take down targets from far distances without their target even being aware of the Hunter's existence. To add to their arsenal and awareness, Hunters have learned to create simple aetheric structures, traps that can be placed that when triggered, wound or bind their prey. And the Hunter's aetheric connection to the trap, ensures they know exactly where their mark lies. To further sow confusion and disruption, Hunters can create decoys of themselves, misdirecting targets and throwing them off their real location, giving the Hunter plenty of time to line up the shot.

Mechanics: Like the RPR, the Hunter focuses on using and maintaining a debuff on the opponent, causing more damage to be taken, manifesting as a target mark. The Hunter can then use more traps that open up various weaknesses in an opponent, such as applying a DoT, giving a short damage down debuff, or their two minute cooldown, a universal damage taken increase, like a NIN's Mug. Their traps also assist in world bosses, FATES, and dungeons by also applying Slow to those in a small radius around the triggered trap. The Hunter also can create temporary aetheric decoy constructs that can attack multiple targets (or one target for increased damage), create a personal shield, or to dash into stealth, lowering emnity like a Shirk would.

Extra fluff: Originally it was meant to be much closer to the Ranger from previous entries aesthetically and was supposed to be from the Black Shroud, but I wanted to have a different cultural influence. I thought of the Persian empire and the bright and unique clothes and culture that was not represented in game and figured it could be a good source of inspiration (note the outfit was cobbled together from several designs and is not representative of a true Persian design, if I had more time I would have done more solid research into getting a historically cohesive outfit together). As I still like the traditional Robin Hood style design, it was passed down onto the Tyrant instead.

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Anyways thank you for making it to the end of the post, hope this was an interesting read and give thoughts if you feel like it! This was fairly quick and dirty so there's probably quite a few holes in them but again, just wanted to get these out there and into the community to share!

[subsequentibis]

ok in an attempt to clean out my brain and prepare for the upcoming year of art, here’s all* the hotel-related sketches i started and did not finish in 2022, some with explanation, some without. note: there are a fuckton of images in this so if you're on mobile maybe skip this one unless you feel like Scrolling. little bit of gore in there too but just one image of it

*not all of them actually bc some i did like last week and still have a decent shot at finishing, some are so sketchy they are incomprehensible even with an explanation, and some are uh. Not For Public Viewing.

first up: all of my assorted owner scribbles, because i like drawing him.

^ used to not like drawing him with wings but i’ve changed my tune a bit. they can be fun. i think i prefer the cape i’ve been drawing him with though

^ the above two were for the same concept, a drawing using the lyrics “i wouldn’t be so worried if i wasn’t always right” from lemon demon’s i earn my life. i still like the poses a lot and might do somethin’ with it

^ me n the lads were kicking around a pirate au before the ship bonus ep came out and i like how captain morgan owner came out

^ fuckin. sock garters. scandalous.

^ futzing around with an alternate monstery owner design that leans a little harder into Bird

^ was gonna be another lyrics drawing with “patient is the night” by the blasting company off the over the garden wall soundtrack, bc i love that song for hotel/owner

^ yeah i did two takes of this one too. take a wild shot in the dark why

NEXT! hotel/owner stuff!

^ followup to the piece with him crawling out of the grave i did a while back

^ song drawing that would have the lyrics “let’s do what mary and joseph did / without the kid” from marry me by st vincent

^ self explanatory

^ i have like five takes on just this pose over and over. this is the cleanest one

^ i like him beat up sorry for having correct opinions

onto more miscellaneous group drawings!

^ cards inspired by the “jack, queen, king, wild card!” line from the neighborhood bonus ep

^ manager & owner mid s5 trying to find the lobby boy

^ tsundere hotel/manager drawing, lyrics from “want you gone” naturally

^ nihil’s little hotel design enchants & delights me

^ bellhop/manager. listne. wait. hear me out come back i can explain

^ halloween costume

^ staff reacting to the pinup calendar as described in the intro written by Thee travis mcmaster i’ll never shut up about this hey guys did you know he reached out about doing that and is the nicest person on the fuckin planet

^ this is actually finished i just never posted it bc uh. well look at it man. bit saucy really

^ okay so this is like. kind of a followup to a comic i did waaay back when of my OC sal going into the hotel and getting ganked, now it’s lazarus’s turn, except he Literally Is Not Allowed To Die so the plot of this comic was going to be ‘um. guys the guest won’t die.’ it didn’t get too developed though

^ roadtrip bonus ep drawing where the car stalls out and the lobby boy has to fix it. was gonna be nihil’s lobby boy if i ever ended up finishing it

HOKAY that’s all folks thanks for lookin!

[yariktrapov]

CONTROVERSIAL TAKE

Warning: i am going twitter mode controversial.

So. I watched that one video essay about abortion and it was supposed to advocate for pro-choice, and i was pro-choice originally, but i think i switched side to some gray area.

So. I, as a person, am lazy. Extremely lazy. So i don't research topics if not much depends on it. If i don't need it for a debate or a assignment i'm not gonna think on it too hard.

So my core morals are mostly based on feelings, not thoughts. And i'm sure many people out there are just like me.

So. This video. I suggest you watch it. Very enlightening.

The questions i had was: 1. When is it immoral to get an abortion? And we kinda got the answer in the video: when the person expresses their desires which is at birth.

But.. does it?

No! I disagree.

So that prompts another question.

2. When does the future person gets desires they can express?

The desire comes from the new human, so the human must have something to create this desire. I am hinting onto a little thing called a nervous system.

So. Basically. I think a fetus can express desires, we just don't have the technology to observe it yet.

For example: the felus shifts in the tummy, and kicks and stuff. It does so because it wants to. A desire is here.

But also there's another question: Can the desire be expressed through the pregnant person? Like cravings. Does those count? Can we say that the fetus wants a certain chemical and requests it through its bearer? Or is the fetus a natural part of the pregnant persons body and not a separate entity and therefore it can't have desires before some point in time? So. I

I am stopping my thought right now. Fuck, i got a terrible unrelated realization.

I think i'm in the house of a psycho rn actually. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. I feel scared now. Fuck.

I didn't get a dorms room (those are extremely cheap and i am, as my family is dirt poor). So my mom asked his friend to give me a place to stay. He gives her a place to stay all the time so one more person won't be an issue.

I met this guy a few times, he gave me and my mom a few rides, he's kinda aggressive in the roadrage department, but a good driver. Very talkative also.

But i met many of my mom friends so they all blend into the same image for me. I forget the details she tells me because they all have similar names, faces and mannerisms. I can't tell them apart, literally. I meet them so rarely.

So. I meet this guy again. He has the "All women belong in the kitchen" mentality, but to be honest, all of her friend have this shit. I tolerate it, because these dudes are kinda a big deal, i get a few benefits for my great acting job. But yeah, that's not concerning.

We get into his car and he tells me that we're gonna clean his house today, because he does those "clean thursdays" and it's totally is his thing. My mom confirmed he made her clean and cook for him, bc woman. But he did help with the cleaning.

He shauferred us around for our errands for a while and i was a bit creeped out for his smile but it was ok, i get scared of men a lot, that's chill.

So we get to the place and my first thought is: "Poggers! There's no carpets and the furniture is all leather. It will be a piece of cake cleaning up in here!

So we made lunch, ate it together while listening to some typical Alpha male war podcast. Sketch.

We start cleaning up. I do the kitchen. I thought i did a decent job but then i went to look how they were cleaning.

They. Were. Wiping the fucking walls and everything with the window cleaner. And i mean everything! Normal things: TV, windows, mirrors. But also: doors, walls, wooden furniture. Idk if literally anyone else does that!

AND HE DOES IT EVERY WEEK APPARENTLY!

IT WAS HILARIOUS AT THE MOMENT BUT NOW IT'S FUCKING NOT.

So i thought he was just a dude obsessed with cleaning and misogyny. Wierd but not totally out of the ordinary.

And then i made a convo that went something like this:

Him: Good job cleaning.

Mom: Are you feeling tired?

Me: Yeah. I was tired from the journey before! I didn't need anymore work today.

Him: Well, now i won't give you anymore work today. We'll see about tomorrow though.

Me: And that's how he treats his guests.

Him: That's how i treat the guests i like!

Me: Oooh, i get it. Where's the shotgun?

Mom: Yarik! (Well, she said my real name but i won't get my name on the internet nonono)

*end of convo*

And that's when it hit me. The fucking shotgun.

FYI

Owning firearms is kinda illegal here. Owning guns comes with a legal reason, a permit and BIG SURVEILENCE.

There was one friend whose shotgun my mom found in the closet while cleaning.

Ha!

It was. him.

I did not remember it was him! These men, they are all the same to me! I did not remember the name!

So then i started theorizing.

We have a bald strong kinda violent man, with misogynistic war-obsessed mentality. Who owns a gun and does a casual deepclean every week, has no wife, kids or pets and has leather non-absorbant furniture. (Also i missed to tell you that he's a devoted patriot, a communist and he's also gives out insults like candy on halloween)

So i think there's 3 scenarios:

1. That man is afraid someone will plant a corpse in his house and frame him.

2. He might be afraid of someone intruding on his house and doing something to him or his house. So he accepts the possibility of shooting a perpetrator.

3. He's a fucking phycho and thinks he can shoot us if we disobey him! I am panicking i am panicking i am panicking i am panicking. Wtf wtf wtf wtf He's got a gun in a big city. With a silenser btw. Why?!? My mom thought he was a sniper. Sniper my ass, he's a psycho. Crazy person

Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. And rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. And rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. And rats make me crazy.

If you can't tell i did this because i need to calm down.

And i can't to my mom about it because she's a terrible lier and an even more terrible actor.

I'm sure i can play it cool for like a week or two. I'm a champion at ignoring my problems. I'll finish my problematic rant later when i don't feel my heart in my feet.

[comicaurora]

How do you deal with going from story eater to creator of story? What do you do if your audience sees flaws or perceives lack of depth, finds potential you never saw and feel it's wasted, or can't find what you thought you were writing? Problems you didn't realize? Mistakes? Of course people are positive but i think people who see negative are also valid to say so bc they say it for a reason and often care. But when to balance that? Do your thoughts matter at the end of the day abt the story?

Of course they matter.

The short answer is you cannot be worrying about this when you write. Your goal when writing should be telling the story you want to tell, not telling a perfect story that is completely above criticism and could never be improved, because that is impossible.

You could bake the most beautiful red velvet cake with exquisite frosting and a moist crumb and someone will tell you "you should've added another tier" and someone else will tell you "this cake would taste better if it were square" and someone will add "I think this'd be a little better if you'd used more baking powder" and someone else will say "I don't like cream cheese frosting, you should've used chocolate buttercream instead" and if you try to change your cake to please every one of those people you'll end up with a big pile of frosting-y crumbs. Plus, the people who actually like your cake fine will be disappointed that you took it away from them to "fix" it and they ended up with much less cake than they wanted.

Your audience will have opinions on your work, and you cannot and should not pre-empt those opinions. It's not your job to control how the audience sees your story - your job is just to tell the story. Criticism is good and being open to it is good, but ultimately you need to keep sight of what you want from this story. Do you want to tell a perfect story, or do you want to tell this story? In the pursuit of art, if you compromise your own enjoyment of the creative process too much, you will burn out, and then nobody gets any cake.

To address the other part of your question, the shift from fan-side media analysis to writing helped confirm something I kind of already knew: transformative work of any kind is orders of magnitude easier than building an original work from nothing. This is a huge part of its appeal, of course - if someone wants to flex their writing muscles without doing a ton of heavy lifting to establish setting and characters, they can just grab some established characters and write about them, or take an established plotline and say "I'm gonna tweak like 10% of this and see what happens." It's a way for the audience to engage with media that lets them consume it on a deeper, more personally satisfying level than just watching or reading it - it lets them digest it, turn it into part of their own creative process. I've sketched fanart of characters and scenes that were parked in my head rent-free because it gave me creative energy to do so.

And that's all well and good. It's nice clean fun. But telling your own story is very, very hard. You don't just have to build the world and characters and establish them from the ground up - you also need to guide their movements into satisfying and thematically consistent character arcs, keep the pacing tight, establish stakes that are actually concerning, build up mysteries with actual solutions that intrigue without being frustrating, dodge the yawning trope pitfalls so you don't fall in and drag the story down with you. And then you need to keep doing it as the story gets heavier and heavier and longer and longer behind you, keeping track of all the stuff you've previously established and all the trailing plot threads you haven't resolved yet and planning for where you're gonna lug the whole thing in the future.

And, to put it bluntly, it's real easy for someone chilling with a brisk glass of lemonade watching you drag this enormous tangled mass along inch by inch to sidle over, tap you on the shoulder and say "I can't believe you didn't spend more time on Guard Number 3."

Everyone who ever reads your story will have a version in their head that they think would be absolutely perfect, and some of them will complain at you that their theoretical perfect version is very different from yours, and every one of these people's perfect versions will be completely different from each other's. You cannot take it as a catastrophic personal failing that someone wishes 2% of your story was a little bit differently shaped.

Don't categorically reject all criticism, but you have to engage with that criticism critically. Some of it'll be pointing out legit mistakes (since, as mentioned, you're dragging a huge unweildy pile of tangled plot threads and big heavy chunks of worldbuilding, so you will fuck up occasionally) but some of it will just be personal preference or criticisms of the form "hey I haven't actually read your story but based on what I think it's doing I am very mad at you" and "I think this story would be better if it was a completely different story." You cannot treat all critiques as equally useful, and I'll be honest - in my experience, almost none of it will ever actually help you. Criticism like that is generally for the benefit of other fans and future storytellers learning from other people's mistakes. Your job in those circumstances is to serve as a good example and to just deal with the fact that it stings to be a good bad example.

And in general, anyone who tells you "your story would be so much better if you did my fanfic idea" can be politely and categorically disregarded.

[oakskull]

genshin as wof dragons designs I drew by @wings-of-impact ! plus all my brain thoughts about it under the cut

Links to Mod Anemone's posts: Childe Albedo Ganyu Zhongli Klee

Let's start with Childe! Its the most resent design released by mod Anenome which I Did alter a tiny bit for my brain thoughts. I based the colors off of their drawing but obv it wasn't perfect. I tried to make the tail get lighter in color but I'm not sure if you can really see it all that well lmao. But!! headcannon time!! for Childe as a hybrid I think he's got cold scales like ice wings but like only barely, but it fucks up with his fire, so instead of being able to make flames the closest he can get is like smoke. So mostly it's an intimidation thing, but even if the smoke is Pretty Hot it doesn't do nearly as much damage as fire. Also! about his gauntlet; it was supposed to be black but I forgot to paint part of it and I had already cleaned my desk and put all my stuff away so I just used a silver colored pencil. It is shiny tho!

Next up! Albedo! He was actually the one i drew last, and it was kind of hard to figure out what little bobble from his og clothes to add. (like how childe has the shoulder cauldron and earring) His main visual characteristics (not lore) to me are his hair, his big boots, and his big Ole coat. None of which dragons really Wear. In the end I gave him his little drawing clipboard and the throat diamond. Also, I think we was probably made with animus magic, and studies it. What happened to his tail? I have no idea, but it probably has something to do with never wanting to hide his imperfections. For the bracelet from Klee, I couldn't decide whether it would be a peice of scrap metal she shaped for him, or a some fireproof fabric, but in the end I never had to decide because you can't see it LMAO. pick your favorite ;)

Now Ganyu! Her little blurb is going to be a bit short, mostly bc she was pretty straight forward to draw and I don't know her well enough to have any headcannons haha. Because I didn't color my sketch of her I couldn't do any horn details to make it look more like Ganyu. I had a similar problem to albedos design, because her notable design thing is just her horns. The bell and the rope on her vision were easy to add as accessories but I'm not sure if they really scream Ganyu.

Zhongli is next! I wanted to give him a nightwing scale pattern but a mudwing body shape to look majestic while giving him little glowing bits thst glow amber. I gave him the shiny scale by the eye to imitate his eyeshadow, and I think he has the power of mind reading but is like, sick of it. So the black part of his earing is the rock that blocks nightwing powers (I can't remember if it has an official name lol) I'm unsure about Anenome's world building for their designs but my thoughts on Archons are either that they are animus for each kingdom and they get their powers how Qibli did from enchanted artifacts (the nosis, the spell would be "whoever holds this gets animus powers" or something) or archons are just leaders, where its no longer a queen only world (or zhongli and venti are just queens, i think they can do it) If the archons are just leaders than animus dragons could be in Khaenri'ah, where they're are killed or cursed by the other dragons for their hubris. OR Celestia is the animus dragons. and how do the Pantala dragons fit in? I have no idea. I'm rambling. this au lives in my head rent free.

Okay last but not least Klee! I added her hat first because she needs it. then I wanted to do her backpack but I hit my first dilemma: dragons don't really wear things on their backs. It inhibits their ability to fly properly. But Klee's comically large backpack is a huge part of her charm for me, so I wanted to add it. I decided on big ole saddle bag type things on her haunches. Okay so, elephant in the room, if you've seen the wings-of-impact post about Kler then you know, she has fire scales! So how can she wear clothes? Well I actually just forgot, but I've decided that Tevat! Pyrrhia is actually cooler and sexier and has fireproof stuff for our resident arsonist. For headcannons, I think she has an unhealthy obsession with those cactus bombs and has to constantly be reminded that she Cannot touch them. She's been trying to make her own bombs with limited success, on account of melting the ingredients and not being allowed near gunpowder.

[215-luv]

i saw u were taking requests so i thought of one! atsumu and suna with an artist s/o 🥺 i think it would be so cute ngl

okie dokie that’s all have a great day/night luv 💗💗

ATSUMU AND SUNA WITH AN ARTIST S/O

i got you my love!! thank you so much for requesting!! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

MIYA ATSUMU

being in a relationship with this cutie for over two years was the best thing that happened in your life

through your experiences with each others’ presence, atsumu knew the pros and cons of you being an artist

he knows everything about artist block, highlights, volumes, every detail being added in a painting - and that’s because he’s always watching you paint all day

it’s also a surprise he doesn’t get bored when he watches you sketch and add color to every plain canvas, bc even osamu is kinda shocked about it

^^and that little thing right there is an obvious factor that atsumu really, really, loves you more than anything

whenever you have an art exhibit or you’d have to bring some of your art to school for a project, atsumu will insist he’ll carry all those for you

and omg, when you ask him to fill the last small space in your canvas he’ll get nervous n excited!!!

^once he finishes the job, you compliment him saying how amazing he’s doing and he gets so giddy :(( he’s so proud bb

after that occurrence he alr feels like leonardo da vinci

also brags about your paintings to everyone

like suna and osamu were studying together, all serious mode and atsumu suddenly steps in and is like “hey did you see the thing i carried a while ago? it was actually y/n’s painting! they’re really amazing, aren’t they???!!”

“must be a waste to know you’re their boyfriend..”

“SHUT UP WTF”

atsumu is a really loving and supportive boyfriend to his artist s/o!! he’ll be so surprised by everything you make and will absolutely attend every art exhibition you have <3

SUNA RINTARŌ

he’s pretty smiliar to atsumu, he knows everything about what you do and how you sometimes get artist block

and what does he do? suna cuddles you to get the artist block out of you and it actually works!!

whenever you paint he hugs you from behind while encircling his arms around your waist

^when he does that he either sleeps on your shoulder or watches you fill the plain canvas with color

he’s amazed tbh, and you know he gives honest opinions so it also became a habit for you to share your next imagery for your painting and suna will tell you his thoughts about it

not that he’s too lazy to paint, but he prefers entertaining himself by watching you paint

he will also picture every single canvas you’ve painted and save it in his photos omg - one time he made one of your creations his wallpaper and he hasn’t change it eversince

he compliments your paintings when you show him the finished product but he’ll never forget about complimenting you next,,,

“that’s really pretty.. but you’re even more prettier”

one time he was randomly scrolling through his gallery during practice and kita was seated beside him

the captain noticed the displayed picture of several paintings and asks if you were the one who made them

when suna confirmed, he subconsciously starts talking about all the stuff you’ve done and the story behind it. he doesn’t even realize he’s talking too much

but thats okay!! kita is as interested as him and also takes it down how inlove suna is with you

also!! suna will help you clean up your brushes and palette :(( he doesn’t really mind, because he knows how unmotivating it is to clean after your mess

and so he makes things easier by helping you!!

when you’re doing freestyle art you ask him to help you and he happily complies

it’s a little bit of a surprise how he’s good at this stuff because you notice how his hand is really stable when it comes to adding small portions of paint

doesn’t care when he gets paint on his shirt, he can see yours staining with the same paint as his too and he says you’re wearing couple shirts

suna is very supportive of you just like anyone in inarizaki would to be honest! i guarantee he will never fail to make your ideas and thoughts come true through your art exquisitely!!

[ash-and-starlight]

Gosh, I just found out your blog and I'M IN LOVE WITH YOUR AVATAR FANARTS! Principally the ot3 with Sukki, Sokka and Zuko 🥺😍🥺😍 they're stunning!!

If I may ask: what do you use for drawing? and how is your sketching process (like from sketch to posting)? I'm learning how to draw and the sketching part is so hard for me, so I'm trying to get some tips from artists I like...

aaa first thing first uh. are you sure you meant to send this to me? because I haven't drawn that OT3 yet (the first artist that comes to mind that had some stunning art of them is @/sebsketchs so maybe you meant to send this to her?)

ANYWAY if this actually is for me nvm, and you’ve come to the right place (I hope) because I do sketch a lot lmao, more details under the cut bc it’s gonna get a lot of process pics!

I think sketching is my favorite part of drawing, it’s about having fun and not worrying how things look, be as messy as you want and try to capture what you want the final art to look like

Im taking my last art as an example but this is how I usually approach the sketch part

1. The Very Ugly Sketch. This is the most basic stick figure thing you can think of, just to figure out the poses and the general composition of the thing, and then cleaning it up a bit and adding shapes (but still keeping it messy and ugly, bless)

2. The Less Ugly Sketch. Basically figuring out proportions and the proper composition, and adding in more details. Here I try to make things prettier and cleaner so the lineart step will be easier

3. The lineart. My beloathed. So boring. Here I try to make things as Polished and Clean as possible. When will I be free

4. Im pushing this all together bc you were more interested in the sketching phase, but basically here’s where I color/shade/put the silly little details/and the silly little adjustment layers, and then I hit the post button

and that's it! I hope it was actually useful lmao, best of luck with your art it's gonna be amazingg