#I also got to try out a new rendering style that’s a lot of fun

[ricky-mortis]

Hatchetfield Doodles!

[skitskatdacat63]

Some coloring practice w my ocs :)

Though I must say, I always really just like the lineart the way it is, I guess they're perfect just the way they are

[cicicolorao]

Hello! I think today I want to share something I do sometimes, which is studying artstyles, character designs, colors and etc, usually because I wanna draw a character a certain way and I need at least a bit of practice to get it. A good while back, I sat down and studied Rayman’s design in the Sparks of Hope DLC, all so I could possibly render Ales in a similar style one day.

Aside from the studies (and picking up the one reference to the Magician in the game itself), I also gathered some references, both old and new, to make a sort of moodboard. While the final work would ultimately be my interpretation of the character, I also wanted to try and tweak his design so it COULD, in theory, show up in a game like the Mario + Rabbids series.

That means toning down some aspects that could be read as too scandalous for a Mario spin-off game, but at the same time try to justify other elements as “whimsical” or “classy”. He has high heels because louis heels were worn by men originally, he has an open shirt because that’s how men wore their shirts in the 70s. You know, tie it to his inspirations. I also added The Mad Hatter, not just because of the wonderland inspirations, but also because I like to imagine Ales does the head waggle thing. Even if I have no intentions of animating something like this, I think having in mind the character’s use in animation helps in the design process, like what’s needed from a hypothetical model.

As for actually drawing Ales, I got. Intimidated. So I decided to break it down into pieces first, which is VERY easy with thingamajigs because they’re already broken down into pieces. Some aspects were done deals first try, like how I’d shape the eyes to mimic my own style while still using the base Rayman eyes. However, a lot of other aspects I had to sit back and consider them, like the shape of his torso. Some ideas I’m also still not completely married to, like the shape of his earrings. At this point I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to give him his bell bottoms or not, because I’d figure the devs would want the floating limbs to be front and center for the thingamajig’s designs, not just Rayman. On the other hand, Rayman HAD worn pants in some games (coincidentally the Rabbid games), so it’s not a far off concept.

Then I finally sketched out Ales! It’s not a perfect one to one of the SOH artstyle, but that’s ok, since it’s a first pass :))) I figured out how to keep his pants AND show off his floating limbs at the same time, which I’m very proud of. I do think next pass, I’d want to use a different shape for the earrings, since they’re kind of cluttered, as well as a slightly different half-up hairdo, just to give it a more interesting shape. But overall I’m happy how Ales looks!

I also drew him as a teensy for fun, just to shove him inside that bigass prop hat, and you have to get his glamour or he refuses to come out. I didn’t use my usual design for teensies because Giacomo Boni’s glade character designs are soooo funky and weird (positive, go look at his Murfy art I <333), so I made him hunched and made his nose bulbous while pointing down. Makes him look like the old man Teensies are supposed to be :)))

All in all, I’m happy with this study session! I can’t promise I’ll actually render Ales in this style, but if I ever do I have something to come to for reference!

[seiishindraws]

Hii, I saw your latest post and your art style is so pretty?? What?? I have a question though. How do you do the paint one? Or rendering in general. Like genuinely, I have a problem with rendering and I can't seem to quite understand it on my own. Do you just start with flat colors? Do you do lineart or colors right after the sketch? Is the "lineart" just added later? Painted over? Erased to give thinner and thicker lines?? I'm really curious!!

hi! im not the best painter tbh! though i do have a background in painting but ill try my best to explain

diff artists have different approaches to how they paint but generally yes, you would start out with big shapes first and then go into the details - work big picture first. like, if you squint and the drawing makes sense in terms of value and colour and shape, youre on the right path.

i can kinda show this with a warmup in-class speedpaint exercise we did a couple weeks ago where we were tasked with painting an eye in about 30 minutes (i was late and only had 20 lol)

luckily ive got the layers for this. i start of with a base layer, kind of like a underpaint layer since that's how i personally learned to paint traditionally. i did have a sketch before laying down this base layer under it but i ended up using it for final rendering details lol

after that i started laying down the big blocks of colour. i wasn't necessarily aiming for complete colour accuracy here, i just wanted to match the value. i chose a pink underlayer to influence my colour choices because the underlayer will peak through the blocks of colour i paint over it

and then (forgive me if this seems like "draw the rest of the owl" in terms of progression) but this is where i started going in with finer detail. i did the rest of the render on the sketch layer i had so you can see some of the lines from the sketch here

here's the layers completely seperate from each other

even for the flat colour version of my character, i had an underpaint layer! i used yellow and orange since i wanted her colours to be warm and used a semi-opaque brush to put her colours in rather than using a completely opaque brush

when i wanted to do the painted version, i put the lineart on multiply and reduced the opacity and brushed in some some quick shadows on seperate layer on hard light mode to give me a good base to start painting with

and then i did all the rendering and details on a new layer ontop of everything. i keep the lineart light so i can paint over it easily and also colour pick from it when i want a more distinct line to seperate certain shapes. i unfortunately dont know how to explain this part because a lot of this is intuitive to me and i'm still learning. but you gotta make use of different types of "edges" in painting, and you would generally have more contrast in the focal point of your painting than in other places to draw the eye to that point. i suggest researching the use of edges in painting if you really wanna learn more - because im a terrible teacher haha

for fun here's what the rendering layer for this one looks like on its own and the finished thing for comparison

there's other things you need to learn too, like bounce light, atmospheric perspective, ambient occlusion... and colour theory is always important! i could go on for a long time. there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle and it may seem overwhelming but there's tons of resources online and it will all become second nature to you as you keep practicing

uhh hope that helps!

[verrixstudios]

What has been your favourite art piece you have drawn? And your favourite character u have drawn?

AUGH I LOVE THESE QUESTIONS BUT IM SO INDECISIVE SO IM GONNA SHOW SOME OF MY FAVORITE WORKS ACROSS DIFFERENT MEDIA

This was my first creature art for the roblox game i’m helping on called Legends of Pandora, and it taught me a LOT about how to translate colors into my style

This was my first ever painting commission, and was the first time i’ve ever used gold foil and textures for paintings. Unfortunately I kinda got scammed with it, but the experience was still pretty awesome. I think the final products still looks pretty great in their room too!

This is one of a whole group of sculptures I made for my senior show for highschool! I graduated last summer, and wanted to try something new so I decided to go all out. I did sculpts, felting, and some wire art, but this cheetah is by far my favorite.

THIS WAS MY FAVORITE ART TRADE IVE DONE SO FAR!! I pushed myself a LOT with this one, I made a rendered piece with a dynamic pose, I actually tried a background for once, I tried drawing water for once, I used layer modes like multiply and lighten and stuff, and I even used a noise screen for it! This was a fun challenge

These were from a batch of my first time using Ink and paintbrushes andAHHH I honestly loved it. If i had the money for my own supplies, I’d absolutely use this again!!

THIS WAS MY FIRST 3D ENVIRONMENT!! I MADE THIS TWO WEEKS AGO AND I AM VERY PROUD!! I modeled EVERYTHING! Except the water but I taught myself how to set up the nodes for it!

AAANNNDDD my favorite character will always be Piper or Bentley, who belong in the same universe but aren’t directly connected (Piper knows Bentleys brother instead) She’s a goofball and I adore her, and all of the characters I made around her, Bentley and Maddox. Here’s some art I found on my phone.

The last one is terrible quality but i have no clue how to find the magma page i drew it on so oops. If you click on it it helps!

Also also if you meant character as preexisting character from some sort of media haha oops, i ran out of image space. I don’t often draw characters, but it’s probably art of Hancock from Fallout, who I used to teach myself new shading methods. Can you tell I try a lot of weird/random things and end up getting happy with how they turn out?

[u3pxx]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S 2024?!?!

next, you're gonna tell me it's gonna be some made-up year like "2025" next. tch, imagine that.

anyways, whoo! 2023! compared to both 2022 and 2021, i gotta say, my art style took a hard swerve in some direction this year. i mean, look at that klavier from january and that butch kim from just this december! (granted, i heavily referenced the portrait of butch kim but still, i didn't use to paint! mama mia!)

---

the way i drew faces has definitely changed, that's what i get for getting into something that's live-action and into smth that has realistically proportioned art lol

OH! OH! HOW COULD I FORGET!!! IT WAS (and still will be) THE YEAR OF THE OLD MAN!! i really learned how to draw aged faces this year! ach fraulein, i have not stopped drawing people in their 40's-50's! i would say "send help" but i'm actually having a lot of fun ASKSKS

---

i think a funny thing about these art summaries i've done is that they're mostly ace attorney but then there's just a month where i become a different type of ill LMAO this year it was four months for the price of two new interests!

cheers! here's to 2024!!! hope y'all have a fun art year!!!!

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i'm gonna ramble more below about like, other art things i did this year but i'm gonna put it under 'keep reading' bc this baby is getting way too wordy now WHEEZES

1. FAVORITE THINGS I'VE DRAWN THIS YEAR (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

⚖️ mea culpa comic [x]

drawing this one was so time-consuming and ambitious but boy, do i love the end result! i had fun doing the inks for this one but was it a lot! i usually color in lineart and render everything but i had to stop myself from doing it for this one bc man, i'll die asksks

this also has some of my favorite apollos i've drawn, definitely

also! the part about the lineart not being colored and no rendering ended up being a deliberate stylistic choice for this one bc i had like more freedom to do just shadows with inks without it looking too out of place.

💐 my lawfully wedded zine spread [x]

now this one isn't out yet but take my word for when i say that this is one of the most craxy things i've ever drawn for this year, on account of drawing a comic AND group shot all in one!

also literally one of the prettiest things i've rendered this year, lookit that klav...

🎉 aa4 redraw - 2022 anniversary [x]

kind of like my wedding zine piece, group photos are insane, and rendering like uhhh [looks at drawing] 11 CHARACTERS IS ALSO INSANE if i try and draw a group photo again you have to stop me DFGHDJ

🎨 my art fight stuff [x] [x]

was possessed in the month of july or smth bc i pumped out like how many drawings so quickly (before i got burnt out that is pftt)

pace yourselves and don't be like me pls ajshgdghhjk

💥 people park day [x]

my friend told me that it was very obvious i watched across the spiderverse when they saw this FDFGHJD

but yea! this is when i started getting really into like, thought bubbles or just like, panels or drawings within a drawing when coming up with layouts

i still love the colors on this one...

🪩 fem disco portraits

ok so i haven't uploaded these yet but you have to trust me when i say that something was in the water DFGHDJ

who knew that all it took for me to learn how to paint was butches

2. ALSO DID YOU KNOW THAT I SOLD STICKERS THIS YEAR IN OUR UNI'S ART MART?

THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THAT SCHOOL I SWEAR PFTTT this experience has also awaken the merch beast in me and i need to make more physical things for my brain to be happy, that's just how it be pfttt

hopefully next year i can actually start like a shopee shop or whatever lmao

3. ART FIGHT

i'm actually quite happy i got to participate in art fight this year! very delighted for all the art i've gotten and very fun to have drawn for others too!!

4. ZINES

i got invited and joined so many zines from 2022 continuing to 2023 that i kind of got burnt out from participating for now ngl ASKSKSKS not gonna be joining much this year oopsiessss! (unless i lose self-control [very likely])

5. SCHOOL

i don't actually like a lot of the stuff i draw for art school bc i tend to cram and not have fun pftt <- adhd moment, tragic! but here are some that i actually kind of like lol

6. THAT'S IT!

i think that's it! thanks for reading all the way down here!! o(*￣▽￣*)ブ

[sakarrie-creates]

Here’s my 2024 Art Summary, terribly late as usual! We’re back to including some black and white in this year and my months were very clustered, but all things considered I was actually surprised I ended up with as many decent samples for the collage as I did. I was kinda expecting them all to be messy sketches this year lol.

Just like with my writing summary, this year the questions are a bit abridged since I didn’t do a ton of art. That said, I’m still a rambler haha, so the reflection questions are answered up the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to use it!

What events did you participate in (with art)?Player Appreciation Week (old art), Fandom Trumps Hate (offered), CS Case Files Zine (comic!). Not really the type of art this summary is for, but I also created my first cosplay for RCCC!

What was your biggest challenge this year? Definitely motivation. Last year was a creative slump with a lot going on mentally making stuff hard. Mostly in start up energy, since once I got going, things seemed to go alright.

Did you try anything new this year? I got into a comic zine, which was new and exciting! My original plan was far too long for the creation period, though, so I spent a ton of time trying to widdle it down to 3 pages. I also did super messy spot art sketches for a friend’s fic, which ended up being a lot of fun! I also took some screenshots and then drew other characters into the show, somewhat trying to match the show’s style, which was definitely interesting.

Where do you think you most improved? I’m going to go with rendering again! I really love playing with color and lighting, and several of my collage pieces this year were just adding rendering to old pieces. I have a lot more confidence with it now, though I still sometimes feel like my pieces don’t end up as dynamic as I’d like. I also did a lot better at following inspiration and not being as perfectionistic this year.

What are you most proud of? I’m really proud of getting into a comic zine, even though it likely wasn’t that competitive. The fact that I got in for comics despite never having done art for a zine before is crazy to me! I was a pinch hitter, so I wasn’t originally selected, but I’m still honored I got picked eventually. I also am really proud of the August fully rendered piece of Player screaming. I did that one in almost one sitting, probably around 4ish hours, and it was one of my first times doing full color/rendering without cleaning the sketch much at all. Overall, I was very excited at how well it turned out and I feel like the messy emotions really come across!

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals?Shoutout to past Sakarrie for giving me a straight bullet point list. MUCH easier to work with lol.

2024 Goals Met:  -Number One Priority: Create for me and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music       2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail       3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin

The ones that don’t have strikethrough are a bit of a stretch, but I’m gonna give them to myself. While I haven’t added more pieces with backgrounds and need to reorganize my zine portfolio, it is in a decent place where I feel like I can use it and it will accurately represent my best work. I also didn’t really purposefully experiment with rendering or brushes, but it did happen naturally a little, so giving that to myself too. As for the ONE of the following list, I actually did digitize my 30 minutes thumbnails! It’s just not to music, so doesn’t count. Also holy dang, last year Sakarrie was ambitious with the proposal of manufacturing a pin haha.

2024 Goals NOT Met:-Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small

Yeah, these all I absolutely failed with. Oops. Probably gonna be using a fair few of these as my new goals haha.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! I think I want my main focus to be to try to draw more frequently. I’ve found that so much of what prevents me from drawing is startup energy, and once I actually get going, it all comes much easier. 

Specific goals: -Organize a go-to zine portfolio for comics, merch, page art, and spot art applications -Try to draw every month (even the tiniest phone doodle counts) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November?) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 5 times throughout the year) and maybe look into Cara or whatever the non-instagram art app is. -Experiment more with drawing in sketchy art style with full color/rendering -Experiment more with screenshot redraw/character replacements -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes put to music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics       4. Participate in an event with art       5. Draw and post for a new/niche fandom (Infinity Train, Sym-Biotic Titan, Irondad, The Flash, etc)

Overall, how’d the year go? Better than I expected when I first started pulling up my art haha. I didn’t push myself on anything but the CS comic, and that was pretty early on in the year. I also did a fair few doodle/sketch projects and followed the muse when it wanted to do rendering without drawing.

[ni-kol-koru]

Hayama news dropped, you know what that means? I am back to posting (with an essay) 🧡⚡️

I remember the day when KuroBasu official Twitter account posted an announcment of a new mobile game and openned another Twitter account that they called Street Rivals. I was sooo excited to see what the game would be about and I thought I finally had a chance to play a KnB game! The trailers looked so good and the game looked so promising and I just couldn't wait for it to drop! I was so excited to make different team combinations and try out my favorite characters and, well, just have some fun! ⭐️

Then the game dropped. JAPANESE SERVERS ONLY. I was so disappointed because playing Street Rivals was something I was really looking forward to. I quickly saw that a lot of people were unhappy with the Japan only servers and that they were sending requests for the game to drop globally. I figured and hoped that maybe the developers would listen to the fans and that they would give all of us who live outside of Japan a chance to play the game. I still have hope thay I will be able to play it one day, but I was praying that the day would come before Hayama comes out in the game (because I, very obviously, want him). HE IS DROPPING SOON AND THE GAME IS STILL NOT AVAILABLE OUTSIDE OF JAPAN. Even if it dropped outside of Japan today, I would have no time to get ready to obtain Hayama, because he will be a high rank character and I would need a lot of materials to get him...

Even though it made me kinda sad, it also made my day better because hey, at the end of the day, Hayama will get some appreciation! He will get a cool splash art, he will get rendered again and he already got a really cool trailer! I really hope that people who get him will enjoy having him on the team, that he will be fun to play and that they wony regret obtaining him! ⭐️🧡

Anyways, here is his trailer, in case you didn't see it (apologies for the bad quality):

I can't wait for his gameplay tutorials to drop, I am really curious to see just what they have in store for him! How fast will he be? Will he have all 3 levels of Lightning Dribble as a part of his kit? Will he come with the Double Clutch? There are so many things that he could do! I also can't wait to see his splash art! I just really want to see him in the Street Rivals style, it's so new and polished, it is pretty detailed and cool, too! 🧡💫

[jumpscaregoose]

that's a wrap on art posts for 2024!

like what you see? all the art I posted this year is visible on my art tag!

wanted to try something different after last year's formatting disaster, so this is less of a summary and more of an everything-I-made-and-liked collage. as in that's what it is that's what you're looking at

this was a big year for me (I started university and lived away from my parents for the first time, yayyy) and I think you can see that in how my art style evolved in the past 12 months. I'm really happy with where it is now!

last year I picked one piece from each month to talk about, so I'll be doing that again for this year below the cut

january

this is the still version of an after effects animation I did for a design class in my last year of high school. I initially wanted to post this as a gif, but I knew nothing about how gifs worked at the time and it came out both massive and heavily artifacted. I can't even post the gif on tumblr, but the animated version is up in an mp4 format (that does have more colour correction and generally looks better)

february

this is a weird pick to represent february (it wasn't even on the collage image) but this... thing does represent that month to me lol. this doodle took me all of 20 minutes and represents the most important battle of 2024... shaman king flowers stream vs frost's microwave

march

kentareo happened (in earnest, they've been here since the end of january)

april

I don't like anything I drew in april enough to put here

may

march-may was my flop era this year and I blame these two. at the start of the year I was using a LOT of heavy colour overlays to hide my inability to colour good and those really showed their weaknesses when it comes to pieces with strong complementary colour palettes. this one's nice though, I hated drawing kenta's shoes

june

big month for tss news! I really love the colours I got with my tss art from june, you can tell the overlay technique can work when you're not shackled by the kentareo colour palette

july

(wow this is really the same pose again. I promise I drew more things in between)

my first month out of high school! had a lot of fun going into the outfit details with this one

august

the most important change as far as this list goes- I switched programs to clip studio paint! I'd used adobe fresco for almost all of my digital art career, but I got a pc in august and finally made the switch. it took a while to adjust, mostly because my fresco process had emerged basically via natural selection under the program (and hardware) limitations I was working under. a lot of things (like the heavy texture) I had to relearn in csp with more intention (the august piece is a bit smooth, isn't it?)

september

I moved into uni and spent most of the month adjusting to the major life change. I spent most of my drawing time on this piece, trying to figure out techniques and download brushes to get the kind of texture I wanted. this one took absolutely ages

october

clip studio finally clicked for me. I figured out how to speed up the parts of my workflow that sucked (flat colours) and embraced a more paint-heavy, brushstrokey rendering style. the speed increases also meant I suddenly had the energy for backgrounds!

november

I drew the most this month out of any in the year. I also stopped needing the overlays to make my colours look nice, and so the palettes in my art got more diverse. this piece I remember drawing in about an hour at midnight when I had to wake up at 6:45 the next morning for work, and being so happy I finally captured this specific glowing hair effect

december

I drew so many full background pieces this month, but I want to shout out this non-background one for the shattering effect I got with the selection tool

and that's the end! many more things coming in the new year (some I've already drawn, actually)

[mintjeru]

it's that time of year again ^^ here's my 2024 summary of art!!

more thoughts under the cut!

i've said this before but i love that this is a way for me to revisit the fandoms i got into during the past year hehe

it's been less than a year since i got into turning apparently?? which is wild bc this novel has changed my brain chemistry on so many fronts

i fell into it at the perfect time to create art for the fanweek and ended up making new friends as a result ;u;

kvthm brainrot resurfaced in full force after i signed up for the gotcha too ><

i joined quite a few projects this year, both as a mod and a contributor, as well! the leadership roles are helping me step out of my comfort zone and i feel like i'm learning a lot on the technical side and on the art side!

late into the year, i decided to consciously change my art style bc i was unsatisfied with my coloring. i'm honestly still getting used to it now, but i think it's better than before ^^

i'm still pushing myself to render backgrounds and it helps being around so many skilled artists for zines and events bc i get to observe and learn from their pieces too

i've also been trying to break through the shame and draw the things i love, even if i know they're really niche and it probably won't get much interaction. after all, i'll never know if others are into the things i like if i don't talk about liking said things ^^

next year, i'm considering opening comms just to try them out! the gotcha experience creating based on others' prompts was fun and i don't think i have anything to lose by trying out comms (if i get any haha... would anyone want comms from me...)

if i continue with the same amount of commitments next year, i also want to focus more on my condition as i draw so i don't overwork myself!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Fekthrud

Happy Liminalmas, everybody! We've got fewer results than usual this week, which I would speculatively credit to a variety of factors:

Weird liminal space at the end of the year

It's Another Bird

Not a ton of fun details

It's easy to guess what the animal is

Anyhow, if you want to see the context for this, the page where I collect these posts is here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. (Hmm -- looks like I forgot to update the page last time around. Maybe that's part of the issue too.) And the entry that people are working from is here:

So, our results, roughly chronologically:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has given us these very well-rendered pheasant-like creatures. They've given their Fekthrud a head like a Pachycephalosaurus*, which I think is a great way to interpret the whole business about the hard skull; like, that had not occurred to me when reading the entry, but now that I see it, it makes perfect sense. In general these are excellent birds here, and you can see some brief notes on design decisions in the post linked above. I like the justification that a ground bird makes the most sense if they're adapted for falling on rocks and/or running into stuff head-first.

*Proud of myself for spelling "pachycephalosaurus" correctly without looking -- being a former Dinosaur Kid pays weird niche dividends.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to impress with her medieval-style drawings. (And to provide alt-text, thank you.) I really like how colorful and generally very pretty she's made her Fekthrud. I also appreciate the decision to show them attacking someone who is trying to take that "iron rod" advice. Very correct response -- get 'em, birds. If you click the link to her post above, you can see some discussion of design decisions.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has made the excellent decision to pose their Fekthrud like it's giving a speech. (And the generous decision to provide alt text, thank you.) This bird absolutely looks like it's saying "Ave!" -- I can clearly imagine it addressing the Roman Senate. Cheapsweets has also taken inspiration from Pachycephalosaurus, and I love that two of our artists got there independently -- like I said, it's an idea that makes perfect sense once you think of it. The post linked above contains a detailed discussion both of their design decision and of their artistic process, including an image of their tools and materials. Go read it.

@pomrania (link to post here) has decided that, rather than make the actual bone of the Fekthrud's skull thick. it should have a thick cushion of feathers. I don't know much about birds, but I feel like that makes sense: thick and heavy bone might be a weight issue if this thing is supposed to fly, so a feather cushion might be more practical protection. The goofy look with the tongue lolling out is also quite charming. In the post linked above, you can see some brief notes on design and process.

And... that's it for this week. Like I said, not a lot of people did this one. So, the Aberdeen Bestiary version:

Yeah, so, of course this one is the parrot.

The medieval illustrator is actually pretty close, I think. And they've used one of my favorite styles of Generic Medieval Plant, even though it doesn't look like it can support the parrot's weight.

The entry is broadly accurate, except for the bit about the skull and the iron rod. There are parrots in India with the coloration described -- multiple species, actually, as far as I can tell. They do talk, though I can't speak to the tongue anatomy thing.

Moreover, if you were a parrot trainer in India who wanted to impress medieval Europeans with your talking birds -- maybe so you can establish demand for them in a new market -- of course the first thing you'd do is train your parrots to greet people in Latin and Greek. Latin is the obvious catch-all, and Greek is the majority language in Constantinople, which is the trade hub you want to target. So I bet all the parrots from India that medieval Europeans saw really did say "Ave!" and "Kere!" (And we do know that people in the Byzantine Empire had pet parrots, so I guess it worked.)

I've never heard the thing about parrots having a hard skull and beak. I kind of wonder if, at some point, someone saw a parrot being struck by its owner (or the aforementioned hypothetical merchant) and asked if it was really necessary to beat the poor bird like that -- and got a line like "oh, they have really hard skulls, it doesn't hurt them as much as you think"... and then that just stuck.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Hope y'all are enjoying Birds because you're getting another one next week.

[inkwell-and-dagger]

I love your art style!! How did you gain it?

WAIT OMG 🥹🥹 THANK YOU SO MUCH ANON!!!!!!!!!

okay so! hmm

I've been doing mostly traditional art for a good portion of my life now, so to be honest I'm kind of new to digital art. back then I mostly just drew profiles and faces and wasn't good at anatomy (but to be honest I'm still bad at it- I use Poseit to help me ;D!!) and I hadn't really touched digital art until around. last year to the year before that I'd say? I'm not sure. my memory is horrible

as I said, I now use Poseit to help with structuring my art, and my previous art style just looked a bit. strange with it I'd say? lemme find the first digital art I posted

foster! this one was made using a posing template I found on pinterest, not Poseit. I wasn't all that good about making clothes look like clothes, so other than the little creases in the shirt their clothes look a bit strange. I'm really iffy about the eyes and the way I shaded them, and back then the way I drew scars is really different to how I do now. I'm all for the clean look it has at the end, but I prefer my new style ;3 also I remember I immediately went in with doing lineart instead of sketching out what I wanted to do first? on the plus side, though, as I said the finishing style is clean, the lines are consise and their expression is definitely foster-y, and I actually don't mind the shading!

as previously stated, that was my first try at digital art. now let's take a look at my most recent one, aka my pfp (actually, I'll use two recent ones)

Rayan (left) and Ruaridh (right)!!

let's start with the rayan one! as with foster's, I stuck to having clean lines, except I think I did vary the sizes of the lines? I'm not sure. I've only recently begun adding things like blood and blush to my art, so I don't think I've mastered it just yet. idk, does that count as rendering? I'm not sure

god, bloody noses. I love bloody noses. I had so much fun giving Rayan a bloody nose it's insane. also, you can tell that the lines on the scars are slimmer compared to the ones on foster, but I think they'd look better more like. idk, wiggly? uneven? scarry? I'm not exactly sure

and then Ru, omg Ru. this was my first try making a background, and I used stencils from ibis paint to do the trees n leaves n whatnot. this was more of a chance to experiment than anything; using a textured brush was a really nice change, and I got inspired by @/befuddled-calico-whump (sorry I'm a big lurker around their channel I really like their art) and the way they sometimes show the sketches beneath the actual lineart in their own pieces! it allowed me to be more messy and make it look more candid (?) in my style. I didn't really go for too much shading other than the lighting of the moon, since I still don't know what I'm doing with shading 😭😭

anyway! I guess the simple answer was a lot of years spent tweaking my style, and sort of just experimenting and having fun until I settle on something I'm comfortable with. I'm still new to certain aspects of drawing digitally, but I'm glad that people like my art :3

thank you for the ask!

[pine-niidles]

Looking Back on 2023

Heyyy folks! Long time no news from me huh. 

I'm struggling to think of what to even say about my silence. I've not been doing so bad I'd call myself depressed, but I'm doing a tad worse than just a slump. It's been a rough 6 months, not because of one big thing. Instead, a bunch of medium-sized reasons all piled up on top of each other to leave me extremely drained. I've mostly been working on the two commissions I still had in my queue (thank you to my commissioners for being so patient with me, I'm so sorry to make you wait so long <3). I've done a little personal art other than that but didn't have the leftover focus to keep up with sharing it on social media or writing up any updates about my situation. I've pretty much only been active sharing things in my art discord. I'd like to say I've been doing better in the last month or so, but I hesitate to make any promises at this point! We'll just have to see how things go :)

Artfight

So you were promised a more in depth artfight review but I think I missed the right timeframe for that... instead have this look at 3 years of unfinished artfight thumbnails from my new year's wip clean-out!

Year of Art Summary

All things considered I made a lot of art this year, and I'm really happy with how most of it turned out ☺ I did a bunch of experimenting with more playful techniques and color schemes and I think they suit my style a lot. I want to try and much those limits even more next year to see what kind of fun art I can create! Something with colors specifically really clicked in my brain after that witch drawing I did in April, before then I would spend a long time figuring out the perfect color scheme and doing a bunch of adjustments but ever since that drawing things have really been coming together super quick? I'm not sure what changed but no complaints from me. 

Life Drawing Summary 

I rarely post my life drawing but I've been keeping at it! Actually, I put together a few pdfs showcasing all my life drawing going back to 2022, you can download them for free in my itch or ko-fi shops! :>

I also put together a yearly art improvement comparison going back to 2015 that I was planning to put here. However, seeing how long this is already getting... I'll make a separate post for it.

Commissions

I've been gearing up to open commissions again after that unintended hiatus. I don't want to open slots until I'm sure I'm back to being able to finish them in a reasonable timeframe, so I've been using that leftover energy I do have to think about revamping some things and new styles to offer. Back in November I ran a survey on what people want to see from me (it's still open if you'd like to fill it out and help me get more stats!) 

here's a preview of what's to come based on that & my whims:

- stamp commissions were super well received so they'll be added to my main repertoire

- A combo of me reading too much dun meshi and wanting to offer some kind of comicky commissions led to this idea of comic pages of characters eating together, I have a couple examples in progress, when they're done I'll add this style to my main offerings!

- I'm still not 100% set on sketchpages but I like the idea of them so if this test goes well I'll add them as an option

Onward to 2024! 

I already completed my new year's resolution on day 1 of 2024, it was to pet a cat. I've made a second one which is to get a library card whenever my visa is approved and I move back home. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a while but never got around to, hoping this will be the excuse I need to do it.

Art-wise it's not a new goal, but I've been trying to focus on improving my rendering! Though I've also been playing around a lot with screentone... the two don't have to be at odds 🤔 

I'm dedicating this year's personal art time to making new references for as many ocs as possible with nude bases so I can easily design new outfits for them whenever I want to without fully making a new ref from scratch.

Otherwise I'm just trying to take it slow, work on things one at a time and see what happens from there.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Half Past Dead (Paul, 2002)

In most prison movies, prison is a pretty bad place to be. Not in this movie, which is set in a state of the art prison called “New Alcatraz”. Here, the prisoners get to play video games in their cells. And even when they’re on death row, they get to chill out with a screensaver of their choice and get to pick the method of execution. Yes, I know, carceral state and death penalty and all that, but putting aside greater moral and policy questions, staying at this prison doesn’t seem so bad. And even the warden played by Tony Plana, who in most prison movies is a sadist on a power trip, seems like a pretty chill guy here. It probably explains why the prisoners don’t revolt or try too hard to escape when some bad guys break into the prison, but instead work together to take them out. Whatever the warden is doing is clearly working.

This movie pairs Steven Seagal and Ja Rule, who make a great team because they’re both bad and have no chemistry. (It’s like jazz. It’s the rapport you don’t see.) Interestingly, Seagal tells Ja Rule “You’re bad” at one point, by which he means “good”. Ja Rule earlier teaches Seagal how to say “aight”, Seagal attempts a Russian accent for maybe a single line, Tony Plana speaks some Spanish and calls Seagal a “homeboy”, you add in a whole lot of Dutch angles in the cinematography, and this is a real cultural melting pot of a movie. The boys also bond when Seagal does donuts with his car, which causes Ja Rule to be launched out when the door opens. Anyway, I don’t think Ja Rule is entirely devoid of screen presence, but he does deliver most of his lines by tilting his head for some reason. He also calls somebody a “biatch”, which is not a term I’ve heard in spoken out loud in almost two decades.

They’re joined by Morris Chestnut as the villain, who is actually pretty good here, especially when he compliments a female judge on her accomplishments and appearance and then makes her cry for not having a husband. He’s got Nia Peeples as his main henchwoman, whose midriff is bared to sex up an otherwise PG-13 movie and spends many of her scenes having kisses blown at her by Ja Rule, which is better than having kisses blown at her by Seagal. There’s also Claudia Christian, who spends most of the movie kept out of the action and instead talking on the radio. She is therefore the female character afforded the most dignity in all of this.

Anyway, this is pretty obviously a piece of shit, but I had a good enough time with it. This falls firmly in the nu metal style of filmmaking popular in the early 2000s, which is absolutely not a good era of action cinema. (To be clear, the soundtrack contains hip hop and techno in addition to actual nu metal.) Lame gimmicks (swinging on chains, dual wielding, a state of the art targeting system introduced at the last minute out of nowhere, unnecessary skydiving scenes, characters playing dead multiple times), fast cutting, jagged camera setups mashed together to create the illusion of excitement, but as with the climax (the first of two actually), these flourishes usually just render the proceedings a spatially incoherent mess. And there’s the very obvious use of stunt doubles, which is probably excusable in the case of Ja Rule, who is not an experienced action star, but is distracting in the case of Seagal, whose double is noticeably leaner than the real thing. (Seagal is also shot in dramatic closeups, likely to hide his girth and also create the illusion of charisma.) But time has been kind to anything shot on film, and there is some pretty nice lighting and one pretty fun action scene where the bad guys parachute into the prison and blow away a bunch of guards in the rain. And I dunno, all the stupid shit that happens got some chuckles out of me. It’s very obvious why Seagal stopped getting to star in theatrical releases after this, but I had fun.

[sabrondabrainrot]

Clown weekly check in!!!

Time for the clown weekly check in!!! Yay!!! So, how was your week this week, anything new or exciting? Do you have any news? Did something unexpected happen, or maybe it was just a plain old week.

Question of the week:

Do you have a favorite video game?

I be good! I hope you are also good!!!! Not much excited happening on my end. I've recently been trying to emulate old PC games and old Playstation games on my PC because I really like the old aesthetics. Especially the old aesthetics of PC98 games. The pixel art is so insanely gorgeous in those games (I want to draw pixel art again). I wanted to play Policenauts in the original PC98 format but I couldn't get my emulator to run the HDI file so I gave up and turns to the crispy PlayStation translation of the game. All the voice acting is still in the game but the art got downgraded sadly. I've also...been dragged back into CRK....the humanity of it all....

In terms of favorite video games it's so hard to choose! Probably Ace Attorney trilogy? I've played it so many times. I also love the follow up games with Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes. I've even played the Professor Layton crossover Ace Attorney game. One of my favorite live actions is this old early 2000's Japanese live action Phoenix Wright movie and I can't remember how I got a hold of it to watch it with subtitles but man is that movie so funny. Then there's the musicals on youtube. I also loved the ace attorney trilogy revamp on the 3ds (It can go 3d!!!) so I played those cases (they even added the extra ds exclusive case!)

My other favorite game is Final Fantasy 7 (I grew up playing the OG game on my PlayStation 2). The music was always my fav part next to the insanely detailed pre-rendered backgrounds. It's also a really funny game. I remember choosing a really funny name for Cloud the first time I played it and me and my sister couldn't stop giggling over it. The first time I had to swap to the second disk felt magical too because I didn't play a lot of games that needed disk changes!

I'm also a big fan of Persona series! I've played them all except 2 because I haven't been able to emulate it just yet. Persona is so cool one of the first ones I played is Persona 3 and I'm so attached to the MC. The game had so much edgy drip to it and the soundtrack and art is so different from any game ever. Then of course I played P4 and P5. The games are just so near and dear to me!

I also love the fire emblem series! Me and sister played it to death on my 3ds and I was hooked since. I didn't like conquest much because the story in that one was kind of dumb imo but!! Awakening!!! Is so good! It's so silly. Then I went and rommed the old games because I just love old pixel art and the tactic style game play is super fun (I suck at fighting games and real time stuff). Awakening is also this one game where you can like make any ship happen and you get real kids out of it! It's so crack but so fun. Conquest brings this element back but it doesn't make sense to the story why it's happening.

Another game I really like is sands of destruction on the DS. That game has an anime spinoff that's so-so. I watched it to death but it doesn't match the game or story at all! XD It's a classic save the world but the art is so great! I was a huge sucker for it. The fact I finished it made me so proud! I saved the world and made sick combos. It was awesome.

I also like Atelier Annie on the DS (sorry so many DS games) but in the game you do so many things it's kind of like stardew valley? You do mining and you have to learn how to make potions and you have to also manage a shop and eventually you grow a business and a hotel to help this island you moved to. There is also a dating sim aspect and the art is so neat!

I also like playing Kingdom Heart!!! I'm a huge KH fan and I'm deeply invested in Sora and the entire lore of the world. I love everything to do with KH, KH 2 all the spin offs. I just got the game re-released on the PlayStation 4 and KH3. I'm in love with the game and story.

I also am ride or die for ANY rhythm game. I have FF Dissidia the rhythm. I have the Miku 3ds game. I play the rhythm games. I play to death all rhythm games. On anything. Doesn't matter the genre. I ripped it up on the dance mat. DDR is my jam. I still have the mats.

I will also never forget Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. That is the BEST Pokemon games. I like explorer of time, darkness, and then the sequel Sky. It's got a manga too. I read the manga by renting it from the library as a kid and basically rented it weekly...that story is so rad. The OSTs are iconic. It's so incredible. Also in the game when you boot it up it does a personality quiz to determine what Pokemon you are isekaid as. My first time I got a Piplup!!! It even guesses your 'aura' based on your DS' settings and colors. It was so mind-blowing. It is the only game I played until my DS cartridge broke.

I have too many games I like....this is only scratching the surface....

[ggitty]

That's right! My mistake. And I remember seeing that second one on the internet years ago and I kept wondering if it came from some content that wasn't from the show, like wallpaper or promo art. Took a rewatch to catch that poster.

The JimmyxCindy one was definitely a headscratcher cause it looks like a fanedit still from the episode. But it felt too "official" to me, especially for something that came from the early-mid 2000s.

Goddard speaks for one scene in the PC version, the sewer level I think? The voice just doesn't fit him.

He'll be the ULTIMATE FINAL BOSS.

Definitely hope he wasn't kicked off for that. (I'm just glad it was a mere mention and not like, leaked art or trailer. Spongebob was a big victim of that last year.)

Not the biggest Danny expert either, I keep seeing conflicting info concerning that movie. (But the new graphic novel for it that comes out this year I know is real, so the fandom should have fun with that.)

I think I've seen that *artstyle around before, cool find! (*And it just reinforces my belief that Jimmy's design has inspirations from 50-60's comics, like Casper and Richie Rich.) Try searching "Jimmy Neutron Nickelodeon comics" in different search engines, you might find some more stuff~

Concerning the movie stuff, CinemaCon starts on March 31st, Paramount's specifically is on the April 3rd. Also, I was looking up some old interviews with Davis about a reboot feature and caught a MTV one from 2016. Or rather, someone caught his quotes before the page got lost to time. He mentioned if he ever got the chance, it would involve time travel [not skip]; seeing how the JN gang ended up in a bigger manner. (Basically All Grown Up/Channel Chasers type of plot)

For some reason, I'm sure they put it in the episode as a little joke, because the show occasionally inserted different reference images or just funny little renders/drawings in the background “blink and you missed it” style lol

Honestly, I'll take your word for it, I'm too lazy to watch the whole gameplay lol But when trying fast check I remembered how funny the brain blast was in Neutron vs Negatron I mean it's literally do this

And it's like one of those scenes in Power Rangers where they combine into one big mecha lol And I guarantee that they will fail because these 4 geniuses will try to pull the leadership and their own personal interests right in the middle of the battle lol

Oh yes, I've heard about the graphic novel and even saw a review of the first part, it looked pretty good!

This art was done by Stephen DeStefano! He has contributed to a huge variety of great comic books and animation projects, like a really huge amount of lol But yes, I'm sure that the style of the 60s comics and the 60s aesthetic in general was a very strong influence especially in early development of JN (if I remember the first concept art has a strong Jetsons vibe to it for me lol) Later, it will slightly shift into a freer 60-70s interpretation

And yes, I've seen it! I spent several months just scouring various sites and a lot of internet archives looking for these pieces ahfha (thanks to those who archive it, you are THE best)

Oh man, I'm both excited and scared at the prospect that we might hear something about it lol

Haha, I remember something like that! (oh boy I would still eat that damn timeskip type of thing in the last episode as a finale)