#I also plant to paint this is watercolor

[northssketchbook]

-Experimentational piece with traditional ink and digital painting-

[sofiaruelle]

I found my himi gouache while cleaning my room so i did some studies~😩💅🏼

[backup-backdown]

I BESTOW A GREAT GIFT TO YOU

MY LOVE MY LIFE

IF YOU WILL TAKE IT

[sarasa-cat]

Me today: tidies things that need tidying. Admires progress. Feels exhausted by all of the decisions that were made. Zones out for hours. Gets up. Tidies things that need tidying. Wash rinse repeat.

My easing-out-of-migraine brain is so ......... slow.

[merletka]

Collaborated with amazing writer @alexcors and illustrated her fanfic about Damian Wayne. You can read it bellow! 💚

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

– Concussion, multiple beatings, fracture of the collarbone, two ribs and the radius of the right arm, with multiple fragments. Do you have anything to say to that, Robin?

– This dealer raised his hand himself, covering his worthless face. What?

– You beat the suspect to a pulp! Batman barked at his son. – No patrols until Cantelli is transferred from the intensive care unit to the general ward.

– But…

– That's all.

Damian clenched his teeth, but at the last moment decided not to fight with his father over a small dealer. Cantelli wasn't worth it. And therefore, having drowned himself, the boy just fell asleep.

***

The morning began with the usual five o'clock wake-up, a workout with pruning the squalid park art that Damian disapproved of in his garden. And he was already tired of explaining to Pennyworth that the enemy could be hiding behind large figures! Then a walk with Titus on a leash, Alfred the cat on his shoulder (because the mustachioed one did not want to wake up in any way) and a red-haired squeaking lump in his hands.

The kitten was dragged by a Red Hood a couple of days ago, startling Damian at first by pronouncing his full name without hesitation (few people in the family could pronounce Hafid ibn Ksufash Dami al Ghul even from the third time), and then by an attack of compassion for the animal. However, the boy quickly recovered from the shock, named the red kitten Roy Harper and now did not miss the opportunity to tease brother with the phrase "You gave me your accomplice, Todd."

By eight in the morning, Damian had time to check on the bat cow, comb Goliath, lose the nimble red Harper and find him sleeping peacefully in the cowshed. In general, Batman's heir successfully redid all his affairs, even phoned each Teen Titan individually and gave valuable instructions. On little things like different time zones, young Wayne habitually waved his hand, and everyone also grabbed a moral slap on the back of the head for trying to be indignant:

– Do it, Beast!

– Buzz me here again, Bug!

– The aliens were not given a word.

– Witch!

Damian belatedly realized that arguing with Raven was not worth it, because the importance of portals to any part of the world is difficult to overestimate. Fortunately, he knew about the weakness of every member of his team, and in Raven's case, it was sweets. Especially his sweets, with honey and spicy notes, which the girl fell in love with from the first bite. He will have to share again… She's definitely a witch!

At nine o'clock sharp, Pennyworth served breakfast, with tea in fine china, brown sugar, a slice of lemon and... an envelope?

- You have received an invitation, Master Damian.

- It's not interesting, - the boy muttered, finished with the meal and dryly told him not to disturb him. He was going to decide the fate of the world here, and they came with some kind of invitations!

However, the plan to destroy all (crossed out) almost all people did not come to mind, but the world itself lay perfectly on paper with watercolor paints, fortunately the view from the window was conducive to this. Up to a certain point.

– Todd!

- Hello to you too, Gremlin, - the Red Hood replied, climbing into his brother's bedroom through the window, while unsuccessfully clinging to the tulle with the toe of his boot.

- Pennyworth will bury you for this.

– Yes, yes, and will plant roses from above. Not that I mind much, but that's not the point right now. Get ready to go out.

Damian took a deep breath and unleashed his entire supply of Arabic obscenities on his brother, knowing full well that Jason would understand him. Unfortunately, the pressure of the negativity did not take him back out the window, he had to take up a katana.

– Put the skewer down, shorty, the meat has just been sent to marinate.

– Will you leave on your own or will you be thrown out in parts?!

– Shut up and listen to me, - Todd barked, casually showing off his pistols with the safety off. – In short, Alfie organizes a family get-together, with meat and without a fight. Dad promised to be, I'll bring a replacement, the Gotham crime storm in a thong will come running himself. You got the simplest thing – to lift your little ass off the chair and walk to the place. You can take the menagerie with you.

- I'm not going to any gatherings with my father," Damian muttered, but he put away his saber. – So you can get out and report your failed mission. I'm not leaving my room today, basically!

- No questions,– Jason agreed surprisingly easily. - But if you walk out the door, you're going to hang out with everyone, okay?

– Tt.

–That's settled,– Jason grinned, ducked out the window and disappeared.

Damian managed to exhale with relief, when suddenly something buzzing flew over the windowsill. Titus reacted first, barking loudly at the wasp's nest rolling on the floor!

- You're dead, Todd! - Damian yelled, unceremoniously grabbing the cat and rushing out the door with him and the dog.

***

- No corpses,– Grayson repeated calmly but firmly (for the fifth time!).

- I'll beat him up so that no Lazarus Pit will help, - the boy grumbled into the phone, the call to which stopped him from righteous revenge.

– Alfred said it clearly, without a fight. Let's get together with the whole family, have a nice time, have a delicious meal.

– Tt.

– We have chosen a picturesque place by the lake, you will like it.

–Okay, - the Batman heir finally gave up. – But only because painting was part of my plans today.

– It's wonderful, – judging by the sound, Dick broke into his trademark smile. – You will draw a beautiful landscape.

– I'll paint it! Artists paint with paints, you idiot.

– And I love you, little brother.

– Tt.

Author: @alexcors

[art]

Meet the Artist: @zandrapaints

Hi! I'm zandra (she/her), a traditional artist from Northern California! I love to imagine a cozy world through my illustrations! My main medium is watercolor & ink but I also love gouache and trying my hand with oil paints. I find inspiration in beautiful California, colorful and comfy homes, blooming plants, and a simple #cottagecore life. I aspire to create art that brings people a moment of peace and love sharing my world here.

Pleased to meet you, Zandra! Below are some pieces she has shared for you all.

For more of Zandra's work, be sure to check out her Tumblr, @zandrapaints!

[unboundprompts]

I don't know if you've done it yet but could you do hazel eyes, preferably hazel green?

No rush though, love your page 💞

Different Ways to Describe Hazel Eyes

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

His eyes made them think of the woods behind his old house: not just the green of the leaves but the rough brown bark that used to scrape his hands as he climbed the trees as well.

Their eyes were the color of spring and the memory of autumn.

She had the most interesting eyes he had ever seen. They held the sweetness of honey and the softness of pastures after a heavy rainfall.

The brown elements in their hazel eyes were more dominant, complimenting the freckles that dotted their nose.

His hazel eyes had never held such hatred until now.

She had soft, hazel eyes. A warm brown with an inner radiating golden sun.

Their hazel eyes were both the sunlit branches and the moss that clothed the old oak tree.

Her eyes reminded them of spring. Irises like the forest floor that stretched over the roots of trees and the plants and flowers that sprouted from between the cracks.

He had eyes like the sea and the wet, sharp rocks that lined the edge of the cliff. The center was all rock, a harsh brown that spread out to waves of greens and blues under an angry sky.

Their green eyes were flaked with gold.

She hated to admit that he had beautiful eyes. They were a soft hazel, with waves of browns and greens and golds that mesmerized her. The warmth of his eyes however, did nothing to change the impression she had of him.

Behind their hazel eyes, he could tell they were hiding something. It reflected in the greens and golds of their irises.

Her eyes were the same colors as the bracelets on her wrists. He watched the golden metal with the blue and green gems clang against one another as she talked with her hands.

They had never imagined that hazel eyes so beautiful could look so sad.

His eyes mirrored the ground of the cemetery and the blue sky that looked down on them.

She had eyes like watercolors, blues and greens and browns swirling together to paint an incredible scene.

They had eyes that painters could only ever dream of capturing in their art.

Words could never describe the incredibility of their hazel eyes, but he was damn well going to try.

If you like what I do and want to support me, please consider buying me a coffee! I also offer editing services and other writing advice on my Ko-fi! Become a member to receive exclusive content, early access, and prioritized writing prompt requests.

[fagboyfriend]

i rlly like ur composition, i wanna know about your process :D

thank uuu !! yeah so like. composing a scene for me generally begins with a vague idea that i want to get down as quickly as possible- and for me that usually starts with finding a setting. I knew that i wanted to draw a) a group of roomates gossiping in a crowded kitchen and i wanted there to be b) one figure in the extreme foreground and c) lots of plants. i do use some tools to figure out perspective, mainly the csp perspective ruler. Usually i start by finding a picture i like similar to the vibe im going for- but instead of referencing anything else- im purely interested in perspective. sorry to anyone who is shocked i dont generate all of my perspective purely by myself- i can draw in perspective fairly well but i struggle to make straight lines and this is easier to make grids with than the line tool lol ^_^ i try to use it kinda more like spellcheck on typos than like something to fully rely on. this is the video i learned this trick from:

i saw the left photo and realllly loved how the cabinets alligned with the wall- so i used my ruler tool to draw out my inital plotted points from the image- basically the linear movements i was most interested in and then i turned off the image layer and worked with those lines and the ruler tool to move on. eventually i had this:

which was enough for me to put my characters in for the inital round. if you notice- i made a looot of further adjustments as i go on. this sketch is not a final layout, its so my characters have somewhere to be! i cannot draw someone standing on a floor if theres no floor, nor leaning on a table that doesnt exist. i can’t draw my characters without a background, but i also cant finish my background without accounting for how my characters can comfortably exist in it!!

this was the like.. very basic start. i knew the positions of two characters- but i needed to change a lot not only to fit them better but to allow for the other two figures i had planned.

okay.. a little better. i widened the kitchen, closed the fridge door.. added a chair and fit in all the figures.. but this is waaay too dramatic. only two figures are actually interacting- and they are at wildly different energy levels!

this is where things started to make a little more sense characterwiss, so i was ready to refine backgrounds and figures and unite the two.

inital base sketch. much better layout.

okay- this is where im getting my footing but things seem.. really really off. You can see me working on my framing here- theres some good linear movement from left to right here- but not vertically. It’s hard to notice the figure in the far back, so i need to redirect the viewers eye to move upwards as well!

this is where i decided to zoom out, add an interesting vertical element to the left of the image and make it clearer whats happening in the foreground. i had to account for some stuff by adjusting the cropping, but i paid attention to that as well.

annnd- thats what a clean sketch looks for me! i have all the elements of my scene accounted for, and things are clean enough to read.

the next step for me would be transfer! essentially- I print the image of my sketch out, resizing and taping pages together so my sketch matches the size of the paper i want to paint on, and then i use a lightboard to transfer my sketch with pencil onto my paper. Then i refine the sketch a few times on paper before stretching my watercolor paper (essentially just prepping for painting) and inking with a brush and colored ink before going in with watercolor, gouache and ink, then usually finishing with marker, colored pencil, pastel and ink. it’s a lengthy process but a lot of fun lol. but sketches for me can be like.. 15 layers of different roughs until im happy with just the sketch. there were more images but im on mobile and theres a 10 image limit 😭😭 im a bit masochistic but i believe that if i dont have a good sketch i dont have a good painting!!

[extinctionstories]

Carolina Parakeets, #5. Getting into the tougher stuff now.

As I’ve said, I want to use this series to talk about ways in which the Carolina Parakeet was unique. Well, there’s one aspect of this species that I think stands out particularly in the context of avian extinction.

There’s a plant called the cocklebur. Common around the world, you’ve probably met it at least once or twice, its seedpods clinging to your socks after a walk through long grass, or to a pet’s fur. (Once, this happened to an engineer, resulting in the invention of Velcro.)

To most people, the cocklebur is a mere annoyance. To farmers, however, it is a scourge. The cocklebur, you see, is highly toxic. Even an animal as large as a cow or horse may be felled if it consumes enough of the plant. Unchecked by any extant natural predator (with the exception of a few insects), careful management is required to keep pastures clear and livestock safe. Though better equipped to avoid the stuff, birds, too, are susceptible to cocklebur poisoning.

All except one.

When John James Audubon created his portrait of the Carolina Parakeet, he chose to depict the birds among the bristling branches of a cocklebur plant—what better place to pose the parrots, than nestled within the arms of one of their favorite food sources, nibbling happily on its barbed seeds.

Audubon, along with early naturalist Mark Catesby who wrote the first scientific description of the parakeet, noted also that the flesh of the birds seemed to be fatally poisonous to cats, which would quickly die after having killed and eaten a parakeet.

It’s impossible to fully calculate the toll that our domestic felines have taken on the world’s birds. Invasive on every continent to which we’ve carried them, it’s estimated that cats kill a minimum of 2 billion birds per year just in North America. These losses appear again and again in the narratives of extinction, with cats factoring into the disappearance of at least 75 species of bird in the last 300 years.

The Carolina Parakeet was not one of them.

The title of this painting is ‘The Poison of the Cocklebur’. It is gouache on 18x24 watercolor paper.

[vuelode-irbis]

Little thing I made for the anniversary of my cat's death. Every year I wanted to make something for her, but I could never think of anything, I had this dream some days ago and I decided that was it. I learned the lesson long ago, and I'm glad I could combine it in a comic.

I drew many cats, hehe, drawing them my whole life with her being my favorite model has brought me to this moment and I think that's great.

The ID is in ALT but I'll put it below a cut here + a bonus image of the last page in which my cat is not transparent, since I remembered how much I liked her pelt while painting it.

[ID:

Two drawings made with watercolor texture. The first one shows a white cat nursing five kittens that were just born, they're all close to her belly: two white ones, a black and white one, a completely black one and a tortoiseshell with white paws and nose. Text above reads: "I dreamt that you were born again. You and your whole litter". The second drawing shows two hands holding the tortoiseshell kitten, which is asleep. Text above says "I was very happy because I'd be able to look out for you like I couldn't when I was six years old".

Two drawings with a harsher texture. First one shows the palm of a hand, empty, with a grey cloud as background. The text above this reads: "I realized when I woke up". The drawing below shows a person sitting down in their bed, their hair messy, looking down at the plushes in the bed: a white cat holding a red heart, a black-footed ferret, a plant cell and a tortoiseshell cat with white nose and paws. The text says: "That kitten wasn't you".

The first drawings casts a plush cat, tortoiseshell with white paws, belly and nose, she has green eyes and a name plate with the shape of a heart that reads "Manchitas", she also has her toy tag behind her hind leg. The text reads: In esence, it was you, Nepabla, but that was not your pelt, but Manchitas'". The drawing below is a table with some keys, headphones and the photo of a cat lying down in the grass, her pelt is black, grey and brown and she has white legs and muzzle. Text above this says: "That was dissapointing, it's been a while since I last dreamt of you, even though I remember you everyday".

The drawing above shows two cats, one black with green eyes, looking up at the viewer, and a slender, tortoiseshell-and-white one also with green eyes, this one is looking at something in front of her. The text says "I don't believe dreams have a meaning, but if I had to interpret this one,"

The drawing below shows the same person from before, walking in the street and running into a white cat with long fur, which looks a little dirty and is rising their tail. The person stops to pet them, smiling. Text above continues "I'd say I do have the opprtunity to take better care of all the cats I haven't owned yet, although they're not you".

A single drawing that shows the legs of the person, in which a ghostly cat is rubbing herself against. This cat, Nepabla, is the one from the photo: a black, grey and brownish one with white legs, belly and muzzle. She lifts her front legs as she rubs herself in my legs and her tail is up. There's text above and below that reads "And you will be with me even though I can't pet you anymore. I miss you".

End ID.]

I really liked her pelt, her name is an acronym for Black with White Paws in Spanish because that's what my father said she looked like when she was born, but as she grew her pelt showed itself and we relized whe was not entirely black lol. I also really loved how not all of her legs were equally white, me and my brother would say she had a shoe, a long sock and two boots.

[ID: the same drawing from the last panel, except the cat is not transparent. End ID]

[epitomereally]

Celestial Navigation by @sabrecmc

18 year old Omega!Tony finds himself Bonded to Captain Steve Rogers. He isn't happy about it until he is.

An absolutely gorgeous story of learning to love yourself, even when you feel like you don't fit in & that you grew up wrong. I'm so happy to have gotten to bind this mammoth work for Sabre & as a gift exchange for @mourningmountainsbindery (who bound me this beautiful copy of Astolat's Let the River Run—JUST LOOK AT THAT COVER!).

Also to anyone who has @ed me lately (looking at u, em @powerful-owl & tacky @tackytigerfic particularly) & I've been derelict in responding, here is WHY.

This has been the longest binding project I've undertaken, both in page count and in time. My original message to Sabre was on March 16th—can't decide if I want to use the laughing or crying emoji here—and the colophon says I made the book in April 2023 (which was when I started typesetting, maybe). I had been randomly perusing dying videos on Youtube in bed on a Saturday morning, as one does, and came across a video showing how to spiral tie-dye. I IMMEDIATELY had a design premonition of the full design for this fic as a two-volume set, planted into my brain wholesale by the binding gods. I learned many new techniques throughout the process (edge painting, edge trimming/sanding, tie-dying/dyepainting, embroidery, typesetting meta from tumblr which copy-pastes with the worst goddamn formatting in the world, kill me now). Overall, alternately extremely painful & wonderful, and I'm extremely proud of this set.

Design-wise, I went whole-hog with the scifi stars theme. Endpapers are recolored versions of the star charts from the Apollo 11 mission:

Title page & chapter titles are both rips in the galaxy:

Epigraphs both star-themed:

Some more glamor shots because I'm so proud 💕

8.6 lbs // 3.8 kgs worth of books (~3000 total pages) 🥰

Celestial Navigation is also INCREDIBLY popular, and Sabre has been incredibly generous answering asks on her tumblr + writing additional one-shots in the universe. There is also a veritable volume of fanart. I was so inspired by seeing @robins-egg-bindery copy of ********, with its appendix of fanart & meta, that I promptly copied them.

fanart redacted because lots of the artists are no longer active on tumblr but just know i am ECSTATIC about the amount of art in these books

Lastly, I love how @clovenhoofbindery includes their 'Illustrator mess' with their bind posts, as a behind-the-scenes look into the wild process of designing these books. I don't actually have an Illustrator mess for this book (the chapter titles & title page pretty much came in one take), but I do have a DYING MESS. It took me sososo many tries to figure out how to get the dye to look how I imagined in my head. I ended up 'dye painting' instead of tie-dying in the end, but my inbox is always open to chat hand-dying/tie-dying/dyepainting (or what I did differently between any of these attempts). Numbers are the dying attempt.

Last process shot: I hand-dyed variegated linen thread to match the colors of the bind, which ends up being incredibly difficult to see on the finished bind, but was super fun while I was sewing!

Materials:

Body font: Kepler

Title font: Compaq 1982

Chapter number font: aliens & cows

Endpapers: recolored versions of the star chart used by Michael Collins during the Apollo 11 mission (archived at The Smithsonian)

Bookcloth: dyed using Dharma Trading Procion Fiber-Reactive Dyes

Title page and chapter headers: designed in Photoshop using the Ultimate Space brush pack by jeffrettalyn on DeviantArt

Metallic embroidery thread: Cosmo Nishikiito thread

I would dye for this embroidery thread. It is LIGHT YEARS better than the classic metallic embroidery thread from DMC: much easier to work with & much more sparkly. Literally so eye-catching; it truly doesn't translate to photos.

Paint for edges: Daniel Smith watercolor tubes in Iridescent Sunstone and Prussian Blue

Note: these are GORGEOUS watercolors. The color is so saturated and strong and beautiful BUT I don't think I'd recommend watercolors for edge painting. They went on very differently depending on the grit of the sandpaper I used for the edges + they sometimes bled into the pages + they had to be set with fixative, which then stuck the pages together.

[onmyownside1]

I want to learn to write so I can bring all my fantasy stories to life. I want to learn poetry because it sounds like a rap but a bit more beautiful. I want to learn how to animate so I bring all my super cool sports action scenes to life. I want to learn photography because when the sun hits the clouds a certain way they look like cotton candy. I want to learn rendering so I can upgrade my artstyle. I want to learn history so I can learn about how people lived in the past. I want to learn to learn how to embroidery so I can make patches and sew them to a black denim jacket. I want to learn to skate because people who can skate are hot and also I could go really fast. I want to learn pottery because people who do pottery are hot and also I want to make a bird feeder. I want to learn to sing so when I try to do Dear Evan Hansen and Wicked and Beetlejuice and Heathers I can put all the emotions I feel when I listen to the songs into my voice. I want to learn how to sew so I can fix clothing and make my own clothes. I want to learn how to paint so I can make beautiful watercolor paintings. I want to learn how to skateboard because people who skate are hot and it just looks really fun. I want to learn how to ice skate because people who can skate are hot and it’s something I haven’t quite mastered yet. I want to learn to tend to plants so I can make my own garden with birds and butterflies. I want to learn digital painting so I can make prints. I just want to learn.

[ezdotjpg]

forgive me if it's been asked before but alt. hobbies for your bonus links?? would guess mage has a thing for gardening and fishing because of his uncle's apple orchard with a nearby pond but i'm curious!

ooo I like that for mage! he also spends a LOT of time reading. Like anything he can get his hands on. He’s reading the driest tome abt the history of hyrulean property taxes ever put to paper

ok I have more some of these might be repeats sorry

Loft really loves woodcarving but he hasn’t been able to do it as much since he has tremors in his right hand now. he’s getting better with his left though! I feel like he might have also liked other crafts like knitting or crocheting but encounters the same problems with those. do death-defying stunts with his loftwing (safe for the loftwing, batshit for him) count as a hobby. he jumps off cliffs for fun. if u asked him what his favorite hobby is he would say it’s sleeping

Mask loves fishing too! for some reason I feel like he’d also be good at like. idk. weaving shit out of grass. he’s basket weaving. he’s making bracelets. he makes flower crowns for the cows. I like to imagine he and malon come up with a lot of games to play together with their own elaborate sets of rules. does that count as a hobby

Wolf likes to bake! he also reads a lot tho I love the headcanon that it’s like. 95% garbage romance novels. love that for him. Also fishing! I think he would also like gardening

War dances! Mostly only when he’s by himself if it’s not in formal setting like a ball. He has no other hobbies <- desperately needs them

Mini builds machines out of garbage. most of them are harmless. sometimes he’s an evil mastermind. I think he’d like sculpting things out of clay too

Mirror makes jewelry but that’s more of his profession. He’s taken up drawing and painting! noting the irony lol. he always has a sketchbook on him. i think he likes watercolors. He really likes fashion! He can sew and embroider.

Spirit also invents contraptions but that’s also his job. Knowing everything about trains is also his job. I think maybe he does not have many hobbies that aren’t also his job. Hm. Actually he really likes playing his flute I think he makes up his own songs on it. If u asked him I think he would also say his favorite hobby is sleeping

I think. Wake likes to collect weird stuff he finds in the ocean or on beaches lol. Like salvaging? It’s weird seashells. It’s cool pieces of driftwood. It’s rusty swords that wash ashore. it’s objects from another time. He taught himself to play the trumpet. He loves to sing and he’s so bad at it. If he spots a piece of rope he’s tying an elaborate series of complicated, artful knots

I think Slate really likes climbing. Like yeah he does it to get around but sometimes he just climbs giant cliffs for fun. Lots of active stuff like shield-surfing and sandseal racing! He treats riding horses as more of a hobby than a means of travel. He loves hearing stories from ppl a stables, if that counts. Game nights w the locals in Hateno. He grows different plants he finds in hyrule in his room in Hateno and Zelda does experiments with them when he’s not home lol.

[polteergeistt]

Gardening AU :3

The old mansion where Sleep Token resides had once a beautiful garden. They decided to restore it.

Vessel

Vessel got assigned the job which requires the most muscles in my opinion which isss *drumroll* taking out weeds ! He likes it a lot because sometimes it requires digging holes around the roots and he likes it. He makes sure not to stab into worms with his shovel even if II assured him that they would survive if he did. He just doesn't want to hurt the wormies. It's quite a simple task and rather repetitive. He likes to listen to music while doing it.

II

I think II is the nerd of the situation. They call him the bug man because he knows a lot about bugs and all the little critters around. However, he refuses to touch them without gloves even if he knows they won't hurt him, but with gloves it's fine as long as the bug isn't too big or too fast. He has a big book with images he carries around. Vessel makes fun of it without actually intending to be hurtful but II wields the book as if he was about to smack him in the head with it, then they both laugh about it.

III

III will not mind picking up bugs with his bare hands, which grosses out the others sometimes but in his big carefree and gentle hands the bugs look kinda adorable. He is the bug dad. III will be happy to help, not Vessel because he deems his job boring, but V and VI who plant and water. He is often covered in mud and wants to crash in the couch once he gets inside but he gets kicked into the shower at the speed of light by IV.

IV

IV is the one who does the heavy lifting. He is incredibly strong despite looking small next to Vessel and III. He can lift heavy bags of dirt and the weed and the buckets full of weed all by himself. He's very proud of it and likes to show off sometimes, all in a show-don't-tell manner. When Vessel is done weeding out the land and his back is sore from bending all the time, IV likes to give him massages. It amuses the both of them when IV makes Vessel groan and he starts to fake moans exaggerately and Vessel doesn't mind having IV sitting on him.

V

V is the one with the most knowledge about plants. She grew up in the countryside and often worked in the garden with her grandmother. She is basically the head of the operation, the one everyone asks for confirmation or advice. She prefers watering but she will do anything. When it's raining and they can't work outside, she paints flowerpots.

VI

VI also knows a bit about plants and mostly flowers. She like arranging flowers so she tells which plant to put where and when they bloom she makes wonderful bouquets and put them in a pretty vase in the living room. She hates bugs with a passion but she made a reason not to kill them and asks for III to take care of them.

VII

VII isn't into gardening as much as the others. She gets bored of it very easily. Instead, she keeps track of the evolution of the garden by taking picture every now and then. She also like to paint them with watercolor paint or draw them with pencils. She writes poetry about it as well. The garden is a golden mine in terms of inspiration for her because of how beautiful it is but also because it was put together by her friends. She shares the art she makes with Vessel and sometimes he gets inspired by it in turn. He makes fanart of VII's art, in other words.

[julianplum]

thought I'd upload a little process video of my latest piece! I've seen some tags from folks who were saying it looked digital even though they know it's not, so I wanted to show a little process so y'all could see how this painting came together!

also THANK YOU to everyone who reblogs work and leaves tags on it, it is free serotonin for artists to read what y'all think of our work and I love it so much!!!

I'll talk a lil more about my process under the cut, for anyone who's interested.

Step 1 is always research & what I call "get to know you" sketches. For this particular piece, I have a lot of nasturtiums in my garden, so I went and sat outside and sketched with neocolor crayons to get the shapes, colors, and vibes down.

Step 2 is to dive a little deeper into the details. I found references in my own plant & also online, and sketched out some more detailed flower and leaf shapes to understand how this plant works and what makes it feel like a nasturtium. I did my base color study at this point, too.

You can see some of these exact shapes repeated or elaborated on in the final piece! This was a really helpful part of the process.

Once I feel comfy with my subject material, I'll sketch out the final composition. This step REALLY helps me figure out how everything is going to flow and land on the final page. Composition and layout is that secret thing that takes your piece from a study to an illustration. I'm making conscious choices here about which way I want your eye to move in the piece, where my focal points are, where I'm leaving white space (or black space, in this case!) and where I'm putting leaves, flowers, and critters.

As you can see this isn't final, and I made some changes particularly to that middle-top section in the final because it wasn't flowing right on the page, but this is what I worked off of to get:

Some folks use lightboxes and trace their final sketch onto the page to get clean lines. I like to keep the looseness of a sketch by just drawing (and erasing!) onto my final paper. I used Arches Hot Press paper and a light green colored pencil here, and the great thing about nice watercolor paper is that you can erase into it and not hurt the grain. Obviously don't go too hard, but it's pretty forgiving!

Once I have my final sketch down, I'll usually block in my important shapes first, hence why I started with the leaves, then lay down textures and other colors, add final details, and then in this case I added the black background last, which was terrifying. I took a lot of pictures just before blocking in the background in case I messed it up!

Anyway I hope that's interesting to someone, it's probably way too wordy and granular but I love talking about this stuff and it's always really helpful for me to peek into folks' processes, so! If you've made it this far, keep an eye out for this piece to pop into my Etsy shop in a couple weeks 👀

[littlestpersimmon]

do you have specific headcanons about pablo's art style as a cartoonist?

(also I am sending a hug if you're comfortable with that, plus an apology for all the spam likes and reblogs coming from my queue)

omg thank you!

yes, I know what his art looks like.! I imagine he has a very ligne claire kind of art- do you know the adventures of tintin and moebius comics? It looks like that. He draws very simplistically, almost like Chinese watercolor on occasion -

Pablo illustrates with a steady hand- he grinds his own paints too, clays and natural pigments from riverbeds and plants on his walks- Ligne Claire works for him- His lines are strong- and he can actually afford ink; While his colors are very earthy- ground clays and coals mixed in honey or gum Arabic- poor poor lightfastness, but his talent as an artist can be seen through his lines. Lea obsessively kept the drawings Pablo gifted him; In a little mini suitcase under a loose floorboard. In Pablo's old age, the new residents of The House find the drawings and marvel at Pablo's talent, very precious few of his drawings remain, and they survived the test of time because a boy loved him and how he saw the world.

P.S

Pablo's favorite possession in the world was a wooden case carved with rosettes and little leaves of shiny capiz shells. Inside there were square pots of gouache, gifted to him by Lea, Bianca and Maximo (all three of them saved up and stole a little for it.) The paints remain untouched- Pablo has lied that it was tempera paint so that no one would try to steal it, but it was genuine, high quality gouache- yellowed, cracked and dried from decades of no use. Pablo keeps it beside him always.