#I had this sketched for mermay... lol

[annama-art]

A lazy mermaid's bathroom

[sodapopseagull]

idk if it really warrants addressing, but just in case, my apologies for being effectively gone for the past like, month and a half. Good ol' mental health decided to take a nosedive which was very uncute of it, but I've been relatively not-disastrous for the past handful of days and I'm hoping that means I can be back to being a dumbass about Gale and bloodweave a bit more regularly? One day at a time though.

Apologies if I've missed any messages here or elsewhere in the meantime, and I hope you're all doing as alright as you can be 🙏

[vantagrapes]

Finished some Mermay art!

Sirenmare went too deep and found someone!

He'll... probably be fine...

[artingstarvist]

Just in the knick of time I made something for MerMay lol. I had a bunch of these chibis sketched out so it's a shame I only got Xie Lian done. Oh well. The Little Mermaid Scrap Collector. 😊

[redstarfish-art]

Welp, at least I finished something this time! Even though I had to rush like...most of it once I realised it was already the end of the month lol.

First time I've ever drawn something for MerMay! Wohoo!!!!

I was going to add textures and backgrounds but I forgot that I stopped my background programme subscription and I didn't have time for textures because, as mentioned, end of the month lol!!

Despite the messy sketchy-ness of this, I'm just really happy that I managed to sketch something that's (sort of) complete for MerMay.

[xylo-copa]

I had to finish at least one of these while it's still merMay, here's praying the sketches I have of the million other characters come to fruition at some point lol

[sealofarchives]

Oneshot scenario: Merfolk!reader with the turtles (separate)

Just something for a mermay themed prompt while trying to think of other stuff to write

Warnings: the slight mention of drowning (just a brief topic again nothing too graphic)

(I forgot the exact concept art picture from one of the scrapped episodes where Mikey went all out for a mermaid costume for a distraction but, surprisingly it helped while trying to brainstorm ideas for the other scenarios lol)

Soupful Confessions

In the lair, close to the living room...

You were about take another spoonful of clam chowder soup. While your fish tail sat on one of the steps a surface level in a large aquarium tank filled with water. You placed the soup bowl by the makeshift table beside you. Then swam towards the box shell turtle pacing around a few distance away from the tank.

Before you could ask, Mikey immediately squeaked startled by your sudden appearance.

"Oh (Y/N)! Was the soup okay?"

"Mikey, I'll pretty much eat anything you make. Sorry for scaring you."

"Is something on your mind? You almost made a lap walking around my tank."

"Well... Despite that short-staffed situation during a surf and turf event near the Run of the Mill pizzeria..."

"I'm still excited that I made friends with you and a few other merpeople!"

You winced with a fake smile before going back to the soup filled bowl.

"I mostly tagged along with that group for a discount on seafood pizza."

"I couldn't stomach the idea of eating turtles, let alone ones who were brave enough to serve an angry mob of hungry merpeople."

"Yeah... I still think we were pretty lucky that we based off the menu from a few of dad's old movies. Clam chowder being one of those."

You blinked surprised at the soup then back to Mikey.

"Any clue why he doesn't like talking about clam chowder?"

"Because I tried bringing it up and he just avoids the question with something else."

Mikey only shrugged while playing around with his orange bandana tails.

"He told us only criminals like that movie but, Cassandra turned over a new leaf because of his words of wisdom."

"Maybe, something terrible happened during the making of the movie so, it might have been that..."

You hummed understanding that reasoning. Then held the bowl to drink what's left out of the almost empty soup. Mikey gulped as you perched your arms content with the meal.

"Hopefully its not too weird to ask but, are you free to be a muse?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I had a few sketches for some disguises especially with the mermaid theme in mind but..."

"I didn't want to offend you if some of the designs are in poor taste..."

You couldn't help but, giggle at Mikey as you placed the bowl on his head.

"So you want feedback from me? Sure, I don't bite."

"But, take it easy when you decide to use said distraction in action."

"I wouldn't want that cute face of yours getting hurt."

Mikey blushed as you winked at him and hurried off to get dessert. Unfortunately for him, his brothers also saw the incident and appeared with teasing grins, casually hanging around the kitchen like nothing happened.

Old and New Memories

In the turtle tank...

Donnie spoke up with a sigh.

"You know its impolite to stare at someone for a long period of time..."

"Oh sorry, a while ago, I got stuck with helping one of my classmates for something in Witch Town."

"That place still mentions you-"

"Being the infamous scientist turtle who scoffed at anything magic related and destroyed the center piece statue during an important ceremony."

Donnie felt an imaginary arrow hitting his head as he winced while you continued to talk.

"But still, you made a long way from being stubborn about mystic magic."

"And gained some understanding of it through your way of approaching things."

You fidgeted one of the charms added to the custom made backpack (courtesy of the purple turtle himself) to avoid the tedious process. Carrying a large jug of water when there's no aquarium tank around.

Donnie faked cough now regaining his composure as you looked back at him.

"Accidental destruction of property was the more correct term to describe it..."

"At that time, I was more focused proving April wrong that she didn't need help from those witches."

"Also, there is no way I'm setting foot near that place if they still talk about me in that matter."

"I was already greeted with the angry mob gathering pitchforks and torches when I tried to apologize for my actions."

Donnie crossed his arms as you lightly puffed one of your cheeks.

"On a lighter note, I found out some of my classmates grew up with parents who are big fans of Splinter's movies."

"And..."

You held up a conch shell device and played a recording from its string.

"Do you think we'll turn heads if we change the purple one's wanted poster in a light tone similar to the splitting image of Lou Jitsu?"

"I already heard stories how the former star dedicates his life to raising four turtles and..."

"The purple one can easily get away with anything for having such dashing looks-"

You immediately held the string down with blush surfacing an annoyed look on your face.

"It slowly started an argument on which of you was the best Lou Jitsu look-a-like."

"So the fan club forgot to start the project..."

"But still, at least you have me and a few other fans by your side."

Your fish-fin ears fluttered a bit taking notice of Donnie's smirk.

"While I'm flattered by that girl's comment, I only assume you haven't thought of the idea towards a surprise meet and greet."

"Or you don't like the thought of her dating me..."

The blush deepened your face as you looked away.

"I think she'll be more disappointed that you aren't into pda and hugs."

You felt Donnie's arms pulling you into a hug now sitting on his lap.

"Given the nature of my happy go lucky family members, I just give in to the hugs. However, for you."

"I'm willing to make some amends towards my soon to be partner's needs..." On the back of Donnie's mind was slight panic. With the realization that you look really cute sitting there. And how, he got a closer look at your face.

A Merfolk That Can't Sing?!

Near a rooftop pool close to 10 pm... (Totally not trespassing says the red slider turtle)

Your face sank halfway into the chlorinated water. Attempting to hide the embarrassed feeling as Leo immediately sat up.

"Wait, for eel? I always thought it comes naturally that most merpeople can just lure anyone in by a wonderful singing voice."

You laid on your aquatic back, letting the water glide you across the lightly dimmed pool. With a whine at Leo's fishy oneliners.

"Not me, my parents tried to get help and it didn't even work."

"I already don't like the thought of it being associated with drowning..."

"I almost forgot about that part but, the reason I brought the singing was more towards..."

"Donnie was playing a game where sirens sang during a boss fight."

"I don't know much about metal but, the song surprisingly blends well with the siren singing."

"Okay? I still don't get what you're trying to say."

"I don't want to sound like Dr Feelings but, if you have a favorite song you'd usually like to hum to."

"Maybe try that, since you don't seem happy trying to fit into the scary siren image.

Leo saw you hesitated for a bit but shrugged, now lazily laying on your stomach.

"I'll think about it but, thanks for the brief pep talk."

"Well if you feel up to a small karaoke battle, you know who to call!"

You held back laughing at him in an attempt to hide the blush on your face.

"You almost fell off the turtle taxi proudly winning the previous karaoke battle during a late night beach party."

Leo's confident smile quickly faded into embarrassment. As he immediately placed one of his beach hats on your head. Causing you to sit up to avoid damaging the hat.

"It still counted as a victory for me. We weren't expecting anyone to be up around that time."

"Let alone a surprise visit from a merfolk."

You blushed at the water's reflection, wearing Leo's straw beach hat. A tiny bit of regret deepened the blush as you caught sight of his slow smirk.

"Did my singing actually lure you in?~"

Your fish fin lightly splashed water near his face as you looked away.

"The turtle tank caused a tiny rumor about a turtle with a taxi on its shell"

"I don't think Donnie would be happy about making his prized vehicle open to the public."

Leo wiped the water off his face with a spare towel as he got off the chaise lounge chair.

"I still think I lured you in."

"It just happened to be in good timing, with Donnie making small tests to the turtle tank."

Your fish tail sat by the pool step ladders as you sighed.

"Just don't add any love songs to the playlist or I might curse you for a week."

"I can probably handle whatever hex you throw at me but, I'll still give you dibs on picking the first few songs.

"Just so I have somewhat an idea of what songs you're into."

Ever since he got you to laugh at some of his jokes, the red slider turtle believes you have that merpeople charm in you.

Early Morning Seaside Chit Chat

Close to early sunrise by the Hidden City beach.

The turtle tank was parked a few distance away from the volunteer vendor booth that usually helps with clean up, trash, and protecting wildlife. However, the daily weekend event usually starts in around 9 or 10 am.

Raph could see the groggy eyebags on your face as you struggled to stay awake, resting your arms above the aquarium tank.

"We brought some snacks that should last until lunch."

"So try to eat something so you don't accidentally chomp on a seagull."

You snatched a family sized bag of chips from the snack pile. With a brief thanks as Raph sat across from you.

"I scared off some birds from last year's sea turtle hatching tour."

"I'll be fine."

Raph bit into a piece of jerky as he rolled his eyes.

"That one pink heron almost knocked you into the sea if we didn't step in to help."

"Mikey almost saw a baby turtle getting pecked to death."

"That's the only time I pick fights with any of those birds."

Raph muttered a sigh under his breath as you pouted.

"Okay I'll admit, we didn't want to see that but..."

"I'm surprised how you convinced Donnie and the volunteers to set up a eco friendly barrier for those baby turtles."

You smiled a bit biting into another chip as you spoke.

You guys still helped, spreading the word through cute flyer posters and a tiny fundraiser for a good cause."

Raph lightened up with his toothy grin as he chuckled.

"So, no secret plan to get revenge on that bird."

"I mean Donnie was almost thinking about it, until he got praised with so many compliments displaying his work to the staff."

"Oh, so Donnie didn't have some speech with how cruel nature is and just went with your idea."

You accidentally yawned with an annoyed expression on your face.

"He did but, life is already like that sometimes."

"And not to bring down the mood but, you four would have been just regular turtles if it weren't for Splinter stepping in to protect you guys from being Draxum's super soldiers..."

Raph hummed briefly looking down at the half empty plastic bag.

"I don't think I could fit in with the other alligator snapping turtles."

"I had a lot of weird moments not realizing its a solitary thing and its just not for me."

Raph looked up after hearing you chuckle.

"You could easily win a few over just from your gentle smile."

"Showing off your strength is one thing but, your level of honesty."

"Its almost too sweet that it could blind the competition."

The alligator snapping turtle blushed at your compliments.

"If this is your way of wanting that expensive seafood buffet for lunch, I'm not budging..."

"Awww, but I saved up enough money for a really good couple's discount~..."

Raph eventually caved in to the offer after most of the baby sea turtles safely made it to watery shore. However, to your surprise, the two of you sat in one table alone. With the blush beginning to appear on your face as the waiter took his order.

[apazwtsn]

heeeyy how r you doing?? wanted to ask if you'll be participating in the johnlock week 2025? every day closer to the date im less confident to take part so i wanted to see if i wasn't gonna be alone in this :') (also i crave more of your art at all times:)) but hey no pressure, i just wanted to know!!

hi hi hi!!

actually, i generally want to participate in these stuff like Mermay, Inktober, etc. very much but i can't handle a drawing per day, actually. it takes time that i do not have and i wish i had :( last year i tried an inktober but uhhh i just made one drawing and nothing else. also, i don't always have ideas for the prompts. last year i also tried the Sherlocktober after trying the other one (lol) and just made some sketches of what i wanted to do and i didn't have very much ideas for each prompt.

sorry if this became too long. if you want to join the johnlock week, and have the time, do it!! you shouldn't wait for me or anyone else. join if you want to, i'd love to see some :))

i'm working on other stuff, tho. but they're taking a lot of time. so i guess we'll have to wait 😔

[eiseryn]

2024 Art Summary

It's crazy that another year has passed just like that and now, in the blink, 2024 is over and 2025 is on the horizon.

I had a crazy busy year on the personal life level, so unfortunately I didn't find much time to do drawing or my creative hobbies as much as I did in 2023. Nonetheless, I'm particularly proud of myself venturing to do more backgrounds and I've greatly improved in lighting and the use of filters, as well as in drawing hands -- which is something I greatly struggled with in the past.

Going through the months:

January: Moon's Tides (Lei) - I drew this when I was really saddened by some of my friendships. I think this piece really conveyed the loneliness and I felt at the time, and I'm very proud of the lighting and the background. The moon seems to be about to swallow Lei, along with the waves.

February: Lei in the city (redraw) - This was supposed to be 1 year redraw from my first illustration of Lei back in Jan 2023! I drew the sketch in January but ended up finishing in February... oops. I think it's so cool to see the improvement that I made in 1 year ;w; I hope I can redraw it again in 2025 but that's coming up real fast huh 💀

March: Fern in a never-posted postcard print I drew of the Frieren trio in their winter outfits. I printed some fanart but it unfortunately never sold so I lost confidence :') I never posted this piece. I might try to redraw it next year. I really like the Frieren's trio's winter outfits.

April: Birthday Ceres! I was really busy this month and didn't get much drawing done T_T but I did draw birthday Ceres WITH A HAND!!! OMG!!! I also drew a cool-lighting piece with Umbra but her face is wonky so I don't like that piece as much. I think Ceres turned out SOOOOO cute here and her expression is sOOO pretty! Someone said she looked like a goddess and they're so right

May: future Lei piece in front of her clinic. I love this piece so much 🥺 A future Lei working in her clinic with her friends. It's named ELC which stands for Elise, Lei and Ceres 🥺🥺🥺 In my headcanon, Gigi works there too 🥺🥺 I think her expression is really pretty and I love her outfit LOL its not very practical but... FASHIONNNN

June: The mermaid piece I intended to draw for mermay but didn't finish in time T_T This piece made me think of a mermaid AU for MERtalline LOL In this AU Vail is a surfer and Lei + doctor friends are mermaids :3 Unfortunately Leii got washed up ashore and landed into a very confused Vail's lap. I'm soooo proud of this piece and I think it's my master piece of 2025 with the lighting + two characters + BG??? I popped off frfr

July: I didn't do a lot personal art since Art Fight was taking place during this month! But I wanted to draw Gigi and so I did! I think I'm pretty decent at drawing beach BGs and I used a lot of references for that during the time! I think Gigi is so fun to draw but she's also intimidating because she needs to look very fierce and pretty at the same time

August: Another Gigi piece -- this time her bday art! In August, the main series I finished was the bunny girl series, but I think just in terms of technicality and style, the Gigi birthday piece I am a bit more proud of. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED my bunny girl series though! I made some stickers of them and I really want to finish the bunny girl sticker series T_T I drew Umbra, Lei, and Nekoya in it and I'm hoping to add Charlotte and Ceres but we'll see... I might redraw Umbra cuz she's hard to cut :'D

September: Another birthday art piece... My OC birthday series honestly slaps. This one is of Lei!!! Clearly I have a favourite this year and clearly it's Lei because she appears in all my favourite pieces 😭😭😭 She's my muse this year and might be for a bit of time ;w; Anyways I really think I improved in my drawing and my Sept 2023 vs Sept 2024 birthday art of her shows!!! I STRUGGLED so hard with that hand she's holding up so I'm so proud of myself for finishing it ;w; September was a bit rough for me personally but I'm glad I had more time to do my hobbies such as drawing

October: Started getting busy again but I managed to squeeze out this VERY CUTE headshot of my OC artemis!!! (aka timberwolf, aka cyberpunk nova but not nova) I think every hacker needs a bubblegum illustration and this is the one I gave her!!! I just really like her expression here and how I drew her hand! I wish I had more time to draw in October cuz it was OC-tober T_T there were so many cool prompts T_T but I lacked the time T_T maybe next year ;w;

November: I wanted to draw so many things in November but I was very busy dying TM. So unfortunately I didn't finish many WIPS I started :'D But ultimately I think the piece that is the most technically challenging was this one! I had fun with the intense red lighting and I think it portrays the sensation of unease/ portrays the mood I was going for very well :3 It features a new OC, Lei's cousin Althea. Because I love Lei and I keep expanding her lore XD

December: I got to draw a bit more in December but still not enough T_T so many OCs to draw + so many cool ideas but too little time cri. But I really wanted to draw some more holiday art esp after last year... cannot bear to look at it anymore orz. I originally drew a very cute sketch that featured all of Lei's friends but realized I couldn't draw so many characters in a short time... so I decided to draw just the Ceres sketch and with Lei :3 Because #besties. ANYWAYS in the end, I really like how this piece turned out and I played with layer masks a bit too! My favourite is the lil hidden detail in the otherwise simple BG -- Vail is taking the pic! It was fun to add that messy detail in :3

Some other cool things I'm going to post on instagram so I want to post here too

I don't know what future is in store for 2025, but I'm certain I will continue to draw my OCs for my indulgent self and continue to grow as an artist if I continue to draw. Thank you for continuing to support me, and I sincerely hope that I can fulfill some of my creative goals next year!

Hopefully starting with the Love, Lei visual novel :3 It's still in the plans; just haven't had the time to work on it yet ��

Onwards to 2025! ✨

[thesunwillart]

do you have any art that youve redrawn over the years? id love to see your improvement!!

hi!! there's been a few pieces that i've either redrawn or just revisited the sketches after a year or two! i've hunted down a few here...

1 - pride alex [1st, 2nd] is probably the Most Redraw i've done, same pose and a few years apart. but it was so nice to see how my art's improved!

2 - [wash away your fear character line up] so i never posted the original sketch of these, but i had planned to do this character line up back a year ago, but i was really struggling art-wise and also just in personal life, so it was gathering dust after i gave up on it. i just decided to pick it up again the other day and redo it all!! and im SOOO happy i did. really makes me all warm to be able to redo them.

i'll put the others under a read more cuz this is. long LOL

3 - one of my first FIRST on purpose redraws! these are me and my friend's ocs Chrissy & Arcturus, and i had drawn them every year for mermay until 2020... i think there's a sketch laying around somewhere lol (I got my first digital tablet in 2018 awww)

4 - [bounty hunter siblings] do oc redesigns count? im gonna say they do. i remember i just didnt know what i wanted to draw but i wanted to draw SOMETHING in oct 2021, so i pulled out these old star wars ocs lol

5 - [what the water gave me] another case of "i dont know what i want to draw so im gonna revisit an old sketch" this time the old guard themed lol i couldnt figure out how to do the water so i gave up on it at first

6 - [kiss one, kiss two] back in 2020/2021 i was drawing so much that i felt like my style was changing rapidly (and i guess improving as well with the practice!) so i felt like the redraw a month later really had improvements!! theyre so cute

7 - [spidersona 1, redesign] another oc redesign! im really happy with how they came out!! very "first homemade suit -> official suit" vibes from these lol

but yeah!! that's the ones i found this time :D i hope u enjoyed this trip down memory lane! there's actually a small pile of pieces i want to do legit redraws for... i'll get around to them on a rainy day lol. also ty for the ask <3!

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #34 | 08.27.23

Hi everyone!

Another month has flown by, and we are already entering the month of September soon! It's crazy it's already Fall......... Hope you all have been doing well <3

Since we're getting into the latter half of the year, I wanted to sit down and talk to you about the usual monthly progress as well as do a check in on where Alaris is sitting. This is a longer one, so without further ado, let's dive in, shall we?

Writing

We continue to move forward with writing. But it's extremely refreshing this month since I've Finally moved into Etza's route! Already, the route is feeling relatively different from the past three routes I've been writing---not necessarily because the past three routes are repetitive, but moreso because Etza's route (and the Fae ones moving forward) is very different regarding plot content. I can't say much more than that because then we start getting into spoiler territory. But it's been exciting since Etza, Kuna'a, and Aisa have always been the "final stage" of writing for Alaris to me.

I'm aiming to have Etza's first draft done by the end of next month. We'll check in next month to see my progress, but that's my goal at least! I also wrapped up the finishing touches for Druk's route this past month and moved his onto developmental editing, so we are just moving into New Stages all across the board yay!

Art

Most of my attention was actually on art this month though! Specifically, on finalizing Kickstarter merchandise so I can ship it out. I finished the updated Mermay prints as well as the character postcards.

they r beauty they r grace

I will have some extra prints that I'm happy to send off. Obviously, you will have to pay for them LOL. But if you're interested in any, I'll have an extremely limited stock. Patrons will get first dibs, so if you are interested but aren't subscribed to my Patreon, I'd recommend getting on that for this upcoming month since I will not be restocking the Mermay prints ever again!

We also continued to get backgrounds from Vui. These are spoiler territory, so I will not be showing them this month teehee. But they're beautiful per usual Vui fashion!

Check-In

Now that we're in the latter half of the year, I wanted to talk to you all about overall Alaris progress and some more specific parts of development.

As of right now, we have about 210k written for Alaris (including the demo). And the end estimate is about 350k. For art assets, we have 20 CGs out of an estimated 48 CGs finished and/or sketched out. For BGs, we are on background 18 out of 25. The GUI is for the most part finished, save for some small finishing touches. And we have 6 out of 8 original tracks completely done.

If it's not clear, Alaris will definitely be a 2024 release rather than an end of 2023 release, which may be disappointing news for those of you eager for Alaris. But realistically, even if I make absolutely cracked progress on the assets from now until the end of the year, I would still need time to polish the full game, especially considering how long it took me to polish intertwine for Otojam, which was significantly smaller. And that's excluding my team members, who I don't want to force into a crunching position. All that being said, I hope to get some playable content to you all before the end of the year, namely the updated demo and maybe Kayn's beta build!

I wanted to take a moment to mention one thing concerning the updated demo. As you all may know from past devlogs, I've updated many of the assets for the enhanced demo. Initially, I had wanted to release the updated demo quite a while back, but there was one set of assets that ended up getting held up in production. For full transparency, since I've talked about the updated demo for a while but haven't been able to show much more progress beyond that, I wanted to touch on (generally) why it's been held up, mainly because I don't want you all to think I'm just Not Delivering on it!

My GUI artist is the same person who made the Alaris logo (re.Alice). She's wonderfully talented, which is why I wanted to work with her for the Alaris GUI as well! As many may know, sometimes life happens and so without getting into any specifics, this is what has been holding up the enhanced demo since I haven't been able to update and code in the new GUI.

Based on recent updates from Alice, I'm hopeful that I'll be receiving the new GUI this upcoming month, and I'd love to release the updated demo (T e n t a t i v e l y) in October! Of course, when the September devlog comes around I'll be able to update you all more concretely. But I wanted to communicate where things currently (and have been) standing since I've been wanting you all to experience the updated demo so badly but didn't want you all to feel like I've been forgetting about it/dropping the ball on it/etc. etc. etc.

Thank you, as always for being so patient and supportive of me! As we head into this final half of the year (jesus), I hope the progress I've been making behind the scenes for Alaris will start to come to fruition through the enhanced demo and some playable beta builds of the individual routes <3

Market Research

I did ~some~ market research this month, but it's honestly been pretty sparse, mainly because my usual market research time was actually replaced by Jam Time this month.

Specifically, if you didn't get the chance to check them out, I helped with two games this month for a 10 day jam. I think they're both pretty top-notch if I'm allowed to humbly brag since the teams behind them were very talented!

The first is Oblivisci Memorias

After receiving a mysterious request, you create a potion meant to erase memories. But the process is a grueling one, and as you add ingredients to your potion, you may find yourself reminiscing on memories you thought you had long since suppressed.

And the second is Titan Arum

Alone, you find yourself catsitting in your family's new house as they traipse through Europe. But incidents slowly signal to you that something's... off about this house. What story exists behind its walls? And more importantly, are you brave enough to uncover it?

[cosmiclion]

Mermadam? Mer-Red? Mergelina? Whatever lol. From an old sketch I had started for Mermay from LAST YEAR 😂 I absolutely love that side chapter, and I already drew MerGrelle twice so I thought might as well give the other characters some love. I also have one of Undertaker as Ursula, everyone looked so good there!

[lumilasi]

Time for a yearly art summary

I'm still likely going to draw a couple of things, but figured I'd do this before the year ends so I won't forget lol

I was surprised to find there were still couple of pieces of fanart I'd made this year, I thought I'd completely moved away from it by now? Guess not lol

This year was also kind of....character ref update heavy, which made finding stuff for this difficult as a lot what I saw that wasn't a ref was reblogged art from previous year :T I'm really gonna try and NOT make so many refs next year, it was kinda ridiculous lol

About each piece chosen below:

January: One of the few fanart pieces I had made this year. Tomura for the year of the bunny.

February: Apparently the only new piece I'd made that month? A traditional shigadabi doodle

March: My birthday month, also the birth of one of my main character's new, modern look and story. Jurou got his tattoos and longer hair here.

April: Speaking of design updates, Ichirou's new modern look was born here as well, or at least this particular ref image was lol

May: Mermay piece with my sea serpent boy Caelan. Probably one of my favorite pieces of all time I've made so far!

June: Pride month thing I did with Henrik and Clover, which also actually utilized an old sketch of an older piece with these two that I still loved.

July: Surprise return of Tomura. Another old art remake if I recall right?

August: Just a simple piece of Avane and Roman. These two started out as my less-liked characters I had, but after the story update and design updates for both, they've become among my favorite couples/characters.

September: I was already heading for the spooky times even before the spooky month I see. Angus with a hypotethical look relevant to his story. This piece was unique where I just used the sketch and did not do lineart, essentially it is kind of a messy style digital painting. LOVE this one even now, another one of my personal favorites.

October: The first prompt for my (somewhat failed) Spooktober art challenge. While I didn't make as much art I'd hoped, I very much love this piece with Avane, also a favorite, probably second after the previous Angus one.

November: Yet another piece utilizing an older work that I just reworked using the characters' new designs. (I loved the old one still, I'd just recently redesigned both characters somewhat so I felt the need to rework it)

December: I wanted to use one of the prompt pieces from the art challenge I am doing, but...they were simply difficult to fit into this vertical-style summary, so I ended up picking Jurou's more demonic form I finally upgraded this month after, well, months. I feel its kind of fitting for me to end the year in a spooky note lol

[erigold13261]

It’s amazing how much art you produced this month!

Oh thank you! You should have seen me when I was younger! I would put out fully rendered drawings with backgrounds and colored lines almost daily (sometimes every other day, sometimes 2 a day).

It felt amazing but I was also very much burning myself out so much it was not even funny. It stemmed from my want to only produce "good" artwork and never post anything that was just a wip or a sketch, or even uncolored.

Now, while I am still having trouble posting uncolored pieces, I can at least post more sketchy and doodle-y art, which allows me to just post more!

I'm also allowing myself to change things after I post them (like June's design) and just having fun being more collaborative with the little community I have rather than just being a performer.

I've definitely produced more in the past, but this month has actually probably been the happiest I have been in a long while posting art! Even during Mermay I felt more obligation to the challenge than anything else. But this month was fun and full of experimentation!

I guess if you factor in that I am working now compared to before (when I was posting daily I wasn't even in school), it probably is a lot more amazing! Me working is also another reason why I am happy I guess. Just having an income and not having to stretch money over months makes me just feel more free.

A lot has happened, and I guess if I am going to self reflect this is the best time to do so lol. I'm hoping to keep up posting more art, though I'm not gonna promise like a "doodle a day" or whatever because once that promise is made, something is going to happen to make it impossible to keep.

Anyway, thank you for saying this! Sorry for the rambling, I've just always had that time in my life of producing art consistently in the back of my head, and it's just nice to know I can be content with just producing anything rather than trying to produce "perfect" art.

[kkertas-art]

The best shark mermaid

[bloo-the-dragon]

British dragon steals a couple of weird fish twins more at- yeah ok that jokes getting old.

SO ANYWAY! Here’s my contribution for mermay hjdkfg brain went big brrr on this one lol

Some basic lore info and backstory will be under the cut!

~~~

We’ll start with the backstory:

- Sun and Moon were found washed up ashore as lil bby fishies by a circus owner years ago and he rescued them. They stayed with him (not necessarily out of their own choice) and would do performances as part of the circus show.

- They were treated decently enough until the circus owner passed away, and the circus and all its assets were passed down to his son who was not so kind.

- His treatment of Sun and Moon would cause them to greatly distrust humans in the future. One day though he would be found dead, drowned under ‘mysterious circumstances’ in one of the tanks used for performances. Sun and Moon were in another tank however so there was little suspicion they had anything to do with it. (they did)

- The circus was disbanded, and all its assets were sold, including the celestial mer brothers who were bought by an exotics aquarium and put on display.

- At this point though, they had grown tired of being used as attractions. Life at the aquarium wasn’t too bad but they were treated more as animals than intelligent creatures and their distrust of humans had only grown since the incident with their last owner.

And this is where Bloo (my sona) comes in.

Being a non-human creature herself (fairy dragon) she could sense they were in distress and after having an encounter with them during a visit to the aquarium, decided to help them. That help coming in the form of breaking into the highly guarded exotics aquarium, stealing their highly valued sirens (she’s not one for planning ahead lol) and taking them home (and getting them some heckin therapy)

And now for the lore facts:

- They communicate with each other via telepathy (twin thing and all that) and while they can perfectly understand human speech, they can only speak a little of it themselves.

- Being mer/sirens they can sing, and they can sing very well. Moon’s singing can put you to sleep, while Sun’s singing can make you feel energized.

- As for what fish they are based on- i have no idea lol i mostly improvised xD but i did want to add in a mix of koi and shark themes! The ‘wings’ on their backs were inspired by flying fish. Since the robot versions can hook up to cables to ‘fly around’ the pizzaplex i figured the mer versions could have flying fish wings so they could fly and glide like flying fish do when they jump out of the water.

- Their pupils/irises disappeared as a result of neglect and poor care (they’re still there but faded) but they would slowly reappear again over time with enough care and attention (and no small amount of hugs and cuddles)

- After they are released back into the ocean, they’d still be pretty much like domesticated cats by this point though lol so they’d stick around Bloo alot by hanging around the shore near her home.

- They can form legs albeit temporarily, but doing so takes a lot of energy and so they very rarely do it. (Walking is a great struggle for them too so they’d rather crawl if the situation required them moving out of water)

That’s all for now! But i’m not done with it yet lol got more sketches in the works and will have them up and posted when i can. :3

(If you read it this far i giv u a cookie!)