#I have no idea how to draw with bright colors

[purplesound]

🐾🌧️

[ffc1cb]

actually while i’m at it. i haven’t drawn danblock in a while

[acecrow]

Silly little chuuya for the collection

[quinn-pop]

yet another oc that only exists because i wanted to write something very specific

(middle is a little older, hence her scar healing. i like to think she gets a glass eye at some point)

anyway this is mira! (they/she) since that wip is almost 20k words and counting i won’t give away too much but long story short she’s the result of meta going “one last time, i promise” and adopting yet another kid

also galaxia kinda indirectly picked the name :)

i’ve mentioned before that i headcanon that pretty much all astrals are autistic and this is just kinda an extension of that. whereas meta tends to suppress his emotions and conform to others, mira…doesn’t. she gets uncomfortable and upset and lashes out at people easily, and working through their emotions is no small task.

the main reason i chose to write them that way was for the sake of narrative but i’ve grown attached to it because there’s a lot of ideas there i’d like to explore. stuff about navigating emotions and relationships when existing is so suffocatingly uncomfortable. it’s not something i could center around Kirby himself, but i think it makes sense with a post character development meta knight.

they are very loved (omg oldee cameo???)

kirby was definitely very excited to have younger siblings after being used to being the youngest in the room for so long!! (with the like. one and only exception being gooey.) he’s super affectionate with both of them and wants to have a close relationship one day, but for now mira is pretty unappreciative of that fact lol. they don’t like being pestered for hugs

everyone else is okay tho

(i know that’s hard to read. oops. “obvious bite marks”. siblings being siblings.)

mira also has a very love/hate relationship with the egg kid, being so close in age they kinda Have to get along but in typical sibling nature they also fight a lot. sure it’s probably rough for a while but i think in the end they’d be good buddies. maybe not as close as Kirby and Bandee but still.

anyway i have a lot of thoughts and am very busy but. i’m really enjoying writing about all this lately it’s been fun ^^

[skitskatdacat63]

More matador!Fernando! Ferrari this time :D (I can't help myself.....)

- facial hair

+ closeups

I really wanted the vibe of this Nando pic, I think I did pretty well??

[delicateartisantrash]

[clock-onyx]

Rustedbread!!!

I FORGOT YOUR HANDS IM SO SORRY I JUST NOTICED NOW 😭😭😭😭😭😭 FORGIVE ME WUAHH

URGHH ANYWAYS... gift for awesome mutual @rustedbread I think theyre.. really cool grins they have good taste in music me thinks

[crow-with-a-pencil]

Just a happy Eclipse

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[wundrousarts]

Yesterday I watched Cartoon Saloon’s short “Screecher’s Reach”, and thought Daal’s hair was almost exactly like how I envision Mathilde Lachance’s hair, so I decided to try and draw her. Today I stopped cleaning up the sketch after about an hour because I got bored, so it’s going here.

[pwipwipwoo]

Mayburi AU dumping time; I don’t really have time to write this (trying to work on something else at the moment), so I’m gonna just dump some bits on here for....

The Little Mermaid AU

May is one of the 12 daughters of King Triton (a.k.a. Johnny, King Triton is more of a title than an actual name). Out of all of her siblings she is the most adventurous and the most curious; ever since she was a young, she would sneak out of the castle to play with her friends Chipp the seagull (he knows a lot about humans, but all of his info is hilariously wrong), Chimaki the clownfish, and Mister the dolphin, before being dragged back by her father’s trusty advisor Janis the catfish. But no matter how many times she brought May back, the little mermaid would still hunger to see the outside world; and the world of the humans.

One day, after her 20th birthday, a ship passed overhead while she was out exploring; curious as always, she went up to investigate. There she saw humans, real humans not the broken statues she’s found scattered on the sea floor, for the very first time. She enjoyed watching them dance and sing, but she was especially interested in two humans: the twins, Prince Sinclair (shortened to Sin) and Princess Bridget. She found both attractive, but was especially smitten by the prince. Suddenly a storm rolls up and batters the ship, sending Bridget overboard! May carries the unconscious princess to the shore and disappears before the rest of the party arrives, not before leaving the girl with the memory of a beautiful maiden with eyes like the morning sun and a heavenly voice.

When Johnny learns of May’s obsession with humans, and her blossoming love for Sin, he forbids May from ever interacting with humans again and confines her to the castle. Too bad for him, she is very good at escaping and knows all the secret passageways. Fed up with her father’s overbearing attitude, she packs up her things (including a coral comb she got from her mother) and runs (well, swims) away from home, determined to live her life as she wants and to see the prince again!

Unfortunately for her, she isn’t sure how to get his affections. Maybe swim up to the castle and sing at his window?

(Can’t, she doesn’t know which is his)

Maybe she can catch him while he is underwater and talk to him then?

(Humans and talk underwater. Also he would probably drown)

Jump onto a bridge as he tries to cross it and feign the need for help?

(Now we’re just getting dramatic)

Utterly dejected at all of her ideas crumbling to simple logic, she suddenly remembers a story one of her sisters told her when she was very young; a story about a sea witch who lives in the darkest depths of the oceans. This sea witch can perform a myriad of miracles with their various potions and incantations: make people fall in love, heal all wounds, increase your strength tremendously. They even have a way to give the merfolk legs.

Against the protests of Janis (who followed her in an vain effort to bring her back), May goes to the cave of the sea witch Testament. And despite it looking horribly scary outside, the sea witch is rather pleasant; even offers May a cup of kelp tea (how it works underwater I don’t know, I ain’t a ocean scientist). May tells them her predicament and they have a potion that can help her. The potion will turn the mermaid’s fins into legs and give her the ability to walk on land; if she can receive a kiss from her true love before the next moon (so 1 month) she will become a human forever. However this potion is made from a rare coral that only grows once every hundred years, and if she doesn’t kiss her love by the 1 month mark (or heaven forbid, she breaks it) she will never have another chance to walk on land. Also it comes with a host of other side effects, but those are less important to May.

Undeterred May takes the potion and swims off toward the castle. She takes the potion on the night of the full moon, falling unconscious before waking up on the shore with human legs! Unfortunately she can’t express her excitement to her friends, as she cannot speak except for one word (totsugeki). As she is trying to learn how to walk, she is found by Sin and his retinue before being taken back to the castle. There she meets the king and queen of the country (Ky and Dizzy) and sees the princess again. The royal family takes pity on the girl and takes her in; this works out for May, as she now has unlimited opportunities to woo the prince and get her kiss.

Unfortunately for her this is Sin, so you can guess how frustrating it is to get the golden boy to notice her. At least she has Bridget by her side, silently encouraging her with eyes that make her heart skip a beat. After 3 weeks of trying (and failing) to get the ever-growing wild boy to see her as anything other than a friend, May’s hopes for love are shattered when she finds out that the prince is betrothed to a someone he loves deeply. Defeated, she resigns to go back to the sea but is stopped by the princess, who assures her that she will find her true love one day and not to give up hope (she got the wrong idea when she saw May just walk into the ocean).

It was at this moment May knew, she fucked up; she should have been trying to woo the pretty blonde girl the entire time! Especially since Bridget would go on and on about her beautiful savior and how she wishes meet her again. May and her friends now have a new goal; it is time to capture the heart of the super pretty girl in the next week!

Oh boy, do these kids have their work cut out for them.

Especially since Johnny now knows what May is up to, thanks to Testament and Janis’ inability to lie convincingly to the king. Now May has to try and get a kiss from the princess while her father sabotages her efforts from behind the scenes (how this man could be so cruel as the tip their boat while they were in that romantic ass lagoon is beyond me). And it succeeds.

On the final day before the enchantment wears off a gorgeous stranger with long black hair that has a beautiful coral hairpin in it, has utterly bewitched the princess. Nothing May does can tear Bridget away from the mysterious beauty. On the verge of tears May keeps trying to call out to Bridget, stammering out frustrated totsugekis to no avail, until she finally cries out her name, “Bridget!”. They look at each other shocked; Bridget because she recognizes the voice, and May because she knows the spell is wearing off. Before Bridget can even speak May runs off to the shore, her body crying in agony as her legs start to change back to their original form, the clothes and accessories she wore from her human life falling from her. As May reaches the water she looks back to see a stunned Bridget, verdant emerald eyes wide with shock, and swims back into the depths of the ocean.

Bridget knows what she is now, she knows that May has been deceiving her this entire time. They can never be together now. It’s over.

Nahhhhhhh. Did you really think it would end there? Bridget, determined more than ever to see her love, fills her parents in on the situation and says she is going to get back her girl! The king and queen, while a little concerned about their daughter’s taste in lovers (not because May is a girl but more because of the merfolk bit), agree to help their daughter and gather all the brilliant minds around the kingdom. They gather to build a machine that can take Bridget under the waves to the palace of the sea king and built her a suit so she can walk on the ocean floor.

Months pass, and May has not left her room the entire time; the shards of her broken heart wearing her down in place. Johnny begins to rethink the whole ‘keep your daughter from being with the one she loves’ bit and starts to think if he was the asshole all along. But those thoughts go right out the window as he gets a call from one of the scouts that his castle is under attack! He goes to the battlements, his trident crackling with mystical energy, and awaits the coming ‘giant beast’. From the canyon beyond he sees the beast come into view, its burning eyes shooting beams of light that cut through the ocean’s darkness. He readies his trident and his soldier’s to fire upon the beast when something catches his eye; something tiny on top of the beast shining a small light in a pattern. He holds his men and allows it to approach, everyone staring in awe as the ‘beast’ draws closer, realization hitting them as it floats next to the castle.

This is no creature, but a ship! Like one of those that litter the ocean floor, but with more metal and no open bit on the top.

King Johnny approaches the vessel, trident still at the ready, before stopping in front of the person standing between the giant lights on the front of the vessel. He looks through the glass face plate of the diving suit; it is difficult to make out the exact details of the face behind the glass, he does note how beautiful the person’s green eyes are. This human doesn’t quiver before him, instead they put away the mirror they had and hold up something that makes his eyes go wide; a comb made of brilliant orange coral that was once a gift he gave to his late wife, later finding its way to May.

He towers above the little human as he takes the comb into his hand, holding it reverently in his palm; he turns to the human and waves them to follow behind him. They go to the throne room and Johnny creates a bubble around the human, telling them they can breathe so long as they stay in the bubble. The human takes off their helmet, shaking out golden hair that floats in the water around her. King Johnny asks the human what she wants and Bridget tells him flat out she is there for May; he scoffs at her, incredulous to the very notion that a human could love one of his kind. But Bridget doesn’t falter, she boldly claims that her love for his daughter is true and asks him if she could have just one moment to speak to May.

Before Johnny can say anything May shoots out from the hallway and barrels  into Bridget’s arms. May holds Bridget’s face in her hands, asking her if she is real or if she’s dreaming; Bridget pinches May’s arm and smiles, asking her if she woke up yet. May tears up and embraces Bridget again, the blonde wraps her arms around May and holds her tight to her chest.

Johnny’s voice booms in the throne room, commanding May to move away from the human, but she refuses! He asks her again, nicer this time, to swim away from the human but May refuses to budge, saying she loves Bridget and she will never leave her side. The water around Johnny’s trident boils as anger courses through him, but a gentle pale hand on his shoulder calms him immediately; he turns and is captured by Testament’s ruby red eyes as the sea witch swims to his side. He opens his mouth but Testament’s finger seals it, and they tell him to put aside his temper and talk with these youths, not bark orders at them as if they were one of his servants.

Johnny relents and composes himself. He apologizes to his daughter for how he has been acting and asks her how she could love this human. She tells him that it was easy, listing off everything good point about Bridget while gazing dreamily into her emerald eyes. Bridget does the same as she entwines their fingers, professing her undying love to May for the umpteenth time. Johnny is unsatisfied; how can May love Bridget if she has barely gotten to know her? They’ve only spent a month together, and in that time she only realized she loved her in the final week of it. He’s concerned that she is going to get into something she can’t back out of; he’s also scared of losing her forever, as he is terrified of his family drifting away from him.

May tells him that his fears are unfounded, as she will always be his daughter and nothing could ever change that. She also understands that her decision to become human would be permanent and that maybe he is right, maybe their love isn’t as unshakeable as they claim it to be; but she still wants to take that chance. She has felt love many times before but none as strong as the one she has for Bridget. Bridget tells her the same, and that she wants to learn more about her, not just the good. She even tells the king that, if there is a way to do it, she will become a mermaid forever and stay in his kingdom so he wouldn’t have to be separated from his daughter.

Testament, however, provides another solution. They take the comb from Johnny’s hand and swims over to May and begins to brush her hair with the comb. May begins to wince as magic swirls around her fin before it splits and transforms into a pair of human legs, they do it again and the legs become fins again. Bridget and May stare dumbfounded at Testament, asking the sea witch how this could be; Testament explains that the comb is made from the same coral as the potion, and she can use it as an instrument to change back and forth.

“How did you think I managed to become human all those months ago,” Testament says as they hold up a familiar coral hairpin. May points an accusatory finger at them as she realizes they were the bewitching stranger! Testament confirms this and says that it was not their idea, but a certain meddling king who will remain unnamed (the water practically boils around the bright blush that burns Johnny’s cheeks right now).

With this newfound discovery, the pair embrace again before turning to the king; Bridget asks him if he would give his blessing for them to continue seeing each other, and May asks the same. Johnny scoffs and tells them to do as they want, not like they would listen to him anyway; May is ecstatic and swims over to her father, peppering his face with a flurry of kisses. He can’t hide the giant smile that spreads across his face as he holds his daughter tight; he looks over her shoulder and tells Bridget that if she better take care of his precious daughter, or she will have to answer to him.

Bridget laughs and tells him that he has nothing to fear as May swims back into her arms. Their eyes lock before the two share their first kiss, that sends everyone in the throne room cheering for the lovers.

Johnny, Testament, Janis, and all of May’s sisters go to the ship to see her off, hugging her and telling her to come back to visit soon. She promises to do that and, before entering the submersible, combs her hair turning her fins back to legs. She boards the ship hand-in-hand with Bridget, the love her of life, and waves back at her family and friends through one of the portholes as they head back to the castle.

Many years later May sits next to a roaring fire with a five year old child in her lap as she tells them the story of how she met their mother. The child, Satsuki, excitedly exclaims they know how the story ends, with May and Bridget getting married then May gave birth to them. Before May can answer a voice cuts in saying Satsuki is half right. They both turn to see Bridget in the doorway, a giant smile on her face. Satsuki hops out of May’s lap and runs up to Bridget with open arms; Bridget catches the child and spins them high in the air, before holding them in her arms and padding up to May to give her a kiss.

Satsuki asks what Bridget meant by them being half right. Bridget explains that even though they fell in love and had a child their story isn’t over yet; they still have many years of adventures and love to share before their story truly ends. Satsuki requests another story with a tired yawn, but Bridget questions whether they can stay awake for another. The child pouts and claims they aren’t tired, despite another yawn escaping their little body. May chuckles and agrees to one final story. Satsuki cheers and hops back down into May’s lap, snuggling up against their mother as she picks up the book sitting on the table next to her. She opens to the first page as Bridget sits down on the chair’s armrest, wrapping her arm around her wife and child as May begins another story.

[kinda-daily-warriorcat]

[supahstarrr]

i love my man whit but his outfit look so tacky and he looks hella stiff sometimes...

[holytrickster]

sitting there like has my art gotten better over time or do I just add way too much unnecessary detail now

[vetyr]

hi, i ireally love your work and i don't know if you've answered this before but, what kinds of studies do you do or how did you learn color theory? i wanna get better at rendering and anatomy but im having trouble TT TT

Hi! Long answer alert. Once a chatterbox, always a chatterbox.

When I started actively learning how to draw about 10 1/2 years ago, I exclusively did graphite studies in sketchbooks. Here's a few examples—I mostly stuck to doing line drawings to drill basic shapes/contours and proportions into my brain. The more rendered sketches helped me practice edge control & basic values, and they were REALLY good for learning the actual 3D structure behind what I was drawing.

I'd use reference images that I grabbed from fitness forums, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and some NSFW places, but you could find adequate ref material from figure drawing sites like Line of Action. LoA has refs for people (you can filter by clothed/unclothed, age, & gender), animals, expressions, hands/feet, and a few other useful things as well. Love them.

Learning how to render digitally was a similar story; it helped a lot that I had a pretty strong foundation for value/anatomy going in. I basically didn't touch color at all for ~2 years (except for a few attempts at bad digital or acrylic paint studies), which may not have been the best idea. I learned color from a lot of trial and error, honestly, and I'm pretty sure this process involved a lot of imitation—there were a number of digital/traditional painters whose styles I really wanted to emulate (notably their edge control, color choices, value distributions, and shape design), so I kiiind of did a mixture of that + my own experimentation.

For example, I really found Benjamin Björklund's style appealing, especially his softened/lost edges & vibrant pops of saturated color, so here's a study I did from some photograph that I'm *pretty* sure was painted with him in mind.

Learning how to detail was definitely a slow process, and like all the aforementioned things (anatomy/color/edge control/values/etc.) I'm still figuring it out. Focusing on edge control first (that is, deciding on where to place hard/soft edges for emphasizing/de-emphasizing certain areas of the image) is super useful, because you can honestly fool a viewer into thinking there's more detail in a piece than there actually is if you're very economical about where you place your hard edges.

The most important part, to me, is probably just doing this stuff over and over again. You're likely not going to see improvement in a few weeks or even a few months, so don't fret about not getting the exact results you want and just keep studying + making art. I like to think about learning art as a process where you *need* to fail and make crappy art/studies—there's literally no way around it—so you might as well fail right now. See, by making bad art you're actually moving forward—isn't that a fun prospect!!

It's useful to have a folder with art you admire, especially if you can dissect the pieces and understand why you like them so much. You can study those aspects (like, you can redraw or repaint that person's work) and break down whether this is art that you just like to look at, or if it's the kind of art that you want to *make.* There's a LOT of art out there that I love looking at, probably tens of thousands of styles/mediums, but there's a very narrow range that I want to make myself.

I've mentioned it in some ask reply in the past, but I really do think looking at other artist's work is such a cheat code for improving your own skills—the other artist does the work to filter reality/ideas for you, and this sort of allows you to contact the subject matter more directly. I can think of so many examples where an artist I admired exaggerated, like, the way sunlight rested on a face and created that orange fringe around its edge, or the greys/dull blues in a wheat field, or the bright indigo in a cast shadow, or the red along the outside of a person's eye, and it just clicked for me that this was a very available & observable aspect of reality, which had up until that point gone completely unnoticed! If you're really perceptive about the art you look at, it's shocking how much it can teach you about how to see the world (in this particular case I mean this literally, in that the art I looked at fully changed the way I visually processed the world, but of course it has had a strong effect on my worldviews/relationships/beliefs).

Thanks so much for sending in a question (& for reading, if you got this far)! I read every single ask I receive, including the kind words & compliments, which I genuinely always appreciate. Best of luck with learning, my friend :)

[kalims]

scribbles

"( – ⌓ – ) ⎯⎯ he lets you draw on his skin, yeah thats pretty much it.

ft. malleus, vil

malleus

it was... a breach of your patience.

the lesson, was awfully boring. the more you listened to the apparent 'heroic' doings of certain individuals. the more it strips away your attentiveness to the words spilling out of professor trein's mouth. no matter how many times you will your ears to make out the incoherent lecturing of the man... it remains deaf.

so you decide to sate said boredom.

how? of course you need to bother your seatmate!

your intentions remained within the circle of yourself of course. your eyes stuck to the stray marker over your paper so you silently twisted the cap off and scribbled on your paper—then it was your palm—and now, malleus' arm.

"child of...?" man. malleus finishes in his mind, his attention suddenly snapped away at the sudden tug of his arm. definitely not his own decision to even make it move in the first place. usually it would remain stiffly beside his body like usual and even if someone tried to pry it to them it would remain still. but without his attention, his body lets you.

without another word. you peel open his fingers, palm open to you and it's a notion he allows. and he stays silent when you tug his gloves off. perhaps with a curious huff, malleus drifts closer to you. to accommodate your actions that he's yet to get an explanation for.

... and suddenly there's very bright flowers drawn on his palm.

said owner of the palm might just be toe darkest person in the room so it's quite out of place.

but it's from you so he likes it.

he peeks at it, with a fond smile on his face. I should enchant it to remain there forever. he thinks to himself, the curve of his lips growing wider at his thoughts, like he'd proud of the idea. the idea of being able to carry around something made exclusively by you might as well shove him into a cannonball and send him to cloud nine.

it's adorable. you're adorable.

his world grows a little more blue the more he stares at you. and if it weren't for the searing glances the professor sends your way malleus would just let his eyes engrave you into his memory forever, so he laments over it and reluctantly peels his gaze off you. mind speaking a thousand memories, the very same reason he somehow can't hear anything trein says.

you draw a strange looking lizard beneath his ring finger, one that looks a little like him and he thinks that you're asking him for marriage.

that can be arranged... he ponders, oblivious.

vil

drawings, doodles, painting— art. a reflection of the soul.

vil is great at makeup.

every brush on your face, a step to beauty. that is his reflection. you are his soul. he wants to make you look—no, make you feel like you're beautiful cause the canvas he's standing in front of is his greatest piece of art, he'd want to put you on the tallest pedestal there is. the grandest one just so the rest knows your beauty is parallel to none, something they can see and admire but not reach.

but he also wants to keep you in his own room, because only he knows what he felt when he painted you. only he should be the one given the grace.

this... he doesn't know what to consider.

perhaps vil should be bothered, if not then a little peeved at the several colors across his skin. a myriad of doodles, some words, and some simple drawings. a poor portrait of him is drawn next to one he assumes yours, the 'fairest' word on the right side of his hand, and flowers.

he's sure though. you're definitely no artist.

the thought cracks a smile at him, and you steal a glance midst the cool tip of the pen dancing along his skin. "I'd thought you wouldn't even let me do this," you admit, chair having been moved over closer to him so you wouldn't have any leaning problems. a suggestion by vil you gratefully took up, though you doubt it was just another excuse to have you closer.

"why?"

"dunno," you shrug. "it looks unseemly compared to you."

he huffs, flashing you a light smirk. "so my face is, hmmm..." vil ponders for a moment, and your face twists to the realization that you possibly just exposed what you think. but you suppose it isn't really a problem since it was basically common sense that vil is...

"gorgeous." you finish for him.

his aura brightens. (probably will be for the rest of the week.)

your hand retracts from him, the marker gripped between your fingers. and he takes a look at your 'art.' he doesn't know if he should consider it as one since there are a heap of sloppy lines, and the color bleeds into his skin. some smudges that you accidentally brushed against that makes it seem like a messy picture of chaos.

vil strives for perfection, but it's only natural there are flaws. to love oneself, you must love all parts. and to love you, he loves whatever the ink on his skin is.

well, what the heck.

"pass it to me," he stretches his hand, and you quirk a brow. questioning but curious so he indulges you. "I'll show you how it's done."

note. ngl idk what I wrote for vil it's currently 12 AM rn ☠ <- newer note, this has been rotting in my drafts for weeks and I couldn't decide whether to post it cause I wasn't sure about vil's but here hehehe