#I just wish I could do those really pretty sketches like other people do

[anna-proxx]

☆ evening in camp ☆

pairing: arthur morgan x fem!reader

genre: fluff

word count: 1882

a/n: my dear readers, this is my first attempt at a rdr2 oneshot here on tumblr, I started with something easy but will definitely add more action in the future. this right here broke my writer's block and for that i am grateful. hope this brings you some comfort whenever you need it.

It was a chilly evening, meek distant noise of nocturnal animals creating a peaceful ambience, along with the crackling fire nearby. The whole camp was already either asleep or holed up in their tents.

It has been a good day. Arthur and Javier successfully robbed a homestead, Micah was still locked up in jail and Bill brought a good catch from his hunting trip.

Javier sang and played the guitar by the campfire earlier and some people sang along. In general, this evening was one of those that made you feel warm inside.

The night sky was clear, stars peeking down at you as you wished your mare a good night, patting her neck and giving her a carrot before you'd leave her to sleep. That girl was dear to you and you showed her gratitude every day.

A small kiss on her nose and you finally turned around, admiring the full moon shining bright on the ink black sky. You walked across the quiet camp, careful not to make too much noise. You made your way straight towards the small light of an oil lamp in Arthur's tent.

He sat on his bed, slouched over his journal set on the table, writing with all focus. You smiled, feeling all the affection you felt for that man.

When you came close, he looked up from his journal, his gaze softening as he patted the place beside him. "C'm sit."

You sat right next to him, putting your hands in your lap as you gave Arthur a bright smile. He chuckled. "Ya done givin' that horse a g'night kiss?" he asked with a small grin on his face, returning his attention to the half-filled pages.

You slightly poked his arm with your elbow, a soft smile lingering on your lips. "She's like my family," you explained.

"I know. 'S cute."

You shuffled a bit closer, watching the pencil in Arthur's hand move swiftly. You enjoyed watching him write and draw, those idle moments always brought you comfort. And you had the honor to be allowed to watch. Arthur believed his drawings were nothing special but you knew better. His ability to draw details of an animal or scenery he saw just once from memory still blew your mind. You could barely recall such details, let alone draw them.

You quietly continued to watch, taking in every pretty letter he drew one after another. When he was done with the entry, he flipped the page and started sketching.

"What are you drawing?" you asked, watching the first lines of the sketch.

"A moose I saw t'day," Arthur answered, his voice calm and focused.

You continued to watch him and set your elbow on the table after a while, leaning your head against your hand. As always the drawing came out beautiful and you admired the authentic features of the animal that was looking up at you from the page. Arthur put the pencil aside and sighed, stretching his arms.

He then looked at you, a warm smile on his lips as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders. You leaned back from the table and snuggled into the half-embrace, resting your head on Arthur's shoulder. His body was warm and so were his fingers that drew small circles on your arm.

"Ya tired yet, darlin'?"

You smiled at the pet name and slightly shook your head. "Not really."

"Do y'want me to draw s'mthing for ya?" Arthur offered, watching your face intently as you thought.

"Me," you eventually said with a small grin. He drew you all the time and you loved every each one of those drawings.

"M'kay." He shortly caressed your arm before removing his from around you, shifting in his seat as he took the pencil again. He slightly nodded towards you. "Sit there, wanna hav' a good look at ya."

You slightly moved away to sit at the other edge, still facing Arthur who turned his body towards you, bending his leg on the bed to lean his journal against it. You shortly ran fingers through your hair, setting strands over your shoulders, and straightened your back, ready to be his model.

His face was relaxed as he started sketching, the soft sounds of the pencil gliding over the paper filling the air between you. Arthur kept looking up at you regularly, a gentle smile on his face as he met your soft affectionate gaze.

There was silence between you two but it was comfortable, happy. The light from the oil lamp lazily danced over the left side of his face, highlighting his features.

He was beautiful. As you remained motionless, you thought about how often he put himself down, being completely clueless about how he looked in your eyes.

"You're so pretty," you said quietly, nothing but affection and genuinity in your voice.

Arthur looked up at you surprised, then got visibly flustered as he blushed and looked back down at the sketch, scribbling on. He let out a small low chuckle. "I ain't pretty."

You slightly frowned, displeased with him rejecting the compliment like that. "So I am a liar?"

Arthur looked up, for a short moment he looked like a clueless child trying to find the right words. "I ain't meant it that way..."

You couldn't hold back a smile. "Just take the goddamn compliment, Mr Morgan, it's not so hard."

Arthur softly huffed as he returned his focus to the sketch, seemingly uncomfortable. A sad feeling grew in your chest. He really had no idea, did he?

"Am I a good model?" you asked after a while of silence. You knew very well he could draw you from memory but this was easier and you enjoyed being the center of his attention in any way. Frankly, Arthur enjoyed studying your features as you sat in front of him as well.

Arthur smiled. "M'favorite."

After a few more moments, he took a few glances at you and back at the journal with a satisfied expression, putting the pencil away.

Your face lit up as you shuffled over, curiously peeking at the page. You were met with your own soft gaze staring back at you, every detail of your face in its place. It melted your heart how carefully drawn each line was.

You kissed Arthur's cheek, loosely wrapping your arms around his neck. "Beautiful as always. Thank you."

"Yer beautiful," he said in response, putting the journal flat open on the table.

You slightly blushed and moved to sit behind him, resting your chin on his shoulder as you kept your arms wrapped around him. You weren't great at accepting compliments either. "Thank you, Mr Morgan." You sighed softly, feeling Arthur's hands envelope yours. "My talented outlaw," you mumbled quietly but clearly enough for him to hear.

You heard a chuckle. "What?" you asked, unsure of what that was for. "Yer in an affectionate mood t'day," he stated, amusement in his voice.

"There a problem with that?" you asked but the smile on your face remained.

You slightly leaned back and moved your hands to his shoulders, instinctively massaging them as you thought. Arthur was out hunting, riding and shooting most of the time, so your massages were always appreciated.

You heard a quiet sigh of relief as his body started becoming more relaxed.

"Would u like to go hunt with me tomorrow?" you asked. You were tired of being stuck in the camp and honestly going on a little trip with Arthur wouldn't be bad at all.

"Sure."

You smiled and reached for his suspenders, then slid them off his shoulders. He understood and unbuttoned his shirt so that you could get a better access to his back and shoulders.

"Thank you, darlin'."

You hummed in response and continued, your gaze moving over his exposed skin covered with small scars. You wondered about the story behind each one of them, some seemed to be almost faded while there was one very fresh bruise, a red line of dried blood.

Arthur took out a cigarette and lit it, puffing as he relaxed under your touch. He probably would've offered you one as well if you smoked, but you didn't, only ever tasting tobacco when you kissed him. You never minded.

After a few more moments you put a kiss on the nape of his neck, then kissed the fresher wound as well. You were always so worried whenever he left to do a dangerous job, only praying he'd return in one piece, but you knew it was his life; and you were a part of it.

When you moved to sit next to him again, cheeky smile on your face as your eyes met, Arthur sighed, mumbling with cigarette between his lips. "Yer too good for'm, woman."

You stared into his blue eyes for a long moment, a quiet voiceless conversation happening between you two with eye contact alone. He cared for you as much as you cared for him.

Without a word you snuggled up closer, soon being enclosed by body warmth as he embraced you. You relaxed into the hug and closed your eyes, just listening to Arthur's inhales and exhales of the smoke.

You assumed Arthur must've been thinking as well, as there was yet another comfortable silence between you two and you were slowly but surely slipping into sleep.

Arthur stubbed out his cigarette and wrapped his arm around your waist, making you open your eyes just as he moved back to a half sitting half lying position on his bed, effortlessly taking you with him so that you lay between his legs, head resting on his chest. You quietly giggled at the sudden movement and made yourself comfortable afterwards, positioning your head exactly so that you have Arthur's heartbeat beneath your ear.

You were happy to have him all for yourself, safe, alive. The mess in Blackwater or the emergent stop in Colter could've been much more fatal for you two. Davey and Jenny were gone. John was attacked by wolves. And although you loved Horseshoe Overlook, the homely feeling and the beautiful view, you knew you'd have to move eventually. You needed money and you weren't getting it exactly the legal way, and you could only lie low so long.

And frankly, with Micah in the gang now, your worry rose even more. Dutch trusted him, for some goddamn reason, but he seemed to be reckless and dangerous, bending some of the morals this gang used to have. Not to mention him being a straight up jerk to everyone.

"Arthur?" you spoke, your voice slightly worried as you caressed his arm with your fingers.

"Hm?" His chest vibrated under your head.

"We can't let another Blackwater happen again."

Arthur understood what you meant. Him and Hosea tried convincing Dutch that the ferry job was a bad idea but it happened nonetheless, putting your gang in a situation worse than ever before. You worried about the influence Micah had on Dutch and the potential limits.

You knew that Arthur trusted Dutch, him and Hosea raised him, after all; but he wasn't stupid either. And the plans Dutch claimed to have planted seeds of doubt in almost everyone.

Arthur's response was a sigh and a kiss on top of your head, his arms hugging you just a bit tighter. There wasn't really much he could say to comfort you, he always tried to be honest and he couldn't know how the future would unfold, after all.

But you trusted him. That he would do the right thing.

With Arthur's heartbeat echoing under your ear and embraced by his warmth, you were slowly being lulled to sleep by his regular breaths.

Whether you'd stay outlaws forever or not, this really was all you had wished for.

[erika-xero]

Thoughts on ai and Art

What has Ai really changed for me is the perception of my own art. Years back, I was extremely concerned of my work being imperfect: everything had to look "right", the anatomy had to be flawless, the lines - clean and refined. The pipe-line had to be flawless too: minimal amount of layers, one - for lines, one - for colors, and a few for lighting/shading.

Meanwhile I was yearning for chaos and the standard pipe-line felt too strict, too limiting. I finished the drawing and cried over the imperfections, but I could not let myself create a new layer and just paint it all over as I wanted to - that would "mess up my perfect psd". This was even harder because I started as a traditional artist and traditional art is basically the same as drawing on one layer or stacking the layers on top of each other whenever you wish to change anything. I was so obsessed with the anatomy/perspective looking right that my works started looking boring and stiff. If I was not sure that I would be able to draw a certain body part at a certain angle ANATOMICALLY PERFECT - I just refused to draw it at all. Drawing back then was HARD. I forced too much limitations upon myself, I was so scared of making any mistakes and thus did everything I could to avoid the risk to fail. It felts like an entire world would see me failing and everyone - literally everyone - will disapprove. And don't get me wrong - the art community in my country has always been astonishingly toxic. We had, like, a group of 20 THOUSANDS individuals hunting down children online and bullying them into oblivion for drawing anime and furry characters in their school textbooks. And pretty much everyone except a small group of people (which I was a part of) thought that it's absolutely fine and this is how the things should be. Even the industry professionals were absolutely sure that young artists have to suffer and be ashamed of everything they do unless it is absolutely flawless at an any aspect. I was ashamed of everything I did back then. I was ashamed of drawing and posting sketches because I felt like they are not good enough to be shown to anyone. And then the Ai-boom started. And I had mixed feelings because I was not THAT scared, but I was somewhat disappointed of people? General public praised the generated slop ignoring the mistakes far worse than what real artists got bullied for for DECADES. The synthetic artworks are shiny. They are overrendered. They are liveless, boring, they lack fundamentals and yet somehow people viewed them as some kind of a miracle. I decided to learn how does those little machines generated their slop out of morbid curiosity, just to make sure that I got it right and it is spitting out cadavers created from mutilated, dismembered works of real artists. Used by people who did not care enough to pick up a bloody pencils. And I thought: why would I care enough to look at something that no one bothered to create? And then I started seeing everything I do completely different. I suddenly stopped caring of being perfect. Every piece I have ever done, every work I was crying over for it being ugly, every messy sketch and unfinished doodle suddenly started to matter a lot. Not that I stopped caring of doing my best, no. I stopped wishing to disown my own mistakes. They are my own. I cared enough to try and fail and to try again, and fail so badly that I wanted to cry, scream and throw up. And I repeated the cycle for long enough that I started to enjoy my silly doodles and started loving every tiny imperfection because this is what made my art so human. I still suck at drawing hands and feet. My line-art is messy and I started doing it right on top of my colored sketch. My pipe-line is in chaos and my PSDs look like a total mess of three hundreds of layers. I draw sketches with huge-ass round brush only adding the details that really matters. My works are better than they could ever be because they feel alive and chaotic as we human had always been. This is a love letter to my art and write it while flipping off my middle finger to the cadavers generated by the machine. I will not be stopped by glorified autocomplete and I refuse to be outdone by people who confuse googling an image with the act of creation.

My worst drawing is better than any of the generative imagery out there, because I cared drawing it.

[kkanabel]

caffeine addiction ❃ annoying bakugou ❃ chapter 3 Bakugou Katsuki x Reader / Coffee Shop! AU directory/m.list

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After Bakugou nitpicked at the amount of caffeine you had, he started to give you warning looks when you’re starting to drink too much. It was as if a bartender was watching a patron that tends to drink himself blind-- except you’re drinking coffee and you’re one espresso shot away from a full-blown heart attack. 

Thus, you’re sitting at your usual table with a peach lemonade, tapping your feet on the ground as if you’re waiting for something. It started to become entertaining. When Bakugou looked at you, he saw an angry pomeranian that had its toy taken from them.

When you looked at Bakugou, you saw an evil mother pomeranian that withheld the toy for your own good.

It was strange-- you hardly knew each other. Even then, this rando barista was withholding something that would make him money. All for the sake of your health. It made you want to spend more money at this establishment. You wanted to rain money onto his broad shoulders (that were already covered in designer brands anyway) to show your appreciation for those who care about others.

Or it could just be for legal reasons. You’re pretty sure that you’re liable for your own decisions, but you suppose you could say that his coffee provoked you because it was too delicious…? Likely not. Worth a thought, though. Not really.

You were taking a look at sneak-peek photos of the Masaki show coming up soon. Your aunt was going to be one of the VIPs, and she invited you to come along. She desperately wanted you to be in promotion photos for Masaki, saying “I was telling Masaru about how I have a niece with a face that perfectly suits their brand! I wish you would take the option already! You have such a big opportunity to model for us, but you still insist on doing something else.”

You loved your aunt, but she still pestered you to join the fashion industry with her. While you absolutely loved fashion, the industry was just too much for you. You’ve had your fair share of models gossiping about how you’re a “fashion princess”, having one of the top designers in the world as a relative. Exposure like that is uncomfortable. You didn’t want to get big in the industry just because of the people you’re related to. If you’re going to make it big in the industry, it’s going to be by your own hand–you don’t want to get a big push just because of your aunt. 

You wanted to be fully self-made.

So, you sent an advertisement design to one of your clients, a new dating app called “Kiss, Kiss, Fall in Love”, which “innovated” a way to find love by placing you into a group chat with all of your suitors at once. It sounds extremely stupid. At least your advertisement made it look clean and professional. You pinched yourself for helping out a company with such an idiotic premise, but at least it makes you money. 

Then, you closed your tabs for the graphic design you were doing and then swiped over to your tabs open for a handful of assignments on finance. You have a lot of shit to do today. You also had ideas for your aunt’s new line, and you were going to sketch them out and send them to her by the end of today.

Falling asleep wasn’t a problem, because you had your lemonade, a cup of ice water, and an americano next to you. Going to the bathroom 5 times in one hour may be a problem, but you ignored it in favor of trying to finish your assignment as quickly as possible. You wanted to sketch out those designs now, but you’d be too anxious doing them if you didn’t have your assignment finished. 

Drinking iced liquids during the winter helped you stay awake. You were fucking shivering, but it’s okay. Anything to stay awake. You have to get these things done. This urgency was definitely making your dark circles worse by the day, though. 

It’s fine. You’ll need to put on concealer later, anyway. You needed to hop on a Zoom call with your club members in a couple hours, and you needed to freshen up before then. For now, your hair jutting out in all directions from your messy-ass bun and how crusty you looked was fine. The only person seeing you was an extremely hot guy in the café, but it’s also fine because you’re not going to court him, and this café is basically your second home at this point.

All of this was running through your mind as you worked on your assignment, furiously typing away on your laptop to fill out an extended-response question. 

Seeing you work on your laptop was making Bakugou feel particularly productive today. 

He whipped out his own laptop to sort out details he needed for his father’s upcoming fashion show. His parents wanted him to be there so they could have a photoshoot of their cute baby in nice clothes.

Except their cute little baby was now a 23-year-old man. 

After the show, he was going to be backstage, taking photos with the models so his parents could show him off to their mutual fashion-forward friends. Since Bakugou asked them not to post his photos as promotion, they didn’t. Like you, he didn’t want the attention. But this was a little different–he just didn’t want any fame, in general. He’s already got enough attention on him from the various women (and men) coming into the café to flirt with him. His ego is big enough as it is, and the random people eye-fucking him from across his own coffee shop don’t really help. 

But at some point, he had to ask some of his employees to help him kick out some people that were getting too rowdy, and he wasn’t the biggest fan of doing that. He just wants to live his life without people drooling over him like a piece of meat. Although Bakugou made it seem like he was more proud of his good looks when someone objectified him, it made him uncomfortable at times. 

So, he was glad that you were a new regular of his and not some creep trying to get into his pants. He found himself being a little happier every time he saw you come into the café with hair that looked like a bird’s nest and a face that definitely hadn’t woken up fully.

So, with some typing to give feedback to his parents, he sent them a lengthy paragraph detailing what he thought about the setup for the show. The models’ makeup, the music, and the general vibe of the walkway. 

Next on his to-do list was to experiment with new drinks for the menu. He was getting bored, and he thought that a great way to spice up his life and his customers’ lives was to add a new drink or two to his café menu. Thus, he got to brewing and mixing. In the middle of his work, he saw someone come in from the back. 

“Hey, Bakugou!” came a chipper voice from the girl who was putting on the café apron and bringing the apron’s strings around her waist so that she could see the strings as she was tying them. “Whatcha up to?”

He glanced at Ashido Mina, one of his long-time employees. They’ve been friends since high school, and she helps out at the café from time to time to make some extra cash. Though it was difficult for him to say it to their faces, he was always really grateful for his friends helping him with this coffee shop. 

“Makin’ some new drinks. Figured we should have something new for Christmas–apart from the seasonal drinks we already have.” He looked back down at his work, crushing up a candy cane on a cutting board into smithereens. 

She silently watched him as he sprinkled the crushed candy cane onto the drink next to the cutting board. The drink was in a glass mug and was a creamy brown topped with whipped cream and the candy cane Bakugou just put onto it. Bakugou brought the mug up to his lips and tasted it. Without a word, he gave the cup to Ashido.

As Ashido tasted it, her eyes lit up. “This is good,” she praised, placing it onto the table. 

Bakugou still looked at the drink, putting a hand up to his chin whilst thinking. “It’s not quite right,” he keened, crossing his arms. He didn’t know what to change. He used one of the best chocolates on the market. He didn’t even use the powder shit that tasted like ass! He mixed together a combination of milk and dark chocolate, so it should have added the complexity he was looking for. But for some reason, the drink tasted flat. 

“Mina-san?” From one of the tables at the café, you looked at Ashido with a surprised face. Ashido returned the face, gasping when she saw you. 

She called out your name in realization, walking around the counter to envelop you in a hug.

Bakugou furrowed his brows when he saw that you did makeup and calmed the birds’ nest that was your hair in the short period of time he was talking to Ashido. Witchcraft, he thought. The fact that you even did eye makeup amazed him. Wait– is your hair curled this time? How?!

He watched as you and Ashido made some small talk when she pointed a thumb at him. “Yeah, I work here to help out this dude. Actually, he’s trying to make a new drink for the upcoming holiday season, and he’s kinda struggling. Wanna try the prototype?” Bakugou’s eyes widened a little bit. It wasn’t in surprise, but moreso… fear?

“Sure!” You chirped, making him a little more scared. He couldn’t place his finger on why. Maybe it was because it was unfinished and all you knew about his drinks were perfection? He didn’t want to ruin that idea for you. But before he could say anything, Ashido passed you the mug with the prototype drink, and you sipped it.

He tried to ignore the fact that you drank a drink that a stranger also drank, but the very tiny teenage girl portion of him went, Oh my gosh, an indirect kiss! With me and Racoon Eyes!

“Hm, a peppermint hot chocolate? It’s good, but it could use more complexity.” Out came your response, and you tasted it again. “You should add some coffee to deepen the flavor. Also, maybe flavoring the whipped cream with mint would be a nice touch.”

Bakugou furrowed his brows in confusion. “Coffee? What?”

Your cheeks started to burn a little. It probably seemed you were saying that just because you’re an addict and he knows it. “N-No, I’m not trying to change it into some coffee drink! I’m saying– I normally add a little of some instant coffee to my hot chocolate because it deepens the flavor!”

He thought about it for a moment before grabbing the saucepan with which he previously made the hot chocolate. He tossed in a little bit of instant coffee, then poured it into three paper cups for all of you to try it.

All three of you tasted the prototype beverage at the same time, and while you had a content expression tasting very nice hot cocoa, the expression that Bakugou and Ashido had was one of amazement. “It’s… perfect,” Bakugou said, mystified.

Ashido let in a wide gasp when she finished the rest of the drink in the cup and she turned herself to face you. “...are you a flavor genius?”

You chuckled and said, “No, I’m just a coffee addict."

You were sitting outside on your Zoom meeting while Bakugou and Ashido were lazing around in the café, waiting for people to come in. Bakugou was blankly staring at you. You were laughing while waving your arms around to make a point to the people in the online meeting, and Bakugou was entranced.

When he snapped out of it and turned his head to Ashido, his good mood instantly dissipated when he saw her grinning like a Cheshire cat. A very evil Cheshire cat that is most certainly up to no good.

“Whatever the fuck you’re thinking, the answer is no.” He crossed his arms and glared at her, who was now suggestively wriggling her eyebrows at him. “I don’t have time for that.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she took a sip of her peach green tea on the back counter. “The fact that you knew what I was thinking just affirms my thoughts. Plus! Why not? She’s reeeally pretty, right?” Ashido emphasized her words a little too much, but still kept her voice down in case she was bothering any nearby patrons.

Bakugou sighed and propped himself on the chair in front of the register, nursing a freshly-made latte to his chest. “I’ve got my hands busy with a café and with my parents’ shit. I won’t shoot my shot if I’ve got no bullets.”

Ashido seemed to consider things for a minute, tapping her foot and looking into space. She raised her pointer finger, “But-”

“Racoon Eyes. No.” He glared her down. 

She didn’t back down. “Not even a hi? A meager hello?”

Bakugou really didn’t have time to deal with love. He’s got other shit to do– his parents are still pestering him to join the fashion business, and he’s working himself thin with the café already. 

“You don’t think she’s pretty?” Ashido offered, looking at you sitting outside.

Bakugou scowled. He didn’t want to deal with Ashido right now, either. “I’m not fucking blind. Of course, she’s pretty. I just don’t have time for it.”

Her eyes seemed to start blinging with interest as she squealed, “Bakugou has a cru-” he placed a hand over her mouth. People were looking in their direction, confused. A relationship, never mind pursuing one, is in no way something he wants to deal with. Unless this girl started showing up in every facet of his life or something, it just wouldn’t be possible.  

But the higher powers up there have a funny sense of humor. 

(Ironically, the girl that Bakugou just started pining for had named him a god just a couple days prior.)

a/n: taglist is open! just lmk <3 stay hydrated, cuties! :D

directory/m.list

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[vampsquerade]

Hello, hope you're having a good day/night

I was wondering if you could write some platonic hc's for Ghost or König (or both if you're up for it), just some general comfort, interactions with them.

Got 2 specifications tho, could the reader be gender neutral and an artist?

Thanks sm for reading this, and thank you even more if you decide to write it <3

And If the spot isn't taken (incase of future interactions), can I be the 💧(tear/water drop) anon?

hello, i’m having an amazing night as i’m currently writing this before publication! i hope you’ve been doing well and you most certainly can be know. as tear anon 💧 i’m going to go ahead and write both of them just for you <3 thank you for requesting so so much i wish you a wonderful weekend and i hope you enjoy :,)

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Ghost and König Platonic Headcanons

Trigger Warnings: slight mentions of trauma bonding, slow but shaky friendships,

Ghost

☆ Simon as an ally is reliable, but Simon as a friend? He was a very interesting character

☆ He always loves to tell new jokes to those he tends to be closer to, often to their disdain because of how bad they were

☆ So when nobody else liked them, Simon would go to you and tell them to you because you thought they were laughably bad

☆ It helped Simon get closer to you as well and before you knew it, the two of you were friends

☆ The two of you would constantly exchange complex inside jokes to each other, often turning some heads because of how little it made sense to them

☆ And every single time Johnny asked about what you guys meant, you’d only tease him further

☆ Whenever you were in a terrible mood, Simon knew when to back off and not test you further, even at times going out of his way to calm and comfort you

☆ Gives you weird and specific nicknames; the man can’t really socialize in a way that isn’t mildly aggressive, what can you do?

☆ If you’re younger than him, he practically begs you not to be like him once you’re his age. Simon would rather die than have someone he was close to be just like him

☆ He’s the more mature one of you two in general though, always has to stop you from starting fights with people

☆ When Simon found out you were an artist, he teased you for how much you made sketches of him and the others

☆ You panicked slightly because you tried your best to hide that in sketches of wildlife, buildings, and other things you’d seen as you traveled the world

☆ Simon would compliment your art a lot however, often appreciating the work you did

☆ He’d also sneak up on you while you were sketching someone just for that little spook that made you mess up

☆ Obviously apologizes for it as well, and knows when to not say anything that might startle you and cause you to mess up

☆ He has also paid you money for a sketch of him you made that he really liked

König

♪ Despite his large stature, the Austrian man was a pretty chill and gentle guy

♪ König and you clicked when sent out on a mission after you joined Kortac, despite his anxiety slightly getting to him and him thinking you were gonna bully him

♪ Shared interest in sniping between the two of you is the reason why you two became friends so quickly

♪ König’s like the big brother between the two of you, whether you’re older or younger than him

♪ He worries about you whenever he doesn’t hear from you, when you get injured, and all that

♪ König is hellbent on getting revenge on whoever injured you too, he’s the scary dog friend confirmed

♪ Outside of working together however, he’s always the one to send you letters or come see you in person to hang out

♪ He prefers to hang out at either of your homes, but he doesn’t mind stepping out for something

♪ König’s anxiety slightly holds him back from engaging with the outside world, but having a friend with him makes him feel okay

♪ He’s definitely trauma dumped on you but that was when he came back from a mission so distraught it brought it out of him, and you were more than happy to comfort the giant and let him know he’s okay. You’re the soft comfort sibling to him

♪ When König found you one day making a painting while you were at home, he asked if he could watch you because the brush against the canvas was a really nice thing to see

♪ König’s asked a few times if you could help him draw something and has been happy ever since then

♪ He loves when he catches you sketching him too while out in the field and you’ve found the time to do so

♪ König loves posing for you as well, often incorporating some of his weapons and grenades. He also loves helping you with foreshortening and perspective

♪ Only trusts you with sketching his face, but it has to absolutely only be headshots

♪ Sometimes König falls asleep when he’s sitting next to you watching you sketch, as the pencil’s graphite against the paper relaxes him a bit

[tadbitsketch]

I haven't done one of these in forever but welcome back to Sketch Rambles About MCSM Stuff at an Unreasonable Hour of the Night 🎉🎉🎉

Tonight, I'm gonna discuss one of my favorite songs from the Minecraft: Story Mode OST, "Redstone Baby," and the potential lore that it holds. And why that's very Sorengaard related.

Disclaimer: this is me interpreting silly block people. Unless otherwise stated (or in the game), it ain't actually canon. Also, I am a teenage girl. I am not versed very well in the specifics of how music theory works and how it's used in media. Also also, I wrote most of this like two months ago and completely forgot about it.

(In case you needed a reminder of how it sounds)

This song appears twice in the season 1 episode 3: when you arrive in Soren's lab area, and again in the end credits. It can also be heard through the closed secret entrance wall in the Wool World™, and it gradually becomes clearer as you approach the door to Soren's lab, where a music disc is playing the song inside.

The instrumentation of "Redstone Baby" consists of guitar, piano, and violin. It feels comforting and cozy, whilst also giving a sad, longing sort of vibe. According to a comment written 6 years ago by Antimo on the linked video, they were going for a sorta "Fallout: New Vegas" vibe when they wrote it. The song holds an air of nostalgia, of better times. An idealized dream of how the world could be.

To get to the point: it's cute, it's cozy, and it's a love song in a game where they weren't allowed to explicitly write any canon ships (if I'm remembering correctly). Also one of the few songs in this game to be given lyrics. So, of course, we're gonna talk about this. Or rather I'm gonna write about it and you're gonna read it.

The lyrics go as follows:

In a marshmallow world, you're my sweetheart.

In a marshmallow world, you're my sweetheart.

You're the bed to my rock,

The flint to my steel.

My redstone baby doll...

My redstone baby doll.

(music)

In a marshmallow world, you're my sweetheart.

In a marshmallow world, you're my sweetheart.

My sugar baby...

aaaah ladada, awoah...

The lyrics are pretty strange, right? It seems nonsensical at first, but I (and many others) believe that it has more meaning than meets the eye.

This is a love song addressed to a someone proficient with redstone. Funnily enough, Soren's old friend group did have one of those. A brilliant Redstone Engineer: Ellegaard. And quite interestingly, these two were pretty close, as is said multiple times in canon. I think Magnus mentions their little "Nerd Club," in episode 3 at some point. Another fact to back me up on this: Soren calls the song "Symphony in E" in-game on the little radio-disk-program-thing.

And for whatever reason, Soren and Ellegaard didn't stay close or end up together. There's not really a way to know for certain what went down between them. All we do know is that Soren wishes it was different.

The "marshmallow world" that is talked about in the song is Soren's perfect world. It's safe, sweet, and fluffy. I am of the opinion that it could possibly be an indirect reference to the wool world that Soren built. It's bright. It's safe. No monsters can get him there. He can just build things and be happy. In a perfect, marshmallow world, Ellegaard is with Soren.

The metaphors Soren uses here, "the bed to my rock, the flint to my steel," they're both iconic, inseparable duos: bedrock, and flint and steel. In Minecraft, bedrock is the unbreakable foundation beneath all else in the Overworld. Flint and steel is used to set things on fire, and is most often used to light Nether portals, which is way less symbolic (unless someone can find something? maybe the whole flaming heart being a metaphor for love thing?) but still iconic and the phrase has a very nice rhythm to it.

When we first hear the song, it feels like normal wishful thinking. It's more just fluff and poetry than full-on wants and desires.

But when we hear it in the end credits of episode 3... We just saw someone die after sacrificing their safety for Jesse's. The monster that they died to help kill isn't even dead. Someone we thought was dead is actually alive and doesn't remember anything. It's loud, dark, and burning. A sickening storm of death and destruction. Anything but the marshmallow world.

Without considering which of the two died, this song is already quite jarring in comparison to what was just witnessed. This "marshmallow world" that seemed somewhat close just a moment ago now feels implausible, and thus it'd be worth so much more if it were real.

I will never not love when something in a piece of media is treated as a good sign or motif or something and then it gets recontextualized and hurts ya right in the feels.

And with Redstone Baby combined with Ellegaard dying, it's just that extra brutal.

Because now it's not just, "in a perfect world, we'd be together." It's "in a perfect world, you wouldn't be dead, and we'd be together."

If only Soren wasn't so much of a coward. How differently things could've gone.

[ferronickel]

Hail, flatter! This one, who is a layperson of the arts and comixcraft, has a query for you:

So like, what is flatting?

I've seen your flats in Wifwulf, and I've read about the flats in Looking Glasses, and generally get that it results in an image with similarly coloured areas sharing the same false-colour.

But like, how is it then used? The final images seem to contain more colours and shading, so why not just go straight to this? Why do false colours get used instead of the real ones? How do you pick the colours and how many get used?

How come this is a thing that a whole other person can do separately? I guess that's because it's time consuming - so it saves time somehow?

Thank you! I come in the spirit of humility wishing to relieve my ignorance of your noble craft!

OHOHOHO!!! You've activated my trap card and now I get to ramble about comics craft! And in my area of professional expertise, too! Be prepared for a long post

I'm going to start with the last part of your question:

How come this is a thing that a whole other person can do separately? I guess that's because it's time consuming - so it saves time somehow?

So the thing about comics is that it is one of the most intensely time consuming mediums to create. One person can make comics on their own fairly easily, but it takes forever to produce. Consider that I've been working on Looking Glasses for 18-19 months and have drawn about 87 pages. Now, the western comics industry expects issues to be produced monthly, generally 24 pages in length. It's very difficult for a single person to work at this rate, so the labor of producing comics has been divided. Generally these jobs become:

Writer (writes the script)

Editor (edits the script)

Artist (draws the lineart)

Colorist (colors and renders the art)

Letterer (adds balloons, dialog, and sfx)

Flatter (sometimes 'color assistant' they take the art and prepare it for coloring)

This isn't comprehensive though, there are a bunch of other jobs, like designers and layout artists. Occasionally the artist job gets broken into Pencilers (who sketch the art) and Inkers (who ink the sketch). Basically, by splitting the work amongst a number of people you can produce comics much faster. Not all of these jobs are required, and creator-owed books might have artists do their own coloring and lettering, while big work-for-hire books might have twice as many people working so they can pump out a spider-man book every other week.

Okay, so why Flatters?

Flatting at it's most basic level is just coloring inside the lines. You take a black and white page of art, and you have to fill in every part of the page that will eventually be colored. It's a pretty time consuming task depending on how involved your lineart is.

Flatting a page of Looking Glasses doesn't take me all that long, usually less than a half hour, which is pretty quick. Looking Glasses pages tend to be... optimized for flatting though. There are only ever a few characters and there aren't a ton of background details.

You mentioned Wifwulf (created by my longtime friend and collaborator Dailen Ogden), here's one of it's pages:

Basically everything that's a different base color, (every tree, plant, bit of moss, character, etc.) needed to be picked out separately. Each page of Wifwulf took me a few hours to flat. If Dailen had been doing that themself, those hours would have really added up, but instead they could spend that time drawing and coloring. Now, that said, these pages have a lot of texture, so it's hard to see exactly what I did.

Here's an example from a comic I worked on early in my career. (Lineart by Patrick Custodio)

The writer for this comic loved to put in these incredibly complex crowd scenes, which is something the artist excelled at drawing. I was coloring and flatting at this point on the book, and before I could even start coloring properly, I would need to flat for like eight hours. (I have a much more efficient method these days) It was frustrating because I just wanted to work on the actually creative part, but the majority of my time was spent on something monotonous. As soon as I got the writer to hire a flatter for me, coloring a page would take me only one or two hours, not nine or ten.

So that's why flatters exist, mainly to ease the workload on colorists.

But like, how is it then used? The final images seem to contain more colours and shading, so why not just go straight to this?

Flatting serves a couple of purposes. It's main function, like I said above, is just coloring in the lines. After finishing your lineart it has to get colored in, so in a layer below the lines, you add colors.

The secondary function is preservation. I like to work in a way that is non-destructive, basically, at any point in the process I can restore an earlier version of the drawing if I make a mistake or don't like something. Flats are integral to this.

In digital art, there's this thing called anti-aliasing, where the edges of a line or shape have a drop off of pixel color or opacity. It makes the edges look smoother or blurrier. The three dots on the left are Anti-Aliased, while the one on the right is Aliased, there's no drop off, just hard pixels.

Anti-aliasing is fine until you need to change the color using the paint bucket, or select using the magic wand...

See how the anti-aliased art doesn't play well with these tools, but the aliased art does? So with something like Wifwulf, the final art is going to be full of texture that makes it impossible to select anything again once it's painted. By having a dedicated aliased flats layer under the rest of the artwork, you can always re-select any part of the image you want.

I always leave my flats layer alone, and do any detail work in layers above. For example when I was painting this, it really helped to be able to select just the titan so I could work on those paints without worrying about brushstrokes overlapping the rest of the characters.

One of the other things you can do with flats is quickly selecting certain elements. On most pages, I flat my panels, figures, and background elements separately. Later, with a single button press, I can select just the characters in the scene, or entire panels at a time, which makes things like shading a whole lot easier.

Why do false colours get used instead of the real ones?

If you're flatting for other people you often don't know what the final colors are going to be, so you just pick random ones. Garish colors can be helpful because it makes it obvious that they're not the final colors. Why don't I use the correct colors on my own pages when I'm flatting? Habit, mostly. It's also faster to grab random colors than to track down the correct ones. Sometimes two different things will have the same final color but I like to flat them with different colors so I can select them individually if I need to.

You can see the process a bit here. In my flats, Lancer's spade (eye? eyes? thing) is a different color from his tongue, even if they end up being the same white in the final image. This would help if I ever needed to select just his eyes for some reason. You can also see how I select his body fur color and then add details on top, like his colored fingers and the grey on his arm. Those elements have blurry anti-aliased edges, and it would be impossible to re-select them without flats.

How do you pick the colours and how many get used?

I use the default "additional color set" palette in clip studio and just work my way through it. I pick row and work my way down (for a change of pace I vary which row I start with). How many is mostly dependent on the artwork. You just keep going until you run out of individual objects to color. I have worked on pages where I've run out of colors on this palette and had to start making up more. Typically a page of Looking Glasses only needs around 20-30, though.

So! That's flatting! It's a little known job, and it's how I got started with my comics career, so I have a lot of thoughts on it. I was trying to be concise (lol), so I hope this all makes sense, but I'd be happy to clarify or answer any other questions about this process. I know I didn't really go into how I flat my work, so I can make that post if anyone is interested.

[verytiredrn]

Hello tiredhomeboi, I'm sorry to bother you if it's night or you're busy, but I'd love to ask you something please.

First of all, I want to tell you that I love your drawings and they are great! Really well done and it makes us want to love the Leopika or the pariston/ging even more! 😊❤️ You inspire me a lot and I'd also like to draw people from Hunter x Hunter but especially the phantom troupe that I particularly appreciate.

The problem is that I can't find my style, or draw exactly what I have in my heading. So I was thinking that maybe a pro like you had some tips/advice for drawing 😅😥🙏

Did you learn how to do proportions before drawing and with what? Do you use references? (I do, but it limits me a lot on my ideas as I don't necessarily find references that reach what I have in mind 😞)

How did you learn to do sketches so easily? How did you find your own style?

I'm really sorry if I'm taking up your time. Thank you very much for your time and attention ❤️

hey there, thank you so much for the kind message :,D

I’ll be honest, im not the best at giving art advice. although I’m still in the process of improving my art, I can tell you how I’ve been developing my style.

I like looking and analyzing my interests that have unique art styles. For example, I see togashi’s style in hxh and what I’ve gathered based on his work is how he ranges from some simplicity to a more very detailed style. For me, I love his simplistic style a lot more. and that makes me want to develop my style that is more cartoon centric, if that makes sense. So see what art styles intrigues you the most, study it, copy it (which is valid for beginner artists imo, but don’t claim it as your own art‼️), then forget about the copying method and practice it, and overall, just have fun with it.

despite achieving my cartoony style that im used to having, I still try to make the proportions in my art look decent. I’ll be honest, I still need some practice on it. sorry if this sounds vague, but I use a lot of shapes and lines to figure out the proportions (ex. For the head, I start off with a circle and a horizontal line at the center of it, and change the height of the line depending on where you want the eyes to be at) I wish I could show you some examples for this part but I don’t have my ipad with me right now. :,) one of my other ways of practicing proportions are redrawing official art from my favorite interests. it’s honestly a fun way for me to improve on drawing proportions. but if I want to draw a character in any pose of my choice, I look up references on Pinterest. I know this method is pretty much common and im sorry about that :,)

for sketches tho, sometimes, i do tend to struggle on sketching as well :,) if its something im used to drawing all the time tho (example: kurapika) then it isnt as hard to sketch easily.

overall, those are my ways and methods in developing my art. sorry this took me days to reply back, i wanted to try to answer all your questions as best as i can. lemme know if i need to be more clear on certain parts :,D

[nimarts]

trying to figure out how to make art for myself again is genuinely, like, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

going to art school and then freelancing full-time for two years made me beat as many "inefficiencies" out of my art as possible. for a while, making illustrations became purely a matter of streamlining my process to take as little time as possible in achieving a result. even now, I feel a little demon in the back of my head screaming at me when I try out a new coloring technique, or take a little too long settling on a sketch.

the demon is also always screaming at me about marketability. you know, like:

"how will this fit in with the rest of your portfolio?"

"what skills of yours will this piece highlight in the eyes of recruiters?"

"will the dimensions of this canvas be eye-catching on twitter? what about instagram?"

they get a little quieter every day. but not by much. not as quiet as I want them to be. not quiet enough to keep me from still being too intimidated to draw on a lot of days, because god forbid I draw anything that looks a little rough, or imperfect, or abstract. when you have clients paying you for art, there's a standard of quality to be adhered to. there's a way they expect it to look. anything else wouldn't make for very strong branding as an artist, now would it?

I don't think that my art is bad. I think I'm pretty good at it, actually. it's why I tried taking a professional route with it in the first place. I thought that with my passion driving me, I'd always be able to strike a healthy balance between making art for a living and making it for myself.

but I... I don't think that I can. I don't think that I ever can. not even in a self-depreciating way; it's just, how can I pour my heart and soul into creating just for the sake of creating the way I used to... while also making sure that I stand out amongst my peers? making sure that I can work consistently and efficiently? making sure that my art is appealing to others?

I don't think that I can get the two to coexist, personally. and that sucks to figure out. I wish I had figured it out before I'd pushed my relationship with my truest passion to the brink of destruction. it sucks to figure out now, after I've gone to art school because art was the only thing my teen self had ever loved for so long, so wholeheartedly. because it was the only thing I ever felt I was kind of good at. like it was the only thing that could possibly get me anywhere in life or make people proud of me.

I think I pushed myself so hard to make art for a living because I couldn't let go of those ideas for a really long time. of course, as an adult, I've learned plenty of different ways at this point to be proud of myself, and that other people will also be proud of me outside of my career and the material things I'm capable of producing. crazy!

even so, trying to draw now after everything feels like trying to coax a hurt, traumatized animal out of its hiding place, knowing that it used to be so sweet and full of love and life. like, I'm trying to make it understand that if it comes to me, I'm not going to yell at it or try beating it with a stick.

and... I'm making progress! I definitely am. it'll sniff my hand now before scurrying away again. and if I'm patient, maybe soon I can give it a pat on the head, too. it's an agonizingly slow process that I know I can't rush, no matter how much I want to.

trying to figure out how to make art for myself again is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. but there's a certain comfort in knowing it is something i have to do- for myself and myself only.

[sofie-toffy]

SatoSugu angst!

Satoru x Suguru angst fanfic

This is basically the ending of the jjk0 movie but in gojo’s pov + with a little prediction of what gojo said to geto. This is a little inspired by the song “Snow” by Ricky Montgomery…I recommend listening to it while reading this! This is one of my first few fanfics so I’d like some feedback and thoughts :)

This fic doesn’t completely confirm satosugu as a romantic relationship but I think I wrote some implications pretty well

Contains spoilers!!

“Satoru…” Geto’s voice was stifled, yet he still spoke of gojo’s name with such gentleness

Do you have any last words, suguru? Satoru asks, his throat weak and suffocating, so desperately wanting to cry out, to cling on to him, wanting everything back the way it was. He wants to heal him, place a reverse curse technique and stop him from taking his last moments. But alas, he couldn’t, he can’t. Not when he’s the enemy. Not when they’re opposite sides of the same coin. Not when he threatens to harm his students. But he loves him so much…he misses him so much…

He spent the past decade trying to ignore him, but now he has no choice but to watch him leave. Witness as death separates him..now there really is no chance of meeting him, or saying a simple hello…yet he has so much to say for the achingly long time he spent alone.

It’s been about more than a decade since they separated…yet it felt like just yesterday. Almost every night, gojo dreams of geto, reminiscing the days where things weren’t complicated…where it was just laughter and careless banter…and he wakes up and realizes the reality, and that everything happened in such a short amount of time. His best friend left him with little explanation. He had to go through his high school days, graduating without his closest friend. He spends every day wondering what went wrong…how could he have messed up? He’s known as the strongest sorcerer and yet he couldn’t save the person he loved most. Geto was one of the very few people who saw Satoru as Satoru…not the most powerful sorcerer, not some renowned superior, but as Satoru…as a friend, as a person. He wishes that he could turn back time, help his best friend when he needed it most. He so much begs to trade all his renowned power to change everything, to spend more time with his one and only, to laugh carelessly as they so easily used to.

But he snaps out of his thoughts, and turns back to the present moment. And here they are, wasting their chances for the last time, having so many words unspoken.

“No matter what others say, I hate those monkeys..but I never held any hatred for those in jujutsu high school…I just couldn’t wear a heartfelt smile in this world..”Geto chuckles weakly, his eyes tired

Gojo walks closer, sitting near him. He opens his mouth, trying so desperately to say something…there was so much to say yet so little time..his throat stuck, eyes burning with neglected tears. He decides to say something, not wasting this moment, not when they were to separate permanently.

“Thank you.”

He speaks out, voice deep yet cracking. With all that happened, all the words and sentences he could’ve ranted, he said just 2 words. He didn’t regret it though, no not at all. He’s always wanted to say thank you to Geto, he couldn’t even say a proper goodbye after they separated after all.

“At least curse me a little at the end…”

Geto’s eyes widen, soft tears falling on his scarred face. He really did love Geto. He didn’t want to separate from him, but he did what he had to protect him. His lips weakly curled up into a smile, his eyes showing infinite gratitude before he takes his last breath.

I made a quick sketch based on the fanfic :D I wanted to draw in a style that reminded me of manga (im crying sm rn)

[kihakugato-art]

The Harriet Pinup Art Project

Session 1- 3Dification & Sketchification

I initially got a little stressed when using the 3D posing in CSP so to give myself a breather I did some traditional art sketches of Harriet! I played around with a few expressions as well as experimented with her having a ponytail (another hat tip towards Mordred Fate, plus I think Harriet just looks good in a ponytail!) which I think I’ll have for her for the planned bigger art piece.

But to answer question from session 0- “how well can I mess with the 3D model to the pose(s) I need”? Doable, but a lil rough; It’s very easy to misclick during the process and mess things up.

[WEEEEEE- those are some broken-ass limbs there!]

It’s also a bit of a learning curve to try to remember which controls affect the 3D model in certain ways. Not to mention controlling/posing the limbs to how you wish can be quite fickle depending on the limb;

Say you want to turn the leg calf horizontally cause its turned a lil weird, it will only let you move it up-down from the calf direction controls, so you’ll need to control the thigh as well as the foot/ankle, which can be a bit unintuitive.

The fact you can save poses (both for fullbody and just hands) was quite handy though to ensure I could reuse or fall back onto a pose or reuse a pose if I needed to.

In the end I tried two different sitting variants; one with one of the legs up, and another where both legs are hanging down. While the latter could give a powerful image if used by a clever enough artist, I couldn’t really nail it, so in the end I chose the former.

["It looks identical"- it's because the changes are pretty subtle without overlaying the two versions over each other. There's a difference between them I assure you!]

Not sure if the Manga toggle is quite the best choice for this piece either since the change isn’t hugely dramatic for this specific piece (it’d probably be better for a piece that’s more action-packed), but I chose it anyways. Now let’s get to sketching!

Not Bad, but it felt off. Some of it is because at the end of the day I did just trace/follow over the 3D image which feels a little unsettling for me in this context- but I gotta remember I posed/positioned the 3D model myself It's not from default poses available in the CSP library. I may redraw over the sketch later without the 3D model to try to maybe try to break any stiffness that may have bled through from tracing which could contribute tot he oddness. Even with that though, something still felt off.

“Where do the wings connect to the back?” was the question one friend gave to me once I showed this WIP with my concerns. She was right; the wings were placed too high, they look like they are directly to the shoulders, which just feels *wrong*.

A little fiddling and the wings were shifted so that they are implied be connecting *below* the shoulder blades. Much better. Now to the setting/background!

[Image source 1, Image source 2]

Among my background inspo folder the retaining coastal wall seemed the most doable. Not to mention my brain was craving it a little bit from back when I got to visit near one of the Great Lakes this year.

Not bad! If I kept the background relatively simple/plain and did contrast between Harriet and the wall it could look pretty good. However- as my one friend pointed out- the pitch for this project I more or less said/implied she’d be on her ship. Which I unfortunately I have to agree.

I’m not super keen on figuring out the deck layout for Harriet’s ship though, since I’m far from done designing her ship. It’d also be different if I had a 3D asset of a schooner ship, but with the work it took to get the posed 3D model in place as well as the fact I’d likely have to pay for such a 3D asset, that route ain’t happening, that ship has sailed (lol punny).

Maybe we can avoid those details by having her sit high up on one of the masts? People go up on masts right??? Alright then- Time to update the inspo/reference folder for backgrounds/settings!

[Image source 1, image source 2- uhhh hoping the licenses for some of these ref images doesn't apply here for the first image or I'm gonna have to remove these images from here- which fair enough, my bad to only realize this now]

The first ref I depended on for a little bit- but then for whatever reason my brain began to REALLY struggle. The beams were easy to set up with the ref but nothing else. I think the image ref just had too much going on in such ways that I couldn’t make a “shape” out of it in my brain, I can’t even tell what some of the parts are on the mast! So after a lotta artist malding I decided to grab the second ref to make things simpler and more clear to visually understand.

[There were far more breaks when drawing this background/setting than I'd like to admit]

And boom! Although I like the retaining wall version, I think the mast is definitely the way to go for the final piece. Some of the rope placement was vaguely bullshitted but it’ll suffice. The cooked fish on a skewer in Harriet’s hand kind of blends in a bit through the background mess though, so I’ll probably resize the fish to be MUCH bigger to make it pop out a little better.

From here I’ll be turning the sketch lines all into one colour (I did different colours to help my brain keep track of the different components in the setting), and we’ll see where I go from there!

[Session 0]

[splitpierrot]

hello!! uhm i’m on anon because i get very anxious talking to cool people but anyways

hi!! i just wanted to say that as a young autistic artist your art inspires me. a lot. it’s very very pretty and i hope to be able to draw like you someday ^^ keep up all the wonderful work you do!!

also if you have just any general tips on like. your art process or even just how to motivate yourself to work on art that would be greatly appreciated, no trouble if not ^^ mostly i just wanted to come out and say thank you for being so cool!! keep doin your thing mr henvy sir it’s very inspiring and i would eat your art if i could

awww tysm anon!!! its really nice to hear that i’m an inspo to someone :’)

uhhhh i’d honestly tell any young artist to Not follow the way i do art kahsjshs i draw on my phone with my finger, so while it lets me get my art done anywhere, it’s also pretty stressful on my wrist and joints,, don’t be like me and use an actual pen/stylus!

as for how i motivate myself; honestly, a good chunk of my art is heavily inspired by/directly references music, so when i get ideas, i start sketching. i’m kinda in the habit of drawing almost everyday, even small doodles, so if you can get that habit too, it might be easier to motivate yourself to work on more full pieces!

other tips i have are: practice, practice, practice! study the art styles of artists you look up too (i personally have no issues if you use my art for this) and do figure studies of real people to learn how human anatomy works. there’s also nothing wrong with tracing to learn the shapes of body parts (just as long as those studies stay for your eyes only). i’m still an amateur myself, so there’s a lot i have to learn as well, but i wish you luck with your art, anon! art is a skill that takes time to build, so keep practicing 👍

[kitsuvil]

Weinlesefest Landscape — [Albedo x Gn!Traveler]

♡

warnings; fluff, alcohol consumption(traveler+albedo are both at drinking age), romance is real and it's in this fic

summary; you were completely serious when you told albedo that you wanted to learn how to paint, he was completely serious when he agreed to teach you.

"You really wish to learn how to paint?" Albedo raises his eyebrow. "Yes, I might as well learn some new hobbies while I'm stuck searching for these gods," I tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear while avoiding his gaze.

"I think I already know the answer to this... But there's a reason you're telling specifically me about this isn't there?"

"You got me. I want you to teach me. Or just offer some guidance, that's all."

"My guess was indeed correct," Albedo pauses, "Normally I'd be hesitant, but I'm willing to take you up on that request. Just for you."

"Thank you so much!" I almost lean in for a hug, but remember that Albedo probably wants his boundaries kept in mind.

"It's my pleasure, I was planning on painting a landscape of the festival anyway, we could attempt to paint a similar scenery and I'll guide you along the way."

"Sounds like a good idea to me, let's go then?" I inspect our surroundings, developing ideas for a painting already.

"Alright, follow me."

Albedo leads me to a cliff that shows off a view of Springvale and it's beautiful shops, flowers, and people. While he's out collecting his materials to bring back, I lay on my back inspecting the sky. Ironically, some of those clouds look like paintbrushes. The big cloud that came from nowhere looks like Albedo.

No, that is Albedo. "Welcome back, teacher," I jolt up. "Please, we can do without the titles, I'm sure you don't want me replacing y/n with honorary knight, do you?" He looks to the side, hiding the faint visual of a blush crossing his cheeks.

"Whatever you say," I chuckle. We share a moment of silence while preparing the tools and our canvases, working in unison. "You don't have to go with exactly what I'm doing, by the way. Art is all about being unique. Although I'm teaching you, if you copy all that I do, it wouldn't offer much progress." Albedo puts down the final paint bottle.

"But am I experienced enough to do anything on my own?"

"Don't doubt yourself."

Once Albedo's pencil hits the empty milky surface, I take up my own pencil after him. Our canvases sit against each other, making me unable to see his art. "I know what you're thinking. How come you can't see what I'm painting? But it's a surprise. I think I'll dedicate this one to you." He suddenly speaks. "You read my mind," I frown.

"Your expression made it pretty obvious," Albedo laughs a little.

"I'll take that as a compliment, it makes me easy to understand if I wear my emotions on my face,"

"All the more easy to make fun of, as well."

"What?"

"...You heard nothing, continue sketching y/n."

"Right..."

Returning to my art, I ponder where to begin for a moment. My eyes land on some balloons that are starting to fly away. So, I begin to sketch the ouline of a balloon. I move onto the trees that are all around the village. The groups of friends and families that are celebrating the last few days of the festival. The staff working hard to offer up drinks, while checking in on those intoxicated.

Weinlesefest is beautiful.

Albedo and I sit in silence, working diligently for a long time until both of us yawn in unison. "I think that calls for a break," Albedo puts his pencil down. "I'm nearly done with my sketch, I think I'm ready for a pause too."

"How about we go down to the shops and come back ready to put paintbrush to canvas?" Albedo suggests.

"Only if you agree to let us buy a bottle or two of wine. Have you drank at all this past week?" I grin.

"...I haven't. But I'm not good at handling my alcohol, I have a good excuse." He denies.

"You have no holiday spirit."

"It's not Winter, I'm not sure what spirit I should have?"

"The Mondstadt festival spirit! When is the last time you've truly gotten out there, be honest."

"A few years ago, maybe?"

I stare at the alchemist in shock for a minute. "Now that won't do, we're drinking tonight."

"I suppose it won't hurt too much," Albedo gives into my coaxing after a long thoughtful sigh.

I come up to the Angel Share's stall, ordering a large bottle of their special wine. After we return to our painting location from taking a walk around the village, I immediately pour us two glasses.

"Your drawing is coming along well, I can't wait to see the finished result in color." Albedo leans down near me to pick up his glass of wine. "You can see mine and I can't see yours?" I whine.

"I'm your teacher for the moment, remember? How could I teach you when I can't see what I'm teaching you on?"

"I guess." I sigh, taking a big sip of the wine. "That's what a harvest festival should taste like." The smooth liquid runs down my throat, leaving a slight burning sensation.

"Peculiar," The only words that come out of Albedo's mouth after he has his first taste.

"And? Do you like it?" I question.

"I don't hate it."

"That's all?"

Albedo takes another sip.

"It's good, don't get me wrong, it just has such a curious taste, I'm more surprised than anything." He puts the glass up to his face, taking in the scent.

"You only get that taste around this time of the year!"

"Maybe I'll keep that in mind for the next year. For now, we should return to painting before it starts getting dark."

"You're probably right, thank you for trying the wine for me," I return to the matter at hand, with my hand. I clean up the outlines of my sketch, getting ready to add paint to it. Albedo goes over some color theory and paint mixing together with me before we begin using the brushes, explaining certain techniques and such. I never knew painting would be this fun, honestly. You'd think to achieve such beauty in this form of art it'd take a lot of silent and boring focus, but the entire time we worked, we chatted. Whatever came to mind, we spoke about and I was able to count the amount of times I made him laugh, which was above zero for once. Even when we didn't speak, I had fun putting everything together as it lined up with my goal in my head.

"Are you finished?" Albedo looks over towards me, a flushed rose tone covering his entire face by now. It might just have been me worrying, but I swear he'd looked over here many times before. I've been able to feel his eyes on me.

"Almost,"

I color in some of the last wood pieces scattered around as I finish up, "Now I'm done."

"So am I."

"In good timing as well, the sunset is starting to show itself."

"You ready to show your painting?" Albedo asks.

"Of course, I've been ready to see yours as well. Please don't go too hard on me, I want your criticism but don't be mean."

"I could never be mean to you, y/n." He mumbles under his breath, so I pretend to ignore the fact that I could hear him.

When I go to his side to see the painting, I stay silent for a very long time. It's not a painting of the festival. It's a painting of me, painting the festival.

"Albedo, you-" He puts his finger to my mouth, cutting me off. "I said that I'd dedicate this one to you for a reason. After all, you're the one who made this enjoyable for me. I wouldn't have had this much fun this festival without you."

Suddenly, my face is burning.

Suddenly, I'm paralyzed in shock.

"Look, I know you're drunk right now, but you don't have to compliment me so much. If anything you're the one who allowed me to enjoy a break from the stress of keeping the shop running." I fumble with my fingers and once again find myself avoiding his gaze.

"Even if I was sober right now, I'd be thinking the exact same thing. It's just that... Although it might be the heat of the moment, you looked really beautiful painting. You're always stunning, but especially when you're drunk and every word comes from you, unfiltered. You're ethereal, all I can do is hope you're aware of that." He wraps his arms around my waist.

"You're right, maybe it is the heat of the moment, but I could kiss you right now, Albedo. Thank you."

I look back up, staring into the swirls that sit on his eyes as I grow closer into his embrace, touching my lips to his.

We've just brought the first painting session to a close and I already can't wait for the next one.

i wrote this at the speed of light man i love albedo so much i didn't know i had it in me to finish a fic in the same day i started it (although it is 12:15 am but that doesn't count) i will forever treasure weinlesefest i spent the entire day farming the entire event it was so worth it (that's kinda a lie it took me so fucking long)

ps im actually kinda proud of this so if it flops im deleting tumblr /hj

pps DONT LET IT FLOP PLEASE IM BEGGING

[herofics]

Hello, hello! I saw your recent post about Hawks comforting a suicidal reader, and I got curious with other writing prompts you made. Little did I know, I would grow to love it very much! I'll definitely read more of your posts in my spare time, thank you for making these!

Anyways, I hope I didn't catch you in a bad time. IF, and only IF you're feeling up to it, I'd like to request a Hawks x female reader who has AWFUL social skills and stutters a lot. It's not that she has anxiety, but it happens too often to the point people sometimes misunderstand her. Nonetheless, she tries REALLY hard to communicate with people, especially with Hawks. Little did anyone know, she has a passion for drawing! One day, the reader decided to finally confess her feelings to Hawks; however, there's a twist. The reader was never really good with words in the first place. Instead, she decided to give him a sketchbook filled with little sketches, paintings and complete drawings of him, the reader, or together, with a bit of aesthetic shtick going on (old timey newspapers, Latin quotes in papyrus, colorful pressed flowers, you know, those kinds of dark/light academia aesthetics you see everywhere). To add the cherry on top, a note on top of the sketchbook says, "You are the walking embodiment of the quote, 'What if I fall? But darling, what if you fly?' Thank you for inspiring me to be bolder and for being with me. I love and appreciate you, Chicken Feet."

I'm not sure if this idea had been done, but don't feel pressured to do it whether or not it has been written down. Again, thank you very much, and I wish you the best day!

Have a Chikim Kigs for all your troubles ^^

Sounds very familiar tbh, I’m super awkward and anxious socially, and I absolutely suck at talking to people. When I really need to tell someone something, I write it down and send it to them as a message, because I suck at talking. I think this is a really cute idea and I hope I did it justice. I have a masterlist in the pinned post where you can find all my stuff categorized by character. I hope you have a great day, I’m certainly having a good one :D

•You’re not very good with talking to people, but you do really try

•People still seem to misunderstand you a lot, and sometimes they even get irritated at you

•Sometimes people just don’t even make the effort to understand, but Hawks does

•He’s very patient with you and if he feels like he’s maybe misunderstanding you, he asks more questions to make sure and the situation usually resolves itself like that

•You and Hawks have been friends for a while now, and you’ve fallen for him pretty hard

•You’re not at all sure if he would return your feelings, he’s always been pretty hard to read and not just for you

•Hawks doesn’t really reveal much about himself, even to the people closest to him, but he does feel really safe and relaxed with you

•You started working on your little sketchbook project about a month before you gave it to Hawks

•It was a fun project but when you finally decided it was ready and you wanted to give it to him, you were super nervous

•You didn’t know how he was going to react, but you knew that if he was going to reject your feelings, he was going to do it kindly, that’s just the kind of person he is

•Hawks came over to your place since you were going to go to lunch from there

•You seemed really nervous for some reason, which he picked up on immediately

•So of course he asked you if something was wrong, and you just handed him the sketchbook and requested he would take a look at it

•He started flipping through it and you could see his pupils getting bigger with each page, like cat’s eyes do

•He was also smiling like a total dork, because he was so happy

•You felt a wave of relief wash over you as he flipped through it and he seemed to be very happy with what he was seeing

•Hawks had been super nervous about telling you how he felt, because he didn’t really know if you would return his feelings

•Your lack of social skills make you a bit hard for him to read, but he did have an inkling about you maybe liking him back

•When he got to the end of the sketchbook, he saw your little text bit with the “Thank you for inspiring me to be bolder and for being with me. I love and appreciate you, chicken feet”

•He suddenly hugged you were tightly and whispered in your ear “I love you too, dove”

•You felt all the nervousness leave your body as he said that and you hugged him back after you got over the initial shock

•You were so happy he returned your feelings and also that he liked your way of confessing to him

•Hawks is over the moon and the two of you also go through the sketchbook together because he wants to know how you made it

[ordinaryschmuck]

Quick Thoughts on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

For those who don't know, I LOVE the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Next to Scooby-Doo, the Turtles defined my childhood, being a franchise I'll watch and be interested in until the day I die. So needless to say, I was already excited for Mutant Mayhem just from the first trailer alone. And it paid off because this movie rocks!

First thing of note is that this might be the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that feels like it's made for teenagers. Sure, Micheal Bay tried...He certainly tried. But this one feels like it speaks their language without pandering to them with cheap lingo and references.

...Well, there IS that, but you learn to forgive it when you remember that the Turtles themselves are voiced by actual teenagers this time, with a lot of their lines being improvised and the chemistry bouncing off the kids. I love that change because it makes the movie focus more on the "Teenage" aspect of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where most iterations took that as a suggestion if anything else. This time, it gives the Turtles more of a charm to them. Like we're watching them as they start out while leaving room to become the bigger, more mature heroes we know them more as.

And speaking of maturity, hot DANG does this movie earn its PG rating, large in part because of Ice Cube's Superfly. The guy feels like he thinks he's an R-rated movie, but no one told him it was PG and were probably too scared of him to say so. He's incredibly violent and curses way more than I thought he might, with every other sentence he says having the word "damn," "hell," and even "pissed" at one point. When was the last time you heard a character say the word "pissed" in a PG movie?! On top of that, he's a solid villain who manages to strike that perfect balance of charming and threatening. You get why others want to listen to and fear him in every way possible.

And as for the rest of the characters, they're all pretty great. The Turtles, as I've said, are all pretty darn charming with their core personalities throughout the franchise shining through, but altered to fit the teen aspect of their characters.

As for April O'Neil, despite people hating her because she's black and fat, is a solid friend to the Turtles and their chemistry together is believable. Plus, dang it, I'm a sucker for losers making friends and finding strength with fellow losers. I can't get sick of it.

And Splinter is also great, having a strong character arc and a believable conclusion to it. They DO beat you over the head with the symbolism of how he learns his lesson, to the point where a character outright states it, but it's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I'm not looking for a masterpiece, I'm looking for fun.

Speaking of, this movie really is fun, having some great action, solid jokes, and WONDERFUL animation. The look of Mutant Mayhem is perfect and adds to the whole "made for teens" aspect, as they said they wanted to copy the feel of sketching in your notebook as a teen, and they nailed it with grungy character models and hand-drawn scribbles and pencil marks to add to it. Best of all, they didn't need to torture the animators to give this movie it's great style (TAKE NOTES, SPIDER-VERSE!). The overall look is definitely not for everyone, as I can see people being put off by it, but I think it works great for what the people behind this movie was going for...I just wish I could see it.

Now, I don't know if it's the movie's fault or my theater screen, but this movie looks too dark during a lot of scenes. And I'm willing to blame the movie, because even with certain trailers it was hard to see what was happening a few times. Which is a shame too, because there was so much effort into making this movie look as amazing as it did, I just wish the people behind it turned the brightness up a few notches so I could see all of it.

And since we're talking negatives, another nitpick I have is how big the cast is for this movie. There's, like, ten more prominent characters in this film, each with a celebrity voicing them, yet they're VERY minor to the plot. I don't get why they had John Cena of all people to voice Rocksteady, when all he says is probably less than ten lines throughout the movie. But then you remember, "Oh, right. They're making an animated series based off this movie." At that point, the bigger cast makes sense and turns Mutant Mayhem into less of its own film and more into a pilot episode. It shows fans the cast, the world, and the set-up so future installments can continue it. And I'm...mixed on how I feel about that. Because I DO want to see more, especially with how this movie ends in a way that no other Teenage Mutant Ninja property. But at the same time, it kind of leaves off on a perfect ending where I don't NEED to see more? It's hard to explain, so you might as well see it yourself.

In fact, watch the movie anyways. It's GREAT fun. It won't top movies like Across the Spider-Verse or Nimona, which includes stronger themes along with their incredible animation, but Mutant Mayhem still wins points for being a fun film throughout. If you're a Turtles fan, you'll likely get a kick out of it. I sure did, and I'll watch this movie more and more in the future...On a better screen just in case it WAS my theater's fault.

[thunderpot]

Hi! I love your art and I would like to draw as good as you! I’m sure that comes with experience and just simply being a goddess but to us simple humans, what are some advices you would recommend? And do you have courses that you teach? That would be great. Thanks!

Aaah thank you so much for your kind words! It really touches my heart! 💖💖💖

I do not give any classes (there's some way more amazing people out there doing so!), but on the advice subject I have 3, if you'll have them: 1: Try doing gestual drawings every day, and do not spend over 3-5 minutes on each drawing. The reason for that is so you have enough time to get the movement lines down, but not enough time to let your brain start focusing on unnecessary beauty. Just trust your eyes on this one.

Gestual drawings (or any other study art for that matter) don't need to be pretty! The prettiness of art is a byproduct of just doing it enough that you get the basics and techniques down and push out all the bad art that needs to exist for that one good piece to show up. Have fun with the studies and do it frequently so it comes back to you always!

2: Draw with a pen on paper [or just don't use erasers if digital] when sketching. This one is I feel the one tip I wish everyone could take to heart. There's always that thing we feel when we get beautiful art on a napkin and yet can't do it on paper, and the reason for that is fear of making mistakes.

By using a pen you will need to come to terms with the fact that mistakes are part of the art you are about to make and that is ok! Not being perfect is part of what makes art so interesting. The next art will have different imperfections, and the one you do after that, too - because we are not machines!

The more you use a pen when drawing, the more you will get more relaxed with your art and just let it come to life by your hands. This is ofc easier said than done, and it might take a while to sink in. But it works, I swear!

3: last but not least: HAVE FUN WITH IT! Study things you like to get better on. Do you like bugs? Draw bugs nonstop. Do you like people? Draw a bunch of people. Do you like cars? Well get those lines down! Do you wanna draw for a fandom? Get that creator so happy by making heaps of art for it.

This is a somewhat controversial take, but I always feel art is, in a way, egoistical in nature; the more you as the artist do what you want, the more you thrive in it because you'll be doing something you are very passionate about. Techniques are your friends, not your enemies! So use them for things YOU want to make art out of!

Ayo this got long jsakjlrkjlajn I'm so sorry!! o)--(

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I am quite bad at recognizing voices, even when I’m familiar with them, which of course is at times an issue in my obsession with audio comedy. I can do it eventually, requiring less time for people with more distinctive voices. But I’m a lot worse at it than most people I know are.

I am currently listening to the Elis James/John Robins radio show (I wish there were an easy portmanteau so I didn’t have to type all that out every time, like Jossell, but to do that here would just make the word jealous, which might be a fitting couple name given their dynamic of John Robins skewering Elis James for crimes such as making money from sitcom acting and getting verified on Twitter, but it would get confusing to try to use that as a name for them regularly), and I got really, embarrassingly far into it – way, way too far into it, before I realized they’ve had comedians calling in disguise on almost every episode I’ve heard. It’s one of the worst voice-based oversights I’ve ever made, missing all those voices until episode 47.

They have this feature called Textual Healing, where each episode, a listener will call in with their problem and John and Elis will offer advice like Agony Uncles. And I did understand, from pretty close to the beginning, that this isn’t a straightforward advice segment. The problems were always really weird, but John and Elis treated them relatively seriously.

At first I didn’t think much about it, just figured that maybe the producers filtered the calls until they found someone with a weird enough problem to be funny. Then I figured the listeners had caught on to this, and some were calling in with fake problems to be funny, and John and Elis were playing along. I continued to believe this until episode 47, when a woman with a really exaggerated Welsh accent called into complain that her cat was classist.

After 46 fucking episodes of me not working out what was going on, they finally tipped their hand, I thought that had to be an actor. It sounded too much like an actor performing a sketch, getting too deeply into character with the weird voice and the verbal tics and the wild problem presented as though it were normal, I did not think some listener was making this up on the fly. Also, I was pretty sure I did recognize the voice but could not, for the life of me, work out from where.

So I went home and Googled it, and it turns out I have been wrong from the very beginning. There’s a spreadsheet online that tells you who the various callers actually are, or at least, who all the callers are that the fans have been able to identify:

Look at that fucking spreadsheet. Everything from before episode 47 is something I heard and did not realize it was anyone besides a listener playing a game. Looking at it again, I’m now pretty sure that none of them were from actual listeners. I think that from the beginning, John Robins and Elis James decided it would be funny to set up a fake listener call-in segment, where they have comedians call in in character, as a parody of real Agony Aunt segments. And I didn’t catch on until episode 47, when Cariad Lloyd overacted just a little too hard. I think the sections of that spreadsheet where the “real identity” is blank are just the sections where no one has successfully identified who they were, maybe they’re non-famous friends of John and Elis.

It all makes sense now, of course. When that one woman called in and I noticed she had the exact same accent as Lucy Beaumont – really, the exact one, and I’ve never heard anyone else with that exact accent before, but I guess I just don’t hear many people from Hull, and this must be some other Hull woman – and she even had quite a Lucy Beaumont-esque problem, of saying she keeps having dreams that then come true. I thought, maybe it’s common for people from Hull to believe in supernatural things, the way Lucy Beaumont does. Obviously, I am now aware that the caller was, in fact, Lucy Beaumont.

When someone who introduced herself as “Isobel from Crystal Palace” called in, and I thought – that’s interesting, because Elis James’ partner Isy Suttie lives in Crystal Palace, her full first name is Isobel and this caller’s accent even sounds a lot like Isy’s – yep, that was Isy Suttie, and actually that barely counts as a disguise, she literally introduced herself with her real name. I… definitely should have got that one. It’s weird that I didn’t get that one. Especially since it was the episode after John’s then-girlfriend, Sara Pascoe, called in as a character named “Sara”.

I think I a bunch of them do this – call in with problems that are in some small way to related to themselves. Like Lucy Beaumont called in as someone with an absurd belief that she has psychic powers, but the real Lucy Beaumont also believes in psychic powers. I’ve just listened to the first of several Tim Key episodes (episode 59), and he has mentioned that one of his problems is related to a reindeer skull. I know Tim Key really did have a reindeer skull in 2015 (when that radio episode aired), because he brought it as a prize on Taskmaster season 1, which aired in the same year.

Looking at this makes me see that it makes sense that I’d initially grouped the Jellis radio show in with Pappy’s Flatshare and Three Bean Salad, on my list of audio comedy things to get to at some point, because clearly those people run in the same circles. All three people from Pappy’s, and all three people from Three Bean Salad, appear on Textual Healing at least once.

That list also contains quite a few people whose voices I know really well, I cannot believe I missed them all. I heard Josie Long and didn’t recognize her! Romesh Ranganathan, who’s got a very distinctive voice. I think I actually did, for the briefest of moments, vaguely think “Oh that sounds a little bit like Ivo Graham,” one time. But not enough to actually realize it was Ivo Graham. I didn’t recognize Matthew Crosby, even though when I listen to the Pappy’s podcast, I always appreciate that I have no trouble picking out Crosby’s voice, since I can’t tell Tom and Ben apart and it would get really confusing if all three sounded the same.

The worst of these by far is I heard Daniel Fucking Kitson and did not realize it was him. Do you know how big a deal that is? I have spent an utterly indefensible number of hours listening to Daniel Kitson talk. I just checked, and I hesitate to even share this information because it’s so over the top, but if I isolate all the audio files in my Daniel Kitson folder and get their combined duration, and then do the same with the video files in there, and add those two durations up, it comes to about 720 hours. And I have listened to every moment of them, within the last couple of years. That number is slightly inflated because it includes both the full versions of his radio shows with the songs still in, and the cut versions with the songs edited out, so some of the content is duplicated. But still.

Also, for the last year I have been an assistant in a similarly over-the-top project to collate all the Kitson radio clips that my friend and I can possibly find, where said friend (the word “assistant” might be too grandiose for me, my friend has done the vast majority of the work and my contributions have consisted of writing down the names of songs while editing them out of some episodes) has uploaded them to a website that I will deny having anything to do with if it ever comes to attention of attention-avoidant man himself, in fact I will deny ever having heard of Daniel Kitson. But the point is that we have scoured the internet for any references to any time in any year that Daniel Kitson may have appeared on any radio station in any form, because this radio archiving project exists to satisfy the relentless completist that runs deep through my entire personality.

And still, despite all that, I heard a new bit of Kitson on the radio – a clip we didn’t even know existed, and I hadn’t just found a reference to it having happened so I could try to track it down, I had the actual clip right there in front of me, and I did not realize it was him. 720 hours were not enough for me to be able to recognize that voice when I heard it out of context. Not even a brief moment spent thinking, “Oh, that sounds like Kitson.” He even called in with a problem that’s slightly thematically related to some stuff that Kitson used to allude to in his stand-up around that time.

I've enjoyed lots of other little cameos by various comedians. They once took a call from Matt Forde once to defend Oasis as the greatest band in history, which furthered my view of Matt Forde as the essence of centrism in every way. They read out texts and Tweets from listeners all the time (genuine listeners, I think, I'm assuming the entire show isn't just a front), and names of people who sent those in have included, at different times, Iain Stirling, Nish Kumar, Pierre Novellie, Gavin Osborn, and Mike Bubbins. But I did not realize that I was hearing other comedians' voices all the time.

Obviously, I need to go back and hear them again, with this new information. I am downloading the episodes that are marked as being an identified comedian in disguise, and going to go through and cut out all the Textual Healing clips so I can put them in a folder. A folder where I clearly mark the episode number and the date and the name of the comedian, because it bothers me that such an archive doesn’t seem to exist already, because it always bothers me when archives with clearly labeled relevant data don’t exist (though I do hugely appreciate whoever created that spreadsheet). Once I finish the folder, I’ll share it on Tumblr in case anyone else would like to hear some comedians call in as various characters.

But in the meantime, I’ve just finished cutting out the first Textual Healing with an identified comedian, on episode 4 – March 9, 2014 – with Sara Pascoe.

Okay, sure, now I get that it’s pretty fucking obvious who that was, when she introduces herself by name Sara, and complains about her boyfriend who’s always playing phone games, and John Robins has talked several times about having an addiction to phone games that’s gone back and forth from low-level quirky to a serious problem throughout his life and ruined his relationship with a previous girlfriend. And when, in those years, Sara Pascoe repeatedly used comedy shows to complain about her relationship with John Robins, with and without his involvement (I’m remembered a particularly awkward episode of her in Dictionary Corner of Catsdown). Yeah, I really should have figured that one out from the beginning.

Then the next episode Isy Suttie calls in with an adorable little story about her and her boyfriend having pet names for things together, which I’d say shows the contrasting personas of the two presenters of the Jellis radio show pretty well.