#I’m just sick of doing lineart man

[welcometomyfloor]

*draws the Caleb crumb*

No, but really, the contempt “are you done?” look has reawakened my ability to art.

Come on, I can’t be the only one who sees the face of a disgruntled dad waiting for their toddler to get over their temper tantrum. Which, considering the seemingly large age gap and probably more parent-child dynamic between Caleb and Phillip, is entirely possible. He’s just so fucking over his little brothers shit.

[milaza]

nine years of drawing with a digital art tablet baeby! i have some older traditional/non-tablet digital pieces as well but i dunno what year they’re from. i’ll make a more complete yearly progress chart next year.

overall, i’m pretty okay with things considering it’s just a hobby.

it’s still a bit frustrating to see that i peaked with pretty stuff in 2018, but as i said before i’ve improved a lot more in other ways and i don’t think i’d be happy with myself if i kept just drawing pretty faces with boring compositions.

before i compiled this, my feeling was that i thought i did really well in 2020. but that was just the year my posts did well on social media (did well for ME). looking back, there wasn’t really anything complete and unique that i liked a lot. and i thought i kinda flopped in 2021 ‘cause i didn’t post all that much, but i’m really happy with my output that year TBH. i want to draw more fun scenes and pictures with deep feelings!

the time i spend on a complete piece has decreased a lot because i’m more concerned with having an interesting atmosphere over making sure the rendering and anatomy is perfect. also, i’ve just gotten quicker at drawing overall. i always try to keep it under 10 hours nowadays unless it’s got lineart... that shit makes it take so much longer orz.

2022 kinda felt like a flop again, aw man. i kinda forgot that i spent a good part of the early year drawing a whole korekiyo dojinshi? i felt really down about it at the time since i was utterly unmotivated (it’s fucking korekiyo i don’t know how i cared enough about him to draw a whole comic about him), but now i’m like... woah... people actually enjoyed that? i sold out of all 28 copies i had printed, so now i’m considering reprinting it again. who knows...

anyway i got an ipad this year and started using procreate so i sketched a good bit more. i finished dai gyakuten saiban, got motivated by my chemical romance, and completed a bunch of stuff i was pretty proud of in a single week. unfortunately completing dai gyakuten saiban also made me fall in love with barok van zieks for some reason so i basically spent the second half of the year just drawing self-ship art and van zieks pr0n. it’s not even crap worth posting.

i feel like i didn’t complete or post that much (at least on my main account) because of that. but actually, i always forget i have more finished pieces for zines that i don’t post... idk if i should admit it but i use zines as a way to motivate myself to finish stuff honestly. i think without that i’d flop even more and not get me to draw anything... but i will stop doing that from now on because i don’t feel satisfied with my artistic output drawing for zines. bleh.

last year i was obsessed with making dojinshi and this year i got into merch stuff since i was tabling at a convention for the first time, but honestly...! it’s a pain in the ass!!! i don’t want to bother with maintaining an online store and i don’t want to create products for the sake of creating products so i’m only gonna make what i personally want from now on.

so i spent 75+ hours rendering a barok van zieks dakimakura.

I WANT TO THROW UP!!! IT’S SO SICKENING TO ME THAT THE PIECE I’VE SPENT THE MOST TIME ON EVER IS A FUCKING VAN ZIEKS DAKIMAKURA!!!! HE’S NOT EVEN IN MY TOP 5 ACE ATTORNEY CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!!! preorder link in my bio btw.

that was just 2 weeks ago basically, but i felt so fucking ill about it. luckily i finished off the year with a nice complete drawing so i’m happy and i love myself again ^_^

i want to focus on 3D art next year, draw more complete scenes, get around to my drawing idea backlog... get into some new fucking media because i am sick of that white man cursing me for the past six months. yep yep!

[arecomicsevengood]

Wild 2

Cristian Castelo is one of three rotating editors of the Freak anthologies, currently being produced in the Bay Area. I have a couple issues, there’s some promising work: A few people who clearly know how to draw but maybe haven’t found a story to tell yet, and some people with unconventional approaches where maybe I don’t know what they’re doing yet. All in all, they’re worth paying attention to, and there’s some issues that look like they feature some extremely good shit that are already out of print. (I haven’t heard of any of the artists in issue 8 before, but all the preview images look sick as hell? If you are one one of them and make your own zines please get in touch!)

Castelo has his own series called Wild, about teenage roller derby players in the 1970s southwest. I wasn’t able to score a copy of the first volume of this before they sold out, though it looked appealing. Volume 2 has a little summary of what’s come before up front. I bought a copy and liked it a lot. It’s super-appealing: Castelo’s lineart looks sorta like Paul Pope, and his color palette is all bright primary colors. Seeing this book in person, it’s printed very large, covers are I think silkscreened. It’s a pricey object, but this is basically what I want action comics to look like. Beyond Paul Pope, I know Castelo is a fan of the Last Man series with art by Bastien Vives, which got grief for its “Dragonball fight tournament plus a large-breasted hot mom” narrative, but is nonetheless home to a many perfect drawings. There’s a manga influence, but the emphasis is different in terms of how the layouts work. There’s still a western sense of narrative economy, but there’s an added emphasis on the velocity of the line drawing. The artist knows an overworked drawing can look dead, and makes decisions to avoid that fate.

Unlike with Pope and Vives, you can see where the speed trips Castelo up. The lettering is consistently more difficult to read than it should be, with certain letters in particular showing more of the line made in their making than any clear indication of what the letter is supposed to be. H’s look like 4′s, O’s aren’t always fully closed and look like U’s, etc. Similarly, the cartooning itself gets pretty visually unclear: There’s a tendency to drop faces from people in the backgrounds of a panel, which by itself would be fine, but because the sequences shift who is in focus from panel to panel, it can be hard to consistently keep a bead on where things are happening in relationship to each other, especially since the story also sets  action sequences in parallel, either going down columns of a page, or on separate pages, and the limited color palette isn’t really used to help keep track of things visually so much. It sorta tripped me up! Rereading it, I had a better understanding of what was happening, but there really is a lot happening that would basically be hard edits in a movie. From a writing perspective, it’s great how much happens, how much character detail is happening with these groups of characters within a ninety-page span. From an art perspective, it all looks great. It’s just that combined, on a first read, I found it a bit overwhelming. Missing out on volume one probably didn’t help. But this also cuts back and forth between two roller derby matches happening at the same time, one of which detours into a psychic snowy landscape, and there’s also cameramen introduced who want to be filming one of the matches but are instead at the other. It’s funny how this is not what manga would do, but also: I paid $35 for 90 pages, and I don’t feel ripped off, partly because the book insists I reread it to get a better grip on it.

(I should disclose that these editions Floss are putting out are collections of minicomics. The book I’m calling “volume 1” collected issues 1 to 3 of a series I have never seen and am not sure what the proportions are.  It seems like these minis are in 2 colors rather than 3.)

Cost and minor complaints aside, this is a cool comic I definitely think people will want. I wonder how it would look at a size closer to typical comic book dimensions.

Similarly to the Freak anthologies, there’s other artists doing little guest art pin-ups in the back that look great. Al Gofa is maybe the most high-profile of them, he has a book at Peow and is on Tumblr. Shaheen Beardsley I only know from in issue 7 of Freak, Bryce Davidson is in issue 4. Lucia Aguilar has a website I was able to find that says she works in printmaking among other forms. Jessie Garcia has too common of a name for me to track down more of her work, though I liked her drawing here a lot. Castelo also does these portraits of his characters on the inside covers in black and white I thought looked great.

Anyway, this book was printed by Floss Editions, who have copies available. There also are copies at Domino Books. I bought my copy in Philly at Partners And Son.

[iggyalfi2319]

Between Borrower and Giant

BBAG: X/2/? - A/N A little idea I had on my mind after reading different G/T stories and different perspective. And I thought, “Why not crossing the perspecives in one story?”

The storyline isn’t really solid and expect me to use OCs and weird ideas. The scaling might fail me a lot, I’m not good at size appreciation ^^;

I’m all ears if you have questions or suggestion.

I hope I won’t drop it like other countless stories I gave up from laziness and block -_-; Also, English isn’t my native language, don’t be mad...

Hai, I stop rambling and let you enjoy that thingy.

=====BBAG=====

Giant: (noun) a person or thing of unusually great size

Tiny: (adjective) very small.

Borrower: (noun)  One who takes what belongs to another, and uses it as their own

Everything is just a question of perspective.

Patton hummed softly as he was cleaning his little cozy home.

It was located somewhere in the forest, few minutes away from the nearest town. He enjoyed the peace and calm from his place even though he kind of craved other’s company. Sometimes, he could be touch starving, causing him to be very clingy toward his friends.

Yet, he gladly enjoyed some time for himself in his little home too.

Being the “Dad” of the crew could be pretty tiresome.

Sometimes, he felt that he was abused for his kindness. He gave and gave. While he didn’t get much in return.

*tunk*

Patton got pulled out of his reverie when he heard a familiar clatter.

He quietly went to the kitchen while trying to contain his excitment of getting the visit of his favourite little guest.

Virgil came out from the teapot that was actually a secret entry specially made for him. The original hole in the wall being too small for him, he had widened it and hidden it behind a broken teapot, so he just had to lift up the cap for getting in or out from the pot/entry.

You see, Virgil was “slightly” bigger than the few Borrowers that Patton had caught the sight of before. The bigger male was curious about it, but the emo generally avoided the topic.

Patton got on his knees and slowly crept in the kitchen before watching Virgil dropping his bag outside of the pot and pushing the cap back to its place. Then he hopped down from his porcelaine perch, dusting himself off.

He looked around, noticing that the place was unusally quiet at this time.

“Odd...” He muttered. “Maybe Patton went out -”

“PEEK A BOO!”

Patton jumped out of his hiding spot, scaring the shitz outta the poor emo.

“UWAH!” Virgil yelled and fell on his butt. “HOLY FRIGGING SKET, PATTON!”

He grasped his chest, his heart beating like crazy.

“Oh I’m sorry kiddo!” Patton panicked. “I just wanted to surprise you...”

“Just don’t do it again...” Virgil muttered, trying to calm down.

“Any way I can help? Do you want some water?” Patton asked sheepishly.

“Go for water...” The tiny male answered, using the 4-7-8 breathing technique.

The young fatherly man went to fetch the small cup he got from a doll sized tea set he got specially for Virgil. While he knew he couldn’t force him to stay with him, he wanted at least to enjoy some time together. Virgil started to openly interact with him not this long ago, heck, Patton knew that the Borrower was still a bit weary around him. There was some days where the emo would sneak in, unannounced. Probably for taking some emergency stuff. In these occasions, Patton would pretend not to acknoledge him, despite really wanting to. He prefered avoiding raising up Virgil’s stress level. Though, that didn’t keep Patton from ostensibly leaving the needed objects or food.

“Here your water kiddo.” He came back with the little cup. “I brought some cookies too.”

He had been practicing on making smaller portions. Virgil’s unusually big small size made things slightly easier. If it was for standard Borrowers, making even smaller pieces would be too complicated. Especially with Patton’s bad eyesight.

Virgil thanked him before drinking up the cup. Then he picked up a cookie. To him, it was the size of a plate. He broke it into smaller pieces before eating it up.

“How is it?” Patton asked. “Do you feel better?”

“These are delicious, big guy!” Virgil moaned softly at the taste. “I feel a lot better already.” Patton gasped in delight, stars in his eyes while the smaller male finished off his cookie.

“You’ll have to thank Cara for giving me her recipe.” The glassed man chuckled softly.

He looked at the emo sitting on the counter, letting out a small sight.

Slowly but surely, he moved his hand.

As expected, Virgil watched his movements.

“M...May I?” he slowly approached his hand toward him.

The doll sized male leaned carefully against it.

Patton tried not to squeal in happiness.

Virgil was like a wild animal. Very hard to gain his trust and so easy to break.

The tallest gently ruffled the smallest’s hair with his thumb. The Borrower closed his eyes, enjoying it.

They stayed like that in silence, savouring the moment.

Patton must admit he loved Virgil’s company more than anyone else’s. For Virgil, Patton was someone nice to have around, even if he was a bit suffocating sometime. But that was a part of his personality, so he accepted it even though he voiced out or showed his discomfort, knowing that Patton would step back.

Soon, the Borrower moved away from the hand. Patton whined softly but he didn’t protest.

“I have a present for you, from the kids.” Virgil ruffled in his bag.

“Really?!” Patton bounced excitedly.

He had a soft spot for children. When he learned from Virgil that he was in a foster family with 8 kids, Patton wanted to know everything about them! Heck, he even wanted to meet them. Of course, Virgil downright refused. At first from the lack of trust toward the big guy. But then, from the dangerosity. From the travel from their place to Patton’s house, or from the hostile environment that Virgil had experienced himself.

While Patton pretty much immediately welcomed Virgil and the Borrower slowly growing close to him, he really didn’t like Patton’s friends and did everything to stay hidden from them. So bringing children was out of question.

Virgil pulled out was seemed to be a blanket to him, which ended up being like a small tissue in Patton’s palm.

“That was the biggest sheets they could get.” The emo scratched the back of his head. “Cara helped sewing them together.”

Patton vaguely hummed, admiring the artwork.

It represented one big purple and black person, a couple standing next to them, smaller in size, then 8 smaller figures surrounding the big purple one. The details in the lineart was impressive, and even the slightly crooked coloring was beautiful. “For Mister P” was written on the top of the artwork. “Mister P?” Patton chuckled.

“W...Well I wanted to keep it vague at that time...” Virgil sputtered. “But I promise I’ll consider introducing you properly to them...one day...”

“I’ll be looking for it.” Patton lightly petted him.

Virgil blushed lighlty.

“Guess who is here, Padre ~!”

Both of Patton and Virgil jumped out of their skin at the ceremoniously booming voice of one of Patton’s friend, Roman.

“It’s time for me to leave.” Virgil stood up. “Thanks for the cookie.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for the night?” Patton asked, a bit disappointed.

“I have people waiting for me...” Virgil mumbled, packing the cookies in his bag, as well as some foil, toothpicks and other knickknacks that Patton would probably not need anymore.

Patton scooped him and brought him to the teapot.

“I guess I’ll see you later, big guy.” Virgil saluted.

“See ya, kiddo.” Patton smiled.

“Patton are you here?” Roman called.

Said glassed man just had the time to put down the cap on the pot.

“In here, Ro, I’m coming!” He called back, preciously cradling the present given by the Borrower.

“Ha! There you are.” Roman let out a princey huff.

Logan was apparantly here too.

“Greeting Patton.” He nodded slightly, before noticing the piece of fabric that Patton was holding. “What is this?”

“It’s a present from a little guest.” The father smiled

Logan and Roman eyed him suspiciously, but Patton was too busy admiring it to notice.

-

Virgil flew throught the forest, swinging his hooks from tree to tree like Spiderman. He had a long way to go and night was already falling.

While he enjoyed his little time with Patton, he cursed himself for not leaving sooner.

Cara, the foster mother, was surely waiting for him, a pan in her hand.

Though, she was used to it. Even before Virgil, because her husband, Amos, was the one going in the Giants’ realm for borrowing. He was the one who taught everything to Virgil.

The young man wondered how Amos could do that during so many years, especially when he was franckly smaller than him.

Soon, the trees were getting smaller and smaller, when Virgil reached the other realm.

Time for the change of perspective.

Virgil knew that he was near home, when the trees were just a few feet bigger than him.

He reeled back his hooks in his bag before continuing by foot, slowly heading toward the big old shacks, patched up here and there. Signs of expansions were very obvious.

A blonde woman around her 50s with glasses and green eyes, wearing a pastel green dress with a yellow apron and sandals was waiting for him outside, her hands on her hips.

“Hi Cara...” Virgil looked down at her.

“Virgil Andersen! What took you so long!” She said sternly.

Though her expression softened pretty quickly when he winced at her tone.

“Amos and I were worried sick, and the kids wanted to wait for you before goint to bed.”

“Because I’m technically their bed, right?” Virgil snorted.

“Don’t be so cocky young man.” She scolded him. “Amos was even about to get you himself.”

“What?” Virgil’s eyes widened. “But it’s dangerous!”

“Hey, don’t forget who taught you everything, kid.”

A man also around 50s with wild blond hair, a thick beard, greyish blue eyes and dressed like a lumberman joined them, dragging some logs.

“Since you’re here, get them on the pile before we can finally go to sleep.”

Virgil easily scooped up the logs and put them with the others.

Amos opened the entry made for Virgil, meaning the whole front walls in two big doors.

The shack was big enough in width for him to live in but slightly cramped up because it wasn’t high enough for him to stand in.

The young man shuffled inside on his knees, careful not to knock down anthing. Of course, the furnitures were pushed against the walls so Virgil could easily move around, but years of living here made him an expert in twisting and avoinding objects. Very useful when you live with messy and mischevious children.

He let his bag in the entry, Amos saying they would take care of it tomorrow before shuffling to the sleeping area.

The floor was a giant mattress and above there was 8 hammocks.

Assuming that the youngest inhabitants were asleep, Virgil carefully stripped down to his shirt and boxers before lying on the mattress. He couldn’t fully lie down, and shuffled as quietly as possible to find a comfortable position.

Suddenly -

“Virgil is back!”

“Get him! Get him!”

“Finally!”

8 smaller figures fell on him.

“Oof! Hey, slow down!” He groaned as the kids crowded him.

“So you went to visit Mister P?” One who looked like a younger version of Amos asked. “Tell us! tell us!”

“Did he like the present?” A red haired girl who seemed to be a native American piped up.

Are you two getting close? a voice rang through everyone’s head as a white haired girl had galaxy like eyes glowing softly.

The kids snickered at the thought while Virgil sputtered.

“What make you think that!” He hid his face.

“So it’s true?” a brown haired boy jumped in.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Virgil huffed and plucked them off him.

He set them in their respective hammocks.

“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Now, good night!”

He curled up and started to drift off.

When he heard a soft “THUMP”, before feeling a small weight against his torso.

He opened an eye, noticing that the smallest of the children as nestled up against him.

Soon, another child joined.

Then another.

Then another.

Till all the children were all cuddling him, peacefully asleep.

Virgil sighed soflty and protectively curled up around them.

Between Borrower and Giant, the 20ft tall emo had to find his place in this two opposite worlds.

=====BBAG=====

BBAG: X/2/?

Leave a comment and a like if possible ^^

[ask--aph-spain--archived]

|| So this blog got 1,001 followers (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ 

That’s a big number, a milestone for many. But  I have no idea what to do about it (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

Like I’m super flattered that so many people like this blog but I’m also confused as to why you like it, not that I’m complaining. It just means you are all fools who have fallen for my cheap one-liners and messy lineart ☜(˚▽˚)☞ Knew those would work one day, Tommy owes me money

No but really all I can think of right now is saying thank you, and yes I know that’s incredibly overused but it’s all I got because my trip to the dentist was a failure so you definitely don’t want my smile as thanks ಠ⌣ಠ

SO thank you to all the lost souls who thought my art was nice enough to look at every time there was an update  (ಥ﹏ಥ) You are true saints and have inspired me in ways I didn’t want to be inspired. I drew my muse in a dress for you, be grateful.  If anyone has any cool ideas on how milestones are usually met that’d be nice to hear, if not that’s fine. We could just get churros, man’s gift to the world. 

On a side note, sorry for the inactivity, I got sick, and it’s hard to draw when you’re coughing every two minutes, but it’s getting better so expect asks to be coming out soon \ (•◡•) /

~(˘▾˘~) Thank you for coming to my emoticon presentation (~˘▾˘)~

[the-space-case]

Hi! First of all I love your art and I love you

Hello and Thank You!!!! I’m not sure if you’re talking about a fan comic or an original, or long or short but I’ll give you some tips. GRANTED I am not a professional and you may find a different way that is easier for you.

1.) Think of a basic storyline or prompt. Like, “Man is dying and is going to a mountain to see it before he dies and meets his DESTINY???” it can be stupid. It can be silly or vague so long as you have something to start with.

2.) Think of the protagonist, as well as a bit of the timeframe or universe. Are they human? Alien? Medieval? Elf? For our example here lets say its a medieval man from a heavily forested area. He is a lumberjack who hates potatoes and his old man told him stories of the mountain in the west that holds a magic temple; only the pure of heart may enter. He is dying, and wants to see this mythical place before he passes. Draw a few examples. You’ll want some basic refs to look back on.

3.)Think of the antagonist. It can be nature, machine, man, elderich horrors, etc....(typical story tropes are something like man vs. machine or man vs. nature). For our case lets say its mainly man and nature. Bandits, bad weather, illness, etc...DRAW SOME OF THOSE REFS. These beginning ones don’t have to be in depth. just basic stuff.

4.)Hash out what you want to happen in the BEGINNING, MIDDLE and END. These are kind of the most important parts. Its definitely important to think of the end ahead of time instead of thinking about it when you’re halfway through; thats a quick way to never end it at all. Our lumberjack begins his journey selling all he owns and getting a horse to set out to the mountains with nothing but a bit of gold, an old axe and a sick ride.  In the middle he encounters various trials that test his “pure of heart”-ness. Probably three, they can be as long as you want so long as they are generally even alongside each other. (3 or 7 are magic numbers WINK). In the end he reaches the temple and is welcomed inside due to his good deeds and it was allllll along a metaphor for the journey to the afterlife.

5.)get some good references. You have a time period set, a scene in mind, and some tools. Gathering from our example, we’re going to want; various forest scenes of pines, plains, dirt roads, medieval towns, mountains, temples, animals, people, cultures, etc. We need refs for our horse, axe, and gold. Remember those quick refs of characters you made in steps one and two? Now is the time to finalize those. They’ll have developed with the level of detail in your story. Add background nonsense no one else will notice but will enliven the story like how our axeman always ties his beard when mad or how he prefers apple cider over beer anyday. Give those fuckers some names. Bandit Bill challenges Axeman Abel for his horse and loses his head (literallly???)

--if you can go to like, museums or lectures or fairs about these things and take notes. USE YOUR RESOURCES!! ASK QUESTIONS!!! (For ilulatte I visited a couple of coffeeshops and roughed out some cafe drawings haha)

7.) Separate events into chapters. Generally theres a prologue, chapters 1-whatever, the end, and an epilogue. Our axeman has a prologue of starting out on the road, chapters 1-3 depicting pure-heart-trials, climax/end of reaching the temple, and an epilogue of someone else starting their journey to the temple based on his influence on the world because this shit is cyclical, baby. 

6.) make a fuckton of thumbnail drafts. You know these characters now; you built em out of your own head. You know how they move and talk, so slap down their journey in tiny pages. add minor details to the sides. (Here’s a shitty example of mine from ilulatte!!!!!)

7.) finish allllll of them. or at least the first few chapters. Its good for you I promise. You’ll notice the pacing much better this way! You can add a bunch of extra details in the margins like extra panels and bg notes. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the direction of your story, but try to keep the overall plot the same! (sticky notes are great for this!)

8.) start roughing out the actual pages. You’ll change things from the thumbnails (like I always do haha); thats okay!!! They’re more of a helpful guide than solid stone rules.  It’s like making the scaffolding to make the base for the rest of the building.

9.) do the lineart, bgs, text, etc. There’s tons of helpful art programs for this like CLIP studio paint or medibang if you’re doing it digitally. Remember those refs you collected for our horse, axe, and bgs? Now is the time to use em. BE VIGILANT. Keep copies of the originals. Go back frequently to look for mistakes or missing details. Keep a check list. Freckles? check. Scar on nose? check. shading???? UHHHHHH----SHIT.

10.)you should probably number the pages. keep em in a nice sized resolution if you want to print but lower it if you’re posting to the internet to dissuade reposters. keep em all in one organized folder if possible. Slap your signature on em for extra safety.

11.) ????? Sell it on gumroad idk.

GENERAL TIPS:

-start with short stories. Build your own stamina.

-have relatable characters with flaws. Tumblr seems to hate “problematic” characters but thats literally the point of character building and narratives. THEY’RE RELATABLE IF THEY’RE FLAWED. If a story doesn’t have characters that conflict with each other its a boring one. Axeman Abel wants to help everyone; Bandit Bill wants to help himself only. LET THEM HATE EACH OTHER.

-its also good to have characters that are friends but still conflict with each other. The Dragon Age series is phenomenal with this (their characters are good in general, take notes!!)

-theres a lot of shitty people out there. USE THEM. (seriously though examine other peoples interactions and you’ll make better characters. )

-bad things happen to good people. Bad things also happen to bad people. Bad things just sort of happen. Don’t shy away from unfortunate events; your story will fall flat without conflict both planned and random.

-Obviously you don’t have to share the same world views as your characters. (dont let the antis fool you.) Axeman Abel can hate broccoli but you can still enjoy it. Bandit Bill can be a racist piece of shit but that doesn’t mean you are.

-have characters of various personality, body type, race, height, etc….it really livens up the story.

-generally you don’t want the bg to overwhelm the characters, so most people do a sort of painterly bg against the solid outlines of the characters but thats all really up to you and how in-depth you want it to be.

-you should also make a regular schedule, if you can. Say, something like “twenty finished pages a month” or “four pages a week” depending on the level of detail. Simplistic style and palettes of course take less time to make than full color/heavily detailed pages, so plan accordingly to prevent burnout. If you post weekly, having a few pages done ahead of time will be good in case you need an emergency break.

-be open to critique but don’t be a doormat, either. ESPECIALLY if you’re doing it for free. People will try to take advantage of you; don’t let them. Block them and move on.

-above all; BE DEDICATED. Comics take a great deal of time by yourself, but doing them helps you develop important skills in the end like time management and general technical know-how like digital programs and writing. It’s not just art, though that’s a major part of it.

-probably should’ve said this earlier but make what you enjoy??? People can generally tell if you dont enjoy your own work. There’s less effort there. 

THIS WAS REALLY LONG SO I HOPE IT WAS HELPFUL IN SOME WAY ILU HAVE FUN BE SAFE OUT THERE

[malecsecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @compulsiveshipper!

Alec wasn't a big fan of cafes, especially since they'd get really busy when university would start, but there was that particular one just across the street from the main building, and it was perfection and more. Not only was it cozy, warm, looked friendly and relatively empty, but whenever he'd sit there, he could always set an alarm on his phone five minutes before a lecture starts and still be there on time since the cafe and his university were so close to each other.

Since one of the professors had fallen sick that week, he had more free time than expected but still struggled to save any of it, overflown with assignments and inventing new ways to get enough money to stay alive.

He soon discovered another advantage of buying drinks in that specific cafe - it was cheap, and nobody bothered him upon noticing that he was knee-deep in textbooks.

So that day he walked in during a free period and, without paying much notice to the young man behind the counter, requested softly, "A small Irish coffee, please."

The barista cleared his throat and rested his hands on the table. His nails were painted, Alec took subconscious note on that, but focused on reading until the man spoke.

"Excuse my intrusiveness, but are you old enough for that, sir?" His voice was much like a purr of a cat - it could mean anything, unreadable, really.

"What-" Alec's head shot up and his clear eyes were met with dark eyes of the stranger. Probably the darkest ones he'd ever seen, the brunet thought. It seemed like the blackness would roll down his cheeks any second like ink, it looked like if you stared at them for too long, they'd take up your entire world and swallow you like a galaxy of dying stars releasing their last screams.

Or, OR those textbooks on how exactly to draw a person's butt were so up in Alec's throat that literally anything not related to painting lower body parts seemed awfully attractive to him.

"Err, yeah. I am." He replied finally, and the barista tilted his head as if waiting for something. The strange stones braided into his equally black hair tinkled as they brushed together.

"Very well. Do you have an ID card or anything that could confirm it?"

"Uh, no." Alec gulped and took a quick breath, cornered. "But I've been ordering that nearly every day, you can ask-"

"Ah, it's alright, I'll just have to trust you." The man raised his hands cheerfully, fingers splayed. He was wearing a ton of rings for somebody that looked almost Alec's age, he noticed. The barista smiled and squinted at him. "Besides, you do look like you need a double round of that whiskey - uni struggles?"

"I guess." Alec frowned after a pause. "Wait, was that an insult?"

"For once, nope, not really. After all, it takes one to know one." The dark-eyed stranger chuckled lightly and shook his head in disbelief, pouring steaming black coffee into the cup. "Man, I, for one, have never seen somebody look so bored while looking at pictures of, err, body parts before."

"M-hm." Tired eyes found their way to the graphs and lineart again.

"Wow, you really are exhausted." The barista clicked his tongue as he grabbed the whiskey. "Might as well just give you the whole bottle of the thing."

"Can you even do that?" Alec raised his eyebrows in legitimate curiosity.

"Oh, if I could, they'd be out of alcohol the very day they gave me this part-timer." The other man laughed whole-heartedly and tilted his head again. "I study medicinal chemistry, what about you?"

"Fine arts."

"Oh! I should've realized that nobody looks at pictures of butts in public unless it's their field of study." He sniffed, barely holding back a grin. "But don't let me get in your way, that definitely sounds difficult. You don't look like an art kid, though."

"Well, you don't look like..." Alec squinted at the barista's uniform, finding the nametag in a blink of an eye. "You don't look like a Magnus."

"Ouch." He gasped dramatically and clutched at his chest for a second before cracking a smile. "Well, what do I look like then?"

"I don't know." He shrugged.

"Come on, pretty boy." The barista put a tiny sugar cube into the drink and reached for a spoon. "You're artistic, make up a name for me, won't you?"

"For all that is good in this world, don't call me that." Alec looked away, avoiding those piercing black eyes.

"Alright then, I'll attempt to guess yours." Magnus put the cup of coffee on the table and pushed it in his direction. "Here's your coffee, and... Thomas?"

"No."

"James?"

"Not even close."

"At least tell me the first letter!" Magnus complained.

"Nah." Alec attempted to take a sip of the coffee, but almost burnt his tongue.

"Please?" The other man sat down on the stool behind the counter, seeing there were no more customers to attend to, and propped up his chin with his elbow on the table.

"It's an 'A'." Alec revealed quietly.

"Hmm... Austin?" He guessed again.

"Alex?"

"Close, but nope."

"Al--" Magnus started, but the alarm went off in Alec's pocket. He took out his phone, eyes fixed on the warning that only five minutes were left until his next lecture starts, and the professor was not the warmest person in the world.

"Aaaand that was the bell for me." He sighed and closed his textbook. "I'm going to go now if I want to make it back on time."

"Don't forget your coffee, Angel." Magnus smiled and tapped the lid of the cup with one of his painted nails, taking the last guess at the same time.

"Nu-uh." Alec took the coffee and shook his head, finally gracing the man behind the counter with a smile.

"Well, perhaps next time I'll get it." He sighed in disappointment and crossed his arms.

"Will there be one?" Right before opening the door, Alec raised his eyebrows.

"You did say you order here almost every day, didn't you?" Magnus smiled and stood up, turning to the chalk menu on the wall and erasing a few coffee names with his hand, probably the ones they'd run out of ingredients for.

The smirk on his face indicated that whatever conversation they just had, he had won.

Alec held the cup close to his chest as he walked back, secretly thinking of it as a tiny heater and smiling thinly. Perhaps that was just a short conversation in a coffee shop, nothing to make of it, but he felt like he wasn't as tired anymore - and he hadn't even begun to drink.

Right before he entered the building, he remembered that if a customer gave no name in that shop, baristas usually wrote a cheeky nickname on the cup or doodled something silly on the lid. He wasn't really sure if he wanted to see what Magnus scribbled on for him, but curiosity took over and he glanced down, only to silently chuckle to himself.

Pretty boy, it said on the paper cup. The words were somewhere there in his head the entire day, making it unexplainably difficult to hold back a smile. Pretty boy.

[krakenator]

Chapter 17 aka “Dune”

SPOILERS are sprinkled around extremely liberally for The Property of Hate

Masterpost here

RGB: oh fuck

That’s… that’s actually really neat. We get confirmation soon that everything in this world has color as blood, not just RGB. So, you can actually see it in this tree stump- idk if that’s how sap actually works but it’s a cool as hell visual

That’s a neat way to highlight how FUCKING UNNERVED AND AFRAID RGB IS SEEING THIS BULLSHIT

Oh fuck. Oh that is really not good. Oh no. oh god it’s a domino effect. No trees means nothing is holding up the sea which means the darkness can’t do anything on its own. This is gonna ripple back to the market isn’t it. Oh god

With the sea collapsing like this, Click may get released from his watery grave quicker than imagined…

YIKES

Ok, at least it stopped and stabilized. For now. buuuut that particular exit is completely unusable now

HEY WAIT A MINUTE *rewinds a few pages* YEAH REMEMBER THAT HUGE SCHISM CRACK FROM REALIZING RGB’S MURDERED MANY HEROES AND BEING TOLD TO SHOOT HIM? Yeah that shits GONE now

How the fuck? That hasn’t happened before. Hero’s had to sleep to heal her schism in the past.

AND ITS COMING BACK? One page after they’re out of the darkness and that schism is starting to think about making a reappearance. WHY THO

CONSIDER THIS: darkness ALSO has healing properties? Whereas total Light will burn, scorch, and white you out from existence, total Dark will hide, conceal, and heal you.

Then again, Hero’s schism didn’t heal on her first journey through darkness to get to the Market

So... more likely it was something to do with their bonding in the last chapter, or- or even though the Nightmare gave her a bad scare, it is still technically a DREAM, and dreams whether they are nice or scary will still heal you up a bit? Interesting if true. Alternatively, the sheer proximity to that literal blockade of dreams was just so, many and potent that Hero didnt even need to be asleep for them to work a little magic on her

I still think I’m onto something about Darkness also having healing effects, however! Consider the evidence:

RGB was fucking WRECKED right before Negative come out to play way back in chapter 6. Just utterly destroyed. He was COVERED IN BURNS from being PUNCHED ACROSS A FIELD and then his circuits got ELECTROCUTED. But Negative doesn’t have any of those injuries, and neither does RGB once Negative has finished his job. Negative, confirmed to be Made of Darkness, heals RGB from whatever dumb-fuck nonsense he’s gotten into to make Negative have to step in

EVIDENCE #2: that black residue Hero leaves from being impaled on the sick tree. Just because RGB believes nothing they did contributed to the tree’s revival doesn’t mean that’s entirely true. If Hero somehow left behind a lil bit o’ Darkness in the tree, then maybe it might have thawed a little/slower on its own even without the Butterfly also melting away the [—–]

One last, slightly off-topic thing before we get back to continuing the actual chapter, people produce soft lights and flowers when they sleep, right? and those flowers fade away once they wake up. RGB’s never done that, but Negative spawns blue roses that break apart when he’s done his business. My point being... RGB doesn’t dream. If he only ever actually asleep when Negative is awake?

RGB’s overabundance of color comes into play once again

“this sand is stained by the blood of dead trees” wow I did not remember this section of comic being as metal as it is

Wait the fuck a minute. Hold on. Hold- hold on

RGB IS A FUCKING COLOR BLEED PUN

RGB’s explanation is great for why this place is littered with husks of vehicles, but let’s think about what else probably ends up here, all those objects of sentimental affection and names- laptops, favorite pens. stuffed animals! The Sands are like a junk yard. and things occasionally get washed into the Sea, or the Sea washes them up here... just a cool cycle overall

SPECTACULAR TEAMWORK LOVELIES KEEP IT UP

back on the schism- its definitely much better than when they left the Market, but worse for having exited the Darkness. its more of an impression of a dip that a gaping wound right now

OH. So, yeah the sun piece will probably run into its brother whilst in the ocean, but RGB’s right- it probably went there in order to be hidden over other reasons

BUSTED

RGB: you did WHAT? You SOLD your FINGERS? Without TELLING ME? What made you think you could go and do that, I would’ve handled it!!

Hero, remembering that time she saw RGB rip his whole hand off and give it to an owl he met 2 seconds ago: I mean…

Yo can we… talk about RGB’s entire train of thought (LMAO) here? That he’s upset about Hero trading away parts of herself but doesn’t really give a fig about doing the same to himself? He’ll sell off buttons or an entire hand, but Hero gives away two fingers for a friend and he’s upset that she didn’t let him know, because he’d have handled it? On one hand it’s very “adults being horrified at children having to take on responsibilities and experiences they shouldn’t have to” which I am always about, yet on the other hand I’m getting a “RGB really doesn’t value himself much at all does he” vibe and yikes my heart

Like, between the self-worth issues touched on here and “maintain illusion of control and confidence by saying big words smartly”- same fucking hat. RGB needs to stop being relatable

“saying HUGE words, just INCOMPREHENSIBLE LETTERS when angry” is also. Yup. That’s uh. That’s me. goddammit

...... for me, this is what i would personally call the Nightmare Scenario

YOWCH that looks like it hurt. At least the good news is RGB will be able to recolor himself over a bit of time. Not sure if he’s also able to regenerate indelible lineart, so… better just not have to find out

also; that’s literally a train of thought. Why’s it colored like Negative, though? Is this a train made of Darkness?

YUP it’s a Darkness-cloaked train- how fucking weird must this look on Hate’s side?

Fdhafjk I forgot, they have NO IDEA what happened to Click. Amazing

what.... in the fresh hell is going on in this panel

BUT, super interesting implication that Hate can’t LEAVE this place, and that without Dial to get audio, or him/the Butterfly to go out and interact with things, Hate is very hands-off

but honestly wtf is the slanted speechbox? “this side of the script”??? i love it but what does this mean

RGB points out that charging through the sands like this should be destroying it, yet it remains perfectly intact throughout all of this, even when BURROWING INTO THE LITERAL ERASING SANDS. Interesting implication that Darkness can’t be erased. Interesting implication that Negative would be entirely unaffected by sand as well

IS DIAL EATING POPCORN? HOW

Who wants to bet this is gonna be an inkwell

AND DIAL IS LET OUT OF HIS CAGE!

Who the fuck would be the third party that’s sent this hell-train out to scoop up and deliver our heroes to them? 

The idea that the kidnapper has at least once before been a kidnapee is just so funny to me. HOW DOES IT FEEL RGB??

(war flashbacks to THIS MORNING when RGB: broke into song, rocketed himself across the market via explosion and a slingshot, and wouldn’t stop making puns the entire time) my man is a ball of stress but damn if he isn’t able to react in the moment

The good news is RGB’s color regen process is pretty slick- his back’s already back to normal

Your humansona’s a real Jackie Chan madman isn’t he RGB. a real Tom Cruise motherfucker. Some Buster Keaton level shit.

I SHOULD SINCERELY HOPE SO, you’re wearing like TWO lucky objects on your person currently. If that can’t give you even a smidgen of stat-boosting...

now CHECK THIS OUT: it seems like RGB starts running into weirdness BEFORE he charges directly into the dream-infested car. A film-reel overlay effect, and lookit his hat-  negative stripes of shadow

Chiaroscuro: “the effect of contrasted light and shadow” created by light shining in weird ways and directions. interesting chapter title to use, uncle mod, on a chapter which has got the pure whites of the erased desert/Hate’s realm directly contrasted with tree stumps and this weird, darkness train

Don’t you hate it when you run directly into a gas cloud of dreams

So we got a jewel (a box?), white and black hands, the iron again, a teardrop shape, what might be RGB’s Mystery Button, all with film reels

And speaking of that iron, we also get the fiery sharp shapes again… which morph into S’s. it’s a sound. a SSSSSSSSSSS

I just had to go look up what an iron actually sounds like and… yeah. It makes an SSSS sound

Human RGB is… unfairly handsome. Of course he is. AND I SEE THAT TV IN ON THE LEFT MOD

Hey wait a minute

That’s not my bastard man

NOBODY in this comic has spoken in ANYTHING other than black or white colored text. and now here is this ancient MEMORY MAN speaking in ORANGE?

well actually the ‘co-worker’ is speaking in like really dark maroon? BUT STILL

“we split” has returned, 15 chapters later

The duality of these two title pages is really something- past and present getting whacked awake, the similar position present RGB has fallen to mirror past-human-guy, going from the Light of the memory to the Darkness of the train

ACTUALLY, RGB didn’t even LAND like that. he fall on the floor like THIS. he’s SHIFTED to reflect the decayed, old, deteriotated and fragile memory currently playing out in his head

AND CHECK OUT THOSE NEGATIVE-STRIPE GLITCHES! WOWIE! Lots and lots of foreshadowing to the upcoming Neggy appearance coming very soon to a screen near you!

[mellorad]

Artist Self Rec Tag

When you get this, reply with your favourite five or so drawings, then pass on to about five other artists. 

I was tagged by @meiosis2!! Thank you so much for the tag and your kind words; I couldn’t appreciate them more!!

For starters, let me just be brutally honest here: there isn’t any artwork in my art tag that I truly love unconditionally, so I’ll take this chance to both voice what I can still appreciate in them, but also criticize and explain things that could be improved in each of the pieces. Cool? Let’s go!

Sleeping Sickness (FMA - Royai Comic)

My latest drawing in the tag, done for my dear friend’s birthday. I still have quite the fondness for this project, even if it’s just for the amount of effort and time I put into it. Seriously! By far my most ambitious, time consuming, meticulously thought piece of fanart.

I still really like some of the lineart, as well as certain expressions, panels and poses, like the panel in the preview above. What I still really appreciate, however, is how cinematographic it is, the planning and effort put into the background/foreground, particularly how the perspective is meant to direct your eyes towards the character portrayed, and the dramatic lighting. If I had to patience and time to correct anything today, I’d probably re draw some of the expressions and alter the style for the facial features a bit, and try some other color palettes. 

Edwin HTTYD Crossover (FMAP Secret Santa 2016)

Another one that I look back on and appreciate for the effort and time spent on it. It features the most detailed outfits I’ve ever drawn, with nuances of texture and different types of cloth! And I’m still content with most of the background, so I still like the final result on that regard, for the most part. If I were to pick it up now, however, I would absolutely change some of their facial features (hfhfjsdh how I dislike their expressions and some aspects of the style in retrospective!), and rework the general picture to better blend in the characters into the background.

Mustang’s Rap (FMA)

Ah man, this drawing brings back some fun memories!! I had to get this out of my system after I kept listening to Mustang’s Rap from the 4Koma... I was laughing the entire time!! I still really like Hawkeye on this picture; her outfit, post, features... and I still chuckle with Roy’s silly pose and stare, although I would probably correct a lot of things in him, like some of the folds. The general color palette still looks pretty nice, I must say!

“ There’s something particularly alluring about him(...)” (FMA - Royai)

The very first fanart I ever made for the FMA (and Royai) fandom! I’m surprised I still enjoy this one, considering how long it’s been! Even if I would certainly correct most of Roy’s facial features right now, some clothing folds, a few of the outfit’s details and maybe add some more shadows on Roy... of all the times I’ve drawn Riza, it’s in this drawing that I find one of my favorite versions for her hair and face. 

On the other hand, I still enjoy Roy’s hair, the palette, and the general mood of the picture... I remember I felt like it was an achievement and a massive leap forward back then, like every other piece in this post, so I still value it for the importance it had.

Plant Life (Adventure Time S6 MAP 2016)

At last, breaking this chain of FMA content, is my first (and only) digital animation so far!! I put so much work into it, and I still enjoy the final result, particularly the animation on the vines and Jake; but of course, there are so many things I’d be able to improve if I had more time, such as the hair animation, certain bits of the style, and other sections.

And that’s it!! I’ll be tagging... @marimel-stars @mondfuchs @geoogl @banana--bread and @keropatch!! You have no obligation to do it of course, but knock yourself out if you want. :D

[ace-in-a-shopping-cart]

Day 22

Prompt: When you close your own eyes, you can see what your soulmate sees.

Word Count: 1,388

Main Taglist: (Send an ask to be added or removed!) @starlocked01,​​​ @spoopy-turtle,​​​ @lizluvscupcakes,​​ @more-fandon-than-friends​, @i-cant-find-a-good-username, @vindicatedvirgil, @star-crossed-shipper, @justaqueercactus, @gayboopnoodle, @sanderssidesweirdo, @the-sympathetic-villain, @8-writes, @lizzy-lineart, @battlebunnyteardropsinthesun, sirprplsnail

Soulmate taglist:(Send an ask to be added or removed!) @elizabutgayer, @melodiread, @tsshipmonth2020, @mikalya12, @8-writes, @lizzy-lineart

CW: kidnapping, food, allusions to police, minor injuries.

Virgil closed his eyes tighter, still seeing nothing but black. “Come on, come on! Come on, dear, you can do this!”

Patton sat next to him as he opened his eyes with a sigh. “Nothing?” Patton handed him a bagel from the box nearby.

Virgil shook his head. “I’m not sure where he is and I have no way of tracking him right now. He doesn’t have his phone on him, he can’t see anything. I don’t know if he has a blindfold on, a bag over his head, or if he’s just in a dark room.” Virgil stared down at his bagel. “I don’t know what to do, Pat. I'm scared. For both me and Logan.”

Patton rubbed his back soothingly. “Hey, maybe you can send a message to him! Let him know that you’re thinking about him and are trying to save him!”

Virgil nodded, putting his bagel down in favor of grabbing a pencil and paper to write carefully, “I’m looking for you as hard as I can. I need your help. Is there any way you can get your eyes open, even just for a second? I love you and am thinking of you. I won’t rest until you’re by my side.”

Patton read it over his shoulder and cooed. “Aww, that’s so sweet!”

Virgil stared intently at the page, trying to let Logan get a good look at it. When he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, he closed them. Logan’s eyelashes were fluttering in a desperate attempt to open. “That’s it, come on.” Virgil said soothingly, willing the words or at least the sentiment to go across to his soulmate, the love of his life, his husband who got kidnapped just because Virgil published a book someone disliked a bit too hard.

Logan was able to force his eyelashes open and Virgil smacked the table next to him for a sketchpad and anything to draw with. Virgil sketched whatever Logan saw, not completely processing it. Patton made some noises but Virgil ignored him for now, focused on what Logan was sending him. His pencil flew across the page, trying to render as much as Logan was seeing.

Someone appeared in Logan’s line of sight, wielding what looked like a knife and moving their mouth as if they were shouting, and Logan’s eyes snapped closed. Virgil opened his own eyes to find Patton fluttering around the room. Virgil sighed. “How did you ever become a PI?”

Patton paused, standing as if he were a paused screen. He straightened, putting his hands behind his back as if to prove that he was a professional. “Easily. People trust me and I’m good at my job.”

“When you’re not freaking out like that.” Virgil muttered good-naturedly under his breath. He turned his attention to the drawing in front of him. The landscape was a nondescript room, no identifiable features. The only things of note were that Virgil could not see Logan’s hands in this picture so he had to assume they were tied behind his back and the man in the corner of the picture, the one with the knife.

Patton settled down and looked over Virgil’s shoulder. “Have you seen that man before?”

Virgil frowned. “I don’t think so. Do you think you could convince your husband to run it through his database? I can try to blow up the face first.”

Patton nodded. “I can ask Roman to but it would be helpful to have a larger picture of it.”

Virgil nodded, flipping to a clean page and scribbling some messages to Logan first. Most of the messages were telling him he loved him, that Logan did a good job and gave Virgil what he needed, and other little notes like that. He also doodled some hearts and things he knew Logan would love like unicorns standing on the molecular model of water.

Then, he carefully tore out the picture he’d made earlier and set it to the side while he flipped to a new clean page and got to work. He put some headphones on and played some music to distract himself from thoughts of Logan getting tortured. Just to reassure himself, he’d take breaks and close his eyes to check in on his husband. Always, Logan’s eyes were closed.

An hour and a half later, Virgil finished with the drawing. He closed his eyes one more time to check in on Logan and found his eyes open. He seemed to be on his back based on his view of the ceiling and Virgil immediately made a mental note to check for broken wrists. Logan didn’t seem to be in much discomfort but Virgil knew he was good at hiding it from him.

Virgil opened his eyes and passed the drawing off to Patton. “Can we put this in some sort of express way? Even if that means I have to pay for it out of pocket, I don’t care.”

Patton nodded, picking up his phone to call his husband. Virgil closed his eyes again but was met with black, meaning that Logan also had his eyes closed. Virgil pulled the sketchpad closer and picked up where he left off, doodling meaningless drawings. He found an empty space off to the side and wrote, “I got a drawing of the man. We’re gonna run it through a database and see if we can figure out who it is. I don’t want to get your hopes up but I’m coming to you as fast as I can. You’re being so brave, just hold on a little longer, darling. When I get you home, I’m gonna hold you so close you’re gonna be sick of me. I love you so much, starshine.”

Virgil couldn’t sleep that night knowing Logan was out there, maybe being tortured. He kept closing his eyes only to see black. He could faintly see Logan’s eyelids fluttering so knew he was alive at least, probably with a blindfold on. So, he got up and put on a documentary with subtitles, hoping to let Logan watch along with him.

He wasn’t aware it was morning until he got a call from Patton saying that he’d teamed up with another PI and they’d found where the man, Alden Blue, was located. Virgil hurried to get dressed and out the door, more than ready to have his husband within sight again. He met up with Patton and they drove there with Remus, Roman’s PI brother.

Virgil was told he had to stay in the car but he insisted on coming in with them. So, he was given a vest and put in the back of the group. They’d brought in a small team to help and soon had Blue in custody. Virgil ignored the man, who was now sitting against the wall with handcuffs and a bloody lip, and kept going through the rooms.

Soon, he came to a room that looked exactly like the drawing. He found Logan in the corner, on his back with his hands cuffed beneath him, a blindfold covering his eyes. Virgil breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him mostly unharmed. He walked over and saw Logan’s head turn at the noise, shrinking back slightly.

Virgil’s heart broke at the way Logan was trying to curl up as small as he could. He carefully knelt next to him, murmuring, “Let me see you, darling.”

The blindfold slipped off and Logan’s frame shook as he dove into Virgil’s arms, confident in his ability to catch him. Virgil did, carefully picking him up and bringing his husband out of the room. He got both the key to the car and the handcuffs key  from Patton and made his way out to the car. He gently uncuffed him and brought his wrist forward. Kissing the pulse point, he set about working feeling back into them and checking for injuries. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” He kept his voice quiet.

Logan shook his head, unable to take his eyes off him. “I have a few bruised ribs but other than that I’m unharmed.”

Virgil nodded, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. Logan turned his head so Virgil's lips landed on his own last second. The kiss stayed soft and gentle, the couple’s eyes slipping shut as they shared the tender moment.

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: A Lack of Armor

Last week, we held our first AMA in the discord chat with @amberlehcar​, @peregr1ne​ and @thesockswhowearsfox​, where lots of people stopped in to ask about their work on A Lack of Armor! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: Amber, could you take me through your process of conceiving/planning out this fic? What inspired it originally?

AmberLehcar: Oh man okay, so there was a post floating around that was like "I headcanon Soul as trans and here's why" and I just really dug it. 

Peregrine: Wait, was it mine? 

AmberLehcar: I don't remember who it was, but they said things like him being hypermasculine to appear more "manly." 

Peregrine: I did say that in mine. That's crazy. 

AmberLehcar: This was supposed to be for last year's Resbang, so I've kinda forgotten exactly what was all there, but it probably was yours.

Q: So what you are saying is that you and Pere were destined to work together?

AmberLehcar: Pere claimed me last year too! I had to back out after fic claims because life was becoming too much. 

 Peregrine: I mean you did come to me before that. 

AmberLehcar: I did ask Pere a lot of questions. I'm cis/het, so I had a lot to learn and was really lucky that Pere was open and willing to teach me along with being an overall great partner. 

Peregrine: I tried my best ^^; It's not like it was hard, just talking about myself pfft.

AmberLehcar: It was helpful though! 

Peregrine: I'm glad it was. Was there more you wanted to say about the process? 

AmberLehcar: I did a ton of research and was really invested in it. I see a lot of posts about the lack of representation for the LGBT+ community and really felt like I wanted to add. 

Peregrine: Yeah, lack of representation really gets to me, especially because what representation there is is highly fetishized and honestly i'd rather have no rep than fetish rep.

Q: For all parties involved, where/how do you feel like you grew the most during this Resbang?

Peregrine: This was my first event where I did more than one fic, so working through that was hard, but I'm glad I did because I really wanted both. 

AmberLehcar: I think when I've written in the past, I've been really "this happened then this happened" etc. It was a lot more introspective this time around, so I focused a lot more on the feelings of the characters and evoking feelings in the reader. When I tried to enter this last year, I got to like 6k words but really struggled to get there. With a new direction, I got to 30k fairly easily. 

Sox: Well, it was my first Resbang and the first song I'd written since I was....18 I think. Just managing to write and record the song was a lot of growth for me.

Q: Amber, I am always interested in fic titles. Did you come up with the title of your fic beforehand, or did it develop as the story was created?

AmberLehcar: Okay, so I take all my chapter and fic titles from songs or lyrics. But A Lack of Armor made perfect sense to me because of my therapy. A few times in therapy we'd talked about putting on armor that was representative of support and good things in my life. The song "A Lack of Armor" has a line that says "like a knight without his armor I don't know who I am" and this all kinda spoke to me and fit really well with Soul and his depression/anxiety. I came up with the idea pretty much from the start and it's been with me since.

Q: You said it was a Motion City Soundtrack song, right?

AmberLehcar: All the chapter titles are from MCS songs, because I am trash lol. But they sorta go with the mood of each chapter if you go back and look at them. 

Sox: Can confirm Amber is MCS trash.

Q: There's a sick playlist somewhere right?

AmberLehcar: I do have a playlist! https://open.spotify.com/user/1266385830/playlist/3xN37XwvUGsVqZNuhpRtng

Q: Most of the time it seems the usual characterization for the Evans fam is for Soul's father to be the 'worse' parent, either that or both of them being equally bad. (At least that's my view.) So I am wondering: was your decision to make Soul's dad the more accepting one an intentional subversion or did it just happen? 

AmberLehcar: It just sorta happened? I am not a Mama Albarn fan. Aside from Marie, there are no good mamas in the series, so I just kinda went with that. 

Sox: Blair begs your pardon. 

[insert chorus of screaming about everyone's love for Blair] 

AmberLehcar: Blair takes such good care of her kittens. Okay I lied, Blair and Marie are good. But yeah, I didn't want him to have absolutely no support from parents, and someone had to have taught Wes to be a good person. So Papa Evans eventually came around. 

Q: For Pere: was there a scene that you knew immediately you wanted to illustrate and/or was it difficult to choose scenes to draw? 

Peregrine: I definitely wanted to draw the first hug scene when I read it, when Maka was accepting, because the feelies. And then later Amber had mentioned how there was going to be a scene where soul plays his song for Maka, and I knew I really wanted to draw that too, but it wasn't written yet, so I asked her to describe the scene more for me in advance so i could draw it. She didn't have a solid idea though, so some stuff I made up, and she wrote the scene to fit my picture later actually ^^; 

AmberLehcar: Your art definitely helped flesh out the scene there, thank you. 

Sox: I love when Pete draws things. 

Sox: *Pere 

[Lots of people yelling about Pete] 

Sox: God damn it. 

Peregrine: The first pic with the hair I also just thought would be cute to draw, and then just for visual concepts, I wanted to draw the different stages of Soul as a bonus even if they didn't actually ever appear in the story ^^; 

AmberLehcar: That first pic with the hair cutting is probably my favorite. I love them all, but that just made my heart flutter. 

Q: Sox I have sort of the same question for you, did certain scenes inspire certain lyrics? 

Sox: Uhhhh no not so much. I tried to write around the Mood of the fic and I talked to a local Atlanta musician about her experiences being trans with a bad family as a kid and tried to fit those to where Amber had Soul coming from. (Originally I was trying to write a SoMa Romance song but then... it came out as a Self Love Fuck you Mom song). 

AmberLehcar: I'm glad it changed. At some point when writing I realized the fic was more focused on their relationship than him, so I tried to change it up. I'm glad the song evolved that way too. After I got one of the last drafts of the song, I included it in chapter 8 in case people were wondering. 

Q: For Amber: what made you want to put Kim as Soul's neighbor out of any other character? What made you want to do the neighbor sub plot in the first place? 

AmberLehcar: Representation mostly. I love me some JacKim and thought that having a grump next door that Soul ends up kinda befriending and/or helping would be interesting. Kim was kinda a weird facet for me to write through. As someone who feels everything 110%, being in love can be kinda scary sometimes, so her thoughts on love are pretty darn close to my own: wanting to love someone wholeheartedly but being afraid of exactly how deeply you can really love someone. 

Sox: I FEEL. 

Q: There's a scene where they're watching a Youtube video. Is that video significant to you in some way, Amber? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wWBLbQInqk) 

AmberLehcar: Not at all. I was talking with Brian about assignments for the first day of class, and he mentioned he had to do that exact assignment and chose that exact video. The song's not bad and the video is... interesting? 

Q: For Pere: What program do you use and whats your general process for art? 

Peregrine: I use FireAlpaca because it's free lol. I usually do like, a base sketch that's really scribbly and focuses on like motion lines, if that makes sense. And then i decrease the opacity of that one and draw the actual lineart on a different layer on top, and then colour. Very rarely I'll keep drawing on the base sketch and just clean it a little but that's mostly for more actiony gestural stuff, or highly detailed things where I'm not bothered about solid lineart. 

Q: How long-ish did each of your drawings take? Do you tend to draw faster when you're feeling inspired, do you have a creative process or anything? 

Peregrine: Ah, I never know what to say when someone asks how long it takes, because it varies so much. But yeah, usually a drawing will take a few days if it's something average and not like the fricking Pacific Rim art I did way back when, which took like a month. I can do most pieces in a day if i'm properly inspired but it's like: yes, I can get this done in only a few hours, but those are completely straight drawing hours - no food or bathroom breaks or chit chats to be had. Honestly the longest part of the drawing process is actually the sketchy first part because I need to plan it out perfectly until i can see the end product in my head and then i can start actually working, and that can take weeks. 

[insert group yelling about how great Pere's art is] 

AmberLehcar: The boys brought me to literal tears every time they updated me. 

Sox: Lies. 

AmberLehcar: EVERY TIME. 

Peregrine: I spent 5 hours drawing Soul's hair even though I finished the entire rest of the picture in 2. 

Sox: I just had a mental image of Pere screaming the lyrics to Maroon 5's "Misery" while drawing. 

Peregrine: That's me. 

Q: For Amber: what were your easiest/hardest scenes to write & why?? Were there any that were easier/trickier to write than you expected? Bonus: favorite scene to write? 

AmberLehcar: All of chapter 4 is crap and I'll fight anyone who disagrees with me. For some reason writing just general happy, normal life was really hard. The pain though, that was kiddy stuff. The first full scene I wrote was Soul's accidental confession. The idea just messed me up and I couldn't stop writing until it was all done. It's probably my favorite scene too, followed closely by Maka's acceptance. 

Q: You super did not write linearly. That's so cool, I have to go in order. 

AmberLehcar: No, I rarely do. 

Peregrine: Man it was kind of tough reading your drafts, tbh. 

Sox: SAME PERE 

AmberLehcar: I'm so sorry!! 

Sox: "How am I gonna write a song none of this is in order" XD 

AmberLehcar: I need to give people an instruction manual for how to read my WIPs. 

Peregrine: There were so many scenes that were like, great scenes on their own, but then I'm like wait, how did we get from point A to point ? Also, reading updates was hard because everyone else I've fic'd with was like 'oh just scroll down to wear you last read' but in this fic it was like... I know something was added... but where tho... 

Sox: Slide to the left 

Sox: Slide to the right 

AmberLehcar: Never beta for me, it's a nightmare. 

AmberLehcar: (That's a lie, please always beta for me, I need all the help I can get.) 

Sox: Yeah but working with you is a dream tbh. 

AmberLehcar: The nice thing about not writing linearly is that I could really easily work with my partners to add in ideas they had. I don't know that it was easy for them, but making it more of a collab that way was really neat for me. 

Q: Do you outline everything out beforehand? 

AmberLehcar: As much as I can. I derail if I don't.

Q: AmberLehcar, how did you decided where to put scenes/order them? 

AmberLehcar: I have an outline template I wrote up based on a youtuber's outlining method! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eP73LMnphqEUn20mKd78_EB_qPlbXjklvkXLknxl5R0/edit?usp=sharing. This is the outline that I've been using recently, it's been really helpful. You guys are welcome to use it! 

Q: Amber, would you say this outlining method helped? Just in comparison to past fics etc. 

AmberLehcar: Definitely. I have so many incomplete fics simply because I didn't outline or didn't outline enough. 

Q: So was the end planned? That is the hardest part for me. 

AmberLehcar: More or less. It definitely changed a lot. I don't have any versions of the original ending, and there's still stuff from the finished product I don't remember because I literally finished at 3 a.m. the day of posting. I always have a very clear image of how the opening to any chapter or fic goes, but the end is always weird. 

Q: Do you remember anything from the first version? How'd they differ? 

AmberLehcar: I know the first half was a little different at the start of Resbang last year, but I have the worst memory... There was definitely supposed to be more NB Crona. Crona was supposed to be kinda the comic relief, making comments about their computer sciences classes that Soul does not understand. They named their laptop Nora and talk about it like it's a person. "Sometimes when Nora doesn't do what I want, I have to hit her" or something like that, make Soul concerned for this poor child. The "octagonal day" joke made it to the final cut. I think there was a scene at the end where Crona and Soul were supposed to be good friends after the "there's 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't." Because it's a math joke and a binary joke.

Sox: Amber Sox: Is Sox: A Sox: NERD 

Q: What was the funnest part of the fic for you to write, Amber? Or the part you were looking forward to the most? 

AmberLehcar: Writing Black Star was fun. There's a few one liners that I love. My favorite bit is when Maka asks for his name and the next bit is "Nervous. Stupid. Sweating." I needed that smooch like life itself. I played with them kissing when Maka apologizes and they made up, but it didn't feel right. So I saved a sweet normal smooch for the end scene. 

Sox: I literally cackled out loud on a train reading "no party like a floor meeting party because a floor meeting party is MANDATORY." 

AmberLehcar: That was one of my other fave lines. My goals for the fic were representation, make it as realistic as possible, and make people feel things. I like to think I did a good job? 

Sox: You accomplished all. 

Peregrine: Man the parents thing hit me so hard, you did a good job. 

Q: I'd love to hear about your process/writing rituals? 

AmberLehcar: When it was a scene I was particularly excited to write or just suddenly inspired, I can just sit and write. But most of the time it's me sitting at the computer with tea asking myself why I do this to myself and then I just make myself write. 

Q: Is there anything else you wanted to add other than more NB Crona, Amber? 

AmberLehcar: When Pere showed me art of Soul's physical progression, I kinda wanted an epilogue of Soul post surgery, but time and lack of confidence in writing it well... I don't think anyone understands exactly how nervous I was to write this. I waffled a while with "you have no business writing this, you are cis, please stop." 

Peregrine: Nooo it's cool because you asked. I definitely didn't think I could write trans Soul but I hoped someone would, if they asked and did it right. Which you did. 

Sox: One of my close friends is trans, and when I sent him Eden, I thought he was going to tell me he hated me. And then he didn't and I was v relieved. 

AmberLehcar: I definitely wanted to be as respectful and real as possible. Again, representation matters, and I wanted to help create a thing I hadn't seen done in our fandom. 

Sox: You did good. 

AmberLehcar: I'm really glad. I stalked the boys' tags on their work along with my own, and someone had reblogged Pere's art and was really grateful for trans Soul. I was glad to be a part of that. 

Q: Did you make any playlists or anything like that to get into the writing mood? Or headspace of a character? 

AmberLehcar: For headspace, Soul and I are very similar. I too am a bag of anxiety and depression trying to pass as a human. A lot of my college and therapy experience went into the fic. There's little bits of me in pretty much everyone. 

Peregrine: I have my trans boy song i listened to a lot pfft. It's from Treasure Planet. 

Q: Ooo which song Pere? 

Peregrine: I'm Still Here. If you look at it through a trans lens its super fitting. It's like my fave song ever.

Some additional post-AMA discussion: 

Q: Amber, I think that's a sign of a good writer, to take from one's own experiences and such. 

AmberLehcar: Write what you know, right? And what you don't know, you find out. The whole experience definitely gave me a new appreciation for the LGBT+ community, that's for sure. I knew some stuff, but I learned so much. 

AmberLehcar: To go back and slightly change my answer for difficult scene to write, while all of ch4 was like swimming in syrup to get written, Mama Evans outburst was so difficult to write. There was just so much anger and I felt icky writing a lot of that chapter in general. Writing Maka having to purposely misgender him hurt. 

Peregrine: I really liked the parents thing actually even though i hated it. It felt raw and real. 

AmberLehcar: So much pain, the whole time I'm just like "why would I hurt my son like this???" 

Q: Noticed you guys were still talking and guh I loved your collective art/story!!! I now know the gap between dimensions can't be breached because if it could I'd have reached through the screen and force-choked Mama Evans. I was kind of mad at Maka too though like... I can understand that Soul needed some time to himself, away from her, to really figure things out, but ;-; 

AmberLehcar: Yes! Maka was an interesting situation to figure out. 

Peregrine: Yeah I loved what you did there actually, because as much as I wanted her to be perfect, she wasn't perfect. 

AmberLehcar: I didn't want her to just immediately come back like "sorry you startled me, let's get married." 

Peregrine: As much as I want people to immediately accept me, they don't, even if they do eventually. It wasn't fantasy perfect world, it was real world. 

Q: I think... that's good. At first I thought Maka would be more likely to start off rough around the edges and then end the story gracefully. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if you're going to relate realistic stories about trans people/anyone in a similar situation, you probably have to... I don't want to say "break the reader's heart" because that would imply that those stories can't have happy endings, which they can and should at least as often as any other kind of story, but it put me in Soul's shoes and made me accept how likely it is that someone who is trans/lgbt/otherwise oppressed will be badly hurt by someone they think the world of, someone who's hard to leave behind. I dunno if I spoke out of turn there, but i think it was an empathically-written story. In my inexperienced opinion. 

AmberLehcar: That's definitely what I was going for. I wanted Maka to be his closest friend, for his sake and for my shipping heart's sake. But she was just too good to be true when I was writing her, so her running away happened. I was so stuck after I wrote his confession, I didn't know how to have her react. But when I thought about some of the internalized transphobia I know I've been guilty of, it made sense to add for her. It felt real. 

Look out for some more transcripts, coming soon!! Thanks again to Amber, Pere and Sox for their awesome AMA <3