#added a different method to my shading and it kinda works??

[idotartist]

I love the way you draw fire though! and your colouring is beautiful, I was wondering if there are any tips you could give for colouring?

OMG THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! ;A; i'm still figuring out how drawing fire works tho and the feedback i got was super helpfull and got me a step closer to it i think!! during my last 2 drawings i've always had some super helpful feedback about the fire so i feel really blessed about that~ as for the colouring tips, well these are some of the tricks and methods i use;

1- instead of using a darker colour for the shading i just use a more saturated colour, kinda like this;

the added saturation makes the colour appear darker when in reality it's not! think about it like colouring traditionally with colour pencils. when you use a colour pencil the places where you added a lot of pressure look much darker than the places where you added only very little pressure - despite it being one and the same colour! done with the same pencil! the reason it appears darker is because it simply just has more pigment. that's what we're doing here too, we're making the color appear darker by adding more pigment.

BUT

if we just simply stick with the exact same hue then the colouring would look bright and vivid - but still be horribly boring. so i play around with the hue too!!

the circle determines the hue you're selecting and the colors you see there are all at 0% darkness but 100% saturation despite them, technically, being equally light/dark according to the software they still look differently dark rotate the hue in the direction of blue/purple for the shadows and in the direction for yellow to select the colours for the highlights

blue, purple and red are the best colours to shade white with, for black however it'd stick to blue or else it stops looking like black and starts looking like a very dark colour instead

2- give each colour it's own layer.

that way, if you notice halfway through that the colours you've chosen don't look so good together you can still make adjustements and edit every single colour without losing any of the progress you've done with the shading (note: do all of the shading on the same!!! layer as the base colour tho!!!)

many artists solve this issue by using predetermined colour palettes, that way they're guaranteed that the colours look good toghether but colour palettes save absolutely no time at all (adjusting the colours of a layer takes only a few seconds) and are extremely limiting when colouring so i just don't see any benefit to them

3- USE THE RIGHT BRUSH!!!! your choice of brushes can honestly make or break the colouring. the impact they have should not be underestimated, it's huge. which brush is best for you depends on your artstyle but personally i think brushes that simulate either watercolours or copic markers are the best ones.

if you use a software where it's possible to use custom brushes made by fellow artists then PLEASE do that. most art software comes with awful default brushes, and even for those that come with decent default brushes (such as photoshop) most free custom brushes made by fellow artists are still so much better than the default brushes that they're worlds apart Clip Studio Paint (the software i use) has an assets "store" where you can download brushes made by fellow users. for other art software i'd recommend checking out deviantart for user made custom brushes if it's a software that existed before the downfall of deviantart. it's a huge goldmine filled with insanely amazing brushes for many different types of software. personally i use a brush called froggy pencil for the colouring 4- add overlay layers to your art after finishing with the colouring. they can make a drawing really come to live and it's insane just HOW much they add to a drawing. usually i always either use a gradient, a solid colour or a soft airbrushed colour on the overlays and let them do their magic.

to show just how much of a difference overlay layers make; here's a comparision between my most recent drawing - and a version of the same drawing where i removed all overlay layers. see the difference?

...soo uhhh ... that's all the tips and tricks i have up my sleeve lol hope it helped a bit?

[discourteouscuttlefish]

soo @drizzit i don't know if you were expecting an actual answer but I love rendering gold/silver actually so i'll answer haha

I'll tell you that my method was derived from a video I saw like one time and then just ran with the vibes. it might help you but it also would probably be most beneficial when used with actual references lol which I am very bad at using

short version, the shinier you want something to look the bigger the difference between the base and the darker colors and also the more solid the shading should be. if its textured (metal or fabric) it'll reflect less and therefore have less extreme color difference and less solid shades. I also tend to put all my gold pieces on one layer (and silver its own, essential one layer per type of metal) so I can shade in larger sweeping strokes

more with examples under the readmore bc this got kinda long oops

So here's some places where I wanted things to be shiny and chrome. To give it that look i pick a base color, then I pick a waaaay darker color to be the darkest shading, for silver that'll be dark gray or black and for gold I typically use a darker yellow/brown. Then I pick one or two lighter shades in the metal and then sometimes white

below is a typical three colors I use for gold

dont be afraid to use A LOT of the dark color, because the shinier and chromier an object is the more its going to reflect, see below and look how much of the object is NOT silver/gray in color because its reflecting so much. ALSO the different color areas are going to be more solid, like in the silver choker in the first pic where its solid lines of black and gray or below where large, smooth swaths of it is white/black/dark gray

adding a sparkle can also help lol, procreate has a premade shine brush

if an object is textured it will reflect less so you can do less extreme difference between colors and use softer, grainier brushes, below are some reference examples of how those textured metals look

here is a design I made with both gold fabric and textured gold pieces, the shading on the cloth is a lot less... rigid? solid? then the chromes and the dark color not quite as dark, same with the belt buckle. Also the brush i use is softer and with more of a grain so it's less solid and more diffused over the texture

these can be applied to more complicated designs. Typically I like to work with long sweeping strokes because i like to do things fast and a lil lazy. This isn't always going to end up with the most REALISTIC end result but hey, it works. you should still consider things like 'where is the light?' 'where are the objects and things that might reflect on the metal?' but if you want to get nitty gritty use a ref

below is an drawing i did where I started coloring the arm with large sweeping strokes down the whole arm and then I went in and did the detail work to give the decorations depth

i hope any of this made sense lol

[that-sweet-jester]

HELLO :D I have a few questions regarding your art-

First off- how do you render? Specifically when choosing the differences in material lighting? There’s just a sort of dramatic lighting that your art has that always makes it look extremely epic

Second off- What’s your method for anatomy? Like, Do you use a much of ovals/rectangles, wing it like a madman, or etc? And how do you define each part of the body? (Or separate hair segments?)

And Thirdly- how do you add volume and consistency to your work? Every design that I see of yours just looks like it jumped straight from a 3D movie screen, and really curious as to how you do all that!

Also- holy cow I freaking love your art so much- like I just found out you drew like half of my favourite art pieces out there. And I just love looking at it. It’s kind of like a golden caramel apple, if that makes any sense!!

And thank you for your time!!!

Thank you so much :DDD <333

Hoo boy where do I begin :'D

The first statement I need to make is that my main method is 'fuck around and find out'. Literally. Also sorry if some of the explanations don't make any sense, English is not my first language.

Here's kinda step by step of how my drawing process looks like.

Sketch, then rough cleaning and adding monochrome colors, it's totally unnecessary, but I like to do it just to see how the drawing would look later with dynamic lightning. Then move onto lineart, used to draw it on another layer on top of the sketch, but I switched to just correcting the lines and eareasing what I don't want from the sketch. It's kinda more fun and takes less time. Then come the base colors and adding shadows. What I most often do is add shading on the color layers and then on top of all of them draw a full shadow.

Like this, then multiply and fuck around with opacity. This makes the characters pop out even more and adds depth to them. Then add lightning, and sometimes effects from saved pngs. For example, I often use this site for material textures: https://www.transparenttextures.com/

2. When it comes to anatomy, I most often use existing pose references, not fully copying them but like putting them together like a collage. A head here, hands there, I have full boards on Pinterest dedicated solely to different body parts. In the past I was heavily using whole sketches and body pose references, but over the time I was able to somehow figure out the anatomy on my own. To some degree. I still have no idea how to properly draw hands. What I'm saying is that it's good to base your art on existing references (NOT COPY THEM) but use as a guide, until you get a hang of it.

3. Lately to do something more stylistic and to bring out the volume I started doing this notion in the shadows:

(also a sneak peak of next piece ;3)

I have no idea how to call it, but it makes things pop out.

Anddd I finally got around doing more dynamic poses and dramatic positioning. Bringing parts of the drawing forward, and leaning some further, going wild with blur filter and using black as guides and contrast.

So that might be why it looks more like screenshot of some movie, which is such a big compliment to me imma cry.

So, yeah that's kinda how I work :') Hope it helped and made sense to some degree.

[archenemyintellegence]

Reflection (rant) on art...

Had a chance to look back at the progress I've made on art while making an art summary post for this year. I am so surprised to see the improvement I've made in this year!

The biggest outcome from this year is seeing myself developing an artstyle that I truly love, which can express myself and also combine ideas in my mind. Here is some rant about the artstyle...

Last year, I invested some period of time to draw fanart for Yuma Uchida with his photo as reference. It was cool to replicate the photo with my drawing, but I wasn't satisfied with just that. I wanted to add warmth into his portrait. So I started to go beyond drawing something that makes sense. I started to add colors that I see and can never explain where they come from. Maybe they're extensions of my emotions, or maybe they're illusions formed by my thoughts, or maybe my eyes are built different. A thing that I can be sure is I always see those colors, but I always pretend that they never exist so I won't be "weird", like the way I hide those unexplainable ideas from people. I really don't remember why I believed that adding those mysterious colors can help adding warmth to my drawing but it worked. My raw, intense emotions have been added into the drawings, and they give warmth to the drawings.

This year, I tried to use this method of coloring without the reference that is exactly the same thing that I am drawing. It was trickier than doing it when drawing with photo reference because things can get really really wrong. The biggest L this year is that I scrapped a drawing that I took 120+ hours to draw because I found it impossible to manage. But I learned a lot from that drawing, including the relationships of colors, which helped me to learn more when observing the colors in real life. I went back and forth with my style and finally settled on the style that I yeeted the airbrush and all those layers with different effects, and only use one side of the color "square". An inspiration of the artstyle is Julio Reyes, a god-tier artist that I saw on instagram. I really don't know how he draw his works as I have little knowledge on tradition art and I have zero idea on egg tempera. But in his drawing it looks like he is weaving the colors together to form a picture, and I want to do the same. Another major inspiration is glitch art, which kinda explains the saturated colors in my drawing. I used to make a lot of zepeto edits back in the day I wasn't comfortable with drawing (you can view them here). This kinda explains why my drawing works well with glitchy stuff lol. Also, something my father told me has inspired my coloring choices too. I probably distorted the words of what he said to me heavily because it's from a long time ago but what I remembered is don't use black to shade. With this idea in mind, I discovered that there are actually lots of colors in "black" that I don't believe there is real "black" in this world. So I pushed this idea to the extreme and even avoided grey. This makes coloring becomes a braincell-burning activity for me but I really enjoy the results as it can truly reflect my ideas on my drawings.

I really can't believe that I used so many words to talk about coloring but I did. Another part that makes my new artstyle is minimalistic background. A reason for this is to strike balance in my drawing. I used to do background but I believe that it'll be too much going on if I color the subject with crazy colors. So it needs to be blank or very minimalistic. Also, I believe that blank contains strong meanings. First, with the blank, the subject can fill it with their aura to make their presence stronger and own the drawing. It's very vague so I probably won't explain more lol. Another meaning that the blank contains is that it is the opposite of everything that has been drawn on the canvas. Instead of trying to fill the canvas with details, it is better to perfect the subject that contains the part of the message that I am able to convey, and let the blank finish the rest of the message. I believe this way I can produce a fuller drawing.

The new artstyle reminds me of fashion magazine, which inspires me to start learning more about fashion and accessories recently. I'm really new to this kind of things but I can feel that it's already giving me a lot of inspiration. I believe keep on learning more about them can help me enrich my drawings. Also as there's now less distraction on my drawing, I need to improve in my anatomy and especially perspectives. The sense of 3d is always a weakness for me that I have zero sense of direction or even struggles to tell left or right. I hope it can be improved by a little bit so my drawings can look cooler. And I hope my colors can be improved next year! I really have no idea how it can be improved for now but I believe that I can do it, just like how the colors improved throughout this year. I hope my drawings can be better that I have the confidence to earn a living with them! (And yeah the lack of confidence is a problem I want to solve too...)

So many ranting lol. Here's a full (digital) drawing lore of me. I started to focus on drawing seriously when I started doing digital drawing so you can actually take it as my full drawing lore haha. One is 2021 and the other one is 2020.

[siyelmedia]

My thoughts on the latest work:

This piece took me the same amount of time as the emotes, but has better quality, character and emotion. The differences though were interesting:

1: In the emotes, the canvas was drastically smaller than the other one, causing them to look more pixelated and sharp rather than the smooth look I was going for. Higher resolution on the most recent upload definitely helped.

2: I spent probably a majority of my time in the emotes doing sketch layers, fixing every tiny detail as it appeared. Ended up with 4 sketch layers total (each emote on all layers). However, with the most recent piece, I took it way less seriously and kinda doodled the concept and didn’t really fix tiny imperfections until it was time for line art. There was only 1 sketch layer, 2 line layers to get shading and structure the way I wanted, and some text layers for the book. Point being, taking myself too seriously for detail early in the process both took more time and resulted in changes that never really were reflected in the final piece.

3: The emotes had no shading whatsoever. Before making this, I was studying some shading methods and how to use my paint software to incorporate it to a small degree, as I don’t think I’m at the point for complex shading yet. The shading did help improve the look of the piece and made a noticeable improvement on the character of Siyel.

4: The emotes had an older design of Siyel. Seeing it then really put both the features and flaws of the older design in perspective. I added more personality by incorporating more accessories and accents. I was kinda iffy the next day after the emotes post about the design, but I love this redesign!

5: There was no texture of fur for the emotes, but I incorporated it for the most recent work. It looks so much cleaner and authentic as a result.

Overall, I really like the most recent work I posted, and the style of it, despite being higher resolution, is faster and less tedious for me to design. Moreover, I learned from the flaws of the previous work I uploaded, and made meaningful improvement. This is why I love being self taught, because I get to make mistakes that reveal answers and suggestions to me. It’s a constant process of improvement, and it’s encouraging each time.

Next up for me:

1: Rework/redo the planned Siyel sketch/ref to incorporate the new design/style. Will have to see what I can salvage if the old one, but considering I made the same mistake with the emotes of overthinking sketching, I’m not going to be surprised if I start fresh.

2: Attempt to use more consistent line size, shape and shading in the next work. Maybe attempt using light glare effect? Also maybe more fluff if the design benefits from it without it being too much?

3: Neither of the two works necessarily had a proper background. I’ll have to look into the background tools on my software as well as consider simple background designs for now. Maybe can use in my next work depending on how I’m feeling.

I’ll keep improving and trying my best, and I hope you all do so as well! Until next time :3

[gibsonkatz8]

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[steveroger]

Colouring rainbow gifs

The lovely @buckiecap​ and @djarsdin​​ requested a tutorial of some gifs from this TFATWS rainbow set.

My colouring process is kinda chaotic and it always depends on the gif itself. These three gifs will highlight the similarities and differences in how I colour my rainbow gifs.

You’ll need some understanding of basic gif making and adjustments. I use Photoshop 2021 but I imagine these processes will still work in other versions.

Some basic tips:

When doing rainbow sets, once I've got my base gif ready, I always make a hue/saturation layer on saturation +100 so I can see what colours I'm working with. I just keep it hidden so i can check how my colours are doing throughout the editing process.

Also something to stick at the back of your mind: you want your final gif to be as “monochromatic” as possible - make sure your final palette will be only black + shades of whatever colour you're targeting. This is not only to make the gif as colour-focussed as possible, but it also helps with saving your gif under 10mb. That saturation +100 layer I always keep hidden at the bottom of my gif so I can keep an eye on what colours are present.

It’s also helpful to understand how RGB and CMYK colours work and what to add/subtract when you want to bring out a certain colour. A good example of this is with Colour Balance:

You’ll notice the colours on the left are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMYK), while the other side is Red, Green and Blue (RBG). So if you want more cyan in your image, you’d push the bar towards cyan, but then you’re compromising the reds. In Selective Colour adjustments, the panel is reversed.

This knowledge is absolutely necessary when you’re doing any adjustment, so keep this in the back of your mind as I work through the tutorial.

Green gif - Eli's door

So I start with my hue/saturation on saturation +100 to check what I’m working with here. This gif of Isaiah's grandson opening the door has green, yellow and red as the dominant colours, and I can see a bit of cyan on the right. I’ll keep that hue/saturation layer hidden as a reference.

Normally when I make gifs I start with a curve or levels layer to get any unwanted hues or create a more visible scene. But in this gif, I'm pretty happy with the colours, so I'm just using a simple curves adjustment, because I want to have whatever is behind the door as the ‘background’ and the door frame is the ‘foreground’, so only a slight adjustment is needed here.

Since the colours are already prominent, I'm going to make the green more visible and vibrant. I do this by using selective colour in the green colour to make the green stand out. When thinking of CMYK adjustments, you might think that Magenta -100 would work, as that normally pushes the greens, but I find that this makes things grainy and patchy looking, as you can see here:

Instead, I’m enhancing cyans and yellows, and only pushing the magenta back just a little bit towards green. I’m not sure why green specifically does this, but it’s useful to know this when you’re colouring.

With the yellows, I want to push those more as well, since the amount of yellow usually influences the green-ness of the gif.. I'm also going to max yellow too since that will also make the green pop, but I also have to be careful not to distort the skin colour too much. I also want to balance the skin tone with a little redness so he doesn’t look like he has jaundice (skin tone will be explored later in the gif process)

I've added another selective colour layer on top of that, only adjusting the greens just to make it pop a little more. Don’t be afraid to use more than one selective layer, this can really bring out vibrant colours if you use it right.

Just to get some more depth, I add a colour balance layer, again just subtly pushing the cyan and yellow up and not playing with the green too much. Then my usual last layers are with a vibrance and brightness/contrast - I’m usually quite generous with contrast so I can bring out the different shades and it makes things a little more vibrant too.

This next step is really important when colouring people with dark skin - you want to lower the redness from their skin so they don't look unnaturally orange, as you can see here:

There is a fantastic tutorial here about colouring dark skin tones and avoiding the orange-washed look, and I recommend all gif makers to take note! It's difficult especially when doing rainbow gifs, and it takes some practice. I do this with a hue/saturation layer, and specifically targeting red and yellow and reducing saturation. I might need to play with selective colour or colour balance to get it right. Luckily Eli doesn’t move around too much, so I can use a mask to adjust only his face. 

And that’s the end product! now just ignore me as I re-upload the green gif in my set so you don’t see such a horrible jaudiced skin tone sldkfjsldkf

Yellow gif - Karli vs Sam

I'm gonna be completely honest here - this gif was very tricky to do. I actually have about three different versions of it. At first I thought "this is the yellow gif so I'm only going to have yellow tones", and did selective colour to get rid of any traces of green AND red, because I didn't want any orange at all. It ended up looking quite dull:

I mean.. yeah it’s yellow........... but it’s kinda boring. So I deleted all adjustments and watched the raw gif, and noted the orange light contrasting with the pale light. The raw gif itself already had some beautiful lighting - why get rid of it? It depends on what you want, but I like my rainbow gifs to have a different colour there to contrast with the main colour. 

Starting off with a hue/saturation layer with saturation 100+, I can see there are clearly yellows and reds and a bit of green on the ceiling. 

I thought the contrast of the orange and pale lighting was too good to mess up so I started with that. My first layers are vibrance and brightness/contrast to exaggerate the silhouettes and bring out the colours that are already there. 

I added a channel mixer layer to narrow down the colours. I wanted to fill the white bits with yellow, and with channel mixer I’m able to manipulate colours into something else while still looking natural and blended. I won’t be doing too much colour manipulating here so the settings are very minimal. I don’t know how to explain it but it just takes a little fiddling to figure out what works for your gif. You’ll notice the white reflections on the ceiling are now a solid yellow colour:

Next is a colour balance layer. I'm basically trying to bring out the yellow out. This is really just trial and error. I added a bit of magenta to bring the depth of the orange colours in the darker shades:

Now for selective colour. I'm often adjusting all of these while hiding/showing the hue/saturation layer I have kept at the bottom. This time, I’m aiming to subtract the reds and bring it down to a warm orange, and I do that by bringing it towards cyan/away from red, and away from magenta/towards green. 

Then I max out the yellows so it becomes the most dominant colour. I've also manipulated the green to make sure it is excluded from the gif - again, checking with the hue/saturation layer at the bottom, while keeping my eye on the ceiling and other places where I’ve noticed green lurking about. I don’t want any unwanted shades ending up in the final colour table.

Finally, I finish with yet another vibrance and brightness/contrast layer, just because I like things bright and vibrant!

And there it is! The orange is still there and adds a contrast, but you can tell that the main colour is the yellow. This gif seems very straightforward but I assure you, it took me quite a while to get this one right. This gif was a joy to work on because Sam was so very extra in this fight sequence lolll

Pink gif - suspicious mechanical grenade? idk

While this gif may look simple, it actually took a couple of tries before I got the colouring right. You'll notice when the ball activates, there is a bright green light that highlights the gas released and it reflects on the chair legs and carpet.

At first I tried this with the above mentioned selective colour method - which I thought turned out okay but it didn't sit with me right. Notice the reflection of the blue light on the carpet - it definitely isn't blue and more like a green-orangey kinda colour, and it doesn't look natural at all.

So I re-started from the beginning and had a look at what I’m working with, starting with hue/saturation at saturation +100. I can see that the original gif has red and green as the dominant colours, with yellow bits blending the two on the carpet. That’s what I was having issues with the selective colour - so I’ll be doing it differently. 

Enter: channel mixer. I’m gonna be honest............. I have ZERO idea how the channel mixer really works! It’s all a matter of trial and error, but I’ll try and explain my process step by step. 

I normally start in the blue channel (again - no idea why, it just works for me). I start with the reds, and I know if I go over 0, it will push the reds towards cyan, which will get it more purple-y:

Ooooh looking good!!! then I want to push the greens towards magenta, so that needs to go over 0 as well:

Woohoo! It’s already starting to look good. The green light and the way it blends into the red/pinks have all been completely changed into the cyan hues, so there’s a perfect reflection you can see on the carpet! Yay! I had a fiddle with the green and red channels but nothing too drastic. Here are the settings:

Even with just the single adjustment, I was already pretty happy with it and only did a few touch ups: I added a selective colour layer to bring out a more pinky-purpley colour, then a levels layer to brighten things up. It might seem very backwards to add a brightening tool at the end, but I didn’t want to mess up the original colour shades because I liked having the dark shadows lit up by the ball’s light.

And that’s it! Only three adjustment layers, but it took some time to play with the different adjustments and what worked best. Channel mixer can be really intimidating but it works like a charm when you manage to figure it out.

the end!

Finally I have to give credit to some amazing content creators and their brilliant colouring tutorials that have made such a huge impact in the way I edit. Some brilliant guides include:

this colouring tutorial by @favreaus​​ 

this colouring tutorial by @inejz-ghafa​​ 

this colouring tutorial by @meliorn​​

​I hope this tutorial has been helpful! I’ve tried to explain myself as best I can, but let me know if you’d like any clarification or have any questions. I’m still learning how to do things, and honestly most times it’s just randomly clicking things until something works out! 

[fawad-khan]

this is beautiful! how did you make it? do you have any tips?

hi there! first of all, im honoured omg, thank you so much! its actually not that hard to do, i can walk you through the process with a quick tutorial below.

you will need: photoshop of any version (with timeline). i use cc 2019.

difficulty: easy, basic knowledge of giffing in video timeline is required.

i will put the process under the cut (along with screenshots of the different stages of the gif)

so first of all, make your gifs, following the usual method, doing the colouring, sharpening, etc. you can check out gifmaking tutorials like this, this and this if you want.

make your two gifs. i’ve made one of them as black and white by adding the black and white adjustment layer on top of all the colouring layers with an opacity of 85%. put your gif in separate folders.

this is my coloured gif-

this is my b&w gif-

(iasdhaushsf sorry if they are kinda bad in quality, i didnt sharpen them while saving the psd)

group the layers like so-

the b&w gif should be below the coloured gif.

now, click on the coloured gif folder and change the blending mode to linear dodge. you can also use lighten or screen if you want, just play with them and see which works best. i also lowered the folder’s opacity to 71%.

and voila! this is the result!

as for the text, “that’s my” is in the font corbel with white colour and normal blend mode. i also added some drop shadow hehe. “man” is in the font modernline with shade #f5910a, which is an orange colour (tbh just pick any bright shade), set to hard light blend mode. 

 lastly, in addition to sharpening, i added some noise to the b&w gif at 1.05% and reduced the opacity a wee bit, so that it would look a bit crisp. i followed the same method on my other gifs.

and this is the result whoo

and thats it! that is how i made the gifs in this post! hope this was helpful, and dont ever hesitate to send asks if you need any help! <33

[creativeashproductions]

Welcome to Our Hell // Charlie Gillespie

IN WHICH: Charlie asks the reader a simple question that leads the man to fall down a rabbit hole of reading. Despite the panic you felt along with your fellow writers you still introduced and helped him navigate the pool of fanfiction.

Warnings: None (it’s actually possible with me??)

Words: 1k

A/N: I couldn’t resist making a tiny blurb about the revelation that Charlie has read fanfiction, that he enjoyed reading it. I actually talked about how Owen and Charlie would react to jatp fanfiction so sorry for manifesting 😬

ALL FICS MENTIONED ARE TAGGED.

TO BE TAGGED SEND AN INBOX/ASK PLEASE!

Masterlist

Your eyes slightly glanced up from your computer to where a certain someone was humming along to an Eagles song. His hips swayed as he slipped the egg in the pan, unaware of your eyes following him. He was entirely in his own world while he left you to finish up what he was led to believe was just school work.

The innate cheerful aura the male gave off regardless of the landscape had always been one of your favourite things about him. He saw the joy and good in things most people tended to overlook. It didn’t matter if he had his guitar in his hands or a cooking tool; he’d shoot that smile that melted your heart.

“Whatcha doin’?” Charlie questioned, peering over the island in the apartment you had rented in the city.

“Just doing some work.” You replied, beginning to type once more with a sudden burst of inspiration. You barely noticed he had slid the egg onto the plate before he was at your side.

“Are you writing for Tumblr?”

That one sentence froze you. Fingers stiffened above the well-loved keyboard of your computer you’d invested a fair amount of money on. Goosebumps swarmed every inch of your skin that suddenly lost a few shades.

Your skittish gaze found purchase in the warm ocean of hazel that bore no judgment, “Did you just say Tumblr? H-how do you know Tumblr Charlie?”

The Canadian hummed in response with a thoughtful expression, “I saw this really cool artwork, and it had a link. I followed it to Tumblr. It’s such a cool site.”

“It’s a hell site.” You deadpanned at the young actor who held no contempt for the different creativity methods unleashed in the fandom. Your e/c irises stayed stuck in a battle of colour with his own eyes.

“If it’s a hell site, why do you go on it?”

“It’s like a car crash or a burning building. It’s horrifying, but you stay to see which outcome ends up winning.” You had to carefully find the words to eloquently describe why you kept returning to a site that was frustrating at times.

“There’s so much diversity from songs, traditional art, poems, dances, covers and now writing. It’s insane.” Charlie chucked as he nudged the plate of breakfast he’d cooked for you, “I’m really digging the ‘90s Lalex books-”

“Fanfics. Fics for short.” You offered the man who held a slight expression of confusion that quickly cleared up, “And the writing has been going on since the series dropped. I’d be rich for every fic that referenced Luke’s aversion to sleeves.”

The boisterous laugh filled the room as Charlie hunched over. His arms wrapped around his midsection.

“Don’t you find it weird that there are fics about you?”

“Weird?” Charlie spoke, scrunching up his nose adorably. His hazel eyes lightened further, “Y/N, I’m not weirded out. I’m honoured that I made enough impact to have people writing about me.”

A small smile broke across your face, “You totally have a secret account, don’t you?”

“No. NO.” The whisper come in the dark of the bedroom where both sides of the couple should be sleeping. You had been before Charlie whined with his phone attached to his hand.

“Baby?” You groaned, turning to find him still invested in the world of fanfiction. His hazel eyes, tear-filled, raised to meet yours, “What are you doing up at-3am?”

“I just finished reading this adorable fic about Willex. The euphoria had me reading the next fic without reading the summary.” Charlie cried to the bedside light you’d turned when his sniffles woke you up. The near distraught man didn’t fight as you gently took his face out of his hand.

“Oh, Char.” You hummed, bringing the brunette into your arms as he mourned whatever was in the fic.

“Luke died with his girlfriend waiting in the Orpheum. She lived and began a life with Bobby..er Trevor.” Charlie whispered against the soft comforter you’d only recently bought, “They never got to say goodbye. As Luke’s portrayer, I just know the double betrayal took him to his knees.”

“Ah, you found @losttinwritings​ ‘See you Again’. That one is a doozy.” You winced, remembering the heartbreaker, “You, however, need sleep.”

Charlie’s eyes quickly met the phone sitting in between you two, “But-”

“Here.” You handed over your own phone after clicking your secondary account, “It’s one of my all-time comfort fics when I’m feeling sad. @dream-a-little-bigger-x​ always nails it out of the park but ‘Love Shack’? Immaculate.”

Charlie’s eyes flickered between the phone in his hand to your eyes twinkling in the albeit shitty lighting the cheap lamp offered. The vulnerability in your eyes at offering your blog took his breath away. This was a place where you were safe in your thoughts with no judgment.

“Oh! And @cherrymaybank​ created ‘A Romantic’. A beautiful story in the eyes of a hopeless romantic Luke and the stoic, independent reader.” You offered with a grin and sigh of happiness, “I’ll have to start tagging you in the ones I adore. Definitely gonna introduce you to @merceret​’s work; it’s always amazing regardless of how long the fic is or the distance between work. I’d wait a thousand years for her.”

Charlie’s lips spread to reveal that smile that always had you falling back in love over and over again. It even eased the panic you felt viewing Charlie’s rather honest confession he put on his Insta story. He’d caused panic within the writing community as he boldly announced his pride, awe, joy and love for all the fandom provided creatively. 

Next thing you knew, you’d started sending each other fics you’d think the other would enjoy; it often ended up with the same fic being sent. Charlie didn’t address the topic publicly to allow the buzz of panic to die down. He also never discovered your personal writing blog either, well, that you knew about.

Sometimes you’d find him sniffling over a story where Luke discovers his girlfriend was unknowingly pregnant and never got to see him child grow up. That one also tore your heart apart and you’d been the one to write it. Just a secret you’d be taking to your grave.

Tag List (PLEASE SEND AN INBOX TO BE ADDED! I CANNOT GUARANTEE YOU WILL BE ON THE LIST VIA POST COMMENTS!)

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[kendrixtermina]

I’ve finally gotten around to looking at WTF Psychsophy/Attitudinal Psyche is

First: Does anyone know where to get books on it? I couldn’t find  Afanasyev ‘s original one on amazon. It might never have been translated from russian.

At first glance it might seem like the Jungian Systems like mbti and socionics since there’s 4 ‘slots’ and 4 qualities two of which roughly map to what’s coloquially known as “emotion”

(Indeed some ppl have tried to conflate it since the sonionists generally think they have a theory of everything, & extended all that stupid intertype relations BS to it which I find worthless even in socionics proper)

P only distinctly resembles Sensing and V is something completely different entirely. 

Though I think will is overrated. I seldom agree with the church but I think there’s something to the catholic model of the psyche as made up of spirit/thoughts, soul/feelings and will, & that it is not the same as instinct/senses or intuition (though of course the catholics would forget instinct since the appetites are “of the world” etc.)

Maybe you could even extent the system by adding intuition as a 5th aspect... As it is I think ‘associative thinking’ is folded into Emotion in this system. 

there are 24 or on some accounts 25 types but also a pretty easy method to determine it:  is no complicated induced structure like with mbti, you just take the 4 aspects  & put them in order of prominence or importance

The 24 types are the (a 25th one where all the aspects are equally valued or in 2th position - which they say would be something like a Yogi or a Zen Master) Essence Type/ 12gram has the Solar Type as a person who values mind, body & heart equally (but has a bias towards the positive)

There’s 4 Aspects - Logic, Emotion,  Will, & Physics/body. 

They also show up very differently depending where you rank them, it seems very different actually from the mbti functions where it’s kinda just the same thing but better or worse. 

In the 1st position it’s something you’re picky & confident about whereas in the second you’d be very open-minded with it & use it to connect to others; The 3rd is something you get very worked up/emotional about but might have complexes/insecurities with and the 4th is something you dont care for unless its for a clear purpose- 

A simple ordering according to preference (without bothering with the slots) the colloquial meanings (I couldn’t find any source that crisply defined them anyways) gives me LWEP. 

I also took an online test - I notice that a lot of questions are phrased like “How often do you think about...” which makes me wonder how it’s meant. I sure THINK a lot about obligations for example - but because they stress me, not because I am good at fulfilling them.

The test gave me  LEPW. 

I read up the descriptions of both, and insofar as I can tell from those it’s definitely NOT LEPW. Exhibit A: 

“Money takes an important part in your life. You try to be handsome and well-groomed in front of people” 

Haha no im a trashfire hermit

“You are a person who is able to distinguish 50 shades of smile, sight or other sorts of emotions. Lying is easy to reveal for you, this is why it's difficult to deceive or manipulate you. You are able to support who needs it. You appreciate deep, kind and truly honest people, and you hate "blind" emotionally people. It's easy to you to be the soul of any team. “

ffff I avoid group work whenever possible, I’ve fallen for my share of scams/dupes, I tell everyone I get involved with to “please be direct with me I cant pick up indirect shit” & I actually loathe people who judge others for not being exptressive in a conventional way. my holy trinity of Waifus all kinda fit in that category

“You are a soft and tolerate person. You are able to forgive people if they repent, even after serious mistakes. 

Absolutely not. if you’re out you’re out & im never speaking to you again

Which leaves LWEP

What’s LWEP supposed to be like?

1L

You have a strong inner passion to logical analysis. Your brain is constantly analyzing, rating, trying to find the truth out. And it relates to every part of life. Inside of you there is a big immutable picture of the words, which is constantly being improved by your experience. You like smart people, but usually you don't aim to share your experience with others. You prefer to provide ready logical results instead of thinking process. You don't like empty talks. You don't talk very much with people around, but you always talk clear.

2W

You are a soft and flexible person, people around appreciate you for that. You value respect and justice very much. In many cases it's difficult to say "no" for you, but not cause of weakness, but cause of the sense of respect towards people. You are capable to find a mutual and reciprocal solution in any situation. You are always polite with people. You defend people towards whom an injustice takes place. You are inclined to negotiate same many times in order to manage the situation and to clarify details. You are always interested in opinions of others and never ignore anyone.

3E

You are an emotional person very much, you are sensitive and vulnerable. It makes you try to be closed from people around. You don't have many people whom you trust. Towards emotions you value attentiveness, sense of tact, deepness and sincerity. You are able to notice emotional lie and selfishness immediately - it pushes you away. You understand animals well, they like you. Other people find you as a person who is always ready to listen to, to understand, to yield sensibly.

4P

You are the person for whom mental are more important than material. Of course, material things are not an empty place in your life, but you used to consider it as a way of self-realization. You don't value material things much, you don't affect to them, their value is how much profit they can provide. You are not pedantic towards the order of things, the same is about your health. As for comfort, you are unpretentious.

That’s actually remarkably spot on, especially in the capturing of not stereotypically associated traits. 

I wouldn’t say I’m “soft” or “can’t say no” but I’m definitely very open-minded (or at least try to be) & interested in people with different opinions

I guess I’m also starting to reach an age where environmental influences start to predominate - my 16 year old self would have agreed a lot more to most of this, if partly out of youthful overconfidence. Or less trauma. 

“W” is sort of associated with organization etc which I am very bad at, but I know that as a kid I was more often described as “tough” or “strong willed”. 

But that would have been before a good chunk of the traumatic incidents. 

Except for the part with the animals. I don’t hate animals in any way but I also really do not connect with them very much & im a little afraid of them. Though I’d attribute this to not having any pets in our household as I was growing up.

if anyone has further reading i would like me some

[nikkialena]

A Clone’s Desire

You were a rookie padawan who’d finally been selected after a long waiting period at the jedi temple; you were more than a bit excited to finally be out in the field, not like you didn’t enjoy master Yoda’s company and his wise teaching but you couldn’t help but tremble at the idea of being with your very own master and a trooper squadron. Which is why you were superstitiously checking your reflection in the mirror; you wanted everything to be perfect because apparently there were going to be a few 501st clones in you’re squadron, your heart raced a mile a minute as you began scouring your features in the mirror for any kind of flaws. 

A knock at the door made goosebumps spread across your skin; you were both nervous and afraid and about two seconds from puking but you pulled yourself together, swallowing the lump in your throat you reached for the bathroom handle with trembling fingertips.

 “Your a secret weapon, your going to help the jedi and end the war you are amazing” you muttered to to yourself trying to hype yourself up; you side eyed yourself in the mirror taking one last glance over you’re general appearance, you were dressed in a sleeveless black crop top with a little patch in the middle revealing a bit of cleavage.  

A leather utility belt sat lopsided on your waist right above a pair of baggy black camo pants with about fifteen pockets; you had a dozen different varieties of trinkets shoved in your many pockets, Yoda loathed when you did that, always saying how it would anker you down. But you always brushed him off mumbling something along the lines of I got this; taking a deep breath you tried to make yourself stand tall as you opened the door to your room, you glanced around your room making sure everything looked right. Sniffing the air you sighed thankful it smelt decent; another knock on the door made shivers dance down your spine but you slapped your cheeks and put on your tough face, “one minute” you called out as you stood in front of your bedroom mirror trying to decide if you looked presentable. You checked your dark skin in the reflection and tugged the scrunchy from your lucious {h/c} allowing your beautiful curls to spill down your back and along your shoulders, after tearing your eyes away from the mirror you briskly walked towards the door and ripped it open before you could second guess yourself for the fifth time. Standing in front of your door frame was an auburn  haired man with a small beard dressed in nearly all white robes; the only color on him being his reddish shoes and brownish undergarments and piercing blue eyes.  

“Ah I see you’ve finally decided to join us [Y/N]; well I hope you're ready for your first mission because we leave in fifteen minutes, but first I’d like you to rendezvou with the troopers and introduce yourself. We’ll be holding a mission debriefing in ten minutes in the cockpit; please do try and make sure every detail is crucial on the battlefield. Oh and uh welcome to the team padawan I look forward to working with you. Lets hope you turn out better than Anakin”, he muttered that last part more so to himself you weren’t exactly sure what to do so you bowed and mumbled a soft “yes sensei”.  

He gave you a cheeky smile before walking down the corridor and disappearing down a hall, casting one last glance to the mirror you sighed and forced yourself out the room, you weren’t exactly sure where the clones were. So you kinda wandered aimlessly until you bumped into one dressed in a bulky white suit with the occasional splashes of orange decorating his helmet and armor, at first he didn’t notice you no one ever did. When you were designed you were significantly shorter than most of the clones; standing at a measly five feet and four inches but what you lacked in height you made up for in curves.  Finally noticing you the trooper took off his helmet and saluted you giving you just enough time to scope him out; he had tanned skin rich brown eyes and a short raven colored buzz cut, a strange marking sat just above his right eye and you held back the urge to trace it with your fingers. “Hello, I’m Sergeant Cody but most people just call me CC-2224, you must be General Kenobi’s news padawan..um [Y/N] was it?” 

 As his eyes shifted to you, you felt yourself shrink under the intensity of his gaze. The way his chocolate eyes bore deep into your soul almost made you feel naked, “uh yea that’s me” you managed to squeak cursing yourself for sounding so cowardly. For a second his brows lowered as he looked and took in your features but it vanished as quick as it came, however you noticed this and grumbled softly you knew that look all too well. It was that aren’t you a bit young to be a padawan? Which you despised, “I’ll have you know Sergeant Cody I’m twenty” you spat venom creeping into your tone, the look of shock on his face was equally annoying but just like before it melted away so quickly if you hadn’t been paying attention you wouldn’t have noticed. Yet another gift from your makers; most people mistook you for a fifteen or sixteen year old and it was fun at first, but it quickly got annoying. You both just stood in awkward silence, you glaring at him while he avoided eye contact; it wasn’t until another person came up to you that you stopped your death stare and he seemed to sigh in relief. 

The approaching male was tall with cream colored skin, short brown wavy hair swept backwards and soft blue eyes, he had a tiny little scratch on his left eyebrow and a cocky looking smirk etched on his features. Unlike the other males you’ve seen he was almost completely dressed in black, or at least a very dark brown you weren’t exactly sure but you weren’t given much time to dwell on it due to him swinging one arm around your neck and pulling you in for a nuggie. 

“Hey, squirt look at you all grown up and ready to become a jedi it pleases me that you’re my replacement” he hummed while deliberately ruffling your hair, at first you were dumbfounded and very pissed off that this random douchebag not only forcibly hugged you but also messed up your hair you worked so hard to neaten. But your anger quickly fizzled out as realization settled in and your frowned only deepened, “oh Anakin it’s you how ya been?” You asked, trying to readjust your hair as he let you go and began walking making you and Cody follow, “well you know squirt the usual” he said motioning with a flick of wrist into the air.

 “So getting in trouble and causing problems for everyone else” you sang earning a snort from Cody quickly covered by a discrete series of coughs, Anakin’s cheeks turned a soft shade of red for a moment before he brushed your comment off “they call it trouble I call it creative thinking”. “No I can assure you there’s nothing creative about your fighting methods, it's just destructive” a familiar voice interjected into your conversation, you turned to be greeted by the same warm smile from your sensei as he waited leaned up against a wall surrounded by a couple of troopers.

 Anakin just scoffed and slapped you on the shoulder a bit roughly; “this guys a riot you're sure to have an amazing time under his watch” the sarcasm in his words was so thick you could almost feel it. Obi Wan just rolled his eyes at his former pupil and motioned for you to enter the cockpit, the meeting began and you just kinda sunk into the back as the generals and the troopers made plans. It’s not like you weren’t paying attention but you just felt so out of place here amongst all these skilled soldiers; sure you were well trained. 

I mean freaking Yoda supervised you in the temple, but you’d never been on the battlefield before and it was kinda frightening. “First time in the meeting room” a gentle voice voice whispered, snapping you out of your train of thought, shifting your gaze to your right you were met with a Togurta with bright crystal blue eyes, peachy orange skin and beautiful whit markings scattered across her face. 

“How can you tell” you mumbled while letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding; she smiled and pointed at your fingers drumming against your thighs, ‘oh that’ you thought to yourself of course your body betrayed you it always has. “Yea, I’m fresh out the temple” you whispered and she nodded slowly eyes flickering back to the talking men, “well you don’t have to be so nervous we’re not doing anything to dangerous just pushing back a couple of seppies out of a potential base area” that calms you down just a little bit.”Doesn’t sound to hard” you mused with a soft smile on your face “don’t jinx it” she hissed confusing you, “what?” 

 She looked at you with a quirked brow “haven't you ever seen a movie, whenever someone says oh that was too easy it gets significantly harder so don’t jinx it”, you nodded in understanding just as you both got called on the carpet, “I’m sorry are we boring you ladies or do you have something to add to the battle plans?” You heard the girl next to you swallow thickly as all eyes turned to both of you and you felt slightly responsible, so stepping up you tried your best not to try and sound like an idiot, “Um well actually we’re trying to push our way into separtiest base right?” A soldier dressed in white and blue gave an acute nod all the while glaring at you with his chilling golden eyes, “well I think it would be wise if I was on the frontlines while the troopers distract the seppies I could sneak in and create an opening for them” you added hopefully but were met with hard stares. 

“And just how would you go about that padawan?” The clone in blue growled through his helmet you didn’t need to see his eyes to see the look of doubt written across his face, this annoyed the crap out of you and you allowed a bit of spite to slip into your voice “oh well simple that’s a need to know bais trooper and woulda look at that your not on the list pity”. 

You poked out your bottom lip and faked a tear as everyone kind of stared at you in shock; you swear you saw Obi Wan’s eye twitch as he muttered something like oh great and Anakin just had the cheesiest smile on his face. He wrapped his arm around your neck again and pulled you in for a hug; “did I forget to mention we were best friends at the temple”, everyone in the room seemed to tense at that knowledge and General Kenobi sighed. “Lucky me then; that’s not how you speak to your superiors [Y/N] but we’ll talk about that later, just what do you have in mind miss [Y/N]?”  You smiled confidently and crossed your arms across your chest pushing up your breast a smidge, “well like I said I’m not supposed to go talking about it willy nilly sensei orders from the jedi council, but I can tell you and general skywalker but that’ll have to wait because we have a mission just trust me I got this.”

 The blue clone scoffed a bit watching how intensely General Kenobi was watching you, “you can’t be serious general you're going to leave this to a shiny padawan” he spat a little louder than intended sensei stroked his beard before sighing. “The jedi counsel sent her to aid us even though she’s fresh she must be capable of extraordinary things, I’m trusting you [Y/N] the whole republic is counting on this base can you really accomplish what you're saying?” You felt pride swell in your chest as saluted him “Just leave it to me sir they don’t call me blitz for nothing”, the ride down to the planet was filled with silence as you mentally prepped yourself for the upcoming battle “here goes nothing” you muttered softly as the doors to the dropship creaked open.

[thetriangletattoo]

hi!! i’m starting my first ever realistic human sketch.. do you have any tips? (i picked Louis, as one does :))

i adore all your art, and I’m just super in awe of everything you make.

thankyou in advance!!

Hello!

I want to start by saying that I'm honored you came to me to ask this question! Also thank you so much <3

So I never got an art education or something so everything I learned works specifically for me bc i got it all on my own. That is if youtube videos and social medias don't count as teaching method.

By realistic human sketch I'm assuming you want to make a proper portrait? For the basic sketch you can do it studying the shapes and putting them down lightly and adding details only after you have the whole face shape. Idk if this makes sense skdjdjdjd

Or you could use the grid method, wich is probably long and a bit boring but it kinda allows you to focus more on the shading bc the basic sketch, at least for me, is easier to draw with a grid. Now I use this method for big drawings like my 50x70 cm portraits (bc I suck at proportions on big surfaces) so it's probably not the best for smaller drawings.

For the shading there are so many different methods not even I know all of them.

I usually go for graphite bc I like the final result and I like the contrast bc I use like a charcoal pencil for the darkest shade and a barely there shade with a hb2 for the lighter shade if I'm not wrong. I use also a 5b, a 6b and a 0. I recommend using different pencils for shading to create more contrast and not risk losing all the shadows.

Also I usually start with the lighter shade as a base, I put it all over the portion I want to color in and then I use a napkin to smooth it without pressing to hard. Then I build the shadows, always from lighter to darker. Here's a visual if it helps

Try not to touch the drawing a lot to avoid handprints and spots, put a sheet of paper under your hand when you need to rest it on the drawing and don't drag it, pick it up to move it.

Also keep the sketch light so you can give it volumes drawing darker lines and lighter lines based on the light while you're coloring it in.

Of course this is in no way the correct method, it is just the way I do it so you'll find your own technique with time. Just don't give up, keep practing and everything will work out. The more you do it the better it gets!

I hope this helps a bit. If you need something more specific or have other questions pls don't be afraid to ask!!

Louis is a great subject to draw I hope you have fun with it!! And pls do show me the final result if you want 👀

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Welcome To Backwater ch.2 (spicyhoney)

Summary: Stretch isn’t running away, not really.

He took the bus.

Only to end up in a little town in the middle of nowhere, meeting unusual people, dealing with unexpected happenings, what the hell is going on in this place?

Content:  Spicyhoney, Midwest Gothic

Note:  Just as a heads up, I'd give this story a warning for mild horror and mild gore. None of our boys, but better to let y'all know!

~~*~~

Read Chapter Two ‘Meet and Greet’ on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

For the next week Stretch spent most of his time trying to figure out the method in the madness to Red’s store management. His first day of ‘training’ pretty much consisted of Red showing up long enough to demo the cash register and then shuffling off to the apartment at the back where he lived. Not that pushing a couple of numbered buttons was that complicated, but that wasn’t the only issue cropping up around here along with the local corn.

First of all, nothing in the shop was priced. All the items were recorded in a ragged notebook with coffee ring stains on the cover, where Stretch got to figure out if an item fell under the category of ‘toilet paper’, ‘paper, toilet’, ‘ass wipers’, or ‘shitty ass wipers’, all written in Red’s sloppy handwriting. The sheer number of items that fell under ‘ass’ and ‘shitty’ were staggering.

Turned out, the little store actually did a fair amount of business. Plenty of Humans stopped in to pick up one or two things rather than drive to the nearest Wally World which according to Granny Collemore, who Stretch was guessing was the unofficial town gossip, was better than a thirty-minute drive away.

“Don’t need to be driving an hour for a little bum tissue,” she bellowed happily, “shopping day is Sunday, we’ll stock up then!”

Stretch nodded as he rang her up, wincing away from her volume. He’d figured out pretty quickly that the old woman was stone deaf, but she didn’t seem to care if all she got was a smile and plenty of nods, so that was fine.

She handed over a wad of cash pulled from a little embroidered change purse that let out a puff of lavender so strong when she opened it that it overshadowed the store’s normal musty smell, hollering the whole time. By the time she left, Stretch knew enough about the local weather patterns to make a rain prediction and that the way someone named Pritchard was hamming on a pretty young’un Eloise meant they’d best they be married soon ‘fore it turned into a shotgun wedding. He nodded along with every proclamation, hurrying around the counter to open the door for her and ended up spending five minutes waiting for her to shuffle her way out, her bunny slippers leading the way.

But as she was leaving, she reached up and gave him a gentle pat on the cheekbone, her wrinkled hand barely able to reach. “You’re a nice boy,” she told him, too loud and with a pink, gummy smile.

Stretch was too startled to flinch away and only managed to mumble a thank you as she headed off into the growing heat of the morning, a hunched figure in a flowery dress and pink slippers, her bag of emergency tp bumping against her hip as she trundled along.

That was another thing. He’d thought that the Humans around here would be distrustful, even malicious, but that wasn’t proving to be the case. Aside from a little surprise when they first saw him, all the customers so far were small-town kindly. Kids came into the shop to raid the nickel-candy rack, their bikes left in piles outside as excited groups came roaring in. Mothers came in with babies wearing only their diapers, fanning themselves and laughing out their, ‘my, isn’t it a hot one today?’ as they bought a half-gallon of milk and some fresh apples to put in the bottom of their strollers.

No one in town seemed to care that he was a Monster past asking his name and maybe it was just ‘cause of Red being a skeleton, too. Could be that Granny Collemore was out there somewhere bellowing that the local shopkeeper had family visiting, who knew? It was sure different than he was used to. The general sentiment in Ebott about Monsters was resentment; over them taking jobs, enrolling in the schools, whatever it was, they didn’t want Monsters doing it.

It was…nice, he decided, to not have someone dislike him on sight.

That was how he spent his mornings. He worked in the shop, idly dusting, putting away the deliveries that a guy in the pickup truck and overalls brought in daily, and borrowing Red’s wifi to listen to soft music on his phone. The calls had trickled to only once a day and the glaring red alert number of his messages kept climbing.

Stretch didn’t look at them, only skipped right over to Spotify and the 'The Wedding Singer Divorce Special pt 2' playlist.

Red came in every day to relieve him at around two. He grunted out something that resembled a hello as he heaved himself up on the stool, leaning his cane against it as he pulled out a battered romance novel from beneath the counter. The creased covered did not in the slightest hide the young, scantily-clad woman caught up in a fiery embrace with her highland Lord.

“be back later,” Stretch said as he hung up his apron. Not that it mattered, wasn’t like Red was his dad or even a friend, not really, and he didn’t care when Stretch came home. A couple times they’d eaten together, takeout from the local diner that was imaginatively called ‘Mama’s’, not ‘Eats’, watched a little but that was it. His lack of idle chitchat was the complete opposite of Blue’s constant stream of chatter and after years of that, the silence was kinda disconcerting, but maybe not in a bad way.

Red didn’t even look up from his book, only pulled a crumpled bill out of his pocket and pushed it across the counter, “pick up some beer at the station, wouldja?”

“sure,” Stretch said, almost grateful for something else to do. It was miles better than sitting the rest of the day in his little room with its faded, floral wallpaper where the air conditioning wasn’t quite able to combat the heat of the mid-afternoon sun. He’d done that once, the first day, and after that made a point of staying out of his room until sundown to give it chance to cool off.

The town itself wasn’t much more than a bunch of ramshackle houses. To the west were fields, the leafy tops of what Stretch was now certain was corn rustling in the wind. Off to the east, the landscape slowly went from flat plains to trees, their wilting leaves yellowing in the heat and ending in a wooded area that surrounded maybe half the town. Shame it was too far away provide much shade unless you went walking right into it. Main street consisted of a few other public buildings; a tractor store right up next to the thrift shop, a little one-room schoolhouse with an attached shed that served as the town library, the Sheriff’s office, and the movie theater.

On the outskirts of town there was also a bar, The Whistling Cow, its glowing neon sign a single point of orange light on dark nights. As much as Stretch wanted a drink, he stuck with filching beer from the cooler Red kept under the counter. Hanging around with strange, drunk humans usually didn't end well for him.

The movie theater was where he’d taken to heading after work. Someone with a sense of humor must’ve named the place, since ‘The Grandeur’ literally only had one theater and maybe thirty seats, if that. The proprietor ran the ticket booth and the concession stand, and in his threadbare uniform with its yellowing shirt, he looked a lot like Lurch's second cousin, once removed.

But he was a nice enough fella and it was a good way to waste some time. Even if the only movies showing were old black and whites, the popcorn was fresh, with real butter, and the added bonus of air conditioning. Besides, the Three Stooges were funny as shit any old day.

That was where Stretch was headed today; the afternoon showing only cost two bucks, then another for popcorn and he was set for a few hours. It was better than trying to get anything to tune in on the television in his overboiled room. With a lot of coaxing, he might manage to get a PBS channel, but there was only so much time a person could spend sweating their way through a staticky version of Sesame Street.

Stretch got to his seat just as the lights were going down, settling in with his popcorn. Before the movie there were a few cartoons, and it was kinda wild to get to see Steamboat Willy chugging along on the big screen again.

Today’s flick was an honest to bitsy silent movie and Stretch watched with a wide grin as Charlie Chaplin slap-schticked his way across the stage. There were a few other people in the seats, at least one of them snoring; probably only came to get out of the summertime heat.

But it wasn’t really the movie he was here for. Not today.

He’d seen her the first time he came. Sitting in the far back row, not that uncommon, some people liked to sit far away. No one else seemed to notice her and that wasn’t strange either. Normally even he didn’t pay much attention to anyone else in the theater, who did? So long as a person was quiet, made no ripples in the pond, no one saw them. Movies were for escapism, not to make new friends.

But this lady. To begin with, her clothes were about a century out of date, with her pink suit and matching pillbox hat, her white gloves, and whenever the house lights came up while they switch the reel, she vanished without even a shimmer of dust motes, only returning once the darkness did.

He’d been back three times so far and she’d been in the theater for every showing. Sitting on her own watching the flick, always in the same seat. This time, Stretch was sitting in the seat next to it. He munched his buttery popcorn and watched as Charlie Chaplin-ed his way through the movie. He didn’t have to wait long.

None of the Humans noticed. The black-and-white light coming from the screen was dim enough that anyone sitting in the audience was nothing but a shadow. Humans tended towards the unobservant side, anyway, none of them had to be as aware of their surroundings as a Monster did, especially one like Stretch with only 5 HP between him and dust.

Besides, there wasn’t any fanfare about it. One minute the chair next to him was empty and the next, a young woman was sitting there, her hands clasped primly in her lap as she looked up at the movie with rapt attention.

“like the movies, huh?” Stretch said, very softly. “always wanted to be an actor myself, but i don’t have the guts for it.”

Waste of a good pun, he didn’t even think the woman had a chance to notice he was a skeleton. She startled, one faintly translucent hand flying to her mouth as if to stifle a scream. Stretch only munched on another piece of popcorn and let her gather her wits or ectoplasm or whatever ghosts had. Wasn’t like he had room to talk, the inside of his skull was as hollow as a drunken apology.

She settled quick enough and asked in a wispy little voice, “you can see me?”

Stretch slouched back and propped his sneakers up on the seat in front of him. “sure. it’s a monster thing. we see things that humans don’t, sometimes.” Or didn’t bother to see, Stretch wasn’t sure which.

“Sometimes they see me,” she admitted. “but they always run away.”

Yeah, Stretch couldn’t really blame them for that one. Humans weren’t used to ghosts, not the way Monsters were, and now that he was sitting up close, he could see the way she flickered a little, that pretty face sometimes flashing onto something else, half still pretty as a picture from an old magazine and the other a bloody ruin. There was a gaping hole on one side of her head, her blonde hair matted into dark clumps, and one blue eye stared out, unseeing. There were flecks scattered on the shoulder of her pink suit, chips of ivory, and Stretch knew enough about bones to recognize skull fragments. Another flicker and it was gone, only a pretty young Human woman looking back at him. The effect was a little off-putting, true, but it wasn’t like she could help it.

Besides, Stretch didn’t have to look. He was watching the movie.

“what’s your name?” he asked, softly.

She hesitated and he wondered if she didn’t want to tell him or if she didn’t know. Her eyes were large, absurdly long lashes sweeping against her cheeks as she considered. When she spoke again her voice was a little stronger, surer, “Doris.”

“doris, my name is stretch,” he told her, “and it is a pleasure to meet you.”

They sat together in silence for a little while. The music coming brightly from the speakers was as cheerful as a carousel, offering happiness and humor when she spoke again abruptly. “I know this is very forward. But. Could you do something for me?”

“maybe,” Stretch said, a little wary. Better not to make promises to unknown ghosts, they could get tetchy.

She smiled, a wry curve of lips as if she could hear his thoughts. “Your popcorn.”

He looked down at the paper cup in his hand, still half-full of buttery kernels. “you want some?” he asked, bemused.

She let out a whispery laugh, like a wind rustling through summer cattails. “No, but. Can I smell it?”

Oh. “sure.” He held the cup out and she leaned over it, inhaling deeply, or, well, looked like she did, he didn’t think ghosts actually breathed, but who knew? When she bent down twin ribbons of blood ran from both her nostrils, dark and slick. It didn’t drip into the popcorn, couldn’t, it wasn’t present in the same way the little carton was, but he felt his appetite fade. He still politely pretended not to notice.

She leaned back with a happy sigh and all signs of the blood were gone. “Thank you. I go behind the counter sometimes to smell it, but it’s not the same.”

“i bet. gotta be in a paper bucket or it ain’t right.” If she could go out to the concession stand, that meant at least she wasn’t stuck sitting in this one seat. Maybe it was just her favorite. “you get out much?” He jerked his head towards the door, “outside, i mean.”

“No,” She shook her head sadly, and her hair brushed her shoulders. “I have to stay in the theater.”

He nodded sympathetically. That was gonna make this a little harder, but not too much. He liked the movies, anyway. “yeah, it works that way sometimes. but hey, i’ll stop back in and see you again. if that’s okay?”

She brightened visibly, coming sharply into focus like a lens turned on a camera, until the chair behind her only barely showing through. “Would you?”

Now that was a vow he could make and Stretch sketched a cross over his chest with a finger and said solemnly, “i promise.”

Their chat must’ve been getting a little loud. Someone was turning around in the front seats. The room was too dark to see, but he didn’t have to witness a glare to feel it. Stretch slouched down in his seat and took the hint.

Hey, he’d made a friend. Well, most of one and it was the important part. A soul without a body was a lot nicer than a body without a soul, hands down.

Which made him wonder about the gas station attendant, because Mitch made Red seem like a warm, outgoing person.

The ancient artwork on the front window of the gas station showed a shiny, smiling attendant in a tidy uniform, his neatly cut hair almost hidden beneath his cap as he held up a dripping gas nozzle in offering. That guy must’ve gotten promoted out of state, because the only dress code Mitch followed was ‘fuck it, looks clean.’ Long, straggly hair poked out from his dirty baseball cap and, of all things, he was reading the New York Times, the business section.

His saving grace was that his disinterest in all customers was universal. Mitch was an equal opportunity kind of guy; he didn’t give a shit about anyone.

Stretch opened the door carefully so that the cowbell only gave a muted clang. He hesitated inside the door and decided to brave a question. Hey, he’d made one friend today, may as well push his luck. “you got any coffee on?”

It was a pretty safe bet, even as hot as it was. Coffee wouldn’t help with the sweat that was already dampening his shirt from walking over from the theater, but Stretch felt a little unsteady from meeting Doris. He could use a dose of caffeine to shore him up.

Mitch didn’t look up from his paper, but he jerked his chin towards the back wall. “Yep, but the only coffee I got is hot. Ain’t no ‘spressos around here, Slick.”

“Hot is fine.” He didn’t bother correcting him on the name. Started with an S, close enough, they’d be best pals in no time. The carafe of coffee smelled surprisingly fresh, considering that Mitch looked like he’d been holding that chair down for a few hours. There was a plastic basket next to the carafe filled with little coffee mate creamer cups. He added four French vanilla, carrying his murky coffee up to the counter with Red’s six-pack. Beer was one thing they didn’t sell at the store, no alcohol at all, something to do with the liquor laws in this county and Red not paying those skinflint jackholes for a license, not on his ass, thanks much.

He paid for both, picked up his change from where Mitch tossed it unhelpfully on the counter and went outside, fumbling out his smokes on the way.

Stretch sat down on the crumbling curb, drinking his coffee and smoking, letting the caffeine and nicotine wash over him in a twin, soothing rush. He’d been trying to cut down with his funds being on the uncertain side, cigarettes were a pricy vice, and he couldn’t bum any from Red the way he did the beers.

The sun was still high overhead pouring down the heat, coming up off the pavement in shimmery waves. Sweat was rising up on his bones, his t-shirt clinging damply to his ribs and spine. Somewhere nearby, he could hear children playing, the hollow thud of a basketball and their laughter carrying on in the still air. He didn’t have anywhere he needed to be, no one’s expectations to live up to.

When his cigarette was done and pinched out, Stretch climbed back to his feet and headed for the grocery to drop off the beers before they got warm. Again, he went easy on the door, keeping the bell to a faint rattle rather than a clang. It was only when he turned around that he saw the front counter was empty, Red’s book bent open on the counter but no skeleton around to pick it back up.

He set the beers on the counter, calling, “red?”

No reply and that was strangely ominous in a little store where even a short skeleton would be hard pressed to hide.

There was a long hallway in the back that led past a couple storerooms to the apartment Red lived in. He gave the storerooms a glance, just in case Red had a sudden urge to restock the sanitary napkin display, and wasn’t very surprised to find them unoccupied. He saw the door to Red’s apartment was open a crack like it never was and that cranked ominous up to sinister. The lingering sweat on his bones was chilling in the air conditioning, but that wasn’t the only reason a sudden shiver rattled him.

“red?” Stretch called weakly as he pushed open the door.

The living room was small with a ratty plaid sofa and a coffee table littered with beer cans and balled up chip bags, and standing in the center of it was a person who was not Red, not unless he got one hell of a growth spurt while Stretch was gone.

Once, Stretch would’ve just taken a shortcut out, right the hell to the Sheriff station down the road and never had he missed the skill more than when the guy-who-was-definitely-not-Red started to turn around. The instinct to teleport was still there even if the ability wasn’t, fizzling out with an aching pain right in the middle of his chest.

It was only a minor distraction and Stretch blundered over to grab a lamp from a side table, yanking the cord right out of the wall as he brandished it over his head like a club, yelling shrilly, “what the fuck are you doing in here?”

The guy turned around, looking back at him with deep crimson eye lights that flicked briefly up to the lamp before meeting his wild gaze. His voice was as smooth and dark as deep water as he stated coolly, “I believe that’s my question.”

Stretch could stare and the only coherent thought amongst the many tangled ones scrambling through his mind was only two words. Simple. Descriptive.

Oh, shit.

-tbc-

[enthusiastic-nimrod]

Hey I'm Fred's fourth daddy anon! I sent that to you, and what felt like five minutes later you came in with that gorgeous sketch. Do you have any art tips or videos that have taught you cause I've been stuck draw trying to draw anything not resembling a lump for two years. Also yeah it was whirlwind episode, f*ck Rose, and Fred should have turned that loon in.

Hey FD Anon, thanks so much! I don’t draw a lot of “horror” art so I’m really happy with it’s progress so far!

While I do agree with you that Rose is The Worst, I think she added in an interesting dynamic and I’d be happy if she became a recurring character in the Scooby mythos at large. As for Fred not turning his dad in... I agree, but I also understand why he didn’t. 

The episode went out of it’s way to show off how frightening and weird he is but Fred made it very clear that when he wasn’t wearing the mask he was a good parent, and that all of his crimes were shown as nonviolent. He didn’t seem to steal anything (unless I missed that line?) he just liked messing with people by confusing them. 

As for art tips, I... honestly never expected anybody to ask for advice from me? That’s super flattering wow. 

Okay, so I’m still pretty much a novice, but lemme give you some of my best tips and tricks:

1) Notice how my last sketch had a grey background? This wasn’t just for that sketch, this is how I use ALL of my digital canvases. I do this because the grey causes less strain to my eyes, and allows me to work longer and more easily. Being so close to a screen, especially a blue or white one, can make it harder to work for long periods of time. 

2) If you want to do digital art, you need to learn “traditional art” (pencil and paper) first. It makes transitioning to digital more easy and it’s pretty much what any art teacher would recommend, for good reason. 

3) Using one method of art not only limits you, but stops you from learning other techniques which can be incorporated into what you typically prefer. Not only that, but you can also discover a medium you really love that you never would have thought of before!

4) Whenever you get the chance, work in black and white or monochrome. This is a great way to help yourself learn about values and intensity, and just looks cool in general. 

5) Piggybacking on that last point, if you’re ever worried about your shading, values, etc becoming muddled either A] take a picture and use a filter to make it black and white, or B] create another, pure white layer on top of the others and change it from “Normal” to “Hue”. Doing this can really help change your approach to coloring (black and white effect may be different for every art program). 

6) If you want to get better at realistic faces, I was taught using the grid system. You have squares on your reference picture, squares on your paper, and then match up the body parts to the squares. I personally didn’t like this method, but it’s a really solid style of learning. 

7)  Start with the torso instead of the head. what you start with the head, the body may end up becoming wonky and having the neck stretched out at an odd angle or having a too small cranium. This is easier to fix in digital art but I suggest just remembering the importance of that rib cage (this is something I’m still training myself out of). 

8) Asking for feedback can be an invaluable tool. For example, last year I had this really weird thing where I drew my eyes way too close together- I never noticed until I had it pointed out to me, and it took MONTHS to break this habit.

9) References are very useful, and one fun technique I’ve found great use in is to draw a pose, first with no reference, and then following that reference very strictly. This can be helpful when you want to see where you are developmentally. 

10) Every now and then while drawing, you want to put the pencil down, prop up your paper, and walk away so that you can see the full image from a distance. If you’re working digitally, you zoom out a great deal so that the image appears smaller. This is a GREAT tool for seeing which sections of the piece need the most attention and how those smaller details hold up. 

11) If you have the opportunity, you REALLY want to participate in an actual art class. Having a teacher that can see what you’re doing in real time and knows where you’re at skill-wise is an INVALUABLE thing to have- these people were specifically taught how to teach you these skills, recognize your problems and how to fix them. Don’t be afraid to talk to them and ask for advice about non-classwork art, either! You can’t receive help if you don’t ask for it. 

12) Flip your canvas! I know you’ve probably heard this before, but this is one of the best ways to check for anatomy inconsistencies.

13)  When it comes to youtube artists, I don’t really actively follow any, but I do know of some! 

Mark Crilley: While I don’t watch his videos much now, I used to follow his videos RELIGIOUSLY. He’s got some really solid advice on how to map out comics and mangas, and he taught me the importance of silent scenes and keeping your work from getting too wordy. He mostly does the soft anime look, but he also does some pretty stellar realism. 

mikeymegamega: I’m not going to lie to you, anon- this man likes his cheesecake. This guy is all about the cute anime girls, so if you’re not looking for that, skip him, but I really can’t recommend his videos on hands, feet, and faces enough. 

Proko: Has a video about best drawing exorcises and is the guy you turn to when you want to know about figure drawing. He tends to focus on the more realistic anatomy, and while his videos may be long he’s got some good advice. I’d say to check out his studying anatomy correctly video, and then just kinda scroll through his pages. 

Ethan Becker: THE KNIFE MAN. The first time I clicked on him I thought he was making a troll video- but then he Got Into It and my dudes, my guys, he has some CRAZY good advice. The way he words things and shows you examples in his videos are amazing and I really can’t recommend him enough. He did a video called “Fixing PROKO's LAZY Drawings“ and while you’d think it would be a  bash fest his advice on shading in it is just so incredibly useful. Click on pretty much any of his videos and you’ll be entertained and learning. 

I'd also suggest watching speedpaints. Even if it was unintentional, I’ve learned several really solid art hacks from speedpaint and storytime videos- so always be aware that you have an option for that. 

…. Oh! And also, practice! I know you’ve probably been given this advice from everyone already, but it’s worth remembering. 

Sorry if this got a bit long, I just figured I’d try to give you some good hacks- and even if you have already heard of most of these, I hope I could at the very least entertain!

[toastedbuckwheat]

Hello! May I ask how you draw? I'm currently learning how to myself and would be highly interested into a step to step process by you! Like from sketch to the done thing (no color necessary)

Hello there!

I dunno how I feel about showing how I work/giving advice to someone who’s learning (and I say it as a pro artist who went through years of traditional art education) because when I do the illustrations you see here on my tumblr I BREAK THE RULES you’d learn though life drawing routine, and give in to bad habits, and my methods are rather unplanned and chaotic which makes it difficult to pinpoint significant stages. But I used my portable potato to take some photos during working on my last piece, so I’ll throw it here with a bit of an explanation of what’s going on.

Before I begin - and because you’re about to look at a mess of a WIP - I’d like to give you some general advice that generally makes life easier when you draw (again, things that I learned in traditional arts education - another artist might advise you the complete opposite, dunno!)

Work holistically. Forget them satisfying-to-look-at clips on instagram showing someone produce a hyperrealistic portrait starting from an eye, with each and every element emerging being finished before they proceed to another part. It takes a lot of talent, yes, but these are ppl redrawing a photo in a kind of a mechanical manner. Most artists don’t work this way. Especially if you’re working without a reference, or if you’re doing a life drawing - your process will be layering and changing and finding what works best to give an impression of what you’re drawing rather than reproduce the exact image, and your artwork is likely to look messy most of the time.That said: don’t start with the details. Don’t spend too much time on a particular part while neglecting others. Your goal is to keep the whole piece at the same level of ‘finished’ (even though it’s unfinished - do I make sense?) before you’re confident that everything is where it should be and proceed to the details. So sketch out the composition first. See how things fit, what’s the dynamics. You’ll save yourself from limbs sticking out from the frame, odd proportions etc etc.

Because it’s a game of relationships between different parts of the picture/scene. I ask you not to worry about finishing a single element before laying out the rest because you’ll find that said element will look different once the other part appears! For instance - you might think that the colour you picked for a character’s hair is already very dark. But once you’re done with the night sky background, you’ll find that it’s in fact too light, and doesn’t work well with the cold palette. You’ll have to revisit different parts of the image as you go to balance these relationships and make the picture work as a whole.

Give an impression of something being there without actually drawing it ‘properly’- because details are hard, mate. You’ll see that my lineart usually has hardly any, and my colouring is large unrefined stains, but the finished thing looks convincing. Like, fuck, I can never focus on how Crowley’s eyes are really shaped. So I just turn them into large glowing yellow ellipses crossed by a line, and heard no protests so far.

Don’t panic if you messed up (you probably didn’t anyway). It might turn out to be a completely unnoticeable mistake - because, remember, things work together to balance each other, so another finished off prominent element will probably drown that badly placed line that looked so visible and out of place a second ago. 

It might not look good before it’s finished. I’m mostly immune to it after years of drawing, and my recent illustrations all follow a specific method (ykno, my sunset glow effects and all that) so I can kinda predict the next stage. But I do my linearts on a specially picked crap paper, I don’t bother erasing the smudged graphite, and it looks messy af until I make the background white in Photoshop. Conclusion: you might have a moment of doubt as you work through a piece, but try to break through it - I often suddenly start to like what I cursed a minute before! - and try to finish it even if it’s meant to be bad. This way, looking through your past pieces, you’ll see the progress. And trust me, I can’t even look at my art from literally three months ago. It’s normal.

Now, pics! The sketches are paler in real life, but I increased the contrast a little so you can see something.

1. Laying out the composition! 

I wanted to just show them kissing, but I got carried away due to some Art Nouveau inspiration. As you might have noticed, most of my illustrations are quite self-contained (ykno - they look like a sticker on a plain background). So I wanted a tight swirl bordered by Aziraphale’s wings creating a sort of rounded, yin-yang like bubble around them. Consequently I made the whole composition revolve around their heads. 

2. Adding more details to the sketch. It’s messy af. It will be messy until I’m done. It’s fine.

3. These are the fineliners I use for the linearts! They are made by Uni-ball and come in light and dark grey. I also sometimes use the guy on the left - ‘Touch’ sign pen by Pentel, when I want more brush-like, wider strokes. I work in grey because when I scan it and do my usual boring trick with sunlight highlights - which is an Overlay mode layer in Photoshop - the highlights ‘burn out’ the lines too and make them vanish a little, and the lighting effect gets more striking. I also like to use the light grey ones to make something look pencil-y without actually using pencil, because pencil fucking smudges.

4. It smudges! So because I am right handed, I start inking from the right hand side, no matter how tempted I am to do their faces first.

5. You can see the composition directions here. I made it intuitively, but ofc some ppl actually use grids etc to lay out their drawings.

6. See how pale ans thin the lineart was at first? I kept adjusting it as new inked parts were appearing. It starts to look nice and consistent now! 

7. Finished lineart? There are some mistakes which I later corrected in PS. Notice that Aziraphale’s face has hardly any details on it - I tried to make the drawing suggest his expression rather than risk overdoing it. 

8. Photoshop time!! You can totally do what I did here even if you don’t have a graphic tablet. I used Curves tool to enhance the lineart, then Quick Selection Tool to select the background around around my sticker-like piece and filled it white (on a new layer ofc). I keep this white layer on top of the layer order so it works as a mask as I colour. I decided I did not like the hatching shading underneath Aziraphale’s halo, so I erased it with a Stamp tool (because I wanna keep the textured grey fill my crap paper naturally gives me!). It’s done roughly but won’t be visible once the thing is coloured. 

9. And the reason why I keep the grey shade instead of easily getting rid of it by using Curves/Levels is because when I set this layer to Multiply mode and colour underneath, it gives me this nice desaturated look like from an old cheap paper comic page. It works as a natural filter! But of course I can’t do bright colours this way, so all my glowing highlights happen ABOVE the lineart layer - on a separate layer in Overlay mode! 

Finished thing here!

_____

Commission infoBuy Me a Coffee - help me with my transitioning expenses!Prints and stickers and things on my Redbubble!

[starkeristheendgame]

slutty omega peter bought a strawberry-flavored condoms and wants to try them out on his Alpha, tony.

I hope this bring your idea to life! I kinda twisted it a little so I hope that’s okay! Ages aren’t specific so you can imagine anything you’re comfortable with. I really enjoyed this and thank you so much for the prompt!

As a side note, never buy alcohol or banana flavoured lube/condoms. Trust me. They’re nothing but disappointment. JuicyLube does a wonderful Bubblegum and a pretty nice Strawberry/Watermelon!

TW: Daddy kink | Breathplay if you squint | ABO dynamics | Dick choking (?)

Frankly, this whole ’you’re a fragile, pretty little thing and I don’t want to break you’ method of approach Tony seemed to have adopted in regards to him since they’d begun to date was really grating on Peter.

Okay. So he was a little inexperienced. In terms of real time experience. He had enough sex toys that even Tony Stark had raised an eyebrow, and his porn folder was the largest file size on his entire computer. His over-average masturbation habit was the entire reason they’d begun to date in the first place.

And yet, the moment it became ‘official’, it was like Tony became his damned father, not his Alpha and partner. He fussed over how much he ate, when he went to sleep, if he was okay every five minutes. And worst of all? They’d barely done more than kissing and grinding, some clothed groping.

So, sue him. Peter was going to play dirty. It had been a month and if he didn’t get Tony’s dick in him some way or another, he might actually just implode. And then Tony would have to clean up and explain it to May, and.

And that brought him to now, exactly two days after he had furiously and triumphantly clicked the purchase button far too harshly. The box was small and unassuming, with nothing internal to say what lay within. Peter tore into it a little savagely, eager to put his plan into motion. The packets were small and slim, a pretty shade of pink. The foil crinkled a little as he moved it around, staring.

Strawberry flavoured condoms. Well, this one was. He’d bought a few different flavours, but he liked strawberries over any other fruit.They were sweet, sometimes with a little sour undercurrent, and he found as an artificial flavour they were better than the others. He gave a wicked smile and hid his stash, waiting eagerly for Tony’s return.

He didn’t have to wait long, at six on the dot the elevator doors opened, revealing the long slope of Tony’s back as he stood, staring out at the world through the veil of the Tower. He was wearing one of his sharpest suits, a sleek, black Tom Ford that was burnished with dark, dark red flowers. It was Peter’s favourite. It matched Tony’s scent. Musky and woodsy but with a sweet, faintly flora undertone.

“Welcome home, Daddy” Peter called from where he lounged on the couch, thighs splayed to be sure his sweet scent had filled the room. Tony turned almost immediately, nostrils flaring as his dark gaze swept over his Omega. Peter knew it had been a hard-working day by the tightness in Tony’s shoulders, the delicate ridges between his brows, but Tony smiled when he saw him, warm and welcoming as he strode towards the couch.

“Hello, sweetpea. Sorry if I’m late - Work was a nightmare” Tony greeted, sinking down onto his knees in front of Peter like a worshipper to a God, nuzzling into his thigh as Peter sat up, buried long fingers in his soft, dark hair with a pleased hum. “You smell excited” the older man noted, hands rubbing at the sides of Peter’s thighs as he tipped his head to look up at him.

“Close you eyes” Peter instructed, grinning as Tony blinked at him warily, but obliged, long lashes dipping down. Peter squirmed to reach his pocket, careful not to make too much noise with the wrapper, though he spoke to cover the crinkle. “Open your mouth” he added next, watching as Tony frowned, but followed the order, lips parting just enough for Peter to slide the package between his teeth.

Tony made a questioning and semi-affronted sound, waiting for a beat before slowly opening his eyes. Peter giggled as he went a little cross-eyed trying to see the package, leaning forwards eagerly to watch his reaction. Tony shifted and reached up to grasp the packet, eyeing it with a perplexed pull of his brows.

“A condom?” He asked, brows lifting as he looked up at Peter questioningly. The boy huffed and rolled his eyes, plucking the packet from Tony’s fingers and tearing into it. He wasn’t overly careful, because the condom wasn’t about the safety; it was about the taste, and he drove two fingers into it, enough that he could push those latex-clad fingertips promptly into Tony’s mouth.

The Alpha gave a surprised mmph but then paused, tongue sliding along the covered pads of Peter’s fingers. “Mm’erry?” He mumbled around his mouthful, looking up at Peter in an amused but still confused manner. Peter gave a delighted nod, withdrawing his fingers and carelessly tossing the soiled condom and packet onto the coffee table. He had another.

“If you don’t wear this and let me lick you like an envelope, I’m going to stage a protest” Peter announced, squirming his way into standing upright. Tony cast him a bemused look, rising when Peter tugged at his shirt collar and moving easily when Peter pushed him down onto the couch. Tony sprawled elegantly before collecting himself, and reached up to scruff the Omega, dragging him down and onto his knees in the space between his spread thighs.

“A protest, hm? And what exactly would you do, Pup? Ban me from sex?” There was an Alpha bite to his mocking, and a gentle teasing that let Peter know the bite wasn’t serious. He leaned against the hand that held him, baring his neck even as he pat himself down for the second condom, forcing a pout to settle in place of the submissive, meek expression.

Tony said nothing, but watched with a baited look as Peter set aside the new packet and reached for Tony’s cock, palming it lovingly through his pressed slacks. It hardened under his touch until he was working at it with purpose, gripping the shape through the soft fabric, thumb pressing where he knew the tip lay, his pleading gaze fixed on Tony as he reached for the buttons.

“Please, Alpha. You won’t let me ride your knot. You won’t let me taste your cum. Won’t bury yourself inside me. Wanna - Have’ta get it somehow” Peter begged shamelessly, cheeks reddening when Tony’s hand tightened, thumb digging into the hinge of his jaw, Peter’s needy whine making his cock thicken under his fingers.

“Oh, but Pup. You don’t even want to taste my cum. You just want something to hold your little treat in place” Tony chastised, his free hand reaching down as he leaned forwards, to grasp cruelly at Peter’s cock. The Omega whimpered, sucking in a deep breath of Tony’s scent, flared with arousal. He could feel slick making his asscheeks sticky, and he didn’t wait to reply, fingers fumbling with Tony’s zipper. The Alpha was wearing dark, silk boxers that strained over his impressive length, and Peter would’ve dived forwards to taste it, except Tony’s grip held him steady, forcing him to simply part the material instead, drawing his cock out into the air.

It was a gorgeous thing. Long and hard, thick like a drinks bottle. The tip was cut and dark pink, shiny with pre-cum. The soft swell of his knot-hold at the bottom just visible through the parted silk and cotton. If Peter had his way, he would push up, climb onto Tony’s lap and sink onto it until it was choking his throat. As it was, he forced himself to let go of the hard, warm skin, reaching shakily for the condom.

Tony’s intense gaze tracked him, right to Peter peeling the condom from the wrapper, careful not to touch it too much. He didn’t know if the flavour was in the lube coating or the latex itself. A soft, low Alpha growl had him freezing, gaze flicking carefully up to Tony, who was smirking at him. “Mouth” the Alpha commanded, letting go of his scruff and lounging carelessly back onto the couch, hips jutting slightly and cock curving into his stomach.

Peter faltered. It was all well and good practising on bananas, but…

Tony allowed him to use his hands to start off, just to get the condom properly situated over the tip of his cock. The Alpha hissed a breath, eyes going half-lidded as Peter shuffled between his knees, licking his lips eagerly. “You smell so good, sweetheart. So slick. Always so hard, keeping my hands to myself”.

Peter wanted to snap then why the fuck are you?! But Tony’s hand buried deep in his hair, threading through the soft curls and pulling him down until his hot breath fell over his cock, making the thick length twitch and drool.

“Go on then, Pup. Daddy’s had such a hard day, be a good little Omega and make me feel better, then. Take a fat load and my knot down your throat” Tony hummed, free hand loosening his tie. And, yeah. Peter knew that Tony wouldn’t actually be able to knot his throat, but the idea and the words had fresh slick flooding his boxers, a breathless, high keen escaping as he dove down eagerly.

At first, it was awkward. He couldn’t suck, because that would suck the condom right off and down his throat. And he couldn’t use his hands, so he had to try and roll the slippery latex down the stretch of Tony’s cock with his tongue and teeth. The ache of his jaw as he worked at Tony’s cock was delicious, and the sweet, almost sickly strawberry was thick on his tongue and made him drool.

Both, then. Lube and latex. Tony hissed as he worked his tongue over the roll of latex, making a noise of frustration when it wouldn’t go down any further. The lube was too slick and he couldn’t focus on breathing and working it down. “M’pha” he whined helplessly, letting his mouth close over the hot, pulsing length, swallowing what remained of the coating.

Tony took pity on him, running a soothing hand through his hair even as he swallowed a moan, eyes rolling back slightly. “Okay, sweetpea. You can use your hands” he permitted, voice a low rumble as his hips jolted into the wet, tight heat of Peter’s mouth. Peter managed to pull the condom down properly and sat back briefly to breathe and suckle his fingers clean.

It wasn’t like real strawberries, it wasn’t juicy and sweet-sweet, but it was still good, still had his eyes rolling as he shuffled on his knees, thighs aching. It was good, though, basking in the scent of his Alpha, breathing in his arousal. The sensation of his long cock stretching his mouth wide, cutting off his breathing. He couldn’t wait to taste the real thing.

“Good, sweetpea?” His Alpha checked in, stroking through his hair fondly. Peter nodded, looking up dotingly at his Alpha before he dove back into his task, laving his tongue over the smooth latex and slurping the strawberry, sweet flavoured drool. Tony was doing his best to maintain control above him, slow, rumbling growls emitting here and there, but the slow-burn of heir sex life had clearly taken the toll on them both.

Tony’s thighs trembled with the effort of not fucking into Peter’s mouth, and his low moans accompanied Peter’s high, throaty keens. The Omega was drenched, grey sweats stained dark with his slick, the scent sweeter and over-powering that of the strawberry as he suckled hard, like he was trying to lick the taste right out of the latex.

“God, baby. So tight. My little slut”.

And.

And Peter was cumming with a yowl, swallowing harshly around Tony’s cock as his hips jolted forwards, tapering off into a whimper as fresh slick soaked his thighs and cum made the front of his boxers as sticky and wet as the back. Tony gave a sound of surprise, hands fisting tightly in his hair as his hips jerked into the sudden suction.

“Christ, sweetpea. Like that, hm? Being my little slut? Fuck. Should’ve done this sooner. You could be bouncing on my knot right now. Spread open wide over it; being stuffed full of my cum” Tony panted, scent thick with desire as he thrust up shallowly into Peter’s mouth. Peter whined, already desperate to cum again, despite still twitching from his first.

He scrabbled at the condom, only barely managing to pull it away and to impale his throat on Tony’s cock in time, ears filled with the yelped, surprised moan from above as thick, hot cum flooded his mouth. The strawberry taste was still there from the condom and it was a curious mix of salty-sweet, overwhelming and too much. He spluttered, choking on the never-ending liquid and watching some of it spurt from his mouth, dribbling back down Tony’s cock as he fought to swallow as much as he could.

“Such a good Omega, baby. So good for me. Taking all my cum” Tony rasped above him, hands petting at his jaw to encourage him to pull away and catch his breath. Peter was a mess of drool and cum, wiping uselessly at his chin. He felt gross and sticky, but sated and happy, blinking dazedly up at his Alpha with a sticky, white smile.

“So…Can you knot me now?”