#also trying out some new stuff for my rendering style again!!!!

[clearlydusty]

Y'know, if I didn't know any better,

Id say it looks like you care about me.

(This is my interpretation of post game au of oumota, as recommended by one of my mutuals! Pretty fun draw!)

[kozachenko]

Well since I'm alive again I might as well post some of the art I did during my hiatus, and since I was talking about Keiki in my last post I might as well start with this piece here that I did of her. (click for better resolution)

Artist's Notes;

Ok so I remember having the idea for this a while back and wanted to try going for a very monochromatic palette. I also wanted to generally keep the background very minimal, mainly so the lighting and Keiki herself can stand out.

As for Keiki herself, I mainly stayed on-model with her design... minue the glowing hair, which, I'll get to that in a moment, but yeah I mainly just wanted to focus on making the pose readable. As for the flame hair, I mainly did this because I thought the potential lighting scenario it could make would be fun to play around with. I also wanted to try out rendering flame again and I think the lighting around Keiki's face is my favourite part of the piece.

I applied this technique with flame rendering to the human spirits near the bottom of the piece. I used the lighter parts of the flames to represent some vague skeletal structures, and their faces are inspired by a Salvador Dali piece (it was called something like "Flaming Giraffe" idk) but that's where the surrealism inspiration ends.

Don't worry though, I do have some art of Keiki that I did a little after this piece where I make her look weird. This piece was before I made some changes in my stylization, so I consider this the last of an era of my style. This is also before I found a new way to render hair, which you'll see soon, don't worry, I plan on just dumping all of my art I did up until this point and then going into hibernation again.

Speaking of, I might as well set some expectations for my posting schedule right now. Due to life keeping me busy, as well as my mental health and enjoyment of art, I won't be posting every time I finish a new piece. I started to enjoy drawing so much more again during my impromptu hiatus, and I want to keep enjoying that feeling for as long as I can. If I post stuff any sooner or later, it'll probably just be dependent on my mood that day, so expect me to kinda just spawn in out of nowhere every now and then.

Now then, I will once again pray to whoever is up there that Keiki will do something in Touhou 20 because I am still holding out hope she will appear again. Like, she was made as an allegory for AI and robots and considering today's world she would be perfect to bring back for this. Please, Zun, just bring her back and develop her character more, us Keiki fans only have Touhou 17 and that's it, she never appeared again, and you set her up like she may come back so please just let her return or do something at the very least please-

[wandixx]

You know what? I'm on my "M’gann and Danny should be friends/lovers" kick again and I have thoughts about them in general.

I think both deserve to have some level of gender fuckery.

And here, bear with me because I'm as cis as they make us, so I may spew some absolute bullshit. Feel free to yell at me if I do, I'll try my best to do better.

I've seen a lot of genderqueer ideas about Danny, and these are all beautiful, valid takes. I love them.

But I think M'gann needs some, too. She comes from society that, if it does gender, has a really different way of handling it, of expressing and all that (I know it's not canon but also look me in the eyes, look at the species of shapeshifters, who can become whoever they want, not even looking like someone they saw or something, look me in the eyes again and tell me they can't shapeshift genitals, rendering this way of separating genders even more baseless than it is to humans and tell me they'd still have same or similar gender norms as Western culture circle on Earth). She escaped this society, and in efforts to fit in a new environment, she became almost stereotypically feminine and found comfort in it. It could be in part just because he found people who accepted her no matter what, and her form was tied to her comfort character because she wanted to feel like all of her problems could be solved in just 20 minutes too, but idk. I just feel like even if feminity was just part of her mask, just another way to cut Megan Morse on Earth from M’gann M'orzz on Mars, I want to see her kinda finding... well, part of herself in being a girl.

I have no clue if it makes any sense, I just kinda want to see M’gann as transfem with her asigned at birth gender as alien something.

Also, I kinda want to see girls from the Team or Danny's friends teaching her how to do make-up or how to style her hair or other "girly" stuff even though she could just shapeshift it on, and M’gann enjoying it, maybe even finds it soothing. I kinda want to see them both learning what it means to be whatever gender they're going for at the same time. Maybe have M’gann trying out Danny's pre-transition outfits (from photos, most likely) because she thought they looked cute and Danny having whatever reaction would be appropriate.

I kinda want to see M’gann shapeshifting into Danny's transition goals and then him possessing her to get feel of his dream body/help him on really bad dysphoria days.

I don't think I'm a good person to write that, but if it's anything, do with it what you want

[verrixstudios]

What has been your favourite art piece you have drawn? And your favourite character u have drawn?

AUGH I LOVE THESE QUESTIONS BUT IM SO INDECISIVE SO IM GONNA SHOW SOME OF MY FAVORITE WORKS ACROSS DIFFERENT MEDIA

This was my first creature art for the roblox game i’m helping on called Legends of Pandora, and it taught me a LOT about how to translate colors into my style

This was my first ever painting commission, and was the first time i’ve ever used gold foil and textures for paintings. Unfortunately I kinda got scammed with it, but the experience was still pretty awesome. I think the final products still looks pretty great in their room too!

This is one of a whole group of sculptures I made for my senior show for highschool! I graduated last summer, and wanted to try something new so I decided to go all out. I did sculpts, felting, and some wire art, but this cheetah is by far my favorite.

THIS WAS MY FAVORITE ART TRADE IVE DONE SO FAR!! I pushed myself a LOT with this one, I made a rendered piece with a dynamic pose, I actually tried a background for once, I tried drawing water for once, I used layer modes like multiply and lighten and stuff, and I even used a noise screen for it! This was a fun challenge

These were from a batch of my first time using Ink and paintbrushes andAHHH I honestly loved it. If i had the money for my own supplies, I’d absolutely use this again!!

THIS WAS MY FIRST 3D ENVIRONMENT!! I MADE THIS TWO WEEKS AGO AND I AM VERY PROUD!! I modeled EVERYTHING! Except the water but I taught myself how to set up the nodes for it!

AAANNNDDD my favorite character will always be Piper or Bentley, who belong in the same universe but aren’t directly connected (Piper knows Bentleys brother instead) She’s a goofball and I adore her, and all of the characters I made around her, Bentley and Maddox. Here’s some art I found on my phone.

The last one is terrible quality but i have no clue how to find the magma page i drew it on so oops. If you click on it it helps!

Also also if you meant character as preexisting character from some sort of media haha oops, i ran out of image space. I don’t often draw characters, but it’s probably art of Hancock from Fallout, who I used to teach myself new shading methods. Can you tell I try a lot of weird/random things and end up getting happy with how they turn out?

[u3pxx]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S 2024?!?!

next, you're gonna tell me it's gonna be some made-up year like "2025" next. tch, imagine that.

anyways, whoo! 2023! compared to both 2022 and 2021, i gotta say, my art style took a hard swerve in some direction this year. i mean, look at that klavier from january and that butch kim from just this december! (granted, i heavily referenced the portrait of butch kim but still, i didn't use to paint! mama mia!)

---

the way i drew faces has definitely changed, that's what i get for getting into something that's live-action and into smth that has realistically proportioned art lol

OH! OH! HOW COULD I FORGET!!! IT WAS (and still will be) THE YEAR OF THE OLD MAN!! i really learned how to draw aged faces this year! ach fraulein, i have not stopped drawing people in their 40's-50's! i would say "send help" but i'm actually having a lot of fun ASKSKS

---

i think a funny thing about these art summaries i've done is that they're mostly ace attorney but then there's just a month where i become a different type of ill LMAO this year it was four months for the price of two new interests!

cheers! here's to 2024!!! hope y'all have a fun art year!!!!

---

i'm gonna ramble more below about like, other art things i did this year but i'm gonna put it under 'keep reading' bc this baby is getting way too wordy now WHEEZES

1. FAVORITE THINGS I'VE DRAWN THIS YEAR (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

⚖️ mea culpa comic [x]

drawing this one was so time-consuming and ambitious but boy, do i love the end result! i had fun doing the inks for this one but was it a lot! i usually color in lineart and render everything but i had to stop myself from doing it for this one bc man, i'll die asksks

this also has some of my favorite apollos i've drawn, definitely

also! the part about the lineart not being colored and no rendering ended up being a deliberate stylistic choice for this one bc i had like more freedom to do just shadows with inks without it looking too out of place.

💐 my lawfully wedded zine spread [x]

now this one isn't out yet but take my word for when i say that this is one of the most craxy things i've ever drawn for this year, on account of drawing a comic AND group shot all in one!

also literally one of the prettiest things i've rendered this year, lookit that klav...

🎉 aa4 redraw - 2022 anniversary [x]

kind of like my wedding zine piece, group photos are insane, and rendering like uhhh [looks at drawing] 11 CHARACTERS IS ALSO INSANE if i try and draw a group photo again you have to stop me DFGHDJ

🎨 my art fight stuff [x] [x]

was possessed in the month of july or smth bc i pumped out like how many drawings so quickly (before i got burnt out that is pftt)

pace yourselves and don't be like me pls ajshgdghhjk

💥 people park day [x]

my friend told me that it was very obvious i watched across the spiderverse when they saw this FDFGHJD

but yea! this is when i started getting really into like, thought bubbles or just like, panels or drawings within a drawing when coming up with layouts

i still love the colors on this one...

🪩 fem disco portraits

ok so i haven't uploaded these yet but you have to trust me when i say that something was in the water DFGHDJ

who knew that all it took for me to learn how to paint was butches

2. ALSO DID YOU KNOW THAT I SOLD STICKERS THIS YEAR IN OUR UNI'S ART MART?

THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THAT SCHOOL I SWEAR PFTTT this experience has also awaken the merch beast in me and i need to make more physical things for my brain to be happy, that's just how it be pfttt

hopefully next year i can actually start like a shopee shop or whatever lmao

3. ART FIGHT

i'm actually quite happy i got to participate in art fight this year! very delighted for all the art i've gotten and very fun to have drawn for others too!!

4. ZINES

i got invited and joined so many zines from 2022 continuing to 2023 that i kind of got burnt out from participating for now ngl ASKSKSKS not gonna be joining much this year oopsiessss! (unless i lose self-control [very likely])

5. SCHOOL

i don't actually like a lot of the stuff i draw for art school bc i tend to cram and not have fun pftt <- adhd moment, tragic! but here are some that i actually kind of like lol

6. THAT'S IT!

i think that's it! thanks for reading all the way down here!! o(*￣▽￣*)ブ

[sakarrie-creates]

Here’s my 2024 Art Summary, terribly late as usual! We’re back to including some black and white in this year and my months were very clustered, but all things considered I was actually surprised I ended up with as many decent samples for the collage as I did. I was kinda expecting them all to be messy sketches this year lol.

Just like with my writing summary, this year the questions are a bit abridged since I didn’t do a ton of art. That said, I’m still a rambler haha, so the reflection questions are answered up the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to use it!

What events did you participate in (with art)?Player Appreciation Week (old art), Fandom Trumps Hate (offered), CS Case Files Zine (comic!). Not really the type of art this summary is for, but I also created my first cosplay for RCCC!

What was your biggest challenge this year? Definitely motivation. Last year was a creative slump with a lot going on mentally making stuff hard. Mostly in start up energy, since once I got going, things seemed to go alright.

Did you try anything new this year? I got into a comic zine, which was new and exciting! My original plan was far too long for the creation period, though, so I spent a ton of time trying to widdle it down to 3 pages. I also did super messy spot art sketches for a friend’s fic, which ended up being a lot of fun! I also took some screenshots and then drew other characters into the show, somewhat trying to match the show’s style, which was definitely interesting.

Where do you think you most improved? I’m going to go with rendering again! I really love playing with color and lighting, and several of my collage pieces this year were just adding rendering to old pieces. I have a lot more confidence with it now, though I still sometimes feel like my pieces don’t end up as dynamic as I’d like. I also did a lot better at following inspiration and not being as perfectionistic this year.

What are you most proud of? I’m really proud of getting into a comic zine, even though it likely wasn’t that competitive. The fact that I got in for comics despite never having done art for a zine before is crazy to me! I was a pinch hitter, so I wasn’t originally selected, but I’m still honored I got picked eventually. I also am really proud of the August fully rendered piece of Player screaming. I did that one in almost one sitting, probably around 4ish hours, and it was one of my first times doing full color/rendering without cleaning the sketch much at all. Overall, I was very excited at how well it turned out and I feel like the messy emotions really come across!

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals?Shoutout to past Sakarrie for giving me a straight bullet point list. MUCH easier to work with lol.

2024 Goals Met:  -Number One Priority: Create for me and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music       2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail       3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin

The ones that don’t have strikethrough are a bit of a stretch, but I’m gonna give them to myself. While I haven’t added more pieces with backgrounds and need to reorganize my zine portfolio, it is in a decent place where I feel like I can use it and it will accurately represent my best work. I also didn’t really purposefully experiment with rendering or brushes, but it did happen naturally a little, so giving that to myself too. As for the ONE of the following list, I actually did digitize my 30 minutes thumbnails! It’s just not to music, so doesn’t count. Also holy dang, last year Sakarrie was ambitious with the proposal of manufacturing a pin haha.

2024 Goals NOT Met:-Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small

Yeah, these all I absolutely failed with. Oops. Probably gonna be using a fair few of these as my new goals haha.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! I think I want my main focus to be to try to draw more frequently. I’ve found that so much of what prevents me from drawing is startup energy, and once I actually get going, it all comes much easier. 

Specific goals: -Organize a go-to zine portfolio for comics, merch, page art, and spot art applications -Try to draw every month (even the tiniest phone doodle counts) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November?) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 5 times throughout the year) and maybe look into Cara or whatever the non-instagram art app is. -Experiment more with drawing in sketchy art style with full color/rendering -Experiment more with screenshot redraw/character replacements -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes put to music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics       4. Participate in an event with art       5. Draw and post for a new/niche fandom (Infinity Train, Sym-Biotic Titan, Irondad, The Flash, etc)

Overall, how’d the year go? Better than I expected when I first started pulling up my art haha. I didn’t push myself on anything but the CS comic, and that was pretty early on in the year. I also did a fair few doodle/sketch projects and followed the muse when it wanted to do rendering without drawing.

[museaway]

started a new svsss fic that is either going to spontaneously end so I can use it for something like the 5k, or it's going to become a beast and occupy the next six months of my life. honestly happy either way. I was worried I might fall into a slump after I finished a bang draft. (might also stay in drafts, which would also be okay. I have a habit of writing cool-down fics that never get completed.)

continuing to whittle down the stressors. remembered that the server's retreats evolved from ones I used to host for myself on weekends, so I dusted off my old notion template and have revised it for current use. set posting dates for a few WIPs and am rereading Peach Blossom Debt to spot-check details & Hengwen's tone (also crying through it again despite knowing the end, just ugly tears, wish I could give that author flowers, waiting for my jjwxc funds to clear so I can give her virtual stuff 15+ years late)

also folded some laundry and put it away. miracle???

for level up, I'm experimenting with a looser painting style to snap myself out of the annoying habit of rendering everything to death. had fun with a drawing of Hengwen napping (ty Ruyi Egg, which I've finally read) and might try some grayscale sketchy stuff

[asksoldieron]

SO-31: And We're Back!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but I am working on it and I will add it retroactively. I hope.

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for April Fool (260|31) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

Okay! WordPress's latest updates have given me the power to do simple things I should've been able to do years ago without a plugin - for example, freezing the backgrounds. I HAD TO REFORMAT EVERYTHING due to missing style options FINALLY being available in the templates. I may have broken some stuff trying to fix it, let me know.

And we're doing the fascism now, I guess? IRL? I mean, I'm not, but I'm definitely hearing a lot of voices ready to slide into denial or be oppressed. Like, because that's the rules. Just hand the obvious shrieking fascist all the toys and shake his hand, because anything else would be bad for democracy. I honestly did not expect that to be the story. Like, from Biden and the establishment, OK. They never believed democracy as really in danger in the first place. But I'm also seeing it from the media and individuals who are left-of-centre, politically. That shit's fucked.

I'm not certain how to amplify my assertion that the shit is fucked, and my fictionalized methods for coping with it, but the sporadic nature of the updates needs to stop. You're not gonna remember what's going on and you're gonna miss stuff!

I may need another break when this six is done, just so I can get a head start on everything I've been putting off and stop taking all these breaks. I am working on a new way of illustrating, but my eyes are also improving. I was told I'd have a year's recovery at most. I appear to still be recovering. My blurry vision isn't as bad as that sheet I rendered a few months back, I can compare. I have started driving again - short distances, no highways yet. I want to draw, but I'm not sure if I should wait and see if my eyes improve enough to give me more options, or how long I would be waiting in that case. (I definitely need to collage less. The Public Domain is infested with AI images and I can't always tell them on sight anymore. I'm not even going to be able to avoid AI by cutting up magazines like I used to, or by buying stock images. WTF?)

But, in the meantime, you get a text-based six pack! And David's back! Yaaay?

Well, I like him. Everyone in the story is more ambivalent. It is April 1st, in-universe, so maybe they'll forgive him his little prank. That's him pretending to be Erik as soon as he spins around in the chair the second time - his language is a little more sloppy than the real Erik, he can't help making fun of the kid, but it's subtle.

I will eventually get you the three versions of David's backstory, all of which have elements of the "true" one. Erik knows what really happened already - it's pretty bad. David prefers his illusions.

Did I break the screenwriting rules and have the good guys fail to save the cat? Well, you'll have to wait a while to see. I thought they'd be home by now, but there's a whole world out there to explore. It took way more words to do it any justice.

[salemssimblr]

Hello there! I'm Eden :D I LOVE your renders! I've been rendering for well over a year at this point, however I only stuck to the super basic stuff since it took me a year before that to even know how to do it at all. I've wanted to up my game and get to where you are now. I'm SO SORRY if this question was asked already (I haven't gotten too far in your posts yet), but;

How do you personally edit your renders? I understand you use photoshop, but how do you do it exactly? Your renders have that kind of digital art style, like you drew them yourself. Feel free to be as descriptive or brief as you'd like!

Hi Eden!!! Thank you so much! 🥹😍♥️

I've followed you back and glad we're moots! I'd love to see some of your work!

I'm not sure if I've answered this before but I'm happy to answer it again! Also I haven't advertised it in a while (and I really need to try to get up a new tut, maybe soon), but my alt account is a Render School where I post tutorials, with plans to post editing tutorials in the future!

But honestly as far as my editing, I really don't do much.

Actions are my secret weapon, and I have a few favorites/go-tos I'll link! A few are by simmers and a few are just action sets. I'm in a family of photographers, so I have access to a wealth of resources for my editing.

Sonder set by @intramoon

Cold Water set by @intramoon

Retro Prime photoshop actions

Indie camera photoshop actions

But my "secret weapon," as it were, and the set of actions that I think most helps me accomplish that digital art style is a set of actions that are sadly expensive and hard to find now.

My favorite set is by Totally Rad! and I think in recent years it's been folded in to this Pixel Sugar product on their website. I know that's a steep price point but it's possible you can find it around the corners of the Internet for less, or if you can't, you might be able to find "dupes" of the better ones, which imo are:

Technicolor dream world

Super Fun Happy

Bullet Tooth

Grandma's Tap Shoes

As for my method, I know a lot of simmers paint over their renders, and I've done that a few times but find I'm too impatient tbh. My goal is always to have to do only minor touchups over my renders and some color/vibe adjustments before the finished product. My "raw" files are always exactly what blender spits out for me, unaltered in any way except to resize them for Tumblr.

To get that digital art style, I'd recommend rendering with alpha details if you don't already. If your computer can't handle alpha cc in the game, DM me and I can give you some pointers (sneak peek info for a future tut lmao) on how to accomplish it without bogging down your game.

When I go into photoshop I adjust the brightness and contrast, as I tend to personally prefer high contrast pieces that contain dark subject matter but you can still see the details. Then I'll paint/blur/clone/adjust anything that needs it, then I'll "stack" and adjust a handful of actions before applying edge blur and vignette and any other color adjustments (levels, curves, etc).

That's a very oversimplified rundown of what I do, but really overall my editing process is simple. The bulk of my work happens in blender itself. I find that the more time I take to perfect the lighting and shadows and angles in blender, the less frustrating the editing process and the happier I am with the end result. So, that said, be sure you're spending a lot of time in blender getting the light and shadows to be exactly where you need/want them to be before running it.

I know this is a bit long I'm sorry! If any of it is super confusing or you'd like a more in-depth look at any of it please let me know! I do plan to do editing tutorials for my side blog, but the latter half of this year has kind of run over me like a train, and for now I'm just trying to get by day by day. But I'm happy to help if you have more specific questions!

& thank you again!! ♥️

[kittykosmos]

Shit, this disappoints me. I’m rather new to tumblr so I haven’t seen much of their earlier work. To be honest, I haven’t delved that deep into what styles of ”art” AI is current the best at spitting out either - I try to just avoid it.

I always thought their rendering was exceptional whenever it popped up on my screen, but it didn’t strike me as being obvious AI, at least not compared to other stuff I’ve seen, where people have obviously just taken an existing picture and have AI slap an oil painting/watercolour/whatever effect on it. Sure, the vibrancy of colours and near luminescence felt almost overly polished, but hey, some people are just fantastic at those things, and AI learns from actual people’s similar work too, right?

But now when I went to check, there are things that seem to be obviously AI generated in several pictures, mainly visible in the backgrounds. One weird Christmas tree, for example.

So I guess I’m he dumb one. It makes me sad because there are a couple of pictures I really like, which are not as over-the-top flashy as some of the others, and now I really question all of it.

@killer-laurent

I understand where you're coming from. It’s tough to navigate this situation if you're not familiar with how generative ai art currently looks. But trust me, it’s evolved far beyond basic filters that mimic oil paintings. Ai can now mimic a wide range of styles, often convincingly. That’s exactly why it's so important to listen to artists or those who can spot ai traits at a glance. Of course, it's also crucial to be wary of bad faith accusations, people wrongly accusing legitimate artists of using ai. That absolutely happens. However, the concerns surrounding Killer-Laurent aren't isolated incidents. I'll provide screenshots of the Christmas tree art you mentioned (and a link ) for full context:

As you pointed out, there are some oddities in the tree: objects blend together, melt into one another, or lack structure. This kind of "mistakes", especially along the tree's edges, is typical of ai struggling with complex designs. You see similar artifacts when ai tries to generate characters with intricate clothes/details. Ai ( at the moment ) just doesn’t handle that level of complexity well.

EDIT/UPDATE : It seems very likely that this tree was not ai generated but ran through an oil painting filter on photoshop. I will leave what I wrote intact for transparency but I will add a link here of a newer ask where this was brought up and clarified.

I should also state, before I get further into this part of my response: no, the issue isn’t simply that Killer-Laurent renders well. There are many highly skilled artists out there, and yes, AI does learn from real, talented creators. The real red flag is this: before he adopted his current super polished style, Killer-Laurent had a completely different way of drawing. There was no gradual evolution into this refined look. It just appeared. Suddenly, and without any signs of progression. Here are some examples of his earlier work:

These pieces look to have more hand drawn elements. For instance, Armand has a distinctive curl to his mouth that’s consistently depicted in his art from September and December 2023. Did he trace photographs at any point during these? Or use ai? It's very possible. At this point in time of his art, ai usage may be restricted to backgrounds ( the Christmas tree art was posted during this time period and the trees in the center image look suspicious)

[EDIT/NOTE: Those trees were also likely flittered through photoshop. Again, I am leaving my original statements for transparency but asking you to refer to the previous update for context).

I suspect, poses may be traced for some characters in much of his art during this period. There is a clear struggle with anatomy & fluidity in his art that have uncommon poses. Additionally, some character poses are suspect since he has shown earlier that year (June) to still be tracing photos of models. But that's a separate ( yet connected) issue. Ultimately, I feel these pieces have minimal AI ( if they have any at all.) But also, please note how he renders between these images. Very minimal, very subdued. And not very polished. To be clear: there is absolutely nothing wrong with being at this level in your artistic journey. I'm pointing this out to highlight what his art looks like when it seems he actually had a hand in creating it. And then, just days after that last set of earlier artworks, he posted this:

The first and last images depict huge leaps in both rendering and facial anatomy. Yet, the center piece is more consistent with his older work. This suggests a strange pattern: sudden improvement, a regression, then rapid progress again. Then by the time February arrives, he adopted three entirely new art styles:

Again, major improvements, all within just a few days. Then, four days after the third image, he posted this commission:

The female character’s face is more in line with his earlier style. I’m not sure if ai was used here, but I suspect he was forced to draw her face manually. That familiar curl of the lips, seen on previous art of Armand, appears here again, and it feels distinctly his style. However, the male character below (apologies, I forgot to screenshot the tags before the piece was deleted from his blog) looks different. The face structure is closer to the style found in his more AI suspect works, and it's clearly in a different style altogether. And then just three days later, he drew this:

Then, adopted several new art styles over the rest of the month:

Even his older artwork (below), where it does seem like he had a hand in creating it (maybe just coloring or touching things up), still raises eyebrows. Take this piece of Armand (the first image) as example. Besides the hair looking suspicious, looping into itself unnaturally, it also shares stylistic similarities with a specific style of ai art ( the three i included beside it) like there was an attempt to mimic the rendering style:

Honestly, when people say, "It's obvious he uses ai" all of this is why. The timeline, the abrupt jumps in skill, the lack of consistent style evolution. In the very first images I included here, the ones between September and December, the stylistic jump was more subtle within those 2 months vs the art he has posted later down the line which has abrupt improvements within days of each other. Ai is harder to detect these days. It's starting to look natural and people are tracing/painting over it to avoid detection. But I think there is a very real disconnect that happens when artists start relying on ai. They forget how long it used to take them to produce art organically. Posting schedules, how much workload they take without consequence, and random spikes in progress become very clear tells that their art is suspicious if not entirely disingenuous.

[lancerfay]

So I got a bit carried away with stuff this week, had some bad news, had some real bad news, then some good things, and through it all I was making stuff. Which is, honestly what's keeping my mood up is that I can still create and try things that succeed.

So my boss at my new job was very very kind and gave everyone whole christmas hams (each) for the holidays, I was, super unsure what to do with it for a week, but came to the idea of making little hand pies, then I could bring some into work still, go thru the ham, and eat maybe a little healthier. So I took a vodka pie crust recipe and stuffed those into my cupcake pan with some fried shallots, brie, and the ham itself, all into little cupcake sized ham and cheese pies and oh my god. They were delicious. While I was at it (technically before) I also made the pudding pies from the recipe in Awaria, Vanripper's new game (Helltaker dev) about sapphically kissing ghosts. Unsurprisingly, vanilla pudding filled pies were addictive and not only did I eat all of those in like two days. I also ate all the ham and cheese ones in like four...

On to model stuff though.

Vtuber Stuff

So I have a few ways I've rendered models as I get better. The first one (android) uses a bit of a cel-shaded style that I felt was good enough at the time, and I tried for softer more regular shading on the cowgirl model later on. For the moth here, I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to do for the skin and clothing, but I knew I had an idea for the hair so I started there. I took a look at stuff like Arcane and how they render hair, looking at my cowgirl model again, and then just kinda combining them. I ended up with a really gritty, messy render with chalky looking outlines and I kinda dig it.

Also yes her hair IS very reminiscent of Vi, I realized that far too late to want to change it because unfortunately that's just also been my hair irl for like 6 years so we can all fight over it I guess... From the hair, after I got to this point, I was thinking, wow, I wonder what those brushes would look like when I did shading, because sticking to a soft airbrust was contrasting weirdly with the hair rendering, and I was still staring at Arcane screenshots and stills and going "... I wonder..." which is where I ended up going off.

Obviously, I can't go fully into the painterly direction like Arcane does. The way that vtuber models move - and my future plans for this model and how I need it to move - would mean that level of specificity just wouldn't work out long term. That in mind I've struct a balance between clearly visible brushmarks visible in the shading and texturing, coverage, and color simplicity. It's always important to remember with vtuber models to imagine it sitting at less than 1/4th your screen size down in the corner. I used to have these marks be less pronounced, but they were indistinguishable at scale that would actually matter. Think of it exactly like contour makeup. It's there for the scene you're seeing it in! Not for zooming way in on the face at close detail all the time.

Anyways I think it kicks ass, the skull motif in the shading comes through and the colors of everything blend well with the brush I was using to make a kind of edgy look that fits her hairstyle and aesthetic.

For today (Tuesday) I actually spent most of it running errands and fixing my phone by replacing its broken screen (success though). So I didn't do much work at all on this other than some inner mouthparts - which are a secret - and then stylematching the eyes to this new render style. I added some texturing to the larger parts of the eye like the sclera and irises, and reshaped the shinies to be sharper. I think overall it looks really distinct and interesting! Once all these head parts and inner mouth parts are done, I want to go into live2D with them and get that rigged before I move on to the body. Not for any particular reason other than I want to see how much more I'll need to draw for the head toggles to look how I imagine them, so I want to just get started ASAP.

Past those, I was working on commissions, which is, by my own policy, a no-sharing kinda thing (reminder my commissions are open:tm:). So here you go with the bonus doodle. Mothgirl Fay in sorta chibi-er proportions! (Idk what to call this)

[tarnishedxknight]

{out of dalmasca} I'm here, I promise, I'm just... running at the fingers writing a reply to something, haha. One of my favorite 80s fantasy movies is on, and I have not seen it in so many years... and I'm just vibing. It's making my writing just flow with regard to medieval-genre stuff. Allow me to gush below the cut, but just know that I am writing, it's just that I've been rendered more verbose because of inspiration, haha.

I just need to say... as an old fogie of 40+ years, that there is a feel and an essence to 80s high epic fantasy movies that absolutely cannot be recaptured with new films. I swear, they have a grittiness, a roughness, and an authenticity with regard to that medieval feel that new movies just don't possess. Newer films are too clean, too polished, too stylized in my opinion. 80s fantasy or medieval drama had this raw feel, whether it's the lower budgets, the practical effects vs. digital, or maybe even that just acting styles have changed since then, as they do with every decade... but 80s fantasy cannot be duplicated today. And I was raised with that, I was a young child when all these movies were coming out, and my parents really did not restrict what I watched at all, and I am so thankful for that. I would not be the writer I am today, had I not been exposed to 80s fantasy and horror, often in real time as they came out. There's no way to get that feel back again, and that makes me sad, but it also makes me treasure the 80s movies that were made.

So I'm currently watching Dragonslayer (1981), which... admittedly is not a top tier, A-list fav of mine, but it's a solid B+. I still love it, and seeing it after so many years is just making me so happy, heh. And I'm feeling that surge of inspiration that often happens when I go back to my roots as far as what initially drove me to be a writer in the first place. I've often had to write in other genres than fantasy and horror on this site because to some extent I have to go with what's popular and what I can interact with, but my roots, my writing soul, if you will, has always been medieval drama, fantasy, and supernatural horror. That's what speaks the most to me as a person. Almost all the original books I've written have been medieval fantasy, and it's just my deepest love.

If you love this genre too, I beg you to check out some 80s flicks, because honestly... I know it won't translate well to younger people or have the same feel as someone who has that "I grew up with this" love and nostalgia for it, but I invite you to experience the difference between 80s high fantasy and contemporary movies. I'm not saying present-day movies suck, I mean I loved the whole Hobbit and LotR series, certainly. But 80s movies don't pull punches, they aren't afraid to look stupid or campy, they lean into their small budgets and practical effects, they go there with uncomfortable or controversial themes, they don't hold back at all... and they are more genuine-feeling for it, I think.

Dragonslayer is a solid entry, but as far as my A-list, I recommend Legend (1985), Labyrinth (1986), Ladyhawke (1985), Willow (1988), Krull (1983), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Red Sonja (1985). They're all more adult-level movies with the exception of maybe Labyrinth, so expect violence, nudity, and some potentially triggering themes. Also remember that they are products of their time, unfortunately, so there is a lot of inherent sexism, racism, and other icky underlying themes going on, but just try to see past that for the stories, creature and magic effects, music, and world immersion. Honestly, historical medieval times were even worse, so I kindof try to shove all that into the context of well... this is how things were back then, heh. It helps to stomach it, heh, but yeah. For more PG or PG-13 movies, check out The Neverending Story (1984), Return to Oz (1985), Clash of the Titans (1981), The Dark Crystal (1982), and The Princess Bride (1987).

Okay sorry for the shameless plug for 80s fantasy, but I had to. I adore these films so much, they are all so near and dear to my heart. Dragonslayer has me feeling so much nostalgia, heh. And I'm turning that into writing... however slowly. XD

[kozachenko]

[Click for better quality]

Ok yay I'm back from my vacation yipeeeeeee. I started this drawing of Keiki before I left and I was half considering just giving up on it.... until I did a short study of facial planes and then got motivated to work on this again! I'm glad I didn't give up on it though, as I'm actually really happy with this one!

Artist's Notes;

So as I mentioned in my last post about Touhou 17, I wanted to finish this by the game's five year anniversary but with how progress was going I didn't want to rush this so I decided to take a long break from it. Mainly because of the face. For a while now I was kind of feeling like I was stagnating with my drawings, not really in the clothing but in the bodies. There was something about the way I was rendering them that I just wasn't happy with, and after talking with someone else about this issue, I realized that the reason I felt this way was because the faces were too flat and didn't match the rest of the drawing and that I needed to find a way to make the rendering of the face feel consistent with everything else. So after doing a short study of the plains of the face (I used this 3D head model from art station as a reference for my short study, please go give this person some love as they are a lifesaver) I went back into this drawing and applied what I learned here. It was only after that that I finally became motivated to finish the piece, and while it started off as just a simple character sketch like Saki and Yachie's were, the moment I added in Keiki's little fire dragon I knew I had gotten in too deep and now here we are with a full on background. OK it's not super crazy or anything, but it gets the job done and it's better than there just being an empty void behind her. It's rare moments like this when I use brushes other than the Clip Studio Default Charcoal Brush and use the Clip Studio Default Paint Brushes as well (god bless the oil paint and dry gouache clip studio brushes, they were amazing). I don't know why but painting fire has always been really fun for me, there's something oddly satisfying about it y'know? I do think that another reason for this problem was because I was drawing faces like I would in my more sketchy style that didn't mesh well with my lineless style, so I'm glad I've started remedying that.

After adding in the fire dragon I had an idea to kinda make it feel like splash art in the way the composition works... probably because I have been playing Reverse 1999 again and it has taken over my brain. I do feel like Keiki's tools get a little lost in the composition, and I didn't fully render the metal parts of them mainly because I didn't feel like they needed it, but that's just something for me to improve on later down the line.

If you guys are wondering where I went for my vacation, I went to New York and got to go to the MET and the Museum of Natural History. In both places I found Kofun period stuff and I was so happy to see it you have no idea. I remember one of the Haniwa I saw had some neat face paint under the eyes that I tried to replicate with the makeup under Keiki's eyes in my drawing, though I think I'll gave to figure out how to draw makeup on characters because this reads more like blush to me than anything. While drawing this I also looked up some references of Kofun period jewelry and really liked the stuff I found, which also meant that now she has proper Kofun earrings instead of earrings shaped like Kofun tombs. I put some of the things I referenced with a closeup of Keiki's face as well down below. I made her outfit more reminiscent of the outfit I gave her at the beginning of the year with the buttons and all, though I do want to try and draw her in some more period accurate clothing like the Haniwa I took a picture of at the Museum of Natural History. I wish I could find a way to make her handercheif look better though as I wish I made it a little bit bigger, though I think I'm saying this because I've looked at this drawing for too long lmao. Once again something to work on for when I next draw her. Also want to get better at rendering hair, as some details (like the little strands in front of her ears) kinda got unreadable due to the similarities in colour lol.

Now you may have also noticed the little cracks I added onto Keiki's face, and that's because I have fallen in love with the idea of Keiki's body being made from ceramic and that she crafted her body herself. While they aren't very visible I also tried to add some doll joints to her body, which is an idea I played around with in the past but never went to far with. I also want to get better at rendering cracks in ceramic, porcelain, etc, as I'm not sure how those read in the drawing. I also have a headcanon where the cracks in Keiki's face show up because of heightened emotions, and while Keiki is aware of this and does her best to make sure her face doesn't break off.... she will still end up with at least a few cracks during any given day, and she can often forget to repair her own body quite frequently so Mayumi has to remind her quite a lot. Mayumi even taught herself some basic sculpting techniques to help repair parts of her body that are so badly damaged to the point where Keiki can't repair them herself, i.e. if both her arms broke off, Mayumi would put them back together for her so Keiki can at least have something to repair herself with rather than nothing. I also like to imagine that if Keiki created her own body, if you took a look at Keiki from the beginning of her life she would look completely different compared to now.

BTW If you guys are wondering what a very very angry Keiki looks like....ok in order for this to make sense have any of you read volume 11 of Land of The Lustrous? Am I bringing back some memories for those of you that have? Ok good, glad we all got that mental image brewing in our minds, I'll probably draw a version of Keiki that is somewhat inspired by that one day as it's an idea I've had for a little while now. And to those who haven't gotten to that volume yet and are confused.... don't worry about it, just keep reading :)

[nellie-elizabeth]

April 2025 - Reading & Media Logging

Another pretty heavy reading month! Details under the cut.

What I Read:

How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. I didn't disagree with a lot of what this book had to say, but I didn't find it a good guide or a particularly deep way to interact with these ideas. It was written in this weird pseudo-academic tone that's not actually at full academic level but is also probably alienating for some in the general audience. Also, it's not even about "doing nothing." It should have been called How to Pay Attention. Because that's literally what the whole book was about.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Man, so much of this should have been perfect for me, but I found the style really alienating and I didn't feel drawn into the story or setting. I was surprised, I really expected to love this book. But I didn't even like it enough to want to read the rest of the series. Bummer.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Whitestone Chronicles - Ripley by Marieke Nijkamp. This was mostly purchased as a collectible for my Critical Role collection. It was fine, but didn't leave much of an impression.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman S. Morgenstern. Brilliant. This was a re-read and I think when I read it as a kid I wasn't quite able to fully appreciate the ridiculousness of what Goldman did with this text. It's so funny and charming, it has all the stuff you love from the movie but it's doing some very funny stuff with narrative voice that the movie can't fully replicate.

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall. I don't think I enjoyed this one quite as much as her other two thrillers, but it was still very readable and I was kept interested the whole way through!

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. Oof, new top five for the Discworld, showstopping, made me cry. I will be thinking about that pronoun change mid-sentence for a LONG time. Very beautiful story, funny and clever and silly as always.

Skyward Flight by Janci Patterson & Brandon Sanderson. Listen, I ain't a quitter, so I'll read the last book in this series soon, but this was not a fun one to get through. I super don't care about these characters.

Far From the Tree by Robin Benway. Unforgivably twee, I gotta say. Like, the pacing and structure of the text showed some basic competency but this was just far too cutesy for my taste.

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson. Part of my re-read childhood favorites project. This was very fun and a pretty standard exciting adventure. I would totally read this to kids in my life when they're old enough!

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. Middle-grade book, charming illustration, and a very sweet story about friendship between a human boy, a cricket, a cat, and a rat.

Tales of Exandria: Artagan by Sam Maggs. Again, mostly purchased as a curio for my shelf, but this one I actually liked quite a bit. It felt visually exciting and actually posed some interesting questions for this character.

Daughter of Time by Sarah Woodbury. My friend's mom wrote this! Been meaning to try out some of her stuff for forever now. This is the first book, actually a prequel of a long series. It's kind of your standard small-press Rated PG romance/historical, with all of the flaws and strengths that that implies, but I had fun with it, particularly the Welsh setting because I don't know a ton about that. I enjoyed it enough to try at least one more book in the series and see how the events pick up. I was having fun noting all the Outlander parallels lol. 20th century woman goes back in time and gets pulled into a complex political situation on the British Isles with a group of precariously placed noblemen who are fighting off the dastardly English? She goes back to her own time pregnant with her historical lover's child? You don't say! :)

Hild by Nicola Griffith. This is beautiful. I had such a good time just swimming around in the stunning language, and I found the characters extremely well-rendered. I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of it but also it wasn't a book that compelled me to rush, I kind of just wanted to meander through it the way the book itself meanders through Hild's childhood. So glad I picked this up at total random at a book exchange.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. A bit of a disappointment. I mean, it's a well-written book, it's Atwood, she's great, but I kept thinking that nothing about this book is adding to The Handmaid's Tale in any way that I enjoy... in fact the "reveal" of certain truths that were left unanswered in the first book kind of dampens the impact, in my opinion.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Keeping this on the tracker! I'm over 1/3 of my way through at this point. Still really enjoying it, definitely enjoying the scenes in Moscow and Petersburg at parties and dinners more than I'm enjoying the more "war" sections of the novel, though.

What I Watched:

Still working my way through Unsleeping City Season 2, still really loving that

Game Changer is back and the first two episodes are both total bangers!

The Handmaid's Tale season 6 - I'm having some... concerns about how it's all going to wrap up, but the individual scenes and acting are still enough to totally compel me.

Severance season 2 - watching with a friend, very slow going! We've seen 3 episodes so far. I'm having similar concerns that this isn't going to end up being "good" in the end, but the individual scenes and moments are very compelling to watch. What are the goats? What the fuck is happening?

[bigusbossus]

Hi, that new Annon again. You can call me 🦘 if you like. Going to be honest…

I really like how you draw stuff! I need to commission you at some point when I have a more stable living. (It’s wonky)

Also your artwork has this soft squishy style I’ve been trying to figure out how to do myself. (Debatable if I ever got there or not, lot to learn I feel)

Regardless I hope you get to have a very wonderful day full of the things you enjoy in life!

HAIII KANGAROO ANON!!! tsym youre so kind!!! i know im answering way late but this made my day and i hope you have a awesome one as well and be treated with the same kindness you radiate :3 i think what gives that squishy style in my art might just be the way i render and my brushes help alot (i'd gladly share those if anyones interested but i think it can be achieved with any soft round brush that blends) i just play with my drawings until it looks right to me, i dont really follow anything 😭

[shiny-miltank]

why hello old friends, you’ve found me once again (it wasn’t a secret really lol). to start off myello. sorry for disappearing off the Mewcrew blog. It gets all kinda wordy so it’s under a readmore.

Long story short I suffered from a mental Illinois(tm) spiral of depression, work exhaustion, undiagnosed/untreated adhd and big time imposter syndrome + burnout. Zoom into today I’ve been in therapy for my big time sads with some new perspectives and management, got some adhd meds, my job quit on me (long story) so now I’m slinging it freelance artist style and seeing how it goes, and back with family cause living alone was expensive and very Not Good for my brain it turned out. Still working on new changes and learning about the anxious smorgasbord up in the head.

Now there’s still no guarantee? That Mewcrew stuff is going to come back in full force like it did. Im still trying to like it again cause I do miss them. It took a long time and effort just to draw them for the wips I got going in the bg after like the three years leaving. Tbh the blog became something I didn’t want and instead of casual, low effort, funny not serious Just Roomates on misadventures in a pink void comic it became long hours of planning and plotting and rendering and feeling it wasn’t enough with my nasty soup of brain ick continuing to make me feel bad for not keeping up with a constant pace and comparing my work to the artists around me (again it was my brain funguses making reality hard-no one else. The artists around me back then were legit the nicest peeps around-still are). I’m also still really nervous and anxious around big communities that seemed to have sprung up HELLO ALL OF YOU LOL. I remember when it was just three of us xD And I still have to sit with my imposter syndrome and understanding I have things to offer that people do want to see and to stop anxieties from comparing my work to others.

So for now if I am posting Mewcrew stuff it’s mostly going to be here on my main from now on and not an individual blog (me figuring it’s just a lot of effort to keep up with so many blogs and logins, I think any new project or direction I go is just gonna be slapped on my main from now on. The less effort the better for my energy.). It’ll be sporadic and in a much different direction that was more akin to what I wanted it to be and much more casual comedy (or my flat sense of humor-I’ll laugh at knock knock jokes fr) slice of life with very little, even parody “plot”. And most of it until im comfortable with releasing complete mewcrew/mewtwo content will be on my patreon with again spurts of it here on tumblr and on my other socials. And if any of you come into my inbox saying I’m paywalling my own content AGAIN I will come for your kneecaps no joke you are NOT entitled to my work ESPECIALLY when this is now my main form of income. Anything on my patreon is /extra/ and early works and for peeps who choose to/want to and or capable of supporting me. That was literally the final straw that made me take a step out way back then: there’s still somebody behind the screen please remember that. This is just for my anxieties and getting comfortable with my characters again at a slow pace👍 I do miss everyone I use to interact with and want to be part of the bigger community here that’s sprouted up. Just gotta walk slowly with my social anxiety and other things first.

Thanks for reading and choosing to stick around if you do!