#anthros are usually shaped and sized like their animal in some way

[valerian-riverheart]

Anyone else up thinking abt how the anthros in W101/P101 are designed

[nkgrimmie]

The different species of sticks

★ when I say classification, I am referring to whether or not a stick has powers. If they have powers, then they're powered. If not, they're unpowered.

first, a few things that apply to all sticks, no matter the species and classification (with exceptions)

They all come in different colors (of the visible spectrum), shapes, and sizes (the sizes near the two ends of the spectrums are very rare though. they're most often seen as myths or creatures in stories)

They all use code. Without code, their bodies would be little more than limp ragdoll husks, not even a mind to inhabit them. To interact with a stick's code is usually either medical or extremely intimate. It's basically their DNA. The code that enables personality is similar to complex AI, but can also hold in specific commands for the stick to follow.

They can pause their animations! (originally that was just a headcanon, but with the EP 34 AVG reaction, it was confirmed)

Their blood is very often neon versions of their main color, with the exception of black and white cause... y'know. Can't really make those neon. For black and white sticks, their blood is often one of their secondary colors then.

They (typically) have unguligrade legs! The proportions depend on the species though. The legs of websticks are typically more like "technically unguligrade but proportionally more similar to plantigrade", while the legs of usersticks and most ursticks follow more of a traditional "anthro unguligrade" shape.

They don't have primary sex characteristics, and gender is either assigned or chosen, or neither. Most sticks (other than some ursticks and all usersticks) can still reproduce fine though, as long as the parents have the same coding language. If parents of different coding languages try to conceive, it won't happen. It just won't.

chompers!! unless specified otherwise, they have sharp teeth :3.

and now, getting into the actual meat of the post.

Websticks

The most common type, these guys are just your average sticks. Well, not actually average, they can have powers and stuff. Websticks are just sticks that were born or created by other stick figures on the web. Most are born, though. The only real way you can tell if a stick is a webstick or not is if their code shows a creator or not. If there's no creator mentioned or if the creator listed is another stick, then they're a webstick.

One of their most notable traits is their poor movement and color-based eyesight. If you blend in with the surroundings and you're completely still, there's a good chance a webstick just wouldn't see you.

Their hooves are defined and cloven, you can clearly tell that there is a line between skin/fuzz and hard... stuff. They're rarely powered, unless the parents/creator specifically planned for them to have powers. The reason behind that is because not only are some powers recessive, but also since most powered sticks are ursticks, a lot just aren't able to reproduce, ending in fewer powered websticks than to be expected. Powered websticks still very much so exist though! They're just often a lot weaker than powered ursticks.

Ursticks

The most diverse type, you never really know what to expect with these. The name is actually somewhat deceiving, as it applies to both the first sticks and also sticks drawn by humans. They share the name because the first sticks were also drawn by humans, and some sticks are... still drawn by humans to this day. The original ursticks have all died by now, but that doesn't mean that they didn't leave a mark. They're the reason websticks exist, after all. The pioneer species.

Modern ursticks (the only ones I'll be talking about) are characterized by their better than average vision, their dull and undefined hooves, their quiet footfalls, and... their code saying they were made by a human? (Wow really?) They're just so diverse that there's not really much of a way to tell. Plus, so many of them don't even have powers, so they're functionally no different from websticks other than having been drawn instead of born or created.

They're naturally better at doing computer stuff than websticks are, since they live more often on a desktop or a screen than in the Outernet. Sometimes they're powered, sometimes they're not, it just depends on what their creator had in mind for them.

Usersticks

The most otherworldly type, these shouldn't even be able to exist at all. Basically what stick!Alan and stick!DJ are (if I even use stick!DJ, that is). They're often characterized by their height, their long and thin spade-tipped (more so cursor-tipped) tails, their better than average eyesight (they have the same eyesight they did when they were human), and their code also for some reason saying that they were made by a human. They can have markings (typically black or white but can be different colors), but it's kind of rare. Surprisingly, they do have code that seems intelligible, but there's an odd amount of code that makes completely no sense. It doesn't get in the way of their bodies functioning somehow, it's just there. A remnant of what they once were, both metamorphic and evolutionary, perhaps?

They share the same hoof type as ursticks, but their legs are often longer due to their exaggerated height. They're also always powered, but they often don't know how to use them and sometimes don't even realize they have them.

A lot of sticks view them as gods far beyond taking a mortal form, others view them as abominations, horrific unions of god and stick possessed by the eldritch creature that fathered them, or just as really weird sticks. Some don't even think they actually exist.

They're an incredibly rare phenomenon, and only can form upon specific circumstances. Such as passing out on a VR headset while your computer just so happens to be inhabited by a stick that's kind of part of you. Oh boy.

--

also, here's a visual! Colors are random (don't mind the lack of arms haha)

*This is the most common appearance of websticks in Stickcity. They can look very different, the main thing that remains uniform in appearance is the legs.

**This is just one example of the appearance of an urstick, due to them being so diverse. Like the shown webstick, the main uniform body part are the legs.

just a few more things I'd like to mention;

there's two main languages, sticksign and stickspeech (im still working on the name for the second one). most sticks know both

Stick figure bodies are similar to virtual machines, allowing them to get viruses and the such without immediately infecting any devices they may be on.

Color gang and the hollowheads are all ursticks. (did i even need to say the hollowheads were?)

Purple, MT, Gold, Navy, and Orchid are all websticks.

Usersticks are vaguely cat-like, while websticks and ursticks are a mix between cat-like and goat-like.

Usersticks don't usually remember what happens between the transition from human to stick, but when they do remember, they don't like it.

--

okay that's all! thank you for reading ^^ i put a lot of work into this

[iraprince]

all ur dog-headed characters look amazing... whats ur secret

reference... but not too much!!!!!!

by which i mean i carefully study ref images of the specific breed i'm basing a design on, but i try to only nail a few specific details that really help with the breed identity, but then i try to back off and return to my normal level of stylization/shape exaggeration for the rest. if i follow ref too closely, especially with how stylized the way i draw anatomy is, it'll end up looking very pasted on — sometimes that's a bit of what i want, like dog with a gun from TVW, but usually you want things to be more cohesive than that.

what details to look for and adhere to from ref is gonna be really variable based on the animal you're stylizing, your goals for the character design, etc! off the top of my head, some consistent spots to make a dog Look Right are the angle of the forehead where it meets the snout, and the height/size of the eye ridge, as well as the angle of the end of the muzzle and the muzzle's height:length ratio; i think one reason these spots demand a lot of attention in ref is bc they're ones where it's easy to just Assume what they look like, and then before u know it you've drawn Generic Cartoon Dog instead of a specific one and it's hard to figure out why. (if i was at my comp i would draw some quick diagrams, maybe i'll come back and add them tomorrow — but rn i'm on my couch w a glass of vermut so i hope u can forgive my clumsy descriptions instead lol).

other bits i often find challenging on semi-realistic anthro characters: eyes and neck!! hitting the right scale on the eyes makes a big difference; you usually have to make them slightly larger to make the face look more humanoid, but it's easy to overshoot. the neck is tricky bc it has to do the heavy lifting of connecting an animal head to a human torso; i usually handle this by just leaning into it and making it brazenly fucked up looking instead of trying to hybridize too much, and also a bandanna or necklace hides a mountain of sins. (on this note, next time you watch 'the cat returns,' check out the cat designs, specifically characters who stand on two legs... they almost all have something around their necks, like ribbon bows or shirt collars! i'm convinced it's because of the neck problem.)

[choose-your--own-adventure]

NAME: Clover Arbore

PRONOUNS: They/them

AGE: 24

ANYTHING ELSE TO HAVE IN MIND:

I'm largely thinking of this character as more of a guide kind of character than a protagonist-type, since I'm not sure if you're looking for main characters, major supporting ones or both, but I can also see them being a "main character who just kind of stumbles into events" kind of character. Largely, though, I took inspiration from characters in games who act as guides/hint givers. Kass from BOTW was a major inspiration for Clover. Chicory from Chicory: A Colorful Tale also wormed her way into their inspiration, mainly making the idea of having this character be an animal-like character, but I based it more on the surface-level Chicory presented in the intro of the game than actually super complex Chicory, with the only thing excluded from that being the actual talent Chicory has and Clover probably doesn't. Maybe they do have some depth like Chicory does, though, even if the problems may not be as bad without the heavy expectations which caused a lot of their inspiration's depth. Also I wote them with nby lesbian swag in mind. This is not important but it is to me

BACKSTORY:

Clover grew up in a very normal environment, though I like to think they're the sort to have grown up with many, many siblings and cousins and to think that was a normal family size until they're talking with somebody and mention all 6 of their biological siblings and 4 of their adoptive ones. The big thing with them is that I like to think that Clover never exactly had any big skills. They're in a family full of renowned engineers, doctors and whatever fantasy careers can be put in here. However, Clover was always an artist. A poet, a painter, a musician and every other form of art they could find. The problem is that, while they've improved just a tad in recent times, they've always been painfully mediocre. They even tried getting into a few fantasy art schools, but they've been rejected from plenty, not because they're bad, but because they're so unbelievably average. Clover kind of started going through an early-adulthood crisis as a result of this, and began moving around to maybe find work. Looking for somebody to purchase their latest novel once they're done more than a third of it, or their slightly above average poetry anthology, or somebody willing to give a dime during a street performance, or somebody to buy a painting from them, or literally any kind of commission they could get, regardless of whether or not the rates would be fair to them. This leads to them traveling a lot, searching for their calling, and while they've improved art-wise, they haven't grown enough to settle for anything, or to find what they should do. Maybe, though, adventure will knock on their door someday, and tie them to a story which they could write a million stories about, one which could lead them to what they've been looking for; acknowledgement.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE :

Probably as a result of making only anthro characters, I can best see this character being an animalfolk type of character to contrast a lot of other characters in the world. Probably a result of one of their two inspirations, I'm aiming for this character to resemble a cottontail rabbit if you put a cottontail rabbit on their hind legs and wished them luck in walking (they also have the grace of a rabbit in this situation, that being none at all). They're pretty short, albeit probably a similar size to the rest of the cast (ie. they're not bunny sized). Brown fur, white chin, all the typical cottontail features. A lot of their basic shapes would probably be pretty triangular, if that makes sense. Their fur is usually decently maintained, but that does not give them any ability to not look like a mess, considering that they always look like they're wearing when they went to bed in, or a night robe or something. It also does not help that basically everything they own is covered partially in splotches of paint or ink that they have long since given up on cleaning.

[flygefisk]

workin on an art so here's a lil worldbuilding dump re: aging, locomotion methods, and shapeshifting in my lore

tl;dr, dragons get old, sometimes they got paws, sometimes they got hands it's all cool

dragons grow at a similar rate to humans up until ~20, when they're seen as adults. after that, aging slows dramatically, though lifespans can very wildly based on a number of factors. the average seems to be around 200, but some live much, much longer.

the majority of dragons can shift between a four-footed* (like official designs) and two-footed (on a scale from "animal standing up" to anthro like i usually do), switching based largely on what's convenient for the situation. some spend their entire lives in one shape or the other, others change throughout the day. like, it can be hard to sew when you have snapper feets, but pulling carts is easier on four feet.

(*they still use the four-footed descriptor for banescales and wildclaws, for simplicity's sake.)

this ability is innate and unique to dragons. it usually arises in hatchlings at ~5-6 years old, and in clans with organized education systems, kids start when they can reliably stay in one form. once a dragon gets used to keeping a form, it quickly becomes second nature and doesn't take any concentration.

nothing else on sornieth can do this. there are other shapeshifters, but this particular ability is dragons only. it's something in the way their anatomy interacts with magic- even the least arcana-inclined dragon has more magic in their blood and bones than the strongest maren or serthis mage could ever hope to wield.

(this ability is also not considered shapeshifting, even though it. kinda is. "shapeshifting" is the ability to change one's body entirely- dragons can't like, add more limbs or take away their tail etc)

while most dragons can shift with no issue, there are a number of reasons they may struggle. weak innate magic, trauma, and certain illnesses are the most common. ancient breeds also seem to have a harder time- banescales, for example, retain wings instead of arms in their two-footed form, and aberrations often have trouble staying focused enough to stay in one form or another.

OH quick addendum on sizing: dragons on two feet tend to be closer in size to each other. there's only so much they can change- a fae will always be much smaller than a ridgeback- but it's less dramatic. i alsooo tend to hc the breeds a bit closer in size than canon, just so they can feasibly live in the same society yknow lol

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 19: Yugi and the Only Neck Accessory He Didn’t Really Want to Wear

Been busy! Hopefully stuff will open up soon as I’m taking a hiatus on a different quarantine project and will be finishing painting the entire roof of my car this week? One can hope. Sanding the rust off the whole top of a car takes a long time it turns out?

Also, fun Yugioh fact, I recently painted a book cover for an author who is older so she’s never seen the show, and she looked at my tumblr, saw my Duke Devlin fanart and was like “That’s him. That’s my main character. OMG. You captured him perfectly!” and I was like “Ma’am that is Duke Devlin, hence the single dice earring on his lobes there, but we can work with this.” and now a spiritual Duke Devlin is on the cover of a Wuxia-style fantasy trilogy on the Vella. Had to give him a top knot and delete the eyeliner for Wuxia reasons but uh, that’s just Duke.

So long story short, fanart can get you work, don’t even worry about posting that stuff online because most people don’t even know it’s fanart anyway and older ladies freakin love it.

Back in Yugioh, the team was doing their best to navigate a map through the woods and they do about as well as they normally do.

And inside Tristan lifted up the floorboards and was like “I found the only way out, this is it, this is the only way.”

And they ended up in something that has a color scheme I would actually associate with a jungle. Finally. We have finally left California (in order to go to another Hell.)

Youknow, when we went to California, we visited Hell, and when we went to India, we also took a stop at the nearest death destination. There’s just so much death on this show and sometimes I forget because there’s been a ghost in our party for so freakin long it’s been normalized.

(read more death imagery under the cut)

Joey freaks out at a flock of crows and reveals in this episode something I never realized about him before.

Like I’m not always the perfect observer as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but I love that this is canon for probably only this episode, but I will never forget it for the entirety of this series.

You go on hating birds, Joey.

Bro was like “Maybe it’s a deep cut about Mai Valentine because she’s a harpy lady” but eh...pretty sure we spent like an entire season of Joey telling us that Mai was a good experience? Would be incredibly funny if immediately after all of S4, Joey was like “You know what? Screw Mai, guys.”

So my thoughts...it’s probably just a literal bird experience. Like I had a friend who hated deer because once she went to a petting zoo, got some pellets to feed the deer, but her finger was sticking up, so when the deer came over to nibble on some pellets her finger went up it’s nose by accident. She was so disgusted by this event that was entirely her fault, that she brought up how much she hated deer basically whenever we saw one.

So like...maybe Joey fed a bird wrong at a petting zoo. I can see him getting bit by a parrot because he was too Joey Wheeler.

But now that we’re in a graveyard neighborhood, Pharaoh decides to hop out because there’s a lot of ghosts here and he needs to practice socializing with his peers.

So that’s just a Yugioh monster doing the ostrich dance, right? Like this is a meme from like 2010 but on Yugioh in 2003(4?)

Good to see the Ostrich dance here in the land before Vine.

So they pull out their Pokemon to do some antics, Tea looked like she was about to do something useful, and Yami does a yump across time and space to get her as far away from playing (not)cards as quickly as possible and y’all...sure was a position these animators animated.

Holy crap.

And I was going off about that scene last season where they woke up in the same bed like...

...have these two been together this entire time? Like together together?

They’re like...way more comfortable than you’d figure they’d be considering Yugi nearly passes out every time he gets a hug. But Yami just like....How long has this been going on? As long as Joey’s fear of birds?

Like obviously this show would never cover what the hell Yugi may be thinking about this overreaching move here, because we’re gonna gloss right over that, and just run away up a flight of stairs. No one mentions this ever again. Which is mind blowing for an anime to do. I think in most anime I watch, the kids would be like “ahh ahhhh I bumped into a booooob!” like it does for I want to say every other episode of My Hero Academia. But in Yugioh, they saw that low hanging fruit and they were like “we expect a higher level of maturity out of our audience. Now here’s a fleet of ostrich dancing tree monsters with faces for crotches.”

They decided to sprint up this flight of stairs, and it enough of a slope to deter the monsters who are only unbalanced weird legs.

I want us to take a moment and admire this background painting. I can’t unsee the rocks that are all the same size, just piled on top of eachother. Did Alexander the Great just plop rocks here--or was the mountain made up of tons of similarly shaped boulders?

Like there’s a lot of nice bg’s in this arc, don’t get me wrong, but this one...I’m just trying to wrap my head around the logic of it.

At the top, they meet a pantheon, that is immediately blocked by this wall, because if this arc had a tagline, it’s “Yugi gets inconvenienced every 4 seconds.”

Bro was like “Clearly they would have pushed it over if Tea wasn’t slacking off” and like...she is actually. Look at her. Only used one hand? Slacker.

Joey was disappointed he couldn’t push over a massive wall, and the team decided not to analyze how much Joey Wheeler thinks of his own strength and instead fixate on these statues.

Usually in anthro characters they kinda look birdlike but act human. But what about an anthro that’s just a bird? Like human torso, but can turn his head 180 degrees? Yugioh made me ask this question.

And then Joey was like “wait, there may be a solution that isn’t just to use brute strength!”

Youknow it is a bummer that Kaiba couldn’t witness Joey own a dragon while he himself only has a robot jet dragon. Although, the jet is probably faster, stronger and overall...better than this baby dragon. It would have been great for Kaiba to witness Joey under-utilize this dragon and forget he has it for like huge swatches of the episode.

And then Grandpa pulled some body horror out of nowhere.

Wow.

I mean that is really gross.

I guess Grandpa can’t use Blue eyes, because Kaiba ripped it up, Grandpa can’t use Exodia because Weevil tossed it off a boat, and grandpa can’t use the card that’s just a building because...it’s a building.

So instead Grandpa has a bunch of meat and bones that look like something out of Doom. It’s probably from a more obscure Konami property, but I forget which.

I’ve seen Tristan hold back Joey in this hold, first time it’s been Tea.

So much shipping in this episode, it’s wild.

It’s also wild how low my standards are for what could possibly be shipping when it comes to Yugioh because of how freakin tepid all of these characters are, which as I’ve brought up before, I really don’t mind.

So Yugi decides that because Grandpa was folding his arms like one monster and it made a gem light up or something, to just do the video game thing and use the giant ass statues as clues.

Why was this arc not a video game? Like parts of it really feel like it was meant to be.

So Yugi falls down a hole, where the walls cave in like it’s that dumpster in Star Wars but like...it barely phases him.

Also...Yugi might be able to see in the dark. It’s never been brought up but like...the more I think about it...has Yugi ever struggled to see without the lights on?

After Joey disappoints everyone, he confronts death.

And Pharaoh and Yugi decide to solve the puzzle of “how do I get out of this trap dungeon room” which, honestly, is probably what they’re doing every time they hang out in the brain pyramid.

So they summon their mascot monster, and surprisingly the show decided its ability to fly cannot help them out here.

Kuriboh manages to become enough of a doormat to push Yami up to the stone and they end up in a set of weird cuts that ended in this?

Like seriously it was like flashes of light and then they were just...up here like this.

Hey like...

Alexander the Great, my man...

Were you planning to put that stone in the middle of a exhaust vent hoping someone would touch it? Because there’s no way anyone would rationally have done that. You would need to fly to do it. This is the world’s worst DM.

Like Yugioh pulls a lot of fantasy nonsense but this arc is a lot more like a “it’s a kid’s show, just go with it.” arc than most of them. It’s not a bad vibe, necessarily, it’s just not the vibe I’m used to.

So once I witnessed maybe the most boring conversation I’ve ever witnessed about corn (this was on a twitch stream, by the way, a guy was playing an interesting game, and then a guest came on and started talking about corn and plants for 2 hours) and they would not shut up about how all taxonomy is wrong because there are no such thing as trees and how all animals are labelled incorrectly, and then they started comparing it to like all sorts of mushrooms and phytoplankton as you would if you clearly got a little bit high before dumping your corn knowledge on a twitch stream.

Anyway, after that bizarre experience I suffered so I could learn how to play an obscure video game, I think I can safely say, that while I know everyone here thinks a bird can’t be a dog. If you’re a high biologist: a bird is absolutely a dog. Apparently you can just do that if you’re the most boring biologist alive and no one will argue with you because to do that would involve talking to you. We’ll just say a bird is a dog and no one can fight me or I will talk about the corn book that this guest on this twitch chat was thinking about renting from the library about the different types of corn mutations inherent in freakin Indiana. Therefore, Joey’s fear of birds and dogs is same.

So they use Dark Magician to save them from the statues, and Yugi busts into the pantheon again because they got to open this casket before a time limit that I kind of forgot about, tbh.

And inside the casket, is...this thing!

(enjoy this line on the bottom of the image I don’t feel like fixing it)

And you may say to yourself...it looks like it’s just floating in mid-air, that’s silly, and so I want to introduce you to the next panel where you can see that it is...quite literally...just floating in the air like a video game.

and it just slurps itself onto Yugi before he can be like “nonono.”

Wasn’t there some horror movie where you were stuck in some sort of body brace that slowly tortures you (was that Saw?) This has that vibes. Like man that looks uncomfortable to wear over a jacket and two belts and a collar that is another belt.

That and I...I gotta appreciate that Yugi popped his collar while wearing body armor and chunky necklace. What 00′s fashion appreciation right there.

Bit like...this isn’t breathable, right? Like Yugi’s gonna finally take this thing off and his jacket will just be completely soaked in sweat?

Anyway, that’s it for this post, next week we’ll see if Yugi can walk through a doorway in that thing.

Also, I can’t bring up the ostrich dance without sharing the vines of my generation

[jack-enbyfold]

Describing DSMP characters because I can’t draw well enough to do them justice

Hey, this is inspired by @jackstanifold, love you, my dear, sorry for stealing your idea/p

Dream- Just some dude in a smiley face mask, nothing visibly special. Green eyes, blond hair with a smattering of freckles and a lean build. Wears light armor over a green hoodie. Moves more with purpose and seems to move only when he needs to, light on his feet and fast. 

Punz- Very similar in appearance to Dream with blond cropped hair, blue eyes and a younger face then cc!Punz for some reason (possibly because of his icon), has a large build than Dream though but still very lean, moves like a soldier, facial scars and slightly pointed ears (only noticeable if you look close), lots of piercings as well as their ender pearl medallion

Eret- They look off, like obviously their eyes are whited out but there's something else to them that makes them look inhuman, holds themselves high and almost constantly has their hands in view (mainly clasped in front of them on at their sides), longer fluffier hair then cc!Eret normally has

BBH- The classic 9ft tall demon (though he can adjust his size), his main body is a black that seems to suck the light from nearby if not covered, his eyes and mouth do the opposite though emitting light, moves a little too smoothly to be human and very catlike in his reactions and ways of emoting

Sam- 2 sets of arms, patches of green on his skin with black eyes (the skin around them also having a black tinge), a mouth that’s a little too big with sharp teeth and black gums that he hides behind a gas mask, very tall and large in stature but actively tries to make himself look smaller a lot (unless he’s in warden mode)

Phil- has bat wings with torn skin that prevents his from flying, just looks like cc!Phil with shoulder length hair and a few extra scars on his jaw and eyebrow, has a small braid on the side of his head, pierced ears with mainly gold and emerald based jewelry, bucket hat, seems like he moves causally but is always on a guard, uses his wings to gesture a lot

Techno- Big pig man, not sexy anime boy just pig, has tusks and a rose ring as well as lots of tears in his ears from where there used to be earrings, heavy in his footfalls and movements, preferring to keep still and subdued when talking normally and using wide gestures when making speeches 

Niki- not much changes about her general appearance, she just looks a little more war hardened, her hair is shorter (having lost some of the ends to fires and war) and the dye in it is growing out, she also has more muscle bulk then cc!Niki and moves more cautiously

Ranboo- very tall and looks stretched and odd, split is not a clear 50/50 with his eyes and arms being odd shapes, lacks a mouth unless he opens it at which point he has no teeth or tongue, the only part of him that looks vaguely human is his red eye and his general body shape, despite being over 7ft, he tries to shrink into himself a lot and moves awkwardly, during his enderwalk he moves a lot more fluidly and is very feline in reactions and movement

Tommy- 

Pre Exile: Doesn’t look that different from cc!Tommy, still has his braces, has scars from the 16th and his two deaths, missing part of his eyebrow due to it being singed off, stands and moves like a soldier despite being a kid, sharp canines 

Post Exile- longer hair but choppy and missing length in some areas (chin length in some spots), farmer’s tan from exile and small burn scars from being too close to lava and TNT, a lot skinner especially in the face, still has braces, still tries to hold himself to the same standard when it comes to posture and movement but just doesn’t have the energy most the time

Tubbo- started with shorter blond hair (box bleached) that grew out to cover his eyes by the time he’s in Snowchester, visible roots, goat horns that grow straight up, can’t drop his posture due to ages of either standing as soldier or standing as a president, scaring over his arms and the sides of his face as he brought his arms up to protect himself 

Fundy- Literally just an anthro fox, scarring on his muzzle and missing a part of his ear, the fur on his tail is almost always singed, has really good posture like Tubbo (for the same reason) until he runs, always looks slightly panicky and nervous when he moves even when he’s calm

Wilbur- looks a little older then cc!Wilbur be it stress or actual age, there’s a near permanent dent in his lower lip where his cigarettes usually sit and the tips of his fingers are stained, skinny to the point of concern but hides it with a jacket, he constantly holds himself loosely and uses wide sweeping gestures when he talks, slow and calm in his movements despite his paranoia   

[heavy-lobster]

POST THE FUCKING ESSAY KOAL/DUSTY I SWEAR TO GOD

WAIT I THOUGHT YOU READ IT ALREADY??? DID I SERIOUSLY NOT SEND IT TO YOU WHEN I INITIALLY FINISHED IT??? GOD WHAT THE FUCK

Well I can’t NOT post it now.

So for some background, the assignment was to write a short essay arguing as to why a children’s series of our choosing could be classified as horror, based on some article we had to read. I chose Wow Wow Wubbzy because I thought it would be funny and. man. So anyways this is VERY poorly written because I did most of it between like,,, midnight and 3 am. It’s very ranty and way longer than it needed to be. For ease of reading I went back and fixed up the shitty formatting and fixed a few spelling errors, as well as linking my sources.

So uhhh this is about horror so,, warning for horror ig?? It’s not scary like, at all, but better safe than sorry.

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: The Horror Within

Introduction

“Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” is an American TV show originally aired on Nick Jr. From the mind of Bob Boyle, this educational kid’s show was very memorable for a lot of kids growing up at that time. The show features Wubbzy, a yellow, square, animalistic character, with a curly, “springy” tail; as well as Wubbzy’s various friends. Most episodes feature Wubbzy and his pals, Widget and Walden (as well as Daizy in later episodes), dealing with an every day situation, or well, depends on your definition of “every day”. The situation spirals out of control because of the actions of various characters, and it is resolved by the problematic character of the episode learning a lesson and fixing their mistake. Seems like a typical kids show, right? Well, there may be more to it than that. What if I told you that Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! could be interrupted as a horror show about horrifically mutated beasts struggling to survive the post apocalyptic world they are forced to inhabit? Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! fits many categories described in Sharon A. Russell’s literary criticism in “What is the Horror Genre?”. In this essay we will discuss how Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! could possibly be classified as a horror series.  

Asking the real questions; what is everyone?

First of all, a very important question. What exactly are the characters? There are claims that Wubbzy himself is some kind of gerbil, but frankly I don’t see it. Also, what’s the deal with the inhabitants of Wuzzleburg in general? Wubbzy and his friends are supposed to be anthropomorphic animals, but they seem more like horrific monsters, mutated from normal animals. Monsters are a very common and important element in horror. Not all monsters are vicious killers, and not all of them are obvious in appearance. Some monsters are small and cute, but it’s almost always a facade. 

There are also some “regular” animals running around, but yet they aren’t “normal” by any stretch of the imagination. Some are very obviously not normal, others seem mostly normal. “Flutterflies” are a common, non-anthro animal seen in Wubbzy, with their most prominent appearance being in the episode “The Flight of the Flutterfly”. Flutterflies seem like normal butterflies, but why are they called “Flutterflies” instead? Are they in any way different to the butterflies of our world, or is that just what the inhabitants of Wuzzleburg call butterflies? What about the more blatantly odd non-anthro animals? In “Attack of the 50 Foot Fleegle” Wubbzy acquires a pet “Fleegle”. It appears to be a small, purple, almost hamster like creature. It remains small and happy if you feed it the right kind of food, but Wubbzy foolishly feeds it candy and sweets. When fed candy, the Fleegle increases in size in increasingly large increments. After a time, it becomes so big that it rampages all over Wuzzleburg. The only thing that could shrink it back to normal size was carrot juice. When fed bologna, they multiply, and the solution to this is unknown, as the episode ends there and this is never brought up again. 

There are plenty of strange animals, both anthropomorphic and not; yet no humans. Not a single human character in sight. This begs the question, what happened? Why are all these animals how they are? What happened to the humans? Obviously, these questions were never answered, as this is a kids show. Here is a thought to consider: what if all the humans are dead, and all the characters are mutant abominations, or, monsters as they’d more fittingly be called. Humans have been wiped out, and the animals who survived mutated in many different ways. Some animals became intelligent, and capable of building their own society similar to what once was our own. That society is what we know as Wuzzleburg. In conclusion, all the creatures seen in the show are the result of something terrible; mutated abominations passing as animals. This fits the “monster” category of horror as described in Russell’s article.

What’s the deal with Wuzzleburg?

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! takes place in the fictional town of Wuzzleburg. Wuzzleburg and its surrounding locations look very odd. Everything is unnaturally geometric. Everything- from houses to trees- is very odd in appearance. Tree branches are often bendy, always at a right angle, with the edges being smooth and rounded. In Wuzzleburg, many houses look like completely normal houses, yet Wubbzy lives in a tree house. Another common thing is that houses and buildings of importance are usually designed based on a specific object. Daizy’s house, for example, is shaped like a flower. 

Outside of Wuzzleburg, the locations only get weirder. There is an island, shown to be somewhere off the coast of Wuzzleburg, called “Dino Island”. As the name suggests, this island is inhabited by dinosaurs. So apparently, dinosaurs are not extinct in this universe; at least on this island. As far as other towns go, there is Wuzzlewood, clearly based on Hollywood, where all the biggest celebrities in the Wubbzy cinematic universe (WCU) live. Everything in Wuzzlewood is covered in stars, a clever spin of the celebrity theme. Another interesting location is Plaidville. In Plaidville, everything is plaid; the trees, the ground, and even the inhabitants. I don’t have to explain what is unnatural about that. 

Now, back on the topic of Wuzzleburg, since it is the main location seen in the show, and is where Wubbzy and his friends live. It has been stated that Wuzzleburg was founded in 1853 by “Heinrich van Wuzzle”. The specific year being given is an odd detail, that you wouldn’t normally expect in a show of this nature. Wuzzleburg is clearly a town in every sense of the word. It has plenty of stores and restaurants, an airport, houses, residents, a mayor, a rich history, annual festivities, reliable transportation, schools, and even a stable economy. All of this being made by what we have already established as horrific monsters. That’s impressive. There is common debate in the Wubbzy fandom on whether these locations are in a parallel universe, or perhaps if they exist on our Earth. In the episode “Fly Us To The Moon”, the place where they land back on “Earth” appears to suggest that Wuzzleburg is located somewhere in or near Washington state, in America, or possibly somewhere in British Columbia. 

My theory is that the events of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! takes place on Earth, but certainly not our Earth. An alternate Earth, where humans may have lived before. Some horrible nuclear accident wiped out all human life, and caused all the animals to mutate into the many strange creatures of the WCU. This also explains the unnatural features of the setting. Post-apocalyptic Earth? Sounds like a perfect horror setting to me. This fits perfectly with the criteria described in Sharon’s article.

The beast within; Wubbzy’s true villain

Finally, the matter of the deep internal conflict hidden deep within the show. In the show, you can expect every episode to have a lesson or moral, as many kids shows do. Most episodes feature one of the main characters (almost always Wubbzy) making a mistake, followed by them learning the lesson of the episode and using their newfound knowledge to make things right. What if I told you that this is sign of a much deeper internal conflict going on far beneath the character’s cute exterior? Would it be so far fetched to believe that every episode is focused on the anthropomorphic abominations struggling to fight against their beastly instincts? Their own organized and civilized society goes against their very nature, and they constantly fight to uphold the standards they set; both for themselves, and each other. It's a constantly uphill climb. Wubbzy is undeniably a flawed character. He messes up constantly, often learning the same lessons over and over again, as if it’s more of a reminder than a lesson. It’s Wubbzy against himself. This fits Sharon’s criteria of internal horror, but that’s not all. 

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is also the story of a quest for self improvement, as well as a good vs evil scenario, which are two of Russell’s other criteria. I mean, think about it. Every character is open to self improvement once they realize the harm they’ve caused. Every character is on their own quest, seeking to better themselves. Every character is going through their own internal battle. They fight their own flaws. Their own evils. The true villain of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is the evil within all of them, the beastly instincts lurking within all of Wuzzleberg’s monster inhabitants. And they may not always be perfect, maybe they don’t know how to be “good”, maybe being good just isn’t in their nature; but they try their best despite all the challenges, to be better, and improve themselves. 

In that way I think we can all relate to them. We aren’t always “good”, we aren’t perfect, sometimes we don’t know how to do the “right” thing, but our flaws are what make us human. It may not be in our nature to be flawless, but it is in our nature to seek self improvement, and that’s what Wubbzy is really about. The struggles we all go through to be better people, because inside? We’re all just monsters trying our best to be civil, and conform to our moral code. And really? That’s enough. 

Conclusion 

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is undeniably a kid’s show at heart, but if you really stop to analyze it, you find a much darker horror series. It would be fittingly classified as a psychological horror. It fits almost all of Sharon A. Russell’s criteria as described in the article “What is the Horror Genre?”. What is Wubbzy? In fact, what are all of the show’s characters? Their vaguely animal appearance appeal to young children, but I believe that they may actually be normal animals mutated into horrible monsters. Freaks of nature created by a nuclear incident. There is not a single human seen in the show, but plenty of abnormal creatures. This suggests that we are long gone. The monsters we left behind built their own society.

 Not only were the animals affected, but also the earth itself. The odd nature of the setting supports my nuclear devastation theory. Finally, is the true conflict of Wubbzy. The show itself is about nuclear monsters trying their best to adapt to the society they built for themselves, even if it goes against their own nature. It’s beasts on a quest where the only objective is the betterment of the self. An internal conflict. There is no physical villain in the show. The only antagonist out to get Wubbzy, is Wubbzy himself. In that way, I think we can all relate. In conclusion, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is actually about horribly mutated animals fighting their inner demons, on a metaphorical journey to be better than they are. For that very reason, I believe it could be interrupted as a horror series. 

Sources: 

Wubbzy Wikipedia page

Wubbzy Fandom Wiki, which I did NOT know existed before this project and honestly the comments on the page were the funniest fucking thing, I highly recommend it

And uhhh various episodes of Wubbzy I had to watch

I apologize for my crimes

[reve-de-dragon]

Results of the form

results under the cut

The donjon and dragon is, obviously, not surprising. I��m on the same page here, it counts as a dragon, and is honestly the closest to basic pop culture european dragon i can find. 

Donjon and dragon wyvern gets some not a dragon answers. From what i gather from looking through the answers, I assume it has to do with the sapience of the wyvern, as aside from a single person, i haven’t seen the “four legs two wings is a dragon” type of answer.

The tarasque surprised me a bit more! I see them as a dragon, but physical traits of that type (weird chimera) usually doesn’t matters to me if they are quite reptilian, which works here, in most pictures. I think for most dragons however, it is a too weird creature for them to comprehend them as a dragon. There might also be the problem of the dnd tarasque, who is treated as its own thing in the game, which might have influenced some.

Smaug is overall seen as a dragon. The picture was the movie smaug, so the one not a dragon comes from the “four leg 2 wings is a dragon” answer (btw, not trying to say that is wrong, for this form!).

not much to say here.

Had to go back to see what kind of answer said that pernese dragons were not dragon for their own mind, and from what i see of the rest of their answer, I suspect that its the book’s twist on these dragons that influenced the answer. I wondered if i would have more not a dragon because of this specificity, but it seem it overall is seen as a dragon.

Dutch angels are pretty divided! They are not dragons in my eyes, as they are too mammalian to register as a dragon, which i believe is the case for most people here, from talking with people who answered. 

Wyrms register as dragons for me. The non dragon part seems to be on the lack of wings (usually also putting the draque as not a dragon) and the lack of limbs. Some may also have thought about sapience, although i can’t check that, and haven’t encountered that one while talking with some who took the form.

Amusingly, the sea serpent almost mirrors the wyrm. I do not really understand that one, as it tends to be registered as the same thing for me (big long beast who can grow to tremendous sizes). If the wyrm is put as not a dragon, I assume it’s the lack of wings/limb, but some do put wyrms and not sea serpent, as seen here! This appear to be caused by wyrms and sea serpents as different kind of beasts, as a sort of cousin specie.

:’( Poor chimken. My human logic tells me dragon, because they are referred as such in some myths. As a dragon however, i’m not sure. Size plays a lot into it for me, but the dangerosity of the beast does too. I think I wouldn’t consider it a dragon as the pop culture cockatrice that is small, but as soon as it is human sized or more, i’d have a doubt and consider it something on the same level as me.

Too mammalian for me, but technically a dragon I guess ahah. It depends on who you ask, in myths. I tend to see it as another kind of creature both as a dragon and human, though. 

Same, to a further extent.

That one is very strange! Not because of the amount of not dragon, that i expected, but because I saw quite a few people who did agree that it was a dragon say that a sea serpent wasn’t one, which boggles my mind! I see it as a simple animal myself, and haven’t been able to understand that sea serpent is not but nessie is situation, so if you answered that, would love to know why!

Was simply to check if reptilian body and sapience was enough for some. Two people did answer yes, but for the most part, it’s a no. 

Got a friend who is a predacon were, so I was curious if being biological or mechanical would influence some. Amusingly enough, from that predacon, I learnt that they, themselves, didn’t consider all predacons dragons, due to differences in behaviors. The exemple here was predaking, so a pretty normal dragon aside from the mechanical thing. I wanted to add the bipedal cybertronian form too, but was afraid my first question may be lost like that. One person did say they were not dragons to them, so i wonder if it’s due to lore or nonbiological nature.

The worms from dunes have technically very draconic behaviors and lore, and are inspired from european dragons. One person did agree that they were sort of alien dragons, apparently, but for the most part, i assume the physical form says not dragon. On my side, i am unsure! I think not, because they are not creatures i can really interact with, i assume, so I’d mostly see them as bigger than average animals.

Wondered where humanoid body type started to be seen as nondraconic. Depending on the anthro dragon, I myself am on a “maybe”. Behavior and dangerosity would probably matter a lot to me here.

And that’s where I myself draw the line! Flat faces disturb me, and in that case, size and general appearance convey a “not a dragon” feel for me.

The lack of wings is what makes them not a dragon, for the one who answered that, as it seems. Perhaps some sapience too?

This one is an animal for me, whereas drakes are dragons. Amusingly enough, some said drakes were not dragons, but those were! I assume it’s the flight/glide.

Dragon brains says That’s A Horse, whereas human logic says it’s closest to a dragon. Pretty easy to understand here, simply the appearance. 

Overall, dragon. Logical. However, two person said not a dragon! The first did say Cortos (little wyvern type creatures) were, from the same game, and the other said zinogre (a wolf/dragon that wield thunder) and dah’ren morhan (a gigantic desert leviathan) did say those were dragons! So it’s not the game. I really don’t get that one, and would love thoughts on it.

Was curious if the mammalian appearance would matter. Zinogre is on the line for me. 

They look like wyverns, but are very small and weak. They don’t register as dragons for me, but as animals. Seems they do for most though, although i can’t say if all understood their size due to the picture.

This one is similar to the sand worm for me. Although technically draconic, being similar to a leviathan, he just doesn’t register as one, although there’s the power and size to usually back it up for me.

Was curious to what extent dragon like horrors would be understood as dragons. I see that one as a dragon, but that may be due to myself seeing my draconity as somewhat lovecraftian. I relate a lot to cthulhu on a conceptual level. 

I mean. I’m surprised there’s not a dragon human hybrid kind of thing here ngl. What’s the difference? Plus tbh, he does seem more draconic than the pic i used for the human dragon hybrid in my opinion. Probably the pose does it for me. Really like this painting.

Expected it, but hey! Fun fact! The red dragon of the apocalypse above, and Satan/the devil are the same entity! Bamboozled again. I have to admit, although the depiction above makes me think dragon, due to the imagery associated with satan, i mostly see him as a human looking dude or goaty fellow. I’m pretty sure he is called a dragon in christian lore.

Not threatening enough for me, but yeah that’s probably what’s going on here, he’s simply not very threatening. Deal breaker for some, but dragon for most.

Tried to see if more strange looking “dragons” got the same approval as charizard, since they even had the typing. Seems like theropods body type isn’t commonly seen as draconic, as I furthered that question with a smaller group with some other theropod looking draconic creatures! Have to admit, unsure if it’s the human logic that applies here, and makes me go : that’s a real animal, or if it’s a dragon thing.

Same but more theropod.

Technically, he can be called one, but yeah he is very mammalian, which is most of those no votes. I’d say I would probably consider him on the same level as me. Something about the tatzelwurm makes me think of a sapient beast, which may play into it. Everything seems more dangerous and more “at my level” if they are intelligent. They are small, and not very powerful, but for some reason it still doesn’t strike me as wrong here.

Wanted to see both if something very bird like, and very non threatening looking was understood as a dragon. Seems like for the most part, it works. I’d honestly probably just see that one as a weird fire bird. For the most part, most dragonvale dragons don’t register as such for me, in a similar way to pokemons. 

Putting those two back to back because it’s very funny. Expected both to be dragons, or both not, and turns out there’s also a fair share to one is, but the other no. I can understand toruk yes, ikran no, as toruk is much more imposing, but the other way around i don’t quite see, although a few people did say so. If you have theories, would love to hear.

Added the thanator last minute as a sort of “pandoran drake”. Seems like most people just see it as an alien. Flight plays a strong part on recognizing something as draconic for most, so if you throw away the obvious reptilian/draconic features, isn’t so easy. Plus, I won’t lie, it acts pretty non draconic, but hey was worth trying. Expected it.

Similar thought, although more reptilian. although the thanator doesn’t register as same as me, xenomorphs do. Probably the dangerosity/intelligence here too.

It’s very, very weird, but dragon shaped. I’d see it as a dragon. A lot don’t. Put it for the same reason as the tarasque, but with wings.

I won’t lie it’s a bird i expected that, but it’s golden? It eats metals? Maybe some feathered dragons could relate. Where does bird dragon stops, and mythical bird begins? Amusing to go back to the peteu or the serre with this thought in mind.

If quetzacoatl gets to be a dragon, why not them. I see them as dragons like wyrms. Seems like a fair share don’t! Amusingly, I assume like the sea serpent, it doesn’t mirror wyrms, although the two are very close.

Yeah fair. Honestly though, it’s strange how so many weird appearance don’t get a pass, but that one does. I assume it’s because they fly, or are very powerful? Since other very reptilian looking chimeras or draconic beasts don’t make the cut. Or pop culture i guess. I see them as beasts like me, but actually not as dragons. I see them as “eastern dragons” which for me is a dinstinctly different creature from european dragons on all level, and probably shouldn’t share the dragon name, which is why i try my best to find another term to use, like long or ryu. I do however make them fall in the category of beasts that are “same as me”, although i usually see them as a bit higher, closer to deity like, in folklores.

Was curious since “he doesn’t act like a dragon anymore” is something I had heard a few times from dragons. From the people who answered, seems there isn’t much here. I personally do feel weird about how toothless act in the third movie, the whole thing is a bit off. Probably because, like another dragonkin said, they are treated as exotic pets or human adjacent.

Gidorah is pretty dragon like, not much here, it was mostly to introduce the following. We did get a few no, though! I assume it’s because it’s an alien, or something of the sort? Theories appreciated once again.

Godzilla is honestly very dragon like. Massive, reptilian, breath weapon. He even protects things sometimes. But seems like for most, he isn’t one. Curious as to why so. I assume the theropod look must have struck again, as well as pop culture making you automatically go : no that’s a kaiju, not a dragon.

Fair. With the zinogre i wanted to see how far i could push it.

To the 2 people who answered yes : Wrong. I am judging you. 

EDIT : forgot to say : Feel free to give any thoughts! I’d love to start a discussion

[spiffyworks]

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching

SSSo recently, after finishing (an admittedly long-overdue) a piece, I decided to download a trial of the new Corel Painter 2019. I hadn’t used Painter since my old DeviantArt days (circa 2005) and wanted to see how it felt with more digital art-veteran hands. Loaded it up, started sketching my default doodle-muse and wow, that “Real 2B” pencil feels great. I loved it so much, and wondered why. 

That’s the story that is spawning this weird personal series of Software Surfing. I wanted to write little notes to future-me on how it felt using my favorite sketching tools in each program I have, and after the sixth one I thought it might be a good idea to check out inking, colouring, painting, etc. and writing those down as well.

So I’m writing this series for myself, but making it available in case anyone else can benefit as well. Thanks for sticking with the intro, let’s get into it.

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

There are many ways to sketch, but this is specifically the classic “pencil” or “drawing” form using the tools with the program’s default settings.

As an introduction, this is my doodle-muse, Cloey. She was my first original character, and though I don’t usually share my anthro art on here (I know that’s not everyone’s thing) I do have a separate blog for that stuff that you can find here if you’re so inclined. If you’re familiar with Artgerm (and you should be), she’s basically my Pepper.

Corel Painter’s “Real 2B”:

The one that started it all. The pencil just GLIDES, and I’ve always loved when you can tilt a pencil tool and it will shade just like tilting a real-life pencil. The only thing I want from a program now is to be able to bind touch to blenders so I can use my finger to smudge-blend the scribbling. (I tried drawing that fist so many times /fume)

Likes: Tilt functionality, line width variance, stroke speed, eraser Dislikes: Rebinding Rotate Canvas tool was a pain. I like Shift+Space, and that key combo is reflected in the shortcut panel, but it just continued to pan. Never worked for me, and rotating or flipping the page quickly is crucial for my sketching process. Also sometimes if I quickly resize the eraser and mash it down to use, it won’t detect any input.

Photoshop, Kyle Webster’s “2B” & “Animator Pencil”: 

**Disclaimer** Firstly, I’ve used Photoshop for over 15 years now, and it’s a great digital art tool, but for drawing and painting I find it’s sorely lacking. It’s slow, expensive, and unintuitive. That being said, there are some things this program does exclusive to others so I’m still clinging to it (desperately) and while I would definitely recommend something else for budding digital artists, I have to supplement my misgivings by purchasing additional plugins and tools, such as the famed Kyle T Webster’s Ultimate Megapack for Photoshop (

which is now complementary with Photoshop CC, damnit

). Unless otherwise noted, all the brushes I use in Photoshop will be from that pack. **End Disclaimer**

Following off the heels of Corel, I remembered messing around with another “2B” (which btw is my personal favorite traditional pencil to sketch with) in Kyle Webster’s Drawing Box in Photoshop. It felt a bit similar, but with no tilt functionality and it really lacked the chunky-thickness (a scientific term) I enjoyed with Painter’s pencil. I switched to my favorite (and the favorite of MANY digital artists btw) his “Animator’s Pencil”. So chunky, but the ability to shade lightly... It’s really a fun brush to use for sketching digitally. Still one of my absolute favorites.

Animator Pencil Likes: Line width variance, texture fills in and scales perfectly Dislikes: It’s a photoshop exclusive, a program that for some reason you can’t bind shortcuts to whatever you please, takes forever to load, and WAY too often suffers input lag while drawing. Also no tilt shading, :’( aw

Paintstorm’s “Textured Pencil” & “Pencil Tilt”

As a bit of an aside, I love Paintstorm, Paintstorm is what got me back into digital drawing and painting after doing 3D and game design for 7 years. I bought it for the very low price of entry (2 licenses for $30) and was impressed by its ability to customize literally anything in the program. You can create your own tool/brush boxes, bind any shortcut to any key combination, and every single brush tool adjustment comes with the most customization control of any program I’ve come across since Photoshop set the bar way back in the day. Out of the box a lot of the basic brushes have that old OpenCanvas or PaintTool Sai feel, but more recently they’ve added some very textured default brushes you can play around with. It’s also hands-down the FASTEST program I’ve ever worked in. I highly recommend giving it a try, it’s great for learning and experimentation. I grew a lot working in Paintstorm.

The Textured Pencil is a fun sketching brush, you can get as think or thick as you’d want and it keeps a clean outline. The Pencil Tilt really blew my mind the first time I used it. YOU CAN SHADE! It was the first time I had ever seen a program do that. The tilt has a great texture, fantastic control, and gets just as dark as you’d need. I’d recommend using them both, the Textured Pencil for a cleaner sketch, and the Pencil Tilt for something more expressive or loose.

Krita’s Ink-Tilt & “Sketch”:

I’ll be honest, I have almost no experience in Krita despite having downloaded and given it a try back in 2014. It was a hell of a time to figure out how to rebind my usual shortcuts (flip horz, rotate canvas). I couldn’t even rebind colour grab/eyedropper. Yikes. I opened up the “Sketching” brush box and there were only two options, made worse as one was a sketch pen... That lacked the flexibility of ballpoint. 

First I grabbed the pencil dubbed “Sketch” and was bewildered why the size of the circle was so large compared to the mark it made. Very confusing. Feeling intimidated, I abandoned it immediately to try out the “ink_tilt” (which by the way there’s no tilt functionality??) and hated it. I reluctantly went back to the pencil and just started trying to make marks. Wow. It’s weird, but surprisingly fun. You have to be willing to relinquish a LOT of control, but the shapes the brush makes while moving and tilting during a stroke can yield some really interesting and suggestive shapes. I would say great for early concepting or making something really loose and expressive. Fun to play with, but not really practical.

Clip Studio Paint’s Real Pencil & Rough Pencil

I’ve been wholly immersed in CSP since I purchased the program back in late 2016. It goes on sale often, so you can pick up a nice fully featured program for ~$35. I’d had my eye on it for a while and still really want to get into self-publishing comics, so I picked it up, bought a couple of brush packs for it (it’s pretty lacking in default painting tools) and I’ve been illustrating in it ever since. The brush creation isn’t as fun as Paintstorm, but brushes are quite customizable. I usually like to use the “Rough Pencil” if I want just a little texture and line variance, or the “Darker Pencil” for something cleaner. Trying to be different, I just jotted out a couple heads in ones I don’t normally use, the Real Pencil and Design Pencil. The Real Pencil has a lot of texture, but for some reason in CSP the textures don’t seem to scale with the brush, so I tend to avoid using it in most cases. I hate the design pencil, I just could never get dark enough. I guess that’s probably the point, though.

Well, that definitely wraps this digest up. I feel refreshed after trying out a lot of new digital sketching brushes. I was really reminded of how much I enjoyed drawing in Paintstorm. I hope someone other than me found this useful or otherwise inspiring! Sometimes, especially if you’re stuck in some art blockage, it’s a good idea to try something new, and for me digitally that’s hopping programs and trying new brushes.

I’m thinking about doing inks, colours, and painting at some point. Let me know if anyone’s interested in those! I’m planning on doing some for myself eventually, but I might expedite a post if anyone is interested. o/ Take it easy,  y’all.

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting