#but ALSO a lot of my favorite artists have sketchy lines and a lot of them dont even color! AHHH

[duskerot]

maybe i will stop lining my art . maybe i will just color under my sketches after cleaning them up alittle

[saewokhrisz]

have u ever talked anywhere about your coloring or composition processes? u are honestly one of my favorite artists and i would love to hear any insight on how you make pieces 💓

wahh thank you TTT !!! I did sorta give a very simplistic answer here but it was more of my simpler sketchy style so lemme redo that, ill try to be consise and make this understandable ?? its a bit hard cuz it honest to god depends on what Kind of piece im even drawing, cuz for some i go the whole length of doing lineart flats and all that, others i just just fuck around untill it looks right?

i do usually start with a rough sketch or colour draft, especially with more compley pieces this helps with figuring out the feel, honestly i should spend more time drafting properly, figuring out poses and such but im so lazy i just go w the first thing that looks good

then just lines over the colour draft, fixing lots of anatomy and proportion stuff, and depending on how i wanna do the colours ill either keep the colour layers or merge them together and have the edited colours as the base colour (this might not even make sense help)

see this piece at the time gave me an insane ammount of trouble with lighting and colours, so after trying to render i ended up merging everything together....which i dont USUALLY do but the rendering is pretty similar except usually i have colours be seperated by layer,

ANYWAYS sadly i dont have a process on how it got from flats to this specific render for this piece...but i still followed my initial drafts/plans with vibe and colours and just painted over it, its why i make it after all!

but honestly a lot of times its just very simple colours and just trying to mainting good contrast and values !!!! and THEN fucking around with colours and rextures, for other pieces i kinda just paint as i go? i have this timelapse of my justice piece that may be a bit more help!

it includes the initial colour draft, the cleanup/lining process, flats, rendering, and all that so its probs the most accurate timelapse of my morecomplex work processes, with stuff that doesnt include heavier backgrounds, which is a whole OTHER topic honestly

im sorry if i cant explain it more cohesively, i genuinely barely know what im doing most times and go by muscle memory and stuff i Know but cant. Explain? like i know how light and folds work since i observed and studied them but i cannot put it into words at all )--)0

my brushes also contribute a lot to how i render and colour, depending on what i use, you can find the swatches for them here !

[painting-warhammer]

C’Tan Shard of the Deceiver in the style of Sonichu (CWC)

I lied. This is my favorite figure. Commentary under cut.

#1: Rule Number One Is That You Gotta Have Fun

The other two figures I painted had ups and downs--days genuinely ruined and many frustrated moments where I just hated everything about this hobby and everything I was making. I'm sure this is no strange feeling to any artist, but since I kinda gave up on art over a decade ago only to pick this up after that decade, it really felt like that heartbreaking moment of making something that you know was bad and not improving fast enough.

I never had that for one second while painting Sonichu. I honestly giggled to myself a lot when I worked on him. When something fucked up (note how I didn't make as good of a glowing effect on the eyes) I just took that as "Well, that's just me being accurate to the original art." When something went well, I learned something that I would be able to apply in the future. If you look closely at the quills and the chest, you'll see that this was the first time I tried edge highlighting to get more of a good lighting effect. On top of that, I just used Baharroth Blue without a base paint, but rather as a base paint that I later darkened with a Tyran Blue shade wash for the creases in the sash. I did the same for the skin near on his abs and arms. (I should have made them blue. Damn.)

I also didn't get so bogged down in being accurate to the inspiration, or became better at knowing what to pick and choose. For example: Sonichu doesn't have a sash, of course. Instead, I decided to go with the color of the banner in Issue #0.

There was a point I briefly considered learning how to actually make a decal, then taking the title to be plastered on the front of the model, but I decided against it. I even considered some yellow streaks to give him a bit of a glow, but if you look at the base you'll see some of the experimental wetblending I tried (and would hypothetically cover later) and it just didn't look good.

Also the feet. Sonichu does have a distinct color for his shoes, but I just shrugged and figured it was more correct to just keep it in line with his hands on the model. I made the hands in the hideous style of the Bad Trailer Sonic, and figured the feet would probably follow the same principle. Besides, the sash had enough blue as it is.

#2: Rule Number Two - Just Don't Get Attached, Too

I said I had fun at all stages painting Sonic'hu, and I meant that. The painting part, that is. Gluing was a disaster.

If you're new to the hobby, understand this: Older models, things from the 90's or earlier, are produced using a plastic resin. It's very light gray (left) while the newer stuff has a dark gray tint and is made with a different kind of plastic.

Now Citadel sells ONE (1) glue, pictured to the left. It's a very good glue for the DARK GRAY plastic. It looks like this. Some people use the one on the right, but the listing on Amazon is apparently sketchy as hell and comes empty because they can scam you out of your money since you can't return or refund liquids. So I never fw it; if I encounter it in a hardware store or hobby shop, I'll pick it up and give it a shot.

This is all to ultimately say that in spite of Citadel selling only ONE KIND OF GLUE, that ONE GLUE cannot hold light gray resin figures together AT ALL.

I don't have pictures, but God was it frustrating. Sonic'hu would CONSTANTLY fall apart while drying. I would be holding his arm in place; the head would fall off. His spines would fall off. He'd flop over on his base. Even after priming him, his arm fell off again, and you can see his face is a mess of when my fingers were just covered and glue and I was just holding him in place frustratedly. I tried like three different glues (not including Tamiya, but Krazy Glue was one) and I don't remember which one worked.

However, whether Tamiya works or not, I actually did have to go back to resin on a different figure recently. I went through my old man's drawer and found this.

It's unreal how good this is. Put this on resin, and the plastic itself comes apart easier than the glue does. It also works okay on the dark gray figures, but I've had the odd part come undone and I went back to the Citadel Glue.

Fair warning though--I'm praising this version of Loctite specifically. There are a few varieties, and I can't say much as far as their quality, but I read online that the ones with an extra long cap tend to dry out and be unopenable later. This Gel Control version doesn't give me any problems like that, though.

#3: Rule Number Three - Wear Your Heart On Your Cheek

My only regret is not going harder with this.

There were some gemstones at the bottom of this model and I literally don't remember what happened to them. I was going to paint them like Chaos Emeralds, originally. Then I saw a paint job of the model that had stones encircling the C'tan Shard like he was making them rise up Dragonball style, and the thought came to mind to get little Chaos Emerald replicas to look as though they were orbiting him. (Unfortunately, Etsy pretty much only had them in a set size, and though Sonic'hu was the largest figure I'd worked on, he was too small to have those orbiting around him.)

I also wanted to learn how to model with Green Stuff using this model; there was a point where I considered making the actual sneakers, but more importantly the Pikachu ears and the one additional spine to bring it up to six total. I didn't not want to do that when I bought it, actually, but after the glue had settled after so much effort I was utterly sick of the prep phase and just went straight to painting.

There's also a little Necron that is at the base of the C'Tan that I also haven't painted, but the reason for that is that I am considering how to do the CWC's "The Classic" shirt on his rib cage. I keep waiting for the inspiration to strike.

So that's Sonic'hu. Honestly, having a shitpost figure was something that helped me be a little less afraid of failure and take chances, make mistakes, and get messy. I would resume tryharding by the next figure, and ultimately paint, in my opinion, my best figure yet.

[asp1diske-art]

Your technical skill with lineart and shading is amazing in itself, but it's your ability to convey emotion and atmosphere in your work that is trademark to me :) its incredible how you can show through gesture and body language just what these masked, expressionless characters are feeling, and how the environment itself conveys that. Your lurien comics, especially the one that ends in something along the lines of "I return to the kingdom you abandoned" are I think the spark that made Lurien go from Some Guy to Deeply Interesting for me, and your use of color pop and shaky line contributed so much to the feeling in those comics. You are one of the artists whose skill at evoking emotions I aspire to <3

Oh wow, I've been reading and re-reading this for the last 20 minutes this is amazing.

So, emotions!

If there is one thing I'm proud to have accomplished during my time in Hollow Knight, it's the skill of expressing tone. Because here's the thing, facial expressions are just one of the many components of tone. (I even wrote about this in another ask some time ago.) Colors, gestures, camera angle, lighting, paneling, lines and narration - all of these come together to convey the mood of the scene.

Check out these wips from the Watcher and the Watched comic, for example.

You can see that color played a huge role in setting the atmosphere in the comic. It shows that this comic is taking place in the Watcher's Spire, but it also gives a dark, subdued feeling that wouldn't come from idk, a yellow background. The backlight emphasizes the ominous tone of the last page. As does Lurien's pose - coupled with the butler looking up and Lurien looking down, it makes it look like Lurien is looming over his butler (and the reader). All this builds up to deliver Lurien's lines with maximum impact.

So yeah, a lot goes into conveying tone in comics, and I'm very happy to hear that it was recieved well!!

The Lurien, Dreamer comic. It's almost 2 years old now but it's still one of the favorite comics I drew about him. Together with the City of Tears comic, it's the epitome of my interpretation of Lurien. My characterization of Lurien's relationship with the Pale King was quite different from the usual fanon at the time (I don't know how it is now, I haven't gone into the tags in years haha) and I wasn't really sure how people would take it. So I'm glad to hear that it got you interested in Lurien!

It's the one that took the longest too lol. Usually I draw comics in a single setting, but that one took 3 days. Besides Two Ghosts (which was an 18 chapter+@ comic that was over 50p and took about 2 months), no other comic has broken this record. I put in a lot of care into it, and it still holds a special place in my heart.

Honestly half the reason I use messy, sketchy lines is that I suck at drawing clean lines lmao. But I like to think that I've made the best of it and utilized it as an art style. In that comic especially, because the whole thing takes place in the dream realm and I wanted to give a rough, unreal feel to it.

I'd show breakdowns of this one too but the file is so big it keeps crashing lol. (Pro tip - draw your comic pages in separate files. Don't be like me and draw 300dpi 10p comics with 30 layers in each page in a single canvas. It will crash and you will be sad.) But drawing the White Palace was a interesting challenge because I usually draw in highly saturated colors whereas the Palace is, well, white. So I had to work out a way to color this without making everything looking grey, while also making it recognizable as the palace. iirc I used a lot of overlay & burn & dodge layers along with a few difference & subtract layers to give the white a slight yellow tint to stand out from the dark blue. (I'm pretty sure they're the culprits crashing the file.)

Sorry this got long, I really took this as an invitation to ramble about my art hkfsldjkflj

Thank you for all the compliments! It's an honor to hear that my art could be someone's aspiration, and I'm very happy that all my Lurien art got someone else into Lurien. I hope you have a nice day :D

[chronocrump]

Hello Chronocrump, I recently stumbled upon your art the other day, and I couldn't stop staring at your gallery.. It makes me realize there is so much thats lacking from my art that I really want to improve on. I felt desperate to contact you, but wasn't sure if it would be rude. I wanted to try to ask you, how do you approach drawing? Do you structure it first, or start with a gesture drawing? Focus on the form or perspective first? Etc My other question might seem strange, but I wanted to ask how do you hold your pencil? Ive learned that different pencil grips can drastically change the quality of someone's art. Thank you for your time. I'm sorry if my message is to long, or you don't want to respond back. I wanted to atleast try, but also let you know that your work has been very inspiring for me to keep trying.

I'm glad to answer your questions, it's seriously no problem. I wanna start by telling you how amazed I was when I checked your profile to see your work. I know you have a huge lack of confidence in it, but your art is genuinely beautiful, and frankly, looking at it, I found it hard to believe that you would be asking me for advice...from my perspective, you're way ahead of me. You're certainly better with color; you might notice I really only post sketches lol. I really don't want to dismiss or downplay your feelings about it, but I have to let you know how I felt looking at it. To me it seems like your brain is telling you your art isn't good enough when it very, very much is.

Anyway, enough gushing from me lol. On to your questions.

Usually when starting a drawing, I very loosely and lightly sketch the overall form of the pose I wanna do. Very rough basic shapes/forms to get everything in its right place before I start really drawing it with confident lines. Even then, all the lines are subject to change; nothing is sacred. To be honest tho, I usually mess up the proportions and have to fix them a bit lol. I try to sketch cleanly and concisely, meaning I try not to draw a lot of lines in a spot that could really be done with just one or two. I'm not super strict on that tho, at the end of the day while I try to draw efficiently, I also want to draw comfortably. So with something like a big circle for example, I'll draw that pretty sketchy. In terms of perspective, I'm trying to get better at it, but when considering how I want to use it in a drawing, it's part of the initial image or idea I have in my head, so I lay it out from the beginning. I do also draw structure lines on the face, just a simple cross to plan where the center of the face will be. Lately I've also tried taking more pictures of myself for pose reference and it works well.

Most of my practice comes from studying my favorite artists and trying to emulate the specific ways they structure their drawings. I should actually be doing dedicated practice sessions with that, but I digress. Recently I've been trying to practice from photos first thing in the morning, tho I'm finding it hard to commit to doing it daily. I just go on pinterest and find cool poses, then draw them, trying to get down the basic shapes and prominent features more than focusing on minute details. I've posted some of these practice sketches on here but there's a few more on my twitter if you wanna see what I'm talking about.

In terms of my pencil grip, I'm not sure...since I was little, I've always had an unusual grip. Looking it up, I guess it's like the "dynamic quadrupod" grip, but with my forefinger farther back. Really the most I try to do is draw less with my wrist and more with my forearm. Some say you should "draw from the shoulder", and that sounds right...I guess it's all about avoiding straining your wrist and getting carpal tunnel lol.

Anyway, I'm flattered that you would ask me for advice. To be honest, it makes me feel like I should have more confidence in my own art. And you should too! I can say that, objectively, your art is very good. I hope my advice was actually helpful and not generic stuff you've heard before lol. Good luck in your art journey.

[im-no-jedi]

Let’s get some fun recommendations goin around here! What’s a piece of clone content (art, fic, etc) that has stuck with you as being notably excellent? Tag it in your answer so we can all find some new fun to read! If you want, of course; feel free to ignore! 💕

🤩 oh what a fun idea!! I would LOVE to gush about some really cool artists, thank you 😁

I'll start with @shyranno, whose art I absolutely adore. her style is so clean and expressive and colorful, and she makes amazing comics. the TBB Downtime series is exactly my kinda Clone content, filled with lots of fluff and feels. the "baby" batch ones are my favorite, but I'm also fond of this one where Tech gets teased from not being able to grow a beard 😜

another artist I really love is @zaana! she also draws a lot of really sweet and funny moments with TBB, and I'm super fond of her more sketchy style of drawing. she's got a "Crosshair defects the Empire" AU about Cross rejoining TBB sometime during season 2 that I love soooooo much. honestly, all her stuff with Crosshair (especially the ones with Omega) is top tier. although I think my top favorite is this one with Hunter and Crosshair (which @questforgalas also wrote an amazing oneshot about!); it's so simple but so sweet, and I automatically love any wholesome content between these two 🥰

then there's @lightspringrain, who makes beautiful portraits of TBB. I've been wanting to buy some of her prints (and will absolutely do so once I have the money!!) because they are seriously gorgeous. her "Crown" series is the best, it's so lovely! and she does an amazing job capturing the style of the show! to no one's surprise, my favorites are the Hunter and Omega moon crowns. the Hunter one is legit one of my favorite art piece ever; it's been my lockscreen on my phone ever since I saw it 💙

someone I recently started following is @thattoothpick! after seeing her "TBB Happy on Pabu" comics, I had to see more. the best way I can describe her style is "soft". everything is just so soft; the lines, the colors, all of it. it just makes me happy 😊 I have two favorite pieces; the first is this one about Hunter and Crosshair from the Pabu series. literally made me cry. I need this to happen SO badly 🥺 and then this one that I refer to as "the Sad Batch"... oh man. also had me crying (but also simping for obvious reasons LOL) 😭

now for a big one. I can easily say my favorite SW related artist of all time is @lornaka. her art... holy crap y'all. it's so freaking good. she makes everything from simple portraits to stunning dynamic pieces, and I'm obsessed with all of it. she even was featured during SW Celebration last year!! she's that good!! \o/ I have a few favorites of hers. which obviously includes the TBB poster she made for Celebration. still sad I couldn't get my own copy of it 💔 then there's this... lovely portrait of Hunter from behind. oh Lordy 🥵 and finally, my top favorite is actually this simple portrait of Hunter. I had it as my lockscreen for a LONG time. it's just... so good. the colors, the stars, his expression... I'm still obsessed 😍

finally, I can't talk about amazing artists without mentioning my sister @jam-n-ham. her art account is @joyjababanoid. y'all. please just scroll through her TBB art, you will not regret it. I've always adored her cartoony and expressive style, and it makes for hilarious Clone content LOL. she did a bunch of drawings for Inktober last year, solely focused around TBB. she's also done some comics that I've had a part in helping her develop (specifically the Padme pin-up art and the AZI going on a mission). but my absolute favorite is by far the Valentines collection. y'aaaaaaaall. I had the Hunter one as my phone background for over a year haha. she knows how to personally get to me, let's just say that 🥵

oh, and one last thing I wanna mention is that the one thing these folks all have in common, aside from being fantastic artists, is that I love how each of them draw my bae. seriously, y'all draw Hunter so good, and I'm smooching each of your different versions of him 🥰😘

thanks for letting me gush about some cool people!! everyone show them some much deserved love please!! 💙💙💙

[soumic]

28 25 & 14 for the artist ask game :^)

14. Any favorite motifs Oh this made me think hard- asdkfjs perhaps the wishful answer is that I try to lean into uhhhh "scene" visual motifs for lack of a better word?? Stuff you'd doodle in your notebook in class. I like really pointy and sketchy lines, exaggerated proportions w/ big hands and feet, and bright neons. I like horizontal stripes and checker patterns. I say all this and then have no idea if that actually comes across in my work lol, I think I could (and should) go crazier with it. I think mostly cause I've been drawing a lot of my OCs who are in very high fantasy settings so my stuff has been pretty subdued

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by Oh my gosh I get told all the time that I seem like I was a kingdom hearts kid, which is so fair because I always admired it from afar but I never had a playstation/a way to play it, so I knew very little about it other than that I thought it looked cool as hell. I do think I drew from Nomura's style tho, just from cultural osmosis. I think lot of the fashion/stylistic insp in my stuff that people attribute to KH actually comes from yugioh skaldfjs

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines) I feel so lucky that I've gotten to do so many rad art community events of all kinds in the last few years! When I was in university I helped found an art club with some friends and we always did tons of trades and challenges and stuff so I really developed a taste for a it and met a lot of people who are into event organizing, including my partner, who is out there organizing art events with every spare waking moment they have lmao. They've literally put on several mini art fights for various fandoms at this point, it's crazy. As for zines,I've participated in good handful of fandom zines by now, but I've been particularly stoked to get to actually help organize some original zines that are focused on OC content, and that's been soooo rewarding. I really enjoyed ackee's OC food zine too! I participated in leidensygdom's secret satan art trade event this past holiday season and had an amazing time! And of course, I've also been having fun doing art fight since 2020 and hope I can find the bandwidth to participate again this year! God that got so long, I just really like community events cause it staves off the Social Media Ennui, and reminds me why art is fun and rewarding, you know?

[ruporas]

I’d buy from inprnt, redbubble, or a shop you’re running for sure! A zine would be so so epic that would be my favorite thing ever !!! Id love a physical version if that was a possibility. And with redbubble I usually buy post cards (I don’t have that much space to put things lmao) and stickers there if you did that and I buy prints from inprnt, id be so so happy about any of it!!! (Also want to add that I love sketchier pieces and ik a lot of people don’t add their sketches to shops but they’re often things id absolutely love and your uncolored stuff makes me feel so happy I love your lines and so I just wanted to say I’m really interested in that kind of work as well!!) I know inprnt is usually better for artists in most ways so that’d be super awesome if you did that! I’d love to buy from a shop you’re running as well but I know those are a lot more work. Thank you for your time and energy and also no pressure if it’s not something you can or want to do ever!

YOU'RE SO SWEET... thank you so much for letting me know your thoughts!!! it's really helpful and i'm glad that my sketchy/just lines pieces are appealing to you T_T!!! i'll look into redbubble and inprint a little more and see what i can do. when/if i get things set up, i'll be sure to post it here. i really really appreciate all of this and knowing that someone out there is interested in having my work means so much... thank you!!!

[graphitedemon]

Thank you for tagging me @beesinspades! I love being tagged in stuff like this!

What book are you currently reading? I'm still trying to finish War Storm, the fourth book in the Red Queen series, but fanfics keep taking its spot as my bedtime stories.

What's your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year? Across the Spiderverse, hands down.

What do you usually wear? T-shirt and jeans with a sweater or flannel shirt on top when it's cold.

How tall are you? 5'5'' (166 cm)

What's your star sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event? Scorpio. The US elections happen on my bday lmao

Do you go by your name or a nickname? A nickname that's a shortened version of my name.

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child? I still don't know what I want to be, so no.

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one? No, and don't have one. Unless fictional characters count.

What's something you're good at vs. something you're bad at? Drawing. I'd like to think I'm not that bad of an artist, but I also suck at actually starting a drawing.

Dogs or cats? DOGS! I'm a dog person who likes cats tho.

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what's your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year? The Basil portrait that's still my pfp, I like how sketchy and loose it is.

What's something you'd like to create content for? Trigun, even if I'm technically already working on something that I can't reveal yet. And I'm still in the brainstorming stage.

What's something you're currently obsessed with? Again, Trigun. Specifically Vash, I love him. I'm not normal about him.

What's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year? Nothing that I can think of, tbh.

What's a hidden talent of yours? I'm good at fitting a lot of things in a small bag by basically playing Tetris with the items I wanna put in it.

Are you religious? Lmao no.

What's something you wish to have at this moment? A soulmate. Not necessarily the romantic kind. Just someone I can be the most unfiltered version of myself with. Or just a good cuddle buddy.

Idk who to tag except @themindoflore. Hope you don't mind! And you don't have to do it, of course. I just enjoy tag chains.

[airabuhan]

anon asked: Hi!!! I’m a tad bit shy so sorry if I seem awkward but… What inspired your art style? I noticed that you have very soft coloring and you have very cute art

hmmm i suppose a good part of it is inspired by enstars? at least, i admire the enstars art style a ton and it probably shows in the way i draw the characters somewhat, though it's not like a 1-to-1 replication of it by any means haha (i can't do clean lineart at all with the type of shading enstars does unless i purposefully try and replicate it which takes SO much time) i've been inspired by a number of art styles in particular though, many of them looking very different from each other? i can't really exactly point to one specific art style besides enstars that i can definitively say greatly influenced my art, it was more just me feeling inspired by certain aspects of how people colored, drew, painted, and the amalgamation of all of the artists i look up to shows in my art now? i did want to have an art style that had a more rendered, finished, almost paintery style while still maintaining a sort of anime-art style (i can't explain this well ahaha) but i don't know that that description particularly fits well with how my art style looks at the moment

i'm sure a lot of my art style now also comes out of the habits i'm just used to doing ahaha like how some of my 'finished' drawings are quite sketchy in a sense because i'm too lazy to sit down and render for hours and hours hgnhgh. i don't really do line art, because early on when i began drawing more seriously i was kind of frustrated with the whole process of doing line art and i preferred to do sketches and cleaned them up later in the process, and i have more fun drawing that way so i think that affects how my art looks a lot. it makes rendering SO time-consuming though, having to clean up all the mistakes because i was too lazy early on to clean up the little details :") i suppose that process does makes my art look the way it does so...

as for coloring, i'm honestly still learning how to color now ahaha i actually have no idea what i am doing in regards to coloring... coloring for me is just slapping colors onto the canvas and playing around with blending modes until hopefully something looks cohesive, though with playing around with colors and layer modes i've started to color in a way that's relatively consistent now? but my method of coloring is kind of all over the place and a little different compared to how i've seen other people may choose to color (throwing all the flat colors onto one layer and slapping a bunch of multiply layers and such until it looks cohesive) ... yeah learning how to color intentionally is definitely on the bucket list of things i want to learn, and some of my favorite artists are able to utilize color in such a beautiful way that i can't help but admire

thank you for the compliment!! my drawing process is lowkey whack, but i've drawn inspiration from so many artists even if my art really does sort of look nothing like some of the artists i greatly admire... to name some artists i've admired (even though my art looks quite different from theirs lol), i like gearous, @/velinxi, @/meltsmelts, @/cirqlr, and a bunch of other danmei artists over time. sorry for the long-winded rant, i like talking about art and artists i admire [Smile or comment on the answer here](https://retrospring.net/@airabuhan/a/110669242407708697)

[aceouttatime]

How would you describe your art style? Very angular with soft round curves in it and I get vintage vibes from it

Thanks for the ask, smolcomfycat!

Honestly, my style's biggest inspiration is the lack of depth and detail that practically dictates photos, and even some artwork, on social media. I took a photography course through a college a while back when I was still in high school, and I remember the professor (who is still one of the favorites I've had to this day) commenting on how modern-day influencers tend to want to make the face appear as flat as possible. They want to mitigate any harsh shadows, hence why certain lighting styles and angles have become increasingly more popular.

Something about that didn't sit right with me. I've always found the lack of detail and increasing similarity of celebrity faces to be uninteresting. I like peoples' uniqueness, and while that was originally just portrayed in my photography, it soon translated to my art.

I use harsh shadows. I try to give characters 'conventionally unattractive' or just unique features. I focus on minute details of expressions. I use hashing to shade--this mainly was influenced by retro comics and just 70s-80s/vintage culture in general (it's also impacted my fashion sense XD).

I use a lot of warm colors because they give me a sense of security and, well, warmth, which makes the coloring process more enjoyable. My linework is sketchy because I struggle with fine motor skills (surprising, huh?--I have ever since I was a kid. My handwriting was atrocious until recently). I think it adds life to an otherwise lifeless image. I like seeing an artist's process in their lines and brushstrokes, so I try to do that myself.

I've had many, many influences that have led to the amalgamation of ideas that my art style consists of. It's not the most flashy or most technically correct of all art styles, but it's mine, and for now, it makes me happy.

Thank you again for your question--this made me think!

[qettleqorn]

Ok my turn

6. And 26. Pls? c: ❤️

Artist Ask

6. tag your favorite artists/inspirations!

I'm not going to tag the artist on Tumblr because I don't want to clog up their notifs on here. But I do recc them!

Series: Cowboy Bebop I feel like as if I still get plenty of inspo from this series. I don't talk about it a lot but by god was it one of the first animes that I REALLY loved.

Series: Samurai Champloo It's just neat to me, I just like it.

Series: Sailor Moon While the story line is iffy here and there it's still probably one of the reasons I've been attracted to more feminine forces.

Series: Thunder Cats I just grew up on it.

Artist: Leonardo Da Vinci Basic- I just love the posing. I love the way he has notes on things, I love for me what feels like someone grasping to get humanity in his art. Idk, it's like watching a child make their first steps. Ironic because he's a founder to the art history bs.

Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi Basic- but when I saw Judith Slaying Holofernes I was in love.

Artist: Les Toil Does Plus Size Pinup Art! Been in love with them since forever!

Artist: Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot The colors, the sketchy painted style- I'm a simple person I think. But I admire it.

Tumblr: j0rrated I love their command of vibrant, loud colors! The eccentric poses! I think this is modern art? Sorry, I'm bad at telling different styles like that. But I do admire their talent and creativity.

Tumblr: pien-art I think they're one of those artist I've followed on all my blogs? Idk, I just love their style. Something with the brush strokes makes me smile. Maybe it's the expressive eyes?

Tumblr: japhers THE EXPRESSIONS AND THEIR FASHION!? Just so good! I love it and the way they paint their characters!

Tumblr: danifanatic Followed for the Shino content but stayed for the art style. I still want to commission them for a piece one of these days. They're just great- especially with their nature pieces. They also do super cute clay busts from time to time!

Tumblr: jovansjovans I love the way he handles the human body. I've had so much pleasure drawing with him before and he always amazes me! He's so good!

Tumblr: Foolishk Did you think you were getting out of this? HAHA! No. I just admire the way you can do such amazing realistic drawings, your control of grey scales! I just- dfjgdgdkjbkjd YOU'RE AMAZING!

Misc: Mother Nature

Misc: and so many more- I could go on. I don't even think this was mainly inspiration? I think this was just some of the artist I like!

26. draw urself! (it doesn’t have to be detailed)

I just sketched it and snipped it off CSP. So kinda lazy- though my hair isn't as short anymore- but I will be getting it cut soon!

[mediaevalmusereads]

From Hell. By Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Top Shelf, 2006 (originally 1989-1998).

Rating: 3/5

Genre: graphic novel, crime noir/horror

Series: N/A

Summary: Having proved himself peerless in the arena of reinterpreting superheroes, Alan Moore turned his ever-incisive eye to the squalid, enigmatic world of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel murders of 1888. Weighing in at 576 pages, From Hell is certainly the most epic of Moore's works and remarkably and is possibly his finest effort yet in a career punctuated by such glorious highlights as Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Going beyond the myriad existing theories, which range from the sublime to the ridiculous, Moore presents an ingenious take on the slaughter. His Ripper's brutal activities are the epicentre of a conspiracy involving the very heart of the British Establishment, including the Freemasons and The Royal Family. A popular claim, which is transformed through Moore's exquisite and thoroughly gripping vision, of the Ripper crimes being the womb from which the 20th century, so enmeshed in the celebrity culture of violence, received its shocking, visceral birth.

Bolstered by meticulous research that encompasses a wide spectrum of Ripper studies and myths and coupled with his ability to evoke sympathies in such monstrous characters, Moore has created perhaps the finest examination of the Ripper legacy, observing far beyond society's obsessive need to expose Evil's visage. Ultimately, as Moore observes, Jack's identity and his actions are inconsequential to the manner in which society embraced the Fear: "It's about us. It's about our minds and how they dance. Jack mirrors our hysterias. Faceless, he is the receptacle for each new social panic."

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: misogyny, antisemitism, nudity, blood, gore, violence, graphic sexual content, incest, racism/xenophobia

OVERVIEW: I was a bit disappointed by the last thing I read about a historical serial killer, so I figured I'd finally pick this book up in an attempt to read something more thought-provoking. I have a lot of respect for Alan Moore, so I went into this with high hopes and high expectations. Unfortunately, I can't say this is among my favorites of Moore's work. While the art was quite impressive and I appreciated the supplemental materials included in the Top Shelf 2006 edition, I just wasn't blown away by Moore's Ripper story. So for those reasons, this book only gets 3 stars from me.

WRITING/ART: There isn't much prose, per se, in this graphic novel, so I'll use this space to primarily talk about Campbell's art.

Overall, I was actually quite impressed by the art. Campbell draws with a scratchy, sketchy style with a lot of messy lines. Personally, I was reminded somewhat of Victorian-era engravings, though Campell's art is a lot looser. Campbell's art really shines, I think, when depicting architecture and London scenery. Because the artist uses a lot of straight lines for things like tone and shading, the build environment comes across as more controlled and deliberate than his organic forms, and I very much enjoyed the scenes with a lot of buildings in them.

PLOT: The plot of this graphic novel primarily tells the story of William Gull, Royal Physician to Queen Victoria and her family. When Prince Albert Victor marries a common shop girl and fathers a child on her, Victoria enlists Gull's help to silence those who know about it: namely four women who are looking to use the information to their advantage. Little does Victoria know that Gull is a Freemason with cosmic visions of time and space; Gull also believes that murdering these women will bring about a future in which women's power is suppressed. His fanatic killing leqds the papers to dub him "Jack the Ripper." Meanwhile, Inspector Abberline tries to uncover Jack's identity, all while being undermined by those in Scotland Yard who are in league with Victoria and Gull.

Personally, I was not very impressed by the plot as a whole. Having Jack the Ripper be a Freemason with delusions about time and space wasn't as thought-provoking as I had hoped, and even linking the Royal Family to the killings didn't have quite the punch as I wanted. Perhaps I'm not understanding Moore's intention or else I'm just not all that impressed by conspiracy theories and Freemasons; whatever the reason, I didn't quite think about the Ripper killings in a new way or use them as a lens for reinterpreting other aspects of politics, history, gender, etc. If anything, Moore seems interested in the concept of time, but I'm puzzled by the decision to use the Ripper murders as the vehicle for exploring this.

Also (and this is a minor complaint), the amount of random sexual content in this graphic novel was a little off-putting. While some sexual content is understandable, i felt like some was inserted for edgy shock value, and I got tired of it after a while.

But even though I wasn't a big fan of the story, I very much appreciated the annotations included in the back of the book. The annotations talk extensively about the creative choices and the historical context, and I found them to be a useful tool for analyzing the narrative.

CHARACTERS: There are quite a few characters in this book so I'll only focus on a handful, for brevity.

William Gull (the Royal Physician and Jack the Ripper) was not very interesting, in my opinion. As a doctor who was also a Freemason and a believer in a certain cosmic view of space and time, he's more of an archetype - the crazy mystic who I driven to kill for zealous reasons. Personally, I find most stories that imagine an identity for Jack the Ripper to be difficult, as attaching an identity takes away some of the mystery. Of course, Moore wasn't trying to write a mystery, so perhaps this is a case of me having very particular tastes.

Abberline, the Inspector, was fairly sympathetic in that he seemed honest and down to earth. His kindness towards a woman named Emma made me like him for a while, though I did sour on him when he became angry and misogynistic.

The five victims of the Ripper were also sympathetic and I appreciated that we got to know them and their struggles a little before they were killed. I do wish there was a little more done with the injustice of their killing (and the conspiracy to cover it up), but Moore doesn't seem to be as interested in class and gender dynamics as it pertains to these women.

TL;DR: From Hell contains some impressive art and a very useful section of annotations; overall, though, it was not a particularly memorable reimaging of Jack the Ripper or a compelling commentary on the topics it aims to explore.

[emareep]

A few of my Favorite Mareeps (in no particular order) #4

Heart Gold Soul Silver ~ 073/123 ~ Masakazu Fukuda

After I've posted long enough you'll see that the HeartGold SoulSilver era has a large percentage of my favorite cards in the TCG's history. This wonderful and fluffy friend, illustrated by Masakazu Fukuda, is no exception. This mareep almost seems like they escaped from a farm and have wandered away, just enjoying the sights. It certainly has a lot of nice things to look at.

One of the things I love most about the era of cards from Heart Gold and Soul Silver is how much unity went into the background art. Despite fairly disparate styles across the expansions, everybody seemed to have a natural inclination to lean into the designs, nature, architecture, and even colors as Johto (see my Kanto Dex Collection, entry 2, for another example from this era). Some sets don't do this as well, but every card truly feels like it belongs in this shared setting.

As a hardcore gen 2 fan, I'd like to imagine it's due to how well developed Johto feels as a region. It's always been my favorite place in the entire franchise. Plus they got Voltorb Flip, which is probably the best mini-game ever made, and the reason why I'm a picross addict today.

Best Quality: Extremely blue. Most artists who draw mareep tend to make the darker sections of their tail's and ear's much darker, closer to black or dark gray. Fukuda has chosen much closer colors, which gives the mareep a unique feel. The thick, sketchy lines also add a unique touch.

Bonus Flora of Pokemon Spotting: This very nice tree.

[art3647]

Internet culture project work by Jaime Hernandez

No Gods, No Masters, Everywhere.

Ever since I've decided to pursue a career in animation, the internet has become a very "big" thing for me. Exploring and discovering all kinds of people and witnessing the art they each create. It's amazing, inspiring, and overwhelming. I think my favorite thing is to hear about the joy people get from creating and from taking in creations. I love "seeing" evidence of craft. Things like fingerprints, smudges, stray lines, and rough, sketchy art. It's a real great feeling seeing someone else's movements and life in their art, music, anything really. On the other side of that, Access to that practically infinite pool of creation, talent, and skill, leaves you in a very compromised state sometimes. Art is an incredibly accessible thing. I believe any artist of any skill has an incredible well of potential. You could pick two rocks up from the ground and smash them against each other and create sculpture, you could burn, break, build, glue things together and it's art! So, to see what others are capable of makes you take inventory of your own strengths and weaknesses. My biggest problem is that, not stacking up next to my peers or "idols". It's hard. It makes things feel impossible.

My piece is a mix of traditional and digital media. I used Clip Studio Paint to draw the figure and computer and desk, Photoshop to edit the smaller "icons" I inserted into the screen, and a GIF making website to arrange the frames and set a good timing for them. Making this took me to a few more tutorial pages than I'd be happy to admit. I had to learn about auto processes, and I had to relearn how to use masking layers in Clip Studio since Photoshop kept crashing on my laptop. I'm still not quite learned on how to use my software's animation features, hence the gif making site. If I had managed my time better, I'm sure it would have made quite the difference in terms of the way I arranged everything. I probably would have also been able to take my concept a bit further, as this piece is scaled down from the initial idea I had. I had wanted to draw a lot of figures of "internet icons" in the background, but for the idea I wanted to convey, it just didn't make much sense.

[stellarish]

4, 7, 17 and 21 for the specific artist ask game :)

Thank you for the ask! (The ask game)

4. Fav character/subject that’s a bitch to draw:

Zhou Ying from Tai Sui!! I know he's literally a book character with no specific canon appearance, but I accidentally created a massive challenge for myself in designing/drawing him lmao.

I really like the face I've landed on for drawing Xi Ping from the same novel, and since he's supposed to be beautiful in a sharp, overbearing type of way, I tend to draw him with a thinner face and a very prominent chin and cheekbones. And I think that look suits him! The problem with that is that Zhou Ying is supposed to look a lot like Xi Ping, especially in the lower part of their faces, except, especially early in the novel, he's also notably thinner and frailer. He's also got his sort of spooky, all-knowing placid eyes. Yet he's supposed to be beautiful! How do I take a face that's already 70% chin and cheekbones, make it even bonier to an unhealthy degree, give it unsettling eyes, and yet retain the sense of beauty? I haven't quite figured that out yet lmao.

I also struggle a lot with either emulating Jun Mochizuki's art style or translating her character designs to my own, which I why I rarely draw fanart for VnC despite absolutely adoring the series. I'm trying to get better at that though!

More under the cut because this got long <3

7. A medium of art you don’t work in but appreciate

Two answers here. The most immediate and obvious one is digital art in general, since I work pretty much entirely traditionally. I'm always so impressed by the kinds of lighting and color effects that I see in work by people with access to things like photoshop layer adjustments. I know "digital art" is almost an absurdly broad category, but god there are some very impressive pieces out there done entirely with my good friend the computer.

Also, I adore papercraft/papercut art. Every time I see something really intricate made out of cut paper, my brain just, like, short-circuits in awe. It's so cool!! Speaking of Tai Sui, one of my all time favorite pieces of Tai Sui art is this Xi Ping by Yutaan here on tumblr. If you really want to see some really cool papercraft, Yutaan's stuff in general is incredible imo.

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

Not really, no. Since I'm almost entirely a traditional artist, I'm really paranoid about food getting stains on my paper 😔. Even stuff you think is stain free, like, say, a pretzel, can result in unexpected grease spots if you're not careful. So I generally try to keep snack time far away from whatever I'm drawing.

I do drink water when I draw, since I'm pretty much always drinking water no matter what I'm up to, but I have to be careful to keep the glass somewhere that I'm confident can't spill onto my paper. I've definitely gotten water stains on a lot of sketchbook pages in the past lol.

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

I was just talking about this with some friends last night! One of my oldest and dearest friends is the artist troubled cryst, which I find hilarious because our art processes are exact polar opposites lmao. I am an incredibly slow artist, prone to spending hours inking fairly simple drawings as I fuss over line weights and try to perfect tiny details in pencil before I ink them. I lean hard into the fussy and painstaking side of things. I also just adore black ink and will fit about as much of it into a drawing as I can. The ink is very much the main character for me, and color's just kind of a bonus.

Meanwhile, my bestie Meg Troubledcryst is, in the best possible way, kind of fast and loose as an artist. Her pieces are full of color and movement, with an emphasis on that expressive motion, and her lineart tends to be on the free and sketchy side. I know from talking to her that she hates to spend too long fussing over any one drawing or any one part of a drawing if she can avoid it. She can probably crank out two fully colored, good-looking pieces in the time it'd take me to do one effortful round of lineart lmao. But I love her stuff! I think it's really cute that we're such different artists even though I more or less started learning how to draw as a tween because of her art.

Go look at her stuff!

I also adore paintings that do a lot of work with light and color, despite the fact that I am, as established, a black ink girlie in my own art. Current obsessions are these sky paintings by autoneurotic and these oranges by itsc.

Anway, as a bonus for being nice enough to send me an ask, here's a little sneak peak at a couple of my wips.