#i actually finished an artwork earlier

[reddamselette]

“Your hair is getting long. Gonna cut it?” Leo asked, tilting his head to the side as he crossed his ankles and leaned against the headboard, watching from the bed as Jason rinsed his mouth of toothpaste and shut the lights off.

Jason hummed, walking over to Leo before he crawled over him and collapsed onto the bed. He propped his head up against the palm of his hand, blue eyes roaming Leo’s face with a sweet smile. “I don’t think so. We’ll be matching.”

He gripped each side of the sink, his knuckles turning white as his head hung forward and he sniffed through sobs, choking and swallowing thickly each time he drew in a deep breath. Teardrops fell into the sink along with water from soaked hair. Jason’s hair was getting long and Leo wasn’t around to see it and match.

[steampunk-raven]

do I keep working on my current wips or should I start some other project

[whumptober]

FAQ

Please read this post before you send an ask!

TIMELINE

July: Trope voting form released. Late August: Prompt list is released for at least four weeks of preparation time. Prompts cannot be posted earlier than August 25th because of Moderator obligations in real life. (But, you know, go ahead and start writing/drawing, and add the themes in later, if you want!) September: Do as much or as little on your works as you want. You can prepare everything in advance or let September go by with vibes and start working in October. It’s up to you. October 1st: Challenge begins! A storm of whump breaks upon us all! During this time, some posts will be reblogged to the whumptober archive blog. We open the yearly AO3 collection for posting (optional). November 1st: The challenge is officially over! Completionist form opens for those who want to be included in the hall-of-fame. Early November: We release completionist and participant badges, solicit feedback, and post a hall-of-fame list of completionists by the 10th.

PARTICIPATION AND COMPLETION

Q: What counts as participation? Create or continue at least one work inspired by one of this year’s prompts. Q: What counts as completion? Creating work(s) inspired by at least one prompt from each day (or alts), for a total of 31 unique prompts. Q: Do I need to create 31 works? No. You can, if you want. Or you can create one work that you add to every day with a new prompt. Or several works that combine prompts. You can also update an existing work by adding new material with the current prompts. Q: Do I need to post my works somewhere to be a completionist or a participant? No. Q: How do you know I actually completed the challenge? We’ll take your word for it! Q: Do I have to finish my work(s) to be a completionist? No, you can post WIPs. And you’re not obligated to finish them in October, but if you want it to count towards being a completionist, you must have completed 31 prompts by the end of the month. So for example, if you’re writing a long fic and you fit 31 different prompts into the writing you did in October, it’s okay if that fic isn’t finished by the time October ends, you’ll still be a completionist. Q: Is co-writing/illustrating allowed? Yes, absolutely, and it would count towards being a completionist for both/all of you. Q: Is there a min/max limit on word count for written works? No. Q: Is there a min/max limit of quality for art? No. Q: Do I have to do something each day to be a completionist? No. You can skip days whenever you want, and as long as 31 daily prompts (or alts) are in your works done in October, you can be a completionist. For example, if you wrote a 1000-word ficlet that covers prompts in days 2, 3, and 17, you can check all three days off your list even though it’s only one work. Q: Is this challenge just for fics? No! Artworks, GIFsets, headcannons, rec lists, poetry, moodboards, or any other creative work is encouraged. Q: Can I combine Whumptober with other creation challenges? Absolutely, as long as the other challenges allow it too.

PROMPTS

Q: How do the prompts work? There are FOUR prompts per day: a theme and three ideas. You can use one, two, three, or all four prompts for each day. If you don’t like any of the daily prompts, you can substitute one of the ALT prompts instead. Q: How strictly/literally should we interpret the prompts? As literally or as figuratively as you want. For example, if the theme is WATER, that could mean drowning, waterboarding, raining, swimming, take place underwater, be lost at sea, construct a metaphor about a character’s mood that changes like a flowing river, crying, or whatever else you can think of that fits that theme. Q: Can I combine prompts? Is there a limit on how many? No limit and combine as many as you’d like. If you create a work that checks off multiple prompts, that work will count for a fill of multiple prompts. You need to address 31 different prompts to be an official completionist, but you don’t have to produce 31 separate works.

WORKS

Q: What’s whump? Hurting a character, whether that’s physically, emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, or any other way you can think of. Comfort afterwards is optional. Angst is emotional whump, so it counts. Q: How do I know if it’s whumpy enough? If your character is just mildly inconvenienced, it probably needs more whump. However, no participant has to prove whumpiness to the mods. Whatever you write is up to you. Q: What kind of characters can I create for? Anything. Generic “whumpee,” OC, PC, NPC, major characters, minor characters, or whatever you want. There are no limits. Q: Does it have to take place in a specific fandom? No, you can create works for your own worlds or for fandoms or for both. You can also create more generic or pan-fandom works. You can do cross-overs or use OCs, whatever you want. Q: Can I create AI-created works? No. We will not reblog or promote any works we know to be generative AI-created. Q: Is there anything we’re not allowed to write? As long as it contains whump and is based on our prompts, it’s fine. Please courtesy tag your works if you post them so people who follow the #whumptober2024 tag can filter according to their preferences. Q: What about sex, minor characters, and potentially disturbing content? You can create whatever works are legal in your country and post them accordingly. Please courtesy tag anything you think might be objectionable if you post to Tumblr so people who follow the #whumptober2024 tag can filter according to their preferences.

POSTING

Q: Where can I post my work? Post where and how you want. You don’t even have to (cross)post it to Tumblr. Just keep in mind if it’s not on Tumblr we will not be able to add it to the blog archive. There is an AO3 archive for Whumptober 2024, as well as the parent collection for works completed outside of the event. Q: Can I start posting early? You can, but this is an October event and wouldn’t it be more fun with everyone doing it at the same time? We won’t be reblogging any work predating October 1st. Q: Can I post late? Yes. For the sake of our hardworking Post Fairies, only a day’s themes will be reblogged to @whumptober-archive each day of October. But you can post whenever. Some of us are still working on and posting Whumptober fics from years ago. Q: Do I have to use your tags? Only on Tumblr and only if you want us to reblog your work on @whumptober-archive. Q: How do I have my works reblogged to the archive? Properly tagged posts will be reblogged to @whumptober-archive. If you want the official archive blog to reblog you, post on Tumblr and tag correctly (see this FAQ link for more info on tagging). Please note not all posts will be reblogged each day. Q: Can we @ you? For questions and comments, of course. We’ll be getting a flood of notifications, so if you really want us to see something send an ask. Q: Can I cross post on other blogs? Yes, multiple platforms and blogs are perfectly acceptable, as long as they allow cross-posting (to us). You can also post different works to different accounts under different names, without posting them everywhere at once. If you post some works under your main and others under an alt blog, that’s fine for completionist purposes. Q: Can I upload/repost my Whumptober content to other social media platforms? Of course! We’ve created an AO3 Collection to archive any fics posted there, which can be found here. The blog is the official archive, so please respect the personal boundaries of any whumpers in your social circle (don’t out anyone as a participant who would prefer not to be outed).

[choochooboss]

Submas sketchdump! Vol. 1

April-June 2022

Literally dumping all the presentable works as promised, whether I'm proud of them or not! This is where I started, even before the first thing I posted online (That subway station one). Many of these are not on Twitter yet so there's lots to see!

The top piece above the header is my very first digital Submas artwork!! I never finished it bc I didn't know how to pull my vision of as I wanted & started modeling the train and didn't finish that either, whoops! I really want to remake this later and make it super cool!

^^^ My reaction to breaking 500 likes & 100 followers in a single day with my first tweet (the battle subway one) all the way back in May!! I was completely floored by all the attention, oh how it skyrocketed my excitement and anxiety! Crazy times, I was so super nervous to be there with so many amazing artists and doubted if I could ever survive there ahahah!! Many had joined the community much much earlier than me, so I had arrived with a late train to PLA/neo Submas hype!

Next up is a bunch of stuff I haven't posted before:

One of my fav sketches! Been saving this for so long bc I really really want to finish this one day!

One of the first submas sketches with an actual story behind it! The subway bosses are running late for their flight because they didn't pass the safety check! The irony!! This would never happen as bosses are always on schedule. But Emmet hadn't noticed a wild Joltik hiding under his coat, so he set up the alarm and they got examined and interrogated of smuggling! How embarrassing for them! The bosses resolved the situation by catching the Joltik, but will they be able to catch their flight anymore?? Maybe if Elesa can distract the stuerts performing the safety protocol for a minute!

More sketchbook stuff...

In case you can't make any sense of it, Emmet's dreaming of different combinations of pokémon. Meanwhile Ingo snores louder than the train! HONK SHOO!

Top 7 every submas fan draws at some point!

Submas trademark posing

submas sleeping in a train

sad Emmet

Emmet with Joltik

Ingo with a cool solo pose

Emmet being chaotic & Ingo reacting to it

a bunch of mirrored submas poses

I sure have a full bingo card lmao, most of them you can see here XD

Next up is a sad man...

Stay strong our friends!

My typical sketchbook pages, crammed and messy as usual. x)

Post-PLA exploration:

A few examples of how my pencil sketches evolve.

I've done so much art experimenting with submas. I really like this black & white painting but I don't think I'll finish it anytime soon.

Where did you go?

The way I draw the twins' faces has changed a lot. They started with softer features and somewhat neutral emotions, because I wasn't as familiar with them or comfortable drawing them yet. Now there's hundreds of submas sketches, and they still keep evolving! My style is also kinda hard to pull off well, so their features differ from picture to picture.

This one was inspired by some submas music videos, can't recall their names anymore. The glowing eerie eyes and yellow&orange + black&white color schemes were neat!

I keep telling myself I need to draw more butlers, these twinks look so lean and neat and have more color and are posh with their monocles and have fun tailcoats!

(...why eyeglasses are not called binocles??)

I was there for the vinegar chaos. Good times!

That's all for now, I hope you got something fun out of this! Still got loads more art to share but I'll save them for another time. Next round I'll bring in my first submas comic!

[swallow-the-bird]

Working on a Snarry commission again.

Client request: Could you create a Snape in the style of Mucha, with a touch of the original’s realistic essence?

My response: Oh! Absolutely, I’ll give it a try! (Big fan of Mucha ❤️)

I’m quite pleased with how the work is progressing so far. Fingers crossed that the final piece unfolds as smoothly as planned.

More Snarry art is on the way! I’ll share it as soon as I’m permitted.

Update:

I can finally unveil the finished version🤩👇🏻

[smashupmashups]

For the 20th anniversary of the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, I've made a few fan-created screencaps of what would happen in a potential fourth installment.

Starting with the first one in Timmy's room.

The base images were pieced together and traced on April 27, then the tracing was separated from the images and colored on April 29; it was finished on April 30.

I updated it earlier today as Jimmy's shirt was a little dark-colored.

For the one with Chester and Sheen:

It was made simultaneously on the same days with the first screencap.

While Chester and Sheen relied on screenshots, Ultra Lord relied on a photo of a custom-made action figure of the character, which I traced and made sure to add the thick outlines, followed by removing the traced image with Free Online Image Editor, then adding the colors from the Fairly OddParents, so it'd be consistent.

And, upon further inspection, Sheen actually has brown eyes in the Jimmy Neutron franchise, while the OddParents crew gave him blue eyes for some reason, so I wanted to go for accuracy.

I also updated this earlier today, too.

The screenshot with Trixie and Cindy:

I started on gathering images for Trixie while her legs were taken from my first Trixie and Cindy artwork I made, while Jimmy and Cindy were later worked on later that day. It was later finished on April 30.

Speaking of Cindy, after comparing Cindy's OddParents design to her Jimmy Neutron design, blue eyes for Cindy and only one light green line for her top; I made sure the details were accurate, including her eye color.

It, too, was updated earlier today to update the color of Jimmy's shirt and a blank spot I missed.

And finally, Denzel Crocker and Professor Finbarr Calamitous!

This was made all in one day on April 30, which was last week; it was likely due to the scale of the characters, I guess.

Overall, this was a fun experience after revisiting that (possibly) revolutionary crossover trilogy that stands the test of time.

[lulublack90]

Prompt 22 - Control

@jegulus-microfic May 22, Word count 757

Previous part First part

Sirius had outdone himself. Each hog was perfect. They truly were works of art. He’d filled far more than the roll of parchment Sirius had originally shown him. James, Remus, Sirius and Peter all held a roll each, plus there was one more for Regulus when he came up later. 

“Sirius, wow. These are amazing.” James told him. 

“It’s going to be complete mayhem!” Peter grinned excitedly. 

“When did you even have time to paint all these?” Remus asked. Even he was surprised by the sheer number of painted pigs. Sirius looked at him sheepishly.

“I did a lot of them when you were asleep.” Remus laughed at him and Sirius’s face blushed.

“No wonder you were so tired when it was time to get up, you nutter.” 

James checked his watch. Two more hours and he’d go and collect Regulus. Then the pranking would begin. They were going to go out in two groups. Sirius, Remus and Peter in one, James and Regulus in the other. 

The first part of the operation needed them to transfer all the pigs off the parchment and into the paintings. That was the easy bit. They didn’t even need to be out of their dorm room. The trickier bit was to animate the pigs once they were in the portraits. They could do half a corridor at a time because they were only animating a small part of each painting, but the sticking potion would need to be painted on individually and only once they were in the paintings as they’d be stuck to the parchment otherwise. 

When James brought Regulus up, even he was impressed at Sirius’s artwork, not that he’d admit it. He handed everyone their own jar of his potion and Sirius gave each of them a paintbrush. It was time.

Team Padfoot had the Marauders map and Team Prongs had James’s invisibility cloak. 

“Team Padfoot to Team Prongs, do you read me, over.” Sirius snickered out of James’s two-way mirror. 

“Team Prongs to Team Padfoot, we are in position, over.” James couldn’t hold back the laugh that burst through his lips. 

“Then we are a go. Meet in the passageway at 05:00, over.”

“Over and out,” James put the mirror back in his pocket and unrolled his roll of parchment. 

“You two are ridiculous, you know that, right?” Regulus said as he held up his wand to begin. 

James and Regulus were starting in the dungeons as Regulus had the best knowledge of where the paintings were. 

He asked Sirius earlier why they couldn’t transfer them all into the same painting and just do everything all in one go. They could steal a landscape or something and do it in the dorm. Sirius and Remus had explained that adding too much to the original paintings could distort the original artwork to the point it would be unsalvageable. Individually was the only way to preserve the originals, as they had no intention of causing any actual damage, just have a bit of fun. 

“You ready?” He asked Regulus. The other boy nodded, and together they set the pigs from the scrolls loose. 

It took hours. Find a painting, paint on the sticking potion on each individual pig and then animate as many as possible at once. James stared at the perfect control Regulus had over his wand and spell work. Regulus caught him looking. 

“Get back to work, Potter. We don’t have all night.” His words didn’t have the usual bite to them, so James blew a kiss at him and painted potion onto the next pig.

"Told you I'd make a Marauder out of you." James said as he finished painting on the potion. He saw Regulus roll his eyes, and had to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing.

By the time Team Padfoot and Team Prongs met up in a secret passageway between the third and fourth floors, they were all exhausted. 

“I think we got them all,” James told the others. “Where’s Peter?” He asked, noticing his other friend was nowhere in sight. Remus pointed at a lump in his robe pocket. Peter was fast asleep in his rat form. 

“Lazy git,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I think we got everything. Or at least as many before the pigs ran out.” Regulus yawned and James declared it was time to get out of there in case Filch found them. They climbed the stairs, the sounds of squealing pigs echoing around the silent corridors. Tomorrow was going to be a riot.

Next part

[1-800-kami]

picture perfect | geto suguru x gn!reader (1.1k words)

this drabble is actually so corny but i love the idea sm so i wrote it. i love this man so much i want to eat him (i'm also starting to realize that all of my works so far have a similar overarching theme in them... hm)

artist!geto who would always be willing to show you his latest works. in fact, you’re the first one to see them. as soon as he finishes an artwork, he calls you over and shows it or sends a picture. you’re happy that you’re the first one that he always thinks about when he finally puts down that brush. you’ve seen most of his artworks…

…except for one sketchbook. it was a regular old leather sketchbook, and you never saw the inside of it. whenever geto was drawing on it and you walked in the room, he’d quickly hide it and play it off as if he were doing nothing at all. it always made you curious, but you just assumed that his sketchbook was something like a diary. you knew that people owned private journals where they wrote down things only meant for their own eyes to see. art could be nothing different, so you tried not to pry on what geto drew in that sketchbook… even though you itched to ask at times.

you remember one time when you had an idea of what that sketchbook contained, though. you were curled up next to him in bed, fast asleep. you awoke to the gentle nightlight softly awakening your senses, and you stirred. 

that’s when you noticed that geto was drawing on that sketchbook again. curiosity took the best of you, and you pretended to be asleep as you observed geto. a pattern quickly formed over the next few minutes–he would look at your “sleeping” form, flick his eyes back to the sketchbook, draw a few lines, and then repeat the process.

ah. so he was drawing you.

the idea made you smile subconsciously. it also made you feel a little shy. geto dedicated a whole sketchbook just for drawings of you? the thought was so adorable that it made your heart beat a little faster. still, why didn’t he let you see them? was he too shy?

this memory all comes back flooding to your head in your current situation. you had a nice at-home dinner date with geto earlier, and he surprised you with all your favorite meals. these dates weren’t too out of the blue for the both of you, as sometimes, home-cooked meals just tasted better than a fancy restaurant’s meal. there was a notion in your head that today’s date felt a little different than usual, and it seems that you were right.

geto specifically told you to walk down this hallway of your house, as he said that he had “a surprise for you”. you were in awe at what you saw–along the walls of this corridor contained drawings–so many drawings strewn across the hall one by one. all of them were drawings of memories that he shared with you in chronological order. the day he confessed his love to you, your first kiss with him in the passenger seat of his car, your first date (out of many) with him, the first time you celebrated your birthday with him, your anniversary… you relived all of these moments as you walked down the hall. these drawings were all so accurate–geto getting your face shape just right… and the way he was somehow able to capture your smile so perfectly.

you wonder how much time he’s spent on these drawings, especially with how amazing they were. you think all of his works are great, but these are all so personal that it warms your heart differently compared to seeing his typical artworks. 

more memories are envisioned in your head as you continue walking. the exciting day you spent with him at the carnival, (feat gojo as the unhappy thirdwheel) your third holiday season spent together, the-

the last drawing catches you off guard, though. the writing on the bottom states today’s date, and it’s a drawing of you, standing up, and geto, kneeling down while holding a box with a shimmering ring inside. wait, that hasn’t happened before-

oh.

oh.

it was like you could literally feel his presence behind you. tears fill your eyes as you turn around, and there he was, seeing your boyfriend of over three years deciding that he officially wants to spend the rest of his life with you. 

the two of you recreated the last drawing perfectly. 

“i’m so nervous about all of this going wrong that i completely forgot half of my speech… fuck.” he says, and you giggle despite your heart hammering in your chest. you were just as nervous as he was. “i never really saw myself as a marriage type of guy. i thought that i’d spent the rest of my life not being held down by anyone… until i met you, of course. you’re just so enamoring to me, and i bought that sketchbook so i can illustrate each important memory that i’ve spent with you, so i can look back on them until i’m grey and old and i can hardly remember what i’ve had for breakfast in the morning. i’ve spent hours and hours with a pencil in hand, sketching every detail of you until my hand is all cramped up, but i’m willing to do that for the rest of my life if you’re the subject of my drawings. i want to spend the rest of my life with you, so…

y/n l/n, will you marry me?”

you waste no time in nodding your head furiously, tears now flowing freely down your cheeks. you often thought about marrying geto, picturing his proposal as something grand–like in front of all your friends or during a fancy night out at the beach. this… was not something that you pictured at all, but it feels so domestic and real, and now that it’s happening, you wouldn’t have it any other way.

you pull your now-fiance into a much-needed kiss, and he takes your shaky hands in his cold ones as he slides the engagement ring down your ring finger. it was so beautiful. he’s so beautiful. this entire moment is so beautiful, and you’re glad you have a drawing to commemorate it forever. there are so many things you want to say to him, and you don’t know where to start, so you just utter the words that are at the forefront of your brain. “i love you suguru, i love you so fucking much.”

“i love you too. ‘m so happy you said yes,” he breathes out, cupping your cheeks with his hands and smiling at your tear-struck face. “i can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

you nod your head in agreement, closing your eyes. “yeah. me too.”

this was based off of that one extra gum commercial <3

[ancientgreekyuri]

Today marks three years of Dianthus existing! I made my first concept sketches for her on 11/20/23 💖 this also means it's been three years of Diathesterius! I sometimes use the date I uploaded Dia to toyhouse, the 21st, as the anniversary date just in case I'm late... but I managed to finish colouring this <3 I had actually wanted to do something for this earlier in the month, I even made some very elaborate plans for it... but it ended up not happening! Which is okay 💞 but I still wanted to draw a little wedding piece... so I did! I'll make something fancier when I have more time later on... 💝 I used my own handwriting here for authenticity, but at some point... I'd like to be able to rewrite in Greek for More authenticity <3 Uncropped version (and long rambling post) under the cut 💕 I get a little Vulnerable so don't read it if you're gonna be mean or else I'll like Get You or something

I've made posts in the past talking about why Theseus and Asterius mean so much to me, but I don't think I've made one on why Dianthus herself means so much to me.. so for her own third year anniversary, I'll do that here! before I begin...! the fruit in dia's hair here are from the strawberry tree, arbutus unedo. I associate the tree and its fruit with Theseus but... it's honestly been so long, I don't remember exactly why! Just that, for some reason, I imagine thathis childhood home had a tree of these fruit blossoming just outside his mother's room, and thus he has fond memories of it. Lady Dianthus... she who loves all things pink, actively hates celery, and still has a job at the library despite being so fogetful and clumsy... she who met Theseus and immediately became obsessed because it was the first interesting thing to happen to her- not a parent or someone she's close to, but herself! her first time feeling as if she had a true purpose. She who didn't understand Theseus' obsession with Asterius until meeting he Minotaur, and promptly decided "he's not scary? he's not scary at all! he's just a cow!" I've made sona and the likes before Dia of course, but she was the first in a long time who was truly meant to resemble me in all ways (except for the setting, of course...). I made her design simple so I would easily be able to redraw her, and gave her one of my favourite palettes pink and green and cream and gold. At first I really didn't expect to get that attached to her... I went months without drawing her after her initial creation. but the more I drew her the more I realized how much fun I was having with her...! It's funny looking back on it... originally I had a much more comedic idea for her story, and di not intend to ship her with Theseus in any serious way. It was going to be a completely one-sided love (with Dianthus taking the role of "crazed fangirl" - which she still is, in a way). I'm sure it isn't a surprise but it didn't take me long at all to start drawing ship art of them, creating artworks and writing of Theseus and Asterius was a self indulgent joy for me, so why not selfship art too? I ended up invested, of course. Using Dia I put a lot of my own feelings into a story; a sense of otherness, her loneliness, feeling lost and out of place. I had removed it later on because I felt uneasy with how vulnerable it was, but at one put I had placed one of the most traumatic events of my life into Dia's story- sometimes I think about adding it back, because I know giving her an oppurtunity to open up about it with her beloveds would be something beneficial to Me irl(!). But that's besides the point here... she's a stubborn girl, sweet but arrogant is my usual go-to descriptor for her; that's how I think of myself too, just based on what I've been told (I have a hard time thinking of myself as nice, though others always say so to me...). That may be part of why I tend to look for those features in (fictional!) lovers... something feels good to me about being able to butt heads due to this shared traits, but still coming together and making amends despite it. I do think it's a little funny that the sonas I've gotten the most attached to so far- Dianthus, and now Nerine- have some sort of theme of death with them. Dianthus is literally a ghost, and Nerine is metaphorically one (and maybe liteally, if I ever make up my mind...). Maybe that's just fitting for me, though... hmm... I'm not sure what else I want to say here... I think of Dianthus as "Me but in Hades Game / Ancient Greek context." Of course some events that happen in her life didn't happen to me, or, sometimes, I dramatize it (Dia's mother leaving her and her father to become the wife of a god was inspired by the fact that for the first few yers of my life, my parents were separated... but they always had a positive relationship with one another! Unlike Dia's parents), but she's become a big par

t of me all the same. Just as I am happy and hoping to spend many more years with Theseus and Asterius, I hope to spend many more years with her as well. i think that's all I'll write for now <3 if you read this thank you for being curious enough about me to be interested in all this 😭

btw, here's the first ever post of her... (yes thats my priv </3 i briefly unlocked it to search for this... don't try and follow me over there though it's crazy over there)

[greenhorn-art]

Keep Your Head Up to the Sky (As Your Day Unfolds) by alphera [Twitter]

Illustrated by Shirou_UOHS @shirou-oh-sakura

Fandom: 全职高手 | The King's Avatar

Rating: General Audiences

Category: M/M

Words: 9 270

Time is rarely kind, and impossible to escape. At the ripe old age of 30, Han Wenqing retires from the Glory Professional Alliance and moves forward the only way he knows how: fearlessly and without hesitation.

About the Book

FONTS: Coelacanth, Segoe UI Emoji

IMAGES: Illustrations by Shirou; pastel sky ID: 7007221 from Rawpixel; dark blue sky ID: 7044483 from Rawpixel; Han Wenqing & Desert Dust image from The King's Avatar Wikia; Ye Xiu & Lord Grim image also from TKA Wikia; Glory card png also made by Shirou via Discord

MATERIALS: regular ol' printer paper (8.5"x11", 20lb, 96 bright); ~1.5mm chipboard; Neenah cardstock (8.5"x11", 65lb, bright white); Iris bookcloth (Madeira colour); paper from Gilded Ink paper pad by Recollections; waxed linen thread (30/3 size, white); wheat paste (1:4 flour:water)

PROGRAMS USED: typeset in Affinity Publisher 2; endpapers designed with Affinity Designer 2 and Affinity Photo 2; imposed with Renegade's Community Imposer (settings: Quarto, snug against binding edge, signatures of 2 sheets).

Text & QR codes printed with colour laser printer (duplex, flip long edge), images printed with inkjet printer (HP Envy 5055; one sheet at a time, single sided, place facedown in tray)

BINDING: quarto (quarter-letter) size, sewn board binding with french link stitch and breakaway spine.

.

Absolutely LOVED this story! I've reread this one a number of times, and keep going back for more. Alphera's writing is so good! Ye Xiu is the series protagonist so things usually follow him, which makes it refreshing to see a story through Han Wenqing's eyes. And the author does it SO WELL! AHHH!

It's been a while since my first read-through, but I'm pretty sure this was the first TKA fic that I actually downloaded and started typesetting. Absolutely chuffed to have it finished! (Love me some growth-- the typeset looks a LOT better than my earlier attempts!)

RAMBLES

Another sewn board binding and breakaway spine! Since this isn't my first go at it, the construction of the book was considerably faster and smoother than my last one. It's just as well, because I ran into a speed bump that stretched out how long it took to typeset and print.

The culprit: (very pretty) illustrations. My laser's colour printing capabilities are shot to hell, so I used my inkjet for the artwork. This involved creating 3 copies of my typeset: 1) the completed typeset; 2) just the text, images hidden; 3) just the images, text hidden/white. Then I ran them through the imposer and printed the text version. The real issue was figuring out how to feed the sheets through my inkjet printer to print the images where I want them. Had to go one page at a time, single-sided. (Just need to place sheet facedown in the tray. So flip along vertical axis.) It took a while, but I got there in the end. And the results were SO worth it! 😊

For the scene breaks I left them as written. I had tried inserting images of the Glory Logo and account card, or using crossed swords emojis ⚔️, but nothing I tried worked as well as what the author did. (It's really neat! Different characters were used to indicate the direction of the timeskip: >>>> for a jump forward in time; <<<< for a flash into the past; and ==== for regular scene breaks, a 'next' rather than 'before' or 'later/after'.)

The cover and endpapers were based off of Shirou's fantastic cover illustration of HQW and YX walking hand-in-hand down a beach at sunset. The art itself is phenomenal so I had it stand alone as a frontispiece and didn't do anything fancy with the title page. For the covers, I looked through my decorative paper stash for something red or black to represent HWQ or Team Tyranny. What I found was paper with pinks, oranges, and purples similar to that illustration -- and that was that. I liked how the colours matched the art, and the gold splashed across it. (Gold for victory, gold for wedding rings and a happy golden future together.)

(Sidenote: I love how the beginning of the end of HWQ's career as an e-sports player "starts with a tingle in his ring finger", leading him and YX to taking the next steps in their relationship and eventually getting married 💍🖐)

I went with a red bookcloth for the spine because it's a common team colour for Tyranny, Excellent Era, and Happy. It also represents good fortune, courage, passion, and love -- things that come to mind when I think about YX, HWQ, and HanYe. The particular shade of red I used is Madeira. It's darker than Ruby Red and leans a little cooler, which suits the decorative paper more.

The endpapers use two background images (overlayed, adjusted, using multiple blending modes) and some images of HWQ and YX from The King's Avatar Wikia.

The background images are from Rawpixel -- I was just minding my own business looking for images of clouds and maybe some mountains to represent overcoming challenges/glory/looking up to the sky, when I found some clouds with the same sunset colours of Shirou's art. Figured it was too perfect, and if I'm going to lean into that design-wise, I might as well go whole hog and full-ass it. Then I found a starry night sky to add some darker blues and stars to it to match. After that it was a matter of overlapping them and positioning them to fit. I also grabbed some images of HWQ and YX from the King's Avatar Wikia and added them to it because HanYe. (After removing the backgrounds).

[diezmil10000]

2023 art summary + thoughts on my own art progress under the cut!!

(template by HedgeCatDragonix on deviantart)

so i've been doing this for 10 years :P

i'm not posting these pics in high quality, they're somewhere on the internet if you want to scavange for a bit. i didn't start taking art seriously until late 2015 and i honestly don't like looking back at old drawings. i still like my 2022 art summary but it wasn't until this year that i'm proud of all my finished artworks.

my art journey is complicated. i'm not one of those artists who can say they've been drawing for all their lifes. i used to trace pokémon in my school agendas but that was it. around 2013, a couple of friends invited me to their Skype server where we used to draw each other's ocs and make art memes and stuff - it was fun and cringe in the most positive way i can say it :] i didn't know shit about art and i took pride in drawing on MS Paint with a mouse just because it was hard.

(all of my drawings until may 2018 were made with a mouse)

when i was 15 yo i got into Love Live! and i decided to get better at art because i didn't want lesbian fanart to be made only by creepy cishet men. at some point i watched this video from Sycra and it rewired my brain. i understood that i needed to actually practise and understand what i was doing, and that i wasn't going to improve just by observing. its follow-up video also helped me a lot, i remember watching it on the day it was posted jskhfdjdfd.

and so fast forward until 2021 approx. i spent all of those years practising drawing in my traditional sketchbooks, so my improvement was steady. the only problem, and in retrospective i see it as a Big Problem, is that i was grinding mindlessly. by that i mean that i copied artists i liked and i drew again and again stuff i was bad at, but i didn't think too deeply about it or analysed my own art to look for faster ways to improve it. i also don't take feedback well so i didn't ask for it either, which further slowed down my progress.

on top of it, that just made me better at drawing, not at illustration. i firmly believe that a good drawing is hard to ruin but i could have made my illustrations way more interesting if i had started going wild with colors and effects way earlier. i don't exactly regret my choices because at the end of the day it's just my hobby, and i've been praised for drawing a lot and for challenging myself to practise drawing traditionally, so i want this to be read as introspection rather than complaints!!

the reason why 2021 was a big change in my art is because in november i did this monstrosity:

i got an Android tablet to be able to draw in class and took the challenge alongside my friend Nico, who also did their own Huevember. hola si estás leyendo esto Nico, aunque lo dudo :) i can't say that any of the drawings made me better at anatomy, or composition, or colors. i can't say that they solidified my knowledge, either. but they planted a seed in my brain that would fully bloom in late 2022, which is the seed of hating the finished result of some pieces so much that i forced myself to improve.

everyone has their own motivation to get better at art and i've always thought that mine was a healthy one (i want to draw more lesbians, that's all). however, i've had a very solid 2023 and now i don't cringe at any of my pieces, plus i can notice any mistakes they have without wanting to delete them from existence - and i could only get there because at the end of 2022 i told myself i wouldn't make any more ugly illustrations. like, period. i didn't want to get anxious every time i had to look back on my own art.

i also learned that no ammount of compliments from others would magically make me like a piece i see as mid at best. of course, i appreciate every single nice comment i get (genuinely, i get very happy knowing that other people love my work), but gratitude doesn't fix a skill issue.

so, late 2022, many things happened. first i got cancelled on twitter over a drawing of my beloved mizuki from project sekai (this info will be relevant later). then i spent a whole month doing this other monstrosity that is to this day the best thing i've ever done. i haven't peaked it (yet):

this comic actually made me improve and solidify my skills. it wasn't a class assignment, or a collaboration, or anything more than a headcanon i shared with a friend - it was pure brainrot over Revue Starlight and it made me put all my cunt into it. this was also the point at which i started filling in blacks with the bucket tool instead of picking a very dark color, which is a big part of my current style :3

the thing about people cancelling me is that i had to distance myself from fandoms and eventually change accunts, which also affected how i perceived my own art. even if i draw for myself, at the end of the day i still draw characters that are loved by many people, so i disabled comments and stopped interacting with other artists of my fandom circles. that led me to go on hiatus at the start of 2023, knowing that it was time for a fresh start (my art accounts were 5 years old anyway).

that period of time made me think a lot about my finished pieces. since i wouldn't post them until i had a new account, i would stare at them for longer than ever or make small changes even if days had already passed. letting my mind rest from illustrations i had been working on and knowing i could change them whenever i wanted was a big step forward.

i realised that for the past years i had been in a hurry to post my drawings as soon as i was done with them instead of appreciating them. that was a turning point for my mindset. this was also past the time i decided to stop making ugly art, but i hadn't really taken any measures to get better. so i changed the wording of the challenge: i can make ugly art but i can't post it if i don't like it.

it doesn't sound epic, but for some reason it worked. every time i was in the middle of making a drawing that looked kind of ugly, i changed it until it looked right. not perfect, but good enough to avoid cringing in the future. some times i had to redraw it from scratch with a more interesting pose. some times i needed to add a background or a graphic element to make the characters pop. and somewhere on that period, i went wild with colors and effects, and a lot of times that saved a piece that would otherwise be boring.

i have to thank Revolutionary Girl Utena and Revue Starlight for making me experiment a lot during my hiatus. both pieces of media, one being the daugher of the other, give artists so many visual metaphors and interesting topics to work with. the revstar brainrot had been there since the junnana comic, but rgu was something i had been meaning to rewatch for a couple of years and it hit me like a fucking train. it also made me create one of the comics i'm the most proud about:

then i got into homestuck and my art got. well. stuck!! >D< but it was okay because i wasn't making ugly drawings anymore. i was putting into practise a lot of things i had been learning or experimenting with, especially regarding colors and character interactions. and the yuri was delicious hmmmmmmm.

the rest of 2023 was very linear in terms of art but not so much in terms of fandoms (?). which is fine, honestly, but i was also glad to get back into Fire Emblem: Three Houses in late that year because when i first got into it in 2019 i didn't have the skill to draw everything i wanted to draw. and i still haven't drawn all the yuri scenarios that i've been cooking in my mind, but i have until forever to do it!!

so for 2024 i want to study some stuff i feel i'm still lacking in. i think i've always had a good eye for composition, but i've never actually pushed it in my finished illustrations - they depend a lot on the poses because i've always been prioritising drawing over everything else. that needs to change this year.

i also want to get better at drawing characters from extreme angles. i've always felt like my poses are a bit flat and i think i can study photos taken with wide angle lenses to improve at that.

and of course i still want to draw faster, which is something i've always struggled with. i think i have a good rhythm of "producing" art (excuse me for the poor wording), but i'm still too slow for the kind of artstyle i want to achieve, which includes having a looser lineart and less details in irrelevant areas of the drawings. i think that overdoing the lineart actually hurts my illustrations, because everything ends up pulling the viewer's attention with the same energy. i also think messy artstyles are neat.

i promise i'm not crazy and i don't hate what i do. in fact, it's precisely because this year i managed to make some pieces with that kind of feel that i know where i want to aim. special mention to the junnana comic because i haven't been able to replicate that lineart ever since.

examples:

as for the stuff i like about my current artstyle, i definitely want to keep the way i color!! and by that i mean the method i have for applying filters that make my colors pop. i could maybe play more with textures too.

i also like the way i depict intimacy, and people have praised it too. thank you for noticing. it's the yearning that's doing it, not me. but i don't think i'll ever change the content (?) of my art, i eat breathe and speak in yuri. if anything, there are still some ways of conveying feelings that i haven't been able to draw because i lack the skill to do so, but i'll keep trying ;)

i honestly didn't expect this post to be this long. i've been writing for hours now and i'm not sure my thoughts are coherent for anyone that isn't me. i also can't grasp the idea that some people know me from fanart i did in 2016 while others started following me last month, time is wild and it's an extra dimension of complexity that i don't know how to account for when i write stuff like this.

but again, as i do with art, i've written this for myself. it's been nice to put my thoughts in order. i think i've only talked about art in depth with like 5 people and it's always been in casual conversation. no creo que estéis leyendo pero Nahia y Henar os amo y he aprendido mucho de vosotras.

thank you for reading until the end if you have. i hope you have not only a nice day but a nice year. let's meet again in the future.

[uuurgh]

I decided to put my (limited) 3D knowledge to use outside of work, so this year I have forced myself to finish something, and behold: my first ever finished project, and the first posted "artwork" online. Not happy with it at all, there are a lot of mistakes visible, however the purpose of it was to finish something, and I had fun working on the one and only - Maul. Nevertheless, any feedback is appreciated.

I was actually inspired to make something of my own by all of you beautiful & talented people of Tumblr with I follow and enjoy.

Some details: softwares used are in the tags.

I have edited the render passes in Fusion, and the results are not exactly what I wanted. But I used Fusion because I want to learn it, and I don't have access to Photoshop or After Effects (which I know how to use much better).

I also made some blend shapes for the eyes, mouth and nose - for practice - but in all images I used a more angry look rather than relaxed.

The model is not very realistic, I gravitated more towards the Clone Wars look. Also edited an earlier version in Photoshop when I had access to it. The skin texture is dirtier but the edit is better.

[kokomiin]

I didn't want to have to do this but I am currently being harassed by somebody I worked for with no sign of letting up, so here it is. Some of you might remember me working on an RPG called Moonatic since last month. I was contacted by this person in early December to be the artist for the game, after seeing how many people were working on it I decided to accept, but everyone involved was working out of goodwill under the promise that we would eventually be paid. I was encouraged by the director to work at maximum capacity every day, I am aware that I have an especially fast art output compared to some people, but this still takes work and energy as I am a human being. If I was only able to complete one piece in a day, he would comment on that being "a shame" and would point out if I finished my work day earlier than him due to exhaustion even if I had actually gotten things done. I kept working hard every day because I genuinely believed in the project and thought this kind of crunch wouldn't be permanent, and I didn't want to cause friction between myself and the director by complaining which I now realise was a huge mistake. Whenever I took a day off I had to announce it, there was no set schedule and I believe he would have me working every day if possible.

My friends can attest to the decrease in my physical and mental health before I even realised how I was being affected by this. The director also initiated a friendship with me as well as me being his employee, I accepted but over time personal boundaries were crossed, he made judgements about some things in my personal life and just two days ago, the day before I decided to resign, he implied a romantic interest in me knowing full well that I'm in a relationship. This was a breaking point for me and I had to reevaluate everything, after discussing with many people I decided it was best for everyone if I left. But when I gave the director my resignation, explaining to him the stress I was under and how I was uncomfortable with how he spoke to me, but that I would still let them use my work for the project, he immediately reacted with a mental spiral, blamed me for the project failing and even now still refuses to contact me directly.

A few weeks ago he insisted on purchasing a VR Headset for me, which I declined multiple times due to the cost and because I didn't ask for it in the first place, but around my birthday when he kept insisting I decided to accept, considering it my compensation for the month's worth of free labour I had done. I drew many character design sheets, environments, a comic, promotional artwork, helped to finish the trailer's storyboard and had begun animating it, with only a few days of breaks. I left the project because of stress and a lack of personal boundaries that were caused by him, and now this person is spamming me with payment requests to give him back the money for this gift. He claims it as a work tool, but when we talked about him getting it for me he treated the 'work' aspect as an excuse and said he really wanted to hang out with me in VR after work. Now he is declaring it as a work tool that needs to be repaid if not shipped back. A VR headset is not at all a necessary tool for this project, which is an RPG game developed in game maker.

I'm genuinely afraid about what else this person might do as he is blaming me for the project failing as though it was my own, and refusing to take responsibility for his treatment of me. If you are an artist, in the future please avoid any company with the name Andel in it. If I end up being forced to pay back the price of my free labour :') I'll open emergency commissions, ok?

screenshots under the cut (i'm pretty shaky right now so I forgot to add some, the ones related to my resignation have been added now)

[steamberrystudio]

10/08/2023

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for WSC.

For those also following the GS updates, I apologise for that update being so short and this one being quite more detailed. When you're earlier in the development process for a game, there's more to do, so there's more to talk about. And in the late stages when you're doing something like beta testing, sometimes there's just not much to report because of where you are in the process. (づ￣ 3￣)づ

Summary

 Finished Kav ch 4, ch 5, ch 6 content

Started on finishing out the remaining routes (more below)

Coded Kav's sprite

Finished the music room art

Ramble

Okay, so let me jump into what I've completed on WSC. 

As before, my main focus on WSC has just been writing because I really want to get it done by the end of the year, which I am on track to do

The game is now at 353,000 words.

The remaining content is composed of LI-specific scenes for Kav, Noel, Raif, and Yren from Ch 7 - Ch 12.

I have around 25-30k words per remaining character to complete for the rough draft.

My goal was to try to reach 75% (¾) of the way through the writing by the end of October. I actually am already at that milestone. I ended up hitting it far faster than I anticipated. So now my big goal is to get the last ¼ of the game drafted by the end of the year.

I feel like the parts I've written in the last few weeks were sort of "easy" compared to some of what is ahead so I don't know that I'll make progress as fast through the remaining content. Progress obviously waxes and wanes based on how difficult it is to draft a given section of story.

So yeah, that is where the writing is right now.

Artwise, I have received a new BG and one new sketch since the last update. BGs continue at a rate of 1 completed BG every 2 weeks or so.

And I coded Kav's sprite. (I also made some small sprite additions - mostly outfits) for other characters. But nothing major.

I finished the remaining music room artwork as well. And I've been working on editing the existing CGs to account for the fact that the conference room (which is the BG in those illustrations) now looks completely different. LoL.

Screenshots:

I don't think I've shown any of the new BGs outside of my server, so here are a couple.

Upcoming Weeks:

Basically I will continue to write for a couple of hours a day in the upcoming weeks as I wrap up the development phase of Gilded Shadows. With around 112,000 words left in the WSC rough draft (give or take), I am really hoping I can just make steady progress towards the completion of the draft so I can start revisions. 

Though I've been picking up a few little art-related "To Do" things here and there, writing will be my focus for this project until the potato draft is complete, which will be a few months from now.

[spooky-bunnys]

can you do another male reader X hikaru Hitachiin? maybe like the reader is an artist and Hikaru finds him doing graffiti in a hidden spot in Ouran? idk where it would go from there but i think itd be neat if he joined in or smth :) (take it however you want im sure whatever you write will be super cool!)

Thank you for the compliment! This was fun to write. You know I tried doing graffiti. It's a lot harder then others make it out to be. Enjoy!

Hikaru Hitachiin x Male Reader

Graffiti Artist

When Hikaru heard about someone graffiting the school he wasn't surprised. He knew people get bored. When they get bored they do something to get unbored. So he wasn't surprised. No what surprised him was how much detail was in it. It was of a forrest. Trees, bushes, and a trail. He had seen some of the graffiti on his way to the club.

He could tell the person who made this was really into art. This type of detail took time and skill. Such skill that he knows took years to have. He remembers asking his mom how she got so good at designing and drawing the clothing she makes. "Time and effort. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember." Drawing never caught either twins attention.

But Hikaru always had an eye for detail. At least that's what his mother always told him. When he heard the graffiti artist hit again he brushed it off again. He had more important things to do. At least that's what he thought until he actually saw it. The graffiti art this time was Koi fish. The way the artist had made them looked like actual koi fish.

When the artist sticked a 3rd time Hikaru was excited to see what was drawing this time. This time the artist had graffitied the wall outside the club room. This time it was a beach with a beautiful sunset. Hikaru could stare at the artwork for hours. He took out his phone and snapped a photo. He should've tooken pictures of the other two.

A week later Hikaru was taking a walk out in the rose garden behind the school. It was peaceful. The only thing you could hear was the sounds of birds chirping and spray paint-wait. Hikaru froze. Spray painting? The graffiti artist! Hikaru hurred towards the noise. He had to know who was the artist. When he arrived he saw what was the most amazing artwork he'd seen yet.

It was of a single rose. The rose was covered in thorns. Ivy surrounded it. It wasn't finished yet but it was already breath taking. He heard a can shaking. When he turned he saw a (height) tall male. With (color) hair and eyes. He was (short/tall) for someone Hikaru's age but....he was breath taking too. He could see how bright the males eyes are.

How happy he looks spray painting. Hikaru released a breath he didn't know he was holding. The males head snapped in Hikaru's direction and he froze. Eyes wide with fear. He'd been caught. The male grabbed the bag that was by the wall and took off. Leaving a can of red spray paint. Hikaru tried calling out to him but the male already disappeared.

Hikaru picked up the can and on the side written in black fancy letters was (N. Last Name). Hikaru nodded his head. He now had a mission but first. Hikaru looked up at the wall. He had a piece to finish. Hikaru shook the can and got to work. Finishing the rose. Looking around once in a while to see if anyone had came out.

Half an hour later Hikaru heard foot steps and froze. He whipped his head around only to see the guy from earlier with a blush on his face as he stared at the wall. "Y-You finished it?" Hikaru nodded with a smile. "Yeah. I'm a pretty big fan of your work. I thought such art didn't deserve to go unfinished. I'm not as good as you, but my mom always told me I had an eye for details."

The guys nodded and looked away and took a deep breath. "Thank you. I'm (Name). (Last Name) (Name.)" He stuck out his hand. Which was covered in green spray paint. Hikaru smiled brightly and grabbed his hand. "Hitachiin Hikaru. Nice to meet you (Last Name)." Hikaru looked at their joined hands and laughed. They were both covered in spray paint. (Name) looked down and join in the laughing.

"We might wanna go and clean ourselves before we're caught." Hikaru nodded. "Yeah. Although I'm kinda screwed. I have club in about an hour and I don't have an extra uniform on me." (Name) looked shyly to the side. "You can have my extra uniform. It's in my locker. It's by the host club room." Hikaru's face lit up. "That's my club!"

(Name) looked surprised before smiling brightly. "I have a close friend in th club! Kyoya!" Hikaru froze. Perfect student Kyoya was friends with the graffiti artist? (Name) knew the look Hikaru was giving him causing him to laugh again. "We're neighbors. He knows about the whole graffiti thing. He's the one who gave me permission to graffiti the wall outside the club room!" Hikaru was even more shocked. Kyoya gave him permission?

"It gave him more customers." Hikaru nodded. That sounds like Kyoya. "Hey you did a good job finishing my piece. We should graffiti together again sometime." Hikaru smiled and nodded. "I'd love to make more art with you." (Name)'s face exploded with heat. Hikaru looked confused before he remembered what he said. "W-Wait! Not like that!" (Name) shook his head and laughed harder and Hikaru joined in.

Maybe in the future (Name) could help Hikaru with the family business. If they're still close by then at least. Hikaru blushed at his thought. Yeah...maybe one day.

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #33 | 07.26.23

Hi everyone!

It's only been a month (per usual) since the last devlog. But it feels like so long ago! Very weird that last devlog I hadn't even released Intertwine yet. But here we are, back with another one!

Before we get into things, I want to extend the biggest thank you to everyone who has played and supported intertwine!

if you havent played yet, here it is. this is me on my knees asking because i am quite proud of it and what our team accomplished in two months!

in the almost month it's been out, we stand at almost 15k total plays and 200+ reviews which is so crazy to me. i never would've expected that kind of reception for our little game and when i say it has been so motivating for alaris!!! u dont even know!!!

thank you again for all the kind words---i know you are all Sick of me talking about it but i don't know how else to express my gratitude <3 it means so much to me ;_;

I wanted to make sure I inserted an official section for it in the Devlog just to really thank you all for the support. But with that, I shall get into the updates!

But not before a quick belated happy birthday to Fenir!

Writing

I posted it earlier this week, but I HAVE!!! THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!!! At least for me.

I FINISHED DRUK'S FIRST DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all know how long this has been in the making. I've been talking about his route for what feels like an eternity. Evidently, it's Very Normal to experience burnout, struggles with motivation, creative ruts, etc. etc. at this point in development. The initial and final stages of development are easier because your motivation is up. In the beginning, it's like Wow!! This is Fun!! And towards the end, it's like Wow!!! I actually Fckn Made It!!!!

And so the middle part of development, aka the stage I just entered with Druk's route, is the slog.

Now that I've overcome that initial hurdle, while I'm not near the end of development, I do feel like I will have a better handle of progress on the following routes since I have a better set of expectations and tools on how to get through this stage (compared to when I initially started Druk's route, and I was like what are all these Feelings?? Why am I Struggling so much??).

That being said, WE ARE OVER HALFWAY DONE WITH THE SCRIPT! It currently stands at 200k words including the demo, and with how each of the routes have been shaping up, we have about 150k left to go. Wow!!!!! It is crazy to know I've written that much for Alaris, and this feels like such an exciting milestone to know that I'm over halfway there for the script!

We also have just about wrapped up Fenir's developmental edits, so that makes Kayn and Fenir's foundational versions of their routes done (all that would be left at this point is line tweaking and/or revisions based on beta feedback)!! Overall, this was a really exciting month for writing updates, and I'm so happy to feel back on track with Alaris development <3 I also finished my dissertation proposal in case anyone is keeping track of that HEEHOO

Art

Most of my attention for art was (un?)fortunately on Intertwine this month AGAIN. I really had anticipated being able to dive right into Alaris and irl work this month after Otojam ended. But the reception to Intertwine made it so I needed to dedicate some time to "marketing" artwork aka the artwork I like to make when reaching certain milestones of support (e.g., 1k downloads, etc.). Obviously these aren't necessary, but I like to show my thanks and appreciation in some way, and the artwork is what feels best conveys my gratitude.

Because we hit milestones relatively quickly, I ended up having to make those pieces faster than I anticipated prior to release. So I spent the first half of this month mostly on intertwine "promotional/apprecation" artwork. Near the tail end of this month though, I've prioritized Alaris artwork and have made progress on both the Kickstarter physical rewards and some CG sketches!

sneaky peeky of pretty mermay Aisa

Vui continues to hit it out of the park with the backgrounds. Most of them are spoilers at this point. But I do have one that isn't too bad of a spoiler! And because you all have been so supportive and patient with me, I show hehe

vui and his bg mastery: a preview of the dragon springs

The demo mentions dragon springs (I..... think......... LMAO), and here is a preview of what those dragon springs can look like. Wonder what the context will be in which we visit them, teehee! I'm in love with the way Vui brings the fantasy world of Alaris to life. I am so grateful for him ^^

Market Research

My wrist was feeling ~delicate~ this month due to Otojam crunch and then post-release pieces. So I don't have any actual art pieces to showcase this month for market research. I did play Otojam games and started Cupid Parasite (ryuki and allan my beloveds). But crescence's wrist needs to relax LOL. So no art pieces more than necessary for this month!

I will send some love to my besties over at Ravenstar Games though! If you haven't heard, they have a game currently in development called Lost in Limbo. It looks sick as hell, and the team is unbelievable talented and hardworking. This month to celebrate Barbie, they were able to sneak this promotional piece in, even while working on their Master's ((Do you see...... a familiar group of people..... heh))

Alaris x Lost in Limbo x Barbie the collaboration of the century

That's all from me for now. Thank you again for all the support and love on Intertwine! I've truly cherished all the fanwork, reviews, kind messages, etc.

That being said, while it was a bit of a struggle getting back returning to the Alaris world initially (I was literally like what.... was the plot of this again... LMAOsazodujf), it's been so rewarding to return to my OG gang. The intertwine release and return to Alaris work has also been strangely sentimental since it's reminded me how far I've come in the two years I've been in this dev Thang. As always thank you for your continued support (and for supporting Alaris since it's inception when I was a Wee Dev), and I look forward to bringing you more updates in the future <3

See you all next month, and stay safe!