#i didn't use a reference for the pose oops

[telffiin]

not sure how good this came out lol

[golby-moon]

oh no I accidentally started making fakemon for the first time since my fake Fidough and Lechonk evolutions. these were designed for a few people from their discord usernames and from their own vague description of things they might wanna see

-

first up is @whitster-lizzy

I think by the end of a somewhat confusing back and forth that I was supposed to make a combo of Bulbasaur, Medusa, and poison ivy. I took inspiration from the last two, but just could not get Bulbasaur's plump little front half to look good morphed into a tail. instead, I went for more of a 'protector of the forest' thing and added a maternal vibe that Whitney kinda gives off and ended up with this. I wanted to put an emphasis on three for the three leaves of poison ivy, so even its tears (which may or may not be from sad edits and the inability to hug anything without poisoning them :(() carry that, as do the scales sporadically thrown around there. the arms became vines when I was too tired and frustrated to keep trying to redraw actual arms to get them to look right (oops) and the hair is just a mess as I'd expect vine-hair to be

-

next is @rauko-is-a-free-elf, who started this whole thing with a comment about someone mispronouncing their name as 'Rocco'

for whatever reason, I came up with an ice bird instead of something that screams 'rock type' idk why either. took inspiration from blue jays (one of their favorite birds) as well as peacocks with the tail and tried to go for sort of a crystal structure on there (along with dots that were supposed to be snow but failed to look like it) while still including the distinctive dark swoops blue jays have on their tails. the wings were supposed to be icicles and that was actually the first thing I designed rather than the head or the body. it really does make use of diamond shapes so I did try to add some rock type elements to it mostly in color scheme though maybe it would've been better without. I'm not really sure why it has a mask other than I wanted to give its face some dark lines like blue jays have but my brush was too thick to add too many little details. so mask👌

-

now we have @bleuzombie

I didn't have any sort of a prompt or direction for this one and based it entirely off of their username. I originally took inspiration from Machop in the way of body shape and went from there, developing a vaguely reptilian form somehow that looked a lot more lizard-y before the dark typing came out in the form of skeleton-bits not unlike the Cubone line. the spiky bat there is a reference to The Walking Dead ofc, which led me to develop more of a baseball vibe with the dark line under its eyes representative of the grease baseball played use to reduce glare and with the sorta long sock-like design for the feet, along with the baseball stitching pattern that doubles as what's supposed to represent the stripes like all baseball uniforms have. its hands have always looked boxing glove-y from the very first beginnings of the sketch so I just colored them to match the rest of the color scheme and oh no now it's a fighting type oops

-

now @nickelkeep

this one is also inspired by their username, which at first had me thinking about how dragons hoard coins but then somehow got turned into c a t and I don't really know why. either way I tried to keep a coin theme going (especially with its eyes, which are supposed to look like coins) while also making it a dark/fairy as sorta requested and it became a representation of the duality of cat: both angel and devil (also a twist of money being the root of evil and all that). so it got fluffy and spiky at once and now has pitchfork-themed whiskers and a few occult symbols to offset its scarf and heart motifs. I think this one was actually the first design I worked on and to the relief of everyone, I actually used a reference of a cat to get the pose right 🎉

(idk why there's a bad drawing of a nickel I think I was originally gonna make that into a background but I did decide against it in favor of making these look more like official pokemon character reference sheet things. enjoy the bad nickel anyway)

-

next one up is @anyreiart

idk what happened with this one. I don't know much about anyrei and their username doesn't inspire much in the way of fakemon (beyond a few seconds where I thought of making a sun-inspired something with the 'rei' becoming 'ray'), so I went with a theme based on what I do know, which is that they paint, along with two pictures that they sent, one of which was Gothorita (the other was for a hairstyle I think but I did steal the funky red and black checkered tie from that because reasons). going off of that, this one is supposed to look like a paintbrush with its body and its edgy anime hair, and its belt continues carrying the paintbrush motif. since I was provided with the request to make it goth, I added thick eyeshadow-esque lines under its eyes and kinda used the hairstyle from the picture while also turning it into a paintbrush that utilizes their favorite color as the paint color. carrying the gothic art idea, I tried to make its lower half (originally meant to be a blobby sort of easel shape before I changed it) into something resembling stained glass windows that was famous at the time (I got confused multiple times while making the stained glass design so it's not all that consistent uh). it was supposed to be dark type, but ended up giving off more of a ghost/fairy vibe after I realized I accidentally made it a ballerina paintbrush (oops)

-

moving on to @as-lost-as-sams-shoe

this one is heavily inspired by their username, starting with the scallion, which is a kind of oniony thing. they themself actually added the 'wrapped' part to push the pun a little further, which made me think of Swadloon and its cozy little leaf blanket, which naturally led to the scallion with its massive head and slimmer body (to match the shape of an onion more than a scallion admittedly) to be all wrapped up. scallions have leaves that look like they were cut straight across, which lead to the development of its 'bangs' (which was also inspired by the fact that scallions themselves grow underground and only the leafy parts are seen, adding a 'shy' element) as well as the tassels along the bottom of its leaf-wrap. the lines along its body are made to represent both the rings inside of an onion as well as the word 'rapscallion,' which is a term that can be used to mean villain or bad guy, earning it prison-esque stripes. its eyes are massive as a play on onions making people cry, and the smaller parts of its eyes that I can't remember the names of are based off of onion rings. the skull and crossbones shape is just to make it pirate-y, which is what I can't not picture when I read the word 'rapscallion' for one reason or another

-

and finally @zybynarx, who gets a finished one as well as a sketch I scrapped and started anew

I actually had a lot to work with for this one, as they specifically asked for a fire type puppy pokemon. first instinct is ofc to go for a dalmatian, which is the firehouse dog or whatever, and I wanted to make the lower half black as a reference to that scene from 101 Dalmatians where they coat themselves in ashes to appear completely black. I made some firefighter-y stripes and tried to make its back legs look almost like boots which looks, in a couple of word, super weird. I then added tinder fluff on head and a kindling sort of thing on the neck, but when I tried to develop the back half's design, my brain sorta died and I couldn't decide what to do, so I went back to the drawing board fully intent on making like a complete copy of what I'd already tried

instead I ended up with this personification of tinder that's just all fluffy all the way down instead of the almost lion mane of tinder design I was originally picturing. I carried over the themes of adding firefighter stripes to allude to a firefighter's jacket as well as the kindling collar thing the other one had. I kept the bottom half black but made it more like wispy smoke than ash that trails behind it when it moves (which is a lot because puppy). the eyes are two pieces of coal and the nose is supposed to look like a match but doesn't. it looks very fluffy but is probably too squirmy to make a good lapdog. it just has that squirmy ball of energy vibe to it

-

whether people really like these or not, it was definitely a learning experience, and I did pick up on a lot of things to keep in mind for future fakemon designs (particularly not to overcomplicate things and go more for consistency, which I did not originally do as I wasn't planning on make them into character sheets at all and didn't plan beyond the main drawings of the fakemon)

this craziness is a result of the @deancasanimebang (which is still accepting artists until October 1st :0)

(08/28/23)

[riuhere]

Rainy rainy rainy

Can you please teach me how to draw fictional legos 🥺

I'll trade my life and soul just to draw a monkey 😭

Hope I didn't bother you! Byeeee~

Oop! If I'm being honest I have mild good photographic memory, and that's probably one of the main reasons why I can draw them! Ooor you could use screenshot references to draw too! That also helps! You could also search up the Internet for their model sheets! Like this for example

And don't forget! You can also search up various of LMK artist for references too! Like lego hand references or face expressions! That also helps me out! And I hope this helps you and anyone out there too! 🍃

Edit: I felt like I had to add this too but uh- I don't really sketch out my work (sometimes when it's a difficult pose) when I draw them so yeah-

And also please bare with my grammatical errors, English isn't my first language.

[mintmoth]

Hi! I'm a super big fan of your art, everything is so pretty and amazing and I just wanna consume it every time I see one of your comics or illustrations. I just wanted to ask (cause I looked around a lil but didn't see anything covering this, if I missed it so sorry haha) what art program/tablet do you use to draw? Also, do you have any tips for beginning artists? I'm trying to get into drawing but I'm not too sure where to start TwT

AAAAA 😭😭 you're too sweet!! Thank you so much!

Also omg personally I use an iPad with the program/app procreate on it to draw!

I'm gonna put everything else under a read more since I got a little wordy oops

Honestly if I were to offer any beginning artist tips I think the biggest one is to just have fun. I know it sounds silly but really like just have fun and don't worry about what you're drawing being perfect or exactly what you had in mind or anything like that. As long as you're having fun and doing your best and not stressing about what you're creating you'll find yourself wanting to draw and create more- and it's within time and persistence that your skills develop

Also while it's good to draw every day since you do need to actively draw more to improve, don't stress about making sure you do! Just go at your own pace and draw when you feel like it!

I think I stress both of these points since they're things I've been working on and struggling with off and on too, realizing I don't have to be constantly drawing and that what I do draw doesn't have to be perfect, and honestly my comics have been a great exercise in letting myself make things "imperfect"

Relating to actual drawing skill sets, I do think that doing figure drawing is incredibly important since learning anatomy is crucial to drawing, even if it's not the most fun thing. Really if you see someone in a cool pose- typically real life photos- if you just try to see the shapes the human body makes and just loosely sketch a messy version of where their body shapes are can help. You don't have to break them down super basically like some tutorials do, unless that helps you! Everyone draws differently so there's no Right Way to do anything. Here's some examples from some I did a while back! I used highlighters since it made it so I couldn't erase, so I had to be more purposeful in my lines, but you can use any medium you want!

And don't worry if it doesn't look exactly like the photo you're drawing from- you're learning!

Another thing is that references are your friend, looking at things and figuring out how to draw them is incredibly helpful so don't be afraid to look up anything you're trying to draw for help

Something I used to do specifically for learning, was looking at photos or even pieces of art I thought were cool and then trying to draw something how I saw it, to understand someone else's use of shape and form. These were things I kept in sketchbooks to just figure out how to draw things like hands and feet and legs, using real life and other's works as a reference to teach myself

Then later while drawing on my own, if I couldn't figure out how to draw something I would go back to my own references and practices to help myself by using my own referenced art as a reference- here's a whole page of hands I drew a couple years ago while looking at photos of hands and also some art (uhhh I believe it was from GinjaNinjaOwO on youtube- if you DO post anything you've referenced poses or elements from, be sure to credit the original artist you've taken reference from!)

You can see I've got a lot of mistakes and scribbles and wonky forms- because I was just trying to understand the shapes and practice drawing hands on my own time, this wasn't anything I had ever drawn with the intention of posting lmao

But! You can do this for any kind of thing you're trying to learn, from arms to facial shapes to hands- just learning what kind of shapes and forms bodies or anything else you're trying to draw take

As far as the side of what kind of stuff to USE to draw, really I'd say to not be afraid of pencil and paper, I know digital art can have a nice and clean polish to it, but especially if you're learning it's really nice to just have a sketchbook (any kind work, just find paper you like! I've been using dot grid notebooks lately!) and a pencil or pen or really anything you feel comfortable with, that you can just loosely draw with and use whenever you like

For digital hardware while I do LOVE the iPad, I know they're pricier and not everyone jives with them, so I'd recommend drawing tablets by the brand Huion, since I've had a great time with them in the past when I used my laptop with Paint Tool Sai, which I also highly recommend as a drawing program, but keep in mind you can use anything! I have a friend who makes AMAZING works just using mspaint lmao

Honestly! In the end, like I said, just focus on having fun and drawing things that you want to without worry for being perfect or 100% anatomically accurate or anything. There's fundamentals that are the best base to build off of but never stress too much about it. Have fun creating! 💙💜

[deidremercer]

Oh yeah I might as well post this here for the 2 people who follow me and aren't already in discords with me,

I'm doing this:

In an attempt to improve my art, I started out just doing it for the sake of drawing something almost every day but now I think I'm gonna save these for whenever I feel I've made an improvement. Each day I am doing a different OC and I'm trying to lean towards having each character in an outfit I wouldn't normally draw them in

#1 was done with Orpheus Valor from Paragons

He was pretty fun to draw because I don't do masc characters very often. Also doing him for the underwear post was good because my GM, Gracie, and I had previously joked about him having scars where top surgery scars would be and just fully not being trans (there are other trans characters in Paragons I feel like we get to do a little bit of queerbaiting) so he was mauled by a bear.

#2 was done with Rabbit Leporidae from Thyrasylo.

Rabbit is normally dressed in either a suit or a frilly dress despite the fact that her name stems from the fact that her original design was wearing a bunny suit. Her shirt is a gag stolen from Thrilling Intent, I think it's funny for the most powerful spellcaster in my world to be wearing a spelling bee shirt. This was also cool because I got to draw her tattoos. Neither of her previous tokens really showed them off much so I thought I could use this opportunity to draw them. They don't have any real significance as of right now but I might ascribe some to them later.

#3 is with Ivy Blackleaf from Thyrasylo

Ivy is very fun to draw, this prompt made me finally design a logo for her Mom's cafe. I think I made it a little too close to the Olive Garden logo. Otherwise this was a fairly straightforward one, I did get to practice expression a little bit.

#4 with Roxanne De'Rulo from Crescent King

Messy hair Roxie is really fun to draw. I forced myself to make this a full body to try and practice feet, I don't think they look all that great. Her hand is a little bit fucked up but I am glad that I drew it at all, practice is important. Otherwise the only thing of note with this one is that I lost the original TRIPWIRE band logo and Redbubble doesnt let you redownload your uploaded designs which kinda blows.

#5 with Jayden Valekrave from Paranoia and Evi Halloran from Macrocosmos

The first one with a backdrop. This one was also voted on by a whole 37 people who took time out of their day to vote on my silly little Google form. Evi is in the background because she was the runner up and I probably wouldn't draw her anywhere else. I also think I didn't do justice to all the people who voted for Jayden. I super didn't have a reference pulled up and I am not skilled enough to draw from my imagination yet. Jayden's halberd, Dawnbreaker, having sunglasses on is the best part of this image. She is so silly. I also started drawing the eyes without having lineart on them here. Idk how I like it, we'll have to see.

#6 with Vernidaius Yxerei from Decent Into Avernus

Compression kinda fucked this one up a bit, but the name of the game with this one was experimenting with brushes. I kinda tried to get some of the texture that I really love out of Jackson FrameDodge of The3rdWheel's work. Unfortunately I dont really know how to shade properly so it's kinda all over the place, and harder to see on the skin, oops. This one had a pose reference initially but the legs ended up being too difficult for me to do so I just sorta covered one of them. I also super forgot to draw Vermi's scales here. The line-less eyes are still something I'm on the fence about. I think this background is a good bit better than the previous one, the only part of the previous one that I really ended up liking is the clouds.

And that's everything I've done so far, tune in soon for the next one if you care.

[fff777]

watched episode 1 of dream x dream with 3j :3

is this the entirety of the 3j content that they'd spoiled? (i'm assuming this was during alley-oop?)

nana mode already on XD

omg they have photocards with the cute card holders ;_; who gave that to them XD

they're going to "be like fans" and have meals with photocards lmfao

jisung was disappointed that he didn't have photocards of fans and had to eat with his own photocard...what a thing to say lol

jeno keeps playing with the fluffy card case

the guys were giving jisung shit about coming in that way because jaemin had to shrink in on the seat lol

what a nice place :3

aw jisung is so serious about his ideas for triple j content :3 and jeno is so seriously listening while jaemin is just chattering in the background

taking pics with the photocards :P

jeno: ...what do the fans do after they take pictures...

jeno is the oldest and the taste tester hehe

jaemin: *samoyed jokes*

jisung: ...are you done

jisung: i don't like sour cream

jaemin:

jaemin said that jisung will get a lot of views on cooking videos, but nomin wants him to do it with no help and no audience

jisung: i'm not actually that bad at cooking, i just do it for the bit

normal dream things

also jaemin: if a samoyed eats that, it needs to go to the hospital

jisung hates the sound of silverware clinking and squeaking against each other

they got caught when playing video games when they were young lol

jisung used to live with his family and only went to the dorm during breaks :o

the guys laughing at the fact that jisung used to have to give his phone to his mom before going to bed so that he wouldn't use it in bed XD

before they started living at a dorm, jisung's mom once drove them to the subway station and jeno still remembered that :3

more photocard photos heh

see this is normally what i think about when i think of photocard meal photos. i imagine the photocard being propped up so it feels like you're eating with someone else

jaemin's been watching a log of nctzen vlogs uwu and he wants them to show their faces....you know he really is like that eh. anyway he asked them to show their faces and they started to do it but now he's complaining about how they only show their faces partially covered XD maybe we fans are the true cryptids XD

and then jaemin complains that he clicks on a thumbnail with a face but the video only has hands XD it's because fans are shy, jaemin

official announcement from president na XD

see jisung and jeno get it XD but jaemin is complaining about the sheer numbers of people not showing their faces lmfao

nana v pose

aw, they're discussing etiquette and habits of nctzens when they hang out with their friends

lol jaemin is convinced that fans get together to celebrate nct's accomplishments

they're talking about things that fans do together and i won't lie...it would be fun to have some czennie friends :3

BIRD

samoyed never goes away

for reference, this was his face when he saw the bird lol

lol they're full

jisung and jaemin liked the pasta and they were surprised when jeno said he liked the baguette ^^;;

jisung concerned with the vibes they were giving off while leaving their meal and jaemin was all "I DO WHAT I WANT!"

they're going to watch videos together like czennies ^^;; honestly i don't watch videos with my friends but that's just because i have too much shame lol

awww they're going to watch fanvideos and fan compilations together!!! i think this'll be fun :3

jeno: we were crazier when we were younger

my guy you are only 24 years old but no, i get what he means, as a 23-24 year old i did facepalm at some of my old memories lol

they're having soooo much fun watching

awww the guys didn't know that johnny and jaehyun were going to come to their cafe :3

lol jeno said filming the cafe video was actually very tiring XD i can imagine, especially since jeno and jaemin were actually making drinks

aw, jaemin was so moved that the fans were just singing never goodbye on their own before a performance

of course romantic little jisung would be moved too <3

lol jisung wants to fight more XD

this was filmed on valentine's day and jisung prepared a cake :o

ahhh next episode will be more 3j :D this was a lot of fun <3 <3 <3

[ragecndybars]

Top five poor little meow meows, any medium but limit it to one per series or you're just gonna talk about Akihiko five times

this ask is a landmine. and i'm about to step on it.

Anthy Himemiya. Hashtag Anthy Did Nothing Wrong. Everything she did is retroactively morally correct purely because it was her who did it. True, she has a bodycount of, at an absolute minimum, 100 students who burned to death + Mikage himself + Kanae, but have you considered: she is terminally in middle school. Using magic illusions and or hallucinations to drive Mikage to mass murder and eventual death? They hate to see a girlboss winning. That last episode and her whole, uh, thing with Utena? God forbid women do anything. The way she fucks with Nanami, too, simply because of the Recognition of the Self through the Other (derogatory). ALSO IS SHE MIKI AND KOZUE'S STEP MOTHER OR WAS THAT A METAPHOR. ANSWER ME IKUHARA. Not that it actually matters bc she was just having a category five girl moment. Get your princess witch dichotomy out of here she's my special little meow meow and she deserves to travel the world with Chuchu and Utena while Akio rots underground <3

Edelgard von Hresvelg. Sorry but nothing need be said here. Other ppl have said it all already. Black Eagles 4 Lyfe.

Chidori Yoshino. Yes, she was party to multiple murders. No, there was no real goal or justification beyond money. Yes, she was utterly indifferent to the blood on her hands. No, she never really changed her mind about that or ever came to understand why standing idly by and letting Takaya murder people who she helped track down was bad, nor did anyone ever really try to explain it to her. Yes, she kind of just said "whatever man" and went off to have her own character arc completely divorced from the murder. No, I do not care. She is my precious little angel she didn't deserve anything that happened to her she needs all the love and understanding in the world.

Clive Dove. MFW I'm traumatized and orphaned as a child and the man responsible not only faces no consequences but even becomes Prime Minister and so I build an entire fake future London underground beneath the real London and conspire with a man who created an actual real functional time machine to trick some people and kidnap the prime minister and smuggle him away and make a fake evil future version of the guy who comforted me after my parents died and then pose as the future version of his apprentice to get close to him and kidnap his daughter also at one point and really just let everything get out of hand up until the point I get caught and hop into an enormous mechanical fortress and pop out through the ground slash ceiling of my fake future london to start smashing the shit out of the real london all the while the woman who literally travelled through time is like damn i'm dying and now my bf and i cant even have a nice last date. Anyway Clive is peak and he should have faced zero consequences for this. But Bill Hawks needs to die ASAP.

Leonard Church. The misogynist of all time. He loved his wife who he constantly referred to as a horrid bitch so much. He loved his daughter who he neglected and emotionally abused by comparing her to the impossible standard of her dead mother soooo much. He loved himself so fucking little that he tortured himself to create an AI out of himself and then he tortured the AI to try to create a new version of his wife out of his own memories. The neglect and emotional abuse of his daughter is continuing in a big way throughout this tbh. Then he accidentally tortures his AI self too much to the point where AI him loses his memory and his fake-ass AI wife who despises him now for what he did has to kidnap him from himself and now he's just back to being a huge asshole who calls his wife a horrid bitch all the time. And then he can eventually develop a conscience and start to remember more and more (and cause irreversible trauma and brain damage to wash at one point in there oops) and then even though he still doesn't remember her, he can team up with his daughter to track down his original, human self to stop him from continuously committing war crimes and human rights violations in his efforts to resurrect his wife. and he can finally put his wife who he calls a bitch to rest. I'm not gonna say I love you... I'm gonna say... I forget you. I'm letting you go. And then he can die pathetically as a human while his better AI version sticks around with his daughter who he still doesn't really remember for a while until he eventually has to sacrifice himself as well. And ain't that just a bitch.

[matchheadz]

THIS IS NOT A TUTORIAL

So I like to draw. That much is clear. In fact, I went to school for it! For an exorbadent amount of money, actually. Well, not drawing. Animation specifically but thats not the point.

I like to draw, but for a long time I felt like I couldn't because my 'process' was rather ridiculous. Or at least, I felt like it. I still sort of feel like it. I want to remind people here that your process doesn't have to look clean or pretty or whatever, because nobody (unless you go to an art college in that case just get in the habit of saving custom layouts for projects, trust me) is going to see it.

I call my sketchbook my 'shitbook' because its full of stuff that will never see the light of day. Blind contour drawings. Random mixtures of shapes. Observational drawings with little notes to myself. Don't worry about those 'aesthetic journals.' Fuck 'em, I say. Life is messy as shit, let your sketchbook show that.

So today I wanna show you the absolute mess that is my process. I like to take screenshots during a painting or sketch that I feel is pivotal in my learning process so I can see if I took the right direction or not. As a result, I have a ton of these .pngs lying around. Lets look at one:

What the fuck is that? EW! THATS UGLY! Hold on, what about this one:

Hmm, well what about this- wait what the fuck is this

These are all thumbnails/sketches from IT projects I did maybe two or three yearrs ago. These never saw the light of day, save for maybe a joke post or to a partner involved in a project. These were for me to look at, to carve out. These don't have good anatomy. They're not the final composition. Sometimes they're in a completely different style. Point is,

These are my versions of thumbnails. It's how I plan my shots, my layout, my composition, my expressions. Is some of it pretty? Maybe? Is most of it absolutely vile? YES. And I love it that way. The dirtier the better, as I like to think. Its a thought process. I want my thumbnails to look like I'm thinking so I can combine those thoughts. For example, I'll show you the last Vergil painting I just did and all the steps I did with that. Look at this ugly little motherfucker:

This is a strange sketch considering the final product. What I did here was look at the 'jinx pose' from Arcane and be like "hmm. Vergil?" and tried to use the perspective and anatomy. it did NOT work out in this sketch because as you'll see in a second, the rough colors did not work for me. But in this specifically, I focused on the musculatory anatomy of his shoulders, because I knew that was going to be something super defined and important to understand with how odd his vest is. So here are my flats. Sorta:

So at this point I'm clearly focused on the face and my file is still named Vergil Thirst Trap Lol and something clearly isnt working with my perspective. His head and arms are huge, and Vergil might have a grabable waist for some of you but this isn't it. So At this point I'm done with my first sit down and I step away. I come back the next day (during work hehehe) and I get to this at the end.

Alright! Color is looking a little better. Arms are more sculpted and while I'm aligning myself to my sketch more than anything, I'm also very closely looking at my pose reference, thinking about anatomy and my color palette. I step away (I clock out) and I take a minute to look at it. Its... looking better? But theres something off still about that perspective. At this point I'm a little frustrated with this vest and its weird rules. So I bare my teeth and gnash at it:

WHOA WHY THE FUCK HE LOOK SO WEIRD HERE?? Cause I flipped the canvas after painting and didn't realize how odd it looked oops. We'll do some fixing but that face looks nice for now and I think im better understanding the contrast I need through some actual photo editing. So let me tell you the story of Vergil's hair. Its a sad one. It will enrage you. This man had four different itterations. Most of which I can't show you because I painted over them so many times. But heres a screencap of the one I thought was gonna work.

Its NICE. I liked it alot. But the I realized this was not the way things were heading. Hair too swaggy. IMO anyway. I was slowly editing the name from Vergil Thirst Trap lol to Vergil to Vergil has mommy issues. and this hair? It matches the lightning well, but this was more Vergil Fucks. so what was the end result of the body?

more or less this (Those buttons didnt look like that I just realized this screenshot is fucked but you get the idea.) I did some composition editing, some contrast play and more effects, but this was pretty much done. So, like, shit gets messy. Thats not even counting the layer of overlapping reference photos I used because I don't use art boards like a normal person. shit gets messy! Let it get messy. Just clean up when you're done and hopefully you get something you're proud of >:)

[kyistell]

Since there’s no hockey for you for 10 days, could you draw a state maybe playing hockey?

So I wanted to get this done immediately, went onto Pinterest for references because while I never use them, references would be the only way I could do this, got distracted looking at hockey memes, went and bothered my father and here we are now...oops?

It's not the best but considering I really didn't have a reference pic for this exact pose, I gotta say I think I did pretty well :D

[honestsart]

Introducing Tsuina-chan!

She looks great in my style, doesn't she? :D ...Or is it LamazeP's art style... I don't... I don't know. I didn't mean for it to look that way, but I used a sketch from the PV for Premature Love Romance of Rana looking scared as a reference for the pose, and I think I accidentally copied him a little bit. Oops.

Click "Keep reading" for a version with a transparent background:

Fun fact: I drew this while watching someone play Master Detectives Archives: Rain Code.

I also used this in the thumbnail of this video:

[viva-la-topknot]

Rabbit rabbit, Happy August! Here's all the Art Fight drawings I drew in July. :D As per usual my goal was to whatever characters looked interesting, with no particular theme or care any for team in mind. I like to use Art Fight as an excuse to draw characters I normally wouldn't. My comfort zone is furries so while I did pick an draw a few of those, I also drew feral bodied characters and what Art Fight calls "Simple Shaped Characters". Which I feel like is sort of a misnomer, because I find characters that don't rely on anatomy I can reference outside of what their creators have drawn to be a pretty big challenge! I wanted to take the time to hit a few of my faves, which I made sure to do, and mutuals too. Beyond that I spent most of June looking up key words that interest me on Art Fight's Tag Search [ "neopets", "90s", "rainbow", "thylacine", "stars", "worm on a string", among many others] and bookmarking anyone that looked interesting. I then saved all the refs of people I wanted to draw with the character ID in the file name. One step I didn't do this year that I will for sure have to do next year is to then double check those IDs once the event actually stars. Lots of people hide their characters last minute, right before the event starts! Or say they will participate and then don't. Which is okay, it just means I need to be better about checking next time. This meant I drew two attacks that couldn't be submitted to the site [And a third that when I messaged the person saying, "oops I drew a hidden character of yours where would you like me to send you the drawing?" they un-hid the character for me. So kind!] but I've included them here anyway. I think 18 [plus one sketch I didn't get done in time] is a pretty admirable number of attacks considering we also had a two hour move this month, and some events to attend!

Just like last year I learned a lot! Last year the chief lesson I walked away from Art Fight was speed. I am not, and have never been, a quick artist, but in 2021 I was a "It takes me several days to finish a sketch" artist. I used to be very persnickety about that step of the drawing process and it soaked up a lot of time. Through wanting to be as efficient as possible with only a month to participate I learned to use my sketch a way to just get the idea for the drawing down to be refined as I go, instead of getting a "perfect" sketch down. Made me a much more efficient artist! This year I really had the "finished is better than perfect" mantra I've been trying to use drilled into my head, as I attempted to tackle anatomy and poses that where very unfamiliar to me. Particularly simplifying anatomy into something more cartoony makes figuring out what markings go where a challenge. But it doesn't matter! I'm not getting graded, and this is for fun. Should this spot be over here or should it be a smidge to the left? Slap it in between the two points and move on. Finish your art!

👊 ArtFight. https://artfight.net/~viva_la_topknot   👊  Other ArtFight attacks.🎨 General art tag.

[pioneeroverc-my-5000th-sideblog]

Summary of February:

Figuary burnout time! Tried to improve my quality of practice, halfway through the month, by identifying things to work on, but only really paid attention to them for the duration of the next session. Really ran out of energy during the last week or so and couldn't really keep going.

Plan from January:

All monthly/weekly goals for the year ✗ did do more than usual though

Figuary: 28+ figure sessions of at least 20 minutes✓ (counting the times I drew along with Hampton's videos since I missed one day)

Do year retrospective✓

Kabuto birthday pic✗ never came up with an idea

Look up how armour actually works✓ but I still don't know how it deflects stuff lol

March plan:

All monthly/weekly goals for the year

10x 5 minute What Am I Scared Of sessions (inc photo drawovers)

Thumbnail/sketch for K/ylux calendar

DAB Lesson 7 - redo form intersections

DAB Lesson 7 - 4 vehicles

FEH design

Proko - review notes

Proko - next body part

notes and improvements from finished stuff:

USE PHOTO REFERENCE FOR EXPRESSIONS and try more open mouths✓(I mean I did this once lol), always try to include a story and use specific background details to flesh out the world (even if portrait) - MOST IMPORTANT✓ yay!, do more hair studies✗, use photo reference to figure out stylised ¾ eyes✗

v/aida: stiff pose, didn't figure out how axe would interact with ground plane before inking/colouring so it doesn't look like it has weight, hands don't interact with hip/axe well, face looks stretched (think this is a 3/4 eyes problem again oops), leg muscles clearly not known lol, not a wearable design

c/anas: stiff pose, not sure whether staff is on ground or not (weightless), outlines of leaves really lack nuance and look v amateurish, bottom of picture flat, nostril placed weirdly or shadow on bottom of nose is too long, lineart too messy to be this thin

lucius: finger thickness inconsistent, head doesn't attach to neck properly, back of head is straight up square, palm shading makes the little finger side look way too bulbous, cape thing doesn't really flow over arms properly (looks like it's floating above them)

k/ylux: k/ylo's arm too long, should have put more effort into making h/ux's head look not Like That in particular, didn't get the perspective looking correct (but I get a pass on this as it was extremely advanced for me), story wasn't clear enough because everything was so small and with such thick lines

m/etodey: mood completely different from what I wanted to do, uncanny valley face (tried to do his impossible anime expression, don't do this in the future), thumb in particular looks very short, weird posing/cropping at bottom looks like he's trying to fit his arms in frame, shoulders too horizontal so makes himk look flat, bg really bad because I ended up having huge line dependency and not knowing how to shade it, I think the value separation between fore- and background and the very undetailed flowers look cool though

ACTIONABLES: USE PHOTO REFERENCE FOR EXPRESSIONS and try more open mouths, do more hair studies, use photo reference to figure out stylised ¾ eyes, push unhorizontalness, try to unstiffen poses before doing lineart (separate pass)

5MIN SCARED IDEAS: find good hair examples and trace, find 3/4 photos and trace eyes, trace torsos for gesture, review/learn leg muscles

[mutantbreadslice]

All Of My Art!

Hi, this is all of my art in one pinned masterlist(?). Most of my art was made before I had this tumblr account so you might not be seeing all of my art / it might not look like I made the art due to the differing watermark, but I did. So yeah... have fun I guess. I will update this with art that I make.

[dumbmusclehypnojockboy]

Jersey Bros by writer-ofstuff

"So, how did these two do?"

"What do you think? Failures. Just like the others have been."

"I don't know. I wouldn't say they were total failures." The lead scientist mused.

"Sir? What do you mean? The super soldier serum didn't work." His assistant said.

"Yes, while that is true, it does tells us we are on the right track to perfecting it." The scientist said. He types on the computer and brings up their two subject's readings to show his assistants what he means.

"Look at their readings. Their DNA is already changing due to the serum. Which means we are closer to our breakthrough. We just need to do some more adjustments to the formula to get it exactly what we want it to do." He explains.

His assistants nod their heads in understanding and then busy themselves with work that the lead scientist instructs them to begin.

"Sir, what should we do with these two?" One of the asked, gesturing towards the two men who lay asleep on the metal table in the next room.

"Toss them out on the beach. They are no longer of any use to me now." He says dismissively.

The assistant nods his head and calls up a few soldiers who stood guard outside to help take Dean Winchester and Derek Hale's sleeping forms out of the lab and into a truck. Driving them down to an isolated part of the beach just as the morning sign rises and leaves the two sleeping men on the sandy beach.

------

Derek awakes with start, sitting up and looking out at the ocean while the gentle waves wash up and down the sand shore. He rubs his hand through his hair, not caring he is getting small pieces of sand in it.

He feels like he is forgetting something, like the last few hours there is just a hole in his memory. Derek turns his attention to the man sleeping close by him. The werewolf rolls his eyes when he hears Dean starting to snore rather loudly. He has a hard to believing this guy his a feared and bad ass hunter when he is passed out with his ass up in the air and a little drool coming out of his mouth.

Derek doesn't quite remember why he and this hunter teamed up, that being part of the missing pieces in Derek's memories. Yet he still for some reason remembers meeting Dean.

Derek gets to his feet and walks the short distance between himself and the sleeping hunter and lightly kicks him with his foot. The action jars Dean away who quickly rolls over and hits up, sand falling off his face from where he had laid asleep.

"Wake up."

"Wha? I am up." Dean says in a sleepy voice. Rubbing his face clean of the drool and the sand that was still on his face.

"Derek? Why are we on a beach?" Dean asked.

The hunter had sounded just as confused as Derek felt. So Derek doubts asking Dean if he knew what was going on here would be of any help.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Derek says.

He offers his hand out for Dean to take to help the other man up. As soon as their hands make contact a strange feeling jolts through both men's hands. The two men are so startled they let go of their hands and Dean falls on his ass.

"Oops, sorry bro." Derek says.

He frowns when he thinks about why he just referred to Dean as bro. That wasn't a word that Derek would use yet it just slipped out when he spoke. Derek thought nothing of it, besides Stiles said bro all the time so it must have just slipped into his speech.

Thinking about Stiles, Derek started to wonder where the younger man was. He had an odd feeling that he had been looking for him and grew tense at the thought.

'Was Stiles endanger and he didn't remember it?' He thought for a moment. But then his mind felt a little dizzy and then he thought about how the younger man is just at home relaxing.

Derek glances at Dean who looks lost in thought as well. Derek wants to ask him what he is thinking about, but he refrains from it. Dean was a hunter so Derek didn't want to bother to get to know the other man.

Now that he thinks about it, why was he even with Dean? He asks the human and sees Dean's confused frown deepened as he pauses walking.

"Huh, I don't know either." Dean said.

This honestly should alarm both men, yet Derek felt himself feeling relaxed instead. He assumes Dean feels the same way since the other man doesn't make a move to get away from Derek by walking in the other direction.

As they continue to walk side by side down the sandy empty beach Derek's mind wonders. Thinking about how the pair ended up on the beach anyway. Surely there was a reason wasn't there? At the moment he couldn't think what the reason was. When he asked Dean the other man shrugged his shoulders and didn't say a word.

When Derek stole a glance at him he frowned when he noticed that Dean's hair looked lighter than before.

'Wasn't his hair brown?' He thought to himself while he looked at Dean's now bleach blond hair. The hair style even looked different. Looking a little longer and styled differently with hair products to give Dean a fluffy faux hawk style hair do.

The hairstyle even made Dean look younger to Derek. The older man now looks like he is around Derek's age instead of a man pushing into his late thirties.

This was really starting to confuse Derek, but the more he pondered what was going on here the more those thoughts left his mind and he got distracted by something else.

"Did you change your hair?"

Dean hears Derek ask and he turns his attention to the werewolf.

"Sorry, what?" Dean asked. He wasn't really paying attention to what Derek said. Busy in his thoughts about why he was on a beach with a werewolf.

"Your hair. It looks different." Derek said.

Dean touched his hair, feeling how it was a little stiff from the hair product he put in this morning after his shower. It felt like his usual style, telling Derek as such.

When Dean looks over at Derek it's his turn to be confused since Derek's facial hair looked different. He could have sworn Derek had a thick amount of stubble along his jaw and around his mouth. Yet now Derek's face was all clean shaven except for some scruff that covered his chin.

Dean had intended to ask Derek about it, but he then thinks against it. After all it would sound rather odd to ask Derek that. Since obviously Derek just had the chin scruff prior, Dean must have just been mistaken is all.

He started to second guess himself, wondering what if something was going on here with himself and Derek. Especially since he couldn't quite explain why the two were even together in the first place.

The two men reach the boardwalk and continue to walk side by side in silence. The pair were both lost in their own minds trying to make sense of what they were doing when Dean noticed a gym to their right.

He pauses and stands outside it, looking inside through the glass windows. When Derek notices he isn't by his side the werewolf pauses and turns around.

"You alright bro?" Derek asked.

His voice sounded off to him and he clears his throat and asks again.

Dean didn't answer him so Derek walked up to stand beside him. He peers through the window of the gym like Dean is doing.. For a moment nothing happened but then Derek starts to get flashes of memories in his head. He sees himself inside the gym, working out with Dean. The two chat like they are best friends while they spot one other while they work out.

The memories he recalls aren't really, he knows this, but at the same time they feel like they are real to Derek and he hates that.

"Come on bro, let's get goin yeah?" Derek asks. Again his voice sounds off to him, but he can't quite place why.

"In a bit dude, I need to see somethin." Dean replies.

Derek opens his mouth to say something, but before he could Dean confused walking into the gym without another word.

"Fuckin hell." Derek grunted.

He paced a little outside, debating on what he should do. Running his hand through his hair, as soon as his hand falls back to his side his hair shifts. The sides shaving down to a buzz style while the mid section of his hair style back as it lengthens.

He thinks about just leaving Dean. Clearly something strange is going on here and that is the reason they feel holes in their memories while also having these fragments of new memories.

"Fuck it." Derek grunts and follows Dean into the gym.

------

Dean can't explain the urge he felt to go into the gym. Like Derek he gained those similar memories of himself and the other man coming here. In those false memories it seemed like they were close friends despite the two men hardly knowing one another.

He told himself this was to get to the bottom of things. Instead though Dean just wanders through the main area of the gym. He only sees men in the gym, some guys alone working out while others are grouped up and chatting while jogging on the treadmill.

What makes it strange is how some of them address him by his name, as if they know Dean. Rather than question how they know him Dean just rolls with it, greeting them back. While he does and continues deeper into the gym. His body alters, muscles becoming more toned and defined. Gained from years of working put and maintaining this kind of physique rather than Dean having earned it through training.

The tattoo on his left pec that wards of possession starts to break apart. The ink traverses along Dean's chest under his shirt. Wisps of ink branch off to spread along Dean's arms while the rest form into different styles of tattoos.

More false memories bombard Dean's mind and the hunter clenches his head as he attempts to push those new thoughts out of his mind. He looks ahead of him Dean sees he is standing a few steps away from a large wall mirror. He can see his green eyes darken and for a brief moment he fears he is being possessed by a demon.

"Demon? Demon's don't exist," he then thinks.

His green eyes turn brown, his lips get a little fuller, nose wider and the bridge of it becomes slimmer. Dean grunts, watching his face change before his eyes and unable to do anything but throw his arms up and start to pose. Smirking at his biceps and admiring how large they are. Giving into the admiration of his own appearance finally pushes Dean over. His mind purging his own self from it finally as his new dimwitted and vain self takes over.

He lifts his shirt up to admire his hard earned abs and pecs next once he has had enough flexing. Only stopping to look around and wonder where his best bro is at.

📷

----------

Navigating through the gym was making Derek feel uneasy. What connection he had left to his werewolf abilities was telling him something wasn't right about this place. The men he walked by all seemed like the same type. Self absorbed meat heads who cared only about themselves and showing off.

Derek despised shallow men like this. So whenever any of them tried to stop and talk to him he would give them a glare and ignore them to continue his search for Dean.

The further Derek ventured into the gym the harder it was to recall past memories of his. Thoughts he would have would shift to random things.

'I'm totally bigger than that dude.'

'Jason's here? May need to see if he wants to fuck in the locker room again.'

'Mike's here too. Should talk to him about getting another tat.'

'Where the hell is Dean at? My bro needs to spot me.'

Derek tried to shove those thoughts away but it felt like the more he tried to, the more adamant they were to linger in his head.

He needed to find Dean and get out of here. When he reaches the back area of the gym he finds a tattooed dude posing in front of the mirror.

Derek thought of what a self absorbed guido the guy was. The type of guy you would hate on a trash reality show. He releases only to realize a moment later that this man was somehow Dean.

Astonished, Derek quickly approaches Dean, opening his mouth to ask what happened to him.

"Looking good bro." He says instead. Taken aback by his own words.

Dean turns to look at him and grins.

"You see yourself bro? You hitting the iron hard ya?" Dean replies.

Derek wants to deny it, but he can feel his body surging with muscle. He tries to repel the ongoing changes, but it proves to be useless. His pecs inflate to large and firm pectorals. While his biceps gained quite a bit of bulk to them. The rest of him gained a significant amount of solid muscle while Derek also felt himself growing a little taller.

His pale skin darkened with a tan gained from walking around shirtless and hitting the tanning bed when he could.

Derek tries even harder to repel these alterations happening to him. Not wanting to end up like some self absorbed dick like Dean had become. He assumes being a werewolf has given him an edge that made whatever caused this work slower on him.

He can feel himself being overweight by whatever this is, wincing when two diamond studs appear in his earlobes and his mind shatters a few moments later. Derek stood there in a daze while his old thoughts were overrun by a new persona.

Derek then blinks himself awake, a slow grin spreading on his face as he flexes for Dean.

"Fuck yeah bro. You know I gotta keep this bod in shape for the studs." Derek said with a heavy Jersey accent.

He stands beside Dean and the best bros make faces and pose for a picture. Uploading it to social media before the pair get back to their workout routine. Neither of them remembering anything of their past selves.

📷

[rainplaysswtor]

SWTOR: New player help: Contending with bugs

It's not a bug, it's a feature! It's working as intended! As you play SWTOR, you will notice that...things don't always go as expected. Here are some helpful tips for new players (and more long term players too) to try to help handle some of the most common bugs you will find in the game. 

First thing: report the bugs you encounter. If nobody knows something's going wrong, it can't be fixed. 

Everyone including free to play players can now use the in-game bug reporting system. How? 

1. Go into your chat box (usually at the upper left of your screen and type /bug)

2. This should open a window that will allow you to type a short description of the bug you are seeing. Describe the bug. Make sure you mention 1) exactly what you were doing and 2) what was not working. For example: 

"During the introduction scene for the flashpoint "This is Way Too Long," the character "I Don't Like You" does not have a head." 

3. Press ' submit.' 

Keep in mind that you will not get a response or any direct help from a bug report. This is to let the developers know what is not working in the game, so they can hopefully fix it. 

2. Wait a little while after there's a new patch or game update

When there's a new game update or patch (you will know because you have new files that will automatically download when you launch the game), don't jump right into the new content with your favorite best character. Wait. It's hard, I know, but wait. The general trend over the past few years has been that new patches and updates always have bugs, and sometimes they're doozies. 

It helps to have a "me first" character or two - perhaps a clone of your main - to wade into new content on the first day or week if you really want to see it. That way you can see the new content without being completely angry that it's messed something up for your characters or isn't running quite right. 

3. Keep an eye on the Bug Reports section of SWTOR.com and the SWTOR Twitter account. 

Even if you are not a subscriber you can still read the Bug Reports forum (I would not recommend the rest of the forums, though). There's usually a running list of known bugs for each patch listed at the top of the page. Also keep an eye on the SWTOR Twitter account. You can read it without being a registered Twitter user, and it will let you know when the game is going down for maintenance or an update. 

4. If you are facing a bug that is making it impossible to complete a quest you need for story progression, you can reach out to SWTOR customer service for assistance. If you are a subscriber, press the little gears icon at the top of your screen, choose "customer service" and then "request help." If you are not subscriber, you can reach support at support@swtor.com. 

SPECIFIC STRATEGIES FOR COMMON BUGS

1. Help! My abilities bar got unlocked and I cannot get it to lock again!

When this happens, all your abilities will 'float' or move from their placements, which understandably makes it hard to fight. How to get around this: 

1. When you are NOT IN COMBAT, press CTRL+U. All of your abilities bars/maps/etc. will vanish. Don't panic. This is the way. 

2. Press CTRL+U again. Everything should come back. It may take a moment. Wait. 

2. Oh no! My character's stuck in a rock!

Or on a cliff, or under a box, or up a tree. We've all been there. Go to your chat box (upper left, usually).

1. Write /stuck in the chat. This will either move your character to a place where they aren't stuck, or it will kill them and put them back at the nearest medical base. 

2. What's that? Stuck isn't working, or you just used it and it needs to cool down? You can try using Quick Travel to travel to a nearby medical base. 

3. Still nothing? Try porting to a stronghold, your ship or the Fleet. 

4. Try logging out and logging back in. 

3. What? I can't click the blue thing. 

This bug has shown up all over the place, where an objective will be lit blue, but unclickable. I've found a few places where nothing I do makes this work. 

1. Try changing instances. 

2. Try logging out and back in. 

4. This is a great cut scene...why is it freezing?!

Several years ago this bug was so severe in the Sith Warrior and Imperial Agent stories that only customer service could resolve it. It seems better now, but here are some ideas. 

1. ESC out of the scene. Now try to start the scene again by clicking on the NPC /objective/whatever is the scene starter. 

2. Can you guess? Log out and back in. 

3. Close the game and try re-launching. 

4. Try lowering your graphics settings in the game. Don't know why this works, but it did sometimes. 

5. My character is frozen in a weird pose. 

Just laugh at it, take a screenshot and share it with your friends so they can laugh. Typically this will not affect actual combat and will go away on its own eventually. 

6. I want to romance Lana Beniko, Koth Vortena or Theron Shan in KOTFE...but I've heard things about the romance vanishing. 

There are two general ways the romances in KOTFE get borked:

1. A patch happens before the romance is locked in (chapter 9) and all the player's flirts from chapters 3-8 are reset. The game thus forgets you were trying to romance Lana and you don't get the romance dialogue option in chapter 9. I've also heard of Koth and Theron romances vanishing, but not as often. The solution is to NOT play through chapters 3-9 of KOTFE when there's a patch happening. My general tactic is to play those chapters straight through, and not stop until I get to chapter 10, to make sure the romance is locked and won't be interrupted by a patch.

2. The player misunderstands the really poorly framed dialogue wheel in chapter 9. There's a moment, pictured below, where the camera faces Theron Shan, and there are choices that say "I need to see one of you" and "I need to see one of you" [flirt]. IT IS NOT JUST REFERRING TO THERON. If you are flirting with Lana or Koth and want to lock in their romance, DO NOT CLICK ON THE FIRST CHOICE (which is helpfully lit up here for your reference). YOU NEED TO CHOOSE THE [FLIRT] HERE, as well as the [flirt] in the conversation when you are alone with your companion of choice.  

When your actions or conversation choice will start or end a romance, from KOTFE onward, you will receive a pop up warning that looks something like this. 

Caption: This choice will begin a romance with Lana Beniko. Are you sure you wish to proceed? CONTINUE - CANCEL Once you have this scene, MAKE SURE you finish chapter 9 entirely so your choices don't get wiped out in a future patch!

7. My companion is stuck in place and won't move. 

There you go, charging into the fray...there's your companion, lingering awkwardly at the threshold and not participating. Oops. You can usually wake them up by sending them away and then bringing them back. Easy ways to do this include: 

1) Send them to sell junk (press N. Go to your companion who is with you. Press the little icon near their name to get them to sell the junk. Depending on the legacy perks you have purchased they will be gone for between 5 and 30 seconds)

2) Summon another companion, any of them, and then summon back the one you want. 

3) It didn't work? Sometimes companions do seem to go on strike and you will probably just want to summon another to continue playing. This is a good reason to remember to have more than one companion at high influence, if you can, so you can switch as needed. 

8. My companion keeps falling over. 

Sternly tell your companion it's not time for a nap. Kidding. They really don't care. Any time is nap time. The steps in #7 should work to wake them up again. 

9. I'm trying to loot something and it's telling me "out of range." 

First, are you sure it's your loot and not some other player's? If it's yours, you can sometimes pick it up by walking away and then returning. Other times, look for someone else nearby to loot. I've on occasion found things unlootable, which is frustrating. 

[drwcn]

I think you meant father in your last post. and I think its because their parents were both in seclusion SEPARATELY and their mother didn't even love their father but she agreed to marry him to get immunity. and like she might have agreed to have lxc because the sect needed an heir but that was still not something she would have preferred, and then again when lwj was conceived

Oops yes my typo. I fixed it. thanks! :) 

 Re: people assume Qingheng-jun raped (Trigger Warning!) LWJ’s mother resulting in LXC and LWJ. And because mxtx sucks and didn’t bother naming her, and I don’t want to keep referring to her as “Lan Wangji’s Mother” because she was a person (fictional but still a person), I’m gonna use my personal hc name for her Qiu Baiti (丘百鹈). 

And I’m not saying that Qingheng-jun being a rapist is not a possibility, but I find that highly unlikely. I think there are some cultural assumptions that the fandom just isn’t aware of, and once and for all, I’m gonna set it straight. 

名节 ming’jie - a person’s “purity of sexual reputation” is seen as more important than life. Especially for a woman. And yes CQL is a fantasy drama so the rules are kind of wishy washy, but that being said, it does adhere to a lot of the traditional cultural rules, so I figure that mingjie still applies. 

Which means: If Qiu Baiti didn’t want to marry Qingheng-jun, she would’ve either tried to kill Qingheng-jun or killed herself before any of that could happen. It is absolutely a matter of life and death. I literally cannot count how many times women in cdrama commit suicide after they are raped just from the sheer shame of it. (I’m not saying this is what should be done, I’m just saying this happens in dramas.)

Potential counter-argument: but but but just because she married him doesn’t mean she necessarily agreed to sleep with him. 

Yes, sexual violence can exist in a marriage. No women owe their husband sex. Absolutely. I’m not disputing that. But in a traditional chinese marriage, sexual intercourse and provision of children are expected and essentially non-negotiable. Those two things go hand in hand. And Qiu Baiti had to have known that before she married Qingheng-jun, and if she was not down for it, again, she would’ve ended her own life than marry him. 

Potential counter argument: okay but didn’t their dad build a house separate for himself? Why would he do that? 

It was supposed to be a penance. For Gusu Lan, his wife had killed one of their elders. What he did was in direct confrontation with his entire sect. If he married her and then locked himself up with her under one roof….that’s not a penance, that’s just an extended honeymoon. So what he did was marry her to save her, and then punished himself by keeping distance from her. Is it stupid? Yeah. Does that make him a rapist? No. 

Someone once posed the question, damn why would Gusu Lan allow Qingheng-jun to have children with a woman who murdered their elder? Because traditional Chinese families are obsessed with babies, that’s why. There’s a literal saying 不孝有三，无后为大, which roughly translates to there are three ways to be un-filial, to have no children is the most egregious. And Qiu Baiti wasn’t his concubine, or his side chick, or some prostitute he hooked up with once. He was his wife. Only children born by her would be the most legitimate. And we know that Gusu Lan are all about decorum and courtesy and shit. 

So yeah they lived separately, but he could…walk…over…to her…house????? Like every once in a while. The Elders wouldn’t have said anything because well, they want heirs, and he already married her so ehh? 

The question is why do they have two? Now that’s the biggest questions. Could it be because Qingheng-jun was a fucking monster? Yeah sure. Or there’s something else going on here we don’t know. Maybe they found each other tolerable over time, maybe she liked him after all. Maybe she wanted two kids. Who knows? There are a ton of possibilities. 

Lastly, Lan Xichen told Wei Wuxian the story about their parents because he wanted Wei Wuxian to see how much Lan Wangji cared about him and wanted to protect him, that he was willing to be like their absent father and disobey the clan. And Lan Xichen isn’t some five year old child. Most of us as adults can reflect back on our parents’ relationship and realize huh….that was fucked up. 

Why would Lan Xichen compare his beloved little brother to a father they barely saw who may or may not have raped their beloved mother? Why would he do that? 

don’t @ me if y’all  just gonna continue being stubborn about this. block me instead.