#i do plan to make better sketches of this idea lol

[vickychendraws]

Hello! Hello! Question: I’m trying to get into comic making and I already have a few. But I’m trying to get a frame of reference. What’s your planning process for your little comics that you make (like the falin/marcelle ones. Not quite mini comics, but also not full fledged comics that I’d be able to bind into a book) I love them very much 💕

hi!

omg, first of all, thank you so much!! and that sounds like a lot of fun!! i'd love to read your comics when you're done :D low key, i feel wildly unqualified to be consulted about comic making LOL. i kinda stumbled my way into them, but now that i'm actively going into it with comics in mind, i... kinda have a process?

i sorta just work out a scenario in my head and start scribbling. For whatever reason, the ideas and dialogue come out better when i start seeing the characters and the scene (even if it's super loose). During this phase, i make whatever notes i need, write out options for dialogue, adjust the layout (i'm not a very clean line drawer, so that makes things easy to move around; but also, the lasso tool is a dear, dear friend), and just let myself get the idea out in a really rough form. From there, i tighten things up, rearrange a bit more, edit, and then i just do a cleaner line drawing and add color :) Sorry if that was a really long response! But hope that helps! (i've included a couple of my first sketches to give you a better idea of how messy things start out)

[windwenn]

I cant stop imagining s4 jon on public transport

[pankomako]

actually kinda digging the quality of these two particular panel storyboards

[dailyhatsune]

hi! not exactly a request but i do wanna ask, whats your process when you're rendering more paint like art? (if that makes sense, English isnt my first language so apologies hdskhsjdbd) i really love how you use the colors and im curious how you do it :0

i’ve been meaning to answer this one for a while so here’s how i painted miku in today’s post (put under the read more because yeah prepare for a long post

i’d also like to preface this by saying that i never follow a set way of doing things, so in terms of what my personal process is like, these are only broad strokes of what i do! sometimes i’ll combine or skip parts entirely, depending on how i feel. also, this is not a tutorial, just how i do things, so please don’t treat it like one :’D this will read like the ‘how to draw an owl’ picture if you do

first, like every artist, i sketch. more specifically, i’m getting an idea of what i want to paint later on. this could be how a scene is set up or in this case, how a character is posed. here i’m not concerned about details or getting everything perfectly, i’m only planning how the thing will be composed. maybe a lot of canvas size changing, or adjusting what miku’s doing (note how busted miku’s right hand looks from all the transforming!) however, i still have to be concerned with how clear the sketch will be to future me, because the sketch won’t be any good if i can’t read what miku’s doing

after that, i lay down a flat gray under the sketch, mainly focusing on giving miku a clear silhouette. this is also a good time to make adjustments to the composition on the fly if i suddenly feel like something can be improved upon, like shortening miku’s left arm from the sketch!

after painting a flat silhouette, i start shading in grayscale, focusing only on lighting. i usually do it in two passes, one for the lightest and darkest tones i’ll use (not black and white) and then a second for midtones to blend them better with the base gray but i forgot to screenshot the result of the first pass 🗿 nevertheless, here is where i can start adding some amount of details. i’m not including any extra accessories yet, just focusing on the base design of the outfit and the character herself (for anyone wanting to draw characters from That Gacha Game, this is how i personally make the process more bearable for myself.) i still use the dark gray to separate where certain details (like the facial features and fingers) begin and end, mainly to make colouring more bearable later.

now here’s where i get the Good Colours. it’s a cheat lol. i put a gradient map layer over the grayscale painting so that there’s a little bit of color to start. some gradient maps can be applied as is, some need the layer settings adjusted to make it look good. this one, for example, is a (free) gradient map set from the csp assets store that needs you to set the layer opacity to 20% and to set the blending mode to color to achieve this result. in general, i tend to pick which gradient map i want to use based on vibes, or basically whether i want the work to be warmer or cooler, colour-wise. but this does do quite a bit of lifting for the colors in my stuff.

and then, finally, i add the colours. i add flat base colours in an overlay layer. at this stage, i’ve made the character silhouette clear enough that i don’t need to refer to the sketch anymore for what miku looks like. also, the gradient map layer does its magic by making the shading a bit more vibrant than it would’ve been without it. after that i paint over with a new layer to add details like the lace.

and then i put some extra shading on top. basically this is where the ‘better lighting’ happens. again, this isn’t a tutorial, so i’m not here to say what each part of the lighting is, but i’ve labeled which layers do which job. in other works where the lighting within a scene is more defined (from a window, from a small crack in the walls, etc) the glow dodge layer may be more opaque and sharper, but since this isn’t a work with that, the lighting was applied using an airbrush. the linear burn layer is also there to make the whole thing darker so the glow dodge doesn’t end up oversaturating miku. i also usually match the lights to the vibe i want, and use a complementary color for the shadows. so here you can see i have warm colors on the glow dodge layer, but light purple on both the linear burn and multiply layer.

and that’s it for the character—here’s a gif showing how each layer adds to miku! (sorry it’s so toasty)

as for the background, depending on the complexity, it may go through a similar process, or if i can settle with flat image backgrounds, i just go for that. it’s ok to use external image materials. i didn’t have a background in mind for this miku in specific, so i got some default csp materials and threw together something

and that’s about a rough overview of what my process for more finished works looks like! again, art is a fluid process so i never specifically stick to certain steps all the time, and you shouldn’t either. i can probably answer why i’d pick this colour over another in one particular work, but it’s something that kinda has to be learned on a grander scale. i think everyone can already feel what colors work with what atmosphere or what setting, even if they can’t immediately explain why. colors and composition do take some level of experimentation to find what works best!

[sanctus-ingenium]

u guys wanna see more WIPs... similar to the last post, here are Some WIPs

all of these were started in sai before going on to procreate. before going back to sai again in the case of the strength card

so Blue Sky/Out Of Time... yeah it’s extremely self-explanatory, it’s very obvious what this scene depicts and i’m sure everyone gets it (this is a joke i’ve had multiple people dm me asking wtf this even is). the one element that absolutely NEEDED to be there was the LED digital clock with a bullshit time on it, and i decided to replace it with an AIRE warning sign instead and put the LED readouts in the bg. the warning sign in this setting serves the purpose of informing ppl when there are hostile faeries around. i knew what the colours would be from the beginning, but it took a bit for me to realise what sort of shading style i wanted (it took forever). but i did know i wanted to contrast the very sketchy black void against the cleaner and almost cartoony/comic book style rest of the drawing, to emphasise the fact that the foreground sky and background void are made of two very different things. again i used a colour shifting brush to quickly make all the shards of sky different colours, but originally i planned to have some of the shards be dark or night time (with stars or the moon etc). unfortunately it didn’t work, it was too dark and pascal got lost against it.

My Eyes Are Up Here is pretty obviously the exact same scene with the same character, in the same field, but with a different sort of atmosphere. i sketched this in sai then did the final in procreate. originally it was going to have a black background

i really like this version tbh but the blue works better. i think he looks good against dark backgrounds where it’s kind of hard to see wtf is even happening there

so about the neon signs..... i’m well aware that the sketch has way more promise than what the final ultimately was, and that’s because i found that i didn’t have the technical or artistic ability to pull off the complex neon signs like i wanted to. i couldn’t get it looking good enough so i had to scrap them. but these signs will be back, i want to draw them properly and do them justice. the gif was unplanned too but i thought it would be fun to have the flicker be very intermittent so that if you scrolled past it you might not even realise, or you’d have to stick with it just to catch it looping. i used GIMP to make the gif and change the frame rate, and this actually took a very long time because i had to preview it over and over. anyway if you WERE to get lost in the púca’s field, in this story, you would see neon signs like this encouraging you to follow them.

Strength is actually the last drawing i ever made that ended with a paint-over in sai, and the oldest drawing here. as such i actually don’t think it’s representative of my current ability but i do have a soft spot for it for sentimental reasons lol. the reason for the paint-over in sai was because i drew this at a time when i still did not trust procreate to be able to place the level of finish on it that i wanted

the background took me a thousand years to figure out. literally it was so annoying that i considered scrapping it for something simpler. but the idea was for it to be a kind of fairytale-ish lost in the woods sort of look while also appearing like the blood vessels around the human heart. the branches were also supposed to be heart-shaped in cross-section but i spent so long zoomed in painting them that i forgot to zoom out to see if all those fine details were actually visible, and it turned out they weren’t. i was disappointed that i couldn’t get félix’s tattoos to look right but that’s what i get for making a character with shit tons of both tattoos and body hair. i also got rid of the foreground branches really soon because they weren’t adding anything and muddied up the readability of his pose

the swan is from a daemon au and bears no relation to my other swan characters. i just like swans a lot

[ascendanttarot]

PAC: Reassuring Messages From The Universe

Hi everyone! I have a feeling some people may need a pick-me-up at the moment hence why I made this reading. I think this may be my longest reading so far! There will be signs listed before to ensure the message is for you. If you resonate with one or more signs, that is meant to be your reading. At the end, each pile will also have a quote and channelled song to listen to that resonates with your reading. The specific lyrics that I heard are listed below the title. :)

Please remember your fate is not set in stone so your answers may change depending on the actions you take and will take if you please. Tarot is not a substitute for professional advice. The images I’ve used are not mine.

From left to right, Pile 1, 2 & 3.

Pile 1

Signs:

You may be a Lana Del Rey fan, or at least have one of her songs be your one of your favourite songs

You may be really creative. Specifically, I see most of you here are artists because I just saw an image of someone’s hand covered in paint like a make-shift palette to find the right colour, or someone wiping away excess paint on their skin

You may be left-handed. To be honest, this kind of relates back to the art thing because I just heard someone swearing because their pencil sketches were smudged by their hand again lol

You are a ride-or-die friend. I’m not picking up any signs that the people who picked this pile could be ‘low maintenance friends’ because all I could feel was a loyal and passionate heart, particularly towards their friends

Okay this is an odd message but some of you here are DEHYDRATED, like you’re not even thirsty anymore this is beyond that. Please drink some water if you haven’t at all today

Back to music here, but do some of you spend hours making playlists? I just saw someone using a lot of their free time to curate playlists. I even saw some of you here like making playlists for specific people

Another weird message here but I just smelled crayons, so I’m interpreting this in a few different ways: you may be connected to your inner child, or you may work with children/have plans to work with children, or you would like to be a parent/are a parent

Your Cards: The Emperor, Knight of Cups rx, Page of Wands rx, Justice rx, The Star, 10 of Pentacles

Your Reading:

Okay, the first thing I heard while looking at these cards were the words, “Lost time” and I think that sums up half of your reading quite well.

The cards show that at the beginning of this particular situation, you felt like you were fully in your power. A very Mars-dominant energy to be in, or an Aries energy to be in wherein you felt like you could take on anything. It’s like this was a time when your confidence was at an all-time high about yourself, but also about something. For most of you, this ‘something’ was a project. For some of you, this could be a relationship. The point is, this was something in your life you felt was given to you like you’ve waited for this and finally you’ve got it, but that hope didn’t last.

As we moved on, I felt heavy feelings of frustration. Like you were ready to spring into action but something or someone else was telling you to wait, like they were stringing you along. At the back of your mind, you knew you were being taken advantage of, but you decided to stick with it anyway. I just heard, “It’s worth it.” So maybe this was something you wanted for so long that you felt like you had to stick to it because you couldn’t see how another opportunity could be better than this. I’m really sensing this was a career move for some of you here. Maybe some of you were promised a promotion but you didn’t get it. Maybe some of you were given false hope by a higher-up that this project idea of yours would be taken seriously, but you just had to wait for the right time.

And these people kept giving you excuses. If this were a relationship, I could sense that maybe this was someone who you thought would be ready to fully commit to a relationship, but they never ended up being mature enough to make that decision. It could even be a platonic relationship, and this person wanted you and them to be more casual friends, but you were ready to be a ride-or-die as I’ve stated in the signs above. The overwhelming feeling here is that you got the shorter end of the stick.

But, of course, this doesn’t last. The universe is trying to tell you that if you were broken down before and were able to build yourself back up again, then you can do that now. For most of you, I feel you’ve already left this situation and are worried that this was a mistake, and that you shouldn’t have left in the first place, but the cards are saying otherwise.

Your hope was burned out because of what you’ve gone through. You’ve sacrificed your hope and your sense of self, but the next chapter of your life won’t ask you to do that anymore. If anything, this new chapter will nurture all of those traits you have always felt were intrinsically part of who you are.

If this were a relationship, you’d probably take a break from dating for a while, but your friendships will be a cornucopia of love and support, with new and old friends alike. If this was a job or project, a new opportunity will not only cause success, but stable success. The universe is giving you the new direction you need. “One door closes so the other one opens.”

Thank you for letting me be your reader, Pile 1!

Your Channelled Song: Let The Light In by Lana Del Rey and Father John Misty

“Put the Beatles on, light the candles, go back to bed”

“Put the TV on and the flowers in a vase, lie your head”

“Ooh, let the light in

At your back door yelling 'cause I wanna come in

Ooh, turn your light on

Look at us, you and me back at it again”

Pile 2

Signs:

You may be a blunt and direct person, and you may have even gotten in trouble for this in the past. Really, I could sense you’re just a BS detector. I also saw someone rolling their eyes and saying “C’mon, talk to me straight I’ve got things to do!” haha!

I just heard ‘homebody’, so I feel like plenty of introverts have picked this pile!

You may be the sarcastic, unintentionally funny friend. If you know you know. But to specify I saw someone in a group setting saying something like “I hate half of the people in this room/I didn’t want to go—I got dragged here by my friends, please don’t talk to me” and someone laughing because they didn’t think you were serious (You were)

You’ve got a dry/witty sense of humour when you do try to make a joke intentionally, but either no one gets it, or it may be a touch too dark for their taste (Nothing problematic though!)

I got tempted to swear so many times writing out these signs so you may swear a lot. Like sometimes, if you’re in a professional environment you may find it difficult to filter out your words because of how automatic it is for you

I also feel like you’re really articulate. The first word I actually thought to describe your humour was ‘sardonic’ and I wasn’t even sure what that word meant so I can guarantee you that did not come from my mind (Yes, I had to Google the meaning)

For astrological signs, you may have Scorpio and/or Virgo in your chart. Possibly a stellium. With how active your mind is coming through in this reading and how much communication is highlighted in this section, I would not be surprised if your dominant planet is Mercury, or if you have many aspects involving that planet in your chart

Your Cards: The Hermit rx, 2 of Cups, 5 of Swords, 2 of Swords rx, King of Wands

Your Reading: Pile 2, please don’t get mad, but when I opened up to your energy, I was expecting a different message than what I delivered right now. I was ready to get serious, to go into deep waters and dive face first. But when I saw the cards… I may or may not have audibly giggled.

Not in a bad way! Hear me out before you scroll, I promise I’m saying this with the same fondness as a best friend, but pile 2, I know you’ve been in hermit mode for a while and are very comfortable staying there, but the universe isn’t really going to let that slide. For most of you, I could see you not wanting to go out but being pushed to do so by a friend. For some of you, you’ve even been convinced by some of your close friends to go on blind dates or new places to meet people in general, and you go but you really don’t want to.

The message here is clear: You’re going to meet someone new. For most of you, this will be a romantic partnership. For my aromantic folks or my readers who are simply not at all interested in romance, this will be a platonic relationship. Whatever this is, I could specifically see one person here coming out of nowhere and earnestly offering you love or friendship with respectful persistence, you wouldn’t even know what to do with them at first. I think a lot of you here have closed yourself off, not to your pre-existing close relationships, but to new people. This person is going to test that wall you’ve built around yourself and despite how much you try to intimidate them, they are not going away. Think of someone with ‘golden retriever’ vibes, which is funny because as I was tapping into your energy I got ‘black cat’ vibes from you. (I just heard, “The Arthur to my Merlin” and “The Gwen to my Morgana” whether platonically or romantically doesn’t matter, but wow, do I have some Merlin fans/old Merlin viewers in this pile)

In all seriousness though, I don’t think you have this boundary up for no reason. I’m seeing a very specific message of someone in the past that you used to trust no longer being in your life because they’ve done you wrong. This could possibly even be a betrayal of trust? Like you told them a secret, but they shared it with one person, and it quickly spread through word-of-mouth. The severing of that relationship was as fast as the betrayal done by the other person.

This made you more guarded towards newer people in your life. But also, I could see this even had a domino effect making you wary of new experiences and environments too because you’re scared you’ll meet a new person that way.  The universe is saying this past relationship has clouded your judgment and will cloud your judgment when you meet this new person. What you don’t realise is that this person could actually be good for you if you take a chance. Some of you may be worried about co-dependency. The universe is actually saying that a relationship like this will actually make you more independent, and this is because this person is emotionally mature enough to actually commit. They’ll give, you’ll take. You’ll give, they’ll take. It feels like two people who genuinely see each other as equals, and therefore respect each other as such. Their commitment and genuine belief in you will make you a more confident person in the future, but more importantly, you’ll be bolder in your choices in life. You’ll grow to have a brave heart that other people will appreciate in you, and that you’ll appreciate in yourself. “Fortune favours the bold.”

Thank you for letting me be your reader, Pile 2!

Your Channelled Song: King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men

“We won’t run, and we won’t run, and we won’t run”

“I’ll be here to hold your hand”

“'Cause you're my king and I'm your lionheart”

Pile 3

Signs:

Your sun sign may be an earth sign or an air sign. I also feel like some people who picked this pile may be a Leo rising or have a Leo Midheaven, but more on the Leo rising actually

I feel like some of you here may have curly hair

You may be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community

You prefer winter palettes over lighter and pastel colours for your clothes. I’m not getting a specific style but the colours here are striking. Either an all-black outfit but with the same shade of black making you appear more put together, or someone wearing jewel-toned colours like emerald green or a very striking purple

You may like wearing statement pieces. I saw this image of you in someone else’s point of view, admiring a watch you always wear or commenting on how they know you’ve just been in the room because they smelled your perfume. Picture this, someone walks into an office and just says, “Was pile 3 here—actually, you don’t need to answer that I know they were here.” And the other person who doesn’t know you getting really confused so they clarify by saying, “Oh, I know they were here because they’re the only one in this building that wears (insert fragrance here)”

Some of you here may have a ritual of listening to music in the morning while you’re getting ready to hype yourself up. All genres are coming up right now, (No, seriously. It went from Gangsta’s Paradise to successful by Ariana Grande songs to It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)) but what unifies these songs together is that it’s there to put you in a good mood in the morning

You may be interested in working for yourself by either starting a new business or working your way to the top. Highly ambitious energy coming from this pile, but in all the best ways possible; it makes your energy infectious. Yes. That word specifically. Just a really great energy to be around

Your Cards: 5 of Wands, 3 of Pentacles, 8 of Swords, High Priestess, The Star (clarified by 3 of Cups)

Your Reading:

Okay, I want to preface this reading by saying that this pile feels similar to pile 1. You may not have had the same circumstances, but the arc is similar, so if you are attracted to pile 1, feel free to read it as a supplementary reading after this.

There’s a very clear energy here that you may have had a falling out with people in your life. This could be a group of co-workers, friends, or even family members. There was chaos surrounding your previous situation and you felt like people were constantly at each other’s throats. If it was not as aggressive as this, it is possible that at the very least you were in an environment you did not feel safe. I think these people showed their true colours, so to speak, and it made you realise how you shouldn’t have trusted certain individuals involved. The thing is though, I can feel you being an outsider in this situation. Like from the start of all of this, you made it clear to everyone you did not want to get involved. I literally just heard, “Get over yourself.” from this pile, so maybe some of you here may even feel that people were blowing up a whole pile of nothing, and/or that they all needed to act more maturely about the situation. I also feel like one person may have taken something personally when they shouldn’t and that could’ve made you particularly frustrated because you felt this person missed the point completely.

I could see that you tried providing counsel to try to smooth things out, but no one listened. This was your last straw. You left or will leave this situation and the universe applauds you for doing so. I think a lot of people in this situation had a victim complex. This is not a judgment on them, it’s simply a message that they have a lot of unhealed wounds they need to work on. You didn’t stand by this though, and this led to you making your boundaries clear and cutting yourself off completely. For some of you, this may be a temporary situation (I heard, “Fix this or don’t bother coming back.”) but for most of you, this may be a temporary step away from these people.

The universe saw that you trusted your gut and left and are rewarding you as such. I think you have a logical mind and are not used to making decisions intuitively, but this all happened because you did what felt right, and this show of trust is going to lead to positive effects.

For the people who picked this pile, I’m getting a strong message that your intuition is a muscle, and that’s true for most people but it’s especially true for yourself. I think you’ll be asked to make more quick decisions in the next phase of your life, Some decisions have larger consequences than others, but most will be small and trivial decisions such as, “Which café should I visit today?”. Before you might’ve picked the familiar or logical option, but now you’re allowing more spontaneity in your life, and this may even surprise you a little bit. I just heard one of your friends saying, “But you always go there!” and seeing you shrug before saying, “Well, I’m in the mood to try something new.”

This will reward you with a new sense of self. The 3 of cups traditionally has a more social meaning, like friends who see each other as equals coming together to celebrate, but for you, I could see this as different sides of yourself finally living in harmony with one another. With all of that stress gone, you’ll finally have the chance to recognise how deeply complex and interesting you are, and you’ll do so with an acceptance you may have not known you needed. “To know myself is to love myself.”

Thank you for letting me be your reader, Pile 3!

Your Channelled Song: “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” by Tame Impala

“I can just hear them now

"How could you let us down?"”

“Two sides of me can't agree”

“Feel like a brand new person… I don’t care I’m in love”

[fagboyfriend]

i rlly like ur composition, i wanna know about your process :D

thank uuu !! yeah so like. composing a scene for me generally begins with a vague idea that i want to get down as quickly as possible- and for me that usually starts with finding a setting. I knew that i wanted to draw a) a group of roomates gossiping in a crowded kitchen and i wanted there to be b) one figure in the extreme foreground and c) lots of plants. i do use some tools to figure out perspective, mainly the csp perspective ruler. Usually i start by finding a picture i like similar to the vibe im going for- but instead of referencing anything else- im purely interested in perspective. sorry to anyone who is shocked i dont generate all of my perspective purely by myself- i can draw in perspective fairly well but i struggle to make straight lines and this is easier to make grids with than the line tool lol ^_^ i try to use it kinda more like spellcheck on typos than like something to fully rely on. this is the video i learned this trick from:

i saw the left photo and realllly loved how the cabinets alligned with the wall- so i used my ruler tool to draw out my inital plotted points from the image- basically the linear movements i was most interested in and then i turned off the image layer and worked with those lines and the ruler tool to move on. eventually i had this:

which was enough for me to put my characters in for the inital round. if you notice- i made a looot of further adjustments as i go on. this sketch is not a final layout, its so my characters have somewhere to be! i cannot draw someone standing on a floor if theres no floor, nor leaning on a table that doesnt exist. i can’t draw my characters without a background, but i also cant finish my background without accounting for how my characters can comfortably exist in it!!

this was the like.. very basic start. i knew the positions of two characters- but i needed to change a lot not only to fit them better but to allow for the other two figures i had planned.

okay.. a little better. i widened the kitchen, closed the fridge door.. added a chair and fit in all the figures.. but this is waaay too dramatic. only two figures are actually interacting- and they are at wildly different energy levels!

this is where things started to make a little more sense characterwiss, so i was ready to refine backgrounds and figures and unite the two.

inital base sketch. much better layout.

okay- this is where im getting my footing but things seem.. really really off. You can see me working on my framing here- theres some good linear movement from left to right here- but not vertically. It’s hard to notice the figure in the far back, so i need to redirect the viewers eye to move upwards as well!

this is where i decided to zoom out, add an interesting vertical element to the left of the image and make it clearer whats happening in the foreground. i had to account for some stuff by adjusting the cropping, but i paid attention to that as well.

annnd- thats what a clean sketch looks for me! i have all the elements of my scene accounted for, and things are clean enough to read.

the next step for me would be transfer! essentially- I print the image of my sketch out, resizing and taping pages together so my sketch matches the size of the paper i want to paint on, and then i use a lightboard to transfer my sketch with pencil onto my paper. Then i refine the sketch a few times on paper before stretching my watercolor paper (essentially just prepping for painting) and inking with a brush and colored ink before going in with watercolor, gouache and ink, then usually finishing with marker, colored pencil, pastel and ink. it’s a lengthy process but a lot of fun lol. but sketches for me can be like.. 15 layers of different roughs until im happy with just the sketch. there were more images but im on mobile and theres a 10 image limit 😭😭 im a bit masochistic but i believe that if i dont have a good sketch i dont have a good painting!!

[blueskittlesart]

hi, correct me if i'm wrong but i seem to remember you saying that you're majoring in illustration! i'm currently in the process of applying to colleges and i plan on majoring in illustration as well, so i was wondering if you had any advice for portfolios. I could really use some tips on the presentation aspect specifically, bc I'm a little lost when it comes to stuff like the arrangement/organization of pieces, how I should crop my pictures, etc. any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated!!

hi yes i can totally help you out with this! i like to think my college portfolio was pretty good bc i got accepted to every school i sent it to lol :) the main pieces of advice that i was given when building it were this:

studies and pieces that show off your technical skill are great, but limit them to around a third of your portfolio at most. art schools DO want to see that you're technically skilled and can like, draw a charcoal still life or a self-portrait, because those ARE important skills to have, but ESPECIALLY if you're applying to a school that's more known for contemporary fields like animation or illustration, it's much more likely that they want to see your creative mind at work. the single best thing you can put in your portfolio is a BODY OF WORK, and specifically a body of work that shows off your own ideas and your own take on whatever you're producing. this means 3+ pieces that are interconnected or related to the same central theme. my portfoilo, for example, consisted of 2 or 3ish traditional, technical pieces which showed that I had a certain level of technical skill, and the ENTIRE rest of it was devoted to a series of original interconnected narrative comics I'd written and drawn. Every reviewer I met with told me that this was what made my portfolio stand out to them--it showed that I was not only technically skilled, but that i had something i wanted to DO with that skill, that I had direction and drive with my art and was able to produce work that reflected that. If you're maybe (definitely) not quite as ambitious as me, something like a series of 3-5 interconnected illustrations or a short comic if you're into that might do the same thing.

as a side note, if you DO have a body of work as the central focus of your portfolio, a lot of colleges will be interested in your process as well! for example with my comic portfolio, i used one slot to demonstrate my process, because I penciled every page traditionally before digitalizing it and i had extensive character and worldbuilding sketches. I wouldn't devote more than one slot to it, but if you have a body of work where the process is important to you it could be worth throwing in!

arrangement is tricky, but the advice I generally heard was "put your best stuff first." whatever you're most excited about, whatever is going to grab someone's attention the fastest, that's what you want to have in your first slot. (I actually don't think I followed this advice on my applications LOL but it's what i was TOLD to do and i think it's solid advice.)

in terms of editing, assuming we're talking about traditional pieces being photographed, you want to make sure your pieces are 1. well-lit, (DO NOT TAKE YOUR PHOTOS WITH OVERHEAD LIGHTING. wait for an overcast day and take them outside trust me) 2. legible, (no weird shadows obscuring parts of the piece, high-quality enough that no details are lost due to digital pixelation, etc) and 3. as color-accurate to real life as you can make them. most of this is just about getting a decent-quality camera (a newer iphone should be fine) and a good location. (outside and overcast, as previously mentioned) you may want to throw your pics into photoshop and play with the balance slightly, but I wouldn't do anything too drastic, try to get the most accurate photo possible without any editing. (if your pieces are small and flat, scanning them in may work better. most public and school libraries have scanners you can use for free.)

finally, cropping. the general rule that I was taught is to crop the piece, not the photograph. if you've got a piece on paper and you're not sure you like how the actual drawing is oriented on the paper, crop the PAPER down to size, and THEN photograph it. your photos should aim to show the ENTIRE piece from edge to edge (unless it's a detail shot obv) and I even like to include a little bit of extra "breathing room" around the piece so that it's clear exactly where the dimensions of it end. here's a piece I used for my college portfolios for reference:

i lowkey do not like this piece now but that's not the point. this is what i mean by breathing room--a few extra inches of space around the actual canvas so it's clear that this isn't a closeup and you can see where the canvas actually ends. the same is true for digital pieces. if it's a full bleed illustration (something with full color all the way to the edges of the canvas) just make sure you like the composition cropped the way it is and submit the full piece as-is. if it's a floating spot or something similar without hard edges, leave a bit of white or transparent breathing room around the edge of your image.

hope this helps! if you have any more specific questions lmk :)

[fatherforgivethem]

The green kids being sick

Daeron is Alicent’s favorite when it comes to one of her children being sick. Like if she had to pick one it would be either him or Aegon. Daeron is so chill when he’s sick and all he does is sleep. She checks on him from time to time but he’s almost always knocked out. He just closes all of the curtains, puts on his fan with a movie or something and falls asleep for hours and hours.

Aegon is her second favorite when it comes to her kids being sick. Like Daeron he’s really chill and he tends to sleep a lot, but he has a bad habit to sleep a lot during the day when he’s sick and stay up all night doing something like sitting on his computer for hours until Alicent has to walk in and be like “yeah, no. You need to sleep.” Since he’s her first child, I feel like she got a lot of experience of how to take care of kids who are sick. Besides staying up to late and maybe forgetting to take his medicine, he’s a cat like Daeron.

Aemond is literally the worst sick person ever. Alicent loves him more than anything, but when that kid gets sick he thinks he’s dying and he doesn’t now how to act. He won’t sleep during the day and he struggles to sleep at night. He takes way more medicine than he needs to the point where Alicent has to ban him for getting his own medicine when he’s sick. He hates being sick and I feel like Alicent try’s her best to make him sleep so he can get better.

Helaena is crazed when she’s sick. As soon as she gets sick she gets all of these art ideas and tries to sit for hours at her desk drawing plans for a bug farm, making sketches, and listening to music. While she stays her in her room, all Alicent wants her to do is sleep and take her medicine so she can get better. But Helaena is like “no I have an idea” and tries to create something and Alicent has to be like “Helaena, my sweet, please just go to sleep.” Alicent definitely gives her the sleepy medicine lol.

[ovytia-art]

How I do my stain glass style- A tutorial

Disclaimer: Other people may have different approaches to this style, this is just an explanation of my process etc

Sketching:

Use big shapes! And also break them into smaller ones! I would recommend following along the contours of shapes when you break up them up. This helps show form, like in the flowing trails

Silhouette! Make sure you have strong and easy to read silhouettes so that all your different elements don’t get lost. Because of this I usually draw characters front facing or in profile

Symmetry! Idk how to explain why I like to use a lot of symmetry when I do stain glass pieces, but it is great for ✨Vibes✨

Repeating patterns! I tried to incorporate a lot of straight, perpendicular lines in the sky. I also frequently do ‘halos’ or circles broken up by radiating lines

Different sized shapes! Try not to make everything too uniform in size, having variety helps create visual interest

Lining:

Smooth, solid lines! This one’s the most important, I would recommend turning up the ‘streamline’ setting or turning on lazy mouse

Different line widths! You don’t have to do a lot of line weight or any at all, but I like to make my lines thinner the smaller the shape. I also make the outline of characters thicker to help make them pop from the background

Colours:

This is pretty straight forward, but here’s a tip to get a lot of different colours without having to change your brush colour. Colour dynamics! This is a setting most drawing programs have under brush settings. But it basically allows each stroke to be a different colour within a range of the colour you have selected.

Use highly saturated colours! This is especially important if you plan to make transparent stickers.

Overlays and textures! This one is optional, but I always use it since I like to break up my solid colours

Gradients! These help add more colour break up and variety

Miscellaneous tips:

Look at real stain glass art for ideas on composition and colours

If you’re drawing a character and are having trouble, the afk arena art style is also excellent inspiration(I look at it a lot for hands lol)

Paper cut art/kirigami is another good source for inspiration

Sometimes simple is better, if you’re trying to break up a shape and it’s just not working, it might be better to not break it up or to at least have bigger pieces. This also applies to colours

Contrast! Not only in colours but in lines and shapes too.

Straight edges and arcs are your best friend. Use them where you can

[larissa-the-scribe]

Hey guys! I'm trying to set up "author platform" stuff, and had a question for the general public. As readers/consumers of media, if you were to sign up for an author newsletter, what content would you most like to receive?

I am in the process of figuring this out, and while I have a few ideas I do want to know what the people think lol

Further information below the cut:

Content: short stories, art, sneak-peeks of upcoming projects, deleted scenes. Stuff in that vein. More fiction than information, etc., though probably also extra information behind the content (and there would be obvious limitations on stuff I could share--for example, I could share parts of a short story that I would plan to submit for publication, but probably not the full thing since that would make it harder to get it published).

Analysis: examining different forms of media through different lenses, to see what we can learn about how to be better writers/readers, or just for funsies (the most probable "lenses" in my case would be worldbuilding and character writing).

Behind the Scenes: this would be more of a look "behind the curtain"--how or why I made some decisions, looks at notes and concept art, "in progress" looks at writing and art, showing some of my processes, but also generally getting a look at the more personal side of things. Like pictures of my workspace, or looks into what life is like as a writer, that kind of thing. The goal would be to strike a balance between entertaining/interesting, but also hopefully informative (like if you want to write stories, maybe it gives you some ideas about how you could do notes, etc).

Reviews: Pretty straight-forward. My thoughts and opinions on what I have been reading/playing/watching/listening to, mixed with analysis. What did a think about a particular book and what did it do well and what did it do badly, and was it a good read.

Links/resources/recommendations: Articles I've read that have been helpful, books that taught me more about writing craft, different programs I use for different things, but also probably recommendations in the sense of "check out this book," or "check out this author," etc.

I was originally going to include "advice" as an option, but at this point in time I feel very underqualified for that, so if that would be something people are interested in they may have to wait a few years lol.

It is also pretty likely that there will be elements of all of them at different times, but I guess... what would you prefer to be the bulk of a newsletter you received regularly? What would best strike the balance between entertaining and informative? Or would you rather it just be one or the other? Feel free to also include your reasoning in comments or reblogs! I'd be interested to hear what all people have to say!

[chaos-potat]

Chaos! HOW DO YOU MAKE COMICS!

asking for a friend... totally not making a comic

👀👀

My ways are unorthodox and probably wrong so idk man

the way I do it is first is I type out a rough draft (Using my last comic as an example)

a lot of things end up changing, like Tim's Mom's name

I start out sketching the characters and then the lines, I try to get them to fit in, definitely draw in the text, drawing characters first sometimes keeps the text from fitting in

Next I draw the divider thingies

Then I line characters on one or two layers depending on if they touch (You should get backgrounds down first, not like me lol)

then on another layer I do the faces and text, I put the faces on another layer because I end up editing them so much it's easier then editing the entire face when I want to erase a small bit (It's probably a better idea to line the text earlier)

I do the lines I plan on coloring on another layer (Like the eyes, backpack details, and those people back there)

Next, I get the base color for the whole canvas, not everyone does this but I like darker colors, it's a bit easier on the eyes to me

Then ofc I color

Then I do the background colors, I like the colors to reflect the mood a bit, I also color the background details I also do a little bubble for the text so it's easier to read

And that's about it, there are probably easier ways to do this, I did not look into comic making a lot before I started making mine

This turned real long, I didn't really think to breakdown how I make comics, but yah, this is how I do it

[pansear-doodles]

what's your process for making comics ? how do you plan them out ? the panels ? the dialogue ? do you plan it all out in advance or is it more spontaneous

sometimes if the comic requires a lot of dialogue, i make the transcript first. (and it helps because once i get to the step of actually putting in the dialogue to the comic, i make improvements along the way)

usually the process of paneling it is... very mixed. im not an expert in comic making and there are honestly better rain world artists out there who do much better in that field (trying to not compare myself to them is a mental struggle i really fucking hate but it does help me strive to work better and study how they do it(pansear i swear to god stop looking at the NUMBERS)). ive actually been one to make comics and story telling for quite a while but not much a full length big comic series.

when i make anthro au comics, i usually have the "ok this is what i want to go" in my head. since a majority of them are sketched, i dont really worry about how itll layout. i just need to get the idea out of my head. sometimes i think really hard on a scene and think to myself "ok this part is really dramatic and important so i must make it bigger than the rest". sometimes it is for comedic effect like in helm where there is an entire page dedicated to the lizard exploding over a jpeg, sometimes its for scenic feels (like echoes showing themselves upon the characters and making foreboding(though also strange) dialogue), and other times its when the character is saying something or doing something incredibly crucial like whatever saint was doing to arti in heretic.

sometimes id do it without dividers (which is actually easier for me personally). sometimes id do it experimentally like with the ghost arti and zombie hunter comic.

i suppose what i prioritize more is to tell a story rather than to tell the story in flair, so its best to not entirely heed to my advice if you want stylized-looking comics. it probably doesnt help that i might have some sort of attention deficiency because its difficult for me to get back on a project thats stored away for another.

some of the really great rw comic artists i can think on the top of my head are:

@lynxmisnomer who has a really great ongoing series called The Curse of Metropolis and has made a really cool comic of Monk and Survivor

@ninten-draw who makes really colorful stylized comics about certain rain world characters including the ones you wouldn't think of and nails on the story-telling without words

@lyss-butterscotch who puts a lot of effort to her gijinka au stuff (if you ask me which of her comics is my favorite- come on. you already know the answer based on who's writing this LOL)

@snailfen for having cutesy and detailed comics (i read ruff and ruff like garfield comics- they're not as frequent but i get this unexplainable feeling of happiness whenever i see it)

@toxictoxicities whose comics are??? scenic??? holy shit.

and you of course!

[pansyfemme]

i unfortunately don’t have any questions i just want to hear you talk about art supplies 😔

oh well. thats not particuarly hard to do.

im real hyped because in the ‘my child is autistic and i have zero idea how to shop for him’ manner my mother let me pick my own gifts this year for xmas so i will be in possession of some sennelier oil pastels shortly. ive used them several times before, but theres really no competition. i say this about almost no media because i believe theres something for everyone- but there is one oil pastel brand and its sennelier. working with them will make you feel like you are working with a completly unfamillar medium even if you’ve only ever drawn in oil pastel before. They’re just incredible. incredibly pricy too.. oh well. I’m also planning on picking up a box of Carandache neocolor I. they’re wax pastels, basically crayons but actually good. my mother lives by the Neocolor II, their watersoluable cousin, but i enjoy water resistance as much as i do soluablity. and as someone who works in so much wet media, its nice to work with a sketching media that provides resist as i do not lose or smudge the sketch as heavily. Plus, i love sketching with crayons and other chunky media. Also on my mind is a new lightboard -_- only had my old one for a year and a half before it died.. sigh. I want a bigger, heavy duty one sometime but i do not have the studio space for that.. one day.

In terms of pens, my special interest within a special interest, my kaweco sport is still my baby in terms of writing pens. Used to think i was more of a lamy guy.. but whew! im a convert. Kaweco pens are so well designed it makes my jaw drop sometimes. I just adore them. Love their lead holders too! And no, my brush pen rotation has not changed. I use my kuretake no.40 and kuretake no.13 interchangably.. i do not know better brush pens on the market, they’re just perfect in every way possible. made the switch fully to platimum carbon cartridges about a year ago and i do not regret it one bit, they’re the only ones i’ll use from this point forward. The ink darkness, permenance and waterproofing is just perfect, and it’s given me much less feathering than i had with kuretake, Akashiya (as much as i love akashiya in every other regard) and pentel cartridges. I tell people this all the time, but the ink you put in your pen is as crucial as the pen itself. Akashiya Sai Thinline, of course, is my preferred colored disposable brush pen. just wish the color range was wider! They’re truly special tho, the muted pallete, the fact they’re waterproof, the long thin shape of the bristles.. gorgeous. because of the recent trend of ‘watercolor brush markers’ (big fan, dont get me wrong) its pretty difficult to find colored brush pens that aren’t waterbased. I’ve had a scheme to make my own brush pens someday using my personal ink collection, but that depends on my ability to find a bristle tip body that is leakproof, cheap enough to get several of, and actually retains a point. People rave about just filling aquash style brushes with ink, but those leak.. a LOT. and keeping their tips consistantly wet has a habit of making their sharpness go away, which is fine if you’re painting, not so much for lineart. So. while i do get real autistic trying to find the best brush pens for lineart.. at the end of the day, i always end up just hand lining with a paintbrush and ink lol. it’s still the best way. (if you’re curious i normally do my colored lineart in liqutex acrylic ink, specifically the muted colors series because they’re perfect in every way shape and form.)

like i said. not hard to do. it’s like asking me to talk about music. i will, just can’t promise it will be understandable to anyone but me.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

A lot of NeigeVil today! Well we always get Neige-related asks when we post him; in-universe and in real life, Neige stans never miss 💪😔💕 I’m glad you enjoyed the sketch!

There are always some Azul and Jamil and some other stuff.

Anonymous asked:

Vils face simultaneously says ‘oh sweet seven he found me.’ And ‘seven above kill me now.’ And I’m living for it

Every time Neige is being friendly with him, Vil has to physically force himself to count to 10… But when Neige’s appearance is this sudden, he immediately gets both of these thoughts stuck in his head lol

Thank you so much!

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

Oh fan will go NUTS seeing Neige glomp Vim

Absolutely, magicam will crash because of everyone’s reactions lol

They’ll change their profile pics to this moment.

They’ll be spamming this clip everywhere for weeks.

They’ll write threads overanalyzing every little gesture that occurred during this 2 second long event.

It’s going to be bad lol

Anonymous asked:

NEIGEVIL I LOVE NEIGEVIL ♥️♥️♥️

Same same!! Thank you <3

Anonymous asked:

Ngl that art of Neige hugging Vil from.behind gives me some kind of unintentional (?) stalker Neige vibe and I'm here for it like it seems like he came out of nowhere and ambushed Vil

Maybe I just like the idea of Neige doing a bunch of questionable and problematic things because it's such a contrast

Yeah, I get it! With Neige, everything is innocent at first glance; on this particular sketch he just saw Vil at some event (maybe red carpet?) and got excited because he haven’t seen him for some time. But the moment when Neige notices Vil, he stops thinking about anything else, rushes through the crowd of people who are clearly busy doing their own celebrity thing, and just jumps on him, startling him and all. It’s serious tunnel vision lol And of course once he sees him, he won’t be able to look at anyone else for the entire event. Can’t blame him though…

Still, it’s kind of a mild thing. Neige deserves to do more suspicious and questionable things lol

hipsterteller asked:

okay...either the pineapple pizza ((its like stoner food for me)) made me hallucinate cause...why does Neige look like Pee-wee herman?

The resemblance is accidental – I don’t even know the guy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anonymous asked:

Has Azul everthought of kidnapping Jamil before? The tweels will likely be interested

Oh the tweels would cooperate happily, this sounds like a fun plan, especially if Azul has something interesting in mind for Jamil~ “Gentlemen, we’re going to kidnap Jamil-san”… quite intriguing, isn’t it??

In all seriousness, I don’t think Azul ever thought about it in details, but I also don’t think it’s out of the question for him. If he has a good reason (or just wants it very badly and comes up with an excuse), he definitely won’t hesitate. The idea of Jamil being trapped and unable to run away from his advances sounds wonderful, especially if Azul gives Jamil an ultimatum, i.e. if you cooperate with us, we’ll let you go. That way he could savour Jamil (wink wink) while he haggles with his own pride and considers Azul’s offer.

It won’t go as smoothly as Azul expects though lol

Anonymous asked:

How about Azul being jealous of Jamil being with Ruggie? Like I am sure at least he can take his opponent down easily since he isn't a higher class.

I think Azul doesn’t even realise that Ruggie could be a rival to him and doesn’t really consider him a threat, at least at the very beginning. But if they are put in a situation in which Jamil constantly chooses to partner with Ruggie, it’s definitely going to offend Azul. He knows that Ruggie has his strengths and a decent level of knowledge, since he helped out with the Lounge a couple of times, but he still thinks that he is better than him.

He won’t just jump straight to disposing of Ruggie though; he’ll try to win Jamil over at first. You know, trying to make Jamil see just how much better of a match they are compared to Jamil and Ruggie. But it’s Azul we’re talking about, and he can get quite petty lol

Anonymous asked:

Seeing this post (https://www.tumblr.com/ryuichirou/735069892134551552/just-be-grateful-he-doesnt-have-a-lower-half)

Made me think of a twst x monster high au with malleus x Rochelle Goyle (in gen 1 she has a boyfriend  but  for the sake of the au she doen't)

Don’t know anything about Monster High, but yeah I see, she is a gargoyle girl…

Well, someone might write a fic about it lol

Not us though, since we’re not really into Monster High or het ships.

[lemonysnicket]

adventures in bookbinding: making the negret colophon playing card book!

it's diy girl summer and i am Bored. time to attempt a completely new craft with zero research except for like. 3 youtube videos!

so, to start off, i suppose i will ramble a wee bit about my plans/goals/reasoning. truth be told, i just really really like my blorbo who book binds and i think it would be very fun to become Just like him for real. therefore we will be embarking on a journey!! to become my blorbo and also find something crafty to do today. quick psa that this is not a real tutorial because i have absolutely zero experience, but more of a general guide and/or craft with me! let's do this in sectionssss!!

1 - the plan!!

so for my first bookbinding project we are going to do something small, starting out by being silly and taking a page (lol) out of negret colophon's book (lol....) when he makes a tiny book and uses two playing cards as the covers. this will give me a little tiny trial run so i can learn the basic skills and use easily available materials around my house!! afterwards i think i'll sketch out a more ambitious journal idea - i have lots of fabric lying around that would work perfectly to cover a cardboard cover. wow, that's wordy! so! without further ado let's begin :) negret's little bookbinding project is described in the first chapter of raconteurs in this little excerpt here.

seems simple enough!! also the absolute perfect beginner project. it is tiny and the materials consist of Literally Anything. let's get groovy!!

2. materials!!

here's what we're working with:

playing cards! i found a deck lying around in a random drawer somewhere and chances are you have one laying around too. i chose the ace of spades and diamonds, because the text specifies a pair of aces but i couldn't find a matching pair, lol. i was also very tempted to choose one of the king cards as an homage to maisie's story later on (and because the king cards are absolutely gorgeous and detailed) but we're sticking to canon right now. we'll use the other cards for a future project.

needles!! a lot of the tutorials i see use very big or thick needles but i don't have those and this is also a very small project, not a huge journal, so any can work.

thread!! use whatever color you would like! at this point i was very indecisive because i have a lot of options and they're all quite pretty colors, but i settled on red later.

an assortment of papers!! use literally whatever you have lying around. for me, i managed to dig up the one scrap of newspaper in my house, since that's specifically listed, but most of my pages were from a book i sacrificed for an old art project, magazines and flyers, a lot of which were college mail because we're at that point in my life, lol. this is a recycling sort of project. choose anything! the more variety the better :)

i didn't display these in the photo, but if you have an awl, use an awl! i do not have one so i improvised, which i'll elaborate upon later. also, scissors! to cut the pages to scale. a ruler also came in handy :)

alright, now that we have all our tools in order, it's time to get into it :)

3. creating the pages!!

our first step is to measure our playing cards! you might not have to do this step because i'm fairly certain most cards are uniform in size/make, but check just in case, lol.

my cards measured to be 2.5" wide and 3.5" tall. i am no mathematician but using my singular brain cell i deduced that the papers should be twice the width of our cover, since those will fold to be the same size. so, using my Expert calculations, i made a little template cut from an index card measuring 3.5" x 5".

now we get to cutting!! using your various materials, cut out a bunch of papers to the size of your template. i just cut around it because i could not be bothered enough to waste time tracing, lol. i didn't go in with a plan, but i cut 16 papers to this size, which ended up being perfect. here are all my pages !! look at all the colors and textures!! the fun thing about the project being so small is that you can specifically cut the pages as the most interesting photos or sections, or you can even do it at angles too. as long as it ends up the right size, anything is fair game

now, we're going to make the papers into signatures! i just learned this word today lol. essentially, we will be grouping our papers and then folding those in half to become little mini books/pages. since i had 16 papers, i made 4 signatures with 4 pages each.

at this point i was tempted to go cut up more and make a fifth signature, but i decided against it since i didn't want the book to become too thick, and 4 sets with 4 papers each ended up being just about right. one of the tutorials i watched suggested that you group your signatures with paperclips or bobby pins, and at the time i waved off the suggestion but i totally agree now. i didn't have any clips to work with and i managed fine without them, but it definitely would have been easier if i had. so if you have them, use them! it'll make your life better lol. at this point you can stack your signatures together and itll look like a book!

oh yeah now we're cooking!!

4. preparing for binding!!

it was at this point in the process where i ventured out from knowing what i was doing to completely balling, but everything turned out okay and i'll walk you through it! our next step is to create the holes with which we will sew our signatures together. we're going to mark those off. once again i have zero clue how to do math but i managed to use my giant incredible smooth brain one more time to mark my template with a few equidistant points with which we can mark our signatures.

in case it's not clear, i kind of just counted the lines and then had to look up how much that was, but you can also just eyeball it if you're good enough. side note, i added two more holes after this, with one just below the very top and one just below the very bottom.

pardon my very unsightly nails, lol - here's how i used my template to mark the very center of each of my signature. you'll want to mark the point on the center line where you folded it while keeping the pages of each signature together. HOPEFULLY WITH A PAPERCLIP. and without further ado it's time for the stabbing!

now...here's where i got a little bit sacrilegious. you'll recall that earlier i mentioned how i don't have an awl in my possession yet? well, i managed to improvise a solution...

yes that is a sewing pin. IN MY DEFENSE it's all i had, and functionally it's basically the same as an awl! just on a much smaller scale. it worked out though - i imagine that if i'd been using thicker paper it would have posed a bit of a problem but for this project specifically, it was fine. do not kill me book binders. now it's time to get serious...

5. the binding

everyone stay calm! stay calm! it will be okay. i was lowkey intimidated by this part as this was Truly out of my depth of expertise, but i promise it's not that complicated. you're going to get your needle and thread now - i settled upon this gorgeous red color because it contrasted nicely with the playing cards, and there really wasn't much red in the papers i chose.

gorgeous!! tbh i always knew i'd go with the red because i've always envisioned the book with red thread anyways. like come on look at my very first drawing of negret WITH it. literally the exact same materials. i simply had to.

okay. now to the binding part. i don't have any real photos or insights or instructions for this whole stage because 1. i was deep in focus mode and 2. entirely relied on a tutorial for this part. here's the tutorial i used - massive shoutout to this lovely lady ! my spine didn't turn out nearly as neat as hers because i did not properly follow directions for the first bunch of knots (and i had to kind of improvise with the cover) but here's how it turned out!

not too bad for my first book, lol. try not to stress out about it being perfect because this book is not supposed to be perfect! the imperfections give it character. worst case scenario, if you really mess up, your eclectic book is just a little more eclectic than intended. and that's never a crime :)

now the one problem i had to figure out on my own was how to attach the covers, since most tutorials explain how to attach actual big separate covers and not - essentially paper. i ended up just... attaching them as if they were another page or signature to the front and back. my holes on the covers were a few millimeters away from the edge, though, since there's no crease or fold to align them with. what i did was essentially do the first knots/stitching on the signature like the tutorial said, but for each hole i sewed through in the first/last signature, i also made an additional loop through the adjacent hole on the cover. you can kind of see how i passed my needle through like instructed and then took a little extra detour to stitch the card as well. in some places i ended up making new holes in the signature too that were closer to where the cards' holes lined up?? try not to do that but it worked and it looks fine so really whatever makes it attach and hold is perfect.

6. bask in your glory!!!

aaaand that's it!! you did it!! this was a ton of fun to work on and i absolutely loved making this little adventure into a new craft with something so near and dear to my heart. if you make one please be sure to tag me!! i would love love LOVE to see :) here's an additional picture of my little monster (+ next to the legend himself. art credit to me lol. look the books are twinning!!)