#i have a folder with a bunch of ideas for draws bUT WHAT AM I DOIN INSTEAD ASDJASKD

[catsharky]

I am in awe of how consistently your draw characters faces?????? i struggle a lot with that, may i inquire if you have any tips to share on that front???

Sure! This took a little bit because I wanted to put some visuals together.

Unfortunately, as it always is with art, the main tip is just... practice. Not in the sense that you have to sit down and do drills, but in that the more times you draw a character, the more consistent they'll naturally start to look because you won't be figuring out how you want to draw them on the fly. Even I struggle to keep a character consistent when I first start drawing them, and it usually takes me a little bit to settle on how I want them to look. If you look back at my earlier Mass Effect comics, my Shepard looked quite a bit different then to how I draw her now. And I know it can be hard to get a sense of time from something like tumblr posts, but those changes happened across a span of six months. So be patient with yourself!

As for specifics though, I'd say the main thing that can help with consistency is to think of it less as one big whole and break it down into smaller pieces. What features need to be there for a character to read as that character? If you take something away, does it still look like them? How do their features differ from another character's?

For example, I compared Ember with my Shepard and tried to point out what goes through my mind and what I think about when I'm drawing them (besides obvious things like hairstyle/horns):

Additionally, reference!! Reference makes such a big difference. Any time I'm drawing a character, I'll pull up previous drawings I've done of them so I can check how I drew them before. I also have a small standing mirror that sits on my desk. If I'm not sure how something should look? I can just look at my own face to get an idea of what should be going on.

On top of all that (though this is something that won't apply to most original characters), because Ember is based on my in-game BG3 Tav I just have a big folder of screenshots that I've taken of her that I look at whenever I'm drawing her. I've never posted what she looks like in-game, but here she is:

(I love her so much)

I do something similar for most existing characters I draw. I have folders for each of them that are just a bunch of reference images of them at different angles, so I never have to wonder how something should look.

I hope this helps at least a little, and if anyone wants more specifics about anything, feel free to ask!

[astrodances]

"Now I've had the time of my life No, I never felt like this before Yes, I swear it's the truth And I owe it all to you"

This is a very, very special drawing for me. ✨

In September of last year, I watched Dancing With The Stars' "Step Into the Movies" special again, at the end of which they recreate "The Time of My Life" scene from Dirty Dancing. And that sent me on a nostalgia trip back to my high school theater days over a decade ago now, where the drama club accepted my idea to do a "Time of Our Lives" theme, and a performance for that song à la Glee. Mind you, I was mainly the stage manager/techie sort, but I did some scenes for the showcases, and participated in this song with my then-boyfriend, along with two other couples.

And while we were hanging out in the green room backstage, a friend took some pictures of us. Including the one that directly inspired this drawing of Webby + Lena.

This started out as a memory remix of that photo, after watching the DWTS special, because I thought these two lovebirds would be really cute subjects for it.

But once I got going, it turned into a love letter, for many things.

As part of the remix aspect of it, I now picture myself in Lena's spot in the photo, getting to have the short hair I wish I had had back then, and getting to wear a suit and tie! (Yes, in the original photo, I am wearing the dress and red bow Webby's sporting here, and I have long hair. 🙈 Though I will say here that the little heart necklace she's wearing is exactly like the one I had, too! :)) Drawing this was really cathartic for my nonbinary self. 💜

And as for Webby, in this remix, she represents someone that, in retrospect, I wish I had shared this moment with from back then. In many ways, she really was the Webby to my Lena. 💜💖💝

(Literally) beyond the subjects of this though, this is indeed very much a love letter to a lot of things, to passions. The background is pretty much a replica of the drama classroom wall we were in front of for the photo, at least as far as layout goes, with a few direct recreations of things that were on the wall and on the table there. Everything else was me being a passionate (theatre) nerd.

(Details (many details) of said nerdiness and alternate versions below the cut!)

I've included un-blurred and background-only versions (and a version with drop shadow lines on the girls, because why not? it's a cool effect!) below, but I just want to point out the details, because I'm so dang proud of this.

The posters/programs for The Phantom Blot of the Opera, Featherspray, Chickago, and My Fair Dewey are obvious duck-parody references to their real-world counterparts (with the latter being the exact poster they use in DuckTales, in Dewey's dream in "Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!" So thanks, Dewey! 😂). The Featherspray one was also included because Hairspray was one of the shows we did in high school! And lemme just say, creating theater posters is really fun!!

The MJ the Musical poster and the half-shown Notre Dame de Paris "Duckbill" right behind Lena's head are particularly special to me, since they (along with Phantom) are my favorite musicals, and getting to draw those two was especially fun!

The L'Orange Theater poster in the top-right is a bunch of duck easter eggs in one - the L'Orange Theater is mentioned and seen in the very first episode of DuckTales 1987, and of course, there's Aquarioon from DT17! Looks like it toured in Duckburg a long time ago. 😉

And the sheet music is the DuckTales theme! (Or at least the left side of it :P)

The "Congrats" card, calendar (the whale for upper half was my own touch), folder, page of random backstage stuff behind Lena's head (which includes little Star Trek and Darkwing Duck references), and golden "Theatre" card (with my old director's favorite quote) are directly from the photo (or at least based on what I could see through its blurriness 😝), as is the very edge of a cast photo in the upper-right. The purple note (totally not with any secret messages whaaaaat) below that, the certificate of excellence, and the little pride heart pins everywhere are little garnishes/dedications. 😊

The stage/theater diagram below the certificate is really cool, because that's a direct recreation (+ another hidden message) of a project a friend and I did for stagecraft back in our freshman year - I was even able to copy my own handwriting for the labels! 😄😂

The "Time of Our Lives" poster is a reference to the showcase I mentioned above that inspired all this, though the real-life poster looked very different, from what I remember.

The green bag below is sorta a nod to the secret pal exchanges we used to do during shows. 😉

And finally:

The Glittering Goldie show poster is me just having an absolute blast drawing her once again and coming up with something for her Blackjack days! And bonus - I'll be posting a gradient-only version of Goldie tomorrow! Really happy with how she turned out!

And the "All the World's a Stage" poster is me combining all of my theatre nerdiness with my passion for space and a good pun! 😁

ANYWAY...

I learned a lot with this drawing, about creating and about myself.

And I just had so, so much fun with it - it was all love, all passion, all happiness for this one. 💜💖💝

Wishing the same for all of you. ✨

Love, Astro 💜

[theoplum]

Hi Theo! I've loved your comics and illustrations for a while now, and I have such a sense that you're drawing in an informed way. Your costumes and sets feel like they have such history and context to them, and it makes me wonder, what is your research process like? Do you have folders of images, pinterest boards, magazines and cutouts? Or is it all just up there in your brain? So sorry if such a thing has been asked before. Hope to keep seeing new works from you for a long time!!

It’s been so long since you asked this, I am so sorry I haven’t responded until now…! This was a really thoughtful question and I really appreciate it! Thank you so much for enjoying my work!!!

I do keep a bunch of Pinterest boards when I do historical-inspired stuff! It's much easier to store stuff I find online there than keeping it all on my computer, which is what I used to do. I usually start from picking an era to draw about by sifting through this big collection of historical garment photos (usually compiled from the met costume institute and extensive wikipedia usage), picking one, then learning more about that era thru extensive googling haha. Very much clothes-forward, then finding the setting from there…

I like looking at art contemporary to the time period I’m drawing from, I think being inspired by what visual language & design elements ppl from the time/place were using is really fun, and leads to interesting imagery/shapes I wouldn’t have thought of myself. I like comparing the “dominant” art trends of the time vs the more niche/alternative ones too. I spend a lot of time on the internet looking at stuff before I start drawing haha.

Even for things that aren’t inspired by a specific era, I think looking at historical reference is a really fun way to go outside my “default” ideas of how things should look! 

Edit: while I really enjoy researching stuff, I’m by no means an expert on time periods I draw, and try to keep research as a springboard for expanding my ideas then a set of rules I feel beholden to follow!! The goal is rarely accuracy, the priority is ALWAYS fun! 🧍🏻‍♂️🥳

[tamelee]

I love your artwork, it's so cool! I'm an amateur in art, do you have any tips? Thank you!

Thank you so much! 💕 And sure! (Have you seen my other posts as well?) It’s a bit easier when it’s more specific >< But I’ll try my best; 

- Keep notes about the things you want to learn as you draw! Someone gave me a tip to have an art-goal so you know what to work on and then improve these particular things as you go, but for some reason I found it really hard to set these goals? (Am I the only one?) I kept thinking I just wanted to ‘improve’ everything, but that’s not very tangible and I can’t effectively measure whether I’ve succeeded… (it’s also not always easy to see your own improvements… at least I rarely can ><) 

But when you draw and you come across these little things that make you go “hm, I wish this was easier” or “I really love this sketch I made, but I’m not sure how to go about coloring it”, anything like that— then your desires regarding your art or your process become a lot more specific, right? Write these down! What specifically would you like to improve on?

I’ve noticed for myself and many others talked about it as well that once a piece is done, it’s like you forget a lot about the process and your mind is set on a new project. (Also, yay! You were in the zone~) You can either use your current project as practice (all of them are in a sense, really) or start a new one later, research what you need (on YouTube, books, or perhaps a course from an artist you really like if you can afford it) and work on your goal! 

- Also keep notes for any ideas you may have. We always think we’ll remember something and then we don’t. These sudden, often spontaneous glimpses you receive seemingly out of nowhere can be some of your best and it’s a shame if they fade back into the void. This also applies to anything that inspires you.. it can really be anything. I think I’ve said this before, but if you do this, try and organize a bit. Otherwise you’ll end up with a bunch of notes that’s more overwhelming than anything else. 

You can use folders to keep images, notes, a dedicated Notion page perhaps or if you can afford it, keep an extra external SSD for this. 

- Well, this also applies to research or video’s you’d like to watch. If you end up with too many tutorials or books, or they aren’t goal-oriented specific to your art desire, it may get really hard to get you started on something. If you’re like me and it’s hard to focus, I’d highly recommend taking some time to sit back, think about the thing you really want, organize and structure a way towards it and go. That way you don’t have to make all these decisions along the way— you know what to do already, it’s written right there!

- And that also applies to tools and brushes xD I know it’s really fun to download all of it because many are free and what if there’s ever a time you may need this specific texture on a brush? What if you can’t get this style that inspired you with the brushes you already have? But truth is, you don’t need them all and if you do, you’ll notice there are many you won’t even touch. And well… as you can see in my art as well, apart from the pencil ones, it doesn’t necessarily encourage consistency if that’s what you strive for. If you want to practice, most often the basic round brush will do, the less opacity or blend, the more you can practice shapes and clarity. In that case I’d stay away from the airbrush whenever possible. 

- Depending on the program you use (CSP has their own), you can use these to help you with facial angles, or this if you rather prefer a basic skull. You can use the site if you can’t get the angles quite right for many things. 

- For coloring I highly recommend James Gurney’s articles or book ‘color and light a guide for the realistic painter’, even if you’re not a realistic painter, it still contains most (all?) of what you need to know about color.

- A great way to experiment is to just… open a blank document and do whatever. I know it often feels like you have to draw something (preferably something good), but you can actually learn a lot by just scrabbling away. Here’s also often where you find the things you feel like you need to improve. Certain angles are especially hard for me, but I hadn't known that if I didn't try >< Oh, I also found this site by accident and I haven't read it all, but it covers many subjects! Hope these are helpful! 🌷

[ploffskinpluffskin]

Title: Your Cousin Six Times Removed, Who Lives in the Silvervine Kingdom Rating: G Characters: Natori, Natoru, with glimpses and mentions of Louise, the Cat King, and Persephone. If you squint, you'll see Lune, too Ships: Persephone/Cat King by obligation, with a kind of Assumed Persephone/Louise in the background and one dirty joke regarding Natori and the king Summary: No cat in their right mind would pretend to be a royal if not for some less-than-noble purposes. Notes: Written for this year’s birthday bash for the prompt Long Lost Relative. I’ve written on this idea before, I’m pretty sure, or if not, I’ve definitely posted headcanons related to it, just because I’m so enamored with the idea of past shenanigans between the Cat King, Persephone, Louise, and Natori. This is just a short snippet of those ideas but I hope it’s at least a little enjoyable nonetheless. I'd love to write companion pieces for interactions between the other characters ....also I effed up, bc per headcanons Natoru should not be around at this time but I'm throwing my hands up in the air about that and going along with it

“What are you looking for, sir?”

To himself, Natori thinks distantly that Natoru sounds gratingly more chipper than what is appropriate for the situation, but, then, she almost always radiates an enviable air of absent equinimity. Even the times he has stumbled across her lording her ostensible authority over the servants has seen her remain relatively affable. However, here, now, when he is just about hip-deep in dust, cobwebs, and old records, he has precious little of his usual patience for it.

“I thought there was a detailed account of the royal lineage stashed away in here somewhere,” he responds, and as he does so suddenly realizes this old, notoriously congested storage closet should have been the very last place he’d kept the thing. He flips over a curiously modern file folder in order to read the label, spies the large spider he has disturbed by doing so clinging to the back of it, and swiftly flips it back over again, gingerly putting it back in its place with the strictly controlled poise he’s known for. Albeit stretched over a brimming pool of anxiety just yearning to spill over.

Such an old document wouldn’t have been stored in a place like that, anyway, he reassures himself.

“Oh, that old thing.”

Natori sighs. “Yes, that old thing.”

“Probably should have kept it in a more orderly place.”

Natori’s sigh this time has more than a touch of exasperation; granted, with some directed at himself for having no other response to vent his frustration than to sigh a little harder.

“I am already aware.”

Then, silence aside from the rustling of the older of the two rifling through what looks to be a series of much earlier childhood drawings made by one charcoal-colored prince and slowing rather noticeably.

The guest had arrived just recently, bereft of an entourage or any other expected accoutrements befitting a cat of her supposed status. In fact, she had all but crashed through the stained glass ceiling of the ballroom like a furry comet, unfurling from her protective huddle and shaking off the colorful shards of broken glass before noticing she had a captive, horrified audience.

It was then, and only then, Natori was too happy to remind everyone, that she had bowed and introduced herself as the Countess Affenpinscher, distant and thrice-removed but most assuredly illustrious cousin of a well-off aunt. She offered no explanation for the mysterious spectacle of her arrival, even as slivers of colored glass upon her shoulders made the burgundy of her dress sparkle.

When Natori had shrewdly remarked he'd never heard of such a relative, she had laughed and waved it off— oh, we're a private bunch, lovely, I'm not surprised— and when she'd started to falter upon naming the kingdom she supposedly hailed from, and Natori had felt they were all on the verge of revealing her opaque secret, the king had spoken up obliviously instead, one paw curled against his cheek as he lounged contently on his throne.

I think it's gotta be the Silvervine Kingdom, babe, he'd claimed with a familiar charmed sparkle in his eyes. She's got that sphinx-y luster.

The Countess Affenpinscher had smiled winsomely upon him, a slow expression which spread across her face in a fashion that had read as uncomfortably knowing, indulgent, to the royal advisor.

Clever man, Your Majesty. It's a rare cat who can see us for the royalty we are. Perhaps you have some of that shimmering sphinx lineage yourself.

And that had settled it really. The king would hear no words to the contrary, and neither, to Natori’s confused dismay, would the Queen Persephone, smiling from behind her fan with an almost sheepish amusement which he couldn’t quite parse. But there was still one cat in the king’s court she’d yet to win over, and he was currently adjusting his glasses and squinting upon what he was starting to suspect was an unsavory doodle on an ancient manuscript, and with such intensity he might very well set it ablaze.

“I think you’re worrying over nothing,” Natoru says after a long moment of that silence.

"It may very well be nothing," Natori starts in that loud but measured tone of voice that tells her he's winding himself up for a lecture. "And she may very well mean entirely no harm to the kingdom, but it's quite conspicuous all the same and is due at least some vigilance! She must have an end goal of some sort. No one pretends to be a royal just for fun."

"The king does." Spoken with a hapless shrug and a content smile, as if she isn't exquisitely aware of the magnitude of what she's just said, but Natori most certainly is.

"...Sometimes I think you delight in being thrown out the window," he finally manages in slumped resignation after nearly a full minute of opening and closing his mouth, lost on how to respond. There’s almost a sense of pity in the way he looks at her.

"Sometimes it does liven things up a bit," Natoru answers, unbothered.

"Well! I'll not entertain your bad behavior and join you for the inevitable consequences. If I'm to be taught how to fly, I refuse to do so under an instructor utilizing sink-or-swim methods."

“You’d definitely be under him.”

Natori gleans the meaning behind her facetious comment much faster than she planned for, and retribution is regrettably swift. She doesn’t have time to dodge the rolled up sheaf of papers he’d been straightening that comes down on her head, and the suddenness of it has her head spinning a little, despite the lack of sincere enmity in Natori’s reprisal.

“Oh. I forgot you don’t appreciate good humor,” she laments with a wounded, haughty sniff.

For his part, she does catch him looking upon her with a strange kind of expression, though he soon after carries on as if nothing had happened.

“Natoru,” he begins with a great sigh, exasperated but soft, lacking the usual sharpness he employs when he is in the mood to reprove,“I do not see the humor in being characterized as an unscrupulous homewrecker, no. No doubt one day you’ll engage in some manner of mummery that manages to amuse me, but as of this present moment I’m afraid it has me quite weary.”

“Oh, that’s not ‘cause of my bad jokes, it’s because you’re always suffering twice.”

“...what?”

She pats his arm. "You worry too much, sir."

Natori doesn’t answer for a long moment, but then, after a noncommittal noise of absent disgruntlement, he murmurs, "So I've been told."

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then. Good luck.”

To that, he doesn’t respond at all, absorbed once again in a different stack of papers and scrolls, and she takes her leave. It's really a shame he's so distracted with finding the record. Otherwise, he might have seen the conspicuously modern file folder he'd disregarded earlier tucked under her arm as she departs.

[iraprince]

hi ira, you're a big inspo for me! especially as a fellow adhd artist.. i often struggle with "letting go" sketches / leaving them be, i always end up focusing on each as if it has to become a full piece. i personally feel this is bc of my adhd and was wondering if you struggled with something similar, or had any advice on sketching?

thank you so much! and yeah, okay, let's chew on this one and see what we can come up with.

so i actually usually have the opposite problem: I can generate a bunch of loose sketches really quickly, but i have a really hard time buckling down and putting the focus in to take any of them all the way to being full pieces. i think sketching and leaving those sketches as-is comes easily to me because i enjoy it (as in i physically enjoy the feeling of drawing in a loose, gestural style, AND i aesthetically enjoy how unfinished sketches look), and i'm extremely accustomed to it (most workdays i start up by doing ~45-90 mins of sketches, usually a few digital pages worth). these things combine so that the habit of churning out a bunch of little images and then immediately moving on is something that's really natural to me.

HOWEVER i am def not just advising "sit yourself down and sketch for an hour and a half every day" with no other context; i think "draw every day" as ironclad advice is usually pretty clumsy and isn't always applicable to how people work best, or always effective against what actually trips people up with art stuff. i think a lot of this is abt getting mindset right!!! drilling and repetition is good later for building speed and confidence but it's not as useful until u've figured out the underlying struggle imo.

so, some thoughts:

do u keep going on the sketch bc u get distracted by the idea of the final piece, and u just get sucked in to progressing toward that? for me, sometimes i do nail a sketch and im like "ooh, i want to do something more with that!" — but because these sketches happen during my warmup time and i need to keep moving, i don't do it right away. i usually just make a note right on the canvas, or i copy/paste the sketch into a separate file to come back to later. if u get the urge to keep going on a piece bc u want it to have more, but what u Actually want is to do a few more sketches, consider scooting the sketch over into a wip file/folder/etc for later (if ur working digitally; set it aside in a physical wip folder if you're working traditionally).

do u keep going on the sketch bc ur insecure about the fact that it isn't polished, or bc u feel like it "needs" more to look good? u may be affected by The Spectre of Posting. something i have wrestled with constantly and that i think many artists wrestle with is that, even if we aren't having these thoughts consciously, whenever ur drawing there is kind of this little voice in the back of ur head that's like. "is this gonna be good enough to post. if it turns out crappy i won't want to post it and then i will have wasted all this time. will this flop? if i post this will it make me look like i'm bad at drawing? what if this isn't as good as the last thing i posted and then it looks like im getting worse" and on and on and fucking on. this is all fucking nonsense, but also it's really hard to break out of. try, as hard as you possibly can, to start becoming okay w the idea that not everything is for posting, and that if something doesn't turn out great or u don't necessarily want it to like Artistically Represent You then nobody ever has to see it, and i think u might find that a lot of the tense little subconscious urges and hangups and anxieties you have about your work will start to unravel. any statement abt your art that starts with "i feel like i need to...." or "i feel like i should...." is probably somehow tangled up with the idea of other peoples' eyes on your work, and as long as you're letting a vibe like that breathe down your neck, you really can't draw freely.

do you keep going on the sketch bc you just don't like the sketch and you think if you keep picking at it it will eventually get better? well — okay, sometimes you're right! sometimes picking at something endlessly is how u eventually get something really nice and fleshed out and cool looking. but also we are mortal creatures with a limited amount of time on this earth and i am assuming from the fact that u asked for advice that u want to create More drawings. so the only real advice for this category of sketch hangup is: dude, fuck it. make a bunch of bad sketches. do it on purpose, if that helps loosen you up! designate "fucked up stupid sketch day" and make a bunch of the most dogshit drawings you can muster. remember when earlier i said part of why this is easy for me is bc i do so MUCH of it? sometimes it's about volume. if every time u start on a sketch, it ends up being the only thing u pick at for the next few days, of COURSE it's going to start feeling super precious and high stakes to you. you're not being irrational for getting attached to stuff u spend time fussing over. but if u want to be LESS fussy and LESS attached, probably the fastest way is to just start making yourself churn a bunch of shit out, because if you've made TWELVE little sketches today who actually cares if four of them are dogshit. make MORE of them, and it becomes way less serious. u can use time limits to push yourself along, if that helps — an exercise i really like is putting my music on shuffle and then doing a bunch of little drawings where i work on each one for ONLY the duration of one song each. when the song ends, i stop working on the sketch i'm on and move on to a new one. and sometimes they're totally dogshit, because the best songs in the world are all sub 2mins! or draw yourself a bunch of very small rectangles on a sheet of paper and fit a bunch of little drawings into those. anything to help Shove u past the idea that a drawing has to, like, LOOK LIKE anything or be cute or appealing or look good in any capacity will help break up the apprehension u get about wanting sketches to come out a certain way.

i have talked ur ear off as always but i hope that some of this is helpful!! or if i totally missed the mark and none of this connects w u re: why u find this stuff challenging, pls feel free to send me another ask clarifying what u get stuck on and i'll see if i can think of any potential fixes :)

[fraternum-momentum]

Okay, so let me ramble abt making the last comic, cause that was an absolute behemoth to work on, and I have a lot of thoughts in my head. Man, I don't know how those webtoon artists do it every week. They scare me now.

This is super long btw, so get cozy if you want to read :]

Starting off, I actually got this idea from my lil 'ol diary I keep by my tableside :] I like writing down what I feel so I can see it in a more concrete(?) manner, helps me cope i think. One time, I really did cry for someone because I guess I just really liked them a lot. Having crushes is fun, but catching feelings isn't.

I always get this giddy feeling of being head over heels for someone. Every interaction is so exciting. Intoxicating even. And I couldn't get enough of it, but after that few seconds of bliss I immediately think to myself that all these scenarios in my head will never happen, not in a million fucking years. I just preemptively reject myself without ever telling the person what I feel. I know what the outcome will be anyway, and I'm afraid of what will happen if I did say anything. It's just too risky.

The second half is completely made up tho, I will never ever kidnap someone... unless? (For legal reasons, I will have to clarify that this is a joke, Thank you.)

Now onto the comic itself!

The composition is probably the easiest and the most fun part. I love, love, love, how versatile you can be in the webtoon format. Figuring out how to transition the panels is super fun, and it sucks that most of the webcomics I see on tapas or webtoon, etc. are just sticking to those boring box formulas over and over again when it has so much potential, although there are exceptions like, for example, Lore Olympus. While it has it's fair share of flaws when in comes to other aspects, you can't deny the artist's talent esp when it comes to knowing how to place the character in an illustration, (again) the compositioning etc etc. (ep. 8 is p good. They stick to the box stuff during dialogue but gets more experimental in some parts. I haven't been keeping up with it, so idk any other good eps)

One of my only big regrets is that I wish I had made the space between the '...but I love it." and "And soon..." parts longer. I think it changed scenarios way too fast and your eye immediately moves onto the next piece of text,, but eh, it is what it is, and I can't be bothered to edit it so ig I gotta learn to live with it.

It's still messy in,, a lot of parts actually, and I still can't do lineart to save my life, but i kinda tried just cleaning up the sketches instead???? I mean, it kinda works, but it isn't really smooth so,, And there are small mistakes here and there that I could've fixed or colored stuff in properly or whatever. But at that point, I'm just done with it. No more. Am tired and want to draw other shit now. Maybe boobs n dicks n pussy-

Oh actually i have another comic in my wip folder that I started before the sad Kylar crying one. Here's some of the thumbnails for it:

the fucking lisa simpson looking ass face just cracks me up every time I see it LMAOQJSJQJ I just wanted to show it to u but stay tuned for that ig

I eventually want to make little comics like this for other characters as well! Like Sydney, who is also one of my favorites cause of the whole religion aspect to them, and I would like to tackle that topic with yet another super personal experience of mine that for some reason I'm comfortable with sharing with a bunch of ppl lmao

I also really want to make a full on nsfw one, like gut rearranging, carnal fucking, hardcore banging,, ok ill stop. But I do need to do more,, uh, "research" on that,, i swear it's research, i have no clue how im gonna draw it. Hell, I already struggle with drawing people fucking and imagine adding cool transitions to that. Guess even my masochistic tendencies extend to this shit too.

And I think that's pretty much it? I'll probably just stick to b and w or monotone with a few accent colors because i just know that it would break me if i did a fully colored one.

Okay, thank you for reading this ramble, I'll go ahead and answer some asks now,, Here's your prize though!

[ezra-ezbezzlement]

or just like post your past drawings

I got this in November when I started using tumblr but I’m only now gonna answer it<3333333 prepare to view 10 gorgeous images made my me from old sketchbooks and folders,Anyway here u r george

I am now going to give an explanation for each of these because it’s 2am and I’m bored :3

No. 1 These silly little guys had a bunch of lore that I created for them, sadly most of it has been lost and forgotten. Also there’s like a sexy chicken thing in the corner, don’t mind him

No. 2 This guy also had a lot of forgotten lore about him. He’s like a troll thing. I can remember affectionately calling it “The Clit Goblin”. I think @nova-the-killjoy was responsible for naming him

No. 3 A drawing I did of @butterfy-s0uls as an inky cap fairy sometime last year, idrk what’s going on with the face but it is what it is

No. 4 Umm this guy I think had a lot of inspiration drawn from the Celtic pagan figures Oak King and Holly King who ruled the forests

No. 5 This guy was a weird little inspired by some concept art for the 5e Coutl I found

No. 6 This was a drawing I did for @percymcwercy of a “Lunar Wobbergong”. I gave up on it cos the shading was weird and I would have changed the name from a “wobbergong” (cos that’s not a wobbergong that’s a great white) but it was done in B9. Anyway I think these sharks lived in the moons atmosphere or something

No. 7 this is a map for one of many dnd campaigns that flopped

No. 8 is a redrawn Coutl

No. 9 is the front page of a drawing comp @nebulaofbangtan and I did together. The prompts were about a world or kingdom we made up.

No. 10 is the back page of the drawing comp which I was pretty proud of, I think my sister also liked the idea of drying out a potion and making a spliff out of it to induce a quite literal high

There will be more old drawings btw

[stevethehairington]

22, 29, 32 for the writers questions!!

ty for sending this in!! <3

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

hm this is. this is a funny one to answer bc i feel like i am part incredibly organized and part chaotic mess lmfao. bc like i use google drive for my fics and i have a RIGID organizational structure for that. like i have a folder for each of the fandoms i've written for and within that fandom folder i have a writing folder and within that writing folder i have my docs. and those are organized by docs i've started and are either waiting to be written or are in the middle of being written which kind of hang out in the folder loosely. but then i have a separate folder for my finished fics, a separate folder for my finished fics' plan/outline docs (if they have one), and a separate folder for each event/challenge/project i've participated in. so like for steddie i have a folder for each of the zines i'm in and a big bang folder.

but then when it comes to what i'm actually writing... that can get messier lmao. i kind of write across like 3 different platforms? like i use google docs for my main document to write in, but i also write in the notes app on my phone, and i handwrite a lot of things too (mostly bc i cant use my computer at work to write fic so i resort to good ol fashioned pen and paper lol). so it can get tricky trying to remember WHERE i wrote that one piece i'm looking for lol and i have to dig and dig through sheets of notebook paper and my insane amount of notes on my phone and the docs that i have (bc sometimes if it's getting too long i'll split up the doc too just to get a clean work space).

i also have a binder that is full of like old fic stuff i've jotted down, whether that be old snippets i've written, or ideas i've scribbled onto a sticky note, or something i printed out to edit. that binder has stuff from sooo many different fandoms in it lol. i've tried organizing it by fandom and i've bunched all the stuff for one specific idea into a paperclipped stack or i've put it in one of those sheet protector pages lol.

but yeah it's like organized chaos i guess you could say. but it works for the most part so! here i am! lol

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

ooh! easy question!! i draw inspiration from literally anything and everything!! the world is full of stuff that makes GREAT stories!! so yeah i absolutely pull from everything around me - whether that's looking up prompts on tumblr, watching a show/movie or reading a book and wanting to au it, something a friend/coworker/someone random on the street said, an object i see that sparks something in me, a color, a weather pattern, a mood, a song, a recipe, my own feelings, other people's feelings, my life experiences, other people's life experiences.

inspiration really truly comes from everwhere!

when the well runs dry i try to dig deeper. i try to look through prompts that might spark something, even if it's a tiny little ficlet. oh i also like to look through old ideas i've had for other fandoms when this happens bc sometimes the best thing to do is to recycle!! bc like the inspiration was there at some point, and looking back on it helps to respark that and bring it back! and trying to revamp it to fit my current fandom/pairing really helps get the gears turning again too.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

you can find the answer to this one here!

weird questions for writers

[apex-academy]

Chapter 6: The Decay of Our Lives (#4)

Guess we’re still starting with Itsurou’s file. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything missing when I flip through it, but these things aren’t exactly uniform, so I don’t know how I could tell. Check if all his published books are listed, maybe, but it’s not like I know them all, anyway.

“Could check it against his study hall if I wanted to.”

Seems like overkill right now, but if I don’t find anything else to do...

The demographics information is a bunch of average junk, and some points about his health. Nothing anybody has to worry about now.

“...” Onto the next one.

“Kaichi...”

Why am I doing this again? I... Maybe I can come back to him. When it’s a little less raw.

“Or will that happen anytime soon?”

Probably not. Still... Don’t want to push myself more than I have to.

That’s what Kaichi would want, too, right?

Already checked my own file earlier, so I skip to Kanagi’s. Sports, sports, and more sports. Don’t know what I expected.

“Looking at this, you’d think she’s just the all-around Super High School Level Athlete...”

But I guess the only achievements that really fit the school criteria are in volleyball. Plenty of other articles and stats in here, though. Including a good handful of male sports leagues? Under a number of pseudonyms...

Whatever works for her, I guess.

Nothing here draws my suspicion, at least. If anything, I doubt she’d have the time to plan something like this while she’s out there cross-training for fifty sports.

Maybe that’s just me being optimistic, but... It’s something, at least.

I wrangle her file back into place and slide that drawer shut. So, down to the next row, or back up to Aki?

“.................”

I slide the top drawer open and walk my fingers down the tabs. Unlabeled folder of blank forms, Aidan, then...

There’s not a lot of heft to it, per se, but it presses into my hands harder than it should.

“...”

I open it up.

Not a lot in the way of demographics—at least, nothing that stands out. Seems she started helping out at the local courthouse pretty young, but otherwise...

“Wonder if that was before or after she switched her style around.”

Not that it matters now. Or ever would have, probably, but...

“................”

Past that’s a bunch of meaningless charts about words per minute, but I scan them point by point anyway. I’ll... be stuck in this one a while, I think. Might as well focus on numbers instead of everything else around them. Who’s responsible for them in the first place.

A lot of the file is completely incomprehensible to me. Not redacted like Aidan’s, just written in... I don’t know. The kind of marks her stenograph makes, I guess.

Made.

“...”

Well. I guess it could still make them. As far as I know, it outlasted her just fine.

“.................................”

My throat’s trying to close up now, so I flip through the pages faster. Really nothing of note here. She had skills, she did her best, she deserved to be here. Just not... here.

“...............”

I might need a few rounds of pool.

Silently, I place Aki’s file back behind Aidan’s and lock up again. Drift down two floors, unlock my own room.

...

I play a while. Who knows how long. Our loved ones are safe now, supposedly. No reason for time to matter much anymore.

But I have to get going again eventually.

“.....”

Out to the empty hall, but the moment I get to the stairs, a wave of fatigue hits. I’ll just use the elevator. A farther walk along an empty hall, but. Don’t have to worry about paying attention to every footfall this way.

I hit the elevator call button and don’t have to wait long before it's here. Bell rings, doors open, I walk in—and immediately trip over a wheelchair.

“Whoa, whoa!”

It’s easier to place the voice than place my feet flat on the floor again.

“Sorry! You okay?”

Aidan adjusts his glasses. No idea if I just about smacked them off or if he only wants to fidget with something.

“Er, yes, thank you. You?”

“Fine...”

The elevator doors shut, but we don’t start moving. I frown and look over the numbered buttons. Nothing lit.

“I figured you'd be on this floor.”

“Ah. Yeah.” That predictable, am I? “Did you need something?”

“Oh, just to see you smile.”

“....”

“Hmm... Close enough. It’ll do.”

“...Okay, seriously.”

“What, that can’t be a serious mission?”

I turn to push the first floor button, just because chatting in a stationary elevator is weird. It rumbles back to life, and the moment of weightlessness makes me a little dizzy.

“If you’d prefer some elaboration, I’m attempting to gauge the group’s interest in a movie night.”

“Mm. Depends on the movie.”

“I was certainly leaning towards comedy.”

I mean. Beats a Saw marathon.

“But isn’t the auditorium closed at night?” After all, that was Tamiko’s excuse to shoo everyone out of her crime scene.

“......”

“There’s more than one place to watch a movie, don’t you worry.”

“Fair enough.”

“So... yeah. Can’t say I’m super invested, but I’d come to a movie night, sure.”

“Good to know! Thank you.”

The elevator stops with a low rattle, and I automatically step through the doors before looking back. Aidan hasn’t even put his hand on the wheel.

“Didn’t think to ask what floor you wanted.”

“That’s all right...”

“.......”

“Er, the first floor is fine, rather. Thank you.”

I nod, but neither of us moves. Not sure how much he can right now.

“Is it just me, or do you look even more drained than before?”

“.....”

“Considering that’s very highly a matter of opinion, I don’t think I could weigh in meaningfully.”

“...”

“Can I help you to wherever you’re headed now?”

“..................”

“You may wheel me to my dorm room... if you really want to.”

I nod.

It takes a little maneuvering with the doors trying to close on us, but eventually I push him along. Hope going back to his room means he’s going to rest. Not sure how much I can hope for that, but...

I go ahead and unlock his door while I’m at it, though he still beats me to the handle. He winces a bit from gripping it.

“No glass traps here, I hope?”

It takes him a second to catch up.

“Oh goodness no. That would be entirely unnecessary.”

I nudge the door open.

“Thank you...”

“I’ll... see you around, then?”

“Don’t have much of a choice.”

“That’s certainly one way to put it, I suppose.”

“Until then.”

He smiles, but it’s already sliding off his face before he’s turned away. He wheels himself in and pushes the door closed with a soft click. 

I half expect him to faint and collapse immediately afterward, but there aren’t any unceremonious thuds, at least.

If there were, would I go in? Do I trust myself enough to walk in on that sort of scene again and not take advantage of it?

“..........” 

Don’t need to worry about that now. Let’s just get back to... whatever I was planning to do down here. I don’t know. Grab some tea or something and take it from there, I guess. Can’t help anybody if I don’t take care of myself.

And at least getting something to drink is easy. The rest...

We’ll see.

[BACK] [NEXT]

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

7, 8, 17, 22, 24, 29, 33, 36

I love that you sent me a load of numbers right as I'm preparing to send you a metric ton of them too. 🤣

What is your deepest joy about writing?

OOOOOOH OKAY hmm… I guess creating storylines that I love :)

If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Action! I looove writing dialogue, but I struggle a lot with action scenes.

Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

I have… many WIPs um 😅

Wellll one uses bugs as a metaphor (I think metaphor is the right word). To be specific, roly-polys! Though I am calling them wood lice in the fic because that’s what one of the characters calls them for some reason.

To get in The Mood for this fic, I listened to a whole freaking PODCAST ABOUT BUGS!!! IT WAS SO ENTERTAINING!!!

The podcast-person is actually Wilbur Soot, the actor for the character I’m writing about agahsbqiaviqgq it worked out really well!

But seriously hearing Wilbur talk about bugs is like. So much fun. I got to hear him talk about the time he caught a fly and showed his dad’s friends and then immediately was overcome with guilt that he’d captured the fly so he let it go. And also the time that a spider bit his pencil and he couldn’t pull it away (???). And also the time he found a caterpillar and brought it to school for show and tell and the teacher decided to keep the caterpillar to use for the class and the caterpillar turned into a cocoon but Wilbur didn’t really know what a cocoon was so he thought the caterpillar had died so he started crying alsvwkafajag

And then the caterpillar turned into a moth (Wilbur wanted it to turn into a butterfly) so he just sat in his classroom and pouted lol

AND THOSE ARE JUST SOME OF THE THINGS HE TALKED ABOUT!!! HE ALSO WADED INTO THE OCEAN AT MIDNIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM TO COLLECT SALTWATER AND PUT IT IN A JAR!!! AND HE HAD A ROLY-POLY INFESTATION AT HIS HOUSE BUT HE DIDN’T CARE SO HE JUST LET THEM STAY!!! BECAUSE HE LOVES ROLY-POLYS!!!

Anyway I listened to that podcast in order to get inspiration akavaksvaksvajv

I also got inspired by some art! Here’s the link!

There was also some dialogue that I really wanted to use, but unfortunately it didn’t end up fitting 😭

I’m gonna save it to use later though, because I really do like it!

How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

Fairly organized? I use Evernote, and have different folders for different genres of fics. There’s two main folders, and then a bunch of smaller ones for series/AU’s.

I use my notes app to jot down random ideas, and I also have a blue notebook that I use for the same purpose!

How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

Usually a fair bit! I’ll get the First Idea, and then spend some time daydreaming about it. Then I’ll write it all down, daydream some more, develop it, etc. After that I’ll usually start writing!

I typically plan out the opening-middle of the story, but I don’t really have an ending planned out in a lot of cases. Not always the case, but usually.

I enjoy this process, yeah!

Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

From literally everywhere. Art, music, other fics, movies, scenes in books, one time I even got inspired by watching a janitor?

When inspiration runs dry, I tend to just… chill. Not really worry about writing or ideas; I’ll spend time doing other things in the meantime.

Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

Not really, no. I mean, I doodle sometimes, but it isn’t something I’m particularly good at nor something I enjoy a whole lot.

They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

OOOOOOH WELL I know many things aksvajsvkagahv most of which I’ve researched a ton for writing purposes!

How unborn babies act/develop in the womb

How little kids act/talk/look at the world

GOOD DIALOGUE

Ukulele… I guess? Don’t know why I’d write about it aksgsisgaigs but I know a lot about it!!!

Autism (I myself am not autistic and obviously I don’t know everything about it, but I went through a phase a couple years ago where I researched tons about it over several months, so I do know a lot about it)

Dream SMP lore… especially Wilbur/Ghostbur lore mwahahahahaha

So much about Star Wars. So so much

[trashiny-draws]

THIS HAS BEEN ME ALL MONTH AND IM SO SORRY

[optimistpax]

@onewingedsparrow I hope you have fun designing some OCs! I love seeing ppls tf OCs they’re always so fun and cool!

 I’m no expert, but I do love character design so I hope you don’t mind if I over share just a little bit about my design process ahaha

TLDR: I like to think about personality, choose what shapes I want to use to convey said personality, and then mold the alt mode design to that rather than starting with the alt mode.

A small essay on tf and general design thoughts is under the cut though if you want examples and entirely too much detail

This is all entirely overkill u do not have to do this to have fun designing a cool character. This is just me dissecting how i micromanage my own design process bc I’m a massive nerd.

For a character design I usually start out by ironing out some of their key personality traits so that I can make sure to keep them in mind when I’m designing! 

For this example I’m looking at Diode (seen above and below), she’s stubborn, loyal, and holds a grudge. A very steadfast, hard to move character. Because of this I want to make her feel very square and bulky. I want her to look like it would be hard to move her physically as well as mentally/emotionally. This also informs details that might be added later (ex. using a visor rather than eyes to indicate her standoffish nature). 

This is the most important part of character design imo! You want the design to really showcase their personality so make sure their personality is solid!

I was mostly noodling for fun here, so I skipped a bunch of steps but I’ll just touch on them briefly here:

Research:

Normally if I was designing a comic character (a design I’d be drawing hundreds of times and want to be solid so i won’t want to change it half way thru the comic) I’d start out with research.

In the case of transformers OCs research would probably entail compiling a folder full of transformers designs. If you want your design to look functional, make sure to check out images of transforming toys in addition to designs from your favourite tf media. By doing this you’ll be able to take notes on what you do and don’t like about these designs, what ideas you might be able to incorporate to your own designs, and decide on what kind of style you might like to use or steal, how complex you want your design to be etc. Some people suggest making moodboards as well but I personally don’t love making moodboards so usually skip that step and just leave my refs in a folder i can refer to for personal projects ahaha

I did a little analysis of why all circle of light bots look the same (imo they should try harder to look different)

And here’s some doodles exploring how they can be shaken up to look different based on that research:

Depending on how familiar you are with human anatomy, research might also include looking up the human skeleton and musculature. I find thinking about how muscles and bones look and work (and then exaggerating them) extremely helpful for designing robots!

There was another post about designing robots i saw a bit ago by a person much smarter than me comparing mechanical joints to anatomical joints (and how those shapes might translate to a robot) so definitely check that out!

Sketches:

After your research, in theory it’s best to do some really quick low fidelity concept sketches to iron out what basic shapes and proportions you want to use for your character. I skipped that with Diode bc I just wanted to turn my brain off and figured I’d come back and do this step later. Most of the time i end up doing this step on paper just bc it’s easier to do wherever. Unfortunately it also means it’s easier to lose so I don’t have any examples.

The one sketch I did do is maybe a tad cleaner than I usually aim for? It’s important to be able to tell what the shapes are trying to do but you also want to be able to do a whole bunch of them really fast. Speed before quality in this case.

I usually do between 3 and 10 because I’m lazy and am drawing for fun but between 15 and 25 thumbnail sketches is closer to what I do for designs I want to be more polished and solid (like for comics). Sometimes it takes more than that to get it right tho. I designed a table for my grandma for Christmas last year and I did over 90 sketches before I landed on a design I was happy with (yikes!). Of course, this step isn’t necessary if you don’t mind your design evolving each time you draw your character but. you know. It’s an option!

Silhouettes are also a lot of fun to do if you’re making a cast of characters tho! I find them useful regardless, but they can be a really fun way to make your characters stand out from canon characters and from each other!

Here’s some silhouettes I did when @autothotsrollout just got me into tfp and we were tossing around the idea of rewriting exodus/exiles:

And here’s some silhouettes I did analyzing the drift mini series bc all the circle of light dudes look the same and I wanted them all to have different body types lol:

Details and Colour Studies

After getting the general shapes, adding the details is a lot easier! I usually make a base “doll” that I can “dress up” with different clothing or different iterations of mechanical details in the case of transformers.

Finding a real life car/boat/plane etc to steal details off wholesale makes life 1000x easier I highly reccomend it. You could even frankenstein a couple different types of cars together to get a cool alt mode and a cool robot design! This is also where a lot of the research from eariler comes in handy. If you’re designing with a TFP lean, most robots tend to have their wheels in their feet/legs and either as a joint (shoulder or elbow) or rescue bots all have their cabs/windshields as their chests etc! Steal solutions shamelessly.

@autothotsrollout​ said it really well: “If you can figure out where the front of the car is, where the wheels go, and if they have wings where their wings go then you can usually just fudge it from there!”

Digitally that can be done by just copying and pasting a lower opacity sketch layer, but it can also be done traditionally by making your own lightbox!

If you draw your doll on a piece of paper, you can put your phone flashlight (or other bright light) under a glass casserole dish or large see-through tupperware container, and use the light to see your doll drawing while drawing on a seperate piece of paper. or if your shapes are really distinct you can just redraw them each time. But the lightbox is pretty nifty and can definitely save you some time!

once you’ve got a design or two that you like you can test out colours to see what you like and voila! You have a polished and finished character design!

Here’s two of the colour studies I managed to salvage (I am a fool and destructively edit/save things all the time) of my OC Wish!:

And here’s the colours I did for Diode!

I probably won’t stick with these colours, but I haven’t done a lot of transformer design before so i just colour grabbed from the reference it this was a lot of fun! 

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Dick and Wally together are sports culture.

Different tennis shoes littering the hallway, worn out and held together by duct tape. Traded shoelaces, so they both have a piece of each other wherever they go. Different patterned leg warmers as Christmas gifts. Early morning stretching, just the two of them sitting on the floor of their apartment, Dick leading and Wally following, working the soreness out of their muscles. Random equipment for sports they don’t even play in the closet. Cold and refreshing showers. Eating so much food, both relatively healthy stuff and pure junk. A Flash water bottle with a Nightwing keychain. A Nightwing water bottle with a Flash keychain. Using the doorframe as a pull-ups bar. Washing the sheets every other day, not because of all the sex (though the sex is often) but because one of them will come home, all sweaty from a workout, and just collapse on the bed for a couple minutes before taking a shower. Daring each other to show off parkour skills in civvies. Jumping into a pickup basketball game with a bunch of strangers, ending the game with a group of new friends. Buying deodorant whenever the go to the store bc you can never have too much deodorant. Trailing off sentences and just staring because holy shit those are some nice back muscles and biceps. Actually decent sleep schedules. 

Jason and Roy together are peak casual academia.

Everyone knows Jason spends his free time reading literary classics. And everyone knows the grease on Roy’s fingers won’t ever wash out. Bookshelves crammed full of old paperbacks, everything from Wuthering Heights to The Optimist’s Daughter to The Importance of Being Earnest. Goggles shoved over green eyes and a freckled nose as an invention sparks to life in rough hands. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is a guilty pleasure of both of theirs. Thousands of pens littering an apartment for scribbling down notes whenever they strike. Jason poking plot holes and other criticisms faster than a bullet, character analyzations sharper than his jawline, a lecture about the problem with many contemporary and modern novels longer than his dick. Excited rambles way too early in the morning about some new polymer Roy can work into his arrows. Jason tutoring students in both Lit and Spanish at the public library. NPR playing on the radio. Being in a bent over position for so long they sigh in relief when the other offers them a back massage after smirking when they let out a pained groan. Never throwing anything away because you never know what could be useful. 

Tim and Kon together are skate culture.

Tim wraps his boards with tape because, even though he has to replace it every couple of weeks, he likes the designs. Kon sets some time aside every couple of nights to make sure his rollerblades are doing okay, unscrewing and rescrewing the wheels becoming a habit. Tim’s jeans are ripped to hell, but he still wears them over and over again, saying “I’ve got kneepads it’s fine.” Kon wears his round red sunglasses with increasing frequency; Tim says it makes him look like a dork but Kon knows he secretly likes it. Tim likes taking aesthetic photographs of Kon while skating, and since he’s a damn good photographer, the pictures turn out beautiful. Kon likes taking pictures of Tim, but he’s not as good and he uses a blurry iphone camera. Even so, they’re in-the-moment and raw and Tim loves them anyway. Kon loves practicing tricks: skating backwards on his in-lines has become a smooth, practiced motion for him, his misfits are vicious, his savannahs make spectators terrified he’s stumble and fall. He does them all, with a rakish grin, and comes to a stop with his head held high for applause. Tim, on the other hand, just skates. he’ll roam the streets and sidewalks of Gotham, mindlessly pushing his skateboard, going over pits and bumps with practiced ease. The constant, repetitive motion is a form of meditation for him, but still active enough to keep his mind alive. Every week Kon changes his nail polish color, and usually it’s Tim painting his nails for him. Tim’s wardrobe consists entirely of 6 or 7 oversized sweatshirts and sweaters, and when he’s not cycling through those same clothes over and over again, he wears Kon’s shirts. They hang loose on his frame, but that makes him love them even more. Kon rarely ever takes his fingerless gloves off. In contrast, Tim’s knuckles are constantly busted up to hell. Ton’s got a bold undercut that would look stupid and try-hard on anyone else, but somehow, it works really well for him. Tim’s hair is always just a little overdue for a haircut. The two of them have so many socks, like a huge drawer full of them. They’re patterned and textured, long and short, and they’re constantly in use. Tim collects stickers to overlay the bottom of his board with. Kon gets around the city as a pedestrian wearing roller blades more often than actual shoes. The kids frequenting the skate park are a second family.

Damian and Jon are art culture.

Charcoal and marker ink staining Damian’s hands. Callouses littering Jon’s fingertips, because he never pulls up his invulnerability when playing. Blank canvases that rarely get used in the closet. Screenshotted and printed out sheet music never in the folder they’re supposed to be in. Damian hiding spray paint cans from Bruce. Humming at all hours of the day. Homemade paper lanterns as decorations. Pencils in a leather pencil case. Pencils in a two dollar plastic case. Pencils on the sheets of the bed and in a cup near the sink and on top of the coffee table. A guitar pick collection that never gets used. Refusing to buy new sketchbooks, arguing in vain that they’re reusable. Jon bsentmindedly playing out a melody on the piano when he’s thinking. Paint splattered jeans. A painted denim jacket. Tuning a violin regularly but always forgetting to rosen until it becomes a necessity. Damian drawing all over Jon’s arms. Falling in love with the stranger ones of the old composers. Beautiful handmade cards for every required occasion. Drawings and paintings based off a piece Jon played. Sweeping and emotional music pieces based off something Damian created. Half finished sketches of Jon littering every sketchbook Damian ever gets. Days of playing the same chords over and over again before being struck by an idea for a song. “I made this for you.”

yes i am aware roy’s characterization in this is based off rhato which is a terrible characterization to begin with. no i do not care. look at how fucking long tim and kon’s is i’m not sorry

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @bikoncon @dangerduckjpeg 

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers (February 22nd, 2021)

Hello! Here’s another collection of anon ask answers all put together in one big post.

This might be strange considering how upbeat yall are about the fandoms for your games in general, but is there any particular trope or ship you WOULDN'T want us writing/drawing/etc. in relation to your stuff? (IE, any canon you don't want us 'overwriting' or something like that?)

Of course we would want the fan content people make to not be racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, harmful, etc. But in terms of generally doing non-canon pairings or adding in headcanons or stuff, we really don’t mind that. People are welcome to have fun and explore their own ideas.

for the 1.2 Android update was it meant to download as a  separate app? I really want to keep my previous save files but they don't show up (also thank u for the updates I'm really excited to get back into the game!!)

We had to change the name of the file and unfortunately for some phones that meant it’s treated as a brand new game. I’m sorry your saves didn’t transfer over to the new version. You can try to look up your specific phone and see if there’s a way to access save files for games on your device and then transfer those saves over to the new build manually. It may or may not be possible.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get the update from Itichio without losing my save files? Is it the same game or a folder I can put in the properties? Sorry if this question is not worded well or if this isn't the avenue you'd want to take technical questions on

Are you using Android? If so, the above answer may apply to you. If you’re on PC or Mac, the save files will automatically still be included.

Hey. I really loved playing our life. It was a fun experience and I never thought I would like it this much. I do have a question, I am currently replaying the game and I am choosing choices I never chose at first. In step 2 during the road trip arc, I decided to ask Cove about what he liked to see on people. One of his response was anklets and black eyes. My MC have just happens to have black eyes. Do Cove say black eyes cuz my mc have it or it was just a coincidently programmed into the game?

He uses your eye color intentionally! If you changed your eye color he’d change what he said.

Will step 4 have 10 moments like steps 1-3? 

Step 4 is only an epilogue. It plays like the openings/endings of the earlier Steps where it’s a bunch of scenes all in a row, there aren’t any individual Moments.

hi! who was/were the artist(s) for our life? 

&

who is the artist for Our Life: Beginning and Always?

Main Sprite and CG Artist: Addrossi

Main Background Artist: Vui Huynh

Main Interface Artist: Winter Slice

Other artists who helped out can be seen in the credits of the game.

In the new ol, there are two main love interests... Would it be possible to pair them together or is that weird? 

You can’t stay single and pair them together. If we are going to add all the extra content to have a route where the two LIs get together, it’d be a full poly route where them and the MC were all dating. And that’s not a for sure option yet because it’d add a lot of extra complications. But either way, in OL the relationships all gotta be about the MC, haha.

In OL2, there will be extra LIs in form of DLCs? Like Dexter and Baxter. 

Maybe! We’ll see how it goes.

Since Cove will have 2 diff body types in s4, will the storyline and dialogs reflect this? Or all of it will be the same? Btw love the game and sorry for bad english. Hope this doesn't sound rude 😅 

Some descriptions and pieces of dialog will change, but it won’t impact the story really. And you don’t need to apologize! It’s all good.

Will you ever release the transparent sprites of the Our Life characters? 

Probably not, I’m afraid. They’ve got a lot of pieces and it’d just be kind of hard to deal with, aha.

Something I was curious about, what was your inspiration for making a game with so much customization?

Initially, the idea was just about having a romance where you actually grew up with the LI. But it was pretty stressful to try deciding how fast the relationship would progress with it taking place over such a long period of time and with no real storyline carrying it. People might not wanna play a game where the characters don’t get along as kids, but other people might not bother with a game where kids immediately liked each other. So the obvious answer came, just let the player pick themselves how it goes. From there we simply continued to add more flexibly with the MC due to the same thought process of wanting to make sure people were onboard with how their life was going.

What made you decide to change the artstyle for ol 2 so much? I of course respect all your decisions and will buy the shit out of everything related to ol 2, but i love the original style and i m honestly not a fan of the styles shown on patreon, despite me liking the painterly style in general. (I don t mind the style being changed, just that the examples shown so far all feel like there s something wrong with them.) 

We’ve always used different art styles for each of our projects. They all have distinct looks from each other. It’s just nice to do something new. I’m glad you really like how the first game looks, though. And those samples were only general concepts, rather than the exact options being decided between. We wanted to see reactions to different options. The art style we’re going with won’t be exactly like those, though I personally like all of them. I think players are gonna enjoy the style Our Life: Now & Forever when it’s revealed.

Hey! Is it ok to ask what gender ourlife2 protagonist will be and if we'll be given the same opportunity to customize an MC? Totally understand if you're keeping this under wraps for now if u don't wanna say! 

OL2 will have the same type of MC customization as OL1, but even more refined! So their gender will be up to you.

Hi! I happened upon Our Life on Steam by pure chance. It is such a great game, I am super excited about the DLC, and I just want you all to know that you are awesome! :D I have a question, and I'm sorry if it's been asked before. Do you have plans of making more games similar to Our Life, with customizable player character? The customizable player character was probably the one thing I personally have been desperate for in romance VNs. So glad there finally is one and would love to see more.

Thank you! And yep, we do have plans for more games like Our Life, most notably is another game in the franchise- Our Life: Now & Forever. We’ll also likely have other, non-OL, games with customizable MCs, though we may still have some games with set MCs in the future as well.

On the patreon dlc just curious but is it possible to play it without actually sleeping together/getting the nsfw content? I just want to spend more time with Cove 

Yeah, you can still choose not to go that far. Though the event is shorter if you pass on the 18+ stuff.

At the beginning of Step 2, did Cove end up accidentally falling asleep in your bed? Or did he fall asleep on the floor? 

He fell asleep sitting on the floor with his body/head leaning against the side of the bed.

This may seem like a weird question, but what exactly is the difference between "direct" and "relaxed" on the comfort scale?

Direct is blunter and more teasing, relaxed is lighthearted and goes with the flow.

can the MC have tattoos in step 3? 

Not in Step 3, but you can in Step 4.

how would Cove react if he visited somewhere like North Carolina in winter where it can get in the 20s(F) at night sometimes? 

He would be shocked and unprepared for what serious coldness is really like, haha. The poor beach baby would wanna go home.

Hello! I just joined the PATREON!! It’s amazing! I love your games! I have a question, approximately how much after will the nsfw be out? After or before the dlc 3 and step four? Sorry my English isn’t the best!❤️❤️❤️ 

Thanks so much! The NSFW DLC will be out after the Step 3 DLC but before Step 4. And you don’t need to apologize for that ^^.

This might be obvious but, will step 4 have dlcs? Also, where will the nsfw dlc happen? Won't bother me at all if it s in in our or his house but i do think it d be moderately funny 

Step 4 will have the Cove Wedding DLC and the Derek and Baxter romance DLCs each add a lot of new content to Step 4, though they’re also partially set in Step 2 and Step 3 respectively. The NSFW DLC happens in Cove’s room.

I keep wondering what would've happened if Mr. Holden met Lizzie first instead of the MC. I can't see that turning out well somehow lol. 

It wouldn’t have made a difference. He met the MC’s parents first and they told him about their two kids. He wanted the MC specifically to be Cove’s friend because the two were the same age.

Even though we have a way to go I'm really excited for OL 2! I was curious though, is the next main character going to be adopted again? I thought it was really clever to make the first main character adopted so when players are customizing,  they can make them look how ever they like without worrying about pesky genetics. Just wondering! 

The OL2 MC is not adopted. We wanted to go for a new dynamic. Instead their parents are their biological single mother who is partially customizable and an off-screen sperm donor father. So the mom will look generally like the MC and any other traits not from her can be assumed to come from whoever the father was.

—– —– —–

Thank you so much for all the asks ^^

FAQ   If you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[autumnleaves1991-blog]

thirsty thots? oh i am FULL of them today! may i present my current fav, riding Jack Daniels in his stupid over the top office, wearing nothing but his equally stupid hat. k thanx bye, enjoy that thot stuck in your mind x

I love Jack Daniels, so thank you for indulging me! 

Pairing: Jack ‘Whiskey’ Daniels x F! Reader

Warnings: Unprotected sex and language. 

Floor to ceiling windows that showed off a view of the New York City Skyline was the backdrop for the ornate picture in front of you. The desk took up space in front of two of the four glass panels, and the leather high back chair was just as opulent. Gold trim surrounded the mahogany desk's edges, strewn with all manner of documents, and a large desktop computer on the corner. 

But none of that was as extra as the man in front of you, Jack ‘Whiskey’ Daniels. You knew he was more than just the CEO of Statesman Distillery, with all the missed meetings, the whip and lasso attached to his side, and the gun under his coat. But you were just the head of marketing, and it wasn’t any of your business. He flips through the folder in front of him, and you watch him chewing on your bottom lip as filthy ideas run through your head. 

You’d read too many fucking cowboy romance novels. 

“Are you listening?” your head snaps up at the question, and you watch his eyes lift and an amused smirk on his face. 

“I’m sorry, what?” 

He grins, “I said-” he sighs, tossing the folder over and folding his big hands over the desk. “How long have you been working with me, sugar?” 

“Four years, Mr. Daniels,” you mumble, your mouth dry as his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows down a mouthful of Whiskey. Those filthy thoughts flood your mind once again as you lick your lips, wondering what his skin would taste like if you could just kiss that strong neck, take his cowboy hat and ride him like the little slut you wish you were. 

“What are you thinking, darlin’?” he smiles, and all coherent thought goes out the window at the slow drawl of his voice. 

“I’m thinking about fucking you,” the words slip out, and you want to die when your mouth opens, and the words come tumbling out. But he doesn’t look surprised. Instead, he pushes back from the desk and gestures with one finger for you to come closer. You stand on shaky legs and can feel the slick from your arousal soak through your panties as you walk closer. 

“What do you want, baby?” he asks, pulling on your hand and drawing you to straddle his laps. A leg on each side of the large leather chair, your skirt bunched up to your waist, and his hands respectfully stroking your thighs. The ball is in your court, and you lean forward, your lips a breath away from his. Your fingers unbuckling the buckle and pulling down the zipper of his pants. 

You take his cock in your hand and stroke him, quickly noticing your boss's commando status. He moves even closer to your lips, and you drown in the brown of his eyes, “Can I touch you?” he whispers, his lips grazing yours. 

“Please do, Mr. Daniels,” you whimper as his hands slide higher, towards where you’re desperate to have him. 

He runs a finger through your swollen folds, drenching his thick digit in the process, as he takes a sharp breath, “call me Jack.” He presses his lips to yours, and you moan as two of his fingers dip inside you, stretching you. You want to scream with how good it feels, but your mouth is otherwise occupied with his tongue, and he swallows your moans. You keep pumping his cock, and he moans as your thumb rubs over the tip. 

“I want you to fuck me,” you whine, as you feel close to the edge, “please, Jack, I want to cum with you inside me.” 

“I’m never one to deny a lady,” he mumbles, pulling on your panties and the fabric tears, but you couldn’t care less. You line up with his cock and slowly slide down inch by inch. Your combined moans like the chorus of angels, and he stretches you almost to the point of pain before the pleasure takes over. You lean up and put your hands on his shoulders and begin to bounce on his cock. 

“That’s it, sugar, save a horse, ride a cowboy.” You smile and take his hat off his head and put it on your own, and he smiles brightly at you. 

“Yee-haw,” you giggle before the moans take over. Jack’s hard thrust hit you so deep and seem to rub against your G-spot with every thrust. It doesn’t take long before you are pulling him close and kissing him with everything you got, his tongue swallowing your screams as you soak his cock, thick hot ropes of cum spilling inside you. Thank god, you are on the pill. 

“Fuck,” he groans, his head on your chest, as you pant together. “I’ve wanted to do that for years.” 

You let out a chuckle, “What? Fuck an employee in this huge office of yours?” 

He pulls back and looks up at you with adoration, “no, darlin’, I’ve wanted to fuck you for years.” He ignores the shocked look on your face and pulls you close to rest on his shoulder, his cock still buried deep inside you. “Now, take a breather, baby, next I wanna eat that pretty pussy out on my desk.”