#i should really redraw this one i think i could give it so much more energy

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you all for an incredible 500 days of love and support. I offer you: answers to questions that no one has asked.

(As always, more can be found in the tags <3)

[cmykdemon]

man i miss promare

[phantomarine]

Clam's Quick Tips for Starting Your Very First Webcomic

Howdy! Here are the three bits of advice I tend to give people who ask me about getting into webcomic-making. Maybe they can help you jump into the fray with a little less fear.

1) Make Your First Chapter a Pilot Episode

You will be told by webcomic veterans to start with a short, simple comic idea first - which is wise - but if all you can think about is your big magnum opus, then you might as well hop in, right? Otherwise you'll just be glancing back at the other cooler project forever.

But if you can't start with a small simple story, start on a small, simple part of that larger story. Your first chapter should be a snapshot of the main conflict - show us a simple scene with few characters, ease us in slowly, keep things clear and focus on emotion/impact/clarity. Get the audience to care by offering something easily digested, but full of promise.

Once you're done with that 'pilot' chapter, and you're feeling more comfortable with the whole comic process, you can open the gates and show us the larger world. At that point, you'll be way more ready.

2) Simplify Your Art Style For Your Own Sanity

Always try to make your webcomic's art style as simple as possible - the standard rule is to use only 75% of your artistic skill for every comic page you make. Otherwise you will burn out quickly and terribly.

But you also need to be PROUD of your art style. If you're really feeling itchy, add a couple bells and whistles to your style so you can look at the finished page and say "Yeah, looks cool." You'll find the right balance the more you draw.

Also, don't be afraid to change your art style as you go along. Ultimate consistency is often impossible in webcomics anyway - so embrace your desire to try new things, streamline your work, whatever you feel needs to happen to be happiest. Sometimes the coolest part of reading a webcomic is noticing that style change - so don't hesitate to embrace it!

3) Resist the Reboot! RESIST!

The curse/blessing of drawing the same things over and over is that you'll inevitably get better at drawing those things. The trouble comes when you look back at old stuff and start thinking "Damn, I could draw that way better now."

You must recognize that this feeling never goes away. Not after a hundred pages. Not after three hundred. Not after a thousand.

I think everyone should be allowed one soft reboot for their first webcomic. Redraw some panels that bother you. Change up some dialogue if it doesn't make sense with your new story ideas. Do maintenance, basically. One of the beauties of webcomics is that they can be easily edited, without reprinting a whole book or remaking a whole game.

But if the ultimate purpose of a webcomic is to tell a story, then constant reboots will just be retelling the same story - slightly better each time, but the same at its core. We've heard it before. Most audiences would rather you save your strength and just keep going, rather than circling back year after year and going "Wait wait wait! I'll do it better this time."

Reboot early, not often, and only when you absolutely must! You're a storyteller, and you're constantly getting better at telling your story. Don't be ashamed of it - look back how much ground you've covered, and keep walking!

---

That's a good start. Happy webcomicking - don't be afraid to jump in, but be prepared to learn a lot very quickly. And if this advice doesn't work for you or adhere to how you did it, that's absolutely fine - webcomics are diverse by nature, and so are their creation processes. Feel out what works best for you, and good luck!

[tibbycaps]

Do you know have any tips on how to draw a comic? As in simple style and easy to draw and consistent in redraw? I love your style and I can't help but wonder how you got here and if you could help. Thank you

okay sorry i left this in the inbox for a bit because. where to start lol! there's a lot of thought that can go into making comics i think. but i believe you're specifically asking about having a consistent art style and being able to draw the same character a lot over and over again, so i'll try to focus on that

i think a lot of consistency is just playing around with character designs and getting something you feel comfortable with. ill use grian as a good example because it took me a while to come up with a grian design that i liked. once i liked it, i was able to draw my grian a lot & very consistently. every time you draw a character, even if it's a little doodle, you gain that muscle memory for ur lines a little better, so you should doodle always as much as you can and never be afraid to try something new and experiment with your style

the pipeline

i think a good way to establish a character design that you really like to draw & can familiarize yourself with is by defining some key features about them. like in this image for example, my older grian designs don't really have anything about them that stands out to me. he wasn't rlly that fun to draw. but nowadays i think i have a distinct hairstyle & expression & glasses shape i give him, which are fun to draw. even if it's a tiny doodle with like, 15 strokes, you can still identify it as my grian design i think

something that i noticed (i didn't consciously do this but it just sort of happened as i was trying to make them all look different from one another) is that i assign different shapes to grian, cub and scar. these guys are good examples because 1. they're the three characters in my hotguy comics part and 2. they're the three guys i draw the most often

grian i tend to go for more rounded shapes, cub more squares/rectangles, and scar is more pointy and triangular. little things like this can help them stand out from one another and makes them fun to draw in my opinion. when i draw grian's hair i always have the hair come to a rounded point and is more neat/tidy. when i draw scar the hair is more spiky and wild. cub is sort of in the middle where his hair is more pointy, but is kept neat, which gives it those straight lines and right angles

TL;DR how i draw characters easily and consistently is make key features & shapes that make them fun to both draw & look at. and then draw them a lot

i hope that makes any sense, i like yapping about character design so hope you don't mind the long response lol ^_^

[ohcorny]

hey corny. so i always see people recommending to outline their story before starting it, but could you talk a little bit more about what that means? what is an outline and how do you structure one? how long are the ones you write, depending on the project? do you focus on plot beats or feelings? how specific do you get? can u recommend any readings for learning more?

up front i don't have any resources for this, only experience. and outlines feel like one of those things where it's like... there are a million ways to do it and the way that works for me might not work for you. i have a friend who writes out all his ideas on index cards and that, for me, is insane. but he's also a better writer than me so who can say what is right or wrong.

anyway an outline is essentially a sketch but for a story. you go through the whole thing, start to finish, and figure out what goes where and what happens when. the idea is that this is the stage where you work out all the big picture stuff and make sure it all fits together, now, and not after you've drawn twenty pages and suddenly go "wait shit that doesn't work" and have to do it over. it is much easier to delete and rewrite a paragraph than to redraw several pages.

doing anything more, ie including dialogue or feelings, depends entirely on how useful that information is to you at that point in the process and whether the purpose of the outline is for your own guidance, or so somebody else can tell what you're trying to achieve.

this got really long with multiple examples

here is an excerpt from the original outline i used to pitch Hunger's Bite to publishers. this one had to be polished to a professional standard, because somebody else was going to read it and decide whether they wanted to give me thousands of dollars to tell this story. (also several of the details are no longer accurate. for instance it now takes place 9 years earlier lmao)

this paragraph represents the first eight pages of the book. the final book is 264 pages long, and the outline was 12 pages of paragraphs as dense as this one.

it establishes where we are, who's there, and what they're doing. i describe their conversation, but i don't commit to the dialogue. i will occasionally include snippets of literal dialogue, but usually only if it's Important Dialogue, or i just don't want to forget a good idea i had while outlining. it's not expected at this step.

an outline written as part of a pitch to a publisher should tell the whole story, with all the important details, and leave nothing ambiguous. they need to know the tone, shape, and the arcs. no secrets! all the spoilers. outlines for yourself should do this too, but outlines for others need to be as clear about your vision as possible. again, an outline like this exists for the purpose of getting you paid thousands of dollars. you should write it like that.

in comparison, here's an excerpt from the outline i wrote for revisions to my WIP prose novel, so i could show it to my agent (who already read the draft) to be like "do these changes sound good?" i'm not selling it to anyone yet, just making a guide so i can have a conversation about it. so it doesn't need to be neat, it just needs to be functional and clear. the first chapter was entirely new stuff. the second bit was just writing down what was already in the chapter that existed.

i have historically been very bad at outlining things when i don't think i "need" to, and only wrote this one after having written like 60k words of the book without any overall plan. i gave what i had to my agent for feedback and then sat down and figured out how i could apply it. it's made the whole revisions process significantly less daunting. now i have a checklist for things i need to do! this one was a paragraph or two for each chapter, with the ones that needed a lot of rewriting given a bit more detail.

lastly, here's a bit of the outline for the first roger crenshaw book. i was the only person who had to see this, and since the story was planned to be very short i didn't have to worry about a whole lot. as long as i knew what was supposed to go where, it would work. honestly it's not a whole lot different from the previous example.

this one was like five paragraphs and it did the job, and this story was like 15k words. you only need as much or as little as will actually help you on the page.

basically if you take nothing else from this, it's that there are multiple ways to write an outline, that it does not need to be perfect if you're doing it for yourself, and that it only needs what you think is important (unless it is for other people. then it should have everything). and also it's a good idea to do it earlier in the project than after you've written 60k words or drawn--jesus christ i got up to 12 chapters in never satisfied? it's amazing i didn't quit sooner

[anticmiscellaney]

I absolutely adore your work! What's your process been like for writing NewOldRare and developing Neil and Louis? Your art and character writing feel so genuine and realistic to me, so I'm really curious how you go about it!

Thank you! I've always been obsessed with character-driven stories and interaction, so I guess this is the result of years of practice and observation, and dismantling stories that do and don't work to see why.

Unfortunately, there isn't a clear way to explain it. It's one of those "you know when you get it right" things, requiring an eye developed over a long time. I will redraw things if I don't feel like I've captured the nuance I wanted to, and a few months later I'll look at it and see where I could have done better. Same with writing. I'm obsessed with pacing and page design, I had a moment of "that's how I think about it too" when Will Eisner described comic panels like music.

The technical approach is I make notes about stories I want to write, then I expand that into outlines, then scripts, then thumbnails, then I draw the comics and colour them and finalise the dialogue. At every stage I'm asking myself if it feels right, if I'm getting across what I want to. That's not to say there aren't surprises and things don't develop organically, but every stage is an attempt to solve as many problems as I can before the next stage. My thumbnails are quite detailed because it makes pencils easier, and I spend a while on them.

I have total aphantasia so I am operating off feeling rather than any mental images. I have no idea how it works and no idea why I pursue this when I'm missing what many visual artists describe as a crucial component. I just do it and I have better things to do (art) than wonder about something I can't change. I don't think it's made me a better or worse artist, though I think it has given me different ways of approaching/developing things. But also, literally everything about you makes your work different to everyone else's work.

You need to care. If your character is into music, listen to that music. If they have an old car that keeps breaking down, read up on common problems for that model. If they work as a film projectionist, watch a training film about using the machine. The characters care about things, have things in their lives that matter, have skills and interests and challenges. If I don't care enough to understand them, why should anyone reading it care, and also why am I writing it if I don't care?

So I do, and in caring I understand them better. This helps me develop characters/story but it also gives me so much more to write/draw. Understanding how things work and how they are done from a physical standpoint makes writing/drawing them easier too. The more you put into your head, the more you can get out later. I'll do way less for a 12 page short than for a 300 page graphic novel, obviously. Pick your battles, a little can go a long way.

They tell artists to collect visual references - solid advice - but you should collect substance too. If you pay attention, you will hear and see things you could never in a million years make up.

I find online socialising difficult, so I go out regularly and talk to people, or just hang around and observe. Chatting with strangers mostly involves listening to them. No one in gay spaces is interested in flirting with me (I'm rather homely and queer men assume I'm straight) but I think an audience is just as appealing sometimes, and maybe even harder to find. You'd be amazed what people will tell you if you're genuinely interested and listening. I once spent forty minutes at a sci-fi con talking to a guy who'd recently gotten into fisting. While I have zero personal desire to partake in that activity (and he had no interest in being fisted by me), I'm engaged, I'm invested, I'm asking questions, spare no detail.

I collect behavior and movement and the ways people interact too. Reading stories on reddit or whatever is one thing, but the words might not be as interesting as the way they're standing, the way their hands move, the way they respond. A guy in a bar once literally humped my leg like a dog because he felt I wasn't paying enough attention to him. I would never think of that as a response to that situation, but he did, and he followed through. Fortunately my friend had just tried to drunkenly sit down and missed the chair, otherwise I would never hear the end of it.

I see the leghumper around sometimes, he's got a boyfriend and avoids making eye contact with me, thank god.

[quibbs126]

So today I just drew a whole page of my old character Vanilla Powder Cookie

I was on the page with Snow Fungus, and one of the characters there was Vanilla Powder, with her design seen in the top left there. I was looking at it, and I was like “I’m not sure it makes her look like a proper small child”, and since I’ve been trying to figure out how to make a character look distinctly like a child, I decided to redraw her on a new page just for her

And surprisingly, for once I actually finished one of these

So now I feel like listing some things about her, some of which isn’t exactly new, but I still feel like reiterating

So as you can tell, she’s Pure Vanilla’s daughter, one that he had before he got his Soul Jam and his kingdom was founded. She was a baby or toddler when it was founded, so she spent almost her entire life as the Vanillian princess. In addition, she’s the direct ancestor of the Custard family (though I don’t know what her kid’s name would be). However, she unfortunately is not around during current day, as she was baked up to a thousand years prior to current day, so she crumbled a long time ago. Though she lived a long life and simply died of old age, so things didn’t go that bad for her

Oh, also I feel like I should show the original version of Vanilla Powder, just for posterity

She looks entirely different, I think for the better

The younger version of her is mostly just based on the previous version, with an entirely new outfit. I feel like the outfit looks closer to something a kid would wear, but I’m not sure

Then I decided to finally give her a proper adult redesign, and I think I did quite well, much better than the original

I mostly used this one picture from a development commentary for her outfits

Her three cones were because I wanted to convey her status as the princess in some way. They were originally all next to each other, but I felt like they didn’t look particularly special like that, so I instead but the side two further down on her head. But then they reminded me more of hair clips like what Saiki K has, so now I’ve decided they’re possibly magic things that help her control her magic. And also they come off when she uses it. She probably got them as a teenager

Also her eyes are now brown since it fit better with vanilla extract (aka what I think Pure Vanilla is supposed to be), and also because while she’s the Custard ancestor, she’s from long before them, so she doesn’t have to keep the same blue eye color as them. Also, I’ve now decided that Vanilla Bean, aka my OC that’s Vanilla’s dad, has brown eyes. Though I do wonder if I should have given her blue eyes, to break up all the browns and yellows. That’s what the blue on the page is for

Edit: so I ended up changing her eyes to that blue. It’s not PV’s blue because I didn’t really think his light blue works on her. I think it looks nice

Also in her original design, she was going to have a design that looked ambiguously like she could be a purelily kid, but by this point she’s mostly just based on Pure Vanilla, the hair style’s really the only thing somewhat similar to White Lily

I think that’s about it for her, I hope you like her!

[the-ninjago-historian]

Ninjago Remastered Designs!

THEY'RE DONE! After months of work!!! They are DOOOOOOOOOOONE. WOOOOOOOOOOO! Lol! Welp, these are my Ninjago designs! Basically, this is my take on the Ninja if they were in a 2d animated cartoon! And yes! I will be drawing more characters. Tumblr butchered the quality, so close ups and design notes are below the cut. They're pretty detailed, so I highly recommend checking them out. Feel free to ask questions about the designs! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ - ✒️🐉

When designing these outfits, I tried to take inspiration from the ones in the show. And in terms of art style, drew inspiration from early 2000s cartoons, (Action Adventure ones specifically,) Anime inspired shows, and even a hint of traditional Disney animation. And while I designed them with a 2d cartoon in mind, most of the designs would most likely have to be simplified for them to be used in animation. So let's get started!

Kai: Kai was a pretty fun to work with. I actually didn't plan on giving him a sleeveless outfit. But it happened! And I like it! If you'll notice, the flame pattern on his vest mirrors the pattern on his sister Nya's outfit. I thought that would be a cool detail to include. It was inspired by their March of The Oni outfits. I also made sure to include his scar and bandaid. And gave him reddish brown eyes to signify his elemental power. Him and sister I imagine being Brazilian/Taiwanese. So I hope I captured their ethnicity properly. I'm pretty happy with this design. Especially his hair, which was hard to replicate.

Jay: Jay was a hard one for sure. I wasn't too sure how to vamp up his outfit. So I started by giving him some lightning patterns on his Gi. (At least I think that's what it's called?) And I decided to make it look a little baggy and soft. It just seemed to suit him. I tried something a little more form fitting and didn't look right. Also! A fun detail I included was his half the Yin Yang pendent around his neck! And of course Nya has her half. I imagine him having Irish ancestry, so I gave him pale, freckled skin. And gorgeous curly red hair. (As a fellow red head, I'm very proud.) Overall, I think he turned out pretty adorable. And his face is spot on.

Nya: Nya I pretty much got right on the first try! I just had a really clear vision of her in my head. I gave her a grey outfit with bright, vibrant blue details. The pattern on her Gi is inspired by Koi Scales. And she has her half of the Yin Yang pendent around her neck. I really like this one, because while it is simple, it's beautiful. And I think it reflects her element nicely. The only thing I missed was to give her a symbol like the rest. But overall, I love it! One more thing is that I wanted to give her and Pixal different hair. So when I finally release my Pixal design, you'll see that while they both have ponytails, I gave them different cut and styled ones. Should be neat!

Zane: Zane was the first one of the Ninjas I redesigned! I love how he turned out. I tried to give him a splintered ice effect on his outfit inspired by his Core minifigure and gave him his faithful falcon companion. Falcon has his old greyish purple feathers, but blue icy eyes to match his owner. I also wanted to give Zane flowing sleeves, that would look very majestic waving about in a blizzard wind. He is also incredibly tall. Taller than Cole even! I was inspired by the giant humanoid robots I'd seen in movies. In his cloaking disguise, I imagine him looking German. With blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin. I also like to think Dr Julian was German. (Was this influenced by my German ancestry? Who knows?)

Cole: You would not believe how many times I had to redraw this man's face. Haha! I just could find that sweet spot! That face that perfectly encapsulated his strong, but gentle personality. But I think I did it! His outfit is based on his Oni Trilogy Gi, with orange detailing. And he has his Island ponytail and bandana. I absolutely loved that hair style on him. So I had to use it! And if you'll notice, he has a beautiful tattoo on his right arm, with his symbol in the center. I imagine him being half Maori, from his mother's side. And the tattoo was inspired by Maori tattoos I saw pictures of. I'm not too sure how accurate those images were. But hopefully I hit the mark.

Lloyd: Finally! Our green Ninja Lloyd! His outfit was inspired by two things. Dragons, and his outfit from the Secrets of Forbidden Spinjitsu seasons. I gave him a beautiful golden dragon and cloud pattern on his clothes, a leather arm guard, and shoulder pads. If you look closer, you'll also see he has cat-like dragon eyes which pays homage to his dragon and Oni heritage. I like to think that depending on his emotions, his eyes will go from slits, to big and wide. So they are good indicators for his mood. I also imagine him being Japanese. But his powers give him his classic blond hair and green eyes. I'm very happy with this design. His hair, eyes, and face all look exactly how I see him in my head.

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed these designs and notes! I assure you, you will see more of the them.

Bye! - ✒️🐉

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #19

Riddle's Extremely Specific FOP Problems

Just came from looking at screenshots I'd saved of Dev, like these ones from "A New Dev-elopment":

I don't think I've said this yet, but the funny thing about Dev is that his hair reminds me of how I draw Happy Peppy Gary, who's been one of my main doodle muses since 2016. They both have ginger spikes:

This week I actually redesigned Gary's hair by letting it grow longer and more curly in the back, so I'll keep Dev's short in the back and only spiky in the front.

They have different skin and eye colors, etc., but it is funny that like, 6(?) years ago, I put Gary in a zipper hoodie.

I do a lot of traditional art, and I'm really gonna have to do a sketchpage nailing their designs down so they look different in pencil.

My current Gary design does have a spiral in his hair since I do that for all my witches, and I don't think that'll ever come up for Dev, especially if Dale Dimm really is Dev's ancestor - the one person who's extremely UNlikely to be a witch - so... there's that.

Some old Gary sketches where he IS in his Learnatorium clothes:

I feel like I could redraw any of these poses with Dev, lol. The freckles do a ton of heavy lifting here.

....... I've been writing Ed Leadly and Gary as rivals for YEARS and this is once again adding a cruel layer of irony to my "Ed Leadly as Dev's grandpa" situation.

Every time I see this kid, I see My Boy in him.

They are the same person to me...

The Haunting of Wells House

I like how Marcus keeps calling his daughter Hazelnut. It's cute. I'm glad to see him ready to hunt the "apartment ghost" he's been after since Episode 1.

Hooray for Cosmo and Wanda acting like neighbors!

I feel like they shouldn't be giving a horror movie to a child if they haven't seen it themselves and then walk back to their room, especially since their line of work is about trauma recovery (or at least... helping kids avoid hurt). They should know better than that.

I'm so glad you can see into their apartment from the hall. Literally nothing stops you or hides their magic stuff. You can just do it...

Marcus sniffing the video while fancy dinner music plays is my everything. They're BOTH silly.

I like how Cosmo and Wanda poofed up a TV for the apartment and included cobwebs and spiders on it. I guess that makes sense; they were giving Hazel a horror movie.

Ooh, ghostly lightning spirit of the actress trapped in the video?

Hazel has learned nothing from her last experience of wishing to be part of a TV show. She's 10.

Wait, so... Cosmo and Wanda can hear Hazel's casual wish from across the hall? And poof over?

Uh, maybe we don't tell that to Dev, who just flipped out last episode when Peri didn't show up despite Dev whisper-calling for him when Vicky was putting him to work...

She... Also, I can't believe Marcus left his daughter under a heavy machine for 4 hours.

So far, our only canon fairy death fits the OG series' implied canon that only non-magical items can kill Fairies [i.e. "magic doesn't affect magic" from "Abra-catastrophe"], so I like that.

I don't have much to say. Pepper seems interesting I suppose, and I can probably have her be a friend of Blonda's in 'fic.

I enjoy Jorgen grumpily cleaning up magic messes. That feels right.

... Unclear if Jorgen is keeping a bunch of fairies locked in the basement or if he just has a shelf full of similar-looking items.

[ryuichirou]

How do you draw Idia’s hair so good?? I struggle with the basic shapes so much!

Sorry for the late reply! Your ask got us excited because Idia’s hair is such a pain to draw, but also such a fun detail, and I’m very happy that you like the way I draw it <3

Katsu suggested to me to record a speedpaint, and uhh, here it is. Please, don’t mind the wonky anatomy and me horsing around with zooming in and out randomly. As you can see, I struggle with Idia’s hair myself and constantly redraw it until I’m satisfied or at least tired enough to say “eh, that’ll do”. In case you’re wondering, it took me ~25-30 minutes to do the hair, and the original video was 59 min long lol I always spend a lot of time moving, reshaping and redrawing details when I draw Idia…

I’ll also list some tips and thoughts about it based on the way I draw it…

The shape of Idia’s hair is not at all consistent. Even in Toboso’s art it looks slightly different sometimes, which makes sense, because Idia has magical fire hair and technically you could do whatever you want with it.

But some rules tend to apply each time. For example, even though Idia’s hair is long and seems naturally “heavy” because of it, the individual strands tend to be turned upwards, like fire would. Not every single one, but the shorter ones and the ones closer to Idia’s head tend to do so. 

It’s wavy, but not too wavy. If the hair starts looking too “soft”, add sharp edges, random strands sticking out, rough shapes, etc.

Oh, and it’s important to remember that it floats. This means, it doesn’t just go straight down, it does this weird “S” shape. It’s also hella long, I always forget just how long Idia’s hair is. If the magic fire logic didn’t apply to it, it would reach the ground easily. The volume of his hair is much bigger than I tend to remember too: it's quite thick and luscious lol So please give him lots of hair!

Tiny little flames + “holes” in the main ehh body of hair (wow there must be a way to phrase it better) make everything look good and more believable. Have fun with it. You might’ve noticed, I draw and redraw and move them around a lot in my speedpaint.

Obviously, I am no expert, and every artist I know draws Idia’s hair a little bit differently. The speedpaint doesn’t show it, but I always have some of Toboso’s artworks of Idia open when I draw him, just to make sure his design is not too off. I would definitely recommend looking at refs while drawing Idia (or anyone), and maybe even trying to redraw the hair from Toboso’s artworks once or twice as a study, it’ll probably make it easier to understand how Idia’s hair works.

You haven’t asked about the colouring, but I love colouring Idia’s hair, so I’ll talk about it a little. Colouring Idia’s hair is simultaneously the most fun and the most tedious part of drawing him lol 15 minutes of my hour long video is just me filling Idia’s hair with the base blue colour with a lasso (I refuse to use a bucket tool…)

But once you’re done with the base, this is where the fun begins. Because at this stage you can be pretty rough, just add in darker and deeper blues near the middle/core(?) of the hair mass. It doesn’t have to be very even or pretty, add some smaller dark spots; we personally really love it when Idia has this round little blob on his bangs. In the video you can see that I added it later on because I forgot about it lol

After the dark part is done, erase the ends of it a little bit with a soft brush. Not too much, we should still be able to see the shapes.

Then, on a separate layer set on overlay mode, with the same soft brush add some additional brighter spots, to make the hair look glowy. I used the same light blue as the base colour, and the overlay gives it a pretty hue.

And finally, add some white highlights at the ends of the strands. This is the stage when everything stops looking wrong and weird and starts looking like Idia, at least to me.

Phew, I think this is everything I wanted to say… I hope it was at least somewhat helpful.

Sorry for the long post, I just love talking about the drawing process. And about Idia too!

Once again, thank you for your kind words; I’m very happy that you like my art.

Have a good day!

[bosskie]

Deal

Man, how to start explaining this oddness... Welp, this was that one drawing idea I have kept to myself to this day, the one I mentioned revealing if I don't redraw it this year since the original is an unfinished drawing I haven't really shown but just Molluck. So, yeah, here it is, after about 3 years!

This is a reference to another video game's ad where the enemies much work together against a common enemy. If you could figure out the game already, I give ya ten points! And if you didn't, well, it's alright. The game is 'Crash Twinsanity'; just one game I love and especially its soundtrack (it's a capella)! So yeah, there was just speculations of how the story would continue after SoulStorm and one of them was that Molluck and Abe would work together againts the Magog Cartel. So, that's where this idea came from. I kinda wish that this was the case since it might be the only way how Molluck would achieve a good ending.

I was originally going to make this as a Mother's Day thing, as a bad joke, but welp, I did let it be... Molluck just kinda has to destroy his mother in order to save himself, so he could use Abe's help to do it and a part of that deal, he could help Abe to, well, at least see his mother. But well, cannot really make any promises from Molluck's part since he is known to be a back-stabber... (It's how he achieved his position.) So, he could just use Abe but maybe something would evoke inside him that would him genuinely let Abe be, so he wouldn't revenge the disaster Abe did to him... Or he thinks that 'revenge is a dish best served cold', like that one saying goes... So yeah, cannot know about Molluck. But I hope that he is able to work with Abe, even after getting himself saved.

Oh, and yeah, in that ad, that deal is pictured as a marriage, so that's why they got such outfits. I must say that Molluck looks very handsome in that suit! Abe's suit is just a white loincloth and a necklace-robe-something thing with OWI's logo. And yes, he is holding a bouquet. I originally did Lady Margaret to look like the original Mudokon Pop but I changed it to, well, make this less violent. I wonder if it should be called Queen Pop or Pop Queen... I'm not sure of how to draw Abe's mother, Sam, since her head is kinda varied, just like Lady Margaret's, since there ain't 'official version' out there, just these concepts... But I tried my best. I also feel like Abe might be a bit too big here but well, this is what you get when you draw on a paper; it's difficult to edit stuff, if not impossible, and you might realize things when it's too late...

I'm not sure if I should show the original WIP since it's quite unfinished and looks kinda bad but well, some improvement I guess:

I still like the way Molluck looks here, though I did fix the flaws I saw to this new sketch I did. Abe instead has much more flaws, like too human-like anatomy, so yeah, more stuff to fix... But you can probably see better the outfit design I did for Abe here. And yeah, Sam looks different here, mainly because I feel like I understood better how her head 'works'... Lady Margaret looking fine on a stick there but yeah, felt like doing the later version of the Pops to the new sketch...

Man, I'm not really sure about how to explain the things I have been thinking about Molluck recently... I just feel like it only fascinates me, all the possible dark stuff he has done. It just makes me feel interested, somehow amused too since my humour can be quite dark and twisted... It's really like one of the main reasons why I love Oddworld, all that dark stuff! Like, I have probably said this earlier, but for example, that one Lady Margaret's lung transplant concept art just makes me laugh like every time, the one where Munch is basically merged into her body. I also recently learned more about the possible dark arts Glukkons still practice, like forecasting stocks using Mudokon organs... I already got some 'bad ideas' to make it further since 'a liver' is in Finnish 'maksa' and it can also be a conjugated from a verb 'maksaa'. So, 'maksa' can mean 'Pay!' or 'maksaa' is like something costs something or someone pays something. So yeah, such a great organ for this stuff! I feel like my humour is probably one big reason why I'm kinda siding with the Gluks... It's not the same that I supported this stuff, I just enjoy stuff like this.

I also did read the newspapers from the worst ending of SoulStorm again and noticed more stuff. It's not always easy to say what is actually true there but mainly it is. There was just said that Molluck blamed declining resources in wildlife supply on his ongoing diminishing returns but the newspaper said that it wasn't true. I believe that it's true what Molluck said, that those hunted animal populations were getting thin and that's why he did that Mudokon Pops solution; just gotta get that meat from somewhere! It's interesting though how in games, we have only seen how the animals at RuptureFarms are brought from the wilds but in that movie concept, there do are (also) farm animals, like those cow-like creatures. I must say that if Molluck only uses hunted animals, his business model has indeed been quite unsustainable and I don't wonder why he got that downfall and it would actually have been inevitable, so Abe only made it quicker. Though, Molluck was rewarded with that golden medal he wears, that tie thing, so it makes me think that he must have had some other practices too or are Glukkons just into unsustainable things... If so, man, they are slowly killing themselves too. I just believe that Glukkons could practice sustainable capitalism, it would be much more wiser, and if I was with Molluck, I would do my best to get him into this kind of business model, also to save his ass... Well, he did still try to create other products too but welp, they failed... I would still try to help him to save his business.

I have also wondered more about Molluck's actual behaviour, like how bad anger issues he has in reality... It still makes me laugh when I read that 'murderous Molluck' stuff and how awful he was from those newspapers, being said to be 'a psycho'. I just don't personally see him being this awful and I bet that this stuff in exaggerated but has some truth in it. Like, I bet that when Molluck is truly angry, well, he kills. We can see that in SoulStorm, no matter which ending it is, Molluck kills, by himself or via the Sligs. So yeah, do not get on the bad side of him... I'm not really justifying his actions but the world Molluck lives in is brutal and if he fails, he is wiped out, so he must do everything to really survive and retire one day. I just feel like he has needed to harden his heart for this reason. It's just that I feel like I understand Molluck, like why he even ended up killing his Chauffeur. I also just truly love him, so it feels like no matter what is revealed related to him, I'll still love him. I just believe that there somewhere, quite deep inside of him, he still has a heart and is able to love (not just himself, luxuries, his mother, and so on...).

Yeah, dunno what else to say... Just sharing my ideas, thoughts and love for Molluck once more. Frankly, while drawing that new sketch, I still just felt like I cannot really draw well and felt depressed... But I try to just focus on what I draw, not how I drew something since I just feel like I got so much to learn to even make my stuff look good... I just feel like my stuff hasn't good quality... Well, all I can do for that is just keep drawing or just quit. I mainly just post sketches anyway, so they ain't even fully rendered and polished. It's been long since I actually finished a proper drawing... Sketching is just better since I got too many ideas to fart out...

[murdleandmarot]

Hi!! Gonna ask this to everyone I can think of, do you have any AUs you like/made up for cats? Or for bluebelle?

HI HELLO‼️ sorry for the delay in answering 😭

It’s hard for me personally to come up with AUs for Cats, (mostly because of the cognitive dissonance with the names. It’s so difficult to get past the names), so I personally only have a couple. Firstly, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare.

I saw the show live and I just felt that the whimsy of it really matched cats, and I have all of the roles planned out, I think it would be very interesting and fun to write out :). I don’t want to go into too much detail here, (I really don’t want to make this post a thousand years long 😭), but if you’re interesting, just shoot me an ask and I’ll be happy to rant about it, I love Shakespeare :D

I have another au that I unfortunately can’t reveal right now, as it’s something I’m currently working on, but I promise it’ll be out soon :D

(it’s completely unserious btw and entirely for silly goofy indulgent reasons-I’m not trying to be dramatic about it but it’s just. Very special to me :)

OH‼️ there was a Bluebelle au I had, based on the movie Barbe Bleue (2009)

It’s a French movie about Bluebeard and it’s one of my favorites, it’s very vaguely historical, very gloomy with some REALLY fun scenes and ideas.

I’m more than a little obsessed with it, and at some point I REALLY want to do something with it, maybe a redraw of a still with Bluebelle, but who knows :)

Of course, other people’s au’s are the coolest in the entire world.

@/cillyscribbles has been driving me CRAZY with her human au, (it’s mostly about the Deut bros, and it is insanely good. Hasn’t left my mind since she told me all about it. Cilly when I get you Cilly)

@/margo-mania’s celestial au is SO rad, the concepts are gorgeous, and honestly could be made into a really really rad non-replica, especially with the potential of cool stage lighting, or poses (I’m thinking specifically of the eclipse (also I need Celestial!Victoria to marry me immediately))

@/pinkieclown’s doll(? Toy?) au is SO CUTE OMG. The character designs are so adorable. I want the newest design, munkustrap, as a plushie SO BAD.

Honestly, ALW should just give all of us collectively a billion dollars so we can create as many non-replicas as we want.

(Honorable mention to @/diorlusional’s apartment au, it’s my darling forever and ever)

[moony-2001]

Lore Olympus ch. 257-262 critique pt. 1

This one is gonna be split into 2 parts. I'm trying not to ramble on too much but I figure it'll be better if this bad boy is just split up. After that, I may or may not do more chapter critiques. I don’t want my content to *just* be chapter critiques

Ch. 257

I honestly don't remember having a lot to say about the beginning of this chapter. It was very meh. It basically just reconfirms what we already knew about the state of the mortal realm. I did want to discuss a few "stand-out" scenes when we flip back to the meeting room.

The bitter MIL trope

When we cut to Demeter trying to verbalize what's happening in the mortal realm, something she said really pissed me off:

Let me be clear. I'm not mad about what she said. I mean, I am, but I'm more mad at the fact that Rachel made her say this and the overuse of the whole "Demeter is a petty, bitter in-law that can't handle the fact that her daughter has her own life" trope.

Literally what problems is she creating from this plague?? First of all, this is a problem Persephone started, not Demeter, so Demeter confirming that the mortal realm is dying is not "creating problems". Inadvertently, the other gods back her up on this by expressing concern about the fact that what will happen to other non-immortal beings like the nymphs and what will happen if it spreads to the other realms.

I don't know if this is a callback to the original hymn, and if it is, it's in really fucking poor taste. In the original hymn, Demeter did not cause the winter "out of spite". She did it because she was fucking pissed that not only was her daughter taken away from her, but it was done so behind her back and without her consent. Also, can we stop with the "bitter MIL" trope, especially involving Demeter? I know MILs in real life can be a nightmare. Trust me, I know. But I don't think fiercely loving your daughter and not wanting her to be traded away like she's a set of golf clubs constitutes being a bitter mother-in-law.

Apollo

Yeaaaah Apollo is right, I'll give him that. Persephone is, once again, a big part of the problem. I know the gods aren't perfect. No one is perfect. But for some reason, a lot of the plot of this story seems to center around Persephone making these big-ass messes, blaming everyone but herself, and then doing fuck-all to actually fix the situation. Also, I find it hilarious that Hades is so offended by the notion that Apollo would accuse him of trying to expand his kingdom when his entire realm was built by slave labor. When has a slave master ever complained about having more slaves prisoners with jobs? Don't answer, that question is purely rhetorical.

Eris, my beloved

Ugh, the part with Eris is just *chef's kiss*. Especially when she transforms into Artemis??? I just??

I want to redraw the scene when I have time because I feel like it could be a lot more spooky-looking than it is now.

Hera

The rest of the chapter is kinda meh. Hated Hera and Apollo's interaction. Also, I'm pretty sure Rachel spelled "wife" wrong. A "waif" is a homeless person, particularly a child. Much hate to Apollo for what he said to Hera, even though Hera also low-key sucks. And yeaaaah. That's it.

Ch. 258

The handling of Hera and Kronos

Chapter 258 picks up pretty much where we left off with Hera. I gotta say I actually really liked this chapter. I know my whole page now is pretty much constantly shitting on the entirety of LO, but I gotta give major props to Rachel for how she handled 258. Was the chapter leading up to and including the interaction between Hera and Kronos perfect? No. But IMO it was still really good.

The reason why I say this is because not long before this chapter was posted, I and a lot of other anti-LO creators noticed there was a spike in comments both under Rachel's insta and in the comic's comment section romanticizing the relationship between Hera and Kronos. It was disgusting. Never should someone ever romanticize the relationship between a victim/survivor and their abuser. In this chapter, Rachel seemingly put her foot down about this and basically said "This is not okay". Now, she never outright said that anywhere that I saw, but that's the vibes I was picking up. Standing up to your abuser is really hard to do. And I'm proud of Hera (even though she's not real lol).

The one thing I did not like about this portion of the chapter was Hera and Hestia's interaction.

Really? That's all you have to say to your sister that has been going through a hell of a time? Yeah, okay, Hestia.

The ritual

Now that I've fulfilled my once-a-month praise quota for LO, time to get back to the shitting.

Besides the ugly ass art, I introduce a new challenge. The Persephone tries not to make everything about herself challenge: impossible. I see she's picking up a few tricks from Hades in the narcissist department. I've noticed, especially recently, that H&P has a particularly nasty habit of diminishing others' feelings or certain situations to make it all about themselves. I know I mentioned this in my last critique but I feel the need to bring it up again, especially in these last bits of this chapter.

Case in point A is that Hades and Persephone get so wrapped up in each other that they don't even notice that Hecate is, for lack of better terms, wigging out.

Obviously, she turns out fine, but seriously? You didn't even pay attention to her until Morpheus pointed out the fact that something was clearly wrong.

*unholy screaming* pt. 1

So you guys know how I felt about the whole nightie situation with Persephone. Well, you're in luck because the rage I feel for the last part of this chapter makes that pale in comparison.

This is case in point B of Hades and Persephone making everything about themselves.

When I first saw this I was kinda like "Huh???" And then the chapter ended??? I had to wait a whole ass week to find out but my fuckery senses were tingling.

Ch. 259

*unholy screaming* pt. 2

Boy oh boy were my fuckery senses right.

Literally, who fucking cares? This isn't about you!! You aren't the victims in this. They both started all this and they need to be willing to do whatever it takes to fix it. Persephone, to her credit, at least acknowledges that in a much nicer way. But yet again, HADES MAKES IT ABOUT HIMSELF.

"...it will come at a cost to us... we have to basically choose between us and everyone else." Uh. YEAH??? Jfc, stop being a whiney piss baby, and get your shit together! Choosing between yourselves and everyone else? Is that even a question? If you both have to sacrifice yourselves to make this better, tough titties.

The pool scene

This scene is what I was talking about when I mentioned Persephone's speech. But I still can't enjoy it. Why, I hear you ask? I don't know, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY'RE HAVING SEX WHILE THE WORLD IS BURNING DOWN AROUND THEM. Yeah, sure they deserve to have their lovey-dovey moments (I guess. Undeservedly so IMO). But how about you wait to pork until you've saved the world from perilous doom???

Also maybe I'm reading into this waaaaay too much, but tell me why I feel like Persephone just had sex with Hades to talk him off a wall. To me, it almost felt equivalent to "I'm going to kms if you leave me" or some other kind of weird hostage situation where now Persephone has to make HIM feel better even though this is about HER and how SHE fucked up. Idk.

Final notes

Well, that wraps up part 1. I know I've been gone for way longer than I said I was going to be and for that I'm sorry. Overall, pretty yikes but I liked 258 the best.

[skyland2703]

So what are we reading today? oh yes.

They're broadcasting the trial live to the ends of the galaxy. Gotta love that. This entire... concept where the entire galaxy is inter-connected and <333 and the fact that astronema has committed crimes agaisnt everyone dfhgbnfbds

One of my favorite panels EVER, i think. Should I do a redraw of this?? yes or yes?? also how is it that ive gotten an exact same haircut as her....

THEY!!!! YOUR HONOR!!!!!

i kinda wanna know who the prosecutor is and who the judges are. Are all monsters tried by this court? Would dark spectre? Or is this much like our own real legal systems where only the people like astronema, who reformed, and confessed because of conscience, are taken up for trial while the real actual murderers walk free because their crimes were either never uncovered or they have friends in high places.... :)

Another side theory, but what if, like Dekaranger, the SPD judgement scanners are a link into this court that are created later to cover the flaws of the system that I mentioned, so the criminals could be tried without having to wait for so long and/or have the risk of escape?

AND THEY DIDN'T NOTIFY ANDROS AND THE OTHERS THAT THEY WERE TAKING ASTRONEMA FOR TRIAL. i am very suspicious of this entire judicial system, yes.

Yes so now I’m reaaally curious about who the prosecutor is...

Also Leo's actor is a lawyer, i refuse to believe there is a profession more suited for this guy because OMG. CAN YOU SEE DEFENCE LAWYER!LEO???? i love him your honor~

Even commander Cruger's here wtf

This is the biggest touché I've ever seen. Legal dramas beloved

I THINK this was the smartest way to go with it. WE know that Astronema was guilty, we also know that Karone is reformed. But the Court isn't willing to believe that. It is ACTUALLY a bunch of aliens who have convinced themselves and everyone else that yes astronema is guilty. They did not inform her family/friends that they were taking her, they did NOT give her a defence lawyer, and in everyone's mind, she already IS guilty. So this trial is actually just a formality. If Andros hadn't played this little game, Karone was never walking away free. NOTHING Leo/Maya/Andros would've said in their testimony would've convinced them otherwise because they were vieing this through their own twisted kaleidoscope.

So yeah, this was really smart on Andros's part, because 1) he doesn't want to lose his sister, and 2) astronema and karone being "different people" was a point that was so hard to prove against an already biased judge and jury! SO making a physical replica of Astronema, so to prove that she was indeed different from Karone, as they had been pleading in court all this while was the only way to go about it!

Anyway SIBLING ANGSTTTTT

And i love how karone still feels guilty, because she knows she's done it all. She knows what all was going on inside her head and she HERSELF believes herself guilty. *PEAK ANGST*

Also i really like this panel <3

So yeah, basically my take is that Karone felt guilty, and I think this is what drives her to go for that self-redemption arc that Psycho-path had for her. I THINK this can be the trigger. Also i love ALLL THE ANDROS-KARONE ANGSTTTTTT like these two siblings (only in the comics) are the ones who are constantly at each other's throats, EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE JUST LOOKING OUT FOR EACH OTHER. They're handled really well and I can actually SEE the emotions they have for each other. It's better than in the show, tbh. I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOR.

And in closing, have a collection of 1) KARONE ANGSTY BBGIRL

Babygirl in guilt <3 (she was going to plead guilty. i know. you know. shhh)

And 2) MAYA/KARONE MOMENTS BELOVED

*hug her hug her plzzz hug herrrr*

[sweetshelluvaau]

I think what frustrates me that most about Hellvua Boss is that Viviziepop wants this show to be seen as deep and meaningful, diving into the nitty gritty of why these characters are the way they are and that's great and dandy and all but you can't just do that and then next episode act like nothing happen, reverting back to the status quo.

It's all surface level and means nothing by the end of the day. If you want your characters to be interesting and perhaps even sympatric (having sympathy doesn't mean the character has to be likeable btw and vice versa): Have them grow and learn from there actions. It's not okay for Blitzo, Stolas, Loona or whoever to say 'I was wrong' or 'I'm sorry' only for them to continue to do the same shit again and again.

When Blitzo says sorry to Moxxie about how much of a dick he could be in Truth Seekers, have him ACT like he means it and CHANGE (or at least tries being no one changes fully over night.)

(ps Blitzo being (or any character really) an asshole isn't presay a problem more how his asshole-ness itself is handled and written. I happen to like Blitzo btw, or at least the idea of him as a character but I digress.)

When Stolas says sorry to Octavia for ignoring her and not thinking how his actions hurt her (and being a selfish horny idiot in general and just how he treats...Ya know I'm gonna save that rant for another day when I get to his rewrite. 'kindhearted' my ass.), have him realize that 'hey, I'm being a bad dad' and have him try his hardest to be better. (Heck, maybe even have Octavia not being so forgiving because boy howdy do you give your dad waaay too much lean way. I kinda hope one of the later epsiodes links happens to be true and should have happened way earlier. Sorry I can't feel bad for you Stolas.)

Show that your characters are attempting to better themselves.

Show that actions have consequences and sometimes they aren't always easily fixable, if not ever.

Show us why we should care about your characters.

Anyways I originally wanted to wait til I got my redraws done before posting the rewrites but being how it'll likely be a while for me to draw them all out I may just start posting my rewrites now if anyone is still interested. I did do a redesign sketch of Millie that's on one of my roleplay blogs but I'm going to be changing a few things in the final desgin...

[chiricat]

another ramble about art again so i’m hiding it all under a ‘keep reading’ thingy so as to not clog ur feeds :]

aka thoughts about imposter syndrome, fanart, and what it means to draw stuff loosely disguised as a ‘ramble’. maybe a bit of akito almost-kinnie-isms (and probably ena) in there too because why not. also sorry this gets a lot less coherent as it goes on (i lost my train of thought near the end. it’ll come back someday)

i want to keep getting better. i want to keep growing and improving, so that i can convey the ideas in my head to others. i’m afraid to stagnate for too long, because what if it means i’ve hit my limit? what if i’ll never get better than i am right now? an irrational thought, really, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. hell, i felt like i hadn’t improved all that much from a year ago, when i tried to redraw a few of my older posts.

part of this stems from the question ‘how do people see my art? what kind of artist am i to them?’ which comes from when i got into fanart and fandom spaces, a long time ago. i would categorize the people i looked up to, my idols, my role models. there was the one that made comics that felt like home with your friends, and there was the one that made pieces that felt like i was sitting in a café in the middle of a busy city, and there was the one that made renders that felt like i was looking at liquid gold. i was fascinated by the effects of all these different artstyles, and decided that i wanted to do the same. i wanted to make art that made people feel at home, like a fic that you keep coming back to, or art that conveyed how i felt well enough that others felt the same way, or could understand it at the very least. 

naturally, as i continued to draw and admire these artists from afar, i wondered why exactly their art appealed to me. at first, the answer was simple: i like looking at it. but that wasn’t good enough - what about the things i didn’t really care to look at, then? what made this piece any different?

so i tried to understand, why i liked something, or why others liked something. after studying art for a little (yay classes) i understood more, i understood why those artists made the choices they did. for one, it was their powerful composition, and how they wanted to pull the viewer in with the characters. for another, it was their color palettes, which were always balanced yet strong and guaranteed to catch your eye because of it. other times, it would be the lighting, angled to present the characters in such a way that it made you feel like you were there too, or linework that made you feel just how much the artist cherished the characters. there were other, less technical things too, but i was trying to build a foundation before diving into things that were harder to learn.

in short, there was so, so much more to everything than i had realized as a kid.

so i asked myself the same question. why do people like my art? why is my art appealing and worthy of your time? and where did i fit in, if i were to categorize myself? 

these questions got a little worse. incredibly irrational. imposter syndrome was kicking in when i saw that more people were liking my art, especially when i compared it to myself from a year ago. or when my favorite artists were following me back. (it was weird, somewhat. i had always seen them as worlds away from my own space, artists that i had admired from afar and thus never believed that they would turn around and see me.)

‘do people actually like my art? is my art actually worth anyone’s time?’ i wonder. ‘do i deserve these nice comments, or even these likes?’ 

‘am i even getting better at all?’

these are a bit foolish of me to think. it shouldn’t matter, really. as long as i’m enjoying drawing and having a fun time, then why should it matter whether others like it or not? i don’t have to be doing my best, giving it 110% all the time, i’m allowed to make goofy art or self-indulgent art. this is my motto, for the most part. as long as you’re enjoying the craft, then it’s worth it.

but with the goal of improvement, i don’t always want to stay in my comfort zone. i want to keep pushing my limits, even if its just a little at a time, so i can make something impressive, something that really resonates as much as i want it to, as much as certain pieces resonated with me when i was younger. the same way that i kept coming back to certain pieces (and still do), i want to be able to do that too. i don’t want to feel like a kid playing at an adult’s game, like someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing and it shows.

it’s a tricky balance. i’m not sure if i’ll ever truly feel like i’ve ‘finally done it’. i think that most artists are never truly content with their work as a whole, anyways, and that’s okay. that’s something i should be more okay with. i can make art just for fun, and i can also make art with the intent of solely improving or practicing. i can even combine the two, and most of the time, i try to anyways.

(sorry, i lost my train of thought after writing the last few paragraphs... i dunno where i wanted to go with this exactly HHH.

tldr; i’m always stuck between ‘i’m happy making this art even if its bad’ and ‘i need to get better and leave people in awe to feel like i deserve the love and nice comments i receive’.

if you somehow managed to get to the end of this, ty for reading, even if it was a hot dumpster fire LMAO)