#i was like “well i can make a screenshot and mess with the coloring”

[northbndtrain]

Another day like every day.

[docdufresne]

how r you so good at drawing (halo) armor. You’re literally one of the best I’ve ever seen. Tips please if possible? (specifically for the shapes of the armor)

Oh god heLLO; I'm super bad at explaining my process of drawing RvB armor, as it's been multiple years since I've done it up until recently, so I'm super rusty but I will do my best to explain myself!!!

I've never made any sort of tip guide or tutorial, so please bear with me!

USE REFERENCES!!! This can go for renders from the Halo games directly (ArtStation was a great place to start, I'm not sure how things are post AI ""art"" surge, though) but at the very least, screenshot the heCK out of the series from whatever season you want to draw. There are a lot of different angles, and after they started to animate, it made it easier to get references with arms up or splayed out to the sides, or legs bent and hand motions!! Depends on what you're looking for!!

For this Reference, I used a Halo 3 render, as well as the Caboose-isms poster render. There are more clear renders out there, I'm sure!

First step that I take in learning to draw a new set of armor is color coding the sections that I'm going to draw, and then labeling them with points of interest that make me remember the detail later; Like grooves, or a bevel that looks weird or silly. Color coding and labelling the parts made it easier for me to break it down into smaller bits to draw piece by piece, bc let's face it; Armor can be super tedious and daunting, especially if you're just starting out.

Remember It's ALL SHAPES!!! IT'S JUST SHAPES!!!! Break them down into more simple shapes to find what works best for you! Keep it loose in the sketch stage, so you don't get lost in the pesky details

Remember that the armor goes on TOP of a body, and isn't a part of their body! Halo Infinite dOES have prosthetics that are a bit smaller than the armor, which adds depth and flavor to your armor though!

When in doubt, draw it larger than you mean to, and size it down to fit your other pieces!

SIMPLIFY IT!!! TRACE TO LEARN!!!! Really just figure out where the pieces go and put them together like a puzzle! Armor is simply just, hard, and there's no easy way to learn quickly how to do it efficiently and well; It really does take a lot of practice and trying and sketching and watching clips and staring at other's art to maybe notice shortcuts or even details you didn't notice before!!

But the biggest tip that I can give you is just, don't be afraid to make "bad art" don't be afraid to draw "bad armor" !!! It doesn't have to be perfect, the details don't all have to align on model 100% of the time! All of my art, paintings and all, have things that I fudged or missed, or messed up on and didn't notice, but I still have fun painting and drawing because I like making people laugh with my comics and I like having them feel stuff about my paintings!

Sorry if this wasn't what you were looking for, but I hope this helps even just a little bit!!

[survivalove]

Air Temple Island, the Water Tribes & the Real Life Influences that bring them together

I was gonna screenshot a post I saw and add it to my post but I don’t feel like giving that individual attention (and the 300+ notes they got), so I just decided to make my own standalone post debunking this narrative that air temple island is this fully air nomad brothel (yes they said this) with ZERO water tribe motifs which katara is forced to live in until aang passed away.

frankly it just reminded me of how little people in this fandom actually bother to analyze the actual content, instead preferring to write entirely made up scenarios of katara being reduced to an air nomad incubator along with dozens other female acolytes (yes they also said this lmao. also them acting like both male AND female acolytes weren’t living on the whole other side of the island 😭)

when in truth, i’ve come to find a lot of elements of both water tribes as well as traditional inuit elements across air temple island:

1. the paifang

a traditionally chinese element that for some reason is exclusively found in the northern water tribe (why do they have a gate inside a throne room, you ask? ask the white people that made this show). the one on the left is actually one of two aang BUILT, at the main entrance and another at the temple entrance. this is just one example of water tribe design on the island.

2. the bagua mosaic

another structure is the bagua mosaic on the training grounds. bagua is a set of traditional chinese symbols of the cosmology, taoism. the bagua composes of 8 sets of broken or unbroken lines that represent yin and yang. where have we seen yin and yang in the original series? oh yeah, as tui and la of the water tribe! (because atla is a mess of asiatic and indigenous motifs joined together and spread out across each nation, mainly traditionally chinese elements at that.) aang building this right next to the air nomad training grounds is a symbol of the dual bending heritage their children will have.

3. gold and blue accents

now, gold and blue are the main colors of the exterior structures but is also very strong inside the air temple itself. note, the massive air nomad symbol designed fully in blue in the center and the blue banners and rugs throughout the temple. this is no doubt, for me, a visual depiction of both katara and aang’s representative cultures, but of course this is not limited to color only.

4. cloud carvings

now, this is a slight detour since clouds aren’t a significant part of either of their individual cultures (that we know) but i love the kataang monopoly they have on clouds as a couple so i’m talking about it. if you look at these images very closely what do you see? CLOUD CARVINGS!! specifically near the ceiling of the pavilion (left) and the arches and walls of the temple (right) just imagining aang painting and etching these very consistent swirls, like he’ll never be the selfish inconsiderate unromantic loser you people want him to be, but let’s get more into the southern water tribe style interior.

5. interior design

so here is a southern water tribe white lotus outpost vs the air temple island main dining room. first thing, the seat cushions and rug! while we don’t see air nomad eating quarters we do get to see enough SWT customs both in atla and lok, to know this is how they traditionally eat compared to the north (limiting myself on pics cuz mobile).

another thing is the dining table itself. both have what i believe to be built in fire pits (i couldn’t actually tell for the air temple island one cuz of the quality but if you zoom in you can see the lines go in the table plus the hanging kettle on it makes it obvious to me idk). the southern water tribe one however is clear and likely a more traditional version of what aang and katara have.

thirdly, the exposed timber on the ceiling. i actually looked it up and found this is a common element of these two inuit structures: left is an aasiaat peat house and right is an igloolik turf house. all this for me to believe not only did aang build air temple island to be a haven for the TWO of them but also that katara herself had a lot of input on the interior than people care to notice lol.

maybe instead of projecting these loser fantasies of katara being some unwilling air nomad baby making machine so you can feel better about your fantasies of katara living in a red palace with people that tried to wipe her out for a whole century, you all can go study the actual canon you were shown and the real life cultures the franchise takes from.

6. lastly, some of my own headcanons/stuff i want to see in the movie

the bathroom because I LIVE for a white marble tiled bathroom. i just know katara has to have a HUGE tub and they have one of those insane glass showers that can fit like 3 people, with cloud swirls everywhere because aang clearly got it like that

the KITCHEN, i imagine it being timber like the dining room and is probably on the other side behind the built-in shelf (get into the details like hello). in a perfect world, it would be open plan but hey

the bedroom, now we saw it in lok a bit but i wanna see it in the gaang movie too. i’m on pic limit but there’s a lot of artwork and flowers throughout the whole house which i give katara credit for because I can. like the desk, the bookshelf, that fancy looking vase thing? these two clearly have taste like don’t talk to me rn

I also didn’t show the rooms and aang’s study but there’s a lot of blue decor in those places which makes me think katara decorated the whole house, even the acolytes’ hall has blue sitting cushions and columns which i think is such a nice detail.

if you guys have any air temple island headcanons of your own please reply with some i’m feening lol

big shoutout to this user:

atla-annotated (their page is so great and filled with a lot of incredible information if you guys like this sort of stuff)

[ingravinoveritas]

Did you see this picture yet? The first thing I realized was Michael's hand on David's back and their lovely smiles.

Hello! Yes, I did certainly see this group picture that was posted this morning, after every other picture had been posted. This is from Georgia's Insta, so for those who haven't seen the original post, here is a screenshot, along with a close-up of Michael and David, so we can see a little better:

It seems that Georgia's hashtag has been causing some confusion due to her use of an idiomatic expression, so for non-native speakers, the word "tits" has multiple meanings--colloquially, it's another word for breasts, but in British slang, a "tit" also refers to someone who is a fool or an idiot. So Georgia is saying here that she has tits, Anna has tits, and Michael and David are a pair of "tits" (idiots), which gives us the number three.

I did notice and enjoy that there is a "beading" theme to this picture, between David's suit and Anna's dress. I actually very much like her dress and how flattering it is, and it's something I would wear myself, although probably in a different color than white. I also love the way David's jacket sparkles, and there is something about him wearing it while standing next to Michael (who looks one box of bleach away from Aziraphale) that makes it have even more of a "the angel and the Starmaker" vibe to it. Because it's them. You know?

That was a large part of the impression I had of this picture, as it were. Of there being two distinct couples here, but perhaps not the couples you'd assume. It actually reminds me a lot of the picture that the four of them took in Lapland last year, which also looked like two gay couples rather than two straight ones. They all seem to look very comfortable in this arrangement as well, in a way that I felt was somewhat absent from a few of the pictures that were posted yesterday.

To your point, though, I did notice Michael's hand on David, and the warmth that radiated out just from that single touch. His hand is also noticeably low on David's waist, which echoes how we've seen Michael with his arm around David in the past, and is a lovely complement to David's hand being near Michael's neck. Michael's hair is also a bit disheveled compared to the red carpet photos, and I love the idea of it being messed up from a snogging session he and David were having in a coat closet before the girls pulled them out for a pic. Actually possible? Maybe, maybe not. But it's still a delicious thought.

Another thing I noticed is that there is something to the way Michael and David draw the eye in this picture. Georgia and AL are posing/smiling in the same exact way they do in every group picture...although unlike the others, this one wasn't a selfie, and so I wonder if that could be why they seem to be giving off a sense of discomfort to the camera. With Michael and David, the feeling is more one of hesitation. The warmth and crackliness and connection is still there, of course, but it's also almost as if they're holding back, somehow. Which doesn't seem very much like them, at least from what we've all see over the years.

It is a nice picture overall, though, which makes it unfortunate that Georgia's caption sort of takes away from the moment a bit. And given that she's been in the habit of adding these types of cutting comments/tags to a lot of her recent posts, it feels less like "British humor" and more like knowingly taking a dig at Michael and David. She could have just as easily posted the group pic without the hashtag, so at least for me, that's what makes her using it feel so deliberate.

So those are my thoughts on the Oliviers group picture. I am glad that we actually did get one of Michael and David, and to know that they did have the chance to interact at the event. I'd love to hear what other folks think as well, so feel free to add your perspective in the comments. Thanks for writing in! x

[italianpersonwithashippersheart]

Dead Friend Forever - What do we know about Non's brother

From the family pictures I am inclined to believe the brother is the older sibiling.

The younger one wears red in one of the pictures and as @shannankle point out in their colors in DFF post, Non is red.

In the family photo you can see the younger sibiling hiding behind the older one, indicating shiness, much like Non.

The other thing we find out that lends to that is that New doesn't live at home. And his parents send him money. Which makes me think he is in University, which would make him at least 19 three years from the present, which would make him at least 21 in the present timeline.

Other stuff we know (that I don't have screenshot for):

Non despite looking close to his brother in his childhood pictures can't rely on him anymore in the present, we only see Non try to text his boyfriend (❤️ > the red heart aka Phi) and never get a text or try to send a text or call to his brother.

I can guess that would make the brother feel pretty damn guilty.

Non and New's parents fight a lot, there is not a lot of love there, and that is probably why New stopped coming home. Again, guessing.

THAT'S IT!

Obviously everyone is thinking the same thing about the identity of the brother: Tan. Literally the only option within the friend group.

I am conflicted with that theory. Because even though I like it a lot, and there is stuff that does make sense.

Phi feels like the one more in charge, but Tan has more moments where there is an angry expression on his face, when the others talk about Non, and in other places.

Tan is the one that is the most insistant on getting the truth out of the group, getting them to confess, why? I mean why would it matter to get the truth, if he is that angry.

How the fuck did a poor normal uni student manage to fake documents and mess with two schools and the goverment for long enough to finish high school and go to uni again.

Why would a brother wait that long, hanging out with people that could be responsible for your brother dead? Can you even fucking imagine how angry that must have made him.

Why does Phi feel more responsible for Tan's well being if he is younger? Like the inhealer question.

Why does Tan nervous smoke in the wearehouse with the inhealer in hand if he is one of the killers?

Some of the moments where Phi and Tan are talking feel a bit weird if he is the brother.

This one is more doyalist: I know actor ages in thai bl mean less then nothing, but If I am right and the brother is older then did they have to give the part to an actor who is literally only a month older then Barcode??? They are both 19 this is ridiculous. They have actors in the cast that are older then both of them, why would the one who is only a month older play the secret older brother??

Now some of these I have theories for. Like Phi is the one more in charge because New was estranged from his brother, they weren't close, and Phi is a very natural and charismatic leader. It might also be part of the act. To make himself younger.

The fact that he wants to know the truth more might have to do with the dissaperance of Non, if him and the parents were stuck not knowing anything all this time, he might want to get the boys to confess everything just to get the satisfaction.

If Non is dead it might have taken them a bit to actually figure out everything that happened and investigate bit by bit and formulate a plan, that is why it took them 3 years to get revenge.

Tan was nervous because he wasn't sure the plan was going to go well. Phi asks more about his well being even if he is younger, because he is just like that (that is how he was with Non, asking if he was home, if he took the medicine etc.)

But of course the biggest reason for it to be Tan is very simple: If he is not the older brother, then WHO THE FUCK IS HE? He has to be in the plan, he is much to insistant on the wanting the truth, but if he is not the brother then who is he?

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

Clow theory time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the brother is exeternal. Phi has been screaming about the ninth person since the begging I think that was the clue. I think, the brother is the third killer and the ninth person, and I think he is an adult that we have not seen before.

Like say someone who could get a job working for the people that take of the house

So he could learn the way, learn the layout of the forest, learn Uncle Dang habits. So he could know that he takes the scoter up there not the car when he is alone. And he could know where to set up the fucking steel rod that took of his head.

So he could take his time setting up that fucking temple, and learning where the cameras are.

And so he could make sure to be the one to be assign to get up there to get them, so that no one would come to save them, because the killers could not have known that Fluke would cancel the ride, and that seems like a coincidence you would not rely on if you are planning revenge for 3 years!!

[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.

[theelf-art]

How I color manga panels: a tutorial

I'm no expert at doing recolors, I'm simply an artist who's occasionally too lazy to do my own lineart, and uses that of my favorite mangaka's so I can focus on other styles to simply have fun with my colors. I always try and choose panels or pages that are high quality, to avoid too much pixelization. Often I end up sourcing these from scanners or google images.

As far as programs, I use Krita (a free software). This all can be done with the standard brushes and tools that come with the software. But for some of the coloring, I have brushes from brush packs i like to use, as well as a few brushes I have customized myself. The main ones I use are from David Revoy, so if you want a recommendation for a great free brush pack, that's mine.

For this example I'll be using this panel from Chapter 58 of Moriarty the Patriot (I believe this would be Volume 15 of the manga) that I posted earlier here.

I'm not including the step where I crop the image, but I personally chose to remove some of the white borders that are needed for a traditional volume's page borders. Since I'm doing digital art, I don't always include them.

My next step is always to outline and fill the individual base layers. This includes the speech bubbles, each character, any independent props, the panels themselves and the backgrounds. There's no correct way to do this, but personally I use a brush to outline the object, then fill tool to well. Fill it, as well as the rectangle tool for the panels or straight lines I need to do.

For layers, I usually put all of these color base layers in a single group that's set to multiply, and change the opacity of the base panel so that I can fill the blacked out areas with a solid color easily, here you can see I was working with the base panel at 50%, but honestly i just kind of turn it down to whatever I think looks good.

The colors I use for this step are usually brightly saturated rainbow colors so it's easy to tell the different elements apart from each other. So you end up with something that ends up looking rather horrific like this:

From here, I usually create a copy of the base panel to put over the top of the colors. This way I can have transparency for the colors on some of the blacked out parts, but don't loose some of the nuance of the shading entirely. Moriarty the Patriot is a very black heavy cell style, which is the style I find the "panel above, panel below" method works best on. However as I work on the colors, I tend to toggle between having it on or off.

It's about here where I start doing my coloring. Of course this will depend on your coloring style and art habits, however personally, I like to start with the characters. I use those colored layers as the base layer I can clip my coloring layers to.

I will often turn off the layers that I'm not currently using so I don't have to deal with eyestrain, and will change the base layer to something more suitable (often a grey or light tan) so my color theory doesn't get all messed up. The bright colors in previous steps are to make sure they're visually separate. Now they've been established, I don't have to worry about that.

I don't usually label my layers, but for the sake of the tutorial I have to make it clearer which layer grouping is which.

I find in this step because of the multiply layer the colors can be a bit washed out, so I tend to either use much more saturated colors than I usually do, or switch to another layer style like Linear Burn of the overall color group to make the colors pop more. Ultimately though this comes down to personal preference. If your coloring style is very de-saturated, you might not have any problems with it. (I do suggest making your base color white, so the coloring of the base panel isn't off, you'll see in the screenshots above I forgot to when working on Sherlock. Ignore my mistake)

For the parts of the image where it's primarily blacked out (such as Sherlock's hair or coat) I don't bother shading at all, and only do the highlighting, as the black takes care of the darkest tones anyways.

During my coloring, I also add a separate grouping above everything for adding rendering and details above the panels. This includes things like the eye highlights (which I always do in pure #000000 white) and making certain parts of the heavily blacked out areas pop more.

(those refs and paint layer 13 are what I'm using to color pick off of, and keep the shading colors consistent throughout the piece. There's probably a better way to do it, but I just paste them directly into the image and then delete them at the end, paint layer 43 is a color dodge layer, and so has to be outside of the layer grouping to work)

Comparison of the art without:

And with the top details and white highlights:

It's a pretty subtle difference, but I find it's the little things that truly make the piece. Especially with the strands going over the face, they need just a bit more to make them really pop. I also just really like my fancy eyes which is hard to do without the top layer.

Insert several hours of coloring here, and about another hour just trying to figure out what gradient to use for the background, and you end up with the the base colors. From here I usually mess with overlay layers as well to get the colors to all look fancy and nice together without having to do color theory (pro tip /lh).

I forgot to grab screenshots while doing the background, but for the top panel I essentially just used the [deevad 5c screentones] brush and a transparency mask to add a screentone gradient, and totally didn't google "splatter overlay" or something like that and picked something off of google, and added some borders.

Because both the base manga panel and manga panel over the top are both not at full opacity, if there is text in the page or panel (such as this one) I like to copy the just the text part of the panel and add it as full opacity in the "colors" folder to make sure it's legible and matches up the rest of the colors.

And after all that, its basically done. I'll sometimes continue to mess around with certain aspects to make sure I like how it look, but that's essentially it. This is when I add my signature, and then it's queued to post!

[veinsfullofstars]

hey just wondering, how do you draw daroach? i wanna figure him out for myself but dont feel like i get down how he looks well enough. thanks for the help if you have any, if not then thanks for just answering

Thank you for the question! And, yeah, I totally get it - that rat can be a nightmare to draw sometimes, haha. I definitely struggled with him a lot at first (you can kinda tell if you compare my earlier works to my recent ones). I think it’s because so much of him is obscured by his outfit in official art? The way the brim of his hat dips over his face or how his cape likes to defy physics - all in service of a cooler silhouette, sure, but taking away a lot of readability and foundation to work from in the process. I’ll try to offer some tips that work for me (though I’m hardly an expert on this, and teaching's not exactly my strong suit, so please bear with me if things get muddled, haha).

The main piece of advice I can give is gather and study as much reference as you can. Official art, concept art, promotional stuff, sprite sheets - whatever you can find, just grab ‘em and put ‘em somewhere you can easily pull up when you’re drawing. I get most of mine from Wikirby, Spriter’s Resource, and official sites like the Kirby JP Twitter, as well as screenshots taken directly from the games (a great way to get in-motion poses and back views, I’ve found). Here’s what my ref sheet for Daroach looks like (I also have a separate one for color swatches):

Kind of a mess, yeah, but very worth it, I assure you. The more visuals you have to work off of, the easier it will be to detect consistencies in design. Which brings me to my next point: shapes!

Most Kirby characters are, at their core, just a buncha simple shapes. It can be hard to tell sometimes when they wear clothes (like with our rat buddy here), but they still have similar foundations of circles and other rounded features. A way I've found that helps with this is to try redlining (that is, take a piece of reference and trace over it for the purpose of study, learning where lines connect, how silhouettes look, how different parts overlap, what shapes are used, etc.). Here’s an example:

This is a great way to find those design consistencies I mentioned before. I did these a bit messy for a better sense of movement (and ‘cause I’m practiced enough to sketch a little quicker), but you can always start slower and cleaner if it helps you see the shapes and layers more clearly. You can even do them multiple times to familiarize yourself with the design and eventually try copying them without tracing, like doing gesture drawings or life studies.

In Daroach, I’ve found that his head isn’t a perfect circle shape, but more like a rounded diamond, with his ears connecting at or just above the “points” on the sides. His body is a bit smaller than his head, and his snout smaller still, each having sort of a teardrop-like shape. His eyes are bigger than I expected them to be, half circles tilted down slightly, often cut off by his snout and hat to create a shaper angle (meant to make him look more intimidating perhaps?). His ears are taller than his hat, though they can tilt back to look shorter. There are also a lot of arcs and triangles present in his design, especially in his cape when it sits across his form or flares out, and the brim of his hat pointing down from just past his ears to right over his snout. Also, unlike many Kirby characters, he does in fact have a neck - it's just hidden behind his collar and bell most of the time (don't ask me why I spent so long verifying this, no I don't have ulterior motives, don't look at me).

Of course, these observations aren’t set in stone. Kirby characters rarely stay perfectly on-model (see Dedede for proof of that), and Daroach is clearly no exception. I mean, just look at these official pieces (all collected from Wikirby):

Even the folks at HAL Labs are not immune to style inconsistency. And that’s not a bad thing! We love a little personal flair in this house. There’s nothing wrong with altering the design a bit to fit your own style - in fact, it’ll probably happen naturally the more you practice, especially once you’re comfortable enough to work without a guide. Here’s some studies I did recently, no tracing, just observation (with different colors used to help me figure out layering):

I’ve seen other folks take their own designs even further than this, adding more fur or sharper shapes or even realistic rat features to our favorite thief. Nothing like stretching those creative muscles once you’ve got the basics down! On that note, don’t be afraid to be inspired by unofficial sources as well. If an artist you like draws Daroach (or any character) in a way you find appealing, ask yourself what it is you like about it, study it as you study official works, and find ways to incorporate elements of that into your own art - “steal like an artist” as the saying goes.

Another thing I recommend for Daroach specifically is studying how real top hats and capes look, especially from various angles and poses in motion. I find it helps to see exactly how fabric sits on a figure or what sides show at different positions. It might seem weird to use human reference for a cartoon rat, and it might take some finagling to get proportions right, but it’s surprisingly effective. I do this with fighting and athletic poses all the time to help figure out weight distribution and line of action. Don’t be afraid to expand your art repertoire into other fields - you never know when it might come in handy!

And, of course, the key thing to hammer home here is practice, practice, practice! Do studies, do gestures, draw with and without references, build muscle memory, do sketches you show to no one, draw memes, draw angst, take your time, fill pages with messy doodles or just drop one in a corner and call it a day. The more you draw this smarmy rat, the better you’ll get. That’s the long and short of it with any skill, creative or otherwise. You gotta try in order to get good, you gotta make mistakes in order to improve, you gotta be kind to yourself in order to do what you love.

Anyway, I think that’s all I got for now. Forgive me if this got a bit rambly or incoherent - I have trouble putting my thought process in words sometimes, haha. I sincerely hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck with your own future rat-creating endeavors!

Sketch started and finished 06/14/24.

[upn-the-sky]

Give me God of War!! (Ares OOAK, Part 2)

Just a reminder that there was Part 1 of this madness.

OKAY

I wanted to wait until I finish sword and spider legs before making a post, but there are three days after finishing the whole armor and I can't wait, I am screaming about Ares's supremacy.

Now I can say, it was hard. And the most hard thing was finding a balance. There are differences between Ares's 3D models from the different years, even in color palette. And I wanted to be as much close to the first game design as it possible. Some features were fully recreated from GOW1, some others I found more good at latest model from GOW3 and reworked them according to it. So at the end we have a good symbiosis I think.

Now let's a take a bow and look a bit closer at the mess under the cut.

Preparatory process

Until eyes are frightened, you can't do anything. To be honest I had no idea from where to start, the plan sounded like a "How to draw an owl" tutorial. Complexity of his armor scared me as hell, and after spending some time with drawings, where I tried to figure out a hook and loop system, which should attach parts to each other, I gave up and started to make his scaly iron belt, it felt more easier. YEAH.

Iron belt

You can see it at the screenshot. Well, one of the versions. Seems, it has no purpose beside decorative, I mean, maybe it can protect the groin, but eh, not really, honestly. At GOW3 model of dead Ares it became more detailed with round flower-like pendants and a little green jewel drops, but also it became golden as all metallic elements. I decided to make everything silver, but anyway, belt is very beautiful and I headcanon it is the same belt, which Ares gifted to his daughter Hippolyte in the past.

I weaponised myself with the smallest crochet hook and red thread and started to knit. WHY KNIT YOU ASK?? I don't know, it is easier for me than sewing all these scales %) Maybe they represents some fishy motives? (His connection with Aphrodite). Or serpent? (One of Ares's children, who was killed by Kadmus). Maybe green jewels is a hint to his mother Hera, because she loves emeralds. Who knows.

Scales, flowers, suns, glass drops.. If I were Ares, I'd present it to my beloved warrior daughter too.

Pteruges

As an example of the true manliness, Ares wears a skirt of course. He is not a barbarian, who hides his beautiful freckled thighs in the pants! How dare we to judge..

The easy part was to make a leather stripes and pierce them with the rivets (little nails, which I cut after this to left a head only). The hard part (which I had a chance to feel over and over again) was to figure out how to attach it to the body and hide all of the fasteners, and how to let stripes flow on his thighs and how the hell it should cover his.. godlike butt, I can't believe I wrote this.. %)

ANYWAY, A MONTH LATER I decided to make it a single piece with the iron belt, by creating a two-part wide leather base, attach knitted waistband to it, then join the each stripe to the separate piece of cloth to make them movable, then attach this cloth to the leather and sew some hooks. Aaaand the final result!

Cuirasse

I just say I literally hanged up myself with it. Here will be ranting...

Let's just think that it is not enough just to recreate appearence. In making 3D you can ignore some aspects like hidden straps and strings, which keeps armor conjoint on the human body. But how to make it wearable to the doll body, which is not soft and has a stable reliefs? How to make armor firm and shaped, but not completely firm, so it can be taken off from the body? Yes, my wish from the beginning was to make whole armor with a possibility to take it off and send nudes dress Ares in different outfit, which i will also make someday. How to make it light, so the doll can stand by itself? How to make it textured, to make it looks rough, to imitate metal or at least used condition? How to make metal parts without using a metal?

OKAY, WE NEED TO BE CANON - I thought and it was a day I decided to not invent armor, but use an experience of the hellenic people, who was smarter than me, I guesse. Because long time ago these people invented Linothorax - composite armor made of laminated linen fabric. ____

First of all, I splited Ares's cuirass to the segments: chest+collar segment, belly segment, spine segment, which emphasizes Ares's love to hunching over a little, and a waist-and-lower segment. Plus cuirasse has chained shoulder straps and side straps.

Well, when you have all elements, it is easier to imagine a complete piece. After that you just buy fabric, glue, chains, 27 hours for your day, new eyes, paint and other stuff. You wrap the body with the film and tape to protect it and start to glue. And here it is time for me to shut up, I know, you are here to watch a process, not to read an essay. I started from the front pieces of course. You imagine a pattern, you cut it, you glue it to hold the natural body forms as close as possible. Collar was formed right here. Gladly we can remove Ares's head when we want to do it...

Waist piece (eheh, spider butt (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) and first attempt to assemble the cuirasse. Here I literally lost my last brain cells and bravery, stopped the process and didn't make straps until the last week.

Anyway A MONTH LATER!!11 after the first assemble I started to sculp a relief of the reinforced chest and the metallic collar. Also we can check how's our decapitated dogs doing. Here you can see a belly piece of the cuirasse, which needed it's own dog decor. I was that meme boy with a knife, yeah..

Seemed they doing great! I felt that and decided to finish arm armor. Shoulder pads and bracers Thankfully making them requires the same process: cut a pattern, glue it, repeat for each arm. Here is close ups of the leather "feathers" pierced by rievets, chained bracers (I am very proud that I recreated it fully like at the Ares model. Bracers has no other strings and stays at arm only because of the chains) and shoulder pads as a base and as a complete, fully Cerbered piece. Actually this part wasn't really difficult, I've just delayed the inevitable.

Boots The first GOW novel says he weared sandals!!! Bloodstained SANDALS! But this novel was written much later, so we are making rocker boots. ᕕ(シ)ᕗ HEY!, we are laughing here, but Ares is smart, Ares don't want to break his toes by kicking someone's helmet! Maybe after having some experience %)))

Well, as I said in my previous posts, his boots was the most agressive part his armor. Heel and shoes toes should be firm, but sole should stay soft. Also the whole construction of the boots should looks monolite with the greavers which cover up the layers of the material above the ankles. Don't forget about the chains and double emotional damage, because there is two legs!

A little more damage as a person you receive, when you understand that you need to process each edge of each piece, because all armor pieces has visible layers. And only after that you can paint everything, draw Ares's assymetrical ornaments and dress him up.

That's how we reach the end. Here he is. O defence of Olympus, father of warlike Victory, ally of Themis, stern governor of the rebellious, leader of righteous men. Kratos's yes-homo partner and his personal most vieceful enemy.

Ares! God of war!

Thank you everyone for your patience while reading this duvet cover. See ya in Part 3, Skeletor will return soon with a sword, spider legs and normal photos. And stay tuned, I will post some portraits next time!

[iolaussharpe-24]

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Chapter One

Shoutouts to both @reallyrallyauthor and @redeyerhaenyra who are both my biggest inspirations for this. I've been working on this for a while and this was like my fourth or fifth draft, each with a different plot. I'm still not confident in it, but I'm hoping to improve my writing so that I can make the novel I'm writing extra special because that project is my baby and I want it to do well. (Grace Smith is my OC. She was inspired by Samara Weaving after I watched Ready or Not. Yes, there were drafts of this story where it was a crossover fic between Big Gold Brick and Ready or Not. No, I am not doing that anymore.)

Story part under the cut. I made the collage myself on Microsoft Word. It's a screenshot so it's a little blurry. Cross posted on my Wattpad page.

“Come in; but hurry the fuck up with it!” came Anselm’s voice from the other side of the door. He sounded breathless and his voice had been strained. Close to climax. Any idiot could tell that fact.

Despite his many different physical limitations, (his age, his breathing problems, and his bad leg, for example) Anselm Vogelweide had an impressively high libido and was frequently seen around his mansion with various people to have sex. While she hadn’t been someone unfortunate enough to walk in on him in a situation like that before now, Grace had seen people leave his bedroom or his office with messy hair or makeup while being half dressed and proudly wearing hickies and love bites on their throats, collarbones, and shoulders.

So, she kept her head down as she entered the office. Her eyes were focused on the silver tray in her hands and her own two feet while she walked. Judging by the sounds she could hear, they were on the desk. Going at each other like rabbits in heat. Today’s “companion” was a woman. A very vocal woman who moaned like an amateur pornstar. Charming.

She turned to the side table and set up the things she brought in quickly. A bit of cocaine, two glasses, a bottle of unopened champagne, and a stack of money delivered by an associate who’d recently lost an impressive bet. She didn’t know the details, just that it was some high school game. Soccer or volleyball or something. A girl’s game. The associate had made a comment about ‘tender young players’ that made the poor worker’s skin crawl. It was disgust-

“GRACE!”

Immediately, she looked up, having been caught off guard by the sound of Mr. Vogelweide’s strained voice calling out her name. A lesson that everyone who worked for him learned in their first five minutes was the need to constantly please. Keep him happy. Do as your told when you’re told, and no one gets shot. However…. She regretted that decision immediately.

Mr. Vogelweide was pounding into a fair skinned woman bent over his desk from behind. One of his hands was on her back, keeping her in place while the other hand was on her face, two of his scarred fingers shoved deep inside her mouth.

She was a lean woman, only a little bit heavier than Grace was. She had long blonde hair that looked like it had been flat ironed recently. It was a little frizzy at the ends. On top of being messy from sex.

As Grace watched them, she noticed that the woman was wearing a bright candy apple red lipstick – the same shade Grace herself was wearing – and her nails were painted a glossy black. She had a dark smokey eye that made the cyan blue of her irises pop even as she was being reduced to a blubbering, drooling, teary-eyed mess on the desk.

It was an… unsettling sight. The woman under Mr. Vogelweide looked a lot like Grace. A lot like her. The hair, the eye color, the shape of her body, the color of her skin, right down to the makeup she was wearing. It was a little eerie in a way. If she didn’t stare too hard – if she didn’t focus on the other woman’s thin lips or the almond shape of her eyes, or her square jaw – if she just watched them like she would anything else, it was like a peculiar out-of-body-experience.

Normally, (as odd as that word sounded in this context) Grace would have written off all of the similarities as a coincidence and walked away. Honestly, she should have walked away anyway. But there was one detail that, when paired with all the rest, she simply couldn’t ignore. One damning piece of evidence that sent a chill up her spine.

There was a beauty mark on the woman’s cheek. Left side. Half an inch under the eye. Right on her cheekbone. Too conveniently placed to be real. Granted, it didn’t look real. It didn’t even look like makeup. It looked like a dot sloppily drawn on with a Sharpie.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the woman looked like Grace. It couldn’t be. Not to that extent. The odds had to be a million to one on that. (Well, maybe not a million to one. After all, skinny blue-eyed blondes are a dime a dozen. But, for her to be wearing that color lipstick, for her to have that nail polish, the fake mole on that specific spot on her face, for Mr. Vogelweide to be screwing her, and for him to call out ‘Grace’ as he did, that was where things crossed the line and the possibility of a coincidence went straight out the window.)

Grace was staring at her own doppelganger as her boss fucked her.

She stood there, dumbfounded, unable to fully comprehend the sight. The woman was bent over, her dress unzipped in the back to expose her skin, the skirt bunched up around her waist so that Mr. Vogelweide had access to her sex. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess and her lipstick was smudged as she sucked and slobbered on his fingers.

God, even her age… she looked like she was only a little bit older than Grace. A few years at most. Anselm had to be somewhere in his fifties or so. This woman looked about thirty. And she was drooling on the polished surface of the desk, moaning wantonly. All while the man, with his pants down around his knees, pushed and pulled his cock in and out of her cunt rapidly; the wet slapping out of skin on skin filling the room alongside their ecstatic moans and grunts.

It was such an odd sight. She might have found it arousing if she had a mind even half as perverted as his. But, thankfully, she didn’t. There wasn’t a person alive in any place or time who was as strange as Anselm Vogelweide. He was incomparable. He was insatiable. He was… insane. Some people would argue that that was part of his strangely addicting charm. That it was the reason why so many people kept coming back to this mansion. To his business. To him.

Sometimes she wondered if she was the only sane person in his weird little world. The only one who would see him like this and recognize it as the incredibly disturbing thing that it really was.

Though Grace had never understood why, she was more than aware of the fact that everyone else on staff assumed that she was Mr. Vogelweide’s favorite. From the other maids, to the kitchen staff, to the gardener, to the bodyguards and drivers, all the way down to the pool boy. They all gossiped about her to one another. They all told each other that she had gained the boss’s favor by sleeping with him. That’s how the pool boy, Óscar, did it. Back when he was the obvious favorite who spent most of his nights in Mr. Vogelweide’s bed.

It was at this moment that the older man seemed to realize that he and his toy had an audience. He kept his gaze locked on the other woman’s face; watching as her blue eyes rolled back from pleasure while she moaned pathetically and desperately suckled on his fingers.

“I thought I told you to be quick and leave, you fucking- ” His voice trailed off as he finally lifted his head and saw Grace standing in front of him. He stopped his thrusting and stared at her. From behind the yellow lenses of his glasses, his dark eyes roamed her slender figure.

Grace averted her eyes from him, just to avoid having to face… whatever this was. “I’ll just go,” she said quickly, bowing her head and turning to leave the room. She walked quickly, praying that the semi-automatic couldn’t come out behind her back. Or the pistol. Or the shotgun. Or any gun in his massive collection. The last thing she needed, or wanted, was for her employer to blow her head off or something. It wouldn’t be the first time he did something like that. She would know. It was her job to clean the blood out of the carpets and off the walls before they stained.

“Stay.”

She paused but didn’t turn around. That was the one word she feared hearing in this situation. The one thing she didn’t want to do. Staying wasn’t an option for her. Staying at this point meant something and she didn’t want to know what. But the possibilities of what it could be made her blood freeze and her heart pound.

“Ms. Quinn was just leaving,” Mr. Vogelweide said as he pulled away from the blonde woman on his desk. He pulled up his pants and buckled his belt. Then, he sat down and began to buckle up his leg brace. It was incredibly old. Probably older than him. The metal rod didn’t look like it was rusted, but it squeaked loudly whenever he walked. Well, whenever he tried to walk would be a bit more accurate. The brace, because of how it held his leg from his groin all the way down to is foot.

Grace glanced over her shoulder and saw that the other woman, Annie, hadn’t moved yet. She was still bent over the desk. Her legs were still spread wide. The back of her dress was open and the skirt was bunched up around her hips. She was breathing hard, hard enough to rival even one of Mr. Vogelweide’s asthma attacks.

She lifted her head and looked at Mr. Vogelweide, clearly disappointed in this turn of events. “Wait,” she started, before being abruptly cut off by him.

“You can go now. I want a private word with Ms. Smith.”

‘Ms. Quinn’ lifted herself up into a semi-standing position, her eyes still on him. “But… I didn’t-”

Again, he cut her off. “You have your hands. I’m sure you have toys. I don’t care how you do it or where. Just get out of my house first.”

Grace watched as her doppelganger stood up the rest of the way and pulled down her skirt to try and hide the wetness running from between her thighs. She was clutching her chest with one hand to keep her open dress from falling off her shoulders. Her knees wobbled a bit as she stood up straight. When she walked, she kept her legs apart and limped slightly. She walked to the door, then paused when she saw Grace.

For a brief moment, the two women’s eyes met. Grace’s sapphire blue orbs and Quinn’s cyan blue ones. They stared at each other, seeing all the similarities between themselves. Grace watched, almost in slow motion, as Quinn realized what she had been doing.

Just before she exited the office, she reached up and touched the fake mole on her cheek. The spot that perfectly mirrored Grace’s natural beauty mark.

The last Grace saw of Quinn was her shocked expression. Wide eyes and parted lips. Hand on her cheek. Then the door closed. She was gone.

Grace was alone with Mr. Vogelweide.

The poor girl kept her eyes faced forward, staring at the door. She wanted to go. She wanted to run and hide from the topsy-turvy, boss-wants-to-fuck-the-maid, trashy porno scenario that she’d suddenly found herself thrust into. (Pun not intended.)

She swallowed hard, trying to gather whatever shreds of courage and dignity she had left and said, in an attempt to excuse herself despite his wishes, “I’m sorry, Mr. Vogelweide, I should have-”

He cut her off just like he done to the other woman. “I’d have asked you to watch if I thought it would make you wet.” Grace stiffened when she realized that he was standing directly behind her, whispering into her ear. He reached around and touched her face with his scarred left hand. He stroked her cheek gently with his thumb then gently turned her head so that she’d look at him.

“Why?” she asked. Though, she couldn’t figure out what she was asking about. Why was he touching her? Why would he say that? Why was he fucking her doppelganger? Why hasn’t she run away yet? She wasn’t sure, but she’d take whatever answer he gave her at this point because it honestly felt like someone took a whisk and scrambled her brain into a thick pink paste as it sat in her skull.

“Because you’re my favorite. You’re like a delicate flower. Beautiful and fragrant. All I want to do is pluck you from the ground and keep you with me.”

His fingers trailed down to her throat before wrapping around it. Instinctively, her head tilted back a bit and she held her breath. His grip was firm but not tight by any means. He wasn’t squeezing her, he wasn’t even trying to make her think that he would, but she knew that he could apply that pressure at any moment. The fact that just one of his hands was large enough to encompass so much of her neck. She could feel her pulse pounding against his fingers as they lay over her jugular veins.

“If I weren’t such an empathetic person, I might be tempted to take you by force. If you were not so good to me, I would.” He gently pulled her to bend backwards a bit, her back arched and head tilted back and to side. She stared at him as he forced her to lean against and rest her head on his shoulder. He stared back at her; the foggy yellow lenses of his glasses made his already dark eyes seem nearly black in color. His graying beard tickled the skin across her cheek and jaw as he smiled.

“Mr. Vogelweide,” she started to plead before being cut off again.

“Anselm, dear. Don’t be afraid to use my first name.”

“Ah… Anselm…” she said hesitantly, still staring into his eyes. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this. Óscar was always your favorite. He’s very proud of that fact.”

Mr. Vogelweide actually laughed at that. “I’m sure he is. Óscar is a puppy chasing cars he can never catch. Give him an inch and he’ll run a mile never realizing that he’s in a hamster wheel. He wasn’t my favorite anything. He was entertaining. You are different from him. You aren’t entertaining. At all. You’re quite dull, in fact. I’ve seen you in your spare time. Always reading. And it’s always the same cheap, sexless paperbacks. You’re boring and yet that’s the very thing that makes you so enticing to me. Despite everything that happens in this house, you remain pure and untarnished by both it and me.”

He leaned closer so that he could whisper in her ear, his voice practically dripping with seductive intent. He already had an oddly sensual quality to it. There was something about the odd mix between his German accent and a subtle lisp that could capture and hold anyone’s attention. It didn’t matter what he was saying. He could drone on and on about absolute nonsense and it would hold the attention of an audience. Mostly because his voice was just that enchanting; almost like a siren song. Partly because ignoring him would be a death wish granted in a split second by a hail of gunfire from the semi-automatic hidden in his desk.

He moved his body slightly so that she could feel the hard bulge of his still erect cock as it throbbed against her ass. She screwed her eyes shut at the feeling, trying hard not to focus on it.

“Part of me wants to break you. To pick the flower from the ground and pluck away the petals until there’s nothing left but the pistil. I want to bend you over and ravish you until you can’t take it anymore,” he said, practically moaning out the words like he was on the verge of orgasm from the thought alone.

For a moment, not even a fraction of a second, Mr. Vogelweide’s grip on Grace’s throat tightened. She drew in a sharp gasp as his fingers dug into her soft skin.

Then it was over. He released his hold entirely and walked away, his leg brace softly squeaking with every other step he took. Grace turned fully to stare at the boss as he moved away from her. She wasn’t sure how to process any of this. And his explanations only muddied already murky water.

He was across the room, staring out the window, his hands clasped together behind his back. Despite knowing that she shouldn’t, Grace stepped closer to him and looked out the window as well. Óscar was outside cleaning the pool. He looked up at the office window, a smile on his face, and gave a flirty little wave. He blew a kiss up to Mr. Vogelweide before setting back to work, moving a little more sensually than necessary. Putting on a little show.

“If you knew half of the half of the nasty things I’ve done to that boy you wouldn’t be standing so close,” Mr. Vogelweide said, his voice lowered for a moment on the word ‘nasty,’ while his lisp dragged out the ‘s’ in the middle. It stood out and caught Grace’s attention more than the rest of the sentence had. It tickled her curiosity and sparked her imagination to try and picture the two men together. The young pool boy and the older mob boss that signed his paychecks in the blood of his own cousins.

Óscar was the kind of person who lived for others. The embodiment of an almost self-destructive people pleaser. He was a lemming in the worst way who would stand on the edge of a cliff and backflip off of it if someone told him to. Well, maybe not just any old ‘someone.’ He wouldn’t waste himself on someone he didn’t feel was worth it.

Anselm Vogelweide wasn’t like anyone else in the world. He was strange and alluring. Everything about him screamed danger. Especially to people like Grace and Óscar. The people that worked for him and lived near him. The people who saw, on a daily basis, exactly who he really was. Not that ever made an effort to hide.

He had things hidden all around the house. Things that Grace often found on accident while cleaning. Toys; both new and used. Suspicious stains that smelled old and sour. Books with dirty titles and dirtier pictures. She could only imagine what he did to the people that had sex with him. She had her theories, everyone did, but something about his words made her think that the speculations paled in comparison to the truth.

“Sir, I don’t understand why you’re telling me all of this.”

“I told you, child; you’re my favorite.” He turned away from the window to face Grace again. Startled, she automatically backed away from him. He followed; though his movements were slow and awkward, that didn’t stop her from being intimidated by him. She didn’t focus on the way his brace made it impossible for him to bend his left knee, making him hobble. She didn’t focus on the way the brace squeaked every time he lifted his leg to take a step. She focused on his eyes. On the darkness and hunger in them. She felt like prey under the searing gaze of a predator.

In the question of fight or flight, Grace liked to pretend that she’d stand up and face her fears head on. She wore a brave face in casual conversations about hypothetical situations that were never likely to happen. She’d imagine herself as a gun-toting badass in the face of a zombie apocalypse or a strong survivor in the face of an attack in a dark alley. She’d taken self defense classes. She kept pepper spray in her purse. She wore a ring knife.

Theoretically speaking, she could protect herself if she needed to.

Empasis on the word “could.”

She could do a lot of things. She could be a novelist. She could become a rocket scientist. She could marry a tech billionaire. She could do any of those things. They just weren’t likely to happen.

She didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel. She was terrible at math. And there was nothing significant about her in the slightest that would ever put her in the same room as a tech billionaire, let alone marry one.

The reality was that she wasn’t the brave warrior she liked to imagine herself as. In the question of fight or flight, Grace would always fawn.

She’d try to run first. Then, as her fears grew and her heart started to pound, she’d start to freeze up. Then, as things only seemed to be getting worse and worse and her pulse threatened to send her into cardiac arrest, she’d give in and let the nightmare consume her.

And that’s exactly what she did in Mr. Vogelweide’s office. After taking only a few steps away from him, she gripped the edge of his desk and froze, her eyes fixed on his body as he continued to advance on her. When he was near enough, when he was directly in front of her, gripping the polished wood on either side of her slender frame, she felt herself give in. She could try to tell herself that she was just putting more distance between the two of them, but she wasn’t. She was surrendering. She bent over backwards and let him hover above her.

Mr. Vogelweide seemed to realize this fact. He stared down at her, a smile playing across his lips. He leaned down so that his face was just above hers. Their noses were a hair’s width away from brushing against each other.

“Do you have any idea how easy it would be for me to claim you?” he whispered in that same attention-grabbingly sensual tone. “Do you have any idea how tempting that idea is?”

As he spoke, Anselm ran one of his hands up the length of Grace’s body. He started at her navel and lightly slid his hand up to her chest, over the mound of her left breast, across her collarbone, and up the side of her neck to her cheek. He rested his palm on the side of her head for a moment. Ran his fingers through her soft blonde locks.

Her heart was pounding in her throat as she stared up at him. She was breathing heavily beneath him, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Shush,” he murmured, grabbing her jaw with his thumb and first two fingers. Like his earlier grip on her throat, he was holding her just tight enough for her to feel it without coming anywhere near actually hurting her. He lifted her head and looked down at her lips. “Don’t worry, darling. I won’t hurt you. I’d never dream of it.”

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. Grace’s eyes widened and a high-pitched whimper escaped her. He pressed his body against hers; squishing her down onto the desk. She felt his tongue slide across her teeth for a moment before he squeezed her face just tight enough to make her open her mouth to him. She let out another, louder, whimper as his tongue entered her mouth to circle and swirl around hers.

It took him a long time, but he did finally pull away from her mouth. He released her jaw and stood up straight, adjusting his suit and tie. Suddenly, he was back to his usual self. Cool and unbothered by the world around him.

“That’ll be all, Ms. Smith; thank you.”

That was it? He’d had sex with a doppelgänger, told Grace he only did it because he wanted her, kissed her, and then did nothing else? He was just going to dismiss her without another word?

Wait… why was she even asking herself that?! She didn’t want or expect any of this. It was thrust on her in a moment that she wasn’t even supposed to see. She didn’t know how to deal with any of this. She didn’t know if she was supposed to get up or stay where she was. Hell, she didn’t even know if she’d still have a job after this.

Mr. Vogelweide started to walk away, then paused. He turned to face Grace again and said, “Oh, before I forget, would you be so kind as to clean up in here? I’m afraid Ms. Quinn made quiet the mess on the other side of the desk and I have a meeting in half an hour. You might need to come back to clean up afterwards. I’d like to avoid it, but there may be blood in the rug before the hour is over.”

She looked at the other side of the desk. Where he’d had the look-alike bent over so he could fuck her brains out and pretend she was Grace. There was a wet spot on the polish. It smelled like sweat and… ugh… old fish. The lingering residue of a shamelessly wet pussy.

Back to business as usual then.

Grace stood from the desk and nodded her head. “Yes, sir. I’ll get right to it.”

“One other thing,” Anselm said as he watched her. “I want you to know that, on the off chance you ever change your mind, you need only to knock.”

“Knock?”

“On my door. The day you decide to me mine, I want to take you in the bedroom. Mine. Not yours. There are… things I’d like to try. Harnesses I’d like to see your body in. Toys I want to put inside you.” His dark eyes moved up and down her body at an agonizingly slow pace. Grace was fully dressed; wearing leggings, a knee-length dress, and a small sweater with sleeves that came down to her elbows. She wasn’t showing any skin that she shouldn’t be. Nothing more than her forearms. And it wasn’t even that the neckline of her dress was low either. It sat right on her collarbones. Yet she felt naked the longer he stared. Like he was peeling off her clothes with his imagination.

This is sexual harassment isn’t it? This was the kind of behavior that got the #MeToo movement started. Back when protecting victims actually meant something to people. She could quit for this, right? Wait… no. No. That was a bad idea. If this were a normal job for a normal person, she wouldn’t even consider it. She’d leave.

But he wasn’t a normal person.

This wasn’t a normal job.

She spent her time cleaning blood out of Anselm Vogelweide’s carpet and cum off of the furniture and walls. Everything in his house was about money and sex. People died here. On a regular basis. There were guns and bottles of lube in every room.

She knew too much about him. There was no leaving. There was only dismissal. And that would likely mean a hail of gunfire that would cut her life short in the living room before his massive bodyguards took her away to some place where she’d never be found again.

All because she caught his eye.

[selfaware-bungou-stray-dogs]

I present to you... The Dazaination 👽

I swear whenever I look at it, I always laugh at how lucky I was to pull 7 of him in 5 different colors 🙉

I am even use the most cheating thing to get the red one (my source ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ) , and even WORSE, I once used Oda as a way to get him HOME because he didn't do it like how he promise to me 😭 (the Port Mafia one, but it work and he did come home 🤡💦)

But somehow, that mf only come home to me 6 times... 6 TIMES and not 7 oml- (f2p crying moment). Bro literally indulge in my desire and come to me 6 times and just left me there, no sign of him after that.

In my mind, I think that Dazai would be surprised at how much he decides to go with my desire until realizing how bad it is because he doesn't want another person to hurt becuz of him ಥ‿ಥ

Or even funnier, he would be tied into a chair and watch me pull for him but end up getting the others instead because they want my attention as well 🤣 (it actually happened to me because I keep getting the others such as Chuuya, Kouyo, Margaret, etc)

Dazai better watch out because when it's his birthday, I'mma go all out until I get all of his card (laugh like a maniac 👽)

You actually luckier, then me in Dazai's pulls.

I tried to get Dark Dazai card (the one from your screenshot) during last Kunikida/Dazai rerun. Spent all moons and tickets, got SSR Card on 100th pull. Kunikida's card. Then, after 55 more pulls and no SSR card of anyone stopped pulling. Perhaps, he didn't want to come home.

He is nervous, that he could hurt you, but, it's more likely, that he is tried to the chair. Dazai likes to hack scouts of other characters just to mess with them. It was a question of time, when he will be tied up.

He feels proud, when he saw, that you are happy, because you get his card. He may slightly raise the chanse of getting his cards, so he can make you happy.

[autumnslance]

Tumblr Cosmetic Customization Tutorial

You there! New Tumblr User with a default icon and header, no description, no custom URL, and not wanting to be mistaken for a bot--you just want to maybe figure out this weird hellsite and follow some people without being blocked, right?

Maybe you've been around for a little while, or are returning from that other hellsite, and don't know what the heck folks mean by enabling the custom URL and why are so many blogs opening on the dash instead of in a new tab?!

Let's sort this mess out below the cut with a screencap-laden tutorial, starting on mobile app (since Most new blogs start there these days, and many people use mobile more, or exclusively) and then moving to web browser for some other features that aren't available in the app (as of 1/27/23 anyway).

This is just going to be about cosmetic customization and accessing the correct blog URL and archive; Tumblr's many other settings and features for how you want to see your Dashboard and how much Privacy control you decide on are for your exploration (or another day and another tutorial, this one's long enough).

The tutorial blog itself literally took me well under 5 minutes to set up, and Tumblr guided me to customizing immediately. Taking the screenshots added a few seconds to the time; it's taken longer to write the first part of this post out. If you didn't customize the blog right away, don't fret! You can always tap the little art palette and cogwheel icons at the top of your blog to sort it out.

Now go below the link to see written instructions with image examples, including a few more with my cat:

TO BEGIN: In the mobile app, I make a new blog. For me, it's a sideblog under my main and existing sides, but otherwise this is all the same info. The following process also isn't actually all that different in web browser.

Now, you can change your URL later on if you want; a lot of folks do over time. Just be aware: changing your URL breaks any and all previous links to your blog, including any posts others have reblogged under "Read More" cuts, with the same result as if the blog was deactivated; the URL no longer exists, so Tumblr doesn't count it as "there" anymore.

Now that's out of the way, once I make a blog it immediately takes me to the Customization screen:

I can--and should!--give my blog a name and a description. Doesn't have to be long or fancy, and can always be changed later with no risk to your links.

I can tap the "Background" and "Accent" buttons to change the default colors, too. Let's go for something easy on the eyes by tapping on the colored circles to find some default options, or the wheel to grab a random custom one. I'm going to go to purple and find a nice shade there.

Next I will tap on the little default icon to choose an avatar photo. I can choose not to show it on my blog, and if I do, whether I want it to be square or circle.

I can also tap to choose a header image if I like. I'm just grabbing some images from my phone. I did have to redo the avatar as it didn't want to stay after selecting a header pic for some reason.

And then I made a quick post and pinned it, to let folks know that I am human and what the purpose of this blog is (lurking for now? A main blog for following while sideblogs get the content? In this case, a tutorial).

OK, so my cat for an icon, my copy of the fanzine I worked on as a header, a quick title and description, and a short post. Even if I post nothing else to this blog (and if it were a main blog; sideblogs can't follow others, nor send asks or replies), people will be fairly certain I am not a bot, hooray! And if I want to change anything, I can tap on the icons at the top of the blog and get back to these customization screens.

I CAN STOP HERE IF I WANT TO

...BUT WHAT IF I, or buddies, try to open my blog in a browser and it opens a dash panel? What if I (or others) want to access my Archive? Unfortunately, I cannot find the correct option in the mobile app at this point, so onto a web browser we go (on my phone or my tablet, or my computer).

I am using a generic default web browser where I don't have many extensions/plugins/addons enabled (though apparently I did set dark mode). When I tap/hover over my icon, it still shows my color option and everything I selected in app setup.

Here is where I am going to direct you to the side bar and the "Edit Appearance" button so I can point out some Very Important Things, even if you don't customize anything else ever.

When I open my blog's appearance tab, right away it's going to tell me some interesting things I have circled and pointed at on the below screenshot:

In RED I have circled my blog's URL: www.tumblr.com/lynmarstesting. This is why a blog opens in a dash panel instead of going to an actual blog. This is the new Default URL, I cannot access an Archive or other blog features like this.

The ORANGE arrow points to the feature we want, right below the "Blog name" and URL: "Custom Theme". When I swipe this feature to active, it tells me my URL is updated.

When I go to my blog, the URL in my browser shows the proper https://lynmarstesting.tumblr.com link.

And the blog looks...well, bare bones and empty, but a proper weblog page. And I (and anyone else) have access to my Archive! When, y'know, I have enough posts to make that a thing on this blog.

Now, if I or anyone else opens the blog by clicking my username or icon, it'll open a dash panel...but also show my actual @ and my proper URL link, so they can go to the blog itself that way if they want. Everyone wins!

I CAN STOP HERE IF I WANT TO;

there's no need from this point to keep messing around in a browser, we've done everything to 1) make ourselves look human and 2) make our blog properly linkable/accessible.

BUT WHAT IF...??

Once again, the little art palette icon at the top is our clicky-buddy, boxed below in orange:

This opens an "Edit Theme" sidebar panel where one can customize the blog. Each theme has different options, and Tumblr's default theme is honestly really modular; change colors, fonts, have multiple columns, add some pages (I've a whole other tutorial on that), etc.

There's also an "Advanced" pane, where you can mess with some other settings (the little ? icon on each line tells you what it does) and, if you're knowledgeable--or just bold--this is where you can add some Custom CSS.

Say the Default Tumblr Official isn't doing it, though; at the top of the Edit Theme pane it tells you your current theme, and there's a handy "Browse Themes" link.

This opens a drop down with multiple sorting options. I don't want to spend money on a premium blog theme at the moment, and the others are a mix, so let's check out the Free Themes options.

There's a lot of options here! Some new ones, some are sponsored, lots of variety. Even the "Accessible" theme I mainly use is there, in its barren glory, compared to what you can see I've made of it on browser (see that previous tutorial I linked above):

Again: Different Themes have Different Levels of Customization.

Some will let you change every color, the fonts, the frames, and so on. Some let you add links everywhere. Some barely let you touch anything. You can tap "Use" at the top to preview, and the "Advanced" pane will let you preview random pretend posts if you don't have many/any of your own to see how they'd look. If you don't like how something's turning out, just click back on "Free Themes" and look for another one.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND READABILITY!!

When people follow links to your blog--like a Read More cut--they will see the post on your blog's theme and in your blog's colors. Even on mobile app, especially if you override the default mobile theme, your color choices will have an impact! Aesthetic is all well and good, but frames, fonts, colors, and so on, should be legible and readable to most people, especially if you mean to share a lot of text posts.

Another thing to note: Your theme will NOT appear on mobile app. It defaults to a basic setup in the app, keeping maybe only your colors. Any custom links won't show, and cosmetic site options and access are limited in a lot of ways. The site is usable on a mobile web browser, and will have those features there. I get around the app's inability to show my theme's links by adding them all to my informative Pinned Posts on each blog, but that's me.

And there you have it! How to cosmetically customize a Tumblr, in mobile app and browser, to seem like a real person and access the correct URL and features of your blog. Whether you're new or been here awhile, hopefully this helps answer some really basic questions about how and why to do some of these things.

Have a final full-sized silly Chel pic to say goodbye.

[jaydaydaima]

Daima fans I have made a discovery!!!!

Since I've first seen the trailer I thought that the kai we see in it and the blue eye would be the same person- their skin and hair color just kinda matched in my mind BUT I don't think that's the case anymore!

I originally wanted to try and piece the kai together and make a design because I love doing silly stuff with unrevealed characters! But while getting my screenshots I realized that the person with the blue eye has a different hairstyle than the kai!

We can see that the kai has the typical mohawk! But if you look at the scene with the blue eye and stop the trailer on the right frame then you can see that the person here doesn't seem to have one judging by the hair behind their ear.

And that's where I got to with this one, it actually suprised me a little! Of course it could just be a strand of hair that perfectly lines up with the ear but I don't think so, that doesn't seem right! But hear me out, I still got something that supports a theory I'm hoping to be canon! I've recently found out about the Shin theory and I'm SO invested, let me talk about some stuff that seems to support this idea! Shin and the kai we see have pretty much the same hairstyle, like it's almost on point! And that's a big argument considering all the kais we've seen have different hairstyles. The strands of hair point in the exact direction Shin's hair points and the one strand in the front just matches a bit too well. We sadly can only see the outline of the earrings and not the colors but oh well!

And of course the colors AND clothing style is the same as Shin's! Like exactly like Shin's (+ the silly cape) The only big difference I notice is that the green of the new Kai's uniform is a bit darker but it could only be the lighting!

The other difference I've noticed is that the Kai has white shoes instead of red ones but I chose to ignore it lol.... buddy is finally matching with the other kais...

Something I don't think will be the case but miiiiight be worth mentioning is that the mystery kai couuuuullddd be younger elder kai or somethinggg.......... but that would be too wild LOL idk how I'd handle that being canon (though would elder kai be younger again as well if Kibito got hit by it too??? would that work with him being a fusion???........no I won't overthink this)

And yeah, that's pretty much it for now (I think!) This might have been stuff everyone already knows about and I'm just late (forgive me if yes, I don't have time to be online very often!) but I wanted to talk about it myself because it's so interesting! Hoping for the Shin theory to be true, it would be so funny to see big Shin and smol Shin interacting with each other! (And I'm so hyped for all of this because WHY would this happen??? Why would some other kind of Shin version mess with our guy????) Yeah I'm overthinking it all again! This means I should stop typing! Thank you for reading my crazy rambles!

[zresources]

yet another gif coloring tutorial

Okay, so, I posted a coloring tutorial for one of my moots a few years ago on my main, @zackmartin (I believe I've since deleted it) but that was the technique I was using when I started making gifs 7ish years ago, and I’ve since updated my routine so I decided to post a new tutorial with my new technique.

I'm going to show you how I achieved this:

I'm using Photoshop for this. I'll try to make this as detailed as possible so it's beginner-friendly, but you do at least need to know how to make and export a gif. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out! just be aware, this tutorial really image-heavy

A few notes before I begin: 1) this is like, the bare minimum most basic way to color a gif. This is what I’d be doing if I was giffing a scene and that’s it. If you’re interested in different coloring styles (like my suite life episode series) then let me know! 2) When coloring gifs with POC, you need to make sure not to change their skin color by making them too light, too orange, too yellow etc. The JATP source blog posted a masterpost of different tutorials to teach you how to color gifs in different ways (like with the pastel coloring for instance) without whitewashing/orangewashing POC. But, honestly there’s a ton of tutorials out there that show you how to avoid this if you do a little digging. NO EXCUSES! 

Anyway, let's get started! Before I do the coloring, I ofc make my gif, crop it, set the frame rate, resize, and sharpen. (you can find my sharpening tutorial HERE)

I. BRIGHTENING

(as a quick note, I don't focus much on London's skin tone during this stage, because I'm going to fix it during later steps)

The first thing I do is white balance using a curves layer. To do this, I click the little circle thing in the toolbar below the layers, and then click curves like so (you'll do this every time you want to add a new layer):

And then I click the bottom eyedropper tool on the left-hand side:

Then I click the lightest white part of the gif. (I’m not sure how to explain this well, but it basically white balances that spot to make it pure white. Like, if I clicked on the gold part of London's bracelet, then the whole gif would turn out really blue because it would be trying to white balance the gold) (hopefully that makes at least a little bit of sense)

Anyway, there’s a trick I use to find the lightest part of the gif; hold down the option key (or alt if you’re on windows) and while you’re holding down the option key, drag the little white arrow on the right-hand side:

(i apologize for the quality of the screenshots, tumblr keeps destroying them :/ let me know if I need to clarify anything)

Then I use another curves layer to do the same thing with but with the blacks. So, I add another curves layer, and then click the eyedropper tool at the top this time:

And then I click the darkest, black part of the gif. You can use the same trick by holding the option/alt key and dragging the triangle on the left-hand side:

Next, I add a levels layer. I drag the middle lever thing to the left, and the left lever to the right. (I don’t usually touch the little lever thing on the far-right, but it’s really up to personal preference. I learned to color gifs by basically messing around with settings, so I’d recommend doing the same and just seeing what you like best):

Finally, if I want to go even brighter, I usually add a brightness/contrast layer. I typically turn up the brightness a bit, and turn down the contrast. But, since I brightened a lot with the curves and levels, I usually don’t go that far. These were the settings I used for this particular gif (even though I'm going to share most of the settings that I used, I wouldn't recommend using the exact same ones on your own gif as it'll really depend on the scene you're using):

II. VIBRANCE

Now I add a vibrance layer. I like my gifs to be bright and vibrant, so I usually turn up the vibrance, and turn down the saturation a bit. These are the settings I used for this particular gif:

And this is what the gif looks like so far with just brightening it up a bit and adding vibrance (it might look a bit too bright right now, but I'm going to fix that in later steps):

III. SELECTIVE COLOR

Now, I add a selective color layer. The reds and yellows typically affect skin tones, so this is where I'll start to fix London's. These are the settings I used for this gif (I usually wouldn't change all of the colors, but this is just one of those situations where they happened to be present in the scene I'm giffing):

IV. HUE/SATURATION

now I add a hue/saturation layer. I typically turn up the master saturation to +10 and the lightness between +3 - +5 regardless of the gif. Then if I still need to fix skin tones, I'll mess around with the reds and yellows. These are the settings I used:

V. PHOTO FILTER

Next, I add a photo filter. I usually stick with the default one, I keep the layer set to normal, and I turn the opacity down to 25%:

VI. B&W GRADIENT MAP

finally, I add a black & white gradient map, and I click the little box to reverse it:

Then I set the layer to soft light and I turn the opacity down, between 10% - 20% depending on the gif:

A lot of times, I'll stop here. If I'm satisfied with the way the gif looks, and London's skin isn't too pale/orange/yellow etc, then I could just add my watermark, export and be done. But, there a few other optional steps I might take if I'm still not quite happy with it.

VII. OPTIONAL

Usually the next thing I'll add if I've decided to keep going is a color balance layer. It obviously does as it says, helps balance out the colors, but some gifmakers also like their gifs to have like, a reddish tint or a bluish tint or what have you, so this can help with that too. I wanted to balance out the reddish/yellowish tint, so these are the settings I used:

and this was the gif before the color balance:

and after:

And if I want to play around with the colors a bit more, or fix the skin tones further, I might add another selective color layer or a hue/saturation layer (or both, depending).

Rarely, I might add an exposure layer. (I added one to this gif for the purposes of this tutorial). These are the settings I used for that:

And if the gif came out a bit too bright, I might add another brightness/contrast layer, except this time I would turn down the brightness and turn up the contrast (again, I did that with this gif for the purposes of this tutorial).

And, that's pretty much it! This is my finished gif!

Like I said earlier, I pretty much learned how to color by messing around in photoshop, so I would really recommend playing with the different layers and settings for yourself, as well as checking out other coloring tutorials and other gifmakers methods and see what you like and what you don't. And finally, the best thing you can do is just,,, practice. I've been gifmaking for about seven years, but I feel like I didn't really become decent at it until this year

Again, If you have any questions let me know! and feel free to tag me in your creations! #userzackmartin 💕

[3dspecbio]

Scalepiercer: Real time lighting in pixel art

I wanted to share some sprite normal mapping that we're implementing for our game! One reason I prefer 3D artworks is the dynamism of lighting that can be easily achieved with a renderer, something you couldn't historically do in 2D art with ease.

But lots of modern 2D engines adopted the 3D concept of 'normals' and now we can do stuff like this!

In Scalepiercer, we are using normal maps for characters and weapons/explosions. Our characters will react to light in real time similar to games like CRYPTARK and Airships: Conquer the Skies!

So how do normals work? What if you wanted to do this for your own game? Well there's many ways to normal map sprites! but here's how we did it:

We went into Blender and created a 'shape-sheet' like this by positioning 3D objects and taking a screenshot of their normals as viewed from above. The funky colours are because we are actually encoding *directions* for how individual pixels are "rotated" in 3D space! That's a normal map!

A TLDR of the directions are as follows:

A color value of 128 means "middle/no angle", with 0 and 255 being 90* facing one way or the other.

Red is the East/West facing angle

Green is the North/South facing angle

Blue is "tangent"/facing-camera and is always 255 (which is why our 'normal map color' is this specific 128,128,255 blue for a flat surface).

Knowing this information, we paint over our cargo container by sampling the 'directions' from or normal map sheet to create something like:

Keep in mind different game engines may have different direction encoding, if your sprite lighting looks backwards try inverting the red or green channels!

This is human-readable data too if you keep in mind that the presence or lack of a color means a direction! After some time you may be able to read (and even possibly paint) your own normals without constant reference.

P.S: I didn't know where to fit this but a note on automatic normal mappers: There's great tools like Laighter and Modlab which let you instantly create normal maps from sprites! These tools are very powerful and often make it very easy to do these effects, the reason we avoid them here is because they rely on the *brightness* of a sprite instead of intentionally knowing the *direction* of one. We found that the generated results often don't "understand" the 3D forms of a sprite as well a human who can think abstractly. If you want to mess with these techniques with little effort, or your art style is compatible with how these programs 'read' files, I'd recommend trying it! It's fun!

[suratan-zir]

Let me just tell you, things have been frustrating.

So I suddenly had this immense desire to create *something* in the sims. Because I usually make cc when I am most anxious, and lately it's been one big endless panic attack.

again, sorry to those of you poor souls who followed this blog only for war news, you can block my sims tags if you don't want to deal with this nonsense on your dash

Then this desire transformed into the need to make lip gloss, because I don't already have like a bazillion of those nor do I totally suck at creating makeup (yeah, I am really bad at it)

But we still have electricity only for 2 hours at a time, and I'm reeeally slow at cc creating.

So basically, it's like an hour passes but nothing gets done. Then when I think I'm making progress, I load my game for eternity, only to see some weird imperfections that wasn't present on the texture itself and was overlooked in Bodyshop. Then it takes another two hours to try and figure it out. It is so counterproductive. And btw, why is it so dang difficult to create a makeup in this game that would look decent on darker skin tones? Stupid makeup has no business being so hard to put together.

Anyway, I ended up with this mess you see on the screenshots. I thought I liked it, but my partner said it's "too shiny". It was the original goal?? But now I'm questioning myself, maybe it is too shiny/glossy after all? Too 2008-esque?

I think you've already guessed, I made this post just to vent into the void. idk if I'll share this lip gloss, because I'm not sure I can finish it with the power outages and also knowing my indecisiveness in choosing colors.

Thank you for listening. Hope y'all are doing well for the most part.