#if not it'll just be black line art idk

[danikatze]

I have one (1) irl friend who loves Critical Role and she can't come with me to the live show in London, but I'm going to try to get a ticket anyway and go by myself!

Also also, I'm learning to screen print on fabric in a week and a half and if I manage to get a ticket I'm going to print one of my own CR drawings on a hoodie to wear to the show 🤩

[destinedarts]

lmk style for @nanolitore Monkiddo Art Contest #MonkiddoGRAM

Had school and finals right now so didn't really expect to finish it.

Probably could've just stuck with Pigsy, MK, and the other monkeys since missed out on celebrating their release. But decided to bring in the whole Monkie Kid crew lol 🙈

Some dialogue planned before/created just now…

*MK fidgeting* Pigsy: Don't worry, son. It'll be fine.

*Macaque struggling* Mei: *pinches his ear* Hold still! Wukong: You gotta tie it just like this- Ne Zha: WUKONG STOP BOTHERING HIM

*Red Son and Tang going through the list* Tang: That's it for him. Double check…

*Sandy looking at stage plans* Mo: mrrow!

*Gold and Silver Demons lifting the sign* Demon Accountant: Pull harder!

No previous experience drawing lmk style so that was interesting. Definitely would like to finish it someday cause I need the practice for some other lmk art in future. Started out as sketches and line art but then just continued in sketches yesterday for rest of the lmk characters and tossed in the color roughs.

🐒🐒🐒🐒🐒

Sandy wasn't gonna be in it originally cause idk how to draw him but had an empty space and looked weird without him so drew in Mo and his head at 4 am. >_> Horned demons weren't gonna be in it too which kinda shows here but they were easier to draw than Sandy. Idk about Princess Iron Fan or DBK but that would definitely be a next time thing. Maybe Bai He too in Nano's crew outfit lol

🐒🐒🐒🐒🐒

I would need a bigger canvas than 1920 x 1080 for all of that. Stage is wood but color was just taken from Benched ref so looks kinda weird imo. I don't think making the stage floor black would've been a better choice though. There were gonna be more boxes, stage equipment, someone pushing the stage racks, running around- papers flying, just sweet chaos.

I'm not a theatre person though just fyi.

🐒🐒🐒🐒🐒

Anyways, had lots of fun with this and glad I could say that I participated lol 🐵

[cool-cube]

two fan-aliens + the concept art: Chowdown and Split-Limb.

i didn't actually come up with the powers for these guys, at least not fully. i posted some alien designs months ago & asked soem people on Reddit to give them some powers, so now we've got two of the four i had. i might do the other two digitally one day but idk

I made these guys a while back where I just had designs & then asked people to give me some powers for them. Thought i'd finally draw a couple of my favourites digitally.

Chowdown is the Omnitrix's DNA sample of a Gobblian from the red desert planet of Snk-Tyme. Chowdown is another one of Ben's "eating" aliens, along the lines of Upchuck or Eatle. Chowdown sets himself from them due to the fact that Chowdown is capable of eating anything. There are absolutely no limits to what Chowdown has eaten & can eat. So long as it fits in his lower jaw, he can completely digest it in seconds, as if it was never there. His hyper-advanced saliva & digestive tract lets him convert any & all matter into energy to further fuel himself, making this transformation very energetic & one that hardly tires out.

Chowdown is hardly an alien Ben has control of. It's in his nature to eat and eat and eat until he dies. The moment a Gobblian is born, they begin to eat anything in sight. This constant hunger is Chowdown's biggest weakness, as Ben finds it extremely difficult to regulate Chowdown's appetite. If Ben finds a way to overcome it, Chowdown could become a very versatile alien, but for now he's used sparingly & only when nessecary.

Split-Limb is the Omnitrix's DNA sample of a Xeroxapien from the planet Mimeuo, a planet that sits in the same solar system as Hathor: Ditto's homeworld. Split-Limb's body is made of hundreds of black, veiny tendrils that hold together white segments made of a slate-like substance. Split-Limb is capable of duplicating individual body parts by "splitting" them in half. Splitting his limbs results in two of the same limb on the same joint with no changes. This lets him increase his strength near-endlessly so long as he can continue to make more limbs. The limbs can be re-merged until there is only one left.

Split-Limb, despite his duplicative nature, cannot regrow limbs or recover from any wound. If any of his arms are cut off, it will not grow back nor will it ever recover. If he loses all of the copies of a limb, it'll never be able to come back. Split-Limb also needs a lot of concentration to focus on controlling multiple limbs. He can handle up to 4 arms & 6 legs maximum before he needs to start concentrating harder. Split-Limb, without any extra limbs, isn't as strong as most of Ben's aliens. He's still stronger than most humans & a few of Ben's other aliens but he's no Four Arms.

[tangsakura]

For when you got time: do you have any theories or something you would really like to see happening in the next chapters?

Contains content from arc after Hunter x Hunter - up to the latest chapters. Please DNI if you don't want to be spoiled.

Machi's backstory with Hisoka. Really need to know wtf is going on between them that it all lead to what it did in ch 357. They have this relationship that I can't just pinpoint no matter what........

Speaking of which, Machi needs to go up the tier. My girl is still in Tier 5 ;--;

Tserriednich has something to do with Sarasa's death indirectly. Some people also speculated it when Chrollo mentioned about the film set where Sarasa died and 'showing off their artwork' or something along those lines. When I first read it, I thought about the Heily family. Heily was sponsored by Tserriednich until Morena happened lmao. Plus one of the guys who were abductors look like the tattoo artists at Tserriednich's suite.

Hisoka will be the reason why Kurapika will find out that the Troupe is in the Black Whale. This self-explanatory.

I want to see Hisoka see all the Princes and their beasts. You know what I'm interested about? His reaction when he sees Tserriednich, Camille, Halkenburg and Benjamin

I have a feeling Hisoka will sneak into the royal banquet lmao. I can feel it in my bones ahahahhaha

The hidden Nen user in Kurapika's Nen crash course class. Is he a mole from Morena in Tier 1 but couldn't get any closer to Tserriednich that's why Morena wants to lure one or more of his private guards? I wanna know who the person is in the next batch of HxH chapters.

As for the silent majority person, I thought it's the bob-haired girl that Hinrigh first chased in Tier 3 in 390 - perhaps she has powers that don't need her to be actually in Tier 1. Also with revelations in ch 399, Morena is most likely also aware of Kurapika as he is involved in the underworld for awhile now and he is a Prince's guard - probably realized why he is there in the boat in the first place. Idk maybe Morena is testing his patience or something and is considering her as one of her chess pieces. (One of crackhead theories as you can see)

Tserriednich meeting Melody. This gonna traumatized Melody as she'll hear his heartbeat and realized how evil he is. And Tserriednich obsession of art from promising ladies or some sht is making me super scared for Melody. I hope she survives and lives.

Hisoka and Chrollo rematch when they touch down at the fake continent. Fake continent probably has hot weather by then and thus it will fulfill the end of Hisoka's real prophecy from Yorknew

Illumi and Hisoka are working together where Illumi and Kalluto will escape or attempts to, then Hisoka double crosses them or almost does it (crackhead theory)

Shizuku's death. Easiest to target by Hisoka. But if Hisoka won't or can't kill her then it'll be either due to Tserriednich or Morena directly or indirectly

Tserriednich, Halkenburg, Camille and Benjamin's next move. I'm craving for Tier 1 events lmao xD

Hinrigh having second thoughts about double crossing or playing further with the Troupe

More Hinrigh content lmao he grew on me during this comeback omfg now I don't want him to die ;---;

And that's it for now lmao my brain is fried so ima yeet out rn

[3gremlins]

okay i watched the da:tv gameplay trailer and some thoughts!

-gameplay looks pretty fun and fast and swishy (i know the crpg contingent will be upset but da2 is my favorite so i'm not mad about it at this point, fast combat makes my brain go ZING. i love bg3 but the combat takes so fucking long, i've got places to be, fam). The attack lines from enemies are kind of interesting? i'm not sure about them but it feels like it'll be a little more involved than dispatching all the nameless, brainless enemies we did in DAI/previously which could be neat? we'll see. the venatori still feel a little weak as enemies to me (like kinda boring, you need to fight someone type of enemies)

-excited to finally not have to choose between arrows and daggers as as a rogue (and the switch doesn't look terribly clunky? *stares at dao meaningfully*)

-i wish they'd shown the other classes a little bit (can we not switch to/direct our companions at all? i thought they said we could somewhere. not being able to switch to them would suck a bit, how else will i know what class i want to do next?*), or even showed the rogue at a higher level for more skillz (just the one's a little boring but understandable)

-would also love to see skill trees? are there skill trees?

-aesthetic looks fairly similar to dai tbh? i kinda wish it was more like the character trailers (i know unpopular opinion) actually, like a new swishy aesthetic for the swishy gameplay (like really reinvent yourself, put your whole chest into it, but also given the reaction to the character trailer i can see why they didn't feel they could/should)

-otherwise, it does look good! the hair especially, will have to see it in cc (have we finally been delivered from eyebrow caterpillars????)

-default rook looks so good! already feels like they have more innate personality than the inkys did (like hawke). -tho i hope we can dye their clothes/gear b/c i do not love the purple/yellow lol (have they mentioned about dyes at all? there's been so much info, it's a little overwhelming) -their voice is hot, oh no bioware and the hot voices again lol like might just do a pt with default human rook??? a thing i haven't done since da2 so that's a good sign (based on the concept art, it looks like there might be a "default" rook for humans, elves, qunari and dwarves which is sort of interesting? maybe they were just playing with it tho)

-already love neve, tho her hat/veil is still weird (it is dragon age, mages have to have stupid hats i guess). good luck neve cosplayers balancing a weird board on the side of your heads!

-love the dialogue wheel but am also biased b/c DA2 = <3 I hope the dialogue choices build up similarly to how they did in da2 (where you'd get unique dialogue options based on how sassy/nice/decisive you were)

-i am underwhelmed by the on the ground city design they showed idk some of the environments feel like stuff i've seen in the other da games a bunch (esp that last bit of rubble with the sliding into the solas area, like it looks very much like the first bit of dai where you fight the pride demon. but i also played that game too much and most people didn't so it might not matter).

-also having us fight a pride demon AGAIN in the introductory sequence feels kinda same-y (i'm sure it's supposed to be a nod, but it feels kind of re-tread). hopefully we get enemies that aren't demons/venatori (or at least not the same demons/venatori). Would have to see more to really decide but it did feel a little empty/dai-ish (negative) in the sequence they showed

-i know they're hiding plot stuff/unfinished things and probably more combat but every time the trailer went to a black screen with white text it felt like an "it's always sunny" meme like "The Gang interrupts an ancient ritual" XD and i could not take it completely seriously

-the varric/solas dialogue does feel a little weird, like i never felt they were all that close tbh (like it feels like the only person who could do that would be a friend/lover inquisitor). It also kinda felt like an Anders-redo to me, like putting the varric/anders friendship onto solas instead? idk didn't love it, but i get why it's there (narratively)

-varric is def going to die isn't he? i kinda hope so, like i love him but he also is starting to feel a little shoe-horned into things/a little overplayed (plus if they have to kill someone, he feels like a meaningful choice?)

-varric still looks weird with really dark hair, like i'm fine with him going grey but his hair was def redder/browner in previous games (hoping it's just the lighting/water?). hc that he's dyeing it for vanity reasons

-curious about the party choices where you take certain people with you, is it like ME where certain people need to do certain things or they'll die? and it's not obvious (like in suicide mission where if you want companions to live, leaving them behind to do a job is actually the better choice)

-the teaser silhouettes at the end there?!?! lets go unleashed, unhinged evanuris rampaging through thedas?!? **

-still really need solas to turn into a giant multi-eyed wolf (and have the option of a romanced lavellan inky talk him down), like we've gotten so much of the list already, pls bioware (♡ヮ♡)

----

tl;dr: i am most excited about the new companions! the combat looks like it'll be fun/fine, i am tentatively excited about the plot (there is a griffon but they did not show the griffon in this trailer which was foolish, i am easily won this way)/narrative beats. Will play for sure, but going to try to not get too excited (tooo late haha)

*like i'm not going to have 1000 pts and play all the classes but i still liked playing AS companions to get a feel for their skillz and stuff

**thinking about this more, i kinda wish they hadn't gone for the same grandiose opener as DAI and it was instead more of a murder mystery type of framing? like the veil's down, the evanuris are loose and they're not rampaging, they're doing subtle nasty things and we have to track them down (kinda like the forsaken in Wheel of Time). that would be an entirely different game probably tho lol

[shapelytimber]

Hi there! I am obsessed with those TES tarot cards you made. The shapes, the lines, the colors . . . I think The Devil is my personal favorite.

If you don't mind, could you talk about your compositional choices for those? Like layout, structure, arrangement/placement, visual hierarchy, color decisions? Seven years of art school and no composition lessons . . . I'm taking things into my own hands.

Hello !

First of all, omfg thank you so much ?? I'm so glad you like my silly tarot cards :D

I'm really flattered you asked me this question, so I'll try my best to answer it (I'm no teacher and english is not my first language so I hope it will be comprehensible lggklflfifkf)

When you say your an art student who never had any real composition class, I feel you- I've been an applied art student for 4 years (7 if you count design), and apart from really basic and classic stuff like dividing by thirds, the different shots used in cinema, using a little window to help frame what you are trying to draw from life (witch are all very useful), I never really had many composition tips ?

So yeah idk what I'm doing, but that's art baybee

I'll share my process when it comes to designing my cards and hope it'll help lhgktlgofk

I begin by doing little thumbnails (3-4 cm long maximum) with a non erasable pen (or if I'm doing it digitaly, I dezoom a lot, use a big brush and don't erase what I'm doing)

It helps me coming up with big shapes and an interesting compisition (if your doing this on paper, never draw the borders first, it limits your creativity by "putting your drawing in jail" (wisdom from one of my best teachers))

And I personnaly don't use black lines when doing this, because the uglier the lines the less precious I am.

And because I associate dark lines with clean lineart, and this step is about being messy ! So the uglier colors the better :) (for me)

(I'll use two cards as exemples, one I did by doing thumbnails on paper, and the other on my art program)

(And sorry I could not use the devil as an exemple, it was one of the three cards I did in class and so I skipped the thumbnailing for time saving :/)

Next step is sketching, still using my ugly colors :)

But to talk a bit more about composition, for these I always have the important element of the card near the middle (sanguine's face and his lovers head, and miraak as a whole) (I know trick of the year glgjorlfifjl)

And to help with dynamism, I use a lot of diagonal elements (sanguine's shoulders and hips, his right arm and leg, his is leaning back slightly, and his lover is laid a bit to the left. For miraak he is also laying back, his shoulders are not straight, and his to dragons are going on two different diagonals)

Next comes the line ! For this project I chose to use a pretty simple-ish and stylised look (mainly for time saving since it began as a school project)

The colors are really simple, I just do a grey scale version then apply an overlay on top :)

And as a final touch before adding the title, I add a white frame, that I always put behind the foreground to try give them a bit of depth :))

So to sum up my design brief for these :

- clean and stylised lineart

- one color for the whole illustration (exept for the devil because it was the first one I did and I did not know what I was doing glg'goflf)

- a second very saturated color used to highlight important elements (in either yellow, blue, purple or red)

-always have black somewhere

-white frame behind the foreground

-the numbering alternate between the top right and top left (exept once angain for the devil gmgkfnfon I'll have to change that someday)

-the title is always in the middle on the bottom, on top of the white frame

Hope I answerd your question ^^'

thank you again for the very kind message :)

[un-local]

Predictibly, Rogier: 3,6

3) Design/Aesthetic Thoughts

First, a photo for reference, taken from his fextralife page.

I have a lot of thoughts on his design, but precious few of them are anything substantial. Regardless, I am including them all. Lol.

[1] Love the Landsknecht vibe. (Wikipedia link)

[2] I hate drawing that hat though, I really do. It's the bane of my wretched existence. I hope that swingy glintstone piece whacks him in the face ♡

[3] The jester boots. Lol. What is he thinking. 

[4] So many layers. How does he not overheat and die immediately. 

[5] What the hell is that stupid little cape necklace. I love him

(gif from this post!)

[6] The fact that that blue and yellow are his main colors has some fitting connotations under Hankshaw's Video on Color Theory in Elden Ring. Here's my thoughts, copypasted from an older post:

He's a mix, an entity in the Lands between unlike any other. Calm, logical, rebellious. Creative. Lonely. An agent of change, as much a scholar of the Order's history as he is a heretic. As a sorcerer who to seeks to repair the Order by altering it, Rogier is a striking clash of ideologies.

[7] His concept art (?) on fextralife is interesting. He seems to be older, and he's possibly using the staff as a cane.

I wonder how his story and injury changed and adapted throughout development. Was he originally meant to play a bigger (or smaller) part in the game's world? He seems to be at the heart of something big, but he also seems so inconsequential in the grand scope of things. Was a more involved story cut, or was it always intended to be this way?

Also, why’d they get rid of the laugh lines? :( I guess ill just have to bring them back in my art.

[8] I love how his outfit incorporates glintstone:

It's even in his boots, and the sleeves of his doublet... overshirt... thing.

I love how the blue/yellow/white of his design contrasts the red/yellow/black of Alberich's. Note how Alberich's is decorated with red glintstones, made from blood sacrifices:

Also of note, their respective hats describe them as “heretical.”

(I went deeper into looking at Alberich as Rogier's foil, but honestly, that post went... a lot off the rails.)

6) Psychological Headcanons 

(tastes, fears, talents, regrets, how they deal with anger, just anything that comes to mind on the topic)

[1] He wields customer service voice and scripts like no other. He’ll spill soup on you and give such a good apology that it'll make you want to make it up to him.

(Whether or not this is intentional... It probably depends on the situation.)

[2] Talents: according to this, his dex is actually higher than his int.

Given that, it seems he’s more practiced with sword than spell. Or at least, he picked up sword-fighting before sorcery. Which brings me to this YouTube short by a fencer, where he says that fencing and dancing are "intricately linked," and "one really informs the other."

So here's my silly little headcanon: Back in the day, in his life before, Rogier killed it on the ballroom floor. (Or whatever they had back then.)

...I wonder how many situations he talked himself out of (and into) while dancing with a partner. It seems like the perfect time to turn his "easy air" up to 11, as D calls it.

Idk, I think his life among nobility shaped the way he wields his manners. I'd love to think he learned how to turn his skills from that life into a weapon, one just as effective as his sword. That before his time in The Lands Between, it was really the only weapon he could use against the agendas of others.

[3] His fear: his untimely demise. I think the onset of this only really began after his injury. That's when he began to really understand the risks associated with his research.

Look at it this way: there’s knowing something is dangerous and acting accordingly, and then there’s understanding what the consequences are. (Ex: wearing PPE because you know you should, vs actually seeing what exposure to a chemical does to you.)

Before Stormveil, desperation and denial probably helped keep that understanding at bay. He’s chasing this thing, and he knows it’s dangerous—he’s done all the reading and research he possibly can. But I wonder how much he actually let himself stop and think about the danger before he jumped into his search for the next artifact. 

But now that he does truly grasp what’s in store for him, there’s no way to change course. I think that his fate (and it's inevitability) scares him to no end. I think it kills him that he won't be able to finish what he started. That he doesn't have time anymore—in the land where no one's supposed to die, no less.

The only thing he can do is work on his research a little more before he succumbs to the deathless dream. That’s where you, as the player, come in. 

(Side note: as for how long he’s in denial about the fatality of his condition—I can’t say. He could realize it's over as soon as he wakes up in the Hold, or he could be clinging onto some far-fetched hope all the way until he warns the player he’s falling asleep. Readers preference, I suppose.) 

[4] Regrets: the better question is what doesn’t he regret, lol.

Jokes aside, I think most of his regrets center around how things came to pass, rather than what came to pass. I don't think he regrets that he and D parted ways, but I think he regrets how it came to happen. That kind of thing.

[5] One last random headcanon: He's not a morning person. That first hour or so after waking—oof. That’s when his demeanor isn’t at full power yet. I have a small little bit for this in Still Waters planned, far off in the future. Because I want to hear him honestly complain for once, without all that dignity. I think it'd be fun to watch.

Thanks for the ask!!

[ Ask Game Link! ] Send me a character and a number!

[pepmint-art]

Do you have any art tips? (With infinite rizz)

Yeah! I actually do! Idk why you're asking me from all amazing artists on this plaform, but it's plesure to share them!

IMO, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO JUST HAVE FUN. ART ISN'T A COMPETITION and no one is going to be the best in this. because of someone, who pushed this idea of not doing enough/ my art being shitty i stopped sharing my art with other. the problem was that i was a child and didn't understand that the person who said it just wanted to make me feel bad and it took me around 8 years to get it and start showing my art to anyone again (ah yes, personal trauma sharing)

okay so if we have organizational matters behind us, here some tips that i know but mosty forget about

choose background color before coloring the main part of drawing. colors looks different on white background and on e.g. on beige

lineart in other color can look better then in black. it's not the rule, but using e.g. brown lineart might make your art look softer and using just darker colors of the one that lineart is the closest

anatomy is wonky, redrawing poses from pictures from the internet might help. also remember that there's many types of body and all is perfect

make breaks between drawing. go eat, sleep is important. DRINK GOD DAMN WATER. help your body, it'll help your mind to not look at your art and be like "... gross"

technically, gap between eyes suppose to be one eye width. with half side standing character- one eye ends behind the nose, second starts where the nose (hole in the nose) ends

mouth can be just a line... but those juscy lips are so kissable. soft brushes can do a good work here

blush isn't suppose to be bright red, it's better when it's close to skin tone but readder

never shade with black. use darker, more saturated colores instead

you can make few colores of black and grey

just don't push this dot to much onto the edges

it's funny, but you can actually use make-up tutorials to learn how to shade skin

hands... PUT THEM INTO POCKETS i mean... just try, there's many hands photos just being hands, or holding stuff on the internet that you'll always find your reference

remember about the gravitation. heavy, not solid stuff will try to kiss the floor

that's all i guess. if you're happy with your art then you're in good spot. no matter if you want to make progress or leave it as it is as long as you don't hate your art it's good

what on the living hell "with infinite rizz" mean!? i'm a fucking boomer

[fae-iii]

Mienfoo Postmortem

Real excited about this: I finally got that time lapse thing to work in Aseprite! It turned out to be super easy with the things I learned from the Buizel animation. There's some parts where I was playing with different palettes and the gif goes mostly black and I couldn't figure out how to get those parts to display properly without hand-editing each one of them, but other than that it's pretty cool. Thing for next time, I guess?

I think I'm getting pretty good at finding a process that works for me. One cool thing I've been able to do recently is, like what I did with the arms, putting little placeholder shapes in so I can visualize where a thing is gonna be and then working towards that. Idk where I started doing that, I guess I just did it a little bit and then more and more on each subsequent piece and I'm starting to get pretty good at it; I think!

You see me do a few things in there like I tried to make the eye in vain before I got a real start with the head, I could do things more efficiently in places like there. Speaking of heads, I'm getting pretty good at these musteline heads! "Sneasel and Mienfoo have two different head types;" they're surprisingly really similar and I feel a lot more appreciative of the pokemon designers skills… at design!

Idk, it's not 100% accurate of a head to the official design and you can see me try to correct that a bit in the timelapse, but what I got feels really nice and has a certain- hmm, idk, je ne sais quoi, lol. It just comes across as a mildly different artstyle, I think.

The left leg kinda looks weird, I think? I didn't really have any idea of where the underlying knee bones are on Mienfoo to really match it up with my reference photo (I was gonna link it; it was on pinterest which I don't really like and the link is now dead, so I guess it's not important anyway). Also the neck band is kinda weird, but it looks OK.

The tail, lol, I kinda panicked because I almost forgot it, I think you even see me put in a little shading before I start on the tail. I struggled with it a bit before my pea-brain made the connection that it was kinda like the ribbon feelers on my Sylveon piece and I just took the end of a ribbon from there and chiseled away and added to it, lmao. I think, on the Sylveon piece, my brain was truly firing on all pistons with those ribbons.

I think the art journals have run their course, I've internalized a lot of the stuff I would've written down in there like, "You can draw lines with the line tool" or "this sucks, but maybe It'll get better :)" so I don't think I'll be doing those that much if at all. But I guess doing a little post-mortem longer than the main post is a fair substitute, lol!

Also, I think this might be the last piece of art I'm sharing this year (maybe making if I don't get my ducks in a row). And what a year it has been! ~47 pieces according to my archive on imgur. That's 47 more pieces than I did last year! I don't think I'm gonna do a recap of this year of art until whenever it was I posted that Gastly art and then, for "accounting purposes," I'll do recaps at the ends of years after that.

Look at me making big, multi-year plans :3. I really wanna stick around and I hope anyone following me wherever does too! Thank you for a- ok, well; it could've been better mental-health-wise and things still feel pretty rough, but I'm getting it figured out- great year! Let's hope for an even better one in the far-flung future of 2014, babey!

[hirazuki]

*knock knock* For the 🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

What about...

that one thing you see in fics all the time

that one thing you see in fanart all the time (for totally unselfish reasons)

there should be more of this type of fic/art

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

?

Take care!

Hiiiii ♡♡♡

that one thing you see in fics all the time

So -- of course everyone fandoms how they want, to each their own, etc. -- but literally every fic I've seen about Mairon that has to do with him in the 4th Age in Valinor post-canon or even in AUs leaving Melkor's service earlier/joining someone else (be it a Feanorian, Maeglin, Celebrimbor, whoever), or any flavor of him not being his strictly canon dark-lord-doing-dark-lord-business self, tends to cast him as subservient and Very Sorry for everything he's done. I would kill for a fic where, despite changed circumstances, he is still fully committed to his beliefs. I would die for:

1. post-canon 4th Age Mairon in Valinor who is not sorry at all, would 100% do it again, wants to do it again dear lord please let him try again, the only mistake he acknowledges making is in the how he executed his ideals (because he's a pragmatist and there's no point in arguing facts, and the facts say he failed) not in those ideals themselves.

And/or 2. Canon-divergent AU where Mairon does choose to work with someone else (Maedhros, Maeglin, etc; though for me, personally, it would still have to be driven by loyalty to Melkor; motivated by wanting to save Melkor from the effect the silmarils are having on him, perhaps), but despite this still has the same views, opinions, beliefs, and approaches. The idea of trying to fit his modus operandi within, say, Himring's military or Gondolin's politics, that push/pull between his will and whoever he is attempting to cooperate with is ✨delicious✨ to me.

Idk, bottom line is that I find the idea of "redemption" far too often equated with servility which grosses me out, and is why I finally filtered out that particular tag on AO3 XD

On the other hand, I also don't enjoy one-dimensionally cruel interpretations of Mairon, and with few exceptions it seems to be either/or in this fandom so. I don't really read much anymore for a reason ^^;

that one thing you see in fanart all the time (for totally unselfish reasons)

(;ladkjfsdlkfj oh you ♡)

Portraits. And I honestly don't mean this in a negative sense! I totally get the fandom's preoccupation with character portraits, and I myself am very, very guilty of it too -- I think it's only natural that for book characters that we really only get things like "Tall" and "Tallest" as descriptors (thanks, jirt XD), everyone wants to explore and work out their own visions of what these characters look like. I just wish that in addition to that kind of standard portraiture, we also had stuff that was more detail shots (hands, ears, jewelry, etc), or artistically cropped/sections blacked out/stylized elements or patterns superimposed on the characters, or more abstract non-sexual nudity type of art; moodboards, etc. Idk how to describe it exactly, but fanart that is more suggestion/impression of the characters rather than a visual itemized list. Again, I'm also very guilty of this and trying to change up my own art to include more variety.

there should be more of this type of fic/art

Enemies to lovers, enemies to grudging companions, characters who are diametrically opposed to each other being put in circumstances that force them to work together, regardless of whether it's shippy/not shippy or if it'll last with long-term consequences/it's just a temporary situation and then they'll go back to being as they were, etc. For a story with such a large cast of characters with so many different affiliations, there is surprisingly little content of opponents having to team up together. Granted, I don't venture in the tags often and read very little, so I may be wrong, but the impression I've gotten from being a Silm fan for twenty years is that mostly everyone stays neatly in their designated fields (Feanorians, Doriath, Angband, Valinor, etc.). Like, get messy; please.

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Unsurprisingly, it's "they wandered far together under the stars or by the light of the sickle moon." The whole Nan Elmoth portion of the Maeglin chapter, really, is just full of such intense, obsessive yet intimate and genuine companionship, it's so raw, it makes me absolutely feral.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Can I say all of them XD You probably know by now that I'm very attached to my complexity and nuance, so I find any complaint both about how characters are being ruined by so-called woobification (i.e. in actuality just given a sympathetic interpretation) and ruined by being hated on (i.e. in actually just having their canon flaws and failings explored and expanded upon) so very, very tired. Certainly, there are interpretations out there that make characters far too meek/submissive and too cruel/evil for my tastes, but overall I've found that the people who routinely complain about it are far louder and more annoying than the people actually doing it, who typically mind their own business and are simply enjoying the characters in their own preferred way. I like my characters three-dimensional, fallible, and grey, and sick of hearing how they need to be strictly one thing or another.

[trashyandtiredsol]

Okay @kredena-dark you have unlocked an unskippable rant!!! :D

Some of this is just me explaining stuff, so don't mind that- actually idk I'm just info dumping rn, it explaining everything in full detail, but still explaining :P

Idk how long it'll be so- CUT TIME

💚Okay- posca pens!! Fuckin love those!! It's a liquid marker of sorts and there are thinner nib ones and thicker nib ones. There's also a very limited amount of color options. Which include pastel like colors, black, white, gray, silver, gold, basic color saturated colors, forgot if the green is more of a forest green or a more vibrant green tho :P

They can be so smooth and solid looking!! Which is what I like about them!! It's like markers but better!! :D

Really wanna get every single color for myself instead of only using them at school :/

💚 Woodworking has been going really great so far!! For woodworking 1 I took last year, it was introducing all the machines, taking safety tests on those machines plus ones for how to be safe in the workshop. It's where I made a box and a shelf were the drawer is now stuck in, which sucks, plus a phone holder with 2 holes for pencils.

Woodworking 2- very nice~ I'm working on another shelf, this time with 3 drawers!! And hopefully they won't get stuck :P. We also make a bowl, which I'll fully fully work on once my shelves done!! We actually learned a new machine for this!! It's able to make the wood rounded, so we can make a bowl and practice making the wood rounded.

💚Ink is a very nice tool for traditional art in my opinion!! You can put a blob of sorts and shape it however you want, then once it's dry you can use a sharpie or a pen or a fineliner sharpie pen to make something out of it :D

You can also just use the line pens and sharpies by themselves and create different values with thicker or thinner lines and I have shaky hands!! Which can really make your lines feel more organic in a way!! Also really helps me feel loose drawing!! But then sometimes it's rather annoying, like with digital art and when I want to make smooth straight and curved lines!!

💚 Speaking of digital art~

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW THAT'S BEEN GOING FOR ME SINCE I'VE STARTED DIGITAL ART!! :D

I think it was..... Less than a year ago? Around that long ago :P

Anyway- I've made myself my own Sona and it's great!! My hair color and just having a pixie cut hair works quite well with the cat ears!! And all the markings and just- everything that's gone into making them has been so great~

And the art apps I use!! It took a few tries with multiple other art apps and looking up which would work for a phone and what was free to use. But I found Infinite Painter and HiPaint and they are so great!!

I found Infinite Painter first off, and it's worked splendidly and hasn't crashed or glitched on me at all!! And the brush options are so nice!! It's a great beginner digital art app, it doesn't overload you with so many brush customizations!! Even though there still are plenty of customizations, you don't have to adjust them if you don't want to!! You can just change the opacity and size of it if you want!!

And then there's HiPaint!! I REALLY like the brushes this app has, it's actually so much better than Infinite Painter!! And you can customize the stabilizer!! I currently have it a 20%. I actually thought I'd have it at some higher percentage since my hands shake, but it's quite comfortable at 20%!! I could maybe slide it to 21 -25% , just for a bit more smoothness. And- this app has glitched out once before and it wouldn't let me do anything at all!! So I tried restarting my phone a couple times and that didn't work so I uninstalled it AND I FRICKIN LOST MY PROJECTS ON IT AJSJDJFJFFKDJF that fuckin sucked, but luckily I already posted the doodles I did on there and I screenshotted the sona sketch I did, but I did loose my linework and the start of me coloring it :/. But I did redo the linework and finished it all and it looks very nice!! So didn't really lose anything permanently!! It hasn't glitch again so that's good~

💚hmmmm I'm running out of what to add!! Might just leave this as is~

Idk I wanna show this as soon as possible so I can talk more about this with you Kredena!!

(this is mainly for Kredena, but to anyone else reading, I hope you like this all!!)

Ye you know what idk what else to add, probably all my head cannons and such for every fandom I've ever been in, but I don't even remember all of that rn so- this is it I guess, maybe at least for now!! :D

💚Update: BANNER IDEAS FOR MY BLOG HERE :D

I have some very nice ideas!! There's one with my sona wearing my in progress green scarf!! There's another with a winter setting with a certain way the trees would look that I really wanna try doing!! There's a flower pattern idea for spring!! I also wanna do one with a pattern with better pumpkins and fall leaves and candy corn!! For summer I'd probably do a Sona drawing with a sunny background with my sona wearing shades and, OH OH MAYBE STANDING IN AN OCEAN!! OH I LOVE THOSE CONCEPTS SO FRICKIN MUC AJSJDDJFJajsjsjdjsffjdjAHSHDajsjdhASJDHDjajsdj!!

[volskayadottxt]

things i learned from rare pair week

back when i hosted ramyatta week, drawing so much and so consistently for a few weeks helped me improve a lot. i feel like ive probably gotten the same thing from rare pair week. specifically...

-lineart is my fav part of the process, i like indicating heavy shadows with solid blocks of black or very dark brown.

-my fave types of brushes to ink with are fineliner mimics with a bit of dithering. while brushes with more pressure are nice, i think i honestly prefer just painting and carving into my lines. its why doing lineart properly takes me hours and hours but i really like the results...

-coloring is my least favorite part. but i hate how solid flat colors look. therefore... we have a problem.

-I NEED TO USE REFERENCES MORE like im just not good enough to build a pose from form construction alone! i wont be for ages so why am i trying this hard??

-i do not fucking like drawing people. like i just dont. idk what but the only pieces i had motivation on were the ones with an omnic involved. maybe thats why i quit a decade ago. but i cant force myself to draw humans if i dont like it, no matter how much i wanna draw zarya being sexy or mauga being beefy (still lesbian hes just super fun to draw in small bursts bc he is so Shaped)

i was not destined to be a beefy woman artist...

while i was working on my day 4 i actually was also rewatching tengen toppa gurren lagann with a friend and honesty... i might try to just steal whats going on in those eyecatches. the big, blocky shadows, the feathering at the shadow edges, and the pale and just slightly desaturated colors...

yeah... ive been thinking about these a lot. my brain was already primed to go in this direction since i started reading idw1 transformers. a lot of mtmte/ll is rendered this way regarding shadows and how they indicate form. actually, i think a lot of transformers art is.

yes these are from my cygate screenshots folder...

so anyways, the plan is to draw cosmic crisis ramyatta for a bit and finally dip my toes into transformers art. ill have my hands full with the shambali boys and the lost light crew so!!

if i draw any humans anytime soon it'll be venture. actually i do wanna draw them as simon from ttgl!!

[metukika]

hey uhh idk if anybody have asked you this but,

Can i ask with what program and what brushes do you draw? Like your art is really amazing and cool

thank you!! I use photoshop and ink with this brush that comes with the photoshop I use automatically. It's the first brush in the wet media category

but then I fuck with it when I'm done so it's all pixely and I can use the bucket tool. I do this cuz the pen pressure on the pencil tool is complete crap <3 is there a better, easier way to draw with a setting close to it? probably idk I had to do a lot of discovering myself and I don't download brushes.

I do this by merging the line art layer (currently looks like left example, make sure it's completely black) with a completely white layer beneath it. Then in the settings at the top of the screen I go to Image > Adjustments > curves... > and move the little arrows so they're in the middle like this. (you can fuck around with the triangle placements, so it'll give you thicker or thinner results)

then, at the side, I double click the current layer and move this triangle a little to the left. or a lot. just not to completely to the other side it doesn't matter.

Then I merge the layer with a completely blank layer. This will get rid of all the white. then, while still on the layer, I press Ctrl+U and move this triangle all the way to the darkest setting. This will make any gray pixels sticking to the lines black. so there will be no complications later.

For the rest I just use the pencil tool. For blush and gradients I use the softest brush mostly.

Again, there are prob better ways to do this, and you might not care if you're using the brush or pencil cuz you don't use the bucket tool but you asked and so I answered. Using pixelized lines makes it easier to color, shade, select a specific area and makes literally every aspect of the drawing easier, imo. hope this was useful or at the very least interesting! <3

[spectre-draws]

Hi there! Do you have any art/design tips or wisdom ya can bestow? Your art and designs are super duper inspiring and cool so i was just wondering!

Oh, well, that's certainly very flattering! Honestly I don't really know what to say without any specifics? I guess I can just throw out a few basic tips?

1. Save frequently. I guarantee you at some point in your life whatever program you're using will crash, and losing 5 mins work is preferable to suddenly losing 2 hrs work. Trust me, I've been there.

2. Don't do shadows/highlights in black/white. Generally they'll have a tint to them depending on the lighting, and things end up way too desaturated otherwise. Of course, you can cheat a bit. If I'm drawing in a more cell-shading kinda way, I tend to draw my shadows in pure black on a 50% opacity layer so I can see them very clearly while I'm drawing. Then, bump up to 100%, change layer mode to multiply, colorise and shift the brightness/hue/saturation until I hit something I like. Same thing with highlights but with screen. Then just make a few tweaks for any parts that look off.

3. If you want smooth/clean lineart, try to draw each line in one fast motion. Drawing slow makes you wobble, lots of short choppy lines is impossible to clean up. Don't worry if your lines cross 'over' or extend past where they need to go, you can clean that up with the eraser. Generally if you can draw it in one line, try to do so.

4. Use references. It's not cheating, I promise. If you have a specific pose in mind and a camera you can even use yourself! It's pretty much the only reason I ever take photos of myself.

5. If you're talking like... character design? I'd say the biggest tip is to think about shape... the kind of silhouette your character will make. Give them something distinctive. Maybe it's billowy sleeves, or a cloak, or a funky jacket, or a huge collar, or a puffy skirt, or anything that makes their figure stand out.

6. Second tip for character design is to pick a palette and stick to it. You don't want too many colours or things get muddled. So if you're designing a druid for example, don't use 15 different greens. Maybe pick a light green, a dark green, a brown or two, and then a neutral colour. Try to vary the brightness/darkness of stuff too. It'll create more contrast and make things pop. Of course, that's just a rule of thumb, main point is just not to pick a different colour for every bit of fabric.

7. Flip your canvas. Makes you spot mistakes, essentially tricks your brain into seeing things with fresh eyes. Just don't flip too frequently or you'll get used to both 'sides'. Generally just once when you've completed each stage? (sketch-lines-rendering? idk it depends on your process)

Hopefully that's at least some use? I've been meaning to put together another process video at some point, I've just been putting it off because I can't decide if I just want to throw music over it or talk...

[sweetly-yours-and-mine]

  hello ❤️❤️❤️

Can I ask for a 💕???

I'm a 20 yr old cis girl , Gemini ,Mediterranean with olive skin dark black curly hair with a wolf cut and brown eyes.

Love music as I'm a musician myself love art and creativity and aesthetic whic is a main reason why I study architecture.

I am very good with strangers yet I shut down immediately when they get to know me and become calmer and don't talk too much with close people not on purpose just always been this way and I'm trying my hardest not do that , I do get mood swings yet the moment I feel I'm about to cross the line I just give the silent treatment I genuinely don't know if this is a normal thing or I have a lot to work on😅😂

Can I get shipped with one of Oscar characters??thx love

And congratulations on your 100 followers lysm❤️

I ship you with Jonathan Levy!

I'm not much of an astrology person myself, but from what I've read, it seems that Geminis are very chaotic and social people. Jonathan seems more introverted so to me you two will balance each other out!

As a philosophy professor, he has a deep appreciation for the arts as well and you two could spend hours talking about it together. Maybe he even teaches at the same university at you so you two might commute together and have to keep your relationship secret because it's frowned upon by the administration.

I can't describe it better than this, but Jonathan is a wine guy. He likes dusty old books, and candelit rooms. He has a hefty slice of joie-de-vivre inside him and he lives for the moment. I think that for your first anniversary (or later on idk) you two would get body paint and make love on one of those huge canvases to hang up in one of the hallways of your home. He's definitely the type to take you to mueseums and to hole-in-the-wall cinemas to watch foreign films together even though he'll kiss you through the whole thing.

Especially after the divorce, I think, Jonathan would be scared of intimacy and getting close to people for fear of getting hurt. Though this might cause some initial friction in your relationship, if you sit down and talk it through, you two will find a lot of common ground. Then, I think, you two can navigate your way through the tough spots.

As with Ava, when he decides he wants you to meet her, it'll take her a while to warm up to you. But I feel that you can bond with her over drawing and that'll really bring her out of her shell. She'll come up to you and ask you to draw her her favourite cartoon characters and will watch you as you do it for her. Then, you help her colour in the pictures and end up asleep in front of the TV watching the cartoon. Jonathan definitely has a soft spot for the two of you and cannot say no for the life of him.

I think one of the climaxes of your relationship is when he takes you to a faculty Christmas party after you've graduated and you no longer have to keep your relationship a secret. You'll dress up and spend the whole evening acting like lovers on a honeymoon.

Dating Jonathan will take a lot of work from both of your ends. He's fragile after what Mira did to him, but he also feels a different type of connection with you that wasn't there with Mira, so he'll definitely be willing to put in the work and knows that he shouldn't take it lightly that you've given him a second chance at love.

He'll be careful with your heart and trusts you enough to know that you'll be careful with his.

Thanks for playing, honey! Hope you liked it!

Come celebrate 100 followers with me!

[formulaorange]

Sunday July 11th

Summer Anime Week 2

Peach Boy Riverside Episode 2 Yo - already such solid action. This show is going to be so much fun to watch and the ending for this episode was honestly just as good as the last, I really can't wait to see what they'll do next. Meikyuu Black Company Episode 1 I actually think i'll really like this show. The animations are pretty neat, idk how to describe them but they look something like sketches? I like the roughness to it. The story itself also feels new and fun to watch. Tokyo Revengers Episode 14 I think I'm going to hold off on commenting on this one for a little bit now, at least until the story starts to progress more. Right now I feel like we can't really tell where things are headed so I don't want to try and decifer anything as of where we're at and instead, just enjoy the show. Vanitas no Carte Episode 2 ahh so good I love both Vanitas and Noe but Noe for life (+ his excellent cat) This is getting interesting - not like it wasn't already but it's neat to see the kinds of vampires they're against and other characters in general.

Rest of the Summer shows for today's review are under the cut:

Cheat Kusushi no Slow Life Isekai ni Tsukurou Drugstore Episode 1 The animations are really soft and look nice but overall it just seems like another meh isekai with an episode to episode plot line. This'll definitely be a casual side show. Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Episode 1 Low-key this looks like it'll be a lot of fun, I think it has a good balance of comedy and fantasy. Basically the summoned hero is rejected from his position because the goddess you summoned him found him ugly. So he just kinda wanders around the wasteland she sent him to with some op powers. (Animations also remind me of Gurren Lagann) Remake Our Life! Episode 2 Ayy here we go - into the creating aspect. I think this show is going to be so fun, and I think it'll show a lot of what many people don't see about the behind the scenes for arts. In this case, we'll see the creative processes of film and the different roles people play when coming together to create something. I'm really looking forward to this series. Re-Main Episode 2 The team is starting to form!! I think this is going to be so refreshing to watch. It feels different form other sports anime so far and I really like that. Realist Hero Episode 2 ok something that was bothering me last episode too - idk why they all make the protagonist 18. like the amount of work he's doing, I don't know what the big deal would be about making him like a 20 something college student so it makes more sense about how much he knows.