#im proud of *most* of the anatomy here

[axel-tiredstudent]

Doing art has been kinda difficult lately even though I have so much free time and that's why I'm really really happy that I love my last drawing so much ^^

[creatediana]

"Junho" - an exercise in willow charcoal done 4/22/2024 in about 20 minutes of Lee Junho from 2PM

[itsjustdotsandcrosses]

ID Four drawing of Violet, a dark skinned drow-elf woman with a thin athletic body, light tattoos, and a light braid that reaches her shins.

The first drawing shows her in a leather crop top and high waisted leather bottoms, a knife strapped to her thigh with a leather holster. Her hand lays on her hip while face and lower legs are not shown, and a symbol of a crown is drawn above her.

In the second drawing she is nude except for thick soled knee high leather boots and a strap on with a leather harness. She is tugging on the main holster strap with a calm look on her face, three sparkles are drawn near her face.

In the third drawing she is nude except for a ball gag and what binds her arms. leather straps with buckles bind her biceps and join across her shoulder blades, connected down by another strap to a long leather cuff that holds both her arms behind her back, forearms overlapping. She is shown from behind while kneeling with a concentrating face, a droplet symbol is drawn next to her head.

In the fourth and final drawing Violet wears nothing underneath a chest harness, along with a collar and a belt binding her thighs. The chest harness is strapped around her small breasts in a diamond shape, extending upwards around her neck and down towards her hips and crotch. Her arms are unseen and bound behind her, her legs are bound together above the knee with a belt. Attached to her thick leather collar is a leash that goes up and out of canvas, she has a dreamy drooling expression on her face as 3 hear symbols surround her head. end ID.

Might as well post this here for the archive, thinking about that leather working proficiency.

[niftukkun]

fanart for a scene in @nerdydowntherabbithole 's Taking Life As Is on AO3 !! a scene early on in the fanfic that sounded so cool it gripped me with inspiration, where a vulture swoops down and gets fucking got by a leviathan while our dear protagonists look on in horror of the beautiful brutality of mother nature happening right in front of them! dont you love it when you leave your rotting corpse behind and immediately get hit with the existential horror of almost dying and the primal fear of seeing something that much bigger than you and realising your fragility when you were once a godlike being above such lowly thoughts and struggles? anyway.

some details and thoughts !! :

-just before this scene, sugar (survivor's name in this fic) hunted and ate a salamander, so i included it in this here drawin too !! hell yeah esoteric fic-accurate details -(pro tip for any artists out there; if you want to push something into the background, gradient overlays are your friend. also, dont forget to check your values. outline your characters if they aren't popping out of the background enough) -in other, not fic-accurate detail,, moon's dress and marks. i think in the fic, moon's dress is more like,, an actual dress with sleeves and such. but also like, i do what i want and i want something thats barely a dress so i can show off my anatomy/mechanical bits art skills. i dont care if its not canon compliant im calling rule of cool -whoops i forgor the wires uhh shit nevermind it would cover the cool bits anyway whatever -also, while i am proud of the vulture and leviathan, they both used reference. like, i sketched them out yeah, but also the sketch was mostly done by staring at a reference the whole time and overlaying it on the canvas as needed when the drawing looked a little too off. so if you look at this and think 'aw man this guys too good at drawing i could never draw a vulture/leviathan/background/whateverthefuck like that' youre wrong. use references and get better at art by referencing references -shoutout to the miraheze wiki btw for supplying most of my references for this. fandom wiki could never

this fic holds a special place in my heart. like, i dont agree with it on a lot of things (how the cycle works, time between slugcat campaigns, how rot works, etc), but its very internally consistent and i like how all the characters are written. i really do like how, despite all the bickering, the iterators really do care for each other and love each other. i like that the blame isn't pushed just to pebbles, the acknowledgement of there being a lot of nuance and complications in the whole situation. i like the worldbuilding, nsh's wetland-esque biome, srs's gleaming glass beaches, the different interesting fauna/flora, slugcat society worldbuilding, the fucking trains hell yes trains.

most of all though, i love the authors dedication to getting a happy ending. no one left behind. all the iterators in the local group are getting freed (except for innocence but thats a different thing) all the slugcats are alive and doing well (even artificer's kids!!). and even though the fic throws the characters around, bad things happen, steps backward are taken,,, there is almost a palatable message that no matter what, things will be okay. artificer did bad and its acknowledged with visible consequences (scavenger temple route, which mightve made things so much easier on the route to nsh) but she still gets her kids back. hunter had her rot cured and even got some sick new upgrades but still struggles with overexertion and moments of weakness. both pebbles and moon have ptsd from the rot and the rain respectively and its handled reasonably well, not even mentioning the survivors guilt and learned helplessness on nsh and the whole,, guilt from causing this whole fiasco and the feeling of it being all their fault from srs,,,, , ,,,

i dont know. i just really like how dedicated the fic is to showing the realistic consequences of the unforgiving and brutal world of rain world and weaving it into a story of forgiveness and freedom. there are struggles but the heroes will still win and get to go home happy. its cathartic. i love it a lot.

[squidpedia]

How did you learn anatomy for human/humanoid characters?

Sorry, I accidentally sent the same message to your reblog blog. I just really need help and you’re a big inspiration for me.

You’re an amazing artist and I really am thankful for you being here. Hope you have a good weekend!

Appreciated!!

Lots of reference photos, trace over them to get a better feel for how to draw them too

(Old art ew but I remember having a lot of trouble replicating poses at the time so I would trace each limb and break them down into simpler shapes, and it did help lessen the struggle a bit)

Draw models, whether from photos or in person. I like using websites that generate random photos of models for my warm-ups sometimes. Also in a life drawing class with a bunch of live models, so that also helps a lot

Do whatever anatomy studies studies you think would help, hand studies, facial studies, im personally overdue for some side profile studies. Studying skeletal and muscle structure also helped a lot

Watching anatomy tip related videos on youtube is also basically what raised me. Nothing really long, just whatever short videos could go over stuff like tips for drawing foreshortening, how to draw different body types, how to draw expressions, etc etc. If theres any aspect of anatomy that stumps you on how to draw it, there is most likely some videos floating around thats probably made for that

I can’t emphasize this enough, theres gonna be a lot of drawings you make that you don’t like from practicing and thats ok! Improvement is a really gradual process most of the time, its like watching a plant grow from a seed to a flower. You don’t actually see the plant growing in real time, but its growing trust. I don’t really notice my art making any dramatic changes most of the time, the difference only become super clear if I compare my stuff from now to 1-2 years ago.

But on that note, try your best not to be too self deprecating about your art. Find things to be proud of if possible! You might be your own worst critic a lot and thats fine and kinda unavoidable but don’t be shy to remind yourself of any improvements you’ve been able to notice, even if its really small or from a while ago

[spcyhooman]

i never posted my most amazing vriska drawing i made here.... i absolutely gotta remedy that

WARNING FOR BLOOD AND MISSING LIMB!!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

this is what i wanted to redraw from the comic

here you guys go

im particularly proud of the shadinv on this one and the texture i was able to give to things. also i think the anatomy is correct (finally)

this is from when i couldn't stop drawing vriska even though i hated her (i still do). i love her character but MAN is she horrible.

anyway, should i post more of my other vriska art? or just post more in general..

[heich0e]

Liv you don’t have to answer this if you’re not comfortable with it but I was just wondering if you have any tips on how to have safe sex? I feel like those kinds of conversations are so overlooked in media and as a person who’s never been sexually active im kinda nervous and scared. I know having a condom it’s important but what else? Like, how to prevent infections or something like that… anyway yeah, sorry if that was an intrusive ask. I hope you have a nice day!

EDIT: i say this below the cut, but i want to add it here too i am not an expert i am just a person speaking from what i know and sharing what resources i can.

first of all please DON'T apologize!! this is such an important question/subject and i think it's very sweet you came to me with it, and i appreciate you trusting me to help!!

off the top of my head the three biggest things that came to mind were condoms (the big obvious one) but also ideally a backup birth control method if contraception is necessary, making sure you and your partner are tested for STDs/STIs (also probably obvious) and just generally are able to communicate about stuff like that, and (something that i wish more ppl talked about!!) lube. lube helps reduce friction, which prevents any tearing (both internally but also for condoms!! just make sure the type of lube you're using is ok to be used with whatever kind of condom you're using.) i've been saying for years that more ppl need to get on board with using lube because it is there to help!!

when it comes to sexual hygiene it's going to differ a lot for every person, not just depending on your anatomy but because everybody's body is different. everyone says "pee after sex to prevent UTIs!!" but the reality is that sometimes that just doesn't help—i know ppl who deal with chronic UTIs because they have a rly sensitive PH/flora and sex just fucks with it (no pun intended.) yeast infections can happen too. the most important thing is that you know this is NORMAL and is not something you need to be scared of or embarrassed about.

please for the love of god my sweet angel if you are a vagina haver do NOT use internal "feminine washes." they are BAD for you and your snatch. no matter how "natural" or "ph balanced" they claim to be they are not meant to go inside you and can rly fuck with your body chemistry. use gentle unscented soap around the area and otherwise JUST water to clean inside. (here's a link to a webpage from the royal women's hospital on dos/don'ts for hygiene! it covers everything from washing to menstrual care to sexual hygiene, but it is specific to vaginal care.)

i'm not an expert, or a doctor, i'm just a girl on the internet who's sharing what she knows with you. but i want you to be informed and feel empowered and reassured by that information, so i found some resources on safe (/"safer") sex for you in case you want to read some stuff from people who know what they're talking about.

scarleteen - this is the largest online resource for "comprehensive and highly inclusive sex and relationships education, information and support." This is an incredible and regularly updated source for info on EVERY possible subject related to sex, bodies, and relationships.

the safer sex toolbox from the american sexual health association - after skimming through this seems like a very helpful and incredibly detailed resource!

planned parenthood resources - they have pages that talk about everything from birth control, to healthy relationships, gender identity, and even sexual pleasure.

love you little friend, and i am very proud of u for asking and wanting to know this info. you're doing amazing!!

[opalastronaut]

my 2023 art summary! i know some people have been doing this so i thought i would as well :3 below is me talking abt my art (improvements/what i wanna get better with)

some things i wanna note abt how my art has changed over this year:

ANATOMY: ive gotten a lot better at anatomy! not many comments from me here

BRUSH CHANGE: the notable (and very needed) switch from a fluffy/textured circle brush to a rectangle, more marker-like brush! the firealpaca fluffy brush did me so dirty . so glad i switched brushes idk how i did art w/o my current brush for so long

SHADING: i think my shading has also gotten better, though i don't think its anything too huge? i could be wrong though!

PERSPECTIVE: i've definitely improved when it comes to perspective with posing ... imo, i think my art has gotten a lot more fluid :)

all that aside, here's what i want to try to work on this year with my art:

BACKGROUNDS: i need to work on drawing backgrounds really bad. i have no idea where to start though so ill try and at the very least figure that out!

WORK ON POSING: i have definitely improved when it comes to posing with my art, however i do feel like it's still a bit stiff.

POSTING MY ART: i often make art im proud of, and never end up posting it anywhere. i think a big reason i haven't is because i tend to not get any traction/notice when i do. might focus more on posting fanart this year :)

DRAWING MORE OFTEN: there tends to be times where i wont draw, this can be anywhere from a week at least to a month at most. when drawing, you (in the general sense) always learning new things, and going without drawing for too long can cause you to sometimes forget things you've recently learned, and you have to start from scratch with it. i think ill try to at least draw once every 2-3 days, if anything even just sketches to help my muscle memory!

but umm .. ya :3 thats kinda my rundown on my art! if u read this ty! hoping to be more active this year c:

[especdreamy]

My personal favorite Daily c!Ranboos, in order of posting!

Now that it's finally over, I feel like its appropriate to share all the daily c!Ranboos I'm the most proud of, and the reasons why I like them so much.

I'll probably redraw some of these in the future!

Under the readmore bc its long and has lots of pics!

Day 5 - Brain Fried

Looking back to it, this one isn't all that great compared to other Daily c!Ranboos I have done, but it's the first one I did in which I tried to make an actual composition rather than just. Drawing c!Ranboo. So it's kind of an important one!

Day 13 - Allium

Kind of similarly as Brain Fried, this one is kinda rough in the edges when looking back on it, but I loved the eerie vibe of it, and the effort of using a more limited palette!

Day 21 - Bouquet

It's just cute. He looks so squishy! Not much more to add tbh :)

Day 22 - Under the Weather

I personally love how I made the effect of them "disintegrating" due to contact with water look! I like how the particles flow :) I love how I made the effect of the water dripping, how it could kinda look like tears running down their face. I used "Under the Weather" in both a literal and metaphorical sense!

Day 28 - Tears

I like the expression and colors :) tbh the tears could be better but otherwise I like it.

Day 32 - Awake

It's soft, comforting, bright, warm, I love the way I did the colors SO MUCH! The expression is everything to me, I like how their hair looks. Also you might notice that I have 100% used the same colors for Revival and Freedom.

Day 34 - Arrival

I just like their goofy expression and how much of a twig they look. Silly lad

Day 38 - Butcher Army

I LOVE the expression and the limited color palette! While theres bits that could be improved upon this is one of my best compositions here.

Day 39 - Apprentice

Technoblade.

Day 41 - Memory Book

I like how the anatomy looks here! Looks very sleek and natural I guess? I love how the tail lies on the ground. I just can feel the weight here a bit.

Day 44 - Doomsday

The blue sky with the bright red flames, the lighting, c! Ranboo's silhouette, idk this is just very pleasing to look at!

Day 64 - Revival

I can't even elaborate on how much I love this one, it's probably The Best drawing (drawings?) of Daily c!Ranboo! I used the same color palette as Awake bc I wanted to give it the same comforting and soft vibe, I love how fuzzy it all looks, how quiet it seems...Also its a comic too! I speedran that in 3 or so hours and im so damn happy with it.

Day 67 - Light

The colors are very nice, I like the lighting!

Day 76 - Dance

I like the poses! I tend to struggle to draw c!Tubbo but he looks very cute here. I think I made c!Ranboo a bit too short but tbh it was a challenge to make the pose work!

Day 82 - Windy

I like the colors, the expression, AND THE HANDS!! Its fuckign wimdy!

Day 89 - Void

HORROR VIBES! I wanted to do at least one creepy-looking drawing for this challenge that I liked and this is the one for sure!

Day 90 - Stars

I like the colors a lot here! The way he looks up to the sky with the big ol' eyes and his pose feels so natural.

Day 91 - Birthday

I may have speedran this in like an hour and a half but GOD I just LOVE the symbolism in this drawing! The balloon because birthday! But its black because death! Ghostboo is the one holding it because they're the one in the overworld after all. How c!Ranboo looks down while Ghostboo stares at them!

Day 92 - Freedom

I used the same palette as Awake and Revival, it just felt right! I tried my best to do a piece that'd be forth of being the "sendoff" for the daily c!Ranboo series, and I do think it holds up!

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Miku Wrap-up 2022

Another year comes to an end and it's time to look back and reflect, so here's my top 10 favorite Mikus of the year!

#10:

While this has a few janky bits that keep it from being higher up I can't help but adore her smarmy ass look, the foot up on an unoccupied chair and the little details with the dice and the cards.

#9:

This one, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, is just so ridiculous I can't help but love it. It's somewhat a spiritual successor to the Goya inspired Miku and emulating the style/appearance of such old art was a joy, as was filling in the gaps with a few Miku related references.

#8:

Speaking of the ridiculous, this Loss meme parody I titled Gain.png still gets me. Doing the Gumi for the body pillow was also fun and Miku is very cute in this.

#7:

I have no idea why I drew this even then but fuck me is it good. Don't think I've drawn a pony since a few poor attempts over a decade before this. I love how AJ came out and the idea of like, Applejack carrying home a drunk Miku while chiding her for having too much cider is so fucking good to me.

#6:

This one is rather simple honestly, but I just love how clear the silhouette is and the highlights from the back lighting. This was inspired by an AURORA concert my sister invited me to.

#5:

Im still very happy with how this came out, especially in regards to the lighting. I feel like I made a lot of headway here as an artist, even if parts of it could stand to be cleaner.

#4:

Hatslimey Migoo looks so relaxed here, the details I was able to include for the room such as the water under the door are great and the small bit of landscape outside the window is something I'm extremely proud of. Had I just a bit more time with this piece I think it could have placed even higher.

#3

This one's a bit special cuz uh, it's fucking me lmao. Not only is this my high school duds, the location is also based off the liquor store I used to bum around at after school senior year. I still have the pants (they're more shredded now) and the black and white sleeve (actually leg warmers). The only real anachronism is the black nails- my dad wouldn't let me do that cuz he said I'd look like a fag lmao. Looking at this piece brings me just immense amounts of joy and soothes that part of me still in highschool and mad about it.

#2:

Honestly this and the #1 spot are really tough to decide which goes where but I think I'm happy with this. Based off some AI generated text (no doubt written by Miku herself) Not only is this the most successful piece I've done notes-wise it's also my first one where I drew more akin to painting then to coloring cleaned up lines, a process I made a ton of progress with over the year. There's very few things about this I would change (namely a few details in the final panel) but the way this comic is laid out was and is excellent. I feel this piece is the biggest jump in overall quality I had during the year.

Honorable mention:

While i do adore these, especially the top left and bottom one, there are a few issues that keep it from being in the top 10 properly. I also wanted to avoid this list being just every Hatslimey Migoo piece which actually brings me to the final entry and my favorite Miku of the year 2022-

#1:

The original Hatslimey Migoo, before she even had that name. This piece is very interesting because I had pissed away most of time and couldn't do the Miku I had thought about doing up to that point. Unwilling to do proper anatomy either, because again, I had gotten too wrapped up in runescape and was low on time, It popped in my head that I could make her a slime girl. I can't mess up getting bodily structure right if there is no proper bodily structure after all. The result couldn't have been better. She's so cute and adorable and this is easily the best original design I've yet to do for Miku. I doubt I'll top it for some time. The pieces came together naturally- her color had to be green to give her that Miku color, she had a few spots to give some detail, her arms were bulky to be reminiscent of her sleeves the headset was to help push visually that this was, indeed, Hatsune Miku and her eyes were pink to stand out and draw attention to them. Created in haste, Hatslimey Migoo has gone on to fill my heart with joy (and slime) and if I could pick any of my Mikus to be adopted by the wider vocaloid fan base it would have to be Migoo.

Thats my top 10 for 2022, I'll see you next year to wrap up this year- I'm sure I'll make even better Mikus! If you like these and wish to support me, I have a Patreon where I upload the full PSD, PNG and a 60 second time lapse of the Miku being drawn. It's only 2$ a month and it means a lot to me.

[domirine]

You probably do a lot of life drawing seeing as how perfectly fluid your art always is so this ask might be redundant lol but,, i was wondering what kind of references you usually use? Do you just google similar poses, does it come from your mind, or do you have a go-to app to look through like pinterest?👉👈 i ask bc I struggle a lot with poses and usually when i look them up i end up drawing nothing bc its not. Ever good enough for me/what im looking for lol😔 still not sure how to even draw characters smoochin, rip

thank you, nonny!! i do a lil bit of life drawing, but man i really do feel the same way you do. while i'm happy to show some art when i get it done, the process can be a real struggle.

sorry this is gonna be long and all over the place lol hope it helps tho:

life drawing good: i recommend ditching the idea of finding the 100% Perfect Ref right off the bat. studying anatomy and life drawing (this site has a range of body types and fun poses) somewhat regularly, therefore growing my mental library so that i can try and make whatever pose is in my head happen later, has been more viable to me than spending hours looking for the Perfect Ref.

drawing a bunch of generic people skating without pressure of creating proper character art is good practice, and it primes me to then come up with a skating pose of my own.

ref hunting: i save pictures i might use as refs regularly in a browser folder - good refs, bad refs, boring refs - losing a ref standard can be helpful because at the end of the day it’s what you make with it, so it doesn’t have to be particularly mind-blowing to begin with. you don’t wanna reinvent the wheel or create the most never-been-done-before pose, you just wanna get a thing right.

pinterest is very good for poses, yes, though you have to know how to look for them - i.e. i found that typing out "dynamic pose" will not yield organic results, as opposed to looking up people in motion like athletes, boxers, skaters and such. for fighting, i recommend using photos or clips from (ideally staged lol) fights, as opposed to stock images where the models are standing for a while posing - the former preserves a lot of the movement. i also recommend looking up group photos from events or shows for interesting natural poses and people interacting.

best hot tip of all tho: what helped me most is to not treat references very religiously. don't be tied down by what's in your ref, or not finding the perfect one, because then you're focusing on accuracy and not necessarily on what you wanna communicate with your drawing. if you can't find what you're looking for in full, just use a part that you find interesting, and then bullshit the rest and revise accordingly.

idea-generating can be very hard but you can practice it like any other skill, because having a decent idea of what you wanna draw is helpful - you don't have to have the whole pose visualised 100%. it's the mood, body language and expressions, that i think are more important. looking at refs can help reveal your ideas and intentions, but i will not create them for you i’m afraid.

for example, speaking on characters smooching, i've drawn these using refs in   pretty uptight way with no ideas beforehand - and i find them painfully boring because they're not rly communicating anything aside from a anatomical accuracy (more or less);

i was being too intent on staying faithful to the reference, and they're looking kinda stale to me. the only one that was done without any ref, was the bottom left - which i like! bc it's got spice and it’s portraying some emotion.

but i wouldn't have drawn it if i hadn't already started on the others, so maybe another good tip is to trust the process and not give up mid-work!! drawing stuff you’re not proud of is still drawing stuff, and not everything you create is gonna be satisfying. things are gonna click here and there, but you never know when, so don’t give up on your ugly artsy ducklings!!

[random-cryptid]

im redoing my anatomy headcanons i have for winnie and im having fun and getting really flustered it but thats par for the course at this point dbfbfb cuz like i get to practice drawing her body and rework a few headcanons i have! and i also love the idea of her seeing me draw her and getting all blushy over it but also get all proud like a peacock about it.

but ive also come to the realization that i have no clue how to draw butts and im just sitting here tryna figure out how to draw them cuz ive never really drawn them before and i have no idea what im doing shbdbdn. im looking at drawing references and my brain is not comprehending

also, drawing winnie while listening to.... most of the covers that justine's mic has done is an Experience™ /pos. especially the covers shes done of "mary on a cross", "dream girl evil" and "unholy". all of her covers are so pretty sounding, but istg those hit really nice when drawing winnie, especially if its spicier things like this (remind me to show you the sketches i have so far, im in the backseat of the car and i cant take a picture of my sketchbook without it coming out all blurry and weird shdbbd)

Omg nice!!!! You’re so real for that I couldn’t even do it tho 😭😭😭

HABSHSBDHDHD I MEAN….. butts are hard to draw yeah! You can try tracing a picture and figuring out how they work! I also have all of the morpho books in pdf form if that would help!

WHO IS THIS JUSTINE AND WHY IS SHE COVERING TWO OF MY FAVE BANDS I SHALL LISTEN TO HER shdbejfhrjfhf I literally watched the Ghost movie two days ago and I’m so normal about it

[andrxmedaz]

3, 4, 29? :]

TY FOR THE ASKKKKK :DDD

3 - your favourite piece(s)?

this one and this one!! YES they’re my two most recent pieces but im rly proud of how they both turned out. my art style crisis actually worked out in the end thank god ^_^

4 - piece you wish got more love?

THIS PIECE RIGHT HERE!!!! old ass design and honestly im not proud of it anymore but i definitely was at the time, plus the rendering took FOREVER

29 - do you use a lot of references while drawing?

YES. i used to never use references for some reason, but lately ive been using them as a really loose (???) guide, and its rly helped with improving my anatomy and stuff!!!

[rosekasa]

ive yet to finish an art project since december bc ive been so down abt my work. im startjng to feel like a one trick pony, like i can only make one good art im proud of and never again. each type i set out to make something it just doesn't turn out good so i delete it and start again and rinse and repeat. its nice to know that its not just me who feels this way

baby you are NOT alone!! at a time where most of the art we consume is through the norms of social media it can be so hard to remember that art is not just about making a good 'finished product' and that your value as an artist isn't about your work looking like those of the people you see with thousands of followers. feeling proud of your work comes from feeling proud of yourself. i have so many pieces that objectively are Not good but i feel filled with so much love when i look at them because i remember how happy i was while creating it. but then i have pieces that have gotten thousands of reblogs but i physically cannot bring myself to look at them for too long because while i was drawing it i was constantly thinking about whether it will look good, whether it will fit the idea i had in my head, etc. etc.

I don't know if it's any consolation to hear this, but the feelings triggered in you when you see a result you don't like are not concrete nor are they a true depiction of who you are. you are a wonderful, skilled, creative artist and i can say this to you without knowing who you are and knowing your work because to be that kind of person is to think you are that kind of person. the more you tell yourself not to be nervous about your art not turning out good and focus on creating the things that make you feel joy with confidence, the more your art WILL start to look good, i promise.

i wanted to share some examples with my own art and my feelings about it so if you're not interested don't worry qjkskw im just putting it under here

i think this was my most reblogged piece in 2022 but i dont think ive seen it closeup since then because it does not make me feel good when i look at it. when i sat down to draw this i was so stressed about making it look a certain way. i was trying to use all this technical knowledge like forumlas to make it look 'perfect' but at the end it just felt like a drawing that wasn't even mine. i do like the sky a lot though because painting skies like that have always made me feel really happy.

same situation with this piece. i had the vague idea in my head but it felt like i had to make it a chore to make sure it looked good. i kept trying to find the 'perfect' references and trying to copy tutorials id seen about anatomy to force it to look good but again this just doesn't feel like my art because i think so much of it came from what i thought i shouldve been doing rather than what felt good. it felt like i was trying to prove myself

i did this in an hour and a half and i thought it was going to be a warmup ahkdka. i completely switched off my brain while i did this. i loved this pose from ikari gozen and so i sketched it out really fast in a way that felt so. easy? natural? the rest of the details sort of just fell into place. that's not to say i didnt try to use the same techniques that i did for the other two, but this time i trusted that those techniques that i learned would naturally come to me while i worked while i had the end result in my mind. when i look at this piece i just remember how intuitive the process felt, how i would zoom out of the canvas and look at it and think 'omg wait what if i try that thing i saw on that youtube tutorial...' and how i wasnt trying to prove to myself this was a good drawing, but for the way i felt natural and happy prove it to me instead

this one too ❤️ i have improved my anatomy a lot since this piece but i still use it on all my portfolios and commission examples because it feels like such a good depiction of how i want MY art to feel to me when i see it. i love ladynoir so much and i love oblivio so much and that's genuinely all i was thinking about while drawing this. i didn't want to make it perfect, i just had a vague image of what i wanted it to be like in my head but i was just so excited to be doing oblivio art that i totally forgot about stressing about everything else and just let the brainrot power me HDKDKA. the process was so messy but it felt a lot like solving a puzzle, you know? i didnt need to force any techniques onto it to make it look good because i trusted that the image would already be there, i just needed to find it

[minheeskitten]

"2k is long" is also nonsense i'm so sorry 😭 2k is barely anything if you're trying to introduce an AU and actually flesh in a setting and especially if you're trying to show different personality traits 😭 your fic are mostly AUs with really well thought out lore, and it needs the word count to breathe and establish everything. if someone's attention span is too short to read more than - what - 2 pages? that's their problem, not yours! fwiw, my fic lengths range with the shortest starting at around 5k and the longest getting close to 30k and i have never had anyone leave a complaint about the length! people are more than willing to sit through 10k+ just to get to the smutty stuff, and they usually end up enjoying the rest of the fic as well. do not worry about it! you're doing just fine 🩷

I don't often look at the length of a fic unless im updating someone on how long its getting. My shortest wip is 100 words. And. Ive posted it to here bcs i feel it'll never be finished.

If it does get finished eventually then i will post it as a fic but. Until then it sits in my drafts.

My fics almost always include worldbuilding to at least 3k now. Though not all of them were like that.

Do you want in on a secret? I don't think out the world for my aus. It fleshes itself out. I think on what may happen n go from there. The story writes itself. I am just a vessel for the words and visions.

I am absolutely terrible at worldbuilding if im doing it consciously.

Its why i have visible headcanons for idols. But i just can't put them into words haha.

The most i think through is 'what sort of details would enhance this and make it better to read'

And then thats where i go from!

Siren!ivan was originally supposed to be more non-con than it is rn. The consent is not proper consent tho but thats bcs. Well. Siren wants what he wants and he will convince dann to give it to him.

Though. Thats a little bit of a spoiler. It is going to be tagged accordingly. Don't worry ill tag fics right.

The fic i thought through the most, probably is one ive not even started wtiting. The dissection fic. I gotta do all sorts of research so i can make sure its accurate and well done.

Which unfortunately means i gotta look at anatomy from a more medical standpoint. Need to go find a book for that..

The first fic i put out actually has a very strong plot hole. That i told myself id patch before posting it but. I didn't.

That plot hole was the reasoning as to why ivan was doing that to hwon. It has a very weak reason and i could absolutely fix it now. But. Not this year.

I write ab 5k minimum most of the time haha. I prefer letting the story fill itself out n then helping fine tune details. Its why i really can't tell you how long a fic may be.

So far my longest fic is 16k words. Published. Theres more unpublished. That's for the abandoned but not orphaned one.

I may return to it eventually. That's why i didn't wanna orphan it.

All of my fics stop at a point they organically would have stopped at. When i feel it can't really take another scene. I end it. That usually leaves spaces for part twos to them as well!

But i like exploring aus as i write them.

Fun fact! I write aus bcs im worried that if i do anything else i may accidentally copy someone else's idea.

I do get inspired by the other kd writers. Oh gods do i get inspired.

Lee, lunar, eve, even erin, who encourages the hwonicide. They all inspire me in their own ways. Does that usually come in the form of a prompt to note down asap? Yeah.

But other ways are helping with details for fics. And they are all very welcome to chat ab fics w me. I don't steal ideas. Not without permission and changing it to be my own.

I have a prompt that is inspired by eve's fic Clear My Mind (eve is karmacumover btw!)

But it is different. I may show her the prompt itself if she wants to see it haha.

But i love working on fics. Even if I can't be proud of them as a 'look i made this!' i can still look at the work and go 'yeah. Thats good.'

Thank you lee for helping me figure out how to do that. It was amazing to be able to step back and go 'thats a good story' if i removed myself from it.

The lee im referring to here is intenselysalmon. So she knows who im referring to.

One day. One day my goal is to be proud of how much I've written. Of what I've written.

Its a goal i think is far away. But the more i talk to other writers. The more i realize.

Im not as bad at writing as i think i am.

Honestly id never even considered myself a good writer, until i asked writers like lee and erin their feedback on my works. And they both said i write well. Maybe a little dialogue heavy but. Thats fine i can work on it.

Im doing my best. And im trying to ensure i continue getting better.

The more i talk to other writers and see how they talk ab my writing. The more i go. 'maybe im too harsh on myself' but. As they say, you are your own worst critic.

Honestly i never even considered my work good enough to do much with. But. Lunar still offered to possibly do a collab or fic trade. And i keep thinking on it. Maybe.

It makes me think they find me a better writer than i find myself to be.

Then i see eve, reacting to some of the xlips of airen!ivan ive put out. And she's reacting as i would for any of lee's clips. I find lee an amazing writer. It seems eve thinks of me that way too.

Im trying to wrap my head around it. But the reason i am so harsh on myself is. Anxiety and self doubt. And i need to work through them.

Thats the first time ive admitted that.

I will work through my weaknesses, and be better than before. Slowly. It takes time. I have to be patient.

One day. One day i will be able to proudly say 'im a good writer'

Its not today. But. It will be an eventuality.

Moots mentioned in this post:

Lee (@intenselysalmon )

Erin (@kurenaiwataru )

Eve (@karmacumover )

Lunar (@kingdoms-babygirl )

[fleshkiss]

hi hi! im trying to get the nerve to start drawing again and wanted to know if you have any tips or advice about drawing heads/necks/shoulders! i can never seem to get them looking right

hello hello! i'm really sorry for the late reply but aw how exciting, i'm happy to hear you want to draw again!!<333 as for tips, i'm so sorry i feel like i'm not the best at explaining bc tbh most of the time i struggle with those areas myself and don't really have a specific approach to drawing them but i think some things that help me are using references and breaking down the anatomy into very simple shapes/lines! if you're struggling to draw based on what you see, feel free to trace over a pose just to get the feeling of it! here are some specific resources/tutorials i go back to whenever i feel stuck as well:

quick breakdown of shapes tutorial: (https://twitter.com/KingSmiggles/status/1602417672670613507) anatomy breakdown twitter that has help me grasp things better: (https://twitter.com/kato_anatomy)

partial nudity warning just in case the pose archives for inspiration and maybe they have a pose i'm picturing in my head or something close enough haha: (https://www.deviantart.com/theposearchives/gallery/76618807/couple-poses?page=12)

if there's anything else that i happen to remember later, i'll try to update this but please feel free to ask any other questions if needed if this doesn't really help or for anything else and i'll be happy to answer the best i can! i just feel like i struggle w words so i always feel like other ppl do a better job explaining than i ever will sdhdkshdsk but i can try to give it a shot some time if preferred! i hope these are helpful even just a little and wishing you all the best with drawing, i'm so happy and proud of you!<3