#its my first time actually using colours instead of just black and white

[lukeskywormie]

the background sucks

thanks for letting me in dinluke art nation!!

[visionofvoid]

Better To Be Safe Than Sorry - Daniel Ricciardo

Summary: two australians dressed by the same designer for the 2023 met gala. surely its not all just chance?

Warnings: shameless flirting

Pairings: daniel ricciardo x plussize!oc

Word count: 2.3k

She couldn’t believe her eyes when she looked back at her reflection of the tinted car door, the dress hugging her in all the right ways and accentuating her natural curves. She had never seen this body representation at something so prestigious such as the Met Gala save for a few household names such as Ashley Graham. She couldn’t believe it when she first received the invitation on behalf of designer Thom Browne who reached out via a handwritten letter and pitched his idea to her. At first the Australian actress was very apprehensive; was she famous enough for an event like this? She wasn’t used to dressing up like this, so incredibly fancy and she had only just become noticed since her role in Daisy Jones and The Six. She even had a whole team do her makeup and hair for her which she wasn’t used to unless she was about to film a scene. 

She expected the tag stitched into the dress to scratch her back but instead it sat flush. It only had Thom’s name, her name and the Met Gala handwritten and the small gesture meant a lot to her surprisingly, it was a garment made just for her plump body. It was organised so all of Thom’s guests were arriving at the same time to showcase his work in a cohesive way, and it meant that organising a group shot was just that little bit easier. Stepping out of the car she was blinded by how lit up the walkway was, a cream colour leading her and ushering her towards the famous steps of the Met and towards the screaming crowds. She wasn’t entirely sure who else was dressed by Thom so she was excited to see and meet some famous faces as well as by other designers. 

“Just follow me.” Lucille was met with a smile from some volunteers who rushed to both her side. She wasn’t overly excited to be walking in heels but she had a lot of practice to make sure she wouldn’t fall. The dress, however, hugged her thighs enough that it meant she had to take small and careful steps. She sucked in a deep breath, seeing the ‘TB’ embroidered between her breasts on the bodice move with her breathing and she plastered on a smile. 

With each and every step Lucille found that the shouts of the photographers grew louder and the fans screaming in anticipation for the next guest to arrive. There was a little bit of a wait for the celebrities to allow a steady flow at the base of the footsteps and Lucille found herself beaming at Thom Browne when she saw his familiar face talking with presumably his other guests. 

“Ah, my dear, my muse!” It seemed as if she was the last of his guests to arrive, eight more heads turning adorned in black and white, tulle and lace, camellias and different patterns. They all looked fabulous and as Lucille scanned briefly over their faces she found that it all suited them. Thom rushed over, embracing Lucille quickly and then pulled away, his arms on her bare shoulders as he stood back to admire his work. “Stunning. Absolutely stunning.” Lucille found her rosy coloured cheeks flush at the compliments but thanked the designer nonetheless. 

Daniel was incredibly privileged to say the least when he received a handwritten letter from Thom Browne regarding an invitation to the Met Gala. He had watched Lewis attend and will admit, he found it to be a guilty pleasure to keep up with it every year. He admired the hard work the designers put in and the fuss about it. Now that his main focus was not on racing full time, it was a no-brainer that he would attend the Met Gala. He was all smiles when he first met Thom and that all continued to him actually seeing his suit for the first time to arrive second for the designer. A few months out of a long term relationship and he was thriving, he was just in awe as he looked around the tunnel leading to the waiting area. One by one the remainder of Thom’s guests arrived and piled up behind him, compliments flowing through the air, everyone's agents taking care of phones, bags and other items.

The naturally extroverted racer enjoyed meeting new faces, happily discussing his projects and the projects of others while they slowly moved forward. His back was turned as he anxiously looked past the people in front of him when Lucille arrived. The two were familiar with one another naturally being some of the few Australians that were famous outside of their home nation however when Thom gushed over her Danile found himself turning around. She looked absolutely stunning. The two had never crossed paths with one another before but Daniel was kicking himself over it now. She exuded confidence, kindness and warmth. He could tell she was nervous but as Thom greeted her she seemed to calm herself. 

Lucille blushed as Thom showered her in compliments, some of the other guests commenting on her outfit, her makeup and her work in Daisy Jones. It was her first big event she had attended outside of small premiers where she played a menial side character; this was all quite different and overwhelming, in a good way. Lucille spotted Daniel Ricciardo in a black suit with delicate black ruffles that added different hues to the suit. Her body felt warm and fuzzy when he gave her a warm smile. She grew up in Melbourne and attended a fair few Melbourne GP’s growing up so she was quite familiar with the sport and with the man herself. He was easily top twenty of her male celebrity crushes. Okay, maybe top ten. Top five?

“Where is Rhonda?” Thom questioned, knowing that Lucille was usually accompanied by her manager.

“In active labour. I will be hopping up the steps while she’s pushing.” Lucille joked though Thom could tell she was nervous. Daniel felt guilty for eavesdropping but instead found an opening to introduce himself. He apologised as he pushed himself past Teyana Taylor and Jenna Ortega, his eyes focused solely on Lucille. One by one they slowly got called to make their way to the main area where all the hustle and bustle began and there was no set order so Daniel slowly held himself back. Thom moved forward to introduce his pieces to the Met Gala and hype up his team. 

Lucille played with her nails as the team slowly dwindled down into just herself and Daniel and their volunteers got ready. Daniel went first and then it was just Lucille with the next guests arriving behind her and soon she was called up. Her steps were small as she held her head high, walking past several other volunteers who seemed to gush over her look. A few metres later she found herself surrounded by photographers and celebrities, fans turning to look at her and call out her name. 

Daniel remained nearby Lucille, feeling somewhat wanting to introduce himself formally or be near her presence. Everyone else had a team of agents or PR representatives to help them pose or engage in interviews with certain people but being a new actress on the scene meant that she didn’t quite have her own team. At least being in a suit meant that it was easier to navigate the stairs leading into the Met. 

Lucille found herself being called over to a young interviewer and smiled when the interviewer seemed surprised when she made her way over. 

“Lucille Craig, I loved you in Daisy Jones, you look absolutely stunning on the carpet tonight and for your first Met Gala. Can I ask, who is dressing you and what was the inspiration?” It was incredibly loud all around her but at that moment her sole focus was on the interviewer. 

“Thank you so much! I’m dressed by Thom Browne. We both collaborated and drew inspiration from Claudia Schiffer’s Spring 1993 Chanel bride look. I am thrilled to have been invited and to see so many different looks on different bodies and people. It’s a bit overwhelming.” Lucille let out a chuckle at the end of her sentence and patiently waited for the next part of the interview. 

“We all look forward to seeing what's next for you. It was a pleasure to meet you and I hope you enjoy your night. Thank you!” Lucille thanked the woman before she was ushered in by the volunteers, the stairs coming closer and closer. She was growing more and more nervous but tried to keep herself contained. She smiled at some photographers, said some hellos to other celebrities and continued on her way. 

Daniel smiled through a couple of interviews though he kept himself open towards the carpet, his eye always landing on Lucille from a distance. He answered questions to do with his career and his outfit to the best of his abilities but his mind kept going back to Lucille. 

“Do you need some assistance, Miss Craig?” The Met Gala volunteer questioned Lucille as she made her way to the dreaded stairs. Lucille went to protest before she felt someone slide her arm through theirs causing her to snap her head to the stranger. 

“No, no. I’ve got it from here, thank you.” Daniel spoke, offering a tight smile to the volunteer as Lucille’s hand clutched onto his bicep. The volunteer nodded, walking a few steps ahead of the duo. The small gesture seemed to spark excitement among the spectators and photographers as well as Thom as he stood at the top of the stairs, beaming down on the duo. Lucille sucked in a breath as she lifted one leg, testing the integrity of the dress and sighed with relief when it remained a couple of inches below her behind. “You’ve got this.” Daniel mumbled just loud enough for Lucille to hear, the girl grateful for the support. She gained confidence with each and every step she took, photographers calling out their names to get a pose. This would without a doubt cause some rumours the next day. 

“Thank you, you didn’t have to do this.” Lucille spoke back, turning her head over her shoulder with her hair following elegantly as she looked back. They were about halfway up the staircase now. 

“How could a gentleman like me not help a fellow beautiful Australian? Would be blasphemous.” Daniel joked, Lucille looking up at him briefly before letting out a rather unfeminine laugh. Daniel loved being a joker, he loved making people laugh however this felt different. He suddenly cared about her opinion, he cared about what she found funny. 

They made it to the top of the stairs where a number of celebrities were posing for higher end magazines or being interviewed by much more important people. Lucille was fine to walk on her own now but found herself not ready to pull away from Daniel’s arm, and he wasn’t putting up much of a fight either. The two slowly walked with the small crowd on the carpet, both unsure of what to do next. The other guests for Thom Browne were scattered about with the designer standing even further along where guests were to be greeted by Anna Wintour herself and engage in a quick hello before moving along to tour the museum and potter around before the formal dinner. 

“There’s so many people. Anne Hathaway, Jared Leto as a fucking furry, oh my God! Is that Ashley Graham?” Daniel admired this side of Lucille, or this side of anyone. Lucille had quite a following, especially after her role in the TV adaptation of Daisy Jones and the Six so she hadn’t quite warmed up to being a loved celebrity just yet that was grouped in the same calibre as these well known movie stars, singers and models. Lucille went to apologise for her behaviour, preparing to call it cringe worthy when she was interrupted by Anne Hathaway turning around, her eyes widening slightly and her perfectly poised smile turning into something genuine. “Daniel, please tell me Anne is looking at us, the Anne Hathaway?” Daniel went to respond but he found himself leading Lucille towards the famous actress. 

“Daniel Riccardo! I’m a big fan of F1.” Daniel was taken by surprise that she knew who he was and then she turned to Lucille. “I loved your role in Daisy Jones, you were absolutely fabulous. You’re definitely a force to be reckoned with. I must get going, enjoy the night you love birds!” Anne bid them a farewell, bringing Lucille in for a brief kiss on the cheek and hug before rushing off. Daniel nor Lucille mentioned the last statement out of Anne’s mouth and instead they were both taken back by the interaction. 

“She knew who I was.” It was like Lucille’s hand was a part of Daniel’s arm. It just felt so natural and conversation, no matter how small and lacklustre it was between the two, came naturally. Daniel wanted to get to know the girl a little bit more. 

“She would be a fool to not know you are, Lucille.” Daniel flirted shamelessly, grinning as he noticed her cheeks flush darker than her rosy makeup. Lucille noticed she was still holding onto his arm even though they were no longer tackling steps. Had Daniel been too nice to tell her that her hand was on his arm. God, what a blunder. 

“I am so sorry! I didn’t even realise.” Daniel only chuckled in response, pulling her back towards him. It was as if the two of them weren’t surrounded by flashing lights and people shouting, that it was just the two of them. It just felt natural for the both of them. 

“Don’t be silly. I’m sure there’ll be more stairs. Better to be safe than sorry.”

[drconstellation]

What the Tartan Tells Us

Or, Tales from the Tartan

(I wanted both titles!)

Updated 10 Nov 2023

I've been reading up a bit about tartan today to what it can tell us, and it seems its not too hard to do. The clues are more in the colours, and the overall pattern, there aren't any particularly rigid rules that need to be stuck to.

For the colour analysis, I'll be referring to my recent colour meta All the Colours of the GO Rainbow for interpretation. I need to tweak the interpretation for red on it, though, based on what I'm seeing here, and some other information I just got. That's OK, red and yellow are the two hardest colours to pin down, they are quite complex in their meaning and perhaps not what you expected them to be, and I expect that it will be a meta that evolves a bit over time anyway.

So for a warm up, let's start with the tartan blanket Aziraphale provides to cover the naked Gabriel on the first day he arrives at the book shop.

Lets lists the colours we can see:

White - for his base angelic nature that is showing since he misplaced his memory.

Oystershell gray - for his high angelic ranking as Supreme Archangel Gabriel.

Teal* - Blue mixed with green, Heaven mixed Hell, Lawful mixed with Chaos; which is one of Aziraphale's signature colours.

Black - that hint of a mystery in play. What is being hidden?

Dark Gray - the thick cross stripes, which are interesting. "Shades of gray" are something we associate with Aziraphale and Crowley. That's the world they walk in on Earth together, where their two sides blend together. Another hint that Gabriel was starting to see something else than the one-sided thinking of Heaven?

[*I've bounced around a bit on this colour while writing this, but I'm going back to my original thoughts on it. It's not Heaven blue, its tainted with green, and its the same colour Saraqael and Muriel wear (see below) so its something else.]

Next, let's look at Aziraphale's own tartan. We mainly see it in his bow tie, but it also appears on the bike rack he miracles onto the Bentley when they give Anathema a lift back to Jasmine Cottage in S1E2. I'm going to use the examples from this older post by bluebandedagate back in 2019 called A Discourse on Tartan, as they make it quite clear, and when I looked at it closely again after doing my colour meta I actually gasped. Because it tells us there is very little of Heaven left in Aziraphale, despite what he openly says, and one other very revealing fact.

Here is the tartan swatch. It's called "Heaven's Dress Tartan," despite there being next to no Heaven in it.

For a start, there is no white base, which we night expect with an angel. Its all been removed.

We have a beige base instead, which is one of the working angel colours, probably there as part of his Earthly duties.

There are some wider dark gray stripes. My interpretation here is this is the work of Crowley, who has made him question the morality of Heaven over time - the shades of gray.

Then we get the thin black stripes - the mystery of his unpredictable nature. You never quite know what he's going to do next... Plus the constant effort to hide what he is doing with Crowley.

And finally the red. Red is never a colour associated directly to angels in the present day, so it can only mean one thing - a declaration of his bond to the one who does wear that particular shade of red - Crowley.

Red is not necessarily a demonic colour per se, its more a colour of devoted passion. Shax also wears red, usually a darker red, and she is devoted to climbing the ranks of power in Hell with a passion. And the Red Team in the paintball battle at Tadfield Manor represented the faction devoted to management and following the rules.

The other noticeable thing about Aziraphale's tartan is the tightness and intensity of the pattern. The stripes are quite thin and they repeat often.

Saraqael's tartan is:

Purple, for royalty. they rank high, somehow, or they're aligned with Gabriel's office.

Oyster-shell gray, for the Archangels.

A pinstripe of primary blue, for Heaven.

White for angels

A wide stripe of dark gray (on the collar.)

Wow. That's some heavy hitting in combinations of colours there. We've recognized them as one of the "dark horses" in the series, and their Tactical Turtleneck backs up the idea that they are now involved with surveillance and spy work in Heaven (eh, they were certainly watching and spying on Crowley and Muriel during their little jaunt in Heaven in S2E6. And I sooo wish I could get a good look at their ring, but there just isn't high enough resolution to do so.)

Muriel's tartan is very similar to Saraqael's but has a pattern with a teal theme in it as well. It's a bit hard to tell the shade of blue-green here, but a closer look at Saraqael's trouser leg reveals all the colours in their tartan displayed in a strip down the outside seam. Purple and silver-gray dominate, but the teal-blue pops out as well. It looks very similar to the shade of teal in Jimbriel's blanket above. Yep, a dark horse, indeed. I wouldn't trust Saraqael, if I were you.

There is some question as to whether Muriel reports directly to Saraqael, but I am wondering if this marks them as one Saraqael has to keep their eyes on as well - because of something that happened in the past. How does one become a lowly 37th ranked scrivener? I mean, c'mon, doesn't that just sound...ridiculous? What did they do to get demoted so far down? And how many others were demoted before them? Questions for another day, perhaps.

Edit: I missed this example in my original post - Jimbriel wearing a dressing gown with a similar tartan to Saraqael and Muriel. This occurs right at the beginning of S2E3, if you are looking for it. It's all the same colours - royal purple, archangel silver-gray, white but also a cross stripe of black and a wider cross stripe of dark gray. He only wears it in this one upstairs shot. There is some metaphorical context here - Jim is looking out and down over the "Outside" as everyone moves about on Whickber street below, much like an angel looking down from Heaven at humans moving about on Earth (yes, you should think about the upper level of the bookshop as corresponding to Heaven...it is "upstairs" after all.)

The other tartan I saw was on the kilts of the angelic soldiers behind the quartermaster in S1E5, when Aziraphale has discorporated in the portal and gone up to Heaven. The tartan there is just in two to three different shade of working-angel beige and off-white, in big wide stripes. Fairly ordinary, run-of-mill stuff. Rank and file, if you will.

I couldn't get a good look at the colours of the tartan on the thermos of holy water Aziraphale gives Crowley in S1. When you enlarge the images they go a bit blurry as they are not high-def enough. I can't tell if its green or gray stripes running vertically, and if the horizontal ones are black or red, or both. If so, that's an interesting colour choice for Aziraphale to give to Crowley, and it's certainly not the same pattern as his bow tie. I could understand if it was just a wider pattern of the beige-grey-black-red. If anyone can help out I'll update with a description and analysis.

[cy-cyborg]

Ok so the saga with my old PC continues and is only fueling my desire to get back into fanfiction lol because I found all of the files from my attempt at making a legend of spyro fan-game! I honestly thought they were lost, I'm so excited to see all this stuff again! This was the "logo" for the game (I know its nearly unreadable lol, so it says "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of The Past". 14/15 year old me didn't seem to care much for readability, I think I'd just discovered photoshop's layer effects lol)

Here's a bunch of random stuff I found.

I'm defiantly going to do a redraw of that last one at some point. That was like, THE thing I remember being super proud of when I first did it. I think it was going to be part of the trailer my now-partner was putting together for the game lol.

Actually, a lot of these were actually just frames from animations, but either the files are either just corrupted, or high school me didn't know how to set fps and resolution properly in the output so I got a headache trying to watch them lol. It's probably the second one honestly. Also I remember my old laptop wasn't able to play back the animation because it would lag so much, so I just had to kind of...guess at timing, and that went about as well as you'd expect. It didn't help that blender used to have this bug where your audio would move around your timeline so it really was just random guessing. I'm amazed anything got done at all, let alone how far we actually got (that is to say, not far at all but we had something playable at least).

I also found the demo files and footage of the "game" running (running at 12fps but running)! I'm curious if they still work, I'll have to download an older version of blender to test them out!

There's actually a lot more but actually finding it is proving to be quite a challenge since this laptop seems to be the digital equivalent of an ADHD "doom box" - meaning nothing is sorted into folders that make even a remote lick of sense to me, it's all just kind of thrown in together lmao.

I wanted to post these though because even though I don't really do 3D stuff anymore, It still made me really happy to see how much progress I've made over the years and how far I've come. Also a few folks who worked on this project with me back on Deviantart have started finding me lol, so in case there's anyone else out there, hello! I'm not dead, I'm still around, I'm just a lot more (openly) queer now lmao.

Image descriptions:

[ID 1: A game title that reads "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of the Past". The two lines, "the legend of" and "shadows of the past" are written in dark purple text. The purple material is supposed to look like liquid, but instead just looks hard to read. "Cynder" is writen in black, 3D text with red outlines, with the exception of the C. The "c" is modeled as a black tube instead of in a blocky style like the rest of the letters. The inside of the C has a red underbelly, and the bottom of the C ends in a tail, resembling Cynder's from the Legend of Spyro Series. There are 3 white spikes at the top of the C. /end ID]

[ID 2: a 3d render of 4 dragons around a christmas tree. A black dragon at the front, Cynder, is using her tail to hang tinsel, a pruple dragon, Spyro, on the left is reaching up into the branches of the tree. A blue dragon, Ignitus, is hovering behind the tree, his paws outstretched, implying he is placing the glowing star at the top. On his head is a silver dragon, Zerali, balancing on his horns. behind them is a series of floating islands. /End ID]

[ID 3: A render of Cynder with a darker colour pallet than the previous image and glowing yellow eyes, snarling at the camera, guarding a black gem. The sky in the background is blood red and the terrain is flat and barren. /End ID]

[ID 4: A render of an incomplete model of Terrador, a green dragon with brown horns and rocky shoulder decorations. He has no underbelly or wings. /end ID]

[ID 5: A render of a fan character named ekkosel, a blue, anthropomorphic dragonfly with an unsettling, uncanny face and green wings, T-posing. Her green wings are a blur /End ID]

[ID 6: two sketches of a anthropomorphic cheetah heads. One has long ears like a lynx and is labeled DotD design, the other has small, rounded ears like a cheetah usually has, labled TLoC design. /end ID]

[ID 7: A render of Zerali, the silver dragon from the second image, and ekkosel, from the 5th, playing together. In this image, we can see Zerali has a pinky-purple underbelly and shiny gold horns.]

[ID 8: A rendered scene showing a close up of blue ignitus with his eyes closed. He appears to be talking to Cynder, who is in the background, but blurry. The game's logo is visible in the bottom left of the image. /end ID]

[definegodliness]

While I was working up the courage

I dreamt about Ramona, Surprisingly — I hadn't thought about Ramona For, say, twenty years.

I guess that happens As time progresses; you get Haphazardly confronted with Your own, or forlorn empathic Unresolved sadness.

I thought about Ramona today, reminiscing; Memories flowed in, till painting A long ago's Picture perfect scene.

2nd grade highschool Ended, And instead of a school dance We had our very first (supervised) House party.

I remember the overall Pubescent turmoil and confusion, And the slow dancing Looming over the party Like the Sword of Damocles, at least, to me.

I don't know if, to others, this was a big deal; Romanticism is a weird Vulnerability When you're a teen, But I think Ramona agreed; We were the only ones Not dressed Casually.

I can still invoke The pressure amounting; Desires I did not yet fully understand, Piling as longings For heart-stirred moments That had yet to prove less self-evident Than I, as a naive child, had imagined.

It came to a point where I wasn't even sure Whether I actually wanted To dance anymore,

Until Ramona Walked through The door.

She lit up the room Wearing a dress of baby blue That I had only seen on Disney princesses And depicted in picture books That had nourished my nature, As an inborn Hopeless romantic.

This was it.

I remember, this, as the first time I saw a girl as Radiantly beautiful.

Ramona Had made an effort To look perfect, and, to me, she did; I was enchanted, Like I had wanted to be Since Consciousness.

I should've walked up to her, There and then, But I had to work up the courage; Rehearse the phrase,

'Do you want to dance?'

In my head, Over and over and over again.

Which is when I heard the whispers; Gossiping lips uttering ugly phrases About an angel.

Ramona was a slut For wearing makeup.

Ramona was a whore For wearing white pantyhose And open shoes,

Or, by now, For Whatever the prying eyes of the mob Would choose.

I should've walked up to her there and then; I should have just asked Ramona To dance.

But I was too Chicken-shit to go against the grain, And by my cowardice I let an angel Turn

Pariah.

It has taken A dream, and, say, twenty years For me to realize the heartbreaking tragedy That was that evening.

Unresolved sadness, Maybe the universe's itself, for having lost Another butterfly, or some bird of paradise, Designed to make this crooked ugly world A bit more endearing.

It all washes over me, now, in Forlorn empathy.

All she wanted was to look pretty On what could be a nice evening With the premise of all of us slow dancing For the first time, ever.

She looked the part The way a romantic heart would envision Ball room dancing.

It should have been Magic, but it wasn't Magic, If anything,

It was magic's death.

Ramona never wore colour again, She faded black; Sat somewhere at the back of class In the silence of Wanting to disappear.

She had heard Everything Said about her, Cruelly.

And she did not return to school next year.

There's no resolving this age-old sadness, But, perhaps, it found its way back to me For the sole reason that it, still, just wants Someone else To feel, And see, And acknowledge

What magic, that evening, Was murdered.

It exists, solely to instill this wish of mine To go back in time, As there are words The universe needs Written,

So that its truth may finally Also exist,

For what it's worth, sent to the aether:

"Ramona, you are radiantly beautiful; Enchanting... dreamy...

Do you want to Dance?"

--- 4-7-2023, M.A. Tempels ©

[skitterhop]

how i did the shadows in MAGIC SHOW

I thought it might be fun to write a little breakdown of how I made the shadows in my animation!

so a little bit of context about magic show: i made this animation very quickly! it was a birthday gift for @xxacidnekoxx, and i didn't have much time to make it. in total i worked on it for about 2 weeks. (unfortunately i didnt finish it in time for his birthday, but i did at least get it watchable from start to finish in time)

there wasn't an animatic stage, and i drew all of the final frames as i went. i didn't even know it was going to have shadows at all until I finished coloring it and realized the whole thing looked a lot more flat than i had anticipated.

oops!

luckily, getting the animation from this to its shaded state only took a few hours.

so let's break it all down!

Part One: Some Basics

it's worth noting that the animation software I used for this is toon boom harmony. a lot of what i'll be talking about is harmony specific, although you could certainly apply similar techniques in other programs.

Masking

the idea is simple. you have three images. the first two images are the same image, but with different palettes. the third image, known as the mask, is grayscale, and defines which areas use which palette.

when combined, the black areas use the first palette, and the white areas use the second palette. grey areas mix between the two.

in harmony this is easily accomplished with just a few nodes.

the unlit background is layered on the bottom. the lit version is masked by the cutter, and layered on top of the unlit background.

this kind of setup will likely work for most cases. however...

by default, cutter nodes will only use the alpha channel of whatever is plugged into the matte to determine which areas to mask, ignoring the actual brightness values of our mask.

this causes some issues for us! our lighting has layers. we want our spotlight to make the background lighter, and we want our characters to cast shadows on top of the spotlight.

luckily, we can force harmony to use the matte input's brightness values to determine the mask instead by inserting a greyscale node before the cutter and ticking the "matte output" box.

(btw, if you need a layer or matte to become a solid color, you can plug it into a Matte Blur node and pick which color you want there. very handy in combination with the greyscale node's matte output!)

Color Overrides

the easiest way to make alternate palettes in toon boom is to right click on the palette in your palettes list, and click "Clone..."

this makes a copy of your palette where all of the colors are linked to their respective counterparts in the original palette.

with cloned palettes, harmony uses whatever palette is highest in the list (or whatever palette is currently selected) to determine which version of the palette it uses in the scene. you can override any layer's palette priorities by plugging it into a Colour Override node and adding the new palette you want as a whole palette override.

Apply Peg Transformations

the Apply Peg Transformation node is simple. normally peg transformations occur before the drawing node. this means every instance of the drawing will share the same transformations. but this node lets you apply them after the drawing node.

this allows you to insert multiple instances of your drawing, each with unique transformations!

perfect for our shadows!

that's the basic gist of it! combining these elements gets you most of the way there.

Part Two: Getting The Rest Of The Way There

unfortunately, our table looks like it is floating at the moment.

this technique is very efficient, but the results are far from perfect.

shadows are what happen when an object blocks light from hitting another object. generally these objects are "three dimensional" and have "volume", which, in combination with the position and angle of the light source, changes the shape of the shadows they project.

the truth is that reusing flattened 2d artwork of characters to create shadows can only get you so far. the effect looks better when the light source is coming from a similar position and angle to the camera, but looks worse when the difference is greater.

in our case, the light source is close enough to look convincing on the curtains, but the shadow doesn't line up with the table's feet on the floor, absolutely shattering the illusion.

so how do we fix this?

Color Overrides Again

the Colour Override node also lets you non-destructively remove specified colors from a layer.

here i've "deleted" the table's shadow by using a Colour Override node to replace all of the table's colors with 0 alpha colors.

this is a very efficient method of removing objects from a lot of frames at once!

cutter nodes can be used to further mask away any remaining parts of a shadow that you don't want. example:

Manually Adding The Shadow Back In

no node fuckery here. i simply made a new layer and drew the table's shadow by hand for each frame and included it in my shadow composite.

this little bit of manual shadow animation really ties everything together and sells the effect in my opinion.

Part Three: Finishing Touches

these aren't necessary, but they add a little bit of polish

Mesh Warping To Add Form

the shadows subtly wrap around the curtains as if they were a little bit round. just gotta run the shadows through an Apply Peg Transformation node connected to a Mesh Warp node. be warned that the bezier handles on this thing are a lot more finicky than the other bezier handles in harmony and sometimes they bite you.

Blurring Spotlight Edges

in the real world, shadows get blurrier the further away they are from the object that's casting them. it probably would've been a lil more realistic if i slightly blurred the shadows that the characters cast on the curtains as well, but i thought they looked better sharp here. realism doesn't actually matter just do whatever looks Good Enough.

Floor Reflection

i used an Apply Peg Transformation node along with a simple peg to layer a flipped instance of the curtain's Lit shading on top of the floor. blur it (more vertically than horizontally,) set the blending mode to add, and lower the opacity. done!

that's about all i can think of right now. thanks for reading if you got this far!

as a bonus here is what the whole node tree for this animation looks like. most of the shadow & background stuff is happening over in the upper right cluster.

[boxturret]

Pikmin 2 Batteries Wip

For my next project I wanted to do the batteries featured in the Japanese version of Pikmin 2. I made some interesting discoveries when looking up them and the cans that really recontextualised all the treasures for me, might write about that at some point.

I printed out a pair of C cell batteries

...then proceeded to make the D cell labels... There wasn't really a reason, just poor planning on my part.

originally I was planning on trying to cut out the parts where the metallic shows through...but its way too much, maybe if I had one of those fancy vinyl cutters but with just a knife...nooooo.

Guess now its time to either print a D cell, or make the C cell label. Or both.

Keep reading for too much battery knowledge:🔋

Okay so I said there was no reason why I printed the C battery first, but the D label first, well...the reason is I wanted to do the C battery, but the thing about the in game model is that...its not real.

The SUM-1 number there is actually the type of battery. Japanese batteries are numbered, so D=1, C=2, AA=3. They did modify the text in the lower left to say two, but not the upper. All the text and graphical elements are pulled from the D and AA cell battery. Maybe they couldn't find a sample of a 20-50 year old* C cell, finding images on ebay was hard enough now. Its Ironic that they used so many bits of the AA cell when an actual C cell's layout is almost identical to the D cell.

So that's a long winded way of saying that to make the C cell label I had to make the D Cell first. lol.

Okay some more battery facts:

The (NG) there is only for the black NEO versions, the red should have (DG), so likely the NEO one was made first and just colour swapped. Also the 単二形 kanji match the colour of the battery, so they should be red instead of black. And finally there's one too few white stripe in the middle white band.

A week ago for all I knew you could just go out and buy a National Hi-Top battery in a store, now I know too much.

Another fun fact: Matsushita Electric is nowadays known as Panasonic

*yes...the battery design is that old, in fact with one exception no treasure is from beyond 1990🪫

[elsanna-shenanigans]

November/October 2023 Contest Submission #10: The Queen's Voyage

Words: ca. 4,000 Setting: Canon divergent Lemon: no Content: Mentions of seasickness, past character death, anxiety and depression

For the past four years, Elsa had vowed she would never set foot on a boat for as long as she lived. After her parents had died at sea when their ship went down on their way back from a diplomatic trip, she’d been worried that history could repeat itself. But this time, she had to put her kingdom’s needs before her own personal comfort.

Her ex-fiancee was due to stand trial in the Southern Isles for attempting to assassinate her the previous year and the Queens Of The Southern Isles themselves had asked Elsa to come personally to testify before the royal council. Elsa had offered to send one of her ambassadors instead, but the diplomats insisted she come herself.

To that end, Elsa now faced what was probably the most challenging task of her reign in recent months, surviving a four-day sea voyage without allowing herself to become an anxiety-ridden wreck by the time they reached their destination. Suffice it to say, she was not looking forward to it.

Of course, none of the naval officers and her personal servants were aware of her issues, Elsa had become a master of hiding her emotions. All they saw as she strode up the gangplank to board the waiting ship was their proud and dignified monarch, dressed in her finest royal blue gown and cape, letting very little feeling creep onto her face.

As she arrived aboard, she could tell the sailors were staring at her, wondering if she was going to even say much on this trip. She knew she had a reputation as a recluse even before the attempt on her life, her parents’ deaths having forced her into self-imposed isolation. People had thought her engagement, where she’d actually been happy for the first time in years, would finally break her out of her depression. But alas, it was not to be.

As the Queen eyed the crew with her icy blue spheres, familiarising herself with the faces of those who would be accompanying her for the next week or so, the ship’s captain, Captain Yamada, spoke to her. A man in his forties of Eastern descent with short black hair, she’d known him well as a man who would do everything in his power to ensure this voyage went smoothly.

“Your majesty,” he greeted her politely. “A pleasure to have you sailing with us. I wish it were under better circumstances though.”

“Likewise, Captain,” Elsa responded, her voice soft yet never losing its regal firmness. “If there is nothing to discuss, I shall head to my cabin and you can get underway as soon as possible.”

“Before you do so, my queen, allow me to introduce you to Anna,” Yamada said, guesting to a young woman among his crew.

Anna stepped forward and Elsa couldn’t help but feel a slight warmth on her cheeks when she saw her. Anna was a young woman, probably around her age if not a little younger, with strawberry blonde hair worn in the traditional naval style that most women in Arendelle’s armed forces preferred.

She wore the standard, rather dashing naval uniform as all the other sailors, grey with black highlights in colour and with white gloves, though if Elsa was honest, she seemed to be wearing it better than anyone else. Her cheeks were covered in a spread of freckles and her eyes were teal, a slightly lighter shade than Elsa’s own.

Anna bowed in respect, taking hold of the sword at her side. “My Queen, I live to serve thee.”

“I’ve assigned Anna to be your personal aide and bodyguard on this voyage, Your Majesty,” the captain replied. “She’s one of my best officers. If you need anything at all, just ask her. As for the rest of us, we shall respect your privacy should you need it.”

“Is uh… is this necessary, Captain?” Elsa asked, desperately not trying to let anxiety slip into her voice.

“It’s standard procedure for all guests aboard this ship, Ma’am,” Yamada explained. 

Elsa nodded. “Very well, I understand.”

“Come this way, Your Majesty,” Anna said, her voice bright and chipper. “I’ll show you to your quarters. Your servants already brought your belongings aboard this morning so they’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Thank you,” Elsa merely replied, following Anna below decks.

Once Elsa had gotten settled into her room, the ship got underway and the long voyage began. The crew did as they had promised, keeping their distance from Elsa besides Anna of course, respecting the Queen’s desire for privacy and if Elsa were honest, she didn’t want anyone to see her during the early parts of the voyage.

For the entire first day, Elsa spent most of the time huddled in her cabin, trying desperately not to be seasick. But it was hard when the ship kept lunching about from side to side heavily in the massive waves. Her thoughts were anxious ones, about how the mighty waves could capsize the ship, just like when her parents’s own ship went down.

Fortunately, by the second day, Elsa had gotten her sea legs and found herself spending a lot of time reading more than anything else. She’d always loved books, having read virtually every single one in the castle library as a child. In her depression, Elsa found herself diving into books again, them being a great escape from the pains of her daily life.

It was on the evening of the third day that Elsa found herself reading in her bed, a romance novel of all things about a young noblewoman charmed by a handsome lady thief who stole her heart. Elsa actually found these books to be some of her favourites, ironic considering the last time she’d opened her heart to love… well, it had been broken.

Just as Elsa was finishing the chapter, there was a knock on her door. It was Anna, her fourth time calling that afternoon alone.

“It’s open, Anna,” Elsa said, greeting her dutifully.

Anna opened the door and walked inside. “I know but it’s considered polite to knock before entering a lady’s cabin.” She sighed. “Is there anything I can do for you, your majesty?”

“No, Anna, there is not,” Elsa said, adjusting her glasses and going back to her book. 

The young woman groaned in frustration. “Can I speak freely with you, my queen? If that’s okay.”

“Of course.”

“I’m kinda getting the feeling that I’m kinda pointless on this trip and that I’m annoying you,” Anna admitted. “I thought this would be the best days of my life getting to serve you on this trip… but I guess the rumours about you were right and I got my hopes up for nothing.”

It was then the Queen took off her glasses. “Rumours? What rumours?”

Anna’s face turned as red as her hair. “U-Uh forget I said that! S-Sorry!”

Elsa sighed. Truthfully told, she was regretting that she was making Anna feel this way. Ever since her parents drowned, Elsa had shut her off from most social contact, never really making any friends. And the one time she’d let her guard down… she’d nearly paid the price with her life.

Yet, she could sense that there was something different about Anna. She was being kind and generous to her and trying to do her best as her personal aide on this voyage. And all Elsa had done was brush the young redhead off, preferring to remain in her kingdom of isolation.

And then there was the fact that Anna was so damned pretty too. It had been a long time since Elsa had let anyone catch her eye, man, woman or any other gender. The fact she was a dashing young sailor seemed like this whole thing was right out of the novels she loved so much.

Putting her book down, Elsa sat on the edge of her bed. “No, I suppose I am the one who should be sorry. I’ve probably been a terrible guest. I’m just… not used to dealing with people and this whole voyage… Again, I can only apologise for the way I’ve acted.”

Anna sat down. “This has been hard for you, hasn’t it?”

The Queen nodded, Anna seeing the stern expression on the Queen’s soft face melt away as she was granted a rare sight indeed, Elsa letting her guard down.

“Believe it or not, I used to love the ocean. My favourite story as a child was about a mermaid who fell in love with a prince and wanted to do anything to be with him. Part of me wanted to be some dashing hero, sailing the high seas in search of adventure… and then I lost my parents.”

“I remember the day it happened,” Anna replied. “My boyfriend Kristoff woke me up first thing in the morning when they announced it. I remember the funeral too, how you followed the procession through the streets after the service alone.”

“You were in the crowd that day?”

Anna nodded. “I could tell how broken you were inside, even with that black veil covering your face. I wished I could rush out and hug you but well… you know, you’re the Queen and I was just one of the many peasants.”

“Truthfully told, I would have accepted a hug from anyone back then,” Elsa admitted. “You weren’t always a sailor?”

“Wasn’t always a girl either,” Anna laughed. “But you were always an inspiration to me. Seeing how gorgeous you looked at your coming-of-age ceremony finally made me realise I wanted to be a girl… and seeing you take the throne made me want to serve you and make your kingdom proud. Hence why I joined the Navy.”

“And what about your boyfriend? Are you still together?”

Her companion sighed. “No, I broke up with him after my training was complete. I worried I couldn’t exactly keep up a relationship when I’d be gone for weeks at a time on patrol runs at sea. Don’t worry, we’re still cool though, so it wasn’t like a really bad breakup or anything like that.” 

“How fortunate… I wish my relationship had been as easy to end as that.”

“You know, the moment I heard that Hans bastard tried to stab you in your sleep, I wanted to punch him in the face.”

Elsa… had to laugh at that. Probably the first time she’d actually laughed in years. A soft, gentle laugh that quickly grew into a definitely un-queen-like snort. Anna joined in the laughter, itself equally as infectious. As the two young women finally calmed down, Anna was still chuckling.

“Okay, I did not expect your laugh to sound like that.”

The Queen blushed a little in embarrassment. “Neither did I.”

Anna stared at Elsa, at the Queen she’d spent so many years now idolising and fawning over. Though she was not wearing her sparkling crown and her platinum blonde, nearly snow-white-coloured hair was in a more casual French braid and her attire was a simple wine-coloured nightgown, she still looked like a flowing ice sculpture given human form.

She’d thought there was no way she’d ever get this close to Elsa in a million years and yet, here the two were, bonding and laughing and Anna realising that this woman was a lot more like herself than she’d ever thought. Anna felt her cheeks glowing a little as she looked at the Queen a little more.

“Anna, may I ask you to do something for me?”

“O-Oh sure!” Anna stuttered, rather adorably. “What is it?”

“Could you… let your hair down for me?” Elsa wondered.

“Are you sure? I don’t wanna get in trouble for being improperly dressed.”

“Well no one is watching us and I’m quite good at keeping secrets,” Elsa said. “And you don’t have to have it down for long. I’m just… curious to see what it looks like.”

“Alright, but it’s not really anything special,” Anna replied, reaching back and untying her hair. As it fell out of its bun, Elsa could clearly see that Anna had been dead wrong. Anna looked even better with her hair down, her fiery red strawberry blonde locks flowing loosely behind her head like a waterfall at sunset.

Elsa turned even more red, which only made Anna feel more awkward. 

“See, I told you, it’s not really much to write home about,” Anna excused. “I used to wear it a lot better right after my transition. Had it in these two cute twin braids.”

“Anna,” Elsa merely responded.

“And I mean those were cute I guess but like, I’m not nearly as gorgeous as you are. I mean, you’re a queen, of course you’re gonna be the prettiest girl to ever walk the face of the earth and I’m just-”

“Oh Anna you are so wrong,” Elsa merely said with a hint of passion in her voice as she grabbed Anna’s cheeks and kissed her hard. Anna blushed bright red and held Elsa back, her eyes widening for a moment before she gave in. Both of them kissed the other softly, Anna feeling like she’d gone to heaven at that moment.

But then, Anna realised she was kissing the Queen of Arendelle and quickly pulled away, shocked and panicked. “Shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen, I’m so sorry!”

“No, Anna, it’s-” but before Elsa could finish her sentence, the redhead had sprinted out of the Queen’s cabin and slammed the door behind her.

Feeling her heart rend itself into a knot, Elsa curled up back on the bed. She felt so guilty for doing that, for driving away the one person who she’d found some connection with on this damned voyage. She held her hands close to her chest and started to cry, eventually crying herself to sleep.

—-

  The next morning, Elsa awoke with a pain in her chest, a feeling she’d never truly felt before. Guilt. As she sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she hugged her legs, wondering what to do. She wanted to make amends with Anna, to apologise for that sudden act the night before.

She couldn’t allow this guilt to carry on, not while she still had important business to do when they eventually reached the Southern Isles. She just sat there, gazing at the clock on the wall beside her. It was just before nine o'clock, when Anna had greeted her every morning thus far. 

And as if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Elsa’s eyes widened. “Come in!” She called out. As the door opened, the Queen suddenly blurted out her feelings. “Anna, I’m so sorry about-… you’re not Anna.” 

“No ma’am,” The dark-skinned woman who walked inside said. “I’m Honeymaren. I was asked to be your new personal aide.” 

“W-Where’s Anna?” 

“Oh she uh… asked the captain to relieve her of her duties to you,” Honeymaren explained. “Is there something wrong?” 

“No, I…” Elsa then got out of bed, then quickly put on her shoes. “Can you tell me where the captain’s study is?” 

“The deck above us, near the stern,” Honeymaren informed her. 

“Thank you, if you’ll excuse me,” Elsa said, before storming past Honeymaren. She marched down the corridor and up the flight of stairs, wanting to get to the bottom of this. Was this a bit of an uncharacteristic move for the Queen of Arendelle? Yes, but Elsa hadn’t felt this strongly about someone in so long. 

And she was determined to make this right. 

As she arrived at Captain Yamada’s study, Elsa knocked on the door briskly. “Captain, are you in there?” 

“Yes?” 

Elsa walked inside, seeing the captain right in the middle of some paperwork. He looked at her, surprised. 

“Your majesty? You’re up rather early. Is there something wrong?” 

“Captain, where’s Anna?” 

“On deck, she’s inspecting the sails at the moment I think. We went through a pretty bad gale last night.” 

“Why did she ask to be relieved of her duties?” 

“Who… who told you about that?” 

“Answer me, captain,” Elsa demanded, in a voice the Queen only used for her closest advisors.  

Yamada sighed. “She said she felt she couldn’t perform her duties adequately enough and had felt she had failed you. I asked her why she felt that way and she wouldn’t say, just merely asked to be reassigned. I’m sorry about all this, but Honeymaren is a good officer too. She’ll be just as good as Anna was in serving you as your aide for the next two days till we get to our destination.” 

“But she won’t be, Anna, I’m sorry,” Elsa expressed.  

The captain straightened his collar. “I uh… if you want, I can order Anna to resume her duties serving you, my Queen. I’m her commanding officer after all.” 

There was a part of Elsa that nearly wanted to say yes, to make Anna come back to her… before the rational part of the monarch’s brain finally took control and made Elsa come to her senses. “No, no, she said she had her reasons for wanting to be relieved of her duties… I want to respect those.” She then walked to the door. “I’m sorry for troubling you, Captain, I’ll leave you to your work.” 

“It’s alright your majesty,” He said. Before Elsa could leave, the captain spoke again. “Oh, and my queen? I hope you and Anna do get a chance to patch things up. She always spoke of how much she was looking forward to her assignment with you. I’d hate for you to leave on bad terms.” 

“Thank you, Captain,” Elsa responded. “I… I hope so too.” 

And with that, the Queen took her leave.

—-

  The next two days felt like an eternity for Elsa. There was a notable hole in her life where Anna had once been and no matter how much Elsa had tried to ignore it, her thoughts would always find themselves fixed on Anna. She’d been so good to her and so kind and Elsa… well, she wanted to be with her more.

But she’d done something so stupid, so idiotic that it had driven Anna away. And no matter how Elsa wanted to try and fix things, she knew it was best if she left Anna be. She’d probably be too busy with the trial in the Southern Isles for the next few days to think about her anyway. 

And Honeymaren, as the captain had said, did a marvellous job as her personal aide, almost as good as Anna, in fact. But unlike before with Anna, Elsa did her best to talk with Maren, trying as she might anything that could help her bury the thoughts of Anna that still lingered within her. 

But it did her no good. She still missed Anna. It was when Elsa realised that… for that one moment that night, she hadn’t felt any fear inside at all. No anxiety over drowning in the endless sea, no worries about letting anyone get too close again, Anna’s mere presence had helped all that go away. 

At the end of her fourth night at sea, Elsa found she couldn’t sleep and couldn’t read either. Her romance novels only reminded her more of Anna and the guilt she was still feeling kept her awake. She was also starting to hate being cooped up in her room all the time, almost feeling claustrophobic at this point. 

In the end, the Queen decided some fresh air might do her some good. Putting on one of her favourite blue jackets, she headed out of her room and onto the deck of the ship above her. As the calm sea air filled her nose, she was greeted by a wondrous view before her as the ship sailed across the sea. 

The sky was virtually cloudless, pricks of starlight dotting the heavens above. And the moon… Elsa had never seen the moon so big, its white light reflected on the calm waters below. She went to the front of the ship, leaning against the railing and feeling the wind rush through her hair. 

At that moment, the ocean didn’t look like anything to be feared. No, it actually looked beautiful, a tranquil calmness that Elsa hadn’t thought about since she loved her adventure stories as a child. It was perfect, almost perfect… only one thing or rather one woman could make this whole scene truly complete. 

And to her surprise… Elsa heard a voice calling out to her. 

“Your majesty?” 

The Queen turned, seeing Anna walking towards her. She looked worried and concerned, despite Elsa feeling the exact opposite upon seeing her. 

“Anna?” 

“What are you doing out here?” 

“Oh I… couldn’t sleep,” Elsa stated. “I thought some fresh air would do me some good.” 

“You should get back to your cabin,” Anna insisted. “It’s dark out here and I’d rather you not trip over something and fall overboard.” 

“I’ll be alright, but… Thank you for caring,” Elsa admitted, blushing softly.  

“Well, it’s my duty to.” 

“I thought you had yourself relieved of that,” Elsa smirked before realising that the joke was probably in poor taste. “Sorry… I didn’t mean.” 

“Did you just make a joke?” 

“Maybe.” 

Anna had to chuckle. “You’re something else, your majesty.” 

“Please, Anna… you can call me Elsa.” The Queen insisted.  

“Okay… Elsa,” Anna replied, joining her by the railing. “I… I’m sorry about the other night.” 

“I should be sorry,” Elsa said, lamenting her impulsive behaviour. “I was the one who kissed you. You did nothing wrong and don’t you blame yourself for it. You’ve been the kindest person I’ve met in a long time… and probably the prettiest too if I’m being honest.” 

Anna blushed. “You… really think that?” 

“Why do you think I kissed you?” 

“But I’m not nearly the kind of person you want,” Anna argued. “You need someone more fitting, like some noble or foreign royal or something.” 

“I tried that once, I nearly got stabbed to death,” Elsa joked again. “I’d rather have someone who made me feel good and feel like I can be a human being again. Look at me, I’m out here on a boat and I should be utterly terrified and yet… I’m not because I’m here with you.” 

“I… really make you feel that way?” 

“Yes… but if it still makes you uncomfortable, I won’t push whatever this is. I was too forward the other night and I didn’t mean to hurt you.” 

“No, I… I want this if you want it, Elsa. I’ve had feelings for you for years, I just… didn’t think you’d feel the same way and that’s why I panicked last night.” 

“Are you going to panic now?” 

The redhead smiled. “No, I’m not.” She then grabbed Elsa and kissed her again, pulling the Queen flush against her, wrapping her arms around the slightly taller woman. Elsa just melted into the kiss and kissed her back, the two of them bathed in the light of the moon and stars. 

When the ship eventually arrived in the Southern Isles, Elsa requested that Anna be transferred to be her bodyguard for the duration of the trip. Officially, Elsa had merely been impressed by Anna’s dedication to her. Unofficially… Elsa didn’t want her new love to be apart from her for a second. 

And Anna wouldn’t dare leave her Queen again, knowing that they were better together than separated.

[pacebone]

oh my goodness your art is just. sublime. i can't even express how beautiful your rendering is. please pray tell your painting/colour picking process!

tysm for the kind words!! i'm glad you took the time to send this message!

i don't think i do anything too special, but there are some rules/teachings i try to keep in mind while i work. i love talking about art and color so i'm happy to get into them in what'll probably end up as an unnecessary amount of detail!!! let's go!!

first off, relativity is The Main Rule of coloring, and you'll probably see it referenced in, like, all of the following tips, because it's my main way of thinking about art. color relativity is less of a school of thought and more of a scientific truth: human vision is incapable of processing color on its own, we can only process what we see as it appears relative to its neighbors. my bro josef albers did a lot of important work on this subject.

it always comes back to bauhaus.

you don't see blue, you see bluer-than-everything-else. if your surroundings are orange (blue's opposite on the color wheel, or, in relativity-speak, the-least-possible-blue), the bluer-than-everything-else object may as well look gray in a blue setting. though i gave a simple example, this isn't a simple spectrum, because saturation and value also affect each other, making for a three-dimensional matrix of trouble.

boy, if everyone understood this concept, that white-gold/blue-black dress argument sure would've been short.

anyway, going from there:

1) i usually start with a 50% neutral gray background. relativity is a negotiation, and starting in the color equivalent of switzerland sure makes negotiations easier. starting with white will make everything look darker and more intense than it really is. (this tip works for irl painting too, i always tint my gesso!)

2) #ffffff and #000000 are treats only for special occasions. they are the fried ice creams of values. use them sparingly and in very important areas (or not at all--i tend to avoid true black altogether in lineless work, usually opting for a deep tone of the work's main color instead). i save these until i'm very close to finishing up, because if you add them too early, you'll throw off the balance of the relativity.

3) finally getting to actual color! when choosing highlights and shadows, i always adjust the color in addition to the value according to a general rule: lighter areas appear warmer, and darker areas appear cooler. this is a pretty common tip, but it's parroted for a reason: it works! for flesh tones, that means highlights are yellower and shadows are redder or bluer. doing this also adds liveliness and helps prevent the doll-like appearance that rendered flesh can get (but don't get carried away with this or you'll end up lisa franking it. not that lisa franking doesn't have its own important application).

4) relativity isn't just something you have to negotiate with. once you get the hang of it, it's a very useful tool! as renowned art theorist francis bacon famously said: color relativity is an excellent servant, but a terrible master to circle all the way back: - if you want something to look very blue, surround it with orange, - if you want something to look very light, surround it with darkness, - if you want something to look very saturated, surround it with dull colors, and vice versa. this can be a useful compositional tool, not just a rendering one--make the focus of your drawing light/dark and saturated, and keep the unimportant areas in duller mid-tones.

a straightforward application of relativity is in the whites of the eyes, because you have an area on the face that's neutral by nature, and neutral = your playing field. like our homestuck kids with their fun eye colors... to make rose's purple eyes look super purple, i tinted the whites of her eyes just a little bit yellow-y (i ended up leaning into soft orange bc otherwise you'll just get jaundice).

and this isn't a just one-way relationship: in the john piece, i DIDN'T want his eyes to be a super distinguished blue, because that was a work about him feeling too absorbed/swallowed in his surroundings (retcon power moping), so i made the whites of his eyes very blueish, lessening the impact of his eye color.

slightly off the vein of relativity: i also usually like making the whites of the eyes around the same value and saturation as the skintone for a sense of cohesiveness, but that's more of an personal preference. white-whites kinda scare me (but, to emphasize, scary eyes have their own application--see, conveniently, kanaya and her brighter-than-her-skintone eyes for that slightly uncanny alien vamp effect!).

i mentioned that i always start with a 50% gray background, but if you're particularly discerning, you may be thinking: hey, wait, your rosemary piece has a darkish blue-gray background! cheater!

and my response to that is yes. so true. i was cheating. color relativity may be a negotiation for the artist, but it's a straight-up scam for the viewer. that's why they call it a trompe l'oeil, a deception of the eye, and not something nicer. i wanted to make rose appear very warm and a little yellowish because she's Sun Light Girl and a cooler background will fool people into seeing that. i wanted to make kanaya appear glowy without painting her white, because, as mentioned, that's fried ice cream, so a darker background will fool people into seeing that.

here's what it would've looked like on a neutral background vs. the final one:

haha ignore the lazy leg i hid in the shadow

this is why i think it's so important to start pretty neutral. if you go full saturation/light/dark from the start, then you'll have no room to play! this doesn't mean painting in shades of gray, but it does mean having a bit of restraint with the extremes of color and value. this can involve a little more planning and negotiating, but the results tend to be worth it. and, luckily, those of us in the digital realm can easily tweak these relationships through adjustment layers and overlays.

fuck that's a lot of text. anyway. hope something or other in there helps.

if something's unclear please know i am a little too eager to clarify!!

[cypaira-the-skeleton]

The True Origin of the Biblically Accurate Angel of Mischief

( More under the Keep Reading)

When I first came up with the Angel Of Mischief design I didn't really have an origin for Raven's form and powers.

Just recently I came up with an origin background for the Angel itself.

Of course, in a different AU, Raven was born as a human angel with supernatural powers, and further in the future she unlocks her True form and Biblically Accurate form.

(Image shown below is from a previous post)

In reality, They used to be an actual living deity.

(I know, lack of colour, but this is from my work sketchbook so I can't colour a lot)

It served by the side of a powerful almighty god as it's messenger, and also a deliverer of grace, miracles, and hope to humans.

Their original appearance was less hostile and more tame and holy. Their eyes were a shade of crystal blue, their wings were white as summer clouds, and their Halo and pigment on their limbs a shade of pure gold. The name they previously owned was Gale (short for " Nightingale " )

Gale was praised and adored in the mortal realm. Respect was always shown to any grace given to the humans. An altar was also erected specifically for Them! They were loved, and all the Angel cared for was the well being and happiness of others.

Unbeknownst to Them, the almighty god that Gale served noticed how his loyal Deliverer was worshipped so highly; much more than him or the other gods. Blinded with jealousy, the almighty god made a pact with a demon to trick the Angel into committing a sin, so that They could learn Their place.

The god requested a curse disguised as a 'graceful gift' to be specifically handed to him, to which he personally handed it to his loyal Deliverer, which resulted in Gale gifting it to the humans.

The fake gift caused all kinds of miserable events. Hostility rose up, crops were withering, their livestock were struck with sickness, and young humans perished like flies. After some time and thinking, the people who once worshiped the Angel now cursed Their name, and the altars that once existed were destroyed, all trust lost.

Gale was distraught, not understanding how this happened, until they remembered 'the gift'. Once called up to Their almighty god, They desperately tried to explain that They must have been tricked, saying it was never Their intention while pleading for forgiveness. The almighty god actually felt a bit guilty of his actions towards his Loyal Deliverer, and was about to grant forgiveness. That is until the ruler of the demons showed up, claiming that after what Gale had done They now belonged to him.

The Angel implored Their god to not banish Them. After a short chat between the almighty god and the ruler of demons, it was decided that Gale will not belong to either realm. They instead will forget what They used to be, and be damned to linger in the Void. The Angel begged and begged, but none listened. Gale was struck down, and was now stuck in a place where it was nowhere and somewhere at the same time.

First came grief, then disbelief, and in the end, wrath. Every second it passed more of Their memory slipped away, and the more They raged, the more Their appearance turned hostile. Wings and pigments of limbs turned into ashen black, and Their eyes and Halo's hues turned to a bright burning red, matching Their new horns. Decades could have passed, and the now nameless Angel held onto their rage, and what miraculously was left of their kind soul; Their memory completely gone.

They were damned to linger the Void, but a small light suddenly shined in the distance. Curious, They approached it, feeling its presence calling for Them ever so strongly. Reaching out They could feel something different, something changing. Once the light engulfed Their body a warm feeling surrounded Them, until moments later cold suddenly struck...

And a little girl with red ruby eyes was born.

[fairytimestudio]

Glassheart DEVLOG 2

8/6/2023

PROMOTION, MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Lets start with the non-game related stuff...

In an attempt to get the word out about the game, I spent most of this week setting up my socials as well as putting up more content for the game. If you're interested in seeing more artwork related to the development of Glassheart and other stuff I work on in my down time you can find me on Instagram and Twitter.

Though with all the stuff that's going on on Twitter or X or whatever it's called nowadays I'm a wee bit reluctant to post anything there.

I also made a Linktree. Here she is:

Her name's Rita and she's a Leo.

ART

In terms of art I haven't got as much done this week. I did a bit more work on Anya's room and began solidifying the aesthetic I was going for. Basically each region of the world will have it's own sort of colour scheme and for Hedona that scheme is blue, pink, green and yellow (and some lavenders).

I want Hedona to feel dreamy and fairytale-like so I'm using a lot of pastels in the art. I also love how Anya's deep purples and blacks contrast with her bedroom and the rest of the cottage. It makes sense for a characterization. Speaking of Anya.

I also gave Anya a bit of a makeover from her first look. Due to her shifting role in the story I gave her a darker outfit with purple and black being the main colours and dark green and gold being an accent.

before, Anya was supposed to be you archetypical princess character. Kind, good-hearted, a little on the meek side but still had a rebellious streak to her. Think a Princess Aurora or Cinderella. But due to a drastic change to the stories themes her personality had to follow suit.

Instead she plays the role of the witch or evil stepsister within the narrative(or at least that's how she's perceived).

I also wanted to add some drama to her face so I gave her a bit more eyeshadow as well as some glitter. I wrestled with the glitter because I felt it might look out of place in a story but came to the realization that I don't care and I want everybody that where's makeup in the story to be well acquainted with glitter.

I also worked on the logo for FairyTime studio. The official logo is the second one though I might change it. We'll see.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ianthe Rosingbird (@ianthefairytime)

And now onto the music!

MUSIC

So, I'm a solo dev. Let's remember that when we listen to some of the tracks I've come up with.

But seriously these are rough, basically just a few motifs and melodies to help guide me when I actually beginning making my songs but here they are.

I was inspired by again, golden age Disney music namely Once Upon a Dream and Snow White's Wishing Well song. That certainly isn't coming through now but I'm still in very early production with these pieces. I composed them with a music box instrument because it helps me focus on the melody and also I fucking love music boxes. My logo's actually based on a Polyphonic Music Box I fell in love with and just have to have one day.

Basically, I want the music to feel magical and nostalgic and I hope I'll be able to capture that when I actually start the composition.

WRITING

I've mainly been focusing on world building this week as well as determining the role that certain characters will play and the new Version of Glassheart.

Basically this story's gone through 3 phases and I'm currently trying to smoosh some other projects I was working on into this one but here's what I came up with.

Glassheart takes place in a country called Hedona at two opposing colleges seperated by a bridge:

The Garden of Crowns; The college Anya and the bulk of the cast attend and Wellwood's Cross; this is the opposing college that often times finds itself in competition with its neighbour. While the rivalry between these colleges can often seem light-hearted; there's real animosity between the two tribes especially fuelled by the adults.

This rivalry is further exasperated when Anya Torre, whose father is a well known alumni of the college, decides to offer her Blade to Bravis Swanthorn, a student of Wellwood's Cross and it's crowned champion in the sport of sword fighting.

She is branded as the Treacherous Blade and ousted from polite society with no one to defend her, not even her beloved half-sister, Beatrice Prine. She resigns herself to playing the role of a villainess and takes up refuge in Toad Cottage far off from the colleges and close to edge of the woods.

This is where the story begins to take off.

Now one thing that important to note about the world is the idea of Blades and their wielders. Essentially, a princess(which in this world refers to any young woman of a certain age) is able to draw a power out of her heart and manifest a blade that can be used in battle. Think Revolutionary Girl Utena.

There are two measures used to discern the strength of a blade: Sharpness - Which refers to how sharp and strong the blade is Lightness - Which refers to how light the blade is to hold.

The best blades are described as being "near-Glass" as no blade has ever managed to be fully classified as glass.

The elusive glass blade or Glassheart, is a blade so sharp and light that it has the power to tear through the fabric of reality and manifest the wielders thoughts and desires into existence. A power coveted by the Armed Guard; the protectors of Hedona; The Goddess Body; a group of outlaws that practice arts banned by the High Council of Alchemy and of course the Witches whose motives remain unknown.

I haven't yet began working on the metric to actually calculate all of this stuff but I think I'll have more to say about blades in a future DevLog.

The next DevLog will also feature some character descriptions just to get you acquainted with the main cast.

GAMEPLAY AND CODE

So for the coding aspect of the game I mainly focused on navigation. Basically the way the exploration works is that I've put some points in the shape of a box to indicate where the doors are. When the player hover's over that space fairy dust pours out of the wand to highlight that you're hovering over an interactable area. When you click this spot you're transported into a different room.

Different character's might be in different rooms so you'll be able to interact with them in the exploration phase in order to get relevant information.

Another thing I worked on was essentially just reducing the effects I was using in Gdevelop5. Basically when you use too many effects it can slow down the game down and while a visual novel isn't that resource intensive there was some lag in certain areas that I wanted to fix. I'm already using 3 effects to help sell the vintage look:

-Old Film to provide some noise -RGB Split for the slight chromatic aberration and -Blur(Kawase Fast) to make the art look less crisp

Too many effects as it is but totally worth it imo. But you can be the judge of that.

Outside of that I don't think there's much more I can say about the art or the game so I think I'll leave it there.

Thanks for reading all this and I hope you're having a wonderful day.

Ianthe

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

None of the Beatles were able to read music.

Actirasty is sexual arousal caused by sunshine.

An estimated 40% of your happiness is genetic.

The truth is never as painful as discovering a lie.

The record for most female orgasms in one hour is 134.

Marijuana can aid in slowing down the growth of cancer cells.

In 1800, the average age of an American was 16, today it is 38.

The Wikipedia page for 'Pedant' has been edited over 500 times.

The average American adult hasn’t made a new friend in five years.

In 2007, eight-year-old twin boys from Ohio invented wedgie-proof underpants.

The United States has been involved in some conflict for about 93% of its existence.

Just five minutes of movement every hour can reverse the harmful effects of inactivity.

Male coin spiders only have sex once. After mating, they chew off their own genitals.

People who spend money on experiences rather than material items tend to be happier.

Sex burns about 3-5 calories a minute. (One-Minute Man ain’t burning many calories!)

Sitting for more than three hours a day can reduce a person's life expectancy by two years.

South Korea shut down its entire space programme in 2014 when its only astronaut resigned.

Jay-Z is now the wealthiest musical artist in the world, with a net worth of about $2.5 billion.

If you are 16 or older, there's an 80% chance you've already met the person you are going to marry.

Drinking tea, particularly green tea, can help lower blood pressure. (Green tea is my first cuppa of the day!)

Out of the nearly 200 countries in the world, only 22 of them have never experienced a British invasion.

From 1700 to 1905, cows were tied to posts in St James's park and their milk sold 'straight from the udder'.

In 1952, the great smog of London was so bad that blind people led sighted people home from the train station.

The average woman absorbs up to five pounds of damaging chemicals a year thanks to beauty products.

According to its website, WD40 was once used by police to remove a naked burglar from an air-conditioning vent.

An attempt to make the world's biggest sandwich in Iran failed when the crowd ate it before it could be measured.

Even if they oppose it morally, roughly 40% of Americans surveyed would still help a loved one seeking an abortion.

The average man will spend 10 years of his life working, three years going to the toilet and four years waiting in line.

Erotomania is a psychological disorder where the sufferer has delusions that another person is in love with him or her.

In Japan, you can get QR codes imprinted on headstones. You simply scan the code, then watch a video about that person’s life.

When the first sewing factories opened, seamstresses complained of 'extreme genital excitement' caused by the sewing machines.

In the US, marijuana was initially made illegal by a man who testified the drug made white women want to hook up with black men.

Yellow teeth are stronger, the natural colour of our teeth is a light yellow colour. Whitening your teeth can permanently weaken them.

British politician Alan Johnson was mocked in 2005 when he had the role of Productivity, Engineering, and Industry Secretary (PEnIS).

In the 1670's, the Pope bought ‘St. Peter's beard’ from highwayman Dick Dudley and kissed it, not knowing it was actually a prostitute's pubic wig.

Although only 836 people live in the French village of Montolieu, it has one bookshop for every 56 residents as well several workshops and museums dedicated to the craft of making books.

The first occupational disease ever recorded in medical literature was 'chimney sweep's scrotum', testicular cancer caused by chronic irritation of the testicular skin by soot and chimney tars.

After movie studios declined, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ was instead financed by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Jethro Tull, and Elton John, all of whom saw it as “a good tax write-off."

Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada by a man from Greece. He was inspired to put a South American ingredient on an Italian dish after eating Chinese food. It then went on to become the most popular kind of pizza in Australia.

The Japanese marathon runner Shizo Kanakuri fell asleep while taking a break during the 1912 Olympic marathon in Stockholm. In 1967, the Swedes invited him to return and finish the race. His final time was 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[antique-forvalaka]

The Paintings

So i think by now we’ve all noticed the Portraits of themselves that Kim and Tankhun have in their rooms (and im honestly holding out hope for a KInn portrait as well), but i havent seen as much analysis for them so far (and i’m very sorry, i’m supposed to do colour theory for ep4 right now instead).

As a small disclaimer i need to clarifiy that i tried my best to adjust the paintings for perspective, light situation etc. but the process can of course also falsifiy the result. Further i want to reiterate that my analysis is very subjective, and i have no formal education in art history/analysis, so take everything with a grain of salt.

Tankhun:

So let’s start with Tankhun’s painting.

His is quite clearly recognizable as being Pop Art, more specifically Pointillism.

Pointillism as a technique isn’t that young by itself, it describes the use of several smaller colour dots to build up a bigger whole, similar to the modern printing process which also uses incredibly small dots, usually only in 4 colours, to create the books/pictures/flyers you use daily. However Tankhun’s painting here is not only made up of several, relatively big, coloured circles, but it is also split up into only 4-5 colours. It’s a bit hard to make out, even after colour correction in post processing, if the painting is made up of Black/Red/Yellow (+White) or if it is Black/Blue/Red/Yellow (+White). The latter would harken back to current printing presses which work with Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black (in short: CMYK), however I actually suspect it is only made with the 3 colours Black/Red/Yellow which would be a hint to a custom, maybe even hand painted/printed piece.

Of course what is interesting about the reduced colour palette in any way is, that these colours should be enough to build up a sufficient spectrum through mixing. Instead we have very clear divisions, think Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol. It creates a similar impression to putting someone in a very overexposed spotlight, harsh contrast and, depending on how much colours are used, can give varying impressions of depth. More colours creates the feeling of looking at a clear cut and straight forward person, less can lead to deeper depths and a feeling of hidden sides. The specififc colours used for him also create a very vibrant and active look, which i think portrays Tankhun’s over active and slightly chaotic personality very well.

Here he strikes a balance, but I certainly think the painting creates the impression of a deceptively simple person, especially if you take the build up through dots into consideration. Stay too close to the picture and you will only be able to see the small points making up the whole, not the portrait itself however. For that you need distance. 

Tankhun is more complicated than he looks at first glance. Are his eccentricities just that, unique but mostly harmless quirks? Or do these quirks serve to hide a bigger personality, something we are too close to see in its entirety?

Additionally I want to take the placement in his room into consideration. The painting is hung up on a small wall right next to the entrance, mostly out of the way and not visible upon entry. It is also placed right next to the cupboard behind Tankhun’s couch, which is stock full of more eye-catching trinkets. It feels incongruous how little relevance the painting has in his rooms. At the same time I think this only further supports my reading of it being representative of Tankhun’s character. He stays mostly hidden away in his tower, and even his over the top dramatics are likely a way to obfuscate his true thoughts and feelings. You only really see him on second glance.

(EDIT: I forgot to mention: his positioning in the bounds of the portrait is interesting as well. He is turned away from the viewer, and in fact the perspective suggests us looking down at him from a slight height difference. Yet he may show us his back but he is still looking at the viewer with one eye, there is no trust here despite the implication of 'showing someone your back'. I personally also read his gaze as hostile, but i wouldn't be opposed to reading it as vulnerability instead. Tankhun is, after all, a character that seems to contain multitudes. His apparent weakness (ie. Eccentric behaviour and vulnerabilities/childlike mannerisms) seem to not undermine his authority in the eyes of his family, as seen by Vegas not even trying to verbally defend himself when Tankhun berates him and makes him leave the restaurant during ep4.)

Kim:

Now in contrast, Kim is much harder to nail down.

The only say I can say with relative certainty is that we are looking at an Impressionist portrait, but the specifics I’m less certain about. I feel like his portrait is not quite in line with classic impressionistic pieces, a bit more modern and abstracted. A good style influence could be Olga Boznańska.

Impressionism as a style, as the name implies, focuses on catching and conveying subjective impressions through paintings. They are often loose and the colours carry more significance than in more realistic portrayals. Significant about Kim's portrait is therefore that the colours are washed out, a gold orange is the most dominant colour, though we have some soft blue on the outer edges as well.

Also interesting to note is the way his face is framed. Kim is slightly turned away from the observer, and his face isn’t centered on the canvas. We almost get the impression of a candid photo taken in secret, or in an unobserved moment. However the clearly visible brush strokes (which are really very very big, considering the general size of the piece) disabuse us of that notion.

It’s a very unconventional way to structure a commissioned portrait, even though it fits well into the impressionistic style.

But despite creating this effect of intimacy the washed out colours and the formidable size of the picture bring back some distance. We haven’t yet seen much of Kim, so I can’t say too much about his character. However the portrait itself seems to suggest a division between how he is perceived in his role as WIK and how he sees himself.

WIK is bigger than life, he is to be admired, looked up to, and yet also perceived as authentic, as close to his fans. Likely there is a hint of a para-social relationship between him and his fans, as with so many modern artists or public personalities. Yet he is washed out, a mirage, a glimpse at his reflection more than a look at who Kim really is. The painting wants us to believe there is certainly mystery surrounding Kim, yet not much depth, it’s relatively flat. At the same time his edges are hard to grasp. His form fades at the edges and it’s hard to pin him down.

I’m wondering is this is also how Kim sees himself, he certainly seems to be a bit more removed from the main family than his brothers, a bit of a shade, ready to fade out of the (mafia) spot light.

Also significant, more so for Kim than for Tankhun, is the placement of his painting. It has a very visible place of honour, above a decorative cabinet. More importantly we as the viewer know it is hiding his conspiracy board.

(credit to @AMC_1903 on twitter)

Either he sees himself as eschewing his ‘true self’ in order to better investigate, his public persona just a face to put on to hide his secrets; or he thinks of himself as protecting his family and his secrets instead. He is literally in between his family’s secrets and the world, a smokescreen in front of his true motives. I suspect we will see that Kim, as most other big Players, is more complicated than we initially assume.

I may expand on these at a later date, but no promises. I’m pretty busy as of late, and I wanna wait and see if Kinn has a portrait hidden away somewhere as well. Also big thanks to Senpai @iffervescent​ for making me think about Kim’s portrait placement!

For now, this is where you can find more KP Meta:

Colour Theory:

Major Players: Porsche

Major Players: Kinn

The Intersection of Kinn and Porsche / Green

Kinn’s Colour: A revision

Episode 2; Significant Scenes

Episode 3; Significant Scenes (+Tankhun)

Extra: Hidden Messages YT Video

More from my IMM Mates:

Ep 3 Lines of Power by @luckydragon10​

Kinn, Still Gay Still Murderous and other gifs by @moerusai​

Tankhun costume analysis by @chaoselmo​

A bit on Pete by @minisculecosmos​

​ Why Kinn’s voice fucks me up: a silly little analysis by @yeetlegay​

[wri0thesley]

i know we all love toji being nasty, but i'd love to see a (slightly) sweeter side of him and the reader as mamaguro, if possible?? maybe featuring the reader in his lap, the first time toji's ever really wanted to really do right by his partner... the ability of a man like him to have a softer side has plagued me ever since akutami said he mellowed out with his wife 😭

saying the important things - toji x fem!reader (2.1k)

toji’s not the kind of man who wears his heart on his sleeve. but he’ll try, for you. 

warnings: none! reader is mamaguro and uses fem pronouns, pregnancy is briefly talked about. this is just soft honestly

[reblogs/comments appreciated! // my jjk masterlist]

Megumi is sleeping.

He lays in his crib, his chubby cheeks squished against the soft mattress, his hair dark and messy. At times like this, you can see so much of Toji in him, and it makes your heart ache. You can’t believe that you helped create something so perfect – from his tiny face, the tilt of his nose, the perfectly formed fingers and toes . . . You find it hard to believe that Megumi could really be yours.

“You’re starin’ at the kid again.”

Toji’s voice comes from behind you and startles you – you jump, guiltily turning to see your husband. His voice is dark and rough, but as you see him you realise that his face is anything but. Oh, sure – he has a scar bisecting the corner of his lip, muscles rippling out of a tight black shirt. But the look on his face is peaceful, and as he meets your eyes it just seems to fade into something even more so.

“You come stare at him,” you say, “you’ll understand why.”

He makes a little huff of amusement – but Toji Fushiguro is under your thumb, so he humours you by moving forward. Big arms wrap around your waist, making you feel safe and held in his embrace. His chin rests on your shoulder, sharp green eyes on the messy-haired bundle of wonder sleeping in the crib that you’d watched Toji build with a screwdriver clenched between his teeth.

(“How hard can it be?” He’d asked you. “S’flat pack, right? Guys who aren’t half as smart as me do it--”. In the end, it had taken six and a half hours and Toji had had to physically pick you up and sit you down on a chair because you couldn’t stop bending down to help. He’d placed his hands on his hips and pointed an accusing finger at you. “You’re gonna get yourself stressed, sweetheart, and it isn’t gonna do any good for the kid.” You hadn’t expected Toji Fushiguro to be the over-protective kind . . . but you’d be lying if you said that his pout and furrowed eyebrows weren’t adorable).

Megumi’s eyes had turned the same shade of green as Toji’s around the five month mark, for the record.

“We did a good job, huh?” There’s a hint of pride in Toji’s voice that he does his best to dampen down – he’s trying to be cool, even now. Your hands come to rest over his own, where they’re clasped onto your hips.

“I think we did a great job,” you tell him, and snorts out a little laugh against your neck that tickles, making you bend back into sub-consciously. “No, really. I think he’ll fetch a high price on the black market. Look at all of that hair.”

“Takes after me,” Toji tells you. “I think I’d fetch a high price too.”

“You know you’d fetch a high price,” you say, turning around to wrap your arms around his neck. You find yourself on your tip-toes just so you can feel a little closer to equal to him. “You’re a wanted man, Mr Fushiguro--”

“You’re a wanted woman, Mrs Fushiguro,” He says, bending his head – and his lips brush across yours, and you feel your entire body fill with the heady knowledge that he wants you. You know it – he makes it clear in the gentler way he holds you against him, his attempts to do chores around the house, the way his fingers entangle with yours when you’re out doing grocery shopping as a little family. But there’s something that you can’t quite express that feels all the more special about the embrace and the words when you two are on your own.

It hadn’t always been like this.

When you’d first met Toji, he’d been all dark flashing eyes and dangerous smile and tugging hands, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth as he flirted and charmed his way into your life. His voice had been dark and deep, he’d winked at you and made insinuations and insisted, occasionally, that this wasn’t a relationship so much as a mutually beneficial arrangement--

Until someone else had flirted with you in a club and Toji had grabbed your hand and pulled you into him, arm wrapping around your waist. Perhaps you’d been trying to make him jealous – you’d long ago accepted that your crush on Toji and desire to make him yours officially were going to come to a sticky end, seeing as he seemed to value his freedom so highly – but you hadn’t expected it to work.

He’d murmured into your neck that night that you were his, forever, and he never wanted to see someone else’s hands on you again--

“Does this mean I can call you my boyfriend, finally, then?” You’d asked, a hand cupping his cheek, thumb brushing the scar on his lip. Toji had grinned at you, dark and deep and dangerous but warmer than you’d ever seen it. He’d held you that night like he’d just realised how precious you were.

“Sweetheart,” he’d said to you in response. “Hell. Y’can call me your husband if you want.”

You had laughed and thought he was joking.

“Maybe I’ll try that after a proper proposal,” you’d said, tapping his nose. You’d expected him to grab your hand before you could make contact and pin you underneath him, tell you off for being so cheeky – but instead, the pad of your finger had made contact with it and you swore you’d seen a dark flush dust his high cheekbones.

You’d figured that was the end of it, until two weeks later he’d pulled out an expensive-looking ring whilst the two of you watched a movie.

“Well?” He’d asked you, looking almost uncomfortable – almost afraid that you might say ‘no’. “Whaddya say, angel? Gonna try callin’ me husband now?”

And you had.

He’d confessed everything to you before he’d asked about taking your name. His exact line of work, why he wanted to leave his old surname behind – and though you know you shouldn’t have, you’d simply taken it in stride. If this was what it took to have him, you would accept it; it had been too long, and you loved him too much, to simply walk away. You’d found out you were expecting Megumi six weeks before the small wedding and had told Toji immediately.

He’d seemed scared, but he’d seemed excited to – whirling you around like you weighed nothing before he anxiously put you back down and stepped back.

“That’s fine, right?” He’d asked. “I dunno much about kids. I haven’t hurt ‘em or anything, have I?”

He’d made a real effort around the house whilst you were incapacitated by your pregnancy, too – sometimes too much of one, as he batted away your attempts at cooking or cleaning with an insistent ‘I can do it, sweetheart!”. You’d let him make mistakes – honestly, a couple of disasters notwithstanding he’d made a decent effort.

You’re not afraid to leave Megumi alone with him, though Toji still hasn’t quite mastered the life skill of ‘talking to my baby as if he is my child and not simply a friend who I want to slightly intimidate’.

Sometimes you see Toji sat in an armchair with Megumi in his arms, a tiny hand wrapped around Toji’s massive thumb, and you think you could die from how much you love them both.

“C’mon,” Toji murmurs, breaking the kiss. “He’s fast asleep.”

You let yourself be dragged over to said armchair in the corner of the room, next to the little case of children’s books you and Toji had chosen for him

Megumi likes dogs; he claps his pudgy little hands together whenever one is introduced in the bright colours and flat pages. At nine and a half months, he had furrowed his little face and pronounced; “Gog. Goggy.”. Toji had grabbed the cheap camcorder that he’d been recording as many milestones as possible on and tried to bully Megumi into saying it again, but all of the footage he’d actually gotten was you laughing in the background as Megumi attempted to cross his chubby little arms and look at his father in disapproval. He had not said ‘goggy’ again until you had thoughtlessly picked up a little pair of black and white stuffed dogs whilst in a toy-shop with him to show him. Toji had had to go back to the shop ten minutes before closing to purchase them, and even now Megumi tucks them under his arms when you take him out in his pushchair.

You let yourself, too, be pulled into Toji’s lap as your husband gets comfortable, readjusting your body so he can wrap his arms around you and you can bury your face into his neck.

He smells like cigarettes and your laundry powder, familiar and comforting.

He takes a deep, pleased breath that makes the muscles in his throat ripple – you bring up a hand and trace them, fingertip lodging in the hollow of his throat for a moment before your hand moves down to rest over his clavicle, and then where his heart is beating steadily under his clothes and skin.

“You feelin’ me up, baby?” He asks with a smirk. “Y’can just ask, you know--”

“I’m feeling your heartbeat,” you say to him, listening to his pulse in his neck. “I think it might have stopped. We should look into it.” “Is this because I made that joke about the black market? Babe, you’d never let me fuckin’ sell our kid--” “Don’t swear around Megumi,” you say, automatically, your eyes swivelling to Megumi’s crib without moving your head from its comfortable position. “You’ll give him a dirty mouth.”

“You love my dirty mouth,” Toji purrs, the arm around your waist pulling you in tighter and closer. Heat rushes to your face and you give him a headbutt in the neck that’s half affectionate and half warning.

“Not now,” you say, sighing comfortably. Toji is warm and solid and always there for you. “I’m too comfy.”

“Ah, far be it for me to interrupt your nap-time,” he teases, but he pushes a kiss onto your forehead anyway. “Hell, I could go to sleep here myself. Nobody said havin’ a kid would be this much effort.”

“Everyone said it,” you say, stifling a yawn. “You just didn’t believe them.”

He snorts again.

“Y’got me there,” he says. “Wouldn’t change him for the world, though.”

“You’re just saying that because he takes after you,” you smile against his skin. “If he looked like me and acted like me, if he was sweet and demure--”

This gets another laugh from Toji, who knows exactly just how not sweet and not demure you can be.

“I’d love him even more, probably,” he says. “We’re gonna have some fuckin’ blow-ups in the future, sweetheart. Good job you’ll be around to sort out your men, right?”

The arm not about your waist moves so he can cup your face now, tip your chin up towards him. His eyes are still very sharp, but they’re softened with love as he looks down at you. Toji gives you these moments in the quiet of night – when he’s not formerly-of-the-Zenin-family, when he’s not the ‘Sorcerer Killer’, when he’s not an assassin-for-hire – when he’s just Toji Fushiguro, your husband and father of your child. You treasure every single one of them and hold them close to you like a precious pearl, stringing them onto a necklace of memories you’ll cling to forever.

“I’ll be around forever,” you tell him. “If I die, I’ll come back to haunt you and tell you what a shitty job you’re doing on the PTA.”

He snorts.

“Don’t even joke,” he tells you with a flickering smirk – but that smirk quickly drops away to be replaced with a look of intense solemnity. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

“Are you getting soft on me?” You ask, but the hand tipping your chin up does a little jerk.

“Please,” Toji says, a little softer now. “Let me tell you I love you and mean it.”

Sparks fly all through your stomach, your heart twisting in your ribcage. You rarely see this kind of gravitas on his face – he rarely takes this tone, almost needy as he implores you to listen.

“I love you too,” you breathe. “You know that.”

He pulls you into a kiss that knocks the breath out of you, that makes you feel like you and Toji and Megumi are the only real people on Earth and everyone else is an imitation.

“Yeah,” he says, gruff. “Doesn’t mean I don’t like hearin’ you say it, though.”

[violettelueur]

— RYOMEN SUKUNA || LET ME MARK YOU THEN

↳ featuring : ryomen sukuna from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : mention of sex, mention of hickeys and grammar issues

↳ form : imagine

↳ published : 22 january

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 3.7k

↳ synopsis : (modern!AU) after your lectures, you decided to pay your tattoo artist boyfriend a little visit only to then be persuaded to let him draw a tattoo design on you even though you never actually wanted a real one to be marked with.

↳ barista’s notes : just a little gift to you all before today’s episode and the reset the ‘coffees in progress’ list (wip) when i get enough sleep and after my disgusting online classes, i hope you enjoy the free cup of coffee everyone ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡ - also i feel like this is the longest imagine i have ever posted ʕ ㅇ ᴥ ㅇʔ

Having a morning full of tedious lectures was not someone’s ideal day and it was definitely not yours. Although, there was nothing you could do but pursue them through with as much enthusiasm and determination that you could possibly muster while being impatient about the hands on the clock taking forever to move a single inch.

However, at this moment in time, you were able to escape the suffocating lecture hall after many hours for today and was now walking down the busy streets of Tokyo with a white plastic takeaway bag in one hand while the other was occupied with your tote bag that was resting on your shoulder, which surprisingly kept hold of some of your textbooks as well as your laptop giving you some reassurance that the bag that your boyfriend gave you was going to last for quite some time.

Looking around the busy quarter of the capital, you began to notice a few high school students roaming about here and there with some hanging out with their friends - mostly likely going to a cafe or to the nearest karaoke lounge that they could find - while other were either rushing home as they entered the station or to their part-time jobs that they had managed to obtain for a few extra bucks to save up for their next step in life. Noticeably, there were also a few adults out and about with some working as street-food vendors selling delicious treats that you would be craving if you weren’t so full while others were dressed extremely professional with their laptops out on their cafe/restaurant table to what seemed like they were on their lunch break.

‘He should be on his lunch break right now, but if not, I’ll just put his food in the shop’s fridge’

Continue walking to your destination, you finally reached to a quieter area with the city leading you to then stand in front of a glass order with a ‘closed’ sign in front along with another extremely noticeable sign proudly stating ‘Malevolent Shine’ to which if you had said that to any tattoo fanatic within Japan, they would instantly know what you were talking about.

Opening the door, there was a sudden noise of a ring being heard leading you to immediately look up to see the silver bell that you told him to arrange since he always got annoyed about the number of potential clients popping up without his acknowledgement only to tell him that they didn’t book an appointment at all causing him to become more irritated - and as a matter of fact, you couldn’t blame him at all.

Looking around the tattoo shop that you had entered, there wasn’t a single person in sight leading you to come to the conclusion that you were right about his lunch break since his assistant would be at the front desk if they weren’t. Although there was no one to greet you, the dark atmosphere did. It gave an odd sense of comfort with its hints of red that could calm a customer down if they were worried about the tattoo they were committing to having on their body or if it was their first - especially when it came to him.

“Oya~ ain’t you a sexy customer? But I’m afraid we’re closed, but I don’t mind giving you a private session if you want, kitten” someone smoothly stated, leading your eyes to slowly shift to the person who was leaning against the desk with a confident smirk on his face. There he was, the mastermind behind the whole shop itself.

“Well, I’m not coming in for a tattoo but I am here to give a little gift, Sukuna,” you mischievously stated, as you lifted the white bag with the takeaway you had ordered for the man himself, leading him to look at you in surprised before tilting his head indicating you to come to the back with him.

Following his lead, you placed the bag on his table once you reached the backroom before placing your tote on the floor beside the table’s leg so it didn’t fall, letting any of your precious studious contents to be lost as well as avoiding any damage to your laptop.

“I’m surprised you’re using the bag, kitten,” Sukuna suddenly commented, as he sat on his chair while pulling out the white styrofoam box of Thai food that he always ordered along with a bento box that was wrapped in a black cloth.

“Well, how could I not? You did buy it for me,” you quietly mentioned as you took off your black longline coat before placing it behind your chair since there was nowhere else to put it.

“Did you make this?” Sukuna quickly questioned as he lifted the bento box causing you to nod at his question once you saw what he meant leading you to state, “I didn’t know if you were going to stay back tonight, so I prepared some food for you in case,” causing Sukuna to smirk since you were right about your assumption and it did catch him by surprise since he didn’t mention it to you today when he left your shared apartment.

“Thanks,” he quietly muttered before pulling his chair closer towards you so he could place a lingering kiss on your cheek to show his appreciation towards you. “How was class?” he then asked, as he began to unwrap the cloth of the box to your surprise since you bought his favourite item from the Thai restaurant but made no mention of it.

“Annoying, it was suffocating in there but the lecture was interesting so that’s a plus,” you answered, as you began to scan his messy desk that displayed the many drawings that he was working on. Some of the designs that Sukuna was drawing were almost complete, while others were in the same situation but for some odd reason, it was crossed out as if he was unsatisfied with the outcome that it was going to have which lead you to be perplexed since some of the drawings were incredibly detailed and beautiful. However, you didn’t have the eyes of an artist like your boyfriend did, instead, you had the eyes of someone that was able to analyse things exceedingly well hence why you decided to pursue a career as a criminal lawyer.

“How has the shop been while I was away?” you asked, as you carefully picked up one of the designs that the tattoo artist seemed to have scraped leading him to answer with an annoyed huff. “A pain, there’s been so many dumbass people coming in thinking they could just walk in and get a tattoo done immediately without even booking a meeting,” Sukuna answered before taking a bite of the soy-glazed fried chicken you made as he then continued with, “it was a good idea to get the bell since I could see if it was a customer I knew or not,”.

Looking at your boyfriend, you couldn’t help but smile at the man as he continuously munched the context in the box as if he hadn’t eaten in the past week when in reality he had been raiding the fridge back home only just this morning. Slowly, you turn your head back to the paper that you were holding as you continued to admire the work of art right in front of you. 

To be honest, it was quite simple compared to all the other ones that were lying about on his work desk but that didn’t mean it wasn’t beautiful. The light sketch depicted a short section of a branch or stem decorated with different types of beautiful flowers and next to it was the same design with the only difference of it being coloured lightly in case the client wanted to have options.

“What happened here?” you asked before tilting the paper to the side, letting Sukuna have a glance at the design he decided to discard.

“Oh, the client cancelled since I wouldn’t have sex with her,” Sukuna casually stated leading you to nod before taking another look at the design with a small smile on your face. Sadly, it was such a waste since the design was beautiful and it was disappointing to not see Sukuna put this beautiful art into life.

Some people might wonder why you were so calm about the statement he had just given you, heck even his younger twin brother Itadori Yuji thought it was weird that it didn’t bother you as much as other girls would have been. The reason was that you were so used to him having female attention as well as male attention and it wasn’t a surprise when people would book an appointment with him just for a fling or hoping for something more than just that - and even though you were calm, there was also a hint of jealousy and fear within your heart that you couldn’t help.

It was like the first time you saw him in your second year of high school.

                                               ꕥ 

Stretching your arms, you had finally finished the last sheet of the budgets for the school clubs leading you to carefully clip the pile of sheets into the folder as you then stood up from your desk before quickly heading out of your homeroom, so you could give the documents to the student council president, who was a third-year within your school.

However, as you were walking past a few classrooms with some people greeting you with a smile, you came to a sudden halt when you saw a whole crowd of female and males students in front of you leading to a blockage of the halls and a blockage of the classroom you need to go through to hand the documents to your senior.

“Did you hear, I heard he was back?!”

“I can’t believe he’s back, I missed him so much!”

“I like Yuji’s kind and goofy personality, but how could you not love a bad boy like him?”

‘Bad boy?’

Carefully, you managed to find a gap between the sea of students and forcibly made yourself fit within the gap before badly struggling to make it through the arc of the classroom door leading you to nearly trip the second you got the chance to push through the gap to ender the class. Quickly looking around, you found your senior sitting next to someone who looked like your friend and basketball club member Itadori Yuji - well more like a mature replicant of the boy you were used to. However, unbothered by the sudden appearance of the new third-year, you speedily made your way to the council president and handed him the booklet that he needed today leading you to receive his gratitude.

Yet, before you could even take a single step away from your senior, you unexpectedly felt someone grab your wrist causing you to quickly turn around to find Itadori’s replica behind you leading to a few gasps coming from the students from the outside as well as in the homeroom.

“Is there an issue?” you firmly asked, as you looked down at his hand that had a tight grip on your wrist causing you to have a small glance at the two black bands that were tattooed around his wrist - even though it was prohibited to have any in your school, you weren’t the type to scold someone for having them since you weren’t sure on how the teacher’s thought it affected someone’s education.

“Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo?” the salmon-haired third-year curiously asked, as he began to admire your wrist by gently turning it for your veins to come into view before beginning to trace your skin with the tip of his thumb causing a light shiver to go down your spine due to the ticklish feeling as well as his deep voice which was the complete opposite to what you thought it was going to be.

‘So this is the infamous Sukuna everyone was talking about’

“Not really,” you answered as you looked at him causing his eyes to look back at you before you continued with “I don’t think it would suit me at all,”.

“I disagree,” Sukuna counteracted, as he went back to admire the blank canvas of your wrist that he wanted to draw on so badly. No not draw. Mark. “I think you’ll suit something, maybe something on your neck or collarbone at best actually,” Sukuna mentioned leading you to give him a confused expression before he then proceeded with his speech by saying, “I’ll convince you one day and mark you brat”,

‘What...did….he….just….call….me..?’

“Ah...good luck with that idiot,” you stated in an annoyed tone leading to a few of the admiring student to gasp at your wording as well as sudden confident as they were scared on what was going to happen to you now since Sukuna wasn’t the type to tolerate insults in a nice way no matter what gender you were. However, exceeding the audience’s assumptions, Sukuna began to smirk excitedly at your attitude as he suddenly found you more interesting than any other girl he has met at the back of the school.

“Be prepared, little kitten”

                                               ꕥ

‘That nickname….’

Back then Sukuna was known to be a playboy from what you could recall, every week there was news on the new girl he had managed to convince to meet at the back alley of the school while you were just being a model student with the dream of going to law school. However, during the middle of the school year, you began to realise that the common scandalous news that seemed to be popular enough for it to be on the front cover of the newspaper began to gradually fade as Sukuna slowly pushed himself into your life since you were close with his twin brother due to your friend being part of the basketball team as the assistant coach - she even mentioned that ever since Sukuna came into your life he had stopped his acts and change slightly because of you to which, of course, you denied at the time.

It was during the first term of your third-year that you agreed to give Sukuna a chance since he was constantly annoying you by popping up at the school gate after school to ‘walk you home’ ever since his graduation - when in reality it was to take you out somewhere - without fail even when you had to stay in a few hours. However, you had given him three conditions since you were still conscious of the consequences of dating someone with such a disgraceful built reputation - much to his dismay, he shockingly agreed.

If you are going to have a fling with someone behind my back, don’t think about seeing or talking to me again.

I know you are sexually active, but you have to wait until I’m ready.

Don’t tattoo me.

Let’s just say that Sukuna had managed to keep condition number one in check and you didn’t have to worry about it at all, while with condition number two he didn’t have to wait that long for you to give in to your desires which you could tell he certainly enjoyed when you finally gave him the ‘okay’.

Number three though...

“Do you want to try that design out?”

Breaking from your daze, you quickly turned your head to find your boyfriend staring at you - with the bento box practically empty at this point - while tilting his head to the paper that was still within your grasp.

“I think you giving me hickeys are enough in my opinion, babe” you jokingly mentioned leading to both you and Sukuna laughing at each other slightly.

“I mean, do you want me to draw it on you to see how it looks?” he then asked, causing you to look at the floral design one last time before giving him a hesitant nod.

‘Trying it out won’t hurt right?’

“I need a confident answer little kitten, where did that feisty attitude of yours back in high school go?” Sukuna teased, causing you to give him the side glance before giving him the verbal permission that he wanted, leading him to smirk at you since knew his mockery would get you to give him what he wanted since you were also the stubborn type - a side that he always loved to play with.

Grabbing his pen and a black pot full of his thin-tipped coloured skin markers, he wheels his chair even closer to your before pausing, leading you to look at him in confusion since you had already pulled your wrist in front of him, the same area he had grabbed back in high school.

“You’re wearing a lot of clothing today,” Sukuna muttered as he began to fiddle with the collar of your white silk dress shirt causing you to look at him with extreme confusion before mentioning, “well it is getting colder since the Autumn season is coming around,” leading him to hum in an understanding tone as he continued to play with the smooth fabric.

“I want to draw on your collarbone area, I don’t want to draw on the area where the client wanted it to be,” Sukuna stated as he lightly pushed away your wrist leading you to realise why he paused. “You can,” you quickly mentioned leading the tattoo artist to look at you to see if you were lying, only to see nothing but the light of the trust within your eyes.

Slowly, Sukuna began to reach over to the top button to then unhook it from its loop before continuously doing the same with the others until enough skin of your shoulders were exposed with the top half of your shirt resting on the side of your arms to which then he slowly moved away the right-hand side of your bra strap to fully expose the canvas that he wanted to mark so eagerly.

Admiring the skin that was in front of him, Sukuna began to trace the area with his thumb before leaning in to place a chaste kiss on the same side of your neck before cradling your face on the other side with his other hand - as if it was a way for him to say ‘thank you’ for letting him do this.

Regrettably pulling away, Sukuna quickly grabbed his black pen as he then leaned in towards your collarbone to start drawing the outline of his design on his now favourite canvas causing you to shiver somehow due to how ticklish and weird the sensation felt when the ballpoint pen continuously gently gilded upon your skin. However, what got you shaking the most was the constant feeling of your boyfriend’s breath being felt on your upper body now that your shirt was basically off - it wasn’t completely off to the same feeling when you were underneath him the first time you allowed him to make his claim on you.

“Baby, it feels ticklish,” you commented, the second you felt a different sensation upon your skin leading Sukuna to glance up to check if you were alright like you were an actual client before placing another kiss on your jawline in a way to comfort you since he had switched to his skin markers to colour in the design he had drawn on you.

“You’re being a good kitten though, you’re not moving a lot then I thought you would,” the tattoo artist whispered leading you to quiver as his deep voice was not helping so much with your beating heart - erratic to the point where you thought he could hear or even feel.

Due to Sukuna concentrating, you couldn’t help but keep silent to help him continue with his work causing you to glance around your room with your eyes before landing upon a wall where there was a multitude of messages written leading you to carefully scan the writings that were visibly presenting themselves.

As expected, there were messages of encouragement - not that the arrogant Sukuna needed it to be honest, but it was nice of the client to do so - and a few drawings from other tattoo artists that Sukuna had famously done. However, not to your surprise, there were a few numbers here and there causing you to sigh since you couldn’t help it - you couldn’t blame your boyfriend for being an extremely handsome man.

Unexpectedly, you felt another kiss being placed upon your cheek causing you to look towards your boyfriend with a smile on your face - it was as if he knew what you were looking at. “I’m finished by the way,” Sukuna announced, causing you to look at him with widened eyes since the drawing session was a little faster than you had anticipated.

Reaching over to a drawer in his desk, Sukuna suddenly pulled out a mirror before passing it to you, leading you to lift up the little instrument to see the result that was drawn on your skin.

“You changed the design,” you quietly stated, as you began to tenderly trace the design with your index finger as you began to admire the piece of art that was masterfully drawn on your collar bone. The tattoo beautifully depicted a single strand of a blooming lavender across your collarbone with each petal in different shades of purple while the buds that weren’t in bloom were in a slight pale pink shade making you smile more since Sukuna drew this straight from his head causing you to have a hint of proudness for him.

“I wasn’t going to give you that previous design, it doesn’t suit you one bit,” the salmon-haired artist mentioned as he continued with, “I’m not going to let that disgusting design touch your skin, especially since this is the first time you let me mark you somewhat,” as he then moved behind you before placing his chin on your shoulder to look at you through the mirror you were holding.

“I might let you mark me permanently then,” you suddenly announced causing your boyfriend to look at you with a surprised look on his face leading you to giggle at his reaction.

“Yeah, let’s break condition three then, you can mark me this one time,” you informed him as you turned to look at him, causing Sukuna to give you his classic smirk before possessively grabbing your chin leading him to lean closer to you.

“Let me mark you then”

© violettelueur 2021 : written and published by violettelueur - do not steal or repost

[theinkventurezone]

Do you have any composition tips? :O your drawings are always such a complete scene

Thank you so much!!! If I had to boil it down to one piece of advice, it’d be to embrace the planning stage and treat composition like its own thing. Whatever else you think gives your art its charm, leave that to the side until you’ve  found a composition that tells the story all on its own and then let colours/shading/lighting, poses, expressions, symbols, brush strokes etc etc reinforce that.  It’s funny and very flattering to be asked about composition because it was something I neglected for a long time - actually the whole reason I started TIZ was because I wanted to focus on that and improve. I also picked black and white specifically because I had a habit of using colour and shading towards the end of the process to make up for how I’d neglected the planning/sketch phase.

Especially with the first arc I illustrated, I also tried to keep the line art very simple (simplified character designs, limited amount of details) to force the composition alone to either make or break the piece.

I failed a lot! Here’s some examples so you can learn from my mistakes:

1) Perspective.

The flat angle of the background doesn’t frame the characters, doesn’t lead the eye to what should be the focus (Magnus pulling Jenkins’ bow tie) and also doesn’t allow for enough depth to accurately show the shape and size of the interior. Here’s where a one point perspective could have made all the difference. 

2) Placement of the figures. 

There’s no clear focus in this picture and a big part of the problem is that all four characters are basically at an equal distance from the viewer. By placing Taako and Merle in the foreground and Magnus and Tom Bodette in the middle ground, it’s clearer that they’re actually interacting in pairs, and also which pair we’re supposed to give most of our attention to.

3) Values.

It’s a little hard to understand what’s happening in this picture and that’s because it’s not taking enough advantage of contrasting values to group areas together and show what’s important by making it stand out. (This is definitely an example of a piece - and there’s many of them - where I just refused to think in black and white and instead barrelled ahead as if I was planning to bring it all together with colour - don’t ask me why! Old habits die hard.) A good rule of thumb is to group objects in the foreground using one value, which then contrasts with a very different value for the background (and perhaps a third for the middle ground). The more contrast in an area, the more it will stand out.

This advice is just as important for pieces in full colour and I would really recommend making a value sketch before picking out colours - the extra elements you add to a piece are only as strong as the foundation they’re resting on. I’d be happy to make a little tutorial on value sketches if there’s interest!

It’s really exciting to see how far I’ve developed when it comes to composition and I’m so eager to learn more. K’s criticism has helped immensely and I’ve often pushed myself to pick ideas I felt were beyond my technical reach. Some of the drawings from TIZ I’m proudest of didn’t look so good to me even as I finished them and that’s why I’m proud - I went for something complicated and sticking the landing was less important than taking that risk!

In addition to the three things I discussed above, here are some questions I like to ask to help myself along the way:

If I zoom out/almost close my eyes, can I still make out what the piece is meant to portray? Is the silhouette(s) instantly clear?

Do the lines/shapes/gestures lead the eye towards the important part(s) of the piece?

Am I using the canvas to its fullest? If an area looks empty, is that emptiness saying something or have I just made a badly balanced composition? (Same with a “noisy” area - am I afraid to let the illustration breathe?)

Can I push the contrasts further? Contrast in values, in shapes and sizes, in detail/noise vs pure black or white?

What does the perspective do for the tone and would another angle work better? (I generally play it safe with perspective for TIZ since the classic children’s book illustration vibe I’m going for is usually quite restrained, but I still try to experiment with my initial sketches.)

I hope some of this is helpful! Please let me know if anything is unclear or if there’s any area of composition (or anything else) you’d like me to dive deeper into. I love talking about basically every part of this craft! So thank you again for giving me an excuse to chat about it :D Also please check out my Patreon or consider giving me a tip on Ko-Fi! I’m out of work because of disabilities so it would help a lot! The links are in the bio because I know tumblr doesn’t like external links in posts.