#just gotta learn to draw them now LMAO

[mushtoons]

yeah i love them

[leonenjoyer69]

I present, from my new Lanyon drinks the potion AU (working on the name), Robert Lanyon and his HJ7 Alter ego!

Taking pictures of colored pencil drawings is the bane of my existence, bc lighting is so annoying.

Anyways!!! I've settled on the first name Elias, bc I feel like Henry would help name him and Elias is a letter off from Alias (which means a fake/pen name), so I thought that'd be funny :3 still working on the last name tho.

Yes, that is Hyde's vest that Elias is wearing. Henry gave it to him on his first night alive after clearing everything up with him and Robert about what just happened to him. Since he's near Hyde's size, Jekyll decided that he needed some clothes, at least temporarily, but Elias refuses to give it back now, despite having his own clothes. Why? Because Henry gave it to him, and he loves Henry so much. it's also Hyde's vest, who's part of Henry, so by proxy he's gotta love him too, right? How could he hate any part of Henry?

Unlike Hyde, Elias isn't some self-proclaimed evil incarnate. He's very easy to read emotionally and is very honest to everyone around him. He's very open about his feelings, which are generally very quick to change, especially towards those he cares most about (*cough* JekyllandHyde *cough*-) and he strives for praise. He likes accomplishing things and has more of a liking for "sciency stuff", he also recalls most of the doctor things that Lanyon learned from university and isn't deterred by gross things and blood. He shares hyde's wanderlust and will run around town with him, though Elias prefers parks and nature over the slums of London, and he also enjoys the rooftops.

Timeline wise, Lanyon accidentally drinks the potion after all the blackfog and queen Lucy stuff, when they "kidnap" Hyde. Specifically, it happens right before Jekyll dumps all the HJ7 down the drain- like, right before. Lanyon kinda interrupts him doing that. Henry reenters the room in the middle of Lanyon's transformation, so he's there when Elias kinda "wakes up".

Anyways, please please PLEASE ask me questions about him, I'd love to answer them :3 also, I'm currently working on a fic for this!! The first chapter is almost done I think, I just need time to actually sit down and write.

Also jejvkekkvke character design is SO HARD, shout out to people who do it all the time. Also apologies if the skin looks off in any way, I've never really used colored pencils to color any characters, much less any colored characters, so I kinda had to figure it out as I went lmao.

[lunchtimebedamned1997]

Vee's Studies!

(scroll to the end for timelapse :3)

I'm like, kind of obsessed with them lmao. While I've drawn Vox quite a lot (I've been working on a Vox animation thing over the last month-ish) I hadn't done much of anything when it came to Val and Vel. I knew I'd want to do something with them all later on, but I wanted to get a good understanding of their designs, shape language, and the differences between the three of them so I can play a lot more when it comes to doing them (heh) in my own style.

So, since I was most familiar (and most obsessed with out of the three lol), I started with Vox :3

While I've been working on the animation project, it had kind of been an 'adjust-as-I-go'/'let's-bullshit-this' process, rather than doing the work of understanding why certain things looked more correct than others, so I still learned a LOT from this one study. (Plus the scene makes me wheeze and I happily took the excuse to use that moment as his study reference haha)

Obviously Val is... an asshole, to really undersell it. But this is hell, his character is interesting and his design is immaculate. I think I had the most fun with studying him tbh. Without his santa wings-coat he- *coughs* - yeah. Uh. Good design. I can actually believe that Angel fell for him at one point. Manipulative bastard - sorry tangents. ANYWAY! XD

VERY fun to draw, and a very good balance within these designs of showing off character attributes but also not taking themselves too seriously (The HATS these boys wear! *wheeze* did Velvette just give up fighting them on it? I've gotta know haha)

I missed color too much by this point to make them all match perfectly, and frankly - trying to draw canon Velvette without hue differentiation is AWFUL she has so many details and overlapping elements. If I ever have to draw Vel from 1x03 again I might cry.

Something about her 1x03 look actually makes me feel viseral irritation just by seeing it (like, even b4 I made myself draw it), but then I see her in 1x08 and I wanna draw her forever???? She's so fucking cool? So fucking cute????? The duality of man ig lmao

Anyway, the TLDR is that actually being conscious of how things are represented when drawing a character can lead to surprisingly immense insight... I feel like I not only understand so much more about how to represent their characters, but also a much firmer grasp about how the shape language in the show works.

These designs are immaculate and I had so much fun. I actually have a lot more I could say about this, but my period came today and I'm tired and this post is already massive so I'll leave things here for now! But yeah! Hopefully more Vee's in the future bc I love them!

Wishing you all well! <3

[fahbev]

Babs, Bruce and Danny in my dpxdc merfolk au!!!

argh, plz excuse the poorly edited photo lmao- lost a lot of detail TvT

Babs has her info Here. But this is her design! I’m not actually entirely sure if any of these designs are final, i might tweak them, but here she is! I gave her necklaces.

Bruce is based on a leatherback sea turtle! The spots aren’t actually super accurate to a leatherback’s underside, but if you look at it a little harder... you may find a fun little easter egg. It’s subtle... or at least i tried to make it that way. (If people don’t get it i’ll explain in a rb lol) Did you know that leatherback sea turtles can be up to 880 pounds? Idk what that is in metric but that’s roughly 7 and a half Bahfevs. They’re also much more triangular/less round than other turtles, so I reflected that in his design. And ofc, Bruce and Damian are both sea turtles bc they’re related. But they’re different sea turtle species so it doesn’t make much sense. Who gives a flip. What’s Talia, you ask? To that I say: 🤷‍♀️

(Side note: apparently, I’ve conditioned myself so I can’t draw nuetral expressions. It’s gotta have some emotion or else it looks wrong, and it feels natural to always have something going on there. So... drawing Stoic McStoicface here was a pain in the penis. He kinda has an expression anyway lol)

Danny is based on a ghost knife fish! I’ll be honest, i didn’t even know these existed until I looked up “ghost fish” in the hopes of finding something thematic. But then... omg! They’re black with little white accents? Like Danny’s design? And they have cool, funky bodies? AND they produce electricity!?? That’s so FKING COOL! I’ll have to do more research, but so far i’m pretty sure they don’t produce enough electricity to hurt someone. They are related to electric eels though! I first learned that electric eels were knife fish and not true eels when I was researching the moray eel for Duke. Funny how that connects!

Danny’s story under the cut!

Heehoo!

Okay so basically: Danny went diving to gather pearls because he wanted to make his parents happy/proud. While he was diving, His foot got caught in a rock and he couldn’t get it out. He panicked and he begged— to who? God, maybe? The universe, or the ocean? Maybe just begging fate or any higher power that could be out there, he doesn’t know. His only prayer was “Don’t let me drown!”. Unbeknownst to him, one of the pearls he’d grabbed was a magic, wish granting pearl. They’re rare enough that humans don’t even have legends of them... but the merfolk do ;).

The pearl took his very non-specific wish and decided to give him a tail and gills. He swam back up in a panic, and saw his new tail. Of course, this is a very horrifying thing to happen. But in less than a minute... it was already starting to dry off. As it dried, it turned back into skin.

Now, Danny has to be extremely careful not to get his legs or hair wet when he’s near people, because he’ll turn back into a merboy.

i... probably should have given him a shirt? He’d be wearing it, right? But i also did need to see what I was doing with that fin thing lol. I mean, a shirt would get annoying with that fin- he’d probably take it off. Tbh he’d probably have it off when swimming in general? Idk.

So: funny thing that happened when I was drawing Danny:

A first grader came up to me while I had it open on my desk, and she was like:

“Oh my god, that’s so good! Like, how did you even draw that?”

so I was like: “Oh thank you! ❤️”

And I think she asked again “How did you even draw that?”

so I was a little confused on how to answer, so I said:

“Well, I used my pencil...” and held up my pencil—

and then she got distracted by a spinny chair.

She’s so precious omg 🥰

[blue-sunflower-bee]

Oddly enough, I somehow can't let go of this crossover and Ken's and Abby's dynamic along with securitywaiter, lmao.

Just imagine...

Ken actually being Ness' childhood doll, which is currently sitting on Abby's shelf.

Ken and Abby and horses and MLP. Abby hyping him up about My little Pony would be kinda adorable.

Them having adorable tea parties with her stuffed toys, the "tea" Abby makes gotta be Ken's favorite.

Abby's curiosity about Barbieland and her actually being curious about not the Barbies but Kens and all the discontinued dolls +Allan plays a big role in Ken's healing process because she kinda helps him learn who he really is with her curious question.

Abby notices how Ken starts stuttering when she asks about Allan, but she never mentions it. But it makes her smile since it reminds her of Mike when he first mentioned Ness

Ness making a pride pin for Ken once he discovered he's pansexual

Mike offering Ken a beer and he just straight up pours it into his face because he has no idea how to drink it.

Ness being a bit too impressed by Ken's looks👀 lmao.

Ken and Abby reacting in a similar way when they see Ness and Mike kiss. While Abby be like: "Ew, cooties!" Ken would be like: "Ugh, so THIS is how humans kiss???"

Abby bought a matching bandana that looks like Ken's...just in blue instead of black

She once drew him as a my little pony. This drawing is stuck to fridge in his Mojo Dojo Casa House aka Barbie's former dream house ever since

In general, Mike's reaction would be so funny tho, cause first his sister befriends 4 possessed animatronics and now a fricking doll? He literally cant anymore

[beemers-hell]

**not me absolutely trying to avoid using Emoji’s but having the need to so I look silly and whimsical and not dramatic and like a frightened Victorian child😞**

ANYWAY….💀I’m new to sending a random thingy and I just wanted to send this anyway cuz I’m a little peanut brain and can’t decide on what I’m doing but besides that— 👹👹👹I REALLY LOVE YOUR ART STYLE SO MUCH ITS TOTALLY INSPIRING AND I THINK I SORTA GAINED A KIND OF LIKE “😦Oh Wowwie this person is so unique how do they post their art without being scared?” ((I posted like three things but I’m over here too goofy to go off from the Anonymous text thing but I really should cuz— 🧍🏽‍♀️……I’m rambling- 👹👹👹👹TO GET TO THE POINT I WILL LITERALLY EAT YOUR ART AND THROW A MILLION HEARTS ALL OVER YOUR CHARACTER DESIGNS RAAHHHHHHHH I LOVE THEM AAAAAAAA❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️—-

(Also random thing but like- how do artist genuinely post stuff and just— get it noticed?—😞 sorry I absolutely suck at this since I rarely ask people things on here since I wanna post my own silly art and characters but I get all “😦…OH! PEOPLE CAN SEE MY THINGS—“..but at the same time wanting people to see my artwork?— YEAH ITS CONFUSING AND MY BRAIN IS SO FRIED TRYING TO DRAW MY FAVORITE MADNESS COMBAT CHARACTER…..))

😞sorry that I just wrote a bunch of vomit from my brain I just don’t know how to send things without rambling like a deranged creature—

I CANT TELL YOU ALL THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR BEING SO KIND TO ME ITS NOT FAIR RAUAGAHAGUGSIGJSH

As for how you get noticed, straight up you just gotta get lucky. If you're like me where you're scared of talking to people and interacting with others, you're just gonna have to leave it up to luck whether people notice you or not lmao. That's what happened to me! I just posted my stupid doodles to the madness tags and didn't do much else and I ended up getting lucky in that a lot of people noticed me and a lot of people liked my shit.

Or you can just interact with a lot of people and you'll get your name out there that way! I'm too chicken shit to do that so I don't know how well that works personally lmao

Straight up, you just gotta conquer your nervousness over posting art. I was terrified of sharing my oc x canon stuff with Eb and Tricky publically but hey lo and behold people were really nice and encouraging about it. And now I'm not AS afraid to share stuff thats personal to me! Really its all about not letting your anxiety stop you from doing what you like. I had to learn how to overcome that and you will too!

Also, to all my fellow "is anxious about sharing my personal stuff that I think others will think is cringe type of content publically, esp in the Madness fandom": No one else opinion matters because Krinks has your back dawg. My proof is this lol

[miranhas-art]

do you have any tips on simplifying a person's facial features into a drawing? i love your art because it is so simple yet so evocative, and though your style is fairly cartoon-y, your characters always look like the people they represent. i've been doing portraits for years, and i have a very difficult time letting go of the details and simplifying. it's one of my biggest challenges. if you have any tips or could go over your process for doing that, i would be super thankful. (and no worries if you're not up for it, i just always think "how?!" when i see your drawings! )

Helloooo!!! Thank you so much! And thank you for the question! I tried doing a step by step thing to show you how I approach drawing a face!

(This goes for anyone I try to draw)

Step 1: Find a ref pic and train your eyes to not complicate stuff!

After I have a ref pic I look for what I've decided are the important things in a face that makes it a face (I listed them on the image).

But you may say: well, that's the whole face! Everything on the face is important!

Well, yes. But if you have a list of things you should focus on, makes it simplier!

Continuing!

You must focus on studying the person's:

1. Shape (Face. This also includes the understanding of how the jawline is shaped)

2. Eyes (shape and also placement)

3. Nose (shape of the nostrils, the side lines and placement)

4. Mouth (placement under the nose; the shape of the mustache if they have one; until where the corner of the mouth goes, usually I use the eyes as ref)

5. Hairline (this one is not on number 1, because I usually leave it for last. Drawing the hairline close to what it looks like in the ref, helps you neat the shape of the face, because forehead makes a total difference as I've learned along the years lol)

6. Cheekbones (I do like a good blushing and this could be used as a tool to try saving a doomed drawing lmao *cries*)

Ok! So accessing these elements, let's try drawing it!

Step 2: Doing the drawing.

2.1. It all starts with a ball.

So, like everybody tells you to, I start with a ball.

This helps you not go crazy and limit you area of work! I also devide it in 4 and use the line in horizontal to place the 👀's

2.2. 1st sketch

The first sketch is really a moment of trying to control your anger:

- It won't look like anything

- It'll look bad

- You might question life

On the first sketch I use 2H because it's soft and you can work through it on the next steps.

This is where I put all the elements of the list and only them. It's very simple and cartoonish.

(The thing is: I only focus on them and forget the other details you could work on)

2.3. 2nd sketch

Ok, now things are suppose to look right.

On second sketch, still using 2H, you gotta work more on the same elements, shaping it to look more like the ref pic.

Here is also where I draw eye bags, lines and dimples. But only the ones that are close to the eyes, the nose and the mouth! The ones you can't ignore because they ultimately make the person look like themselves.

2.4. Line art ✨

Line art is also where you take a pencil with darker graphite (like 2B/4B) and pray to the gods that you won't ruin everything.

The line art is where you hightlight stuff (imo) and you also give depth!

So focus on places where there is shade... to highlight. (Does this make sense? Absolutely not)

This is also where you gotta work on the hairline.

2.5. Finishing you drawing!

With H2 I just shade during the finishing process.

You shade mouth, under eyebrows, under eyes, nose and cheekbones!!!

So, that's it!

I hope this makes sense and helps you in anyway! This is what I do and what I focus on when I draw faces!

[maddies-chronicles]

AAH okay you asked for it.

My marauders dr is set right at the beginning of school, like first year, and I’ve made these changes to the world that I adore.

No Voldy, Peter is some random ass hufflepuff and I make him and Snape get married so I ain’t gotta worry about em.

Bogart testing in first year, as well as in third when we learn to deal with them. This is expressly to make sure no child’s biggest fear is a family member or guardian, and every other year is to make sure it’s not a teacher. When Sirius’ biggest fear is his mother, my parents take in him and Reg in their manor in Ireland.

We always all spend the Fourth of July T my parents house because the fourth is celebrated in Ireland like st patty’s day is celebrated in the us.

Newt Scamander is our caring for magical creatures professor, and David Bowie is a music teacher a few times a year.

I don’t have any romantic relationships scripted specifically, just timelines for when I fall in love, get a date, etc, because everyone is so hot and I can’t choose before meeting them all.

I didn’t use any of the fan casts for my face claims because I felt I could do better and now I wanna kiss everyone and I can’t tell if that’s a win or not?

My animagus and patronus are both bears, and my marauders moniker is Medved, which a Russian word for bear that doesn’t expressly say bear. Russians historically believed that saying the name of something would draw it to you, so they wouldn’t call bears bears, they would call them Medved.

My father went to Durmstrang and my mother was a muggleborn ravenclaw, I’m gryffindor, obviously. My parent both work for the ministry, but in the CDU, the child defense unit.

Idk there’s probably more I’m blanking now 💚 ily

"Peter is some random ass hufflepuff and I make him and Snape get married so I ain’t gotta worry about em."

HELP LMAO 😭😭😭

[bwobgames]

I love your art so much

Would you happen to have any particular resources for learning pixel art?

Theres a funny story story here

So at first all I did was try to draw normally but like, with small squares and seeing how other people did it

aaand it wasnt the best

like, its not the worst but the colors are pretty low contrast and the squares are messy and while its certainly pixels its like, not something id put in a game now

I would reccomend looking up sprite sheets for old pixelated games like pokemon, earthbound or yume nikki, they have simple-er sprite work than, lets say, rpg maker sprite sheets

So, in a crusade for pixel art tutorials to actually get good, I found this video

And I was like Yes!!! This is exactly what I want to make!!

and the dude made a game too? cool! Ill check up his blogspot!

It had a content warning, I assumed it was gore and blood stuff

This guy has a great tutorial to go from Beginner sprite work to actual You-would-see-this-in-a-game sprite work

This is the first thing I made by following it

A huge step up for me!! So I went to the Animations tab of his blog to see what else he has made and uhh

Yeah its all porn

Including the games

But theyre so well drawn!! so I continued to check up his work, he is now dubbed porno sensei. Thank you horny canadian man for teaching me the ways of advanced pixeling.

After that Id say you really need to check how other people make sprites and try it by youself

And I dont mean like, exactly the same, just the general shape or anatomy can be enough to learn

Usually when I make a big rooster of characters I try to do a general body shape that can be drawn over many times

Just by trying to do a little guy then erasing until it is a shell of his former self

of course before getting there you gotta just draw, big sprites, tiny sprites, whatever until you get the hang of making a shape

Some people recommend doing the siluette before the drawing but im really bad at that lmao

Also sometimes mixing dark pixels in an area of light pixels looks pretty good, especially in hair linework

But!! I recommend if you want to do big animations try to use a minimalistic color palette and shadows, or else everything will become incredibly painful

for animating try moving the little guy around like a jpeg doll, move around their limbs and stick them together lmao

Also!! use Asesprite, its good

[sneepity-snoop-snorpity-sneep]

I would love so much to see an AU where All Might at some point pre-canon or early canon; stops, looks around and goes “Hang on, I thought I supported society and got everybody the breathing room to rebuild and become a stable society, that was the whole point of the Symbol of Peace. How the hell did we end up with still so many villains and crime and poverty again less than 50 years later? Fuck this shit I’m out, you guys learn to take responsibility for yourselves cuz I’ve already plus ultra’d for you, the rest is your job!”

and like publicly retires and starts advocating for social programs and funds a bunch of free facilities like libraries, training gyms, clinics etc, and basically is just putting his weight as the Symbol of Peace behind the mostly-unaddressed parts of public service. Which makes the hero commission go like

cuz since its All Might, now everybody’s paying attention to the social problems they didn’t want people noticing! And trying to sabotage it to keep themselves in power will probably put them on All Might’s shit list

like he’s settled down and spends most of his personal time working on these massive community gardens he’s started, learning how to be a good plant-dad, and accidentally starting at least one alpaca petting zoo (someone brought it up as a light joke but golden-retriever-energy-having yagi toshinori didn’t pick up on that lmao). The media keeps having meltdowns over All Might in overalls and sun hats

The league of villains plot still happens, but pretty differently since shiggy’s main target started drawing attention to his point before he could - big fights still happen, but more like a kids game of tag with enforced safe spots; the gardens are No-Fighting zones for Everybody, any and all Audacious Hoes With Violence On Their Minds gotta hold it back at those locations, because if u squash anybody’s tomato plants you’ll be point-blank on All Might wielding a spade and channeling the energy of a wrathful Samwise Gamgee

[finniestoncrane]

Would love to read a part two to the Penguin fic It's Only Make Believe

It's Only Make Believe: Part 2

Farrell!Penguin x Female!Reader, word count: 700 part one here ok can i be very honest? i thought this was total shit garbage and yet you guys liked it and i feel so...touched, like the grinch when his heart grew big lmao so HERE YOU GO my sweet beans 💜 also i can keep going with this if there's demand, i didn't want to make this way longer than the first chapter! request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi minors DNI!! 🔞 cw for nsfw stuff: angst, pining, lies, fake relationship

It was a mistake to tell the two of them. They were complete idiots after all, only useful to throw around as muscle and threats. Now, Oswald sat at his desk, head in hands, trying hard not to think about them accidentally bringing it up in conversation with her.

Hey the boss has got a crush on you. Yeah he’s just faking the marriage to get you to fall in love with him. Nah he told us himself! Oh yeah it’s a complete lie, ain’t no money in this for you.

“Hey, Mr. Cobblepot…or…Oswald? Or dear? I should come up with a pet name for you if we’re going to convince anyone that we’re married!”

You were never sure if it made him feel uncomfortable for you to reference the fact that you were now legally married, so you always tried to make a joke out of it. He never laughed though, but nerves kept you awkward.

“Ah, sweetheart you don’t gotta go to all that effort.”

“Nonsense! I said I’d help, and I’m nothing if not committed to the bit. How about…hmmm…well if I was really your wife, I think I’d probably call you Pengy, but that’s kinda dumb.”

He finally looked up from his work, slight smile on his face.

“No, I like that. Or…I mean…I could learn to tolerate that, if I was your husband that is.”

“But you are!”

Your warm smile brought one to his lips, not quite as open as yours, but at least he seemed to have perked up a bit.

“I suppose I should also probably get some work done too, though. Can’t get any special treatment just because I’m ‘sleeping with the boss’ huh?” You shot him a smile, trying to emphasise that you were joking, but his smile had faded. He cleared his throat, shuffling some papers on his desk as he avoided your gaze again.

“Yeah, you better do something at least.”

“Oh…Oz-Oswald-Mr. Cobblepot…I’m sorry if that was too…”

“Oh, it’s ok, it ain’t like that, sweetheart. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

You shuffled slowly over to his desk, perching on the edge across from him, hand resting on his forearm. He stared at it, following your wrist, your arm, up to your face, looking up at you with a strange emotion behind his eyes that you couldn’t quite place but would have sworn was something akin to deep lament.

“Tell me. I’m here for you. And not just as your pretend wife. As a friend.” You let your thumb draw across his jacket sleeve, back and forth, soothing him, hoping to get him to open up a bit.

“You know, Pengy.” He chuckled softly, leaning back in his chair, easing up slightly. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity, and for the job. I can’t even…it means a lot that you trust me. And…I’ve enjoyed getting to know you. You’re…different to how I thought you would be.”

“How so?”

“You’re sweeter.”

“Oh, you don’t know me well at all, sweetheart. I’m not sweet in the slightest. And to prove it, I’m gonna give you five seconds to get off this desk and start work on that pile of documents over there. Get to it.”

You rolled your eyes, sliding off the desk and walking over to collect the pile, moving to the door to leave for the desk in the hall where you were set up. But you stopped to turn to him.

“I think I do though know you well though. I don’t know…I thought someone so well-established, so charming and handsome might be completely full of himself, but you’re-”

“Handsome?”

You sat silently, looking at him, not sure what he wanted you to say in response.

“When was the last time you got those glasses checked?”

You giggled a little.

“You don’t think you’re handsome?”

“I absolutely do not. And forgive me, sweetheart, but I don’t believe for a second that you think so either.”

His self-effacing attitude was so endearing, such a sweet quality. It made him vulnerable, human. And as you left the office, you let your head stay around the door as you spoke, before disappearing off to get started on work.

“I wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t think you were, Mr. Cobblepot.”

[magicalgirlmascot]

Alright who wants to see my old Bionicle humanizations? These were from my modern/college!AU Metru Uni which I made when I was in college. These were all posted on dA circa 2011-12ish, and you have to understand these were drawn by hand, scanned into a computer, and edited using a laptop trackpad and MS Paint. Get ready for a lot of Shoujo Legs and Weird Character Choices. (All images will have their descriptions in the alt text.)

So first of all you have to understand that Vakama was my babygirl for many many years. This guy has the worst social anxiety you've ever seen. Not sure why I decided to take away his glasses when he transformed considering that's one of my least favourite things but whatever.

THIS MAN HAS NO ASS. I mean none of them do but Matau especially, goddamn. Anyway he wanted to dye his hair green so bad but his mom wouldn't let him. This guy is a huge flirt and we stan. Also I think the second image is flipped for some reason.

Okay yeah the second image is definitely flipped why did I do that. I was genuinely trying to make Nokama look cute and fashionable here but also I didn't know how to draw skirts very well so. Yeah. Vakama and Matau were both instantly smitten with her when she showed up and honestly the endgame ship there was Vakama/Nokama but for real it should've been the three of them. God she was so fucking patient

Now I gotta say I have absolutely no clue why the hell I gave Onewa a punk aesthetic (it's not even that punk, really, just what I would've considered punk as a very sheltered teen in 2011) but it kinda fucks actually. He was such a bitch but also he was so right about basically everything. King <3

WHENUA MY BELOVED. He was the oldest out of all of them and straight up had a university degree already but had for some reason decided to go to college after to get qualifications for a job that definitely would have paid less than the job he was originally going for with the university degree but I was dumb as hell and also he had to be at college that was the point of the fic. He and Vakama were roommates (oh my god they were roommates)

Okay so the hairstyle. Um. I was obsessed with Wizard AnimalParade at the time. Also when he lifted the eyepatch on his transformed self he could zoom his vision in and out like a telescope. Also also he was obsessed with astronomy and thought astrology was stupid which. Is very funny writing KNPS now because that version of Nuju has exactly the same opinion

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hey Rags how come the characters with brown and black as their theme colours are the only brown and black skinned characters" because I was fucking stupid that's why. Moving on.

One of the running gags I had in the manga version of this fic (YES there was a manga version, it only got about halfway through the second chapter) was that Lhikan always had bishounen sparkles every time he appeared. I wanted him to be a pretty boy so bad. I stand by this choice honestly Lhikan should be the prettiest boy. He should be more pretty than he is. VAKAMA SHOULD'VE HAD A BI LITTLE CRUSH ON HIM.

Honestly the only reason his eyes are white here is I forgot to colour them lmao. Dume worked in the college's security office and he was such an uptight old bitch. Look at his stupid little tie clip. This was also before I learned how to, like, make people look older, and so he just looks like a young man with a moustache lol. What learning to draw from Chris Hart books does to a mf

And to round off this part, please have one of the first pieces of digital art I ever did: a cover for the series! Back in the day fanfiction.net let you set a specific cover for a series so I drew this for that. I'm honestly really glad I found this again, I thought that it was lost to time and the only version I had access to was the extremely crunched version still up on ff.net. I drew this all by hand and did all the colouring and shading and stuff using Paint.net, which was a free program. The textures for the dirt and earth were made using MS Paint still though lol.

OKAY there are still about one million billion left to go but I'm calling it here for now so it doesn't get too long. I'll make another post with villains or something later.

Except also here have this no-context picture of Matau that was my deviantart profile picture for a long time.

[hiding-in-the-vault]

Hi vault!! Do you have any other tips for beginner artists? I’m just now starting out and feeling very overwhelmed lmao

Always~

First of all. Anon, I am holding you tightly by the shoulders and looking you in the eyes. Whenever you see really good art out there that feels discouraging compared to your beginner art, remember that there is NOTHING you are incapable of creating with enough practice and patience. It comes easier to some, but I believe everyone is capable of artistic creation :)

That said, any artist on the planet will tell you: use references. Pinterest is my best friend. And follow artists with styles that resonate with you, pick up on stuff they do that you like and find your own ways to incorporate it.

And on that note, teach yourself to find beauty in everything. Learning how to draw means learning a llloot of fundamentals about a lot of things that you may not currently care about. But the sooner you learn to appreciate every aspect of what you're trying to draw, the easier to is to master those things.

For example, eyes. Eyes are beautiful and it's probably easy to imagine filling a page with them, chasing that beauty. But what about the smooth curve of a bent wrist? Or a toned forearm, or the collarbone when the light hits it just right- or dare I even say... a chair. The more you appreciate these things, the easier it'll be to want to master them. And with everything in art, ya gotta want it.

The alternative is forcing yourself to draw stuff you just don't care about, or avoiding a lot of stuff that is holding you back. That said, go at your own pace!

And find tutorials! I especially like the idea of finding a youtuber or two that you vibe with and watching a bunch of their stuff casually, and see what you pick up. Heck, I've learned a lot from guys like Drawfee that are more entertainers than teachers. Or more recently, watching art streams has taught me stuff too.

I'm gonna cut this off before I also become overwhelming. But to cap it all off, don't be afraid of burnout. Don't push yourself too hard, don't stress, etc. At the end of the day, art is for the artists own enjoyment. Do what makes you happy :D

[tending-the-hearth]

Bestie, as someone who has never seen newsies and only knows about it through your posts * Waves hand* rant? ramble? elaborate? summarize? whatever you want to call it! Imagine i had never seen Cats and you were about to change my life by telling me about it. Just absolutely go ham telling me literally everything about it. Literally anything. Which version should i watch first? Headcanons? Favorite scenes? Favorite characters? Favorite songs? Whatever! All of the above or another sixth thing i haven't thought of. I am curious about Newsies and i want to know more! Please Share! :D

YES YES YES THANK YOU BESTIE I'M SO EXCITED TO TALK ABOUT NEWSIES

okay so Newsies first started as a movie done by Disney, directed by Kenny Ortega (yes, THAT Kenny Ortega) and with music by Alan Menken, and it was released in 1992, starring Christian Bale as Jack Kelly!

the musical is based off of the 1899 New York Newsies strike, and focuses on the Manhattan borough, led by Jack Kelly, who strike against Joseph Pulitzer. David Jacobs and his younger brother, Les, join the strike, and the newsies work to bring in other boroughs and draw support from other kids working in the city.

now, the frustrating thing is that the stage musical deviates from the movie in a few points:

in the 1992 movie, there's a reporter named Denton, who offers to write about the strike. Also in the 1992 movie is David's sister, Sarah, who is Jack's love interest. the musical basically combines Denton and Sarah into Katherine, who is a writer for the Sun (like Denton) and who is Jack's main love interest.

the 1992 movie makes it VERY easy to figure out which newsie is which, and focuses on the newsies as a whole, and their relationships with each other. the musical is MUCH more centered around just Jack, as well as just his relationship with Katherine. In the 1992 movie, Jack and Sarah's relationship is more background.

i'd personally go with watching the 1992 movie first. it's the entire reason i fell in love with the show, and it's the version i honestly prefer. Christian Bale's Jack is SO soft and wonderful, and i love his interactions with the rest of the newsies. I'm not saying the Broadway version is bad, but it's different, so i'd say do the OG version first!

i honestly think the reason it was easy for me to come into the Cats fandom and start identifying the different cats was because of Newsies lmao. There are so many different background boys, but like i said, the 1992 movie makes it EXTREMELY easy to identify all of them. it's the stage version that makes it ridiculously hard to figure out who is who, which is why i suggest doing the original movie first, and learning the characters from that!

note: the Broadway version (specifically the U.S. tour) added a song for Crutchie called "Letter from the Refuge", which isn't included in the original cast recording, but the pro-shoot they did a few years ago has it in there!

ok so some of my favorite scenes from both the movie and stage show!!!!! (probably most of these will be from the movie lmao)

1992: Kloppman (the owner of the lodging house that the newsies stay in) wakes Jack up, and they have a very adorable father/son-type back and forth with each other

1992: where Racetrack (one of my favorite newsies) is asking for a towel, and Skittery (my other favorite newsie) says "for a buck i might" and the scene is just so PURE and brotherly like???? they're siblings?????

1992: "dear me, i fear the sewer may have backed up during the night" "or is it... the Delancey brothers!" they're little SHITS and i love them

1992: "baby born with three heads" "must be from brooklyn"

1992: gotta highlight @cutesiewooren's boy Blink here, his line "a saturday night with the mayer's daughter" gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME in "king of new york"

broadway: also speaking of "king of new york" it's impossible to talk about it without talking about the broadway line of "and when your famous... the woild... is yer erster!" "ya what?" "ya know, the fancy claim with the pearl inside?"

1992: "your honor, i object" "on what grounds" "on the grounds of Brooklyn" spot conlon my FUCKING beloved

broadway: any of the background dialogue during the "king of new york" tap scene, it's perfect

my favorite songs would probably have to be:

"Carrying the Banner"

"Seize the Day"

"Watch What Happens"

"High Times, Hard Times" (1992 movie)

"Something to Believe In"

"Once and For All"

now for favorite characters!! once again, because the 1992 movie does SUCH a better job at giving each newsie a unique personality and highlights them, it's mainly based off of those versions!

Mush... my love... my boy... my darling... my everything...

Racetrack... Racer... love...

(gotta include both max and ben's racers, they're iconic)

David!!! ofc!!!! my beloved!!!! he's just like me fr!!

spot conlon!!!!!

skittery!!!! i've done a whole appreciation post for him but he!!!!

literally i could name every single newsie bc i love all of them. jack is a given, but i specifically love 1992 Jack. I've been meaning to make a whole analysis post on it, but Christian Bale just really plays such a heartwarming and soft Jack. His interactions with the rest of the newsies, with Sarah, with the adults, you can just feel how much he cares about everyone around him.

a little fun fact about the 1992 movie:

while in production, the newsie boys basically shot a mini-horror movie called "Blood Drips Heavily on Newsies Square" that is the FUNNIEST fucking thing i've ever watched in my life

like it features all of the cast + a lot of the crew, and you can absolutely tell this was made by a bunch of teenage boys who had way too much time on their hands in between filming

you can probably find the whole thing on youtube, and i 100% recommend watching it

and a few cast crossover facts bc i can't resist:

Jess LeProtto (2016 revival Mungojerrie) was Jojo in the original Broadway cast!

Mukeni Nel (who was part of the 2019 international tour as Bill Bailey + Mistoffelees cover, as well as the 2020 Asia tour as Carbucketty) is currently playing Jojo in the UK Tour of Newsies!

Giuseppe Bausilio (2016 revival Carbucketty) was also in the original Broadway cast, and I believe later performed as Racetrack!

Mike Faist (who was a Delancey brother/ensemble member in the original Broadway cast) was the original Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen

quite a few of the OBC newsie actors (Including Jess and Mike) were part of the 2021 West Side Story film!

Jeremy Jordan (OBC Jack Kelly) has done SO much but my favorite fact is that he voices Varian in the Tangled animated series!

also i saw Kara Lindsay (OBC Katherine) as Glinda in Wicked back in 2015 or 2016, and she was absolutely INCREDIBLE

and finally, a few hcs:

Jack is unofficially adopted by the Jacobs family as soon as they meet him, they see this scruffy jaded boy and immediately go "he's ours"

Katherine's newsie name is "Scribble", and ONLY Jack is allowed to call her "Ace"

Sarah's is "Mama Bear" because she can and will go absolutely feral if she sees any of her boys getting hurt

Spot can't swim (idk why, i just think it's funny if he lives near the docks and can't swim to save his life)

no one's actually sure if Specs needs glasses, or if they're fake. at this point, they're too afraid to ask, and Specs just thinks it's absolutely hilarious that they're trying to figure it out.

Patrick's mother (who's shown at the beginning of the movie during "Carrying the Banner") never finds her son, but she, like Mrs. Jacobs and Medda, becomes a type of surrogate mother for a lot of the newsies.

that's all i can think about right now lmao, but i love getting to rant and ramble about one of my absolute favorite musicals of ALL time!!! and you know i'm always down to answer asks about newsies any time, bestie!!

[udon-udon]

so i started a side twitter acc for more personal posts but it feels weird not writing it out on tumblr too so here we go, though just gonna copy and paste cause lazy + some more details, but it’s just the usual dilemma i’m having so honestly feel free to skip lmao I really forgot what it’s like to not worry about needing to draw so often or to not feel guilty about not drawing? I remember playing games or doing something or other all day but now I can’t do that without feeling guilty that I’m not drawing or trying to improve my art

I have a shit ton of games in my backlog like the ace attorney games, yuri visuals etc but I’m afraid to pick them up cause when I start something I don’t stop til I finish or else I’ll never go back to it lmao maybe it’s just a skill issue can’t multitask for shii

also funny thing is though i just sit on my ass all day at the computer doing nothing, but i also dont want to do anything despite all the games i said i have in my backlog;;;;

Get me out of this mindset!!!! This is one of the reasons why I wanted to go on a hiatus

My day job also takes up literally 3/4 of my day so like what’s time?  I mean I’m grateful that I even have a job but u know. I guess I gotta start learning how to time manage

Mb it also has smth to do with “if I don’t draw/post I’m gonna get forgotten and I’m afraid of that” -insert abandonment issues- so I feel the need to draw and get better. Not that I’m doing that often lately anyway simply cause I’m v burnt out hence back to the hiatus thing

And because I haven’t been drawing a lot lately, I’m feeling that sense of being left behind and forgotten which makes me feel down esp when I see other artists exceeding and going places.

I’ve constantly told myself that art is just going to be a hobby but my mind keeps wiring itself to “professional” standards

Udon u just gotta stop being chronically online

[featherlinneasart]

Brother Bear Ref

And I mean literally brother bear. Like as in my brother being represented with this bear (he was vehemtly against cats and dogs lmao)

Certain "Simply Me" comic ideas simply must include him. Afterall he is my older brother and we do a lot together.

But yeah we agreed years ago, if I draw him as a furry, gotta be a bear haha And he really loves purple and fancy aesthetics. He by the way, DOES own a monocle, fancy head, fancy walk stick and very fancy clothing haha. Just loves looking like an aristocrat.

He is not at all arrogant tho. Big heart and all. Loveable goofball.

Btw. he'll never read my posts hehe, he loves card games, strategy games and souls like games. He also reads a lot (like me!), and we generally share plenty of interests. He is working as an electrician! Bluck is a random nickname we thought of when we played together and did character creation, it means "bad luck", because usually he has terribly luck with rng, while I am super lucky haha.

Gotta love him. On Sundays we play pool together and later in the day usually with our eldest niece, cook a new dish together! (we pick out random recipes) Anything we want really (he hates veggies, can't eat them, so out of spite learned to cook to proof you can go without haha), we have made a wedding cake together once!  Love calling ourselves the intermediate amateur master chefs or something like that for fun haha

Now I can put him endlessy somewhere in my content, when I feel like it hehe He doesn't follow my stuff so he'll never know haha (I did get his permission to make him a character and use it in my stuff btw.)