#learn to like sketches and do a lot of them

[wooltoesocks]

Shirahama Kamome interview at Desucon 2025, Finland

had the honour of attending her live drawing/interview last weekend, it was an absolute blast and i still cant really quite believe i got to see that. didnt win an autograph ticket, but what i did do was take notes from the panel, so if anyone's interested to read, here they are <3

feel free to share, but please credit :)

[] means stuff the panelists have said, () is me rambling

text version/ALT under the cut since it's a lot

14.6.2025 Desucon

guest of honour's program: Kamome Shirahama and the magic of drawing

disclaimer: might contain mistakes even tho i've tried to be as accurate to my notes and memory as possible <3

on the table she was going to be drawing at there were the usual 2 brushbugs wearing qifrey and olruggio's hats, but also a hattifatten

*a picture of shirahama's two brushbugs, wearing olruggio's and qifrey's hats, and a hattifatten on a table (from tongariofficial's twitter)*

the program schedule hadnt included a live drawing, so i dont know if that was going to be a surprise for us of if it was a last minute decision. shirahama said "unfortunately the hat is in the way of seeing", since she had the iguin mask on the entire time. since we had a lot of time, she would be drawing coco and qifrey. (i initially took this to mean she could draw them both since she had time but my friend interpreted it as being "BECAUSE we have time she will be drawing" so idk. she had a cool ring, which looked like it could hold ink or smth.

[did you read manga growing up and what were your favorite manga and mangaka as a kid?]

- like all kids she read manga, but also liked novels and movies

- her favorite were x-men and star was comics- she read manga that was maybe targeted to an older audience

[did you always draw as a kid?] (didnt write down this question but i think it was smth like that)

- according to her parents yes, and also she's drawn since she herself can remember

[when did drawing become your job?]

-she studied design (? and smth else idk i accidentally wrote design in english and finnish lmao) in university, and alongside that she got small jobs to draw atuff for for example teaching materials and games, and realised you could actually make a job out of drawing.

[what did you learn alongside your studies?]

- she had graphics as her major, but was also interested in accessibility design and something else (i think this had smth to do with the environment, maybe environmental design? but i had just written "something")

[how did you end up a mangaka?]

- self published manga drawings, and at some point a publisher reached out to her like hey do you wanna come draw for us

[what kind of material do you like to draw with?]

- the sketch she does with a pencil, and then the actual drawing with an inkpen- corona has chabged stuff a bit because you have to take into account how much can you meet with your assistants, so more of the drawing is done digitally nowadays

- she prefers drawing on paper, but for example if a design is going into a game (=onto a screen) she will draw it digitally to fit

- she's also been challenging herself recently by drawing more stuff digitally

[do you draw all the details in the sketch, or just at the inking part?]

- the pencil marks distract the drawing process, so she will add the details in the inking part

- "you are going to see it yourself with this"

[where have you taken influence from to your drawing style?]

- fantasy, rpg, europe (i think i meant western here??)

- okay so i had written "role-playing-game-styled" but idk what that rly means lol

- the style of wood carvings is medieval[your works have been published in maby magazines, is there a difference between magazines what kind of manga you draw?] (i think that meant her drawing style depending on magazine not the manga's story)

- it's not really the magazine that changes stuff, the drawing style changes depending on the story

- witch hat atelier is story-book-like

- style will accommodate what suits a game the best

[where does the style come from for each story?]

- no (???? what he fuck did i mean by this im sure it made sense in the moment)

- if it's a digital media, she will draw with a computer, a japanese story she will use a brush, and for a western story she will use harder pencils

[do you change your style depending on the target audience?] (more in the ways of a country a person is from, for example western/japanese)

- she will draw what will be enjoyable regardless of the target group/audience

[does your style change depending on the age group of your audience?]

- it's more in the language then, so the dialogue's difficulty changes

[where did you get the idea for enidewi?] (this just read "enidewi idea?")

- she likes european gothic angels and devils and wanted to write about them. there are a lot of things she likes in enidewi- she likes to tell stories with girls in them

(no idea what the actual question was, i just write "enidewi memories?")

- it's about 2 girls on trips and they get into shenanigans

- she has travelled a lot so she pulled stuff from her own experiences/stuff related to her own experiences

- she does hope that she hasnt been as much of a difficulty as those 2

[when did you get the idea for witch hat atelier?]

- she was thinking of it while drawing enidewi

- the idea has been with her for surprisingly long, 6 years before publishing

[were you imagining the story or the worldbuilding then?]

- no plot, but the setting, world and themes

[was the drawing part of magic in the story since the beginning?]

- it's been in the story since very early on

- there are some people who are incredibly talented at drawing in our world, but everyone can draw at least a certain amount, so she wanted a world where the magic is in everyone's reach so to say

[how did you design such an intricate magic system?]

- first she wanted a simple system that even a child could copy but wanted there to be some logic to add extra effects

[what is your favorite symbol?]

- the one coco uses a lot, meaning sylph shoes

[i think we would all want a spell to fly with our shoes]

- shirahama would want a spell to easy stiff shoulders (she was i think showing a v bad posture drawing position lol)

[too bad those are forbidden]

(no idea about the question here lol i missed it bc i was explaining the previous laughing to someone, she also had to read the question again from a paper she had so hell yea me too)

- the fears of how to get better at drawing

- there would be a feeling of relatability

[so the series has the "good guys" wearing a pointy brimless cap and the "bad guys" a brimmed cap, so a different philosophy means a different cap. where did you get the idea/why is it like this?]

- she was vaguely pointing at her iguin hat and doing the muscle flex pose like woo

- she cant say, and it will be revealed as the series progresses (she had her hands clasped at her chest i had written that down soecifically)

- wait with excitement for the upcoming chapters (i THINK she meant like any future chapter but tbh i for a sec thought the translator said NEXT chapter but dont get ur hopes up. ANYWAY WHAT THE FUCK)

(smth about the desig of characters again was distracted by the whole thing before)

- she think it's fun to make the character designs, it's it's becoming hard because there are so many characters

- she will sometimes go to her artist friends with a character idea like hey this is what this character is like what would they look like

[all the fans here would probbaly go crazy for a finland inspired outfit, what would it be like?]

- well it would be warm at least

[furhat]

[does qifrey's hat tell something about his character?]

- it's a modified version of his hat as Beldaruit's apprentice so not really

[how has it been like creating the rules within the world?]

- it's been fun thinking of the fashion styles and clothes (literally the note says "fashion styles and clothes fun so nice to make <nonsense> that was fun" so idk take of that what u will. the nonsense might have been "work" but i honestly dunno)

[what has been difficult to get to fit?]

- she says the weaknesses and holes are hard to work into the system so that it's noticable that things are wrong but not too much into either direction

- bring to light something about the differences in people ("bring forward motivation into that different people kinda" what. anyway not sure what i meant here, also not sure if this is still to the same question but i didnt at least write a question in this part so idk)

- she thinks a lot (about what, idk i think there was a question here too i missed about maybe magic?), magic is a technology that tries to make human lives easier

[do you intend to raise awareness of real life problems?]

- partially, and that magic is a positive depiction too so that might inspire to fix the real life problems[inspiration for witch hat during the creation of the series?]

- during middleschool/high school/university she liked lord of rings movies, and peter jackson films (idk if it was like she liked those during that time and they still inspire her or like was this just not answering the question but anyway)

[are there any spcific details inspired by other serieses?]

- ghibli, the idea of nausicae (? not sure about this but like those were mentioned)

[witch hat atelier is peculiar/unique with it's use of art deco. do the page compositions come to your mind as they will be or are they modified as you work?] (notes said to the first line just "wha unique, art deco" so i think that's what it meant?)

- there are both instances, some will be completed like they first came into mind, and others get elements and other stuff added while drawing[how does it feel getting recognition outside of japan too?]

- she is very happy about that, that people enjoy and read her stuff and she is very honoured overall, and it's nice that that's the case also in other countries

[reading pictures is pretty universal, is it kind of like the manga's magic that it's for everyone?]

- she said it's kinda of funny with japanese because kanji are pictograms so they are also pictures in a way

[so your series has an official spin-off called witch hat atelier kitchen. where did the idea for that come from?] (a lot of thumbs up from shirahama at the mention of kitchen yay)

- she was approached by the publishing like oh hey we have this idea to draw a witch hat food series is that okay with you[are you how deep in the creation process of kitchen, or is it just sato's work?]

- sato creates it, sometimes they might workshop some world related stuff, for example the names of vegetables, and how to connect kitchen with the main series more

[do you have a favorite character or do you love them all equally?] (she was looking between the translator and the audience and reaching for the brushbugs like tadaa kinda)

- brushbug is easy to draw so that's why, and especially drawn with a brush

[there's also a very cute hattivatti]

- she had bought it immediately after arriving to finland

[hattifattener are probably the closest finland has to a brushbug]

- "yeah that's how it is"

[you have worked with marvel, DC and star wars. how did this start?]

- she liked american comics and attended cons in the usa too, and showed some sketches for a producer/editor (idk the word but like someone in the industry)

[have you gotten to draw any of your favorite characters?]

- her first crush was wolverine

- she also like batman a lot

- she at least hasnt had the opportunity to draw them together in a work

- she draws a lot of female characters for her work usually too

[what's the process for cover art, do you get precise instructions or do you have more free hands with the design?]

- she gets mostly free reign, and does something to suit the character

- sometimes there will be instructions/asks to include something, for example if the story takes place in japan to put fitting elements there

[is there much of a difference working with foreign works compared to japanese ones?]

- not really, most differences depend on the work itself

[how much time do you get to making a cover?]

- she's been busy lately (👀👀👀) but usually the deadlines arent super specific, she will usually make one a month

[you worked in character design for the star wars: visions -series. how was the experience?]

- on top of all, the series is an animation, it was nice to get to work with other people

- also amazing to get to see her designs come to life

*a sneeze*

[do you have to take into account that the characters will be animated when making the design?]

- there wasnt as much creative freedom since star wars is a established franchise so a lot of the design elements already exist

- okay so i didnt hear if she said "you didnt have to simplify the designs" since it's animated or that "you did have to simplify the designs" so like uhhhh sorry for not being able to answer that :( i feel like it mighta been "you didnt really have to simplify" but oh well

[do you draw witch hat characters from a reference at the beginning until you memorize the design, or does the design change along the story?]

- she had made a few designs beforehand (i think this meant like of one character like a few versions)

[you also drew the comic adaptation for Star Wars: Visions. did you get strict rules for it of were you allowed to change stuff?]

- the story was completed so that wasnt changed- she kept the same visual spirit as in the animation

[is there a foreign work you would still like to get to work with?]

- a lot of eeeeeee pondering noices, she was holding her hand on her chin like when you think bout something

- she said it's a difficult question, but she would like to work with a tabletop rpg or boardgames (excited hand gestures)

[well im sure everyone here would at least love to play those]

- she mentioned she's done work with Pokemon cards and Fate/grand order

[there is a witch hat anime coming. what's your role in its production?] (excited hand gestures again)

- she says she checks the stuff the animators have done, and gives corrections if needed

- since the manga is black and white, she gived advice on the colourschemes, for example with what kind of coloring techniques the characters have access to and therefore what the clothes will look like

[is this the first time you've thought about the colours of some stuff?]

- there have been a lot, for example coco's dress in chapter 1

- she will ponder with the team what would work best

[how (much?) are you waiting for the anime?]

- "a lot, and also very excited that all of you will get to watch it"

[are there any serieses/games you like right now?]

- magus of the library (someone from the audience provided the english translation, the translator said "big wizard of the library" (in finnish). thumbs up from shirahama at that), it's very interesting

[well nice we're getting recommendations here]

[the world of witch hat atelier is rpg-styled, is there any videogame elements?] (something about videogames and witch hat world at least lol i kinda missed this bc of again the previous question)

- there's not really any video game elements, since there is no level ups or magic points

- more closer to fantasy literature

[you said you read manga before becoming a mangaka yourself. has making your own manga changed this hobby, are you tired of manga outside of work?] (many excited hand gestures again)

- she actually reads more manga now than as a kid- as a kid she didnt dare buy a lot if she didnt know the story that well (or like being way more cautious of what to buy), but now she feels like "she has permission" to read manga

- "oh it's part of the job i can buy and read manga"

[do you look back to your works and think a lot about what succeeded and could have been done better?]

- when she starts a new part in the series, she will read the previous one and think about what might have been left unexplained and try to broaden and explain the stuff later

[has the way you engage with and judge other people's manga changed after becoming a mangaka? do you think like "oh this could have been done differently" "oh this was really cool"?]

- she said she isnt "skipping school" when reading, she does look at novels too with new eyes now

[is it good to read others' fantasy works, or do you do it just because you like it?]

- she does keep up with what other people are writing, and says it's good to know what's going on so as not to write absolutely similar stuff

[oh it does look like the drawing is finished now.] (this was 12.17, the panel started at like 11, a few minutes over most likely)

- you could really see how she added the details with the ink pen and not with pencil (dont remember if this was shirahama or the panelists, but still so true and amazing to watch)

- "i erased the pencil marks out of the way"

- "thank you for having the patience to watch me draw"

[well this is going to turn into a thanking contest but i do think the pleasure is completely ours/thanks are completely on our side, thank you for drawing for us] (literally no thank YOU tetia core interaction)

[does anything come to mind that the finnish manga and anime -fans would be interested to hear that we havent realised to ask?]

- "thank you so much", she says it's nice to feel that people like the same stuff as she does, that even if we're from different countries that we are all fans of manga

[how has it been visiting finland for desucon?]

- she arrived a few days ago in helsinki, and the food and weather has been very good (this is hilarious she managed to come here on the 4 consecutive days when it's been sunny and so warm and not raining at all this whole year i feel like what. anyway glad she liked the food yayy)

- she still hasnt had time to properly visit desucon yet

when she left the stage she waved the hand of the brushbug that had oru's hat at the audience <3

[cimtee]

Can I talk about Henry Cheng and queerplatonicism for a sec…?

Yes, Gansey certainly has a homoerotic subtext to his relationships. He often blurs the line between friendship and romance, experiencing a mess of emotions toward the object of his affection (and blatant codependency on all fronts, but I digress).

Say with Adam. We’ve definitely got some repressed feelings there, whatever they are. Gansey displays levels of reverence, dedication, and possessiveness that make you go “hmmmmmm🤨🤨.” And, in slightly more convoluted ways, Adam displays these toward Gansey as well. There’s also a bit too much aesthetic appreciation of each other for anyone to conclude, “ah yes, typical bro behavior.” Lots of their interactions, especially during their earlier rough patches, feel laced with sexual tension.

Gansey can seem like this with Henry, too—blurring the line. What’s new. But on Henry’s end, at least, it feels different to me. Not blurring the line so much as toeing an entirely different one. He doesn’t have a word for it, just an idea that he needs “something more.” More than he got at home. More than his current friendships, which do seem to be stable and built on common ground. More than the future he’s imagined for himself for so long.

He meets Gansey and Blue. They excite him. They fascinate him. They understand him. He’s drawn to them in an unusual but undeniably powerful way. That inexplicable craving for deeper connection is being satisfied for the first time in his life. Yet to say they’ve become “friends” doesn’t encapsulate the full scope of this blooming relationship.

I’ve never been in a QPR, but the more I learn about them the more beautiful they are to me. They aren’t friendship or dating or brotherhood, valuable as those types of connection are for many people. They ARE intimate and trusting and committed. They’re “something more” than previous labels for love have been able to describe.

I love the aroace headcanon for Henry, but it isn’t necessary to view their relationship in this way. QPRs are formed between allosexual people too. It is arguable that Henry reciprocates some of Gansey’s likely attraction. But to me, that isn’t the driving force of their bond. From personal experience, attraction comes and goes and does not need to shake the boundaries of existing friendships. Thinking of one friend, whom I love dearly. At one point I realized I was feeling attracted to her. But I didn’t want or need to pursue it, because I was perfectly happy where we were. The attraction passed, my love for her stayed the same. I can see this being true for Henry too.

This is not to say I take issue with Henry being shipped with Gansey and/or Blue. I did toy briefly with the romance idea, because that just seemed the default explanation for their many intriguing, charged encounters. But when I really looked at them I realized that the “something more” rang a lot truer for me.

Quicker sketch but still here is the insp

Was thinking about them roadtripping and hiking. I have to settle for living vicariously through them

[aa0n]

How the "Janae and Johnny and Frankie and Donnie are the same people" hc could make sense (it doesn't, but bear with me)

After Johnny and Janae burned down the neighbour's house (and killed his wife) they had to run, both from their terrible parents and the police. That's canon to neighbour, Janae literally says that he's gonna seek adoption for him and his brother. So Janae steals money from his parents and find a way to make him and Johnny new IDs (change their names) and fly to Newyork. In order to be as unrecognisable as possible, they learn to have a good accent with videos they find, which are mostly british comedic sketches (hence Frankie and Donnie's accent being so caricatural). When they arrive in America, they get noticed because they are two children alone and they're taken to an orphanage. They always find a way to not be adopted or separated, until they're old enough to go and find an apartment in a strip club. They become the christmas tree bandits because they need money and neither of the two know how to work, and I like to think that the first time they went to time square it was Christmas and Donnie was in awe of the giant christmas tree so Frankie decided that he'd give it to him one day.

Now how the hell do I justify the actual backstory they give in christmas tree bandits? Well to me it’s a story they tell since they arrived in America, they know it by heart but when Donnie has a seizure he tends to forget things, that's why Frankie asks him:

About Johnny's future dreams, I think Donnie still has some but they are a lot less clear and often a part of truth mixed with very bad stuff (like he dreamed about Frankie dying more than once) so he doesn't take them seriously anymore. Also he has insomnia and pyrophobia because of the fire, and yes he dies in an explosion :D

The thing that doesn't really work in my head is that in neighbour Janae is 8 and Johnny is 15 and I clearly don't see Donnie and Frankie having 7 years of difference (in fact I don't see Donnie being the big brother but yk that's the whole joke in neighbour so yeah) maybe it would work if Donnie is like 32 and Frankie 25? Idk it still feels weird

[armadillo-arts]

So, I'm gonna preface this ask by saying: the beautiful Pony!Calamity Trio art you did on the Amphibia shared-canvas-thing got me thinking A LOT about the finer details of the Trio as Ponies–

That being said, after spending far too long pondering the subject myself, I'm curious— do you have any ideas for what the Trio's names would be as Ponies?

— @knave-of-clubs

(doodles in question for those who weren’t on this aggie a while back)

thank you!! they were fun to design! i have colored fullbodies of their show-age designs in the works too (sasha’s is done, marcy’s is lined, anne’s is sketched), so i wanted to try out rough concepts for their future designs as well. i’m sure i’ll make fullbody refs for their timeskip designs too at some point, though these are just kind of a “whenever i feel like it” project more than something actually on my to-do list, so not sure when that’ll be. i HAVE to make a darcy design too tho, it just sounds like the coolest thing ever.

the designs were mostly just for fun, so i don’t have a lot of the details figured out about the au as a whole, except that their species were chosen to align the “hierarchy” of their respective amphibians with the “hierarchy” of the pony species. plus they just fit the vibes this way.

it seems like it would be pretty similar to the show, honestly. they would still look just as weird to the amphibians as they did as humans, and the plot and character arcs wouldn’t change much from thinking off the top of my head. andrias’ desire for human tech would be a moot point because ponies don’t rely on tech of the same kind/the same way, but that’s not to say he wouldn’t absolutely find use of the ponies’ magic, especially if he found a way to harness it. i can see him really being intrigued by it after befriending marcy and seeing the power she holds in her horn even while possessed by the core (especially since unicorn marcy is likely to be incredibly gifted in magic)

i don’t think anne would gain her wings and horn when using her partial powers throughout tc and s3, but i think it makes sense/would be cool for the calamity powers to grant all three of them temporary alicorn status when fully activated. “the powers must stack when used in tandem! classic synergy buff” as marcy would put it. but the power isn’t everything, of course, and anne’s heart and sacrifice are still the factors that ultimately win the war for them.

as for names, i’ve thought some about it but haven’t really gotten to any definitive conclusions. their warrior cat names came to me pretty instinctively but pony names feel much harder 😭

it would be really cool if each of them had something tying back their calamity trait ingrained in their names from the start, tying them to the prophecy long before they became remotely aware of it, but i’m not sure what words would make the names still sound natural and not obvious. ofc the prophecy’s not the only substantial thing about them and shouldn’t define them, it’s just cool in a “woooaahh it’s always been our destiny” kind of way. but not sold on it bc i can’t come up with any particular ideas lmao, plus i was already planning on incorporating the “three stars” part of it into each of their cutie marks so it’s not a concept i’ll likely likely end up sticking with. but as for specific thoughts for each girl, here’s where i’m at:

• i can see the “bright” from waybright being used as part of sasha’s name, and can see it suiting her. i feel like a fiery, warm, powerful feeling to her name in general suits her really well, both pre and post-redemption. she’s a protector at heart, it just takes her a while to learn to do it right, and that feels like it should reflect in her name. bright, wing, ember, blaze, flame, spark, etc. are all words i’ve considered for her, just haven’t settled on anything that really feels like her yet even though she’s the one i have the most ideas for

• anne is transfem to me in every universe, so her name needs to feel to me like something she would pick herself. pretty and feminine but not dainty. maybe floral. Lilypad Lotus is where i’m leaning. lotus like in my warrior name for her ties her back to her thai culture again which i’m also all for, and it just really suits her. i can also see her liking lilypad as part of her name, chosen before amphibia just because she thought it was pretty. her being kind of inexplicably drawn to it, only for the tangential relation to frogs to become such a massive part of her identity later. her “first name” being her own like in the show with her “last name” still being hers but also a draw back to her heritage, which would no doubt be different as a pony, but still could parallel the thai culture as much as possible

• marcy on the other hand has me completely stuck. she feels like she should be easy, but she isn’t. her character is too big to simplify her name down to her hobbies and interests like some pony names. the principles i used choosing her warrior name don’t really align here, because her warrior name is sparrowflight but she’s not a pegasus, so it doesn’t feel correct. i’d like some option where she can keep her plethora of nicknames (mar-mar, marbles, marshmallow, etc. having marble in her name somewhere might even be good), because that way she’d also have some tie back to her human name like if we were to use bright and lotus. some sort of name highlighting her intelligence feels right (i would probably say “bright” if it didn’t feel more right to give that to sasha), but it’s also not her only characteristic and shouldn’t be treated like all she’s good for, so it would have to be a healthy combination. a name highlighting her energy and hyperactivity as well makes sense pre-amphibia, but she definitely mellows out a lot after, so it would still need to be flexible enough to still feel like marcy at every period in her life. she’s still excitable and bouncy (eventually), but she’s an artist— she does Not have that kind of energy anymore 💀 we don’t know how connected to her culture she is, but we know she’s canonically fluent in mandarin at the very least, so there’s definitely a case to be made for choosing a taiwanese/chinese-inspired name somewhere in hers too, though i wouldn’t have any ideas without doing some more research first. and the whole thing gets even MORE complicated when you realize her name has to easily change to something else to become darcy’s name. there’s so many angles you could take marcy’s name in that there really doesn’t feel like an obvious answer

i’m definitely open to name suggestions for all three and cutie mark ideas for marcy and sasha (i already have one for anne. vague idea for sasha that i may just need to develop more, but once again stuck on marcy) if anyone has other ideas! i have a lot of fun making crossovers like this so i’m happy to receive more potential inspiration lmao

[pencilscars]

I don't know if i'm allowed to, but here's some tips from mine to try replicating the ROTTMNT show's style!

1. Lots of research

Research for anything that helps you understand the show structure and art style counts in this step! Tutorials, screenshots, fanarts, everything's okay! Even funny clips of them doing anything stupid or silly like this screenshot of mikey i found before

2. Study their shapes!

There's no matter of how hard it can be for you, you can start by making shapes for their body proportions, experiment the most with it, you can even trace over a screenshot to get used to it's shapes!

I also recommend to study their movements, you can go towards any video of the official clips of the show on youtube, then you can see how much movement the characters have by only pressing the "." (dot) Button (WARNING: this only works for PCs or laptops)

ROTTMNT is very known for having a good use of shapes and movements for every character, mainly circular or pointy, with a difference of their lineart weight, here's a good example for this!

As the same, they manage to have a good control with expressions, making them more exagerated for a better stylization of this artstyle

Even if they look weird, no matter how much, they still try to make the expressions more exagerated, which sometimes works perfectly fine for them, helping a bit more to express how their personalities can be as well.

3. Lots of sketching

The more you practice with this style, the easier it'll be for you to draw with the style. For my own, this step is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT if you want your art to look consistently accurate to the series style.

My best tip is to study the comic's style first, then you can go and find other art works made by the official workers, even art made by it's directors, etc!

Some good examples of their work can be found on many sites, my biggest source for it was X/twitter, where you can easily find some of the official workers or even artists who keep an extremely big level of replication that looks not only accurate, but that keeps itself consistent!

You can find some of my main favorite examples for ROTTMNT artists/workers!

•Emily Chen (emichen88)

•Bryce Collins (@NeoCloudBuster)

•notbao (here! Actually quoting to their post)

4. Exagerate with them!

Being completely serious, the more you make mote exagerated art with them, the easier it'll be for you to draw them more consistently.

When i first tried using the official style, it was difficult for me to get used to the art style, not to mention that it felt like a burden for me to try, but once i had more experience on drawing with the style, i tried making more advanced things like expression practices, more fluent or moved poses, perspective art, etc. And it works!

5. Don't push yourself

The more you push yourself to make it identical to the series style, the more you will not enjoy doing it. Nothing is perfect in this world, not everyone can make something identical to other thing, have fun and allow yourself to make your mistakes with it! You can compare it and use it to see what things you improved with, even learn what to not commit for it to look better for you!

Allow yourself to free style it at your liking, don't try to make an exact replication all the time, be free and do it in your way!

6. Search for inspiration

Something that can also help is using other inspirations made by other artists who did memorable artworks/animations while using the style. Search for it, look over youtube for animations of them (official or not), look over pinterest for fanarts of them, inspire yourself with all the possible tools of searching you're able to use! Trust me, the more inspired you are, the more consistent your passion for it will be.

Anyways, this is everything for now!

I've been researching and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to replicate the animation for the show. I know the fps and stuff but for some reason it isn't registering in my mind when I draw. I'm probably being dumb but how do you do it? (Also I apologize for consistently asking u stuff you are just a big inspiration😅)

Pretty much a lot of patience and practice. 2-3 years later I’m still learning how to do the art style because without a style guide all I can do is observe and pray.

the same draft re-animated 2 years later :1 Just a whole lot of patience and practice.

[midnightwind]

it's past midnight for me so welcome to WIP Monday where I hope sharing these will help kick my ass into finishing

first up is Nerine, my Triton Paladin Oath of the Open Sea in her armor and casual wear, I still have her fishing gear to design and I want to take another pass at her sword (and make her mace maybe) I might also change up her jewelry ;; shout out to my bud Lyvi for helping with her holy symbol design, I fell in love with your ideas

and then we have Solstice, my Arknights OC I've been sitting on for Years by now lol there was that meme eons ago of assigning a class, subclass, and faction to your buddies to generate their government assigned operator and I got hit with Caster, Nuker, and Karlan which, uh, fits... I want to add more details to the blanket, maybe slap a chunk of fur over it, and figure out some doodads for more character flavor and I'm also not in love with the jacket I referenced so I might keep changing up his outfit since the game itself has really expanded on design potential since I first slapped this down

time to cross my fingers that I'll finish these guys soon

[voidedtea]

[ID in alt]

my pieces for @strawberrij's thespius fashion zine!! quite the endeavour and adventure that turned out pretty neat i think :]

special thanks go to @ratchetclankarecute for posing/cloth references + the bulk of the image descriptions! that first image would Not have happened without them <3

[ineed-to-sleep]

And what if I said I scrapped like half of this comic, rewrote it and started redrawing it 👉🏻👈🏻 :3

[surreal-duck]

master artist and his number one fan

guy who is being so normal about the new additions to their profiles. i think abt midoris initial infatuation with his art slowly developing into appreciating yuzuru himself as a person and idol to the point he worries about how he sees him (ex: a bit of home party and in workplace survival rules) sometimes thats a lie i think about it a lot. and yuzuru learning to enjoy art just for the sake of drawing!! seeing the lets try diy story where he doesnt even refute drawing on midoris desk and was only worried that his doodles might cover up the mascot design compared to how discouraged he usually would be in earlier ! stories. everything to me i adore their dynamic if that wasnt obvious by *gestures to basically everything*

and happy pride month 🏳‍🌈

[luna-the-bard]

Bill is taking over my brain and I haven’t even received the actual book yet, I’m just absorbing all the content on the internet like a sponge

Also that lalalala sound is eating at my brain

[david-watts]

I love adding my leftover paint into my sketchbook it's so much fun and it adds texture which I find I like considering how differently I feel like I have been approaching art recently. and also it helps if I want to add markers to something because it hides the bleed-through, although I don't use my markers as much because of the aforementioned change in approach. however the problem is if I'm just going to glob paint down I need to do so when I don't intend on using the sketchbook because I just shot myself in the foot and I have to wait for it to dry

[theladysherlock]

Trying out a new rendering style with my best boy Ethan!

(click for proper colors, tumblr nerfed them for some reason)

[hauntingblue]

Skypiea time part 2

She is a woman..... this is sanji's influence... in whiskey peak his slashes were non gendered

Ace just letting himself get pushed into the river like aight my bad I will take my punishment.... he really is so well mannered (it sounds like I'm talking about a dog)

Conis showing that nami influence.... gfs....

Nami and luffy twins moment look how relieved she is... this whole fight is so theirs...

Also how funny it is that the milk girl gave ace a shirt.... also new pants??? She must think he lost the shirt in the river.... no girl he is just a slut...

Nami: okay ❤️ yay ❤️

Noland just thinking about where karugara is and if he is alright in his EXECUTION!! SICK AND TWISTED

OMG BOUNDMAN INSPO????

NO ACEEE NOOOOOOOO

THE END OF ACES STORY IS THAT THE COFFE IS NO LONGER BITTER BC THEY SERVE IT WITH MILK AND WHY AM I EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT

[skidaddleskidoodles]

Ngl your oc sketch pages are SUUUPER cute and inspiring, now I want to doodle mine like that!! :D so many good expressions and cuteness, lovely job 💕

thats so sweet of you to say, i did the sketch pages half because im lazy and didn't feel like coloring everything and half because i was working on making expressions more ,, expressive lol so it makes me very happy to hear this (:

[thechiton]

Make a terrible comic day (late now). Lyrics of bela lugosi's dead by bauhaus.

[comvi]

I always have to remind myself that I don’t need to push myself to make art, and I don’t need to apologize or feel bad for not making a lot of art. art is something that should make me feel happy, so if I’m pushing myself to the point of not enjoying it anymore, then I should just stop and calm down for a second. and take some time for myself. Art won’t disappear, it will always be there waiting for me again, its okay for me to take some time doing others things sometimes.