#more of that cartoony style experimentation

[aldoodles]

This part in book 8 never fails to make me cackle

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

Style experimentation feat. zim and dib (rough chronological order). This is the most fun I've had drawing in a long time!! Still kind of in shock over it.

This all started from Two Things: A.) I've been looking at animatics in preparation to make a ✨Portfolio✨, and B.) I saw some fanart that had me making heart eyes and I still can't stop looking at it.

When I first started this invader zim kick a couple months ago, I didn't think it was going to lead me down this path. I thought I was going to draw some of the characters in "my style", and eventually move onto something else. I don't know HOW it ended up being this sort of retrospective muse for me, where I'm challenging myself and trying new things. Maybe iz isn't the cause, maybe this would have happened regardless of what characters I was drawing. But here we are.

And I am so so so happy for it because I USED to draw like this all the time!!! This is what my sketchbook used to look like!! And somehow I just?? Forgot? That I could draw this way. That there wasn't anything stopping me. And that it would be so FUN. You can literally draw, and make the characters less detailed, but simultaneously more exaggerated and expressive, AND you can make more drawings in less time?? Ive always been a quantity over quality person when it comes to drawing, and i think its the animator in me that loves drawing like that. I was drawing all day yesterday. I didn't want to put the pencil down, and it's been a long time since I've felt that way about drawing. I had so much fun and I don't want to draw any other way ever again...That's just how I feel right now at least.

I swear, I probably come off as the most wishy washy person. First I messed around with zims design multiple times, now I'm inking stuff, now I'm drawing cartoonier. THIS IS NEW FOR ME I SWEAR... its been a long long time since ive let myself draw this way. I guess I just hadn't realized how much I was restricting myself.

Anyway, rough chronological order. The first adult dib page (second to last image) was actually the first one I drew. You can tell from the last page that I used the shapes n such from the kid dib on the older dib to make it look more like him. The big forehead is actually pretty crucial lol

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The art of Daniel Danger

[Image ID: Daniel Danger's art print, 'To all who home to this happy place,' depicting a ruined Disneyland castle in a post-apocalyptic landscape with a statue of Walt and Mickey in the rubble.]

There’s this behavioral economics study that completely changed the way i thought about art, teaching, and critique: it’s a 1993 study called “Introspecting about Reasons can Reduce Post-Choice Satisfaction” by Timothy D Wilson, Douglas J Lisle, Jonathan Schooler, Sara Hodges, Kristen Klaaren and Suzanne LaFleur:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240281868_Introspecting_about_Reasons_can_Reduce_Post-Choice_Satisfaction

The experimenters asked subjects to preference-rank some art posters; half the posters were cute cartoony posters, and the other half were fine art posters. One group of subjects assigned a simple numeric rank to the posters, and the other had to rank them and explain their ranking. Once they were done, they got to keep their posters.

There was a stark difference in the two groups’ preferences: the group that had to explain their choices picked the cartoony images, while the group that basically got to point at their favorite and say, “Ooh, I like that!” chose the fine art posters.

Then, months later, the experimenters followed up and asked the subjects what they’d done with the poster they got to take home. The ones who’d had to explain their choices and had brought home cartoony images had thrown those posters away. The ones who didn’t have to explain what they liked about their choice, who’d chosen fine art, had hung them up at home and kept them there.

The implication is that it’s hard to explain what makes art good, and the better art is, the harder it is to put your finger on what makes it so good. More: the obvious, easy-to-articulate virtues of art are the less important virtues. Art’s virtues are easy to spot and hard to explain.

The reason this stuck with me is that I learned to be a writer through writing workshops where we would go around in a circle and explain what we liked and didn’t like about someone’s story, and suggest ways to make it better. I started as a teenager in workshops organized by Judith Merril in Toronto, then through my high-school workshop (which Judy had actually founded a decade-plus earlier through a writer in the schools grant), and then at the Clarion workshop in 1992. I went on to teach many of these workshops: Clarion, Clarion West and Viable Paradise.

So I’ve spent a lot of time trying to explain what was and wasn’t good about other peoples’ art (and my own!), and how to make it better. There’s a kind of checklist to help with this: when a story is falling short in some way, writers roll out these “rules” for what makes for good and bad prose. There are a bunch of these rulesets (think of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style), including some genre-specific ones like the Turkey City Lexicon:

https://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/18/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops/

A few years ago, I was teaching on the Writing Excuses cruise and a student said something like, “Hey, I know all these rules for writing good stories, but I keep reading these stories I really like and they break the rules. When can I break the rules?”

There’s a stock answer a writing teacher is supposed to give here: “Well, first you have to master the rules, then you can break them. You can’t improvise a jazz solo without first learning your scales.”

But in that moment, I thought back to the study with the posters and I had a revelation. These weren’t “rules” at all — they were just things that are hard and therefore easy to screw up. No one really knows why a story isn’t working, but they absolutely know when it doesn’t, and so, like the experimental subject called upon to explain their preferences, they reach for simple answers: “there’s too much exposition,” or “you don’t foreshadow the ending enough.”

There are lots of amazing stories that are full of exposition (readers of mine will not be shocked to learn I hold this view). There are lots of twist endings that are incredible — and not despite coming out of left field, but because of it.

The thing is, if you can’t say what’s wrong, but you know something is wrong, it’s perfectly reasonable to say, “Well, why don’t you try to replace or polish the things that are hardest to do right. Whatever it is that isn’t working here, chances are it’s the thing that’s hardest to make work”:

https://locusmag.com/2020/05/cory-doctorow-rules-for-writers/

But if I could change one thing about how we talk about writing and its “rules,” it would be to draw this distinction, characterizing certain literary feats as easier to screw up than others, having the humility to admit that we just don’t know what’s wrong with a story, and then helping the writer create probabilistically ranked lists of the things they could tinker with to try and improve their execution.

Which is all a very, very long-winded way to explain why I bought a giant, gorgeous art-print at Comic-Con this weekend, even though I have nowhere to hang it and had sworn I would absolutely not buy any art at the con.

I was walking the floor, peeking into booths, when I happened on Daniel Danger’s booth (#5034, if you’re at the con today), and I was just fuckin’ poleaxed by his work.

http://www.tinymediaempire.com/

[Image ID: Daniel Danger’s ‘It stopped being about the panic,’ depicting a ruined mansion interwoven with the skeletal branches of a tree, with a weeping statue and two human figures]

Now, see above. I can’t tell you why I loved this work so much (and that’s OK!), but boy oh boy did it speak to me. I just kind of stood there with my mouth open, slowly moving from print to print, admiring works like “It stopped being about the panic.”

https://tinymediaempire.myshopify.com/products/2022-sdcc-it-stopped-being-about-the-panic-v4

[Image ID: Daniel Danger’s ‘headlight in the path of,’ depicting a ruined mall with a pair of stags standing at the top of the escalator.]

On the surface, this is moody, post-apocalyptic stuff, heavily influenced by classic monster/haunter tropes, but it’s shot through with hope and renewal and the sense of something beautiful growing out of the ashes of something that has toppled. There’s real “(Nothing But) Flowers” energy in “Headlight in the path of”:

https://tinymediaempire.myshopify.com/products/sdcc2023-headlight-in-the-path-of-v2

[Image ID: Daniel Danger’s ‘We are no longer able to protect you,’ depicting a ruined factory with a coming-apart sign reading ‘We can no longer protect you forever,’ and a statue of a sword-bearing angel.]

Danger isn’t just a

very

talented artist, he’s also an

extremely

talented craftsman. As a recovering pre-press geek, I was (nearly) as impressed by the wild use of spot color and foils as I was by the art, like in “We are no longer able to protect you”:

https://tinymediaempire.myshopify.com/products/sdcc-2022-we-can-no-longer-protect-you-forever-v3

[Image  ID: Daniel Danger’s ‘made of smoke and chains,’ depicting a ruined landscape with a pair of derelict subway trains at the foot of a hill on whose peak is a rotting mansion. A pair of human figures, holding hands, are approaching the mansion.]

Danger himself calls this work “weird sad hyper-detailed artwork of dreamy buildings of ghosts and trees,” which is a very apt description of this work, as you can see in “Made of smoke and chains”:

https://tinymediaempire.myshopify.com/products/made-of-smoke-and-chains-mist-preorder

So I looked at this stuff and sternly reminded myself that there was no way I was going to buy any art at the con. Then I walked away. I got about two aisles over when I realized I had to go back and ask permission to take some pictures so I could put a little link to Danger in my blog’s linkdump, which he graciously permitted:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=interestingness-desc&safe_search=1&tags=danieldanger&min_taken_date=1687478400&max_taken_date=1690156799&view_all=1

[Image ID: Daniel Danger’s art print, ‘To all who home to this happy place,’ depicting a ruined Disneyland castle in a post-apocalyptic landscape with a statue of Walt and Mickey in the rubble.]

But then I got all the way ass over to the other ass end of the convention center and I realized I had to go back and buy one of these prints. Which I did, “To all who come to this happy place,” because fuckin’ wow:

https://tinymediaempire.myshopify.com/products/sdcc2023-this-happy-place-v6-foil

This was unequivocally the best thing I saw at this year’s SDCC, but I also got some very good news while there, namely, that Emil Ferris’s long, long-awaited My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Vol 2 is finally on the schedule from Fantagraphics:

https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/emil-ferris/products/my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-book-two

It’s coming out in April, which gives you plenty of time to read volume one, which I called, “a haunting diary of a young girl as a dazzling graphic novel”:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/06/20/my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-a-haunting-diary-of-a-young-girl-as-a-dazzling-graphic-novel/

If you are or were a monster kid or a haunter, this is your goddamned must-read of the summer. It’s a fully queered, stunning memoir for anyone whose erotic imagination intersected with Famous Monsters of Filmland.

(Also, if you’re that kind of person and you’re in the region, you should know about Midsummer Scream, a giant haunter show in Long Beach; I’ll be there on Sunday, July 30, for a panel about the Ghost Post, the legendary Haunted Mansion puzzle-boxes I helped make:

https://midsummerscream.org/

Now Favorite Thing book two was the best news, but the best experience was watching Felicia Day get her Inkpot Award and give a moving speech:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkpot_Award

And then learning that Raina Telgemeier also got an Inkpot; I love Raina’s work so much:

https://memex.craphound.com/2016/10/04/ghosts-raina-telgemeiers-upbeat-tale-of-death-assimilation-and-cystic-fibrosis/

[Image ID: A photo of me with Chuck Tingle, who wears a pink bag over his head on which he has written ‘Love is Real.’]

To cap yesterday off, I also ran into @ChuckTingle, which is as fine a capstone to a successful con as anyone could ask for:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53065500076/in/dateposted/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/23/but-i-know-what-i-like/#daniel-danger

[e-adlirez]

The art style of Cloud Castle is absolute ass bro why are their eyes so big

Idk man it just looks.... off

I wish they brought back the og art style like Blue Scarab Hunt because that was gorgeous

Well if you’re referring to the book's artstyle as a whole, then calm down buddy the illustrations as a whole are pretty good all things considered (believe me some of the illustrations in the later books are waaaaayyyyy iffier)

But if you are referring to Danilo Barozzi’s illustrations in the book then uhhhhh… yeah I don’t blame you, I didn’t like the big anime irises either, she didn’t cook with this one,,,

The interesting thing is Barozzi also did pieces for Secret of the Snow and those looked fine (she did well enough that I have to squint to determine which ones were done by her). My guess is either she did a lot of the illustrations for the latter half of SotS and we just got used to it, or it’s because the artstyle of special editions 2 and 3 were more… experimental? Books 4 onwards developed a very specific… look for the artstyle that adhered very closely to the main book illustrations of Spanish Dance Mission onwards, thus the illustrators had to follow suit, resulting in whatever looks off to look especially off.

(Even with this set of pictures, I’m only about 70% sure these are Barozzi’s because of how alike yet different the styles are from each other in the book. The first one could be Barozzi’s, but it could also be Giuseppe Facciotto’s, since he also did illustrations for SotS and his stylization means he sometimes puts the eyes really close to each other in a way that’s weird but still makes sense somehow.) On the contrary, books 2 and 3 (and I would probably even include book 1 there) had a more experimental look to the illustrations, which seems to be based more on (and this is just a theory of mine) Giuseppe Facciotto’s iconic work for the covers of Mouseford Academy books 2-12, 14, 15 and 17 in the English books (he did waaayyy more covers for the Italian Mouseford books— he was basically the cover guy for the Mouseford books for a WHILE) as well as the books from Spanish Dance Mission to Lost Letters. If you’re wondering why those covers go as hard as they do, then now you know why.

(These aren’t all of Facciotto’s works for the covers we know in English but you can see that he popped off <3)

But yeah as you can see with special editions 2 and 3, the art direction seems to be heavily inspired by Facciotto’s artstyle.

However, when Barbara Pellizzari’s works became the aesthetic poster child of the books’ brand, that was reflected in the illustrations and how their aesthetic changed, as seen in the main books and how they look currently, special editions 4-9, and the Treasure Seekers trilogy.

This new profile thing of the girls? This was done by Pellizzari (coloring was done by Flavio Ferron), and thus it became the main reference for how the girls look in the book’s illustrations.

And it’s not just in the general direction to the artists for how to draw the Thea Sisters, but also in the direction given to the colorists. Alessandro Muscillo was the colorist for the special edition books since book 1 and the Treasure Seekers trilogy, and you can see that the direction for the style varied through books 1-3, like maybe direction was experimenting with the mood the illustrations were to convey, beginning with the cartoony and bright colors of book 1, easing into the more grounded and layered palettes of books 2 and 3

Then book 4 was when they transitioned to using digital art /j

I jest, but seriously book 4 was the debut of the coloring style we end up keeping for the rest of the special editions and for all of Treasure Seekers, which is very… bright :D

(I would show more picture examples but I manually took pictures of my physical copies for the Cloud Castle and SotS illustrations and gwuh I’m too lazy to grab my entire collection just to take pictures,,)

Bright as in like… the colors are very defined and saturated. I dunno how to describe it, but when you see it, you get what I mean. It’s very bright and pretty and colorful and it stands out. There are still variations that happen on occasion (Star Fairies in particular uses a good dose of airbrush for the lighting and shadow effects, and Crystal Fairies looks like someone had a bit of fun using sparkle brushes), but other than that, it’s very bright. I don’t hate it, but I do acknowledge that yeah, if I was introduced to the series when it had fully transitioned to the new style, I never would’ve gotten into the series in the first place, because the older books had something that didn’t make it feel specifically catered to girls. The colors were bright, but not too bright. Colorful, but unified. They weren’t that complicated, and they didn’t have to be because the colorists (plural, there were at least 3 per book once upon a time) were popping the hell off with the colors they were given. But y’know, the newer books’ consistent style did give me a good spot to practice drawing mouse furries so I’m not complaining too much about the newer style, haha.

(Tiny baby E’s (it’s literally from 2020 what’re you on about mate) her first mouse Violet drawing using Barbara Pellizzari’s artstyle in Treasure Seekers 1 as an anatomy guide!!)

With that said tho, yeah I miss the old books -m- dunno if it’d fit the aesthetic of the special editions but m a n we could’ve had it and it probably would’ve looked cool

Also the illustrations go way harder in the older books, like Prince's Emerald? I've talked about Prince's Emerald and how it goes hard before, and I still stand by it and say that it does in fact still go hard

Maybe it won't fit the uh splash of color they gave the hardcovers, but imagine they grabbed Giulia Basile's coloring work for the graphic novels and used that as sort've a basis for the coloring style of the hardcovers. Not exactly the same-- would probably still add a touch of whimsical watercolor and/or paint to the very cel-shaded style, but we could've had something pretty dope -m-

Anyway that's my ramble simultaneously defending the hardcovers' artstyle and reminiscing on what could've been haha

[knackeredforever]

One of things about helldivers is love is the sheer difference between the first and second game. It feels in the modern game industry sequels especially for big budget games that have sequels seemingly vary very differently from their predecessors sequels often feel very safe very rarely do they make big changes to the main gameplay much rarely do they change the entire genre and perspective of the game.

Helldivers feels very different in this regard I don’t know if you’ve seen gameplay of helldivers 1 I’ve personally never played it myself but gameplay wise instead of being a 3rd person shooter it was a top down shooter game and all the differences in game design choices that entails. Graphically in the most affectionate way I can say helldivers 1 looks like a 3DS game to me idk it just has that slightly blocky 3d aesthetic the game also had a much more cartoony art style.

Idk I just really like seeing a game so willing to massively change what game it is between entries in a series and willing to not just play it safe but to experiment and it worked out really fucking well.

I don’t know how long hd2 was in development but 9 years between releases has really made a difference and more experimentation in games is something I really hope to see in the future.

[chocodile]

2023 was certainly the year of the rabbit. I felt like I didn't do as many ambitious pieces this year as I would have liked.... lots of sketches... lots of sketchy comics, which certainly count as ambitious, but don't really flex the art muscles the way full rendering does. I also spent a lot of time working on offline stuff and crafts which often required weeks of work to complete.

In the end, there were more big pieces than I remembered. Even January/February/March, which were pretty crummy months for me, still got some cool art made during that time. (Ironically, the "Sleep with One Eye Open" piece shown for March was both "vent art" expressing the massive amount of stress I was under during those three months and my most numerically successful piece on Tumblr this year.)

But I'd still like to do more experimental stuff in 2024. I miss working with the zany colors and the more abstract psychedelic cartoony style that I feel defines me as an artist... you can see it here and there this year, but much of my output was more directly representational.

Overall, 2023 was a year that challenged where my life priorities were (in a mostly positive way) and did bite into the amount of time I could spend drawing, but I'm still happy with what I made this year and happy with where I'm going creatively. I enjoy that I'm doing more story/character-driven stuff again and feel way more engaged with my own work than when I was doing more one-off pieces, even if those one-off pieces were "better".

Here's to a good 2024!

[luckylunatix]

Ok but I think one of the best ways you can really describe Gregory Horror Show is that it was ahead of its time, like in terms of its aesthetic and its style of horror and how they kinda clash.

Like I can only imagine that back in the early 2000s when it first came out, that kind of shit would've been extremely niche and experimental, something a bit too "out there" for a mainstream western audience.

But now look at the current state of horror and anime as a medium. Deceptively cutesy horror with cartoony characters, nostalgic vibes and psychological themes is the "in" thing, especially with stuff like video games and online horror projects. As for anime, we've seen both enough crazy experimental stuff to make GHS look outright normal by comparison, and also enough cookie cutter anime that panders to the lowest common denominator that GHS would be a refreshing change of pace.

In short had GHS come out more recently, I don't think it would be nearly as obscure as it is. And if it is to make a comeback (like on a larger level than the occasional Japan-only oddity), now would be a perfect time to do so.

[changingplumbob]

I wouldn't want to switch styles exactly... More like I'd want the mutuals who can do renders to make renders of my favourite characters from others stories just to see what they looked like in a more realistic style. But I love all my mutuals that stick to maxis match or make their sims very cartoony, like I love all those mutuals that have very realistic sims even though it's not my personal creative style.

I'm not against switching up styles, art is experimentation right? We can change up what we do and should be able to experiment with different styles of editing, writing, posting etc.

[chaoticreations]

My 2022 work!

2022 was my first full year of being a full-time fursuit maker. It was also my most productive year as I had finished 8 fursuits (this includes 2 fullsuits from 2021 that crossed over into the new year). To stop you from having to scroll as much, I've compiled these creations into collages rather than posting the images separately.

From top left to bottom right:

Binary the Fluffy Gecko - My first fullsuit in a very long time. Completed early 2022!

Gerstlauer the Trash Gryphon - Plantigrade fullsuit with experimental elements. Since this photo was taken, they've had adjustments done and had top surgery scars added!

Bec 3.0 - A re-do of a long-standing and beloved character. I only did their head, handpaws, and tail, and made some changes to their already-existing bodysuit (added belly nips, added zippers to their arms for their huge stuffed handpaws, tidied the bodysuit up a little bit)

Forest the Fallow-Raptor - Artistic liberty partial fursuit. I was given the species and a natural, cottegecore aesthetic as a prompt!

Remi the AWD - This was a trade with Wild Dog Works. This suit marked a turning point in my style, edging its way towards more cartoony!

Halloween Opossum Premade (now called Nyx) - Created on a whim, this premade is my most successful work to date. This one fueled my love for UV reactive designs, and made my love of hypnotic eyes even worse.

Starry Cat Premade (now named Stella) - This premade was upgraded to a fullsuit by its auction winner. She has lights in her tail, hair and eyes! She was very experimental and she turned out lovely.

Entity the Fennec Fox - Another experimental build! Entity has EL wire antennae, lots of UV reactive elements, huge magnetic ears, and colour-shifting LEDs in their eyes. They also have dramatic/large feminine padding!

[rui-drawsbox]

hey dude

how did you develop your art style? ive been drawing for years and I cant seem to get a handle on ANYTHING

4 almost 5 days late sorry dude you shot right into my inability to put thoughts into words properly HAHA

alright so first of all, i don't even think a style is something you need to do art. I'm a hobbyist apologist and as long those people enjoy creating it doesn't even have to look "good".

That aside i'm assuming you want to take art at least a little seriously so i'm just going to be straight forward and say that the only way is ping-pong between styles/techniques/themes and just stick with the stuff you feel more comfortable doing.

Now going into my personal experience, that's what you asked after all lolol (from now on this is just yapping so feel free to ignore it)

alr soooo im skipping my first steps into art and going into the humanoid phase. I actually started with sonic! Specifically the show Sonic X, of course i picked up mannerisms from the anime when it was time of doing comedic doodles (and cuestionable taste on fashion)

(im going thru my big inspirations so bear with me here)

2015 came and i discovered my two main inspirations for a long time: fnaf and Ed00chan! (link to her abandoned deviantart so yall can see the style of the time). As i was completely enamored by her anime-yet-cartoony style i was also hyperfixated with fnaf and those two things combined perfectly into (the infamous in the spanish side of the fnaf fandom) fnafhs! bing bang boom there it goes my personality for the next 5 years!

sprinkle a few power puff girls z too why not

anyway at that time i wanted to become a pro like ed00 so i had to understand anatomy, and my go-to channel was Bgm94! But the elders said that to broke the rules you have to understand them, so i just kind-of started doing more "realistic" bodies while maintaining the cartoony-ness i liked so much. Which to be fair, didn't last long before i got bored and jumped straight into cartoon/chibi again

also since we're entering my digital era i'm including some drawings with wild style changes since the experimentation never ends owo9

anyway that was 2018 and before! it was around 2017-18 that i dropped the general tutorials and just started experimenting on my own style/anatomy and trying to improve my skills (im ignoring my sketchbooks bc from now on they just become- well, sketchbooks, instead of doing full drawings i just doodled in classes and leaved the detail for digital stuff)

i would love to include all my 2019 folder bc i consider it was a year full of love for my silly doodles but tumblr has a limit for images HAHA. Hopefully you can see how i go trying out stuff and pick little stuff from every stage with me lolol

2020 hits and you can *see* my hyperfixation with twisted wonderland here, at least my folder is 60% twst drawings i made for my fanfic at the time LOL. Not so many style jumps here tho so let's keep going

2021 and 2022 here! at the second half of 2022 i found my oh so beloved crunchy brush and i also fell hard for Arashi Narukami, so basically my tumblr became an arashi fanpage lol

stuff at 2023 keeps pretty the same until now tbh, the only highlight would be the re-inclusion of noses bc of spiderverse 2. My style also has been pretty well maintained since i started doing commissions so i don't really do so much experimentation anymore, at least not with proportions and such.

alr so that was my journey on artstyle! Of course it's not like you're gonna guess all my process just by looking at the images so i'll say what type of stuff i feel influenced my decisions.

i'm very lazy and for a log time i just abandoned my projects if it prolonged more than a day or two, that obviously made me lean into the cel/plain shading rather than spending hours and maybe days rendering (not that i don't try rendering every now and then but i don't enjoy spending so much time in a single piece)

everyone around me always has been extremely supportive so i had the privilege of dedicating all my soul to drawing silly characters haha, i feel like since i never felt the need of comparing myself to others i could actually experiment so unapologetically with my style until i was satisfied

finding an actual brush that i like is always crucial to me tbh, even in traditional i'm pretty picky with how the ink and type of pen i'm using. Of course, i also tried multiple traditional art techniques (watercolor, acrylics, crayons, pencils, pastels, my favorite are pen+markers)

i dont like feets. that shows until today.

in general i think an artstyle is something extremely personal that every person has to shape themselves and that it can't really be a permanent thing, it's gonna fluctuate with the artist whenever they like it or not.

[doom-nerdo-666]

Horror does have a place in Doom

(Mainly felt like making this post after a video by thebeansprout13, even if this comes out later because it was in my drafts for a while)

This is a very talked about, overplayed topic on Doom and it tends to repeat, sometimes because certain opinions/observations are more popular than others.

I think horror is an element in Doom and there's a lot of ways to talk about this, both in favor and against or even somewhere in the middle.

The 90's games

We all know about Doom Bible's canned ideas of the characters and story but even then, Doom is clearly inspired by Aliens, Evil Dead, DnD and so on.

But maybe this mix of inspirations (And the weird presentation of the games) means there's different things to pick apart.

If Doom was a movie, it could have been a B-movie with a goofy, campy nature and still have some eerie atmosphere or gross practical effects.

At first we have:

Some dark, suspense based music tracks.

Darker areas meant to show off lightning and "slow" moments.

Probably the default movement speed and the history behind "ALWAYS_RUN".

Doomguy being hurt in the box art and ingame status bar.

The Arch-vile's intended design of an eerie HR Giger inspired alien.

Textures like the flesh walls with metal pipes, twisted faces and some hanged corpses people thought were based on a real pic of Mussolini (But it's actually GI Joe figures).

But then there's:

The fast gameplay and combat that can happen.

Cartoony designs and assets.

The metal music (And other tracks like those that sound kinda like jazz).

The campy writing style in the manuals and intermission screens.

The presentation of Daisy's death.

Some of Doomguy's faces.

The name "BFG" and how some assets were made like using toys to make the guns.

Maybe whenever a level was clearly gimmicky and "gamey" or experimental.

The ridiculously low-tech aesthetic with blue carpet floors and maybe how Phobos' sky doesn't look like Phobos.

So it seems Doom always had a mix of elements and that's why people even argue over this, though i also see benefits of Doom being a "blank canvas" when it comes to its staying power.

Doom 64 was the more horror focused classic game with its take on Hell and some demon designs (But still not showing Doomguy's bloodied mugshot or some assets of classic Hell).

Even its theme song was barely metal (And i think John Romero really liked the PS1 port).

And D64 is also seen as "the real Doom 3" though this is a bit of a topic i mentioned in a different post.

Doom 3

A "reboot" of the series and a new entry in a time after the series was dormant (And mostly carried by fan mods).

D3 pushes things to a specific direction that John Carmack thought it was natural.

Some fans think the same, others thing it's opposite to what they expect out of Doom, some even accept it as a new thing.

D3 is much more story focused, with a bunch of cutscenes, background/lore, characters and most if it isn't goofy.

Demons are redesigned and some barely resemble their original versions (Might be because they looked "goofy" even if we have fanart that knows how to make them eerie; Meanwhile, D3's Arch-vile didn't capture the original design that much).

New demons represent a new art style that makes them "more serious and scary" or at least surreal.

The UAC stuff is still low-tech but in a more detailed, "professional" way.

Gameplay is slower, with a focus on reloading and the lantern.

Darkness focus and horror etc.

More serious tone, with little music.

D3 marine never smiles and looks worried most of the time.

Besides UAC and Hell, there's the Martians as a way to "extend" the universe but they're still mostly mysterious and not shown a lot.

The premise of a UAC marine having to fight demons after the UAC unleashing Hell is technically there, but it's also differently done from the original games (At least/specially if you look into the "lore" in the old manuals).

This game divided some fans, though a prespective i like to hear more is one that likes the idea but not so much the execution and i also always bring up how unfair it is that later versions (BFG edition and others) tend to have new problems or cut content for no reason, while not fixing certain flaws.

Because you'll still find some older fans thinking Doom was supposed to have some form of tension or horror, compared to those that prefer the fast action side of things.

Oddly enough, Hell in the series always had potential to be weird but D3, the game with the most experimental demon designs, didn't really took advantage of those elements.

At least D3 has some mods that fix some people's issues with the game, whether or not it leads to them respect the game more.

If you ask me: Doom 3's horror isn't just the dark corridors or slow "doomed" marine, but it's the crazy designs like the Bruiser having a screen on its mouth or the Revenant having transparent skin.

And i think D3 has its fair share of goofyness like the Turkey minigame (And the others in RoE that later versions deleted for no reasons) or that one fat zombie going "mmmm boy" that farts.

Doom 2016 and Eternal

D2016 is like an extreme opposite to D3: You are the horror and gameplay is more focused on movement and projectile avoiding that there's barely hitscan enemies besides the Possessed Security and maybe the Hellrazer.

Besides the arena focused combat, there's the Glory Kills, alt fires, upgrades, Mick Gordon's music, the character of the Doomslayer and so on.

But bits of D3's style are still present, speciall Mars and Hell a bit since Doom technically wasn't always "Mars" (Otherwise, more people would bring up the classic Phobos aesthetic and specific textures but even Hell still doesn't carry certain elements back).

(In fact, when D2016 was revealed, people complained about the lack of color and even said the demons looked "MOBA-ish")

The Hellknight is clearly inspired by its D3 design but one major difference is being eyeless instead of the weird eyes (Or are they sockets?) it had in D3.

Most demons have a rather "focused" aesthetic of chitin armored creatures and even lore explaining how they work or even how the UAC was involved in some being created/modified (Which may or may not affect the appeal of Hell being a weird dimension of evil that Doomguy has to put up with).

It's also somewhat known that D2016 was influenced by outside factors for Doom: The Doom comic ("Rip and tear") is obvious but there's probably other theories like anything to do with Death Battle or internet copypastas/webcomics joking about Doomguy (And i guess Brutal Doom but there's still arguements about it).

Doomslayer being a killing machine that scares demons is like an inverse to the "doomed" D3 marine: Putting classic Doomguy in the middle since he's both a strong action hero but still gets hurt (Even his portrayal in the 90's comic is like this).

The existence of D2016 is also a result of Doom 4 being cancelled: A game that was so deviated from Doom, it didn't even feel like a D3 sequel (And maybe it wasn't).

In a way, D2016's appeal relies on some bits of fanservice and at least getting basic ideas that people associate with Doom, which contrasts D3 not relying on "outside factors" but also chosing specific parts of the series while also executing them in a way that i'm not sure if it was ideal for D3 itself.

Then there's Doom Eternal, which builds up from 2016 in a lot of ways (And in was that people either like or hate it but it's still a very beloved and popular title).

The aesthetic is more colorfull and brings back some classic designs (Not entirely as they're put inside the new aesthetic), there's the concept of the "Doom universe", lots of new mechanics and a lot more to like (But also things that divided some fans).

Eternal's "videogamey" pickups were technically based on how some people thought pickups in D2016 overlapped with the environment, even if people liked how items in D2016 "existed in the setting" (Because even in classic Doom, you didn't have those kinds of pickups).

There's a lot of debates about Eternal's lore and aesthetic that leads to comparisons to 2016 but i'm thinking on making a post dedicated to that (Specially with some prespectives, opinions and stuff that most people don't consider).

Regardless, Eternal has clearly different media influences compared to the originals and feels like a different genre.

Basically, if classic Doom is a "campy B-movie", Eternal is a "saturday morning cartoon with gore" (And D3 is a serious sci-fi horror movie, i guess).

(And let's not forget: Different people are behind these games, in a series where people already interpret them in their own ways)

Sometimes, i think Doom is like the Planet of the Apes movie series:

D3 is closer to the original premise but 2016/Eternal are seem to be the more liked iteration of the series.

(Meanwhile, we have Mighty Doom as the most cartoony Doom game but in a cute way while the RPG Doom's had a different cartoonyness and sense of humor and a rather serious intro comic)

"Horror" in Doom to fans (And what else)

If you look at some pieces of fanart (Or even fan redesigns) and some mods, there's definitely an appeal of Doom being more horror focused and tense, even without affecting certain designs or the personality.

It's why one could not only defend D3 but even think that D3's issue isn't being different but rather doing a flawed job at its own direction.

Because 2016/Eternal also have their own differences from the original games but they seem to mostly nail their own direction.

I even see "horror" complement the "power fantasy" concept of modern Doom: Making Hell weirder and stranger, which makes Doomguy/Slayer feel even stronger.

Because "horror" as a concept can mean a lot: Not just dark corridors or walking slow, but it can lead to really interesting designs that make Hell feel threatning and weirdly creative.

After all, if it's possible to make a game out of "fans want a Doomguy that is more powerfull and the gameplay is fast", i don't see why we couldn't have one that is "fans want a tense, bone chilling experience and the demons look scary but still cool", even if you see those cool fan redesigns as better than what we got in D3.

(I like to believe that different types of Doom can coexist)

Even D3 haters may find or cherrypick some parts of the game they like (Which also makes me think it's another good reason why MetaDoom is a really cool mod).

I believe it should be possible to make a game that has elements of both "paths" represented, even if it means like a level with disturbing environments and then you find a goofy collectable toy in a secret.

I also said this before but i kinda get D3 hate coming from older fans but not people who got into the series at 2016 and after, because you technically "skipped" the "dark age" that some fans went through.

How hated D3 really is depends on which opinions or mindset overcome the others, because fanbases and hobbies almost tend to have an "anglicized canon" that is rather pushed by some specific people.

Anyway, i tried to add as much i could in this post but i'd like if someone like a Youtuber or older fan were to analyze this and even add more to this or correct potential flaws.

It's a topic that could be more explored, because even people that argue "Doom was always X" overlook elements that support their claims.

Other links to check, i guess.

How i think a good D3 re-release could be.

Doom 3 power ups and Doom 3 enemy roster rant.

"Doom 3 alternatives" for some picky fans.

The D2RPG intro comic.

Bunch of stuff related to Quake and Wolfenstein.

"Remastering" the 90's Doom games.

How a Doom movie or show could be good.

I mean, there's more on this blog but these could be good enough.

[tariah23]

Omgggg

Sksjsks I went onto my insta and saw that someone liked this… old Jolynes from like, 2015-17 or so that I never got to finish (they’re all on my old laptop… I will rescue my files one day… this was my old cartoony style. I’ve revamped it a LOT. It used to be so much more loose… I kind of wish that it still was because it made the style look more simplistic and free? I’ve always been a huge fan of simple art styles!) I remember making an attempt at drawing every canon Jolyne outfit that I could find (at least the official colored drawings, not the ones from the manga since that would’ve been too much for me. I have the Jojoveller (I bought the Jojoveller back when it first came out from Japan and paid like, almost $200 for it orz….. should’ve waited for the price drop lol. I have every JJBA artbook tbh. But that helped me track down most of the official Jolyne stuff. Not all but a lot of it!) I’d drawn up at least 20 outfits at this point. At least I think so? These were just some of them. Hopefully, I’ll be able to retrieve my drawings again… the faces that I used to draw on my old style used to be so ugly, sorry.

Here’s an example of this same style but revamped to now lol…

(Yuki wip…. The bodies have more standard anatomy but the hands are still blocky like??? The faces are prettier tho…. Has it lost a bit of personality? Maybe… I do like my new style tho… But could I still even call it a cartoony style, especially since it looks more anime than before :/…. Uh, I’m thinking too hard on this :(….)

Another example is this Rengoku… it’s a little diff from the Yuki one despite being the same cartoon like style? (Barely cartoon anymore…) I don’t usually draw the nostril slit for this style but I did so for Yuki since it just looked better… idk if I’m gonna start doing that or not, I’ve literally been driving myself insane over deciding if I want to start drawing nostrils or not… for this Rengoku, it’s definitely more accurate to the style that I was pushing for but hm….. Similar to these Makima’s…. I didn’t draw the nostril…

I like to keep the ears very simple in this style as well and again, look at Makima’s hands. They’re supposed to be blocky like this hehe. The Yuki wip is more of an improvement of this same style but I’ve been so all over the place with it… I feel so bad, omg. The most polished example that I could find immediately of the original cartoon style was of these Shinobu’s… see how round and free everything is!?

Don’t even get my started on the chibi styles…. I have a handful… because I’m indecisive. The Sukuna wips are from a new chibi style that I’ve been thinking about and I rly like it… The Kak/Oc chibi was for a commission that I had sm fun drawing for. I still like the style! I’ve always loved when artists left the pupils white for some reason? I wanted to do that, too! I forgot to color the lineart in the girls skirt lol….

This style with Sanemi and Uzui is rly cute to me as well… I will not be retiring it. I kind of hate the old chibi style with Josuyasu tho. Hideous to me. And overly complicated. I don’t really like chibi styles that have TOO much going on, especially if they’re not as cute since chibi’s are supposed to be cute. I said ugly but beauty in art is subjective sjsjs… if they’re pretty and cute than idc. So I technically have three chibi styles that I like.

Ohh actually, I have two other chibi styles….. fuck, I just don’t have any pics of them that I’ve uploaded, only saved as files. One isn’t really a serious style at all tho, they were for fun (experimental) and the chibi that you can see hanging in the corner of Yuki in the wip above is of another simpler style as well…

[bornazombiefrommercury]

I said something similar on my blog but I feel I didn't word my thoughts better:

The newer phases' art styles feel too polished for me, from the lineart to the boring shading and saturated colors. (Especially with phase 6) I miss the messy feel of Phase 2, 3, and even 4 because it still kept the feeling of the older phases. Phase 5 I'm iffy on because imo it still looks fine with the colors but still has that modern Gorillaz art style I dislike but it still sorta felt experimental in a way?-. On it's own the art styles are...Alright, but for Gorillaz I just don't think it fits, I love the cartoony art style from the earlier and find it more charming and memorable. I don't think I'm saying this out of nostalgia (I joined the fandom during 2018, lmao) I think it's just because of my own preferences

I saw someone say that it's like Jamie is trying to make the characters more conventionally attractive and I couldn't agree more.

hmmm ..... ive heard many people say this but i have mixed thoughts on it.

the tone of gorillaz overall taking a turn towards being more brand-friendly is definitely a factor, but i dont think its the only one. i really do think jamie gets bored and its not just me speculating, apparently he said he was "fucking bored of drawing those characters" in 2008, yes, since BEFORE PHASE 3. i do still think he has a lot of enjoyment in drawing them (otherwise he'd probably quit) but you can really tell when he's drawn something just because he felt like he had to. that's why gorillaz promotional art seems to be increasingly lacking in personality, imo. something really changed around song machine era where stuff was just getting pushed out as fast as possible and predictably got rushed. because ive brought this up before, if youve seen his art in the gorillaz artbook it's an entirely different vibe than promotional artwork cause thats the stuff where he does whatever he wants and is free to experiment. but that level of experimentation that he wants to do is very non-commercial, and it would've been in any phase. (that semi-realistic murdoc rasputin picture freaked people out when it was released but thats the kind of thing he really wants to do!!)

it's not only got a lot more personality and life to it but it's retained that edge that earlier gorillaz art had, despite using brighter colors and overall more poppy visuals. there's a murdoc shrunken head ffs. i really like it. i hope we see more of that kind of stuff in phase 8.

here is the edgy 2d everyone's been asking to make a comeback, in the 2020's:

personally i dont mind the brighter colors and overall more clean and lighter vibe. it doesnt resonate with me quite as much, but i dont think its neccessarily a sign of becoming more commercial. it can look that way and have edge at the same time as seen in the artbook.

murdoc becoming neon green is an eyesore often times but i think it's made up for by the fact that it's really funny in an ironic meta way. some day he will just transcend the color spectrum visible to the human eye probably....

i dont see how the characters have gotten more conventionally attractive. for example noodle had her whole eyebrow shaved off on the meanwhile ep art. theyve always been ugly and to get rid of that youd have to change their designs and personalities to make them unrecognizable. plus i think murdoc's actually somehow managed to get uglier... his face looks more misshapen as he's aged.

one thing i dont like in newer gorillaz art that i havent seen anyone else point out is how much jamie's horniness leaks into it. maybe i have just noticed it more than everyone else. dont get me wrong i think its totally fine if he draws that stuff on his own time of his characters if he wants to but when it gets into official gorillaz stuff its just plain weird and unneccessary and makes me uncomfortable 😭 like wtf ....

[ninacti0n]

What inspired your art style?

Oooh, this is gonna be a longer answer- cause I've been inspired by many things throughout my artistic years, and surely wanna talk about a few of these ^^ First of all, my art was heavily inspired by lineless artists with a very cartoony vibe (which defined an early era of my style), so some of Kasey Golden's works and the 50s modern cartoon styles really had an influence in me. I could point out the Jenny LeClue game for this too, all the sharp angles and retro textures really left a mark on the types of things I would find aesthetic - while being on the point n' click genre. Further down the line, I stumbled upon a game called Smile for Me, and eventually discovered more of Yugo Limbo's art! In general, I felt drawn towards the works of many other artists with similar vibes - vibrant colors, eccentric-looking characters, experimental textures and that retro energy. It's really hard to explain or pinpoint what drew me to em, honestly x] I guess I just really like how wild people's arts can be from different perspectives and backgrounds, and the result is something quite unique, even when I can't relate myself ^^ It's part of the fun of being in a world where expression has so many different angles to peek at and experiment with. And well, nowadays? I enjoy a mix of messy, painterly styles, together with varying linework vibes and things that lean towards the surreal, kinda horror-esque side. I also grew to really like the aesthetic of low-poly games from the 2000s (mainly things from the DS and PS1 era) and also RPGMaker ones. Things are exciting, I guess! I could go more into detail on another reblog, since I don't want this post to be extremely long :'] Things such as tagging artists and showing pictures, if you would like.

Also sorry for the late reply aaa-

[venacoeurva]

Since they would be experimental (since I haven't taken them in about 2 years), they would be slightly discounted as I get used to it again as a commission type. Cartoony style only. Prices are generally the same as my regular cartoony full bodies, but will likely be a flat price vs sliding with cropping and all that, with specific fees like addtl. characters or complexity.

Also, for anyone interested, I'm down to draw most kinks/fetishes that are not harmful, I've done that kind of thing before, I just need to know that's your intent that it's kink/fetish art and you aren't trying to stealth it past me. I'll make a more detailed list of examples and specific ones I don't do comms for if interest is high.

Given the content, I will restrict experimental slots to people I see around such as mutuals, prior clients, people I've spoken with before, and followers I recognize until I reopen to more people once a more concrete system is figured out. Age must be listed in order to order one of these if I do open them.

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

[ID: Three digital artworks featuring different characters. First one are the Hollow Knight ocs Halcyon and Fool who belong to Netherprince. Halcyon is a green Tailed Emperor Butterfly caterpillar held closely by Fool, a rejected vessel with facial scars around its eyes, wears a light brown cloak, and whose left arm is instead made of tendrils coiling together. Fool is carrying Halcyon as it runs through a unknown envirionment in order to protect him. The background is a dark teal that leads into a lighter cyan. The shading and lighting are done with hard colours. Second artwork shows Daffie who belongs to Skeeterfeeder. Daffie is a stuffed animal that resembles a rabbit with a daisy plant theme. His body is green and has a long tail that ends with a smiling daisy flower, has white petals for her neck collar, and a yellow head with a pink nose, cheeks, paws, and tips on pup ears. Behind daisy is a yellow background filled with photo pngs of daisies. Daffie is drawn cartoony and the art has a static filter as if this was taken from a tv show. Third artwork shows Avery who belongs to Kiwicartwheels. Avery is a blonde haired alt/scene kid who is wearing a red and black checker pattern shirt, a ripped sleeveless coat, black trousers, different belt straps around his arms and legs, and spiked bracelets and a spiked collar. The background is in a red explosion style. He is also posed to give a 'rock on' sign. End ID.]

TRIPLE TROUBLE! Three more artfight pieces! Put altogether for being three different experimental works with me playing around with style and effects! :D

Halcyon and Fool belong to @nether--prince

Daffie belongs to @skeeterofthefeeder

Avery belongs to @kiwicartwheels (I for some reason can't properly @ you so I just added a link instead! Hope that's alright!)