#my art is so blue but it's just because of the brush i use LMAO its blue by default 😳

[gemapples]

im so sorry it took me so long to answer these oml but YES i'd be happy to show how i draw and color :)

— SKETCHING

please note that i almost always sketch traditionally first lol it's just a lot easier for me to determine how the drawing is placed that way, but i always go over and re-sketch it digitally

for magolor i always start with a basic egg shape (lmao) and then i add his ears. then I draw the scarf; it's easy to determine the shape and dynamicism based on where the bottoms of the ears are located

then i usually add the cape and hood together. where and how these are placed and what these look like in general are very important because they're the main area that perspective is directed to (the ears and everything else is important too ofc!! but the hood and cape usually help demonstrate where he is looking and how he is moving the most). then i add everything else, usually his hands last!

— LINEART

ohhhhhh god my worst enemy. Hope youre sitting down because this will be embarrassing LMAO

lineart is easily what i struggle with most and is more often than not the most time consuming and grating step for me. If i had a choice i would drop it in a heartbeat, but my style is so dependent on thick lines and shapes that it's difficult to 😭 a hole i dug myself into unfortunately ITS FINE THOUGH. ANYWAYS I'm getting sidetracked

i use my finger to draw all my digital art, which means i usually have to use a Heavy stabilizer to avoid shakiness and staggered lines. Unfortunately ibis paint's stabilizer is actually dog water and doesn't even stabilize more than half the time (in which case i have to repeat lines over. And over. And over again until i get it right) but when it does like me and works properly it's very helpful!

i always use the soft school pen bleed brush as my main tool for lineart. This brush has been my best friend for everything, i even use it for sketching idk it just really like the way it looks lol. sometimes i change the aspect if i want the lines to look more ,, chalky?? or smoother depending on the work

i don't really use this tool much but for this specific piece, force fade was my partner in crime

also i think i need to mention that i use so many layers for this. So many layers lol like to the point it's embarrassing. and at the end i merge most of them (except for the gear patterns, rings on his ear, and eyes + hands, which usually need to be by themselves as they're colored separately) Thank you for layers

and i end up with this!

— COLORING && SHADING

yippee yahoo the fun part !!! the part that i love the most

at this point, if i havent already, i always create a folder for convenience in organization because this is the part that i stress the most about what details are on which layers lmao

then i add ANOTHER layer below that for the color, then i put every single color used on their own separate layer!

now, for shading, if im working on larger pieces with more complex shading, i'll usually plan it all out. normally when just drawing magolor, i don't really need to do this anymore because i'm so used to it lol, but for funsies i did it here anyways

then i use the bucket tool to fill them all in

i usually have a set color palette for all the characters i draw (though the way i shade white differs. A lot between my work as you can probably tell fhdfgf). For every color, i have two specific tones that are associated with the shading. for example, indigo + violet are shaded with my blue, pink + light orange (or lighter pink depending on my mood lol) are shaded with yellow, etc.

so, i shade the other areas with the 2nd shading color

a big tip i can give for coloring is to look at a color wheel when you draw. i know that sounds like. Such basic advice LMAO but that seriously was a huge help for me when developing my shading and something i learned while studying — if you notice, in all of the shading in my work, all of the colors used are analogous on the color wheel. note that not ALL combinations will work together like others obv !! but it's a huge step in knowing where to go with it

then i add other extra details like extra lighting, halftones (if i feel like it // if it fits the work), glow to his eyes, and color the lines and ta-da!

another tool i use a lot especially with my more recent art are blending modes, especially multiply. i use a clipping layer to add a dark color (usually a dark blue or purple) and set it to multiply, then erase the areas that emit light

and this is the end result! this is a very very basic demonstration of it fhdjg i was a pretty messy with the lighting and erasing in this example but you get the general idea right

and that's how i draw :) i hope this was helpful, and thanks for asking and being so patient with the response!

[marblegroves]

Just saw your sketchbook post and I am amazed at how clean it all looks O_O /pos

So I was wondering, what materials do you use for your traditional drawings (all the stuff from sketch to final piece)?

BOY AM I GLAD YOU ASKED THIS *ahem*

Behold 😌

For the sketchbook pages, I mainly stuck to these materials though ^^ these guys are my…

PRIMARY MATERIALS

The green mechanical pencil on the picture on the left has 0.7mm colored lead in it! I alternate between blue and pink colored leads depending on what fits the overall color of the piece better.

Once I finish up the sketch, I line it with the black pilot ballpoint pen! I really like the control and feel of ballpoint pens for traditional lineart, because it gives a sort of variety in pressure I can’t seem to achieve with normal fineliners. I like to switch up the colors of the lineart too sometimes, hence the pink and red ballpens.

Then once the linearts done, I color them in with the stabilo highlighters, as pictured on the right! These guys are my FAVORITES. Sometimes when I’m just freely sketching I use the grey or peach mini stabilos. Although, they do tend to be a bit runny, ‘cause they’re meant for quick highlights and not multiple strokes over an area ^^; so you do have to be careful and quick when coloring with them to get an even coat of color!

Sometimes, though, when there are other colors or textures I want in a drawing, I use my…

SECONDARY MATERIALS

Pictured above are all my alcohol based markers! The four on the left are neon sharpies for when I need that extra eyestrainy kick. The three promarkers with the pointy cap were from when I was a freshman in uni and wanted to collect a full set of alcohol markers, but these were the only colors they had in stock and the college supply store ✌️ I’ve since given up on that dream because they were really expensive ;; they’re really good for sunny grassy scenes though! The last dark blue marker was from a set of other blue markers, but the others have since dried out… I use it when I really wanna darken up a page, like for night scenes!

This is my prismacolor set! I like to pair these with the markers, going in after the initial layer of color to give a bit of variety or shine. Some examples of when I use them would be for adding blush or giving hair a glossy sheen 👍

These ones are my “fuck it” materials lmao

I use these when I really just wanna scribble something down wildly. I had these since I was in gradeschool and its quite frankly a miracle they still work? Oh, and the red and yellow twistable crayolas are missing because I vaguely remember giving them to some childhood friends for some reason 🤔

My fineliners and gellyrolls! Haven’t used these much recently tbh. I’d used them for class before, but I never really likes how flat the thickness tends to be :/ the brush tips and chisel tips are cool though. I used them for that one yellow bdubs doodle to try and see if my opinion of them has changed ^^ it hasn’t. Moving on…

Lastly, we have the special materials! The ones that don’t really go into any sets, or have nice applications. In order from left to right:

Wink of Stella - A brush pen that applies glitter through some sort of black magic. No idea how she works but I love her

Red Marvy Art Director 1400 - A red fine tip marker. Can’t go wrong with a bright red marker 👍

Golden Posca - My only posca marker. Figured if I should get one it might as well be something special.

Faber Castell Blue Highlighter - I use this alongside the stabilos. It has a really nice deep blue color ^^

And well! That should be everything! ^^ Thanks for giving me an avenue to gush about my materials lmao 🥰

[psystirene]

we're starting controversy in the rain world fandom? SIGN ME UP! /j

Even if you don't read my extra notes please know that none of this is that serious, my least favorites/"dislikes" are really light LMAO Also sorry if some things are hard to read I'm not 100% used to this brush yet <3

Anyways notes + meme blank below LET'S GOOO

SLUGCAT EDITION!!!

*Liked by everyone but me (and Least Favorite) is Saint because I just have such a hard time coming up with headcanons and designs that I like & find interesting for Saint. It feels like they're everyone's favorite thought experiment (/hj) but for me like. Idk. It's probably also that in a way they feel like they have the most concrete & "stuck" storyline

I used to think Surv was so boring I could NOT come up with shit all for them or for monk, didn't help that none of the fan content was of them (quite a bit of "surv" fanart is just using them as a generic slugcat imo)

*Like the character, not the design is Riv and Hunter to me but specifically the canon designs and trying to translate them into my art, Riv's gills end up looking like clown hair and Hunter's pink gives me the ick to work with for fur. But I love to make Hunter fluffy anyways

Blackcurrant (Gourspearnot) SUPREMACY!

No hate to artimonk or monksaint shippers but these ships out of any non-problematic ship. Kind of give me the ick

ITERATOR EDITION!!!

SRS is fine and it usually depends on individual interpretations of them but I have a mild distaste for SRS overall, I think they're a good character & well written though

SOS is more of a plot device than a character to me and I don't find her all that interesting, I do like individual fanon versions of her though

Purple moon = good, purple moon in-game has like. A shade of purple I dislike + a blue that's SO CLOSE in value to it. Oh my god.

LILYPAD SUPREMACY

Ragequit depends mostly on interpretation but it could never work in my canon/interpretation, I'm just uncomfortable with my NSH and my FP dating

And here's the blank for you other rainheads

[training4theapocalypse]

Finders Keepers Ch 5. (Cormac McLaggen x fem!reader)

Rating: Explicit 18+

Word Count: 4.3k

Warnings: SMUT!!!!!!!!! Kissing, Dry humping, Sucking on my titties like you wanted me calling me all the time like Blondie check out my Chrissy behind it's fine all of the time.

Summary: It's the night of Slughorn's party and you're ready to make McLaggen jealous.

A/N: I said I wasn't gonna post til Sunday but I am too impulsive!!! Here is some recommended listening: Escapism by RAYE and Daylight by David Kushner (thank you anon for the latter recommendation). P.S. You can tell I'm not actually a Ravenclaw because my door riddle was SHIT lmao.

Masterlist

Tag list: @countlambula

Chapter 5: Firewhisky

Two weeks later, you sit on the same spot on the edge of Marietta’s bed, this time lacing up your strappy stilettos. You point your wand at your feet. ‘Molliare’ you think, silently casting a cushioning charm so you can walk with ease in your heels.

Cho and Marietta join you as you walk over to the mirror, they stand behind you like proud parents.

“Stunning,” says Cho looking at you in the mirror.

“Yes, well, enough about the dress,” says Marietta, admiring her alterations. “Zacharias is going to feel like he’s won the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Draw when he sees you.”

Ugh, you almost forgot about Smith. 

You admire yourself in the mirror and you have to admit- this is probably the best you’ve ever looked. Thanks to Marietta, your form-fitting cobalt blue dress seems to glow ethereally in the candlelight. She’s given you a high leg split and its generously low-cut bodice accentuates every curve of your body.

“Okay, toss your head forward and mess up your hair a wee bit,” says Cho. You flip your head down and back up and push your tousled hair behind your ear. “Perfect - it looks like you’ve just finished a very steamy snogging session.”

“Fuck, I’m nervous.” You reach out and hold both of their hands. “I wish you were coming.”

“Okay, Captain,” says Cho, imitating your most authoritative dressing-room voice. “What’s the game plan? Let’s go over positions.” Strangely, it helps your nerves.

“Meet Smith downstairs and arrive late. Don’t even look at McLaggen. Impress Gwenog. Still don’t look at McLaggen. Have a few drinks and hit the buffet-”

“Have one drink. No bread or you’ll burst out of that dress,” warns Marietta.

“One drink to stay reasonably sober,” you repeat, ignoring the last part. “Wait for McLaggen to approach me. Brush him off casually. Leave conspicuously and in an extra giggly fashion with Zacharias Smith then report back to you two in the common room.”

“Well remembered.”

“Shouldn’t I just snog Smith in front of him?”

“No!” says Marietta. 

“It’ll be way worse in his head if he doesn’t see you. Leave it to his imagination,” nods Cho knowledgeably.

God, dealing with boys was such hard work. You look at your two friends sincerely- they’re extremely skilled in this particular art of war. 

“Thank you- both of you. This was insanely hard work, I mean, this dress, Marietta…” You check yourself out in the mirror again. “It’s beautiful, really. I’m sorry if I’ve ever been sort of disparaging towards this stuff before. As if it’s any less worthwhile than Quidditch or school. It’s just… I’m not used to being bad at things.”

They understand. You don’t need to say any more as the three of you embrace in the middle of the dorm room.

“Right,” says Cho, wiping her eyes. “You’d better go before Zacharias thinks you’ve stood him up.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Slughorn’s office looks like a beautifully decadent circus tent. The walls are draped with emerald, crimson and gold hangings, contrasting with the striking blue of your dress.

You walk in, arm-in-arm with Smith who looks incredibly pleased with himself. When you met him earlier on the marble staircase he actually did a double take before saying your name questioningly, as if he didn’t believe it was you.

“Fuck off, Smith, I don’t look that different.”

“Ladylike as ever, I suppose,” he scoffed and you rolled your eyes.

But now as you walk in, you keep your head high and smile at other students you recognise, as if you’re delighted to be here with Smith. Murmurs ripple through the crowd, as the two of you pass through- you hope it’s your dress that’s causing a commotion but you resign yourself to the fact that your classmates are probably just surprised to see you here with a boy.

Tactics, remember tactics. 

“Let’s get a drink,” you whisper, marching him towards a tower of champagne flutes. You grab one and drain it quickly, using the opportunity to discreetly scan the room for McLaggen. 

He’s across the room, determinedly talking to Hermione. You have a satisfied feeling that he’s trying not to look at you.

You dump your empty glass, grab another for courage, and link Smith’s arm again, steering him to try and find Slughorn but you don’t need to go far before you hear a booming voice calling your name.

“Professor Slughorn! Thank you for inviting me,” you respond graciously, pretending you aren’t starstruck by his companion, Gwenog Jones. “This is Zacharias, he’s captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team.”

“Oh! I thought- ” says Slughorn looking from you to Smith and then off into the room behind you. “Ah, never mind. I’m an old man, who knows less and less about young love these days.” Slughorn chuckles and Smith gives you a questioning look which you ignore. “Anyway, allow me to introduce Miss Gwenog Jones, Captain of the Holyhead Harpies. Gwenog, this is the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, I mentioned earlier.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” you say, shoving your drink into Smith’s hand and clasping hers when she reaches out to give you a handshake. “I’m a huge fan.”

“Old Sluggy’s been telling me all about you,” she says. 

“All good things, I hope?” You ask playfully of Slughorn who guffaws.

“Of course, of course!”

“I don’t suppose he mentioned our recent landslide victory against Slytherin?” You give her a winning smile, desperate to make a positive impression.

“He did… But I’m more interested in what he told me about your training.”

“My- my training?” you stumble - slightly surprised that Professor Slughorn knows anything about your training.

“I’ve told Miss Jones here all about you spending every evening on the pitch. I can see it from that window, you know.” He gestures to the window in the corner, obscured by the curtains. “You and McLaggen, practising for hours and hours and right in the middle of your N.E.W.Ts too… Oh, look, there he is!” Slughorn looks over your shoulder again and calls his name. “Not that you’d be interested in McLaggen for your all-female team, Gwen,” he chuckles. Slughorn spills a little champagne when he spots Harry Potter and practically runs over to join him, abandoning your group.

You bristle as McLaggen replaces Slughorn’s vacant space beside you. He shakes hands with Gwenog who, you remind yourself, he’s acquainted with already.

“As I was saying, Slughorn told me all about your win against Slytherin and while it piqued my interest, it was your work ethic that really got my attention. And he says you’re a keeper too?”

“A world-class one,” says McLaggen. “I’m surprised she hasn’t been snapped up by a professional team already.”

You blink at him in surprise. It’s very considerate of him to compliment you like that in front of Gwenog, even though you’re not speaking.

“And it’s you two who’ve been practising together every night?” she asks, noticing the look you give to McLaggen. “I mean, you’ve actually been training? Slughorn hasn’t been seeing you head off to the Quidditch pitch so you can snog privately or anything, has he?” She lets out a laugh like a bark.

“No! God, no,” you say quickly, and go to squeeze Smith’s arm but he’s already disappeared without you even noticing. 

“Absolutely not,” confirms McLaggen.

“Good,” she smiles. “Well, you’re not the usual build for a keeper, I must say. They usually look more like him - ha!” She nods at McLaggen. “But if you’re as good as he and Slughorn say you are, it sounds like I’d be stupid not to let you try out during the transfer window this summer.”

“That… that would be incredible. Thank you.” 

She bids you and McLaggen farewell and goes to mingle with the other guests. If you hadn’t fallen out with McLaggen, you’d grab him and jump up and down screaming for joy. Instead, you stand awkwardly, trying not to look at him.

Game plan, a small voice in your head reminds you but the champagne has loosened your sharp tongue.

“Well, you better not keep your girlfriend waiting,” you say, looking for Smith.

“Who told you that Hermione’s my girlfriend?”

“Hermione told Lavender who told Parvati who told Padma who told Cho who told me,” you rhyme off, trying to sound casual. 

“I thought you didn’t like gossip.” 

You shrug. “I just hear things.”

“Look, I know you don’t like her after what she did to Marietta-”

“Oh, is that what she said?”

“No, it’s what I know. I was in the D.A. with them too. You’re not the only one who hears things.”

Finally bringing yourself to look at him properly, you’re extremely annoyed to see that he looks incredibly handsome in his black shirt and dress robes. 

“So, have you snogged her?” You blurt before you can stop yourself.

“What?!”

“Have you snogged her?” you repeat slowly and clearly, knowing full well he heard you the first time.

“I’ll go and snog her right now if you’re so concerned.”

“Go ahead. It should be easy, right? If she’s your girlfriend and not just here to make Ron Weasley jealous. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find my date.”

He watches dumbfounded as you walk across the room to grab Smith aggressively and lead him by the hand out of the room. When you reach the corridor, you turn around and see that Smith looks like he can’t believe his luck.

“Oh,” you say, trying to think of a lie when you realise you really, definitely don’t want to snog him. “Sorry- I just wanted a bit of air. It’s so hot in there and my armpits are like, really sweaty.” You make up wildly.

Smith pulls a disgusted face and turns to go back in. “Wait!” you grab his arm and spin him back around. “Let me fix your hair.” You run your hand through it, messing it up slightly. “There, much better.”

He stares at you, stunned. “You are so weird.” He returns to the party and you groan, leaning against the indented archway in the wall and knocking your head back against it a few times in frustration. When you hear the click of high-heeled footsteps coming towards you, you flatten yourself inside the little cove so you’re not spotted alone. 

Hermione Granger whips past you without so much as a backwards look. You watch her as she walks as fast as she can in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. She’s ditched McLaggen, you realise. You thought you’d feel ready to gloat but instead you just feel… empty. Until recently he was your friend after all.

Returning to the party, you’re not sure what to do with yourself. The game plan has gone out the window.

You want to do everything you can to avoid Zacharias Smith, and you really don’t want to be paraded in front of a vampire by Slughorn like Potter is right now. The only person you actually want to talk to is Cormac McLaggen but lately, all you’ve been able to do is argue, that is when you’re not sitting in sullen silence during Potions. 

You decide you’d better mix with some other students. You spend some time chatting with Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley who you recognise from the Gryffindor Quidditch team. They congratulate you on your win against Slytherin, and you return the compliment but only out of obligation as both victories make your teams the closest rivals on the table, competing for the top spot. You excuse yourself and cross the room to get another drink but Professor Snape halts you in your tracks. 

“Detention,” he says simply. 

“Sir, I-”

“The first Saturday after the holidays. And I expect you to be more suitably dressed for the occasion.”

You open your mouth to argue but think better of it. Any argument with Snape is likely to extend your detention to a week or even a month. More murmuring cascades around the room as he gestures to the door. It’s probably for the best, you think, that you leave before you drink any more. You got what you came for - an invite to the Holyhead Harpies tryouts. But you wish you’d just…

What do you wish?

That you’d made McLaggen jealous in the process? Or even just made up with him? Gone back to being friends. But could you ever swallow your pride and settle for being just friends? Surely that had to be better than whatever this feeling was right now.

Out of the hot room, the cool air hits you dizzyingly as you walk quickly along the corridor to the entrance hall. You see McLaggen ahead of you, near the front doors, in almost the exact same spot where you had your argument two weeks ago. 

Maybe being friends would be enough.

When he hears your footsteps he turns and groans “Oh, no. Not you.”

You catch up with him. “Always so disappointed to see me, McLaggen.”

“I’ve been chucked out. Snape gave me detention.”

“Me too,” you shrug. It’s not much of an olive branch but your instinct is to try and make him feel better. Misery loves company after all.

“You have?” He brightens up considerably. 

“He thought I wasn’t ‘suitably dressed’,” you say and his eyes follow your hands as you smooth the front of your satin dress. “What did you get chucked out for?”

“He caught me hiding behind the bar trying to drown my sorrows.” He pulls an entire bottle of Firewhisky from his cloak.

“Your sorrows?” 

He shrugs. “Doesn’t matter.”

“And he didn’t confiscate the bottle?”

“I pretended that I was about to vomit on his shoes and he just threw me out without noticing I still had it.” 

Without warning you both burst out laughing. Your stomach hurts from laughing at the idea of Snape dragging McLaggen out at arm’s length, trying to avoid being vomited on.

“Well, no wonder he was in such a foul mood when he saw me. I mean detention, for wearing a dress?”

“Personally, I agree with Snape,” His gaze lingers on you again. “It’s very distracting.”

“Oh, shut up.” 

“Just don’t ask me what colour it is. I haven’t noticed.”

You hit his arm. This is nice - the playful banter, both of you not sulking for the first time in weeks. It feels almost… normal. Until, with a small jolt, you remember it’s not.

“Don’t be a pig, McLaggen. You have a girlfriend.”

“She isn’t my girlfriend,” he says, leaning his head back against the wall. “We can’t stand each other.”

And there it is. The news you’d been secretly hoping for all night. The pit in your stomach feels much lighter.

“Where’s Smith anyway? He was looking pretty dishevelled when he came back from the corridor.”

You feel a pang of guilt. He’d noticed. And it doesn’t make you feel victorious in the way you’d thought it would. “I honestly couldn’t give a shit where he is.” He says nothing. You wonder if he’s been hoping for similar news too.

“Do you want some?” He asks eventually, shaking the bottle of Firewhisky and breaking the prolonged silence. You go to accept it but he says. “Not here - Snape and Filch will be prowling the corridors in a minute.”

“Quidditch stands?”

He nods and you exit the castle, walking side-by-side in the dark, down the path towards the pitch. It’s a frosty night and you feel your teeth chatter.

“Wait a sec.” He removes his heavy cloak and wraps it around your shoulders. It smells good. Like him. “Better?” You nod and take the bottle from him, so you can have a nip of Firewhisky. It burns your chest, spreading heat through your body.

The path ends when you get to the pitch and you feel your high heels sink into the grass. “Shit,” you hiss, freeing one of your stilettos.

“Right, up you get.” He stands in front of you and stoops slightly, so he can give you a piggyback. 

“You must be drunk if you think I’m letting you carry me.”

“Don’t argue for once in your life. Hurry up.”

You give him the bottle back before jumping up so he can carry you across the grass and underneath the stands. The familiar smell of amber and jasmine, this time mixed with Firewhisky and mud from the Quidditch pitch, reaches your nostrils. You resist the strong urge you have to lean into the crook of his neck and inhale.

He lets you off when you get to the wooden stairs. “Ladies first.”

“Remembered I’m not a bloke, have you?” you ask, walking up the stairs. Cho was right- he does always let you walk in front of him.

“If I thought you were a bloke, I wouldn’t constantly be staring at your arse.” He gives you a cocky grin. 

“Oh, well, by all means, carry on objectifying me then,” you say sarcastically and snatch the bottle from his hands before turning around quickly so he can’t see you smile. 

He follows you to the top of the stand where the pair of you sit, looking out onto the pitch and the snowy hills in the distance. 

“I’ve never noticed how beautiful it is up here,” you sigh. 

“Always been too busy watching the game?” 

You nod. 

“Same.” 

There’s still an awkward dark cloud hanging over your heads. You take another drink of Firewhisky and pass it back to him. 

“Right, out with it then.”

“What?” he asks.

“We can’t just act like the past couple of weeks haven’t happened.” Being brave, being vulnerable like this is something you’ve always found difficult and the bottle of liquid courage you and McLaggen are sharing doesn’t seem to be helping. 

You try to think of how to get the words out - if there’s one thing you’ve learned from spending more time with Cho and Marietta this year, it’s that it’s better to get this sort of thing out in the open. You take a deep breath, preparing for rejection but he beats you to the punch. 

“I’m an idiot.” He groans. “I just - I got it into my head that we’d go to the party together and you’d end up getting off with Gwenog Jones. So when Hermione asked me to go I jumped at the chance.”

“I don’t fancy Gwenog Jones-”

“-Then you turned up with Smith and that was even worse than what I imagined with Gwen.”

You draw his cloak around you and look at your shoes. “Well, I didn’t realise you had asked me to go to Slughorn’s party as friends.”

“I- I didn’t want to ask you as friends. Believe me. I thought I was kidding myself that you might be into me… everyone said I was stupid to even ask you.”

“Who’s everyone?”

“Belby-“

“Belby?!” You scowl. That moron. “Who else?” You demand.

“Well I’m not gonna say now, am I?” McLaggen laughs. “I can tell Belby’s about to regret it.”

Your face cracks into a smile. The aggression bubbling up in your chest evaporates into the frosty night air. His laugh gives you a new perspective - it’s as if you can step back from the scene and can see how daft it is to get so bothered by someone like Marcus Belby.

You look up at his face in the cold moonlight. Butterflies squirm in your stomach. He’s so distractingly good-looking - you can’t think properly when it’s just you and him like this. No quaffle or cauldron to divert your attention or give you a reason not to look at him for too long. 

“To be honest, I sort of thought Belby was right after all because you didn’t seem that keen when I asked you.”

“I hesitated because you make me nervous, Cormac,” you say softly, determined not to look away. It’s like looking into the sun.

“Yeah?” He’s still looking into your eyes but he feels closer now. 

“Don’t pretend you haven’t figured out by now that I like boys too.” You look from his eyes to his lips. “Well, not boys. Just… just one.”

His mouth is inches from yours. You can feel his breath on your lips. “If you say Smith, I’ll kill him.”

And there it is. You’re not sure whether it’s his possessiveness or the fact you’d really like to watch him hit Smith but something about that sentence makes you feral for him. You press your mouth against his, the burning taste of Firewhisky on both your lips. 

He kisses you back fiercely. It’s harder and rougher than the soft kisses you’ve experienced before but you like it. It means you can kiss him back the way you want to - you know he can handle it. You bite hard on his bottom lip in silent admonishment for what he’s put you through. And Cormac returns the favour, his hand roughly gripping the part of your thigh exposed by your dress. You wonder if he knows it’s for him. The absence of fabric - created for the sole purpose of seeking his attention.

You bring your arms behind his neck, pressing your body as close to him as you can and the Firewhisky falls from the bench and rolls on the floor, forgotten. He moves his hand under your thigh and drags you onto his lap so that you’re straddling him. Your lips meet again, crashing into each other and his tongue intrudes into your mouth, rolling over yours. You want to feel his mouth everywhere.

As if reading your mind, his lips leave yours to kiss along your jaw and down your neck. You lean back so he can draw his tongue along your collarbone and bury his face in your chest. Cormac’s strong hands grip your hips tightly, his thumbs pressing bruises into your hipbones without any indication of slowing down or showing restraint. 

From this position, you can feel his erection pressing into you. It’s the first time you’ve kissed a man like this but your body responds almost automatically, sending your hips grinding into him. The night air is below freezing but your skin feels burning hot between the weight of his cloak and the warmth of his body.

The difference in size and strength between you sends wild thoughts flashing through your mind of him pinning you down against the bench and savagely taking you there.

You run your fingers through his dark blonde hair, pushing his face into your cleavage in encouragement, feeling his hot tongue and rough chin against your chest as you grind yourself against him harder. The now hot and damp fabric of your underwear rubs against the hard bulge between your bodies, creating friction more electric than the one that’s been between you the past few weeks.

“Fuck…” he moans into your chest softly.

All evidence so far has pointed to Cormac being an ass man but you’re not so sure any more as he continues his vocal appreciation, licking and sucking your tits right here on the deserted stands.

Cormac’s hands move up from your hips to push your breasts together and he whines when one of your nipples peeks out over the top of your dress. He latches onto the small nub of skin and sucks, swirling his tongue around your nipple. 

“Cormac, fuck, that’s-”

But just what it is, is interrupted by the anguished moan of pleasure that leaves your lips when his teeth graze your sensitive skin. It echoes across the deserted pitch into the night. A noise that would be indiscernible in the usually busy stadium. Unable to take it anymore you push his chest back and stare into his eyes, breathing heavily. 

“We shouldn’t… we should go back to the castle,” you pant.

“Shouldn’t what?” He raises his eyebrows with a smirk, his slightly wet chin glistening in the dim moonlight. “I haven’t suggested anything.”

“I was talking to myself.”

He grins and helps you off of him so you can fix your dress. “Well, that was easily the best thing that’s happened to me in this stadium,” he says, adjusting himself too.

“Ah, maybe you’ll get a game one day,” you tease and cup his face, just so you can feel his stubbly chin against your palm again.  

He kisses your palm before taking your hand in his so you can walk back down the steps to the pitch together. When you get to the grass he insists on carrying you again but this time refuses to put you back down until you reach the castle steps. 

From a tower high above, Horace Slughorn looks out of the window of his now-empty office. The party has long finished. He chuckles to himself when he sees the silhouette of McLaggen emerging from the darkness, carrying you on his back towards the entrance hall, illuminated by the castle torches.

When you climb off him and make it to the top of the marble staircase, you kiss him goodbye one final time. This is the last time you’ll see him before you go home for the Christmas holidays tomorrow. You turn and leave for Ravenclaw Tower, while he goes off in the opposite direction to Gryffindor. 

“I can skip, I can be broken, I can burst, I can sing. What am I?” asks the bronze eagle knocker on the door. “A heart,” you say, ripping off your heels impatiently, waiting for the door to swing open. You need to wake up Cho and Marietta - you promised you’d tell them everything.

Chapter 6: First Name Basis

[rosethreeart]

Rendering tips that hopefully don't sound nonsensical or vague <3

Gonna skip my "study the fundamentals" soapbox but Color Theory, contrast, and understanding how light works (especially bounce light) are your best friends!

Try not to over blend, especially with a soft brush/blur tool. This usually removes all the detail and little color variations present in the piece and essentially can set you back several stages in the rendering process. Figuring out how "blended" or "smooth" certain surfaces are compared to others is essential.

Frequently zooming in and out like a millennial trying to stay relevant on tiktok by making ads helps prevent you getting tunnel-visioned and helps with the tip mentioned above.

I'm a little freak and do almost all of my rendering on one layer immediately after sketching and laying down really quick flats. I didn't start that way tho! Doing your lighting in various different layers and layer styles first, and then merging them all to a new layer (do this with a "copy canvas" type of tool or even import the png of it to preserve the previous layers!!) and going in and blending on that, can help give a good sense on how the rendering process works.

traditional painting rules can and should apply! I had an after school art class in hs with some very wonderful teachers and one of the things that they taught me was to "only blend the outer edges of the colors". This helps with keeping color variation and detail., as well as preventing your colors from getting too "muddy".

if you're painting a person, knowing where the color variation in undertones is a huge help! Places like the rims of eyes, the nose, ears, neck, and joints tend to have a more reddish hue due to blood flow and whatnot! There are also "blues", yellows, and oranges, especially in the face!

I put "blue" because, once again, color theory kinda lowkey fucked up and does what it wants LMAO. Essentially if you have something "blue toned" on the body (save for veins) its typically a de-saturated, darker, and more "yellow"-ish tone then the original skin tone used, however even a dark, and muted magenta or even purple can give a similar effect! It really depends on the skin tone, and the colors that are surrounding it. Also different skin tones reflect light differently so that's important to be aware of as well!

Typically what I do is I use 3-5 "main" colors for a section that I'm doing. So lets look at this hand for a second

Since hands are very warm toned, I stuck in the red range and did very little variation in hue, to preserve that. So I have his natural skin tone as the "base", did a deeper and more saturated color as the "outline" to help me stay aware of my form. I have two shadows, a cool tone (where the twig would reflect light) and a warm tone (where the red of the hands would reflect). But I also used almost a neon red! You can see it a little bit on that thumb right there near the shadow. Sometimes having a (slightly-extremely) more saturated color can help act as a "transition" color. These also help with maintaining your contrast, preventing the colors from getting too muddy, be a function of bounce light, and help show the more "internal" hues of the body.

References can be a HUGE help (I used one for the tree <3) but keep in mind that they're there to give you an IDEA of what you're trying to make, not just be a 1:1 recreation (art studies are a different thing that I wont get into here)!

This shit aint easy and there WILL be an ugly phase or multiple but you gotta push through it! This also takes a long time to do so there's no shame in doing it in multiple sessions, in fact I recommend it, as fresh-eyes can be a savior to a drawing.

thats all I can think of at the moment <3

[mossyriverrocks]

ok uhhhh how i draw ig idk 😭 I’m really bad at this idk why I’m doing this but anyways

^ I use either of these to sketch, usually in a brighter color. I generally gravitate towards blues but it honestly depends on who I’m drawing.

Then I um um uh sketch idk how to like. Talk about it it just comes really naturally uhhh. I always start with the head. First you draw a circle. Y’know. And then the body underneath with like a. A line. For the shoulders and turn that into the body and like a box I guess idk. I added the red box line this just to make the anatomy clearer or something idk I usually just draw it and then move on. So I lower the sketch opacity and move on to lineart. I use a downloaded brush for it which uhhhhh I forget where I got it :( but uh it’s max stabilization because I can’t make non shaky lines lmao

I um got a little fancy here sowwy :( so um um um um uhhh um idk 😭 lineweight ig I love lineweight!!!! 😍 I just uhhh put it where I think it should or just. Do it accidentally idk sowwy 😓

So uh I don’t actually add color before I do colors but like since she has black sclera and color eyes I was just like eh why not yknow so uh

next I add.. colors. Idk how I shade like. Changes so sometimes I do flats and sometimes I’ll just do one color and shade it and do the next color and shade so uhhh idk I’ll do flats first here

So uh. Flats. Idk not much to say here. I just color picked from her ref. And chose colors when I needed to bc that’s not her usual outfit

So then I just. Idk. Hue shifting 😍 I just add stuff where it feels right tbh sorry :(

I don’t actually use a light source for most things unless it’s like really dramatic I probably should. Do that…..

and then I like. Idk just. Repeat. For. The other colors. Sorry this is NOT helpful I’m sorry 😭 I usually like. So for the edge of the shadow I add a darker color shifted to the left or right, and towards the … uhhh opposite side of the edge I add a slightly lighter color also shifted. Bounce light or something idk. Then like highlights if I want idk 😭

So um I went too far oopsies but uhhh yeah look at her go we aren’t done yet though so uhhh um uh i honestly don’t know from here I just. Add stuff until it looks cool enough. I gotta edit the cigarette smoke (WHICH BY THE WAY, NOT TRYING TO MAKE IT LOOK COOL. SMOKING GIVES YOU CANCER SO UM. PROBABLY DONT) and uhhhh yeah idk I’ve said all I can basically 😭😭😭😭😭 I kinda lose myself in the process and like. Don’t think at all? I kinda forget I or anything else exists. Why I like drawing: 🤭 but ummmmm um um yeah see you on the other side ig 😞

Yea. Um. Um. Yea. If you have questions pLEASE ask I like. I didn’t this very badly 😓 but anyways yeah that’s my. Crappy art tutorial featuring my OC Luna

[bisexualboysbroadcast]

okay, are you ready? here’s my be mine superstar melt:

1. I am unbearably obsessed with the personality “swop” that happened between these two actors. going from fiat our little sunshine brat in dsn to Ashi our regal serious actor in bms and Leo our serious big boy protector in dsn to actual puppy sunshine baby punn in bsm -> getting a swop like that shows me their range as actors but also just different sides to their acting personalities and how well they know each other which is pure magic in romance

2. I’m OBSESSED with the way they met. like yes punn is madly in love with ashi as a fan boy (the little poster kiss really ruined my life), but to have an accidental bump in meet-cute and then (as far as it looks like the plot is heading) to end up working together is a delightful start to their story (cause it alludes to plot directions like “oh fuck I’m in love with you what am I supposed to do with these feelings??” , and “secret relationship eras (my beloved)” and “how can you date him you’re just a student intern and he’s a superstar” and “but I love him. I love him.”. can you tell I’m ready for this?)

3. the sets for this show seem to be out of this world. not just in relation to the period drama ashi (and co) are acting in but also the cafe where punn met his friends, the bar where doctor and superstar met (HAH!), punn’s mom’s cafe, dad’s art studio. all of it is so good. and from what I can see they really seem to be using the lighting and set structure to show personalities which is incredible in and of itself. (e.g. if you notice the lighting and set is pretty light/airy/flowing when punn is the central focus (that shower scene speaks for itself); but quite dark/wood/sort of solid when ashi is the focus)

4. the costumes, oh good god, the costumes! firstly just how beautiful the period drama stuff is ! ashi’s white cloak? and title’s full princely (guard?) suit? IMMACULATE. but also their casual clothes. ashi being so neat, tidy, and elegant always. versus punn who is soft and comfy (that lil grey cardigan did so much for my heart). as far as I can see (and probably because there’s been so many costume changes as a result of ashi’s job), there hasn’t been any colour coding between him and punn (yet?). so not much to say on the blue boy/red boy (/other colour variations) connotations. they may just play this out in style more than colour which is always less obvious but satisfying all the same, but I guess that’s just a waiting game.

5. so so happy with all the touching we’ve had. and I don’t just mean punn and his delusional body pillow cuddling (although that’s so relatable). but also between doctor and superstar (I really need to get to their names lmao) -> their entire scene was iron melting! the thumb swipe across the bottom lip, the finger brushing against the hand, the dancing (holy fuck), and then naturally the sex. SO GOOD. but also yes punn and his little prayer to his ashi poster, punn and his brother pai fighting (ah sibling love), even the touching between the three superstar friends. I like that the intimacy of touching is already being shown in a full range of ways. parents to children, sibling to sibling, friend to friend, love interests, lust. EATING SO GOOD!

anyway, now that I’ve talked y’all’s ears off, I am so happy to have a Monday night (more like Tuesday morning) watch for the next few weeks and I’m beyond excited for wherever this one will take us !!

[forecast0ctopus]

i loveee ur art its sooo expressive and it has such a 90s feel to it.. if i may ask, how do u pick ur colours? do u have a specific colour pallete u adhere to? thanks!

thanks so much :DDD im curious what might make it feel 90s 🤔 thats so interesting

anyways stuff abt coloring below

honestly i kinda just fuck around with color, technically i somewhat understand color theory but despite that im bad at choosing the right colors straight from the color wheel so a lot of times i just hsb adjust things until theyre right

ive got two different ways i color things currently:

softish shading with a marker brush in greyscale, applying too many color adjustment layers, and then coloring a little on top of the greyscale to make things not monochrome. usually i color on top of a clipping mask bc its a lot easier, which i did in the ace attorney one but not in the merlin one for ?? no reason i guess i just didnt think abt it lmao

the other way is i decide what color i wanna cast the whole drawing in and i make that the base clipping mask layer (which ive been making like. neon green a lot lately lmao) and then i block in color on top of that, and shadow color on top of that. the cybersix ones a great representation of what im doing there but its a little chaotic since all of the sketches were meant to be cropped oops. the cowboy danny phantom ones a lot cleaner of an example haha

i really like doing the second method because it also works great with lineless and also i really like comparative colors? i know theres a better phrase for it but like. when one color looks like a different color when its put in a different colored space. like when im making things green, id color blue things in the scene green and red things in the scene a muddy orangey color. or when i was really into yellow id make the blues purple. idk usually the “blue” in the scene is first color i like to figure out im not sure if its because its my favorite color or if its because i love drawing jeans but thats just how it goes lmao

oh also putting things on a or neutral bg helps to pick colors a lot easier than keeping the default white bg, i always turn it off and leave it transparent until im finished lmao. i use procreate light mode so its still rather light but not too bad

i dont really have any palettes that i intentionally adhere to, no, but i do get kind of stuck using the same colors for a few months before moving to something different. rn im very stuck on green and need to accept that not everything needs to be the grossest greens ever and ive been stuck on it for about six months? in the past i was really stuck on yellow haha

[tizeline]

Your art is so cool!! Can you share you digital art process sometime?

Ask and ye shall receive:

(Also thank you!!😭)

Aight so I have A Few digital art processes due to me being inconsistent and not being able to commit to one thing (I prefer calling it ✨having a creative and curious mind✨ but eh) so my processes are subject to change, but here are my more recent methods of drawing digitally.

First of all, my art software of choice in the last couple of years has been Procreate, with some of my most commonly used brushes being these:

Spectra is my brush of choice when it comes to sketching, I really like the texture and it has a nice feel when it comes to both size and opacity based on pressure.

Next up is lineart, what brushes I use in this stage goes hand in hand with what type of colouring process I'll use. When it comes to drawings with more flat shading (such as cellshading) I'll usually use Narinder Pencil. Again, nice texture, and I like it for situations where I want thinner lines with less variety in line-thickness.

When I use a colouring and shading process that's more complex/fully rendered of whatever tf you call it, I tend to use the Niko Rull or Eaglehawk (first drawing is the Niko Rull, second is Eaglehawk)

They are also the brushes I use for the actual rendering process of this particular colouring style (yeah guess we're going into to colouring stage now)

I have no idea how to describe my actual process on how I render my drawings lmao sorry I guess?? I kinda just improvise and hope it ends up looking decent haha. As you might be able to guess though, I am HEAVILY inspired by Arcane's art style (that show Awakened something in my istg) so uhhhhh go watch other people's tutorials on how to emulate the Arcane art style or smthn I dunno.

I will say though, the rendering process and the final look of the piece ends up being slightly different depending on which brush I use.

Niko Rull is rectangular as a base shape, and it doesn't really shade that easily on it's own. Because of that it takes a while to make the shading look good (trust the process!!) but I really like the end result (textureeeeee)

Eaglehawk is easier to blend and shade with (as in it takes a shorter amount of time) which leads to the end result being more smooth

Back to the drawings that use mainly flat shading! Here I will often use Eaglehawk to add that sweet sweet texture I keep going on about, basically I will just colour the areas that are either darker and/or more saturated (for example the cheeks, nose and ears in the latter case) with what is usually a warmer tone on a layer set to multiply, then I adjust the opacity to my liking.

Then I'll just cellshade using the Medium Hard Airbrush. I like using a cooler tone like blue often (like I did here in this example) but that changes a lot depending on what I think'll fit the art piece. Draw that on a layer set to multiply and again adjust the opacity to whatever looks good.

In the final stages of the drawing process I'll just add a bunch of filters until it looks good lmao. I am Bad At Colour Theory™, even though I KNOW the theory part of it, I have such a hard time actually using it practically. Basically, making the colour palette look good is HARD so I'll just CHEAT by using layers that's filled with a colour (whatever fits) and set it to like multiply or overlay or something like that and lower the opacity a bunch and BOOM people will think I know what I'm doing. One of my favorite is covering the entire drawing with a layer filled with a light blue colour, set that layer to Difference and lower the opacity to like 5%. The effect is subtle, but I like it.

Also, MORE TEXTURE!! Static texture!! Well, in procreate it's called "Noise" but it basically adds this static like texture to your selected layer. Use it on a layer that's filled with gray, set it to overlay lower the opacity a bunch and it gives this really nice grainy feel to your art. The colour filters I tend to use on all my coloured drawings, but the noise texture I mostly use the art with flat shading.

So yeah, sketching - lineart - colour flats - shading/rendering - add a bunch of filters - finished art piece, nothing really unusual there.

And lastly, some extra things I do:

In the lineart stage, I'll colour the sketch like red or something to differentiate between the sketch and lineart more easily.

I'll also lower the opacity of the sketch layer to help avoid accidentally drawing the lines on the same layer as the sketch (iykyk)

When filling in the flats, I'll first use a deep, saturated red or blue, and when I'm done filling in a section then I'll change the colour in that area to what it's actually supposed to be. This makes it easier to notice if there's a spot you missed to fill in because it'll contrast more!

I tend to prefer lineart that isn't pure black in my illustrations. With thinner lines I'll colour them a dark brown, blue, green etc, while with thicker lines I'll do the same but also lower the opacity slightly so that the colour underneath effects the lines colour as well.

You know how some people draw everything on like 1-3 layers? Yeah I'm the opposite, ONE MILLION LAYERS BABEYYYY you can never have too many!! (actually you can there's a limit but eh)

Sometimes, when I need to come up with a pose, I'll try posing in different ways myself to get ideas. I wont take any reference pics of myself tho because yikes

That's all I can think of for now! There's quite a lot to go into when it comes to art processes and I'm not great at explaining things, so if anyone has any questions just ask! :,)

[komotionlessqueenmm]

My We Happy Few Bobby OC.

Lionel F. Edwards

(I'll add more to this periodically.)

(If I could draw I would draw him, but I can't so we'll just use this picture, and imagine the changes I've made lmao.)

Notable features - Lionel has sandy blond hair, which is a little longer than most of his co-workers, but he keeps it swept back and proper. His right eye is a crystal blue, while his left eye is a honey brown. Under his happy mask he hides several scars, which he obtained from a downer some time ago. He has several other scars littering his body, but the worse he has, aside from his face, is on his ribs, and he can't remember how he got them. For someone that spends so much time outside Lionel is pretty pale. His ears are pierced, and he has no idea when it happened, or who might have done it, and no one seems to even notice the silver studs in his ears.

Personality - He's surprisingly shy, at least when he is around someone he either finds attractive, or just straight intimidating. Super sweet with the ones he loves. Will be a teddy bear and total cuddle bug with his SO. He's honestly nicer than most other bobby's. Freak in the sheets, gentleman in the streets! Loves autumn and winter like so much. He just loves the cold because of how high his body temperature always runs. Man's a walking furnace, like seriously. Loyal AF, he'd do anything and I mean anything for his SO. A bit insecure about his scars, and even his height, so he relishes in any reassurance his SO gives him. Loves playfully spooking his SO, but doesn't startle very easily himself.

Age - 32 his birthday is December 6th.

Height - He's a tall man, even compared to his co-workers. Standing at a staggering 7'3". (The bobby's and doctors are very tall, some people have guessed that they are 7'0" or taller.)

Build - Broad shoulders, bit lanky like most of the other bobby's, but Lionel is also pretty strong, not quite shredded mind you, but still surprisingly muscled. Heavier than he looks as well.

Scent - He smells of vanilla, honey, and his natural manly musk, with earthy and cherry undertones.

Love interest - (Y/n) (Y/l/n).

Interests - Joy, music, (Y/n), art, uncle Jacks shows, mystery books, photography.

Dislikes - Downers, talk of plague, yams, and vanilla Joy because it leaves a funny aftertaste in his mouth.

Weaknesses - Fresh pie, grapefruit juice, and of course (Y/n).

Sexual interests - Breeding kink, size kink (and no, I'm not talking about him being tall.), food play, light bondage, biting, praise, body warship, public sex, he's naturally dominate, but he kinda really loves when (Y/n) takes control.

District - St. Georges Holm.

Favorite flavor Joy - Chocolate was always his favorite, but he's grown a liking for the new coconut flavor Joy.

Hobbies - Painting/drawing, reading, and spending as much free time as he can with (Y/n), and taking pictures with his Polaroid, especially pictures of (Y/n). (Man's madly in love y'all)

Friends - Really only friends with (Y/n), and a co-worker named Frank. (However Franks been on holiday for some time now.)

Family - Can't honestly remember any. Maybe he had a sister? Or a brother perhaps?

Favorite song - ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Favorite color - Purple is his all time favorite, but he also loves bright orange, and sea green.

Favorite foods - Lionel is a simple man, so a V-meat sandwich, with a side of blue currant berries is divine in his book. Also loves dipping apple slices in honey. And coffee yogurt, he's not really supposed to have it, because it messes with his belly some, but he loves it regardless and will suffer the rumblies for it.

Fears - Spiders, puppets, and loosing (Y/n).

Miscellaneous notes - His hands are huge, soft and littered with small scars. He has freckles that dust his shoulders. His right ear rings almost constantly, after the fight with the downer that he got his facial scars from. His hands shake a little, but they always still the moment he picks up a brush or pen. The F in his name stands for Francis, and he hates the name, so much so he was even reluctant to tell (Y/n) what his middle name is. Even with Joy Lionel suffers from nightmares, he suppresses them, but with (Y/n) by his side, his nightmares don't plague his mind. He loves loves, loves playing with (Y/n)s hair.

How (Y/n) met him - "Miss what are you doing out here?" The Bobby asked approaching the woman watching the sunset. "It's beautiful." She muttered... Continue reading story here.

When Lionel asked (Y/n) out - His hands shook as he approached her with a bouquet of beautiful flowers, sweat beading on his forehead under his happy mask... Continue reading story here.

(Y/n) receives a bad batch of Joy, and can no longer take it - Lionel had very few options. Turn (Y/n) in, hide her, join her, or get out of Wellington Wells with her... Continue reading story here.

Can I commission someone to draw Lionel for me? You perhaps? Or someone you know? I'll happily pay for drawings of him. (💚ω💚*)

Anyways I'm gonna be writing some stories with Lionel soon, so keep an eye out for that in the near future.

[688199]

hello legend.

writing a wholesome mlb fanfic but trying to make it very meticulous in terms of details. do you think it’s appropriate that i ask for small things that i could include to highlight marinette’s connection to chinese culture.

things like certain clothes/phrases/names her parents would authentically call her/little things around her room /small habits/comfort foods/stories her mom told her growing up/thoughts on confucianism, taosim, buddhism/if she includes traditional chinese fashion in her designs/etc

i really hope this doesn’t come off as ignorant/offensive! i’ve been researching chinese culture but there’s a difference between reading about the “text-book” examples and actually being part of a culture where you just wouldn’t understand things unless you were surrounded by it and a part of it and grew up with it. and i don’t want to play into stereotyping, you know? i want these things to be specific to chinese culture AND to marinette & her moms side of the family.

any answer would be helpful because i read that you are chinese yourself and you are so well versed in the creation of marinette’s character that if you think she would do/say/keep/etc certain things i would love to hear your thoughts!

oh sure! note that i’m singaporean chinese, so there might be a little bit of difference in culture. but having been to china (and attended chinese culture heavy schools) before, i’ll do my best!

- nicknames: baobao/ bao bei, meaning “precious”. first one is babyish, second one usually used by couples but parents also use it to call their kids. also, easy and common nickname is just repeating their name. for example, if marinette’s mandarin name was “ma li” (though i don’t think any parent would want to name their child that), the nickname used by family, relatives and friends would be “lili”

- small things around her room: chinese literature books on shelves, maybe a blue-white porcelain vase to put flowers in? and maybe a maobi (calligraphy brush) sticking out of her pencil holder.

- small habits: switching to chinese when surprised/ stressed. oh and def using chopsticks eating (only use for asian dishes tho). make sure she doesn’t stick it upright into the food though, cause of some superstition, and general etiquette. she could get slightly stressed when she sees people use chopsticks incorrectly, i know i do lol.

- comfort foods: congee and you tiao (fried dough). she could eat it when she feels under the weather. also, an alternative to the classic dumplings is pan fried pork dumplings (sheng jian bao) which i personally love to death. oml. its also a cuisine pretty unique to shanghai iirc. here’s how it looks

- bonus: one nostalgic food could be tanghulu, or candied hawthorns. munching on a self made version using strawberries and other small fruits with hardened candy syrup while working. although it’s more of a northern snack rather than a southern snack… (shanghai is south)

- stories mom told: as in… children’s stories? or mom’s personal stories? for children stories, or common folk tales, chang e, the legend of nian, the cowherd and the weaver girl, the twelve zodiac animals, etc. personal mom stories not sure lol.

- thoughts on religious stuff: hmmm…. tough cause i’m personally not much of a religious person myself, though i’m familiar with taoism and buddhism. it’s not necessary to include those inside. oh yea just random thing i was reminded of, one small detail you can add is burning incense. for example, use of joss sticks to pray is common in taoist and buddhist religion. there’s also incense burning as an art form. personally my mom does that whenever i have major exams coming lmao.

- design: i think it’s cool if marinette learnt the art of embroidery, like shown below. it’s pretty commonly seen on qipaos, with different patterns but most commonly flowers. it’s a dying art form. having marinette use embroidery to make images on her outfits rather than have them printed on will be a neat detail.

hope this helps! good luck on the fic too, if there’s any more questions feel free to dm

(oh and though i find the movie mid, turning red has accurate representation so you can check it out)

[teethflavoured]

Would you ever do a tutorial on your shading process ? The rendering on your art is phenomenal

oh thank you so much!! yeah, i'd love to do a little tutorial on it! Honestly, it's not something really complicated, but I'll show you anyway :P

so first off, I use this brush for almost everything shading-related.

now that I've told you that, my 1st step is that i lay down the first part of my shading which is most usually always a pink-red color. the saturation can generally depend on the mood of the piece itself. layer modes are your best friend, the base layer of shading will always be set to multiply. of course, adjust the opacity to your liking and i usually erase with the same brush to soften or harshen corners.

then once that's all done, i move onto the 2nd part. make sure these are done on separate layers!!! or else. my color choice for this part usually depends on what colors i'm shading. for this specifically, since our dear boy Murch's colors right here are so saturated, straight purple didn't look at good as pinky-purple. the cooler colors ONLY are laid down where the shadows would be most intense. i.e the source of the shadow or under his neck or under his sleeves, etc, etc you get it LMAO.

then sometimes when I'm feeling silly, i will do reflective lighting, usually, the reflective light will depend on the background, but for nondescript backgrounds i usually choose blue. keep in mind this may not look good in every case. saturated or desaturated will work just fine. honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to describe it because i don't know how it works in depth myself. i just know it looks cool. as for highlights? the colors can vary. but my advice is never to use colors that are too close to white or white itself. complimentary colors work the best i find. and to top everything off i usually add a subtle gradient map but it's fine as is in most cases.

and that should do it i think? its so hard for me to recall everything i do because i'm on autopilot most of the time lol. i hope this is clear enough! if anybody else has any questions on how i do things or what brushes i use feel free to ask because i don't like to gatekeep that shit lame.

[thorntopieces]

So quick question

Would you happen to have a fic with good descriptions of what your version of the colours look like?

Or would you be willing to write that up?

Note: this is long lmao. Quick question, long answer /lh

I don't, as of yet, though one is in the works! It's one of the things I've been really struggling with! So far I have an illustration of Vio done (done by my girlfriend @mydmdcorner ) but we'll probably get to drawing the others soonish! I'm more than happy to give a description though!

They also have slightly different blond(e) hair colours, with Blue's being the palest and Vio's the darkest.

Red (he/him): he's the smallest of the bunch (but really we're talking about differences in millimetres and centimetres here, they're all small)! In A Brief Respite, he's described as the one that looks the most like their grandpa! His eyes are blue, lighter than Blue's. His hair is short but curly/wavy. I'll attach photos and other references under a read-more! He's also got freckles. As for his tunic, it looks very much like the one presented in the Four Swords Manga, though it now has 3/4 sleeves and has a normal hood (to replace the stupid Link hat, I just think it's silly). When he's sleepy or shy, he'll hide in the hoodie. The only reason the tunics are 3/4 sleeve lengths is because he kept burning the ends of the sleeves when they were full. No more long sleeves for Red. He also has some of the same piercing holes as Vio (helix piercings), but instead of having amethyst studs, it's golden hoops/rings.

Blue (she/her): Blue's a tricky case. She got into the Minish magic in an attempt to change her body to fit her gender which had some. Interesting consequences. She's kind of surrounded by a permanent glamour of the weirdest kind, so despite being female, she appears entirely male (short hair etc). She wants to grow her hair out tho (but only to a length that's still practical). She has dark blue eyes. She does not have freckles and her hair has the barest hint of waves. Her tunic is also similar to the manga, but she wears a different, thinner belt higher up on her waist (to make it look like she has wider hips) and her tunic is the longest of them all, brushing the tops of her knees. She currently has no piercings.

Green (he/him): My favourite sleepy boy. He more or less looks exactly like the manga version of Four Swords LInk. He's got green eyes with golden spots in them. He's also ditched the hat, but has the same hood that Four has, with the Ezlo decoration at the end. He's a sleepy boy, so the hood is long enough to fully cover his eyes if he needs to lay down to rest in the middle of the day. The shirt he wears under the tunic has longer sleeves so he can hide his hands. His boots are also more padded so walking is less exhausting/hurts less.

Vio (they/them): Has the longest hair of them all currently. It just brushes their collarbone. The front parts are braided and kept secure with magnetic beads that can be used to clip the hair back. They wear a similar tunic to LU!Four. The bottom part is also flared/split into multiple pieces to ease movement. They wear a thicker belt, but not the same one from the manga. On their hip they wear purple and black kinstone-shaped gems. They've got purple eyes and freckles, although less freckles than Red. They also wear the most piercings in their ears. I might still redesign their tunic some. I really like the tunic design for ASAU!Legend (note: ASAU is rated M/18+), so I might take inspiration from that when I get around to drawing Vio myself.

Hope that helps some! I've left a couple image references below the read more for you! I don't have the spoons to image describe them currently, but I might get that done within the next day or so. If that's an immediate issue, I'll try to get it done tonight!

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim this as my art, this is the initial tunic redesign sketch me and my gf did as we tried to figure stuff out. It's redrawn over one of JoJo's (@/linkeduniverse) drawings of Four. Please do not see this as my art. The headband should also not be there for my Vio. Oops.

This is another drawing of Vio. The hair is wrong. Disregard that please. Vio also doesn't have ears. Oops. This is my girlfriend's art. (The Minish you see is Bubble, you can meet them in the first chapter of Dark Hair Significance)

This is my current profile picture and is of Vio! Here you can see the piercings Vio has, too. The Minish tail/feather isn't one they commonly wear. They left that behind in their Hyrule to keep it safe. Depending on the day, they do the braids a little different. This drawing was also done by my girlfriend.

This hairstyle is roughly what I imagine for Red, maybe a bit shorter (Source: Gentlemen's Magazine).

And of course a reference for the Manga.

[majachee]

how draw..

HO HO HO? AN EXCUSE TO SHOW MY ART PROCESS?

Behold! How I draw!!

I start off with a very light, messy outline like so (rough recreation cuz i lost the og, has more detail than this)

This helps my brain out with posing and rough proportions without getting too overwhelmed.

And then I go over it on a different layer and essentially clean it all up!

I fix anatomy, i add clothes, i basically mess around with it until it looks Just Right.

Now, sometimes I just go ahead and color in the sketch because I don't feel like doing lineart, sometimes I plan out a rough color palette for bigger pieces (ex: zine pieces and gift art usually)

The clean sketching process is also when I use references the most, I look up character and clothing references, I look up posing refs, this is also when I do start looking up color palette ideas for character designs and bigger pieces.

But for lineart, I tend to drift towards textured brushes like the soft mapping pen (bleed) and soft school pen (bleed) in Ibispaint, and the marker brush in FireAlpaca with some adjustments!

I don't like going too far off the finished sketch, but I will absolutely make adjustments if necessary!

I do draw in the little white shinies of the eyes on the lineart layer, I just think they look cute!

I also use the pen to shade tiny areas like the neck/chin area, wrinkles, small gaps like the mouth and sleeves, etc. etc.

And then I lay down the colors!

I shade the eyes on their own layer, and the blush is also added in as part of the base colors. I use a lot of clipping masks during the part - selecting inside the lineart and essentially creating a base layer for the color layers. I use the selection tools, the lasso tool, or I just color along the inside of the lines to make an outline and then use the paint bucket tool to fill it all in!

This is also when I add in clothing patterns and such.

And now! Basic shading!

I use desaturated, grey-ish colors for shading. I pull all the color layers into one folder and/or merge them and I use a clipping mask on the folder for shading. For this drawing I used a desatudated light blue, but I also use other colors like red, pink, peach, purple, and green for some pieces. Really depends on what tone the piece is and what colors would look good.

I have my shading layers set to multiply and I mess with the opacity a bit, but usually it's 50-85% opacity for the main shading layer.

And then I go over that shading layer with a darker color!

Pretty much adding flavor to the shading by adding extra dark bits where the shadows might be darker. I also like to occassionally outline the shading cuz it's fun.

I didn't do this with this drawing, as it was a reference sheet, but I add a soft "glow" to my drawings after this stage. Basically, I take a really pale color (usually yellow or pink) and draw ovals where the body is being hit by the light source more, blurr it, and then set the layer to "soft light" and lower the opacity until it's barely noticable - just a soft, glowy fuzz that makes my eyes happy.

I also color in the lineart at this stage, usually going in with darker colors to make it a bit softer than the harsh black, sometimes I add a blurry glowy red or pink to the lineart around the face like I did in this pieces:

But like... depends on the vibe.

If the piece calls for it, i'll add a background, though if its a bigger project w/ actual scenery the background wouldve already been lined, colored, and shaded alongside the characters or before the characters were shaded

Year old example but yeah, my scenery techniques involve a lot of obsessing over perspective and texture and getting feedback from servers I'm in lmao

I can absolutely draw rocks and small plants, I'm just in too much pain to do so 🧍‍♂️

But yeah! That's a rough explanation of my drawing process, hope u enjoy Cyokie my bestie 💗💗💗💗

[whirld-of-color]

Maaaaaan i just love your artstyle! Can you explain how you color your masterpieces??

ok so. i had a go at making a tutorial and then realized that when i draw there is essentially no process. the answer to this ask is apparently, “no, lmao” because i honestly just mess around with the colors a whole bunch until it looks nice. there is no linear process, i just throw colors at the canvas

but here’s some tips

-most of my colors doesn’t come from the flat colors but from all the lighting effects i throw on top!

-i do highlights and shadows with the brightest most saturated colors known to man and then mess around until it looks pretty

-i use blending modes a lot

-I changed nothing inbetween those two photos aside from the blending mode. one looks way cooler than the other. blending modes let you get away with insane amounts of garbage. use them all the time.

-i also use very soft brushes, which makes putting the base colors on a lot easier for me personally because i don’t have to bother with perfectly matching all the hard edges of lines to one another

-the smudge tool can blend stuff together like paint on a smaller setting (see: this post) and make soft balls of color or light or shadow on a larger one. i use it to add gradients to my flat colors a lot (you can see the flat color of this stick if you look in the layers- there’s a gradient in there!)

-it can also soften shadows and make them look less harsh

-that looks kind of like garbage tho so im not keeping that in.

-highlights with white are great, always, with no exceptions, unless it looks like garbage. most of the time it looks great if i fiddle with the opacity a bit

-a lot of the time, i do the highlights in one color and the shadows in a contrasting color- if i have the light in green, the shadows are in a dark purple or red. if the light is pink, the shadows are blue!

-i do. a lot of stuff. none of it is consistent because consistency would kill me or something. the coloring from the red tarot card is vastly different from the second train art is different from the coolguy oc art prompt is different from the orchid magazine cover. if you want specifics on specific aspects of my colors from a certain art, those are all like. entirely different processes. i just wing it for everything and some of it turns out fine and some of it is kind of mid

[cushfuddled]

Hello Rab, I just wanted to say that your art is huge inspiration to me. There just isn't many artists out there who work with color pencils, and your artworks with them are absolutely charming. If you have any tips along the lines of "things I wish I knew", I'd definitely be interested! (no pressure, of course !)

I'm sorry I'm so late in replying to this! This ask has made me so happy; thank you <3333

Things I wish I knew:

Sometimes expensive things are worse, but Prismacolors are GLORIOUS. Other colored pencils feel like working with tree bark compared to the pillowy-softness of Prismacolor wax.

I've tried soooo many different types of paper over the years. The more tooth (texture) to a piece of paper, the more layers of color you can pile up. I prefer less tooth because it requires less time to fill in those pesky white gaps you get while working with textured paper...but "good" paper like Bristol is actually TOO smooth for me. It took me like ten years to find this paper, which is my current favorite (not so smooth that you can't build up a couple layers of color, but not so toothy that you get white patches). It's not archival AT ALL though, which sucks.

I used to struggle a lot with line art, since the pencil wax would cover the lines. Here's my process now:

- I sketch on your average sketch pad, then use a LightTracer (light box) to ink my sketch onto Xerox paper. The nice thing about this method is I never lose the sketch, so if I mess up with my brush pens (which happens VERY OFTEN) I can just restart on a new piece of Xerox paper.

-Once I'm done with my line art, I scan the page. THEN I color my line art. Once I'm done, I scan the page again. Next I overlay the two scans in Photoshop via auto-align, and set the line art to "multiply" to create clean dark line art. I'm not sure whether the auto-align tool is available on other programs...I'm pretty sure you can do it on photopea, though. If you use colored pens for your line art, you can also use the hue tool to change your line colors.

Pic without separate line art layer:

With line art layer:

Don't be afraid to use a pencil eraser to lift some color off the page. An eraser won't get rid of a color, but I regularly use erasers as damage control for areas that get too dark or muddy. Erasers can also be used to add texture.

Be aware that pure black can flatten or muddy a scene. You'll often see me "deepen" my black areas with colors like tuscan red, process red and indigo blue (or avoid black altogether).

On that note, don't be afraid to go dark! It can take courage to rip off the bandaid and put down a dark layer of color, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get some contrast. When I remember to play by the rules (heh), I color the light parts of my work first, then lay down a layer of indigo blue or dark green or tuscan red over all the dark areas to sort of force myself to stay dark.

Don't let anyone convince you traditional art is unmarketable, or that you'd be "smarter" to work digitally. Work with whichever materials or programs you want.

It's okay if you work slower than other artists. This is the lesson I'm still trying to learn! But it's true: You can't expect yourself to work "quickly" with colored pencils. As much as I love colored pencils, they're slow and can be very boring lmao. Don't burn yourself out with grand expectations.