#no I cannot draw faces consistently <3

[liothebiblioklept]

More monster AU!! Need to practice bird wings more rip

No other characters really have assigned mythical creatures so im prolly gonna have to make a lot of stuff up, which means just damianya for now! Sticking to Greek mythology creatures most likely as well

[dilfdoney]

playing a fun little game over on the bird app 👀👀👀

[isbergillustration]

Entity grown in a jar discovers the eternal pain of growing out your hair from a buzzcut. Suffers. Develop telepathy that does severe psychic damage as result.

[outeremissary]

Hiiii while I'm on here for five seconds know that I miss folks and I hope to be more active again soon now that one of the busiest parts of the work year is doooone

[readymades2002]

secret look at my doodle canvas just for you. being forced against all my earthly desire to learn how to draw faces that look different </3

[struwberrii]

Hello, I like your haikyu headcanons and was wondering if you could do tendou headcanons?:)

tendou headcanons ₊˚⊹♡

thank u for the request!! i feel like tendou doesn’t get a lot of love nowadays so this one is for all the tendou fans (•̀ᴗ•́ )و

he def just makes up songs randomly and sings them for you (usually just to make you laugh)

his shoes usually aren’t tied and he never noticed until someone points it out

imagine tendou with a snaggletooth (i saw someone on tiktok say this and CANNOT STOP THINKING ABT IT it so cute)

constantly does impersonations of characters (he’s actually kind of decent)

little trinket collector

chronically picks at his lips and always ends up bleeding

also picks at his nails/fingers

always celebrates your small little wins with you (yaaayyyy!!)

always comes up with silly games to play when you guys are bored

randomly drops lore on you

makes scary faces at kids if they’re staring for too long

i feel like he’d lowkey listen to tommy heavenly6

hates calling during the day but will have a full convo with you through voice messages

does not let anyone pick on you AT ALL like he’ll get super protective and use his ‘scary’ looks to his advantage to freak people out

encourages you to step out of your comfort zone and try new things

some days social anxiety is scared of him, then the next day he’s too anxious to even go outside

constantly begging you to let him do your makeup even if you don’t wear it (he botched you)

but he still gets insecure sometimes and needs to hear praises and reassurance

let’s you style/cut his hair for him

probably had a random pet growing up, like he found a frog or turtle outside and kept it as a pet

draws on his arms and legs when he gets bored

always scares you, like he waits around the corner for you then jumps out and scares you

has a HUGE sweet tooth

i feel like he would have a really bad memory but keeps all important dates written down, don’t ask him what he ate for dinner because he doesn’t remember

sits in the shower

playful teasing as a love language

watches mukbang videos while he eats

genuinely has a hard time voicing how he feels about people so he uses humor to mask his emotions and now nobody takes him seriously

shockingly the best guy to go to when you need to cheer up, and not because he’d make you laugh but he just knows what to say?? if that makes sense

like he tells you what he wishes someone told him when he was in middle school

always makes sure nobody is left out in a group activity

has the craziest diet, like i feel like he’d eat like a toddler

average tendou meal consists of a yoohoo chocolate milk, a pizza lunchable and a handful of grapes and that’s enough to hold him over for the day

sports garfield pajama pants ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

i feel like he’d also listen to alice in chains

but i also feel like he’d listen to gorillaz

his knees are always bruised (prob from volleyball)

has an impressive figure collection of his favorite manga character :3

sorry guys this is like 30% me projecting 70% tendou hcs 😭

[ancientbygone]

simulacra 3 [take me back to eden]

[sundowning]

Sleep's mimic forms of the vessels during the time period of TMBTE, because i can't be normal and start a series from the beginning and not the end.

more info + design breakdowns under the cut:

[obligatory "when talking about the vessels, i'm talking about characters" disclaimer]

background info on the whole idea:

Sleep as a being is shapeless in my mind; more of a concept than a creature. it can manifest as sort of an absence of light in any shape to others, usually to appeal to feeling/emotion. the only "rule" for that is that whatever Sleep tries to appear as cannot look more or less innocent/powerful than Sleep actually is, which usually manifests in two things: the size being different from the thing/person it's imitating, scaled according to power, and/or added features, usually in some way threatening or regal.

one of Sleep's more consistent forms it takes throughout interacting with Vessel is mimicking him, partially to create an illusion of the two being more similar than they actually are and partially because Sleep used to exist as Vessel's shadow when they'd just met. the visual itself has changed through time (you can see what it was like during Sundowning in my Higher artwork), and during TMBTE that visual is pretty much the titular song's character with the most minor tweaks (which is why i didn't draw it separately).

all that made me think about the idea of Sleep mimicking the other vessels just to fuck with Vessel further (to be clear, i am a strong believer that Sleep only interacts with Vessel in any way). so now here are the designs of those mimics during the events of TMBTE, utilizing the album's song characters much like the Vessel mimic. because again, i have to start a series from the end, i guess.

"ii"/ii mimic (song character used: AYROK)

the main idea driving the design of "ii" is the real ii's goal to keep Vessel more or less safe by being by his side in worshipping Sleep, which is the reason he'd decided to become the second vessel in the first place. the choice of AYROK as the character to use in this design is obvious. one of the ideas that stem from that is ii's duty/desire to keep his face hidden for Vessel's sake; only his hands are visible & detailed because that's the only part of him Vessel remembers before either of them became vessels of Sleep and the only part ii has really shown after that. another is ii's timidity in telling Vessel to go against Sleep's will because he fears that no matter how bad it may be, it'll be much worse if Vessel doesn't follow it. that part comes through in the pose - shyly holding his hands together as if they're tied.

"iii"/iii mimic (song character used: Aqua Regia)

the song character inspo being Aqua Regia is mostly because of the calmer nature of the song and the dynamic duo it makes with Vore, less so the themes of the lyrics. also its visual design. iii mimic's design themes are iii's adoration/borderline obsession with Vessel (wearing Vessel's jewelry and having elements of his robe in his shirt + his own face/mask slowly melting off) and his enagement with worship as an act/aesthetic rather than something more serious (the overabundance of jewelry and accessories; the extra arms; the body language; the cuffs around his arms and legs being decorative and not actually restricting). also the rings on his fingers make a checkered pattern.

"iv"/iv mimic (song character used: Vore)

the use of Vore for "iv" is obvious too. song wouldn't be the same without his real life self. the design really just aims to combine iv with the Vore character, but there are two big things here. the simplest one is anger issues, which is why he's So Goddamn Spiky and why his jacket looks like scarred skin rather than painted & customized. the anger mostly shows up in the body language: most of the time "iv" just stares unblinkingly with pure palpable ire in the two glowing dots for eyes, and when he does move it's very stiff and snappy and barely controlled. the other thing is that, simply speaking, the real iv got into this whole mess without knowing the full extent of it and now he's in too deep and kinda losing himself. in the design it's expressed through the human features gradually turning into bug-like, such as the hoodie fading into a segmented millipede-like body and the fucked up mantis hands, and the gold of the original iv's mask melting over the face with the horns being part of it. the spikes protrude from him in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish between jacket decorations and actual parts of his body, but the spines are definitely from his body & allow me to live the dream of iv with a mohawk LMAO

anyway have fun with these go nuts i'll make similar sheets & posts for Sundowning and TPWBYT eventually

[dogtoling]

oh tumblr user dogtoling, blease, impart unto us your wisdom of drawing really good fat cephalopods

I think i've answered this exact question before and it's kind of a tall ask... the best advice I can always give is to just study how to draw fat people first (granted, easier said than done in regards to finding references). Once you have a hang on how that works and how fat sits on the body and how it usually accumulates, that basic knowledge goes a pretty long way when drawing non-human characters too. for people who are completely new to drawing fat, the best off-the-top-of-my-head tips i can give are:

1. don't just draw A Circle. you won't get very far with that most of the time. if you really want to start with a shape, i'd recommend a rectangle and working out the shapes from there (more balanced than a circle + you're less likely to mess up in the gravity part)

2. fat =/= JUST the belly. I think this is pretty commonly talked about but a lot of people that are new to trying to draw fat people will just try to add a belly to an otherwise thin frame. And don't get me wrong, that IS also a body type that exists, but especially when you go higher in weight it's about filling out the whole body. add some width. study which areas accumulate more fat and which don't!

3. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THE DOUBLE CHIN. Skinny Face on Fat Body is pretty common to see and again while you can also have a body type like that, it just seems like a lot of people are scared to draw double chins or not sure how they work. Don't be afraid to give fat characters fat faces, it makes a huge difference!! (though, also pay attention to not go overboard with this part, because it can also end up looking really off.)

4. remember that fat has weight, so if you think you've done everything correctly but the drawing still looks off, it's often because the GRAVITY is off. Fat Has Weight. So while you draw, try to visualize where that weight rests organically. (also this specific step will come back to haunt you every single time you draw a fat character sitting down or in any non-standing position)

5. Fat can change shape in different positions (for example rolls can appear or disappear depending on how the torso is bent). consider this when doing different positions - but don't go overboard here. Fat still usually has a general shape, it's not some kind of freely shape-shifting jello with the consistency of some goop. And again, body type matters here, some people are more firm than others.

6. At bigger sizes, pay attention to subtle differences in positions and posture that both the weight and the space it takes up might cause. For example, with bigger bodies you'll often see the arms angled slightly to the side rather than straight down the sides (collision with chest/upper body fat = arms Cannot just go straight down). you probably get the point. The keyword most of the time is SUBTLE, but also if you skip this part, the results might look strange and again you have no idea why.

this list is Not comprehensive because as i've added a disclaimer in like every part, there is a huge variety of body types. So the best way you can learn in the end is, unsurprisingly, just seeing and drawing different body types! but i tried to think of and include a lot of common pitfalls that people (including me) tend to fall into when learning and how to Skip the extremely frustrating "why does this look Wrong" part to at least some degree instead of having to stare at the art for 5 hours and just try to work it out.

anyway NOW TO THE CEPHALOPODS PART - if you draw Inklings with human anatomy you're basically done already. Just, doubly study real-life fat people in that case. But in the case you don't, practicing on real fat bodies is still useful because as I said before, understanding the basic rules is widely applicable even for other creatures! My approach to inkfish is that they're generally pretty human-shaped, but because they have no joints or bones, I try to avoid rigid segments in most areas and thus make them generally more smooth. that means less rolls (pretty much none until actually larger sizes) and more just, idk, smoothness.

This is more or less the mental map i work off of:

While you'll usually look at the inkfish torso and view it as mostly A Singular Cylinder, it becomes more obviously segmented with more weight. The arms, legs or tentacles don't have any shape other than Noodle, so they just get thicker overall for the most part. Go above a certain weight threshold and you start seeing more texture and rolls. In humans you would definitely have to consider stretch marks, but I omit those from Inkfish because that's scarring that I feel wouldn't occur in a species that's got flexible enough skin to drastically stretch and change form unscathed all the time anyway.

I have to point out that fat tentacles are a game changer in my opinion! They're a part of the body too, so as a very inkfish-specific tip, just add weight to the tentacles if you have a fat character. It adds a significant amount of immersion and just looks more sensible I guess. I'll use Engel's old hairstyle as an example because he's a very good example of this specific aspect...

yeah i feel like that illustrates my point.

(This isn't really relevant to DRAWING fat inklings, but someone is probably going to wonder about it so I'll answer it: i'm ignoring the logistics of a fat inkling being able to stand or walk without any kind of internal support structure. It's definitely notably difficult for them because as opposed to humans with skeletons, they have to support the weight mostly using JUST muscle. However from a realism standpoint, inklings being able to stand or walk at their size EVEN WHEN NOT FAT wouldn't work in the first place, and Splatoon is full of creatures like Cohozuna or the Great Zapfish, or even Mr. Coco, which would crush themselves and suffocate and die under their mass if they came out of the water... and they're constantly out of the water, so TL;DR no one in Splatoon gives a shit about the laws of physics anyway. If you can have the suspension of disbelief to accept Crusty Sean walking on two legs as a whole ass bipedal giant prawn, that should be able to extend to a fat inkling.)

I don't really know what else to write so hopefully this helped somebody. Lol

[hyakinthou-naos]

Hyakíntha Day 1 Ritual Guide: Mourning and Preparation

1. Ceremonial Garments

The following is a recommendation, it is the choice of each worshipper what they wear throughout their day and during ritual.

Much like the modern western funeral rites of today, for the ancients it was traditional to wear dark colors. On this day of mourning wear dark colors or shades of black to mourn the passing of Lord Hyacinthus.

No jewelry or adornments are to be worn (save for those worn as part of an oath to the divine). Hair should be pulled up and heads should be covered or veiled.

2. Khernips & Purification

In the morning you should cleanse your physical body in whatever way is possible for you. Whether this is a shower - washing your face - or even just using a wipe to clean your hands - it is important to regard this day with respectful practice.

Before the ritual, it is traditional to wash ones hands with khernips (a bowl of sea water into which a flaming herb is extinguished). If sea water isn't something you have access to - mix table salt into a bowl of warm water and stir to combine.

Please note that it is perfectly acceptable to not use khernips, or to wash you hands with soap after using - or in place of - khernips.

3. Gathering at the Altar

Arrange the altar space. This should be a flat surface where you can comfortably sit or stand for the duration of the ritual.

There is no shame in sitting at a table or using a chair at your altar. Hephaestus Kyllopodiôn reminds us all that there is no shame in the need for accommodations or alterations to suit our bodies needs.

To follow along with our ritual practice, you will need:

Two candles of any kind

A cup for pouring your libation

A bowl to pour your libation into

A device through which you can play music (phone, laptop, tablet, etc.,)

Incense of any kind + an incense burner

If you do not have access to candles/incense - or cannot burn these items openly - an alternative that I have used in the past is drawing the items I do not have on a piece of paper and placing the drawing/s on my altar.

4. Opening Prayer & Deity Invocation

The ritual will start with an opening prayer to Hestia, Goddess of Hearth and Home - followed by an invocation to the God Apollo.

5. Hymns & Music

The ritual will proceed with a reading from Ovid's Metamorphese - Book Ten, subsection 'Hyacinthus' (free to read online here).

Following this reading, the song "Παῦσις" by Ancient World Music will be played in it's entirety (free to listen on YouTube here). During this time, we invite all attendees to listen to and meditate on the music. Borrowing from tradition, we also encourage attendees to lightly beat their chest to the beat of the music.

6. Libations

Certain ancient funeral rites included libations poured to the dead, consisting of milk, honey, water, wine, and other ingredients in varying quantities. For this ceremony, The Temple will be utilizing a mixture of water, honey, and white wine.

During this time, individualized prayers to Apollo and Hyacinthus are appropriate - and should be spoken before or during the pouring of the libation into the ceremonial bowl.

7. Divination

Following the pouring of libations, Hytheria Aön will be doing a tarot reading for the temple at large, seeing what messages Lord Apollo has for The Temple's patrons and visitors.

Ritual attendees/participants are encouraged to engage in their own personal divination with Lord Apollo at this time.

8. Closing Prayers

The ritual will conclude with a closing prayer to Lord Apollo, a final lament for Lord Hyacinthus, and final offerings given to Lady Hestia.

At 7:00 pm EST we will be posting a detailed script of the ritual, and at 9:00 pm EST Hytheria Aon will be performing the ritual in his home. The Temple invites all participants who are able to hold their own rituals at this same time.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out.

Eirene - peace and farewell,

- The Temple of Hyacinthus.

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what Eldritch peredhel entail

-@@outofangband

Sorry this took so long @outofangband and thank you for asking this I am! Delighted! And am preemptively putting a read more down because I cannot shut up about they <3

alright I'm just gonna put stuff and headcanons down as they occur to me so expect low-moderate levels of coherency

shapeshifting is an obvious one (gets weaker down the generations) but because my brain is Like This I have caveats!

thanks to my whole peredhil things=gender allegory that my brain spit out without my permission I've long struggled against my inherent feeling that while they can shapeshift they don't like it

but because I'm now aware of my brain's reasoning I can say it's because of ✨fantasy dysphoria✨

that's oversimplifying, obviously, but peredhil already have so much issues with working through who and what they are and compromising between body and mind and spirit that actively choosing to change into/present as something/someone who They Are Not is. Not usually their cup of tea.

As a whole they tend to have specific forms that they prefer as being closer to themselves, and distinct enough that it doesn't feel like they're faking something they're not

(changing to look like a different person, or a edited version of themself is Very Very not fun unless either explicitly for disguise or shenanigans)

(the exception to this is that Luthien can make herself look almost perfectly human without any real issue. she doesn't do it often but especially as she ages she likes to catch glimpses of her reflection and get both excited and sappy. this is in contrast to making herself look almost perfectly like an elf which makes her feel like her skin is on fire.)

(Also I'm pretty sure all of them can flip their agab presentation while only feeling varying degrees of off, and even then it's a different feeling than the shapeshifting dysphoria. Dior and Elwing are the two who I think mind it the most)

They all have the (agonizing to write) trait of feeling very distinct relationships to their species in their body vs soul/mind vs spirit/fea and they all feel it very differently! This isn't exclusive to Luthien's line but the maia blood does make it worse.

Oh! This is a new headcanon of mine actually but!

They all have faces that are very very hard to capture in image. They are the bane of portrait artists (and, to a degree, sculptors) everywhere because the art never looks accurate to life

It's not blatantly off it's just. missing something? Or something was added? maybe it's a little too wide, or narrow, or long, or short, in one place or another

It's not unrecognizable but if you've ever seen the subject in real life you can just tell

It's especially bad with Luthien (and Daeron) and Dior (to a lesser extent) because everyone literally sees them differently, as in their features will be slightly different depending on what each person finds attractive/aesthetically appealing and beautiful

(not a lot, again, it's not unrecognizable, but there has never and will never be any accurate depiction of Luthien as she was as a person)

(as a concept, though, as the most beautiful creature to have ever existed in Arda, a little of her image exists in every portrait lovingly made of a beloved spouse, every child's drawing of their family, in biological sketches of songbirds and field mice, in a sculpture of a stranger's face. Daeron remembers his sister perfectly, but he collects these regardless)

(Arwen, Luthien come again, isn't described as such by her grandparents. Galadriel and Celeborn both knew Luthien, and while Arwen and her father both look as closely to her as genetically possible, to those who actually know them both it's nothing more than uncanny family resemblance. Luthien was to most a concept personified, Arwen is a person with concepts imposed on her.)

The list of people who have seen Luthien how she actually, physically, defaultly is, essentially consists of Melian, Daeron, Beren, and Dior

Beren doesn't see her as she is right away because he doesn't know her right away, but they learn about each other and she shows herself and he sees her and by the time she rescues him from Tol-im-Gaurhoth there are no echoes on her face

(He's always a little bit haunted that he nearly died without realizing he'd never quite seen the truth of her before)

Neither Thingol or Beren can quite see their own features on their children's faces. They clearly take after their mothers, after all!

(This leads to much affectionate eye-rolling on Melian and Luthien's part)

Hair stuff!

It's alive! kinda! it's definitely not normal hair!

It moves a lot on its own. Sometimes like a breeze is blowing where there isn't one. Sometimes more like tentacles. It depends on its mood.

They've got some very pretty traditional cosmic horror vibes swirling around on their heads. It's very sparkly and colorful but in a Forbidden Shrimp Colors that your brain is unable to comprehend way so it reads as iridescent black mostly, or holographic white, where applicable

Luthien's hair actually is a glimpse into space, Daeron's is a glance at a star

(Luthien's magic hair cloak survives, I think, into the 4th age and beyond, though if anyone/anything has found it they certainly don't know the origins of the beautifully intricate living star map. It has seen the reign of countless north stars, yet the lines always point to the same coordinates- where the ancient, sunken, ruined remains of what once was Tol-im-Gaurhoth lay)

Speed round!

Fangs and talons and horns oh my! Are they tooth and keratin and bone, or are they petrified wood and gem and stone? Yes!

They all smell a little like ozone and a lot like petrichor, flowers, and Green. If you've smelled green you know what I'm talking about. Also, unfortunately, like bird. Birds don't smell great, especially wet bird.

Weird Foresight Powers++

(Most of them don't have actual foresight, but all of them are more in-tune with the Song than is natural for an incarnate)

Their eyes glow, most notably in the dark, unless the irises turn black as they sometimes do. They are also all unnaturally bright versions of the less-spooky parent's- Dior's are gold, Elwing's are blue-green like a tropical sea (Elured and Elurin split the color between them- ultramarine and emerald), Elrond and Elros have pale star-gold, Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen all have silver.

(Daeron and Luthien being the exception again, because I decided they have Melian's eyes before I decided this, and I don't know what color eyes Thingol has. Watsonianly: Melian's spooky genes overwrite a lot. Luthien's genotype is probably much closer to his than her magically overwritten phenotype)

Their sclerae turn black and their pupils white, on occasion, usually when using powers

They don't bleed right. It's a little too red for an elf, a little too light for a human, and it shines strange as it beads like quicksilver on the skin

They have very shiny, cool skin. Luthien looked like her's was silver plate under a stretched stocking, the rest toned it down from there but it's still noticeable.

The Song is. Attached to them. They are all very much Main Characters. Their lives have a clear story arc with symbolism and narrative parallels. They are all subconsciously aware that their lives are a fairytale, whether tragic or no, and yes this has many Implications and affects. They are not the only ones like this, but they are the only ones who, to some level, know they are in a story.

This is the fundamental separation between them and everyone else.

The difference in how they perceive themselves between heart soul and spirit is very difficult to explain and understand, but not impossible to someone who knows them and is willing to put in the work.

The life-long knowledge that they are Important to the Song and their every choice and event they experience and their mere existence serves a greater purpose in a way that most other people simply do not- that's very, very isolating.

No one else can understand how they see the world. Very very few people are willing to try, and even fewer in a way that's not frustrating. There is a reason most of them find only one person to latch on to outside of their family, and a reason they hold on through hell and high water.

(This is about being neurodivergent)

[creatingnikki]

You've had your Before Sunrise moments. You've had your rooftop moments. You've had your wine nights. And your spontaneous 3 am drives. You've had your on-a-Wednesday-in-a-cafe-I-watched-it-begin-again moments too. Your "oh wow, the moon is gorgeous" "yes, so gorgeous" as he looks at you moments. And your coming back to your apartment at 7 am, rushing to get dressed for work, using your very expensive concealer to hide the love from the night before moments. You have had the rush, the adrenaline, the butterflies, the recklessness of the 20s romance. You've had the flings, the situationships, the drama, the confusion, the throwing your phone across the wall moments. But you know what you have not had? You have not had a stable, healthy, long-term relationship.

A boyfriend, a partner who you celebrate your one-month, one-year, five-year anniversaries with. Who drives you back home after every date and sometimes comes up home to have chai with your mom. Who sends you waffles to your workplace. Who shows up at midnight with Chinese takeout and the hug you need. Who wakes you up on Sunday afternoons with one too many kisses all over your face and the spicy bun omelette you like. You have not had that - the consistency, the comfort, the commitment. So, this. THIS is what you now seek.

And for that, you have to ignore those 2 am texts you get from that random boy asking you what's your scene like tomorrow. And for that, you have to learn how to draw the boundary with men so that they remain friends and cannot cross into the grey land of more. And for that, you have to ignore texts from those from your past who weren't capable of communication to convert what you had into something that resembles healthy checking in and consideration but rather are reaching out because they are lonely and want to shoot their shot with you yet again. Okay? OKAY.

[omaano]

Hello!

This is just to tell you that I am completely in love with your cross-over work between Star Wars and Hades. It’s magnificent in every way!

I hope you make more.

Bye 🙂

Hello!

Thank you so much, I’m so glad you like it! It really makes me very very happy that something that started out as a bingo prompt fill, and ever since had grown legs and run away from me also became something that so many of you love 🥰 (hello everyone in the tags of these drawings, I love you all very much!)

I’m hard at work on Anakin right now - he’s got such a pretty face, I don’t even know what to do with him 😭 so I’m taking a while (I’d naively thought that I might have him finished by Christmas, but shopping and baking took up so much time, so new years is the new self imposed deadline for him) but I will also take some time to make a list of characters I want to add to this AU (not everyone who got a little portrait icon, I cannot do that to myself), and where I could put them. But for now this mental list consists of: Cody and Obi-wan, Wolffe and Plo, Fennec, the Nite Owl trio, and Maul (because that Chaos spot was made for him, the creepy weirdo drama queen). Oh, and Luke. I have pocket Luke already, I will need to draw out his character art too, I guess XD

So. It’s only a matter of attention and time, as you can see, I am quite set with this comfort project of mine for quite a bit. I hope you all will enjoy the ride :3

[theonevoice]

Mini painting process breakdown

I'm really bad at explaining my mostly-winged-it process, but since a couple of people asked here's a mini-breakdown of what I have been doing on my journey to this pseudo-painterly style:

Disclaimer: I have no formal art training of any kind, I'm guessing my way through this artsy season of my life that just restarted last October; this is merely a general description of what I am doing these days, not a tutorial or a guide to tell anyone what they should do. Anyone has a different process and I am a strong believer in doing whatever works for you, no matter what "The Rules" or other people say.

0. Before I even start drawing, I collect a bazillion reference pictures for every single thing that I plan to represent, from Michael Sheen's face to gold embroidery texture on 1800s extant garments;

1. (undocumented because when I said that I'm bad at this I meant it and sure enough I forgot to grab a screenshot of this step) I establish the general background color and draw a very loose sketch of the character;

2. I switch to a basic hard round brush and free-hand some color blobs to establish the position, general shape and values of the character, using the colors that are already in the background to make sure that the charater "belongs" in that space (tip: if I need to introduce new colors I pick a shade that seems close to what I want, put it on a separate layer, and then lower the opacity of that layer until the background color bleeds through and harmonizes the new shade);

3. I divide the character into smaller bits (face, hand, jacket, sash...) and apply clipping masks to bring the color blobs into reasonable shapes, in this case a left hand (I found that I can fine-tune the shapes at any moment by playing with highlights and deep shadows on the edges);

4. I then switch to an equally basic airbrush for the main rendering, using the color picker tool to blend midtones and highlights/shadows until my shape starts looking 3Dish (this part can be quick or take forever depending on a variety of factors that I honestly cannot explain);

5. I bring down the airbrush size to add finer details that can sell the illusion (here still in progress);

6. (eventually) I add a ton of adjustment layers to make sure that the completed part is consistent with the rest of the image (tip: if there are more bits of the same "family", e.g. skintones, I use the color picker tool to grab the midtones that already exist instead of mixing them ex novo).

That's it, I believe, unless I am forgetting something. Feel free to ask if there is something more specific that you'd like to know!

[ash-and-starlight]

Ciao Ash I’ve been following your work super closely for a few years and I now feel like I can ask you this, especially since you seem to be so kind with everyone and always explain yourself so well!

I work in illustration and I’ve been drawing for 10 years. For the kind of illustration I do, I rarely have to draw characters. I can draw people, in a very detailed manner too (portraits and studies and such) but when it comes to incorporating characters in my illustration style, I just can’t seem to get it right. Especially with characters who don’t exist so if I want to do fanart, I always have to do it in a way that is not very coherent to my illustration style. Which is unfortunate since I’m in a lot of fandoms and would really like to make fanart I like.

I rely on references a lot, so if I have to draw someone who exists in my style, I struggle and study and put a lot of work and time in but then I’m mostly able to. But characters from fiction? Absolutely not. I especially struggle with consistency: the character always looks different every time I draw them, no matter how many notes on their physiognomy I make…the fact that’s not a real person I can copy the features of on paper really hinders my practice. I also struggle with immediacy and synthesis: since they never look the same I always end up over - characterizing them and that is the opposite of how I illustrate.

How were you able to maintain such a consistent and stable look to these characters? Is there something I don’t know of or that I haven’t been doing and that I should? You really inspire me and I admire your work SO much! It’s remarkable how you built such a recognizable look.

Ti prego aiutami sto diventando pazzo in culo se non risolvo questa cosa voglio disegnare i miei blorbi !!!!

All the love,

Elio

Ciaooo aaa ty for the nice wordsss :’))

and ok i will try to answer as best as i can bc i’m not a professional in the slightest and also i basically have the diametrically opposite problem as you 😭 90% of my art is blorbo oriented i’m a blorbo artist first human being second. but it’s not like i have the charisma uniqueness nerve and talent to stray much from that.

ANYWAY that being said i’m sorry to give you the Very Hated answer of “u just gotta practice” but i think that’s true! i think drawing characters outside of studies (which are always nice and good etc) might not be something you’re used to, and u just need to stretch your drawing muscles a bit in that direction too!! style and consistency are something that develop organically, so i’m sure that if you keep trying you’ll look at your art one day and be like “oh shit this works!”

Usually when i draw characters i’ve never drawn before i make little studies/portraits to figure out how to draw them (evidence 1/2/3/4) which i think could be a pretty low stake way for you to practice? like maybe you can start off with one referenced portrait and then try to draw the same face from other angles but without looking at that reference and just try to figure out what are the important features that make that face recognizable? Expression sheets are another way u could do this, and then you’d have a nice self made reference board for next time.

or you could start smaller and draw different shapes of eyes/noses/mouths etc to get the hang of it, and once you’re satisfied start building your character with the features you’ve drawn

lastly i cannot stress this enough draw that blorbo NOW!! get fucking obsessed with that freak!!! let them fuel you with the brainrotting blazing passion of 28473 suns and you’ll manage to draw a hundred beautiful faces without even noticing

spero che tu riesca a cavar fuori qualcosa di utile da questo sfaso 😭 in ogni caso sono sicura che riuscirai a disegnare i tuoi blorbini devi solo smadonnare un po’ quando necessario e andare avanti 💕

grazie mille ancoraaaa mwah

[neptuniite]

I really love your paintings! I was curious if you wouldn't mind, could you show your process and tips for oil painting?

Thanks for asking! I had gone and taken progress photos while working on my recent painting of Hickey: hopefully this is enough to walk you through a general idea of how I complete a painting, or at least an Alla Prima (single ~3 hour session) portrait. It's a chaotic process, especially in the beginning, but a lot of fun. I want to start first by saying that this isn't exactly a tutorial, just a showing of how I work. I also want to say that if you are starting out with oil painting, you should be painting from LIFE when possible, rather than from photos. Only thing is, in my case, I cannot wrangle Adam Nagaitis into my room, so photos it is, when it comes to fandom work. Anyways...

Step 0. Brushes, paints, etc. I use sizes between 12-4, though I usually stick to 8 and 4 for most of my painting. Boar bristle brushes are great. For the paints, I'm using the Zorne palette: cadmium red, yellow ochre, titanium white, mars black. That's it. I don't bother to clean my palette between paintings, I usually mix new paint over what's there. Bad habit? Probably.

Step 1. Sketching over another sketch you don't like (clean canvas who??) Yes, this looks like a nightmare. Yes, you aren't really supposed to do this. Typically, I start my paintings on a clean TONED canvas, meaning solvent + a neutral transparent paint so it's not just a pure-white ground. In my next process post I'll show this. However, if I'm lazy and forgot to prepare surfaces, then I'll paint over an older piece I don't like. This was a failed cast study (on primed paper, so I can cut it later) that is now being repurposed into a cold boy. Can you see Hickey? My sketching is usually done with a transparent dark (in this case, alizarin crimson + mars black) and solvent to thin it out. This is slightly more sketching than I would typically do. Main structure lines to focus on are the angles for the eyes and nose, and then the centerline for the face as a whole. You can use a caliper to check proportions at this stage.

Step 2. Block in! With some paintings I'll block in the darks first, others I do the lights first. In this case, I started with the lights. The block-in stage for me consists of 2-3 values only. Dark and light. He looks scary. Goofy, even. You can see that the anatomy of the block-in is pretty bad, but that slowly gets corrected as the painting progresses.

Step 3. Added in the dark background, because it was getting difficult for me to judge the values of the painting with that pesky cast portrait in the background. Typically this isn't an issue when you're painting on a proper surface, lol. I also added his rosy cheeks in on this stage. I love painting from those outdoor scenes, because everyone has bright pink cheeks :)

Step 4. "Oh thank god, he has eyes now." I continue modeling the portrait by using intermediate values and highlights to round out the "planes" of the face. These planes are not that obvious in this particular painting, as the reference photo had very soft, ambient lighting. Always squint when looking at your reference to make sure you don't overstate shadows, especially in a case like this. I've also decided to leave the periphery of the face (hair, clothes, etc) very unfinished, almost untouched. Personal preference!

Step 5. Take care of some drawing mistakes. Here I am scraping away some paint from the forehead, since I realized the hat was up too high. A palette knife is excellent for taking care of this.

Step 6. Call it quits before you start overworking it too much :) I'll varnish this in a few weeks. Thanks for getting through to the end! I'll post more progress timelines in the future, as my process looks a little different depending on what I'm working on. Feel free to reach out if y'all have any questions.

[elysiaishere]

Genshin 4.2 Trailer (Spoilers)

The Genshin 4.2 trailer is HERE, and as some might expect, I have THOUGHTS.

ESPECIALLY about the opening sequence. So, let's get into it, shall we?

"According to the judgment of the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale, the Hydro Archon is to be punished via... the death sentence." — Neuvillette

This voiceline, paired with the shots of Furina silently weeping atop her lonely throne, paint a bleak picture. The Hydro Archon, the God of Justice herself, is on the stand, and her own divine device has declared that the only punishment suitable for her crime is execution. But, how did we get here?

Honestly, neither the trailer nor the information we have from the previous Acts can adequately answer this question. From her inaction to her frivolity, her crime could be anything. Nonetheless, limited information has never stopped me from speculating!

I think Furina's crime is related to the "sin" referenced in Lyney's explanation about the prophecy:

"...that every person in Fontaine is born with 'sin'. No matter how the Nation of Justice holds trial after trial, this sin cannot be absolved."

So, what is this "sin" Lyney mentions?

Again, there's no real way of knowing for certain. However, given the plethora of Biblical references throughout Fontaine, I think it's fair to assume that the "sin" referenced in Fontaine might draw its roots from Christianity. Or, to be more precise, the "Original Sin."

While the term "Original Sin" was only coined around the 3rd century (by a Augustine of Hippo), its essence has been consistently referenced for much longer. In Genesis 3, in a line from Psalm 51:5, and in Paul's Epistle to the Romans. However, the references I want to concentrate on are in Genesis 3—Adam's and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis 2-3, God creates Adam and Eve and places them into an idyllic garden. He only has one rule they must follow: do not eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, as most of us know, a serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit, and she shares this fruit with Adam. Consequently, God banishes them from the Garden of Eden forever. This action, this disobedience, is largely considered the "Original Sin" by Christians and historians alike.

With that in mind, I think the "sin" mentioned by Lyney is disobedience.

As such, I believe Egeria (the previous Hydro Archon) knowingly disobeyed either Celestia or even the very laws of Teyvet to protect Fontaine. However, with Egeria gone, Furina must now bear the weight of her predecessor's decisions—and face the consequences too.